Dawson

> ***"I love this game, but also fuck this game"***
>
>

Dawson was a contestant on Trevivor Season 1: The Nine Realms. Seen as somewhat of a floater for much of the premerge, he grew into the game postmerge, taking power into his own hands by the endgame. While he made it all the way to FTC, he was unfortunately overshadowed by Kristine in the eyes of most of the jury, and thus finished 2nd. His up and down journey, rootable character and loyalty earned him the Hero award.

## Trevor's Cast Assessment

*Love this dude right here, he’s hilarious and very easy to click with socially. I just hope he isn’t too overly social resulting in him getting used by others, however I don’t necessarily see that happening. His Introvivor game was a real good one, he was manipulating and controlling quite a few alliances and people, and to be honest his gameplay was a little shocking considering how nice of a guy he is. Depending on whether he’ll stick to his first time strategy, or develop a new, more social one will be very interesting to watch. Because of how up in the air it is I can’t be sure just how well he will do.*

## The Nine Realms

Sorted onto the Nidavellir tribe, Dawson had a plane flight right after marooning, but this did not hurt him too much in the game as once that was done he joined the tribe VC that at that time included Mason, Griff, Kamil and Bella. He bonded well with them, and that group (plus Pyro) ended up forming the majority core of the tribe, as to celebrate their victory in the first challenge (Wrassling), the six of them formed the Einherji alliance together.

The next challenge was the arena battle Hnefatafl, and while not as active in the strategic planning, Dawson and Mason both tried to get in the heads of their opposition by publicly saying random moves they should make and messing around with bots, which annoyed a couple players on Midgard. This did not lead to another victory, as Nidavellir lost, but with tribal opening while everyone except Emily and Colin were in tribe VC together, they all stayed in there and quickly voted for Emily, as she was inactive.

Next came the F18 tribe swap, where Dawson was sent to Muspelheim along with Kamil and Aby B from Nidavellir, and joined by Kristine, Shannon and Saish from Midgard. Already having a strong connection to Kristine from their time talking to each other in the server's spec lounge pregame, they quickly came together on this new tribe, with Kamil soon becoming the third in this unofficial trio that held all the power on the tribe.

When all three tribes were told they needed to sit someone out for the 24 Hour Scavenger Hunt (with the sit-outs going to Hel for the duration of the challenge), Muspelheim decided to randomize who went, and Aby B was sent. Muspelheim absolutely dominated the challenge, clinching first place and safety with plenty of time to spare, but despite not losing a challenge, they would soon lose a member as a big disagreement between Saish and the gods over the planned Make 24 challenge caused Saish to quit, putting Muspelheim down a member.

This setback did not slow down the tribe's momentum though, as Muspelheim again came first place in the F16 Puzzle Gauntlet, with Dawson beating both Griff and Sarah in the KenKen puzzle to win full points for his duel. Things were going quite well for Dawson, as he was comfortably in majority, but his game was turned on its head by the F15 Trust Rankings swap, when he was sent to Niflheim (AKA the "most trusted tribe") along with Tyler, Adam, Aidan, Mason, Logan and Kamil. Quickly forming Dwarf Gang with Mason and Kamil - the only two that he'd been on a tribe with before - he knew that they had to try and convince one of the OG Midgards to flip on each other.

Unfortunately, he was already condemned to the minority on the tribe, as Mason had fully flipped to the side of the OG Midgards and was happy to vote out either Dawson or Kamil. Dawson was not super active strategically around the time of the Guess Who challenge (which Niflheim lost), which might have inadvertently saved him, as Kamil became the priority target for trying to push a Tyler vote, with Dawson seen as a bit more of a floater. Mason, continuing to play double agent, told Dwarf Gang that Aidan was the most likely of the other four to flip, so they formed an alliance with him, but this did not go anywhere as the majority's split plan went off without a hitch, eliminating Kamil 3-2-2.

