[Standard]Survivor: TRTWIUAA {Final Tribal Council}

[ScootsBaboo]

Hi friends on the REAL tribe! Just got out of an all day Zumba training so I am POOPED! Imagine my surprise to find that the game had begun. I have the whole day off tomorrow so I can’t wait to catch up with all of you. Please message me on discord @Ampaul6274. Do we have a The Real discord channel yet?

[ScootsBaboo]

Yeah, Discord isn't working for me at the moment either, Bellaphant

[ScootsBaboo]

For those following this saga but are not on my current tribe: I got a job! A really good one!

[ScootsBaboo]

I’m a server at this upscale casual place right in the financial district of Chicago! I’m so happy, it was my number 1 pick of the places I applied.

[ScootsBaboo]

Haschel! What's your Discord!? We're FINALLY on a tribe together!

[ScootsBaboo]

Wow I am not good at this one

[ScootsBaboo]

Rabble rabble

[ScootsBaboo]

Hi all! Just got out of the gym, going to make some dinner then get to typin.

[ScootsBaboo]

Scoots - Youre a great guy, and I wish you well in every aspect of life. But I can’t help but wonder if you’re asking us to give you extra points on your gameplay because you’re new. If we looked at everyone’s games on paper, and put yours next to Bella/Zoraster, do you believe you played better than them? If so, please specifically state why that is.

Thank you, you as well.
I didn't mean for it to come off that way. It's not "I played a great game

for a new player

. I played a great game period. I'm just saying I'm proud of myself.

Though I definitely played it up throughout the game to cozy up to people and gain information, I'm not trying to go for pity points now.

[ScootsBaboo]

i want to preface this that my vote is between bella and zor and im not really interested in voting ampaul - initially i was going to straight up vote bella but i see a possibility for a zor vote.

Is it because of my broken Dutch?!?!?

[ScootsBaboo]

i want to preface this that my vote is between bella and zor and im not really interested in voting ampaul - initially i was going to straight up vote bella but i see a possibility for a zor vote.

Is it because of my broken Dutch?!?!?

are you sure you want to know

I was joking

[ScootsBaboo]

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

I have a few moments I'm proud of, but the thing that I hang my hat on is the Jamelia Saga. Wayyyyyyy back during the idol hunt, I was (i think) the only one he trusted to let in that he had an idol, and I kept that secret for him because I wanted him onside. During the last swap before the merge, we finally came back together and things were different. My vibes were pinging wrong. I realized, how nice would it be fore Jamelia to go to the merge with no one knowing he has an idol? That was a huge incentive to vote me out. I told my alliance as soon as I knew that he had even floated my name out there. This changed the course of things entirely, basically forcing him to flush the idol at the last vote before merge and opening him up to be the first juror.
Even though after the merge, he tried to build a bridge with me, (I'm sorry Jamelia but I still don't believe you when you said you targeted me

after

I spilled the beans), again, the vibes were wrong. I did what I could to ensure that the vote remained on him. One of the ways was elevating his threat level, making people scared of him. He's a very good player, but I wanted to make him seem like and urgent threat. (DK, when you asked me why I told Bella I was "terrified" of you and I said I wasn't, I was telling the truth. I wanted other people to jump at the mysterious player who "apparently they've had to cast around in other ORGS.")

So from being seen as trustworthy enough to share info of an idol with, to reading the room correctly, to spilling the info at the right time thereby flushing an idol, to successfully pushing his vote, I'd say that is the move(s) I'm most proud of.

[ScootsBaboo]

I’ll also say that Bella/Scoots please be a lot more specific about what you did throughout the game because Zoraster just shat on y’all in his opening speech.

Sure! I didn't know how detailed I was expected to be in my opener, but I'll work on one, gimme a bit.

[ScootsBaboo]

Scoots - I enjoyed (finally) meeting you and we had some good conversations! However, when I sent you a promposal, you threw the corsage I bought in the garbage. Was there ever a chance of us at least riding in the limo together? If yes, why didn't we? If no, when did you make that decision?

Hasch! We definitely did have some good convos. I really do love bluegrass I wasn't just saying that. And I pressed those flowers!

