I think Rachel is one of the most well rounded players and the fact that she did it alone made it more impressive. Comp wins, strategic mind and social game.
@ She never had a fully solid alliance or someone she worked with for majority of the game. The only person that was really by her side was Sue but she didn’t really add anything to the relationship but give her a solid vote. The underdog 5 only lasted kyle vote and then andy and teeny flip. And kyle vote was kinda a no brainer not really an alliance decision.
Indeed all around from top to bottom, using all tools, sitd, block a vote, idol play, sneaky ala tony, social awareness and good reaad.. didnt recd votes except idol that is void, a potential fire maker winner challenge to challenge beast (halll of fame) Take a bow.
I just unsubscribed from all RHAP feeds due to you spoiling last week's winner in the title of this episode. What an asshole thing to do. It's been less than a week. Have you heard of PVRs?
Something I haven't seen talked about but which I think is worth mentioning is that the reason why I feel she can be confidently put in a higher ranking of winners (and players) is that we've seen her thrive from almost any position in the game that one can be in. So many things can happen that put people in various positions that are either super lucky (the "idol in the fries") or super unlucky (swap screwed), and that's always the case, but the difference with Rachel is that we saw these things happen to her of all sorts which (I think) shouldn't affect how she's viewed as a player (because they're entirely out of her intentional control, whether good or bad) and she was able to play so well no matter what happened. We saw her play from the bottom and from the top and everywhere in between and she always succeeded whenever it was possible. I add that last part because of course people might be left out of votes, but there is only so much a person can do to not let that happen. If she had played a game like Boston Rob this season where she forced everyone to let her know what was happening at all times, she would've been out right at the merge! To play the game she needed to play for her to win in this era and state of the game, she had to make decisions that led sometimes to things like getting blindsided to happen. The crux of this whole argument I think is the earlier point I made about how we saw her play from every angle and succeed. Not to knock Kim because she's one of the all time greats, but in One World we saw her start in a position of total power, and she played that in a legendary way and it ended up with a stellar win for the history books. Then in WaW she played from the bottom for the majority of her time there, especially toward the end, and she simply wasn't able to get the same hold on that side of the game as players like Rachel and more standard "bottom-playing" winners have been able to. It's a similar with Boston Rob and to an extent even Tony, where we see them play rather specific games whenever they play, and sometimes it works very well while other times it crashes and burns because they have some sort of slip and are unable to recover. Last point is one that I've heard a few people mention, but if Rachel played a game like any of those other past incredible winners from the first 40 seasons, she wouldn't have lasted to the end because of the mentality of players in this point in the new era. This is kind of like what (I think) Maryanne was saying about how being 6th best in the final 8 (or something like that) is ideal. If Rachel didn't get blindsided earlier in the game, perhaps she's seen as too big of a threat and is taken out. That's not to say that she got blindsided multiple times on purpose, but usually it ended up being because if she had played them differently she may have seemed like far too big of a presence and would have been taken out immediately after, and that seems to be something she herself clocked by the way she talked about her own game in exit interviews. This isn't to say that I necessarily agree that Rachel is the greatest of all time, but I think this is the whole case I was hoping more people would make, and I hope I was able to articulate well why I think her win should be extremely valued. It's so tough because there are far too many different criteria to be able to lock down one person being the best of all time, and even in any particular category there are so many variables, as Rob and Dom mentioned here, which lead to different answers based on different variables being prioritized, but what I will say is that my personal opinion is that of all 45 winners of the show, Rachel would have the best "simulation win-rate", where if she's put on any random newbie cast a million times with no prior info (even spanning all eras of the show), she wins a higher percentage of those simulations than any other winner of American Survivor (except maybe Todd, who I think is the most similar winner to Rachel). I just think so many other great winners have had incredible strategies and ways of playing, but which worked the best in the instances we saw and may not have worked in a million other ways the game could have shaken up, which I don't think is the case for Rachel's game and for Rachel as a player. Great video Rob lol I love RHAP!
It’s like if they ran a simulation of Rachel playing 10 seasons, but all the scenarios happened within one season. In S45 Dee had a strategy that she never needed to change at all. Could Dee have thrived in S47? Don’t know, maybe. Could Rachel have thrived in other seasons? It’s easy to imagine her adapting to different scenarios, more so than many other players.
She is great in all 3 aspects of the game: Socially, the most universally liked player ( the only other player was Caroline ). Amazing social/emotional awareness, to know how to approach each player, e.g Sue - Loyalty, Andy - Affirmation and lil brother energy, Genevieve - respectful rivalry, Sam - sibling energy. Clutch in challenges. Despite being on the bottom, everyone wanted to work with her strategically. Great strategic acumen, knew where she was exactly at all times in the tribe. Knew when to pull the I am a threat trigger, which was at the perfect spot to guarantee her winning at the end if she gets there. Rachel seems like the winner's version of Andrea. In terms of female winning game I rank her 4th after Kim, Nat A and Sarah. ( and yes Im strictly speaking about winning game not being the 4th best women ever ).
