Previously on Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New
Last night at Tribal Council, Jim was voted out of the game by a 5-4-1 margin, with the “family” alliance losing yet another member. Tensions were at an all-time high on the Nevala Tribe, as another close Immunity Challenge slipped through their grasp, and another trip to tribal forced them apart. How much longer could they take it? Was Nevala a lost cause?

Heading into today’s Immunity Challenge, Nevala knew that it was time to put up or shut up. They had been given all the advice in the world for how to beat Kobara, but with the veterans in such a dominant position, and sitting out more and more players each time, it truly seemed almost impossible for Nevala to win. Add in the fact that someone was being cut mercilessly every 3-4 days, and it’s no wonder that the stress levels were high, and the trust levels were… not so high?

Thing is, there was a time not so long ago that each of the players had worked together to vote out their targets. Shareed helped Ian vote out David M. April helped Ruth vote out Wayne. Andre helped Sharon vote out Damien. There are examples of great teamwork, but each of those instances started on the basis of distrust. These players were targets that had to be eliminated. The focus was switching from side to side, because the first thing these first-time players learned about Survivor Hamilton was how to create a target.

No doubt learning from Kobara’s first and only Tribal Council appearance, Nevala has consistently focused the majority of their votes on who is “playing the game” the hardest, or who said what about who on a text, or who betrayed you on a vote. When Silas was voted out, Kobara claimed that they couldn’t trust him, that he was stirring the pot, and discussions around screenshots started. Jim was the latest victim in a string of big targets on Nevala, but what about focusing on Immunity Challenges? The gap between Kobara and Nevala in the challenges was the reason they kept going to Tribal, and that wasn’t being addressed at all by the votes.

But maybe they renewed their focus today, came together, put the negativity behind them, and crushed the Immunity Challenge? There’s always a chance right?

I don’t even know what to say about Kobara at this time. They’ve had a very easy road in Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New so far. Their combined experience helping them excel in each of the Immunity Challenges, while allowing an increasing number of their players to sit out instead of competing. They were having the time of their lives, actually enjoying the game for one. But was this leisurely pace for Kobara about to end? Let’s find out shall we?

Today’s Immunity Challenge question was very easy. I’ll post the Google Sheet I used, but literally I got it within a minute on my first try. Luck? Maybe, but I knew that I was going to use it right away, and that the tribe that was better prepared and sitting by their phones ready to answer would clearly win. Here’s the question:

Ten blocks – 2 Blue, 3 Green, 3 Red, and 2 Yellow – are positioned side-by-side on a shelf. The positions are numbered consecutively from 1 to 10. The blocks are arranced according to the following restrictions: 
1. The Blue blocks are beside each other.
2. None of the Green blocks are side-by-side.
3. A Red block is at one end and a Blue block is at the other. 
4. There are Yellow blocks in positions 3 and 9, and a Green block in position 6. 

What is the color of the block in the 7th position?

As I planned throughout the day, I was expecting this to be a close back and forth battle, that would be over within a few minutes. I was praying for it. And while it’s fair to say that the “over in within a few minutes” part was correct. The “back and forth battle” however, not so much.

Both tribes began working on the question at the exact same time, with the first answers coming in only a couple of minutes after the challenge was posted. While Nevala appeared to be working individually to answer the question, there was simply more activity on the Kobara group chat. By the time that Paul clocked in with the first correct answer of “Red”, it wasn’t clear if Nevala had solved it yet. Paul was followed within the same minute by Amanda, Elliott, Chris, Chelsea, Bryan and Jonathan.

Less than 3 minutes after the challenge was posted, Kobara was up to 7-0 lead. 

Kobara only had 2 players left to respond, while I was still waiting for all 9 Nevala players to answer. Want to know what happened next? Well, the next two answers came in from James and Peter, meaning that Kobara swept the challenge by a 9-0 mark, and KOBARA WINS IMMUNITY!!!

So every player from Kobara answered before anyone from Nevala, which is not the result I was hoping for, but I guess it’s the one I should expect. All season long the gap between Kobara and Nevala has actually gotten wider as the veterans perfected their answering process, and the rookies were continually distracted by votes. That happens in this game, and it happens in real Survivor too, and unfortunately they’ll be heading back on Saturday to vote out yet another player.

For anyone keeping track, the order of answer from Nevala was Shareed, Andre, Dave, Ruth, April, Jon, Ian, Sasha and Sharon. That they were all after Kobara won means that the order doesn’t really matter much, but hopefully there is still something for the group to learn about speed vs accuracy, and how important it is to get as many correct answers in the group chat as quick as possible, and with that majority you can feel comfortable getting your answers in.

So Nevala, I’m sorry to say that we’ll be spending Saturday evening together. You’ll go from 9 to 8, and at least you’ll all be able to say that you’ve been through a trial by fire. The remaining players will still need to learn from this, yet another loss, and come back stronger, because the game is far from over.

Here’s how I solved the challenge in Excel:

It took just a couple of minutes, and selecting the colors probably took the longest time. I just cut and pasted them over, and it was clear right away that the 3 Greens needed to be in 4, 6, and 8, meaning Red had to be 5 and 7. Simple stuff, and everyone got it very fast, just Kobara got it from multiple people first, while Nevala was still trying to confirm.

See you at tribal Nevala.

MH

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