it seems like sweet_susan definitely gave you the game tbh, you have a lot to thank him for if you win :P
"We came up with an idea of having a member on both sides, he was on one side and I was on the other (mid-game). At the same time, we created an alliance of 5, within which there was an alliance of 4, within which an alliance of 3, and we all fairly worked together… this included gem, sex, and susan. "
This is classic and definitely what you needed to do. It comes down to making the bottom few feel important and included and blindsiding them, and I'm sure it worked because you didn't really have to tell tony or the outsiders what you were doing...you had numbers. But some of those players should have tried to flip knowing what was coming.