Circa Survivor Finale:

A carnage-filled season of Circa Survivor had a 3.5-hour stretch on Sunday that was the craziest stretch of all, as eight entrants finished the season undefeated to win more than $1.78 million apiece from the record $14,266,000 prize pool.

Only 18 entries of the original 14,266 entrants (at $1,000 apiece) made it to the final weekend of the season in NFL Week 18 (20th “week” as Circa Survivor also uses special “Thanksgiving” and “Christmas” weeks in addition to the NFL’s 18-week schedule). Contestants must pick one straight-up winner a week and not use the same team twice. One loss and you’re out.

 

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Eight of the 18 used the Falcons against the Panthers, five used the Buccaneers against the Saints, two used the Packers against the Bears, another two used the Colts against the Jaguars and one used the Cardinals against the 49ers.

All but the Cardinals played in Sunday’s early window at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m PT here at the Circa Sportsbook in Las Vegas, where several of the finalists from around the country sweated out their final plays (and cheered against those of their opponents).

Despite the Falcons, Buccaneers, Packers and Colts being sizable favorites, all were in dogfights for their whole games. In fact, in the fourth quarter, this reporter talked to Circa owner Derek J. Stevens, who created the contest which just completed its fifth season, and we marveled that all 17 could be eliminated, but all could still win.

The five on the Buccaneers (using contest aliases of C3 Picks, DREAM STAKES, TY1823, WHATEVERYALLWANT and Whiskey Business) thought they had the easiest path with Tampa Bay being two-touchdown favorites, but the Saints actually led 16-6 at halftime. The two on the Colts (MEATBALL BROTHERS and PUMBAPACK9) looked comfortable early and led 20-13 at halftime, but couldn’t shake the Jaguars.

The Packers and Falcons were also in danger throughout. The first game to go final was the Bears upsetting the Packers 24-22 on a Cairo Santos 51-yard field goal as time expired to eliminate 737 KEVIN and BIG HOUSE. By that time, the Buccaneers had pulled away and eventually beat the Saints 27-19, while the Colts were taken to overtime, which presented its own danger as ties are the same as a loss since a team must win.

Paul Czyz, 55, of Phoenix is the MEATBALL BROTHERS’ entrant of record out of six original partners that all work together in meat sales, hence the team name. They even brought a plate of their meatballs to the VSiN Contest Show on Saturday night from the Pizza Rock restaurant a short walk from Circa in downtown Vegas. His partners are Carson Williams, 37; Steven Torres, 52; Colby Strilaeff, 33; Angelo; Grande, 66; and Jimmy Agnos, 75. They started with three entries, but lost with the Bengals in Week 1 and Ravens in Week 2 and had to go the distance with their lone remaining entry.

“It was the Colts or the Cardinals for us,” Czyz said. “We thought about the Titans early on but threw them out quickly,” which was a good call as the Texans beat them 23-14. Czyz, the Phoenix native, didn’t trust the Cardinals.

Williams added he felt better with the Colts actually coming off a loss in Week 17 (which eliminated 16 of 34 Survivor entries the prior week with their 45-33 loss to the Giants).

The Colts took the opening kickoff of OT and methodically marched down the field but had to settle for a 38-yard FG by Matt Gay and a 26-23 lead. The MEATBALL BROTHERS and PUMPAPACK9 teams, who had become friends since the contest selections were released Saturday night and even took a photo together on Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas, watched the games together in Stevens’ VIP area overlooking the Circa Sportsbook.

They cheered on the Colts’ defense as they needed a stop to complete their Survivor journey. Both groups erupted when a sack of Jacksonville QB Mac Jones set up a 4th-and-22. A completion to Brian Thomas Jr. came up two yards short of the first down and they all went wild as Stevens was right there with champagne and a film crew to document the celebration.

The contestant of record for PUMBAPACK9 is Steve Sammarco, but his partners are Steven Goncalvez, 39, and Francis Pellegrino, 38, both of Montreal, who said they made the picks for the team, which also included Alexander Coutrier (you’ll recognize him as the shirtless guy in the celebration videos).

“By far this was the biggest sweat,” said Goncalvez, though he was cut off by Pellegrino who pointed out that they had very big sweats with the Chiefs in their narrow 19-17 win over the Raiders on Black Friday of “Thanksgiving Week” and the Seahawks in their ugly 6-3 win at the Bears in “Christmas Week,” which ironically fell on Canada’s holiday of “Boxing Day.”

The Buccaneers completed their victory to put seven in the winner’s circle, and all those – while still celebrating – turned their attention to the Falcons game that was going to overtime, knowing that a loss by the most-picked team of the week could double their winnings (which was sitting at $891,625 apiece after the Packers’ loss). The Panthers marched 70 yards in 10 plays for the winning TD in their 44-38 OT upset to eliminate those eight teams (DRGUESSEDIT, FLOWMASTER, NELLIELEE25, PAPAJOE, PAYDATMANHISMONEY, RUBBERINWALL, Tapout59 and Tarz).

It’s hard to quantify or explain, but the victorious teams actually seemed to celebrate even more with the Falcons’ loss as it doubled their jackpots. Their own wins were almost like a sigh of relief in comparison; well, that is until the MEATBALL BROTHERS realized they also hit their six-figure hedge bet on the Jaguars +5 in the 3-point victory.

Among the Survivors on the Buccaneers in the Circa book were DREAM STAKES and Whiskey Business.

The DREAM STAKES entry is under Zheng Fan, 37, with his partner, Brian Wood, 38. The two met while Wood was studying law at Harvard, though he said he mostly plays poker and develops apps. They started with four entries and also had close calls with the Chiefs on “Thanksgiving” and the Seahawks last week in their 6-3 win at the Bears last Thursday.

Wood said the key was trying to save good teams for later in the season, which helped them avoid the carnage of the first few weeks when the top choices went down time and again as the field of 14,266 quickly dwindled to 8,702 after Week 1, 3,877 after Week 2 and 642 after Week 3.

Whiskey Business was entered by Sean Singewald, 55, of Las Vegas, with his partner Chris, Pike, 43, of Fort Walton Beach, Florida, who made most of the picks. They started with two entries and lost the other with the Bengals in Week 1. Their big sweats were the Lions on Thanksgiving in their harder-than-expected 23-20 win vs. the Bears and the Rams last Saturday.

“We had the best opportunity with the Buccaneers,” Pike said, so they said they didn’t hedge or participate in any chop. “The Saints are my team and I’ve seen them fold up a lot in the second half. I’m just glad they did again.”

The seven winning teams knew their share would be at least $1,783,250 and even more than $2 million if VODKA JOHNNY’s pick on the Cardinals lost in the afternoon game. They fell behind the 49ers 3-0 in the opening minutes and only led 26-24 entering the fourth quarter, but pulled away to win 47-24 and make it an eight-way split.

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