Rizo Velovic Says He Has No Regrets About His 'Survivor' Game — 'I Came Here to Win' (Exclusive)

Rizo Velovic didn’t come to Survivor to play it safe — he came to win, or go out swinging. From the moment he hit the beach, the self-described superfan made it clear he wasn’t there to coast, blend in, or simply survive another vote. And while his journey ended just short of Final Tribal Council, the 26-year-old New York native's bold and often chaotic gameplay left an undeniable mark on the season, even earning him a spot on Survivor 50.

In an exclusive interview with Men’s Journal, Velovic reflects on the choices that defined his game, from wielding his idol as both a weapon and a bluff to embracing the risks that ultimately led to his elimination. He opens up about why he has no regrets, how close he believes he came to winning it all, and why — even after coming up just short — he considers his Survivor experience a personal victory.

Scroll down to read the full interview with Rizo.

Men's Journal: How are you feeling this morning after the finale?

Rizo Velovic: I feel like a million bucks, just without the million. I feel really great. I'm so excited to talk to you and talk about Survivor 49.

Men's Journal: Congrats on an amazing game. Going out on fire, is that better than going to Final Tribal and losing? Did you play these "what if" scenarios in your head?

Rizo: Yeah, absolutely. I think throughout the season, we talked about, or, like I talked about, 10th and fourth doesn't matter for me. I came here to win. So I I put myself in the best position to win. Because had I beat Savannah [Louie] at fire, I would have won the game. And that's exactly what I wanted to do. I want to put myself in the best position to win. So going out in fire was great because – A, I've never been voted out of Survivor and B, I had to lose because of fire. And fire, honestly, is kind of just a crap shoot. It's whoever sparks the flame the first so it's not like I did anything wrong. Savannah never made fire, ever, and she made fire when it counted. So I'm very happy, because not only that, I got to go pitch as to why my No. 1 ally deserved to win, going out and fire, but especially going out against Savannah, kind of eased the blow a little bit, because whoever won that fire making contest would have won Season 49.

Men's Journal: Why did no one practice fire out there?

Rizo: As a fan, I always say that. But really, out there, you have all the time in the world, but you also don't have any time. Because I pride Survivor, and I pride my game on social and strategic maneuverability, and you just got to be talking to people all the time. And I think just kind of like setting aside some time to make fire almost comes off as arrogant–funny for me to say–but it's like, wow, practicing fire, it's the final 10. I don't know, it's so hard, because why waste time in fire? Because you need to get to fire right to even practice fire. So I was more focused on getting there than practicing getting there. So it's so hard, nobody really practiced fire out there at all.

Men's Journal: Talk to me about your vote for Savannah. Was there anything that Sophi [Balerdi] or Sage [Ahrens-Nichols] could have said to change your vote?

Rizo: So I'll say this, I'm very proud with how Soph handled FTC. I think for her to have the big blunder about the Knowledge Is Power, and still come away with two votes...I mean, there was a there's a world where she might have won right? She did great. Sage did great in her own right as well. But I think for me, call this selfish all you want, whatever, but knowing what Savannah and I and Soph accomplished, but mostly Savannah and I in the sense that everybody wanted us out, whether it was for my idol reasons or whether it was for Savannah for being a mean girl, which was not the case. I wanted one of us to win the game, right?

So we came back from a seven to three deficit, and the jury thought that it was because of their self implosion, which is not the case. It's because of the work that Sav, Soph and I put in. We made that happen. So for me, going into the jury, I wanted Savannah to get her flowers and get the win. I didn't go to sleep till, like, five in the morning the next day, because I was really pitching everyone why Savannah should win. Because going into the jury, a lot of people weren't high on Savannah. They're like, she just relied on immunities. And I'm like, "No." I kind of gave Savannah all the credit that I did in the game. Like, she did this, she did this. She did this because I wanted her to win, even though I probably did a lot of the things. Everything I did didn't matter. I lost. So I hate when people are like, I would have won this game. No, I lost. So everything I did, Savannah did, and I feel like it helped give her the crown.

Men's Journal: Talk to me about Kristina [Mills]' question to Savannah. Did you know that was coming? And what did you think of the question?

