Board Thread:Season 35 - Sri Lanka/@comment-24535117-20160917232310





Hey all, it’s nice to finally talk to all of you again. It’s crazy to think that we’re finally at the end of an amazing game that truly challenged me on a physical, strategic, social, and mental level- and I’m so grateful that I got to participate in this experience with all of you. Full disclosure, this will be a fairly lengthy speech so I encourage y’all to listen to this song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7pF6_PeamU

) while reading my speech to make it more enjoyable.



The Start And My Methodology



So, as many of you know, this was my first time playing a Survivor ORG and playing within this community. As a result, when I entered the season, I didn’t know any of you, or what challenges to expect, or even how to use Facebook! In response to my total lack of information, I developed a systematic set of goals in order to get further in the game. My methodology can be summarized by the following:



1.      Make a best faith effort to talk to each and every single player on both a personal and game level.

2.      Research, research, research- I really spent hours every day reading into past seasons in order to learn about how the seasons typically developed, what challenges and scores to expect, the gameplay of previous sole survivors, and even the seasons where y’all previously played, such that I could really get an understanding of what to expect from not only the hosts but also all of you, the players I played this season with.

3.      Be open to decisions and alliances, and to carefully think out my options and consequences in each possible scenario.

4.<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-weight:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"TimesNewRoman";">      Keep it real. To all of you who spoke to me, we may have had great experiences talking or even bad experiences talking, I believe this range of reactions resulted from my talking to you as a genuine human being. I knew that coming into this game, I did not want to fake who I was as a person, or what I stood for by constructing a persona.

<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0level1lfo1">5.<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-weight:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"TimesNewRoman";">      Play hard, I always kept working or thinking about the game, and played every challenge to its fullest- even if I wound up throwing by submitting a weaker score. I knew that I could fall back on my physical abilities if the going got tough, and wanted to hide this while practicing at the same time.

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<p class="MsoNormal">Regardless of how this final tribal council plays out, I’ll be extremely happy with how this season played out, because I believe I stuck to these initial goals; which helped propel me to where I am now, stating my case at tribal council.

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<p class="MsoNormal">Despite hiccups along the way, I truly believe I have played the best game out of the people currently sitting at FTC with me. To help substantiate this point, I’ll start going into my journey and thought process throughout the game as it played out.

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<p class="MsoNormal">My Path To FTC – Thoughts and Reflection

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<p class="MsoNormal">When I was told a week before Sri Lanka started that I made the cast, I was ecstatic and quickly realized how unprepared I was for the season when I didn’t know how to make a chat room with the hosts or how to friend people on Facebook. So, I immediately started my preparation, detailed in the goals listed above.

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<p class="MsoNormal">By the time the game began, I had a rough idea of what to expect for this season, and immediately began talking and attempting to develop a strong personal connection to each and every player on my tribe. These efforts paid off very early on, where both Michael and Luis offered me a final two deal, which I accepted cautiously, and I made my true final two deal with Asa at roughly the same time. I knew I wanted at least one person I could trust and could bounce information off of in order to further develop my understanding of what was happening within the tribe and game.

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<p class="MsoNormal">Fortuitously, Michael wanted to make an alliance very early on, and in the process of forming this alliance, I steered him towards the inclusion of my other two final twos- Luis and Asa. This Final Four was later named Adamas (after Diamond) by Luis, and I knew due to my individual relationships with each player, I could steer the group towards decisions I believed would get us further in the game. Luis and Michael really wanted to put a fifth person into the alliance, but I strongly urged against it, because not only would it reduce my power or say within the alliance- but I also felt that it would potentially lead to some massive headaches if that fifth decided to leak or flip at the first tribal council with nine members. Instead, it was my contention to just try as best as we could during the first immunity challenge, and to subtly lead the rest of the tribe into voting a weaker physical player out, which would not only implicitly give us the majority, but keep us stronger in the challenges going forward.

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<p class="MsoNormal">With this initial foundation in place, I felt confident that I wouldn’t need to try very hard in tribal challenges, such that I knew I would still score decently well enough to not get targeted, but that even with a loss I wouldn’t be at risk of getting voted out. Sure enough, we won the first set of challenges, and Robert wound up leaving on the other side.

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<p class="MsoNormal">The following tribal was extremely interesting, in that the Ampara tribe got smashed on the Scavenger Hunt immunity, forcing us to go to tribal for the first time. Immediately, the game got extremely hectic. The targets being thrown around the tribe were Conor and Chrissa for their weak physical performances, and the tribe was about ready to split into two based on who left. I found this troubling to say the least, because I wanted the tribe to stay strong in the case of an eventual swap or merge. During this process, I got very close to Conor and he pulled me into another alliance with Miles Liam and Dusk. At the same time, I told Michael, Luis, and Asa to make an alliance with Dusk and Liam. With the tribe heading closer to the voting deadline, I spoke to both Conor and Chrissa to see which player I wanted to work with more. When I decided upon working with Conor, I spoke to Chrissa and slowly coaxed her into self-evicting from the tribe by getting her to announce her intention to quit the game for Conor’s sake. While, this may seem like a drastic move- I believe it was the only way to keep the tribe closer together and dissolve any future tensions that could’ve arose from a split vote between Conor and Chrissa. This wound up working, and following Chrissa’s announcement, the rest of the tribe voted her out.

