Board Thread:Survivor: Skye Islands (Season 12)/@comment-25615280-20151017034606/@comment-26577876-20151018021756

Hi Will! It's nice to finally meet you too! Thank you for giving us the opportunity to use your speech as a space for closing arguments!

All of the finalists you see here today have a lot of merit to their gameplay, and we all played distinct games. Tyler's gameplay has themes of loyalty and logic. Nuno's gameplay has themes of conviction and calculation.

My gameplay has themes of patience and perseverance.

My biggest flaw in every game I've ever played has been my eagerness to make big moves preemptively, and I finally accomplished a level of balance that my social and strategic games needed. Maybe some would say that inaction has actually been my greatest downfall. To them I would say that I needed to be patient because I very nearly imploded on myself. I started slow and small on Dunan, making sure I was part of a majority alliance and nothing else. On New Torrin I really began to branch out more. I was confiding in brains, reconsidering my beauty alliance, and even attempting an alliance with brawns just before merge happened. I nearly slipped up on MULTIPLE OCASSIONS, which was cause for alarm to me, but not enough to make me stop. I overconfidently told myself that I could handle it. I wanted to convince myself that I was dangerous enough for the dangerous game I was playing. Before the Zane vote dropped, I was scatterbrained, reckless, and frankly a hot mess. All of this reared its ugly head in the form of paranoia when I began to question the plan my alliance had set forth. As a result, the messy tribal ensued and Zanegate soon followed. It was a horrifying event when it happened, but truth be told, I needed it. Rather than being stubborn about how I wanted the game to go, I learned to listen to the tempo of the game. I believe this became one of the most defining features of my game.

With patience came perseverance, another huge theme in my gameplay. My allies were being picked off in spite of my efforts to see them through - it's mentally and emotionally taxing to feel your morale constantly taking a nose dive. At times I felt like it was a matter of time before my own departure would come to fruition...But I had to keep going. I had to keep believing there was an end in sights for me that didn't involve me getting voted out just because I wasn't part of the majority alliance. I had to have the mental fortitude I did if I wanted any chance at making it to F3. I started out by giving myself little goals to accomplish. When I wasn't voted out at F8, I told myself to at least make my ME placement of F7. When I wasn't voted out at F7, I told myself F6 sounds nice and doable. I didn't want to psyche myself out with long terms goals, nor did I want to force anything out of my control to happen because I had the constant reminder of Zanegate.

With patience and perseverance, my gameplay allowed me to survive as long as I did, as well as continue to be myself. Before the game started I wanted to have fun and make friends. Zanegate fixed my lack of balance, but it didn't affect my desire to get to know people and enjoy the game for what it is. Tribe chat was the most active and easygoing I've seen of any game I've played, and interacting with everyone (regardless of alliance lines drawn) in what was actually pretty neutral territory was rewarding. In moments where I felt shitty about my position in the game, I reminded myself of the fact that I was at least able to have some shits and giggles with new people in tribe chat. This alone gave me confidence to trust people that I didn't think I would be able to, and motivated me to continue forming relationships on personal levels.

If there's anything to take away from everything I've said during FTC, it's that I learned to respect the game rather than force it in the directions that I had originally felt set on. Yes, I was cautious, and yes, I was subtle. It worked for me better than trying to be a flashy player. I was fortunate enough to realize the game-breaking mistakes I was making, and the changes I made in my gameplay have proven to be incredibly worthy of my time.

Before I close, I'd like to give another big, big, BIG thank you to the hosts. You guys have been the best any of us could have hoped for. You guys make 703 a great place to be. I love you guys <3

Lastly, I'd like to thank you all for making this season the fun, exciting, and tbh ICONIC season it is. I cherish the connections I've made, and I can't wait to develop them further together. To the people I didn't get a chance to play with/talk to, let's change that.

Thank you guys. <3