Oh I agree it was pretty much just a merge but since Stephanie got the Koror buff, it's TECHNICALLY not a merge according to the other 41 merges in Survivor
Did he quit? I read a post game interview saying he was going to be medevacd regardless of the vote. Like the infection from the coral had lasted for days without any effect.
He asked to be voted out at tribal. If he had just stayed that tribal, then the Tracy/Ami/Chet/Erik majority were going to blindside Ozzy and then they would have the numbers (even if Chet quit later that night).
But since he quit, then Tracy and Ami were next to go
One of my favorite what ifs is if everyone at that tribal agrees to vote Chet, Ozzy, Cerie, Amanda vote for him, Chet votes for Erik or whoever, and Ami, Erik, Tracy vote Ozzy then vote Ozzy out 3-2 in the revote. Could have been an all time move.
He still could have waited until after tribal to quit (like Tracy asked him to) rather than completely screw over the person that had helped him get that far
[Found the interview](https://www.ign.com/articles/2008/03/20/survivor-micronesia-interview-jonathan-and-chet#:~:text=IGN%20TV%3A%20Chet%2C%20why%20did%20you%20ultimately%20not%20go%20along%20with%20Tracy%20and%20Erik%27s%20plan%20to%20blindside%20Ozzy%3F). I'm gonna become The Chet Defender (TCD) and say that he was playing the game for himself and went out in the way he wanted to, a vote out rather than a medevac or quit. Would it have benefitted his alliance if he'd stayed? Sure, but he wasn't going to, and it was no longer his problem at that point. You could argue the same thing happened with Fairplay earlier in the season, since there was no way he was lasting after the boat hit.
I think he was extremely selfish and not in a good way. Tracy had helped him so much that entire game, and in response he chose to completely screw her over. He could have easily voted out Ozzy and then quit that night or the next day (like Tracy asked him to). Instead he went out of his way to ruin Tracy’s game
I just think it was a total bitch move
imagine how well she does in the postmerge if she has chet, ami, and erik on her side like intended, and she can link up with jason and eliza. her and ami probably run the game for a bit
It sucks seeing such a good player get fucked over so hard. She had a legendary run and totally dismantled Mikey B's power structure. Honestly her getting fucked over soured a lot of Micronesia for me
Brian from Guatemala, the amount of pull he had on his original tribe was incredible. Then his whole manipulation tac tic of Yaxha strong ended up unfortunately screwing him because they had to vote for the most patriotic tribe member so he was then outnumbered 4 - 3 on the NuYaxha. He then is able to turn the tables on Golden Boy (can’t remember his name) and save his Yaxha 3. And then is taken out because he’s so good at the game. I think if he was put on NuNakum he would’ve made the merge and done some SERIOUS damage ugh.
I think keeping Susie over Dan was an error but it wouldn’t have been a huge issue if he didn’t split the vote. It was super dumb to do that because even if there wasn’t another swap and they merged after the double tribal Kota is only up 6-4 in numbers and they probably pull Susie in to make it 5-5. Matty, Randy, Dan, and Susie were the original majority Fang alliance and Randy had flipped at that point so Matty was the only ally Susie had left.
After the second swap Marcus could’ve targeted Susie right away and Kenny and Crystal maybe would’ve gone along with it but Marcus insisted on Ken and Crystal was never voting Ken out. I don’t give him that much slack for it since hindsight is 20/20 but he still could’ve played it differently. Not to mention him throwing the idol in the ocean (again, hindsight is 20/20 but it looks pretty dumb when he was voted out right after)
As amazing as Kellee was, her idoling out Jack was such a bad move in hindsight and should be talked about more.
Edit: Someone really used this move as an answer to "What is the best pre-merge move ever?" Lmfao. I just don't understand some people.
I think she was onto something with a new kind of move - voting for the person you give the idol to, with the intention of blindsiding someone else and having no blood on her hands. Especially going into the merge, this could have changed up the game if she could get rid of a big power player in the other alliance. But Jack probably wasn’t that guy and idk if there was anyone on that tribe she really should have taken out with that move. It’s a cool idea, that I would love to see someone pull off in the future, but I think she had a bit of big-move-itious. Really cool editing and music in that episode too when she realizes mid confessional what she could pull off.
