S8 Uzbekistan: Cats vs Dogs 2

**S8 Uzbekistan: Cats vs Dogs 2** was the eighth season of Rarvivor. The tribes on this season were split based on their pet preference of cats or dogs. The season began on August 12th 2022 and ended on September 19th 2022. It was won by Dandoosh in a 4-3 vote over Smurf. Othello was awarded Player of the Season.

## Structure/Twists

* **Starting tribes:** This season started with 2 tribes of 10 people each.
* **Merge:** The merged tribe consisted of 12 people.
* **Final Tribal Council:** A final two faced a jury of 7.
* **Idol Search:** One idol was hidden in a color system with 5 positions and 3 colours for each tribe, they could search once a day unless they purchased pizza.
* **Idols:** One idol was given from greed. At merge one idol could be purchased, you’ll also buy a fake idol with fire tokens.

## Fire Token Menu

* **Idol Clue (1 fire token):** The player can choose between 5 different clues and the idol the clue is associated with.
* **Pizza (1 fire token):** The player gets one extra guess that day.
* **Peanut Butter (1 fire token):** The player gets information about the contents in the idol searching system.
* **Sneak Peek (1 fire token):** The player can sneak on another player and find out about their advantages and amount of fire tokens. There was also a 50% chance the player who was sneaked upon found out.
* **Fake Idol Kit (1 fire token):** This allows a creation of one fake idol. The player can choose to keep it, give away or hide in the idol searching system.
* **Idol Validation (1 fire token):** The player is told whether their idol is real or fake.
* **Speadsheet Copy (1 fire token):** The player receives a screenshot of the voting chart. Voting charts were always updated right after a player got eliminated.
* **Walkie Talkie (1 fire token):** This advantage creates a one on one chat channel with a player on another tribe.
* **Literally Nothing (2 fire tokens):** Literally nothing.
* **Pull a Player (2 fire tokens):** The player can swap another player to their tribe. This can't be purchased during an active tribal council.
* **Mutiny (3 fire tokens):** The player can swap to another tribe. This can't be purchased during an active tribal council.
* **Tribe Swap (4 fire tokens):** It forces a random tribe swap at the beginning of the next challenge.

## Reception

If I could summarise this season by 2 words, they’re: missed opportunities. From the very first moment it was clear that this cast was stronger and more balanced than the one from the original Cats vs Dogs season. In the pre-swap portion of the game the tribals at the dog tribe had really fun circumstances. First you have big dog, who was an exciting Neil-lite character. Then at the cycle with temptations, bluesnake took the very first temptation - only one fire token, and send their tribe to tribal, which got them a fast boot out of the game. At the swap both tribes went to tribal and the dog tribe was again the more interesting one with a 4-2\*-2 vote, but after this tribal we can see our first missed opportunity. The dog tribe had interesting dynamics with 4 dogs and 3 cats after their swap tribal. The dogs were in an alliance, but they were about to collapse and turn on each other and we almost sawp that implosion happen… almost. The merge was as any other Rarvivor merge, exciting! At the f11 we had a successful idol play cancelling 8 votes by the eventual winner. But the f10 tribal was again, a missed opportunity. There was a 5-5 tie and the revote looked promising for rocks. ROCKS. But then a player flipped and it became unanimous. The last exciting tribal happened at f8, where it was a beautiful mess with a 3–2-1-1-1. Then at f7 we had a quit. Then after a controversial 3-3 tribal we had another quit. This quit caused the flow of the game to get destroyed and made Ciriing out a player happen at f5, when an idol would’ve definitely been played and/or flushed at f6. At f4 one of the players threw a temper tantrum and quit, making it effectively a f3. After this the game resumed and at f2 we had our closest FTC yet, where Dandoosh won a 4-3 vote. This season was very tragic, because in the early stages it looked like it could’ve reached the heights of our very best season, but I guess it just was never meant to be.