Round 11 - 6 Players

[John]

ROUND 11

I was going to do a write up yesterday morning, but I honestly just wasn't in the mood to, so here we are! This will be a bit of a combo talking about the aftermath of the Abby vote and the Zaid vote.

The Abby vote was very interesting because on paper it was straight forward move, but it ended up being anything but. Danielle took this as a moment to step up her game and honestly the jury and every player took notice. I think in the game everyone saw the dynamic between Roy and Danielle with Roy as the alpha and Danielle as the beta, but it was Danielle who really led the charge against Marissa this round. I think, unfortunately since it didn't work for her, it did exactly what Danielle wanted getting her on people's radar, but now she's in the minority of the game. I think people were sleeping on Danielle and then were like oh damn, you mean she's not just insanely likeable she's also playing and playing hard. She is probably the person the jurors are rooting for the most and I'm not surprised why. Her social game is on point, she just needs the strategy to make her more well rounded and be the clear favourite.

So after the vote, this really became the Juju/Louise show. These two are playing absolutely phenomenal games, the type of games I love to watch because even though they always air on the side of caution, these two are going for it! They're playing hard, they're not afraid to piss people off and honestly how they handled this round was honestly masterful. The obvious divide in the game is Yellow vs Purple, however since Louise turned on Danielle/Roy last round and took out Abby, going into the round the Yellow weren't seen as a close trio while the Purple did. The move here was to keep the Purple vs Yellow rivalry alive so these two can continue to ride the middle and control the game. The wrench in their plan, Louise wins her 3rd Immunity and is becoming a massive threat. Purple start discussing how Louise will have to go next, which pretty much sealed their fate, but is something Louise and Juju need to consider in their plan. If Louise is this big threat and they just vote out Zaid normally, the two of them will be seen as the most powerful duo in the game and there's the chance Danielle/Roy team up with Carson/Marissa to take them out.

To avoid being the biggest threats and an obvious duo, Juju and Louise needed to create a distraction. That is why TC got as messy as it did. The perceived plan going in was that Carson/Marissa/Zaid though Juju/Louise were voting with them and they were splitting the votes, guys on Roy and girls on Danielle. Roy/Danielle though Juju/Louise were voting with them and they were all voting Zaid. Juju/Louise though planned to force a tie, have them vote differently so people not think they're as close as they are, and then in the re-vote have Juju flip. Carson on the re-vote also flipped to avoid a rock draw, not realizing that with an odd number re-vote between two people a rock draw is not possible, I feel like this sums up Carson's gameplay this season pretty well. Nevertheless, by a 4-1 revote Zaid is voted out and joins the jury. I think this was 100% the right move for everyone who made it, letting all 3 Purple make the Final 6 would have been stupid and honestly the Purple should have realized this themselves. The problem was, especially with Zaid he slammed the door shut with Roy/Danielle that round. Purple have been decent strategists to a degree this season (despite the amount of cautious gameplay they have with all these vote splits), but honestly their social games have been kind of shit. They lead people on too much with the lies that they'll vote a certain way when they won't, and they also slack on damage control. After the Abby vote, Roy openly was telling people he was upset with Zaid for not reaching out after the vote, this got around to Zaid and he complained in his prod chat that Roy was overreacting and he's allowed to do other things and not immediately jump on call with him. That's a totally fair comment, and I think you don't have to immediately hop on a call and explain everything, but you have to say something. Essentially it was just Zaid/Carson saying they were too scared to message in their chat with Roy/Danielle and Zaid saying ideally he'd want to avoid talking to them at all because it would be awkward. This is a social game, part of it is mending those relationships and managing existing ones and that was definitely an area Zaid lacked in this game and why he's not in it anymore.