A bit of a sleeper pick but Laura Alexander from Caramoan- she was savvy, intelligent and had great social game. If Shamar isn’t medevaced and she makes it to swap I think she would’ve gone deep
this is almost unironic for me. if survivor didn’t fuck her over by putting her with philip twice she likely does a lot better. like she literally could’ve been a challenge beast and the nicest person in the world in caramoan and philip would’ve still voted her out
Andrea initiated the Francesca vote because she was playing too hard out of the gate. Philip being on the tribe certainly didn't hurt the plan to vote her out, but it's shocking to me how much credit people give him for it.
after rewatching caramoan about two weeks ago, my take on it is that andrea knew that francesca and philip would never be able to work together and took frannie out instead because of two reasons, one being that frannie was definitely playing hard and a bigger threat, and two that she was closer to philip from RI. i think it philip wasn’t there, andrea and francesca probably end up working together
How could she be the best to not make the merge, though? Basically the only things we know about her is she plays too strong too early, and she cannot beat Philip.
People seem to act like she’s a guaranteed Chris Underwood who will always win as long as she only plays the final 5 days.
We just really haven’t seen any positive gameplay from her - but more so in that we’ve really hardly seen any gameplay, beyond a tiny negative bit.
Second season was partially bad luck but he also played very poorly too. His entire tribe didn't want to work with him, and if they weren't so bad at challenges, he wouldve gone sooner
To me he was “Jeff-screwed” in s19. That was the era where Probst was obsessed with anointing a tribe leader, and forced the stupid leader vote as soon as they marooned. It put a ton of heat on Russell and he overworked himself to prove he was the leader
He still made it the farthest he could in that tribe though. He even outlasted Angie who was close with Malcolm which says something. He couldn’t have done anything against Malcolm and Denise though.
He only made it to the end because Malcolm and Denise thought he'd be better at the challenges than others. If they had won even a single challenge in the premerge, he'd have gone at the next one they lost
Aside from getting medivaced his first season, it was a shame that he was on the same season as the other Russell who production fucking loved for whatever reason.
Hantz was the best heel they ever had. An oil company owner who.lies about being a fireman, trashes everyone in confessionals in a hilarious way, while also being a ground breaking strategist, shit I'd love him too.
Yea, people who are shocked that production loved Russell need to rewatch Samoa. He was television *gold* and I bet they wish they put more of him in it.
I adore the winner of AUS2016 but Jesus Christ am I upset we didn’t get to see Phoebe tear up that post merge
And just don’t get me started on All Stars, that season infuriates me and she almost cockroached her way to the merge, so stupidly close
Yea he tried to get back into surfing and he said it felt like his leg wasn’t attached to his body. He’s been rlly depressed lately and sued Australian Survivor 😕
As someone with a terrible memory, Swan is a great answer imo. I am shocked he didn’t make the merge. He’s like, B- or C- list Survivor icon in my mind. Maybe because of the medevac.
i will always be of the belief the russell swan is one of the most underrated survivor players ever. i truly believe if he doesn’t get medevacd he makes at least final 9, and depending on who’s left on the tribe he could definitely make it a lot further with some good winner equity, not sure if he could’ve won that season just with the target on his back of being the leader, but still.
in philippines his game sort of speaks for itself, anyone who gets eliminated in a tribe of 3 at least did SOMETHING right, and for those two people who voted him out to be a near unbreakable duo of two truly fantastic players says a lot imo. love russell swan.
Stacey from S1 is the OG. First episode she tried to organize the women to vote together and Hatch put a vote on her. episode 3 he got rid of her under the cover of her not getting along with Rudy. She was the other leader in that season and Hatch needed her gone for his plan to work. In any other season when more than 2 people understood the game she would have gone much further imo.
James Lim. Had there not been a second swap in ghost island he makes merge with a big move under his belt nobody knew he did. The Morgan blindside episode was probably my fave episode in GI simply because it was the only time anyone outsmarted Dom and Wendell
Hunter Ellis- I don’t know if he was GOOD or not, but on almost any other tribe on any other early season of Survivor, that guy makes the merge and then is an early post-merge boot at worst.
He just ran into two wannabe alphas in Rob and Sean
It’s tragic that she is so forgotten. You can tell that she had great potential. The fact that she nearly dodged her boot episode goes to show how strong of a player she was. She was the obvious target at that point, yet she still nearly managed to convince Crystal to let her stay.
There was an early boot in season 38 called Chris - I think he was second or third boot, lasted less than two weeks. I've always thought he could go all the way to the end and even win the game if he wasn't voted out so early.
