Board Thread:Survivor: Sumbawa (Season 19)/@comment-24772209-20160831220222

Survivor Sumbawa!

The wild roller coast of an ORG game that we've come to know very well over the past couple of months. Firstly I wanna thank the hosts for giving me this opportunity to return, as I know Tyler has been working on me to get on multiple previous returnee seasons and I'm thankful that this was finally my time!

I am a firm believer that final tribal council is the time you lay everything out on the table, and I intend on giving you guys (the jury) 100% of the truth as I saw this game unfold in front of my eyes.

As this is my final ORG I'm playing after 2 years, I knew that Sumbawa would be the perfect chance to put everything I've learned in my previous dozen games or so to the test!

So here... We... Go!

STEP 1 (Check): LAY LOW EARLY ON AND MAKE FRIENDS. It's the Anarchy stage, no need to try to pull off anything fancy. The name of the game is to survive. And another part of surviving in an anarchy stage is making friends and allies. My social game is usually what brings me the farthest in games so I quickly but steadily attached myself to my best friend and #1 ally Brian, as well as, Linus, Will, and all of the returnee's. And of course along the way making connections with people like CJ, AJ, and Andy whom had gotten along really well with for the entire game that we spent together.

STEP 2 (Check): Win as many team/tribe immunity's as possible = more idol clues. So winning immunity is a no brainer to help advance yourself in the game. But the advantage of winning lots of immunities early in the game means no TC for you and you get less blood on your hands because you've never had to vote someone out of the game. And being a strong force in many if the team challenges helped me greatly because out of the 10 premerge tribal councils, I only attended 1 tribal council. So not only did I have the least amount of blood on my hands cold the merge, but in the process of winning so many team immunities I was also able to obtain both the Anarchy Hidden Immunity Idol and the Alor Hidden Immunity Idol. So I like to think my aggressive approach in winning and contributing to premerge immunities was an ultimate plus to my game because I did the work early so the send half of the game would come a little easier.

STEP 3 (Check): Align with the more quiet/loyal players. So it's no secret I played very close alongside Lexus and Josh during the game. Both of whom I consider to be my really good friends in and outside the game now. I think Josh and I were kind of both of each other secrets weapons because I don't think people actually knew how close he and I really were. He's a good friend and a loyal ally! '''And because I had him (Josh) on my side I was always able to know what was going on outside of my main alliance. And that fact that some people weren't talking to Josh all the time also meant that I was able to influence his vote often because I believe I was his main ally in the game because of that. Lexus was useful to me because we got along well on a personal level and eventually as she became less and less active I was pretty much able to control where she voted each round.''' She definitely had a mind of her own but once she became more and more inactive, her vote virtually became my own because she didn't know who else to vote for. Lexus' loyalty to me also payed off in a HUGE way during the last Anarchy vote after the survivor auction. Because of my connections, I went through Brian to find out what Ash and Zak were bidding. Once I caught wind that Ash was splitting her money evenly on 2 items I hatched a plan. '''I go for immunity and give Lexus and extra $300 bucks to outbid Ash (whom was targeting me early on with Zak for suspecting I had the idol) and take her items. This ultimately sent Ash to tribal with NO auction items and she ultimately got the boot because she (Lexus) was able to use the items that I helped her get at the auction to take out Ash.''' On the other hand I avoided tribal all together and Lexus was able to use an item she just won to take out Ash and afterwards Lex handed me her other item which was the Coat of Arms. This was a massive win win situation for me as I began to take some control in the game. I even remember Linus mentioned to me in a call that that was such a great move.

Now fast forward to the merge!

It's the SumbawaCat Dolls (Linus, Lex, Dani, Brian, and myself) featuring Jess and Josh. And then Josephine, PJ, and CJ to themselves on the outs of the main alliance. I was really pleased to see that the 7 people that I wanted most to make the merge were still intact. And even though Will was lost in the tribal phase, I knew that would be great for me later on because Dani would be down a number when it got down to it and I would need to take her out (Dani and Will were good friend prior to the game for anyone who didn't know). I knew at this point I had a lot of momentum going into the merge with 2 idols, very little blood on my hands, the Coat of Arms item that I managed to obtain without even bidding on, a main 5 person alliance, a really tight pact with Brian and Lexus (separately), and a secret pact with Josh that no one knew about. And to an extent I also felt like Mama J and I had a good understanding of each other because I in no way wanted Mama J to go early merge and I don't think she wanted me gone either at that point.

So what are my plans at the merge?

STEP 1 (Check): Pick off the 3 remaining players in the game that I'm not aligned with (CJ, PJ, and Josephine). Didn't really matter a ton who went first, just as long as those 3 were the first 3 boots of the season. Unfortunately CJ was the first casualty. CJ and I had a great conversation the night before and at the time he was not a target what so ever and I had every intension on keeping him around until the next afternoon when I found out from Jessica that CJ actually had a double vote despite telling me the night before he only had a challenge disadvantage. It was at that point I knew CJ was not to be trusted as much as I thought I could so he was the first sent home at the merge. Followed by PJ, who I actually found to be quite fun to have around actually when he was online haha. And then Josephine was the last of the 3 to leave. Of course she went because all of her friends were now on the jury! And each of those times those 3 were voted off (if I'm correct), I believe Brian was throwing votes at Jessica in the event of an idol being played, while I just stuck to the original plan and just let Brian get all this blood on his hands.

