[Standard]Survivor: TRTWIUAA {Final Tribal Council}

[PrivateI]

Upon request, here is an example of what the challenge could look like.

[PrivateI]

Upon request--if you would like to use a calculator to answer the question about the puzzle, you are allowed to. You are not permitted to use any other outside resources.

[Cheery Dog]

Results results resluts. They're in, and I have them. Only 3 of you managed to give the correct answer of

26

.

Spoiler: Did Not Complete

Bellaphant
het
VashtaNeurotic
Entreri
Zoraster

Spoiler: 25:19

Radja

Spoiler: 13:44

ScootsBaboo

Spoiler: 27:12

DeasVail

With that Congratulations to

Spoiler: Immunity Winners

see the two fastest time solutions above

You've both earned a 1 in 6 chance of winning the game.

Somebody else will be going home tonight*, we'll be seeing you at tribal council.
(expired on 2020-01-18 21:00:00) to get your votes in for tribal council 17a. It will then be directly followed by tribal council 17b.

Deadline has been put at 9pm due to the rules set out at the start of the game.

[VashtaNeurotic]

Bye everyone and I'd just like to leave a final message. And that is:

[Cheery Dog]

Oh right results, I guess I need to give those out.

Spoiler: Anybody play idols etc?

Nope

Spoiler:

Entreri

Spoiler:

VashtaNeurotic

Spoiler:

het

Spoiler:

VashtaNeurotic

Spoiler:

VashtaNeurotic

Spoiler:

VashtaNeurotic

has been voted out of Survivor, the real theme was inside us all along.

now

back to camp

tribal council for the rest of you again.
More votes due in 48 hours
(expired on 2020-01-20 22:00:00)

[PrivateI]

It's time for the results. Did anyone play a hidden immunity idol?

Spoiler:

No, not this time.

I'll read the votes.

Spoiler:

Het

Spoiler:

Entreri

Spoiler:

Entreri

Spoiler:

Entreri

Spoiler:

Entreri. Entreri, you become the next member of the jury. The tribe has spoken.

The next juror is decided, but...it's been awhile since we had a new immunity winner. Radja, Scoots, I'm taking the necklaces back, because immunity is back up for grabs.

Immunity Challenge 18

This challenge is a throwback to immunity challenges in some of our favourite MS nonanonymous games. It's called a coin game.

For each of several rounds, you will pick a number of coins to gather, between 1 and the highest number designated for the round. In each round, you will gather the number of coins you select, with a few exceptions--if you submit the highest unique number in a round, you collect zero coins. If you submit the same number of coins as anyone else, you collect zero coins (for that submission). For rounds with multiple submissions, submitting the same number as anyone else only invalidates that submission.

This will happen in TWO 24 hour sets of rounds. You'll submit in your CONFESSIONAL how many coins you want to take in each round. The next set of round requirements will only be revealed after the first results are revealed. The person who collects the most coins after the two rounds will win immunity, and a guaranteed 1-in-5 shot at winning this game.

Let me give an example of how the rounds will work, then I'll reveal what each of this first set of rounds will have in store.

Let's say that you're tasked with picking a number of coins between 1 and 50.

Acfan picks 39
Brom picks 31
Creativemod1 picks 39
Dweller picks 35
Entreri picks 32
Formerfish picks 34.

At the end of round 1, Acfan and Creativemod1 picked the same number, so they collect no coins this round. With the highest unique number of coins, Dweller also collects no coins.

That would make the score as follows:

Formerfish: 34
Entreri: 32
Brom: 31
Acfan: 0
Creativemod1: 0
Dweller: 0

To account for the event of a tie, I will invite you to answer a tiebreaker question during the second round. The closest without going over, in the event of a tie, would win immunity.

For now though, here's the rounds you're doing this time:

Round 1: Submit one number between 1 and 50.
Round 2: Submit one number between 1 and 60.
Round 3: Submit one number between 1 and 55.
Round 4: Submit TWO numbers between 1 and 75.

You may NOT discuss your submissions with any other players.

You have until (expired on 2020-01-21 20:00:00) to submit for this round. Importantly, if results are in early, we will post them an hour early. Otherwise, you will only have TWENTY-THREE hours to submit for the following round (to get us back on a normal schedule).

Let us know if you have any questions.

[PrivateI]

To be completely clear--you're submitting for ALL FOUR rounds given by the deadline. You'll get more rounds tomorrow (and the results of these four rounds to give you information to operate under), which will have their own deadline.

[PrivateI]

Let's take a look at how everyone did on the first few rounds.

Spoiler: Round 1

Bellaphant submitted 38.
Het submitted 39.
Radja submitted 36.
ScootsBaboo submitted 31.
DeasVail submitted 33.
Zoraster submitted 28.

Bellaphant 38
het 0
Radja 36
ScootsBaboo 31
DeasVail 33
Zoraster 28

Spoiler: Round 2

Bellaphant submitted 42.
Het submitted 48.
Radja submitted 41.
ScootsBaboo submitted 44.
DeasVail submitted 39.
Zoraster submitted 35.

Bellaphant 42
het 0
Radja 41
ScootsBaboo 44
DeasVail 39
Zoraster 35

Spoiler: Round 3

Bellaphant submitted 39.
Het submitted 43.
Radja submitted 42.
ScootsBaboo submitted 38.
DeasVail submitted 37.
Zoraster submitted 28.

