hello final two; just want to preface with i like you both and don’t think either played horribly (albeit maybe not the best either)

Now, onto questions/comments:

Sam, you are VERY likable. Maybe it’s just our personalities mesh, but from day 1 I have felt a connection to you that others tried to distance me from throughout the game. Despite being likable, you embodied a rat. Do you play this style of game consciously, or is it just your instinctive gameplay? Secondly, you broke a few promises, but also kept others. Not really a question that needs much response, but why did you pick and choose what to leak (such as my relationship with James)? Finally, you had a final two with almost EVERYONE. You have the floor right now to lay it out: which final 2 were you most genuine to?

Sagar, there isn’t many negatives to your game, but conversely not any glaring positives. Coming in as a winner, it made sense how you played PREJURY, but post-jury didn’t alter gameplay much for you (although I commend you on your social agency you flexed at times). My questions will be scattered, and may not even help/worsen my decision, but I still want answers: I decided to bare my entire game with you to show you my length of trust, but in that moment you didn’t talk about your F2 with Sam whatsoever. I want to know if you knew the shenanigans he played all season, and that you were just 1 of his many final twos, or if you kept your true allegiance to your chest and was just seeing me as a valuable number at that point. My other question is what was a move that you can credit to YOUR sole gameplay and awareness (and no, it does not have to be a big MOVE, because I think any move is a move).

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Best of luck you both

Nick - Social Butterfly - Like I described in my previous answer, I believe Nick had a fantastic social game and made strong connections with multiple people throughout the season and had a F2 with many of the jurors as well.
Will - Triple Threat - Good at the social, strategic, and physical game. Thank god he's not sitting next to me!!!!!!!!!!!
Max - Stoic Man of Mystery - Always difficult to read but actually has a lot to say once you open up to him and get to know him. I'll admit I never fully trusted Max during the game because it always hard to understand his motivations and loyalties.
Eric - The Maverick - Honestly the person I considered the biggest wildcard for my game personally but I think played one of the most underrated games out of anyone. Could easily see him standing here in the end.
Chloe - Fallen Angel - I'm pretty sure literally everyone in the game liked Chloe which is also probably part of the reason she was ultimately targeted. I don't think anyone can say anything bad about her no matter how hard they tried.
LQ - Comeback Queen - Played from the bottom for a lot of the game but won a huge HOH that allowed her to take her own shot and get a chance at just a little bit of revenge before being ultimately taken out. Her HOH win was probably one of my favorite moments in the game because it felt very much game-changing.
Andy - Silent Killer - Probably the least social person in the game (in my eyes) which is also why I ranked him last in my juror ranking, but it's also pretty easy to understand how he won a season because he's likable and good at competitions as well.
James - Bull in a China Shop - Came out of the gate running which is pretty admirable but it also put a huge target on his back that was unfortunately what led to his demise early in the post-jury.
Patrick - Dethroned King - Came into the game with the biggest target because of his two prior wins, but actually did well to maneuver his way through the pre-jury phase. Although this season was good for his story arc, he still has a blemish on his record that he will never be able to get rid of :)

@Eric

Honestly the time I was most worried was the very first time I was nominated against Dakota if I'm being completely candid. For me, there were so many voters in that early round that I thought that literally anything could go wrong and I could easily be taken out early. I'm not used to being nominated so early in BB so overall it was pretty overwhelming for me because the feeling of not having any control over your own safety is a terrifying one. I think it is also a testament to my game that I was never really THAT worried about going home in any of the post-jury rounds because I knew that I had built relationships that would carry me through.

Our relationship is actually somewhat muddy to me. I think we always got along well and joked a lot about our past history in group games, but we never really locked down anything game-wise. I think the nature of how the game was going just happened to result in me approaching the other members of Letters one on one before I approached you. By the time it was you on the block, I had already established a formal game relationship with pretty much everyone else left which is what led me to ultimately have to vote to evict you. I still consider you a friend because we have a similar sense of humor and you are overall just an pretty approachable person from what I know of you; I'm pretty sure if circumstances were different we could have easily had a good working relationship in this game.

