Legacy 2: Salem Witch Trials

Legacy: Salem Witch Trials was the second installment of the Legacy series.

The game began in October 2019 and concluded in November 2019. In the end, Rory Moore beat out Ilsa Yousaf in a 5-4 vote.

The season's theme was based on the Salem Witch Trials, which involved accusations of witchcraft and the subsequent trials in colonial Massachusetts.

Production
Initial production for this season began in March 2019. Eddie, Jonathan, Julian, and Taylor all returned to produce this season, with Austin from Mass Extinction joining the team. The final 3 of season one, Tommy, Charlie, and Scott, served as honorary production members.

Twists

 * Witch Accusations - Every round, each player made a secret accusations rankings of their tribemates, from most suspicious to least suspicious. The player on each tribe with the highest average (aka least suspicious) received an idol clue. At Final 12, the player from each tribe with the most suspicious average were offered a pact: Become a Witch and survive the impending Witch Trial to be rewarded with great power.


 * Witchfinder - At the Final 14, Oyer and Terminer elected a Witchfinder. The Witchfinder remained on their original tribe for the tribe swap that round and were told the current accusation averages of their new tribemates.


 * Witch Trial - The player from each tribe with the most suspicious were offered the Witch pact, with the condition that they must throw the individual immunity challenge taking place for each of their tribes. The Witches were made aware of each others' identities. They were informed that if they both survived the Witch Trial, then they would receive minor powers. However, if just one of them survived, then they would receive a major power. It was up to the Witches to inform the other players of their status as a Witch, but the other players were offered an idol clue for the merge idol if they successfully voted out a Witch during the trial.

Castaways

 * The Total Votes is the number of votes a castaway received during Tribal Councils where the castaway was eligible to be voted out of the game. It does not include the votes received during the final Tribal Council.

Season Summary
In our second season, Salem Witch Trials, Rory won over Ilsa in a narrow 5-4, in our first Final 2 of the series. Rory came out of the gate swinging. He secured the idol in just the second round of the game through using information from others to crack the Cauldron sequence. Rory was never afraid from delving into paranoia, stating, “At first it was just paranoia, but the further I’ve gotten into this paranoia, there are signs.” But, Rory never let the paranoia consume him. He built strong bonds with many of the other players that allowed him to stay safe. Designated a Witch leading up to the Witch Trial, Rory misplayed his idol, but secured his spot in the merge. With merge came the consistent destruction and reformations of alliances-- a chaos that Rory thrived in. Rory forced the other players to play at his frenetic speed, only being in real danger in a 3-2 vote against Mike at Final 5. Despite voting on opposite sides at Final 5, Rory and Ilsa reignited a strong alliance that began at the swap and made the Final 2 a difficult decision between Ilsa’s savvy social play and Rory’s calculated chaos. Ultimately, Rory’s strong Final Tribal swayed enough jurors away from their initial distaste for how he played the game to net him a much deserved win.

Here are our top 5 favorite moments from Legacy: Salem Witch Trials:

5. HANNAH IN THE CASE OF THE MISSING VOTE
At the Final 8, it looked like the game was destined for rocks. One side of Gabby, Sunshine, Kyle and Zach planned on voting for Mike. The other side of Mike, Hannah, Rory, and Ilsa planned on voting for Gabby. In an attempt to prevent what seemed inevitable, Mike played his Idol on himself, sending home Gabby with three votes against her. Wait. Three votes? The final breakdown was 4 votes negated by Mike for himself, 3 for Gabby, and 1 for Hannah. Hannah forgot to submit her vote, and received a self-vote. You would think that’d be the end of this entry, but instead Hannah chose to lie about her self-vote. This all lead to a hilarious exchange between Mike and Hannah: “Hey! Question. Do you know how you got a vote last tribal?” -Mike “No idea tbh” -Hannah “Yeah I’ve been trying to work it out. You voted Gabby right?” -Mike “Mhm” -Hannah

4. TALES OF THE SANDWITCH SHOPPE
Compared to the merge, the pre-merge of Salem Witch Trials wasn’t particularly crazy. However, there was a moment that fed into a saga that culminated with the number 1 moment on this list. The suspicions of challenging throwing began with the food challenge Sandwitch Shoppe. Garrett, who ultimately was eliminated that round, was framed for a plot to throw his portion of the challenge. Strangely, Anthony was also looped into this supposed plan to throw the challenge and get out Carlos. Meanwhile, Zach, on the other tribe, did actually throw his part of the challenge. Suspicions around challenge performance popped up again after the swap when a tribe full of the original Terminer tribe lost the storytelling challenge and sent home the lone member of the original Oyer tribe, Alex. In reality, Terminer just did very, very poorly in that challenge. The suspicions surrounding apparent challenge throws carried through to later rounds… but we’ll get to that later.

