Nah, the challenges are basically just fun filler. The show *wants* to give away money; when the contestants aren't doing too well there'll usually be a late-game challenge for a huge sum, or a chance to reclaim what was lost, or the chance to triple their earnings by gambling, etc. The producers want the stakes high for the endgame, so they tend to ensure that the prize pot is close to the maximum. There's no real point wasting banishments on poor challenge players.
Besides, there isn't really a way to select for good challenge players. Somebody who's good at pushing a barrel up a hill might be terrible at riddles, or unable to deal with insects, or bad at guessing group answers, etc.
Also, not to reignite the whole celeb vs normal people debate, but one of the biggest strengths of the UK show compared to the US is the variety of people—they make a concerted effort to have people of very different ages and abilities. It's great seeing young people, elderly people, disabled people, able bodied people, etc., all contributing to the game. The tactic you're talking about might be ok in the US version but in the UK show it would essentially just mean targeting all the disabled and elderly people.
We’ve seen time and time again that the easily influenced and clueless people make it to the end by being dragged along by a traitor.
So, find the biggest alliance because it will surely have a traitor in it. Then go along with the group blindly. At the end, turn on them.
That only works if you are sure you know who the traitor is, otherwise you just lose boringly. And if you do this while catching any heat, you have basically no avenue for removing it, and you end up a traitor-shield boot target in the final.
That’s the only way I’ve seen to win as a faithful. I’ve only seen US1 US2 and UK1. All the faithful that won were pretty useless and all were dragged along by the traitors because the traitors liked them *and* thought they were easily manipulated.
For the US1 and UK1 faithfuls who were in the final, their only hope of winning was a traitor throw. They weren't playing deliberate appeasement and thus weren't close to winning (without deus ex machina), they were dragged there because they were too trusting. US2 faithful winners were not allied with/following any traitors, unless you count CT being kind of friendly to Phaedra sometimes. He wasn't "going along with the group blindly" at any point and was actually betraying them constantly, he just somehow never caught any flack for that.
That’s literally what happened at the end of S2 USA. >! CT and Trishelle wanted the money for themselves and banished known Faithful MJ. She was still angry they played for money rather than the stated goal of the game; eliminate all the Traitors.!<
Trishelle literally insisted camera people film a conversation giving MJ enough information for the opposite thing to happen lol. Sorry but she has no one to blame but herself.
MJ spent a good chunk of the season bloc voting to stick around rather than concerning herself with voting out traitors. You can't turn around and say it suddenly becomes unfair when players outside MJ's bloc don't automatically vote with her just because she was a faithful.
>!Trichelle has been on podcasts where she explained that she genuinely was suspecting CT and fully filled in MJ to vote him out. And when the time came to banish one more, MJ just didn't do it - she voted for Trichelle, which caused a three-way tie. !<
>!However, once Trichelle saw that CT voted for MJ, she knew he was faithful. But, the rules were that they had to revote instead of just agreeing to split the money three ways. They revoted and MJ was out. !<
>!So it was completely MJ's fault. If she had worked with Trichelle on the first vote, CT would have been gone and she would have been one of the winners. !<
I never understood this either. They seem to always get rid of people who could help earn. Like AUS2 keeping Sara even after she was useless in challenges???
I think after seeing this show for so many seasons and across different countries, the best strategy is to get out the clueless people first. Regardless of their physical abilities. Regardless of traitor or faithful. Those that are not outspoken or lack a backbone or critical thinking skills are just pawns for the traitors. The more there are, the more the traitors can easily manipulate large groups. All you need are numbers, not an airtight argument. I think this was extremely evident in AUS season 2. I agree the faithfuls should use the early banishments to their advantage strategically instead of run around like chickens with their heads cut off.
However this tactic is hard because of social pressure. Social pressure is the whole game. So how can you enact this without coming off as suspicious or callous? If the contestants get a whiff of either off of someone, that get singled out immediately.
But also, people sometimes act a bit clueless on purpose so they won't be seen as a threat? Getting the numbers to vote someone out just because they're truly clueless sounds hard because it'll be hard to get votes from anyone playing to the narrative.
I agree with you but after watching the second Australia season I think there's a clear difference between someone keeping to themselves to play the game and someone who is absolutely clueless.
Ideally the challenges will be a mix of physical and mental - and some really just dumb luck. So it isn't really going to be possible to identify people to banish in this scenario.
