The Genius: Grand Final Player Rankings

I'm back again to do the next in my series where I rank all things related to The Genius! If you've somehow stumbled across this post without knowing what The Genius is or without seeing every episode of the show through the end of Season 3, don't read the rest of this post, as I will be spoiling a bunch of stuff from the season, as well as from the two previous seasons. If you've never seen the show, or haven't even heard of it, do yourself a huge favor and watch the first episode, which I've embedded below. You won't regret it.

I've already done rankings of the players and Main Matches for Season 1: Rules of the Game, Season 2: Rule Breaker, and Season 3: Black Garnet, so if you want to check that out, you can go to the top of the page and click on "The Genius" tab, where you'll find all of my Genius-related content.

Now, time for the same disclaimer as usual. My rankings will be explained for each, but the list is a mixture of how good of a player I think they are (in this season) and how much I personally like them. So just to reiterate: This list is based on Season 4 only. I won't be considering their previous performances except in the case of something like personal preference, which can't really be helped. I'll probably discuss their previous performances, but mostly as context-- it won't actually factor into the placements. Given that this is the last season, spoilers for the entire run of the show are fair game, and I will probably be spoiling a bunch of stuff from all 4 seasons. OK, no more rambling. Let's just jump into the list!

13) Jungmoon

I already didn't like Jungmoon very much in Rules of the Game, but Grand Final really just solidified her as my least favorite Genius player. In season 1, she made so many dumb moves that eventually led to her closest ally's elimination (completely avoidable-- she picked him for the death match), and then her own elimination in the following episode. And in Grand Final, I feel like some of those annoying/weak points in her game were just amplified. The way that she acted in Loyalists and Rebels, begging Dongmin to keep to his word was one of my least favorite moves in The Genius. Sure, it did what she hoped it would, but stooping to the level of begging in the Genius is just pathetic. On top of that, she was once again obvious with her "rebel" card, getting called out by Dongmin. I mean, it is Dongmin and his amazing intuition, but still. 

And apart from that singular, cringe-inducing moment, she spent the majority of the season essentially begging to be included. Following groups of people and banging on doors for people to let her in, trying to be included by being a sloppy spy, etc. She basically just spent most of her energy on riding the coattails of people who were actually strategizing and coming up with ways to win the game. Not cool, Jungmoon. Not cool. 

12) Junghyun

I'm a big fan of Junghyun in general. I loved him on his original season. He was such a hilarious character, and I thought that he was definitely underrated and undervalued by the people in his season. He might not have been amazing (especially in MMs), but he actually destroyed people in several DMs in a row before being taken out by Yohwan. That being said, I think that Grand Final was a really great example of why season 2 was the weakest season. The players from Season 2 dropped like flies in Season 4, and Jyunghyun was the first victim. He trusted Sangmin a bit too much, and just wasn't a strong enough player to hang with the contestants from other seasons. We barely got to see anything from him in Grand Final, which is a shame, but I can't think of many people who should've lost before him. 

10) Yohwan

It pains me to put Yohwan this low. I love Yohwan. Upon a re-watch of season 2, Yohwan was a major stand-out for me personality-wise. He's the best Starcraft player in the world, but in person he's just this precious human who jumps up and down when nervous and can't quite seem to get anything right in the MMs. He just came across as inherently likable, and I loved watching him play. That's why Grand Final was such a disappointment. He was there for 2 episodes, and he was pretty much completely screwed over by the fact that having garnets was an essential part of the game. As he says in the picture, garnets are most definitely not his friend. He spent the vast majority of season 2 with literally zero garnets. Once again, I think that his placement shows the weakness of season 2's players overall. He's got some really great strengths, but enough weaknesses that he just couldn't stand up against this really elite group of players. 

11) Yoonsun

I initially had Yoonsun lower on this list, because Yoonsun was almost a non-entity for me in Grand Final, and although I liked her in season 2, she's never really made an extremely strong impression on me. Broken record here, but there's a reason that all of the people from season 2 (except our beloved Kong, who swears he's from season 1) were the first ones to drop. All of them except SangminGod just couldn't stack up to the other seasons' players. She did alright in season 2, but I feel like she was basically a non-entity on Grand Final until she was in a DM and got eliminated. In fact, I typically forget that she was on Grand Final even though she made it further than some other people that stand out much more. 

9) Kyungran

As I've said in other posts about The Genius, I love Kyungran. I'm absolutely a KyungFan. But on this season, she just simply wasn't impressive. Season 1, she immediately put herself right out in front, being rather cut-throat and manipulative the first episode. While she spent the rest of the season being a well-intentioned team player, she was clearly one of the stronger players. She got herself in with the right people, she was entertaining, and she was one of the better strategic forces. And that's why her Grand Final performance is so disappointing for me. I think that this season made it clear that although she enjoyed herself, The Genius was just another show to her. For many of the people on this season, this was basically their life. And even if it wasn't, they put in the effort as if it was. Kyungran was kinda just there. She played the game, but she didn't seem that emotionally attached to being there. She was almost a non-entity throughout the season. Sure, she was still a good team player, but she was obviously content with wherever she placed and it showed not only in her DM performances, but in her general gameplay. I love her, but I want to see her at her best, not at her... mediocre-est.

