TRIBE ANALYSIS
BoranVoting Percentage: 47 Season: 3, Alliances:
Ethan/Kim/Lex/Tom, Isolated Players: Diane, Jesse, Clarence, Kelly, Best
Position: 1st The Ethan, Lex, Tom alliance
formed extremely early in this game and ran into little to no opposition within
their own tribe as the isolated players spent their time sucking up to this
trio as opposed to organizing against them.
A player swap occurred after the fourth tribal council which worked out
well for this tribe as defectors from the self destructing Samburu tribe helped
them get rid of one enemy player and votes against helped them get rid of a
second. Once at the merge they were
comfortably in the majority, but then suffered a collective brain cramp of
hyper-paranoia spawn by their cramped living conditions. The dominant alliance decided to target one
of their own in Kelly even though this brought the two tribes to the point of
being tied in numbers. It was only the
fact that the other tribe was completely dysfunctional and helped them remove
one of their own tribe-mates, that Ethan, Lex and Tom were able to come back
out on top. After that, the only wrinkle
in Ethan’s and Lex’s plan came when Kim won the final two immunity
challenges. She took Ethan with her and
was easily beat in the jury vote. As
with Tagi, the voting percentage of this tribe was not only brought down
through the actions of the dominant alliance but in the inability of the lesser
players to seize control themselves. |
ChaperaVoting Percentage: 72 Season: 8, Alliances:
Amber/Rob M/Tom, Isolated Players: Alicia, Rob C, Susan, Best
Position: 1st
The Rob M, Amber, Tom alliance formed very quickly and with only six in the tribe, they then dominated. They made the right move first off by taking out Amazon Rob, the only person that wouldn't be content just riding in the shadow of the dominant group. After that, something interesting happened. The Saboga tribe was dissolved and Chapera had two new members, Rupert Boneham and Jenna Lewis. What was interesting was that Rob and Amber abandoned their alliance with Tom and formed a final four pact with Rupert and Jenna. Normally abandoning your tribe-mates like this is not the smart way to go, but there were rumors that Tom had made a pregame pact with Lex of the Mogo Mogo tribe and Rob felt unsure of where Tom stood. Smart or not, Rob and Amber stuck with Rupert and Jenna. Sue quit before the merge, Alicia went at seven and Tom at five. Rob and Amber pretty much got a free ride to the final two but once they arrived, there was so much anger directed towards Rob from the people that thought they were in his "in" crowd, that they spitefully voted for Amber, which really didn't make any sense as Amber was just as guilty as Rob in any decisions that were made.
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Chuay GahnVoting Percentage: 57 Season: 5, Alliances:
Brian/Clay/Helen/Jan, Ghandia/Tanya Isolated Players: John, Ted, Best Position:
1st An interesting tribe
alliance wise, as most players seemed to think that Brian was the player to
suck up to rather then forming their own alliances. A union between Brian, Clay and Ted seemed to
form very early and Ted was obviously thinking of Brian as a final two
partner. Brian on the other hand was
keeping his options open and likely felt from early on that he wanted to be
sitting next the abrasive Clay in the end.
This move should have been his downfall but the other members of the
tribe never could get their act together and get rid of either Clay or Brian
himself. The defining moment for this
tribe came after John and Tanya were gone and Ghandia accused Ted of molesting
her in the night. What actually happened
is unclear, but the results of this fall out was not as it appeared that the
tribe split along gender lines and seemed to be heading for a tie. It looks like Brian seized this opportunity
to promise Helen a final two spot (now the third person he has made this
promise to) and this brought Helen over to vote with the guys. By the time Ted realized he wasn’t part of
this alliance, it was too late and Jan was just happy to ride along in the
fourth position. Brian’s position at the
top should have been a shaking one as Helen and Jan were a natural pair and
could have easily used Ted’s support to remove Clay, but it never materialized
and Brian and Clay were permitted to coast into the final two. This tribe has no blunders, but
no great moves either in its voting as each player seemed determined to simply
follow the path of least resistance to end.
