Tony Vlachos

Anthony "Tony" Vlachos is the Sole Survivor of. He also competed on.

In Cagayan, Tony played the game with ferocity, occupying a high-profile leadership role for much of the game, constructing "spy shacks" to eavesdrop on his tribemates, double-crossing his own allies, swearing on relatives both alive and dead, and finding several Hidden Immunity Idols, including one with "special powers." He frequently turned on his majority alliance in order to engineer a variety of blindsides, and convinced Woo Hwang to take him to the Final Two over the unpopular Kass McQuillen. His hyperactive play won him the title of Sole Survivor in a 8-1 vote.

His aggressive gameplay made him a target on Game Changers. He attempted to build an alliance consisting of the biggest threats in the game, but it did not go as planned due to his lack of trust in Sandra Diaz-Twine. When it became clear that the two could not coexist in the same alliance, Sandra managed to turn their entire tribe on Tony, resulting in his elimination at the season's second Tribal Council.

Tony's gameplay is often compared to that of Russell Hantz and following his win in Cagayan many believe that Tony managed to perfect Russell's aggressive gameplay with a somewhat softer social game.

Profile
Retrieved from CBS.com

Cagayan
Tony was initially placed on Aparri, the Brawn tribe of Cagayan. While in the woods, fellow police officer Sarah Lacina looked him in the eyes and asked if he was a cop, though he lied and said no. She told him she could tell because she too was a cop. Soon after, he admitted to her that he was a cop and they bonded and formed an alliance called "Cops-R-Us." Tony spent the first few days building a "spy shack," finding a Hidden Immunity Idol, and forming alliances with both Sarah and Trish Hegarty. He also harbored some resentment towards Cliff Robinson for his popularity within the tribe. Tony lied to Sarah, saying that Cliff and Lindsey Ogle were gunning for her successfully manipulating her against her initial alliance. Sarah then convinced Trish and Woo Hwang to come into their alliance and throw the fourth Immunity Challenge to vote Cliff out, followed by Lindsey. Tony, along with Lindsey, sat out of the challenge while the others (except for Cliff) attempted to throw the challenge. Cliff, however, single-handedly saved himself by winning the challenge for Aparri. Due to their challenge prowess, Aparri never attended Tribal Council.

On Day 12, a Tribe Switch occurred, sending all of Aparri's members, with the exception of Sarah, to the new Solana tribe, along with original members Jefra Bland and LJ McKanas. After Solana lost the next Immunity Challenge, the former Aparri members were set to vote LJ out, though Trish, who had bonded with LJ, attempted to get Tony to vote Cliff out instead. At Tribal Council, Tony and Trish joined LJ and Jefra in blindsiding Cliff. Upon returning to camp, Trish and Lindsey got into a heated argument, resulting in Lindsey quitting the game. Tony was happy with this development.

After winning the next Reward Challenge, Solana won the right to raid Aparri's camp. The tribe sent Tony and Woo to conduct the raid, with the two also receiving a clue for a Hidden Immunity Idol at the Solana camp. Tony, however, thought of using this clue in order to target Aparri's strongest member, Jeremiah Wood. He claimed in front of the other tribe to have been instructed to give a clue to a Hidden Immunity Idol to a member of Aparri and gave it to Jeremiah. The plan, though, did not work because Jeremiah immediately recognized that it was the same clue that the original Solana tribe had received prior to the tribe switch, though it managed to cast suspicion on Jeremiah.

Tony made it to the merge on Day 17 and became part of the merged tribe, Solarrion. Being down in numbers, the new Solana Alliance needed Sarah's vote, but Sarah overheard her former allies Tony, Trish, and Woo yell "Top 5!" along with Jefra and LJ at the previous challenge, which made her feel excluded. Tony tried to pull Sarah back into their alliance, seemingly to no avail, as Sarah was committed to staying with the opposing Aparri Alliance. Trish saw an opportunity to swing Kass McQuillen, who was bickering with Sarah, by offering to vote Sarah out should Kass join them. A hesitant Tony eventually agreed to target Sarah after recognising that he had not succeeded in flipping her after she refused to swear on her badge. At Tribal Council, Tony and LJ made a grand stand by playing their Hidden Immunity Idols for each other, though this was all for naught as the Aparri Alliance had actually targeted Jefra. Kass, however, decided to flip and Sarah became the first member of the jury.

