User:Bwburke94/Bidding Guide

This page is Brendan's guide on how to make a successful season bid.

General Format
The very first thing to do when making a bid, before writing anything down, is to brainstorm it in your head.
 * How many contestants are in your season? This number can reasonably be anywhere from 16 to 22, though 17 and 19 are prime and require extra attention.
 * 16-person bids tend to get looked down upon unless they have a unique twist. No 16-person season has ever won a bidding session, but two admin seasons have used this cast size.
 * 18-person bids are fairly uncommon, as most bidders run with either 16 or 20/21. This is the smallest cast size where a Final Three is a serious possibility.
 * 20-person bids are the most popular, but with the new bidding format it may be losing traction as it's very unlikely more than three of the top five would have the same cast size. Before the 21-person came along, four straight bidding seasons used this size.
 * 21-person bids used to be the maximum under the 2012 rules, though there are no longer any explicit rules on cast size. However, Kamchatka showed that this format has a major weakness, as special care needs to be taken to avoid an easy pagonging.
 * How many contestants should make the merge?
 * This is not revealed to the public, but you should generally give this information in your email so that the admin committee knows that you know what you're doing.
 * Making your season mergeless uses your secret twist slot, and is generally frowned upon because final 4 in a mergeless season relies purely on challenge skills, making the social game pointless on Day 38.
 * The largest feasible merge is half the cast size, plus two. The smallest feasible merge is 8 people regardless of cast size.
 * Final Two or Final Three? How large is the jury?
 * Generally speaking, the bid as sent to the admin committee doesn't include any information on the jury, but this is still part of the brainstorming process.
 * Tribe switch/dissolve? (If more than two tribes, is the dissolve a "Matsing" or a "Luzon"?)
 * Tribe switches do NOT take up the secret twist slot, unless they're done in an unusual manner, such as two tribes becoming three tribes or the game becoming anarchy at a "switch".

Name and Location
Under the new rules for season 24 bidding, the season's name and location are not revealed to the public during the bidding process. However, the admin committee knows the location, so use a reasonable location instead of Survivor: My Grandma's Backyard.
 * You don't have to name a specific location if you're using a remote country. If your season is called Survivor: Lesotho, the name is enough to know the location,
 * If your location is shared with a CBS Survivor season from Borneo–Tocantins, don't copy the name of the existing season.
 * Example: Season 7 was located in Guatemala, at the same location as CBS Survivor: Guatemala, and was titled.
 * Example: Season 22 was located in Thailand, at a different location than CBS Survivor: Thailand, and was titled.
 * If your location is shared with a CBS Survivor season from Samoa–present, don't use a geographical name at all.
 * Example: Season 13 was located in Samoa, at the same location as four CBS seasons, and was titled.
 * Don't name your season directly after a CBS season. Shared titles are generally reserved for All-Stars seasons, such as and.

Twists
What twists are you putting in your season?
 * No Pyramid, even as a secret twist. By now, Pyramid is shorthand for "I'm not making a serious bid" and should be avoided.
 * No "abstain-Exile" as a permanent twist. Exile is fine, but the permanent abstain aspect seen in  and onwards has been done to death.
 * No double eliminations where the top two vote-getters are voted out.
 * No double eliminations in a 16-person, no-Redemption season.
 * No double eliminations right before the merge (except if 3 tribes) – obviously, the admin committee and the public wouldn't know the placement of the double boot, but this is still to be avoided

Secret Twist
The following things should use your secret twist slot so that the contestants don't know what's coming beforehand: The following things should use your secret twist slot if you have nothing better to use it on: The following things should not use your secret twist slot.
 * Unusual tribe switch, such as two tribes becoming three tribes or the game becoming anarchy at a "switch"
 * Double elimination, in an 18-person season
 * Abnormal merge size (7 or fewer, half-the-cast-plus-three or greater, or mergeless)
 * Anything involving misleading the contestants
 * Mutiny
 * Double elimination, in a 20-person season
 * Triple elimination (obviously, this requires a 21-person cast, as 18 people isn't enough for a triple boot to take place)
 * Redemption Island (herp derp)
 * Anarchy at the start of the game
 * Exile (from seasons 16-21, every season except used Exile or a variant thereof; seriously, this is overdone)

Other stuff to avoid
These are miscellaneous things that should not be in Survivor: Wikia seasons.
 * Anything directly taken from Survivor Fanon Wiki, especially if the author wants nothing to do with the ORG. The most infamous case of this is, which was completely based off Ian's fanon without his consent.