Board Thread:Season 46 - Kariba/@comment-34704154-20180413103218

Introduction

Hey everyone! Firstly I would just like to say how happy I am that in my first game I was able to get here with you all - i don’t know if it’s just because it was my first game, but I cannot imagine playing it with a more fun group of people! So I just want to thank everyone for all the ups and downs, because they are what make Survivor, Survivor :) (also thank you to the hosts omg!)

I really hope I can persuade you all today why I should be the Sole Survivor of Kariba. To do this I am going to go through the things I believe I did well, the mistakes I made and how I was able to come back from those mistakes.

Pre-Merge

From the outset I was dumbing myself down as I didn’t want any reason at all to be targeted. On Hwadze I really had no intentions of doing anything other than securing my safety and creating bonds with people that I could use deep into the game! I think this is best shown by the fact that me and my first ever ally, Hals, went as far as we could in this game, and I have no regrets about going to a tiebreaker for her. The ‘how r u’s, the ‘wld’s, the ‘every1’s, the ‘xx's… although I do text talk like that in real life, I definitely emphasised it to make me seem more stupid than I really am lol! I think I contributed well to group challenges both in Hwadze 1.0 and 2.0, and I generally just used the time to make relationships with original Hwadzes and Zambezis too. Such bonds allowed me to find out crucial pieces of information like Drew’s idol, which I would use later on in the game. I know some of you found how I spoke annoying, and perhaps on reflection I should have toned it down a little, but I think in general it helped to make me seem more stupid than I was.

Early Merge (Day 21-29)

When the merge hit I intended to stay low for a while. I quickly formed close relationships with people I hadn’t met before  - Dovile and Louise in particular - which gave me plenty of options going forward, which I will get to in a bit. I’m not gonna come out here today and take claim for moves I didn’t make! Researching different ORGs and finding out that Becky/Jordan and Dan (and others!) had played on a season before, however, definitely caught my attention, so I was keen for the vote to go in that direction. However, this didn’t stop me from sharing with Becky/Jordan that they were my Hunter’s Lodge Target which I think helped to gain their trust. After the Dan vote it was Dovile which undoubtedly wasn’t what I wanted, I can’t deny that. Nevertheless I did vote correctly in the majority and was aware of Dovile’s advantages, which is more than can be said for others here and shows the trust I was able to form with her.

The next round is when my game really took light. After winning reward and finding out the idol clues, I shared this with allies who did not get it in order to gain the trust of people I was not certain of yet. However, I launched a plan to ensure that I would have the greatest chance of finding the idol. Whilst it appeared I was being open and loyal, in actuality I fed them false information, e.g. I said “guys it’s not Fei Long :( xx” when I hadn’t even guessed that - I was in effect saving that for myself to guess later, as (hopefully) no one else would try it since I said it wasn’t there. Ultimately this plan worked as it transpired that the idol WAS Fei Long, which I guessed later on in the game. I feel like this is just one of many strategic plays I made to build trust and subtly take further control of the game, by securing the merge idol. And we all know how important that idol became!

After winning individual reward I went on to win immunity too, which allowed me to be more adventurous with the next tribal. Thanks to the relationships I had created earlier on in the game, I found myself as a trusted member of the tribe by everyone as I was the only one in the alliance chats for both sides of the tribe at this moment in the game. These alliances were me, Jack, Drew, Vincent, and Jake and then me, Hals, Matthias, Becky/Jordan and Louise. This explicitly placed me in the power position at this point in the game. Not only did I reassure Drew soon before tribal that I was absolutely part of the plan and thus contributed to him not playing his idol, I was at the heart of the plot to blindside him in the first place. This was because I had strong enough social links with other players to find out about his immunity idol but kept my knowledge of it a secret for 20 days, giving Drew no reason to doubt my loyalty. I then used this espionage to my advantage by giving him and also Vincent multiple opportunities to tell me about his idol and thereby evaluating the depth of our relationship and deeming it too weak to keep such a threat in the game. I hope it's obvious why I couldn't tell Drew before he left that he was going, as I naturally couldn't risk him playing the idol. I know some people think I just followed people in this game - I hope this vote shows that this is not true, as soon I would vote Becky/Jordan, Louise and Matthias out, despite voting with them here.

By this point in the game there were 8 people left in the game, 3 of which were Hals, Matthias and Becky/Jordan who were a close-knit trio. Becky/Jordan was my target and I decided, along with Louise, that this would be a great opportunity to take them by surprise and get my advantage. Within a tribal of totally blindsiding Jack, Vincent and Jake I managed to regain their trust and was working with them and Louise to get myself an advantage. I think a mistake I made here was not telling Becky/Jordan they was going home and lying to their face which I really regret as it was unnecessarily mean to someone I considered a friend.

