Tierra del Fuego

***Tierra del Fuego*** is the sixth and current Survivor Stings season. 20 brand new players competed for the title of Sole Survivor. In the end, Najwah won the title of Sole Survivor.

## Production

This season was hosted by Jay (Series Admin). It ran from July 10, 2020 to August 16, 2020. The blog is https://survivor-tierradelfuego.tumblr.com/.

## Twists/Differences

* ***Schoolyard Pick Expansion***: Instead of a traditional tribe swap, this season featured a schoolyard pick in which a captain from each original tribe picked a new tribe of five. The five contestants left over became the new Palena tribe, leading to an expansion.
* ***Survivor Auction:*** At the merge, players competed in a Survivor Auction for advantages and items.
* ***Cursed Idol:*** At the auction, a cursed idol was available for purchase. This item gives its owner an increasing disadvantage in every immunity challenge.
* ***Viewer Conferences***: At the auction and as a reward, players were able to conference with the players who drafted them for strategic insights.

## Season Overview

### **Description**

At the start of the game, tribes were divided into Maola and Hanuha. Maola was able to dominate the first two challenges, leading to a lowering of morale on the Hanuha tribe. In the first immunity challenge, Neil and Tyler H faced off in the cups endurance segment and formed a secret alliance, which was not able to come to fruition when Neil was eliminated first, largely for being too much of a challenge and social threat. The Jess Alliance of Sarah, James, Ben, and Cody was formed very early on to control the votes on Hanuha. In the second round Amy T was eliminated for not being as active in challenges, which confused many people as the first two boots were determined for opposite reasons.

In round three, Hanuha was finally able to pull out a win, sending Maola to their first tribal council. However, the vote ended up being an easy one, as Tyler made a cocky, off-handed comment in the tribe chat which rubbed others the wrong way. This sent him home unanimously.

Hanuha lost once again in the next challenge, though it was by a closer margin this time. Leanne was eliminated in a contentious tribal where two alliances faced off. This was a blow to Najwah and Aimee, who were left on the bottom. The alliance of Sarah and Cody would prove an influential one throughout the game, especially as they brought in Najwah to form a power trio that controlled much of the merge; this was the Mr. Moseby Alliance. Maola went to their second tribal council, where John and Pedro found themselves on the bottom after Tyler's elimination. Despite their best efforts in scheming and idol hunting, a non-men alliance made up of Olivia, Maddison, Grae, and Kalle prevailed and sent John home. This was the Rox the Sox Alliance.

At the swap, an expansion which added the new Palena to the tribe divide, Palena simply couldn't catch a break. Losing all three of the swap challenges, Alan, Ryan, and James were sent home in succession. James' elimination marked one of the only series tribals where only three votes were cast. Amy A stole Najwah's vote to send home James.

When the merge happened, unfortunately players began to come to Jay with evidence that Zack had created a toxic environment for a handful of castaways. When combined with his disrespect for Jay's pronouns and hosting as well as rude comments about challenge judges, he was removed and would not serve on the jury. James took his place as first juror at Jay's discretion. In the first individual immunity challenge, Olivia won by a wide margin.

The first merge vote led to a major clash of alliances. White Najwah/Sarah/Aimee/Cody/Ben voted for Maddison, the Maole alliance of Olivia/Maddison/Amy A/Kalle/Grae targeted Pedro. However, both Maddison and Pedro played idols, leading to Grae being eliminated by Pedro's sole vote. While the Rox the Sox alliance would remain strong and dominate for several rounds, the other alliance struggled to maintain unity, brought together largely by circumstance, especially considering that Aimee felt on-the-outs with both alliances.

Much of the Maola alliance's strategy relied on the idol hunt; they regularly exchanged information and purchasing power in the idol hunt to secure items for the alliance. Little did they know, Kalle was playing double agent. The second merge vote saw another idol play, though this time it was unsuccessful. Kalle cancelled two votes against herself, but Ben ultimately went home as the target of the Maola non-men, with the help of Najwah. In the next round, touchy subjects made many players re-evaluate their position in the game. Now that the Maola alliance was out of idols, Kalle was targeted and went home in a large majority.

By this point in the game, Sarah, Najwah, and Cody had established themselves as a power trio, orchestrating moves from behind the scenes. Amy was eliminated at the final eight, with only Olivia and Maddison left out of the vote. Though Maddison and Olivia tried to eliminated Sarah with Pedro's help -- overcoming a longstanding rivalry between Pedro and the non-men -- an idol play on Sarah led to Maddison going home at the final seven.

This left a tightly knitted group of Sarah, Najwah, and Cody, with Aimee as their fourth, Olivia on the outs, and Pedro inexplicably surviving again and again while playing from the bottom and idolling himself to safety. After Pedro won F6 immunity, the group had no choice but to vote out Cody, the biggest threat, at final six. Pedro's luck, however, had finally run out. When Najwah played an idol, Pedro was eliminated.

At the final four, Aimee beat the odds and won herself a place in the final three. This left a difficult choice, which ultimately went to a firemaking challenge between two major challenge threats: Olivia and Sarah. Ultimately, Olivia came out victorious.

Though all finalists made a good showing and garnered at least one jury vote, ultimately Najwah was crowned winner of the season after an impeccable social and strategic game.