Board Thread:Survivor: Skye Islands (Season 12)/@comment-26479581-20151015220042/@comment-25270574-20151016021749

Hi Dom, I want to start with your personal questions for me because I do want to apologize about my Rites of Passage. I had never written one before, and throughout the entire process I felt awkward. My biggest fear was that I would come across as an ass-kisser. To answer your first question, I did genuinely enjoy getting to know you and I feel that we did form a true friendship beyond the elements of the game. I'm sorry that my rites of passage threw that friendship into question. It's a learning curve, and now I know that if I were to ever get into that position again I need to improve on that element.

As for your second question, I will do my best to write a better Rites of Passage for you. When the cast was revealed and you and I were on the same tribe, it was exciting! You're a winner on both the 703 and the main ORG, so I knew that you'd be a strong player, plus I had already heard great things about you from Heather. Immediately I decided that I wanted you as an ally, and it was great to hear you also wanted to work with me. From there, we started to build a friendship. After I was kidnapped and we were placed on different swapped tribes, we had to put both everything on hold until we could meet up again, but once we did it didn't seem like it took very long before we were back into the swing of things. At first I was a little hesitant, especially when you gave me déja vu of your brother asking if we were still good to go as an alliance right before he voted me off. I got over that very quickly though because it is a different game and he's a different person, and from how I saw it you and I had great life chats that seemed very casual and chill and fun, as if we were talking when there wasn't a game going on. We also did have good talks about the game as well. I felt we could communicate our ideas, thoughts and concerns about different players together for our time as allies in the game, such as the time you approached me with the idea of taking Evan out of the game. We did begin to drift apart at the end of the game, as I began to target you. It was entirely due to the fact that I saw you as the biggest threat to win this game, because you were guaranteed to have the win at the end of the game. I knew that if I had absolutely no shot at the win against you, I needed to make the game decision even if it meant turning on a friend. One thing about me is that after a game is over, there are many people from the game who I don't remain in contact with, and some that I do. You are one of the people that I can see myself staying friends with beyond the game. You were the true queen of the Skye Islands who set the bar nice and high for the rest of us, and you should be proud of the game you played!

To answer your very first question, I will say that the only people I think I had any "holy shit he needs to go" first impression about was probably Lukas, since I helped vote him out of Generations about 2 days before this season started and he could have bad blood about it, and Diego because I voted him out of a facebook ORG i played back in May. The people who gave me the first impression of "holy shit we need to work together" were Evan because I truthfully wanted to work hard with him in this game after not giving him a chance to work with me in Cape Verde or Chile; Jace because we worked great together in Chile and I felt we might have been able to do so again this time; Szymon because as a host of Generations, I felt he had a fresh window into the general idea of how my game plays out in my private thoughts; Nuno for the same reason, but in Chile; Liam again because he hosted me in Cape Verde; Alex because we had played a mini together where we managed to make final 3 together; Wes because we had prior knowledge of each other from being in the same skype chat; Yourself because of both your ORG legacy and the good words I had heard about you from Heather; and Perry because I had brief prior chat with him around the end of Resurgence when I was in a skype call with him and i knew he could potentially be a great ally to have. Everyone else I can't say that my first impression fit into either category, because I had little to no knowledge about their games prior to this season starting. I'm not trying to be wishy-washy when I say this, I'm just not the kind of person who immediately writes people off or opens up to them. I didn't see them and think that I desperately wanted them to work with me, nor did I want to see any of their heads on a silver platter. My first impression was very neutral for them because I needed to learn more about them before I could make a judgement like that.

For organizational sake, I'm going to answer your last, general questions with their numbers, or else I might confuse myself.

