Previously on Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New
After the wake-up call of the first Immunity Challenge, the brand-new players on the Nevala Tribe came together to vote out Ross unanimously. The good feelings rolled on as Nevala managed to defeat the Kobara veterans in their second battle by the most razor-thin of margins, surprising the confident returning players, and sending the “snakes” to this weekend’s Tribal Council.

As you can see above, Thursday’s Immunity Challenge was a back and forth affair, with Nevala squeaking out the victory only by nature of Jonathan’s answer coming in a couple minutes late. Often in this game, we see the player that finishes last become the easy target, but tonight we will see what happens when a tribe made up entirely of experienced Survivor Hamilton players scrambles to get through their first vote – hopefully without any blood on their hands.

Kobara is not one tribe in the same way that Nevala is. Nevala is comprised of players that have never played Survivor Hamilton before; so they are experiencing this game together for the first time, at the same time. While it will be a struggle to vote each week, there isn’t a lot of prior game-history to unpack before deciding on a target. On the Kobara Tribe, there is nothing BUT history. Just take the returning players from our last season (Fire & Ice) for example. You have 7 players that started together on Hielo, but in that case, Silas and Jonathan were part of the alliance that voted out Cowin, Chelsea, Paul, and ultimately Peter and Elliott as well. Of the 5 returning members of Fuego, Graham and Jordan were part of the alliance that voted out Chris and Paul. Bryan was able to survive on both tribes and make it to the merge.

How these players would be able to learn from their past experiences, while simultaneously moving on from them would go a long way to determine who would find success in Old Meets New. As I mentioned earlier, Jonathan finished the Immunity Challenge about 2 minutes late, and so of course at first he’d feel the heat of the tribe’s attention on him. Would he just let that happen, or would Jonathan learn from last game and fight to move the target onto someone else? Voting out someone for the reason of “losing an Immunity Challenge” is also often viewed as the easy vote.

Would these returning players, many of them who view themselves as strategic masterminds, let an “easy vote” be representative of their tribe? Not likely. On Kobara, there are many of different angles to consider.

There’s Immunity Challenge performance. Which players would be most likely to answer last, thereby increasing the chance of going back to Tribal Council next week and in the weeks to come? Staying away from the voting block is the best thing you can do to keep yourself in the game. For this reason, Jonathan knew that his name was being discussed, but he also knew that he was going to fight to survive. David C., though he sat out Thursday’s contest due to his 5-hour time difference, was committed to prove that he could come through for the tribe when they needed him. But would be get that chance? James, Amanda and Kyle didn’t play last season, and so they were still on the learning curve and could be considered potential challenge liabilities.

Then they’d need to consider the social aspect. Some players (especially those that have played Survivor Hamilton multiple times) put so much effort into talking to everyone on the tribe, covering every angle, that it’s hard for newer or more casual players to keep up. I’m looking at you Chelsea! But that enthusiasm is contagious, and more importantly, fun to play with. How hard is it to vote someone out when they’ve never reached out to you? Some players rely on a more laid-back game. James for example, has some close friends in the game, lives in BC (out of the GTA bubble) and could treat the early portion of the game as time to relax. Paul, Jordan, and Jonathan were notoriously distant at times last season, but maybe they had learned their lessons this time around. David C. will always struggle a little bit with the time difference, and other players may want to lay low on purpose to stay out of the spotlight. Can staying quiet be an asset? Or will it be a liability, necessitating lots of social gymnastics? Can players like James and Amanda, back in Survivor Hamilton after 13 years away, adapt to the games social requirements in 2020?

Finally, we need to talk about “big targets”. All of these players have played before, most of them voted out by eachother, and they know there’s only so much room for alpha snakes on the tribe. There are many different types of big targets. There are the social climbers, like Chelsea, Bryan and Chris that work to build relationships with many different players at the same time. There are the wild-cards like Cowin, Silas, and Elliott who have proven that they can’t go consecutive weeks without rocking the boat, just a little. Then you have the quiet, yet strategic folks like Kyle, Graham and Peter, trying to view all the angles week to week to find the correct one. Kobara is full of “big targets” and sending any of them home could leave ripples in the game for weeks to come.

And then once most players decide on a vote they can agree on, who’s to say that everyone will stick to the plan. This is a pit of vipers. In Week 2 of Fire & Ice, we saw a seemingly simply vote become a tie at the last second, sending Hielo into a downward spiral on the choice of a handful of players. Returning players from last season are sensitive to last-second changes after experiencing many of them themselves, so what will they do if they hear that someone is trying to change the plan? Worse still, what if someone saves screenshots of your “suggestions” and sends them directly to your hypothetical target? The Kobara vote tonight is likely going to come down to either an “easy vote” or a “big target” and we couldn’t be more excited to get to it!

Check out our live Tribal Council video below for some first-hand insight into how Kobara handled their first Immunity Challenge defeat and Tribal Council:

And now, as we still have not introduced individual Immunity Idols into the game, there are no twists that can impact the outcome of the vote, so I will now reveal the results!

here

we

go

 

 

First vote:

Second vote:

That’s 1 vote Silas, 1 vote James.

Third vote:

That’s 2 votes Silas, 1 vote James.

Fourth vote:

We’re tied again. 2 votes Silas, 2 votes James.

Fifth vote:

That’s 3 votes Silas, 2 votes James.

Sixth vote:

We’re tied again. 3 votes for Silas and James. 

Seventh vote:

Silas with 4 votes against, James with 3. 

Eighth vote:

Tied. 4 votes for Silas, 4 for James. 

Ninth vote:

That’s 5 votes for Silas, 4 for James.

Tenth vote:

And we are TIED AGAIN! 5 votes for Silas, 5 for James. 

Eleventh vote:

6 votes for Silas, 5 for James. 

Twelfth vote:

Unbelievably we are tied again at 6 votes apiece for Silas and James. 

Thirteenth vote:

Getting down to the wire! That’s 7 votes for Silas, and 6 for James. 

Fourteenth vote:

That’s the 8th vote against Silas, and that’s enough.

By a total vote of 9-6 the second player voted out of Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New is…

And Kobara votes out a HUGE target! Silas knew that he had a hand in voting out many of his current tribe-mates on the last season of Survivor Hamilton, and that he may have a difficult hill to climb on the Kobara Tribe. What became immediately clear is that most players on Kobara were very concerned about speaking out too overtly against the rest of the tribe. Many people in the group were seemingly ok with voting out Jonathan, but once word got out that Silas was hypothesizing other scenarios, and that those scenarios potentially included Chris, the real target shifted.

Silas spent all of Fire & Ice with the same alliance from day one; and with that group he was able to discuss all sorts of scenarios, but in this game, with all returning players, that openness ended up burning him. Once Silas (a huge target by Survivor Hamilton standards) was a potential target, many other players were all too happy to jump at the chance to vote him out, especially if it meant it wasn’t them going home. What will the remaining players learn from this close vote, and how will the game of Survivor Hamilton continue to evolve?

Back at it again with our next Immunity Challenge on Monday. For now, check out episode 3 of PLAYED! with Meg & Mike below, and enjoy the surprise Cameo appearance from Adam Klein, winner of Survivor: Millennials vs Gen-X!

 

MH

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