Survivor Winter Park: Heroes vs. Villains

## Cast

***Heroes vs. Villains*** (originally *All-Stars*) is the sixth main season of *Survivor Winter Park* and the sixth and final season in the first era.

As the first season following the COVID-19 pandemic and the first "all-star" level season, the burden of delivering a quality season fell on the majority of the cast. Combined with the demolition of the Heroes tribe at the hands of the Villains and the high-stress merge phase of the game, the gameplay was the most competitive of any season to date. Both finalists were chastised by the jury for their lacking gameplay throughout the season, with Rylee Perrault being punished for following George Stedronsky's iron grip throughout the season. She was defeated by non-entity Ethan Taylor in a 6-1 final vote.

## Production

Production began immediately following the conclusion of *Edge of Extinction* on December 22, 2019, as a solo project for Thorin Groth, allowing for all the big players from the first three seasons to compete alongside a string of newbie contestants introduced in the next two seasons. Both seasons were meant to introduce 23 new players, with a 50-player casting pool intended for each season. This goal would be achieved, although not considered achieved due to Zachary Ross of *Edge of Extinction* not being considered a player until way later.

The season would pick up with production at the conclusion of *Redemption Island*, only for a month later to drive the season's planning into the ground with the pandemic lockdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on March 13, 2020. Unaware of how long the pandemic would continue, Thorin had planned to create letters for the players in the cast. Around this time, the Fire Tokens twist was conceived, with Thorin viewing a currency system as the next way to complicate the introduction of advantages and add a new complication to the game as a whole. Ultimately, the twist would prove unsuccessful as it would drag players away from their camp for too long and needlessly confuse players about the end goal of the twist.

To disguise the season theme of Heroes vs. Villains, the season would only be referred to as "All-Stars", which would eventually be used as the name for the eighteenth season. Casting would go through many iterations, mostly due to the complications created by COVID-19. Notable players cast and then dropped include:

* Ryan Hagerty from *Season 2*
* Madison Visconti from *Edge of Extinction*
* Gabriella Pedrazzani, Jayna Shah, Leah Munro, Jordan Rotz, and Pedro Kawamura from *Good vs. Bad vs. Neutral*
* Zaid Khaled from *Redemption Island*

This season was also the first to have buffs produced for it, before the start of *Good v. Bad v. Neutral* as a test to see what they would actually look like. The logo would be changed when crew buffs were purchased due to the lower quality nature of it. In addition, Fire Tokens were created as physical products, using 3D printers to produce a product similar to the ones seen on the actual television show.

## Twists/Advantages

### **Twists**

* **Fire Tokens:** A currency system was introduced at the start of the game, which players could spend to earn either a personal game advantage or an advantage for their tribe (in the pre-merge phase). Every player started with a Fire Token at the start of the game. They could earn more by either winning immunity on their tribe, winning individual immunity, or receiving from the individual immunity winner. Upon being eliminated, the eliminated player would give up their Fire Token(s) to players still in the game.
* **Tribe Swap:** At the Final 12, the remaining players were shuffled into two tribes of six. The Heroes tribe was renamed to Bayani while the Villains tribe was renamed to Salarin.
* **Joint Tribal Council:** At the Final 12, Faustian Bargain resulted in no tribe winning immunity. Both tribes went to a Joint Tribal Council, where they would all vote for a single player to be eliminated.

### **Advantages**

* **Hidden Immunity Idol:** A Hidden Immunity Idol was hidden at both tribe camps at the start of the game, with a third being worn around Thorin's neck following the tribe swap and a fourth after the merge. The last time they could be used was when there were five players remaining.
* **Extortion Advantage:** An advantage was hidden at the first challenge after the merge that allowed a player to extort another player. The extorted had to pay four Fire Tokens to the extorter or they would lose their vote at that Tribal Council (the Final 9) and their chance at immunity at the next challenge (the Final 8).

A plethora of advantages were added into the game through the Fire Tokens twist.

## Season Summary

*Heroes vs. Villains* saw the return of sixteen former players with varying degrees of previous gameplay, divided into archetypes based on their other seasons of Heroes and Villains. The season would not see any balance, however, with the Heroes losing all four challenges before the tribe swap. The tribe would be sloppy in their gameplay, with their Tribal Councils varying from near-unanimous to incredibly split. With only four players left on their tribe, they would be saved with a tribe swap.

The tribes swap saw two new tribes: Bayani and Salarin, with Rylee Perrault trading with Alberto Araya, Cecelia Gutman, and Nicole Salmons. The new Bayani tribe continued the failures of the Heroes tribe, immediately hit with a Joint Tribal Council that saw the only original Villain elimination of the pre-merge in Alberto. Cece and Nicole were able to integrate themselves and divide the remaining Hero men, resulting in only Caleb Susunaga making it to the merge.

The rest of the season would conclude on a single day, with the final nine players merging into the Bayarin tribe. Following a consensus Tyson Nguyen elimination, the line would be drawn between the allies of the two remaining winners, Cole Groth and George Stedronsky. Cole would ultimately lose the war after Rylee's borderline obsession with George would divide her from her long-time friend Cole. Now in control, George would take advantage of allies, immunities, and advantages to remove power duo Cece and Kristen Paul and brought Ethan Taylor into the final round with Rylee over Nicole. Despite his victory seeming inevitable, Ethan would dominate the final challenge, leaving George as the final member of the jury.

The jury's frustration with the Final Tribal Council was made known to the two finalists, drawn out by their frustrating and miserable experiences. Ethan Taylor would largely go ignored in a parallel to how he was viewed for the whole season; instead, the attention was focused on Rylee, with every juror lambasting her as a follower of George. This would result in her largely shutting down, leaving Ethan as the jury's only option. He would go on to win in the first non-close final jury vote of 6-1, with Cole being the lone vote for Rylee.

## Trivia

* *Heroes vs. Villains* is the first all-returnee season. It would be followed by *Island of Desolation*, *Clash of the Champions*, and *All-Stars*.
* *Heroes vs. Villains* is the first season to have the season name in the logo, as opposed to the season number.
* *Heroes vs. Villains* is the first season since *Season 1* to not feature an irregular removal of a player.
	+ *Season 2* had Jacob Thigpen's medical evacuation and Kaley Kolb's elimination.
	+ *Edge of Extinction* had Zachary Asarnow and Zachary Ross' eliminations.
	+ *Good vs. Bad vs. Neutral* had Nika Forouzannia's quit.
	+ *Redemption Island* had Caleb Bellon's elimination.
* Despite not being the first season to have buffs, it was the first season to have buffs created for it. Before planning the previous two seasons, Thorin Groth had created the Heroes and Villains buffs for the season to see how they would look.

## Future return list

* **2 for *Exile Island*:** Grace Peters and Griffin Hallemeier
* None for *Bloodlines*
* None for *Worlds Collide*
* None for *Halloween Spooktacular*
* None for *The Forest Enigma*
* **3 for *Island of Desolation*:** Grace Peters, Nicole Salmons, and Rylee Perrault
* None for March Madness
* **2 for *Lord of the Lads*:** Griffin Hallemeier and Joseph Ales
* **2 for *Guild of the Girlies*:** Cecelia Gutman and Kristen Paul
* **3 for *Clash of the Champions*:** Cole Groth, Grace Wheeler, and George Stedronsky
* None for *Dynamic Duos*
* **4 for *All-Stars*:** Cecelia Gutman, Griffin Hallemeier, Kristen Paul, and Rylee Perrault
	+ **Total returns:** 16 returns across 12 seasons (an average of 1.333 returns per season)