Jake

**Jake** was a contestant of SurviVARs: Wildemount.

## **Profile**

**Discord:** LordMufflebuns

**Gender:** he/him

**Timezone:** PST

Jake was one of the most consistent players of the season, in many ways. He was consistently a big presence, consistent in confessionals, consistently well-positioned, and consistently fun to host. He very nearly won it all, and for a while was the front contender in a cast full of big contenders. He started the game on Lionette, where he was the first kingpin of his tribe. While Dongoosh and Roman were scrambling for idols, Jake was building social relationships that allowed him complete control over the group (but not in an obvious way). When Famine and Shaun switched tribes, almost nothing changed for Jake. There was no world in which Jake would have gone home pre-swap, even if his tribe had lost immunity (which they never did).

The swap got off to a rocky start for Jake thanks to his choice of opening lines with Lavinia and his other new tribemates. Jake only had Dongoosh from OG Brenatto on this tribe, and tribe lines would definitely matter in this group. Several players were itching to weaken Brenatto so that they didn’t enter the merge with 6 players, and this could’ve been bad for Jake since Dongoosh had connections with Orange that could keep him safe. When the tribe was given the chance to draw from the Deck of Many Things, Dongoosh and Jake plotted to get a card for themselves. While everyone else self-voted (or at least claimed to, since Danger pulled a similar strategy), Dongoosh and Jake sent votes to Dongoosh and allowed him to draw the Flames card. This wound up being more of a hindrance than a benefit, but it showed that Jake was willing to be sneaky when necessary.

After the Thanos round, Nydoorin was sent to Tribal Council where the tribe lines became clear. It looked like it would be two tribes teaming up to take out the third, and Jake’s social game was paying off. Lavinia and Sindira were the least active members of the tribe, so it made the choice easier for Orange to align Clay with Brenatto instead of with Lionette despite his connection to Danger. Jake was also hitting it off swimmingly with Riley, which would prove to be a key alliance for him down the line. When Danger proposed a 3-3 split against Jake and Dongoosh, Orange drew a hard line in the sand and went with Riley’s plan to blindside Danger. Jake and Dongoosh were happy to get on board since it meant saving themselves. Danger tried to spread some rumors to get Jake and Dongoosh to flip on each other, but this just reinforced the target on his back.

When they swapped again, Jake and Orange switched tribes with Shaun and Lars, but this was great for Jake. He almost immediately got his kingpin power back, with Roman, Aowyn, and Orange at his side. They won the first challenge, but then was forced into Tribal Council thanks to the double tribal twist. People threw out Roman’s name as a threat, but ultimately they decided to go with the easier boot and sent Bella home instead.

Jake entered the merge with almost no threat level, despite his incredible social game. He was the only player who had shared a tribe with each and every other castaway, and he did what he needed to make sure these relationships were cemented. He reunited with key allies like Riley, while locking in his trust with players like Dongoosh and Aowyn. For the first two rounds, Jake was able to send home two of the only players he wasn’t very close to, meaning he was at the very top of the social pecking order by the time we got to the tricky votes. This was necessary for him, because his name was starting to be thrown out as a theoretical blindside target. It was his solid social core that prevented these ideas from being anything more than theoretical.

At the Auction, Jake was able to snag a challenge advantage that he decided to save for a key moment. It wasn’t long after this that Dongoosh told Jake about Sparky’s idol over VC, which Jake immediately shared with Aowyn (a trend that would continue to the very end of the season). Dongoosh made a key mistake here when he told Jake that he wanted to have Sparky play his idol to send Aowyn home, not realizing how close Jake and Aowyn had become. Jake started leaking info and trying to fight this, but this leaking upset Roman and caused a rift in what had been a solid alliance until then. As the plan changed over and over again, Sparky announced publicly that he would be idoling out Jake, causing a counter-alliance to form between Orange, Jake, Riley and Flower (against the alliance of Roman, Sparky, Aowyn, and Ano). This was the only time that Aowyn and Jake would be on opposite sides of a vote, but the pipeline of information never closed. Jake proved to be one of the most influential players of this round (maybe not for the best reasons) when he leaked to Aowyn that Roman was the real target (mostly pushed by Orange) despite the fake plan of a split between Flower and Sparky. When they all sent their votes towards Roman, she was able to idol, and Orange was sent home instead.

