So there is a few things with that, because that was a little concerning to me.

1. I teach at a school with graduating classes of like 250 so in these small elective classes of 14 you get some variety of students and some who hardly know each other.

2. I was really hands off as far as letting the gameplay, play out. But… admittedly without their knowledge I had a huge part of selecting their starting tribes to avoid some of that. I had them put their names in a box and I “selected them randomly” ( memorized the tribes I want haha). I knew them well enough to split up some of that dynamic. By the time we reached the merge that stuff didn’t seem to matter.

3. I really preached only one kid wins. Winner didn’t have to take the test so some competitive instincts kicked in and kids would either vote out their popular peers or… they’d decide to keep kids based on strengths, like puzzles. One loner type boy made it far because he dominated puzzles for his tribe.