recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Jaylen Kaplan

***Jaylen*** was a castaway on Essential Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites

## Fans Vs. Favorites

The person Jaylen started the game as is nothing like the Jaylen we ended the game with. It felt like he had 2 different personalities, and I wouldn’t be the only one to say that both were enjoyable. Jaylen went near the top of Kahu to the bottom of Ahi, but he made it fun to watch the whole time.

Jaylen started on the blue Kahu tribe. Overwhelmed by the mechanics of the ORG, Jaylen needed time to familiarize himself. On the contrary, he didn’t need to familiarize himself with creating alliances because by the conclusion of Episode One, Jaylen was in 6. He trusted both Karmynn and Matthew the most as they were included in many of the alliances Jaylen was in. By the end of round 2, Jaylen was in an alliance with everyone and was now focused on finding the idol with his #1, Karmynn. The more he looked, the more Jaylen figured that the idol was at camp. But with Kahu losing a challenge at the F17, he could put a hold on that to blindside Oma, 8-1.

At the Joint Tribal, it was clear that nobody on Kahu had the idol, and a tribe Idol Hunt was now in the works. Of course, Jaylen and Karmynn wanted to split everyone up so they could claim the camp area, but the others caught onto that quickly and suggested a random draw. Of course, neither Jaylen or Karmynn got the camp area and by extension, the idol. As time went on, it was clear that tribal lines would be strong for the vote (with Kahu looking more and more like a cult). Unfortunately, Punahele chose to land their votes onto Jaylen for his previous challenge performance. But even though Jaylen was worried due to IRL commitments, he ended up being fine as he stayed, 13-1.

Coming into the merge, Jaylen has been bored with the game, feeling like it’s been too easy and there’s a dire need for action… so he certainly didn’t see it coming when most of the Fans flipped sides to blindside with #1 ally Karmynn.. And this is where Jaylen makes a 180.

After learning about some of the inner workings behind Karmynn’s vote-off, Jaylen had a bone to pick with just about every fan, except Matthew. Jaylen *really* had a vendetta against Despair that showed quite frequently during challenges and tribals. So now with a far more chaotic version of Jaylen playing the game, his plan was to cause chaos and avenge Karmynn.

At the Final 11, Jaylen presumed that his time in the game was over, but he certainly didn’t give up hope. While being difficult with a now outed YEG, Jaylen was a crucial part in the split vote against Cole & Kip, and while he assumed Cole would go home, he was pleased to see Kip leave as well. During the next round a demerge occurred, with Jaylen on a tribe with Despair, John, Kristin, and Tae. Due to a lack of confessionals, it’s hard to figure out where Jaylen’s head was at for this vote, but he ended up going home here in 10th Place, feeling satisfied about his run.
But Are You Hear

***But Are You Hear*** is the fourth episode of Essential Survivor: Brazil

## Challenge

**Immunity Challenge**: **Flappy Bird**

For today's challenge you'll be playing a game that I absolutely despise, Flappy Bird! The objective is to get the bird as far as you can in between the tubes. When you think your score is good enough, you may submit it via confessional. You may try as many times as you want and submit as many times as you want, the latest submission will count as your score.

Winner: Samba
See You After The Vote Count

***See You After The Vote Count*** is the premiere episode of Essential Survivor: Japan

## Challenge

**Immunity Challenge**: **SOS Signal**

• Welcome Castaways to your first Immunity Challenge of the season!

• The challenge is pretty self-explanatory once you look at the title, regardless... here's how it works.

• As a tribe, Furui and Wakai will be making SOS Signals. Pretend you were on a beach and had to make an SOS Signal for anyone passing. The goal is to make the most eye catching signal. Anything goes, the message itself must be in within the Discord message limit. Emojis included. Ping me when you all have a collective decision. Submissions are due at 6:30 PM Eastern, 7-19-20.

Winner: Furui
Ben Daniel

***Ben*** was a castaway on Essential Survivor: South Korea.

## South Korea

Ben began on the Brains Jineung tribe, and was somewhat in the middle of everyone’s trust on average. After they lost the first challenge, the boot very quickly became Thomas, and Ben sided with the majority to vote him off. Meanwhile, Ben was the first Jineung member to hunt for the idol, searching basically everywhere but not finding it, however he definitely raised a few eyebrows at his bold approach to the hunt. After Thomas was voted off, Jineung did not lose again until the swap.

Ben was swapped onto new Sahouei with old Brain tribe members Hades & Jess, and JMilk & Cora from Brawn. They won the first challenge of the swap, but lost the second, with Ben putting in the worst score of the tribe. He began idol hunting once they were headed to tribal, again raising eyebrows, and Cora began to hunt with him. However, since the Brains outnumbered the Brawns, Hades, Jess, & Ben were always choosing between Cora & JMilk. As Cora was a challenge liability, inactive, and hunting, she was voted off.

In the next challenge, Ben was not any help, and neither was JMilk. Initially it looked to be an easy 3-1 on JMilk, however JMilk fought desperately, and Hades didn’t like Ben and hadn’t from the get-go. Sealing his fate was Ben being hesitant on voting off JMilk, which led Hades to convince Jess to blindside Ben to keep JMilk as a number for the two of them heading into merge. Ben was completely blindsided in a 3-1 vote, ending his journey in South Korea.

