What Future Houseguests Can Learn From Tyler and Paul

Paul Abrahamian and Tyler Crispen are two of the best strategic players in Big Brother history. However, they made costly mistakes in jury management. Future players can learn from Tyler and Paul’s losses.

Paul Abrahamian and Tyler Crispen are arguably played two of the most dominant strategic games Big Brother has ever seen. Tyler and Paul made sure that despite large targets on both of their backs, they positioned themselves one, two, or three steps ahead of their competition.

Both were able to win timely comps, pin the target onto someone else to avoid eviction, and oftentimes avoid the block altogether. However, despite strong social and physical play, both were losing finalists. To add insult to injury, both lost the game by a single vote.

So what can future players learn from the losing efforts of Tyler and Paul?

Your goodbye messages matter

While this isn’t an earth-shattering take, some would argue that Paul’s lying and Tyler’s jury-pandering lost them the game. The key is to expose the truth while expressing humility. Jury members want closure, not to get shown-up while walking out the door.

The first jury member is the most important jury member

For Paul, it was Cody. For Tyler, it was Bayleigh. That first jury member sets the tone and culture for the jury house. Cody wanted anyone but Paul to win and Bayleigh had it out for Tyler after their huge blow-up in the house.

The lesson here: those relationships (especially non-allies) are incredibly crucial. While we love the fights and the drama as viewers, players in the game need to maintain healthy relationships with their fellow houseguests. Bitter juries exist and it doesn’t matter how well you think you played the game because it will always come down to jury management.

The jury does not care about your resume

Paul and Tyler both read off their resumes to the jury on finale night. While it is important to own your game and every facet of it, it’s more important to make the jury vote for you. Often, juries just want the good guy to win.

If you’ve lied, apologize. If you’ve burned bridges, you need to repair them and ultimately make the jury feel like they were unbeatable players and the only way to win was to take them out. Again, jurors want closure, so limiting the damage from bitterness is crucial.

Will future houseguests learn from the mistakes of Tyler and Paul? Or will history repeat itself like it did for Paul?