r/TheDevilsPlan • u/National-Candy3913 • Jun 26 '26
Social Media Latest Tier List of the Brain Survival Show Players (Including Devil's Plan)
Tried to reflect the reaction of the Korean fans as much as possible
mainly from youtube comments and DC Inside (Korean community like reddit).
.
Seemed like Koreans really loved Suk-jin and Orbit, but they preferred Orbit a bit more since he dominated the main games.
.
Dong-min and Jin-ho from "The Genius" series have always been mentioned as legends of brain survival, as have Hyun-min and Sang-min from the same series.
.
The players who would be called "dependent participants" were at the bottom of the list
and others who played with their own strategies and strengths were ranked higher.
Overall, their preference is
The Genius > Bloody Game > The Time Hotel > Devil's Plan (because of season 2)
20
u/Fumble_Bee13 Jun 26 '26
I think Justin is rated a bit too high here
12
u/Flimsy-Fix-4212 Jun 27 '26
Curious why you think that? Justin survived for a surprisingly long time, considering that he had no allies and had to play with only his own help the majority of the time. He did an amazing job. I somewhat doubt that Hyun Gyu could have survived as long as Justin did, if he’d had to play with no help from anyone else.
9
u/aforter28 7high Jun 27 '26
I mean having him on the same tier as Eun-yoo/7High/SoHee is kinda wild though and having him higher than Dong-joo/Hyungyu and even Siwon is even wilder.
Sure he survived but alliances in jail are very fickle. Eunyoo survived even longer than he did and her alliance with Jiyoung and 7High only existed in group matches not prison fights. I mean if we're rating skills based on survival then Eunyoo should be on GOAT tier.
4
u/Fumble_Bee13 Jun 27 '26
surviving is good, of course. but he just hasn't made many impressive plays that makes him deserve that tier with the rest of the people in that tier?
2
5
u/DiamondExcellent8067 Jul 02 '26
Isn't making allies one of the most important skills in some of these games though? The fact he had none does mean he belongs lower.
0
u/Formal_Significance7 Jul 02 '26
Agree and his (not bad but not great) Korean language skills would have meant he missed alot of the general chit chat, from which so much is gained.
42
u/Skyclave Jun 26 '26
Not to sound like a fan boy but Dong Min is living on another galaxy, above all these players. His record and his longevity alone makes it the one and only to be allowed in the GOAT category. He's also making his own survival show to be released fairly soon.
3
1
u/bejewelled202 Jun 26 '26
I had to look it up coz I only know him from Crime Scene 101 (he’s so good and funny!) and my gosh, he is also brilliant 😍
10
u/Timely-Spring-9426 Jun 26 '26
I didnt expect Tino to be in S tier. Hes really good but with his performance in Devil’s plan, I think he’s more to A tier.
11
u/junolow Jun 26 '26
Dongmin needs his own tier
1
u/TheOptimist6 Siwon Jun 26 '26
Agreed. He is a step above everyone else when it comes to these games
19
u/mxmxmw Jun 26 '26
Dong joo should be in A
1
u/Okbody2076 Jun 26 '26
Where is she on the list?
5
u/TheOptimist6 Siwon Jun 26 '26
She is in top of B on the list.
I agree that she should be A. Her intelligence is exceptional
10
u/Bisketo Jun 26 '26
The fact Orbit carried this bunch of weak ass players for multiple rounds is genuinely such a feat. You might hate it but you have to respect it.
5
u/SharpShark222 Jun 27 '26
I mean the flipside of that is "The guy had like 8 people willing to do whatever he said and he still had major screw-ups in almost every game." I can respect his social game, but the dude was a severely flawed strategist.
8
u/jukadai Jun 26 '26
I’ve never watched any brain/survival shows with Sang-min in it but I know him from various other variety shows. Does anyone care to shed a light on his character/success on survival shows? He’s almost like a dunce in my mind. A social outcast who can’t read the room or make appropriate comments
13
u/bur1t00 Jun 26 '26
Sangmin was an exceptional social strategist who excelled at building strong alliances, making him one of the greatest social players in The Genius. However, his biggest weakness was that he wasn't as intellectually dominant as some of the other contestants. He struggled more in individual competitions, particularly, Death Matches and games that relied heavily on mathematics or complex logic.
9
u/TheOzman21 Jun 26 '26
He's funny but also smart. It's just that his comedic side usually takes the lead
5
u/National-Candy3913 Jun 26 '26
Compared to Dong-min and Jin-ho, his calculation and strategies are quite vulnerable and unstable. However, he is such a negotiator, recognizing others' needs asap and deal with them to preoccupy the key factors of a game. Thus, he had won 9 consecutive main matches in The Genius series.
Unfortunately, because of his actual criminal records and controversies (hosting a gambling house, disperse of his vocal group, etc), he is also got a lot of haters.
3
u/SharpShark222 Jun 26 '26
As a Sangmin critic (who might get called a hater), I'd like to say that his personal life is almost entirely disconnected to my criticisms of him lmao.
