Peih-Gee Law hides in the jungle. She watches. She waits. Then she attacks, springing from the bushes, ganking her enemies when they least expect it. But this isn’t Survivor. This is League of Legends, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game that Peih-Gee plays on the regular. I know very little about it. I’m a Final Fantasy man, PS2 and earlier, or bust. In fact, what little I do know about League of Legends, I learned from reading Peih-Gee’s description of the game and her play style during one of her many appearances in the Survivor Reddit group, and subsequently looking up some of the MMORPG’s key words. (UPDATE: Multiple sources report that League is a MOBA, or massive online battle arena, not an MMORPG. See how much I know?) Ganking means ganging up on the defenseless, by the way. You learn something new every day! Even for those of us who do not know the ins and outs of League of Legends, what Peih-Gee describes certainly sounds like strong Survivor strategy: wait, observe, and kill all monsters at the right place and the right time. It’s exactly how Peih-Gee wants to approach Survivor: Cambodia — Second Chance, too, based on what she tells me at Ponderosa. “I’m going to lay low,” she says. “I’m not going to let my mouth get me into trouble this time. I’ve learned my lessons.” Peih-Gee has no illusions about the fact that she was abrasive at times during her run on Survivor: China, more often on the wrong side of the numbers than not, forced to win immunity challenges in order to move further ahead. She says it’s still hard for her to go with the flow of group mentality, but she’s ready to give it a shot. “If your group wants to sit around and sing songs and sleep in the mud because they don’t have shelter, then you’re sleeping in the damn mud,” she says. “Don’t complain about it. That’s the lesson I learned from my season. You have to fit in.” Once she fits in, though? Once she’s in the mud, and once she’s singing the songs? Get ready to get ganked. “I’ll do whatever it takes,” she says, shrugging her shoulders and smirking. Her expression already says what she’s thinking, but she spits out the words anyway: “Come on, man. This is a game.” Peih-Gee enters Second Chance with games on the mind, and she’s already one of the most interesting players on paper alone. “I’m right in the middle of the Survivor eras,” she says. “I’m right in the middle of the age range. I’m 37, and I think that’s exactly the median age of everyone here.” She feels like she has options, in other words, and she wants to keep them open. “I won’t be too aggressive with the gameplay right away,” Peih-Gee tells me. “I don’t want to be the one running around talking to everyone about alliances. I’ll be open to things.” But will the other Second Chancers be open to her? ON THE NEXT PAGE: Peih-Gee Rides The Middle Lane

Four Second Chancers hail from Survivor: Cagayan. Three come from San Juan del Sur. There are three groups of two: Jeff Varner and Kimmi Kappenberg from Australian Outback, Vytas Baskauskas and Ciera Eastin from Blood vs Water, and Shirin Oskooi and Joe Anglim from Worlds Apart. The remaining seven are singles, lone representatives from their seasons, including Peih-Gee Law, the only contestant from China in the mix. Varner described these people to me as “assets.” Heading into the new season, Peih-Gee isn’t so sure. “I don’t really know anybody,” she tells me. “That’s a big disadvantage for me. I haven’t been hanging out with anybody. It’s definitely a drawback. I should have gone to a few more of those reunions!” Then again, she sees possibilities, too. The California-based jewelry designer thinks she can leverage her status as a single when building alliances, under the guise that she has few other places to turn. “I’m a bit of a free agent,” she says, before going on to describe a possible pitch to other players in the game: “Hey, you know I don’t have ties to anyone else. You don’t have to worry about that. If I join with you guys, I come in with no strings attached.” Peih-Gee knows the numbers. She’s paying attention to the players entering Second Chance with others from their season. “Of course, you’re worried,” she says. “Even when you listen to all the interviews with them, and people are saying, ‘Nope! I’m not with them,’ in the pre-game. Kass is all like, ‘Tasha and Spencer hate me.’ But you don’t know who is playing already.” Joe and Shirin from Worlds Apart, for instance, are two of the people that Peih-Gee can’t quite figure out. “They’re doing a really good job,” she says. “I almost forgot they were on the same season. They’re not looking at each other or anything. You have to just be aware. Obviously they know each other really well.” Peih-Gee has her eye on some of the other people in similar positions as her — like Stephen Fishbach, also the only person from his season on the cast, and also someone who hails from the middle-ish era of Survivor. But she’s not exactly loving what she’s seeing. “He’s got the male version of resting [expletive] face or something,” she says. “I’m really surprised! Every time I see him in pictures, he always has this big clown smile on!” But, again, Peih-Gee is trying to keep an open mind. Go with the flow. Options. “Maybe he’s nervous,” she reasons. “He’s probably in his head. I think that’s what’s going on with him.” Maybe she’s right, maybe she’s wrong, but Peih-Gee feels good about her ability to read people. After all, she saw the winner of her season coming a mile away. ON THE NEXT PAGE: What Peih-Gee Learned From China

