[Standard]Survivor: TRTWIUAA {Final Tribal Council}

[het]

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.

[Bellaphant]

Testing.

[Bellaphant]

Something in my response to dk is getting me an error. I'll have to wait til I'm on my pc

[zoraster]

Going to start answering questions. Haschel, I love the structural one and it's one I've been kind of thinking about it all game, but I'll work on it after I post my responses to Radja and Vash.

[zoraster]

I'm old school.

1 question, 1 chance to win or lose my vote. Make sure you get everything you want to say to me in there because this is all I'm going to ask.

Zor:
Betrayal is a pretty good reason not to vote someone. I shared everything with you. And still you dumped me like a piece of garbage when you didn't need me anymore. Explain to me why I should reward you for this.

I betrayed you.

I cannot and will not get away from that. If you don't want to vote for me because of that, I understand. Your vote is your own and you decide what is most important to you.

But don't reward the betrayal. Reward the play behind it. Did it help me advance and make me more secure? Yes. Additionally, did I play a game that was otherwise strategic, social, interesting, and

worked

? I think I did. So while I understand that the betrayal works against me getting your vote, I hope you'll look past it to the gameplay behind. I'm not a robot. I'm not a monster. I told Jamelia the truth: cutting you was a gut punch for me. You're awesome, and I knew doing this would sully what was otherwise a wonderful time together. But despite that I did what I felt like I needed to in order to make it to the end.

I understand I'm the one on "trial" here and I don't want it to seem like I'm blaming you at all in what I'm about to say because

I do not

. But because I only have one shot at talking to you (and I take this seriously) I want to anticipate a question that I believe is implicit in your question. Which is "Why didn't you trust me more than the others?" and there were a few factors:

Spoiler: Reasons

• At the F9 vote, in the same conversation group conversation with het that you talked about taking out Bella earlier than F5, we had an argument about Entreri. You said you wanted Scoots and Entreri in your Final 5 because it'd be an easy combination to beat. Het and I both played it cool after that, but to me this indicated you had little interest in taking me to the end unless it worked for you because you were keeping your options open for Ent at the end (keep in mind I didn't know if this was a f3 or f2 game and with your challenge prowess, taking you over scoots meant accepting you'd potentially have the option of who to keep).
  
• At F7 you were fine dropping het in favor of Ent and tried to convince me to go that way. I understand I had set the stage for eventually taking out het with you so it would be
  hypocritical
  for me to blame you for this, and I do not. But we had an f3 together, so it definitely put in my mind that you're someone who is perfectly willing to drop his allies when it's convenient. I felt like needed to work hard to convince you not to vote het at that vote because you kept telling me that the others were "united" against het, even though I knew that to be untrue. Maybe my read was off on this. The knowledge that you
  would
  cut your allies, even though in this instance you did not, was pretty important for me. I saw you as someone who is extremely capable at this game and knows when to do so. Maybe I was wrong, but it seemed to me that you were a much higher risk to drop me at F5 or F4 than Scoots ever would be. If you have a reputation as a straight shooter ally who never goes back on his word, I apologize for not knowing that reputation, but I went off of what I thought I saw in other instances.
  
• This is a totally subjective thing, and I understand you've been totally overwhelmed at work. But vs. the other people toward the end you were the least interested in getting to know me personally. That's okay!
  I'm not that interesting!
  But people genuinely love you on this site, and I thought maybe you were keeping me at an arm's length because you knew what you were going to have to end up potentially betraying me at the end.

Again, I know there's a risk the above sound like I'm trying to place blame on YOU for MY betrayal. But I am not. This is just my way of explaining why I felt that you were the more likely person to cut me toward the end.

I loved playing with you, Radja. I'm sad you view our time together this way, but I hope that doesn't take away the time we had together generally. Yours was probably the neatest alliance I had in this game. It was unexpected and it was formed in the face of what was some really heavy crosswinds. I value that experience. Whatever you choose to do with your vote, I understand. But I hope by seeing the thought process behind this you'll look past the end of that to the overall gameplay that I put forward.

