howdy yall! i know this prolly seems like a pretty anticlimactic season to some of yall, but hopefully i can convince you that my game was strong and that im a worthy winner of this series.
I’ll preface by saying I know i didnt play anything near a flawless game. Primarily, my social game was pretty lacking with some of yall, and i really do regret not taking the time to talk with some of you as much i should have. All of you have made me laugh at some point in the game and I wish I had taken more time to get to know some of yall better. You all seem like chill, fun people and i wish id taken the opportunities in front of me to make some friends and stuff, but i swear i didnt mean it personally or anything when i didnt.
Anywho, I’m gonna go ahead and overview my game now, and hopefully yall can see that I actually played a pretty strong game, and maybe youll even vote for me ;)
Premerge, the only tribal i had to go to was the rohan one right before merge, so i dont have much to say about what happened there. I will say though that i made strong ties with both vincent and alfie preswap, and that, though alfie initiated alliances with us 2 and kim and us 2 with tyler, i made strong bonds with tyler and kim by myself, too, that would support me throughout the merge.
If yall want a play-by-play of the merge im more than happy to give it to yall but i wanted post something ~relatively~ quickly so yall wouldnt have to wait for me and i could maybe even go to bed lol.
I think the strongest part of my game is not just that I was involved in every vote off this season, but that I was active in the forming of a lot of the crucial votes this season, and I kept myself surrounded with people loyal to me. I think the three most important vote offs for my game were Hoop, Kim, and Tyler, so I’m gonna explain those with a little more depth.
The Hoop vote off is where tyler and i really solidified our alliance to each other imo. Tyler and I had been aligned sonce premerge, but more so through our alliance with alfie and kim than via an individual relationship. At this vote, I think that changed. There were a few reasons I felt motivated to make a (small) move this round. Initially, vincent was going to be the target that vote, presumptively by unanimous vote. I knew that vincent, especially considering the whole tribe was willing to vote him, could be a valuable and loyal ally to me if he stayed. Additionally, Tyler had leaked an alliance of nick/brian/tyler/cam/hoop. Tyler and I came together and decided that it’d make more sense to nip the alliance in the bud and vote off one of hoop or cam. We then gathered alfie/kim/vincent/darrius for a majority, with hoop ultimately being the victim of the vote. During this vote, Tyler and I became much closer, i retained my tightness with alfie and to a lesser extent kim, and I gained a strong ally in vincent, who i knew probably trusted me more than anyone else left in the game.
The Kim vote also a move id like to take partial credit for. I know it prolly seems like a big move for tyler, and it 100% was, but i def think it was a move that i made in junction with tyler. Kim became a direct threat to my game for several reasons. First, he was really close with alfie. I trusted both alfie and kim as a 3-man alliance, but i always knew kim threatened my position as alfie’s number 1. Also, Kim mentioned a couple of times that he liked brian. I dont know for sure that kim necessarily would have turned on me to work with brian and/or cam, but i knew that kim would want to target vincent this round before either of em, and Vincent still was a really great ally for me to have in the game. Lastly, Kim had an idol. Kim had told alfie and i about having the merge idol very early on in the merge, but hadnt told tyler (despite having used tyler’s clue lol). Ultimately, Kim was in a position that made him a pretty big threat, especially to my positioning specifically. So tyler and I talked and agreed that kim was a threat because of his positioning, especially with brian, and I finally told him about kim’s idol. Tyler then revealed to me that he had a runestone this whole time, which was really awesome but also really heartbreaking, which I’ll get to in a second. So tyler initially wanted to wait and use the stone at 6, allowing vincent to go, but i knew i wanted to keep vincent, and that i wanted isolate alfie from kim, and that i needed to get rid of kim’s idol asap, so i suggested using the runestone on vincent, and, worst case scenario, tyler could just use the stone again at 6. We came up with the logistics of the vote together: that he and vincent would vote kim and id vote brian in case of an idol. Tyler thought itd be best to at least tell alfie what was planned before tribal, and i couldnt have agreed more, though perhaps for more selfish reasons. Even though alfie didnt want kim to go, the vote still went through, and, after the vote, I was able to play it off as though I didnt know what was going to happen, so alfie gained trust in me and distrust in tyler. After this vote, tyler and i were very tight, vincent and i were very tight, and alfie and I were very tight. More importantly, though, I had each of them almost exclusively to myself. Alfie didnt really trust tyler after this vote, i feel vincent had seen me as his closer ally than tyler throughout the merge, and tyler and I had played the merge together very closely, so i felt confident I was his #1.
Lastly, I’ll discuss the tyler vote. I had prepared for this vote for a while, but i definitely never looked forward to it. Tyler had been a pretty obvious FTC threat throughout most of the merge, having played a pretty dominant game strategically and socially. And when he told me about his runestone and ultimately played it, he confirmed what i’d already known: that i definitely couldnt beat him in an ftc. So, starting at f7, i spent a lot of my time making sure that at 5, I had the votes to get tyler out, and by keeping alfie and vincent so tight with me, I felt confident that the votes would be there. I expected more resistance on this vote, though, and was surprised that vincent hardly hesitated and alfie suggested voting tyler to me before i did to him. Tyler played a really incredible game, which is ultimately why I knew i had to cur him. I very much dreaded this vote, but it was a move that i had planned for multiple rounds, and a move i knew i ultimately had to make for my own game.
Overall, I think I played a quietly dominant game this season. I am the only person who always knew who was getting voted out and voted correctly (except for an intentionally split vote ig), and I actively made moves that furthered my game and bettered my position. I positioned myself well socially among my allies so that I could give myself a clear, potentially winnable path to where i sit now. I’m satisfied with how i played the game, and I really really hope you can reward my hard work and gameplay with your votes! Thanks for playing with me yall!!