Dacota Weiegert

### Tribe(s)

Stark Tribe, Merge Tribe (Winter War)Snakes Tribe, Scorpions Tribe, Merge Tribe (Battle Royale)

### Finish

8/15 (Winter War)Co-Runner-Up (Battle Royale)

### Alliances

Steph Krug, Ness Mulyk, Jadon Selsmeyer, Collin Hinz (Winter War)Bri England, Maggie McNulty, Bailey McDonald, Ryley Lancaster (Battle Royale)

### Votes Against

9 (Winter War)1 (Battle Royale)

**Dacota Weiegert** was a contestant on Survivor: Winter War and was the co-runner-up of Survivor: Battle Royale.

Although Dacota would attempt to play both sides on her time in the game, she is ultimately remembered for accidentally outing her ally's true position in the game at the merge. This, in turn, would cause the demise of her alliance and eventually her own demise in the game. Dacota would return to *Survivor: Battle Royale*, where she would be helpful in campaigning and executing multiple blindsides throughout the season, where her work would help her to get enough jury votes to share the co-runner-up spot in the season.

## Survivor: Winter War

Dacota would start the game on the Stark Tribe, and after returning player Tom would start a hidden immunity idol hunt, Dacota would search together with Steph and Jadon, and the three of them would align together, but they would not be able to find the hidden immunity idol. At the first immunity challenge, Dacota would gain safety as Arthur's efforts would help their tribe to win immunity.

After her ally, Steph, made great success at the immunity challenge, Dacota would be spared from tribal council once again. At their camp, Dacota and the others on her tribe would all see Jack as a bit more of a threat, eyeballing and nicknaming him as the "Jack of all trades". Dacota would take pride and comfort getting second place once again, as it kept her safe and gave her more time to bond with her tribe. Dacota would be safe yet again, as the Stark Tribe would win the second place immunity for the third time in a row. However, only Dacota would have this win come at a cost, as her boyfriend, Casey, would be eliminated from the Targaryen Tribe at their third straight tribal council, leaving her with one less ally in the game.

However, Dacota's woes would not stop there, as a tribe swap would shake up her game even further. She would be at a much riskier position when the Stark Tribe lost their designated target, Arthur, who was swapped to the Lannister Tribe. The new Stark Tribe would consist of the old Stark Tribe, minus Arthur but with the addition of two former Lannisters, Adam and Sam. Dacota would give her best at the next immunity challenge for her tribe, but it would not be enough, as the Stark Tribe would lose their first immunity challenge of the season. Dacota would earn the ire of her ally Jadon, who quickly turned his back on her and attempted to target her for her challenge performance. However, she would find an unsuspecting savior in Tom, who would not only sway the vote away from her, but would sway the vote onto Jadon. At tribal council, Dacota would be spared, and Jadon would be taken out of the game by a 4-1-1 vote, with her remaining ally, Steph, throwing her vote onto Sam after a confusing talk between the two girls led Steph to believe that Sam was still the target.

Dacota would be spared from more heartache in the game, as the Stark Tribe would win the next immunity challenge, thus keeping Dacota safe until the merge.

At the merge, Dacota would find many opportunities with alliances, and would even realign with Jadon and Steph and align with Collin and Ness. After Ness won the first individual immunity challenge, they convened together and found out that Dacota was the new name being thrown out the most by the other alliance now that Ness was immune, and they were using Collin as recon as he was being thrown between multiple alliances. However, this advantage would not stay for long, as when she was approached by Griffin about the vote, she accidentally leaked out Collin's true position by saying she needed to talk to Collin about her vote, basically leaking that they were aligned. Realizing he was being manipulated by Collin, who was trying to play both sides, Griffin remembered his alliances only wanted to target Ness because of her connection and ties to Collin. Griffin used the info she accidentally gave him to get his alliance to target Collin and get him out quickly. Dacota could only watch in misery as she recognized her mistake caused the demise of Collin's game, costing her another ally in the game and leaving her down in numbers.