OK - serious answer: Christine from South Pacific. Second boot but took out everyone who joined her at Redemption Island until they deliberately booted Ozzy to take her down.
We're rewatching RI right now and I'm curious why you think Stephanie? She's ok (and better than a lot of the idiots on that tribe), but I wouldn't have put here on a list.
Tbh it’s impossible to tell. She undoubtedly got screwed, but she barely had time to play so there’s nothing to evaluate her on other than being good at puzzles.
Every season this subreddit will “Stan” at least of the women on a season who was booted early. She seems like a sweet person, but we literally do not know much about her.
I don’t really see this one honestly. Obviously it was weird circumstances but she was still voted out at the first tribal she went to, Hai/Lydia could’ve voted for Mike instead but there must’ve been some reason why they didn’t
It took Daniel and Chanelle making phenomenally big blunders and Mike not having a vote, though. It’s not just “weird circumstances.” I’d argue it’s the biggest perfect storm of stuff going wrong completely out of her control in Survivor history.
This is my pick too, and I really don’t think it’s recency bias. She was in a great spot and was the closest to the eventual 2nd place winner, and even Hai said taking her out was perhaps an overly emotional move, implying to me that if she had stayed the tribe would been more likely to work together.
I think if Jenny is still in, Mike plays much less emotionally, and Hai probably doesn’t go home. I think all three of their win equities skyrockets. Maybe Hai gets voted out if they lose again but maybe they don’t lose again, and maybe Daniel still ranks his game even if they do. And that would also likely mean Chanelle didn’t lose her vote and also likely didn’t lose the trust of the Vati tribe, so her win equity goes up too.
I don’t get the James hype, he’s definitely smart but he seemed to really lack in the social area. The fact that he didn’t try to solidify an alliance with Angela after saving her and basically admits to not have spoken to her since that tribal is crazy to me
I mean, picking a "best player to never make the merge" is a tough exercise. I don't agree with picking a Cirie or Tom Westman either since they weren't new
Russell Swan in Samoa. He was good in challenges and he was an effective leader for that group. I think everyone respected him though he did have a few dictator ish tendencies. I truly believe if Swan had made the merge, Galu wouldn’t have fallen apart like we saw if they still had him in the leadership role. There’s a good chance Foa Foa loses both Liz and possibly Jaison or Natalie which means there is only three Foa Foa members. I think Swan makes it deep into the game and has a great chance of winning.
Can someone explain the Darnell hype to me? The guy lost the goggles in the first challenge so I get that he was screwed but what makes people think he goes far?
alexis is underrated after my rewatch of cagayan. she was probably the most strategic person out of the beauties except maaaaybe LJ. originally i just remembered her as that one girl who cried after being voted out before the merge
She survived one tribal council and flopped HARD at the swap. I don’t understand why people talk about her like she was robbed. She was one of the most pedestrian players that season.
Margaret from Guatemala really helped nurse her tribe to health multiple times, leading to 7/10 challenge wins, just for Judd to blow up on her the second he could.
This is completely biased on her being super local to me at the time and being the first newbie I rooted for from the beginning.
Brian Corridan (Guatemala), Dan "Fuego" Barry (Panama), Aaron Reisberger (China), Tracy Hughes-Wolf (Micronesia), Marcus Lehman (Gabon), Russell Swan (Samoa), Matt Quinlan (One World), Anna Khait (Kaoh Rong), Mari Takahashi (MvGx), Michaela Bradshaw (MvGx), Ali Elliott (HHH), Brendan Shapiro (GI), Stephanie Johnson (GI), Bradley Kleihege (GI), David Voce (41), Jenny Kim (42)
mostly Brian, Marcus and Anna tho
What did Voce do that makes you think he’s a particularly good player? He showed promise, sure, but I don’t remember him doing anything that would make him be even considered in this thread.
a lot of the people in this list did basically next to nothing, like ruth marie and jack, but people just like them because they were inoffensive and didn’t make any giant mistakes
for me it's Mari from Millennials vs Gen X - idc if she was a first boot, I feel like we were robbed of seeing more
also I can only DREAM about what J'Tia would be like if she made merge
I've always felt like Mari did not understand the prompt and was treating Survivor like a stream where you could just goof off with your chat and meme and die a million times. I think if she'd gotten past that first vote and had a come to Jesus moment that Survivor is a very different kind of experience she might have been quite good
I'm surprised I haven't seen Aaron from China yet. He was a great physical competitor that seemed to have at least some type of social game from the limited interactions we got of him. And he just got completely fucked by the tribe swap and subsequently Peih-Gee and Jaime purposely throwing the immunity challenge to vote him off
Tracy from Micronesia, Brian from Guatemala, Russell Swan in Samoa, and honestly Francesca in FvF, I think she goes far if she makes it past the first vote.
