Benjamin Carter

**Benjamin Carter** is the Sole Survivor from *Survivor: Australia*.

From the beginning, Benjamin was a smart, savvy player who performed well in all areas of the game. Initially included in the Ogakor Trio alliance with Megan Sanchez and Nick Downs, the three quickly dominated both the pre-merge and post-merge stages of the game. Benjamin formed a close relationship with Zane Rosales, and convinced him to flip from his Kucha tribe at the final eight, and work with the Ogakor side. Benjamin managed to set a five-time Individual Immunity win record, and progressed to the final four where he eventually betrayed his Ogakor Trio alliance in favour of keeping Zane. After winning the final Immunity Challenge, Benjamin brought Zane to the Final Tribal Council where his strong strategic and physical game were praised by the jury. He would end up winning the season in a narrow 4-3 victory.

## Survivor: Australia

As a member of Ogakor, Benjamin's bond with Nick Downs saw him incorporated into an alliance with Nick and Megan Sanchez. In addition, this alliance included fellow tribe members Jay Vasquez and Christina Young into their fold, giving them a 5-3 majority on the tribe. At the tribe's first Tribal Council, the group of five voted out Marta Bradford. At the next Tribal Council, the core Trio alliance considered voting out Paul Keith, but instead wished to maintain a 6-4 majority at the merge, and saw an opportunity to blindside Christina in order to keep Paul and Kim Short on their side. They included Jay into their plan and successfully voted out Christina.

Despite the plan at the Tribal Council before, Paul and Kim attempted to work with the four tribe members from Kucha and blindside Jay. Instead, Nick and Benjamin worked to convince the Kucha tribe to vote out Paul, and he was subsequently the first person voted out of the merged tribe, in an 8-2 vote. Benjamin then won his first of many Individual Immunity Challenges, and the group of eight voted out Kim, prompting a 4-4 tie between Ogakor and Kucha. Due to maintaining a good relationship with the Kucha members, Benjamin played double agent for his Ogakor alliance and attempted to convince Kucha he would flip and vote out Megan at the next Tribal Council. Instead, Benjamin noticed a crack in the Kucha's four, with Zane Rosales often ostracised by the other three and disregarded when it came to strategy. Benjamin proposed flipping to Ogakor, ensuring he would work with him until the end. Zane agreed and trusted in his bond with Benjamin, and with Zane, the Ogakor five voted out Brady Wallace in a close 5-3 vote. At the final seven, the only two options to vote were Kucha's Kevin Wolfe and Charlie Brewer. While Jay attempted to vote out Charlie, Benjamin and his allies Megan, Nick, and now Zane, instead wanted to vote out Charlie for her stronger performance in Immunity Challenges and belief she was a far better strategic player. Deciding to leave Jay out of this vote, the four made a Final Four pact to ensure they would make it to Day 38. They voted out Charlie, and then Kevin. Kevin had attempted to convince Benjamin and Nick to instead vote out Megan and ensure the final five was made up of men, but the guys were unwilling to agree to such an offer, and expressed disdain for Kevin proposing to do so. At the final five, Jay to campaigned to Benjamin and Zane to vote out Nick, with Nick and Megan seen as a tight duo. But the pact made earlier in the game saw Benjamin and Zane ultimately decide to stay loyal, and Jay was voted out 4-1. Now at the final four, Benjamin recognised sticking with his original Ogakor alliance would be fatal if he were to lose Individual Immunity, and instead wanted to stay loyal to his alliance with Zane and reach the end together. After winning a fourth Individual Immunity Challenge, Benjamin informed Zane he intended to force a fire-making tiebreaker between him and Nick. Nick was still the favourite to win this due to tending to the fire more at camp, but after facing off, Zane surprised everyone, including the jury, by winning the tiebreaker and eliminating Nick. Now in the final three Benjamin went on to set a record-breaking five-Immunity win streak, and held the power to vote out either Megan or Zane. Megan tried convincing Benjamin the stronger choice would be to vote out Zane, as their games differed significantly and would likely split opinion, and votes, in both ways. Despite this, Benjamin stayed true to his late-game alliance with Zane, and voted out Megan.

At the Final Tribal Council, Benjamin pitched to the jury he was worthy of being crowned Sole Survivor by playing a strong strategic and physical game, and often being the 'doer' when it came to crucial moments in the game - namely flipping Zane to the Ogakor tribe at the final eight. Many of the jury respected Benjamin's overall game, but some admired Zane's underdog status and believed Benjamin made a mistake by bringing someone with such an impressive Tribal Council moment (winning the tiebreaker) to the end. The three Kucha tribe members on the jury all voted against Zane, in favour of Benjamin, while Ogakor had voted for Zane over Benjamin. Megan, unlike her Ogakor tribemates, voted for Benjamin, valuing his game and ultimate loyalty to the Ogakor Trio alliance until he needed to separate, and thus Benjamin was crowned Sole Survivor in a close 4-3 vote.

## Trivia

* Benjamin currently holds the record for most Individual Immunity Challenge wins in one season, with five.