Kristine now joined the tribe to replace Kamil (after spending the previous cycle in Hel for being named the #1 most trusted at F15), and the majority looked to try and mend things with Dawson, not wanting him to immediately go against them at merge. Mason in particular laid out exactly what had happened the previous vote and why he'd done it, and Dawson seemed at least partially mollified by this. Niflheim then won 99 Bottles decisively, meaning they went into merge without having to vote someone else out.

At merge, Dawson found himself safe from being targeted, as the majority of the power players did legitimately want to work with him. He also ended up with the honour of naming the merge tribe, as his suggestion of Assgard received the most votes. After Griff discussed with Adam and Tyler his idea of voting out Sarah, Dawson was included along with Kristine in an alliance with the three of them. This alliance was not that strong though, and after Kristine told Aidan about it, Aidan shared what he'd heard with Logan, Jmoney, Mason and Dawson (who already knew about it).

That group of five plus Kristine came together well, as they discussed their options. Dawson suggested bringing in Sarah as a number rather than vote her out, which was received well. There was a disagreement over whether or not to target Adam right away, with Logan being the strongest opposition. He suggested Shannon instead, and that was eventually agreed upon.

After Jack and Mason earned F13 immunity at the cost of their F12 votes in Greed, the plan to vote out Shannon came together easily, and she was eliminated 11-2, with Griff in the minority. After this successful vote, Dawson, Kristine and Aidan were all determined to get Adam out next, as they were antsy at the thought of him getting any further in the game with how big his threat level was. They led the creation of two major alliances, which were nearly identical: peepee with the three of them, Logan, Jmoney and Mason, and Coleslaw with the same except Sarah replacing Logan. After Logan beat Adam in the final of noitcaeR to win immunity they convinced a still reluctant Logan that now was the time to vote Adam, and created a plan to do so.

The plan centred on Kristine giving her temporary idol (won in Hel at F15) to Jmoney, in order for him to idol out Adam with everyone voting for him. However, Kristine did not realize her idol had expired, which Jmoney did when he received it. This caused a bit of chaos, and led to Jmoney stealing Griff's vote to ensure they had the numbers (with Mason and Jack unable to vote). Despite both this and also Sarah leaking the plan to Tyler for no apparent reason, Adam did not idol, and he was eliminated 7-3, with Tyler, Colin and Griff (no vote) left out of it.

The minority imploded after the Adam vote, as Tyler and Colin turned against Griff, happy to vote him out, while Tyler looked to gain a place back with the other OG Midgards in a power alliance. Griff won immunity in the Norse Trivia Video challenge, which took him off the table as an option for the vote, and he followed this up by creating an alliance with Dawson, Kristine, Tyler, Jack and Colin, looking to push a Logan vote. This did not go anywhere, though it did lead to Logan playing a "fake idol" in tribal council chat, and the vote came down to Sarah and Jack, with the idea to split votes between the two. In response, Jack created the Jack Stans alliance with Dawson, Kristine, Tyler, Mason and Griff, pleading with them to keep him in, and then also announced in tribal council chat that the idol everyone believed he had was not real, and that Pyro saying he had it in her final words back at F18 had all been a lie. This left most everyone confused, but it worked as all the votes were pushed onto Sarah and she was voted out 10-1.

By F10, the rivalry between Mason and Griff had reached the point where one of them simply had to go. The challenge was Prisoner's Dilemma, where the players had to choose whether or not to "ally" or "betray" everyone else, with their choices gaining or losing them points depending on how they matched up with each other. Dawson, because he thought it would be funny, betrayed everyone, and it won him immunity. As he was safe, he thought this vote would be the best time to try and take some power into his own hands, as he was growing frustrated with the sense that the OG Midgards (Kristine, Aidan, Logan and Tyler) held all the power in the game, leaving him floating in the middle.

Because of this, he decided to try and push a Jack vote, hoping to boost his FTC resume and also take some power into his own hands. This did not come close to happening, as everyone else preferred to vote out Griff, and even though he knew it wasn't going to work Dawson threw his vote on Jack out of frustration, as Griff was voted out 8-1-1 (he voted for Mason). His clashes with allies (including his ride or die, Kristine), left him feeling like he was not able to do much in the game, and he abstained from the F9 challenge, Sacrifices, due to not feeling good about the game at all.

