Survivor: Know Your Enemies

Survivor: Know Your Enemies is a Large Social Game which took place between Aug 31, 2020 and October 19, 2020. It was moderated by zoraster and PrivateI. SummerInWonderland defeated tris and Aristophanes in a 7-0-0 vote.

This non-anonymous 24 player Survivor game had a Standard classification. The game took place primarily on the official Survivor: Know Your Enemies Discord server as well as in private Discord chats. Challenges were posted in the MafiaScum game thread.

Some information about twists and game events were revealed prior to Signups, including the following:

• There would be 3 finalists and 8 jurors.
• If there is a tie in the Final 4 Tribal Council vote, a firemaking challenge will occur. Players collected points for the challenge by posting at certain intervals in the Firemaking discord channel throughout the game. Players who had been voted off could choose to will their points to a player still in the game. The player with more points would win the challenge and earn their spot as a finalist.
• There would be a minimum of 3 rounds spent on a Tribe before a swap.
• A complete list of potential idols and other advantage items.
• Roughly half of challenges would be puzzles.

Players

Player	Original Tribe	Swap Tribe	2nd Swap Tribe	Merged Tribe	Finish
Grody	Bangkok				1st Voted Out 24th Place
T-Bone	Alexandria				1st Voted Out 24th Place
rahladahla	Alexandria				3rd Voted Out 22nd Place
kdowns	Alexandria				4th Voted Out 21st Place
Reundo	Casablanca	Delhi			5th Voted Out 20th Place
Gammagooey	Casablanca	Delhi			6th Voted Out 19th Place
CreativeMod1	Alexandria	El Paso			7th Voted Out 18th Place
Cheery Dog	Casablanca	El Paso			8th Voted Out 17th Place
VashtaNeurotic	Bangkok	Delhi	Florence		9th Voted Out 16th Place
animorpherv1	Bangkok	El Paso	Florence		10th Voted Out 15th Place
Aronis	Casablanca	El Paso	Florence		11th Voted Out 14th Place
DeasVail	Alexandria	El Paso	Guadalajara		12th Voted Out 13th Place
Mist7676	Bangkok	Delhi	Guadalajara	Honolulu	13th Voted Out 12th Place
DK	Bangkok	El Paso	Guadalajara	Honolulu	14th Voted Out 1st Juror
D3f3nd3r	Bangkok	Delhi	Guadalajara	Honolulu	15th Voted Out 2nd Juror
Pine	Bangkok	Delhi	Guadalajara	Honolulu	16th Voted Out 3rd Juror
Awoo	Alexandria	El Paso	Florence	Honolulu	17th Voted Out 4th Juror
Espeonage	Casablanca	Delhi	Florence	Honolulu	18th Voted Out 5th Juror
Haschel Cedricson	Casablanca	El Paso	Guadalajara	Honolulu	19th Voted Out 6th Juror
SleepyKrew	Casablanca	El Paso	Guadalajara	Honolulu	20th Voted Out 7th Juror
Malkon05	Bangkok	Delhi	Florence	Honolulu	21st Voted Out 8th Juror
Aristophanes	Alexandria	El Paso	Florence	Honolulu	Runner-up 3rd place
tris	Casablanca	Delhi	Guadalajara	Honolulu	Runner-up 3rd place
SummerInWonderland	Alexandria	Delhi	Florence	Honolulu	Sole Survivor 1st place

Voting History

Premerge

Survivor: Know Your Enemies Premerge Voting History
	Original Tribes				Swap Tribes				2nd Swap Tribes
Episode #:	1		2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
Immune:	Casablanca		Bangkok Casablanca	Bangkok Casablanca	El Paso	El Paso	Delhi	Delhi	Guadalajara	Guadalajara	Guadalajara	Florence
Class A Idol Plays:							DK for DK
Class B Idol Plays:							Awoo for CMod
Eliminated:	Grody	T-Bone	rahladahla	kdowns	Reundo	Gammagooey	CreativeMod1	Cheery Dog	VashtaNeurotic	animorpherv1	Aronis	DeasVail
Votes	7-1	6-2	5-2	5-1	5-4-1	5-4	6-4	6-2-1	6-2	6-1	5-1	6-2
SummerInWonderland		T-Bone	rahladahla	kdowns	Gammagooey	Gammagooey			VashtaNeurotic	animorpherv1	Aronis
tris					Gammagooey	Espeonage						DeasVail
Aristophanes		rahladahla	rahladahla	kdowns			animorpherv1	Cheery Dog	VashtaNeurotic	animorpherv1	Aronis
Malkon05	Grody				Reundo	Gammagooey			VashtaNeurotic	animorpherv1	Aronis
SleepyKrew							CreativeMod1	Cheery Dog				DeasVail
Haschel Cedricson							CreativeMod1	Cheery Dog				D3f3nd3r
Espeonage					Gammagooey	Gammagooey			VashtaNeurotic	animorpherv1	Aronis
Awoo		rahladahla	rahladahla	kdowns			animorpherv1	Cheery Dog	VashtaNeurotic	animorpherv1	Aronis
Pine	Grody				Reundo	Gammagooey						DeasVail
D3f3nd3r	Grody				Reundo	Gammagooey						DeasVail
DK	Grody						CreativeMod1	Cheery Dog				DeasVail
Mist7676	Grody				Reundo	Espeonage						DeasVail
DeasVail		T-Bone	rahladahla	kdowns			CreativeMod1	Cheery Dog				D3f3nd3r
Aronis							animorpherv1	Aronis	VashtaNeurotic	animorpherv1	Aristophanes
animorpherv1	Grody						CreativeMod1	Aristophanes	Espeonage	Espeonage
VashtaNeurotic	Grody				Reundo	Espeonage			Espeonage
Cheery Dog							CreativeMod1	Aronis
CreativeMod1		T-Bone	rahladahla	kdowns			animorpherv1
Gammagooey					Espeonage	Espeonage
Reundo					Gammagooey
kdowns		T-Bone	Aristophanes	CreativeMod1
rahldahla		T-Bone	Aristophanes
T-Bone		rahladahla
Grody	animorpherv1

Merge

Survivor: Know Your Enemies Merge Voting History
	Merged Tribe
Episode #:	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Immune:	D3f3nd3r	SummerIn Wonderland	Malkon05	tris	SummerIn Wonderland	SummerIn Wonderland	SummerIn Wonderland		SummerIn Wonderland
Class A Idol Plays:
Class B Idol Plays:				Summer for Espe
Eliminated:	Mist7676	DK	D3f3nd3r	Pine	Awoo	Espeonage	Haschel Cedricson	SleepyKrew	Malkon05
Votes	6-3-3	10-1	8-1-1	4-3-2	6-2	5-2	4-2	2-1-1-1	3-1
SummerInWonderland	DK	DK	D3f3nd3r	Haschel Cedricson	Awoo	Haschel Cedricson	Haschel Cedricson	SleepyKrew	Malkon05
tris	Mist7676	DK	D3f3nd3r	Haschel Cedricson	Awoo	Espeonage	Malkon05	Malkon05	Malkon05
Aristophanes	Mist7676	DK	D3f3nd3r	Pine	Haschel Cedricson	Espeonage	Haschel Cedricson	SleepyKrew	Malkon05
Malkon05	Mist7676	DK	D3f3nd3r	Haschel Cedricson	Awoo	Espeonage	Haschel Cedricson	tris	Aristophanes
SleepyKrew	Mist7676	DK	D3f3nd3r	Pine	Awoo	Espeonage	Haschel Cedricson	SummerIn Wonderland
Haschel Cedricson	Mist7676	DK	D3f3nd3r	Espeonage	Awoo	Espeonage	Malkon05
Espeonage	DK	DK	D3f3nd3r	Pine	Awoo	Haschel Cedricson
Awoo	Mist7676	DK	D3f3nd3r	Pine	Haschel Cedricson
Pine	DK	DK	Haschel Cedricson	Espeonage
D3f3nd3r	Espeonage	DK	Awoo
DK	Espeonage	Pine
Mist7676	Espeonage

Final Tribal Council

Survivor: Know Your Enemies Final Tribal Council Votes
Finalist:	Aristophanes	SummerInWonderland	tris
DK
D3f3nd3r		SummerInWonderland
Pine		SummerInWonderland
Awoo		SummerInWonderland
Espeonage		SummerInWonderland
Haschel Cedricson		SummerInWonderland
SleepyKrew		SummerInWonderland
Malkon05		SummerInWonderland
Total votes:	0 votes	7 votes	0 votes

Synopsis

Episode 1A: Neither Alliance is My Ideal

Challenge

New tribes Alexandria, Bangkok, and Casablanca competed in a speed trivia competition that allowed outside resources. Tribe members assigned themselves to a category and earned a point for their tribe by giving a correct answer faster than their competitors assigned to the same category.

T-Bone (Science) was the only one to earn a point for Alexandria. D3f3nd3r (Soc. Studies), Mist7676 (Sundries), and DK (Suppers) scored for Bangkok. Aronis (Speeches), SleepyKrew (Sports), Cheery Dog (Stories), and Reundo (Survivor) earned Casablanca safety. Challenge performance seemed to factor little in subsequent discussion of who to vote out. For submitting the fastest correct answer, SleepyKrew earned an Avoidance Advantage.

New Tribes

On Casablanca, the social scene moves at a slower pace than the other tribes, even before they found out they won immunity. Espeonage and Haschel attempt voice chats, but don't seem to come out of it too positively. Haschel has a better vc with Aronis later. {SleepyKrew, Haschel} and {Espeonage, Aronis} joke about forming F2s. Could these be the start of more serious connections?

Cheery, tris, and Gamma are named as possibly being in trouble should there be a tribal council, but particularly Cheery. Cheery realizes this and wants to improve his standing. tris confesses wariness of Esp from their previous game. Gamma begins forming an alliance with SleepyKrew and Espeonage. Aronis is close with Espeonage and wants to connect more with Reundo. Aronis muses in a voice confessional over how to be the right amount of aggressive. It's not necessarily clear what everyone thinks of their tribemates on Cassablanca: they're still feeling it out, it seems.

On Bangkok, grody seems to be a clear outsider due to relative inactivity, though he is liked by Vash. The first night of the game, there is a 644-message group chat between {Pine, Malkon, Mist, and DK} where they discuss the Sequester game DK is modding, and socially bond. Meanwhile, Malkon allies with Vash on the basis of them being former Survivor winners and threats. The elephant in the room is Vash wanting to work with D3f, and Malkon not wanting to.

Ani and Malkon also hit it off early on. Pine and Mist put the drama of Survivor: PD behind them and seem to be a strong pair. DK confesses to thinking of Malkon as a friend outside of the game, while Malkon is wary based on the last game they played together. Vash and D3f also seem wary of DK based on his reputation and play in the most recent non-anon. While the actual Sequester group chat isn't active the next day, it as a faction seems to have staying power.

Meanwhile, Vash makes the "A Spicy 5 Some" group chat for the alliance of {Malkon, D3f, ani, and Vash}, which has yet to get much use for game talk. Pine hosts Jackbox for the tribe, which most of them participate in. The episode title comes from Malkon, who is caught in the middle of two alliances he isn't entirely happy with and hopes to avoid future tribals...but is also fitting of situations going on on Alexandria.

On Alexandria, initially rahldahla is absent and T-Bone makes a bit of a poor impression on some tribemates. It's a relatively quiet first night for the tribe, with Summer and CMod most notably staying up quite late chatting. Both express wariness of each other but seem to be a budding pair. Ari and T-Bone, formerly on the List Mod team together, are also a clear pair. Awoo, initially hoping for T-Bone to be an easy boot, finds that they connect after some game talk. Awoo forms a plan to build an alliance of {T-Bone, Summer, Ari} with CMod as his "side bae". Thus, the Boots on the Mooooo'n group chat forms. This group seems settled on a rahl vote. However, Summer and CMod find T-Bone's lack of non-game talk, and seemingly stronger connection to Ari, off-putting.

Meanwhile, kdowns forms an alliance with DV and CMod, and they decide to add Summer and rahl to make 5. In confessional, DV makes it clear he wants Awoo to stay. Some drama ensues about T-Bone and kdowns, with kdowns taking offense that T-Bone seems to have made it sound like kdowns was actively pushing rahl as a vote. The "Love shack <3" group chat forms, which CMod praises the vibe of. They propose a T-Bone vote. rahl finds T-Bone the most boring and is fine with this. CMod and Summer begin to plot through how to handle being in the midst of two majority alliances, and end up pulling in Awoo to a "Meow" chat of swing votes. As they talk through options, CMod pushes hard for a T-Bone vote. In confessional, Summer and Awoo both feel alienated by kdowns and confess interest in voting him out soon if not now. It seems this tribe may make ample use of this extended tribal council phase.

Episode 1B: Probably Survivor Suicide

On Casablanca, we see our first alliances forming. Gamma follows through on "The Haulers" alliance he has planned. Gamma confesses to wanting to do more game talk with Reundo, but wanting to be careful about overplaying and accidentally ending up in a 2nd alliance. Haschel and Reundo declare "Intent to Work Together," which is not quite an alliance, but both seem to feel positively about this arrangement. SleepyKrew worries he's overplaying, but decides to put together "The Usual Suspects" (himself, Aronis and Reundo) as a secondary group. Aronis confesses that he feels he's improved from the "mid to low" part of the tribe to being able to "set [himself] up" to be better positioned and have better access to information as a result of avoiding TC. Esp continues to confess that he has a poor opinion of Haschel based on their early voice call. For the rest of the tribe, the main people being mentioned as a little hard to connect with still seem to be Cheery, Gamma, and tris.

On Bangkok, as ani jokes, they have their priorities straight -- we're hearing more about ways they're trying to utilize the non-anon format to play games together than about any possibility of votes changing. One development is that ani, who figured out very quickly that there are Discord groups assigned to tribes starting with the letters E, F, G and H, has separately shared that information to Malkon and Vash. In the Pathfinder Bois group (Malkon, ani, Pine), a djinn and a red panda squad are getting designed. ani mentions bonding with Pine and that he expects this to be an important relationship. DK seems worried about his spot in the tribe, seeing the MafiaScum LSG meta as rather quick-paced. D3f expresses wariness of his allies being strong players.

Vash says he and Mist are connecting based on physics, but Mist has a rather low opinion of him. Pine confesses he feels closest with Mist and Malkon, and that a big move against Vash may be warranted due to Vash's apparent threat level relative to the rest of the tribe. Grody is well aware he's on the outs, and jokes that the numbers alliance got him (several of his tribemates have numbers in their usernames). ani consents to being the alternate vote. Grody is voted out 7-1.