I hear people say Rachel got an idol in the fries. She got a clue in the fries. Her brazen poise as she excavated the idol from the corner of the tarp with the whole tribe sitting right there, just out of her sight, was winner behavior.
I think we’re confusing Rachel as being so great, because it appeared to a viewer that she was in a very good position from the final 9 on. As know-it-alls, we could see her path to victory, so it looked like she was playing some amazing game. She’s obviously a good player, good at challenges and has a good head on her shoulders. But breaking it down, her game went from being blindsided pre-merge, to just floating through the early merge (Rome, Sierra, Sol, Gave boots, and she was blindsided on the Sierra vote and almost screwed up the Sol vote by telling Sam about it), to winning a bunch of challenges and playing her idol in the endgame. Ultimately, I think her social game was a bit lacking and left her in vulnerable positions throughout the game. She really never had someone she could fully work with, until Sue at the very end I guess. Maybe that was just bad luck with this particular group of people, but I don’t think her social game is nearly good enough to be called even one of the greatest first time players. Look at other great first time winners like Tom Westman and JT, they made great relationships that took them all the way to the end (or at least to F3 then needed a final immunity to lock it up) and were dominant challenge performers. I just don’t see it. I see a very capable player who certainly has a shot at winning any season she’s on, but the chips just happened to fall in place this time
I agree with Dom 100%. She was amazing. I think her playing the shot in the dark was brilliant, and not enough credit was given for that move. She was masterful at making everyone believe that she was sad to be leaving and very astute to pick up on Andy's threat level and changing that vote off of Sam.
I don’t understand why people don’t give Rachel credit for Saul saving her. She obviously had to have a good social game with him and others to receive that.
This was great hearing from Dom. Whether or not you agree with his analysis, it is still so much fun to hear previous players so invested in the current seasons.
I think the argument for her being best player of the new era actually has legs, though I personally lean toward Erika since her style of game is very geared toward the modern meta. Rachel does a lot of things right and has a very clever, intuitive strategic mind. But imo Erika manages her threat level better as she's able to secure a win without needing an idol/immunity to survive. Erika wins more simulations than Rachel, Dee, or Yam Yam for sure imo.
The most challenging part of this interview is that it seems pretty evident that Dom doesn’t even really believe she’s actually the GOAT. I love a good hot take, but the hot take has gotta be based in reality and able to backed up with solid arguments. So many “hot takes” these days are people saying something controversial just for the sake of it/to get a reaction, which makes it hard to engage with in an honest way. It feels disingenuous to me. Rachel is clearly a very skilled player, but I think making claims like this actually hurts her legacy more than it helps it bc now people are actively pointing out and highlighting the flaws in her game that they otherwise wouldn’t need to bring as much attention to.
Rachel play all positions: humble go along, bridge builder, leader, & solo well. Stealthy spy, resourceful, unflappable with the best poker face. Friend, for or neutral. Don just likes her poker face, lol. Lucky, blessed, and skilled.
With full respect to Dom and Rachel’s game, if I was a Survivor runner up who came extremely close to winning, and was in a poker group with someone for years who was interested in survivor and I talked to them about my experience and my game, and gave them advice before they ended up playing the game, and they ended up winning, I would also parade them as the best survivor ever.
I've heard of people saying Andy for 50, others saying Genevieve and Sol. Why not Rachel. Rachel is the real second go round winner threat. She goes into a returnee season with dee and Maryanne and Jam Jam, I think Rachel is still the one of the group to squeeze through a second time. I hope we find out someday, a "New Era All Stars" cast is starting to have some real legs.
@anthonyuram2017 no winners in season 50? Speculation or Rumor? I heard everyone is uo for grabs it very well could be an actual Ledends season, and many winners could be there.
Per Jeff from EW in November. Sounds pretty much like Cambodia 2.0. He’s also said sometbing about wanting the fans involved somehow. “We want players who are also excited to be on it,” Probst explains. “This is not Winners at War. It doesn't mean we don't want players who are going to play hard. Of course we do. But it means we're also big-picture trying to celebrate 25 years, and that means joyful players who are in a good mood and want to play. We’re not looking for disgruntled players looking to settle a score. We're looking for players who want a second chance, who have something to prove to themselves.” My hope is for all from 41 and up, no winners.
I’d honestly be pretty surprised if Rachel was chosen to return. Through the edit, we learn more about most of the other post merge contestants than we did about her.
