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'Survivor' Winners at War' Season 40: Rob Mariano gets voted out after tribe swap, fans blame his buddy system

Titled 'The Buddy System on Steroids', this week's episode witnessed the two tribes getting split into three followed by a shocking elimination

'Survivor: Winners at War' Season 40 returned on Wednesday night for an all-new episode, and the old school players are getting booted one after the other. The latest old school player to be voted off during tribal council this week was Rob Mariano, and his buddy system is the one to be blamed, according to fans. 

Things are getting heated up for the players of 'Winners at War' as it was time for the tribe swaps. Titled 'The Buddy System on Steroids', this week's episode saw the two tribes getting split into three. 

With 15 contestants still in the game, the series decided to split them up into three tribes of five each. Parvati, Nick, Yul, Michele and Wendell ended up in Sele while Tony, Sandra, Jeremy, Denise and Kim in the Dakal tribe and Ben, Sarah, Rob, Sophie and Adam in the newly formed Yara tribe.

Entering their new island, the players from Yara go in search of an immunity idol. But Sophie was lucky enough to find one and she gave half her idol to Sarah and kept the other half.

During the immunity challenge, though Yara started off in the lead followed by Sele and Dakal. Yara started to struggle with their puzzle, which in turn made them lose momentum, leaving Sele and Dakal to finish the puzzle ahead of them. Sele and Dakal are safe from immunity, sending Yara to tribal council.

Back at their island, Rob tries to control everything that happens. He orders Ben and Adam not to separate from camp prior to the tribal council. Rob decided to vote Sarah out. Ben and Adam had no choice but to accept and make the pact. 

The rest of the day, everyone is just sitting by the fire and the guys are scared to move from the camp. Sophie and Sarah decide to vote Rob out and are left wondering if Adam or Ben would join in with them. 

Arriving at tribal council, Sophie opens up about how tricky their tribe is because the boys are all together and they couldn't even have a conversation back on their island. With Rob controlling every move of the guys throughout the day with his buddy system, Ben was frustrated. 

Sophie also called out Rob for his buddy system, "People go far that way," he replied to her claim. When it was time to tally the votes, Sarah got one vote, and Rob got three. This meant he was the one getting booted to the Edge of Extinction this week. He joins his wife Amber Mariano, who is already in Edge of Extinction along with Tyson, Natalia, Danni, and Ethan. He bequeaths both his fire tokens to Parvati on his way out, making her the player with the highest number of fire tokens.

No one expected Rob to get out too soon. But now after watching the episode and how he played, fans affirm that his buddy system is the one to be blamed. It might have worked during the regular seasons he played. But when it comes to 'Winners at War', they aren't like the rookies, they know every move. So it turned his game upside down.

Taking to Twitter, a fan wrote, "LMAO Rob really tried to sneak the buddy system on the Winners season ? Rob this ain't rookies like your season, those are winners. #Survivor40 #SurvivorWinnersatWar #Survivor," a fan wrote. Adding to that another said, "I'm actually totally okay with Rob going home. His buddy system really grinds my gears. #Survivor." 

"They got Boston Rob out! The buddy system doesn't always work on winners #Survivor #SurvivorWinnersAtWar," a fan shared.

Another posted, "Get Rob outta there.Buddy system is less buddy more control system." 

"So I was kinda just waiting around for that to happen but so glad it happened on the same episode that he tried to implement the freakin’ buddy system with a bunch of winners. #Survivor," a fan said.

Do you think it was the buddy system that got Rob eliminated? Let us know in the comments below. 

'Survivor: Winners at War' Season 40 airs every Wednesday night only on CBS. Check your local listings for more information.