Circa Survivor VI wrapped up in NFL Week 18 on Sunday with five entries winning $3,743,600 apiece from the record $18,718,000 prize pool.

In Sunday’s NFL early games, entries using the contest aliases of JUICY KEWCHI-7 and KICK YOUR KNEES UP-1 used the Vikings in their 16-3 home win over the Packers, REAL BRO-3 used the Jaguars in their 41-7 home rout of the Titans and DYLAN W-10 used the Falcons in their 19-17 home win over the Saints.

There were six live entrants going into the final day with an implied value of $3,119,667 apiece, but one entry, PARTZ1-9, lost with the Bengals’ in their 18-17 upset loss to the Browns on a field goal on the final play of the game as the Bengals’ continued their reputation as the “team of death” the past two years of Circa Survivor. That kick was a further windfall for the four surviving entries, all of which were gathered at a viewing party hosted by Circa owner Derek Stevens in the back of the Circa Sports book on Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas. They were easy to watch from their wearing of jerseys of the teams they were cheering for or their own team shirts.

Only one finalist, GaryA-10, used a game starting at 4:25 p.m. ET/1:25 p.m. PT (which made for some wild last-minute hedging and monetizing of entries) and went with the Patriots at home against the Dolphins. Miami stuck around, trailing only 17-10 at halftime, but the Patriots pulled away in the second half for a 38-10 victory to finalize the five-way split.

Circa Survivor VI had a $15 million guaranteed prize pool offered by Stevens and drew a whopping 18,718 entries at $1,000 (with a limit of 10 per person, so the numbers after the team names indicates which entries made it to the end of the season by going 20-0, which covers the entire NFL season of 18 weeks, plus special “Thanksgiving/Black Friday” and “Christmas” weeks).

REAL BRO’s play on the Jaguars had the least sweat, though it was close in the first half with the game 7-7 tied after the first quarter. Midway through the second quarter, Jacksonville just led 14-7 when Antonio Johnson intercepted a pass and ran it back 58 yards for a TD as the REAL PRO group in the middle of the cordoned-off section erupted in cheers and high-fives with each other and their contest proxy, Tom Carroll, as the rout was on.

Casey Diener, a 46-year-old poker player from Austin, Texas, was the entrant of record for REAL BRO along with partner Joey Michael, also of Austin. Diener said they were the two who ran the entry and the pivotal week of the contest was “Thanksgiving/Black Friday.”

“We knew a lot of people would be on the Eagles and our entry would have a lot of equity if the Bears pulled the upset,” Deiner said. And the Bears did win 24-15 to knock out 489 on the Eagles, the top play on Thanksgiving/Black Friday. “It was a great opportunity to take a shot and it would put us in a great position. Of course, if the Bears had lost we wouldn’t be here, but it worked out and worked out better than we expected as 900 entries were reduced to 49 after that game.”

JUICY KEWCHI, was represented at the Circa book by at least 12 people wearing “Juicy K” t-shirts, and KICK YOUR KNEES UP had a little sweat as the Vikings were in control of most of their game against the Packers before pulling away in the second half.

JUICY KEWCHI is the entry of Gabe Patgorski of Survivor Atlas (survivoratlas.com) and also included some friends of his in the poker community, including Fernanda Corriedo, who was embarrassed when she said she came up with the contest alias, which was a frequent topic of discussion on Twitter/X and VSiN, during the course of the season, including when Stevens and Circa director or operations Jeffrey Benson would go on “The Contest Show” every Saturday night to give updates on Circa Survivor and their Circa Sports Million contests,

Patgorski said that added to the fun of navigating Survivor along with sharing his thoughts on the contests with his @Survivoratlas followers on Twitter and subscribers.

“People told me early on to stop helping other people, but this is the business we’re in,” Patgorski said. “Now that we’ve won it, I’m not going to stop sharing my advice and helping other people as we all love this contest and want to see it keep growing.”

DYLAN W, with three of their teammates on the far right of the contest area, had the biggest sweat with the Falcons, who were only leading the Saints 16-10 with under four minutes left in regulation. The Saints were driving for a potential go-ahead TD and were at the Falcons’ 20-yard line, but Atlanta intercepted a pass by Tyler Shough as DYLAN W cheered and yelled “RISE UP!” The Falcons added an insurance field goal to go up two scores at 19-10 and it didn’t matter when the Saints scored a garbage TD as DYLAN W joined the other three Circa Survivor champions.

Last year, 14,266 entries last year for Circa Survivor V following a $10 million guarantee. The annual NFL contest started in 2020 (in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic) with a $1 million guarantee and went to $3 million, $6 million and $8 million over the next three years. Most followers of the contest are expecting that Circa Survivor VII will have a $20 million guarantee next season. Stevens usually makes the official announcement (and TV commercials) for that after the NFL schedule is set in May.