Zheema

**Zheema** (Zheema#8891) placed 4th in Season 9.

Starting strong on the Dausaqalo tribe, Zheema had a pre-existing connection with Ripple and was able to form a solid duo with her out of the gate. Zheema was well allied and found himself in a middle position most of pre-merge, receiving a lot of information from other members of the tribe while being seen as an UTR player. Zheema threw around the idea of throwing a challenge at the swap to lose immunity and get out an OG Drega member, but this would not ever be realized. Zheema was ultimately able to coast through the pre-merge undetected as he was one of the few players that did not see tribal council due to never losing a challenge. At the merge, Zheema's social game allowed him to make ins with most of the tribe, setting him up quickly as a player many wished they had drafted. Unfortunately, Zheema's game would take quite a nosedive in terms of being well received, when viewers quickly tired of Zheema's failure to satisfyingly use his middle position for anything other than what they perceived as furthering Ripple's obvious path to the finale. While Zheema saw Ripple as a huge threat as early as Final 10, he wanted to continue to use her for information and as a shield to keep his visibility lower, even though there was a push from others to get Ripple out of the game while they could. There is no mistake that Zheema was a large proponent of Ripple's survival, and that his plan on paper to use a shield sometimes does work out. However, due to her massive presence and penchant for finding advantages, this move unfortunately seemed destined to backfire. After Ripple had found her third Hidden Immunity Idol, Zheema finally realized that Ripple was too much of a threat and the clear favorite to win the game. Ripple transferred her two idols to Zheema in case she was voted out. Zheema had a chance to keep the Hidden Immunity Idols to further himself in the game, but did not want to be perceived as a villain and ruin a relationship. Ironically, after he gave the idols back the two would shortly have a large falling out in which tears were shed. Unbeknownst to Zheema himself, this was the beginning of his Mega Villainous era to viewers and players alike anyway, becoming a much more negative energy in the game and often being perceived as a rude person. While he is remembered for having one of the more interesting strategic minds, Zheema failed to properly utilize it as was demonstrated in the Final 7 Tribal. Zheema would be handed the info from Kyle of a Denim blindside, meaning that Zheema's 4 could not split their votes as they planned to attempt an idol flush. However, Zheema would not tell his alliance about this at all, and only "hint" at it to his F2 partner Dar. This caused Denim to be idoled out, which would ultimately destroy the "Goat Status" alliance between Zheema, Dar, and Denim. Instead of owning up to the blunder, Zheema solely blamed Dar for ruining the plan. Following this wrench in his plans, Zheema knew his only chance of winning was to take Dar and Robert to the Final Tribal Council, feeling as though the other three were certain winners. Zheema continued to appear he was flipping between alliances but would actually stay with a rather static group, a trait prevalent in his merge game that seemed to annoy both viewers and players alike. After Ripple had won the Final Immunity Challenge, Zheema approached Dar about the F2 deal they made earlier in the game, leaving Robert as the only vote option. Zheema once again overplayed his hand and attempted to complicate the vote, attempting to double deal with all the remaining players despite initially having 3 votes ready to go onto Dar. Zheema was surprised to see Dar vote him out with Ripple, eventually sending him to the jury in a 2-1-1 vote. Zheema had all the tools to be the Sole Survivor at his finger tips, however, a series of questionable moves left the haunting question: "What if…?"