By contrast, our Alexandria tribe is still actively decision-making until quite a while through this TC. kdowns is ill, but is surprised he's been as strategically active as he has been so far by starting up the group alliances he's part of. Awoo warns T-Bone that he is rubbing his allies the wrong way and raises the idea to T-Bone of a "slow pivot" to kdowns. T-Bone's reaction is to warn kdowns. kdowns speaks to DV and CMod in their group chat to fact check, and kdowns seems to conclude that T-Bone is full of it. Awoo learns that kdowns sees this vote as being pretty settled for T-Bone. Awoo and Summer are woeful in confessional that they have less agency on the tribe than CMod seems to, though Awoo seems to find the situation a little exhilarating. On the other hand, Summer is struggling with feeling like her relationships are too obvious, and that she doesn't think she's the social center of the tribe.

CMod breaks the news to Ari that T-Bone's social game isn't going over well and T-Bone's probably going to be voted off. Ari gives his perspective on it in a touching video confessional. The episode title is a nod to Ari's awareness that he is loyal to a fault. He accepts that T-Bone may be voted out, but will not vote for him and will keep trying to save him. Ari tries to swing {Summer, Awoo, DV} to help, but DV just isn't on board with it and Summer helps Ari accept this. Summer confesses that Ari's play around T-Bone makes her less confident about working with him than before. DV continues to confess to feeling close with Awoo, despite them not being in a group alliance together. rahl hasn't connected with T-Bone and still seems quite content that this is the vote. The tribe blindsides T-Bone with 6 votes, with the other 2 going toward rahl.

Episode 2: What's Best for the Tribe

Challenge

Tribes competed in a slide puzzle and one member of each tribe won an idol. Opting to do a 5x5 puzzle instead of a 4x4 puzzle and doing so fast enough would earn one player in the game a more powerful idol. While the Bangkok tribe planned to have their best slide puzzler be the only one to do the 5x5 and identified this as Mist, DK secretly went for the 5x5 and earned a Class A idol good until merge. CreativeMod encouraged the Alexandria tribe not to complete the 5x5 in order to improve their likelihood of winning immunity. Casablanca did not openly strategize in their tribe chat. Awoo from Alexandria and Reundo from Casablanca earned weaker idols (Class B good until merge or next 3 TCs attended, whichever is first) by being the fastest member of their tribe to complete the 4x4. Alexandria took the longest to complete their slide puzzles and went to Tribal Council.

Casablanca

Group chats are pretty inactive and the social scene still feels slow. Haschel and SleepyKrew have a 30 minute VC where they agree that they're connecting with Cheery Dog the least. Haschel notes that the idol may be an issue but that thinks Cheery will be the "starting point" if they go to TC. Espeonage and Aronis share the existence of their group chats with each other and plan to work within them to support each other. That said, Espe also wants to "aggressively" connect more with Skrew and Reundo himself, and tries organizing this through Skrew. Cheery confesses that he may change his playstyle later, but his main goal is to try to make merge currently. Aronis does a rankdown of the top 15 survivor players in the community. In voice confessional, tris says "there hasn't been anything explicit beyond with 'Lucifer'" (AKA Aronis) and that she's having a lot of fun joking with SleepyKrew; Gamma and Cheery aren't really "standing out" to her. Reundo feels like he was able to 'clear the air' with Espe from a previous game.

Bangkok

While DK only tells Malkon about his powerful idol, Vash speculates that DK has it and shares this with D3f. Mist also speculates on DK having it. Mist worries she could be on the bottom and thinks {D3f/Vash/Malkon} are a group as well as {Pine/DK}. DK confesses that he wants to stay true to himself and bulldoze boring gamebots. ani expects DK's and Mist's names to come up at a future TC on this tribe. Ani confesses about liking Pine and says that's his #1 preferred person to swap with. Malkon confesses about feeling least close with Mist and D3f currently, and thinking Mist is the ideal boot to keep ani and him in the center of the tribe. Sequester group chat watches Malkon play Sequester. "A Spicy 5 Some" (Vash, ani, D3f and Malkon) speculate on what may be going on on Alexandria, discussing that Awoo and CMod may work well together, that kdowns tends to overplay, and that Ari may be in trouble but may have good odds to make merge if he survives this vote. Vash repeatedly calls out Awoo as being a threat he wants gone.

Alexandria

Before the challenge, CMod shares the future tribe name Discord roles with Awoo and Summer in their Meow group chat. Awoo shares that he won the idol with CMod, Summer, and Ari, though Summer asks him not to tell CMod; Awoo notes that this likely means Ari and CMod must not be as close in the aftermath of the previous tribal council. CMod mentions in the group chat with DV and kdowns that he trusts them more than he trusts the bigger Love Shack group (with Summer and rahl) and wants to focus more on their group of 3. kdowns raises the idea of a 3-2 split vote. The 3 discuss the vote, with CMod's goals being tribal unity, keeping strong players for a swap, and avoiding flushing idols. DV and kdowns allude to being less close to Ari and Awoo, but DV also expresses valuing tribal unity and that he's hearing a lot of focus on "what's best for the tribe" (hence, the episode quote.) People within the Love Shack alliance still are expressing that the vote against rahl is a sad vote to make. DV confesses feeling that the only vote out that would be positive for his game is Ari, but that he doesn't think it's smart to push for it. Summer is too busy to confess much, but says she feels kdowns or rahladahla are the best votes for her game.

kdowns starts declaring in the Love Shack group that he's pro Love Shack and will be voting Ari. He later steps this up to claiming to have the idol and that he will be playing it on rahl. CMod, knowing who really has the idol, responds to this saying that kdowns can then save Rahl and eliminate Ari without anyone "burning bridges." kdowns really trusts rahl for the long haul and wants to stick up for him and vote out who he sees as a challenge liability in Ari. Awoo and CMod bond over complaining about kdowns pushing too hard to keep rahl, including over a voice call. Awoo is amused by CMod's situation of being stuck between two alliances. DV confesses "GODDAMMIT KDOWNS" in response to kdowns's fake idol play. CMod wants kdowns to be the next boot, and Awoo is considering throwing because he feels being swapped with kdowns and DV is too dangerous. rahl leaves the game in a 5-2 vote, having told his alliance group chat that he had a near death experience with heatstroke earlier today and that helped him to put the game in perspective in terms of what's really important in life. Haschel is vocally upset in his confessional to see rahladahl voted off.

Episode 3: Who's Playing Dirty Now?

Challenge

The 3 tribes participated in a Word Web puzzle that challenged many of the players. At least one player on each tribe had a Did Not Finish result. Discussion of the challenge was banned, leading some of the Alexandria tribe to wink wink nudge nudge to each other about how they needed to make sure kdowns does not make it off the tribe and leave 5 strong. Casablanca's and Bangkok's average times were within a minute of each other, with Bangkok edging out. Alexandria's average was more than double Casablanca's, with two times under 9 minutes submitted by kdowns and DV, and the rest at 50 minutes or more. Comically, Summer did not intend to perform poorly, and simply answered incorrectly by accident. For having the best overall time, Mist earned a Communication Device/Walkie Talkie item. This item needed to be used within 24 hours and allowed them communication with another player regardless of whether they were on the same tribe.

Casablanca

Reundo: "This is probably the most time I've spent straight in a Survivor game without playing Survivor, lol"

Cheery Dog: "Alexandra apparently likes tribal. Well I'm okay with that, because I still want to avoid it."

Gammagooey: "It looks like our tribe can continue coasting for a while"

SleepyKrew: "Just enjoying the ride"

Espeonage: "I've played every game this year this is the longest I have gone without a tribal. [...] So I am loving it"

tris: "i guess i bring good luck to initial tribe challenges"

Aronis: "i am now solely in this survivor game and it has my full attention"

Haschel: "The truth is, between all this #winning and Labor Day Vacation there isn't much to report."

That about sums it up. SleepyKrew plays the avoidance advantage, and it's implied to be on someone who's not on Casablanca, but the target is unknown.

Bangkok

Before the challenge, Pine is weighing D3f and Vash as boot options, with Vash being more of a "big move." Malkon expects a "DK vs. Mist" boot with his preference being for Mist to go, even though Vash's is DK. Malkon started "subtly setting up a mist vote" to avoid DK needing to play the idol, which Malkon worries could even end up aimed at him. Mist weighs which Sequester ally to pick for the Walkie Talkie. They considered Pine to stay on his good side, but decide they feel comfy enough with him to use it elsewhere. They almost choose DK due to enjoying their chats, but worry about DK being booted early, and instead choose Malkon. ani has a low moment with his challenge result but avoids tribal. He expects a swap, feels like he'll be set no matter who he swaps with, and speculates that Ari is too nice to throw. D3f predicts the swap will be at 18. D3f also thinks Vash is overplaying by "kinda strongarming us into believing that we're swapping tonight, and him theorizing that DK is the one with the idol from the slide puzzle" and that it may need to be dealt with premerge. There was also a voice call involving Vash, ani and Mist teaching a drunken DK Hanabi. A Spicy 5 Some chat correctly predicts the kdowns boot.

Alexandria

Post-TC, kdowns says he only trusts DV and everyone else are cowards. Ari confesses he thinks of kdowns as the "weak link" on a tribe he loves because of kdowns saying that "all [kdowns] wants is to get out of this group." Ari disapproves of kdowns's idol bluff to try to save rahla and boot Ari, reiterating his appreciation of honest play. CMod comes up with the idea to form a group chat with everyone but kdowns to plan for a swap and brainstorm signals to use in firemaking-challenge. Awoo comes up with subtle gifs that match his previous posting; CMod comes up with a whole alphabet system. Awoo owns up to having the idol and being willing to play it for anyone. There is concern, especially from CMod, that kdowns may go to fire-making and spill some tea.

Awoo says he's trying to milk kdowns for information but has no real intention to vote anyone else. Awoo reiterates that he trusts Summer and Ari, and also mentions that Summer said she wants to go to the end with him. Summer confesses that CMod is playing so "messy" that he gets all the flack despite them playing similar strategic games. Specifically, CMod is making alliances he breaks, while she is just being brought into them.

DV confesses to viewing the others as an "exhibitionist foursome" by virtue of throwing the challenge, and that he thinks this will make him be seen as higher value to other tribes in a swap situation. DV thinks that he will still be seen as a potential number that Alexandria needs, but is fully prepared to find appreciation from other starting tribes. DV also mentions that he thinks kdowns could have made the argument that DV is more threatening post-swap. kdowns is seen by Awoo as being hesitant to push a particular name to vote, but implying CMod. Later, kdowns drops 700+ words in Alexandria tribe chat explaining his perspective. He implies there may be returnees in the game and that he will be vindictive if voted out. He says that the narrative that he will "100% flip" was overblown and twisted; he merely mentioned it came "across [his] mind". kdowns disputes CMod saying kdowns is "playing dirty," when CMod is "literally playing everyone" and organized throwing the challenge. The episode title comes from kdowns's speech. He warns the tribe that they won't be able to keep playing UTR, and that idol bluff aside he played a straight forward game. kdowns is voted out in a 5-1 vote.

Episode 4: The Cups Have /Feelings/

Swap

After the minimum 3 rounds on the starting tribes, our remaining players swapped into two tribes of 10. Original Casablanca was split evenly across the two new tribes. Bangkok made up 50% of Delhi and a minority on El Paso. 4 members of Alexandria went to El Paso, while Summer swapped alone to Delhi.

Challenge

The two new tribes played Tribal Thumbtacks, aiming to get the higher total score across 3 rounds. Delhi requested a separate tribal discord channel specifically to dedicate to challenges. Gamma, Pine and Vash each proposed different thumbtack arrangements, tested them against each other, and then made adjustments. On El Paso, ani led the conversation by proposing they space their thumbtacks very evenly. There was only one instance of overlap between the two tribes. Performing well in the third round in particular, El Paso won immunity. ani won a Class B Idol Detector for having the highest individual score. It was briefly noted in confessional that Espe and Mist diverted from the plan, with Espe's deviation improving the score and Mist's being costly; however, challenge performance did not seem to be a significant factor when deciding who to vote out.

El Paso

Cheery Dog and DK seem to be on the bottom for inactivity, with Cheery likely being the easier vote. Pre-existing in-game relationships from Alexandria seem like they have the most staying power: DK and ani weren't close on Bangkok, and Casablanca never tested their connections. That said, DV has a complex relationship with his former tribemates where he is "pretending to care."

Aronis, as one of 4 former Casablancas on the tribe, points out that they've "literally been in this game for over a week and have yet to do anything." He also confesses that he feels "middle of the road" and "undecided about things" on the tribe. Aronis, despite finding CMod not "forthcoming," rates CMod as his favorite tribe member due to being the most fun; he also wants to work with Skrew. Haschel feels positively about the swap, having swapped with "a top-tier ally, a mid-tier ally, and a person [he doesn't] mind losing" and has some notable pre-game connections to others. Skrew seems nervous about the swap, but seems to be making a fine impression overall.

Ari confesses that he thinks the Bangkok 2 will be "integral" swing votes, and that he's making an effort to be more social because "it was pointed out to [him] that [he] was a little quiet in the last tribe." Awoo fantasizes about idoling out Haschel and Aronis until THE META SHIFT EVENT of handwritten exchanges occurs with Aronis, which improves their relationship. Awoo questions whether he actually wants to keep the inactives in the game longer with an idol play.

DK and CMod had a 1 hour voice call early on and bond. DK complains after a conversation with ani in which ani emphasizes pregame friendships with tribemates, worrying that due to this "they’ll always choose animorph over me probably." ani seems to have hit it off with Ari, Haschel, DV and Awoo. {ani, Haschel, DV} is a trio in the works. Haschel thinks it's too early for a group chat, and DV is somewhat unsure about working with Haschel but remains open. ani wants to bring in DK to this group, at least temporarily. While most enthusiastic about his connection with ani, DV also seems interested in working with Skrew and Aronis.

Delhi

The former 5 from Bangkok immediately form a group chat and start plotting. Mist and D3f seemed interested in branching out in terms of relationships, but feel like the numbers may force them not to. Malkon, Pine, and Vash seem more positive about the position they are in and potential options that they have. The possibility of pulling in Summer to take out members of Casablanca is brought up initially.

Former Casablanca's situation is murkier; their relationships are untested. Espe was previously in a group with Gamma. Reundo laments that his closest Casablanca allies are all on El Paso. tris is happy to swap with Mist, and Reundo is happy to swap with Malkon. Summer swapped alone, and confesses that she had to put in a lot of work this round to get people to want to work with her and give her any information.

Malkon really wants to work with Summer due to them being threats and due to their history. Summer and Espe bond quickly. tris leaks Gamma's initial preferred votes of Mist, Summer, or Malkon which helps tris bond with them. This also gets Gamma into some trouble. A counter-Bangkok core seems to form of {Summer, tris, Espe, Malkon} AKA STEM. Espe thinks that because Casablanca's connections are weaker, it is necessary to assert themselves to not allow Bangkok to form a majority in order to avoid any pagongs on the tribe. Meanwhile, Gamma tries bonding with {D3f/Vash/Pine} and forms a group chat with them. Those three end up having a group chat that they use to coordinate their responses to Gamma, however. Reundo generally seems to be seen as hard for people to connect with on the tribe in terms of game talk, though Summer is notably positive toward him.