James:

1) You could define a “threat” in different ways. While Will was certainly a physical threat, I didn’t feel like he had the strongest social game. Not only did you have strong connections with Chloe and Nick, you could easily manipulate people and you could win challenges easily. All of that combined made me view you as a lock to make it far if I had kept you over Will. Also, I had spoken to Will a bit more than I had spoken to you, and felt like he’d be a bit more loyal to me. Yes, he could (and did) win a bunch of competitions after that, but I had no doubt that he’d be an easy target if he lost both the HoH and the Veto in a week where we weren’t in control. One last thing: I know that some people (including you) might believe that your relationship with Nick led to my eviction vote, but that isn’t necessarily the case. Yes, knowing that you guys had a nearly unwavering bond made me feel less secure with you, but I would never evict someone just because they were in a relationship with another player (Nick can attest to me feeling awful about it on the night he told me about it).

2) I realized from around the final 8 that I’d have to defend my game if I did make it here (which I was confident would happen). I’m not going to sugarcoat things: I used alliances and bonds with people to advance myself in the game, and turned my back on them later. However, it was a necessary evil to allow myself to get to this point. If I had stayed loyal to the Femme Fatales and alienated the Letters alliance, I would’ve been targeted by them, and vice versa. It was hard to balance the two alliances at times, but I think I did it well enough to prevent myself from being targeted. Also, if I had nominated Will when I won HoH, I would’ve lost a close ally over two people that I didn’t trust as much, which wouldn’t have been smart at all. One last thing - I didn’t have final 2 deals with everyone. Nick and I were close from the start, but we never really formed a formal final 2 deal until around the final 6. Will and I only formed a (fake on my part) final 2 deal right when Max was getting evicted, and I did consider taking Eric at one point because I felt like he was playing a worse version of my game. The final 2 deal that I had for the longest period of time was Sagar’s, which was formed at the final 10, but I probably would’ve taken Nick over him if I had won the final HoH since I felt like we had an equal shot at winning.

3.) I usually don’t tend to believe in bragging about your biggest moves, but I’ll talk about two “moves” that I thought were key to getting me here. The first move would be forming my final 2 deal with Sagar, which really changed the course of this game. I knew that after Patrick left, Sagar basically had no close allies left, so I wanted to form a closer bond with him. I was surprised by how willing he was to have a final 2 deal with me, but it was a relief since I could finally talk to someone else about the game in an honest way. By sharing information with each other, we were able to protect each other when we were in danger (I shut down any mention of Sagar being nominated, and he helped save me when I was nominated against Eric). I know that it may seem ridiculous to align myself with a former winner, but I knew that he didn’t have an ulterior motive. My other “big move” was probably evicting you, since it set the tone for the rest of the game.

Patrick319
ok so we have 3 hours to vote (according to shawn) though one finalist has yet to post his opening speech

hey shitman maybe you want to think about better scheduling this

this is what happens when you are extremely busy and have an hour to answer everything :/

@Nick

So I will give Sam credit for pretty much convincing me that I was his #1. I won't lie about that. I honestly was like 99% sure that Sam would bring me to F2 based on what we had talked about and how many promises we had made to each other, but I now know that it was MUCH more up in the air than that and I should thank my lucky stars that I won the final part of the HOH. I didn't realize he had that many F2s with other people, but I did know you guys were very close so I certainly was not taking anything for granted. I didn't see you as just a number but unfortunately our relationship kind of had many false starts which significantly delayed the onset of our trust in each other. Remember when I shot you in Round 1 of the gun show rally? I saw you/James as such a power couple at that time in the game that I honestly was afraid to approach you at all because I was not on great terms with James at the time and in fact probably would have targeted you at that time if I had somehow won HOH (which, let's be honest, was never going to happen anyway).

