Post by SurvivorOfLife on Feb 28, 2015 15:24:16 GMT
www.survivorfanwiki.com/page/Survivor+Strategy
Strategy in survivor has three main phases.
1. The Competitive Phase
Intially team play is at the forefront. Untill the merge, every episode has a winning team and a losing team, and winning immunity as a tribe is works for all members of that tribe. In the competivie world then there is about a 50% chance your team can win, and then if they don't a "1-in-how-many-are we?" chance on average. If "how many are we?" is large, then the overall risk of being voted off is small and increasing the overall teams winning percentage is the easiest wat to make everones personal risk smaller. Thus the dominant strategy for most players is to win as a team. For a brief period, captains, einsteins, and athletes have a hey-day as their talents are appreciated for the good of the team. The competitive phase lasts for 1-5 episodes. The competive phase will end as soon as alliances harden on a team, because . . .
2. The Bottleneck
As the "how many are we?" on a team is reduced, not losing at tribal council starts to dominate any concept of team strategy. If you think you are targeted, or aren't part of an solid alliance with the majority of votes, that probability "if we lose as a team what is my chance of being voted off?" shoots up and schemers flirts and oddballs stir things up while followers and nobodies shift their allegiances to stay away from the axe. In the bottleneck, players take either an offensive or defensive stance. Players on offence declare their intentions and try to sway others, by proposing alliances or justifying their rationale for choosing a victim. Players on defence don't go out and declare their preferences, but keep their own plans to themselves while trying to exploit, as in judo, the momentum of the offensive players.
3. The Endgame
In this phase, players generally have to revert to whatever their strongest role is - strategies and alliances become less useful as numbers decrease and sheer self interest combined with immunity challenges decide the fate of all.
What roles do the Survivors take on?
In the early days of Survivor--way back in 2002--Mark Burnett wrote about the different strategic roles Survivors exhibited: The Flirt, the Leader, the Underdog, the Entertainer, the Mother, etc.
Survivor has changed over the years, and so have the strategies.
* What are the best strategies being used today?
* What current or former Survivor is the best example of each?
* Which strategy is the most successful? (Analyze the top three from each season.)
Individual Strategic Roles
Players switch roles all the time - almost every week, but for most contestants there range is naturally limited. Flirts can't really become nobodies. Oddballs can't become athletes. On the other hand, anyone can become a follower or a schemer. To win a player has to keep track of what role each other player is currently adopting, and mainly avoid being in the crosshairs - being either too weak or too threatening. Trying to be in control is a temporarily effective strategy, but taking power more than twice is usally enough to get labeled as threat.
The Captain (offence)
Required Ability: Leadership
Advantage: Having followers.
Vulnerability: Being Feared, Competition for leader.
Natural Ally: The Follower
Sworn Enemy: The schemer.
In FvsF, Mikey, who tried to play Captain too much too early. A fast exit was the price. He could have played Nobody, but their problem is that they have a hard time sitting back and watching other people screw up. By playing captain, and allying with a flirt he forced Joel, who started out playing athlete, into the role of schemer. In HvsV, Boston Rob played a decent game playing the Captain of the Villains tribe. However, Russell was on the tribe and voted Rob out before the jury phase.
The Oddball (defence)
Required ability: Eccentricity or being disliked or being useless.
Advantage: Being ignored.
Vulnerability: Being a liability to the team.
Natural Ally: The Nobody.
Sworn Enemy: The Athlete
In FvsF there was a brief but wonderful dominance by "Oddball nation" Two oddballs (Kathy, Chet) made common cause with nobodies (Tracy) and schemers (Joel) to destroy a Captain-Flirt-Follower alliance.
The Fool (defence)
Required ability: To make people laugh.
Advantage: Being liked, but not feared.
Vulnerability: Not being trusted. Unable to sway.
Natural Ally: The Follower
Sworn Enemy: None
Dreamz got to the final two playing the fool, it was a natural fit, too natural because he couldnt switch out of it when he got to the final four.
The Flirt (offence)
Required Ability: Attractiveness.
Advantage: Being desired.
Vulnerability: Betrayal
Natural Ally: The Athlete
Sworn Enemy: The Nobody
In FvFs Parvati, Natalie, Alexis, and Amanda flirted their way into the top 6. In HvV, Parvati and Jerri to an extent used this strategy. Jerri with Coach and Parvati with Russell.
The Nobody (defence)
Required ability: Being forgettable.
