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: Black Garnet Player Rankings

I'm back again to do the next in my new 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, 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 I gave last time. 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. Given that I'm not spoiling anything past Season 3, I'll ask that no one comment any spoilers past season 3 as well, for anyone who has not seen the entire run of the show. So just to reiterate: This list is based on Season 3 only. If any of these players return for subsequent seasons, that's not factored in to this list. OK, no more rambling. Let's just jump into the list!

13) Yongsuk (Lawyer Kang)

I think this might be the only instance of me disliking a Genius player immediately when they're introduced. And it just got worse throughout the season. He immediately came off as abrasive to me. I definitely agreed with Jongbum's initial assessment that he would be similar to Gura, but I also thought he would lean more toward S2 Hweejong. And we basically got both of those. He wasn't quite as aggressive in his gameplay, but he was certainly very abrasive. The worst offense for me was when he went to the death match in episode 2 and threatened everyone to work with him. I admire that he wanted to play the game and play it hard, but overly aggressive players always rub me the wrong way on The Genius. They tend to make the game less fun, and I was rooting for Yongsuk's elimination every single episode because of that. I was really glad to see him out early, and I think his departure was really great for the season overall. 

12) Juri

Basically, I have little to no opinion on Juri. She was there... and then she wasn't. She did have some presence in the first episode, and she did show some solid gameplay in episode 1. I don't think that she should've openly announced "hey I just want to be safe in the middle," but that's certainly exactly where you should want to be. Especially in the first few episodes. She just ran into a lot of bad luck. The decision to switch over to the large alliance to gain safety was definitely a smart one, but she ended up accidentally offending the person who got stuck going to the death match. Overall, although she was the first eliminated, she had a fairly decent showing in the first episode. That being said, when surveying the first eliminees, Juri is probably the weakest. 

11) Sujin

There's a small contingent of Genius fans who seem to really like Sujin... but I just don't see the appeal. For me, she was extremely forgettable. Despite having seemingly negative opinions on Dongmin pre-season, she seemed to gravitate toward him and work with him almost immediately, and was therefore completely overshadowed by him. I've mentioned how unfortunate it is that The Genius seems to cast women who aren't interesting personalities for TV or aren't good strategists (or both). Sujin seemed to be alright at strategy, but she was constantly overshadowed by Dongmin and therefore wasn't ever a focal point for strategy or entertainment. And on top of that, her mistake in the death match that eliminated her is possibly one of the worst moves in the show. Sure, she accidentally bet on the wrong side of the card, but she clearly wasn't paying enough attention to what she was doing and that's just dumb when you're in a death match. Overall, she was really uninteresting for me and I was rooting for her to go from rather early on. 

10) Hweejong

Oh, Hweejong. If you've seen my post ranking the season 2 cast, you'll know that I wasn't a fan of Hweejong, basically for the same reasons I don't like Lawyer Kang (Yongsuk). He was absolutely fantastically hilarious to watch episode 1, but I was very glad to see that he flamed out because of his overly domineering, aggressive gameplay. This season, I thought that Hweejong was much improved from season 2, but he still wasn't anywhere near my favorite. He certainly toned down his gameplay, which I really enjoyed, but I still didn't find him very likable. He tried to suppress his antagonistic gameplay, but ended up coming off as a weak player in the process. Overall, he wasn't a personality that I gravitated toward, and I've never found him to be a strong player.

  

9) Kyunghoon

My opinion on Kyunghoon was extremely up and down during the two episodes he was there for. I loved his betrayal in episode 1-- I loved that the editing didn't really allude to it beforehand and just surprised us with it when it happened. However, I got curious at one point and ended up looking him up and learning about some of his personal life outside of the game and I was extremely put out. If you're not aware, he allegedly sexually harassed a woman while drunk. So I did a bit of a 180 on him when I learned that about him. That being said, we're mostly talking about him as a player and not as a person. And this season, we really didn't get to see too much of him as a player. He had that really great play in the first episode but he gained a lot of enemies and therefore it was really easy for everyone else to distrust him in the next episode.

8) Junghoon

It's almost impressive how much Junghoon flew under the radar as a player. In the very first episode, he was introduced as someone who had beef with Dongmin, which I thought would be a really compelling storyline to follow... and then it never came up again. He also seems to be one of the more famous people on the cast, as the players all recognize him upon arrival & since he's friends with Dongmin. However, he just doesn't seem to have a very big presence on the screen. This is somewhat contrasted by some fairly decent gameplay from him. He certainly isn't an amazing player by any means... nor is he really necessarily a good player, but he's certainly not bad. He has a few slip-ups (being too obvious with his criminal draw in Episode 2-- way to go, Jungmoon), but he does have a good showing in double sided poker. Overall, he falls somewhere in the middle of this cast because he just doesn't stand out very much. I think that his placement a bit of a testament to my general ambivalence toward several members of this cast-- there are a few I really don't like, several that I really love, and a lot of people somewhere in between.

