Survivor Awards 2017: Biggest move of the year

Continuing our Survivor Awards 2017 coverage, we deliberate the balance of how big our favorite move of the year was with its effectiveness.

Thank you, readers, for supporting our ongoing series of Survivor Awards 2017, looking at the highs and lows across season 34 and 35 of our favorite reality competition series.

So far, our previously posted Survivor Awards 2017 piece includes “Biggest misplay of the year.” We’ve got just one so far, so it makes sense to follow up on what we considered to be the Biggest move of the year. Between Game Changers and the record-breaking idols and Secret Advantages of Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers, there was a lot of moves to choose from in 2017.

Our first honorable mention goes to Ben Driebergen. Despite the “interesting” surroundings involving his win, Ben did not go down without a fight. His Final 4 Alliance was gunning for him after voting out Joe, forcing Ben to pull out all the stops. Using his first, secret Hidden Immunity Idol to vote out Lauren 1-0, he knew he was the only target by all other players, so he got to gettin’.

Not only did he find another idol before the next Tribal Council, but he also played it before the votes were even cast in a historic Tribal Council, forcing the majority to vote out their second target, Ashley. Then, immediately upon arriving back from Tribal Council, Ben went searching for his third Hidden Immunity Idol, spending all night looking before finally finding it below the raft. Final 4 twist aside, Ben Driebergen went searching for the most difficult things to find, saving his butt from elimination and ultimately winning Survivor Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers.

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Another player from that season arguably made a game-saving move against Ben in order to keep themselves in the game, and in any other season, would have won Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers. Devon Pinto was a lot more game aware than he let on to others in his tribe, which came fruitful at the Final 5.

With Chrissy flaunting her fake idol and Ben acting dejected and giving up, only Devon was able to perceive that he was merely acting, that he had a third Hidden Immunity Idol up his sleeve. Despite asking around the tribe, who seemed committed to sticking to the plan to vote Ben out, Devon voted for Mike at the risk of exposing himself at the Final 4. Instead of going home in another 1-0 vote, Ben negated his votes and Devon and Mike tied at 1-1, with Chrissy and Ryan voting out Mike.

In any of the previous 34 seasons where Ben gets voted out at the Final 4, that’s a game-winning move for Devon, although the move itself is simply placing a vote against another player, which could have backfired had Ben not been fed idols.

No, our Survivor Awards 2017 biggest move of the year goes to Sarah Lacina. At the marooning of Game Changers, Sierra Dawn Thomas found a Legacy Advantage that could act as a Hidden Immunity Idol only at certain votes (the merge or at the Final 6). With Sierra acting as the sheriff at the merge, she felt safe but started to expose herself due to the bond she formed with Sarah Lacina.

Despite Sarah looking at Sierra’s offer for a Final 3 deal tempting, once she learned that she had such a Legacy Advantage, Sarah truly transformed from cop to criminal. Pulling strings behind the scene for Sierra to be voted out at the next Tribal Council, Sarah’s final ploy to seal the deal was to act visibly shocked as Sierra walked out the door. Despite Andrea Boehlke noticing the act, more importantly, it got Sierra’s attention, allowing her to give Sarah the Legacy Advantage, despite Sarah being the reason why she left the game early.

Next: Survivor Winners: Ranking All 34 Sole Survivors By Season

It was a masterful play that saved Sarah’s butt at the Final 6, as Advantagegedon’s Tribal Council saw Sarah receive the majority of votes (before all of them were negated, forcing Cirie Fields’ departure). For such a powerful play, Sarah Lacina wins the second of our Survivor 2017 Awards for biggest move of the year!