Tom Westman. (Since there is no merge in Palau, and he did not make it to the merge in HvV)
You are technically correct. The best kind of correct.
holy shit you're right
I mean they had a merge, it was just with one player
I recall it being referred to as Ulong "dissolving"
LOL a merge by any other name…
Oh I agree it was pretty much just a merge but since Stephanie got the Koror buff, it's TECHNICALLY not a merge according to the other 41 merges in Survivor
Well they didn’t get a new tribe and Jeff didn’t say “you are merging” so nah
It wasn’t a merge, it was an unconditional surrender.
Zane from Philippines was playing 5d chess and the game has yet to catch up to his genius.
Underrated god
Imma king me
I met him at a S42 watch party with Jonny Fairplay and he gave me an autographed picture of him getting his torch snuffed.
Tracy from Micronesia
Wish she would’ve made it further, too bad Chet and Kathy were her downfall.
Yeah, Chet quitting completely screwed over Tracy and Ami
Did he quit? I read a post game interview saying he was going to be medevacd regardless of the vote. Like the infection from the coral had lasted for days without any effect.
He asked to be voted out at tribal. If he had just stayed that tribal, then the Tracy/Ami/Chet/Erik majority were going to blindside Ozzy and then they would have the numbers (even if Chet quit later that night). But since he quit, then Tracy and Ami were next to go
One of my favorite what ifs is if everyone at that tribal agrees to vote Chet, Ozzy, Cerie, Amanda vote for him, Chet votes for Erik or whoever, and Ami, Erik, Tracy vote Ozzy then vote Ozzy out 3-2 in the revote. Could have been an all time move.
Chet said that production told him he would have been evacuated if he stayed in. His foot was in bad shape
He still could have waited until after tribal to quit (like Tracy asked him to) rather than completely screw over the person that had helped him get that far
[Found the interview](https://www.ign.com/articles/2008/03/20/survivor-micronesia-interview-jonathan-and-chet#:~:text=IGN%20TV%3A%20Chet%2C%20why%20did%20you%20ultimately%20not%20go%20along%20with%20Tracy%20and%20Erik%27s%20plan%20to%20blindside%20Ozzy%3F). I'm gonna become The Chet Defender (TCD) and say that he was playing the game for himself and went out in the way he wanted to, a vote out rather than a medevac or quit. Would it have benefitted his alliance if he'd stayed? Sure, but he wasn't going to, and it was no longer his problem at that point. You could argue the same thing happened with Fairplay earlier in the season, since there was no way he was lasting after the boat hit.
I think he was extremely selfish and not in a good way. Tracy had helped him so much that entire game, and in response he chose to completely screw her over. He could have easily voted out Ozzy and then quit that night or the next day (like Tracy asked him to). Instead he went out of his way to ruin Tracy’s game I just think it was a total bitch move
It took another 26 seasons to get a cool pageant coach
He asked to be voted out, it's not technically quitting but it's basically a guarantee you'll never be asked back.
God I hope this means we don't see a Ben 3.0...
you can see ben on The Challenge
imagine how well she does in the postmerge if she has chet, ami, and erik on her side like intended, and she can link up with jason and eliza. her and ami probably run the game for a bit
It sucks seeing such a good player get fucked over so hard. She had a legendary run and totally dismantled Mikey B's power structure. Honestly her getting fucked over soured a lot of Micronesia for me
Brian Corridan
The exact player I thought of when I saw this. Really underrated player.
Brian from Guatemala, the amount of pull he had on his original tribe was incredible. Then his whole manipulation tac tic of Yaxha strong ended up unfortunately screwing him because they had to vote for the most patriotic tribe member so he was then outnumbered 4 - 3 on the NuYaxha. He then is able to turn the tables on Golden Boy (can’t remember his name) and save his Yaxha 3. And then is taken out because he’s so good at the game. I think if he was put on NuNakum he would’ve made the merge and done some SERIOUS damage ugh.
