The Survivor Series began in March, and we’ve had a lot of fun with it.  Every week players had a new game to play, and I think a lot of them were unexpected.  I tried to keep everything reasonably fair each week.  And by that I mean we didn’t have games that were directed towards barroom athletes, regular athletes, brainiacs, or any other specialty.

If you could do 50 push-ups, it won’t help you take down the “Card Sharks” contest.  If you can throw back to back 50 games on the dartboard, that doesn’t help when the game is “Rock, Paper, Scissors”.  And if you know every President from every country on the face of the planet, it won’t help you in “Tin Can Alley”. 

That doesn’t mean that people checked their competitive spirits at the door.  I’ve never seen a more highly charged game of “Don’t Break the Ice” than I did when Aaron took on Ray in the finals.  When you put the spotlight on, any kind of game becomes fun and interesting.  the Wii Hula Hoop contest was certainly, uh, interesting

a big thanks goes out to everyone who made it regularly, it was a good time.  it was interesting.  it was fun, and funny, and i’m glad we did it!

unfortunately, all good things must come to an end.  and last night was the final resolution of Dorko’s Survivor. 

Ray and Larry, the final two candidates came in on Saturday Night past and presented their cases to the final council.  only after hearing both speeches were players allowed to vote for the person they wanted to be the winner of Dorko’s Survivor. here’s how the votes went . . .

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i am not at all sure who voted for whom, and i like it that way.  it is after all, only a game. 

Here’s a picture of our winner . . . .

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oops!  my bad.  i got confused there for a second.  HERE is a picture of our winner . . .

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Way To Go Larry!!!

if you stop by the tavern at all, I’m sure you are already aware that the Survivor Series has come down to the final two contestants.  here’s how we got there . . .

 The final challenge had three participants – Larry, Ray, and Cookie.  Larry and Ray had riden the wave of immunity cards that they acquired throughout the series to make their way into the final challenge.  Cookie never had immunity, but found himself at the edge of potentially winning the series with a good showing in the final event. 

at this point, every man was for himself, and no immunity remained.  so, it was do, or die.

the Challenge? 

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Tiddly Winks!!!

i’m sure many of the players had heard the word, but had never seen, and certainly never played the game.  this was evident from the start. 

the task would be to put four winks into the center cup.  there were 8 winks placed in starting positions.  if a wink travels off of the playing area, it is placed back on one of the starting spots. 

cookie went first.  and after having some initial difficulty, he experienced more difficulty.  followed by having a hard time getting any of the winks into the center cup.  finally, when the dust cleared, it took Cookie 80 tries at flipping a wink to pot four of them. 

next, ray took the Squidger and started launching winks.  although cookie had a very rough go of it, ray had a rougher go.  in fact, i do believe it got his dander up.  this was evidenced by the fact that he broke a Squidger in what looked to be a mixture of disgust and desperation.  after the 80 flips mark passed the sun set on Ray’s efforts.  cookie stood in the lead. 

now, everything rested on Larry’s shoulders.  if he should fail to best Cookie’s mark, Cookie would choose who to take to the Final Council to face off against him. 

for some reason, the wink flipping came easier to larry than it did to either Cookie or Ray, and Larry potted four winks in a mere 45 flips – Winning the Challenge!!!

The Final Decision:

Larry chose to face off against Ray in front of the Final Council.  and so both he and Ray will have 2 minutes each to address the Jury of . . .

• Cookie
• Skrully
• Z
• Aaron
• Dawn
• Tony Matt
• Lori

and then they will vote for the winner of the Inaugural Season of Dorko’s Survivor. 

WHEN - we didn’t gather on Saturday past because of the holiday, and this coming Saturday I will be away visiting my in-laws.  i return Saturday the 17th of July, and since we are all used to the 9pm time slot, voting will take place then.

We were down to FOUR players on Survivor Island when Saturday began.  Only two of them – Ray and Larry – had Immunity Cards to play.  and that meant Cokie or Skrully would be ending the night on a virtual boat heading for the mainland, after having been kicked off the island.

we opened the evening with a four man Battleship contest that saw Skrully beat Ray in the first round, and Larry come out ahead of Cookie. 

in the finals Larry beat Skrully, and so the remaining players voted.  Skrully received two votes to be cast away, as did Cookie!  So, we had a tie!!

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and so we lined them up again, one final time, to see who would find the ships in their opponent’s fleet and sink them the fastest.  One on One, Mano-a-Mano, we would decide which player deserves to remain on the island, and which would be heading out into night alone and defeated!

after an intense match, Cookie managed to find and sink all of Skrully’s ships in the nick of time, giving him the Victory!!

as a result, Skrully has been moved into the “group of power” – those who will be voting to determine the winner of Dorko’s inaugural Survivor Island contest!

Next week we will find out which two players will face off in front of the final tribal council.  The final Immunity Challenge will begin at 9 pm – and the stakes have never been higher!!

survivor is down to the nitty gritty now!  there are four players, and two challenges remaining. 

On Saturday players competed in an English Dart contest known as “Last Man Standing”.  here’s how it works . . .

