Ron

**R o N** (R o N a T h O n#6969) placed 4th in Season 7.

Starting off as a very paranoid player on Bati, Ron would find himself integrated into the majority alliance by default due to two members essentially throwing the game activity-wise. Despite his head spinning constantly in confessionals, Ron was able to keep it cool socially and avoid being seen as a potential target on his OG Tribe. After the swap, Ron found himself on the Nu Yalo tribe, escaping the “Bati Curse” and receiving the “Yalo Blessing” of not attending Tribal Council. On this tribe, Ron was able to develop a rapport with the OGs of the other two tribes, which would serve him well in the merge. At the merge, the OG Bati were flipped on by the other two tribes and became targets in large part due to their lack of social game with an entire OG faction. Ron was able to escape this fate, as he more than any other OG Bati used his time on a new tribe and early merge chats to form relationships with all players, not just his OGs. This would set him up well in the middle, a position that was quite short-lived before the era of “Ron the Rat” began. The catalyst to all of this was during Nehemiah’s boot, when Ron was informed by Nikki that Nehemiah was actually the target to be blindsided. Ron was against this, having established a lot of trust with Nehemiah and seeing a shield in them, and attempted to shift the target from Nehemiah by informing him that the tribe was after him. This pattern of behavior continued for almost every single vote Ron was a part of in the merge: if he was given the name of the target, he would inform the target. He was also suspected of leaking general targets in general, which led to the entire tribe not trusting him. At the Nikki boot, Ron was initially a deadman walking when “Ron the Rat'' was publicly coined, with Roci leading the entire tribe into a public shitfest on Ron. Almost defeated, Ron considered self voting and throwing in the towel due to the intensity and mercilessness of their taunting, seeing no way out of going home. However, when Sage and Jesse got spooked by the timing of Roci playing her SWOP, the two quickly brought Ron in on a new plan to blindside Nikki for “betraying” them despite their suspicions being false. Ron happily obliged, and for the first time did not Rat the plan and voted with the majority, sending a furious Nikki to the Jury. Ron’s game saw new life, and his gameplay solidified as one of opportunism, taking advantage of the differing agendas and fracturing alliances in the tribe. He was notably able to establish rapport from this with both Sage and Kiri, which would keep him alive in the game over bigger threats. At the Final 5, when three separate players all had immunity, Ron saw his game flashing before his eyes when he had a 50/50 shot of going home. However, Kiri decided to throw a wrench in the majority's plan to “annoy” production, and Ron’s establishing rapport with Kiri came in clutch when Kiri used his extra vote to tie the vote and send Ron and Leo to fire. Ron completely destroyed Leo in firemaking, setting a new record for the highest score in general and living to see another day. After failing to win the Final 4 immunity challenge, Ron was initially set to survive all the way to the Final 3, where unbeknownst to him the Jury was actually warming up to hearing about how he was able to survive after such a brutal callout at Tribal Council rounds prior. However, the tribe flipped on him when Dylan realized Ron may steal some of his votes at TC over Kiri, and Sage did not see a way to tie the vote “for fun” as he initially intended to. For this reason, Ron was finally sent to the Jury in a 3-1 vote due to actually being a threat to people this time instead of just as an “annoyance.” He is remembered for his unconventional gameplay, and surprising opportunistic gameplay despite it being his very first ORG.