Survivor: Game Changers

Survivor: Game Changers, also known as Survivor: Game Changers — Mamanuca Islands, is the thirty-fourth season of the CBS competitive reality television series .
This is the fourth season to feature a full cast of returnees, after , , and .
After a chaotic season packed with multiple strategic shifts, the person who ended up controlling most of the post-merge with her calculated flips, Sarah Lacina, won in a 7-3-0 final vote over Brad Culpepper and Troyzan Robertson. To date, it has produced four returning players (Aubry Bracco, Sandra Diaz-Twine, Sarah Lacina, and Tony Vlachos) for subsequent seasons. 
==Production==
The season was filmed 25 days after the filming of , following the back-to-back filming pattern of seasons since .
This season features a nautical theme. The Tribal Council set is comprised of ten actual shipwrecks, most of which were retrieved in the aftermath of , the cyclone that hit Fiji before production for Millennials vs. Gen X began.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN2fUGO5b8Y
==Twists/Changes==
*Game Changers: Twenty returning contestants, selected for the impact they had made on the game of Survivor, will return to battle for the title of Sole Survivor.
*Simplified Tiebreaker: In the event of a tie at Tribal Council, the re-vote would be bypassed, and an open forum would commence. If the non-tied players are unable to make a unanimous decision who to eliminate, a rock draw takes place.https://parade.com/551340/joshwigler/survivor-game-changers-tie-breaker-twist-no-more-revote/
* Hidden Immunity Idol: The idols will be inconsistently hidden at camp, in challenges, and even at Tribal Council.http://ew.com/tv/2017/03/06/survivor-jeff-probst-game-changers-twists-idols/
* Legacy Advantage: The Legacy Advantage was hidden on the ship used during the marooning, and allowed its holder to gain immunity at either the final thirteen or the final six. In the event that the holder is eliminated, he or she must will it to another player still in the game.
*Tribe Expansion: As in and , a third tribe was introduced during the pre-merge stage of the game. The tribe, wearing green buffs, was introduced on Day 7 of the game with 18 players left.
* Joint Tribal Council: The two tribes who lost the fourth Immunity Challenge on Day 11 were both sent to Tribal Council as a group, but unlike a standard Double Tribal Council, they would vote as a group and only one person was voted out.
* Tribe Switch: At the final fifteen, a second tribe switch occurred, resulting in the dissolution of the Tavua tribe and the remaining contestants being distributed across two tribes.
* : At the final fifteen, one person was sent to Exile Island because of not being placed on a tribe.
** Advantage Option: The exiled castaway was given three possible advantages—a kit with which to design a fake Hidden Immunity Idol, an Extra Vote, or a challenge advantage for their new tribe.
* Merge: The merge occurred with 13 players remaining.
* Vote Steal: At the final eleven Reward Challenge, a "secret advantage" was placed by the sit-out bench. It was revealed to give its holder the right to steal a vote from another contestant, effectively denying that person a right to vote and allowing the holder to vote twice at one Tribal Council. It is usable up until the final five.
* Expanded Jury and Final Three: Instead of the conventional Final Two facing the jury of seven, the Day 39 Tribal Council was held with a Final Three facing a ten-person jury.
* Reformatted Final Tribal Council: Instead of having each jury member speak one by one, an open forum was held to ensure a more insightful rapport between the jury and finalists.