## Voting History

 I Think We're The Actual Brains Tribe
 Why Can't I Be A Psychopath?
 Anyslays
 Voted Out, Day 14
My Parchment Is Cancerous

***My Parchment Is Canercous*** is the merge episode of Essential Survivor: Togo

## Challenge

**Immunity Challenge**: **Flappy Bird**

• Welcome Castaways to your first merged immunity challenge!

• For today's challenge you'll be playing a game that I absolutely despise, Flappy Bird! The objective is to get the bird as far as you can in between the tubes. When you think your score is good enough, you may submit it via confessional. You may try as many times as you want and submit as many times as you want, the latest submission will count as your score.

• Whoever has the highest score will be immune from Thursday's Tribal Council. Good luck!!

Winner: Liz

## Challenge

**Immunity Challenge**: **Touchy Subjects**

• Welcome Castaways to your second merged immunity challenge!

• For today's challenge you'll be playing an irl Survivor classic, TOUCHY SUBJECTS!! Here's the deal, I'll give out questions that you have to answer on your own regarding your fellow castaways. You can not put yourself for this set of answers. Then you must make a whole new set of answers in which you must put down what you think the most common answer is for each question. You can put yourself down for this list. TALKING TO OTHERS ABOUT YOUR ANSWERS IS PROHIBITED.

• Whoever has the highest score will be immune from Saturday's Tribal Council. Good luck!!

Winner: Kalina

## Trivia

* This episode was named after Jay's quote.
* Zach stole Gabe's vote.
Play Hard, Play Fair

***Play Hard, Play Fair*** is the penultimate episode of Essential Survivor: Scotland

## Challenge

**Immunity Challenge**: **History Lesson**

• Welcome @Castaways to your eleventh immunity challenge!

• This is gonna be a different type of challenge. I'll be sending out a video talking about random facts about Scotland. Tomorrow, we'll hold a LIVE challenge where I'm asking questions about said video. Whoever gets the most amount of questions right in 10 questions wins immunity.

• As for the rest of you, someone will be voted out of the game on Thursday. Making them the twelfth person voted out and the sixth member of our jury...

Winner: Robby
Andy Savage

***Andy*** was a castaway on Essential Survivor: Scotland

## Scotland

With only four tribes in the beginning phase of the game, it’s really hard to make it out of there alive. Social bonds have got to be your main priority here, because one small error in your gameplay could ruin your chances of becoming Lone Survivor. And unfortunately, that’s what happened here with Andy.

Being placed on the starting Earth tribe also known as Talamh, he hit it off with Calvin and Contessa easily, making an alliance with each other called ‘Snap, Crackle, Pop’ using this they worked together to vote off the outcast of the tribe, Tierra. Now seeing as this is a 3-person alliance in a now 3-person tribe, Talamh going back to Tribal Council would definitely put those social bonds to the test… only problem was that Andy was ruining his by the minute.

After a break day from winning the second challenge, the tribes were hit with a Double Tribal Council. Two tribes would be safe, and two tribes would be going to vote someone out. Wanting to keep solid numbers heading into the swap, Talamh’s main priority was to win this challenge. But when 0 communication with each other occurred, it caused Calvin to bring down the tribe tremendously. Leaving them in last place and going to Tribal Council first. In an attempt to divert attention from himself, Andy went to Contessa, pitching a Calvin blindside. But when Contessa began to put 2 and 2 together, she realized that Calvin would be way better to keep for her game rather than (in her words) a ‘slimeball’ like Andy.

Receiving this info, she immediately reported it to Calvin. Who by now, was heavily reluctant to believe it. But after Contessa convinced Calvin and Andy randomly switched back to targeting Contessa, it was lights out for this guy, in a 2-1 vote with some pretty flashy parchments.

## Voting History

 I Haven't Even Had Any Fun Yet
 Trying To Align With A Rock
 I Think You Misspelled Piece Of Furnitiure
 Voted Out, Day 10
Jerranoid

***Jerranoid*** is the ninth episode of Essential Survivor: Brazil

## Challenge

**Immunity Challenge**: **ORG Trivia**

For today's challenge, CK will be asking the castaways several questions regarding Season One of this ORG. If someone gets it right, they earn a point. First to five points wins immunity! You may answer as much as you want but note that a 5-second slowmode will be on. Good luck!

Winner: Lucifer
Cheren Gauthier

***Cheren*** was a castaway on Essential Survivor: Japan

## Japan

Cheren. Cheren’s one of the players this season that had ended up leaving the game with a clearly open story to tell. And with his lengthy confessionals and a betrayal that set the tone for the rest of the merge, Cheren will definitely become one to remember.

From the get-go, the main struggle with Cheren’s overall gameplay was his ability to connect with others. While he isn’t socially inept, his inability to create lasting connections pop up frequently throughout his stay in Japan. From right off the bat, he was able to connect with the oldest of the tribe, Deca. At the first Furui tribal, Cheren’s social game gets immediately thrown once Richard and Luke begin to rally against him. And if it wasn’t for Deca pulling him in, Cheren most likely votes wrong and screws up the split vote plan. But when he carried Furui at the upcoming challenge, his gameplay became significantly more balanced. During all this, Cheren proved to be self-aware as he criticized his own faults heavily in his confessional entries.

