Vata is the merged tribe of Kama, Lesu, and Manu from Survivor: Edge of Extinction. Their tribe color is red.
Members
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Tribe History
Following Rick's return from the Edge of Extinction, original Kama outnumbered original Manu 8-5. That Kama contingent was lead by the Kama Six, which excluded Joe and Aurora. Rick was given two halves of a powerless Hidden Immunity Idol upon re-entry, to which he would give one half to his closest ally David so that it would regain its power when reunited after the first merged Tribal Council. Annoyed at having to rely on Joe yet again to get out of a number disadvantage postmerge, Kelley tried to throw Rick under the bus. However, the Kama Six surprised all of the outsiders by blindsiding Joe in a 6-3-2-2 vote on Day 19.
The Kama Six would not recover from this blindside, as Ron and Eric became exposed as the leaders of the alliance and Wardog convinced Gavin, Julia, and Victoria to turn on Eric on Day 22. This left Ron and Julie out of the loop, which allowed Rick to capitalize on the situation at the following Tribal Council. It proved to be one of the most chaotic in Survivor history as the tribe had multiple conversations to discuss who to vote out. Julia tried hard to keep her original tribe on track to vote out David, but Julie refused to work with her. Rick and David played their idol together to protect David, negating just one vote as Julia was nearly unanimously voted out 9-1-0 on Day 23.
The original five Mana members began targeting each other after Aurora saved herself with a timely immunity win on Day 25. Both the Rick/David pairing and the Kelley/Lauren/Wardog trio vied for Kama's votes to take out Wardog or David. Ultimately they sided with the trio as David was voted out. Rick appeared to be the next to go but received an advantage from David from the Edge of Extinction, helping Rick win immunity on Day 27. The target once again shifted to Aurora, but Wardog saw the opportunity to vote out the last remaining returning player. He recruited Rick, Victoria, Aurora, and Ron and completed a 5-4 blindside of Kelley.
Rick would be a target the rest of the merge but delayed his elimination either through finding idols or winning Immunity Challenges. A new core alliance of Aurora, Gavin, Lauren, and Victoria would have to resort to voting out the other remaining strategic threats in Wardog and Ron. On Day 34, Rick won another immunity and Julie appeared to be the next target. Rick pushed hard to get Aurora voted out seeing her as his biggest threat for upcoming Immunity Challenges, and Gavin, Lauren, and Victoria agreed that Aurora was more threatening than Julie so Aurora was voted out 5-1.
Chris returned from the Edge of Extinction on Day 35 further complicating the plans of the trio with both him and Rick posing as major threats. Julie won the Immunity Challenge, allowing the remaining players their pick of the Edge of Extinction winners to take out. Rick still had an idol though, and Chris convinced Lauren to play hers on Chris to make a big move to impress the Jury. This meant that 3 votes against Rick and 1 against Chris was cancelled out on Day 36's Tribal Council, leaving just 2 votes to eliminate Victoria.
Having given half of the idol to Rick the previous Tribal, Rick gave it back to Chris meaning that Chris's idol had power and would guarantee him a spot in the final 4. Rick planted two fake idols which were found by Lauren and Julie, and after winning immunity on Day 37 he decided he would play his real idol on Gavin to shore up that relationship. Chris negated 3 votes with his idol, sending Lauren to the jury with 2 votes. Chris won immunity on Day 38 and initially decided that whoever did better in practicing fire between Julie and Gavin would face Rick in the tiebreaker. However, at Tribal Council, Chris decided to give immunity to Julie and take on Rick himself. This risk proved successful in eliminating Rick, meaning Chris, Gavin, and Julie would be the Final Three.
At Final Tribal Council, despite Julie's best efforts to explain the effectiveness of her emotional gameplay, the decision appeared to be between Chris who made several big moves since returning to the game and Gavin who played a quieter game but was still strategic and made it this far without being voted out. Ultimately the jury, consisting almost entirely of players who spent time with Chris on the Edge of Extinction, awarded Chris the title of Sole Survivor over Gavin and Julie in a 9-4-0 vote.
Gallery
Trivia
- Vata was located at the former Manu camp.
- Vata holds the record for the merged tribe to contain the most members at any point, with 14 non-simultaneous members.
- By extension, Vata contains the highest percentage of its season's cast, at 14/18 (77.8%).
- Vata is tied with Merica and Orkun for the tribe with the most castaways voted out due to a Hidden Immunity Idol being played, with three.
- The tribe name was suggested by Lauren O'Connell.
- Coincidentally, "vata" is a Fijian word. As a noun it means "shelf"; as an adverb it means "altogether".[1]
References