Season 2: Greek Rush

## KaleidORGs Season 2: Greek Rush

KaleidORGs: Greek Rush was the second season of KaleidORGs.

For the second season of KaleidORGs, 18 players entered a location much more sinister than Season 1's dark forest... a fraternity house. They competed in challenges themed around Rush to earn their bid at the exclusive Greek life organization *Omega Rho Gamma*. Two main twists defined the pre-merge: a schoolyard pick, where players were given the chance to draft their own tribes, and Continuous Open Bid Island, which gave early eliminated players a chance to return. After a solid pre-merge, players kicked things into high gear at merge, leading to a number of chaotic votes and major blindsides. Power shifted frequently and just as many players started to gain control, they were blindsided soon after. Infamously, every single individual immunity winner was voted out the round after unless they won immunity again or played a hidden immunity idol. Things finally settled down in the late merge, where the flashiest players went one after the other, allowing some of the more subtle competitors to reach the end. At Final Tribal Council, Brendan was declared the winner over Yaakov and Thomas in a 5-2-1 vote.

## Twists/Advantages

* **Continuous Open Bid Island:** Players eliminated in the pre-merge were sent to Continuous Open Bid Island (similar to Redemption Island), where they were given the chance to compete in challenges for the chance to return to the game. Every round, the players on COB Island would battle, with the last place finisher leaving the game for good. Additionally, the first place finisher in each duel would get to send an idol clue to a player still in the game. Just before merge, the last four players were given a chance to fight to return. In the end, Anne and Charlie returned to the game.
* **Schoolyard Pick:** At the start of the game, players were given 48 hours to DM each other and socialize. They then submitted a numbered ranking of every person on the cast. The top four players each became a captain of a tribe. They then chose their tribes in a schoolyard pick, snake draft style, with each new pick choosing the next person for their tribe. The two people leftover were sent to Continuous Open Bid Island.
* **Legacy Advantages:** The two players eliminated in the Schoolyard Pick were each given the opportunity to bestow a Legacy advantage to a player still in the game. This advantage functioned similarly to an idol, but with a catch—it could only be played at either a tribal council with an even number of players left in the game or an odd number of players left in the game, determined by an initial coin flip. Both legacy advantages ended up with the former. Additionally, if a player was voted out with a legacy advantage, they had to bestow it to someone still in the game. Uhuru bestowed his to Anne, who bestowed it to Hot Al, who bestowed it to Griffin. Silver bestowed his to Dylan.
* **Pre-Merge Idol:** The sole pre merge idol was hidden behind two commands: one in the F16 solution document and one in a host role. The former would provide the link to a Google Calendar, while the latter would pull up a combination lock. Players had to put together clues to figure out they needed to add up the numbers of the courses in the Google Calendar and use that as the combination lock. This was found by Brandon.
* **Blackout Advantage:** Players who made it to the fourth sacrifice in the Sacrifices immunity challenge but didn’t take it were given the opportunity to compete in a reward challenge, a game of Connections, with the winner secretly receiving this advantage. When played, this advantage would make the winner of immunity only known by themself, making the necklace essentially function as a one round immunity idol. Furthermore, the vote count and list of advantages played would be hidden from everyone except the person who played the Blackout. Similar to the Legacy advantage, players voted out with this advantage in their possession needed to bestow it to someone still in the game. This advantage was won by Jason, who later bestowed it to Britt.
* **Merge Idol:** The command for the merge idol was hidden in the feast picture at merge. Players who found it had to complete a number of tasks pertaining to social game, strategic game, and physical game, in that order. This idol was found by Dylan.
* **Big-Little Basket:** This advantage was sold in the F10 auction and worked similar to the Choose Your Champion advantage from Survivor 43. It could be played only before attempting an immunity challenge, and the person who played it would name someone still in the game as they did. If that person won immunity, so would the player of the Big-Little Basket. This advantage was won by Brendan.
* **Private Dinner:** This advantage was sold in the F10 auction. The person who played it would shut down all alliances for the round except for a three or four person alliance of their choosing. This advantage was won by Ty.
* **Can of Celsius:** This disadvantage was sold in the F10 auction, and the player who bought it would lose their vote for the round. It was won by Brandon.
* **New Laptop:** This disadvantage was sold in the F10 auction and the player who bought it would be forced to communicate only in emojis for the rest of the round. It was won by Dylan.
* **Doctor’s Note:** This advantage was sold in the F10 auction and allowed the person who played it to cast their vote after seeing all advantage plays and other votes for the round. It was won by Morgs.
* **Microphone:** This advantage was sold in the F10 auction. The person who played it would get to send an anonymous message in treemail. It was won by Yaakov.
* **Door Duty:** This advantage was sold in the F10 auction and was identical to Rumpelstiltskin’s List from Season 1. It functioned as an extra vote, but with a condition; it started with a list of players still in the game, and each round before the conclusion of tribal, the holder had to choose a name to cross out (or else a name would be selected at random). Players' names were removed from the list if they were voted out. The extra vote could only be used on players whose names were not crossed out. It was won by Michael.

