Houseguest Tucker Des Lauriers was sent packing on the Thursday, August 29 episode of Big Brother with a 5-3 vote. He was labeled a competition beast in the game after he secured six wins in six weeks. His personality made him a fan favorite but whether or not he played a good game is still debatable.
There is no question he played boldly. He volunteered to go on the block multiple times and saved Angela Murray over himself after winning a Veto. Some fans would describe his gameplay as fearless, while others may view it as reckless.
I’m in the second camp. I’ve always had complicated feelings about competition beasts, especially when their wins feel ego-driven rather than strategic. In recent years, there’s been talk about Big Brother competitions being unbalanced. Fans pointed out that most comps are geared toward male players, specifically the tall, athletic ones.
To me, a big part of Big Brother is disguising your threat level, so I struggle to respect players whose competitiveness clouds their strategy.
Here is why I believe competition beasts ruin Big Brother…
There is less social strategy involved in Big Brother
I know I should respect someone who wins a staggering number of competitions but I don’t. Big Brother is a social experiment and a player’s social game is just as important as the amount of comp wins under their belt.
Sometimes, a comp beast will rely so much on their competition wins that they’ll skip out on the social strategy part of the game. I don’t like that. Tucker, for example, routinely said he didn’t care about the game and refused to talk game with certain players. This attitude rubs me the wrong way because it is not the point of Big Brother. He should have applied for The Challenge if he didn’t want to engage in game discussion.
If a player knows he or she can always save themselves in a competition, they are less likely to make alliances, secure deals, and create devious plans. The social aspect of the game is what makes Big Brother fun.
It’s a bad idea
I have respect for players like Big Brother 6 houseguest James Rhine, whose competition wins came out of absolute necessity. He was exposed as a traitor, so his only choice was to become the Veto King. When a player is on the bottom, they don’t have the luxury of throwing comps.
I have a harder time with players like Tucker and Big Brother 24 houseguest Michael Bruner, whose wins didn’t always feel strategic.
Michael won nine competitions during his season, which was unnecessary in my opinion. Sure, he needed to win some in the beginning. He was nominated in Week 1 and needed to take himself off the block. Respect. However, once he found himself in a majority alliance with some of the strongest players in the house, he could’ve thrown a comp or two. He put himself in a position where he had to win out from the final 9.
Michael didn’t look like a competition beast. He didn’t spend his days bench pressing in the yard like some of the men in the house. It would have been easy for him to disguise his threat level.
Now, let’s talk about Tucker. I like the guy but he has no one to blame but himself for his early exit. He’s a likable guy and he wouldn’t have been on the block in those early weeks if he hadn’t routinely offered himself to the HOH. It felt like he wanted to flex his natural athleticism in the AI Arena, which is just such a bad idea in a game like Big Brother.
It’s boring
The main reason I don’t like competition beasts is because it makes the game boring. Big Brother is at its best when there is a constant shift of power. I don’t like majority alliances for this reason. When one group has the power week after week, it’s no fun. In the same vein, it is no fun when one person wins every week.
Some players view throwing competitions as some sort of moral dilemma. A few previous players have stated that they made a promise to themselves that they would not throw a single competition. That’s silly to me, sorry. There is $750,000 on the line!
I think there is a reason that a player like Xavier Prather left the BB house with a big check and Tucker and Michel did not. Xavier knew when to throw a comp and when to win one. That’s a good player. If Xavier steamrolled BB23, it would have been a way worse season.
TELL US – WHAT DO YOU THINK OF COMPETITION BEASTS IN BIG BROTHER? DO YOU RUIN THE GAME?
