In a two hour finale Sunday evening, Yul Kwon, nicknamed the “godfather” of Survivor Cook Islands, was awarded the $1 million top prize Sunday in a classic finale that pitted brains vs. brawn.

The series ended with three finalists- Yul, Ozzy and Becky. As Jeff Probst read out the votes it was apparent how close the match was. It ended with 5 votes for Yul, 4 votes for Ozzy and none for Becky who tagged along to the end of the game.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever felt bad that somebody didn’t win,” host Jeff Probst said. “It was so evenly matched.”

Kwon, a 31-year-old management consultant who lives in San Mateo, Calif., was the brain with degrees from Stanford University and Yale Law School. He controlled the strategic aspect of the game, particularly after he found a hidden piece of jewelry that guaranteed him one-time immunity from being voted off the island.

“The key to winning the game is maximizing the good luck and minimizing the bad luck,” he said later.

Lusth, who has two years of Santa Barbara City College on his resume and works as a waiter near the surf in Venice, Calif., mastered the tropical game’s challenges. He won two very different ones on the show’s final two-hour telecast Sunday: winning a race to complete a complex puzzle, and showing his endurance by standing on a tiny platform for two and a half hours.

The show began in controversy – pitting four groups of racially divided teams against each other, but in the end race wasn’t a factor- it was brains and cunning that won the game for Yul.