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survivorisladelasmunecas-blog · 8 years ago

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Brandan’s Jury Answers

--- Bodhi ---

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8YJUPwO8l0U

Hey Bodhi! I’ll start with the attempted blindside thing at the Final 7. I will admit it wasn’t my plan. Both Andrei and Eva brought the idea up to me originally, and from what I heard about it Renee seemed on board as well. When I talked to both AJ and James about it later and what they felt on the matter, they seemed to be down with it as well. So I was under the impression that you were getting voted out that night. That obviously didn’t happen. I know it isn’t really much, but it’s the truth. I wish I could give this detailed explanation on why I decided to vote you and that I was gunning for you hard. But in all honesty I can’t. It was simply a matter of perception on my part. And my perception was that you were fucked. However at the time I was perfectly fine with taking you out, leading me to eventually take my chance and blindside you at the Final 5 when all the cards lined up. Actually, I tried blindsiding you at the Final 8, and AJ and Billy seemed completely on board with the idea as well as James, although that was ruined when you brought up Eva’s name. AJ and Billy quickly jumped on to your bandwagon, and it left my hands tied. So yeah.

I think the term “social game” applies differently to many people. Some can take it as the bonds you create throughout the game. Some take it as the way you conduct damage control. For me and my perspective, the social game I tried to strive for was my ability to keep my name off the ballot. I don’t see that as a mainly strategic play. I consider it under a social standpoint because you have to connect with people and prevent them from voting you, which is what I believe I did. Keeping your name off the ballot is social primarily because you have to make people not want to vote you out, which leads to connections made. Although I understand what you are saying about me spreading lies, and I want to clarify that to you. I think this term that I spread lies to tear people apart is a bit overplayed. Sure I might have lied, however most of time I was honest. I admit I lied about my true intentions to those who I would side against. However, that’s just a personal thing. I hate making people upset, that was always me, and I don’t like to ghost people as well, because that’s downright rude. So I was put into this limbo of giving false hope when there was none, because I don’t want to upset people. It may be a fatal flaw of mine, but it is an honest flaw, and one that I will own. So when I talk about social game in my eyes, I’ll just say it is my ability to keep my name off the ballot, and my ability to calm others in their paranoia on their way to Ponderosa. And I think I did that well for the most part. Wasn’t perfect, but I tried as best as I could.

1) Jay - I think you're the most deserving of the top spot. I believe the bonds you had with people were inseparable, and had you gone any farther in the game, you would have easily won. Unfortunately, idol bonanza got to you.

2) Billy - I think you truly are an amazing person, and you played a really good game. From your premerge tribal affairs to your tie vote, you always gave 110%, and I would have readily gave my vote to you if our placements were switched.

3) Bodhi - Overall, I believe you are a smart player. You were the one who orchestrated Austin’s vote in my mind, and you did keep ahold of the other votes right up until your vote out. I think you just became too visible, and that cost you in the end.

4) AJ - I think you played a really good game, and the fact that your name wasn’t mentioned as a target for so long is impressive. However, I feel like the people above you just did a lot more, it isn’t a mark against your game though.

5) Andrei - I think you are a very smart person, and you caught onto my game. I think you had what it took to be a winner, but it didn’t come to life. But hey, maybe next time XD.

6) Brandan - I’m placing myself at the middle of the pack here. I feel like I definitely made some moves in this game. However there were some mistakes that I made in this game, and some areas where I could have improved. I understand that I don’t completely grasp this game, and I think I’m still learning. But I worked my ass off to get myself in this spot.

7) Austin - I think he is truly a good player. However, there are some points where I feel like he can overplay his cards. I believe that had he kept his mouth shut for a couple of votes and stopped coming up with some plans, he would have lasted a lot longer. But he didn’t, and he paid for it.

8) Eva - I think no one here can say a bad thing about Eva, however she remained clueless as some points in this game. I feel like she picked the wrong loyalties at some points, and this resulted in her getting placed in the minority more than once.

9) James - I think his social game was subpar, and that although people might see a good game, he really didn’t care late premerge early merge. He barely talked to anyone this game, and I think it leaves a seriously wart on his resume.

10) Renee - I admit that you were honest, and you are one of the sweetest people alive. However I feel like strategically you were seriously lacking, but you lasted a lot longer than you should have.

11) Matt - Dude, you know I love you. But during this game you really weren’t the most forward player. I think a lot of people saw you as a goat to take to the end, which can be a fair assessment of your overall game.

12) Lil AJ - I just don’t know much about you too be honest, but other than trying multiple times to get me to flip my vote you really didn’t try hard enough to stay, plus doesn’t help when you already got voted out.

Oh and about the college thing! In my district, it is a common practice to apply for a couple of schools. Hell, some kids in my grade are applying to 20 colleges. My philosophy is: One safety school, one reach school, and a bunch of target schools. That way you can weigh your options when scholarships come in instead of being locked by an early decision acceptance letter. Even though I don’t intend to go to a college like Brown or Stony Brook, they serve as schools that I might get into in a dream or a school I definitely can get into. In all honesty I guess I don’t have a preferred college, I never really did. So it serves as a way to weigh my options rationally.

--- Austin ---

Hey Austin. Nice to have the warm welcome.

I’ll just get the throwing the others under the bus out of the way really quickly. James in my opinion had an easy ride throughout most of the game. Because of all the idols that he achieved in one round he could have theoretically just stopped playing altogether. Also from what I heard from people in the game, he wasn’t the most talkative person. Time and time again I’ve heard people complain about his silence, and the one word responses that could turn people off. I think I remember at the beginning of the merge he told me that if there was no reason for him to be on, he wouldn’t be on, this was even more evident after the Eva blindside, where he didn’t utter a single word to me until after Jordan’s boot, even though I tried to talk to him multiple times. Also some of those “big moves” that he claimed was his alone made was far from the case. I was the one who told AJ, Bodhi, and Billy about Andrei’s preplanned voted. Hell, the plan to vote Billy out was Andrei’s idea, not James’s. Before that time both Eva and Renee were down with the idea of voting Billy out, and James “convincing” the girls to vote Billy was already unnecessary. He could have told no one about his vote change and there STILL would have been a tie. Basically his biggest move was just him writing down another name, and no manipulation in between. He didn’t influence others, they were already leaning that direction. Also, his plan to give Tyler his idol actually solidified him in a minority position in the merge, as people were ready to split the vote between Tyler/James right until Tyler got medically evacuated from the game. So he talked to three people about strategy? Woopdedoo. He forgot about the others, and that can hurt him tremendously. Also he might say I was clueless at the Final 7 vote, he was clueless at the Final 9 when everyone plotted against him/Austin. So he shouldn’t leave me out to dry for my failure in that when his own horrific social game lead him to nearly get vote out not once, not twice, but three different times in this game. Also you know, he can have the common decency to spell my name right if he actually bothered to learn the correct spelling? Eva got it right, a lot of people got it right, it’s a little thing that he didn’t care about.

With Eva, I just always felt like her game was lacking. She never really made any waves in the game, and simply floated by. She barely had a strategic game, and only relied on the few bonds that she made in the game. The advantages she also obtained in the game hindered her performance altogether, as it not only resulted in her getting Cirie’d, but two of her allies getting voted out because of the other’s knowledge about her advantages in this game. Plus, during some votes she barely knew where the votes were going. She herself has admitted this multiple times in her opening statement. She only acted on her own a couple times in the game, and during those times she refused to get off of an obviously sinking ship. Give or take what you may think about her personally, her gameplay style was mostly that of a floater who became a hindrance to herself and her allies, and for me personally I just don’t think it's a winning game.

Now for your other question pertained towards me. This is not an apology for you. This is a way to explain myself. I want to talk about claims you brought up in your last statement. I’ll start with the bible stuff, which I understand is a hot topic among the jury. I know it might have seemed unnecessary and potentially a jerk move on my part to a lot of people. However, it all ties to a situation I have in my personal life. I don’t think I ever told anyone this, but I suffer from both asperger’s and anxiety disorder. I’m not the most popular kid in school, and I get anxious about almost anything under the sun. That breakdown I shared with you after the Jordan vote was one of those freakout moments. I try to keep all my emotions bottled up inside me, because I was constantly taught that exposing any of these negative emotions around others wasn’t good, and that normal boys don’t cry at all. I was always scared that anything I say would get leaked around. I hated it when people spread stuff around and misinterpreted it. I will admit this, swearing on the bible for me was actually a tying knot. I was raised in a roman catholic background. My mom is a catholic school principal, and she helped me overcome many of my disabilities regarding to asperger’s. So swearing on the bible is a very serious thing to me. If I swear on it, I mean it, and it let me know that whatever I said wouldn’t get leaked, as it did in other games I have played before. I didn’t actively seek out to swear on the bible to not vote someone out and then broke that promise. In my mind that is unforgivable. My bible swearing mostly pertained to the passing of information around, and I think it was a way that I was certain that any private or confidential info about the game would not get into the wrong hands. But if I swore on the Bible that I wasn’t writing someone’s name down, I kept that promise, If I swore that I wouldn’t tell anyone stuff, I kept that promise. I kept the promises I made on the Bible, and when I wasn’t going to keep it secret, I didn’t swear on it. So for me, when I swore on the Bible, it was my way of saying “Hey, I’m going to be truthful to you and this is the truth.”

Now for the breakup of your relationship with Bodhi. I admit I threw you under the bus to Bodhi in order to get him to try and flip in order to save Jordan, who was a close friend of mine. I neglected to tell you that because at the time, you were already mad at me. Had I brought that up you, I would have been alone in this game, and I didn’t want that. I don’t know what caused you to flip out against Bodhi. I think you thought that he was responsible for my blindside, but Bodhi told me that he had no idea. I just know that my vote off triggered something that initiated that argument between you two. I want to let you know it was never my intention to break you two apart as friends. I only mentioned that it was partly my fault due to my actions in trying to turn Bodhi against you. Never did I imagine it would cause that argument. I truly want you two to become friends again, however I don’t make it my mission to break friends apart. If you want to find a scapegoat for you snapping, you can point the finger at me, I’m perfectly fine with that. However, maybe you should give a hard look at yourself for starting said argument in the first place, when you could have handled that situation a hell of a lot more different.

For your vote out though, you were not my intended target at all. I tried to take out James that round, because I saw that people were turning against you two. I figured that if I removed one of the main sources bringing you down, then we could still move forward in the game together with a lesser target on your back. You can ask Billy, I told him that I wanted to take James out instead of you. However, after your vote out, Bodhi came up to me and talked about your vote out. I think what happened was that it was a last minute decision, and I was in no way a part of it. If I wanted you gone, I would have taken a direct hit instead of arguing for a swing vote, and you would have been out easily due to the animosity that came your way at the Final 9. People were bringing up claims that you two had idols, of course I obviously knew that was false from your words. So if I water you out, I would have just gotten everyone to vote you instead of initiating an unnecessary split vote that only initiated out of fear of idols. The reason I didn’t talk to you afterwards when you got voted out was because I was scared. I get yelled at a lot in my own personal life. After the way you talked to me after the Jordan vote, I was afraid you would do something like that again, even though I was not the one who got the votes onto you. You can blame Bodhi for that.

Lastly however. I want to bring up something. I don’t spread around “Chicken Shit.” The only reason that solidified Billy turning against you were your own actions in throwing Billy’s name out that vote. From what I heard both Renee and Billy compared notes. Sure I might have lied throughout the game. Most of the time that I talked to you I was honest. I told you about what I heard. I was honest about listening to your feelings. I don’t appreciate being called apathetic when I am not that in the slightest. This next part doesn’t go for just you, but for everybody. If I swore on anything in this game, I meant it. I didn’t intentionally lie about one another to tear people apart. Instead, I floated around the truth, what I heard people were thinking at the time, stuff like that. Those who I become really close to I worked hard to keep, and if I had to lie to them in order to keep them around one more day, that wasn’t out of the question for me. Ultimately, even though we had our patchy grounds in the game, that can be exemplified with Eva. Sometimes I lied to her in this game, but I had every intention in my heart to make sure the both of us were sitting here. Sometimes, I had to lie to her in order to place myself in a better position to not only listen to the other side, but to protect those I was close too. Sometimes, it didn’t work, but other times, it did. The reason why I’m sitting here now is because of my determination, and the fact that I worked my hardest to achieve my goals, which I don’t think can be said about both Eva and James at all. So Austin, I might have lied to you. I might have betrayed you indirectly. But if you think I’m going to get on my knees and weep and say that you should be here instead of me is entirely untrue. I worked my ass off to get to this point, and I did. You might be upset about that, but I don’t care. Especially since your probable vote James has some serious flaws in his game that can be seen as more of a black spot than my own. Maybe you should look past the deception, look past the agony and the heartbreak, and learn from the mistakes that you made. That way, you would not only become a better survivor player, but an overall better person in the end.

----Billy-----

Hi Billy!

You know, personally for me I think you were a very good player this season. I think all the shit that you had to put up with on Aceptacion and the premerge Regateo shows your will and determination. It gives you this underdog story that is very desirable in some people. Had you reached the end, you could have easily argue that you had to work harder than anyone here in order to make it to the end, and your claims would probably be valid to a lot of us. In the merge, I honestly doubt anyone could say a single bad thing about you. You had this under the radar strategy that shifted any potential target off of you. I firmly believe that had your strategy worked efficiently, you would have a really good shot at sitting in the end. The one flaw I can find in your game was your strategic gameplay. I feel like early in the merge, you were connected to people who were bigger threats than you. In my opinion, had you gone to the end with people like Connor or Bodhi, you would not be winning this game. They could have claimed that they were the ones formulating the plans that you were apart of and kept you alive, which can be a serious criticism of your game had you reached FTC with those 2. Not only that, but your association with these people hurt your game after they started to get booted one by one, pushing your own name higher and higher on the target list. However other than that, I think you played a seriously good social game, and definitely was a contender from the title. You make your grandpa proud, and I’m glad to call you my AP Gov buddy :)

---Lil AJ---

Hi Lil AJ!