Bellaphant 39
het 0
Radja 42
ScootsBaboo 38
DeasVail 37
Zoraster 28

Spoiler: Round Four

Bellaphant submitted 67 and 68.
Het submitted 60 and 61.
Radja submitted 59 and 61.
ScootsBaboo and DeasVail BOTH submitted 56 and 57.
Zoraster submitted 55 and 58.

Bellaphant 0
het 60
Radja 59
ScootsBaboo 0
DeasVail 0
Zoraster 113

Spoiler: Cumulative Results After Four Rounds

Bellaphant 119
het 60
Radja 178
ScootsBaboo 113
DeasVail 109
Zoraster 204

Now it's time for your next set of rounds!

Round 5: Submit one number between 1 and 80.
Round 6: Submit two numbers between 1 and 60.
Round 7: Submit two numbers between 1 and 80.
Round 8: Submit THREE numbers between 1 and 65.
Round 9: Submit one number between 1 and 70.
Round 10: Submit two numbers between 1 and 100.
Round 11: Submit one number between 1 and 90.

Tiebreaker: What is the sum of all submissions by all players across all rounds of this challenge?

You have until (expired on 2020-01-22 19:00:00) to submit.

[PrivateI]

Players,

I have an announcement to make regarding the scoring for the last round.

By-and-large, after talking to you individually or hearing from you independently, we've come to the understanding that the challenge rules were not appropriately worded originally. They had the potential to give the impression that someone who submitted the highest number in a round with multiple submissions would only have that highest number invalidated, rather than the whole round. That's entirely my fault. To rectify that, Bella is being credited with the 67 points she would have gotten if the round had worked the way players tended to believe it would.

This changes the scoring for the round as follows:

Bellaphant 67
het 60
Radja 59
ScootsBaboo 0
DeasVail 0
Zoraster 113

It changes the total as follows:

Bellaphant 186
het 60
Radja 178
ScootsBaboo 113
DeasVail 109
Zoraster 204

These total results may have changed your submissions for the current round, so, to respect that, you will be given another 24 hours to complete your round submission. I apologize for not informing you of this earlier--timezones and work schedules complicated things today for me.

You have until (expired on 2020-01-23 19:00:00) to either submit your choices again or change your submission. To be clear, the ruling we are going with for the SECOND set of submissions is that the highest unique number in each round will collect ZERO points for the round, regardless of their other submissions. I encourage you to let me know if you have any questions.

[Cheery Dog]

Let's take a look at how everyone did on the latter rounds.

Spoiler: Fifth Round

Bellaphant 64
het 45
Radja 65
ScootsBaboo 69
DeasVail 62
Zoraster 55

Bellaphant 64
het 45
Radja 65
ScootsBaboo 0
DeasVail 62
Zoraster 55

Spoiler: Sixth Round

Bellaphant 28, 38
het 26, 27
Radja 42, 43
ScootsBaboo 47, 48
DeasVail 37, 38
Zoraster 45, 48

Bellaphant 28
het 53
Radja 85
ScootsBaboo 0
DeasVail 37
Zoraster 45

Spoiler: Seventh Round

Bellaphant 45, 61
het 40, 42
Radja 56, 58
ScootsBaboo 63, 64
DeasVail 58, 59
Zoraster 55, 58

Bellaphant 106
het 82
Radja 56
ScootsBaboo 0
DeasVail 59
Zoraster 55

Spoiler: Eighth Round

Bellaphant 22, 26, 35
het 20, 22, 25
Radja 41, 42, 43
ScootsBaboo 49, 50, 51
DeasVail 39, 40, 41
Zoraster 35, 38, 45

Bellaphant 26
het 45
Radja 85
ScootsBaboo 0
DeasVail 79
Zoraster 83

Let's do a mid-set check-in!

Spoiler:

Total for this set:

Bellaphant 224
het 225
Radja 291
ScootsBaboo 0
DeasVail 237
Zoraster 238

Cumulative total so far:

Bellaphant 410
het 285
Radja 469
ScootsBaboo 113
DeasVail 346
Zoraster 442

Three rounds to go!

Spoiler: Ninth Round

Bellaphant 52
het 35
Radja 57
ScootsBaboo 57
DeasVail 56
Zoraster 45

Bellaphant 52
het 35
Radja 0
ScootsBaboo 0
DeasVail 0
Zoraster 45

Spoiler: Tenth Round

Bellaphant 59, 63
het 55, 60
Radja 76, 77
ScootsBaboo 85, 86
DeasVail 73, 74
Zoraster 65, 68

Bellaphant 122
het 115
Radja 153
ScootsBaboo 0
DeasVail 147
Zoraster 133

Spoiler: Final Round

Bellaphant 66
het 50
Radja 76
ScootsBaboo 73
DeasVail 69
Zoraster 55

Bellaphant 66
het 50
Radja 0
ScootsBaboo 73
DeasVail 69
Zoraster 55

This is it. The final results. After three days and lots of numbers, who will win immunity?

Spoiler:

Bellaphant 650
het 485
Radja 622
ScootsBaboo 186
DeasVail 562
Zoraster 675

ZORASTER! Wins immunity!

The immune person has a guaranteed 1/5 shot of winning this game...one of you will not. You have until (expired on 2020-01-26 21:01:16) to submit your votes. (You have an extra day to reflect a request for extra time that we received prior to this round, unless votes are submitted AND every player votes to accelerate Tribal Council in their confessionals.)

[ScootsBaboo]

Wow I am not good at this one

[PrivateI]

As you know, we are approaching the end of idols in this game.

Did anyone play a hidden immunity idol?

Spoiler:

No, no one played a hidden immunity idol.

All right. Once the votes are read, the decision is final. I'll read the votes.

