Survivor Winter Park: Clash of the Champions

## Cast

***Clash of the Champions*** is the sixteenth main season of *Survivor Winter Park* and the fourth season in the third era.

*Clash of the Champions* assembled the most competitive cast of all-time, with all but one previous winner returning for a chance at a second crown. Due to the small casting pool, pre-gaming ran rampant and controlled the start of the game, with key players such as Blake Cox, Cole Groth, and Delaney Gardner making the end-game but falling short due to their larger-than-life reputations. In the end, the deemed "weaker" players made up the Final 3, with Madison Visconti's goal to repair her damaged legacy winning, crowning her the first-ever two-time winner in a close 5-4-1 vote against Jazlyn Dailey's respected ownership of playing a weak game and Sarah Riess's goal of another all-female Final 3.

## Production

*Clash of the Champions* began production in May of 2021 under Thorin Groth, following the conclusion of *Double Trouble*, slated to be the second mini season. All eight winners were selected to compete, with Gabriel Fenton-Zeira, the winner of *Double Trouble*, playing a major role in the season. Originally titled *Titans at Warfare*, Gabe would be given the ability to, every round, grant one player an advantage in the challenge and cast a vote at Tribal Council. At the conclusion of *Worlds Collide*, Owen Rimes (jokingly predicted to win the season due to his first-boot status) was added to the cast of the mini. From June 2021 through March 2022, the date for the season would continue to be prolonged until it was eventually re-worked into a regular season.

Before the winner of *March Madness* was added, the players were given a task to predict the winner of that season. None were successful, so the advantage (an Extra Vote at the start of the game) was removed. As the cast continued to grow in size and the success of *Lord of the Lads* and *Guild of the Girlies*'s formats became more apparent, Thorin decided to shift the season into a tribe-less season, with the concern of players getting screwed over by pre-game alliances on their tribes and missing out on the jury for such a monumental season. As another way to provide players on the bottom with a way out (a personal mission for Thorin with every season), the Shot in the Dark from *Island of Desolation* would return to the game.

With all fifteen former winners having incredibly tight schedules and a few leaving for college in the upcoming months, the season was eventually shifted into the first-ever one-day season, meant to be a day-long event starting in the morning and running into (at minimum) the evening. Every winner would be available for the date of May 15, 2022, until two weeks before where Ethan Taylor would, once again, back out of the season, leaving the cast to compete with fourteen players.

## Twists/Advantages

### **Twists**

* **Instant Merge:** Instead of starting with tribes, the fourteen players immediately began the game at the merge, with every player being a jury member.
	+ Grace Wheeler was meant to be a jury member but left early and fell asleep during the Final Tribal Council.
* **Opening Double Immunity:** For the opening challenge of the season, an immunity necklace was gifted to the last standing contestant of both gender groups.
* **Shot in the Dark:** Returning from *Island of Desolation*, the Shot in the Dark die granted a 1-in-6 chance at immunity, at the cost of losing your vote for that round. Every player started the game with one die. The last time it could be played was when there were six players remaining.
	+ **Shot in the Dark gifting:** For the first three eliminations of the season, the eliminated player would give up their Shot in the Dark to another player, increasing their odds of a successful usage.
		- **Round 1:** Alex Rodriguez gave their Shot in the Dark to Grace Wheeler.
		- **Round 2:** Grace Wheeler gave both her Shots in the Dark to Zachary Asarnow.
		- **Round 3:** George Stedronsky gave his Shot in the Dark to Blake Cox.

### **Advantages**

* **Hidden Immunity Idol:** Returning from *Lord of the Lads* and *Guild of the Girlies*, the Hidden Immunity Idol returned with a shot clock: there would be three different idols hidden at three different points, expiring at the end of every point. The first was Final 14 to Final 10, the second was Final 9 to Final 7, and the third was only for the Final 6, the last round it could be played.
* **Vote Abstain:** Hidden inside an immunity statue (in this season, a lantern) was an advantage 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

The game had essentially began a few months before the players stepped foot back at Ward Park: Alex Rodriguez, Grace Wheeler, and Owen Rimes (the three former first boots) would be the first three marks. However, the Shot in the Dark twist would quickly complicate the game with the elimination of George Stedronsky with one vote to his name, re-awakening a competitive spirit within the winners. The underestimation of the girls would result in the guys quickly falling into a minority position, with the game falling into the old-school pattern of a gender divide. The remaining guys would be forced into a corner, scraping by with the girls turning on their own and using advantages, but Cole Groth and Jordan Rotz would be taken out in back-to-back eliminations to ensure a female winner for the all-winners season.

The jury was largely unsatisfied with any of the three finalists, with Sarah Riess's goal to create another all-female Final Tribal Council immediately turning away the possibility of the seven male jurors voting for her. Between Jazlyn Dailey and Madison Visconti, both viewed as under-the-radar followers, Jaz would argue that she had to play low because a cast full of winners was bound to take out anybody threatening, and she owned up to the fact that she didn't do anything, with her honesty awarding her with four votes to win. However, Maddie's passionate argument about coming into this game with a need to repair her reputation as a weak winner in *Edge of Extinction* and an easy mark in *Island of Desolation* would be enough to sway a majority of the jury, earning her a second crown in a close 5-4-1 vote, ending the era for every former winner of *Survivor Winter Park*.

## Trivia

* *Clash of the Champions* is the fourth season with an all-female Final Tribal Council, following *Edge of Extinction*, *Halloween Spooktacular*, and *Guild of the Girlies*.
* *Clash of the Champions* is the third all-returnee season, following *Heroes vs. Villains* and *Island of Desolation*. It would be followed by *All-Stars*.
	+ It is the only all-returnee season to not be the end of an era.
* Ethan Taylor is the only former winner to not compete this season.
* *Clash of the Champions* is the first season since *Edge of Extinction* to not feature buffs.
	+ Both seasons won by Madison Visconti did not feature buffs.

## Future return list

* No winners were eligible to return for future seasons.