[Standard] Survivor: Know Your Enemies (Summer wins!)

[SummerInWonderland]

Hey everyone! Answering these out of order a bit, hopefully that’s cool.

Starting with malkon because it is a big one



Okay I want to start off by saying you were right regarding the line this game meant more to me than I think anyone here realizes. I should have said most, and I did address this in your torch walk that you will see after the game. I was just trying to express with that line that (as you know) I was very reflective this game. Personally I have been going through a lot in my life during this game that I won’t get into but this game probably meant more to me than it should a reasonable person lol (I’m crazy)- that is probably a more accurate sentence lol.
You understand me and my experiences very well. You do know how much this meant to me and I also think DK knows a lot about me as a player and person where I felt like our experiences were quite similar. DK had talked about how these games were about making personal connections and he couldn’t play a gameboty all strategic game anymore, that was another personal struggle where I very much related to a player. I think previously in my org experiences I left wondering “was it worth it?” and that’s because a lot of my game actions had hurt people. Sorry… I am going off on a tangent, but you were right. I didn’t express myself correctly and that was honestly just a wrong statement I wrote. I am a bit dramatic sometimes and like to think no one can understand me, but that just isn’t true lol.
Now to answer your question!


I am someone who thinks very pessimistically when it comes to juries. At this point I generally just assume they aren’t going to want to vote for me. This comes some from pretty bad experiences (malkon ive literally had someone at ftc say the only reason I succeed was because I had a nice rack and a guy liked me for it so jeez I can be lacking SOME confidence) and so I do often have a fear of whether my game will be respected in the end and that plays into my decision making process somewhat. I try to play the best game possible so that when I am in the end I can argue on those merits. I did think I could beat you in the end, but I did feel like you would challenge me for quite a few votes and that you did have a strong case as to why you should beat me and that you very well could have beaten me. You were at the time the biggest threat to my shot to win, so to me obviously I felt like I had to vote for you. I always take the path where I think I have the highest chance to win even if one path is a 80 percent win chance and then other is 65 or whatever. It was about probability and I just can’t help to make what I think is the best move at the time. If some omnipotent being came to me (so Zor) and said “you beat anyone in ftc no matter whaaaaaattt!” at final 4 I would have taken you because I think our journey and story is important. I romanticize a lot lol so I would have loved to have that finish with you. Our relationship is a great story in itself. I think in games too often people get mad at each other and end up not liking people on personal level (even if they say otherwise) we able to learn from each other and that resulted in both of us being better, well rounded players. We also hurt each other in school survivor and were able to repair and make a very genuine strong friendship where out of anyone in this community, you very likely understand me the best. So, malkon I would have loved to end the journey with you if I knew no matter what I was going to beat you but my game mind literally just functions at the level of the greatest threat to me can’t be in the end even if I still might beat them. I hope that answers the question. It probably wasn’t worth it but my mind works a certain way where this was always going to happen.

OKAY ONTO MALKONS FUN QUESTIONS!!

1) What is one thing you have personally overcome to be at this point?
Okay I thought a lot about what I wanted to put here that was completely genuine. Most things that I have overcome personally are not things I talk about with people. I do think there is something that I can touch upon that I do think is somewhat relevant. Also, thank you for sharing your answer this before you left.
I do believe that we can learn a lot from some of the hardest moments in our lives. Growing up I dealt with verbal abuse and its something that greatly impacted me, through a lot of work I overcome a lot and removed myself from the situation. But I have faced a lot where I easily could have lost a lot of my truths and lose who I was. I am a very strong individual and through hardship I learned to trust in what I know to be true, sticking up for myself brought me a lot of confidence where I can say I know who I am, my values, and out of everything in this world I have faith in myself. This strength translates to positive things in my life all the time.
To bring it back to the game, I have had people ask me why am I so confident in my ability or trust that my plans will work out. The thing that allowed me to overcome hardship was learning to trust myself in hard situations and stay true to that. I have confidence in my mind because I needed to. I have very strong will power and that always translates to me as a player because its something that got me through some of my hardest moments in my life.