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<p class="MsoNormal">Although I thought this plan worked to alleviate tensions on the tribe, it was evident that the fractures still existed, when I spoke to players around the tribe, who were all jockeying for additional votes for control over the following tribal. After Allie’s tribal, Ampara went to tribal right afterwards, which would ultimately force the resolution of these tensions.

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<p class="MsoNormal">This was the first vote, where I firmly knew I was the swing vote. Michael, Luis, and Asa came to the decision to vote Dusk out, Liam was voting Miles, and the rest of the players were voting Luis. I found the target on Luis to be unexpected, so I took the opportunity to talk to Conor to find out why this game to be. Through this conversation, I found out that Luis had a loose mouth (I didn’t know just how loose his lips were yet) and revealed the existence of the Michael, Luis, Asa, Liam, Dusk alliance to Conor in order to try to cover his bases and play both sides. While, this was disappointing news, I told it in private to both Michael and Asa in order to distance them from Luis, because I was starting to sense that Luis would become a major liability that would have to be taken out down the line.

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<p class="MsoNormal">Despite the information revealed to me about Luis, I chose to vote Dusk out. I made this decision because he hadn’t spoken much to me despite my efforts. Not only this, but I felt like I could use the information I received from Conor to strengthen my position within Adamas and to better control Luis by using the conversation as a lesson on how his actions could backfire.

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<p class="MsoNormal">The game went through its first tribeswap shortly after, and I was devastated- I felt that I got swapfucked and felt like I had to do some major scrambling, because the tribal results from Bundala appeared to indicate a level of solidarity. Quickly understanding the risky position I was about to enter, especially with my flip on Conor- I quickly asked Luis and Asa in the Adamas alliance to utilize the numbers on their postswap tribe to throw and evict the other Bundalas.

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<p class="MsoNormal">When I entered my new tribe, I quickly pulled Michael and Conor into an alliance chat with the goal of talking to the original Bundala members to find a weak link and hopefully convince them to flip. Although, this plan went quickly out the window the moment Andy mutiny’d from the other side, I still took the opportunity to try to talk to each and every single Bundala member on my second tribe in order to establish relationships in case we went to tribal. Also unexpectedly, Conor believed that Miles was the one who flipped and voted Dusk, and the following increase in trust resulted in another final two deal with Conor.

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<p class="MsoNormal">The other tribe threw as expected, providing me with some much needed breathing room, and resulted in Nate’s ousting. However, when the results for the following reward challenge came out- where the other tribe won, I quickly sensed something was wrong. So I made the decision to win the reward challenge to send Luis from the other side with the expectation that Luis would then send me, so I would have an opportunity to figure out what was happening. Confirming my fears, Luis had reservations about throwing again- and I spent hours trying to convince him to throw. Although the argument got heated, when exile ended, the other tribe threw again and surprisingly sent Miles out of the game.

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<p class="MsoNormal">When the hosts pulled us into another chat room with all of the members to discuss the picking system for the next round of tribeswaps, I quickly formed an alliance with Asa and Allison – named placeholder to discuss our options and to get closer to Allison to prepare for this imminent swap. While I originally planned to pick Asa who would then pick Allison to guarantee myself a majority in the new tribe, the other side unfortunately picked Asa. I quickly improvised by picking Allison who then chose Chris who I had developed a final two with, called the newbies. At the same time, I asked Asa how Miles left, and she informed me about Luis had gone rogue with power, leaving her on the bottom if not for the second tribeswap, and that Connor was potentially Luis’ goat. Knowing that I potentially had to take Luis out for my game, and knowing Michael’s blind obsession with the Adamas alliance- I told Michael that Luis had gone rogue and that I might be forced to take him out, I also told Asa to inform Michael on what happened during the first tribe swap.

