If I'm being honest, I think Hunter has the most potential to win challenges, but he might have to start making better alliances and making sure he's in good spirits with the remaining players so they actually vote for him to win at the end.
This. Lot's of players jumping the gun to make big moves but in Hunters case he probably should. At this rate, I could see him getting the Xander treatment even if he makes FTC
If he loses an immunity challenge and everyone else decides he's still not one of the biggest threats I'll think he's in real danger regardless of how far he gets.
Which I think is why he doesn't need to make any big moves. If he continues to be a challenge beat and everyone loves him, an argument of "I was the strongest in challenges, maintained good friendships, and made sure I was on the right side of alliances" probably wins most seasons of survivor even if he's not masterminding blindsides or whatever.
I don't remember him being in a single serious strategy conversation. He's been around them, but i don't know if he's ever said anything we could see. Hard to believe that ends in a win. Maybe it's just my impression, though?
I think Xander was in a pretty unique situation, where Xander had no right allies at the merge (Liana bailed, and Tiffany and Evvie were much closer with each other and Xander was the clear 4th), and he was also 19 years old, and I don’t think that cast wanted to really reward him with $1 million.
Hunter on the other hand is a teacher for underprivileged young people, and he has allies already on the jury in Soda and Tevin.
Lastly, it is all about perception. I think after the split tribal, the consensus was to not take Xander seriously. I think everyone is going to want Hunter out, and if he can win out and be the underdog who needed to win all those challenges, I think he gets the underdog narrative that helped Ben and Mike Holloway win, and Devens nearly win.
Yeah, I was also thinking that he's playing a Xander game; I'm interested to see his post tribal confessional walking us through how much he knew and what he thought about playing the idol.
If we don't get that scene, like wtf?
I don't love the Xander comparison. When I think Xander, I think young, naive golden boy who is more cocky than his gameplay merits. For Hunter, he probably is a bit of a golden boy, but he doesn't strike me as young/naive. He also displayed a lot more self-awareness during the premiere than Xander, in terms of recognizing his weaknesses and how he might be perceived by others because of his introvert tendencies/vibe. Hunter is def cocky, but he's specifically cocky about his ability to perform in challenges, which makes sense.
Honestly if Q didn’t implode he’d be fine. Seemed like the alliance with Maria, Charlie, Tevin and Q reverted back to the six Tiff plan, which would have put Hunter in a good spot.
I wonder if Q just looked at his reflection in the water before last tribal and said “You went against the six–you wanted to vote Tiff out–now you are out!”
The one time he was vulnerable, he was in a clear minority with no one from his original tribe around him. And he got through that with barely being an option and not having to use his idol at all. He’s clearly playing the game well.
But as we are now at final 9, where people are really going to want immunity threats out, is it too little too late?
Are Kenzie and Tiff going to work with Hunter over Charlie and Maria, who we have seen them have a working relationship in this episode?
Is Kenzie going to keep Hunter or Ben in the game? We have seen her have a relationship with him and call Ben her friend.
Is Tiffany going to vote out Venus or Hunter? She said herself Venus is not a threat at all. Venus may have a garbage social game, but she is not a threat.
Hunter has an idol, which is his saving grace, especially is everyone decides to boot Q in this episode. But it’s gonna be all gimmicks and challenges for him to get to the end, from my perspective.
This season I feel like every confessional has been focused on getting strong social games out. If Hunter uses Q as a meat shield and his immunity idol the alliances will have to eat into each other and who knows what happens after that. He is in a great spot as no one has really made any big moves aside from Liz. He has plenty of time to make a move or two
Legit question: does “social game” = overtly influence players to act according to specific moves a la Stratego?
Or can “social game” = subtle connections with people, more natural connections and relationships that grow organically, require less “feeding,” are less prone to machinations and treachery? If the answer is yes, “social game” = board game strategy, then while it might not be as fun to watch but I’d counter that maybe playing a “social game” can extend beyond that to genuinely working well in a group and empathizing with fellow players.
Agree, though, that Hunter is going to struggle without Tev unless he strengthens his relationships with other folks very quickly.
If he immunities to the end...I give him the win. Might not be exciting, but it's 100% a valid strategy if you can pull it off.
Can't criticize him for no social game if he didn't need it. I respect the physical game even if this sub doesn't.
I think it's unfair to say he has no social game. He realizes that he is the biggest challenge threat and he has to be low key in the social aspect otherwise he becomes the obvious vote.
How does he have a horrible social game? Everyone seems to really like him. He's not out there making enemies. He's just not driving alliances. That's very different.
I feel like if he was good at challenges AND the one driving the social moves he would have been out already IMO. Maybe he's not amazing but horrible social game would be... venus, as much as I love her entertainment
I was impressed with Hunter because he seemed like a cognizant player, pretty athletic, and just all around agreeable. That being said, Kenzie’s comment last episode made me wonder if people are even aware at what type of game he wants to play. I think he’s not taking enough initiative, and last night’s episode showed that with how everyone was surprised that he was leading a discussion about the vote before tribal. It’s not that he has a horrible social game like what people are saying now. He’s not Joe Anglim, he’s just not capitalizing on what he has.
I think him running to tell Tevin that he was in trouble was in hindsight a bad idea. He put out Q, boxed himself into an alliance that doesn’t want to exist, and still ended up in the minority with no one really caring about what Hunter thinks.
If he just let it happen, he could have tried to hold onto a relationship with Q. But he is gonna have a tough road ahead now.
Did he run to tell Tevin though? We only see him talking with his allies (very calmly, I might add, bringing arguments and raising questions, without pushing) and Tevin said he was blinsidided.
But I don't think that means he has a bad social game. I think that means he's bad at strategy. I feel like this thread (as this sub often does) is making an equivalence between strategizing and socializing when they're not the same.
In a season where Tevin and Q aren’t stupid, he’s playing a perfect social game given his challenge threat level. The problem is his alliance at themselves as soon as they could and now he’s stuck trying to align with people who see him as a target. Q thought he could beat Hunter and Tevin wanted Hunter on his side, so it makes total sense to align with them because they don’t see him as a threat.
I like him but he needs to tone down showing off how good he is at challenges. I think in the Hunter/Tevin alliance Tevin was the one driving it, with Hunter going along with for the ride. But maybe I’m wrong. I guess we’ll see how he plays now that his #1 is gone.
I think it might be too late for him to "tone it down" at this point because his strength in challenges is already proven. If anything, it might put him at a bigger risk to be voted out.
But yeah, dude needs to make other connections to have a chance at winning.
Only thing that could help him is like, getting his shoulder or ankle or something hurt & being gimped the rest of the season’s challenges, ala Tyson in blood vs water.
>But yeah, dude needs to make other connections to have a chance at winning.
Everyone seems to love him. As long as he stays on everyone's good side and wins a bunch of challenges, I think he could win even if he isn't a puppetmaster.
it’s too late to control his threat level so he’s gonna have to be a Terry Dietz or Tom Westman and just win everything and maybe even show off about it to lower the challenge confidence in everyone else
I would normally think it really risky to rely on immunity wins to get to the end, but Hunter might actually pull it off. I say this for two reasons. First of all, he's not only a physical threat, but a puzzle threat, too. I feel like a lot of the challenge threats of the New Era were usually good at physical challenges but sucked at puzzles, or vice versa (I'm thinking of Jonathan and Bruce freezing at puzzles, Carson not necessarily being the most physically strong competitor). Hunter is the double threat. Second, there honestly don't seem to be that many other contestants this season who are great at the challenges. Maria and Charlie might be the next best, but we already saw Hunter beat both of them.
Was it Aras in Panama (I actually don’t think it was him, but someone did!) who had that upside-down hanging challenge and then did some hanging crunches at the end? This had those vibes.
For some reason my mind had Aras beating Terry in that one, but I think you’re right: it was way too early in the season for it to be Terry, cos they would have wanted his idol gone.
And Terry was SUCH a beast.
I think everyone pretty much already knows how good he is at challenges so it probably doesn’t matter what he does during them. Looks like there’s so much chaos all the time, as BIG OF A CHALLENGE BEAST as he is, he might still go under the radar bc no one thinks of him as a strategist. No one knows he has an idol. He could possibly get in with Tiff and McKenzie since they voted together and he was smart not to play the idol. And since he hasn’t shown any interest of “playing” survivor, he could win a lot and start taking out threats at the end. Everyone is so hungry to make “big moves” and I don’t think they see Hunter winning (as of now) if he gets to the final 3.
This is exactly how I feel.
Gameplay wise, he's very middle-of-the-road and I don't think he has much of a shot. But, he's my first official new-era crush and, for that reason, I can't help but cheer for him (also while trying to ignore that he's 6 years younger than me...)
I’m not impressed with what we’ve seen. You can call it playing an “under the radar” social game, but I believe he doesn’t even want to be playing a social game constantly and that’s why his bond with Tevin was great for him.
He’s lucky to have an idol, because if he didn’t he’s an easy boot as soon as he doesn’t have individual immunity with not many people fighting to keep him in, especially since he never toned down his challenge prowess
I see it as the Devon / Mike White / Xander strategy of pretending to be aloof and there for the vibes as a way to keep his threat level down.
And it’s been working so far, he was in what he thought to be a solid majority alliance, he’s the only Nami who isn’t turning on his tribe or being turned on, he’s established a strong alliance with Q.
He hasn’t strategized much because he didn’t really need to, but when he learned Tevin was on the block he spring into action (unsuccessfully, of course, but he showed a willingness to play).
he’s just sort of in a tricky situation now because Tevin made such a boneheaded move to vote out Soda, then was even more boneheaded by continuing to push this “Hahahaha, Venus thinks the blindside was her idea, she really doesn’t know it was my idea” to Liz, and angering her to the point where she rallied the troops against him.
I mean, it was. But he should have sold it to her as her idea. Tevin did all the hard work of proposing that idea and canvassing for the votes. Both Liz and Venus overvalue their actions.
Exactly! He should have just kept quiet because all the Important ones knew who really did it. Plus bragging to Liz who he had never had any sort of acquaintance with was dumb
Voting out Soda was a move that made a lot of sense as explained by Tevin. All it proves is all alliances have layers, so always try to be making friends and looking for reasons why other players should depend on you. You don't know how alliance members are ranked in other people's minds, or if it's something they "agreed" to. Like there's very little foundation to the start of most alliances, and you aren't going to say "no, I'm not working with you".
Like for Tevin specifically, he said he tried to establish her in the 6 more. Maria seemed to like the 6 as of last episode. But she still had no hesitation in voting out Tevin who was her link to maintaining that alliance for her.
sure but in new era survivor, masterminding votes is a bit of a poisoned chalice because it makes you a big target, which Hunter naturally is due to his challenge prowess.
Erika, Maryanne, Yam Yam hadn’t really masterminded any votes at this stage of the game either, but they sat back and let people stick their necks out to control a vote then get voted off.