8) Yeonseung

I'm going to sound like a broken record from this point forward, because I just really love Dr. Yeonseung. Apart from his famed steely mentality, I think that he's seriously just one of the most genuinely nice people ever. He's super likable, and definitely a really great player. Unfortunately, he was definitely in over his head when it came to some of the players this season. Yeonseung is made from the same mold as Kyungran-- generally likable, generally good at the games, and generally unassuming despite being rather capable. He gets along well with pretty much everyone and he plays well without making too many waves. And the one wave he did make this season was so great. It definitely stressed me out quite a bit because it got Hyunmin into some hot water, but Yeonseung and Junseok's strategy within Fish Shop was really great, sneaky, and well-executed. Unfortunately, that was his only real shining moment before he got eliminated. That being said, his death match against Yohwan is phenomenal... but that's mostly because of Dongmin and his flawless intuition. 

7) Youhyun

I'll admit, my bias is showing. Youhyun should probably be a bit lower on this list. But Youhyun is my people. And what I mean by this is that his personality is the type that I immediately gravitate toward and latch onto. He's witty, sarcastic, and often a bit snarky, with a great sense of humor on top of that. So that moves him up a bit in my rankings solely because I personally like him. That being said, I do think that he's overall a strong strategist and a great player who once again got outshined by Dongmin and Hyunmin. I think if he was on a season without them, he would absolutely be the standout strategist and player. But unfortunately, this is the hand that he was dealt. 

Youhyun has rather strong instincts when it comes to the game. He was the only person to catch on to Sangmin in episode 1, and when he was a rebel in episode 5, he was the strategic one who tried to hold everything together. I hate that he got eliminated the way that he did because these stupid poker DM rules with draws have led to the eliminations of some of the strongest players in the game, and this was one of those times. Overall, he didn't have an amazing season, but I'll always enjoy seeing him on a season because he's a strong strategist and usually a bit of a contrarian, leading to a lot of intrigue.

6) Junseok

Being perfectly honest, I'm not a huge fan of Junseok. He's alright. (But Kristen, then why is he so high on your list?!) Well, he made the game more interesting. We all know how absolutely dominant Dongmin is as a player, and as much as I root for him to win, it's so much better when he has actual opposition. Junseok was not going to be pulled in by Dongmin's charisma, which is more than can be said about a lot of the people this season. I'm not always a fan of his overly brazen, aggressive play-style but it added a lot of interest to the season. Plus, we got to see barely anything from him season 1, but even in that little bit of time he proved to be able to think outside of the box and come up with unique strategies, so it was great to see him actually get to play through almost an entire season.

5) Kyunghoon

I've already mentioned that some of the stuff he's done in his personal life is deeply disturbing (allegedly drunkenly sexually assaulting a woman, among some other slightly less egregious things), but I do want to just briefly note it again so it doesn't appear that I'm ignoring that. However, I am focusing on his gameplay here, not his activity outside of The Genius.

I'm so torn with Kyunghoon, but I think that almost everyone is really torn about him. First of all, he's THE reason Sangmin was eliminated. I mean, sure, Sangmin tried to make him his new hoobae and that was his own fault but we'll get into that later. Kyunghoon was just such an agent of chaos this season. There were moments of absolute brilliance, and moments of absolute stupidity. He's unquestionably the most unique player in the history of the show-- the true troll king. You have no idea what he's going to do, because he acts completely independently of any and all logic. It makes his gameplay extremely interesting and entertaining, but simultaneously incredibly frustrating because he consistently does incredibly stupid things that could potentially screw over someone who's actually playing well.

In the end, I placed him here because I refuse to place him any higher than my golden, perfect four, but recognize that despite all of his eccentricities, he's an entertaining player who managed to play a pretty great (though highly flawed) game.

4) Sangmin

Before I jump into the next four, I think it's important to note that these four are my favorite players in the history of the game. So yes, I'm a bit biased, but I do think that most of my entertainment this season came from watching these four play the game.

Anyway, we got Sangmin for three glorious, perfect episodes before Kyunghoon completely screwed him over. And he was fantastic. I mean, who else in the history of the show has come up with the idea to literally hide under a table and eavesdrop on conversations?! He was constantly in the thick of the action, constantly doing his always-perfect Sangmin thing. Betraying people, looking out for his own good, manipulating people, etc. I'm so glad that someone made the Harry Potter comparison gifs, because Sangmin is the epitome of a Slytherin. He's always absolutely fantastic and it's a shame that we only got him for 3 episodes. Honestly, even if he stuck around for around half the season, he might be up at the very top of this list. He was that good. Kyunghoon robbed us of a season full of fun off-the-wall gameplay in favor of frustrating off-the-wall gameplay.

3) Jinho

Was Jinho in prime form this season? No. But even just having him around for almost the entirety of the season was so much fun. I know that we all really wanted him to have a Open, Pass moment again and were disappointed when we didn't. But despite that, I think that we got a fairly strong showing from him throughout the season. I find myself constantly rooting for Jinho and enjoying watching him, whether he's tripping over his words, strategizing, or just being his usual silly self. Although he didn't have any moments of absolute brilliance, he continued to show that he was an overall strong player and strategist who didn't have to go to a DM until forced to at the final 4. I'll never be upset to see him on my screen, especially on The Genius.  