2) What is your favourite animal, why? and how I embody it?
This is sooooo hard. I love so mannnnyy animals. Honestly this answer changes all the time, I kind of want to say bunny but…
I am going to go with
Fox!
I love love love foxes. This probably goes back to when I would watch the Balto films ALL OF THE TIME. I remember out of all the animals on the totem pole the Fox was the one I liked the most “the cunning trickster”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cPYxzfNdiA

They are probably the animal I most associate myself with. I don’t really see myself as a particularly smart person but I do see myself as perceptive and analytical. I am very good at seeing through deception and getting at the truth. I think I am good at reading situations. I think I am witty and clever but not “smart” if that makes sense. I don’t love saying I am a “trickster” but I am very playful and uhhmm I like to play pranks! So it counts! Mildly tricky…
I am able to do a lot with the tools I have, foxes are very resourceful and so am I!
Also HAVE U EVER HEARD THEM LAUGH? so pure n good hehehe



you want me to go through each juror too, imma do that just in a different post.

[SummerInWonderland]

Address all the jury members and how they played into your story
Examples of strong relationships
talk about what I did specifically to enforce the social bonds
About knowing how to play them and at what point at what time.

I do want to say before I get into each person that socially I play looking for certain types of allies. My go to strategic approach to social game is look for: the best friend (strong strategic player) the shield (someone who will be targeted over me) the goons (social based players who are loyal, need at least two) Not everyone falls into these roles but this is my starting point in games.
Also I am going to try to keep this as a more strategic analysis of relationships, fun personal stuff is in torch walks so please keep that in mind as I go through the players and rounds of the game. I put a lot of time and effort into getting to know people and creating bonds, I like finding things in common with people but also appreciate the differences so yeah- this is just some more in depth strategic/social elements.

DK-

Dk is someone who I think personally plays into my story but we did have a very limited game relationship. I had pretty good information that DK viewed me as a threat and we never met up this game until merge. I targeted him because I viewed him as a threat to my personal game. I have a huge amount of respect for him as a player because he is able to make a lot happen within a short amount of time- he is able to take information from others and use it well. I was very wary of him and if anything to my story it shows how when I feel threatened I don’t wait back, I go for the people I view a threat.
On a personal level I mentioned this before is that I do think we have a very good understanding of each other and I think were going through a lot of similar things emotionally and even struggles we had as players in the game. We really didn’t have a strong reason to work with each other but we both took the time to give each other a chance

D3f-

D3f is another person that personally we didn’t have a strong connection, which I think comes from both of us putting stock in other players. Its not smart to be aligned with EVERYONE in the game and we just had different paths. D3f I do want to say is someone that I did see having the ability to take power if given the right opportunities. He wasn’t viewed as a threat before he left but I think being more isolated from the major alliances meant if he was able to get his footing he would have staying power which is particularly dangerous to players like me who often get threat targeted. I couldn’t allow him to be a number eventually to take me out. I think we both did a good job of keeping communications open, I do try my best to hear people to make sure I am not making a mistake in not working with them. I think a lot of people could have used their relationship with d3f but I do not believe I was one of them.

