Board 8 > Survivor: Game Changers Topic 5: At Least It's Better Than Cambodia

(+) Yeah! (+)

Pokewars posted...

Triple H to win the season.

I feel like "It's time to play the game" should be one of Probst's catch phrases this season.
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that was not the definition of hustler i was expecting
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Lmao BELLHOP BOY #1
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I can't believe there's not even a subtitle or location to call this season by shorthand.
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Just looked over Aubry's twitter and had no idea she was local! In hoping that I would one day see her, I remembered that last week, I could've sworn I chatted with Stephenie LaGrossa for about two minutes at work. Same voice, same eyebrows, face, straighter hair, just asking questions about the theater.

I live in the same town as Jeremy and Val and have never seen them. If my first non-con Survivor meeting was with Stephenie, that is awesome.

EDIT: And I'm just realizing there's a Smash tournament I could've worked.; I could've met Ken, or maybe even Stingers!
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Cambodia was rad. Dunno how good it holds up now but I would rate it top 15 at worst.
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It'll be HHH or HvHvH.
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The Mana Sword posted...

I can't believe there's not even a subtitle or location to call this season by shorthand.

At least it's an easier title than Millennials vs. Gen X
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God DAMMIT Varner.
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That about caps this season off.

Thank god we all survived. We did it!
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ok nevermind, Varner circled back around to looking worse than Sarah.

What a great 'competition'
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Ciera, Tony, Caleb, J.T., Hali, and Andrea didn't get to speak. Did I miss anyone?
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hey here's some good news to counteract this season

I'm going to watch the genius on the off-season!
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The Mana Sword posted...

hey here's some good news to counteract this season

I'm going to watch the genius on the off-season!

EVERYONE should do this.

It's 4 seasons of amazing competitive reality TV on just about every aspect.
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Looking at/updating season rankings, GC comes in at 26th and Cambodia/MvGX come in at 21st and 22nd respectively.
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kleenex do you have the contestant cheat sheet for season 1 of the genius? it helps a lot to keep track of who is who.
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if i had to guess i'd say game changers was around 25th rank area and mvgx around 15th
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i'd love to make a definitive "survivor series ranking" but its been so long since i've seen most of the early seasons and i don't have the time to rewatch everything that thoroughly :\
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I'm gonna put MvGX at 24, Game Changers at 25, Cambodia at 26. All have the same fucking problems with format and overabundance of twists.
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The more Ithink of it, I want more fuck up seasons like WA (which I am currently watching) than "strategy" pileups like this one.

Like this is a mess at times, but you know what word I havent heard a prominent character use ? "options".
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Eddv posted...

The more Ithink of it, I want more fuck up seasons like WA (which I am currently watching) than "strategy" pileups like this one.

Like this is a mess at times, but you know what word I havent heard a prominent character use ? "options".

Worlds Apart is 27.

4 of the last five seasons have been below average due to horrific editing.
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I wish Survivor opened up casting to Canadians =/


Any PATRIOTIC American want to marry me so I can sign up for Survivor? I'll bring home the bacon, I swear!
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Fun fact: Had the Legacy Advantage not existed, Aubry most likely wins Game Changers.

Sarah gets voted out at F6 in 3-2-1, at F5 Troyzan goes, at F4 Cirie goes (since Brad wins immunity).

F3 is Aubry/Tai/Brad. I figure Aubry takes that.
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That's not a fun fact; that's a sad fact :(
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damn, maybe they wouldn't have hit her with an inexplicable invisible edit then
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Peridiam posted...

Fun fact: Had the Legacy Advantage not existed, Aubry most likely wins Game Changers.

Sarah gets voted out at F6 in 3-2-1, at F5 Troyzan goes, at F4 Cirie goes (since Brad wins immunity).

F3 is Aubry/Tai/Brad. I figure Aubry takes that.

Why torture me like this.

A season Aubry wins is probably so much better - look at her journey
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If I'm being honest, knee-jerk reaction to having just finished this season is ranking it dead last.

No, it's definitely better than RI/SP/OW imo.
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I'll give you SP, but would need to watch OW again to judge. My favorite Survivor player won RI though, so I'll never agree with its lack of popularity.

Actually nah I like SP more.

