Board Thread:Season 38 - The Ganges/@comment-30203302-20170207044600

Hi all,



It’s really good and exciting to see all of you again! For some of you, it’s been a day and for others, it’s been a few weeks. First of all, I wanted to thank all of you for making this ORG so enjoyable and I also wanted to thank the hosts for taking the time to put this all together. Today, my main goal is to really try to take all of you through my thought processes throughout the game and to thoroughly explain my gameplay with a specific focus on my social connections and strategic moves.



I think that what sets me apart is that I had a social game that far surpassed that of Miguel and I used my strong personal connections to fuel my strategic game which I also felt was stronger than Miguel’s. I threw every physical challenge that I didn’t need and only won the ones that I felt were important; the only immunity challenge I lost that I tried in was at Final 10 when I got 2nd in the Flower Matching game.



Fair warning, this will be a bit long, but I ask that you do read all of it because much of it contains subtle game decisions that really captures the essence of how I approached and played this game.



Additionally, I kept out much of the emotional feelings that I had for all of you out of this speech and completely focused on my game decisions because my speech was getting too long and I felt that I had used my Rites of Passage to convey my feelings for each of you. I hope that you view my FTC speech today as a supplement to my ROP because I spent a lot of effort on both trying to capture my thoughts about the past 2 months.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:700;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">Stage 1 (Pre-Swap Brahma Tribe: Rob, Issy, Miguel, Ronel, Dean, Markos):

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">So I started off the game on the Brahma tribe where Dean offered me a final 2 deal. We were both players from EpicMafia and we knew each other from before so I felt comfortable accepting the deal from him early. I also started to talk with Issy, Miguel, and Ronel and I immediately connected with all three of them. There are some statistics that I have which may show the extent of my social game, but within the first week, I already had 6000 messages with Issy, 4000 with Miguel, and 2000 with Ronel. Some time before we had to vote someone out, an alliance was formed between Me, Miguel, Issy, and Dean. After we voted out Markos, Ronel came to Isabel and I and offered an alliance between us three. Personally, I had also formed 2 additional final 2 deals: 1 with Miguel and 1 with Isabel.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">I also noticed that Miguel was beginning to take on this role as a domineering leader of the tribe and both Dean and Ronel came to me saying that they did not like how bossy he was. I decided to take advantage of this by becoming close to Miguel and attempting to use him as a figurehead for my own strategic purposes. I would suggest ideas to Miguel and say that we should probably “ask what other people in the tribe think” and then Miguel would go and ask people while I did not. What would end up happening is that Miguel would be the one to do all the aggressive moves that I didn’t want to do myself and I used his pushiness as a way to further myself. After he would propose my ideas to everyone else, I would talk with people like “hey did Miguel just push this idea on you?” and use it to paint him as a dictator which is an image of him that stayed well into merge. Miguel would serve as a shield for me throughout this game. I also leaked to Miguel that Ronel wanted to use him as a shield and hinted that he wanted him out which put the two at each other’s throats ensuring my longevity on the tribe and allowing to me to effectively play both sides.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">I also found a double vote at the temple because Miguel had told me the vases that he had picked on his first visit (5 1) and I just picked (5 2 1) and told both Isabel and Miguel that I had it.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">The last important thing that happened was that Isabel came to me and told me that Dean had offered her a final 2 deal right before swap happened. This caused me to realize that Dean was being completely disingenuous about our final 2 deal as he didn’t tell me anything about offering Isabel final 2 and I became more wary about him. It also made me really trust Isabel who became and stayed as my #1 throughout the game.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:700;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">Stage 2 (Swap: Vishnu 2.0 Tribe: Rob, Issy, Miguel, Blake, Danielle, Jo, AJ):

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">I came into swap incredibly nervous because I knew that I had established myself as a challenge threat due to my performance in Constellations. Additionally, at the time, there were 3 Shiva members, 3 Brahmas, and 1 Vishnu (AJ). Shiva was in a minority overall because they had gone to tribal 2x compared to Brahma and Vishnu who had only gone once. Because of this, I was worried that AJ would work with Shiva to eliminate me or one of my final 2 deals. At this time, I started to form a really really really strong connection with Blake and AJ as well as working relationships with Jo and Danielle.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">I wanted to protect all my bases so I began to hint to Blake that I was least close to Miguel on my tribe and that I found him domineering. That way, I hoped that if we lost immunity and AJ were to work with the 3 Shiva members, they would vote out Miguel and not Issy or I. Additionally, a 4-person alliance was formed at this time between Me, Miguel, Blake, and Danielle. I immediately told Isabel that this alliance was created so that I could retain her trust. To my happiness, Miguel did not which I tried to use to get her to distrust him. Simultaneously, Jo created a 3 person alliance with Me, him, and Miguel, but I don’t think it was anything too serious.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">We ended up voting AJ because the original Vishnu tribe appeared to be very close together when they voted out Aviv 4-2-1. We all believed that if AJ made merge, he would work with his old tribe and be a huge threat to win.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">I also took the AJ vote as an opportunity to create mistrust about Jo. AJ said that Jo had told him that he was going home so I used it to paint Jo as an extremely unreliable ally who would leak votes. By doing so, I created another shield for myself which would be very useful come merge.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:700;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">Stage 3 (Merge) <span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:700;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">Final 11 (Danielle voted out 7*-6)

