Survivor 34: Game Changers - The Mamanucan Islands

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Weitz

It looks like Tai gives away his 2 idols in the next week preview. That should be interested.

I wonder if that's his own strategy or if he is duped and then blindsided? Because frankly if someone engineers something like that, getting a guy to give up his multiple idols and then blind sides him. Well, frankly they should just spot the game and march into the tribal council area with a marching band and a big giant million dollar check.

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

To be honest, while Malcolm is a challenge beast and a good looking guy who makes the ladies week in the knees he's simply not very good at the game as a hole.

I dunno... F4 in his first season (voted out as he was considered the most likely to win), Idol causality this season. He's a pretty good all-around player IMO. Plus he's good TV. I'd like to see him have one more go. Same with Spencer. I want to see Spencer play again but I want to see him play again in 3 or 4 years when he's closer to 30 then 20.

[Weitz]

Pretty great ending IMO. Would have been awesome for it to have been a tie though!

I was wrong about two. Stuck to his guns.

[WhiteTiger]

Well, I figured that 6 Left Tribal would be one for the books, and I was not wrong! Wow.

Cirie going takes bigtmac19 and GreenLantern out of Pool A, and jroc and KootenayFlamesFan out of Pool B

[calgarybornnraised]

Why did Brad take Sarah to the final? I don't get it.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by calgarybornnraised

Why did Brad take Sarah to the final? I don't get it.

Blinded by anger and exhaustion with Tai.

Cost himself the game.

[WhiteTiger]

Not as exciting of a Final 5 vote as I'd expected. But I also thought that they'd go for Troyzan.

Aubrey leaving takes no one out of Pool A, but sends jkflames and D to the iddy out of Pool B

[WhiteTiger]

Can't say that I'm sorry to see Tai go. He's probably a nice enough person outside of the game, but I really don't like his game style. I can't deny that he shakes it up a lot with his constant flipping and idol-finding but yeah...not sorry to see him not make the Final 3.

Feels like Troyzan doesn't belong there, either. Just kinda coasted all game. Impressive of Brad winning all those challenges, but he seems pretty damn cocky, and I wonder how that'll go over with the jury. I also wonder how much the "he doesn't need the money" aspect might come into play.

Tai leaving sends mile and calgarybornnraised out of Pool A, and killer-carlson out of Pool B

[CaptainCrunch]

Lets be honest, Brad played an exceptional game and when he gained control he kept control.

However he made one mistake in the game, he took Sarah to the final. Honestly I thought Sarah started strong but her game fell apart by the end and she ended up scrambling against two weak opponents in Tai and Troyzan.

I would have voted Brad if I was on the Jury.

I have to say first of all Aubrey looks like a completely different person when she cleaned up, and she has the best pissed off face in the history of survivor.

[WhiteTiger]

Sarah winning means that myself and KevanGuy split the virtual million from Pool A, and csnarpy and GreenLantern split it for Pool B

Thanks for playing everyone! This was a lot of fun this season!

I think...I appreciate Sarah's game over Brads. I can be impressed by Brad's game...but I've always viewed Survivor as a social game. I see winning challenges as helpful and neat...but you have got to have your social game on point, for when/if you don't. As was constantly pointed out, "winning your way to the final" is a very hard/nearly impossible thing to do. So you have to have the social game to back it up.

While her game was having some difficulty at the end, I feel that Sarah really did a good job of directing it.

I guess I just respect a bit more "I was able to socially work my way through/around these people" over "Yay, I won another challenge...thank goodness!"

I don't disagree that Brad should have been part of the Final 3...but I'm glad that Sarah won.

A quick housekeeping note. I know that there was some concern over being able to keep the two pools separated. I feel I was able to do a good job keeping them together, and it felt like having everyone in one thread instead of Pool A thread and Pool B thread livened up the conversation. Were folks ok with the A/B split? If you have some concerns that you'd like me to look at or address ('Cause yeah...I enjoy doing this season to season) you can put them here or PM them to me.

[CaptainCrunch]

I get that, but out of all of the final three, to me the outplay has to errrr play a major role. Brad was really in control of the game in the end, his move to try to get the idols off of Tai would have been a massive move.

I get that he was frustrated by Tai, because in the end Tai really didn't belong in this game he was dragged along because he was a great pick for the final three. I think there were also occasions where Brad was at the bottom and worked his way back to the top.

