Hello Jury! First off, wow. 28 days ago there was no way in hell I expected to be sat in the Final 2. I mean more so, if you came to the J2999 who got 11th place in SBB7 and said “you’re going to play 4 more times within the next 8 SBB seasons” I’d have genuinely laughed. Getting a second chance in Season 8 was a SHOCK but a thrill, then after failing yet getting the call for Season 10?! I was even more shocked. Season 14, my only actual DECENT placement within 4 seasons, and now here I am, breaking my own expectations of what I believed I was capable of. Going from the guy who wins NO comps in S7, ONE HOH in S8, 3 comps in S10, 4 comps in S14 to a staggering 12 HOH/POVs this season really is mind-blowing. Anyway, enough about my road to S15 by season, a good amount of you have seen / played with me throughout them seasons lmao. In the upcoming speech I’m going to try focusing on my social relations but also the way I used competition wins to my benefit, without dragging on masses [though no guarantee here].
So initially I intended to do this in 2 parts, one being an OVERVIEW of EVERYTHING, round by round from jury onwards, the second being more pinpointing my game. I HAVE got the overviews typed, if you WANT MY standpoint on your eviction round or anything, let me know as I’ve got it typed, but will not post it right now just for the sake of how long it overall is.
Throughout this entire I constantly focused on my social relationships with all fellow houseguests. This was to ensure I was in a comfortable spot at all times, even going to extremes of being labelled as a player ‘running the game’ by evicted houseguests such as Julian. I knew that my best play was to take these comments and use them to further myself in the game in the way that I was never not going to be perceived as a threat, and therefore expanding my threat level ultimately was not a personal disadvantage.
I had many strong social relationships, placing me in numerous groups. For example, a group with Chloe, Evan and Will; a group with Chloe, Evan and Kelly; a group with Andy, Chloe and Joe, etc. The fact that from the get-go I was labelled as a player with tight relationships with people meant that I had to play HARD from the start, as truly there was never going be a way to disprove these accusations excluding taking out the people apart of the accusations, which was not realistically an option due to them being the people I needed the most in the game, and ultimately the strongest odds of winning competitions. I positioned myself so that I was tight with people who HAD less allies overall. I ensured I was comfortable with Brendon, I was comfortable with Brian, I was comfortable with Joe [although Joe had his hands in MANY cookie jars, numerous players found him as a snake yet I constantly tried to develop my relationship with him] etc.
This season I ensured coming into jury I was going to be the target by minimal people [entering jury only Dakota was directly targeting me], yet kept winning whilst planning my game three steps in advance where I could, and ensuring I calculated how I would use my competition wins to position me in the best spot as possible for the upcoming round, or rounds, where I was ineligible to win competitions, or simply sometimes couldn’t.
All of my decisions were first made under the question “What is going to protect ME next round?”. My second question would be “What is going to protect my ALLIES” the next round. This DID cause me to take some risks overall, such as keeping Tisha over Dakota when I knew that Tisha would be more likely to come for me than Dakota, but Dakota wanted to target Joe and despite my ups and downs with Joe, he was beneficial for my game due to our ultimately lowkey relationship that people could not predict as such.
I was nominated just twice this season, less than any other player who is sat on the jury excluding Kelly, yet when I was nominated for the first time, I was the second to last houseguest nominated this season, with the final [Will] going up following the Power of Veto. I never sat on the block as a final nominee, using my relationship with Evan to save me once, and my own abilities [along with social relationship] to save me the second time. I am the only player to receive 0 votes to evict this season. YES I was never a final nominee, but I DO believe I positioned myself so that if I WERE sat on the block, I stood a very good chance at surviving versus many houseguests, despite being the perceived biggest game-threat.
Despite not sitting in numerous alliances, I was constantly being relayed information; I knew houseguests who wanted me OUT before they had made it public knowledge themselves. I knew of possible plans to come for me which allowed me to then GO to said houseguest and focus on my social relationship with them so they wouldn't want to nominate me, and give or take this always worked in my favour.
I won 7 HOHs and 5 POVs this season, along with the first Impact Player of the season. I won HOH at EVERY Double Eviction this season, and used each HOH tactically to make others feel more comfortable with me and to portray the fact I was a benefit to their game, along with thinking three steps ahead. I brought myself here, positioning myself quite well between both sides of the house pre-jury when there were labelled sides, ahead of being the one to take shots at the opposite side come the second half of this game [primarily Jayson, LeQuisha and Tisha]. I excelled socially, physically and strategically. I believe if you are voting for the most well-rounded player of the season and who deserves to represent the season MOST out of Evan and I, I do hope you will vote for me. All of us are GAMEPLAYERS, and no move I ever made was personal, strictly a calculated game move, and I hope that game respects game. I played to the best of my ability, I went 100% from Day 1, and I absolutely do not regret any of it because the battle that was this season has landed me here.
I am happy to answer any and all questions you may have. Good luck to Evan. Cheers to Shawn and to every player this season for a crazy but long season. Apologies if anything doesn't make sense, don't hesitate to ask for clarification please, and sorry for the amount of time this has taken [most time was put into my round by round breakdowns haha].