[Standard]Survivor: TRTWIUAA {Final Tribal Council}

[zoraster]

Zoraster#9525

Let's do it, y'all

[zoraster]

just to clarify: it's not really the median finish but the median IF everyone were to compete?

[zoraster]

i'll be on icq if anyone needs me.

[zoraster]

i only use irc for xylbot, okay?

[zoraster]

discord is up

[zoraster]

Congratulations! What is it?

I no longer have to picture you as the main character from Avenue Q.

[zoraster]

i love you all except haschel and zoraster

I'm sorry you feel that way, hiplop. If that's actually how you feel, it legitimately makes me sad that my vote in a game would cause that. I hope that passes because you're someone whose opinions and person I respect. Same for Bro too. But if either of you were actually hurt beyond just the normal game stuff, I sincerely apologize. I don't think I've been particularly devious here or anything, but I understand that we have our different points of view.

-Zor

[zoraster]

I thought utah was a great guy too. I'll be thrilled if he decides to play again.

[zoraster]

Woah, I didn't know you were at our TC and privy to everything that happened!

Yo, let's be honest here. What's there to be privy to? There is a group os people in this game, that work together every game, hang out with each other every night, watch TV together and hung out and played survivor together over the summer. Like let's just call a spade a spade dude. Anyone paying even a modicum of attention knew overkill was going to be voted out 2 days ago.

PJ is Zor the one who's watching TV with haschel? I didn't even know Zor was into playing these games until this one

I'm just trying to understand who's in the secret cabal that I should be wary of.

My cabal brings all the boys to the yard.
And they're like, I'm watching TV with y'all
Damn right, I'm gonna summer y'all
I could teach you, but I have to charge

For real though, you can find people's playing history here. I haven't played for almost three years and I've only played twice overall, and not particularly successfully. I've never met anyone playing here. I assume he's referring to the survivormeets.

[zoraster]

what i'm hearing, and correct me if i'm wrong, is that we should vote in here, post our most innermost secret thoughts here, and you'll post the reading of the votes in our confessionals.

[zoraster]

i'm pretty impressed with that time, panzer. really everyone who did it under 20 is impressive to me. i enjoyed that challenge though. Also it made me feel like I was sending hugs and kisses to Monty.

[zoraster]

[zoraster]

well. i guess I didn't need to spend quite so long on that fucking thing.

[zoraster]

i got spooked by someone who got like 4.8m but i guess it was either a spec or some rando.

[zoraster]

[zoraster]

well. i'm definitely not fluminator.

[zoraster]

you would have finished fourth over here. Get on our level!

[zoraster]

everyone is kilby. it's our spartacus moment

[zoraster]

I'll be honest, I've read it like 5 times and I still have no idea what the heck this puzzle is.

[zoraster]

I still don't understand. Is the idea that the water has to "flow" to the lower areas of a section? if so, does that mean that if there's water in one lowest section that all the sections need to have water?

[zoraster]

but you can have water equal in some and not in others?

[zoraster]

okay thanks.

[zoraster]

having modded a couple of these games, it is with great pleasure I get to send this:

Rabble.

[zoraster]

Ok hi! Zoraster I feel like you promised me a lot of things and said a lot of things to a lot of people in order to push your agenda further. Do you at any point believe you went too far? If so, when?

I made a lot of promises to a lot of people. Many of which I broke. For the most part I felt that was necessary for me to go further and get here.

With you, I laid it on

really

thick at one point -- after the vote but before the challenge results were announced -- in large part because I knew you had an idol and might be inclined to use it to idol me out. At some point you were going to realize that people knew you had the idol, and you might want to get rid of it going into the merge so as not to be a target. Plus, I don't have you pegged as someone who is

shy

to use his advantages. I also knew that you were pretty dedicated to these types of immunities (i.e. do something a ton of times) because you had the idol and that wasn't easy to get (indeed, you were the second highest result in the end for the immunity). I also was not getting results that looked to put me in a place that I'd get immunity at that point (I think at that point I had like... 1.8m high score). So in my head I had to make sure you didn't want to idol me out if you got immunity. If I had known I was going to get as high a score as I did on the Kanye challenge I would have been more reserved in how I talked to you. But yeah, I laid it on

thick

.

Do I regret that? I wish I had dodged you for a little bit! But no, not really. I was playing what I thought might be a survival game on that vote, and you were naturally very suspicious of me.

But other times, when we talked together about your fears for getting to the merge, I told you I had every intention of us getting there. And I did. Rather than blindside you with the panth vote, which would have made the next round a lot less stressful, I didn't go for you. Part of that is that I thought panth was the better target for my game anyway, but I also intended to try to get back into your good graces and work with you. But no, I didn't intend to go to the end with you. For one thing, your style of play is amazing -- hot and bright -- and I suspect if you got to the end you would likely deserve to win unless you played markedly differently in the merge. For another, I believed you were going to cut me if I became a threat, and you would have been hypervigilant to sniff out when I was sneakily becoming one.

Additionally, and for what it's worth, I asked you pretty much point blank if you had an idol. You told me no. To me, that was the time that if our relationship was reciprocal you'd have come clean since I was pretty heavily implying I knew you had it. I don't blame you for not telling me at all! But I didn't think we had a huge amount of trust between us at that point, understandably.

[zoraster]

oh fuck

[zoraster]

i thought i had convinced you to wait on that! ahh well, glad kanye was kind.

[zoraster]

Do I regret that? I wish I had dodged you for a little bit! But no, not really. I was playing what I thought might be a survival game on that vote, and you were naturally very suspicious of me

I think for me and some people, a lot of that was pretty unnecessary. You didn't really have to lay it on that thick especially with the firm control you had of the game (as you claim). You did me wrong, that was sorta the end of our relationship at that point.

I struggle to see where how you were able to just completely shut out your personal feelings to your gameplay feelings. It's impressive, but I think it makes your game look robotic and without a heart.

What is the drive to win? What is the point? Why did you do the things you do?

I'm sorry then. I don't think I played this game without a heart at all. Certainly some of the votes I made were gut-wrenching as I legitimately cared about the people in this game. I really loved playing with you and I'd love to see you in future games. So it does make me very sad to hear that I affected you that way. I did what I thought was necessary for my game at the time, and it resulted in me being able to have a game I am proud of. Yours in particular seems senseless because I won immunity later. But if you had won immunity and I had been idoled out, I would have kicked myself for not trying everything I could to prevent it.

[zoraster]

To all of you:
What single play are you most proud of this game?

Sorry Ent, just saw this at the page top!

The panth vote, hands down. It required a lot of knowledge of the conditions, and predict that DK was going to tip you off beforehand (I would have tried to tell you to vote DV anyway, but this made it so that I wasn't the one who had to put you on the wrong vote). It required VERY quickly convincing Scoots and Brom to make a move. The clock pressure was immense.

