Board Thread:Survivor 26: Chaos/@comment-29162419-20170827130746/@comment-31555005-20170827155327

1. Sort the nine jury members onto an alignment chart and explain why each fits.

I made this more or less according to the lines drawn in the sand during the game and how I believe each player's game fits to the alignments presented. It's all subjective and lots of people could have went in the chaotic sections, please bear that in mind!

Eve - Lawful Good

Eve more or less was seen as the "leader" of the Outsiders alliance, though she did get into less arguments than fellow jurors Nic and Kyle. Always really fun to talk to and pretty trustworthy, she didn't turn her back on her allies even as the Outsiders didn't get put in the best possible position of the game. The "good" part stems from the fact that she always seemed quite a loyal player, especially to her closest allies - the "lawful" part stems from the fact that she lacked the "chaotic", potentially messy nature other players in this season had.

Nic - Neutral Good

While you could say that Nic might fit better into "Chaotic Good" by looking at his early game, the late merge saw him sort of settle in and he became much calmer than before, even trying to get closer to people on the opposite side of the game. Despite all of that, Nic remained quite loyal to his allies and most of his efforts in-game were simply focused on his worries about his long-term survival.

Kyle - Chaotic Good

Kyle made it the farthest out of any Outsider, though on his road to F8 he always more or less got into conflicts a lot - some of the more notable ones include the fight against Aras a day or two before his vote-out, or any of the fights against David - these conflicts are why I've listed him as a "chaotic" type. Despite that, Kyle really only had his own and his allies' best interests at heart, and he never really betrayed any of the people he considered close.

Wendy - Lawful Neutral

Wendy found herself in the middle of the game more often than not, and she definitely had people who she was close to on both sides. That's why I believe I added her as a "neutral". However, she never really stood out for anything shady - she was quite social with people, she did get some heat for her position in the game but ultimately she was quite loyal to anybody she truly worked with.

Emily - True Neutral

Emily was never really seen as a big threat, but she was one person who stood behind the scenes of votes a lot - she never really had any strong, super tight connections that would be hard to cut loose (except for David), however she always worked to accomplish the best strategic move for her own game. Despite all of that, she never really stood out as a snakey player. It's this interesting mix between the willingness to make the right strategic move no matter who the target was but also this lack of really backstabbing anyone with your votes that makes her the "True Neutral" in my chart.

Mikey - Chaotic Neutral

Mikey wasn't really "chaotic" per se - he was actually quite calm during his time here. However, I've listed him as the "chaotic neutral" because he was probably the hardest person to figure out in terms of where he stood from a strategic standpoint, at least from my own perspective. He wasn't really on either side, hence the "neutral" bit, and the "chaotic" more or less comes from unknowingness in regards to his positioning, assuming he made it to the merge.

David - Lawful Evil

David played a fairly straightforward game, by all accounts - hence the "lawful" part. But despite that, he was in bed with a lot of people. Like Eve, he was seen as the leader of an early game alliance, but he also had lots of connections elsewhere too. He had an inner core of allies (Jake, Emily, Elias), and an outer core of people he more or less tended to work with at times (Aras and myself). Ultimately, he was really set on making his own moves and taking out the people who he didn't want to work with. This big proactiveness and the generally held perception that he had a lot of information from people is what gets him the "evil" bit.

Alex - Neutral Evil

Like most other people with the neutral label in this chart, Alex never really was on one side at any point. Instead stuck more in the middle of the game, he simply tried to build relationships up with people and it worked - he had a great shot at winning this game. What differentiates Alex from the other people with the "neutral" alignment is that he did try to make moves happen much more often for himself, often lying about where a vote was going or about what his plans were. Alex and I were pretty tight throughout this merge so I can't say that's true for me - this chart is more of an attempt at covering the general basis of things.

Aras - Chaotic Evil

I'd like to say that, first of all, this chart wasn't made necessarily on the jurors' relationship to me. Neither is your position here - if we went by how each of the nine of you worked with me, you wouldn't be in "Chaotic Evil" - but I'm covering how you were viewed generally (with special emphasis put on this last word). You got quite close to both sides, and you betrayed people a lot, whether it was through an alliance leak, or revealing to someone what somebody else said - that's why I think you had a less predictable game than some of the other jurors, and you're a perfect fit in my opinion for "Chaotic Evil".

2. Explain how you feel your reputation pre-Chaos affected your position in the game.

I don't think my reputation affected my position in the game that much, for two main reasons. Firstly, I didn't really have huge reputation coming into this - I did get second place in quite a well-known ORG series, however that was my first ORG in the community and I don't feel people really thought that much of my performance there. Secondly, the effect of what little reputation I had onto the season was limited - the only three people in this cast who I had played with before were Alex, Elias, and Wendy (barely, since I went out pretty early in Chichen Itza and Wendy and I weren't even on the same tribe).

I will say this though - naturally, people feel more drawn to work with people who they've had positive previous experiences with. I do think my reputation pre-Chaos slightly came into effect when it came to ally preferences, and I believe this mainly comes in with Elias. Having reached the end together, I believe we were more or less planning to work with each other throughout the game, at least very early on - this might have influenced the game when it came to alliances and sides. Ultimately, we both ended up in Beavertown.

Furthermore, there was some stigma associated with myself and Elias right at the start of the game, with some of the people in the game having known that we worked together in Idalia. That might have made people a bit more cautious of saying bad stuff about the other when talking to either one of us.

All of this, of course, occurred in the early game, when in-game connections hadn't really been formed yet.

3. Who do you think should be on the DVD cover and represent the season?

This is a pretty fun question because I've been wondering who'd go there myself. I'll base my DVD cover on gameplay a bit, but also on placements, with the optimistic assumption that I won (as such, I'd get the top middle spot).

My top row would be Jake, Luca, Alex - Jake for being the most player representative of Chaos in the game, myself for being the hypothetical winner, and Alex for being the Uhane returnee and for also playing a really good social/strategic game. The bottom row would be Emily for playing a really smart under the radar game, you for being possibly the most pivotal player in regards to my game, and also for a really strong aggressive/proactive game, at least in my opinion, as well as Wendy for having another really strong game, especially on the social and strategic fronts.

4. What was your favourite twist this season?

I have two really good twists which I like. One of them is definitely the One World format - it allowed me to work with people I really trusted regardless of the tribe I was in. Finally, the other one would have to be the way the F12 swap was handled. Sending a list of who you trust, top to bottom, kind of clarified some people's position in the game. It pulled some people out of the shadows, and it put some people on the chopping block.

I think both of them were really good twists, creating tribes based on general trust is pretty fun and the One World format allowed for a very dynamic game.