Yuku free message boards

Thoughts on S5 and player's strategies:

Brian's strategy was pretty evident - promise all things to enough people to maintain majority and then dispose as convenient to get to most despised opponent in front of the jury. It worked pretty well.

Clay knew he was Brian's "goat", which meant he was content to let Brian run the game while he focused on trying to pilfer votes that Brian wouldn't expect. He was actually very successful at this, picking up the three votes he did, though he did miscalculate in his assessment of Jake. He probably was also counting on anger at Brian for his betrayals, but he had burned too many bridges with Helen, Ted, and Jan. He's actually a pretty savvy player.

Jan had no coherent strategy that was evident except to go along with Brian as a non-threat and then hope she could pull out immunity at the end. She's a typical poor player.

Helen seems to have been banking upon an honorable agreement to face off with Brian either in front of the jury or in F3 with the right to trounce Clay. She never forced Brian to spell this out, however. She did consider trying to force out Clay earlier at F5, but when Jan wouldn't go along, she reverted back to the existing plan. She comes across as a potentially good player who relied too much on assumptions that she couldn't control.

Ted was relying on his alliance with Brian to get to the end. Of all the five Chuay Gahn, he should have had the most warning that he was on the outs given Jake's message that Clay and Brian had suggested the Sook Jai vote for him. His options may have been limited from S7 onward if the other four intended to stay together (as they probably did), but there wasn't much evidence Ted did anything to improve his position until he tried to swing Helen just before his boot. When that failed due to Jan's refusal to go along, he was pretty much stuck relying on immunity. His game starting falling apart with the grinding incident, and he never really recovered - an average to below average player overall.

Jake skillfully placed himself as the center of the Sook Jai tribe with ties to Penny, Ken, and Shii Ann. If Sook Jai had taken control at the merge, he would have been in great position with the other players more likely to go after others around him than himself, and he surely would have been tough in a jury vote. But we'll never know. His efforts to turn things around after Sook Jai went into the minority were successfully countered by Brian (probably the best plays he made all game long). First, he offered Jake hope by suggesting Ted was the vulnerable Chuay Gahn. Then he beat Jake to the punch by telling Ted that Jake was trying to worm his way in by saying anything. When Penny deserted him, he was left outnumbered and alone. He was at least an average player, and had potential for more.

Penny apparently recognized Jake as the power of Sook Jai and made sure she was in tight. She kept Erin close as well, giving her added influence within the tribe. I don't know that she could have won given that Shii Ann disliked her, and Ken at least maintained some distrust of her. Her endgame plan is basically unknown, but she certainly showed herself ruthless enough to make the big move if necessary when she dumped Erin and abandoned Jake. She came off as pretty transparent to the Chuay Gahns however suggesting she may have lacked the subtlety to really do well. She was probably at least an average player.

Ken also signed up with Jake, but his biggest preoccupation seemed to be reducing his threat status by not seeking control and by downplaying his physical abilities as much as possible. He seems to have seen the wisdom in keeping Shii Ann around as an edge against Penny, but he was unable to stop the rift between them hurting the tribe at the fake merge. When the tribe couldn't grab the majority, he seemed to accept his fate pretty passively. As a player, he was pretty poor despite his good position.

Erin was basically a typical alliance tag along hoping to get to the end as an afterthought and win over other players by being the lesser evil. There's not much evidence of strong gameplay.

Shii Ann found protection from Jake early when the minority members of the tribe wanted her out, but neither he nor Ken were able to keep her from feeling threatened by Penny. When she saw an opportunity to oust Penny at the fake merge, she seemed willing to risk it, especially when the feedback she got from Ken was entirely wrong. My impression of Shii Ann from both S5 and S8 is that she tends to see the moves she needs to make and is fairly smart, but her personality prevents her from good execution. She tends to annoy others, making it difficult for her to build the relationships she really needs. As such, she's a flawed player with potential for good and poor play.

The other players weren't around long enough to get too strong a sense of. Robb, Stephanie, and Jed all isolated themselves on their own tribe, apparently counting on challenge prowess to keep them around. Ghandia tried to destroy her tribe in her efforts to get the position she wanted. Tanya got sick though she may have had potential otherwise. John may have been a good player with time to establish a position in the tribe, but he failed to build relationships soon enough to save himself when Brian and Clay targeted him.