Spoiler:

Radja

Spoiler:

ScootsBaboo

Spoiler:

Radja

Spoiler:

Radja

Spoiler:

Radja, the tribe has spoken. Radja becomes the sixth member of the jury.

Multiple jurors still need to be placed on the jury, and we have no time to waste.

Immunity Challenge 19

This is simultaneously a simple challenge to get you to the Final Four, and may be one of the top twenty toughest challenges you encounter in this game. We're hurtling to the end, and I can't let you leave without letting you do...another logic puzzle.

Here's how it works.



Your goal is to blacken some cells of a given grid, following certain rules:

1. The black cells must form "dominoes"--sets of two cells connected horizontally or vertically. Each domino will touch at least one other domino diagonally, as noted above.
2. Cells with letters will always be white.
3. The black cells will divide the grid into regions of white cells.
4. Cells with the same letter belong to the same white region--and only that region. Different letters will not coexist in the same white region.
5. White regions without a cell with a letter are not allowed.

You're going to need your image editor again, because this challenge simply requires you to mark those cells which should be marked with "dominoes". Submit a link to your completed puzzle to stop your time. If you're the fastest to correctly solve, congratulations--you win immunity, and will be one of FOUR who have a shot to win this game. If no one correctly solves, no one will be safe at the Final Five Tribal Council.

You'll use this form to start the puzzle. The final gauntlet of challenges is here. It's up to you to finish them. As always, the use of outside resources to solve the puzzle is not allowed.

You have until (expired on 2020-01-27 19:00:00) to complete this challenge.

[PrivateI]

I have the results.

It wasn't close. One person completed the challenge successfully.

With a time of 29:31, ScootsBaboo has immunity.

Scoots has a 1/4 shot of winning this game. One of you is seeing your chance cut short. You have until (expired on 2020-01-29 19:00:00) to begin.

[PrivateI]

For those curious.

[PrivateI]

If anybody has a hidden immunity idol and would like to play it, tonight is the last night you may do so.

Spoiler:

No one plays a hidden immunity idol.

I'll read the votes.

Spoiler:

Het

Spoiler:

DeasVail

Spoiler:

Het

Spoiler:

Het, the tribe has spoken. You're the penultimate juror.

It's time for your Final Immunity Challenge.

Immunity Challenge 20

This challenge, in addition to being the last one, will test your ability to do a series of things online. This gauntlet will test a lot of the skills you've gained this game.

There is an element of time to this challenge. There is a heavy element of accuracy to this challenge. And in the end, only one of you will win the guaranteed chance to plead your case to the jury. Someone else will be voted out.

Speaking of pleading your case to the jury, here's how that will work. After this challenge and Tribal Council, you will get 24 hours. By the end of that time, you will need to submit your opening statement. Once the opening statements are posted, the jury will get to ask questions in this thread for 48 hours. In addition to answering questions during this time, you will have an additional 24 hours to clear things up, and submit your closing statements. Following that, the jury will have 24 hours to cast their votes for who should win Survivor: The Real Theme Was Inside Us All Along.

But that's all in the future. That has yet to be earned. So let's get to it. Your final challenge starts whenever you want to through this form, but you must finish within the next (expired on 2020-01-30 19:00:00).

[ScootsBaboo]

Rabble rabble

[PrivateI]

There are only three more times we'll be revealing unknown outcomes in this game, each more important than the last. For one of you, you've just won the chance to plead your case to the jury of folks you've had a hand in eliminating. In a few days, one final person will have come so close to the end of this game, but see their chances cut short...

But never mind that, let's get to it.

Let's first reveal the times for this challenge. Who took awhile to think, and who sped through this?

Spoiler: ScootsBaboo

57:22

Spoiler: DeasVail

1:07:21

Spoiler: Zoraster

45:21

Spoiler: Bellaphant

58:13

Now, it's time to reveal how many points you accrued. Remember, you get one point per question answered correctly, but lose one quarter point per question answered incorrectly.

Spoiler: ScootsBaboo

15.25

Spoiler: DeasVail

19.25

Spoiler: Zoraster

18.75

Spoiler: Bellaphant

19.75

Spoiler: Final Results

With that...Bella! Wins immunity! Wins a spot in the Final Three! For one of you, you're about to be eliminated a hairsbreadth from the Final Three in a 32 player game. I wish you luck.

You have until (expired on 2020-02-01 19:00:00) to cast your votes. For three of you, it will be the last vote you cast this game. For one of you, you'll still get to cast a vote from the jury.

Good luck.

[PrivateI]

Here are the correct scores--please forgive me.

Scoots--12.25
DeasVail--16.25
Zoraster--15.75
Bellaphant--18.75

Results still stand and nothing changes.

[Cheery Dog]

Time to find out the last jury member?

Spoiler: Idols?

Of course not they've not valid here, if you had one it's not getting accepted/

Spoiler: First Vote

DeasVail

Spoiler: Second Vote

SccotsBaboo

Spoiler: Third Vote

SccotsBaboo

Spoiler: Fourth Vote

DeasVail

Spoiler: 8th and last member of the jury

Not found yet, there's a tie.

24 hours for a revote. Remember that only the two players in the tie can be voted for, and the two of them may not vote.

Due in: (expired on 2020-02-02 21:00:00)

[PrivateI]

It's time to come to a close.

DeasVail.

DeasVail.

DeasVail, with two votes, you become the twenty-ninth person voted out of this game. You're the final member of the jury.

A jury which has been eagerly awaiting their time to shine.

