Ren

Age: 28
From: London
Occupation: Network Data Scientist

What made you want to be a contestant on Survivor?

Survivor has been my all-time favourite show since I found it when I was 14, ‘obsessed’ is an understatement. It combines so many things I love into this intense and awesome package where you get to do stuff you don’t get to regularly as an adult. I also just love the mental and social aspects of the game – it's not about playing the game you want to play, it’s about playing the game the jury wants to see you play.

What qualities did you think you’d bring to the game?

I love the outdoors, so wanted to help people feel at ease while living with next-to-nothing so they’d keep me around. I enjoy getting to know new people and forming real connections, so I hoped tribemates would see I developed genuine relationships that weren’t centred around game-play. But most importantly, if it came down to it, I was willing to separate those relationships from the game – I'd blindside anyone in a heartbeat!

How did you prepare yourself mentally and physically for taking part?

I had a serious programme! I have spreadsheets about which elements are most often featured in Survivor challenges in the US and Australia and tried to train for those. I 3D printed the more popular puzzles to practice, worked on knot untying techniques, and even tried to improve my swimming (this went less well...).

Did you have a strategy of how you were going to play the game?

My goal was to lie low until the merge, and then show off my game in the later stages. I wanted to keep enough players that were more threatening than me around as shields in the early game. The most important thing to me was working out what other players wanted to see in a winner, and tailoring my game to fit that so I could get the votes at the end.

How competitive are you?

Very.

What kind of challenges were you most looking forward to?

I was really excited for the Survivor classic – an epic obstacle course where you have to use each other to get through different elements, ending in a solid equalizer puzzle (which I’d reluctantly volunteered to do, and then dominate, duh).

How did you cope with living on a beach with no home comforts?

Controversial, but I loved camp life! To wake up every day in such a remote and beautiful location and to not have to deal with the repetitive home pressures of washing up and laundry was a huge luxury to me.

How did you cope with the hunger?

Poorly. Turns out I really hate rice and beans, and even though I was literally starving it always took me a full hour to eat a single scoop of food...

What did you learn from being on the show or what is the biggest takeaway?

Good company and connections are worth so much more then home comforts. Also that it’s not possible for me to avoid talking about Survivor at even the most impractical moments...