No speeches yet I-

Booooo

Before I address the jury I want to say thank you to Alfie and Oliver for a very enjoyable season. I don’t typically play survivor group games, but I had a lot of fun with this one so thank you for casting me and being great hosts.

JURY!

I want to thank you all for a great season full of good memories. You were all pleasant to play with and I didn’t have any ‘personal’ problems with anybody in this cast, which is certainly a nice thing to leave the game with. Thank you to all of you for keeping it classy throughout and allowing me to purely have fun in this game.

Just a few quick statistics I want to highlight and that I’m proud of:
- Won 5 immunity challenges at merge all requiring different skills e.g. endurance, speed, puzzles, general knowledge and game trivia
- Found 2 hidden immunity idols in this game: one on the first day, and one just before the finale took place (after extensive searching).
- Only received one vote against me that ‘counted’ this game (not including my idol plays) which was during the pre-merge stage

I am going to be completely honest: I do not believe I played a perfect game. There were many times in this game I did not have control, I trusted the wrong people or I misjudged a situation. However, with every mistake came room for improvement and I feel like I adapted incredibly well to my setbacks in this game. I will now discuss how I played this game and it will be divided into the three most important aspects: physical, social and strategic.

PHYSICAL GAME -
I have always had the belief that one should not make themselves a physical threat unless they need to. At the beginning of this game, I completely downplayed my physical game. I wanted a weak persona, which was crucial to me surviving in the early stages. I threw the first ever challenge in this game, and then proceeded to either not try or not show up to the challenges in the pre-merge stage of this game. This was a calculated decision designed to make people feel that my head was not in the game, and that I would not be a physical force come the jury stage.

I wanted to carry this weak persona for as long as I possibly could. Even after I used my idol incorrectly and my main ally (James) was sent home in the same tribal, I still continued to throw competitions. This was because I felt my ‘weak persona’ would keep me safe. After the house collectively voted Yawn out, I knew the house were going to turn against me very soon so that’s when I decided to step it up a notch and try in the challenges. I won 3 consecutive immunities: a math/equation challenge, an endurance challenge and a general knowledge challenge (country capitals). The endurance competition was one of my proudest challenge victories ever on this website, because I went into the challenge with a huge disadvantage (It was midnight for me, whereas for most players it was 7pm, and I hadn’t napped that day or had a great deal of sleep the night before) yet I still managed to outlast everybody by staying awake for 12 HOURS with complete focus on winning that competition. I have never fought for my safety that hard in a competition probably ever. The wordplay challenge at F5 I did have a desire to win, but I knew it was not essential because I had an idol and knew everybody would vote me out that round anyway so it worked to my favour to lose. After I correctly used my idol, I then won the gif competition. The final challenge I won was a trivia of the game - which I had been taking notes on all season long. I have been studying this game as it went along, with hopes that I would make it this far and I’m incredibly proud that I did and was able to sit in my ideal Final 2.

Challenges aside, I also found two hidden immunity idols! The first was on Day 1 after winning the clue after titled a 'Queen', and then the other was just before the tribal for F6 ensued. Both of these, ESPECIALLY the latter, required a lot of effort and searching because the clues were very vague and it was difficult to find out even 'where' I should begin my search. I got both of these through hard work and refusing to give up despite the frustration it would cause me to search for hours with no luck.

If anybody has any questions about the competitions/physical game or wants more precise details on which ones I tried on/how I won, feel free to ask!

SOCIAL GAME -
One aspect of my game that I think others may have perceived as a weakness was my social game. Until the later merge stages of this game, I did not spend huge amounts of time getting to know people. The reason for this was because I wanted to keep an incredibly low profile as I didn’t want to be seen as a huge social/strategic threat until the time was right. I also didn’t want to give false hope to the jurors who were leaving the game in the early stages, as I really don’t like to play that way.