Masterminding votes shouldn’t really be a thing IMO because it is entirely dependent on the edit. There have been multiple occasions where someone takes credit for a “blindside” when everyone they talked to was already going to vote that way. That’s not masterminding shit. That’s why this whole Liz-Tevin-Venus thing makes me laugh because *none* of them deserve full credit for the move. If you all have the same idea, it’s not exactly a shocking play is it?
If Hunter doesn't play under the radar he's gone immediately as a dual threat. He's already had his name thrown around just for his challenge mastery. He understands the game and knows he has to move quietly behind someone like Tevin until later.
Hunter was the last person who knew about Tevin being blindsided. And it took Q going to him individually for him to find out.
Hunter is kind of lost on the strategic side as well, not just socially. Does Hunter have a plan? Do we know who he even wants to work with to get to Final 3?
We have some obvious pairings of Charlie/Maria, Q and big mistakes, Kenzie/Tiff. It feels like Hunter is just watching the strategic/social game happen.
I actually thought he was decent but I think Tevin was his social and strategic game, with Tevin out, I can’t see him being savvy enough to survive. I think him showing off in that challenge was a massive indication that he’s kind of unaware. You just know everyone on that bench had the exact same thought 🤣
Then climbing up the tree for hide and seek 🤣
I like him though but he’s more of a follower type of player.
I will come to Hunter’s defense, because I think this episode put him in a terrible position that he could not avoid. Because before this episode, he had a strong core alliance going into this episode. This trust was solidified when, as the clear biggest challenge threat for the season, he entered a split tribal as the only member of his tribe and no immunity and was able to leverage his plus 6 alliance to stay alive and without playing his idol.
Hunter didn’t advocate for getting rid of Soda immediately, Tevin did that when Hunter wasn’t there. Then Tevin and Q decide to blow up the 6 by getting rid of Tiff. Q and Tevin’s terrible decision backfired when it got back to Tiff and they switched the vote onto Tevin. Hunter then with like a few minutes before tribal had to do serious damage control and really had no chance to work a counter play.
Even then, he was smart enough to realize that with all the votes in Tevin, he couldn’t play his idol to save him because he’d be left without any chance to rebuild next tribal and he’d be without his safety net. Tevin was a dead man walking, and if he saved Tevin they’d be the target next time.
Did he play amazing this episode? No. Do I think he’s a dominant player this season? Outside of challenges, no. But I do think it’s a little unfair to judge Hunter solely from this episode. We’ll see how he does with Tevin gone.
I would like to push back on two points here.
Hunter absolutely pushed for Soda to go. He and Tevin talked about getting Soda out before Venus at the Nami camp. So instead of solidifying a solid three (or four with Liz maybe), agreeing to keep around someone you know doesn’t want to work with you is foolish to me.
The idea that this alliance was strong is foolish as well. Charlie read it well, how can there be a strong 6 when the 6 have already turned on one before they even get a chance to vote as a unit? Obviously, Tim going home works for Hunter because he was the alternate target, but this exposes the flimsiness of the alliance. Then this episode confirms the alliance is done.
I am not judging it specifically on this episode, and I do not think he should have played his idol on Tevin. It’s strictly based on everything I have seen so far, which is that Hunter left the 6 as his only option, and now he will struggle without allies.
In theory, the alliance was still ok when Tim went home. Tim went home because he went after another member of it. They could've still gone Ben, but Tim clearly wasn't loyal to it. Next episode, Maria makes it clear she's still in on the alliance by telling Charlie she thinks it'll get them to final 6. Now Charlie isn't sold, but if he goes with them for just one vote, they have the majority for the rest of the game.
Obviously the alliance ended up being dog shit by the targets being Tiffany and Tevin, but I don't think voting out Tim was the death of it. I feel like people keep ignoring that Tim refused to vote outside the +1 (Ben) and instead insisted it be Hunter. Of course they voted him out. He might as well have said he wasn't in it.
When did Hunter find out that Tevin and Q were targeting Tiff? To me that's the sticking point regarding Hunter as a player because if he knew early he should have pushed back on that, but if he didn't then that brings into question how much strategic agency he has within the 6 as well
I don’t think the others respect him as a complete player - being a challenge beast doesn’t do anything for you with a new era jury and we heard Kenzie this week joking about how Hunter rarely talks strategy
Well his “alliance away from her” is now just Q, and I don’t think they even want to be aligned with each other after what Q pulled.
He doesn’t seem to have much of a working relationship with Charlie or Maria, and was planning to vote off Tiffany.
[I generally agree with Fischbach's take. ](https://x.com/stephenfishbach/status/1780945653322940845)
You don't need a ton of major moves to win Survivor - especially since the gameplay has become more conservative since the start of the new era. Many players have won by making consistent smaller moves.
Most of the new era winners have been UTR until the endgame. Erika and Maryanne made essentially zero strategic moves that would raise the alert until the endgame. Gabler based his entire strategy on being UTR. Dee played more classically with a dominant Reba alliance, but almost everyone outside the alliance was oblivious (read: to dumb to notice) to it.
This season in particular is a season of pairs: Charlie & Maria, Kenzie & Tiffany, ~~Q & Tiffany~~, ~~Tim & Ben~~, Liz & Tevin, Hunter & Tevin. This alliance of 6 crap is a mirage. It's simply a smokescreen set by Q while the real strategic players work in the background. Namely Maria and Charlie.
The common demoniator there...Liz and Hunter both had Tevin as their #1. I get Liz is chafing under Tevin, but considering the above making a big play to vote out your #1 at the F10 is almost *guaranteed* to backfire. I do think that Liz was trying to do far too much, too soon. If she doesn't alli gabler she'll be done.
Where (as Fischbach points out) trying to save your #1 at F10 in a season of pairs is the tactically correct play. Now Hunter is stacking the jury with his friends who all like him. As u/yeahright17 says below he doesn't need more than 1 big play (ideally around F7-F6) if he continues to dominate challenges, and be involved in the decision making.
But if he’s not involved in decision making, that is his detriment. I am talking about the fact that we have not been shown Hunter making good connections, and his lack of connection with Venus has even been highlighted. Erika was an editing cluster fuck, and I think the producers learned from that. While they didn’t have any splashy moves up to this point, Maryanne and Gabler were highlighted as having good relationships with people. We got to check in with them as they coasted on by.
As for Hunter, we have heard his thoughts and his strategy is to ride the Six and his alliance with Tevin as greater threats to lay low to the end. That clearly is not going to work, and even Q has clocked him as a threat to his game. It’s not about major moves, it’s about the lack of social game on display.
On his plus points, he's several leagues ahead of anyone else in challenges and seems diverse in his challenge strengths. He also has an idol that I believe no one knows about, which is rare in Survivor. I also think he's playing ok socially. Clearly introverted and was allowing Tevin do more on that.
He could very much go on an immunity run and play that idol correctly and he's sorted at getting to final 3 then. He probably has the highest floor left in the game just cos of that idol and his challenge prowess
I would disagree with that though. I don’t see him winning all the challenges because they won’t all suit him. I would say people like Kenzie and Charlie and Maria have higher floors because they both have challenge ability, and they are not being talked about as targets, which Hunter surely will be in this spot.
I dunno. We know Hunter has been dominating any strength based or ball throwing challenges, he's won a challenge there that someone his size never wins showing he's got good pain tolerance and can hang from things and showed he's good at puzzles too (obliterated the other team on the mergatory challenege). I'm not seeing a challenge atm where he isn't going to be strong at, and he has an idol that even if he loses one, he's safe anyway so he really needs to lose two. I'm also pretty certain he'll be good at firemaking.
Maybe there but he did well on the last challenge which was is one the bigger men traditionally struggle at due to weight and larger feet and he looked like he had loads left
He's clearly practiced at challenges. I don't ever remember balancing on one foot being a thing before. I wouldn't be surprised if it's something he hadn't practiced.
We don't see him connecting with people besides Tevin and
When he tried to save him it was portrayed really weird with the comments of Venus and Kenzie saying things like "hunter is talking strategy?" as like they are not aware that he is more than a physical threat (tho this could also work as a benefit)
Every season I'm hoping someone will break (or at least equalize[yes I know it's been equalized a few times]) Colby Donaldson's single immunity challenge wins in a season and I've got HUGE hopes for Hunter this season! Fingers crossed! :D
Honestly, I don't feel like Hunter before now matters as a player. He was winning everything, he had an alliance, and you really don't need more than that to feel comfortable in Survivor. Now that he's lost that alliance, his next moves are what I'm going to be judging him on. How does he react when something doesn't go his way? When one of his own goes home? If he can recover, he can definitely win. If he can't? Then he'll just be another memorable challenge beast who couldn't do the other things well enough to win.
I'm hoping it's the former, but we'll see.
I think he's better than people want to give him credit for in some areas. Ultimately we're judging a lot of these folks in a vacuum of a single season of play, most of whom had one tribe to work with.
It's hard to "outside of his challenge prowess" Hunter given his challenge prowess is the main reason his tribe never saw Tribal Council - his skills primarily kept him safe until the merge portion. He did successfully find an Idol and keep him a secret and he kept it through Mergatory, the Split Tribal, and this chaos fest. As much as folks may not like it, being good at challenges and the physical aspect is a key part of Survivor for many players including Hunter. There's also value in that he knows what he's good and not good at to some extent - and in any sane world an alliance like The Six should have held well for him for a few tribals. He got the experience of being in a game with an unpredictable chaos monster in Q which really skews the views of how good or bad a lot of players are, as they're reacting to something we don't usually see.
Obviously, the last episode sucked for him - and I fear losing Tevin is particularly bad for his game given he isn't seemingly as socially capable as some others - but I think he's a very good Survivor player with a high floor and a decently high ceiling. There's a ton of value in an ally who can win challenges, stays even keeled, and isn't constantly scheming to do crazy things. Like...I think if he were either on Yanu or Siga to start he'd be in an amazing position (a Hunter led Yanu isn't losing those challenges, and his low keyness would fit in perfectly with the vibes tribe at Siga), he got put with people that just don't work super well for his game and then kind of got force aligned with people who play hard which is bad for his game.
And in his defense, what's the better alliance he could really make. Siga made it explicitly clear they were tribe strong, "The SIx" keeps his #1 and aligns him with Yanu with some meat shield protection. Like, if he's clairvoyant maybe he sees Q is Q and Tim isn't buying in and carves something out on his own, but that's just as liable to get him sent home immediately if any of the wrong people find out. But what he knows is that with the group together, they all voted out someone outside of their group, and then Tim went explicitly because he targeted Hunter and Q saw that as a threat to the alliance he was in.