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<p class="MsoNormal">I found the dynamic in my new tribe absolutely fascinating, with Luis and Connor on one side, Allison and Chris on the other side, and myself- and by extension, Conor also in the middle. It was here that, I made my first big move by blindsiding Luis. Luis wanted Allison out, and I felt that having Allison and Asa together would benefit my game much more. At the same time, Luis had been weighing on the back of my mind since the second tribal. I knew that he had loose lips and that he would absolutely jump at the chance for more power if given the opportunity. I was also scared to take him out, because he had shown me screenshots in our private chats, and I felt that if I took him out- he would not be opposed to cheating to get the “revenge” he saw fit. Despite this, I convinced everybody on the tribe to throw, because they all thought they would be in the majority. Luis and Connor thought that four votes would be on Allison. On the other side, Allison, Chris, and Conor thought we would split the votes 2-2 on Luis and Connor. However, I knew that if we had to go to a revote, that the situation would get extremely messy due to Luis’ personality, I set up the votes where I was not part of the two original votes on Luis, such that my actual vote on Luis would guarantee him leaving.

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<p class="MsoNormal">Unfortunately, this had rather immediately consequences after Luis left. Where he blatantly cheated by talking to other players, and created a massive target on my back, just in time for the following merge.

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<p class="MsoNormal">With merge, Liam took up the mantle of avenging Luis with his “All Aboard the Revenge Bus Alliance”, which I already knew about from Asa and Michael informing me the moment it was created. Although, I found this scenario extremely unfair and exasperating, I adapted quickly around the situation to compensate. I took the time to talk to each player 1 on 1, and knew my bases were more or less covered with Michael, Asa, and Allison- and with Chris and Andy due to the final four with me and Michael that was shortly before the second tribe swap. However, with the information that Asa and Michael had given me on Liam’s alliance, I took the time to talk to Ari and Forrest- where they denied the existence of the alliance, which then confirmed to me that I would not be able to ever really talk game to them until much further in the game. I then spoke to Liam, catching him in his lie, and planting the seed in his head of whom else he would target after getting me out. This worked out rather well, where his bravado in asserting the boot order so to speak, caused all of his allies except Connor to leave him, and resulted in his removal that tribal.

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<p class="MsoNormal">It was at final 10, where I had to make the decision that I think set the pace for the rest of the season. With Liam’s boot, I knew that it would open up Connor being a free agent so to speak, and that a bunch of players would greedily lunge at the opportunity for a loyal vote, so to speak. I didn’t want this to happen, I wanted to get rid of the last player with the potential to be in the middle, because it would make my options clearer heading into the rest of the game. On one side, I had Andy and Chris- to whom I had been quietly leading to mistrust Michael, because I knew Michael threw my name under the bus during the first tribe swap. On the other side, I had Michael, Allison, and Asa. And I considered Conor an extremely close vote, one that I felt I could trust going forward into the game. I knew these tensions were set to burst in favor of one side or another very soon, so I wanted to take Connor out to be in the best position to take advantage of the situation. Strangely, both Michael and Chris desperately wanted to save Connor, no doubt motivated by greed. Michael wanted to vote Ari instead, and Chris wanted to vote Michael. I spoke to both of them to dissuade this from occurring, but the conversation went drastically south with Chris- which influenced my decision in the final 9 tribal council. However, in the process of talking to Chris- I noticed he would constantly mention who Forrest and Ari wanted out, so naturally I went to talk to Forrest about it, because my impression of Forrest was that he was an independent player who wouldn’t necessarily lead on a vote. As a result, Forrest confronted Chris, which made the vote on Connor go much more smoothly.

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<p class="MsoNormal">Final nine was the turning point in the game, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, I was at the point where I could decide which side I wanted to go with, and it was around this time that I found the idol. To my perception, the side with Chris, Andy, Forrest, and Ari seemed to be filled with much stronger game players compared to the other side of Michael, Asa, and Allison. So, with this and based on the row I had with Chris last tribal, I put together the final 5 with Conor, in order to consolidate a strong position for the rest of the game as I perceived it. At this point, I wanted to go to final 4 with asa Allison and Conor, have Asa and Conor at final 3, and probably wanted go to final 2 with Asa. So in essence, I chose to go with the side with less perceived game players. For this vote, while I didn’t want Ari out- I went with the majority, because I thought a smooth vote at final nine with the f5 would set up very clean final eight position, where I thought it would take two flips in order for the alliance to break apart. Sadly, this wasn’t the case.

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<p class="MsoNormal">At final eight, I knew Conor was showing reservations with going with the final five I made, so in order to alleviate his concerns- I showed him my idol and revealed my plan to use the idol at f5 to send Michael home to guarantee us at least a tiebreaker position at final 4. At the same time within the final five, I wanted to send Chris home, because I considered him to be a massive threat on a physical and social level. However, when I got Michael to bring up Chris as the target, I noticed some pushback from Allison, citing fake reasons such as Chris potentially having the idol from going to exile twice- when I knew Chris had never been to exile island. So I asked Asa for information, and found that Allison wanted Asa to vote Andy- I was immensely troubled by this, and desperately begged Asa to convince Allison to vote Chris, because I knew that as long as four of us voted the same way, there was no way for the final 5 to leave. Also I knew that it was too late to swap the target to Andy, because of Michael’s ham brained habit of voting way too early. As a result, Asa, probably my closest ally in the game, wound up going to Ponderosa.

