“I Made Very Few Mistakes in the Game” – An Interview with Survivor: Cook Islands’ Winner Yul

RNO: You talked about how you had to lie and deceive even though you didn’t want to, but I don’t really think you did that much of it – what sorts of things were you talking about?

Yul: I don’t think I did. I got very legalistic. I wanted to play a clean game but I quickly realized I was being naïve. I know I’ve been blasted on some message boards for saying I would be Mr. Integrity [and not playing clean]. My goal was to play the game and play well and do it with as much integrity as the game allowed. There was no case where I misled someone where I didn’t think it was absolutely necessary to do so. I was very careful in parsing my words so I didn’t have to lie. That was sort of my – at least for me it helped. But at some point I realized I was just splitting hairs.

RNO: I know time is short for you today – is there anything else you’d like to tell us about your time on Survivor?

Yul: I think I made very few mistakes in the game. I know people questioned some decisions but there was always a rationale. Sometimes it was hidden because otherwise it would have made it too apparent.

The other thing people might ask is did I throw any challenges? I wouldn’t say I threw any, because that would say I could have won them. But from a strategic standpoint, it wouldn’t have made much sense for me to win them.

When we were down to the Aitu four, once we got to the numbers, it didn’t make sense for me to win. I had hidden immunity and nobody felt threatened. So I didn’t need it. If I actually won it, it would have put me in the awkward position where I felt the pressure to give it to somebody. But who would I give it to? For me, my goal was to come in second place – close enough such that if Ozzy faltered, I could win and keep the Raros from claiming it. But as long as he was winning, [that wasn’t necessary.]

He’s the strongest competitor to ever play. I didn’t want Ozzy gone from the game. The worst-case scenario was to go to the finals with any Raros because they had so many in the jury. Even against Ozzy, I felt I could make a pretty compelling argument. So for me, having Ozzy around was great. He was the single best insurance against any of the Raros making it to the finals, and he deflected so much attention away from me. As long as Ozzy was there, [any discussion about splitting the four] was always talking about voting out Ozzy, never me. It really did serve my own strategic interests.

I don’t want to take anything away from Ozzy. I went all-out for the first 2/3 of a challenge, and once it became clear Ozzy would win, I’d kind of take my foot off the gas a bit. I’m not saying I could have beaten him. The guy’s just incredible. But it worked out very well.

One of my biggest fear was to be seen as too much of a threat. I could deflect attention from me to Jonathan as a strategic mastermind and Ozzy as a challenge threat. For me, one of the things that helped me succeed was I honestly don’t think I have a big ego. I think I tend to be more low key by nature and for me I never had trouble subsuming my ego to advance my long-term interests, so I could give credit to other people, especially Ozzy. That helped early on. When we got rid of Cecilia, he felt alienated, but I think overtures like that helped him feel like part of the tribe.

RNO: At the beginning of our interview, you mentioned you read RealityNewsOnline. Did you see that four out of five of our writers picked you to win before the show even began?

Yul: Yes, I saw that. I would never have predicted myself to go very far in the game!

RNO: Thanks, Yul!

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other recent Survivor: Cook Islands articles here on RealityNewsOnline:

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

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