Insignia:
Members:
CS1: Vakha Basayev
School: Whittree Secondary
Weapon: Canon Vixia HF R4xx Digital HD Camcorder
CS2: Lisa Toner
School: Davison Secondary
Weapon: J&D's Baconnaise Lite
CS3: Douglas “Dougie” Sharpe
School: Whittree Secondary
Weapon: Tickle Me Elmo
CS4: Genevieve “Genni” Cordova
School: Davison Secondary
Weapon: Rondel Dagger
CS5: Aidan Adelman
School: Davison Secondary
Weapon: Full Set of Team Bandanas
Mentor:
'The Academic'
"The introduction of teams, coupled with the decision to draw from two school of widely varying socio-economic statuses, created a very unique atmosphere in Season Sixty-five. For the first time, the students were forced into association with groups—societies, if you will—without any real input of their own, which undeniably shaped their experiences and their chances for survival."
Name: Cecelia Warren
Age: 36
Gender: Female
Appearance: Cecelia is a short woman, barely reaching five feet in height, though she will often wear modest heels when appearing in public to give herself a bit of a boost. She's thin, and dresses to accentuate this, favoring tailored suits with vertical patterns. She keeps her shoulder-length black hair worn in a bun, and wears a pair of oval-framed glasses at all times, though her nearsightedness is fairly mild.
Biography: In 2007, as an undergraduate sociology student approaching the end of her college career, Cecelia Warren was required to complete a thesis project as a component of graduating with honors. The topic she chose, and the one which carried her through subsequent MA and PhD theses, was SOTF-TV and society. At the time she began, there was very little in the academic world about the show, which had begun only a year prior, and as such Ceclia's well-written thesis attracted a good deal of attention, eventually being published in a journal of decent prominence.
Since then, she's written about SOTF-TV with great fervor, concentrating initially on its implications about modern and future culture and then, when that well began to run dry, on the ways in which the island was a society of its own, how the children sent to it were shaped by it and society, and how that was reflected in their interactions with each other.
Cecelia is a good writer and lecturer, and while some of her output is highly refined academia, the bulk of it falls more into the category of popular science. She writes books very accessible to the average layman, sometimes glossing over intricacies in favor of excitement. While this has earned her a fair deal of criticism from many of her colleagues, it has also won her widespread public support and five separate entries into the New York Times bestseller list. She has attended almost every opening ceremony in the last ten years of the show, and is on good terms with the producers; her work never comes across as critical of the show, and she claims to approach the subject as any good scientist would: with a level of professional detachment.
This is, of course, blatantly untrue. Cecelia is a massive fan of SOTF-TV, and has been since its inception. Her bias is fairly clear in her works, but is in line with her intended audience anyways, and she does not fabricate facts, putting her ahead of many others in the field. Opponents of SOTF-TV criticize her relentlessly, with Susan Crawford infamously comparing her to Hitler's eugenics experts, but it has had very little effect on Ceclia's popularity or persona.
After Season 65, Cecelia published an extensive article on the implications of the changes in game structure and her theories on how they affected the outcome. When Season 66 came around, the producers offered her a chance to get a more direct look at the proceedings, and to participate herself, which Cecelia gladly accepted.
Team Conclusion: With a series of utility pulls and almost nothing in the way of real weapons, will the stingrays be able to find their sting, or will they flounder and be crushed beneath the waves?
Mentor Comment: "It has been noted repeatedly that simple weapon draws are among the least important factors in a student's long-term success, with one notable exception: students given proper armament are more likely to either "play" or otherwise become involved in violent altercations within the first day of the season. Given the dismal survival rate of first-day players, one could easily argue that a lack of starting weaponry actually constitutes an advantage for a team, especially given the potential for utility items to ease their integration into groups outside of their assigned allies."