2) Hyunmin

Unfortunately, I couldn't bring myself to put Hyunmin at number 1 again. As I've said multiple times before, he's my favorite Genius player ever. I think that he's a brilliant strategist, is able to get himself into favorable positions, and is just overall extremely well-rounded. I have no qualms about naming him the best strategist in the history of the show. Plus, he's funny and sassy and like with Youhyun, he just has a personality that I gravitate toward and enjoy watching. I've said it time and time again-- big personalities like Dongmin & Sangmin are fantastic and I love watching them, but my favorites will always be the strong strategists with the slightly more understated personalities. AKA Hyunmin. And Jinho.

Hyunmin didn't quite live up to his season 3 performance, but he was clearly consistently head and shoulders ahead of most (if not all) of his competitors in the strategic department. Fish Shop was definitely his weak point, but even then, the problem wasn't that he wasn't strategically sound, but rather that pretty much everyone was lying to him and the vast majority of the information he was working off of was inaccurate. I know that he comes off to a lot of people as cocky and over-confident, but I only saw brief flashes of that. Overall, I thought that he was someone who generally worked well with others, but who could easily play an incredibly strong solo game. Many people in this cast aren't so great switching between solo and team play, but I think Hyunmin does it rather well. Overall, while his performance wasn't the best of the season, I think that he's consistently a stand-out, fantastic player.

1) Dongmin

I mean, was there really ever any question? Dongmin is obviously the best player on Grand Final, and possibly the best player in the history of the show. I would personally still argue strongly for Hyunmin, but there's really no denying Dongmin's dominance in pretty much every aspect of the show. I know that he rubs some people the wrong way, but he personally provides me with endless entertainment, on top of the fact that he's incredibly strong at the games. The reason he and Hyunmin were such a great pair is because they're well rounded, but complement each other's weaker points. Dongmin may not be the most outstanding strategist when it comes to the main matches, but he's fantastic at figuring out game hacks, executing strategies and leading a group to victory. Plus, that intuition is rivaled only by Sangmin's.

On top of all of that, he's fantastic in DMs. The only one he's ever lost was Twelve Janggi against Hyunmin in the S3 finale, and then he came back in Grand Final and played the same DM against Hyunmin and came out victorious. The fact that they were up against each other nearly broke my heart, but watching Hyunmin lose shattered it into a million tiny pieces. Either way, Dongmin was just absolutely dominant the entire season, and on top of that was constantly an absolute delight to watch. He's just so fantastic and so much fun and certainly deserving of his King of Kings title.



So, those are my rankings of the players on The Genius, Season 4! Next up will be my ranking of the Main Matches of Season 4, so stay tuned for that one. I'm absolutely loving doing these rankings, so expect to see them for quite a while until I eventually run out of Genius-related rankings to do. But that's going to take a little while. Once again, if you haven't checked out my other Genius-related rankings, you can do so by going up to the tab that says "The Genius" where you'll find all current Genius-specific content. All Genius posts will be linked on there as soon as they go live, so check back frequently for more content!

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The Genius: Black Garnet Main Match Rankings

So, here we are once again to do a ranking of things related to The Genius. It's been a while since I posted anything Genius-related, but I have done a few rankings related to The Genius over the past couple months, so if you want to check those out, you can click on "The Genius" tab at the top of the blog.

Like always, I'm assuming you've found your way here because you're also a fan of this beautiful show. If that's not the case, turn back now, because I'll be discussing spoilers through the end of season 3 and I really don't want to spoil you. 

Or, if you're curious about the show, I've embedded episode 1 below, so you should definitely check it out. However, don't continue reading the rest of this post until you've finished all of seasons 1-3 because I'm going to be massively spoiling them. Don't say I didn't warn you. 

Before I jump into my ranking of the Main Matches of S3, I wanted to briefly touch on my criteria for this ranking. Although I moved stuff around afterward, I did begin ranking these using a set scoring system. My 3 criteria for that were concept, gameplay, and entertainment. Breaking that down a bit:

Concept- Does the concept of the game interest me? Is it something I want to try? How does it compare to other Genius games in intrigue and complexity?

Gameplay- The actual strategy used by the players. Did they figure out a hack? Did they come up with clever strategies? Did The Genius theme or Extreme Ways start playing at a key moment?!

Entertainment- Was it overall fun to watch this main match unfold? Usually, clever gameplay is entertaining, but sometimes it's not.

Like I said, I scored each match in these categories, but I did shift stuff around just a touch because I like to keep things fluid. But I'll get into more detail when discussing each game. Let's go ahead and jump into the list!

11) Constellation Game

OK, maybe I'm just being a little bitter but oh boy do I dislike this game. Every season, there's always one game that stands out as the absolute worst and this season, it's Constellation Game. Some people might assert that it's just the way that the game played out this time, not an inherent flaw in the game. Apart from the fact that I'm taking every aspect, including the players' gameplay, into account, I think this game is incredibly flawed. Yes, this time it was boring to watch because everyone ganged up against two people to box them out of the game all together, but I think that this game will always play out this way. It's the most obvious, safest strategy for everyone to team up and make it so that two people simply cannot play the game. Sure, one of them will probably get picked for the Death Match, but when they have Black Garnets at their disposal, this becomes less of a concern. 

