Alright I'm making an attempt to get more people interested in
Survivor Maryland. Why you shouldn't ignore it just because it's "another fan made survivor"
Survivor Maryland is played out with college kids on the campus of Maryland University. It takes place over a whole semester with the tribal councils being on a weekly basis.
What it lacks in production it more than makes up for with gameplay, character, and huge moments that you will remember. The biggest problem with a lot of the fan made Survivor's is that they're usually just a sped up game people play within a weekend or sometimes even a day. They don't really take it seriously and it's hard to really take it seriously as a viewer. With Maryland these are college students that are doing this over 90 days and seeing each other day in and day out. This show makes friendships and also completely destroys them. You get to know these players you get your favorites and the ones you hate because you get so much more from them than just a sped up version of the game where nothing but gameplay is basically happening. These kids take the game completely seriously, which is a huge difference I've seen from other fan made shows.
Currently there is an All-Stars season being released and is currently on a few week break while the final episode is edited together. This is the last season put together by Austin Trupp, who has been running this game for 5 seasons, and now he's graduated and he's passing the game on to other people.
The seasons:
Maryland Outback: This would probably be the best season outright, but it was still early on for the show and production wasn't the best. Austin hadn't had the complete idea of having the players film themselves whenever talking to other players and didn't have as many helpers to help filming yet. Still a lot of fun and crazy drama, but it's the best presentation.
Terrepin Trials: This season is amazing if you're in it for the characters and the story arcs. One of the most dramatic and emotional final 3 of possibly any Survivor. It'd easily be up there.
Guts & Glory: Probably the best all around season that isn't All-Stars. Production, editing is all great, gameplay and players are all great. This would probably be the best pick for a first watch.
All-Stars: Currently releasing. Amazing season with a ton of drama and gameplay. Only issue with jumping into this right away is there is a lot of interrelationship aspects that you'd kind of miss on. Austin does a decent job of recapping a lot of it, but there's just layers that can't really be conveyed without seeing the other seasons. Largely just Terrepin Trials and Gust & Glory are required watching before this season.
There's also the first season, but I've never seen it and I think at one point the whole season was even taken down just because production wise it's easily the worst. It's supposed to be a decent season, it's just a rough presentation all around and makes the viewing hard to suggest.
I seriously can't recommend Survivor Maryland enough. I tried tons of fan made Survivor's or Big Brothers and they were all bad with no real connection made. For the longest time I just assumed Survivor Maryland was another one of those, until Dom and Colin(then later RHAP) made a podcast about it and it made me finally take a look. This show is great and I'm shocked that some of these people have gone on to try to get on actual Survivor or someone hasn't tried to hire Austin, because the talent is all there. This game just needs some money thrown at it for production value and these season's would stick up there with the real game.
People who can convey why you should watch better than me:
How Survivor Maryland went from an 'epic' campus competition to must-watch Survivor - RealityBlurred
Survivor: Maryland – The Best Survivor You've Never Seen - InsideSurvivor
(podcast) Why you should watch Survivor Maryland - Dom and Colin Podcast
Survivor Maryland: The Online Reality Show That NEEDS To Be Your Next Obsession - TvFanatic