Board Thread:Survivor 40: Annihilation/@comment-25097517-20190801161730/@comment-5357455-20190802025557

'''Hi Grace, thank you for your kind comments and your question. Firstly, I will share the Rites of Passage that I made for you that I have yet to share.'''

'''Grace, you have been my go-to in this game for so long now. You are an incredible person who played an incredible game. I am so glad we are able to play this game together for so long because we showed we could be a dominant force. Nothing I did in this game could I have done without you. Love you and thank you for everything you have done for me. '''

'''I know it’s short and sweet, but it overall sums up how great of an ally and friend you were to me in this game. So with that segway, I will get into your question.'''

'''Augusto had been one of my closest allies since we began on Wanani. We voted together to eliminate Brian and thankfully we were able to avoid tribal council for the rest of the 1.0 tribe. Even though we were not going to tribal, we were still solidifying our bond and partnership in this game. This was critical when Augusto revealed to me at the first tribe swap that he had found the idol. I knew that he had a large amount of trust in me, and I did likewise with him. Additionally, he told me that this was “our” idol, so I knew that I would not have the target of “having the idol,” but I had the perks that went with it, which will be seen later on. Augusto and I were separated for the rest of the pre-merge phase and immediately linked up at the merge. I wanted to create a perception that were not close at all for two reasons. First, with only three OG pinks remaining in the game, I did not want us to be immediately associated and furthermore, adding to idol paranoia because it was likely one of us three had it. Secondly, the saying goes “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” Well I wanted to take an additional step on this, why not keep your friends far away? It was a unique spin that allowed for myself and Augsuto to receive information from multiple players and make the right decision for us. This was implemented during the first merge vote when he was one of the first people to know that Joan was the target. However, we made sure that he was receiving the information from other individuals such as Drew, Grace, and Nathan while I received my information from Alex, Aromal, and Mihai. We worked together on the Drew elimination as well because it came down to either Drew was being sent home or we were both drawing rocks. After talking about it with him, Nathan, and Grace, I wanted to assure them that they could trust me and I was making that move to avoid a rock draw for them. Augusto and I worked together again at Final 9 to eliminate Joan. Once again, he was receiving the information from the “Wanani 3,” while I was being approached by Mihai and Aromal. The Aromal vote was particularly one that benefited us, and mainly us, very well. Aromal was a player who was playing all of the sides, but that is something that we were able to do more successfully through our social games with our allies and ultimately having Zach and Linus vote out someone that was a strong ally of theirs and not ours. The Nathan vote was a little bit different. It came to the point where I understood the pecking order that I wanted, and it had to be a Wanani 3 member eliminated. Well, Nathan was the only one of three (Grace and Augusto) that I was not extremely close to, so I needed to make sure that we successfully eliminated the correct Wanani. Augusto and I agree to eliminate Nathan by siding with Mihai and Grace this round to eliminate someone who could have been closer to players like Linus and Zach.'''
 * 1) Augusto- 

'''What these votes of Drew, Joan, Aromal, and Nathan showed was that we were always working together to eliminate threats to our games. These were individuals that had other and potentially better options for their games, but these options were not in our best interest. We were able to vote together on nearly all of these rounds, but did not need to work as an outward duo.'''

'''The Zach vote is one where the information that I had due to my alliance with Augusto paid off. This will be carried over in the next section, but my knowledge of Augusto’s idol helped me make the move against Zach. When I learned that Grace was having and idol played on her and Linus and Grace were only willing to vote off Augusto, I had to reinforce to him that the idol had to be played. He told me he had it conditionally played on himself anyway, but I was the only one who had that knowledge. With the knowledge of the double idol play, I knew that the only three options left were myself, Zach, and Mihai. In order to position myself ideally for the Final 5 and take destiny into my own hands, I voted off Zach as the sole vote to count that round. Information this round was critical and I was able to use it to better myself in this game to be in a more advantageous position. Unfortunately, I did need to eliminate Augusto at this round because I had no other option, which will be discussed under the next ally.  Grace and I had a much different story because we were considered by many to be close allies, which was not hidden in this game. We linked up on Wanani 2.0 and immediately hit if off by sharing a lot of information from the strong possibility to Joan had the idol and our existing tribe dynamics. This relationship was tested once pre-merge when our tribe unanimously agreed to eliminate Pory. Once we both reached the merge after being separated, we continued our strong relationship. In this game, I would go on call with many other players due to work and my commute, but it did give the opportunity to be more personal and more in depth with our conversations. Grace and I would talk on the phone on almost a daily basis for hours. At the Final 11, we were able to bring together one Moya group (myself, Alex, Aromal, and Mihai) with the Wanani 4 to gain the majority on the vote. Unfortunately, two idols later- Alex was eliminated, but it showed that we were on the same page and tested our loyalty in this vote. From here on our, Grace and I did not show immediate signs of turning on one another. At the Final 10, I can see how people would say that I was wishy washy, but this allowed me to be positioned well in the middle. I knew that I still had Grace on the side that was voting Grace, as well as connections with Mihai and Linus on the other side. For me, it was of bigger importance to make sure that my allies knew I was not doing a move against them. So I reassured Grace that eliminating Drew was a move to avoid rocks, not to go against her. In the votes spanning from Joan to Nathan, these votes benefited us two immensely. We were able to use the social connections we had with Aromal and Mihai, Linus and Zach, and Augusto and Mihai, respective to the said votes, to eliminate the competitors that were not going to be working with us long term. '''
 * 1) Grace

