Rob claims Russell stole his strategy
COPYCAT CLAIMS: Boston Rob claims Russell Hantz stole his Survivor strategies.
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EXCLUSIVE:
“Boston” Rob Mariano says controversial Survivor contestant Russell Hantz stole his tactics in the game.
Mariano – a former Survivor runner-up who is married to Amber Brkich, the winner of an All Stars season – was eliminated from Survivor: Heroes vs Villains after a plan to blindside Hantz failed.
He was one of three contestants eliminated last night. Five villains and three heroes have now been voted out, leaving 12 contestants fighting for the reality show’s US$1 million prize.
Mariano, who has also competed in two season of The Amazing Race with Brkich, claimed Hantz – who is known for wreaking havoc amongst his tribe mates and forming multiple alliances – had stolen his moves.
“I think he’s taken a page out of my playbook,” he told Stuff.co.nz. “If you look at my gameplay during Survivor: All Stars he’s doing things that are eerily similar, basically steamrolling himself as far as he can.
“It’s a good strategy to get you far, it might even get you to the end, but it’s a tough strategy to win with because you’ve gotta ask people (you’ve shafted) to give you their vote at the end.
“I think he’s a little short sighted in that respect.”
He didn’t trust Hantz from the beginning.
“We made an alliance on the first day and just 15 minutes later I saw him doing the exact same thing with every other person on the tribe. Early on I knew this guy couldn’t be trusted.
“He does play aggressively and I appreciated the competition. He’s very entertaining. I’ll give him that.”
Mariano said he snubbed Benjamin “Coach” Wade during his last tribal council and called him “a little man” because he was angry at him for not voting for Hantz.
“He wanted a hug as if to say, ‘Forgive me’. I wasn’t having it because I wanted him to know it wasn’t alright. If you watch the show he clearly said he was going to vote for Russell and he didn’t.
“He gets up on his pulpit on international television and proclaims how honest and loyal he is and then he does the opposite. I don’t have much respect for that.
“You can’t get up there and proclaim to be this person and then show your true colours and expect everything to be alright.
He said his fainting episode earlier on this season was just a bad case of the flu.
“It’s tough to talk about because I don’t have any recollection. All I remember was I felt dizzy, I had a really bad headache, I went down and the next thing I remember is Jeff Probst was there with the medical stuff.
“Luckily they were able to give me some medicine. They said I had a really bad case of the Samoan version of the flu.”
He said there were subtle changes in the way Survivor was being played at the moment.
“The dynamics of the game are pretty much the same but I think there’s been a shift in mentality. In the past things like working around camp and being an asset in challenges and providing for your team used to be valued and now they’re not valued so much any more.
“It seems to be all alliances all the time.”
Mariano wished the remaining competitors good luck but did’t back anyone to win.
“When you’re voted off you don’t start rooting for the people who voted you off.”
Survivor: Heroes vs Villains screens on TV3 every Thursday. Stuff.co.nz will interview every contestant as they are eliminated.
* Did Rob deserve to go home? Post your comments below.