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">I came into merge with the strategy of throwing every challenge I felt like I didn’t need. I wanted to hide behind other challenge threats so that I wouldn’t reveal the full extent of my challenge ability which I felt was the strongest in the game. At early merge, Dean quickly formed an alliance with Ryan and I since we were all players from EpicMafia. The idea of the alliance was to control both sides - “divide and conquer”: Ryan and Dean would control their’s and I would control mine’s and we would keep the target off each other and ultimately come together. Dean told me that he had an idol which made me very scared that he would play it on Cat. I started suggesting to everyone that maybe we should switch the votes onto Felicia under the guise that “the other side may have an idol”, but the plan was ruined because Danielle had voted early. Dean did end up playing the idol on Cat which caused my ally Danielle to go home. I tried recreating my connection with Ronel because I figured that he could be a key flip vote at F10 since it was now a 5 v 5 game.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">I also began to form a social connection with both Felicia and Cat.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">As a side note, Isabel actually really wanted to flip to vote out Danielle this vote and I spent about 4 hours trying to get her to not flip and to vote Catherine instead. I don’t think anybody else knew this since I kept it quiet until now, but Isabel was being truthful to Ryan and Cat when she said that she wanted to flip and I really think that she would have if I was not there. I thought you guys were being really unfair and unnecessarily mean to her!!

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:700;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">Final 10 (Ronel voted out 7-2-1)

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">I have a lot of insight about this vote and I think this is my longest writeup but I want to really detail everything that happened because this was a really crucial vote.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">First of all, 3 people (Jo, Blake, and Isabel) came to me saying that they did not trust Miguel and wanted to vote him out down the road because he would flip. I was still using Miguel as my shield at this point and I used Miguel as a way to make others trust me. I would tell them that I also did not trust Miguel and plant seeds about a Miguel eviction to keep the target off myself.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">At Final 10, I made my first mistake which was telling Jo that I had a double vote. My original plan was to use it to vote someone on the other side out if Ronel didn’t flip and I felt like it was better to tell him in advance than during the vote. I didn’t expect Jo to completely freak out - he apparently approached Blake about flipping to vote me out (which I found later on at F9) and he also started acting extremely shady by doing things such as straight up asking me if I could give him the double vote to use. I lost all trust in him at this point and regarded him as a liability.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">I was in a bit of trouble though because Ronel was not flipping, Cat had won immunity, and nobody wanted to vote Felicia out because she had gotten 2 strikes which meant that she could be medically evacuated. This left the options of Ryan, Dean, and Ronel. I realized that voting out Ronel would be most beneficial for my game because it would preserve my EpicMafia alliance with Me, Ryan, and Dean. Additionally, it was clear that Ryan, Dean, Felicia, and Cat were extremely close. By voting out the middle (Ronel), I was ensuring that the game would remain 2-sided. I knew that I was at the top of my alliance because I had close connections with Blake, Isabel, and Miguel so a boring 2-sided game would be good for me. With Ronel gone, it would be bad strategically for anyone to flip to the other side permanently because of how close Cat, Felicia, Ryan, and Dean were - they would just be flipping to the bottom. Ronel’s vote off ensured that I would not be flipped on. I campaigned hard to vote out Ronel and he was voted out in a near unanimous vote. Perhaps even sweeter for me was that Dean got the blame for leading the vote when I was the one who set the vote in motion.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:700;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">Blake’s Plan: <span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;"> However, this vote also was interesting because Blake told us that the other side was ALSO voting Ronel. I became suspicious because I realized that the other side would not vote out Ronel unless they had a backup plan for the next vote. They MUST have thought that they could get someone to flip from my side at Final 9. I straight up asked Blake if he had promised the other side that he was flipping next vote and he told me the entire truth. Blake confided in me that he had gotten the other side to vote Ronel out and he was playing both sides. He was going to flip at Final 9 to vote out Jo and then at Final 8, he was going to flip back to our side and get me to play my double vote (which is why I saved it). Then, we would systematically eliminate the other side before eliminating Miguel at either Final 4 or 5.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">I realized that his plan would be really good for my game because he would vote off Jo who I knew did not trust me and was becoming a liability for me while also getting a lot of blood on his hands. Additionally, Blake would be able to keep the target off of me from the other side so now I had 3 people (Ryan, Dean, and Blake) on the other side who would not target me. However, it also gave Blake a lot of power because this pretty much allowed him to control every vote from Final 7-10. So, I started to plant seeds in Miguel and Issy’s head about voting Blake out at Final 6. I did this by telling them what Blake had just told me and then convincing them that strategically, we could not vote Blake out until Final 6 because we needed him and we had to let him carry out the plan. I also used this as a litmus test to see how much Miguel and Issy trusted me. Blake had no idea that I had told them which demonstrated to me that Miguel and Issy trusted me. Additionally, this also worked the other way around and it got me to trust Blake as well.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:700;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">Final 9 (Jo voted out 5-4)

