Koror

Koror was a tribe on Survivor: Palau.

Koror (named for the capital city of Palau) was one of two tribes of nine castaways that were chosen in a schoolyard pick'em in episode 1001. The tribe won every single immunity challenge and is considered the most dominant tribe in the history of the show. Six of the seven jury members and both members of the final two started the game on Koror. Koror's tribe color was brown.

Original Members
The Koror tribe initially consisted of:


 * Coby Archa
 * Gregg Carey
 * Katie Gallagher
 * Caryn Groedel
 * Jenn Lyon
 * Ian Rosenberger
 * Willard Smith
 * Janu Tornell
 * Tom Westman

Additional Members
On day twenty-two, Koror officially conquered the Ulong tribe and absorbed its last member:


 * Stephenie LaGrossa

Tribe History
The Koror tribe was largely seen as the team of underdogs in the opening stages of Palau. Of its nine tribe members, only three (Gregg Carey, Katie Gallagher, and Ian Rosenberger) were under thirty. Two (Caryn Groedel and Tom Westman) were in their forties, and one (Willard Smith) was over fifty. This was a stark contrast to the much-younger Ulong, in which seven of the tribe's nine castaways were in their twenties. In addition, the challenges on this particular season seemed largely physical, putting Koror at an apparent disadvantage.

Koror overcame the odds and was victorious at the first immunity challenge, giving them the choice between staying back at the large communal camp created over the first two days, or leave for a new island. Under Tom's guidance, the tribe left for a new adventure and a new island. Much to their surprise and disgust, their new home was teeming with rats, which caused a rift between Tom and Caryn, who was annoyed with the quickly made decision. The tribe was also devastated when their outrigger canoe capsized on the way to their new camp, sending the crate carrying the flint they had won at the challenge to the ocean floor.

Koror rallied and ably recovered the flint, giving them the opportunity to make fire. The group settled into a comfortable dynamic, with Tom and Ian taking the roles of leader and provider, respectively. Tom, Ian and their day one ally Katie held the majority of the power in the tribe, and quickly joined together with the dyad team of Gregg and Jenn Lyon to form a majority alliance. This "popular kids" alliance was viewed with scorn by the four outsiders; Coby Archa, in particular, held animosity toward the fivesome and specifically Tom, whom Coby felt had a condescending attitude. Koror continued to win immunity challenges, and thus never faced the need to strategize or go to Tribal Council. This was a double-edged sword: while no one was vulnerable, many members of the tribe were eager to strategize and start eliminating potential threats or liabilities. It was also at this time that the relationship between Caryn and Katie fractured, with the pair becoming mutually annoyed with one another, and the bond between Gregg and Jenn strengthened and became romantic in nature. The couple also planned an exit strategy in order to betray the more powerful members of their alliance, plotting a secondary alliance with Coby and Janu Tornell.

On day nine, Ian led the tribe to victory in a construction reward challenge. This earned Koror the reward of having the Survivor production crew build them a top-of-the-line shelter, picnic table, and patio. By this point, their domination of Ulong had become total: they had been victorious in four straight immunity challenges, and they lived in luxury while Ulong existed in squalor. The Koror challenge team of Gregg, Ian and Tom was seen as unbeatable and compensated for the weaker members of the tribe like Caryn, Katie and Willard.

On day twelve, Koror was forced by necessity to go to Tribal Council for the first time when Jeff Probst surprised the tribes by announcing a double boot. Koror fought back by winning the subsequent reward challenge, earning themselves a beef stew feast and the right to sit in on the losing Ulong's fifth Tribal Council. When called upon to vote, Koror unanimously eliminated Willard, who had resigned himself to his fate and was seen as a liability to the group. Before Ulong was to vote, the Koror tribe was allowed to select one member of the losing tribe to receive immunity. Koror voted, and the immunity was given to Ibrehem Rahman, who was to be voted out that night. Koror returned to camp, and Angie Jakusz was voted out of the game instead.

