Thread:Fedora Kid/@comment-25206252-20151029014533/@comment-1734566-20151105000143

Exactly. Plus, I think it's pretty clear that Oz is straight-up going AGAINST all of the other popular trends and critical reevaluations we're seeing among the Survivor fanbase. And not even in regards to the last two seasons - again, Worlds Apart is already undergoing critical reevaluation in such polls as Rob Cesternino's poll, outranking Season 29, while the geniuses at Oz put S29 at #15 and Worlds Apart at #28 - but also in regards to long-standing topics, like, say, Russell.

What has Oz said about Russell? It was kind of up-and-down before, with him often being high immediately after he played, and one year (I think it was 2011 or 2012), he won the award for "Greatest Non-Winner." Heck, just LAST year, 2014, he was technically the highest-ranked non-winner in the Top 25 Greatest Players (overall) list, in 6th or something - whereas in the lists specifically designated as Non-Winner, he ranked lower. But just this year? 2015? The year of the troll votes and Mike Borassi? Russell came in 16th place. So it seems, according to Oz, that Russell's approval ratings will continue to go down as the years drag on.

Now say what you will about Russell (he's a jerk, he has a terrible social game, he's overrated, whatever), but the fact is that, even IF he didn't deserve to win, even IF he's overrated, he still is undoubtedly one of THE most significant/influential players in Survivor history, for better or for worse. But if anything, looking at ANY other major Survivor poll or website, it appears that the sentiment that Russell was/is overrated came IMMEDIATELY after his time on the show, not years later. For example: In Rob Cesternino's two polls on the Top 25 Players, in 2011 and 2014, look at Russell. He came in 11th in the 2011 poll. Big whoop, right? But after THREE years passed, long after Russell had last played, and a ton of new players came onto the list like Spencer, Kim, and Tyson (among others), people thought for SURE Russell would drop, right? Wrong. His approval rating actually went UP, and he rose 2 spots into #9. And, of course, you have the official CBS Watch poll, held 5 - 6 years after he competed, again, between all the other new players like Tony and Cochran and Kim...and he came in SECOND PLACE, only behind Boston Rob. And lastly...of ALL places...Survivor Sucks. A while back, I saw a thread posted that was attempting to put Spencer on blast for his "casual" opinions; specifically, it named his statement in an interview shortly pre-Cambodia, where he declared his support for Russell, and his belief that Russell was robbed and deserved to win Samoa. However, a strong majority of the responding comments actually came out in FAVOR of Spencer - and, by transition, Russell - acknowledging that the public opinion HAS changed, and sure, Russell still probably deserved to lose HvV to Parvati AND/OR Sandra, but that he really should have won Samoa, at the very least.

So...yeah. Oz claims to be one of the bastions of the hipster fans of Survivor, and it just might be...but it's literally going in all the wrong directions, going against ALL the trends of the Survivor fanbase.