[zoraster]

Hiya all, first off congratulations to all the finalists for making it this far, it's been a long game, but these days might end up being the longest for y'all. And well, I have some questions.

Zor, tbh I was expecting your speech to miss the mark, at least when it came to me, but I am pleasantly surprised, it's a pretty good speech, and the section about me, yeah I liked it. Whether you intended to or not you stroked my ego in all the right ways and I appreciate it, BUT that does not mean it would be easy to get my vote, in fact if you want it it'll be quite hard and you'll have a lot easier time convincing most of the other people around here to vote for you. However, I still have questions which I want answers to, and hopefully you'll give them to me. Still, how you paint the round where I went home was that you were basically backed into a corner by the twist because it would have take literally everyone to overwhelm the "will" of the gods, but to be honest, it sounds to me like you just decided that and didn't even try. After all you had good relations with pretty much everyone who was around, you could have at least drafted up a list of who you most wanted to see gone of that group and tried to make that happen (hell if you had done that and decided I was the one you needed gone most then I'd probably respect it a lot), you could have gone to bat for me with Radja (and if you did I'd like for one of y'all to enlighten me) or given me a heads up instead of me having to be informed by DV, but instead you decided to do nothing. And sure you can hide behind the "but if I did something I might have died instead" card, but ya know that doesn't me a lot to ME, because 1. I don't for one second believe you would have been the one to bite the bullet and 2. I want the person I vote for to be someone inspiring, and someone who lets a presumably close ally just die and doesn't even give them the heads up, doesn't inspire me. Sorry, there's suppose to be a question here, I guess it's "why should I be inspired by your game?" like it sounds like you made a lot of long term deals with a lot of people and cut them only to then cut the people you made yet another deal with, only to fall back on the people from your first tribe and giving almost everyone the runaround, and that framing, I can't vote for. So what about your game should I strive to emulate?

Secondarily (I know I have a second question after that paragraph, I am being really greedy), like honestly where did I fit into your game? Cause you mention how I managed to pull a lot of things off and how you didn't want to vote me the round after haschel and even talked me up in your opening statement, and I am having a hard time reconciling that with my send off and you saying that you got the final 4 you wanted. So did I matter? Or was I just a stepping stone, cause if I was that's fine, but I'd really like to hear it for myself.

I understand that yours will be a hard vote to get and maybe I should spend my time and effort elsewhere, but if I'm honest I'm going to try and get yours anyway because even if I lose the overall vote, having yours would mean a ton to me personally because I incredibly respect the way you approach the game. Apologies, but I'm going to sort of tackle your post out of order.

I want to reiterate that at the point at which you went out you were my Plan A. You were what I was rolling with. Haschel recently asked why he had to go if I was just going to vote you out next when he was totally willing to do that, and my answer, I believe is telling:

The simple answer is I wouldn't have voted Vash when he went and wanted to work with Vash.

You wanted to work with DV, who was the person I wanted to go to the end with at that point. I wasn't as close to Bella yet (we were still reestablishing our relationship), and het and Scoots were on one side but because Scoots didn't really want to go after het at that point and I believed him to be het's #1, and het needed to go before the end. But most importantly, you talked to me in exactly the right way! You laid out a roadmap in front of me that made me think "Yeah! this is what I want too! It makes sense, and it works for both of us!" And to be truthful, that's what I wanted. I recognized the fact that you had a roadmap that essentially took out all your challenge threats so you would make it to the end and decide who you went with to f2/3, but that made me like it MORE because every time someone told me something where I went "why would YOU want this?" it made me trust them less. But seeing that it was a roadmap that benefited you AND me made me embrace it.

I think you probably underestimate the vehemence with which Radja wanted to get you out. He literally talked about it from our first meeting in Tribe 5 (you weren't in that tribe!) and he continued to talk how dangerous you were throughout the merge. Convincing him not to go after you when he had two rounds of security? No, I really don't think I could have done that, and to try really really hard would have simply burned my bridge with Radja and make him look at me as a real option. Scoots would have been a more likely avenue, but I didn't really have an argument there either. I couldn't tell him to take out het. He was convinced ent would go out next anyway. He liked Bella.

