Board Thread:703’s Showdown 1/@comment-27281906-20180726221214

'''Hello Jurors! '''

'''First of all, I would like to say that I’m absolutely humbled and excited to have made it this far. This was the most wild and fun ORG experience I’ve had to date, and no matter what happens I’m glad to have played with all of you! Good luck to Benj as well, you’re a worthy adversary to be sitting next to. <3'''

'''I feel as though there is a perception that I relied very heavily on my physical game to make it far, and although my physical game was a strength of mine, I feel as though the bigger reasons I made it this far is because I focused on advancing myself socially and strategically in this game as well. I’ll be going through each part of the game explaining my thought process as well as the relationships I built and the strategic moves I made.'''

'''Starting from the early days on Yaknad, I was able to quickly rekindle my relationship with Jenna right from the start which made us the tightest two within the Yaknad four. I also spent this time early in the game developing a relationship with Nathaniel, and luckily we were able to settle any differences from San Marcos pretty quickly and get on the same page. When we went to tribal on day 5, Jenna and I were able to get Nathaniel on board pretty quickly to target Hannah, despite me singlehandedly losing the challenge for the tribe. This gave us two the majority if we had to go tribal again. '''

'''On Yaknad I found the Bora Bora idol and had to give it away, and that is how Toby got access to an immunity idol. I was already beginning to trust Toby, but giving him the idol was an very important relationship builder for us in the game and it translated to a game long alliance with him. '''

'''The swap worked out pretty decently for me as some of the One World bonds I made were swapped onto my new tribe. I was able to capitalize on the bonds I created with Toby and Rhys and was able to get Jenna and myself into a four person alliance the we named the United Gaytions. This alliance was able to gain control of the swap tribe once we got Matthias out, and us being in power allowed me to make my first power move and get Eve out of the game. A big reason for the 3-2-2 vote was because I told Fariha beforehand that Nadine would be able to stay in the game if the two of them voted for Rhys and assured her that everything would work out, as well as Jenna voting with Eve to stay loyal to her friend. Eve was a player that I couldn’t trust in the game and it was the first outwardly aggressive move I made to benefit my long term plan. By the time the merge came long the United Gaytions alliance had been in on three plans together and it had built up enough trust between us to stay together at merge.'''

'''The first merge vote began as a giant eight person voting bloc created by Justin that excluded Nicole, Nadine, and Benj with the plan to split the votes 4-4 between Nicole and Nadine. I felt that this vote split gave me an opportunity to make a move against Justin, who I felt was a wildcard and someone who probably didn’t have me in their long term plan. With the help of Toby, Rhys, and Nathaniel I was able to pull that move off and get myself into a majority going into the next vote. For the Nadine vote there was a core five of Jenna, Rhys, Toby, and Nathaniel that included Matt and Sam in a vote split where (Toby/Rhys/Nat/myself) voted for Nicole and (Jenna/Matt/Sam) voted for Nadine. This move was beneficial because it allowed me to create a working relationship with Sam and Matt which ended up benefiting me later down the road. '''

'''The Nathaniel vote was another big turning point in my game on a social and a strategic level. '''

'''The core five people of the last vote were obviously not interested in staying loyal to each other, and I found myself in the middle of two different options. On one side, Jenna, Nathaniel, Benj, and Nicole wanting to target (first Sam) and then Toby. And on the other side was Toby, Rhys, Sam, and Matt wanting to target Nathaniel. One of my major strengths in this game was never giving into conflict. When Sam called me out in the tribe chat during this round, instead of giving it any attention, I went into his pms and did damage control behind the scenes. The actual decision to vote for Nathaniel came down to three factors: Firstly, I had stronger social opportunities with the group of four voting for him. Secondly, Nathaniel admitted to me during the Nadine vote that he almost flipped against me and that caused me to distrust him. Thirdly, I knew from past votes that I can still work with Jenna if we don’t vote the same. '''

'''My safety in the final eight came down to my social relationships. Benj and Nicole wanted me out, and had Matt convinced I was the best move for him. My relationships with Jenna, Toby, Rhys and Sam were the key to my survival this round. Despite not working with her on the last vote, Jenna refused to vote me out at final eight leaving Benj and Nicole to convince Sam and Matt to tie the vote. Matt was in, but Toby did some major work vouching for my trust towards Sam, ultimately convincing him to keep me over Nicole in that situation. '''

'''Final seven was the first time in the game that I was blindsided. I did know that Toby was receiving votes, but I didn’t know that Sam and Matt were going to jump on board. Although I won immunity that round, I wouldn’t have been targeted because Jenna was a major factor in the Toby blindside and once again she would’ve refused to vote for me. This vote led to the chain of me losing all of closest allies in a row and being placed in the underdog position. I came to the conclusion that Sam found the merge idol at f6 when I discovered the location and found it missing, inspiring the attempt to split the votes between Sam and Matt. Had I not won immunity, I wouldn’t have wanted to split the votes but rather be three strong with Jenna and Rhys against one of the other three. Trying to split the votes ended up leading to Rhys being voted out, and left me in a position where I needed to win immunity. Jenna was the obvious vote at final five once I did win and even with her self-voting, I still felt obligated to show her the same loyalty she showed to me throughout the game.'''

'''Going into final four it was pretty obvious that without immunity, I would be done for. When I lost immunity, it was almost 100% that I was going home. Benj, Matt, and Sam all perceived me as the biggest jury threat and the only way for me to stay was to convince somebody of the complete opposite. I had always kept my lines of communication open with Sam, whether we were working together and not, and I felt that if anybody was going to be swayed, it would be him. I worked ruthlessly that 24 hours trying to convince him that I was actually the biggest goat, playing up certain rivalries as more intense than they actually were, quoting fake arguments and mean things that I didn’t actually say so that Sam was compelled to believe he would most definitely beat me in the jury. '''

'''Yes, I did make a swear on my sister’s grave that I would’ve taken Sam to the final two. I want everyone on this jury to know that had I won the final immunity, I would have never broken that promise for any reason. The intention of this swear was to ensure to Sam that I wouldn’t screw him over if he decided to save me. Once I made that promise with him, I was locked in with him to the end, and nothing in this world would’ve stopped me from upholding my promise.'''

'''All of this, along with really playing up Matt’s strengths in the game finally convinced Sam to make the move to keep me. This was the most important move I made in the entire game, not only was I able to survive from a 0% of staying, I was able to put myself in the position where no matter who won immunity at f3, I would be going to final two. Sam and I were able to convince Benj that I was a smart choice to take to the end, to the point where they agreed with one another that if I won the tiebreaker they were taking me over each other if they won immunity. Final Four really showcased the full potential of my social and strategic game, and is my prime example that I didn’t always have to rely on challenges to advance myself in the game. '''

'''I am sitting here on day 39 because I had a fiery determination in this game to do the best that I could do. Although I did make mistakes in the game, I feel as though I played an all around social, strategic, and physical game. I did my best to leave as many lines of communication open as possible, was able to be adaptable with my strategic decisions, stayed loyal to those I considered close allies, and took the time to get to know people personally. I should be crowned sole survivor because I played to my strengths, was able to overcome my weaknesses, and never gave up even when I was on the brink of elimination. I thank all of you for taking the time to read this, and I’m ready to answer any questions or concerns you might have. Thanks again and can’t wait to talk to yall again soon :)'''  