Domino Effect

Domino Effect
Recurring Survivor Challenge
Description:	A recurring challenge involving dominoes
Appearances:	Gabon Redemption Island Blood vs. Water Kaôh Rōng Game Changers

Domino Effect (also known as Backed Up and High Step and Stack) is a recurring challenge from Survivor. It debuted in Survivor: Gabon and has since re-appeared in Redemption Island, Blood vs. Water, Kaôh Rōng, and Game Changers.

Rules

Players must stack all of their pieces like a line of domino tiles while avoiding tripwires that would topple the tiles that were already stacked. Once all of the blocks have been properly stacked, the castaway would start a chain reaction which would be enough to trigger a mechanism that will release a ball rolling to a bowl, releasing a flag. The first castaway to raise their flag would win.

The same rules apply in the Redemption Island version of the challenge, but instead of raising a flag, the goal is drop the ball on a tile at the end of the contraption. The first to do so wins.

In Kaôh Rōng and Game Changers, the goal was to topple a wooden block onto a gong at the end of a platform.

History

This challenge debuted in Survivor: Gabon with an additional first round where the castaways would race across a series of balance beams carrying a bag of puzzle blocks. The first two castaways to bring all three of their bags would go to the final round, along with Corinne Kaplan, who had bought an advantage of a free pass from the first round during the Survivor Auction. In the final round, players stacked their blocks like domino tiles across a bridge which, when set off, would raise a flag. The castaways also had to move through tripwires. Ken Hoang defeated Corinne and Matty Whitmore to win immunity.

This challenge reappeared in Survivor: Redemption Island, where Matt Elrod beat Russell Hantz in the second Redemption Island duel, permanently eliminating Russell. Russell left the game in tears.

In Survivor: Blood vs. Water, the challenge returned as the second Redemption Island duel, between Candice Cody, Marissa Peterson, and Rachel Foulger. Candice easily won the duel, keeping herself alive. After over 45 minutes of failed attempts, Marissa finally beat Rachel, eliminating Rachel for good.

In Survivor: Kaôh Rōng, the challenge appeared as the final nine Immunity Challenge. After a tight battle between all of the contestants, Julia Sokolowski managed to topple all of her blocks first, winning immunity.

In Survivor: Game Changers, the challenge came down to Andrea Boehlke, Sarah Lacina, Michaela Bradshaw, and Sierra Dawn Thomas. After quickly re-stacking her blocks, Andrea managed to topple all of her blocks first, winning immunity.

Winners

Episode	Challenge Type	Winner
Gabon "Nothing Tastes Better than Five Hundred Dollars"	Individual Immunity	Ken Hoang
Redemption Island "Don't You Work for Me?"	Duel	Matt Elrod
Blood vs. Water "Opening Pandora's Box"	Duel	Candice Cody	Marissa Peterson
Kaôh Rōng "It's Psychological Warfare"	Individual Immunity	Julia Sokolowski
Game Changers "Reinventing How This Game Is Played"	Individual Immunity	Andrea Boehlke

Gallery

The challenge's debut use in Gabon.

Corinne stacking blocks in Gabon.

Matt and Russell competing in Redemption Island.

Marissa and Rachel competing in Blood vs. Water.

The Dara tribe competes in Kaôh Rōng.

Aubry competes in Kaôh Rōng.

Sierra competing in Game Changers.

Trivia

• Every first time player to win this challenge was the youngest person of their gender (Ken Hoang and Matt Elrod were the youngest males, while Marissa Peterson and Julia Sokolowski were the youngest females).
• Aubry Bracco and Tai Trang are the only contestants to have competed in this challenge twice. They lost both times.