FINALE
Honestly, I'm incredibly disappointed with this season. It's a bottom-five season for me, and it has a bottom-three winner. I'd only rate Jenna Morasca, and Vecepia Towery as worse winners than her. It's even more disappointing considering there was a player who could have been a mid-tier winner in Brad right next to her. My first impression was there was a bitter jury at play.
It's disappointing, but not the entire reason this season is bottom-five for me.
The first like, six or seven boots were absolutely awful. I'll just run down how I felt about every player this season.
Ciera Eastin - She played too hard, too fast, and that's just who Ciera is. It wasn't a shock to see her get voted out, nor was it upsetting. This was the best moment of the season for me, because I was so excited to see all my favorites, and none of them got voted out, right away. This feeling quickly disappeared though...
Tony Vlachos - got got. Unfortunately, Sandra wasn't having his shit, and I should have realized here and now, that it was likely every player I liked would be taken out before the merge, since even an incredibly physical player would be taken out before someone of basically no use (like Hali or Sandra).
Caleb Reynolds - I was sadder to see him leave than I thought I would be. He seemed to come into this game with the same passion he had in his first season, and he clearly wanted to be there. He just got kind of swap-fucked, and that's just how Survivor goes.
Malcolm Freberg - This was the boot that set the tone for the rest of the season, and is a major reason Brad deserved to win. No boot was more important than this one. It allowed Brad's group to march into the merge with enough numbers to be viable (Brad couldn't have possibly gotten to the end with Malcolm in the game), while also exposing JT's game, and getting rid of him. Just like that, two important, key-power players were gone. With Malcolm gone, there was only one other player left in the game that was arguably as likely to win immunity left - Ozzy. The moment Malcolm got voted out, was the moment this season went from being salvageable, mid-tier, to being absolutely bottom-tier. It wasn't quite bottom-three yet, it still had a ways to fall. But this is where the season started to truly turn. I had been prepared to lose Tony, or even Sandra. I was not prepared for Malcolm, JT, and Ozzy to go out so soon.
JT Thomas - On that note, JT was one of the three players I was most looking forward to seeing play again (JT, Malcolm, Tony), and with JT gone, my interest in the season was basically completely gone, as it became Survivor All-Stars, without any All-Stars besides Sandra, Cirie, and Ozzy. The list of players who finished above JT was beyond insulting, and made me have a major sad.
Sandra Diaz-Twine - I ain't got nothing bad to say about her. I was shocked she lasted as long as she did. It was one of the few bright spots of the season.
Jeff Varner - Too bad Sandra's great moment was ruined by Jeff Varner's horrible one. Just when it looked like the season had legs, Varner took the legs out from under the table, and dropped an elbow on it. Horrible.
Hali Ford - Outside of looking pretty, offered basically nothing.
Ozzy Lusth - Ozzy was Ozzy. I mean, it wasn't too shocking he was out once the merge began, but it was sad, because my rooting interest became Brad Culpepper, a man I hated at the start of the season. That's how far the season had fallen.
Debbie Wanner - I've had enough of her.
Zeke Smith - I've had enough of them.
Sierra Dawn Thomas - Is a complete moron who gave Sarah the win. If she never wills her advantage to Sarah (if not for that, she probably wills it to Tai, the person who saved her game), then Sarah is vulnerable at Final Six. Tai likely uses the Advantage on himself, and gives idols to Cirie and Aubry, to get rid of Sarah, which would have been amusing, at least. Although it was funny to see Cirie voted out without getting a single vote all season.
Andrea Boehlke - She made for an amusing villain of sorts, but I will be glad to never see her hateful ass again.
Michaela Bradshaw - She was not smart on the jury. My opinion on her has lessened this season. She passed up an advantage that helped Sarah win. She let others dictate her game... it just wasn't a great look for her. She's still fun to watch, but not nearly as good as her first season.
Cirie Fields - Hate Cirie. But lol at the way she got voted out. Get rekt.
Aubry Bracco - She had the weirdest edit. I would have enjoyed watching her this season if she'd actually been on it.
Tai Trang - Amazed he wasn't a FTC goat. Amazed Culpepper's only mistake was this super vital one.
Final Three - Fuck Sarah. Who the fuck is Troyzan (Kidding, love him, but he was basically invisible)? Brad 100% deserved to win, and this is somehow even worse than Michele winning over Aubry in KR. At least Michele seemed to have played the game on her own merits.
Who I'd love to see back - Tony, Malcolm (absolute need), Sandra, Ozzy
Who I'd like to see back - JT, Aubry, Brad
Who I don't care about - Caleb, Hali, Michaela, Tai, Troyzan
Who I don't want to see back - Ciera, Sierra, Andrea
Who I absolutely want to stay as far away from Survivor as possible - Varner, Debbie, Zeke, Cirie, Sarah
If you look at that list, almost half the cast I basically disliked, and the half I didn't dislike, I was largely indifferent on, but would be ok seeing back.
RANKINGS - FINAL
Reminder you get two points per correct placement.
Team Leggy - 176 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
Team Furret - 171 (1, 2, 3, 4)
Team Gordon - 153 (2, 3)
Team Adam - 159 (1, 2, 3, 4)
Team Gamer - 77 (3, 5, 6)
So there you have it, I win Survivor Game Changers, I guess, but I'm very upset about it, because we got kind of a crappy season out of it. Maximum amount of points possible this season was (20+19+18+17+16+15+14+13+12+11+10+9+8+7+(6*2)), which makes for 201 possible points. I got 176 out of 201, which means I scored 87.6%, which is flat out unacceptable. No season of Survivor should be this predictable (at least as far as results).
Next season looks interesting, but I'm kind of scared more people are going to play like Sarah now, which I think would be the death of Survivor.
