The first season of Stranded began with an idea, pit two tribes of contestants together each containing characters from different seasons of Survivor. Consisting of 16 players who had never played in an online game before, Stranded in Bolivia was the beginning of a long-lasting series. With the beginning of a new series there were many questions going into it. Would it work? Would the players be interesting? Would they take to the game play without any veterans around to learn from? The answer would build the groundwork for 18+ seasons to come. The characters not only took to the game, but they took it more personally than any players before. We knew that we had a successful series. Huge characters and schemers in Rudy, Gretchen, Joel, Greg, and Kelly dominated the early gameplay.

Rudy and Joel formed an early friendship, as did Gretchen and Greg. The birth of the deadly sins challenge, a Stranded staple, caused drama from its very first implementation. Gretchen, deemed “most in tuned with the tribe” assigned sins to her tribemates. When they struggled to figure out whom Gretchen chose for which sin, they were equally as frustrated as when they saw her choices. From there on out, Gretchen earned the moniker, “Bitchen.” She would only cement this title as she increasing grew more and more unlikable to her cast mates and hosts alike. With Greg as her pit-bull, the Quechua tribe dominated the merge and saw the Aymara tribe fall by the wayside. This kept Bitchen firmly in charge until Kelly, Joel, and Rudy were able to overthrow her. In the end, the win went to Joel, the person who dominated both strategically and in challenges.