Board Thread:Season 50 - Kingdoms Collide/@comment-25087748-20181222022516/@comment-24114312-20181222184828

Hey Bryce! Firstly just to respond to some stuff you said before your question - my intention was never to get Audrey to think you were terrible. Simply, you were a target I had set my sights on and someone I wanted gone, so I used the ammo that I had at my disposal - that you had formed an alliance without Audrey despite her being the sole reason you survived the tribal before. You intending to be loyal to me sucks and I really didn't know. Of course communication is a two-way street but we spoke quite a lot less than I spoke to everyone else so quite a lot of it was based off of that, not just your past seasons. On top of that, at final 13, many of the cast members were intending to be loyal to me, at least for the forseeable future, so it was somewhat inevitable that I would've had to cut someone who felt that way. Yes, it may be wrong to judge on past seasons and I know I hate it when it happens to me, but all people have to go off of is precedent and both of us are known for flipping. I know I've changed a lot and did definitely play a more loyal game this time, so it was wrong for me to judge you and I apologise for that. I don't think I was closed-minded though, I had a set plan and had to adapt when twists, or the mistakes of myself/my allies, or other people's moves/mistakes occurred. My ideal final 3 changed so much over the season so I was definitely not closed-minded and I think that had we spoken more then I may not have targeted you at final 13.

Did you play this game safe?

I completely understand why I'm being criticised for that, but I don't think I did at all. You mentioned voting off Tyler, but I can list many other moves I made that were impactful. The final 11 vote, for example, I threw a vote which was very risky, but ultimately my strategic reasoning ended up being correct and would've prevented Szymon or Jared going home in a revote if Jakey completed his maze. That's not even mentioning the fact that I played an idol and got rid of someone who was targeting me that round. The final 8, I organised the vote off of Jenna who I knew had an idol. Granted, I may be perceived to have played that safe because I played my own idol for myself, but to me that's not 'playing it safe' as much as it is being aware that I was a big target, Cali knew Jenna was getting votes and if Cali told Jenna I was voting her, then it only made sense for Jenna to vote against me and not Chelsea. Regardless, I took the risk and voted against the person I knew had the idol because I wanted it flushed.

I think the greatest example of me not playing the game safe is the final 7. I was in a final four with Chelsea, Jared and Jessica and I betrayed that to flip and get rid of Dani, although miscommunication and indecision at the last minute meant Sydney threw her vote and Jared was eliminated. If it had worked though, me, Jared and Sydney would've taken control of the game with a plurality of the votes. At the final 7 and final 6, I didn't vote against Jared and Sydney despite them being the obvious targets because they were my allies and I simply didn't want to vote them, if I played it safe I would've made their votes unanimous.

I understand saying I played it safe because I voted off Cali and Dani at the final 5 and final 4 instead of Jessica or Chelsea, but imo that's such a narrow lens to judge my whole game from. I honestly think it would've been so dumb to have voted Jessica out at the final 5 and then Cali at the final 4. I could so easily see Dani getting the credit for surviving the final 5, even if it had nothing to do with her, and that being her 'winning move'. Dani also had loads of friends on the jury, both formed in the game and outside the game. To me, if I took her to the end then I was losing to her most likely because of friendships from before the game, and so voting Jessica may have been risky and not playing it safe, but also not the best move. I also don't see how I played this game any less safe than Jessica and Chelsea, who only didn't vote the conventional way at the final 11, which was negated by my idol too. Aside from that, they voted the expected way, except for at the final 7, which was only caused by a move that Jared/Sydney/I pulled.

Do you think people judged you from your previous season the same way you targeted me for?

In some ways no I don't think people judged me - it definitely wasn't Archetypes where I was literally targeted on day 2 for my reputation. But that's not to say that judging people from their previous seasons wasn't something that happened, including towards me. Sydney for example felt like she was being targeted quite a lot because she was a well-known player, and if I'm not mistaken (this is what I've been told), Cali wanted Sydney and I gone because of our reputation. I also think my previous games is a major reason, if not the only reason, Jakey targeted me at the final 13, and why Tyler/Dani chose to not tell me about their new alliance chats and plans. And yeah I was very very appreciative that players like Audrey + Sydney + Chelsea didn't judge me from my past seasons, but honestly it might've been better if people had judged me for their own games. I think this game would've been a lot easier for a lot of people if they had got rid of me at the final 12 or final 13 when I didn't have immunity, because my reputation (as proven by the 'immunity run'/'most likely to win the game' Touchy Subjects answers I got picked for) was that I was a strong player who could get to the end.

Finally, what was the best move Jessica/Chelsea did for their own game?

Jessica - I think the best move Jessica did was voting against Szymon at the final 10 despite being down with the plan to take out Cali. Indirectly keeping Cali, who she had a strong bond with, was a mega advantage to her because it meant she was a swing vote in the upcoming tribals. This move was also a major reason in why I flipped at final 7 to invalidate that position. It also saved her in the event of Cali having an idol and playing it, because at that time I didn't know if Jakey definitely had it or not (maybe Jess did, if she did then her voting Cali and retaining that jury vote in the event Szymon doesn't self-vote was equally as good as if she didn't know).

Chelsea - In my opinion, Chelsea's best moment was winning immunity at the final 10. Granted, that's not really a move, but it saved her from elimination. For a social/strategic move, I think her best move was flipping and voting Sydney at the final 11. It made it very clear that she was here to play, and also meant that she had connections to a lot of different people because she had voted with them, which helped her in later rounds.