Board Thread:Season 23 - Greece/@comment-25567389-20150120020428

Hi guys! So, it's been a pretty intense night, but I do want to thank you all for your questions and statements and for sharing your perceptions of all three of us and how we played the game. I hope I've been able to help you better understand my strategy and why I feel it was the most effective in getting to the end.

From the beginning of this season, I focused on the strategic and the social aspects of the game: aligning with the right people, and making sure I had good relationships with as many other people as possible so that if things weren't going my way I always had more options. By initiating and staying with a strong alliance, I was able to put myself in a position of power and have relative safety for most of the game, but my social effort was what made this possible and I did not content myself with floating to the end with that alliance even though I easily could have. I worked hard every day to make sure that things were going how we wanted them to go and that the decisions being made were ones that benefited me and would help me get to the end.

There were many times where I could have betrayed my alliance and gone with other people with whom I had bonds, but didn't because it was not yet in my best interest. When I did turn on my alliance, it was with someone who I knew would not only let me get to the end but actively work to help me get there.

The drawback of my social game was that, yes, I had to lie and betray people in order to continue; I couldn't work with everyone and had to do what was best for me. But I never did this maliciously or disrespectfully - I never did or said anything that I didn't feel was necessary in order to keep myself safe and in the best position. The things I did in this game were entirely strategic and in no way personal, and I hope I've made that clear. And I definitely don't believe I'm superior to the other people in this game: I recognize that I only made it this far and did well because of all of you. That's true for all three of us sitting here tonight. But my game was based on making sure that my bonds with people, rather than lack of them, was what helped me to succeed.

I think it's been made pretty clear that a lot of you don't respect the game that I played, and I understand that. I didn't do everything perfectly and my game did involve a good amount of dishonesty, which may have hurt some people. And I recognize and own that. But I am proud of myself for playing the game I wanted to play and for succeeding at almost everything I set out to do, something that a lot of other people can't necessarily say. I really worked to get here - I was never just 'handed' anything in this game, and especially not a place in the final three; I made it happen for myself. (Despite what MJ has said, he can't completely take credit for me being here - we both found the idol together and agreed that it belonged to both of us, and he made sure the majority was voting for me at f5 knowing I was going to play the idol so that things would work out the way we wanted them to.)

The bottom line is this: the three of us all made it here tonight, and we all had different strategies for doing this. I can't say that either of my opponents' strategy is less valid than mine because as it's been pointed out there are many ways to win Survivor and their presence here tonight is evidence of their competency. But I do believe that I am more deserving of the title of sole survivor, on the grounds that I think I executed my strategy most effectively and consistently throughout the game. My strong social skills were a major part in not only getting me to the end but helping my alliance succeed and have control over the game as well, and I was strategically strong and always based my decisions on what was best for me going forward. And, ultimately, I made it to the end because I personally took action to make it happen, rather than because other people just decided to keep me around.

For me personally, Survivor is a game where you get out of it what you put in, and I think this is definitely true for the three finalists. I believe that the effort we each put in is reflected in our games and how they turned out, and I think it's only fair to judge on what we saw happen rather than what we imagine could have happened. Survivor is all about situational skills, about taking opportunities when they are presented and making opportunities when things aren't going your way. It's about putting yourself in the best position and about using everything you have to do that. What you put into this game is what you end up with at the end, and I think if you look at it through this lens it's clear who really tried their best in this game and who just did the bare minimum.

I hope you will take all of this into consideration when casting your vote, and think about how best to honor the season and the game of Survivor as a whole and to choose a winner based on who you think did that most effectively. If you choose not to vote for me, that's okay, I just hope you vote for who you truly think is the most deserving and who played the best, strongest game, and I will respect the outcome no matter what happens. So that's all I have to say for now, guys - see you at Ponderosa! Thanks to all the cast members for making this season so exciting, and also (I can't believe I forgot to say this earlier smh) thanks so much to the (g)hosts who made all of this happen. Without you, we would be nothing. Love you baes! 