Board Thread:Season 13 - Anarchy/@comment-24109305-20140214055632/@comment-24251579-20140214072428

'''1. I feel slightly as if you are only here because of Jerby and him feeding you Idols. I believe Noah asked the same thing, but if you don't have Jerby as an ally, do you make it here? '''

As I told Noah, and Jordan... I really do think that I would make it to the end of this game regardless of my chosen allies. I relied very, very heavily on my social game all the way back to day 1. This will probably be overlooked in favor of my strategic moves, but the truth is that none of it would have been possible without my ability to touch several different groups of people and access them. The same goes for Jerby, but the kicker is that I took it to the next level by gaining Jerby's trust to the point where he would do anything I asked of him. I built this golden relationship with Jerby purely from scratch, just like I built every other relationship in this game from scratch. If the situation called for it, I think I could build a similar relationship with anyone that I deemed trustworthy. It was really all about me being adaptable at all times, and making sure that my chosen allies were going to be the ones that benefited me the most, both short and long term. It's clear now that pulling in Jerby was largely beneficial to me. This was  a strategic decision I made, and one that paid off huge dividends.

However,  I feel that the idols being passed is being largely overblown. First of all, Jerby and I were working essentially as one person on acquiring both the 2nd half of the 2nd idol, and the entire 3rd idol. Let's not forget that I held the first half of the second idol for almost the entire game.. completely in secret from everyone. Without that first half... Jerby's passing of the second half is meaningless. Also... The first idol play was entirely a manufactured situation (see my answer to Nokomis' jury question for more detail, if you like) to make the idol more useful than it would have been otherwise (we had the numbers for a straightforward vote out, had we wanted to go that route). The second idol was completely useless since it eliminated 1 vote for me. I don't find those particular plays to be significant in a grand scale of the game.

'''2. On day 1 I was your "main" ally. For how long did it remain that way, and when was I pushed off to the side? '''

You and I were very locked in all the way up to the point that tribes formed. It was at that point that I started to review my options and consider different roads in the game. I had begun to worry about you and Tyler grabbing Jon and flipping on me.. so I needed to review my options. I could have gone with Kaffe and Jon, or you and Tyler. I had always known that Jerby would be there for me if I needed him at the merge, and to be completely honest I was a bit wary of you. As you will see in my confessionals, I stated that you were one of the top American strategists right off the starting line of this game.. and I guess I sort of convinced myself that you would be gunning for me eventually. Regardless of this fact, I stuck with you and Tyler thru tribes and we advanced to the merge. The problem was that the doubt had been placed in my mind, by myself. When I started hearing the rumors of Tyler influencing a flip on me, and that you were involved in those talks.. I verified my own suspicions and immediately cut you out of my plans. It's like I said in my initial speech... I was a vindictive son of a bitch in this game. If I had even an inkling of doubt.. I had to make the first move in order to protect myself and the endgame, which was to be sitting here answering all these questions.

'''3. When Tyler tried to vote you off and I told you that you were my day 1 ally, and I wanted to stick with you, why did you not give me the chance to stick with you? '''

As I stated in the above question, it was because I refused to take any chances in this game. I had heard the rumors about a discussion which took place between you and Tyler, specifically about voting me out somewhere around final 6... and I simply couldn't have that kind of potential floating around in the game. By playing dumb and denying you the right to flip back to me... I also denied myself the chance to become convinced that you were trustworthy after all. Let's be completely honest... we were all playing a game and you would have targeted me eventually anyway. I know that, and I don't blame you for it one bit. It's just the way the game broke down. At that point, I wouldn't have considered bringing you back in after you even showed the slightest interest in siding with Tyler. It was simply the game I was playing.

4. '''Tell me 1 reason why you should NOT win, and 1 reason why EACH Jon and Jerby should beat you. '''

Well I think the first one is easy. I should not win because I took this game too seriously, was quick to cut the rope, and as a result I was beyond ruthless. I can understand why you're mad at me... I'd probably be mad at me as well. I guess I just told myself coming in that I would do whatever it takes, and as I result I was a ruthless individual.

Jon should win because he had a very busy schedule and still found a way to make it to final 3.

Jerby should win because of his willingness to go along for the ride while trusting me to drive, and to sacrifice all other relationships in the game for me, which ultimately landed him in the final 3. It was a great amount of sacrifice he had to make in order to stay loyal to my plans. I respect him for that a great deal.

Thanks for the questions Sam. Hopefully I answered them sufficiently.