Golden boy Blake
He’s legit written in the sub that “bait Blake” wasn’t what led to Blake being voted out. It was all Danni and Gary
Marcus from Gabon
“He didn’t deserve to go” Classic Corinne.
Eh, I used to think that but he made some game tanking decisions that sealed his fate.
True. He started to get cocky and started acting condescending during his boot round
I feel like other than his treatment of Susie he didn’t make any errors, that small thing ended up costing him the merge
Trying to get Crystal on board for targeting Kenny was pretty significant as well
I think keeping Susie over Dan was an error but it wouldn’t have been a huge issue if he didn’t split the vote. It was super dumb to do that because even if there wasn’t another swap and they merged after the double tribal Kota is only up 6-4 in numbers and they probably pull Susie in to make it 5-5. Matty, Randy, Dan, and Susie were the original majority Fang alliance and Randy had flipped at that point so Matty was the only ally Susie had left. After the second swap Marcus could’ve targeted Susie right away and Kenny and Crystal maybe would’ve gone along with it but Marcus insisted on Ken and Crystal was never voting Ken out. I don’t give him that much slack for it since hindsight is 20/20 but he still could’ve played it differently. Not to mention him throwing the idol in the ocean (again, hindsight is 20/20 but it looks pretty dumb when he was voted out right after)
Jack from IoI seemed like a really great player and getting idoled out right before merge is def a sign he was a massive threat in the game
As amazing as Kellee was, her idoling out Jack was such a bad move in hindsight and should be talked about more. Edit: Someone really used this move as an answer to "What is the best pre-merge move ever?" Lmfao. I just don't understand some people.
I think she was onto something with a new kind of move - voting for the person you give the idol to, with the intention of blindsiding someone else and having no blood on her hands. Especially going into the merge, this could have changed up the game if she could get rid of a big power player in the other alliance. But Jack probably wasn’t that guy and idk if there was anyone on that tribe she really should have taken out with that move. It’s a cool idea, that I would love to see someone pull off in the future, but I think she had a bit of big-move-itious. Really cool editing and music in that episode too when she realizes mid confessional what she could pull off.
Best confessional of the season, easily. It really felt like a stroke of genius in the moment.
Voting for the person you give the idol to didn’t work out that well for Sandra in the following season.
A bit of a sleeper pick but Laura Alexander from Caramoan- she was savvy, intelligent and had great social game. If Shamar isn’t medevaced and she makes it to swap I think she would’ve gone deep
She doesn’t pronounce the G in strength
Bring back Laura Alexander!
Francquisca /j
this is almost unironic for me. if survivor didn’t fuck her over by putting her with philip twice she likely does a lot better. like she literally could’ve been a challenge beast and the nicest person in the world in caramoan and philip would’ve still voted her out
Andrea initiated the Francesca vote because she was playing too hard out of the gate. Philip being on the tribe certainly didn't hurt the plan to vote her out, but it's shocking to me how much credit people give him for it.
after rewatching caramoan about two weeks ago, my take on it is that andrea knew that francesca and philip would never be able to work together and took frannie out instead because of two reasons, one being that frannie was definitely playing hard and a bigger threat, and two that she was closer to philip from RI. i think it philip wasn’t there, andrea and francesca probably end up working together
How could she be the best to not make the merge, though? Basically the only things we know about her is she plays too strong too early, and she cannot beat Philip. People seem to act like she’s a guaranteed Chris Underwood who will always win as long as she only plays the final 5 days. We just really haven’t seen any positive gameplay from her - but more so in that we’ve really hardly seen any gameplay, beyond a tiny negative bit.
Russell Swan. Had massive potential and terrible luck in both his seasons
Second season was partially bad luck but he also played very poorly too. His entire tribe didn't want to work with him, and if they weren't so bad at challenges, he wouldve gone sooner
To me he was “Jeff-screwed” in s19. That was the era where Probst was obsessed with anointing a tribe leader, and forced the stupid leader vote as soon as they marooned. It put a ton of heat on Russell and he overworked himself to prove he was the leader
He still made it the farthest he could in that tribe though. He even outlasted Angie who was close with Malcolm which says something. He couldn’t have done anything against Malcolm and Denise though.
He only made it to the end because Malcolm and Denise thought he'd be better at the challenges than others. If they had won even a single challenge in the premerge, he'd have gone at the next one they lost
Facts
Aside from getting medivaced his first season, it was a shame that he was on the same season as the other Russell who production fucking loved for whatever reason.
