Board Thread:Survivor 43: San Andrés/@comment-33829505-20200523185649/@comment-26156957-20200523200657

Hei hei Jacob! I hope all is well for you and I think if we met but in different circumstances, we could’ve connected a lot better. Anyhow, here’s my answer to your question about me!

I was 15 when I first played 703. I just won my first ORG so I felt ready to tackle the big-leagues and compete in an ORG considered top tier. Looking back, I was definitely a lot more arrogant and naive but I still had a solid grasp on the game. For example, I quickly found our tribe’s idol right after we won our first clue which happened again this time (last time it was only an idol fragment so that dud was cursed). I was even voted most likely to win during Touchy Subjects (now I’m two for two). I even managed to avoid upsetting too many people with only one exception, just like this season. But I still made too many mistakes which led to my ultimate demise in 7th place.

In Antarctica, on our original tribe, there was a player who wasn’t quite in the majority alliance but we immediately clicked. I considered him my ride-or-die and was ready to run this whole game with him. The problem was that I completely surrendered myself to him and he completely took advantage of it. He basically became the Godfather of the season. I told him about my idol which got leaked because of him. I exposed the majority I was in which caused him to turn on all my other allies and eliminate them all. Lastly, he kept me powerless while he worked with other allies that he viewed more beneficial to his game. The irony here is that he worked with a somewhat-secret threesome and they ran everything, even reaching FTC together.

Had I surrendered myself to Mackie, for instance, I would’ve met the same fate and fell victim to yet another 703 threesome that controlled the entire game. This time, I was more collaborative with my game and didn’t put all my eggs into one basket. I established numerous connections with people to integrate myself into a stable majority. I never exposed that majority, being the Florencia 5, which could’ve lost me Aaron and Abi’s trust. I didn’t have to completely rely on one person and always had other people to work with to further ourselves. Lastly, I knew how to properly position myself to keep myself from getting voted off, even though I received a lot more votes than last time. The tradeoff is that I actually made Day 39 with a legitimate shot at winning, so to me it was worth it.

Once I corrected all these mistakes, I played a game that I considered more successful than my first outing. I faced many familiar circumstances this season, but they all reminded me of my past experience and I knew how to avoid screwing over myself again. As a result, I surpassed my previous placement and made it all the way! There were some more lessons to be learned this season, but I didn’t let these demolish my game, managing to adapt and overcome unlike last time.

I hope you enjoyed my response! I sure did since it’s always fun to look back on how my 703 story arc carried over into this season haha. Thanks again!