I understand we're talking about your game and I don't get points for not protecting you or not throwing a protest vote down on you. But I really implore you to consider it. I believe I've owned my betrayals this FTC, as much as that's a painful thing to do. But it really makes me upset that this is viewed as one because I was willing to go to the end with you! You were the person who I thought I was going to the end with at that point! I needed a strong challenge person to make sure that I got there, and you were that person to me. I trusted you most because of what I talk about above.

But survivor requires adaptability, and I'm sorry that you ate the wrong end of a twist, but I was able to use my other options -- my Plans Bs so to speak -- to get around the twist and thrive.

---
I got the final 4 I wanted

in the end

. If you had been there, I would have been happy with you there -- though I think my game would have been weaker for it because you would have had a great story to tell that would have been very difficult for me to counter.

---

So what about your game should I strive to emulate?

At risk of the being too cute, let me try to put this in a framework I found that really spoke to me when I read them the first time:

Spoiler: Qualities of a Winner

Safety: Other than potentially being idoled out in the pre-merge vote (which I got immunity to protect myself from) and the twist, I was largely safe, protected by my threat level and my allies. The only vote I received this game was from a vengeful hiplop after I told him I was voting for him.

Awareness: I had both the knowledge of what was going on in the game (e.g. Haschel was trying to take out my legs) as well as the foresight to know what was coming.

Adaptability: We've talked about this, but shifting away from you to my other plans was crucial adaptability that I believe I had to show to get to the end. The twist was a huge event in the game.

Respectability: I suspect this is where you'll be the most skeptical of me. But I was really proud of my game. I was deceptive at plenty of points, but I never did it for no reason. I'm not cruel or arbitrary. I wasn't a bully. I worked with people I liked and respected, and I think they liked and respected me back.

Agency: With the exception of the f8 vote where I felt like I didn't have a lot of agency, I was able to decide which way I went at all points. DV often pressured me to follow a different path that would have benefited him more and me less, but I always made the choice that was best for me. Similarly, your pitch at f8 what

phenomenal

I said in my confessional:



You really got to me. I knew I owed it to you to hear you out, and you made creative and convincing plays. But at the end of the day, I realized I couldn't sabotage my game by putting you into a tie and giving you 24 more hours to scramble. I kept my agency by making the best play for me even if it was upsetting to do so, and I

really

wanted to.

Friendliness: I believe I was always extremely friendly in this game, both with you personally and with everyone else. In some ways, I think this is why people feel burned by me. But I genuinely liked talking to people and finding out about them and their life and sharing my own with them. The fact that I'd eventually have to vote them out is an unfortunate by-product of the game, but it didn't change the fact that I was always there to chat and support.

Individuality: I believe more than anyone sitting at FTC I played my own game, made my own decisions, and then convinced others to do them. I

wasn't

"too dependent on one person or group of people" and if I had been, I would have gone out soon after you did.

I know these are brief answers to the framework, but I hope they're convincing to you because I wholeheartedly believe them.

Vash, I said it before and I'll say it again: you're an amazing player who both deserved to win this game and had a clear path to getting there. But I honestly do not believe that

I

was the reason you didn't get there. I was planning on being part of that and hopefully I would have had a story to tell of my own against you, but I recognize now that it would have been an uphill battle. I hope you'll really consider voting for me. Having your vote would be very meaningful to me personally, and I think I played a game that deserves it.

Please let me know if I didn't answer your questions fully.

[Jamelia]

Do I regret that? I wish I had dodged you for a little bit! But no, not really. I was playing what I thought might be a survival game on that vote, and you were naturally very suspicious of me

I think for me and some people, a lot of that was pretty unnecessary. You didn't really have to lay it on that thick especially with the firm control you had of the game (as you claim). You did me wrong, that was sorta the end of our relationship at that point.

