Abi-Maria Gomes

Abi-Maria Gomes is the Sole Survivor of SS4: Cook Islands. She later competed in SS6: South Pacific.

She is mainly known for her physical prowess, winning 5 individual immunities in SS4; the record of any player in a sole season, and for being voted off first in SS6, only to survive all of the truels but slip up on the last one. She is also known for being the first Sole Survivor to receive all jury votes, after she made it to the Final Tribal Council with her alliance members: Colby and Boston Rob.

SS4: Cook Islands
Abi-Maria began SS4 on Hiki, with former player Malcolm, and newbies Krista, Kenny and James. Immeadiately, Krista and Abi worked with each other, and managed to swing James into their alliance, although it was not solid. Kenny was wavering in the middle too, but the alliances didn't matter, as the pre-mutiny Hiki tribe never went to tribal council.

When the mutiny was announced, Krista told Abi that she was going to Puka and that Abi should follow. So sticking to their alliance plans, she mutinyed to Puka, which had Malcolm, Katie and Allie on the tribe. However, Krista mutinyed to Raro, and left Abi in the dust.

In the Puka tribe, Abi made alliances everyone, but her true loyalties layed with Katie. So when the tribe first went to tribal, Abi believed she controlled the voting. She made Allie vote Katie, Maclolm vote Allie, and she planned for herself and Katie to blindside Malcolm after he had made comments of blindsiding Abi. But Katie stuck with Malcolm's original plan to take out Allie, leaving Abi in the minority on the tribe. However, when they lost the next challenge, Abi managed to persuade Malcolm, the immunity-holder, to save her, and she backstabbed her closest Puka tribemate, Katie.

When merge hit, there were clear divisions in the Aitutonga tribe. It appeared to be Kim vs. Stephen, and despite picking Stephen as her main alliance, Abi played both sides. For the first three votes, Abi swapped between alliance voting, thus ensuring she was always the swing vote at every tribal. In the first vote, Abi voted Kim, but Kim played her idol, and so Abi switched to voting Danielle, part of Stephen's alliance. The next vote was relitively similar: two sides and a revote. Abi originally voted out Lisa, the head of the Kim's alliance, but when the revote came, she switched once again to vote Reynold. Planning to continue like this, Abi spoke to numerous people who all told her that Kim was targeting her. Abi then set out on a campaign to get Kim eliminated, but many people declined.

From the replies, Abi realised she was at the bottom of the both alliances she was in. So to prevent this, she created a third alliance, which would ultimately be the alliance that would dominate SS4, the 'noobies alliance'. This involved Abi, Colby and Boston Rob, all newbies and swing votes. She could then control the whole game and decide who went home every time, as the alliance were the swing votes, and using this alliance to her advantage, she managed to successfully eliminate Kim, while still fulfilling Stephen's idea that he controlled that elimination, and increasing the target on his back.

After this, Abi knew that she would be targeted by the opposing alliance of Lisa, Corinne, Krista and Kenny, and so she tried hard for immunity, and ultimately won. Knowing that Lisa was the head of the opposite alliance, Stephen, who was now one of Abi's close allies, started the campaign against Lisa. Abi got her 'noobies alliance' involved, which gave Stephen and Abi the majority. But when Lisa played an idol, Stephen was targeted and eliminated, leaving the game in a 4-4 deadlock of Lisa vs. Abi.

Straight away, Abi set out to work on making the opposing alliance trust her, and sure enough, they told her everything. But, still unsure on whether it was the truth, she tried hard for immunity, and just managed to beat Lisa. This left Abi with two options: flip to the opposing alliance and be guaranteed 5+, but be at the bottom of the alliance, or somehow get Lisa out. Despite the first choice being easiest, Abi knew that if Lisa made it deeper into the game, she could go on an immunity streak, and had she made it in front of the jury, she would win. So Abi asked who people would vote, and the only people willing to vote Lisa were Krista, Maclolm and herself. That meant the only way to eliminate Lisa was in a 3-2-2-1 vote, and so Abi split the opposing alliance's vote in a 2-1 style, and make her 'noobies alliance' vote Corinne, thus ensuring Lisa's elimination.

Still on the outs and not in a strong, solid, majority alliance, Abi knew she needed immunity. When the immunity challenge came, she won her third straight immunity and although Malcolm was the obvious choice as he was the last vet, Maclolm and Abi had grown close, and Abi started a campaign against Corinne but everyone was deadset on voting Malcolm. At tribal council, it was useless to try and save Malcolm; it was clear he was going, so Abi voted him to fit in with the majority.

From being a 4-4 deadlock two votes ago, it then became a 3-3 deadlock, of Corinne, Krista and Kenny vs. the 'noobies alliance'. Abi was still the main target, and when she lost immunity, it seemed obvious she would be voted out. However, she had been sent to Exile a lot, and when she lost immunity, she went straight there. Knowing this was her last chance for safety, she worked harder than before, and found the idol just in time for tribal. At tribal, she acted like she'd given up so people could vote her, and it was revealed she had 3 votes. The three from the opposing alliance, Kenny, Krista and Corinne, had voted her, but her 'noobies alliance' banded together to split the vote 2-1. In the end, the 2 votes against Corinne eliminated her.

