It is an annual tradition at Big Brother Access to assess the games of the final three players. We dissect the good and the bad aspects of each player’s game. Basically, we talk about what could make them the winner. Each year, we title them Why ___ Deserves To Win Big Brother _. This is not an endorsement of any player, but a way to objectively look at each of their games. Per tradition, this is what we will attempt to do with the Big Brother 24 final three.
For the next three days, leading to the finale, we will talk about why Taylor Hale, Monte Taylor, and Matt Turner all deserve to win the game–mainly based on their strategic plays, competition wins, and social game. To kick this off, we’re starting with Monte.
Daniel Durston kind of set the tone for this season when he actively tried not to target tall and muscley male competitors. By chance, this theme continued all throughout Big Brother 24. Most of the players who would have been perceived as competition threats managed to skate by for weeks. Monte is one of those players who benefited from this pattern.
It also helped that Monte wasn’t really winning too many competitions in the first half of the game. Michael Bruner had power for a while as HOH or Veto holder, and because Monte was in an alliance with him most of the game, he benefitted from Michael’s wins. At the start of Big Brother 24, Monte worked his social game enough to become someone that many players wanted to keep in the house.
They thought he could be an ally to them, so he got invited to a few critical alliances, including Po’s Pack, The Oasis, and The Pound. However, the only real alliance that would have some power in the game was The Leftovers.
After the Leftovers formed, they held power for many weeks, so that meant that Monte didn’t really have to feel the threat of eviction for the majority of the game. Monte is also a player who benefitted from others’ errors. If Michael and Brittany Hoopes hadn’t exposed Kyle Capener’s racial biases, then Monte could have been nominated by Turner and evicted that week if the vote flipped, which was very possible.
If Michael had played a bit more ruthlessly, Monte could have left the game on one of Michael’s several HOH reigns. Monte’s potential helped carry him far in the game. Despite not winning many competitions until the final six, he was always seen as a player who could win competitions.
This made the houseguest want him on their side as someone who could win things and keep them safe. Monte also did a good job pre-Leftovers of making almost everyone like him. They saw him as someone they could trust. It wasn’t until the Ameerah Jones vote flip that people not in the Leftovers started to want him out of the game.
He had enough of a social game to build trust and make him a part of almost every important alliance this season. Monte won two Head of Household Competitions and two Veto Competitions.
This is an okay competition record, but it becomes slightly more impressive when compared to Taylor who only won two Head of Household Competitions, and Turner who won three Head of Household Competitions. If Turner wins the upcoming HOH Competition, this ties Monte and him with wins this season. If Monte wins the final HOH, this gives him five victories and puts him in second place with competition wins this season.
As a two-time HOH and Veto holder, he can be directly credited with evicting Nicole Layog, Alyssa Snider, Michael, and Brittany. Taking out Michael is Monte’s biggest move of the season. Everyone knows that Michael likely would have continued to dominate the competitions and possibly win the game.
Taking out Michael opened the door for anyone to potentially win Big Brother 24. It also increased Monte’s chances of winning competitions. His competition wins have definitely increased since Michael’s exit so that once again proves that taking out Michael was the best move for Monte. Evicting Michael looks really good on Monte’s Big Brother resume. However, the jury may think Monte should have continued these big moves by taking out Turner over Brittany and maybe even Taylor over Alyssa. However, Monte can argue that Turner and Taylor were his allies, and Brittany and Alyssa weren’t, so it wasn’t good for his game to take them out.
Monte could also argue that he had a good enough social game to get players to act against their own interests. Michael should have taken out Monte many times, but he wanted to stay loyal to the Leftovers and trust that Monte would work with him.
Turner should have kept Alyssa over Taylor, but he wanted to work with Monte, so he didn’t pull the move that was better for his game and not for Monte’s game. In hindsight, that was likely the better choice for Turner because Monte would have still won the final Veto and he might have evicted Turner instead of Brittany if Turner took out Taylor at the final five.
Monte’s biggest obstacle to winning might be that he didn’t really do a great job at jury management. He sent Michael, Alyssa, and Brittany out with not the best impression of him. And if he sends out Turner at the final three, there is a very small chance that he might upset him as well and lose his vote.
Big Brother fans want to believe that game should come before personal feelings, but that’s not how life works and that’s not how Big Brother works. Often, the person who wins is the person who earned the jury’s respect the most and didn’t piss off too many people. Monte didn’t piss off everyone, especially not in the extreme way of an anti-Monte jury but you never know with the jury.
Monte’s game is an interesting one because it’s not a completely dominant game. However, he had enough social capital at the beginning to get himself into a great position in the first few weeks. Then he was able to pivot when necessary to advance himself and his allies.
He helped take out the comp beast that is Michael. He nurtured his relationship with Turner enough to keep him as a true ally, one who would do something that benefitted Monte’s game more than it did his own game. He won some of the most important comps of the season and got himself to the end with two people likely to take him over each other.
Monte played a solid game and that might be enough to get him the victory.
What did you think of Monte’s Big Brother 24 game?
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