Previously on Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New
After a hiccup earlier in the week, Thursday’s Immunity Challenge took on greater importance, as there would be two losing tribes. In a frantic “scavenger hunt” challenge, Ulloo surprised everyone by stomping the competition, sending both Kobara and Nevala to Saturday’s Tribal Council. Exciting times!

Kobara had been expecting to continue their challenge dominance, but it was looking like tribal parity had finally arrived a third of the way through the game. When Jonathan was voted out a week ago, he went out blazing by providing his tribe with a detailed breakdown of all the game’s alliances, and why it would be important to keep him. Ultimately, the message was that there was a big alliance in the game, and his vote would be needed to stand up to it. When it came down to it, Kobara was more comfortable getting all 7 players on the same page, and Jonathan was voted out unanimously.

That was a chance for one side or the other to make their mark on the game, using Jonathan’s vote to strengthen their position moving forward. That chance wasn’t taken, and now Kobara will be dealing with the repercussions. Sharon and Dave, the only two players to join Kobara from Nevala, were votes that were up for grabs. Sharon had a close friendship with Chelsea, but after all the wars she’d been through on Nevala, would Sharon be able to trust anyone? Dave was as available a vote as anyone in the game, and it was readily apparent that players were working to build trust with him, but who would he most closely align with?

Cowin had worked with Chelsea in his last season, and along with Jordan, could be assumed to be working together, but that’s not a guarantee. This game is every player for themselves, and this wasn’t going to be another unanimous vote – so nobody was going to want to end up on the wrong side of it. Elliott, with most of his closest allies on Nevala, was going to have to put the effort in to get to know Dave and Sharon, or else he would end up an easy vote for them. Kyle had been given the choice of tribe, and decided to stick with Kobara. The last vote was easy. This one wasn’t, so was Kyle going to stick with Elliott and their allies on Nevala, or was he going to make his own move?

And then there was the potential for Hidden Immunity Idols in play. It was widely assumed that there was at least one idol on Kobara, but since they went through last week’s Reward Challenge rumors were starting to swirl that there may be more than one…

This would be Nevala V2’s first trip to Tribal Council, and like Kobara last week, they had a choice between an “easy vote” and a few other options. It sucks to say it, but with Andre and Jon as the only OG Nevalas on the tribe, and Jon having a close friendship with Chris, James and Peter, Andre seemed to be the odd man out. Tribe Swaps hurt as many people as they help, and with Nevala V1 losing 7 of the first 8 players, Andre was bound to get a bad swap. Hopefully yesterday’s Reward Challenge gave him a bit of a boost if you know what I mean.

Amanda came over to Nevala with 4 other OG Kobaras, so while she felt a little safe this week, she had to know that safety may not last long. And with Andre fighting to survive, anyone could end up becoming a replacement. For the second season in a row, Graham got a Tribe Swap that was less than ideal, but with a social game and strong Immunity Challenge performances, he was hoping that he could stay on everyone’s good side.

And then you have the majority in the tribe. Chris, James, Jon and Peter were lifelong friends, but that didn’t mean they weren’t extremely competitive with eachother. As I’ve stated many times, this game only has one winner, and so it’s very important to play with people you trust. Friendship in life doesn’t necessarily mean trust in a highly competitive game, so I’m sure there is even some strategy going on among that group. In every alliance there are leaders and followers, and there is a top and a bottom. The most exciting aspect of Survivor Hamilton is watching the bottom realize their position, and seeing if they can pull themselves out of it. Most often it’s too late, but there’s still 2/3 of the game left to play.

So let’s see what happens shall we? Here’s today’s Double Tribal Council video!

And below are the votes. First Nevala, and then Kobara. Exciting stuff!

So Nevala makes their first trip to Tribal Council since the swap, and fresh off yesterday’s Reward Challenge, would anyone reveal that they were victorious and play the Hidden Immunity Idol?

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No one played an idol, so it will remain a mystery for now. Let’s get to the votes.

First Vote: 

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Second Vote:

We’re tied, 1 vote for Peter, and 1 vote for Andre.

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Third Vote:

That’s 2 votes for Andre, and 1 for Peter. 

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Fourth Vote:

We’re now at 3 votes for Andre, and 1 for Peter. 

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Fifth Vote…

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The 11th player voted out of Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New is…

By a vote of 6-1, Andre has been vote out by the Nevala tribe. When Andre had been on the original Nevala tribe, he had survived 7 Tribal Councils with his name never on the chopping block. Then the swap happens, and Andre was immediately outnumbered, and with Jon having some friendships, it was likely he’d be the first target. Andre fought really hard to flip the vote, pitching plan after plan, but at the end of the day, the ex-Kobaras stuck together for this vote. Thanks for playing man, great job surviving the first third of the game at Nevala, and sorry the swap didn’t work out for you!

Now let’s see if the same thing happens on Kobara, and if Dave or Sharon will share the same fate…

So same thing. Someone on Kobara surely had a Hidden Immunity Idol, and so would they use this very intense Tribal Council to make a huge move to take it into their own hands?

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Nope Kobara would be be dealing with an idol either! So let’s count the votes!

First Vote:

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Second Vote:

That’s 1 vote for Cowin, and 1 vote for Dave.

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Third Vote:

We’re tied, 1 vote Cowin, 1 vote Dave, and 1 vote Elliott.

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Fourth Vote:

That’s 2 votes Elliott, 1 vote Cowin, and 1 vote Dave.

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Fifth Vote:

We’re tied again. 2 votes for Elliott, 2 vote Dave, and 1 for Cowin.

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Sixth Vote:

Ok, that’s 3 votes for Elliott, 2 for Dave, 1 for Cowin, and 1 vote left…

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Seventh Vote:

By a vote of 4-2-1, Elliott becomes the 12th player vote out of Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New in a surprise for your host that’s for sure. This was a hectic day over on Kobara beach, and I wish I could have been there to experience all of it! It seems like most of the tribe felt nervous at least at some point during the day, with the target changing all over the place, and no one really being able to find trust. Elliott is leaving the game earlier than he’d want, but by his own admission he sat back more than he should have, and was not able to recover. Sorry to see you go bud!

So we are now down to 18 players. Kobara, Nevala and Ulloo each have 6 players, as even as it could be, with each tribe feeling confident they could win on Monday. But we will have to see, because they all seem pretty close to me.

Have a great rest of the weekend, and enjoy tonight’s episode of PLAYED! with Meg & Mike below:

 

MH

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