Late Merge (Day 30-39)

Bleurgh, the next tribal council was a mess and I hate even thinking about it. IM SORRY LOUISE!! That’s all I can say and I totally own this mess of a mistake. It was my best friend’s birthday party and I was out in a club in London, drunk, being told by everyone I was being targeted. My perception was off and I had little time so I just made a snap decision to be selfish which turned out to be unnecessary. Not only that, I misused my advantage and lost a friend. Although I’m glad I had worked to be in the position to have such an advantage so I could have a cushion like this and prioritise real life if need be, this wasn’t how I wanted it to be used. Having said all that, I am still here at final tribal council today, albeit with a more bitter jury. I really just hope it won’t prove to be a fatal mistake and ultimately you can see that it was a stepping stone to being here today. What I can say is that this was a much needed wake-up call to jury management and its importance so thank you for that <3

In the aftermath of Louise’s vote, drunk me decided to reveal my idol, yay! Despite this I got back on track and turned my loose tongue into an advantage. I knew Vincent had targeted me last round and that people would continue to this round, so I had to think of something to save myself. I claimed my idol expired at final 6 (since other advantages did too, I knew it could be believable) and bluffed playing it publicly in the tribe chat so no-one would vote me. I then worked hard to get Matthias out so I could retrieve my next advantage from the lodge, since he was my new target. I didn’t feel that I could tell Matthias he was going home as I knew an idol was still hanging around somewhere so thought that was too risky. Basically, I had to go into a new mode right now because I was becoming a target so I had no fear in pulling all sorts of crazy moves.

At final 5 I had my idol and I had got my advantage from the Hunter’s Lodge (it was awful looool it just let me see other people’s targets) but what was important that people KNEW I had an advantage. I knew that people were trying to get me to play my idol on someone else to blindside me, but my social connections with people caused this information to come back to me, so I stuck to my guns. Heck, I even made up this fake “item blocker” and literally had Jake in a chat ready to give me his idol for a FAKE item. Anyway, importantly I had my idol so secured my own safety and ultimately, after a dramatic and sad final chat with Jack, a big FTC threat was sent home. I didn’t want to leave the person going home in the dark like I had done with Becky or Louise so I guess here I was trying to rectify that mistake.

Final 4! Immunity was CRUCIAL here because I knew I was gone if I didn’t win! I won 3/4 sections which gave me the win which i was SO HAPPY about cos i literally spent like almost a day on the endurance challenge which is a bit over the top i know but I didn’t want to just lose out like I had done before! After admittedly some to-ing and fro-ing with who I would vote out, I rejected the majority consensus to vote out Hals and around 6 hours before tribal I let Jake know. Then I had a family crisis so went offline until 15 minutes before tribal which kinda shook me up, but I came back and spoke to Hals and submitted for Jake. I did this because I had devoted myself to Hals from day 1, and although we had our ups and downs, after the betrayal and bitterness I had caused I also wanted to show to the jury I could be loyal and maintain alliances to the end. I don’t think Jake winning the tiebreaker makes his case any stronger, all it does his emphasise how he lost final immunity and had two votes against him.

Conclusion

Overall, then, I feel like I had a solid game that allowed me to remain UTR for the majority of the game, whilst still making some subtler moves. When the time called and people clocked that I was a threat, I was able to kick it up a gear and get to the end with no votes against me, despite people targeting me time and time again. I did this whilst not voting in the minority once, allowing my position in the game to remain as stable as possible in the aftermath of tribal council. I had a physical game when I needed it, whether that be for rewards or getting immunity, winning three individual challenges, but also navigated my way through eight tribal councils whilst vulnerable. I think I dealt with the twists of the game well, using the Hunter’s Lodge target system to gain trust with people by letting them know I was their target but also using it to gain two advantages. There were definitely flaws - poor jury management being one of them - but I hope that if you feel bitterness towards me, you can let that only affect your decision and not the other jurors sitting with you. I have total respect for Vincent’s goat strategy and think it’s a perfectly valid tactic, but I do feel like he was forced into this by a bad social game, demonstrating a lack of control over his game. Moreover, I think Jake’s game was quite similar to mine only less effective, as shown by the times he was blindsided. However, I don’t want to bash their games too much as I love everyone on this cast and it’s been an incredible journey (though if you want me to then ask me in your jury questions!) I feel like my strategic game was sound, my physical game was strong and my social game was a useful tool in creating strategic bonds, until it was undermined by the blindsides I was a part of. Although upon reflection I wish my game could have been more honest, I hope this speech was able to negate any preconceptions that I was a goat and pointed out the strengths of my game whilst acknowledging the clear weaknesses.

Much love! Xx 