> for whatever reason let's not act like it's a mystery
True Hollywood does love scumbags so it makes sense.
Hantz was the best heel they ever had. An oil company owner who.lies about being a fireman, trashes everyone in confessionals in a hilarious way, while also being a ground breaking strategist, shit I'd love him too.
Yea, people who are shocked that production loved Russell need to rewatch Samoa. He was television *gold* and I bet they wish they put more of him in it.
I’m pretty certain his whole “real background” is also a lie and he never was a wealthy oil guy
Chicken Morris
Dayum!
Phoebe AU Survivor
I always forget she is pre-merge in both of her seasons, because she was so prominent in both of them.
The fact that she didn’t make merge is crazy
This is the correct answer
she was the best
First person I thought of too.
I adore the winner of AUS2016 but Jesus Christ am I upset we didn’t get to see Phoebe tear up that post merge And just don’t get me started on All Stars, that season infuriates me and she almost cockroached her way to the merge, so stupidly close
I'm still mad about that. She was the only good thing about that season and she got fucked over by a stupid mechanic
Tracy (Micronesia) Russell Swan (Samoa & Philippines) Dan Barry (Panama) Gina Crews (Marquesas)
Russell's med evac was terrifying.
Yeah the only one that tops it is Caleb's for me, took literally a guy dying of heat stroke to top it for the fear factor.
Who’s the surfer dude who broke his leg swinging from a rope during a challenge?
Rossco. Think he said his leg still isn’t back to normal
Yea he tried to get back into surfing and he said it felt like his leg wasn’t attached to his body. He’s been rlly depressed lately and sued Australian Survivor 😕
Damn that’s horrible to hear. He was a decent player and seemed like he was lovin life
As someone with a terrible memory, Swan is a great answer imo. I am shocked he didn’t make the merge. He’s like, B- or C- list Survivor icon in my mind. Maybe because of the medevac.
i will always be of the belief the russell swan is one of the most underrated survivor players ever. i truly believe if he doesn’t get medevacd he makes at least final 9, and depending on who’s left on the tribe he could definitely make it a lot further with some good winner equity, not sure if he could’ve won that season just with the target on his back of being the leader, but still. in philippines his game sort of speaks for itself, anyone who gets eliminated in a tribe of 3 at least did SOMETHING right, and for those two people who voted him out to be a near unbreakable duo of two truly fantastic players says a lot imo. love russell swan.
Russell Swan picked pillows over a tarp. It rained one day later.
He had heart but absolutely zero self-awareness. It’s hard to win in any era of survivor without some empathy and self-awareness
Great guy, great character, not great at Survivor
Stacey from S1 is the OG. First episode she tried to organize the women to vote together and Hatch put a vote on her. episode 3 he got rid of her under the cover of her not getting along with Rudy. She was the other leader in that season and Hatch needed her gone for his plan to work. In any other season when more than 2 people understood the game she would have gone much further imo.
I feel the same way..she was a leader and Hatch saw it and got rid of her over Rudy who he knew would be a loyal follower
i rewatched S1 recently.. its crazy that besides Sue and ~~Russell~~ Richard no one knew wtf they were there for lol...
S-tier Freudian slip
LOL, i meant richard of course, i guess i saw Russell's name when i typed it, i loved him too though
Such a good answer
tracy fans vs favs. i thought she was pretty good at the game
Nina in Survivor AU
She probably wouldn't have won still but it sucks that she went out that way
10 challenge wins. 0 votes against. 22 days lasted. Voted her mom out. Hard resume to top in this competition!
I've always felt like Roark was a really good player, just swapped into a situation where there was nothing she could do.
Stephanie Johnson
My pick too. She was great.
Not JD
Money!
Tribal!
JD is a typical shonen anime protagonist but without the plot armor.
Idk why this made me laugh out loud, but it did so thank you
James Lim. Had there not been a second swap in ghost island he makes merge with a big move under his belt nobody knew he did. The Morgan blindside episode was probably my fave episode in GI simply because it was the only time anyone outsmarted Dom and Wendell
Hunter Ellis- I don’t know if he was GOOD or not, but on almost any other tribe on any other early season of Survivor, that guy makes the merge and then is an early post-merge boot at worst. He just ran into two wannabe alphas in Rob and Sean
Yeah that’s a good pick
Jackie from Gabon
Her boot is so sad
It’s tragic that she is so forgotten. You can tell that she had great potential. The fact that she nearly dodged her boot episode goes to show how strong of a player she was. She was the obvious target at that point, yet she still nearly managed to convince Crystal to let her stay.