Sure, I was frustrated that the two people who were clearly the best players (who also happened to be my two favorites) were the ones getting completely shut out. But the real frustration lies in the fact that the opportunity to shut someone out exists. When you have all of these intelligent people in one place, they will always realize that shutting people out is the safest play, and they will always do it, resulting in a boring, straight forward game that never gives the other people any chance to fight back.

10) Doubting Yutnori

I don't think that this game is awful, but I think that it has some of the same drawbacks as Tactical Yutnori, but this time in a Main Match, which just amplifies the problems. And one of the best aspects of Tactical Yutnori is that it's a leveling war. AKA-- "I think my opponent wants X result and will therefore throw these sticks, so I'm going to throw these sticks to block them from getting the result they want." However, Doubting Yutnori takes all of the leveling away and returns it to essentially a role of the dice like in the original Yutnori game. Sure, the person who rolled the die can lie about it, but you have to be able to lie convincingly and not get doubted. I think that there are definitely better versions of "doubting" games (namely, Swords and Shields) and this one just doesn't stack up. 

On top of that, we have additional players in the game, which (reiterating previous posts) I'm usually not a big fan of. Per usual, the fact that they're from the same season bothers me a lot less, but the fact that the players are largely relying on their "teammates" that are chosen completely by chance is something that I don't really like. Maybe that's just because my boy Hyunmin got stuck with Kyunghoon, but still. Ugh.

9) Middle Race 2

I don't want to be a broken record, so quick reminder: I'm generally not that high on games with guests. They always come on "reiterations" of previous games and typically, the entertainment level is upped while the strategic level is lowered. In this instance, I might argue that almost everything was slightly worse. I really enjoyed the original Middle Race. Sure, there were a couple flawed characters that were improved upon for Middle Race 2, but I think this game is quite a bit better when played with Genius players who are all self-interested. It makes for some really interesting partnerings and alliances. People can work together fluidly and help different people as they see fit. In "loved ones" games, the guests are only interested in helping out the player they came to support. Which means that you'll have partners purposely choosing characters that work well together. And at this point in the season, the alliances are pretty set in stone, so instead of people fluidly working together, it's pretty rigid. Add on the fact that this is the most forgettable set of "loved ones" throughout the seasons (except for the lovely Gayeon unni), and this is definitely a downgrade from the original. Honestly, I think it's possibly the most forgettable main match of the entire season for me. 

8) Investment and Donation

This game is perfectly fine. I think in nearly any season, I would consider this to be a solid middle of the road game. It's not one of the super intriguing ones with an interesting concept and hackable props, but it's solid and allows for a lot of interesting gameplay. The only real problem I have with the game is the way that it played out. As a general rule, it's always more interesting to watch people try really hard to win than it is to watch people try really hard to lose. And in this episode, both Youhyun and Dongmin are trying to out-miser each other and it makes the game a little less fun. And of course, Yeonjoo blabbed Dongmin's entire plan to Youhyun, which is really the catalyst for the two of them both trying to be the loser. Overall, I think that this could have been a much more interesting game if we didn't have to deal with two people trying to undercut each other as the losers. 

7) Fruit Stand

I know that there are a lot of people that really love this game. I like it, but I'm certainly a lot more on the fence than many fans. Personally, this is probably my least favorite opening game. That being said, I'm really glad that this was used as the first game rather than later in the season. If this were played at a point in the season when there were already solid alliances, I think this would have been a really boring game. As it played out, it was actually pretty interesting and there was a lot of solid strategy. Despite the fact that I touted this as my least favorite opener, that's not saying too much because I tend to really love the opening games (123 isn't necessarily my favorite game, and I probably like it less than Fruit Stand in general, but it's perfect as an introduction to the show). 

We do get some really great moments in this game. We see Hweejong and Dongmin immediately pair off because they have the same fruits. Youhyun pulls a very clever move and switches fruits to interfere with the other players. And of course, that absolutely phenomenal camera work zooming in on Kyunghoon after his massive betrayal of the other melons... as well as the betrayal in general. And, of course, the beautiful irony of Dongmin calling Hyunmin an idiot. Overall, this isn't one of my absolute favorite games of the season, but I did think that it was a solid start and overall was a pretty solid game. 

6) Stormy Stock Market

Information wars are always some of my favorite games on The Genius. I always enjoy seeing people piecing together several different clues in an attempt to get a complete set of information. While I definitely prefer games like Scamming Horse Race, this was still a really interesting take on the "information war" concept. This was also still in the budding stages of the HyunDongmin alliance, so it was really great to see them shake hands and decide to go all the way together and to watch how that played out in the main match. The aspect of having to go in the dealer room and having an allotted amount of time in there was also a super intriguing concept, as was that time gap that no one had information on. The fact that they had to have a bidding war for the 2:40 information was a super intriguing concept and the only thing that made me slightly frustrated about it was that it forced Hyunmin and Dongmin to be pretty open with their alliance.

