Survivor Island of the Idols report card: Grading the Vokai tribe so far

From building on an overwhelming majority to ending up with only a one-player advantage at the merge, we grade the Vokai tribe’s success in Survivor: Island of the Idols.

How did the Vokai tribe do after the first half of Survivor: Island of the Idols? We take a look at the level of trust this tribe maintains, as well as the quality of their gameplay. This will apply to the original Day 1 Vokai tribe as a group and will be evaluating how they worked together on two separate tribes following the swap.

Dynamics of the Group

For the most part, Vokai has been a tight group that seems content with sticking together. They’ve definitely had some loose ends with Noura’s strong personality and Dan’s lack of spatial awareness, but they’ve done a good job of tolerating each other’s idiosyncrasies to stay united.

It’s interesting to note that the original Vokai members have voted together most of the time. Only Jamal and Jack in the Molly vote and Noura in last week’s Tribal Council have not voted with the Vokai majority.

It’s true that the last two castaways who got their torches snuffed were Vokai members, but they still appear to be united going into the merge. They were ready to go to rocks before Elaine used her Block a Vote advantage, while Lairo didn’t have that same dedication. Although Kellee did successfully execute a masterful plan to get another Vokai member out, I think it was more of a matter of making use of her expiring idol instead of completely abandoning her alliance.

Level of Gameplay

Vokai members have attended only four Tribal Councils so far, but they already seem to be developing a negative pattern. It’s as if the majority agrees upon voting out an easy target, and then somebody undermines them to vote out a threat within their tribe. The only straightforward vote Vokai had was voting out Tom after the swap.

Besides that one vote, this tribe isn’t satisfied with taking out the easy target. During their first Tribal Council, it looked like the obvious player on the chopping block was Noura. However, Lauren wasn’t satisfied with letting Molly develop a web of relationships with the guys, getting nearly everyone to write her name down instead.

As Jason spoke about in his exit interview, the four Vokai members on newly swapped Vokai 2.0 formulated a brilliant plan before Elaine shocked them with her advantage. Their plan was to convince Aaron and Missy to vote for Elaine in order to avoid going to rocks, while they were actually going to throw their four votes on Aaron to get rid of a serious threat. It didn’t work out the way they planned, but it does show their wise approach to each vote.

Overall, Vokai has a balance of strategically minded players including Kellee and Lauren, along with loyal, old school type of players with Dan and Janet. What they also bring is a great social game, especially through Tommy. So their level of gameplay is solid enough to stick together and potentially rebuild a strong majority, but they also have a few savvy players who wouldn’t mind making a big move that could end up hurting their old tribe in the process.

The Best of Vokai

• Only losing one member in the first five Tribal Councils
• Not simply winning challenges, but dominating in them
• Overcoming serious social issues such as racist comments and dysfunctional tribe members
• Jamal willing to use an idol on another Vokai member who he doesn’t always get along with
• Deciding on a plan as a tribe instead of leaving several members out of the loop

The Worst of Vokai

• Letting an overwhelming majority over Lairo slip away
• Allowing overconfidence to cloud their judgment

We’ll have a good indication tonight if Vokai truly wants to stick together, or if they are open to working with Lairo members to take out a mutual threat.