Board Thread:Survivor 22: San Marcos/@comment-9755360-20170207231624

Hi, Nathaniel here, and this is my FTC speech for San Marcos. Just wanna start by saying sorry for posting this so late - have been unable to post it until now. Also, thanks to all seven of the hosts for hosting this season! We might’ve not always seen eye to eye on all things, but you’ve been awesome and have handled most things really well. I’d also like to thank Dani for making the season’s mangas. And finally, thanks to everyone who’s played in this season. From Grant to me, Nick and Sim, all of us have helped making this season what it’s been - and what it’s been is one of the best seasons on 703. It’s been an insane game, with so many good players in it, and I’m so glad I got to experience it all. Anyway, I’m gonna try to make this short and not clogg it up with lots of small details, so if you have any questions about anything, feel free to ask in your speeches - I’ll gladly answer!

So, let’s start from the beginning?

Over 20 months ago, I was invited to play on 703, and I gladly accepted! 703 is a major ORG, and playing in it was something I’d wanted to do for quite a while. And so, my 703 journey begun… And ended horribly in a blindside I’m still not over.

But then, over a year later, I was asked if I wanted to continue that journey - with a fresh, new start. I was originally planning to take a break from ORGs completely, but you don’t get to return to 703 every day, so I accepted, thinking it’d fit well as a final season of mine. A while later, the game begun. I was playing with a handful of people I’d met before, quite a lot of faces I’d seen around, and a few people I’d never heard of before. On my tribe, the only person I knew since before was Hannah, and partially Rhi, but I talked to everyone, and grew fond of them all too. I grew especially close to Sim, and we promised to take each other to the merge we’d missed out in our original seasons. I also reformed by old bond with Hannah, got to learn Rhi a lot better, and talked to Austin too. I didn’t talk as much to Nick and Brian, but I kept a good bond with both of them. I also, right after we’d gotten our first Idol clue, found the Idols of Quetzal and Tacana. Catarina’s was lost to me though. I shared my findings of the Quetzal Idol with others in case anyone would swap there and to build trust, but kept the Tacana one to myself, to not seem too threatening (finding two Idols but not the third would’ve been seen as unlikely by people), since the Idol had been found anyway (the puzzle had been solved). Catarina was a very strong tribe, winning the first three challenges, which I’d say I helped quite a bit in, but then a loss came. I was, by that time, in an alliance with Sim, Austin and Nick, with Rhi as a proposed extra number. I think you all know what happened during this tribal and the next one (feel free to ask if you wanna know more in detail), but to make a long story short, my name probably came up as an option, but my social bonds kept me safe, and in the following Hannah tribal, almost everyone wanted her out and going against everyone when there was nothing I could do anyway would’ve just been stupid.

Then came a swap! I was the sole Catarina to remain on my tribe, and I immediately got to work. I knew it’d be tempting to get me out, especially when Ryan had been voted out and Sim gave Catarina at Tacana a majority, so I immediately told everyone on my new tribe about how I’d been on the bottom of my old one, and probably would’ve gone if we hadn’t swapped (which wasn’t a lie, really). I did lie about feeling extremely happy to finally be gone from my old tribe though, because everyone on there was amazing. I also wanted to get to know the people on my new tribe, and I talked a lot to Elmo and Chris especially, and also talked quite a lot to Shea and Jenna. Renz and I had bad timezones, and Andrew was always kinda… Gone. When we lost, everyone told me not to worry and that Andrew would go due to his inactive tendencies, and we all knew Ryan had the Tacana Idol too, so we’d be safe. Speaking of Idols, the Catarina one was already gone - Elmo found its location right after the swap and solved the puzzle, but it was already gone (I was told all of this by Shea, not Elmo, which made me start to think Elmo perhaps didn’t trust me all that much (he did tell me about it later though, right before the merge)). That also made me assume someone from original Catarina had found it. Anyway, once again thanks to the bonds I’d built, I was spared elimination, and Andrew went instead (which is a bit ironic, because I later went on to vote out every single person from that tribe come merge). We won the challenge after that too, and Rhi was Idoled out by Claudia (just a fun fact: Andrew had said that Ryan gave Claudia his Idol before the rocks, so I thought that was the one played until the F5, where I learnt Ryan actually was voted out with his Idol, and Claudia had found the rehidden version of it. How things go sometimes…)

