Crashcourse Qatar: Season 3 (Congrats, Eliza!)

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Crashcourse Qatar started off with a unique twist that the players had trouble believing: both tribes would start with unequal numbers. The Banat Tribe, wearing black, would have 10 members while the Diyab Tribe, wearing yellow, would have 9 numbers. In addition to this, the players were told to drop their expectations as to how the game would play out. In short, the game would not subscribe to the classic happenings of a regular season of Survivor. Gradually, the twist began to play with the players' minds as they began to wonder what twists may or may not arise.

Early on, Diyab showed their dominance in the challenges as Banat struggled to act as a coherent unit. In Pieces of You, Diyab took the early lead and didn't look back, sending Banat to the first tribal of the game. Plagued with boisterous personalities and a few players who failed to show up, Banat struggled to find a first boot until they settled on voting off Jolanda. However, Jolanda's exit provided some drama as she left a stray vote for Jonathan that she blamed on Janu and Gregg. Gregg, a social outcast who had not been included in the majority, took the fall and was slotted to go next. At the next challenge, the classic balance beam challenge, Banat finally put on a stronger showing, but it was not enough. They were sent back to tribal. Gregg was spared as Angie, who had been inactive, was sent home unanimously. Following this, an announcement was made that Ami had been removed from the game for not showing up since the opening weekend. Despite winning more challenges, Diyab and Banat were now tied with 8 members each due to Diyab starting with less members.

After three boots, the players began to expect a twist of some sort, but this was not the case. Banat earned yet another loss in the Familiar Faces challenge and were once again faced with a difficult decision: Gregg, their social outcast who was very strong in challenges, or Jonathan, who was somewhat more loyal but could not pull his weight in challenges. Jonathan took the fall and attempted to cause some drama on the way out. The next challenge was Hot Tamale, where Banat was finally able to hang on to pull off a win. Diyab then voted off Scout unanimously. Meanwhile, two idols had been secretly planted in the open at each tribe, there for whoever happened to stumble across them first. James took the idol for Banat and Chad found it for Diyab.

With 14 players left in the game, the players were told that something would happen the following night. It was then announced that they would have an early merge, becoming the Thani Tribe. With the numbers at 7 each, both tribes were looking for a crack. When Janu messaged the entire merged tribe with secret plans, she was so upset that she wanted to give up. The Diyab alliance viewed this as an idol play feign and decided to blindside Ibrehem 7-4-3, effectively forcing the Banats to split up their votes. They realized that Janu really was just a little crazy when she didn't play an idol. Janu was sent home unanimously in the following vote.

At the Final 12, the tribes were split back up again into original tribes of 6 members each. Sarge and Brady won the rights to pick new tribes. Brady picked his allies, and then social outcasts Caryn and Gregg, while Sarge chose a mixed tribe of 3 Diyabs and 3 Banats. When Diyab lost the next challenge, the game heated up as Brady decided that Chad was too dangerous. He rallied Mia, Gregg, and Caryn to vote him out while Chris was left out of the plan and Chad was sent him with his idol in his back pocket. Banat lost the next challenge, and the vote tied 3-3 between Twila and Ian. Sarge and Eliza decided to cut their losses and join Stephenie, Ian, and James, the all-powerful Banat 3, to send home Twila right before the merge. With only 10 players left, the merged tribe began to wonder when the jury would finally start. Meanwhile, Gregg managed to find the re-hidden Diyab idol that Chad left with.

At the Final 10, another removal had to be made as Mia hadn't showed up for nearly a week. She was removed from the jury. The Final 9 saw the classic Immunity Takedown challenge, where Chris, Sarge, and Brady each took immunity in exchange for a future consequence. Gregg was then blindsided after surviving many close calls, and he too was sent home with an idol. He became the first member of the jury. After this, a merge idol was hidden, and Gregg's idol was re-hidden. Stephenie surprisingly managed to find both.

At the Final 8, the consequence for the immunity takers was announced: only the three players who had taken immunity could be voted for at the next tribal. The game heated up as players began to pick new sides. In a shocking turn of event, the vote tied between Chris and Sarge. Sarge had joined up with the Banat 3 while Eliza rallied Chris, Brady, and Caryn to take out Sarge. With neither side budging, the vote went to rocks for the first time in Crashcourse history. All players without immunity would be eligible to draw the purple rock, but fate decided to choose Brady to leave as he had been the only player besides Chris and Sarge who could be voted for.

Things looked bad for Eliza, Chris, and Caryn, but they got a glimmer of hope when Sarge joined them to vote Ian out of the Banat 3 in order to secure his usefulness to them later down the road. Despite being upset with this, Stephenie and James continued to work with Sarge as they booted Caryn in a 3-2-1 vote next. Stephenie played both of her idols, one on Sarge and one on herself, but they were not needed. The Final 5 saw yet another intense round as Eliza, the next target, won a crucial immunity. This left the target on Chris. James, who had become more and more disillusioned with Sarge and his controlling ways, planned to flip to to join Eliza and Chris to take out the vulnerable Sarge, but Sarge spooked James into voting out Chris by showing a fake idol. Despite James still having his own idol (that he played during the tribal) James still stuck with Sarge in one of the biggest Crashcoruse blunders ever. Eliza could only watch in frustration as her only ally left was sent home.

At the Final 4, Sarge won immunity in a lockbox challenge. Eliza worked hard to rally James to help her tie the vote against Stephenie, but James once again fell victim to Sarge's persuasiveness as he believed Sarge and Stephenie planned to vote out Eliza. James was then sent home 3-1 after Sarge and Stephnie grew too annoyed with his emotional ways. It was then announced that the 3 remaining players were the Final 3 and would head to Final Tribal Council. Stephenie and Sarge realized their mistake in allowing Eliza, the plucky "I told you so!" underdog to make it to the end. In one final twist, it was revealed that there would be 4 mystery jurors: Iberehem, Janu, Chad, and Twila, who had been voted out during the early merge. Despite this, Eliza secured the first unanimous win in Crashcourse history in an extremely strong FTC performance.

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