The Butler Games: Blood vs Water

Season Four Logo

### Other Contestants

Josh Kennerley, Martyn Chetwood, Iain Gregory, Barnie Varnava, Debs Butler, Katy Evans, Lindsey Wootten and Emma Warburton

The Butler Games: Blood Vs Water is the fourth season of The Butler Games.

The premise for the series saw two tribes battling it out for the win. One tribe consisted of players who all belong to the same family, the second tribe was made up of a group of friends, with no blood relation.

Whilst the previous season, The Butler Games: Ride or Die, featured players competing in secret pairs to win individual challenges, this season was focused on competing as a team in tribal challenges.

Despite having the smallest amount of challenges compared to its predecessors, this season is the longest so far. This is due to controversy and cheating during the game.

The season was won by Chris Butler with 6 votes to win.

## The Contestants

12 players took part in this season, making it the biggest season to date.

Dan ButlerKaty EvansBarnie VarnavaRich ButlerKate LawsonChris ButlerMartyn ChetwoodEmma WarburtonLindsey WoottenIain GregoryDebs ButlerJosh Kennerley
 For the first time, the previous season winner did not return to defend their title.

## Tribal Twist

Players were split into two tribes based on relationships.

The first tribe were all new players, belonging to the same family. This tribe was called Blood and consisted of Chris, Debs, Dan, Katy, Rich and Martyn. The first tribe second tribe were made up mostly of previous players, who have no relation to each other other than the game. This tribe was called Water and consisted of Barnie, Lindsey, Emma, Iain, Kate and Josh.

KatyMartynRichDebsChrisDanEmmaJoshIainKateBarnieLindsey
Unlike previous seasons, players remained in their tribes for the majority of the game, with players being moved between tribes due to random tribal swaps and elimination temptations.

The tribal twist did appear to have a significant affect on the game. The Blood Tribe (see The Blood Alliance) were well bonded and their game moves were often done as a tribe with the intention of helping the tribe move forward, not an individual player. This included supposedly 'weaker' members of the tribe volunteering to be eliminated in order to keep the tribe strong. Whilst the Water tribe thought more about themselves an an individual, often voting out the stronger or more strategic members of their tribe to benefit their own game in the long run. The final vote was between two members of the original blood tribe.

## Temptation Twist

This season, players were offered temptations during challenges and eliminations.

### Elimination Temptations

When eliminated from the game, players were given the option between two temptations. They were only told the name of the temptation, but had no idea what power it would hold.

## Immunity Idols

There were 4 immunity idols in play this season, the most immunity idols which have ever been available.

* The first idol was found by Martyn in one of the eggs during The Egg Hunt tribal challenge and he was able to keep this hidden from his fellow tribemates when opening the egg. This idol was used in the third round by Martyn to save him from a double elimination.
* The second idol was hidden inside the toilet roll in the downstairs bathroom. This idol was found by Rich during the second round. This idol was used in the quarter-finals, securing Rich a space in the semi-finals and sending Martyn and Josh out of the game in a double elimination.
* The third idol was hidden in a green wheelie bin situated outside of the playable areas. This idol would have been difficult to find without a clue, which was offered as one of the elimination temptations. This was chosen by Debs and given to Dan who later found the idol. This idol was never played.
* The fourth idol was hidden in the cupboard under the stairs, taped to the ceiling so it was out of view when searching. The clue to this idol was a challenge temptation taken by none of the players, resulting in this idol never being found.

The season also faced controversy due to the idol from Season One being planted in the game. The idol was originally planted as a fake, but as it had never been played during an elimination ceremony before, it went to a vote to decide if the idol had power or not. The majority of the cast voted to give the idol power and it was deemed a real idol. This resulted in the creation of the Legacy Idol.

## The Challenges

A total of 9 challenges were played this season.

## The Game

The game consisted of 8 rounds and a final vote.

### Round One

Players had already been split into their two tribes, Blood and Water, prior to the game beginning.

 WATER

In The Egg Hunt tribal challenge players were tempted with The Golden Apple. If a player chose the apple, they would become immune from the first elimination ceremony, but would sacrifice 5 points from their tribes total. Katy panic picked the apple, causing the Blood tribe to lose 5 points from their final total. Luckily, this did not affect Blood, who had managed to collect a total of 20 gems (15 after 5 were removed) and beat Water's 13.

