Top Ten Game Changers

After the idea of a game changers season was announced, I wondered what my own list would be. I could do a made up cast of it if I wanted to, but I’m not sure that I will. I had already done my version of a Legends cast between Cagayan and San Juan del Sur. So I’m making a top ten list of the players that I think changed the game the most. I’ll forgo any rules that I may have used to form this and just skip to the top ten. Who made this list? Read on and find out.

#10 Russell Hantz (Samoa, Heroes versus Villains, Redemption Island): Whether you actually like this person or you despise him like I do, you have to admit that his overall sliminess of his game is something that you had never seen in the game before. He is quite a terrible person and would probably admit that to anyone. Few people have had the sheer control over eliminations that he did. He’ll never win, but he has a huge following and changed the show, if not for better, than definitely in a new way.

#9 Colton (One World, Blood versus Water): Here’s another person that I didn’t like who is worthy of this list, once again, for the absolute control that he had over people. Who else could convince his tribe to give up immunity after winning a challenge? The fact that everyone agreed to this, including the person who end up getting voted out as a result, is a sheer shock, the likes of which we’ve never seen before nor will ever see again. I still don't know why people didn't like the move.

#8 Johnny Fairplay (Pearl Islands, Micronesia): This is yet another contestant whose overall villainous ways were unprecedented at the time that it first appeared. He convinced his friend to do a lie before the show even started. When that episode in question first aired, you might have believed that his grandmother had, in fact, died. You’d believe that until the moment that the truth (err, lie) was revealed and you hated this guy even more than you did. Ultimately, while he was a huge dick, he ended leaving an impression on the game that you haven’t seen before.

#7 Christy (Amazon): Here’s what some might see as a strange choice for the list, but before her, there were no disabled contestants who played the game. Now I find the term disabled to be insulting and will avoid using it whenever possible. We saw some of her struggles to fit into the game, yet she made it quite far in it. With her, we saw that you don’t have to be a “normal” person in order to play Survivor. You can have a major difference between you and other people and still fit in as a player.

#6 Yau-Man (Fiji, Micronesia): While a lot of people changed the game regarding the use of the hidden immunity idols, few would have thought of the idea before Yau-Man did to actually create a fake idol and hope that others use it. Even though he was eliminated early into Micronesia, it wouldn’t have nearly been as good as it ended up being if there wasn’t a fake idol in it. While Ozzy did it, Yau-Man was certainly the inspiration that has inspired Ozzy and whoever else made one afterwards as part of the game. Plus, when it came to the actual idol, he knew how to affectively use it. Even without idols, he was certainly influential in proving that smart people have a place in the game.

#5 Stephenie (Palau, Guatemala, Heroes versus Villains): While her game has admittedly gotten worse, she certainly proved that some players can survive everything in the game, even all the members of their own tribe. While it might not be possible for another contestant to be all that’s left of their tribe ever again, it certainly changed the way that she was able to, more or less, outplay everyone on her tribe to the point of outlasting them all.

#4 JT (Tocantins, Heroes versus Villains): This guy made it to day 39 without a single vote cast against him and then got every single jury vote. Nobody else had ever done that before. He helped disprove the theory that only villains can win (in my opinion, at least) and remained quite popular. Even his second time around, when he foolishly gave up his idol to a member on the other tribe, he changed the game yet again. One wonders what he can still do with the game.

#3 Chris (Vanuatu): Here’s the person who may have been the ultimate underdog winner. Few people could manage such a great, late game turnaround. The fact that he could be the last man left in the game and not be voted out by the SIX women who were still in the game was quite impressive. He was able to turn themselves against each other and came out on top.

#2 Richard (Borneo, All-Stars): This man is pretty much responsible for so much in Survivor that we could take for granted. We might not have alliances if he didn’t help create the first one. Villains wouldn’t be as powerful and good as they are without him. People wouldn’t be making bold and risky moves like he did when he threw the final immunity challenge. That could have got him voted out, but it didn’t. I did have to include the first real game changer in this list, so here he is. But who, do I feel, changed the game the most? Who is the number one game changer?

#1 Tony (Cagayan): What a gamer this man is. He takes Jersey attitude to a whole new level. There are so many great moments with this character that it is easy to see why he ended up dominating the game his season. What type of person can really play this evil and still win? Well, he’s that type of person. So few people can do what he does, in the way he does it, and still be likable in the end. That is why I have him listed as the number one game changer in Survivor.