At the next Tribal Council Tony suggested voting out Morgan McLeod as due to her laziness she was the least likely to have an idol. His alliance agreed and Morgan was voted out. Though now in a position of power, Tony found himself to be increasingly paranoid after the Aparri Alliance voted for him at the following Tribal Council where Morgan was voted out. Tony decided to target LJ as he believed LJ was the biggest strategic threat in the game. Tony decided to play up his paranoia and suggested voting out Woo to LJ, following this Tony then framed him by claiming that LJ wanted to vote Woo out. Tony then told Trish that LJ was sketchy and untrustworthy but Trish dismissed this as Tony being paranoid. The team of Tony, Jeremiah, and Spencer Bledsoe won the next Reward Challenge, and Tony used this opportunity to try to use their alliance's votes. Tony then told Woo that LJ had been targeting him getting Woo on board to target LJ. At the next Tribal Council, Tony and Woo joined the Aparri Alliance in blindsiding LJ, much to Trish's shock.

The following day, Jefra began to feel insecure about Tony's deception towards everybody and confronted Trish to try to gun for him. Trish and Kass, however, were able to assuage Jefra's fears and pull her back into their alliance. Trish also had Tony reassure Jefra himself, which he did by swearing on his family members. It was also at this time that Tony's paranoia led to him finding a Hidden Immunity Idol with "special powers."

The alliance came back together and decided to target Jeremiah as they believed Spencer had the idol and would be more likely to play it for himself. This proved to be correct as Spencer did have an idol but played it for his own safety with Jeremiah going home. While Spencer played his idol, Tony bluffed using an apparently fake idol in order to ensure that he played it on himself rather than Jeremiah.

At the Survivor Auction, Tony, along with Spencer and Tasha Fox held out on buying any food, anticipating that there would be an advantage offered and feared that either Spencer or Tasha would get it. When an advantage was indeed offered, Tasha backed out while both Tony and Spencer bid the maximum amount of $500 for a chance to draw rocks to win the advantage. Tony won the advantage, which turned out to be a clue to another Hidden Immunity Idol, which he also found. At the same time, Tony began to fear the possibility of a women's alliance forming between the remaining women, who had outnumbered the remaining men in the game. Tony and Woo again struck a deal with Tasha and Spencer, and they blindsided Jefra at the next Tribal Council.

The next morning, Kass, fed up with Tony's double-dealing, got into an argument with Tony, in which Tony revealed that he had the Hidden Immunity Idol with "special powers." This led to Kass, Tasha, Spencer, and Woo plotting to flush Tony's Hidden Immunity Idol, though Kass later changed her mind, instead wanting to face Tony at the Final Tribal Council due to her perceiving him as an easily beatable Hantzian jury goat. At Tribal Council, she and Woo rejoined Tony and Trish and sent Tasha to the jury.

Woo then revealed to Tony the next day that he and Kass had conspired against him the previous night. Tony confronted Kass about this, but later claimed to forgive her, stating that he planned on going to the end with her and Trish. Unsatisfied, Kass revealed this to Woo, which made Woo question his own loyalty to Tony. After Tony won the next Reward Challenge and picked Trish to share his reward with, Kass, Spencer, and Woo plotted to split the pair up. At Tribal Council, Tony revealed that he actually had two Hidden Immunity Idols in his possession. He played the regular one for himself and proceeded to join the rest of the tribe in blindsiding his ally Trish.

Although the Hidden Immunity Idol with "special powers" expired at the final five, Tony bluffed by claiming that it could be used until the final four. The remaining castaways were then surprised by a visit from their loved ones. Although Tony was glad that his friend, Arnold, visited him, he was upset that his wife, Marissa, could not come as she was taking care of their baby girl. After Kass won the next Immunity Challenge, Spencer came up to Tony and told him that he believed that there would be a Final Two. Spencer claimed that if either Kass or Woo won, they would take each other to the end. If Tony voted Woo out and Spencer won, he would take Tony. Unconvinced by Spencer's argument, Tony joined Kass and Woo in voting him out at Tribal Counci due to him being a big jury threat.

Upon returning to camp, Kass and Woo agreed that voting Tony out was both in their best interests and agreed to take each other to the end. At the Final Immunity Challenge, Woo narrowly beat Kass by half a second to win immunity. Back at camp, both Tony and Kass pleaded with Woo, with Tony appealing to Woo's sense of honor, pointing out that the jury would see him as being disloyal if he voted Tony out. At Tribal Council, Woo shocked everyone by voting Kass out, making her the ninth and final member of the jury.

At the Final Tribal Council, the jury scolded Tony. He was confronted by Sarah for swearing on his badge and by Jeremiah for swearing on his family. He was also confronted by LJ and Jefra for his blindsiding both of them. He was then lambasted by a furious Trish for swearing on his late father's grave, then proceeding to blindside her. In spite of this, Morgan and Spencer both lauded Tony for his control of the game. In the end, Tony received eight jury votes to Woo's one (from Tasha), earning him the title of Sole Survivor of.