STEP 2 (Almost Check lol): Take out the 3 remaining players who may be most detrimental to my game in making it to the end (Dani, Jessica, and Linus). Dani, the social butterfly queen. Dani was one of the people I was most exited to play with this season. I knew she would make a great ally because she's a strong player and she's really social so I figured she would get a lot of information from people. Then there's Jessica who I loved personally but I was also threatened by because I've seen the way she slayed physically and strategically in BB5 and I didn't want to become a victim of hers the closer we got to the end as I feared I wasn't in her F3 plans. And then we have Linus who I really only wanted out because he was just the last one left and the most untrustworthy of the remaining bunch. But to me Dani had to go as soon as possible out of the 3 because I felt like she was the biggest threat to win the game. I knew for a long time I wanted to work with her BUT I also knew there was no way in hell I could go to the end with someone as likable as Dani. That's too dangerous for me! Now Jessica was a different story. Jessica was not the target when she got the boot, it was Dani. BUT because Linus had spoiled our plans to Dani and we knew she had the idol, we quickly switched our votes to Jessica because at that point we knew that Jessica was also playing us as well. Jessica just became a victim that was caught in the middle of the fire. I didn't want it to happen like that but it just had to at that point.

A moment I do wanna elaborate on was that F7 vote that I was just mentioning above... That vote was a massive game changer. All throughout the game Brian had been telling me he didn't trust Josh and that he wanted him to go soon after Josephine, PJ, and CJ went home. I assured him over and over than Josh could be trusted and he's not an enemy to us. '''And looking back now I'm realizing Brian probably wouldn't be here right now if it weren't for Josh and I having a close bond and him trusting me enough to let me know what Dani and Linus' plans actually were during that F7 vote where Jessica went home. This is exactly why I wanted to align with someone like Josh.''' Brian was a great ally and friend to me in this game, but I also knew that Brian is an emotional guy in games and that eventually Brian would step on people's toes because he can get very upset at the way things happen in the game. Where as I'm more so in control of my feelings and how I talk to people even if something isn't going my way.

Now speaking on Linus, Linus happens to be one of the people I'm most happiest I got to play with this season on a personal level. But I feel like what separates Linus and myself (game wise) is that I made this game unfold just the way I planned it to, where as I think Linus just took what was given to him and hoped for the best. He didn't have much control. And when he went on his immunity run all the deals he made had faltered. Had Linus not won 4 straight immunities he wouldn't be here right now. I can tell you that for a fact. Now I do give him props for winning that many individual challenges, but at the same time, how good of a game are you ACTUALLY playing if you need to win every immunity from F7 on up to win the game? I had my game all planned out to where I might not even have needed any of my idols or even my auction item to survive. I didn't depend on immunity wins to get to the end and then in the process make fake proposals to Brian and I every round that he consistently broke besides the Josh vote. Josh and Brian would tell me everything so it was almost laughable every round when Linus would try to make a deal to save himself to me for the following round and then he would turn around and tell Josh or Brian something totally different. The only move that he (Linus) was able to make at the end of the game was strictly once again CHALLENGED BASED as he won immunity and thus the hosts made the idol clue super easy so it could be found because it was F6. The clue was literally this person was on the Angkor tribe which only gives you 6 options to choose from... And when 2 people are guessing people from that very small tribe that idol wasn't really hard to find. So Linus played that idol on Dani and that made Lexus go home. Now they HAD the opportunity to get a bigger threat out in Brian, but Dani and Linus didn't because they were in fear of my idol that proved effective since I didn't even have to play it on Brian to protect him.

To sum everything up!

1. I believe that I played the most strategic game out of my 2 competitors here. As well as a solid social game and a pretty strong physical game (premerge).

2. I was only vulnerable in this game for 6 tribals because I was a strong force in the early challenges and I had 2 idols in my pocket come the merge.

3. The plans that I set out to do for each phase of the game all worked out as I planned, with the exception of Linus going on an immunity run.

4. I held more control throughout this game than Linus because I was the one that was more so calling the shots and making things happen, where Linus was just going with the flow and trying to win immunity every week when he knew he was next.

5. Brian was originally my #1 guy, BUT I was also able to virtually control Lex' vote every round when she became semi inactive, and my secret pact with Josh that no one knew much about helped me get an in on what was going on with Dani and Linus toward the stretch of the game.

Overall, I just really feel like I outwitted and outplayed my 2 competitors that stand next to me. Neither Linus nor Brian knew the amount of information I was being fed from each side. And I just used the knowledge I obtained from my surroundings to put MY best foot forward and try to make it as far as possible in the game. And here I am. Also not to mention Linus called Brian and I both goats today in the tribe chat, so I take it he just expects your votes tonight but I'm here to work and earn your votes and I look forward to answering any questions you guys might have!

Last thing, I just wanted to say I'm really grateful to have gotten this opportunity to play in Sumbawa! I'm grateful that I got to play with each and every one of you, no matter what happened in the game I learned something from this experience. And it's an honor to be sitting here in the finals next to these two guys! :) Jury, just cast your vote for whoever you feel played he best game. No hard feelings and may the best person win! 