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I find Tina and Richard's games striking parallels of one another. Richard won by exploiting people's selfishness and Tina by exploiting people's altrusim. Both had amazing foresight, Richard is seeing the game not as the meritocratic experiment that it masqueraded as and Tina in seeing the need to find out Debb's vote, get out Mitchell early and move up the hierarchy, and nixing Jerri to secure her hold on Colby.

I'd give the edge to Tina for doing it w/ such finesse. Colby didn't even have any doubts about bringing Tina to the final 2, and Keith wouldn't have either.

Similarly, Ethan and Vee have parallels in their gameplay. Most obvious is their under-the-radar approach, but also Vee's strength lay in disloyalty but Ethan's in his loyalty. Both made obvious mistakes, Vee in her vote for Neleh and Ethan in his vote for KellyG, but Ethan's is far more glaring. Even his handling of the Clarence boot was potentially deadly. Also, Vee had more clever ploys, such as instituting drama (campfire chats, Hunter's the leader) and then hiding beneath it ("no more drama!"). Ethan gets points for having the final 4 all want to lose to him, but his mistakes are so glaring that I think it puts him below Vee.

Thus far:

1) Tina
2) Richard
3) Vee
4) Ethan

I like to knock Brian's gameplay because he's a bit of a bastard (and i find the whole "Lord and Master Heidik" fanclub uber-creepy), but he did play pretty brilliantly - to a point. Playing off his betrayal of Ted/Helen as a misunderstanding of sandwriting was very clever, but damnit Brian, you're cutting it really close. W/o someone as despicable as Clay, I"m not sure you could've altered your gameplay enough to win, and you just threw away most of Sook Jai's votes w/o even trying. He may have been in power more than Vee, but he also had the ability to be. His con-artist schtick gets him right below Vee, for now.

Jenna is, despite her vocal fanbase, underrated. Even if she won because of a popularity contest, that doesn't make her not a good player. Her need to go on an immunity run at the end was Alex's fault, not her own. A lot of people hold her wanting to quit against her, but I'm still not convinced that wasn't strategic. If she wanted to quit she could've just left. But she didn't. Her pageant skills served her well in front of the jury, and I think she played a remarkable social game. I'd place her right below Richard.

Sandra ... *sigh* ... I like Sandra a lot, and she's sly, but I think, like Ethan, other people's poorer gameplay influecned her win more than her own clever gameplay. Great winner to watch, though. She understood the game ... kinda ... she did think Lill was going to beat her in the finals... below Brian.

Amber's strategy, though it draws the ire of sucksters, was pretty good. Just simple. But it didn't need to be anything more complex. Just the play the mafia wife. She's not dumb ... and I think riding coattails is completely valid. She's about on par with Sandra to me. I'd give Sandra the edge just because she's got more fight in her.

Rupert ... just kidding.

1) Tina
2) Richard
3) Jenna
4) Vee
5) Brian
6) Sandra
7) Amber
8) Ethan

Meh ... I don't wanna play anymore. I can never find the win of anyone past this point nearly as interesting.