Week 3: Alliances

I hope everyone is having a lovely Thanksgiving weekend and while we’re on the subject of giving thanks; one thing I am incredibly thankful for is that even after 21 years, Survivor continues to grace us with its presence.

To all of my lovely blog readers the moment has come, we are finally getting into the heart of the game; specifically the different elements that allow winners to rise to victory. This week I felt that it was fitting to begin with…ALLIANCES!

Now the exact definition of alliance states “An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been work out among them”. But you may be wondering how are alliances utilized in Survivor? Well to answer that we need to go back 21 years to Survivor: Borneo (the very first season).

Richard Hatch, (pictured below competing in Borneo) was the first winner of Survivor and he was the one who actually “invented” alliances that are still seen in not just Survivor but many reality competition shows across the world. Keep in mind Survivor was a new show that no one had heard of certainly not the players so they had absolutely no idea what to expect. Off the bat, Hatch understood that Survivor wasn’t just a simple survive in the wild kind of game but a social, strategic game. He stated that a player would find it almost impossible to win without a tight group of people surrounding said player. With this idea in mind he formed a close relationship with three other players Rudy Boesch, Kelly Wiglesworth, and Susan Hawk. The four united to form the first ever voting alliance meaning that at every tribal council they voted the exact same way and made sure that the person voted off was not any of them. The strategy was extremely effective resulting in the successful elimination of every single member of the other tribe come merge and the elimination of every other person in their own tribe that wasn’t in the alliance. The foursome reached the final four where they ultimately had to turn on one another. Hatch emerged victorious but ever since then alliances have become a staple of the Survivor game.

The influence of alliances on Survivor particularly the voting aspect is monumental. They have become a fundamental strategy even players who don’t necessarily fit the “strategic” mode have been in alliances or even implemented them. It should be noted that making an alliance hasn’t always guaranteed success, as many alliances have been broken up due to issues lack of trust or tribal switches. Despite the hurdles, alliances tend to be helpful in getting farther in the game seen in the fact that a majority of Sole Survivors have been in dominating alliances and ALL Sole Survivors have been in an alliance at one point or another.

Now those of you who have watched Survivor many years should be familiar with the name Rob Mariano. Considered by many as one of the best players of all time his winning season is what I believe demonstrates the extraordinary power alliances have in the game.

Rob’s winning season was Survivor: Redemption Island now in a continuation of their feud in Heroes vs. Villains Rob and the infamous Russell Hantz joined the cast with all new players. Mariano quickly established a leader role with his likeability and hard work ethic. Forming a majority alliance within his tribe he easily eliminated threats to his game that saw through his huge strategic prowess. Now the only hinderance to Rob’s game was the inclusion of Redemption Island which saw eliminated players battling each other for a chance to return to the game. Going into the merge a player named Matt who had previously been eliminated from Rob’s old tribe returned to the game.

With 12 players at merge Rob had the majority with his tight alliance of 6 plus Matt versus the other tribes 5. However Matt was unsure of whether to go along with Rob’s alliance as he was voted out from his old tribe before merge. Matt eventually decided to still with Rob for the time being but not before stupidly telling Rob that he had been going back and forth. Rob realized that Matt had to be sent back to Redemption Island and gathered his allies to blindside Matt a potential number for them instead of just picking off one of the other tribe members. In doing this move, Rob single-handedly took control of the whole game as he sent a message to his alliance that if any of them showed any signs of wavering that they would be next. Matt was blindsided and after that Rob controlled every single vote. He was able to reach the final tribal council where he was praised for his dominance but also for keeping his alliance on a fixed mindset while systematically leading them to the slaughter. Below I have included the tribal council where Matt was voted off just to show you how shocked Matt and the other tribe was.

Now there have been plenty of other winners that have been in beneficial alliances throughout the game but I believe that Rob blows them all out of the water when it comes to domination within the alliance. I hope now you have been able to understand how alliances work within Survivor and how having people you “trust” and I say that word loosely will allow you to not only be protected but eliminate common enemies.

If you’re watching the current season of Survivor then you will know that already there are alliances in play. On Yase, there is a female alliance between Evvie, Liana, and Tiffany, Ua shows Shan, Ricard, and JD seemingly working together and Luvu has Danny and Deshawn as a tight pair. But who knows if these alliances will even be intact in the next few episodes as that is how fast it takes for the game to change on a dime.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s Surviving with Lucas blog post and next time we will be analyzing the all important immunity challenges and how winners have used them to win the title. Remember to tune in to Survivor 41 airing Wednesday’s at 5pm and 8pm 🙂