I actually anticipated this question!
So I'll answer by zooming out a bit. I worry that there's a misunderstanding of exactly how loyal I was and how willing I was to work with people. You were not the only who promposed to me, and this roundabout answer will apply to everyone else who did as well:
Was there a chance? Yeah. Because of my challenge ability and my social strength, I didn't want to be viewed as a strategic threat as well, so I made sure to never be seen as pushing a vote. Often times I would lie to people and tell them that, by the time I had heard about the vote, there were already enough people to make it happen and it was out of my hands. That wasn't true even one time during the merge. I was always one of the first to hear about it, if not decide it myself. Even though I purposefully took a step back from a more survivor strategy, I was still in the thick of things. This served two purposes, minimizing my threat level as I wrote above, and (now we get to your question), making me seem like someone who could be convinced, who could be worked with. My strategy was all about keeping as many doors open as possible so that whatever happened in the game, I was good.

So, for every deal I had, I was in the limo until you were the target. Not because I was powerless to stop it, but because I had invites from so many people, I was gonna be at prom no matter which way the cookie crumbled.

[ScootsBaboo]

I wasn't targeting you, I was targeting the idea that you/brom/dv were sticking together, but my target was never you because of our relationship and you knowing I had the idol. You didn't "force" me to flush the idol, I had already decided to play the idol before all of this because I was going on vacation and everyone all game had figured I had it.

So wrong I guess

Oh I was just going off of what you told me
You told me in DMs "And I burned the idol because you told people I had it." and "it really fucked up my game when you told people that."

[ScootsBaboo]

Scoots, you focused on challenges in your speech. Zor, you talked about adapting to a game-changing twist. Bella, you talked about the non-anon nature of the game allowing you to focus your social game. Theses are all exactly the sort of things I want to hear about; I want to hear about how you used the structure of this game to your advantage. How did you handle swaps / the rate of swaps? Did you use group chats? Were you the one making the group chats? How did you handle being in multiple groupchats that overlapped members? Did you have plans in case it was an F2?

The structure of the game influenced my decisions in that, knowing that there would be possibly millions of swaps before merge, and knowing it would be a long long game, I knew I had an amazing opportunity to make as many connections as I did. Unfortunately you and I never ended up together before merge, but for most everyone else there, creating those bonds was something I knew I would need down the pike. To bring it back around to my relationship with challenges:
I remember early on in the game, Bella told me that I was shaping up to be quite the challenge beast. I thought to myself, oh, maybe I should play it down a little bit. But because of the nature of all the swaps, all of the webs of connections, I decided I would never throw anything, even if we had the easy majority and I was confident I wouldn't be going. (the one time i timed out of a puzzle it was because of a freaking typo in my answer, ugh. anyway....)
It's not because I just blindly wanted to win, it's because if we lost, the web of connections that I had created would be shattered. In most of the tribes I was in, i had a good relationship with most every single person. A vote would reveal that I wasn't as close to certain people as they thought, so I did my damnedest to win every time.

[ScootsBaboo]

Scoots, tbh, I was most interested in what you would have to say in your final speech, but of the finalists it certainly seems the most, vague and sparse, and to be honest, the perception of you from the jury is that you were more or less in zoraster's shadow the entire time, do you have a rebuttal to this? Was there a round post-merge where you got what you want over Zor or drove a vote that Zor didn't, cause if not you're gonna have a hard time swaying people.

Hi! I totally get the vague and sparse bit. I had no idea how these things usually go, my only frame of reference was the TV show! )The openings are brief, and things get more detailed in the questions.) DK asked me for a more detailed account of my game as well, and I'll be posting that. It's just going to take a little bit to type it all up, bear with me!

To answer your question about Zor, and based on it, I think my strategy may not fall within your parameters for the vote here. It sucks to admit, but I'll try to explain and hopefully you'll see where I'm coming from. You asked me for times I drove a vote, or got what I wanted over (insert ally here), but the thing is, my strategy was explicitly about avoiding both those things. While others were running numbers and clawing to plant their flags in votes, thus making themselves targets, I decided instead to focus on building relationships and opening doors, and keeping them open. This was my gameplan from nearly the very beginning. I get from a few of you in this questioning that you may not value that in a winner, but driving votes, and coming across as a 'strategic' person or someone who imposes their way over yours, was specifically something I was trying to avoid. My goal with that, and it worked, was to keep as many doors to the end open as possible.
As far as "getting what I wanted', I pretty much got what I wanted at every vote (except for the Brom one), because after each one, the majority of the remaining players were working with me. I basically made it so that it didn't matter who went home. I was gonna be good in any scenario. I had no reason to push. Literally, as long as it ain't me.

