Nick Downs

**Nick Downs** is a contestant from *Survivor: Australia*.

Nick was a very perceptive player, often a good judge of character and strategic understanding. He formed the Ogakor Trio alliance with Benjamin Carter and Megan Sanchez, which quickly dominated both the pre-merge and post-merge stage. After the alliance managed to flip Zane Rosales at the merge, Nick's close bond to Megan made them seem like a power duo alliance destined to make it to the end. Because of this, Benjamin and Zane forced a tiebreaker between Nick and Zane at the final four, which Zane surprisingly prevailed over, sending Nick to the jury.

## Survivor: Australia

As a member of Ogakor, Nick quickly formed an alliance with Benjamin Carter and Megan Sanchez, perceiving them as trustworthy. In addition, his alliance incorporated fellow tribe members Jay Vasquez and Christina Young into their fold, giving them a 5-3 majority on the tribe. Nick was the first to inform his Ogakor Trio alliance that Jay would pose as a risk to them down the line, believing him to be a strong strategic asset. At the tribe's first Tribal Council, the group of five voted out Marta Bradford. At the next Tribal Council, the core Trio alliance considered voting out Paul Keith, but instead wished to maintain a 6-4 majority at the merge, and saw an opportunity to blindside Christina in order to keep Paul and Kim Short on their side. They included Jay into their plan and successfully voted out Christina.

Despite the plan at the Tribal Council before, Paul and Kim attempted to work with the four tribe members from Kucha and blindside Jay. Instead, Nick and Benjamin worked to convince the Kucha tribe to vote out Paul, and he was subsequently the first person voted out of the merged tribe, in an 8-2 vote. After voting out Kim and causing a 4-4 tie between Ogakor and Kucha, Nick won a partnered Reward Challenge with Kucha's Charlie Brewer. While enjoying a night away from camp together, Nick noticed Charlie's strong intelligence and strategy, seeing her as one of the biggest threats among the Kucha four. When the upcoming vote was being discussed at camp, Benjamin was playing double agent for the tribe in an attempt to flip Zane Rosales to the Ogakor side, all while convincing the remaining Kucha he would side with them. At Tribal Council, Zane had indeed flipped to the Ogakor side, and the five voted out Brady Wallace. At the final seven, the only two options to vote were Kucha's Kevin Wolfe and Charlie. While Jay attempted to vote out Charlie, Nick and his allies Benjamin, Megan, and now Zane, instead wanted to vote out Charlie for her stronger performance in Immunity Challenges and Nick's prior perception she was a strategic player. Deciding to leave Jay out of this vote, the four made a Final Four pact to ensure they would make it to Day 38. For Nick, this meant he could easily vote out Zane and reach the final three with his original Ogakor Trio alliance. The four easily voted out Charlie and Kevin, but at the final five were forced to finally turn on Jay. Despite campaigning against Nick to Benjamin and Zane, believing Nick and Megan were a tight duo, the pact made earlier in the game held up and Jay was voted out 4-1. Now at the final four, Nick and Megan believed Zane would be the next easy vote once Benjamin had won Individual Immunity. However, Benjamin had decided to vote against Nick and force a final four fire-making tiebreaker between Zane and Nick, where Nick was still the favourite to win due to tending to the fire more at camp. But after facing off, Zane surprised everyone, including the jury, by winning the tiebreaker and eliminating Nick, sending him to the jury just two rounds shy of making it to the end.

As a juror, Nick gave high praise to Zane for eliminating him at the final four, but still respected Benjamin's ultimate move to turn against the Ogakor Trio, rightly perceiving Nick and Megan as a duo that would have eliminated him at the final three. He listened to both of the finalists pitches and heavily considered voting for both of them, but ultimately decided to vote for Zane, in the end finding his tiebreaker win the biggest moment of the season. Zane would go on to lose the season anyway, with Benjamin crowned Sole Survivor, 4-3.