Castaway: Micronesia

 — Rookies vs Veterans is the eleventh season of Castaway and was produced on May 2, 2021.

The season borrowed elements from the CBS reality television competition Survivor. Hosted by Robert, the game consisted of twelve returning competitors from previous Castaway seasons ("Veterans") and twelve new competitors ("Rookies") to Castaway.

The two tribes, Rookies and Veterans were named after status to Castaway later adopting Airai and Malakal in the fourth episode, named after a region in Palau and a local Harbor in Micronesia respectively. When eighteen competitors remained, the tribes swapped into two tribes of nine. When thirteen competitors remained they merged into the Dabu tribe, named by Jonathan honouring the original tribe from Survivor: Micronesia. Trav won the season in a 4-3-0 vote over Jonathan and Lana.

Exile Island and Trial by Fire returned for a further season alongside Burn the Urn which was never found on Exile Island. The rock-draw tie breaker made its debut appearance during the eighth episode.

This season introduced two new concepts: when the tribes merged the winner of individual immunity each round would gift a second immunity to a player of their choice and an elimination based competition when four players remained which determined the final member of the jury in lieu of a vote.

Development and Casting
Development for the season began after the finale of Castaway: China when asked when another "All-Star" game would occur. Having recently finished back-to-back All-Star seasons, the decision was made to incorporate a returnee/new player game but renaming the original "Fans vs Favorites" subtitle into a more fitting variation for the social strategy community.

Casting for Rookies and Veterans ran alongside one another from April 20-28 with no restriction on any previous player to register. Interest grew larger than expected, and the planned season was increased by to twenty-four.

Santiago from Castaway: The Amazon and Castaway: Cambodia assisted moderating the Veterans (later Malakal) tribe due to the size of the cast.