Matthew Daquaris

***Matthew*** was the Lone Survivor of Essential Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites

## Fans Vs. Favorites

Matthew began on the Kahu tribe. After a couple days, he was included in his first alliance with Karmynn and Jaylen. Little did he know, he was on the bottom of that trio, but still positioned fairly well in the tribe as a whole due to the entire tribe asking to work with him one way or another. By their first tribal, the whole tribe was decided on Oscar because of his inactivity. Kahu won the next challenge but the gaming didn’t stop at all. Matthew took note of Kip’s frequent alliance creations, but didn’t mind as he was in (or knew) about most of them.

The game was pretty slow over at Kahu until they went back to Tribal. Oma was arguably the worst in challenges, and didn’t have as many connections so they were targeted fairly easily. However, Matthew was a silent advocate for Mark going home, thinking that Mark would be more connected to the favorites. But he didn’t wanna push and potentially make himself a target for he went with the masses and voted him off.

Coming into the Joint Tribal, the tribe idol search was conducted, with Despair finding the idol. As he met the faves, Matthew found out that he liked a majority of them, but that didn’t keep him from being fan-strong when it came to the initial vote. He sided with his tribe in voting Will, and was on-board for Des giving Kip the idol to play on himself. While it ended up being a waste, the vote tied 8-8 between Will and Jaylen. Matt was confident that Will would go home, due to him being privy of Punahele’s dynamics. As Will went home, it’s also important to know that Matthew has been attempting to use Kip as a shield.

Heading to the merge, Matthew reconciled with Brittney, the person who gave him the most info during the Joint. He also started to really see Kristin as a useful ally around now as well. As everyone settled in, he gained more info. Such as the previous vote counts, and news that Jaylen and Karm know each other. Matthew wanted to make subtle yet impactful moves (such as looking like a number to YEG), but this was risky as words can get around in a tribe of 13. He wanted to target Bradley because he was the only person privy to his connection with Brittney. But with all of the chaos and flipping going on, Matthew was in on a Karmynn vote-out, which is what he settled for this round, while keeping an eye on Bradley.

At the auction, Matthew didn’t claim anything. Which was good as it lowered his threat level compared to the people who *did* receive items. As Matthew started to push a Bradley vote, he made sure to tell the viewers that he made simple mistakes in hopes of acting dumb towards his competitors. He really showed his strategic prowess in that moment because he ended up successfully getting Bradley out without anyone really suspecting him of doing so.

For Matthew’s next endeavor, he wanted Kip and Kristin to take a shot at Cole. And it seemed like all was going well for the most part, until tribal came and Matthew realized that two people flipped from Cole to Kip, sending him to Ponderosa. This was the first time he didn’t get his way and he felt a little exposed.  The next round though was a demerge and he was on a tribe with Aria, Cole, Brittney and Mark. Aria won immunity, and it seemed like the obvious vote here was Cole. So Matthew focused his energy on building trust with Mark by revealing that Cole was targeting him.

With Cole (and Jaylen) gone, Matthew was in a great position. He controlled the next two votes (Tae and Despair) with ease and has made the Final Six with people he wanted originally, which is very impressive to say the least. For this round, Matthew’s initial plan was to target John while preparing for any idol he may have. But after hearing that his name was being thrown out, Matthew directed all of his missiles at Mark instead. He created an elaborate plan with Kristin to put a majority of votes onto Mark, while making John uncomfortable enough to play his idol. And by the end of the night, the plan worked perfectly.

At Final 5, the vote was extremely simple to take out a challenge threat in Aria. She also threw her vote onto Matthew to ruin his potential perfect game for some reason. But at the Final Four, Matthew's position was great. And now knowing the F4 Fire twist, Matthew would’ve been taken to the finals by both Brittney and Kristin. John was his only blind spot. Thankfully, Kristin won immunity and took him to the finals, leaving Brittney and John to duke it out in fire, which Brittney soon won.

At Final tribal Council, Matthew won the game with a total of 6 votes, taking home the oh so deserved title of Lone Survivor.