#16: Amanda Kimmel
When you look at her stats like days played (108), individual wins (5), and average season placing (4.66), she looks pretty good. So why isn't Amanda higher up? Well, it has to do with her perception of the game.
First, perception. Both of her first two times playing the game, Amanda reached the Final Tribal Council and then completely bungled her speech and responses to questions. She did alright in China, but needed to be better than "alright" to combat Todd, who had the greatest jury responses of all time (more on that later). And in Fans vs. Favorites, Amanda clearly had no perception of how the jury viewed her. She envisioned, and tried to portray herself as a loyal, trusting member of an alliance (with James and Ozzy) who was forced to go along with the Black Widows, worked with them in the endgame, and then won the last two immunities. Overall, Amanda felt she played a more honest game than Parvati, and that's definitely true.
But it's not what the jurors wanted! While Amanda was the loyal, honest player, Parvati was the cunning, lying, backstabbing manipulator (again, more on that later) who was in control of the game, and the jurors rewarded her for it. Amanda only got the votes of the people she was going to get no matter what: Ozzy, who professed his love for her, James, and Jason.
I'm going to skip over Heroes vs. Villains, because I don't feel like she did anything notably good or bad, and was voted out in a respectable, but not great, 9th place. Comment below to tell me if I forgot anything important that Amanda did in that season, except for running like a fish.
But enough Amanda bashing! I did rank her as the 16th best player to ever play the game, after all. Because, for all her faults when she gets to the Final Tribal Council, she got there twice! Back to back! The only other player to do that (and coincidentally, also lost both times) is Russell Hantz, who we will be talking about later on.
Amanda certainly has a lot of assets as well; in both China and FvF, she won the final two immunity challenges, and was certainly the most athletic of her Black Widow alliance. She and Todd were able to control the game in China, and she certainly did something to convince Parvati to keep her the next season. So overall, Amanda is a very good player who will never win the game...and actually, she's quite similar to Russell in this regard.
#15: J.T. Thomas
J.T., the first guy to play a "perfect" game. He won the final three immunities in a row, pulled his little tribe of 3 to the end, and everybody loved him. So why (spoiler) do I have Stephen Fishbach ranked higher than him. Well, maybe this is true for many winners, but I think this guy was just lucky.
He was lucky to be in a merged tribe where EVERYONE loved J.T. Coach went out of the way to create the "Warrior Alliance" and Debbie was literally prepared to sacrifice herself so he could win, if necessary. So I feel that Stephen, who had to work to get to the end, deserves more credit.
But let's be fair to J.T. here; he played a great game. Everyone did love J.T., and that's at least in part due to his great social game. And physically, he was a challenge beast. As I said, he won three immunities, and he was also a dominant force in the tribal portion of the game.
However, coming back to Heroes vs. Villains against more experienced players who aren't all starstruck by him, J.T. soon found himself in trouble. After flipping back in forth between alliances, he was lucky to get into a group that stuck together, but was the first one out after the merge.
His move of giving Russell the idol was the 2nd dumbest play of all time (after Erik's immunity bungle). After, all, like Russell said (I'm paraphrasing here), "You never give an idol to the enemy. Especially when the enemy is Russell Hantz. I'm the greatest player of all tiiiiiime baby. I'm Russell Haaaantz." Ok so maybe he doesn't say that last part. At least, not then. We'll talk about Russell another time.
In summary, J.T. is socially savvy and physically fit but dumb when it comes to strategy, and without Stephen, he had no idea what to do.
#14: John Cochran
The other Sole Survivor to play a perfect game, Cochran edges out J.T. by just a bit. Although he's certainly not a challenge threat by any stretch of the word (and the people who insist he is because he won 3 immunities are wrong; he had advantages in two of the immunity challenges, so the only 2 challenges he won fairly were the food challenge and the card stacking reward), but he is certainly a strategic mastermind.
In South Pacific, he was pretty terrible, I'll freely admit. Entertaining, but terrible. But in Caramoan, he started playing hard from the get go. Even in that first vote against Francesca, Cochran maneuvered himself and Dawn into the dominant alliance, keeping them happy and safe until the swap. He and Dawn, if you go back and watch the next two episodes, make some very smart strategic moves if you look closely.
On to the merge. I was impressed with Cochran's gameplay all the way through, even though I was heavily rooting for Malcolm and Reynold, and I was definitely sad when the Three Amigos were split up (though perhaps not as sad as this girl). Anyway, Cochran was able to overcome the opposition alliance, sending home Corinne, Michael, Malcolm, Reynold, and eventually Eddie.
Cochran's best moves, however, are the blindsides of Brenda and Andrea (although Brenda's oust was spearheaded by Dawn). Both times, the girls felt very confident, especially in the case of Andrea. It's not every day that someone is voted out with an idol.
By this point in the endgame, Cochran has gotten himself into a spot where he is pretty much guaranteed the win; there are no other worthy opponents. And he takes Sherri, who has done nothing the whole merge, and Dawn, who everyone hates, to the end with him. A very good showing by our friend John, and as said before, a perfect game. The only reason he isn't closer to the top 10 is that he never really made a huge move in the game...I suppose Andrea's blindside was good, but there was never serious opposition for Cochran to overcome.
These entries were long, so we'll continue with #13 another time. What do you think of my picks? Tell me what you think below in the comments. See ya later.
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