Board Thread:Season 39 - Morocco/@comment-30071826-20170402204258

Before I start, I want to thank the hosts, the members of the jury and Will for making this season what it was. I had tons of fun getting to know you all and while this game had its ups and downs I'm proud to say I think it was a positive experience for most of us. My write up is a little long, so I added a summary at the bottom for those who are interested.

My strategy going in was to do what I do best. Make friends early, wiggle my way into the dominating alliance, keep my threat level as low as possible and beast my my way through the endgame challenges to get to final tribal. While there were some rough patches throughout the journey, I believe I executed that game plan pretty well.

To start the game off, the first 2 weeks on Zibaq were business as usual. I made good connections with everyone and my plan was to let alliances come to me. I bonded with Romain instantly, and he quickly became my most loyal ally in this game. Romain set up the "Harry Truman Alliance" that consisted of Romain, Roodman, Will and I. This was an ideal alliance for me because all four of us saw the game in similar ways. Outside of the alliance I thought I had become good friends with Zak and Anna. I felt like I was in a good spot. The Constance vote was a straight forward one. Around this time people figured out that I had won a previous org and people like Will were always going to be intimidated by me because of that. It was just another obstacle I had to overcome.

This is when I found my idol. Once I found it I immediately showed it to my alliance. The purpose of this was to demonstrate loyalty. I knew that my alliance would never flip on me pre merge now because it makes sense to keep the idol under control until the merge or after a swap.

Gevonte was voted out. It was a good vote for me because he was in an alliance with Roodman and Will. By eliminating Gevonte, it solidified our alliance even more.

Then the swap comes and turns my game upside down. Rood and I went from being in the driver’s seat at Zibaq to being hogtied and stuffed in the trunk at Najma. My strategy to survive the swap was to #1: Win immunities and #2: Let Rood over play his hand. I played a slow, calm and smart social game. I bonded with Scott and Brett pretty quickly. I watched as Rood made deals, lied and tried to outplay the majority. It didn't work. When we went to tribal as New Najma, Brett and Scott told me they were voting for Rood, and I believed it. I kind of knew I was going to be safe but I decided to use my idol anyways. I didn't want to leave my fate in the hands of others. I also did not want to take my idol into the merge because my Truman Alliance knew about my idol. I didn't want to give Will or Romain any reason to blindside me as the game progressed. So even if I "wasted" my idol, the intended purpose still worked out for me. I voted for Kristen over voting for Roodman here because I knew I wanted to flip back to the Zibaq side, and by voting Kristen it showed it was Najma vs Zibaq and I was on the bottom.

Merge time! I flipped back immediately to Zibaq to form a majority. I rekindled my Zibaq connections and quickly become good friends with Aras. The majority decided to vote Scott, which worked for me. To me, Scott was the glue of the Najma tribe. I made sure it wasn't going to be Brett because I really felt like Brett and I could trust each other moving forward.

