OK, So Brother Hantz wants America to vote for his brilliance. Send him over to BB and see just how long he lasts.

My money (even though I haven't watched BB since episode 2 of season 2) is that he sets the record for fastest boot. His egocentric tookas is out before the end of the opening credits.

Just my 1/50 of a dollar's worth.

Oooh RussHell vs Evil Richard!

I could sign up to watch that!

The problem is that his fans think he's the best at a game that simply does not exist. Survivor has always been about obtaining the votes of those you eliminate. The jury is ALWAYS right.

There is a large fringe of new viewers that don't understand the game and believe Hantz's crap.

To those, I would point out that Hantz, both times, made key strategic mistakes that hurt his chances and he never even realized it:

- In Samoa, his ideal final 3 was against Shambo and John, certainly not Natalie and Mick.

- In HvV, he had to keep Danielle for his final 3 opponent with Parvati. That would have been the equivalent of making war on only 1 front rather than having to battle on 2 fronts. Parvati gained votes by saying she used him, Sandra gained more by saying she tried to get him out. Danielle would only have been able to repeat Parvati's arguments. Sandra had to be eliminated and it would have been easy to do so in place of Courtney.

The best player ever would know that the game is won on Day 39.

I agree, getting to the end is only 1/2 the battle.

RussHell likes the Shock and Awe part, but doesn't want to stay for the ground battle you have to fight to win the war. He takes the photo op under the "Mission Accomplished" banner way too early.

But then again he says getting to the end is all that matters. Now I don't know if that is because after the fact he can't admit he has no idea how to work the jury, or he just refuses to do it. Either way, saying that part of the game is not important is one way to explain the failures away.

He says it because he thinks the jury should vote like automatons: No feelings, just add up the moves and declare him the winner. That't not the game.

I think he says and does the things that are sooo Russell, because, like many mentally/emotionally "challenged" people, he has absolutely no (not even a scintilla of) Insight.

And...

He does not know, nor does he really care about the effect he and his actions have on others (witness: swearing on the lives of his children), and therefore, is caught completely off guard when someone reacts in a negative way to his behavior. When that happens, he immediately gets angry, and this is where the real trouble begins for Russell. He is smart enought to know he can't physically harm anyone, but he loses his impulse control (as in the nasty verbal confrontation with Rupert). Russell is a felony waiting to happen. He believes he is the one person in the world the rules aren't meant for.

Umm, NO!

If you can’t win the game you can NEVER claim that title.

And let’s be realistic – if the other players had gotten a chance to see him play last season there is little chance he would have done as well as he did.

Fooner cracked my code

NAH, we've got this all wrong. The original post wasn't about Russell. It was about "Russel," which in Aztechian meant "red lady." Obviously, that refers to Sandra.

I appreciate all your gratitude for clearing up this matter.

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Russell is one of the smartest to play the game. His gameplay gets him to the end. But his gameplay doesn't allow him to close the deal and win. Just glad the ##### goat didn't win.

Russel cant be the best player ever cause he never won, which is the opject of the game. He's just an obnoxious jerk with a little man complex. He was the only player that no one knew nothing about, and that was why he lasted so long. Remember nobody trusted Boston Rob because they all knew him from past shows.

Welcome aboard. What Russell has proved is that he's good at being a dominant player except when he isn't. Dominating doesn't make you best, it only makes you dominant. He never figured out, for example, that he couldn't bully the jury into voting him the win. So now he wants a game where he thinks he can bully America into voting him the win. That's called politics and, heh, I'd like to see him try.

Richard Hatch invented a way to win $1,000,000.

Clay Jordan invented a way to win $100,000.

Osten Taylor invented a way to win the title of Most Pathetic Survivor Ever.

Rob Mariano and Rupert Boneham invented unconventional ways to win $1,000,000.

Aras Baskauskus invented a way to win $1,000,000 in spite of himself.

Yul Kwon invented a way to win $1,000,000 against someone who was his equal.

Jessica "Sugar" Kiper invented some sort of brain power that caused people how to write her name on ballots - and forgot the antidote for the final vote. Then she left it at home for Heroes vs. Villains.

J.T. invented Sugar's antidote, a million-dollar invention.

Sandra Diaz-Twine invented a way to win $2,000,000.

Russell Hantz invented a way to win $400,000.

Winner: Sandra Diaz-Twine.

You lost me at Sugar.

And Yul was given the way to victory. He rode Burnett's coattails!!

And Yul was given the way to victory. He rode Burnett's coattails!!

And I was given to understand the jury is ALWAYS right.

Sugar made it all the way through Gabon without receiving a single vote against - the Survivor proverbial no-hitter, if you will. However, at the final TC, no one voted for her to win. As such, no one wrote her name down. The good part about that, of course, is that she reached the end. The bad part is that she lost terribly.

J.T. was the author of the only Survivor perfect game - no votes against from start to the finals, and a shutout victory in the final vote.

JT was the only Survivor to be so well-liked that members of the opposing alliance wanted him to win. His Tocantins win was nearly perfect. He really had a chance here to place himself amongst the greatest players ever. Too bad he inexplicably decided to change his game up and was overaggressive this time around.