That being said, the absolute best part of the entire match was the brilliant gameplay that the two of them exhibited. Hiding information around the set is something we'd never seen before on the show, and it was so clever and perfectly hid their alliance at the beginning of the match. It allowed them to have all of the information and it was just so brilliant. On top of that, the way that Hyunmin was able to easily get people to let him into the room whenever he needed to was absolutely masterful. He and Dongmin were forced to out their alliance a bit because they had to pool their garnets to buy information, but even with that, they played the main match so well. It was really impressive.

5) Middle Race

I think Middle Race is one of the games that people tend to have really mixed opinions on. Some people think it's over-complicated, but most of the games that are often described as "over-complicated" are the ones that I absolutely love. While I'm not totally in love with Middle Race, it's one that I really enjoyed. I know that it was really boring for the players in-game (poor Lawyer Kang apparently had to wait a few hours while the other players finished the race), but I found it really intriguing as a viewer. I think that the different character abilities are really interesting and found myself trying to figure out which one of the characters I'd want to pick if I had the chance to play (My gut reaction was Silence, but that might not actually be the best play. Might be more aggressive than I would want to be). 

Either way, one of the most interesting aspects of the game is the way that certain characters interacted with each other. There were some really awesome combinations that the players made both to launch people to the front or back, or even to just create an infinite loop to help out all of the players. It was really cool to watch, and to see how the players decided to go about creating different scenarios and who they decided to lock out. In some ways, it makes me think of Food Chain in the fact that each player has a specific identity that has specific abilities that play off each other to really cool effects. I think Food Chain definitely did that better, but this was still a really cool game. 

4) Swords and Shields

Apologies for the blurry gif, but Verita's reaction upon winning is so presh. I think this is one game where people will disagree with me. And I'll admit, the actual way that the game played out could've been better. But the concept and the entertainment level were really awesome for me, so that rockets it up higher in the rankings for me. I've said it once, and I'll say it again-- games with secret identities are my fave. In this case, there's a secret identity aspect, but there's also the secret weapon aspect that I find really cool. And even better is the bluffing aspect. In fact, the bluffing might be my favorite part. I really like that aspect of trying to catch people lying about what weapons they actually have. 

And that's made even better with the fact that Yeonjoo totally doesn't understand the way that bluffing works in the game. Dongmin's yelling at her, Yeonjoo is utterly perplexed, and everyone is worried she's going to ruin everything. It's so much fun. It's really disappointing that both teams immediately pegged each others' leaders because it made the game really short, but I still thought that it was entertaining despite the brevity. Unlike the Constellation Game, I don't think that Swords and Shields will necessarily play out this same way each time, so I don't think that the game itself is flawed... I just think that Hweejong was always going to look suspicious, and Dongmin is way too good at reading people. 

3) Chain Auction

I might be biased because I'm a Hyunmin stan, but the gameplay in Chain Auction is off the chain (I'm so sorry for that terrible pun but it had to be done). I'd go out on a limb and say that his gameplay in Chain Auction is one of the best Main Match showings in the history of the show (although I'd also say that he has an even better showing in another of the games coming up in a minute). Anyway, Chain Auction is just awesome all the way around. And of course, the most fun aspect of the entire episode is that we get the return of Jinho and Sangmin. You don't realize how much you miss having them on a season of The Genius until they pop in for an episode and make everything perfect again. Seriously, they're such legends and they're so much fun. 

But on top of that, we also get such an awesome game. This one kinda makes me think of Open, Pass. Not in terms of the concept of the game or anything, but when it's first introduced it sounds like it might be an alright concept... and then one of the players comes up with some fantastic strategy that totally demolishes everyone else. Seriously, I was already super impressed with Hyunmin as a player, but this just sent me completely over the edge. Jinho kinda lucked into the same strategy, but the fact that Hyunmin figured it out so quickly was outstanding. And the way it was revealed was also so awesome. Just that casual "I'll always get 10" was so great. I know I'm gushing over Hyunmin but he's such an epic player. Strategically, I'll continually argue that he is the most elite of anyone who's ever played The Genius, and this game is one of his highlights. 

2) Miner Game

I love every aspect of this game. The concept? Really awesome, with hackable props-- my favorite. The entertainment level? Also super high. Everyone is super stressed out, worried about the bombs. Dongmin and Ayoung are on a team, which leads to Dongmin just yelling at her all the time. And then the gameplay gives us this sick reveal of Hyunmin and Dongmin's partnership, on top of Dongmin figuring out the weights of the bombs. Seriously, this game has. it. all. In fact... I'm moving its placement right now. I had it in spot #3 but I just swapped it with Chain Auction for a few reasons. Yes, the gameplay in Chain Auction was phenomenal, but for me the concept was slightly below Miner Game. I'm a sucker for hackable props. 

Anyway, this episode and game are both absolutely phenomenal. This is when we get the first little hint at a HyunDongmin alliance and it's so great. They worked in secrecy so flawlessly and they used their advantage with the bombs so perfectly and you can just tell how much effort both of them are putting into the game. One of my favorite scenes in the episode is where Hyunmin is practicing mining at the beginning and discovers the slight difference in the bombs even before Dongmin does. And of course, this is when we get our first introduction to sensitive, fussy Dongmin, which is one of my favorite storylines to follow. This episode is just the catalyst for the rest of the amazing season, and it's just so good. From the awesome partnership (that Hyunmin almost messes up), to the outstanding gameplay, to the sick reveals, to the awesome concept, I absolutely love this game. It's so. good. 

