Chris D's Dream Crashcourse: All-Stars Cast Thread
Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2014 7:10:09 am
So, as you would be, no doubt now aware, the upcoming season of Crashcourse will cast the best-of-the-best players from the series' 4 amazing seasons so far and drop them into a remote, isolated environment unlike any other we've experienced in the franchise's history thus far. Pack your woolen mittens and your parkas, because coming November this year, we're about to witness a season of Crashcourse that will push these players to the limit:In anticipation for this event, I wanted to go back through the history of the game and select my ultimate, ideal All-Stars cast. This casting is strictly speculative and for my writing and your reading pleasure only and is not, in any way, even remotely informed in any official capacity. In fact, Vocal Fry doesn't even know I'm making this thread so consider this completely unauthorised and hopefully I don't get me wrist slapped or something should I nail the actual cast perfectly (which I won't due to a few clearly contentious inclusions/exclusions). To repeat, this is not spoiler - this is MY dream cast for the season based on my experience/knowledge of the game and who I personally want to see return.
So, I would consider myself a bit of a Crashcourse superfan. It is the ORG series that I have learned the most about in terms of history and players due to the relatively small number of seasons compared to the bigger franchises like the two global Stranded versions. I can unequivocally say with 100% certainty, however, that Chris D will not be taking one of the All-Stars slots. First of all, VF wouldn't cast me, a decision I completely understand and respect and even if I were to be offered a place I would not take it as Chris, as awesome as he is and as much fun as I have playing him, not only has he not risen to the rank of All-Star, I don't think an All-Star slot would help his Crashcourse legacy in any way. As you'll see in my dream cast below, I may not have chosen all the players with the most experience in ORGs in general, but these are players who either played fantastically and tasted success, or were hungry and should have gotten that taste but fell short and would no doubt come back ravenous. Chris would be there for the fun of it all and an All-Stars cast has to be blood-thirsty and full of killer instinct. So, since I can safely rule myself out of All-Stars as a player, I thought it would be fun to go ahead and choose my dream cast for the upcoming All-Stars season. So, without further adieu and since I've run out of things to talk about myself over, let's get underway!
Again, knowing nothing about VF's plans in terms of size of cast or male/female ratio I'm going to take the safest route and choose my dream 8 male/8 female cast across all 4 seasons so far and provide some brief reasons for why I would select them. Since this is the season I feel that the Crashcourse male curse will finally be broken since there was a precedent set in Korea for Crashcourse curses being broken I am going to start with my 8 males.
Well, to me, Sarge and Nick are the two no-brainers here. Both played fantastically their first time out with Sarge being a strategy kingpin and Nick possessing a strong, well-rounded game. Sarge's game was lost in both jury management and by his decision to keep Eliza in the game with a jury full of supporters assuming there would be a F2 when, in fact, he'd just given Eliza the chance to sit in front of a jury who saw her as the plucky, never say die underdog who would try anything to uproot the static, comfortable game Sarge enjoyed from his position of dominance throughout the game. Nick faced a similar surprising jury vote when he was deemed as having had luck play the major factor in his game despite his strong social game and challenge abilities.
Elsewhere in the group I have chosen Nick's castmate Aras, renowned for having a fairly miserable demeanour and for making one or two poor strategic choices when he allowed his emotions to cause his nerve to fray. Aras managed to pull more jury votes than Nick to finish runner-up in Paraguay and I'd be very interested to see how he plays after such a long time away from the Crashcourse. Aras also had a legendary Crashcourse rivalry with Jim and never hid his distaste for Shane from the other players so I'd be curious to see how Aras would fare against a cast of stronger, more able players and away from these two emotional triggers. Will be ignite new rivalries or play a more reserved game?
Chad is in my dream cast for obvious reasons to anyone who has any experience playing with or even knowing Chad. If he is ready to go back out there his casting would be the ultimate coup and would ramp the season's intensity up ten-fold but there are, of course, a lot of factors that could make his casting an impossible feat.