1) I do not think I am a goat for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, saying that I am a goat implies that I only did what I felt was the easiest decision to make all the time. Throughout the game I was presented with many dilemmas. The first was the vote where Wes left. I was faced with the choice of sticking to the easy route and voting along with everyone in the split-vote plan, or I could put myself out there, take a risk and make a statement with Wes. I chose to make a statement. The next dilemma came when we were voting between Perry and Nuno. At this stage, Nuno was not talking to me at all, while Perry was doing his best to keep up a bond with me. I was faced with the choice to tie the vote and give Perry another chance, or to send him home. In the end I chose to vote for Perry, a choice I chose to make on my own because Nuno being an obvious enemy is infinitely better than Perry being someone who i wasn't sure was being sincere or was hoping to take me out. The third dilemma came at the last vote. I could stick with Evan who I knew was a great ally and friend and was not going to write my name down, or vote with Sarah and Nuno to take out the most likely candidate to win. I chose to vote Evan out. These were three of the key points where my decision came down to my own thoughts and how I wanted to set myself up in the rounds to follow. Secondly, saying I am a goat implies that I was blindly loyal to my allies to the end, trusting that they'd carry me along. If that was the case with my game, I would not be sitting in the finals with Sarah and Nuno, but more likely with you or Evan or Szymon or Joe; or if we go back far enough I wouldn't have voted against Perry in the first place. Maybe you have different ideas of what constitutes someone being a goat, but I do not think I played a goat game and I am prepared to defend myself over this again and again.

2) You would win Domonique. I've already said this earlier and I stand by it. You played a strong game in every field, I would be a fool not to vote for you, I think everyone can agree to that.

3) You didn't lose the game until you lost the final 5 immunity challenge. Before that you were untouchable no matter how hard we tried, and even without immunity in final 6 you were able to keep yourself safe when numerically, it was possible to take you out. You don't lose this game until your torch is snuffed.

4) I feel that the jury's perception of me is what I expected it to be, meaning I was accurate in my read of the jury's attitudes towards me and my game. I did not play a very flashy game, I know that. I stayed secretive because I did not know who trusted who and loose lips sink ships. It's not as impressive as some of the flashy games we saw excel in the game. I stand by the game I played, and I believe my chances at becoming sole survivor are just as good as Nuno's or Sarah's chances.

5) I am going to rank these moves in chronological order, not in order of size or impact, just because it's easier for me to not skip over anything this way.

The first move that I made with significant impact on the game itself would be the first time I voted for Perry. It is late in the premerge stage, but there wasn't much room to make big moves when you only attend two tribals beforehand and one of them you're off the grid for. This move is the move that I feel woke a lot of people up. There were too many unanimous votes or predictable votes. By doing this I challenged the heirarchy of power on my own tribe while sending a message that I'm open to work with the other tribe. Other jurors have already stated that this is why I was brought into the New Kilbride crew with very little hesitation. The next big move I made in this game that I feel had big impact on the events of the game comes as I wrote Perry's name down a second time. As I stated earlier, I was faced with a choice of tieing the vote and potentially giving Perry a chance to be saved, or to vote out Perry. Both choices had benefits for my own game as neither of them were on my side. I think voting for Perry instead of Nuno definitely had a large impact on the game in general, because Perry surviving that vote would've altered the remaining rounds significantly. Thirdly, a move I made that had significant impact on the game was my alliance with Sarah. I don't think anyone expected for her and I to start working with each other after she wrote my name down so many times. Approaching her during the final 7 tribal was key as she became one of the most crucial allies to my game. We went from opposite sides in this game to two people with the same goals. Working with her was crucial in sending you and Evan home, because if I hadn't approached her to try and work alongside each other, I could be sitting in 5th place instead. My alliance with Sarah leads to the fourth strategic move that I made in this game, which is rekindling my broken alliance with Nuno. He realized that Sarah was going to vote with Evan and I against you, he approached me to work together and I welcomed it fullheartedly. Rekindling this last alliance meant that I was aligned with everyone in the final four and almost guaranteed a spot in the final tribal council. Finally, and I think you're expecting this to be on here, I made the move to take Evan out. I truly feel that if people think I'm a goat with this final 3, I would've been even more of a goat if I just stuck with Evan because he was my closest friend and ally. It was a tough decision to make, but I think doing so helped stop me from getting to the end and confirming that I have no chance to win. Because Evan left, I stand a chance.