Bellaphant, ScootsBaboo, Zoraster. The three of you have gone as far as you can possibly go in a grueling three month ordeal. Now, the power shifts to the jury. You have 24 hours to finish crafting an opening statement, then questioning will begin tomorrow at this time.

Post them in your confessionals, and clearly mark your final submissions. The end is here, and you may find that this game...has just gotten started.

As always, best of luck.

[PrivateI]

Let's get to it. I've randomized the order of the opening statements. First, I'll post Bellaphant's, then ScootsBaboo's, then Zoraster's. Once Zoraster's speech is posted, jurors, feel free to question the players to your heart's content, right here in this thread.

[PrivateI]

Social

I came into this game with one goal: tell the truth and be nice to people. As much as is possible in a large social game that’s based on making friends, working together and then slowly eliminating them, I feel pleased that I’ve achieved that.

First impressions are important: although I’m not sure the alliance suggested by Zor (him and the three most social people on our starting tribe) in the early days of the game was ever imagined by anyone to lead here, I knew I had one thing on my side - my social skills. I used these to create important relationships early on that would be beneficial to me later, specifically in DV, Scoots, Brom and Zor. Later, the tribe swaps led me to Pants, Vash and Het.

Due to the way the game and challenges were structured, I made it to the tribe before merge without too much drama (and only two tcs that ended up in an elimination!). I was able to work on deepening the bonds I had, from looking at Scoots’ improv group to sharing baby pics. However, I didn’t sit idle during this time: I was watching, planning. I’d seen Pants try to push an agenda against what should have been an ally in the Brom vote and get eliminated for it, I’d watched Kilby cause drama and suspicion, I’d watched (and heard about) Haschel and Zor making waves. And I’d heard, endlessly, about the cabal, about the clique. This thing I didn’t even know existed until Entreri and Bro came and told me I was leading it. With my grand total two TCs. It was frustrating, it was upsetting (I hated passionately the idea that other people would be targeted because of a perceived relationship with me), but it was also enlightening: my name, whether rightly or not, meant something. And it meant I had to be careful.

One of the biggest criticisms that can be levelled at my game is, ‘What did she do? What did she do apart from be Bella?’ And my response is twofold: firstly, what could I do? If I pushed, if I made waves, my threat level goes from theoretical to literal. Second, ‘be Bella’ is exactly what I’m good at: making relationships, getting people to care about me, but also at getting what I want slowly, and carefully.


Strategic

For me, strategy only really kicked off in the merge. Before that, my aim was to get there with relationships, and with options. But I also came in with people who, for one reason or another, didn’t want me to progress. The initial merge dynamic looks, from the outside, like it was easy for me: an alliance with Vash, Het and Haschel, three people from my starting tribe, etc, but it didn’t feel that way. There were less places to hide and I felt a lot of tension. I didn’t feel like I was in many people’s endgame plans. Some people were clear about it - Menno, especially, I felt would keep voting for me ‘til I was gone - but some relationships made me feel shaky. The two people it felt the most natural to work with, with my pre-game relationships, Haschel and Radja, started behaving in ways that made me anxious.

I looked elsewhere for those bonds and found them in people like Zor, who I’d not spoken to since our first tribe, in Het, Vash, people whose goals aligned with mine. They were also, for the first few rounds, people I could let take the limelight while we voted out people that were bad for my game. It proved to be the correct strategy when DK came to me to say my name was ‘leading their vote’, when I had deliberately been a follower that round. The conversation that followed was massively important to me, personally - I also want you to know I kept my promise there. This vote also confirmed to me that what people said about you was vitally important - sometimes perception is reality.

The Haschel and Radja votes were (almost) the most difficult for me emotionally, but totally the thing my game needed. However, they were also votes I feel the most responsible for - I didn’t scream and shout, I didn’t cause a wave that would wipe me out, I started quiet and socially, planting the seeds of my frustrations and confusions with their decisions rounds before the votes happened. I took a lot of risks being honest with people this game, but it also meant that people knew where I stood, consistently.

Which is also why the Vash vote was hard. I reacted the way people thought I would - emotionally. And the game nearly changed here: I was so frustrated with the way the round went down that I voted for Ent, knowing it would change nothing, but unable to vote ‘correctly’ for my friend. I was tempted here, so so tempted to blow up my own game: to target Zor and Het (who I felt had let me down, when in hindsight the blame lay with Radja), but that left me in a much more vulnerable place. However, by being upfront, but also by keeping a careful eye on the game, I came out of that round in a better place, with an f4 deal that, although didn’t come to fruition, took me to f5. It also took me to a place where I cemented my relationship with DV - truly, the nicer version of me.


From there, I got an endgame I wanted - a bigger strategic threat in Het, a bigger social threat in DV, an f2 with Zor, and Scoots, who’s day one bond with me kept me going in the moments the game was tough. I also navigated the FTC I wanted, which I’m personally really proud of. Throughout the game I did what I set out to do and it got me exactly where I needed to be.


Structural

….



Only joking, guys (sorry, Het, DK, Scoots, it’s a meme, blame Haschel). It’s more social.

(Although, my totally average challenge performances worked with the structure of the game to avoid most TCs, I managed the ‘push the button’ situation by having my whole tribe tell me whether they did the challenge or not (and Scoots giving me a fairly large clue to the location of the idol), and I won two immunity challenges in the merge!! (That means a lot to me. Especially as at least three of the other challenges made me cry with how annoyed I was at being useless!)

