LEG 5: Vizag, India

[David]

Yay! First Bus!!!!

[autowil]

Dec 8, 2009 9:27:45 GMT -5 realshowfan said:

Dec 8, 2009 9:21:56 GMT -5 Mooyou said:

You leave around 5:00 PM. LOL

What?? I hate these types of tasks...

And I am not using random.org anymore.

Same somtimes random.org sucks.. I use most of the place dun have.

[Bryan Yates]

Eeekk....guys, you don't even need to use random.org for that....
when seeing the first 4 passengers, there's something similar =X

[Raymond]

Although I think the leads are outrageous, it's kinda stupid to turn our 24-hour lead to a 8-hour deficit due to luck.

[Raymond]

*Search Arbour [3]* (+6 minutes)

[bellebook]

Kris & Jon search Cascades and as they do:
Kris: I found a gnome!
Jon: Great job, Kris!
They look at the gnome and as they do so:
Kris: We're leaving on the noon bus!
Jon: Which seems to be the second one!
Kris: So we're in the middle of the pack!
Jon: At least we won't be in last place.
Kris: We need to carry the gnome with us.
Jon: Yeah. So come along, little gnome.

Belle Book

[Caelestor]

The third bus! Did we spend an entire day searching for a gnome?

[Heather]

first bus <3

[Dånooky]

Just to get it out right now...last season it was this same task that had me eliminated and I said this same thing the last time. I honestly hate the mixture of random tasks with departure time.

[Dånooky]

Dec 8, 2009 10:51:44 GMT -5 Raymond said:

*Search Arbour [3]* (+6 minutes)

BTW, the only two gnomes left are on site 1...

[Dånooky]

**Search Double Take House [1]** (+6 minutes)

[Caelestor]

Dec 8, 2009 14:20:26 GMT -5 Dånooky said:

Just to get it out right now...last season it was this same task that had me eliminated and I said this same thing the last time. I honestly hate the mixture of random tasks with departure time.

Evil Mooyou trying to bunch everybody again + Travelocity Gnome advertising + Luck task </3333333333

[enneiteml]

Dec 8, 2009 10:49:57 GMT -5 Raymond said:

Although I think the leads are outrageous, it's kinda stupid to turn our 24-hour lead to a 8-hour deficit due to luck.

Times 100. Couldn't you just REDUCE our lead? Not completly scrap it all!

[baybay]

Rhys: I hate when luck tasks don't go our way!
Shanina: Maybe we can bribe someone to show us where a gnome is?
Rhys: 200USD for a gnome!
Shanina: कला-अभिरूचि के लिए पैसा! (Cash for gnomes!)

[baybay]

**Search [M-City (2)] (+6 minutes)**

[baybay]

Dec 8, 2009 17:31:04 GMT -5 baybay said:

**Search [M-City (2)] (+6 minutes)**

EDIT: **Search [M-City (1)] (+6 minutes)**

[Caelestor]

Dec 8, 2009 17:00:05 GMT -5 enneiteml said:

Dec 8, 2009 10:49:57 GMT -5 Raymond said:

Although I think the leads are outrageous, it's kinda stupid to turn our 24-hour lead to a 8-hour deficit due to luck.

Times 100. Couldn't you just REDUCE our lead? Not completly scrap it all!

I'm fine with a charter bus leaving at 5:00 P.M., but ON THE NEXT DAY? Finding a gnome does NOT take that much time. Bad leg design

[jerry]

Natasha: ...I found one...
Paula: WHAT??ON YOUR FIRST TRY? HOW??
Natasha: Well, I just picked the place that has the letters TAR in it...
Paula: Out of the oblivious...
Natasha: We are the last ones here, so ...yeah...
Paula: Ugh...We are bunched up now, so yeah!!

*unbelieveablely I got it on my first try*

Natasha: Do I get a prize for stalking the gnome?
Paula: ....

[Mooyou]

Okay, with a route as close together and with departure times totally separated as possible, I had to resort to RIGGING spicing things up similar to what happened to All Stars...

OMG aka zackattack308 in RFF wrote:

But anyway, on to the real reason why I hated this shitfest: game mechanics.

South America gets no part in this, however I concede that the ambiguity in the Sign It Detour wasn't appreciated by me (even though it screwed over Romber); this was made worse by the fact that there was a ridiculously easy Detour option (unless you're Romber) that...almost everyone ended up taking anyway. If the intention was to trap teams, then I rescind all of this and comment TPTB for playing mind games with the seasoned racers, however I doubt that.

Anyway. Leg 6. For those not in the know, this was the pit stop and, in fact, entire leg that had to be moved because of logistical problems. Sounds unfortunate and acceptable, right? Yeah, no. The logistic problems were the result of TPTB trying to get 28 people on an intra-African flight during the goddamn Hajj, a period where flying in Africa and the Middle East is unadvised, simply because it's a pain in the ass. We saw that, of course, with everyone scrambling to get out of Mozambique that same day; only C/M were awesome enough to consider an alternative option, and as a result, got a super lead.