So, I'm sorry I don't have an answer to your question, but the game I set out to play just wasn't about all that. If that's not the kind of game you value, I understand.

[ScootsBaboo]

Vash, back to you when it isn't...6am.

Ditto! Vash, DK, I am working on it. It is unlikely to be posted before I go to bed.

[ScootsBaboo]

Here's a more detailed blow by blow of I premerge survivor life, I'll follow with my post merge and "thesis".


First tribe:

I'll go back to the confessional I quoted in my opener here to explain how I tackled the first tribe: "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, etc)

I really had to learn on the job here. I didn't know what kinds of twists MS has produced in the past, I didn't know what kinds of challenges there would be, I didn't know how fast or slow paced things were. I remember actually asking Brom if anyone had approached him about an alliance because I was getting early-game jitters that I was being left out! Because I knew that there was a long dark road full of twists, swaps, and who knows what ahead of me, I decided that my best option was to use the tools I'm best equipped with, my sociability and my ability to get people to like me. Every source of income I've ever had has been dependent on getting people to like me, so I knew going in that that would be my greatest asset. With this in my holster I was confident in my ability to make myself safe in any situation. So on tribe one, I had to get the ball rolling with these juicy convos! I got to work on showering everyone with good vibes, being someone people wanted to talk to. With some, things flowed more naturally than with others, but things were never sour with anyone.
It wasn't long until it paid off! Zor approached me about a group with Bella and DV, which I was very happy about. Not only to be in a four, but I also had a close relationship with Brom at the time, and so did Bella. That put me in a 3 within a 5 within an 8 and that's all she wrote!

Second Tribe
This is where things heated up a tiny bit, and is also one of the best examples of my strategy in play. This tribe broke down in an interesting way; 3 people from my tribe, 3 from another, and 2 solos. As soon as I saw the tribe distribution, I knew it was critical that I lay the charm on thick to all my new friends. Preferably, we'd move forward with the 2 solos because that buys us three votes instead of 2, but I wasn't gonna be picky!
My strategy paid off, though, and I got to choose! Elsa approached me about doing a 3+3 against the 2, and I had a positive enough relationship with both solo players to go that way as well. DK was one of them and we had hit it off right away, and he was keen on voting Elsa. I could tell overkill was a gonna be a bit more of a struggle, but all it took was telling him that Elsa has approached me to get him out and he was fully on board. I played it off to everyone that I wanted her out due to her challenge performance, but obviously it went a bit deeper than that.
That also put me in a 3 within a 5 within a 7, and I was golden.

Third Tribe
Even though this tribe never went to tribal council, I think it's important to highlight something that went down in the tribe. I was back on a tribe with my close buds Brom, Bella, and DV, my new buddy DK, and Bella actually on the other tribe talked me up to Pants, so we hit it off there. I had, I think, done a pretty good job at creating a positive relationship with Vash at that point even though we were on opposite sides of things in the last tribe. So I went in to this new tribe just as I had hoped: in good social standing.

But then...Even though I tried to initiate conversation with the other new friends on the tribe, things were slow going. It was then, within the first day I think, that I heard from multiple people I was close to that there was a 'big alliance' being formed by Panzer,
But y'all, that didn't worry me at all because if it was a viable grouping I wouldn't have heard about it from three different people who were in it (that's half the damn alliance). It's also on this tribe that DK and I pulled an all-nighter trying to get that idol, and he shared with me that he got it!
A quote from my confessional on this tribe:
[*]"I still have a great relationship with Bella, Brom, and DV from The Real tribe, plus I like talking to Pants and I think Vash is still good with me. And of course DK trusting me with this info means that I've got him on my side too. That makes 7! This tribe shuffle has been the most...iffy one for me, and therefore concerning, because of the radio silence from a few tribe members. But I'm confident, or as confident as you can be, that my ability to make relationships has done the trick!"


Fourth Tribe
On this tribe my memory is a bit foggy. I just got my new job when this tribe swap happened and so I was really focused on that, and I actually only wrote one confessional. Fortunately, thanks to me, we won the first challenge, and thanks to a few of us we won the second, so I didn't have to go to tribal on this tribe either.

