Board Thread:Season 31 - Retribution/@comment-24277959-20160309020738

Hey everyone! I think it’s safe to say it’d been a really long season, so I’ll try to make my speech short and sweet, but knowing my tendency for rambling on it may be long so fuck it whatever.





I’ll be the first to say that coming into this season I didn’t have something each and every one of you sitting here has, and that’s days of experience – many at that. Every single round I went through, I think you all saw that I played with a do-or-die attitude, and it’s safe to say that that would become counter-productive later on in this game, which I’ll eventually address. When it comes to the pre-merge there’s nothing too spectacular to highlight, and I don’t think any finalist should mention it much. 90% of premerge was essentially a slow and drawn out massacre for all of the Nick voters from Day 1 (minus Taylor gj sir), using that as the primary reason behind the votes. Regardless I always kept myself as an available option to all of the people that I voted out in the premerge, with the exception of Austin who switched his vote to me at the last second. I also was able to mobilize the Palmira majority and stay on the winning side of a split 5-4-1 vote, so yeah enjoy that.



But the merge is what matters and it was at that phase of the game where I went from playing hard to just total overdrive - as since I came into it with 2 individual immunities under my belt I always knew there was going to be a target on my back, and that would become obvious when I received the majority of votes at the first merged vote. Starting at the beginning of the merge, with 13 players left, I want everyone to know I’ve only been vulnerable once from there to here, in a season with a Final TWO. Things didn’t go my way at the first merged vote when Bryce Nick and Taylor branched off and knocked out my closest ally Yannick, and that’s not something I’m afraid to mention or deny. I didn’t play a perfect game – far from it. But in comparison Scott was also planning on voting me that round, and it’s not as if he was on the winning side for that first vote either. After the Yannick vote I felt relatively isolated as he was the one and only player in this game I could 100% trust to take me to the end, and I responded with that with an immunity win and winning out in the unmerged phase.



When the remerge came I realized I couldn’t survive every single round without immunity (well would you look at that now), and I wanted to at least survive a couple votes until making a run at the end with challenge wins and the Tuk Tuk idol in my backpocket. At the time I felt there was going to be a pretty big showdown between Bryce and Grace because of Bryce’s move in voting out Ethan – and I figured Grace would want total revenge for that. At the time I wasn’t too happy with Bryce’s move but I knew it was the right one, as the duo of Ethan and Grace could have skated by untouched for most of the game. I decided to align with Bryce for the time being because I had better connections with his side than Grace’s, but eventually they compared notes and I got caught. Despite all of this, in a call with Bryce we were able to find out another double dipper in Jordan and somehow he got the boot instead of me, and I think that’s a byproduct of my social game and in a way the work I put in terms of positioning myself. I honestly had every reason to take the boot that tribal but got by unscathed, as I thought people would want to use me as a shield. And I honestly believe it’s an acceptable strategy to be a shield, so long as the shield grows a mind of its own and knocks out its owner, which is what would happen. WEIRD ANALOGY, but applicable.





Come F8 in the rope cutting challenge, I was caught in a tough spot between giving either Bryce or Lucas the immunity win. When I decided to give it to Bryce I figured he would owe me for it while I actually planned to cut him around finale night, and that I could explain to Lucas that the target would be marginal on his back, so it’d be better to satisfy Bryce in the short term. The vote ideally was going to be either on Grace or Boo, but Bryce gave me a call saying I was a target. ONCE MORE, I was ready to wing that idol. On a side note, the reason why I was so quick to fire away with my idols is because I found those things at a ridiculous pace and that by the time I had one ready to use, I would’ve had found the next one (fun fact, during the Yannick revote I had the Tuk Tuk idol in my possession). So did I get played? ABSOLUTELY, idol wasted. But once again, I have to mention that Scott during that round thought there was going to be a split vote on Grace and Boo and voted with the split plan. This isn’t to knock on Scott, but rather just to note that the rounds I wasn’t ahead of strategically, Scott wasn’t either necessarily.