At the swap portion, Cheren was on a tribe with a 4-4 split straight down the middle. But when they lost and Enrique was stolen by Geo. OG Furui was down 4-3. And much like Richard, Zent and Vincent immediately began rallying for Cheren to get the boot due to his ‘physical failures’ which were far from the truth. Luckily enough, it almost worked but when Kamen saved Cheren with an idol (due to Zent screwing up his own plan) the OG Furui 3 were able to idol out Zent, saving Cheren from elimination. Follow that up with Cheren finding the idol almost immediately after it was rehidden and Cheren’s visibility edit took a huge jump. But when OG Furui began to throw challenges, his edit took another dive and for good reason.

At the merge, it looked like tribal lines would stay the same as Furui was up 7-4. But when Cheren’s idol got leaked to the entire tribe. Jack and Josiah were worried about it, joining up with the Wakai to arrange the biggest blindside of the season… eliminating Cheren and his dreams to win.
Alex Zook

***Alex*** was the Runner-Up of Essential Survivor: Scotland

## Scotland

Usually, every season has its ‘Robbed Fan Favorite’. AKA, the person spectators adored but somehow didn't win Fan Favorite. And in Scotland, without a shadow of doubt it’d be Alex. From Day 1 to Day 39, we knew that she was something special; a real hero at that. And while she definitely wasn’t the most strategic out of the bunch, she got what she deserved at the very end of all this… tons of love.

Starting out on the Uisge tribe, Alex had caught her tribemates by surprise. I mean, how many times do you see somebody like Alex? Someone who’s really nice, could care less about the game and has a golden heart. However, her golden heart led her to being on the bottom of the tribe in terms of their safety. The tribe felt as if she was hard to talk to, closed off, and not capable of playing. Thank God Uisge didn't go to Tribal, or else Alex would’ve most likely been a pre-merge boot. Come the swap portion of the game, Alex is swapped onto Uisge 2.0 with Trey, her former teammate. Here, we see Alex start to get the hang of the game and make plans. As she was a big campaigner for Rachel to go home during her first tribal. But she didn't realize that a majority of the tribe had been already plotting against her and Trey, so without a shadow of a doubt, they booted Trey over Alex. Leaving Alex really hurt about the people who lied to her.

Come the merge, and Alex couldn’t be happier. She gets to reunite with Logic after losing Trey, and it seemed like Logic would be her ride or die until the end… until the tribe almost unanimously votes him off again without telling her. At this point, Alex seemed to be a free agent in which she had just listened to the plan she was hit with last. Unfortunately, this caused her to eventually end up in the minority of the votes every single time. Even when she did vote right, she ended up not being in the majority, take Jacob and Elena’s boots for example. But she finally voted correctly at the Final Four in voting out Bee.

Now she’s at the Final tribal council with both Antony and Robby, two players who ‘played’ more than her. And while she was getting some traction with her jury to win the game in her speeches, most of the jurors had already decided that Robby played the best game, earning her only one voter from Rachel and deeming her our Runner-Up.
Eamonn Maccerey

***Eamonn*** was a castaway on Essential Survivor: Canary Islands

## Canary Islands

Eamonn (pronounced Amen) was the lone casualty of the dominant La Gomera tribe. He started his game off with an aggressive social approach, a cocky attitude, and had intentions on voting out his allies. He saw himself as making decent social bonds with nearly everyone in the first few days, including Jonathan, a potential ride or die. However, most people had him in the bottom half of their trust rankings, but it seemed like he could still make the merge if this positioning stayed, and his tribe continued their winning streak. Looking to the future, he considered a five-person majority with himself, Jonathan, Tommy, Amber, and Jessica, and wanted Phillip as his own “egotistical shield.” He even debated voting off Jonathan had they made it further in the game.

Despite all this potential to be a major villain, Eamonn’s game fell by completely disappearing from the game for one week, pinning himself as an inactive player, and eviscerating all of his social capital. He promised to his tribe to become a more active member, but he was in even more trouble when he submitted his score for an immunity challenge past the deadline, resulting in a 0, and contributing to his tribe’s first loss of the season.

Knowing he needed a miracle to stay, Eamonn gave a respectable effort to save himself from the game. Eamonn’s pitch was to vote out Patrick, and to keep himself around because he was someone that can be easily beaten in individual immunity challenges at the merge and is available to be anyone’s follower in the future. The tribe listened and considered his plea, but still decided to unanimously vote him out so that the more active members could have a shot to play the game. After being voted out, Eamonn aired his regrets for being inactive, apologizing if he let anyone down.

## Voting History

 It's Herpes
 Italian Stallion
 Are You Walking
 I Thought It Was Golf Rules
 Do You Know What Deadline Means
 Voted Out, Day 16
Magnus Lancaster

***Magnus*** is the Runner-Up of Essential Survivor: Maldives

## Maldives

Magnus was indeed my Winner Pick at the beginning of the season. His interview was showing me great things in him and I felt like he had the potential to make it deep, which he did. However I can’t say that his gameplay deserved a win, the Jurors also agreed with me as they gave him the title of Runner-Up, let’s see how he got there.