It certainly represented the most boring tribe to have to watch in this
game. |
DrakeVoting Percentage: 39 Season: 7, Alliances:
Christa/Rupert/Sandra, Burton/Michelle/Shawn, Jon/Trish, Best Position: 1st A very strong tribe thanks
to everyone falling behind Rupert’s leadership early in the game, these guys
look like they were going to easily get the best over their fractured
opposition at Morgan. For the first nine
days, they didn’t lose an immunity challenge until the cliquish
Burton/Michelle/Shawn alliance showed a tremendous lack of judgement in
approaching Rupert to remove Christa after throwing a challenge, who they found
annoying. Not surprisingly, Rupert
didn’t consider this move for a second but when his alliance mate heard of this
they decided to throw the challenge anyway and use Jon’s and Trish’s support to
remove Burton instead. Not surprisingly,
tribal unity began to crumble after this and the challenge loses followed. After Michelle went next, Trish and Jon
jumped the gun and thought they could use Christa’s and Sandra’s support to
remove the popular and strong Rupert (another gross misjudgment from this
tribe). Instead it was Trish that went
and after one more loss (and Shawn vacating) this tribe was now entering the
merge tied. Then came the twist. Just before merging two players were returned
to the game |
JaburuVoting Percentage: 58 Season: 6, Alliances:
Heidi/Jenna/Shawna, Deena/Christy, Jeanne/JoAnna, Isolated Player: Janet, Best
Position: 1st A tribe that was an absolute
mess at the beginning. They did the
right thing in first removing the isolated, and physically failing, Janet but
then the two factions headed by Jenna and Jeanne went head to head. Deena and Christy were the swing votes but
Christy couldn’t get along with the abrasive JoAnna and they sided with the
three younger women even though they were obviously outnumbered and JoAnna and
Jeanne represented their strongest players.
They were saved by a swap when Heidi, Jeanne and Christy went to the
other tribe and were replaced by three men who’s thinking skills certainly
dropped once in the presence of scantily clad, young women and they immediately
abandoned their previous plans and joined forces with Heidi (and subsequently
Jenna) and Deena (and subsequently Christy) even though they were obviously
outnumbered. Interestingly enough, after
the merge, the pair of Heidi and Jenna stayed true to Alex and Rob because Alex
was loyal to them over Rob. Rob learned
too late that he wasn’t in charge of this game and despite some
flip-flopping, he wasn’t able to keep Jenna from making the final two where her
jury support earned her the easy win. |
KuchaVoting Percentage: 46 Season: 2, Alliances:
Elizabeth/Michael/Roger, Alicia/Jeff/Nick, Isolated Players: Debb, Kimmi, Best
Position: 4th Kucha lost their first
immunity challenge and made the dubious move of voting out contributor Debb
because she had difficulty fitting in over less strong, but social more adept
players like Roger or Kimmi. This strong
tribe then won their next three immunity challenges in a row and even after
losing the fifth and booting Kimmi (again done for social reasons as opposed to
strategic), they seemed to still have the game well in hand. Michael then fell into the fire and had to be
removed from the game putting the two tribes tied in numbers going into the
merge. Kucha was way to overconfident
going into the endurance type immunity challenge and far too many of them
bailed early allowing their target with votes against (Keith) to emerge the
winner. The wheels then fell off when
Jeff went due to previous votes against in a tie vote. Alicia quickly followed and the players left,
Elizabeth, Nick and Roger, made the mistake of opting for flying below the
radar as opposed to looking for weak points in the opposing tribe, of which
there certainly were some. Although this
tribe seemed strong, they never really got into game mode, voting far more for
players they didn’t like as opposed to thinking ahead in the game. |
MaraamuVoting Percentage: 80 Season: 4, Alliances:
Rob/Sarah/Sean/Vecepia, Gina/Hunter/Patricia, Isolated Players: Peter, Best
Position: 1st Definitely the tribe with
the most interesting dynamics early in the game, the situation was complex
right from the early boot. Sean and
Vecepia were drawing close with Peter while Hunter, Gina and Patricia were
drawing together and Rob was bonding with Sarah. The early consensus after losing the first
immunity challenge was to target Sarah, but Peter drew attention to himself by
wanting to vote out Patricia. This drew
the ire of everyone save Sean and Vecepia, and Peter was gone. With Rob and Sarah drawing closer to Hunter
and Gina, it seemed the later pair had a lock on control of this tribe, but
then they, with Patricia’s help, decided to vote out Sarah which pushed Sarah
and Rob to Sean and Vecepia and they voted out Patrica. Now this foursome had control of the tribe
but with their third consecutive immunity lose, it was beginning to look
