Board Thread:Season 37 - Archetypes/@comment-27037064-20161213015324/@comment-24114312-20161214041827

Thank you for the compliments on my strategic game!

As for the target thing and me being a target and it being my own fault — I certainly helped to advance me being a target, but it was there nonetheless, and I don’t think it would’ve ever gone away even had I have been perfect socially. Like Sora said in his speech, people who I had never spoken or interacted with wanted me gone, and so not all of the blame for me being a target can be on my social game. I definitely didn’t help and grew my target by being poor socially with people, but I also managed to survive that through other means and like you, counteract that with my strategic game.

As for why didn’t I get rid of Brett, I genuinely believed I lost either way, but with Claire it was more concrete. Against Claire, I thought that she would have Chris, Ash, Alexa, Hunter, Emile, Charley and Sora, with Brett voting me, and therefore it’d be 7-1. Against Brett, I thought it’d be Ash, Alexa, Hunter, Charley and Chris voting Brett, with Sora, Claire and you all either voting me or being undecided, which is 5-3 at the least. If I chose that option then, I only needed to sway either Chris or Alexa and it would be 4-4, in which Jared would most likely vote for me to win. That was the logic behind that move, but you asked if I would change it and honestly yes I would. From the sound of the jury speeches, I stood more of a chance against Claire and it would’ve been 4-4, not 7-1.

Was I building up for an immunity run by blindsiding Chris? Yes, I knew that by getting rid of Chris then I had removed all significant challenge threats apart from Brett, who was busy at the time and I thought wouldn’t win immunity. Obviously the next challenge was tailor-made to suit Brett, however the proof of this move working out for me in regards to immunities can be seen in the blowout of the final immunity challenge, where I won every section apart from one, in which I placed 2nd. Had Chris been there, I reckon I would’ve come 3rd in the endurance, and 2nd in maybe 2 of the ones that I won. So yes, by voting Chris out I definitely intended to go on an immunity run to end, which I ended up not even needing to do though.

Charley’s play style is very much focused on social bonds and then it only evolves into strategic moves once she’s made it deep. She’s very lowkey about how she goes about things and is very aware to remain as someone who is seen as not a floater, but a social player that isn’t necessarily a threat. I think towards the end-game, she morphs into a much more threatening player due to how she plays the game socially and how she is able to be a big jury threat.

Emile, your play style seems to be one which involves loyalty and immunities and like you said in your speech to Jared, not making a move if you don’t need to. I think you’re just naturally good at challenges and so you win immunity a lot, even if you don’t need to, and I think you’re very loyal so that people stay close to you but I don’t think you’d be loyal just for the sake of being loyal. If a move was needed to be made, I believe you would make it but if there was no need then you wouldn’t, which also shows you as a logical player. That combined with the fact that you are so hard to read makes you a big strategic threat.

Sora’s gameplay revolves around social bonds which he then uses for strategic gain. Sora has an ability of just drawing people in and getting them to tell him stuff, and gaining their trust. He always finds himself as the #1 of so many people and he uses that to pull of strategic moves while also not seeming like the biggest threat. He also keeps a strong grip on the game through knowing where everyone’s head is at due to having strong connections, so he can easily get people out who are going for him or plan to go after him.

Ash’s game is a lot more emotional and she seemed to follow whatever she wanted to follow at that current point in time without looking into the future that much. At Final 10, she blew up Chris’ game (or at least tried to) for no reason, because she was angry about a challenge and didn’t want to work with him anymore. She was nice to most socially, but strategically I don’t think she was loyal to anyone and would’ve turned on anyone if she stopped liking them.

Hunter’s gameplay this season was about being social and goofy, although I’m told his usual style of play is being a leader. His style this season though was about being liked and he used tribe chats and TC posts to his advantage by continuing the charade there. In private messages, he was somewhat more serious but still just wanted to make people happy and thus keep him around.

Chris’ game revolves around loyalty and keeping people with him that have the intention of staying with him. Chris will never cut someone unless they give him a reason to unless it’s right at the end of the game and he needs to in order to win the game and gain votes. Apart from that, he finds people that he likes and can strategically work with, and focuses on building that relationship and creating a genuine friendship with the people so he can truly work with them. He also is often the leader of the group he’s in, such as in this season with me, Claire and Jared, or in Java with the entire Jember tribe.

Alexa’s game is very much socially based, where she used her social prowess to gain loyalty with people. She also is someone who can use her social bonds to break other peoples, by spreading information in a subtle way which doesn’t put the target on her back. By doing this, she breaks other peoples’ bonds and strengthens her own, serving to benefit herself and no one else. She plays a weird under-the-radar game which is also very openly good and not under-the-radar whatsoever… it’s strange because everyone knows she’s a huge threat, but no one ever cares to take care of that until the deep game because people view her as being someone who can be taken out then. I think if she reached F6 or F5 with a group of people willing to fall on the sword for her, she could EASILY win.

Claire’s game is very much about being an under-the-radar social threat, who sits in the middle of every group and gathers information from every side before putting it into effect. Claire was the middle of every vote at the beginning and middle of the merge, and that only crumbled at final 6. She did this by keeping social bonds with both sides and never truly promising either side THAT much — despite being loyal to me, Chris and Jared, she was never locked into that group and kept good bonds with Alexa and Ash which she could’ve used to her advantage at any point.

I think arguably the best part of this season was Alexa sabotaging the GIF challenge because it had the most significant impact. Obviously Ningyo joining the game had the most impact but I don’t consider that to be a good moment because atleast on my tribe, most people were PISSED and the highest Ningyo member placed 9th. But with Alexa sabotaging the challenge, she created a lot of what we saw later on in the season. Me and Ash never really got over our rivalry and still dislike each other right now, and a lot of that can attributed to that. Me and Alexa also had a rivalry, and part of them can be stemmed back to original Hizoku where I felt like I was a victim and this just only advanced that view for me. It led to split Hizoku, and I believe that the rebels as a tribe had an impact on the season the most (due to 4/6 of them making f8 and 3/6 of them making f5, and now 2/3 of the f3 being comprised of rebels), and so by fracturing this tribe significantly, she created a HUGE impact on the season which I’m not even sure she anticipated.

As for the drawing, I’ve sent it to you on messenger!