Hi everyone. It's your favorite sociopathic gamebot pokemon here (even if you hate me i bet you can't name any others), Absol! I want to use this opening statement to talk about my game and make my case for why I deserve to win Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains. I'm pretty confident in the game I played, and I think I had almost full strategic control over the course of the merge, as well as many social relationships that I correctly navigated to get me in the end with two people who were loyal to me throughout the game.

To start out discussing my game, I want to acknowledge two things: my physical game and ability to win competitions, as well as the fact that I didn't go to any tribals in the pre-merge. I think this is a good place to start because one of the key things that allowed me to get to the end was being on the winning end of so many pre-merge challenges. In terms of both original and new Pago Pago, we never went to many tribals, so I had a lot of time to develop relationships without being forced to really draw lines in the sand. Having a strong pre-merge game is always my plan just because I'm the competitive type, but I think this specific outing was a really good example of how winning challenges can benefit you socially and strategically. Even though I wasn't in majority for the one vote I went to pre-merge, I still expected Julian to leave and people trusted me enough to be straight up with me (for the most part).

During this time, I was also forming relationships with many of the people in the middle of that tribe, like Ben, Tina, and Brad, who became my tightest alliance moving forward towards the early merge. Oliver, Pietro, and Alyssa were people who I had attempted forming connections with as well, but I think I mismanaged those relationships early on during the Julian vote and Pietro/Alyssa had other connections that they felt were "safer bets" to work with than me (i think this is partially b/c alyssa/pietro had some good relationships coming in, but also i had gotten mad at them over them not EXPLICITLY TELLING me where their vote was going, which looking back is honestly embarrassing).

Additionally, after the swap, I was really open to connecting with the new villains- Raul, Paulette, Coco, and Max. Two of these people panned out as great allies for me (Raul and Paulette, who were ultimately loyal to me the entire time)  and while Max/Coco and I were never on the same page, we were discussing our options and I think at many points I saw eye to eye with both of them, but I think we mutually recognized that our best options at allies... weren't each other.

Coming into the merge, I think I had a lot of options, but I also think I had the favor of not being seen as the biggest threat, mostly because it didn't SEEM like I had much strategic pull. Ultimately, the first vote was dictated by Max, Coco, and Raul, and at this point, I had good enough relationships that navigating this vote was pretty simple. Based on people's perceptions, the biggest threat coming into the merge was Wes, and this ended up being really good for me, because the Heroes (minus Alyssa) as well as Max, Coco, and Raul, were able to send Alyssa home, which was a fine move for me because I had heard she was targeting me, as well as weakening Wes' ability to play with people who weren't me. (There's also a lot of drama between myself, Max, and Wes that happens at this tribal which I'm sure I might end up expanding on later, but the gist of that is that Max/Wes were never really on the same page afterwards, and it has a lot to do with how I navigated that tribal. Wes blamed Max for most of the trouble that tribal due to my ability to explain myself once things I said were leaked)

The second vote was easily the worst tribal for me, which I'm sure is pretty clear by the fact that I easily could have been the boot. Max had the correct read, playing the idol correctly for Coco, and with Coco and Pietro, they tried to stage a blindside onto me. However, they had lied to some of the members of their alliance (Wes/Dev) about the target, as well as counting on Raul as someone who would vote me, when he was never planning to do that (at least not this early). This meant that the vote had tied, establishing a lot of distrust between the group of 6 that didn't vote Coco. This tie ultimately severed the relationship between Wes and Max entirely, freeing me to play with either of them if I chose to from this point forward. Additionally, I think this is another point that speaks to my social play- despite some people seeing me as a threat and wanting to target me, I got lucky enough for the vote to tie and once it tied, I felt pretty safe because I knew I had been working really hard to establish connections with Wes, Dev, Adam, Raul, and Ben, which was at least five votes, as well as Pietro who I believe? flipped his vote because he also recognized that I was most likely staying. I think this tribal was a lot of luck (assuming Wes/Dev/Raul don't actually vote together, i am totally screwed), but also a lot of social credit that I was putting into the game that got repaid.

Final 10 and Final 9 are kind of two sides of the same coin- Tina was the ultimate target, as not enough people were willing to target me, who was seen as the other big threat in our alliance of Heroes. I recognized that people like Wes/Dev didn't trust Tina, so I wasn't confident in the votes, but luckily we had  solid info from Wes/Dev/Paulette/Raul who were still seen as the "middle", and the idol play allowed us to take out Coco before Tina was ultimately ousted at 9. Although I had the idol and the vote steal, and could have saved Tina, I recognized that firstly, Tina is too much of a legend to go against in the end anyways- for my game, Tina needed to leave at some point regardless. As well as this, since I had good relationships with the people who were still superficially in the middle, I recognized that Tina going would allow the power to shift back to me and we could take a shot at a Max or Pietro next.