A conversation Mist and Espe had becomes a big talking point. They dance around naming a specific vote, can't seem to find common ground, and come out of the conversation feeling worse about each other. Espe is under the impression that Mist was trying to get him to name tris as a target, and leaks this to tris, who doesn't believe he interpreted it correctly. Espe is viewed as overplaying, even by his allies. Summer adamantly defends Espe, and tries to stoke paranoia that she would play an idol to save him. Gamma, despite initially wanting to work with him, thinks Espe may be a lost cause. Gamma looks to Malkon as the other swing vote, but Malkon seems to ghost him, perhaps partly due to IRL circumstances with the wild fires.

How to deal with possible idol plays is a conversation on both sides. This is referenced in the episode title: D3f uses the three cups and one ball game as a humorous metaphor for the Bangkok Prayer Circle's attempt at avoiding the idol. Espe pushes D3f as a vote due to believing him least likely to have an idol. Prayer Circle comes together for a voice call and decides to use the Espe drama as their decoy vote and actually go for Reundo. Pine says that the decoy strategy was his suggestion. Reundo being a relatively easy vote is thought to help minimize hurt feelings about the decoy situation. Malkon sees himself and Mist as the main ones that ensured it ended up on Reundo.

Gamma believes he is voting Espe along with Prayer Circle. Reundo tries for a last minute push on Gamma, which is where STEM minus Malkon vote. Malkon does not tell STEM where the vote is going besides that it's not on them. D3f and Vash seemed to play defensively by sticking with Prayer Circle due to either feeling they are a target or feeling like they've failed to develop other connections in the tribe that are getting them info.

Reundo confesses to feeling like people are speaking to him oddly but interprets that worst case scenario, Espe will be voted out. Reundo is ultimately booted 5-4-1 with his Class B idol still in his pocket. Delhi has no more idols (for now)!

Episode 5: Insurmountable Blowback

Challenge

In the "Learning is fun" challenge, the tribes competed to identify the timestamp of a particular screencap from a 23 and a half minute video about inheritance tax. Players earned points based on how many seconds off they were, and the lower scoring tribe would win, with average time taken being the tiebreaker. D3f and Gamma from Delhi each submitted a time that was one second too early, as did DV and Cheery from El Paso. El Paso's average was more than two minutes quicker than Delhi, so they won their second straight immunity, and sent Summer to her fifth straight tribal council. Gamma's long time taken combined with an incorrect results gets some shade from tribemates, though he wasn't exactly in a good spot challenge aside.

El Paso

In their boredom, a lot of advantage formation gets swapped on this tribe: that being Awoo's idol and majority advantage, Skrew's avoidance advantage, and ani's Class B idol detector. They speculate about the other idols and what {Mist, tris} may have won. Perhaps notably, ani thinks that the Bangkok idol belongs to someone on Delhi. DK and Cheery still seem inactive, and a Casablanca being booted on Delhi makes DK an easier vote. Ari and Aronis are also noted as being less active. Aronis starts running a 5 player spec survivor in his confessional.

Haschel and Awoo both note they're getting along better. Awoo confesses about feeling like he has a "free ticket to merge" due to "alliances, winning streak, idol, majority advantage, and game narrative of 'bangkok bad.'" Haschel mentions that Skrew and ani are his most important relationships, and notes that he wants to step up his challenge performances. Skrew mentions feeling closest to Awoo, Haschel and DV. He doesn't want to fight a Cheery vote, but thinks that Cheery staying will be better for his game than keeping any of {DK, ani, Ari, CMod}.

After the challenge results, CMod notices that Summer has posted her "in trouble" gif...and starts a group chat to discuss this with Ari and Awoo. CMod and Awoo both weigh in their confessionals the pros and cons of her being eliminated. Awoo notes that DV likely has built strong non-Alexandria connections on El Paso, such as Skrew and ani. ani finally puts together the "ABC" group chat where they primarily discuss advantage information. Haschel and DV separately discuss the value of keeping individual strategic relationships versus relying on group chats. In confessional, DV notes that he is aware ani is quite socially connected, but still thinks he's worth keeping around a while.

Delhi

We start the round off with tris accidentally stating "i think i'm in an ok spot despite being in dark about the vote" in tribe chat instead of her confessional. A fun conversation ensues. Gamma is seen as an easy target going into this vote, having both voted alone and been a target himself. He recognizes this and, in reaction to the last vote, notes he will be having "SEVERAL BEERS." He tries to push a Summer vote to various people, but this doesn't get traction. Mist tries to get Gamma to help push Espe, who Mist sees as more of a threat. Gamma does also vote Vash at some point, but ends up being urged to go back on Espe.

Mist starts a voice call to try to plan with the Bangkok Prayer Circle. The discussion focuses both on who to vote and how to make them seem less monolithic as a faction. As people trickle in, Mist repeatedly explains their preference for an Espe vote. Everyone else seems to favor a Gamma vote, in large part due to not wanting to make an enemy of Summer. Thus, the "split vote" plan is born: they will try to make it seem like, due to conflicting interests, Mist and Vash will vote for Espe while D3f, Pine and Malkon will vote for Gamma, and balance it out to a 5-4 vote where Gamma is voted off. Vash and D3f are being placed on opposing sides intentionally to challenge the perception of them as being a pair. D3f confesses he thinks the plan is "overkill" and relatively high risk, high reward. Vash later laments that he has been put into a poor position of being assigned to the minority vote and having to explain to Summer why he voted for Espe. Ultimately, Vash doesn't want to make Mist look bad or go against the plan, but feels like he is struggling to lie smoothly enough to support the plan.

Part of Mist's reasoning for pushing Espe is to create chaos that can help fracture the Bangkok alliance. However, this mostly seems to damage Mist's relationship with Mist's closest ally in Malkon, and drives Malkon even closer to Pine. Malkon seems to most urgently want to make a move, and considers trying to pull in Gamma, Mist, and/or Pine to do so. Pine is excited to vote off Vash on this tribe, but isn't willing to pull the trigger because he thinks former Casablanca is too "messy". Vash confesses he is struggling to trust the Bangkok 5 and mostly trusts Mist individually currently. D3f confesses he is interested in a Mist or Vash vote the next round if the votes would be there. Most of this group is maneuvering in their own ways to try to make sure the apparent "insurmountable blowback" (as Malkon says it) of flipping on the 5 won't fall on them.

Espe works on trying to patch things up with Mist and D3f, and is fed a lot of info by Summer. Summer felt that Espe going would lead to her being the next target, and continued to work hard to keep Espe during the round. She and Malkon discuss putting together an alliance of everyone besides D3f/Vash/Gamma, and she raises this with tris, who raises it with Mist. Mist and tris are a tight pair that is increasingly being seen as such.

Shortly before the vote, tris seems stressed and unsure how it's going to go. She is questioning where Malkon stands; she's heard second-hand he may be voting Espe, but this doesn't quite make sense. tris is fine with a Gamma vote, and also fine with supporting Mist with an Espe vote if the numbers are there. Gamma is ultimately voted out 5-4, with tris, Vash, Mist and Gamma voting for Espe.

Episode 6: Heroes Don't Scheme, Except Batman

Challenge

In Maze of Deception, tribes competed to have the fastest mean submission time on completing one or more mazes. Individuals could opt to complete up to two additional mazes to attempt to earn a reward items. A maximum of one player per tribe could earn an item. Vash held a maze seminar voice call for the Delhi tribe. Cheery Dog from El Paso earned the Revote idol good until final 9 by completing two mazes faster than his tribemates; Summer earned a class B idol good until final 9 by also finishing faster than the overall mean and median times. Delhi's mean time was nearly two minutes faster than El Paso's, earning them tribal immunity. DK and Haschel from El Paso claimed in their tribe chat to have only attempted one maze, and due to them finishing in 1:56 and 2:35 respectively, Awoo (the 4th place finisher) and possibly other El Paso tribemates suspect Cheery of earning the revote idol. Summer, the first place finisher on Delhi, is not under the same suspicion but tells Espe and Malkon. Pine misled his tribe that he did the challenge on his phone, and instead completed all 3 mazes at a computer.

Delhi

Things overall seem relaxed on Delhi. The entire tribe (minus a busy Vash) socializes by watching Malkon win Sequester in a group chat. Malkon invests social time with the "STEM" group (Summer, Tris, Espe, Malkon) in the hopes of being able to have that group and Pine vote out a former Bangkok. Malkon confesses he can't tell whether he's a "hot mess, or actually socially competent" and that he may be setting himself up to be an "8th place meat shield." Summer talks about how it's a usual strategy for her to tell people about idols she has, and that she has been getting closer to Pine and would consider F2ing with him. She confesses she doesn't expect her and Espe to both make it deep in the game but that she'd "have a hard time cutting him if we did." Vash says he thinks of Summer as the most social person on the tribe, and Espe mentions that Vash is interested in forming a 3. Vash confesses he is concerned about lacking number 1 allies he can trust and that he thinks he's been "holding back too much" socially. Vash says he looks forward to meeting Aronis and DV.

tris thinks that Mist, Summer and Skrew are her most important connections. She says that she decided to be honest with Summer about voting for Espe and that that she feels like they have actually become closer. Mist plans to behave going forward as if Bangkok has fractured, and make it clear to others that she feels alone and on the bottom. Pine and Mist will appear as if on "opposite" sides but still share information. She thinks she is tris's #1 and is solid with Malkon. D3f mentions an awkward interaction with tris in which he feels gaslit.

Espe thinks that he "seems ok after a literal clusterfuck." He believes that the apparent pagong by Bangkok on Delhi "looks real to the public" regardless of whether it is, which he feels will benefit him in a swap. He thinks that he can make at least merge, and summarizes his relationships as: "Pine is simping for me, I have STEM, Summer is trying to get me in to the girls alliance, Vash wants to go nuts with me and summer, Def seems cool with me."

El Paso

According to Skrew, Haschel floated an Ari vote early on. Awoo starts off trying to push DK due to him being absent and thinking it ideal to eliminate a Bangkok member he has no connection with. ani, however, is connected to DK and doesn't want to immediately boot him, but doesn't want to boot a third Casablanca in a row. ani personally feels least close to CMod out of former Alexandria, who he views as having been inactive. ani is also under the impression that neither Awoo nor DV will be very sad to lose CMod. ani is under the impression CMod is close to Summer, and sees this is an opportunity to "box" her in. ani then brings this idea up to his closest allies (Awoo, DV, and Haschel) and is surprised when Awoo immediately leaks it. ani apologizes and pretends to backpedal to DK. Meanwhile, former Casablanca members on El Paso discuss the apparent pagong and how they want to approach the vote in a group chat. The episode title comes from Skrew's confessional, alluding to his sneaky approach to this tribal council.

Haschel urged ani to take it slow and give all the information to ABC while figuring out how to handle this, and advised that there may still be interest in a CM vote. Skrew brought up that old Bangkok + old Casablanca voting together could make 6 and help save Cheery, and Aronis asked if DV might also be on board. Privately, Aronis lamented that he didn't see supporting "puppetmaster" ani in keeping DK as a smart plan for Aronis or his allies. Haschel also confessed to being interested in keeping DK. DV confessed to preferring an Aristophanes vote, but that he ended up needing to play catch-up due to his schedule and was in a position of reacting. DV stated he was "motivated to do what [he] can to protect ani here" and expressed concern about Awoo's idol. He said he hoped to make kdowns proud by flipping on former Alexandria. Skrew confessed he likes keeping either an easy boot in DK or having saved a "real player" if he steps up. Skrew also felt positively about isolating Ari and fracturing Alexandria.

Awoo thinks of the situation as ani massively overplaying and going to be voted out with a clear majority, believing Haschel is sided with them. He argues that "small brain play" is better strategically. Awoo and CMod consider a vote split plan between ani and DK, but later decide against this. We don't get Ari's direct point of view on the vote, but Awoo mentions giving him info and looping him in. Ari confesses that he is still closest with former Alexandria, especially Trillium (Summer and Awoo) but that he is connecting with ani, Haschel, and Skrew. Ari mentions ani is someone who seems to be "playing every angle." Cheery confesses about how it may be obvious he won the idol, and says in the CasaElblansca group that he will vote with them. DK flip flops throughout the round whether he's going for CMod or ani, not actually wanting CMod to go but liking that it would weaken Awoo. DK always seems to have intended to play the idol to protect himself, particularly since Awoo warns him. While Haschel and Skrew seem to be playing more coy, Aronis leaks to Awoo that CMod is clearly still in trouble. Skrew does suggest to Awoo that he play the idol. Awoo starts to feel like he's being ghosted at the last minute and considers playing his expiring Class B for himself.

At TC, Awoo plays the Class B idol for CMod. DK, however, played his Class A to save himself, which cancels the Class B idol. CMod is sent home in a 6-4 vote; Aronis, Aristophanes, CMod and Awoo voted in the minority for ani. DK says at the end of the TC that he had not realized that that was the effect, and was just trying to protect himself because he's had very little game talk so far, and hopes to connect more with the tribe now. Haschel points out that Sequester has seemed to take up much of DK's time, and DK agrees that DK's absence is a factor.

Episode 7: Ignoring Everyone

Challenge

In Cheaters Prosper, tribes were allowed to cheat while competing to finish anagrams, sudoku, and a cryptogram (so long as they did the Google form themselves and did not communicate with any players or specs.) The challenge had to be reset a couple of hours in to ensure consistency with the types of cheating allowed. Some players, like Haschel, Vash, and Pine, determined that they could get help from people outside the game. Others utilized solvers, and a few didn't bother! Others struggled with the cryptogram and DNF (Malkon and everyone with an A username). Vash earned a Communication Device advantage for finishing fastest. Delhi's overall time was over 5 minutes faster than El Paso's, sending El Paso back to their 2nd Tribal Council.

El Paso

Coming back from TC, ani thinks DV or Skrew voted in the minority because of Awoo's idol. Awoo and Aronis bond, while complaining about and analyzing Skrew's playstyle. Ari is feeling that CMod being voted out will allow the remaining former Alexandrians besides Summer to float for a while. He says that ani, Haschel and DK assured him after the vote that Alexandria will not be a pagong. DK thinks he can survive by stepping up his activity level. DV confesses that he thinks Awoo and Ari know he didn't vote with them, but that it seems like ani and others are doubtful.

Aronis pushes a DK vote. Skrew is against this. DK becomes aware of this and wants to try to convince Aronis that they can work together. DV prefers a DK vote, but gets the impression Skrew and ani are close with DK. ani defends DK on the basis that ani was saved by the idol, which DV questions because that did not appear to be the main reason DK played the idol. Skrew pushes an Ari vote to Haschel and Aronis. Haschel thinks of a DK vote as "not a disaster" but definitely prefers Ari.

Ari is aware that he is being targeted early by Skrew, and has been told that Cheery and DK are probably the easiest counters to push. He thinks that because numbers from Bangkok will be needed, Cheery is the logical choice. Awoo mentions he and Haschel "had a voice call which was obviously just him trying to feel out if I would vote ari." ani says he helps talk Haschel into a Cheery vote. DV mentions feeling indifferent to a Cheery vote. Awoo resolved not to push anything very hard, but is relieved things fell onto Cheery. Haschel weighs the pros and cons of an Ari boot versus a Cheery vote, but a few hours into the TC, decides he should be pushing Cheery. Awoo seems disdainful of Haschel proposing an alliance between him and Skrew.

The episode title comes from Cheery comically outright stating in tribe chat that he can't decide who to ignore on a short work break so he's resolved to ignore everyone for now. Later, Cheery brings up his idol in tribe chat and invites people to voice chat with him or DM him to advise him who to vote or how to use his idol. Skrew suggests Cheery either play the idol on himself or "to avoid effort, do not play an idol this round." Awoo mentions that ani implied he's throwing a vote on Ari in case of idols, and that Awoo is considering also throwing a vote elsewhere. DV also wishes ani would just come out with who he's actually voting for. DK worries he may be going home. Cheery confesses that he feels he only survived the previous vote because of "perceived previous tribal politics" and he feels like he's playing "a lack of a game." Ultimately, Cheery passes his revote idol to a mystery person. We'll find out who in the next episode! The vote is 6 Cheery - 2 Aronis (by Aronis, Cheery) - 1 Aristophanes (by ani).

Delhi

Most of this tribe has very sparse confessional content. They take some time to play Fall Guys though!

Vash brings up that he won the Communication Device in the Prayer Circle group chat. This is his first time finding out about Mist's Communication Device, and he is frustrated at not having the advantage information because it may pertain to other tribes. Vash notes that Malkon claimed to want to eliminate Mist at around the time that they walkie talkie'd up, and is suspicious. Vash wants to vote off Mist but is worried they have an idol. Vash thinks that old Bangkok will fall apart as soon as they swap. Pine pitches to Vash that he should be the one to have the device used on him. Vash pretends to RNG it but just gives it to Pine. Vash laments that "the two people I like talking to most, Mist and Summer, are two people who I trust the least with any actual information I get" and worries that he doesn't have strong enough relationships to even make merge.

Summer is quite sad to see CMod was voted out, saying she trusted him most from her original tribe. She hopes post-swap to figure out why he was voted out and whether she can work with her old tribe. An alliance forms among Summer, Malkon, Pine and Espe ("The Fantastic Four"). However, she is frustrated at Espe pointing out the other two as threats, worrying she will be put in the position of having to stab allies later. She also mentioned that she voice chatted with tris for an hour (in the previous episode) and that they bonded. Summer hopes that that is another connection that will pay off.

Episode 8: Just a Vacation Updater Bot

Swap

Vash's walkie talkie didn't go to waste; he was split from Pine. Ari/Awoo, Malkon/Vash, Haschel/Skrew, and D3f/Mist/Pine have been on the same tribes for the entire game. Everyone besides DV gets to have some sort of reunion with at least one person from their first tribe that they were swapped away from. It turns out ani was gifted the revote idol from Cheery Dog and receives it this episode.

Challenge

In Teamwork Timing, the tribes competed to submit a google form at accurate intervals (after the first submission: 1 minute, 15 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours). Both tribes had similar strategies of using synchronized clocks. Florence aimed to start 10 minutes after the hour, while Guadalajara started on the hour. Guadalajara won immunity, with their cumulative time away from "perfect" being 1 minute and 59 milliseconds, compared to Florence's 2 minutes and 204 milliseconds. Haschel earned a Class B Idol detector for being the closest to the four hour mark and being within 1 second. Some Florence tribemates complained about ani's first submission being quite late on the Google form time. (Our spectators pointed out that the Google form time may not have been in sync with the UTC clock their tribe was using, so this may or may not be a fair criticism!)

Guadalajara

Understandably, a lot of this tribe is focused on relationship building. tris mentions her focus is reconnecting with Skrew and Haschel, and trying to bond with DK. DV notes he enjoys bizarre discussions with tris. DV also mentions DK is still absent and not feeling close with Mist. Skrew mentions that Haschel shared that he has an idol detector. Haschel and Pine seem to be bonding, and also are both celebrating anniversary milestones with their wives. Haschel's game plan is to limit large group chats and use Pine as an in to connect with Delhi folks.

A lot of information is swapped in the "Gangkok" group chat, and they agree to try to work together while trying to minimize the appearance that they are. A point of tension between Mist and Pine is how to use Vash and Pine's walkie talkie info. Each of them want to get Haschel to spill the beans on his non-existent walkie talkie, and claim the info to him first to gain favor with him. Mist proposes lying to say they have it, but Pine is against this. Pine leaks a fake potential Awoo boot to Haschel to test whether the info makes it to the other tribe. Pine and Vash strategize a lot and swap info in their walkie talkie chat. Pine describes himself as "armchair quaterbacking" as they discuss the TC. Pine continually expresses concern of the apparent "A-lliance" (of usernames starting with A that happened to all score poorly in the previous round's challenge).

D3f is pleased to swap, feeling like he may have been in a bad position on Delhi. He is unsure that being Bangkok strong will benefit him in particular. D3f thinks both Pine and Mist are overplaying; he mentions his heart wants him to side with Mist but he still thinks he should side with Pine if needed. DK is quiet in his confessional, but in Gangkok chat appears thrilled to swap and move forward to merge with other strong players as allies. He mentions feeling confused by the dynamics on his past tribe, but thinks original tribal lines are a big factor in the game.

Florence

Everyone on this tribe has someone to reunite with, and many of them are swapping info. Aronis/Espe and Awoo/Ari/Summer seem to pick up right where they left off. Ani/Malkon/Vash also have an active chat, but the former two both are prepared to cut Vash in the near future. Malkon believes his only hope of shedding the Bangkok stigma is to immediately vote Vash off. Summer tells Awoo about her idol. ani initially is interested in booting within {Summer, Aronis, Espe} but worries that Aronis has an expiring idol. Awoo begins to sow the seeds of going for a reverse pagong against Bangkok, and is initially most keen on a Vash boot because he has an advantage. Aronis is most keen on an ani boot, but recognizes that it may be harder to "punish him for overplaying" now that they've swapped. Summer pushes for ani first due to hearing he pushed her but is OK with a Vash boot. Vash is focused on relationship building and doesn't have an immediate boot preference.

In the Ani/Malkon/Vash chat, they discuss narrowing their target to Espe or Aronis, but note that they probably can't boot them back to back without furthering the pagong stigma. Vash puts out Ari as a decoy boot while intending to target Espe, as agreed upon. Meanwhile, Malkon appears to put in work connecting with Ari and Aronis. Summer sees her core group on the tribe as potentially going to be former Casablanca + former Alexandria. While Ari notes he sees eye to eye a lot with Summer, he feels like Malkon is more of a core ally than Aronis. Ari feels he is making a bigger move than normal by blindsiding Vash and ani, but is excited and confident about his allies. Aronis is enjoying getting to know Summer, loves Awoo, and feels like he can work with Ari through Awoo, but is particularly happy to be reconnecting with Espe because it's the only connection he has where he doesn't feel like a third or fourth wheel. Awoo is intentionally more inactive than usual to try to appear like he isn't masterminding the Vash boot, and spends time prepping a bot that updates people on his vacation itinerary in real-time. However, this is a front and the real reason for this is to leak to ani shortly before the deadline that Vash is getting blindsided. The episode title is the end of that special message to ani.

Vash gets spooked when waking up on the final day of TC to 0 messages. He and Pine brainstorm options, with Pine recommending that voting out Espe would probably invoke Summer's wrath against Bangkok. Pine suggests that Vash target within the "A-lliance" instead. So Vash raises the idea of going for someone besides Espe instead within the former Bangkok group chat. Malkon recommends waiting for ani's blessing. ani shows up to say he's not interested in flipping against Ari/Awoo currently. Vash decides to leak that Espe is the vote to Aronis and Summer, and raises that his preference for a counter would be Ari if Aronis saves Espe with an idol play. Malkon plays a bit coy and feels like he is in a "therapist and mediator" between Vash and Summer as they both end up asking for him advice about this interaction. Summer feels assured by Ari and Malkon that the plan is staying the same. Vash is ultimately voted out 6-2 (with ani and Vash voting for Espe).

Episode 9: Over the Bodies of My Dead Friends

Challenge

In Shaping the Future, the tribes competed to solve a sudoku/kakuru-like puzzle (with 3 types of shapes instead of numbers!) quickly and accurately. No advantages were awarded during this challenge. Strategic discussion on Florence included which image editing programs to use. Awoo recommended using color coding, Xing out squares that should have nothing, and thinking in terms of contradictions. Malkon and Aronis practiced quite a bit. Aronis confesses he thinks ani is a challenge threat partly based on this challenge. Guadalajara did not strategize with one another in their tribe chat, but still won by having a 43 second lower mean completion time. Pine quips that he can't even throw properly.

Guadalajara

There's not a ton of confessional content on this tribe. Several of them play Consulting Detective in voice chat. Skrew and D3f are both quite relieved they won the challenge.

Pine catches Malkon's distress signal in firemaking. He talks about the possibility of needing to stab his allies. He describes Mist as "monomaniacal" and "reckless"; he fears being the victim or goat of the more experienced Haschel; he sees the potential for Summer to be a jury threat; he recognizes Malkon may have Vash's name on his resume, which he wanted. He describes everyone else as "pieces on the board."

DK discusses his strategy: he hopes that he can use Summer for information and work together even though they haven't met in this game. His strongest relationships on the other tribe are Malkon, Ani, and Ari. He mentions being busy with work is an obstacle, but wanting to either keep letting people like Pine and Haschel "pocket" him or finding his own ally to pocket.

DV is complimentary of tris and talks about beating her in chess by distracting her in voice chat. tris is leaning toward a D3f boot because she thinks he isn't putting in enough effort in convos with her.

Florence

ani is nervous that he is perceived as being a Bangkok pagonger, which is not how he identifies, and that he is on the bottom of the tribe. He begins sharing lots of information with Aristophanes, including Vash's communication device and his own idol detector. Ari sees this as "overcompensating" to try to get into his good graces. Ari still appreciates the insight, and promises to be completely upfront with ani (and hopes that that's a promise he can keep). Ari's initial perception is that the core of the tribe is Trillium and Malkon, with Aronis being tight with Awoo, Espe being tight with Summer, and ani potentially becoming tight with Ari. Aronis confesses that he didn't realize Malkon was in on the last vote, and feels awkward now because he hadn't told Malkon how he was voting. Awoo predicts the vote will be ani1 vs Espe, but personally doesn't want Malkon around at merge. Espe thinks he will be OK because his number 1 ally is "running the tribe" but that he should try to step up his activity.

Initially, ani pushes Espe and Summer pushes ani. Summer wants to take out a threat before he can reposition at merge, as well as force Pine/Malkon to need her more. Awoo thinks the main value in keeping Espe is to use against Mist at merge. Summer gets paranoid at a long conversation Awoo and Malkon are having. Malkon feels like they really bonded from this. Awoo feels like he accidentally made Malkon hate Aronis, but actually he wants everyone to get along and just vote out afk Espe. Though he does express some paranoia of Aronis not talking to him enough.

Awoo flips to wanting ani out for being too connected to his tribe of enemies and due to feeling like he's not ani's top priority. Ari feels like he made the final decision about the vote. Ari hasn't connected with Espe very well yet because of time zones, but respects Summer's connection there and doesn't want to alienate her. He feels like he is a social centerpiece of getting the vote together. Ari is complimentary of Malkon's strategic play and really trusts him. Ari is concerned specifically that ani's allies on the other tribe include people who may target Ari again, and also wants to aim for tribe cohesion. Aronis feels like Ari was skirting around ani being the vote and finds it weird. Everyone seems to choose to blindside or ghost ani -- including Awoo, even when ani asks if he should pass on his advantages to Awoo. (Awoo doesn't find the advantages very valuable!) Aronis is thrilled to keep voting off Bangkok members, though isn't sure how the next vote will go since he considers Awoo the only glue holding him and Aristo together. Aronis hopes to be able to earn an idol through the next challenge to move himself from a "fine" position to a "great" one.

ani recognizes he's being ghosted by all of Summer, Aronis and Espe, and is extremely frustrated, but hopeful Ari's assurances are true. Malkon is willing to vote off ani, though it "pains him to his soul." The episode title also comes from Malkon's confessional, who is heartbroken but feels like his other allies on the tribe can take him far in the game. He does try to make pitches through Awoo to keep ani because ani has said only positive things about Awoo. Ari and to a lesser extent Awoo seem sad about the outcome, and wish they'd just avoided TC instead. We end off with a 6-1 vote, with ani being the only vote for Espe.

Episode 10: Work Her Magic

Challenge

In One Line At A Time, tribes competed to tell an enjoyable and logical story utilizing the following prompts: Paris (a place you'd fall in love), Edith (name of a woman from the 1880s), Aiden (trendy name of a boy born today), Drippy Swifty (waterpark name), Daedalus and Icarus (Greek myth). Players could post a sentence of up to 25 words at a time and weren't allowed to double post. For Guadalajara, Haschel and Pine wrote over 75% of the story of Aiden and the locket, with their other tribemates contributing relatively little besides the French speedo. DV admitted in confessional that he was restraining himself from trolling. They seemed to bond over working together, strengthening their alliance. Awoo, Malkon, and Aristophanes together wrote more than 80% of Florence's spy love story. Aronis didn't post at all, causing at least one tribemate to express frustration. NotAJumbleOfNumbers, CaptainMeme, and Skelda participated as judges. Skelda preferred Florence's for its plot, while Jumble and Meme preferred the focus and logic of Guadalajara's story. Thus, Florence returned to tribal council for the third time!

While the OLAAT judging was going on, the "Return to the Zone" challenge was introduced. Players needed to get the highest score Kanye Zone flash game in order to have a chance to earn an idol good until final 5. By beating 4,400,000, they could earn a Class A. If they beat Zoraster's score from a previous game, they additionally get a recording of him singing their praises. Players had until merge to complete the challenge. Pine seemed to be the favorite to win the idol during this round.

Guadalajara

For the tribe as a whole, due to winning the challenge, there's more fun group games. Pine catches Malkon's distress signal, and ponders the fact that Malkon didn't signal betrayal, just trouble. Pine ultimately didn't decide to throw based on it though.

DK, DV, and Haschel are all sad to lose ani. DV and Haschel confess about needing to work on other relationships. DV thinks Aronis and tris are in contention to be his favorites. Haschel wants to bolster his connections with Pine, DK, and DV. DV discusses that due to not being in a strong, close group himself, he intends to play a floater game and target other threatening groups. Haschel and Pine make a deal to go to the end as part of a 3 hour call, and extensively discuss everyone in the game.

Mist confesses that they think Pine is overplaying and has been exposed as playing slimy while pretending to be loyal to Bangkok. Apparently, Pine told tris about the walkie talkie with Vash, expressed surprise that Mist hadn't told them, and then tris came to fact check with Mist about the situation. Mist views this as an action to sow distrust between tris and Mist.

Skrew is eyeing a former Bangkok boot (besides DK) due to not connecting with any of them well yet. Haschel is feeling less connected to Skrew due to feeling that Skrew doesn't give him as much info in return as Haschel gives. Haschel expects a boot within {Mist, tris, Skrew}. DV expects DK to be in trouble. DK is having a tough go of it IRL during the round but is trying to make time to try for the idol as possible.

Florence

Ari feels that he, Awoo, and Jess are at an impasse with their preferences: Ari wants to keep Malkon most, Awoo wants to keep Aronis most, and Jess wants to keep Espe most. Awoo is tired of feeling like he's playing Jess's game for her and wants to push hard to keep Aronis and get out Espe. He thinks that Espe will die quickly at merge and has little to offer them compared to Aronis. Aronis hears from Awoo that the vote is Aronis versus Espe. Aronis pleads his case to both Awoo and Aristophanes.

Ari is weighing pros and cons, but sees Malkon/Jess/Espe as leaning Aronis and Awoo/Aronis as locked to voting Espe, and feels he is in a decision-making position. Malkon offers to vote with Ari regardless of what Ari chooses. However, Malkon definitely wants to keep Espe and thinks that Summer is better suited to push it than he is. The episode title is from Malkon about Summer.

Summer definitely wants Aronis out due to his inactivity and potential to flip at merge. She has strong relationships with everyone else, and the only downside is weakening her connection to Awoo, who she recognizes is a strong player. Summer and Ari have a voice call in which she convinces him to vote out Aronis (which is what he originally leaned toward based on longstanding reservations about Aronis). Summer and Ari made a final 2 deal.

Aronis says he hasn't completely given up, but is unsure how to get out of this situation. He wishes he had made different choices on his first tribe: both his DK pushes sadly fell flat, and he thinks getting ani out sooner could've helped. Espe, however, pitches to both Summer and Malkon that they instead vote off Awoo. This frustrates both Summer and Malkon, who feel that social capital was spent to save Espe in spite of his inactivity, and that him trying to make a bad push on top of that is bad. Espe felt he had to try because he likes Aronis, and knows Awoo being out would be better for his game. He thinks it would help him ally with Aronis and DV through merge. Espe wants to go to the end with Summer and Ari.

Aronis is ultimately voted out 5-1 (his vote being for Aristophanes). Awoo is thinking through how he can flip away from this group at merge: he feels his options are limited, but hopes Mist can be someone to run to.

Episode 11: Divided They Will Fall!

Challenge

In Seesaws, tribes competed to earn the most points by allocating weights to 6 seesaws, referred to by letters. Different seesaws had different amounts of spaces that could hold weights and were also worth different amounts of points. A tie would have resulted in a shipwreck joint tribal council.

On Guadalajara, Haschel and D3f start off the strategic discussion with discussing that some weights will be discarded. Pine headed a group discussion complete with a spreadsheet of about 7 hypothetical scenarios. They go with Hypothetical 2.1, which prioritizes E followed by C and A, with D/F as definite dumps.

On Florence, Awoo started off discussing strategy. Aristophanes drafts an initial plan to dump their lowest weights on the seesaw with the most spaces and to balance points among the other 5 seesaws. Espe then begins strategizing intensively and running various scenarios. He proposes prioritizing C>E>F and dumping on B, which he says mostly runs the risk of losing to ADF prioritizing. The plan isn't finalized until a few hours before deadline, and unfortunately due to Ari's work schedule, he fails to submit, and the plan isn't adjusted to account for this. In confessional, Ari expresses how much his heart sank in the moment he realized he missed out.

Guadalajara win their top priority seesaw (E), but in addition to that end up winning the two lowest value seesaws. Though they would have faired better had Ari submitted, Florence still wins their first tribal immunity 11-8!

Florence

It's a break and a party! Malkon, Ari, Summer, and Espe participate in games, including Skribblio and probably Board Game Online. Ari is inspired during a conversation with Summer to write a song called the Sounds of Tribal (a new take on the Sound of Silence) that recaps his first two tribes.

Awoo misses out on the celebratory games due to being on an earlier schedule, but does take the time to lay out his strategy for merge. He is feeling less like he needs to flip and immediately stab Espe. He is interested in trying to "get a side piece" with {Haschel/Skrew, DK, Malkon/Pine} if possible. He thinks basically any elimination on Guadalajara benefits him, but specifically does mention he wants to target DV. Malkon hopes that if one of Haschel, Skrew or DV goes, the other will be more likely to flip to work with Florence. Awoo mentions Malkon says he wants to target former Bangkok challenge threats {D3f, Mist, DK} and Awoo likes this. Summer gets a score over $M in Kanye Zone but forgets to actually submit it.

The whole tribe is pretty desperate to merge. We get the episode title from Ari in Florence tribe chat where he expresses his love and gratitude of them. "United we will stand. Divided they will fall!" he declares in the end. Characteristically, Awoo suggests Florence "infiltrate and destroy." As it turns out, the other tribe's TC did seem to create some division.

Guadalajara

DV is notably sad to lose Aronis in the previous round and wishes it was Summer! D3f suspects Malkon survived due to "selling out." D3f mentions he is still seeing Pine as a potential good person to F2 with due to perceived flaws in Pine's gameplay, and wishes Mist and Pine could get along better. DK is frustrated with Haschel and Pine for not listening to him when his challenge strategy would likely have won against Florence's, but thinks they have control of the tribe so isn't going to act on it. DK is interested in a DV boot to keep Alexandria numbers down or in a Skrew boot because of perceived dishonesty. He thinks that conflict between Mist and Pine could actually result in DK or D3f going, which he wants to avoid. DK quickly puts out feelers to Prayer Circle to plan together, but they don't make time for it until the morning. He talks to both Mist and Pine separately about needing to set aside their differences for now.

Skrew wants Pine out, but is happy to settle for a D3f vote. Skrew mulls over offering an "anti-Awoo" deal for merge to DK because Skrew thinks that Haschel trusts Awoo too much. tris thinks the easy vote is D3f and is working closest with Mist and DK. According to Mist, tris sets up a few different 3 person alliances with Mist. DV wants a Pine or DK vote, but thinks a D3f vote is more likely to actually happen. He is aiming to balance being a "free agent" without getting "left behind". Pine hints at wanting a tris or Mist vote off to DV and DV hopes Pine will be less subtle so he can throw Pine under the bus for it.

D3f hears from Haschel that tris is pushing D3f. Haschel suggests that D3f and Haschel work with Pine. D3f wants to pull in DK, and speculates about how plausible various vote options are. Haschel implies to Mist he may be willing to vote for Skrew, and in confessional seems torn on whether Skrew staying is good for his game. Haschel is trying to assess whether a {tris/Skrew/Mist/DV} faction is forming without him, and talking to DV only seems to make him more wary. Haschel seems ambivalent in confessional about a D3f vote.

The Bangkok Prayer circle voice call gets arranged. Pine proposes pulling in Haschel to vote Skrew. There's uncertainty surrounding it, partly due to the Casablanca slide puzzle idol potentially belonging to Skrew or Haschel and it being their last time to play it. Mist expresses willingness to flip on tris if needed. DK proposes trying to flip tris by making her think she's a compromise boot. D3f agrees to push a fake Skrew vote while Mist/DK help get tris on board for the DV blindside. In confessional, Pine admits he would have preferred a Skrew or tris boot, and doesn't elaborate on how he went from having Haschel in #1 ally tier to leaving him out of the vote.

Later, DK and Mist have a voice chat with tris and convince her that DV and Haschel are gunning for her. Mist claims that Haschel has concerns about a {Tris, DK, Skrew} group. tris is under the impression she should try to convince Pine to vote for DV, but is worried it will backfire. She wants to try to lay low as much as possible and is worried about going home.

tris ultimately does think that she has the votes for DV, but doesn't want to leave Skrew out. She tells him that she thinks DV was pushing a vote on her and that's why she's voting DV. Mist is aware of the leak, and tells DK, who is angry and worried about being idoled out. DK scrambles to tell Skrew that he is voting for DV for various reasons. Skrew is initially unhappy with either a DV or tris boot, and is unhappier about feeling so out of the loop. DK does talk him into voting for DV though. DV is voted out 6-2, with Haschel and DV voting for D3f.

Episode 12: Twisty and Fraught

Challenge

From the conclusion of Return of the Zone, Pine earned a Class A idol good until Final 5. As well as a song from Zor.

In Incremental Game, players were tasked with building their arcane knowledge via a series of decisions in an incremental, Cookie Clicker-type game. Pine did not submit. tris and Mist earned third and second place, but D3f won the game's first individual immunity!

Merge Feast (Initial Impressions)

After throwing out suggestions in tribe chat from Hanover to Houston, the tribe names itself Honolulu at Awoo's suggestion.

Never having lived through a swap in any previous game, Ari is quite excited to make merge alongside a day 1 group alliance from his original tribe! Wants to go to final 3 with Awoo+Summer>Malkon, and is somewhat wary of Skrew's social influence. Awoo is relieved DV is gone because of not knowing how to play around him at merge. He has a terrible first impression of Pine for immediately joking that Awoo is a threat, but recognizes that Pine seems to be trying to work with Florence initially. He is looking at Florence + Haschel/Skrew for numbers.

tris thinks she's getting along with Ari and Awoo (who she's just meeting). She acknowledges having a strained connection with Haschel, and explicitly told Haschel she's unsure if they'll be on the same side. He interprets this as a closed door. Haschel, having been blindsided, says he feels most hurt by Pine and DK. He is unhappy to go into merge without a #1 ally. He wants to target Tris/Mist but wants to play less aggressively than he did at merge in the last non-anon.

Malkon is feeling optimistic: he thinks his gamble of "playing for 4th on Florence" has put him in an optimal position as a number everyone needs. He feels like he has a lot of agency and options for getting to endgame. Pine is quiet in confessional but appears to be working hard to connect with Florence and find out more about their dynamic. He makes a group chat with Malkon/Haschel early on saying he wants a clean slate to work with them, but it doesn't transition to game talk until very late into the TC.

Mist makes the new Bangkok group chat and states within the first hour that they want to touch base soon...but no one actually replies until they bump it after the challenge results come out. DK wants to flip on Bangkok (he describes them as "useless"!) and form relationships with the other side. We hear that he tries to put together an Ari/Awoo/DK alliance. On the other hand, D3f is still interested in going to the end with Pine, and seems anti-Awoo!

Summer tells Skrew about her Class B idol within 3 hours of merge, so they bond notably fast! Skrew thinks he is connecting quickly with new friends Summer and Malkon. He thinks tris/Mist/DK want to work with him (they also have a new group chat) due to telling him about the vote late, but not as much as they do with one another. He hopes to vote out Pine.

Post-Immunity Challenge

More than half the merge tribe plays Jackbox shortly after results come out. Awoo feels slighted by Mist's and Pine's references to him. He wants Mist out, but initially worries about the 6 non-Florence picking one off. Awoo uses this as a conversation piece to angle toward a Mist vote, aiming to pull in Haschel and Skrew to work with Florence. Haschel is casually raising tris and Mist as options but saying he doesn't want to look like he's actually pushing anything.

Mist starts pushing for a Florence vote in the {DK, Mist, Skrew, tris} chat. Skrew alludes that his preferences are more nuanced than that. They speculate about where Haschel stands with Pine and D3f after the last vote. There is also a "Jespe Krew" chat where they initially discuss whether they can swing a Mist vote instead of tris. Skrew hears from Pine and Malkon that they will vote Mist but doesn't know whether to trust it. Espe says he's trying to help convince Haschel that Skrew didn't shut him out in the last vote (based on what he knows; Espe wasn't on Guadalajara!) Skrew confesses he's scared Mist has the kanye idol and is trying to work out how open to be with people in order to manage the situation.

In confessional, Pine says he regrets his play in the last round based on the fact that D3f is taking a backseat to "united and friendly" Florence. The episode title is also from his confessional; despite his shiny new Class A idol, he thinks his road to endgame is "twisty and fraught." He forms a group chat with himself and Florence. Awoo is suspicious about Pine's motives, raises this to Malkon, and then not long after gets an apology and further explanation from Pine. Awoo assumes Malkon prompted him to do this. Later, Awoo concludes that Pine is being genuine in the short term.

D3f feels pressured from Pine to give a name to vote, but doesn't think it's smart or necessary to do so given he has immunity. D3f perceives this as Pine just wanting the blood off his hands. D3f later starts the standard Bangkok group call. They discuss which numbers to pull in and who to potentially target. Mist raises the idea of getting former Casablancas to target Awoo, but the plan that gets settled on is to target Espe by pulling in tris, Ari, and Awoo. Mist notes in confessional that Pine and Malkon seemed a little fishy and unwilling to confirm their stances.

Pine and Malkon immediately leak the voice chat plan information to Florence and the Tree and state that they are not on board with that plan. Awoo cackles as Mist casually approaches him and agrees to help make Mist feel comfortable. Summer expresses jealousy about not being vied for by Bangkok! Florence and the Tree discuss that Mist is an easy target but also likely to have an idol. Malkon is pushing toward Mist while Pine is more open to considering Mist as a decoy vote. Awoo and Ari are in the role of pretending to agree to vote Espe. Ari is "convinced" by D3f and Awoo to do so. Espe worries about idol play and wants to try to organize a split vote. There is a lot of conversation dedicated to whether it's safe to do so. Espe works on trying to flip D3f, despite Ari seeming to caution Espe against it. D3f leaks Espe's statements into Bangkok Survivors, and expresses confusion about which side really has the numbers: Espe seems to think most of the tribe, including Malkon and Pine, are with Espe.

DK posts in the Honolulu tribe chat that he doesn't know if he will be online tomorrow (the bulk of the remaining TC). Skrew approaches tris and Mist in a new group convo letting them know he's heard both names but thinks tris is in less danger, as well as wanting to discuss DK appearing to give up on the game. This group is under the impression that DK thinks Mist being in a bad spot is bad for DK because Pine and Malkon are the more well-connected Bangkok members. DK seems to feel doomed. Mist pushes for Espe in thi sgroup chat; tris and Skrew both pretend to be on board. Awoo and Skrew bond 1 on 1, with Skrew swearing he'll be loyal to Awoo if the Mist vote works out.

tris is unhappy about having two allies be the main targets. She admits to Awoo that she'll side with Espe if it comes down to it because she thinks being so overtly tied to Mist is worse for her game. However, she would actually prefer someone like DK/Haschel/Pine go; while DK was someone she was previously working closely with, DK lost her trust by acting rather odd in this round. However, there is still suspicion from other players about whether she's a reliable number for not keeping Mist in the game. It's discussed by Florence and the Tree that she may be a great option to get to do the split vote because of her specifically mentioning she's against DK to Espe and others. Summer chats game with tris and tris agrees to vote DK but not to push it.