Jake’s name was still out there as a target, but his relationship with Aowyn was proving to be his saving grace, as she prevented the “other side” from actually targeting him. After ending up on the bottom of the prior vote, Jake decided to use his challenge advantage to walk away with a W here, narrowly stealing a victory from Dongoosh (and directly leading to the circumstances that would send him home). Ano surprisingly decided to use their crab tank to grab Jake and have an seafloor safety party, meaning that Jake was powerless despite his immunity. He returned to a tribe in shambles, with Dongoosh dead, Aowyn in tears, and Sparky and Roman somehow still alive and kicking.

When Sparky won immunity, Jake immediately decided that it was in his best interest to side with Flower and Riley against Roman, leaving Aowyn and Ano as swing votes. Once again, his connection to Aowyn had a huge effect on the game, and they were able to pull in the swings to send Roman home. She sent a stray vote to Jake in order to ruin his perfect game, but he was in an okay spot once again. Unfortunately, the time for hiding was over, and Jake was starting to be seen as one of the biggest threats in the game. He had several paths to the end, diehard allies like Riley and Aowyn, and an excellent narrative for FTC.

Flower was eyeballing Jake with bloodlust in his heart, and started plotting to get him sent home. Meanwhile Riley was wanting to target Aowyn because she knew that she would never flip on Jake (or vice versa) and she didn’t want that to hurt her down the line. Riley won the loved ones Immunity challenge, and pulled in Jake, Ano, and Aowyn for a “Flower blindside,” neglecting to share that she had given Flower her idol and that Aowyn was actually meant to go home. Aowyn struggled to believe why Riley would flip on Flower, though, so she went to Jake and Ano and begged for them to vote for Sparky instead so that they could cover in case of an idol. This wound up being the only thing that saved Jake, because Flower had pulled in Sparky for a Jake blindside after using Riley’s idol to save himself. This resulted in a 2-2 split between Jake and Sparky, and, with Aowyn and Riley both in the revote, Jake was safe.

At this point, Jake was loyal to a fault when it came to Aowyn and Riley. He believed Riley’s lies about where her advantage had come from, and when Ano won immunity (again) it looked like Flower was the clear target. However, Flower made the only pitch he could, and he made it well. He pointed out to Ano and Riley that Aowyn and Jake would never turn on each other in a F4, which was absolutely true. Ano flipped pretty easily, but for Riley this would be devastating. Still, she was playing to win, and she did what she needed to do. Jake was blindsided with a 3-2 vote, coming 5th in a season of legendary players.

Jake had a lot of control in this game, but was smart about when he chose to exercise it. He didn’t have a threat level until the very end, because of how well he hid how clean his game had been. He lasted 25 days before his name was written down, a record that was only beaten by Ano. He weaponized social relationships (especially with players like Riley and Aowyn) better than anyone else, and was able to survive a few really tricky situations thanks to them. Aside from the strength of his game, he was an EXCELLENT character, and was always chill, funny, and active as could be. He walked away with nominations for Hero, Funniest Player, Player of the Game, and Best Duo (with Riley, although he was this close to also earning a nomination alongside Aowyn), and his downfall was nominated for Best Move. He won the coveted Voice of the Season award, and was only a vote or two away from winning our most competitive Fan Favorite award yet. His awards speak for themselves to tell you how big of a presence Jake was on this cast and in this season, and I wouldn’t have replaced him with anybody else. He added so much to this experience, and it was my honor to have him as a part of it.

### **Nominations**

**Hero**

Jake was definitely what you could define as a Survivor hero, from a couple of perspectives. From a character point of view, he was always kind and respectful (even though he could have a savage sense of sarcasm) and was overall just a really likable and rootable guy. But from a gameplay perspective, he was also a very loyal and honorable player. He had a lot of power, especially in the endgame, but he never really abused this or manipulated others for his own gain. Also, like a lot of great Survivor heroes, he met his end at the ends of a great Survivor villain in Riley, and her betrayal became one of the main turning points in the game and was a main move that allowed her the title in the end. Jake was a lot of fun to watch in this season, and was definitely one of the most heroic presences we had.

**Funniest Player**

Jake’s humor is… unique. I think that’s a good way to put it. For people who didn’t already know Jake, his first impression in this season was built from the one-liners he opened his first DM’s with, and they received a mixed response. This also applies to his What Do You Meme captions, which involved wet dreams, a presidential assassination, furries, and orbeez shoved up his ass. They weren’t for everyone, which is why he didn’t win the challenge, but on god I was cackling. Divisive as it may be, this just adds to his unique charm, and he deserves recognition for that.