From final 8 on, I ultimately think I dictated the course of the game and made the right decisions for ME at every point. My first target was Pietro, as between Pietro/Max I felt that Pietro was a less likely option for me to work with, and additionally, I felt that Pietro had a better connection with Wes at this point, who I felt was my biggest strategic threat, due to him, Paulette, and Dev all still being in. Since I had immunity, I was free to push for this to happen and ensure that there were 4 votes on Pietro. Taking out Pietro was the first key to gaining full control of the game for me, as Pietro was kind of the antithesis to me in this game. He was much more calm and collected, and easily could have made it much further had he not left at 8 due to his relationships with Wes and Max, who were my next targets moving forward.

Final 7 and final 6 were ultimately more moves that I got my alliance to make for my benefit- Max and Wes were the biggest threats when it came to my ability to dictate votes moving into the finale. Max, while  seen as a bit of a loose cannon, was ultimately one of the biggest movers and shakers until the very end. Max was a scrappy underdog who was always looking for in-roads with someone, as well as working to win immunities and make moves, and that wasn't something I wanted moving forward, especially from someone like Max who isn't gonna be scared to cut the bullshit. Raul wanted to protect Max at this point, and target someone like Adam, but I both had the vote steal, as well as Ben/Adam pretty solidly locked up as votes on Max, so Raul went along with the plan and there was another person who could have been a detriment to my game removed.

With the Wes vote, I did a lot of direct work to make sure that Wes/Dev/Adam weren't going to vote together like Raul was worried about. Raul had info from Wes/Dev about a plan they had in place to target Ben, with the goal of getting Adam to throw his vote. However, once I had this information, I took the empirical evidence to Adam, which worked as a HUGE deterrent for those two ever seriously working together- Adam really only superficially voted with Wes and told me he always planned to flip on the revote. Now, with Wes gone, who was both I quite literally had almost no obstacles to get to the end.

Another thing that I think should be expanded on a little more is the fact that I had many advantages, but never RELIED on the advantages themselves. Rather, I used the advantages I had as leverage- by this point in the game, basically everyone knew I had the idol, and Ben/Adam/Raul all knew about the steal a vote when it was used. The steal a vote acted as insurance for a plan I felt would have gone through regardless, and the idol I found at f10 was never really necessary- once people knew about it, there was a huge reluctance to target me. At f5, I gave my immunity away and figured I could play the idol by ear. Not having the immunity here was kind of the plan, because then I got to play some mind games with who the idol would be played on between me and Ben, and I ultimately trusted my intuition to play the idol correctly for myself and take out Raul, who I knew was going to come for me at SOME point during the finale. The "open secret"-ness of my advantages WAS where I got most of the power of them from.

The only round I wasn't in control near the end was at final 4- and ultimately I feel that the other two made the worst possible decision for both of them by voting out Ben (my read is that Ben/Tina/Brad are most likely all voting me as a result of this), so the reason I was left out of that vote and voted incorrectly was more because I was expecting them to make correct moves and be taking each other out, as both Paulette and Dev both had more jury votes in common with each other than they did Ben. Either way, I think Ben going is fine for me in some sense- and my goal was to be loyal to him.

Overall, I'm really proud of the game I played regardless of win or lose. I won 4 immunities, found 2 advanatages, and was only successfully targeted at the final 11. I think strategically I had the most control of almost anyone for the entire merge, and I was always in the loop (outside of final 4) regardless of whether I was part of the plan or not. I'm open to any questions you guys have for me, whether they're game related or personal, and I hope if you feel burned by the game I played you're at least respectful of the moves I made.

Here is my feedback. It’s not really a question. I felt I wasn’t given a fair shot, and wasn’t talked to at all. No one got to know me.

So the person who can give me the most facts about me gets my vote.

Thanks.

Alyssa, a pregnant married queen who has a dog named Tina. Also, I was like so loyal to you. I did get to know you before we were even in this game and you know that. I also had your back the whole time since you were supposed to go home premerge and my vote was the reason you didn’t. I literally love you sm. Buffalo Wild Wings Alliance.

