Challenges: Wanna Know What YESSHUTUPJEFF

[LadyChatts]

I just finished re-watching Thailand, and it throws me for a loop to look at how simple the challenges were back then.  That season actually had some good ones, including some good mental ones.  But taking the second RC, for example, it was one of the blindfold challenges, where one team member navigated the rest of their team through a course for puzzle pieces.  And that was it.  Whoever made it back first won.  By today's standards, that challenge would have 2-3 more parts.

I enjoy the trivia challenges, as it's a nice break from the pure physical ones.  And it kind of puts people on equal footing.  I could do without so many endurance challenges, though.

[KimberStormer]

I thought that immunity challenge could be very cool, but they screwed up the balance between the puzzle and the physical portion.  The puzzle was so difficult -- we saw, thanks to David, that you could spell a loooot of Survivory words with the letters they had -- that the pieces-collecting part was completely irrelevant.  I feel like the simple switch of a picture puzzle in place of the word puzzle would make it a great challenge.

(I am waiting for the plumber with nothing to do so here I am posting about challenge design)

[Guest]

I'm always excited to see word puzzles since those are my super power.  I wish you could play along but they spoil the solution and don't really show the letters well.  

[laurakaye]

Anyone else want to smack Probst when David was running the rope portion of the IC, and Probst shouted out, "Just like playing high school football!"  

Shut up, Probst.  David managed that obstacle just fine.  Quit making people feel inferior if they're not built like Colby Donaldson.  If you're so tough, go run that course yourself, and also - shut up, Probst.

Edited October 14, 2016 by laurakaye

[SVNBob]

11 hours ago, laurakaye said:

Anyone else want to smack Probst when David was running the rope portion of the IC, and Probst shouted out, "Just like playing high school football!"  

My immediate reaction was "Like David played football in high school."  However Michaela was shown right behind him, and I'd believe it if you told me she played football in high school.

With this particular puzzle, I did wonder (as someone else did in the episode thread) if the easy mode solution would have been to reveal the tiles in numerical order.  As in "Somebody" was tiles 1-8 respectively, and so on through the phrase.  I wouldn't put it past the challenge designers to do that, knowing full well that the odds of the contestants actually taking the time to open the bags in order was slim to none.

[SnideAsides]

I approve of the fact that the challenge designers have clearly tried to up the originality over these last two seasons (presumably only because of the second-chance theme for S31), buuuuut I just wish the challenges were actually, you know, good. It's not like you can't do a good, inventive challenge at this point in the show's lifespan (the Australian version earlier this year did, the South African season a couple of years ago had some really nifty ideas, and the Dutch version is almost routinely blowing even the most epic US challenges out of the water on a weekly basis), but they're so stuck on the same three ideas - collect bags on an obstacle course and use their contents to hit targets/solve a puzzle, stack a pile of things precariously, and hold an uncomfortable pose - that they still feel repetitive to the point of nausea.

This week's challenges weren't so bad though. A little Big Brother-y for the second one, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

[Lamb18]

I feel like the challenges are easier this season in that people are less likely to get injured. I don't think there were any blindfold or shoving challenges.

[Rachel RSL]

There was only one blindfold challenge I can remember when they had to direct them to puzzle pieces. I remember that Figgy caused Ken a couple of hilarious wipe outs then sucked at solving the puzzle.

[enlightenedbum]

Ladies, take a smoke break, the challenge.  Awesome.

[KimberStormer]

I honestly thought that it was going to be some kind of twist, that they couldn't compete in the immunity challenge if they did in the reward (or at least the usual "no sitting out two challenges" rule), but yep, just a "Jeff's faves only plz" challenge.

[KimberStormer]

It is an Unpopular Opinion of mine that I love endurance challenges, but they're like ice cream: not good if there's too much.  One or two a season is OK, but spread them out.

I think it's especially weird that they seem to go for many endurance challenges in a row at the beginning of the merge a lot these days, because the merge is when, to keep things interesting, it would be better to favor the Big Strong Men.  They will be targets at the merge, right?  So give them challenges that favor them so people have to make some other plans.  This would have the added benefit of helping Probst's Manly Men, which is no benefit to me, but I would think Probst would like it.  One endurance challenge early, one at the end, that's KimberStormer's prescription.

Edited April 21, 2017 by KimberStormer

[peachmangosteen]

9 hours ago, KimberStormer said:

It is an Unpopular Opinion of mine that I love endurance challenges, but they're like ice cream: not good if there's too much.  One or two a season is OK, but spread them out.

This. 100%. I love endurance challenges, but watching one after the other after the other gets really boring. And the same people always win them anyway, which makes it even more boring, even though I tend to like players that are typical endurance challenge winners.

The only thing I can think of for why they do it this way now is that it's probably cheaper and easier to build/setup endurance challenges than any other kind.

Edited April 21, 2017 by peachmangosteen

[KimberStormer]

This reward was the worst "challenge" of all time, right?

[peachmangosteen]

My mouth just hung agape the entire time. I couldn't believe that was actually the challenge. You know what, maybe it's time they just call it quits. There's nothing left.