One move that I made completely by myself: It's kind of multiple moves but I will summarize it as picking up the pieces of my game once Patrick was evicted. This was the make or break moment of my game and I could easily have been following him out the door if I didn't work as hard as I did. I repaired things with James and knew that I would be safe if he had won HOH again. I made that critical F2 with Sam that helped me get to where I am now. I used LQ and Andy as shields to delay my own eviction. I cast all of these nets in a desperate attempt to keep myself afloat at the lowest point of my game when it seemed like all of the winners would just be picked off one by one by Letters.

yeah lol thank god i have lectures today otherwise i would not be able to answer anything in time

if the deadline needs to be delayed i totally understand

Chloe (and LQ):

First of all, I'm terrible at coming up with nicknames, so I'll cosign Sagar's inventive nicknames. Instead, I think I'll describe your games in the ranking. 

1. Will - Even after everyone wanted him to leave, he still fought like hell to stay in this game, all while being generally likable (and improving his social game, at least with me). I have a ton of respect for him, and would've 100% voted for him if I was in the jury and he was here.

2. James - He had tight connections, he had the charm, and he had excellent competition skills. If we didn't catch him at the final 10, he would've ran away with the win.

3. Nick - While he was quite lowkey at times, he stayed true to his word, all while maintaining close relationships with certain people and being extremely likable.

4. Patrick - I don't even know how he got to the top 11, but he deserves to be here just for that.

5. Chloe - I underestimated Chloe, for sure. She had close relationships that were kept quiet, she was able to get people on her side, and she was able to stay under-the-radar for a very long time.

6. Max - He probably should've been evicted early, but he was able to use his connections to make it to the final 5, all while winning crucial competitions and making deals/alliances that were key to his survival.

7. LQ - While I'm not sure if you had a *lot* of connections, you had a fierce drive and tried hard to stay in the game, even when it seemed like the writing was on the wall.

8. Eric - I feel like we played similar games, but your connections were deeper, which means that you could've either had a very negative or very positive reception at the finale. Also, you didn't give information to other people that often, so :P

9. Andy - Up until the final 12, I thought that you were just inactive, but then you stepped up and did a good job trying to form small relationships with people, along with proving your strength in competitions.

I think I'll post this in multiple parts.

Hello everyone! This has been a *long* game, and I’m surprised that I even made it here, but here we go:

When I first applied, I thought that I’d face a similar fate to what happened in All Stars. I was expecting a cast with Kelly/Shadi/etc, where I’d have to play either an extremely aggressive or extremely quiet game in order to make it far. However, when the cast was revealed, my “plans” were turned upside down since I barely knew anyone. Eric and I have been friends for years, Anthony and I played together a few times, and Dakota, Patrick and I have worked together before, but other than that, I had practically no connections with anyone.

Because of this, I had to adjust immediately. I knew that I’d have to introduce myself to everyone without appearing desperate, and that’s what I did. James, Nick, Eric, and Will (to my surprise, because of All Stars) were the ones that I spoke with the most, and I immediately thought to myself that we’d make a good group. However, I assumed that most people were forming groups, so I wanted to lay low.

Week 1 wasn’t really eventful, which was shocking to me since my previous seasons were full of drama in the first few weeks. After Stuart left and James won HoH, I knew that this would be the perfect time to create that alliance, so I went to Nick and we formed the Letters alliance (I typed in random letters and it stuck :P). While I wasn’t too happy with Dakota being nominated and evicted (we barely spoke though), I allowed them to make their own moves while I stayed in the background, slowly improving my relationships with other people.

At this point, I realized that I didn’t need to win competitions to stay in the game, so I didn’t put in a large amount of effort into winning anything. As Will and James’ targets got bigger, with Nick being tied to James and Eric being a known “snake” at times, I felt like I was in the perfect position to lay low. While people like Sagar and Patrick were successfully fighting to stay in the game, I spoke to people like Max, Chloe, and LQ to make sure that I wouldn’t be targeted if one of them won HoH.

(Sidenote: there was an alliance that Eric told me about, and I told Nick/James/Will just so they’d all know - I felt like hiding it would only make things more difficult than they needed to be.)

Around the time of Jasper’s withdrawal, Chloe and LQ approached me and wanted to create a 3-person alliance. I was more than happy to join, and I did intend to stay loyal to them for the time being, but I felt like my core alliance could potentially use them for more information or as extra votes. That was… not really the case. They both wanted Will out desperately, so I went along with what they were saying, while learning new information at times as well.