I struggle to see where how you were able to just completely shut out your personal feelings to your gameplay feelings. It's impressive, but I think it makes your game look robotic and without a heart.

What is the drive to win? What is the point? Why did you do the things you do?

I'm sorry then. I don't think I played this game without a heart at all. Certainly some of the votes I made were gut-wrenching as I legitimately cared about the people in this game. I really loved playing with you and I'd love to see you in future games. So it does make me very sad to hear that I affected you that way. I did what I thought was necessary for my game at the time, and it resulted in me being able to have a game I am proud of. Yours in particular seems senseless because I won immunity later. But if you had won immunity and I had been idoled out, I would have kicked myself for not trying everything I could to prevent it.

I’d like to know the final answer to this question. Why did you play the way you did? What is the point of all of this? Why did you try hard? What were you searching for in this game?

I want to know your personal journey and why this game was important to you personally, IF it was. If it’s just purely game and nothing personal, say that. If not, tell us what this game meant to you.

[zoraster]

Do I regret that? I wish I had dodged you for a little bit! But no, not really. I was playing what I thought might be a survival game on that vote, and you were naturally very suspicious of me

I think for me and some people, a lot of that was pretty unnecessary. You didn't really have to lay it on that thick especially with the firm control you had of the game (as you claim). You did me wrong, that was sorta the end of our relationship at that point.

I struggle to see where how you were able to just completely shut out your personal feelings to your gameplay feelings. It's impressive, but I think it makes your game look robotic and without a heart.

What is the drive to win? What is the point? Why did you do the things you do?

I'm sorry then. I don't think I played this game without a heart at all. Certainly some of the votes I made were gut-wrenching as I legitimately cared about the people in this game. I really loved playing with you and I'd love to see you in future games. So it does make me very sad to hear that I affected you that way. I did what I thought was necessary for my game at the time, and it resulted in me being able to have a game I am proud of. Yours in particular seems senseless because I won immunity later. But if you had won immunity and I had been idoled out, I would have kicked myself for not trying everything I could to prevent it.

I’d like to know the final answer to this question. Why did you play the way you did? What is the point of all of this? Why did you try hard? What were you searching for in this game?

I want to know your personal journey and why this game was important to you personally, IF it was. If it’s just purely game and nothing personal, say that. If not, tell us what this game meant to you.

The game was two things at once. To me it was both:

1. A game that I decided I wanted to try to win from the start. I play games to win them or do my best to do so. I love watching Survivor as a game, and although I'll never go onto survivor it's something I wanted to earnestly put my all into trying to perform well at. In my real life, I play a lot of board games. My friends and family play them to win. I did so here too.
2. An opportunity to get to know a wide variety of people on this site in a meaningful way, both new people to the site and veterans who know me in a very different context where I'm fairly aloof. But that's not really who I am as a person, and the opportunity to share a different side of me as well as get to know other people on the site was really, really cool.

My HOPE is that those two things don't conflict in the long-run. I know after a game some people are going to be hurt, and I understand that. But that doesn't mean that the conversations I had during the game were

fake

and my sincere hope is that those who were hurt by my actions as it relates to a game have that fade as a source of hurt and the relationships I formed with them during the 83 days we played this game still remain.

I'm not someone who's ever going to get up in front of the camera and give the ol' "I'm not here to make friends" because I

was

here to make friends. And I think I honestly made them. We'll see after who still wants to be my friend, but I've been itching to talk to many of the people I voted out about various things and have refrained from doing so because it's not appropriate with the game still ongoing. Maybe I'll get the cold shoulder, and that would make me sad. But I hope not because this game had a lot of really cool people.

[Bellaphant]

Ok, so things about DK:

Firstly, you have a truly great personality. I felt like I got on with you from our very first chat. I said that you felt reasonable and made me giggle, which was entirely true, and I think I amused you too. Straight away I liked your vibe and your approach to the game – to work with PJ as much as it benefited you, but also to distance yourself slightly from the crazy. You took my jokes well and were able to see the best in things, like offhand comments I’d made about you.