I just want to be on a good season. Is that too much to ask?
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Must we with the themed seasons? Heroes/Healers/Hustlers? Seriously?

I guess the theme will likely fly out the window after the first few episodes, but still. Kind of a bummer it feels the need to constantly market itself as some sort of twist on the game.

catching up on some old thoughts in past posts


legacy advantage: I wouldn't mind the "willing" part of it staying, but I think immunity needs to change, but I'm not sure how. Maybe like a secret chest with a bit of extra food each day or something, I dont know

cambodia vs game changers: I feel like cambodia is a generally above average base with a few peaks around (I liked the idols at challenges, abi stuff, fishbach stuff). game changers was like a season falling off a very high cliff right at the merge, and then trying to climb out with a few fun tribals at the end. Cambodia wins.
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Eddv posted...

How on earth does Varner come out of this looking better than Sarah?

he didnt. he made it about him and plugged his business and book
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Inviso posted...

Cambodia's cohesive storyline was about robots being robots. I'd rather have interesting personalities than a bunch of robots just trying to outgame one another.

At least fishbach was a malfunctioning robot

and interesting personalities you would not get in game changers!
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Eddv posted...

ok nevermind, Varner circled back around to looking worse than Sarah.

thumbs up
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GTM posted...

legacy advantage: I wouldn't mind the "willing" part of it staying, but I think immunity needs to change, but I'm not sure how. Maybe like a secret chest with a bit of extra food each day or something, I dont know

I think it's fine if it has the power of the Immunity Necklace but being able to be played at the same time as idols is too powerful imo.
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Culpepper should have won they didnt want to give him the m9ney beacuse he was a pro athlete bullshit
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Of the four most recent seasons I have Kaoh-Rong at 11, MvGX at 16, and Cambodia at 26. Game Changers is going to be very hard to place because it was hugely entertaining but the price was that it embodied everything I dislike about post-Hantz Survivor.
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finally watching the finale

that first tribal is such horseshit
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I am not good at arguing and it would definitely be an uphill battle because I am the only one that appears to even remotely likes Sarah it seems. I am going to make a point against this season and for Sarah and I'll rebuttal with a couple people but then I'll be done.

I don't know how anyone can sit there and say that Sarah is a horrible winner. She was a dominating winner. In the seasons that are often considered boring they are won by winners that have complete control and that was Sarah's game. There was only one time they were coming after here and she was able to save herself based on the her ability to play Sierra and giving her the legacy advantage. Sarah was not only on every vote but she was a defining person on the votes. To be able to do that and not get chopped off at the end is a one of the more impressive wins in Survivor history. And here's the thing. People hating this win being hypocrites in the terms of what they want from their winners. Think of Aubry and Russell. Yes, Sarah was not as entertaining as either of them. (I'll get to that.) Aubry and Russell controlled the game strategically and lost because of the way the people felt about her. Sarah won despite that and to argue her against Russell she controlled more of the game than even he did in Samoa. To call her a terrible winner awful, just awful, because you are against her as a character not as a player. You cannot tout that she is a bad winner but in the same mindset think that Aubry or Stephen should have won the game.

What I will not argue is Sarah as a character. This is where she was lacking. This is where she admittedly says she is lacking. She's monotone and she has a dry sense of humor and the editors over did it. I was talking about this last night, you can save Sarah as a character by cutting her confessionals in half. You can have her talk about the "playing like a criminal" and "I'm not leaving my son if I am not going to win" without her dominating the screen time like she did. Honestly, if you cut Sarah's confessionals in half and give them to Troyzan, Aubry, or maybe Cirie. This is probably a much better season and people have a higher impression of Sarah. However, despite all of this, you cannot take that away from win. TO SAY THAT SHE IS WORSE THAN FABIO MAKES ME SICK!

Before I talk about the season, let me talk about the FTC. I don't know why people like Inviso are complaining. This format prevents people from doing the things he hates like the Reed speeches or all of the "David Murphy's." Yeah we had a sort of stump by Zeke but because of the openness of this format it allows Ozzy to turn around and do the same thing from Brad. This kind of back and forward communication allows the ability to turn a jury around that could potentially prevent a Michelle/Aubry scenario. The only problem with it is that for the people that think that producers cheat for their favorites (which they cannot or else there is no way in hell Tony goes out second this season) and Jeff talked too much. That's it the openness added something to FTC that has not been there.