I think Rachel did great for the circumstances. Well-rounded game (overall). Every Survivor winner had luck or a lucky breaks at times. My problem (or something lol) with her game is she never really was a mover or shaker until endgame. It doesn't mean she played a bad game. It's lackluster compared to Dee and alot of of old school era winners. The Dee and Rachel comparison to me is like a drag race. For example, Dee hit the gas, never stopped, and passed that line. Rachel started late after green, but towards the end hit the gas imo and won her race. Both made it and won, but Dee's race appears dominant. Well. It is dominant. Rachel is decent winner, even I'd say a good winner. Great is a stretch. I'm saying that even though I loved her win.
48:28 reminds me of an idea I had once in the early days of the show and would still love to see. Cast 18 people who are 1/2 of twins. Play the game out. When they’re done, bring in next season’s cast- their twins. Same tribe setups, maybe even the same challenges. See how the results differ. They film them so close now that they could pull it off, but of course it would require stunt casting and that might be a disaster with duds, and not sure how a “repeat season” plays with the casual audience.
This sounds like a fun experiment, but seeing the exact same season play out twice would inevitably start to drag. It would be fun if there was a way to air both of them intertwined with each other
Rachel did not have a "better pulse" in fire making than you Dom. She just had alot more winner equity. You and wendall were tied in winner equity. And shes had multiple seasons to judge how the fire making challenge will increase or decrease the odds of you winning the game. Weve had every scenario at this point amd she knew...im already gonna win. No point to give myself an extra 5 or so percent to win.
Team Rachel, here. Why is her idol being diminished? Does anyone remember how she cut it out of the tarp with the whole tribe there in broad daylight??! Nothing less significant about that at all.
Exactly! She could play humble go along, bridge builder, truces, leadership, solo, stealth spy AND absolutely unflappable. Friend, for or neutral. Don just likes her poker face, lol. Seriously when Sol was looking right at her when she found the idol clue in her burger. Lucky, blessed and skilled.
Rachels win is right in the middle. She had some good strategy with the sitd play. And winning key immunities and having an idol based on the luck Auction fry idol. She had great reads but had to win immunity to survive. She played her advantages far better than previous seasons. But shes not really all that great. Just cuz shes an archetype thats rootable doesnt mean shes the best of all time lol.
I would rank her right beside mike holloway honestly and thats probably somewhere in the middle of my rankings but idk it’s about how you look at it, its easy to say they had to rely on immunity wins and an idol but the fact that they pulled it off against all odds in the first place is impressive af.
It was actually Sue who pulled the trigger on Andy. She refused to vote anyone but Andy because of Caroline. The best Rachell could have done was tie it by voting Sam.
Rachel was great! I grew up yelling at scary movies on screen. Don't open the box! Don't go in the basement! I yelled and Rachel listened!! 😂😂 Last season not much. 😢
Rachel is a beast, and was great to watch this season. I hope she returns for 50 and plays with others who have won. IMO, 39 day winners are always going to be superior than those who won in this new iteration, but she may prove otherwise.
I wonder if Rachel's game will result in the end of the shot in the dark? I can see it now that if you play it, people are instantly going to presume you have an idol even if you don't. Even if you think youre going home and need to play it, it might just further cement your place at tge bottom of the tribe. Ps. Re Rachel taking the rice during the challenge, if you watch it back it was actually Andy who first suggested taking it to her. She just had the guts to actually go for it.
Definitely an advantage being a female at the final tribal council for getting votes from the ponderosa jury always seems to be that way particularly in new era
Rachel had a handful of legendary moves. But, I might go as far to say her biggest move was writing Andy’s name down when she played her idol. Idk how Andy would’ve been in fire but he’s the only one besides Genevieve who stood a chance against Rachel in final 6! Getting Andy out instead of Sam was possibly a million dollar decision. But idk if the jury saw Andy the way we did at home. He would’ve really had to have an awesome FTC and his jury management was nowhere near as good as Rachel’s. Does that make sense? Anybody? Anybody?
Dom, I'm so glad you brought up the shot in the dark right away. I felt the same way. I thought it was a mob boss Godfather move to me. Thought it was brilliant. I see you Survived the party, Rob 🤭
I disagree with doms take about Rachel having a very strong beginning socially bc in the first episode when Andy was a mess and needed someone to talk to she said in confessional she was “absolutely not gonna meet up with Andy early in the mornings” and then when he expected her to be there for him she was argumentative and her relationship with Andy seemed to sour. I believe a socially good player would have handled Andy better.
I actually believe not sneaking off with Andy IS the social move. Yes, she damaged one relationship in doing so, but socially it’s better to have one damaged relationship than risk ostracizing yourself from the other 4
@@tekgid433 she could have been straight with him from the start and said that’s not a good idea, let’s try to talk when possible around camp. She played that interaction with Andy about as poorly as she could have.