However, when Brady left he made a comment saying that I was a difficult player to engage with. That is when I realised that my ‘under the radar’ game was perhaps going too far and was actually losing me the respect of other players. From that moment on, I made a very conscious effort to speak more frequently with the players and get to know them better. I formed genuine bonds and friendships with the people in this game, which I am happy about because as I said earlier this was on the whole a very friendly cast. While I was in the minority alliance for most of the game, I still did try to make an effort to get to know people on the other side while trying my hardest to not give false hope or be ‘fake’ to people. It’s hard to strike the correct balance, but I do think I adapted as well as I could to the criticism I received for the ‘social’ aspect of my game and really kicked it into gear in the later portions of the game! I hope that the friendships and connections I formed are able to continue after this game, and that I can get to know you all even better.

STRATEGIC GAME -
As I explained, my physical and social game both of course have ‘strategic’ undertones, however I want to use this section to focus on what I was able to accomplish in terms of the actual vote-outs and what my impact was on the course of this game. 

Pre-merge I was playing an extremely UTR game. I wanted to be seen as non-threatening and wanted to basically just make it to the merge in whichever way I could. I voted in majority at every pre-merge tribal council I went to.

Early merge: I was in the minority. At F12 I knew either me or James was going home, but it was hard to gage who so I misused my idol and also lost my closest ally in one night. It was a very hard knock, but I didn’t want to give up. I then voted in the minority the round Tay went home as I just didn’t have the numbers on my side. The following day I put a lot of effort into trying to get Yawn voted out as he was well connected with my closer allies (Hong and Joey) and had also created several alliances. I exposed these chats to the bigger alliance which led to a house consensus that Yawn could’ve been a strategic problem for a lot of people in this game. After that, I was able to work closely with Hong and Joey without any doubt they would be loyal to me going forward. Hong successfully used his idol which took out Brady, which was of course great for my game, but this was yet another round where I had technically voted in the ‘minority’ of the house, despite my target going home.

F7: From this point forward my goal was to break up the powerful alliance in the game, which consisted of Summer, Jake, Yung and Noelle. My plan was to basically cause mistrust between these 4 by trying to get game information out of them, and then leaking it to each other. It became clear to me at the Final 7 that Yung was on the bottom of the opposing alliance due to being such a strong threat, after reading between the lines of messages sent by his allies (Noelle and Summer mainly). I tried to get Yung to turn against Summer and cause a blindside by revealing to him that Summer wanted him gone, but he instead took out Hong which was another blow to my game. While this was again a setback, I was still determined to break up the 4 person alliance.

MY COMEBACK STORY/DOMINANT GAMEPLAY:

Today’s events: We were told that there would be a twist today, which immediately had me thinking this season would be a Final 2 instead of a Final 3. I knew in my ideal scenario, Joey would be the best person to sit next to as not only had he been incredibly loyal, but I also thought I had a good plea against him.

F6: Yung had told me he didn’t want to flip and he felt comfortable in his alliance, so I instead decided to go to Noelle and Jake and encourage them to flip on Yung who was the biggest threat to win at the time. Noelle agreed and told me she’d vote him out, and then I spoke to Jake who told me he’d be willing to flip during a revote. This plan worked perfectly for me, which resulted in Yung going home.

F5: I correctly played my idol on myself and told Joey we should vote out Jake instead of Noelle. My reason for doing this was that, a) I thought Noelle was more likely to turn on Summer next round due to her strong desire to win, whereas Jake may have wanted to play more loyal as he’d told me he thought he wouldn’t win; b) I thought she had a better chance at beating Summer in immunity than Jake did; and c) In the event I misplayed my idol and Joey was getting votes, I thought Noelle would’ve been the more likely of the two players to have kept true to their word and voted out the other (in this case, Jake). This plan worked perfectly, with Jake going and Summer being alone.

F4: I played my heart out in immunity and convinced Noelle that her best shot at winning was against myself and Joey. She voted out Summer, who was probably my biggest threat to win the game and who had wanted me gone for several days.

F3: I told both Summer and Joey I would take them to F2 and they both promised me the same back. We will never know what would’ve happened if either of them had won, but I knew for a fact I would play my heart out to win immunity and take matters into my own hands and finish what I had set out to do: Take Joey to the F2. This worked perfectly.