Each player is given three darts, and they throw them at the board.   their score is tallied (and yes, trips count as trips.  so if you hit a triple 10, that’s 30 points).  we mark down the score by their name on the board, and the next player takes the line and throws their darts.  eventually everyone has had their chance.

we look at the scores and the player(s) with the lowest score are removed from the competition.  we line’em up and do it again, until finally all but one player are knocked out.

To start the night we had Skrully, Cookie, Larry and Aaron.  Ray played one of his 72 immunities.

In the First Round – skrully failed to hit the dartboard, and so was low man with a zero.

the Second Round – saw Cookie land enough points to keep himself from being low man.  despite a decent score, Larry was low man – and removed from the competition.

in the Final Round – Aaron threw a 60-something.  that, is a solid score.  Cookie would have to do very well if planned on getting immunity for the night.  and, he did!  by landing a triple 17, a single cork and another dart in the board he bested aaron’s score, and won immunity for himself!

and boy did that come in handy!

Aaron is going away on vacation, and was forced to save his immunity card for that weekend.  that meant he was vulnerable this past Saturday night when the voting took place!

unfortunately for him, he is a strong contestant, and the tribe took advantage of this opportunity to remove him from the island!

now Aaron is moved into a place of power – he’ll have his say on who the winner will be by casting his vote at the final tribal council.

this Saturday we’ll trim the herd from four players to three.  skrully and cookie have no immunity, so winning the challenge will be their key to staying in the game!

Saturday night offered an interesting mix of conversations.  the Immunity Challenge for the big Survivor Island contest was something that I reached back into the past to ressurect.  I’n not really sure if the idea of throwing money at a wall and calling it a game is strictly a coal region pastime, or something that you’ll find in other areas as well.

i know that when i asked people if they pitched nickels, almost to a person, they said “we pitched quarters”.  kids these days! 

and almost all of the coin pitching action occured at school, in the bathrooms – away from the prying eyes of the nuns/teachers.  so, in a nod to the only school bathroom based sport i can think of, we pitched nickels for Immunity Saturday.

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The game is very simple. 

• players stand behind a line and toss coins at a wall.
• they can hit the wall, or not hit the wall, it doesn’t matter. 
• once the coins stop, the closest coin to the wall wins.
• winner gets both coins.

Aaron beat all comers on Saturday – and so he won immunity for the night.  Cookie gave it a gallant effort, Skrully not so much. 

The only player who was unable to make it in and sign in for the night was Lori.  as a result, she’s this weeks’ person to move from the list of players to voting member of the Final Council. 

Players With Immunity

Larry (3)

Ray (3)

Aaron (1)

——————————————————

Players on the Island

zero strikes:

• Ray
• Skrully

one strike:

• Cookie
• Larry

two strikes:

• Aaron

JURY:

• Dawn
• Z
• Tony Matt
• Lori

Ray used an Immunity Card Saturday.

On Saturday Night we had our Survivor Island gathering.  The player pool is getting thinner every week, and the only way to make sure you are not asked to leave the game is to have Immunity!

and so, we issued a very important Immunity Challenge on Saturday – the remote controlled toy race car event!  we took a replica of a Camero, the new ones like in Transformers, and ran it around the track a couple of times. 

 everyone had some test runs, and then we ran time trials.  players with the top two times in time trials went on to face each other for Immunity!!

in the end Aaron took down the title for the evening . . . .

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tony matt was the only player to miss sign ups, and as a result he was voted off of the island.  now, he has the power that comes to those who qualify to be on the final jury.  we are down to an even half dozen players now. 

Players With Immunity

Larry (3)

Ray (4)

Aaron (1)

——————————————————

Players on the Island

zero strikes:

• Lori
• Ray
• Skrully

one strike:

• Cookie
• Larry

two strikes:

• Aaron

JURY:

• Dawn
• Z
• Tony Matt

well, figuratively.  he’s, of course, always welcome at Dorko’s!  after all, somebody’s got to win the dart trophies!

but, at Survivor on Saturday night he was the latest player to move “off the island” and become part of the jury for the event’s final vote!

the Immunity Challenge on Saturday was “Simon”, the memory machine from the 80′s.  Ray K. came out on top in that contest, adding to his sizeable amount of Immunity Cards.  now the “standings” look like this . . .

Players With Immunity

Larry (3)

Ray (4)

——————————————————

Players on the Island

zero strikes:

• Lori
• Ray
• Skrully

one strike:

• Tony Matt
• Cookie
• Larry

two strikes:

• Aaron

JURY:

• Dawn
• Z

Official Survivor Document

Ladies and Gentlemen   .   .   .  Please excuse my absence tonight.  I’m off doing foolish things in the city of brotherly love.  Pray for me.

In my place I have for the offering, this “official document” detailing the rules involved in the “End Game” portion of the Saturday Night Survivor Contest.  Here is what will be happenening:

First – Larry will bitch about something.  Anything.  It doesn’t matter what, but rest assured he will believe something is wrong and will share that opinion ad infinitum. 

