Michael Chia

***Michael*** was a castaway on Essential Survivor: Maldives

## Maldives

Michael, an original Bodu Beru was extremely excited to get the game going. So much so, that he was looked at for overplaying almost immediately. Despite losing the challenge and the tribe being in complete unison about voting Winter, Michael felt the need to make several alliances so he could cover all bases within the tribe. He did this with new ally Tyler, who he told about his idol. Even though they were found out pretty quickly, nothing came up from it. Body Beru won the next 2 challenges, so there was no incentive to strategize hard.

Coming into the swap, Michael’s edit was pretty nonexistent until he went to tribal at the Final 13. Recognizing that his position is less than good, Michael concocted a plan with fellow allies Bradley and Joseph where they garner as many votes as possible onto him. That way Michael plays his idol, and they choose who goes home. Unfortunately, the majority didn’t buy that at all and threw their votes onto Bradley, flushing Mike’s idol.

Heading into the merge, Michael couldn’t feel happier! He found himself in a 7-person majority with his original tribe, reconnected with Tyler, and is still under the impression that he’s running the game. To make sure he doesn’t get recognized however, Michael planned to display passive gameplay for the next few rounds. This doesn’t stop him from wanting to take Joseph to the FTc though, a clear power player. Even revealing that he’d cut Tyler at 4. Safe to say that Michael was a really confident castaway for the early merge portion of this game. Confident enough to even be a complete asshole to inevitable 10th Placer Zent in private.

At Final Nine, Michael started to think about flipping on some Bodu Beru; Kam and Magnus specifically. In fact, the vote was originally on Magnus, but due to his timezone, Michael didn’t get the memo about the vote flipping onto Pierre. In an act of damage control, that’s who he tried pinning the singular Magnus vote on to everyone, not like it truly mattered though. Oddly enough, Michael’s feelings about the game soon did a 180.

He now felt as if he had no shot to win, feeling like he has 0 control anymore and that he’s going to be dragged to the finals. With this sudden change of heart, Michael vowed to start playing this game for fun rather than to win. Starting with hiding fake idols for the fun of it, unluckily, his ally Tyler found one… already ruining Michael’s fun. The only thing to go right here was getting Kam out, which Mike was very fond of.

Now it’s Final Seven and Michael still thinks he has no shot, although now he’s definitely trying to win more here. Receiving info that he’s viewed as Joseph’s sidekick, his plans were immediately to target him. Unfortunately, that plan changed when Joseph won immunity, pivoting to a Tyler boot as Trey stole his spot for being Michael’s #1. But when Tyler informed Mike about a lie Trish was spreading, he wasn’t the only one dying to get her out, booting her 6-1.

The next round came along and once again, Michael’s plan have changed. Instead of taking Joseph to the end, he now wants to take out, someone who’s arguably just as good as Joseph. Not much occurred this round, the tribe collectively agreed that Trey would be a huge Jury threat, taking him out at 6. At the Final Five, Tyler won immunity, (it was common knowledge that Joseph claimed to have an idol) John, Mike and Tyler wanted to split the vote 2-2 between Joseph and Magnus to confirm one of them goes out. The plan is in the works and STAYS in the works until Tribal.

Tyler had forgotten to vote, and usually that’d make it a self-vote, but since he had Immunity his vote was randomized, landing on Joseph. But since Joseph and Magnus had *both* voted Michael, he was voted out as Joseph played his idol successfully.