Matt McNeff

Matt "McNeff" McNeff was a contestant on Season 1 and Season 3: Fans vs Favorites.

After picking the purple buff, McNeff found himself on one of the most dominant tribes in Survivor: Dearborn history. He dominated in the first three challenges and proved himself to be an asset physically. However, his strategy backed him into a corner. He targeted John immediately and after one unsuccessful attempt, the tribe had enough and voted him out. He is known for napping during the conversation that sent him home.

He returned for Season 3 as a Favorite and immediately began strategizing. He marketed himself as a swing vote for the Purple alliance from Season 1, but was part of the four that made up Cam, Andre, and Anthony. He played both sides and successfully blindsided Matt, which gave their alliance control of the game. When the tribes re-swapped, he found himself on the outs and aligned with Carly. However, he returned to his original four alliance and took down the fans. He found himself in the final three, but received no votes.

## Profile

### Season 1

**Personal Claim to Fame:**Third place in discus in the region for track.

**Inspiration in Life:**Trayvon Martin

**Hobbies:**Eating

**Pet Peeves:**Liars

**3 Words to Describe You:**Fun, Loving, Badass

**Survivor Contestant You Are Most Like:**Jean-Robert Bellande

**Why do you think you'll survive Survivor: Dearborn?:**It's only overnight

**Why do you think you will be the Sole Survivor?:**I am really strong and I feel that I have the strategic mindset to succeed

### Season 3

**How have you changed since the last time you played?:**
I got a tattoo and lost some weight

**What skills do you bring to Survivor that will make you a useful member to the group and what skills have you been learning since you last played?**
My skills in challenges to help out pre-merge and I will always put my tribe first

**What are you most proud of from the last time you played?**
I’m not proud of anything. I played like crap

**What, if anything do you most regret?**
Taking a nap

**How will you play differently this time?**
I’ll play the game more seriously this time

## Survivor

Matt McNeff began the game drawing the purple buff, which placed him on what was going to be one of the strongest tribes in Survivor: Dearborn history. He entered the game being one of few castaways that had seen Survivor before and knew how the game played. When Sean found his fake idol, McNeff immediately called him out on it and threatened to vote him out.

In the first challenge, McNeff was a bean bag thrower and helped win the challenge for the Purple tribe. In the volleyball challenge, he also scored big. As challenges were being won, McNeff started making moves, trying to convince other players that John was a threat. But the Purple tribe kept winning the next two challenges. When they lost their first challenge, McNeff saw this as an opportunity to make his move on John. He talked to Matt about his plan and hoped to pull in others to make the play. However, Matt had made an alliance with John the round before and wanted to make a move on McNeff and plan was set in place to blindside him. But unknown to both McNeff and Matt, John, Alyssa, Anthony, and Nate had made a plan to vote out who they viewed to be the weakest on the tribe, Jen. And with Jen also voting herself out of the game, McNeff was spared from elimination, but still received two votes from Matt and Brendon.

After receiving votes at the last tribal council, McNeff pulled one of the most infamous moves in Survivor: Dearborn history- he took a nap. During his nap, his tribe gathered behind the garage and talked about McNeff wanting to vote John out. Sean, the only one that voted with McNeff, suggested voting him out and everyone agreed. McNeff came up at the last minute, thinking he didn't miss anything.

During the next tribal immunity challenge, McNeff performed well compared to his tribemates, but they still lost the challenge. After trying to get John out and failing, McNeff wanted to focus the next target to be someone small, like Sean. Matt convinced him that this was what the majority was doing, but the plan was still in place to blindside McNeff. At tribal, McNeff voted for Sean, but he was the only one to do so and was sent home in the first blindside in Survivor: Dearborn history. He stayed and helped film for the rest of the season.

McNeff returned for Season 3 as a Favorite with a new tattoo and new attitude on the game. At the beginning of the game, he taunted the fans when he arrived. Back at camp, McNeff was confronted to join Alyssa, Matt, Anthony, and Brendon in rekindling the Purple Tribe alliance, which he quickly agreed to. However, shortly after this, Anthony included him in a conversation with Andre and Cam and the alliance that would run the game was formed.