You said you made friends easily in ORGs and I can see why. We both found our significant others through ORG communities. We found other similarities in crime thrillers, computer games and some board games: I still need to play Secret Hitler. I like games more than you but we both appreciate the mental downtime something like Tropico brings. I think you get on better with your boyfriend’s family than I do mine! You also went to Animal Kingdom, and I’m so jealous. I know you bar-tend sometimes and are studying Law/the LSAT? (Tbf my knowledge of this comes from Legally Blonde).

However, I don’t think that’s quite what you wanted – regurgitated facts. I want to talk to you about the thing I think we’re similar in: hearing people talk about you and coming into the game with a reputation. And I know the reputation is important to you in some ways – going to the mods to show logs with Ent is a really honourable thing to do. At the start of merge I wasn’t against you at all – you were a bit of an unknown, a wildcard to me. And I saw a lot of similarities between us in how we dealt with rumours – you seemed to quickly decide to go with your gut and your friends, rather than conspiracy theories. You are also fairly straight up and blunt, especially about gameplay decisions, which I admire and I’ve tried to do too We also had the same response to inactive vets


We got pitched against each other on your vote, which was frustrating to me: I logged on late and was told ‘this is where the numbers are’. You were also built up as a big threat – you undersold the impact you were having on the game, whether because you couldn’t see it or because other stories were shouting louder. You take the game as personally as I do, but your frustration seems to go outward, where mine goes inward. I know it means a lot to you, and that’s something I truly recognise and believe in: I didn’t think I had a shot at earning your vote, but I respect you enough to jump through hoops. I think you’d be a great addition to the community – you are full of sass and personality and I’m really pleased you considered staying enough to sign up to mod a game. I also got the feeling loyalty and trust were important – I didn’t go sharing our last conversation anywhere after I promised. I get the feeling promises are important to you.

I also think you are cooler than me. I didn’t recognise your leaving post!

[VashtaNeurotic]

I'm not someone who's ever going to get up in front of the camera and give the ol' "I'm not here to make friends" because I

was

here to make friends. And I think I honestly made them. We'll see after who still wants to be my friend, but I've been itching to talk to many of the people I voted out about various things and have refrained from doing so because it's not appropriate with the game still ongoing. Maybe I'll get the cold shoulder, and that would make me sad. But I hope not because this game had a lot of really cool people.

https://gfycat.com/fluffyimportantdunlin

Sorry, it was too apropos

[zoraster]

I'm not someone who's ever going to get up in front of the camera and give the ol' "I'm not here to make friends" because I

was

here to make friends. And I think I honestly made them. We'll see after who still wants to be my friend, but I've been itching to talk to many of the people I voted out about various things and have refrained from doing so because it's not appropriate with the game still ongoing. Maybe I'll get the cold shoulder, and that would make me sad. But I hope not because this game had a lot of really cool people.

https://gfycat.com/fluffyimportantdunlin

Sorry, it was too apropos

hahahahaha I Stan Monty.

[McMenno]

[ScootsBaboo]

Menno that counts as a hate crime

[ScootsBaboo]

I'M DYING that's too funny.

[Bellaphant]

'Bella, you're great and I adore you. Of the finalists you are the only one who didn't turn their back on me, even to the point of casting a protest vote. Everyone always called you a threat and yet here you are, I have every reason to vote for you. But if you want to win this game, I and everyone else need to know, in detail, what was your strategy, did you just ride your own hype wave to the end? did you make moves that people barely noticed but were key to your survival? Did you strategically choose not to do things? It sounds like the last of those based on your opening and if so, well, it certainly needs expanding on why it was necessary beyond the blurb you have.'

Ditto. You made the game a better place and again, you going home made me cry. I understand that people want more detail, but I didn't want to bore people.