Then we merged! I was so, so, so, so happy - making the merge (and Jury) had been my main goal all season, and actually making it was… I still don’t have words for it. I quickly found the merged Idol too, and also won the first immunity challenge! Things were looking really good for me, and furthermore, I was connected to both my original and swapped tribes, although I soon realised where the people I could really trust were. I wanted Quetzal and Catarina to go together and take out Tacana, because I feared they’d rule the game, but of course, neither side wants that, and the war began. From Shea, I learned that Quetzal were voting Austin, while all of them had told me Malik was a fine vote. I also learned from him that Quetzal wanted to go for me at our swapped tribes, but that he’d kept me safe. I then realised my original tribe were the people I could trust. I asked Austin/Nick/Sim if they had the Catarina Idol, since I knew it’d been found, and Austin revealed he’d found it. I told him what Shea had told me, and Austin got confirmation from Claudia that he’d be getting votes. Due to Malik’s blowup before the merge, the others really wanted him gone, thinking we could get Chris and Claudia with us if he was gone, so I reluctantly agreed on voting out Malik (I wanted to go for Brandon due to his challenge strength, combined with the fact that I knew him the worst of the Quetzals), which we did. Next vote, I was immune again. Claudia and Chris approached us, claiming they wanted to side with us (next vote), but that they’d vote out Shea with the Quetzals to not make them suspicious. I knew that Shea was loyal to us, and had given up his chances with Quetzal to help us, so I thought about playing the Idol on him. I knew that Chris and Claudia probably would side with us for one vote if Shea left, but would then turn on us at the final 9 (or do the reverse). Either way, they’d control the game, which I did not want. With Shea staying, we’d have a solid 5, and I also knew that I owed it to Shea. As for who to Idol out, I realised one player was playing an amazing social game. Nick, Sim and Austin all wanted to go for Brandon or Renz, due to Renz being a liar, Brandon flipping back to Quetzal from them, and they all also thought Jenna was incredibly boring to talk to, while they thought Elmo was a great guy they could talk to all day. I, too, loved talking to Elmo and considered to be closer to him than to any other Quetzal (sans Shea), but when they said that I realised Elmo was someone that could connect to everyone, who nobody would want gone, and who could make it to the end very easily due to the great person he was. I pointed that out to the others, and they agreed that Elmo had to go. He was also the one most likely to have the Quetzal Idol (I remembered how he’d found the Catarina one so fast), so there was that too. The plan worked, and Elmo left. Next vote, Chris and Claudia came to us, saying they wanted to side with us. We agreed to a vote split plan, between Brandon and Renz, in case of Idols. I felt incredibly uncomfortable though, and talking to Shea, he too said he didn’t trust Chris and Claudia. Doing the math, I saw no reason for them to vote with us, since it’d give Catarina + Shea a solid 5, while them tricking us and taking one of us out would bring it down to a 5-4 instead, advantage to Quetzal + Tacana. Austin was very adamant to trust the two though, and I realised I couldn’t change things. What I did do, however, was to tell them Shea hadn’t liked the plan, and was voting Chris. Why? Well, the votes would be sending Renz home if things stayed the way they were, and I thought Brandon was much more of a threat with his challenge abilities. Renz was seen as the Quetzal leader, but a leader without anyone to lead is just an ordinary player. I convinced my fellow Catarinas to have Austin change vote to Brandon (much due to the fact that there also was a 50% chance he had the secret advantage from the auction, since Shea and I both had failed to get it, and the only other person available to have gotten it was Claudia). Oh, I also found the merged Idol almost immediately after it was rehidden, so I had that thing too. Nobody knew about it though. I decided to play it due to the paranoia I felt, combined with the fact that Shea’s perception skills are amazing, and I trusted his word a lot, and it turned out to be the right call, as Brandon was sent home after 6 votes against me were negated.

The next vote was by far my luckiest moment in the game. We had a majority, and we knew Chris and Claudia were sneaky, so we thought it would be an easy vote. But… Then we messed up. Claudia found the rehidden Idol, and told Austin, setting off crazy thoughts in our alliance. We decided to vote for Claudia, to remove the Idol, but then we got word that she actually was playing it on herself. We quickly swapped target to Renz, but by that time, Shea and Austin had already voted, and our majority was doomed - and I was sure I was about to go home. The most emotional moment of the season then followed, where Shea said he wanted to quit for me, and it went so far that I actually began crying (which I never do). However, Shea then did something great: he went to the tribe chat, and told people to vote for him instead, to confuse everyone. I thought it wouldn’t work at all, in all honesty, and went to sleep expecting to wake up as a 9th placer. But somehow, they had split their votes too, accidently, and Renz, who I considered to be my main rival, was sent home in an insane 3-2-2-2 vote. I was overjoyed, and expected the rest of the season to go easier and less messy. Oh, how wrong I was.