1) Jury Game

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times-- secret identity games are my absolute favorite thing. And this is one of the best iterations of that concept. And on top of that, we get one of the best reveals in the history of the show, some really entertaining moments, and some absolutely outstanding gameplay. 

If you've made it this far into the post, you're well aware that I'm a Hyunmin stan. And this game is one of the main reasons why. I think that his showing in this Main Match is the best gameplay anyone's shown in a single game across all of the seasons. He plays this so masterfully. Every single aspect of his gameplay was so perfectly crafted. When you play one of these secret identity games, you want to make sure that you don't act out of character-- if you're more quiet or more talkative than normal, you stand out and look suspicious. And Hyunmin did a flawless job of maintaining his normal personality, while getting the criminals to trust him so they didn't think that he was the leader. He was able to suss out that Youhyun would be the one leading strategy on that side, so he got especially close with Youhyun so that he would trust him. 

And then, on top of all of that, the reveal for Hyunmin being the leader is one of the best reveals in the show's history. The show does such a great job of keeping him hidden (partially because he did such a good job of keeping himself hidden) and then dropping this epic twist on the audience. They do such a good job of explaining everything that he did to keep his identity secret. 

Also, notice that all I've talked about so far is the gameplay. I haven't even discussed the game concept itself, which is so cool. I love the idea of the hidden identities and trying to put together a jury that will vote correctly while trying to figure out everyone's identities. The fact that the criminals all know each others' identities is one of the coolest parts of the game, because it allows them to get together and figure out how to trick the citizens. And the entertainment was really high on this one as well, because Dongmin is just overpowering everyone and trying to lead his team to victory despite everyone doubting him. It's too good. 

Also, interesting side-note, although it looks like Youhyun kinda ruined it for his team by grouping them all together, it was actually entirely Lawyer Kang's fault. In an interview, Youhyun revealed that they'd had a meeting earlier where Youhyun essentially told them that if he called everyone together for a meeting, the leader shouldn't join them. And Lawyer Kang joined them. OOPS. Entirely his fault. But it gave us that amazing reveal of Hyunmin absolutely losing his mind when he realizes that he knows who the criminal leader is. 

So, those are my rankings of the Main Matches of The Genius Season 3! I'm sure that everyone reading this will have a pretty different ranking, or will disagree with me on at least one of these, so let's get a discussion going in the comments because I always love talking about this beautiful show. Coming up next will be my rankings for the Season 4 players and Main Matches!

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The Genius: Rule Breaker Main Match Rankings

So, here we are once again to do a ranking of things related to The Genius. I've done a few rankings related to The Genius over the past couple weeks, so if you want to check those out, you can click on "The Genius" tab at the top of the blog. (I swear I'm going to actually make one this time!)

Like always, I'm assuming you've found your way here because you're also a fan of this beautiful show. If that's not the case, turn back now, because I'll be discussing spoilers through the end of season 2 and I really don't want to spoil you. 

Or, if you're curious about the show, I've embedded episode 1 below, so you should definitely check it out. However, don't continue reading the rest of this post until you've finished all of seasons 1 & 2 because I'm going to be massively spoiling both of them. Don't say I didn't warn you. 

Before I jump into my ranking of the Main Matches of S2, I wanted to briefly touch on my criteria for this ranking. Although I moved stuff around afterward, I did begin ranking these using a set scoring system. My 3 criteria for that were concept, gameplay, and entertainment. Breaking that down a bit:

Concept- Does the concept of the game interest me? Is it something I want to try? How does it compare to other Genius games in intrigue and complexity?

Gameplay- The actual strategy used by the players. Did they figure out a hack? Did they come up with clever strategies? Did The Genius theme or Extreme Ways start playing at a key moment?

Entertainment- Was it overall fun to watch this main match unfold? Usually, clever gameplay is entertaining, but sometimes it's not. 

Like I said, I scored each match in these categories, but I did shift stuff around just a touch because I like to keep things fluid. But I'll get into more detail when discussing each game. Let's go ahead and jump into the list!

11) King Game

I'll have to re-think this while I go through all of the games throughout the run of the show, but this might possibly be my least favorite game in the history of the show. The gameplay redeemed it slightly because of Doohee's secret betrayal of his alliance, but overall I don't find anything particularly compelling about the concept. While there is some sort of strategy to it, the different components really aren't that interesting. People literally just make symbols with their hands and are then are told to stand by letters. I honestly forgot it existed until listening to the Dom & Colin recap of the season because of how completely forgettable it is. With some changes, perhaps this could become a compelling game (maybe a hackable prop instead of a hand signal?), but this format just has way too many non-compelling components. 