How can i get into one of these poker groups?? No way it was random Rachael was in this group and just so happened to be on the show! Benny Vlachos incoming and ready 😈
she would have been gone from the game a long time ago had sol not saved her with the advantage at tribal. new era survivor kinda sucks with the insane amount of advantages and stuff. now it's just like a random draw out of a bag who wins. cbs can we get a no beware advantage, block a vote, no shot in the dark, player advantages etc classic survivor season for season 50 for the love of god?!
Rachel got lucky with immunity idol and Sol saving her. She is good at puzzles and smart using her brains and is strategic. First asian woman winner 👏. Congrats👍🤑
I think when you got to the AI have them play 100 times with players that never played before....let's not pick 1. It's Chris (9)Kim spradlin Michelle Fitzgerald, and Rachel....but don't forget the 2s who got screwed....Russel hantz, the milf who lost to Ben, Aubrey and the guy who didn't get to tribal Jessie....and Dominique abote would be the runner up on this
She's one of the worst winners. She's a challenge beast who never knew what was going on. She won the right challenges at the right time. And had some advantages. But wasn't a well around player at all
Man, that's a wild take. Nobody on this season was 100% in on anything, and she made moves that nobody could have anticipated. She's definitely in the top ten if not higher.
Top ten or higher is crazy lol. She was a very medium winner. She got left out strategically in 3 or 4 rounds. She had a huge target and without advantages or challenges she would have been voted out.
@@robertmercer3212Which is exactly why she's an amazing winner. She should have been gone ages ago. Survivor isn't just plotting and blindsiding and always being in on everything. People do that to get threats out and make other strategic moves. Weaker players are often involved to insulate themselves from being ousted (and to be used as goats, should they make it to FTC.) The very fact that we didn't hear a single person strongly consider that Rachel even COULD have an idol for Operation Italy shows that she outwitted an otherwise incredible plan. So much for "strategy."
my own personal opinion is that rachel is a mid-tier winner who people tend to be very hyperbolic about. ive seen people say she's the best and others say she's one of the worst winners in survivor history and i dont think i fall into either camp im somewhere in the middle. she made some great innovative moves and is a deserving winner on a season where there was no shortage of other strong players/competition. however i do think her lows were LOW and she did have to rely on luck, advantages, and immunities more so than the average survivor winner to get to the end. i prefer winners who have more dominant games and play more offensively rather than defensively like a dee or tony. overall rachel is a solid winner for this season/overall but she is not on my own personal mount rushmore of the survivor greats. loved hearing dom's perspective though this was a great episode
She may not have had a great game,but she is one of the best players to play the game.Rachel was just placed in a complex season,with big strategic players
I think Rachel is one of the most well rounded players and the fact that she did it alone made it more impressive. Comp wins, strategic mind and social game.
What do you mean did it alone?
@ She never had a fully solid alliance or someone she worked with for majority of the game. The only person that was really by her side was Sue but she didn’t really add anything to the relationship but give her a solid vote. The underdog 5 only lasted kyle vote and then andy and teeny flip. And kyle vote was kinda a no brainer not really an alliance decision.
Indeed all around from top to bottom, using all tools, sitd, block a vote, idol play, sneaky ala tony, social awareness and good reaad.. didnt recd votes except idol that is void, a potential fire maker winner challenge to challenge beast (halll of fame)
Take a bow.
I just unsubscribed from all RHAP feeds due to you spoiling last week's winner in the title of this episode. What an asshole thing to do. It's been less than a week. Have you heard of PVRs?
This was great. Thanks a lot to Dom for coming on for this. I'd love to see more post season interviews with past players giving their thoughts.
Something I haven't seen talked about but which I think is worth mentioning is that the reason why I feel she can be confidently put in a higher ranking of winners (and players) is that we've seen her thrive from almost any position in the game that one can be in. So many things can happen that put people in various positions that are either super lucky (the "idol in the fries") or super unlucky (swap screwed), and that's always the case, but the difference with Rachel is that we saw these things happen to her of all sorts which (I think) shouldn't affect how she's viewed as a player (because they're entirely out of her intentional control, whether good or bad) and she was able to play so well no matter what happened. We saw her play from the bottom and from the top and everywhere in between and she always succeeded whenever it was possible. I add that last part because of course people might be left out of votes, but there is only so much a person can do to not let that happen. If she had played a game like Boston Rob this season where she forced everyone to let her know what was happening at all times, she would've been out right at the merge! To play the game she needed to play for her to win in this era and state of the game, she had to make decisions that led sometimes to things like getting blindsided to happen.
