Forgot the season finale was on tonight. The winner has already been determined and they are doing the reunion special now.
Good finale. Not going to use a spoiler tag to talk about Russel since everyone knew he wasn’t going to win anyways.
Russel is Survivor’s best loser to play the game. 
Seriously what a fucking idiot. He doesn’t care about winning, but says he should win because he’s the best player to ever play the game. He doesn’t care about the jury, so how does he even say he’s still playing the game? The jury is obviously a fundamental part of the game, and to dismiss it is a stupid thing to do. That’s like playing a fighting game and never blocking because you don’t care about blocking, even though that’s a big fundamental part of the game.
I am a man of my word, fuck you Sandra! You ruined Survivor for me.
I don’t care what anyone says, Russell is god tier at Survivor and he is the ultimate survivor.
Bunch of salty losers again this season:shake:
I still check the Survivor threads to see how the show is doing, but don’t want to waste time watching it.
hate you Sandra!
Sorry, Russel is pretty shit tier at Survivor. Completely ignoring a major factor of the game makes him a scrub. Russel was only good deceiving people for his own personal gain. I would definitely give him the title of “best snake” or whatever, but ultimate survivor he is not.
Ugh, I disagree with you soo much Spirit Juice, but I’m not going to jump right into it right now…
Been watching the “The jury speaks” clips on cbs.com… very interesting stuff.
To see Coach describe Russel as an amazing player who nobody was even ready for yet to see him torn between that realization and his saltyness is quite interesting.
Ignoring the jury as a factor in Survivor is like trying to win in a fighting game without doing combos. Sorry, ignoring a big fundamental part of the game doesn’t make you the best player at all. Far from it.
So Sandra is better than Russell?
richard hatch or russell?
the firefighter who never lost an individual challenge?
whos d best ever at survivor?
rich hatch was funny though, thinking he could outwit, outplay, outlast the IRS. lol.
Sandra was better with the jury questions, that’s for sure. So was Parvarti. Before the final tribal council I figured Russell might squeak out a vote or two, but after tribal I knew he was getting shutout.
Man salty ass jury…i understand w/ idiots in the 1st season w/ Russel but veterans of the game being all salty like that was a complete joke. I agree w/ Russel, if Sandra can win it twice their is some flaw to Survivor. They should allow america to do a percentage of the vote. I thought Pavarati should have at least won it just cause she played the game just as hard as Russel!
Rupert was complete joke acting all butthurt cuz he got ass raped by Russel. I dont know why Coach is all salty with Russel, he didn’t even vote him out. Danniel wouldn’t have gotten voted out if she didn’t open her big hairy lip mouth. Jerri is just an idiot. I thought JT would have at least give Russel the vote…
Oh well, it was awesome survivor, cant wake for next season. Sandra winning it, isn’t too bad. I like her attitude, was pretty funny when she burn Russel’s hat. Natalie winning was a complete joke…
“As long as it ain’t me” is actually a very good strategy although it isn’t fun to watch. She couldn’t use leverage/HII’s (at good moments)/or even have a solid alliance, so she didn’t piss people off compared to Russell who was very manipulative, controlling, and aggressive.
Boston Rob and Tom said it best: “He doesn’t play the game to win. And it’s clear in his strategy. He plays a good game to get to the end, but he doesn’t play the game to win the game.” and “Whoever won the season, deserves to win that season. that’s the way it plays out. That’s the hand you have. If you win it, it’s your game, it’s yours.”
Letting America do a percentage of the vote would be foolish. Players would try to get the most screen time on camera or play up to the camera to try to get votes and that would cut the reality out (which means it would suck). And it’s no flaw, Russel got cocky, he had a terrible endgame, and it was his own fault for deciding to bring Sandra along. The flaw isn’t with the game, but it’s with his own gameplay. For him to get 2/18 votes in two juries shows his ineptitude in winning the jury as even Amanda got more votes in two final tribal councils than he did.
Outwit, outplay and outlast that’s Survivor motto…Shit doesnt say anything about popularity contest. Russel ass rape all of them without the lube & they mad cuz their ass is still aching…
I thought all-star players would understand that. Its a fucking game & people shouldn’t take things personal when playing for million dollar.
It’s a problem when you justify the loser rather than reason the win.
lol fuck public voting. Do you really trust the public to vote better than the jury?
Russell’s social game is really horrible. lol From the clip they showed and from the reports saying he was that much of an asshole to everyone during the game and they just never used footage of it (we only get to see PG-13 Russell). Parvati and Sandra can turn on the charm during tribal council, well Parvati’s is always on.
She really surprised me this season, I dismissed her as worthless on her first time out but she’s actually got the best numbers, skill-wise coming in to the show. She’s a threat in individual challenges and she’s got the social skills to get her through to the merge/tribal council. What really saved Sandra was the fact that everyone hated Russell, but not in the same way Natalie from last season won. This time Sandra’s campaigning to the heroes to get rid of Russell ever since the merge really helped her a lot and their perception (except for some) that Parvati rode Russell’s coat-tails.
I can’t wait for next season. I agree with Colby that the “survivor” aspect kinda took a backseat in the last few seasons. They need to do some surviving, hunting, fishing, etc. The hardest thing they did this season was basically just tolerating the rain. It’s not just the editing that they are leaving stuff like that out, but from interviews all the old timers are basically saying the same thing, its too easy to “survive” out there now.
BTW
Fuck the haters. 20 seasons in this show is still awesome! Funny how people lump all “reality” shows together as if there is a single reality show ever made that can hold the candle to Survivor.
