{Survivor: Names Are Hard Island} ~ GG

[xRECKONERx]

Thanks bud.

I made the mistake of thinking Star and Doge were on my side. I thought that at the very least, Star would be seen as the bigger threat than me and be my meat shield, but Doge and Dave wanted to take me out first. I don't know how else to play the game, I really went all out here since I'm retiring from playing, and even my 110% wasn't quite enough.

Excellent game, though, loved it.

[xRECKONERx]

lmao

Drench's post in his confessional when he figured me out... you fuckins lut

[xRECKONERx]

holy shit I'm top 10!? what the fuck

I don't even know what 8 games I have played? Uhhh DW, NAH, Conclave... uh... Chevre's Botswana game? That's all I remember

[xRECKONERx]

god i hate you xof

[xRECKONERx]

jk, you played me like a fiddle,

[xRECKONERx]

I still don't get how this game is anything but a popularity contest. Or how obvious scum like Simba got to MYLO.. There's a lot of the game that spectating just doesn't get to see.

I mean, it's Survivor... popularity and social manipulation is literally the point of the game.

TBH, I think this game in particular was really hard to see from a spectator perspective because the confessionals were lacking content.

I think my "obvious power" was exaggerated quite a bit by people in order to make it harder for me to win the game. Frenchie basically built that lie and people bought into it... the only people I thought I had control over were Doge & Star, and they both were working against me from basically the start of the merge. My only "power" at merge came from being persuasive and likable enough to the other players to make backstabbing me a harder thing to do, which is the only reason I came in 4th and not 8th.

To be honest, this game was super bizarre in that merge had a bit of "dead weight". I don't mean that they were bad players, but that there were several low-activity, low-impact players at merge, while a ton of high impact, big players were eliminated pre-merge (and I usually don't see that happen). I mean, god, every Nerds TC was a complete clusterfuck where the momentum shifted several times, and that NEVER happens. Val was a favorite to win the game and got completely blindsided WITH AN IDOL IN HER POSSESSION, which is just absolutely nuts. I think this game had a lot more turmoil than most games. There was no "dominant group" or anything. Almost every person was working both for and against the same people.

Drench played a masterful game, really, by being a huge social threat. He strategically used the right people to get information then turned when it was no longer valuable, and nobody caught on until it was too late.

xofelf also did a fantastic job with her UTR game, and I originally was voting Dave over Star. It was that close. In retrospect, I can appreciate how nonthreatening xofelf made Dave appear and how it was all an act to get as far as possible. Dave almost won the damn game, simply because xofelf had everyone convinced that Dave was the easiest person to beat in FTC, when in actuality, that strategy in and of itself was great.

Mist, I feel, made a huge mistake not taking out Drench in F4... and that was honestly the only shot at Star not winning. I don't think I would've been able to justify my post-merge play as anything other than reacting to shit and trying to survive. I made no "big plays". Star was a big threat, especially with how he was playing everyone, and the fact Doge didn't see the Dave/Star duo thing until it was too late was unfortunate. Had Doge gone to F3 with me/Dave, there's no situation in which he doesn't make FTC... and beating me or Dave is no harder than beating Star, PLUS Star was a proven challenge master.

TBH, looking at the jury now, there's no way I could've made it to FTC, I don't think. Had I stuck with Frenchie, maybe, but that would be a long shot, and no way would I win in FTC against Frenchie.

[xRECKONERx]

It really did feel like, ok lets eliminate the new guys and get to the real game. As the new guys didn't know about this early game ritual where you talk about nonsense to prove you're invested in the game.

Uh I had no idea any of you were newbies and it wasn't like that at all? Shit, I even tried to help Heisenberg by telling him he was sort of alienating people with his distant posting style.

[xRECKONERx]

I decided you would be an easy person to boot because you weren't gelling with people. Shit, I even tried to help you man... but I'm not going to be particularly lovely towards someone who, when I send him a nice greeting and try to form a common bond over Breaking Bad, responds with like a one-word answer.

[xRECKONERx]

Let's examine this:

STAY OUT OF MY TERRITORY!

Just kidding, you're welcome on Brode Island.

So how's it going? Happy with our tribe?

I picked you solely because anyone who likes Breaking Bad is an A+ in my book.

yeah, Actually you and Doge were at the top of my submitted 'snake'

internally: uh okay a one line response and nothing about Breaking Bad or any happy shit, he's just grumpy sorta? Maybe he's a newbie, lemme see...

Oh, for real? That's awesome! So how experienced are you with these here Survivor games?

What made you choose me/Doge?

Have you had any contact with the rest of our tribe yet?

*17 hours pass with nothing*

Hey man! Haven't heard from you -- how was your night/morning?

*9 more hours pass with nothing*

How do you feel we did in the challenge?

I think we did pretty well;
Apart from some luckier refreshes, I don't think our time will be easily be - we had a good system and everyone was responsive.

You did pretty well in organization in both challenges- have you talked alliances with anybody yet?

So -- from my perspective, you were abrasive/short from our very first PM together, then disappeared for over 24 hours in the very critical early stages of the game... and then want to know about alliances immediately upon sending your second actual PM. It had nothing to do w/ you being a newbie (I asked, you never responded) and had nothing to do with any alliances or anything. Early game is super critical and falling behind at all early can be devastating, especially considering how everyone early on just wants to push a consensus boot and not rock the boat.

[xRECKONERx]

oh from reading confessionals its certainly appeared that the game of survivor started in the midgame/after a few boots, but you need fake small talk to get there, which is fairly garbage.
It can't possibly be a coincidence that 5 newbies in a row were booted. Its not like we were all inactive/not invested in the game. I was invested/active I just didn't want to talk about people's lives outside the game.

Now that I know that is policy to look for an easy boot early from people that don't want fake conversations early -- I could be a better survivor player. I'm not just sure I want to since it was so unenjoyable for me.

What do you expect to happen early?

In those first 24-48 hours when you were inactive and not responding to anyone, I had already:
- Secured a trio alliance with Star & Doge
- Made a deal w/ Dave
- Buddied up to HTTP (and he asked me for an alliance)
- Started to circulate you + Jagger for possibilities for first vote (just by telling people I 'was not thrilled' with my convos so far)

The game was being played, it was just being played without you because you weren't around or communicating with anyone.

I was where you were back during... Conclave, maybe. I don't exactly remember. There was a game that happened where I was first boot or something and I was *shocked*, simply because I thought I was doing well with convos/keeping up, only to find out I had nothing on what the rest of my tribe was doing.

And I don't think it's newbie related. Last game, Hyrule, a newbie made it all the way to FTC, and another was a likely winner/favorite if she hadn't been blindsided due to her social threat.

[xRECKONERx]

Also, didn't a newbie win Doctor Who?

[xRECKONERx]

Marq is my hero. Reck is too good for me.

wha???

Also am I just not understanding what a 'pagong' actually is? Because everyone was crying about a pagong backstage but like... that was 100% not the case. I assumed 'pagong' just meant grouping up along tribal lines and systematically eliminating everyone outside the tribal alliance. While the F4 were all Brode Island, I don't think it was due to a pagong mentality, and was more that the four of us made individual plays that just so happened to work out.

I think the hardest part of this game for me is that... everyone is allied. Everyone. Fucking everybody is allied with fucking everybody. I don't get it. How did Star/Dave know that the F2 deal they made was going to be honored anymore than the five million other alliances/deals? I can never tell. Hell, I thought mine/Star's F2 was strong as fuck then he voted me off, so clearly I know nothing.

[xRECKONERx]

these fuckin mods all had me going out in the first 6 boots wtf

then i didnt and they started HATIN SO HARD