Fifth Tribe
On this tribe, yet again, my bonds kept me insulated. I swapped onto a tribe with Bella, DV, Pants, and Brom, so that right there is already a majority. Also, this is the first time I got to be on a tribe with my new buddy Het! We are both RHAP patrons so we bonded over that, and he became another person on my side. Things were all set for a vote on Menno or PJ here.
This is also where things started to go south with Pants. He started having doubts about the "easiness" of the votes. I'm like...yeah bud they're easy for a reason. He wanted PJ out on the last tribe we were on, but now that we're on a tribe with PJ he is having second thoughts? This is when I started really keeping an eye on him.
Also, this was the two-tribes tribal vote. Brom and I voted for Panzer even though the vote was on Menno "just in case menno had an idol" (I knew who actually had the idol at that point, but it was still important to keep that to myself. Sorry Brom!) For some reason nobody ever asked me about the 2 PJ votes but there you go.

Pants tried to push things onto Brom at this point, and I decided to stick my neck out and convince him away from it. I'm not normally one to do that in this game, but I saw Pants' reasoning as really foolish. He wanted PJ in the game because he was terrified Kilby was gonna come for him, or something. In any case, I responded the following way in a confessional:
[*]"Moving forward, I'm still keen on eliminating people who aren't working with me. Past that, I'd like to eliminate people who are working with me, but I'm having trouble working with: His philosophy on playing differs from mine. He keeps making decisions based on who he thinks is in power/coming for him on the other tribe. I don't believe there really are people coming for me on the other tribe, and anyway I prefer to set myself up with as many allies/numbers as possible that are on *my current* tribe. I know that may seem short sighted, but I believe it's really the only way to play. 5 birds in the hand are worth many many more than..however many birds Pants thinks may be in the keep-PJ bush."
Brom was working with us now, PJ wasn't. Simple. In the end, though, this tribe never voted anyone out.

Sixth Tribe, last before merge
Again, I set myself up well. Every single person on this tribe was someone I'd had a positive relationship with in the past. Zor, Brom, DV, Entreri, DK, and Pants. NOTHING COULD GO WRONG RIGHT?
So before all this mess, I had come to the decision that I didn't want to work with Pants anymore. For one, I saw him as pessimistic, and I was worried that I was putting so much energy into lifting his spirits that I was nervous I'd miss a legitimate red flag he brought up? And two and most crucially, the vibes, bro, the vibes. I could tell he was more distant from me than before, and I was ready to cut him loose.
Then the vote exploded. Things were on entreri, the person I had the least strong relationship with, when I hear that Pants and DK had approached Zor to try to flip the vote onto Brom or myself, worried about our group. I immediately knew I had to tell people about DK's idol. If people think our group is a threat, nope! Look over there! Also, I believed that DK wanted to go into merge without anyone knowing about his idol, so I felt like telling people would remove that reasoning for wanting me gone, and move a lot of heat elsewhere. We switch the vote to Pants which is fine by me, as explained above, and also because he was the least likely person we thought would get an idol played on him. All good right? NOPE.

Unfortunately, we came to this decision pretty quickly, and without much input from DV. Time zones. We offered to switch the vote back to Entreri to keep him happy, but he said no, he was sticking with voting Brom. It was at this point I suspected he had some secret thing going on with Pants. Oh well! That Sucks! On to plan D!

Zor and I approach DK, and he offers up the option to flip the vote onto DV! Wohoo! At this point, we realize we actually have the numbers now to be able to move back to Pants. Not only does it get rid of someone I'd been trying to get rid of, but by "saving" DV from DK, that protects us in the next round of votes too because those two sides would be against each other.

Or so I thought! lol. As the vote wound down, I thought things were all set on Entreri, but as the clock ticked away...the vibes were wrong. I wrote in a confessional minutes before the vote:
[*]"I have a bad feeling about tonight. The vibes aren’t right! DK’s vibes are wrong! Entreri’s vibes are wrong! Everyone's vibes are wrong! I think things are not gonna go my way tonight. Oh Jeez. I have a stomach ache."
Unfortunately, everyone had decided it was best for Brom to go, and I was seen as being too close to him to be let in on things.
This proved to be a valuable lesson for me going into merge. I promised myself it was gonna be the last time I'm close enough to someone to stick my neck out for them. From then on, I promised myself I would be loyal to no one.