[LadyChatts]

I'm sure the logic is this is a challenge people might want to throw, so as not left with the task of picking people to spend time with their loved ones (and worst, picking the people not spending time with their loved ones).  Isn't that one of the reasons they started combining RC/IC?  So contestants wouldn't be as quick to throw the IC to vote someone off if a great reward was at stake?

Anyway, I've long thought this show needs to look at its international counterparts for challenge inspiration.  Some of our challenges look like something seen on Sesame Street compared to international versions.  But last night, that took the cake.  Heck, Big Brother had better challenges this past season.  There had to be a challenge that fell through.  That's the only logical explanation. 

Edited December 7, 2017 by LadyChatts

[ProfCrash]

I can buy that some of the loved ones could not participate in a physical challenge. One of the family members, the older white male, looked like he was not going to able to sit on the log.

[Lamb18]

The thing is, the loved ones don't have to participate in a challenge. They don't always do, sometimes they just watch. If there's a super weak one, just have all the loved ones sit out. They would know before filming who among the potential loved ones would not be physically up for challenges.

[SVNBob]

I actually kinda liked it.  It's a simple challenge that they can scale easily, doesn't really require any special equipment, and can do anywhere.  Hell, they could run this challenge at camp if they want to, with Peachy and the Loved Ones (that's the name of my Survivor cover band) on a boat off shore, but with only the winner and those they choose getting to disembark.  Or what about them having to go to the TC set during the day for this challenge, with the loved ones taking the jury seats?

And those were my thoughts before I read the arguments about this being a counter-move to challenge throwing, which is another good reason to have this type of challenge.  But I also read a quote from Peachy saying that they came up with this challenge specifically to be a simple and short one, so they didn't have to spend a lot of time in the episode on the challenge itself, and could spend more time on other events.  And given the events that occurred in this episode, they got one hell of a payoff.

[Special K]

I didn't mind the challenge at all, which I think was done out of respect for the loved ones.  While I like seeing the loved ones on the show, I always cringe at them having to run like rats in a maze, with hugely varying degrees of fitness or ability.  And then the less-fit might feel responsible for their survivor losing the challenge.  The loved ones didn't sign up to be subject to the depredations and humiliations of some of these challenges.  For some of them, standing outside in 100-degree heat for a couple hours might be strenuous enough!

[peachmangosteen]

I don't like when the loved ones run the challenge with the contestants for the reason you mentioned, but they often just have the players do a real challenge and don't include the loved ones.

I'm not a fan of the 'did this to keep people from throwing the challenge' thing because throwing challenges is a legitimate strategy and I'm not really into Production taking that strategy away from the players. I'm annoyed they don't do 'eliminate a player if you get a point' type challenges anymore because they're pissed that one cast didn't play it.

I think the real reason for that rock draw challenge and all the boring, repetitive challenges is just because Production has gotten lazy and cheap.

[LadyChatts]

3 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

I don't like when the loved ones run the challenge with the contestants for the reason you mentioned, but they often just have the players do a real challenge and don't include the loved ones.

I'm not a fan of the 'did this to keep people from throwing the challenge' thing because throwing challenges is a legitimate strategy and I'm not really into Production taking that strategy away from the players. I'm annoyed they don't do 'eliminate a player if you get a point' type challenges anymore because they're pissed that one cast didn't play it.

I think the real reason for that rock draw challenge and all the boring, repetitive challenges is just because Production has gotten lazy and cheap.

I could care less to have the loved ones compete in a challenge, unless it's a gross eating challenge (the one they did in Thailand was fun to watch).  I agree, production on this show as a whole has gotten cheap.  Same location, same recycled challenges, same recycled themes (I mean, this season really is another way of saying White/Blue/No Collar-especially the colors).  Too much creature comforts, even if Ryan is a walking x-ray and Cole managed to lose weight despite being a human garbage disposal.  It seems like it's more about what production wants and makes life easy/cheaper for them than making a better show (and I'm sure most of that is on CBS not wanting to foot an expensive bill).  They did away with long endurance challenges because production got bored.  They haven't done the auction since Mike's move during WA (which was hysterical, and a great move).  They don't do the pecking order challenges anymore.  I mean, Marquesas wouldn't have turned out as great if the Rotu 4 didn't get arrogant with their coconuts!

[Guest]

I didn't mind it.  Lauren's sister couldn't even trot out to Lauren.  And in theory there could be some connection between loved ones that caused them to pick the same rocks.  I probably paid more attention to this than the usual x/y/puzzle challenge.  

Though I can't turn off my editing analyzer so I knew Chrissy would win the re-pick.  If she hadn't and it went back to start, we wouldn't have been shown the first round of picks because it was a lot of time for no game effect.  Usually it's the music that gives away the winner, though, so at least this was something different.  

[cherrypj]

Simmotion (also known as Always on the Run) is one of my favorite challenges (you've seen it in Tocantins, South Pacific, Cambodia, Ghost Island, and David vs. Goliath).

This guy would absolutely kill it: