As we near the beginning of Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New, we thought it would be helpful to share a walk-through of Week 1, both for the uninitiated and our returning players. Since our previous season (Fire & Ice) lasted over 6 months, with less players, we have consolidated the schedule to include 2 Immunity Challenges and 2 Tribal Councils each week. There will be twists and turns, but if you plan on spending a few minutes a handful of evenings a week playing the game, that will be enough to keep up with what’s going on. Some of you will get way more into it than that, but we are hoping that this outline helps all of you understand what the game entails each week, with a specific focus on the weeks ahead.

Saturday, April 25th:
This post!

Wednesday, April 29th:
Our Tribes will be announced on this website, and in an introductory email connecting you to your tribe-mates. At this point you are free to communicate among yourselves with whatever method you prefer. These first few days will be important to at least show your tribe that you came to play, and that you’d like to begin forming a group to stay safe for when it comes time to vote.

Sunday, May 3rd:
To accompany the season’s inaugural Game Post (think Episode 1), our host will schedule 2 Zoom meetings, for an hour each that are completely optional between the 6pm-8pm timeframe. These video chats will serve two purposes: to provide a controlled way to better connect with the people you’re playing with and against, and to give you a chance to ask your host any questions you have as a tribe. You’ll take it on your own from here.

Monday, May 4th:
The season’s first Immunity Challenge will take place sometime between the hours of 5pm-9pm EST. The first challenge will be easy and mostly reflect your reaction time. Typically the challenges will take the form of a question or problem posted on this website, so ensuring you’re notified when the challenge is posted, and responding to your host with the answer in a timely manner will be super important. Some challenges will be tougher logic puzzles that may require teamwork to solve, and to respond in the specific way the host has described. Throughout the game you’ll notice the challenges are designed to measure not just your reaction time, but your ability to pay attention to the rules as written, and coordinate your tribe-mates to answer in the correct method.
(An example of a simple Immunity Challenge above would be: Solve the puzzle and WhatsApp the 3 highlighted words to your host as quickly as you can.)

You may not solve for the answer right away, but if one of you does, how quickly can you share it with the group and confirm everyone has answered? WhatsApp will track the times of all the responses, and later that night we will post the results of the challenge, including revealing which Tribe that had the most correct answers in the fastest time, winning Immunity. The losing Tribe will head to Tribal Council on Wednesday, where someone will be voted out (first!).

Tuesday, May 5th:
Nothing!

Wednesday, May 6th: 
Between the hours of 6pm-8pm EST, all members of the losing Tribe must send the name of the person they are voting out of their Tribe via WhatsApp/email/text to their host. The votes will be compiled, and later that night, the results will be revealed via a post on the website. Someone will be voted out of the game. If you are busy during those hours and wish to vote earlier in the day, that is no problem, but your vote will only be counted once. No last second changesies.

Important Note: If your vote is not received via WhatsApp/email/text by 8pm EST, you will be eliminated from the game. It will be as if you simply decided to leave the game, and Tribal Council will not be held. Please please please, don’t let this happen, because it ruins the game for everyone who did vote.

After the results are revealed, your host Mike Hamilton, and Meg, the winner of Survivor Hamilton: Fire & Ice would like to interview the evicted player via Zoom for as much time or as little as they are comfortable with. These brief interviews will take place either the night of Tribal or the next day, and be posted on the site in the day or so after Tribal. They are completely optional, but definitely encouraged as they give the player a chance to vent, describe what happened, and decompress from the experience. We hope that everyone looks forward to this activity as much as we do.

Thursday, May 7th: 
Another Immunity Challenge will be posted on the website between 5pm-9pm EST timeframe. The winning and losing Tribe will be revealed later that night, and the losing Tribe will head to (or back to) Tribal Council on Saturday. Remember, not everyone is required to compete in the challenges – live your life – but you should hope your Tribe can still outperform the other without your participation.

Friday, May 8th:
Blessed nothing!

Saturday, May 9th: 
Tribal Council will occur the same as before, with the votes needing to be sent to your host by 8pm EST, earlier if possible. The player with the most votes will be eliminated from the game, and invited to chat on Zoom with Meg and Mike about what happened, and any messages they want to leave the other players with.

Sunday, May 10th:
Nothing at all.

Monday, May 11th: 
The game continues with the 3rd and 4th Immunity Challenges and Tribal Councils. The only difference is that you should begin to keep an eye out for Reward Challenges posted on the website. They can be posted at any time, are completely optional, but the winner will receive either a Tribal or Individual advantage in the game. These advantages can be the difference in winning the entire game, or going home empty-handed, so it’s worth it to play them if you can.