<p>Hello Jury,
</p><p>This season has been pretty sweet and I've loved all the great moments we have created. Everything from the great house divide early on, to the constantly switching dynamics late in the house. It was fun to be a part of them and watch how they unfolded. But that's not what you guys want to hear. You want to hear how I shaped and molded the events and how I fit into them because that's really how you decide who is worthy of winning.
</p><p>First things first, I know how my game looks. It looks like I only hid behind bigger targets like Tom and Ry. What do I have to say to that?
</p><p>Yes. I did.
</p><p>However, it was not out of cowardice and fear, but out of necessity and strategy. Throughout the game, I was never anyone's top choice to vote out, which is exactly what I wanted. My presence was known in the house, through the challenge threat and the key conversations I had, yet I was not at the top of anyone's hit list. The saying goes, The tallest nail is always the one to get hammered first. I wanted to be that second nail and esapce unscathed.
</p><p>In order to achieve this, I started early. People always say Big Brother is a less physical game than Survivor. I don't think that however. Physicallity in these games will definitely get you far, but only if good challenge competitors like Tom, Ry, and myself can stick together. We made an agreement early on to stick together and try to control things through keeping the HoH on lock. Of course winning is not everything though. Andy also deserves plenty of credit for being the social player as part of a foursome. He was great at seeing where most of the house stood. So with that foursome, we had pretty good insight into the house and the means of taking advantage of it.
</p><p>Now where do I fit in. If you see the challenge stregth (Tom) v social (Andy) as a scale, I put myself as close to the middle as possible. That way, when other people in the house would be looking at threats, there was always a bigger threat in some form than me. Call it hiding behind people if you will, but it kept me safe.
</p><p>Now, there is a very important point I want to address. Ry and I have played ery similar games but there are things that set me apart. While some players cited Ry as having the best social game when they were leaving the house, I disagree. Being social does not equal social game in my mind. I may have talked less to you guys than I should have (stupid soul sucking job taking all my time) but the talks I did have set me up in great spots. While Ry was most likely talking more than me. His actions and his tone made a lot of you pretty pissed as you were walking out the door. This isn't to say I was perfect. I feel like the only time I dropped the ball was when Andy was voted out. Andy, I tried explaining it when it happened, but you felt pretty betrayed at that point and rightfully so. Any lip service I said to you during that time would have just seemed like blowing smoke up you ass. I should have said things in a different way and I'm sorry. My social game did set me up pretty well though. Through either honesty or loyalty, I was on great standing with everyone in the game. I was never anyone's number one choice to vote out. Compare that to Ry who pretty much everyone in the second half of the game wanted to vote out first. I treated people with respect and acted with them straight up. I never broke my word to anyone. Ry would give hope until the very moment he won HoH and then turn around and say "you know what, I am deciding to get you out." That's cowardice. Trying to save face only when in a position of power.
</p><p>To summarize my game, my goal was to have as many options available to me as possible. Come the second half for Ry, his only option was to win. I've been blasted in the past for relying on winning my way to the end a couple times. I wanted something different out of this game. Using a combination of key challenge wins, key relations built, and key decision, I am sitting in front of you today. If even small factors were changed and the season was played out multiple times, with the options available to me, I would still be sitting in front of you today.
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