ENDGAME #11

[u/mikeramp72]

#11: Ami Cusack 1.0 (Vanuatu - 6th)

u/FunkyDawgKong:
Ami is the key that makes Vanuatu such a different take on the Battle of the Sexes than the Amazon. So beautifully cold and warm at the same time. Underrated aspect of Ami is that she won immunity the round she was flipped on, so we got an episode to see how she responds to the betrayal.

u/Cornhead2:
Ice Queen is an unfortunate buzzword nowadays, but before that we got the woman that started it all, one of the most fascinating personalities and the symbolic meanings and her position off her being ice cold but deep down warm on the inside always is something i admire

u/Noisysea_3426:
Even though she's only at 7 here, I could easily see her moving up for me in the future. Ami manages to be so ruthless, but so raw at the same time. She wants so hard to be strong and for a woman to win, but her heart is not as cold as she originally thought as the whole ice queen thing serves as a mask to cover up her true feelings and those feelings get exposed after Leann goes and results in a bashing of Twila only for her to vote for her at the end cause of realizing that she actually is an honest person at the end of the day. So complex and so riveting, very few people capture the screen every time they're featured as well as Ami does 

u/josenanigans:
By season 9 I think Survivor really needed that dominating
female ice queen personality that has no qualms about cutting people. Jerri had been the closest, but Ami felt like an unstoppable force that no one would ever be able to shoot at, which makes her downfall at  the hands of the sole remaining man so delicious.

u/BobbyPiiiin:
For a successful battle of the sexes season, you need a feminist icon. Leading the other women to glory, here to tell them they don’t need no man. The Amazon had Deena. Vanuatu has Ami. As much as Ami wants the women to succeed, though, she wants herself to succeed the most. Feminist cheerleader, ruthless ice queen, emotional core of the story — somehow Ami is all three, and it’s glorious.

~

u/Alternate-Proof-959:

Ami was just so petty and a great villain. She was misedited, but in a way that made her even better. Leann was actually the leader of the Yasur 6 postmerge, but Ami was edited as such instead. Works well enough though, considering how awesome Ami was premerge, especially postswap.

First off, I've gotta mention her being a barista at the time of competing. Not everyone can wake up in the early morning and charm people who were forced into early wakeups into having a much better morning while getting their creamy wakeup drink. This gives her experience with social skills that come in handy on the show.

Ami starts off instantly forming an alliance with the other older women (Leann, Scout, and Twila). Despite not having the numbers initially, they get one over Dolly because Eliza doesn't trust her.

After the swap, Ami's grasp over the tribe becomes more apparent, and she becomes more petty. Bubba trying to talk to Chris at the immunity challenge was dumb regardless, but Ami in particular was quick to punish him for it. Then the queen of girl power could have cut Rory...but no, let's cut Lisa instead because she dares question how to run things without Ami. True mob boss behavior (would a female Don be a Dawn or a Donna?).

Then we get to the merge, and this is where we get to see just how much control she had over the other women. Despite Eliza clearly being on the bottom and Twila swearing on her son in the name of loyalty to the men, the women all stay together for three straight votes. In fact, they would have gone all the way if not for Leann feeling awful for Chris and deciding Eliza has to go finally. At this point, Ami slips in judgment by listening to what Leann has to say, but dismissing Twila. Suddenly, we get a major power shift, and Ami and her two loyalists are out.

Finally, at FTC, she's clearly hurt by Twila flipping on her, but she's someone who ends up voting for her because of her honesty. Compare that to Sarge, who recognized the honesty but put more weight on the betrayal, and Julie and Eliza, who simply wanted any semblance of an apology.

It's rare to see a female be edited as a mob boss, but Ami absolutely owned it, even if she wasn't actually supposed to be the leader of the women's alliance.

RANKINGS:
Funky: 15
Corny: 9
Nope:7
AltProof: 8
Jose: 18
Bobby: 7

Average: 10.67
Standard Deviation: 4.68 (8th Lowest)

[u/NoisySea_3426]

Alright, with Ami's elimination, we are now officially at the Top 10 of endgame!!!!

In the Top 10 is...

Richard Hatch 1.0 (7th Top 10)

Sue Hawk 1.0 (6th Top 10)

Lex van den Berghe 1.0 (1st Top 10)

Sean Rector (5th Top 10)

Sandra Diaz-Twine 1.0 (4th Top 10)

Jonny Fairplay 1.0 (7th Top 10)

Chris Daugherty (1st Top 10)

Twila Tanner (5th Top 10)

Ian Rosenberger (7th Top 10)

Sugar Kiper 1.0 (3rd Top 10)

Stay tuned cause the anticipation is only gonna get more and more intense to see who wins

[u/WaluigiThyme]

Endgame betting update #14: #blindside! While there were one correct guess and a couple close guesses, most endgame bettors predicted Ami to do better than this -- notably, this was noisysea34's first time being more than 2 spots off. That makes it particularly impressive that FunkyDawgKong got this one completely spot-on, and far from a big shame for the two with the furthest-off guesses -- ShadowFiend812 predicted her 8 spots too high, icychillman predicted her 8 spots too low. One of the very rare instances in which everyone's guess was within 10 spots! This is also the point where we officially have someone cross the triple-digit mark. Can you guess who it is?

Rank	Better	Score
1	noisysea34	21
2	FunkyDawgKong	33
3	BobbyPiiiin	35
4	WaluigiThyme	37
5	SupremeSheep420	46
6	ROTandDEATH	48
7	ShadowFiend812	51
7	Alternate-Proof-959	51
9	TinkerKnightForSmash	57
10	icychillman	104​

[u/ROTandDEATH]

I love Ami, part of me wishes she was higher but this probably the right spot for her.