It All Starts Here - Survifern kickoff 2025

Survifern: Foes vs Favorites kicked off its with a special day long event on Sunday, August 25th, a full week before the main weekend. This was the biggest cast we’ve ever had: twenty players total, fourteen returning veterans and six new bloods ready to prove themselves. Before the season could officially begin, we needed to determine who would be safe on the first night and reveal the two teams, The Favorites and The Foes. To do that, we sent everyone into a massive town‑wide scavenger hunt that pulled from multiple pre‑season challenge we had run all summer. The North2Shore passport book, the statewide hide‑and‑seek game, and even the First Fridays puzzle challenges. Each player was randomly paired with someone from the opposite team, though no one yet knew which team they’d eventually land on. It created this strange, exciting tension where everyone was working together while also quietly sizing up the competition.

All players started from the same point and were handed a newspaper that I designed specifically for this challenge. Inside were haiku‑based clues that pointed to each station scattered across Asbury Park. I was stationed on the boardwalk near the Ocean Grove border, guarding bags of puzzle pieces labeled with contestant names. Every station had its own mix of items, some relevant, some red herrings, some Easter Eggs referencing past seasons or local artists. Players had to collect all their bags, keep track of the details, and then solve one final haiku that would lead them to the finish line. Only the five fastest teams could attempt to solve the puzzle, and the first pair to solve it earned immunity heading into the first convention, where the season’s first vote‑off would take place. Watching the pairs sprint across town, decipher clues, and argue over interpretations was chaotic in the best way.

But the day wasn’t over. After the scavenger hunt wrapped, everyone regrouped at the Asbury Park Hotel on the Baronet rooftop for the official welcoming ceremony and two more challenges. The first was a team‑wide reward challenge: trivia based entirely on the random objects, clues, and details hidden at each station earlier in the day. It rewarded the players who paid attention, even to things that seemed unimportant. After that came the second immunity challenge, open only to the five qualifying teams from the scavenger hunt. It was a simple bean bag toss, but the pressure made it feel much bigger, and two more players secured safety for the first night. By the end of the evening, teams were revealed, alliances were already forming, and the tone for the season was set. This was our most ambitious start yet, and it felt like the perfect way to launch Survifern 2025.