Socially, the game has been massively important to me: it’s been a year of growing and then having a baby, of my mum spending the first six months of Micah’s life in a cancer ward, of me disconnecting from a lot of the things I used to do. Having an opportunity to socialise, to use my brain, to engage with something at 3am while feeding a baby has meant the world to me.

It also was massively important to me to do the social things that a non-anon game allows: look at Zor’s wife’s Insta, discuss Ent’s Fire Emblem feelings, swapping baby photos with Haschel, learning Menno’s real name! I’ve loved these conversations and getting to know you all. It also makes me proud that I didn’t take the ‘easy’ route, that I made those new connections, that I got to f5 with three people I didn’t know a few months ago, which is truly what LSGs should be.

Thank you, everyone, for making this a great game.

[PrivateI]

Hi everyone!
I've loved playing this game with all of you over these 3 (!!!???) months, and I can't believe it's almost over!
OK, let's get right to it: I believe have played an impressive, well-rounded, solid game, especially for a first timer. If a winning Survivor game is to be divided into social, strategic, and physical, I believe I have a winning combination of all those three things!

1.) Physical. This part speaks for itself. No one has won more immunities than I have, both pre and post merge. In premerge you may have chalked it up to luck that I avoided tribal council 8 out of 11 possible times, but on every tribe I was on, my challenge scores were consistently above average. After merge, I won immunity for 4 different votes in 3 different challenges, often by quite a large margin. It also proved invaluable in breaking the tie vote against DV, as it made a tie-breaker challenge seem like a foregone conclusion.

2.) Social. This, I believe has been my strongest asset, and I knew it would be going in. Though this is my first ORG, I'm very much a people person, and I knew that that would be superpower. My ability to get people to trust me and want to work with me, as well as my stellar mastery of "vibes" (as many of you have heard me put it) have been indispensable throughout the entire stretch of the game. I voted every single one of you out, and I'm sure a few of you feel betrayed by me. That is the byproduct of a superior social game, where up until maybe an hour before the vote at most, many if not all of you thought I was working with you. A testament to my strong social game is that I made it through the entire premerge without getting a single vote.

3.) Strategic. It might have been wisest to bury my 'weakest' asset in the middle between my two strongest, but I wanted to end on this one, and here's why: It wasn't my weakest! I knew going into this that I would be playing at a 'disadvantage' as far as strategic gameplay goes. I was one of the few players who'd never so much as watched an ORG before, and I had absolutely no idea how they worked. But I had a gameplan, as I wrote in one of my first confessionals: "I have no experience with ORGS, but I am a massive Survivor fan, and I'm a good conversationalist. I'm trying to present the version of myself to my tribe that would get assigned to the Brawn or Beauty tribe (Zumba Instructor, social butterfly, bartender, funny), and not the side of me that would be on the Brains tribe (Great at puzzles, NYT Saturday crossword personal best of 8:18)." For me, my strategy was all about managing my perception perfectly.

I leaned into my perceived strategic weakness, and it worked. Throughout most of the game, I was cultivating a perception of myself as a player who was a threat to no one, a friendly vote you wanted on your side. In the beginning of the game, it was through my friendliness and 'newness'. Throughout the rest of the premerge it was my personality and connections, and at the merge it was through my being 'on the outs from that Brom vote (though that was never true). Thanks to a combination of my strategic and social gameplay, I was able to be in a spot throughout most of the merge where it literally didn't matter who went home because I had set up paths forward in every scenario. There was a point in the game were more than half of the remaining players had approached me with secret final 2 deals.


All in all, I played a really strong, well-rounded game that I'm really proud of, and I hope you all saw it, or can see it now. I look forward to answering all of your questions, and I hope I can get your vote!

[PrivateI]

Introduction

I want to thank everyone here -- Bella, Scoots, The Jury, prejury, mods and spectators -- for making this such a wonderful and fun experience. I tend to keep people on the site as an arm’s length a lot of times, and this was an opportunity that I really relished to get to know people quite a lot in an atmosphere that was very different than the normal experience I get.

I approached this game very purposefully. I thought hard about how to approach it before the game even started. I committed to it. No one worked harder at this game. At one point I woke my wife up at 2am sleep-yelling about tiebreakers. It took me 8 hours to make sure that I kept Kanye out of my Zone. I got up early in the morning to make sure I could talk to people in other time zones. All so that I would have the opportunity to execute my game plan.

Game Plan

I played this game with a two-pronged strategy from the very beginning.

• Establish strong, real
  individual relationships
  with people I wanted to work with and
  avoid
  large alliances that I’d be dispensable to.
• Manage
  threat levels
  -- both my own and others’ in order to assure that the relationships formed worked for me.

Relationships

I wanted to form individual and small group relationships with people to avoid large alliances where I could be an easy, convenient vote later. As someone who doesn’t have the built-in relationships that many people do from the start of the game, I knew that was a distinct issue for me.

I made connection after connection in this game, often coming in at a disadvantageous position where I needed to make those connections quickly. I know Bella and Scoots are the more naturally social players here. It’s impossible not to like them, and I respect the hell out of that ability. But I think I surprised people by making connections that lasted and worked again and again, and it put me in the position I am now at the finale, despite heading to TC more than any other player in the game (Bella went 11 times, Scoots 13 and I went

18

out of 21).

I could go into exhaustive detail, but here’s a

very

brief summary of the important bonds I made that allowed me to control and drive this game:

• Tribe 1, I created what would become the Final 4 by organizing an alliance of
  DV
  ,
  Bella
  , and
  Scoots
  . This wasn’t that important for the alliance itself (we never mentioned it after the first tribe) than it was as a jumping off spot for me to form a close bond with each of those three people individually and bring them forward to the end.
  
