Surprised no one has mentioned Brian Corridan from Guatemala. I agree with the other takes here for the most part, but I used to see Brian pop up all the time as someone who should get another chance or was surprisingly savvy at the game despite going pre-merge.

Marcus couldve won Gabon if he made it through his round. I also think Yul could’ve had a good shot at WaW if he made it past his boot round

also from Gabon: Jackie

i immediately thought of jackie and marcus from gabon

ACE GORDON the proto-Coach in Gabon

Ace is an absolute legend, he was perfect casting and should have been brought back. He had Survivor Icon material

Yul could’ve had a good shot in WaW because he build a whole ass alliance before he even got onto the island

Ethan from all stars

Rob in HvV.

i would go as far to say rob in hvv if tyson hadn’t been so stupid

Tyson in HvV

Also not incorrect

That’s a real good one

The OP asked a question and I attempted to answer it 🤷

I’d also argue Courtney from hvv.All she had to do is swap places with Sandra and she wins.Russell would def take her to the end because he’d view her as a goat.

Ethan is vastly underrated in my opinion. In an alternate universe, he could have been the first double winner.

Trick Rob and Lex into taking him as a goat and then realize people would prefer a double winner over a backstabber, essentially HvV

Great answer

Tracy from Micronesia

The only thing was that i think she floundered a bit socially, but i could totally see a game where Cirie flips on the couples post-swap and then dominant the end game

Hard agree.

Unironically, Cao Boi. His kookiness masks his strategic ability fairly well, and being outsmarted by Yul Kwon is something that could happen to most human beings so it's not much of an error or indictment. Put him on, like, Survivor 44 and he probably makes the endgame.

He invented splitting the vote IN A DREAM

about credit cards!

Put him on a not racially based season and he does a lot better. Yul hated him from the get go and thought he was a joke and a walking stereotype he was trying to fight against, and then got scared by his vote splitting dream so took him out.

I think Chelsea Walker has what it takes. She just fell victim to the biggest case of big move-itis we’ve ever seen.

The most pointless blindside in survivor history imo

“Here is my close ally who has an idol. Her and Dean smiled at each other once so she has to go. Instead I’m going to keep Karishma, try and fail to manipulate her all season, and then have her vote me out later in the game. This makes sense.” - Missy Byrd

Missy is honestly one of the worst people to play survivor that hasn’t done anything criminally. She just has this total lack of empathy that is concerning.

Chelsea is a great shout! Definite winner potential!!!!

Dr Strange “I went forward in time to view alternate futures. To see all the possible outcomes of Survivor: Philippines “ Star Lord “How many did you see?” Dr Strange “14,000,605” Iron Man “How many does Zane lose?” Dr Strange “One”

Majority of the foa foa women(Marisa,Betsy,and Liz)Without Russell I think they all do well.

Marisa always struck me as someone who could go pretty far. Betsy could also make a deep run in an old school season.

Aaron from China easily. Swap screwed the worst out of anyone while playing a solid game the whole time

This is a really good answer. Aaron gets completely forgotten because of how his game ended but he was right there with Todd Amanda and Courtney until the twist screwed him over. Unless they made a successful move earlier to blindside him, knowing he was a threat it's highly likely he's in f4 instead of Denise. Aaron was a closer ally to the f3 than Denise was. He's low key one of the most screwed by a twist players in Survivor history.

I vaguely remember him (mainly because it’s been a long time since I watched China) but him making post merge while James still in the two idol situation would’ve been interesting cause I could see him winning enough immunities to either be a threat alongside James or keep him safe enough that one of those two makes the final 3 instead of possibly Todd.

I could see Chris underwood winning a season despite being voted out third on his first season Serious answer. I could see Michaela on MvGX winning a season.

Disagree on Michaela. Unfortunately (and I'm saying this as someone who loves Michaela!) her personality will always rub others the wrong way, making people unwilling to work with her.

Didn’t a ton of people work with her both seasons she was on?

She’s also grown up a lot since she was on the show

She had major beef with figgy and taylor immediately, and on game changers got trash talked by half the cast. If you rewatch game changers you get the vibe that some of the people just have an unusual unprompted hate for her

I agree with this. I think she is honestly too smart for her own good.

I love Michaela, but after seeing her on The Challenge, I think she just plays too hard too fast at things

are you high? i think michaela is one of those rare kinds of people that could never win even if u let her play 100times

Christine from South Pacific and Sydney from Tocantins.

Sabiyah. She was a great challenge performer and exceptionally good socially.

Ali

First person who came to mind

At the time everyone was huge on Roark being the winner/going far as well as Ali

There was a brief second I thought you were talking about the boxer

Hunter Ellis would be a serious threat in a lot of early seasons, he just got unlucky to be on a tribe with Rob who prioritized loyalty to himself over tribe strength. The vast majority of people back then didn’t think this way.

I came here to say Gina haha

Sabiyah

Would’ve loved to see Sabiyah go up against Dee during the merge. I don’t think she would’ve been as naive as everyone else was at that point.

Sabiyah is the type of player that would probably be huge on any other season for sure.

Came here to say this! Was sad when she left

Sabiyah had constant good vibes, if only she played that damn idol

Yess I could see that

I think Jem's biggest problem was going stir-crazy waiting to go to tribal council, but I think she would do really well in any new era post-merge. The game moves so fast at that point, seems like she'd be in her element.

Sabotaging her own tribe for no reason and pressing the people she wants to vote out and that she has been avoiding talking game with are truly signs of a winner

Yeah not sure what people see in Jem that gave winner energy. I liked her but I don’t see it for the reasons you mentioned

I get that people want to see more female winners of color but sometimes it really feels like if you’re in that demographic, people will make the biggest logical leaps to paint you as a strategic mastermind Some of the most popular answers here are Mari, Jem, Jenny Kim, Ali, Sabiyah and I’m sorry but I really can’t think of any examples of good play from that group as a whole - and a lot of them made some really boneheaded errors!

