I have decided to rank each of the RSF Seasons I have hosted based off of what I remember and with each part of this blog series, add my thoughts on the following season.
Seasons:
1. Big Brother: The Mystery Room - The 1st season of Big Brother in the RSF Franchise suffered hits early on with 2 of the first 4 weeks resulting in players quitting but past those it was a strong season. The early weeks saw the house generally united to take out certain players and the season took a crazy turn in Week 5 when sarge455 used his Mystery Power to reverse his eviction. The season appeared to then be side vs side with BOBROCKS333/QueenDoe/LilAngelBaby against vockle9/hinata0014/BBlover96/sarge455 with snels66 and redjean in the middle and while the BOB alliance struck first taking out vockle and hinata, snels and redjean sided with BBlover/sarge to take down the BOB alliance who had won a lot of recent comps and that new alliance of BBlover96 and 3 RSF Rookies systematically took them out to get to F4 where sarge and snels went on winning comp runs leaving BBlover96 and sarge455 as the Final 2 were BBlover narrowly beat sarge due to his social game over sarge's challenge prowess/comp wins. It was a good back and forth between sides and really had a strong finish with 3 of the Final 4 as Rookies making their mark. The only detraction is the early quits but besides that it was a great season. Some highlights were sarge455 using his Mystery Power to reverse his eviction and BBlover96 using his Mystery Power to be the sole vote to evict in his HoH week even though without it he would have broken the tie anyways.
2. The Castle - The 1st original RSF Season will always have a special place in my heart. I took a leap of faith creating a new season which really focused on adaptability of game play. It was essentially a Free Agents style game minus the Draw before Free Agents was ever created. This season had the largest cast I have ever had with 42 people and only 4 people quit with the other 38 competing at least that led to highly competitive challenges and eliminations. It was also one of the longest games lasting almost 2 months. One of the most memorable moments was the Final Tower where nbkiller was targeted by taylor112399 eliminating 4 of his 5 ropes and by some grace of luck his one life was under the uncut rope then nbkiller answers the question to cut a rope and miraculously eliminates taylor112399 on his first chop. For a challenge focused season with some strategy involved in voting it led to some interesting eliminations and face offs culminating in a strong final of 1 multiple time RSF Champion (future Hall of Famer), an RSF competitor in his first finals (future Hall of Famer) and a 1 time RSF Rookie giving a great season.
3. Survivor Worldwide - Without a doubt, this was the best season of Survivor in the RSF Franchise. The incorporation of international twists from differetn Survivor iterations really helped enhance gameplay not just strategically but competitively. There never really was one set group who ran things throughout the season with strategy being always ever-changing with different groups taking control throughout even at one point getting to a rock draw at the Final 10. With the inclusion of the double power challenges and Exile Island duels, the competitiveness of the competitors really rose to the top as no one really went on a challenge run with several people winning at different points. While the pre-merge was a little less exciting than the post-merge, the inclusion of the exile battles and double power challenges helped incorporate some excitement. The post-merge though was great in my eyes with targets shifting and using the power of the Veto Armlet to block votes and players not just fighting for immunity but in the Exile Island battles to earn safety from Tribal Council. With certain people not being allowed to vote (veto armlet) or not being at Tribal (Exile Island) this really helped support the chaotic nature of strategy since you never knew which people would even be voting and that led to an exciting season.
4. I Love Money - This season based on strategy was an interesting one. The early game with the initial team divide eliminated 2 players then it was very one-sided in the early team phase pre-swap with Green Team DOMINATING against Gold. After the swap, only 1 real round was played until zachup was removed for "supposedly dying." The team portion of the game was exciting in that Team Captains had to alternate and once a player was captain they could not be captain again until everyone else on their team had which led to a variety of Paymasters which definitely caused some turmoil. The voting was even more chaotic with the twist of the team needing a consensus (70%) vote otherwise the Paymaster decides which led to some big players falling early due to the winning Paymaster almost single-handedly sending them home by putting them in the Box and voiding their check. The individual portion was more straight forward with the eventual winner and runner-up being the only ones to become Paymaster. This season is carried in the rankings by one of the most questionable, yet memorable decisions in the RSF Franchise when in the penultimate round Dito as the final Paymaster chose to bring BOBROCKS333, the player who won the most challenges, with him to the Final which ultimately cost him the game.