Honorable mentions: Greg from Borneo was a lovable goof he proved right away that you can have fun while playing the game. Susan from Borneo and All-Stars proved that jurors have a huge influence on how the game goes down. Ethan from Africa and All-Stars proved that nice guys can actually win. Kathy from Marquesas and All-Stars is the person who I think was able to cause the first ever power shift. Vecepia from Marquesas changed, once again, the way people could win the game. Jenna from Amazon and All-Stars made unique moves that affected the game. Burton from Pearl Islands proved that people could change their fate in the game. Osten from Pearl Islands may not have changed it in a good way, but he was the first quit and that changed the game. Tom from Palau and Heroes versus Villains proved that being a leader can actually work out well in the end. Yul from Cook Islands changed how the hidden immunity idol could be used. Earl from Fiji was the first person to get all the jury votes. NaOnka from Nicaragua actually created an official known change in the rules, even though it was under terrible circumstances that she caused.

I’m sure that there are some great people that I forgot to mention, for one reason or another. I can’t remember everyone. But I do think that I came up with a good top ten list of game changers. I’m hoping that they make the whole cast official soon so I can do special posts regarding that before the season actually starts. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

An Analysis of Medical Evacuations

Am I obsessed, in a way, with medical evacuations on Survivor? Maybe. I’m obsessed with a lot of things, honestly. I just hope that I can provide in this blog post a good analysis of medical evacuations in this game. There’s a lot to wonder about the situation. What’s there to talk about? Well, let’s go through various parts of it that I can think of, at least.

Why are men pulled more?

Men are supposedly the stronger gender, but they don’t seem to have luck when it comes to avoiding getting medically evacuated. It took until the 24^th season and the 10^th evacuation before a woman was pulled from the game. Is it because they are doing more dangerous stuff as players? Does it just relate to being unfortunate events just happening to affect men instead of women? What some people would have you believe is that there aren’t coincidences on Survivor. Clearly there are. The fact that it is mostly men with one or two women getting evacuated could speak to any number of things. But it could just be that more dangerous things on this show happen to men.

Has Survivor gotten more dangerous?

The first medical evacuation seemed like an anomaly compared to the rest of the early seasons. It wasn’t until the twelfth season that another evacuation happened again. From there, modern Survivor seems to have only gotten more dangerous. A recent season had three medical evacuations all happen at once. Doesn’t this seem bad? Has Survivor gotten worse in terms of healthy living conditions? I’m not sure if we’ll ever know for sure, but it doesn’t seem as good as it used to be.

Does being evacuated mean you should play again?

When we learned about Survivor: Philippines, we learned that three contestants who had previously been medically evacuated would be playing Survivor again. This makes you wonder, should all contestants who were medically evacuated automatically get to play again? Would it be fair that they would be picked over other players? Would it be fair if other players were picked over them? You’d have to wonder if some players would be good picks over others, just choosing among the medically evacuated. Should they be brought back? One would think that it would be fair or a good idea, but some of them are bad players. Hopefully, there wouldn’t be a Colton like player brought back again.

Is location the problem?

Some may wonder if some locations are more dangerous than other locations. The location of Marquesas was considered bad enough to never be considered to be returned to; the only location ban that I know of on the show. That location had no evacuations, but it did have its fair share of injuries without an evacuation. Cambodia proved quite dangerous with three evacuations in one season. Samoa had a collective four evacuations in the seasons set there. But how do you know if a single location is the problem? Should you really ban a location just for evacuations happening there? While I wouldn’t think so, I’d have to wonder if some locations should be avoided in favor of others.

What’s the reason for all the evacuations?

You do have to wonder if Survivor is doing something wrong if there are these many evacuations in the first place. You know that they wouldn’t want people to leave this way. But why does it keep happening over and over again? Well, Survivor is overall a tough game. It is very real with people in an environment that can be quite dangerous. The weather can cause problems and so can many of the island creatures at each location. Just look at poor Gary in Fiji. People have to survive. That’s why it is called Survivor and not something like 39 day island vacation. The conditions they deal with are very real. Of course, there are even more specific reasons that I will mention next.

Are challenges to blame?

There have been at least three challenges that could be considered to have caused an evacuation. The first was in Micronesia, which caused many injuries, the most notable being one to Jonathan Penner’s leg. That challenge will never be used again. The challenge that caused Mike Borassi’s evacuation has been banned as well, but only after it appeared once more and caused another injury. Plus, I really got annoyed, as did other fans, at the opening challenge of One World which lead to Kourtney being pulled from the game, earlier than anyone else. Both Russell Swan’s and Caleb Reynold’s evacuations were at challenges, although one might not blame to challenges themselves for those particular evacuations. But, challenges aren’t the exact reasoning behind others that I can think of easily off hand.

Are the older more at risk?

