Rocket

Rocket is a contestant on Visionary Survivor: Ring of Fire.

## Ring of Fire Summary

Despite being a self proclaimed villain, Rocket played an incredibly loyal game in the Ring of Fire. Wanting to play a more under the radar game, he purposefully aligned with who he believed to be the strongest social threat on the Nani tribe while downplaying his own social skills. Knowing that the players that get taken out pre-merge usually over or under play, Rocket’s main strategy was to simply ride off the success of Jonathan with the intention of making a move on him later.

With the Nani pre-merge consisting of three rather straightforward votes, Rocket’s game was developing smoothly. After losing the first challenge Rocket initiated a vote against D Noah for costing Nani the challenge and for generally overplaying, but after that elimination Rocket was set in his under the radar play style. As time went on he began to get closer to Lillia and especially Lorelei, two relationships that would become increasingly important throughout the course of the season.

Once the merge came Rocket did his best to paint himself as just another number. With the former Pink tribe members being so divided there was no reason for Rocket to ramp up his gameplay just yet. So for the first few days of the merge Rocket continued reaffirming his relationships with his former Nani tribemates, while also creating new ties with the former Pink tribemates just like any other player would. But while players like Jonathan were taking advantage of the former Pink members dysfunctionality to gain numbers short term, Rocket began setting himself up for his long term game. With Jonathan being such a big player, he knew there weren’t going to be many opportunities to take him out. So discovering at the merge that Lorelei felt the same way was a big boost to his game.

The duo continued to follow Jonathan for the first two votes as Myth was a huge threat, Travis’ confrontation with Axis made it tough to justify keeping him, and the timing of their move was critical and relied on having the right numbers. After Jonathan lost the final eight immunity Lillia, Lorelei and Rocket were ready to make their move. Since Axis had a tight relationship with Jonathan and Nakul was fully invested in going to the final five with the former Nani members, they needed Clasper and Starz to vote with them in order to be successful. Thankfully Lorelei had already established a close relationship with Starz, and Clasper was able to be convinced. Thus, after not playing his idol, Jonathan was successfully blindsided in a 5-3 vote.

Coming off of the big blindside, it was important that the Nani tribe protect their numbers but it was also important that the now trio carved the safest pathway to the end. This prompted Lorelei to target Starz after winning immunity. While Starz hadn’t played a game to develop a threatening status, his under the radar positioning made him a dangerous threat to the trio despite him having such a good relationship with Lorelei. By the final six it was becoming increasingly worrying what Nakul’s true intentions were after he was blindsided by the Jonathan vote. So in order to keep control of the game he became the next target. When Axis tried to save him, he decided to blow up his game instead of taking the risk of forcing a 3-3 tie in the vote. But after his blowup Axis no longer wanted to work with him, which resulted in him being voted out in a vote of 4-2.

After Lorelei won immunity at the final five, Rocket had to play more defensively and aggressively in fear that Lillia might try and make a move with Axis and Clasper. Rocket’s target was Axis this round for two reasons. One, she was targeting him, and two, he knew that Lillia had a close relationship with Axis which would potentially put himself and Lorelei in a difficult spot in the final four. Rocket did his best to convince Clasper to flip on Axis, but it didn’t seem like Clasper was willing or believed that it was in his best interest so Rocket reverted to the initial plan to vote Clasper off. Ironically, Clasper did decide to vote for Axis. But unfortunately for Clasper and Rocket, Clasper was voted off in a 3-1-1 vote.

To pour salt on the wound, Axis ended up winning the final four immunity. Even though Lorelei was pretty much the biggest threat at that point in the game, her social positioning wedged her in between Lillia and Rocket and close to Axis too. Lorelei wanted to force a tie for Rocket, but fearing that she might be blindsided she decided to side with Axis and Lillia to vote out Rocket in a 3-1 vote.