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personally ,I agree that Rob Cesterino was highly over-rated.

It's too bad that www.survivorforums.net went away. I posted there a lot back in the golden age of Survivor and I predicted, first, that during the run of THE AMAZON, that Rob was not as good as people thought.

I based it on several reasons.

1) I pointed out that he certainly reacted well when the danger was spelled out for him. However, because of how he handled vote #1, the Ryan vote, where IMHO he was more afraid of a 4/4 vote and pulling the purple rock (which would not have even happened as Dave J voted for Daniel Lue in that vote), I saw a certainly cowardice in that he would WILLINGLY essentially agree to be the 5th member of a 4 person alliance. And in that, I think I saw the real Rob Cesterino there. The fact that for the next 3 episodes we saw him constantly cry about he was on the outside looking in and how in his final chat he admitted that he was reminding Roger every 5 minutes that Matt had voted for him as his reason that Matt would have gone before him if there was not a switch to me seemed quite false.

As a result of this, I actually predicted that in ALL STARS, I predicted that a REALLY good player would NEVER have done what Alex Bell did (tell him how he was going to go out and why), and not only that, but someone would tell Rob that knowing he would get complacent, believing he was getting what he wanted, while they manuevered to get rid of him.

And sure enough, Boston Rob did just that.

And I predicted that in late fall/early winter of 2003, before the show even aired.

Back to the question at hand.....

BEST SURVIVOR PLAYER TO NOT WIN- for this to be valid , we have to have a player that.....
A) Played the game in such a manner that would get themselves to the end
B) Played the game in such a manner that would result in a majority of juror's writing their name down

Since those are the two parameters that I think is needed to justify being a good player, then at the time of their loss/shortfall.....

1) Tom Buchanan- In AFRICA, he was masterful in how he consistently built the relationship/friendships he needed, to the point that even Ethan did not believe he would win. Tom furthermore also was masterful in how he manipulated Lex out to do the unpopular but necessary things that needed to be done. I think Tom had a good line of both A and B, and just when Kim Johnson won immunity, just like that, his B was seen by both Ethan and Lex, whom needed to vote for someone one. Furthermore, in ALL STARS, Tom essentially did the same thing, in that he consistently kept good relations with everyone even as Boston Rob/Amber continued to draw the fire from the jurors......I feel Tom accomplished B. What he should have done was either he REALLY needed an alliance with Jenna/Rupert to take out Amber at 5; or he should have taken out Amber instead of Alicia; and then been able to marshall an alliance with himself/Shii Ann/Rob/Alicia....an alliance with 3 people that he could have won easily against.

2) Colby Donaldson- Let us be clear- Colby has stated that he was completely taken by surprise that he did not get Alicia's vote, and so was I- the fact that Alicia even stated in her confessional that in the game of life, Colby is totally whom she would gravitate towards, but that in the game of survivor, she stated her reasons for giving it to Tina.......that's why i don't think too much of it of him making that 'mistake' of taking Tina instead of Keith because I think he thought he had Alicia/Nick/Amber/Rodger votes locked up.

3) Johnny Fairplay- I think in Pearl Islands, John's abillity to play the game was just fine. If he was aware that there was an anti-burton/lillian for being OUTCAST tribe members, then that was totally the correct alliance to be in, if only that it would have gotten him the win regardless.

4) Becky- I do think that she had a lot of sway with Yul and that she fell short in making the case for herself to win. the sad fact of survivor is that if you think someone is going to win over you, you need to axe that person. That meant both Ozzy and Yul were both threats to her, but she still did well IMHO.

5) Courtney as above.