can i just say ?no-auto

Congrats you guys on final 2!
Johnny- I have so much respect for your game! You would have been voted our ROUNDS ago had you not won immunity after immunity. You also proved your social game now. My question is did you have any social back up plan had you not won immunity in any of the previous tribals?
Eric- Big immunity win for you! Prior to that however, I wanna know what you personally did to make a huge standout move? I'm talking like idol or something big.
Good luck guys

First and foremost, I want to say thank you for Eric for taking me here. We did a lot to save each other in the end of this game and I'm pretty shocked to be here. I thought I was going to have to win them all for sure.

I suppose given that it's survivor, the outwit/outplay/outlast has to come into play in this speech so lets address that.

I think for the most part when it came to outwitting people, I did a pretty terrible job until the very end of the game when I convinced Eric to take me to the end. I saw the writing on the wall as my allies kept getting out of the game and knew that I would have to go on an immunity run and find idols to get myself to the end. I ultimately lost the last immunity challenge, but due to me saving Eric two consecutive rounds I was able to get him to take me to the end over Ben, which quite frankly I am still SHOCKED about even though I really do appreciate it more than Eric probably knows.

When it comes to outplaying, I without a doubt know I played this game harder than anyone else. The amount of time I spent looking for the idols was unhealthy. I had to get clue after clue and spend hours upon hours looking through blogs and bothering my friends to help me. In The Amazing Race immunity challenge, let me make this crystal clear:

I HAD THE CHALLENGE DONE BEFORE IT STARTED.

I went and looked at users first blogs in the 30 minutes leading up to the challenge and was able to find all of the clues before it even began. When it came to the challenges I was always one step ahead which was why I was able to win so many of them. I fully committed to this game and was far more dedicated than anyone else playing. I know how much of a loser this makes me, but when I play something I give it 110% regardless of how stupid it seems or how big of a hole I've dug myself into.

When it comes to outlasting, I literally had to take down an alliance of 5 one by one. I dismantled the plans of Ben, Keith, Ryan, Adam, and Eric to make it to the end of this game. While I know Adam was on the outs and maybe Zach would have been here if it wasn't for an idol play, I had to break through every single person who was in that alliance only to eventually get one of them to take me to the end over another one. Without a question, I outlasted the majority of the players in this game.

I want to make a note of a few things to everyone else on the jury...some final thoughts I suppose.

Sandy - I really wish that we had been able to talk more. I know you're from RI and live somewhat close to me. When merge hit it seemed like everyone was immediately voting for you for no real reason and I didn't have strong enough reason to fight it. Thank god you were one of the only people who used Discord in this game, Will should mandate that for future seasons lol.

Zach - Sorry bud, the plan was to get you out and blindside Ben into playing his idol and it worked. Keith played the middle on that vote, knew we weren't voting Ben, and for that one vote was with me and Rick. Confusing, but it definitely helped my game having you out. Sorry!

Tyler - Oh this was tragic for you. Of all the people in the game (except maybe Eric) you had the biggest impact on me being in the F2. I was honest and told you I was voting you so that I could try to save my idol for another round because I was told the votes were on you. You responded that you were voting me because they told you I was voting you. You said this as the votes were about to be read and I played my idol (almost too late) as a result. If we had talked even 5 minutes earlier I would have switched my vote off you to someone in the majority and we could have got them out with 2 votes. Truly the biggest tragedy of the game.

Rick - You wound up being my ride or die almost more than Adam because you were more invested in this game. I still don't know whether your loyalty would have been with me in the end or if there was someone else you were closer with, but I certainly felt closest to you. We were partners in crime from the very beginning and I really appreciated having that person to talk through everything with in this game.

Adam - I immediately made a F2 with you in this game and intended on sticking with that. You just wound up out of the game in a tragic idol play. I don't know if you cared all that much about this game because you missed quite a few things. If only this had turned out differently.

Keith - Oh Keith. You were by far the biggest irritation to play with. You played the middle and I hate people who do that. You pretended like you were with everyone in the game for too long. When you pretended to be with us and got Zach out, but voted with them anyways to hide your knowing about the vote, it irked me. I knew you weren't going to be with us after that because you got to even the sides out a bit before flipping back. You were probably the biggest tryhard other than myself in games so I wanted you out the second that happened. Sorry.

Ryan - I was honestly the most hurt from you when you kind of just blindsided me and abandoned me at merge. I was really enjoying talking with you and Rick premerge and then you just abruptly ended it. I wanted to work with you to the end but this is what I mean with pre-existing relationships in these games. I was never going to break through that.

Ben - What can I say? I'm shocked you got third. Truly. I would have voted for you had it been me. We didn't really see eye to eye in this game at all. I messaged you a few times and got nothing out of you. Maybe if I wind up in a future game with you it can be different. For this one, I know I might not have your vote because of that lack of relationship. Good game though.

THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO TAKES THE TIME TO READ THIS.
Thank you to everyone who had a part in me making it here.

