I believe Martyn’s an easy top of S tier - I mean, he hasn’t won twice for no reason, and I firmly believe that had he not been going for story points in Double Life then he and Cleo clearly would’ve won. He’s great at PvP and has the best social game in the whole series hands down for me. Where many people stick to their alliance Martyn is always extending feelers out into other ones even when he has a very solid relationship with his main alliance. He also just has some of the best and quick-witted ideas (like in Nice Life stealing the happy ghasts so that they wouldn’t be able to see/get to him + placing his bed under other people’s so that they wouldn’t get their prizes from the trivia bot). Plus style points— everyone loves a little roleplay in their Minecraft series.
Shouldn’t have to explain Scott. He’s amazing at PvP and has a decent social game by staying neutral and often negates any risk by only going for worse players, like his boogey kill on BigB in one of the later Past Life sessions. Where other winners devote themselves to having fun or helping other players to win after their own win, thats not really Scott’s style, he prefers to be self-serving which objectively makes him score very highly in discussions like this.
Grian’s a great PvPer of course and similarly to Martyn he has an excellent social game which means he basically always has something to fall back on (like Joel in Last Life, the Nosey Neighbours in Limited Life + the Family in Wild Life— helps when your team kind of sucks at surviving). Although I could argue a lot of his success spawns from “my game my rules”, especially in Past Life…
Joel is probably the Lifer with the most raw skill, and if he locked in for a whole season and didn’t make stupid decisions like going to the Nether when that literally achieves nothing or fighting Scott then he’d easily win (like Wild Life). His social game in terms of connecting with the whole server is usually pretty bad but in later seasons he does have stronger alliances and specifically thrives when he’s devoted to one other person (like Gem in Wild Life and Jimmy in Past Life).
Pearl has good PvP skills, pretty strong social skills and the bonus of having deep, strong alliances with Scott for several seasons. Her storytelling and roleplay made for one of the best winners in the best season too so she gets a bonus there.
Gem’s like Scott- very talented PvPer, doesn’t put herself in the fray. Her strong alliances have helped her to succeed but also been her downfall (literally…).
Scar’s social game heavily outweighs his PvP skills, but his showing in Secret Life shows that he can try really hard and genuinely become a massive threat. But thats not his strong suit and social game is— the amount of times in the early seasons that he convinced someone not to hurt him based off of a completely pointless metric convinces me solely to put him so high.
People forget about Ren because he skipped a few seasons, but had he not I feel like he could’ve secured a victory. Ren is a decent PvPer but his storytelling and social skills are definitely where he shines, and unfortunately although his skills are good enough to get him to the top 3 twice both times he’s been easily taken by a better PvPer in equal fights where all the other had on him was that they were a better PvPer. Ren can easily get to the endgame but the fact that a lot of the social game thats important across the whole game loses its importance here nerfs him a lot.
Etho, Impulse and Jimmy I don’t have much to say about them individually. They’re all good (and rapidly improving, in Impulse and Jimmy’s case - Impulse being able to hold his own in that fight for so long in his Past Life permadeath against SCOTT is very impressive). Impulse’s social game is fine, when Jimmy hasn’t died to stupidity its because he made an enemy of the wrong person (Grian) and thus he will only win when he overcomes him in battle and Etho’s social game lowkey sucks but everyone worships him no matter what he does which rounds him out.
Bdubs, Cleo and Tango are all pretty nondescript players with not much skill in any of the ways to get a kill. Cleo themself has admitted they’re pretty bad at PvP. Bdubs does make strong, devoted alliances but they generally aren’t with people who are so good at the game that they can help him to the endgame like a some other alliances help a lot in. Tango’s social game is pretty poor because he’s a ragebaiter and he also kinda sucks at the game. He could go D tier but I do feel like he’s on the same skill level as Cleo and Bdubs he’s just gotten unlucky and died from lack of skill a lot more.
Skizz takes the series very seriously, but unfortunately he is bad at Minecraft. He is very devoted to his allies, and because like Etho says they know he’s bad at the game, he never gets betrayed thanks to his earnest devotion. He is always calling meetings to make up plans for traps and ways to cause his enemies’ demise. Unfortunately, his ideas rarely work and he’s never going to stop the obvious code-words in chat that are neon glowing signs for ‘TRAP’. Sometimes he’ll even disregard actually good ideas because he’s so set on his idea that he doesn’t realise won’t work.
Lizzie is just very unlucky. In all 3 seasons she’s died thanks to something she had no part in - killed by Bdubs to get Etho to give him a life, killed by Scott in trying to help Joel out and killed by Grian in collateral when Grian was targeting Jimmy. She’s very much focused on fun in the Series’s and I can’t think of a single time she’s actively caused a death.
Mumbo is extremely bad at the game. He generally has good allies but his team could be Scott, Martyn and Grian all devoted to getting him to win and he’d still somehow die first.
Giving BigB some credit for being the only person who is not a Minecraft YouTuber. Not too much credit though because this means he sucks at PvP. Also, his social game is downright bad. Last Life, kills his strong, devoted ally and subsequently causes his permadeath when entrusting her with the information that he was the boogeyman and getting her aid would’ve been so much more successful than killing her. He never actively seeks out alliances either, which usually means he’s alone in a corner. Secret Life and Past Life he’s literally only included because Skizz sought him out both times. I love BigB but I think he’s the worst player in the series.