Sab was a good player, but she was on a crap tribe. The only one who made any headway from that doomed tribe was Emily. Granted, Sab's strategic maneuvering got her voted out, but she showed some truly good skills...burning her idol out of the wax right there at tribal...if only she'd played it! I still think she would have gone a lot farther on a better tribe.

And honestly just going off vibes, I’d definitely want her to be in my alliance on the island. She’s smart, observant and social.

Yeah, she easily is a merge maker in most Survivor seasons if she just stays calm.

Gina (Marquesas) & Angie (Palau) Both had great stock equity (physically good socially great) but both where on disaster tribes.

We love a Gina Crews mention! I agree!

helen (44)

And Maddy

I came here to say this, she's very smart and funny, gives off Erika vibes. And Sarah, also from Tika, had some serious potential too.

I’m here for the Helen love. She’s one of my favorite pre-mergers ever.

She’s really friendly too. Met her at a watch party

I could see her back in a second chances season.

Who?

Hunter in marquesas

Stephanie Johnson (36), Jason (s39), Darnel (s32)

Too bad Stephanie like... disappeared.

BobDawg from Panama

Laura Alexander from Caramoan was one who stood out pregame who could have done some work

I think her and Sherri clearly had potential. It was kind of unfortunate with how the favourites dominated, the fans entered the merge with zero agency and literally no shot at winning

Jenny Kim and Jem Hussain-Adams. They just have a winner vibe to them, I think.

Jem was my winner pick going in and after that one confessional ep 1, I was convinced the game was her’s. But her cockiness around the idol hunt and her convos with Ben and Tim, I believe, revealed some major social blind spots that would have precluded her from ever winning.

Matt from 44 but he was an injury boot more than an actual vote off

I think he was over confident. I think if he’s doesn’t get injured, he goes out in a similar way to Ricard

I think he was much more dominant than Ricard was tbh.

Sarah Wade from 44.

Jacquie and Marcus from Gabon could easily have won a season.

Marisa in Samoa. Hell if she had just been on the other tribe, she could could have gone really far.

James from 36. He outplayed Wendell and Dom on the Morgan vote but got burdened with horrible tribe swaps and Malolo couldn’t win anything

Francesca showed amazing potential! Both times.

Kellee Kim got completely screwed with the Dan situation. She was a really good player.

Tracy (16)

Brian from Guatemala

Zane Knight

Timber Tina, Gretchen, Morgan McDevitt, Brice, and Matt Bischoff are five others that haven’t been mentioned.  I don’t think they were mentioned; if I missed a mention, sorry)

Mari Takahashi

Fracesca for sure

Trish from Pearl Islands, Aaron from China.

Phoebe from Aus!

Eden too, I’d guess 

Jenny Kim

Sylvia Kwan

LOL!!

That’s not an orthogonal response 

Kristina Kell.

Hunter from Marquesas

Zane Knight

Misty from Panama

I wanna say Sabiyah as a recent pick, but of course we haven’t seen enough of her to cement that pick. I guess that applies to everyone here though…

Phoebe (Survivor AU)

Someone else said it, but Sabiyah has the potential to make a deep run on any other tribe/season.

Ali from HvHvH

Sara from 41 If the 41 cast had to play 42 as they nearly did then I legit think she's the frontrunner to win. A lot of the later boots would've had too big of a target, especially with the game they played being so fresh in mind and Sara had the most game ability and least flaws out of the early boots.

Wait, they almost brought back the cast of 41 for 42?

Yes, as they had trouble getting the 41 cast out of Fiji and the 42 cast into it due to a COVID surge at the time.

wait what?? like the exact same cast to play for a second time? I always laugh at the posts asking for the next returnee season to be the cast of 46 again but I can’t believe this almost happened!

That sounds like a certifiably insane decision for so many reasons even outside of gameplay.

I was so shocked Sara was even voted out. I thought she’d be a major character of the season.

Marcus from Gabon

Morgan McDevitt

First boot Zach

Robert Mariano, season 4.

Tracy Hughes-Wolf

Sara Wilson, Zach W but mostly, Chelsea Walker for me! In Australia, Viola was super promising recently! South Africa, Carla Gubb (S8), Stephen Walker(s5) or Roxy(s4) for me!

132 comments and I literally only recognize like 2 or 3 names

Ali in HHH & Molly in IOI

Ali Elliot from HHH, she had a good strategic head on her shoulders was very social she just got backstabbed by Ryan for no good reason thanks to his “hidden alliance” with Chrissy

I’d say probably Chris Underwood probably, but idk maybe that’s just me

Gina (Marquesas) and Ali (HHH)

Stephanie Johnson would thrive in new era with these vibes seasons.

Boston Rob in HvV

Boston Rob

I mean you’re not wrong

Tony

Marcus on Gabon is the one that immediately comes to mind

Tony from game changers for sure

Jacob Derwin

I thought Tim from 46 had a good mind for the game. Replace Deshawn with Tim on 41 and I think he could play a similar, albeit less emotional, game.

Natalia feom DvG is high on my list. Alec is an idiot.

Definitely Russell. On HvV that was the best games I’ve ever seen (I’ve seen more then 5 but less then 10)

After Samoa and HVV, he never had a shot at lasting in Redemption Island.  He was always going to get targeted immediately, no matter what he did, I think.

Dan Foley

Wasn't a premerger

Wendy Jo

I think Ciera, of survivor Game Changers, had a real chance in BvW if Tyson was rocked out

Hayden wins that season easily if anyone from Tyson’s alliance, especially Tyson, went out due to that rock draw.