Being on the Bodu Beru tribe, Magnus got off to a very rough start. He was labeled as the tribe inactive right off the bat and was looking to be a potential option once they lost the challenge. Thankfully, Winter’s shenanigans caused her to be the first boot instead of him, but it’s not like Magnus’s positioning got much better. Despite being in 3 separate alliances, he constantly felt expendable and like he was on the bottom of the tribe.

At the swap, a 5-2 majority was Magnus’s new stomping grounds. And honestly, not much happened in this entire phase either.. Magnus did improve his bonds with Kam and John, becoming a third in their duo. But besides that, it was uneventful. However when Kamala went home, Magnus threw his vote onto Tyler in the case she played something. Tyler obviously wasn’t the biggest fan of this and began to distrust him.

At the merge, Magnus’s game fell apart fairly quickly. Not liking the minority right off the beat, it wasn’t hard for him to stick with the tribal lines and vote out both Jake and Zent. But while doing so, Magnus always thought about flipping (much like everyone else), so at the Final 9, he played a huge role in getting Pierre voted out. But he’s also realized that it may not have been in his best interest to make that move as he was now on the bottom with the trio… or, what used to be the trio as Kam was sent to Ponderosa in 8th.

It was so clear that Magnus was just scraping by each vote, with no real power in the game, it feels like the Pierre boot may have lost him the game. At Final 7, Trish was unanimously voted out. But even with his low chances of winning, Magnus tried to plan out his endgame, only to realize that his only chance of winning may be against Tyler, and even then he wasn’t certain. So after Trey was voted out at 6, Magnus went into 5 believing that he was a goner, which he was. Until Tyler royally screwed up and sent home Mike instead. Taking this miracle with grace, Magnus quickly made a deal with John at F4 to take out Joseph should he lose immunity, Magnus also made a deal with Joseph to make F3, but had the intentions of breaking it.

After winning F4 Immunity, it looked like Magnus would send Joseph home. But after lots of complementation on *John’s* chances of winning (and a little of manipulation by Joseph), Magnus forced a tie between the two of them and sent them to firemaking. Which Joseph won, this move is looked as one of the worst moves in the franchise as Magnus completely threw away his game here, like it or not. As expected Joseph won Final Immunity, and took out Tyler. At the FTC, you could tell Magnus felt like he had no shot. The jurors did as well as they unanimously voted for Joseph to win this season.
Nic Zurzolo

***Nic*** was a castaway on Essential Survivor: Yemen

## Yemen

Nic wasn’t a standout player at all in his time in Yemen. In fact he was quite the opposite. Starting on the Introverts tribe, Nic perceived he had made good bonds with a multitude of people within the tribe. We never got to see much of his strategic side, just a lot of him doing several camp tasks. When Mahjuz went to Tribal Council, he for some reason aligned with Neil, the social pariah, under the impression that Cedrick would be going home. But due to his lackluster connections, the majority alliance of 8 split their votes 4-3 onto both Nic and Neil. Although the plurality was on Neil, he saved himself with an idol, causing Nic’s elimination.

## Voting History

 Merge Level Energy
 I Need A Girlfriend
 Voted Out, Day 5
La Gomera

*La Gomera* is one of the starting tribes on Canary Islands

## Tribe Breakdown

La Gomera is one of two starting tribes in Essential Survivor: Canary Islands, most widely known for its sheer dominance of a record winning ⅚ tribal immunity challenges. Although each challenge wasn’t a complete blowout, these castaways were still able to find a way to win by small margins at almost every challenge. The castaways on this tribe mostly relaxed in the fruits of their labor, where overall activity was fairly low, and strategy was minimal (but still there). The one time they did go to tribal council, they eliminated an inactive player, so even then no one was extremely worried in this tribe. Come the merge, seven castaways represented La Gomera at the merge, where the most successful tribe in history was forced to fight three strong Tenerife players and the arguably more difficult opponents: themselves.
I Think I've Lost It

***I Think I've Lost It*** is the third episode of Essential Survivor: Brazil

## Challenge

**Immunity Challenge**: **Battleship**

For today's challenge, tribes will be hiding 6 battleships on the their idol board. Once they do so, they will alternate taking turns, guessing commands off of the other tribe's board to sink a ship. Whichever tribe sinks all 6 of the other tribes ships wins immunity!

Winner: Janeiro
Evan Hodge

***Evan*** was a castaway on Essential Survivor: Brazil

## Brazil

While being such a Middle-of-the-Road player does have its benefits. For Evan, it may not have worked out too well in his favor. Let’s go over why.

During the marooning, it was known that Evan was selected to be on the Janeiro tribe. After finding a solid ally in Paul, he was suggested by Milo to join the first Janeiro alliance, including himself, Milo, Paul and Payton. Once the first Tribal Council came along, the other three came to a consensus of voting out Trish. Yet Evan disagreed, arguing that the vote should be Jess. But he later compiled, even going as far as guiding Trish’s vote to Dany just so he could guide Dany’s vote to the real target, Trish.

Things were starting to go pretty well for Evan and his position in the game, his name was rarely brought up in confessionals past the first Episode, that is, until the Joint Tribal Council rolled around. To steer the Samba tribe off the alliance’s road, Evan told Adam that Jess, Gavin and Paul were running the show over at Janeiro, and that Paul wanted to flip. Well, Samba ate all that up and began to target Gavin, using Evan as a decoy vote for Rebecca. But that was thrown out the window when the Tae blindside came in at full force, but this isn’t Tae’s game summary.

