With all the debate surrounding Rachel's game, what is your (shortened or not) opinion on her game and how she is as a player?

Rachel plays a massively overrated and turbulent, almost headache-inducing game on Survivor 47, while simultaneously being an incredible player.

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Before I cover my opinion on Rachel's game, I have to cover three important topics first.

Firstly, a lot of people view a Survivor player on the basis of how well of a game they played (or averaging out how well they believe their games were in quality), instead of looking how strong they are as an individual player. For example, the argument that Tony Vlachos is a worse player than Richard Hatch, since Tony's Game Changers game drags him down. Meanwhile, Richard Hatch plays one clean, consistent, and dominant game.

I personally view the two as separate. Tony Vlachos, in my opinion, is the best Survivor player ever, but his Game Changers game is awful.

Secondly, do you view Survivor gameplay based on a results-oriented basis? For example, would you argue that Bob Crowley in Gabon and Chris Underwood in Edge of Extinction played better than Cirie Fields in Micronesia or Rob Cesternino in The Amazon because they won and Cirie and Rob did not?

I think that looking at placement, how many times they were on the perceived correct side of their vote, and how many immunities or advantages they 'needed' is not a testament to that player's game nor skill, I personally take a look at how the events in the game played out more specifically, as do most people.

Finally, how much do you factor luck into making your ranking? Yes, Rachel is lucky at multiple points in the game. Two of her advantages are entirely luck-dependent. She is also unlucky at a few points, notably at the lopsided Split Tribal Council which sees her with all of Tuku and herself only.

Again, this is tough to factor in luck, but I believe that the social-strategy part of Survivor, while requiring some amount of luck, is more representative of that player's skill. It's the opposite when it comes to advantages, that sometimes require an extremely large amount of luck to obtain. I only factor the player's skill when discussing how they use those advantages to their benefit. Also, niche factors such as their starting tribe and cast are luck-dependent, but I think at that point, luck can no longer be a factor as for me, it's about how you use the cast and tribes you are given to your advantage.

With all this in mind, as well as the edit largely shaping our view of these players and how they played, exit interviews being largely unreliable, and the abhorrent amount of misinformation, it's impossible to properly rank Survivor players by their gameplay as we do not have all the information to do so. But despite that, I think that it can still be fun and provides an interesting discussion point when talking about players like Rachel specifically, so as long as we stay civil and respect the players as people, I see no problem in it. With that, this is my opinion on her game.

Gata

Rachel starts on the Gata tribe alongside Andy, Anika, Jon, Sam, and Sierra.

Immediately, Rachel seems to be well-insulated on her tribe as the group instantly groups up into a duos, and a larger group of four. These three duos include Sierra & Sam, Rachel & Anika, and Andy & Jon, with the former two duos teaming up to form a majority alliance.

While Rachel has a clear duo and majority alliance, she does form a connection with Andy immediately, which shows her social skills immediately getting to work, but the strategic inability to keep Andy in her court is what eventually leads to her pre-merge blindside.

Despite that, Rachel is an active participant in the Jon vote, which is likely the correct call considering it keeps Andy, a potential ally for her in the game to bounce back on. The issue is, like most people in the game, she loses control of him, ultimately leading to her first of three Andy-conducted blindsides.

Andy seems to be a recurring issue in Rachel's game. She seems to completely fall for his persona based on the first few days where she largely was involved in comforting him. She continues to have a blind spot, and he's the main reason why her endgame is so turbulent despite seeming like a cakewalk win at the time of the Final 8.

Anika Blindside

Rachel, leading up to this vote, is a mixed bag gameplay-wise.

She forms the Breadwinners Alliance with Sierra and Anika, which she has full confidence in, to the point of throwing Andy away completely, causing Sam to pick him up as a valuable number, and with Anika losing her vote, she's been buried in the game.

Despite this, Sierra and Sam seem to be largely threatened and off-put by Anika as opposed to Rachel. While Rachel does seem to make Sierra the third wheel in the Breadwinners dynamic, Anika is the one that argues with Sam, lies to Sierra about Sam's Beware Advantage, and makes Sierra feel uneasy enough to flip. In that aspect, Rachel feels akin to a Moriah from 46, where she's punished for what her number one ally does.