It wasn't all bleak for him though, as after he collected himself and returned to the action he made some progress in the form of bonding with Tyler, who had slithered back into a strong spot in the game. Tyler began to warm to the thought of going to F4 with Dawson (as well as Kristine and Colin), and with both Mason and Jmoney overloading on Sacrifices, Dawson again avoided being a primary target. After Jmoney won immunity at the cost of going to Hel until the end of the F8 cycle, Mason was left without a vote and without the ability to speak in DMs or alliance chats, making him a very easy target.

Looking to break up the duo of him and Jmoney, Dawson was happy to vote out Mason, though some trouble was brewing in the form of Logan wanting Dawson to go soon for a very similar reason: to break up his duo with Kristine, which while having been quite strained at times was still a noteworthy bond. With Dawson and Colin both deciding to throw their votes on Jack to be safe, Mason was eliminated 5-2. This was followed by the surprise announcement that all DMs and alliance chats would be locked for the full F8 cycle. The live arena battle Hnutukast left Tyler the victor, giving him immunity for the live tribal that followed.

Right at the beginning of tribal, Logan played his Safety Without Power advantage on Kristine, sending her away from tribal. Jmoney then voted from Hel (for Colin), which caused some paranoia, and after Colin suggested voting for Jmoney as he was the easiest target all three of Dawson, Aidan and Jack said they would be fine with that. Logan, however, then suggested Jack as another possibility, which led to Tyler dropping the bombshell that Mason had told he and Logan in tribe VC the previous cycle that Jmoney would likely vote for Dawson at F8. Telling Dawson that Logan and Aidan were gunning for him, he pitched the idea of the two of them (plus Colin and Jack) voting for Logan. Dawson came on board with this idea quickly, trusting Tyler and feeling grateful that he had shared this, and Colin and Jack both submitted votes for Logan.

This did not end things, though, as Logan was determined to fight to the bitter end, and by the next morning Dawson and Tyler were both less deadset on voting out Logan. Eventually, they decided it made more sense to keep Logan in for another round, and instead went with Logan's pitch of voting out Jmoney. He, Tyler, Logan and Aidan all voted for Jmoney, and he was eliminated 4-2-1 after Colin and Jack did not come back online in time to react to the switch in plans. After making it back to camp and filling in Kristine on what had happened, Logan was the clear target for F7.

This was made quite clear in Touchy Subjects, when Logan was the majority answer for "Who is most likely to be voted out next?". After Tyler won immunity once again, beating Colin on the tiebreaker, that also removed the only other realistic option. While Logan tried to push for a Kristine vote, both Dawson and Tyler stood by her, and Logan was voted out unanimously with the others all preferring to vote him out.

Entering F6, Dawson and Kristine reaffirmed their goal of making it all the way to FTC together, and his bond with Tyler left the three of them looking to get majority for themselves by voting out Jack. The challenge was a gauntlet made up of parts of previous challenges, and Dawson DQed on the very last section, unable to figure out how to work the slide puzzle on mobile. Unfortunately, he figured out how to do it after dropped out of the challenge, much to his chagrin. Kristine won, which left Jack vulnerable, and Dawson looked to lock in the vote quickly. While the other three approached him about voting out Tyler, he did not consider it, and voted for Jack. This led to a 3-3 tie as Aidan, Jack and Colin united in a bid to vote out Tyler, causing a revote.

Colin immediately locked in his revote, stating that he was ready for rocks. Dawson and Aidan - the two others vulnerable should rocks occur - both worked hard to try and convince the other to flip. Aidan ended up having the bigger, more persuasive pitch, promising Dawson and Kristine in front of everyone else that he wanted to go to FTC with them, if they flipped on Tyler right then and there. Neither Dawson or Kristine wanted to make a decision without the other's approval, and Kristine (who was very torn) said that she was okay with a flip if Dawson wanted to do it. Eventually deciding that flipping was preferable to risking his game on a 33% rock draw, Dawson voted for Tyler, eliminating him 3-1 on the revote (Kristine did not have the heart to change her parchment).