• Vash
  and I established a relationship that started in tribe 2 and grew each time we were together into a full fledged strategic relationship.
  
• Haschel
  and
  het
  were both
  crucial
  relationships I gained in Tribe 3 with the IPS and utah votes.
  
• Entreri
  was a slower burn but by the time we found ourselves in our final pre-merge tribal, we had really established a good relationship together that allowed me to make sure the votes were there for the Menno and Haschel votes.
  
• DK
  and I had a tumultuous but amazing relationship that began with Tribe 2 but really kickstarted in Tribe 5.
  
• In that same tribe (Tribe 5),
  Radja
  and I started a fantastic surreptitious relationship together when he was theoretically (but not really) on the outs after bro/kilby left.

I was able to use these relationships to both target others as well as

insulate

me from being targeted. I was definitely

not

UTR, but nobody wanted to go after me. Even when the barest whiff of being targeted occurred, those who were close to me made sure I was never in real danger.

Threat Levels

As someone who exerted a lot of control over the game via my relationships -- sometimes from the front, many times using an appropriate ally to go after a target -- I had to manage my threat level as well as the threat level of those around me carefully. I did so in the following ways:

• Highlighted my weakness at challenges, despite only being weak at timed puzzles.
  
• To some I pretended to have less game knowledge than I did (e.g. Radja, Entreri) to make them think I relied on them.
  
• Convinced Bella it was dangerous to take other “social” stars (“Sweethearts”) to the end rather than someone like me. I played up my analytical “robotic” side to achieve this, leading to being picked to go to FTC despite having (I believe) the strongest game. I worked on this for
  weeks
  .
  
• Worked tirelessly to raise other people’s threat level to make sure there were enough people in front of me: Het was going to win the game; DK was amazing and dangerous; Menno was a challenge threat; Haschel was a social
  and
  challenge threat. All compliments. All true. All designed to raise the threat level of people I knew would eventually need to be removed.

A Quick Note About Challenges

I did not excel at the timed puzzle challenges that were prevalent in this game. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that the actual individual immunity challenges won were a count of Scoots: 3, Zoraster: 2 and Bella: 2 (Radja also had 2). In addition, I finished second at the F9 challenge in a timed puzzle and 4th at F11. So while Scoots is the undisputed Puzzle Wizard, things were really not that far apart on that front as they seemed even though I made sure that everyone knew I was “bad at challenges.”

Players of the Jury

I know this is a lot and I don’t expect you to read every spoiler unless you want to, but playing with each of you was an honor, and everyone who made the Top 11 out of 32 (!!) deserves to have their game discussed individually.

Spoiler: DK/Jamelia

DK

You’re awesome. I loved talking to you. You so obviously have a natural charm that draws me in. But lots of people are charming -- you’re one of a kind so far as the ability to control a game goes. It has nothing to do with what Bro told me (I mentioned Bro told me that in order to get you to target Bro). I still think I only see the top of the iceberg for you, but even that is enough to really stand in awe. You would get me twisted around. You’d get me voting one person and then suddenly the target is another person I didn’t want to go and only THEN would the target somehow shift onto the unlikely person you really wanted gone. The way you used the information I told you was just masterful.

Of course, I did manage to pull one over on you with the pants vote, and that stands out as a true highlight in the game. It both saved DV and got rid of pants, which were both essential to my success in the game. But it also scared the crap out of me because I was able to have a relationship with you up to that point by being someone you could use really well and I was worried you would turn on me pretty soon. In fact, I spent so long getting the Kanye Zone immunity because I was worried that if you had immunity you’d use your idol on someone to idol me out. I was probably being paranoid, but you with an idol wigged me out.

For what it’s worth, while I didn’t know 100% that you had the idol until Scoots told me (after I leaked you/pants were targeting Brom), I suspected you had it. I did so because when you denied having it you said that you couldn’t get under “like 25 minutes.” Doing the puzzle once (to screenshot it) makes sense, but the implication was that you kept trying and getting times in the 20s, but that didn’t make sense when the cut-off was 12 minutes. Instead, I think someone who didn’t use the method of pausing and screenshotting would have told me what PERCENT he got by the 12 minute mark.

I didn’t enter into the merge thinking I would immediately want you gone if I felt isolated. I thought your brand of play could come in handy if I could be your compatriot, but I always intended on turning on you before you turned on me. So when I was able to reestablish my dormant relationships upon merge, Vash pushed you and I embraced it. As a fan of the game, I’m sad this happened during a vacation for you because I’m sure you could have made things happen otherwise. As your opponent, I think I dodged a bullet.

Spoiler: McMenno

McMenno

Upon merge a confessional entry of mine:

McMenno is the most dangerous player for Zoraster. He has no allegiance to me and he is a challenge beast. If we make it to the end, he will be hard to get out because of immunity, he will gladly cut me, and he will have other allies.

I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to play with you (or PJ for that matter!) before the merge. I knew by the time the merge happened that it wasn’t going to work with me. So to get this vote, I went around to everyone and told them we should hold the DV vs. Haschel 1v1 for at least one vote to get us all closer to the end and go after you. It was a good thing because if you had won that 2x2 immunity twist, I would have had difficulty surviving.

Spoiler: Haschel

Haschel

Getting to know you better was one of the surprise pleasures of the game. Obviously we had “worked” together before, but we didn’t have a

friendship

. I’m glad this game changed that as I’m richer for it.

