Simvivor: Shang Simla

***Simvivor: Shang Simla*** is the tenth season of *Simvivor*. In a first, the season featured twenty castaways, expanding from the previous two seasons which featured eighteen. The season was filmed in Shang Simla, the fifth time a vacation world was used for the show.

The season concluded with comedian Sundai Rebane defeating "zen coach" Perrie Kramer in a 5-2 vote. Widely regarded as one of the best seasons of *Simvivor*, *Shang Simla* has produced multiple returning players for subsequent seasons.

## Production

Production for *Shang Simla* started simultaneously with *Dragon Valley* in May 2021. Both seasons were filmed back-to-back, with a casting twist where all castaways knew someone outside of the game, but this twist was poorly received and was later scrapped. The two casts were combined into one cast, while some were eventually not used at all. *Shang Simla* featured an all-new cast and was re-designed to be independent from season nine.

## Twists/Changes

* **Expanded Cast:** This is the first season to feature twenty contestants.
* **Schoolyard Pick/Day 2 Elimination:** On Day 1, the castaways, still unsorted into tribes, raced to shore for two Immunity Necklaces, one for a man and another for a woman. The next day, the winners, Gary and Sheridan, were tasked to select 16 of the 18 remaining players to be on their tribes. The last man and woman respectively, Jairo and Aziza, were eliminated on the spot.
* **Double Tribal Council:** On Day 12, both tribes went to Tribal Council to vote one out of their own.
	+ **Immunity Vote:** The tribe that won the Day 12 Reward Challenge, Maple, voted one member from the rival tribe to have individual immunity from their Tribal Council.
* **Fire-Making Immunity Challenge:** With only two members remaining, Bamboo competed in an individual Immunity Challenge at Tribal Council where the loser, Ollie, was eliminated from the game, leaving the winner, Gary to return back to camp alone.
* **No Merge:** Having outlasted his entire tribe, Gary was absorbed by the Koror tribe, thus no merge occurred.

## Season Summary

The castaways approached the arena where they would be competing in each challenge, meeting each other for the first time. Undivided, they were informed by Merissa Horvath that they had to compete in an Individual Immunity Challenge by racing down the Shang Simla River in rowboats. The first male and female castaway to grab the Individual Immunity Necklaces would be team captains. Gary Dyer and Sheridan Connolly ultimately reached the necklaces first, then they were told they had to select 16 of the remaining 18 castaways into two tribes. The two not selected, Aziza Peters and Jairo Eaton, were immediately eliminated.

Despite having stronger castaways among their ranks, the Bamboo tribe suffered early on in the Immunity Challenges and soon fell apart in their teamwork. Bamboo lost every single Immunity and Reward Challenge during the pre-merge portion, whittling their numbers down to just Gary and Ollie Brose. The remaining men had to face off in a fire-making challenge to determine who would advance in the game, with Gary ultimately defeating his closest ally. The following morning, Gary was informed that there would be no merge and he would instead join the seemingly omnipotent Maple tribe.

Gary was a clear target from the get-go, and the previously divided Maple tribe decided to vote him out first. Followed by Carly Shay due to her attempted flip on Maple's leader Cyril Kazlow, Gary became a pivotal member of the Jury due to his lack of personal connection to any of the remaining castaways. Cyril soon had the remaining tribemates turn against him and his alliance with Sheridan Connolly and Sundai Rebane known as "The Cavern Crew".

However, it was Sundai who managed to avoid certain elimination long enough to go on an Individual Immunity winning streak, guaranteeing herself a spot in the Final Tribal Council. She was praised for her survival and her dual leadership role with Cyril, but lambasted for having bad relationships and little strategic control after Cyril was eliminated. The other finalist, Perrie Kramer, was respected for her finger on the pulse throughout the season however she bombed the question-and-answer portion while Sundai excelled. Ultimately, Sundai sold her game as survival first, strategy second, and her dominance in challenges earned her the respect of the Jury. She won in a 5-2 vote.

## Trivia

* The Bamboo tribe is the only tribe to have never won a single challenge.
* The Bamboo tribe is the only tribe to ever be vanquished, meaning all of its members were eliminated before eventually getting absorbed into another tribe.
* The Bamboo tribe's average placement for its tribe members, 13.44, is the all-time lowest in *Simvivor* history.
	+ Bamboo also was the earliest tribe to lose all of its members, with this occuring after Gary Dyer placed ninth.
* Sundai Rebane holds an impressive statistic for having won 19 out of the 25 total challenges she participated in, for a 76% win rate.
	+ She was the only person on her tribe to have never sat out of a challenge.
	+ This statistic includes the first Individual Immunity Challenge, which she did not "win".