Before I start I translated the thing that you posted in the beginning on google docs. I think it starts off like a testing thing, but it almost seems like a hostage thing where your lying on the floor hoping you're the one that gains the freedom. I’ll comply with your request of a question XD.

Lil AJ: A positive I see about your game is your determination, even though you saw that you were going home, you never gave up until your torch was snuffed, I admire that about you. A negative I saw in your game was that while I was at the lagoon, you only talked to me twice. A quick cordial hi when I got into the lagoon, and then after the immunity challenge. Andrei talked to me, Eva talked to me, I think if you just more willing to reach out to others than you might of had a chance.

Jay: The positive about your game was your ability to connect with others. Coming into the merge you probably had a solid connection with almost anyone that you talked to, which put you in a prime position to win. I think the negative in your game was that your connections were pretty much to visible, and it allowed other people to see the bonds that you had in this game and take you out.

Matt: I think your biggest strength was your ability to fly under the radar, and for the most part no one in their right mind every imagined voting for you, which can be seen as a positive attribute in a game where anyone identified as a threat is taken out. However, many people saw you as a goat, and someone who is an easy beat in the end. People saw that you weren’t involved in a lot, and had you gotten yourself more involved you could have possibly become a contender.

Austin: A positive I personally see about your game is your wit. You were able to jump on your feet, and quickly maneuver targets. You were able to identify the threats to your game, and took them out systematically with the help of others. Your negative is that you aren’t the best social player in the world, and the way you handled some situations turned certain players against you. The way you handled and planned some of these vote outs unintentionally hastened your downfall at the final 9.

Billy: A definite positive I see about your game was your social standing. I don’t believe a single person here can say a bad thing about you, and that speaks testaments to your character and your perception that others have of you. I think a negative about your game was that you aligned yourself with people who were bigger threats, and your association with these people ultimately hurt your game in the long run.

Andrei: A positive in your game is your perception of others. I believe you were able to identify where the votes were headed and acted upon this perception. Hell, you caught onto my game at the Final 7, so that shows that strength. However, I feel a weakness of yours was simply that people were able to easily step over you, and used you to their own personal advantage, like during the Final 8.

Renee: A positive I see about your game is your optimism. You always took any challenge facing you with this ray of sunshine that was frankly amazing. You kept your cool in a lot of different scenarios, which a lot of people fail to do. However, a negative about your game was in a sense your laid back approach. You didn’t participate that much, which left people more willing to write your name down when the time came.

Bodhi: A positive I see about your game is your initiative, you were able to identify who you could align with, who your biggest threats were, and then acted upon that initiative in order to bring yourself father in the game. It is a very good trait that very few people can utilize successfully. However, a negative about your game

AJ: A definite positive was his ability to survive as long as he can. Even if his name was brought up, people early on were hesitant to vote him out, which serves a testament to his social status. I feel like a weakness was that when he kept taking out threat after threat, he forgot to keep his own threat status in check, resulting in his own demise in the final stages of the game.

---- Renee ----

Hi Renee!

I guess if I won the million dollars, I’d probably file it immediately to get the taxes out of the way because I don’t want to be like Richard Hatch and get sent to jail. I’d then probably spend some of the remaining money on covering tuition for college. I already have a small amount away for college, but it isn’t enough to pay for 4 years. If I just put a certain amount away for that, I don’t have to have my parents worry about financial stability for my little sister and brother when they eventually go into a higher education. I think I’d then take like a small amount of the remaining money and take my mom on a special vacation. She helped me through my life with dealing with asperger’s. To be honest, she deserves a nice getaway for all the torture that I may have put her through. Maybe like a weeklong vacation to Fiji or a cruise. I think I’ll put the rest of the money in a savings account and let it grow up so I can spend it over time. I know it might seem a bit selfish to do that, but by letting the money grow, it allows me to spend more on local businesses around my town. By doing this, it would allow me to help the community around me improve, which can hopefully lead to a better life for those younger than me.

For your song on the New Year's List, I would probably suggest Feeling Good by Nina Simone (although the Bublé cover is really good as well), it’s an older song, and isn’t one of those songs that you may associate for New Years. However, there is the soul and jazz combo to the song that is really catchy. The lyrics also represent the new year, specifically the “it’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me” part. If you imply its meaning to the new year, it actually works really well. It can be argued that it is saying that the new year is a fresh start, and you should feel good about the start of a new year. So I would suggest that song. Also it helps that it’s my favorite all time song and I’m a sucker for jazzy soul so that’s something.

----Matt-----

Hey Matt!

I guess I’ll start at the beginning of the game, and I’ll go from there. Although I explained my game generally in the opening statement, I’ll go into a lot more detail here. Prepare for a long statement.

Going into my beginning tribe in Regateo, the only person who I knew on the tribe was Jordan, whom I knew before the game started. We quickly made an alliance together, and promised to keep each other safe. I also talked to Renee during this time, and I was planning on creating a three person alliance with Shea and Austin, pulling in Jordan as a fourth. I waited to create that alliance until after the slaughter, when I was certain that my tribe would remain safe. I then went on to create my alliance, and Monty became quickly ostracized due to other people wanting him gone as soon as possible. However, during the first immunity challenge, Shea quit due to a permanent ban on another survivor site. I talked to one of my friends, Ally, who explained the situation and his past background to me after he was removed from the game. Afterwards, Jordan and Austin debated on who would he brought back into the game from the eliminated Enfando. Dylan was unable to be picked due to some racist comments or some shit, and we all ruled out bringing back Jaiden and Matthias for being “Messy.” Jordan argued to bring Tyler back, while Austin argued for Cole, a fact that I originally got mixed up, thank you Austin for pointing that out. Although I argued for Eddie as a compromise, Tyler was eventually brought back into the game. I later learned that both Jordan and Austin knew the people they were campaigning for, so that was something. As we continued to win challenges, the tribe target shifted from Monty to Tyler due to his general inactiveness and his tendency to not talk. At all. Unfortunately as a tribe we were unable to actually act upon this, as we then went into a tribe swap.

Going into the tribal division, I initially tried to put as many Regateo tribe members on my tribe as possible. This partially succeeded, although I lost both Monty and Tyler, which was no harm no foul. Afterwards, I started to pick those whom I thought would help our tribe win immunity, and I tried to remain fair with tribe divisions at the time. This lead me to pick the tribe I did. An alliance was formed initially between Austin, Jay, Jordan and I. I honestly liked Jay when I met him, and I thought he would be a really good ally at the time. However Austin kept repeating to me that he couldn’t reach the end, which I agreed with personally. During this I connected with the people on our tribe excluding Steven, who was dreadfully inactive. When we originally lost the immunity challenge, it was a general consensus that Steven had to go. However Austin wanted to enact this crazy plan in order to take out James. Now keep in mind that this idea was not the smartest, as James was one of our strongest assets on the tribe. I felt as if that if he left, we would be in trouble. So I constantly had to convince Austin not to target James, and instead to take out Steven, knowing that we could easily throw a vote onto Jacob if anyone got paranoid. Eventually Austin caved and Steven got booted from the tribe. Had I agreed to Austin’s plan, James would have been blindsided that round, so James. Your welcome.

During the rest of my time on NuRegateo, I started to develop more of my social bonds with the others. I managed to get James to actually have a conversation with me, where we connected. I also became really close with Eva at the time, and eventually I created a Final 2 deal with her later on. I gained a relationship with Matt, and I even got to talk to Jacob. Although my primary intention at the time was to keep the Old Regateo together, these friendships and talks I had served to be very important later on in the game. During the time, Matt’s inactivity was a serious issue, although it was later revealed that he burnt his hand. People wanted him gone if we went to Tribal again, and everyone seemed fine with it. However, I kept saying that Jacob would be a preferred target, and after Matt’s recovery, I believe he was the next one to go. However, we got swapped again.

After the final tribe swap, I was put on a tribe with James, Matt, Eva, and Tyler. Tyler once again failed to talk me, and acted like he didn't give two god damns about the game. So after we lost our solitary immunity challenge, the general consensus was that he would be the one to go. However Tyler got his hands on a hidden immunity idol, and played it. I anticipated something like this, so I decided to play my idol just in case Tyler played one. I was smart in this as I was his target. The reason I knew that he voted against me was because of that draft that was constantly updated and posted in the main chat. I went to the round Eva got cirie’d, and my idol play was put under successful, so I knew that I was his target. Unfortunately, after Matt played his idol in reaction to both of our idol plays, Eva got cirie’d and sent to the lagoon. Although this scenario might have seemed bad for me, I strengthened my relationship with Matt, and I believe we became closer allies coming into the merge.

So the merge round was really interesting for me. I learned about the argument and feud that occurred between Jordan and Austin, with both of them saying almost the same exact thing to me. It was really weird to be honest. I tried figuring out ways in order to keep them both safe, in hopes that they could possibly come back together. At the time thought, I trusted Jordan’s word, because frankly I knew him for longer and he had been honest with me all game. I tried floating different options like Tyler, in hopes of keeping two of my allies alive. However the sudden med evac of Tyler and Jacob sunk those chances, and they went right back to targeting each other. I heard at the time of an alliance between Billy/Connor/Bodhi/Austin/James/Matt, and I knew their target was Jordan. I think where things really got complicated for me was when Jordan heard that he was a target, and decided to gun for Austin. This left me between two of my close allies. Although I knew Jordan was a sinking ship, I couldn’t vote him out. I just couldn’t. So I wrote down Austin’s name and tried to save Jordan. My efforts with Jay and Bodhi didn’t work however, and Jordan was sent out of the game.

Austin was pissed at me afterwards, and when he got on call, from like my personal standpoint, he was PISSED. Hearing him yell and what not brought back bad memories and drove my personal fears of being hated up, causing me to have a breakdown on call. After that call, where we both smoothed things out, I was determined to win immunity. Especially after a blowup I had with Connor after he tried to talk to me. I admit I am a bit at fault over this as I handled the situation wrong, but his tune turned me completely against him, and made me determined to send him out of the game. So a plan was formulated between Austin and I, where I would gun for immunity and he would gun for reward. Keep in mind his end of the deal left him in hell but I won immunity so :D. There was a brief moment where Austin suggested I would give up immunity, where in the back of my mind I was staunchly against it. So after I won immunity and Austin was sent to exile, I started to enact my own plan to get Connor sent home. I waited a bit to know who they were targeting (It was James). I then campaigned hard to turn the tables on Connor. I warned James about the votes against him, I tried to talk to Bodhi about turning on Connor, I campaigned hard to AJ, Renee, Jay, Matt. I worked my ass off to the point where Billy said that he expected Connor to go. Keep in mind everyone voted out James anyways but because of my warning, he played his idol, allowing me to get my wish and blindside Connor out of the game.

Now the next vote… yeah XD. Originally after Austin was immunity, Renee came up as a target, which I was not fine with, because I didn’t want Renee to go home. Now during his time in exile, Austin got his hands on one of Eva’s idols, and was planning on using it to blindside someone. The plan was that Renee would play that idol, She and I would vote out AJ, and Austin/James would vote out Bodhi, with Bodhi being Austin’s target. MY hope was that Bodhi would not be a stupid butt and play his own HII, sending AJ out of the game. However… Renee spilled the plan. And with James flipping, Renee having the HII via. Austin, and Austin having immunity, who do you think was the only target left? Bingo, it was me. Because of that, I got my butt swiftly sent to the lagoon.

During the time before I got sent to the lagoon, there were many rumors flying around that the trio of Andrei/Lil AJ/Eva were a tight trio, and they were going to vote together no matter what. However when I got into the lagoon, the situation turned out much better than I could imagine. Not only did I solidly reconnect with Eva, but I was able to connect with Andrei. We hit it off after talking a bit about Danganronpa, and suddenly the target for the lagoon shifted to Lil AJ. During the immunity challenge I tried to take a laid back approach, and it eventually won out, as I won the immunity necklace. During this time, both Bodhi and Austin got into a huge argument, although it was fun to watch, I felt a bit bad about it, especially after hearing from Austin how close those two were. But I had to focus on myself and my situation, not theirs. Eventually when Lil AJ came

up to me in hopes of a tie, I’d figure I’d be honest and tell him that he had no shot at getting me to not vote him. Looking back, it might be considered too blunt and it could have turned him off, but I’d figure that I just be straight up honest.

When I returned to the game, not only did I create an alliance with the lagoon returnees called Lagoon Dabloom, I also reconnected with my old allies, where everyone apologized for voting me out. I admit, it felt really weird to see that happen, but I thought it was cool and I was safe that round. Before the immunity challenge, a little scandal broke out between AJ and Andrei about some alliance rumors, I forget who exactly was in it. But it cause Andrei to become a target. When the Lagoon Dabloom alliance was talking about targets, I briefly threw out Matt’s name, not thinking it would stick. In mind mind, I thought no one was crazy enough to take out Matt. However, after the immunity challenge, the wheels started to spin and Matt became a true target. Although I eventually voted Andrei out that round, my initial idea spread like wildfire, leading to Matt’s vote out that round.