10) 7 Commandments

This game gave me vague shades of Zombie Fluxx, a card game where the win-condition can change based on the cards that people play. That's a game that I think is interesting in concept, but extremely frustrating to play. In this game, the rules change instead of the win-condition, but I think that's almost a less interesting difference. Overall, I just didn't find this game compelling. I thought that different people having different personal bills was a fairly intriguing concept, especially as Hongchul used Junghyun's to his own advantage, but the rest of the game was fairly uninteresting. In addition to this, some of the personal bills were extremely powerful in comparison to others. Sangmin and Jiwon were essentially able to hack the game and ended up leading their allies to an assured victory. It was way too easy to hack, and overall it's a fairly forgettable game.

9) Monopoly Game

The Monopoly Game is this far down on the list mostly because of the ID incident... but not quite for the reason that you'd think. So much stuff happened in this episode. Yohwan helped lead Sangmin to the token of immortality, Jinho eventually discovered the safe... to find it empty, Doohee's ID was stolen for the main match, he got the token of immortality from Sangmin, betrayed Sangmin, and then discovered that the token of immortality was fake and promptly went to the death match and was eliminated. I just said a lot of words there. Barely any of them were related to the main match. 

Because of all of the other insanity going on in this episode, there wasn't really a huge emphasis on the Monopoly Game itself. Sure, there was some emphasis on the ID theft, but that's not really related to any sort of winning strategy-- just to the surefire way to make someone lose. Like I said in my last post on Season 2, I'm not out on a witch hunt against the people who stole the ID. If they'd taken it and used it to peek at Doohee's resources or to get something they needed & then returned it with ample time, I'd consider it good gameplay. I feel like the producers expected some sort of ID trading or else the IDs wouldn't have even been a game mechanic. However, I think it was a low blow and really poor sportsmanship to take the ID and not return it until Doohee's fate was sealed. All things considered, everything in this episode that was interesting happened at the periphery of the game, while the game and any real strategy related to it were put on the back burner. 

8) Big Deal Game

When I ranked the games of Season 1, I mentioned that games with extra players brought in aren't necessarily my favorite. And that's the case with this one. The group Super Junior was brought in to play, and I thought it just ended up being alright. One or two of them played well, while another was completely convinced that their partner was lying to them about being their partner. In terms of this game as a betting game, I think it's fairly interesting. We get several iterations of betting/bidding games throughout The Genius and this one is very different because the players actually decide whether or not they want to accept another player's bid for that certain color. 

Overall, I think it's a fairly interesting game. However, I think my main problem with it is the extra players being brought in. For every other season, it's at least a "loved-ones" type visit, whereas this time it's just random members of a boy band. I think this game would've been more interesting with all players, therefore playing by alliances. It also probably would've been more interesting with loved-ones because the hidden partner twist ended up being a little silly to me. 

7) Blackout Game

As I've mentioned in other posts, I listen to a few Genius-related podcasts, and I'm pretty sure that none of them like this game. I think I'm a bit higher on it than they are. I think that it was an entertaining game to watch, and it was probably really fun to play as well. It's especially good when one of the participants is Hongchul, who is just going completely out of his way to be silly. And I also really loved the eventual reveal of Eunkyul betraying his team to help out the opposite side. Despite what anyone else says about him being a bad player, I think this was a cool move despite the other people completely ruining it for him. That being said, I think the strategy is a bit weak here. Realistically, there are only two real options-- have a mole planted on the other team feeding you information... or guess. Everyone will be trying to trick you about whether or not they crossed the line, so you're completely in the dark (ayyy, bad puns) unless the other team is giving you information. So, tl;dr: fun to watch, not the most strategic thing in the world. 

6) Seat Exchange

I really like the simplicity of this game. It's about as close to musical chairs as The Genius is going to get. A lot of the fun of this game derives from Sangmin's extremely impressive ability to just look at someone and know if they're lying. My favorite moments in this game are all the times that Sangmin demanded that someone was not the number they claimed to be, just for them to cower and admit to lying. It was hilarious and wonderful. I feel like this is also one of the easier games to understand, which is a bonus for it. I really don't have much negative stuff to say about this one-- I just enjoyed other games a bit more. I love the games with secret identities or secret hacks, and this one boils down to sitting in chairs. Still a cool game, just not quite as fun as some of the games with hacks. 

5) Layoff Game

This is the classic "let's revamp a game from earlier in the season and bring in guests" game, and as is common with these games in The Genius, I think the entertainment level was upped, but the strategy was brought down a bit. First off, the segment at the beginning where Sunggyu enters and Sangmin freaks out is still one of my favorite moments in the entire run of the show. The sunbae/hoobae alliance will always be the best. And I also loved getting the return of previous contestants and the pseudo-return of a game that I really enjoyed earlier in the season. 

However, the obvious elephant in the room is that Sangmin is still there. And obviously the season 1 players will want to help him and anyone he's aligned with. If you weren't already suspicious of the producers for leading Sangmin to a win, you certainly were after this episode (Not accusing them of doing so, just pointing out how clearly this casting choice helps Sangmin). And plus, as aforementioned, I'm already not a huge fan of bringing "outsiders" into the game, so when they probably all favor one player, it rubs me the wrong way even more.