Pine-

Pine is one of my more complicated relationships but ultimately was one of my most useful ones. On our swap tribe I was in a very dangerous position. I had to find an “in” the TCs on this tribe didn’t go my way BUT what I was able to do was get relationships that would be useful to me in the later portion of the game. Now, Malkon was someone who had advised me on building this relationship. I think that is somewhat important to mention, I was trying to work every angle to find a crack but with his help I was able to more easily find an in -pine was my ticket here. I did put a lot of work into the swap tribe to gain him as an ally. I talked about how I felt like everyone wasn’t giving me a chance, how I would be a strong ally to have, I stick by my allies which was proven by me being such a big advocate for Espe. I think I did a pretty good job of making myself seem like a desirable ally. I also told him pieces of information from conversations I had with Espe to solidify me and him could be long term allies. I have much to thank pine for in this game, without him there (and malkon) I would have been in a much worse position.
I was very wary of Pine overall because I viewed him as a very strong strategic player. When we hit merge I knew he had A LOT of options which is why I wanted to work with him for a short time. I think one very important thing was that I made it seem like I was very open to voting Awoo and Skrew when in reality I was encouraging the tension between them. With Pine I pushed the “one more round” we should flip the next round to get Skrew out, or the round after that. This was because I felt like I needed to take away from Pine’s potential ally list and then ultimately cut him so I could stay in control. I think I placated him that he really didn’t know he was in danger from me. Planning the 4-3-2 was personally one of my favorite moves of the game, I knew if he had an idol or if haschel had the idol the other would go home and by voting in the minority I could play it off that I wasn’t the most informed on the round to Malkon and Tris. I put effort into not looking like the ringleader.
This also might sounds like another basic survivor thing but I did this a lot with people, I would say negative or emotionally charged things about people to others and I think that is often a way to foster loyalty, they know I am sharing something because I trust them i.e “espe thinks he is doing all these things and its very frustrating” this is just a general example but I did do that to pine. It easily could have no effect on literally anything, it likely didn’t but I was constantly thinking about what I was saying and how I thought it COULD impact the other player, even if it was small game things.
This might sound bad, but my approach with pine was very much “take what you can, give nothing back” sorry for that lol

Awoo

- Awoo is a huge player in my story and I told Awoo this but Awoo was very much one of the “best friend” types that I talked about. I know awoo is an insanely strong strategic player, I felt like I related more than anyone on a game mind level. The way I approached Awoo and fostered that relationship was based around game. I think we view the game similarly. Starting in the swap all the way to Awoos elimination we talked in detail about what we wanted to do in the future. On Florence we were talking and planning about the merge, when we hit merge we discussed rounds in advance on what our options and plays were. Our last game talk like that was very fabricated unfortunately, I knew I never wanted to go to the end with Awoo but by keeping our bond really strong I had to go through each round to make sure Awoo knew I was with them and we had a plan to get to endgame together. Doing that is a lot of work because I had to think about 1) what awoo would want 2) what reasonable things I would want if I was truly intending to go to the end with awoo and 3) a plan that actually could work.
The Awoo vote is something I do want to touch on here, It doesn’t quite fit in with Malkons questions but I think it is important to go into more detail. Awoos vote timing was a little early, 7 I thought was much better for my game to have Awoo leave at. The idea that I could have Ari at final 7 being against me because I was a factor in taking out his closest ally worried me a lot. A key element in taking out Awoo at 8 instead of 7 was calling ari, telling him about the blindside and then having him agree to not tell Awoo and be okay with it going through. Anyways moving on because I am rambling…..

Espe

- Espe was another HUGE player in my overall story and game. We played a lot of this game together viewed as an unbreakable duo in terms of loyalty. Very early on I realized he would be a great shield to me. He was in danger A LOT this game. On both swap tribes he easily could have been voted out and on florence I was the biggest reason as to why he stayed in the game. I put a lot of work into keeping him in the game, he was always a number with me and I knew the value in fighting to keep that in the game. Strategically I did similarly with him that I did with Awoo, I went through the options of upcoming rounds so I constantly knew where his head was at, a lot of people didn’t have this with espe (due to timezone/activity issues) The relationship began because we personally connected but I fought to keep him and knew his value strategically to me. Similarly to Ari I knew Espe was always going to be loyal to me.

Hashcel-

Haschel is, I know this sounds dramatic but truly the one that got away… We met for the first time at merge and we started off well but I really could have managed this relationship a lot better. I think we did also put stock in different people, I didnt feel like I needed him early on and that was probably a mistake because of how he very realistically could have taken me out and would have given the chance. I think despite being against eachother we both gave eachother a chance (a little too late tho) we have already talked about this but perhaps calling earlier would have gone better for us but it seemed very unlikely strategically I would want to take him far into the game and he was able to peg me as a threat.