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As I said - perfect game in Tocantins. Only one ever to do so, and probably one of the few Survivor winners who would beat every person on the jury. Hard to think of anyone else who would fit that bill...Ethan, maybe, or Tom Westman. That's about it.

It's hard to say why he changed his game so much for Heroes vs. Villains. If he plays a bit more like he did in Tocantins, i.e. not making conflicting alliances and playing it cool, then he doesn't put a huge target on his back at the merge, and if the vote ends up tied 5-5, it's probably more likely the Villains break rank at a tiebreak (rather than risking a rock-draw) than that the Heroes would do so. That or J.T. plays the idol for himself, and it's a 50-50 shot if Parvati gives her idol to the right person.

Rather than accepting that he doesn't know the other tribe's dynamic (he had that luxury in Tocantins the first time around, and it worked out to perfection for him) he chose instead to guess based on the dealings of a man he doesn't know who was, in fact, the most treacherous Survivor ever to play the game. As such, he got too aggressive, but that was showing up in his early game moves as well. J.T. the Hero won Tocantins without breaking a sweat. J.T. the Hero-Turned-Villain bungled it away.

Russell stuck with his strategy and it got him to the same place. Rupert stuck with his strategy - same result. Parvati stuck with her strategy - again, similar results. Sandra stuck with her strategy - she's a multimillionaire now. J.T. changed it up - he bombed. Tom changed it up a bit - he fell short. Cirie changed it up - too little, too late. J.T. could have won the game a second time, and we'd be talking about him as the greatest ever instead of Sandra.

LAST EDITED ON 05-22-10 AT 08:21 AM (EST)

I'm guessing JT changed the way he played because as a former winner he thought he would be an early target. Also knowing many of his tribemates by reputation this season, he wanted the most dangerous, Cirie, and his likely main rival as tribal leader, Tom, out as soon as possible. JT might have been more aggessive in Tocantins if he had known more about the other players.

There might be more of Russell in JT than anyone realized. JT did seem to appreciate Russell's moves at the time he was voted out.

My guess is that Stephen was far more important to the way JT played than what most people want to give Stephen credit for. Yes, JT wanted to play a different game, but Stephen was a stabilizing influence who was more than feedback to JTs ideas, Stephen was the real brains behind that team. JT would still have won Tocantins, but if it wasn't for such a dismal performance at the FTC, Stephen would have received some votes for being the mental player. Without Stephen JT would self-destruct, as we saw in H v. V.

LAST EDITED ON 05-22-10 AT 02:11 PM (EST)

Actually, JT didn't change his game at all. In Tocantins, the first alliance he had was with the 4 guys, Joe, Stephen and Spencer. On the side, he had one deal with Joe and Sydney and another with Stephen. His planned boot order after Carolina was Sandy and Taj.

Then Spencer began being paranoid that he'd be the first of the guys voted out when it came down to those 4. Spencer approached Joe and Sydney to make sure they'd vote out JT at 5. JT heard about that plan so he went after Spencer and never really trusted Joe and Sydney after that. That's what made him side with Stephen and Taj.

Replace Spencer by Cirie, Sydney by Tom, Joe by Colby, Stephen by Amanda and Taj by Rupert and you have pretty much the same situation.

Yeah, same game.

Other than flipping to the minority alliance and using a split vote to get rid of a target. And then immediately swearing allegiance back to the majority alliance, sticking with that alliance for a vote before taking control of the tribe to boot one of the original alliance. And then telling his tribe how much of a unified team they were before finding the HII and trying to hide it for himself before getting caught with it. And then, of course, giving said HII to the leader of the opposing tribe in a hugely risky move. Other than those moves, yeah, same game.

Of course, that is all besides the fact that he was possibly the most-liked player ever in Tocantins versus a guy that wasn't even trusted by his own tribe this time around.

Sure, in Tocantins, JT shook Coach's hand and then voted against him. So, it isn't like this was ALL new for JT, but calling his game the same is to ignore about 10 factors while considering 3.

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No, actually it's his tribe that was different. The Heroes were much more divided than Jalapao ever was. That's why JT's game appeared to be different. That and the fact that they never showed his F3 deal with Sydney and Joe in Tocantins but it was there.

And, about the idol, remember that he suggested that they should vote out Taj instead of Sydney so that Stephen would keep possession of it. JT was always devious but Stephen had a very calming influence, something Amanda (the one that was most similar to Stephen with respect to JT) couldn't do as well.

And J.T. also won the $100,000 fan-favorite bonus.

OK, forgot one.

Bob Crowley invented a way to win $1.1 million - being both the winner and the most popular player. J.T. used it without influence from Bob, but Bob pulled it off first.

As I recall, the first popularity contest at the reunion was after Cook Islands (Rupert's whitewash of America's Tribal Council notwithstanding...Russell came six years too late.) If memory serves, Ozzy won the first prize, and Yau-Man won the second. James won the third and fourth, and Bob and J.T. won theirs. Russell dominated the next two.

As I recall, the car challenge was awesome.

Cirie won the popularity contest in Panama. The prize was a car.

Of course. Forgot about her, since Aras and Terry took home four-wheeled beasts that season.

Ozzy was the only one in his season to win a car, if I recall correctly - Yul was the first winner not to get a car.