I hope everyone knows I'm not a 'ride my own hype wave' sort of person. I find it difficult to sit here and tell you all how great I am. People knowing my name, in some cases before I'd met them, and having formed an impression of me (such as Entreri) was something to work against. And it was a strategic choice, as well as a structurally imposed one, to play a middle of the road game - I wasn't suggesting 6 person alliances on an 8 person tribe (PJ), but I was being totally straight with my allies and doing things like telling them 'there is a proposed group, you aren't in it and that makes me uncomfortable'. This led to people knowing that I'd be upfront and have their back.

I believe it was the second option: little moves, little decisions. Choosing to work with a majority, but also making sure the people closest to me had options: I remember two conversations wit DV specifically where I discussed ' I could get my own way if I was a dick here, but going with the majority is fine' - I was very rarely in a place where one of the options I had in front of me were bad, so choosing to go with what more people wanted was important to keep those relationships postive down the line. (Specifically, formerfish over lld and not going after Brom).

I was also consistently making sure to always be in a majority group - And to help be a focus around which those majorities could form. For example, pants and brom and scoots and you and dv would always have been safe in that tribe and I feel I did a lot to grease the wheels there. It was also things like making a group chat to share information about idol speculation: I knew I had the most info and I knew I would been seen as more valuabe, trusted and trusting by sharing. Setting up that group chat full of big threats was also incredible useful and allowed me to deepen strategic relationships with you, het and Haschel.

Being open meant I could also have those important conversations - how worried I was about Haschel, how 'he might go for anyone', how frustrated I was about my social interactions with Radja, etc. Occasionally I did let my relationships outweigh my strategic game - realistically I don't think I was in your end-game plans, but everyone knew I didn't want you to go.

I think of a lot of my strategy game at merge, and it was about managing perceived threat level, while getting votes that worked well for me. With the amount of majority votes in the merge, I don't think anyone can claim to have planned and directed a large proportion of them. That doesn't mean I did nothing though - the one thing I didn't do was cruise through the merge - I had to be honest with Zor and Scoots when DK tried to sell me out to them (this only worked as I'd been updating zor on the early conversation as it went) in order to keep that momentum shifting to me. It meant I had a constant eye on the numbers - a lot of people went into merge worried that those perceived as 'weaker' would continue to progress and become more and more attractive options for endgame the closer we got too ftc. These were also some of the people who I didn't have as strong relationships with. I went to a few of the players I saw as stronger (you, het, zor) and explained how much I didn't want this to be the case at endgame - I believe that steered some of the early votes.

Having options was always important to me, but so was being able to persuade people to my way of thinking: Zor offered to vote het with me the entreri round, as I'd convinced him of his threat level, Dv voted Radja over Scoots largely because of our existing social relationships, Zor managed to mess DV around for 48 hours dangling FTC in front of him until he made the play that I think was better for my game - eliminating DV, someone who's votes I felt we'd each canabalise, giving Zor an easier path, and keeping Scoots. These moves weren't flashy, and the didn't involve hundreds of people - they relied on one to one connections and being able to sell people on the things I wanted being the things they should want. I had the relationships and had diminished my threat level well enough that by the f8 twist, I wasn't in anyone's firing line. After that, I got what I wanted, consistently - I was the swing vote in the Ent vote, Radja went next, I'd set Het up as the one person we should all be worried about and I knew I couldn't win over DV.

Let me know if there's more you want from me.

[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.

[Bellaphant]

'Bella, in the final 4 vote, was Zoraster on the table for you as an option to vote out? If not, was it more because of the f2 deal with him or more because you stood a better chance against him than against DV? Was Scoots ever an option?'

Hi het,

Not really. For two reasons - early in the merge (earlier for you, I told you you were a winner about five minutes after I met you) I identified him and you as people playing really strong games that were really different to mine. I knew then that I wanted to go to the end with one of you - I believed that the jury would be looking for different things in the game, and votes Zor could get were votes I wouldn't, and vice versa. I was also pretty confident I'd get more of them: I truly believe I've played the best game of the FTC, in terms of managing a path to endgame, navigating threat and making relationships that mattered. Although Zor says he played up some of the robotic elements, he also does lean in to them: about 15 mins after I joked that Zor had been keeping a Spreadsheet for the final challenge, he sent it to me. I believe I can read people well, and although I wasn't expecting the amount of words he's given, the content is about what I expected: good, but different to mine. The f2 deal...I know he had a lot of those, as a lot of us do, but it wasn't the deciding factor.