The crux of this whole argument I think is the earlier point I made about how we saw her play from every angle and succeed. Not to knock Kim because she's one of the all time greats, but in One World we saw her start in a position of total power, and she played that in a legendary way and it ended up with a stellar win for the history books. Then in WaW she played from the bottom for the majority of her time there, especially toward the end, and she simply wasn't able to get the same hold on that side of the game as players like Rachel and more standard "bottom-playing" winners have been able to. It's a similar with Boston Rob and to an extent even Tony, where we see them play rather specific games whenever they play, and sometimes it works very well while other times it crashes and burns because they have some sort of slip and are unable to recover.
Last point is one that I've heard a few people mention, but if Rachel played a game like any of those other past incredible winners from the first 40 seasons, she wouldn't have lasted to the end because of the mentality of players in this point in the new era. This is kind of like what (I think) Maryanne was saying about how being 6th best in the final 8 (or something like that) is ideal. If Rachel didn't get blindsided earlier in the game, perhaps she's seen as too big of a threat and is taken out. That's not to say that she got blindsided multiple times on purpose, but usually it ended up being because if she had played them differently she may have seemed like far too big of a presence and would have been taken out immediately after, and that seems to be something she herself clocked by the way she talked about her own game in exit interviews.
This isn't to say that I necessarily agree that Rachel is the greatest of all time, but I think this is the whole case I was hoping more people would make, and I hope I was able to articulate well why I think her win should be extremely valued. It's so tough because there are far too many different criteria to be able to lock down one person being the best of all time, and even in any particular category there are so many variables, as Rob and Dom mentioned here, which lead to different answers based on different variables being prioritized, but what I will say is that my personal opinion is that of all 45 winners of the show, Rachel would have the best "simulation win-rate", where if she's put on any random newbie cast a million times with no prior info (even spanning all eras of the show), she wins a higher percentage of those simulations than any other winner of American Survivor (except maybe Todd, who I think is the most similar winner to Rachel). I just think so many other great winners have had incredible strategies and ways of playing, but which worked the best in the instances we saw and may not have worked in a million other ways the game could have shaken up, which I don't think is the case for Rachel's game and for Rachel as a player. Great video Rob lol I love RHAP!
gonna give your comment a like for effort but i am NOT reading all that 😭😭🙏
you're right
It’s like if they ran a simulation of Rachel playing 10 seasons, but all the scenarios happened within one season. In S45 Dee had a strategy that she never needed to change at all. Could Dee have thrived in S47? Don’t know, maybe. Could Rachel have thrived in other seasons? It’s easy to imagine her adapting to different scenarios, more so than many other players.
She is great in all 3 aspects of the game:
Socially, the most universally liked player ( the only other player was Caroline ). Amazing social/emotional awareness, to know how to approach each player, e.g Sue - Loyalty, Andy - Affirmation and lil brother energy, Genevieve - respectful rivalry, Sam - sibling energy.
Clutch in challenges.
Despite being on the bottom, everyone wanted to work with her strategically. Great strategic acumen, knew where she was exactly at all times in the tribe. Knew when to pull the I am a threat trigger, which was at the perfect spot to guarantee her winning at the end if she gets there.
Rachel seems like the winner's version of Andrea.
In terms of female winning game I rank her 4th after Kim, Nat A and Sarah. ( and yes Im strictly speaking about winning game not being the 4th best women ever ).
I hear people say Rachel got an idol in the fries. She got a clue in the fries. Her brazen poise as she excavated the idol from the corner of the tarp with the whole tribe sitting right there, just out of her sight, was winner behavior.
I think we’re confusing Rachel as being so great, because it appeared to a viewer that she was in a very good position from the final 9 on. As know-it-alls, we could see her path to victory, so it looked like she was playing some amazing game. She’s obviously a good player, good at challenges and has a good head on her shoulders.
But breaking it down, her game went from being blindsided pre-merge, to just floating through the early merge (Rome, Sierra, Sol, Gave boots, and she was blindsided on the Sierra vote and almost screwed up the Sol vote by telling Sam about it), to winning a bunch of challenges and playing her idol in the endgame. Ultimately, I think her social game was a bit lacking and left her in vulnerable positions throughout the game. She really never had someone she could fully work with, until Sue at the very end I guess. Maybe that was just bad luck with this particular group of people, but I don’t think her social game is nearly good enough to be called even one of the greatest first time players. Look at other great first time winners like Tom Westman and JT, they made great relationships that took them all the way to the end (or at least to F3 then needed a final immunity to lock it up) and were dominant challenge performers. I just don’t see it. I see a very capable player who certainly has a shot at winning any season she’s on, but the chips just happened to fall in place this time
Yay!!! Can’t wait to hear from Dom!!!
