User blog comment:Sambarnes/Survivor: Belize - Now Casting!/@comment-33641024-20190712210732

Name: Marick "Rik" Du Toit

Age: 52

Residence: New York, NY

Occupation: Financial Analyst

Biography: Rik is a go-getter who is constantly moving, working and thinking about his next acquisition. Even though he works very hard, he is devoted to his wife Amanda and his two children Allison (15) and Alex (10). At this stage of his life, Rik is kind of hitting a mid-life crisis where he's achieved everything that's been expected of him and he's looking for new experiences to challenge him.

Background: Rik was born into a high-society and privileged family in South Africa and never went without growing up. He attended the best private schools, had tutors, household help and material goods that were out of the reach of most South Africans at the time. But his parents were not only passionately opposed to apartheid (albeit privately) but they recognized the looming changes and unrest coming to their country, so they sent Rik to America once he graduated high school to continue his education and move on to the next phase of his life. The culture shock of America humbled Rik and he sought to work twice as hard as the next person in order to match the standard of living that he had in South Africa. He graduated from CCNY with a Bachelor's Degree in Business and obtained an MBA from NYU. Unfortunately his experiences in school as well as the first phase of his career at Goldman Sachs embittered him and made him think negatively about people in general. He seriously thought about going back to South Africa and starting a consultancy firm, but he decided to give the US one last chance when he was hired by a prominent hedge fund as a financial analyst in 1997. He grew to love his job and then met the love of his life, Amanda, when she was working as his secretary. They fell in love and got married in 2000. These changes, along with the birth of his children, has softened his personality to an extent. Rik wants to win SURVIVOR not because he needs the money (although it would be a nice addition to the kids' college funds) but that he wants the title, something that only 37 other people have had the privilege of obtaining in this game.

Character Archetype: Snarky Antihero

Strategy: Rik recognizes that the people who go first are those who put themselves out there, so he is going to let the game come to him and then once he feels like he is on a solid footing he's going to try and stir up trouble between the other players as well as gather information that can put him in a better position in the game. He feels like his biggest asset will be his cerebral approach to the game, which he hopes will encourage people to feel like they can come to him for ideas about what the next move should be, which he'll use to encourage people to take people out that would be in HIS best interest. He'll also lie early and often not only for game purposes but just to troll the other competitors for a laugh. He knows he's going to have to be two-faced and try to be nice to everyone while talking smack in his confessionals, because it's the only way he can stay sane. Winning challenges is also going to play a smaller role in his strategy, only because he wants people to be so intimidated by him both physically and strategically that no one would even ponder voting him out.

Strengths: Cerebral Intelligence, Solid analytical skills regarding strategy, Challenges (particularly puzzles)

Weaknesses: Social skills (people tend to see him as smarmy, sleazy and a tad snobbish)

Anything Else: Rik is 5'10'' with a somewhat muscular frame, good skin and in good shape.