Board Thread:Survivor 40: Annihilation/@comment-19601789-20190802173009/@comment-5357455-20190803042438

'''Hey Augusto! Before we get into the questions, I would like to address some of the things you said in your speech. I do not think that I enabled huge threats to get through this game. I believe that huge threats are completely relative throughout the course of this game. For me, huge threats were those who were not going to be an asset to me in the endgame. This is why the threats to me were people such as Aromal, Nathan, and Zach. I knew that for a decent amount of time, Grace and Linus were going to have like interests to mine, so they were not huge threats to me. Secondly, on the “our idol,” I guess you got me there. When you told me that you discovered it and if we were in the show, it would be a scene where we found it together, I bought it, so good on you. Thirdly, I do see how that comment could be seen as condescending and cocky. I do apologize for that because I did not mean for it to come across that way. My intention with that comment was that it was best for our games to use our own pre-existing relationships to obtain information to benefit us in this game. I am sorry that it was not conveyed in that way because I did not mean to belittle the relationships that you had formed on your own accord. Now I will get onto your questions.'''

Weakest Moment

'''-Strategically: I think that my weakest moment was during the Final 10 vote. I was on my way by car then boat to a vacation for a few days, and unfortunately my phone died on the drive there. Probably because I had too many people messaging me who to vote out. I was able to charge my phone slightly on the boat, and I see that I am being asked in every direction to vote out both Joan and Drew. At this time, I was really unsure where the votes were going to go and I did not believe I checked in enough with my allies to make a sound decision. This is when I discussed with Aromal about just splitting the vote and giving us an extension of 24 hours. For me, I really wanted to see what my best move would be moving forward and what allies I can create through this vote. I then started communicating with my allies, and I thought that Joan was the person that should go. I was very adamant to Mihai and Aromal, who seemed to be more willing to flip that Linus and Zach, that Joan needed to go. Instead, they were insistent that Joan was able to serve as a shield and that he needed to stay in the game. Ultimately, I caved in and voted out Drew. I had to ensure that rocks would not determine my fate in this game, and I did not think that Drew or Joan were going to be in my long-term plans, so I folded my hand and voted out Drew. I do not think my weakest moment was flipping, but the wishy washy mentality that I showed at this vote. I had allies and people I wanted to work with on both sides, Grace & Augusto and Mihai & Zach. I showed that I was playing the middle, and I was indecisive with my decision. I truly did have a weak moment where I did not know what was my best move because I did not have satisfactory information. I was able to turn this into a positive though. I spent the next round trying to rebuild my individual connections. I think that I was successful in this because I was still able to get through the game, avoid being a threat to many, and play the middle throughout the course of the game even though it was exposed at Final 10 that I was playing the middle. My individual connections with Grace, Augusto, Aromal, and Mihai showed to be more important than decisively declaring one side at this time. As seen through the Joan vote the next round, with me being perceived in the middle, it allowed players like Aromal and Mihai to approach me with plans to eliminate their shield of Joan. This continued throughout the merge as the person who went home each tribal usually alternated between someone who eliminated Drew and someone who eliminated Joan. So even though this tie vote was a weak moment for me, I do believe I turned it into a positive and a tool for my game. '''

'''-Personally: I think that my weakest personal moment is very external to this game, but was caused by it. During my last semester in senior year, I was taking 20 credits with most of my courses including 300 level studies. I was very stressed and ultimately turned to nicotine to help me alleviate some stress. The weakest moment for me in this game personally was resorting back to nicotine to help me deal with the stress of this game. I was constantly messaging at work, ignoring plans with friends to make tribal council plans, and slacking on my moving plans which is happening in two weeks. I began getting stressed about the outside world because of how much time I was dedicating to this game that it was taking an emotional toll on me. After going to the gym and realizing that I was unable to run like I used to, I knew that I needed to change my habits .Thankfully, I have stopped smoking as much, but this game did cause a huge emotional toll on me due to the stress of the tribals and the worry of scheming behind my back. '''