## Season Summary

On September 2, 2023, 18 new castaways marooned for KaleidORGs Season 2: Greek Rush, hoping to outlast the others and earn a spot in the elusive Omega Rho Gamma fraternity. They were hit with two twists off the bat: first, that they would be collectively electing four team captains that would be used to select their tribes, and second, that Continuous Open Bid (COB) Island, a variant of Redemption Island, would be in play for the pre-merge. After a hectic 48 hours, Dylan, Ty, Morgs, and Brandon were ranked the highest by their fellow cast members and became captains in a Schoolyard Pick. Players were chosen one-by-one until eventually, two were left stranded: Silver and Uhuru. They became the first ones to join COB Island. Both were given the chance to bestow a legacy advantage to a player in the game; the former chose Dylan while the latter chose Anne. These functioned as hidden immunity idols that could only be played during even-numbered rounds (the stipulation having been chosen randomly).

The first immunity challenge forced tribemates to attempt to identify song lyrics that had been run through Google Translate a number of times, and Theta Psi was the least successful. Anne was the target after disappearing for the entire tribal period, and while she knew she was receiving all the votes, she chose not to play her advantage, not wanting to stay in the game “artificially”. She joined Silver and Uhuru on COB Island, though not before bestowing her legacy advantage to Hot Al.

The first COB duel, a code cracking challenge, saw Uhuru fail to show up, giving Anne and Silver a free win and making him the first person officially eliminated from the season. A competitive Greek Week immunity challenge had tribes betting on their ability to win several mini-games, and after both Beta Gamma and Theta Psi scored 0 points, they attended a joint tribal council together. What looked to be an easy vote on inactive Charlie gradually shifted towards a frustrated Hot Al, who was unable to use his legacy advantage (as it was an odd round) and was sent to COB Island. He ended up bestowing his legacy advantage to Griffin via RNG. Meanwhile, Brandon was the first to locate the only pre-merge hidden immunity idol, which he later shared with his closest ally Morgs.

Silver lost the second COB duel, a race to identify blurry photos of objects, and before he left he exposed Dylan’s legacy advantage to everyone for no apparent reason other than messiness. Due to Theta Psi being down to two members, the four tribes swapped into two: Kappa Zeta 2.0 and Theta Psi 2.0, each with seven players. For the first post-swap immunity challenge, both tribes were quizzed on a series of messages that had been posted in treemail (and later deleted), with Kappa Zeta 2.0 just barely losing. An easy vote on Griffin went awry when the majority failed to split AND neglected to lie to their target, causing Griffin to play his legacy advantage and take out Tobin instead.

