Board Thread:Season 36: Mohenjo Daro/@comment-33089963-20181202013031

Hello jury members,

'''First of all, I want to thank all of you and the host about this season. I enjoyed it a lot and I hope everyone did as well. It was quite hectic to say the least. So in my jury speech, i’ll go through my game with you and I’ll answer honestly to your questions afterward.'''

'''So when I came into this game, I had no strategy other than being adaptable and find a solid alliance quickly and not become a target right away. I feel like I deserve to win this season cause I’ve played hard strategically, I’ve made multiples alliances, I’ve won 3 individual immunities and I survived 12 tribal councils without getting a single vote cast against me. I didn’t need any advantages to get where I am now and except for a few bumps along the way I feel like I was always in control of my own destiny. If there’s some syntax mistakes, please be forgiving cause english is not my first language :)'''

'''So I’ll start with the first phase of the game which was my time in original Hakra. All in all, it was pretty crazy but I never felt like I was in any real danger since people were making themselves targets no matter what. But it was a crucial part of my game in terms of social game and alliances. The game started out pretty quickly when I got myself in an alliance with Matt, Nathan, Matisse. Along with that alliance, I also made quick bonds with Lex over our common origin in Quebec and it was also on day one where I made a final 2 deal with courtney (turned out to be a final tribal council deal since we didn’t knew at that time it was a final 3.). After Nathan was being targeted for playing to hard, I knew that I needed to play this season more in the shadows cause people being too aggressive were right away targeted. After that vote, I was being included in multiples alliances along with Lex. One with Adam, one with Matisse and one with ace, all of them being final 3 deals. It was pretty soon into the game so I knew it was risky but being in the middle helped me getting of lot of infos about the game. The Matt vote was pretty straightforward and everybody was really happy to be safe for another tribal.'''

'''The swap was a pretty sticky part cause in Lothal it was 4 against 4 for original tribe members and right away Matisse became invisible. I was very close with Matisse but putting my game in jeopardy to save someone that everybody wanted to vote against was way too dangerous. But at that time, it did put me, Lex and Courtney outnumbered against the original Lothal. At that point, the three of us agreed that it was in our best interest to stick together. For me, it felt like the perfect alliance for my game cause I had someone who was a bigger target and a shield for me and someone who was weaker in challenge so I felt protected from both sides. Plus the fact that I really got along well with those two, it was a match made in heaven. From the original Lothal, I really connected with Tom and Nick from personal and strategic point of view. Then,Tom showed interest in working with us to blindside Byron which for my game was perfect cause even though I was the one targeted I wanted to keep as much close allies as possible. The Lethal 4 was born. It Lex would have gone home that night, it could have been me after. So everything went perfectly for the Byron vote. And then, that twist of mutiny came and I had to adjust my game. We ended with only our little alliance and when we lost again, it was sad but strategically it made sense to keep my original hakra alliance up. We came the Lethal 3 from there.'''

'''The merge as always I guess was very chaotic and it became really essential to assess who you could trust or not. Thankfully, Ace and Adam whom I had alliances with both survived until the merge and were ready to work with Lex, Courtney and I again. And Nick cause he was blindsided the tribal before, also wanted to work with us. I knew at that point that I would never be able to trust him completely solely on the fact that I did blindsided him at the Byron tribal. But I was open to any alliance that would gave me the number and Nick did seem sincere. Now the Adam vote was one of the moment where I found myself not completely in control. It did hurt me cause I really felt close to him and he was being someone I felt I could trust. To be honest I probably should have gone home at that point (or at least Lex or Courtney) since we were obviously close and had spent all the game together at that point. But it was still a shocker even though they were hints that chieko had an idol. The alliance of 4 with Nick, Courtney, Lex and me plus Ace on the periphery was still intact thought and we were then able to vote out Xfire and Chieko, who were both super big physical and strategic threat, after doing so very fun research about who spilled the beans to chieko on the adam vote out. Coming into the final 7, I knew it would probably be the time when Nick was going to flip if he was planning to do it cause it made no sense for him to let me, courtney and lex go as a solid 3 into the final 6. So it was perfect timing for me to win my second immunity. Ace and Zack came on board quickly cause Nick was definitely leading the charge of the alliance at that point and I was really happy to let him do that for me and get the target on his back. That being said, the way he came from the bottom to the top was impressive and he became someone who could have a nice resume if he had gone to final tribal. I’ve said it before but I’m a huge fan of survivor and I know that it’s always the ones in the shadows that are the most dangerous and the most effective to strike when needed. That’s where I wanted to play my game. So we voted out Nick effectively. Next tribal was when Mark was voted out, I knew Mark was a big threat to my game because he was playing a very under the radar game and it was very likely that the more he was going to get close to the final tribal, the more someone would want to take him in final tribal council and that would mean on less spot available for me. So it was crucial for me to get him out at that vote. And the fact that I was still keeping my options open with two alliance where I could go with Lex/Court or Lex/Ace. Next vote with Ace being voted out was kind of a wake-up call for me. I knew about the idol of Lex for a very long time but the fact that he played it that way was a surprise because it was the first time where I didn’t knew what was going to happen. Lex told me last minute before the results was posted what he did by voting out the more threatening in challenges Ace and it really made me realize that as solid as I thought my alliance were, it was still an individual game and I needed to do what was best for my game no matter what. So when I won the final immunity challenge, I knew it was time to make a move. At that point, Lex and I had really similar games cause we were closely aligned from the beginning and we did the same moves together the entire game. He was such a big threat cause I felt like people were impressed by his gameplay from comments by Nick or Ace or simply the fact that he was the one targeted as the bigger threat when votes were coming against our alliance. So it was the time for me to leave the shadows and step in the lights for a move that was only mine. Sure it could have been easy to do a 3-1 vote for Lex but I knew that Zack was already trying to paint himself as this underdog who had a fire under him and was using the sandra’s strategy anybody but me, even though unlike sandra, he was out of the loop for a lot of votes. And I didn’t wanted for him to be able to claim he had anything to do with the Lex vote so I planned that 2-1-1 vote. It was the hardest vote of the game for me and had lex won the final immunity, I would have been happy to keep my word and do the final 3 we wanted to have. But survivor is a game of opportunity so when I saw one, I took it. It was a vote out of pure respect and I knew what had games too similar for me to feel comfortable in my chances while sitting next to him.'''

'''Finally, to conclude my opening statement, I was able to do solid alliances that got me through to final tribal council and choosing the right people to align with is I feel a key component to do great on survivor. This game is for sure a social game and I feel like I must have done something right in the game if I won three immunities and was part of multiples alliances without my name getting on that paper one time. Maybe I wasn’t the ultimate underdog in the game but I feel like I was underestimated. I could (or should) have been voted out multiples times throughout the game but somehow i’ve always manage to put myself in a position where I was never the main target. I always gave my 100% in the challenges, I played the game hard, I’ve orchestrated blindside and I was relying on anybody. No matter the result, I’ll be proud of the game I played but it would be a privilege to be the sole survivor and dream come through for me as a canadian who only started believe he could play survivor for real this year ;). '''

'''Now, at the end of the day, it’s your decision and you get to decide who win the title of sole survivor. I hope I proved to you why I deserve to win and if you have any question, i’m ready to answer them. Sorry for the long speech!'''  