You were with me for three of my favorite votes this game: utah, bro, kilby. You helped me or I helped you (however you want to look at that) pull those off, and really against the odds I think. You helped me pull in het, who became my biggest thought partner in the game. I’m not sure I’d be here without you, and my game owes a lot to you.

But you were also the person I think who probably saw through my game the most.

On two instances, you went after allies of mine who weren’t close to you -- Vash in Tribe 4 and DV upon merge. Maybe it had nothing to do with me, but I think you knew that if you took out my legs (the close relationships I had formed with those outside of the ones I had

with

you) I would be hobbled and need to work with you closely in a way I did not otherwise. Fortunately, I was able to stave off these attacks. And although I had a ton of fondness for you in the game and our time together, that meant I really needed you gone in order for my own game to flourish.

Spoiler: Vash

Vash

I didn’t expect to vote you out at F8. But the twist came, and I saw pretty much immediately if the two “Gods” agreed on someone, I needed to embrace it or risk going out myself -- adaptability is crucial in Survivor. And I knew when Radja got immunity, you were likely the chosen one. I was sorry to see you go because we had an awesome game plan ready. It’s possible I wouldn’t have carried that through to the end with you because I was hoping to get the f4 I did end up bringing to the end, but it was an option I was taking very seriously, particularly if immunities fell in certain ways.

With the benefit of hindsight, I think you are a miscounted 2 away from being the

most likely winner of the game.

I see it this way: If you had won that immunity, you would have had it with Scoots and Radja would have been vulnerable. I think you would have targeted Radja first. And then I think het goes instead of Ent. If I get immunity again at f6, Scoots likely goes. At that point my game becomes VERY one dimensional and relies entirely on you. Maybe I get to the end with you maybe not, but I would not have had much of a case to make.

Additionally, you played such a great UTR to Champion game. Pre-merge was all survival and keeping your head down despite being in some numerically disadvantageous positions. And then suddenly merge happens and you’re out there making moves against a huge target in DK. You plan the game out with me. Etc. I would have happily voted for you to win at the end.

If not for the twist, things look a little different, but you still would have had such a strong case. So I’m fortunate in many ways you went when you did.

Spoiler: Entreri

Entreri

Yours is the most complicated message I have because unlike other instances where I played up or played down the true aspects of one’s game, what I THOUGHT of your game vs. what I SAID about your game were two completely different things.

We had what I believe was a good relationship that we slowly developed over time. It wasn’t that clear to me in the first tribe we were in, but by the final pre-merge tribe I realized that we had come to trust each other.

I thought your game was a pretty excellent under the radar game. There was a perception out there that you’d be easy to beat at the end, but that’s

exactly

what an under the radar game is supposed to make people think. But I see a pretty clear winning game argument. “I was targeted over and over again and you know who’s here? I am. You know who isn’t? Those people.” And the truth is you were perfectly set up for a strong end game where YOU controlled the game, and that’s the message that would be imprinted on everyone’s mind.

So you were pretty dangerous for me once we got into that mid-merge time period because (a) clearly there were people -- my allies! -- who DID want to take you to the end and (b) even if I got to the end WITH you, you’d be a large danger to win against me.

I’m sure there are people out there reading this saying, “that’s not what he told me!” Well yeah.

The problem with the UTR game from my standpoint was how to attack it so that people took it seriously. If I simply talked about how I actually felt about your game, I was never going to get anywhere. People probably would have somewhat agreed with me, but in a game that was full of big targets by design, people would have essentially told me to wait it’ll be fine later.

So in comparison to het, where I elevated his already high chances of victory at the end to make sure my allies were willing to target him, I played on people’s fears that EVERYONE wanted to take you to the end because you were beatable. I even said things like, “Well X I want to go to the end with you, but if Ent’s there I worry that you’ll take him. Heck, I’d take him.” And this proved pretty effective in getting the votes on you that I needed. But perhaps even more importantly it gave me cover to vote for you in a way that wouldn’t annoy my allies so much that they turned on me because, after all, I was doing this vote so that I had a clearer path to the end with them.

But what really solidifies my view of you as a real gamer who was intentionally playing UTR was the way you scrambled at the end, which was very convincing. You put me at ease going forward with you such that -- despite not being in my best interests -- I was willing to raise the idea with my allies, but ultimately the case for voting you was too strong and you had to go home.

Spoiler: Radja

Radja

This was Final 6 and really down to the knitty gritty. At this point it became clear that the vote was going to be between the two allies I had who were head and shoulders over the rest of us in most challenges (you and Scoots). Het and I had a joint alliance with both Scoots and Radja at this point. The way I chose which way to go was on the basis of (a) who was going to TAKE me to the end and (b) who was most likely to BEAT me at the end. With no disrespect to Scoots, I had talked enough with both Vash and you about previous games including survivormeet to know that one of the ways you perform so well is by playing a game that revolves around dropping the right alliance members of yours at the right time. And it was always an uphill climb for you to argue that you were willing to follow my lead more than Scoots was.

During the F9 vote, you talked to me and het about how you wanted to take out Bella before f5. Realizing that this F6 vote might need to come, I eventually planted the seed for Bella to want you out by telling her that you wanted her out before F5. This led to her pushing hard for you to go out once you were available at F6, which is exactly what I needed to make the vote happen.

Playing with you was a pleasure. Putting together what was clearly a very difficult to detect alliance with you when you were theoretically “on the outs” on the tribe where bro and hiplop went was fantastic. When we were really able to chat it was a lot of fun, and I love the way you view the game.