[ScootsBaboo]

MERGE
Most of the merge can actually be summed up in one way: as long as it ain't me.

After that Brom vote, it really sunk in with me that I was at my best when I was under the radar, and working with everyone. So I set out to manage my perception, and start working with everyone. Right from the start I set out playing up to people how "on the outs" I was after the last vote and how no one was talking to me. Not true, everyone was talking to me. I wrote a confessional before the DK vote:
[*]"So I’m feeling a bit better about my position in the game right now. My strategy has been to lean in to the fact that I’m an easy vote to pick up, and hopefully that will buy me some rounds until I can maneuver into a stronger position. As far as I’m aware, there are 6 votes on DK at the moment, and that’s fine my me!"
The thing is, you could have put any name in that slot and it would have been fine with me. I constantly worked to make people feel like they could work with me. For example, I always made sure whoever I was talking to felt more in-control of the game than they thought I was. I always tried to make people think I was less aware of the game than I was. I always pretended I was one of the last people to hear about a vote, when each and every time I was one of the first.
I knew that it would be a more difficult style of play to explain in the end, but damn if it wasn't effective as hell.

Some curated confessionals from throughout the merge:
[*]"I think I played up my position well as an easy vote to pick up, and a lot of information is flowing my way. My ideal position in this game is that everybody thinks i'm working with them and no one realizes that everyone else thinks that. That way no one is even bringing my name up as a possible vote. I knew going into this game that my strongest asset would be my social game, and I'm hoping that it's paying off here like it has in the past rounds.
I'm having good friendly strategic conversations with DV, Zor, Het, Bella, Entreri, Vash, Haschel, and Menno. I messaged Radja but he's sleepin. I hope people 1.) appreciate my willingness to talk to them and see that as a vote on their side, and 2) don't go spilling the beans that i'm their ally because then people will realize i'm everyone's friend.
[*] "From what I understand, the vote sits on menno at the moment, but Haschel is trying to vote DV and DV is trying to vote Haschel. I'm fine if any of the three of them go home."
[*]"Radja, Entreri, AND Haschel all approached me for alliances, saying “I think people wouldn’t suspect it” or “we seem to have few connections and I think we could benefit each other”. This is exactly what I wanted. If I’m reading this right, none of my close alliances have told others that I’m working with them, and I’m everyone’s secret BFF! I’ve set it up so that, no matter which way the game goes, I’ll be there with it. Fingers crossed this trend continues. I feel I have a little work to do on the relationship with DV and Bella, but we have a long history so I think that shouldn’t be too hard."

As you can see, my merge strategy worked absolutely perfectly. No matter which way I turned, I faced the FTC. I know I'm perceived as being in Zor's shadow, but I was exactly as loyal to him as I was to everyone else in the merge. If his number had ever come up, my game wouldn't have changed one bit (sorry buddy). He'd be out the door, but I'd still be here. I understand it's not the kind of analytical game some of you were looking for: It means I'm going into this FTC with an uphill battle explaining my game, it means no vote was "mine", etc.

But the beauty of my game; what makes it so impressive; and the reason it deserves your vote:
Is that my strategy gave me a straight shot to the final three when there were still

10 people left in the game

. No one else can say that. It's pretty damn good.

[ScootsBaboo]

Menno that counts as a hate crime

[ScootsBaboo]

I'M DYING that's too funny.

[ScootsBaboo]

Scoots, when you described your strategy as “as long as it ain’t me” are you intentionally invoking Sandra there? If so I feel like you’ve drastically misunderstood her game in both PI and HvV.

Also you say you had a straight shot to the final 3 from final ten but I don’t see how that’s any less true of Zoraster if we accept that it’s true for you.

Hahahah, I mean yeah I love her, of course I understand that her game was not that catchphrase. I'm not saying I'm the next Sandra, even though we look alike. I am saying that, literally, "anyone but me" fits my merge game perfectly. Anyone could have gone at any point and I still would have been set up well moving forward.

To answer your second question, maybe I should have said "nothing but straight shots". I constantly worked people to want me on their side so that, no matter what direction the game went, I was going with it. If it's true that Zor was in the same situation as me, then he

way

overplayed. If he really had the multitude of avenues open to him to get to the end that I had, to paraphrase DK's question above, why do all this? Why would he go to the trouble of all this extra if he already had it locked up? He created so many needless risks for himself if that's true.
Either he hadn't set up unlimited straight shots to the end when I had, or he did and his play style was foolhardy.

