Board Thread:Season 40 - Argentina/@comment-30516037-20170518225739

I want to start by saying – regardless of whatever the outcome is, this game has by far been one of my favorite ORG experiences, and it’s honestly been an honor to play with so many great players. Thank you so much hosts for providing us with such an amazing game.

So I came into this game shortly after playing two games where -believe it or not- I’d been a big threat and voted out just short of finals both times. This time around I knew I needed to change it up and play with a much more under the radar style. My loved one Chris gave me the advice “be the third biggest threat at final 5”, which is basically what I tried to aim for throughout the game.

We all have flaws in our games & mine would be the pre-merge. Although I was in a majority, I was observing a lot and it took me a while to grow into the game. However – this actually benefitted me by giving off a non-threatening perception for most of the game, and after initially being protected I was eventually able to take out the same people who had helped me survive.

Coming into the swap I was excited to reunite with Brandon. We voted out Amanda, who I had spoken to the least and was voting for me. After the vote I began to repair relationships with Catherine & Brandon, who told me they had an idol and were playing it at the next tribal. I continued trying to work with them so that it wasn’t used against me, which worked and Alissa was voted out. Honestly, I felt this was good for me because pairs would be a clear target come merge, and this essentially left Formosa broken which allowed other bonds to be made.

Merge: I reconnected with Formosa, who were all pretty decent shields and all trusted me. During the swap I'd worked out Ally had an idol from the guesses we’d made, and without her idol we couldn’t have taken out Alex, which was basically the move of the season for Formosa. Although I personally had wanted to work with Alex, I could tell Cordoba wasn’t voting for Mackie like they’d told me to do. Voting out Alex split up Cordoba, and got rid of the tribe vs tribe mentality that makes the game pretty boring. This vote was followed by the blindsides and messy votes of Catherine, Shannon, Ally and Brandon, and by keeping bonds with both sides I was able to ensure that I never received a single vote during any of the merge tribal councils.

From just before halfway through the merge I knew who I wanted to be sitting at the end with, & I did everything I could to ensure it happened. I wanted to get the Cordoba numbers down and use them to take out the huge Formosa threats – I know this was probably a similar plan that a lot of us had at that point.

By final 8 I was in a tonne of chats, nearly all of which included Ally. Ally was someone I saw as a huge contender to win, with Mackie/Justin/Brandon/Sydney/Marie all targeting each other she could easily slide her way to the end. Literally everyone trusted Ally, she’d told me her & Mackie were only pretending to be mad at each other and in my view Ally was playing the middle perfectly. Brandon knew him and Marie were on the chopping block through Mackie, so I approached him with the suggestion to attempt to vote Ally with my double vote, which he was down for and Marie also agreed. I had to convince the majority I was down to split votes with them, & I even got Mackie to switch his vote from Brandon to Marie as a precaution, to ensure Brandon would be safe if things went wrong. I felt so so dirty I honestly can’t express that enough but I think it was a good move that helped to cement my place here.

The one thing in this game I hadn’t counted on was Brandon kind of imploding, but in hindsight I’m happy to have been left out of that vote because I know how hard it would’ve been to have to vote for him at some point. At final 6 I obviously have to credit Sydney’s idol for getting us to the final 3. Justin told me “it’s Marie 100%”, which I knew wasn’t true so I didn’t feel that bad about voting for him. Mackie had to go because Mackie would’ve beaten me, as simple as that. But I was set up in a position where if Mackie had won immunity Sydney was going, and vice versa. As hard as I tried for that f5 immunity I didn’t need it. I tried to make sure Mackie would vote for Marie again, just so I'd be safe in case anything went wrong.

Some of you are probably finding it difficult to differentiate between mine and Marie’s games, which is understandable. So, look at what I think is the main point of difference: the final immunity win which allowed us to get rid of the player who -I think- would’ve taken any chance the three of us had at winning. As soon as Mackie was gone, I went to Tymeka & we discussed how vital it was that we win this challenge and vote out Syd. Sydney – I’m honestly sorry for not telling you, it was a shitty way to go out. I basically just didn’t want to give you a chance to attempt to convince anyone to vote otherwise, because you’ve clearly proven yourself to make good arguments in this game.

Of the final three, I’ve attended the most tribals, received no votes throughout the entire merge & correctly voted out the most jury members. I didn’t win many challenges, but I would argue that I didn’t need to. I’ve made some dirty moves, I’ve made some mistakes, but I also think I’ve done enough to be considered deserving to win.

It’s been proven that you don’t have to play a flashy game to deserve to win the title of sole survivor, in some instances more subtle moves and good social bonds are just as capable of being defined as good gameplay.

So please consider my pitch and give me all the questions you’ve got, I’m ready for them, and I can’t wait to talk to you guys after the season!  