Board Thread:Season 23 - Greece/@comment-25681381-20150120014953

I see that this is basically my last shot to get any of your votes. And seeing after I didn't get the most favorable treatment from the jury, I'm having the hardest time being able to convince you guys why I should win. But I'm still not giving up. I'm going out not with a fizzle, but with a bang.

I've thought it over all day. And I thought that I finally came to the conclusion that understanding how the jury operates will you give you a better chance at winning. But thinking it over once more, I don't think that's true at all.

The jury always has a favorite, they always have a pick to win, and they will come into FTC favoring that person and simply hoping that their answers are good enough to justify voting for them to win.

You all had a clear favorite, which was Sora. But then you have to realize that there's a clear difference between your favorite and the best. To put this into perspective, arguably Sandra or Parvati are the best players to ever play Survivor, but they're certainly not everyone's favorite.

In this final 3, a line needs to be drawn between who your favorite is, and who the best player is (ya ya whoever wins the season is the best blah blah we're not there yet).

I think we all, jury and finalists, need to understand this concept of who played the better game, and who played the more favorable game.

To put this idea into perspective, I'd say it's far easier for the jury to favor Sora's game for this one simple reason: Sora (admittedly) has played a game similar to most jurors. This is the time in which you ask yourself, as a juror, are you voting for somebody who played a juror's game, or are you voting for somebody that did what you couldn't do, which was control the game, make the necessary moves that they wanted to make, and ultimately succeed.

My closing statement isn't meant to be an anti-Sora speech, nor a pro-Amelia speech; this is a pro-MJ speech.

There are clear flaws in all of our games: Sora's lack of control and moves, Amelia has too much blood on their hands, and I have a poor social game.

Are you voting for who did the least worst (?) or who did the best? In this tribal, it was definitely an eye-opener to me that you guys, the jury, tended to focus on what some of the finalists did wrong, rather than what the 3 of us collectively did right.

We can interpret the couple of "Erik Cardonas" that have happened now, and why this ideology shouldn't actually be applied here. If you're going with the method, for example, that Sora deserves to win because he's sitting in the finals and that makes him "just as much of a threat" as the other two, then what exactly makes him better? Comparing the raw games of each finalist, we're all sitting in the finals, Sora won immunity once, I won it twice, Amelia won like 4 rewards. Who has blood on there hands? Amelia and I. Who doesn't Sora? Was that by choice? I'd argue against that actually, had Sora flipped the game like he wanted to, then he'd in turn have my blood, Amelia's, Hanne's, and Jess' blood on his hands, but he has none of it.

Ask yourself this, jury, would you still admit that Sora was just as much of a threat as me if he was on the jury right now? While Amelia and I were viewed as threats in our own aspects throughout the entirety of the game.

You may say that "Perception is not reality -- Reality is reality," but based on how some of you said that "MJ did NOTHING to get himself here," means that PERCEPTION is in fact REALITY. But just because your perception is a reality to you, it may not be reality to others, and it might not be a reality at all.

I worked from Day 1 to Day 39, non stop. I had to recognize who would and wouldn't work with me, and move the game in a direction that favored me, specifically. Did I have to hurt people to get here? Yes, but that's because I got myself here.

This is my final plea for your votes. I want to show you all that your perception of me might not be entirely correct, I want to show you all the reality of my game, that is a reality to me, that is possibly a reality to the hosts, and most importantly, that is a reality to this entire season.

No, I didn't get dragged here, but I also didn't get here on my own. I got here with the help of most of you. I did everything that I possibly could to get myself to the end of this game, and give myself a fighting chance to construct a FTC argument that would be deserving of the win. I made moves that I needed to get myself here, and created bonds with people I needed bonds with.

That is what is reality to me. My reality, is the reality that I worked as hard as I could to get here. I did everything that I could. What needs to become a reality to us all, is that I'm sitting in the finals with somebody that didn't do nearly as many things right as I did, and somebody that did everything that I did (possibly better) but that person is also somebody that I gave my word and a promise to.

That's it for the most part, and just to clear one last thing up, the alliance of myself, Hanne, Jessica, and Amelia was not at all pre made. Amelia and I had little to no reason to talk to each other prior to the game, and to my knowledge, Hanne and Jess had only met Amelia once the game started. And not to mention I idol'd Jessica out of a previous game we played together, even I'm surprised she was willing to work with me. And let's not forget the fact that I had to get through the preswap on my own, and once we did swap Hanne was immediately targetted BECAUSE OF ME, and even Jess/Amelia were in minority once we swapped. We all worked hard to get through the first stages of the game, and our alliance didn't just magically fall into place. And who knows where the rumor that we were pre made came from to begin with, but let's keep in mind, Sora was apparently the only one that "caught on" to the alliance, and coincidentally his biggest fan is suspected to have leaked information to him soooo.... Let's just keep that in mind when little ol' Sora claims to have had such a good grasp on the game. :)

And to end my time here, I'd just like to say that I really did have a lottttt of fun playing in this season. So thanks @ the ghosts for making this experience so great, and dedicating lots of your time to it. To the jury and the rest of the cast, you were all great as well and thank you for playing the game with me.

And finallllyyyyy to the jury, please take your responsibility as a juror as serious as possible please. We all (players, hosts, and community) want the most satisfying winner possible to end this great season.

Keep everything that was said in this FTC in mind when voting, and I hope that you all see enough reason to give me your vote over the other 2. Thank you all so much, and good luck! 