^ONLINE SURVIVOR 9^
 
Greetings everyone.  Finally, the game is upon us.  Beginning on Monday, January 17, our 89 actual day journey will begin.  At the start of each week you will receive a schedule like this one for week 1.  Please be on at the designated times, and being on early doesn't hurt.  In the chart below you'll find Meeting Day Number, Day, Date, Time, and Actual Day Number, in that order.  Don't forget that all times are listed in Eastern Time.  Tribal Councils will not be listed due to twist spoiling, however when they are announced they will always be held at 10:00 PM.  For this week and this week only you will find a last second strategy listed below the schedule to help you in this game.  Good luck to everyone playing, I will see you Monday at 7:00 PM.
 
[^^^^^^^^^^OLS9: Week 01 Schedule^^^^^^^^^^]
[^Day 01: Mon, 1/17 @ 7:00 PM EST^][^01/89^]
[^Day 02: Wed, 1/19 @ 7:00 PM EST^][^03/89^]
[^Day 03: Thu, 1/20 @ 7:00 PM EST^][^04/89^]
[^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^]
 
 
LAST SECOND STRATEGY
 
Below is an essay written by me on one of the unknown strategies of Survivor.  The terminology and wording will be a bit hard to read, and you may find some of it "far out".  However, if you find anything strategy related in Survivor interesting, I suggest you read on.  Hope it helps in Online Survivor 9.
 
With the game fast approaching I would like to give everyone one last bit of advice on strategy.  At the end of Survivor 5, Jeff Probst mentioned to check out "John Nash's non-cooperative game playing theory", stating that the key to winning Survivor was hidden within it.  (For those of you who don't know, John Nash was the person portrayed in "A Beautiful Mind")
 
I don't know how many of you decided to investigate this, but I decided to just recently.  His theory involves many Survivor related strategies, but I'll focus on two here as your last second advice.  That being finding equilibrium, and the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.  Both are related, and one naturally comes after the other.
 
There are three kinds of players in this game.  The first is a dominant player, one that always votes in the same pattern and cannot do anything to lessen his position.  The second is a dominated player, one who cannot do anything in the game to improve his position.  The third player is a fluctuating player.  This player has not yet become dominant nor dominated.
 
Eventually, equilibrium WILL occur, and finding it is the key to winning the game.  To find it, eliminate all dominant and dominated players from your mind, as these people will never change.  The fluctuating people will continually be approached by these two groups, and eventually they will become either dominant or dominated.  When the fluctuating group completely disappears, this is when equilibrium has occurred.  Equilibrium is the point in which everyone believes they have done all they can to maximize their chances at winning the game.  However, it doesn't last long, so recognizing it is key.
 
This is where Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle comes in.  The principle states that "Knowing the state of a situation, changes it".  In other words, once the final flow of the game becomes obvious to everyone (which occurs at equilibrium), the game will take a drastic turn and reset.  It's rather obvious but you may not have thought about it.  If everyone realizes how the rest of the game lines up, everybody but one person will want it to change.  If even one fluctuating player remains, all focus will remain on him even if the dominated are severely outnumbered.
 
Consider some examples...
 
1) In Survivor 4: Marquesas, the equilibrium point occurred extremely early.  John Carroll's alliance was dominant, while everyone else remained dominated (no fluctuators, equilibrium).  Then, at the Immunity Challenge the planned order of eliminations was presented during the Trivia Voteout: Chop Coconuts challenge, thus invoking Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.  They had revealed the state of the situation, and thus it changed.
 
2) In Survivor 9: Vanuatu, the women became dominant and the men dominated.  Upon merging, the men were randomly picked off while some people on the woman's alliance were left fluctuating.  When Chris was the last man remaining, the women were strong, and were obviously going to vote him out.  Remember Chris' words "That's a fact, babe"?  Everyone knew the state of the situation, and thus it had to change.
 
3) "Hey wait a minute!" you might say.  What about the predictability of Survivor 1, if everyone knew what was going to happen why didn't it change?  The reason is quite simple.  Kelly was a fluctuator the entire game.  Even though everyone was obviously going to vote out Pagong, the focus was shifted to the lone fluctuator and thus a counter-alliance, or equilibrium, never occurred successfully.  Oddly enough, if Richard Hatch had voted out Kelly like he wanted to, he would have harmed himself by inducing equilibrium.
 
So how do you use this information you ask?  Quite simple.  You determine if you've become a dominant or dominated player.  Fluctuating is never a good spot to be in, as your uncertainty is simply a tool for others.  Once you decide which kind of player you are, you adjust your strategy accordingly.  If dominant, you make the fluctuators REMAIN fluctuating, so that equilibrium never occurs.  If dominated, you try to force the fluctuators into equilibrium by either voting them out, screwing them into being dominated, or helping them enter into dominance.  Once equilibrium hits, the game will reset and it's your cue to try to end up on top for your second try.
 
Again, Survivor is an unpredictable game, meaning the above is simply a TREND.  Obviously the rules can be broken as we saw in the overly linear game of Survivor 5: Thailand.  However, every little piece of advice helps.
 
By the way, happen to remember the only contestant ever to mention John Nash?  That's right, Rob Cesternino.  And what did he do?  He kept inducing equilibrium over and over and over again.  Think about it...what was the MAIN alliance in Survivor 6?  There wasn't one because the game kept being reset by Rob every 3 days.
 
I encourage you to look into John Nash some more as I've only brushed the surface from 2 paragraphs I read on him.  Good luck in Online Survivor 9.
1