Koror continued along its path of luxury and victory, with Ian routinely bringing in giant clams and Tom capturing a shark by goring it with his machete. The alliance of five continued to run the show, against increasing resentment from Coby. Koror won the next three immunity challenges, eventually reducing Ulong to its last remaining member: Stephenie LaGrossa.

On day twenty-two, Stephenie became a member of Koror. Reactions to her arrival were mixed: Jenn treated her frequent challenge rival with chilliness; Coby was eager to make friends with the new arrival and spill all of the tribe's secrets; and Tom, Ian and Katie recalled an alliance that they had made with the former Ulong member on day two, before the tribes had been divided. Tom assured Stephenie that their alliance was still in tact, and that he would do his best to protect her. In celebration of the new tribe member, Koror was taught traditional Palauan fishing techniques and enjoyed a feast, during which Tom overimbibed and became staggering drunk.

The first individual immunity challenge took place on day twenty-four -- a traditional perch endurance challenge. The challenge lasted just over three hours, with each member successively succumbing to temptation: Coby and Janu jumping first for donuts, followed by Ian, Gregg, Jenn and Katie for milk and cookies, and Caryn and Stephenie for a pizza. This left Tom with the first immunity. At Tribal Council, the group voted for Coby, who had been increasingly hostile and alienating himself from the group, as well as clearly plotting with Stephenie. Coby said upon his exit that he believed he was voted out for being the smartest player there. Over the next several days, Janu -- who had been morose and lethargic, laying in the hammock for most of the game -- became increasingly frustrated with her tribe and especially Katie, whom she felt was rude and whose acerbic sense of humor Janu disliked. Janu came into conflict with the group several times, but managed to pull herself together for a group reward challenge in which she, Tom, Caryn and Gregg won a traditional Palauan feast. During the reward, Janu became ill and had to excuse herself from the table to vomit. This was viewed critically by the other members of the tribe, especially after Janu returned to camp and helped herself to leftovers meant for the rest of the tribe.

At the day twenty-six immunity challenge, Jeff Probst announced that the castaway who quit the endurance challenge first would be sent to live on Exile Island on their own. Six minutes into the challenge, Janu panicked and dropped out. Tom won his second consecutive immunity, and Janu was sent to live on her own. During her time on the island, Janu came to an epiphany, and returned with a more pragmatic view on the game. At Tribal Council, when it seemed like the tribe was ready to dismiss Stephenie, Janu quit the game in order to keep the former Ulong member alive, claiming she had already gotten the experience she came to receive. The incident was a subject of controversy, as many viewers felt Jeff Probst had coerced Janu to quit the game.

Conscious that Stephenie would be on the offensive after the previous night's near miss, Tom recruited Caryn as an informant in case Stephenie attempted to strike up a women's alliance. Sure enough, Stephenie attempted to align Jenn, Katie and Caryn against the men. Caryn betrayed the secret pact to Tom, and the subject of the women's alliance was quashed. Ian won the next immunity challenge, and after dodging bullets for thirty days, Stephenie's luck had finally run out. The last Ulong member was voted out of the game, 6-1.

The obvious odd man out of the still intact alliance of five, Caryn was desperate for an opportunity to advance in the game. That opportunity came at the day thirty-one reward challenge, during which the members of the tribe were forced to correctly answer trivia questions and eliminate one another from the game. Caryn and Tom were quickly disposed of, and Katie betrayed her apparent best friend, Ian, to advance further in the challenge. Gregg won the challenge, and chose Jenn and Katie to accompany him for a night of luxury on a yacht. This was taken by Ian and Tom as a sign that Katie wasn't as solid with them as they'd suspected.

Upon returning to camp, Caryn, Ian and Tom decided to blindside Gregg at the next Tribal Council. They would do this by having Caryn pretend to be resigned to her fate, and then coercing Katie into voting along with them under the threat of a forced tie. Meanwhile, the reward winners were unaware of the scheme, plotting their own strategies on the yacht and receiving a surprise visit from their loved ones: Gregg's best friend Greg, Katie's brother-in-law Stan, and Jenn's sister Kim.

