Survivor Samoa

[mauchow]

In an article somewhere on the 'net Russell said he spoke with everyone after the reunion show last night and they all told him they made a mistake with their votes... dunno if I believe Russell at all but I wouldn't be surprised. Russell dominated every phase of that game. His social game was better than people think

[Mota]

It goes to show what the fans thought of Natalie's game that she wasn't even in the top 3 for voting. It's also my greatest frustration with Survivor, in that the rules of the game favor the underdogs who do little in the game. You're punished for making bold moves, therefore creating the incredibly successful (but even more incredibly boring) strategy of doing nothing for fear of pissing someone off.

Moreso than any other reality TV show, the best player rarely wins Survivor.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by brassmonkey32

Best survivor player of all time.

Boston Rob or Russell ?

Neither, Rich from season one. He had no previous show to watch to even try to come up with a plan and dominated that season. Plus in the all-star survivor he showed that he knows it's just a game and didn't act like a whiney bitch when he was blind sided.

[molson]

I've only watched seasons 1, 2, 18, and 19, but it seems pretty clear you have to do two things to win this came: Last until the end, and get people to vote for you. You have to do both, one isn't enough. Both Russell and Natalie were very good, in two very different ways, at the former. And Natalie was way better than Russell in the latter. Game over.

[Racer]

Originally Posted by brassmonkey32

Best survivor player of all time.

Boston Rob or Russell ?

I'd also go with neither. Tom, Yul, J.T. and to a lesser Parvati, Earl, Rich, and Todd managed to dominate the game strategically without rubbing to many people the wrong way like Rob and Russell did.

[Swaggs]

I'd agree with the mention of Tom. He was physically dominating, likeable, and a frontrunner, the entire season, who won (which is pretty damn hard to do).

I'd add Brian from Thailand (the car salesman) as an under the radar dominant player, as he pretty much ran the table during his season, but gets forgotten because it was a pretty unremarkable season and he hasn't made a career out of being on Survivor.

I'd throw J.T. in there, too. He was a physical threat, likeable, and made a really tight alliance that held together to allow him to win.

I guess I give a little more credit to folks that seem like they should win, from the get go, and then go on to actually win. There are a lot of players like that (Ozzy, Colby, Boston Rob, Stephenie, Rupert, all the young, athletic, good looking doctors that they seem to put on every season, etc.), but most of the end up not winning in the end.

[Maple Leafs]

Not sure if it's been mentioned (haven't read the spoiler posts), but I think All-Stars has already been filmed. It probably started before this season began to air.

That means Russel would be a complete wildcard, since nobody would know who he was or how he had played. (Same thing happened last all-stars with James and somebody else.)

That said, on the live reunion he didn't look like a guy who had just come home from a successful second tour of duty.

[chrisj]

Originally Posted by mauboy1

Insane ending....

Russell is an idiot for talking himself up so much. Be humble. Oh, well, I guess since you're already a millionaire I don't care all that much with you losing.

It will be funny watching you get voted out first in the All Stars Survivor in the spring.

Spoiler

Word on the street is he makes final 3 - again. But who knows how reliable some of those spoilers are.

Apparently, he plays the exact same game as he did on S19 with his "dumb girl alliance" (since at the time of taping, no one knew his strategy).

[Mota]

Originally Posted by molson

I've only watched seasons 1, 2, 18, and 19, but it seems pretty clear you have to do two things to win this came: Last until the end, and get people to vote for you. You have to do both, one isn't enough. Both Russell and Natalie were very good, in two very different ways, at the former. And Natalie was way better than Russell in the latter. Game over.

I didn't see Natalie winning the final immunity which kept the "guaranteed winner" Brett out of the final 3. She also didn't convince John to flip his vote. She didn't have Shambo's loyalty which they needed so badly to flip the game. She didn't win about 4,000 immunity idols of which one of them was a pivotal turnaround in the season. I'd say about 80% of the credit for getting to the final 3 would belong to Russell for the numerous examples above. 20% would be for Natalie for convincing the girls to turn on Erik, that was also a pivotal moment for Foa Foa to stay in the game. And joint props to the Foa Foa 4 for staying together and not turning on each other until they had no choice.

