Survivor: Game Changers

Survivor: Game Changers - Mamanuca Islands is the thirty-fourth season of Survivor.

This is the fourth season to feature a full cast of returnees, after, , and.

After a chaotic season packed with multiple strategic shifts, the person who ended up controlling most of the post-merge with her calculated flips, Sarah Lacina, won in a 7-3-0 final vote over Brad Culpepper and Troyzan Robertson.

Production
The season was filmed 25 days after the filming of, following the back-to-back filming pattern of seasons since.

This season features a nautical theme. The Tribal Council set is comprised of ten actual shipwrecks, most of which were retrieved in the aftermath of, the cyclone that hit Fiji before production for Millennials vs. Gen X began.

Twists/Changes

 * Game Changers: 20 returning contestants, selected for the impact they had made on the game of Survivor, will return to battle for the title of Sole Survivor.
 * Tribe Expansion: As in and, a third tribe will be introduced at some point in the pre-merge stage of the game. The  tribe, wearing green buffs, was introduced on Day 7 of the game with 18 players left.
 * Simplified Tiebreaker: In an event of a tie at Tribal Council, the re-vote would be retired, and an open forum would commence. If the non-tied players are unable to make a unanimous decision who to eliminate, the rock draw takes place.
 * Hidden Immunity Idol: The idols will be inconsistently hidden at camp, in challenges, and even at Tribal Council.
 * Legacy Advantage: The Legacy Advantage was dropped at the ship used during the marooning, and allowed its holder to gain immunity at either the Final 13 or the Final 6. In the event that the holder is eliminated, he or she must will it to another player still in the game.
 * Joint Tribal Council: The two tribes who lost the fourth Immunity Challenge on Day 11 were both sent to Tribal Council as a group, but unlike a standard Double Tribal Council, they would vote as a group and only one person was voted out.
 * Tribe Switch: At the Final 15, a second tribe switch took place.
 * : At the Final 15, one person was sent to Exile Island because of not being placed on a tribe.
 * Advantage Option: The exiled castaway was given three possible advantages - an extra vote, a kit with which to design a fake Hidden Immunity Idol, as well as a challenge advantage for their new tribe.
 * Early Merge: As was the case with and, this season's merge took place at the Final 13.
 * Vote Steal: At the Final 11 Reward Challenge, a "secret advantage" was placed by the sit-out bench. It was revealed to give its holder the right to steal a vote from another contestant, effectively denying that person a right to vote and allowing the holder to vote twice at one Tribal Council. It is usable up until the Final 5.
 * Expanded Jury and Final Three: Instead of the conventional Final Two facing the jury of seven, the Day 39 Tribal Council was held with a Final Three facing a ten-person jury.
 * Reformatted Final Tribal Council: Instead of having each jury member speak one by one, an open forum was held to ensure a more insightful rapport between the jury and finalists.

Season Summary
The 20 returning players were initially divided into two tribes of ten: Mana and Nuku. There were two Tribe Switch during the premerge phase. The original Mana tribe struggled as they lost six of their ten members before the merge while Nuku only lost one. The pre-merge phase of the game what characterized by the early eliminations of perceived dangerous and manipulative players, previous winners, physical threats, a somewhat higher amount of twists, and a controversial incident that sealed Jeff Varner's demise in the game.

The tribes merged with 13 players remaining: 9 original Nuku's and only 4 original Mana's. Two alliances fought for power: One led by Cirie Fields and Andrea Boehlke, and another led by Sierra Dawn Thomas and Brad Culpepper. While Sarah Lacina was a part of Cirie's and Andrea's group, she would navigate between both alliances to eliminate members from both sides. She later betrayed Andrea and Cire and aligned with Brad and Troyzan Robertson. The three used Brad's Immunity Challenge wins, Sarah's Legacy Advantage, and Troyzan's Hidden Immunity Idol to make it to the finals.

At the Final Tribal Council, Sarah was respected for her strategic control throughout the merge, and ability to manage her social relationships, but criticized for her numerous betrayals and manipulations, Brad was commended for dominating in Immunity Challenges but castigated for being condescending and not socializing with people on the bottom, and Troyzan was virtually ignored for his perceived coattail riding. Sarah's strong strategic control beat out Brad's dominance in challenges and Troyzan's lack of gameplay, and she was awarded the title of Sole Survivor with seven votes to win while Brad received three.

Trivia

 * The pre-merge tribe Buffs for this season are the first since to not have tribe names prominently printed on them.
 * This season is the fourth season comprised entirely of returning players, following, , and.
 * All three pre-merge tribes, including Tavua, won the same number of Immunity Challenges.
 * This season saw the most players immune at a given Tribal Council with five, as well as the first instance where a player was voted out with 0 votes and due to there being no other non-immune option.
 * This was the first season to feature multiple fourth time returning players. The only other four time players were Rob Mariano and Rupert Boneham who played separate seasons being and  respectively.
 * Game Changers has the fewest episodes of any American season with 13.