Board Thread:Season 36 - Tikal/@comment-24603302-20161015150756

Hey dudes! Good to talk to you all again finally :D. First off let me just say thank you all for making this such an amazing game, I enjoyed getting to meet and play with all of you! Thank you to the hosts as well for being so professional and only threatening to purple edit me a couple times :P. Now to the more important matter, why I believe you should vote for me! Early on in the game, I intended to stay as utr as possible and just find my way into a good alliance. The first person I clicked with, weirdly enough, was Tucker. Tucker, John, Felix and myself quickly formed an alliance called Masc4Masc and I felt like I was in a decent spot and didn't have to make any giant giant moves. Soon enough, a larger alliance which also included Scott and Joanna was formed called "Why Am I Still Awake". Although I was not originally included in WAISA, I was added shortly after it's inception due to my closeness with the other members of M4M. At this point, the rest of the starting tribe phase was a breeze because. The game really started for me once the swap hit. Although I knew Tucker was trying to be in everyones ear, at this point he got really sketchy as he started trying to make a swap over against the original Vatanchu tribe, so I used my social game to get in with Claire and Christine so even if Tucker flipped I wouldn't be an immediate target. Now, although I was prepared for Tucker to make a big move, I'm the kind of person who prefers substance over style, especially for the early and mid phases of the game, so I didn't like the idea of a shake up one bit. I was attempting to keep Tucker from making any move too too big for a while. Tucker formed an alliance with Christine, Claire, himself and me called the "Children of Satan". The first vote wasn't too hard as everyone seemed to be able to agree on Grant as the boot, it allowed me to stay with both WAISA and CoS. The next round was more difficult, as there had been a tension between Felix and Tucker rooting all the way back to Vatanchu 1.0, and it was clear after this loss something big was gonna happen. Initially, it appeared as though I was going to be forced to vote Felix since Marie, Christine, Claire and Tucker would have had the majority. As luck should have it though, Felix getting bad vibes, took the advantage from the temple and that gave him a vote steal. I was now presented with the conundrum of vote with the people I don't trust completely (since I knew nothing about the politics of their original tribe, and Tucker who was just shady wanting to flip for no reason), however this option would keep me safe for a little while at least. Alternatively I could pull off a big blindside with Felix and Joanna by using the vote stealer and taking out Tucker, who at the time was considered the most likely candidate to have the idol. I tried my best to get back into Claire and Christine’s good books now, and although that never mattered in the swap phase, I believe my efforts helped plant the seeds that would help me get them on my side later. After that, we were hit by the unswap. I got along with Mary, but sadly that was the easy vote since she flipped on us at the swap. During this phase Vatanchu also won a reward, and I made a point for taking Claire and Christine with me to the temple to further try and rebuild the bridge between us, a move that would pay off later. Merge time!! So at the merge I found myself quickly getting along with Anna, and to a lesser extent Lexi (Although I didn't ever actually attend a tribal with her, so that sucked ;.; . Onto the topic of why I didn't attend a tribal with Anna. During my one visit to the temple, I took the personal item. My allies all deemed the item uselessish, but I saw quite a bit of value in it for the first tribal after a merge. Anna was telling me the vote would likely be on, if I recall correctly, Christine. This whole plan seemed sketchy to me since why would Anna/Claire/Lexi want to vote out one of their own. Although I didn't believe myself to be in immediate danger this round, I decided to use the item as I knew having my vote taken away later would probably just harm whatever alliance I was a part of, and it would allow me to watch what played out and be able to go an extra round into the merge without showing my hand. Apparently it wasn't a terrible plan to go a round as I was indeed being lied to and the vote ended up on John, but luckily for the Vatanchu's, John found an idol and although Lexi wouldn't have been my choice of boot, John staying in was great for me! At final 10 we all know what went down as I was still trying to stay on Anna's good side, but sadly we got into a bit of a fight after a misunderstanding between herself and Felix, and so both original tribes all voted together, but Michael got idol'd and I lost a close ally in Scott. From this point on in the game I was always playing from behind and trying to build myself back up. At final 9, I tried to start a new alliance which would consist of Claire, Felix, Anna, myself and Joanna. I saw there was a power struggle in the majority alliance, and I could tell if we just got through a round or two, there might be a blue sky ahead. Claire and Anna were trying to push for John to go, and Marie, Michael and Christine were targeting Felix. Although I loved John, I deemed Felix as more blunt and therefore trustworthy, and I also was tighter with Claire