One group, led by Diane Love, became known as "Clan MacLion". The original members of this team included Lane Smith, Patty Maloney, Jim Haney, Jim Melton, Judd Spitzer, and Rick Davis. In October 2004, Patty fell victim to a shark attack, and was replaced by the erstwhile Mark Pickett. In January 2005, Jim Haney was lost the the Lions in a tragic fishing accident.

The other group, led by Scott Bender, formed the iOftheTiger tribe. The iOftheTiger tribe was plagued by tragedy in the early days of the contest. Original tribal members included Susan Pate, Narinder Dogra, Alex Levinson, Moe Bradley, Tomas Lovato, and Bruce Giancola.
Bruce was left the island after a week, and was replaced by Scott Travis. Two months later, in October 2004, Alex and Susan fell victims to a vicious shark attack. John Gebhardt and James Satterfield optimistically joined the tribe.
A month later, Narinder was lost when a freak volcano eruption overtook him.

[Jim] From my perspective, the MacLions got off to a strong start. The team gelled under Diane's humble leadership and won the first four challenges. It began to look as if the Tigers were not even going to show up. But the Lions made a mistake in not taking the Tigers seriously. The Tigers came back to win the next two challenges.

The first challenge was to announce the tribal name to the Guild membership, and to get as many responses as possible without soliciting them. The MacLions set up a tribe mailing list and brainstormed different approaches, settling on a fictitious set of features for the OS after Tiger (code named "Lion").

[Jim] The Tigers posted an announcement that included a broken hyperlink to their fictitious web site (iofthetigers.org). Judd deviously purchased the Internet domain name and hosted a MacLion-friendly web site! We had a great laugh about that one.

The first immmunity challenge involved writing reviews for the Guild. This was no surprise, since reviews are a major activity of the Guild. I think one of the main reasons Bill puts these contests on is to get people more involved.

But the challenge ground to a halt as neither team could get momentum writing reviews. The MacLions took an early lead, but not a commanding one. As the challenge stretched into 3 months, the Lions were unable to close the deal. With a great deal of prodding and coaching, the Host of Castillo was able to make a strong push. In the final week of the challenge, the Tigers submitted 5 of their 8 reviews. But the Lions also submitted 2 reviews in the final week to make a total of 10 reviews.

After losing this challenge, the Tigers were sent to Tribal council, where Scott Travis was deemed no longer worthy to be a part of the tribe.

By the time this challenge was over, people on both teams were beginning to understand just how high the stakes were going to be for this contest, and what level of commitment would be required to win.

The second Award Challenge required each team to compile digital photographs of each team member in two formats: a "passport photo" head shot, and a full body shot. Originally, each player was to affix an OS X tatoo somewhere on their body, but this requirement was dropped when it became evident that the tatoos just wouldn't be visible. This Lions won this challenge too.

[Jim] The full-body pictures were Photoshopped (when did that become a verb?) together into a group composite with an appropriate island-themed background (the results are at the top of this page). Surprisingly, it proved difficult for some of us to get a digital photograph onto the computer. Perhaps some of us subconsciously didn't want to see pictures of ourselves (you can imagine why!).

The second Immunity Challenge required each team to create a web site that described their team. Specific roles were assigned, and schedules were mandated.

Award Challenge #3 found us exploring the Island of Castillo in a video game (based on the Aleph One engine). The goal was to create a map of the island consistent with the virtual world in the game. [Jim] The Lions got off to a great start, using the mapping features of the game and screen shots to gather raw material for our map. But then we dropped the ball and failed to create and submit a map. Ultimately, we did submit an beautiful map, but it was too late, and the Tigers handed the Lions their first loss.

Immunity Challenge #3 had each tribe set sail from Castillo island with a cargo of resources. As the challenge unfolded, it became clear that the starting resources would need to be bartered from island to island. [Jim] This challenge proved very frustrating. By pure luck, our ship set nearly a direct course for the ultimate destination. Once there, we learned that we required resources only available all the way across the map. The pace of the contest began to pick up, and the once invincible Lions went to our first Tribal Council, where we voted Lane off the island.

Award Challenge #4 found the two tribes merged into one. The goal of this challenge was to name the newly merged tribe and design a new logo. I enjoyed the creativity of coming up with a name, but I lack the graphic skills or tools to design logos. I ended up submitting a name without a logo, but I don't think my submission received due consideration for that reason. It wasn't clear to me at the beginning of the challenge that the name and logo were inseperably linked.

Then the video game was back, and this time it was armed for bear. Immunity Challenge #4 had the remaining contestants go head-to-head in the virtual world of Castillo. [Jim] Fortunately, all those wasted hours playing shoot-em-ups came in handy, as I was able to dominate this event. Immunity looked pretty good at that point

For Award Challenge #5, we had to search through the Mac Guild review pages and find the new tribe's logo hidden in various places. [Jim] I used Safari's tabbed-browsing to open each review section, then each review in each section. I found all the logos in about an hour and won the award.

The newly formed team settled in the old MacLion camp. Imunity Challenge #5 was to create a 3-D map of Castillo island. [Jim] I realized too late that accuracy was more important than speed. Even though I finished first, all the other players had to do was get a better score (and I left them LOTS of room). Ultimately, I was soundly defeated.

Here we remember our fellow castaways with whom we spent many days on the island of Castillo. We remember them and their contributions while on Castillo, for they help those of us that remain to survive!

Scott Travis (August 2004 - December 2004) [Mark] Scott was the first to leave Castillo. Having been on the island for only four months, they nontheless took a big toll on him. After not turning in any reviews in the opening immunity challenge, the Tigers quickly booted poor Scott. Some say the sun and sand drove him mad!

Tomas Lovato (August 2004 - June 2005) After losing the Tribal Web immunity challenge the iOftheTiger tribe was forced to vote a member off the island. Alas, poor Tomas was the first to go. [Mark] I don't know what was going on inside the Tiger camp, but they weren't doing very well up to this point and needed to shake things up.

Lane Smith (August 2004 - October 2005) [Mark] Just when it seemed the Lions couldn't lose a challenge it happened. The Island Rush saw the Tigers victorious and at the Lions tribal council it was Lane that got the axe. It was a sad day for me when Lane left. Since I was captain of the losing vessel, I felt partly responsible.

Hazel Valera (November 2004 - October 2005) Hazel left the island voluntarily after the Island Rush immunity challenge. She was on the Tiger team that defeated the Lions in the Clessidra Disk Drive award challenge. Her reasons for leaving the island are shrouded in secrecy, but there are rumors...

Judd Spitzer (August 2004 - November 2005) [Mark] It was the Battle Royale that took Judd down. Failing to win immunity, Judd fell to a highly organized ex-Tiger voting block, while the remaining Lions failed to vote together. Losing Judd was hard for the remaining Lions.

Moe Bradley (August 2004 - December 2005) [Mark] The Castillo Map immunity challenge brought about the departure of Moe, though her partner in the challenge survived. Moe's team in the challenge failed to submit a map, and failing to win immunity brought her to the Tribal Council. The remaining Lions learned their lesson and voted together, while a late vote saw Moe paddling out to sea.

Scott Bender (August 2004 - December 2005) Scott was voted off in a rare "back-to-back" tribal council after the Castillo Map challenge. [Mark] With the ex-Lions voting together and out numbering the remaining Tigers, Scott didn't have a chance. He was the last original member of the iOftheTiger tribe and his departure left them with one remaining castaway.