We've experienced a lot of ups and down so far in Survivor 48, but the constant of the season has been Vula's ability to lose challenges and members. (Spoilers for episode 5 ahead!)
However, it seems the elimination of Thomas Krottringer marked a new point in the tribe's game, bringing the four remaining players together with a driving force to not experience Tribal Council again before the merge. The motivation outweighed the exhaustion and lack of resources and they managed to pull out not only a second place win at this week's reward challenge, but also a first place win at the immunity challenge.
With these wins, Vula only just escaped the top spot as the worst starting Survivor tribe in history—now sitting firmly at second place as the game moves to the individual phase next week.
So, where does Vula stand comparatively in Survivor history?
Let's take a look at the five statistically worst tribes over the last 48 seasons and how they ended up there.
5. Survivor: Blood vs. Water (season 27) - Tadhana Tribe
With Redemption Island in play this season, it's hard to directly compare elimination stats, so for the sake of comparison, I'm going to refer to anyone sent to Redemption Island as a "player loss" (whether they ultimately got back into the game post-merge or not).
By the end of the fourth episode, Tadhana had lost all four challenges, same as Vula, but turned things around in winning episode 5's challenge. However, they'd been saved from losing a few players along the way when each tribe had to vote someone off on day 1 and Rupert Boneham switched places with his immediately eliminated wife Laura, as well as when Colton Cumbie quit on day 7.
Episode 5: 20% challenge win average, 50% player loss average
Tadhana continued on a winning spree leading into the merge, sending home two more Galang members.
Pre-Merge: 42.85% challenge win average, 40% player loss average
4. Survivor: Marquesas (season 4) - Maraamu Tribe
Survivor 48's Vula tribe and Survivor: Marquesa's Maraamu tribe were on very similar paths at the beginning of the game. After losing every challenge in the first three episodes, they experienced a tribe swap at the top of episode 4 that resulted in another loss (6 total, now). But their luck turned around when they went on to win their next reward and immunity challenges.
Episode 5: 25% challenge win average, 80% player loss average
They scored another win in episode 6's reward challenge, but lost immunity, sending home another tribe member before merging the following week.
Pre-Merge: 30% challenge win average, 83% player loss average
3. Survivor 46 - Yanu Tribe
In the new era format of 26 days, the individual game happens a lot earlier than previous seasons, always hitting us at episode 6. While Yanu only won one immunity and one reward challenge (losing the other 5) leading up to the merge, they avoided elimination on one losing week when Randen Montalvo was medically evacuated from the game.
Episode 5 / Pre-Merge: 28.57% challenge win average, 60% player loss average
2. Survivor 48 - Vula Tribe
If Vula had lost this week's challenges, they would be sitting at a 0% challenge win average and a 100% player loss average. But with two wins now under their belt, after five consecutive losses, they managed to get themselves on the winning board and move away from the top spot of this list.
Episode 5 / Pre-Merge: 28.57% challenge win average, 80% player loss average
1. Survivor: Fiji (season 14) - Ravu Tribe
By the end of their fifth episode, the Ravu tribe had competed in 8 challenges and lost every single one. However, they lucked out when the Moto tribe chose to give up group immunity rather than lose their campsite and all the comfort they'd won. This saved Ravu from another elimination on top of Moto already losing a member when Gary Stritesky quit earlier in the episode due to medical concerns after he suffered an allergic reaction to bug bites.
Episode 5: 0% challenge win average, 66% player loss average
Leading up to their season's merge in episode 9, they would go on to lose all future tribe challenges except for one.
Pre-Merge: 7.69% challenge win average, 77% player loss average
Now the only question is, will any of this season's players make history in the individual challenges like Rachel LaMont and Kyle Ostwald did in Survivor 47? Less than two months until a Sole Survivor is crowned! Don't worry fellow super fans, I'll be tuning in each week to track more stats—how will history be made next?—so you don't have to.
Be sure to keep watching new episodes every Wednesday at 8 pm ET on CBS and Paramount+ because this season is guaranteed to only keep getting better!