Well, I said this one would be controversial, because almost nobody thinks that this person is a good player, but here's #17. gj to FarnsworthFan for
guessing it right.
17. Dreamz Herd (2nd place (tie)- Survivor: Fiji)
(when asked by Jeff whether he was going to give up individual immunity) "I'm keeping it." -Dreamz
Well, I said this one would be controversial. Most people remember Dreamz for the three words he said in the above quote. People remember his whole game as his car deal with Yau, where he kept individual immunity, and in the process, stole a car (which he later donated to charity). It's unfortunate that the car deal is what most people remember his game for, because there was so much more to it than that. Dreamz was kind of like Matt from Amazon in that he started out completely clueless about the game and the way it worked, but eventually developed into one of the stronger players in his season. Dreamz came around much quicker, though, in my opinion.
Highlights of Dreamz's good gameplay:
-Realizing that he [and Cassandra] were on the outs of old Moto, particularly after the Liliana boot, and knowing that he would have to flip at first opportunity.
-Quickly becoming friends with everybody on NuRavu (except Lisi). After Anthony was booted for being a weak link/being the cause of many of Rocky's outbursts, Dreamz was the person who both sides wanted on their side. Alex, Edgardo and Lisi wanted him on their side to vote Rocky out. Mookie and Rocky wanted him on their side to vote Lisi out. He used his swing vote status well, and ultimately made the right choice. Rocky caused too much drama, and voting Lisi would've forced a purple rock.
-Turning on Mookie/Alex/Edgardo after he found out that they found the HII days before, but didn't tell him (in doing so they told him that he was only 4th in their alliance). I don't get why Dreamz doesn't get more credit for shaking the game up so much here, and he did it in a way that it benefitted him. It was obvious that he was getting no better than 4th with the Four Horsemen, so he joined the other alliance. Stacy was the one who suggested booting Edgardo, but without Dreamz, the Four Horsemen probably wouldn't have been overthrown (at that point at least), thanks to their HII.
-The way he handled Yau's car deal at F6. He really was screwed either way once Yau made the offer, but Dreamz turned it around so that it benefitted him. He had no other choice but to accept. If he were to decline, then Yau wouldn't trust him, and then he would for sure play his idol/target Dreamz. So he solidified Yau's trust in him by accepting it, then coming up with the idea to blindside Yau (even though Cassandra gets all the credit for this move, for whatever reason, seeing as Dreamz came up with the idea). Blindsiding Yau was the smart move, considering what an enormous threat he was, and Dreamz had a seemingly justifiable excuse for doing so, in that he wouldn't have to give immunity to Yau if he was already voted out. More on this will be discussed later.
-Being in the core of the dominant post-merge alliance. He and Cassandra were both at the core, since they were the ones who could sway either to Yau/Earl or Stacy/Boo.
-Solid FTC performance. He really owned up to his game, and I felt that he was able to separate the game from life really well. He did particularly well in his responses to Alex (where he said that you can't compare one's actions in the game to the way they act in real life, because it's just a game), Rocky (where he said that he manipulated really well and was playing hard the whole time), and Yau-Man (where he said that he was playing the game the whole time, and even the car deal was just part of the game).
Debunking "blunders" of Dreamz's game:
-Dreamz is often critized for playing "irrationally", but I completely disagree with that claim. What he did in the Liliana boot was stupid, but he recovered after that and ended up playing a great game. I've seen people put Dreamz in the same category as Sugar in that they both "played irrationally", but Dreamz was playing to win. All of his moves post-Liliana boot were with the intention that they were going to help him in the game, and most of the time, they did end up helping him.
-I wouldn't go as far as saying that voting of Michelle was a really good move on his part, but it definitely wasn't a blunder. At the time, he was still planning on going to the end with the Four Horsemen (which appeared to be a solid Final 4 alliance), and Mookie hadn't yet told him that they found the idol, so he had every reason to go to the end with them. Alex showed him that voting off Michelle was he was doing, and Michelle showed no indication of wanting Dreamz on her side, so I don't really blame him. Voting off Michelle also gave him more options if he wanted to side with Earl/Yau/Cassandra, because that moved him up one spot higher than he would've been. I doubt those were his intentions, but voting out Michelle turned out well for him.
-Dreamz is also often criticized for the way he played the Final 6, but I wrote earlier in this post about how him accepting the deal with Yau, and then attempting to blindside Yau was a good move. Everyone was also anticipating a Final 2, so giving Yau immunity at the Final 4 didn't mean handing him a spot in the Finals. I've heard people say that Dreamz blabbed and let Yau-Man know that he was getting the boot, but if you watch the episode, you'll see it's not true. Yau said he had bad vibes before TC (but so did Ozzy before he got blindsided
), and then STACY went off at TC about the vote was
going to be split and loyalties would be questioned and what not. Then everyone including Yau-Man had huge wtf looks, then Yau played his idol. It was 100%
Stacy's fault that Yau played his idol, not Dreamz.