Now back to Juju/Louise, I can't say enough better things about how they handled this round. After the vote you had seeming rifts with Carson/Louise, which honestly was a bad look on Carson to get as mad at Louise as he did, because he was wanting her out next and even though it through off her plans you have to at least recognize that it was her best move that round. Carson's immaturity showed there as it was the first time this season a vote didn't go his way. Being in the minority brings out the true player and it wasn't the best look for Carson. But regardless, after the vote Carson/Marissa/Juju all get on call and talk about needing to pull Louise back in to take out Roy and Danielle. What a surprise! Exactly what Juju and Louise wanted to happen and just shows the caliber of the game these two are playing. In my opinion both are the front runners to win, not that others can't, but these two are just playing SO HARD. Not only are they just naturally in the best position, they are also the only two with access to the Detective Lounge meaning they are the only two with opportunity to get even more advantages in the game. If they can keep others out which they are actively trying to do by trying to influence their guesses to be incorrect, these two could become unstoppable. The question will be what the ending for these two will be. Will Juju want to go to the end with Louise and vice versa? Right now it seems like they are end game bound but things can change, but I like that we're seeing Juju confident that he can beat Louise. I think all players should be confident that they're playing a game that can win against anyone. If you're playing and feel like you need to be in the finals with "disliked" players in order to win, that just means socially you're doing something wrong.


I think all the players in the Final 6 have a route to victory if they play their cards right, some harder than others, but with such a mixed group for the Final 6 it's definitely going to be an entertaining finish! 

[John]

I forgot, I also wanted to call out the jury. I've sat on a lot of jury calls to get an idea of where their heads are at. This is definitely a salty jury, but I think all their salt is justifiable. They've actually been really great in the sense that each time someone joins them, they call and all are there and get a real debrief on everything to learn as much as they can. Honestly Abby seemed to be having more fun as the juror leading the questioning of Zaid then she did playing these last few rounds, but this jury really does seem to care about their roles and learn about the game and how people are playing which I really like from a jury, so I wanted to give them a shoutout!

[Teddy]

Always rooting for Roy! Hoping he can squeeze out some crucial challenge wins and fuck some people up. I'm kinda annoyed that Juju has the Conquest

[Chase]

Juju and Louise killing it right now. Makes me so happy. They have defined this merge, and playing the type of game I was waiting to see from this cast. Unfortunately, I just don’t see the others catching up at this point. If Juju and Louise stick together and both feel they can win against each other, I cannot wait to see that FTC.

With that, ugh, I’m so sad to see Marissa play this cautiously at this point in the game. Hoping that Zaid’s departure kicks her into gear and makes he play a little more aggressively and take out either Juju/Louise. I think if she does that, she has a better shot even with the overly cautious game play leading up to this point. But I was truly hoping she could take the playing from the bottom arc and make it something but so far it just isn’t working...

Roy is a legend but wow I don’t see him surviving much longer...Seems like Juju/Louise stole his social standing he needed to convince folks to keep him. And honestly, they’re playing better games for sure...

Okay Danielle...Honestly for her to rise again, she needs Roy gone. I love her takes on strategy. Smart player but just hasn’t quite worked out the way she has always wanted. But I love the turning up the heat from her during this merge.

Carson...Yeah, I don’t have anything really...But lol at his jury management that he’s not even aware of yet...

[Tom]

It's been a minute since I've weighed in but I've been following everything closely and here's where I stand:

I love everyone that is left! This is going to be a fun finish.

ZAID- Ughhhh I completely enjoyed watching him this season. He was so articulate about bias and mindful of other's POV that his voice will be sorely missed over these next few days. The upside is that he can use his perspective on the jury. Whether or not this carries any weight with those people is tbd, but at least he'll have the chance to weigh in. We are not privy to the in-game conversations most of the time so we haven't really witnessed what John speaks about in terms of his bad relationship management, especially with Roy, and we also do see that this is real based on Roy's confessionals, but in his own he seemed to really try to show empathy to those around him- perhaps to his detriment when he failed to initiate or engage in certain necessary conversations. I think he played an excellent game through the pre-merge; it's a shame that he had a few slip-ups in the last week or so which tanked him.

