Ten Almost Successful Contestants

I might as well explain what I mean by almost successful. What I mean by this post and my sort of top ten is that there were some players in various seasons, at least one if not more than that, where they had a lot going for them, but they weren’t able to win for one reason or another. It could be their own fault in some way or for reasons outside of their own control. All I know is that these contestants had so much going for them, but didn’t manage to pull off the win. I’m only going to include them as examples in the seasons I felt they came closest in, even if they played in more than what's listed.

#10 Matty from Gabon- He was just one fire making challenge away from winning it all. It did seem a bit unlikely that anyone could have beaten him at the final three outside of the person that he would have beaten at the fire making challenge, should he have won. He had so much going for him.

#9 Rafe from Guatemala- Like so many people, he messed up his chances at the game. But what made his especially bad was that it was right after the final immunity challenge. He released a person from the deal that could have taken him to the final two and thus, gave her no reason to keep her promise. He could have been a great winner, but instead, he fell short.

#8 Amanda from China and Micronesia- I’m not entirely sure why she fell short of winning the game in both of these seasons. I guess that I’d have to watch these seasons again. All I know is that she twice played the game and twice made it to the end, only getting a minority of jury votes each time. This does make her almost successful at the game.

#7 Colby from Australia- For him to come within one vote of winning and fall short, he is one of the most textbook examples of almost a success in Survivor history. While he probably would have beaten Keith, he took a gamble instead that didn’t pay off. Whether or not he could have changed anyone’s minds when he reached the end, I guess we don’t know whose vote mattered most.

#6 Rudy from Borneo- The first person to come to this classification of mine was Rudy who was just one hand slip away from winning the game. Heck, even the producers of Survivor were certain that the show would not last after he lost the last challenge. He had everything going for him and could have possibly even win, but lost focus and fell out of the challenge.

#5 Cirie from Panama, Micronesia, and Game Changers- How would you feel if you were the only person in the history of Survivor to still be competing in three different finales and never, not once, be a finalist at the end? First, she loses a tie-breaker. Then, she becomes the first person voted out at the final three in many seasons since there wasn’t an elimination there since before Cook Islands. When she played the fourth time, she made it to the final six a third time where she became the only contestant who was even eligible for elimination after the other five were made immune in some way. I don’t think that you could even say that all of these eliminations were her fault. Were any of them?

#4 Paschal from Marquesas- It was supposed to be a fire making challenge. It wasn’t supposed to have him involved at all. He went from no votes in the game to eliminated from it by random draw. We may never know if he could have won it, but his is widely considered one of the most unfair eliminations in the game. He made it that far only to draw the wrong rock.

#3 Brett from Samoa- While a Galu member winning seemed highly likely before the merge, it soon had become clear that they might be doomed. That might became probably, only Brett went on a winning streak with immunity and, had he won the final one, would have won the final vote. It might have been a close one, but it would have been his game to lose. He same so close, but came up short.

#2 Terry from Panama- There was so much going for him towards the end and this is where his game had sadly ended up fizzling out. He failed hugely at the final challenge and his ally in the game turned on him and voted him out. While it seemed like his was the closest game to being a success that wasn’t, it all falls to a more recent player who meets that mark.

#1 Domenick from Ghost Island- It came down to a tie vote at the jury that could have gone differently if only certain things were different at the end. He kind of messed up in the end that I’m surprised that it was not just a tragedy of Domenick at the end due to his cockiness towards the end. It was almost like a Shakespeare play, only good. It can even be hard to pin down what exactly he did wrong.

Well, that’s all for this post. I heard who one of the new contestants for the upcoming season is, but I do not think that I’ll get to a special post about them during this hiatus. I guess that we’ll see for sure what happens later when the show returns soon. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.