Watching the new season, which is shaping up to be an all-time great, I am struck by the yeoman effort of Firefighter Tom.
He is the type pf player that Mark Burnett probably thought would dominate the game of Survivor until Rich changed the rules.
So, it made me wonder who was the greatest Survivor player of all-time?
I think the candidate would not be limited to players who won the million dollars. In order to win the million, sometimes luck is as necessary as strategy, manipulation and strength.
And you can accept or discount “All-Stars” game play as you see fit. It really was a different game.
Looking at players, I think you have to consider Rich just because of his impact on strategy over strength. But I think he had the advantage of being first. I think he’d be devoured if he played the same way in more recent seasons.
I think Colby was probably one of the best. Unfortunately, he blew it at the end.
My best bet goes to Ethan. He was nice but made tough cuts when necessary. Plus, he was darn strong. In All-Stars, the personal nature of it all screwed him over, but in Africa he was excellent.
Well, Rob played every single “All-Star” like a violin, and even though they’d openly admit to being aware of his machinations, it didn’t stop him from pulling it off anyway. He lost out of their collective bitterness, yet still managed to take home the girl (and therefore, the money) as well.
I should amend my post by saying that Boston Rob’s the best to never win, but I think the only real competition is Richard Hatch. He wrote the playbook with masterful precision, as well as creating a whole Survivor vocabluary, and now everyone who’s involved with the game can’t help but use both.
Didn’t Tina Wesson convince Colby to keep her on the island for the final days instead of Colby going up against Keith? Wasn’t Tina originally an alternate?
What do you think it means to say she was an alternate? In the case of Survivor I very much doubt it means she was judged “not a skillful enough player” for the game; it more likely just meant they thought her personality wasn’t a good match for the other 15 they’d chosen for that season.
If you’re reaching for an irony, in other words, reach somewhere else.
And I think Rob Cesternino from the Amazon is the best player, despite his loss. Boston Rob in the All-Star season wasn’t so much a good player as everyone else (Lexx, I’m lookin’ at you) played so badly.
She was an alternative to get on the show yes, somebody dropped out just before they flew to Australia (not an island! ) and the rest is history.
I actually think her strategy was to be admired, what was Jerri’s little speach at the voting box when she gave Tina her vote? (the best thing you ever did was to convince Colby to keep you???) That was basically it.
Also at the beginning when there was the big Lord-of-the-Flys thing happening with the tribe and the supposed beef-jerky sticks Kel had… she came off quiet horribly, but much to her credit, she didn’t try to pull an about face, she owned up to it, and that helped her.
People just liked her, and after the nastiness of the first survivor which was the only thing to use as a reference, the contestants had not yet fully figured out that being nice was a cunning strategy as well (and apart from Tina, Elizabeth also got to the final 4).
It properly wouldn’t work today, as everybody knows every trick in the book, but back then in Season 2, it worked just as well as Rich’s alliances did in Season 1.
Chris - he went from the only guy on a tribe FULL of women who hated him to winning. Most amazing comeback in reality history.
Rich - defined what a Survivor is.
Boston Rob - dominant in every aspect of the game. Won challenges when needed, built alliances when needed, broke alliances when needed, and was a top-notch shelter builder to boot. And he did it all with a giant target on his back the entire way.
I can’t rank Brian since I didn’t watch that season.
As obnoxious as he was, I have to throw Jonny Fairplay’s name into the top tier. Not the best ever by any means, but he schemed his head off the chopping-block many a time even though everyone hated him. Hell, he even managed to persuade Sandra and Lill that itty-bitty Darrah was a bigger threat than him as well as breaking up the Rupert/Christa/Sandra power trio.
IMHO he would have won it all had Lill thrown her principles out the window and realised she had a better chance of winning against him than Sandra. The votes at the reunion show said different, but that was after learning the truth about the dead Grandma thing, as well as several other things said away from most of the jury.
I agree with Legolamb. Though I didn’t catch on to the show until season 2, Johnny Fairplay was the first player I think of as having actually planned for the show. There’s the ongoing joke about “When will people learn to make fire before getting to the island?” JF’s stunt with his dying grandmother was sheer brilliance in its villainy. That play alone made me want to stop the game and just award him the prize.
I have two votes, both at the opposite ends of the spectrum, and both ultimate winners.
Ethan showed that it is (or at least was) possible to be a “good” person and still win the game. He played the game in the “have a fun time” sort of way. He worked hard, he was nice to people, and he never forgot that he was being given a great opportunity to experience the world in a different way. I wonder sometimes if his style of gameplay would work any more (hopefully the Palau season will show that it would).
Brian Heidik. He is actually the player that Boston Rob thinks he is. A true “godfather” style player. He played the game in the “this is one massive psychology experiment” kind of way. He lied from day one, and even lied about lying. He was also extremely astute, and made all the right choices when it came to picking who he needed to keep around him. I would have liked to see Survivor: All Stars with Brian in the mix.
He’s the best player IMO. The one thing that prevented him from winning the million was his losing the last immunity. It was crystal clear to Jenna that had she picked him instead of Matt, she’d have lost in a landslide. I’m not sure you could say that about any of the other third placers.
I love Rob C., but he made a critical mistake early in the game, that someone who is oftenly purported to be “the best Survivor to never win” to have made: he picked as members of his alliance people who had much better chances of winning the final challenge (which had consistently been a contest of balance and endurance) than himself. IMO, he should have known better.
I’m partial to Brian H. as well, and not only because he won me 100 bucks in my office pool at the time. The guy moved those people like pawns, and no one ever seemed to catch on that he was the chessmaster. Freaking brilliant Survivor play, but since he was not a lightning rod personality, he is often forgotten.
Definitely Brian. He controlled the game the whole time he was in it. All of the other people who formed alliances formed a group - this left them vulnerable to the other members of the group deciding to vote them out. Brian instead formed individual alliances with the other players, who had no alliances among themselves, so he was always the one who could decide who was going to go.
Who was the guy (i think he is/was a car salesman) that won even though his ‘video msg from home’ revealed to everyone that he was loaded and had a smokin hot trophy wife?
That guy was the best survivor player in my mind hands down. He played that game like the rest of them were children.
) and the rest is history.