Board Thread:Survivor 43: San Andrés/@comment-26156957-20200521231235

Greetings jurors! To start off, I want to express my gratitude and appreciation to the hosts and this cast for allowing this season to be such a fun and memorable experience.

This is now my 2nd time I reached Day 39 with the first time being over 4 years (with a jury half the size of this one no less), so I apologize if my speech/response writing isn’t the best. Lastly, I figured the best approach for an opening is to provide an overall perspective of my entire game. This is so you guys as jurors can ask specific questions that best tailor to how you’ll vote for the winner. I apologize in advance for the long-ass opening, so please read it at your own leisurely pace. Without further ado, let’s get into this!

 Pre-Merge 

I want to start by shedding some light on background info. The kid version of me that competed in S17: Antarctica always focused on simply playing the best game while forging an attachment to a specific player(s) in hopes of controlling the season with them. Looking back, this was clearly my downfall since I struggled to prioritize building genuine relationships while I always viewed my non-allies as competition to disregard and eliminate. This time around, I’ve learned to value relationships while offering to play a collaborative game this time with people willing to work with me. My personal human character usually expects people to approach me first for any reason given reason, so I needed to adopt a more open and outreach style of approach.

Out of the gate, I set gameplay and strategy aside to focus on building relationships with everyone on my tribe. Some of these bonds were much stronger than others, but I put forth the effort to connect with my tribemates. I genuinely enjoy meeting new people, so I never considered small-talk with my tribemates as forced filler for socializing. I sought out shared interests to further connect with people. This ranged from Tommy and I’s experience in the ORG scene to Izzy and I’s enjoyment of Lost (TV series).

During our winning streak, I did not seek out alliances but instead relied on entering the good graces of certain people to prove my worth. Only Aaron was willing to talk about finding the idol with me on Day 2, so we ended up collaborating to solve the idol combo. After receiving our first idol clue, I managed to secure the idol later that same night when using our notes. I kept the idol secret from everyone, including Aaron, since sharing that crucial information so hastily backfired for me back in Antarctica and it was way too early to tell who were actually my true allies.

F17: Vincent - I treated this tribal as my first opportunity to discover who could become my best allies moving forward and into a swap. Right away, Vincent approached me to form an alliance with Izzy and Aaron, which I accepted because I felt close to them the most on this tribe. Furthermore, I proposed a deal to work with Jay as a fellow 703 old-school player. Originally, I wanted to vote off Rob since I felt the least connected with him and he could become a strong player later on. Unfortunately, Vincent was unable to recover from his lack of socializing with the tribe with Chieko targeting him first, then getting Rob on board. Later on, the rest of the tribe felt obligated to vote Vincent, so there was no saving him. But my connection with Vincent allowed me to begin truly working with two crucial players to my game and I even proved my loyalty to Abi when her name got thrown out while always looking out for Jay.

Swap

The swap truly set the tone for how the remainder of this season would play out. Initially, this swap had me nervous since I was only meeting 2/7 new people, one of which I met in a previous ORG. There were people I was hoping to 100% trust being Aaron, Abi, and Izzy, while there were others who I worried would gun for me or my allies after learning of the Rob/Chieko pair and the Mackie/Jim pair. After being immediately thrown into a double tribal, I knew people were gonna feel the pressure of playing hard. Thus, I focused on connecting with Mackie and Jim with the little time I had. During the night the challenge was revealed, Mackie revealed that Aaron and I were getting thrown under the bus by Izzy and Rob due to idol speculation. To make sure Mackie wasn’t deceiving me, I began shading Mackie towards Rob expecting Rob to leak this back to Mackie. Sure enough, Rob regurgitated my words back at Mackie so this is when I knew I could place my trust in Mackie. I played with Mackie before in a previous ORG and while our games were hella messy and we ended up burning each other, we still shared that prior connection and had a solid grasp on each other’s style of play. Henceforth, I needed Mackie to rely on me knowing he could find inside source from the nuSoacha fans.

F16: Rob - After Chieko won immunity, the mission to eliminate Rob was ready. Mackie later revealed he had the Florencia idol, but I kept my idol secret still knowing we’ll oppose each other later. Mackie recruited Jim while I recruited Aaron, so Abi was essentially in the middle. I played up to the fact that Rob and Izzy were misdirecting the tribe with the Soacha idol to ensure we all stayed on the same page. Once Abi was on board with us, we blindsided Rob and created our own group chat and alliance that had significant influence on the next set of tribals. I’ll be referring to this group as the Florencia 5 or F5 since we never created a proper name. In this game, trust is the single most valuable merit you could want and these people proved I could pledge them my loyalty. I was on the chopping block and yet they had my back, so I wholeheartedly had theirs entering the merge. I had zero intention of jeopardizing that until we’ve reached the individual portion of the late-merge.