I felt DV's content would be too similar, his game too similar, his strengths overlapping mine. Although I had a few doubts - there were votes I could point to in the late merge where my will definitely prevailed over his, I realised that even though I could point to these 'errors' in his game, I couldn't point to anything in Scoots'. I may just know his game less. But Scoots was never an option, as I realised that in the same way DV would split my votes, Zor's game outshone Scoots - they made a lot of similar moves, but Zor was always going to portray himself as an uber-marionette type figure. It's why I'm proud of the challenge win and proud of getting the f3 I wanted.

[zoraster]

Bella joked about the Structural element in her speech, and explained it's a meme. I don't consider it a joke or a meme at all. All of you have been making great cases for why you deserve to win Survivor. What I want to know is why you deserve to specifically win Survivor: The Real Theme Was Inside This All Along.

Non-Anon

Non anon was a godsend for me. I didn't perform well in the two anonymous games I played way back when in no small part because it's really hard for me to maintain a relationship with someone who is playing someone else. I really do want to get to know people and share myself with them, so it's really awkward to have this fake persona thing going on. I understand the benefits and as a moderator I probably prefer it! But it was hard for me to engage with in the way I could engage with in really true way.

Additionally, I'm just a lot more likely to be able to communicate well via Discord than I am PMs, etc. I think I can come across as wooden and perhaps overly analytical in PMs (and posts like this!) whereas on Discord more of my personality can come through and I feel like there's more time to converse rather than talk at each other.

I should mention that I made sure that even when there were group (whether 3 person or full tribe) DMs going on, that I ALWAYS chatted to someone one on one. I didn't ever want my relationship with someone to come down to what they thought about the GROUP as a whole. So for example, you and I had a group chat with het and that was all great, but I made sure that I was messaging you personally and het personally to make sure I was cultivating those relationships separate and apart from the success as the group.

Length of the Game

We have other generally quick non-anonymous games that run as well as things like survivormeet, but I'm at a disadvantage in those in a way I didn't feel like I was here. I'm not a

fast

thinker, right? A setup like this allows me more time to think through things and make sure I don't say the wrong things to the wrong people more than I should.

Also because I decided that I was going to throw myself into this, the length of the game worked in my favor. Although it was tough because of the number of days I was "on" (i.e. in a challenge or in tc) was so vast, being the person who just kept working -- talking to people, thinking about the game, doing the endurance challenges, etc. all really were things that set me up for success. I didn't sort of fade from the game only to come back at the end. I was always there in the mix.

I can't overemphasize how much work I put into the game, and the thing that stands out to me most about TRTWIUAA is how bloody long it was and how taxing that made it. So the person who wins it should be the person who really took advantage and

thrived

in the context of that endurance game.

Frequent Swaps

Frequent swaps were tough for me, but I was able to take advantage of them all the same. I had to play pretty aggressively because I knew I wasn't going to be someone that people naturally just wanted to pick up: I wasn't new to the community, so people didn't automatically seek me out for that, and I didn't have any sort of reputation or pre-existing relationship with the vast majority of people in the game. So I had to go out and forge my own path every single swap because to do otherwise (particularly because my tribes kept going to TC!) would be to find myself fighting to survive rather than shaping the game going forward. That's where so many people in the jury came in. You particularly, Haschel. Especially on that first tribe we shared together (Tribe 3) it was kind of a mess of a tribe. I sabotaged the large alliance, went straight to you to embrace you as hard as I could so that you'd work with me, went to het (who was also nominally in the alliance), told him I wasn't sure about it which he wholeheartedly agreed with, and from there we were able to form an entirely different type of game where we got out utah which started the dominoes to getting out bro and kilby later down the line. If I had sat back and let that alliance go forward, (a) Overkill would have destroyed it anyway and (b) I'm probably out after Lexi.