Fast forward to a couple of days and we’re at the merge, there’s a 7-5 divide between Samba and Janeiro. Janeiro’s target was Adam due to their perception of him leading the Samba alliance, but per usual, Evan disagreed and wanted to go for Brandon, which was shot down immediately. But as the hours counted down to Tribal Council, it became clear that Samba was going to target Paul. Gaining this new info, Evan reported to Payton that something needed to be played for Paul tonight. Payton compiled and used his Legacy Advantage for him. What Evan didn’t know was that in case items were played, Brandon and Adam decided to vote for him. And since the only other counted votes were Lucifer and Kim simply voting for each other, it was only two votes that took Evan out of the game.
Preston Smokevin

***Preston*** was a castaway on Essential Survivor: Yemen

## Yemen

Beginning on the Introverts tribe, Preston had almost no time to really settle in as Neil completely tried to run his game. Roping him into a multitude of alliances, along with making completely out-of-left-field comments and accusations so quickly, it was clear that Preston wasn’t Neil’s biggest fan. In retaliation, Preston created a 6-person majority with Josh, Cedrick, Abigail, Neb, and Zak. But with making this alliance, Preston noticed that he didn’t enjoy over strategizing. He hated how Neil made the game so gamebotty so quick, but that was simply just the nature of the tribe.

During Episode 3, Preston’s mood was uplifted as he found a Hidden Immunity Idol! Unfortunately, Preston does remotely nothing for the rest of the preswap phase, so there isn't much to go over until the swap.

Preston was swapped into a 3-2 majority with Ced and Josh. Originally feeling good about both of them (due to the preexisting alliance), Preston’s perception of Cedrick went down a bit as Cedrick began to throw out the idea of throwing challenges to boot Terry and Cass. (the minority 2) Regardless, Preston planned to stay completely loyal to those alone until a flip was warranted. When they lost their first swapped challenge, (due to Terry dropping out after an 8 hour endurance) Preston morally couldn’t vote out Terry after the work he put in. It seemed like his previous tribemates agreed with him as they willingly voted Cass out as well.

However, going back to tribal again is where things get dicey. Preston was heading into this Tribal believing that Terry had an idol, so in a way to get him to let his guard down, he created an elaborate 2-1-1 vote plan where Cedrick goes home. Feeling like this plan would get around (which it did) Preston was already planning to play his idol and vote for Terry due to his threat level. At Tribal, Preston’s suspicions proved to be true as all three of Cedrick, Josh and Terry voted for him. But thankfully, he negated their votes and sent Terry packing. Unfortunately though, once the tribes merged right after, Preston received really bad news about his personal life and had to walk from the game.
Karmynn Kash

***Karmynn*** was a castaway on Essential Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites. They later returned for Essential Survivor: Peru.

## Fans Vs. Favorites

Karmynn started the game on the Fans tribe. They were interesting to watch early on because they had a secret alliance with Jaylen (until Mark found out) that they were trying to work around. After being included in many alliances early on, the duo formed a trio with Matthew, thinking that they were the complete masterminds and had a stronghold over the game. But their positioning in the tribe begins to decrease as Karmynn starts to give their tribemates reasons not to trust them. For starters, when the tribe planned on having a Tribe Idol Hunt, Karmynn and Jaylen wanted to control who searched in what area. Of course, by now it was clear that the idol was in camp to *everyone*, so when Karmynn assigned Jaylen and them to the camp area, everyone clapped back immediately. Even at the Joint Tribal, when Karmynn was trying to fish for info from the Faves. Apparently it was extremely obvious that they were, and it got around.

Come the merge, Cole wins immunity and the downtime for Tribal begins. The Fans have created this huge alliance with their whole tribe, discussing who to vote for. They decide Aria for lackluster social skills and challenge capability. But this vote wasn’t as cookie cutter as Karmynn believed, the favorites were actually planning to target them. Of course, word about the Karmynn vote got to some of the fans, and in an attempt to gain rapport with the faves & get rid of someone untrustworthy, they took the chance and flipped on Karmynn 9-4.
Midgard's Maze

***Essential Survivor: Midgard's Maze*** is the fourteenth season of Essential Survivor. It marks the beginning of the third era.

This season is easily the biggest black sheep out of them all. Because this is the only season to be prefilmed ahead of time, and made into episodes for people to see. However, due to this sudden change the viewership on this season was extremely low. With many of Essential's biggest supporters tuning out due to the change. Even with those flaws, this season was extremely unpredictable. With a cast full of wild figures, anything could've and DID happen. A season with high ups and low downs, Midgard's Maze is a mid-tier season with a special flair that no other season will have.

## Casting

Casting for Essential Survivor: Midgard's Maze began on November 15th, 2021 and ended on December 31st, 2021. A total of 53 applicants applied for this season, when only **18** got selected to compete in Scandianavia.
Neil Lonk

***Neil*** was a castaway on Essential Survivor: Yemen

## Yemen

Neil is up there with some of the most polarizing castaway to ever play this game. His gameplay was erratic, his speech was blunt, his behavior was interesting, and his end result was not too good. Neil is one of the first people to ever get clapped out of Tribal Council by his tribe. Let’s see what Neil did to garner those reactions.

