Savaii

Savaii was a starting tribe from Survivor: South Pacific.

The tribe was comprised of eight new players who were joined by veteran player Ozzy Lusth, known for his impressive physical ability. The tribe color is red.

Members

 * Dawn Meehan, an English professor from South Jordan, Utah.
 * Elyse Umemoto, a dance team manager from Las Vegas, Nevada.
 * Jim Rice, a medical marijuana dispenser and poker tournament champion from Denver, Colorado.
 * John Cochran, a Harvard Law student from Washington, D.C.
 * Keith Tollefson, a water treatment tech from Edina, Minnesota.
 * Mark Caruso, a retired NYPD detective from Forest Hills, New York.
 * Ozzy Lusth, two-time returning player and surfer from Venice, California.
 * Semhar Tadesse, a spoken word artist from Los Angeles, California.
 * Whitney Duncan, a country singer from Nashville, Tennesee.

Tribe History
The Savaii tribe started out as an eight-person tribe, but they were soon after told that another player would be joining their roster. It turned out to be one of Survivor 's challenge legends, Ozzy Lusth, much to their delight. Ozzy ended up winning the first reward challenge for them, giving the tribe a basket of taro and a piece of flint. Upon reaching camp, the tribe decided to relax and swim to the beach instead of working on shelter. While the rest of the tribe started introducing themselves, John Cochran was still at shore, averse about the idea of taking his clothes off. Nevertheless, "Cochran" was compelled to do it anyway.

The next day, Dawn broke down because she missed her life back at home. While the gesture worried several tribe members, Ozzy helped Dawn to cope with it. The next day, Savaii just barely lost the first immunity challenge, much to the fault of tribe mate Semhar Tadesse. However, back at camp, Ozzy was campaigning to keep Semhar and get rid of John Cochran instead, saying that it took Semhar courage to delegate herself in the said challenge. However, Jim was suspicious of Ozzy's lobbying, stating that Ozzy had ulterior motives of keeping Semhar for strategic purposes. At the first Tribal Council, the tribe (including Ozzy) followed Jim's cause, and Semhar was unanimously eliminated in an 8-1 decision.

After Tribal Council, Cochran, aware that he's fortunate not to be on Redemption Island, knew that he had to prove his worth to the tribe or his fears of being voted off would come true at the next tribal council. Jim put forward his "3+2" strategy where he, Keith, and Ozzy would be the core 3 in the alliance, and Whitney and Elyse would be the +2, leaving Cochran, Dawn, and Mark (a.k.a. Papa Bear) in the outs of the tribe. But Savaii came from behind to win the immunity challenge on Day 5, so the outsiders would be temporarily safe.

Ozzy and Elyse witnessed Semhar get eliminated from the game at the hands of Christine Shields Markoski in the Day 6 duel. Since Ozzy had the Hidden Immunity Idol, he felt it necessary to tell Keith about it to gain his trust, but that became a potentially costly mistake since Keith told Whitney about Ozzy's idol soon after, saying that he was mad that Ozzy had the idol because that gave Ozzy all the power, and also that telling Whitney could prove to be helpful to him later on in the game. After Savaii lost the immunity challenge, Ozzy and his alliance knew that it was either going to be Cochran or Papa Bear sent to Redemption Island at Tribal Council since Dawn performed well in the challenge. Hoping to increase his shot at staying, Papa Bear looked for the Hidden Immunity Idol as discretely as he could, but nonetheless Elyse caught him sprinting off into the woods, stating that "I saw Papa Bear sprint off into the woods, and Papa Bear doesn't sprint, so he must be up to something". Cochran felt that he did better in the challenge than Papa Bear and was confused in why it was still up for debate whether Cochran or Papa Bear should be voted off. Papa Bear's efforts to find the idol were futile, but he faked possession of the idol in a similar manner that Rupert Boneham did in Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, but Cochran tried to tell them that it was likely just an act and that they shouldn't buy it. However, Jim still felt that it was better to be safe than sorry. Ozzy was amused by how everyone was concerned over whether or not Papa Bear actually had the idol as he knew that he had the idol, not Papa Bear. At Tribal Council, Papa Bear was voted off 6-1-1. Papa Bear stated that if he returned, he would align with the members of Upolu.

Noticing Ozzy and Elyse bonding, Jim thought that Elyse could mess with his plans and talked to Cochran about blindsiding Elyse, much to Cochran's amusement since Cochran knew that Elyse getting voted off would be very beneficial to him. When Jim and Cochran left to witness the Duel, Ozzy playfully mocked Jim saying "don't worry we won't do any strategizing", thinking that "although it's important to think a few steps ahead in the game, Jim is going overboard in that area". At the Day 9 duel between Christine and Papa Bear, Papa Bear told the witnesses (Jim, Cochran, Brandon Hantz, and Edna Ma) that he plans on siding with Upolu if he returns. But that would not happen as Papa Bear lost the duel. Cochran, aware that with only 2 votes voting off Elyse is unrealistic, tried to get Dawn on board with the plan to blindside Elyse and Dawn agreed to it. But the plan would be put on hold as, in the Day 11 immunity challenge, although Keith and Jim dropped out, Dawn managed to win immunity for Savaii. However, Jim (and Brandon) set a Survivor record in the challenge of 240 lbs, beating the previous record of 220 lbs set by Rupert Boneham, J.T. Thomas, and Brendan Synnott.

Whitney and Dawn would return from the Day 12 duel sharing with the rest of Savaii about Stacey talking about how Coach was in control, Albert Destrade was his right hand man, and that Upolu was a bunch of liars. Ozzy then said that Coach should just take out Albert, and Jim would eventually use that information against Ozzy. Cochran knew that it would help his position in the game to go fishing with Ozzy and hopefully develop a strong friendship with him in doing so. Ozzy then goes on about how it may look easy to fish but it actually is a difficult task. After another very close immunity challenge, Savaii lost once again. Elyse and Ozzy noticed how hard Cochran was trying to prove his worth but they knew that it was his time to go. Jim knew that it took 4 votes to make the majority to get out Elyse, so he planned on getting Keith on board. Jim told Keith about how Ozzy said that Coach should vote off Albert on Upolu, thinking that Ozzy would want to take out Jim or Keith, hoping that would convince Keith (and perhaps Whitney, who is tight with Keith) to vote off Elyse. After lots of discussion, Keith and Whitney felt it best to vote someone off other than Elyse or Cochran to escape the drama. At Tribal Council, Savaii talked about how in the most recent immunity challenge, everyone did their best and everyone had injuries from it and Elyse tried to comprehend how Cochran feels being the odd one out, saying "We've all been in that situation". In the end, Elyse was voted off 3-2-2 (with Cochran and Dawn each receiving 2 votes), which greatly shocked Ozzy.

Trivia

 * Savaii is named after Savai'i Island, which is the largest island in the Samoan Island chain.
 * Every original Savaii tribe member had been to Redemption Island at some point and Ozzy Lusth is the only one to win a duel.
 * Savaii is the twelfth red tribe.
 * Savaii is Ozzy Lusth's second red-colored starting tribe, following Aitutaki of Survivor: Cook Islands.
 * Savaii is also the second tribe in which Ozzy is the highest ranking member.