Sota Yamada

**Sota Yamada** is a contestant from *Zovivor: KwaZulu-Natal*.

A passive player, Sota made it through the game without having an active role in any elimination, leaving him as an easy option to bring to the end. Although many players fought to bring him to the final tribal council, Sota chose to work with his original Shaka tribemates Josiah Stoltzfus and Claude Parker, wanting the three oldest men in the final 3. However, a dominant individual immunity streak by the sole Mkabayi tribe member, Sisi Sisuwan, forced Sota to vote out his allies. At the final 3, Sota was predictably taken to the end by Sisi, and he lost unanimously 9-0, becoming the first finalist in Zovivor to get zero votes to win.

## Profile

**Pronouns**: He/Him
**Age**: 66
**Location**: Boston, MA
**Occupation**: Rideshare Driver
**Hobbies**: ---
**Pet Peeves**: ---
**What are three words to describe you?** ---
**What is one accomplishment you're most proud of?** ---
**Why will you be the Sole Survivor?** ---

## Survivor

Sabrina entered the game on the all-female Salani tribe, where she was immediately approached by Alicia Rosa for an alliance of five, which also consisted of Kat Edorsson, Kim Spradlin, and Chelsea Meissner. Sabrina showed disdain upon knowing that Salani would be living alongside the rival all-male Manono tribe, whose gesture at the first meeting (e.g. stealing their supplies and leaving them with very few items) was deemed unethical by the women.

Like several of the Salani women, Sabrina grew an attachment with Manono's Colton Cumbie, who was the odd-man out of the Manono, being the only gay member in their tribe. On Day 2, after taking a bath, Sabrina found a Hidden Immunity Idol, only to find out that it was the Manono tribe's idol, and since she was on the Salani tribe, she had to give it to a member of Manono before the next Tribal Council. Sensing that Colton was in trouble, she gave the Manono idol to him as a sign of goodwill for being friendlier with the women than he ever was with his own tribe mates.

Though Salani lost the first Immunity Challenge, Sabrina was safe, as one of her tribemates, Kourtney Moon, was injured and had to leave the game on Day 3. The alliance kept its dominance and voted out Nina Acosta on Day 5 for her weakness in challenges. On Day 8, Sabrina was chosen to be the leader for the Immunity Challenge. The Salani women were behind at first, but Sabrina made a huge comeback during the puzzle challenge. Sabrina beat Bill Posley and won immunity for herself and her tribe. Although Salani continued a winning streak by winning the Day 9 Reward Challenge, they lost the Immunity Challenge on Day 11 where Sabrina told Kim that Alicia was the weakest link as her comments stirred up controversy within the tribe. However, the Manono men decided to make a controversial decision by giving the Salani women immunity and going to Tribal Council themselves. Sabrina and the Salani Alliance still had control even after the Tribe Switch on Day 12 despite Alicia being switched to Manono, having the majority over original Manono's Jay Byars, Michael Jefferson, and Troyzan Robertson. Because the new Salani consisted of all the strong members, the tribe went on a winning streak by winning the next three challenges, putting the women's plans on hold. However, the Day 16 Immunity Challenge was cancelled after Colton was medically evacuated, sending Salani to a Joint Tribal Council along with Manono where the tribes merged.

After the merge, Sabrina started playing "under-the-radar" while remaining loyal to the women's alliance from Day 1 as the alliance dominated the post-merge Tribal Councils by Pagonging all of the men, blindsiding Jonas Otsuji, Michael, and Jay at their first three Tribal Councils. While Troyzan was supposed to be next as he was the strongest of the men left, he won immunity on Day 27 and Sabrina joined the majority in voting out Leif Manson instead. Although Troyzan lost the next Immunity Challenge on Day 30, Sabrina was concerned if Troyzan had another idol since he played one at the Tribal Council where Jay was eliminated. So Sabrina came up with a plan by splitting the votes between Troyzan and Christina Cha. However, the plan almost failed when Christina told Troyzan the women's plan. Luckily at Tribal Council, the women stuck to the split vote plan and Troyzan was voted out.

The pagonging was briefly halted after Kat won the Family Visit on Day 31, as her picks for the reward soured Sabrina and Chelsea. Sabrina being the most upset over Kat's picks came up with the plan of voting out Kat next as her picks made her come off as a brat and undeserving to win. But unknown to her, during the reward, Alicia and Kat wanted to target Sabrina for being a jury threat. However, the former changed her mind and targeted Kat after she lost the Day 33 Immunity Challenge, making Kim and Chelsea the swing votes. At Tribal Council, Sabrina got her way when Kat was blindsided unanimously.

Following Kat's elimination, the final six was split between two Final Three alliances, one consisting of Sabrina, Chelsea, and Kim, and the other consisting of Alicia, Christina, and Tarzan Smith. At Tribal Council, Sabrina joined the rest of the women in voting out Tarzan, completing the women's Pagonging. Despite supposedly being a jury threat going into the Final Tribal Council, Sabrina remained safe as Kim remained loyal to her Final Three deal with her and Chelsea by voting out Tarzan's allies Alicia and Christina, allowing Sabrina to reach Day 39.

At the Final Tribal Council, Sabrina was praised by the jury for being sincere, but was questioned for playing too far "under-the-radar" and chastised for her weak performances in the Immunity Challenges. In the end, Sabrina received two votes from Leif and Troyzan, which were enough to make her the runner-up, defeating Chelsea who received zero votes, but lost to Kim who won with seven votes to become the Sole Survivor.

* Challenge History
* Voting History

## Trivia

* Sota is the first contestant from Massachusetts.
* Sota is the first contestant to never have his name written down: he had zero votes cast against him during the season, and received zero votes to win in the final tribal council.