Board Thread:Season 36 - Tikal/@comment-4373775-20161015232246

Hello Final Three! Nice to see you all again, and congrats on making it to the end. I was going to put something really emotional here but I can’t think of anything good so I’ll just start with the questions!

Linus: You and I immediately bonded over our ORG history, in that we were the only two Vatanchus who had played in an ORG before. You not only played in ORGs, but won a few, which is impressive! I knew from the beginning that you were going to be a threat down the line, but it seems like I trusted you a bit too much, because I never took the initiative to get you out while I was in the game, even when it was suggested to me by others. So kudos!

As for your game, it seems like your strategy boils down to aligning with people who will put themselves out there more than you will, then once they’re gone, win a bunch of immunities. I’m not saying that your gameplay wasn’t impressive, but instead that the main reason you’re here today is because of your lucky immunity run. Had you lost any one of those challenges, it seems as if you would be posting “Linus’s Jury Speech” instead of “Vote for Linus”. So your first question: had you lost all of the F6, F5, and F4 immunities, what would have been your path to the end? How would you have made FTC relying only on social and strategic game? Would you have made FTC?

Secondly, a simpler question to answer. In the F8 vote, where Anna left, our plan was for me to vote Anna and you Marie, so that at F7, you, me, Joanna, and Claire could team up to get out one of Michael, Marie, and Christine. Were you on board with that F7 plan? Did you truly try your hardest to rope Claire into voting for Michael?

Joanna: You were the first person to talk to me all the way back on hectic Day 1, which you said was because we both had pictures of ourselves as profile pics instead of mangas. Over the next few weeks, we really bonded, and I’m glad I could call you one of my closest friends in this game.

Being completely honest, going into this I wasn’t going to vote for you. Your relative inactivity in challenges and strategy talks worked against you in my opinion. But your speech completely changed that. Of the Final Three, I think your speech was the best. I’m surprised to learn that there really was a lot going on with your game that I wasn’t aware of. Something I was rather puzzled about though was you calling yourself a “villain”. I would never have referred to you as a villain, not in a billion years. In our conversations, you were always really sweet and kind, and I never really saw you get, nor heard of you getting, confrontational with anyone. Thus, your first question: were you intentionally not villainous publicly? Since you claim that you were such a villain, why were you not villainous towards me?

Secondly, something else you said in your speech surprised me. You said that, during the F7 vote, you “told Michael twice that he really should use the idol”. I trusted you in this game 100%, so this comes as a shock to me, since I thought that you trusted me 100% as well. How much did you actually trust me? How long were you planning on blindsiding me?

Lastly, I want to say, as I’ve told you many times, that your English is great. It’s pretty astounding that you were able to write such a long speech like that. We’ve been forcing you to speak English this whole time, so why don't you say something in Polish? It can be whatever you want--why you should win, why I’m the greatest person ever, an essay on the theme of hospitality in the Odyssey--but say something!

Marie: I wasn’t as close to you as I was with Linus and Joanna, but I nevertheless am very glad that we were good allies, for, like, a vote or two. You’re a great person and I really did love the conversations we had together.

My biggest issue with you is that I honestly know nothing about your gameplay. I was in alliances with Linus and Joanna, but I was only ever affiliated with you, Michael, and Christine. We never had a 4-person chat or anything, so I have no insight into your alliance dynamics. In that sense, can you explain to me the dynamics of your alliance with Michael and Christine? Who was on the top? Who was on the bottom? Who was making the decisions?

Secondly, you talk a lot in your speech about your alliance and strategy, but not much about yourself and strategy. So, in a similar vein to question 1, what was your best individual move, one that you made for your own sake and not for the sake of your alliance?

My vote is entirely up in the air at this point, so it will come down to not just your answers to my questions but to everyone’s questions. So do put some effort into these, you all still have a good shot at winning!

Anyway, thanks to the cast and hosts for making this such a fun season! It’s been such a great time, and I’m very sad that it’s ending. But with all the great players from the season, I hope to see a lot of us coming back in the future! For now, I look forward to reading your responses and catching back up with everyone at the reunion!  