ROY- I love listening to Roy. Sucks that this game is affecting his mental health, I only hope that he can take the necessary time post-game to heal. I'm 100% rooting for him to find a way out of the hole that he is in as unlikely as it seems.

MARISSA- After being in love with her mind for the first month of this game I'm starting to realize that she is like a quintessential gamebot, at least during this game. Her self-awareness is fascinating and her strategic reads are typically sound, and everything she says is so controlled, even when she was on the bottom for most of the game. I'm absolutely hopeful that she can find a way to convince the others that she is not a goat and that she can articulate her game to this jury which seems to be avidly against her.

LOUISE- I'm soooooo happy to have been wrong about my pre-season assessment of Louise. I'm on full TeamJohn now in my adoration of her. Roy calls her game grimy but I think that she is doing what is necessary to drive herself deeper into the game and actually give her a chance of winning. Confident Louise is amazing to watch, and I'm SO PROUD of her takedown of Lee and her private confessional where she stood up for herself. As far as the future of this game goes, it's highly likely that others start picking up the immunity wins but it seems like that's ok because of how well her and Juju are playing, at least according to John's summary. We could easily be seeing her in the F3, and if so she stands a huge chance of winning!!!

DANIELLE- Like, I know I've fauned over everyone already but legit this girl is so insanely likable that a Danielle win (though increasingly unlikely) would be EPIC. Her songs are legendary. I just want to keep rooting for her because despite the social awareness she also has played a sharp strategic game. Of course it's smart to keep Roy around and be loyal to him- and he is reciprocating the trust back.

CARSON- The nicest dude, but seems to be falling flat strategically. Bets are on that he's the F3 goat, which is a shame because his pre-merge game was pretty solid even despite the gigantic slip-ups with his messages being sent to the wrong people. However, the flirty stuff is.... cringey :/

JUJU- I'll admit that Juju has been my least favorite to follow because I don't think we'd get along in-game that much. Plus his treatment of the scav hunt had the VL turn against him. Buttttt he's really amped up his game and with TWO advantages it's almost a lock that he wins if he makes it to F3. With one of Marissa or Louise to vote for him, plus 3 other OG greens that he didn't explicitly piss off in-game (even though Abby knows all about his shenanigans now), I still think he beats everyone else based purely on his late-game strategic moves which have been stellar.

Now that my winner pick is gone, Juju is my winner pick. I'm still rooting for Danielle/Roy/Louise/Marissa to pull this off, but Juju seems to be in the best position.

Oh, and to wrap this up:

LEE: Good riddance. The toxic energy he brought was not entertaining, it was revolting. I'd much rather see good strategic gameplay like Juju rather than pissing people off and being an asshat just for "the viewers". Not to rub salt in the wound of his loss, and I do hope that he make a good jury member, but C17 Lee was a big 'ol thumbs down from me, dawg.

8.5.5

[John]

Roy winning Immunity right when he needed to is the type of shit I love about hosting and Survivor in general. Like what perfect timing, stopping everyone in their tracks and throwing a MAJOR wrench in all plans. LOVE IT!

Also just hopped on a call with Carson/Juju/Marissa and Marissa was dying saying that they are the "Burger King" of alliances because of how bad they are, haha. I love seeing Marissa seem to be less stressed and having more fun with things. She's had one of the hardest journeys this season so I'm glad she's still able to enjoy herself even though so much has gone wrong for her game that has been relatively out of her control. She's in a solid position to potentially make the end and I think she's handling relationships with this group of players much better than the first three jurors (though to be fair she had one round to meet Brenden, so not much she really could have done there), so even if those 3 don't like her, she still has a shot with the rest of the players in the game!

[Hannah]

I don't have many thoughts other than Juju is srsly killing this merge. He's been dominating for the past few rounds and I'M OBSESSED. love this and love u juju xx

also rip danielle she was robbed fr