Espe, Summer, and Pine are also set to vote DK, hoping for a 5-4-3 vote split with 5 against Mist, 4 against DK, and only D3f/DK/Mist on Espe. Within about 5 hours of the TC ending, Haschel asks Malkon and Pine in their group chat about whether a split vote is viable. In confessional, Haschel admits that this is partly to "sow discord." Pine says he is "asking around," but then the convo dies until end of phase. At the last minute, tris decides to instead vote Mist and informs Summer of this, resulting in Mist being voted out 6-3-3.

Episode 13: A Game With No Prize

Challenge

In Get to Know Production, players had to correctly answer 3 questions about a logic grid puzzle as quickly as possible. As it turns out, the puzzle was so hard that only SummerInWonderland managed to do this, so she won immunity. She also won an idol nullifier advantage based on her performance.

Honolulu Happenings

Summer gets a Flim and Flam style birthday card from Malkon. Summer confesses that she was pretty sure Mist didn't have the idol, but that a benefit of her voting DK may be that DK pushes her and gives her "no restrictions in targeting him." Thus, she's not going to keep her last vote a secret. She predicts Pine will target tris this round to align with Haschel to go against Florence later. She considers {Trillium} and {Jespe Krew} her closest allies, with Malkon and tris being allies she trusts less. Summer is potentially willing to idol to save tris if needed. Malkon is hoping to use the fact that Summer isn't 100% happy about the vote split to eventually boot Espe, and also notes that he wants to make a big move between f8 and f6.

Ari raises the idea to Awoo of targeting Espe sooner than the rest of Florence. They strategically seem to be on the same wavelength and bond over this. According to Awoo, Malkon initially wants to target tris over D3f and DK, and Awoo isn't a fan. Ari and Awoo are on the same page that D3f is a bigger threat than tris due to challenge strength; they are wary of Malkon trying to keep D3f around. Ari is then drunk for a good portion of this ep!

Florence and the Tree celebrate being a majority alliance. They discuss how to talk about the split vote and how to talk to DK/D3f about what happened. In Jespe Krew, SleepyKrew asks about the split vote. Espe explains that he and Jess did, along with another "anonymous" person. Skrew pretends to feel slighted and need to "cool off," but says in confessional that he doesn't actually care much. Skrew reaches out to DK reaffirming that Skrew wants to work with him and doesn't want him to give up despite his position. DK isn't very responsive, but starts trying to convince people he voted for Espe rather than Mist, which is not true. Haschel also hears from Espe that the third DK vote is "anon" and seems more genuinely put off. Awoo sees DK as the path of least resistance for a boot but is also fine to see D3f go due to him being a challenge threat.

Pine confesses to seeing Ari, Summer, and Malkon as his biggest assets, and that he thinks Summer, D3f and DK see him as more of a "liability" to their games based on the previous round. He mentions looking forward to how partnering with Ari and Awoo, and thinks they are both important to his game despite not having met them premerge. Haschel and tris have another awkward conversation in which tris explains that she voted Mist and Haschel openly is skeptical of pretty much everything tris says. At some point, Espe has a conversation with DK that offends DK and leads him to believe Espe started a "conspiracy against him."

About 3 hours after the challenge results were posted, DK made a statement in tribe chat addressing peopls' perceptions that he is being defeatist. In confessional, he goes on to say that he doesn't understand the extent to which MS players can play emotionlessly, and that it isn't worth it to him to do so "to win a game with no prize." This is referenced in the title due to the food for thought it provides: winning LSGs on MS doesn't have any monetary value, and that that fact shapes what players are willing to do to try to get there. Later, DK comically suggests that while people were "useless" in the game, that they not be useless on social media and follow him for interesting content.

Pine inquires if everyone is game for the easy DK vote in Florence and the Tree. He also says that DK's public statement makes sense to sell an idol play against Summer, Awoo, or Pine. In confessional, he clarifies that he's sure DK doesn't have one. Pine pushes for a split vote this round, and Espe agrees. Awoo mentions that it's probably possible to exploit the Haschel/tris drama. Espe claims not to know about the drama, but others corroborate. Summer says she feels strongly he doesn't have an idol but isn't against other people setting up a split vote. This conversation fizzles and doesn't focus on a clear target.

Malkon has a tough conversation with DK that Malkon considers bad jury management. DK accuses Malkon of making "fake apologies," letting people tell lies about DK's intentions, and not taking opportunities to "save [DK's game]". DK says that he feels extremely betrayed by both Malkon and Pine. Malkon tries to say that he did try to let people know that DK was someone he wanted to work with, but that other people weren't interested and had their own agendas. Malkon vents about it in Florence and the Tree, and admits DK has some valid points but that he doesn't want to elaborate.

Skrew is fine with a DK vote on the basis that DK seems to be rejecting efforts to work with Skrew, and Skrew's allies in Summer/Awoo both want DK out. Espe comments that the game is "too quiet" and that he needs enemies and drama. He expects next round to be "nuts" though. DK is voted out 10-1 (DK's vote is against Pine).

Episode 14: Schadenfreude in Ponderosa

Challenge

In Dice Roll Endurance, players competed to get the highest roll on 100 20-sided dice. They were restricted to rolling every 10 minutes or more and were not allowed to discuss their results outside of confessionals. The chart shows how many times players posted in their designated rolling channel. (Espe for instance did not make any valid rolls with his 3 posts.) Pine placed a close 2nd and Skrew placed a distant 3rd, but Malkon won immunity with relatively few rolls!

Honolulu

Ari drinks a white claw in memory of DK, which was originally purchased for a planned merge party that never actually happened. Ari confesses that he has heard from Awoo that Summer says Pine is trying to break up Florence by pitting Espe against Awoo. Ari is wary of an alliance of {D3f, Haschel, Malkon, Pine}. In voice confessional, tris reflects on how the Mist tribal affected some of her relationships. She seems to think Awoo misled her with how he was voting, and questions how much Awoo, Ari, and Skrew want to keep her. She wants to move forward with STEM, but acknowledges that Malkon may have other strong relationships (Pine). She personally would like to boot between {D3f, Haschel, Pine}. Awoo wants to win immunity specifically so D3f doesn't win. Awoo leaks to Skrew that his name was thrown out, and intends to organize these boots: D3fn at ten and Pine at nine (the new "rhyme meta").

D3f, Pine, and Haschel make a group alliance and accompanying chat, but as previously stated, barely use the chat. D3f's perspective is that Pine and Espe are expecting D3f to be a swing vote and hopes this bodes well. He has been told that Awoo has been gunning for him since the start of merge and doesn't think there's a way to stop that, but has had multiple people on the tribe tell him this and indicate they would like to try to help him. Ari lies to D3f that the focus of the TC is going to be Haschel/tris conflict, but other people do not push this same narrative to D3f. Skrew tells Jespe Krew that he's aware he's in danger; they reassure him that it should be D3f going. Skrew confesses that he doesn't think he can actually go to the end with either of Summer or Awoo, and that he's wary of Espe due to Espe barely talking to him.

Pine goes to Awoo and claims that D3f is no longer targeting Awoo and is instead wary of Espe, Skrew and tris (thanks to Pine of course). Awoo is suspicious of Pine and is adamant that Espe needs to be informed of this. Awoo calls out Pine's "hahah jks takebacks" in Trillium. Summer agrees that Pine seems to be trying to save D3f by saying he's no longer pushing Awoo and emphasizing that D3f isn't a threat. Like Awoo, Summer also wants to save Skrew and boot D3f, but she says part of her strategy for the round is "blaming" Awoo for wanting to keep Skrew. She leaks to Trillium that Malkon seems to thinks Awoo was manipulating the D3f narrative by emphasizing that he was targeting Espe. Ari expresses concern about Malkon giving up his necklace to protect D3f, but this doesn't happen.

Ari has a decent relationship with Haschel, and Haschel encourages Ari to change the perception that Ari is Awoo's "junior partner." Ari agrees that he wants to be more vocal, and they end up discussing formalizing a group to work together for the next vote (including Skrew and Awoo). Haschel confesses that he thinks he manipulated Ari into suggesting Pine be the fifth on his own. Haschel says that Pine and Ari had a voice call and discussed the idea. Awoo was offline during this, and is surprised and confused about Pine being looped into this. Awoo considers this a "fake" group pitched by Haschel, and that Pine being added is problematic because Pine is supposed to be booted soon and Awoo genuinely wanted to work with Haschel. He is worried that Ari overplayed and damaged both their positions. Awoo does consider that actually working with Pine could help him get rid of Espe.

Pine seems to be the first to mention the group to Skrew. He also leaks the group of 5 to Malkon; Malkon says that he called the Skrew/Awoo/Ari/Haschel 4some ages ago due to them voice chatting in public. Supposedly, the group is masterminded by Awoo and may be targeting Summer or Espe at 9. Malkon hopes to use this info to keep D3f as a shield and get Summer to use her idol to save him and take out Awoo. Espe/D3f/Pine/Malkon/Summer would then be the f9 majority alliance. He leaks the info to Summer. However, D3f and Summer do not have a strong relationship, and so she prefers to make an idol play at 9 and vote out D3f. She is aware because of Malkon that Haschel is gunning for her and wants him out soon.

When Florence and the Tree discussed the vote, Awoo pushed for a D3f boot hard. Malkon opens the conversation to all the options not in the group chat. Pine outright admits D3f wouldn't be his preference (or Haschel's), but says he can "read the room" and will acquiesce. Though they planned to have Haschel/tris as the decoy conflict, D3f is informed by multiple people he's probably getting voted out. D3f does try to push Awoo himself, but feels that the people who may want to keep him have too much "beef" to organize (mainly related to tris). Espe and Summer put together a boot list of D3f > Pine > HC/Malkon > Awoo > Malkon/HC. Summer confesses she probably won't stick to it, though!

When Zor asks if anyone has something to say at TC, D3f speaks up. He discusses that the majority of people claimed they wanted to keep him but "couldn't do anything about it." He points out that someone that said this to him is thus likely to be out next, and missed their chance to get in a better position on this vote. D3f calls out Ari as seeming to be Awoo's goat, that Awoo will win easily if in an F3 with Ari and anyone, and says publicly that he's giving his firemaking points to Awoo. As referenced in our episode title, he says he expects the next vote will result in "some schadenfreude in Ponderosa". D3f is voted out 8-1-1; D3f voted for Awoo and Pine voted for Haschel.

Episode 15: A 3-Layer Deep Dish Blindside

Challenge

In Darken the Maze, players competed to determine the correct path through a grid maze puzzle quickly and accurately. tris won with a time under 5 minutes. Awoo confessed that he was intentionally doing the puzzle slowly, and was surprised to have found he got second place anyway. Haschel placed third with the only other time taken under 10 minutes.

Honolulu, before Immunity results

Malkon confesses that he thinks this will be a pivotal round that makes it obvious which "side" he's on. Awoo toys with the idea of targeting Espe instead as a result of Ari and Awoo getting called out by D3f; he's worried about Jess, Espe, and tris being a group. Ari confesses that while D3f did talk to him privately about perceiving Ari as a goat, he didn't expect D3f to bring it up at tribal to everyone. He also dislikes that D3f tried to incentivize targeting Awoo. Ari confesses that he has been orchestrating plans and doing a lot of social work for Trillium, and that while he may not be getting as much credit for it as Awoo is right now, he can "hammer out the details" if they make it to the end. Ari said that his most recent big move was suggesting Pine be in the group of five even though Awoo and Skrew are on the same page of a Pine at Nine blindside.

Ari makes the Elephant Men group chat because no one else wants to. The name is inspired by Haschel's roleplaying game (feat. xof and rahladahla as players) and they chat about that for a while. Summer confronts Ari and Awoo in Trillium chat about the group, saying Malkon told her about the alliance and the tentative plan to target Espe or her. She said she assumed it was a fake out plan but was surprised not to be told about it. Awoo explains that it's a "doomed group" that was Haschel's idea that he hopes doesn't really get off the ground, and that he didn't mention it solely because Summer's been offline a lot. Summer mentions that Malkon seemed to be using the info to try to target Awoo last round and comments that Pine and Haschel seemed to be "itching" for a chance to vote someone else. Awoo speculates that the reason Pine pressured Awoo to make a formal group chat in order to have him take the heat. Summer thanks Awoo for addressing her concerns. Ari assures Trillium he's with them to the end.

Honolulu, post-immunity

In The Elephant Men, Haschel immediately starts asking about who to target. Skrew asks if there's a reason to deviate from Espe. Due to a potential idol play, the Haschel suggests having a decoy vote but the real vote on Espe. Pine agrees about having Summer be the decoy vote, and Awoo/Skrew don't disagree. Awoo leaks the "3 layer deep dish blindside" (referenced in the title) to both Summer and Espe: Summer is the first layer of fake vote, Espe is the second layer, but Pine is the real one. Awoo tries to chat with tris, but she seems to be prioritizing other conversations. Espe approaches Haschel asking him whether he's on Skrew's side or Pine/Malkon's, because the latter two seem to want to keep him but not Skrew. Haschel confesses he doesn't mind tris having immunity, and wonders if he can "pivot this to a Malkon vote."

Malkon cracks up in voice confessional detailing his experience in the first hour since tris won immunity. Pine, who has previously informed Malkon of the alliance, approaches him first about a Summer or Espe vote; Malkon says he'd prefer Espe go. Pine warns Malkon that Summer is supposed to be a decoy vote. Shortly afterward, Haschel approaches Malkon asking about a Summer vote. Espe confronts Pine about having targeted him. Pine "freaks out" and calls Malkon to talk about it. Meanwhile, Haschel approaches Malkon again asking about a Skrew boot. Malkon laughs about how messy it is to try to take out one of their own numbers, and about the fact that half the tribe is being super messy.

Malkon revives STEM chat. tris potentially wants to go for Haschel. Espe mentions Haschel has floated "tris and Jess so far" and says he thinks the power dynamic needs to change. Summer also says Haschel also told her he's sad tris won immunity. The chat seems rather implicitly against Haschel from how they talk about him, but don't explicitly say how they're voting. Malkon thinks the rest of the game is going for Espe still, but is praying for Summer to play the idol correctly.