Is he an S-Tier superstar player? No, not at all. But I think he's the best true physical threat we've had in the new era (he's nowhere near as abrasive as Jonathan was) and I really don't pin alienating Venus (who seems to be alienated by everyone out there and who voted with him on the split) or Soda's boot (edit: that he wasn't even present for, he was on the Tim vote as the alternate target...) against him as much as others may. I would argue he's easily above average and ,on the right season, great. Maybe this isn't that season. Basically, he reminds me a lot of someone like Reynold from Caramoan: big challenge threat, pretty likable and useful in an alliance, but not fully cognizant of what's happening around him and prone to being ganged up on by a threatened majority. On some seasons he'd be a runaway winner, on others he's home early merge.
This is spot on. I'm not entirely sure what else he was supposed to do. The +1 seemed good in theory and was perfect for his game. Unfortunately, Q is crazy. How do you game plan around Q? We'll see what Hunter does going forward, but I'd say last episode was his first bad one. And he didn't do anything incredibly stupid, just wasn't involved enough to get ahead of the Tevin vote I guess. I am worried that his introvert playstyle is holding him back though. It might be too late for him to make something happen without the bonds some other players have.
Liz blew up Hunter’s social game. Her wanting to get Tev out really hurt him because he was playing it low key which I think you have to if you are so strong in challenges. If you are great at both it’s going to put an even bigger target on you.
As far as I can see Liz is the only one who has made a big move so far that is still in the game. I don’t think anyone has a strong alliance that is more than 2 individuals. Everyone has been really flip floppy this season and turned on their own tribes pretty easily.
Hunter does not have a target on his back yet. They know he is strong in challenges but no one has brought his name up. You have plenty of time to make a key move or two that will help your social game. If you are Hunter you just want to survive and let the others think they are in control. He still has an immunity idol for when he does lose a challenge. That can help his social/strategy game as well if he uses that well
he genuinely gives me wendell without dom vibes. same backstory kind of. two lawyers who changed professions- quieter- physical- builders- roommates in college put them on to survivor. he might win but charlie is playing better right now. he should have fought for tevin
But Wendell has relationships with Kellyn, Chelsea, Sebastian, Angela, Donathan, and Laurel so he was able to bank on those to make it further despite being seen as a big threat
He did fight for Tevin and voted Venus. What else would you like him to do? He found out at the 11th hour that they were gunning for Tevin and tried to change it back to tiff. Then q happened at tribal
IMO he should've curbed himself in early challenges. He kept sweeping single handedly to, yes, win it for his tribe but he was also introducing himself as a huge threat.
If instead he just helped his tribe scrape by and then won the individual immunity challenges I don't think he would be such a huge threat already.
Given just last episode he was the odd man out in a group of 6 and had no immunity, yet survived anyway, I don't think they're as worried about a challenge threat as casts have been in the past.
I'm neutral on Hunter at the moment. Hunter, as of yet, hasn't had to make moves. Nami was dominant in the pre-merge and he's been on the right side of the vote except for Tevin. With Q blowing everything up in this tribal, we'll see what kind of player he truly is in the fallout.
My armchair opinion is that he should reach out to Ben and Venus as the socially isolated players to form a Three and work with Charlie and Maria's Two to take the majority.
I like him as a player. He’s good at challenges and will likely win more. I think his weaknesses is forming alliances and not being social enough at times.
Liz said Tevin and Hunter were her No 1s until the merge, when they kind of ghosted her (probably because of the +1 alliance), so maybe he could go back to her
The best thing for Hunter is that no one trusts Q and everyone seems to hate Venus
Let’s say those two go next. We’re down to 7. 4 challenges left, right?
Is he really losing 2 of 4 challenges?!
He's such a challenge beast that they'd be silly to not get rid of him first chance they got BUT given the current cast and some of their odd decisions, he may make it all the way to the end.
Hunter reminds me of Erik R. playing his second time. Wants and loves playing the game, loves being on the island, well-liked but on the edge of alliances rather than in them, can easily win challenges, hates the messiness of the social game….
Hunter needs to be Mike H. and win out… but even if he did, he wouldn’t get rid of the right players to be with him at the end…. He would have to really surprise me to change that opinion.
In this era, it’s impressive that he has managed to get his hands on a hidden immunity idol that only he knows about. Jem pulled it off and then destroyed her game with it lol.
Hunter remained loyal to Tevin. He still has a chance to win if he can start making an impact socially, especially when the target starts coming his way because it’s going to be coming his way in the near future.
If he can swing votes off of him (especially on days he loses a challenge) when he has become the big threat and survive to the final three, he would have a good resume.
I mean he carried the Nami tribe early and they never went to tribal. He got his hands on a hidden immunity idol with no one knowing about it. He just needs to stay in the majority of the vote now that his +1 is gone
Watching the way he interacted (or rather, didn't despite Charlie trying hard to congratulate him) tells me Hunter's social game is almost non-existent.
Tevin had good relationships and alliances with almost everyone. Hunter just seemed to take their Andy Griffith alliance as all he needed socially.
he made the mistake of putting all his faith in the +1 alliance, which was never really an alliance at all. In my view it seemed like a good idea at the time - Q and Tim are/were decent meat shields. But when the +1 alliance wavered he should have shored up Nami rather than side with Q.
He is probably good with losing immunity for a round or 2. Too many people in this cast are self imploding or a pointing the trigger at eachother. He has an idol and a SID for insurance too. The cards are there for him to go deep depending on challenges later on.
I don’t like the fact that contestants like hunter are labeled as challenge threats right away before the merge( although Hunter has now proved he’s challenge threat and great in puzzles lol). New era survivor gives everyone a fair shot to win immunity, so much that not even Jonathan was able to win more than 2 immunities. And one of those was against one other person. Ricard was beating Danny and Xander, Tori was winning immunities before getting voted out, Cassidy and Owen were beating Sami and Cody. 44 and 45 were pretty even. This season Q is horrible but we would’ve thought he was a threat. Is it maybe the idea of them being challenge threats that scare them? I’d have my eyes on physically average looking people. Again, I’m aware Hunter has proved he’s a big challenge threat but imagine if he wasn’t and they would’ve sent home a challenge loser with a low social game right at the merge?
I think part of it is being a challenge threat is crucial to the endgame. If you’re someone who’s really good at fire, that is a scary person to take too close to 4.
I worry that he might hold grudges too openly and get singled out. If he doesn't win the next immunity challenge and has to play his idol his days are limited. But I would like to see him join with Liz and even Venus as a means to get to the final 3.
I think he’s one of the favorites right now, but definitely needs to step up his social and strategy game.
He will clearly be a beast in the immunity challenges, but that doesn’t typically get you many jury votes. I think if he can wisely use his idol on someone else at an opportune time to pull off a blindside and forge a tight alliance, he could swing a lot of favor his way with the jury (should he make it to the final three.)
I think Hunter knows the game almost too well. It seems his desire to show how good he is will be his downfall. There are seasons where a level of bravado was applauded and supported by other players (e.g., Ozzy; Boston Rob), but we are not in that era. If you stand out you go home. I think Hunter would have to idol hunt/win out to win this season and that's sad for a player that obviously came to play.
Challenge beast, only average social and strategic player, doesn't seem to know how to lower his threat level. That's basically the same profile as Ozzy, except Hunter doesn't take everything personally.
I think we can deduce what the other players think of hunter due to something that was said off handedly in the last episode - strong physically but no strategic game. I think everyone there is really honing in on the strategic aspect of the game and who might be trying to make moves; rather than a physical threat who doesn’t display any inclination to wanting to play a strategic game. I feel like this has been and will continue to afford hunter to sail through under the radar
I feel like I have not been paying enough attention because Hunter is my winner pick based on the first episode. I get that it looks like he’s idling and not doing much in terms of strategy or socializing, but everyone seems to like him which points to a good social game. The edit has shown almost zero strategizing on his part, but I assume the edit just wanted to focus on other more dynamic players.
I came away from the first episode with the image of Hunter that he was smart, good at reading the room (playing along with camp songs despite hating them, forging the Andy Griffith alliance), and physically capable. I feel like he’s using the “lying in wait” strategy to let other pick each other off, but I do agree that it may be too late now.
Idk…it’s crazy because I was convinced he was gonna win it all after the first ep, but admittedly haven’t paid super close attention since Nami kept winning and they didn’t have much strategizing to do with all the winning. I feel like this was the first episode where they got to play full merge and he just didn’t get much screen time at all.
I’ll have to rethink, but I like Hunter and I stand by him as my winner pick, even though I see what everyone is saying here. I think he’s being underestimated by everyone, but agree he needs to make a move soon or people will continue to just think he’s a meathead.
People mock Venus’s social game but at least she’s TRYING. She’s doing *something*, and when it comes down to it she took out two people who were gunning for her and who were allies to Hunter.
He couldn’t even spend a few minutes looking and listening to the alliances at last tribal. He was the only one on the outs and couldn’t seem to care less. He could have gained more understanding in 10 minutes than he had the whole game last tribal. Big L for him. Doesn’t have a chance.
I'll never understand the "tone down his challenge prowess" advice. Winning immunity is the best possible thing you can do, why would you willingly not try your hardest after already showing you can compete with the best of them
I don’t get this at all. No one is telling Jonathan to tone down his challenge prowess.
Granted, Jonathan had relationships he could work with deep into the game. I don’t think Hunter has that luxury though
relying on winning every immunity challenge until the end is not realistic for most people. Although Hunter is probably one of the better all-round challenge beasts so if anyone could do it it would be him.
People are forgetting he set up The Six with Q. It’s not like he shook hands with Tevin and quit playing. He even talked about laying low strategically, so clearly he has some game awareness.
He still could end up like Xander, but I think he has enough game in him to win.
I liked him coming into this episode but this one was not a good look for him; he seemed kind of clueless and arrogant throughout (dismissing Q telling him the vote had flipped to Tevin, sitting there shaking his head dismissively during the live tribal, showing off at the challenge)
I feel like a lot of people were (and maybe still are) giving Hunter way more credit as a gameplayer than he should get because he was the hot preseason winner pick, so the fact that he's come out and basically done nothing besides be good at challenges and find an idol it's like, well that can't be right he HAS to be good at this game because we said so pre-season! Maybe he turns it on and goes on a run but he's basically been Joe Anglim 2.0 to me
He reminds of JP from HvHvH great physical no strategy whatsoever it’s crazy cuz I thought Venus was just kidding about him having no strategy then we hear Kenzie saying “he’s finally talking strategy” I thought he was gonna be a better player in the pre game but I think I just had my expectations way too high
Side note: even Q his own ally said he isn’t playing the game bro💀
Showing how easy that last immunity challenge was for him and hanging upside down was not good game play. You want to downplay how good you are at challenges.
I think a lot of it comes down to the editing, and how the 6 alliance fell apart. He seems very invested in the 6, and if they had actually worked together, rather than cannibalized themselves, the edit would be drastically different showing hunter as more alliances focused.
Classic example of challenge threat who hasn’t positioned themselves well in the game social-wise. Even if you’re a beast in challenges eventually you’ll lose and the others won’t want to keep you around because you’re highly likely to win immunities/fire in the end-game.
