Hello everyone!
I mean it when I say I’m glad to be here. This might be one of my most strongest games to date, utilizing three of the main aspects in survivor: social, strategy and physical, where I was able to build a path to the end against all odds. It’s here that I have come to appeal my case, on why I’m deserving of your jury vote to win this game.
Pre-merge:
Coming into the game, the first thing I did was to analyze my surroundings. When I saw that it was two tribes, I knew what I needed to do: I had to try in challenges so my tribe would have a chance in the merge in terms of numbers. As a result I was valued and be counted on to win certain challenges, and it also helped me get a first taste of the Observer twist.
I never stopped to work on my social game here as well - I got myself into a majority alliance, with key members of myself, Ben, Keaton, Jack C. and Will - which would become a pivotal point for my own game later on into the merge. It was easier to vote out people outside of the alliance during pre-merge.
I knew people would point out my relationship with Keaton in past games, so outside of him I began to develop close relations with certain players like Will and Ben, so that my options were not limited. One example: Will and I were able to hide behind the meta of me and Keaton so well, that people in game had no idea he and I were close, so we were able to pass information to each other regarding ourselves and then make the correct moves next.
Observer Twist:
This twist gave me a bit of more knowledge than the most, because I would know who got the extra idol clue and I was able to talk with the other tribe, Zama, during the pre-merge stage.
Will and I were getting closer as allies at the time. As he observed right after me, it was beneficial to me that we exchanged information about the other side and the effects of the Observer twist. It helped when Jerry visited to give him the extra idol clue which we both needed, and we set on to searching for the idol together. That’s when I got the most powerful advantage - the Tharros idol, which would help me get further later in the merge.
I told Will about it to further his trust of me, and then a little later Jack C. for the same reason, once he realized the idol was already found.
Fake Idol Play:
You will remember this play right before the merge. It was deliberate - it was something I thought of to confuse people, to hide the fact I had the Tharros idol. It complemented the fact I told my alliance to get Andy to vote for me, so it could further gain their trust and lower my social threat level for a while at the beginning of the merge. It would also give me something to talk about with the Zama players, as well as planting a few seeds of fake information in their mind. “I was busy the past few days and didn’t play the math challenge, because of it people threw my name around, so I don’t get it.”
Beginning of the Merge:
This was an interesting merge - it was an even number between the two sides. I took my chance to socialize with people from the other tribe. Zama was already broken by that point, so Jerry, who backstabbed his allies, became an immediate target. Before he got voted out, I had a long talk with him and got to learn about the Zama dynamics more than ever before, which helped me to know the right things to say to Fariha.
It was not hard to figure out why it was such an easy vote - thankfully for my close alliance with Will, he was giving information to me about an alliance of himself, Jack C., Jack O. and Danielle. It’d mean they definitely plan to target a Tharros next.
Counter:
For the first merge jury tribal, I took my next move to counter the alliance’s goal. I started talking to Fariha and told her to talk to Keaton and Ben. I made them out to be loyal allies to her, and that they shared the same game goals as her, which may have helped her to vote with us. Will and I then notified Ben and Keaton about Jack C.’s plans, and things would start going into motion.
At the same time, Will was leaking information to me about what the alliance was doing, so I knew Jack O. and Jack C. didn’t have my best interests in mind. They were voting my allies who were 100% loyal to me and I had no reason to flip on them, so I voted out Jack O. and Jack C. with the majority.
Post-Will’s Elimination (Immunity Transfer, Real Idol play, Challenge wins)
After Will’s elimination, I knew I was seen as the next biggest threat by the people from the Zama tribe. I began to formulate a big plan for the entirety of F6 all by myself. I advised Keaton to talk with Fariha more, on the premise of a possible F3 of himself, Ben and Fariha, so he could try to get any information out of her and pass them to me.
When the moment came, I pulled out my big guns - I won the F6 immunity and gave it to Keaton, for the purpose of getting the information I needed from Danielle, Carson and Fariha’s reactions in tribe chat, regarding any possible idols they had and also to get them to flush one if they had an idol. Then, I would bluff in the alliance chat with Tharros members + Fariha, saying that I didn’t have any idol and to go for Danielle, so that Fariha would possibly leak it to her Zama allies.
When in reality, I would have us vote out Fariha in a successful idol play, who was least likely to have an idol and also to hopefully prevent Keaton and Ben flipping on me at F5, the most dangerous time for me thus far.
This is where my social and strategy came into play - the boys’ loyalty to me and the presence of bigger players like Carson and Danielle, helped me live past the F5 tribal. I knew Keaton was against Danielle, who’s just as big a threat as me, which may be the primary reason I got past F5 and they would depend on me to win the next immunity.
It was then I displayed my strongest physical skills by winning all trials for F4 immunity, which enabled me to get into F3 with my allies and taking out the biggest jury threat - Danielle.
Final:
This was my ideal F3, because at this point I had the best chance at winning the final immunity. As for voting out Keaton, this might have been the hardest vote yet - I was closer to Keaton, but I knew Ben was new to survivor and had less experience than Keaton when it came to speeches and making moves. I know Keaton asked to be voted out, but I had already decided on it beforehand then.
Conclusion:
My entire game narrative was visibly strong - I was in a pre-merge majority alliance, I was the first Observer, had strong social that I lasted to F3 of the circle challenge without doing anything, had information and power for most of the game, voted in the majority most of the time, I had allies that were unconditionally loyal to me, I made a successful idol play, and won challenges that I needed to in order to control the course of the game, especially near the end.
The hardest time for me was during the Will tribal, he was someone close to me and was also a necessary meatshield for me in game. After he left unexpectedly, I knew all the attention would be on me next so I had to rebound, make the necessary moves and shift the power to my side once again.
Thanks for reading! I’ll answer any questions you may have for me and address any concerns about my game so far.