Espe is nervous for the first time, mostly due to the Kanye idol. He says he's fine with being a shield because it'll help him in FTC, but confesses he actually has been trying to stay out of the limelight this game. He mentions that he thinks downplaying his relationship with Skrew is useful to him. He thinks people don't realize Awoo leaked to him and thus that it's a non-issue for him to have confronted Pine. He hopes that the situation will help him pocket Malkon to use against Awoo in the near future.

Pine's perspective is that the group of five is "using" him and Skrew's vote, but that they're going with it for now. He decides that he thinks Espe confronting him about the Elephant Men group is him making a "shrewd guess" as opposed to having been leaked to by Skrew or Malkon. Their conversation is heated at first, but then they come back to it. Pine discusses a fake plan with Espe to target Awoo. (Pine warns Awoo he did this.) In confessional, Pine also says he is trying to improve his relationship with Summer and leaked that Espe said he can easily beat her in FTC. Pine thinks the vote will be Elephant Men for Espe and a few votes on Haschel.

Espe talks to Malkon about not having a fifth Awoo vote. Malkon is confused because he thought STEM had agreed to go for Haschel. Espe said he thought Pine seemed to have Malkon's backing for an Awoo vote after the STEM conversation had happened. Espe says he thinks there's a "line in the sand" between Awoo and Pine and thought that if Malkon sided with Pine, STEM would back it. Malkon said he was placating Pine and would have told Espe if he was trying to get Awoo out. Malkon emphasizes that he's just sticking with STEM since most people are being quiet with him.

Haschel and Skrew bond during this TC; Skrew raises the idea of being completely open with one another and getting a plan together to go to the end, but says he needs to sleep on it. Skrew is under pressure from Summer, and to a lesser extent Awoo, to leave Haschel out of the vote. Skrew seems to wonder whether he can get away with "pocketing" or working with Haschel, what the game would look like if an idol allowed Pine to stay, and whether it's better to cut Haschel and partner with Ari or Malkon. Haschel mentions that Skrew said his dream was a sign that they should work together, however Skrew seems not to have actually leaked where the votes really are this round! Ari confesses that he thinks Awoo and Summer will be harder to win against than most of the rest of the cast, but that for him, the best social and strategic game means standing by his Day 1 allies.

Summer mentions she's trying to ensure the numbers make it a 4 (Awoo/Ari/Espe/Skrew) - 3 (tris/Malkon/Summer) - 2 (Pine, Haschel) vote but will still play her idol for Espe. She tells tris that's her theory on where the votes are. tris confesses that this, and Skrew pushing Pine, seems incongruent with Awoo's claim that votes are there for Haschel to go. She thinks this just makes Awoo seem more threatening though, and hopes she can use this. She feels out of the loop and hopes to keep winning immunity. TC has a historic number of spectators. The votes are as Summer predicted, with the two votes for Espe canceled; Pine goes home with his hard-earned Class A idol. There does seem to be some Schadenfreude in Ponderosa, but not from D3f!

Episode 16: Yep, I'm a Goat

Challenge

In Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament, players were put in a bracket to play best 2 out of 3 RPS against each other. They were allowed to discuss the challenge. Ari's strategy was to submit only paper because one of the tiebreaker levels involved guessing the number of paper submissions.

Haschel mentioned that Skrew and tris both offered to throw the challenge to him. Skrew's confessional corroborated this; he complained that Summer was taking too long for him to fake plot with her about how to throw to her, when he wouldn't actually face her due to throwing to Haschel first. Summer confessed that she submitted randomly at the last minute, but she won nonetheless!

Honolulu

Ari is literally shaking and out of breath as he reflects on the "successful Pine at nine maneuver." He speaks highly of Pine as having been a threat in the game with a lot of sway, but is glad that "the elephant with boxers is no longer there," in reference to the end of the Elephant Men group. Awoo plots with Ari regarding a Haschel->tris or Haschel->Malkon boot order (the latter being better for flushing tris's potential idol). Ari tries to paint to Haschel that the Pine boot was a last minute choice rather than something that had been planned by Ari well in advance.

Summer feels like the last round went great for her: she thinks she effectively positioned Awoo against Pine, and that she not only won't take the heat for it, but that STEM will be leaning on her to work with this round. She jokes that she ruined her 4-3-2 plan by idoling Espe, and she says that her ideal boot order is Haschel>Awoo>Malkon>Espe>SK.

Malkon and Haschel both react to the blindside by considering that they may be goats. Malkon is bemused, since he normally has the opposite problem. He hopes he can still find allies within the STEM group and Florence. He's frustrated with Espe for not trusting him with the last vote despite how hard Malkon has fought to keep Espe, and thinks of Espe as least loyal to STEM. Haschel's reaction is our episode title, and his goal is to "fix" that. When tris approaches Haschel about how they were left out of the Pine vote, they end up having a voice call and set groundwork to be able to work together this round.

Skrew also worries about being a "goat in FTC" if he doesn't take risks. He wants to protect Haschel and focus on taking out who he thinks are his biggest threats in Summer and Awoo. He paints Summer as the organizer of the 4-3-2 vote split to tris. Skrew also works on his relationship with Malkon, and tells him about Summer's idol nullifier. Malkon is extremely perplexed by how Skrew out of everyone supposedly knows this, and thinks that Summer would have told him if she did. Malkon says Skrew is difficult to work with due to being a floater and a leaker.

Espe is interested in setting up Haschel vs. Awoo to flush idols that they may have and to keep closer allies of his safe. He aims for a 4-4 split and mentions this first in Jespe Krew and then in STEM chat. tris mentions in STEM that she doesn't think Haschel is that much of a threat. There isn't a clear vote consensus formed in either chat, however. Espe seems to think Awoo has the idol, and that Haschel is thus more likely to actually go this round.

Awoo has a really awkward chat with Haschel about the blindside last round. This solidifies Awoo wanting Haschel gone. Awoo thinks it's a pretty easy vote for Haschel based on everyone either voting for him or not telling him Pine was being voted out last round. Awoo brings up to Skrew that Haschel and Malkon are the people left in the game that are most sided with the jury, and thus have hero underdog stories, which Skrew ponders.

Malkon thinks that Espe/Haschel/tris seem to be pushing Awoo while Trillium seems to be pushing Haschel/tris. He thinks Skrew and him are the swing votes, and his own preference is for Awoo. Malkon is uncomfortable with how quiet the round is. tris is in favor of an Awoo vote due to thinking he's a threat, and also process of elimination due to wanting to work with STEM, Skrew and Haschel.

Haschel plays up in public and private chat with Awoo that Haschel knows Haschel's going home. The point by this is to make Awoo feel safe if he has an idol. Haschel also tries proposing a group of {Skrew, Summer, tris and himself}. tris confesses that Summer is skeptical of it. Skrew also doesn't think it's real, but thinks that it is it may let him keep Summer longer.

Summer's activity is limited by irl. The Awoo vote is happening earlier than she'd like, and she worries that the possibility that people weren't loyal to Pine or Awoo indicating they won't still be loyal to her either. She breaks the news in confidence to Ari that Ari is being blindsided on an Awoo vote. Ari is devestated. He realizes Awoo being gone may change the game's perception of him and the "credit" he gets for things, but he's not ready to lose Awoo. He also doesn't want to put Summer in a bad position by admitting he was leaked to. Thus, Ari tries to plan a tris blindside, which Awoo is game for. Haschel pretends to be on board with it, but Summer tells Ari she heard about it and that it won't happen. "The tribe has spoken," confesses Ari, resigned.

Malkon gets pretty paranoid that he's going, but decides he's going to vote Awoo and pray it works. Skrew picks up on the fact that Summer seems to be jury managing Ari and Awoo more than was agreed upon by their alliance (Jespe Krew). Skrew says he wants to try to pit Malkon against Summer next round. Awoo is intensively plotting and making to-do lists for rounds he won't live to see. Awoo is voted out 6-2, with Ari and Awoo voting for Haschel.

Episode 17: That Worked...But Why 5?

Challenge

In Getting Jiggy With It, players compete to finish a 144 piece jigsaw puzzle in as little time as possible. Half the tribe was still on voice call from the TC when they found out what the challenge will be. Espe mentioned in this call that in about half of his previous survivor games, he has been voted out the same round as a jigsaw puzzle challenge. Summer wins her third individual immunity challenge, finishing almost twice as fast as second place finisher Haschel.

Honolulu, pre-challenge results

Skrew makes a pitch to Malkon that Summer is too dangerous, and thinks that it goes poorly. He also then tries to test the waters about whether Ari will consider cutting Summer before the end of the game. Skrew asks Ari whether Ari was told about Awoo going, and asks for this conversation to be in confidence. Ari still checks with Summer to keep the story straight, and she says she didn't tell anyone. Skrew responds to say that Summer told him. Skrew confesses that he thinks Ari is "delusional" for thinking that he can possibly win against Summer in the end. Skrew calls Summer to do some "damage control," and is satisfied with how that goes. Skrew thinks it would take "miracle work" to flip Ari, and so he's not going to try, even though Haschel seems to be.

Haschel calls Ari to discuss that Ari seems to be on the bottom like Haschel was previously in the merge, and starts pitching that a lot of their paths to the end include one another and they would be on relatively equal footing if they did go together. Haschel confesses he thinks his best option is to go with Ari and tris, but he least wants to go with Skrew (due to fearing he'll be Skrew's goat) and Jess (due to being a big threat).

Malkon initially is wanting to work with threats (who he identifies as Summer, Haschel, and Espe) to have an easier path to the end, but is concerned about whether Summer and Haschel can work together. He questions whether he is "the goat or the shield" for Summer, and is worried about taking her out because he hopes she is his shield. Several hours later, he confesses he wants to try to make an endgame deal with Ari and vote with him this round, and hopes they can target tris to limit Summer's options. He thinks this would put Malkon and Ari as swing votes in F6.

Haschel keeps working on putting together a group with Haschel, Skrew, Summer and tris. No one in this group seems particularly convinced of its legitimacy; it's just Haschel's contingency plan for if he can't vote Summer out now. tris reflects on strategy discussion she's done with Summer recently: working with STEM at first but then working with Skrew closer to the end. Summer is too busy/drunk for them to discuss a boot order that tris proposed. Espe confesses he wants a Haschel vote.

Haschel approaches tris about going to FTC together because they both have flaws in their games. Haschel thinks that the "power players" will start voting out people like them in order to make room for themselves to actually make it to the end. tris says she's not sure about it and needs to decide. Haschel encourages her to think it over but keep it to herself. She confesses she has reservations due to concerns that Haschel has a better FTC case than she does, and thinks agreeing to it if it's not her intended endgame will be bad for her game.

Honolulu, post-challenge results

Not only did the person Haschel wanted to eliminate win immunity, but it appears she's gunning for him. He is still focused on the long-term and determined to work with Ari/tris. He pulls them into a group voice call and says he thinks the only FTC they have a chance in is together. tris makes notes during the call and seems to be taking the offer seriously as well as sharing info. Ari describes Haschel's plan as "zany" but does think Haschel made good points. Haschel lets Ari know that Skrew was trying to "vet" him earlier for willingness to go to F3 with Skrew; Ari reflects on it and thinks Ari may have "burned that olive branch entirely." Ari says he was careful about the info he gave out during the chat, but did push Espe as the vote he wanted in order to protect Malkon. Ari also considers it his best game move due to considering Espe a threat that he's been wary of for some time. Ari's split on whether he will stick with this group to the finals though: he would also consider taking Summer and Malkon. The call lasts an hour, which Haschel hopes is a sign it's working. They plan to vote out Espe with Skrew, with Haschel and Ari as fake boots. Ari names them the "Goat Brigade."

Haschel lets Skrew know that he thinks they have the votes for Espe with Ari and tris. Skrew is worried because of this being seen as Haschel's move instead of his, and wonders if he needs to stab Haschel later. He is also worried about Haschel telling Summer that Skrew was spreading her advantage info (the nullifier). Summer tells Skrew that Awoo thought Skrew was a leaker. Skrew even gets paranoid he may be the boot.

Based on conversations with Summer, Ari, and Skrew, Malkon determines he does not think Summer wants to go to the end with him. He's also not sure he can win against her. This causes a change of heart for Malkon, who was really invested in the "redemption story" of Malkon and Summer being strong allies in this game. He decides to "lay out all of [his] cards" to Ari. He still hopes for a tris vote but can settle for an Espe one. Ari declines the tris vote and says he will consider an Espe vote, and spins things to make Malkon feel like Malkon's orchestrating the Espe vote, when there in fact seems to already be a majority of votes on Espe. Ari confesses "Survivor is making me a bad person." Ari is also struggling a lot this round with the emotional weight of lying to Summer, and confesses it's giving him a stomachache. He is eyeing a Skrew boot next round to keep his options open with endgame plans.

Malkon calls Skrew to discuss that they may need to go to rocks for the next vote if they can't get tris to vote out Summer, Malkon also approaches Haschel about this and seems to gain agreement. They form a group chat in which Malkon says that he doesn't have long-term plans but knows he needs to work with them to avoid "4th at best." When Malkon approaches Skrew and Haschel about blindsiding Espe, it becomes clear to them that there are two separate plans to have 4 people vote Espe. Skrew mentions he's stressed over how to explain this to tris and Malkon next round. Skrew, Ari, tris and Malkon are all pretending to be voting Haschel, while Haschel is weakly pushing Ari.

Summer confesses she wishes she wasn't immune this round so that she could further swag on Haschel by getting him voted out while she's vulnerable. Later, Haschel calls Summer and tries to convince her the group of 4 with tris and Skrew is legitimate. She is somewhat swayed and seems to reconsider whether pushing him this TC was a good move. However, she ends up approaching Haschel before TC explaining that she thinks it's best for her game to vote him out due to him having a more unique story and due to them having less loyalty and trust established than she does with other players. Espe, however, is voted out 5-2, with Summer and Espe voting for Haschel. Malkon confesses our episode title immediately afterward: "That worked...but why 5?"

Episode 18: Quadruple-Cross

Challenge

In One Line At a Time Redux, players had to invent sentences that were at least five words long. These sentences needed to be posted within a minute of the previous ones, and utilize words from a given list without repeating any words in their sentences. Everyone except our challenge winner made an error within their first 9 sentences out of 30. Summer won her fourth individual immunity challenge, timing out after her 29th sentence. Ari confesses that he felt this was a challenge he should have done better at, and that he would have given away his immunity necklace to Summer had he won.

Honolulu, pre-challenge results

Summer's reaction to being blindsided is that she was too trusting and "cocky," that she should've tried harder to save Awoo, and that she needs to immunity run to the end now. She is upset at Skrew and interprets him as having told her she's "not allowed" to be upset about Espe going. Summer posts in tribe chat an acknowledgement that she realizes she is most likely the next vote, and that a family member was just diagnosed with cancer so she will be taking time away from the game. She does hope to vote off Malkon or Haschel.

tris ponders what endgame she really wants: she thinks that Haschel proposing the Goat Brigade will be in his favor, but that she has other points going for her. Summer approaches tris pitching that Malkon is the biggest social and jury threat remaining, and explaining that Summer has tried to factor in what tris wanted with plans throughout merge. tris responds to question why tris was left out of the maneuver against Pine by Summer, and to explain that "ultimately, this was an unequal partnership." Summer gives her perspective, and tris thinks Summer made some good points, but that Summer is also trying to Appeal to Emotion.

