Board Thread:Season 42/@comment-26244999-20170906210014/@comment-1775521-20170906225600

Hi Rhi, so to begin I'll go through each of the points you made about my game, and then I'll address the questions.

1. I didn't say that Talap was some land of no alliances. My point at that moment was that I established a majority alliance and tried my best to maintain a sense of unity. I did not feel as though the rest of the tribe making moves/alliances was "incapable without me."

2. The first time I had lied to Priscilla in this game was at the Chris vote, and afterwards I did apologize for having that happen. I didn't act as though nothing happened or I did no wrong. The alliance had an issue with telling them information, and I didn't want to blatantly go against that by telling them what was really happening, and then get tossed out of my alliance, leaving me stranded and screwed in this game. So yeah, I tried my best to include them without directly informing them on the move and potentially destroying my game. The only other time I lied to the two of them was at the Jenna vote, and I take full responsibility for that. I was afraid that after disagreeing with aligning with Clifford, and stating that she would not work with him moving forward, that Jenna was going to go to you and Jake with Priscilla, and vote for one of my core group considering it would have been a 4-3-2 (with you, Jake, Jenna, Pris being the four) if I stuck to the split vote plan and Jenna decided to flip. I decided I didn't want to risk that and instead took her out. I don't exactly see where I was acting like it was a "beaten spouse syndrome type of relationship" just because I decided to try to remain having a good relationship with these two even if we were not working together in this game.

3. Sure, that's fair.

4. The issue here is that I had no issue with you for saying you didn't want Sim out. The thing that caught my attention was that you decided to just randomly message me the next morning saying that all of a sudden you were fine with voting him. I talked with Jake after our conversation because I wanted to see if he had a better idea on where to throw votes, and it was him who told me to stick with Sim and ignore your hesitations with the vote. That's what I decided to do.

5. I don't know if this is being misconstrued or what, but the reason why I kept trying so hard to work with Priscilla wasn't a "delusional hold." In all honesty it was more that I felt I had a genuine bond and friendship with Priscilla because her and I talked like all day every day. I was naive to think that that bond alone was going to be enough to allow us to have an alliance moving forward. It wasn't me thinking that "I was tricking her into working with me" or whatever you are implying by the abused spouse and delusional hold comments, but instead me genuinely wanting to move through the game together. I also do commend her for making the rock draw move because I bet that there was a lot of behind the scene work that took place of her talking to you that I wasn't aware of.

6. Yeah I was tricked, I am aware of this. Did you not read in my speech where I literally said that she voted for me to trick me into revealing her vote and playing my idol as a result? It was a good move, and I was aware that after the tie Julia was 100% done, I wasn't blind to that fact.

7. I was giving my interpretation of the move. From what I saw, Maya went to the girls with the idea of the alliance, Jake came to me and said he thinks that the girls were getting a move together, and I tried to capitalize that to get Jake to vote with me. If that is not what actually happened, then I am mistaken.

8. I am thankful, but the thing is I could have easily messed up in that challenge in either round and could have lost. I never pointed out the final 4 vote or the final 3 vote as anything "skillful." I literally said everyone had voted before I even knew what I was doing and I was forced to pick between, from what I thought at the time, was two sides, and went with the safer option. The final three vote I explained what I was planning on doing if I won immunity, but since I lost, I was just thankful that I wasn't leaving.

9. That wasn't meant to be shady or anything, you said something to me and I couldn't even tell from what you said if you wanted me to vote for Clifford or Jake. I asked for clarification, but you had already gone to bed so I just decided to vote. Again, I was just giving my interpretation of the vote and my thought process during it. Your pitch was confusing to me, so I didn't go along with it.

Mike Holloway: I think that it is unfair to compare me to Mike Holloway simply based off of us winning a lot of challenges. I personally did not enjoy Mike on his season because I felt that his ONLY aspect of gameplay was physical, and that he put himself in the position to need to win them. For myself I believe that I was an overall well rounded player that embodied a physical, strategic, and social game. I was put into the position to win immunities because I was pegged as a threat, not because I was blatantly acting like an idiot and ostracizing my allies.

Now onto the questions:

1. I think that Clifford should be here on a gameplay level, and the circumstances surrounding his boot were really unfortunate.

2.

Eva: Tracy Hughes-Wolf. Tracy was a very smart and strong player that was taken out before she got a chance to really shine at the merge. I firmly believe that if Eva or Tracy got to the merge, they would have turned the game around.

Hannah: Caramoan Corinne Kaplan. I did not get a chance to play with Hannah for really any of the game besides the combined tribal, so I wasn't able to get a true feel for how she was playing. I just know that she tried to make a move at the merge, but was deemed as threatening and needed to be taken out, not allowing the move to be successful.

Chris: Marcus Lehman. The way I saw Chris was a great guy that was also really strategic. Like I said, Chris went too soon in this game and would have done well if he made it further, even if taking him out might have been the best move to make at that time. This is similar to Marcus' situation.

Sim: Christa Hastie: A loyal player that got taken out by a circumstance completely out of their control. In Sim's case, it was an idol play, and in Christa's case it was being blamed for dumping out the fish when she had no involvement.

Jenna: Kelly Goldsmith. Both entered the merge with seemingly a tight position as Jenna had few close allies, and Kelly just came from a swapped tribe where her only two original tribemates were in a tight alliance that didn't include her. Both were accused of making a move that ended up not taking place and went home because of it. In Kelly's case it was the Lex vote casted by Teresa, for Jenna it was me believing that she was planning on flipping when in actuality she wasn't.

Yannick: Matty Whitmore. Both were extremely likable people that were great to talk to, and in the end got screwed over by an ally. In Matty's case, it was Sugar deciding to flip, in Yannick's case, it was me turning on him to draw rocks which sent him out.

Julia: Courtney Yates: Acid tongued queen that didn't compromise who she was when she played. Like Courtney, she was also a member of a tight trio and final 3 alliance.

Priscilla: BvW Ciera Eastin. I think that Priscilla was someone that may have been underestimated at first, but proved to be a major player of this game that was able to move back and forth between alliances, and take players out that she may have liked a lot, but was best for her game. Ironically, both also were involved in making a rock draw happen.

Maya: Baylor Wilson. Both were very loyal to a select amount of people that they trusted, and were very integral in big moves that took place this season. Both also were taken out in 5th because they had a unbreakable final 2/3 alliance that needed to be stopped.

You: Trish Hegarty. I believe that you were the more calculated one of your duo with Jake, and based on your speech, you definitely were in control of the social aspect surrounding your duo. Also you both provided really scathing speeches.

Clifford: Jonathan Penner. Clifford and Penner are both really strong players and complex characters in Survivor. Like Penner said "I'm a story teller, that's what I do" Clifford was able to really push the narrative of this season. Also, Penner had moments where he was perceived as negatively, but also times where the best of his character were displayed.

3. I'm not really sure if anyone is going to be explicitly bitter towards Jake. If I HAD to pick someone, I would say either Jenna, Priscilla, or Clifford because even though he apologized, Jake still admits to treating them poorly on a personal level.

4. I believe that I tried my best to be in good social standings with people, avoid fights, and really show compassion to those that needed it. Multiple times in this game to multiple people I would be comforting people based on real life emotions and issues that honestly had no gameplay motivation behind them. I didn't mind staying up late to listen to people vent, as long as in the end it made them feel better. This game should be enjoyable and I tried my best to make people have a better outlook on the game and on things going on in real life. I think that in a game full of emotions, I tried my best to remove my own emotions from the equation, and instead dedicated time to making sure other people were okay.