Keep your fire alive.

Turn the Tide · Points ledger

Joining a game in progress

The commissioner can send an approved member into a season that is already under way. A late arrival starts with the episode that is open when they enter: their torches and ballots score from that episode on, and the earlier episodes stay at zero. Before that episode locks they choose a trio from the castaways still in the game and fill out a season card with the winner, the final three and the jury tiebreaker. There is no first-boot pick. Entry is the same $51.

The arrival trial. Each late arrival picks any one of the five island games. Practice is unlimited; the scored attempt is one try in one game. Finishing before that game’s clock runs out earns +10 points. Among people who arrive in the same episode, the first to win chooses their tribe and the others take the places that are left. If nobody has chosen by the lock, buffs are drawn. A late arrival counts toward their tribe’s weekly challenge once their trio is saved. A trio not saved by the lock can be saved once the next episode opens, and starts earning from that episode.

Two tribes · Weekly bonus

Ember and Tide compete weekly. Challenges rotate: Coconut Crossfire (slingshot), Lomaiviti Labyrinth (tilt maze), Lost Island (slider puzzle), Castaway Code (hangman), Reef Rings (ring toss), then repeat. Each member gets unlimited practice and one scored attempt: 45 seconds for Coconut Crossfire, 70 seconds for Reef Rings, 150 seconds for the other games. Completion earns 1; missed and unfinished attempts earn 0. No partial credit.

The tribe’s completion rate × 8 plus its average weekly ballot points (out of 8) produces a score out of 16. Higher wins. A tied score goes to the tribe with the lower average time among successful finishers, with no finishers treated as slower than any completed time. Equal times, or no finishers on either tribe, leave a tie. Every winning roster member receives +3 individual points; unresolved ties award no bonus. Individual standings remain the season competition.

Three phases. When the TV tribes swap, the league holds its first Tribal Council, Drop your buffs! Once that vote closes, the commissioner shuffles everyone into two new tribes, Vatu and Wai, dealing each old tribe across both, with new buffs. A second council follows at the merge. Then comes the final merge into one tribe, Solevu, and the weekly challenge turns individual: every finisher earns +3 and the fastest earns +1 more. A challenge already under way when the tribes change finishes with the rosters it started with. Visit your tribe →

Locks & tiebreakers

Trio and season card lock at 7 PM CT on premiere night. Weekly ballots lock at 7 PM CT each Wednesday. Missed ballots score zero. Anyone who leaves the game in an episode, whether voted out, quitting or medically evacuated, counts as that episode’s boot, for ballots and torches alike. Open Era returns: if an eliminated castaway re-enters the game, their torch relights from the episode they return; points already missed are not restored. After the finale, ties go to the closest jury-vote prediction, then total correct boots. Before then, tied scores share a rank.