A factor that goes into playing Survivor is how an older person would probably be more likely to not survive tough environments that they used to be able to at a younger age. They are also more likely to suffer from problems that probably wouldn’t befall younger players. Both Bruce and Joe del Campo had digestive problems that got them pulled. Mike Borrassi got hurt in a challenge and was pulled as a result. Gary was another older person who was pulled, this time after an allergic reaction to bug bites. While that is all of the older ones that I can think of, it is interesting to wonder if they are more at risk of getting pulled than other people. The younger players seem less at risk.

When injuries and sickness don’t result in evacuation

There have been some notable times when they didn’t have to pull someone after things had happened to them. There was Aras’s injury at the end of Panama that was treated at camp. I remember a severe bug bite happening in Amazon to a contestant which lead her to being carried to a challenge. James’s injury in Heroes versus Villains didn’t get him medically evacuated this time around which would have really sucked to be pulled twice. This leads into my last point of the post.

The Missy situation

Hers was a unique situation that we haven’t seen before. If you are injured in a serious enough way that it threatens your life, production pulls you from the game. But Missy wasn’t experiencing a life threatening injury. But it did fall in a weird, grey area as she couldn’t compete in challenges anymore. Maybe she had made it too far into the game in order to justify an evacuation. It is hard to tell for sure, but I’m not sure if something like this will happen again.

Well, I hope that this is another worthwhile post. If not, then you probably shouldn’t be reading this blog anyways. I hope that this was a good analysis of medical evacuations. I don’t have much else to say, so I’ll be back later with my next blog post. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Development of Gabon Players

You will see when I’m blogging about the new season of Survivor my mention of a dead contestant from Gabon that happened on the last day of 2016. Boy that year just had to end with another death didn’t it? Well, Gabon has now joined Palau, Borneo, and Blood versus Water as a season of interest for me as I’ll now be calling it. Anyways, ignore this paragraph and go to the next one where I explain what the actual point of this post is.

When contestants play the game multiple times, there is clearly a difference between how their games went down the first time versus how they went down the second time. Something I realize going into this is how the three returning players from this season have done worse in placement in the seasons that they have done thus far. But, I might as well get to them and how their game changed from one season to another.

Randy was pretty much a random contestant the first time around. There wasn’t much of an impression that he made on me. He clashed a lot with other contestants this season and ended up being the deciding vote in to who would win the game. When he played a second time, in Heroes versus Villains, he was placed on the villains tribe. Ultimately, he didn’t make much of an impact on the game as he was the first voted out of the tribe after which, he then threw his buff into the fire of tribal council. While I thought at first that it might be him not liking the villain label, it was actually due to him losing his first buff and him being told not to lose the second one. Main transition: From an angry jury member to a forgettable, early boot.

Corrine might have only retroactively made a negative impression on me. What’s weird is that she probably doesn’t care that most people don’t like her. It seems that she relishes in the fact. The first time she played, she didn’t really get along with most people and said incredibly rude things to Sugar on the jury. When she returned the second time, I honestly didn’t remember who she was. She didn’t really stand out that much the second time around, except for being the third consecutive rival of Phillip to be voted out of the game. Main transition: From a mean-spirited player to a forgettable one.

Sugar is someone that I don’t really like and don’t understand why others like. I think that my sister likes her, but I can’t remember. She was constantly being sent to Exile Island over and over again and due to a twist with it, got luxury after finding the idol. That twist wasn’t ever used again, which is good. Of course, they never fixed the problem of people being constantly sent to Exile Island over and over again, but that’s an entirely different rant and not really needed since they don’t have it anymore. While she never got voted against the whole season, she didn’t get any votes to win at the final three either. She wasn’t that great a player. She returned as a hero on Heroes versus Villains. I didn’t know why she got to be a returning player and she did terribly the second time, annoying her tribe and becoming the first person voted out that season. Apparently in sequester, she was so negatively affected by her vote out that she had to be medically evacuated due to sudden depression. I hope that she feels better now. When people don’t like me, I typically just shrug it off and don’t care about them. I don’t need people like that in my life. Main transition: From an annoying player who made it far to an annoying player who didn’t make it far.

Contestant’s Name	Gabon	Second Season
Randy	Angry at everyone	Just mildly irritated
Corrine	Excessively bitchy	Easily forgettable
Sugar	Really annoying	Very bad

Well, you will get more information about Gabon as time goes by. You’ll see my thoughts on the cast elsewhere and if this post is any indication, I really didn’t think fondly of the cast. I guess that you will find out more about it later, if all goes well. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Millennials versus Gen X Using All Returning Players

Before the 33^rd season of Survivor started, I did my version of a returning player season that pitted old and young against each other. But that wasn’t actually the point of the 33^rd season. That was a battle of the generations. So, doing some research, I’ve decided to look up when certain players were born so I know what generation they are from. If they fit in either group, I will put them in this season. This will not including players from the original version of this season. While I could have included players from Panama and Nicaragua, I only have them mentioned as alternates as I didn’t think of someone worthy of the main cast. Now, let’s get to casting this season.