[ScootsBaboo]

Scoots:
Explain to me why your game is superior to Bella and Zors game.

Hi Radja, sorry it took me a bit to get to your question. The reason game is superior to both Bella and Zor's is simple. It's how early and how inevitably I secured my spot at the end. After the first vote of the merge, there wasn't a single moment I where I didn't have working relationship, if not a finale deal, with the every one of the remaining players. With every conversation, not only was I simply socializing, but I was making it seem like I was less confident than I was, or less in-the-know than I was, or more on-the-outs than I was. I used my social skills to manage my perception and to manipulate people into thinking they had my vote locked up, so that everyone felt like they wanted to work with me and like I was an easy vote to get on their side. I basically made it so that no matter who got voted out, I'd be set.

No vote was "mine", I never pushed, I never put my will over another, but that was by design. It meant that every single vote went my way. The same can't be said about Bella or Zor, who had to have specific votes go their way or else bad. I know there may be a perception out there that Zor controlled my vote, but because the nature of my game made it irrelevant to me who went home at what time, it meant I didn't need to make any do-or die decisions. I was always going to be sitting at the end, and logically there was always going to be someone next to me who made more calls than me. Don't confuse that with me being in anyone's shadow, or being persuaded or controlled. Playing more isn't necessarily playing better.

As I wrote in many confessionals during the merge (please consult my longer write-up from last night), my game was designed to be one-size-fits-all, and it worked exactly as designed. The only time I ever heard my name get brought up as a possible vote was when you wanted me out for my challenge ability at final 6, and then again at the final 4 when options were limited, but I was never worried because at every stage in the game, I had ensured there were more players who wanted to work with me than not.
I played the strongest game because I constantly, purposefully, and successfully guaranteed from a very early stage that I was always going to be sitting here. Bella and Zor can't say that. (insert Thanos I Am Inevitable snap gif)

[ScootsBaboo]

@scootsThe play you were most proud of boils down to: telling people someone else had an idol (when most ppl already suspected that was the case). Bella's play was positioning herself and controlling the swing votes for a (imo) key vote in the merge, and Zor's involved managing the entire tribe's votes to get his desire result, actively working against half the tribe and still not getting targeted for it.
Why does your play hold up to theirs?

I didn't really set out to play a game that was gilded with flashy plays or big moves. My game was all about maneuvering myself into a solid position at every step, and big moves and plays would have upset that. Because of this, I largely avoided heat being on me in the game, so the one time I had heat, I was able to shift the conversation away from me and onto someone else. I thought you were asking for 1 specific moment, but the thing I'm most proud of about my game does not boil down to a specific moment. It's many tiny interactions that pushed towards a specific result. After merge, my one goal was positioning myself such that I was perfectly set up and insulated in every scenario after every vote. I wanted everyone to want me to work with them, and I was successful. My 'play' is artfully making relationships and managing my perception to mold the interpersonal landscape of the game, such that I was in a vehicle that was so flexible, adaptable, and resilient that I never had to make a 'play' or 'move' to ensure my spot at the end. I go into more detail as to how I did that in earlier comments, but that's what I'm most proud of.
Hope that answered your question more fully.

Both Zor's and Bella's latest comments prove my point:
When asked about a hypothetical sliding doors final 3 if Het goes instead of Entreri, both gave different answers, but I was in the final three in both.
I'm here because I made it so I always would be.

[ScootsBaboo]

Scoots, when you described your strategy as “as long as it ain’t me” are you intentionally invoking Sandra there? If so I feel like you’ve drastically misunderstood her game in both PI and HvV.

Also you say you had a straight shot to the final 3 from final ten but I don’t see how that’s any less true of Zoraster if we accept that it’s true for you.

Hahahah, I mean yeah I love her, of course I understand that her game was not that catchphrase. I'm not saying I'm the next Sandra, even though we look alike. I am saying that, literally, "anyone but me" fits my merge game perfectly. Anyone could have gone at any point and I still would have been set up well moving forward.