To summarise: Despite a rocky start in the early merge stages, I was able to rectify these mistakes by turning a solid alliance of four people against each other, which resulted in all 4 of them being voted out within the time span of approximately 2 hours. I feel like considering the position I was in, this was incredibly impressive gameplay, and I feel that I played the final portion of this game almost flawlessly which resulted in me sitting in my ideal Final 2 scenario (against Joey).

CONCLUSIONS:
I do believe that I deserve to win this game. I managed to be very adaptable and to play this game from several different angles, ranging from the ‘disinterested’ floater, to the comp threat, to the underdog and then to the strategic mastermind in the final portion of the game. I have put so much fight into this game, staying up in gruelling 12 hour endurances, studying this game hard to ensure I win final immunity, and by constantly planting seeds of doubt in the majority alliance, despite being immune from F8 onwards. I could’ve relied on my physical game to carry me to any Final 2 situation but I did not: I fought ENDLESSLY to get a solid alliance of four to turn on one other, and I finally accomplished that today after DAYS of work. I do not believe I played ‘perfectly’, but given the cards I was dealt and the position I was in for the entirety of the merge, I think I played as well as I possibly could have and I am incredibly proud of my game regardless of the outcome.

Thank you all for a great season. I look forward to answering your specific questions, and I promise to answer them as honestly as I possibly can. Good luck Joey!

I decided not to wait and I'll ask Joey some questions after he posts his speech. I came into this having only one question for you, I now have more.

You're presenting this as you came to me & got me to flip on Yung & Summer, but I can prove that I came to you with these moves. I already sent the screenshots to jury. I don't really respect you taking credit for moves you didn't initiate. Why are you doing that?

Lastly, if your plan was to take Joey to a F2 the whole time, why did you lie to me? What was the point when I already told you I would take you if I won. Lying is necessary sometimes, but lying for no reason...questionable.

@Brad

I don’t really give a fuck that joey didn’t post his speech cuz let’s be honest I don’t really need to hear it anyways.

Your speech about being a strategic mastermind is absolutely laughable to me. I don’t care what your speech says, I saw what I saw. Hiding behind individual immunity wins and idols isn’t a masterful strategic game so let’s be real with ourselves here. Had you not won those immunities, there’s no way in hell you’d be sitting here right now.

Also your social game was god dreadful, I felt like I tried to talk to you but you literally gave me NOTHING. Trying to talk to you was one of the worst parts about this game. I understand you playing a low profile but I mean come the fuck on here. How am I supposed to take that?

There’s playing a low profile while not crossing the lines into being an asshole and you were absolutely a asshole to me in this game and the sad part was that I genuinely wanted to work with you but you threw me punch after motherfucking punch.

The fact of the matter Brad is that you ABSOLUTELY didn’t play this masterful game you’re trying to portray here and I think everybody can testify to that here. There’s a lot more people that were far more deserving to be in that seat so facts are facts, this f2 is extremely underwhelming.

I have one question for you:

Your biggest flaw in this game was 1000 percent your self awareness. I’m sorry but my exit at f8 was me speaking FACTS and everybody saw it. There was a poll on the jury exclaiming like if people felt they had a connection with you and all of basically said you hardly talked to us so you’re under the radar strategy clearly was executed to shit.

My biggest regret in this game was speaking the truth when I left because if I didn’t, I don’t think you would’ve even changed your game which is the funny fucking part cuz you thought you’re under the radar game was okay when it really just soured everyone’s thoughts about you as a player.

My question for you is: Had I not said what I said at f8, would you have still played your shitty under the radar game?

And I’ll say something Brad, the sad part is that you’re probably winning tonight and I congratulate you but I don’t want you to feel validated that you were the best player this season cuz you ABSOLUTELY weren’t.

Steps off soap box

Posting my speech later been busy at work

@Noelle

Q1: You're presenting this as you came to me & got me to flip on Yung & Summer, but I can prove that I came to you with these moves. I already sent the screenshots to jury. I don't really respect you taking credit for moves you didn't initiate. Why are you doing that?

Answer:
I do apologise if it seems I am trying to take full credit for moves that we both wanted that day. I do absolutely give YOU credit for that move also Noelle. If it had been a Final 3 instead of the twist we were given, I still believe you would've won and that was absolutely a great move to get you to that place and to sit in a good Final 3 for you.