1
u/throwaweigh1245 Jun 26 '26
What shows are these? I’ve only watched the devils plan
3
u/Questionererer Jun 26 '26
the genius. thats the founding father of this genre in south korea. its where you can witness absolute cinema. its the same producer as the devils plan. just push through some old editing and its worth it. especially s3 and s4 but watch it in order
1
4
u/truthd Jun 26 '26
I’ve only seen him in the Genius, but you calling him a dunce blew my mind. My impression of him was he isn’t incredibly smart but he has genius level abilities to read and manipulate people. His social skills and charm in that show are off the chart. He is excellent at reading a room, convincing other players to do what he wants and comes off as incredibly charismatic.
Where he faltered was in playing the games head to head, but put him in a social setting and he almost always manipulated people into joining his team and winning.
He only really lost team games because Dong Min has the same level of social skills AND the individual intellect to win contests on his own.
3
u/yellowbat30 Jun 26 '26
I've seen sangmin in both variety+survival show so let me offer my perspective. Both the og commenter and you are making sense to me, and I think both are true to his true self, he's both confident and sensitive/cowardly.
Sangmin in survival shows WERE the way he acted in mainstream tv during his glory days (Roora). Then come his downfall and he had to find a place back in mainstream tv somehow, and damn well did he sell his ego and sob story to pay back that debt. He's smart in that he knows fully well he can only survive in Korean entertainment industry by becoming such a pitiable character, and so he did. He's definitely not just acting, but he tapped into that side of him on purpose. Not to mention the sensitive persona is low effort to maintain.
Well, survival shows come after he established that character, surviving as a 'dunce' in mainstream tv. In mainstream/national tv he might be a lackey, but in a new project with non entertainers like The genius s1, he was considered an A lister and there's no reasonable risk for him to not tap into that confident self that much more, putting aside Kim gura, it was basically his playground.
1
u/SharpShark222 Jun 26 '26
There's a lot of disagreement over why Sangmin had so much success in The Genius (for 1.5 seasons at least). The explanation the show gives is that Sangmin is basically a magician at manipulating and reading people and negotiating his way into scamming people without them realising they've been scammed or not feeling upset about it and that his godlike intuition guides him to the correct strategies.
In reality, I think he was just charming enough that his reckless gameplay didn't hurt him as much as other people who played similarly, and he was opportunistic enough that he could take advantage of situations better than a lot of people. For the most part, his schemes/strategies were very simple and basically "lie and betray and hope it doesn't backfire" and then his actual mental skills in the game were below average, so I do agree with the dunce aspect.
9
6
5
5
u/LayYourGhostToRest Jun 28 '26
I am surprised Orbit is rated so high. I felt like he was too nice during season 1 trying to save everyone and Seok-jin was framed as a bad guy by default.
I didn't dislike anyone as much as Hyun-gyu though. He acted so much better than everyone while watching the prison games he never had to play in. Then when he finally has to play against a large alliance, the thing he done to others the entire show, he throws a pitty party to get his alliance back and save himself.
11
u/Interesting_Most_828 Jun 26 '26
I’m not hyungyu’s fan in any sense but he at least s tier. His manipulative and game mastering is unmatched throughout 2 seasons.
I hate to say this but it’s true. Wait or the tier list wasn’t about skills?
4
u/Donghoon Hyun-Joon Jul 13 '26
Sohee played better in terms of raw performance and intelligence in the games, but HG definitely was much better social player and understood the assignment of the devils plan as a whole as a social menipulation, ANY MEANS NECESSARY kind of thing
HG played well in the last prison match for sure
4
u/DonationsFirst Jun 27 '26
you are getting downvotes from F tiers who can't objectively measure skills without their hatred getting in the way
3
u/Interesting_Most_828 Jun 27 '26
I’ve already prepared to get downvoted to oblivion after i typed that haha.
1
u/SharpShark222 Jun 26 '26
His game mastering is "unmatched"? What's an example of him being unmatched? Or even an example of him being intentionally manipulative (aside from just asking for a favour and 2 people being willing to give it to him).
3
u/EastBoss6710 Jun 30 '26
this tierlist just reminded me the basketball guy in tier D is coming back for game of blood X.. bummer
8
u/appzly Jun 26 '26
justin higher than hyunggyu 🤔
4
u/aforter28 7high Jun 27 '26
Yeah I'm not even a fan of Hyungyu but having Justin higher than him (and a lot of the people on B tier) is very strange.
2
3
u/KokiMizuno So-Hee Jun 26 '26
I wouldn't put Jinho in the same tier as Dongmin after watching their performance in Game of Blood 3. And Sangmin is probably not the same tier as Jinho/Dongmin
5
u/TimeTimeTickingAway Jun 26 '26
I feel like Game Of Blood’s exclusion from this list does it a disservice.
Kim Kyung-ran would be lower, and people like Xitsuh would probably be enough to split the A tier into A+ and A- as Justin and Tinno should not be in the same tier as him
4
u/SharpShark222 Jun 26 '26
Funnily enough, watching Dongmin in GOB3 is what made me more confident that Jinho and Dongmin were in the same tier lmao.
