Previously on Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New
After Kobara finally lost their first Immunity Challenge as a tribe since early May, all eyes were on the newly re-formed tribe heading into Tribal Council. The Saturday night vote did not disappoint, as everyone participated in a lively video, while Jonathan went out swinging for the fences. 20 are left, and it’s the start of a new week!

It’s been a strange week for the Kobara tribe. Most of them were not used to Tribal Council, not used to getting trashed at an Immunity Challenge, and not used to being embarrassed. Coming out of Saturday’s vote however, Kobara ha to feel pretty good. Jonathan had been a long-term target of the tribe, after his late answer got them sent to tribal all the way in week 1. With Jonathan out of the way, Kobara not only felt like they’d be stronger in the challenges, but more unified as well.

Dave and Sharon had felt welcome, though they were in the minority, and were being given the chance to prove themselves – poor challenge performances back on Nevala a thing of the past. Prior friendships in the game had connected may people on Kobara, so no one felt particularly paranoid going into this week – they felt confident. That being said, Jonathan had plenty of relationships heading into Old Meets New, and they were all too happy to vote him out. Cutthroat I say! Any time all of the remaining players on a tribe voted the same person out the week before, it’s gonna be interesting to see what happens when the next lose. Kobara went with the easy vote, but only time will tell who’s really on the outside looking in.

Over on the new Nevala tribe, everything was going to plan. Not only was Nevala now proud winners of two straight Immunity Challenges since the Tribe Swap, but talk of strategy, alliances, blindsides and betrayal were at an all-time low for the mongooses. To be honest there was not much to say at this point about Nevala, but as with any tribe in Survivor Hamilton, there would still be some activity going on below the surface. Because they’ve avoided tribal for a couple weeks, and 5 Nevala players haven’t voted for over a month, none of the strategy was out there for everyone to see, but it was happening. And if any player is sitting back, thinking they are safe long-term, they would be wrong.

Ulloo was also glad to have won immunity last week. Sasha, April and Ruth had been to the most Tribal Councils in the game so far (8 of 10), and so the break over the weekend must have been glorious. Bryan and the other OG Kobaras had really helped instill some order amongst the chaos that the ex-Nevala players were used to, and if anything, Ulloo had to feel very confident going into tonight’s Immunity Challenge. For so much of the game it had been a foregone conclusion that Kobara would win Immunity, but now it was anyone’s game, and the other tribes were starting to worry that maybe Ulloo was the tribe to beat.

And now for the third Immunity Challenge in the young lives of these new tribes. After Kobara dominated Nevala 7-1 over the first 8 challenges, Nevala was now 2 for 2, while Kobara and Ulloo had each won Immunity once since the Tribe Swap. The battle for tribal supremacy would continue to rage on, with each tribe believing that they could rise to the top, and force the other tribes to dwindle. Because Kobara and Nevala each had one extra player, they would need to sit out one player apiece. Kobara decided to give Dave his first challenge off, while Nevala went with the obvious choice of James, who would be sitting out for his 3^rd time.

Ok not much time will be going into the rest of the post because I’ve been sapped of all energy and enthusiasm for the game tonight. Here was the question:

Last week, Shareed received five pieces of mail: A Coupon, A Credit Card, A Letter, An Advertisement, and An Invitation. He received exactly one piece of mail each day from Monday to Friday.

1. Shareed received the Credit Card earlier in the week than he received the Invitation, and he received one of these items on Wednesday.
2. He received the Letter exactly two days before receiving the Advertisement.
3. He did not receive the Coupon on Friday.

One which days did Shareed receive the Advertisement and the Coupon? (eg. Monday and Tuesday)

Now because I didn’t write “respectively” or “which day did Shareed receive the advertisement and which day did Shareed receive the coupon” or “in order of days of the week which days of the week did Shareed…”

You get the drift. Because I didn’t write “respectively” I left open some room for interpretation (which we will come back to shortly).