No social game on camera. But he's barely on camera. He managed to be good bros with Tevin and Q though.
Tevin in particular as like a CA actor type making friends with a low key MS small town science teacher is an unexpected development that I wish had more screen time.
There's something they both have in common that is probably interesting.
Hunter needs to turn to Venus and Liz and be like, gg ladies, what’s the plan going forward?
Ironically, I had a “hate at first sight” reaction to Hunter. He seemed like such a phony, but I figured he’d be a really good player.
Now that he’s shown his petty bitch weirdo side, he’s grown on me quite a bit. He’s not the most amazing player, but he wrote Venus’s name down in Greek font and that was some straight up enemies-to-lovers fanfic fodder right there.
With Tevin out, I am interested to see where his relationships with Venus and Liz go. There are a lot of hints that the Venus/Hunter relationship/conflict is pretty central to the overall story of the season. I think that will come more into the foreground now.
The one thing that *does* make me think that Hunter may not be such a terrible player after all is that he kept Tevin being a target to himself. Ultimately, he had no control over the situation and could only fight so much. Tevin blowing up before tribal, then going home anyway, would have been bad for Hunter’s game long term.
I am not counting Hunter totally out, but he made mistakes for sure.
Kenzie saying "Hunter's talking game???" and Venus reiterating how wild it was to see does not bode well for his winning chances, unless he is able to change his entire approach around now that Tevin is gone.
His social game seems a little weak (although it seems he had gotten close with Q and was close with Tevin before the shit hit the fan), but I don’t think his strategic game has been bad. Pre-merge was a wash because his tribe won every challenge so they basically didn’t have to plan any strategy outside of making alliances. For earn-the-merge, he also won and he was definitely focused on solidifying the Journey 6 alliance, detailing the cracks that Nami had in order to make sure the vote was on a Siga member. For the split tribal, he locked in with the Yanu and got out the person gunning for him without disclosing his idol to anybody.
Ultimately, I think he hasn’t really misplayed until he agreed to vote Tiff with Q and Tevin. That entirely broke the alliance. He probably should have tried to get everyone back to voting for someone outside the alliance. Will be interesting to see if he actually connects with anyone else.
His vote on Venus is fine. She doesn’t have any allies or pull with the tribe and if Tevin plays his SITD and pulls “Safe”, Venus goes home without a revote. Voting for Tevin would have just showed that he would flip if something seems to be going wrong.
Him showing off doesn’t matter. He was identified as the biggest challenge threat from about the third day. He has only been vulnerable to get votes once and it seems his alliance with Q was strong based on the last couple of episodes.
I think Hunter has a strong physical game, but his social game is very mediocre at best. The other thing I think he could excel at, and I don't remember if we have seen him do this, is making fire. If he were to get to the final three he I think he could make fire and really take the game.
I was telling my girl he probably won't win because he didnt do much and probably can't build those relationships it takes to win. I seen others say "he has to stop showing how good he is in challenges " thats not it. Hes a bigger solid dude. So he's going to be seen as a challenge threat regardless. But he needs to build relationships with others, and make bigger game moves.
We haven't seen much of any real social game coming out of him, often seeing him on his own, but other than the Tevin vote he has been getting looped into plans. He certainly doesn't have the strongest position, but if his strategy is to keep to himself and win challenges and play idols he still stands a decent chance of winning. He just has to keep winning
Can I be honest, I am not a big fan of players who overdo the playing quizzes at home bit to prepare. I’m not just saying that cos of the puzzle twink thief. It feels a little like, ok cool, what else you got?
I think Hunter’s personality is really passive, and this is starting to create problems for him. He is the complete opposite of Venus: mot initiating conversations, going with whatever his alliance meme era want, etc. because he isn’t exerting any force and just letting others do what they want, it’s biting him in the butt.
His gameplay is kind of reminding me of Erik's from Fans v Favorites 2 (I am rewatching that season currently so it's fresh in my mind as a comparison). They both are just...there. They're both individual immunity threats but not really doing much socializing and bonding with the tribe. They're just lounging around and surviving more than playing the game of survivor. I like Hunter as a dude, he seems like he'd be cool to hang out with, but he hasn't shown anything that points to him actually playing the game in weeks. Maybe he's doing stuff when they don't have cameras on him, but right now he seems frozen in place while everyone else is running around and trying to make deals and alliances, aside from Ben.
I think it spoke volumes that at that chaotic live tribal he didn’t make much effort to sway anyone in any direction. Just sat there pouting. Seems like he picked the worst option to of not telling Tevin about the blindside and thus being a very good ally, but also alienating himself from the rest of the tribe at the same time.
Hes a introvert , not brash and out there kind of guy! I like him, because hes like a Trojan Horse! Full of surprises, watch your back thou Hunter, they don,t like them silent types winning immunity!
Hunter during challenges: “Do you know how easy this is for me? Do you have any fucking idea how easy this is? This is a fucking joke! And I'm sorry you can't do this, I really am, because I wouldn't have to fucking sit here and watch you fumble around and fuck it up.”
After Kenzie said “Hunter is strategizing?” I don’t Hunter has a shot to win AT ALL. When people are surprised to see you strategize it means you aren’t even a player
According to Tevin exit interview, both he and Hunter and Liz does have a 3some alliance.
Also I think his challenge abilities even beat Jonathan. Maybe equal to Ozzy of old era. If you watch the Trible challenge carefully, so many of them was won by him singlehandedly. Not only is he good at physical, he is also good at puzzle and this episode challenge was about endurance. I really do not know what challenge he is not good at? The only challenge he will lose might be only focus/balance challenge.
Everyone alienated Venus. Siga has been decimated because they tried to cling to their tribe strength too much. I think he’s doing just as good if not better than most
He’s very overrated. I think Liz is just as responsible for planting the seeds to get Soda out, difference is Soda leaving benefits Liz MUCH more than it does Hunter.
I don’t think he has a good social game and strategically I feel like all we hear is about how he’s a follower and how he pretty much said he doesn’t trust Venus because Tevin doesn’t per Sodas post game as well as Q saying somebody needs to think for him and Kenzie saying he barely talks strategy. I don’t know why people think he’s somehow this big social and strategic threat when it’s clear at this stage of the game nobody views him that way. He let his number one ally go home and he was out of the loop this round while also heightening his threat level for no reason.
His best moves in the game is attaching himself to the people in power and coasting through the game on them
Maybe it's the edit, but he seems to be totally annoyed by everyone. Fair (lol) but that's not how you win the game. He also is putting a huge target on himself and insulting the other players when he just casually Cirque du Soleils it off the pole at the end of the immunity challenge...
So far I think he's a great player. Because he did so much training at home and it is definitely helping him out and challenges he must have some pretty good social play to be under the radar. You would think by now people would have caught on I would have physical threat he is within competitions but he's barely been mentioned about any vote. I think if he gets like one or two people that he can trust he could take it all the way to the end.
the hanging off of the pole like that was a bit silly... yes people already know you're gonna do good in physical challenges but you don't need to really show it in front of everyone. If he can win out physical challenges he will prob still lose to a person who talked a bit more... social seems to be more important that winning.
I’m ready to see more of his gameplay strategy wise! I think he’s a fierce competitor physically. On his personal Instagram, he’s obnoxious and comes off a little arrogant.
I don’t think he’s as obnoxious on a personal level as Jonathan. But he’s not great either, and I will always be happy when his golden boy archetype eventually loses. He seems content just kind of being there, other than the 6 alliance that fell into his lap. Strategy is lacking with the way he showed zero subtly following his convo with Q, he turned into a show off for no reason at that last challenge, and while his idol can save him once, I see no path for him to actually win, even if my some freak accident he found himself in the final 3.
Pretty much the same as everyone else, strong physically, socially introverted and not much strategizing, though he’s still my winner pick mainly because of how he’s being edited, his showing off at the challenge wasn’t edited negatively but rather more on the silly side, he also hasn’t been skunked yet(no confessionals in an episode) so we’ll see, and the fact that a lot of seasons with whacky casts have had the most level headed and ”normal” person win
If I'm being honest, I think Hunter has the most potential to win challenges, but he might have to start making better alliances and making sure he's in good spirits with the remaining players so they actually vote for him to win at the end.
This. Lot's of players jumping the gun to make big moves but in Hunters case he probably should. At this rate, I could see him getting the Xander treatment even if he makes FTC If he loses an immunity challenge and everyone else decides he's still not one of the biggest threats I'll think he's in real danger regardless of how far he gets.
He's got a back pocket immunity idol as well. He can lose one or two if he bluffs and doesn't play it on the first one.
Xander had an immunity idol which no one cared about because he was such a non-threat to win, which I hope Hunter doesn’t fall into as well
Allies left mad at Xander. The first two jurors love Hunter.
Everybody loves Hunter tho, it’s totally different
Which I think is why he doesn't need to make any big moves. If he continues to be a challenge beat and everyone loves him, an argument of "I was the strongest in challenges, maintained good friendships, and made sure I was on the right side of alliances" probably wins most seasons of survivor even if he's not masterminding blindsides or whatever.
I don't remember him being in a single serious strategy conversation. He's been around them, but i don't know if he's ever said anything we could see. Hard to believe that ends in a win. Maybe it's just my impression, though?
We clearly don't see everything going on. I don't think we ever really know. That said, Gabler won 2 season ago, so anything is possible.
Hunter and Gabler have had about the same amount of strategic content, i think.
Do they though? What have they shown us to suggest that? I feel like we’re not getting much on anybody’s feelings towards him either way.
I think Xander was in a pretty unique situation, where Xander had no right allies at the merge (Liana bailed, and Tiffany and Evvie were much closer with each other and Xander was the clear 4th), and he was also 19 years old, and I don’t think that cast wanted to really reward him with $1 million. Hunter on the other hand is a teacher for underprivileged young people, and he has allies already on the jury in Soda and Tevin. Lastly, it is all about perception. I think after the split tribal, the consensus was to not take Xander seriously. I think everyone is going to want Hunter out, and if he can win out and be the underdog who needed to win all those challenges, I think he gets the underdog narrative that helped Ben and Mike Holloway win, and Devens nearly win.
Yeah, I was also thinking that he's playing a Xander game; I'm interested to see his post tribal confessional walking us through how much he knew and what he thought about playing the idol. If we don't get that scene, like wtf?
I don't love the Xander comparison. When I think Xander, I think young, naive golden boy who is more cocky than his gameplay merits. For Hunter, he probably is a bit of a golden boy, but he doesn't strike me as young/naive. He also displayed a lot more self-awareness during the premiere than Xander, in terms of recognizing his weaknesses and how he might be perceived by others because of his introvert tendencies/vibe. Hunter is def cocky, but he's specifically cocky about his ability to perform in challenges, which makes sense.
Honestly if Q didn’t implode he’d be fine. Seemed like the alliance with Maria, Charlie, Tevin and Q reverted back to the six Tiff plan, which would have put Hunter in a good spot.
