sunflower101 wrote:
Except Survivor is a team sport until at least the merge. None of them will win if they end up on a losing streak against Fang and have to vote out several people. 4 people isn't a voting majority at the merge. Which can happen if they go on a several challenge losing streak.
That logic is very simplistic, and only applies if the players presume the tribes will remain as they are until the merge. It doesn't often happen that way anymore. If they're about the mix up the tribes anyway, keeping their team strong is no longer an issue. Keeping Ace around helps you if he ends up on your new tribe, and hurts you if he ends up on the other tribe. The game is too unpredictable to easily assess what everybody's best move is at this point.
Having Ace can actually be a help at the merge to help keep Crystal/Matty/CG/Dan (depending on who makes the merge) from going on an immunity streak so they can be voted out.
How would that help when your plan would involve voting out Ace as well? Isn't he just as likely to get to the end by winning immunity as the Fangs? Why have one more physical threat around to worry about? If your alliance plans on running the game after the merge, the fewer physical threats outside that alliance are still around, the better.