On Friday, November 17th, a new episode of the series “7 vs. Wild” went online, sparking many discussions among viewers. Something unexpected happened: The favorites to win the season have been eliminated.
Spoiler Warning: Season 3 of “7 vs. Wild” is currently airing on the Amazon service Freevee. Many want to wait to watch the season and discuss it until it is available on YouTube. We will discuss what happens in episode 6 in the article.
This is the situation:
- The participants Fritz Meinecke and Survival Mattin were considered the favorites to win the team season of 7 vs. Wild. Both are experienced survival specialists.
- But now it is this team that gets eliminated first. Without a freshwater source, they saw no option to continue the season on day 3 and requested an immediate cancellation.
- The fans are now excitedly discussing what happened there and especially the reasons. Participant Fritz Meinecke comments on the speculations.
One of the participants of 7 vs. Wild:
Saltwater contaminates the river, the only freshwater source
Why did the two get eliminated? The trip of the experienced survival specialists was doomed from the start: The YouTuber “Survival Mattin” has a chronic back condition that flared up after just a few days and troubled him: He said he did not want to accept it, but he was getting older and could not do it anymore, he had to come to terms with it.
As a result, he appeared increasingly depressed and preoccupied with himself.
Meinecke was worried about his comrade, who was only walking with a stick. Climbing and walking were counterproductive for his health, he seemed absent. Even the rest in the makeshift bed was really not good for him.
“Difficult,” said Meinecke repeatedly.
But the duo’s downfall was that overnight their only drinking water source, a nearby river, was flooded with seawater due to a storm. They decided that the water was too salty to continue drinking. Even when they walked down the river for about a kilometer, they found no drinkable water.
Survival Martin repeatedly says he is very sensitive to salt and can taste it accurately, there is nothing. Drinking this water would lead to kidney damage, and one would die of thirst despite trying to drink.
By that time, they had already not drunk anything for about 16 hours, had not made any water reserves, and were “far into the second dehydration phase.”
“Nature is powerful”
Did they try everything? After recognizing that there was no freshwater in the river, the two tried to go in another direction but only found brackish bog water, which caused “stomach grumbling” after just a few sips.
They deemed it completely ridiculous to drink 2 liters of bog water daily for another 11 days.
Ultimately, after hours of discussion, the two experts decided that they simply had no more options. It was unrealistic to expect the situation to improve the next day.
“In a real situation,” they would simply walk in one direction for hours and then either find water or “die.” In the simulation of 7 vs. Wild, however, they did not want to walk long in one direction because they could encounter other teams and jeopardize the rescue chain.
Finally, the two gave up. Especially for Meinecke, it was a big problem. He said it felt like confirming his own suicide. Because in this scenario, failing ultimately equates to death in the wilderness.
Survival Martin said their elimination shows why survival is not fun and that in real situations “people die.” Nature is powerful, and one is just a plaything.
Viewers discuss the elimination of the favorites critically
How is this discussed? In the community, there are 3 interpretations:
- Some say the organization is to blame. They gave the team an impossible spot when the only water source became undrinkable due to the weather regularly.
- Others attribute the blame directly to the duo: They “did too little effort” to properly scout the place and were too careless. This led to confusion as to why the two had not made “water reserves” (via reddit).
- Third, some do not quite believe that the lack of water was the problem. Rather, it should have been Survival Martin’s health condition: There seems to be an idea that they might have faked a reason to withdraw so that Survival Mattin could save face, not having quit due to physical ailments and the “loss of morale.”
Meinecke: “Situation misrepresented”
This is what Meinecke says: Fritz Meinecke is in the difficult situation that he does not want to respond to the situation yet, as he wants to wait until the episode is released on YouTube in a few weeks.
He says he has received many messages and feels that the “real situation” is being distorted. He will respond in detail in a few weeks.
This is what it’s about: It already seems cynical when people at home in comfortable chairs then explain to men in the wilderness how they would have “survived” in their situation. But that is precisely the appeal of the format, making one wonder how they would act in the participants’ place.
In any case, it is a big surprise that Meinecke and Survival Martin are eliminated so early, while outsiders like Papaplatte and Reeze enjoy their first Maggi broth in the following episode and float in seventh heaven.
7 vs. Wild starts with problems, fans complain: “It’s almost unbearable in quality”