**Best Duo (With Riley)**

From the moment these two met, they were a duo. They clicked on a very personal level that’s always really special to see in an ORG, and when they were separated by a swap it was really sweet to watch them both lament the loss. In the merge, they were careful not to seem too close while actively leaking everything they could back and forth b between each other. This single conduit of information may be the most important relationship to Riley’s winning game, and allowed her to stay on top of all sides of the game even when her social game was waning with certain players. Jake and Riley made up for each other’s shortcomings, and they had a secret death grip on this game that was only obvious to the spectators. Top this off with an epic blindside at the relationship’s conclusion (adding in that this was the move that ultimately freed Riley up to win the game) and they’re cemented as a duo that will go down in SurviVARS history.

**Player of the Game**

Jake’s game is one of my favorites, because I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Jake was simultaneously seen as one of the biggest threats in the game, while also seeing himself as completely powerless. Like Aowyn, Jake didn’t always realize how important he was. Players like Ano, Aowyn, and Riley really valued Jake as an ally, and they fought hard to protect him from players like Sparky who were gunning for him. Everyone on the cast either loved Jake and wanted to protect him, or saw how much everyone loved Jake and wanted to target him. His social game is one of the most effortless I’ve seen, and it let him cruise to Final Five with more control than he realized, solely by his social influence. Final Six proved this, when he was caught in a tie and saved unanimously by the tiebreaker votes. As everyone told him how threatening he was, he would just run to his confessional and ask why. Well, Jake, I’ll tell you why. You held your own in a cast of hugely likable players, without gaining any sort of target despite a whole lot of power and influence. Your elimination was maybe the most heartbreaking of the season, and the people who voted for you despite their adoration for you can attest to that. With an endgame as competitive as this one was, I can’t say for certain that Jake would’ve won at FTC, but he at least would have come pretty damn close.

**Fan Favorite**

Jake is a seasoned player who has been around the block for a while, and it’s easy to see why he’s so consistently successful, but also why he hasn’t won yet. Jake’s game and his personality are pretty inseparable. He’s charismatic but in a very non-threatening way, which (somehow) made him the most threatening person on the cast! It’s hard not to love him, but this also makes him a threat just by being present. He’ll be the first to tell you that this was a very lowkey game by his own standards, yet he became a huge endgame contender and was at one point the frontrunner to win it all. He has a lot of charm, and even when some of his DM openers put him in hot water, it seemed like he was able to immediately capture his tribemates right back and they came to love him as much as the rest of us did. He made a deep run, kicked ass, made us all laugh and smile along the way, and we’re all better off for it.

### **Awarded**

**Best Move (The Dongoosh Clusterfuck)**

This move was chaos incarnate, and there was certainly a lot of BS involved here. Yet, looking at it closely, a lot of people played this round really well. Jake played his advantage at the perfect time, and wound up winning immunity because of it. Ano was very smart to use their SWOP and remove Jake from the game, leaving their alliance with a lot of control. Riley was able to save her idol thanks to her relationship with Flower, who was able to use his mimic idol thanks to his relationship with Orange. Flower and Riley expertly navigated Roman’s Throne card that allowed her see parchments, changing Riley’s vote (and Aowyn’s, since Flower had lost his vote to the mimic idol) at the last second to prevent Roman from knowing they were trying to blindside her and Sparky. Roman easily got Sparky to play his idol after seeing them change their votes, a testament to her social game with Sparky. Roman threw a rogue vote onto Riley in order to cover for an idol play (which was a good read even if she threw it into the wrong direction). Only two votes counted in this Tribal Council despite 8 players being in the game, and this was a testament to everyone having good reads, playing advantages at the perfect time, and all moving optimally to try to outplay each other. Dongoosh was the ultimate casualty, and it was heartbreaking to see, but this was still top notch gameplay across the board.

**Voice of the Season**

Jake was arguably our most active confessionalist, which is really saying something in a season this stacked and active. He may not have had eloquent tales like Dongoosh, or hilarious graphics like Sparky, but the quality of his constant updates never wavered. Jake played a key role in this season as a hub of flowing information, and a lot of people were leaking to and through him, especially after the merge. With how much leaking happened, I personally had to rely on Jake’s confessionals a lot when writing my recaps in order to know who was telling what to who. He shared everything he could, and did it in a very organized and consistent way. If not for Jake, a lot of this game’s more confusing rounds may have been impossible to follow. I always respect a good confessionalist, but I have to give Jake credit for being a great confessionalist.