Some players use their time at Ponderosa to influence the competition. Rickenbacker told BI that he was still in “game mode” after he was voted off, so he advocated for his last ally on the island and eventual season winner, Nick Wilson.
“I was still playing the game for him,” Rickenbacker said. “I was going up to Goliaths, you know, trying to balance for him so that they would get his vote at the end.”
He said he even chose to room with a player from the rival tribe, Dan Rengering, to “to sway him to get Nick’s vote.”
And even though Patel said she didn’t think about “what vote went where,” she was still “a little bit vocal with the other members of the jury” about her concerns with some players in the game.
However, other players said it’s hard to care about the game once you’re voted out. Four-time competitor (and one-time champion) Tyson Apostol said if players could “forgo your jury vote to go home,” he’d choose that option “every time.”
Boehlke agreed that you care less about the outcome of the game “the longer you are in Ponderosa.”
“You want to hear the drama and what’s going on, but you’re so bitter about not winning,” Boehlke told BI.