Board Thread:Survivor: Skye Islands (Season 12)/@comment-26479581-20151015220042/@comment-26577876-20151016173800

Hey Dom! Thank you for your questions, and hopefully I can clear the air a bit here.

First of all, my initial impression of you was "HOLY SHIT WE NEED TO WORK TOGETHER". I'd heard good things about you in the community and from Tyler, so I was pleasantly surprised to see you playing, and I wanted the opportunity to work with you from the get go!

I never thought you hated me though, I thought we couldn't work together because Joe was popping off about me being untrustworthy, and since you guys were allies, I assumed you would stick together - and you guys did until Joe was starting to show who was in his F3. And shortly after that, we started to work together. So my assumption that you two would stick together until something in your dynamic changed was correct. I relied on a hunch about social behavior, and it was a correct guess.

For your first question: I was actually really sad voting for you, and I understand why you might not see it now, but all I can say is I was really sincere in my RoP when I said I was torn. There were multiple times where I just wanted to vote for Tyler instead of you when we were talking, and not because I thought he would be untrustworthy and flip on, but because I felt like a horrible person having to vote you out. I wasn't grubbing for your good graces in RoP, and I'm not trying to do that now. Maybe I shouldn't have included the fact that I was sad in my RoP, but I couldn't have just addressed you without discussing my entire mental state about that vote. I made a really, really difficult decision to vote you out. A few days before your vote, I was still reeling from how iconic the Joe vote was, and I felt strangely content with just going to the end with you even if I knew you would beat me; but shortly thereafter I remembered I was still in a competition, and how big of a slap on the face would it be to the people that still want to be here, if I just rolled over and let you take this game? I was honest when i said I was rooting for you, but I couldn't just idly watch you skip to the top while we're still competing against each other. No matter what happens, I'll always be a fan of the work you did here this season, and I'll shout it from the mountaintops too "I STAN FOR DOM", idc if I look like a fool. But I had to make this decision, and now I have to face the music. There can only be one winner, and nobody here would have had a fighting chance against you. I have the most blood on my hands when it came to this vote, I'm willing to accept that. I deserve your jury vote because I had the grit to continue with this decision, because success in this game requires that we make incredibly difficult decisions.

For your second question: In this game, I have used people's energy to my advantage. When I was initially forming my connections with allies, Bjorn mentioned something about growing facial hair and admittedly I flirted with him a little, and from there we became close allies. With Perry and Luke, they actually threw me a bone when they blindsided Boo because that told me where they stood, and I was able to confide in them and say "hey wait a minute we're on the same page". With Nuno, I used his anger against Perry and Luke to my advantage as a means of both creating a bond with them, and being the earpiece that Nuno vented his in-game frustrations to. After Zanegate, I made it clear to certain people that I was down for anything at that point. Ean and I spoke very late in the game, but I really got a good vibe from him, and wanted to work with him. Unfortunately, after Nuno won Final Immunity, one person voted verrrry quickly, and all I heard was radio silence from Evan. It wasn't Nuno because he and I were going to vote on the same page, and it wasn't Tyler because he's usually last to vote. I knew Evan had voted me - yet another hunch that paid off. Tyler and I talked to clear some weirdness in the air after the Joe vote, and I got to know someone with a heart of gold. As a very empathetic person, I caught some of that energy and went out on a limb to work with Tyler on the last two votes, and look at where we are now.

1. A goat implies being an agreeable lump of flesh that does everyone else's bidding. I wasn't Perry's goat because CLEARLY I didn't follow the majority of his plans. I wasn't Alex's goat because I helped vote him out. I wasn't your goat because I helped vote you out too. I wasn't Nuno's goat because he was never in a position to call shots. Call me a floater, call me a drifter - but calling me a goat is just a misuse of the word. Maybe some of the jurors are obsessed with Resurgence from the amount they talked about it, but rest assured - no one here rode anyone else's dick to Final "Anything".