When Ian won the following immunity challenge, his, Caryn's, and Tom's plan was put into motion. With Gregg deceived by Caryn's dour routine, Ian cornered Katie before Tribal Council and told her the situation. Katie was adamantly against the plan but unwilling to force a tie. In a 4-2 vote, Gregg was blindsided at Tribal Council, and Jenn was left to fend for herself.

Katie nursed feelings of betrayal following Gregg's elimination, which exploded when Ian won the day thirty-four immunity challenge and reneged on his promise to bring Katie along for the reward if he won, choosing Tom instead. This left Katie alone at camp with Caryn and Jenn, where she rekindled talk of a women's alliance. It was also revealed that Tom had made conflicting pacts with the women, promising Caryn final two and Katie final three -- a fact about which Jenn had no idea. When Ian and Tom returned to camp, the mood was icy.

Tom and Ian continued to alienate their allies: the former by threatening and strong-arming Katie, and the latter by waffling and giving non-committal answers to Caryn. Eager to patch things up with his allies, Ian took Katie on a walk down the beach, at which point the former friends had an emotional confrontation and tearfully reunited. Tom won immunity at Tribal Council, foiling the women's plans and convincing Katie to rejoin her alliance. Annoyed with this turn of events, Caryn sounded off at Tribal Council, putting the men on edge. In spite of this last minute tactic to mix up the game, Caryn was voted out 4-1. At the final four, Ian entertained the idea of joining the women and voting out Tom, but the notion was quickly made unfeasible when Tom won the next immunity challenge. The stage seemed to be set for Jenn's departure, but when Ian slipped up and revealed that he had been planning to turn on Tom, the tribe dynamic changed. Following a tense Tribal Council, Tom and Jenn voted for Ian while Ian and Katie cast their ballots for Jenn. Ian and Jenn faced off a fire-making tiebreaker, in which the former was victorious. Jenn became the sixth member of the jury.

Tom and Katie unloaded their frustrations on Ian back at camp, making Ian the tribe pariah and destroying the friendly bond the threesome had shared since the beginning of the game. Tensions continued to run high as they arrived at the final immunity challenge, which had them standing uncomfortably on buoys in the middle of the ocean. Katie dropped out some five hours into the competition, but the heated rivalry between the two men pushed them for eleven hours and fifty-five minutes -- the longest challenge in Survivor history.

Despite the harsh feelings between himself and Tom, Ian felt that in order to regain Tom and Katie's respect as well as his own, he needed to sacrifice himself and allow Tom to take Katie to the final two. Tom agreed to this decision, and Ian jumped off the buoy. In deference to the late hour, Jeff Probst held an impromptu vote at the challenge site, where Tom verbally confirmed his vote. Ian became the final member of the jury.

Tom and Katie spent their last days at camp burning the shelter and picnic table before heading to the final Tribal Council. Katie was largely eviscerated by the jury, with her lone vote coming from Coby in respect of her honest answers. Tom received votes from Ian, Jenn, Caryn, Gregg, Stephenie and Janu, and was named the winner of Survivor: Palau in a 6-1 landslide.

Trivia

 * In the opening credits of the show, Wanda is included as a member of Koror. This is most likely because if the pick'em continued, Koror's final choice would have been Wanda, the final female.
 * The order that the castaways were selected to be a part of Koror is as follows:
 * Ian chose Katie.
 * Katie chose Tom.
 * Tom chose Janu.
 * Janu chose Gregg.
 * Gregg chose Jenn.
 * Jenn chose Coby.
 * Coby chose Caryn.
 * Caryn chose Willard.
 * The Koror tribe actually lived on the island named "Ulong." The island Koror was used, among other things, as a camp for the production crew, as well as being the site of the final five reward trip.
 * After recovering their flint from the bottom of the ocean, Koror actually lost it again on dry land, and spent the better part of the day looking in the tall grass for it.