F5, on paper, had Aidan in the middle of two strong duos, as at this point neither Dawson or Kristine were ever going to turn on each other. The challenge was Season Trivia, which Jack won, narrowly beating Kristine and handily beating everyone else. This left Colin as the obvious option for the vote, as while Dawson talked a little bit with Jack and Colin about the vote, it didn't go anywhere at first. Both he and Kristine voted for Colin before Aidan did - as the trio of Aidan, Jack and Colin took ages to decide on a name - and with tribal stretching into the following morning, there was plenty of time to stew over the possibility of Aidan betraying them. Both he and Kristine were quite paranoid about this, and eventually Dawson decided he had to act rather than giving Aidan all the power to decide who went home.

New conversations with Colin quickly led to action, as after they laid out how Aidan held both their fates in his hands, and Dawson revealed information that he only could have heard from Aidan, Colin came on board with the plan to blindside Aidan. He quickly got Jack on board as well, and Dawson and Jack switched their votes seconds before Colin submitted his to lock them, eliminating Aidan 3-2 (Kristine did not switch her vote before the fast switch was finalized). As the switch was being put in place, Colin made it clear to Dawson that he wanted Kristine gone at F4. Dawson, in his confessional, made it clear he wasn't going to let that happen, setting up a final showdown between two strong duos.

The final immunity challenge was Asterisks, and Dawson flopped it very hard, losing in the first few minutes (along with Colin), leaving Kristine and Jack in a showdown. During the challenge, Jack created an alliance chat with Colin and Dawson, re-stating that they needed to vote out Kristine if they had the chance, but Dawson's obvious hesitations made it clear that firemaking was on the horizon.

After five hours, Kristine won immunity, which left Dawson knowing that he'd get at least one vote. With the two of them agreeing that Jack was a bigger FTC threat than Colin, they looked to convince Colin to vote for Jack. However, Colin voted for Dawson, causing a 2-2 and putting Dawson into firemaking against Jack. Quite nervous, he took a shot before doing the jigsaw to try and steady himself, and it must have helped as he finished the puzzle in around twenty minutes, defeating Jack and earning himself a spot at FTC.

At FTC, Dawson looked to emphasize his journey from the minority into the majority over the course of the game, and how he had more control over the game than some might have thought. While initially hopeful about his chances, he soon became quite frustrated as his game was overshadowed by Kristine's in most of the jury's eyes. Despite fighting hard, he was not able to sway enough votes his way, receiving Jmoney's and Griff's but finishing 2nd behind Kristine in a 7-2-1 final vote.

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## Season 1 Character Ranking

***6: Dawson (2nd)***

*The hero of our season! Dawson was always such a wholesome guy who always meant well, and it was great seeing him overtime come into his own as a player and learning how to make actual moves in the late game. Dawson was a guy who always valued friendship above all else, and he was always someone who you just can't help but love as he went through the game. Seeing him go from on the outs for nearly all of the premerge, to actually kind of in the drivers seat towards the late merge was a great narrative, and I truly did feel for him at FTC because I think he got less credit than he truly deserved, and he was someone who was always easy to root for along the way. Dawson provided for many memorable moments, especially seeing him attempt to make a big move several times in the early merge, however others not giving him the space to. He was always somebody you could root for, and his dynamic with Kristine made for a very heartwarming narrative throughout the season.*

## Trivia

* Listed as a contender on edgic three times, tied with Jmoney, Mason and Griff for the most of any of the OG Nidavellirs
* He voted for Jack at four different tribals, the most times anyone has voted for one person in Trevivor history
* The winner of the first firemaking challenge in Trevivor history, later joined by Carp in S2.
	+ As Carp's was premerge, Dawson is still the only winner of an F4 firemaking challenge
* The highest placing Hero from any season, and tied with Kowboy for the highest placing winner of any of the four major awards
* The highest placing player in Trevivor history to never hold an advantage at any point, he and Colin are the only players to have made FTC while never holding an advantage