u/GGsnubs

First, too much basketball in my football.

Second, too much New York City! The Jets are already over-discussed but it’s kind of funny because they always suck and the other guys push back on it. Now we’re getting recurring Knicks segments? Then a Giants discussion after that??

Dan’s constant whining about how the Jets are so overdue for a Super Bowl, the Knicks are so overdue for a Championship, and the freaking Yankees are somehow overdue for a World Series win…entitled, whiney, coastal-elitist, navel-gazing bum!

Newsflash for Dan: most of the rest of the country does not like New York, New Yorkers, or their sports. New Yorkers famously look down their noses at middle America, and think they and their city are the best. They are always over-discussed by the national media, and they will never be seen to the rest of us as sympathetic underdogs.

Big Threat Whac-A-Mole: No alliances. Simply ask, "who would the jury vote for if they had to vote right now?" and then vote off that person, all while trying your best to be the 3rd smallest jury threat yourself.

In my opinion, this is the most logically sound, game-theory optimal way to play the post-merge of survivor. It only requires 3 things:

1. Lowering your threat level. If you have done anything positive or interesting socially or strategically in the pre-merge, go dark. Do nothing. Don't drive votes, don't make friends or curry favor, and definitely don't win any challenges. Have an idol or advantage? Waste it ASAP. If you have not done anything in the pre-merge, then you're basically set, just keep it that way.
2. Keeping at least 2 goats in the game. You just need to beat 2 people at the end. Those 2 people will reveal themselves over time, and it shouldn't be difficult to keep their names out of the mouths of the people driving the votes, because others should also want them around.
3. Allowing the threats to take each other out. This is the easiest step, yet the one that people mess up most often. It may be tempting to actually drive some strategy by putting someone's name out there. You cannot do anything that could possibly be perceived as driving a vote, because that would raise your threat level. You must only communicate your willingness to help someone else make a big move, nothing more.

This strategy has been executed perfectly by Aubry thus far, and it might be rewarded with $2M. If it is adopted by more future players, the game we all love will become unwatchable. We will have players "racing to the bottom" in a competition to see who can do nothing the best. The show knows this, and all they can do about it is reward players who are actually doing things (threat levels be damned) with positive edits and more screen time, and attempt to cast fewer strategic players.

EDIT: I am not saying this is new and Aubry invented it. I am saying that Aubry has perfected it, and after a season where the final FIVE is full of people all trying to out-under-the-radar each other, we are going to be seeing a LOT more of it, and that's bad.

The meta needs a serious pendulum swing back to building resumes, using shields, and jury votes getting awarded to people who weren’t afraid to do things.

Thoughts? Questions? Comments? Concerns?

I was confident Cirie and Rick weren’t making it to final 4, so the result, while sad, was not surprising at all.

The worst part about how it went down is there‘s hardly any credit at all to ascribe to any of the remaining players for taking down these huge threats. It was nobody’s ”move“ to eliminate Rick at 7, just like it was nobody‘s “move“ to eliminate Cirie at 6. It so obviously served everyone else’s games to do that, nobody really drove it or had to convince anyone.

Nobody specifically bested Rick or Cirie.

p.s. Tiffany did try to change both of these votes and failed both times. So we can ascribe the opposite of credit there

- It took 8 episodes (16 days) for Tiffany to finally vote correctly

- Jonathan has voted for Rick THREE times and they're both still there

- Cirie, Aubry, and Rizo all have perfect voting records

However, Aubry and Rizo are 6 for 6, whereas Cirie is 9 for 9 (tied with Christian lol )

Jeff:
"Alright Rizo, now an opening statement from you."

Rizo:
"Sup chat. It's the R-I-Z-G-O-D Rizgod babyyyy. This whole time has been absolute cinema. Not gonna lie, I cooked.
Some of these boomers were trying to get me to work around camp n stuff, but they were delulu. I never did anything. Unc asked me to join his majority alliance anyways. Bet.
At the swap, I nearly maxed out my aura when I got an idol and throupled up with Cirie and Ozzy. But then I figured that wasn't very sigma so eventually I had to do it to 'em.
Devens flipping that coin was peek, but it was giving 'Season 50 winner', so he got yeeted.
Aubry was actually cooking like low-key, but she didn't pass the vibe check, got caught in 4K.
I never actually used my idol, which lived rent-free. Now I got this souvenir, so that's bussin.
I locked in at the fire challenge this time, totally ate. Cinema. Anyways, let's get this dub."

https://preview.redd.it/lflndzg2vb0h1.png?width=861&format=png&auto=webp&s=5141daf82fbd9ea5649805d2b13696cd43c3b63f

ESPN released their Power Rankings last week, including each team's most improved position group from this offseason. I don't disagree with the Seahawks at #1, because I believe the reigning SB champs should be #1 until they lost a game, simply on principle. I also don't disagree with our post improved position.
However, that's pretty sad, right? Adding a 5th round guard is the most improvement we've made when comparing this year's roster to last year's?
Realistically, should we be worried about this team sliding? Why or why not?