And it was pivotal to my game because I viewed panth as really dangerous to me because of his relationship with DV, Ent, and DK. I'm unclear on this front, but it also seemed that Brom and maybe Bella were allied with him too.

It also and (and perhaps MOST importantly) saved DV's life, which was amazing. I thought I was going to have to let him go.

It also required set up! I was the one who tipped off Brom and Scoots that DK/Panth were targeted him. Except because I wanted to work with DK and protect him, I told them panth had brought it up first and DK confirmed (it was the opposite). That naturally made them want to go after Panth, but when they switched their votes to Panth, it made DV back out and target Brom, which led to the chain of events that occurred. But if I hadn't done that setup, I couldn't have gotten in to do it.

[zoraster]

Zor - I concur 100% with your jury message to me. I loved getting to build a real friendship with you. The votes on Utah/Bro/Kilby were the most fun by far. And yes, I was indeed trying to force you closer to me by taking out your non-me allies. Good read and reaction there. I am a little confused by when I went out, though. I was trying to blindside Vash that round and had promised het that Entreri would be next. I got blindsided myself and then... you voted out Vash and then Entreri next. Why did I need to go right then, when the path I was trying to lead you down was the one you ended up walking anyway?

The simple answer is I wouldn't have voted Vash when he went and wanted to work with Vash. But then the twist hit and I had to be adaptable. I think it's not immediately obvious just HOW game-changing the twist was.

The fundamental problem was that it put the SAME TWO people with immunity for TWO rounds. So at F8 it meant that 6 people didn't have immunity. One of those people has to be the person going home. So if the two people with immunity decide to vote one person, it takes EVERYONE to vote someone different. And they do so with the knowledge that the following round, ONE of them is going home. So it was going to be extremely hard at f8 to do anything other than what the people with immunity wanted.

That changed everything. Radja was GUNNING for Vash. He had been telling me about how dangerous Vash was since we were in that tribe together with kilby. Scoots was easy to please on that front, and that was history.

For what it's worth, it's very possible you could have won that twist challenge as it seems in your wheelhouse and would you have really gotten rid of Ent at f8 with two days of immunity?

[zoraster]

here's for zor: im sure you didn't really expect to get my vote getting into this ftc, but I'm gonna ask you some q's anyway. okay so: what was up with that goodbye message literally three minutes before deadline? that really didn't sit well with me after you not talking to me for like the entire vote beforehand. yes I know you were working on getting me out, but still, could have not sent a message at all. did you do the same with other people?

I didn't send them to everyone, but mostly I wanted to own my vote. I did it with a number of votes per-jury. I stopped doing it after Haschel I think. Vash and Ent got tipped off beforehand and I heard their pitches out, Radja I didn't, het I didn't. I told DV well in advance that I was voting him off at f4.

Yours in particular was probably inartful as we didn't have much of a relationship otherwise. I started doing it pre-jury because in the only other game I've been active in (Ned's in 2016) I was voted out and basically heard nothing or anything, and it was very isolating, and I would have appreciated someone owning their vote. But I definitely see how it could be seen as dunking on someone or something. That definitely wasn't my purpose.

[zoraster]

Apologies, all. Some great questions out there that I'd like to give their full due, but I won't have time to do so until tomorrow morning. Thanks for your patience!

[zoraster]

Going to start answering questions. Haschel, I love the structural one and it's one I've been kind of thinking about it all game, but I'll work on it after I post my responses to Radja and Vash.

[zoraster]

I'm old school.

1 question, 1 chance to win or lose my vote. Make sure you get everything you want to say to me in there because this is all I'm going to ask.

Zor:
Betrayal is a pretty good reason not to vote someone. I shared everything with you. And still you dumped me like a piece of garbage when you didn't need me anymore. Explain to me why I should reward you for this.

I betrayed you.

I cannot and will not get away from that. If you don't want to vote for me because of that, I understand. Your vote is your own and you decide what is most important to you.

But don't reward the betrayal. Reward the play behind it. Did it help me advance and make me more secure? Yes. Additionally, did I play a game that was otherwise strategic, social, interesting, and

worked

? I think I did. So while I understand that the betrayal works against me getting your vote, I hope you'll look past it to the gameplay behind. I'm not a robot. I'm not a monster. I told Jamelia the truth: cutting you was a gut punch for me. You're awesome, and I knew doing this would sully what was otherwise a wonderful time together. But despite that I did what I felt like I needed to in order to make it to the end.

I understand I'm the one on "trial" here and I don't want it to seem like I'm blaming you at all in what I'm about to say because

I do not

. But because I only have one shot at talking to you (and I take this seriously) I want to anticipate a question that I believe is implicit in your question. Which is "Why didn't you trust me more than the others?" and there were a few factors:

Spoiler: Reasons

• At the F9 vote, in the same conversation group conversation with het that you talked about taking out Bella earlier than F5, we had an argument about Entreri. You said you wanted Scoots and Entreri in your Final 5 because it'd be an easy combination to beat. Het and I both played it cool after that, but to me this indicated you had little interest in taking me to the end unless it worked for you because you were keeping your options open for Ent at the end (keep in mind I didn't know if this was a f3 or f2 game and with your challenge prowess, taking you over scoots meant accepting you'd potentially have the option of who to keep).
  
• At F7 you were fine dropping het in favor of Ent and tried to convince me to go that way. I understand I had set the stage for eventually taking out het with you so it would be
  hypocritical
  for me to blame you for this, and I do not. But we had an f3 together, so it definitely put in my mind that you're someone who is perfectly willing to drop his allies when it's convenient. I felt like needed to work hard to convince you not to vote het at that vote because you kept telling me that the others were "united" against het, even though I knew that to be untrue. Maybe my read was off on this. The knowledge that you
  would
  cut your allies, even though in this instance you did not, was pretty important for me. I saw you as someone who is extremely capable at this game and knows when to do so. Maybe I was wrong, but it seemed to me that you were a much higher risk to drop me at F5 or F4 than Scoots ever would be. If you have a reputation as a straight shooter ally who never goes back on his word, I apologize for not knowing that reputation, but I went off of what I thought I saw in other instances.
  
• This is a totally subjective thing, and I understand you've been totally overwhelmed at work. But vs. the other people toward the end you were the least interested in getting to know me personally. That's okay!
  I'm not that interesting!
  But people genuinely love you on this site, and I thought maybe you were keeping me at an arm's length because you knew what you were going to have to end up potentially betraying me at the end.

Again, I know there's a risk the above sound like I'm trying to place blame on YOU for MY betrayal. But I am not. This is just my way of explaining why I felt that you were the more likely person to cut me toward the end.