Now the Final 9 was a really weird round for me, because that’s the round that the game picked up. Everyone started telling rumors that Austin said that he/James had another pair of HII’s which in that time I knew was false due to Austin’s own words. Although I knew their target was Renee, I was seriously against that. I went to Austin with my concerns about his relationship with James, and how that worried me. He told me not to worry, but I still did. People started bringing up Austin’s name for elimination, but I said to vote James instead, since I wanted to keep Austin around at the time. I had no qualms with Austin. Then Billy came up to me raising concerns about Austin/James, and how he Austin told him that he threw out Billy’s name instead of Renee, the true target of Austin’s side. Billy speculated that Austin was just trying to put himself in the middle, and after a bit of pushing, we decided to vote out James, thinking we had the votes. However, things switched last second during tribal when I was not online. Bodhi started a movement to take out Austin, which I never knew about. Eventually they got enough votes to force a tie, and send Austin out the door.

So going into the Final 8 immunity I wanted to take out Bodhi, which was an obvious for James, he knew that. I already knew Andrei was voting Billy, but I was thinking about blindsiding Bodhi that night with help of Billy and AJ, which they both approved of. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until the second Bodhi suggested Eva. AJ and Billy jumped right into that bandwagon, and with Eva/Renee/Andrei voting Billy, it left me forcing to pick between two friends of mine. I did eventually vote Eva, however James voted with the trio, and AJ flipped, sending Billy out the door.

I mean of course I apologized to Eva afterwards, and we made up. However I feel like my biggest mistake that round was not talking to Andrei sufficiently, I think he saw me as sneaky, and tried to get me voted out. I was under the impression that round that everyone was voting for Bodhi, which seemed weird at first but I felt secure with everyone saying it. My ass did get saved that vote by AJ and Bodhi. However, I don’t think they noticed that by taking out Andrei, they put me in the prime position to later take out both of them.

So the vote at the Final 6 was between Renee and Bodhi. I would have felt happier had Bodhi went that round, but I took a step back, and realized that if I wanted to secure myself a place at the Final Tribal Council, Renee needed to go that round. So I voted her out, while keeping my place in the dead middle of the tribe. By voting Renee out that round, it secured my position in the Final Tribal Council, I didn’t have to rely on immunity after that point, I guess it just made me confident that I made the right move there.

After Eva won the immunity necklace afterwards, the vote shifted between AJ and Bodhi, putting me right in the middle as the swing vote. James lost immunity that vote, and I think no one tried to target him that round because well… I feel like there was this underlying feeling that James was an easy beat at the FTC. So I had to take another step back, and I based my vote on a simple question: Who do I think would try more at the final immunity challenge? This lead me to vote off Bodhi, simply because I felt that AJ would have been easier to beat. At that point, AJ and Bodhi were the next ones slated to go in my eyes, which is exactly what happened.

So yeah, that’s the explanation.

----AJ----

Hi AJ!

Well I think there are a few reasons why James could deserve to win. I think the most visible was that he technically survived more days in the main game than both Eva and I, so he had a longer experience. Also, I feel like especially in the later game, he was able to put himself in a position where no one wanted to vote him out, something that I was familiar with. Everyone wanted to take him to the end because they thought he could beat him, which could have been a part of his strategy in order to reach FTC. If that is true, than bravo to him. Also, the guy won the most immunity challenges throughout the season, which is an impressive feat. And his idols allowed him to survive certain vote offs and allowed him to try and find cracks in order to get into a better position. So yeah.

----Andrei----

Hey Andrei!

LIL AJ Opinion of me: Neutral. Although I feel like we connected in the last hours of the game with puppy talk, he might still feel bitterness towards me since I crushed his chances of forcing a tie. So in all honesty I don’t know what he thinks.

Jury vote: I think it would Probably be Eva. You spent very little time with James and I burned you at your vote off so probably Eva

JAY Opinion of me: Positive. I think Jay and I shared a good connection. I think we had a genuine bond in this game, even though we were both weary of each other game wise.

Jury vote: Due to the way his speech was written, I am pretty positive that I have Jay’s vote down

MATT Opinion of me: Positive, our talks were fun, and we became really close after Eva’s vote off, we had a mutual trust going into the merge, and I think we both respected each other as people.

Jury vote: Probably between Me/Eva, I think it might be more for me but let’s see what happens.

AUSTIN Opinion of me: Negative. Although we started off as good friends, his vote off left him bitter towards me, and his final tribal council speech was almost to the point of toxic, so yeah he’s not the happiest with me.

Jury vote: He’s voting James, I think it’s the easiest vote to pinpoint since he shares resentment towards Eva and I even though we didn't vote him out. Oh well.

BILLY Opinion of me: Positive. We connected on early in the merge due to our grandparents, but I think we came together very well, and you are probably one of the coolest guys in this game

Jury vote: I think I have Billy’s vote. We were closer to each other than I believe he was to either James or Eva.

ANDREI Opinion of me: Leaning positive, we did have a good connection with the Danganronpa link that we shared, although you did kind of turn on me so I don’t know if your opinion changes or not.

Jury vote: In all likelihood I believe you’re voting Eva, because you two were closer than you were to me or James. Plus I did kind of accidentally come off the wrong way at the Final 7 so that might be a factor. Although I would appreciate a vote, yours is probably going to Eva

RENEE Opinion of me: Leaning Positive. You and I really connected throughout the game despite some shaky moments, for the most part we were honest with each other, and that I appreciated. However I’m not quite sure how you feel about me after you got voted out. I didn’t ghost you, but I might have come off the wrong way thinking back.

Jury vote: I think it’s between me or Eva, but you're probably voting Eva tonight because everyone says you two were besties XD.

BODHI Opinion of me: Positive, although I did kind of try and target you from the Final 8 onwards, we still were seriously cordial with each other, and we had a lot of cool conversations on call and in general. I think I was closer to you, however I feel like there is a possibility that you might be bitter after I flipped on you. However, I’ll just say positive.

Jury vote: I hope me. Although I was the reason he got voted out at the final 5, we both enjoyed our talks together, and I feel like we had a good connection.

AJ Opinion of me: Positive, when I originally found out that we knew each other before the game, our social bond grew, even if we had a shaky start we had plenty of good conversations and later became good allies later on in the game. Plus I learned a lot about him, and I believe he would do really well in Human Resources.

Jury vote: In all honestly I believe it is between myself and James, and it can be either 50/50 between us from the social connections that we both had with you.

Now for the ROP request, I want to mention my own mistake, which was with Cole, Austin said it in his jury speech, but I honestly didn’t remember who campaigned for who. I just know Tyler and Cole were the main two people argued for.

I want to mention a little something about James’s response to Connor. I remember early on in the merge where I got that solitary vote during James’s vote out. My assumption was that James was the person who voted me, based on the information I heard during that time. However, you can correct me if I’m wrong here, but I don’t believe Connor’s first conversation with James occurred that first tribal. Due to Connor’s supposed move to get some people’s target switched onto James during that vote off, my assumption was that Connor was trying to get James to play his idol and send me out of the game. Although James refused to name the person who told him my name, due to the circumstances around the time my best guess was that it was Connor. So yeah that's a probable bullshit.

Other than that, that’s pretty much it. I think all three of us were truthful in our responses in the ROP, but you asked me to find something, and I think it’s something to take into consideration.

Also in response to James’s statements about me in the ROP, I mentioned that Tyler didn't talk game based on what I heard from others, in which case he was socially isolated. And from my perception and my hearing the Austin vote happened last second, I had no idea about the split vote in the first place, and whenever Austin’s name came up to me I tried to strike it down from the table.

---Jay----

Thanks for the really nice words Jay. Forgive me, but I literally had to look up what savage meant in the urban dictionary.

I guess I never really realized that all the Bible stuff would have caused so much chaos in this game, and personally I just never really saw it as scummy until you all pointed it out. I never really thought about what it meant to myself until I sat down and thought about it. I don’t think I ever broke the promises I made, but I can obviously see why people are upset about it. I think in this game there is a fine line between wrong and just playing the game. I think people going “too far” is something that can be discussed over and over again. But I have seen a case where someone did what I did, except they took it further and directly broke one of their own promises to vote someone out as the swing vote when they said they didn’t. There was a lot of controversy surrounding that scenario, and I just thought it was morally wrong to do that. Keep in mind this happened premerge, but he still made it to the top 7 or 6.

From the original website that I came form, Tengaged, the community there is extremely toxic. You have people fat shaming, any type of negative stuff, and they still get allowed to play in these games. I remember a user called Charliebibi, who was racist, made fun of autism during tribal, but he was still allowed to play and became the third jury member, long after these arguments began. I think the line of “taking things too far” has been seriously blurred, because you have those who would go even farther than me and insult someone's character or break such a solemn vow when they have all the power. It’s a line that very few people can cross, and I personally believe I didn’t do that.

I was passionate about this game, I cared probably more than anyone. I talked to others, I listened to their stories, I was a part of a lot of stuff that happened, my spirit and my determination in this game was something that very few people could match. I want to win this game badly, and it’s something I really wanted to do for a long time. This game I tried to fix the mistakes that I made previously, and although I failed on a couple of aspects, I obviously did something right, because I was able to steamroll my way here while being connected to everyone and not getting caught like Jay did. I think that’s what separates me from the others, I tried my hardest in this game. Is it enough? I don’t know to be honest. However, I played a hell of a game.

#YouHaveMadeMyLifeHellFromDayOne

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survivorisladelasmunecas-blog · 8 years ago

Text

James’ Jury Answers

LIL AJ -

"Directed to you all, give each juror one positive attribute and one negative attribute regarding their game." lil aj - I think that your premerge journey was pretty hectic and to come so close to returning from that is commendable. Unfortunately being voted off premerge is a pretty big knock against you. Jay - For a positive i think he was very well connected within his alliance and a very well setup. In terms of a negative he made himself a big threat and left himself vulnerable to a "worst case scenario". Matt - I think his funny and easy-going personality made it easy for people to view him as genuine and want to work with him. As a result he was never targeted until his self vote made him an easy vote-off. Austin - When he wanted to get something done out of everyone in the game he truly WENT FOR IT no matter what it took which I find to be very ballsy and admirable. However this also is a negative because his execution led to finding himself on the bottom (although to be fair it wasn't all his fault as the matt self-vote really did him in) Billy - I think he was very genuine as an ally to those he was fiercely loyal to. However to those he wasn't as close with he didn't do the best job at deceiving them and/or working with them (I am not just saying this because of the semi-argument we had) Andrei - I think Andrei is someone who is just fun to talk to and has a very approachable quality to him which lends itself well to the game. As a negative id say getting rocked out premerge is a pretty big blow and once he returned to the game his close bond with Renee and Eva was kind of out in the open. Renee - A bit of a restatement but I think Renee was one of the best relationship builders making strong bonds with people she didn't HAVE to make bonds with. These bonds also paid dividends with the idol Austin gave her. I think her weakness similarly to Andrei was that these alignments weren't necessarily kept secret and so it allowed the cast to play around it. Bodhi - Bodhi I view as one of the best strategists of the cast and he had a really good grasp on the numbers while at the same time maintaining great relationships. I think his weakness was underestimating me and AJ's relationship and everyone's ideal path to the end and so the game kinda slipped from under him at the last second. AJ - As a strength I think AJ was the most well-rounded player as you could had a little bit of everything you need and I truly believe he would be winning if he wasn't voted off last round. I think his weakness at the end of the day was how big of a threat he was and Eva winning immunity at final 5 in hindsight was probably worst-case scenario for his winning path to the end.

Jay -

"Maybe finding one or two more, but you had SO MANY OF THEM! And it’s not like you put in any sort of skill to earn them either. You answered dumb questions like “2+2” and “Who’s hosting this season?” to earn, what, six idols? I truly do not know how many you had, and therein lies what the problem with your game is to me. When deciding whether to vote for you or for someone else, it became a counting game. I had to get on calls multiple times and COUNT OUT the number of idols you had and what you may or may not have done with them and how many more you had." At merge I had 4 idols which I used one after the other. From final 10 onward I was on my own with no advantages. I think it could also be argued that I earned the advantages. Yes there was luck involved in me answering the correct questions but the questions that I did answer that gave me the advantages were head to head against other players who had just as much opportunity to earn them as I did. Eva herself was one of those who was vying for the advantages on almost ever question and earned 3 herself. The difference between me and her however is that I played mine in a way that benefitted me, whereas Eva gave her 2 idols away in a way that didn't benefit her almost at all and then exposed her legacy advantage to the entire cast which allowed for everyone in the game to play around it at final 7 and 6. Yes on a certain level I got lucky but I don't think its completely fair to say I got handed them on a silver platter and relied on them to make it through yet praise the person who got voted out WITHOUT using hers and then in part caused her alliance's demise because she messed up her execution with her last advantage. "Being given so many idols and when you ran out, winning most of the immunities, is not a strategy. It’s pure luck. And while I respect that luck plays a part in Survivor, your entire game boils down to the fact that you had no game, everything you did was because you got insanely lucky." While I agree just plainly having idols and winning immunities isn't a strategy in itself, boiling my game solely to those two is, in my opinion, selling myself short. To me I viewed it as the hand I was dealt and how to best play with those hands. If I was simply playing idols and winning immunities and nothing else then how am I the one among the final 3 with the most votes go through? If I was just sheeping and putting 0 effort into the game besides idols and challenges (which your post suggests) then I would have just did whatever AJ told me every day and called it a day but the fact that I voted you already contradicts that. Also I am a big proponent of "playing with the cards you are dealt with" and when you start playing the "what if" game when you say "if you didn't have idols then you would have gone home x amount of times" then that opens up all the "what ifs" that might have happened with me not playing my idols. My rebuttal to that is if I didn't have idols then I would have played the SITUATION completely different. I played under the radar BECAUSE I had idols, which paid dividends when I survived over Austin. After that I was able to turn the game completely around to the point where I was able to survive WITHOUT immunity when according to your post that is all my game had left at that point. I know you probably don't take me seriously because we never talked and your hatred of idols but if you are going to boil my game down to solely "advantages" while simultaneously praising someone for playing their situation horribly with advantages well then Monica is gonna hip bump you back.