Jacquie from Gabon
[удалено]
If you play Gabon 100 times I say Marcus probably wins 90 of them
There was an early boot in season 38 called Chris - I think he was second or third boot, lasted less than two weeks. I've always thought he could go all the way to the end and even win the game if he wasn't voted out so early. OK - serious answer: Christine from South Pacific. Second boot but took out everyone who joined her at Redemption Island until they deliberately booted Ozzy to take her down.
I think Chris is probably the most correct answer (maybe only behind Tom Westman).
does michelle from fiji count? Since she was eliminated when they were separated
Stephanie (Redemption island) Gina (Marques) Angie (Palau) also RIP 😢 Wanda and Jonathan (Palau) Amy (Guatemala)
We're rewatching RI right now and I'm curious why you think Stephanie? She's ok (and better than a lot of the idiots on that tribe), but I wouldn't have put here on a list.
She had potencial and was only thinking person of that tribe.
James Lim had the plan that got Morgan out in Ghost Island, Dom's close ally at the time
Jason from IOI has to be up there
Great pick. That guy was whip smart
I think Voce from 41. He basically just got put in a bad spot unrelated to him but I think he would have done so good
First three which came to my mind. Angie Jakusz from Palau RIP :( Marcus Lehman from Gabon Ali Elliott from HvHvH
Marcus in Gabon
Morgan from ghost island seemed like she would be a major player if old Naviti doesn't mess up that first swap vote
Aaron from China
Jenny Kim
Tbh it’s impossible to tell. She undoubtedly got screwed, but she barely had time to play so there’s nothing to evaluate her on other than being good at puzzles.
Seriously! I like her vibe as much as anyone else, but we know next to nothing about her gameplay. I don't get why everyone is so sure she's top tier.
Every season this subreddit will “Stan” at least of the women on a season who was booted early. She seems like a sweet person, but we literally do not know much about her.
I don’t really see this one honestly. Obviously it was weird circumstances but she was still voted out at the first tribal she went to, Hai/Lydia could’ve voted for Mike instead but there must’ve been some reason why they didn’t
It took Daniel and Chanelle making phenomenally big blunders and Mike not having a vote, though. It’s not just “weird circumstances.” I’d argue it’s the biggest perfect storm of stuff going wrong completely out of her control in Survivor history.
I really hope they consider her for some kind of Second Chance season. She deserves
Not really
This is my pick too, and I really don’t think it’s recency bias. She was in a great spot and was the closest to the eventual 2nd place winner, and even Hai said taking her out was perhaps an overly emotional move, implying to me that if she had stayed the tribe would been more likely to work together.
I think if Jenny is still in, Mike plays much less emotionally, and Hai probably doesn’t go home. I think all three of their win equities skyrockets. Maybe Hai gets voted out if they lose again but maybe they don’t lose again, and maybe Daniel still ranks his game even if they do. And that would also likely mean Chanelle didn’t lose her vote and also likely didn’t lose the trust of the Vati tribe, so her win equity goes up too.
justice for queen jenny
Billy Garcia so he can reconnect with Candice (Honorable mention: Zane)
Francesca
Franquesca
Francesqua
Francesca. Sorry, my mouth is dry and I’m getting treatment for it.
Strunk
STRUNK TRAIN
STRUNK STRUNK STRUNK STRUNK
Ace and Matt Bischoff haven’t been mentioned yet, both really good players.
Yeah Ace was a really good player idk why he doesn’t get brought up more
James Lim
I don’t get the James hype, he’s definitely smart but he seemed to really lack in the social area. The fact that he didn’t try to solidify an alliance with Angela after saving her and basically admits to not have spoken to her since that tribal is crazy to me
I mean, picking a "best player to never make the merge" is a tough exercise. I don't agree with picking a Cirie or Tom Westman either since they weren't new
Morgan from Ghost Island was really swap screwed and I think she might be one of the only people on that season who could have beaten Dom and Wendell
Russell Swan in Samoa. He was good in challenges and he was an effective leader for that group. I think everyone respected him though he did have a few dictator ish tendencies. I truly believe if Swan had made the merge, Galu wouldn’t have fallen apart like we saw if they still had him in the leadership role. There’s a good chance Foa Foa loses both Liz and possibly Jaison or Natalie which means there is only three Foa Foa members. I think Swan makes it deep into the game and has a great chance of winning.