Advantage: Under the radar.
Vulnerability: Being expendable.
Natural Ally: The Schemer
Sworn enemy: The Flirt
Danni in survivor Guatemala was shown very little, but it won her the million dollars.
The Athlete (depends)
Required Ability: Athletic skill
Advantage: Winning immunity
Vulnerability: Being a target.
Natural Ally: The flirt.
Sworn Enemy: The Follower
Week 9 Jason switches (perhaps not intentionally) from Nobody to athlete, waiting to be taken advantage of by a flirt.
Follower: (offence)
Required Ability: Loyalty
Advantage: Being in an alliance.
Vulnerability: Being in an alliance.
Natural Ally: The Captian
Sworn Enemy: The Oddball
Erik in FvsF switched from nobody to schemer to follower.
Schemer (offence)
Required ability: Cleverness
Advantage: Playing the Angles
Vulnerability: Being hated.
Natual Ally: The Athlete
Sworn Enemy: The Captain
In recent Survivor seasons, when one hears schemer one usually thinks: Russell Hantz.
The Guru (defence)
Required Ability: Intellectual skill
Advantage: Winning immunity
Vulnerability: Being on the outside.
Natural Ally: The Captain
Sworn Enemy: None
Yau-man was the ultimate guru, a brainy and respected player who is not particularly threatening to anyone but useful as a team member or alliance partner. Winning as a guru involves, being needed in the competitive phase. Being non-threatening in the bottleneck, and being a potential final two partner for an offensive player, like a captain, athelete or schemer.
1. The Exhibitionist: Richard Hatch! , Julie Berry
2. The Mother: Tina Wesson, Jan Gentry, Teresa Cooper, Lydia Morales, Laura
3. The Sweetheart: Colleen Haskell, Elisabeth Filarski-Hasselbeck, Amber Brkich (seas. 2), Amanda Kimmel, Cirie Fields
4. The Redneck: Tom Buccanan, Susan Hawk, Travis Sampson aka Bubba, James Miller, Twila Tanner
5. The Loudmouth/Loose Canon: Shane Powers, James Reid aka "Rocky", Judd Sergeant, Eliza Orlins, Twila Tanner
6. Captain America: Tom Westman, Terry Dietz, Gary Hogeboom, Colby Donaldson and Ozzy Lusth
7. The Flirt: Jenna Morasca, Julie Berry, Amber Brkich, Parvarti(seas. 13)......the list goes on!
8. The Nerd: Yul Kwon, Yau-Man Chan, Ryan Shoulders, Sean Kenniff, Ian Rosenberger
9. The Pretty Boy: Colby Donaldson, Alex Bell, Adam Gentry, Ian Rosenberger, Erik Huffman
10. The Ancient: Rudy Boesch, Paschal English, Jake Billingsley, Jim Lynch, Willard Smith, Scout Cloud Lee
11. The Puppetmaster: Rob Cesternino, Rob Mariano, Brian Heidik, Brian Corridan, John Carroll, Todd Hezhog, Cirie Fields, Parvati Shallow
12. The Stealth Player: Vecepia Towery, Jennifer Lyon, Sandra Diaz-Twine, Denise Martin, Erik Huffman
13. The Independent Thinker: Christy Smith, Sean Kenniff, , Peih Gee Law
14. The Not-all-with-it: Courtney Marit, Lex van den Berghe, Matthew von Ertfelda, Shane Powers,
15. The Weak attached with the strong: Katie Gallagher, Courtney Yates,
16. The Lovable: Cassandra Franklin, Cirie Fields, Sundra Oakley, Amanda Kimmel, Ethan, Lydia Moarales, Taj.
Some of these "roles" hardly seem strategic. Flirting is a strategy, Redneck is not.
Group/Alliance Strategies:
The weakest link
Voting off the strongest members
Think short-term or long-term?
Allying weak member with strong member (Tina and Colby, Katie and Ian, Becky and Yul)
Vote off Weak, then Strong, then Weak, then Strong
It can all come down to the Final Immunity, where some Survivors are made or broken. Look at the picks for the Final 2.
When push comes to shove, Survivor is all about lasting long enough to make the end game and having a jury that likes you (as Earl did) and / or does not like the other player (as Chris pulled off). You need to figure out how to make the end game, with whom ON the jury or NOT on the jury, with whom FACING the jury, how to get you BOTH there, and how to avoid losing those votes you already have. That's it. And yes, the makeup of the jury DOES matter.