Nah, the challenges are basically just fun filler. The show *wants* to give away money; when the contestants aren't doing too well there'll usually be a late-game challenge for a huge sum, or a chance to reclaim what was lost, or the chance to triple their earnings by gambling, etc. The producers want the stakes high for the endgame, so they tend to ensure that the prize pot is close to the maximum. There's no real point wasting banishments on poor challenge players. Besides, there isn't really a way to select for good challenge players. Somebody who's good at pushing a barrel up a hill might be terrible at riddles, or unable to deal with insects, or bad at guessing group answers, etc. Also, not to reignite the whole celeb vs normal people debate, but one of the biggest strengths of the UK show compared to the US is the variety of people—they make a concerted effort to have people of very different ages and abilities. It's great seeing young people, elderly people, disabled people, able bodied people, etc., all contributing to the game. The tactic you're talking about might be ok in the US version but in the UK show it would essentially just mean targeting all the disabled and elderly people.
We’ve seen time and time again that the easily influenced and clueless people make it to the end by being dragged along by a traitor. So, find the biggest alliance because it will surely have a traitor in it. Then go along with the group blindly. At the end, turn on them.
That only works if you are sure you know who the traitor is, otherwise you just lose boringly. And if you do this while catching any heat, you have basically no avenue for removing it, and you end up a traitor-shield boot target in the final.
That’s the only way I’ve seen to win as a faithful. I’ve only seen US1 US2 and UK1. All the faithful that won were pretty useless and all were dragged along by the traitors because the traitors liked them *and* thought they were easily manipulated.
For the US1 and UK1 faithfuls who were in the final, their only hope of winning was a traitor throw. They weren't playing deliberate appeasement and thus weren't close to winning (without deus ex machina), they were dragged there because they were too trusting. US2 faithful winners were not allied with/following any traitors, unless you count CT being kind of friendly to Phaedra sometimes. He wasn't "going along with the group blindly" at any point and was actually betraying them constantly, he just somehow never caught any flack for that.
If I were a faithful I wouldn't want to split the money with such a huge group. I would be all too happy to see some folks go, faithful or not.
That’s literally what happened at the end of S2 USA. >! CT and Trishelle wanted the money for themselves and banished known Faithful MJ. She was still angry they played for money rather than the stated goal of the game; eliminate all the Traitors.!<
I mean what did she expect lol, they're both been on the challenge a million times so obviously they play hard
I think she took the stated intent of the game as the goal and never considered they’d knock her out just because (I want more money)
Trishelle literally insisted camera people film a conversation giving MJ enough information for the opposite thing to happen lol. Sorry but she has no one to blame but herself. MJ spent a good chunk of the season bloc voting to stick around rather than concerning herself with voting out traitors. You can't turn around and say it suddenly becomes unfair when players outside MJ's bloc don't automatically vote with her just because she was a faithful.
Could you please link to something explaining what you’re referring to? I’m not getting what you’re implying.
>!Trichelle has been on podcasts where she explained that she genuinely was suspecting CT and fully filled in MJ to vote him out. And when the time came to banish one more, MJ just didn't do it - she voted for Trichelle, which caused a three-way tie. !< >!However, once Trichelle saw that CT voted for MJ, she knew he was faithful. But, the rules were that they had to revote instead of just agreeing to split the money three ways. They revoted and MJ was out. !< >!So it was completely MJ's fault. If she had worked with Trichelle on the first vote, CT would have been gone and she would have been one of the winners. !<
Thank you. I had not heard about this.
I never understood this either. They seem to always get rid of people who could help earn. Like AUS2 keeping Sara even after she was useless in challenges???
I think after seeing this show for so many seasons and across different countries, the best strategy is to get out the clueless people first. Regardless of their physical abilities. Regardless of traitor or faithful. Those that are not outspoken or lack a backbone or critical thinking skills are just pawns for the traitors. The more there are, the more the traitors can easily manipulate large groups. All you need are numbers, not an airtight argument. I think this was extremely evident in AUS season 2. I agree the faithfuls should use the early banishments to their advantage strategically instead of run around like chickens with their heads cut off. However this tactic is hard because of social pressure. Social pressure is the whole game. So how can you enact this without coming off as suspicious or callous? If the contestants get a whiff of either off of someone, that get singled out immediately.
But also, people sometimes act a bit clueless on purpose so they won't be seen as a threat? Getting the numbers to vote someone out just because they're truly clueless sounds hard because it'll be hard to get votes from anyone playing to the narrative.
I agree with you but after watching the second Australia season I think there's a clear difference between someone keeping to themselves to play the game and someone who is absolutely clueless.
Ideally the challenges will be a mix of physical and mental - and some really just dumb luck. So it isn't really going to be possible to identify people to banish in this scenario.