From Day 1 Neil was extremely crazy during the game. Making several alliances with tribemates, and assuming his social capital based off of one sentence, Neil was off to a pretty bad start. It didn’t help either when during the opening challenge, he made his team sit out as he was ‘too good’ (to be fair, he did carry them to the win). Cedrick, challenged his opinion, trying to get others included. Neil immediately took this to offense, making Cedrick his main target and making all of his alliances know that as well. To make matters even wilder, he found an idol… I’m sure you guys can imagine how that went.

While Neil continues to demolish his social capital with people, an alliance made up of Abigail, Preston, Neb, Josh, Cedrick and Zak is made specifically to target Neil. When Mahjuz went to Tribal, Neil’s target was still Cedrick. As he campaigned no one was planning to go through with that (save Nic, for some reason) and the plan was to blindside Neil. Fortunately for him, he felt bad vibes from everyone during the Tribal Discussion, and played his idol. Negating 4 votes and saving himself, unfortunately his ally Nic was taken out instead. But in true Neil fashion, he believed that Nic didn’t vote with him. He thought that *Zak* was the true ally of his, and he could only trust him.

Now out of anger that his tribe ‘defied’ him, Neil goes on a rampage and breaks the shelter. Blaming it on his ‘drinking and smoking problems’ (he’s 16). So he goes and tries to make it up, trying to build another shelter in place of the old one… only to break it once more. By now, everyone was truly fed up with Neil and his antics. So when Mahjuz lost their second challenge, Neil must’ve been Dan Ghessling to get out of this. Of course, Neil isn’t Dan and pretty much solidified his departure by berating his tribemates. The worst part is that, as he campaigned for Neb (Neil thought that he threw the challenge) he was gaining traction. Cedrick, Essence and Josh were all considering voting for Neb… until Neil ruined their trust and basically gave up. During Tribal Council, it was a Neil ambush by the whole tribe. So by the end result and Neil getting his torch snuffed, you almost felt bad for the guy.

## Voting History

 Merge Level Energy
 I Need A Girlfriend
 Voted Out, Day 7
Did I Clown Again

***Did I Clown Again*** is the sixth episode of Essential Survivor: Scotland

## Challenge

**Immunity Challenge**: **Puzzle Duels**

• Welcome @Castaways to your sixth immunity challenge!

• You each will be paired with someone from the opposing tribe. Your one and only goal is to have a quicker time than them. If you manage to do so, you earn a point. First tribe to 3 points wins!

• Like always, the losers will be seeing me at tribal, where one of you will become the seventh person voted out of this game.

Winner: Uisge
Oma Kin

***Oma*** was a castaway on Essential Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites

## Fans Vs. Favorites

Oma was the clear fan typecast this season. He had a bunch of knowledge about the game. Especially over his ‘fan’ tribe, who knew little to nothing about the franchise sans Mark. Oma was able to make somewhat decent connections with people such as Despair and Kristin, but when he started to flaunt his knowledge of Essential, Kahu decided that it’d be far too risky to keep him in as he could potentially flip.

During the 2nd Kahu tribal, while Oma pushed for Mark (and was extremely confident that he was leaving), he got voted out 8-1 in one of Essential’s biggest blindsides ever.

## Voting History

 Ain't No Damn Fish Here
 THROW SOME NAMES OUT
 Fade Back To Obscurity
 A Ditzy Naive Little Kid
 Voted Out, Day 9
Can We Say Clusterfuck

***Can We Say Clusterfuck*** is the eighth episode of Essential Survivor: Togo

## Challenge

**Immunity Challenge**: **Emoji Theft**

A list of emojis will be sent out each round, whoever doesn't claim (send out) an emoji differing from everyone else stays in the round. We continue this format until 1 person wins.

Winner: Aidan

## Trivia

* This episode was named after Leetah's quote.
Okay, I Did Not Expect That

***Okay, I Did Not Expect*** is the penultimate episode of Essential Survivor: Brazil

## Challenge

**Immunity Challenge**: **Double Puzzle Trouble**

At the beginning of the challenge, I'll send out two puzzle links. One being a 50-piece jigsaw puzzle, and the other being a 4x4 slide puzzle. Whoever's the first to finsih both, sending the screenshots to me wins Immunity. Moving onto the Final Five. Also, since this isn't a traditional LIVE challenge, if nobody completes the challenge in 12 hours, nobody gets immunity and everyone goes to Tribal with nothing.

Winner: Paul
Owen Zielinski

***Owen*** was a castaway on Essential Survivor: Yemen

## Yemen

Owen, much like a majority of these swap boots, played a minor role in this season. He landed on the Extroverts tribe, where he undoubtedly belonged. However Owen’s overall game can be described by an old phrase, ‘wrong place, wrong time’. There wasn’t anything Owen relatively did wrong to cause his boot, he was more so just unlucky.

On the Extroverts tribe, Owen had a solid beginning. He made it into the majority alliance, where once they lost the challenge, decided on Tony as a vote. Owen only heard Tony that round, so a little paranoia was installed in him. But everything went smoothly as Tony was booted. Although, he did receive a vote. And before he could even search for the culprit, Joshua came to him right after Tribal to confess. Owen found it a little odd, but his main priority was keeping the alliance intact for as long as possible.

