Board Thread:Season 57 - Laguna Colorada/@comment-33060993-20200215214751/@comment-31555005-20200215230922

Hey TC! Luca here, in case the Wikia username doesn't seem familiar to you.

I believe that, in my case, the obvious answer to your question is the Phoenix vote at F8. I kept this under wraps from you and Timi for the entire merge, but this wasn't just a move that I initiated out of my own volition - rather, this vote would have never even happened had I not taken initiative in setting it up. As you probably recall, Nicolai was the first name brought up in that tribal, and for a period of time it really looked like it would just be a massive pile-up on him. Even though Nicolai was floating hard, and even though I knew it would only be a matter of time until he tried to take me out, at that point in time I was one of the only people with whom Nicolai shared a working relationship in-game - most others, yourself included, just didn't talk to him at all, or had their own reasons for wanting to take him out. Nicolai going home at F8 wouldn't have been the worst move for my game, but it certainly wasn't ideal. I resolved to change that.

Phoenix was a player whom I didn't particularly trust much, and he was a player with whom you and Timi shared a close relationship. He was somebody who was close to you two, but most certainly not close to me. He represented another option for you to work with, he was a player whose loyalties lied first and foremost to you and Timi. Finally, he didn't have any shield potential either - he was definitely seen as a far smaller danger than you and Toby - and he was also pretty good in challenges. Simply put, him staying in the game would have never benefitted me in the long run, especially seeing as there were players like Toby (who was dangerous to keep long-term because of his challenge prowess and idol) and Micah (who had immediate value because he wasn't particularly trusted by anyone but who was too close to Toby for comfort and who I still wanted gone at some point towards the end of the merge) who I would have liked to vote out before F5-ish, so Phoenix staying past F8 would have probably meant I needed to rely on him to ensure certain votes would go the way I wanted. I anticipate that I was never in his endgame plans to begin with so I didn't want that. I judged that if I had somehow gotten him voted out at F8, I would be in a prime spot at F7 - by cutting him and giving you less options, you and Timi would have been pushed to work with me more closely, I'd still have my relationship with Nicolai, and I'd also still be tight with Toby and Abi.

When I decided I'd set this up, everyone was still pretty much on Nicolai (with the exception of Micah who had other ideas, lol). I approached Toby, who wanted Nicolai gone for his own reasons, and I gave manufactured arguments that fit in with Toby's strategic priorities as to why it'd be a better idea for Toby to take Phoenix out first - him being tight with you and Timi, him having great potential at slipping through the cracks despite not being seen as a threat at all. I eventually swayed Toby, but his big concern was still feasibility. Again, I took matters into my own hands and resolved to provide other manufactured arguments to Nicolai, who at this point wanted Toby gone, that taking Phoenix out at F8 would be a far better move for his game than going for Toby right away. I succeeded in making it happen - I convinced two people that wanted to vote each other out at that tribal to vote out the person I wanted out. This way, Toby's feasibility concerns were also nulled, since Nicolai was the extra number we needed. Finally, Toby and I persuaded Abi and Micah together, and from there on the vote was set.

(I self-voted, though that was due to an honest mistake that involved alarms not managing to wake me up - factually, however, the Phoenix vote was a strategic move that happened entirely of my own volition)

Another move that happened entirely of my own volition is my decision to flip on Kamen and Will on La Paz 2.0 - while the exact vote on Kamen was set in stone later, I'd argue that the decision to flip in itself was the move that was made, while whether it was Kamen or Will was just related to idol concerns and was secondary to the decision to flip. I made this move because I judged that by flipping to work with 3 Sangre players, I'd have an 'in' with the Sangre tribe at merge which would have resulted in me not popping up as a target if the merge divisions ended up being based on tribal lines. Of course, La Paz ended up getting annihilated, but I still came out of that move with 3 new close allies in you, Timi and Nicolai.

I'd also like to address a point Timi made in his response - at no point did he plant seeds in my head about taking you out at a certain point. In fact, I'm certain I first suggested the idea of throwing votes on you in case one of Micah or Nicolai would have won immunity. I'm not gonna claim I manipulated Timi to come to that conclusion himself, it was simply both of us having our independent thought process. I had always planned to take you out at F3 or F4, but Nicolai's idol meant that if one of them won immunity, the other one would have been saved as well, and I preferred the idea of voting you out in that scenario over the only other alternative, namely Timi.