20) Chris Daugherty (Winner Vanuatu)
19) Amanda Kimmel (Runner-up China, Micronesia; Heroes vs. Villains)
18) Tom Westman (Winner, Palau; Heroes vs. Villains)
17) Ozzy Lusth (Runner-up Cook Islands; Micronesia, South Pacific)
16) Brian Heidik (Winner Thailand)
15) Malcolm Freberg (Philippines, Caramoan)
14) John Cochran (South Pacific, Winner Caramoan)
13) Spencer Bledsoe (Cagayan)
12) Tyson Apostol (Tocantins, Heroes vs. Villains, Winner Blood vs. Water)
11) Yul Kwon (Winner Cook Islands)
10) Todd Herzog (Winner China)
9) Russell Hantz (Runner-up Samoa, Heroes vs. Villains; Redemption Island)
8) Tony Vlachos (Winner Cagayan)
7) Cirie Fields (Panama, Micronesia, Heroes vs. Villains)
6) Rob Cesternino (Amazon, All-Stars)
5) Richard Hatch (Winner Borneo; All-Stars)
4) Kim Spradlin (Winner One World)
3) Sandra Diaz-Twine (Winner Pearl Islands, Heroes vs. Villains)
2) "Boston" Rob Mariano (Marquesas, Runner-up All-Stars, Heroes vs. Villains, Winner Redemption Island)
1) Parvati Shallow (Cook Islands, Winner Micronesia, Runner-up Heroes vs. Villains)
So that's our top 20 players of Survivor. Or so they say. If you would like to see the full list, here it is.
I think there are a lot of things wrong with this list. I can't say that I spent an immense amount of time researching this, and picking a list of the top 10 is not an easy task. So here is my (subject to change) late ballot:
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Ethan needs to be on any top 10 Survivor players list. In the show's third season, Ethan proved that good guys don't always finish last and that there is an ethical way to win Survivor. Also, very few winners, if any, have done more good things outside of the game. Ethan has defeated cancer twice, and created the non-profit charitable organization Grassroot Soccer. He also returned in All-Stars and showed that he's more strategic and savvy than he was credited his first time out. While Ethan may not have made the merge in All-Stars, baring too big a target on his back, he has emerged not only a winner in the game of Survivor, but a winner in the game of life.
Never has a winner had a better come-from-behind victory. Chris was all but gone at the final seven, when he was the only man remaining up against an all-female alliance of six. With his back against the wall, Chris turned the women against each other and flipped the game upside down. The underdog ended up winning in one of the craziest, least-expected ways. It's a shame Chris hasn't been asked back, but his cult following continues to grow and number 9 is a fair spot for him on this list.
Another one-time player, but a one-time winner takes the next spot on our top ten list. Kim played one of the most dominant games in the history of the show. Kim did what Chris Daugherty kept women from doing in his season, and that was eliminating the men at the merge. Once she took out her biggest threat Troyzan, she created a pretty clear path for herself to the end by keeping everyone in check and making them think she was going to take them to the end. One by one, she sent them home, but she did it with a smile and didn't take too much heat from the jury and still won her season in a commanding fashion. While One World was one of my least favorite seasons of the show, and widely viewed as one of the worst, one good thing came of it: a great and deserving winner. Kim will probably get asked back to play again, and I'm really intrigued to see how she does if she accepts.
In baseball, if you keep all 27 batters you face in a game from reaching first base, you've thrown a perfect game. In Survivor, if there is any model for a perfect game, it's the game Tom Westman played. As the tribe leader, Tom's tribe never lost an immunity challenge and decimated the opposing tribe until their was only one sole contestant or "survivor" left. After the merge, Tom easily stayed in the majority, and won, playing an honest game with integrity. He was a rare triple-threat. A player who was a threat strategically, socially and physically. He was a challenge beast who even caught a shark for his tribe to eat.