At the second Munfatih Tribal, Owen felt really solid with his group of Alison, Cass, Felix, Khamp. Khamp seemed to be the leader in his eyes, throwing out Matt’s name. And not wanting to make a rift and potentially get a flip organized onto him, Owen reluctantly agreed. Despite their solid relationship. But misfortune soon struck when the vote came out 5-4 with *Khamp* going home. Even though an alliance member was lost, Owen chose to be positive and be happy that he remained in the game. Even believing that he was in the best position compared to allies Alison and Cass due to their angry responses.

Coming into the swap, Owen swapped into the majority but with Felix and Matt as old tribemates. Owen was fine with Felix, but not too excited to see Matt due to the previous TC. Regardless they all aligned for the first swapped TC by voting out Seal. However in the very next Tribal, Owen was blindsided due to Neb getting himself in with Felix and Matt.

## Voting History

 Merge Level Energy
 I Need A Girlfriend
 Petty With A Capital P
 Why Don't I Drink More
 Step 1: Blowjob
 I Hope I'm Not In The Minority
 Loyalty Above All Else
 Voted Out, Day 15
It's Not Over Until CK Sings

***It's Not Over Until CK Sings*** is the finale episode of Essential Survivor: Japan

## Challenge

**Immunity Challenge**: **Puzzled**

• Welcome Castaways, now the 6 of you covet Individual Immunity. Let's get started

• For today’s challenge you will be given a puzzle. It's simple. Best time wins individual immunity. But to make sure that no one gets an easier advantage... the puzzle you're completing is a pattern. Sure to trip up any AND everyone! Best time wins and guarantees themselves a seat at the Final Five!

• Shall we begin?

Winner: Jay

## Challenge

**Immunity Challenge**: **Majority Rules**

• Welcome Castaways, now the 5 of you covet Individual Immunity. Let's get started

• For today’s challenge you will be given an arrangement of questions you are supposed to answer. The people who answer in the majority keep going while the people who answer in the minority are out, once we hit the last 2 people, a tie-breaker question will decide who wins individual immunity.

• Shall we begin?

Winner: Enrique

## Challenge

**Immunity Challenge**: **Trials**

• Welcome Castaways, now the 4 of you covet Individual Immunity. Let's get started

• For today’s challenge you will be given 3 tasks to do. For each task, a point system is present. First place will get 4 points, 2nd will get 3 points, so on and so forth. Whoever has the most points by the end of the 3 tasks wins Final Immunity!

• Shall we begin?

Winner: Enrique
Adventure Time, Part 1

***Adventure Time, Part 1*** is the penultimate episode of Essential Survivor: Saint Martin

## Challenge

**Immunity Challenge**: **Trials**
Castaways will compete in three different activities. For each activity, castaways will receive points depending on where they ranked between everyone. Whoever has the most points by the end wins immunity.

Winner: Jayden

## Trivia

* This episode's title was said by Jayden
Anarchy

***Essential Survivor: Anarchy*** is the seventh season of Essential Survivor. Also marking the second era of the franchise.

In terms of newbie casting, this season may just be the closest to Brazil, if not better. This cast was *electric*, and with a twist that forces them to make connections with as many people as possible, rivalries and friendships alike, formed and blew up FAST. This is the second season to bear an even-gendered cast, and even with a less-than-exciting finish, this season is best-known for its female dominance, polarizing cast, and a great start to the 2nd era of this franchise.

## Casting

Casting for Essential Survivor: Anarchy began on November 9th, 2020 and ended on December 20th, 2020. A total of 79 applicants applied for this season, when only **18** got selected to compete in Chile.

## Changes

* A food system was put in place, along with an all-new interactive idol system.

## Twists

* **One Tribe**: From the Marooning, the Castaways were all put on one tribe where only half he remaining competitors will go to Tribal.
* **Tribe Assignment**: At the Final Fourteen, the castaways were separated into two different tribes.
* **Forced Firemaking**: At the Final Four, instead of a normal Tribal Council, the immunity winner would choose to drag someone to the Final 3, while the other two players battled for the final spot in a firemaking showdown.
Fans vs. Favorites

***Essential Survivor: Fans Vs. Favorites*** is the tenth season of Essential Survivor.

After Season 8, returnee seasons weren't the most popular, but this season definitely gave what S8 didn't get. We had a fiery premerge due to one of the most dynamic tribes ever in Punahele. YEG was the talk of the town as the game continued, and despite a lackluster endgame, we got what appears to be the most dominant winner in Essential Survivor history.

## Casting

Casting for Essential Survivor: Fans Vs. Favorites began on May 4th, 2021 and ended on May 14th, 2021. A total of 46 applicants applied for this season, when only **10** got selected to compete in Hawaii.