7) Yeonjoo

One thing that I really enjoyed about this season was that finally we got some women who were interesting players to watch. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that they were very good at the games. And that's certainly the case for Yeonjoo. Overall, I liked her. I thought that she had a fun personality, and was therefore entertaining to watch. But there were so many times that she did well or moved on to the next round solely because of the people she was working with rather than of her own volition. The moment that specifically stands out to me is the Swords & Shields game, where she completely doesn't understand the bluffing aspect, which was essential to succeeding in the game. Her performance in monorail was also a definite weak point, because Dongmin essentially bluffed his way into a win and Yeonjoo completely fell for it. If she'd made the right move there, she could've eliminated Dongmin and changed the entire course of the season. But for some reason, she just wasn't capable of figuring out the right move to make in that moment. 

Moving away from her downfalls in gameplay, however, she did do a good job of aligning with the right people at the right time, which really helped to propel her further in the game. The Constellation Game really stands out to me, because she and Ayoung were between alliances at the beginning. Dongmin wanted them on his side, and Youhyun and Jongbum tried to get them on their side. Yeonjoo ended up picking the right side, and despite completely turning her back on Dongmin she managed to turn it back around in the next episode and work with him again... despite messing up his plans a bit. Overall, she'd definitely never be a real contender to win a season of The Genius, but she's fun to watch and she's a good player in terms of alliances. 

6) Jongbum

Jongbum is another player who edit-wise and personality-wise flies under the radar, but I think that overall, he's a fairly strong player. I think it's unfortunate for Jongbum that he was on a season with a few huge standout personalities who stole a large chunk of the screentime each episode. He has one of the quieter personalities. He comes off as fairly likable, but it's along the lines of people like Kyungran-- he doesn't steal the spotlight, but always seems like an important presence when he's around. While I see Youhyun as the head of the non-Dongmin alliance, I definitely see Jongbum as his right-hand man. He's definitely one of the strongest players strategically, and he and Youhyun put up a really great fight against the dominance of the Hyunmin/Dongmin alliance. Unfortunately, the two of them were just up against (arguably) the two best players in the history of the show, so they didn't stand too much of a chance. That being said, I do think that he's a fairly solid player and that if you dropped him into seasons 1 or 2, he might shine a little bit more. 

5) Ayoung

While I will forever stand by my assertion that Kyungran is the best (and my personal favorite) female Genius player of all-time, I think that Ayoung is probably the most entertaining female player in the history of the show. However, in the first episode, I was actually kinda rooting against her in favor of Juri. In the show's intro, they displayed each player's different strengths ("intelligences") and I remembered noticing that Ayoung was, with everything averaged out, seemingly the weakest based on just that alone. So, I predicted that she would be the first eliminated, and was rooting for that to happen just to prove myself right. However, after watching the subsequent episodes, I'm so glad that she wasn't the first boot because she brought a ton of entertainment to the season... if only in the form of being constantly yelled at by Dongmin. 

That being said, I definitely wouldn't label her as one of the more strategic players. When we got down to the final six, I think that she and Yeonjoo definitely stood out as the weakest players. Like I mentioned when discussing Yeonjoo, the strongest aspects to their gameplay were definitely their alliances. They did a good job of choosing their allies and moving between groups of people while still maintaining relationships on the other side. But what I really enjoy about Ayoung is her personality. Not only is she extremely entertaining, but I also think that she has the most out-there personality of any female Genius player. She's funny, she's bold, and she's loud. And her constant clumsiness is so unintentionally hilarious but I love every single moment of it. 

4) Yeonseung

In my opinion, Yeonseung is one of the most likable people who's ever played The Genius. This is the first season where they had open auditions for non-celebrities and I feel like Yeonseung is the epitome of the average smart person trying to make their way on this show. He doesn't have a huge personality, but he immediately comes off as smart, strategic, and just an overall good guy. He's not a huge presence at the beginning of the season, but as the season goes on, he starts to play a major role in both the storyline and the gameplay. By the end of the season, I think it would be really hard to dislike him, because he's just such a loyal, trustworthy, likable guy who's also a strong player. 

Also, I just want to mention this-- I'm so glad he got a haircut mid-season. I didn't realize how silly I thought his hair looked until he finally got a haircut. But disregarding that, I feel like Yeonseung just had a really great grasp on the game. He wasn't this amazing powerhouse player, but he had a solid understanding of how things worked and was one of the people who was able to move amongst groups fairly fluidly and therefore he didn't really make any enemies and was mostly able to stay out of the line of fire. He found this really great middle point where he certainly wasn't the weakest, and he also wasn't out in front leading the charge, so he was able to make a deep run into the game while some of the players who were out in front fell before him. 

3) Youhyun

Right off the bat, I want to mention that his name is, in fact, spelled Youhyun and not Yoohyun as BumGod's subtitles claim. He uses Youhyun on all of his social media (or Dennis in the English-speaking world, but it feels weird to call him Dennis on here when using everyone else's Korean names). Anyway, I have to admit, I have a bit of a bias toward Youhyun, because I've loved his non-Genius content. He's friends with an American YouTuber who lives in Korea, and he's appeared on a few of her videos... and he's an absolute delight. He also did an interview with Geniuscast that I really enjoyed as well. Don't get me wrong, I also loved him on the show (I'll get to that in a minute) but I really came to appreciate him even more in the other stuff I've seen him in. He has this really sarcastic, snarky sense of humor, and that's my absolute favorite. He's also has that "I hate people" type of personality, which is another thing that I absolutely love, which makes Youhyun a person that I really connect with personality-wise.