Ryan was trying to stir things up, targeting my allies and causing drama for no reason, so before anyone else could be targeted, I wanted him to leave, which happened. Will won HoH and nominated LQ/Chloe, which was upsetting, but I had a strong feeling that one of them would win the veto, which thankfully happened. While Jordan and Anthony were upset that I evicted, I made sure that they knew it was just game and nothing personal, letting them air out their grievances instead of holding out anger.

Sam just to clarify yes I had a lot of connections difference is I didn’t turn on everyone I was working with?

When Max won HoH, because of my small but meaningful connection with him, I was able to stay safe, which resulted in Rodrigo, someone I wasn’t close with leaving. The jury stage was when things started getting intense. Chloe and LQ were nominated and with the strange vetoes remaining, I got worried. James won the veto, and- he used it on Chloe?? That confused LQ and I, and when I saw that Chloe nominated Patrick, I knew that they were a force to be reckoned with.

With Patrick finally gone, I knew that LQ or Chloe had to win HoH so things would change. In what was probably the only active case of me throwing a competition, I purposely slowed down when LQ’s turn was up, and I feel that this was the main determinant of this game. She won HoH, and I knew that my alliance would suffer for it. However, instead of freaking out, I reached out to Sagar and maintained my friendly connections with Max and Andy (it may seem that these relationships weren’t close at all, but that was the point). 

While I just wanted to see what Sagar was up to, what formed was something much bigger than what I had expected. We hit it off immediately, and I knew that he had just lost his closest ally, so I wanted to form an alliance with him. He claimed that he would form a final 2 with me, and I was in. I finally was able to reveal my knowledge about the game to someone, which I couldn’t do previously because I was avoiding having a “partner” in the game, so to speak.

This eviction vote was extremely important, since it determined which gigantic threat would stay, and I knew that keeping James in would be a mistake. Luckily, LQ wasn’t angry with me at all, Sagar agreed with me, and Chloe didn’t seem that upset either.

After James’ eviction, I wanted to start winning competitions, but I was happy when my (I thought) close ally Eric won HoH. While I was shocked that he was targeting Andy, I didn’t have a close relationship with him, so I was more than happy with him leaving. At this point, Sagar was banned and we voted differently for a few rounds, but we always knew what the other person was doing and why.

By the time of the third double eviction, Nick and I had formed an extremely tight bond, and he was the person who I felt the closest to by far. Still, I neglected to tell him everything I knew, since I wanted to keep that information in my back pocket. Will won HoH and almost nominated me, but I had to warn him that people might target me, since they may have realized my game (like Patrick did at the final 11 - when he called me out, that’s when I became more active). Knowing that LQ was a threat who I didn’t completely trust, and with the Femme Fatale alliance fractured, I didn’t have a big problem evicting her.

At this point, I was craving a competition win, and I finally got two (outside of my first veto win, which was rather inconsequential). I realized that Max and Chloe were the only two people who a) didn’t trust me at all, b) knew that I didn’t trust them fully, and c) would evict me without a problem, so I nominated them. As cruel as this might sound, I let everyone else decide, because I had no preference at all.

Max won the next HoH. Should I have had a preference? I say no, because my connections with Nick and Sagar were enough to keep me safe. Eric had deeper bonds with people, and I had weak bonds that were all broken. Even Will, Eric’s close ally, realized that it would be best to keep me in the game. It was at this point that I realized people would be extremely angry with me if I made it here, so instead of trying to make amends with everyone and clean my act up, I doubled down on the idea of me being a “rat” and used it to ensure my safety, convincing people that it would be extremely easy to beat me.

With Will winning the final 5 HoH competition, Nick and I were basically guaranteed a spot in the final 4. I knew that if I were to keep Max, I’d have a jury threat who has unknown intentions with me, instead of a loyal friend who just so happened to have won once before. I warned Will and Nick of Max’s game, and even though he tried hard, he was evicted 2-0.

Here is where the “multiple final 2s” comes in: I already had a final 2 deal with Sagar, but Nick and I promised to take each other to the final 2 as well. At this point, Will, likely noticing that I would be easy to be at the end, told me that he would take me to the end, and I went along with, knowing full well that I’d evict the biggest jury threat if I were to win the final 4 veto.

