(FILL IN YOUR NAME) WINS IMMUNITY!!! Imagine just having Jeff Probst shout that phrase on Survivor.
Welcome back to Surviving With Lucas it’s a wonderful Sunday and you know what time it is. Last week we discussed the dynamics of what makes an alliance in Survivor and today as promised we’ll be looking at the all important individual immunity challenges.
In Week 2: Basics of the Game I talked a little about what individual immunity challenges are. Once merge hits, every day before that night’s tribal council all the remaining players compete in an immunity challenge where 1 person wins the immunity necklace (sometimes twists result in more than 1 person winning). The winner of the immunity necklace CANNOT be voted out at tribal council which makes it a coveted prize.
Immunity Challenges have been in place since Season 1 but you may be wondering why do they contribute so much to winning the game? I mean the true heart of Survivor is voting people off so what does that have to do with a stupid necklace?
The most important thing about immunity challenges is that YOU CAN ALWAYS RELY ON THEM. Say you’re in the game and everyone is gunning for you to leave and you’re back is completely up against the wall. The immunity challenge is ONE way where you can save yourself immediately; all you have to do is win and then suddenly you’re safe and everyone else is left scrambling.
To give you guys an example I want to talk about Mike Holloway the winner off Survivor: Worlds Apart. Going into the merge Mike was sitting pretty with his alliance from pre-merge but unaware to him a few of his alliance members started to plot against him and formed an “inner alliance”. Mike actually overheard the “inner alliance’s” plans to blindside him and even though he did expose them to the rest of the tribe he found himself on the bottom. With 9 people left in the game you may be wondering how the heck did Mike win that season? Two words: Immunity Challenges. Mike went on to win 5 of the last 6 immunity challenges and played a hidden immunity idol (we will discuss idols next week) the only week he didn’t have the necklace essentially bringing himself to the end of the game on immunity alone. Mike shares the record for most individual immunity wins in a season with 5 and he truly shows just how powerful immunity challenges can be.
Yes Survivor at its core is a social, strategic game but if you can BEAST out in the challenges then it doesn’t matter if you’re on the bottom because you will guarantee yourself a spot in the final three.
There is much debate within the Survivor Community on if winners that have to rely on immunity challenges necessarily deserve to win as without them they would most-likely be eliminated. I will offer my overall opinions in my final video where I answer what is the BEST way to win at Survivor.
For now I’ll ask you, “Do you believe that players who win immunity after immunity deserve to win at the end”?
That’s it for now! I hope you all have a wonderful week and I will see you next Sunday.
-Lucas 🙂
October 17, 2021 at 5:13 pm
Hey Lucas!
Love the Survivor series continuation! I think that in order to be the BEST survivor you need to successfully compete both physically and strategically. While I do love a good survival story when you’re a threat to win because you’re so likeable and then you beast the challenges and survive to go on to win, if everyone wants you out because you suck as a person then maybe you should just snuff the torch and go. I also appreciate that the immunity challenges are diverse so you don’t just have to physically beast, you need the brains too.
I think the flip side is interesting too, people who don’t win ANY immunity challenges and make it to the end to win just on sheer strategic play. Just ties in your discussion on all the ways you can win survivor.
Just my takes! I’ll keep following along, very excited to see your final hot take!