Second -   Immunity Cards can no longer be announced after the fact.  That’s been in place for a little while now, but it bears repeating.  If you fail to play an Immunity Card before the final announcement of who gets voted off the island, you could end up getting voted off the island.  Your Immunity will not automatically kick in after the fact to save your ass!

Third – tonight is the final Immunity Challenge that you will be able to “bank”, and use for a rainy day.  We’re getting down to the nitty gritty here folks, with everyone remaining having a spot on the jury for the final council, so we need to separate the wheat from the chaff.  When there are five players left, I can’t have five players claiming immunity.

Enough with the Numbers – The last chance to play an immunity card is when there are four players remaining in the game.  After that, they expire.  While talking to myself, I’ve been referring to this as “the problem of three players where Larry and Ray have immunity and the other guy wins the final challenge”. 

I knew what the final challenge was going to be shortly after the Series began, and in this way it has meaning for everyone involved.  Much like running 16-0 in the NFL will get you a bye and home field advantage in the playoffs, past glories only take you so far.  ask the Patriots.

Voting People off of the Island
Obviously, if someone fails to sign in, we will be voting to remove someone from the list of players that failed to sign in.

1.       If everyone signs in, we can vote after the Immunity Challenge is completed. 

2.       Put the name of the person you want to vote off of the island on a piece of paper.

3.       Put your initials in the corner of the paper, so I know who cast that vote. 

4.       Toss it in the bucket.

5.       Once all the votes are cast, the question is posed . . . “Does anyone want to play their Immunity Card?”

           [This works out the same as playing your immunity card “in secret”, allowing people to try to vote you off, without knowing that you are immune from their villainous efforts.]

6.       Whoever is not claiming immunity, and receives the most votes, is removed from the Island.

If there is a tie, anyone who voted for an Immune player revotes.  

Saturday Night we had all but one person sign in for the Survivor Challenge.  so, that made the question of “who is going to get booted?” a bit of a moot point.  But, we were there to party, and at 9 PM there was definitely going to be a game to be played!!  All 8 players entered the Immmunity Challenge of the week . . . Card Sharks.

Tony, Cookie, Larry and Skrully all notched wins in their first matches, with Tony and Skrully going head to head to see who would find their way to the perch in the winner’s bracket.  Meanwhile, Z was burning through the loser’s bracket.

Players were given a statement, and they had to decide if it was “Fact or Crap”.  get it right, and take control of the board, get it wrong and your opponent takes control of the board. 

Eventually Z met Larry in the one-loss bracket, and Larry knocked him out of the tournament.  In fact, Larry battled his way back to find himself matched up against Skrully in the finals!  Needing to beat Skrully two times in a row to take the victory in the Immunity Challenge was not going to be easy!

But, that’s exactly what happened.  Skrully had the cards go against him (lower than an Ace, and an Ace shows up !  higher than a 3 and a two shows up!) and Larry seized the opportunity – and won the title!!

Players With Immunity

Larry (3)

Ray (3)

——————————————————

Players on the Island

zero strikes:

• Lori
• Ray
• Skrully

one strike:

• Tony Matt
• Cookie
• Larry

two strikes:

• Aaron
• Z

DAWN was voted off, but that makes her the first member of the final council, and holds the power of voting for the winner of the Survivor Series!!

Saturday Night Survivor has reached a milestone.  we now know who will be either a winner, a loser, or a member of the final voting tribal council.  that’s right, we are down to nine. 

LAST Saturday we had three players fail to show, and so to remain alive Tony Matt and Aaron both had thier immunity kick in automatically.  That was the end of “auto-immunity” for this season of Survivor! 

the game last week?  SPEED SLICE on the Wii, from the “Resort Sports” cartridge (err, disk).  during the game the players wield a virtual samurai sword.  a host tosses objects in front of the players, and an arrow appears telling the players which way to slice the objects.  you may have to cut the watermelon from top to bottom, or the stopwatch from side to side. 

the first player to make the slice gets the checkmark.  first to ten checkmarks wins. 

the marquee battle featured Cookie vs. Skrully.  unfortunately, neither of them made thier way to the final.  instead, when the slicing was done, Ray stood at the top of the heap and claimed his 3rd immunity card. 

That night Reedy was voted off of the island.  and that set the stage for yesterday!

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Perfection – you know . . .

“move on fast
Or the pieces pop out before you put in the last
And that’s Perfection.”

of course the very first thing I said was “take the pieces out of the bucket and put them in their slots”, so Larry dumps the bucket.  he got a foul called on him and mended the error in his ways.  actually, he then went on to post the best times of the night – and take the Immunity Challenge!!

at 11pm we had voting, and this week Gary K. was voted off of the island.  and that, brings us to the magic number of Nine remaining players!

Players With Immunity

Larry (2)

Ray (3)

——————————————————

Players on the Island

zero strikes:

• Dawn
• Lori
• Ray
• Skrully

one strike:

• Tony Matt
• Cookie
• Larry

two strikes:

• Aaron
• Z

things are starting to boil down because everyone left in the game will have a say in who wins!! 

Next Week – and I don’t always announce this . . . the Immunity Challenge is CARD SHARKS!