I wanted to find some light in that failed idol play and I found exactly that. When the huge fight happened between Bryce/Grace/Boo vs. Taylor/Michelle, I saw two distinct sides form from it, with me once again being placed in the middle. On one hand was Scott, Taylor, Michelle and Lucas, and on the other was Bryce, Grace and Boo. From the thought processes I had at the point I figured Taylor was gunning for me hardcore that round but had to back out last second (and Michelle was just caught in the crossfire of it all), but it was difficult for me to vote with the Bryce/Grace/Boo side seeing how Bryce just made me waste an idol.





I decided to push for a Michelle revote because in doing so, I would have it 3 on one side (Taylor/Lucas/Scott) and 3 on the other (Bryce/Grace/Boo), leaving me as the deciding vote in the next round and not being a target temporarily. Had I voted out Boo and left Grace and Bryce in the minority, I believed they could’ve bought themselves another round by throwing out my name and have everyone else going after me at the F7. So going back to the revote I was able to use my safety with the idol play as leverage to get Michelle out on the revote, as rocks didn’t favor Taylor/Lucas/Scott seeing as how they were vulnerable and me and Bryce would be safe. I’d like to believe that’s making something out of nothing, and in a way constantly being adaptable in your strategy. I do have to apologize to Michelle though, you didn't wrong me and your voteout was strictly strategic. So come the next round (I had immunity anyways lol), I was the swing vote between Bryce and Taylor, and my rationale behind voting out Bryce was that it would take out a bigger challenge threat. Did Taylor throw out my name during the Michelle vote? ABSOLUTELY. But I knew I wouldn’t have the long term loyalties of any side (keep in mind around this time I had 2 idol plays and like 4 wins under my pocket jfc), so I was essentially prepping myself up for an endgame run and I needed all the physical threats out of my way, and not only that, Bryce was easily the strongest player left in the game and could’ve smoked just about anyone in a jury vote.

<p class="MsoNormal">Continuing on with getting rid of physical threats at the end, that’s why Grace was my target at F6 (SORRY GRACE) but lo and behold, she won immunity. At the time the numbers were seemingly 4-2, with me/Taylor/Lucas/Scott against Boo and Grace, but I knew I was way tastier of a target than Boo at the time. Around then I saw Taylor as the biggest endgame threat. He was silently pulling off a really good resume, and I figured he had the charisma to secure tight alliances and make a run at the end. I thought his best move would be to push for a unanimous vote against me while taking Lucas and Scott to the end, and that’s what I accounted for in making my move against him. I had one final idol play left and I was ready to gun it, when I talked to Lucas about voting out Taylor he gave me a half-hearted response and it let me know he ran up to Taylor about it and threw me under the bus. I had to audible and go up to Grace and Boo instead saying I was voting Taylor and playing the idol on myself, that way, whether Lucas/Scott/Taylor vote me or Boo, we’d all be safe whether it be votes negated or us two being immune in a rocks scenario. This would pay off, as I knew Grace and Boo still had some friction with Taylor. The votes were messy at first because Boo voted early, but eventually I was able to play that idol correctly and get Taylor out at 6. I had to pull some antics along the way which I have to take accountability for, but it was simply about taking out the next biggest threat at the time.

<p class="MsoNormal">And from F5?? WELL, THE REST IS HISTORY. It was win or go home, and I delivered when it mattered most. Even with the surprise F2 twist rattling me psychologically (I WAS LITERALLY CELEBRATING BY EATING SOME GOOD FUCKING BANANA PANCAKES AT THE TIME OF THE ANNOUNCEMENT), I was able to pull off the clutch final wins with everything on the line.

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<p class="MsoNormal">So there’s the synopsis of my game, now’s time to mention and I guess just quickly highlight the 3 aspects of Survivor in relation to my game this season.