Or were they? (No.) According to Ian, *everyone* tried to get on the same flight, which meant that the entirety of this leg (and the next one) was determined by who got lucky enough to get early tickets. That plus that retarded assed bunching and tasks that could be done damn near anywhere makes this one of the worst legs ever. Speaking of the "weather", I think people are making that into a big deal; Charla and Mirna would've arrived in Zanzibar in the middle of the night of day 2, and would've had to wait for the Detours to open (just like Teri and Ian and Bill and Joe on day 3), causing them to finish near noon on day 2, a difference of about 4 hours, which would've meant nothing since they had to wait for the travel agent to open the next morning.

And leg 7 isn't a lot better. You would think that, realizing the clusterfuck that ensued two days prior that they would try and get everyone back on track. You'd be wrong. The large time gaps were only exacerbated by the limited number of flights from Africa to Europe each day, causing the BQs to start leg 8 before E/D and Guido finished leg 7. Even more unfortunate for Guido and E/D was that the production provided flight which would've kept them in the game (which was, IIRC, Zanzibar to Nairobi to Frankfurt to Warsaw) gave them 10 minutes to try and make the flight to Frankfurt. You see what's wrong with that, right. So Guido gets an NEL, which is good because two teams getting eliminated due to things out of their control would've sucked...

Oh wait, hai leg 8. Firstly, two buses to Auschwitz; one leaves at 1 PM? So, sorry Charla/Mirna, even though you arrived 11 hours before the bus was to depart, you get to hang out another four hours (tbf, if everyone were close together entering Warsaw, C/M would've been really, really last). And Auschwitz and AN INTERSECTION? SRSLY? So, sorry BQs, even though your taxi driver didn't know where to go in the middle of the night and even though you probably weren't in a racing mood having just been to Auschwitz, you get to hang out another four hours. And, sorry Guidos, even though you were last primarily due to a production-given flight fallen though, you get to be tethered to another team with little chance of passing. And though the sausage and horse were hilarious, I have to say that screwing over 5 of 7 teams in the span of a week is poor form.

And then to top it all off, Uchenna/Joyce fuck the season up again. So we all saw their hairbrained flight connection and everything, right? Got into KL at night, got the pity clue, got the boot. Per Uchenna, however, they did the entire leg. Went to the caves, did the cookie Detour, Joyce did the RB, and they checked into the Pit Stop. In previous situations like this where a team falls waaaaay behind on an elimination leg, they simply get a pity clue (Groanies, Shola/Doyin, Mary/Peach, Peter/Sarah) and are bounced so Phil can leave. But Phil *didn't* leave. And they did the entire leg. And keep in mind, this would've been a couple of hours before the BQs left for Hong Kong. Why, then, would they waste all that money just for Phil to eliminate U/J anyway? My theory: KL was supposed to be an NEL, making Hong Kong an elim (explaining the presence of the FF), and Macau being the F4 NEL as usual. However, if U/J had checked in at 10 pm (rough guess), then they would have to depart at 10 am, meaning they miss out on all of the early flights to Hong Kong (more than likely; there's the chance of an afternoon direct flight which would've been hilarious) and would get the pity clue a leg later. And had there been one of those flights, E/D may have been last and booted, and we'd have a 2/4 chance of a decent winner.

Oh, and the whole "lets bunch everything before the final task" thing was on full display here. Charla/Mirna get a decent lead going into Honolulu which is...wiped out completely. Eric/Danielle do well in the tasks which is...wiped out completely. And then the entire race is basically contingent upon a bastardized version of The Newlywed Game, except it's design with a time limit so that they can still get a close finish.

Up next? A season that didn't visit Africa. (so one of 4, 8, 9, 13, or 15)

Wanna see his whole thread?
survivorsucks.yuku.com/topic/61089?page=1

[Mooyou]

UPDATE:

NOTE: ALWAYS TAKE THE TRAVELOCITY GNOME IN EVERY POST YOU DO STARTING AT THE NEXT CLUE. FAILURE TO DO SO WILL REQUIRE YOU TO RETURN BACK TO THE CLUE WHERE YOU LEFT IT.


FIRST BUS



Ann and Mitchell (Airport Parking [2])
Hannah and Margalit (Ashram [1])
Azaria and Hendekea (Ananda [3])

SECOND BUS



Kris and Jon (Cascade [3])
Rachel and Jane (Angels to Twinkle / Charisma [2])
Dan and Ray (Double House [1])

THIRD BUS



Automatically:
Paula and Natasha (Sitara and Tara [2])
Jim and Donna (East Point [3])
Rhys and Shanina (M-City [1])