I think something that differentiated me from other players, including my closest allies, was my ability to position myself such that people did not want to vote for me unless it was my idea. I received votes in only 4 out of 22 rounds of this game. I am confident that all but one vote on me was at my direct request or from strikes. The remaining question mark in Round 13 may also have been a strike; feel free to clear that up for me. Furthermore, I had immunity in more rounds than I received any votes: 6 compared to 4.
- In round 5, my immunity campaign generated 8 votes. (8-5-4-3)
- In round 10, after participating in gathering votes against Spangled and xof, and also being asked to be part of Vash's plan against Meme, it is highly likely I received one of the two strike votes. (4-4-4-1-1) I was saved based on my friendship with Gork.
- In round 13, I received 2 votes. (4-3-2-1-1) I asked Malkon in the last 5 minutes of the round to vote for me. The goal was ensuring one of ani, Vash, or Cheery went home, and that Vash didn't get immunity. I perceived myself as an unlikely intentional target, and that if I was wrong, Gameplay would save me. I remain unsure if the second vote was from one of the two strikes, or not.
- In round 18, I received 2 votes from Meme and N, as part of the plan to intentionally tie the round. (2-2-2)
By specific comparison with N:
- In round 1, N got 2 votes; presumably 1 was chamber. (12-7-2-1-1-1-1)
- In round 2, his sole voter was probably chamber. (10-9-1-1-1-1-1)
- N received 1 vote in round 3: quite possibly a strike vote, as there were 4 strikes. (11-6-2-1-1-1-1)
- In round 9, N received 4 votes, tying with Gork, but was saved due to Haschel seeing his potential. (7-4-4)
- In round 11, N received 1 vote, possibly from Cheery's strike or perhaps Vash. (6-4-2-1)
- In round 12, N received 1 non-random vote. Likely from xof. (6-4-1-1)
- In round 14, N received 1 non-random vote. (4-2-2-1)
- In round 17, N received 1 non-random vote. Likely from Vash. (4-2-1)
- In round 18, N was voted for by DV and me as part of the intentional tie plan. (2-2-2)
- In round 20, N received 2 votes from Spangled and Meme. (2-2-1)
- In round 21, N was given immunity (3-1).
The tie plan above was what I opened the round with wanting, and eventually gained agreement on. My social position as of Malkon leaving was of Vash's biggest threat to board control, but also who N/Meme/DV each individually wanted to work with most. Booting Vash-and-then-Spangled positioned me to make a choice with Meme as to a guaranteed member of F2 who would then pick between us. I believed either of them would have chosen me.
Something else I did for fun, but also to improve my social position, was talking to everyone. I joked to Formerfish early on about forming an animal username alliance with him and Cheery. This actually contributed to him trusting me with key information a couple of rounds later. By round 10, I had had at least one individual private conversation with every living player. In a game where one stray random vote can cause your demise, I felt this effort to make generally positive impressions would make a difference for me.
I was all business with zor and Spangled. Spangled lost my trust early on by complaining about feeling left out of discord goings-on, but then appearing disinterested at my alliance offer. I had less genuine concern than zor about personally being targeted when fear of column A inevitably peaked, which made it difficult for us to strategically connect. I think getting all 5 of us to jury phase helped my late game survivability greatly, and that had always factored into my column A spirit. Due to IPS and DV having already been targeted by FF/xof's "side" and due to gameplay and zor being less socially connected, I felt the column as a whole shielded me. Column A received immunity 4 times, which was also nice.
IPS was fun and pretty trustworthy when we were able to talk. Had round 5 played out less awkwardly, I think we would've worked together more closely earlier in the game. His elimination was unfortunate for me, but I recovered. Cheery was fun to chat with intermittently. I enjoyed talking with ani about food and our jobs, but it never transitioned very well to game talk, and I think booting him when I did was important for me.
Xof and Vash were my frenemies: there may have been alternate paths that would have allowed me to be more genuine with them. On the path I chose, I tried to represent myself as being empathetic to their situations, but unsure how to best time the merging of our agendas. In reality, I felt unlikely to be caught in the crossfire with things as is, and thus never very seriously considered muddying my loyalties. Transitioning to animal pic based talk with Vash was one of my best decisions all game.
I spoke to Malkon, Meme, DV, and gameplay every round they lived. They were my lifelines, and it's my journey with them that I'll remember most.
I am thankful to N for bringing me this far. I have tried to balance not being too tryhard with memorializing my experience. I enjoyed our low key strategy chats in almost every round, and your carefree presence helped me remember that it's just a game. A game that I'm sad to see you imply you would only deserve pity votes in.
