Board Thread:Season 42/@comment-4603998-20170908185807/@comment-1775521-20170908211040

I am so glad to see you again, Chris!

I heard that you wanted me out from Clifford far later into the game and I was SHOOK LMFAO. I am very grateful for my luck in that moment and that I was able to survive until the swap and make it here now. I agree with you saying that we cemented something in this game. I honestly had to rethink my strategy when you left because I felt that the "keep the threats in" strategy that Clifford was pushing for, and that you and I agreed upon wasn't going to work for me because you were the only other person being perceived as a major threat in this game that I actually trusted fully.

I fully agree that my strategic game was not the strongest aspect of the way I played, but I still do not believe that I played this game poorly. I would give my strategic game a 7 out of 10. I think I had a large role in putting together each of the alliances I was a part of this season. The Iconic alliance on Talap were all people I personally bonded with and wanted to move forward with, so I put it together based on that. The Sugar & Spice alliance was all people that, again, I personally wanted to work with and made the alliance happen. I still actively worked to get rid of Annabelle and Kostas because I felt that they had the least benefit to my game moving forward. At the merge, I believe that I was influential in the 10/10 alliances moves and had I been able to better lock people into sticking with me for votes, I think that a lot more votes towards the end of the season would have been able to be controlled by me. I believe that the size of my target towards the end of the season, especially with fear of me winning FIC, was the reason for people like Priscilla flipping on me at the final 7, where otherwise my move would have worked out against Jake. I definitely think that my game can certainly be more accredited to how I played socially such as the Phalap alliance, us really bonding soon before you were idoled out, me being able to influence where the tribe voted on NuSamsao based on me simply talking to everyone and telling them things that were of my best interest, but spinning it to appear as though it was of everyone's best interest, and treating Priscilla with respect to the point of having her rejoin our side on the revote at the merge. I believe that though I may not have had the best strategic game overall, I think my game is very solid as a whole and I should be voted for based off of it all encompassed into one, as opposed to focusing on a single aspect.

I think that I played most like is (surprisingly because I hated him in Panama) a combination of both of Terry Dietz' seasons. I was able to put myself into a dominant position regarding pre-merge votes, but soon into the merge I had a fall from grace and was perceived as a threat. This forced me to attempt to win challenges till the end. Ironically, we both lost the final challenge, however, unlike Terry I still got to FTC. Both Terry and I kept trying to make moves happen (even though I think I did better than Terry in this regard as I actually was successful at least a few times during the merge), but people not wanting to stick with me and make a move happen prevented me from being able to have it happen. I think that Terry's social game was laughably bad in Panama, however, which is why I mention Cambodia. Terry did something almost exactly like I did. He helped Abi-Maria in a time of need where she was feeling upset on an emotional level. As I keep saying on multiple jury questions, I believe that I really tried hard in this game to be there for people to a level where they could talk to me about any issues unrelated to the game and I would be there for them. I tried my hardest to be as kind as I possibly could to people in this game, and I think for the most part I succeeding in doing so.

My absolute favorite part of this game, that made me literally jump out of my chair and dance around my bedroom screaming was this sequence of events:

1. Almost getting blindsided 7-2-1, but playing the idol that people didn't even think I had.

2. Immediately winning immunity after the fact by a HUGE margin.

3. Finding my second hidden immunity idol in this game with only two clues, and then having literally like 3 people guess the correct location 2 hours later.

These moments had me so excited because once I had to play my first idol I really felt down and out and like I had no shot at making it to the end. My thought process was: "They already saw me as a threat, now I just played an idol to negate a majority of votes (some of which I thought were people that weren't going to be voting me), so my target is even bigger and if I don't win immunity there is absolutely no way people would keep me in." Then for me two win two immunities in a row AND find another idol, ensuring no one else had it? I was so fucking excited. At this point, after I had won two in a row, I was fully expecting even my closest allies in this game to take a swing at me when I finally lost immunity. This is where I really took in my second chance and Last Stand as I never gave up for a second after feeling down and out, and proved to myself that I could pull myself out of a situation that I believe I was screwed for.