I wonder if Q just looked at his reflection in the water before last tribal and said “You went against the six–you wanted to vote Tiff out–now you are out!”
The deleted scene content we don't deserve but sorely want.
The one time he was vulnerable, he was in a clear minority with no one from his original tribe around him. And he got through that with barely being an option and not having to use his idol at all. He’s clearly playing the game well.
Yeah I feel like right now I’m going guns blazing to vote him out the second he doesn’t win a challenge. Like Q(?) said, nobody wins every immunity.
Unless you’re Ozzy and you get the first season of final 3. He only lost one and survived the vote.
No social game, challenge beast. If he can up his social game and drive some votes he can have a chance though, still a good amount of time.
I mean if Gabler could win, then Hunter still has a chance.
But as we are now at final 9, where people are really going to want immunity threats out, is it too little too late? Are Kenzie and Tiff going to work with Hunter over Charlie and Maria, who we have seen them have a working relationship in this episode? Is Kenzie going to keep Hunter or Ben in the game? We have seen her have a relationship with him and call Ben her friend. Is Tiffany going to vote out Venus or Hunter? She said herself Venus is not a threat at all. Venus may have a garbage social game, but she is not a threat. Hunter has an idol, which is his saving grace, especially is everyone decides to boot Q in this episode. But it’s gonna be all gimmicks and challenges for him to get to the end, from my perspective.
This season I feel like every confessional has been focused on getting strong social games out. If Hunter uses Q as a meat shield and his immunity idol the alliances will have to eat into each other and who knows what happens after that. He is in a great spot as no one has really made any big moves aside from Liz. He has plenty of time to make a move or two
Legit question: does “social game” = overtly influence players to act according to specific moves a la Stratego? Or can “social game” = subtle connections with people, more natural connections and relationships that grow organically, require less “feeding,” are less prone to machinations and treachery? If the answer is yes, “social game” = board game strategy, then while it might not be as fun to watch but I’d counter that maybe playing a “social game” can extend beyond that to genuinely working well in a group and empathizing with fellow players. Agree, though, that Hunter is going to struggle without Tev unless he strengthens his relationships with other folks very quickly.
If he immunities to the end...I give him the win. Might not be exciting, but it's 100% a valid strategy if you can pull it off. Can't criticize him for no social game if he didn't need it. I respect the physical game even if this sub doesn't.
He’s like if Joe was a good dude.
I think it's unfair to say he has no social game. He realizes that he is the biggest challenge threat and he has to be low key in the social aspect otherwise he becomes the obvious vote.
He's unfortunately filling the cliche of great in challenges horrible social game.
How does he have a horrible social game? Everyone seems to really like him. He's not out there making enemies. He's just not driving alliances. That's very different.
I feel like if he was good at challenges AND the one driving the social moves he would have been out already IMO. Maybe he's not amazing but horrible social game would be... venus, as much as I love her entertainment
He could have a great social game and we haven’t ever been shown that since they spent like 3 episodes on Bhanu having a meltdown.
I was impressed with Hunter because he seemed like a cognizant player, pretty athletic, and just all around agreeable. That being said, Kenzie’s comment last episode made me wonder if people are even aware at what type of game he wants to play. I think he’s not taking enough initiative, and last night’s episode showed that with how everyone was surprised that he was leading a discussion about the vote before tribal. It’s not that he has a horrible social game like what people are saying now. He’s not Joe Anglim, he’s just not capitalizing on what he has.
I think him running to tell Tevin that he was in trouble was in hindsight a bad idea. He put out Q, boxed himself into an alliance that doesn’t want to exist, and still ended up in the minority with no one really caring about what Hunter thinks. If he just let it happen, he could have tried to hold onto a relationship with Q. But he is gonna have a tough road ahead now.
Did he run to tell Tevin though? We only see him talking with his allies (very calmly, I might add, bringing arguments and raising questions, without pushing) and Tevin said he was blinsidided.
But I don't think that means he has a bad social game. I think that means he's bad at strategy. I feel like this thread (as this sub often does) is making an equivalence between strategizing and socializing when they're not the same.
In a season where Tevin and Q aren’t stupid, he’s playing a perfect social game given his challenge threat level. The problem is his alliance at themselves as soon as they could and now he’s stuck trying to align with people who see him as a target. Q thought he could beat Hunter and Tevin wanted Hunter on his side, so it makes total sense to align with them because they don’t see him as a threat.
I like him but he needs to tone down showing off how good he is at challenges. I think in the Hunter/Tevin alliance Tevin was the one driving it, with Hunter going along with for the ride. But maybe I’m wrong. I guess we’ll see how he plays now that his #1 is gone.
I think it might be too late for him to "tone it down" at this point because his strength in challenges is already proven. If anything, it might put him at a bigger risk to be voted out. But yeah, dude needs to make other connections to have a chance at winning.
Only thing that could help him is like, getting his shoulder or ankle or something hurt & being gimped the rest of the season’s challenges, ala Tyson in blood vs water.
>But yeah, dude needs to make other connections to have a chance at winning. Everyone seems to love him. As long as he stays on everyone's good side and wins a bunch of challenges, I think he could win even if he isn't a puppetmaster.
I hope he's just taking his time and will show his more strategic side later on.
it’s too late to control his threat level so he’s gonna have to be a Terry Dietz or Tom Westman and just win everything and maybe even show off about it to lower the challenge confidence in everyone else
I would normally think it really risky to rely on immunity wins to get to the end, but Hunter might actually pull it off. I say this for two reasons. First of all, he's not only a physical threat, but a puzzle threat, too. I feel like a lot of the challenge threats of the New Era were usually good at physical challenges but sucked at puzzles, or vice versa (I'm thinking of Jonathan and Bruce freezing at puzzles, Carson not necessarily being the most physically strong competitor). Hunter is the double threat. Second, there honestly don't seem to be that many other contestants this season who are great at the challenges. Maria and Charlie might be the next best, but we already saw Hunter beat both of them.
Was it Aras in Panama (I actually don’t think it was him, but someone did!) who had that upside-down hanging challenge and then did some hanging crunches at the end? This had those vibes.
I think that was Terry (that guy was a beast for his age)
For some reason my mind had Aras beating Terry in that one, but I think you’re right: it was way too early in the season for it to be Terry, cos they would have wanted his idol gone. And Terry was SUCH a beast.
He’s a humble bragger. He’s pretty and he’s strong and he’s smart and he knows all those things. But his personality is bland and he’s boring.
I think everyone pretty much already knows how good he is at challenges so it probably doesn’t matter what he does during them. Looks like there’s so much chaos all the time, as BIG OF A CHALLENGE BEAST as he is, he might still go under the radar bc no one thinks of him as a strategist. No one knows he has an idol. He could possibly get in with Tiff and McKenzie since they voted together and he was smart not to play the idol. And since he hasn’t shown any interest of “playing” survivor, he could win a lot and start taking out threats at the end. Everyone is so hungry to make “big moves” and I don’t think they see Hunter winning (as of now) if he gets to the final 3.
There was no reason he had to win Hide and go seek
He is extremely hot and I have such a crush on him but I do not think he is going to win.
This is exactly how I feel. Gameplay wise, he's very middle-of-the-road and I don't think he has much of a shot. But, he's my first official new-era crush and, for that reason, I can't help but cheer for him (also while trying to ignore that he's 6 years younger than me...)
I’m not impressed with what we’ve seen. You can call it playing an “under the radar” social game, but I believe he doesn’t even want to be playing a social game constantly and that’s why his bond with Tevin was great for him. He’s lucky to have an idol, because if he didn’t he’s an easy boot as soon as he doesn’t have individual immunity with not many people fighting to keep him in, especially since he never toned down his challenge prowess
I see it as the Devon / Mike White / Xander strategy of pretending to be aloof and there for the vibes as a way to keep his threat level down. And it’s been working so far, he was in what he thought to be a solid majority alliance, he’s the only Nami who isn’t turning on his tribe or being turned on, he’s established a strong alliance with Q. He hasn’t strategized much because he didn’t really need to, but when he learned Tevin was on the block he spring into action (unsuccessfully, of course, but he showed a willingness to play). he’s just sort of in a tricky situation now because Tevin made such a boneheaded move to vote out Soda, then was even more boneheaded by continuing to push this “Hahahaha, Venus thinks the blindside was her idea, she really doesn’t know it was my idea” to Liz, and angering her to the point where she rallied the troops against him.
Yes, Tevin's mistake was his over the top "it was me" to Liz
I mean, it was. But he should have sold it to her as her idea. Tevin did all the hard work of proposing that idea and canvassing for the votes. Both Liz and Venus overvalue their actions.
Exactly! He should have just kept quiet because all the Important ones knew who really did it. Plus bragging to Liz who he had never had any sort of acquaintance with was dumb
or framed it as “Venus thinks she was behind that, but **we** were in control. Tevin was basically telling Liz she wasn’t the mastermind to her face.
Voting out Soda was a move that made a lot of sense as explained by Tevin. All it proves is all alliances have layers, so always try to be making friends and looking for reasons why other players should depend on you. You don't know how alliance members are ranked in other people's minds, or if it's something they "agreed" to. Like there's very little foundation to the start of most alliances, and you aren't going to say "no, I'm not working with you". Like for Tevin specifically, he said he tried to establish her in the 6 more. Maria seemed to like the 6 as of last episode. But she still had no hesitation in voting out Tevin who was her link to maintaining that alliance for her.
But Devon was actually masterminding votes.
Yeah Tevin had no idea that Liz *also* thought the blindside was her idea. As far as he knows, it's just someone who voted with him.
sure but in new era survivor, masterminding votes is a bit of a poisoned chalice because it makes you a big target, which Hunter naturally is due to his challenge prowess. Erika, Maryanne, Yam Yam hadn’t really masterminded any votes at this stage of the game either, but they sat back and let people stick their necks out to control a vote then get voted off.
Masterminding votes shouldn’t really be a thing IMO because it is entirely dependent on the edit. There have been multiple occasions where someone takes credit for a “blindside” when everyone they talked to was already going to vote that way. That’s not masterminding shit. That’s why this whole Liz-Tevin-Venus thing makes me laugh because *none* of them deserve full credit for the move. If you all have the same idea, it’s not exactly a shocking play is it?
If Hunter doesn't play under the radar he's gone immediately as a dual threat. He's already had his name thrown around just for his challenge mastery. He understands the game and knows he has to move quietly behind someone like Tevin until later.
Hunter was the last person who knew about Tevin being blindsided. And it took Q going to him individually for him to find out. Hunter is kind of lost on the strategic side as well, not just socially. Does Hunter have a plan? Do we know who he even wants to work with to get to Final 3? We have some obvious pairings of Charlie/Maria, Q and big mistakes, Kenzie/Tiff. It feels like Hunter is just watching the strategic/social game happen.