A lot of times I hated this game, but I loved it enough to be that loser who took it too seriously and stumbled his way into immunity after immunity and ultimately the F2. Maybe next time I'll know a few more people in the game and not have to resort to immunity wins.

CONTROVERCHELE OUT!

Tyler, to address your question...I had backups with Eric, Adam, Rick, etc. We would have tied it at 6 if it weren't for an idol. We'd have had Keith out the previous round as well. Ultimately the idols wound up playing a huge role in this game. I had to find that last one to make sure Keith couldn't get to the end doing the same strategy I did.

I recognize fully my social game was not as good as Eric's or many other players. But when it actually DID matter, Eric took me to the end, so something I did was right on a social level even if it wasn't always perfect.

Hi guys and congrats on making it to the final two!  Not going to lie... it's still a tad surprising Eric's decision to vote me out as I didn't see it coming.  Nonetheless, my vote is undecided tonight as I respect both of your efforts and can walk away here knowing will have a good winner.

Eric - You played a very similar game to me and can understand why you voted me out.  I'm not sure if it was the correct one but for the moment it was likely the right call.  However, I can tell you now you gave Johnny ammunition that he did have a social game and didn't rely just on the necklace.  I think you played a great all around game but you made some questionable decisions that were either unnecessary or not smart (not telling me how close you were to Rick and having us flush our idols).

My questions to you are...
-->When did you officially know you couldn't bring me to the end?
-->Who was your biggest competition this season and why?

Johnny - Nobody is going to deny you put the most effort into this game by a mile.  You had to win challenges, find idols and clearly showed a high level of investment.  As a host, I can respect the effort you put into this game.  Not to mention, even if it wasn't at your own hand by Eric voting me out it did show you have some form of a social game.  However, your social game with me was pretty awful cause all you wanted me to do was tell you who wanted you out and then you died off.  Communication is a two-way street but as a jury member it's my job to vote for a winner.

My questions to you are...

-->Why should I vote for you when you when we didn't even exchange 40 words to one another?
-->Who was your biggest competition this season and why?

BOTH: Compare each juror to a CBS Survivor player and explain why you gave them that comparison!

Hello Jury,

Before I start, I’d just like to say a HUGE thank you all for making this game fun. I think we all know pre-merge was getting kind of stale, but when we got down to the nitty gritty good players, we fought hard and, for me at least, it made the season much more enjoyable.

That said, I know I have some explaining to do. A lot of people were shocked that I was able to not only win that final immunity challenge, but that I also chose Johnny to sit next to me here tonight. I will explain these things, but first I need to explain the three pillars of my game: the physical, social, and strategic.

Physical: My physical game was very simple, but it became increasingly complex. At first, I just wanted everyone to see me as a non-entity in the game physically – that’s why I did not show up to challenges or I threw them, as was the case in the F5 and F4. Increasingly, however, I realized that the one person who needed to think I was horrible at challenges was Johnny. Johnny’s targets, from the F7 vote onwards, were always the physical competitors that had beaten him before – Keith and Ryan (notice a lack of strategic intent beyond this). Thus, I knew if I ever beat Johnny in an immunity challenge and he miraculously stayed with an idol (which he was likely to have), I would be one of his next targets. In other words, I played up the part of the injured bird as much as possible for Johnny so he would “take me under his wing” and protect me from the big baddies that could hurt his easy beat in the F3. For example, he offered me assistance in the final 4 fire-making challenge, and even though I did not ultimately need it (as proved by the final immunity challenge), I accepted his help so he would go into the last immunity challenge thinking he was still going against an innocent baby bird. In the end, he was not prepared, and he lost that challenge, giving me the power to make the “ultimate decision.”

Social: Because I intentionally left my physical game lacking, I had to rely heavily on my social game for the first half and my strategic game for the second half. For example, when I swapped onto the new Thirasia tribe in a 1-5 minority, I not only stayed the first tribal council we went to, but I also did not receive a single vote from anyone on the tribe, including Nick. In fact, I did not receive a single vote for the entire game until the final 6 and I never received the majority of the votes at any one tribal council, unlike my opponent sitting next to me tonight.

Strategic: With regards to my strategic game, I first want to outline that there were two halves: the f7-f5 and the f4/f3. From the final 7 to the final 5, my number one goal was to take Johnny out of the game; however, I had to adapt my gameplay to mold around the immunity wins and my goal became one of survival and weakening other targets. For example, in the final 7, final 6, and final 5 votes, my goal became weakening Keith by voting for him and telling everyone that my intention was to do so, so that he would play any idols he had and he could not idol me out of the game later (fun fact: FOUR people were idoled out of the game – this became a large concern of mine and it became my weapon of choice in the final 5 in order to take Keith out in case I did not have the votes). In the final 4, however, the game shifted. My plan at that point was to throw the immunity challenge (as mentioned above), so I knew there was a high chance I was going to the FMC – and I was okay with that because, from what I’d seen from Ryan and Ben up to that point, I knew I had a good chance against them. In other words, my game in the f4 and f3 was a gamble – one that I had set up through 10 rounds of tribal councils – and I knew going to fire and winning the final immunity challenge were the two things I needed to prove I was better than whomever I went against in the final tribal council.

