Brandon

Brandon is a contestant on, the second season of Skatevivor. Initially on the uneventful Pearl tribe, Brandon became a major power player during the tribe swaps and the early merge before being voted out in 8th place after his plan to blindside Olly failed.

Profile
Name: Brandon

Age: 22

Pronouns: he/him

Timezone: EST

Starting tribe:

'''Which survivor contestant would you say you are most like? Why?''' If I had to compare myself to someone it’d probably be Sophie Clarke 1.0. I’m someone who sometimes has a hard time hiding how they’re feeling when they’re annoyed or frustrated, but I’m also someone who will put their head down and work in order to get the job done. I think that’s very similar to how Sophie played in SoPa.

What is your experience with ORGs (Online Reality Games)? So I played my first ORG when I was 18 and I was kinda a hot mess that entire season (very Courtney Yates 1.0), but I ended up having a few notable moments and getting 2nd in a 5-4-0 vote. (survivor cascadia) I took a three year break from ORGs after that but have recently come back and done a handful.

What is your strategy coming into the game? So I typically don’t come in with a real strategy, which is probably why I don’t win (??). Ideally I’d like to have one person who I can kinda confide in and vent to as a ride or die, and just remain in cordial territory with everyone else. My goal is to be workable without making people think that I’m working them. I think my biggest issue with ORGs is that I historically have laid low for too long, which either makes people want to cut me during an easy vote, or it means I have a hard time getting enough votes at the end. I think historically I’m pretty good at spinning a narrative when I need to and pleading a good case, but a lot of times that isn’t enough to make up for X amount of days of actual gameplay where people have evidence to the contrary, so this time I’m gonna try and make sure I’m never too detached from the game.

Would you rather get to the end and be hated or get voted out early and be loved? Tbh I’d rather go early than be hated. I’ve seen way too many people kinda lose themselves or lose their minds over ORGs and it’s not fun to watch. I’m not someone to goes out of their way to hurt people, so I’d rather not be the source of anger or frustration for someone.

Is there anything else you want the specs to know? Oh I’m applying to grad school rn in public policy, so if anyone is in a similar career feel free to bestow guidance upon me

Survivor
Brandon started the game on the dominant yet uneventful Tribe, which never attended tribal council and never formed any alliances. While it was difficult to gauge the power dynamics on this tribe, Brandon found himself at the top of most of his tribemates' trust rankings early on, and hit it off with Dumpy and Olly early in particular. After Olly went to the Kindergarten with Simone, he shared information about the experience with Brandon, but did not tell him about the idol he found back at the Pearl camp.

Brandon swapped to Sapphire 1.0 in the fourth cycle. Sapphire 1.0 - made up of four Garnets (Rhone, Vivi, Joey, and Simone), three Pearls (Brandon Antony, and Dumpy), and one Amethyst (Jamal) - went on to dominate the next two challenges. Brandon was added to three alliances during this first swap: The BJs with Simone and Jamal, The Fantastic Four with Simone, Jamal, and Vivi, and The Tummy Triplets with Dumpy and Antony. Brandon positioned himself well on the Sapphire tribe and built a strong connection with Vivi in particular. Antony leaked The Tummy Triplets alliance to Simone and tried to throw Brandon and Dumpy under the bus, but nothing came of it since Sapphire 1.0 never attended tribal council.

Brandon stayed on Sapphire 2.0 after the second tribe swap with Antony, Rhone, Jamal, and Vivi. Olly and Treavor swapped over from Ruby 1.0 and Olly and Brandon reconnected. Olly filled Brandon in on Treavor's role in the last Ruby 1.0 tribal council, where Olly and Pixiel found themselves in a tie vote, with Pixiel going on the revote. During this time, Brandon grew suspicious about Jamal's closeness with the Garnets after Vivi told him that Jamal was trying to set up an alliance with herself, Rhone, and Treavor. Knowing that Vivi also didn't get along well with Treavor, Brandon laid the groundwork for a majority alliance with himself, Antony, Vivi, and Olly called Groot.

