Previously on Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New
As we continue to near the end of our wonderful game, Tendua was still reeling from the shockingly well-planned blindside of Chris. The temporary minority of April, Bryan and Graham threw everything they had at Chris, and it took everything they had to make it stick. Now our Top 6 players would have tough decisions to make about who they eliminated today, and just who they’d be bringing along with them to the Final 5 and beyond. At this point in the game who keep around is just as important as who you vote out, and all we can be sure of is that April (with Immunity around her neck) will be sticking around for a few more days.

By sending Chris home, our players seemingly avoided the dreaded 3-3 tie scenario, assuming that Jordan was willing to go back to working with The Family, and that they were willing to work with him again. As I’ve said all along, it’s an individual game, there is only one winner, there isn’t a million dollars, so the ultimate goal is, yes, winning – but it’s more about having fun. So there is no rule forcing Jordan to work with Graham and April, and so we could end up with a 3-3 tie after all. Additionally, there’s no rule that says April and Graham even need to keep working together. Only one of them can win, just like a board game, and there’s ZERO honor in laying down your game to help someone else win. Our Jury won’t respect that whatsoever, but that doesn’t mean that continuing to work with your strongest ally isn’t a great strategy – it’s certainly the safest.

With that in mind, there’s likely no reason that James and Jon would turn on eachother now, other than in an attempt to finish in 5th place rather than 6th. Those would be very respectable finishes in a game that started with 30, especially when you consider that this is Jon’s 9th Tribal Council, and James was almost voted out in week 1. But the fact remains that they will need to make the case that they are NOT the biggest threats to win the game, so the other 4 players could use their votes to eliminate someone standing in the way of victory in the Final 2. Bryan, a consummate gamer in all aspects of SH, would certainly understand the appeal of that – but sitting near the end with April and Graham was not all that different than sitting near the end with James and Jon.

So did it make sense for Jordan and Bryan to work together? They’d often been on the opposite sides of votes since the Merge, but I’m sure their interests are aligned in the fact that two 2-person alliances stood in their way. But who did it make the most sense for them to align with for this vote? Another big issue for everyone at this point was the need to consider who will win the final few Immunity Challenges. One player could run the table and earn their spot all the way to the Final 2, with alliances not even mattering. Was it more important now to keep your alliance-mates close, or focus on eliminating the top challenge threats? It wasn’t clear if any single player was the BEST overall, but I’m sure that the players had an idea of who they wouldn’t want to face in the Final 3 Immunity Challenge, or the Final 4 for that matter.

Tonight we’ll find out if James and Jon have any more tricks up their sleeves to avoid going down to one final Bastard. We will see if April and Graham have another other advantages to play, and we will find out if Bryan or Jordan will make another big move tonight or attempt to wait until the next vote to switch things up. It’s exciting times in Survivor Hamilton – every one of the votes since the Merge have been excellent – and we can only hope the game continues on at such a high level. Check out the video below for tonight’s live Tribal Council:

And now I’ll read the votes, but before I do that I’ll reveal if any player is using a Hidden Immunity Idol or other advantage…

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No. There are no Idols or Rewards being played, so each of our player’s 6 votes will count. Let’s read em.

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First Vote:

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Second Vote:

That’s 1 vote James, and 1 vote Graham. 

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Third Vote:

That’s 1 vote James, 1 vote Graham, and 1 vote Bryan. 

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Fourth Vote:

That’s 2 votes James, 1 vote Graham, and 1 vote Bryan. 

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Fifth Vote:

We’re tied. That’s 2 votes for James, 2 votes for Bryan, 1 vote for Graham, and 1 vote left. 

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Sixth Vote: 

By a vote of 3-2-1, the 25th player voted out of Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New, and the 9th member of our Jury is James! 

Well that was a good run man! After ALMOST being the first player voted out on Kobara James was able to ride the Kobara wave all the way to the Tribe Swap, where the Survivor gods granted him a majority with his Bastard friends on Nevala. He then outlasted 8 other players on Tendua before time finally ran out. It was great to see James reconnect so closely with his long-time friends, and even make some new connections along the way. He came a long way from almost being voted out 2nd overall, and 6th place (with a real shot at turning the tables today) is something he can really be proud of. Great game James, well done man.

As for our Final 5 of April, Bryan, James, Jon & Jordan – get ready for your most important Immunity Challenge of the season happening tomorrow. Get through that, and you earn your spot in the last week of Survivor Hamilton: Old Meets New! Good luck. Check out tonight’s PLAYED! with Meg & Mike episode with James below as well:

MH

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