So I've been watching a couple past seasons of the show...
I finished watching B.Heydik (or whatever his name is) and honestly I didn't think he played THAT great of a game. I didn't see the very last episode or the reunion, but I saw all the other episodes. He doesn't even really start to strategize until half way thorough. I don't consider him to be a top 5 survivor at all.
I'm half way through Survivor Fiji, which was S14 from 2007. Honestly, I think they were on to something with this one. One of the tribes damn near starved and they kept mixing up the tribes. On the last episode they even split them into two teams after the merge for an immunity challenge and then sent the losers to tribal IMMEDIATELY with no time to strategize at all. They have kept everyone on the move all season and some of them have really had to struggle with the environment. That's how the show SHOULD be. It should be you having to function during challenges and in a social environment WHILE you're also struggling with your basic needs. The show coddles them too much now...I don't know if something happened or what, but this is more my idea of how the game should be played. One team was having to lick the dew off of plant leaves because they were unable to get fire going for a day or two and couldn't boil their water. THAT'S survivor...