The season as a whole is worse than Cambodia. In Cambodia, while the editing was uneven, at least had a story the whole time. You have Spencer turning human and Jeremy doing this for the fam. Game Changers was episodic. Things really carried over from week to week. If you were a casual you wouldn't have been able to follow as well or pick people to cheer for. Tonight, I had to remind my parents of all of the advantages that were in the game that lead to Cirie going home. I need to point one thing in the season favor that bothers me about others. People blame the characters the added, myself included, but you need to judge them but what they bring to this season not their past games. I hated when Eddv was texting me saying the casting was the problem. Be open to the people they have here. Brad was good. Sarah was good. Even poor Troyzan was good! I hate the 'They sucked the 1st time so they suck now' attitude.
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Sorry for the wall of text. I wanted to talk but I couldn't because I really needed to go to bed.
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AdmiralZephyr posted...

Ciera, Tony, Caleb, J.T., Hali, and Andrea didn't get to speak. Did I miss anyone?

Debbie? Did she say anything at reunion?
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It was 7. How do you have 2 former winners who were both involved in big moments not talk.

Also, you guys need to cool it with the "fuck the producers thing" that is like the most annoying internet fanboy thing to do. It is part of the game and the players are the ones that need to diffuse it. What happened to Cirie sucks but she kind of was screwed to begin with when she tried to save Sarah. She still had Aubry and Michaela. Worse case scenario she goes into final 6 with a 2v2v2 and she has a better social game than Brad and Troy.
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I like Sarah, her deadpan metaphor confessionals are kinda hilarious because I legitimately can't tell if she's being serious or not. I feel like the editors wanted me to take her seriously but I really couldn't. I also love how the editors constantly put shots of Sarah's glasses reflecting fire; how fucking badass is that? Also, don't knock down her gameplay; she really killed it imo. Voting out Sierra to get her advantage without making her realize she basically organized that whole vote was everything, especially considering it happened right after Sarah had openly flipped on Sierra.

I think people here are overreacting on how terrible this season was tbh. Go rewatch RI, Caramoan, OW or even Cambodia if you dare, it's really not quite that bad. I put it around WoAp tier in "great pre-merge, eh merge". It really deflated once Sandra left; we lost too many of the big personalities that would drive the entertainment in succession. At least Caleb had the decency to fuck off early?

Oh, and the FTC twist. Horrible.
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Finally.
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What was so bad about the FTC twist?
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Impromptu ranking, will probably change a bit as I reflect upon the season in the coming months.

1. Sandra
2. Tony
3. Debbie
4. Tai
5. Cirie
6. Aubry
7. Brad (finale hurt him immensely, I was ready to put him top 4 before last night)
8. Michaela
9. Andrea
10. Zeke
11. Troy
12. Sierra
13. Malcolm
14. Ozzy
15. Hali
16. J.T.
17. Ciera
18. Caleb
19. Sarah
20. Varner (I was just about to put him above Sarah until he shamelessly plugged his book at the end and once again tried to make the moment about him instead of Zeke)
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Peridiam posted...

What was so bad about the FTC twist?

imo, jury speeches are some of the most character-driven points of the season and have consistently given us some of the top moments in Survivor history. A universe in which a juror can't personally address the finalists robs us of so much potential in favor of an open discussion that feels more like jurors trying to convince each other with their preconceived ideas than anything. The only upside is that we managed to skip Zeke giving a Spencer/Jenn Brown/David Murphy/what have you kind of speech, which he had tooootally prepared. But to me it's taking away the power of individual jurors and I'm not here for it.

If I can't have moments like Sue's speech, Trish's speech, or even something like Kelly Wigs' or Savage's speeches in Cambodia, I just feel like I'm missing on one of my favorite parts of the whole series. It often gets so wonderfully personal and closes these people as characters in a grand story. I don't want to live in a universe in which Zoe Zanidakis isn't a meme.
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I wholely agree with Surskit. In addition to it just being the dramatic climax of the season, I've always loved the fact that there's no specific criteria on which the jury has to vote for a winner, and with this format it's like the producers are trying their hardest to MAKE them vote upon their own criteria basically stopping just short of literally forcing their hand to vote the way the producers want.
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