Hey everyone, fancy seeing me here. Before I begin I just have a quick announcement to make…

 

Moving right along, this is fairly long speech and I know we all just want to get this godforsaken season over and done with, but I’ve made it this far so I may as well get these things off my chest while they’re still relevant haha. I'm super grateful to be sitting here after such a hectic season and while I don’t think any of us can say it’s been a particularly “fun” season, there have been a few bright sparks and colourful personalities to cut through the perpetual conflict.

                                                                                                                             

Now before I begin telling you why I believe/know I played the best, most proactive strategic game out of the two awesome guys sitting next to me, there is an obvious elephant in the room. The cheating scandal of Survivor: Chaos, with Christina and I being the mascots.  I openly acknowledge and apologise for the fact I violated the rules via forwarding a screenshot, and even immediately came clean as to what exactly the screenshots were to the person who got the most boned by its contents, Matt, who would’ve clued all the other parties involved in. Here are the images in question:

HOWEVER, there are circumstances surrounding the incident which form a fair explanation as to why I did it, and while it doesn’t excuse it, I think it should be taken into consideration if the scandal has any bearing on your vote tonight (which I’m sure it does and that’s perfectly understandable). I’m going to use a VL I made around the time which articulates pretty well my thought process at the time.

“VL: So now that there's this dark cloud over my game and I've been labelled a cheater, I want to explain myself. I don't want people to think I'm some kind of rapscallion cheating bastard lol.

 

This is my second org, the first of which I won so my explanation that I "didn't read the rules" might seem a bit dubious but here was my perspective on the situation.

 

I do recall being told by my buddy Loren in Idalia that screenshotting conversations is "frowned upon" but a number of factors caused a bit of cognitive dissonance to this when I forwarded the image to my alliance.

 

1. I didn't actually take the picture and it was sent to me (admittedly by someone who was just voted off, I should've known better) so I figured I was just passing on information

 

2. It was literally a list of names in a group chat taken on a potato camera, no actual messages

 

For these reasons and blinded by the immensely juicy goss in the pic, I didn't realise the severity of what I was doing. My heart was pounding and I felt like I'd just dug up Tutankhamen's fucking tomb, so I had to share the deets immediately. 

 

In summation, I fucked up, there's no excuse for it, but there is an explanation - I didn't maliciously / intentionally cheat.”

 

So yeah, there we have it. I didn’t ask Christina to send me any contraband, but what I did was wrong in hindsight and I apologise. Should I have known better? Yes. Does it detract from an otherwise solid strategic game worthy of winning? I don’t believe so, and I sincerely hope you guys don’t either.

Alrighty, now time to detail why I should win. I’ll begin by addressing my two fellow competitors, who are both amazing, great guys and I congratulate them on reaching the FTC alongside me – I think this will be a close one.

However, do you want to vote for the person who played the most unchaotic game of the season, even by vanilla season standards, bordering on inactive who repeatedly abstained from challenges only to wake up and fight for it at the F5, or the guy who was TOO Chaotic and so riddled with paranoia that he threw away his vote onto the unintended target multiple times in a non-strategic fashion, treating the game so flippantly in a not-playing-to-win fashion that he RANDOMIZED his vote at the final 4?  I would argue that my two competitors are on opposite ends of a spectrum of activity, and I lie in the middle - the sweet spot.

Now I just want to detail my game and explain some things to a few of you who I either pissed off, betrayed and/or confused with my strategic decisions. Every choice I made was conscious, had a purpose and wasn’t as a result of manipulation by another player.

Now firstly, let’s address the “all male challenge beast alliance” which I was perceived as a figurehead for, which is true to an extent. I’ll firstly clear up that those two ridiculous factors were never the criterion for this alliance. We assembled a core group of people whom I both got along with and would want on my side during the first double boot, purely to co-ordinate the votes, and we pulled in side allies to consolidate numbers without revealing the true core (initially). This infamous alliance, which would cause a ton of drama down the road, was called “Beavertown” and featured myself, Jake, Luca, David, Aras and Wendy. Three of us remain seated here in the final 3, funnily enough, but all have played substantially different games.

During the first vote, Jake Womack immediately targeted me for no reason, and as you know, when someone’s name is brought up, even if they don’t leave during THAT cycle, their name is now in the forefront of people’s minds in the stratosphere of who to potentially vote for. My goal is typically to stay kind of UTR pre-merge, but I was forced into the open and had to adapt. I (alongside Aras) was responsible for the two random Whitney votes at the first TC in order to safeguard against an idol play.

Now, I believe Jake revealed the details of Beavertown to Alex and Matthias with a few fabricated details (all male/based on challenge performance) and this is where the target on my back grew even bigger, as I was viewed as a CHALLENGE BEAST who ONLY WORKS WITH MALES and the LEADER of this alleged misogynistic, frat-bro physical challenge alliance. Anyone who knows me would know that couldn’t be further from the truth, and I’m sorry if I ever came across as cocky or arrogant. Ironically, however, due to my strategic and social game, I reached FTC with ZERO individual immunities post-merge, minus the “unmerge”.

