It never ceases to amaze me that the contestants on this show don't know who are the right people to bring to the end. Well, other than Boston Rob, because he did a fine job of bringing the correct people to the end last year. Not bringing Rick to the end was the worst idea any of these people had. The same is true of kicking Brandon to the curb.
The problem lies at the root of Coach's strategy and all around goal in life. You never want to surround yourself with the best in this game. At the end, you want to be sitting next those players that did absolutely nothing, nobody liked, and have no way of convincing the jury they deserve to win.
If Coach had sat next to any combination of Albert, Rick, Brandon, and Edna in the finale, he would have left with the million dollars. After all, he didn't play a bad game. Like Edna explained in her fantastic speech at final tribal, he used religion to create a bond within his tribe. That bond, and the fact that he was at the head of it, propelled him to the very end of Survivor.
The problem lied in the fact that Sophie did something things here and there to warrant herself a victory. In the end, her ability to put her strategy and what she accomplished into words in front of the jury, won her this game.
That is what I love about Survivor. Each and every season it is something different that wins the contestant the prize. Sometimes it's being the nicest person in camp (Bob from Maine). Sometimes it's riding coat tails and not being hated as much as who you're sitting next to (Russell's Natalie). Sometimes it's playing a great strategic game and bringing pitiful candidates to the end (Boston Rob).
And sometimes, as was the case with Sophie this time around, it is doing just enough in every facet of the game to warrant a win, but then explaining yourself with so much more eloquence than anyone else that it's hard not to believe you deserve to win the whole darn thing.
Whether Sophie really did as good of a job figuring out what the tribe was all about and finding her place in it as she said or not, she convinced enough people of that to win the prize. Good for her.
Did Coach deserve to win? Maybe a little bit more than Sophie, but he also deserved to lose way more than Sophie. He did some outright dumb things in this game, and when he actually thought about bringing Ozzy with him to the end, I absolutely lost it!
Between Coach, Brandon, and Cochran, I enjoyed this season a bunch. I grew to hate Ozzy a lot of the course of the fall, so I have no idea why he won the Fan Vote by such a gigantic margin. Why does America love this guy? Well I guess they also like themselves some Rupert, so America is just dumb.
...
Can we now talk for a second about how awesome Russell's cameo was? This dude will never get over the fact that he was the GOAT but nobody will ever admit it. He is astonished that Brandon wanted to change the Hantz name on Survivor, because he made this game what it is today! I love that he took all of his 45 seconds to trash his nephew's play and state once again that he is the GOAT. Well done sir.
...
And on to fantasy. Let me first say how embarrassed I am of our league that the Champions failed to pick the winner. 16 players drafted, two left out to dry, and one of those two was Sophie. The Developmental League wasn't that much better, as Tippy selected the eventual winner in the final round of their draft. This goes to show you that is always difficult to pick which random girl is going to make if far in this game. It's much easier to pick which alpha males are going to go far, which is why they're always first off of the board.
Congratulations to Larry for hanging on and winning his first ever Quiet Pool Fantasy Survivor Championship! He is the last of the four originals to win this Survivor Game. Let's take a look at the history...
Fall 2011: Larry
Spring 2011: Jaydon
Fall 2010: Dan
Spring 2010: Jaydon
Fall 2009: Jaydon
Spring 2009: Jaydon
Fall 2008: Mags
Mags, who has not won since the first ever season of Fantasy Survivor, came in last this time around and will be relegated to the Developmental League come spring time. Jack, in his first ever Fantasy Survivor appearance, won the "B" League and will join Larry, Jaydon and myself in the Champions League in 2012.
Champions League
Larry
Brandon +468: Duel Loss (-10)= +458
Rick +529: Votes (-12)= +517
Last Week +1,057: Team Total= +1,139
Jaydon
Ozzy +52: Duel Win (+10), Immunity (+20), W16 (+121), Votes (-12)= +191
Last Week +786: Team Total= +925
Dan
Albert +565: W16 (+121), Votes (-4), W17 (+137)= +819
Last Week +584: Team Total= +838
Mags
Coach +591: W16 (+121), W17 (+137)= +849
Last Week +187: Team Total= +445
Free Agents
Sophie +643: Votes (-8), W16 (+121), Immunity (+20), W17 (+137), Sole Survivor (+154)= +1,067
Developmental League
Jack
Albert: W16 (+121), Votes (-4), W17 (+137)= +254
Coach: W16 (+121), W17 (+137)= +258
Finale= +512, Team Total= +2,384
Tippy
Ozzy: Duel Win (+10), Immunity (+20), W16 (+121), Votes (-12)= +139
Sophie: Votes (-8), W16 (+121), Immunity (+20), W17 (+137), Sole Survivor (+154)= +424
Finale= +563, Team Total= +1,628
Marsh
Rick: Votes (-12)= -12
Finale= -12, Team Total= +808
Rizzo
Finale= 0, Team Total= +680
Free Agents
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