Rizo: So this is what I'll say: I love Kristina. Now, in the game, we definitely had our differences, and I knew the question was coming, and I want to give power to everyone, because the jury is their opportunity to say what they want. And it kind of gave me like that Corinne [Kaplin] vibe back from Gabon, where it's like, they want their moment. So it's like, all right, Kristina, this is your moment. You can have it. But it just got me upset because this question is to literally dunk on Savannah. You're not asking Soph and you're not asking Sage this. You're doing this to make Savannah lose. So it was rough at first, and we didn't see it in the edit, but Yellow Sophie called Kristina out on that. She's like, you can't ask Savannah that without asking Soph and Sage. So it ended up going to Soph and Sage too. But I it was hard for me, because it felt like you wanted she was trying to dunk on Savannah, but Savannah handed it perfectly.

Men's Journal: We have to talk about your idol and holding it on nine tribals, huge part of your story. Like, honestly, wild Steven did tell me in his exit press that, like, toward the end, I think people started getting quote unquote annoyed a little bit. Did you perceive that from the jury? Did you feel like they didn't really appreciate sort of the restraint you had not playing it?

Rizo: I don't know how to say this. I think super fandom, like, the only true super fan savant of the game was Jawan [Pitts] and Nate [Moore], right? So from my perspective, I was doing so many things behind the scenes, right? And the only way I can differentiate myself from Savannah, who the jury is seeing winning immunity after immunity, is pulling out these theatrics. And while I do think they were annoyed with it, I think they were more so annoyed because they were like, how does this kid keep on getting away with it every single time? Because all the theatrics are all calculated. I played a fake idol. I mean, I played the fake I wanted. I made a fake idol to hopefully lure Kristina in.

My whole big plan was because everyone thought I was this cocky, confident kid, so I wanted to go up to Jeff [Probst] and be like, "You guys thought you had us in the bag where you are voting Steven out, and there's nothing you can do about it." And hopes that Kristina will be like, "This kid is wrong," and was going to play her idol. I had my fake idol, whatever. So once Kristina already got up and played her idol, I thought, honestly, this is actually perfect, because I'm going to go up, make a speech, tell everybody I'm playing it on Savannah, to show the jury that I knew who the other side was going to vote for. But they know that it's not going to happen. So it was kind of to rub it in their face a little bit to be like, I'm running this game, not you guys.

And then the final six theatrics, we thought Steven was going to go home. We knew he had a Block-A-Vote, but when he didn't play the Block-A-Vote, because he had to play it back at camp, I thought, "Oh, my God, Sage and Kristina lied to us. I need to figure out what was going to happen. So the reason why I went up to Jeff was I was trying to stall, like I didn't want him to read the votes. Am I getting votes or did they split the vote 2-2-1, and I do have to play the idol myself? Do I have to play it on me? Did my lie about my final six idol work? So I didn't want to really make a scene out of it, but I needed to think of everything, because when you're voting, it's like two minutes, and then Jeff reads the votes. I'm like, I need as much time to think about all the permutations. So I think people thought I was just showboating, when, in reality, there was calculations behind all my moves, and the idol was something I've always wanted to do as a fan.

My first season was Tocancins, JT [Thomas], and the next season after that was Russell Hantz. And I know we all hate Russell Hantz, but he was a game-changer with that idol. I grew up with people making an idol as a statement, and in the new era, people are afraid to have an idol. They're like, I don't want it here play it. I'm like, Why? It's why they go home with it, right? So I wanted to bring power back to the idol, and I feel like I did that. I put fear in people's hearts. I had to have them work around my plans. I literally had a god idol, like Yul [Kwan] had in Cook Islands, without the power of using it after the votes. And I feel like I left the mark. I feel like people for seasons to come. We'll talk about what I did with the idol, even the lie about having the idol at final six. I took a lot of Tony [Vlachos] from Cagayan and Feras [Basal] from Australian Survivor, into my gameplay. And I feel like I did that, and I made a statement with it.

Men's Journal: You talked a lot about your family and your Albanian community, making them proud. What did they all think watching the show?

