Day 9: Favorite Challenge ‘Dominator’
Survivor 39-Day Challenge
Erase the favorite altogether because there’s only one correct answer to the question ‘who is the most dominant castaway in terms of challenges’: Oscar “Ozzy” Lusth.
During his first season, he was introduced as the guy who could climb coconut trees easily without much of a ladder. It was described as “a [picture straight] out of a jungle book.” At the finale, he explained that he got his comfort in the waters and the jungle through reading books about diving, swimming, and surviving in the wilds.
After the controversial mutiny twist which dwindled his tribe to just four people, Ozzy was vital to the Aitu 4’s miraculous comeback. And even before the twist, he was dominating the challenges.
At the individual portion of the game, he won five individual immunity challenges (the record for a male castaway) out of the possible six. That’s a 0.83 efficiency! That is the highest challenge efficiency among all Survivor castaways. Crazy!!!
His swimming abilities are just ridiculous; it’s truly fascinating to watch. His mount and his form are enviable, his ability to stay underwater for so long is just wow. (I always imagine myself having that perfect mount and amazing form when diving, but I always belly-flop.)
No wonder that his return in Micronesia (2008) meant a ginormous target on his back waiting to be darted. Nearly winning his first season, just losing to Yul by a single vote, Ozzy was selected as one of ten Favorites to compete against a bunch of super Fans.
Every single person on the Fans tribe, with the exception most probably of Joel, was either fascinated by him or challenged by him. Alexis admired him, Jason wanted to beat him, Erik idolized him, and all of them were able to show it to him. Alexis was able to flirt with him, Erik followed him as an ally, and Jason ultimately beat him in the first individual immunity challenge of the season.
However, Ozzy’s reputation — his dominance in challenges — would always precede him. Taking advantage of his vulnerability, he became the first victim of the Black Widow Brigade™ and was blindsided with an idol in his pocket. His voteout was a well-thought out plan and executed to perfection; you don’t want to give him that footing in challenges.
In terms of strategic and, in a way, social chops, Ozzy wasn’t particularly the sharpest tool in the shed. Ozzy manifested this subtly but negligebly in Cook Islands when he decided, along with JP, to throw the challenge in order to get rid of poor Billy. But, if it wasn’t for that, we would not have one of Survivor’s golden moments of “Billy falling in love with Candice.”
Such strategic anomaly in Ozzy was unraveled in South Pacific (2011). He returned for a third time in a captain-style season alongside Coach, and was designated to the Savaii tribe.
His first blunder of the season was kind of isolating Cochran in the beginning, then using him as a “strategic tool” at the merge. The second blunder: he asked his tribe to send him to redemption island in order to even up the numbers against the Upolu tribe come the merge. Christine from the Upolu tribe was the long-time resident of redemption island at the time, and if she was to reenter, Savaii would be down in numbers 7 to 5. What’s brilliant about this move was Ozzy’s confidence about his own challenge prowess, because it’s spot on. No fear no doubt, he easily emerged victorious and eliminated Christine. It became ridiculous when the Upolu tribe did not buy at all what they’re selling, him and Cochran. And then Cochran betrayed the Savaii tribe in the process.
Ozzy, who was voted out again, won every single redemption island duel and reentered the game at Final 5, took another individual immunity challenge win under his belt, but came up short in the final immunity challenge. They said he’d have won if he was in the finals that season, but who really knows.
Not much can be said about Ozzy’s fourth appearance in Game Changers (2017). The fascinating thing was, for the second time in his Survivor career, Ozzy was voted out second after the merge and became the second member of the jury again. The difference? Cirie got him in Micronesia; they both got got in Game Changers. It’s all convoluted, that season.
Overall, Ozzy has 16 individual challenge wins across his four seasons. Not to mention the tribal wins and his redemption island duel wins. When I get to play Survivor, and I’d be half as dominant as Ozzy is in challenges, I’d consider myself lucky. Ozzy sets the bar high in terms of challenge dominance — so high that no one has and, dare I say, will ever surpass it.
Runner-up: Kim Spradlin, Winner, Survivor: One World
