Zach Ramsay

***Zach*** is the Lone Survivor of Essential Survivor: All-Stars. He originally was a castaway on Essential Survivor: Togo.

## Togo

Zach was someone who I had absolutely no hope for going into the season. I thought he’d be inactive, wouldn’t give a damn about the season, and either float to the end or become a pre-swap boot. But thankfully, Zach didn’t disappoint with his gameplay, and even though he was just one day short of potentially winning, you can’t deny that his game wasn’t good.

But even though his game was impressive, during the pre-swap, Zach wasn’t doing too much. He mainly spoke to Rey and Liz who unfortunately were already in an alliance with Jay. So besides that, Zach’s game didn’t have much substance to it. But once we hit the swap episode, Zach’s edit became more prominent and it didn’t stop there. Arriving at the beach, Zach drew a red buffm signaling that he was on the New Tchamba tribe. Luckily for him, he made it there with Asier and Rey, two of his previous tribemates. Noticing that Leetah was the only person who arrived there without an OG teammate Zach was thinking of bringing her to the OG Mina side, but nothing was set in stone. The tribe easily voted out Nick at their first post-swap Tribal, but at the second one things got crazy.

Due to already being close with Leetah, once Gabe joined the tribe Zach immediately considered him as an ally. On the first glance, it seemed like Ben was the immediate target. But when Gabe’s Rey blindside plan was set in motion, Zach was left out of the whole thing. So when Rey was paranoid about his chances of staying with the upcoming Tribal approaching. Zach was so lost on why. But he didn’t stay in that phase for long, as Gabe revealed the plan to Zach, and shortly after Zach revealed Rey’s plan. Which resulted in Rey getting idoled out by Ben.

At the merge, this is clearly where Zach began to turn up and his game became more impressive. Besides reuniting with his old Mina tribe. He utilized his connections with the New Tchamba tribe and was integrated into their alliance. Along with this, he made solid connections with both Kalina and Asier which led him to also making in the opposing alliance. At this point, Zach and Asier were the middlemen and after Douglas quit, he sided fully with Kalina, Jay, Aidan and Liz who were originally targeting Gabe. But also focusing on his relations with the opposing side so it seemed like he was all good with them as well. But when Gabe saw through Zach and knew something was up, the opposing alliance immediately switched the vote to Brendan, but when Jay leaked that as well. Zach and Kalina pulled in the other 5, setting the final target on Jack. But to make things final, he used his Steal-a-Vote on Gabe, which allowed Zach’s side to flush a Legacy, and also blindside one of the main members on the opposing side.

At the auction that happened the next day, lines were drawn and the sides were attempting to waste each other’s money during the whole thing. Out of the seven things available, Zach picked up a clue to the immunity idol, which was useless as Gabe already had it. So now having numbers, Zach’s alliance wanted to target Brendan. But Asier oddly flipped to the other side, while Jay joined Zach’s side without saying a word. Most would think it’d be a tie vote in that scenario, but when Gabe’s side split the vote between Kalina and Liz incase of an idol, Brendan was voted out without an issue.

Fast forwarding to the Final Seven, Zach’s side was up in numbers by a landslide. Asier flipped right back to his side which meant Gabe and Ben were all alone. But since the endgame was approaching, it was time to hold nothing back and do what’s best for your game and your game only. That opportunity for Zach to do so was brought up when Gabe began to campaign for Aidan to be the target. So after a boatload of complementing Gabe’s idea. Zach finally agreed to it, letting Liz and Asier know about the plan. But when Aidan had his torch snuffed, he didn’t take into account how Kalina would initially react. Which obviously, wasn’t too hot. At the Final Six, Zach knew that Gabe and Ben were targeting Kalina, so in an attempt of being trustworthy, Zach gave Kalina his idol. Kalina accepted and played an idol the same night. Unfortunately she didn’t need it, as the majority of votes had gone on Gabe.