Matt -

I think my opening speech is pretty much what you are looking for, if you want read that and through some of my responses and you could get a pretty good idea of what you are looking for.

Austin -

"I want you guys to write a few sentences, paragraphs, or however long you think you need to diss the other 2 people sitting next to you." With Eva I feel she lacked a real direction and clear goal in the game. While she had the social bonds set up to potentially set herself up as well as advantages (2 idols and legacy), the execution and decision making was lacking. The first example of this would be after I used my exile ticket, yet she didn't think to play her idol when the red flags were there (why would I use an exile ticket when Tyler had an idol?). Then on the lagoon she gave you not one but TWO idols and upon return to the game... sided with completely different people??? And then during the Jay vote where they split between us two she knew how many advantages I had and also knew you had a second idol but just went along with it? To me this all shows a lack of foresight to certain scenarios and a less than perfect read on the dynamics of the game. Once the end-game hit she flat out had very little power in the game. She essentially set herself up to have to put her trust in other people instead of the other way around. She told you (and others too) about her legacy advantage which at final 7 gave me the opportunity to play around it and flip the game on her. Whereas I think my strengths were more keeping my cards to myself and acting in my best interest in scenarios I could take advantage of I think Eva, in contrast, kinda laid it all out there in a way that lacked tact and really sapped her of potential advantages and "leg up"s she could have had on other contestants. Not to mention her time on the lagoon in the early merge was beyond uneventful. With Brandon I similarly question his decision making at certain points in the game and how effective his relationship building was since he was voted off when the cast had to choose between himself or AJ, myself being among the deciding votes behind his vote off. While he had some ideas and plans in the game he rarely had the execution to really go through with it. This was evident in the Billy vote when we talked and we were apparently on the same page to get Bodhi out but then decided with others to vote out Eva (his apparent final 2???) without my input or really discussing it with me almost at all and expected to get it through with only 4/8 votes. I think that was a huge moment of underestimating me as I was able to flip the game in that moment. Another quintessential example of this was the next round when Brandon wanted to vote Bodhi (for real this time apparently) and his execution was just nonsensical to me. He went to everyone individually and from what I gathered everyone just said yes to him while not taking it seriously and as a result he was the sole vote for Bodhi while completely in the dark to the actual events transpiring. Also Brandon hints that he had more of a role in the Connor vote than I think he realizes when he says "However, this worked out in my favor, as I was able to blindside Connor after warning James about his impending blindside." That round I knew from AJ that I was being voted the moment it started happening and so me and AJ were the ones who made the final decision whether I should vote with Brandon to do Connor and hide our relationship or if we could vote for whoever we wanted separately and risk being exposed. I eventually decided on Connor because in PMs because he was a solid part of the opposite alliance, to keep my bond with AJ secret, and because I thought it'd be extremely ironic after Connor pm'd me how he'd be "highly appreciative" if I didn't vote him when he was already a solid vote on me.

"Multiple times you were vulnerable, and if people make you out to be SUCH a threat then why didn’t you leave any of those votes? What was it about your game that made you such a huge bull’s-eye, yet people wanted you around still? Could it be that people are holding a bias against you? I want your take on it." I think when I made merge my idols were a bit of an elephant in the room, combined with my more reactive/under the radar approach early on at the merge kept my name an easy one to bring up. Yet at the same time I was also simultaneously underestimated and I think some people sort of saw me more as "along for the ride" which helped me survive the round where they ultimately decided to vote you off over me for example. This is what I was going for because as much as I wanted our plans to go through and supported them (even though one of them might have worked if Matt didn't self vote) I knew there was a big possibility that eventually a vote was going to come down to you or me and that you were probably a bigger target than me. I also think that as you and Bodhi worked together less and less that kinda built up towards the target shifting off of me and more on to you. I don't know if I am answering the question exactly how you were wanting it answered but you definitely pose an interesting point since the whole "relying on advantages" is an easy talking point to Yes, I used advantages to my advantage but I am a big proponent of playing based on the situation one is in. I played that way at the start of the merge BASED ON the fact that I had idols. Furthermore, there were rounds where I was vulnerable yet there was always a bigger target (Matt with the self-vote and you) and then by that point I seized control of numbers to where the immunities weren't as crucial after final 8. I can't say for sure because depending on who won them it the whole game could have changed but I think I stood a decent chance of making it to the end without the immunities starting at final 7. "Explain to me your game outside of what we accomplished. I’m already aware of you/AJ, so refrain from that. What did you, James the individual, do on your own?" Well for one I was a big part in the eliminations of both Eva and Brandon. Eva was eliminated from me giving Tyler an idol which she clearly was no expecting at all. Then with the Brandon vote it which you could argue had to do with AJ was ultimately my own decision deciding who I felt were the best allies for myself going forward. The Jay vote is also one that I made without AJ. Yes that one was more of a joint decision between us two but if it were up to AJ then I would have voted for someone completely different. In terms of decisions that were 1000% solely ME the go-to is definitely the final 8 vote. After I learned Billy and Brandon made their own decision without my input after telling me a different story I knew that the best thing for my game was to take matters into my own hands. Without discussing with anyone what the gameplan was going into it, I went straight to Eva and explained the situation and how she was being lied to. From there the other decision that was not more of a collaborative effort was the final 4 vote. Going into tribal Brandon wanted to vote Eva and for a while I was conflicted because me and AJ definitely got close but at a certain point I looked at the jury and just thought "okay wow there's no way I can win against him, if I were to lose to someone I would rather lose to AJ but at the end of the day I am playing to win" and so at that point I told Eva I was doing AJ which set things in motion. Yes, AJ was a close ally in the game but my actions in the game show that at the end of the day I was playing an independent game. If it were AJ's first choice, Connor/Jay would not be the people idol'd out of the game, if it were AJ's choice Eva would have went home at final 8 and not his ally Billy, if it were up to AJ he would have made finals and (probably) win but instead I was making my own decisions independently, essentially working against his alliance for a large portion of the game, and yet still foster that relationship where he did not doubt my loyalty to him.

Billy -

"Please explain to me literally ANYTHING that was entirely your move." I have explained my thought process to other rounds in my opening speech but for the sake of answering this I will start off with the final 8. I was down to work with you and you told me you were down to do Bodhi. However, when I found out you lied to me and your alliance's plan depended on me throwing my vote I went to Eva without telling my closest ally AJ about voting you out knowing Andrei was afk while voting you. You can ask him yourself we told each other EVERYTHING up to that point and when you got 4 votes he was genuinely shocked. Another move that involved 0 collaboration was my decision to vote off AJ at final 4. Like I mentioned he was my closest ally throughout the game so I was conflicted in my choice but I think my decision to vote him off supports that idea that I am/was truly playing to WIN and willing to make the right decisions to put myself in a better position. I also would argue that in many other rounds I had a BIG role in who went home (brandon/Jay/Connor/renee boots) but those rounds did involve collaboration so I guess they don't exactly fit your criteria. "How did you view me as a player this season? I would like a description, not a sentence." I viewed you as a fiercely loyal player. As someone who found who knew who they were sticking close with and going to bat for them. My evidence for this was at final 8 where you lied to me about voting Bodhi and then went to him and made a separate plan with him. AJ always had good things to say about his bond with you and based off our heated conversation you definitely value and enjoy getting to know the people you are playing the game with. I think this opens you up to a lack of foresight at times as your plan at final 8 included only gathering 4 out of the 8 people in the game to vote together.

Andrei -

LIL AJ Opinion of me: We hit it off for the few rounds pre-merge we were together even though it never really panned out with the tribe swaps I am going to go with a slight positive lean. Jury vote: I think there's a chance he votes me if he respects my game but it depends how thoroughly he and Eva bonded on the lagoon. For the sake of not giving a cop out answer I will say myself though. JAY Opinion of me: I don't believe he respects me. In general he has something against advantages in the game and so I am the quintessential example of everything wrong in the game to the point where he will praise someone for wasting their advantages because he hates advantages so much. That combined with our limited communication makes it easy for him to assume I had no game. Jury vote: I would say he is leaning Brandon after reading his jury speech. MATT Opinion of me: Either neutral or a slight positive lean. We were together almost the entire premerge and talked on and off in group settings and I was a part of the vote to save him so I don't think he has anything against me. Jury vote: I was always paranoid he was closer to Eva pre merge so that is what I'm leaning towards. AUSTIN Opinion of me: I think he is the one person on the jury who really got to understand my thought process from the point where I felt hopeless and then was able to see me turn it around. I think he is rooting me on and shocked but not fully surprised I made it to the finals. I remember in one conversation he had when we were talking about how screwed we were he was like "I already know what my jury speech for you is going to be" and I responded along the lines of "omg stop that is like impossible I am not even beginning to think about making it to the end right now" and so I think Austin probably looked back at that conversation too and thought "wow he really did it". Jury vote: I think he is voting for me which was kind of explained in the above answer, we worked together closely and I think he sees the strengths of my game. BILLY Opinion of me: moderately to slightly negative. We had a conversation which got slightly heated over whether or not our 6 line convos were pointless since neither one of us was giving each other any info. Yet I was truly genuine about working with him at final 8 when he approached me so I think there's a slight chance he knows I didn't have anything against him and was just being blunt which may have translated into a slightly aggressive tone (but its a pretty slim change). Jury vote: I would guess Brandon since he had favorable things to say about him in his jury speech. ANDREI Opinion of me: I think you probably understand where I was coming from with my moves in the lategame. There may be a chance you think I am a hypocrite since I ranted to you about others in the cast being "opportunists" when that is essentially what I morphed into and I will own that. However, from our conversations you seem really chill so I'd say your opinion of me is slightly positive. Jury vote: I would lean Eva since I know you two worked closely in the game together and bonded so you may have been rooting for her after you got voted off. RENEE Opinion of me: I am somewhat sure that I was the one you were referring to in your comment about ghosting you after you got voted off so probably slightly negative. I think there's a chance once she got to jury that she sort of saw where I was coming from since she doesn't seem to be the type to hold a grudge though. Jury vote: Probably Eva since they worked together closely when Eva came back from the lagoon. BODHI Opinion of me: I think he can recognize the strengths of my game and my thought process but since he places a lot of weight on the social game so from his perspective in the game he didn't really respect me for a large portion of it and that may hold true now as well. Jury vote: I think he is probably waiting for the jury questions to make a decision and this is probably the person who I am least sure of who he is voting. Once again for the sake of not copping out I will say Brandon though. AJ Opinion of me: I don't think he is bitter (or THAT bitter) towards me. Based on his reaction from me blindsiding him at final 8 with the Billy vote and essentially going "surprise! =D" after it happened I think he can see from my perspective what I needed to do. Jury vote: I think he is a solid vote for me, we bonded a lot through the game and we had a lot of fun maneuvering together and based off our relationship we formed I don't think me voting him off will affect it too much.

"Finally, I also have a trick question for you… Or rather, a request: go through your fellow finalist’s ROP, call out any statement that you feel is bullshit, and tell us why you don’t believe what the statement isn’t genuine." This is all Brandon everything Eva said was fine. tyler: " you didn’t talk fucking game with anyone" is not true since me and AJ talked game with him before his medevac on two different tribes. austin: "However, at the point of your vote out you just lost trust with everyone, which is why you got voted out. Although I didn’t vote for you that round, I tried to spare you from that vote" He didn't lose trust with everyone as I had trust in him and if Brandon REALLY wanted to save Austin he would have voted with us (and actually sided with Austin in the process) instead of copping out as a cog in a split vote.

Renee -

What would u do with the virtual $1,000,000 if you were to win? The first thing I would do is pay my debt from school hehe. I'd probably splurge on myself and buy some video games, (a ps4 in preparation for kingdom hearts coming) and spend some on travelling. London is a place I've always wanted to visit since I have never been there besides being born there and I haven't visited family in Mexico in a while so there's that. I would then give some to my Mom since she a mess with her finances lol. Then probably give some to charity, the first that come to mind would be like environmental causes but that would take a bit of research to find something legit. Also what’s one song I absolutely NEED to have on my New Years party playlist? Becky G "Mayores" is my JAM right now but if you aren't into Spanish music then Hilary Duff "One On A Million" is a song of hers I always come back to.