doubtful there was going to be much of a tribe left to control. Here Sean and Vecepia did their only dubious
bit of voting in helping to take out the athletic Hunter. A swap after the third tribal
council put this tribe in the minority on both sides of the island, making
their future dubious indeed, but Rob, Sean and Vecepia demonstrated how the
weaker tribe should play the game. They
never allowed themselves to fall into the roll of the dominant alliance’s
soldiers and never gave up trying to find cracks in the Rotu armour. Although Sarah and Rob fell by the wayside,
Sean and Vecepia eventually found those cracks in the form of Neleh, Pashcel
and Kathy. Sean went down at five, but
Vecepia won the immunity challenge at four and suddenly she was the one the
other two players wanted with them in the final two. Some mid-challenge negotiating got Vecepia
beside her player of choice in the final two and she won. |
Mogo MogoVoting Percentage: -27 Season: 8, Alliances:
Kathy/Lex/Shii Ann, Isolated Players: Colby, Jenna M, Richard, Best
Position: 6th I always thought Pagong set the standard as to how not to play the game but then came Sook Jai. Now we have Mogo Mogo which (please!) has for all time set where the bottom of the scale should be. I think the problems with Mogo Mogo were indicative of the problems with the whole All-Star season. With everyone knowing who the strong (read: smart) players were, the weaker (read: dumber) players immediately teamed up and targeted them. Worried about her ailing mother, Jenna quit the game but after four episodes Mogo Mogo had still to go to tribal council. Then the Saboga tribe was dissolved and two of their members sent their way: previous winner Ethan and super aggressive Jerri. You would think Mogo Mogo had things set up pretty well, but then the wheels came off. Despite it still being a long way to the merge, Mogo Mogo decided to start targeting their own instead of the true dangers in their tribe (Jerri and Ethan - in that order) and contributor Richard was gone. Not content with that, Lex and Shii Ann (Kathy was out on a reward with Chapera, but certainly would have been in on the plan), with the help of the very willing Jerri decided their tribe's biggest contributor should be the next to go and out went Colby. Not to break the pattern, Ethan followed next.
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MorganVoting Percentage: 30 Season: 7, Alliances:
Andrew/Osten/Ryan O/ A weird and rather
dysfunctional group in that began with the forming of the cliquey dominant
alliance. Osten, almost from the
beginning wanted to quit and despite his physical strength, he was a complete
liability both at the challenges and in camp.
Despite that, the dominant group was bound and determined to remove
isolated players in Nicole and then Ryan S.
What really told was when, instead of removing the useless Osten or the
next to useless Darrah, they removed one of their hardest workers in Lillian
even though she would have undoubtedly remained loyal to them. Eventually Osten simply quit the game and
when embittered Lillian returned in a twist at the merge, she immediately, and
understandably, joined forces with the other tribe. From then on the remaining players couldn’t
really get back into the game. |
OgakorVoting Percentage: 94 Season: 2, Alliances:
Colby/Keith/Tina, Amber/Jerri/Mitchell, Isolated Players: Kel, Maralynn, Best
Position: 1st Aggressive alliance forming
almost got this tribe into trouble early on with the booting of the athletic Kel,
but by the third boot the dominant alliance of Colby, Tina and Keith were
firmly in control when Mitchell went in a tie vote. Though, they were certainly helped along when
Mike Skupin of the Kucha tribe fell into the camp fire and had to be removed from
the game, once on top after the merge, the dominant alliance set the model on
how to play the game. Especially
impressive was how they handled the aggressive Jerri Manthey by promising her a
position deep in the game and then using the weaker tribe to remove her at the
earliest safe opportunity. The dominant
pair of Tina and Colby formed the heart of the best alliance to play this game
in five seasons and likely represented the most difficult decision for a jury to
make when they had to choose the winner between these two. |
PagongVoting Percentage: 14 Season: 1, Alliances:
Gretchen/Jenna/Colleen, Isolated Players: B.B., Ramona, Joel, Greg, Gervase,
Best Position: 6th Although I listed an
alliance above, it really wasn’t. Just a
group of players that seemed to have a mutual interest that likely would have
formed an alliance in any other run of this game, but this was the first time
through and these players didn’t learn until it was too late that alliances
were a necessity to success. That all
being said, these guys played a good pre-merge game, booting non-contributors
like B.B. and Ramona early and then the athletic, but annoying Joel, just
before the merge. Where everything fell
apart was after the merge when the Tagi tribe voted mostly as a block while the
Pagong tribe’s votes were scattered everywhere.
