Board Thread:Fourty-Two Iconic Moments/@comment-7785749-20141224050658

From twenty-one seasons of our ORG, forty-two of the most iconic moments in its history have been brought together and ranked. Starting at #42, another entry will be posted each day until completion.

"Moments" is a loose term to include any individual moment, overarching storyline, or any other source of notoriety, infamy, or notice.



#42 - Côte Can't Merge (Various Seasons)

#41 - Andrei's Immunity Run (Papua New Guinea, Episodes 8-11)

#40 - Savanes Sucks (Côte d'Ivoire, Episodes 1-7)

#39 - Ashes to Ashes (All-Stars, Episode 6)

#38 - Beyoncé's Divine Intervention (Madagascar, Episodes 12-13)

#37 - A Random Idol Play (Cuba, Episode 7)

#36 - An Anarchic Advent (Anarchy, Episode 2)



#35 - Uspekh (Kamchatka)

Throughout Greece, we've had 88 different tribes. That's a hella lot of tribes, but if someone were to ask you, "Which tribe, statistically, is the best?" There's only one real answer.

Uspekh.

Hailing from the twentieth season of Kamchatka, Uspekh is one of the most dominant tribes to have ever existed in this game and rightfully so. From the start, Uspekh was the middle of the three tribes - always ahead of Pobeda, thus escaping Tribal Council, but always behind Slava, thus never tasting first place.

And then fate struck on Day 10: a Double Tribal Council was announced, where the bottom two tribes would vote off a member, and first place would laugh giddily. Based on everything we'd seen so far, Slava should've been immune and Uspekh and Pobeda would vote someone out, correct?

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:6px;font-size:14.4444446563721px;color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:21.466667175293px;">

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:6px;font-size:14.4444446563721px;color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:21.466667175293px;">Uspekh tasted first place for the very first time and it ended up being a critical moment that totally changed the course of the entire game. Because of this victory, at the end of Day 10, Pobeda had three members left, Slava had six, and Uspekh still had all seven. And why was this so important?

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:6px;font-size:14.4444446563721px;color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:21.466667175293px;">Because a tribe swap occured next. The tribes were reshuffled; Uspekh was tied 4-4 between OGs and others, while Slava had 3 Uspekhs and 5 others. It's at this point where I said to myself, "If I was on that tribe, and they lost, I would have Pobeda and Slava team up to take Uspekh down, to at least even the playing field."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:6px;font-size:14.4444446563721px;color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:21.466667175293px;">But that didn't happen.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:6px;font-size:14.4444446563721px;color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:21.466667175293px;">First off, the Uspekh tribe would win every tribal challenge remaining. Further cementing the tribe's legacy in fame, they just continued to pile on win after win after win.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:6px;font-size:14.4444446563721px;color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:21.466667175293px;">Secondly, this dominance meant that Slava would be attending four Tribal Councils in a row. And at their first one, it as #blindsidetime. A plan to oust Uspekh's Queen Molly was foiled by Lindsay and Pydo reneging to join Uspekh in taking Nickson out. The OG Uspekhs were now facing 4-3 odds.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:6px;font-size:14.4444446563721px;color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:21.466667175293px;">And then Temptation Island came into play. Ziggy was sent, leaving the OGs at 4-2; however, they formed a partnership with the dying species of Pobeda men, and teamed up to oust first Lindsay and then Pydo, now leaving the tribe Slava with three Uskephs to two Pobedas. Losing that fourth challenge meant one of the Pobedas was gone, and it was Caleb who paid the price for making a deal with the devil.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:6px;font-size:14.4444446563721px;color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:21.466667175293px;">Now at the merge, Uspekh set several records. First, it became the first tribe to never attend a Tribal Council, and second, it became the first tribe to have every member reach the merge/jury portion of the game. Go Uspekh!!!

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:6px;font-size:14.4444446563721px;color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:21.466667175293px;">And before Uspekh's eventual bloodbath, they stayed loyal to each other, ousting Slava Jeremy, Pobeda Andreas, Slava Ryan, and Slava Tyler in succession, with only Pobeda Ivan as an outsider. A twist that I was not a fan of, however - see below - allowed Ivan to keep his Individual Immunity for a second Tribal Council, forcing Uspekh to finally turn on itself. Ziggy self-voted himself out of the game, James went out next, and then Ivan finally met his maker, with Uskeph now occupying the entire Final Five.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:6px;font-size:14.4444446563721px;color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:21.466667175293px;">The statistics of Uspekh speak for itself. A come-from-behind, critical game changing win; superior challenge dominance; occupying seven out of eight of the remaining seats in the game. All of it is incredible to have had happen.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:6px;font-size:14.4444446563721px;color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:21.466667175293px;">But this is without hearing from some of the dynamic players that made up the group. Let's see who we have here:

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:6px;font-size:14.4444446563721px;color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:21.466667175293px;">                     Ziggy, who ended up self-voting himself out of the game.

<span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:21.466667175293px;">                         James, who was blindsided during the same Tribal Council that an Idol was wasted.

<span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:21.466667175293px;">                         Molly, regarded as Uspekh's, and to an extent Kamchatka's, Queen, a dominating force who slayed her way through the game despite an abundance of targets on her back.

<span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:21.466667175293px;">                         Erik, who ended up disqualified for incurring two self-votes, leading to controversy over whether or not he would be allowed a spot on the jury.

<span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:21.466667175293px;">                         Bryce, another solid player best remembered for that speech that potentially cost him the game despite his aptitude as a player.

<span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:21.466667175293px;">                         Taylor, a viewers' front-runner who played a great game but not great enough to pull off the win.

<span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:21.466667175293px;">                         Rebekah, a winner who surprised some by emerging at the top and proved that it's impossible to underestimate the power the social game carries.

<span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:21.466667175293px;">All seven of these contestants ended up being memorable in their own right, and well warranted; even if they weren't the best players in the game, each one had a strong contributing hand to the continued dominance of their tribe and overall perhaps the most unstoppable tribe in the history of the ORG.

<span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:21.466667175293px;">tl;dr: Statistically, Uspekh is unbeatable. It got all of its members from 21 to single digits, occupied the entire Final Five, outlasted an entire tribe before losing its first member, and dominated in challenges. Not only that, but each of the seven OG Uspekhs were memorable and influential to the season as a whole.

<span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:21.466667175293px;">Uskeph kicked ass. Go Uskeph.

<span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:21.466667175293px;">

<span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:21.466667175293px;">'''P.S. - '''Because this isn't a TV show, it'd be too hard for me to make entries about "characters" because there's no universal platform of perception. However, that being said, there are two more tribe entries like this to look forward to. I'll give you a little hint and say that one of those tribes is basically the opposite of Uspekh.

<span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;line-height:21.466667175293px;">P.P.S. - The twist where Ivan's Individual Immunity carried over into a second Tribal Council - which also happened during All-Stars, and I'm unsure if it took place in any other season - is one that I'm strongly critical of. It certainly worked out in creating tension and drama, causing Uskeph to finally turn on itself, but I'm personally not okay with one challenge performance allowing someone to automatically move up two slots in placement. Just one fan's opinion.

P.P.P.S. - The next entry deals with a twist that is always sure to bring its own fair share of drama and controversy with it.<ac_metadata title="#35 - Uspekh"> </ac_metadata>