#18: Venezuela (Season 7, July 2013)
Winner: Jeremy A./Lonelystar1 (4-3)
Wiki page: http://bit.ly/1o9mWqn
Sometimes I wonder what to think of this season. To sum it up, I'd compare it to One World. It was basically a season you would watch for mildly interesting characters, with little to no strategy involved at all.
This was the first season of the Second Generation to feature a COMPLETELY new cast, along with the return of the Back to Basics twist. A whole group of people who had never played before in my Survivor, First or Second Gen.
Pre-merge was again just trimming the fat. The most exciting pre-merge thus far on this ranking is probably Seychelles, but the problem there was that good people went. I didn't mind for much of the people who went pre-merge, as the main characters remained. Tim, Natasha, Will, Tony and Jeremy A. MADE this season. They were all... well OK four of them... were great likeable funny personalities who made the pre-merge of this season (and actually the season in general) worth the watch. So it was good that they all made merge.
The merge is where things started to pick up, and the season came into it's own. The Machiques tribe, led by Tim, Natasha and Jeremy, entered the merge six strong to La Esmeralda's four, which had major threat Will at the helm. The first vote of the merge was actually pretty simple and as you'd expect. After Will won Immunity, they had no choice but to take out the lesser threat, Fred. Then is when things get interesting. Jeremy A. didn't like the fact that Tim was heading up the tribe. He especially didn't like the fact that him and Natasha were an obvious final two. He planned to use James, who was self-voting, to his advantage and flip on the Machiques majority to get Tim out. However, this hit an immediate hitch as Tim won Immunity. So to gain a majority with Will, Nathan and Gump - the three La Esmeralda's in the minority - they all voted against self-voting James, putting an extra fifth number to their votes, and successfully blindsiding the Machiques tribe with James' departure. However Jeremy was now in a predicament. Voting against Machiques again would just cause a 4-4 tie. He decided his next move would be to flip back and get out Will, whom the Machiques alliance wanted gone anyway yesterday. However Will won Immunity, so Machiques were forced to vote out his right-hand man Nathan instead. Jeremy had now just alienated both his own tribe AND the enemy tribe by flipping and flipping back. To let the waters calm, he stayed with Tim and Natasha, finally taking Will out of the game, and leaving inactive Gump as the last La Esmeralda standing. It was at this point that Jeremy knew it was time to act against Tim and Natasha, or else they were going to go to the end. So he successfully convinced Tony and Oliver that they were going to win the game if they didn't vote them out soon, and, using Gump as a goat, pushed Tim and Natasha into the majority, taking them both out back to back, leaving a final four of Jeremy, Oliver, Gump and Tony - Jeremy's final threat to his game. After Tony won Immunity they took out Gump, and then Tony was out at the Final Three when Jeremy chose to take his sheep Oliver with him.
Due to his deceptiveness, Jeremy almost lost to Oliver (who had done absolutely nothing all game). The result was a season that had few people actually wanting to control it, and with little to no true strategy involved. However, there is one thing that separates this season from the ones below it - the fact that the entertaining people were ALSO the main strategists. Tim and Natasha were one of the most likeable duos ever, Will was an extremely routable underdog, Tony was a challenge beast and someone people wanted to win towards the end, and even Jeremy was someone people would have liked to see win, despite the fact some people found him arrogant and cocky. Still the confrontations between the tribals divisions and Jeremy's moves post-merge were fun to watch and true entertainment for all to behold.
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LEVEL OF STRATEGY: 2 out of 5.
This season had it's fair share of strategists, mostly in Jeremy and his moves, but also in Tim and Natasha's planning, Will's control of the minority, and also Tony and Oliver's decision to join Jeremy in taking out Tim and Natasha. So this season had a few good strategy moments.
ENTERTAINING/LIKEABLE PLAYERS: 3 out of 5
This season had the most likeable people of the ranking thus far. Tim and Will both returned for Friends vs. Favorites as Favorites as they were both really likeable and humorous players, as was Natasha. Tony was everyones late bloomer to win after a streak of challenges and making an arguably good move to take out Tim and Natasha. He returned for Moral vs. Merciless. Then let us not forget Jeremy, who wasn't as likeable, but still made the season interesting and provided a rare villain winner.
BLINDSIDES/DRAMA/SHOCKS: 3 out of 5
Despite a slightly dull pre-merge, including a quitter, the season really did recover in the post-merge with a fair amount of drama from both sides, caused in part by Jeremy's flipping and the player's resentment towards it. In also pulled a couple of shocking votes like the James vote, the Nathan vote and the Tim boot.
SATISFYING CONCLUSION: 3 out of 5
The conclusion of the season was relatively good. Jeremy was a decent winner, despite some questionable moves and almost losing to a sheep. A Tony win would have been more liked by the viewers, but some did like that we had a villain winner, a sort of rarity after the loses from Tyler and Nick in Mongolia and Saint Lucia.
VIEWER RECEPTION: 2 out of 5
The reception for this season was mixed somewhat. People liked the fact likeable people made it far and that the season was interesting and fun to watch, however those who liked to see strategy and good moves did not like it as much, and the Jeremy/Oliver final two was not as desiring to people as Tim/Natasha or a F2 including Tony would have been.
TOTAL SCORE: 13 out of 25 (Grade: Dreadlock Braider)
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SEASON HIGHLIGHT(S):
Tim's constant one-liners becoming some of my favourite episode titles ever (seriously just look at some of them).
STANDOUT PLAYER:
Jeremy. People may disagree with this, but he managed to make moves, get rid of threats, and, ultimately, win over the jury. Some of his moves were at times unnecessary and caused more tension than was needed, but it lead to an entertaining season.
SUM-UP:
It really is just a "fun romp" of a season. A season to flick through a have a laugh at the back and fourths from Tim, Will and Jeremy, and just a season that was mildly interesting to watch. If you want a season of strategy, major moves and idol plays then this is not your season (partially because it was Back to Basics and didn't have idols lmao). Still we can all look back fondly at the moment Tim wanted to rip out his hair because Jeremy voted James out over Will.
P.S. Everyone loves the logo for this season o_O
HINT FOR NEXT POSITION:
A season some people like more than me for an actual legitimate reason.
#StillInTheRunning
Saint Lucia
Brazil
Jordan
All-Stars
Caicos Islands
East Timor
Brunei
Friends vs. Favourites
Vietnam
Occultus Island
Moral vs. Merciless
Cursed Hand
Reclamation
Second Chances
Jan Mayen
Bingo vs. Suitman
Allies vs. Adversaries
#18: Venezuela (Season 7, July 2013)