During the challenge, Martyn opened an egg to reveal a hidden immunity idol.

Prior to the vote, Emma tried to rally her tribe to eliminate either Barnie or Iain from the game. Barnie convinced Emma to eliminate Iain, with Kate, Josh and Lindsey on board with the plan. Earlier in the evening, Barnie had previously formed The H3O Alliance with Josh and Lindsey, and at the last minute was able to convince them that Emma was a bigger threat than Iain, as she is more strategic and relationship to Blood.

*(Eligible for elimination: Barnie, Emma, Iain, Josh, Kate and Lindsey)*

 Iain
 Lindsey

With 4 out of 6 votes, Emma was the first player to be eliminated from The Butler Games: Blood vs Water.

Upon her elimination, Emma was offered two secret temptations: The Stitch Up or The Switch Up. She chose the Switch Up and was given the opportunity to switch two players into the opposing tribes, switching Dan and Lindsey.

### Round Two

The second round begun by announcing the elimination temptation. Dan was now forced to join Water, replacing Lindsey who had been sent over to the Blood Tribe.

Players then competed in The Stack Exchange, with Katy sitting out of the challenge. Barnie convinced his tribe to throw the competition, fearing that Blood would vote out alliance member Lindsey if they lost the challenge. Lindsey, also fearing her safety, drew on her experience having played this challenge back in Season One and led the Blood tribe to victory.

Prior to the vote, Chris found an immunity idol and gave it to Dan to use at the next elimination ceremony. However, unbeknown to Chris and Dan, this was in fact season one's immunity idol which had been planted by Barnie. Rich also found his idol this round, hidden inside the downstairs bathroom.

At the vote, Dan played his immunity idol. This caused mass confusion at the elimination ceremony and become a very controversial moment in the games. The idol could be deemed a fake, having not been intended for use during this season, however as the idol had never been used during its original season it could be argued that the idol still had immunity power. After deliberation between the players, it went down to a vote. This vote was done before the elimination votes were revealed, so players had no idea if the idol would have any affect on the game or not. Every player (including jurors) were able to vote on whether the idol should be deemed real or fake, with the majority choosing for the idol to be real, This was the creation of the first Legacy Idol.

*(Eligible for elimination: Barnie, Dan, Iain, Josh and Kate)*

 Iain
 Josh

With 2 out of 5 votes, Barnie was the second player eliminated from *The Butler Games: Blood vs Water*.

Upon his elimination Barnie was offered two secret temptations: 'Reveal' or 'Steal'. He chose 'Steal' and was given the option to steal a players vote at the next elimination ceremony, he chose to steal Rich's vote.

### Round Three

In round three, players were told that all players would receive a vote at the next elimination ceremony and two players from the losing tribe would be eliminated.

Players competed in a tribal version of Scrabble Scramble, wherein one player would spell a word using the letters collected by the other players. This was another cause of controversy due to cheating within the game. When the time ran out, any letter that did not make it into the bowl did not count, however Josh returned with a letter which was then sneaked into the bowl. Several members of the Blood tribe witnessed this and demanded that Water was punished for breaking the rules. After deliberation, it was decided that one letter would be removed from Water at random.

Kate and Rich were tasked with the spelling part of the challenge. Rich was able to spell the 5-letter-word 'lifes', whilst Kate was able to spell 7-letter-word 'tanning' using all the letters she was provided by her team. Blood remained unhappy at the decision made and felt it unfair that two of their tribe would now be eliminated.

Prior to the vote, Martyn heard his name being passed around by the Water tribe and became paranoid that he would fall victim to the double elimination, knowing that his own tribe had agreed to eliminate Lindsey. Before the votes were read, Martyn played an immunity idol to save himself (and also knocked a glass over in the process).

During the vote, Rich was not called up to vote as his vote had been stolen by Barnie.

*(Eligible for elimination: Chris, Debs, Katy, Lindsey, Martyn and Rich)*

 Josh
 Katy
 Martyn

With 5 out of 10 votes, Lindsey was the third player eliminated from The Butler Games: Blood vs Water.