Twenty days into Survivor: China, the Fei Long and Zhan Hu tribes finally merged, breaking bread and making peace — for the moment, at least — over a giant feast, surrounded by dancers and fireworks and other forms of pomp and circumstance. The Survivors should have been paying close attention to all the action, as the season’s first individual immunity challenge revolved around remembering major and minor details from the festivities. Instead, Peih-Gee was probably more focused on Todd Herzog, the flight attendant from Utah, hailing from the rival tribe of Fei Long. Once they met at the merge, Peih-Gee says she knew he would win the season — and she was right. Todd went on to become one of the youngest Survivor winners ever, after delivering what still remains the single best Final Tribal Council performance in the history of the show, fifteen seasons later. Peih-Gee tells me that she’s been thinking a lot about Todd, based on something said by Survivor player-turned-podcaster Rob Cesternino in the run-up to Second Chance. “He said returnees have a tendency to play the way their winners previously played their season, and I was like, ‘Huh. I should look into that.'” Having looked into it, Peih-Gee likes what she sees. “I think Todd’s strategy would actually work really well for me,” she says. “He told me he wanted to make sure he had a very strong person and a very weak person, so that way he’s shielded on both sides. They’re both going to be targets, and he gets to slip through the cracks.” Peih-Gee has no trouble identifying candidates for the “very strong person” role. “Someone like Joe, maybe Woo,” she says, and she’s especially focused on Woo: “He’s like hired muscle. It’s good to have hired muscle, especially if you don’t have muscle. You need someone who can help you get through challenges. If he’s going to win, you want to know that he’ll be on your side.” As for the weaker players? “I don’t know who is going to be weaker than me,” she confesses. “I think I’m in the middle. I wouldn’t say I’m the weakest one, but…” Peih-Gee trails off, but only for half a second, before she starts cracking up. “Listen, you know, we’re all a little bit older! Let’s put it that way.” Beyond looking at Todd’s winning strategy, Peih-Gee has been paying attention to someone else she played with: The Amanda Kimmel of Survivor: China, Survivor: Micronesia – Fans vs. Favorites, and Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains fame. Amanda competed in back-to-back seasons and made it to the end of the game both times. Jury management skills aside, Amanda’s accomplishments speak for themselves, and Peih-Gee is listening closely to what they’re saying. “I did talk to Amanda right before I came out here,” she says, “and she was like, ‘Peege, you’re in such a good position! But you have to align with the newer players. It’s so cutthroat nowadays. They’re used to it. They know how it works. Have some older ones there, because they’ll be more loyal, and more willing to go along with what you want to do. They won’t be as used to it. But you have to get into an alliance on day one.'” “I’m listening to Amanda,” she continues. “She knows what she’s doing.” Leaning on Amanda’s advice, Peih-Gee isn’t so much looking at specific players to align with as much as she’s looking at the broader picture. “I’m not looking at any particular person. I think that’s a bad mindset. But you look at archetypes, and what kind of player you want to avoid.” On Peih-Gee’s avoid list: Ciera Eastin, who ganked her own mother right out of Survivor: Blood vs Water. (Did I use “ganked” right? I don’t think I used that right.) “I wouldn’t want to align with Ciera. I think she has a big hurdle to overcome,” says Peih-Gee. “She seems really cutthroat with the voting out the mom thing, and a little bit devious. It’s hard. People will think, ‘Well, you voted out your mom, and you won’t hesitate to vote for me.'” When I ask her who else she thinks has a dangerous reputation going into Second Chance, Peih-Gee stares off for a few moments, chewing on the question, before arriving at an alarming possibility. “I hope I don’t have a reputation.” ON THE FINAL PAGE: Peih-Gee Throws Down The Gauntlet