Nonetheless, this is my blog, so I will be doing my rankings. As if I need to further disqualify myself, you should be warned that, although I am a hardcore Survivor fan, I am not a longtime fan. While I used to watch Survivor a long time ago (around Pearl Islands), I have little recollection of those seasons and only recently got back into Survivor (around Philippines). So to give my qualifications, here are the seasons I have watched.
- Survivor: Borneo
- Survivor: China
- Survivor: Micronesia
- Survivor: Gabon
- Survivor: Tocantins
- Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
- Survivor: South Pacific
- Survivor: Philippines
- Survivor: Caramoan
- Survivor: Blood vs. Water
- Survivor: Guatemala
- Survivor: Panama
- Survivor: One World
Ok, so without further ado, let's get to it. This will be part 1 of my rankings. We'll start from the back.
SURVIVOR SCRUTINY TOP 20
#20: Natalie Bolton
Although she never won immunity, Natalie was a strong physical competitor and very well-liked by her tribemates, even while delivering great, cutting confessionals. Although Cirie, Amanda, and Parvati are usually give all the credit in the Black Widows alliance, Alexis and Natalie were certainly instrumental in it's success as well. Natalie was much more under the radar and trusted by the other castaways than, say, Parvati; without her, Erik would never have given up his immunity necklace. I truly believe that had Natalie won the final two immunities instead of Amanda, she would have beaten Amanda and had a great shot against Cirie or Parvati. I don't know why they haven't brought her back yet.
#19: Jonathan Penner
For a person who never placed better than 7th throughout 3 Survivor seasons, Jonathan Penner sure seems to know a lot about how to play the game. While he may not have come out on top after
matching wits with Yul and competing against Ozzy in Cook Islands, he still played a good game and was voted out because of that. I'm not really counting Micronesia here because he was medivaced, but he was in a pretty good position there as well.
In Philippines, Penner really took his game to a new level. He used the idol to as leverage to work his way into a decent alliance with Jeff, Carter, and Denise on Kalabaw. Come the merge, he was everyone's number 1 target, and yet he was able to survivor 4 more tribal councils by having the intuition to use his idol at the right time, pulling out a crucial immunity win, and above all, using his brilliant social gameplay to work with Lisa and Skupin. His one fatal mistake was refusing a final four deal with them, and I believe that if he had accepted, there's a fair chance he would be a millionaire right now.
#18: "Coach" Benjamin Wade
Before South Pacific, I wouldn't put Coach anywhere near the top 20. He was certainly entertaining (and arrogant) in Tocantins, and made it far, but it was clear he was never going to win. Coach played a smarter game in Heroes vs. Villains, even though he was voted out early. But just like Penner, it was his third time out where he shined.
After making a final 5 alliance on day 1 (which held together through the whole season), Coach expertly controlled his own tribe, Upolu, sending home his enemy Christine the first chance he got. When the merge came, Coach was smart and charismatic enough to convince Cochran to flip on Savaii, dooming them all. After the pagonging was complete, he was able to maneuver past the rest of his own alliance, sending home Edna, Rick, and Brandon in the process.
When Ozzy returned to the game, Coach briefly entertained the thought of "taking the most worthy person to the end." Good thing he didn't. They sent home Ozzy and Coach entered the Final Tribal Council with his two lieutenants, Sophie and Albert, by his side. Then, Coach expertly convinced the jury to hand him the million dollars and walked away the winner.
Wait, what's that? He didn't? Oh, right. Because he was beaten by...
#17: Sophie Clarke
Truthfully, I feel like Coach would have been a more entertaining and more deserving winner. But no. Sophie won. And she's definitely (although I hate to say this; I am not a Sophie fan) an underrated player. While Coach was running the alliance, holding prayer circles, and talking about honor and integrity, Sophie sat back and watched.
She was never "in control" of the game the way Coach was because she never needed to be...so we never saw all that much of her, except when she was stopping Albert from doing something stupid.
Sophie was certainly strategic, however, and I think that if she didn't want to go to the end with Coach, she would eventually have found a way to vote him out.
Physically, she was probably the best out there except for Ozzy himself, and even beat him in that final, critical immunity. And what clenched her victory was her under the radar playing strategy; at the Final Tribal, while Coach was taking all the heat for saying one thing and doing another, Sophie was delivering a good (not great) performance.
That's all for now, I'll continue with the list another day. Stay tuned!
What do you guys think? Have an issue with my placement of Survivors? What's your top 20? Comment below!
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