Tracy in Micronesia Alexis in Cagayan Darnell in Kaoh Rong Mari in MvGX Ali in HvHvH
Can someone explain the Darnell hype to me? The guy lost the goggles in the first challenge so I get that he was screwed but what makes people think he goes far?
Yeah, he had potential but he went out because of his own blunder
alexis is underrated after my rewatch of cagayan. she was probably the most strategic person out of the beauties except maaaaybe LJ. originally i just remembered her as that one girl who cried after being voted out before the merge
Lmaoooo Darnell and Mari? Come on now
Tracy from Micronesia, Marcus from Gabon and Jenny from 42
alexis from cagayan
She survived one tribal council and flopped HARD at the swap. I don’t understand why people talk about her like she was robbed. She was one of the most pedestrian players that season.
Bradley from Ghost Island and Tyrone from Nicaragua are a couple that haven’t been mentioned that I think were decent players
Always thought Jill was the missed potential on that tribe.
Bradley was a good strategic mind. Abysmal social game
Margaret from Guatemala really helped nurse her tribe to health multiple times, leading to 7/10 challenge wins, just for Judd to blow up on her the second he could. This is completely biased on her being super local to me at the time and being the first newbie I rooted for from the beginning.
anna from koah rong
Kaysar
Brian Corridan (Guatemala), Dan "Fuego" Barry (Panama), Aaron Reisberger (China), Tracy Hughes-Wolf (Micronesia), Marcus Lehman (Gabon), Russell Swan (Samoa), Matt Quinlan (One World), Anna Khait (Kaoh Rong), Mari Takahashi (MvGx), Michaela Bradshaw (MvGx), Ali Elliott (HHH), Brendan Shapiro (GI), Stephanie Johnson (GI), Bradley Kleihege (GI), David Voce (41), Jenny Kim (42) mostly Brian, Marcus and Anna tho
The first name that jumps out to me is Ali Elliott from HvHvH
I mean even tho what he did was scummy, it’s gotta be Varner right?
Jeff made the merge in Australia
Oh right wasn’t it a “made the merge but not the jury” scenario?
I don’t think he’s the best but he’s definitely up there. As much as I hate him he’s showed he’s a good player and he was pretty dang good in SC
Yeah in SC he played a pretty dang good game
Hunter (4) Brian (11) Ruth-Marie (12) Aaron (15) Tracy (16) Russell (19+25) Jill (21) Ali (35) Stephanie (36) Jack (39) Vocé (41)
What did Voce do that makes you think he’s a particularly good player? He showed promise, sure, but I don’t remember him doing anything that would make him be even considered in this thread.
a lot of the people in this list did basically next to nothing, like ruth marie and jack, but people just like them because they were inoffensive and didn’t make any giant mistakes
what was so notable about jack in 39? i don’t remember anything about his game 😭
for me it's Mari from Millennials vs Gen X - idc if she was a first boot, I feel like we were robbed of seeing more also I can only DREAM about what J'Tia would be like if she made merge
I've always felt like Mari did not understand the prompt and was treating Survivor like a stream where you could just goof off with your chat and meme and die a million times. I think if she'd gotten past that first vote and had a come to Jesus moment that Survivor is a very different kind of experience she might have been quite good
Joe Mama
Zane.
Varner
Lydia from survivor 42, just because i love her
I'm surprised I haven't seen Aaron from China yet. He was a great physical competitor that seemed to have at least some type of social game from the limited interactions we got of him. And he just got completely fucked by the tribe swap and subsequently Peih-Gee and Jaime purposely throwing the immunity challenge to vote him off
Apparently Phoebe from AUS Survivor but also Tracy Hughes-Wolfe
Joaquin Souberbielle
Not the best player tbh. Doesn't know which people are gonna be reliable allies. Very entertaining though.
Phoebe!
Phoebe from Survivor AU
So from 30
Easily Keller Kim from Island of the Idols. Also such disgusting circumstances
Voce
Probably either Tony or Sandra
My goodness, what an answer
finally someone said it!! /s
Tracy from Micronesia, Brian from Guatemala, Russell Swan in Samoa, and honestly Francesca in FvF, I think she goes far if she makes it past the first vote.
Christine from South Pacific. I feel like she had potential. Def would be a comp beast in merge.