The start of this season got me really into the idea of a vets vs rookies season. This was mostly from my anger at these rookies who just let these subpar vets walk all over them and squandered their own individual/collective potential to actually change up the game. I really want to see some vets (Devin, Josh, Tori, etc.) get their egos knocked down a bit after this season, and I think a good format would be the way to accomplish this.

The teams would be Vets vs Rookies. Vets are players that have done more than 3 seasons, Rookies would be those who’ve done 2 seasons or less. For the Rookie team here’s a fun change I’ve thought of: have it include fans of the show/Fresh Meat as well as past players who fall under the “rookie” label. This would mostly be a way to give the Rookie/Fresh Meat team some help against the more stacked and experienced vets team. And it could lead to an interesting chaotic dynamic like Team UK in WOTW2. Fresh Meat would be a way to add in that “Survivor” feel of players who’ve been watching the show for years (imagine the sappy confessionals) and love/hate the vets and wanna play with/against them. I’m sure there are SOME physical beasts out there who watch the show and could hold up with people like Devin and Josh. Toss in some smart strategic fans and fun relatable personalities and it could be gold imo. And tbh it would be easy to pluck some Netflix/Survivor newbie and have them say a confessional claiming to be fans for year sand reference a basic moment from the show to prove it (since the aftermath seems to love it they can mention the Wes shoe moment from DA).

For the format I’ve thought of the following:

Challenge days both teams nominate 1 Captain (depending on male/female elim day). If the team wins the Captain is safe, if they lose the Captain is automatically 1 of 2 options for elimination. At deliberation the losing team must nominate 1 other player as an option for elimination with the Captain. Meanwhile the winning team will only nominate 1 player to go straight in. This ensures eliminations will always be a vet vs a rookie (glares at Invasion).

At deliberation the winning team Captain gets the power to choose from 4 elimination types prior to both team’s voting: Physical (ex. Hall Brawl), Endurance (ex. most recent elim.), Mental (ex. puzzles), and Strategy (ex. Knot So Fast).

At the elimination the Captain of the winning team gets to choose between the losing teams Captain and nominated player for elimination against their teams nominated player. With this power though, the Captain loses a vote in the winning team nominations.

The thought with this is to kind of apply a risk-reward to being Captain/winning, and to no matter what add some strategy and tension to nominations. A fun twist I’ve thought of is every 5th elim is a “Hell Night”, where no one knows the elimination and at the time of elimination the Captain gets a curveball: a mercenary arrives and they get the choice to have the mercenary go against their teammate (and save the loser nominations), one of the loser nominations (saving their teammate), or another player altogether from either team. No matter the outcome, the mercenary then joins the winning team. For this season in particular I’d make CT (the first mercenary, hopefully the rookies can pull an early win out this week) and Laurel/Cara (for female Hell Night the 10th elim) the mercenaries. Mostly because they’re beasts and would make the vets way OP if they are there from the start, and if the rookies are smart they can snag up two strong vets and make a big game move in the process.

I’ve thought of this for a while now and have come up with so many scenarios for gameplay in my head. I’m curious to see what others think. What kind of Rookies/Fresh Meat would you wanna see? What vets do you wanna see or not see? Should I have just kept this idea in my head??