I loved playing with you, Radja. I'm sad you view our time together this way, but I hope that doesn't take away the time we had together generally. Yours was probably the neatest alliance I had in this game. It was unexpected and it was formed in the face of what was some really heavy crosswinds. I value that experience. Whatever you choose to do with your vote, I understand. But I hope by seeing the thought process behind this you'll look past the end of that to the overall gameplay that I put forward.

[zoraster]

Hiya all, first off congratulations to all the finalists for making it this far, it's been a long game, but these days might end up being the longest for y'all. And well, I have some questions.

Zor, tbh I was expecting your speech to miss the mark, at least when it came to me, but I am pleasantly surprised, it's a pretty good speech, and the section about me, yeah I liked it. Whether you intended to or not you stroked my ego in all the right ways and I appreciate it, BUT that does not mean it would be easy to get my vote, in fact if you want it it'll be quite hard and you'll have a lot easier time convincing most of the other people around here to vote for you. However, I still have questions which I want answers to, and hopefully you'll give them to me. Still, how you paint the round where I went home was that you were basically backed into a corner by the twist because it would have take literally everyone to overwhelm the "will" of the gods, but to be honest, it sounds to me like you just decided that and didn't even try. After all you had good relations with pretty much everyone who was around, you could have at least drafted up a list of who you most wanted to see gone of that group and tried to make that happen (hell if you had done that and decided I was the one you needed gone most then I'd probably respect it a lot), you could have gone to bat for me with Radja (and if you did I'd like for one of y'all to enlighten me) or given me a heads up instead of me having to be informed by DV, but instead you decided to do nothing. And sure you can hide behind the "but if I did something I might have died instead" card, but ya know that doesn't me a lot to ME, because 1. I don't for one second believe you would have been the one to bite the bullet and 2. I want the person I vote for to be someone inspiring, and someone who lets a presumably close ally just die and doesn't even give them the heads up, doesn't inspire me. Sorry, there's suppose to be a question here, I guess it's "why should I be inspired by your game?" like it sounds like you made a lot of long term deals with a lot of people and cut them only to then cut the people you made yet another deal with, only to fall back on the people from your first tribe and giving almost everyone the runaround, and that framing, I can't vote for. So what about your game should I strive to emulate?

Secondarily (I know I have a second question after that paragraph, I am being really greedy), like honestly where did I fit into your game? Cause you mention how I managed to pull a lot of things off and how you didn't want to vote me the round after haschel and even talked me up in your opening statement, and I am having a hard time reconciling that with my send off and you saying that you got the final 4 you wanted. So did I matter? Or was I just a stepping stone, cause if I was that's fine, but I'd really like to hear it for myself.

I understand that yours will be a hard vote to get and maybe I should spend my time and effort elsewhere, but if I'm honest I'm going to try and get yours anyway because even if I lose the overall vote, having yours would mean a ton to me personally because I incredibly respect the way you approach the game. Apologies, but I'm going to sort of tackle your post out of order.

I want to reiterate that at the point at which you went out you were my Plan A. You were what I was rolling with. Haschel recently asked why he had to go if I was just going to vote you out next when he was totally willing to do that, and my answer, I believe is telling:

The simple answer is I wouldn't have voted Vash when he went and wanted to work with Vash.

You wanted to work with DV, who was the person I wanted to go to the end with at that point. I wasn't as close to Bella yet (we were still reestablishing our relationship), and het and Scoots were on one side but because Scoots didn't really want to go after het at that point and I believed him to be het's #1, and het needed to go before the end. But most importantly, you talked to me in exactly the right way! You laid out a roadmap in front of me that made me think "Yeah! this is what I want too! It makes sense, and it works for both of us!" And to be truthful, that's what I wanted. I recognized the fact that you had a roadmap that essentially took out all your challenge threats so you would make it to the end and decide who you went with to f2/3, but that made me like it MORE because every time someone told me something where I went "why would YOU want this?" it made me trust them less. But seeing that it was a roadmap that benefited you AND me made me embrace it.

I think you probably underestimate the vehemence with which Radja wanted to get you out. He literally talked about it from our first meeting in Tribe 5 (you weren't in that tribe!) and he continued to talk how dangerous you were throughout the merge. Convincing him not to go after you when he had two rounds of security? No, I really don't think I could have done that, and to try really really hard would have simply burned my bridge with Radja and make him look at me as a real option. Scoots would have been a more likely avenue, but I didn't really have an argument there either. I couldn't tell him to take out het. He was convinced ent would go out next anyway. He liked Bella.

I understand we're talking about your game and I don't get points for not protecting you or not throwing a protest vote down on you. But I really implore you to consider it. I believe I've owned my betrayals this FTC, as much as that's a painful thing to do. But it really makes me upset that this is viewed as one because I was willing to go to the end with you! You were the person who I thought I was going to the end with at that point! I needed a strong challenge person to make sure that I got there, and you were that person to me. I trusted you most because of what I talk about above.

But survivor requires adaptability, and I'm sorry that you ate the wrong end of a twist, but I was able to use my other options -- my Plans Bs so to speak -- to get around the twist and thrive.

---
I got the final 4 I wanted

in the end

. If you had been there, I would have been happy with you there -- though I think my game would have been weaker for it because you would have had a great story to tell that would have been very difficult for me to counter.

---

So what about your game should I strive to emulate?

At risk of the being too cute, let me try to put this in a framework I found that really spoke to me when I read them the first time:

Spoiler: Qualities of a Winner

Safety: Other than potentially being idoled out in the pre-merge vote (which I got immunity to protect myself from) and the twist, I was largely safe, protected by my threat level and my allies. The only vote I received this game was from a vengeful hiplop after I told him I was voting for him.

Awareness: I had both the knowledge of what was going on in the game (e.g. Haschel was trying to take out my legs) as well as the foresight to know what was coming.

Adaptability: We've talked about this, but shifting away from you to my other plans was crucial adaptability that I believe I had to show to get to the end. The twist was a huge event in the game.

Respectability: I suspect this is where you'll be the most skeptical of me. But I was really proud of my game. I was deceptive at plenty of points, but I never did it for no reason. I'm not cruel or arbitrary. I wasn't a bully. I worked with people I liked and respected, and I think they liked and respected me back.

Agency: With the exception of the f8 vote where I felt like I didn't have a lot of agency, I was able to decide which way I went at all points. DV often pressured me to follow a different path that would have benefited him more and me less, but I always made the choice that was best for me. Similarly, your pitch at f8 what

phenomenal

I said in my confessional:



You really got to me. I knew I owed it to you to hear you out, and you made creative and convincing plays. But at the end of the day, I realized I couldn't sabotage my game by putting you into a tie and giving you 24 more hours to scramble. I kept my agency by making the best play for me even if it was upsetting to do so, and I

really

wanted to.