Hot Al was the next to be eliminated from COB Island after losing a duel themed around a “white lies” party. The next immunity challenge saw tribes designing party outfits, one circus-themed and one MCU-themed, and it was Theta Psi 2.0’s turn to go to tribal. When Charlie asked his tribe to vote him out due to IRL busyness, many players feared shenanigans, and a combination of hinky votes and Jason self-voting turned an easy 6-1 into a 3-3-1 tie. Charlie suddenly decided to fight to stay and got in a small tiff with Jason in the process, but in the end he got his original wish and was sent to COB island on the revote. He was able to stay alive, however, with both him and Anne beating Tobin in an escape-room-themed duel.

The F12 challenge presented the classic “Greed” challenge with a twist: one could decide to take individual immunity, and in the process they would mutiny to the other tribe and send their new tribe to tribal council. After being nudged publicly by his tribemates, Jason disaffiliated from his tribe, joining Kappa Zeta 2.0 and granting Theta Psi 2.0 immunity in the process. The vote at Kappa Zeta 2.0 was simple, with the majority finishing what they had started and voting out Griffin for good. A Sacrifices challenge at F11 was fairly close between the two tribes due to nobody being willing to sacrifice their vote at tribal council, but Theta Psi 2.0 ended up losing by a small margin. With Dylan as the swing between Yaakov/Michael and Ty/Zach, he chose to join the former and vote out Zach 3-2. During this time, Jason was also able to win the blackout advantage in a Reward challenge that took place as a byproduct of Sacrifices.

Zach elected to walk from the game rather than attempt to win his way back, meaning two of Anne, Charlie, and Griffin would win the battle back duel and return to the game. Griffin ended up losing the murder-mystery-themed duel and became the final prejuror, while Anne and Charlie earned a second chance, joining the rest of their tribemates at the merge. There, the factions seemed to be shaping along swap tribe lines (Kappa Zeta 2.0 vs Theta Psi 2.0), with the former seemingly much more united and powerful than the latter. However, certain players like Brendan and Dylan had allegiances on both sides, which complicated matters. Furthemore, both Britt and Morgs had Brandon as their #1 ally, but the relationship between the two women themselves was starting to splinter, causing even more cracks to form in the otherwise powerful alliance…

In a song-themed-Scattergories individual immunity challenge that only half the tribe could compete in due to Sacrifices, Jason won a clutch immunity. What could have been a messy vote was simplified when Anne asked everyone to vote her out, but drama still occurred when Michael boldly self-voted in order to progress on the merge idol hunt. In the end, though, it wasn’t even him who obtained the idol; Dylan (who had earlier flushed his legacy advantage to take the target off his back) managed to get to it first without being detected.

A game of infection at F11 saw Michael winning immunity and frustrating many. Jason was an obvious target, but the Kappa Zeta 2.0 alliance (consisting of Brandon, Brendan, Britt, Morgs, and Thomas) debated switching the vote to Charlie to weaken the other side instead. Multiple arguments ensued over this, with things becoming even more hectic after Yaakov accidentally leaked a failed Britt blindside plan to Morgs. More friction occurred between the group—with Britt isolating herself due to paranoia and Brendan getting clocked for playing both sides—but in the end they stuck together and joined the unanimous Jason elimination. Jason bestowed his blackout advantage to Britt.

At F10, castaways played a game of beer pong, where they had to compete in mini challenges in an attempt to earn as many points as possible. Brandon ultimately came out on top. This round also presented another reward challenge: the auction! Five players won advantages, while the two idol-holders won disadvantages: Brandon lost his vote and Dylan was only able to speak in emojis for all of tribal. Immediately the round plunged into chaos, with both sides unwilling to give up any more numbers. The Kappa Zeta 2.0s targeted Michael and the Theta Psi 2.0s (Charlie, Dylan, Michael, Ty, and Yaakov) targeted Britt, with both alliances making the baffling decision to attempt to vote directly into idols. With the plans from both sides constantly being leaked (mainly by Dylan, who straddled the middle), the Theta Psi 2.0s finally settled on Thomas as a target, believing he would be least likely to have an idol played on him. Meanwhile, the Kappa Zeta 2.0s kept their votes on Michael, seemingly unfazed by the fact that one of them would probably be idoled out. This looked to be the case, as Dylan passed his hidden immunity idol to Michael midway through the round. However, in a shocking reversal, Dylan ended up telling Michael not to play the idol and flipping to the Kappa Zeta 2.0s to vote him out, essentially flushing his own idol (as well as Michael’s door duty advantage) in a 5-3-1 blindside.