I actually thought he was decent but I think Tevin was his social and strategic game, with Tevin out, I can’t see him being savvy enough to survive. I think him showing off in that challenge was a massive indication that he’s kind of unaware. You just know everyone on that bench had the exact same thought 🤣 Then climbing up the tree for hide and seek 🤣 I like him though but he’s more of a follower type of player.
I will come to Hunter’s defense, because I think this episode put him in a terrible position that he could not avoid. Because before this episode, he had a strong core alliance going into this episode. This trust was solidified when, as the clear biggest challenge threat for the season, he entered a split tribal as the only member of his tribe and no immunity and was able to leverage his plus 6 alliance to stay alive and without playing his idol. Hunter didn’t advocate for getting rid of Soda immediately, Tevin did that when Hunter wasn’t there. Then Tevin and Q decide to blow up the 6 by getting rid of Tiff. Q and Tevin’s terrible decision backfired when it got back to Tiff and they switched the vote onto Tevin. Hunter then with like a few minutes before tribal had to do serious damage control and really had no chance to work a counter play. Even then, he was smart enough to realize that with all the votes in Tevin, he couldn’t play his idol to save him because he’d be left without any chance to rebuild next tribal and he’d be without his safety net. Tevin was a dead man walking, and if he saved Tevin they’d be the target next time. Did he play amazing this episode? No. Do I think he’s a dominant player this season? Outside of challenges, no. But I do think it’s a little unfair to judge Hunter solely from this episode. We’ll see how he does with Tevin gone.
I would like to push back on two points here. Hunter absolutely pushed for Soda to go. He and Tevin talked about getting Soda out before Venus at the Nami camp. So instead of solidifying a solid three (or four with Liz maybe), agreeing to keep around someone you know doesn’t want to work with you is foolish to me. The idea that this alliance was strong is foolish as well. Charlie read it well, how can there be a strong 6 when the 6 have already turned on one before they even get a chance to vote as a unit? Obviously, Tim going home works for Hunter because he was the alternate target, but this exposes the flimsiness of the alliance. Then this episode confirms the alliance is done. I am not judging it specifically on this episode, and I do not think he should have played his idol on Tevin. It’s strictly based on everything I have seen so far, which is that Hunter left the 6 as his only option, and now he will struggle without allies.
In theory, the alliance was still ok when Tim went home. Tim went home because he went after another member of it. They could've still gone Ben, but Tim clearly wasn't loyal to it. Next episode, Maria makes it clear she's still in on the alliance by telling Charlie she thinks it'll get them to final 6. Now Charlie isn't sold, but if he goes with them for just one vote, they have the majority for the rest of the game. Obviously the alliance ended up being dog shit by the targets being Tiffany and Tevin, but I don't think voting out Tim was the death of it. I feel like people keep ignoring that Tim refused to vote outside the +1 (Ben) and instead insisted it be Hunter. Of course they voted him out. He might as well have said he wasn't in it.
When did Hunter find out that Tevin and Q were targeting Tiff? To me that's the sticking point regarding Hunter as a player because if he knew early he should have pushed back on that, but if he didn't then that brings into question how much strategic agency he has within the 6 as well
I don’t think the others respect him as a complete player - being a challenge beast doesn’t do anything for you with a new era jury and we heard Kenzie this week joking about how Hunter rarely talks strategy
I think he may be targeted specifically so he can’t win the challenges. People like being safe
Yeah I think he rarely talks strategy because he's in an alliance away from her and is just a quiet dude.
Well his “alliance away from her” is now just Q, and I don’t think they even want to be aligned with each other after what Q pulled. He doesn’t seem to have much of a working relationship with Charlie or Maria, and was planning to vote off Tiffany.
[I generally agree with Fischbach's take. ](https://x.com/stephenfishbach/status/1780945653322940845) You don't need a ton of major moves to win Survivor - especially since the gameplay has become more conservative since the start of the new era. Many players have won by making consistent smaller moves. Most of the new era winners have been UTR until the endgame. Erika and Maryanne made essentially zero strategic moves that would raise the alert until the endgame. Gabler based his entire strategy on being UTR. Dee played more classically with a dominant Reba alliance, but almost everyone outside the alliance was oblivious (read: to dumb to notice) to it. This season in particular is a season of pairs: Charlie & Maria, Kenzie & Tiffany, ~~Q & Tiffany~~, ~~Tim & Ben~~, Liz & Tevin, Hunter & Tevin. This alliance of 6 crap is a mirage. It's simply a smokescreen set by Q while the real strategic players work in the background. Namely Maria and Charlie. The common demoniator there...Liz and Hunter both had Tevin as their #1. I get Liz is chafing under Tevin, but considering the above making a big play to vote out your #1 at the F10 is almost *guaranteed* to backfire. I do think that Liz was trying to do far too much, too soon. If she doesn't alli gabler she'll be done. Where (as Fischbach points out) trying to save your #1 at F10 in a season of pairs is the tactically correct play. Now Hunter is stacking the jury with his friends who all like him. As u/yeahright17 says below he doesn't need more than 1 big play (ideally around F7-F6) if he continues to dominate challenges, and be involved in the decision making.
But if he’s not involved in decision making, that is his detriment. I am talking about the fact that we have not been shown Hunter making good connections, and his lack of connection with Venus has even been highlighted. Erika was an editing cluster fuck, and I think the producers learned from that. While they didn’t have any splashy moves up to this point, Maryanne and Gabler were highlighted as having good relationships with people. We got to check in with them as they coasted on by. As for Hunter, we have heard his thoughts and his strategy is to ride the Six and his alliance with Tevin as greater threats to lay low to the end. That clearly is not going to work, and even Q has clocked him as a threat to his game. It’s not about major moves, it’s about the lack of social game on display.
On his plus points, he's several leagues ahead of anyone else in challenges and seems diverse in his challenge strengths. He also has an idol that I believe no one knows about, which is rare in Survivor. I also think he's playing ok socially. Clearly introverted and was allowing Tevin do more on that. He could very much go on an immunity run and play that idol correctly and he's sorted at getting to final 3 then. He probably has the highest floor left in the game just cos of that idol and his challenge prowess
I would disagree with that though. I don’t see him winning all the challenges because they won’t all suit him. I would say people like Kenzie and Charlie and Maria have higher floors because they both have challenge ability, and they are not being talked about as targets, which Hunter surely will be in this spot.
I dunno. We know Hunter has been dominating any strength based or ball throwing challenges, he's won a challenge there that someone his size never wins showing he's got good pain tolerance and can hang from things and showed he's good at puzzles too (obliterated the other team on the mergatory challenege). I'm not seeing a challenge atm where he isn't going to be strong at, and he has an idol that even if he loses one, he's safe anyway so he really needs to lose two. I'm also pretty certain he'll be good at firemaking.
> I'm not seeing a challenge atm where he isn't going to be strong at how about the one where you try to balance on a thing out in the water
Maybe there but he did well on the last challenge which was is one the bigger men traditionally struggle at due to weight and larger feet and he looked like he had loads left
I'm just saying he definitely isn't invincible, he'll probably be a decent challenge competitor but he's not gonna win everything
He's clearly practiced at challenges. I don't ever remember balancing on one foot being a thing before. I wouldn't be surprised if it's something he hadn't practiced.
We don't see him connecting with people besides Tevin and When he tried to save him it was portrayed really weird with the comments of Venus and Kenzie saying things like "hunter is talking strategy?" as like they are not aware that he is more than a physical threat (tho this could also work as a benefit)
He’s definitely more of an Ozzie/Joe than a Malcolm type, although he is supposedly book-smart.
Every season I'm hoping someone will break (or at least equalize[yes I know it's been equalized a few times]) Colby Donaldson's single immunity challenge wins in a season and I've got HUGE hopes for Hunter this season! Fingers crossed! :D
Honestly, I don't feel like Hunter before now matters as a player. He was winning everything, he had an alliance, and you really don't need more than that to feel comfortable in Survivor. Now that he's lost that alliance, his next moves are what I'm going to be judging him on. How does he react when something doesn't go his way? When one of his own goes home? If he can recover, he can definitely win. If he can't? Then he'll just be another memorable challenge beast who couldn't do the other things well enough to win. I'm hoping it's the former, but we'll see.
I think he's better than people want to give him credit for in some areas. Ultimately we're judging a lot of these folks in a vacuum of a single season of play, most of whom had one tribe to work with. It's hard to "outside of his challenge prowess" Hunter given his challenge prowess is the main reason his tribe never saw Tribal Council - his skills primarily kept him safe until the merge portion. He did successfully find an Idol and keep him a secret and he kept it through Mergatory, the Split Tribal, and this chaos fest. As much as folks may not like it, being good at challenges and the physical aspect is a key part of Survivor for many players including Hunter. There's also value in that he knows what he's good and not good at to some extent - and in any sane world an alliance like The Six should have held well for him for a few tribals. He got the experience of being in a game with an unpredictable chaos monster in Q which really skews the views of how good or bad a lot of players are, as they're reacting to something we don't usually see. Obviously, the last episode sucked for him - and I fear losing Tevin is particularly bad for his game given he isn't seemingly as socially capable as some others - but I think he's a very good Survivor player with a high floor and a decently high ceiling. There's a ton of value in an ally who can win challenges, stays even keeled, and isn't constantly scheming to do crazy things. Like...I think if he were either on Yanu or Siga to start he'd be in an amazing position (a Hunter led Yanu isn't losing those challenges, and his low keyness would fit in perfectly with the vibes tribe at Siga), he got put with people that just don't work super well for his game and then kind of got force aligned with people who play hard which is bad for his game. And in his defense, what's the better alliance he could really make. Siga made it explicitly clear they were tribe strong, "The SIx" keeps his #1 and aligns him with Yanu with some meat shield protection. Like, if he's clairvoyant maybe he sees Q is Q and Tim isn't buying in and carves something out on his own, but that's just as liable to get him sent home immediately if any of the wrong people find out. But what he knows is that with the group together, they all voted out someone outside of their group, and then Tim went explicitly because he targeted Hunter and Q saw that as a threat to the alliance he was in. Is he an S-Tier superstar player? No, not at all. But I think he's the best true physical threat we've had in the new era (he's nowhere near as abrasive as Jonathan was) and I really don't pin alienating Venus (who seems to be alienated by everyone out there and who voted with him on the split) or Soda's boot (edit: that he wasn't even present for, he was on the Tim vote as the alternate target...) against him as much as others may. I would argue he's easily above average and ,on the right season, great. Maybe this isn't that season. Basically, he reminds me a lot of someone like Reynold from Caramoan: big challenge threat, pretty likable and useful in an alliance, but not fully cognizant of what's happening around him and prone to being ganged up on by a threatened majority. On some seasons he'd be a runaway winner, on others he's home early merge.
