Back in 2016, well-known Let's Play channel and game division of Rooster Teeth, Achievement Hunter, announced their intentions to diversify their content, subsequently creating the channel known as Let's Play
to try new things while maintaining the series they had become known for. And among these experiments would be none other than Survive Block Island.
A loving parody of Survivor, it combines that show's signature style with the video game, Minecraft. The result? A passion project from the studio regularly hailed in-house as among the greatest shows they've made! First announced on March 29th, 2022 and released via their website on April 7th of the same year, the series received positive feedback and critical acclaim amongst fans of the brand, though appeared to largely under perform in comparison to the standard let's play content. A second season called "Meltdown" would go on to release on September 6th that same year.
The series formula is as follows; twelve Rooster Teeth alumni are dropped onto an abandoned island and split into two teams, known as Red and Blue (wonder if that calls back to anything in particular). Over the course of the next few episodes, the teams compete against each other in challenges to win immunity, with the losing team then having to vote someone off. The teams would eventually undergo a team swap to mix things up. About halfway through the season, the teams will then be merged, with every contestant competing for themselves for immunity with elimination still as a threat. Upon reaching the last three players, they'll face those they eliminated and plead their case, hoping to secure their votes and support; whoever receives the most support would then win the show.
Following the second season's wrap-up, the fate of the series was left up in the air, as while the crew has openly acknowledged having loved making it, there was a lack of interest from the grander community. Achievement Hunter's eventual closure in 2023 would only further dissuade any potential of its return, and Rooster Teeth as a company's announced closure in 2024 all but spelled the end of Survive Block Island for good.
You can view the entire series here.
WARNING: Due to the tropes surrounding the series, all spoilers will be left unmarked. Read at your own discretion.
Previously on...Survive Block Island!
- All or Nothing: The prize structure is still essentially winner-take-all; at the end of every given season, only one person is coming out on top.
- And Knowing Is Half the Battle: Just like his inspiration, before dismissing them from Chopping Block, Trevor will add a brief remark about that vote or the tribe's prospects in general. Most are rather obvious while others rely on a pun or something similar.
- Anyone Can Die: Well, not actual death, but anyone can get eliminated no matter how safe they seem. Doesn't matter if they're a strong player, have allies, or know what they're doing- unless you're immune from the vote, you have a chance of going home.
- Ascended Fanboy: Everyone playing in the season or serving as part of the crew, from the host to the interviewer to the various contestants, love the original Survivor, with many members of Achievement Hunter siting it as one of their favorite shows. And now, they get to compete in their own version of it!
- Beach Episode: Just like the original inspiration, the team's bases are on the beach and a lot of the various challenges involve water in some way. Only while the original usually did as much for fanservice, here the blocky textures ensure that's not the case, and is rather just a deliberate homage.
- Bittersweet Ending: For everybody who loses the Final Chopping Block, namely Alfredo and Jon for season 1 and Gavin and Meg for season 2. On one hand, they lost right at the finish line, but at least it is rewarding that you have survived till the final day in an unfamiliar location and outlasted the jury.
- Blessed with Suck: Assuming they make the merge, players who are considered unimpressive or unpopular are likely to be brought to the end because they are considered easily beatable.
- In particular, Gavin had a far less impressive resume going into the Final Chopping Block compared to Andrew and Meg, and spent most of it just getting chewed out. In the end, he only received a single vote to win.
- Can't Catch Up: If one tribe does poorly enough in the pre-merge game, then they wind up entering with a severe minority and are (usually) easy pickings for the majority. The Blue Team and Team Ice suffered this in their respective seasons, though special mention to the former, who are all eliminated before the final five because of their lack of numbers.
- Captain Obvious: Just like Jeff Probst, Trevor comes across as this near constantly whenever he announces for a challenge; usually in the form of "Player X, doing Y."
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Each team has a color given to its buffs, flag, challenge props, etc. Both seasons present these in the form of a red team versus a blue team, with other colors shifting in at various stages of the game.
