Board Thread:Season 49 - Newfoundland/@comment-24900484-20181017164130/@comment-35919983-20181018175843

Hi Matt, thanks for your video and questions!! Before I get to your questions, I’d just like to touch on something you mentioned in your speech, where you said I was taking credits for moves that I didn’t make. I’m sorry if you felt like I was doing that in my opening speech. That was never my intention. In a game like Survivor, no move is ever carried out by a single person. Honestly, I don’t even see myself as a strategic powerhouse in this game but I do believe I still had my hand in a few moves like getting Jenna out, persuading Alex to align himself with myself and Tom to get Edvin out, as well as your’s and Vilma’s boots. In NO WAY was I the only reason these moves took place, but I believe the most would not have happened if I hadn’t put myself in the position to carry them out through my social gameplay. Now since that has been addressed, lets move onto your questions:

1.    I think there is a misconception that every move I made was with Tom, which isn’t true. Although we voted together, that doesn’t mean I wasn’t working on my own to achieve certain targets which would ultimately allow for the move to be carried out. No move can be carried out by somebody on their own because you need other people, like I needed Tom, to achieve a majority which will result in someone’s ouster, however I do believe there were social moves I carried out on my own throughout the game.

One move that I made by myself, which I believe furthered myself in the game, was throwing you under the bus (and to an extent, Vilma) at the F8. After Elsa was evicted, I went to Edvin and apologised for voting for him at F8 but I explained how I was being told by certain people, such as yourself and Vilma, to vote him. As well as that, I told Edvin you guys wanted him gone because Rob and him were being perceived as a tight duo (which was a rumour I started myself during the early days of the merge based on information Jordan had given to me based on his time at exile). Edvin was also saying how big of a threat you were, so I just continued to agree with him about how great you were playing to make you seem like an even bigger threat to him. I believed that by throwing you under the bus and sharing delicate information like this with Edvin, it would get him to flip away from your alliance. I was ultimately right, because he was ready to vote out Vilma at the F7. This was a move that worked out really well for me because it gave me options at F7, which was a first for me since we had merged, as I could vote out either Vilma or Edvin (if you’re curious to see why I voted out Vilma at F7 over Vilma I answered that question in Elsa’s second question for me)!

Another move I believe that helped me in getting further in the game was voting out Vilma. After Alex won immunity at the F5 he wanted to keep Vilma over Rob, which was worrying to me. I knew Alex and Vilma had a good relationship despite him flipping, so I was afraid that a tie would happen at F4 if she stayed around because he would be able to convince her to force a tie. After Alex told me he wanted Vilma I messaged Tom and said something along the lines of “Alex wants Rob but I want Vilma tbh”. I told Alex that I would prefer Vilma and he tried to strongarm me into voting Rob by saying he had already sent in his parchment a couple of hours before the deadline, which I didn’t believe. Due to this, I decided to take this move into my own hands and messaged Tom before I went to bed saying something along the lines of “I’m going to bed and voting Vilma so when you come online you have to vote Vilma”. This move bettered my position going into F4 because by keeping Rob I knew that going into the F4 the vote would be 3-1 to vote out Alex if he lost final immunity, whereas if Vilma were there instead of Rob there would be an increased likelihood of a 2-2 tie to save Alex

A final one is convincing Tom to play his idol on me at F5. Although at F5 I was confident the vote would be 3-2 to boot Vilma, I still had some minor paranoia that Alex may be trying to pull something off behind my back. I knew that Alex knew Tom had an idol, so if he were to pull anything skeaky that he would target me, and not Tom, because he would’ve assumed he was gonna play it on himself at F5. So, I approached Tom about playing it on me incase Alex was trying to pull something, which Tom ultimately did, leaving himself vulnerable and myself safe.

2.    Honestly, I have no clue how the game would have played out if Ain had not quit at the F9 because it was so early during the merge so anything I say is extremely speculative. I believe that Elsa probably goes at F9. I think I would’ve been able to get Edvin/Rob/Tom to vote you at F8, and then hopefully still get Alex who could potentially bring over Ain. It’s honestly a guessing game, but I do believe my strategy would’ve still been able to get me to the end, if not very close.