At the merge, coming in down 8-4 in numbers ... let's say that Russell had been eliminated earlier on and Marisa or Betsy were still in the game in his place, do you think they could have pulled off all these giant coups and turnarounds required to survive week after week? You never know, but I seriously doubt they would have been able to bring an all Foa Foa tribe to the end. They needed Russell to make huge, bold moves to keep their tribe alive, and he provided. Unfortunately I believe that people were resentful of this and voted for Natalie because of it.

Six weeks from now when someone is talking about Natalie from Survivor I'd guess that 90% of us won't even remember who the heck they're talking about. I put her win along the lines of Vecepia back in Season 4 (and yes I had to look up her name). She did play a good game this season (and you have to in order to make it that far), but looking back, this will always be the season of Russell.

[johnnyshaka]

Mota makes a good point...any of the "dumb-ass girl alliance" could have been in Natalie's place...alongside Russell and whoever else he wanted to bring with him.

Natalie can't make that claim...not after the way she played this time around, at least.

[Jon]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

Not sure if it's been mentioned (haven't read the spoiler posts), but I think All-Stars has already been filmed. It probably started before this season began to air.

That means Russel would be a complete wildcard, since nobody would know who he was or how he had played. (Same thing happened last all-stars with James and somebody else.)

That said, on the live reunion he didn't look like a guy who had just come home from a successful second tour of duty.

I just thought he looked drunk.

[saldana]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

Not sure if it's been mentioned (haven't read the spoiler posts), but I think All-Stars has already been filmed. It probably started before this season began to air.

That means Russel would be a complete wildcard, since nobody would know who he was or how he had played. (Same thing happened last all-stars with James and somebody else.)

That said, on the live reunion he didn't look like a guy who had just come home from a successful second tour of duty.

that cant be right unless they are doing all stars in the same place as S19 (which they did do before i think)...we know that the survivor crews were still in samoa while S19 was airing because they released a statement after the earthquake saying everyone was safe.

[molson]

Originally Posted by Mota

I didn't see Natalie winning the final immunity which kept the "guaranteed winner" Brett out of the final 3. She also didn't convince John to flip his vote. She didn't have Shambo's loyalty which they needed so badly to flip the game. She didn't win about 4,000 immunity idols of which one of them was a pivotal turnaround in the season. I'd say about 80% of the credit for getting to the final 3 would belong to Russell for the numerous examples above. 20% would be for Natalie for convincing the girls to turn on Erik, that was also a pivotal moment for Foa Foa to stay in the game. And joint props to the Foa Foa 4 for staying together and not turning on each other until they had no choice.

Six weeks from now when someone is talking about Natalie from Survivor I'd guess that 90% of us won't even remember who the heck they're talking about. I put her win along the lines of Vecepia back in Season 4 (and yes I had to look up her name). She did play a good game this season (and you have to in order to make it that far), but looking back, this will always be the season of Russell.

I agree with that, but winning Survivor isn't directly about having the most outwardly impressive strategy/accomplishments. It's only about getting to the end, and getting people to vote for you.

[Mota]

Originally Posted by molson

I agree with that, but winning Survivor isn't directly about having the most outwardly impressive strategy/accomplishments. It's only about getting to the end, and getting people to vote for you.

Okay, you are absolutely correct there. That's my issue with how the game is designed, it's too easy for floaters to ride the wave and win a million bucks. I prefer the structure of Big Brother where there's multiple steps towards an elimination and even if you're on the block you can win your way off. Seems like the more deserving people have a better chance to succeed in that game vs. Survivor.

The slogan is Outplay. Outwit. Outlast. But if you do those things and people hold it against you, it doesn't seem right.