Board Thread:Season 51 - The Caribbean/@comment-31256783-20190226002251/@comment-4184065-20190226081243

Hello Bradley! It means a lot to hear you say I’m underestimating my social game because… you’re right, I totally am. I know I definitely made some miss-steps this season, but it is like I said in my opening speech, I genuinely tried to reach out to everyone in the game. Like you mentioned, I may not have had the best social connections with everyone, but I feel like I could go up to pretty much anyone and start talking about their life, or the game, and it wouldn’t seem weird. I had that in-road with almost everyone, because that is what is needed in Survivor. Things can shift in an instant, and I needed to make sure I was able to pivot my game, and go with the flow. If the ship was rocking one way, I needed to rock with it.

Oof, now to talk about what happened during your vote. I didn’t like to lie to you as you were leaving, but I felt it was the best decision for my game. When your vote happened, I didn’t know some of the things you are saying now such as: “Elmo already voted” and “I didn’t have an idol”. In this game I can only operate with information I had in the game. And at that time, I only knew where my idol was. There were still possibly 3 other idols floating out in the game, and to me, the worst thing that could have happened for me was if I ended up telling you before the deadline that I was voting for you, and then you played an idol or had one played on you. And then suddenly I’m the dumbass who leaked the plan and ruined the whole thing, and I have everyone I was working with pissed at me. I know you said you wish I could have gone up to you and said “I voted you out”. Now, The round before this? I probably would have told you the truth, but after the Hunter vote I was lied to by not only you, but everyone else left in the game. I couldn’t keep playing the “straight up guy” strategy, because clearly it wasn’t working. About your elimination… I really regret you leaving the game thinking “There was nothing you could do” when you came up to me, because that was a million times not my intention, because to me, there was still plenty of stuff you could have done. The deadline was at 10pm and you first asked me to promise it wasn’t you 20 minutes before the deadline. Idols can still be played even after a player votes, like you said Elmo did, and I wasn’t even sure if you had one of the 3 mysterious idols that I didn’t know the locations of. And if you did, I would have been shooting myself in the foot if I told you early. This doesn’t excuse what I did, but I hope I am at least giving you my insight as to why I did what I did. In hindsight knowing what I know now, I wish I could have handled it differently and have done it more in line with the way you were saying. You’re right. I didn’t have to say the words “I Promise” to you. I should have said literally anything else at that moment. But at the time, with the information that I had, I just felt like if I told you about the plan to blindside you before the deadline, I was opening myself up to make a lot of negative blowback that could potentially put me in a super shitty position, and I just couldn’t risk that.

Why I chose Andrea/Yousef over You/Elmo The reason I chose Yousef and Andrea over you and Elmo at this vote, was because during this round, when I felt completely at the bottom, and everyone was coming to me and saying “It wasn’t you against you. It was against Hunter!” Yousef stood out to me. The past 2 rounds, the two of us had seen one of our allies get taken out. The way we were able to bond about not having that much power these last few rounds, and how we wanted to change that, felt incredible. That’s the main reason, and the strategic reason for doing what I did. Another part of that was that I felt hurt by you and Elmo. The only side deals I had up to that point was the PIN alliance, and the HEEB alliance, both of which you were a part of. And when you guys lied to me and left me out of the Hunter vote, and blindsided my #1 ally in the game. I put everything I had into our alliance up until then, I felt burned. If it turned out that Andrea/Natalia had turned on Hunter and you were just getting on board because it was good for you, I feel like there still was a chance I would have wanted to work with you guys at that vote, but when I found out that you were the guys who orchestrated the whole thing, that just made me lose any sense of trust I had with you guys at that point. After that, I took my game into my hands, and pulled off an amazing blindside. And I hope you can respect that, and the reasons for why I did what I did.

Why I said that Bradley leaked Ethan’s auction plans I mean, you’re going to have to ask Yousef about this one, because he told me that the reason he bid on item #7 in the auction just slightly higher than me, was because you told him that I was bidding on it. Hey, this is why I put “allegedly” in that sentence because I wasn’t sure if that was the truth. But I was told about this over a week later after you were voted out, and that was the reason that Yousef got the Dark Pearl. This was from Yousef on Feb 14th, way after you were voted out. Yousef: omg fun fact this is so random but i thot of auction bc items bradley told me to bid on item 7 bc u were bidding on it If you’re saying it never happened then I apologize, I was just going after what I was told. (and I did put an “allegedly” in there just to be safe!)

