Board Thread:Survivor: Japan (Season 6)/@comment-24270686-20150315162305/@comment-25615280-20150315213307

Oh Richie, first off I would like to say reading your speech was a breath of fresh air. Not only were your words to me kind and fair, but to the others as well and I thank you for that. I also want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to explain everything here but I will answer your direct questions first.

The quick and easy one first, the Shika idol is still buried somewhere in that tribe’s camp. I did infact get 1 clue for it but it left me so many options, I only guessed a couple times and just stopped. I wish it would have been found and I’m sure it would have been played if it was. Also I am sorry for making you uncomfortable in the votes. What I told you though was all true except for the Martin vote. For pretty much every vote besides that one I stuck to my original plan going into a tribal. In the case with Martin, Wes and I probably talked back and forth for hours weighing all of our options for that tribal until we settled on Martin.

Now I will address the cheating thing. I crossed the line. I see that now. I should have cleared it with the hosts first I admit. I was given a punishment for it which I’m sure the hosts thought was a death sentence yet I rallied and fought back (in the game, not to the hosts). I regret it deeply because it seems it may have caused people to doubt me and as you said, completely turn off from me. I don’t know what I can say to change their minds but I am deeply sorry for what I did. I put a stain on the season and my gameplay. I am all for having a fair and fun competition and I ruined it. What I did wasn’t as blatant as what DB but it still broke the rules and I was penalized in accordance with what the hosts deemed necessary. I believe the hosts should be the ones to decide if my infraction was worthy of me being cut out of the game, giving me no chance to win, but they didn’t cut me. Everything I have done in this game I believe puts me above the other two. I’m ashamed that this incident puts a negative mark on all that. All I can say is that my punishment was just, and I overcame it to get to this point. I don’t think one small lapse in my judgment should have any more negative effects than nearly taking me out of the game.

Onto the next topic, playing to people’s desires. I believe I was decently effective at doing this in the game. The first big one I think of was voting off Evie. At that point, most people were clamoring for a Shika member to be voted off. I wanted to nip that in the bud as soon as possible. I wanted to prove to both Okami and Zaru that a Shika takeover was not going to be in the works. I think that was playing with people’s desires because in a way they got what they wanted, a Shika member going home. I think it prevented more heat from going on me than was already there. Another attempt that I at least tried but failed in, thanks for that btw ;), was trying to pit you and Joe against each other for as long as possible. On the vote that made you leave, I approached Austin. I knew he liked playing an under the radar game at that point so I explained my reasoning to him. As long as you were in the game, Joe was going to vote for you. As long as Joe was in the game, you were going to vote for him. I told Austin keeping you both in would be a great way to stay under the radar because you two would just be going at it. I also wanted to kill two birds with one stone which is why I decided to vote for Lucas that tribal. If Joe was lying to me about his idol like I thought he was, Joan’s, Lucas’s and your vote would have been enough to get him out. He was the one I wanted out most at that time so I would have been ok with it. Also since he did play his idol, if there were 3 votes negated on him, the 2 on Lucas would have been enough, effectively getting both the negator and idol out in one tribal. Sadly we know how that turned out.

Next I want to talk about lying. It’s a part of Survivor and it is mostly necessary. I do think most people understand that however. I only lied when it served a direct purpose to my game. I did not lie just to stir up shit or for my own amusement. I had a plan in sight and if I had to lie to get there, I wouldn’t hesitate to do it. Lying is just another tool a survivor player can use to help their game, just like physical strength, social awareness, and macros (sorry too soon).

I’d just like to thank you one more time for the opportunity to put this all out there.