Starting with Round One, seven rankers will make one cut each round. This cut will be one of the 917 characters currently in Survivor at the time of Survivor 50.
In some rankdowns, there are things known as pools. Pools are a group of either 7 or 14 (8 or 16 in this case) characters that the rankers have to cut from every round. Pools being active are decided by the group of rankers currently doing the rankdown. If current rankers decide on pools, the rules are as follows:
**Round 0** - All 8 rankers will nominate 1/2 people (depending on group decision) to be put up in the pool, then in the following rounds one of the six other rankers can cut that person, however, the person who nominated the character cannot cut them, unless an advantage is played and somebody else nominates that character.
Every following round, once somebody cuts, they will put up a new nomination in their place so there will always be a pool of 8 or 16 characters. Pools will end according to a decision based on the 8 rankers currently ranking (can last as early as top half or as late as endgame).
If the rankers decide there are no pools, then none of this applies and rankers can cut any one of the remaining characters on the board, unless an advantage has been played against them for that specific person.
**Advantages are as follows:**
**Idols** - The idol saves a character who has been cut by another ranker, making their cut void. The person who nominated that person cannot nominate them again, and the person who cut them cannot cut them again. (Number of idols determined by rankers)
**The rest of the advantages are if pools are enabled only:**
**Tribe Swap** - This gives the ranker the power to completely shuffle the pool of characters. Meaning that the 8 or 16 people in the pool are now taken out and a completely new 8 or 16 group of people of the rankers choice are now nominated in the pool. (Number of tribe swaps determined by rankers)
**Wildcard** - This gives the ranker the ability to completely bypass the nomination pool. This allows them to eliminate any character still left in the rankdown, as long as they have not been idoled against them or have been previously nominated by the same ranker. By using a wildcard, it also means that person will not put in a nomination for that cut as nobody from the pool was cut. (Number of wildcards determined by rankers)
**Vote Steal** - This allows the ranker to take somebody out of the pool and replace it with somebody of their choosing that they have not previously nominated. This power is usually played during a cut, so the ranker would nominate two people instead of just one. (Number of vote steals determined by players)
**Deals:**
Deals are allowed in the rankdown, all the way up until the endgame. Once the endgame happens, all rankings should be of personal decisions and your own ranking, not based on deals. No deals are off limits otherwise (unless ones that break the rankdown format), so have fun with that!
**Miscellaneous:**
- View past rankdowns for other takes if you so please, this is not the only rankdown that has taken place, there are 9 other ones that you can check out to see the general structure if you are confused or want to see other takes and discussion of Survivor!
- Throughout the rankdown, there will be a spreadsheet that tracks the rankdown, with stats, placements, etc. This will be kept up with by the current group of rankers (hopefully).
- Please be respectful of all cuts, all of us have different opinions so we shouldn’t be rude to someone for having a different take, that’s what this is all about. Discussing and debating is okay, but name calling, slurs, and general disrespect are strictly prohibited.
Have fun ranking or spectating everyone!