Board Thread:Survivor: Skye Islands (Season 12)/@comment-26577876-20151015202051

Hey guys, Sarah here! I'd like to start this off by saying what an incredible season we've had. I'd like to thank our hosts for their hardwork and dedication, and for selecting some of the fiercest competitors I've had the pleasure of playing with. I feel grateful to have had the chance to play with everyone, especially my fellow finalists, and I'm excited about what the future holds in store for all of us as a community.

The purpose of this speech is to candidly describe the game I've played from the beginning to give you all, the jury, the most educated idea of "Sarah's gameplay". If there's anything I can accomplish here today, it's to help give you the information you need to make the best decision possible. With that said, let's dive into it.

Dunan - a tribe of beauties. The social butterflies. The chatty Kathys. I quickly formed an alliance with Boo, Bjorn, Nuno, and Zane. I was happy to have solidified an early majority, I felt safe at the time.Our first casualty was Jace. He was simply on the outs, and he was gunning for me from what my allies told me. The next one out was Liam, my second least favorite vote of the season. It should have been Diego, but he was kidnapped at the time. Liam didn't deserve to go. The last beauty to fall pre-swap was Diego, who was also targetting me, and just wasn't in our alliance. One thing that's also noteworthy here - Nuno started targeting Bjorn, who at the time was my closest ally. Both Nuno and Boo were willing to vote Bjorn, a person in our alliance, instead of Diego, a person who was gunning for someone (me) in their alliance. After some slightly frustrating campaigning they agreed on Diego. After the vote I honestly felt like I was at the bottom of the alliance, and I was anxious about what Boono the power couple would try to pull next.

New Torrin formed shortly after, and Nuno, Boo, Zane, and I made connections with Perry and Luke. Those connections were kinda quickly damaged when Perry and Luke blindsided Boo, and by extension Nuno. I wasn't devasted - I was ecstatic. At first I thought tribe swap was enough of a change to shift power off of Boono, but after the blindside I was really, REALLY comfortable with the direction the tribe was moving in. Naturally, I told Perry and Luke my true feelings on Boono, and our connection grew stronger rather than faltered. Meanwhile, Nuno, Zane, and I had an alliance chat for the beauties on New Torrin wherein Nuno was ready to unleash a hellfire on the brains for voting out his closest ally. I managed to quell his anger for the time being, and fortunately for me, I gained quite a bit more trust from Perry because I was keeping a close eye on someone who wanted him out. Most of our time on New Torrin was spent running numbers and talking about how much Nuno wanted to take out Perry. Although I didn't create this dynamic, I honestly did take advantage of it - but at the same time, I still saw Perry as a threat. On New Killbride, my closest ally Bjorn was voted out. This was the beginning of the massive hill I'd find myself crashing down for most of the game.

Then the Wes vote rolled around, and that's where things slowly started to lose control. We lost immunity and were on our way to tribal council. The plan was to split between Wes and Sam in the event of a brawn idol. Wes approached me to see if we could possibly keep him and vote Perry out instead. Nuno of course was down, Zane wasn't comfortable with the vote, and iirc Sam was just willing to take a cue from Perry to ensure his own safety. So Nuno and I were feeling at a slight loss, but Wes had been talking to Tyler, who apparently was fine with voting Perry out. Unfortunately, Wes voted early, so Nuno and I didn't really have an opportunity to come up with a different plan. We didn't know we had the numbers, and we didn't have room for a backup plan to save Wes.

And then came merge, and Luke left. Real life stuff is important, let's get that out of the way first. Unfortunately for the New Torrin alliance, we were down an ally. Perry was trying to convince Dom and Joe to flip to us, but that didn't happen. And then there was the messiness of the Zane vote and Zanegate. *twitch* Sorry, the meds are still kicking in, ANYWAY. So with that vote, it was initially going to be a split between Alex and Evan (I fucking hate vote splits, let's just put that out there rn) because there was talk of an idol. That was Perry's idea. So Perry and Zane were the only ones that voted Alex and Evan (RIP), and Nuno, Szymon, Sam, and I were going to vote for Tyler in case they BOTH had idols. Lucky for us, Sam won an extra vote for tribal at the auction. Unlucky for us, so did Tyler, and Zane went home. And then Zanegate hit *twitch*.