I strongly believe that Sarah lost control of the game in the end and she really won because of a moment of bad judgement by Culpepper.

[Hockey]

Well for getting stuck with Brad I did pretty good essentially finishing 2nd place.

[WhiteTiger]

The next season looks kinda...hm? Not sure what to think about it. Guess we'll see.

I think that Sarah's level of control was slipping some at the end, but she still chose right every time. She correctly sussed out that Brad and Troyzan were voting for Tai, for instance. Instead of sending Tai and Troyzan to fire (which would have happened under Tai's plan, just with him instead of her) she figured right and voted out Tai, getting herself into the final 3 with people I imagine that she was pretty reasonably sure she could beat. With Tai in the Final 3, it's a murkier picture.

It just feels that while she may not have always been in 'control'...she had a very keen grasp of what was going on.

I picked her because I felt that she'd likely have learned some very good lessons from her first go-round at it, and it sure seems like she did.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I get that, but out of all of the final three, to me the outplay has to errrr play a major role. Brad was really in control of the game in the end, his move to try to get the idols off of Tai would have been a massive move.

Sorry, I could not disagree more with this.

"Give me your idol or else I'll vote you out."
"Mmmm, nah."

*Proceeds to vote Tai out to the detriment of his own game.*

That, to me, is one of the worse played finals by someone "in control." I mean, sure if he could have bullied his way into an idol it would look good but he wasn't even close. You don't get credit for stupid ideas that don't materialize. Especially as now it all but assured that Tai would not vote for him in the jury. Instead he let his massive ego cost him a million dollars because someone had the audacity to not realize that it was Brad's island.

I do agree with Brad that it's hard to really say who would vote for who months after it happened, after a ton of discussion and watching the actual show. But Brad going up against Tai and Troyzan in the final tribal in that format? He would come across as one of the greatest orators of our time in comparison.

[WhiteTiger]

Also, it was neat to finally have an answer to "What would happen in case of a tie at the Final Tribal." Jeff's right...I've long wondered.

[mile]

Was hoping Tai and Aubry would team up again and go to the end again, instead Tai makes the dumb move to turn on her and they go out 4th and 5th.

The new jury questioning format was great, hopefully they stick with that from now on. Actually showed the jury talking themselves into how they made their decision.

Brad screwed himself, he let getting revenge on Tai blind him to how strong Sarah was. Also came across as a huge bully with the way he was talking to Tai which hurt him.

Sarah's a good winner, she did a good job explaining all of her moves and left nothing on the table. If I was on the jury I probably would have voted for her.

Heroes vs Healers vs Hustlers...lol at that name.

Overall, I found this season to be a little meh compared to other recent seasons. All the real game changers went out early and the amount of twists in this game was overkill. It was weirdly edited as well - I went wtf at a lot of the vote outs (not in a good way) which came out of nowhere. As soon as the merge hit, it seemed obvious Sarah was the winner. And big moves and live tribals are great, but it all seemed a little too much and too forced this season. The show felt a little bit like self-parody. Still am a fan though.

Interesting that Probst explained the tie vote scenario, maybe in case it happens next season?

[Oling_Roachinen]

Also Cirie actually got away with the "you've betrayed us, give your idol to prove your loyalty" maneuver before. So it's not even like he came up with that idea. Unlike Culpepper, it actually worked and wasn't half-ass'd testosterone fueled idiotic bullying.

I do give credit to Troyzan for being class. He realized where he sat and, I thought, came across as very genuine and self aware.

[Oling_Roachinen]

And my final gripe with Brad being "in control" was the final 6 tribal. Sure, he had immunity but he had absolutely no control in that tribal. His plan was to split the votes between Aubry and Tai.

But he told Tai he was voting for Aubry, and with his bullying, Tai realized he was not with him. His game was so bad, that he had forced Tai into working with Cirie. He revealed his plan and alienated the guy who he knew had two idols, the two idols that got used on his two targets. If Brad wasn't "lucky" that both his allies had their own idols, which he wasn't aware of, that final 6 doesn't go his way and his ally in Sarah goes home...which may have actually been better for him but that just shows how bad he played it.

I realize he beasted his way into the finals with his pure competition prowess but I'm much more about the strategy and social game, not so much the physical aspect and Brad had very little in terms of strategy or social skills. To each their own.

[Fuzz]

Thanks to WhiteTiger for organizing the pool again! Looking forward to the next one.

[d_phaneuf]

I hope Michaela never comes back