- Confession Cam: Like the original show, the contestants constantly give confessionals. Unlike Survivor, though, here they're largely Played for Laughs, usually being done less to inform a player's direction and strategy and more to elevate or put a cap on a joke or gag.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: In both seasons, there is a clear dominant team that absolutely annihilates the competition. More specifically, the designated red-colored team (specifically the Red Team and Team Fire) dominated the blue-colored team (Blue Team and Team Ice).
- Cursed with Awesome: Players considered to have strong athletic, social, or strategic prowess are likely to get voted out before making it to the final jury. Special mention to BK and Matt from season 1 and Blizz and Michael from season 2.
- Dark Horse Victory: Barbara and Andrew managed to win their respective seasons!
- Deadly Game: Played for Laughs; the challenges are deliberately designed to be dangerous or outright deadly, same with the camps the teams rest at...But it's also a video game, so...
- Deserted Island: The stereotypical setting of both seasons, though Meltdown adds a weather-based twist with fire and ice.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After nine straight episodes of challenges, eliminations, and competing intensely with the enemy team, it feels good to actually win it all!
- Elimination Statement: The contestants' final words vary from being encouraging words to the remaining tribe, reminiscing over things they regret, or bitter words towards the people who voted them out.
- Every Episode Ending: Episodes almost always end up with one contestants sent home and lamenting their fate on a final Confession Cam.
- Game Show Host: Trevor, this show's own Jeff Probst.
- It's All About Me: Many contestants adopt this attitude. It's clearest when jury members give their speeches at the final Tribal Council, as several either bitterly tear into the finalists for betraying them or basically ask the finalists to suck up to them.
- Limited Wardrobe: Justified, seeing as this is a video game and they're only using a single skin.
- Locked Out of the Loop: This is the basic premise of a blindside. Letting a player (or their allies) know that they're getting votes runs the risk of an idol play, or outright talking their way out of trouble.
- Loners Are Freaks: Not staying with the group makes people paranoid - or at least, not inclined to save you over their friends. So isolate yourself at your peril.
- Nothing Personal: Most of the eliminations that take place are strictly due to gameplay or strategic purposes. Seeing as the entire cast, with only a handful of exceptions, are co-workers, many players who go after each other in-game are on good terms with each other outside of it.
- Once per Episode: Every season has been so standardized that you can almost always expect the same things happening in every episode. There are scenes of camp life spread across the tribes, an Immunity Challenge, the losing tribe strategizes and then heads to Tribal Council and votes someone out of the game.
- Player Elimination: Besides the show itself taking the form of Voted Off the Island, several challenges feature elements of players whittling down over time:
- Playing Both Sides: An effective, but tricky, strategy is to float between multiple large alliances. Done well, this gives the person in the middle a lot of leverage, but if done poorly, the player in question will effectively lose the game due to a lack of trust.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Both the blue-tinted teams come across as incompetent and outright foolish compared to the far more strategic and generally stable red-tinted teams.
- Reality Show Genre Blindness: In the beginning and midphase of the show, very few people coming on the show seem to have an idea how these things tend to work. Usually the contestants who do the best and go on to make long runs are those who outgrow this trope the fastest.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The jury is rarely especially happy to see the finalists during the Final Chopping Block; expect at least one of them to pull a Take That! speech/statement toward the players who made it to the end.
- Sore Loser: Several players voted out take it poorly, shown in post-Tribal Council confessionals, finale retrospective confessionals, or bitter jury speeches during the final Tribal Council.
- Spanner in the Works: When a contestant becomes contrary to the majority alliances' plan, they risk upheaving it and throwing the game out of whack.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: One or two characters get the bulk of the screentime each season for various reasons, such as having unique mannerisms or bringing something new to the show.
- Strategy Versus Tactics: Some players focus on their overall strategy and how they'll win in the finals, others focus more on the tactics of surviving round to round. Obviously, it's best to balance both.
- Voted Off the Island: Players leave the island as they are voted off by their peers.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Once an alliance has eliminated their competition, the perceived strongest member(s) is/are the one(s) who get voted out by their tribemates because they see them as a threat. This is also why traitors from opposing factions last only a spot longer than whoever they ratted out.