Low in numbers, Dacota would attempt to start trying to weed out information from the Lannister 5 and Tom. They would feel secure keeping her around and would give her information that she in turn would go and tell her alliance of. Although she would heavily campaign for Tom's ousting in the game, she would ultimately attempt to make a move and would help to get rid of Griffin at the next tribal council, making a big blindside. However, things would not stay looking pretty for long, as Dacota would be put back on the bottom after it was revealed that a second tribal council would happen then and there. Dacota would attempt to sway others to go and vote for Tom, and in her own alliance she would be successful. However, she would ultimately not win this battle, as she would lose another ally as she saw Jadon get taken out of the game once again.

After Dacota's ally, Steph, won the next individual immunity challenge, Dacota thought of herself to be in a good position. However, her talking to both sides put everyone in a state of concern, and Dacota's name would start coming up for the vote once again. Despite this, some within the Lannister 5, now with Tom taking Griffin's spot, wanted to keep Dacota around, seeing her as one of the least threatening remaining in her own alliance. Dacota would once again attempt to talk to the others to get Tom out, and she was approached by others to take out her ally, Ness. Dacota's name would continue to come up more and more by the Lannister 5, and at tribal council, her name would come up on multiple votes alongside Ness and Tom. However, Ness would play a hidden immunity idol on herself, saving her but leaving Dacota exposed on the revote. Fearing having to draw rocks, everyone, with the exception of Ness, was quick to turn their backs on her, voting her out 5-1 on the revote. Dacota would become the 9th person voted out of the game and become the 4th member of the jury, and she would place 8th out of 15th overall for this season.

At the jury roundtable, Dacota would not have much to discuss, but would be very curious about what the finalists would say.

At the Final Tribal Council, Dacota asked all of the finalists about what they would do with the money if they would win. Dacota would then go on to vote for Tom to win the game. This, in turn, would lead to the game's second tied vote at the Final Tribal Council.

While Dacota did not show up to the *Survivor: Winter War Reunion Episode*, she was mentioned on multiple occasions by multiple contestants in response to her attempting to play both sides and with how she unintentionally blew up Collin's game, which in turn helped to cause her demise later down the line.

## Survivor: Battle Royale

Dacota would begin her game on the Snakes Tribe, where she would immediately be included in the majority group who wanted to take out Jack and Erica for their status as a couple outside the game. Luckily for Dacota, she would get the perfect opportunity to do this, as her tribe lost the first immunity challenge. At camp, she would campaign hard to the others on her tribe to keep this plan in motion, and would help to specify which of the targets would be eliminated. At tribal council, Dacota would help to vote Erica out of the game, as her tribe would see her as the weaker of their two targets going forward. Dacota would continue to bond with others with the game, especially with Bailey and Sam. Her tribe would be very lucky, as they would win the next immunity challenge and would not have to go back to tribal council.

A tribe swap would send Dacota, Bailey, and Jack to the new Scorpions Tribe, where they would play the game together alongside Bri, from the original Scorpions Tribe. At their new camp, Dacota and the women of her tribe would immediately plot against Jack, as Bailey made big campaigns to get him out should they lose an immunity challenge. However, Dacota had many talks with Bri where they both considered the opportunity to blindside Bailey instead, as the two of them saw their fellow female ally as a bigger target in comparison to Jack. This would not be a matter of concern for Dacota at the moment though, as the new Scorpions Tribe would win the next two immunity challenges, not only making an immunity streak but also making way for Dacota to enter the merge once again.

