Viakana

**Highest Placing Member**: Sefa (Winner/18)

Viakana was the merged tribe from Survivor: Shipwheel Island.

Viakana initially comprised of four castaways from each pre-merge tribe. Despite this, most players only pledged their loyalty to another castaway or a small group. This allowed one tribe to unite throughout the entire merge phase, overcome an 8-4 person minority and ultimately led to one of them winning the season. Their tribe colour was red.

## Tribe History

The red Viakana tribe was formed on Day 19 of *Survivor: Shipwheel Island* with an even split of castaways from all three original tribes. This included Alecia, Andre, Eugene and Perry from the blue Luvu tribe, Kaia, Molly, Sefa and Willow from the green Ua tribe and Billy, Grace, Ian and Paloma from the yellow Yase tribe. Despite having strained relationships with castaways from their original tribe, the majority of players were unwilling to make the first move against people they already knew. It was also apparent that the original Ua castaways, led by Kaia and Sefa, were the tightest pre-merge alliance. The pair felt that, between the other tribes, the Yase players had the greatest potential as physical and strategic threats. They held a meeting with Yase, where they suggested the Ua and Yase tribes work together at the first tribal council to pick off someone from Luvu. Although the Yase castaways quickly agreed to this plan, Grace was particularly wary about trusting Kaia and Sefa. Meanwhile, after sitting out of the immunity challenge on Day 6, Ian and Eugene reunited on Viakana and agreed to keep each other protected in the event their original tribes threw their names out. In their inaugural alliance meeting before tribal council, it was agreed that Ua and Yase would split their votes between Eugene and Perry respectively because they were perceived as the strongest Luvu duo. Ian shared this information with Eugene, who had an Extra Vote from Shipwheel Island. At the first merged tribal council of the season, It seemed like there would be a 4-4-4 tie between Eugene, Perry and Sefa, who the original Luvu players chose to target. However, Eugene used his Extra Vote against Perry as an act of self preservation and she became the first member of the jury.

Eugene's power move against his closest ally caused chaos amongst the Final Eleven since Ua and Yase were confident someone leaked information about their votes to him. This made Ian extremely nervous that his game would get exposed, and he wasn't sure whether it was the right time to draw a huge line against Ua. For the next couple of nights, the pair restricted their meetings to late at night. Ian convinced Eugene they needed to work with Billy and Paloma, who were another strong pair in the game. This new group of four agreed their biggest threat was the Ua Four. Kaia and Sefa were acutely aware they were viewed as the leaders of their alliance and needed more people to work against this emerging group of four. Kaia had conversations with Alecia and Grace and pretended that Billy, Eugene, Ian and Paloma had thrown their name under the bus. This angered Alecia and Grace, who were determined to work with the Ua Four against their rivals. At tribal council, this larger group split their votes between Ian and Eugene whilst the others voted for Willow. This caused a 4-4-3 tie between Eugene and Willow. In the lead up to this revote, Alecia and Grace were getting cold feet and were not willing to draw rocks for their new allies. Molly was also fearful to draw rocks for Willow, the Ua player who she had the weakest connection with. Although Kaia and Sefa kept their vote for Eugene, Alecia, Andre, Grace and Molly flipped against Willow and she became the second member of the jury with an Extra Vote in her pocket.

