Derek

Derek is a contestant on Visionary Survivor: Greece, Visionary Survivor: Clash of Casts, and Visionary Survivor: All-Stars.

## Greece Summary

Although some spectators would say that Derek's game was rather boring and unimpressive, there's a lot of behind the scenes social work that Derek did that reflected in numerous tribal council results.

Derek started off the game with an immediate disadvantage. Where most people knew at least a couple other castaways competing, Derek knew just one person in the whole cast, with no familiar faces on his own tribe. Nonetheless, Derek put his social skills to work immediately, finding his way into a half-tribe alliance on day one. After Icarus first immunity challenge loss at the second challenge, Derek's loyalties were reaffirmed as his alliance led the charge against first trial season winner Dan. But then Derek started to take things into his own hands.

With a clear majority as a result of Dan's elimination, the Thicky Icies had an easy road ahead of them. But Derek knew that in every potential scenario with his current group, he was the fourth. So after losing the next challenge, Derek decided to flip and join Dilman, Doll, and Shawn on the other side, creating a new Icarus majority. However, the Survivor Gods weren't exactly willing to applaud this act.

At the tribal swap, Derek found himself at the lowest point of the entire game. Having been switched onto a new tribe consisting of four original Perseus and just two original Icarus, Derek's chances were slim at best. To make matters worse, the other original Icarus was Steven, an ex-ally who he had flipped on just two short tribal councils ago. Having lost the remaining two challenges before merge, he luckily he managed to get through the first tribal council of two as Steven became Parallel's target. And somehow, by nothing short of a miracle he was saved by Parallel's disloyalty to one another as Play was voted out as a result of a series of devious events between Parallel members.

Once the two tribes merged Derek was truly given new life. He was now reunited with his old allies from Icarus, but he decided to take things into a different direction than he had previously. Instead of going back to Dilman, Doll, and Shawn, Derek and Doll decided to form a new alliance with Kaden, which proved to be the most successful alliance of the entire season.

In the early stages of the merge, the W.E.T. alliance was subtly taking control of the game. Eliminating Lime in a blindside with the help of Elx, and then using Kaden's idol to blindside Elx the very next tribal. Because of this, Kaden slowly became a bigger and bigger target with each tribal council and with each challenge win throughout the merge. Knowing this, Derek used Kaden as a wall to hide behind. However, when Doll got eliminated their chances seemed pretty slim, now presumably down 4-2 in regards to votes. Astonishingly enough, Derek was hardly even mentioned at the final six after Kaden won immunity. When Dilman, Quil, and Shawn decided to flip on Rachel, Derek used his vote block to cancel out Quil's vote and force a tie between Rachel and Shawn. As a result, Dilman flipped on the revote since Shawn was going to be eliminated in a 2-1 vote at the least anyway. Rachel was then eliminated at the next tribal council.

With it being two against two in the final four, the remaining castaways were put into a difficult situation after learning of Visionary's final four format with an automatic randomized elimination in the event of a tie. Knowing that neither Derek nor Kaden would budge, Dilman and Quil decided that it was in their best interest to stick together and vote for Derek after Kaden won his fourth immunity in a row. Derek was unfortunately eliminated as a result of the tie in a randomized elimination.

## Clash of Casts Summary

Having had a very successful first time out in Greece, Derek’s second chance was more about completing his Survivor bucket list than winning the game. Above all Derek wanted to prove that he could hold his own in a power position due to receiving a follower reputation because of his relationship with Kaden.

At the start of the season Derek found himself on the outs with Shawn due to Booty initially siding with the tight duo of Elx and Monkey. But with a new approach in mind for how he wanted to play, Derek rather aggressively pulled Booty to his side of the numbers by convincing him that Elx had been throwing his name out. Things were looking up momentarily, but Derek’s game took a deep dive when Monkey played an idol on Elx at the first tribal council of the season, sending Shawn home in a \*3-2 vote.

As a result of the swap, Derek was moved to a new tribe with Elx, while former tribemates Booty and Monkey were moved to the opposing tribe. With no legitimate connections on the tribe, Derek quickly made moves to bond with his new tribemates before Elx could. At this point his relationship with Elx was meaningless to the point where he was the one who led a vote against him. In order to be successful in his approach, he warned all of his new tribemates about Monkey’s idol play and his relationship with Elx. This placed the final nail in the coffin, as Elx was eliminated in a near unanimous 7-1-1 vote.