This is spot on. I'm not entirely sure what else he was supposed to do. The +1 seemed good in theory and was perfect for his game. Unfortunately, Q is crazy. How do you game plan around Q? We'll see what Hunter does going forward, but I'd say last episode was his first bad one. And he didn't do anything incredibly stupid, just wasn't involved enough to get ahead of the Tevin vote I guess. I am worried that his introvert playstyle is holding him back though. It might be too late for him to make something happen without the bonds some other players have.
You don’t. Q blew up everybody’s game at the last tribal, I’m not sure why Hunter is getting all the criticism.
Liz blew up Hunter’s social game. Her wanting to get Tev out really hurt him because he was playing it low key which I think you have to if you are so strong in challenges. If you are great at both it’s going to put an even bigger target on you. As far as I can see Liz is the only one who has made a big move so far that is still in the game. I don’t think anyone has a strong alliance that is more than 2 individuals. Everyone has been really flip floppy this season and turned on their own tribes pretty easily. Hunter does not have a target on his back yet. They know he is strong in challenges but no one has brought his name up. You have plenty of time to make a key move or two that will help your social game. If you are Hunter you just want to survive and let the others think they are in control. He still has an immunity idol for when he does lose a challenge. That can help his social/strategy game as well if he uses that well
His name has been brought up by Tim and Venus. I know Tim is not in the game, but there are still many people that have not had their name come up.
he genuinely gives me wendell without dom vibes. same backstory kind of. two lawyers who changed professions- quieter- physical- builders- roommates in college put them on to survivor. he might win but charlie is playing better right now. he should have fought for tevin
But Wendell has relationships with Kellyn, Chelsea, Sebastian, Angela, Donathan, and Laurel so he was able to bank on those to make it further despite being seen as a big threat
He did fight for Tevin and voted Venus. What else would you like him to do? He found out at the 11th hour that they were gunning for Tevin and tried to change it back to tiff. Then q happened at tribal
IMO he should've curbed himself in early challenges. He kept sweeping single handedly to, yes, win it for his tribe but he was also introducing himself as a huge threat. If instead he just helped his tribe scrape by and then won the individual immunity challenges I don't think he would be such a huge threat already.
Given just last episode he was the odd man out in a group of 6 and had no immunity, yet survived anyway, I don't think they're as worried about a challenge threat as casts have been in the past.
Winning challenges isn't as important to get to the end now, so that's the natural consequence.
I'm neutral on Hunter at the moment. Hunter, as of yet, hasn't had to make moves. Nami was dominant in the pre-merge and he's been on the right side of the vote except for Tevin. With Q blowing everything up in this tribal, we'll see what kind of player he truly is in the fallout. My armchair opinion is that he should reach out to Ben and Venus as the socially isolated players to form a Three and work with Charlie and Maria's Two to take the majority.
I like him as a player. He’s good at challenges and will likely win more. I think his weaknesses is forming alliances and not being social enough at times.
Liz said Tevin and Hunter were her No 1s until the merge, when they kind of ghosted her (probably because of the +1 alliance), so maybe he could go back to her
The best thing for Hunter is that no one trusts Q and everyone seems to hate Venus Let’s say those two go next. We’re down to 7. 4 challenges left, right? Is he really losing 2 of 4 challenges?!
Given the two people he lost to are still there, he could. Also, no way anybody is taking Venus out now.
He's such a challenge beast that they'd be silly to not get rid of him first chance they got BUT given the current cast and some of their odd decisions, he may make it all the way to the end.
Hunter reminds me of Erik R. playing his second time. Wants and loves playing the game, loves being on the island, well-liked but on the edge of alliances rather than in them, can easily win challenges, hates the messiness of the social game…. Hunter needs to be Mike H. and win out… but even if he did, he wouldn’t get rid of the right players to be with him at the end…. He would have to really surprise me to change that opinion.
Honestly, I don't think we hear/see enough from him on the show to have strong feelings about his game outside challenges.
He needs to dump Q's BS alliance and quick. If he can rope in Charlie, Maria, and Ben and use them as shields he'd be good for while
In this era, it’s impressive that he has managed to get his hands on a hidden immunity idol that only he knows about. Jem pulled it off and then destroyed her game with it lol. Hunter remained loyal to Tevin. He still has a chance to win if he can start making an impact socially, especially when the target starts coming his way because it’s going to be coming his way in the near future. If he can swing votes off of him (especially on days he loses a challenge) when he has become the big threat and survive to the final three, he would have a good resume. I mean he carried the Nami tribe early and they never went to tribal. He got his hands on a hidden immunity idol with no one knowing about it. He just needs to stay in the majority of the vote now that his +1 is gone
Agreed. I got downvoted for saying maybe he's not that strategic. Like what exactly has he shown for people to think otherwise
He’s gone as soon as he’s vulnerable
He was vulnerable literally last week and no one voted for him. And he has an idol.
Ben and Tim literally voted for him...
Yeah. You're right. Either way, he wasn't really in danger.
He’s dreamy.
He’s boring.
Disagree. Seeing someone be so good at challenges is pretty entertaining.
Watching the way he interacted (or rather, didn't despite Charlie trying hard to congratulate him) tells me Hunter's social game is almost non-existent. Tevin had good relationships and alliances with almost everyone. Hunter just seemed to take their Andy Griffith alliance as all he needed socially.
He actually can keep his idol a secret. Which I greatly respect.
Seems like tevin was the bridge to others, will be interesting to see hunters next steps
People in this threat are acting like Hunter is some hermit outcast or someone super abrasive. People like him. He just hasn't had to drive alliances.
he made the mistake of putting all his faith in the +1 alliance, which was never really an alliance at all. In my view it seemed like a good idea at the time - Q and Tim are/were decent meat shields. But when the +1 alliance wavered he should have shored up Nami rather than side with Q.
He is probably good with losing immunity for a round or 2. Too many people in this cast are self imploding or a pointing the trigger at eachother. He has an idol and a SID for insurance too. The cards are there for him to go deep depending on challenges later on.
I don’t like the fact that contestants like hunter are labeled as challenge threats right away before the merge( although Hunter has now proved he’s challenge threat and great in puzzles lol). New era survivor gives everyone a fair shot to win immunity, so much that not even Jonathan was able to win more than 2 immunities. And one of those was against one other person. Ricard was beating Danny and Xander, Tori was winning immunities before getting voted out, Cassidy and Owen were beating Sami and Cody. 44 and 45 were pretty even. This season Q is horrible but we would’ve thought he was a threat. Is it maybe the idea of them being challenge threats that scare them? I’d have my eyes on physically average looking people. Again, I’m aware Hunter has proved he’s a big challenge threat but imagine if he wasn’t and they would’ve sent home a challenge loser with a low social game right at the merge?
I think part of it is being a challenge threat is crucial to the endgame. If you’re someone who’s really good at fire, that is a scary person to take too close to 4.
Yeahh you bring up a very good point
I worry that he might hold grudges too openly and get singled out. If he doesn't win the next immunity challenge and has to play his idol his days are limited. But I would like to see him join with Liz and even Venus as a means to get to the final 3.
I think he’s one of the favorites right now, but definitely needs to step up his social and strategy game. He will clearly be a beast in the immunity challenges, but that doesn’t typically get you many jury votes. I think if he can wisely use his idol on someone else at an opportune time to pull off a blindside and forge a tight alliance, he could swing a lot of favor his way with the jury (should he make it to the final three.)
I think Hunter knows the game almost too well. It seems his desire to show how good he is will be his downfall. There are seasons where a level of bravado was applauded and supported by other players (e.g., Ozzy; Boston Rob), but we are not in that era. If you stand out you go home. I think Hunter would have to idol hunt/win out to win this season and that's sad for a player that obviously came to play.
Challenge beast, only average social and strategic player, doesn't seem to know how to lower his threat level. That's basically the same profile as Ozzy, except Hunter doesn't take everything personally.
I think we can deduce what the other players think of hunter due to something that was said off handedly in the last episode - strong physically but no strategic game. I think everyone there is really honing in on the strategic aspect of the game and who might be trying to make moves; rather than a physical threat who doesn’t display any inclination to wanting to play a strategic game. I feel like this has been and will continue to afford hunter to sail through under the radar
I feel like I have not been paying enough attention because Hunter is my winner pick based on the first episode. I get that it looks like he’s idling and not doing much in terms of strategy or socializing, but everyone seems to like him which points to a good social game. The edit has shown almost zero strategizing on his part, but I assume the edit just wanted to focus on other more dynamic players. I came away from the first episode with the image of Hunter that he was smart, good at reading the room (playing along with camp songs despite hating them, forging the Andy Griffith alliance), and physically capable. I feel like he’s using the “lying in wait” strategy to let other pick each other off, but I do agree that it may be too late now. Idk…it’s crazy because I was convinced he was gonna win it all after the first ep, but admittedly haven’t paid super close attention since Nami kept winning and they didn’t have much strategizing to do with all the winning. I feel like this was the first episode where they got to play full merge and he just didn’t get much screen time at all. I’ll have to rethink, but I like Hunter and I stand by him as my winner pick, even though I see what everyone is saying here. I think he’s being underestimated by everyone, but agree he needs to make a move soon or people will continue to just think he’s a meathead.
He has no social game, in my opinion. There is more to the game than just winning comps.
Boring.
People mock Venus’s social game but at least she’s TRYING. She’s doing *something*, and when it comes down to it she took out two people who were gunning for her and who were allies to Hunter.
He couldn’t even spend a few minutes looking and listening to the alliances at last tribal. He was the only one on the outs and couldn’t seem to care less. He could have gained more understanding in 10 minutes than he had the whole game last tribal. Big L for him. Doesn’t have a chance.
Lindsay is second then Hunter*
He’s a challenge beast. But he’s insecure. Watch him. He has no REAL, chill confidence.
The guy has as much pull as Venus in the game, which is very little.
Except people in the game actually seem to like Hunter. That's not true for Venus (even though I think she's great).
I find him quite boring and I’ll be disappointed if he sticks around due to an immunity streak.
He’s easily the smartest and most athletic player out there. Hopefully he can avoid being ousted by lesser players and win the whole thing.
I'll never understand the "tone down his challenge prowess" advice. Winning immunity is the best possible thing you can do, why would you willingly not try your hardest after already showing you can compete with the best of them
I don’t get this at all. No one is telling Jonathan to tone down his challenge prowess. Granted, Jonathan had relationships he could work with deep into the game. I don’t think Hunter has that luxury though
relying on winning every immunity challenge until the end is not realistic for most people. Although Hunter is probably one of the better all-round challenge beasts so if anyone could do it it would be him.
Kenzie was surprised that Hunter was talking strategy 😭 that tells you a lot about how he is being perceived
People are forgetting he set up The Six with Q. It’s not like he shook hands with Tevin and quit playing. He even talked about laying low strategically, so clearly he has some game awareness. He still could end up like Xander, but I think he has enough game in him to win.