Skrew

- I think for most of this game I was able to read people really well. I knew who wanted to work with me and who would work against me. Sleepykrew was by far the person I misread. I did A LOT to foster loyalty. I told him about most things in my game, I was very open with him and I was trying to make him feel like we were ride or dies and we were doing everything together. This was my mistake. Often sharing a lot of info and being open can result in getting good allies who will be loyal, on the other hand you risk exposing too much of your game. I did that, and he felt like I was a threat. I gave him good reason as to why I was loyal to him but not enough as to why he should be loyal to me.
Now I do want to discuss his vote. He was very open with me about targeting me that round at final 5. Going into that round I guess I had everyone wanting to vote me or considering it. There was a good chance it would have been 3-2 (or like ari just said he was considering me that round) 4-1 BUT the vote ended up being 2-1-1-1.
Firstly I made sure Ari was with me and would fight to keep me. I then worked on getting tris to keep me over Malkon. I made a really big pitch to tris that she needed me in the end because Ari and I would split votes meaning she would have a better shot. I also went into detail as how I thought Malkon had the best relationships and social game. I talked about how sleepykrew played the best game on paper. My game had flaws and wouldn’t appeal to the jury. I made a very big (and heavily uhh misconstrued ) story of the game and of the players but ultimately tris agreed to keep me and take out malkon.
At this point I had 2 people confirmed not voting me in Ari and Tris. Ari had a conversation with Malkon which finally meant Malkon was also not voting me. 3 votes not on me. Which meant I had an easy shot at sniping the one person who voted me this game: sleepykrew.
I do think me and him had a great story. We worked well together until HE TURNED ON ME, he took out an ally of mine but was unable to take out the king. IF U TAKE A SWING AT THE KING YA BEST NOT MISS (I am joking and being draaammatic) but still it's a great and fun story.
Finally

Malkon-

I feel like we talked A LOT about most of this so I am only going to comment on possibly new info of my social game with you? I did put a lot of work into making you think we are a duo this game, and we were for a lot of the game. I vented to you about things, we helped eachother when we were both in possibly dangerous positions. It made sense for us to work together because we were some of the obvious threats coming into the game. I think one of the best decisions I made was at the start of the swap just putting my eggs in your basket. I made it clear I wanted to play with you. I think that openness helped a lot with our relationship. I knew you weren’t someone I could manipulate much but I knew I could offer you a good path and allow you to make those decisions on your own. You didn’t have to save espe and I on that tribe but you saw our value. Sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith and I did that with you and it paid off.


I think there is more I could add, I tried not to ramble too much here but in short... I looked for certain type of players that I knew could be useful to me in this game. I approached people in different ways based on what I thought they valued in the game. I listened when people told me their wants, when they talked about what they valued and I took that into consideration when making game decisions. I didn't do it perfectly, there are a few mismanaged relationships I talked about but I did try my best.

[SummerInWonderland]

quickly going to add this in there - I also used my idol information to help solidify bonds. This may not have mattered much but I told Espe and Malkon that I had it, and that is a HUGE sign of trust. They also repaid me by not telling anyone (as far as I know). When I swapped I told Ari and Awoo. When I got to merge, I told Skrew. I wanted people to feel like I trusted them so I told them about my advantages. I know most people think idols should be kept a secret but I do see a lot of value in letting your allies know. It was a pretty open secret by the time I played it and I got more use out of it by telling people and strengthening bonds than needing it it at all in the game.

[SummerInWonderland]

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

[SummerInWonderland]

Hey skrew!

How did I (skrew) play the best game on paper?

Well silly you should know this but I GUESSSSSSSSS I can explain it for you…. so “on paper” you were on the right side of the vote the most in merge, at the time received no votes against you.
There is a lot of uhh not on paper reasons why you were one of the top players this game. You threat managed really well, and honestly played me which like…I like to think is very hard to do. Sure, I ended up beating you BUT that was me making people act out of their best interests. You had good timing for your moves, you had a lot of information throughout the game (oops!). Overall, just a very strong game without many flaws.

How did the vote on me come about?