Honestly Alyssa? We didn’t talk at all. We also were only together at the merge. I did vote with you there though and you were someone had the vote gone differently/day not been so busy - I would have wanted to flourish a relationship and work with you. You are a real girl and a pregnant queen, and I hope we get to know each other some outside of this! :)

Also I will be posting my speech a little bit later, going to get dinner with my bf :)

Hi Alyssa. I don't know you on a personal level, and I don't think you know me on a personal level. All I know about you as a person is stuff I've heard from Wes/Dev, that you're a dog mom and a soon-to-be human mom.

However, I also found you to be a pretty perceptive thinker on the Pago Pago beach. You had a really solid understanding of where everyone stood and you made the right move on the Julian vote, but you were also smart enough to see that when I was burned- you came to me and apologized, even though you hadn't done anything wrong. Obviously, moving forward you weren't planning to work with me, but since you had come to me about things, I had no idea you were plotting against me until very very late into your boot. I think that's proof you're an excellent social player, and had people not been so threatened by Wes, who you were close to, you would've done really well moving forward.

Questions and comments for each of the finalists :

ABSOL
You played an immensely powerful strategic game, there’s no denying that. However, many people on the Jury feel your social game, and especially your behaviour and attitude to those in the minority alliance felt as if you treated them pretty poorly in terms of a game stand-point. Why did you do that? And why did you refuse to cooperate with the people on your opposing alliance for almost 9 consecutive rounds?

I also wanna say, despite you played a strong game, like I said. Why did you pour false-hope into working with me when you clearly had no want or need to do that, it just came across as manipulative and disingenuous.

PAULETTE
Girl, we were on the same tribes all game long and I don’t think you went out of your way to work or be honest with me once. You actively voted against Coco multiple times, lied about it… and just refused to want to even speak to me when I was alone and all my allies had gone. Why was that?

I appreciate that you weren’t ever fake with me, but I just feel as if our connection isn’t strong enough for me to really understand your game and how everything went down. I do think you had a pretty poor social game.

DEV
Although I worked and talked to you more than the other two finalists, what would you say is a move you made that benefitted you in the game? What were things you did WITHOUT Wes’ influence? Should we take your self-vote into account that you may not have been as involved in the game as the others?

I will say, between all three, you are personally my favourite person… and if I were to vote base off of that, you’d get my vote. However, I just want more insight in your game as to why you DESERVE my vote from a strategic standpoint.

Absol, can I ask you who told you about my plotting against you?

Good game all. Best of luck!

I came into this game feeling like due to who I am in general and due to people knowing my abilities in games, I would just be targeted right away since it was heroes vs villains. Right away I locked in a majority with Raul, Wes, Max and Coco. I laid low and just talked to them and built connections with those specific people as we voted out Robbie. I did not trust Jimmy or Keith at all and wanted them both gone. Through logic, I had to compromise as my alliance wanted Jimmy out more than Keith, which was fine with me. We voted out Jimmy, from there Wes let me know that Nathan had an extra vote, so Raul and I collectively came up with a plan knowing the vote would be 3-3 between Nathan and Keith to split our votes so it came down to a tie. Our plan, if Nathan played the extra vote he wasted his advantage and Keith goes home, the alternative was what happened which was Nathan was cocky and kept his extra vote, but it didn’t matter because Raul and I would vote him out in the revote and that’s what we did. When Keith left, as Raul said earlier in the season in the chat he had a gun to Adams head ready to pull the trigger because Max was REALLY trying to convince him (and he did) that keeping Keith was smart. Right before we voted I told Adam to leave Raul alone and trust me as I had made Raul come to the realization that Keith going was more smart as Max was solely keeping him as an extra vote.

The swap -

Honestly, at this point in the game, I was tribe fucked as Wes and I were the only people on this tribe of 7 from the villains. Right away, I knew because of my previous connection with John and Zach that I should be pretty safe. The problem was they were ruthlessly targeting Alyssa, my ally whom I did not want gone. I had not had a conversation with Oliver or Brad at all, but I knew of Brad at least, so I decided I would rather Oliver go, and that’s what happened. He went home 4-3 because of my vote. After this is where I lost a bit of control, Alyssa and Wes blindsided me by blindsiding John which was annoying, but didn’t make me out of it. After that, we planned to blindside Tina who used his 50/50 coin, but I was never REALLY worried because I knew my connection with Wes/Alyssa would keep me safe and it did. (Yes, Wes. I was freaking out during it because I’m dramatic. I didn’t actually think I was going home personally.)

With the merge hitting and my 2 close allies who I had real genuine trust with going home back to back, I had to regather myself which is what I planned to do at the merge, but Max was, like always, playing rather messy and him, Adam and I think Coco all voted out my mom Alyssa.

