Civ AI Survivor: Season Five

[Wyatan]

Are we undervaluing the emphasis of the map on civ performance? Asking this because I've switched the starting positions of Huayna/Inca and Washington/America in Survivor 4 game 7 and got a Washington-PWNs-everyone scenario:

It's a combination of both : map and leader performance.
And that's why the championship game, with its mirrored or semi-mirrored maps, is the least interesting from a prediction standpoint (unavoidable, though : you want a fair map for the grand finals).

For instance, in the latest game (wildcard season 5), I think the community was dead wrong to have Bismarck as the grand favourite for First To Die.
It simply was never in play (or, since we know that everything is possible, it was extremely unlikely).
Now, switch his position with Gilgamesh's or Tokugawa's, and he's 100% First To Die.

Conversely, switch Huyna Capac with Lincoln or Montezuma in this year's game, and I doubt we'd see a Lincoln or Monty roflstomp !