Their defacto leader, Gretchen, was the first one targeted by the other
tribe and the players left didn’t even realize what was going on until after
the next immunity council where Tagi removed Greg. By then it was too late, but they slipped
into waiting to be booted mode instead of working on Tagi’s weak link in
Kelly. It was their miserable post merge
game that really brought their scores down. |
RotuVoting Percentage: 68 Season: 4, Alliances:
Kathy/Neleh/Paschel, John/Robert/Tammy/Zoe, Isolated Players: Gabriel, Best
Position: 2nd An interesting tribe that
didn’t loose a tribal immunity challenge until the fifth one. As such, alliances seemed slow to form. John and Tammy formed a pair fairly early and
drew in Gabriel. It appeared that
Paschel, Neleh and Zoe were drawing together leaving Robert and Kathy
isolated. A swap after the third tribal
council changed all that though when Kathy, Paschel and Neleh went to the other
tribe in exchange for Rob, Sean and Vecepia.
When they finally lost their first challenge, it seemed the days for the
new recruits were numbered, but Gabriel began claiming not to be into forming
alliances and was there just for the experience. Not knowing where Gabriel stood, John and
Tammy joined forces with Robert and Zoe to make the risky move of taking out
Gabriel. The only thing that saved the
vote from being a tie was Gabriel bowing out without a fight. After the merge, things got
interesting as the new alliance of Kathy, Neleh and Paschel decided they were
not going to wait around to be picked off by the dominant quartet and joined
forces with Sean and Vecepia to begin taking out the dominant alliance. With a lot of great voting early on, this tribe
began to fizzle out strategically as Kathy was incapable of bettering her
position over the dominant pair of Neleh and Paschel, while Neleh and Paschel
were not ruthless enough to better secure their position on top by trimming off
the deadwood within their own alliance earlier, which likely cost those two the
game when Vecepia was able to win immunity at four and worked her way into the
final two. |
SabogaVoting Percentage: 53 Season: 8, Alliances:
Jenna L/Jerri/Rudy/Rupert, Isolated Players: Ethan, Tina, Best
Position: 3rd The tone in this tribe was set early by Jenna immediately making it very clear that the two previous winners (Tina and Ethan) were going to be the first to go. Not surprisingly, they lost the very first immunity challenge. Not surprisingly, as soon as tribes want to begin removing their own members, they don't tend to win challenges. They made the right call in removing Tina first, not so much because of the threat she represented (though she did), but because they are giving up nothing towards winning challenges while at the same time limiting Ethan's options. It's after this that the tribe went wrong. At Pearl Islands, Rupert dominated the personality in his tribe and Drake kicked ass. This time he wanted to step behind someone else's shadow, and the two shadows he picked were Jenna and Jerri. This tribe would have been a lot stronger (physically, mentally and socially) if Rupert and Rudy had made a deal with Ethan and removed Jenna. Even when Rudy injured his foot, Rupert wouldn't step into the limelight and he let his most solid voting partner go rather than cross any decisions made by Jenna and Jerri.