However, a lot of players would be able to keep Sierra and Sam in line, Rachel was unable to do that and also isolated Andy past the first couple of days, which shows poor play on her part. Again, a mixed bag, but heading into another Gata Tribal Council, it's likely that Andy goes. Considering how Sam and Sierra, especially Sierra, wanted to work with Rachel during the post-merge, and how their targeting of Anika was mostly driven by Sam in order to not be the obvious target in a four-person Tribal Council, Rachel's position may be stronger than what we may initially perceive it as.

Also, she yet again shows her social skills at the Social Hour where she begins to bond with Teeny, Tiyana, and Caroline, who could all be useful allies for her in the future, and have all stated on numerous occasions both during and after the show that they liked and wanted to work with Rachel.

Mergatory & Split Tribal

It'll be controversial to call this the 'Merge', and I'm sure there will be enough controversy on this post to where I don't need more, so I'll title this 'Mergatory'.

I strongly believe that Rachel plays a much smoother game if not for the Split Tribal twist. This isn't just due to the circumstances of the Split Tribal itself, but rather what it prevents, which would be a golden opportunity for her to take over the game.

Rachel has already built a strong bond with Sierra, her last tight alliance member in the game, but heading into merge she has alliances with Sam, Teeny, Caroline, and Tiyana that only improve. Something throughout these few days made Caroline and Tiyana want to work with Rachel to a ridiculous degree, skyrocketing her social chances and jury prospects, while also, unfortunately, skyrocketing her threat level.

While Rachel becomes an immediate target, I will talk about how I think the Split Tribal really drives the tribal lines once again (which when Gata's the minority tribe, Rachel is an automatic target), it's also worth noting that she becomes the target in the Split Tribal with a group of six. This is likely what happens if the rest of the game plays out normally; She becomes a target at the Final 6. Not only that, but she has a lot less wiggle room here, with all five Tukus.

Although she forges bonds with Caroline and Tiyana, they won't be enough to surpass connections that have been built for thirteen days as opposed to her two days + the Social Hour. This is why I do not blame her for being the vote-out without the advantage coming into play. In a regular round, tribal lines either stick causing Sierra's round where she's a target but not a vote-out or where they do not and likely one of Sam, Gabe, Kyle, or Andy is voted out.

She was the obvious person to give the advantage to, so I do not factor her connection with Sol completely, however, I do give a little bit of credit especially considering how much she and Sol defend this in their exit interview.

The more alarming part about this Split Tribal isn't even what happens within the Split Tribal. If not for the Split Tribal, we likely see the coalition of the all-women alliance come together, an upgraded version of the Underdogs alliance that helps Rachel take part in the Gabe and Kyle votes.

With Teeny, Caroline, Tiyana, and Sierra all being part of the alliance (her allies at this point in the game) and with the addition of Sue, someone she later builds a strong bond with, she would be sitting pretty with this group for at least a few votes. However, that does not happen, and instead we end up with Rachel getting saved by Sol, a perceived stain on her game that I do not take into much account at all when viewing her game.

Sierra Blindside

At this point, Rachel should be on the top of the power structure with Sol, Teeny, Sierra, and Caroline as her allies, while Sam still remains as an option from Gata. However, after the Split Tribal, it's rough to work with Caroline immediately and with Tuku as such a large group + the Lavo-Gata alliance forming directly due to the Split Tribal, tribal lines have now come back.

In the event that Gabe or Kyle go at the previous vote (Kyle would not have immunity because he only placed third in the challenge where he won at the Split Tribal), then Tuku isn't a large group, the Lavo-Gata alliance does not form, there's no incentive for Lavo to stick together firmly and decide between Tuku and Gata, and Rachel still has a stronger link to the Tuku women with Tiyana in the game. Also, momentum is extremely important, and if they did all band together, they have momentum heading into this vote.

However, Rachel is now walking on thin ice, with Genevieve, and, notably Caroline, both wanting to take her out of the game. Meanwhile, Teeny's still aligned with Rachel and pushes for Sam, while Sol's connection with Rachel directly saves her as the target falls on Sierra.

This is, in my opinion, the lowest point in her game, as she's without a strong alliance member. At every other point in time, she's either in the majority, has at least one alliance member, or has an advantage that she uses extremely well. After this vote, she's in the minority, has no advantages, no allies, and has two people actively targeting her. It's all about how she adapts and moves forward.

Sol Vote

This is the pinnacle of Rachel's game. Extremely strong at adaptability, good social skills, but still has flaws that show through with every vote, and often doesn't get her way while not being at the direct top of the power structure.