6)The finalist I do not think should be at the final tribal council is Nuno. I say this because he was kept in the game by idols and keys that weren't his own. Had he not received the key, or had the idol played on him, he would be sitting on the jury instead of Sam, or Alex, or Joe. Sarah and I didn't have anyone giving us those items. Two jurors I don't think should be on the jury are Will and Wes, because they didn't get to interact with everyone left in the game. Will was never on a tribe with myself, Perry, Sarah, Nuno, or Luke. Wes was never on a tribe with Domonique, Szymon, or Joe. Everyone else had a chance to actually meet and play with the others in the final and on the jury. Three people I think wasted their spot on all-stars are Aaron, because he was openly saying he was thinking about quitting; Zane because his downfall stems from the fact that he wasn't building enough social bonds to get people outside of his core allies to keep him around; and Sam because he had a lot of opportunities to further himself in the game, make his own moves, and create more social bonds, but chose to keep working with many of the people that had been fine with seeing him leave before the merge. He wouldn't have made merge if I hadn't voted for Perry, because the plan had been that I'd vote for him. For the last question, the only person I feel didn't deserve to be cast in all-stars would be Aaron, because if you're thinking of quitting in the first few days i don't understand why you'd sign up to play. Everyone else I either didn't meet in this game and therefore can't have an opinion on, or are people that I think genuinely earned their spot on the season because of their performance in their previous seasons. This isn't the answer you're hoping for, but even the people I feel wasted their time on the season earned themselves a spot here. I would be forced to answer the other three as three people i didn't meet in prejury and have no knowledge of their games, and that's not fair to their game for me to make a completely ignorant judgement.

7) Evan made the biggest improvement to his game by far. I played with him in three seasons now and each time I see how he learns and improves for the next round. I wouldn't be surprised to see him win the next game he's in. I think Jace took the largest leap backwards. Maybe it was because of his past coming back to haunt him, but while he always managed to find his way into a decent position in Chile and Mongolia, he couldn't do so this time around.

8) Your physical game this season I would rank at a 7, You won two individual immunities, but i think in the last two rounds you had been scoring very low in comparison to the others, and not winning gave opportunities to make moves against you and ultimately take you out. Your social game is a solid 10, I think that you were well-connected with everyone for the entirety of the game, and it took people who had been fighting against each other for half the season to come together in order to vote you out successfully. Your strategic game is a 9, I think that using the idol on Joe was something that didn't need to happen and that would've worked better to your advantage later on, but otherwise you made very calculated moves and were able to take out Szymon and Joe.

9) I think that the prime candidates to return for a third season are Evan, Perry, Alex, and yourself. The four of you played flashy games and tried to make bold moves, and I think you each were the ones people wanted to see win.

10) On the 703 org, I compare you to Heather. Like Heather, you are one of the strongest social players this ORG has seen. Heather's downfall in Chile was that she was recognized as the strong jury favourite and a huge threat, and was taken out at the start of the finale. Your game this season follows that same basic storyline. From the show itself, I will compare you to Parvati Shallow, arguably one of the strongest social players of all time. She is strong, smart, and knows what moves she needs to make to further herself and build her survivor resumé.

11) By now I'll sound like a broken record with this, but the first time I voted for Perry is the defining moment of my game. I interpret defining moment as a pivotal moment. With this vote I was choosing whether I was going to stick strong with Perry, Zane, Sam, Sarah, Luke and Nuno, or whether I would swap over and work with you, Alex, Evan, Joe, and Szymon. Had I chosen to stick with the people on New Torrin, my merge game would've been very different, and I don't think I would've made it anywhere near the final tribal council.

12) What makes me a better winner than my two fellow candidates is that my game carries a blend of both of their gameplays. I put myself out there as someone who would always be a viable option to vote for, and I saw my name written down numerous times but managed to stay in the game despite the attempts people made to take me out. In this sense I have elements of Nuno's game, and not Sarah's game. However, like Sarah and unlike Nuno, I didn't stay in the game because I had immunity, whether it was won or given. I had to rely solely on myself and my social skills to get myself further in the game. In conclusion, Sarah didn't rely on immunity to get to the end, but she rarely was targeted. Nuno was targeted often, but he is here because he kept getting immunity from fellow players. I didn't rely on immunity to get me to the end despite being an often target, and that is why game wise, I am better than Nuno and Sarah.