Survivor 48 Shows That Bad Luck Can Destroy A Player’s Game

When most fans imagine what it would be like to play Survivor, they have a specific vision in mind. After all, even new fans who are figuring out which seasons to watch first would want to win if they went on Jeff Probst’s beloved reality show. There is also no doubt that the show’s players want to wind up becoming one of the best players ever while competing during a great season. However, the sad truth is that there is a reality about Survivor many prospective players don’t consider.

Between medical evacuations and awful twists, bad luck can make a gigantic difference in how successful a player becomes. The downfall of one Survivor 48 player even shows that bad luck can completely destroy a person’s game on the show.

Survivor 48’s Justin Pioppi Was Doomed In The Game After Suffering A Series Of Bad Luck

During each episode of Survivor, fans see a player’s game end as at least one person gets voted out. Fans expect to be able to connect certain dots that led to that player’s demise, and that is almost always the case.

When a player gets voted out, that is supposed to be a culmination of events that combined led to that moment. That player is supposed to have made a series of social, strategic, and even physical mistakes that resulted in them being held accountable by having their torch snuffed.

However, Survivor 48 revealed that the traditional rules of what leads to a player getting voted out no longer need to apply. Instead, fans now have to accept that it is possible for a player to be voted out based pretty much entirely on bad luck alone.

Justin’s run of horrible luck began after his tribe lost an immunity challenge and learned they would be going to the tribal council. While Justin played a role in his tribe not being immune, things started happening after that which doomed Justin which he had no control over.

First off, the winning tribe chose to send Justin on a journey that he couldn’t refuse. During past journeys, the players had control over whether they succeeded and kept their vote as they often had to complete a puzzle.

However, when Justin was sent on a journey against his will, his vote was put at peril in a game of pure chance. Forcing players to succeed or fail based purely on luck is the kind of twist that most Survivor fans hate.

When Justin was on his journey, he had to roll dice and whether he lost his vote or won an advantage depended on the outcome.

During the journey Justin Pioppi went on, the players had to roll seven dice. If the players rolled four flame emblems, they would be rewarded with an extra vote. However, if the player rolled four skull emblems, they would lose their vote.

Unfortunately for Justin, he eventually rolled four skull emblems and lost his vote. The fact that Justin walked away without a vote played a gigantic role in him being voted out. However, Justin still had to suffer more horrible luck for that to happen.

Even though Justin lost his vote, he should still have been entirely safe. The reason for that is that Justin had built an extremely strong bond with his tribemate Cedrek McFadden, who definitely didn’t want him to leave.

During Survivor 48, Justin Pioppi suffered another horrible piece of luck when he was put on the Vula tribe at the beginning of the season. Clearly a tribe that was a mess, the Vula tribe lost the first three immunity challenges. Despite how poorly his tribe was performing, Justin had social skills that were strong enough to survive three tribal councils if his luck didn’t go horribly awry.

On top of that, Justin was also aligned with Saiounia “Sai” Hughley. If that wasn’t safety enough, Justin, Cedrek, and Sai all wanted Mary Zheng gone, and they were the only four members left of their tribe.

When his tribe went to tribal council, Justin voted for Mary as planned. Sai and Cedrek also followed the plan and cast their votes for Mary. Unfortunately for Justin, however, a stroke of incredibly bad luck for him quickly blew that plan up.

Instead of casting a vote, Mary opted to use her shot-in-the-dark. What should have been a desperation play that made no difference instead ruined Justin’s game when Mary’s was lucky enough to become “SAFE” due to her shot-in-the-dark.

Even after suffering two horrible strokes of luck, Justin unfortunately had more bad fortune that led to his exit.

During the tribal council, Cedrek twice voted against Sai and for Justin to become safe. Cedrek cast those votes because Justin had done the social work to build a strong bond with Cedrek. Importantly, everyone at tribal council knew that Cedrek was the one who was voting against Sai. Then, Sai pleaded to Cedrek to keep her and vote Justin out again. Amazingly enough, Sai’s plea was successful and Justin had his torch snuffed.

Logically speaking, the fact that Cedrek switched his vote and cast Justin out made zero strategic sense. After all, he should have known that Sai would never trust him again after he tried to vote her out twice. It was Justin’s bad luck that his chief ally in the game didn’t see that keeping Sai in the game after twice voting against her was a recipe for failure.

Why Bad Luck Should Have Never Led To Justin Pioppi’s Exit

When Justin Pioppi was voted out, the only way he could have potentially changed things was if he pleaded more to Cedrek McFadden. However, Cedrek seemed to be convinced by Saiounia “Sai” Hughley and any further effort Justin could have made likely would have had no effect. With that in mind, the fact that Justin’s fate was decided almost entirely by bad luck shouldn’t have been possible.

Throughout Survivor history, there have been other players whose fates were decided by bad luck. A perfect example of that is the fact that several players have been forced to be medically evacuated after accidents that were horrible luck.

However, there is one key difference in those past incidents, the game wasn’t designed to make bad luck force their exit.

In Justin’s case, the journey being based only on luck was a decision that was made by the show’s producers. Furthermore, the shot-in-the-dark adds another element of luck and that was also introduced by producers.

Survivor is supposed to be a game based on strategic, social, and physical skills. Seeing how players maneuver by making social and strategic decisions while the physicality of the challenges adds an element of chaos is what makes Survivor so great. However, forcing so many elements of pure luck into the game simply ruins the core concept of Survivor and that needs to stop.