Kaia and Sefa were upset they lost one of their closest allies, and started forming a plan to get their revenge on those who flipped on them. In speaking with Grace, Alecia was thrown under the bus and she became their next target. Ua's power was becoming increasingly threatening to Grace, who was willing to bite her tongue and work with the OG Yase and Eugene. In the span of a couple hours, Grace had the majority of the tribe convinced that Alecia had masterminded the vote against Willow and she became their next target. However, Paloma started realising how much influence Grace was having in the game and told Alecia that her name was being thrown around by Grace. At tribal council, Grace threw a hinky vote to Kaia but the majority of the tribe voted for Alecia. Under Paloma's influence, Alecia played her Hidden Immunity Idol and the pair eliminated Grace with Andre. There was an argument when the players returned to camp because Alecia claimed she was in charge of the votes against Grace and the idol play that saved her from elimination, which Paloma did not agree with. The girls woke up the next day and decided to put their differences aside for the time being in order to target the Ua trio. Alecia suggested they work with Andre, Billy, Eugene and Ian to split the votes between Kaia and Sefa, though this plan fell through quickly when Paloma appeared to be strategising with them. Alecia finally decided she needed to make a big move that she could claim as her own with little pushback. She used her relationship with Andre to speak with the Ua players, where she threw Paloma under the bus. Paloma overheard their conversation and convinced her allies to vote for Alecia at tribal council. However, Alecia's new group of five blindsided Paloma's closest ally Billy.

Following Alecia's successful idol play, The Final Eight became acutely aware of the advantages left in the game. Although only a select number of people knew that Kaia and Paloma had idols in their bags, every player knew Andre and Kaia obtained extra votes after visiting Shipwheel Island on Day 18. Kaia and Sefa saw Alecia and Andre as a strong pairing and hoped to target them next. Since Alecia had played her idol at the previous tribal council, their intention was to target Andre next. They wanted to either remove his Extra Vote from the game completely, or flush the advantage before it had the potential to become more powerful. Ever the loyal ally, Molly readily agreed to follow through with this plan. Paloma was initially hesitant to make this move against Alecia because they had worked with each other to blindside Willow and Grace, but she ultimately decided that Alecia's flashy idol play and willingness to make big moves could be a huge selling point in front of the jury. It was much more difficult trying to bring Eugene and Ian into the folds of this plan. Ian was paranoid the Ua trio were trying to weaken Alecia before coming after him or Eugene, whilst Eugene felt he had a stronger social bond with Alecia than Ua. The pair shared their thoughts with Paloma and she promised to work with Ua at this vote, and then make a move against them next. On the way to tribal council, Paloma quickly tried to manage her relationship with Alecia by telling her about this plan against Andre. Alecia tried to tell Andre about the plan against him, but he felt she was overanalysing their agreed plan to vote for Kaia. At tribal council, Andre voted for Kaia and Sefa cast a vote for Alecia in the event an idol was played for Andre. However, the rest of the tribe voted out Andre with an unused Extra Vote.

Eugene and Ian woke up on Day 31 with the goal of turning Alecia and Paloma against Ua, who were clearly the strongest alliance left in the game. Before even pitching to Alecia, she found the boys by the well and said she wanted to work with them and Paloma because she had no trust with Kaia, Molly or Sefa. The trio then spoke with Paloma, who said she would keep to her word and vote against Ua. When Ian voiced his concerns that Ua could use an idol against them, Paloma assured him they would be saved because she also had an idol. The plan was for the group to vote for Sefa. However, Paloma's revelation about the idol had Ian nervous since she had never shared this information with him before. After Ian told Ua about Paloma's idol, it was decided they would split the votes between Alecia and Paloma. Kaia wanted to strong arm the boys into working with her alliance, to the point that she gave Ian her Extra Vote as a sign of trust. Eugene was left baffled by Ian's desire to work with Ua after being adamant they had to be targeted, and tried establishing trust between Ian and Paloma once again. Kaia and Sefa were thrilled by the chaos amongst the other players, and thought that switching their vote from Alecia to Ian would cause the greatest rift between Alecia, Eugene, Ian and Paloma. When they shared this information with Molly, she felt uncomfortable exploiting the personal relationship between the bottom players and started to consider whether she wanted to align her game with Kaia and Sefa. At tribal, Alecia and Paloma voted for Sefa as planned, Eugene and Ian showed their allegiance to Ua by voting for Paloma but Ua had the numbers to blindside Ian with Kaia's Extra Vote in his bag.

