Board Thread:Season 45 - Molise/@comment-31624573-20180221201739/@comment-33629256-20180221214517

'''your games were perceived as the most mediocre of the pack. Whether that was meticulous, purposeful positioning on any of your parts please let me know (optional bonus question).'''

Yeah it was definitely planned on my part!! I deliberately tried to seem weak, even down to the small stuff. I deliberately said comments like “I could never vote out my allies” so I would seem loyal and deliberately did worse in challenges so that I wasn’t viewed as a big challenge threat and then could win my way to the end when I needed to. In truth, I really don’t think my game actually was the most mediocre, like you picked up on a lot of people really trusted me and trust is imperative in this game. I tried to be extremely aware of perception from the first day we began and it was actually a major part of my game, so it was meticulously and purposefully positioned for sure.

This is kinda related but I forgot to bring it up in my speech. I tried to seem really honest too, that was part of me trying to shape my perception. I really didn’t want to lie to people (or get exposed lying) so I told people the truth whenever I could. And when I lied, I made sure it was lies that would not get uncovered.

'''1. When you asked me “are there actually alliance chats in this game? Do people even do them haha, I’m not in any” were you lying or pulling my leg?'''

If I’m not mistaken this was right at the start of the merge? This was kinda true but kinda not, there had been a group chat made with Jason, Harrison, Nat and myself for the Ashley vote but we’d had very few messages in it and we hadn’t spoken in it for days. Because I never went to tribal until the last vote before the merge, there was no necessity in my mind to make an alliance chat, I thought I was solid enough socially that no one would vote me off at any point in the pre merge so there was no need to put myself in a position where someone had anything against me (like making a chat without them in), so at that point I was not in a chat that I would consider an official “alliance chat”. However I did also make comments like this to deliberately seem weak or “mediocre” as you described it haha, I knew at that point alliance chats would have been made in the pre merge and wanted to seem clueless and maybe even get some information ya know.

'''2. You also said at one point that you didn’t want to vote out your allies (mainly Nat) and that backstabbing isn’t how you wanted to play. Let’s just say no one else conveniently targets Nat and she heads into the f6 with you, an idol and she’d be the favourite to win so she’d be hitting the challenges hard, how would you approach that? Did you account for that?'''

Yeah I definitely accounted for this!! The comment made was part of the perception I was crafting and was also part of the reason people trusted me I think. I tried to seem really faithful so people would think I was loyal to them. When it came down to it and I had voted off people I had not made allegiance to and I was forced to choose between voting allies or being blindly loyal, like final 6 and final 5, I chose the move that I thought would benefit my game the most before loyalty.

For Nat specifically, please don’t kill me Nat, but I knew I couldn’t have gone to the end with her if I wanted any chance of winning. I love her as a person but I know that had it reached final 6 or final 5 I would have had to do the same as I did to Trey or Jordan. In that situation, had you left at final 8 and the final 7 was Nat, Jason, Jordan, Trey, Harrison, Marty and me, I would have began my immunity streak at final 7 (and I honestly think I still would’ve won, even against a stronger physical player like Nat) and tried to continue it as long as possible. The first vote in this simulation I would have voted Trey to limit Jason’s options and then Jordan and Nat at final 6 and 5, in either order in all honesty. It would really depend on when Nat found the idol (and I really think she would’ve told me, maybe I’m wrong but we’d been working together pretty solidly on it) and other factors happening around the sides ya know. My close alliance with Jordan would have been a massive tool at my arsenal in this simulation (like it was in the actual game), I think that when it was time for me to target those I was closest to, I could have relied on Jordan (and by extension Marty) to vote the way I wanted.

However this is working on the premise that Nat wasn’t a huge target, and if she wasn’t a huge target that would have really changed my whole game and how I approached strategy ya know. Like, “no on else conveniently targets Nat…and she’d be the favourite to win” in my opinion go against each other kinda? Nat was a mega social threat but part of the reason she was a major threat to win imo was because she’d been targeted, survived, found an idol, ya know. Had none of that happened I wouldn’t have seen a major necessity to plan for her elimination, I still would have voted her eventually because I ended up realising that I needed to sit next to 2 of Harrison, Jason and Marty to give myself the best chance. But, in the timeline we went down, I was almost certain that someone would eventually gather the votes to vote her off. It was hard for me to accept at the time but it was an axiom to me (I even included good vocabulary for you haha).

'''3. I don’t even know how you did so well socially, you’re just disarmingly… chill? And friendly. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly how you did it. Was there a specific way that you approached your social interactions, or any constants you followed that led to your success in that regard?'''

Firstly thank you!! A lot of it is just who I am if I’m honest. At one point in life I was very bitter at life generally and after that I really tried to turn myself around and be more positive, like nothing is too serious ya know. I really don’t like negativity and I try to make people happier and have laughs with them so that’s definitely part of it!!

There are certain social things I do, both in the game and meeting and talking to people in real life. It’s not a thought process now, I used to be very socially awkward and I spent a lot of time focusing on how I could make myself more approachable so I practised certain steps in normal conversations but now it comes naturally haha. I try to be as sincere as possible and engaged in every conversation, I also try to learn as much about the other person as possible and ask them lots of questions haha. I also say “yeah” a lot (which you can probably see already here!!) because it’s a natural tick I have but I think it subconsciously reinforces agreement in conversations if that makes sense. If I’m honest I think a lot of it is natural!! I like people, I always try my hardest to see the best in people, I really liked this cast and it showed haha.

Also I don’t want to start a response war haha, but Harrison did just say “Actually in fact with the trey blindside I definitely was the main one behind it as I knew trey wasn't someone good to take to the end as his game was viewed as him kinda running things”.

Harrison definitely got on side with the plan to vote Trey quite quickly but saying he was “the main one behind it” really is not true. Jordan and I spoke on Facebook video chat about the boot order in final 9 and Trey placed 6th in that video chat. It had been planned for a bit of time, that’s not saying Harrison did not want it, but he was definitely not the “main one” ya know. In the end it was our plan that he got on board with.