TotallyGruntledSurvivor

Name:   Jeff Varner Gender:  Male Age:  51 First Appearance:  Season 2:  Australian Outback Finishes:  2: 10th; 31: 17th Place Total Appearances:  2 Last Appearance:  31 Game Changers Initial Tribe:  Mana Jeff Varner played Survivor twice 15 years apart.  This time he comes in less than a year later after his last appearance which was disastrous going out fourth in 17th place.    In a game of old school players vs.  new school players, Jeff vacillated between the two in his brief stay in the game.  It didn't help that his tribes went to Tribal Council four times in a row. His first mistake may have been deciding to team up with the unpredictable Abi, first voting out Vytas, then targeting Shirin (who was voted out) and Spencer, and then after the tribe switch going along to vote out Peih-Gee instead of Abi.  In what would later be considered "voting blocs" in the game, Varner kind of engineered the sta...

Name:   Hali Ford Gender:  Female Age:  26 First Appearance:  Season 30:  Worlds Apart Finishes:  30: 11th Place, Juror Total Appearances:  1 Last Appearance:  29 Game Changers Initial Tribe:  Mana Of all the Game-Changers returnees, I'm most baffled by Hali coming back.  Although she made it to the Jury, she wasn't a major player in the season good or bad at least not on the edit she got.  At No Collar Camp she hung out with Jenn a lot as they played in the water.  Jenn was shown as more strategic on how they wanted to vote.  But Hali mainly just tagged along.   After the tribe switch, Jenn and Hali remained together.  While Lifeguard Jenn helped Max with his Jellyfish stings, Hali complained about his feet being in the cooking pot. At the merge, Jenn noticed Kelly wasn't with them, which left the five Blue Collars together, depending on Sierra, four No Collars and three White Collars (who lost on b...

Name:   Sierra Dawn-Thomas Gender:  Female Age:  30 First Appearance:  Season 30:  Worlds Apart Finishes:  30: 5th Place, Juror Total Appearances:  1 Last Appearance:  29 Game Changers Initial Tribe:  Nuku Up until the tribe switch on day 12, we really didn't see much about Sierra.  On the first day we got a glimpse of  Sierra as she was suspicious of Mike and Dan and their choice of bean bags and whether they really went with the unselfish choice.  In the first Blue Collar Tribal, her alliance partner Lindsey was voted out and she received two votes in a three-way tie.  At that point we started seeing more of her as she realized she was the odd person out in her tribe, but immediately the tribes switched, and only Kelly left her tribe.   This left the former Blue Collar tribes in a majority alliance on a 7 person tribe, and Sierra as the only female on the tribe.  However, Sierra wan't content with stay...

Name:  Tony Vlachos Gender:  Male Age:  42 First Appearance:  Season 28:  Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty Finishes:  28: Sole Survivor Total Appearances:  1 Last Appearance:  27 Game Changers Initial Tribe:  Mana Tony is one of the few people in Survivor History who came in with a strategy, and loosely stuck to it.  From the Spy Shack to not telling people he was a cop, to his lying and conniving to get him further in the game.  Props to him for sticking to the strategy that took him to the title of Sole Survivor 28. He did get some assistance from idols. But coming back he will need to change his strategy, although I would expect that no one would trust him.  He has two-time winner Sandra on his tribe, so I expect them to team up as a winner's alliance early to fend off the others.  On the other hand, someone like Malcolm or Aubry could also team up with Tony and feed his ego until it is time to backstab him, which...

Name:  Sarah Lacina Gender:  Female Age:  32 First Appearance:  Season 28:  Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty Finishes:  28: 11th Jury Total Appearances:  1 Last Appearance:  27 Game Changers Initial Tribe:  Nuku From what I can tell Sarah has the smarts to play this game, but sometimes players fall victim to the circumstances that ultimately change the outcome.   Sarah had developed a good relationship with Tony as a cop alliance, but was the sole member of the Brawn tribe to remain on Aparri after the tribe switch at 14.    During the switch Tony realigned with the four members of his new tribe and Sarah heard him chanting "Top five" after the last pre-merge immunity challenge.  her fatal flaw was trying to stay in the middle at the merge, but that caused both sides to distrust her and she became the first person voted off after the merge as Kass mutinied and went with the "Top 5." Looking at Sarah's tribe in GameCh...

