Board Thread:Season 56 - Mongolia/@comment-43356541-20191227221614

Hello Jury ❤️ I want to start by thanking all of you for being a part of this incredible season, I really think it was one for the books and it wouldn’t have been without so many crazy and different personalities to fill it. I know some of you may have some doubts about the way I’ve played the game, wanting me to make certain moves when I didn’t. In this speech, I’m gonna try to describe my game as best as I can, I know I can be unnecessarily descriptive in the events that happened, which is why I won’t make a detailed summary of every single merge vote (like I was going to) because I think at this point most of you know what happened. The speech will probably still be long, so sorry in advance if you don’t like to read.

Feel free to ask me in your jury questions to go in depth about your own tribal if that’s what you wish for. I actually can’t wait for the questions and would prefer to skip this speech so... bring it.

In my previous ORG (2nd I ever played) my plan was to play a loyal game, trying to bring a 5 people alliance I made on day 1 to the end. Needless to say, protecting so many people and focusing on just that alliance bit me in the butt big time (I was voted out in 9th place) so this time I wanted to be clever. I wanted to form a very loyal long term alliance with not more than one/two people and then keep my options open going forward; I feel like I accomplished that.

I started off this game in a very dominant tribe challenge wise; not going to tribal is a double-edged sword: it gives you time to get to know your tribe mates without thinking they’re playing the shit out of you, but it doesn’t make you trust them 100% on voting with you. It also puts a target on your back, and in fact a “Purple Eaters” alliance was made as soon as merge started, but I’ll get into this later. During the pre-merge portion of the game, I was able to make a strong connection with Logan and Randy, being on two tribes with them. We were loyal to each other at the only swap tribal we went to, but Logan and I were already starting to feel that Randy’s excitement about the game (that made him go around asking people a lot of questions) would make it difficult for us to lead others our way once merge hit.

Add to that the fact that, like I said, 4/12 of the merge tribe came from the OG Purple tribe, so we knew we had to “sacrifice” one of our own to integrate with the others and we succeeded. However, that tribal did NOT feel like a success. 5 people split their vote on me and I realized I could only really trust Logan and Ty, my former tribe mates, which is why up until F7 tribal lines kept being such a huge part of this game. This is also why I never turned on Logan, even tho there’s so much more to it and I will get into detail soon.

First part of the merge (F12-F10) was bittersweet, I wanted to be honest and sweet to everyone because I feel like it’s the best way to make people trust you, and I was replied to with people going behind my back. I’m specifically talking about Ruth, Evan and Bradley: when I met the first two I was so excited to find people with such similar music taste and interests as me, but our love-filled conversations didn’t translate into a loyal game on their part, so I knew I not only had to be cautious around them, but that my game had to be more cut-throat; I decided to make a counter-plan when Evan told me he wanted to vote Jacob out at F11 because I didn’t trust him, bringing the Blues and Purples together to vote for Evan. Information was leaked (presumably by Tal who started having a reputation of being a snitch) and that tribal turned into a crazy mess. However, I knew I was not in danger, and despite not voting correctly myself, my alliance made a split vote which sent Kyle to the jury. Bradley’s elimination changed the game, and it was also such a breath of confidence for me: I was able to think with my head and not follow my heart when he started telling me personal reasons why going over F10 was important for him (things I related to) but I knew I couldn’t fall in yet another trap of someone sweet talking me and going behind my back on a strategic level, so I had to vote for him.

