Ok I'll bite.

You seem unable to distinguish between "strategic player" and "social player". Nobody in this thread (i think) is denying that Rick is a pretty bad strategic player or claiming Rick is playing a great game.

You claim he's a terrible social player when literally the whole jury is cheering for him. Most people still left in the game also like him, Julia felt awful lying to him and Ron respected Rick right after getting voted out. You say he "almost lost his closest ally David", when this same David gave Rick the immunity advantage from Extinction Island. Yes he openly refused to work with Wardog at one point, but in later episodes he literally sat down and worked out a plan with Ron and Wardog.

If anything, this guy's got the social game down. He's lacking everywhere else though, I'll give you that.

Devens is like the mirror image of Russell Hantz. He controls nothing, he makes mostly wrong and stupid moves, but the jury loves him. He's getting a pass ITT because he's likeable and gives good confessionals.

He is also pretty good at challenges.

Lauren has done nothing in challenges but has played a pretty good social game and seems to be well-liked by the jury.

Gavin has definitely not gotten a winners' edit but he has played well and would probably get some votes.

Also maybe it's just me, but Rick already got voted out once. If not for the Extinction Island gimmick he'd be gone. I count that as a strike against him - someone who was never voted out seems more worthy to me. I can't say if other jury members will think the same though.

Finally I wonder if Rick can be somewhat of a smug a**hole at times and that might rub some the wrong way compared to Lauren who is like everyone's sweet kid sister.

People like him because he's been completely clueless and hasn't been the one voting them out so Wentworth for example we see cheer when Wardog gets booted people are bitter in this game. Nobody is going to be bitter at Rick because he's voted almost nobody out of the game and he's spent time at edge to mend fences with those who he has. There are loads of terrible social players who the jury would have voted for. If you look at the social game in a wider sense convincing and manipulating others to vote people out of the game building alliances reacting well to other peoples ideas Rick has been an abject failure.

I honestly feel like what we see of Rick is the version where he wins when in reality on the island he's probably played the worst game, so if he ended up being unlucky enough not to find the idol or win the carnival game at 8 he'd look even more like a total moron. His social game and strategic position is dire but the edit is crafted in a way which wants us to root for him so people here aren't analysing the actual game moves or decisions he's making and are just falling for it completely.

It's funny to see him winning because he's basically doing everything wrong but I would've thought that people discussing a social strategy game on a poker forum would be able to see past the edit and likely result and actually analyse the performance rather than the likely result. I especially have to really laugh at the people suggesting he's the only one playing the game or playing the best game even because anyone who's capable of critical thought would be able to see past that especially after this episode.

There are some BAAAAADDDDD winners of Survivor and Rick is probably going to be the worst.

Jury will be full of people who just spent a long time on extinction island trying to get back in the game. I think that will have conditioned them into the mindset that someone coming from extinction island is also a fair contender.

We got zero footage from extinction island again this week. I think it's fairly likely that whoever comes back is still in the game. Imagine Rick being eliminated in one of the next few weeks, gets back in the game & wins immunity at F4 .

Devens is awesome at social game, good at challenges and average at strategy.

+1 to the idiot jury members tilting the **** out if me. The fat dark skinned girl is unreal annoying.

I sometimes wonder if the producers encourage the jury to react wildly to the moves at tribal. It just seems so fake and forced.

i think they're just bored as **** so any excitement gets them going

This discussion is so pointless because you're using your own definition of terms.

Social = Building genuine relationships with people and being well-liked.
Strategy = Manipulating and convincing others to vote the way you want.

Given the nature of the game, the social part is absolutely mandatory. It's why great strategic players like Russell will never win. But clueless duds like Fabio can.

Rick is a clueless dud but to say he's a terrible social player is just wrong.

I don't think he's good at all at it. He's a really funny guy that people like because he hasn't burned any bridges so maybe he's good at a sliver of the social aspect because of that but I think it's more circumstance that's put him in that position rather than active play.

I disagree with your assessment of the social game being just that, it's through your social interactions and conversations that you convince people and implement the strategy which is your plan. Rick has been woeful at that, if you look at his interactions each episode he just botches nearly all of them that are game conversations. His read is also terrible. What kinda shocks me here is that people really are biting down on the edit so far and are buying that Rick's playing the best game or is the only one playing the game when Victoria and the others have been actually good socially. I don't mind Rick but it's kinda shocking to see people actually suggest that he's performing the best especially on a poker forum.

FYP...at least grammatically.

Rick is a pretty dumb player I think but he does have a lot of balls and is a good scrambler. Don't think he's terrible or great overall.

Basically Ben Driebergen with a personality

who said this

The voices in his head apparently

Gavin lock to win

and who said he's the only one playing?

Another person that views Survivor from the perspective of how they wish it was played and not how it is actually played.

So I guess with the finale looming it seems that they will have a larger jury than usual? And what if the jury has even numbers? Anyone know what they have planned regarding that if it happens?

Also looks like no returnee until at least final 6 and the finale will be super packed with stuff unless they shorten FTC significantly. If each jury member gets a question then that will take longer too.

Maybe there's some sort of challenge/game to be allowed on the jury.

If there's a jury tie between two players, the third member of the F3 casts a tiebreaking vote.

If there's any biting of the edit going on it's that people are surmising based on the edit that Devens is a legit winner contender. We expect the winner to have a positive edit. We have eyes and can see the jury likes him, and that people still in the game with him think he is the numero uno target to get out so they have a chance to win. He's been fair at the challenges. He's found advantages and been given advantages by other players. Whether any of that adds up to him being a good player at all. Shrug. Whatever. He still seems a likely winner candidate. People praising him as good TV and likely to win doesn't mean his decisions and execution of such has been amazing.

I don't dock it against Victoria's game play that her edit hasn't been as glowing, but it does make me question her as the probable winner candidate. I think she has played well. I think she'll deserve it if she wins. I'm just skeptical her winning this season is what happened. Maybe it's just misdirect by the editors. I hasn't fooled me into thinking she isn't playing well, just that she might not have won.

I think Gavin has played fairly well also (though not as well as Victoria). I wish we could get this down to a final two of Gavin and Victoria and put the male bias in the final voting to the test. They've had similar paths, but I think her play has been better than his and I'd give her the edge. If he beat her, I'd have to call bull$#!%.

With f3 you just have to make sure the jury's not a multiple of 3.

But if they have a bad number they can always bring back the jury elimination reward.

eta: On further thought you can't have any odd number either, because then you're left with a an even number for a f2 after you send someone back. So that means 11, 12, 13 are all unacceptable jury numbers which I suppose could create a problem.

eta: On third thought I guess you could have an 11 or 13 jury because you can just have the same jury vote on the top two. lol me.