To answer your second question, maybe I should have said "nothing but straight shots". I constantly worked people to want me on their side so that, no matter what direction the game went, I was going with it. If it's true that Zor was in the same situation as me, then he

way

overplayed. If he really had the multitude of avenues open to him to get to the end that I had, to paraphrase DK's question above, why do all this? Why would he go to the trouble of all this extra if he already had it locked up? He created so many needless risks for himself if that's true.
Either he hadn't set up unlimited straight shots to the end when I had, or he did and his play style was foolhardy.

So the takeaway I have from your posts is that your strategy was to guarantee a spot at the end, regardless of who you’re sitting next to, regardless of whether guaranteeing that hurts your chances of winning a jury vote, would you say that’s accurate? I’m hoping you’ll disagree but it seems difficult to reach any other conclusion.

I had perceived some configuration that would guarantee an immediate automatic loss for me and the game wasn’t moving in eliminating that direction already I might have started making some waves, but the way I saw the game shaking out, I believed strongly enough in my UTR game that I would be able to explain it in any of the final 3’s that we’re unfolding.

[ScootsBaboo]

Off to work now, will check back in later.

[ScootsBaboo]

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.

Hi DV!
For me there were 2 big reasons why playing this game has been such a fun & rewarding experience.
The first is simple, I've dreamt of being on Survivor since I was a kid, so getting to play even a facsimile of the show that's meant so much to me over the years has been really rad. Unless there's another slow-formatted one like this in the future, this is likely to be my last ORG due to my crammed + ever-changing schedule, so I really wanted to fill my cup and savor everything! Every challenge I won, vote survived, swap/merge made, and of course making it all the way to the FTC felt like a miniature version of a dream come true!

The big one for me though has been being able to talk with you all. This game started less than a week before I moved to Chicago, an entirely new city away from all of my family and friends. I have been living in Chicago for less time than I have been in this game with you all. December-January was a stressful (job search), lonely (thanksgiving alone), unhealthy (my stressed-out immune system let in 3 colds and tonsillitis in the first month and a half, ugh), and intimidating time of my life. Being able to meet and talk to all of you was such a gift. You were all a huge source of warmth for me when I really needed it, and I'm so thankful.

[ScootsBaboo]

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.

Haschel! Wow! What a killer of a question. All three of us have been pulling our hair out over it in the discord, well done.

SOCIAL

: Me, Zor, Bella
I think I'm number 1 here easily, both Zor and Bella have talked up my likability, but that's not the entirety of a good social game and that's not the entirety of mine. In her rankings, Bella said that it's impossible to be everyone's BFF, and I agree. (In an earlier post I quoted a confessional of mine that said that my strategy was to be everyone's 'secret BFF', which I actually mentioned to Bella was hyperbole. If I had been more literal, I would have written secret alliance member or even just secret buddy or something like that.)

Of course part of a good social game is forming real relationships, but I think that definition is incomplete. I tend to agree more with Zor's: A good social game is not

just

being likable, which I was, but it's using your social skills and your charisma to manage people's perception of you to serve your strategy, and I don't think anyone did that better than I did. I made people perceive me as a helpless newbie, or as an isolated loner they could scoop up, an ear to bounce strategic ideas off of, or whatever I thought they needed me to be in the moment so they would trust and work with me. Unfortunately it's impossible to type up a more intricate description of my methodology here because it's made up of a million tiny choices and interactions that all pushed me in one direction, and the results show I executed it flawlessly: everyone thought I was with them until it was too late to do anything about it.

To add to that, I don't necessarily believe Bella's relationships went that much deeper than mine, even given her head start of already knowing many of you. I've said a few times these last couple days that it literally didn't matter

to my game

who stayed and who went, but that doesn't mean it didn't matter to me, or that I didn't have genuine relationships with y'all. To go off her stated examples: I also talked with Entreri about Fire Emblem and how much we hate permadeath, as well as other video games. I have a collection of heart emojis on my mantle from Vash, so it sucked for me when he went too (<3). I cannot wait to talk more about Wie is De Mol with both Het and Radja when this game is all over. In our too-short time together, Hasch, I got to listen to your Bluegrass music, and we bonded over male-pattern baldness (sorry if that last bit was a secret). I could go on, but my point is: Bella and Zor both gave their definition of a good social game that they felt they had, but I had both.

I put Zor second and Bella third because I value his definition of social game more.