The round that Brad went home, we gathered the villains together and all agreed to vote out Brad but like I said before, Max was playing messy, so he tried to blindside Absol without telling us. While I don’t disagree this was a smart move, it was way too out of left field, emotional and last minute. If Max had expressed wanting Absol out, we could have easily voted him out the next round (which I would have.) Regardless, Brad went home which is what I wanted to happen.

The round Coco went home is self explanatory, I hate that she was idoled out because we didn’t talk/work together the season before at all but built a real connection and trust with each other.

The round Tina went home, it just made sense. I mean, a 2 time winner who was not only strategic and social but ALSO good at finding advantages. Literal triple threat. I tried to get him out 2 different times premerge, which hopefully he can respect cause it was due to his threat level and the fact I’d lose than sheep. You’re still Sandra and will always have that.

The round that Pietro went, I was shocked he went home as we had a majority but Wes for some reason flipped and voted him out. Pietro and I never really spoke personally, however due to his connection with Coco/Max (kind of a random stannable 3) I trusted him enough to vote with us and I intended to be loyal to him for the time being so it was shocking and sucked when he went home.

The round Max went home, again, self explanatory. My vote was highjacked (thanks Absol!) but had it not been, I would have had Max’s back as he knew I intended to. He was playing really messy and no one really trusted him (myself completely included) but after him and I talked after a few merge votes, the trust came back and I wanted to go really far with him again.

At the final 6, I completely thought Adam was going to go to rocks, but in the end it didn’t make sense for him to which is understandable for he flipped on Wes which led to Wes going home. I knew Wes was a threat, but I also knew Absol was oddly protecting Ben and Ben was just doing what said (or so it appeared to everyone) so I was completely fine with pulling a rock if need be to get numbers on my side.

At the final 5, I had spoke to Ben the whole day before locking in “blindsiding” Raul. While I never intended to vote out Ben since I wanted Absol to go for several rounds but when he won immunity everyone started to scatter with their decisions. Last second Raul suggested we vote out Absol since it would be him going anyway if he did play it on himself. This was a literal last second decision which I wish I could have had time to just think for a second and realize it was not smart and tell them no as I felt I was the voice of reason with final decisions but it was all too fast. Absol obviously idoled himself and Raul went home.

At final 4, I told Ben that if he agreed to vote out Adam I would really consider it because Adam could have had a lot of jury votes due to irony, bitterness or just that he played a lot of sides but Ben refused to do Adam which sadly led to Absol purposely throwing his vote getting Ben slayed so he would get all the heroes votes. It sucks cause I warned Ben about Absol for literal rounds and he just didn’t listen.

I do have to say I truly believe Raul and I collectively ran the premerge on the villains making sure we were alway in the middle and then due to my connections with some of the heroes during the swap + Alyssa/Wes loyalty to me, I controlled the first vote then may have fell back but was never a threat or in danger. At merge, I don’t think my name was ever truly said or suggested to go besides when Max was going to use my name as a decoy which I shut down immediately. I definitely played off like I didn’t have a chance in the end and that I didn’t do that much, but I did. I feel I controlled a lot of decisions and also swayed MANY people into doing what I wanted MULTIPLE times which clearly led me to here. The best example is convincing Raul to keep Adam which clearly benefited me at F4 as he was loyal and I’m here. I don’t want to seem cocky as if I controlled peoples minds or decisions, but I think I am very good at swaying people and convincing them to see things from a perspective that benefits me which was seen multiple times. On top of all that, I never received a vote til final 4 which I only did because Ben wanted to show Adam some sort of loyalty. I may not have ran the WHOLE game, but I ran many parts of it and I was completely loyal to the people I was with. Most people can’t say they play Survivor and don’t lie, backstab and snake people but I really can. I completely had Alyssa, Wes, Pietro, Raul, and Cocos back through and through. I think loyalty and realness can win Survivor the same way other strategies can. As a social player, I have always respected social players more and feel they are more underrated. I never felt in danger or scared of truly going home because I was so connected to someone that was playing some side or because they people I weren’t with I knew liked me cause I’m so likable. And even if it was none of that, it was because they didn’t view me as a threat which I am not sure why. I do respect Absol as a person and in terms of the game itself he just was never in danger cause he was winning every immunity and everyone knew he had an idol. Very Ben from HvHvH. I’ll answer any questions.