Friendliness: I believe I was always extremely friendly in this game, both with you personally and with everyone else. In some ways, I think this is why people feel burned by me. But I genuinely liked talking to people and finding out about them and their life and sharing my own with them. The fact that I'd eventually have to vote them out is an unfortunate by-product of the game, but it didn't change the fact that I was always there to chat and support.

Individuality: I believe more than anyone sitting at FTC I played my own game, made my own decisions, and then convinced others to do them. I

wasn't

"too dependent on one person or group of people" and if I had been, I would have gone out soon after you did.

I know these are brief answers to the framework, but I hope they're convincing to you because I wholeheartedly believe them.

Vash, I said it before and I'll say it again: you're an amazing player who both deserved to win this game and had a clear path to getting there. But I honestly do not believe that

I

was the reason you didn't get there. I was planning on being part of that and hopefully I would have had a story to tell of my own against you, but I recognize now that it would have been an uphill battle. I hope you'll really consider voting for me. Having your vote would be very meaningful to me personally, and I think I played a game that deserves it.

Please let me know if I didn't answer your questions fully.

[zoraster]

Do I regret that? I wish I had dodged you for a little bit! But no, not really. I was playing what I thought might be a survival game on that vote, and you were naturally very suspicious of me

I think for me and some people, a lot of that was pretty unnecessary. You didn't really have to lay it on that thick especially with the firm control you had of the game (as you claim). You did me wrong, that was sorta the end of our relationship at that point.

I struggle to see where how you were able to just completely shut out your personal feelings to your gameplay feelings. It's impressive, but I think it makes your game look robotic and without a heart.

What is the drive to win? What is the point? Why did you do the things you do?

I'm sorry then. I don't think I played this game without a heart at all. Certainly some of the votes I made were gut-wrenching as I legitimately cared about the people in this game. I really loved playing with you and I'd love to see you in future games. So it does make me very sad to hear that I affected you that way. I did what I thought was necessary for my game at the time, and it resulted in me being able to have a game I am proud of. Yours in particular seems senseless because I won immunity later. But if you had won immunity and I had been idoled out, I would have kicked myself for not trying everything I could to prevent it.

I’d like to know the final answer to this question. Why did you play the way you did? What is the point of all of this? Why did you try hard? What were you searching for in this game?

I want to know your personal journey and why this game was important to you personally, IF it was. If it’s just purely game and nothing personal, say that. If not, tell us what this game meant to you.

The game was two things at once. To me it was both:

1. A game that I decided I wanted to try to win from the start. I play games to win them or do my best to do so. I love watching Survivor as a game, and although I'll never go onto survivor it's something I wanted to earnestly put my all into trying to perform well at. In my real life, I play a lot of board games. My friends and family play them to win. I did so here too.
2. An opportunity to get to know a wide variety of people on this site in a meaningful way, both new people to the site and veterans who know me in a very different context where I'm fairly aloof. But that's not really who I am as a person, and the opportunity to share a different side of me as well as get to know other people on the site was really, really cool.

My HOPE is that those two things don't conflict in the long-run. I know after a game some people are going to be hurt, and I understand that. But that doesn't mean that the conversations I had during the game were

fake

and my sincere hope is that those who were hurt by my actions as it relates to a game have that fade as a source of hurt and the relationships I formed with them during the 83 days we played this game still remain.

I'm not someone who's ever going to get up in front of the camera and give the ol' "I'm not here to make friends" because I

was

here to make friends. And I think I honestly made them. We'll see after who still wants to be my friend, but I've been itching to talk to many of the people I voted out about various things and have refrained from doing so because it's not appropriate with the game still ongoing. Maybe I'll get the cold shoulder, and that would make me sad. But I hope not because this game had a lot of really cool people.

[zoraster]

I'm not someone who's ever going to get up in front of the camera and give the ol' "I'm not here to make friends" because I

was

here to make friends. And I think I honestly made them. We'll see after who still wants to be my friend, but I've been itching to talk to many of the people I voted out about various things and have refrained from doing so because it's not appropriate with the game still ongoing. Maybe I'll get the cold shoulder, and that would make me sad. But I hope not because this game had a lot of really cool people.

https://gfycat.com/fluffyimportantdunlin

Sorry, it was too apropos

hahahahaha I Stan Monty.

[zoraster]

Bella joked about the Structural element in her speech, and explained it's a meme. I don't consider it a joke or a meme at all. All of you have been making great cases for why you deserve to win Survivor. What I want to know is why you deserve to specifically win Survivor: The Real Theme Was Inside This All Along.

Non-Anon

Non anon was a godsend for me. I didn't perform well in the two anonymous games I played way back when in no small part because it's really hard for me to maintain a relationship with someone who is playing someone else. I really do want to get to know people and share myself with them, so it's really awkward to have this fake persona thing going on. I understand the benefits and as a moderator I probably prefer it! But it was hard for me to engage with in the way I could engage with in really true way.

Additionally, I'm just a lot more likely to be able to communicate well via Discord than I am PMs, etc. I think I can come across as wooden and perhaps overly analytical in PMs (and posts like this!) whereas on Discord more of my personality can come through and I feel like there's more time to converse rather than talk at each other.

I should mention that I made sure that even when there were group (whether 3 person or full tribe) DMs going on, that I ALWAYS chatted to someone one on one. I didn't ever want my relationship with someone to come down to what they thought about the GROUP as a whole. So for example, you and I had a group chat with het and that was all great, but I made sure that I was messaging you personally and het personally to make sure I was cultivating those relationships separate and apart from the success as the group.

Length of the Game

We have other generally quick non-anonymous games that run as well as things like survivormeet, but I'm at a disadvantage in those in a way I didn't feel like I was here. I'm not a

fast

thinker, right? A setup like this allows me more time to think through things and make sure I don't say the wrong things to the wrong people more than I should.

Also because I decided that I was going to throw myself into this, the length of the game worked in my favor. Although it was tough because of the number of days I was "on" (i.e. in a challenge or in tc) was so vast, being the person who just kept working -- talking to people, thinking about the game, doing the endurance challenges, etc. all really were things that set me up for success. I didn't sort of fade from the game only to come back at the end. I was always there in the mix.

I can't overemphasize how much work I put into the game, and the thing that stands out to me most about TRTWIUAA is how bloody long it was and how taxing that made it. So the person who wins it should be the person who really took advantage and

thrived

in the context of that endurance game.