'''I will also state the weakest moment for me personally in the parameters game. I genuinely think that is when I was revealed that Linus had the merge idol. At this time, I knew that if Grace or Linus won the Final 5 immunity, then it was most likely that you would be leaving. I tried so hard for that immunity challenge to keep it away from them, and I know you did too because you were so close to defeating Linus, but it was not enough. From that point, I knew that Linus was most likely going to give Grace another idol, and they were going to target you. There was literally nothing I could do in that vote. I knew that the best we could do was force a tie, but that would have only postponed the inevitable. I had to make Grace and Linus know I was with them this vote to save face for myself because I knew the circumstance, but you leaving this game was very hard for me. You were my closest ally since Day 1, and I really wish we were able to go to the end together. This broke my heart not just because you were leaving, but because I knew I had no control over the outcome. '''

If Grace left at Final 6

'''I want to first talk about the comment that you made that “I set up your failure at Final 7.” Since Joan left, my goal was to have a Final 5 between myself, you, Mihai, Linus, and Grace. I think the only reason that it is perceived that I set up your failure was because of how the Final 5 vote went down when it was revealed that Linus had the merge idol. If the idol was not in play at the time, I would have sided with you and Mihai over Grace and Linus, but at this moment I positioned myself well for any and all possibilities, and unfortunately Linus’ idol was one of them. I have not directly said it, but I think that the moves that benefitted my own game through my own agency show that I was not Grace’s puppet. I never have been and never will be.'''

'''If Grace left at Final 6, it would have been interesting because I believe that means that Linus would have two idols in the Final 5. This would also mean that you probably still have your idol. Someone would have been Cirie’d out. I am confident that Linus would have given the first idol to Zach because he was his next closest ally. I am not sure who the next one would have went to between myself or Mihai. I would hope that Linus would give me the idol because we worked together from Final 9 until Final 6, but I do not know if he would have made this decision based on loyalty or who he thought he had a better chance against in the end. I think that after Grace was voted out, he would have shown loyalty to The Nucleus alliance and not allow for us to be eliminated back to back at the Final 6 and Final 5 after how loyal I was to him. I know he was only vulnerable at Final 8, but I assured him that it was Aromal leaving. He was named as a target for this round, but I was adamant that Aromal needed to leave at this time. So getting back to what would happen at 5, this question is very difficult to answer because it came down to how well I would be able to persuade Linus to give me the idol. Since this is a hypothetical, let’s just say that I receive the idol from Linus. Now we are at the Final 4 with Linus, Zach, Augusto, and myself. At this time, since I could not beat Linus in immunity challenges, I had to make my moves off of the assumption that he would win. This is what I did at the Final 4 in the game, I positioned myself best in the Final 3 if Linus were to win immunity. I would have done the same here. I think that Linus’ options for Final 2 were Zach then myself then Augusto. I would have stuck by you here. I think that if we were to be two strong votes on Zach, we could have caused a tie vote. I am speculating that Linus and Zach would still remain close and vote as a unit. I would have been willing to do this plan with Augusto because as Zach has said himself, he was not the best in challenges. I am confident that myself and Augusto had a strong chance of winning that challenge. So then we would be presented with a Final 3 of Augusto, Rob, and Linus. I think that both of you would have taken me to the end. I think Linus saw me as less of a threat than Augusto, and Augusto and I would have probably taken one another to the end because we did have a Final 2 deal for the majority of this season. I know that the majority of this is based off of hypotheticals and speculation, but I hope it was able to help. I think that the main takeaways here are that I still had strong connections in this game without Grace by my side, and I made a lot of my moves under the assumption that Linus would win immunity challenges, so I knew that I had to best position myself so that he would see me as the least threatening player and take me to the end over perceived bigger threats like yourself or Grace. '''

Information

I genuinely enjoyed our talks because even if I was commuting to work or just getting off from a long day of doing nothing, you were willing to chat with me and we were willing to hear one another out on all of our strategic possibilities.

