When the season began, I immediately knew I needed number. So I approached Brandon about working together. Ironcially, we both sent each other a message about a deal at the same time. Brandon then pulled in bomb and our alliance of three was born. Pre-merge I stayed true to my alliance and we were able to make our way through to the merge.
When we merged, I immediately knew we needed majority and I talked to Cedric who I was generally close with due to playing a previous Survivor with him. But my alliance wanted to target Cedric. I tried in vain to change their minds but I could not. But, I had made Cedric a promise to never vote for him and I stuck to it by throwing my vote that night.
That first vote was crucial for me because it showed me how much sway Brandon had with the votes. It was then that I first became wary of going to finals with Brandon and I decided to stay with bomb to the end. Then when I was assigned a secret partner, mike, I wanted to stick with him to the end as well. Keeping Brandon around was a risk because I knew if he could make his way to the end he would win since he was perceived as the leader of the alliance when in actuality there was no leader.
I was never brandons sheep. Me and Brandon had very similar strategic minds, often coming up with the same strategies and plans. But, the fact the Brandon was more vocal about these ideas and I laid back was no coincidence. I let Brandon take the lead since I knew this way he would have the bigger target and if we were ever in danger, he would be the one to take the fall instead of me. This is exactly what happened at the final 3.
When bomb and mike left the game due to not voting I knew I was in a lot of trouble. But I pulled out key immunity wins to secure my stay in the game. With my only ally left in the game being Brandon, I knew I would have a difficult decision. I chose to stick with Brandon in order to help secure my spot in the final 2 because I knew by forcing the tie betwee him and piddu, that if Brandon won, no matter who won the final immunity, they would take me to the end.
Overall, I felt completely safe this entire game which is a hard thing to do. Despite, the technicality of when it was thought I should have gone home but mark did due to his punishment, I stayed strong the whole game. I never really felt at risk because I always had the numbers with me and I earned my spot here today. I was never in danger and I only received 1 vote (2 if you count when I cancelled Piddus vote) this entire game.
While I do feel my opponent Shadow played a good game, I honestly believe the only reason he is here right now is because not once but twice people did not vote. I am also suspicious of how Brandon said mike was supposedly bribed to not vote by receiving a gift and ironically shadow offered me a gift if I flipped at f4 and voted Brandon out and I didn’t make it to final 2. I don’t believe bribing is a legitimate strategy and is a coward’s way out which is what shadow did. If it wasn’t for bomb and mike not voting, Shadow would be sitting on the jury right now. That isn’t really strategizing to survive like I have done all game, but what I call some sheer luck.