By Sid Chandrasekar ’18, Contributor
What could one expect from a show for which the tagline is simply “Outplay, Outwit, Outlast?” Survivor is a complex game of social adaptation and strategic gameplay that can win you a whopping one million dollars. After 31 seasons on the air, evolution within the game has made it a cutthroat battle to be crowned the Sole Survivor. A short background on the game: 16 to 20 “castaways” are dropped off in an exotic location where they are split into tribes. Tribes compete for immunity, and the tribe that loses immunity must go to tribal council, where they vote one of their members off the game. After the numbers dwindle, the remaining players merge tribes and compete for individual immunities. All the while, more and more people get voted out. When 2 or 3 players remain, the jury, a collection of players that were voted out, cast their votes for a winner of the game.
The first season, Survivor: Borneo, weighed the physical aspect of the game far above the social aspect. When you’re stranded on a beach with nothing but a bag of rice, it’s hard to strategize and live comfortably. Now, as the series has progressed, Survivor is mainly a game of strategy and wit. As an avid fan of the game myself, and observing the 478 different men and women to play the game, I’ll tell you there is no one way to win. Sandra, the only two-time winner, won both her games by pretending to be a goat, but being socially aware enough to get herself in a good position to win. Parvati Shallow, arguably the best player to ever play the game, won at her second chance in Survivor: Micronesia by forming a majority alliance of females (referred to as the Black Widow Brigade), and voting off all the men until she cruised to the end.
Now, while different strategies work, castaways must pay attention to the others around them and the game-changing twists. Survivor 27: Blood vs Water took returning players and pit them against their loved ones. It was emotional, dynamic, and the aspect of trust in Survivor was completely redefined. Survivor Micronesia: Fans vs Favorites took 8 of the most iconic players and had them compete against 8 die-hard fans of the game. Many argue about the perfect way to play the game, and there have been winners who have won without having a single vote ever cast against them, but it’s extremely rare. I like to think that I’d do well enough if I was cast on the show, but Survivor also is based on a large portion of luck too.
The best strategy, in short and in my opinion, is to always keep people around you that are bigger threats. That way, opposing players will gun for said big threats instead of you. To win, players need to secure jury votes; to do that, you need to set up your jury in a fashion that they like you even after you vote them out. If players do get lucky enough to get to the end, you need to deliver well thought-out speeches to the jury to let them know why you deserve the million dollars.
Survivor returns to CBS on February 17th with its 32nd season. 18 new players will be split up into three tribes based on traits they use in their normal lives. It will be called Survivor Kaoh Rong: Brains vs Brawn vs Beauty.