She puts in so much terrific work following the Sierra vote. Both Caroline and Rachel mention in exit interviews that they had a super close relationship following Sierra's blindside. She does a lot of work in order to repair her relationship with Andy. With this, she's absorbed into the majority alliance and no longer an active target as Gabe, Sam, Kyle, and Genevieve are all bigger fish to fry.

However, she leaks the Sol plan to Sam. I think this is representative of 'something always is iffy with a particular point of Rachel's game'. By leaking this plan, she gets the heat off her and she could be eliminated from the majority alliance as quickly as she insulated herself within it.

Losing Sol also isn't the best case scenario because he's one of the few allies she has that hasn't targeted her yet. Andy directly went against her in the pre-merge, Caroline targeted her during the Tiyana and Sierra votes, and Sue was on board to vote her out during the Split Tribal.

All in all, a strong showing of her social game, but that failed to materialize fully, Rachel still sitting in a rough position even after all the good work she put in.

Smooth Sailing

Next we get to arguably the smoothest part of Rachel's game, but in typical Rachel fashion, she's still not getting her way.

I don't want to sound like a broken record, but she still has bonds with Caroline, Teeny, and Andy. Gabe goes home first, which is good for her game since he mainly was the one who kept Sue in line, and with him out of the game, it opens up the opportunity to align with her, and Gabe is a threat in the game that has a somewhat loyal Tuku group behind him that has the potential to run the game if he isn't taken out at this point. However, she wants Genevieve gone during this round and fails to get her way. She has power in the game, sure, social connections and all that, but she still cannot call shots.

She does seem to intentionally avoid targeting Genevieve, mentioning how she wants to be the ocean and not the captain, but I think it's rough that even when she has power, she still squanders it somehow.

Then, she still wants Genevieve out the following round, but Kyle goes home. This one is a mixed bag, but I think that this is not in her best interest considering Genevieve has been actively targeting Rachel for rounds now, and she manages to form Operation Italy with Sam and Andy the following round. Kyle going home isn't bad for her per se, but it definitely could've been better for her game if she either took Genevieve out here or played Operation Italy better as a whole.

She does form the Underdogs Alliance here, impressively positioned in the middle with strong connections to all of Teeny, Sue, Caroline, and Andy, especially the former three. This would be wonderful, if only it actually stuck together. I'm repeating myself a lot when I say that for every good part of Rachel's game, a minor or major flaw can be attributed to her because she fails to materialize her game.

Now I have to cover two sagas that begin this round; her becoming a challenge beast and her ability to locate and use advantages.

I think that challenge wins are inherently a little bit lucky. I value challenge wins more than a lot of viewers, it's a fair part of the game, and it shows that she can (somewhat) reliably win immunity challenges in the event that she's on the chopping block. However, production controls the challenges they give you, which is another difficult quandary for me when assessing her; How much of her physical game increases my opinion of her as a player?

However, despite that, if she fails to get the majority of people on her side and needs immunity to get by, then I think that's telling of what player she is; She's a threat. She'll most times be taken out at around this point, but she survives due to challenges and advantages, two somewhat luck-dependent aspects of the game. But again, she uses these advantages super effectively.

I forgot to mention her idol that she got from the last round (this was entirely luck-dependent) and she got a Block-A-Vote here (a 1/3 chance of her going on the journey, another luck-dependent factor of her game), but she uses these advantages well. I'll cover all about the idol during Andy's boot round, but she uses the Block-A-Vote well, building trust with Sue.

Endgame

'Operation Italy' is another strong-yet-also-bad part of her game. She's technically in the majority this round and solidifies a Final Four alliance with Teeny, Sue, and Caroline, but her weak spot in the game continues to be Andy, who ends up flipping on her and takes Caroline out of the game in a 3-2-2 vote.

There's still strong points to this round; She's in the 'majority', she heads into the next round with Sue glued to her, and a threat in Caroline's out of the game.

The issue is none of that was intentional outside of the first point and she gets majorly blindsided here. She does need to win immunity otherwise she's gone in a 3-2-2 vote, but it is likely that she either plays her Block-A-Vote or idol or splits the vote differently or does not split the vote at all if she doesn't have immunity. Regardless, she still gets blindsided a third time.

Heading into the Andy blindside, she loses the loyalty of Teeny, and needs her immunity idol to survive. Even if Genevieve doesn't win immunity, I think Rachel is still likely the boot with Andy, Teeny, Genevieve, and Sam voting for her.