Frequent Swaps

Frequent swaps were tough for me, but I was able to take advantage of them all the same. I had to play pretty aggressively because I knew I wasn't going to be someone that people naturally just wanted to pick up: I wasn't new to the community, so people didn't automatically seek me out for that, and I didn't have any sort of reputation or pre-existing relationship with the vast majority of people in the game. So I had to go out and forge my own path every single swap because to do otherwise (particularly because my tribes kept going to TC!) would be to find myself fighting to survive rather than shaping the game going forward. That's where so many people in the jury came in. You particularly, Haschel. Especially on that first tribe we shared together (Tribe 3) it was kind of a mess of a tribe. I sabotaged the large alliance, went straight to you to embrace you as hard as I could so that you'd work with me, went to het (who was also nominally in the alliance), told him I wasn't sure about it which he wholeheartedly agreed with, and from there we were able to form an entirely different type of game where we got out utah which started the dominoes to getting out bro and kilby later down the line. If I had sat back and let that alliance go forward, (a) Overkill would have destroyed it anyway and (b) I'm probably out after Lexi.

The other way I used the frequent swaps was more subtle but also important. I actually wasn't

terrible

at the challenges. I was usually mid-tier. But because of the swaps, no one really cared about keeping strong competitors around to help and weaker competitors out, so I was able to talk down my challenge game to reduce my threat at a much earlier stage than I think I would have been able to if we had had a tribe last for, say, 4 or 5 votes. That played a crucial part in my late pre-merge, early merge strategy.

Twists

For the most part the twists were pretty minor. It may have meant Bro probably went instead of Kilby for a round (because bro was easier to beat in the challenge where Menno won), but otherwise it didn't REALLY matter. The final pre-merge tc twist actually could have EASILY led to my demise because DK always uses the idol to save himself after the pants vote if there's no individual immunity around. So managing to get the highest score on Kanye was me taking full advantage of the twist.

The only twist that was HUGE was the 2x2 twist that I've already described and that was game changing, but I had kept myself in an adaptable position where I could pivot away from my course and still achieve what I wanted to in the game. There are twists that might hurt your game, and figuring out how to deal with those -- head up, marching on rather than cursing the darkness -- and still succeed is the sign of a winner.

[zoraster]

I have no further questions. Good luck to all three of you! <3

I appreciate the opportunity to answer them, DK!

[zoraster]

@ Bella,
Earlier you said "Zor offered to vote het with me the entreri round". I'm curious what you think the rest of the game (FTC specifically) looks like if you go the other way on this vote.

@ Zor, the same question.

Fantastic question. I've thought a lot about it. I'm going to use your name in third person here just so that things are clear.

F7: het goes instead of Ent. Players left: Zor, Bella, Scoots, DV, Radja, Ent
F6 Let's say I get immunity again. Radja goes. Without het even if I didn't want to turn on Radja at this point he's exposed and will go home. He will have voted for Ent previously as well (even though I think he was willing to vote het this round). DV would be the person who would probably try to save Radja with a vote onto Scoots, but not sure you would have bitten, Ent. It wouldn't have been in your best interest to do so.
F5 Scoots gets immunity. Ent+Zor+Scoots vote for Bella maybe? DV would have been aligned with you and me I think but he was trying to establish more of his own game at this point in the real time line and I think he'd probably do so here too.
F4 Let's say DV (who had the highest score among the four of us) gets immunity. I think DV votes for me to go here. I think you probably go along? Only option I have at that point is to vote you, and maybe I get Scoots to go along and vote for you too. Tie breaker happens. A coin flip who wins between us.
So I see the most likely FTC as Ent/Zor+Scoots+DV

I think you stand a good chance at that FTC if you win the tiebreaker, though DV would have given you a run for your money.

[zoraster]

And I'm back. I agree with Hasch, good answers for all of you. But I have a couple more questions. The first is for all y'all, the second is more for Zor.

So it's been clear from my time on the jury that Radja REALLY wanted me dead, that he wanted me out for a long time coming. But like in game, this wasn't clear, I wasn't even that aware I was Radja's primary target until het told me not long before demise. So like, which of y'all knew the extent of radja's targeting towards me, and if you did know, why didn't you tell me about it?

I knew it, as I've mentioned. I didn't tell you because when we were setting up our roadmap you agreed to do Radja at f7/8. I didn't think I needed to assure you knew that information because if I told you, you'd move him up your list, which would have jeopardized the menno vote. Later, it seemed to be moving forward just fine and I didn't want to tell you the information because Radja had told it to me in confidence. I probably would have revealed it to you if you had won immunity at f8.

I'm sure it's just slipped Bella's mind so I don't think she's trying to mislead you here, but I told her on the morning of January 17th (the deadline for votes was January 18th at 20:00) that "Radja wants Vash gone BADLY and I think Scoots is more than happy for that to happen..." We were both upset that you were going and I laid out the path for us to go forward and still work together without you. She said ideal would have been Vash, Zor, Bella, het, DV which I readily agreed would have been awesome (this was the plan you and I had set up!). We also bemoaned the twist a lot. I'm sure she was mad at me for being the bringer of bad news, but she was certainly "in the know" well in advance of the vote.

Anyway, Zor so one of the rounds you say you had a profound effect on was when Radja went home. And the moment that happened, it meant one of DV, Bella or het would be in the F3, and for me that means quite a bit cause all 3 have easier claims for me to vote them than you do, you've heard what I said about Bella, het played a fire game and honestly one of the main reasons I wanted to work with you and DV was DV kept me in the loop, often telling me things you didn't. So why was that overall a better move for your endgame? Secondly, if Radja doesn't go, what happens?

I believed I had played and was going to play a better game than all of them except het. But I knew I could get het out at f5 or f4. Barring an out-of-character series of challenge wins (in which case I'd celebrate het's victory with everyone else), I felt I could neutralize his threat because everyone was on board. But while Radja acknowledged that

I

felt het was the most serious threat in the game, I got the impression that Radja actually was the

least

likely to vote het down the line of anyone in the game because he'd say things like, "I know you were looking to lose het at some point" rather than "let's take out het soon" or whatever. To an extent, I had to balance my needs to get security with my need to secure the best possible f2/3 at a higher risk.

I also don't have perfect knowledge in the game. I think my Awareness is pretty high for someone who has barely played with any of the people in this game (apparently Radja and I were on the same side in Ned's which I have no recollection of and no, Haschel, Beerus does not count). But I could only make my best guess as to what you'd value as a juror. If I could have clairvoyantly seen that for your vote Radja, Scoots and me would have been the perfect matchup, would I have made the choice to make riskier plays to get there? I don't know.

At a certain point, you have to be comfortable with your game enough to be willing to take what the game gives you. Getting rid of het was obvious and I gave myself a round buffer in case he got immunity, but I think my case is strong enough to compete with anyone else, and I directed it to here with two stand-up individuals making my case now, so I can't really knock what happened.

And Lastly, I'm curious, let's say instead of Bella winning at 4, you win final immunity. What do you think happens?