Voting History
In Head of the Snake, LJ used a Hidden Immunity Idol on Tony, but did not negate any votes against him. In Straw That Broke the Camel's Back, Tony used a Hidden Immunity Idol, but did not negate any votes against him.

Game Changers
Tony came into Survivor: Game Changers as one of the season's three former winners, along with Sandra Diaz-Twine and J.T. Thomas. He was initially placed on the Mana tribe. Minutes after arriving at the camp, Tony jokingly ran off making llama sounds, blatantly proclaiming that he was on an idol hunt. Though it started as a joke, after he realized that no one was on his tail, Tony decided to start digging a "spy bunker" in the sand near the water well in order to eavesdrop on conversations. Ultimately, he was caught by Sandra and Caleb Reynolds and had to put his spy bunker on hold.

After losing the first Immunity Challenge, Tony gathered the tribe members who were at the water well and the group decided to boot Ciera Eastin first for her over-scheming and for her failure in the challenge. When Ciera approached the group, Tony threw out Michaela Bradshaw's name, and Ciera accepted this as the plan for the night. However, when Tony told Michaela that it was her that was being used as a decoy, Michaela became upset. The supermajority decided that it might be a good idea to take out Michaela, who was not only emotionally volatile but also an unknown factor. In the end, Mana stuck to their original plan, and Ciera was voted out unanimously.

Immediately after Tribal Council, Tony felt uneasy that the first vote had gone so easily, that all 9 votes fell into place. He wanted to start playing hard, and so went back to the water well and continued to dig his bunker.

The next day, Tony approached Aubry Bracco and the two decided that it may be best if they recruit other big threats in order to use them as shields and as allies. They decided to bring in Caleb, Malcolm Freberg, and Sandra. However, in the middle of the night, Sandra and Troyzan Robertson went to the well in order to discuss tribal happenings. Tony had been working on his bunker, and so he crawled into the bushes, and later jumped out at the pair after he heard his name being thrown out. He decided that Sandra was too sketchy, and effectively cut her loose from the "big threats' alliance". In response, Sandra began recruiting for her own alliance, and brought in Michaela, Troyzan, Hali Ford, and Jeff Varner after being left out of Tony and Aubry's.

After narrowly losing the second Immunity Challenge, Sandra and Tony campaigned against each other. The two winners gathered their troops, and Jeff and Michaela became the two swing votes. At Tribal Council, the tribe discussed how physical strength should be kept in the tribe to prevent further losses. Sandra was rattled, and when Tony continued to campaign for her, she countered with reasons to take Tony out. When it was time to vote, Tony voted against Aubry, in the hopes that a split vote may have been in operation and that by voting against his ally, he could save himself. However, the only other person who had voted for Aubry was Sandra, and the rest of the tribe sent Tony packing. Before departing, Tony called out Sandra for her control of the tribe, to which Sandra responded by saying Tony had targeted her first. Sandra bid Tony good riddance by telling him to "say hi to Ciera".

Post-Survivor

 * After Tony came back to the United States, he found that he contracted a parasite in Cagayan. He was bed-ridden for three months and lost an additional 25 lbs., for a total of 40 lbs. lost after filming Survivor.
 * On February 5, 2014, Tony saved a 69-year-old man who had a massive heart attack on his lawn in nine inches of snow.
 * Tony's wife, Marissa, was absent during the Cagayan live Reunion Show because she was in the last trimester of her second pregnancy.
 * Their son, Constantine Anthony, was born on June 9, 2014.
 * After his win, Aaron W. Fraser, a New Jersey congressional candidate, tried to get Tony fired from his job for his actions on Survivor.
 * Tony was inducted to the Survivor Hall of Fame in 2016.

Trivia

 * Tony is the only castaway in to vote with the majority at every Tribal Council he attended. He is the first castaway to do so (excluding evacuees/quitters) since Coach Wade in, and is the first Sole Survivor to do so since Natalie White in.
 * Tony is the most recent Sole Survivor to vote with the majority at every single Tribal Council.
 * Tony gave the most episode titles in Cagayan, with a total number of six episode titles.
 * Tony is the seventh Sole Survivor who won the game without winning Individual Immunity, following Tina Wesson, Sandra Diaz-Twine (both times), Yul Kwon, Earl Cole, Todd Herzog, and Natalie White. He would be followed by Sarah Lacina and Ben Driebergen.
 * Tony lost 21 lbs. (9.5 kg) during Cagayan.
 * Tony has the most votes to win out of any winner who participated in a Final Two, with 8.
 * Tony is the first winner to find three Hidden Immunity Idols in a single season and the second overall following Russell Hantz in . The men were followed by Tai Trang in and Ben Driebergen in
 * Tony is the second Sole Survivor to find an idol with "special powers", the first being Yul Kwon.
 * Tony gave the first confessional of.