I DID have to rely on immunities, fighting tooth and nail just to get to the merge though. I was the victim of horrendous swapfuckery and the target of three planned challenge throws, which I had to adapt to. I was on a tribe of the “least trusted” people, with three people who wanted my head on a platter, and two others, Emily and Mikey, who I had barely talked to. I managed to rally those two up to vote with me despite the majority trying to scoop them. Yeah, I had to rely on immunity to get me through this stage but it was a necessity, so I achieved it.

I also involved myself in a few messy fights with Eve and Kyle that may not have been wise on my part, but I felt like I had to fight back/stick up for myself against things you guys were saying. Now, while throwing challenges is perfectly fair within the rules of the game, it is also not a good feeling at all having your tribe not even submit for a challenge purely to vote you out, which is why I arched up and initially fought with Eve – that was maybe a mistake on my part, I should’ve just let it go and kept playing hard to survive.

This could be seen as an area in which Luca excelled in, stepping back and not involving himself in the drama, but he didn’t need to because he didn’t DO anything. Once the merge hit, people may have been unsure of what exactly I was doing and I think? Some people saw me as one of David’s “sheep”, but that was intentional on my part, using Dave as a meat shield. It was a strategic partnership, we talked through the best way to go about a lot of votes, because we shared a similar strategic approach to the game. I’m not going to say we were entirely equal, I probably capitalised on David’s social acumen to a degree but I knew I needed to simmer down a bit with the target on my back – being a social butterfly and trying to have connections with absolutely everyone would not help in that regard. 

Look at Alex, David, even Aras -- all bigger targets ahead of myself, and so much of the tribe’s information flowed through them. We were a tribe of snitches lol. I knew I would ultimately have the chance to step out of David’s shadow and make some moves (e.g. the Aras vote off) that I could claim as my own, however.

I did however push particularly strongly for Nic leaving at the merge though, because at that point in time with the self-votes in play I thought it was a pivotal stage for how the rest of the game would play out - I used the "spice hoes" alliance pic, leaked by Aras to David, to our advantage by revealing it to Alex and Luca, which certainly pissed Alex off, consolidating numbers against them. I had a substantial influence in the scuttling and picking off of that alliance, I was one of the two Eve voters during her blind side, and while it might not seem overly impressive being a member of the "inner circle" of decision making, I always kept my options open strategically, I wasn't blindly loyal to my alliance and was willing to cut throats at any point. For example, when I tried to mend bridges with Wendy, which went horribly wrong and I addressed that in my ROP, and how I targetted David and Aras, two of my biggest allies this game, back to back once the time was right. 

Now onto David, who in your final words brought to question my perception of players in the game, which is completely fair given the knowledge you had at the time.  I never had any intention of moving forward long term with Alex and Luca, I was fully aware of their status as jury threats but I saw them as less likely of going on an immunity run (I wasn’t expecting Luca to wake up and go balls to the wall based on his previous challenge performances :P).  I created a final 3 deal with Emily and Jake titled “the peanut gallery” during your vote -- I was under no delusion that I should go to the end with the wrong people.

I made the comparison between you and J.T. to Jake, who I assume told you about me making the comment, as a bit of hyperbole to really sell and consolidate the vote against you, because Jake had previously stated that he would only vote for you if everyone else had. I put a picture of Jeremy on your parchment for a reason – socially great, trusted by many but not all, strategically proficient and more than capable in challenges. You even look the same!

In order for me to reach FTC in favourable circumstances, you leaving at f7 was the perfect timing for me because I needed a specific sequence of people to leave for me to have a shot, without worrying about you going on an immunity run AND falling into your shadow even more – these needed to be my distinct moves. Alex didn’t manipulate me, I had been planting seeds for your departure for a little while, I only said he was the main proponent of getting you out and (halfheartedly, I’ll admit) went along with your plan because I thought you may have had the idol. 

Sure you could’ve been a meat shield for me until the final 4, but that would’ve been immensely dangerous allowing you to get anywhere near FTC with an immunity run. Same deal with Aras, I addressed that in your ROP but will happily elaborate more for you if you want.

In conclusion, the arc of my game is the pre-merge threat who had to step back and reduce their threat level at the merge, bided their time until the perfect time to strike against his closest ally, and did absolutely everything he could to sit at FTC in favourable circumstances, seamlessly hopping through multiple final three deals. Despite being vulnerable and the biggest strategic threat left in the F4, I correctly read where Jake's randomized vote was going based on a cryptic conversation with him and managed to make my way through fire making.

Although my social game may have been lacking with you guys in the minority alliance, it just felt like you guys would’ve done anything to vote me out because I had been exposed as a “massive threat” and it kept getting repeated by you guys in the chat, it kind of cornered me away from you, there was no point trying to reach out and be flexible when I felt like everything I said wouldv’e been used against me. That was purely game though, I’d love to get to know some of you outside of the game.

Okay, I think I’ve covered it. Sorry if this was too long. Good luck to Jake and Luca too - I hope I wasn’t too harsh on you guys, that was just my objective stance on your gameplay, and I’m prepared to receive a barrage of fair criticism back in response in your speeches. Adios!