On March 5th, the remaining 12 castaways of Survivor-Bloomsburg ventured to the Nelson Field House pool to compete in water-related challenges for Episode Six of the competition. While there was no tribe merger or big change to the way the game was played, this new location brought challenges for many castaways. Additionally, week six included the elimination of castaways Hunter Ishler and Jack Holcombe in Tribal Council

During Episode Six of Survivor-Bloomsburg, the castaways participated in three different challenges in the pool. The first challenge was entitled “Takin’ a Dip for a Survivor Trivia Raft Flip,” and Marcus Vener won this challenge, making himself the “Winning Raft Captain.”  The next challenge was titled “The Diving Board Paddle Battle,” and the winner of this was Jacob Casella (see below for an interview with Jacob about his time on Survivor!). The last challenge of the night was called “Boogie On Down to Cross Your T’s,” and castaways Anthony Witczak and Marcus Vener won this challenge. Tonight, there were also two different Tribal Council meetings. In the first meeting, the castaways decided to vote off Hunter Ishler. Then, in the second meeting, Jack Holcombe was eliminated from the competition.

In this week’s competition, there were some hidden immunity idols up for grabs. George Kinzel, the director of this event, explained that Alyssa Barnes and Jake Casella both found flamingos floating in the pool, which contained a clue that led them to hidden immunity idols at the bottom of the pool. Alyssa Barnes used her immunity idol to save Jay Maurer from being eliminated during the second Tribal Council meeting. Jake Casella hid his immunity idol in one of the storage boxes, but when he went to get it for Tribal Council, it was gone. This meant that he was unable to use it to save Jack Holcombe, so Jack was eliminated. If Jake had used his immunity idol to save Jack, Lee Habalar would have been eliminated from the competition instead of Jack Holcombe.

In addition, there were no new advantages found this week but castaway Owen Zulli played the advantage he found during Episode Five. This advantage allowed him and one other castaway (he chose Jake Casella) to cast a second vote in Tribal Council. After voting, Casella was given a ‘temptation’ which he accepted. This allowed him to choose his partner for the first challenge of Episode Seven, along with choosing another pair of castaways to be paired up for this challenge. These pairings will be announced during Episode Seven.

Episode seven airs on Tuesday, March 19th, at 7 p.m., at the Quest Teambuilding Woods on Upper Campus. Make sure to come and watch the action unfold! Additionally, the Survivor-Bloomsburg Season Finale will be on Thursday, April 18th, at 7 p.m. in the Kehr Ballroom; you won’t want to miss it!

An interview with Jacob Casella, one of the 12 castaways remaining

Jacob Casella is a sophomore medical imaging major with a minor in business and he is currently a castaway on Survivor-Bloomsburg. Casella started off the interview by saying he loves the competitive atmosphere of Survivor-Bloomsburg, because “every single player takes it like super serious and that’s what makes it fun.”

Because there are so few people left in the game and every competitor is on their own instead of on a team, Casella feels like there will be more backstabbing and blindsides. He states, “When I was with a tribe, I always had like an alliance. Even if it was just like 6 of us, I would be close with like 4 people, so I would know that I would be safe. But now that it’s like one team, it’s really hard to trust people now.”

Trust was a big topic of discussion in this interview, as it is such a vital part or theme of this game. Casella states that he enjoys the fact that you have to trust people in this game, because people can “take trust and run with it but it might bite you in the butt down the line.” He later states, “I am a trustworthy guy, but I’m also a snake, where like I am not going to think twice. I feel like thats how most people are too, and thats what makes it fun because you are always on like the edge of your seat.”

Casella also likes the social portion of the game, and that he can interact with people to keep himself in the game. He explained,  “I am more of a team player so it was definitely more fun for me being a part of like a team or a tribe because I could like work my magic.” He continues, “I feel like people listen to me a lot and I like to be in control but not like too in control, especially for Survivor. I like to play that role where like everybody trusts me.”

While Casella has participated in many Survivor-Bloomsburg challenges throughout his six weeks on the show, his favorite challenge was the one from week two, where the castaways had to be the first to memorize a long quote and then recite it to the hosts. He explained that he enjoyed this challenge and did so well at it because he is in a medical major, so “I know how to study and I can memorize a word using different techniques.”

While Casella has had some awesome and fun moments so far in the competition, he has also experienced great stress while participating in Survivor-Bloomsburg. Casella expressed that Tribal Council is the most stressful part of the competition. He stated, “I was on the chopping block last week (Episode 5) and I haven’t been that scared in a long time, like my anxiety was through the roof.”

He expressed that he enjoyed how Tribal Council was run, and that the stress that comes with it is good. However, the only thing he would change would be not allowing for any talking while people are voting. Casella states, “Sometimes we have like small side conversations but I feel like there should be like zero talking because that makes it more intense I feel like.” He knows this would be difficult to enforce, though.

When discussing his strengths in the game, Casella expressed, “I feel like I am useful all around. Like I do really good in all different physical challenges but I also am like kind of a nerd, so I can do many mental challenges.” He also stated, “I always try to provide for my team and I’m just vocal.” Casella also noted that his vocalness is also his biggest downfall, stating, “I feel like I am a very dominant player, not to sound like I am bragging or anything, but like I am just a dominant player and I feel like that is going to bite me in the future.” He recalls that at the beginning of the competition, he took on a leadership role and was very vocal about his opinions. But, he knows that those are the type of people who usually get voted off early on, which was exemplified in Episode Five, where he was almost voted off. He said this experience made him realize, “Maybe I need to like rethink my strategy… so I am just trying to take a step back.”

The tribe merge that occurred in week five completely transformed the competition from a tribe vs. tribe game to an individual game. Casella expressed that this new individual type of game is scary to him, stating, “My anxiety is just like through the roof because it is hard to trust people and the people I was aligned with before I feel like could be a little sneaky and kind of blindside me.” Again, trust is a big focus in this game, as the people you are competing with are also the people who could eliminate you from the competition.

If Casella won, he said he would use the prize money to buy himself a new basketball. He would also like to start working on his leg sleeve, which is a group of tattoos that cover his whole leg. Then he would use the rest of the $1,000 prize money to pay for his tuition. As far as advice for future possible castaways, Casella encourages students to “give it a try.” He states, “It’s like extremely fun; I don’t know why you wouldn’t do it.”

Make sure to come watch Episode Seven to see Jacob Casella and the other 11 remaining castaways fight for the title of Sole Survivor. Episode seven will be held at the Quest Teambuilding Woods on Upper Campus at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 19th. The fight for victory continues, so be sure to come watch it all unfold!