Bodhi -

youtube

"Why didn’t you ever message people first? In my eyes, this is a social game above all else, and you failed horrendously in that aspect." I think its no secret the social game at the beginning of the merge was a weakness of mine. I think a few factors go into it the main one being in games I tend to put more focus on members of my alliance/people I am directly working with and then from there I analyze the situation and go from there. At the merge those people were Jordan/AJ/Brandon and 2 of them went home within the first. When Austin and me connected that bond was definetly a two-way street instead of only Austin approaching me and from there. For me the merge was a bit of a gradual progression where I originally was relying on my direct alliance and until I no longer could and the first moment I got the opportunity I flipped it to where people needed to depend on me as their direct alliance. For someone who had a weak start at merge I think the growth of my social/strategic game as the game progressed is something that Brandon and Eva cannot say they achieved. Also specifically at final 8 I went to Eva and Renee to get Billy out. Also at final 7 I would have also went to you first but when you approached me I was still in the stage of sorting out my thoughts and the exact angle I was going to approach which is why in those first 10-20 minute of conversing my mind was a bit all over the place as I was deciding if I was going to discuss with AJ first or just lay it all on the line (and decided on the latter on the spot without his approval). That combined with the 2-way communication with AJ, Brandon, Austin and spurts of game talk with Andrei, Billy (I was being genuine with him at final 9 and final 8 before I found out he was lying to me) and Matt (him more in group settings) adds up more of a social game than the "nonexistent" presence some people took me out for/labelled me as at because of my quiet beginning. "Now to all of you: rank the jurors AND FINALISTS in terms of who would’ve been most deserving of winning the game, and give brief reasonings. Include everyone on the jury along with the three of you." AJ: He had info from every corner of the game at all times. His social game had a VERY strong start peaking early merge as evidenced by the 4-3 vote he survived over Brandon and the last minute fashion/unplanned way that vote came about really hammers that in. Very well rounded player who came very close to winning I think would have won against anyone in the final 3. Bodhi: I saw you as a very influential figure within your alliance. One of the smartest people in the cast with a very good sense of tactics and running scenarios yet at the same time maintaining strong bond with lots of people who never wanted you gone until the very end. Renee: A very well liked figure who in my eyes was the best relationship-builder in the game. Well integrated early merge yet maintained close bonds with Eva/Andrei after they returned from the lagoon which was tactful as well as a strong enough bond with Austin to get him to give her an idol. Myself: I believe I played a solid game. Despite being a more quiet presence early merge the growth to eventually being a leader/strong force of the late game is something Eva and Brandon cannot attest to. Billy: Playing a solid game and had very solid allies and connections up to the final 8. However I think that round he misplayed it a bit and approached the situation without much tact which led to his boot. If he played it differently I think he could very well be in the finals with a shot to win. Eva: Misplaying her advantages (all 3 of them) I would argue is a bigger knock against her than me correctly playing (4 of) mine at merge is. While her strategic impact wasn't as strong especially in the latter half she did do a good job re-integrating herself from the lagoon until she fell out of the loop. Returning from the lagoon also knocks her down. Austin: I think he had the potential to play a solid winning game if he survived the final 9 vote but the way he went out kind of puts a different spin on his story. The passion (for lack of a better word) he had when playing the game was commendable but his moves pissed off potential jury votes while simultaneously setting himself up for demise. Andrei: Being voted out really knocks him down, after returning he had a solid allies and had a path to win but as it stands the potential in his game (postmerge) says more than the accomplishments. Brandon: I feel like he had pretty poor execution of his ideas and him being the 1 vote in the 3-3-1 vote at final 7 is just the quintessential example. His social game also was not up to par as he was voted off when his social bonds were in the position to deliver when the last minute him vs aj vote happened. Jay: I think the reason he is down here has less to do with how he played but more how much he didn't play. He was in a good position but the whole merge played out without him so its hard to say if he is deserving. lil AJ: Got voted off premerge and never really got to showcase what he had in the merge phase. Matt: I think the way he self-voted himself out of the game is something you can't really come back from, even if it wasn't necessarily his fault. "Do you believe that Connor and Jordan belong in the pre-jury? Or was it an unfair twist that put them there." I think in general the lagoon people not being on the jury was probably the safest thing, especially with the potential for pre-jurors to be on the jury and cause a China-level mess (hey lil aj). At the end of the day though it did screw Connor in particular over since Jordan was the merge boot and those are a tossup to be on jury so the argument is there for Connor but I would argue more strongly that lil aj doesn't deserve to be on jury if that makes sense.

AJ -

James: Why does Eva deserve to win the game? I think Eva deserves to win because of the bonds she made with people. While she may have not had control of the votes at times she put in time to really connect with her alliance. And while she may have found herself on the lagoon she didn't give up and always had a level of fight in her.

#YouHaveMadeMyLifeHellFromDayOne

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survivorisladelasmunecas-blog · 8 years ago

Text

Eva’s Jury Answers

LIL AJ -

Lil AJ:

Sweet, Forgetful

Jay:

Intelligent, Sneaky!! <3

Matt:

Hilarious, Over-it

Austin:

Energetic, Vindictive

Billy:

Genuine, Distant

Andrei:

The best, Hands-off

Renee:

Queenlike, Defeatist

Bodhi:

Insightful, Uppity

AJ:

Cool (like actually really), Twitchy

Jay -

Hi Jay! First of all I want to say thanks for a speech that was, for me at least, mostly positive because that's a rarity at just about any FTC, let alone this one. We've all really dragged ourselves through hell to get here so a little respite is nice.

I'm glad you see the merit of me giving my idols to Austin and Renee. I was EXTREMELY worried about being a target upon reentering the game with my Legacy Advantage, so I knew I had to find some way to minimize my threat. Losing out on assured safety sucked, but I wanted to keep the players I could work with safe.

I'm pretty flattered to have any aspect of my game be considered similar to yours since you were generally considered to be the best player this season. I'm pretty proud that I managed to somehow maneuver my way to the end over a lot of really strong and strategic players that are on the jury right now. It's a little unbelievable, sitting here at the end and having my game judged by some really solid players. I guess that's why people are being a bit harsh, they've earned it.

I'm still not sure if I'll win. Not gonna lie, after this FTC I think it's looking a bit grim. But! I just have to say I loved this game. I loved playing with these people. After Bora Bora I was sure I'd never return to TS again. But I took a chance and I'm so glad I did. This season has been full of iconic moments and people.

Umm this is a little random but to the jury I just wanted to say even if you guys don't think I played a good game, it was a game I enjoyed because I got to play it with you guys. You were all pretty cool and a lot of the time I was kind of sitting to the side wondering if I even belonged here. I can safely say I'm going to remember this season and if any of you want to send me a random message on Skype, I'll be down to talk any day.

IDK I kind of went on a tangent towards the end here but yeah. I just wanted to say thank you Jay, for making me feel a bit happier about my game and this FTC as a whole. I was really excited to get to play with you again, even if we didn't get to for very long it was a blast. Whoever you wind up voting for, it'll be a bit of a badge of honor for them. VL CF: SO I just sent in all of my responses and answers for the jury questions...it's so nervewracking. I really can't believe this season is almost over. I'm starting to doubt if I'll get even one vote. My biggest worry is that people will see me as insincere which is like, my biggest fear when dealing with people. I don't have the best social skills in the world so a lot of the time the way I feel and what I think doesn't come across the best...ugh I'm just really nervous and scared. I want to win so badly and I feel like everything I've said is going to get misconstrued or hated or something. So yeah...there's your glimpse into my mind. Not a fun place to live!

Matt -

Hi Matt! So the whole detail thing I'm a little unsure of. I think of the three finalists, my game may have had the least depth. Because it was just about being good enough at everything to survive. Challenges? No beast, but I won the one that I REALLY needed at F5 and a few others here and there. Socially? I certainly didn't charm the pants off everyone, but I think I did the best job here of all three finalists. Strategically? We all know I was no savant here, but the strategy I did use got me this far. I do have one detail I can go into though.

To me, the key to a good Survivor game is to keep people from knowing what you're FEELING, not necessarily thinking. People's feelings are the most important part of this game because at the end of the day, it is a game about human interaction. For me, this meant making sure no matter how the game went for me, that I always showed myself to be the kind of person I am. Nice, friendly, always open to having a nice conversation with a stranger. Even if I had never spoken to someone in this game, I could still have a little chat with them not five minutes after they wrote my name down.

I only showed my cards feeling-wise a few times. The biggest one was the Renee boot. I made it very clear there how I felt and how badly I wanted her to stay in. Because I did. I knew there was almost no chance she was staying, but I wasn't going to not try. Using emotions in a strategic manner is a very touch and go thing. Sometimes it can hugely backfire, and sometimes it can show what you're about. In my case, I wanted everyone to know: I am not voting for my friend. It was something I stuck to this entire season. I gave my loyalty to Renee, Andrei, Austin, and Brandan. I kept it to every single one of them. Brandan was the only one that was shaky because he voted for me, but we corrected the course and now we're both here at the end.

This may not be the detail you were looking for, but I think it was an important part of my game that may not be revealed elsewhere. I kept myself from seeming upset, angry, or otherwise displeased with people. Because I knew everyone else was having trouble, getting resentful, and generally making it known when other people upset them.

Why do I think I played the best game? Well, I want the jurors to answer that for me. Are any of you angry with me? Resentful? Pissed? Do you just really not like me? If you can truthfully say that I am a nice person, a friendly person who you can talk to and see as a friend? Do you look back on conversations we had and think it was worth your time, that we got along well and had a decent time together? Then I played the best game here in my opinion.

Austin -

As I said in my speech, I did not turn on you. I genuinely was not aware that there was a plan to split onto you. I thought the people getting votes were Billy, Renee, and James. So no, I didn't just arbitrarily backstab you after putting a lot of trust and resources into you.

As for not being clued into the Bodhi vote, I knew he was getting votes and that there was a strong chance he'd go home. I don't mind that I voted 'incorrectly' because I think I made the right choice either way. Bodhi and AJ were the two who were going next on my list either way, just that they went out of order doesn't chafe me much.

I really don't think I came in with a 'huge opportunity' to change the game. Frankly, a lot of people were wary of me due to knowing about my legacy advantage and just not knowing me in general. I talked to people, and I honestly got very little strategically from most. We all know how tightlipped this cast is, with so much being decided literally an hour before live tribal. What was I supposed to do, steamroll people and demand information? That would've just gotten me sent home.

I couldn't force things. I was in a precarious situation due to having weak bonds from being on the Lagoon. I'm already a bit of a foreigner to the tumblr community, so I had to try to find a way to play socially without being obtrusive. It's like, there was a group of people who always had power and control from damn near the beginning. I was never a part of it sadly.

What moves as an individual did I make? Like I said, I tried my hardest to save the people I was loyal to. Did it work? Nope! But I put myself out there. I'm actually an extremely shy and quiet person so the fact that I even stopped tribal to try to talk James into saving Renee was a big moment for me. It probably just seemed weird and random to most people but for me it was my last ditch effort to save my friend.

I'm not really sure what else to say to you Austin. I genuinely saw you as a buddy in this game and I had your back. I know you saw me as suspicious after your boot but I never voted for you, I voted for James just as I told you I would, both times. I put a lot of trust into you and I had no intention of breaking that. Maybe there was more I could've done to help, but I wasn't able to. Like I'm somewhat hurt because you know how hard this game was, how hard-headed people were and how unwilling some were to be open to new ideas, but you accused me of not doing anything with my 2nd chance despite the tough position I was in. Like every round you begged people to do something, to change things up. It wasn't any easier for me than it was for you. And like I gave you so much trust and help because I wanted to work with you the same way I did Renee, Andrei, and Brandan and now because you went home you're just kinda throwing it in my face. Maybe I'm not gonna win but I know that I was honest to almost everyone, especially the people I promised my loyalty to and you were one of them. Maybe after the season is over you'll believe me. Until then, I guess we'll see.

Billy -

Hi Billy! So I'm definitely gonna address your speech because you really nailed what a few people seem to think of my game.

I do think your judgement of my elimination is unfair. Because I only went home due to not being here when everyone played their idols, which was a twist of the season.

I don't think it's fair to say I wouldn't have made f3 in a different season when one of the main twists of this season was part of my original elim. Like, Lagoon and everyone having idols kinda balances each other out to a net 0 IMO. Also I was never voted out, I was technically Cirie'd and we don't know who got votes that tribal :v Overall, we can't judge anyone this season based on the twists because it's our job to adapt and play based on what we are given. Yes, I was sent to the Lagoon. It was a blessing and a curse at the same time. It wreaked havoc on my ability to build bonds with the people in the game and as we can see now, is still giving me trouble as I plead my case. And as for the Legacy Advantage? That helped me about as much as a hole in my head. Even if I didn't have it I doubt anyone would vote for me over Renee at F6 since she is without question a stronger player than me, and my mere possession of it caused people to target some of my allies.

I do agree that strategically, I wasn't as hot as a lot of the other players this season, but that's kinda why I'm here and they're not. I knew I couldn't get to the end by being a big strategic player, because if I did 1. people likely wouldn't have done what i said anyways and 2. they would've just voted me out over Andrei and AJ when they had those two chances I wasn't immune.

I'm not trying to say I'm a better player than the strategically minded players on the jury, just that my less strategic gameplay was what I needed to get myself this far. I could not be sitting at the final 3 if I had made myself a bigger strategic threat.

Now! As for my observations on you! I don't have many since we played together such a limited time (we first spoke on day 70 I believe) and we were never really aligned. In fact it was between you and I on the boot you went home. BUT I can draw on what a few people told me about you.

From what I can tell, you were one of the people I've alluded to in my previous responses- one of ones who found themselves a foothold in the power and stayed there. It seemed like you knew who you could trust, for the most part, and didn't really try to reach out to people who were more of a potential risk.

I don't know if this is true, but apparently you and James had some sort of argument that probably is what opened the gates to even allowing me to survive the F8 tribal where you went home. Is it true? I wouldn't know, I'm not a mind reader. But from what I can observe, you were in a position of power and a few people took a big chance to knock you out.

So yeah! That's what I'm gonna go with. I figure Brandan has your vote locked up pretty good and that's fine, I'm not gonna complain. But I still wanted to give you a proper response and answer. Best of luck with your job, I know how hard and tiring it can be.

Andrei -

LIL AJ Opinion of me: Ambivalent. Lil AJ and I got along pretty well and I saw him as a buddy in this game. BUT we had to turn on each other at the end of the Lagoon so I'm sure there's a tinge of resentment there. Jury vote: James. I believe the two of them were close in the game before Lil AJ's boot and I see no reason why that shouldn't lead to a favorable jury vote.