You said we had similar strategies, what did you think my strategy was, and how was it similar to yours? I do think we had similar strategies in this game. If I had to put it into words, I would say that you were someone who was able to talk strategically with a lot of people. You had these in-roads with people that allowed you to talk comfortably and when you wanted. You were able to recognize and execute moves in this game, and you definitely capitalized on the ill-will towards Hunter after the Lex vote. And because of these connections you had, you were able to see a lot of how the game was laid out. All the time you would bring up your ideas to me about who you found sketch, or what you had on your mind. You had that crucial ability in Survivor to have those working connections with as many people as possible. You had the closest vote of the entire season, you had so many other people wanting to keep you in this game. I think that is where our games and strategy this season were similar. I think we were both able to stand back and objectively look at how things are going, and deciding the next optimal route for us take.

Highest agency moment, lowest agency moment The highest agency moment for me in the game, would have to be around the end game. More specifically around the Final 7/6/5/4. Each of those votes, I got what was in my best interest to happen during each of those votes, and that set me up to be in the position where I am now. In the final 7 I needed Elmo gone if I wanted a realistic shot at winning those crucial challenges down the stretch, I got that done. At the final 6, I needed Su gone (out of the possible options available, there were 3 idols being played that tribal, so it was literally down to Jake and Su at this point). I knew both Jake and Su were probably going to vote me out had I lost after the final 6 regardless, so I had to make the best out of a bad situation, between literally two options. For me, Jake and Su were playing very similar games, but I had a stronger working relationship in the game with Jake since we had been voting together for the last few rounds, and that is what tipped it over the edge for me to decide to keep him. At the final 5, Yousef was by far the biggest threat to me left in the game, I knew that if he made it to the final 4, I would effectively be shooting myself in the foot if I came all this way, and been voting out challenge threats, to just do a 180 at the last minute and keep in my biggest competition. I was effectively the swing vote this round also, because it was Andrea/Yousef on one side, and Jake/Karsten on the other, and I feel like I made the choice that round. I made the decision that was purely good for me, and for no one else, because at this point of the game, I only had myself to rely on.

At the final 4, Jake and Andrea were both coming to me, worried that the other was going to turn on the other. I had to calm both of them down during this vote, and I had to reassure them that our “Penguin People” alliance was going to be the final 3. If I hadn’t stepped up that round, Andrea even admitted that she was thinking of possibly voting Jake, but I made sure it was Karsten who went home in that spot, because I found him to be my biggest threat to me winning the game. Jake and I have played similar-ISH games, where as I find that Karsten and I could not have played more opposite games if we tried. I believe I have played a stronger version of the game Jake has, but if I was being compared to Karsten’s game, there really isn’t any overlap there, and I could see myself losing far easier to him. This entire end game I had agency for only myself, and what I needed to get done. Andrea and Jake both followed a lot of my leads, and I was able to vote out the right people, at the right time, and It paid off for me in the end.

For my lowest agency moment in the game, this clearly has to be the Hunter blindside. I was left out of the vote during this round. Not only that, but the two options I thought I was faced with were: “Lose the trust of 4 people in your alliance and push to keep Karsten” or “Vote Karsten”. I of course had to go with what I thought was the alliance consensus, because I knew that if I didn’t, I would potentially alienate so many of the people I have been working so closely with that vote. Little did I know, that you tricky bastards were planning a huge blindside. I was floored. But looking back, I definitely think you guys took out the wrong player from our duo. After that vote, I made sure I was never on the wrong side of the numbers again.

How do you pronounce I the Caribbean I always have pronounced it like “The Curr-ibian” just because it’s easier to pronounce for my eternally mumbling mouth (I don’t enunciate as much as I should, shhh, don’t tell anyone else)

Ask Bradley a Question I was not really expecting this type of question, not gonna lie, but I guess the question I have for you is… Why did you lie to me about the Hunter vote? Everything I had in the game up until that point was invested in either you, or Hunter. Be it our PIN alliance, or the HEEB alliance, I was all in with you guys, and I wanted to do what you I thought you wanted that round. Why couldn’t you tell me when I asked if things were good?

340 “I Promise”s I will post your 340 “I Promise”s in this thread, and I will happily do them with no complaints, if you post just once: “I think things are gonna work out ok”. The phrase you said when you were lying to me about the Hunter vote. I feel like that’s only fair.

I know I need to be more honest in my answers here. I tried my best to be as detailed as I could in my response to show you my though process behind some of my decisions, including why I lied, why I felt hurt, and why I did what I did in this game. Even though we are at this final part of the game, I still don’t know 100% fully why you decided to do what you did during the Hunter vote, was it really all just so I would be closer to you and Elmo? Or was there something more behind it. Thank you for asking for us to ask you a question, I hated writing that up, but it is genuinely something feel like I don’t have the full story too, and its day 39. I hope you can respect my candidness through these many many words, and how I have laid out my game. I hope I have given you enough of myself tonight, and thank you for asking the toughest questions for me thus far.