Rizo: Oh, man, I've said this in other interviews, but I was not only the first Albanian person to ever play Survivor. I'm the first Albanian person to ever play in CBS reality TV. So it meant a lot to me to not only represent my family that sacrificed so much to go out there my whole life, my family wanted the white picket fence dream, the American dream. We never had that, but my parents always said this: "Rizo, if there's one thing you do, it's you go chase your dream. I don't care what it is. You can be a janitor, you can be a lawyer, you can be the president. You can be a Survivor winner. Just go chase your dream." And Survivor was my dream, and had I been first boot? Whatever, I did my dream. I'm happy. I made them proud, but I had moment after moment after moment. Not only I made my parents proud, but I made my country of Albania proud, my friends proud. I get so much love. I'm representing such a small country, and we're so prideful. I left my legacy, and not that I was playing to ever get on Season 50, because I didn't care about that s--t. But it clearly made enough of an impact to get me the invite back. So it everything happens for a reason,

Men's Journal: Speaking of, talk to me about finding out you were on Season 50? Was it an easy yes?

Rizo: So I'll kind of lay out the lay out the land a little bit after. The game ends, we sleep, whatever. The next day, production pulls me into a room. Jeff is on the Zoom. And I was thinking, like, this is what Jeff does with all the people in the finale. I was like, "Jeff, you just called me RizGod. It's like we're best friends, man. What's going on?" And Jeff, very stone-faced, says, "Rizo, Season 50 is around the corner," and then, like, he hypes it up. And I'm like, is he about to ask me to be on Season 50? And then he asks me, and I start crying. I'm like, holy shit. This is crazy. This is cinema. And of course, I say yes. Like, I say yes before I even talk to my family.

So, lo and behold, I go home. My family sees me at the airport. They're like, Oh, my God, we're so happy to see you. You look so skinny, you look like you just died. And I was like, stop crying, because I'm leaving again in nine days to go on Survivor. They're like, what is going on? And I didn't tell them how I placed on 49. I told them, I left a mark. Maybe I'm the winner. Who knows? And I'm going out there. And my mom was so gutted because she saw me and she's so protective. She's like, you can't go out there. I was like, You're crazy. I'm going, I'm going right there again to see Jeff Probst. So, it was amazing. I'm so grateful. I'm actually very happy it happened the way it happened. And I'm excited to be a part of Season 50 with all the greats.

Men's Journal: You talked about RizGod and becoming a legend of this game. I'm not even talking about 50, but do you feel like you accomplished that with 49?

Rizo: I do. I really do. I wanted to be a legend. I wanted to cement myself. And I think what being a legend entails is not only a good player, but a good character. And I think the first half of Survivor 49, you saw RizGod–the goofy guy, the guy that was funny, my fishing scene that obviously I failed at, puzzles, my first challenge, my fight for supplies with Alex [Moore]. I wanted to give Survivor my all. I wanted to be vulnerable. I wanted to be myself. You saw Rizo, the human. You saw RizGod, the character, and then you saw me play this kick-ass game. I was innovative with the idol. I had a great alliance. I came back down from a seven-three minority to have a three-person majority in the Final Four. That's got to mean something.

Everybody's like, "Oh, we all self-imploded." Bulls--t. Savannah, Soph and I made this happen. Give us our flowers. And I had two best friends in Savannah and Soph. I got the loved one letters. I got to share my story, and most importantly, I had Jeff Probst snuff my torch by calling me the RizGod. It's never happened in Survivor, and nobody on the island knew about the RizGod. Obviously, the audience did, but nobody on the island knew until Jeff snuffed my torch. So it was funny. Savannah and Sophi did know a day or two prior, because we were all doing our sharing secrets. Savannah is like, "I'm a news reporter," and I'm like, "I'm the RizGod." And Soph's like, "I went to Duke." All, like, stupid ass secrets. But it was so funny, and so nobody knew. Then Jeff was like, "RizGod," and the jury's like, "What the hell is going on?" So it was amazing. I'm very happy with my experience. I love Jeff. I love production. I love the whole cast. And I mean, it got me on 50.

Men's Journal: Silly question at this point, but if Survivor calls, are you always picking up that call?

Rizo: 100 percent. I'm always there. Survivor has my loyalty. I would always do Survivor in a heartbeat. Yeah, I got a legacy to make.

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