Survivor Message Boards
Strategy in survivor has three main phases.
1. The Competitive Phase
Intially team play is at the forefront. Untill the merge, every episode has a winning team and a losing team, and winning immunity as a tribe is works for all members of that tribe. In the competivie world then there is about a 50% chance your team can win, and then if they don't a "1-in-how-many-are we?" chance on average. If "how many are we?" is large, then the overall risk of being voted off is small and increasing the overall teams winning percentage is the easiest wat to make everones personal risk smaller. Thus the dominant strategy for most players is to win as a team. For a brief period, captains, einsteins, and athletes have a hey-day as their talents are appreciated for the good of the team. The competitive phase lasts for 1-5 episodes. The competive phase will end as soon as alliances harden on a team, because . . .
2. The Bottleneck
As the "how many are we?" on a team is reduced, not losing at tribal council starts to dominate any concept of team strategy. If you think you are targeted, or aren't part of an solid alliance with the majority of votes, that probability "if we lose as a team what is my chance of being voted off?" shoots up and schemers flirts and oddballs stir things up while followers and nobodies shift their allegiances to stay away from the axe. In the bottleneck, players take either an offensive or defensive stance. Players on offence declare their intentions and try to sway others, by proposing alliances or justifying their rationale for choosing a victim. Players on defence don't go out and declare their preferences, but keep their own plans to themselves while trying to exploit, as in judo, the momentum of the offensive players.
3. The Endgame
In this phase, players generally have to revert to whatever their strongest role is - strategies and alliances become less useful as numbers decrease and sheer self interest combined with immunity challenges decide the fate of all.
What roles do the Survivors take on?
In the early days of Survivor--way back in 2002--Mark Burnett wrote about the different strategic roles Survivors exhibited: The Flirt, the Leader, the Underdog, the Entertainer, the Mother, etc.
Survivor has changed over the years, and so have the strategies.
* What are the best strategies being used today?
* What current or former Survivor is the best example of each?
* Which strategy is the most successful? (Analyze the top three from each season.)
Individual Strategic Roles
Players switch roles all the time - almost every week, but for most contestants there range is naturally limited. Flirts can't really become nobodies. Oddballs can't become athletes. On the other hand, anyone can become a follower or a schemer. To win a player has to keep track of what role each other player is currently adopting, and mainly avoid being in the crosshairs - being either too weak or too threatening. Trying to be in control is a temporarily effective strategy, but taking power more than twice is usally enough to get labeled as threat.
The Captain (offence)
Required Ability: Leadership
Advantage: Having followers.
Vulnerability: Being Feared, Competition for leader.
Natural Ally: The Follower
Sworn Enemy: The schemer.
In FvsF, Mikey, who tried to play Captain too much too early. A fast exit was the price. He could have played Nobody, but their problem is that they have a hard time sitting back and watching other people screw up. By playing captain, and allying with a flirt he forced Joel, who started out playing athlete, into the role of schemer. In HvsV, Boston Rob played a decent game playing the Captain of the Villains tribe. However, Russell was on the tribe and voted Rob out before the jury phase.
The Oddball (defence)
Required ability: Eccentricity or being disliked or being useless.
Advantage: Being ignored.
Vulnerability: Being a liability to the team.
Natural Ally: The Nobody.
Sworn Enemy: The Athlete
In FvsF there was a brief but wonderful dominance by "Oddball nation" Two oddballs (Kathy, Chet) made common cause with nobodies (Tracy) and schemers (Joel) to destroy a Captain-Flirt-Follower alliance.
The Fool (defence)
Required ability: To make people laugh.
Advantage: Being liked, but not feared.
Vulnerability: Not being trusted. Unable to sway.
Natural Ally: The Follower
Sworn Enemy: None
Dreamz got to the final two playing the fool, it was a natural fit, too natural because he couldnt switch out of it when he got to the final four.
The Flirt (offence)
Required Ability: Attractiveness.
Advantage: Being desired.
Vulnerability: Betrayal
Natural Ally: The Athlete
Sworn Enemy: The Nobody
In FvFs Parvati, Natalie, Alexis, and Amanda flirted their way into the top 6. In HvV, Parvati and Jerri to an extent used this strategy. Jerri with Coach and Parvati with Russell.
The Nobody (defence)
Required ability: Being forgettable.
Advantage: Under the radar.
Vulnerability: Being expendable.
