Gamer talk: Here’s why flavors do well in stars/celebrities

This is not a defense of anybody I’ve been saying this since like 2014. Let’s all agree on one thing first: the format is a popularity contest. The players don’t evict people, the public does. Any #gamer like myself and dino knows this and accepts this going into the game. The most controversial flavor in TG history was someguy123. He apparently did absolutely nothing in his Stars and got nominated every day and won the game. Why? Because it’s a popularity contest and he won. But let’s dig a bit deeper as to why the public supports players who are always nominated. 2 main reasons plus my view as an OG Stars strategist. 1. As human beings most of us identify with the underdog. When people think to David vs Goliath most people connect more with David. Life is hard and there are forces outside our control that push us down. Seeing somebody overcome adversity is something we like to see. Furthermore it feels like a public “movement” because we the people are uniting to show support. So if you ARE going to play just to avoid the block, the tradeoff to safety is giving up the underdog status and potentially giving it to someone else. 2. Let’s remember that Celebs/Stars is a popularity contest. The winner and evictions are decided by the public, not the players. A naive player will think that if they play a good enough game then the public will see that and reward it. But how is the public supposed to know everything you’ve done in the game. If your plan is to write a long blog or record a long vlog to discuss your game, you are missing the point and most voters don’t have the attention for that. As a player you have to accept that your power is limited to the nominations. In your mind, you’re playing well and avoiding off the block. At the same time, the current nominees are getting the public attention since they are focusing on staying in the game. One player is embracing the popularity aspect and the other player is denying it. If you want someone out, you have to make a smart nom set to do it. OR you have to beat them yourself. Nominating someone repeatedly shows a level of naivety in just trying the same thing over and over then expecting different results. I think that’s what they call crazy MY reason I support flavors: Stars and Celebs are pretty hard but they’re not THAT hard. If you’re playing to avoid the block every week you are playing scared. The game is so much more complex than “whoever is nominated the least should win.” Your goal as a player is to create a narrative and a campaign that will get you to the end and win. It’s as simple as that. If you play in fear of touching the block then you’re missing out on like 70% of the actual gameplay which is with the public. Additionally, my mindset is that if I can lose a poll I’m probably not gonna win. so why should I fear nominations when public support is the name of the game. Being nominated gives you easy access to the public, and if you’re smart you will use that time to build a strong campaign to win. TLDR: Your only goal as a celebrities player should be to WIN. Avoiding nominations can get you to final 3, but you’ll probably lose the game if you let someone else hold all the spotlight. Flavoring a person (nomming them like 5 or more times) is the easiest way to lose the game. As someone who has lost Stars to the “flavors” I created, I can’t blame the entire voting public for my loss. If you lose to the flavor you created, that is your strategic error in playing a popularity contest. You can blog until your fingers bleed about how people shouldn’t reward bad gameplay, and I’m gonna comment saying that creating flavors IS bad gameplay. Voting patterns and psychology will probably not change. If you’re not participating in the repeat nominations then DO SOMETHING to stand out. If you want to give someone 100% of the spotlight in a popularity contest, that’s your problem and your mistake. #gamertalkwithamandasings