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">I found the idol!! I found it because of Isabel pretty much <3, she had told me that she searched Vases 1 3 1 and got nothing. I searched Vases 1 3 2 and got the idol. However, I decided to not tell anybody because I figured that people might try to flush it out or blindside me if they found out I had both a double vote and an idol.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">Additionally, Blake and I made our Final 2 deal here official. To recap, at this point, I had 4 final 2 deals (Blake, Issy, Miguel, Dean (but I knew Dean’s wasn’t legit)).

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">As per Blake’s plan, he flipped and he voted out Jo. If Jo had won immunity, Miguel probably would have gone home instead because Blake did not trust Miguel and he would have got the other side to vote him out. At one point, Blake had to tell Issy and Jo that he was flipping but I had already told them. I asked Isabel and Miguel to act dumb and pretend like they didn’t know.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">At Final 9, Ryan also told me that Blake had been working with his side and that Dean specifically did not want him to tell me this piece of information. This made me trust Ryan but distrust Dean. I began to try to create a stronger relationship with Ryan and basically started to play dumb with Dean and pretend like I had no idea what he was doing at all.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">To get Ryan’s trust, I told him that we were voting him and we agreed that I would vote him so that my side does not get suspicious so we could continue our “Divide and Conquer” strategy. Meanwhile, Miguel, Issy, Blake, and I agreed that Miguel, Issy, Me, and Jo would vote Ryan so that the other side didn’t suspect Blake to be double-crossing them.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">I’m going to be honest, I was the one who specifically told Ryan that Jo led the vote on him, but I did this strategically. The other side was only voting Jo because Blake had told them that Jo possessed the double vote when in reality, I did. I needed Jo to go home so that the other side thought that the double vote was gone. Additionally, if Jo had told the other side that it was actually me who had the double vote, I could very easily have been targeted instead of him that vote which meant that I had to throw Jo as hard as possible under the bus so that I could sever all possible relationships between Jo and the other side; this ensured that Jo didn’t tell them about my double vote. Jo went home without me having to vote him out which was great for my game.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:700;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">Final 8 (Felicia medically evacuated)

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">I was really sad that Felicia left dsbkhsdkjdb. She was incredibly sweet.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">It helped me though because I got to avoid a tribal while also keeping my double vote which I originally was going to play at Final 8 under Blake’s plan, but it’s always sad to see someone get evacuated.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:700;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">Final 7 (Dean voted out 4-2-1)

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">I think this vote was really my magnum opus of the game. Blake told me early that Dean was voting me and Ryan told me the same later on. So I decided to continue playing dumb to Dean and Cat and I went along with their fake attempts to try to get me to vote Issy while I worked to blindside Dean instead.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">Ryan also proposed to me that since he didn’t want me out, we could blindside Blake instead. He wanted me to get Miguel and Issy to vote out Blake. Instead, I told Miguel and Issy about the plan and I suggested instead that we vote out Dean, but tell Ryan we would vote out Blake. I then went to Blake and told him that Ryan wanted to blindside him. I knew that he would want to vote out Ryan at Final 7, but I convinced him to vote out Dean at Final 7 and Ryan at Final 6.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">This served two purposes: this would get rid of Dean who wanted me out and also it would put Ryan and Blake at each other’s throats at Final 6 which would be beneficial for me. Even though I had an idol and a double vote at this point, I felt comfortable enough that I didn’t think I would need to play either of them even though I knew I was receiving votes.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">Side note: If Miguel had not won immunity, he would have been the target instead of me and Blake probably would not have flipped back to my side until Final 6. Miguel probably would have been voted out.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:700;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">Final 6 (Blake voted out 5-2)