-Dreamz keeping his immunity. Once Yau won immunity at F5, Dreamz was completely screwed. He either had to make himself steal a car in front of the jury by keeping the necklace, or give up immunity. Although he handled the situation terribly, he made the right choice. In no way should he have given immunity to Yau-Man, because in doing so he would've handed Yau the win, and gotten himself voted out. Then he donated the car to charity. He should've let Yau-Man know far ahead of time that he couldn't give him the immunity, and probably offer the car back. But put yourself in Dreamz's position, with the incredibly hard choice he had in front of him, and at least half the people in his situation butcher it in some way or another.
-Most people seem to believe that in the Final 2 that would've been Dreamz/Cassandra, Cassandra would've won in a blowout, but it's nowhere near that simple. If it weren't for Stacy being an idiot, then Dreamz probably would've gotten a couple votes, even with Earl with him in the Finals. Granted, Alex/Edgardo/Mookie were all bitter at Dreamz, but they all hated Cassandra, too. Rocky liked Dreamz and Dreamz handled his jury question way better than Cassandra did. Lisi hated both of them. Yau said post-show that he almost almost voted for Dreamz even when Earl was in the Finals because Dreamz outplayed him, but he ultimately voted for Earl because he and Earl were in it together from the beginning and he wouldn't have made it that far without Earl. I would guess that Earl would've voted Dreamz, too. I'm not saying Dreamz would've won in a Final 2, but it would've been close, and in no way would've he gotten blown out.
The bottom line is that Dreamz played an incredibly aggressive game, and for the most part, it was successful, more successful than most people who play as aggressively as he did. Like I said earlier, he started out clueless, but he came around really quickly and really well. He played a really hard-fought game, and he was responsible for most of the people being on the jury. I think that him being inarticulate and not very smooth cost him a lot, because everyone looked down on him because of it (which he later took advantage of), and it got to the point when he was in the Final 3 so the jury probably were saying to themselves "Are we seriously going to let effing DREAMZ win a million dollars?". He just had a poor reputation, some of which had nothing to do with his game at all, but more to do with the fact that he was homeless and uneducated.
Dreamz was screwed by the HII/Final 3/Stacy's idiocy just as much (actually more) than Cassandra was. Dreamz gets almost zero respect as a player, and I just don't think that's right, because he played a great game, and it was by no means irrational. In my opinion, Dreamz is the single most underrated player of all time.
Loses points for: Starting off the game really slowly, not being smooth enough in the way he voted people out, and the way he handled his decision at F4.
17. Dreamz Herd (2nd place (tie)- Survivor: Fiji)
(when asked by Jeff whether he was going to give up individual immunity) "I'm keeping it." -Dreamz
Well, I said this one would be controversial. Most people remember Dreamz for the three words he said in the above quote. People remember his whole game as his car deal with Yau, where he kept individual immunity, and in the process, stole a car (which he later donated to charity). It's unfortunate that the car deal is what most people remember his game for, because there was so much more to it than that. Dreamz was kind of like Matt from Amazon in that he started out completely clueless about the game and the way it worked, but eventually developed into one of the stronger players in his season. Dreamz came around much quicker, though, in my opinion.
Highlights of Dreamz's good gameplay:
-Realizing that he [and Cassandra] were on the outs of old Moto, particularly after the Liliana boot, and knowing that he would have to flip at first opportunity.
-Quickly becoming friends with everybody on NuRavu (except Lisi). After Anthony was booted for being a weak link/being the cause of many of Rocky's outbursts, Dreamz was the person who both sides wanted on their side. Alex, Edgardo and Lisi wanted him on their side to vote Rocky out. Mookie and Rocky wanted him on their side to vote Lisi out. He used his swing vote status well, and ultimately made the right choice. Rocky caused too much drama, and voting Lisi would've forced a purple rock.
-Turning on Mookie/Alex/Edgardo after he found out that they found the HII days before, but didn't tell him (in doing so they told him that he was only 4th in their alliance). I don't get why Dreamz doesn't get more credit for shaking the game up so much here, and he did it in a way that it benefitted him. It was obvious that he was getting no better than 4th with the Four Horsemen, so he joined the other alliance. Stacy was the one who suggested booting Edgardo, but without Dreamz, the Four Horsemen probably wouldn't have been overthrown (at that point at least), thanks to their HII.
-The way he handled Yau's car deal at F6. He really was screwed either way once Yau made the offer, but Dreamz turned it around so that it benefitted him. He had no other choice but to accept. If he were to decline, then Yau wouldn't trust him, and then he would for sure play his idol/target Dreamz. So he solidified Yau's trust in him by accepting it, then coming up with the idea to blindside Yau (even though Cassandra gets all the credit for this move, for whatever reason, seeing as Dreamz came up with the idea). Blindsiding Yau was the smart move, considering what an enormous threat he was, and Dreamz had a seemingly justifiable excuse for doing so, in that he wouldn't have to give immunity to Yau if he was already voted out. More on this will be discussed later.