JAY Opinion of me: Positive. I like Jay and I think he feels the same. We vibed really well, and he was one of the few people I actually knew before this game so I put a lot of trust into him. He was excited to play with me and I was the same with him! Jury vote: Brandan. Jay had a lot of positive things to say about Brandan in his speech and the two were close to begin with.

MATT Opinion of me: Ambivalent. I think Matt has the same opinion of me that I have of him: funny and fun to talk to, not on the same page in the game. Jury vote: James. These two were aligned the whole game and I believe Matt respects James' game.

AUSTIN Opinion of me: Negative. Austin was someone I really liked and really wanted to work with, and I think he had much of the same feeling. But his boot clearly left a bad taste in his mouth and I don't think he holds me in especially high regard. Jury vote: James. He more or less told us so when he left!

BILLY Opinion of me: Ambivalent. Billy is on the same level as Matt. I think if he saw me walking across the street he'd love to stop and have a chat, but I'm not sure if game-wise the respect is there. Jury vote: Brandan. They were friends, and Billy has shown a strong level of appreciation for Brandan and his strategy.

ANDREI Opinion of me: Positive. We have a ton in common, we always had each other's backs, and I can safely say after this game we will stay friends. Jury vote: Me. I like to imagine my loyalty and our bond in the game will lead to you giving me your vote.

RENEE Opinion of me: Positive. I believe Renee sees me as a loyal friend and an overall good person. Jury vote: Me. I think that my unerring loyalty to Renee all the way up to her elimination will lead to her giving me her vote.

BODHI Opinion of me: Positive. I think I showed a lot of honesty and understanding towards Bodhi. In the game we weren't always on the same page but I was always open to hearing him out which I think he appreciated. Jury vote: Me. Not just because I voted with him, but because I showed an openness and earnesty that was overall really lacking this season.

AJ Opinion of me: Ambivalent. AJ and I only really started talking late into the game, and a lot of our conversations were skin deep. It's a big regret I have and I don't think he would know me from any other plain Jane on the street. Jury vote: James. This is the one I'm most unsure of because I don't know how betrayed AJ feels by James voting for him. But I know they were friends, so I will say James for now.

Renee -

Um if I had a million dollars I would definitely do one thing I've wanted to do for pretty much my entire life and start transitioning. I've put it off for so long due to a lack of funds and a few other reasons, so having the ability to do it would be a huge weight off my shoulders and make me a happier person.

I also would put aside a lot of money for my family. My mom recently had to withdraw from her 401k for a variety of reasons so securing my family's financial future a little bit would make me really happy.

Your musical taste is one thing we didn't discuss much....BUT I'm gonna say I think you would like Praying by Kesha. So that will be my answer!

Bodhi -

youtube

Ahhh thanks for thinking my social game was worth something, it's probably my preferred attribute in Survivor. But moving on from that.

Okay! So I think the reason I was out of the loop was: I had minimal time to prove my worth, as a player and in loyalty, before I was Cirie'd. I attended almost no tribals, and the ones I did attend were total blowouts. There was no test! So once people merged and started playing the game, I was sitting at the lagoon with my head up my ass.

I pretty much walked into a situation where people had to trust me more or less 'just cause'. The only person who really had any reason to trust me was Austin due to our talks when he visited the lagoon, and Renee because of our Bora Bora bond and my giving away an idol specifically to help her. Everyone else had no reason to trust or invest time in working with me. So that's why I put so much effort into helping those two plus Andrei, and Brandan despite our rocky period. I needed to cling to the few people who had any reason at all to trust me. Which would explain why some people would think I was goating Renee.

It was really tough building bonds with people outside of those few! Especially since to work with some people would require betraying the people who already had some trust in me. Add to that how many times we had tribals where no one said anything until the last minute, and I was completely out of the loop several times just because no one had any particular motivation to speak to me about the vote. After all, I could've easily ruined it by betraying their trust. There was no reason to risk it for them. James was really the only person who took a chance with saving me at F8, and had he not reneged on our alliance with Renee I would have been truly loyal to him to the end for it. That's just how I am. As it stands, I never wrote his name down after he saved me anyways.

I'm not gonna whine and complain like woe is me, no one wanted to take a chance on me. I'm sure there's SOMETHING I could've done, but it escapes me now just as it did then. This was one of the most insular seasons I've ever played in, people had bonds from games long before I ever entered the picture, rivalries, and all sorts of relationships. I was like a little lost lamb playing Baby's First Survivor out here. I'm not a tumblr native, it's not an excuse it's just a fact. I knew maybe four people coming into this 30 person season, and I was isolated by the lagoon.

In summary, it was REALLY HARD to penetrate all of the levels of social isolation in this game. From previous relationships, to being away from the main game for so long, to not having the capital to get people to trust me, I had a lot of problems actually finding a spot in this game. I found my way to the end despite what I think was some pretty tough opposition, and I couldn't be happier to be sitting here now.

My list for Bodhi:

1. Jay. Jay definitely played a strong as hell game that was really pulled apart by idols. There's a reason we all thought he was gonna win after all.

2. Renee. I think Renee overcame a lot in the game and was really close, she was an all-around threat!

3. Bodhi. Everything seemed to go Bodhi's way for a long time! It took a long time before anyone really had a chance at actually getting him out.

4. AJ. Classic robbed final juror. AJ probably had the best balance between social and strategic that I saw this season.

5. Austin. Austin was like the cockroach that wouldn't die. A lot of his plans failed but his ability to survive and keep trying was honestly impressive.

6. Andrei. I think Andrei played a really good game and had more backup plans and bonds than people realized.

7. Billy. Billy's game I had the least insight on. I wouldn't say he played a bad game, just one that I myself didn't much get to judge, but I knew he had a solid alliance and was comfortably in control for quite a while.

8. Myself. I think I played a strong game that relied more on having the right connections at the right times to take myself further in the game.

9. Brandan. A total snake and I mean that in a good way. He really found every crack and path he needed to get to the end.

10. Lil AJ. Honestly screwed, got idoled out and placed on the lagoon with little chance to survive.

11. James. I think James benefited the most from twists this season over anyone. That's not a mark against because hey, we all have to adapt to the season, but it does mean there's less to rule in favor of him.

12. Matt. I love Matt but getting self-voted out is hard to recover from and someone has to be at the bottom :/

AJ -

Hi AJ! So this will be easy. I think Brandan should win because he played the best strategic game of all three of us and this jury clearly values strategic game. He was super safe for the majority of the time after he re-entered the game. He found where he fit in and manuevered through all of the threats to get to this point.

One major thing he had was the fact that he pulled me back in after we turned on each other. He also found himself completely safe towards the endgame by putting himself in with players who either had no reason to vote for him, or who needed his vote to stay.

#YouHaveMadeMyLifeHellFromDayOne

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survivorisladelasmunecas-blog · 8 years ago

Text

Renee’s Jury Speech

Congrats to you three for doing what everyone else couldn’t! Also know that my vote is still totally up in the air because I see qualities in all three of your games that I like and qualities that I also don’t like.. Most of my pressing questions have already been asked or answered so I just want to know: What would u do with the virtual $1,000,000 if you were to win? Also what’s one song I absolutely NEED to have on my New Years party playlist? Good luck to y’all!

#YouHaveMadeMyLifeHellFromDayOne

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survivorisladelasmunecas-blog · 8 years ago

Text

AJ’s Jury Speech

Hey cool cats! Miss you all! I don’t have a lot to say about everyone specifically but I’m going to ask you all similar questions

Eva: Why does Brandan deserve to win the game?

Brandan: Why does James deserve to win the game?

James: Why does Eva deserve to win the game?

Again, good luck to all of you and enjoy

#YouHaveMadeMyLifeHellFromDayOne

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survivorisladelasmunecas-blog · 8 years ago

Text

Andrei’s Jury Speech

Congrats finalists~

So I feel like I have a pretty good idea of who I'd like to vote for, however I want my jury question to allow each of you to shine and score points... provided you have the one quality I appreciate in a finalist: self-awareness.

I want you to go through each jury member and tell me what you believe we think of you. In other words, I want you to use the experience you've had with each of us to assess our opinion of you.

Since we're on the topic of self-awareness, I would also like you to tell me who you believe each jury member will vote for, and why you think they'll vote for that individual.

To make things easier for you, here's a template you can just fill to answer the questions:

LIL AJ Opinion of me: Jury vote:

JAY Opinion of me: Jury vote:

MATT Opinion of me: Jury vote:

AUSTIN Opinion of me: Jury vote:

BILLY Opinion of me: Jury vote:

ANDREI Opinion of me: Jury vote:

RENEE Opinion of me: Jury vote:

BODHI Opinion of me: Jury vote:

AJ Opinion of me: Jury vote:

Good luck EVeryone <3

Finally, I also have a trick question for you... Or rather, a request: go through your fellow finalist's ROP, call out any statement that you feel is bullshit, and tell us why you don't believe what the statement isn't genuine.

#YouHaveMadeMyLifeHellFromDayOne

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survivorisladelasmunecas-blog · 8 years ago

Text

Jay’s Jury Speech

First off I want to say congratulations on making it to the end even though I'm not necessarily happy with one of you being here. Also I just want to say, James got majority of votes twice and was saved by idols, Eva was eliminated, and Brandan was voted out. None of you have a spotless record. Let's not act like someone is lesser because they were at the lagoon.

James: James...At this point I really do not see myself voting you to win this game. While I had a really fun time in this game, you emphasized all the things I didn't enjoy...the idols. It's one thing to have the original idol at the beginning, that is fine. Maybe finding one or two more, but you had SO MANY OF THEM! And it's not like you put in any sort of skill to earn them either. You answered dumb questions like "2+2" and "Who's hosting this season?" to earn, what, six idols? I truly do not know how many you had, and therein lies what the problem with your game is to me. When deciding whether to vote for you or for someone else, it became a counting game. I had to get on calls multiple times and COUNT OUT the number of idols you had and what you may or may not have done with them and how many more you had. I've played so many games, I've seen how negatively idols and advantages effect players once they make it to FTC. Jordan Pines in Pacific Islands, Steffen in Athena, and Duncan also in Athena. They had an unfathomable amount of advantages and they lost.

Being given so many idols and when you ran out, winning most of the immunities, is not a strategy. It's pure luck. And while I respect that luck plays a part in Survivor, your entire game boils down to the fact that you had no game, everything you did was because you got insanely lucky.

Eva: Unfortunately I have less to say to you because we didn't get to play at the merge together. I really enjoyed getting to play with you on NuRegateo and I was devastated when you were Ciried out of the game. I think giving Austin your idols to lessen your threat was a brilliant move. It gave you someone who was willing to do whatever you wanted in Austin, and it made you less of a target. I kinda was doing the same thing. I used my idol the first chance I had (excluding the 2 votes where the target was super clear) to make myself less of a threat. I really think the fact you succeeded in a game filled with advantages by outright rejecting them is amazing and genius. Really good job Eva good luck <3

Brandan: Brandan, for a lot of this game, I didn't know what to think of you. You got on my nerves sometimes and for the most part I thought you were a minion to Austin and Jordan. However once we made the merge, my perception of you changed. After we took out your number 1 ally in Jordan, I think you played super hard from that day forward. Not that you weren't playing hard early, you were pretty much the figurehead of wanting the original Regateo to stick together. Fortunately for most of the players in this game, that didn't work, but just...your spirit and passion in this game was unmatched. You made your moves, you had your targets, and you executed them. You getting people to swear on the Bible for you and then you broke it, that really takes some guts that I didn't realize you had at first. It is kinda a scummy thing to do, but I sat down and thought about the last main season I played before Isla: Malaysia. I thought about what is taking it too far in Survivor, and if there really is a "too far". At the third merge tribal council, Mitchell said this about Sara, thinking she was leaving the game. (Obviously not the whole thing, that's wayyyy too long).

"I want you out of this game and out of my life. You’re the fakest, most ridiculous excuse not just for a player but for a human being that I’ve ever seen in my life, and the thought of you being unable to right the wrongs you’ve done in this game is beautiful. The fact that you can never atone for how disgustingly you played this game, and the fact that you’re going to have to live forever knowing that it ALL was all for nothing, is going to keep me going for probably the rest of my life."

Immediately after that happened, Mitchell was public enemy number one of my side. But you know what happened? Three days later I was blindsided by my own allies. No one gave a shit at all about Mitchell's speech other than me and Sara. I thought it was unforgiveable, I thought it "went too far". But obviously it didn't. We'll see if Biblegate crossed the line, if it's is enough to take you out of the running for this game. I have a feeling it won't. I think you're a savage player. Good luck. <3

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survivorisladelasmunecas-blog · 8 years ago

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LIL AJ’s Jury Speech

Мы открываем камеру для тестирования микрофонов; отойти от двери и лечь на пол или вы будете расстреляны. Соблюдение обеспечит вам одну из ваших непосредственных свобод

Directed to you all, give each juror one positive attribute and one negative attribute regarding their game.

#YouHaveMadeMyLifeHellFromDayOne

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survivorisladelasmunecas-blog · 8 years ago

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Bodhi’s Jury Speech

Hello finalists!

I love that I get to vote for one of you. Before I get to questions and statements, here's my first request: record a video of you reading a document of your choice AND brushing your teeth at the same time. If you don't, you've lost any chance at my jury vote.

Now onto the real stuff.

I'll start with James because I think he's got the best shot to win. Why didn't you ever message people first? In my eyes, this is a social game above all else, and you failed horrendously in that aspect. Had you not been fast at typing, you'd not have as many idols, and you would've been voted out long ago. You clearly had time, as evidenced by your challenge performance, but you only ever talked to me when I tried to talk to you, and I'm not alone in that. When you DID talk near the end, I really liked you, but I don't think I can exactly forgive the silence of the first 70 days.