This game was pretty much Russell’s to lose. And a big fat LOL @ him for the whole “the game has a flaw” comment at the reunion. I thought that he would have known better than to take Parv and Sandra to final 3, but either way you look at it, with the players who were all voted out, you had to have known he was going to lose sometime ago. Even in the final 3, Colby, Rupert, Amanda, Candace, Parv, Sandra and Jerri all had a chance to beat Russell in the final 3, so what good would it have mattered anyways for something strategic from him. It’s like we were watching the show for drama, but we should have seen it coming that Russell wasn’t going to win this season.
I’m not sure fans should have a say so in the voting either, because Russell was hated amongst certain fans as well. I think Parv might have won had it come down to fans voting.
Either way, Rob and Tom said it best, Russell’s got no end game. He aligns himself with whoever, then makes people salty week to week.
It’s pretty clear to me that Parvati deserved to win. Russell burns all of his bridges and acts like a jackass despite making some of the most devastating moves this season. Yes, he moved to get Rob out, and then shifted the balance of power to the Villains by getting JT out. However, his ego-tripping hubris eventually did him in. Everyone knows precisely how the game works. You find hidden idols, you win challenges, you strategize to vote people out, and then those people vote to make you the winner. Survivor history should have taught everyone, the trick isn’t getting doing the physical (lol Colby), it’s not working to move people out (lol Russell), it’s doing all those things while still having people not fucking hate you.
The issue I think we’re having is that Russell is the embodiment of Play to Win. Granted, his strategy has a major flaw, but, for us, his mentality doesn’t. Russell does everything within his power to lie, cheat, and steal his way to victory. This is everything that we respect as competitive fighting game players. Mocking scrubs for cheapness, throwing, chipping, zoning, etc., we revel in the depth of strategy involved in these activities, and we revel in the metagames involved in Survivor in the same way. Sadly, people don’t always behave in this manner.
The problem with Survivor isn’t the game, as Russell says, it’s the mentality people bring onto the show. When people get ‘stranded’ on Survivor island, they do not see it as being in a weird microcosm of the world where the rules no longer apply. They lie and cheat, but still feel hurt when lied and cheated to. Most people are incapable of separating out their ideals from this microcosm where lying and cheating should be accepted and the norm. All of us watch Survivor and think, they’re all liars, and if we were on the island, we would realize that everyone lies and cheats, and that we won’t get offended by it. Sadly, I don’t necessarily think most people can separate the emotional response of being lied to and betrayed. Even Rupert accepted that he did his part in scheming and lying, yet is deeply offended by Russell’s way of playing the game.
I guess my point in this diatribe is that Survivor is a game of scrubs. You have a gangload of people who by any normal measure, are completely unremarkable in their real lives. To a certain degree, Russell is incapable of grasping the notion that the people in the jury are scrubs, and don’t respect the fact that they got cheaped to death by him. To a certain degree, I think Parvati does understand that, and has actually managed to both impose her will on the game, yet not seriously offend. Watching the votes and tribal council, it seems that the blowback from Russell hate took votes away from her, which is ultimately an issue with voting on the 40th day, where emotional reactions are still raw and untempered.
That “motto” has been around since season 1 when most of them didn’t even play the game, and it’s more of a catchphrase then anything as there are different ways to ouwit, outplay, and outlast in the game as seen by many previous winners. And it would be a popularity contest when you said you wanted America to have the ability to vote too, similar to what American Idol does or even the old America’s Tribal Council. And I agree with people, both contestants and audiences shouldn’t take things personally. But the jury is part of the game and Russell never did anything to appease them. Pissing them off and lying excessively just guarantees that he would lose. If he acknowledged that they will have resentment, he should have changed his social game up to adapt towards the situation and not patronize them (exactly what he did last season too and look what happened…) Russell didn’t protect his win condition, Sandra ensured hers. Previous winners have lied and manipulated before too, but they’re able to mix things up and change their gameplan to secure the win still such as with Hatch, Chris, and Todd to name a few. It’s also been established that gameplay like Sandra’s has worked in the past as well, with many other successful or near successful contestants playing the lame duck strategy when nothing else is working for them, so I can’t see why many people are getting upset this time around.
And if we’re bringing fighting game examples into this, you could look at Sandra as the turtle who is patiently observing and waiting for opportunities while Russell is playing aggressive rushdown with limited mixup. Parvati might be the one walking back and forth playing the standard zoning with excellent fundamentals. All of these are accepted forms of play.
And come on you guys, give credit where it’s due. Sandra won the game twice, Russell bitched out at Reunion twice. Can you really say Sandra did absolutely nothing to win?
I didn’t see the season previously when she did win. However, I’ll give her credit for winning twice, and I’ll also give her credit for outlasting being outed when she couldn’t align with anyone after her alliance was taken out. She was saved (albeit unnecessarily) when Parvarti gave her an idol when the heroes would have voted Jerri out that one episode. Other than warning the heroes about how much a snake Russell was, what did she really do? Didn’t Jeff also say she’s the only winner who’s never won an individual immunity challenge? And how did her speech ensure her a victory? If anything, she won based on the hate the jury had for Russell and that also cost Parvarti more votes than what she could have had.
If anything, I’d probably give best player ever to Parvarti, with a close second tie to Amanda and Ozzy. Rusell in my eyes probably will be the best player to never win the game.
I think the game ultimately came down to winning the Heroes’ jury votes, and Sandra’s jury performance and appeal towards them was able to nab all of them. I think Parvati’s downfall came down to be too closely connected to Russel.
Regardless, Russel might very well be the ultimate scrub of Survivor. The jury and Probst even was telling him exactly what he was doing wrong and he’s blaming the structure of the game itself? Fool deserved to not get a single vote.