From Barbados I have chosen the bombastic Rocky and the hot-headed Ozzy. Both of these fellas have had a lot to say recently in public about their first run out on the Crashcourse and they are easily the two male players from the season who have the most to prove in order to back up their opinions of themselves and one another. Would they immediately go after one another or would they somehow find a way to team-up and put the bad blood behind them? How would they interact with players from other seasons and, in particular, some of the female cast I've chosen if they also show up?
From the newest season I've selected James to represent the male side of the newbies. James was a head honcho for a long spell in the game but was making a lot of all to obvious mistakes and they ended up coming back to bite him. He trusted the liars, doubted the truth-tellers and made himself a massive target. However he never backed down from facing the veterans head-on and I'd like to see how he handles the dynamic of no longer being the head of a group of newbies and has to find a new way to play against a stronger set of opponents.
Wrapping up my selection of men is probably the big wildcard choice that has a lot of people wondering what the heck I am on about - Ian. Give me a second and let me explain why Ian deserves a shot among this stellar All-Star cast. Ian was an incredibly green player during his stint in Qatar and, no doubt, made moves and choices which reflected this. staying too comfortably within an alliance on which he was low-man, claiming to be a stronger immunity competitor than his stats reflected, being practically INV right up until the 2nd merge, sure. But here's the deal. Had Ian made it to that FTC, he had my jury vote pretty much locked down - the kid was just that good socially once you got him warmed up. He was easily the most likeable of the Banat 3 who Sarge herded through the game, was incredibly capable of winning immunity challenges and only lacked the confidence and self-assurance to plan a move, back himself and play it through.
Every All-Stars cast needs a dark horse and Ian is undoubtedly the male cast member for All-Stars I would pick for this spot. He can be summed up in one word: POTENTIAL,.. Frankly, the fact he didn't get a chance to return for Korea is a tragedy given the way the Qatar choices turned out so I would remedy that by throwing him in here and giving him the chance he deserves to cement a legacy,
There's no doubting that the female cast of Crashcourse is freaking stacked with talent - all four winners of Crashcourse have had female reps and still, I've only chosen two of them in Sylvia and Eliza. The reason I chose to include two former winners and, specifically, these two former winners, is that these are the two female winners who both have male counterparts in the cast that I would love to see clash again in the game. Sylvia, of course, would be thrilling to see play again and Eliza, despite her win, has unfinished business with Sarge as she never did actually manage to best him during the game.
I've pulled in Margaret to counterweight Chad as an additional three-timer with an absolutely spot on social game and strategic claws that are forever getting sharper. Marg improved upon her Paraguay appearance in Korea and, had one or two decisions not been made, had a legitimate shot at the game so I'd bring her back in also as a possible bridge between the other old school players and their newer All-Stars tribemates. Plus, there is no doubt she hungers for that title and that is the type of player you want in an All-Stars cast.
I've also chosen Melinda from Paraguay who, like Aras on the male side, allowed her emotions and mental unpreparedness undo an excellent pre-merge game, costing her a spot at the FTC. Melinda is another player who I am hoping will improve now that there has been a decent amount of time in between shots and would love to see her follow through on what she started in Paraguay.
Morgan has been such a huge part of Crashcourse's history, having appeared in the first two seasons and played an important role in both, that not having her participate here would seem lik a slight. Morgan has already proved she is adaptable and can mix it up with different casts in Crashcourse so I've given her a spot for the sheet thrill of seeing her interact with players from the new seasons as well. She is very capable and should not be underestimated by any means.
You want this All-Stars season to be thrilling as well as entertaining? Then you cast Twila - the perfect combination of crack-up funny character and good gameplay who was taken from us all too soon in Qatar and would be absolutely shaking with anticipation at the thought of getting at Sarge. If I've made it look like I'm purposefully stacking the deck against Sarge with this cast that is not my intention at all, but seriously, anyone who mattered in Qatar got stabbed in the back by Sarge with the exception of Chad so it would be hard not to look as though you're stacking the deck against Sarge truthfully.
