Gota Alliance

The Gota Alliance was the majority alliance of the original Gota tribe in.

Sticking Together
Noticing that Reynold Toepfer, Eddie Fox, Allie Pohevitz, and Hope Driskill created an alliance, Sherri Biethman, along with Laura Alexander, Julia Landauer, and Michael Snow, agreed to be in an alliance in order to overthrow the four-tight "Couples Alliance". Michael, however, who had an alliance with Matt Bischoff, wanted to keep his option open to either group. On Day 4, Sherri decided to invite Shamar Thomas into the alliance, thinking of making him her "Phillip", saying that he is needed by the tribe. Shamar accepted the offer.

After Gota lost the second Immunity Challenge (that was also a Reward Challenge), Reynold and Eddie wanted to eliminate Shamar for not helping in camp and for sleeping all day. The alliance, however, had other plans, and planned to eliminate Allie for being the most threatening among the members of the rival alliance. Before Tribal Council, Laura noticed that Reynold had a bulge in his underwear, which she deduced was the Hidden Immunity Idol, but couldn't divulge the information to her alliance as they were going to go to Tribal Council at that moment.

At Tribal Council, Laura revealed to the tribe that she saw a bulge in someone's underwear that possibly contained the tribe's idol, all while staring at Reynold. Reynold then immediately revealed the idol after Jeff Probst noted that he was the one Laura was staring at. When Jeff asked Reynold about the Idol, he threatened to play it on himself. Reynold ultimately did not play the idol, but the alliance's plan was successful, and all of the members (including Michael and Matt, who chose to side with the alliance) voted out Allie in a 6-4 vote.

The Split-Vote Plan
After losing the third Immunity Challenge, the alliance targeted Hope for being the weakest of the three outsiders. Laura came up with a plan to have the alliance split their votes between Eddie and Hope in case Reynold gave either of them the Idol. This would create a 3-3-3 tie (the alliance assumed that Reynold, Eddie, and Hope would vote for Shamar), and then they would vote out Hope in the revote.

This move did not sit well with Shamar, who wanted to send Eddie or Reynold home due to their conflicts with him. He alerted Hope of the plan, telling her to vote for Eddie to prevent the tie. Julia eventually learned of this, and told the rest of the alliance. This made Laura fearful that the minority alliance would target her due to her weakness in challenges. Thus, she approached Reynold and told him that she and Julia would vote for Shamar with his alliance. However at Tribal Council, Laura and Julia stuck with the majority alliance and helped split the vote. Once again, Reynold did not play his Idol and Hope was voted out in the revote.

The Alliance's Sacrifice
While at camp on Day 9, Shamar caught a piece of sand in his eye, and then he scratched his cornea. Medical arrived to treat Shamar at the camp on Day 10, but the doctors said that since he scratched it, it could affect his vision and that he needed to be pulled from the game.

Later that same day, Gota lost the Immunity Challenge and was facing their third Tribal Council in a row. Reynold and Eddie targeted Laura, due to her poor effort and support for the tribe in reward and immunity challenges. Laura was convinced by Sherri that the alliance was going to vote Reynold off. However, the alliance betrayed her to keep the tribe as strong as possible. At Tribal Council, every member of the tribe voted against Laura in a 6-0 vote (Reynold played his Idol, negating his one vote from Laura).

Switching Tribes and Dissolution
Following a Tribe Switch, all of the remaining alliance members aside from Sherri were switched to the new Bikal tribe. After Bikal lost the following Immunity Challenge, Matt and Michael decided to turn on their former alliance member Julia, while Julia remained loyal to the alliance and voted for Dawn Meehan. However, Matt got all of the favorites' votes and was eliminated 4-2-1. At Bikal's next Tribal Council, the votes were split between Michael and Julia. All the favorites voted for Julia in the revote, eliminating her just before the merge.

With only two members reaching the merge (Sherri and Michael), the alliance officially dissolved; Sherri joined Stealth R Us and Michael joined the Cool Kids Alliance, even voting against Sherri at the Day 22 Tribal Council. Eventually, Michael would become the first juror, while Sherri would tie with Dawn for the runner-up spot, receiving no votes to win.