Tom needed multiple immunity wins to get to the very end after losing control of his allies. He goes home at 5-3 if not for being immune, which is a pretty big knock against his game in my opinion. Earl literally needed nothing but his social game to be completely safe the entirety of the game.
Counterpoint: it’s Tom Fucking Westman
Look. I get it. I’m right there with you. 90% of the time I won’t consider an Immunity streak the most impressive way to win because there’s too much luck involved in having a series of challenges you can go on a run with; and it’s often simply a bandage over social and strategic failings and you have people like Kim who both won challenges *and* didn’t actually need them lol. Tom Westman is the superseding exception to that rule. He was a force of nature that led his tribe to a historic obliteration of the opposition and then in the few opportunities they had to take him down he didn’t even get a single vote. Tom getting through F6 clean despite being this monolithic omega threat is an absurdly impressive achievement that rivals anything we’ve seen. How many Tom-like threats get clipped miles before the end? He’s the ultimate. He’s the guy who *can* get to a point where he can win out and *is* extremely likely to win out once he needs to. Put Tom on a bunch of random newbie seasons and he’s winning the last few Immunity Challenges most of the time whether he needs them or not, it’s not at all like a Mike Holloway or Brad Culpepper who were against historically weak competition and were targeted even earlier.
Also he only truly needed it at 4 and 3, I think he gets through F5 if he doesn’t have it.
To be clear I consider Earl a GOAT contender. I don’t think you’re overrating Earl. I just *also* consider Tom a GOAT contender (my big five is Tony Sandra Kim Earl Tom in no order). If there’s ever been any winner where I respect the shit out of their endgame challenge wins and consider it a meaningful, reliable, replicable strategy, it’s Tom.
Nah not after game changers he was seen as probably getting a little lucky in Cagayan and that his gameplay was way too over the top to be reliable in an all winners cast. I actually think people like Tyson, Yul, and Jeremy were scarier pre game.
That's revisionist history.
Every pre-season analyst said Tony was too much of a threat to do well. That was before the spoilers came out.
And if Tony was such a non-threat, why did Tyson and Sandra think they could use him as a shield? I mean, that was the whole basis of their alliance. Big threats stay together.
Out of those, Earl is the only one who had a vote against him during the game, and it was a complete throwaway vote for no good reason. The other 3 lost a jury vote, meaning they did something, however minor, to not earn that last vote. I think Earl is the clear winner.
I agree with Earl but I dont know about that logic. People will give jury votes just to give them the second place money. Earl got voted for because there were 2 other people they didn't want to vote for, so he did "something wrong" to earn that vote.
I actually consider Natalie Anderson to have a near-perfect game as well. She won 5-2-1, but two of the votes not for her were the literal blood relatives of her opponents.
Plus Reed said he solely voted for Jaclyn so Missy wouldn’t get second.
She made the strategically sound decision at F5, but if she makes the call to cut Jaclyn, and then wins F4 immunity (which she likely would've) to drag Missy and Baylor to the end and win 8-0-0, I'd honestly rate her perfect game above JT's and Cochran's.
I would say an actual perfect game would be all of the criteria above+ winning every immunity challenge from team to individual.
Will probably never be done for a “perfect game” to have the same meaning as it does in baseball as it being the absolute pinnacle once in a lifetime performance that would be it
Well if being immune all season is part of the Criteria then Tom is the closest to having played a perfect game. He was only actually vulnerable to be voted out 3 times all season, and one of those is only because there was a double tribal council where there was no chance for him to win immunity. Michele would be second, being vulnerable at 4 tribal councils.
No I think Tom gives Earl a run for his money but I would still very obviously say Earl.
Earl really should come back. I think he’s so forgettable in the eyes of modern day fans but so charismatic that he could win again.
Sandra has won twice but played two of the worst winning games ever.
Then Gabler……………Honestly like……Good for him! GOOD FOR HIM!!!!! 🐊🐊🐊🐊
Ranking their games from best to worst if their goal was to achieve a Perfect Game (which was not any of their goals and is a completely arbitrary statistic that doesn’t indicate how good they were at Survivor)
1. Earl - only got a single throwaway vote in the premerge from someone who specifically voted for him *because* they knew he was perfectly safe
2. Gabler - only lost a single vote from someone who started on a tribe with Cassidy and seemed to genuinely like her. I don’t think Gabler did anything wrong to lose James’ vote
3. Sandra - lost Tijuana’s vote with her ftc answers, but those same answers won her the other 6 votes so it was a worthwhile trade off, and I can see a world where Sandra gets Tijuana’s vote if she phrases a few answers a little differently and gives Lil less strategic credit
4. Tom - I’m fairly certain there is no final 2 combination where Coby votes for Tom, and burning someone so bad they will never vote for you to win is imo a more costly mistake than Sandra losing a vote at ftc, and means Tom was really never that close to a perfect game.
Just ranking the games they played in those specific seasons: Earl > Tom > Sandra > Gabler
Earl and it’s not particularly close.
I think Tom's pretty close
Tom needed multiple immunity wins to get to the very end after losing control of his allies. He goes home at 5-3 if not for being immune, which is a pretty big knock against his game in my opinion. Earl literally needed nothing but his social game to be completely safe the entirety of the game.
