Board Thread:Survivor 43: San Andrés/@comment-45491255-20200522154455/@comment-26156957-20200523212020

Greetings Alex! It’s a pleasure to (sort of) finally meet you after all this! I just want to say, I truly appreciate that you’re keeping an open mind as a juror since it would’ve been really easy for you to disregard me and serve as Jim and Mackie’s biggest cheerleader. I provided extra insight with my response since you’re the most unfamiliar with me. I hope this offers enough detail for you to better understand my game!

I’m gonna explain how I distinguished myself from Jim and Mackie through a more resilient and honorable style of play in the face of adversity. Then I want to elaborate on how my moves were bigger because they were more effective and successful for someone against greater odds and a more powerful group.

I would say the theme for the moves I made were in terms of true grit, shrewd decision-making, and proper essential setup. These were more impactful for my game since I had to overcome exponential odds compared to Jim and Mackie, who were already such a vigorous force in this game. The moves I made early on allowed for my continuous security throughout the merge, then became a matter of toppling the more prominent opposition to recover after Aaron’s blindside. I nearly succeeded in both aspects but I had things turn out for me worse this game compared to Jim and Mackie. The reason for my poor odds wasn’t because of my own self-destruction, but rather because of tribal dynamics entering the merge and throughout. But I had awareness of said dynamics, so I just want to touch on the difficulties I had to overcome, some of which I realized later into the game.

The threesome had an overwhelming advantage over me and A/A/A since they knew how to keep their group secret, Mackie had two idols, and they had the ability to deceive the entire Cuarzo Rosa tribe for so long. I should’ve been near the top of their hit list but I remained in their good graces, especially Mackie’s, allowing me to eventually navigate past their group, split them apart, and keep both Abi and alive until the Final 4. I faced tougher setbacks than Jim and Mackie, with the biggest being Aaron’s blindside. But I also faced some general difficulties that required me to adjust my game in accordance.

The best example of said difficulties would simply be the tribal dynamics leading into the merge. The swap definitely set the tone for how the rest of this season would play out. Compared to Jim and Mackie, I was dealt the lesser hand during the swap since I could only meet them as 2/7 of the OG Florencia dudes who made the merge and jury (and I already met Mackie in a prior ORG). Jim and Mackie had the convenience (just to put it bluntly) of having already connected with those other 5 fans along with the opportunity to meet 5/7 OG Soacha peeps pre-merge as well. Furthermore, the fact that I received votes yet survived at the first post-swap tribal indicates that I clearly had allies who had my back, so nuSoacha simply had to find those two people who voted for me and flip them over. The clear perception was that there would be a power struggle between swapped tribes. I was forced into a clear “side” and I was not in a position to play in the middle unlike Jim and Mackie. So just from a relationship perspective, I was at a much bigger disadvantage which meant I had to fight harder and play smarter in order to make due with what I had.

Now that we’re here at FTC, the perception is truly obvious towards everyone. Jim and Mackie’s game is structured around always being in control, while I had to focus on defying all odds and survive until the end. Mackie and Jim’s best vindication against a bitter jury would be having their whole threesome here at FTC to truly justify their cutthroat gameplay. Their entire games relied on always being in complete control to always advance their group, but the fact that I’m here is evident enough that they didn’t quite fully succeed with that overarching narrative. I owned my perception and it was practically an all-or-nothing ordeal that stayed true to my approach this season.

Even when having to conquer the connections disadvantage, I still maintained a social game that didn’t exploit relationships. Even though Mackie was also a major threat like me, I still won over in that department. Despite knowing they were at such a high level of control, Jim and Mackie played with much more fire and burnt themselves more than I did. I still had a solid level of control for a healthy portion of this game but without having to rely on burning numerous relationships and regening on feigned alliances. Izzy put it best with me by stating that “Sometimes not having a relationship with them to begin with is an advantage.” Their style of play isn’t optimal in a game where genuine relationships are built and burning too many consistently has consequences.

All three of us finalists had the priority of survival and outlasting first. But like I said in my opening statement, I prioritized jury management as my second degree of play, while Jim and Mackie prioritized control over the game. While I only had to burn Aaron, Jim and Mackie always found blood on their hands at most tribals. Having dominance over every vote ensures you’ll make FTC much easier, but you lose that control to the jury and the argument is all for naught. The ultimate objective in Survivor is to outlast everyone and win enough jury votes in the end. I consider myself having played a cleaner and more admirable game which sometimes focused on jury management more than my survival. There was a greater risk of failing to reach Day 39 with this notion, but I sure damn accomplished the near-impossible!

How I handled this endgame is proof of my ability to make moves that kept me and Abi alive, weaken the threesome, and survive until the end. I was able to turn this game on its head for me and Abi at the following tribal and it wouldn’t have been possible without adapting and making a recovery after the hiccup that was the Final 8. But I still managed to make the most of Aaron's vote-off by pinning the idol on him, which seemingly convinced Izzy and helped me control the Final 5. It would be nice to have Abi here with me to celebrate our success, but we achieved the guaranteed outcome of reaching the Final 4 together. I already explained my general strategy for the endgame in my opening so I’m gonna go into further detail to support why I created this effective setup.

At this point is when Jim leaked that Mackie and Izzy were close. I was down for making a move, but I needed Jacob since he considered making a move against Mackie. I needed to validate if I could work with Jacob, which is why I approached him to blindside Izzy to see if he’d accept the offer. Even though he didn't, I had Mackie still supporting me when he could’ve easily turned Izzy against me Since I had no connection with him, taking him out would allow me to work with Zee. He’s been an advocate for my elimination this entire merge, so voting him off next became my priority since we couldn’t unite and make a move against Mackie.. It was a calculated risk, but it paid off knowing I had an optimal route regardless of the outcome. Voting Jacob was the first step in setting up my route to the end without anybody realizing it.

After the at Final 7, for the threesome, it became a simple matter of picking off everyone else while taking a stab at me the first chance they had. I needed to create the perfect setup which was reliant on me and Abi both surviving while both of Mackie’s idols got flushed. The threesome booting Zee was much more likely, so the ulterior motive became forcing them to use two idols. There was also the hope of baiting them into splitting votes but I knew it was a longshot, though it would’ve been nice to have more flexibility with Zee as another obvious target going into the next tribal. Due to heavy speculation that supported Mackie and Izzy being close, I emphasized with Mackie that we needed to blindside Izzy so he could at least feel obligated to play an idol on her or tell Izzy if she actually had it. This is why I consider my immunity at the Final 6 my most crucial and necessary win since this helped me form a clear path to FTC. Since they couldn’t 100% know I had an idol, they went all in for them all to survive this one vote while I could set me and Abi up for the Final 4 and guarantee myself a spot at FTC.

The beginning of the merge was proof I could work with a majority despite being a high-profile player and lacking more connections than Jim and Mackie. But even after losing my #1, I knew how to recover and set myself up for a run to reach FTC. I managed to navigate past the secret threesome’s formidable power despite my threat level and achieve a feat that I consider more impressive. They set themselves up as the absolute high and mighty force in this game but only I was able to overcome them. That’s why I consider my moves to be bigger than Jim’s and Mackie’s, as they were most effective for a game that required the player to face and surpass greater challenges in order to emerge victorious.

I know this was a lot, but I truly hope you understand my outlook on your question. Even if it doesn't win over your jury vote, I appreciate that you still gave me a chance! Take care Alex!