After no one took the Greed necklace, this alliance of four targeted Treavor, and led Rhone, Jamal, and Treavor to believe that Antony was the vote instead. Treavor threw his vote on Brandon in case Antony had an idol, but was blindsided in a 4-2-1 vote instead. Jamal and Rhone were upset with Brandon for leaving them out of the vote and realized they were on the bottom of the tribe. Brandon did damage control with Jamal, and when Sapphire 2.0 attended the last pre-merge tribal council, Brandon pushed for Rhone as the vote out of fears he would have no loyalty to him at the merge.

Brandon participated in the merge idol hunt but came up short, completing it just minutes after Vivi claimed the idol. Before results, Brandon worried that Antony would be targeted for inactivity and planned to try to save him. After Vivi won immunity, Joey started pushing for an Olly blindside. The Amethysts, particularly Nate and Kham, jumped on board with the Olly blindside plan with Joey as the decoy. At the same time, Olly revealed to Brandon that he had the Pearl idol.

The merge vote shifted when Dumpy leaked the Olly blindside plan to Brandon, who leaked it to Olly and Vivi in a new alliance called Hmmmm. Dumpy, Vivi, Olly, and Brandon decided to vote out Kham and pulled in Simone. The subsequent scrambling led to the most chaotic tribal of the season, wherein Brandon and Antony's names were also thrown out as targets. At tribal, Vivi played her Garnet idol on Brandon and Olly played Vivi's merge idol on himself. Dumpy threw their vote on Olly to try to cover their tracks and hide the fact that they were the one who leaked the Olly plan to Brandon, Olly, and Vivi. Kham was eliminated in a 5-4-1- 1 vote, with Brandon receiving no votes against him and Olly negating Dumpy's rogue vote against him.

At the Final 10, Brandon found it suspicious that Dumpy was the only Olly vote. He began to suspect that Olly was never actually in trouble and Dumpy was just causing chaos. Dumpy more or less became the scapegoat for the chaos of the merge vote, and Brandon prepared to vote them out and turn on Vivi and Olly soon after. However, after a longer conversation with Dumpy, Brandon realized that voting them out wouldn't be worth it after all. He then convinced Vivi and Olly to save Dumpy and vote out Nate instead, who he claimed was the real architect of the merge vote chaos. Vivi and Olly hopped on board, and the three of them steered the vote towards Nate, who was voted out 7-2-1, with Joey and Nate voting Dumpy and Isabella voting Vivi out of spite.

At the Final 9, Brandon decided to make his move against Vivi and Olly. Knowing Olly still had the Pearl idol, Brandon rallied Simone, Antony, Jamal, and Dumpy to blindside Olly with the idol in his pocket, leaving Isabella, Olly, Vivi, and Joey in the dark by telling them the vote was Antony. Surprisingly, no one leaked the vote to Olly. However, Olly grew suspicious that he was being blindsided and told Vivi and Isabella. Vivi didn't believe that they were actually being blindsided, but Isabella entertained the possibility. Olly and Isabella considered idoling out Brandon, but decided against it. Olly played the idol on himself, successfully negating the five votes against him, and sent Brandon's ally Antony out of the game with just three votes against him.

After his plan failed, Brandon immediately did damage control with Vivi and Olly and tried to throw Dumpy under the bus as the real ringleader of the attempted Olly blindside. Initially, it looked like his plan to direct blame onto Dumpy might work. However, a new alliance of Jamal, Simone, and Vivi formed, and they redirected the vote onto Brandon, recruiting Olly and Isabella to vote with them. Brandon was blindsided in a 5-2-1 vote, with Brandon and Joey voting Dumpy and Dumpy voting Joey.

Going into Final Tribal Council, Brandon was impressed with Vivi's strong gameplay from their time working together and her ability to survive despite being a threat. He ultimately voted for her to win the game.

Trivia

 * Brandon is the first (and thus far, only) Skatevivor player to have a hidden immunity idol played on them by another person.