Board Thread:703’s Showdown 1/@comment-30575847-20180726084416

Hi everyone! Firstly, I would like to say a huge thank you to the hosts and cast of this season, it was an amazing experience and I couldn’t be more honoured to be sitting here. Brandon, you were honestly the last person I ever expected to sit next to. We did not vote the same way once for the entire merge! But here we are, and I know you are going to give me one hell of a fight! Apologies if any of this comes off as rude or anything, I just hope I can explain myself well. I won’t be doing a breakdown of my game round by round, I’ll try to highlight what I think are the most important things. If you have any specific questions on things I don’t address feel free to ask in your speeches!

Coming into this, the one thing I really wanted to do was prove that I was better than my Carthage game. I was the 2nd boot, earliest out of everyone here except Vanne. I outlasted one person. Here, I outlasted 18 of you. I think that truly shows my growth as a player, and I’m so glad I got to showcase what I was capable of after such a short experience on Carthage.

Firstly, I would like to address what probably all of you are going to fault me on. Voting in the minority 6 times in a row, and only voting for the person who went home 4 times during the merge. I’m not going to sit here and explain that it was some master strategy, because it wasn’t, so I will explain why I did that. During Nadine’s vote, I did know it was going to be split between her and Nicole, but there really was no point in flipping solely for the sake of being in majority. Even in the revote, I wanted to show that I was truly loyal to those I was with. I knew that Nadine would be going, and probably Nicole would be soon after, so for me to have any chance at staying I wanted to make a statement that I am someone loyal who you can work with. And what better way to say that than with your vote. Voting for Nadine, Nathaniel, and Nicole when they left would have just shown people that I’m a flipper, and who would want to work with that?

Another flaw in my game was my wasted idol play, but, I never even needed it. Yes, I could have used it to save Nadine or Nicole and improve my position in the game but for me personally I was able to survive without the idols’ protection, and I actually think it helped me play better as I was less paranoid.

Socially, I’d like to say that it was one of my strong points by always keeping my options open. It was sometimes hard for people to talk to me with such an awkward time zone, so I really tried to put a lot of effort into conversations. I never closed a door. Despite being on opposite sides, I still talked often to Toby, Brandon and Jenna, because you never know when a connection is going to be useful. If I hadn’t kept lines of communication open, then I would have no chance, and I think this is part of the reason why I was able to survive at F7, because I had kept myself open and made it clear I was willing to work with anyone. The only regret I have socially is with you Rhys, not talking to you at all from final 17 to 7 is inexcusable.

Something that I think ties in with the social side is my forgiveness and openness throughout the game. Despite Sam and Justin blindsiding me with the Maddie vote, I didn’t hold it against them, and was still open to working together. After Sam voted Nicole, I was of course slightly upset but never closed that door, and we managed to work together for the next 3 votes. Whenever something happened, I just though “It’s a game.” Blindsides happen, and sometimes they don’t work out in your favour. Matt especially, I had just tried to vote him out coming into merge, yet we became closest allies later in the game. I was never angry at anyone for lying, flipping, or voting against me or my allies. A lot of people hold grudges but that’s something I never do and I think my openness with everyone is part of the reason why I’m still here.

I was also the last person in this game to receive votes, out of everyone in the merge I have the least votes cast against me and was only a target once. I know this doesn’t mean much but I think it shows how my social game helped me to get this far. On the other hand, Brandon was a target 3 times and if he didn’t win those final 6/5 immunities there’s a high chance he wouldn’t be here now.

Another subtle thing was that I sometimes told people stuff like “It would just be easier if I was voted off” Of course I didn’t want to be voted off, but I think saying stuff like that made people less weary of me, and underestimate my drive to stay. Keeping me around so long with people sitting on the jury likely to vote for me was a risk, but I downplayed my threat level and motivation a lot, so I think that also helped me avoid getting targeted. At the F7 vote I acted defeated and messaged Toby all day about how I knew I was going, and its okay, its just a game etc, and although it was Sam, Jenna and Matts decision to save me I think me doing that played a part so Toby didn’t play his idol and felt comfortable that everything would go to plan.

Physically, I expected myself to be a flop as usual. But I won the first merge challenge at 4am which was crucial as I knew I was coming into it down 8-3. I came 2nd in challenges 3 times in a row and put everything I could into that final challenge. So I’m proud of my improvement in that aspect. I know physical game doesn’t mean much but I’m just mentioning it to show that I was determined and dedicated to this game.

Now for my strategic game, which I know wasn’t the best obviously. Nothing went my way from final 12 to 8. I tried to make moves, I still had solid reasoning for things, as you will see in google form confessionals, but the odds were stacked against me after Fariha and Maddie left together. So I will talk about the round that I did essentially control, final 6. It was going to be a split vote, and the fact that Brandon and Rhys were willing to work with me after they JUST voted for me really shows that my openness and never holding a grudge worked in my favour. But I knew that voting either Matt or Sam was not the best thing for my game, as if the other one won immunity at F5 I would most likely get 5th, so I had to break up the trio which gave me more options going into final 5, as the swing vote between 2 duos. I knew voting Rhys was best for me, Matt and Sam wanted Jenna but knew I was a potential swing vote so went with it. I had a connection with Jenna and thought she would be a better option to bring to F5, while Rhys we hadn’t talked for 10 rounds and I knew he had a far better relationship with Matt/Sam than Jenna did. So this move essentially secured my safety at final 5, and as we saw it worked out, I wasn’t a target and still remained the swing vote. Voting Jenna was hard, personally, but like Rhys I knew everyone wanted to take her to the end, so for me to even have a chance of getting there I knew I had to vote off Rhys/Jenna, so that I could fill their role. With much bigger threats left in the game, it minimized my target and I wasn’t targeted at final 4 either. So yeah, we all know I was a mess strategically early merge, but I think I overcame that and managed to recover well for the final 7-5. I went from the obvious target at final 7, to surviving, to being the swing vote for the next 2 rounds and not being targeted again until final 3.

I may not have made the most moves, but I was completely dedicated to this. After I took a 3 month break from ORGs, this was my first one back and I knew I wanted to put my heart and soul into it. I woke up at multiple 4 and 5am deadlines, for voting, and challenges. I lasted 43 hours in endurance!!! I really hope that shows how much this meant to me. Playing from the minority is not easy, with Nadine and Nicole always being targets it put me in a hard position, but I fought so hard and managed to overcome that. I was a real underdog that managed made it work through my social openness, late game strategy, and winning crucial challenges when I needed to. I knew Nadine and Nicole would always be targeted before me since they both made FTC before, which secured my safety until final 7, my biggest obstacle in the game, and after that I still wasn’t targeted. I hope this shows that my game wasn’t completely luck, although of course it plays a factor into all our games. I know recently Survivor has become about “big moves” and blindsides, and I know I will be faulted on not being in control a lot, but just remember that this game isn’t about big moves, it’s about surviving and that’s exactly what I did.

I hope this speech didn’t come across as too aggressive, and sorry its quite long, I just really wanted to explain my thoughts, so you guys know why I did what I did. I overcame an almost impossible 8-3 minority situation and made it all the way to the final 2, and I hope I have proven why I deserve to win. I have loved playing this game with all of you and am happy to answer the questions you have! 