The other way I used the frequent swaps was more subtle but also important. I actually wasn't

terrible

at the challenges. I was usually mid-tier. But because of the swaps, no one really cared about keeping strong competitors around to help and weaker competitors out, so I was able to talk down my challenge game to reduce my threat at a much earlier stage than I think I would have been able to if we had had a tribe last for, say, 4 or 5 votes. That played a crucial part in my late pre-merge, early merge strategy.

Twists

For the most part the twists were pretty minor. It may have meant Bro probably went instead of Kilby for a round (because bro was easier to beat in the challenge where Menno won), but otherwise it didn't REALLY matter. The final pre-merge tc twist actually could have EASILY led to my demise because DK always uses the idol to save himself after the pants vote if there's no individual immunity around. So managing to get the highest score on Kanye was me taking full advantage of the twist.

The only twist that was HUGE was the 2x2 twist that I've already described and that was game changing, but I had kept myself in an adaptable position where I could pivot away from my course and still achieve what I wanted to in the game. There are twists that might hurt your game, and figuring out how to deal with those -- head up, marching on rather than cursing the darkness -- and still succeed is the sign of a winner.

[Jamelia]

I have no further questions. Good luck to all three of you! <3

[zoraster]

I have no further questions. Good luck to all three of you! <3

I appreciate the opportunity to answer them, DK!

[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)

[entreri]

@ Bella,
Earlier you said "Zor offered to vote het with me the entreri round". I'm curious what you think the rest of the game (FTC specifically) looks like if you go the other way on this vote.

@ Zor, the same question.

@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?

[Jamelia]

I lied -

Bella when did I try selling you out to Scoots/Zoraster? You said this in a response but I don’t remember this at all

[Bellaphant]

Ent - if het goes, I believe I go soon after and FTC prolly looks something like.... you, Radja and probably scoots. Being able to draft out what was ahead if I changed course was really Important in my decision making process.

Tbf radja's behaviour worried me that round a lot too - he told het he was begging me to vote you over het (he wasn't) and that also confirmed it wasn't a safe path

DK, I felt like you wanted to get the names of 'people' who had led your vote and you went straight to those people once I'd mentioned your name. It made me hesitate to continue exploring what happened if you weren't the vote here. It may not have been 'selling me out' but I felt it was indicative of reactionary play. Does that make sense?

[zoraster]

@ Bella,
Earlier you said "Zor offered to vote het with me the entreri round". I'm curious what you think the rest of the game (FTC specifically) looks like if you go the other way on this vote.

@ Zor, the same question.

Fantastic question. I've thought a lot about it. I'm going to use your name in third person here just so that things are clear.

F7: het goes instead of Ent. Players left: Zor, Bella, Scoots, DV, Radja, Ent
F6 Let's say I get immunity again. Radja goes. Without het even if I didn't want to turn on Radja at this point he's exposed and will go home. He will have voted for Ent previously as well (even though I think he was willing to vote het this round). DV would be the person who would probably try to save Radja with a vote onto Scoots, but not sure you would have bitten, Ent. It wouldn't have been in your best interest to do so.
F5 Scoots gets immunity. Ent+Zor+Scoots vote for Bella maybe? DV would have been aligned with you and me I think but he was trying to establish more of his own game at this point in the real time line and I think he'd probably do so here too.
F4 Let's say DV (who had the highest score among the four of us) gets immunity. I think DV votes for me to go here. I think you probably go along? Only option I have at that point is to vote you, and maybe I get Scoots to go along and vote for you too. Tie breaker happens. A coin flip who wins between us.
So I see the most likely FTC as Ent/Zor+Scoots+DV

I think you stand a good chance at that FTC if you win the tiebreaker, though DV would have given you a run for your money.