Name:   Brad Culpepper Gender:  Male Age:  47 First Appearance:  Season 26:  Blood vs. Water Finishes:  27: 15th Total Appearances:  1 Last Appearance:  27 Game Changers Initial Tribe:  Nuku In Monica Culpepper's first appearance in One World, she was the 5th one voted out and the first after a tribe switch where she ended up being the strongest person on a really weak tribe.  On her 2nd appearance in Blood vs. Water she made it to the end, and even garnered a vote from the Jury.    In Blood vs. Water, she brought along her husband Brad an ex-NFL Quarterback, who became a lightning rod, not necessarily from his own tribe, but from the returnees tribe.  Truth was he was trying to manipulate things from the beginning, and eventually paid for it when his tribe after losing four immunity challenges in a row, voted him out in a blindside vote.  He never saw it coming.   He stayed at Redemption Island for two...

Name:   Malcolm Freberg Gender:  Male Age:  30 First Appearance:  Season 25:  Phillipines Finishes:  25: 4th Place, Juror; 26 9th Place, Juror Total Appearances:  2 Last Appearance:  26 Game Changers Initial Tribe:  Mana I've always perceived Malcolm as Ozzy with a personality.  We get to see them play on the same season and my bet is on Malcolm to last longer than Ozzy.  Malcolm will definitely be perceived as a threat, but his Game Changers tribe already has two winners including two time winner Sandra Diaz-Twine so the target may be off Malcolm early. Malcolm was on the tribe that was the fastest to extinction on Phillipines, losing 4 of 6 members in 4 tribal councils at the beginning of the season.  He and Denise were dispersed to the other two tribes, which saved him.  He and Denise then survived to the merge, teaming with Skupin and Lisa to create the final 4.  Despite having an advantage in the final...

Name:   Andrea Boehlke Gender:  Female Age:  30 First Appearance:  Season 22:  Redemption Island Finishes:  22: 5th Place, Juror; 26: 7th Place, Juror Total Appearances:  2 Last Appearance:  26 Game Changers Initial Tribe:  Nuku Andrea at 21 made her first appearance on Redemption Island and became one of Boston Rob's pawns, going as far as Rob would take her.   In her 2nd appearance in Fans vs. Favorites 2, She quickly became Philip's pawn, going only as far as Philip would take her--until Malcolm threw a wrench in their plans.  In other words, she has really yet to play the game on her own,  Andrea is definitely a flirt and traded on her looks and social games winning over young guys and there's no reason to see her play real strategy in Game Changers.   Well, the stalking of Malcolm trying to find the immunity idol to deter him from finding the idol was a good strategic play, but other than that nothing.  ...

Name:   Troy Robertson Nickname:  Troyzan Gender:  Male Age:  55 First Appearance:  Season 24:  One World Finish:  8th Place, Juror Total Appearances:  1 Last Appearance:  24 Game Changers Initial Tribe:  Mana Troyzan for the most part was a very likeable character in a season of very vicious people like Colton and Alicia.   He played hard during the season, and eventually turned a little vicious later in the game as he was fighting for survival against the women who had taken over the game.   He showed good instincts on what was going on from the Men's tribe volunteering to go to Tribal Council to vote off Bill, and realizing that the tide was turning as the women were teaming up to get rid of the men, while the other men believed they were working with the women. Troyzan will start out on the Mana Tribe which has many threats, but has the personality to bring together a coalition early to take on the big guns. ...