Things were looking really good for Derek and continued on the right path as Aidan was eliminated in the double tribal council. But as people on the Man tribe began to talk less and less, Derek’s game took an odd shift. While Derek wanted Bandit and Jack eliminated next, the majority of his tribe felt that he had controlled both of the first two post-swap Man votes, and it was time to cut him loose before he became too powerful. Derek was then eliminated in a unanimous 6-1 vote. Ironically, Bandit and Jack were voted out immediately after at the following two tribal councils.

### Voting History

 We're A Bomb Waiting To Explode
 Dancing With A Lot Of Fire
 I Will Be Back!
 You Can’t Win Survivor This Early But You Can Lose It
 Stop Acting Like That Necklace Brings You To The Final Tribal Council
 I Guess We Can Call It Tribal Trauma
 Eliminated, Day 15

## All-Stars Summary

Derek came into the game as a bit of an unknown, especially compared to the other all-stars. His first game was under the radar and his second was quite aggressive, so it was unclear how Derek would play. And in the pre-merge, he was very impressive! Derek was quickly labeled a top contender in the game. However, stroke after stroke of bad luck as the game continued removed ally after ally for Derek until he finally ran out of runway.

Derek jumped off to a quick start, creating a ride or die alliance with Robby and pulling in Sasha on the Legend tribe. The tribe only went to tribal once before the swap, but this trio was incredibly effective, pulling in Rochelle and blindsiding Brett and CK in a 4-2 vote. This hot start had many listing Derek as a top contender.

However, the swap had other plans. It started out strong, as he was swapped with Robby and Rachel, two players he had connections too. Robby was able to pull in Jacob, leaving Blair on the outs. When they lost the first challenge, the four pooled together tokens to buy an idol blocker, nullifying Blairs idols and eliminating her. But Derek’s ally Sasha was eliminated on the new Royalty tribe which was the first domino to fall.

Derek’s game began to go tail dive in the joint tribal. Though Derek’s Legacy 2.0 tribe was down in numbers 5-4, he was excited to work with his season 1 ally Kaden for the vote and was confident that Kaden would flip to his Legacy 2.0 tribe. And for a while Dawit and Kaden were planning on flipping due to Schmutz attempting to flip herself. However, when Robby leaked this plan to Rochelle, Dawit and Kaden got cold feet and voted along tribal lines, eliminating Robby in a 5-4 vote. In one deft move, Derek lost his two closest allies, as Kaden betrayed him to eliminate Robby.

The stress would not stop there. Derek, feeling like he had no one, decided to stick with Kaden, Dawit and Rochelle. Unfortunately for him, they would be in the minority. The OG Legacy tribe, along with Bee and CK out numbered his tenuous new alliance 8 to 4. At the merge vote, the alliance of 8 split their votes between Dawit and Derek. When Dawit played a tribal exit ticket, it seemed like Derek would go, until Kaden controversially transferred his legacy advantage to Derek, saving him from elimination. Bee was eliminated in the advantage-gedon, saving the minority for another round.

In the dreaded double elimination Derek was saved once again. He received the second most votes behind Rochelle, but Rochelle knew that an idol nullifier was being played on her so she selflessly used her idol to protect Derek. This protected Derek yet again and eliminated CK.

After this vote, the Kaden/Dawit split came to ahead. Dawit jumped ship to join up with the trio and Kaden rallied Otter, Schmutz, and Derek against them. When Jacob bought an exit ticket, Derek and Kaden switched their votes to Dawit. Though it was a 4-4 tie at first, Derek and Kaden’s vote were both cancelled as they looked exactly the same, eliminating Kaden, Derek’s last real ally.

The trio and then Dawit then decided to turn on Otter, who had just voted against them. Derek, however, was left out of this plan. Dawit tricked Derek into thinking the vote was going to Schmutz, Derek’s last friend. Derek wasted all his tokens on an exit ticket for Schmutz and Otter was sent home. The trio and Rachel then decided it was time to make a move on Dawit, and left Derek and Schmutz out of the loop. Derek and Schmutz voted for Jacob, but the trio prevailed.
When Schmutz won immunity, Derek was alone and vulnerable at the bottom, having long since lost control of his game. Derek was finally out of options, his once promising game choked to death by the OG legacy tribe and he was eliminated unanimously.