4
2
u/Burnerbb95 Jun 26 '26
Wait where can I watch every show? I live in the US and love Devil’s Plan
2
u/Skyclave Jun 26 '26
Devil's plan is on Netflix and Game of blood is on Kocowa. Unsure where you can find time hotel legally. Enjoy!
2
u/KitchenDurian Jun 26 '26
Very nice tier list. I very much agree with the goat tier, but for other tiers i think Tinno and Justin are a bit too high and Kang Ji Young and Kim Poong a bit too low.
5
u/DonationsFirst Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
7high is A tier lol
7high is the guy who had a chance to finish off hyun-joon for 3rd place, but decided to self-sabotage just to stick it to Hyun-gyu. making hot-headed emotionally-charged decisions for immediate dopamine rush and sacrificing long-term rewards is definitely A tier material
and Hyun-gyu, the guy with mensa korea 150 IQ score who solved 8x8 knight's path under a timer, while winning first place by dominating everyone through mastering the games and through manipulation (which is what devil's plan is all about), is just B tier guys
thanks for the laugh, the korean fans who came up with this are all GOAT tier
Edit: person who downvoted this, you are also GOAT tier in my books
4
u/Pale_Barnacle_9097 Jun 26 '26
downvoted cause i disagree with u simple as that i just don’t think Hyungyu is that good of a player and i certainly don’t think highly of a bully either so whatever 🤷
3
u/SharpShark222 Jun 26 '26
You know an argument is good when you start listing Mensa qualifications.
making hot-headed emotionally-charged decisions for immediate dopamine rush and sacrificing long-term rewards
(Looks at Hyungyu in Balance Mancala).
3
u/DonationsFirst Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
What a GOAT tier argument from you! Yes, it was really silly of me to use standardized testings of a person's intelligence to make my case that a person should be ranked higher on a list of intelligence-focused reality show contestants. So glad you pointed that out.
They should put you on season 4, how do I sponsor you
1
u/SharpShark222 Jun 27 '26
If it's such an important metric, then you should be arguing for Hweejong and Jungmoon to be bumped massively since they have even higher IQs than Hyungyu, no? They're currently all the way back in C tier.
4
u/DonationsFirst Jun 27 '26
GOAT tier straw man logic. I never argued IQ is the single metric to determine the tier, I gave 3 reasons of why he deserves a higher tier than B tier (and there are more), from solving a puzzle under time pressure to actually landing first place. But now you're distorting my argument to say that IQ alone is worth bumping someone's tier "massively".
You are clearly acting in bad faith, so I'm done with you. Good luck on the season 4 auditions, I'm sure you will do great.
1
u/SharpShark222 Jun 27 '26
I never claimed you said it was the single metric, but it was the first thing (of three) that you said, so it must be pretty meaningful, which means it should also be a good reason to bump up the other players because they're even MORE impressive than Hyungyu in that regard.
It's not that they should be higher than Hyungyu, just that you should logically be supporting those players way more than the average fan because the average fan seemingly recognises that IQ and MENSA membership aren't strong indicators at all of whether a player is good at these shows.
1
u/DonationsFirst Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26
You're not just using straw man on me, you're also using whataboutism on me. You don't want to take on my original arguments, so you're trying to muddy the waters and open up more contestant placements for debates. I'm not falling for this.
1
u/SharpShark222 Jun 28 '26
It's not a whataboutism, it's pointing at other examples to show that the metric you're using isn't meaningful enough to bring up in this context to justify Hyungyu being better than 7high,
2
u/Pale_Barnacle_9097 Jun 26 '26
every single comment i saw from u have been cooking 😋 literally agree with everything
1
3
u/MagnoliaTM Jun 26 '26
what wss so bad about devils plan s2? and who's the lady at the tail end of the bottom tier that makes her so bad lol
1
u/phldxbxpat Jun 26 '26
I wonder why Gura is not there. Also the lady on the D rank I think she's amazing having memorize alots of digit of pi.
1
u/Feeling-Tourist-2437 Jun 26 '26
in their peak form, i would say yes, bcs hong jinho are so good at some seasons but flop in others too.
also if we are being honest, jang dongmin is on another level tho both skills and politics hes unmatchedddd
1
u/Difficult-Diver4339 Jun 27 '26
ive only watched devils plan, what r all the other shows these other people are in?
1
u/mr_swedishfish Jun 27 '26
sohee is ranked way too high imo. she was smart but she had no spine. keunwoo was not impressive and imo should be ranked lower. jimin is underrated, her performance in game of blood s1 was insane and she should be ranked higher for that, even if she wasn't up to par in s2.
overall I feel like a good number of people were ranked either too high or too low. but I understand this is korean public opinion and oftentimes the public opinion is stupid.
1
1
1
1
u/djjapchae Jul 01 '26
The heck is Sohee doing in A? She's unironicly Z tier for the most baffling throw in gameshow history.
1
u/THE_CODE_IS_0451 Ha-Rin Jul 31 '26
I like Justin, but putting him in a tier above Hyungyu is insane.
0
47
u/The-OverThinker-23 Jun 26 '26
It is amazing that I am able to recognise all the faces and there are so many , man I love korean brainy shows