Aside from being one of the most entertaining players and one of the best confessional-givers, Cirie is one of the best Survivor players ever. When Cirie first set foot on the beach in Panama, she was a fish out of water. She was afraid of leaves. Needless to say, she was far from an outdoors person. In both of her first two tries on the show, Cirie was on the outs. Other people had formed alliances at the very beginning and she was on the outside looking in. But both times, she somehow managed to make it to the end, and both times she came within a challenge win of being a champion. A brilliant social player, and a ruthless strategist, Cirie came so close to being a two-time winner. Unfortunately, her tribemates on the Heroes tribe were smart enough to get rid of her at the beginning, and keep her from going on another run. It truly is unfortunate that Cirie isn't a winner, but she is entirely deserving of being the second greatest female player in the show's history, in my opinion.
"The Rob that sucks" might not quite be up to the skill-level of Boston Rob Mariano. But he did earn himself from Jeff Probst, who once called him "the smartest/best player to never win", and revolutionized the game. Watching Rob play both sides in one of the best seasons of all-time was something spectacular. What he did had never been done before. Rob's ability to adapt to whatever was thrown his way made him a very special player. Jenna Morasca is a great winner, and one of my favorite people to play Survivor, but with all do respect to her, Rob was the best player on his season. It was hard to watch him come so close. It was even harder to watch Rob have his hopes and dreams crushed early on in All-Stars. But ignore what happened on that season. Rob had too big a target, and players such as him and Richard Hatch had no realistic chance at getting anywhere close to the merge in that game. Cirie and Rob are very similar players and while Cirie has mastered her way to the final four twice, Rob did it first, and I think his first game was more impressive than either of Cirie's first two tries. Sorry Cirie, but for those reasons, Rob C gets the nod as a top 5 Survivor player of all-time.
Say what you want about Brian Heidik's life outside of the game of Survivor. But in the game of Survivor, Brian Heidik played one of the most impressive games we have ever seen. Never before had anyone been able to fake a personality for an entire season, and it hasn't happened since. Brian put on a front as a good guy, and thrived socially. But on the inside, Brian was a cold-blooded killer and one of the most despicable villains. His ability to keep his composure and stay cool about whatever was happening impressed many, including myself. "The Iceman" was also a triple-threat and a beast in the challenges. If Brian were to have played again in All-Stars or Fans vs. Favorites, he would have likely been the first boot. Anybody that has seen him play would not let him stay a day on the island. However, if he never went on Thailand, and had played on a different season instead, I think he would repeat his success. If he was brought back to play again now, he might actually go deep in the game because a lot of newer players might not know anything about him. These are all hypothetical situations, as there's no chance in the world that CBS brings him back. Heidik earns the highest spot from a player that hasn't played more than once.
Richard Hatch is probably the most polarizing player to be on this list. For years, I was in the school of thought that he wasn't that great. Many argue that he was a man among boys playing on the first ever season of Survivor and that he was the only real player on his season. But that's not the case. I rewatched Borneo last summer and realized something. Everybody that played on that season was playing the game. There were 16 different ways to play Survivor. Richard's way got him to the end, and garnered four votes from the jury to win. People decided that since this one the game, this is the necessary blueprint for any player on any season. Nowadays, you have no shot of getting anywhere without an alliance. Richard invented that concept, and players in future seasons tried to replicate his success. As mentioned earlier, on All-Stars, Hatch had absolutely no shot of getting anywhere. Everyone wanted to dethrone the king of Survivor. At this point, after 28 seasons of Survivor, there have been so many people that are threats on the show, that it would be interesting to bring back people like Hatch, Cesternino, Heidik, and more and see what would happen. It's a darn shame that Hatch was still under house arrest when Heroes vs. Villains was shooting, because he would have been a great addition to the cast. I bet Hatch will play again by the time it's all said and done, but even if he doesn't, he has earned his spot in the Survivor Hall of Fame by being an inventor and making the game what it is.