With 2 votes each, a revote was made between Katy and Rich. Katy campaigned for the group to eliminate her, wanting to keep the Blood tribe strong.

*(Eligible for elimination: Katy and Rich)*

 Kate

With 6 out of 7 votes, Katy was the fourth player eliminated from The Butler Games: Blood vs Water.

Upon elimination Lindsey and Katy were offered three secret temptations: 'Help', 'Hinder' or 'Hunt'. Lindsey chose first, choosing 'Hunt', allowing her to cast a vote there and then for the next elimination ceremony. She casted her vote to eliminate Iain. Katy chose 'Hinder' and was able to give a fellow juror a disadvantage in the upcoming battleback competition. She gave this disadvantage to Barnie.

### Round Four

Round Four began with a tribal swap, resulting in Dan returning to the Blood tribe and Rich taking his place on Water.

 WATER

The jurors also returned to take part in The Battleflip, with Katy and Emma joining Blood and Lindsey and Barnie joining Water. The winning jurors would advance to the battleback, where they would compete to get back into the game.

In an intense battle, Blood were in a clear lead until they had to solve the word. They struggled to find the word, resulting in Water taking over. Iain correctly managed to guess the word 'Origin' and won immunity for the Water tribe.

In the battleback competition, Wrecking Ball, former alliance members Barnie and Lindsey went head to head trying to knock over bottles of water with a tennis ball attached to their heads. Barnie had one extra bottle due to Katy's elimination temptation, but was still able to beat Lindsey and secure his place back in the game.

The four members of Blood were forced to vote out one of their own, and in an attempt to keep the team strong, Debs sacrificed her own game. As Iain did not face the elimination ceremony, Lindsey's 'Hunt' temptation was not used.

(*Eligible for elimination: Chris, Dan, Debs and Martyn*)

 Dan
 Debs
 Martyn

With 4 out of 4 votes, including a vote from herself, Debs was the fifth player eliminated from The Butler Games: Blood vs Water.

Upon her elimination Debs was offered two secret temptations: 'Idol Guide' or 'Idol Lie'. She chose 'Idol Guide' and could gift a player with a clue to a hidden immunity idol, she gave this to Dan, who would go on to find his second immunity idol.

### Round Five - The Merge

At the beginning of the fifth round, the two tribes merged into one. Players now competed for individual immunity.

Players competed tournament style in 'Blow Ball' with the final round coming down to a showdown between father and son, Chris and Dan. Dan won the first individual immunity.

With all other players eligible for elimination, paranoia set in. Martyn was convinced his tribe were going to betray him whilst Kate believed she was in trouble as the only female left in the game. However, Rich, Dan and Chris were orchestrating a blindside to re-eliminate Barnie from the game, and had managed to pull in both Martyn and Kate to gain the majority vote.

*(Eligible for elimination: Chris, Josh, Iain, Kate, Martyn and Rich)*

 Chris
 Josh

With 6 out of 8 votes, Barnie was the sixth player eliminated from The Butler Games: Blood vs Water.

Upon his elimination, Barnie was offered two secret temptations: 'Play' or 'Say'. He chose 'Say' and would steal the vote of a randomly selected player during the next elimination ceremony.

### Round Six

In Round Six, players competed in an endurance version of Dice, Dice, Baby. Before they competed, they were offered a challenge temptation. Two Golden Envelopes were available - one contained a clue to an immunity idol, the other contained nothing. If a player wanted to risk it, they would have to opt out of the game. No one chose to do this.

Kate and Iain were the first two to drop their dice, the only players competing who had played the challenge in a previous season. Josh was the last player standing, and won individual immunity. The remaining members of the original Blood tribe banded together to try and keep the majority and eliminate one of the original Water tribe. Whilst, Josh, Kate and Iain, having lost their leader and strategic players, began scrambling for their games and had stopped working as a team.

However, seconds before the vote the elimination temptation twist was announced - Barnie had stolen Martyn's vote. This meant that Blood no longer had the majority, and would need to quickly recruit another player to vote with them.

*(Eligible for elimination: Chris, Dan, Iain, Kate, Martyn and Rich)*

 Josh
 Kate
 Rich

With 4 out of 7 votes, Iain was the seventh player eliminated from The Butler Games: Blood vs Water.