Which brings us to the newest Crashcourse season and the females on the Johwa tribe. Honestly, any of them excepting Ashley could easily be considered All-Stars or alternates so I'll say a few quick words about how I ruled out the two that I chose to rule out before speaking on the two I chose to cast. Firstly, Amanda, who had, in my opinion, one of the most pitch-perfect performances without it intentionally veering into schitck because she played almost exactly like the real Amanda Kimmel, right down to flubbing the final Tribal Council. Amanda played a great game, well enough to reach the end obviously, but you don't just cast every player who did well in an All-Stars season because you want the game to be dynamic as well and this is where Amanda's potential falls apart for me. Her game wasn't particularly dynamic and it is hard to tell what her motivation would be coming into an All-Stars season since she seemed to kinda play the best game she could in Korea and wouldn't be particularly thrilled to see that brought back a second time. Courtney gets looked over by me for her attitude, another season of eyerolling/above-it-all posts and oh-so-clever quips about eating disorders does not appeal to me.
So that means, obviously, I selected Leslie and Peih Gee to represent Korea and I chose those two for very, very different reasons. First Leslie - watching as the true nature of her game and her involvement in the decisions being made began to slowly unravel and reveal itself was the most fascinating arc in the whole season for me as Leslie went from being an irrelevant, inactive nobody to master manipulator and puppet master in my opinion in the space of three rounds as new jury members brought in new info of what she was really up to. By the time she joined Ponderosa her reputation as the season's bad-ass bitch was pretty much confirmed and I would love to see what she's capable of but without the luxury of being able to sleep through the pre-merge.
Finally - I chose Peih-Gee. It's no secret PDC and I are incredibly close but there is a lot more to this selection than just personal bias. Prior to becoming the first member of the jury in Korea, PG was absolutely killing her social UTR game and was easily the most astute, intuitive and focussed person playing the game. Her game was hampered by technical issues that caused her to need to sit out continually despite being a more than capable player so already there is a whole new facet to PG's game that needs to be explored but seriously, PG was on top of the game until the tribal swap saw her separated from her closest Johwa allies who suddenly became frightened of PG's capabilities and ended up turning on her unnecessarily in a move that was made way to early and, I believe, sank the games of the Johwa players who instigated it. Pyeong were more than happy to allow Johwa to cannibalize and the Johwa 3 of Courtney, Amanda and James gave up PG who was their loyal ally while also ostracising Erik, Todd and Frosti from the vote and ruining what should have been a united Johwa at the merge.
PG also came into the game knowing my ID and used this info very sparsely/subtly. She knew enough about me personally to know things like a long PM from me is less likely to be bullshit because I wouldn't bother putting that much time and effort into bullshiting, I'd keep it brief and efficient. She knew that, of the mutineers, I was the one being earnest and was completely behind the switch of the vote from Margaret to Jamie that has been credited to Amanda and Courtney but was 100% PG as Jamie had been bad-mouthing me to her and she knew which of the two she could trust more long-term. She was a stealthy, effective and quiet player but her All-Stars status gets cemented when you take in her Ponderosa/Jury performance and I believe that this is the PG we're more likely to see should she return to Crashcourse - a take no prisoners, opinionated passionate player who is determined to win.
Seriously, the King of Crashcourse Lurkers better be back to sit atop his throne or the whole season will be ruined.
That's my dream cast! I was gonna do honourable mentions and a dream hosts section but this bitch is already long enough and I'd be surprised if people read it the whole way through. Comment below on your dream cast additions/changes and feel free to let me know if you agree/disagree on the choices I made and look for more (potential) stuff from me in the leadup to November when Crashcourse takes its All-Stars to Norway!!