'''-I think that the biggest piece of information that you told me was the whereabouts of your idol. As I previously discussed, this allowed me to successfully pull of the blindisde against Zach in the Final 6. If I had not known about your idol, I would have probably just voted for Grace knowing that the vote would be negated and that the 2 votes against you would have sent you home. If you still played your idol, then I would have been at a 1 in 3 risk of going home against Zach or Mihai. This allowed me to take charge of my own game with the information I had and eliminate the person I was least connected to that was remaining in the game. '''

'''-I think that the biggest piece of information that I told you was either confirming the whereabouts of Linus’ idols or affirming that Grace was willing to turn on Nathan at the Final 7. In regard to the former, this was a piece of information that I was willing to reveal so we can make more sound decisions under the fact that Linus an idol. In regard to the latter, it confirmed that Nathan would leave that round despite initial doubts that Nathan was one of Grace’s 4819 connections. Upon reflection, I do believe that I contributed less to our duo. Believe me, you were the person I was the most loyal to, but I think that this game I was trying to keep a lot of the information that I received to myself. Without immunities, idols, or advantages, I knew that information was my biggest tool, and I wanted to keep as much as possible to myself. For example, I kept the alliance between myself, Grace, and Linus a secret. I do not wish I did something differently because I needed to keep as much information to myself as possible, which was mainly my connections with the members that ended up making up the Final 5. '''

DVD Cover

'''I think that the DVD cover for this season would be myself, Linus, Grace, Augusto, Zach, and Joan. I think that both Linus and I earned our spots in the Final 2 in our own respective merits, so I think that we both deserve a spot here. Grace was an important member of The Nucleus alliance in helping me eliminate our common threats, and she was a huge threat to win if she were to have made the Final 3. Augusto played a phenomenal game because he was able to keep his idol for so long, successfully be a part of many votes, and maintain a great social game. Zach had a strong underdog story and was able to successfully play an idol at Final 11 to save himself after being the second target. Joan was a huge character this season, he was seen as a huge threat at the merge, but he was able to play an idol successfully at the first vote and turn it into a tie the next round. I think that everyone this season played strong and deserved to be All-Stars, but these are the players that I believe reach the threshold of the 6 more notable players with the games that they played. '''

Story Arc

'''When asked about which castaway I would compare you to, I said Devon Pinto, and I think he represents your story arc. You were such a strong social and strategic competitor. From the social side, you had strong connections to many players and were rarely seen as a threat until the end of the game. Strategically, I know this from talking to you about every vote, you were always zoned in. You were calculated in terms of which players you wanted to eliminate and how to position yourself in a more advantageous position. Overall, your story arc would be as the unsuspected threat such as a Victoria from EoE. You were always making moves in this game for your benefit, and no one saw you coming! The audience would probably be yelling at their screens like “How are you letting him slip by!” '''

'''I think that my story arc will be characterized by me playing the middle the majority of the game. I think that my social game is what carried me throughout this game. I knew that I wanted to play the middle when the two sides were formed and I saw allies of mine being drawn to opposing sides. I was a floater, but I do not think that is a bad thing. It simply means that I did not have distinguished allegiances to either side, because those were not the sides I wanted to definitely join. I said in Nathan’s response that I would compare myself to a more quiet Parvati from Micronesia. She was able to position herself well in the Black Widows alliance between Amanda & Cirie and Alexis & Natalie, while I think that I did the same thing between Augusto & Mihai and Linus & Grace. I did not conjoin these groups, but brought them together when the vote called for it and it would advance me further, without revealing too much information to the other players. '''

Season

'''If I were to compare you to a former season of survivor, I would compare you to David v. Goliath. I think that this season was dominated by strong strategic and social gameplay. I think that every player in this season respected the game and understood that what happened on the island was in the name of the game, which is a trait that I see in you. I think that you were one of the strongest players this season, and even though you constantly undersold you win, I am not shocked you won in the past because you were such a strong competitor. Overall, I think that this season embodies you because the compassion the competitors shared with one another throughout the course of the season, but at the end of the day, you made the best decision for you to better yourself further in the game. '''