Richard Hatch

RICHARD HATCH - A CASE STUDY

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Opening:

Voting strategy is dependent upon the social dynamics and relative strength of the individual players in the tribe. This is as much true at the beginning of the game as it is at the end and any discussion of strategy has to begin with a summary of the individual players in the tribe.

Dirk: PU-player. Like so many in this first season of Survivor, Dirk did not go into this with any kind of firm strategy on how to win. He seemed to be forming a relationship with Sean
Kelly: PU-player. Kelly formed an early relationship with Stacey. An athletic player but one that is going to vote to her own tune.
Richard: AP-player. Aggresive player who came in with the mindset that this was a game and the object was to win. Smart and a natural leader though his confidence often drifts towards arrogance.
Rudy: PP-player. Rudy is not interested in being anyone but himself around camp which immediately urks many of his tribemates. Fantastically loyal to an alliance, though.
Sean: PP-player. Fit and a doctor, Sean brings skills to the tribe that are more than usefull but his game strategy chiefly revolves around getting everyone to like him.
Sonja: PP-player. Personable but clearly lags behind the rest physically.
Stacey: AP-player. The only other player bucking for a leadership position, Stacey formed an early relationship with Kelly and seems to want to pull Susan into that mix.
Susan: PP-player. Susan is forming relationship with both Richard, Stacey and Kelly. Not a leader type but one that realizes there is a game going on.

D-players: Kelly, Richard, Rudy, Stacey
T-players: Dirk, Sean, Sonja, Susan

Tribal Council 1 - Day 3 - Boot: Sonja

Votes:
Dirk, Rudy, Sean & Sue voted Sonja
Kelly, Stacey & Sonja voted Rudy

Richard voted Stacey

I've never been a big fan of solo voting. It just isn't a solo game, but what is interesting is that Richard is already recognizing that Stacey represents his primary threat and that to have anywhere near a functional tribe, he or Stacey had to go.

Rating: Dubious - I suppose forcasting your attack like this at least alerts others, most notably potential allies, that there is a game afoot, but I still can't support going solo like this. It's just such a good way to single yourself out.

Tribal Council 2 - Day 9 - Boot: Stacey

Votes:
Dirk, Rudy, Sean & Sue voted Stacey
Kelly & Stacey voted Rudy

Richard voted Stacey

By this stage, Richard had formed a formal alliance with Rudy and Sue while Kelly was definitely in Stacey's camp. Rudy and Stacey were continually banging heads and it was effecting the functioning of the tribe. One had to go and obviously the removal of Stacey leaves Richard in charge of the tribe and the direction of the game.

Rating: Great - Stacey was the best person for Richard to remove at this stage..

Early Middle-game:

Tribal Structure:

Dirk -> none
Kelly -> Sue
Richard -> Rudy
Rudy -> Richard
Sean -> none
Sue -> Richard

N-players: Richard & Rudy
D-Players: Sue
T-players: Dirk, Kelly & Sue

Richard's game play has changed the shape of this tribe and created a definite social hiarchy. Kelly's relationship with Sue will soon bring her into the Tagi alliance but Dirk and Sean will continue to play solo.

Tribal Council 3 - Day 15 - Boot: Dirk

Votes:
Kelly, Rudy & Sue voted Dirk
Dirk voted Susan
Sean voted Rudy

Richard voted Dirk

Usually, voting out an athletic player when you were down a player to the other tribe would not be a wise thing to do, but this being the first season things are a little different. Richard's biggest concern should be preserving his alliance of four as things at Pagong are still very individual. They could likely lose the next immunity challenge and still control the game after the merge. This makes this a choice between Dirk and Sean and it's really six of one and half a dozen of the other so you might as well vote for the player that is most issolated from the rest of the group, and that would be Dirk.

Rating: Good - Either Dirk or Sean would have been fine here..

Tribal Council 4 - Day 21 - Boot: Gretchen

The tribes merged and five new players have entered into Richard's game.

Colleen: PU-player. Pagong was very much playing the solo game.
Gervase: PU-player.
Greg: PU-player.
Gretchen: PP-player. If the tribe had a leader, it was Gretchen.
Jenna: PU-player.

Votes:
Kelly, Rudy & Sue voted Gretchen
Colleen voted Richard
Gervase voted Sue
Greg voted Jenna
Gretchen voted Rudy
Jenna voted Gervase
Sean voted Colleen

Richard voted Gretchen.

Thanks to everyone else voting individually, Richard could choose whom to remove out and taking out the closest thing Pagong had to a leader was certainly his best move. Gretchen was respected by all her tribe mates and was bright and charasmatic enough to pull them together into an alliance to counter the Tagi Four.

Rating: Great - Gretchen was easily the best choice.