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">I don’t think I really needed immunity here but I wanted to make sure since I was going to be pulling off a blindside. Additionally, I wanted to add an immunity win to my resume if I made FTC. I also knew that with immunity and my idol at f5, I would be guaranteed a spot in final 4. <span style="font-weight:700;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">However, I actually did have second doubts about voting Blake out because I wasn’t sure if voting him out was the best strategic move and I also felt really bad because of our connection and friendship. I felt that it may have been more beneficial to me to vote out Ryan since Blake could act as a trump card to vote out Miguel in the event that Ryan or Cat won immunity at Final 5. Blake, I actually fought hard to not vote you out here (like 2 hours of arguing); I really didn’t want you gone.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">I ultimately decided that it wasn’t worth arguing against Miguel and Isabel who really wanted Blake out for this vote since I didn’t think it would be strategic for Miguel or Issy to flip on me until Final 3. I also had an idol which would ensure that nothing bad happened until final 4 at least.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:700;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">Final 5 (Cat voted out 3-2)

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">Ryan actually made a small dent in my strategic gameplay here. I had not told anybody that I had found the idol and I was planning on going to the temple at Final 5 and being like HEY GUYS LOOK I FOUND AN IDOL!!! I TOTALLY DIDN’T FIND IT TWO WEEKS AGO. He stole my temple visit though which made it super awkward when I pulled out an idol that I told nobody about.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">I didn’t think this vote was going to be too problematic since I had the idol and if Miguel flipped, he would flip on me and not Isabel and everything would be fine since I would be immune from the idol. I voted out Cat because she was playing the next best game from Ryan.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:700;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">Final 4 (Issy medically evacuated)

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">This is the first and last day in the game that I felt vulnerable. I was going to be voted 2-2 (Miguel, Ryan voting me and Issy, I voting Ryan) which is understandable. At final 4, there weren’t many players left and I had established myself as a threat to win so it made sense for Ryan and Miguel to try to vote me out. However, Issy got evacuated because she forgot to vote. I was really sad that Isabel was evacuated because she was my closest ally and she was the person I was going to take to Final 2 and I think I could beat Ryan in the F4 tiebreaker if she had stayed.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">I think that Miguel believes that Issy would have voted me and I might be wrong, but I don’t think she was going to.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">I believe Miguel lucked out with Issy leaving because he got put into a situation where both Ryan and I were taking him to final 2 whereas if Issy were still here, Miguel probably would have gotten 3rd. My plan was to vote Ryan out at f4, Miguel at f3, and take Issy to f2.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:700;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">Final 3 (Ryan voted out 1-0)

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">I stopped throwing challenges and I went all out at Final 3 to win final immunity. My decision to vote out Ryan came down to him being a bigger jury threat and because he played the more social game compared to Miguel.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">I felt like a lot of Miguel’s moves were dictated by me or planted there by me a few days earlier to make them seem like it was his. A lot of people did not trust Miguel and many people have approached me throughout the course of the game asking me to vote Miguel out with them. I just don’t think his interactions with other people were personal and they were more gamebottish in nature than were Ryan’s or mine’s. I think that I have a better chance against Miguel because he had to rely on immunities in some scenarios and in others, I was the reason that he was not voted out. I would say that a large portion of his information and knowledge about alliances came from me and without me, he wouldn’t have had much game awareness. Ultimately, I believed that I could prove to the jury that even though we made many moves together, I played the better game. Although he has 0 votes on him, it is largely because he was just not as big of a threat as me down the road. I have 4 votes on me, but I was only ever truly in danger at Final 4 and despite receiving votes, I think that I played the stronger game.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">If you read up to here, thank you so much for taking the time to go through that. I know that it’s really dense, but what I wanted to demonstrate was that I think out of anyone in this game, I was able to really control the outcome of it through my social and strategic games. I could win challenges when I wanted to and I proved, with my immunity wins in Final 3, Final 6, Constellations, and Typing Maniac, that I was one of the strongest physical players in the game as well.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">I know the type of game I played: I lied and I manipulated and I deceived and I was sneaky about all of it too; I’m sure that some of you didn’t know the true extent of my actions this game until reading this speech. I just wanted to say that if I hurt you, I did not do so intentionally and I am very glad to have met all of you this season. I believe that I kept it real and that I got to know the majority of players I came into contact with in this game on a genuine level separate from this game.

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<p dir="ltr" style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;line-height:1.38;"><span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap;">Once again, I want to reiterate that this has been a really fun adventure and regardless of what happens tonight, I do want to keep in touch. I really do love all of you and if you would like to see my feelings for you as a person outside of my game decisions, please feel free to check my ROP again which was also 100% genuine: <span style="font-weight:400;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(17,85,204);text-decoration:underline;white-space:pre-wrap;">http://survivor-org.wikia.com/wiki/Thread:166922 <ac_metadata title="VOTE FOR ROB!!!"> </ac_metadata>