In the first couple challenges, McNeff played hard and the Favorites tribe won immunity three times in a row. The fourth challenge the favorites lost and the game finally started to be played. McNeff was getting instructions from Matt to split the vote between Andre and Cam with Cam going home because of the drama he was stirring up. However, both were in McNeff's solid alliance and he talked to Anthony who was also being told this plan. Anthony confided with McNeff, Cam, and that he had an idol and the four hatched a plan to vote out Jacob. During this plan making, McNeff's loyalty was being questioned by Matt, Jacob, and Peyton. This was what caused McNeff to suggest to his alliance to switch the vote from Jacob to Matt. Cam played the idol and Matt was sent home.

The next round found McNeff in the first merge of the season. He played a relatively low profile during this point in the game and just took Cam's lead on the moves being made.

When the tribes were reswapped, McNeff was put on the New Green tribe with Alyssa in the minority to the fans. Alyssa made an alliance with Carly and McNeff joined in. They proceeded to talk to Nichole and Delano in hopes to get the majority. When they lost their first challenge, they targeted Robbie with Nichole and Delano being the swing vote. Both stuck with their original fans alliance and Alyssa was sent home, leaving Carly and McNeff on the outs.

In an effort to show his loyalty to the fans, McNeff spilled his alliance's secrets to the New Green tribe. He named Cam and Anthony as the ring leader and warned of their influence on the game. From there on, they made a plan to vote out Anthony at the merge in hopes to have a misdirect on Cam. In addition to gaining the fans' trust, he found an idol and shared the information with Carly, creating a solid bond with her.

When the next merge hit, McNeff found himself in the swing vote position. He could stay with his new fans alliance and take out his former alliance, or go back to Cam, Anthony, and Andre and vote out physical beast Marc. He chose the latter. In order to regain his old alliance's trust, he gave his idol to Cam to play on Anthony in case someone were to flip. The only person to flip was McNeff to his old alliance and Marc was voted out, leaving his fan's alliance blindsided.

Carly was confused on how this happened and tried to debrief it with McNeff. McNeff assured her he didn't flip and promised he would play his idol for her because she was the next target. He asked Anthony, who had just found another idol, to let him borrow it to show Carly he still had it. After showing Carly the idol, he gave it to Cam to play on himself to ensure Carly was sent home, while also eliminating Anthony's idol from the game and making their alliance a level playing field. Carly was indeed sent home, knowing McNeff betrayed her.

McNeff no longer had to cater to the fans alliance and more so focused on the remaining favorites. In the Popularity challenge, the final four was McNeff, Andre, Cam, and Anthony exposing their alliance. However, at tribal, McNeff denied this as evidence and said it was a coincidence. When reading the votes Nichole and Delano both played idols for themselves and Cam played the idol for McNeff. Brendon was subsequently sent home. The tribe went immediately to tribal and McNeff openly exposed their alliance after Cam had played an idol for both McNeff and Anthony. Delano was sent home but the alliance was exposed to the jury and the rest of the game.

The next round McNeff started asking to vote Anthony out, but Cam didn't feel it was the right time. After Robbie was eliminated, Cam initiated the move on Anthony with McNeff and Santana and Anthony was blindsided out of the game.

The remainder of the game, McNeff sat back and watched as Andre and Nichole were sent home and found himself in the final three against Cam and Santana. Despite playing a great strategic game, McNeff forgot about the social part of the game and Carly, who he blindsided earlier, turned the jury against him. McNeff gave up a good fight at tribal, but Cam ultimately outplayed him and McNeff finished Season 3 as the second runner up in third place.

McNeff was asked back for Season 4: Heroes vs Villains as a Villain, but declined for work reasons.

## Post Survivor

McNeff attends Central Michigan University

## Trivia

McNeff is known as the first person to be blindsided in Survivor: Dearborn history.

McNeff is the first minority to play Survivor: Dearborn, and the first minority voted out (Native American).

McNeff has the most confessionals in Season 3.