Board Thread:Season 51 - The Caribbean/@comment-35624472-20190225211204/@comment-4184065-20190226042607

What was one bit of good or bad luck, and how did I recover and use it to my advantage.

The piece of good luck that I used to my advantage in the game would probably have to have been the tribe swaps. From the First Swap to the Second Swap, on both tribes, I have been swapped with the majority of my alliance from each previous tribe. I feel like the way I was able to use it to my advantage, was that I didn’t just stop there and rest on my laurels, I was able to keep expanding my social reach. Every new person that came onto our tribe, I welcomed them with open arms (Nick, Andrea, Natalia, Elmo), and even aligned with some of them. Elmo is a GREAT example, I had met the guy a few days ago, and with Bradley, Hunter, and Myself needing another person, we created the HEEB alliance. In a different vein to that, Willow was someone I was really close with in this game, and she got swap-fucked, point blank and the period. If that happened to me, I would have had an idol, but I still would have been on the outs and not had a shot, so these pre-merge Swaps really worked out in my favour this season. I took what I was given, and I was able to make MORE out of it. I actively tried to make sure everyone was on the same page when we were voting, I wanted our tribe to be united, and I didn’t want anyone feeling left out, especially during the pre-merge because all it takes is one wrong swap with a person you didn’t vote with, and you’re screwed.

Why doesn’t the finalists don’t deserve to win.

I believe that Andrea doesn’t deserve to win because she had the least agency in the game. She laid under the radar, and was attached to the hip with Yousef. I believe that Yousef had more control over the decisions that they made together, and Andrea even said herself that she wanted to sit next to Yousef in the end, a situation I think she clearly loses in.

As for Jake, I believe that he had this grand strategy of his, he was socially connected, he was under the radar, and he was planning on going to the end with Andrea and You… And he failed. Unlike Jake, I was able to pave my path to the end the way I wanted to. I’m sitting next to the two people I wanted to sit beside. Nearing the end game, the person I preferred to go home each round, went home. Andrea said it herself in her speech that I wanted Yousef voted out at 5, and Karsten voted out at 4, and I was insistent that it happened. Jake went along with what I said each round. If he wanted to make a move, he easily could have. Instead he got complicit in his “cut the threat at the end” strategy, and it came back to bite him in the ass. According to Jake and Myself, I didn’t need to win challenges until after the final 6, at which case I was put into a position where I knew I had to win the last two challenges if I wanted to be here. I was strategically voting out the players I thought could beat me in challenges, because I knew you and Jake weren’t going to just let me get past a vote if I lost, it was pretty obvious from the whole “you telling me that” part. Overall, Jake and I each had our end-game scenarios planned, I was able to get mine to work, while he followed suit with what I said, and failed to clutch the “easy win” he was so desperate for. This whole season Jake was playing under the radar... But for that type of game to work… you have to actually come out from under the water at some point.

Which juror is the reason you reached FTC

The juror that is the reason I reached the FTC is probably Yousef. We went from not being aligned and have VERY different views of the game, to become incredibly close in the span of a few hours. We were both had lost our allies, and him giving me the heads-up about the votes coming for me at the final 8 saved my ass. I feel like if I hadn’t connected with Yousef before this round and the way I did, In hindsight, I easily could have seen myself getting blindsided there at 8. Thankfully because of his warning to me and my alliance, I was able to get some votes off of myself during that tribal, and I had my idol in safe keeping for another day. I feel like we really fed off of each other’s energy in the game, especially when it was too quiet in the game for our tastes, like during the Final 9 vote. During the final 8 vote we worked together and pulled off the blindside of Natalia. Those two rounds were crucial for me because I think I was probably in the most danger these rounds, because a lot of people had been viewing me as a threat that they wanted to get rid of, like everyone who was planning to vote for me at the Final 8. I knew if I could make it past those few votes, the bonds and deals I had made with everyone would carry me through the next few rounds. And I think it has been established that they would have, regardless of challenge wins, up until the Final 5. Yousef was instrumental to my game when we needed each other most, and I can’t thank him enough for what he did for me in the game. I wish I could bring up more players, because I definitely wasn’t alone in this game, but if I was forced to pick one, I would say Yousef.

Hope I gave you everything you were looking for. Cheers Karsten.