5. Survivor Atlantis: The Lost Empire - This season of Survivor had more strategy than the last but ultimately it was still basic strategy. The initial twist of Fans vs Favorites was good and having the Favorites be legit Favs by spamming to get cast was a decision I partially regret as some key memorable players missed out on a spot. The season was pretty straightforward with pre-swap having group decisions then post-swap working along old Tribal lines. The Secret Redemption Island based twist was interesting but I think players eliminated leaked it to the players and a good portion of the duels were inactive. Post-merge was generally exciting early especially having titan24maniac holding 4 hidden immunity idols at once then using two to ensure the votes swayed his side. The most memorable moment was then him getting voted out in a close vote of 5-4 with 2 idols in his pocket. But from there it was clearly 2 sides with BBlover/sarge/Diva/noraw/cheese against BOBROCKS/Insanity/Dash and after it was whittled down 5 to 2 with Dash going inactive, a blindside of cheese then taking out BOBROCKS it was clearly 4 to 1. This is when Insanity17 started his streak of 4 Individual Immunities to run to the Final 3 with BOBROCKS coming back when 3 were left then winning the tiebreaker of a poll to make F3 was good late game. The Final Tribal is one I feel generally iffy about but good with the result. Of the 9 Jury Members, 8 voted with the eventual winner earning a majority 4-3-1 but the Survivor Auction gave BBlover a jury vote tying it up. I regret using a poll as the Final Tiebreaker and should have had a re-vote and is why this ranks a little lower. The season was generally active but no crazy plays minus 1 or 2 rounds. It was a battle of 2 sides with 1 side dominating before the minority who became challenge beasts took 2 of the 3 Finalist spots. Basic strategy but good underdog stories but a rough ending for me with the poll.
6. Fresh Meat - This season had a good mix of returnees helping cement their legacies and half the cast being Fresh Meat help prove themselves and earn a name. The season had a good variety of competitiveness with 6 different teams winning challenges throughout the season and at least 6 different teams winning at least 1 Exile. This variety of competitiveness mixed with a good sense of strategy that saw a variety of teams face Exile. There was a small blip in the season when 2 players quit and their partners were then paired with each other but besides that activity was decent. The main issue I have with the season in hindsight is The Exile. I had the Exile based on a betting game based on chance with the number of starting chips based on how many members of their pair were present at the Exile. The tough part is it was my early days of hosting so it was when I planned the Exile based on my schedule as opposed to the opponents which led to some bland exiles due to activity. The Exile is the main reason this season drops but besides that it was a typical season, on average.
7. Cutthroat - Cutthroat was the first big team season ever hosted in the RSF Franchise. Competitively, the teams were generally evenly stacked with the teams trading wins throughout the first 8 rounds before the final Individual mission and then the Final Challenge. The Gulag saw a variety of competition as well seeing only 2 of the 32 cast members winning multiple Gulags. Strategically, the teams had clear alliances as half of the 10 finalists get to the end without ever having to face the Gulag. The only reason this drops in the rankings is as this was the first big team season, I made it so a team could only compete if all members were present and since only 1 team had every member present to win they essentially won the season by default as the other teams couldn't run the Final. In hindsight, I should have allowed them to compete but with penalties for missing team members which is the process I used for future team seasons namely due to the end of this season.
8. Battle of the Seasons - This season was designed around the original Battle of the Seasons format with the Inner Circle since it occurred shortly before Battle of the Seasons 2012 occurred which would have been a better format. This season was not as exciting as the same teams continually dominated the season as 3 of the Top 4 teams spent a majority of their time in the Inner Circle and in a position of power. In addition, for the Dome eliminations we saw 2 teams really step up with hinata0014/dwick and BOBROCKS333/DBWs winning 3 and 4 domes respectively. Some highlights were Piddu going through almost the entire season with an inactive partner yet somehow carrying his team through via the Inner Circle. It also had one of the most climactic penultimate eliminations with Piddu vs BOBROCKS333/DBWs with Piddu coming out victorious. Overall was just a run of the mill season with the status quo not really causing too many flips due to the structure of the game via the Inner Circle.
*ADDED ENTRY* - 9. Big Brother: The Mystery Room 2 - Another solid season of Big Brother in the RSF Franchise. The early portion of the season mainly focused on different players taking control week by week with the backdoor being a popular focus in getting players out. There was a period where one player rose to dominate the mid-portion of the game in punx193 winning 3 HoHs in a row and using the Coup d'etat to save himself in one of the weeks in between to save himself. The late game then saw some of the not as well known RSF Veterans take control to take out big power players in sarge455 and BBlover96 before 49288 ran the board in competitions to get to the end before taking the victory. There were not too many stand out moments and thus nothing extremely memorable about the season but a fun fact was how the players who got to the end (Final 2) were the 2 who sacrificed the most in the How Bad Do You Want It? Veto competition.