That being said, this is a game that I really enjoy. I loved Food Chain (we'll get there in a minute), and I thought that this was a cool office twist on the game. In fact, I actually kept thinking about The Office tv show and the potential character correlations. Overall, I really like the concept of the game, and I enjoyed getting to see some of my favorite (and... not so favorite...) players from season 1 back again, despite some of the wrinkles that it put into the actual gameplay. 

4) Elevator Game

I like to refer to this game as glorified Chutes and Ladders, because... c'mon. Is there any chance that they weren't inspired by Chutes and Ladders for this game? That being said, I think that most of my enjoyment of this game derives from the actual gameplay and the entertainment attached to that gameplay. Sangmin was an absolute delight in this game (even more than usual). He had such obvious tells-- hitting his head, dancing, etc. and he's just so... Sangmin... that you don't even realize that they're tells until the flashback. Like, he's just so out-there already that you're not even phased by him breaking out into a silly dance or smacking himself on the head. And then you have the added enjoyment of watching Junghyun try to rally the troops and get so angry at their betrayal that he takes a lap around the set. 

This, of course, is an episode where extra people were brought in, but this is one of the less heinous instances to me due to the fact that they're previous players. I also like that it's previous players from this season as opposed to players from season 1 (or just other seasons in general-- which is more relevant for later seasons than for this one). There are already pre-established relationships and I feel like bringing back eliminated players just works better in the context of the season as a whole. 

As for the concept of the game, I really enjoy it. I really enjoy this twist on Chutes and Ladders. I love that it gives Sangmin the perfect opportunity to completely betray his team despite the fact that he won't gain as many garnets. I think that the strategy to this is kind of an improvement on the blackout game. Instead of having to guess what your opponents are doing, it's a bit of a leveling war. You have to figure out what they're going to do, and how to respond to that, while they're trying to figure out how to block whatever you're trying to do. Or, of course, you just have a spy hitting his head as a signal. Either way, it's a cool game.

3) Minus Auction

This game has popped up a couple times, and I've loved it every time. It's not a game that immediately jumps out to me as "whoa that's a cool concept!" but it's consistently very entertaining and requires a lot of strategy and good gameplay. When it eventually returned, I was really excited because of how much I enjoyed this first iteration of it. There are several different strategies that I think are good ways to go about playing this game, especially when playing with people who are absolutely terrified of getting any of the large numbers. And possibly even better is the little wrinkle where one of the numbers has been completely taken out of the game, and you have no idea what it is until the end. That adds a whole other level of intrigue and suspense to the game that makes it really fun to watch. I don't have too much to say about this game, but it's just a really cool one to watch every single time it comes up.

2) God's Judgment

This is basically the Open, Pass of Season 2... except this time it leads to poor Jinho's elimination rather than his glorious rise to icon-status. Like I've mentioned many times, the games with prop hacks are often my favorite, and this is no exception. I'm honestly surprised it took some of them so long to figure out what was going on with the dice. Immediately upon seeing them, I thought something was really weird about them, because they just didn't look like normal dice. When I looked at them, I immediately noticed that there were the same number of holes on each side, but only some of them actually had white dots. So, I thought that perhaps the outside holes and inside white dots could be fiddled with so that they could create different combinations of numbers altogether. I was a little disappointed that I was wrong, but at least I was right that they came apart in some form or fashion.

I loved seeing everyone figure out the hack at different points throughout the game. Obviously, Sangmin was the first, but we didn't get to see that until a flashback much later. It was really awesome to see how he manipulated people into letting him mess with their dice... all while Yohwan was still trying to figure out how to keep the dice magnetized while throwing them. That fake hack (which I believe was actually just one of the things keeping the dice together) made the game even more entertaining, because everyone was completely convinced that it was the real hack, adding even more to the confusion since it was extremely unhelpful. Overall, it was just a really entertaining game (Hongchul's rolls tho) and I loved the hack aspect to it as well. 

1) Food Chain

I really enjoyed Food Chain, but I didn't realize exactly how much I loved this game until I ranked this season's Main Matches and it just kept beating every single one that I put up against it. It's such an interesting, complex game with a ton of different layers and so much opportunity for a ton of entertainment as well as great strategy. Hweejong was a great character for this episode. I was absolutely rooting for him to get eliminated because I didn't want that dominant gameplay all throughout the season, but this was just such a great episode for this perfect character arc. Of course he got the lion, and of course he overplayed it and it was absolutely wonderful to watch.

So many of the animals have really cool strategy and win-conditions. The chameleon's ability to disguise itself is a cool wrinkle, as is the prey animals' ability to group together and stay alive. It becomes an even more interesting situation when people start forming alliances regardless of their animals, creating dynamics between players that probably wouldn't have existed otherwise. I just think that absolutely everything came together for this game-- the concept was really intriguing, there were so many opportunities for really great gameplay, and Hweejong alone made it one of the most entertaining games of the entire run of the show. And don't even get me started on Jinho holding the stickers hostage and running all over the room, because of course he would. Kong holds a special lil' place in my heart, as does this game.

So, those are my rankings of the Main Matches of The Genius Season 2! I'm sure that everyone reading this will have a pretty different ranking, or will disagree with me on at least one of these, so let's get a discussion going in the comments because I always love talking about this beautiful show. Coming up next will be my rankings for the Season 3 players and Main Matches!

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