Hey D3f! Sorry it took me so long to answer. I have been super busy but also I wanted to really think about this question.
What I did differently? (strategic, social, structural)
I really don’t want this to come off as cocky but I have always been a pretty solid survivor player. Medevac was my first anon survivor game and still to this day overall my best game I think. In games I often have extremely high moments where I am dominating the game and then some lows where my back is up against a wall. Medevac a lot went right for me. I was in control for most game. For those who know nothing about medevac, think of it like I was Awoo in this game but when I got in trouble I idol’d out the biggest threat and carried on to make it to the end and win. Each game I play, despite if I won or not I try to learn from my experiences. There were quite a bit of similarities from that game to this but also some differences ill get into.
Strategic-
This was my first real game so I can say while I played a dominating game I wasn’t the refined player I am now. Strategically in that game I picked one path and ran with it, if it didn’t work I would be scrambling to come up with another idea. A lot of things worked that game but I didn’t have many backup plans. Most rounds this game I was planning in advance what my options were, what other people would want, what I could reasonably do, if people needed me as a vote, making sure there were targets ahead of me so that if I did find myself in a bad position I was able to get out of it. In medevac I wasn't quite able to think of the game fully in that way and honestly I just was a new cocky player thinking everything would work out for me
Social
– Medevac is where I learned my social approach to games. The best friend, the goons, the shield strategy came from this game and each time I play I add to this. I probably could have a decent survivor guide at this point lol I did lose allies that game that I have learned how to manage a lot better. I had an ally flip on me because they saw me as a threat, didn’t think we were equal but back then I very boldly told them why they were wrong and I was quite an aggressive player.
Going to bring it back to this game a bit. I learned that, telling someone what to do in the game of survivor rarely works out. I am just gonna to use this as an example here for discussion purposes
In this FTC ari stated the following:
“
But Skrew, Summer did not play me in this game and I chose to make every move I made. I was not even consulting Summer for most of them other than to tell her where we were at and what we were doing. She did not control me. She did not control the game. I did.”
In medevac when I told someone what to do and I didn’t consult them I learned very quickly that it is a horrible way to get someone to do what you want. When manipulating people its about making them think they came up with the idea, that they have control. I think I did that a lot this game quite well, especially with ari and I didn’t do that in medevac. This answer does play into something Skrew asked me so I am going to expand on it in that question !! but socially in medevac, I didn’t quite understand how to talk to people I was trying to manage. Its really hard to do, and I think I did that this game much better. If you tell someone without asking them for their input, or just saying you have an idea and you want them to go along with it, A LOT of the times that isnt going to work out because
1) no one wants to be told what to do - people at the very least want the illusion of control.
2) it makes them feel like a not valuable ally - "why did they come up with this without talking to me and seeing what I want" "do I even MATTER to them?"
thats what happens. I had made this mistake in medevac, I was thinking mostly about what I wanted and how I could get it, often not factoring in how other people would perceive those words. I told people what to do and thought I could get away with it and I lost a goat ally because of it.
Structure
- Medevac had a stamina twist that meant the structure of the game was very important to play to. I always look to use everything I can to my advantage and I have ALWAYS done this but I can say now, in this game, I relied less on idols, advantages and challenges. As long as Malkon didn’t win the FIC I think I was always making it to the end. At final 5 I proved I didn’t need immunity. I kept my idol until the last possible moment where I didn’t need to play it, the kayne idol never came out so my idol nullifier was never needed. I think immuntiies and advantages are important parts of the game but people often say I “rely on them” and “could never get to the end if I didn’t have idols/immuntiies” that way of thinking was true for medevac for better or worse. I don’t think that applies to this game, they helped me out a lot! I put a lot of work into having multiple ways to survive and play from a positon of power this game, and I think that is quite different than my first game in medevac.
thanks for the fun question! its been a while since I have thought about that game and brought back some good memories
also fun fact @haschel almost beat me and snuck out the win that game! (forever being a thorn in my side
) xoxo
sorry