Spoiler: Het

Het

My partner in crime. An incredibly hard vote for me to make, and yet the most inevitable. I had been planning this vote since near when we really became what was an awesome pairing. You and I were just on the same page about the game, how we read it, and how to approach it. However, I knew you were going to win this game if you made it to the end.

One particular example that shows both how GOOD you are at this game as well as how I worked hard to eventually get the better of you was the formation of Scoot’s Pilgrims vs. the Game (an awesome alliance name if i don’t say so myself): You and I talked and you suggested that we bring in het into a 3 person alliance. I was already pretty close to Scoots so I said yes, but we didn’t want him to feel like he was number 3. In a genius move, you had ME talk to him about it instead of you, which made me feel like I was the one “running” that relationship.

I talked to Scoots, he was excited about the idea, etc. I told him the same thing I told you which was “hey, we should be careful though because we don’t want het to feel like he’s number 3 so we need to think about how to approach him.”

And this is where Scoots gave it away.

10:07pm

he tells me “I can manage it.” I tell him, “awesome!”

10:10pm

Scoots writes to me to say “well I think that went well.” From my confessional that day:

Scoots is like "oh yeah. I can do it!" then takes approximately 3 minutes to think about it, approach het, then report back to me that it went well and everything is established!!! He's not even like "okay, it sounds like het is in and I'm talking to him now" he says it "went well" Finished. Done. Task completed. I know he's a fast puzzle solver, but this strains credulity. So one or a combination of a few things is going on:

1. He jumped the gun and started talking to het about forming the 3-some before we established Scoots should do it.
2. Scoots was reporting back to het the entire time I was talking to Scoots about the alliance offer because Scoots views het as his #1.
3. het and Scoots FROM THE FREAKING START planned out this alliance, talked about how they needed to make me feel good with it, how they should make me approach Scoots, etc.

If it's 1, that shows an eagerness from Scoots that might be somewhat typical, but is concerning. But it seems unlikely that he'd just go out and do it if het isn’t already his #1.

I think it's 2 or 3. I'm not sure which. If it's 3, het is just so

good

at this, and I sincerely hope that if I'm voted out that he wins (going to assume this is het's work because it's much more het-like than Scoot-like). If it's just 2, I'm STILL third man on that totempole at least as regards to Scoots, but het sure didn't TELL me that Scoots was reporting to him about the conversation. That's

okay

and I understand why both are clinging to each other, but I'm sure this wasn't their intention.

And it's not like I can be upset with this because this is EXACTLY what I strive to achieve. But I need to work to create separation between those two or it’ll be a serious problem down the line.

So regardless of what option it was (and I still don’t know), one thing was clear and that was that at the very least Scoots viewed

YOU

as his #1, whether or not you reciprocated. So I told Scoots two things: (1) of course we don’t

really

want to go to the end with het because he’ll beat us and then (2) when he asked why I said

het has a way of making me feel like I’m his number one.

And that seemed to sink in and Scoots basically confirmed it by saying “he also inspires that feeling of loyalty in me and makes you feel like you’re his number 1.” It wasn’t until Vash told him later that he thought you were going to win too (in order to get Scoots to vote you instead of Vash at f8) that Scoots was ready to talk about eventually voting you off, but it was the seed of doubt that I was able to use to separate you from Scoots and use him later to take you out at f5.

Anyway, I went on a long time in that story but there are so many others where we worked so well together to work and control this game. You were amazing. I think you know you would have been

very

hard for me to beat. The only way I outmaneuvered you was managing threat levels better. Otherwise you were awesome, and I can’t imagine it’ll be long before you win.

PS. I’ve hated not having you on. I’m like… 25 episodes into S5 Love Island UK and it’s

terrible

but I can’t stop watching and I have THOUGHTS about Sequester.

Spoiler: DV

DV

If het was my partner in crime, you were my best friend in this game. I know many others feel that way too when they play with you because you’re a great guy, but it’s still the case. It’s because of that that I convinced myself you were a similar threat as Scoots at the end, and so allowing you to get into a tiebreaker challenge was something worthwhile.

But on Sunday morning I laid awake in bed at 5:45am, I really realized, “god. No. there’s no way I can let him get a chance at the end.” Your game was great, and while I think I had a strong case to make at the end if you were there, I realized it wasn’t a minor difference in win chance with Scoots but quite a large one. Yes, you didn’t always get your way in the game, but it was clear to everyone that despite being close to me that you were your own player. You kept blood off your hands while using me in front. No one really thought to take you out until f4 other than Haschel at f9/10 and you weren’t in any danger there. Also, if I let you get to a tie breaker and you beat Scoots in a challenge to get to FTC, that would be a HUGE boon for your game.

You were so important to my game. I learned a lot from you about how these games work early on and that allowed me to really execute what my vision for this game was.

Conclusion

I would like nothing more than to make this longer and go into blow-by-blows of each move I set up, planned and executed: ips, utah, overkill, bro, kilby, pants (my flashiest move), brom, dk, menno, haschel, radja, het. But many of you in the jury know about these because you took part in them, and I don’t want to bog this down further. Please don’t hesitate to ask though!

Bella and Scoots have my respect and love and would make fine winners. Getting to know them was truly special, and I am proud to share the metaphorical stage with them.

But I hope I’ll get your vote because I believe I’ve played the best game here. I’ve outwitted my opponents by continually being one step ahead. I’ve outplayed by executing my original game plan and by controlling the game. And I’ve outlasted by creating relationships that both protected me from threats and allowed me to take out threats.

[PrivateI]

The floodgates are open, the table is set. The Final Tribal Council...has begun.