STRATEGIC

: Me, Zor, Bella -OR- Zor, Bella, Me

This one has felt like it's been the hardest part of my game to explain to you all, and I think it all boils down to whether or not you accept me intentionally leaving my foot off the gas pedal as an valid strategy. I've gone into great detail in many of my other posts, so I don't really feel the need to rehash the finer details, but if my gameplan to you is something you consider a valid strategy, then I'm number one. I've shown that I formulated a plan to propel me through the game, I executed it perfectly, and it was successful. But if you don't, as I see a few jurors do not, then that would put me in last. C'est la vie!

STRUCTURAL

: Me, Bella/Zor

The structure of the game lent itself to my natural skillset, thankfully, but I also was able to adapt in places where it did not. Yes, the majority of the challenges were timed puzzles and my hobby is doing speed-crosswords. Yes, the multitude of swaps made it crucial to be able to make good first impressions, and I have a lot of experience with that through my work and hobbies as well. I'd like to highlight, though, where the structure of the game provided an obstacle for me and how I worked around/through that.

NON-ANON

Quick aside, I remember having to ask a buddy in the first round or so why this game is non-anonymous when people still were using usernames and not telling people their names, I was like...isn't that still anonymous lol. Like I was introducing myself by name to everyone on my tribe cuz I thought that's what non-anonymous meant . Anyway!

Once I realized what non-anonymous

actually

meant for the game, I knew I had some work ahead of me. I was in the dark as to the degree of the strength of the bonds of the players in this community. Going in, I thought that my ability to make relationships with people would be my advantage, but once I learned there had been

live meetups

, I saw I was starting the race a few lengths behind. One of the big red flags was LadyLambdaDelta actually. PanzerJager had jokingly thrown out her name in the main thread, and she was simply inconsolable with grief over how game-ruining this was for her. The vibes were 100% wrong though, and when I discovered that they knew each other IRL, I realized how deep underwater I was, with the possibility of cross-tribal partnerships that I had no way of knowing about. An unspoken alliance could have been wink-formed before the game even started, and bob's your uncle. There were a lot of unknowns.

The way I used the non-anonymity of the game to my advantage was all in my social game. I flipped the disadvantage into an advantage by managing my perception by leaning into it, purposefully making many of my relationships into teacher-students, asking many players MS related questions I already knew the answers to from other players. More than few people showed me that Youtube video of the survivor meet, for example, but each time I pretended like it was new information. Every time someone 'warned' me, for example, about the history/power of another player, I was

so thankful omg what would I do without you.

Same for when people 'filled me in' on where a vote was going, I pretended I was among the last to hear about it even though most of the time I was there when the vote was decided.
This helped me because one, the obvious, is that information power, so the more information coming to me the better. Two, the psychological, is that people love talking about something they're passionate about, so me giving people the opportunity to "teach" me not only made them feel good, but it made it seem like I needed them, and therefore could never turn on them. Three, the strategic, is that it lowered my threat level. The Devil You Don't Know is a real thing, as evidenced by the hysteria surrounding DK's elimination. It was his first MS game too, but his star was shining so brightly due to everyone's worrying about how strong a player he secretly was. I purposefully steered the other direction, making myself seem harmless.

Zor is next because, by Bella's own admission, this was her weakest category. Structural obstacles to her were obstacles, not opportunities.

~~~~~~~~

Well, Hasch, I hope that answered your absolute doozy of a question! The hardest one I had to answer for sure.

[ScootsBaboo]

I have to be going into work soon, up until time's up, so I'll submit my closer now. I'll make it quick.

First, this has been an absolute joy. I'm so thankful to all of you, jurors, prejurors, bella, zor, mods, everyone, for being a part of an amazing, if at times seemingly infinite, journey!

I know that my strategy was not one that many of you were looking for when you came into this FTC. I know that a few of you had your minds made up that I was a goat before this questioning all started. I hope that my answers have shown that I was not, that I knew what I was doing, and that my strategy was calculated, meticulous, persistent, and effective.

Whatever happens, I hope to remain a part of this community in the future, even if only as a spectator. Bella, Zor, fantastic job both of you, and good luck!
Thanks again for a great time, everyone!
-Aaron

[ScootsBaboo]

Whatever happens, be sure to follow me on Twitter @ScootsBaboo

[ScootsBaboo]

Well done Zor! Thank you everyone!