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<p class="MsoNormal">This was devastating, because I knew that not only had I lost the vehicle I envisioned myself going to FTC with, but also I felt that I also lost an ally I really counted on, Conor.

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<p class="MsoNormal">I knew it was at this point, it was time for me to stop throwing challenges, and I went straight for the jugular on every challenge. It was also the start of final seven, a pivotal moment for my game. At this point, it seemed all but certain that the two allies I thought I had left would leave one by one, which would relegate me to a position with no power in tribal politics. Although Allison was saying she’d find a way in the tribe chat, asking us to shut up and trust her, I ultimately had no faith in her abilities, and began strongly considering the use of my idol in order to desperately claw back for some kind of power within the game. At that point, nobody knew about my idol except for Conor and myself. So there is absolutely no way that Michael talked me into using the idol for him. Instead, I revealed my idol to both Michael and Allison in the alliance chat and told them to copy paste their conversations with the other side of the house such that I could get enough information on who to idol. Michael desperately begging me to use the idol on him, made me not want to use the idol, but I considered using the idol the best move to establish a little bit of power within the game. To be fair, I could’ve absolutely saved the idol for myself in order to buy myself a window of safety in case I lost an immunity challenge. But I did not want to become Mike Holloway, I did not want to be someone who got strictly to the end by winning immunities without any ability to influence who went home. With this in mind, I voted Andy, used the idol on Michael and prayed that I made the right decision. Andy wound up leaving.

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<p class="MsoNormal">Although us three (me Michael Allison) all made final six and there was the expectation that we would go to rocks for each other. This quickly fell apart when Allison became domineering in whom I could talk to, and this escalated to a full blown argument. We did decide upon voting Conor in the alliance chat, but based on the interactions I had with Allison after the argument, I knew that she would not be voting with me and Michael, so I told Michael to vote Chris instead of Conor, because I thought Conor would be much more receptacle to a discussion if Allison were to leave that tribal. At the same time, I spoke to Forrest and Conor, who I think began talking to me more- because it seemed that I would sweep the rest of the immunities, and there was the potential that I would pick the person who would be sitting next to me at the end in case of a final two ftc. In any case, the vibes I got from Allison were confirmed when it was revealed that she voted Forrest.

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<p class="MsoNormal">Although Forrest and I had a falling out at roughly final nine, it was around final six that we began talking more, and throughout the process, I constantly impressed upon Forrest on how much of a threat Chris and Conor were in the game for jury votes if they got to the end. At this point, Michael was voting whoever I was telling him to vote- so by finally work with Forrest in the game, I was able to finally get Chris and Conor out of the game. Which has put both Forrest and Michael in the final tribal council.

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<p class="MsoNormal">Why I played better than Forrest

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<p class="MsoNormal">I think compared to Michael, Forrest has definitely played a better game, while he never really pushed for his target to leave, with the exception of Allison- who I was ok with leaving, he has managed to stay relatively safe for the entire game. He was clearly his own player and played for himself, and I’m glad that he reopened himself to working with me towards the end, which not only got him safety- but also got my targets out in the end. I’ll also mention that no one to my knowledge except Michael and Allison directly wanted Forrest out.

<p class="MsoNormal">Why I played better than Michael

<p class="MsoNormal">I think he objectively played the worst game out of everybody who made merge, he got the most votes- he was the target for a lot of the game, and most importantly, he was my goat. He voted the way I wanted and talked to other players the way I wanted. I only used the idol on him, because I knew how loyal he was to me, and because I was pretty confident he was getting voted out. I also think based on his RoP, he was the fakest player in this game, who only got to the end because all he knew how to say was Of course and thank you to everybody else left in the game.

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<p class="MsoNormal">Summation

<p class="MsoNormal">I think you should vote me to be the sole survivor, because I have played with every inch of my body. I was clearly the most physical player in this game, socially, although we may have had our moments- I believed I have genuinely talked to and conversed with each and every single one of you. Strategically, I did not let my physical game become my crutch- I threw early on and swept it out to the end, but as evidenced by the idol play at f7 and myself and Michael still being at the end, I played a very strong strategic game. I will say, I did not backstab any of you first, I only made a reactionary move, and I think I can say that in complete good faith. Despite the exhausting nature of the game, I never made any moves out of paranoia, and I think I made the best move for my game every tribal. I only ask as a player, that you vote on the basis of who you genuinely think played the best game.

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<p class="MsoNormal">Thanks to everybody, especially Emile and Jessys for bringing me into this community, the hosts for casting and hosting this and to the players for playing with me, it’s been a blast- good luck to all.

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