I'll never forget watching the first episode of Survivor: Marquesas back in 2002. I remember Sarah Jones floating on the raft while her tribemates rowed, and Sean Rector calling her Cleopatra. And I remember a 25 year-old kid with a thick Boston accent making my parents and I laugh whenever he was on screen. From the second we saw Boston Rob, we loved him. While "The Robfather" was voted out right at the merge, he changed the season. He showed all the people on the bottom that they were on the bottom, and after he was booted, those people flipped the game upside down. That was the first time in the show's history where one tribe didn't pick off the other tribe one-by-one. On his second time out, Rob played an aggressive, angry game. He was a man on a mission. He got all the way to the end, but offended too many and quite frankly treated some of the people he put on the jury like garbage. Some argue that he should have still won this season, but I disagree. He still made history by having the first showmance that led to marriage and he and Amber now have four daughters. In his third try, Rob learned from his mistakes. He had a lot more patience, and had a much better social game. He positioned himself perfectly, however what I call "the worst move in the history of the show" was made by Tyson and spoiled his season. Finally, Rob got his win on Redemption Island, where he dominated the game unlike any other. While it may not have been a flawless game like Tom Westman's, it was a brilliantly executed strategic game. Each time Rob played, he elevated his game to a whole 'nother level. He has become the most-feared player in the show's history. But Boston Rob might even be a more polarizing player than Richard Hatch. Many will point to his failures on the show and say he's overrated and that it's lame that it took him four tries to finally win. But I disagree with them. There's a lot of luck that's involved in Survivor. There are a lot of things that are not in your control. Rob had really bad luck two of the times he played. We could play the what-if game, but there wasn't too much that he could have done differently that would have changed his fate. His other two times playing the game, he went to the finals. He was one vote away from being a two-time winner. One of my favorite things with watching Rob play is watching him grow up and like I said before, how he improved himself each time he played. He adjusted himself and was able to adapt to whatever came his way. We all watched him grow up while he played. I think a guy like Malcolm Freberg could become the next Boston Rob. He has the same kind of skill-set and could become a legend with some age and more experience. Some players that have played with "BR" have also seemed to improve after playing with them (take a look at Tyson, Andrea, Coach, and dare I say Phillip). Rob is also in my opinion the greatest challenge competitor ever, however there's still one player better than him in my book.
There's no way that anybody can top Sandra in any type of best Survivor players argument. Sandra has played twice. She has also won twice. She is the only player to win more than once, and not only that but she's got a 1.000 winning percentage in her time on the show. That's unbelievable! Trash her social game all you want. She may be a big talker, but it hasn't made her lose votes. I get mad when people try to take away from her win in Heroes vs. Villains. She tried so hard to get the Heroes to flip the game and take Russell out, but nobody would budge. So she did the next best thing, got to the end, and said "see?". The other thing Sandra will get trashed for is that she's not good challenges. That hasn't gotten her voted out before the merge and when she's gotten to the merge, that's something that can work to help you because nobody is taking you as a threat. Sandra is a bonafide boss when it comes to the game of Survivor. I have no idea if she will ever play again and how that would shake out. I could really see it going either way with her. She could get targeted because she's the best player ever, the only two-time winner, and a bunch of selfish players could try to take her out to kill all the hype surrounding her (much like Richard Hatch). Or she could be overlooked yet again, and go for a three-peat. I don't know, but whatever were to happen if she played again, I don't think she could do much to actually hurt her spot as the best player ever. By winning and making another great run, she could solidify it, even if it means losing in the final five and no longer having a 1.000 win percentage. Unless she did something very costly and did something outrageously dumb, she would keep her spot as the best player ever. The only way for there to be a discussion over who's better than Sandra is if somebody else wins again. And even then, that person might have already lost in a previous attempt, or it could be somebody playing an all-winner season where a winner is bound to win, both would leave a wrinkle on that player's case. It's a mystery if Sandra will keep her spot as the best player ever when it's all said and done, but if you were pointing a gun to my head, I'd say that no one will top her.
So that's my list! I'm sure there will be some outcry from the Parvati and Russell fans, but hey, I'd love to hear your case for why they should be on this list. Leave a comment below, tweet me @vellvita7 or hit me up on our Facebook fan page!
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