and Anna, so I chose to side with them and attempt to go for John. Unfortunately for me, Felix and John ended up talking and tried to pull a Marie blindside, but I wasn't just playing for another tie in numbers the next round, and clearly Joanna wasn't either as I ended up sticking to Claire’s plan to try and keep myself in the good graces of Claire and Anna, and Joanna ended up voting Felix. At final 8 my social game was yet again very important to my survival. I was able to quickly re-align with John and Joanna with no difficulties, and I was now in the good books of Claire and Anna. This round I found out Michael was pushing for me, but I knew I wasn't in huge danger as Anna and Claire wouldn't vote for me, and neither would John and Joanna. It was during this round Claire and I had finally gotten close enough again that we were willing to take each other far into the game. Now, this round I yet again voted in the minority, however I was well aware I would be this go around. I didn't want Anna to go, however by voting with Claire, and forewarning John and Joanna that I would be in a good position as I would have 3 people who wouldn't vote me out on a tribe of 7. At final 7, apparently Claire and John still had it out for each other so although I was protected as neither would vote for me, so I wasn't in too bad, and although John went, much to my chagrin, a huge jury threat was out of the game, and Claire and Marie were now at each others necks hardcore enough that I was yet again protected >:D. Final 6 is where my game truly made it's comeback. I won an immunity, which give me some serious influence. Michael offered me the chance to possibly play for 4th place and side with him, but that sounded like a kind of dumb idea for my game. Alternatively, I could go with Claire and Christine, and cause a huge rift in everyone elses’ alliances, so obviously I made that choice and took out Michael, dodging Marie's idol. Final 5 I won immunity yet again and it was time for me to start playing from ahead in the game enough. Now, from a personal perspective this round (and the subsequent one) absolutely killed me on the inside. For both of them I one of the last people to vote simply because I didn't want to have to make the move, however, I'll explain why I believed it to be the best move. Until this point in the game I believe Claire and Christine had played significantly stronger games than Joanna or Marie. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Christine is just so sweet that I don't know how you couldn't vote for her at the end. On top of that, she is very very strong at challenge and strategically willing to make moves, as we saw with her going against her core of Michael and Marie. Thats exactly why she had to go first, she had a much higher chance of beating me in the final immunity than Claire did. Claire, although definitely more blunt than Christine, had made a ton of friends on that jury, and she could easily sweep since everyone is friends with her. Contrast that to Joanna who I feel had less close friends, and Marie who seemingly was in a verbal war with someone every other round. Now final 4 was even more emotional devastating than final 5. Christine is an amazing amazing person, but she had just blindsided an ally the round before and from what I can tell wanted to play a super cutthroat game near the end, much akin to myself. Claire though was different, she didn't betray anyone, and after I heard I made her sad after the Christine vote the idea of voting Claire out genuinely kept me up in bed at night because I couldn't bare to hurt her, but I also just couldn't go to the end with someone who had so many friends in the game. I feel like the strategy of this vote should be self evident to the jurors, so instead I'll take this chance to say Claire, Im so sorry and I really really hope you still want to be my friend as you are one of the coolest people I've met. Now I'll give you the cliffnotes since I wrote a lot there. My Social Game I was in the minority for a lot of the game, however my social game allowed me to stay in the good graces of a lot of the people who would have been required numbers to get rid of me. I do play these games to make friends beyond anything else, and since Im a very shy person irl I absolutely love meeting people online and could use my social nature online to get people on my side enough to never vote me out until it was too late. My Strategic Game Although it killed me to do it at times, I always played the game with my head and made the best moves for me, thus allowing me to go from being in the minority to being a leader by the end of the game who had a lot of power in every vote off from f6 onwards. I was able to get a majority alliance to turn on each other and put me at the top instead of any of them My Physical Game

I won the most individual immunities in the game with 4, completely smashed final immunity by getting first in every single leg of it, and because I could win so many comps even if people wanted me out no one could touch me from final 6 onwards. I played down my comp ability in the tribal phase so I wouldn't be an instant target, and then boom, 3 consecutive wins!

Thanks everyone for taking the time to read this speech. Once again I had a ton of fun playing with all of you even if it wasn't even for a full round in the case of Lexi, and I hope you will all consider voting for me :D. I look forward to your jury questions! 