I agree with Dom 100%. She was amazing. I think her playing the shot in the dark was brilliant, and not enough credit was given for that move. She was masterful at making everyone believe that she was sad to be leaving and very astute to pick up on Andy's threat level and changing that vote off of Sam.
I think it's also important to point out that Kim--like Wendell--was not exactly up against a cast of criminal masterminds....
I don’t understand why people don’t give Rachel credit for Saul saving her. She obviously had to have a good social game with him and others to receive that.
This was great hearing from Dom. Whether or not you agree with his analysis, it is still so much fun to hear previous players so invested in the current seasons.
I think the argument for her being best player of the new era actually has legs, though I personally lean toward Erika since her style of game is very geared toward the modern meta. Rachel does a lot of things right and has a very clever, intuitive strategic mind. But imo Erika manages her threat level better as she's able to secure a win without needing an idol/immunity to survive. Erika wins more simulations than Rachel, Dee, or Yam Yam for sure imo.
The most challenging part of this interview is that it seems pretty evident that Dom doesn’t even really believe she’s actually the GOAT.
I love a good hot take, but the hot take has gotta be based in reality and able to backed up with solid arguments. So many “hot takes” these days are people saying something controversial just for the sake of it/to get a reaction, which makes it hard to engage with in an honest way. It feels disingenuous to me.
Rachel is clearly a very skilled player, but I think making claims like this actually hurts her legacy more than it helps it bc now people are actively pointing out and highlighting the flaws in her game that they otherwise wouldn’t need to bring as much attention to.
Rachel play all positions: humble go along, bridge builder, leader, & solo well. Stealthy spy, resourceful, unflappable with the best poker face. Friend, for or neutral. Don just likes her poker face, lol. Lucky, blessed, and skilled.
With full respect to Dom and Rachel’s game, if I was a Survivor runner up who came extremely close to winning, and was in a poker group with someone for years who was interested in survivor and I talked to them about my experience and my game, and gave them advice before they ended up playing the game, and they ended up winning, I would also parade them as the best survivor ever.
I've heard of people saying Andy for 50, others saying Genevieve and Sol. Why not Rachel. Rachel is the real second go round winner threat. She goes into a returnee season with dee and Maryanne and Jam Jam, I think Rachel is still the one of the group to squeeze through a second time. I hope we find out someday, a "New Era All Stars" cast is starting to have some real legs.
I’m not sure if they’ll bring back any winners for that one. I’d guess they do more returning seasons in the 50s
There should be no winners on 50.
@anthonyuram2017 no winners in season 50? Speculation or Rumor? I heard everyone is uo for grabs it very well could be an actual Ledends season, and many winners could be there.
Per Jeff from EW in November. Sounds pretty much like Cambodia 2.0. He’s also said sometbing about wanting the fans involved somehow.
“We want players who are also excited to be on it,” Probst explains. “This is not Winners at War. It doesn't mean we don't want players who are going to play hard. Of course we do. But it means we're also big-picture trying to celebrate 25 years, and that means joyful players who are in a good mood and want to play. We’re not looking for disgruntled players looking to settle a score. We're looking for players who want a second chance, who have something to prove to themselves.”
My hope is for all from 41 and up, no winners.
I’d honestly be pretty surprised if Rachel was chosen to return. Through the edit, we learn more about most of the other post merge contestants than we did about her.
rachel is just astronomical & sheer brilliance caliber of a winner lets goooooooooooo
I think Rachel did great for the circumstances. Well-rounded game (overall). Every Survivor winner had luck or a lucky breaks at times. My problem (or something lol) with her game is she never really was a mover or shaker until endgame. It doesn't mean she played a bad game. It's lackluster compared to Dee and alot of of old school era winners. The Dee and Rachel comparison to me is like a drag race. For example, Dee hit the gas, never stopped, and passed that line. Rachel started late after green, but towards the end hit the gas imo and won her race. Both made it and won, but Dee's race appears dominant. Well. It is dominant. Rachel is decent winner, even I'd say a good winner. Great is a stretch. I'm saying that even though I loved her win.
The whole reason this podcast happened was because Dom said Rachel was "The best player of all time". And their was no reason why that is true lol.
Thanks Dom and Rob for this super fun podcast! Rachel is the first winner of the new era who's win was what i wanted from the final 3. Loved her game.
48:28 reminds me of an idea I had once in the early days of the show and would still love to see.
Cast 18 people who are 1/2 of twins. Play the game out. When they’re done, bring in next season’s cast- their twins. Same tribe setups, maybe even the same challenges. See how the results differ.
They film them so close now that they could pull it off, but of course it would require stunt casting and that might be a disaster with duds, and not sure how a “repeat season” plays with the casual audience.
