Defining a Season

This Week in Bold Strategy #11

Welcome back to This Week in BS, where I break down highlights of Bold Strategy from Survivor, Big Brother Canada, and whatever the hell I want.

Big Brother Canada 11

5️⃣ A Round of Five

Time to stop saying that Ty has no strategic game. He pulled the same move on Anika in the round of five that he pulled on Claudia in the double. You don’t have to be the best player in history: you just need to be better than the players around you and for two rounds in a row, he was. Anika was making fun of Claudia for her mistake and then Anika proceeded to do the exact thing that she was laughing about. This time, though, Ty used the veto and chose to evict Renee instead of the HOH’s best friend that he forced them to nominate. He still had all the power and did exactly what he wanted.

The key with Ty is separating the strategic game from the social game. He isn’t the type of person to be fake friends with someone, which is typically good Big Brother social strategy. He’s playing the game his way and it’s incredibly polarizing. That said, the strategic and social games are significantly easier when you have power - and while many may end up misusing that power, that’s just a fact.

Here’s the interesting game mechanic for his (many) vocal haters: the only thing that matters is what the jury thinks. And if he gets to the end and they want to reward him for his in-your-face style of gameplay, it’s up to them.

✍️ Defining a Season

Season 11 definitely has its own character. While there were alliances, there weren’t top tier strategic ones, and the unpredictable nature created by the lack of structured dynamics actually kept the season exciting. A season of competitive reality TV is often defined by its winner or by one of its losers who doesn’t quite close the deal.

With that in mind, the endgame is going to play a big role when we look back at this year. Anika, Daniel, Claudia, and Ty all have compelling, totally different stories. That’s why, at this point, I’m team drama. I want to see a final week that keeps us on our toes.

Does this sound a little esoteric? Give me a week to watch this thing play out because there is a lot of gameplay left before we get into the post-mortem.

I’m intrigued, and like we saw last year: anything can happen in the finale.

⚖️ Mior Please

Looking at the DR counts, it’s a pretty well balanced season. You want to see the people at the end of the game near the top, and the final five are the top five. This is super hard for the producers because, unlike shows filmed in advance, they don’t actually know who is going far each year, so it’s an impressive feat to tell a balanced story in the DR. Good work there.

Renee goes into the final week with the second-most DRs and there’s a reason - she was hilarious. I like people in the house who define their own path. She was a fun person to watch and someone who could have won if she had different people on her side. She was also just silly in the DR and sometimes we take this thing way too seriously.

If she’s in there trying to make bootay happen, just let it happen. This isn’t a debate in the legislature, it’s a show about a bunch of people living in a themed funhouse trying to evict each other through making things up and solving vacuum puzzles. Players who recognize that and have fun in there are fun to watch and she was one of them.

Survivor 44

🔥 Trouble for the Tika Three

Like I said last week, Frannie’s threat level was just too high. She won a reward and got voted out for it. If none of the Tikas remaining win the game, voting her out will be the fatal error for them.

Danny and Frannie were so clearly at odds at this point that keeping them in the game would have been fantastic for Carson and Yam Yam. D and F would continue to look at each other while the Tika 3 controlled the votes. Someone would take out Frannie eventually barring a full Holloway-esque run. This was too early to go against Carolyn.

I understand that Carson and Yam Yam may have heard that Frannie was looking at them but a friend of a friend is a friend of mine. Frannie really didn’t have too many allies at this stage and by bringing her in as number four to the Tika three you form a majority for the endgame.

Jaime would have been a good person to take out here but better yet, Heidi is slowing gaining traction as a very dangerous player (who, little do they know, actually has an idol). You take out Heidi, take a number away from Danny, and allow him to blame it on Frannie. Now Carson and Yam Yam have to do damage control with Carolyn instead.

Point is, if Carson or Yam Yam don’t win, this is a moment where they didn’t make the right move. And just for the record taking out immunity winners is boring and straightforward.

🕊 Tweet of the Week

Until Next Time,

Kevin 🐍

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