Merge: Even though Dacota would not win the first individual immunity challenge of the season, she would be successful in keeping herself in the loop of everything occurring around her as Jack and Bailey would become the two targets fighting to stay alive in the game. At tribal council, Bailey would receive and negate Dacota's vote against her, shocking Dacota and sending Jack out of the game. When picking partners for the next immunity challenge, Dacota was about to pick another player when Casey, now her ex-boyfriend and fellow *Survivor: Winter War* returnee, picked Giselle, forcing her out of the individual immunity challenge. At camp, she would spend time looking for advantages and would get lucky and find a *Steal-A-Vote* Advantage. Dacota would then take her vengeance out against Casey by campaigning against him, which was not too difficult for her to do, as Casey was unintentionally rubbing people the wrong way. Dacota would use this to her advantage and would help to convince the others to vote him off in a unanimous 8-1 vote. However, Dacota would also have been involved in discussions with some of the other females in the game, such as Bailey and Sam, who wanted to take a jab at Devin, as they all saw him as a major threat down the line. These discussions would help her to participate in Devin's blindside after Giselle would correctly use a hidden immunity idol on herself to negate the votes against her.

Although Dacota would lose the next individual immunity challenge, her involvement in many talks with Bri would help to set a target on Bailey, a big threat that the both of them wanted out of the game. Using their connections to Maggie and Dacota's *Steal-A-Vote* Advantage, she was able to successfully blindside Bailey and eliminate one of her biggest competitors in the game. Dacota would not win the next individual immunity challenge, but she would see that Bri was a lot bigger of a threat than she once thought she was. Alongside Giselle and Sam, Dacota would work to attempt to convince the others to take out Bri, but it was of no use. At tribal council, a tied vote would occur twice, and Dacota would have to draw rocks with Maggie and Hunter. Dacota would be spared while Hunter would be eliminated, securing Dacota more time in the game to plot and scheme.

Dacota would finally catch a lucky break in the game, as she would win her first individual immunity challenge. Seeing this as a big opportunity, and agreeing with Bri on the notion that they did not feel that Maggie was "deserving" enough to reach the end of the game, they both decided to convince the others to take out Giselle. At tribal council, their campaigns on Maggie would be enough to keep her flame alive, and Giselle would be eliminated, getting Dacota one step closer to the end. After losing the Final Individual Immunity Challenge of the season to Bri, Dacota was immediately sent into the game's first *Final 4 Passage Challenge* alongside Maggie to compete for her life in the game, the winner would make the end, the loser would be eliminated and join the jury. Fortunately for Dacota, she would be able to beat the odds and eliminate Maggie from the game, securing her spot in the Final Tribal Council.

At the Final Tribal Council, Dacota would give a good campaign for her game, with her strategy and social game being highlighted in it when the jury discussed her. However, this would only be enough to secure her two votes from the jury from Maggie and Bailey. Dacota would tie with Sam for the runner-up spot of the season, and would place 2nd out of 14th.

At the *Survivor: Battle Royale Reunion Episode*, Dacota would be asked about her game, specifically about her game and the voteoff of her ex-boyfriend and fellow player Casey, the latter of whom was not in attendance at the reunion. In response to her game, she stated that her game involves talking to everyone with a desire to know what is happening around her and said that people now know how she would always approach the game. In response to Casey's voteoff, she stated confusion as to why he had attempted to target her the entire game, mentioning that she believed she played poorly enough in her previous season to a point where targeting her for elimination did not make much sense to many of the players.

## Trivia

* Dacota is the first contestant to be eliminated in a 3-Way tie where another contestant saved themselves with a hidden immunity idol, this occurring in *Survivor: Winter War.*
* Dacota is the first person to win the *Final 4 Passage Challenge*, doing so in *Survivor: Battle Royale.*
* Both times Dacota has played the game, she was immune from the second and third tribal councils of the season.
* Both times Dacota played the game, she would cast her vote at the sixth tribal council of the season against a former player from *Survivor: Battle for Cambridge*.
* Dacota is one of the first three people to be involved in a three-person rock drawing, the other two being Hunter Heschke and Maggie McNulty.
* Dacota is the only finalist on *Survivor: Battle Royale* to have not been at the Final Tribal Council in a prior season.
* Dacota is the only female contestant from *Survivor: Winter War* to not be on *Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites: Revenge of the Fallen*.