This sounds like a fun experiment, but seeing the exact same season play out twice would inevitably start to drag. It would be fun if there was a way to air both of them intertwined with each other
Agreed, not sure how it would come off. The hope would be differing personalities.
Rachel did not have a "better pulse" in fire making than you Dom. She just had alot more winner equity. You and wendall were tied in winner equity. And shes had multiple seasons to judge how the fire making challenge will increase or decrease the odds of you winning the game. Weve had every scenario at this point amd she knew...im already gonna win. No point to give myself an extra 5 or so percent to win.
Team Rachel, here. Why is her idol being diminished? Does anyone remember how she cut it out of the tarp with the whole tribe there in broad daylight??! Nothing less significant about that at all.
Exactly! She could play humble go along, bridge builder, truces, leadership, solo, stealth spy AND absolutely unflappable. Friend, for or neutral. Don just likes her poker face, lol. Seriously when Sol was looking right at her when she found the idol clue in her burger. Lucky, blessed and skilled.
Rachels win is right in the middle. She had some good strategy with the sitd play. And winning key immunities and having an idol based on the luck Auction fry idol. She had great reads but had to win immunity to survive. She played her advantages far better than previous seasons. But shes not really all that great. Just cuz shes an archetype thats rootable doesnt mean shes the best of all time lol.
Also got saved by production…. I mean SOL
I would rank her right beside mike holloway honestly and thats probably somewhere in the middle of my rankings but idk it’s about how you look at it, its easy to say they had to rely on immunity wins and an idol but the fact that they pulled it off against all odds in the first place is impressive af.
100% agreed. Two very deserving winners, but nowhere near the GOAT for either.
Dom is a great player but i think he’s lost his marbles if he thinks her 47 game was the greatest ever played
they are friends in real life. It's just a biased opinion
Domenick has big takes, seems like a dope guy
It was actually Sue who pulled the trigger on Andy. She refused to vote anyone but Andy because of Caroline. The best Rachell could have done was tie it by voting Sam.
Rachel was great! I grew up yelling at scary movies on screen. Don't open the box! Don't go in the basement! I yelled and Rachel listened!! 😂😂 Last season not much. 😢
Rachel is so middle. I like her, but as a player I just can't see anything so good in her trajectory
Rachel is a beast, and was great to watch this season. I hope she returns for 50 and plays with others who have won. IMO, 39 day winners are always going to be superior than those who won in this new iteration, but she may prove otherwise.
Can Taren please do a deep dive like he does with big brother winners?
I wonder if Rachel's game will result in the end of the shot in the dark? I can see it now that if you play it, people are instantly going to presume you have an idol even if you don't. Even if you think youre going home and need to play it, it might just further cement your place at tge bottom of the tribe.
Ps. Re Rachel taking the rice during the challenge, if you watch it back it was actually Andy who first suggested taking it to her. She just had the guts to actually go for it.
Definitely an advantage being a female at the final tribal council for getting votes from the ponderosa jury always seems to be that way particularly in new era
Rachel had a handful of legendary moves. But, I might go as far to say her biggest move was writing Andy’s name down when she played her idol. Idk how Andy would’ve been in fire but he’s the only one besides Genevieve who stood a chance against Rachel in final 6! Getting Andy out instead of Sam was possibly a million dollar decision. But idk if the jury saw Andy the way we did at home. He would’ve really had to have an awesome FTC and his jury management was nowhere near as good as Rachel’s. Does that make sense? Anybody? Anybody?
Dom, I'm so glad you brought up the shot in the dark right away. I felt the same way. I thought it was a mob boss Godfather move to me. Thought it was brilliant.
I see you Survived the party, Rob 🤭
Middle tier winner. Very good player
I disagree with doms take about Rachel having a very strong beginning socially bc in the first episode when Andy was a mess and needed someone to talk to she said in confessional she was “absolutely not gonna meet up with Andy early in the mornings” and then when he expected her to be there for him she was argumentative and her relationship with Andy seemed to sour. I believe a socially good player would have handled Andy better.
It would have been ridiculously stupid of Racheal to go off sneakily with Andy to the beach and make herself a target. You’re mad she has a brain?
I actually believe not sneaking off with Andy IS the social move. Yes, she damaged one relationship in doing so, but socially it’s better to have one damaged relationship than risk ostracizing yourself from the other 4
@@tekgid433 she could have been straight with him from the start and said that’s not a good idea, let’s try to talk when possible around camp. She played that interaction with Andy about as poorly as she could have.
@@jornsyy it wasn’t an either or situation though. If she was a good social player she would have maintained all relationships on the first day.
