The Best Survivor?: Tony Vlachos

"Top five baby!"
Here's the very last entry I planned into this series, the Tony Video. I tried to go out with a bang, so I hope you guys really enjoy the finale of the series.
I'd like to say that the ending is heavily inspired by the ending of this Clayton Crowley Video: • Making the Case - LeBr...
In fact, the entire series is inspired by his "Making the Case" series for NBA players. I am very thankful to have seen this great series and to attempt to convert it into a Survivor Version, and this video's ending is nothing but a loving reference to what started me on this path.
Tony's RHAP interview that I mentioned: • Tony Vlachos: Survivor...
Some of the major video providers who upload a lot of footage from the show; thanks to all of them.
Survivor Legend 68 - / @survivorlegend68
Survivor Fan - / @officialsurvivorfan
ZP Survivor - / @zpsurvivor
Braxabee - / @braxabee9598
revengeofnajoge2 - / @revengeofnajoge215
Juniper - / @juniper665
SurvivorOnCBS - / @survivor
Tyler Ward - / @tylerward87

[@kingabalos]

I hope you start doing top 20 rankings or analysis videos, your content is amazing.

[@manperc8629]

Tony’s style of play is from Russell Hantz!!! Russell was the OG to play aggressively and the most influential player even to Tony. The only reason Russell didn’t win his two first seasons is because he was hated so much by the players.

[@fukayusugma2074]

I knew the final entry would be either Tony or Bob Crowley. (Just kidding )
Love it. Thank you. Tom and Tony make great bookends. I think they're really the two best. Tony played a third time getting a little more gold.
I really look forward to what you make after this series. Despite what the previous comment says the views are actually incredible, considering how new your channel is and how few videos there are and you don't do any promotion outside just uploading good content.

[@thenic3stguy]

Incredible video, your channel deserves more recognition

[@ellygunn-myers7150]

I think you should do one on Richard hatch as well

[@dagwood5256]

I know you haven't gotten a ton of views on these, but I want to say that your scripts for these videos are very sharp and that your editing is really fun. I really do enjoy these videos as an interesting way of arguing on behalf of certain players, and it's definitely a fun thought exercise. It's a shame that you do not have plans to continue with this series, as I do think you could also make legitimate claims for Jeremy Collins (the optimizer of Survivor's most effective strategy: meat shielding), Parvati Shallow (master of position play across three different seasons), Earl Cole (a practical savant who never watched the game yet who won the first unanimous jury), Denise Stapley (played a textbook Survivor winning season that would succeed across multiple different seasons), Todd Herzog (a top-level thinker who built one of the strongest alliances in Survivor), or even Cirie Fields (who is statistically the most likely to have won the most seasons, but for poorly planned twists). These were very fun to watch, and I think you put some great effort into these.
Of course, the question of who is actually best at the game is incredibly difficult to discern, given the often highly misleading nature of the Survivor edit. My personal belief is that Tony and Sandra both have equally good claims to the title, by virtue of them each being optimized to win certain categories of seasons. Sandra's skillset is optimized for juries that favor social bonds (roughly half of all Survivor seasons) and Tony's is optimized for juries that favor theatrical gameplay (roughly half of all Survivor seasons). Under no circumstances could Sandra win Cagayan. Under no circumstances could Tony win Pearl Islands or Heroes vs Villains. Sandra has been given editorial credit for besting Tony once. Tony won a season that Sandra lost. Tony is the best "offensive" Survivor player the game as ever seen, Sandra the best "defensive." Both equal Parvati, Kim, and Tom as masters of position play: rarely if ever is it anyone else's best move to cut them as both are incredibly good at making it seem as if they are reasonable bets to take to the end.
Thanks for making these--they were very fun.

[@blindsided8726]

Thank you for the comment and for your support!
It's very true that you could make many cases for other players, however, the energy I put into this channel was always going to be very limited. This actually isn't my only YT channel, it's just a side project, and I could only really do videos for it during the more laid-back months of the year. So I had to make who I picked to focus on very strict. The five survivors I ended up doing videos on were all survivors I genuinely thought might have been the best at some point in my life, are all in my top five best players (due to the prior point), but most importantly they all have a very narratively satisfying case to be made for them.
-Tom holds the most dominant game on all fronts.
-Brian is a villainous persona who "murdered" the core struggle of a survivor
-Sandra's back-to-back wins speak for themselves
-Kim owns the most "secure" or perfect win ever
-Tony is both super dominant and successful and is simply a spectacle to watch.
I definitely thought of making videos for others (Earl and Parvati were the first that come to mind), and even though there are sound arguments to be made (like the ones you listed) I just don't think they compare in terms of narratives to the five I chose.
I love how you think about survivors! I'd love to hear some of the jargon you use, ie "position play". The duality you showed between Sandra and Tony is also very neat and eye-opening! Shout out for including Denise as a candidate for the best! IMO one of the most underrated survivors and a total legend!
Even though I don't think I'll be making more videos like these, I might do a QnA or something, just because I love talking Survivor, because of people like you!

[@MrGothbunny]

Winning back to back is much more impressive than winning, flopping and being 2nd boot, then winning again sorry Tony. Also I don’t think it can be understated how much certain players like Nick, Wendell and Adam were creaming their pants at the thought of handing a 2nd win to a guy they all idolized.

[@creativename7230]

U should've done a video on Sarah lacina

[@sssamui286]

the only thing i would critique about tony is his game in game changers where he literally announced his intention to find an idol which is bad but hes still the best player of all time imo

[@Tuturial464]

True. Whether he didn't care that season or just wanted to goof off is a debate. But you can't deny him changing styles to playing patient to the merge knockouts

[@LazerDude]

yeah it was bad but what Tony Expected to happen was to have everyone chase him and run looking at the start as well to break the ice but that never happened

[@therealbensoule652]

Chris Daugherty would like a word

[@gabrielkissell7464]

???

[@Feeds_]

We never saw the ice man in advantageland, he could be a savage

[@itzwakk335]

love these videos? are going to do one for boston rob?

[@itzwakk335]

oh this is the last one
me sad