==Castaways==
Contestant	Contestant 	Tribe Affiliation	Tribe Affiliation	Tribe Affiliation	Tribe Affiliation	Finish	VotesAgainst
Contestant	Contestant 	Original Tribe 	Expanded Tribe 	Switched Tribe 	Merged Tribe 	Finish	VotesAgainst
 	Ciera Eastin27, Salem, OR & 	 	 	 	 	 	9
 	Tony Vlachos42, Jersey City, NJ 	 	 	 	 	 	7
 	Caleb Reynolds28, Hopkinsville, KY 	 	 	 	 	 	5
 	Malcolm Freberg29, Hermosa Beach, CA & 	 	 	 	 	 	5
 	J.T. Thomas31, Mobile, AL & 	 	 	 	 	 	3
 	Sandra Diaz-Twine41, Fayetteville, NC &	 	 	 	 	 	5
 	Jeff Varner50, High Point, NC & 	 	 	 	 	 	6
 	Hali Ford26, Knoxville, TN 	 	 	 	rowspan="13" 	 	8
 	Ozzy Lusth34, Venice, CA, , & 	 	 	 	 	7 	
 	Debbie Wanner50, Reading, PA 	 	 	 	 	6 	
 	Zeke Smith28, Brooklyn, NY 	 	 	 	 	11 	
 	Sierra Dawn Thomas29, Roy, UT 	 	 	 	 	15 	
 	Andrea Boehlke27, New York City, NY & 	 	 	 	 	14 	
 	Michaela Bradshaw25, Fort Worth, TX 	 	 	 	 	11 	
 	Cirie Fields45, Norwalk, CT, , & 	 	 	 	 	0 	
 	Aubry Bracco30, Cambridge, MA 	 	 	 	 	9 	
 	Tai Trang52, San Francisco, CA 	 	 	 	 	12 	
 	Troyzan Robertson54, Miami, FL 	 	 	 	SecondRunner-Up 	2 	
 	Brad Culpepper47, Tampa, FL 	 	 	 	Runner-Up 	2 	
 	Sarah Lacina31, Marion, IA 	 	 	 	Sole Survivor 	3 	
==Season Summary==
The 20 returning players were initially divided into two tribes of ten: Mana and Nuku. The Nuku tribe enjoyed early success, winning the majority of the Immunity Challenges. At the original Mana, two-time winner Sandra battled for control of the tribe against Tony. She emerged victorious and further consolidated her power after the first tribe switch on Day 7, but her grip over the game was undone by the second tribe switch on Day 14. Through both tribe switches, the original Nuku held strong and eliminated numerous members of Mana. The most notable of these eliminations was that of Jeff on Day 18, who publicly outed Zeke as being transgender in a last ditch effort to save himself.
Following Jeff's dramatic elimination, the thirteen remaining players merged into Maku Maku the next day. Though the original Nuku had a 9-4 numbers advantage over the original Mana, the camp soon divided into two warring alliances: One led by Andrea and Cirie, and another led by Sierra and Brad. While initially a member of Sierra's group, Sarah defected to the rival alliance on Day 26, eliminating Debbie. 
Sarah continued flipping back and forth between the two alliances before eventually settling into a Final Three deal with Brad and Troyzan. Using a combination of Brad's strength in Immunity Challenges and numerous advantages and Hidden Immunity Idols, the trio were able to successfully eliminate Cirie at the final six before picking off the remaining outsiders, eventually reaching the Final Tribal Council on Day 39. 
At the Final Tribal Council, Sarah was respected for her strategic control throughout the merge, and ability to manage her social relationships, but criticized for her numerous betrayals and manipulations. Brad was commended for dominating in Immunity Challenges but castigated for being condescending and not socializing with people outside his alliance. Troyzan was virtually ignored for his perceived coattail riding. Sarah's strong strategic control beat out Brad's dominance in challenges and Troyzan's lack of visible gameplay, and she was awarded the title of Sole Survivor with seven votes to win while Brad received three.
==Voting History==
==Trivia==
* Game Changers is the fourth season with a cast composed entirely of returning players, following , Heroes vs. Villains, and .
* Game Changers was the first season to feature multiple fourth-time returning players. The only other four-time players were Rob Mariano and Rupert Boneham who played for the fourth time on and respectively.
* Game Changers was tied with , , and for the most openly LGBT contestants at the time of airing, with 3: Jeff, Tai, and Zeke. This record was broken by with 6.
** With Ozzy coming out as bisexual in 2022, four Game Changers contestants are LGBT as of the present day.
**All men on this season's jury are openly LGBT.
* The pre-merge tribe Buffs for Game Changers are the first since to not have tribe names prominently printed on them.
* All three pre-merge tribes, including Tavua, won exactly three Immunity Challenges.
*Game Changers is the first season since to not have any tie votes.
*Game Changers saw the most players immune at a given Tribal Council with five (since broken in Survivor 41), as well as the first instance where a player was voted out with 0 votes due to there being no other non-immune option.
*Game Changers is the most recent season where no Hidden Immunity Idols were in play the last time they could be played.
* Game Changers has the fewest episodes of any season, with 13 (12 excluding the Show).
==References==
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Category:Survivor (U.S.)
Category:Survivor: Game Changers
Category:Returning Player Seasons
Category:Seasons with a reused location