Cmack’s Survivor ran from August 2010 until June 2017. It featured hundreds of players over the course of 50 total seasons.
The following list will feature all 50 winners based on their individual game and where it ranks among the rest…
NOTE: Before I get to the Top 20 rankings, I want to make clear how difficult it was to put a lot of these in an order. So many of these were really worthy of making it to the Top 10, but fell short as I just couldn’t place them higher than other wins in this series, as well as I had to actually sort through all of these just to rank them against each other. So out of that respect for the following 10, here are the winners that just missed out on making it to the Top 10 all-time.
PART 4: 20-11
20: DEADBEATJONAH14 (Season 13: Mystery Island), I remember this being one of my favorite seasons from the early days. I feel the only issue I would have to not ranking Jonah higher is that his win wasn’t as apparent as you’d expect for someone that played a very good game. He had a tough FTC and managed to get out of it with the win somehow.
19: Ethan000 (Season 48: Madagascar), there is some recency bias towards the last 5-6 seasons of this series I have noticed. The s45-50 run was probably the best 6 season run in this whole series, and Ethan fell right in the middle of it all. His massive strength in this game lied with his partner in crime during the season, bigben1996. Also, coupled with his good social game as well as winning 4 of the last 5 challenges in order to secure his spot in the finale, Ethan managed to win a game filled with a ton of split votes that could have tipped the balance of power in the game at any point during the post-merge tribals.
18: YoundandReckless (Season 45: Generations), you start to notice a bit of a trend with some of these top ranked seasons having top ranked winners. But why is the #4 season only have the #18 ranked winner? Erik came into the game not really as much of a threat as you could think. He had been a very early boot in a prior season and was brought back simply because I knew he was a good player, and with a great cast like this, he could potentially pull of an upset like no other. He kind of coasted for a bit, was able to hide behind players with bigger reputations in this series, and he struck when the time was right. He managed to get through one of the most unpredictable final 7s in the history of this series, and he got the win.
17: @jag0827/ Snails (Season 21: Nicaragua), for Alex, this season was one he really needed. He had been a 3-time finalist coming into this game and he so desperately wanted to win. He had almost been voted out in the middle of the pre-merge, but survived and never saw his name again until I was reading the votes at the end. He was part of a 6-person alliance that wouldn’t always be on the same page, but would somehow take out everyone else on their way to the Final 6. His win marked a nearly 20 season journey culminating in a 5-4 victory that was anything but guaranteed.
16: titan24maniac (Season 15: Past vs Present), looking at it from the perspective of a viewer, how can a 2-time winner go all the way and do it again for a 3rd time? I’d say given that this season was about ⅓ winners and the clear dominance by the more veteran players, it seemed like a cake walk to the end. Austin clearly didn’t do this alone, as his alliance controlled the game for practically the entire time, leading to one of the most intense Final Tribal Councils of all time. Good news for Austin is his 2 FTC partners were attacking each other while he went most of it unscathed.
15: Mearl (Season 30: Winners vs Losers), to be fair, he was voted out on Day 1. I would say this about Mearl’s win in Winners vs Losers. He was taken out Day 1 because of how massive of a threat he was in the game. Everyone knew coming in that he was a contender, and the quicker they took him out, the better. The problem is that Redemption Island played a huge role in his survival, as he would win every Duel en route to making a comeback at the merge. So, how did he manage to stay alive? When other big named winners were taken out, Mearl had one thing to say in confessional to me “they should have took me out when they had a chance, now they’re gonna pay for it”. He would of course go on his run to the end and managed to win once again.
14: Craeola (Season 47: Panama), this was definitely one of my favorite Final 2s i’ve had in this series. In terms of Panama as a season, it was really upper-tier but as this series had so many good ones, it ranked just outside of the Top 15. For Crae as a winner, like I said...everyone in here is worthy of the Top 10...but coming in at 14 isn’t a bad thing. He’s one of those few winners to actually be on the winning side of every single vote during a season(not sure exactly how many, but it’s less than 10). Then he won 3 challenges, including the last 2 which would place him in the finals. Luckily for him, a juror failed to vote and it came down to a tie breaker that resulted in him winning the game in as close of a margin as you can.
13: Survivor8 (Season 40: Malaysia), had you told me a few years ago i’d be including Mike in a “Winner Ranking”, I would have laughed at you...because I would have been shocked to see him play. When he first played in Blood vs Water, he and Lemjam6 were a force to be reckoned with as a pair. What is mind boggling is you fast forward a few months later, here they both are in a season again and somehow...they get to the FTC together again. Malaysia was the first game I recall votes changing literally minutes before the deadline, and so rapidly too. It happened a few times, but every time, Mike was able to avoid being the one to have his name come up. He only saw his name once after the merge, and he managed to win a few big challenges that got him to the end.
12: AndThenThereWasOne (Season 50: Battle of the Champions), it was indeed the story of a winner. As the final season began, there were a few names that I knew 100% were not going to win. Rhys was one of the top 3 on that list that I knew had zero shot of winning this season. He came into the game having the same issues his first go around, time zone being a major factor. That did not stop him from laying the groundwork for a social game. Despite him knowingly missing early challenges and not being able to strategize until about 12 hours post-challenge, he somehow managed to only see his name written down 1 time, and it was at the Final 5...in a game of 27 winners. The good news for Rhys is that being under the radar in a game filled with champions is perhaps the only way you can play and have a chance to win it all. While Rhys was playing the game alongside AndrewWeltner as a pair of swing votes, they managed to coast undetected and were able to power their way to the Finals, and it was indeed a photo finish for Rhys winning the game over Alex( Snails).
11: Gaiaphagee (Season 23: Caramoan), in 50 seasons, there has only been a single one where an entire tribe was wiped out before anyone on another tribe was eliminated. The 2nd Fans vs Favorites season was something special, as it featured some very good favorites and apparently some not so good fans. To put it in perspective, only 2 of the 10 fans would ever return and amount to anything in this series over the following 27 seasons. Back to the winner, Chris had perhaps lead the charge as one of the most hated yet beloved players in this series. You never knew what to expect from him, except maybe a reference to weed or marijuana. For Chris, despite him seeing his name written down countless times, his bond with Mearl proved to be one of the strongest in the history of this series, which was instrumental in both of them making it to the end of the season. Also, with a merge tribe named “Favorites”, how could it not be one of the more favorable wins of all time?
Mearl would probably be number 1 for Winners vs. Losers here if not for the getting voted out on Day 1 thing. Dude crushed the post-merge and I don't know how these people fell for it!! (Well, except I would have done better if not for Jacob ughhhh #stillbitter)
titan24maniac Exactly....when I was ranking individual wins for the multi-win people, I took into account for Mearl how he was voted out of this game, but the other he wasn't and had a better grasp on the game from start to finish
PART 4 of 5
RShowFreak (Season 5: All-Stars)
BBlover96 (Season 7: Redemption Island)
titan24maniac (Season 10: Good vs Evil)
Gaiaphagee (Season 17: South Pacific)
Mearl (Season 25: Pearl Islands)
AndrewWeltner (Season 31: Cagayan)
AndThenThereWasOne (Season 32: Rio de Janeiro)
Lemjam6 (Season 37: Blood vs Water)
Chastain (Season 38: Tocantins)
Christian_ (Season 46: Fiji)