Merge

Everyone knew the first few rounds would become a battle between nuSoacha and nuFlorencia. I quickly learned that Evan & Jay spread rumors that Aaron and I had the Soacha idol. Therefore, my only focus was ensuring that the F5 remained intact past the final 10 while eliminating the people who were threats to me and my core allies. It seemed that Evan/Jay and Izzy/Chieko were in the middle, so the objective became knowing their allegiance whereabouts.

F13: Evan - I think this season would’ve played out completely differently if Evan never quit the game. I considered Evan the most connected person in this entire cast based on pre-game relationships, so I would say his departure had no negative effects on me. Plus, knowing he spread idol rumors about me raised concerns regarding where I stood with him so as sad as it was to see him leave, this was another opportunity to move forward in response to his sudden quit.

F12: Jack - There was no telling how messy of a power struggle this first merge vote would turn out. So I fought hard for immunity knowing I was an optimal target for nuSoacha, earning my first win. This vote became relatively straightforward but mutually beneficial for my game long-term. Apparently, Jack took the initiative in targeting Aaron but came across as messy, even submitting his vote early to enforce his stance. I wanted a nuSoacha fan gone right away and voting Jack eliminates an adversary for one of my closest allies. Jack leaving became a general consensus for the tribe, so this vote worked out for me with little repercussions.

F11: Jay - There was no way of proving that the F5 was a tight-knit group, so this tribal was likely going to expose that facet. We originally wanted to target Jacob due to his lack of socializing with us, but we later learned from Aaron that Jay didn’t vibe with it. This prompted me to seek out further information, so I went to Izzy first insinuating that I felt something was up. She then admitted that Jay had approached her to vote Aaron along with the nuSoacha fans and Chieko. The F5 only needed one person on our side to guarantee emerging victorious, meaning I was willing to pitch whoever if it ensures that we can flip them. I felt this now hinged on Izzy considering she leaked the nuSoacha plan to me and it would be in both of our best interests to eliminate Jay instead. From my perspective, I already informed Jim & Mackie about nuSoacha’s plan and they knew that Izzy and I needed to convince them to vote with us and boot Jay instead. I became fully aware that I was nuSoacha’s primary target, yet I avoided raising Jay’s suspicions as I anticipated this outcome.

F10: Matthew - I needed to take the back-seat this tribal since I had major IRL commitments due to finals. During the first merge vote, I proposed to Jay the idea of forming a voting block with a nuSoacha he felt close with and a nuFlorencia that I felt close with. We selected Zee and Abi and which allowed me and Abi to become familiar with Zee as a potential ally. Even though Jay double-crossed me the following vote, this was an opportunity to realign with Zee down the line if necessary. Between voting Matthew and Jacob, Matthew presented himself as a more threatening player and pitched a Mackie blindside when it was still too early for me to boot Mackie. Knowing my limits that I couldn’t shake up the vote, I opted for the straightforward Matthew vote-off to trim the nuSoacha fans once more.

F9: Chieko - If I had things my way, I would have rather seen Jacob leave instead of Chieko. Sadly, Chieko built herself up as a potential challenge threat and made plenty of enemies with my closest allies. Literally everyone in the F5 plus Izzy was anti-Chieko so I believed attempting to save her would’ve relegated me to the minority. Plus, knowing Chieko voted for me twice already could mean I’m misplacing my trust in her, so I decided to not fight the tide. Everyone knew the merge idol had been found at this point, so I figured either nuSoacha collaborated to find it or Mackie/Jim are keeping it secret from us. I proposed a split vote between Chieko/Jacob to see if a tip regarding the idol would come up. This would be Chieko/Jacob/Zee’s opportunity to stir up chaos and break nuFlorencia so if idol speculation on their end didn’t come up, then I would know that Mackie found the idol. This is exactly how it happened so I planned on striking against Mackie first the next vote if possible.

F8: Aaron - At this point, I decided there was no possibility of downplaying my threat level. Everyone considered me a frontrunner so I was willing to own that. I reiterated this notion with Mackie knowing he was also considered a major threat. Aware that we had to shield each other as high-profile players, I was always able to present myself as a worthy associate to the most dynamic yet cutthroat player in this cast. Mackie won immunity and Jacob was gunning for me and Aaron HARD, so I needed him out before anyone else. This seemed set in stone but I grew weary when everyone kept quiet for the rest of tribal. Earlier, Aaron and I discussed the possibility of blindsiding Mackie the next vote. In the final hour before the deadline, Mackie finally got back to me saying that Aaron approached the nuSoacha fans to blindside me. I wasn’t buying it knowing Aaron wouldn’t betray me, but the fact that Jim and Izzy were being eerily quiet with me had me thinking there was another split between me and Aaron with Mackie looking out for my safety. At this point, I figured it was either me or Aaron and I was out if I didn’t vote Aaron. But even if I did use my idol on Aaron, we clearly would’ve entered a 4v3 disadvantage the next vote so it wasn’t worth it to me. I still had Abi as one of my closest allies so I was willing to let Aaron take the fall, allowing me to lower my status as a player with obvious tight allies. Furthermore, I used this opportunity to pin the Soacha idol on Aaron and rule out any concerns that I actually had it, letting Mackie think I exposed Aaron after he lost my trust. I only also told Izzy later since I knew this info would’ve become public knowledge through her and Mackie. While this vote didn’t work out in my favor, I think my connection with Mackie paid off knowing he had the power to flip this A/A/A stigma on me instead of Aaron.

