I Gotta Do What I Gotta Do/Confessionals

Day 21
"tagaloa"

- Well, I am the last International castaway standing in the Tagaloa tribe. After Kaffe was voted out, I am worried that I will be the next one to go home. Drew told me that I need to step up in the next challenge plus Sam and Tyler are impatient and there are time zone issues as well and lack of communication that is why Tagaloa is always on the losing streak. I hope Drew realized that Sam/Tyler are more deserving to go home than me.

Day 23
"tagaloa"

- So I'm sure everyone is going to wonder after the game is over why Tagaloa eliminated our 3 "best" challenge competitors over the horrible tribe mates that I have left. I figured I'd use this confessional to run down each elimination, and why I made it happen:

Ahad:  This one was easy. Ahad was a liar, and he would say/do anything to get farther in the game. He had already made up lies about me earlier in the game and tried to spread them to Jerby, so I knew he was going to be a problem for me. The rest of the tribe all wanted him gone too, so it was straightforward and I got my way. Ahad was always a major threat to go far in this game, so this was my 2nd major boot accomplished (Matthew was first).

Jamie: Jamie was the quintessential floater. I knew that he had been aligned with Matthew and Jordan earlier in the game, and Jordan was in the process of teaming up with Richie at this time in order to form an alliance that could take me out. If Jamie remained in the game, surely he would have flipped back to Jordan after the merge and been working against me. So as much as this elimination looked like it was because of his inactive on the last challenge, it was 100% strategic and beneficial to me.

Dustin: Dustin is the same as Jamie in some sense. I knew that Matthew had chatted him up earlier, which meant that he would probably relate to Jordan again later in the game. That and I simply hadn't gotten any control over Dustin at that point, so he had to go. When given the choice, always keep someone in the game you can control over someone you can't.. even if the person you can control is the dumbest, most frustrating tribe mate you've ever experienced (Jon).

Kaffe: This was the hardest elimination for me yet. I started off by influencing Tyler into thinking that we should eliminate Kaffe, while I got Kaffe thinking that we should eliminate Tyler. This put me in the power swing spot with the opportunity to make a decision that would essentially determine my post-merge game play entirely. Take out Tyler, and I'll be with Jerby - Kaffe - Agus - Noah - Sam. Take out Kaffe, and I'll be with Jerby - Noah - Sam - Tyler - Nokomis. It should be pretty obvious why I felt more comfortable with the 2nd option. I had formed alliances with those people from day 1 (American final 3, Inside Scoop, American Onion, Ameripinos) and I'm almost positive I can rely on them to at least final 7.

So how does this all explain why I was comfortable setting myself up for a Ulonging/Matsinging? Well when it came down to it, I was 100% on eliminating challenge beasts within my tribe because I knew two very important variables were leaning in my favor. First, I know that I am the best challenge player in this game. If I need to, I can win. I proved that during the reward challenge yesterday, and during the Anarchy phase countless times. Second, I have Jerby to help feed me inside info and influence performance on the other tribe. Jerby wants me around just as badly as I want me around, so if I were to ever be at risk of the Ulonging, Jerby was always going to do what it took to keep me around.

Now we see the glorious and beloved Atonga going to tribal council for the first time. If you read Jordan's answer at the tribal council thread, he sure sounds cocky doesn't he? It doesn't matter who leaves, and it won't affect tribe performance? Jordan is vastly overconfident right now, and running his mouth to Jerby about every plan he ever made. Not only that, but he's running his mouth to a few of my other allies as well and they're all just feeding me his intel while feeding him a line of bullshit. We'll see if he's singing this same tune after his new #1 and saving grace, Richie, goes home tonight. Jerby and I (as always) found out about Jordan and Richie's alliance and intentions before anyone else, and we started working on Richie's vote out before DAY 19! When (if) Richie goes home tonight, it will be the results of many days of working on people for their votes. I've said it once and I'll say it again, nothing in this game is more important than a 2 person alliance with 100% trust and open, honest communication. Thus far I've been able to control every tribal council either directly or remotely thru Jerby, and it has been a lot of fun watching the people I want going home. Hopefully now the viewers will understand why I did the things I did during the tribal phase. Up next, the home stretch.

That's all for now. Panda man over and out.