Rank over time

[amplify26]

While I'm pondering over whether to watch this season, I noticed how High Sierras is the only season that doesn't have this feature.
So, which teams did you like initially and which ones aren't really all that (or the bag of chips)?

When I first watched this season:
1. Blue
2. Purple
3. Yellow
4. Red/Orange/Gray
5. Green

I really liked seeing Blue survive throughout the season; seeing them not make the finale really made a sad impression on a ten-year-old me. I liked Dakota and Kelsey as people; they also worked together quite well together in missions. Yellow stood out for being down-to-earth; who doesn't like Lilly, anyways? The rest, indifferent.

And then there's now (by that I mean as of a few years ago...), along with a question I want to delve in when I rewatch the season.

1. Blue: : I have a lot of love for this team (Ike and Taylor are a mix of Scooter and Christa and Willa and Antonio; Connor is a better fit for her), but are they just a darker version of Monroe and Bryanah?
2. Yellow: I grew to love them a little bit more (especially with Lilly's strength and their down-to-earth feel), but did they show enough potential to fight off the rest of the contestants (had they returned from Temple?)
3. Purple: Still a strong team, albeit with their flaws. Were they the best non-winners ever (and this is coming off after watching Green on Tehachapi)?
4. Red
5. Orange
6. Gray: Darci seems really cool and insightful, which makes the other teams targeting her and Ike all the sadder. Could've they made a nice underdog team to root for?
7. Green: Something rubbed me the wrong way about them; with Cealey being primarily known for being carried and yelling at Taylor for "cheating”. Considering how strong she was in "It's a Drag", would they have been more loved had they been more successful in challenges?
Colorless

[carsonvega]

Initially I probably would have gone:

1. Blue
2. Yellow
3. Purple
4. Green
5. Red
6. Orange
7. Gray
8. Colorless

After the passage of some time and the ability to read and hear more about the season, I would go:
1. Yellow - Had very little to do with the meanness of this season and the Superteams twist of only one team getting to play the mission for each Superteam felt just really unfair for them.
2. Gray - I originally dismissed them as mostly irrelevant, but they deserved better than getting the Samadhi from their old teammates, Darci having her temple strategy revealed by Connor (can't fault Yellow for using the information about it because they wanted to stay alive), and getting eliminated right away.
3. Blue - They certainly didn't deserve to get mercilessly targeted by an alliance of four teams, but I have come to appreciate that Taylor did more to contribute to her situation than I might have thought at first.  Doing a sizable victory dance after CYOG, for instance - I get that that was Blue's first mission win in a while, but to some extent it's better to just not throw fuel on your opponents' fire.
4. Purple - I don't like them - the partner switch fiasco and their attempts to deceive the team they wanted out before multiple temples was just too much.  But they did dominate the game strategically and had plenty of mission wins, so I have to give them some credit.  I wish they would have played against six other teams that deserved what they were dishing out - say, them versus E1 Yellow, E3 Orange, E3 Gray, E5 Green, E6 Orange, and E6 Green.
5. Green - fair to say they were carried by Purple for a large chunk of the game, including through the Superteam mission and after the Fill 'Er Up mission at Final 4.  Don't like them either and in terms of deservingness of the six Endurance winners they're either at the bottom or second from the bottom (depending on how one feels about E6 Blue's luck), but I still liked them better than the teams I put below them for this season.  I guess they do have to get a little credit for getting Purple to favor them over the other alliance teams, and for being just a little bit more humble when there were 2 teams left in the game.
6. Red - there were moments when they seemed like they might not make life miserable for the teams not in their alliance...but they never did that, except when they voted to give Blue the Karma advantage for All Tied Up.
7. Orange - did even less than Red to oppose the alliance treating those outside of the alliance badly, dropped out of Fill and Spill when they didn't have to, whined about the "free ride" for the Superteam mission...bleh.
8. Colorless - Anna probably had potential but we didn't get to see it, instead all we got was Garret enabling Purple with the Triangle of Immunity.

Jul 28, 2022 1:36:52 GMT -5 amplify26 said:

Purple: Still a strong team, albeit with their flaws. Were they the best non-winners ever (and this is coming off after watching Green on Tehachapi)?

I don't have good answers to your other questions (haven't watched E5 all the way through recently enough), but the answer to this one is no.  I'd put E4 Green ahead of them, as well as E2 Green.  In addition to being able to play their game of Endurance without being nearly as ruthless as E5 Purple, E2 Green should get points for remaining friends and in contact and willing to talk about Endurance into adulthood.

[amplify26]

After re-watching this season...
1. Blue: A bit disingenuous to say "how could they not be first?" (especially with how they sold out Gray), but Connor and Taylor were an amazing team and it was nice to see them survive throughout the season. Again, a bit more anti-heroic than with Monroe and Bryanah and a bit less strategic, but had their redeeming traits and accomplished an endurance first. (Them leaving a day short won't not hurt.)
2. Yellow: Two genuinely good people who had all the potential, but never really had the stage which they could act on it. Lilly is definitely an awesome competitor and one whom I would've liked to see challenge Cealey. (They could've done quite well in Superboats, for example). And while Aric was more in the background, he definitely deserves credit for sticking it to PROG with the "popularity contest" comment. They could've glided through It's a Drag, though I'm not sure how they would get through the other challenges.
3. Gray: Darci's personality lit up throughout this season, which makes me wonder how far she would've gone. Come to think of it, I grew to appreciate Ike as well--while a bit loud, he was also quite competent. They also seemed to get along well, which would've made for a nice underdog arc had they stayed.
4. Purple: Kelsey and Dakota really came off as entitled with this rewatch, especially in the finale with how they thought they would just be handed the victory. There was one comparison of this team to Lindi and Chris, but Dakota was a lot more explicit with his maneuvering. But like Hawaii's Gray Team, they were really strong competitors both in missions and strategy, which led them to that point without going to the Temple of Fate once. Commendable, and which is why I think they deserved to win over Green in the end--they did the work. (That said, they weren't even the most robbed Purple Team--Jeff and Annie say hello.  )
5. Red: Cameron and Aeriel seemed like genuinely good people--while they only won one mission (and even then it's because Purple handed it to them), they were competent and held their own throughout. However, they seemed like they were screwed by their alliance, and they never did much to shake the boat. (That said, them calling out Purple in their letter was delicious, even though it was too little, too late.) Why weren't they able to, by chance?
6. Green: I still don't think they deserved to win High Sierras--though they kicked it up a notch in Slingshot Alley, Alex and Cealey seemed to have lucked their way into the finale thanks to Purple. Good strategic move, perhaps? Sure, but they don't have the clout to back it up. Cealey was definitely the main personality of this team, which was good when she was in her competitive mode, but her actions in "Create Your Own Game" almost ruined any respect I had for her. While they had that nice redemption arc near the end, a few more mission wins would've done wonders for them, especially seeing how good their teamwork was.
7. Orange: Just a pitifully irrelevant team this season, especially with Kristine. Max had some workings of a strategist there, trying to maneuver through the alliance to get an advantage/save Yellow, but what stands out was how he threw Fill and Spill for Purple, only to get screwed anyway. How would've High Sierras changed had Orange won that mission--would they have more say in the makings of the alliance?
8. Colorless: They were a disaster in the making.