It continually boggles my mind that people think this is a thing. Imagine saying Brazil would never win the World Cup because they are actually good at soccer.

Do the other teams in the WC get to vote on whether Brazil should win or not? Maybe they should be able to vote Brazil out in the group stage.

If that was how the WC worked, then Brazil would need to adjust or they wouldn't be very good. The voting is not outside of the game, it is the game.

But that isn’t how the WC works lol, which is why I didn’t think it was a good analogy. It’s a team driven skill game. The better teams will mostly always win.

Survivor is all about controlling the biases of the other players.

I’m not on the level of thinking Hai, or anyone, is too good at the game to win, but that certainly makes it a lot tougher when the other players take notice.

It hasn’t stopped other good to great players from winning. Boston Rob’s victory comes to mind since he dominated from start to finish. Everyone knew who he was, what he wanted to do, and he just went out and did it anyways. But the bias of the players in the season also we’re a big part of it. For instance, having an antagonist like Phillip helped.

The new Survivor with all types of advantages and twists makes it even tougher for a good to great player to make it to the end.

This is a terrible comparison.

The last player I can think of off the top of my head who actually won and beasted from start to finish was Tony in both his seasons.

Sure. How about this - Belgium is a great soccer team, but they won't win because they can't score.

People who say players on Survivor are good, but won't win because they are so good, don't get that

Zzz, always this same dumb discussion. One person using the word good as in "strategically good", other person interpreting it as "overall good". Endless back & forth ensues.

In before another discussion about Russell being "good" or not.

Tony is the GOAT player, imo.

Well, I'm sorry to have to bring it up, but Sandra is good by the the mere fact that she's not obviously good. She's a natural.

I just rewatched HvV recently and got a kick out of her snarkily telling the camera she was going to vote Rupert out and he's still going to give her his vote in the end.

Does Tony even go online? You never hear about him.

I’m sure he’s fine but he’s gotta be leaving money on the table by not using the computer

Being 'good' at Survivor means managing your physical, social and strategic threat level* optimally.

It was this in season 1 and its still this in season 42.


*By threat level I mean 'perceived' threat level from the other players ofc

It’s mostly about being able to make fire but not letting people know that by actually making fires

Seeing your avatar makes me remember how much I liked Penner as a player. Wonder if he would ever come back for a 4th time if they did another all-stars season. I know he went through a tough time with the loss of his wife to ALS. I saw the clip recently of her loved ones visit, and it was heartbreaking to see her looking so happy and perfectly healthy.

Is ...is Jonathan going to actually do this?!

I'm thinking it will be Rocksroy, and then Drea would be pretty epic but I don't know if it will happen

I miss the good old days of Survivor

Absolutely hate tribals like that; all the gameplay is just sucked out of it and we end up talking about social stuff.

What an awkward position for people like Jonathan to be in. Drea stops short of calling people racists, but basically implies that people are getting voted out because of their race. What is Jonathan supposed to do after that? Push for Drea to still get votes, or maybe Maryanne to flush her idol? He knows he'll just get labeled as racist and callous by millions of people watching the show if he does something like that directly after Drea talking about how POC are being targeted.

To Maryanne and Drea's "credit" I suppose, they realized that after that conversation, if they didn't play their idols, then they'd also (correctly) be accused by lots of people watching the show of guilting others on their tribe into keeping them safe.

It's really just a shame that it has to affect the game like this; there wasn't any need for Maryanne to have had to burn her idol tonight

I thought Drea was going to steal Maryanne's idol until it got woke. Now I guess she steals Mike's.

Drea's perplexed face during tribal was quite something.

I also thought there was a slight chance Jonathan was going to give up his immunity idol to show solidarity or something.

Where was Drea’s tears last week when she voted chanelle out?

I think no matter how the vote went in the first tribal, a minority was going home.

And yeah, didn't Drea help vote chanelle out?

What happened tonight is not fair to a single person in that cast, regardless of skin color.

I respect Survivor for continually attempting to bring awareness to social injustice.

However, what I don’t respect is controversy being created without basis.

Two of Chanelle’s elimination votes last week were from Drea and Rocks. Get the ***** out of here.

Additionally, Drea and Maryanne had not a clue what led to the first TC voting out Rocks. They weren’t apart of that TC discussion

I’m glad they played idols and didn’t put Jonathan, Lindsay and Tori in a position of having to potentially vote for either of them. However, it still ruined the strategy and spirit of that second TC.

I believe the emotions that Drea and Maryanne displayed were raw, genuine, and well intentioned. But I also believe they were misguided and unfair to the rest of the players in the game, who to this point, have all been full of class and integrity based on what we’ve seen.

Great post Tarheels.

I also think Drea is selling herself short by framing the vote (even if it's just in her mind) that she's a target because she's black. Hello, you are playing a good game and have countless advantages! If Drea saw an unknown player's resume halfway though the game that looked like hers she would agree, perfect time to blindside.

Now what is ridiculous is having a 5 person tribal with
-One person immune
-two idols
-two amulets
-two extra votes
-five shots in the dark

and what's worse is Probst loves this ****.

What happens if both Tori and Lindsey successfully play their shots in the dark? They fight for it?