In the Final 5 there were only two people who were respected by the jury, Krista and Abi, so when it came to the individual immunity challenge, whichever of those two lost would most likely be eliminated. It was extremely close between those two, but Abi came out victorious, almost guaranteeing Krista's elimination. When it came to tribal, Krista and Abi both campaigned, Krista's argument was that she could take down Abi and her now majority alliance, and Abi's was that Krista was the biggest threat left. Sure enough, Krista was taken out in a 3-2 vote.

Boston Rob, Colby, Kenny and Abi now remained, and Abi had 4 immunities under her belt, while Kenny had 2 and Colby and Boston Rob had none. So it came as no surprise that Abi won her 5th immunity, making her the contestant with the most immunitiy wins in a single season. Kenny was the target of the 'noobies alliance', and Kenny even told people to vote him, and ended up being eliminated in a 3-1 vote.

At the Final Tribal Council, Abi was commended by the jury members, especially Kim, while her alliance members got bashed which resulted in Boston Rob even telling the jury to vote Abi. Ultimately, Abi was crowned the winner of SS4, with a total of 9/9 jury votes for her and 3 negated votes against her.

SS6: South Pacific
Abi-Maria returned for All-Stars, and was placed on Savaii with: Brett Clouser, Chelsea Meissner, Ian Rosenberger, Malcolm Freberg, Natalie Tenerelli, Pete Yurkowski, R.C. Saint-Amour, Sherri Biethman and Tyson Apostol.

In the first immunity challenge, Savaii lost, and when they returner to camp, it was clear there was a divide, with Malcolm, Tyson and Ian vs. Natalie, Sherri and Chelsea. This left R.C., Pete, Brett and Abi herself in the swing vote position. R.C. and Pete immeadiately went to Sherri's side, while Brett and Abi turned against Sherri. When it came down to the vote, Abi created a plan: Brett, Ian and Abi act as though they were with Sherri and then lie that Tyson had the idol, forcing Sherri to split the votes. This would create a 4-4-2 vote, then Brett, Ian and Abi would flip back to Malcolm and Tyson, and vote Sherri out in a 5-3-2 vote. However, at the last moment, Brett leaked the information to Sherri, and the opposing alliance banded together to take out Abi. Ultimately, she was blindsided in a 6-4 vote.

On Redemption Island, Abi competed against Malcolm and Gervase in the first truel, and despite the nickname 'Redemption Island Queen' being prematurely given to herself by her fans and herself due to her physical game being viewed as the strongest of the three, she was made to work for survival, with Malcolm winning the duel and Gervase just narrowly losing due to straying too far from the point of the duel with his creative approach.

From there, Abi-Maria fought hard in Redemption Island, and managed to make it to the final truel, despite coming second in every truel she competed in. She made it all the way to the final truel, where she faced her toughest competitors yet: Lisa and Russell. They were set an edurance challenge, and all competitors lasted 30 hours, with Russell being eliminated just over that milestone.

It came down to Abi-Maria and Lisa, the first eliminated vs. the last eliminated. Overall, Lisa won and returned to the game, leaving Abi-Maria being the last eliminated contestant pre-merge.

Trivia

 * Abi-Maria was only 3 votes from playing a perfect game in SS4 (0 counted votes throughout the season and all jury votes). Although no votes counted against her due to her Immunity Idol, 3 votes were cast against her in the Final 6, meaning she did not play a perfect game.
 * Abi-Maria has never voted with the majority pre-merge.
 * Abi-Maria has the record for most individual immunity wins in a single season, with 5.
 * She beat the previous record of 4 wins post-merge set by RC in SS1 and Brett in SS2.
 * She is also the only one of those 3 to be the Sole Survivor in their respective season.
 * Abi-Maria was sent to Exile Island the most in SS4, with a total of 8 times.
 * Abi-Maria is one of two winners to recieve all the jury votes in the Final Tribal Council.
 * Candice has this feat as well, from SS5.
 * However, Chelsea received the most jury votes in a single season with 11/12 votes in SS2.
 * Abi-Maria is one of two players to be a Sole Survivor, and be voted off first.
 * The other is Stephen, in SS2 and SS3.
 * However they did it the opposite order: Abi-Maria won SS4, then was voted off first in SS6, while Stephen was voted off first in SS2, then won SS3.
 * Despite being voted off first in SS6, Abi-Maria was not eliminated first due to the Redemption Island twist.
 * Abi-Maria has spent the most days on Redemption Island of any contestant, with a grand total of 19.
 * Furthermore, Abi-Maria has survived the most truels in SS history, with a total of 5.