at the beginning of the season, the twenty-two 16-year-old campers are placed into two groups of eleven, the "screaming gophers" and the "killer bass". in each episode, the teams participate in a challenge, in which one or more campers can win invincibility for their team. the losing team is called to the campfire that night, where they vote one of their members off the island. the camper with the most votes is eliminated from the competition. at this campfire, mclean passes out marshmallows to the campers who have not been voted off, while the one who does not get a marshmallow must walk down the dock of shame to the boat of losers, which will take them away from the island and they will "never, never, never, ever, ever, ever, come back, ever" according to chris (this was proved a lie in "no pain, no game", when he brought eva and izzy back into the game).