Dee had Austin who could both play but is one of the biggest stooges to ever play
Her game was all hammer and no scalpel
I thought Rob was going to go full Julie Chen-Moonves at the end there... so close to saying "Love one another." 🤣
I wanna point out that Sandra was the first to hide in bushes not Tony 🫢🫢
If Rachel comes back again,she easily goes far
Not having the whole week of Christmas off? Oh, America 😭
Q canceled it, we’re lucky to get a single day off
So we’ve really just gone all the way insane when it comes to Rachel and season 47 eh?
Yeah. We can’t handle this. The title alone had my blood boiling. 😂
My god! Get to the punch line
dom continues to show why he's a stud.
I love Dom. Greatest to never win. ❤️ But his take is absolutely ridiculous. Lol
It is, but it’s sweet to see him going so hard to prop up his friend
How can i get into one of these poker groups?? No way it was random Rachael was in this group and just so happened to be on the show! Benny Vlachos incoming and ready 😈
Dom must know her or something. She played a good, mid-tier winning game, but best of all time is an insane take
He literally says he knows her
@T_C242 Understood, I typed this before watching the whole video, but point holds true
Rachel is def one of my fav players easily
She's All That because she got blindsided.
she would have been gone from the game a long time ago had sol not saved her with the advantage at tribal. new era survivor kinda sucks with the insane amount of advantages and stuff. now it's just like a random draw out of a bag who wins. cbs can we get a no beware advantage, block a vote, no shot in the dark, player advantages etc classic survivor season for season 50 for the love of god?!
Dee played a good game, but she had it way easier than Rachel.
A bit biased but we can agree lol since dom knows her
Rachel got lucky with immunity idol and Sol saving her. She is good at puzzles and smart using her brains and is strategic. First asian woman winner 👏. Congrats👍🤑
Natalie Anderson , Erika won before Rachel
Of the new era. Yes. And you leave Kim and the deer out of your mouth Dom. Kidding. Not.
Nah, she's definitely far and away better than most of the 30s winners as well. Besides maybe Jeremy.
Kim Spradlin made her season boring. One of the worst seasons for me.
I think when you got to the AI have them play 100 times with players that never played before....let's not pick 1. It's Chris (9)Kim spradlin Michelle Fitzgerald, and Rachel....but don't forget the 2s who got screwed....Russel hantz, the milf who lost to Ben, Aubrey and the guy who didn't get to tribal Jessie....and Dominique abote would be the runner up on this
She's one of the worst winners. She's a challenge beast who never knew what was going on. She won the right challenges at the right time. And had some advantages. But wasn't a well around player at all
Man, that's a wild take. Nobody on this season was 100% in on anything, and she made moves that nobody could have anticipated. She's definitely in the top ten if not higher.
Top ten or higher is crazy lol. She was a very medium winner. She got left out strategically in 3 or 4 rounds. She had a huge target and without advantages or challenges she would have been voted out.
She didn't know what was going on because people plotted to get her out 🤷 And YET she still won, with 6 votes in her favor.
@@robertmercer3212Which is exactly why she's an amazing winner. She should have been gone ages ago.
Survivor isn't just plotting and blindsiding and always being in on everything. People do that to get threats out and make other strategic moves. Weaker players are often involved to insulate themselves from being ousted (and to be used as goats, should they make it to FTC.)
The very fact that we didn't hear a single person strongly consider that Rachel even COULD have an idol for Operation Italy shows that she outwitted an otherwise incredible plan. So much for "strategy."
@@Xiatter I don't know exactly what happened but I believe you're talking about the round after operation Italy?
she is one of the worst. Saved by producers multiple times
my own personal opinion is that rachel is a mid-tier winner who people tend to be very hyperbolic about. ive seen people say she's the best and others say she's one of the worst winners in survivor history and i dont think i fall into either camp im somewhere in the middle. she made some great innovative moves and is a deserving winner on a season where there was no shortage of other strong players/competition. however i do think her lows were LOW and she did have to rely on luck, advantages, and immunities more so than the average survivor winner to get to the end. i prefer winners who have more dominant games and play more offensively rather than defensively like a dee or tony. overall rachel is a solid winner for this season/overall but she is not on my own personal mount rushmore of the survivor greats. loved hearing dom's perspective though this was a great episode
She may not have had a great game,but she is one of the best players to play the game.Rachel was just placed in a complex season,with big strategic players
CMON RACHEL IS THE GOAT 🐐 I will never agree with Rachel underminers
😊
This season felt bottom tier and I feel like putting Rachel in the top rankings with Tony Sandra and Kim would be hard.
You don’t think of one world as a bottom tier season? I think it’s decent but I know that’s a common opinion. But Kim is still one of the best.
This is a crazy take. This season had some of the highest ratings of all time, including survivor's highest rated episode ever.
Bottom tier?????????????????????????????????????????????
Yes!! Rachel is the GOAT!!!
Can Taren please do a deep dive like he does with big brother winners?