After Scott left, it meant that we had Whitney and Kristen cornered. I was still really worried that the Zibaq alliance would think that I had ties with Najma, so I decided to instigate things with Whitney and Kristen to prove my allegiance. I was also on good terms with everyone left in the game. I was worried I would be seen as a jury threat so I needed to make some enemies. The idea wasn't bad on paper, but I will admit I went too far. While Whitney did deserve some criticism, looking back, I agitated the situation way more than it needed to be. My one regret in this game is how I treated Whitney, and for that I truly apologize to her and anyone that was uncomfortable because of it. I don't think anyone involved was innocent, but I take full responsibility for my role in that situation.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;mso-ansi-language:EN">We did the safe thing here and split the votes because we had the numbers. This was the only point all game where I was targeted.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;mso-ansi-language:EN">At this point, I trusted Romain 100% and Brett 100%. So I decided to continue to keep a low profile. When it came the next tribal, The Truman Alliance had the idea to take out Zak. This was a move that I truly believe benefitted Will and Romain a little bit, but it benefitted me a ton more. I didn't see Zak as this inactive player like some other people in my alliance did. I felt like I bonded with him fairly well and thought he had stronger connections then what it turned out to be. Zak wanted to go after Brett, but I had to make sure Brett stayed in the game. So by taking out Zak, I got to keep somebody who was 100% loyal to me and I got rid of someone who I thought was a dangerous player.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;mso-ansi-language:EN">The next tribal was straightforward; everyone was on board to eliminate Whitney because of her challenge skills. She was also someone I knew wouldn't work with me (rightfully so) and she had to go.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;mso-ansi-language:EN">My next goal was to get rid of Aras. I knew that once Aras and Whitney were gone, I could just win out. I was that confident in my challenge abilities. I had made a f2 with Aras for the sole purpose of if he did end up winning out himself, he would take me along with him. Will thinks I tried to blindside himself at this point, but it's just not true. My target was the the only person who could beat me in challenges, Aras. I told Aras I'd vote Will with him, but I always knew that I had to take out the challenge beast.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;mso-ansi-language:EN">At final 5 I won immunity. I still had 2 people in the game that were 100% loyal to me, so with that we made the majority. I wanted to start creating a good "resume" for final tribal council. By targeting Will, I was hoping to show that I was in control of the numbers. Before tribal, Brett told me Will had an idol. I wasn't sure if Will was lying about it or not. I figured even if he was, I had immunity so it was worth the risk for me. Will's idol play, while correct, really didn't impress me much. It was the last time he could’ve used it so it's not like he outplayed us or anything. He was going to use it on himself regardless.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;mso-ansi-language:EN">Final 4, I knew no matter what happened I was probably going to escape the vote. I had been pushing the narrative of "I'm done, I can't win. I'm just playing for myself now" for a little bit at this point. I NEVER truly thought I had no shot. I teamed up with Brett here because taking out Will would look good to the jury. After the tiebreaker, I knew both Will and Anna saw me as the goat, which I didn't think was entirely true.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;mso-ansi-language:EN">At final 3, I knew I was going to win the challenge. I worked so freaking hard to win it, and my hard work payed off. I was now faced with the decision of who to take to FTC. I went the way I did because I felt like I had made better connections and friends with Brett, Romain, Aras and Zak then Will did. Whitney and Kristen's votes would be up in the air against Will, but against Anna she was guaranteed Zak, Whitney, Kristen and Will's potential votes. So I would have lost.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;mso-ansi-language:EN">Will might come into this tribal saying how he was in control the whole game. But he consistently underestimated the social games of people like Zak, Romain and me. Post merge I was never in danger to be sent home. Will was. Will never had to overcome any obstacles in the game. I did (the tribe swap, the stigma of being an org winner etc.). Everything Will did benefitted other people more. The Zak vote benefitted me more, the Romain idol play benefitted Anna more and the list goes on.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;mso-ansi-language:EN">Summary: I formed working relationships with practically everyone in the game. I managed to squeeze my way into the majority on original Zibaq, all throughout the merge, and at final 5 (even if it didn't play out the way I wanted). I overcame a super scary tribe swap by showing trust to the right people, and making sure Roodman outplayed himself. I used every tool that I could to gain allies or further myself. Whether it was putting a picture of Harry Truman on a voting parchment to show loyalty or getting Aras to take me to the Bazaar so I could get a challenge advantage. I kept the big targets in the game as long as I could (Aras and Brett) to keep my threat level low. I worked to get to the point in the game that against the right people, I wouldn't lose a challenge. Even if I lost f4 immunity (due to a typo ugh) the target was not on me. I think I made proactive and reactive moves that benefitted me both short term and long term. But most of all, I think the key to my game was that I made genuine friendships with almost everyone here.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;mso-ansi-language:EN">

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;mso-ansi-language:EN">Thank you for taking the time to read my speech. I poured my heart and soul into this game, and I hope you guys can see that through my gameplay. No matter your decision, I respect all of you. Thanks for being part of a great season. <ac_metadata title="Vote for tate!"> </ac_metadata>