Natural Ally: The Schemer
Sworn enemy: The Flirt
Danni in survivor Guatemala was shown very little, but it won her the million dollars.
The Athlete (depends)
Required Ability: Athletic skill
Advantage: Winning immunity
Vulnerability: Being a target.
Natural Ally: The flirt.
Sworn Enemy: The Follower
Week 9 Jason switches (perhaps not intentionally) from Nobody to athlete, waiting to be taken advantage of by a flirt.
Follower: (offence)
Required Ability: Loyalty
Advantage: Being in an alliance.
Vulnerability: Being in an alliance.
Natural Ally: The Captian
Sworn Enemy: The Oddball
Erik in FvsF switched from nobody to schemer to follower.
Schemer (offence)
Required ability: Cleverness
Advantage: Playing the Angles
Vulnerability: Being hated.
Natual Ally: The Athlete
Sworn Enemy: The Captain
In recent Survivor seasons, when one hears schemer one usually thinks: Russell Hantz.
The Guru (defence)
Required Ability: Intellectual skill
Advantage: Winning immunity
Vulnerability: Being on the outside.
Natural Ally: The Captain
Sworn Enemy: None
Yau-man was the ultimate guru, a brainy and respected player who is not particularly threatening to anyone but useful as a team member or alliance partner. Winning as a guru involves, being needed in the competitive phase. Being non-threatening in the bottleneck, and being a potential final two partner for an offensive player, like a captain, athelete or schemer.
1. The Exhibitionist: Richard Hatch! , Julie Berry
2. The Mother: Tina Wesson, Jan Gentry, Teresa Cooper, Lydia Morales, Laura
3. The Sweetheart: Colleen Haskell, Elisabeth Filarski-Hasselbeck, Amber Brkich (seas. 2), Amanda Kimmel, Cirie Fields
4. The Redneck: Tom Buccanan, Susan Hawk, Travis Sampson aka Bubba, James Miller, Twila Tanner
5. The Loudmouth/Loose Canon: Shane Powers, James Reid aka "Rocky", Judd Sergeant, Eliza Orlins, Twila Tanner
6. Captain America: Tom Westman, Terry Dietz, Gary Hogeboom, Colby Donaldson and Ozzy Lusth
7. The Flirt: Jenna Morasca, Julie Berry, Amber Brkich, Parvarti(seas. 13)......the list goes on!
8. The Nerd: Yul Kwon, Yau-Man Chan, Ryan Shoulders, Sean Kenniff, Ian Rosenberger
9. The Pretty Boy: Colby Donaldson, Alex Bell, Adam Gentry, Ian Rosenberger, Erik Huffman
10. The Ancient: Rudy Boesch, Paschal English, Jake Billingsley, Jim Lynch, Willard Smith, Scout Cloud Lee
11. The Puppetmaster: Rob Cesternino, Rob Mariano, Brian Heidik, Brian Corridan, John Carroll, Todd Hezhog, Cirie Fields, Parvati Shallow
12. The Stealth Player: Vecepia Towery, Jennifer Lyon, Sandra Diaz-Twine, Denise Martin, Erik Huffman
13. The Independent Thinker: Christy Smith, Sean Kenniff, , Peih Gee Law
14. The Not-all-with-it: Courtney Marit, Lex van den Berghe, Matthew von Ertfelda, Shane Powers,
15. The Weak attached with the strong: Katie Gallagher, Courtney Yates,
16. The Lovable: Cassandra Franklin, Cirie Fields, Sundra Oakley, Amanda Kimmel, Ethan, Lydia Moarales, Taj.
Some of these "roles" hardly seem strategic. Flirting is a strategy, Redneck is not.
Group/Alliance Strategies:
The weakest link
Voting off the strongest members
Think short-term or long-term?
Allying weak member with strong member (Tina and Colby, Katie and Ian, Becky and Yul)
Vote off Weak, then Strong, then Weak, then Strong
It can all come down to the Final Immunity, where some Survivors are made or broken. Look at the picks for the Final 2.
When push comes to shove, Survivor is all about lasting long enough to make the end game and having a jury that likes you (as Earl did) and / or does not like the other player (as Chris pulled off). You need to figure out how to make the end game, with whom ON the jury or NOT on the jury, with whom FACING the jury, how to get you BOTH there, and how to avoid losing those votes you already have. That's it. And yes, the makeup of the jury DOES matter.
Survivor Message Boards