Eva, you had a GREAT social game. I tried to blindside you for this at the final 8, and it cost me. Everyone always was talking about how much they loved talking to you, and while you were out of the loop, I think you did a great job playing this game. Can you just go into some more detail justifying being completely left behind in the strategic component of the game?

Brandan. I like you, but others don't. You talked a lot about your social game, but I don't think it was as good as you thought. Can you spend some more time clarifying what you call a "social game"? Because from my perspective, your lies that drove people against eachother were your biggest strength, but I wouldn't call that social, that was more strategic. Also, can you go into detail about your attempted Bodhi-blindside at final 7? Just for my own appreciation.

Now to all of you: rank the jurors AND FINALISTS in terms of who would've been most deserving of winning the game, and give brief reasonings. Include everyone on the jury along with the three of you.

ONE LAST THING BRANDAN-- why the hell would you apply to a college that you don't want to go to? Please don't.

Final addition to my question, targeted at all of you:

Do you believe that Connor and Jordan belong in the pre-jury? Or was it an unfair twist that put them there.

#YouHaveMadeMyLifeHellFromDayOne

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survivorisladelasmunecas-blog · 8 years ago

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Austin’s Jury Speech

Hello Final 3! I would first like to congratulate all of you for making it past Day 80. 12 days ago, I made a speech after my vote out and made some very harsh claims. Just like in this game, not everything I said that night was true. James, you DO have more supporters on this jury. However, I do not believe a majority is willing to hand you their vote quite yet. If you want to win, then don't go into these questions thinking everyone is out to bring you 3rd place. People want a reason to vote for you, so your key to success is to simply give some form of analysis on why you played the game you did. Eva, your key to success is to make your game relevant because I don't see a single damn thing that makes your game, if that's what you even want to call it, stand out. Brandan, your key to success is...well...maybe next time lol.

On Day 68, you guys sent me to a ponderosa filled with people rooting for the likes of Bodhi, Renee, and AJ. Now, we're left with you guys and a very disappointing end to this long season. Just as I was in the game itself, I was extremely vocal in the jury. I debated politics, game opinions, and friendships with almost every individual in the jury. I want to see you guys fight for this win, so my first request is for all 3 of you. I want you guys to write a few sentences, paragraphs, or however long you think you need to diss the other 2 people sitting next to you. Criticize their game, expose some poor decisions they made, and really lay it into them. Not many people were vocal during this game, and I'm tired of seeing a group of babies play quiet hours. Anyways, now for my individual speeches...

James: James, just as I said, I was supporting you throughout every vote. You are the most likely candidate to win my vote, and I am so happy for what you accomplished. You were the reason why Jay left, which in my opinion was the biggest turning point in this game. We schemed a lot, and even though I flipped to a minority side I wouldn't do it any other way. A lot of people are criticizing you due to your lack of social game, but in my opinion no one gave you a chance. Constantly you were outed as a target, hindered by idol twists that you innocently received by answering a simple question, and you won your way to the end in a majority of comps. Multiple times you were vulnerable, and if people make you out to be SUCH a threat then why didn't you leave any of those votes? What was it about your game that made you such a huge bull's-eye, yet people wanted you around still? Could it be that people are holding a bias against you? I want your take on it. Explain to me your game outside of what we accomplished. I'm already aware of you/AJ, so refrain from that. What did you, James the individual, do on your own?

Eva: Eva, you gave me 2 idols in this game and then let me go. Not only did that make no sense, but it really hurt my perception of you. I trusted you, and that's why I went on call with you and told you everything Bodhi was doing. I knew something was happening, so my first question to you is: Did you know I was a target, yet you decided not to tell me? I want to know what happened there because I was very pissed off. Also, you were out of this game for such a long time, yet you come back in with a ton of opportunities to make moves and you didn't. You gave me 2 idols, latched on to Renee, and really played pretty. Hell, you weren't even included on the Bodhi vote. I feel like you accepted the position of "carry me to the end because I'm just in it for 2nd." What moves did you as an individual make? What did you do when you returned to solidify yourself as a contender to win? Why did you randomly give me 2 idols only to not work with me?

Brandan: Brandan, I was originally just going to leave you out, but I had a lot to say to you. First off you lied in your Right of Passage. I fought for Cole to come back. Jordan argued against it. You have no shot at my vote, and you never did after you turned on me. People call me messy, but it's nothing compared to what you've done. You were a rat. You lied to just about every one of us, and you didn't even do anything. Congrats on playing the victim when you voted me out over Jordan, went on call panicking and asking if I hated you. Congrats on having a majority of us jurors swear on the bible. Congrats on lying to Bodhi and ruining my friendship with him. You overplayed. I went to great lengths and threw my game out the window to save yours, and I fought very hard for us. On Day 2, I thought I met my final 2 in this game. I thought I met a friend I could communicate with when it's all over. Day 68, I realized I met a wolf in sheep's clothing. I filled you in on everything, and you fed me bullshit as if I was some form of pack mule. I swear on the bible you will not be getting my vote. I'd quit jury before voting you as a winner. If you feel as though my opinions/feelings are unjust, then make it known. Argue a case to me. Make it about whatever, but you nearly broke up my friendship with someone I value a lot. This is a game, and getting involved in something personal like that is inexcusable. Don't give me an apology. IF you argue a case, then I was justification. I want you to own your shit, and to stop playing chicken shit like you have these past 80 days. "Yeah Austin I wanted your ass out, and I knew you had friends in this game so I had to legitimately ruin them. The bible doesn't mean a damn thing to me, so you swearing on it was just a way to keep tied to me." Argue something because I think you're nothing more than a pussy.

#YouHaveMadeMyLifeHellFromDayOne

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survivorisladelasmunecas-blog · 8 years ago

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Matt’s Jury Speech

If you can,please explain your game in great detail, and why you feel like you personally played the best game

#YouHaveMadeMyLifeHellFromDayOne

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survivorisladelasmunecas-blog · 8 years ago

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Eva’s Opening Statement

Hi guys it's me Eva! First of all I want to give a huge thanks to Dustin for asking me back, it's been an amazing game and I would never have imagined I'd make it this far. I'm very grateful and glad I decided to come back because it was definitely worth it!

Now, I stand before you guys in a bit of a bind. I really, truly think I played a solid and effective game, but as I thought through everything and examined the games of my competitors, I realized I had very few big moves I could claim as my own. Almost none really.

Obviously sitting at FTC and realizing this makes me feel somewhat worried, but I want to explain the subtlety of my game and the decisions I made. I don't think big moves or being a power player are needed to win this game, so hopefully you guys can agree with me.

So, my game was very neutral and calm for a very long time! I didn't attend any tribals preswap, after the first swap there was only one very easy one, and then my second ever tribal was where something pretty bad happened. I won't go into details, but I was unable to be at the live tribal due to a personal issue within my family, and this lead to me being Cirie'd with two idols in my pocket. No excuses, I made a mistake and I paid for it.

But this lead me to the Lagoon, where for the most part it was smooth sailing. I formed a very early alliance with Andrei that was not threatened at all by the other players there. Most gave up, sadly, and the only real obstacle to my re-entry was Lil AJ. Thankfully, I had already built a bond with Brandan and was mostly safe at the final Lagoon. But just because I didn't do things at the Lagoon itself doesn't mean I wasn't trying to play the game.

By now everyone knows I supplied multiple idols to Austin. The reason for this is simple. I did NOT want to re-enter the game with two idols and a legacy advantage. That would just completely erase the lowkey strategy I wanted to use. So I needed to find a way to ditch as many of my advantages as I could without full on wasting them. Austin told me Renee, who I adored, was in danger during his Lagoon visit so I gave him the first idol to use. It didn't wind up working, but that wasn't really my problem.

Then, at the final Lagoon where everyone was allowed to talk, he came to me again. The decision to hand over my last idol wasn't an easy one, and it could have turned out very badly down the road, but I decided to say screw it and give it over to him to save him. The fact that it got Jay out is a mixed blessing. I had put a lot of trust into Jay and wanted to work with him, but I know he told people about my LA. I was excited to play with all of my pre-Cirie favorites but sadly it didn't work out like that.

So! My re-entry. This was an interesting time because I had full faith in a lot of people which was probably naive of me. I mostly tried to lay low and be the least threatening option, which mostly worked I think. The people I wanted to work with the most were probably Renee, Brandan, Andrei, and Austin, and for the most part I stayed loyal to all of them. Brandan and I had some shakey moments, voting for each other once, but aside from that we maintained a strong final 2 that lasted us to this point. Contrary to what some may believe, I was not part of the split vote plan that ultimately got Austin out. I wasn't actually aware of it, which may seem like a mark against me strategically but it's the truth. I wasn't exactly going to blindside someone I'd consistently been truthful to and trusted with idols after all.

Probably my favorite moment of the game was the Billy vote! Yes I was in danger of going home for real for the first time since I was Cirie'd, but it lead to one of the most random alliances I've ever been in. After Billy was voted out I genuinely wanted to go to the end with Andrei, Renee, and James. I'm a very loyal person and the fact that they saved me earned them my trust. Which James quickly dashed because he correctly saw that getting rid of Andrei and Renee was smart, but nothing good lasts forever anyways.

So by the F6 I was in a true pickle. I had mostly skated by with social game and placing my faith in the right people. But my closest ally and favorite person was 100% doomed. Renee was going home no matter what, I couldn't save her with my Legacy Advantage, and all around it was just shitty. I tried to call James out, tried to convince Brandan, tried really anything I could think of. Failure in Survivor fucking blows, and it blows even more when it gets your closest ally sent home. From that point on I knew just being nice and social wasn't gonna cut it.

Winning final 5 immunity was such extreme elation that I can't even describe. After losing Renee and Andrei back to back, and being really completely alone at that point, I could not have been happier or prouder of myself. I was safe! I wound up voting incorrectly, but I believe it was the right choice at the time. AJ was a strong player, and crucially he was close to James. I was really worried the two of them would never vote each other and I'd go home at F4. This marked the third time in a row I voted incorrectly, but I like to think it was the smarter of the two options :v

Which didn't happen! I somehow survived and avoided the firemaking. I think, had I played literally even a tiny bit better than I did, I would've been sent home. I think if I had made myself a bigger threat, a bigger target, by making waves and moves there's no way I'd be sitting here talking to you guys. I've gotten final juror a LOT in the past so when I heard I was safe I literally could not stop smiling, I was so excited just to get a chance to be here and plead my case. The final few hours leading up to the vote were crazy and probably the most stressed I've been over a game in a while!

So that's what my rambley, semi-incoherent opening speech is all about. I think I played the RIGHT game, the smart game. Maybe not the strongest or the most impressive. I didn't rely on advantages- I gave away two and the last one was more of a hindrance than anything, costing me allies due to people knowing about it. In fact, had everyone not been given an idol I never would've been Cirie'd in the first place! So while I definitely benefited from some twists and turns in this game, overall I think I played a very clean, reliable game.

I don't believe I've given anyone cause to be angry or upset with me, though I suppose we'll find that out soon enough. Maybe I didn't play hard enough? Maybe I didn't speak to some people as much as I should've? These are the doubts I've had for a while. Hopefully you guys can give some insight into what I did right and what I did incorrectly. I want to win, I truly do, and if there's anything I can say or do to convince you, I will.

#YouHaveMadeMyLifeHellFromDayOne

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survivorisladelasmunecas-blog · 8 years ago

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Brandan’s Opening Statement

Hello esteemed members of the jury of probably the longest ass season anyone of us is ever going to play in our lifetimes! First off, thank you Dustin for truly putting together a crazy season. I apologize for all the swearing, middle fingers, and curses I have sweared upon your name, you truly deserve more credit than you get. I’m sorry beforehand if this seems wordy, but for a long season, this deserves a long write-up

Usually when I play Survivor games like these, I tend to be more strategic in my thinking of the game. I get enveloped in this philosophy that only those who play amazing strategic games and exemplify all the characteristics of a winner. However, time and time again I have failed to reach this point with my strategic focus alone. I get close, but I never make it to the finish line. I feel like my biggest mistake in these game was trying to overreach, and become such a big player too quickly. This game, I feel like I took my strategy in a different route. I might not have been the most outward strategic person. However, I improved on my game because of it, leading me to where I am today.

So coming into this season, I was determined not to let those same mistakes plague me. So instead of focusing on a primarily strategic game, I decided to adopt a social one, which I would follow the rest of the game. It worked out well for me in my original tribe. However, with Shea’s removal from the game and my discovery that literally every single person under the sun had an idol, it complicated things a bit. I tried my hardest to make sure that our tribe won the challenges, and excluding the Survivor Auto immunity we actually performed well in challenges. This trend continued until I was picked to become the Regateo tribe leader after I kicked Austin’s butt in a pokemon battle.

I was then given the power to create NuRegateo. My ultimate control in my creation of this tribe was to make a tribe that would dominate in challenges, allowing myself to save a lot of stamina for what proved to be an extremely long game. Fortunately for my sanity, we only lost once, where the entire tribe banded together in order to take out Steven, even though I had to talk Austin out of some of his insane plans during that tribal. I used this time to create bonds with people like Matt, Eva, Jay, and James. It started as small talk, but these conversations eventually enveloped into friendships, and in Eva’s case, a final 2 that I created. It was called the Peron’s, named after the power couple that ruled Argentina. Plus the wife’s name was Evita, which is the same as Eva, so that was a bit of being a suck up on my part. No shame in it though.