Come the Final Five, Zach’s threat level pretty much doubled. Now that there were so little people left, his gig was up. Thankfully, he made a majority with Ben and Liz. Even helping Liz win immunity… only for Ben to win instead. So with the new majority alliance, it was supposed to be an easy Kalina vote but when Kalina revealed that she had an idol, they began to speculate if she was lying. So using the tie = rocks rule against Production, they planned to have the vote create a tie between Liz and Zach, (the other’s target) while one of them threw a hinky vote at Kalina. This way, Liz and Zach would be safe because of the rule, Ben would be safe because of his Immunity win, and Kalina would be safe if she had used her idol, meaning Asier goes home in the same fashion as James did in Season One. But little did they know, was that Asier had an idol, playing it right then and there. But that wasn’t the only blindside they received that night, they also found out that Kalina went behind Asier’is back and voted Liz instead, in case Zach had an idol. Which meant Liz unintentionally went home, 3-1-\*1.

At the Final Four, Zach won himself an immunity necklace. Meaning he was safe to go into the Final 3. It should’ve been clear to everyone left to vote for Kalina and send her packing, but when she convinced Asier to vote for Ben with her. Ben and Kalina had to participate in a live firemaking challenge, which Kalina won. Much to Zach’s annoyance. To make matters even worse, Kalina won the Final Immunity and since the only options were Zach and Asier. It was crystal clear that Kalina would vote Zach, making him one day short of the FTC.

## All-Stars

Zach will probably have one of the biggest redemption arcs in this ORG ever. If you had told me that Zach would place 3rd, then come back and win the All-Star season during Togo’s preseason I would have laughed in your face and blocked you. But his story here is so compelling, so watching him win after being so close last time was symbolic in a way we haven’t seen here before.

Arriving at the Nicobar beach, Zach’s main goal was to build social bonds and wait until people add HIM to the alliances to avoid unwanted attention. And luckily, his strategy worked! He was included in the six-person majority while having even MORE protection from the idol he found on Day 3. But that's about all that happened as Zach’s preswap was fairly uneventful.

At the swap, Zach was in a great spot being in the 6-2 majority by Tribal lines. Not to mention that he was allied with such big names like Jacob and Josiah. But he also realized that he may need to step his social game up as he felt like hi and Kamen were in similar positions. When they lost the challenge, Zach’s preferred target was Adam due to them not connecting but he went with the alliance instead. Behind the scenes, Zach was thinking about using Brandon as a shield, but when Brandon was exposed for being untrustworthy to the alliance, that idea was scrapped and all sights were on him.

At the merge, Zach continued his current strategy of building relationships and upping his social game. But it looks like it didn't work as he was considered to be an FTC goat by the other side. But he got his target out in Adam as Ben flipped and Gabe used his Steal-a-Vote. But for these next few votes, Zach’s edit got less invisible until around Final 7, when he really started to step it up. During Brandon’s exit at Final Eight, he called out Jacob and Zach for playing good games. This created an easy duo between the two of them, so now their main priority was getting each other as far as they can. After Paul won immunity, Zach’s target was Jayden since he was the only person left that he didn't trust. He had Gabe and Jacob on board but he needed a fourth person, and Paul was spreading lies about him to Ben so they could target Jacob. But thankfully, Ben sided with Zach and booted Jayden.

Zach was set up so perfectly in this Final Six, everyone left wanted to go to the Final Tribal Council with him and if they didn't, they wanted to cut him at 4. But as always, when Jacob won immunity there was a little paranoia in the back of Zach’s head that he may become a target.. Which he was correct about as former ally Gabe began rallying against him. He had 3 votes in Jacob and Ben, so he looked to Paul as the 4th. But just to be safe in case Gabe did sway some people to his side, Zach played his idol, negating only one vote while Gabe received 3 and went home.

When Jacob won immunity once again, the easy target was Paul, and even though they were pretty sure that everyone was on board, when Paul proposed a Ben vote to Zach, he went back and told Ben about it, knowing how Ben would react. When Paul was voted out 4-1, Zach knew that he couldn’t risk losing Final Immunity again and becoming yet another fallen angel. So he went all out and won! But the job wasn’t done there, he had to make sure Jacob went at 4 which didn't take much convincing, but was hard to do nonetheless.

Now, Zach has made the Final 3. And his social connections, coupled with his calculated gameplay earned him the title of one Survivor in a 5-3-2 vote.