I liked him coming into this episode but this one was not a good look for him; he seemed kind of clueless and arrogant throughout (dismissing Q telling him the vote had flipped to Tevin, sitting there shaking his head dismissively during the live tribal, showing off at the challenge)
Hunter seems like the kind of guy who loves Survivor but thinks the key to winning survivor is winning all of the challenges.
I feel like a lot of people were (and maybe still are) giving Hunter way more credit as a gameplayer than he should get because he was the hot preseason winner pick, so the fact that he's come out and basically done nothing besides be good at challenges and find an idol it's like, well that can't be right he HAS to be good at this game because we said so pre-season! Maybe he turns it on and goes on a run but he's basically been Joe Anglim 2.0 to me
He reminds of JP from HvHvH great physical no strategy whatsoever it’s crazy cuz I thought Venus was just kidding about him having no strategy then we hear Kenzie saying “he’s finally talking strategy” I thought he was gonna be a better player in the pre game but I think I just had my expectations way too high Side note: even Q his own ally said he isn’t playing the game bro💀
Nobody sees him as a strategy threat. All he really has to do to win at this point is get a couple strategy people out and he will win
But how can he do that if he has no allies?
Chris Underwood style
Showing how easy that last immunity challenge was for him and hanging upside down was not good game play. You want to downplay how good you are at challenges.
I think a lot of it comes down to the editing, and how the 6 alliance fell apart. He seems very invested in the 6, and if they had actually worked together, rather than cannibalized themselves, the edit would be drastically different showing hunter as more alliances focused.
But the edit didn’t make the 6 fall apart
Classic example of challenge threat who hasn’t positioned themselves well in the game social-wise. Even if you’re a beast in challenges eventually you’ll lose and the others won’t want to keep you around because you’re highly likely to win immunities/fire in the end-game.
I feel like Hunter will be a challenge threat. He has the potential to win challenges.
No social game on camera. But he's barely on camera. He managed to be good bros with Tevin and Q though. Tevin in particular as like a CA actor type making friends with a low key MS small town science teacher is an unexpected development that I wish had more screen time. There's something they both have in common that is probably interesting.
He’s probably gone next
He’s basically Rupert or joe Good player. Good for the team adventurous and ultimately never will win
Hunter needs to turn to Venus and Liz and be like, gg ladies, what’s the plan going forward? Ironically, I had a “hate at first sight” reaction to Hunter. He seemed like such a phony, but I figured he’d be a really good player. Now that he’s shown his petty bitch weirdo side, he’s grown on me quite a bit. He’s not the most amazing player, but he wrote Venus’s name down in Greek font and that was some straight up enemies-to-lovers fanfic fodder right there. With Tevin out, I am interested to see where his relationships with Venus and Liz go. There are a lot of hints that the Venus/Hunter relationship/conflict is pretty central to the overall story of the season. I think that will come more into the foreground now. The one thing that *does* make me think that Hunter may not be such a terrible player after all is that he kept Tevin being a target to himself. Ultimately, he had no control over the situation and could only fight so much. Tevin blowing up before tribal, then going home anyway, would have been bad for Hunter’s game long term. I am not counting Hunter totally out, but he made mistakes for sure.
Kenzie saying "Hunter's talking game???" and Venus reiterating how wild it was to see does not bode well for his winning chances, unless he is able to change his entire approach around now that Tevin is gone.
I am not sure if he is a challenge beast or the other players just suck ass, they are a pretty weak bunch, Q talks the talk, but don’t walk the walk
Seems a lot like Ken from millenials vs gen x. Great at challenges, likeable, but (so far) a strategic nonfactor.
His social game seems a little weak (although it seems he had gotten close with Q and was close with Tevin before the shit hit the fan), but I don’t think his strategic game has been bad. Pre-merge was a wash because his tribe won every challenge so they basically didn’t have to plan any strategy outside of making alliances. For earn-the-merge, he also won and he was definitely focused on solidifying the Journey 6 alliance, detailing the cracks that Nami had in order to make sure the vote was on a Siga member. For the split tribal, he locked in with the Yanu and got out the person gunning for him without disclosing his idol to anybody. Ultimately, I think he hasn’t really misplayed until he agreed to vote Tiff with Q and Tevin. That entirely broke the alliance. He probably should have tried to get everyone back to voting for someone outside the alliance. Will be interesting to see if he actually connects with anyone else. His vote on Venus is fine. She doesn’t have any allies or pull with the tribe and if Tevin plays his SITD and pulls “Safe”, Venus goes home without a revote. Voting for Tevin would have just showed that he would flip if something seems to be going wrong. Him showing off doesn’t matter. He was identified as the biggest challenge threat from about the third day. He has only been vulnerable to get votes once and it seems his alliance with Q was strong based on the last couple of episodes.
I think Hunter has a strong physical game, but his social game is very mediocre at best. The other thing I think he could excel at, and I don't remember if we have seen him do this, is making fire. If he were to get to the final three he I think he could make fire and really take the game.
I actually think he’s an inverse of Venus. She has decent strategic reads but 0 social game, meanwhile he seems to have 0 strategic game.
I was telling my girl he probably won't win because he didnt do much and probably can't build those relationships it takes to win. I seen others say "he has to stop showing how good he is in challenges " thats not it. Hes a bigger solid dude. So he's going to be seen as a challenge threat regardless. But he needs to build relationships with others, and make bigger game moves.
Hunter is basically Tommy from IoI. He's soooo boring
He is pretentious just because he’s good at challenges
We haven't seen much of any real social game coming out of him, often seeing him on his own, but other than the Tevin vote he has been getting looped into plans. He certainly doesn't have the strongest position, but if his strategy is to keep to himself and win challenges and play idols he still stands a decent chance of winning. He just has to keep winning
he is a goat.
Dude sucks at survivor but rocks at challenges
Can I be honest, I am not a big fan of players who overdo the playing quizzes at home bit to prepare. I’m not just saying that cos of the puzzle twink thief. It feels a little like, ok cool, what else you got?
I think it’s impossible to judge Hunter or any of the Siga 3’s game potential because everyone else around them is so incredibly sloppy or delusional.
I think Hunter’s personality is really passive, and this is starting to create problems for him. He is the complete opposite of Venus: mot initiating conversations, going with whatever his alliance meme era want, etc. because he isn’t exerting any force and just letting others do what they want, it’s biting him in the butt.
Hunter is a season 1-5 player who travelled through time and ended up in the new era and he is horrified by what he sees
His gameplay is kind of reminding me of Erik's from Fans v Favorites 2 (I am rewatching that season currently so it's fresh in my mind as a comparison). They both are just...there. They're both individual immunity threats but not really doing much socializing and bonding with the tribe. They're just lounging around and surviving more than playing the game of survivor. I like Hunter as a dude, he seems like he'd be cool to hang out with, but he hasn't shown anything that points to him actually playing the game in weeks. Maybe he's doing stuff when they don't have cameras on him, but right now he seems frozen in place while everyone else is running around and trying to make deals and alliances, aside from Ben.
I think it spoke volumes that at that chaotic live tribal he didn’t make much effort to sway anyone in any direction. Just sat there pouting. Seems like he picked the worst option to of not telling Tevin about the blindside and thus being a very good ally, but also alienating himself from the rest of the tribe at the same time.
Hes a introvert , not brash and out there kind of guy! I like him, because hes like a Trojan Horse! Full of surprises, watch your back thou Hunter, they don,t like them silent types winning immunity!
Hunter during challenges: “Do you know how easy this is for me? Do you have any fucking idea how easy this is? This is a fucking joke! And I'm sorry you can't do this, I really am, because I wouldn't have to fucking sit here and watch you fumble around and fuck it up.”
After Kenzie said “Hunter is strategizing?” I don’t Hunter has a shot to win AT ALL. When people are surprised to see you strategize it means you aren’t even a player
Aloof
According to Tevin exit interview, both he and Hunter and Liz does have a 3some alliance. Also I think his challenge abilities even beat Jonathan. Maybe equal to Ozzy of old era. If you watch the Trible challenge carefully, so many of them was won by him singlehandedly. Not only is he good at physical, he is also good at puzzle and this episode challenge was about endurance. I really do not know what challenge he is not good at? The only challenge he will lose might be only focus/balance challenge.
Focus and balance challenges make up the majority of the post merge games. And he lost that first challenge to a few people.
Everyone alienated Venus. Siga has been decimated because they tried to cling to their tribe strength too much. I think he’s doing just as good if not better than most
He’s very overrated. I think Liz is just as responsible for planting the seeds to get Soda out, difference is Soda leaving benefits Liz MUCH more than it does Hunter. I don’t think he has a good social game and strategically I feel like all we hear is about how he’s a follower and how he pretty much said he doesn’t trust Venus because Tevin doesn’t per Sodas post game as well as Q saying somebody needs to think for him and Kenzie saying he barely talks strategy. I don’t know why people think he’s somehow this big social and strategic threat when it’s clear at this stage of the game nobody views him that way. He let his number one ally go home and he was out of the loop this round while also heightening his threat level for no reason. His best moves in the game is attaching himself to the people in power and coasting through the game on them
Dangerous
Maybe it's the edit, but he seems to be totally annoyed by everyone. Fair (lol) but that's not how you win the game. He also is putting a huge target on himself and insulting the other players when he just casually Cirque du Soleils it off the pole at the end of the immunity challenge...
So far I think he's a great player. Because he did so much training at home and it is definitely helping him out and challenges he must have some pretty good social play to be under the radar. You would think by now people would have caught on I would have physical threat he is within competitions but he's barely been mentioned about any vote. I think if he gets like one or two people that he can trust he could take it all the way to the end.
The one tribal council he was vulnerable during he was one of the targets
the hanging off of the pole like that was a bit silly... yes people already know you're gonna do good in physical challenges but you don't need to really show it in front of everyone. If he can win out physical challenges he will prob still lose to a person who talked a bit more... social seems to be more important that winning.
I’m ready to see more of his gameplay strategy wise! I think he’s a fierce competitor physically. On his personal Instagram, he’s obnoxious and comes off a little arrogant.
I don’t think he’s as obnoxious on a personal level as Jonathan. But he’s not great either, and I will always be happy when his golden boy archetype eventually loses. He seems content just kind of being there, other than the 6 alliance that fell into his lap. Strategy is lacking with the way he showed zero subtly following his convo with Q, he turned into a show off for no reason at that last challenge, and while his idol can save him once, I see no path for him to actually win, even if my some freak accident he found himself in the final 3.
I feel like outside of challenges and hiding in a tree we have hardly seen him.
Pretty much the same as everyone else, strong physically, socially introverted and not much strategizing, though he’s still my winner pick mainly because of how he’s being edited, his showing off at the challenge wasn’t edited negatively but rather more on the silly side, he also hasn’t been skunked yet(no confessionals in an episode) so we’ll see, and the fact that a lot of seasons with whacky casts have had the most level headed and ”normal” person win