Previously on Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New
After the exciting Tribe Swap, the newly formed Kobara, Nevala, and Ulloo tribes competed in their first Immunity Challenge, which was as close as it could have been. The result was that Ulloo had to go to Tribal Council where sadly, they voted out Shareed and a Hidden Immunity Idol was not played. Back to the grind!

The Kobara tribe had to feel that they were going to keep on winning. Dave and Sharon thanked their lucky stars that they got to come over to the winningest tribe in Survivor Hamilton history, and that they got to do it together. They had been working together on most of Nevala’s votes, so they at least knew they could trust eachother for a little while. Jonathan meanwhile knew that he had a really close call at Kobara 2.0’s first Immunity Challenge together. Their win streak was almost snapped, but in the end they were saved by an error from Ulloo. Kyle’s decision to join Kobara only made the tribe stronger in challenges, so the good times were rolling for the snakes.

Nevala meanwhile had won their first Immunity Challenge in weeks and weeks. That Nevala was not really the same Nevala as before was not really the point. Andre and Jon got a Wednesday off from tribal for the first time since early May, and to top it off, Andre was the player that came through in the clutch to seal the victory. Amanda, Chris, Graham, James and Peter knew that they could carry over their experience to help the tribe continue to succeed. This was certainly a strategic group, and a loss today would upset the apple cart sending them to a crazy vote, but luckily these new and improved mongooses were rolling so far!

Ulloo meanwhile were about 24 hours removed from voting out Shareed. The mistrust that plagued Nevala for so many weeks had seeped into Ulloo, and ultimately the 3 prior Kobara players stuck together to vote out Shareed. He had openly wanted to work with them, swore on his family that he could be trusted, but they voted him out because they were sure he didn’t have the Hidden Immunity Idol, and wanted to play it safe. As the first tribe down to 6 players, Ulloo could not afford to lose again. David C.’s mistake on Monday was firmly in the rear-view mirror at this point, but they still needed to prove that they could work as a tribe just as well as Kobara and Nevala could. Hoohoo will step up today?

And with that needless intro out of the way, let’s get to today’s Immunity Challenge. As Kobara and Nevala had two and one extra player respectively than Ulloo, they would need to choose some folks to sit out tonight. Kobara decided to sit out Kyle, and to give Sharon her first break of the season. Meanwhile, Nevala decided to give Jon a break as well. So hopefully they can enjoy the evening off eh? I’m sure it won’t be stressful at all.

Tonight’s Immunity Challenge will be a fun one. We will be featuring 6 “Head 2 Head 2 Head” matches for Survivor Hamilton supremacy. The matchups were determined by our statistics so far, so we will see the best vs the best, and the slowest starters vs the slowest starters. (Or the worst vs the worst whatever you want to call it). Each group of 3 players (one from each tribe) will receive a question via email at the exact same time, and are responsible to get the answer in to me as quickly as possible.

The first player in each match to answer correctly will win 3 Points for their tribe, while the second player to answer correctly will win 1 Point for their tribe. The last place player, and anyone who answers incorrectly, or sends more than one message will not win any points. The two tribes with the most points after 6 rounds will win Immunity and safety from Tribal Council, while the losing tribe will need to vote the 10th player out of the game.

All the questions were sent at the same time, so that our players would need to both focus on their questions and help eachother at the same time. And now without further ado, our matchups!

Chelsea vs Chris vs Bryan

Our first match is between each of our tribe’s “best” players so far. Chelsea, Chris, and Bryan had consistently answered quickly throughout the game so far while they were all members of Kobara. Now separated into 3 tribes, they were competitors, and only one could win this week. As befits their status, they were given one of the harder questions:

Tommy has seven bags, five green and two red, in which he stores a total of 50 buttons. The fewest number of buttons in any bag is 5 and the greatest number of buttons in any bag is 10. The two red bags are the only two bags in the set containing the same number of buttons. How many buttons are in each red bag?

As I mentioned, this was one of the harder questions, but if our players worked with their tribes rather than rushing through it, or worse guessing, then they’d figure it out in no time. The answer was that there were 5 buttons in each red bag, which you could solve by trial and error using Excel. So what happened?

Well in true Chris style, rather than take the time to work it out, or get help from his tribe, Chris guessed 7, which was wrong. Not the start that Nevala wanted. Bryan was also very quick to answer, but in his case he had the correct answer of 5, which is exactly the start that Ulloo needed. When Chelsea answered 2 minutes later with the incorrect answer of 7, Kobara suddenly looked vulnerable.

Kobara: 0
Nevala: 0
Ulloo: 3

Cowin vs Graham vs Paul

In another hotly contested matchup of 3 original Kobaras, Cowin, Graham and Paul faced off with Kobara 2.0 and Nevala V2 looking to get on the board. Their question was not simple, but with some math, or Excel skills, you could just try out different numbers to finally get to the answer.

I’m thinking of a number. If I multiply it by 6 and then subtract 300, I get the same answer as I would if I multiplied it by 4 and added 200. What is the number?

At the exact same time as Chelsea closed out the first round, Paul was the first to respond in Round 2. Unfortunately for him, and Ulloo, his answer of 10 was NOT correct, and actually pretty far off to be honest. Ulloo’s hot start was over before it started. When Graham answered next with the CORRECT answer of 250, and all of Nevala let out a sigh of relief. 3 minutes after Graham scored Nevala’s first 3 points, Cowin (as a result of Kobara’s teamwork) also answered 250, getting Kobara on the board. On to the next one!