Players were shaken after the insane F10 round but had no time to rest, as Britt played the blackout advantage at F9, causing the immunity winner and vote tally to be kept secret. With the immunity challenge being Touchy Subjects, the majority’s opinions were still shown, and they revealed Dylan and Morgs to be the biggest threats in the game. Charlie and Yaakov copped most of the negative answers, with the former beginning to spiral as a result. Brandon was able to secretly win immunity, meaning he and Britt collectively held all the cards for the round. With Morgs, Thomas, and Brendan sneaking off to create a cross-tribe alliance with Dylan and Ty, the pair decided it was time to take a shot at a powerful player. Brandon covertly passed his necklace to majority target Charlie, and himself, Britt, and Charlie placed their votes on Dylan, sniping him in a ~~5~~-3-1 vote.

Brandon won his third individual immunity at F8 in a challenge themed around the various rounds of sorority rush. A calm round finally ensued, with everyone banding together to take out lone wolf Charlie. At F7, Britt was able to win her first immunity after solving a math puzzle the quickest. Long time ride-or-dies Morgs and Brandon finally had an official falling out after several rounds of tension forming between the two, and with Brendan also on board to take out Morgs, it seemed that she was doomed. However, Ty viewed Brandon as the bigger threat (and also knew he had an idol thanks to Morgs leaking it), and he teamed up with Yaakov and Thomas to take out Brandon instead, with Morgs using her Doctor’s Note advantage to make the final vote count 4-2-1. Unbeknownst to anyone, Brandon had given his idol to Britt for safekeeping before he was voted out.

A repeat of Season 1’s famous Beauty Contest challenge saw Ty winning individual immunity. During this round, both Brendan and Yaakov used their auction advantages, to varying degrees of success. Brendan failed to guess the immunity winner correctly, while Yaakov was able to stir up some drama with his anonymous treemail message, though some people suspected it was him who posted it. While Morgs was viewed as the biggest jury threat, the majority targeted Britt instead for her physical ability. However, after Brendan leaked the plan to Britt, she played the idol that had been passed to her and took out Morgs in a ~~4~~-2 vote. At F5, Britt proved people’s fears correct after winning a season trivia challenge, keeping her safe for another round. The vote fell between the only two people who hadn’t received any votes yet (and frankly, hadn’t been in danger yet): Ty and Brendan. With people fearing Ty’s jury prospects after his move on Brandon, he was voted out unanimously. The final immunity challenge was an intense affair, with players having to map out paths across the UCLA campus via google maps and complete challenges along the way. Thomas was able to win FIC, and while Brendan considered giving Britt fire out of loyalty, he instead chose to play strategically, and she became the final member of the jury.

At Final Tribal Council, the jurors were pretty tame in their questioning of the finalists, though some still seemed slightly bitter at their eliminations. Brendan argued that he had the strongest social game of the three and highlighted how his connections on all sides constantly kept him safe and gave him multiple options. Thomas outlined his UTR gameplay and emphasized his ability to identify and remove threats without ever being pinpointed as one himself. Yaakov described his underdog storyline and how he was able to enter a position of control in the late game after being blindsided several times earlier on. Overall, FTC didn’t have a huge effect on the jury, and with every juror voting the finalist they were leaning towards moving in, Brendan was able to secure the victory in a 5-2-1 vote, becoming the second ever winner of KaleidORGs!