Over the course of three tribal councils, and with Molly by their side, Kaia and Sefa managed to flip their 6-3 minority position into a three person majority over the fractured Alecia, Eugene and Paloma. However, their aggressive gameplay did not go unnoticed because Kaia had given up her Extra Vote to blindside Ian. The Ua Alliance realised it was almost impossible to convince anyone into working with them because of their immense threat level. Luckily for them, Kaia won individual immunity and still had her idol handy. Meanwhile, Alecia, Eugene and Paloma were determined to work together to prevent an all Ua Final Three and believed that Paloma's idol was the key to their survival. They tried to convince Molly she was guaranteed to lose if she did not turn on her allies, but she felt loyal to the pair and thought she could turn on them at the next two tribals and still win the game. Ua voted for Paloma at tribal council, whilst the outsiders voted for Sefa. None of these votes counted because Paloma and Kaia played their idols. At this second vote, the outsiders could only vote for Molly whilst Ua decided Alecia was an easier target than Eugene. This tied the vote once again because no player was willing to flip on their group. Eugene, Kaia, Paloma and Sefa were then given time to discuss and reach a consensus between Alecia and Molly. In the event this consensus could not be reached, Eugene would be eliminated by default as the only non-immune player. After some back and forth, Eugene and Paloma caved to the Ua trio and Alecia was their unanimous choice.

The Ua Alliance were able to manage their threat level and relationships with the rest of the tribe throughout the merge to ensure they could hold the majority at the Final Five. The alliance wanted to vote for Paloma because they believed she was a bigger jury threat than Eugene. Meanwhile, Eugene and Paloma were frustrated they had lost their numbers over Ua, but were not willing to go home without trying every possible avenue. The pair had a conversation with Molly, where they told her that she was the least valued member of Ua because Kaia and Sefa actually had a Final Two deal. Molly was not sure she could believe the people who had just voted for her, but when she confronted her allies in front of Eugene and Paloma, Kaia could not give a straight answer. This sealed Kaia's fate, as Molly voted her out with Eugene and Paloma at tribal council. Kaia's elimination left Sefa feeling like a sitting duck. However, Sefa manipulation Molly into thinking they worked better together, and she felt more comfortable with Kaia out of the picture. When Molly won her fifth immunity challenge of the season, she and Sefa wanted to honour their alliance by voting for Paloma. When Eugene told Molly that he and Paloma wanted to vote for Sefa, Molly said she would force a fire-making challenge between them. Eugene knew Sefa would win this challenge and did not want him to have another thing on his resume, and decided to eliminate Paloma in a 3-1 vote.

At the Final Tribal Council, Molly explained that her strategy was to lay low and win individual immunity challenges so that other players who were seen as bigger strategic threats would be voted out. The jury grilled Molly on her choice to turn on Kaia and then not commit to her betrayal by voting with Sefa at the Final Four. Molly did not receive a single jury vote, and ultimately finished as the Second Runner-Up. Meanwhile, Eugene revealed his secret alliance with Ian. He told the jury how, through this alliance, he used his Extra Vote to eliminate Perry. The jury questioned Eugene on his vote for Perry, and why he didn't vote for Sefa twice, which Eugene explained was an intentional decision to work in Ian's best interest. Eugene explained that he then laid low to avoid exposing his alliance, but made big moves once he lost Ian at the Final Seven. The jury was impressed with Eugene's story, but only received votes from Ian and Perry because they felt his strategic game was lacking some clairty. On the other hand, Sefa explained the origins of the Ua Alliance, which was founded by him and Kaia but had Molly and Willow on the outskirts. He explained how he used his advantages, and the advantages from his allies, to ensure he would advance in the game. Sefa was praised for managing to overcome an 8-4 minority and for making it to the end by manipulating Molly. He was crowned Sole Survivor after earning seven jury votes from Willow, Grace, Billy, Andre, Alecia, Kaia and Paloma.