Brilliant Strategy
It was the last episode of Survivor, though, that really showed what competitive games were all about. Rich's forfeit of the last immunity challenge was the most brilliant move played during the 39 day game. With 3 players left, the final immunity challenge was simply to stand up and keep touching a wooden idol. It would go on for hours and hours until two gave up and one was left. The winner would cast the single vote to remove one of the two losing players. The final two players would then stand before a jury of 9 of their previous colleagues. The jury would decide the winner.
Rich was in a tough spot here, with remaining players Rudy and Kelly. He had a deal with Rudy that they would stick together until the very end. They agreed that if either of them won the challenge, they'd vote Kelly off the island and go to the finals together. The problem is that Rich was well aware that he'd lose the grand prize if he went to the panel of 9 judges against Rudy. Rich was seen as slimy and Rudy, though a bigot, was well liked. If Rudy won the immunity challenge, he'd take Rich to the final 2, but Rich would still lose. That's no good.
If Rich wins the immunity challenge, he's stuck. He can't take Rudy with him to the final 2 (since Rudy would win the final popularity vote), but has to take him (they had an agreement). Rich would be forced to break the agreement and vote Rudy off.
Unfortunately, that means he'd lose Rudy's vote (in retaliation) in the finals. In fact, he might even lose more votes since breaking an agreement is a slimy thing to do.That leaves only one possibility: Kelly must win. If she wins, her gut instinct will be to vote off Rich (she hates him) and go to the finals with Rudy. Unfortunately for her, she'd lose the finals by a landslide to Rudy. Rich's gamble is that Kelly, scrubby as she is, is not dumb enough to go to the finals against Rudy. And if she votes off Rudy and goes to the finals with Rich (her smartest option) then she's done Rich's dirty work for him. Rich is in the final 2 with Kelly (just like he wanted) and he never had to break his agreement with Rudy, so he'll still have Rudy's vote in the end. Kelly had already proven her ability to win such immunity challenges, so it was fairly certain she'd beat Rudy if Rich just conceded.
Even if by fluke Rudy won the immunity challenge, he'd still take Rich to the final 2. So Rich took the gamble and took his hand off the idol on purpose, hoping Kelly would win---and she did. It all worked out exactly like he planned.
Kelly: Star Athlete, Star Scrub
Kelly, scrub to the very end, remarked that Rich claimed he had some reason for removing his hand, but that she knew his arm was just tired.
But Kelly would have her final moment being the queen scrub.
Kelly, Queen Scrub.
In the finals between Rich and Kelly, they were each allowed to give opening statements of why the jury of previously voted-off players should vote for them. Kelly was a pillar of inspiration to scrubs everywhere when she explained that people should vote for the best person, "not based on how they played the game." As a scrub, she had her own made-up rules of the game that the game itself knew nothing about. She was "more honorable" and "a better friend" or other rubbish.
Rich responded by taking the exactly opposite stance, as he well should. He said that entire purpose of coming to this island was to play this game. Kelly asked for votes based on friendship, but that's not what the votes should be based on. Friendship is great and worthwhile, but it's not purpose of the game called Survivor. The purpose of the game is to win. The best player of the game maximizes his chances of winning at all times. In this case, that meant forming an alliance, which Rich did. Rich was basically asking the jury to leg go their mental construct of made-up rules and see the game for what it really was. He asked them to choose the player who played to win. And they did.
More Games
If the players of Survivor 2 actually learned the lessons of Survivor 1 and of competitive games in general, then things will get very messy, indeed. They'll all try to form 4 person voting alliances. If at least two such alliances emerge, then the optimal move is to align two of the alliances to get rid everyone else. Then the 8 will compete as 4 vs 4. Then the remaining 4 would do well to have already planned partners of 2 or 3. This strategy of the shrinking alliance, though (I believe) optimal, is an incredibly tricky thing to manage in actual practice. As I said...it will be messy.
Anyway, Rich may be many things, but he is, at least, an excellent player of competitive games. It's so telling that he was able to beat Gervase in a variety of card games Rich had never even played. If you're out there Rich, I'd be honored to introduce you to Starcraft. (heh.) |