I think Bella would have gone. Scoots would have wanted it, DV I think votes for Bella there, and as I mention in my opening statement, DV was my best friend in this game. Even if he posed a somewhat higher risk than Bella at the end (and I have no idea if this is true or not), I would have done mental gymnastics to not have to vote for him if it was at all a close case (and I think it is).

[zoraster]

Also Haschel, I saw your question, but it probably needs a while for me to think about and write, so my answer will probably come tomorrow. Thanks for your patience!

[zoraster]

Nice answer, Zor, but you still missed the question about what happens if Radja doesn't go that round. After that I don't think I'll really have any more, so answer it when you are ready.

Sorry about that! First, I'll preface this by saying that Radja was the person I had the highest degree of uncertainty about. That's one of the reasons I didn't go with him in the end because I found him somewhat inscrutable, which made planning difficult. But I'm game to try! I apologize if I ramble a bit as I "show my work" so to speak.

F6:

I win immunity. Scoots goes. Let's assume that Scoots goes here rather than my previous answer where I consider trying to take out Bella, DV or het early. Doing this likely means het and I have aligned together with Radja.

F5:

I think Radja wins immunity here. No one else even got it right, and the puzzle was Radja's sort of bag. At this point, does Radja want to go after het? I don't think so. DV is out there and made a play against me at this point in the real game, but if he felt like he convinced me to vote Scoots the previous round, he might have felt like he was establishing his own game and not needed to do so. Radja had also expressed a desire to get rid of Bella before Final 5 in previous conversations. They hadn't established a good relationship up until then (and Bella clearly had an antipathy for him in this game). There's also a decent chance that I attempt to put together a three person gang of DV, Bella and myself to take out het anyway against Radja's wishes. But doing so would have been pretty dangerous for me because that would mean at f4 Radja, the most likely challenge winner (since we didn't know the details of the challenge), would have felt betrayed by me and wanted to go after me. Additionally, DV at this point in the real time line had toyed with targeting me and might have found a more receptive audience in Radja than he did in Scoots. So let's say that

Bella

goes.

F4:

I think there are two likely scenarios at this point: DV wins immunity (because he outscored me in the real time line) and het wins immunity (because this seems like a challenge he could knock out of the park). I think Radja probably is an underdog at this one. So I'll discuss both scenarios I think are likely:

• DV Wins immunity: DV and I clearly vote for het. Het at this point, figuring out that I'm voting him votes for me. So the question is does RADJA, who has a f3 with both het and me so is under no obligation to take either, vote for het? I don't know. As I mentioned before, Radja more than anyone else was unconcerned about het's possibilities of winning the game and I think would be comfortable sitting next to him. So the question is does Radja think he has a better shot against me or het? I think he PROBABLY votes het in this situation, but I'm not positive. That leaves a F3 of Radja, DV, Zoraster. But I think there's a distinct possibility it's Radja, DV, het/Zoraster in a tie breaker. I don't know who wins the f3 where it's Radja, DV and me. It's not a F3 I love. Ent clearly viewed Radja's game positively from his sign-off message. DV in this timeline probably has a stronger case against me than in the real time line and he would have been no slouch in the real time line either. And obviously in the event of a tie breaker loss to het, I'm out. I vote for het to win.
  
• Het Wins Immunity: I think everyone votes DV. We've honored our F3 with Radja this far and I don't think we'd view him as a bigger threat than DV at this point. F3 of het, Zoraster, and Radja and het wins. Or if people feel too burned by het, Radja wins.

So I think by allowing Radja to move forward I both give up control of the game as well as lower the likelihood I win.

[zoraster]

Excellent answers, all of you.

I'm going into this FTC with an open mind, and while certain directions are starting to look more attractive than others my vote is not locked in. Every juror gets to choose what kind of game is the best to reward, and I personally want to give it to the best

overall

game.

So what does this mean for all of you? Social. Strategic. Structural. You need to convince me you were the best in at least two of these, and I don't care which two. Do that, and you have my vote.

Please rank the three of you in each of those categories, and be specific when it comes to explaining why your #1 in each category is placed there.

This is actually a good question, but it's not one I relish answering. I know I made tough choices that some felt seemed like I don't have a heart. But I value the games that both Bella and Scoots put together, and by forcing me to put someone bottom in a category it makes it seem like I don't. Still, it's interesting, fair question and I'm going to answer it as fully as it deserves.

I also know that humility probably demands that I put myself second in a category. But I'm not going to do that because it's not how I feel the game went, and I want to be true to the game I feel like I played.

Social

If "Social" simply means likability, then I'm last for many people, I think. I think Bella and Scoots are great! You want to have a barbecue and invite fun, awesome people? You're going to call Bella and Scoots, and you'll see if you have enough space for Zoraster as the date gets closer.

But I think Social means so much more than that. It's the Social GAME you play that matters: how the relationships you develop allow you to influence and control the game. Otherwise all of this is just a popularity contest and particularly in a non-anonymous game that's troubling.

But on the other hand, if it's about Social

game

, then

Social is the Most Important Thing In the Game

because without it, all the strategy in the world is worthless. Taking advantage of the structure gets you nowhere.

My Social Game is the thing that

enabled

me to use the structure of the game to execute my strategy.

So I'm going to put the rankings as:

1. Zoraster
2. Scoots
3. Bella

My relationships

were

sincere in this game. But I also used them to get where I needed to be, which is where the gameplay part comes in.

Interestingly, I'm going to answer a Strategic point Bella made with a Social point from me to illustrate some of my social game. She says that I wasn't prepared for how upset she and DV would be when Vash went home. That's partially true, but I knew it'd be upsetting for them (

I

was upset), particularly Bella. But saying things people don't want to hear early so that they can come to terms with them is often

necessary

. Bella needed time to process her grief, and I knew that. If Vash went and I had come out later at f7 with the plan to get us three to the end together, she would have been mad at me still AND she would have reacted poorly. I think she would have seen herself as a free agent and there I'd stand, not being properly respectful of Vash's vote out. That's not a safe place for Zoraster.

But because I

KNEW

Bella I knew I had to get out in front of it and make my point early, allow her to be mad at me (unpleasant because I love her), apologize for it, and then have us come to the right choice together. I would have played it differently if it hadn't been Bella. But knowing how people react and process things is essential to playing a good social game. Productively having conflict and resolving it is difficult, but necessary. It's also, for what it's worth, an important life skill to have both in one's personal as well as professional life, but I digress.

Similarly, at the Ent vote Bella pushed me hard to consider saving Ent. I talked to Ent, and he convinced me that I at least wasn't dead in the water if I brought it back to Bella. I knew that my relationship with Bella as well as DV at this point was tenuous and I needed their trust going forward and I wouldn't have it if I kept barreling ahead. Sometimes you make a Social Game Play to further your strategic one. I offered to save Ent to Bella (and I meant it!) because (a) I didn't think she'd accept it -- I think she wanted it to be entirely on

my

shoulders that Ent went home and I was pretty sure I had put the work in to convince her that het staying was the right play; and (b) I knew there's only so far you can push your allies and dictate the game to them. Bella feeling like I

listened

to her was important in establishing a relationship that would eventually end up with her picking me to go to FTC with her.