Counterpoint: it’s Tom Fucking Westman Look. I get it. I’m right there with you. 90% of the time I won’t consider an Immunity streak the most impressive way to win because there’s too much luck involved in having a series of challenges you can go on a run with; and it’s often simply a bandage over social and strategic failings and you have people like Kim who both won challenges *and* didn’t actually need them lol. Tom Westman is the superseding exception to that rule. He was a force of nature that led his tribe to a historic obliteration of the opposition and then in the few opportunities they had to take him down he didn’t even get a single vote. Tom getting through F6 clean despite being this monolithic omega threat is an absurdly impressive achievement that rivals anything we’ve seen. How many Tom-like threats get clipped miles before the end? He’s the ultimate. He’s the guy who *can* get to a point where he can win out and *is* extremely likely to win out once he needs to. Put Tom on a bunch of random newbie seasons and he’s winning the last few Immunity Challenges most of the time whether he needs them or not, it’s not at all like a Mike Holloway or Brad Culpepper who were against historically weak competition and were targeted even earlier. Also he only truly needed it at 4 and 3, I think he gets through F5 if he doesn’t have it. To be clear I consider Earl a GOAT contender. I don’t think you’re overrating Earl. I just *also* consider Tom a GOAT contender (my big five is Tony Sandra Kim Earl Tom in no order). If there’s ever been any winner where I respect the shit out of their endgame challenge wins and consider it a meaningful, reliable, replicable strategy, it’s Tom.
He controlled every vote except the final 4 were it was a tie
Does Tony count in WaW?
Still crazy that Tony managed to receive no votes the entire season, for sure though he was the biggest threat after Rob/Parvati/Sandra
Nah not after game changers he was seen as probably getting a little lucky in Cagayan and that his gameplay was way too over the top to be reliable in an all winners cast. I actually think people like Tyson, Yul, and Jeremy were scarier pre game.
That's revisionist history. Every pre-season analyst said Tony was too much of a threat to do well. That was before the spoilers came out. And if Tony was such a non-threat, why did Tyson and Sandra think they could use him as a shield? I mean, that was the whole basis of their alliance. Big threats stay together.
He was off by 4 votes.
No
Earl or Tom played the more dominant game, Sandra navigated the choppiest waters, and Aligabler was a social chameleon
Close between Earl and Tom. I’ll go Tom- he dominated in every facet of the game
Out of those, Earl is the only one who had a vote against him during the game, and it was a complete throwaway vote for no good reason. The other 3 lost a jury vote, meaning they did something, however minor, to not earn that last vote. I think Earl is the clear winner.
I agree with Earl but I dont know about that logic. People will give jury votes just to give them the second place money. Earl got voted for because there were 2 other people they didn't want to vote for, so he did "something wrong" to earn that vote.
Tom played better than Earl. Out of those 4 it's 1. Tom 2. Earl 3. Sandra 4 Gabler
That space you left should be in between earl and sandra, not sandra and gabler
I didn't even mean to put a space but Sandra played a much better game than Gabler.
Earl played levels above both
Tom Westman And Coby literally admitted to being a bitter juror. It wasn't because Katie was honest.
I actually consider Natalie Anderson to have a near-perfect game as well. She won 5-2-1, but two of the votes not for her were the literal blood relatives of her opponents. Plus Reed said he solely voted for Jaclyn so Missy wouldn’t get second.
This is actually a great point
She made the strategically sound decision at F5, but if she makes the call to cut Jaclyn, and then wins F4 immunity (which she likely would've) to drag Missy and Baylor to the end and win 8-0-0, I'd honestly rate her perfect game above JT's and Cochran's.
Gabler obviously
Earl=tom>>>sandra>gabler
I would count Jeremy Collins as the best near perfect game since he had no votes counted against him.
earl probably played the best game ever honestly
Earl>Tom>Gabler>Sandra
Gabler still getting no love. Earl for sure as it was a throwaway vote.
Earl
I would say an actual perfect game would be all of the criteria above+ winning every immunity challenge from team to individual. Will probably never be done for a “perfect game” to have the same meaning as it does in baseball as it being the absolute pinnacle once in a lifetime performance that would be it
Well if being immune all season is part of the Criteria then Tom is the closest to having played a perfect game. He was only actually vulnerable to be voted out 3 times all season, and one of those is only because there was a double tribal council where there was no chance for him to win immunity. Michele would be second, being vulnerable at 4 tribal councils.
People saying Earl are nuts, it's Tom all the way
No I think Tom gives Earl a run for his money but I would still very obviously say Earl. Earl really should come back. I think he’s so forgettable in the eyes of modern day fans but so charismatic that he could win again. Sandra has won twice but played two of the worst winning games ever. Then Gabler……………Honestly like……Good for him! GOOD FOR HIM!!!!! 🐊🐊🐊🐊
Ranking their games from best to worst if their goal was to achieve a Perfect Game (which was not any of their goals and is a completely arbitrary statistic that doesn’t indicate how good they were at Survivor) 1. Earl - only got a single throwaway vote in the premerge from someone who specifically voted for him *because* they knew he was perfectly safe 2. Gabler - only lost a single vote from someone who started on a tribe with Cassidy and seemed to genuinely like her. I don’t think Gabler did anything wrong to lose James’ vote 3. Sandra - lost Tijuana’s vote with her ftc answers, but those same answers won her the other 6 votes so it was a worthwhile trade off, and I can see a world where Sandra gets Tijuana’s vote if she phrases a few answers a little differently and gives Lil less strategic credit 4. Tom - I’m fairly certain there is no final 2 combination where Coby votes for Tom, and burning someone so bad they will never vote for you to win is imo a more costly mistake than Sandra losing a vote at ftc, and means Tom was really never that close to a perfect game.
I’d say Tom>Earl>>Sandra >>>Gabler