DEV
Although I worked and talked to you more than the other two finalists, what would you say is a move you made that benefitted you in the game? What were things you did WITHOUT Wes’ influence? Should we take your self-vote into account that you may not have been as involved in the game as the others?

I will say, between all three, you are personally my favourite person… and if I were to vote base off of that, you’d get my vote. However, I just want more insight in your game as to why you DESERVE my vote from a strategic standpoint.

Honestly, you know I’m blunt and I am like … slightly offended you’d ever assume anyone influenced me. I never once did what anyone wanted unless I knew 100% it benefited me. I would personally say Wes did more things I wanted than the opposite. I voted Nathan despite him telling me not to cause Raul and I had a master plan to flush Nathan’s extra vote OR vote him out with it, He voted Oliver when it’s what I wanted, and I wanted Brad/Tina BOTH out and they both were the first 2 heroes to go at merge. I did so many strategic things and all of them were things that benefited me the most.
I personally think I was invested. I was awake all night one night and fell asleep on accident and actually meant to send in a vote and solely forgot. I was upset with myself BECAUSE I was invested and enjoying the game.

Oh and to add on Max, the thing that helped me the most in the end was me convincing Raul that Keith needed to go over Adam despite Raul saying he felt Adam 100% needed to go. I was still able to make him want Keith out more than Adam despite y’all being friends and you really pressuring him. I don’t think I manipulated Raul since I do think it was smarter but that specific strategic move helped me a lot since Adam was loyal when I needed him to be.

You played an immensely powerful strategic game, there’s no denying that. However, many people on the Jury feel your social game, and especially your behaviour and attitude to those in the minority alliance felt as if you treated them pretty poorly in terms of a game stand-point. Why did you do that? And why did you refuse to cooperate with the people on your opposing alliance for almost 9 consecutive rounds?

I also wanna say, despite you played a strong game, like I said. Why did you pour false-hope into working with me when you clearly had no want or need to do that, it just came across as manipulative and disingenuous.

--

Hi Max. I was expecting some heat from you so I'm glad you brought it.

First, to address the refusal to cooperate- I never needed to work with the opposing alliance in a strategic sense. Once I found the idol, and had established trust with the core of myself/Adam/Ben/Raul, I knew my game would be best served by keeping those three in line for as long as possible. All of them were scared to make a move on me because I had the idol until it was too late, and Wes/Dev were much safer options to take deep into the game than someone like you, Coco, or Pietro. The reason I say this is first of all because of the final 11 vote, from that point on I knew I was seen as a big threat by all three of you, and even when we did have good strategic talks, it was hard to work with an unknown quantity when it could have very easily backfired.

I had this really clear pecking order for a reason, though, and that comes into where you criticized my game- my social relationships with you three were pretty faulty.

Coco and I never really had CONFLICT, we just recognized that working together was not really in the cards. At this point, had I been FULLY in control, I would have never tried to target Coco over you or Pietro. I just knew that if she went, it was going to be easier to stage votes onto you both, so I was willing to let her go even if I felt that myself and Coco would have been able to work together at some point. She is the biggest "missed opportunity" as an ally for me, at least in my opinion.

Pietro, on the other hand, I feel like he kind of always had my number and kind of plays... a very opposite game to me. He's quiet and never gives too much away, whereas I'm pretty loud and like being pretty straightforward with others. I never really felt like we established trust with each other, whether that was just because of our relationship this game or because of the baggage from not really working together in previous games. Additionally, Pietro posed a big threat to my alliance with Ben- Ben was loyal to me first and foremost, but the longer Pietro stayed in, the worse it boded for me.

And... that leads me to you, Max. I am going to say that honestly, I was very open to working with you for... about one round. After the final 11, I was incredibly threatened by what you did and that you recognized I was such a threat to not only you, but the rest of the cast. This led me to kind of... being disingenuous after that when it came to managing our relationship. Even at final 10, my contentions around working with you were pretty centered around if you could be trusted. I was tentative about us coming together, but I was willing to vote for Coco first and protect you to hopefully work on that relationship further. Once Coco left, you were upset and started calling out myself, Ben, and Adam as a key alliance, which was really bad for me because those were two people I wanted to take deep into the game. At this point, we had another spat and I think from that point on I never really planned to work with you. However, I was still trying to manage my relationship with you because I recognized as long as one of Ben/Tina stayed in until you were gone, I could at least hide behind them before you would come for me directly. Manipulative? Yes, but I do think there was strategic value to how I played our relationship, even if I was pretty dishonest with you overall and (here's where I completely admit I crossed the line) intentionally sabotaged your connections with other people to keep my control over the game.