Board Thread:Season 35 - Sri Lanka/@comment-28812102-20160919223215/@comment-7317707-20160920182953

Before I address your question I just want to say that Michael making a final 2 deal with me had literally no impact on my decision to vote out Conor or Chris because I was already planning to do it when I went to go talk to him. He is only here because Conor and Chris were bigger threats!

To answer your question, I think there are two things that I did and that the other two failed at: keeping a target off of yourself and putting yourself in final tribal to ensure you have the best chance at winning. For the first, it's extremely easy to see how I was better at this: Michael received countless votes because of how non-discrete he was about working so closely with Cosmo. The two basically broadcast their relationship in the tribe chat week after week, making everyone want to vote Michael out to weaken Cosmo. Cosmo would've received more votes and would've been voted out (not by me, for reasons I'll say bellow) if he had not won those individual immunites. Cosmo is here because of his immunity streak, and Michael is here because Cosmo protected him and I knew that Conor and Chris played far better games than him. I on the other hand, played the middle and worked to make sure I was in the best position to make it to the end while taking minimal votes. While Michael was receiving votes from the other alliance repeatedly and Cosmo was insulting them, I was busy making sure that I could easily flip from Chris and Conor to Cosmo and Michael without being voted out.

As for the second part: positioning yourself to maximize your chances of winning at the final tribal. Long story short, if Cosmo and Michael wanted to have the best chance at winning, they would not have me here at the end, they would not have allowed me to vote out Allison. If Allison was sitting here instead of me, Ari and Andy's votes would 100% go to either Michael or Cosmo because neither of them respected her game. Instead they took me here and I'm basically a lock for Ari's vote and Andy has a much tougher choice to make, along with a lot of the jury. Meanwhile, I not only voted out Allison because she was gunning after me (evidence: her vote for me at the tribal that I voted her out in), but to make sure that Michael and Cosmo could not take her over me as a goat. Cosmo and Michael knew I had flipped the vote but instead of doing something to save her, they let her get voted out and harmed their chances of winning.

I exerted the most control over the second half of the merge, and ultimately was a major (if not the biggest) factor in shaping who was able to get here and who the final three members of the jury were. My game was great because I was able to maneuver myself after my number one ally was voted out twice (Ari/Andy), a lot of people crumble when the cards are stacked against them and they have no one they can trust, but I outfoxed my competition to get to the end next to the people that I chose. I masterminded Allison's vote off even when she was on the bottom of everyone else's hit-list, I had Chris and Conor so convinced that I still trusted them after they betrayed me that even after I flipped and sent Chris home, Conor still believed that I was stupid enough to take him to the final 3 until I told him otherwise. I have been docked by some of the other jurors for not making big moves until the final 6, but unlike Michael- I actually made moves instead of sitting back the entirety of the merge and rely on Cosmo's idol like Michael did. While Cosmo did play a decent strategic game, he is only here because of his immunity streak- people were so infuriated with his rude and haughty behavior towards others (evidenced by the number of scathing jury speeches against him) that I was the only one who was able to see that he was an excellent goat to bring to the end (even Michael says in answers to other jurors that he would have voted Cosmo out if he lost immunity). Many of the jurors tonight are not even considering voting for him. With all of that being said, I think you should give me your vote because I'm far more well rounded than both the other players sitting next to me, as evidenced by what I said above.