Millennial men- As usual, I’m putting a Guatemala contestant on this season. There was a contestant that season who ruled the game until he messed up at the very end. That man is Rafe. Going next to Samoa, I would pick Brett who dominated near the end only to fall short at the final immunity challenge. Picking a fan from Caramoan next, I would have to say that Reynold is a pretty likable guy and may be the best of the fans from that season. Hayden from Blood versus Water is my next pick as he is a great player, if not in challenge strength, than in his social game. Brice from Cagayan is my last pick as I feel that he has a lot of great potential in the game.

Millennial women- Eliza from Vanuatu and Micronesia is the first Millennial who I think played the game. I loved her as a player so I would love to see her return. Mikayla from South Pacific was not picked for Cambodia, which is one of the reasons that I am picking her for this season. That, and I hate the fact that her elimination was Brandon Hantz getting his way. RC from Philippines is someone who has been cut from seasons before, so I’m putting her on this one. Kelley from San Juan del Sur and Cambodia is a great player with more game left in her. Michele from Kaoh Rong is an underrated winner and I feel that she would be great to play again.

Millennial cast- Eliza (Vanuatu, Micronesia), Rafe (Guatemala), Brett (Samoa), Mikayla (South Pacific), RC (Philippines), Reynold (Caramoan), Hayden (Blood versus Water), Brice (Cagayan), Kelley (San Juan del Sur, Cambodia), Michele (Kaoh Rong)

Alternate Millennials- Candice (Cook Islands, Heroes versus Villains, Blood versus Water), Jason (Micronesia), Erik (Micronesia, Caramoan), Joe (Tocantins), Sierra (Tocantins), Natalie (Samoa), Chase (Nicaragua), Fabio (Nicaragua), Stephanie (Redemption Island), Matt (Redemption Island), Kim (One World), Malcolm (Philippines, Caramoan), Shamar (Caramoan), Eddie (Caramoan), Marissa (Blood versus Water), John (Blood versus Water), Katie (Blood versus Water), Ciera (Blood versus Water, Cambodia), Spencer (Cagayan, Cambodia), Nadiya (San Juan del Sur), Josh (San Juan del Sur), Reed (San Juan del Sur), Caleb (Kaoh Rong), Julia (Kaoh Rong)

Gen X men- An overlooked player from an earlier season is Clarence from Africa who I think should play again. John from Marquesas is someone who really should have already returned by now as his second chance has been a long time coming and hasn’t happened yet. Coby, the awesome shade thrower from Palau, has to return sometime to bring his some of his great ways again. Nate from Cook Islands is another player that I would pick. Marcus from Gabon is my last pick for the men on this tribe as he was a great player who made it all the way to the jury being immune the whole time before that, a feat that no one accomplished before and a select few have since.

Gen X women- Neleh is a player that I really liked when she first played in Marquesas and I’d love to see her play again. My next pick is Peih-Gee from China and Cambodia, a player I really like. Next, I’d be going with Natalie from Micronesia as she was a great player who may have been shadowed by some of the returnees she was playing against. Edna from South Pacific is a sweet person and player who really should return again at some point. My last pick would be Denise from Philippines.

Gen X cast- Clarence (Africa), John (Marquesas), Neleh (Marquesas), Coby (Palau), Nate (Cook Islands), Peih-Gee (China, Cambodia), Natalie (Micronesia), Marcus (Gabon), Edna (South Pacific), Denise (Philippines)

Alternate Gen X- Dirk (Borneo), Greg (Borneo), Brandon (Africa), Ethan (Africa, All-Stars), Gina (Marquesas), Penny (Thailand), Shawn (Pearl Islands), Sandra (Pearl Islands, Heroes versus Villains), Chris (Vanuatu), Gregg (Palau), Shane (Panama), Adam (Cook Islands), Mike (Redemption Island), Christine (South Pacific), Monica (One World, Blood versus Water), Dana (Philippines), Laura Boneham (Blood versus Water), Jeremy (Cagayan), Tasha (Cagayan, Cambodia), Kass (Cagayan, Cambodia), Tony (Cagayan), Max (Worlds Apart), Mike (Worlds Apart), Neal (Kaoh Rong), Debbie (Kaoh Rong)

Well, I put a lot of research into this blog post and hope that you like it. I know that this twist has some slight flaws as it only goes after two different generations and ignores everyone who is other than the oldest gen x player. But, I do hope that you like this post. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.