Skrew acknowledges in confessional that he thinks he "really bungled" things with Summer and "might just let her control [his] vote." He tries putting together a F4 with Ari, tris and Summer, though hopes Summer will be gone at four. On the other hand, Malkon wants Summer out. Haschel also seems to want Summer out, and is so committed to Goat Brigade he suggests that they stick together to the point of forcing rocks.

Ari feels guilty for not telling Summer about the Espe vote; he says that it's tough for him to have his best "game move" and "personal move" be totally different - "I have to hurt a friend or I have to lose." He confesses that he hasn't been eating due to stress, but says that he's still having fun. He thinks he wants to "flip it on SleepyKrew" and go to the end with Summer and Malkon. He considers the possibility of a rock draw where Ari and Malkon side with Summer.

Honolulu, post-challenge results

tris's perspective is that the Ari/Skrew/tris F3 was her idea to proposition to Skrew. However, she hasn't decided whether going with Skrew or Haschel is better for her game, and comments that she's stressed and "torturing [herself]" because she doesn't know whether she's telling those two lies or truths. tris is settled on wanting Malkon out though, and pushes this in both her group chats.

Malkon wants to vote out tris, but can't get Haschel or Skrew to bite on that vote. Malkon thinks Skrew (along with Haschel and tris) want Ari out. He wonders whether he and Summer should try going to rocks for Ari, and worries that he doesn't have a good path to FTC. He ponders who tris is trying to get to FTC with, and thinks everyone else left is trying to go with her.

Ari thinks everyone wants to go with the end with him, but thinks that people aren't aware of a lot of moves in his game that he will be able to justify in the end. He is, however, specifically concerned about his chances against Haschel because Haschel put together the "Goat Brigade" alliance. He thinks that he has better odds against Malkon, who Ari views as sheeping him a lot, and tris; he will also still consider going with Summer. He pushes Skrew as a preferred vote over Malkon in the Goat Brigade chat, but the other two argue for a Malkon vote because of others seeming to be on board. Ari refers to his plan to boot Haschel at 6 and Skrew at 5 as a "Quadruple-cross" in reference to the various layers of groups that think Ari is loyal to them. This is our episode title.

Ari tells Malkon that Malkon's being targeted by Haschel. Although Malkon started off the round wanting to go to F3 with Skrew and Haschel, Malkon feels locked into voting how Summer and Ari do under the circumstances. Malkon thinks that "the threats voting out the threats" keeps happening despite his best efforts. Summer initially seems to prefer Malkon be the boot, but does consider Haschel more of a challenge threat, and considers both options throughout the TC.

Skrew doesn't seem to have a strong preference about the boot order between Malkon and Haschel. He initially wants to go for Malkon due to it being Summer's and tris's preference. However, a few hours before tribal, he changes his vote to Haschel, commenting that Ari was strongly pushing for this and it seems like Ari is "trying to take credit for a move."

Toward the end of TC, tris has decided she's siding with Haschel and wants to target Skrew at five (after hopefully getting Malkon out). Haschel reiterates to the group a couple of hours before the TC deadline that Goat Brigade can't be broken "no matter what." Haschel, however, is voted out 4-2, with tris and Haschel voting for Malkon. As part of his final words at tribal council, Haschel remarks that Summer will win hands down if she makes it to the end. He reveals the existence of Goat Brigade and says that he will not vote for whichever of them blindsided him.

Episode 19: This Was Some CaptainMeme Shit

Challenge

In Number Grid, players were given a grid with numbers in the exterior as well as in the interior cells. Cells in the interior needed to be crossed out until the sum of each row and column matched the designated exterior number. The fastest player to correctly solve the puzzle within 90 minutes would have won immunity. Sadly, no one was able to solve the grid puzzle in this time frame. As such, no one earned immunity in the final five. Summer was very disappointed, both feeling like she needed immunity to survive and like she would have been likely to win if not for the time limit.

Honolulu

Given Haschel was voted out, tris needs to figure out her new ideal F3. tris thinks Skrew is the biggest remaining threat due to being on the right side of every vote and receiving no votes. tris worries everyone besides Ari can beat her. "I just need to make a choice and live with it," she says, waffling between trying to go with Malkon or Summer. Early on in the round, she tells Summer she wants to go with her and Ari.

After the immunity results, Malkon approaches tris about what she wants to do. tris is leaning toward booting Skrew. Malkon starts running scenarios about what will happen in F4 based on immunity wins and the possibility of going to F3 together. Malkon pitches that they have better odds at winning final immunity against Skrew, and tris agrees on that. Malkon confesses he still thinks he needs to win immunity to survive at four if he votes out Summer. tris changes her mind about going to the end with Summer, deciding to vote her out, but makes Ari and Summer think she's voting for Skrew.

SleepyKrew approaches Summer to tell her he thinks he needs to vote her out. SleepyKrew thinks both Malkon and tris are on board for this and says as such to Summer. According to Summer, SleepyKrew said that he will keep her if she would be really upset about it. Summer says that it's just a game and he should do what he thinks is best. She confesses that in "another time" she would have tried to emotionally manipulate him, but doesn't feel comfortable doing so.

For Ari, it's "Operation Save Summer," and a "redemption round" from when he blindsided her at F7. He says his heart goes out to Skrew, who's unhappily targeting Summer. Malkon has previously said that he would like Ari/Summer/Malkon as a F3, so Ari hopes the 3 of them can agree on another target - preferably Skrew. He thinks that his play this round shows "[him]self" and how much he is "here for [his] alliances."

Summer approaches Malkon with a plan: if he votes out Skrew this round, Summer will vote out tris next round if Summer wins immunity. Malkon considers these two options carefully, and says that Summer's proposal works better for him if tris gets voted out instead. He isn't sure Summer will stay true to this, and thinks if Skrew stays that he can push either Skrew or Jess as vote options for F4.

This seems to be a particularly stressful and emotional round. Skrew says in tribe chat "feel free to vote [him] off" due to him struggling with anxiety. tris is confronted by Summer about the fact that tris is planning to vote for Summer. Summer pitches that Skrew has "played borderline perfect" and will compete with tris for votes and that Malkon "has the best social game" and friends on the jury. Summer says that if tris goes with Ari, there is more potential for Summer and Ari to split votes due to having similar stories. "I want to escape from this world where the only people who can give me advice have their own agendas," confesses tris.

Ari is saying goodbye to Jess and confesses he's even voted for her due to not wanting to put a target on his own back for next round. However, Malkon and tris both tell Ari they're willing to reconsider voting Summer in favor of voting the other. The timing is so close together that it's unclear whether it's a genuine falling out, a coincidence, or orchestrated. Ari and Summer discuss this. They are most worried about Skrew as a jury threat if they go to the end together. Summer is still worried Malkon will win FTC against them, and so wants to try to go with tris instead. Summer reaches out to tris and they agree to a Malkon vote. Ari would rather keep Malkon, but thinks the probable ensuing tie drama wouldn't be worth it when Malkon staying probably hurts Ari's win chances anyway.

After thinking about it more in the last hour, Ari feels like he is burning a bridge regardless of whether he votes with Malkon or with Summer and tris. He then realizes that because Skrew seems to be voting Summer, Malkon seems to be voting tris, and tris seems to be voting Malkon, he and Summer are the swing votes. He wants to fall back on his original preference and vote out Skrew, and hopes that even if he is being lied to by tris and Malkon, that this will still work out better. Summer agrees to go with Ari's "meme" play and votes for Skrew, and also plays her idol nullifier.

We get the 2-1-1-1 vote as described in the previous paragraph. SleepyKrew is voted out. As his torch is snuffed, he says "OK." Malkon laughs really hard. We cut to the jury discussing what even just happened, and D3f gives us our episode title: "This was some CaptainMeme shit" - CaptainMeme is infamous for plotting some ridiculous tied vote splits.

Episode 20: One Last Hail Mary

Challenge

In Final Challenge Quiz, players answered 20 multiple choice and short answer questions about the game. For instance, one question was "Post-merge, how many votes were placed onto a player who was not voted out (Idol-nullified votes do not count)?" The most correct answers would win, with time as a tiebreaker. Malkon placed 4th with 9 correct, Ari placed 3rd with 11 correct, tris placed 2nd with 12 correct, and Summer won final immunity with 14 correct.

Honolulu

Summer is ecstatic about the ridiculous vote outcome and, of course, that she survived. As Malkon processes what just played out, he has some choice words to describe himself, including dummy and fool, for not voting for Summer. He and Ari discuss possible numbers for if things had gone differently, and disagree about math. The final four participate in celebratory codenames.

Ari reflects on his game up to this point. He is proud of his social game, him protecting his allies from his first tribe, and played a lot more deceptively than he expected to.

tris confesses she wants to go to the end with Summer because she sees the F8 round as being a clear flawed position in Summer's game. She summarizes her game as "getting on the right trains at the right time." She also felt that going with Summer and Ari was the more secure path.

Malkon's "one last hail mary" is to convince Ari to vote for tris. tris doesn't win, but little does Malkon know that he has earned no firemaking points from others, and is thus at a disadvantage even if he manages a tie. Unsurprisingly to Malkon, Summer and tris make it clear that they will be voting for him. Malkon will argue on the basis that threats splitting votes to let an inoffensive and lovable "non threat" win has historically occurred in several instances he can point to. Without bringing Malkon, Malkon would argue Summer is more likely to sweep the jury. His fallback plan is to promise his jury vote to Ari if Ari votes for tris (a promise he won't necessarily keep.)

Ari confesses he weighed both Summer's and Malkon's arguments about endgame scenarios. He ultimately thinks there are votes Ari and Malkon would compete for, and thus that it's worse to bring Malkon, in spite of Ari dreaming of an Ari/Malkon/Summer F3 ever since Awoo was voted off. Ari confesses he is grateful for Malkon's advice for the finals, and feels it is bittersweet to have made it to F3.

tris confesses she expects to lose. Specifically, she thinks that she lost when Haschel was voted off. She worries that she was wrong that Summer would have been in danger if not for having immunity at F7. She is still prepared to do her best at FTC.

Malkon gives a VERY long speech in tribe chat once Ari confirms that he will not be saving Malkon. He reflects on his difficult past with Summer and their redemption story in this game. He mentions that he thinks both of them had "something to prove" in this game and both showed themselves to be "forces of nature." He discusses that he will be a "brutal but fair" juror and that he sees fewer flaws in Summer's gameplay than the other two finalists'. He reflects on how recent health issues have changed his outlook on life and playing Survivor, emphasizing his gratefulness for the experience, and the role of luck and circumstance. Comically, Summer responds to request he give her his "big fat jury vote plz." Summer confesses she's worried about having upset the jury, but thinks she has "a shot" to win the whole game. Malkon is voted out 3-1, casting his vote against Ari.

Episode 21: You Did Not Know Your Enemy

Speech-writing phase

Our finalists have their own FTC gang chat on the server. They vent about lack of sleep, moving house, and the writing process.

Confessionals:

Ari: "I think that Jess is a formidable adversary, and I am not discounting that for a second. But I think I had a unique game where I can step in and say that I made things happen when and how I wanted them to, with some exceptions of course, but few of them. I believe that I have a rock solid case for how my play defined this game and so long as the Jury can look at this from a gameplay standpoint not from the position of betrayal, I believe I can win this game!"

tris: "i think this will be difficult, but i think i do have a shot. omg, if i win my second game of survivor ! what an experience this has been! [...] i think summer's the favorite here, but i think i have a chance"

Summer: "I need a nap. [...] honestly I think I go in with a strong case over the others. if I dont win this ftc then I wasnt winning any. well"

Final Tribal Council

As the previous round's immunity winner, Summer chose for opening speeches to be ordered as: Summer, Ari, and finally tris. Jurors were given a post count limit of 3 but had no question or word limit within these posts.

After they gave their speeches, Haschel immediately congratulated Summer on winning the game and predicted that she would win unanimously. D3f asked Ari and tris to compare and contrast their first games with this game. Awoo announced he's voting Summer. Malkon posted vocaroo links: one of his questions was to ask tris to explain how she was not a goat, to which she responded that she considers herself one. Haschel replied to assure her "in this FTC it is not a winning game but don't let anybody tell you it wasn't a respectable game." Malkon had 13 minutes of voice content asking Ari to justify his late merge choices, including not taking the opportunity to vote Summer out at Final 5 and not hearing out Malkon further about the rationale for bringing tris instead of Malkon to the finals to hopefully split votes with Summer.

In response to Malkon's questions, Summer outlined the role that all the jurors played in her story, admitting she took a "'take what you can, give nothing back'" approach with Pine, and that she looked for people to fill certain roles: "best friend" (Awoo), "shield" (Espe), and "goons" (Ari and Skrew, though Skrew did not remain loyal to her). Ari continued to try to argue his case, emphasizing his social ability to keep himself and his allies safe, and not needing to rely on challenge wins. Though Skrew stated his vote is likely decided, he posted several questions for each player anyway. tris emphasized that remaining loyal to a specific group was part of her strategy and affected her approach to the DV vote.

Pine congratulated Summer on being a "standout winner," stated his choice of vote is "pretty much a foregone conclusion." Pine stated to Ari that Ari "did not know [his] enemy" in Summer (this is our episode title) - in reference to Ari not having the same perception of her threat level as the jury. Pine asked Ari several questions to break down how he thought he could beat Summer so that Ari and Pine can "improve" as players by analyzing it.

Haschel commented that Haschel has experienced defending a loyal but losing game at FTC and that he thinks newer players sometimes need to be "kicked in the dick" to improve at the game. Espe says that the "game has been locked" since Awoo was voted out to have Summer be the biggest jury threat and that his question is only "out of politeness". D3f stated that the "onus is on [Ari]" to convince the jury that he didn't "ride Summer's coattails" as opposed to just acknowledging but disagreeing with the jury's perception.

Ari continued to explain that he was a "puppet master" that manipulated things to keep his allies around, despite Summer being credited for it all. tris stated she looks forward to post game discussions. Summer thanked the jurors for listening to her story despite not having time to answer all their questions. Ari posted a 12 minute video closing statement, admitting the Final Tribal Council hadn't gone as expected. He admitted voting off Malkon delegitimizes his case for bringing Summer even though she's a threat. He "precongratulate[s]" Summer and apologizes to tris. He said he learned a lot and looks forward to discussing more after the game.

The jury unanimously voted for Summer to win, though DK did not cast a vote.