Late Middle-game:

N-players: Richard, Rudy
D-players: Kelly, Susan
T-player: Sean
M-players: Colleen, Gervase, Greg, Jenna

Tribal Council 5 - Day 24 - Boot: Greg

Votes:
Kelly, Jenna, Rudy, Sean & Sue voted Greg
Colleen, Gervase & Greg voted Jenna

Richard voted Greg

With Gervase winning immunity, Greg becomes the obvious choice. Besides, it follows Sean's alphabetical voting pattern, meaning that Richard had an almost guaranteed majority in case the Pagongs woke up to what was going on, not that that was likely to happen.

There are a couple of other things to note. First, Sean's alphabetical voting strategy does not extend to his own tribe, making him more of a PP-player rather than a PU. More importantly, Kelly is showing herself as noncommital to the Tagi 4 and is actually forming stronger relationships with Colleen andd Jenna than with her own tribe members.

Rating: Good - An obvious call.

Tribal Council 6 - Day 27 - Boot: Jenna

Votes:
Rudy, Sean & Sue voted Jenna
Colleen, Gervase & Jenna voted Richard
Kelly voted Sean

Richard voted Jenna

If Richard could have really pulled together a solid foursome, it would have been great to get rid of Kelly at this stage, but obviously Sean couldn't really be counted on. Following his alphabetical lead and just taking out Jenna was the best course.

Rating: Good - With eight players still in the game Richard could still potentially need Sean's vote so following his alphabetical voting is the safest course.

Tribal Council 7 - Day 30 - Boot: Gervase

Votes:
Kelly, Rudy, Sean & Sue voted Gervase
Colleen and Gervase voted Sean

Richard voted Gervase

Despite Kelly's flipping loyalties, Sue still sees her as her ace in the hole for down the road, so a move on Kelly on Richard's part just wont work. The only vote he can truly rely on would be Rudy's. As such, the safe course is Gervase.

Rating: Good - It was really the only option open for Richard.

Tribal Council 8 - Day 33 - Boot: Colleen

Votes:
Rudy, Sean & Sue voted Colleen
Colleen & Kelly voted Sean

Richard voted Colleen

As his voting testimonial confirms, Richard definitely recognizes the threat represented by Kelly and would love to get rid of her. Unfortunately, Kelly wins immunity forcing the vote to either Sean or Colleen. Colleen represents the safer route and besides, Sean is beginning to show some signs of waking up and playing this game and may become a prefered fourth over Kelly.

Rating: Good - Kelly winning immunity basically forces this.

Tribal Council 9 - Day 36 - Boot: Sean

Votes:
Kelly, Rudy & Sue voted Sean
Sean voted Sue

Richard voted Sean

Kelly winning immunity once again makes this the only route to go. It would have been interesting to see if Kelly would have gone here had that option been available. I know I would have done it.

Rating: Good - The only real option available.

Endgame:

N-players: Richard & Rudy
D-player: Sue
T-player: Kelly

Tribal Council 10 - Day 37 - Boot: Sue

Votes:
Kelly & Rudy voted voted Sue
Sue voted Richard

Richard voted Sue

Richard's reign almost ended here with another untimely immunity win by Kelly. I have little doubt that if the immunity necklace had been on someone else, Sue wouldn't have hesitated voting out Kelly, but with the tables turned it appeared that Kelly was going to try and save Sue by voting Richard and forcing a tie. On the revote however, it appeared that Kelly didn't think having Sue in the mix was worth the effort and risk of a further tie and changed her vote, one of many mistakes she had made in voting in this game.

Rating: Good - Again, no real choice.

Tribal Council 11 - Day 38 - Boot: Rudy

Votes:
Kelly voted Sue

Neither Richard nor Rudy voted in this tribal council.

Kelly saved herself for likely the fourth time with yet another immunity challenge win. An interesting thing that Richard did do during the challenge was bow out absolutely convinced that either Kelly or Rudy would have taken him. He was right.

Tribal Council 12 - Day 39 - Boot: Kelly

Votes for winner:
Greg, Rudy, Sean & Sue voted Richard
Colleen, Gervase and Jenna voted Kelly

I don't think this vote would have been nearly so close in subsequent seasons as players went into this with their eyes a little more open as this being a game of strategy and deceit as well as one of social skills. That being said, the vote almost split along tribal lines with Pagong voting for the player that couldn't stay in an alliance while Tagi voted for the one that created theirs. Two different ideologies coming head to head which was only broken by Greg asking Kelly and Richard to pick a number between one and ten. It would be interesting to speculate if the game would have taken a different course in the future if the flip flopping Kelly had been rewarded with the grand prize. I, for one, am glad we didn't have to find out.

Grades:

Opening: B
Early Middle-game: A-
Late Middle-game: A-
Endgame: B

Overall Voting Strategy: B+

Overall Social Strategy: B+
Comments: Although Richard was the undisputed leader in his tribe his arrogant nature definitely rubbed many the wrong way. Leadership: A, Social Ability: C+

Overall Rating: B+