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SamburuVoting Percentage: 35 Season: 3, Alliances:
Carl/Frank/Linda/Teresa, Brandon/Kim/Lindsey/Silas, Isolated Players: none,
Best Position: 5th Even though a strong tribe
that won its first two tribal immunity challenges, this tribe was in trouble
from the get go. With no isolated
players, this tribe formed into two, very well defined alliances which were
destined to go head to head. What likely
should have happened in this situation was for the lesser players in each
alliance to form a tertiary alliance to avoid the tie, but with age and life
style splitting this tribe right down the middle, that wasn’t about to
happen. When the tie vote occurred, it
went to a sudden death quiz between Carl and Lindsey, which Carl lost. After Carl’s leadership was gone the tribe
self destructed. When a player swap
occurred after the fourth immunity council of the game, Frank and Teresa went
over to the other tribe with Silas and wasted no time at all handing his head
over to them. Because of the votes on
Lindsey, she went in a tie vote back at the home tribe, and the once mighty
Samburu went into the merge down two players to Boran. Once at the merge, Samburu could not heal the
rifts between their players even when Boran’s blunder of voting out Kelly all
but handed the game back to them. Their
disunity cost all of them the win. |
Sook JaiVoting Percentage: -3 Season: 5, Alliances:
Erin/Ken/Jake/Penny, Jed/Robb/Stephanie. Isolated Players: Shii Ann, Best
Position: 6th Pagong had the excuse of
being one of the first tribes to play this game to explain their miserable
score, this tribe has no such explanation.
Overconfidence was likely at the root of their problems as this tribe
was head and shoulders above their opponents physically and should have been
able to go into the merge in the majority easily. Instead the dominant alliance of Erin, Ken,
Jake and Penny isolated the other players and started voting them off starting
with those that were contributing the most to the tribe and challenge
strength. Their tribe quickly became
bitter and divided and soon was no match for the tribe from the other side of
the island in the immunity challenges. A
delayed merge certainly didn’t help them, but even if the merge had occurred as
per normal, they would have been in trouble as the embittered Shii Ann was
ready to join forces with their opponents.
Once in the minority their performance didn’t improve dramatically as
they were scattered in their ability in trying to find the weaknesses in their
opponents. There best play would have
been to try and work on Chuay Gahn’s most isolated players, Ted and Helen, trying
to get them to turn on their masters Brian and Clay. Instead they sucked up to the dominant pair
and sat around waiting their turn to leave. |
TagiVoting Percentage: 59 Season: 1, Alliances:
Kelly/Richard/Rudy/Susan, Isolated Players: Sonya, Stacey, Dirk, Sean, Best
Position: 1st The tribe that figured this
game out first, they easily were able to get the best over their opponents in
Pagong. The tribe started off right by
targeting the physically weak Sonja but Richard was more concerned about
threats to his leadership in Stacey and Dirk.
Eventually, his leadership won out and these players were removed and
his alliance was built. Once at the
merge, Tagi easily handled the other tribe as they were not voting as a
block. Likely their smartest move was in
first targeting Gretchen after the merge, the one player with the leadership
skills to mount an opposition. The
dominant alliance’s weakest link was Kelly who alternated between voting with
them and not. By the time enough of the
other tribe were gone to safely remove her, Kelly went on an immunity streak
which prevented Richard and Rudy from taking her out. In the end Kelly ended up in the final two
with Richard and lost in a close vote.
Richard defined how this game should be played, but certainly wasn’t
immune from mistakes like targeting tribal contributors early and allowing
Susan to go deep in the game instead of the manipulatable Sean. This later mistake nearly cost him the game
at four when Kelly once again won immunity but bailed before forcing a tie vote
to stand and instead helped to vote out Sue.
The rating of this tribe was further brought down by Kelly’s and Susan’s
play. Richard certainly annoyed the
opposing tribe and if these two were on the ball they could have easily used
that support to remove Richard and Rudy and ride to victory themselves. |
TambaquiVoting Percentage: 61 Season: 6, Alliances:
Alex/Rob, Butch/Dave/Roger, Daniel/Ryan, Isolated Player: Matthew, Best
Position: 2nd The tribe that really should
have produced the winner in this game except for ineptitude during the
middle-game. They started well when Alex
and Rob fell behind Roger’s leaders and booted the other player running for king
wolf in Ryan and then followed that with his follower Daniel. They became and efficient and well
functioning tribe and all the remaining six players made the merge. So what happened? Well Alex, Rob and the isolated Matthew went
over to the all female Jaburu in a swap.
The next thing you know those two have abandoned Butch, Dave and Roger,
a trio they could have easily gotten the better of and joined forces with three
women, forgetting that once the tribes merged their penises would be
outnumbered in this alliance. From this
moment on the game belonged to the women, in particular Jenna and Heidi, even
after Rob realized this wasn’t going so well late in the game and began
flip-flopping. |