Another example of Social Game Play was the Brom vote. Strategically, getting rid of Brom (who wanted to get back together with Bella to form an alliance with her, scoots, dv, brom and myself as the bottom) was the right call. But the reason I went with Brom instead of an Ent vote (or even an Ent/DK split) that round wasn't

just

that it was theoretically good for me. It was because I

KNEW

I could bring Scoots back into the fold even after blindsiding him. I was right, and we became great friends and worked together the entire rest of the game. I read Scoots. I knew what I needed to do to reestablish trust. I did it.

Finally, I talked about it in my opening statement, but reading you was social game in itself. All these categories bleed into each other, but the strategic decision to make a move on you because you wanted to deprive me of my non-Haschel approved allies came from my social game of knowing that's what you wanted.

---

Most important to my social game I

never

worked as a dictator. I was

always

collaborative with people to make moves, and I'd guide them toward the answer I wanted. And as a result people viewed me as their partner. Doing that takes a lot of work, and a lot of people fail at it. It's why, forgive me for bringing it up, even though there was a post-merge easy choice vote of Haschel vs. DV that neither of you got to "win" that battle until McMenno left: both you and he pretty much declared what you wanted to do rather than leading people to water, letting them see how it benefited them, and feel like they were part of that decision. But I always did this.

---
Why Scoots over Bella? I think it's a close call, but I look at where Scoots came in. Bella had the love and respect of many people in this game upon entering, and Scoots came in as a total newbie. Scoots made sure that he was never in trouble, and whether that was because his threat level was low or because he played a great social game is up to the jury, but as a challenge threat he did have to work to create the feeling in many people that he wanted to work with them or else they'd want to target him even if they thought they could beat him. He was obviously helped by being immune for 4 rounds in the merge, but that doesn't take away from that fact.

Bella also played a good social game, so please don't interpret my 3rd place mark for her as indicating otherwise. But I think it was flawed. Again, she's amazing. But she put herself in a position where even her likability wouldn't have protected her but for winning the FIC. She was also very much at risk at f5 if het got immunity. That's partially a strategic flaw, but its source is in the social game. Still, she played an excellent Social game too! I know Menno thinks he's scraping the bottom of the barrel here, but I really view the three of us as all very strong in this area.

Structure

1. Zoraster
2. Scoots
3. Bella

Forgive me for making this short, but I'd really like to direct you toward my other answer here. The structure of the game was incredibly important to my success at this game, and I utilized and adapted to its quirks to get me to where I am more than anyone else in the game. I should also say that even in this FTC I used the non-anonymous nature of the game to do a lot of research. Even the "meme" of this question (which I was not aware of) was something I had to look up. If this had been an anonymous game and you had asked me this question, it would have been tough for me to answer this question.

Scoots in my mind is second because he utilized the abundance of puzzle-type challenges to both help his tribes and help himself. I'm not sure if this many timed puzzles is normal for a survivor game, frankly, but if structure is about what makes THIS game this game, this game's structure revolves around them.

Strategy

1. Zoraster
2. Bella
3. Scoots

I think I've made my case pretty forcefully that I had a plan going into this game and I executed it.

Bella has to make the case she was #1 in Strategy because she had already posted about how the structure wasn't her thing, and I

really

respect her attempt because it made me think. It's a good post. I would put her at #2 anyway, but after that post it's pretty firmly number 2 because I don't think Scoots used much strategy in the game.

But ultimately, the strategy I outlined in my Opening Statement says it all. I established strong individual relationships with people that enabled me to be secure and make moves against those who I needed to in order to thrive. I managed threat levels incredibly well. It all led to a game that I am really proud of and was in control of, despite spending virtually all of the game in TC.

I actually don't know what she means by her last point. I wanted every vote that came down except the Vash one. Sometimes I led, sometimes I didn't (if i was always the one leading the vote I would not have been executing my threat level strategy well), but

each one

was beneficial to me.

Every

single vote but Vash: Formerfish, Elsa, Ansky, Utah, Overkill, Bro, Kilby, Panth, Brom, DK, McMenno, Haschel, Entreri, Radja, het. All of them shaped the game and put me one step closer to being at the end to make my case. Each was one that I decided was the best course of action and could have altered if I had wanted to (okay, maybe not the Formerfish one).

The only other one I didn't really want at first was DV, and I readily admit that wasn't a strategic decision -- it was one from the heart. As for it being a decision that hurt me more than her? I don't think so. I'll be curious to hear when Monty makes you all raise your hands at the reunion if DV had been here instead of Scoots, but I think DV had a chance to beat us BOTH and take votes from us BOTH. DV is more than just a nice guy, after all.

[zoraster]

DV I'm going to get to your question soon, but writing that last post took it out of me so I'm going to take a little break.

Radja, thank you.

[zoraster]

Apologies for the late entrance, but I just wanted to say congratulations to all three of you on making it to the end! You all played great and contributed to what was overall an enjoyable game experience for me.

In a game of much angst, of a neverending journey to discover the true meaning of 'newbie', I want to know what each of you most enjoyed about the game! It could be a moment, it could be something you did, it could be a more general thing! I invite you to take a break from the nitty gritty game details and tell me a bit more about what makes playing these things truly worth it.

Thank you for this question. Your other jurors are asking a ton of fantastic, thought provoking questions that I hope lead them to knowing who to vote for. But this question a breath of fresh air.

The short, real answer is getting to know people. I know for many of you, you already know each other well so it's not much of a novelty. For me, not so much. I don't know how much interaction you and I have had before this, for example. But it certainly wasn't limited to you. So that was really a highlight.

I had some serious conversations with people that I cherish, but I don't want to go into those as they're between me and those people.

So instead, I'll say I really loved the times it could get silly. Whether it was #savethenipple with Bella (she brought it up first so i can talk about it!); without preamble or hello complaining about Sequester with het; putting together the Puzzle Wizard to honor Scoots; or recording a

hot

hit single for the spectators; submitting a very appropriate Final 5 puzzle submission... this game had just a ton of fun times that maybe touched on the game but really weren't ABOUT the game. They were just some friends goofing off around a mutual activity.

Like yeah... I loved playing this game and there were moments like starting a bajillion discord calls to try to get Brom to answer his damn discord messages so we could pull off the pants vote racing against the clock. Or kilby telling me that I was a monster for voting him off at christmas and I was going to finish 18th (we were at final 15)... But I've talked about these a lot, and I think the thing that will stick with me after this game is through are those fun times more than anything else.