To re-clarify what I meant: I had explained in my confessionals that I had wanted Yung gone at F6. I messaged you and had told you that I thought your best move was to flip today as it was your best shot at winning. I do believe you already knew this anyway, and the purpose of my convo was just to further push you into that direction. That's what I meant when I said 'I encouraged you' to make that move - I don't take full credit for it at all. It was a move that benefitted BOTH of us. You'd put yourself into a great position following on from it too. I mean encouragement lightly - I am not intending to paint a picture that if I had not come to you with an amazing plea you wouldn't have made that move, because that simply would not be true. So I hope that clarifies that for you.

In terms of initiating the 'move' - I'd initiated the CONVERSATION by saying I thought it may be in your best interests to flip. You were the one to bring up Yung's name afterwards, correct. I suppose in that moment both of our goals aligned because that was exactly the name I wanted you to say and was kind of the direction I was hoping it would go into.

I am sorry if you felt that I was trying to dumb down your gameplay. That genuinely was not my intention, nor is it how I feel - I was just trying to explain from my position why the moves I made benefitted me. I absolutely give you credit for that move also. It was a risky move that worked out for you and was at the correct timing, and like I said that strong gameplay was yet another reason why I was scared to sit next to you in the final 2!

@Noelle

Q2: Lastly, if your plan was to take Joey to a F2 the whole time, why did you lie to me? What was the point when I already told you I would take you if I won. Lying is necessary sometimes, but lying for no reason...questionable.

Thank you for asking this because I wanted to clarify this anyway.

I agree with you that lying for no reason is not a good idea, and I would not wish to give you false hope if I did not believe it served an actual purpose. The reason I told you I would take you was because I thought it would make you more inclined to take me to the f2 also. I thought you had a good shot of winning the final immunity because I had a good feeling it'd be trivia and that you'd been working hard in the game - so I wanted to cover my bases if I couldn't pull out that final comp win. You're right you had told me you'd take me to F2, but you had also told me you'd vote out Jake over myself at F5 so it was hard for me to fully trust your word on that. I felt that you had a stronger plea at F2 against Joey than me, and I thought the strongest card that I could play to convince you to genuinely want to take me to the end was to make it seem like it would be a decision of 'loyalty' mainly.

I would not lie to you unless I felt it was actually going to have influence over the outcome, and in this instance I thought that telling you I'd take you out of loyalty would hopefully also make you want to take me.

Hope that clarifies it for ya!

@Brady

"Your speech about being a strategic mastermind is absolutely laughable to me. I don’t care what your speech says, I saw what I saw. Hiding behind individual immunity wins and idols isn’t a masterful strategic game so let’s be real with ourselves here. Had you not won those immunities, there’s no way in hell you’d be sitting here right now."

I do agree with you that if I had not correctly played my idol or won the immunities I would not be sitting here. I was specifically referring to the fact that I had a specific goal of who I wanted to sit next to: Joey. We walked into F6 at a 4-2 minority and I feel like being able to bypass those odds is pretty impressive at the very least. We weren't both immune during those tribals, and the likelihood of us BOTH making it was incredibly low going into the nights events. Perhaps you would say strategically masterminding those events was a overstatement, but I think at the very least the fact I was able to even sit here with Joey given the odds we had was pretty impressive.

@Brady

"Also your social game was god dreadful, I felt like I tried to talk to you but you literally gave me NOTHING. Trying to talk to you was one of the worst parts about this game. I understand you playing a low profile but I mean come the fuck on here. How am I supposed to take that?

There’s playing a low profile while not crossing the lines into being an asshole and you were absolutely a asshole to me in this game and the sad part was that I genuinely wanted to work with you but you threw me punch after motherfucking punch."

I'm sorry speaking to me was such a bad experience for you. If you felt that me not being great at responding/not initiating was being an asshole to you, then I apologise. I liked you during the game and I'd even told you this. I'm just not generally that talkative of a person anyway even in my real life, I don't intend to be an asshole or to upset people by doing it. As I said earlier, I did try to work on being more social a bit more after what you told me as you left though, because I wouldn't want people to see me that way.

