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24. Stephenie LaGrossa (7th place- Survivor: Palau)

"You think I'm a threat? I'll SHOW you how threatening I am." -Stephenie LaGrossa

STEPHOWNAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please take note of how I'm being professional and unbiased, because Steph is clearly the most amazing player ever, but for this thread's purposes...

Anyway, I've always said that Palau Steph played a perfect game, and I still stand by that. Her game was flawless, and she doesn't get enough credit for it from Sucksters.

Steph started off Survivor: Palau by jumping off the boat in order to get immunity. Alas, she did not, but unlike Jonathan, who also jumped off the boat, she didn't beat herself up about it and immediately started forming alliance. She got herself into a [what would've been] strong alliance of herself, Tom, Ian and Katie. That alliance was destined to go far, and they would've if they stayed together. The 3 that did stay together went to the Final 3, and I'm convinced that Steph would've been in the Final 4 with them if the 4 of them were all put on Koror. They would all be on Koror anyway if Ian had chosen Steph as the first pick rather than Katie. Way to go, Ian

But alas, Steph got put on Ulong, which ended up as the biggest trainwreck ever. They lost the first challenge, in which Steph was being smart and trying to get her tribe to go quickly. Jolanda was secretly out to get Steph, which the editors didn't show, so Steph knew that Jolanda had to get out. She used the fact that Jolanda was a big part in their loss and the fact that Jolanda was bossy and abraisive to get the majority of the tribe to vote her out.

After Steph pwnt in the reward challenge, her tribe lost the 2nd immunity challenge, despite her best efforts. Ashlee asked to be voted out, again, not shown by the editors, so she got out. Steph pwnt again in both of the episode 3 challenges, but her tribe lost the immunity challenge, thanks to Jeff's ankle. That was what really sunk Ulong, was when their strongest member got injured. Jeff also asked to be voted out, but Steph was faced with the dilemma of voting out Jeff or Kim. Kim was by no means an asset in challenges, but she wanted to be there, unlike Jeff, and she was physically capable, unlike Jeff. Add in the fact that Kim was an easy boot if they lost again, Steph's choice of voting out Jeff was smart. After losing yet again in episode 4, Kim was the obvious boot, so she did.

At that point, Steph's closest ally was Angie. When Ulong was faced with another TC thanks to the double boot twist, they had someone to blame since Ibrehem lost them the challenge. Yet another twist was thrown at Steph when Koror was able to vote for an Ulong member to win immunity. Naturally, Ibrehem won, seeing as how painfully obvious it was that he was the next boot, since he lost them the challenge. Steph originally voted for Bobby Jon, in an attempt to save Angie, but in the re-vote, she knew that Angie would be going either way, and that it would hurt their tribe even more to get rid of Bobby Jon, so she switched her vote to Angie, to avoid stepping on people's toes.

Ulong was faced with yet another TC when they lost their 5th straight immunity challenge, but Steph had social connections with all 3 of her tribemates, so she was safe. She had the option of voting for James, or forcing a tie and voting out Ibrehem. Seeing as she and Bobby Jon were the two in control, she confronted him about the prospect of losing again. She told him that she would vote out James if he voted out Ibrehem if they lost again. That was a brilliant move, and everybody seems to forget that. That move secured her spot in the Final 10. She knew that if she were to go in blindly against BJ and Ibe, she would've been voted out. She did the smart thing by approaching Bobby Jon ahead of time. At the TC, she forced a tie, making sure that BJ was being honest with her, and then she let James go. Her deal with Bobby Jon held up, and Ibrehem was voted out, thus securing Steph to be in the top 10, but they didn't merge for some reason, so yet again Ulong lost, and yet again Steph saved herself by beating Bobby Jon in the fire-making tiebreaker.

Steph survived the biggest trainwreck ever, and she did it in an extremely impressive way. Her social game on Ulong was particularly exceptional. Everyone liked her and trusted (minus Jolanda), and she had the right social connections which gave her lots of power. In the two TC's where there were ties, she was the only person who had no votes cast against her in either TC. She was the only one who was safe no matter what. Also on Ulong, she had 7 elimination votes in 7 TC's. The person with the next largest number was Bobby Jon, who had 5.

Going into the merge, Steph was supposed to be the first one to go. She obviously found a crack in the Koror alliance and helped in voting out Coby. After Janu quit, she put a really good case together for the Koror women about how they would never beat the guys, which was true. Everything she said was right, and I think Katie and maybe Jenn agreed with her. If Katie didn't agree with her, then we never would have the "Caryn sucks." confessional. Thanks to Caryn's suckage, Steph got voted out in 7th place.

The fact that Steph even survived one tribal council after the merge is amazing. She was supposed to be the first one gone, but she wasn't. She had a half-decent shot of getting Tom out, too, but it wasn't meant to be =(. Every single person on Koror liked her, but more importantly, they all considered her a threat.

Overall, Steph did amazing in the challenges (not one single loss was her fault), amazing socially (everyone liked her, and everyone on Ulong trusted her), and she was the one calling the shots on Ulong. She played her heart out, and the end result was a spectacular game played.

Loses points for: Seeing as she would've needed to have survived 5 more TC's to win, and given her horrible luck, I can't possibly rank her any higher.

This thread has just been Stephowned.