So at this point, my alliance with Perry and Nuno was hanging by a strand of Zane's weave. We pretty much just had to offer ourselves up as tribute to anyone that needed a number. Then came the Perry vs. Nuno vote. I voted for Nuno. I didn't trust that Joe and Dom were with Perry, but I knew I wanted to still work with him. At that point I didn't think Nuno was the best ally for me since all of our "work" had only left us with more work to clean up. So I voted with Perry, and he went home. Yet another blow to my position in the game. Surprisingly, Nuno didn't know (or appeared to not know) that I had voted for him, and I was able to maintain a working relationship with him.

Double tribal was actually the last thing I wanted to hear about, and at that point I was POSITIVE I was going home. I was at the bottom and I didn't think anyone would consider working with me. However, in an effort to make a move against Dom, Alex approached me and said he was saving Nuno from double tribal, and he wanted us to go for Joe in the first part of double tribal. He didn't win immunity, so that was a big monkeywrench in the mix. We approached Sam to vote with us, but the vote imploded when Evan backstabbed Alex. So when my potential for surviving in the game was previously at an all-time low, it hit yet another record low. The people I wanted to work with were almost consecutively being removed systematically and I couldn't do anything to help. All I could do was watch and wait for my time to come. At the second part of double tribal there was no saving Alex. I was only lucky to have voted with the rest of the tribe for once.

And then came the vote that began to turn my game around. Dom was willing to work with Nuno and me, but Szymon wanted Nuno out. We were in a pretty pickle until Dom whipped out her idol and said "lol nope" to the other alliance and forced them to campaign for their lives. Ultimately we sent Joe home for overcampaigning. I didn't feel like I was out of the woods yet, but I did feel like I could finally take a deep breath and exhale.

The Dom vote was easily the hardest, most gut-wrenching vote. I reached out to Evan and Tyler intially to see if they would be willing to vote Dom out. I couldn't just sit and let her win, even if a big part of me believed (and still believes) she deserved it. Maybe I sound like a complete mess, but I can't honestly say I felt good about that vote. It was necessary, but it. fucking. sucked.

The Evan vote was the vote I was most anxious about. There I was at Final Four, so close to Final Three, and I really believed I was going home. I hadn't spoken with Evan and Tyler since the Dom vote, someone voted early and I assumed it was Evan, and the silence really drove me insane. I was able to talk to Tyler, and even though he sent me a screenshot of his parchment in good faith, a huge part of me was too jittery to believe I wasn't going home. Talking to Tyler was honestly the best thing I could have done, and the fact that I'm here right now proves it. Evan didn't talk to me and I knew he voted first, so that told me where we stood.

What I want to say is, I've made it here, to Final Three, through basic human communication. The power of talking to people has been my greatest strength. At the times that I felt like I wanted to throw the towel in or drag someone to filth in chat, I reminded myself of the greatest tool I had in my arsenal: conversation. I quickly had conversations with my former, fallen beauties that solidified an alliance. I had conversations with Perry about someone I was close to that he was paranoid about (with good reason too). I had conversations with the people I was most at odds with - Dom, Alex, Tyler, and Evan, and only one of them is here with me to show for it. I'm not a challenge beast, that's clear enough and I'm not here to front with you about what I'm not. What I can tell you is I'm a person who loves to talk to people constantly about anything. I love having interactions with other humans, and I was put on Dunan for that reason. I have trudged through the gutters of this season to sit here with my fellow contestants, and if I stink of sewage, it's only because I know what it is to not have the comfort of a stable alliance. I know what it is to stand knee-deep in shit that pulled down most of my other allies, and it's not easy to climb out of. The only thing I had to rely on was my mental fortitude, which stopped me from giving in to a bleak finish, and my willingness to form connections with the people surrounding me.

When you fill out your parchment, please vote for the person who has experienced the most obstacles in this game. Please - vote for me.

Thank you. 