Survivor winners: Ranking all 45 Sole Survivors by season

Best Survivor Winners No. 19: Nick Wilson (Survivor: David vs. Goliath)

If Pat’s tweaked back wasn’t alright during the premiere of David vs. Goliath, Nick Wilson could have been the first person voted out of the game. That’s not to say he was a bad player, but on the contrary; he was playing so hard that he didn’t want to spend his time committing to basic survival tasks.

The former Big Brother applicant used a strategy common in the summertime reality competition program in creating as many Final Twos as possible and naming each of the side alliances.

Despite that sounding silly, it actually reinforces the notion that the alliance is strong if it has a tangential name that can be used as a catchphrase or discourse amongst Survivor fans.

He didn’t just play a dominant social game; he was also a fairly great strategic force. He used the bonds across tribal lines to obtain information then dissect the best course of action to get his Davids farther along towards the endgame.

The best example was when he got Alec to tip-off who the target was for the Goliaths after the merge boot to perform the first-ever minority vote split, with three throwing their votes onto John and using an idol on Christian to ensure a successful play.

Though Nick did make big moves, he was also hellbent on revenge after being blindsided by Christian and Gabby. Furthermore, he might not have won the game had he not pulled off the most clutch first three Immunity Challenge wins back-to-back-to-back on the finale. He played the middle well and led when he needed to.