Board Thread:Season 45 - Molise/@comment-31624573-20180221201739

Howdy ya’llmst. Get prepared for a novel of a speech, apologies in advance. All three of you are super nice / unobjectionable guys that I have no qualms with on a personal level, so my comments in this speech are going to be pretty objective. The statements I’m going to make are based on how I perceive things, but we all know that while perception IS reality in our heads, it’s not necessarily fact, especially in a game like Survivor whereby there are so many variables due to the interconnected webs of relationships and lies.

I want you guys to know that even though my strategic observations may be negatively toned and/or my appraisal of a certain person may seem overly enthusiastic, rest assured that I will be reading and heavily considering everything you say. I’d even go as far as to say you aren’t facing an super bitter jury who is ruling out anyone completely. If you disagree with my little ruminations and it isn’t addressed in a question, feel free to chime in and enlighten me! Sway me if you can, whip out that persuasive rhetoric. My mind is open.

That being said, I’m reasonably confident that I have a decent grasp on each of your games (side note: I wrote this before your speeches were posted and my paragraphs pretty much aligned with what I’ve been reading) and as of right now, I’m going to be completely honest, two of you are vying for my vote to be pulled from somebody else.

Alright, so what a clusterfuck of a merge that was. Once that initial crazy phase was over, all three of you played the (perfectly valid) #GETOUTTHEBIGTHREATS game from about the mid merge onwards, which benefitted you all greatly as you kind of stumbled ass backwards into a position where you could make a deep run straight to the endgame because, at that point, your games were perceived as the most mediocre of the pack. Whether that was meticulous, purposeful positioning on any of your parts please let me know (optional bonus question). Despite this, all three of you have impressive aspects to your games.

I’m going to start with Mike Hollowa- wait, Declan. I didn’t meet you until the merge, but I wish we had crossed paths earlier in the game so we weren’t at odds by default. That Mike analogy probably wasn’t the most accurate, because up until the past one or two votes you really didn’t need to win out, but you did, very impressively so. You also didn’t torpedo your social game at any point – in fact I would to argue that your social game was among the best I’ve ever played against.

It’s not the people that are doing pretty well socially and can just rally people against mid merge that you should worry about, it’s the person who is lowkey bonding with everyone, has literally every merge player trusting them and wrapped around their finger to the point that multiple people (even from OPPOSING ALLIANCES) are sharing idol clues  and guesses with them, revealing who their target was, attempting to strategize and so on, and NOBODY REALIZES IT. At no point (while you were vulnerable) did your name come up as a legitimate option to vote, everyone thought you were a trustworthy person they could either use or who wouldn’t turn against them. No one even really clued into how well you were doing or seeing you as a threat until it was too late, myself included.

Honestly if you asked me to summarise your game just before I left (I gave it to you anyway :P ) I would’ve said that you were a passive, non-strategically proactive person who is pleasant to talk to. Little did I know you had two idols up your ass and the level to which you’d been pulling strings with your social connections.

These superlatives are getting a bit excessive but I have never competed against someone so formidable in any challenges remotely skill based – one could argue that towards the end, the level of effort put in by your competitors in challenges wasn’t exactly enough to give you a run for your money, but your scores were outrageous. Give yourself a pat on the back. Also, I can’t discount the fact that there were zero votes cast against you, though to be fair you were only vulnerable for like 5 rounds.

Let’s get into some criticisms and questions. I was originally going to ask you to elaborate on your strategic thinking and had a few questions written up because I was a bit murky on that, but you pretty much covered it in your speech. Here are some alternatives that I’m curious to have cleared up:

1.     When you asked me “are there actually alliance chats in this game? Do people even do them haha, I’m not in any” were you lying or pulling my leg?

2.     You also said at one point that you didn’t want to vote out your allies (mainly Nat) and that backstabbing isn’t how you wanted to play. Let’s just say no one else conveniently targets Nat and she heads into the f6 with you, an idol and she’d be the favourite to win so she’d be hitting the challenges hard, how would you approach that? Did you account for that?

3.     I don’t even know how you did so well socially, you’re just disarmingly… chill? And friendly. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly how you did it. Was there a specific way that you approached your social interactions, or any constants you followed that led to your success in that regard?

