The Survivor Thread

[GoGo Yubari]

Sandra's ballot is up. It's exactly as guessed.

Todd Herzog – (“Survivor: China”): He took early control of his tribe with his social game and made his tribe trust him. He was instrumental in blindsiding James, Frosti, and Jean Robert, (making James the dumbest player at the time, going home with two idols in his possession). Plus, he had one of the best Tribal Councils where he admitted to lying and was still awarded the million dollars.

Rob Cesternino – (“Survivor: The Amazon” and “Survivor: All Stars”): He was an aggressive strategic player who didn’t believe in loyalty, was effective at switching alliances to keep himself in the game, and always had several deals on the table. He went with whatever benefited him and kept him alive in the game.

Tom Westman – (“Survivor: Palau” and “Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains”): He was respected by his entire tribe who recognized his leadership abilities. Tom was a challenge dominator. His physical strength ensured several tribe and individual immunity victories, and he maintained integrity and loyalty to his alliance.

So, current tally for the executive committee votes is...

Tom Westman: 2

Ozzy Lusth: 2

Amanda Kimmel: 1

Rudy Boesch: 1

Rupert Boneham: 1

Rob Cesternino: 1

Cirie Fields: 1

Todd Herzog: 1

Stephanie Valencia: 1

[RPS]

Ugh, the fact Ozzy has two votes is disheartening. The guy did well in challenges on season, where he lost because of an awful social game. Since than he's made so many questionable decisions and proven to be unable to learn from mistakes.

[GoGo Yubari]

Agreed. Even if Ozzy wins this season, and I doubt he will, he's a one-tool player. It might be fair to argue that he's one of the best challenge players in Survivor history if not the best since he was excellent in Cook Islands and pretty good in both Micronesia and Fans vs. Favorites, but challenges are by far the least important of the big three Survivor skills and it shouldn't be enough to make you a second-year inductee.

[The Quasi Juice]

Agreed. Even if Ozzy wins this season, and I doubt he will, he's a one-tool player. It might be fair to argue that he's one of the best challenge players in Survivor history if not the best since he was excellent in Cook Islands and pretty good in both Micronesia and Fans vs. Favorites, but challenges are by far the least important of the big three Survivor skills and it shouldn't be enough to make you a second-year inductee.

Same season.

[GoGo Yubari]

... wommmmmp womp. I meant South Pacific.

[GoGo Yubari]

Jeff Probst's ballot!

Cirie Fields – Though she has never won, Cirie is one of the most effective players in Survivor history. Her asset is her disarming smile and her ability to make you forget that she is your opponent. She also deserves a spot in the Hall of Fame because she epitomizes the person who got up off the couch to live their adventure and that’s what the show is all about.

Ethan Zohn – Ethan should have been a first-ballot Hall of Famer. He is one of the greatest winners of all time. He played with integrity. People voted for him to win rather than to vote against someone else. He took his celebrity and some of his money and put it towards making the world a better place, and he is still adored by almost everybody who meets him. It was an oversight on my part not to nominate him last time.

Stephenie LaGrossa - Though labeled by some as a whiner, there’s no denying she plays to win every time. She’s a great physical player and a very good strategist. Despite her weak showing in “Heroes vs. Villains,” if I was putting together an all-star tribe, she’d be on it.

Really interesting ballot. Not one I agree with but it's not what I would have quite expected from Probst beyond Stephenie. And Cirie having two votes already with Parvati's ballot still coming is fantastic.

Tom Westman: 2

Ozzy Lusth: 2

Stephenie LaGrossa: 2

Cirie Fields: 2

Amanda Kimmel: 1

Rudy Boesch: 1

Rupert Boneham: 1

Rob Cesternino: 1

Ethan Zohn: 1

Todd Herzog: 1

Stephanie Valencia: 1

[The Quasi Juice]

This reminds me that Todd definitely needs to be asked to return one more time. It's ridiculous he didn't get asked for HvV but the likes of Amanda (third time), Candice and Danielle did.

I was thinking, and this is probably a really stupid idea, they did a season of returning players all from the same season? Like Survivor China 2.0, I wonder how that would play out.

[GoGo Yubari]

It's ridiculous he didn't get asked for HvV but the likes of Amanda (third time), Candice and Danielle did.

Somehow I don't think they were competing for the same spots.

