Season 15 - Greece - Placed 8th/16 (host's fan favourite)
Ted was a slow starter but amazing once he got going.
You can read in Jake's write-up why Ted mutinied away from his tribe, but below you'll see that he managed to do it, with an idol, and with his tribe's blessing as a kind of trojan horse. He had no intent of this though As the game went on closer and closer to merge, his new tribe would win and they'd reassure themselves that he was just doing that to get in deeper, or the time wasn't right or something.
Come merge Shawna was the boot because Ted dictated it, and his old tribe Asteria needed him (they thought). When Daniel flipped too, Ted wasn't having that - so he flipped back and dictated to Asteria that Daniel was to leave. Finally, his game caught up with him, people caught on to his gameplan and sent him packing with an idol in his pocket.
Taj's End-of-Season Ranking (Yes that is #1);
1.
Possibly the only person casted that I don't agree with. Ted is nothing like the real Ted and for the longest time, my disdain for the real Ted held be back from appreciating Stranded Ted. He should've been Rob using the cast from this season. Anyways, Ted is Stranded: Greece. Ted caused so much crap, so many blindsides and flipping. He gave us so many unexpected moments and you cannot help but love the guy. Ted is the star of Stranded in Greece and I don't think anyone will disagree with me.
Taj's Favo bits of the Season;
Ted's super awesome mutiny plan and Helios' reaction
Basically, this is what happened:Ted: Hey guys, I have the idol and I took the clues that sabotaged our tribe, umad?
Penny: OMG
Jan: Thar was an idol?
Ted: but I think I'm going to mutiny
Penny: BRILLiant, we can blindside Rob!!
Erin: Yay!
Jake: Yay!
Helen: icon_huh
Brian: icon_confused
Penny: OMG I'm a genius!!!
icon_huh
Did I mention that this all started because Ted got paranoid for a typing error? Yup.
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Brenda's People that made the merge ranking (done at time of merge)
#2
I feel like I have to apologise for this in advance but I love how selfishly Ted is playing the game - and I really do love a good villain. In his mind this truly is 'The Ted Show'. The only alliance he needs is an alliance of Ted icon_laughing
I can see why there are Ted haters. He's a god-awful PMer. Ken has since stated in LL that he was trying to be boring in PM just so Ted might stop PMing him, and Ken was only PMing two people icon_laughing He knows fair well how to keep his cards close to his chest, but he doesn't seem to realise if you don't give a little at least, you will never build a bond. He knows how the game works and what he should be doing, but he seems to have trouble putting it into effect. It's like he has no overall plan and this ends up with his strategy being a little all over the place. This could work out for him in a rocky merge, especially since Helios still believe he's working the long-con. Plus he's one of the stronger performers in the challenges, and of course he still has that idol..
But you've got to love his storyline so far. Selfishly grabbing the clues while scolding others publicly for it. Letting Ken take the fall for that. Mutinying for his own personal reasons, yet managing to do it under the guise of 'for the tribe'. Getting to Asteria and instantly climbing above at least three people. Beating Helios over and over and them wondering if this is part of their plan.
He should pick up a lot of flack once Asteria gets to know about the idol and targets him for it, but then again Helios should hate him for the mutiny but he got away with that. He could actually get as high as 5th/6th thanks to his multiple connections & with wise use of the idol.. and if he gets that far you can't rule out him getting dragged to the end by a more dominant player who sees him as a potential goat. And if he somehow defies the odds and gets to the FTC he has one ace left up his sleeve - in that he is not poor communicator that the two-line PMs indicate, but in fact is rather eloquent in the privacy of his confessional. If he could explain how the mutiny was his own move first before Helios pushed him, and let's face it - no-one yet realises what the hell he actually is up to - well he could win outright. icon_horror
I for one, am hooked on watching the Ted Show unfold.Ted wrote:Screw that. I'm going to find it, and turn to the dark side. Mark my words.
Brenda's End of Season Re-Cap
Ted
Ted should hands-down be the fan-favourite. At least so far - he might yet be overtaken by Penny or Joanna but they'd need to win the game outright to rob him of the accolade. Which in itself is pretty incredible for such a villain. The story of the Merge Episodes is full-on the Ted Show with everyone else's games hinging on his plays, as are big parts of the pre-merge. I'm going to have to try very hard to not let his story take over the fanfic a la Russell in Samoa. I'm not comparing their styles at all, just noting that it is unusual for the other players to allow a villain to go undetected for so long and be so successful. But before we get to the merge rounds, just some thoughts on his general & earlier play;Helen (to Brian): I fucking hate how short his messages are. I haven't gotten more than five words per PM all day from him. I can only assume that he's being truthful with us, because if he wasn't, he would HAVE to attempt to be more convincing than this.
Ted's PMs fit into a whole category of their own. I've downplayed Ted's PMing abilities here before but he grew on me in that sense. It's not that he's a bad PMer - yes he is very abrupt - but he sees it as controlling loose information I think? When he is asked a direct question he answers, and people believe him - despite him turning on everyone in the game so far at one point or another. By trimming the fat of social niceties and fluff, he is trading in raw information only - he finds out exactly what other people are trying to find out or sell because they are forced to directly ask, without ever giving away any parts of his own game that he doesn't want to. Even human-lie-detector Joanna has stated that Ted was the most difficult to read player in the game.
Ted's idea of being social seems to be 'Send that bitch a smiley face, bitchez love smiley faces.' It's a curiously effective strategy, but only so long as he's dealing with people in need of his assistance/vote. Plus it drives some players to distraction, which makes for good viewing.icon_biggrinHelen (to Brian): Ted wrote: Yes, this is great
ARE YOU SHITTING ME? ARE YOU SHITTING ME? We need Barbara Walters to come here and prompt Ted for information.
Early game Ted was all about his mutiny. First the private hatred for his tribe and the obvious clue taking despite trying to push the public unity card. Then the Ken hate. Then the "are you for Ted?" message that gave him the final push he needed to get the hell out of Helios. Then managing to gain their blessing under the guise of heading off on a covert mission. After each consecutive loss, Helios slowly slowly start to wonder if he might not be as loyal as they hope - or convince themselves he's just working a longer and longer long con - producing some of the most hilarious quotes of the Season along the way He did quieten down a bit at this point, but he worked his way into the trust of both Christy & Rob enough to not be the pre-merge boot despite Shawna & Joanna wanting him to be.
Come the merge, Ted really came into his own, playing both sides to perfection simply by reporting back exactly what the other side were saying. Shawna & Daniel were nearly single-handedly dictated by him, and he would certainly have been safe even without his back-to-back IC wins.
I only half believe him when he says he's happy with how he went out with the idol in his pocket - but seeing him get his come-uppance by one of the sides he was playing was still a fitting end to the Ted Show, and I've thoroughly enjoyed watching it play out.Ted (Final Words): I'm not mad, I'm not bitter and I'm not shocked.
Honestly, I'm happy for the tribe. They made the right move and voted me out. I'm happy that I left with the idol in my pocket, because I'd rather leave in a tremendous blindside being seen as such a huge threat than to have such a predictable ending with me walking my way to the end.