Alongside them, 17 previous castaways were put on a ballot to be voted into the game by the public, 10 of them made the cut

## Twists

* **Fans Vs. Favorites**: Ten new contestants, who are fans of the ORG, will face ten of the ORG's most popular contestants.
* **Joint Tribal Council**: On Day 11, both tribes went to the beach area due to them joining together as one to vote someone out. Despite that, one person from each tribe won immunity beforehand.
* **Forced Firemaking**: At the Final Four, instead of a normal Tribal Council, the immunity winner would choose to drag someone to the Final 3, while the other two players battled for the final spot in a firemaking showdown.
I'm Making New Friends

***I'm Making New Friends*** is the swap episode of Essential Survivor: Scotland

## Challenge

**Immunity Challenge**: **Guessing Game**

• Welcome @Castaways to your fourth immunity challenge!

• I'll send out a game called 'Higher or Lower'. The goal to the game is to advance further as you guess if a Google Search is higher or lower than its estimated amount. You can send as many times as needed, but your final submission will count in the end, unless stated otherwise. USE CLASSIC MODE

• The tribe with the lowest average score, will be seeing me at tribal, where one of you will become the fifth person voted out of this game.
Barsam Hantz

***Barsam*** was a castaway on Essential Survivor: Japan

## Japan

It’s never fun to eliminate someone over a simple mistake, especially after a great start to the season. But unfortunately, Barsam was on the receiving end of it. After barely making the cut-off on the older Furui tribe, he was eager to get this game going. He made close connections with Ace, Jack, and Enrique in the premiere episode. At the upcoming one though, he had underestimated the intensity of the challenge, getting burnt out within a matter of mere minutes. But despite his strong efforts, Furui came up short, notably due to Luke, who barely contributed. So when Barsam was included in the majority alliance to vote off Luke, Barsam leaving would be completely out-of-the-ordinary. But once Barsam made the fatal mistake of sending screenshots to said alliance chat, he was immediately removed from the game.

## Voting History

 See You After The Vote Count
Nova Johnson

***Nova*** was a castaway on Essential Survivor: South Korea.

## South Korea

Despite being the 3rd person voted off, Nova had a strong game during her season. She was placed on the beauty tribe and quickly bonded and felt comfortable with everyone, placing her in the middle of her tribe between outsiders Winston and Dawit, and the 'Slayers' alliance.

with Emmanuel, Kae, and Rachel. She saw Emmanuel as sneaky, and perceived Rachel to be the 'tribe favorite.' The first tribe was an easy Winston vote off, but the second round is when the whole tribe fell apart.

First, the episode starts with Nova thinking about voting off Kae, a name floating around the campsite. This idea would come into play after the beauty tribe's disastrous challenge performance, where they were supposed to spam a message in one channel for as much as possible. 8 Hours in, Nova notices that the entire tribe is sending the wrong message, which directly affected their loss. The day of tribal, Nova was extremely paranoid, hoping that the tribe didn't throw the challenge to get her out, seeing Kae giving her a fish as a sign of trouble, and talking with Dawit that Kae had an idol. Kae did, in fact, have an idol, and was tipped off by Rachel to play it at the next tribal council, which ended up having Kae vote for Nova at the next tribal council. Despite tribe talks about throwing a vote on Emmanuel as insurance, the vote was 4\*-1, with Kae playing her idol, and the 1 vote for Nova being enough to end her game.

## Voting History

 I Think We're The Actual Brains Tribe
 She Understood the Assignment
 Voted Out, Day 7
Backstabbers Get Stabbed

***Backstabbers Get Stabbed*** is the sixth episode of Essential Survivor: Togo

## Challenge

**Immunity Challenge**: **Guessing Game**

• Welcome Castaways to your sixth immunity challenge! This challenge is really straightforward, so let's not do too much chattering at let's get right on into it!

• I'll send out a game called 'Higher or Lower'. The goal to the game is to advance further as you guess if a Google Search is higher or lower than its estimated amount. You can send as many times as needed, but your final submission will count in the end, unless stated otherwise.

• The tribe with the lowest average score, will be seeing me at tribal, where one of you will become the fourth person voted out of this game.

Winner: Tchamba

## Trivia

* This episode was named after Jack's quote.
Jonathan Hookano

***Jonathan*** (more commonly known as **Jon**) was a castaway on Essential Survivor: Canary Islands

## Canary Islands

Jon played a minor role in the Canary Islands’ storyline. This high school graduate and proud stoner is not someone you expect to see on Survivor, and his story is a lesson on why you should never do drugs, kids.

Jon’s game started out fairly well. His confidence helped him make good first day bonds with Vince, Greenberg, and Tai, he was attempting to reconnect with Claire from a past ORG, and the people he didn’t bond tightly with at first were willing to give him more chances to get to know him. He wasn’t a major force in the first episode where Brenden was voted off, but his fairly good position fell fast in the second episode.

Firstly, during the scavenger hunt challenge, he submitted the bare minimum of one object so that his tribe won’t get penalized, and it is reported by his tribemates that he was smoking pot with his friends during most of the challenge. This, along with making a five person alliance called the high fives with himself, Vince, Claire, Chelsea, and Greenberg, pushing for Jack to leave (for being on the outside of his alliance), and a revelation that he was idol searching, all added up to Claire targeting him for overplaying, spreading his name around camp. Throughout tribal council day, more people slowly lost trust in Jon whether it be socially or physically, and he was booted out of the game in 15th place, blazing it up on the plane ride home.

## Voting History

 It's Herpes
 Italian Stallion
 Voted Out, Day 6