Board Thread:Season 8 - Korea/@comment-4062486-20131011040630/@comment-11497002-20131012231628

I can see both sides. It probably was a mistake to let idols be used up to final 5 because there were four idols in the game, and with individual immunity, potentially everyone could have been immune at final five, then what would happen? (Unless the merge idol would never have been introduced if the Silla idol remained at merge.)

While it would have been best at the start of the game to say that idols could only be used up to final 7 (because we also have to consider the Silla idol might not have been played until the last round) so that at least two people were up for elimination, nothing can be changed now. Everyone knew the format they were working in, and thus could have foreseen and acted against the final five set-up that occurred. Going into tribal, it was not a default elimination because the idols did not have to be played. It's possible no one could have played an idol, or only one or two people play one.

Given that all contestants knew all three remaining idols could be played, I think it's a fair elimination in the context of this particular season and the context of how the vote played out. Alejandro received the majority vote as all other votes did not count. If Alejandro hadn't received any votes and was eliminated by default because all others were immune, I would think that was unfair.

I would advise in future, though, that idols only be playable up to the round 1 (immunity necklace) + n (number of hidden immunity idols potentially existing at once) + 2 (so that there are at least 2 people up for elimination).