If Richard Hatch was the first to figure out how to play the game of Survivor, Rob Cesternino was the first to perfect it (although he did not win...just go with me on this). Jeff Probst even called him "the smartest Survivor player that didn't win the game".
Rob competed in Survivor Amazon and was one of the first players in survivor history to go switch alliances one step ahead of his alliance being terminated resulting with him being on the short side. One player he never blindsided and kept his alliance with was Matt. Matt, as some might remember, was a creepy and very unlikeable castmember. Rob saw this as the perfect player to bring along to the end with him. Rob knew that not only Matt would get very little votes because he was unlikeable, but also that Matt was loyal especially after Rob saved him multiple times as the season went on.
Rob's first two blindsides were to take out two of his original allies in Deena and Alex. No one really cared about the Deena moved, but the situation that arose by voting out Alex was he was in a strong alliance with two girls who thought Survivor was a either the Bachelor or the America's Next Top Model (Heidi and Jenna). The two of them were so frustrated in Rob that they claimed they would never trust him again.
But as the next voting came around, two players names came up to be eliminated, Rob and Jenna (after giving up immunity to Heidi). The swing vote for this decision was Christy, the deaf contestant. Christy was approached by Rob to find out which way she was voting, but she refused to tell anyone and instead claimed she would make up her mind at tribal council. In past seasons of Survivor, contestants would just let their fate go to those making decisions, but Rob took a huge step for the game. He chose to ally with who he was up against for elimination (Heidi and Jenna) to outst the swing voter (Christy). This was duplicated by Eliza in Survivor Vanuatu as she sided with the older woman during the first vote to vote out Dolly after her name was up for elimination and Dolly would not make up her mind.
So after bringing Matt along, the four (Jenna, Heidi, Matt and Rob) blindsided Christy 4-2. Butch, a nonfactor in the whole season was 6th contestant. Down to 5 contestants, Rob turn his back against Jenna and Heidi as quickly as he had rejoined them and voted out Heidi 3-2. After winning immunity during the last two challenges, Jenna chose to get rid of Rob from the final vote in fear that he would win against the jury. A good decision to take Matt to the finals, Jenna won 6-1 in voting despite not having much strategic play along the whole game, just a tight alliance with Heidi.
Rob will be remembered as a cunning strategist and a lovable personality to cover it up. His magic 8 ball and songs sung to contestants as he was voting them up made him a guy to root for. Though some consider him a villain, his jokes did not put him in the cold hearted category some strategists find themselves in (Boston Rob, Russell, even winners Richard Hatch and Todd from China). Rob dominated the whole game and most likely would have won had he made the finals against Jenna or Matt.
Strengths: Observant, Creative, Manipulative
Weaknesses: Winning immunity when it mattered the most