3. A HEROIC MOMENT?
In a live night at Final 10, Kyle earned Legacy: Mass Extinction winner, Tommy’s Legacy Power after winning Hero of the Season in Touchy Subjects. At tribal, Rory, feeling his back was against the wall after losing his ally Benji at the merge vote, went on the offensive to expose Kyle, Zach, and Christie. With Tommy’s Legacy Power, Kyle was able to grant individual immunity to two players other than himself. He could have made the obvious move to save his allies Zach and Christie-- labeled Duo of the Season in Touchy Subjects. Instead, Kyle chose to save his side's main targets in Hannah and Mike, seemingly to force Carlos to take out Ilsa. In the scramble to decide a new vote at tribal, Rory accused Christie of stating that she wanted to flip on her original tribe because she “straight up didn’t like Gabby”. Tensions suddenly flared as Christie fought back, “That’s a flat out fucking lie, Rory.” At this point, Mike entered the fray, and when asked by Christie if he would let her speak, Mike let loose the barb, “I don’t really want to let you speak.” Through this dramatic turn, Carlos and Gabby felt there was no other option but to flip and take out Christie.

2. THE REAL MOVE
In the wake of Christie going home at Final 10, the voting blocs once again jockeyed for power, which led to perhaps the most complicated vote of the season. Rory began to worry that the duos of Mike & Ilsa and Gabby & Carlos were too interconnected, despite apparently being on opposite sides. Rory decided to bridge together an alliance of Kyle, Sunshine, Zach, and Hannah, but this was no simple task. Hannah had varying degrees of bad blood with Kyle, Sunshine, and Zach. After a productive, trust-affirming call between Hannah and Kyle, Rory’s proposed alliance seemed all the more possible. Meanwhile, the Sitting Ducks (Zach, Kyle, and Sunshine) set their sights on Ilsa. Rory, on the other hand, wanted to take out Carlos. Rory secretly filled in Ilsa that Carlos was his target that round, but Ilsa and Mike agreed to vote Sunshine. And then, yet another alliance came into play when the chat of the original Terminer tribe plus Zach came to the consensus that Mike needed to go. With so many names floating out there going into tribal, very few people knew for certain what the real move would be when the dust settled. This tribal concluded with a dramatic 5-2-2 vote… with Carlos getting blindsided by Rory, Hannah, Zach, Kyle, and Sunshine. Ilsa and Mike voted for Sunshine, knowing it was unlikely that he was going home. Gabby and Carlos were completely out of the loop and voted Mike. This tribal finally brought a swift end to Gabby and Carlos previously solidly playing the middle. Before we get to the Top moment of the season, I want to give two brief Honorable Mentions: Tate spontaneously typing “Idol?” in his tribe chat The wild scramble during the pre-swap live night that ended in Dan getting blindsided.

1. A TRIAL BY FIRE
The pre-merge of Salem Witch Trials involved each player confidentially sending in rankings of their tribemates from Most Suspicious to Least Suspicious. The rankings all culminated when Rory and Christie became the suspected Witches heading into the Witch Trials, a joint tribal council that marked the transition from pre-merge to merge. The task was simple for the other players: detect the Witches and receive a reward at merge. Only Rory and Christie knew of the other’s identity as a suspected Witch and could either work together for a small advantage or betray the other for a more significant advantage. The original tribes, Oyer and Terminer, both had 6 players left at this point, and most of them seemed set on going along tribal lines. Christie, however, connected with Zach and had him relay to his tribe that she would consider flipping on the original Terminer tribe. The original Oyer (Rory, Mike, Hannah, and Benji) became immediately suspicious of this information and wondered why Zach was against working with Ilsa, who had swapped from Terminer to join Oyer. Thus, an overly complicated plan was hatched: Rory, Mike, Hannah, Benji, and Ilsa would vote for Anthony, while allowing Zach and Christie to believe the vote was Gabby. The Witch Trial voted tied with 5 votes for Mike, 5 votes for Anthony, and 2 votes for Gabby. During discussions prior to the revote, Carlos blew up at Anthony, exposing the fact that he didn’t trust Anthony due to the supposed plan to throw the Sandwitch Shoppe challenge in Round 3 to get Carlos out (See, I told you those suspicions would come up again). Anthony claimed that Carlos’ suspicions were patently false, but the momentum had already swung too far. Anthony went home 8-2 in the revote, with only Kyle and Sunshine voting to save him. The fractures caused by this vote catalyzed the chaos of the merge, and still stands as one of Legacy’s most entertaining tribals.