Previously on Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New
It feels like we just started the game, but 4 weeks have gone by, and 7 players have been eliminated so far. On Thursday, the rivalry between Kobara and Nevala was officially left for dead, as Nevala lost their 6th straight Immunity Challenge, coming up short in 7 of the first 8 chances for Immunity. Emotions on Nevala were really high, and with rumors aplenty about upcoming game twists, would the tribe continue to target the “family”, or would players begin to think about their long-term game?

Once again, Nevala gave it their all at an Immunity Challenge, but couldn’t get past the veterans on Kobara. This wasn’t a fair fight from the beginning, and it appears Nevala never had a chance, but at least they were playing the game. The tribe of newcomers had been through at least 4 really tough Tribal Councils to this point, and so they’ve gained Survivor Hamilton experience at a rapid pace, and should be prepared for everything else that the game is going to throw at them.

Down to only 9 players remaining, it’s not an understatement to say that Nevala had been through some sh*t. While Kobara had only been to one Tribal Council, Survivor Hamilton has been nothing but vote after vote for Nevala, and that takes a toll on any team-building that should happen. From the beginning there were some pretty big personalities on the tribe, and they won’t always mesh – especially when most of them are complete strangers.

Trying to build an alliance with people you don’t personally know is very difficult, which is why you typically see players jumping from group to group in the early weeks. But what was apparent from the past few votes was that a majority of Nevala had come together to target the “family”, which to this point had lost Ross, Damien, and now Jim (and arguably Wayne would normally have lined up there too). Whether that idea grew completely out of Nevala, or with outside intel from Kobara, we may never know. But the fact of the matter was that Ian and April had to think that one of them would be next.

Over the games first 4 weeks it was becoming clear that there were two styles of play. Get out there, try to make moves, and make a name for yourself. Or sit back and let everyone else do the work, try to blend in, and play dead like a possum, then maybe no one will notice ya. The vocal players were the ones being targeted, not the worst performers in the challenges, not the players that were staying away from the strategy. It’s almost as if Nevala got so scared of making big moves that they just settled on the “family” and that was that.

I don’t have much time or energy today to write anything else. So let’s just see if Nevala continued on their path against the “family”, or if someone was willing to shake it up and make their own move for once. Here’s the video.

Now here are the votes.

As always, if any player has a Hidden Immunity Idol, they would play it now before the votes are read, and…

…

…

…

Yes, April had won the 2nd idol on Nevala, which wasn’t much of a secret, and she’d be playing it for herself. Any votes cast against April will not count.

Let’s get to the votes.

here

we

go

…

First Vote:

DOES NOT COUNT

Second Vote:

DOES NOT COUNT

Third Vote:

DOES NOT COUNT

Fourth Vote:

DOES NOT COUNT

Fifth Vote:

Sixth Vote:

That’s 2 votes for Ruth. 

Seventh Vote:

We’re at 2 votes for Ruth, and 1 vote for Ian. 

Eighth Vote:

We’re tied. 2 votes for Ruth, 2 votes for Ian, and only 1 vote left. 

…

…

…

Last Vote:

And so by a super close 3-2 vote, Ian becomes the 8th player voted out of Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New. All he needed was one player to switch over, and Ian definitely did everything he could to make that happen, just no one had an interest in risking their own game. Ian was Nevala’s top performer in Immunity Challenges, so obviously they’ve resigned themselves to failure. Joking! Kind of. 

April uses her idol, yet another player from the same alliance is voted out, and meanwhile the middle players of Nevala have skated through tribal after tribal never having to worry about their names even coming up once. But that’s the point isn’t it? Their strategy of being invisible has paid off, while Ruth survives another vote as a target, but with another feather in her cap to her credit.

And so, with some massive changes to the game around the corner, did the 8 remaining players from Nevala make the right moves to ingratiate themselves with the 14 players from Kobara? Or will they just get picked off one by one? Soon we will find out.

Keep an eye out for a Sunday calendar invite for a discussion on the game, now that we are a quarter of the way through. And now, PLAYED! with Meg & Mike.

MH

Next Episode