However, she uses the idol perfectly here. Firstly, she tells Sue about the idol in order to solidify her trust, Sue being a critical number for her in the endgame. She uses her Block-A-Vote on Sam to allow for a flip to still happen, while also preventing a split vote and costing her an ally (and goat) in Sue. Then, she tells Andy, knowing she's safe, that if he votes her out, then she and Sue will never vote for him to win. With no drawbacks, this allows her to confirm for sure whether or not she needs to play her idol. Then, with every person aside from Sue telling her she will go home, she's able to set up the 'fake funeral' plan in order to get everyone in the Final 6 to talk about why they will vote her out; selling her pitch to the jury without having to do it herself, building her up as a palatable underdog, making a clear-cut move in front of the jury to notice and commend her for, and add to her resume.

The targeting of Andy is a mixed bag, but I think it was a decent call. Originally, I thought it was a worst move as it keeps the duo of Sam and Genevieve and Sam has a higher chance of beating Rachel in a jury vote, but considering she still wins over Sam 7-1-0 and Sam is quick to throw Genevieve under the bus regardless, this was a good move for her.

At Final 5, she's once again a huge target. I'm not sure if she goes home had she lost immunity, it seems decently likely that Teeny could flip and vote out Genevieve, but with Genevieve's fake idol in mind, it does put Rachel in a rough spot. If Genevieve does win immunity, she for sure goes home. Once Genevieve's voted out, she's in a win-win-win combination, and even with Sam beating Teeny in fire in the most dramatic way possible, and giving a great Final Tribal Council performance, it's still a blowout win for Rachel, who gives a pretty decent performance and also makes the correct call in not going to fire as she doesn't need it for her resume.

Jury

Rachel's win equity is a big reason why I have her ranked at #3 across the players of Survivor 47, especially over Sam and Genevieve who I have lower than her in that order.

- Sierra has made it abundantly clear that she respected Rachel throughout the game. She would pitch for Rachel to stay had Gata gone to another Tribal Council, she continues to work with Rachel after blindsiding her at the Anika vote, and still votes for Rachel despite Sam, her closest ally, sitting next to her at Final Tribal Council.
- Sol likely votes for her over anyone, aside from possibly Teeny. This is to be credited to Rachel for her strong connection with Sol.
- Gabe and Kyle are wildcards, but Gabe does vote for her over his primary ally, Sue. Kyle mainly votes for Sam to give him second place over Rachel.
- Caroline votes for Rachel over her closest ally Sue, and is possibly the biggest Rachel fan I've ever seen. Seriously, get yourself a friend like Caroline.
- Andy definitely votes for Rachel a majority of time, despite being one of the shakier votes on the board.
- Genevieve likely votes for Rachel over anyone, largely respecting her game.
- Teeny votes for Rachel in quite a few scenarios, respecting her game and liking her as a person.
- Sue votes for her in any situation that does not involve her two primary allies in Gabe and Caroline, which is credited to her relationship with Rachel.
- Sam is iffy, but I think he votes for her in numerous situations.

With this, I can say she confidently beats anyone in the game by the time of at least Final 8. Against Sue, Teeny, Andy, and Sam, she seems to have blowout wins. She should have a majority group involving Sol/Sue/Teeny/Andy/Sam/Genevieve/Sierra against Kyle, a group of Sierra/Teeny/Sue/Caroline/Andy/Sam against Genevieve, and likely wins over Caroline too, although that may be the closest matchup outside of Genevieve.

Conclusion

Rachel's incredible at the little parts of Survivor; playing her SitD to gauge the reactions in order to decide whether or not she needs to play her idol, using her jury vote to threaten Andy to confirm whether or not she needs to play an idol, hosting a fake funeral in order to get the jury to hype her game up, spying on the others to confirm she needs to use the Block-A-Vote and alerting her that Teeny has flipped, using her advantages to gain trust with Sue and Caroline, and more that I may have forgotten.

She's also super skilled socially and physically, she has great instincts, she has made an infinite amount of bonds with the jury, and constantly plays to the jury, most notably at the Final 6.

However, she cannot materialize her game, often perceived as the biggest threat, not having the majority of players on her side at many points, and making multiple minor strategic errors throughout the game, requiring her to need immunities and advantages.

All in all, Rachel plays a turbulent game that is an impressive showing for her as a player, but when ranking winners, her headache-inducing game ranks lower to me than most. Regardless, I love this game from her, it's incredibly adaptive and easy to root for. She brought so much entertainment to this season.

With that, what are your thoughts on Rachel's game?