Kobara: 1
Nevala: 3
Ulloo: 3

Elliott vs Peter vs Sasha

With Nevala and Ulloo in the lead early in the Immunity Challenge, we arrive at a fun question for Elliott, Peter, and Sasha. It’s always fun to see Elliott and Peter compete head to head, as their longtime friendship often slips into full-blown rivalry. I joke sometimes that Sasha’s just happy to be here, but in truth she’s been competitive all game, and the smile hides the fiery side! Anyways, for one of the simplest challenges the players only had to…

Take a single photo that includes a television remote, a toothbruth, a quarter, and send it to me as fast as you can.

That’s it. Knowing that most homes have these 3 things, and that taking a single photo is a very clear instruction, we got into the challenge. The photos came in immediately, and I imaging all 3 of our ruthless competitors running around their homes like wild people. Almost simultaneously I got photos from Elliott then Sasha. Not looking at any of my messages until I had all 18 responses, I would have to wait and see what stories the pictures told. When Peter responded a minute or two later, we were ready to look at some toothbrushes!

Now it must be noted that Elliott messed up right away. He read the question, his brain said “take 3 separate photos” and by sending more than one message, Elliott was immediately disqualified! Ouch Kobara. So what about Sasha? With a beaming smile, Sasha had quickly sent in a wonderful cheery photo of all 3 items, and scored another 3 points for Ullooooooo. Yeah guys that’s what’s up! Peter then out-dueled his buddy Elliott, scoring a single point for Nevala. This is getting interesting!

Kobara: 1
Nevala: 4
Ulloo: 6

Jonathan vs James vs David C.

And now we reach the most intriguing match of the night, with a lot of history between these 3 original Kobara players. Jonathan and James had been on eachother’s radars since even before the Silas vote, when Jonathan voted for James. David C., and James had each sat out of 4 and 2 Immunity Challenges respectively, with Jonathan having a couple of performances he’d like to forget. What would happen here? I bet you can’t wait to find out! Here’s the question.

Bill’s mother had 5 children. The 1st was named Bala, the 2nd was named Bele, the 3rd was named Bili, and the 4th was named Bolo. What was the 5th child named?

Trick question! How good is that? Well clearly the answer seems like it should be Bulu, but what are we kindergartners? It’s right there! The answer is Bill, because Bill’s mother had 5 children! But neither Jonathan nor James caught it before sending me Bulu, which is awesome because now I can call them the Bulu Brothers. I’m also open to the Bulu Boys. The audience can decide. So with another Kobara player netting zero points, and James stinking it up for Nevala, would David C. redeem himself? Uhhhhh yup! David C. answered “Bill” and Ulloo further cemented their demanding lead over Kobara. Which has to feel EXCELLENT by the way.

Kobara: 1
Nevala: 4
Ulloo: 9

Jordan vs Amanda vs Ruth

With no discernible rivalries or beef here, there wasn’t a lot of intrigue in this matchup per se. But what was interesting was that Kobara was finding themselves just crushed for the first time all season. Could Jordan give them anything to cheer about? Or would Amanda and Ruth push their tribes further ahead as the challenge was nearing it’s conclusion?

How many intersections can you count where one circle crosses another? (Hint: It’s more than 20, and less than 30.)

This is a fun one right? I’m always trying to find different types of questions to mess with ya’ll. Amanda was the first to answer, just a couple of minutes after the first saw the question, and with the correct answer of 24 no less! Nevala had pushed themselves well ahead of Kobara now too, and now it was clear that no matter what happened in the last found, Kobara was going to be heading back to Tribal! When Ruth answered correctly next, and Jordan was last AND wrong, insult was added to injury.

Kobara: 1
Nevala: 7
Ulloo: 10

Dave vs Andre vs April

This one would have to be for pride, because it wasn’t for much else. These 3 players had been to so many Tribal Councils this season, that just knowing 2 tribes would be winning each week had to make them feel better. Their question was similar to another we had earlier in the season.

Four different digits from 1-9 are required to open a safe.
1. The first digit is greater than the second.
2. The second and third digits total 13.
3. The first and second digits differ by 3.
4. The third and fourth digits differ by 2.
What is the four-digit combination?

Unfortunately this wasn’t the finale we were all looking for. While Andre was able to come through clutch in the final seconds for his second challenge in a row with the correct answer of 9675, the same could not be said for Dave and April. At least April got to celebrate with an Ulloo tribe that desperately needed the win, because Dave would get no such pleasure out of this challenge. They both answered incorrectly, which brought the challenge to a merciful end for Kobara 2.0, a tribe that all of a sudden wasn’t looking so hot. What’s the score?

Kobara: 1
Nevala: 10!
Ulloo: 10!

So we have double winners!!!

Nevala and Ulloo win Immunity! Which is very exciting. That’s twice now since the Tribe Swap that Nevala has won Immunity, while Ulloo is tasting sweet sweet victory for the very first time. This is gonna get very interesting. Congrats team! Way to go, and enjoy the weekend off!

As for Kobara, I will see you on Saturday for Tribal Council, which will be the first in a month for 6 of their 8 players. We can decide on a time that works for all of you, but please enjoy the next couple of days of strategy and scrambling. I can’t wait to hear about it!

And now, a bonus video from Exile Island!

 

MH

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