Previously on Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New
We’ve reached the halfway point in the game with only 15 players remaining. 10 of those players had been voted off on the cursed Nevala team, with Amanda their latest casualty. With everybody hoping for the merge, but no indication as to when it was going to occur, it was essential that each player did everything in their power to avoid Tribal Council this week.

It had been smooth sailing for Kobara since the tense Elliott vote over two weeks ago. They improved their challenge performances when they swapped Dave for Graham, and Kobara even won yesterday’s Reward Challenge handily due to a quick response from their newest member, and Chelsea coming in clutch with 3 of the required 4 items to win. The advantage was that Kobara got to choose today’s Immunity Challenge matchups, an advantage they hoped not to squander since Kobara was destroyed last time they faced a challenge like this.

Nevala just kept on shrinking. After losing 7 of the first 8 players, Nevala has only marginally improved – voting out 3 of the last 7 players from the game (Amanda, Dave, Andre). Now down to 4 players, lovingly self-titled the bastards, there was no room for error. All 4 players were in a tight alliance that had spanned the whole game, and a loss today would mean that they’d finally need to turn on eachother. Confidence was not very high on Nevala beach, but miracles to happen!

Ulloo was coming off a very strong Immunity Challenge performance, and had to have some of the confidence that Nevala was surely lacking. Though they recently voted off one of their strongest challenge players in Sasha (well since the Tribe Swap anyway), with David C. likely sitting out today, the timezone issue wouldn’t get in the way, and Ulloo was ready to challenge Kobara for overall dominance. Ulloo had been neck and neck with Kobara since the Tribe Swap and as I mentioned before, everyone could feel the merge getting closer, so losing today was not an option.

Before we get to today’s exciting head to head to head Immunity Challenge, we must find out who is sitting out of today’s challenge. With Kobara winning yesterday’s Reward Challenge, they were given the opportunity to select who sat out from their own team, which player sat out for Ulloo, and what the 4 matchups would be. They decided to sit out Graham and Cowin from Kobara despite how strong they’d been all season, and  even more inexplicably, David C. from Ulloo. Are they TRYING to lose?

So with that, we can get directly to the matchups that Kobara decided upon. Each matchup will receive a question via email at the exact same time, with the first player to answer correctly scoring 3 Points for their team. The second player to answer correctly will earn 1 Point for their team, while the losing player will earn nothing. The two teams with the most points after all 4 matchups will win Immunity, while the losing team will head to Tribal Council on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Let’s get to our first matchup!

Jordan vs Peter vs Ruth

Sharon vs Jon vs Paul

If today is three days after Tuesday, and tomorrow will be five days before my birthday, what day of the week is my birthday on? 

These are the types of questions that I don’t like solving myself to be honest. I looked at this one, was grateful the answer was just there right in front of me, and decided to give it to these fine folks. By the way, the answer is Thursday. Don’t ask me why, I didn’t solve it myself. Paul was the first to answer, hoping to capitalize on Ulloo’s early lead, but unfortunately he answered Monday, which was incorrect. Jon answered a minute later, but his hot streak came to a sputtering end as he answered Sunday, also incorrect. Sharon took her time with it, answering correctly a couple minutes later to get Kobara’s first points! Patience is rewarded. We’ll come back to that point later.

Kobara: 3
Nevala: 1
Ulloo: 3

Kyle vs James vs Bryan

If I fall asleep at 10:30pm and wake up at 6:15am, how long have I been asleep? 

This is another question that I didn’t bother answering myself, because I believed it to be very straightforward – it’s counting time how hard could it be!?! Well not that hard, because they all mercifully got it right. But what order did they answer with the correct response of “7 hours, 45 mins” in? James was actually the first player in the whole challenge to answer, coming in clutch (when he needed to) and winning 3 much-needed points for Nevala. Bryan responded correctly only a short moment later to win a single point, while Kyle had his second poor performance in a row in third place, earning nothing for Kobara.

Kobara: 3
Nevala: 4
Ulloo: 4

Chelsea vs Chris vs April

Now we get to the main event. I say main event because it’s the matchup that took all my energy to evaluate, judge, and decide on the result. Here’s their question:

How many standard upper-case English letters look the same when reflected in a mirror? (For example, X = X in a mirror)

People write letters differently you know? For this reason, the answer could either be 10 or 11. I would accept either. Additionally, the players (as always) were instructed to send me only one WhatsApp message, while also using a simple text if a player has a clarification question. These rules will be the difference between winning and losing this challenge. Yet another example where players being unable to follow the instructions (this is the 9th week of the game people!) will determine the result, not simply right answer vs wrong answer. Which sucks. It sucks.

So as stated, I’d accept either 10 or 11 as correct. So Chelsea was the first to answer, with Kobara desperately needing at least 1 more point to move into a tie with the other teams. She answered by listing out the 11 possible letters (correct, I would have accepted it!), but immediately followed that up with another message simply stating “11” and that she wasn’t sure if I’d accept her previous message. Well not anymore I can’t Chelsea!!! Despite being correct, I need to disqualify Chelsea’s answer to remain consistent with all the previous challenges. This is why you A) take your time and B) use text message if you have a question.

April was next to answer with the correct response of “10”, while also immediately following that message up with another of “11”. Great April. So along with Chelsea, April also sent in two messages. Though both players were correct both times, the second message negated the first in both cases. Very unfortunate because…

Chris was just slow and wrong with an answer of “12.”

Kobara: 3
Nevala: 4
Ulloo: 4

Ulloo wins Immunity, barely.

Nevala is gifted Immunity.

And that means that Kobara will be heading to Tribal Council on either Tuesday or Wednesday whichever they prefer. It’s like they don’t even want to make the merge. While 1) Chelsea should be mortified, this loss can also be attributed to the fact(s) that:

2) Jordan got his answer wrong
3) Kyle was brutally slow when compared with James & Bryan
4) Kobara chose who would sit out (2 of their best 3 challenge players WTF!!!)
5) AND they chose the freaking matchups.

Despite all that I still needed to rely on a “rule judgement” to make the final decision which is never what I want to be doing.

So Kobara… please tell me whether you’d prefer Tribal Council on Tuesday, or if you want to commemorate Canada Day with a vote. #CANADADAYMASSACRE

for shame, snakes, for shame

MH

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