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Eliza, how can you not at least be able to see how Nataile played a great game? Name a single mistake she made. You can say she only got there because Russel "chose her", but can't you see how Natalie manipulated him to choose her, and how she was clearly the benefactor of that partnership? As early as episode four she identified him as the goat on-camera. According to her, she stroked his ego every day -- and is that really that hard to believe -- in order to make him underestimate her. The only time Natalie NEEDED to do something -- flip a Galu -- she did, getting rid of Erik and sealing Shambo as a FF in one move, changing the game from 8-4 to 6-5. Russel didn't flip Shambo, Shambo was still purple at that point. Shambo voted for Jaison, she expressed multiple times that purple was broken when Erik was voted out. Natalie made THE MOVE of the season.

I'm sure you're impressed about how Russel was able to control pre-merge FF, but both Jaison and Natalie both expressed desire to keep him around as a shield/F2 goat. He's a strong man, he can't be voted out due to challenge prowess. Natalie, on the other hand, was able to survive pre-merge as a weak woman by understanding how to survive -- pretend you're stupid and stroke Russel's ego. If you watch Natalie's post-show interviews, or read her bio, it's clear she knew what she was doing, she didn't just stumble her way there.

And even if you think that Russel played a better strategic game, which I will vehemently argue he did not -- it doesn't matter how many yard syou can drive down the field, if you can't score a touchdown you're not my pick for quarterback -- he was completely unaware of the social game. He's Dreamz 2.0, except better at finding idols and more self-congratulatory. He had 18 seasons to watch the game and understand how juries tend to work. He could've observed his ousted opponents and tried to figure out how they'd vote -- Natalie, in post show interviews, talked about how she did that whereas Russel is still pulling the loser's mantra of "no regrets". Russel made huge mistakes in being unnecessarily arrogant, spitting on his opponents when they were out. That's NOT good gameplay. That's not acceptable under the explanation of "it's just a game, i'm just a character" -- it's just bad decision making, of which Natalie made none.

The grand manipulator of the season was CBS, shoving Russel down our throats as "the biggest villain ever" and "the best player ever" in order to boost their ratings.