The Faction

**Highest Ranked**: Helena (5/20)

The Faction was an alliance from Survivor: The Congo.

This alliance is regarded as one of the most unique tribes in *Survivor* history. Although these women had never worked together as a cohesive unit during the pre-merge phase of the game, one ingenious player decided to create this faction in order to overthrow the two dominant power structures. However, their victory was short lived because their rivals united to disband The Faction.

## History

### Forming a Faction

Although two dominant alliances emerged during the first half of *Survivor: The Congo*, a number of women felt disconnected from both power structures when the two tribes merged on Day 23. One of these players was Aliza, who began the game working with The Maple Leaves whilst also attempting to emerge from the cracks of this fracturing alliance. Aliza soon went to work on this merged Nguvu tribe, bringing in lone wolves Kari and Helena into her developing plan against the alliances. She then brought in Erica and Estelle, who had worked with The British Invasion on the post switch Bemba tribe but were quickly discarded when the core alliance reunited at the merge. Aliza called this group of five The Faction. At the first merged tribal council, The Maple Leaves trio voted for Catherine whilst The British Invasion quartet voted for Estelle. This gave The Faction the plurality of votes to eliminate Ilona, and she was made the first member of the jury.

### Highs and Lows

Upon their return to camp, the women were thrilled their secret Faction pulled off such a big move and planned on voting for Lemon next. However, Estelle was voted out because The Maple Leaves and The British Invasion joined forces against The Faction. This placed the British Invasion in the minority, though Aliza thought they could escape this position if they turned The Maple Leaves against The British Invasion. However, the rest of The Faction were adamant they wanted Lemon gone and voted for her at tribal council whilst the majority eliminated Erica.

The Final Nine castaways participated in an immunity challenge the morning after Erica’s elimination, where a Hidden Immunity Idol was hidden and ultimately found by Helena. She shared this information with Aliza as the unofficial leader of The Faction, who told her she needed to play her idol at tribal council. Although Helena wanted to keep the idol for a later date, it seemed obvious the majority were going to split their votes between members of The Faction and she played her idol out of fear. This cancelled two votes from The Maple Leaves, The Faction voted for Annaliese but this didn’t matter because The British Invasion blindsided Priyanka.

After Catherine won individual immunity at the Final Eight, Aliza started to concoct a plan that included her idol and vote steal. She wanted Helena and Kari to gather information about the majority alliance and their target, which was eventually decided to be Aliza. At tribal council, Aliza stole Sophie’s vote and voted for Sophie twice. Meanwhile, Aliza played her idol to cancel the votes cast by Helena, Kari and the majority. However, a tie occurred between Kari and Sophie because Annaliese and Catherine switched their vote at the last minute. The Faction were lucky at the revote because, despite their numbers advantage, a disgruntled Alisha and Lemon switched their vote to save Kari and blindside Sophie.

### Faction Destruction

This move strengthened the remaining trio of The Faction whilst simultaneously painting a huge target on their backs. With no idol or advantage by their side at the following tribal council, Aliza was voted out at the Final Seven. With only six players left, Helena and Kari then planned on working with Lemon as the final member of The Maple Leaves who was also willing to turn on The British Invasion. However, Kari was voted out because she broke the 3-3 split on the tribe by switching her vote to Lemon out of mistrust. Kari’s backfired plan left Helena alone at the Final Five, where she was swiftly unanimously eliminated after failing to win individual immunity.