The answer is that Shareed received the “Advertisement on Thursday” and the “Coupon on Monday”, so clearly anyone who is trying to answer as correctly as possible would write “Thursday and Monday.” But clearly many players are still prioritized with speed over accuracy and didn’t consider the order in which the days should be submitted.

So bang bang bang Kobara players (who almost answered “Monday and Thursday” but read the question and decided that to be safe they’d better answer “Thursday and Monday”) started answering. Elliott, Cowin, Sharon and Chelsea correctly responded, before April sent “Monday and Thursday” and my night was henceforth ruined with this mess. Jordan followed April’s answer with a correct one of his own, before the rest of Ulloo followed April’s lead with “Monday and Thursday” as well.

Was I not clear enough in my wording? It’s clear that I wasn’t, because all of Ulloo (along with Andre) decided that it shouldn’t matter which order the days were listed. From now on the players will need to forgive me, because I’m going to be wording my questions for little babies with limited reading comprehension. And glasses. Babies with limited reading comprehension that need glasses but their parents haven’t noticed yet.
(Editor’s note: The above rant came from my deepening realization that another “controversy” about rules was about to take place, and the frustration that it was a problem of my own doing. Also I let out steam when I write, so this happened. Sorry for anyone it offended.)

So from now on I will make things REALLY CLEAR.

After all of Ulloo responded arguably incorrectly, arguably correctly, Kyle completed Kobara’s dominant night with “Thursday and Monday”. This is Kyle who also informed Kobara during the challenge, and I quote “We send in the day for the ad and the coupon IN THAT ORDER” – give this man a medal.

And then Nevala finally showed up!

Despite Andre’s answer, the rest of Nevala all responded “Thursday and Monday” in the order of Jon, Chris, Graham, Amanda and Peter. Now Peter was the overall last to respond (ALL of Ulloo had answered before ANY of Nevala had), but would that matter?)

Should I accept Ulloo’s answer of “Monday and Thursday”?

This isn’t fun right? It’s a coin flip. Accept and Nevala get’s pissed off. Don’t accept and Ulloo is pissed.

So no it’s not fun. So after many discussions (which is the last time I do that) and basically 1.5 hours pacing around my house, it has been decided that…

Kobara wins Immunity! The snakes had the right mixture of speed and accuracy, and were clearly ahead of the other two tribes. Congrats.

As for Nevala and Ulloo. Both tribes will think that they deserve to win. Both tribes will be pissed off if I tell them they lose.

So we go to a tie-breaker.

A number of clowns are standing equally spaced around the edge of a large circle and are numbered consecutively, clockwise. The 14th clown is directly opposite the 34th clown.
How many clowns are there? 

The answer is 40 clowns, and only 3 players will be responsible to answer from each tribe. The first tribe to send 3 and only 3 correct answers will also win Immunity.

Here are the order of answers:

Correct: (40 clowns)

Incorrect: (42 clowns) 

So there we go.

Nevala wins Immunity. Yay.

And that means.

Ulloo I’ll see you back at Tribal Council on Wednesday. Please keep in mind that the initial judgement from me, Sandra, Kobara, AND Exile Island as that “Monday and Thursday” should NOT be accepted, despite EVERYBODY wanting Nevala to go to Tribal Council. The tie-breaker was your chance to win, and unfortunately it didn’t happen. If you want to look ahead like I’ll be doing, great! If you want to look back, focus on the tie-breaker opportunity that Ulloo and Nevala were given.

See you Wednesday.

UPDATE:
Wednesday’s Tribal Council is cancelled due to my inability to write the first Immunity Challenge question that only has one possible interpretation. Please disregard everything above. The tie-breaker was rushed, rather than well thought out, and it’s best if no tribe has to vote someone out because of it. It’s just a waste of all of our efforts tonight, but still a learning experience for our expanding game. Also, I’m sorry if I was mean.

The game will continue with our next Immunity Challenge on Thursday, which will feature only one winning tribe.

MH

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