Luckily, Sagar won the HoH and Nick won the Veto, allowing me to make it to the final 3 while getting no blood on my hands that round. I knew that I was guaranteed a spot here, but I still tried and won part 1. To answer the lingering question on people’s minds: yes, I would’ve taken Nick with me had I won part 3. I feel like we would’ve had more of an equal shot, but I love Sagar and my alliance with him was certainly meaningful.

Now that I’m here, I’ve reflected on my game and have realized that while people might think that I played a disastrous game, I was able to get through each round, either voting in the majority, winning HoH, or convincing people to keep me in over the other nominee. I worked hard to make sure that people would keep me safe or not nominate me, and I have made it to this point without getting a single eviction vote.

With the Letters alliance, I was able to form bonds with people that I truly trusted and cared for. the Femme Fatale alliance, I was able to be the mediator between both Chloe and LQ, pledging loyalty while forming closer bonds with people outside of that alliance. With Sagar, I had a close ally who I could divulge information to, all while keeping it under wraps. With Nick, I had a close friend who I could go to for personal guidance and advice, along with help in the game.
I have been told that I’m a “rat”, but I needed to tell people information so they could continue trusting me. If I had stayed loyal to every single person I had connections with, my game would’ve been ruined, so I had to stay loyal to a few people while leaving my alliances with other people. I can understand why people are upset about this, but it was necessary for me to advance my position in this game.

I know that my game may look messy and bad, but I’m extremely proud of myself regardless of the outcome. In previous games, I have always tried to make it to the end but never noticed all of my tendencies such as playing under-the-radar, aligning with people who opposed each other, and using my status as a “rat” to get me to the end. However, this time, I took the bull by the horns and made it to the finale by doing so. Even if I get 0 votes, I am extremely thankful for this experience, and I am glad to have played this game with you all. Thanks, and good luck Sagar! <3

"what was going on in your head when you decided to rat out anything and everything? What was your mindset? Do you think it helped or do you think it hindered your game?"

I wasn't trying to do it just for fun, I was trying to gain trust with other people by sharing what I knew. It definitely came off as shady, but it did help my game since the information I shared with them helped me to get through each round and to the end. Also, I get why your trust in me went away, but I feel like we still had enough of a connection that we were able to keep each other safe, making it all the way to the final 6. For my game, that was good enough, even if it does seem inconsiderate on my behalf. I'm sorry if you're still upset about my game and anything that happened :/

"Sam, you are VERY likable. Maybe it’s just our personalities mesh, but from day 1 I have felt a connection to you that others tried to distance me from throughout the game. Despite being likable, you embodied a rat. Do you play this style of game consciously, or is it just your instinctive gameplay? Secondly, you broke a few promises, but also kept others. Not really a question that needs much response, but why did you pick and choose what to leak (such as my relationship with James)? Finally, you had a final two with almost EVERYONE. You have the floor right now to lay it out: which final 2 were you most genuine to?"

I love you, Nick <3 I feel like we had a special connection that was separated from the game, but we were able to trust each other a lot within the game as well. As for being a rat, I knew that I would be looked at as either an Andy or a Natalie M, and I feel like I embraced it when it comes to using it to my advantage. My instinctive gameplay involves leaking information, but in a more dramatic way (see All Stars :P). Luckily, I was able to control that.

With "leaking" the relationship, I told Sagar because of an interaction we had that felt special. He felt like a friend I could confide in. I told Eric because he also knew how I felt early on, and I considered him to be a close friend (and still do). It wasn't for revenge or whatever, I can promise you that. In general though, I "leaked" information that would help me out if others knew, but I didn't reveal information that would hurt my game if it was known (like my relationship with Sagar).

Lastly, I didn't have a final 2 with almost everyone, and if people think that I did, I must've made you feel a certain way that wasn't meant. However, my bond with you was strong enough that you would've been the person I would've taken had I won part 3, but that was also game related, as I discussed in my speech.

*turns like Julie*
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