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<p class="MsoNormal">'''PHYSICAL GAME. '''

<p class="MsoNormal">SO, this is easily my biggest point to address this whole season. I know in contemporary Survivor, some of the best winners have advanced through the game strategically, seamlessly transitioning vote through vote, while winning little to no immunities. Obviously the actual show’s only two time winner never won one fucking individual immunity challenge. And a lot of people actually totally disregard the physical game in terms of just assessing finalists. And to that I say fair enough, because most of the show’s best physical players are people like THESE that the catladies fawn over. YIKES

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<p class="MsoNormal">All I have to say in regards to that is advancing through a round physically is NO DIFFERENT than doing so strategically or socially. Bigger targets go to the physical players, absolutely, but the fact that I was able to pull it out with seven individual immunity wins, break records, and actually reach the end with the target I had on my back since the start of the merge should speak dividends to the amount of effort and work I put into this game. That's something most comp whores can't do, and that’s all I really wanna say in terms of that. I want the immunity wins to speak for themselves.

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<p class="MsoNormal">STRATEGIC GAME

<p class="MsoNormal">Yeah, let me be the first to say my strategic game falters in comparison to my physical game, and understandably so. I’m not here to tell you all I was the best strategic player, as that accolade would go to either Bryce or Taylor. However, the strategic game I played wasn’t a total trainwreck either, as there was only one vote this season I voted with the minority, and that was the first merged vote, when I knew Yannick was going but I refused to vote against my best friend in the game. Scott voted in the minority three times (self voting, the Danielle and Jordan votes), and he also voted me at the F6 vote before flipping his vote to Taylor in the revote where Grace and I had the final say in terms of the majority. ALSO SORRY SCOTT YOURE GREAT BUT I JUST HAVE TO STATE FACTS.

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<p class="MsoNormal">There’s two strategic moves I want to take account for - that’s voting out Michelle in the revote to force a 3-3 split and using my idol correctly at the round of 6 to take out the biggest threat vulnerable at the time, Taylor.My game this season was more than just immunity wins or idol plays. I think strategically this season I was definitely active, and obviously I wasn’t able to make ALL of my plans happen, where as with Scott he wasn’t necessarily as proactive and instead just sought for a majority in votes more times than not.

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<p class="MsoNormal">SOCIAL GAME

<p class="MsoNormal">Alas is the SOCIAL GAME, and that’s something I think in all my ORGs in I usually struggle with and have to take accountability for here. All I have to leave here is honesty in saying I’m not exactly the friendliest individual or the brightest personality, yeah I can pick my spots and say some things here and there but the overall interests or preferences I have don’t exactly mirror the common individual here, and that’s something I have to accept. At the end of the day I wanted to form some relationship or bond, big or small, with every individual at the merge and I believe I was able to do that, with the exception of Danielle who I have to apologize to. I'll still never forget that endurance challenge we went through.

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<p class="MsoNormal">I think if there’s any one redeeming social play I can say I have is that I took Scott along to the end with me. I led him a fake idol in the premerge to secure his trust and clearly that would lead to a divide between us when my Palmira idol came out at F13. It was a quick-twitched move on my part in an attempt to reap short term benefits, but I was able to repair my relationship with Scott, and now we’re here at the end together. If anything I want that to show that socially I’m flexible in my options. There were plenty of fights in this season and more times than not it would set an eternal wedge between people, but when I had one with Scott, I was able to turn it into what we have here, with us two sitting at the end.

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<p class="MsoNormal">So that’s all I have to say in regards to my game and when it’s all said and done I’m hoping I can get your vote. Ever since I was voted out on Day 3 of Cape Verde, I have made it an ABSOLUTE mission of mine not only to get back out here, but to reach the end and win the entire thing. I think it’s that mentality that's given me the drive to reach the end, as it’s win or absolute failure for me each and every single time. Mildly sociopathic? Probably, but I hope you all can take into account everything I said in my speech, and maybe you give the second boot kid from Cape Verde your vote to win this game – after all the doubters he fought and the obstacles he ran over this game, from being isolated at the merge to having to pull off historic runs to reach where he is right now, DAY 39. 7 immunity wins and 3 idol players later, I want you all to know I've left everything out on the line.

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<p class="MsoNormal">With that all said and done, much love everyone and I’m so glad I was able to play this great, great season with all of you. Fuckin’ cheers[=

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<p class="MsoNormal">ps lol i said this would be short and this shit's like 5 pages whoops <ac_metadata title="Evan&#039;s Jury Speech"> </ac_metadata>