The next part of the game (F9-F6) was definitely my favorite part. At this point Logan and I were an amazing duo and we were both seen as threats to take out, however we were always able to overcome it by idol hunting together, finding all the 3 merge idols and using them correctly, as well as turning people on our side by making them feel comfortable. This part contains probably my favorite moment of the entire season, the F9 tribal. I was able to realize I was being targeted thanks to Ruth and Megan’s words. How, you may ask? Ruth messaged me saying I shouldn’t have trusted Logan to bring me to the end because “I had too good of a social game” and that she wasn’t the only person to feel this way. Not much later, Megan answered a question in TC talking about how it was time to take out people with a good social game/relationship with the jury. Sounds familiar to me. I played my idol correctly and, knowing the Yellows had an idol which was 99% going to be played on Ruth, I sent a plan B vote towards Jacob, which ended up being the sole vote that sent him home. The F8 vote was pretty straight-forward. I had a solid alliance with Purple+Blue and we targeted Ruth. I wanted to be honest with her because there was no point in not doing so, and I gotta say, much like Bradley, her words about how she didn’t deserve to leave were dear to my heart, but I had to think with my head. The F7 tribal was another crazy one. Another correct idol play by the power duo of the season (did I lie?). What changed was: tribal lines didn’t matter anymore, I convinced Ty I wanted to vote against Logan, to the point where he sent a stray vote thinking it was 6-1. Tal was sent home, because I needed to get out someone that everyone thought they could beat so a seat could be opened for more than 1 “bigger player” at FTC. I also started to grow out of my resentment towards Evan who, despite lying to me yet again, I felt had good spirit, so I tried to not yell at him once again and actually be nicer, unlike Logan, who was now starting to get more and more a reputation of someone the jurors hated. This was another reason why I didn’t want to betray Logan, added to the fact that it would have been stupid for me to send the biggest threat home with so many more tribals to come where I could’ve gotten that title. Be mad at me all you want for not getting rid of the person you all wanted gone, but I think it was smart.

And now we get to the endgame, a very difficult part of this game for me, but that ended up on a very high note despite everything. I won’t get into detail unless you ask me to, but Logan and I started having some issues at F6, due to a very intense tribal which could’ve ended up in a tie between Logan and Ty. That didn’t happen because Megan wanted to keep Logan so she switched her vote from Logan to me to make it 3-2-1 (just so y’all know I’m not the only one responsible for keeping Logan in so long 🤣, just kidding). After that... the F5. For sure a low moment for me. I lost trust in my ride-or-die Logan when I heard from Evan he was going behind my back telling people he was controlling me. Looking at it now, I should’ve confronted Logan about it, and I would’ve discovered it was just a plan to put a target on his own back to correctly play the idol (which I didn’t know of because it was the pre-merge one), but I felt the pressure of the words that everyone was saying about how I had been a puppet all season, and wanted to break free. Besides, the majority was already going that way and I didn’t want to be left out.

That tribal was definitely hard, but it taught me that no matter the past, relationships can be fixed. That’s what happened between me and Evan, after a whole season of distrust and miscommunication. This is why, when F4 came, things happened the way they did. I had a choice: I could have easily sent Logan out, the biggest threat who just came off a tribal negating a unanimous vote, but that would have meant leaving bad blood between me and the person who I talked to the most for 38+ days. Focusing on social game the whole time and trying to be nice, my game would have not come full circle had I not given Logan a fighting chance by making the vote go to FMC, fixing things with him and keeping my promises. Even tho he ended up leaving.

This speech is already way longer than I hoped, so I’m gonna end it by saying that I think I deserve your vote because: - I didn’t need to win a single individual immunity to make it to FTC ✨ - I was in the power duo of the season, and voted correctly at Tribal Council (merge-wise) the most out of anyone in the F3 - I managed to use the shield strategy almost perfectly, hiding my threat level behind Logan’s towards the end of the game - I tried to not make people be pissed at me by always keeping a nice attitude and never sounding condescending - Some people wanted me to turn on my allies, but I made the smart choice not to, recognizing that with the way the game had been played and the importance tribal lines had for most of it, that would’ve meant my downfall - However, I also made sure people felt they could come to me to get rid of Logan, despite him being my #1 ally and despite me not actually wanting to (until F5). - The only time I was ever really blindsided was at the F12 tribal (and F5 to some extent); other than that, I knew what was going on at every tribal, and that’s a big accomplishment in such a crazy season like this

Actually, I’ll end this with kind of a personal note, which you don’t need to take into account lol, but I’m so proud of myself for challenging myself into playing for “39” days (which are really like 50), and getting over my fear of speaking on the phone with an actual mother-tongue English speaker. Thanks for the free English lessons, only costed a couple breakdowns. All worth it. ❤️

Now bring on the questions 👀 