Survivor Winter Park: Worlds Collide

## Cast

***Worlds Collide*** is the ninth main season of *Survivor Winter Park* and the third season in the second era.

*Worlds Collide* used the *Survivor U.S.*-popular tribe division "Brain vs. Brawn vs. Beauty" for the largest and longest season to date. The utter annihilation of the female players before the merge led to the rise of multiple male power players, eventually resulting in their toppling during the endgame at the hands of the underdogs. In an emotional final round, powerhouse Zoey Thomas was eliminated by former first boot Owen Rimes, who went on to beat Daria Cuellar-Hernandez in a near unanimous 8-1 vote.

## Production

After a somewhat tame conclusion to *The Forest Enigma*, Cole wanted to radically shift the direction of the game. With the game continually growing, Cole wanted to continue the trend of the second era having bigger seasons, setting out to recruit the most players yet. After some getting 21 players for the cast, it was decided that there would be three tribes of seven. The name would eventually be settled on *Worlds Collide*, with the current leaks for *Survivor 41* (the actual television show) being under this name.

The Immunity Ticket twist was conceived early after the conclusion of *Exile Island* as a way to provide players on the bottom of the pecking order another chance to win immunity, while keeping a balance to the introduction of a second necklace by the vote loss feature of it.

In terms of casting for returning players, Cole and Thorin wanted to have two returnees on every tribe, one male and one female who had only played one season before. This would provide emphasis to the players in their pseudo-captain status (with an actual captain twist having been developed, copying the success of *Exile Island*'s captain twist).

From May 14 to May 18, 2021, a series of pre-game tasks were held in the group chat of the season, requiring players to vote between three forms of pre-game information (the Brain vs. Brawn vs. Beauty theme, the Immunity Ticket twist, or a riddle for the cast to solve in order to gain a personal advantage). If the riddle was selected, the first three players would be given either challenge intel or the chance to see their own tribe, as well as the tribe of another player in the game. In addition, interviews were conducted with the members of the cast to determine information for tribe designation and information for the first challenge of the swap phase.

Tribes were determined for the most part based on the interviews, but the brain, brawn, and beauty dynamic was played with to be funny. While Pedro was clearly better fit for brawn than his eventual placement on the beauty (La'maui) tribe, Cole reasoned it out by placing him for his "inner beauty".

The Revana buff was printed with an incorrect, early working logo for the season, as opposed to the actual logo of the season used for every other buff.

## Twists/Advantages

### **Twists**

* **Immunity Tickets:** At the start of the game, every player would be given an Immunity Ticket. After every immunity challenge in the pre-merge, tribe captains would assign a player on their tribe an Immunity Ticket. For the first five rounds of the merge, players could spend their Immunity Tickets to compete in a separate group for a separate immunity necklace. This necklace would prevent the player from voting for that round.
* **Tribe Captains:** At the start of the game, every tribe immediately held a vote to appoint a tribe member as their designated captain, who would be granted immunity at their first Tribal Council. At the tribe swap, the new tribes would appoint a new leader. If a leader was voted out, they would appoint a new one in their place.

### **Advantages**

* **Hidden Immunity Idol:** A Hidden Immunity Idol was hidden at all three tribe camps at the start of the game, with a third being added into circulation upon the tribe swap, and a fourth upon the merge. The last time they could be used was when there were six players remaining.
* **Vote Abstain:** An advantage was hidden at every starting tribe that allowed the voter to abstain from voting for one round to gain an Extra Vote for another. The abstain element expired when seven players remained, and the Extra Vote expired the round after.

## Season Summary

*Worlds Collide* saw three tribes of seven divided by the arbitrary characteristics of brain (Vonaku), brawn (Ko'okiri), and beauty (La'maui), with all three tribes performing similarly before the tribe swap. The tribe saw many of the remaining female players leave round after round, allowing for the men’s dynamic to become more complicated when heading into the merge. By the merge, only three girls would remain.

The merge would see the former Vonaku tribe fall straight to the bottom, becoming immediate targets, which would lead to Davis Hofmann’s idoling out of Marina Rentz to conclude the third day. The final day saw the Final 7’s bigger players begin to implode on each other, all vying to take Daria Cuellar-Hernandez to the end and instead all being eliminated in a row, with Owen Rimes and Zoey Thomas reaching the Final 3 with her. Owen would handily win the final immunity challenge, taking Daria to the end after a long deliberation process.

At Final Tribal Council, the jury was largely displeased with both their options, knowing that Daria was a passive player throughout the season but not respecting Owen’s claimed move being his idol play in the pre-merge. However, his youthful charm and rise from first boot to potentially first place would earn him the win in a nearly unanimous 8-1 vote, being the only Class of 2024 player to win the game.

## Trivia

* *Worlds Collide* is the second season to begin with three tribes, following *Season 2* and followed by *All-Stars*.
* *Guild of the Girlies* is the only season featuring returning players from *Worlds Collide* without multiple playing.
* *Exile Island* was the only season to be represented by multiple returning players.
* *Worlds Collide* ties the record with *Season 2* and *Guild of the Girlies* for most players returning in a single season, with 7 in *All-Stars*.

## Future return list

* **3 for *Halloween Spooktacular*:** Jesse Roldan, Sarah Riess, and Sienna Vittone
* None for *The Forest Enigma*
* **4 for *Island of Desolation*:** Hannah Arnold, Marina Rentz, Owen Rimes, and Pedro Kawamura
* **2 for *March Madness*:** Drew Desabrais and Marina Rentz
* **2 for *Lord of the Lads*:** Pedro Kawamura and William Turner
* **1 for *Guild of the Girlies*:** Zoey Thomas
* **2 for *Clash of the Champions*:** Owen Rimes and Sarah Riess
* None for *Dynamic Duos*
* **7 for *All-Stars*:** Davis Hofmann, Drew Desabrais, Jesse Roldan, Lyndsey Keith, Pedro Kawamura, William Turner, and Zoey Thomas
	+ **Total returns:** 21 returns across 9 seasons (an average of 2.333 returns per season).