10. Moolah Beach - The inaugural season of the RSF Franchise. This was mainly chosen to draw people in as it was a game no one really thought of hosting at the time and it drew in 60-ish applicants which for me was a good thing for a 1st time host. Definitely regret initially opening applicants to either male or female as 50+ males applied and 11 females applied and probably wish I had just cast 20 individuals to be paired regardless of gender so that would be the main regret of hosting this so early on. As the only past season with very little info on it, this basically will place in the rankings based on nostalgia. I like the basic format of teams who perform having a better chance but luck playing a major part definitely hinders the season with teams being eliminated by chance and then the winning team determined with idols being eliminated 1 at a time until the winning team was the only one with idols left. Really the only memorable moment I can recall is announcing halfway through the season a challenge where players were ranked based on number of posts people had made in the house/confessional/living area threads and seeing people start to scramble to post despite the challenge already being over as soon as it began.
11. The Mole: Return of the Traitor - This season of the Mole was definitely better than the 1st in that it was a bit more active. However, it did suffer the same problems early on with the first 4 rounds having players not complete the execution quiz (occurred 5 times in the first 7 rounds). The season however was a decent season in that the challenges were more diverse than the previous iteration and the introduction of Bonus Tokens spurred on a little more competitive drive in the missions. The mole was significantly more active in their sabotage yet remained hidden throughout a majority of the season with only 3 of the 19 players correctly identifying him as the mole throughout (the 2 Finalists on the Final Quiz and once during the season and a late game player who was onto the mole early then changed direction). For a mole season, it was average but was helped by having many of the big name suspects make it deep in the game. One of the most memorable moments was when a bribe was offered to 1 player, BBlover96, for a pass onto a future season and after declining it was found he had performed worst on the quiz and was executed.
12. The Gauntlet - The Gauntlet for me was a decent average RSF Season. The initial twist was having the application divide the players into 2 teams based on 1 question on the application which was interesting but ultimately led to generally lopsided teams. The team that would go on to win, Blue Team, would go on to dominate most of the season winning 2/3 of the challenges and thus earning safety. In all honesty, I remember not as much from the season especially with the Protection twist since records have members of the winning team being protected so if I don't remember I feel it wasn't as crucial to the game. Plus the breakdown of Vet/Rookie days gave half the cast reason to not worry or not attempt as much in challenges. Ultimately it was 7 vs. 3 in the Final with the Blue Team winning giving us the RSF Season with the most number of champions within a season.
13. Survivor East vs West - The first RSF Season which was designed to revolve around strategy and alliances was a bit of a disappointment, namely pre-merge. Many of the votes pre-merge including the 1st post-merge vote were very scattered due to a lot of the players focusing more on solo games or aligning with few people on their tribe. Benefits from having the more inactive players being ousted between mid to late pre-merge due to self votes hindering them. Post-merge was initially scattered then really focused on seemingly a core group controlling the votes until it was down to them. Most memorable moments come down to tribes initially divided by geographical location (first time the applications determined teams), a mutiny in which one player swapped creating a huge tribe and then a small group of 4, of which 3 went out late pre-merge and early post-merge with the last one left standing by Top 7 going on to win the season and the round before the pre-merge having a chaotic round with both tribes going to Tribal with half of the individuals safe. Ranked somewhat lower than Moolah Beach simply because it seemed there wasn't as much strategy mainly pre-merge and post-merge it was very straightforward based on my memory.
14. The Mole - This season suffered a huge hit early on from inactivity. Literally half the cast either quit or did not try within the first two rounds and that drops this season down in the rankings. In addition, the mole, sakwilla, was seemingly very inactive this season moreso riding things out to the end than trying to sabotage the missions which was their goal. The Mole really only showed up when the game started and at the final reveal when the Mole's identity was revealed. In addition, from a production standpoint, the winner of the season was obvious especially in the late game since the eventual winner, BOBROCKS333, was the only person who ever voted correctly on who the mole was. The only real memorable moments were either the inactivity early on leading to 5 people out in 1 round or the 3rd round of the competition where all but 2 people won exemptions leading to a face off in the quiz to determine the results of the Execution.
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