[zoraster]

Thanks to everyone who played, modded and spectated. I have NO idea how this is going to turn out (I've made what will probably be laughable guesses in my confessional), but I had a great time! FTC was a lot of fun, hanging out with Bella and Scoots.

[zoraster]

Thank you, ent!

[zoraster]

Regardless of the explanation, and I'd love to hear it, thank you, DK.

[zoraster]

Thank you, Haschel. It means a lot.

And thank you, het. You were amazzzzing.

[zoraster]

I really appreciate you giving me the chance to make my case even if you didn't vote for me in the end, Vash.

[zoraster]

Thank you everyone! I love you all.

[zoraster]

ooof. sorry for any uh... snark or whatever.

[zoraster]

<3

[zoraster]

I've been on a ski trip the past week (basically I left the moment I won), so I haven't really had time to post a post-mortem. I'm sure that's greatly disappointing to everyone, but let me correct it now!

1. First, thanks to Bella and Scoots. While it was certainly a contentious FTC where I think everyone brought their A-game, we were behind the scenes having fun anyway. I couldn't have asked for better people to go to the end with, regardless of outcome.
2. Thanks to Monty and his co-mods for running a great game (despite any criticism that follows). It was super long, but it was still run exceptionally well. If you added up all of the time you were late with a round it probably was less than 2 hours. Over the course of THREE MONTHS and like 40 deadlines, that's truly impressive. Certainly that's not something I could have managed.
3. Thanks to everyone else who played. I had a blast. It was so good to meet people, both new and old.

Thoughts on my Own Game

1. I made a ton of mistakes this game. I argued differently in my FTC, but no question there were things I did I wouldn't do again. I mishandled Bella on the Vash vote (though she mishandled me too), so it was good she wasn't in the jury for that. I probably lost Menno's vote with a poorly conceived attempt to jury manage. Many other smaller mistakes I can look back and cringe at. And then there must be myriad others ones where I don't even realize I made a mistake. This game is incredibly complex.
2. Still, being basically a newbie at this thing and attempting to play pretty hard, I was always going to make quite a few mistakes. I was never going to win playing passively because I was never going to be able to rely on a social-likability game and a loyalty game I think probably gets me cut pre-merge given all the swaps and not being one of the people known to others as a particularly loyal player (non-anon is a very two-edged sword).
3. Speaking of which, I made a ton of deals obviously, but part of the reason that came back to almost bite me in the ass was that I went to TC so much and there were so many swaps. Because I was always the one making the moves in pre-merge TCs that meant the only people left from any tribe of mine were pretty much the people I had deals with. That's a pretty hard argument to make at FTC (it likely comes across as an excuse), but it's one that definitely has a lot of truth to it.
4. I read a

lot

of former FTCs as we got toward the end. I knew I'd be pretty good at FTC and had a game I could use a strong FTC performance to potentially win. I understand the spectators' skepticism heading into it, but I was always way more confident than they apparently were, probably because I didn't have to read the jury chat. In some ways, FTCs are the most

learnable

thing in this game as a newbie. Understanding why someone won after the fact is really hard for general games. You have to understand how someone played, the people on the jury, etc. but understanding what's successful in an FTC is easier -- particularly when you're already someone who has some experience with persuasive writing. I'm a little surprised no one's kind of posted a guide to FTCs though. That would have made my job a lot easier!

Spoiler: Game Design Stuff

Game Design Stuff

1. I think with a game this size and length it would be good to have a posted tentative end date or range of dates. I know that means the mods have to calculate this, but they really should do this anyway. Lots of things might cause the end date to slide (ties, unexpected events, etc.) but some specific end point or range of end points would help a lot when managing expectations. Maybe just a "

minimum end date

." This actually would be a pretty good policy for all mods in all LSGs.
2. That said, I actually liked the longer deadlines for the most part, but the holidays (thanksgiving, christmas, new years) really were too long. It caused that middle period of the game to really bog down. I think you guys realized that part, so I won't dwell on it. But I liked the general 24 hours for challenges, 48 hours for votes timeline. It did make this an endurance game though!
3a. If you advertise a game with "This game is NOT designed to be OVERWHELMING"

don't do night time deadlines/start times.

I don't care if your co-mod is Australian. I don't care if you think it'd be funny. I don't care about any of that. There was plenty of time to do a normal start time for the idol hunt. It's not okay. It's not FAIR game design. And it goes entirely against the stated advertisement. The result (the idol wasn't found until later in the day)

DOES NOT MATTER

. If you want to do these types of night deadlines, it should be in a game where it's explicit that the game will be demanding of people's time and schedule.
3b. Furthermore, don't give a huge RANGE of times. We were told we'd get idol information between 1am and 6am EST. I still get angry thinking about this. Why was it important to mess with players like this? If it was really to accommodate Cheery Dog's schedule, he shouldn't have been the comod to do the idol hunt.
4. The 2x2 twist (i.e. the twist where the top two finishers got immunity for two rounds) could have been fixed in one of two ways: (1) split the two. The problematic part was the COMBINATION of effects. If it had just been top two getting immunity for one round, it'd be okay. If it had just been one person getting two rounds of immunity it'd be okay. OR (2) Move it to F10. Having it fall at F8 meant that there weren't enough other people to even really contemplate working against the immunity holders. I know there are both specs and players that pooh-poohed this point, but frankly these people lack a fundamental understanding of the effect of the twist. I understand the desire was to protect good immunity players that are often targeted at this point in the game, but even if for whatever reason that's a legitimate desire, this was too much.
5. The twist where Bro went home (i.e. both tribes vote out someone and the person with the quickest time isn't booted) isn't one I love, and I'm not sure it was used

purposefully

. It wasn't horrible, and I understand that it was another way to make everyone care about a challenge pre-merge, but it did mean you kind of wanted to take the easiest route possible. It incentivizes eliminating bad challenge players over any other strategic decision, even though we ended up going after Bro during his vacation. I don't really see that as a positive, but if it was the intent I guess that's okay. It just seemed like a twist where the mods maybe said "hey that sounds cool" without actually thinking about what effect they wanted to create.
6. I think more diversity of challenges, particularly pre-merge, would be nice. I understand you're dealing with 32 people at the start though, and there's a limit to what type of challenges you can run in a timely manner with that many people, so this isn't a huge deal.
7. Lotsa swaps? I think you gotta do what you gotta do to make a 32-player game manageable. Could we have reduced the number of pre-merge tribes down to 4ish? Probably, but I actually thought the number of swaps fit the game pretty well, particularly with the longer deadlines allowing for each swap to breathe.
8. Regardless, overall a well run, fun game. I appreciate the hard work the mods put in!

[zoraster]

i mean, how often can you count on someone to offer themselves up to get voted?