F7: Jacob - The F5 alliance had been fractured so I needed to keep my allies on my side to survive this vote and surpass my previous placement. Jim began telling me that Izzy and Mackie were actually close so that’s when I became suspicious of those two. I continued playing up to the merge idol speculation and figured Izzy was most likely to have it from everyone’s viewpoint. Since I barely talked with Jacob this game, I wanted to give him a chance to still work with me since I still had every reason to vote him again. I proposed an Izzy blindside but he immediately ratted me out. With Mackie’s support, the vote never flipped onto me instead and I knew Jacob was another major obstacle to my game. Izzy also told me Jacob was considering a Mackie blindside. Since Mackie felt close with Jacob pre-merge, this was now the best opportunity to vote him off and possibly work with Zee without Jacob driving a wedge between us. We successfully eliminated Jacob and here on out is when I knew there would become a tribe civil war.

F6: Zeebem - I had some main objective’s coming into this vote. I wanted to ensure that Abi and I both survive so I can utilize my idol to overcome the numbers disadvantage at Final 5. I also needed to flush the other two idols still in the game so I had better control over the subsequent vote. Mackie insisted he was playing his Florencia idol and while I was convinced Mackie also found the merge idol, I could only hope he’d keep that idol secret believing he’d need the protection entering Final 5. The voting block with Zee finally paid with Zee and Abi making amends after personal disagreements and agreeing we could all work together. I knew this vote was gonna become a 3-3 deadlock, so I fought hard for immunity knowing I can slay at Jigsaw and better my group’s odds in a rock draw. Knowing this vote was gonna finally expose the secret Mackie/Izzy/Jim threesome, my goal was to place votes on Jim believing he was least likely to have an idol played on him. I figured they would’ve voted for Zee since he became the true underdog and most definite person to win if he made FTC, which is why I kept my idol on reserve. Unfortunately for me, the vote was a lose-lose situation since Abi would’ve gotten eliminated by default with Mackie playing both his idols. While I wasn’t able to break up the threesome this vote, Abi didn’t get voted off and all the other idols had been used so they were all now completely vulnerable.

F5: Izzy - Ideally, I would’ve used my idol to finally eliminate Mackie but he ended up winning immunity. I wanted to vote off Jim instead since he was loyal to Mackie no matter what. The mindset I had this vote was to play as if I were fighting for my life and that I needed Izzy to flip in order for her to have a better shot at winning. As long as I kept fighting, then they couldn’t be sure that I had an idol and vote Abi off instead. If Abi got booted instead, then those three can simply 3-1 me if I lost final immunity. That threesome had deceived everyone this entire merge, so now was my turn to prove that they couldn’t take me down that easily. I genuinely wanted to keep Izzy and vote Jim but she made it clear that she had zero interest in working with me anymore. Also, Abi told me Izzy wouldn’t betray Mackie primarily due to personal reasons so I realized this could never work out. I finally shared my idol with Abi and we agreed on voting Izzy knowing she’s stronger than Jim in a tiebreaker and the merge idol would likely be played on Jim if it were reclaimed.

F4: Abi - This final round was clearly a 2v2 showdown between fans vs faves. Since Mackie and I were most capable of winning, I wanted to defeat him and secure the achievement of most individual immunity wins this season. I successfully achieved the win and it became clear that a tiebreaker would determine who between Mackie and Abi would reach FTC. If Mackie won final immunity, then I felt my best shot would’ve been to defeat Jim in a tiebreaker. Despite the hiccup at Final 8, I set myself up to survive until the FTC.

Conclusion

My game was far from perfect. I have some regrets that could’ve shaped this game in more my favor, but I was still able to adapt and adjust my game accordingly. This supports that despite my multiple shortcomings and terrible odds, I managed to overcome all of it and play a game that could serve as representation for this season’s Sole Survivor. I’m beyond proud that I was able to redeem myself after an overlooked performance and season in Antarctica. I adopted traits that contributed to my success this season that I lacked beforehand. This includes my friendly personality, versatility in challenges, resilient & self-aware nature, and applying my new approach to this game: prioritize survival followed by jury management. I look forward to answering any questions and I wish the best of luck to Mackie and Jim! 