Fantasy Survivor

A few years ago I started watching the TV show Survivor (yes, it is still on the air and yes, Jeff Probst is still hosting). Watch parties started with three people catching up on our week with Survivor in the background. We would find the weirdest beers at the local store to try and then watch the Wednesday Night Rivalry hockey game after the episode. Slowly, our Wednesday evening tradition evolved. Criticisms of players on the island became thorough analysis of moves they should have made (never tell anyone you have an idol!). Being competetive people we decided to start hedging bets on the game. Who will win the immunity challenge? Who will be voted off? Who will be the final Survivor?

We started keeping score during Season 35: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers. A Google Form was created and predictions were tallied up in a spreadsheet after the episode each week. Although the formula was relatively simple, organizing the form, calculating weekly scores, and informating participants of their totals was time consuming.

I figured this could be a great project to practice my web development skills. So, for Survivor 36: Ghost Island a basic html webform was used to collect responses. The interactive chart displaying the weekly and total scores was built using D3. And users could view their weekly responses and points breakdown on the linked responses page.

I improved upon the form for the next season, making for a better user experience. It also made updating this page after the episode less of a chore and I got into adding fun bonus questions to the weekly forms.

Congrats to all the winners so far! Prizes have included an #official Survivor buff, a handmade ceramic survivor idol, and even a personalized video from the real Surivivor winner. Check out the results from past seasons below.

There is much to do to improve this little application. But improvements are being made each season! Stay tuned for future developments.