2. You would win, hands down. I've said it before in game, I've said it in confessionals, I've said it in RoP, I've said it in my speech, and I'll say it after this season is over: You. Deserved. To win.

3. I think you lost the game when you didn't win immunity at F5. That was your only weakness in this game. You were Terry Deitz'd.

4. The jury is right to say that I didn't play this over-the-top game. Honestly, being in an all-stars game is intimidating, and the last thing I wanted to do was pin a target to my back and point to it for everyone to see. I do think however, that stealthy games are vastly underestimated. Challenge scores and alliances aren't dangerous - the people that earn those scores and make those alliances are dangerous. There's a lot to be said in maneuvering energy, and knowing how to communicate with people isn't easy, and at time was very frustrating.

5. Number one was by far the Joe vote that you executed, there's no disputing that. Number 2 was Alex giving Nuno his pendant, which led to his own demise as a fierce contender for F3. Number 3 was Zanegate, because it sent 4 players to the bottom of the tribe in one fell swoop. Number 4 was the Szymon vote, because he has incredible stealthy gameplay that could have brought him to F3. Number 5 was the Evan vote, because Evan probably could have beat the rest of us left in this game with sheer brawn force.

6. Nuno shouldn't be here because of the pendant Alex gave him. That was the thing that saved him from leaving at double tribal. If the jurors had realized that Nuno has been the grenade that blew up a lot of people's games before they were voted out, they'd have said "lol nope" and voted him out instead of using him as a double-edged sword time after time again. Two jurors that shouldn't be on the jury are Wes and Perry. Wes could have gone the distance if he had been able to keep a level head instead of scrambling at the last minute the night he was voted out. Perry was the victim of incessant Resurgence chatter. If you want to vote someone out for being a threat, then please do, but don't cite a previous season as your reason for doing so. That shit's over and done with, move the fuck on. Three people that I think wasted their spot on All Stars were Wes, Zane, and Evan. Like I said with Wes, he shouldn't have scrambled like he did, and it sucks that I couldn't really help him because he voted so early. Zane, unfortunately, seemed to be busy with school stuff, which is great because that's his future, but not so great since he was rarely around. Evan relied too heavily on his alliances. He jumped the Alex ship to ride the Joe ship. I don't think that's really an All-Stars move. I don't think Jace, Kaeden, Diego, and Lukas should have been on All-Stars.

7. Rather than cite myself as going from the bottom for the majority of the game to here, I'll say Tyler. Tyler was ready, willing, and able to make moves from pre-merge, but needed to hone his communication with people a bit more before he could truly shine like the All-Star he is. He was able to pull his communication skills together, and now he's right where he deserves to be. The contestant that took the largest step back was Alex, only because of the whole pendant thing. He's a good guy out of game, but being a good guy in game led to people squashing him.

8. 10 for physical, 7 for social, and 9 for strategic.

9. I would really like to see Evan return for a third game. I think if he shows that he wants to make meaningful connections with everyone, he'd be incredibly successful. It's strange to me that he doesn't rely more on his personality in-game, he could really go places if he did.

10. Like I said earlier, you're Terry Deitz! You're a challenge beast with strategy. On 703, I'd say you're a lot like Heather.

11. My defining moment in the game was Zanegate, as much as that makes me want to vom (sorry Zane, ily tho <3). Reality set in in terms of my position in the game, and I had to adjust accordingly or be eliminated for being way the fuck on the outs.

12. Gamewise, I've been patient. I may not have spoken to everyone because of alliance lines that were clearly drawn (I'm a social gamer people, I'm not a miracle worker), but I patiently waited for those lines to be blurred, and when they were, I was able to adapt to those changes. People I didn't think I could work with became allies, people that were allies I said goodbye to. This game is constantly changing, and I rolled with the punches to get to where I am today.

Thank you for reading! If you have any further questions I'll be happy to answer them!