Marty! We were fairly loosely aligned out of necessity through Jordan and I’m sure you would’ve turned on me within the next few votes had I stayed (not a detriment to you, just my thoughts). Your social game was probably the second best out of you three, you were friendly and a decent presence in the tribe but didn’t really initiate much conversation wise or appear to make much of an effort outside of strategizing. I have been roasted for having similar issues in past games however, so don’t count yourself out of my vote yet.

Your self-vote (at the final 5, no less) was a big yikes and could’ve seriously jeopardised your game and chances at going to the end with people you could beat, and you also didn’t put up much of a fight against Declan in the final few challenges it seems. Jason even revealed that you said you’d “given up”. Yikes II.

THAT BEING SAID, you were in the minority and still made it here with a respectable strategic game under your belt with your successful idol play and (if your leaked confessional is to be believed) having orchestrated Juliette and Harrison going at each others throats at the merge vote. I can also vouch for you having significant strategic input in the CREAMPIE CORNHOLE alliance chat – you were rational and thought things through, and weren’t afraid to make moves.

I wasn’t your closest ally by any means, so I just really want to hear some strong points as to why your game shone bright above Declan’s. Your speech kind of just recapped stuff you did, so I kind of want to see some persuasiveness, like sell yourself a bit more if you have the time. I’m sure there are some points that I’m not aware of. Maybe you were a social butterfly pulling more strings that I’m giving you credit for and I didn’t know about it. Tell me!

Finally, Harrison. I loved you pre-merge dude, you were super sweet, talkative and had some crazy things going on in life that really touched me. You had solid strategic observations as well. GOOSE FLOCK BABY. There’s a reason I voted with you at the merge vote, I saw you as a good ally to move forward with, but now I obviously regret that decision. After that you kind of dropped off socially, started snitching plans from people who trusted you and told you in confidence (which is perfectly okay on an ethical level in survivor, but it’s a surefire way to lose trust and piss people off when it inevitably comes back to them, both of which you achieved). The perception was that you told people anything that was said to you and it would always circle back to the person.

Playing the middle is a completely valid strategy, and you kind of pulled it off, but managed to annoy and/or disenfranchise half the cast at the same time, before siding with a contingent of people (including the biggest social threat in the game) and apparently were willing to go to rocks for them. You were also fairly transparent when you weren’t voting with us because you didn’t really try to even fake strategize. An inbox every few days really isn’t enough, especially when I had to initiate it most of the time.

I know touchy subjects upset you, but we were really disappointed in you for snitching and you kind of disappeared socially, and when no one in the tribe is actually mean or any of the things listed, we had to pick someone for the negative answers. In retrospect, I should’ve just thrown the bad answers onto Jordan Pines so that there would be more grounds to keep you on side, but what’s done is done. I meant everything I said about it not being personal and that you weren’t any of those things I listed you for. You objectively aren’t mean or anything, but at the time I had the most negatively skewed feelings toward you, especially after saving you at the merge vote. You didn’t owe us anything, sure, but the point still stands.

Some other things working against you, Harrison, are your abysmal performances / lack of effort in the challenges (thought I understand you work a fair bit) and, like Marty, the self vote at the final 5. You were quick to act off of information others provided for you and were very heavy-handed and emotional in your targeting of other players, people knew to tread lightly around you because you would target anyone who slighted you like a ballistic missile. That’s not necessarily a great survivor player characteristic, but if you have any persuasive reason why it is then I’m down to listen.

The positives to your game are that you were targeted time and time against and managed to deflect the target onto someone else, you were a fighter in that regard and I respect that you made it all the way to the end despite being targeted repeatedly.

1. You said in your ROP that Nat was the unfortunate victim of perception, as if she was your tragic fallen ally that you did no wrong to. However, at the merge you literally called her the BLACK MAMBA and warned everyone not to trust her. What were you trying to achieve with that if you were just going to align with her anyway?

2.     Can you give me any purposeful strategic application of any strategic/social moves that I’m not aware of, with just saying “I had a strong hand in this, it has already been said by a lot of people?”

Elias’ (optional) big wet GAUNTLET:

1.     Show me the UNFUNNIEST meme/picture you can think of or find, the criteria being open ended. Outdated, atrocious, even offensive. If I chuckle because it’s GENUINELY funny, you’ve failed.

2.     Spell out Jordan Pines in bold, italicised, and the most obscure font of your choosing. That’s a total of THREE TIMES saying his name, and if you do it in the mirror, Juliette will appear back on the jury with VL leaks.

Fin! Sorry if this was too long, good luck guys 