## Return Interviews

* All-Stars

**Coming into your second season, which area do you think you can improve in most between social play, physical play, and strategic play? How do you plan on improving?**
Social Play 100%, last time around was my first ever org and I didn’t get the concept of going to people first to build trust. That made me more disclosed from a lot of people on the tribe and made me rely on the relationship I had with Kaden from Skype which in the end you could say lead me to my downfall that season. I plan to create closer bonds with almost everybody on my tribe and go to them first. I don’t wanna take it too easy because I know as a higher placing returner I will have to deal with a bit of a target, but I know my social game will be upped this season and I have a reputation of being trustworthy. I can also improve on my strategic play and making it more known to people around me because I think in season 1 people thought I was being lead along which was far from the truth. I think I will always suck at physical challenges honestly.
**What was the biggest mistake you made when playing in your first season? How did you learn from it?**
As I said, lack of social connection and because of that I got aligned with the biggest threat and got tied to him. As a result of him winning all immunities I was put as a target in front of him which is not how I want to play this time around. If I see a big threat this time I will definitely keep distance between us so people do not see me as “the right hand man” which is easy to do because loyalty is my biggest policy in the game.
**Have you spectated any seasons besides the one you competed on? Have any other castaways stood out to you?**
I spectated Season 4 pretty well! Rochelle seemed like quite a bad bitch and you know how I feel about Hoeah and Sean! Maybe not knowing too much of other castaways won’t make me as intimidated or backed down by, but I should definitely do some research to see who I’m up against.
**How has Visionary Survivor impacted you?**
t got me into the ORG community! This was my first org ever and now I am starting to compete in so many! It was such an awesome way to get acquainted with an org and the fact I got to make it so far gave me so much confidence and enjoyance about them. Your series gave me the outlet to make some moves I got to see on TV and I don’t think I would’ve learned this much if any other ORG was my first.
**In what ways do you hope to refine your legacy with this second chance you’ve been given? What do you hope to gain from competing again?**

I want to show a different side of me. I want to dominate and pull a lot of the strings this time and be next level. I’m gonna give way more input to the viewers and plan to be a BIG personality this time. I don’t need to win or impress, but I want to be liberated with a new experience and be a bit different of a time. Just have some fun!
**Clearly you did something right last time you played otherwise you wouldn’t have been invited back. So this season, are you looking to play more of the same way or change up your play style?**
I’m looking to mix in my strategies from both seasons that I played in. My first time I was definitely under the radar but I was incredibly scrappy and knew how to get myself out of a bad situation. Then my second time, still scrappy just was forced into the limelight due to the past placement dilemma. I think it’s because I actually let my guard down that one tribal and underestimated the power of others, but I won’t do that again. I’m gonna continue that same fighting energy and try not to come off as too strong but like, still be prevalent in the big picture.
**What did you learn from your last season that will help you do better this time around?**
That the way you come off to people is very important, I needed to read the room a little better and just accept that I need to play a little more under the radar instead of sticking myself out and being low hanging fruit, even if it isn’t my style of gameplay I need to accustom myself to others.
**With 18 high caliber players returning, who are you expecting to see return? Who are you most and least excited to see again?**
I am expecting to see Dawit, Kaden, Rachel, Rochelle, maybe Hoeah? Schmutz, Bee, Blair, Izaak. I am most excited to see my KING Kaden back, I would fully duo with him for a second time. Any of the following I would be not excited to see. Quil, Dilman, Rachel, Monkey, Elx, Jethro, Kiibo, Brett, Darryl, Jack or Bandit, Notice how everyone who’s voted me out hasn’t won? It should stay that way.
**How confident are you this time around? Do you think you have what it takes to beat the best of the best?**
I want to be confident but never cocky. To be real it all depends on the cards I get dealt to me and the timing of everything, I would say that in this cast I have way more potential than last time around though.
**What are you looking forward to most this season? What are you looking to accomplish this time around?**