Once the second tribe swap hit, I lost all of my Regateo allies, and was placed on Abatimiento. This scenario could have been the end of my game. However, with my bonds created from the NuRegateo tribe, it put me in a position of control. This eventually was broken however when Tyler out of nowhere played an idol. I played my idol as a conditional play, so I can counteract if Tyler somehow got his hands on an idol. It worked in my favor, as I was his target. However, due to both of our idol plays and Matt’s consecutive one, it resulted in Eva’s blindside right before the merge.

My original hope looking into the Regateo tribe before the merge was that Jevvon would be taken out followed by Billy and that I can just pick up the old Regateo votes. However, the rivalry that picked up between Austin and Jordan, two of my closest allies premerge, destroyed any chances of that happening. This rivalry, combined with the removals of Tyler and Jacob from the main game, hindered my ability to keep them together. I constantly tried floating out another idea in order to keep both of them in the game. Unfortunately, they both ended up targeting each other, with Jordan taking the fall and losing at the lagoon.

After that, Connor and I developed this little rivalry. I saw him as someone who would stop at nothing to tear me down and prevent me from accomplishing anything. So after I won immunity and Austin got sent to exile, I campaigned to get his ass out. Hard. Unfortunately, people voted James because of his treasure hoard of idols that allowed him an easy pass in the game. However, this worked out in my favor, as I was able to blindside Connor after warning James about his impending blindside. I thought this would have been smooth sailing and I could finally relax. However due to the crazy plans and impulsive decisions of others, I ended up getting sent to the lagoon.

I know that getting sent to the lagoon might seem like a black wart on my game. However, it was probably one of the best things to happen to me. I not only allowed myself to recover any stamina I lost early on in the chaos of the merge, but I reconnected with Eva, and I developed a bond with Andrei. After voting off Lil AJ and returning to the game, I discovered a newfound power in getting into people’s ears. By bringing up Matt’s name to Andrei and Eva, it started a spinning wheel in order to initiate his blindside at the Final 10, and by voting in the minority it allocated trust with those who may not have believed me otherwise. As much as I hate to say it as well, this played a factor into the Final 9 as well, where I was able to get Billy to turn against Austin/James by spinning Austin’s own words against him, ultimately allowing the split vote that sent Austin out the door.

After Billy’s vote out, the one person who actually caught onto my game was Andrei, and after his failed attempt to blindside me, he fell as well due to my relationships with Bodhi, AJ, and James. What I find funny is that two of those three actually responsible for my exile to the lagoon, and who I had voted against beforehand. The fact that they would even consider keeping someone who voted against both of them was hysterical if you think about it. After that, I took out Renee, and secured myself a spot in the square middle of the tribe, where I blindsided Bodhi and then took out AJ, placing me where I am today.

I think my biggest strength about my gave overall was definitely the social aspect. While I could have easily gone a more strategic route in the game, being able to move into more of a social aspect in the game worked wonders for me. Not only did I learn more about all of you, I think it also gave me a leg up in the game. I don’t think many of you guys saw this, but I was the one who kept passing around information to one another, establishing trust with my allies while creating distrust among everyone but me. Even though I was voted annoying, I remained close with you all, and I consider a lot of you my friends. Hell, I had a preconceived relationship with AJ that I kept hidden from you all throughout the entire merge portion of the game, and multiple conflicting deals that remained intact up until the very end. During the final rounds, I was so close to all of the remaining contestants that no one would have dared vote me out of this game, even though they all had every single opportunity to do so.

Ultimately, I fought my ass off in order to reach this point in the game. With the alliances I created crumbling around me due to the actions of others, I constantly remained connected to both sides. For example, with Bodhi and Austin’s argument ruining their friendship, I stayed in the middle of them, throwing one another under the bus while gaining both of their trust. Whenever dots were starting to connect, I just had to explain it away in a simple lie, and most of the time it worked. No offense to both Eva or James, but I think I participated more in this game, as Eva had a free ride in the lagoon with both Jordan and Monty giving up and James was able to get multiple free passes with the idols that he obtained in that premerge challenge. I don’t believe that idols or a legacy advantage make you a great player. I believe that hard work, determination, and the ability to connect to others can help spark the seeds of a truly great survivor player. I admit, my game was not perfect. I regret having burned some of you the way I did. I regret the way I handled the pressure sometimes. I regret the way I handled some vote outs. However, I think I deserve to be the Sole Survivor due to my determination and my ability to play the middle of the tribe while keeping my name off the ballot.

This game has been one hell of a ride. I have had an absolute blast in my second season of Tumblr Survivor, and it is all thanks to the 27 people I played alongside with who have fallen before me, and Dustin who helped construct a two and a half month long game that has proved very memorable. Think about who you want to represent your season with a winner. I think I outplayed, outwitted and outlasted, which is essentially what survivor is about at the end of the day. I wish James and Eva the best of luck, and I’m very excited for us to all relish the events of this game later, with hopefully me as your winner :)

#YouHaveMadeMyLifeHellFromDayOne

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survivorisladelasmunecas-blog · 8 years ago

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James’ Opening Statement

Preface: I typed a LOT so in case this its a bit much for you if you want a tl;dr version just read paragraphs 3/5/6/last paragraph and then skim through the rest for any details you might want to know :P Hi everyone, in theory I am going to try and keep this somewhat succinct/brief but I may or may not start to rant so we'll see how that goes. To start this off (even if its a bit cheesy) I want to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this game and thought it was loads of fun dealing with everyone playing the game their own way. With that being said, coming into the game my overall general strategy was always to take things one day at a time, I think the saying I tend to live by when playing games is to "play with the cards you are dealt with" which definitely applied to this game. I may not have been the most talkative person who always was at the top of the totem pole, but I think one of my major strengths in this game was identifying the key opportunities that I needed to take advantage of to slowly claw my way up the ranks and GOING FOR IT in those key moments. The pre-merge for me was pretty similar to that of the rest of the final 3. I tried my best in every challenge to make sure we never even had to go to tribal and was a pretty solid contributor to make sure I avoided tribal, which, with a bit of good fortune found, me in the possession of 4 idols and an exile ticket. Tyler was one of my closer allies in the game at that point and so when we went to tribal I knew that it was a great opportunity for us 2 to try and take control of the tribe. I used my exile ticket and gave him an idol and told him to vote for who he liked. My thinking was: ok either he is gonna get someone out and then we have room to work with in the future or he is gonna flush all the idols and then I will be fine in the game. In hindsight it didn't amount to much because he was evacuated immediately at merge but it did showcase my willingness to put myself out there when the moment was right. Once merge hit I knew I was going to probably be an outsider sort of presence which to me was not the worst possible scenario. Knowing I had idols I figured receiving votes within the first couple rounds was not that bad at all. So I laid a bit low while connecting with AJ who quickly became my closest ally in the game. From this point on we shared EVERYTHING (almost hehe) with each other and we had a mutual understanding to stick CLOSE with each other which benefited the two of us greatly. During those first 4 rounds I had varying degrees of exact to moderate amounts of information that included my name being thrown around every round. My thinking was "okay I am not about to go home with multiple idols" and I was lowkey thinking of going to the merge just using them all one after the other anyways so there wasn't TOO much doubt when it came to not using them. Going back to AJ we made sure to stress to each other that the alliance needed to stay SECRET and so we were constantly downplaying each other to everyone in our convos and were paranoid that people were onto us at all times. Moving on from that, another key bond that I made early in the merge was Austin. We bonded pretty quick (and even though the Brandon vote was a mess as we didn't vote together) it was fun to have someone to run elaborate scenarios and always scheme with. Whereas with AJ it was all business with Austin it was always a bit more fun. We became an underrated force in the game but at the same time I knew I needed to the smaller target of the two until the numbers turned around for us (which never panned out before austin was booted ;_;). This benefited me because even when I did not necessarily have the flat out numbers to get things done, there was always a stream of information not only from AJ but also from Austin to the point where I knew a lot of what was going on behind the scenes. Maybe a little bit more than people gave me credit for at the time. This strategy of keeping my TRUE intentions only to myself is another important key to my game that was more of a subtle tactic that worked wonders for me. While I was being genuine with AJ and Austin 90% of the time and truly enjoyed being allies with them the only person who truly knew what I was thinking at any time was ME. With my sort of mindset and approach to the game sort of explained, I am going to go through what was going through my head each round/couple of rounds if you were curious about any in particular/don't want to read it all: -Early merge my first opportunity to really make a dent in the game came at the Connor vote. I viewed him as a pretty strong ally on the side of Bodhi/Billy/Aj/Jay and so that vote made sense for me. I knew Brandon was voting him anyways as we were brought together after being on the wrong side of the Jordan vote so that would also account for any stray votes. -Brandon vote: I will admit this is one of the rounds where I had limited knowledge of what was going on. At this point Austin told me that Eva had a legacy advantage and that she gave him an idol. At the same time AJ was trying to keep up with all the names being thrown around all while Austin tells me "surprise! I gave my idol to Renee =D". Within an hour before tribal Austin comes up to me and tells me he is voting AJ and has some numbers while simultaneously AJ makes up a counter plan to vote Brandon and tries to collect numbers. I had to decide between my alliance with Brandon (and also Austin) and cutting AJ loose. In the end I figured I could hopefully salvage my relationship with Austin and save AJ since he was a huge asset for me at that point and so I sided with him and voted out Brandon. -Jay vote: I came clean to Austin about voting Brandon and we re-secured each other's trust when we both admitted to each other we still had idols left. We then decided together who would be the best option to vote and decided on Jay as he was a huge player left in the game and was extremely well connected in our eyes.

-Matt: This was another sort of last minute influx of info but I did more or less know the vote was for Matt. When my name was the one thrown around I did go to AJ and tried to get him to suggest Matt knowing he was MIA. Whether or not it sorta happened by itself or me and AJ's plotting was the spark isn't really known to me but I survived which was the main goal! However, one thing I did gain from this was that I knew AJ would be hesitant to just up and ditch his alliance for me as he ended up voting for Matt which did come into play later on. -Austin: This was the probably the one merge round where I was COMPLETELY in the dark. I had an inkling that a split might happen but I had no information to back it up so I decided to just go with me and Austin's plan instead of voting for him. -Billy: This was the round where I really came into my own and took control of my own game in my eyes. Pretty much my immunity win changed what might have been an easy vote in a lot of minds into a hard one. With that Billy and Brandon approached me and asked me what I was thinking. Bluntly I said "I'd be fine doing Bodhi" viewing him as the biggest threat and thinking I had nothing to lose. Surprisingly they both said yes and went to AJ with that same idea. However, I was not shocked at all when I heard that they had decided among themselves, along with Bodhi, to vote Eva. This was strange to me because they were only 4/8 of the players in the game. I pressed AJ and asked him "What? That's only 4?" "WHY are the so comfortable" and he told me that Andrei was apparently afk with a Billy vote locked in and they were relying on that as well as me throwing my vote on Bodhi. At that moment in time in my head I was like "okay... wait hold on" and I KNEW that was the opportunity to make my move. I went straight to Renee and Eva without telling AJ at ALL and within a couple hours we were all on the same page to vote Billy. I was relying on the fact that Andrei couldnt change his vote while being afk and I could strong-arm AJ at tribal to change his vote. (even tho Andrei showed up and caused a bit of chaos in the chat of me/renee/eva) AJ did in fact change his vote and BAM all it took was one round to completely shift the dynamics of the game in my favor.

-Andrei: This round was a bit conflicting for me because I did not intent to betray Renee/Eva and Andrei after just 1 round. However I remembered that Eva had the legacy advantage and thinking back the fact that Andrei was voting Billy before I joined up with them got me thinking about how close they were to each other. If there was a possibility that they were a 3-some all it would take was one of them winning immunity and then along with the legacy advantage they could force rocks essentially being auto safe. The risk of having them 3 being auto 3 out of the final 5 was too much for me so I put it all out there to Bodhi and we got on the same page along with AJ to vote for Andrei while taking advantage of Brandon voting Bodhi and then we would have numbers in the revote -Renee: This is probably where I starting thinking about the end-game. Renee I saw as a big threat and voting her off would set me and AJ up perfectly to link up with either Brandon or Bodhi depending on who won immunity. -Bodhi: With Eva winning immunity you were by far the biggest threat left in the game at this point. I viewed you very much as a leader and strong member of your alliance early merge when we didn't talk much and then during the rounds we joined forced really solidified that thought in my mind when we ran scenarios together. -AJ: At this point my choice was mainly between AJ and Eva. Whether or not it works out for me remains to be seen but I saw AJ as having been VERY social and having a lot of bonds with so many different players that he would have so many jury votes scooped up before the questioning even began. I was super conflicted because we were such close allies the entire merge and we were really in it together through the thick and thin. I was thinking "well if I take AJ I probably have a slightly less chance of winning but at least if I lose it will be to him" but even now my goal was always to play to win so I had to make the move. I told Eva I was saving her with like an hour left before tribal and then my mom needed me before tribal which is why AJ was shocked since I was planning to tell him at the last second but that kinda fell out the window ;_; (sorry) So yea, I definitely ranted A LOT but to sum it up I took this game on a day by day basis for the most part. I took a "cards you are dealt with" approach to the game and while I might not have been a social butterfly, and had some idols to my disposal, my intuition and decision making set me up to the point where I was able to survive without them. I made it here without EVER being voted off, with 8 out of the 11 merge rounds going my way which is the most out of the final three. I believe I have played a strong under the radar/reactive game until it was too late to take me out where I took more of a lead/proactive role. Whatever questions you have I will answer them fully to the best of my ability, thank you all and good luck to my fellow finalists Eva and Brandon!

#YouHaveMadeMyLifeHellFromDayOne

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