And then we get to his gameplay. I think he really suffers because of the fact that he's on a season with Hyunmin and Dongmin who are absolutely dominant players. He's definitely the best strategic player apart from the two of them, and I really wish we could see him play a season without the two of them on it. He's already a really strong player, so I think that he would shine even more if he could get out of the shadow of the two people who I consider to be the best players in the history of the show. I really like his rather cut-throat approach to most of these games. As much as I hated seeing Hyunmin and Dongmin get iced out in the Constellation game, I did think that it was a really great move on Youhyun's part to unite everyone together for an assured win. And in Fruit Stand, he was the one who was willing to change fruits to get in the way of the other alliance, which was a really great move. Youhyun was constantly willing to play well and play strategically and I really enjoyed that from him. He offered the strongest resistance to the Hyunmin/Dongmin show and that was something that was really compelling to watch. 

2) Dongmin

First, I just want to briefly remind everyone that the picture above depicts Dongmin in the first episode calling Hyunmin an idiot who only knows how to study textbooks. Which is absolutely hilarious after you've seen them form the best alliance in the history of the show and completely dominate the rest of the season. That being said, I absolutely love Dongmin. I think that he's an absolutely elite player, a fantastic personality, and I'd venture to say that he's the best Genius player of all time. The only reason he's not number one on this list is because his alliance partner is also an absolutely elite player... but happens to be my personal favorite Genius player of all time. 

Dongmin absolutely dominates this season, stealing so much of the screentime, as well as dominating the games. He's so much fun to watch, just like Sangmin was in the first two seasons. I know that Dongmin rubs some people the wrong way, and I'm definitely put off by some of the things he's said about women outside of the show, but on The Genius, he shines. The first time I watched the season, I didn't think too much of him as a strategic player for the first few episodes. He seemed to have a rather overbearing style of gameplay, constantly trying to be the leader in whatever situation he was in. I didn't necessarily dislike him, but I'd immediately gravitated toward people like Youhyun and Hyunmin who seemed to be driving the strategic gameplay and who were usually working against Dongmin. 

However, as he began to align himself with Hyunmin, my mind quickly began to change and I began to see him in a completely different light. I mean, his heightened sense of touch is phenomenal, and it's hilarious to watch him try to explain it to everyone else. He's also phenomenal at convincing people to be on his side, which is probably one of his strongest points. He may not always be the one to come up with the best strategic plan, but he's always really great at making a plan come together. And on top of all of his really strong gameplay, he's just such a fun character. I'm convinced that Dongmin is the most gif-able human on the planet because he's constantly reacting in really over-the-top ways and making the most hilarious faces. And it's hard to not enjoy his good luck charm, AKA excitedly yelling at his chingu every time she enters the room. I honestly can't say enough great things about Dongmin.

1) Hyunmin

Oh, Hyunmin (I love that play on his name way too much). As alluded to in my discussion about Dongmin, Hyunmin is my favorite Genius player of all-time. I've mentioned this a few times throughout these posts, but it bears repeating: I absolutely love the big personalities like Sangmin and Dongmin. I think they're so much fun to watch, on top of their great gameplay. However, when it comes to my absolute favorites and to the people that I actually root for, I tend to gravitate toward people that lean toward strategy but have slightly more understated personalities, like Hyunmin and Jinho. Both of them are still great characters and are really fun to watch, but they don't explode onto the screen quite like Dongmin and Sangmin. 

Hyunmin is just an absolute stand-out for me. I'd have to go back through to be sure, but I'd probably say that his gameplay in the Jury Game is the best Main Match gameplay that any person has shown across all four seasons. He played that absolutely masterfully. His gameplay in Chain Auction was also absolutely phenomenal-- right up there with his gameplay in the Jury Game. He consistently proves himself as a force to be reckoned with in every single game he plays. The only real blunder he had here was the Constellation Game, which wasn't even really his fault. He came up with the optimal strategy, but Dongmin refused to listen to him and the two of them were iced out in the process.

In fact, I would say that Hyunmin has exactly one single flaw in his game: Dongmin. That's it. Dongmin, in my opinion, is his sole weakness. For whatever reason, despite his absolutely fantastic gameplay, Hyunmin just couldn't overcome Dongmin. Not only that, but any time that he blundered something, it was because of his attachment to Dongmin. He refused to betray Dongmin, eventually leading to his defeat in the finale. This could also be seen as a weakness in Dongmin's game, except for the fact that Dongmin was able to beat Hyunmin in the end. That being said, I feel like pretty much every single other person who's been on The Genius has much larger holes in their gameplay and I think that Hyunmin stands well above the pack. 

So, those are my rankings of the players on The Genius, Season 3! Next up will be my ranking of the Main Matches of Season 3, 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 rankings for the players and Main Matches of Seasons 1 & 2, 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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