The next vote, I was approached by Chris and Claudia. They told me what I called “The Truth” - the fact that my alliance wanted me gone. More specifically, Austin. They told me that he had tried to indirectly get me out the last two votes. He knew about Chris and Claudia not being with us during the vote split, and that the plan indeed was to get me out, and him being so adamant on trusting CC (Chris and Claudia) made that make quite a bit of sense. They also said last vote was messed up deliberately, and that I only stayed because Quetzal + Tacana screwed by accident up too. I dunno if this was true or not, but it seemed to make sense. I also figured that Austin/Nick/Sim would probably try to vote out me and Shea at the F5, and I did not want that to happen. Luckily, CC said they wanted Austin gone due to his threatening nature, and the fact that he had close relationships with most people in the game. Personally, I was especially afraid of his relationship with Claudia, and he had also performed really great at almost all challenges, AND he had found an Idol, and all that, combined with the fact that me/Shea/Nick/Sim would still be more people than Jenna/Chris/Claudia if Austin went, made me go along with it. Austin did indeed go home, with me/Chris/Claudia/Shea/Jenna voting for him, and since he was the first person I truly blindsided (I’d say Elmo, but he at least knew we were on opposite sides), I felt incredibly bad for doing it. I actually hated voting out almost everyone (except Renz, since it was victory in a way, to beat my rival, and Chris, since it was him or me, and we both were fine with voting for each other), and voting people out is one of my least favourite things in the game. Ugh. That’s the downside with getting to know people.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Anyway, next vote was quite easy, probably the most straight-forward one of all merge votes. Shea and I didn’t trust CC, and went back to Sim and Nick. We decided to vote for Jenna, since Claudia had her Idol (and she played it too), and Chris had Ellis, who everyone suspected to be an Idol. It worked, and Jenna went home. I really thought things would calm down now, but Chris and Claudia disagreed. Shea warned us about the power, but we didn’t believe him, and thought it was a ruse by Chris and Claudia to take one of us out. Apparantly it wasn’t though, and we ended up in a revote between me, Nick “White Pearl” City, and Shea. Shea didn’t want to vote for me, and publically announced voting for Nick. As for me, I thought for sure that it was the end of the road now. But, somehow, CC didn’t agree. I talked to them, and told them how Nick, SIm and Shea would vote them out if they left, while with me, they at least had a chance. They thought so too, and saved me. I also talked to Nick and Sim, trying to get them to save me, and Sim voted Shea too. Shea leaving was horrible - he was the person I was closest to by far, my best ally, and the person that had kept me grounded throughout the entire merge. He asked me to vote him out, and I granted his wish, but I hated doing it, and I swore I’d try to win for him.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Final 5. Sim and Nick wanted Claudia gone for being a FTC threat, Chris and Claudia wanted each other gone, and I wanted Chris gone, since I knew that two things: firstly, I had a strong feeling Chris staying would ruin my chances of winning the FIC (which also happened, through his Prisoner’s DIlemma answers). Secondly, Sim and Nick wouldn’t even consider voting me out if Claudia stayed, whereas Chris is an amazing talker, and I knew there was a chance he could convince them to take him to the end over me. Nick and Sim decided to let Chris stay though, and I voted incorrectly for the first and only time all season, by voting with Claudia (who’s such a funny and amazing person, and I hated seeing her go). Final 4, Nick won immunity. We all knew it was Chris or me, and I tried to reason why I thought they should vote out Chris. I gave some good reasons (him having his whole alliance on the Jury) and some less good ones (the fact that he’s a non-returnee) that Sim agreed on, and some he didn’t comment on (like the fact that Chris is an amazing talker, and the fact that despite Claudia playing more flashy than him, he was a vital part in all their moves too). Nick and Sim decided to vote out Chris (who I, personally, think played the best out of everyone this season), and I made it to the FTC.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Did I say short? Eh, 3k words is nothing. I need to sleep though, so I’ll be very short in the upcoming summary of my game (compared to everyone else’s):

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">I played 2 Idols, beaten only by Claudia’s 3, but I negated most total votes with my two, 12 beating Claudia’s 11.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">I won most challenges (tied with Chris), and most individual ones.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">I received the most votes out of everyone this season, proving how big of a target I was, and everyone wanted me out all season long, yet I managed to make it here.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">I voted correctly the most times, only voting incorrectly at the Claudia vote - nobody else did that (except the first few boots of the season).

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Finally, I controlled two votes (Elmo, by playing the Idol and naming him as the target, and Brandon, by once again playing an Idol and have the target swapped to him from Renz), and I was involved in all other merge votes, except the Claudia one - and quite heavily in most of them too.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">I survived through the use of my social (pre-merge and late merge), physical (merge and F5) and strategic game (my Idol plays, amongst others), and I truly do think I’ve played the best game out of me, Sim and Nick. I won’t attack their games whatsoever, because they’ve played great too, but I hope I’ve convinced you why I played better than they did.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:400;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">That’s all from me! Sorry for making the ending so short - please, please ask me questions, so I can explain things further!

<span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">And with that, the season’s almost over. I’ve laughed, I’ve cried, of both happiness and sadness, I’ve cheered, and I’ve felt despair. This has been an amazing journey, and I’m glad to have been able to share it with you. Thank you all for this season, and good luck voting! That’s all from me! This has been the final tribal council speech from Nathaniel. The Swede, signing out. <ac_metadata title="Vote for Nathaniel!"> </ac_metadata>