Survivor Awards 2017: Biggest misplay of the year
We begin our look at the Survivor Awards 2017 by granting a look at the biggest misplay of the year. Who really screwed the pooch in 2017?
Welcome, one and all, to our first-ever series of honors handed out to moments, players and content relating to our favorite reality competition series. That’s right, the Survivor Awards 2017 will look back at what was particularly excellent, unfortunate, awesome or exceptional with a series of categories.
While most of the Survivor Awards each year will be positive or neutral in nature, we will start our look back at the year that was with the biggest misplay of the year. Whether it’s misjudging the jury, being overconfident in your safety in the game or just putting too much trust in others, Survivor saw a lot of bad play this year.
Before we hand out our first award, let’s look at some of the runners-up. Brad Culpepper was in control for a lot of the early-mid game of Survivor Game Changers, but his threat as a leader and a strong player made him the player to get out after the very strongest and more sociable players (Ozzy, Andrea, Zeke) were taken out. Thankfully for him, he won Immunity after Immunity, putting him in a position alongside Troyzan to possibly pick who joins them at the Final Tribal Council.
A big part of the reason Brad didn’t win Game Changers is that he couldn’t see the forest for the trees. He opted to target Tai at the Final 4 to give him “what he deserves,” concerned that Tai betrayed him and will get respect from the jury for his three idol plays. That decision allowed the biggest mastermind of the season, Sarah Lacina, to reach the end and win the million dollars, showing just how poorly Brad misjudged the jury of his peers.
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Another runner-up also came from Game Changers, as J.T. Thomas arguably cemented his status as a cocky buffoon of a player to the point where people are now starting to question how lucky he got in Tocantins. With two tribes going to Tribal Council, he straight-up told his old alliance who his new tribe was voting for in order for Mana to play an idol on Sierra, knocking his closest Nuku ally, Malcolm Freberg, out of the game.
After making such a scene at Tribal Council, there’s no way he could have thought anybody else was a target but him. Actually, I lied, because Sandra Diaz-Twine convinced JT, the only member of the original Nuku on the new tribe (and saboteur to their earlier plan to vote out Sierra), stirred the pot between him and Michaela to convince JT that everyone was voting her out. He got so cocky he left his Hidden Immunity Idol at camp, getting blindsided by people who would logically target him.
Thankfully for both runners-up, one other player made such a foolhardy, bone-headed play that damaged their gameplay reputation so hard that you have to see them play again in order to learn from their mistakes. With nine players left in the game, Lauren Rimmer found herself forming the Final 4 Alliance with Devon, Ashley and Ben, using their advantages and knowledge to fool Chrissy and Ryan.
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However, including Ben was not the mistake that did Lauren in. Sure, she let him and the alliance know about her Secret Advantage vote and Hidden Immunity Idol, but the three tried to take out Ben with such clumsiness that Ben tried to target Lauren. How did she react to this heading into Tribal Council, where her name came up as the target? She gave Mike Zahalsky half of her idol, essentially putting her fate in a man who blew up his own game six nights prior.
Not only did Mike immediately destroy the idol at Tribal Council, but with everyone throwing their votes to Ben as the recognized threat, she didn’t even use her Secret Advantage to throw another vote on another player just in case Ben used an idol. As such, Lauren was voted out of Survivor Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers in a 1-0 vote; a manner she could have easily avoided.
Next: Survivor season 35: 5 players we’d like to see play again
Who knows how well she could have done had she stayed in the game, but that big blunder represents our Survivor Awards 2017 biggest misplay of the year. That said, we would still like to see Lauren play again someday!