Okay I have already talked about this vote but I am REALLY going to get into it. So prepare for a play by play!
I didn’t mention this before but gonna go through some of the obvious as well

1) I started this round talking to you, obviously I needed to see if there was anyway you would think about keeping me. I knew it was a long shot but I at least wanted to see what information I could get from you. This may seem like an unimportant thing but you told me malkon/tris had already said they wanted to vote me so I knew I had to work on tris harder than I would have probably without this because she didn’t own up to wanting to vote me until later in the evening after I pushed her to I had to get her to own up to wanting me out, without being forceful so that after we could discuss not voting me out lol. Anyways, I did this only because I just needed to rule you out, move on, and come up with a plan to stay and beat you

2) This answers the big/misconstrued question as well. I had twist things A LOT this round. I mentioned this and explained briefly what I said to tris. I also did a very similar thing to Ari! I haven’t mentioned this but during this round I called ari to discuss the options of the round. I approached it with the idea of figuring out “who would be best for us to sit next to in the end?” to do this, I went through every combination of ftcs for us and where the votes would go on paper. I made a chart for me/ari/skrew, me/ari/tris, me/ari/malkon. I went through each one writing where I think the jurors would go and the justifications for that. I had Malkon as “stealing votes from ari” I portrayed it as Ari would never stan a chance against Malkon because they would be competing for the same votes- in this situation I had it down as Malkon gets 1st, I get 2nd, ari is in 3rd. I then went into the Ftc scenario where you are at the end with us, and the narrative I pushed was that you played the best game on paper/had no flaws and no bad relationships really. The end product of the chart was – this would be the most “up in the air” ftc as in Ari didn’t have many secured votes, you could have swept which meant you were arguably the most dangerous person to have in the end. I also had written out a ftc where me/tris/ari were in the end together, and not surprisingly I had it written out that Ari and I went in having the same amount of “locked votes” but the rest of the jurors could vote either of us, so we both stood a good chance of winning!! This was because I needed ari to feel like he could beat me in then end AND that he wanted to target you/malkon when it made most sense for me to take you out. To be clear, most of what I said I thought was polished believable bullshit. I made stuff up to make myself look weaker like "d3f and I had a horrible relationship and we never talked" (not true) " Pine is probably going to vote for you because you were the one leading his vote" (not true) "Awoo was your closest ally so he obviously is going to be a lock for you, you never betrayed him meaning he will vote for you!" (not true) I think this was important to my overall success here because Ari and I were on call discussing it as I wrote it out, we were working together on figuring out the best path for both of us, thats how I went about it, and that I think is a much better effective method than telling someone how it is.

3) After having figured out the FTC breakdowns with Ari it was really easy to make it seem like taking you out was the best because we had talked about it and Ari agreed you were the most up in the air potential person to beat in the end! plus adding in that you were probably better at challenges

4) I already talked about getting tris onto voting Malkon (so please go back and see that! But that goes here)

5) Yeah Ari did the stuff with Malkon, or Ari agreed to do what Malkon wanted. Not gonna claim any sway in that conversation.

6) At this point I knew if everyone was being honest with me the vote was going to be 1-1-1 leaving Ari and my votes to be the deciding ones.

7) I thought at that time you were the biggest threat to me getting to the end and winning so knowing the vote would go through on you, I took the shot.

I was able to take you out this round- and have ari and tris believing their best shots were against me; this was no small feat lol

What's your favorite Digimon?

imma go with patamon

[SummerInWonderland]

oop lots of typos - sorry I am rushing a little bc trying to get a lot of homework done sorry

[SummerInWonderland]

Malkon I started your question last night - but got super busy and only came up with a few. Ill post them just because I have them, sorry I didnt get to finish this question im hella busy

MALKONS GIF

maybe we just closed a chapter instead and our story isn't done?.... Malkon/Jess part three hopefully this round goes better.... hehe

Sleepykrews gif

*smiles*

I also had this one for

Ari

[SummerInWonderland]

Thank you everyone for hearing my story. For those of you who made comments and didn’t have questions for me I would just like to say thank you.I have read everything and appreciated what yall had to say. I will be messaging you individually after <3

I was planning on saying more here at the end but sadly time got away from me

[SummerInWonderland]

Okay, but can we agree that OLAAT should have people actually SITTING OUT from the tribe with more members? They totally had a huge advantage on us in numbers, and not just because we had multiple people busy with IRL events.

I agree with Awoo

I also just think challenges should have an equal number of people participating. Regardless of who had the advantaged, challenges should be equal. It was not.