@Brady

"The fact of the matter Brad is that you ABSOLUTELY didn’t play this masterful game you’re trying to portray here and I think everybody can testify to that here. There’s a lot more people that were far more deserving to be in that seat so facts are facts, this f2 is extremely underwhelming."

I even said in my speech my game was far from perfect. I just tried to adapt well to where I was in the game, and I think some of the the flaws present in my game were also flaws with Joeys. I agree with you, I believe there were several more deserving players than myself, thats why I worked so hard in the late stages in the game to try to take them out because they were worthy winners and played a more dominant game than me.

'Your biggest flaw in this game was 1000 percent your self awareness. I’m sorry but my exit at f8 was me speaking FACTS and everybody saw it. There was a poll on the jury exclaiming like if people felt they had a connection with you and all of basically said you hardly talked to us so you’re under the radar strategy clearly was executed to shit.

My biggest regret in this game was speaking the truth when I left because if I didn’t, I don’t think you would’ve even changed your game which is the funny fucking part cuz you thought you’re under the radar game was okay when it really just soured everyone’s thoughts about you as a player.'

I agree with you. As I said, your goodbye speech was certainly a wake up call to how people who were heading to the jury perceived me in the game and thats when I knew the game I was trying for clearly wasn't working at that time.

Hello Jury! What a crazy and Wild game !! Coming into this game being my second survivor! I was loyal to this who were loyal to me I.e. Brad , Hong , James , noelle and yawn to an extent . During the first two votes of the game My tribe didn’t have to go to tribal until we lost the immunity challenge , I was stuck in a very bad spot choosing between people who I knew were gonna be loyal to me As it was between brad and Ben . The dilemma was if I did brad I would’ve made James mad, and if I did Ben I would’ve impacted another Gg at the time aswell and I didn’t want him to go because I know he is loyal to me. Would have I know Brady was doing Ben too I would’ve done that but I throw a hinky vote on Brady to avoid any conflict. Then we tribe swap into two tribes and it’s a great swap for me! Yawn, Tylor James brad tay and Felix . This couldn’t have worked out better for me ! We win two immunities in a row and are sitting pretty . Then I have to come to a rough decision and choose between James and Tylor. I do choose Tylor here as I feel like James would be more loyal to me as we were in original tribes together and I did have to lie to yawn about this .
MERGE:
Merge was rough I do have to admit , but let me state this I never received a vote til f6 when it tied and when we revoted I received one , I played this game with no idols at my hand and frankly never needed one but having one would have been nice . But two of my good allies in this game leave back to back sadly as suddenly I’m in the minority . Then yawn is blindsided and this was hard because he was being shady and trying to run the show and he was after my allies so he did have to go. Being in the minority from this vote on really was a struggle however brad and I did beat the odds and I don’t think either of us would be here without the other .
I came so close to winning multiple immunities I really didn’t need (endurance one )
My social connections with people with influence in this game I think is why I am here as i stated before i only received votes at f6 mainly because Brad won the immunity and I was his closest ally , then only 2 more down the stretch , that’s a total of 5 !

Q from Brady:

'My question for you is: Had I not said what I said at f8, would you have still played your shitty under the radar game?'

Answer:

As I'd said in my speech, I was purposefully playing UTR at that point so inevitably I would've snapped out of it anyway as part of my strategy, especially because that was when I'd started my immunity run anyway and was starting to increase my threat level. So my answer to your question is no I wouldn't have played under the radar any longer, but I do think your speech definitely helped me gain more awareness of how SEVERELY my social game had been lacking at that point. I hadn't perceived myself as coming across as being impossible to speak to or an asshole or any of those things until you'd mentioned it, I just thought you guys would see me as quiet and not giving false hope. Your goodbye speech made me realise the flaws in my game to that point and pushed me to make the EXTRA effort, although I would've definitely been trying harder after that point anyway.

@Brady:
'And I’ll say something Brad, the sad part is that you’re probably winning tonight and I congratulate you but I don’t want you to feel validated that you were the best player this season cuz you ABSOLUTELY weren’t.'

We'll see what happens. There were other great players this season who were in control more than I was!