Upon his elimination, Iain was offered the final two temptations: 'Choose' or 'Snooze'. He chose 'Choose' and was able to choose the jury teams for the next competition - he chose to pair himself with Barnie and Lindsey.

### Round Seven

In the penultimate round, the remaining players were split back into Blood and Water. This was chosen at random, but resulted in Dan, Chris and Rich returning to Blood and Kate and Josh returning to Water. It was only Martyn who had switched tribes, joining Water. The jurors returned to compete alongside the teams, as Iain had chosen the 'Choose' temptation, he put himself, Barnie and Lindsey back on the Water tribe, putting Debs, Katy and Emma on Blood.

Everybody competed in the CorrectFOUR challenge. This challenge caused great controversy due to cheating. Tribemates were not allowed to confer their answers, but several allegations of cheating were made and an argument ensued between the two tribes. This resulted in Martyn leaving the challenge.

Due to circumstance, the game ended early and went to a tiebreaker question, which was won by the Blood tribe, ensuring Dan, Rich and Chris a space in the semi-final.

In a twist, the winning jurors, Emma, Katy and Debs competed in this season's only veto challenge - Luck of the Juror. If won, the juror could revoke immunity from a player on the winning team and give it to a player on the losing team. Katy was successful, and chose to revoke Rich's immunity and safe Kate from elimination. However, Katy had been informed that Rich had a hidden immunity idol so had effectively sealed the fate for Martyn and Josh.

Martyn did not return to the game to cast his vote, and as a result a penalty vote was cast on his behalf.

Before the votes were read, Rich played his immunity idol for himself.

*(Eligible for elimination: Rich, Martyn, Josh)*

With 4 out of 6 votes, including a penalty vote, Martyn was the eighth player eliminated from The Butler Games: Blood vs Water.

With only 1 vote, but the only other eligible player, Josh was the ninth player eliminated from The Butler Games: Blood vs Water.

### Round Eight

In the semi-final, Kate, Dan, Chris and Rich competed in the Mastermind Map semi-final challenge. After 6 minutes, the game ended and the players with the most correct points would advance to the final.

With 7 points each Chris and Dan both won the challenge, advancing to the final and sending Kate and Rich to the jury.

### The Final Vote

Before the final vote, each player was given the opportunity to give a speech to convince the players to vote for them to win. Dan gave a short speech explaining that he played the game the best he could. Chris gave a much longer speech, stating that Blood had clearly proved thicker than Water and informing the jury that it was him who had given Dan the immunity idol which ultimately saved him in the second round, meaning that Dan had Chris to thank for making it this far in the game.

In the final vote, Debs refused to cast a vote. She instead just wrote the word 'no' on her paper, stating that she would not vote between her husband and her son.

With 6 out of 9 votes, Chris was crowned the winner of The Butler Games: Blood vs Water.

## The Prize

This season, each player brought a contribution to the prize. Alongside the Butler Games: Blood vs Water winners mug and pineapple, notable prizes included: a flamingo kite, a pineapple candle holder, a confused.com robot, a chocolate cake, Game of Thrones coaster pack, a packet of sour-patch kids, a lego iron-man set, a toilet golf set and a pair of Wallace and Gromit bobble heads.

Chris, the winner of the season, gave several of his prizes away to the other players.

## Trivia

* The longest season to date, beginning at 8pm and finishing at 3am.
* The first season to take place outside of the usual Liverpool location.
* The first season to feature more than 11 players, with 12 players starting the game..
* The first season to feature players who were husband and wife, siblings or parent/child relationship
* The first season to have a player refuse to return for an elimination ceremony, resulting in the first penalty vote.
* The first season where a player refused to vote for a winner. .
* The first season where a player voted to eliminate themselves from the game.
* The first season to feature a legacy idol.
* The first season to not feature the Guardians Twist.
* This season features both the oldest player and the youngest player.
* This season features the longest time that players have remained in tribes.
* The first season to not include Ryan Frain-Walker, Tom Langan or Lisa Williams; all of these players returned for season five.
* Although non of The Blood Alliance members competed in Season Five, they all made an appearance for the Skittle Rascals purge challenge, which was filmed prior to season five.