Board Thread:Season 37 - Archetypes/@comment-26867786-20161211213552

So, first off I wanna say thank you to the hosts and all of the players for an amazing and intense season! I came into this game not knowing majority of the cast so I didn't have this set gameplay I was planning on doing but there was a few things I wanted to take in this game such as self-awareness and doing what's best for yourself independently. Awareness was my biggest and main strenth in this game because it helped me to get to this point where I am. I knew how people felt about me, what position I had in the tribe, and what moves I had to make at certain points to survive in the game.

On my original Hizoku tribe I didn't connect that well with most of them so right away I knew the first chance I got I had to flip on them which I did with the first tribe swap. I connected more with Ally and Brett than I did with Matt and Uli so thankfully I was quickly able to get into an alliance with them along with Jamie. On the next one that alliance stayed and added Sora but there was something I wasn't comfortable with as we were approaching merge and that was a target on my back. Mostly everyone already knew about Jamie and I being a duo along with Ally and I being close friends out of the game and I didn't want that so I started the ball to get Ally out to make that target smaller which was successful.

After that the merge came and something I strongly believe is that you don't always have to make big moves if you're not in trouble. I knew there was much bigger targets in my alliance than me so I wasn't gonna risk that and I laid back for the first vote. After that I got into a fight with Ash as both a strategic and personal move. It was personal in the sense that I wouldn't have just done it with anyone I did it with her because we didn't have the greatest history so it made sense but it was also strategic because I wanted people to know that they could use me and trust me to not backstab them while I still had "enemies" in the game. The next vote I gravitated more-so to the alliance of Chris, Claire, and Emile for obvious reasons. We were in minority with that vote but I knew I was safe still because Sora had already told me about his idol so I was using him and his idol as protection because he had promised to use it on me if I was ever in trouble. The Sora blindside was the only vote where I was truly blindsided but I was able to prove my loyalty to Chris by voting Hunter and he was key player at the time because he could've either stayed with the group he just voted with or vote with me and Jamie and he chose the latter option.

The next couple votes were "easy" because after the whole game so far I didn't trust the trio of Ash, Hunter, and Alexa and I was clearly against them. Meanwhile I knew Brett was someone I could work with long-term even though we weren't exactly on the same side. He backstabbed Sora because of him running the game and being a bigger player than him so I worked and used my "sheep" status as a way to make him trust me and make him think he could easily control me. During this time Alexa and I got into multiple fights and the obvious vote would have just been to vote her out but I knew Chris so far had been running the game and was a huge threat in the end. I brought the idea of getting Chris out up to Jamie and she was hesitant but my relationship with Brett worked out because he told me about the Jamie plan and also wanted Brett out so I knew this was the perfect chance to get the soon-to-be winner out of the game. I won immunity so right away I knew as long as I used the idol it would either flush out the other side's votes or prevent someone from my side at the time getting rocked out. After that I made sure Jamie voted Chris because I knew he clearly would've came after me while Brett would either stay loyal or get Jamie out at least before me. After Chris went Alexa came up to me with the idea to get Jamie out. On paper that would've looked good because for some reason I got this image put on me that I was her follower. But even tho it had some perks, it was too risky and wasn't worth it. I didn't feel safe being in final 4 with Alexa, Claire, and Brett and Alexa had a huge shot at winning the game, way bigger than Jamie so I went with the safe move and voted out Alexa. And since I'm on that topic, even though it could look that way from some perspectives I am not and never have been Jamie's sheep. At the start I didn't like Jamie from pre-game situations but I was pushed to work with her because we were both on the bottom, after that we were able to build a lot of trust with each other and a strong bond. We did become a duo and were an equal one. She was the person I was most loyal to but there was never a time where I would've ruined my game to help hers. A key example of this is around final 7 Brett told me he wanted Jamie out and I kept that a secret and with the Chris vote at the time it looked like getting Brett out would've helped her but I stopped that because I knew even though he might not have been loyal to her, he would've been loyal to me. And if there was ever a point where I needed to vote her off to save myself, I would've 100% but that time never actually came and I wasn't gonna do it if there wasn't a situation like that because she was someone I knew would 100% be loyal to me, she was always a bigger threat to me(almost like a shield) and it would've been a dumb move just to be "iconic." The last part of my history in the game was voting out Claire which was hard to do because I really liked her as a person but she played a great social game and with the slight chance that it was a final 2, both Jamie and Brett would have taken me because they were bigger threats to each other than I was to them.

I didn't play this spectacular 10/10 game this time because I wanted to be more honest and open this time. I wasn't completely honest because I did tell lies but I tried to only do it when I felt like it could affect the outcome or put me at risk. I also didn't want to try to be someone's best friend when I was planning on voting them out the same round and I spoke up more often than I did the first time. I did try to use this to my advantage because I wanted the people that I was with to know that I was with them 100% and that they could trust me. I always knew what position I was in the game and I used that to make the bonds I needed to make at different times and made sure I wasn't the biggest threat to anyone's games. Overall I think I deserve to win because I played in this game specifically for myself, I made big moves when I needed to, and I was self-aware enough to put myself in the right spots to get to the end. I would really appreciate it and loved it if you guys voted for me but we all have different opinions on what kind of game "deserves to win" so no hard feelings. Thanks! 