Gotham

**SurviVARs: Gotham** is the first season of *SurviVARs*. It had 16 castaways marooned for 35 days. It premiered July 17th 2021 and the winner was crowned August 19th 2021.

## Production

This season of *SurviVARs* had 16 castaways divided into two tribes of eight. The game lasted 35 days but if someone had to quit or be ejected tribal council would be cancelled.

## Twists/Changes

* **Amusement Mile -** Players were sent to Amusement Mile, where they could duel for advantages and risk their vote in a game of chance in order to get an idol clue. Spectators were able to vote on which advantages they wanted to see introduced.
	+ **The Mad Hatter -** While in Amusement Mile players may play the Mad Hatter's game. Player may pick up to six out of seven hats. If one of the numbers chosen is picked then that player gets a clue to the hidden immunity idol, with varying levels of helpfulness depending on the number of hats chose. If the number picked is not one of their numbers they will lose their vote the next tribal council they attend.
* **Pre-Challenge Vote -** When there were 14 people left in the game, both tribes had to cast elimination votes prior to the immunity challenge. The tribe that lost the challenge had their votes read immediately.
* **Tribe Swap -** At the final 13, the 11 players not in Amusement Mile will be shuffled into 2 new tribes of 6 with one player being sent to Amusement Mile. The two players that are in the Amusement Mile will be swapped after everyone else.
	+ **The Batcave -** The exiled player would be sent to the Batcave where they would be given a Legacy Advantage and get to choose which tribe to join after the immunity challenge is over.

## Season Ranking (4th)

**Cast - 4/6**

Gotham was our first season, which gives the cast a special place in my heart. That being said, the season had some serious duds. Roughly 50% of the players are decently forgettable, and were booted for being inactive. Ignoring this, though, the players who were active were all incredibly fun to watch. So many of them were first time players, which meant they played with an energy that we don’t see very often. It was a humble start to SurviVARS, but I am thankful that our first cast was as good as it was (even considering the inactive players). Gotham had an incredible winner, all of the relationships between the merged players were so clear and interesting, and they all played really hard and weren’t afraid to make big moves. For a cast of true newbies, they blew it out of the water.

**Pre-Merge - 5/6**

Gotham’s pre-merge was just meh. The hosts has never done this before, so there weren’t many interesting twists (although I do still love the Amusement Mile concept, and the “advantages chosen by spectators” idea). When it comes to gameplay, there wasn’t much of interest aside from the Rose boot. Most votes were just decided by a majority of active players, and people were eliminated for pretty much just being inactive. The challenges were not SurviVARS’s best, because we weren’t yet confident enough to try really cool and exciting ideas. Predictable votes, a pretty quiet game, and a lack of obvious excitement ultimately lands Gotham’s pre-merge towards the bottom.

**Post-Merge - 3/6**

Gotham really picked up after the merge, partly because the inactive players had been mostly voted out. This left us with the best of the cast, and they really went at it. Every vote was interesting in one way or another, and we had a lot of great storylines come to fruition (which I’ll talk about later). We had a successful idol play, some game-changing flips, and an incredible winner. For a first season, the merge game is really all we could have asked for. It had all the makings of a great Survivor season, and a great cast of mergers helped to make it happen.

**Gameplay - 5/6**

The best gameplay happened in the merge, but it still pales in comparison to our other seasons. Most of the great gameplay came from Add, Connor, and Alice, with JRay and Biggy getting taken out pretty early. This is not a jab at that duo, because they really were the heart of this game. They were also pretty comfortable, which meant they were sitting ducks for the more aggressive players. The predictable and easy votes of the early game hurt the ranking when it comes to gameplay, and the moments of greatness are ultimately overshadowed by the later seasons that went even harder. The gameplay in this season was new, which meant it paved the way for so many great seasons to come.

**Story - 3/6**

The story is where Gotham excelled most, in my opinion. Storylines were set up very early (like when Rose was eliminated thanks to JohnK) and then paid off in the end (like with JohnK’s downfall in the merge). The story was easy to follow, and it was fun to watch the power shift around. Biggy and JRay started out with a lot of control, which was then flipped against them and they were taken out. Alice was the ultimate underdog, but used challenge wins and advantages to scrape by. Add was pulling strings from the shadows, and Connor was playing big and loud and saving himself however he could. These newbies gave it all they had, and it led to some really great narratives for the season.

**Hosting Experience - 5/6**

I feel so bad ranking this one so low, because I loved Gotham! It was my first season, and I had a blast figuring out how this whole ORG thing worked. That being said, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I was stressed, because I was inexperienced. I wasn’t yet comfortable in my own skin as a host. I was also playing Jackvivor: Wales at the time, which I wound up winning, but the stress of playing and hosting simultaneously was rough. The experience is lower, but for reasons that have nothing to do with the actual game. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy Gotham, but that I enjoyed the other seasons so much more and for much more game-related reasons. Gotham will always be dear to me as the origin of this awesome community, and this ranking doesn’t change that.

**Overall Thoughts**

Gotham was our first season, and it excelled and suffered because of this. We found some gems in this cast of newbies, but were also left with some duds. The best players gave it everything, but then the others were inactive. Some of the moves were wild and game-changing, but others were pretty flat. At the end of the day, Gotham lands in the middle of these rankings because the positives and negatives balanced out somewhere in the middle. For being season one, I’m still surprised that Gotham was as good as it was. It set the groundwork for everything that has come since, and I am so grateful for what Gotham introduced into my life.