How I Pulled Off The Biggest Move In Surviving Barstool History
*SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 1 OF SURVIVING BARSTOOL BELOW. STOP READING IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED YET AND CATCH UP ABOVE*
Did you guys really think the greatest player in Barstool Reality Show history would just lay over and die on Night 1? Come on now. I saw all the tweets. I saw all the comments. I saw all the odds. "Tommy will definitely be out first." "Tommy has no shot against this crew." "No way Tommy survives a single vote." Whoops!
Look I knew there was a massive target on my back coming into this game. I won Surviving Barstool Season 1. I won Most Dangerous Gameshow Season 1. I'm a Survivor superfan. About half the cast has said they would vote me out first if they ever played against me. So going into this, I figured my odds of going out first were high. Those odds only increased with the tribe split. Big Cat, PFT, Jerry, and Rico figured to be a strong foursome with me, Dave, and Gaz on the outs.
My only chance was to find an idol. And well.... I found an idol. Luckily for me, we decided to do a group idol hunt as soon as the game started. I was weary of hunting for an idol right away and putting a target on my back, but us doing it all together prevented that from happening. I looked for about a half hour before I found it under the dog's asshole in Erika's office. Apparently PFT and KFC both looked at it before I did and just didn't see it somehow. More proof God is a Smokes fan.
When we lost the challenge, I figured I'd have to play it. In an ideal world we could vote for someone else and I could save it, but that clearly wasn't happening. PFT straight up told me he was voting for me. Big Cat and Jerry made it obvious they were voting for me. Rico tried to get a group against Gaz but the numbers weren't there for that and Gaz was my ally. I couldn't risk going home with an idol in my pocket and wanted to prove everyone wrong who said I'd be out Night 1.
So I told Dave and Gaz about my idol as a show of trust and so that we could use it to our advantage. Everyone else putting their votes on me was fine because that just meant we'd be the ones who control the vote. We came together and realized our best play was to take out Big Cat. He was the leader of his alliance and has a lot of friends and influence. Taking out the head of their alliance was our best shot to shake up the tribal dynamics. I was also personally worried about a "rich person" alliance forming so taking out a rich guy first made sense for my game.
I guess some are saying this was one of the best moves they've ever seen on reality TV? And that it cements my legacy as the GOAT of Barstool competitions? And maybe even puts me up there with the all time greats across all reality TV? And that no matter what happens, this season is a win for me even if I go out next? And that they've gone from rooting against me to rooting for me because they can't help but respect me at this point?
I guess that's what people are saying or whatever.
Shoutout to the editors who did an incredible job putting this together. It was the absolute perfect reveal that felt like a scene from Ocean's 11. Might have been the best 84 minutes of content in Barstool history and we're only one episode in.
Tune into Episode 2 tonight at 8 PM ET to see what's next.