Like, really, that's the problem with All-Star casting. They clearly try to have certain character types in even if they don't have a really good option for them. That's how you end up with Amber Brkich in All-Stars instead of Helen Glover or Deena Bennett.

[RPS]

Yeah, I remember when All Stars came out, I was surprised that Deena got snubbed. She was an interesting character and really stood out as something not seen on the show before. But she doesn't look amazing in a bathing suit and wasn't iconic like Sue, so she was cut.

Todd being snubbed in FvF makes sense as they didn't want winners, but HvV? A bit absurd, but he's perceived as probably not entertaining as compared to Rupert and Russell. Todd is the type of player who will almost always do well, like Sandra or Danielle from Guatemala - very social and able to get people to like him, middle of the road in challenges, very nonthreatening, has a great understanding of how the game works and a great speaker. There are some players who manage to get to the end game using luck - Fabio and Natalie W come to mind. There are also players who win and become inherent threats - Richard, Parvati, Ethan, probably Yul. Than there are players like Todd, Sandra, Danielle who will almost always do well because they are so non-threatening that they'd fly under the radar.

Edited December 1, 2011 by RockPaperScissors

[GoGo Yubari]

Honestly, the only place where Natalie really used luck was where all the Foa Foa Four were using luck. Unless Russell was planning on voting her out and taking either Jaison or Shambo in her place and Hurricane Brett changed that, her strategy was perfectly sound.

Also, a replay of China would be curious. For some reason, I think Peigh-Gee would win.

[RPS]

Yeah, I was meaning more Natalie lucked out because of Galu self destructing the way they did. She played a great game the best of Foa Foa, but still was lucky that Galu self destructed.

And yeah, Peih-Gee was great. However, only way she would be successful is if the tribal division was different. She was stuck on an awful tribe with nobody of value to align with and people who, like Galu, were bound to self destruct even if they went into the merge with numbers.

[The Quasi Juice]

I think in a repeat scenario, Todd would somehow still do well. He's just the type of guy that can convince others to keep him around. I think Aaron (if that was his name) would be a good shout. He seemed to somewhat grasp the game, but the tribe switch kinda screwed him over.

[GoGo Yubari]

I doubt Todd can do well in a season with the exact same players, with the knowledge of what happened the first time. There's an off-chance of him making the merge (assuming no tribal switch; on a hypothetical replay I would include some twist of some sort, but not the same one they did there) but it's not a very strong one.

[RPS]

Yeah, if China was replayed, I'd bet on Aaron or Peih-Gee to win. If they played with the same tribes over again, I'd put the advantage on Aaron. Zhan Hu was saddled with too many challenge liabilities and personalities who were going to make it hard for them to succeed at challenges. Fei had Aaron, James, Amanda, and Denise who were all very solid in challenges.

[GoGo Yubari]

Actually, Fei Long as a whole was a pretty good challenge team. Aaron, James, Amanda, Todd, and Jean Robert form a really good core group (I don't remember Denise being memorably good at challenges, but she was probably better than Courtney and Leslie).

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

So I want to run a Cube game similar to Stable Warfare, except Survivor style. Any suggestions on themes? I would kind of like to do a Winners versus Pre-Merge Boots, ala RPS mentioned a while back.

[RPS]

I had a few weeks off and wanted to do some creative writing so I did a no-repeats, nobody who made it to the final 2 or 3 and didn't take anybody from the same season. I used Colleen, Mike Skupin, Teresa, John C, Ken from Thailand, Deena, Burton, Julie, Ian from Palau, Rafe, Shane, Jenny from Cook Islands ,Peih-Gee, Erik from FvF, Kenny from Gabon, Sierra, Laura from Samoa, Marty from Nic, andddd Ashley from Redemption Island.

Another idea is a four tribe set up - one tribe of winners, one tribe of runners up, one tribe of fan favorites and one tribe of early boots. That way get a good variety of people and the winners won't get booted right from the get-go.

[GoGo Yubari]

Man, I did something somewhat similar a couple weeks back but I think I deleted it.

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

I really like the idea of Winners v. Runners Up v. Fan Favourites v. Early Boots.

I just drew up a list, but I need one more Female Fan Favourite from either Thailand or Palau. And it has to be somebody who's only played once.

[RPS]

Helen Glover from Thailand was pretty popular around the time it aired. From Palau, I'd say Angie, but she was probably more well suited for a early boot. Palau also had Janu and Cairn, who would be acceptable choices.