-Being in the core of the dominant post-merge alliance. He and Cassandra were both at the core, since they were the ones who could sway either to Yau/Earl or Stacy/Boo.
-Solid FTC performance. He really owned up to his game, and I felt that he was able to separate the game from life really well. He did particularly well in his responses to Alex (where he said that you can't compare one's actions in the game to the way they act in real life, because it's just a game), Rocky (where he said that he manipulated really well and was playing hard the whole time), and Yau-Man (where he said that he was playing the game the whole time, and even the car deal was just part of the game).
Debunking "blunders" of Dreamz's game:
-Dreamz is often critized for playing "irrationally", but I completely disagree with that claim. What he did in the Liliana boot was stupid, but he recovered after that and ended up playing a great game. I've seen people put Dreamz in the same category as Sugar in that they both "played irrationally", but Dreamz was playing to win. All of his moves post-Liliana boot were with the intention that they were going to help him in the game, and most of the time, they did end up helping him.
-I wouldn't go as far as saying that voting of Michelle was a really good move on his part, but it definitely wasn't a blunder. At the time, he was still planning on going to the end with the Four Horsemen (which appeared to be a solid Final 4 alliance), and Mookie hadn't yet told him that they found the idol, so he had every reason to go to the end with them. Alex showed him that voting off Michelle was he was doing, and Michelle showed no indication of wanting Dreamz on her side, so I don't really blame him. Voting off Michelle also gave him more options if he wanted to side with Earl/Yau/Cassandra, because that moved him up one spot higher than he would've been. I doubt those were his intentions, but voting out Michelle turned out well for him.
-Dreamz is also often criticized for the way he played the Final 6, but I wrote earlier in this post about how him accepting the deal with Yau, and then attempting to blindside Yau was a good move. Everyone was also anticipating a Final 2, so giving Yau immunity at the Final 4 didn't mean handing him a spot in the Finals. I've heard people say that Dreamz blabbed and let Yau-Man know that he was getting the boot, but if you watch the episode, you'll see it's not true. Yau said he had bad vibes before TC (but so did Ozzy before he got blindsided
), and then STACY went off at TC about the vote was
going to be split and loyalties would be questioned and what not. Then everyone including Yau-Man had huge wtf looks, then Yau played his idol. It was 100%
Stacy's fault that Yau played his idol, not Dreamz.
-Dreamz keeping his immunity. Once Yau won immunity at F5, Dreamz was completely screwed. He either had to make himself steal a car in front of the jury by keeping the necklace, or give up immunity. Although he handled the situation terribly, he made the right choice. In no way should he have given immunity to Yau-Man, because in doing so he would've handed Yau the win, and gotten himself voted out. Then he donated the car to charity. He should've let Yau-Man know far ahead of time that he couldn't give him the immunity, and probably offer the car back. But put yourself in Dreamz's position, with the incredibly hard choice he had in front of him, and at least half the people in his situation butcher it in some way or another.
-Most people seem to believe that in the Final 2 that would've been Dreamz/Cassandra, Cassandra would've won in a blowout, but it's nowhere near that simple. If it weren't for Stacy being an idiot, then Dreamz probably would've gotten a couple votes, even with Earl with him in the Finals. Granted, Alex/Edgardo/Mookie were all bitter at Dreamz, but they all hated Cassandra, too. Rocky liked Dreamz and Dreamz handled his jury question way better than Cassandra did. Lisi hated both of them. Yau said post-show that he almost almost voted for Dreamz even when Earl was in the Finals because Dreamz outplayed him, but he ultimately voted for Earl because he and Earl were in it together from the beginning and he wouldn't have made it that far without Earl. I would guess that Earl would've voted Dreamz, too. I'm not saying Dreamz would've won in a Final 2, but it would've been close, and in no way would've he gotten blown out.
The bottom line is that Dreamz played an incredibly aggressive game, and for the most part, it was successful, more successful than most people who play as aggressively as he did. Like I said earlier, he started out clueless, but he came around really quickly and really well. He played a really hard-fought game, and he was responsible for most of the people being on the jury. I think that him being inarticulate and not very smooth cost him a lot, because everyone looked down on him because of it (which he later took advantage of), and it got to the point when he was in the Final 3 so the jury probably were saying to themselves "Are we seriously going to let effing DREAMZ win a million dollars?". He just had a poor reputation, some of which had nothing to do with his game at all, but more to do with the fact that he was homeless and uneducated.
Dreamz was screwed by the HII/Final 3/Stacy's idiocy just as much (actually more) than Cassandra was. Dreamz gets almost zero respect as a player, and I just don't think that's right, because he played a great game, and it was by no means irrational. In my opinion, Dreamz is the single most underrated player of all time.
Loses points for: Starting off the game really slowly, not being smooth enough in the way he voted people out, and the way he handled his decision at F4.
@ only IMDB people posting here.