'''The Final 6 with Zach proved to be crucial. At this time, Grace had told me that Linus planned on using the idol on her. She had told me a few rounds ago that he did have the Moya idol, which is why I confirmed it with Linus to make sure he knew he could trust me too. Grace told me that Linus did not have just the Moya idol, but he had found the merge on as well and that the Moya idol was going to be played on her this round. I referenced this above so I will not repeat myself, but my connections with so many players allowed me to have the information to make the best move for my game, which was eliminating Zach. The Final 5 was my ideal group as I have previously mentioned because I was positioned well within two groups of three. So at this time, I know that Linus has the merge idol, and will either play it on himself or give it to Grace if he is immune. Well, Linus won immunity and gave the merge idol to Grace. There was nothing I could have done to save Augusto because he was being perceived as a bigger threat than Mihai and I did not mind voting him off. With this vote, I solidified with Grace and Linus that I was true to The Nucleus while maintaining my relationship with Mihai. At this time, if I were to have pushed for Mihai, it could have been leaked back to him, so I needed to assure this alliance that I was loyal to them. At the Final 4, Grace and I were the only two to vote to eliminate Mihai from the game. I will cover this more in the next section, but we had a strong trust in one another that even though it was a 2-1-1 vote where both of us were on the receiving end of 1 vote, we knew that we had one another’s backs to make sure it was Mihai leaving and not us. Sadly, at the Final 3 Grace was eliminated from the game. If I were to have won, I would have cut Grace as well, and I think likewise because we played a similar game and we thought we had a better chance against Linus. Beginning in the Final 5, reigniting in the Final 4, and hammering in the Final 3- I was adamant to Linus how much of a bigger threat Grace would be in the end than myself, which is why she was ultimately eliminated from the game.''' '''I could not forget about you Mihai, you were my dude from Day 1. We instantly connected, and I knew he was going to be a loyal player, especially to me and I was likewise to him. Mihai was actually targeted to leave at the first tribal council, but because of the bond that we had made, I did not want to go with that plan constructed by the forced alliance of myself, Brian, Pory, and Tobi. Tobi and I opted to side with the rest of the tribe and eliminated Brian in a 5-2 vote. Mihai knew that he was at risk of leaving this game at the time, and seemed very willing to work with me afterwards on the impression that I was a key reason to help him stay. '''
 * 1) Mihai

'''Mihai and I linked up at Moya 3.0, which was able to give me a light of insight despite not having to attend tribal council. I was able to learn about the two sides that were brewing at this time- Linus, Zach, Joan, and Mihai v. Alex, Aromal, myself, and Mihai. At this time, I knew that I needed to get in good with this other side too, which would be corroborated with information Mihai would give me. I presented the front of how distraught I was that Tobi was eliminated, showing that I would be more likely to work with them come the merge in comparison to other people in my group like Alex. This was seen when Mihai told me the alliance even considered that I would be a more loyal ally than Alex. '''

'''At the merge, Mihai and I were a close pair and voted together for a good portion of this game. I will save the redundancy, but a lot of the votes that were constructed were done through cooperation with myself and Mihai and then locating which allies would be best to accomplish a vote. I feel that I have already talked about how my social connections have accomplished all of the previous votes, but I will go into more detail if people would like. I think that my social connections and connecting with the right people at the right time allowed for those votes to be successful. This dynamic was successful until the Final 6. I will now address the Final 4. I knew that I needed Mihai to go because he was going to be brought to the end by Linus. After my discussion with Linus where I told him between myself and Grace, his best option was to eliminate Grace. Unfortunately, I did a lot of that speaking under the assumption Mihai was leaving. Well Linus had another plan. He wanted to force a tie between myself and Mihai to leave it to the firemaking challenge to decide. My stronger connection to Mihai was shown here. Mihai immediately told me this information, and created a plan that would have blindsided Grace in a 2-1-1 vote, but this was still not the best move for me. I had to side with Grace because in a final 3 with myself, Mihai, and Linus I had a better statistical chance of reaching the end (if I or Mihai were to win immunity), but a far less pragmatic chance (Linus winning immunity). I knew that in a Final 3 with myself and Grace, Lins would choose me. His ideal F2 was Mihai, myself, then Grace. So I had to make the move that would give me the best opportunity to reach the Final 2, which was eliminating Mihai, who would have easily had a spot in this seat instead of me if it was up to Linus to decide. I felt horrible about eliminating Mihai at this stage, but it was my best move to ensure I would be in this position. '''

'''My three closest allies were all with me at the Final 5, and that was not done by luck. I eliminated those who were not going to be with me at the end stage of the game, and kept those that had allegiance and like interests to mine. My allies were with me in the end when I needed them, and I was able to guide the votes to make it so. I hope this was able to help answer your questions and provide insight! '''