Previously on Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New
The game continues to chug along to it’s conclusion with the elimination of Ruth, one of our early MVPs, and another strong player to leave the game. With 4 players catching votes nothing was clear heading into the Top 12 Immunity Challenge, which would be including a little twist we think the players will like.

Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New was really heating up at the right time. Because of the Tribe Swap earlier in the game, many allegiances have shifted and remain fluid, meaning that each vote could continue to be epic. Last season, we had a really strong Fire vs Ice battle all the way through to the final 4, while this year we are seeing that the game is a lot less predictable. This is what I’m really looking for, and I imagine that it’s also really fun for the players on Tendua.

Sending Ruth home had likely been about more than just eliminating a big target. Common wisdom was that Ruth had a Hidden Immunity Idol, and though she didn’t use it, it was believed that it left the game with her. When you consider that Kyle used an Idol and Chris used one on the previous vote, at least 3 Hidden Immunity Idols had left the game in a week. So we held a Reward Challenge on Sunday to add another one back into the game, and there will also be a Reward Challenge today (as you’ll see below) to introduce another wrinkle into the game.

Of those receiving votes on Saturday, Kyle had to be the most concerned. Not only had he used his Idol, but he’d been a centerpiece of many recent votes, and had been identified very early on as a serious threat – winning a previous season of Survivor Hamilton will do that. After losing a close ally in Chelsea, and potential swing vote in Ruth, he’d need to be on his game today. Sharon meanwhile had gotten used to getting votes at each Tribal Council, which is not something you really want to get used to. Putting a stop to that by getting into a majority would be first on the agenda.

Peter had managed to work his way out of the spotlight – Ruth probably helped with that – but fame is a fickle thing, and Peter had been labelled as a smart, cerebral player from day one, and that never goes away, only fades. The rest of Tendua each had a reason to be concerned about their own games. Each player had at least one or two other players that they trusted, but everyone else could go their own way, leaving allies in the dust. There were challenge threats, social climbers, strategic masterminds, floaters, and wildcards – each of which plotting to get themselves to the end. Immunity was more important now than at any previous point in the game… but would it be the only thing these players were fighting for today?

Well no. For today’s Immunity Challenge, players were given the option to compete in EITHER a standard Immunity Challenge, or forego the chance at Immunity for a chance at a Reward. Nobody was told what this Reward was going to be, but it would likely have value that lasted longer than a week unlike Immunity, and there were many wild ideas as to what sort of advantage the winner would receive. First things first, let’s reveal which players decided to compete for Reward, and which decided to compete for regular old Immunity.

The players deciding to compete for Reward are:

Amazingly, 8 out of 12 players decided that they could likely survive a vote without Immunity, OR that the Reward could give them the option to be saved. I hope that the risk was worth it for the winning player, because it definitely wouldn’t be for the seven losers! We won’t be revealing which player won the Reward, but you can be sure it’s one of these eight. Now onto what we CAN reveal.

The four players that competed for Immunity (after Graham gave back his necklace) were:

These players made a GREAT decision, because a 1 in 4 chance to wear an Immunity Necklace to Wednesday’s Tribal Council are amazing odds. Chris had already won individual Immunity once, and James, Jordan and Paul had each been knocking on the door in the past few challenges – eager to show that they are up there with the “top players” in Survivor Hamilton. Here’s their question:

Read the above excerpt and answer the three below questions via WhatsApp message in the format “answer 1, answer 2, answer 3”
1. What color of shampoo will Sally refuse to accept?
2. What letter identifies the deodorant Sally wants?
3. How many litres of juice in total does Doug need to buy?

And so the formal answer to the above question(s) is “Green, H, 3 Litres” and to my amazement, all four players answered correctly AND quickly. Timing would be the only differentiator for individual Immunity today!

Unfortunately for James, he was the slowest and thus did not win.

The next slowest player was Chris, who put up a valiant effort but would not be winning his second Immunity Necklace.

That left just Jordan and Paul to duke it out for today’s prize.

The winner of individual Immunity is…

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Paul defeated Jordan only by a mere split second, winning his first individual Immunity Necklace, and I believe fully erasing his poor performance in our last season, Fire & Ice. Congratulations to Paul, who cannot be voted for at Wednesday’s Tribal Council. Jordan, oh so close once again, but great effort!