Name:   Oscar (Ozzy) Lusth Gender: Male Age:  35 First Appearance:  Season 13:  Cook Islands Finish:  13: Runner-Up;  16: 9th Jury; 23: 4th, Jury Total Appearances:  3 Last Appearance:  23 Game Changers Initial Tribe:  Nuku Ozzy is arguably one of the best providers in Survivor History.  His outdoor skills, fishing abiltiy as well as his tree climbing is legendary.  He also has two good finishes and was also fooled by the Girl's alliance on Micronesia. In his first appearance on Cook Islands, on a five person tribe, he intentionally threw an immunity challenge to get rid of one of his tribemates.   After a tribe realignment, two more of his tribe mates were voted out.  But his new tribe was strong and despite the mutiny of  Penner and Candace to the other tribe when it was 6-6 making it 4-8, they continued to win making it 4-5 at the merge.   Using an Idol threat, Yul then pulled Penner back onto their...

Name:   James (J.T.) Thomas Gender: Male Age:  32 First Appearance:  Season 18:  Tocantins Finish:  18: Sole Survivor;  20: 10th Jury Total Appearances:  2 Last Appearance:  20 Game Changers Initial Tribe:  Nuku J.T. played a near flawless game in Tocantins.  Teaming up with Steven and Taj, he was able to win the season, despite being down in numbers 6-3 after the merge and a medical evacuation of their fourth tribe member.  A series of events happened to improve his chances.  First, Tyson and Coach wanted to vote out Brendon whom Taj had set up an alliance with when they were on Exile Island together.  Despite Brendon having a Hidden Immunity Idol, he didn't play it, and was eliminated it.   Erinn also was willing to come over permanently, while Sierra was supposed to be the next one to go. Erinn came up with the plan to blindside Tyson, which along with Sierra they were able to accomplish.  C...

Name:   Cirie Fields Gender:  Female Age:  46 First Appearance:  Season 12:  Panama Finish:  12:  4th Jury;  16: 3rd Jury; 20 17th Total Appearances:  3 Last Appearance:  20 Game Changers Initial Tribe:  Nuku In two of Cirie's three appearances, she benefitted from the numbers to take her towards the end. Cirie first appeared on Panama which was the first of the Exile Island seasons and the first that had four initial tribes (which only lasted through one tribal council) It also had some big male egos in Aras, Terry and Shane.  Those three combined with Danielle and Cirie were the final five.   Once the merge happened, Terry's tribe was outnumbered 6-4 and the rest of his tribe were eliminated in three straight votes while Terry won five straight immunities and had an Hidden Immunity Idol that he found on Exile Island.   This got him to the final three, which put Danielle and Cirie in a deadlock in the fi...

Name:   Sandra Diaz-Twine Gender:  Female Age:  41 First Appearance:  Season 7:  Pearl Islands Finish:  7:  Sole Survivor; 20: Sole Survivor Total Appearances:  2 Last Appearance:  20 Game Changers Initial Tribe:  Mana Sandra is the only two-time winner of Survivor.  In fact, Sandra in 24 Elimination Tribal Councils that Sandra has been involved in, she has only had one official vote against her, with two more negated by a Hidden Immunity Idol she played, and those votes were in Tribal Councils 22 and 23.  But as history shows that other contestants don't like the previous winners to get far in the game. Sandra's first appearance in Pearl Islands was the first time that Survivor allowed booted players to return to the game as the outcasts, which led to Sandra sitting on the Final Tribal Council with one of the returnees Lillian.  Lillian won the final immunity and had to eliminate her or Jonny Fairplay.  S...

Season 34 of Survivor, titled Game Changers brings back 20 players and starts on March 8th. In the runup to the season premiere, I have been reviewing previous seasons to get a feel for the game play we can expect. I'll start off by saying I don't like returnee seasons, although I feel the last returnee season Cambodia: Second Chance was one of the best returnee seasons, so I will keep an open mind. Over the next few weeks, I will have capsules on the players based on their game play and my thoughts on their chances in game changers. But before that, I'll give an overview of the Tribes: First, like Fans vs. Favorites II, where the "Favorites" just seemed to be people who were willing to come back (and in the end was not a very good season) . Game Changers seems to be a theme they came up with and are trying to make it fit. First of all, I don't know what the term means. So I looked it up on Dict ionary .com: The second definition:       "a ...