The Ultimate Decision: With that said, I will explain my ultimate decision: I chose to take Johnny here for one reason: Ben played one HELL of a game. Ben’s name was rarely thrown out for a vote (in fact, I don’t think he ever received votes but I may be wrong), he had run the “alliance of 5” all the way to the end, he had close relationships with a good amount of people on the jury, and, unlike me, he could say he NEVER won immunity to get to the final 2. Johnny had been my target for a large portion of the merge, yes, but he never used strategy or social skills to get there – including the final 3. For example, in the final 3, his plea to me was that I owed him because he played an idol on me and helped me in the FMC. He didn’t use social or strategic skills, he just tried to blackmail me.

However, I did not need him at the F4 FMC and I did not receive the majority of the votes at the F5, so his blackmailing failed. I did not owe Johnny anything and I did not choose him because of any deals or alliances we had. He simply played worse than Ben and quite frankly, I think he played worse than me as well.

Thank you all and I cannot wait to hear your questions.

I have to rebuke three of your arguments here. One being playing up being bad at challenges to win, secondly my strategic or social game, and thirdly you having a better chance against me than Ben.

First, if you were better at challenges than me then you playing down intentionally hurt your allies because you could have taken me out earlier and continued to win out on your own. Point blank. Even at the end when you DID beat me, you chose not to eliminate me. Additionally, the answers you sent me for the F4 were wrong - a weird thing to lie about in the heat of the moment?

Second, I do not deny the fact that my strategic and social game were lacking. I saw the writing on the wall with the alliances as my allies fell out of the game. No one would talk to me. I TRIED to talk to people and no one would reply or give me any information at all. If you want to fault me for not having the pre-existing relationships that others had, fine, there was nothing I could do about that. Once I realized I was completely isolated on the outs I did the only thing I knew I could control, and that was preparing for challenges and spending hours trying to find idols and it WORKED.

Third, you had the jury votes going into this from what I heard from the jury rumblings prior to the finale. You would have beat me or Ben in either scenario. So your decision to take me was ultimately faulty because you had the win over Ben, but Ben was never on the outs of an alliance like I was. Taking me after I pushed through a wall of an alliance looks worse because there were 4 or 5 rounds where no one could take me out and then when you were finally given the chance, you didn't. While I am forever grateful for that, you still didn't take the shot. 💖

Eric- Big immunity win for you! Prior to that however, I wanna know what you personally did to make a huge standout move? I'm talking like idol or something big.

Before my final 3 win, my largest standout move -- where I became an independent player – was the final 7 vote when I voted for Keith and asked Ben and Ryan to tell him he should play his idol right before the votes. At that point in the game, I did not want Keith to go home, but I wanted his idol to pack its bags and move out because coming down to the final 6 and final 5, I knew he could have turned it against me if Johnny won immunity. I call that my largest standout moment because at that point, I made a move when I did not need to – I was not receiving votes that tribal council and I could have prevented more votes coming my way in the future – but I risked coming out of my alliance bubble in order to accomplish my own personal goals.

To address your first point, you're right. I didn't talk to you. We never had conversed before that and I saw you as somewhat of a leader of your alliance given your history in hosting and likely knowing other players that I didn't. When I came to you, it was because I wanted to tell you that Keith was essentially fucking you over. I wanted you to give me the information on why he voted with you so that I could be sure of my assertion that he was playing both sides. The round you played your idol, Keith was IN OUR CHAT to vote out Zach. He knew the plan was to flush your idol and get Zach out. But when the voting happened, Keith hid his vote by voting Rick who he knew was playing an idol on himself. I thought that was a coward move and I was going to out it to you, but at the time you were giving me nothing to work with. You wouldn't even give me a little, so I felt like even if I had told you that it would have been a lost cause and you would have still chosen Keith anyways. I know that might've not been the right answer, but people putting up walls and not even bothering to talk to me when I tried with them was a common theme in this game that is being labeled as my "lack of a social game" which I fully admit was lacking and was why I had to turn to dedicating so much more time to idols and challenge preparation.

Your second question - who was my biggest competition? From the very beginning of this game I saw Keith as my biggest competitor and it only became validated as the game went on. I remember asking someone who played group games at the very beginning of this game "of all the people in this game, who would out-loser and out no life me?" and their response was Keith. Given that he then found two idols taking them away from my control, I'd say that was reasonably accurate. I knew that I had to get Keith out once things started slipping. If anyone was going to dedicate the amount of time I was going to dedicate to this game, it was going to be him. Like I said, I knew I couldn't compete on a strategic social level by a certain point when pre-existing relationships started to take precedence over my pre-merge alliances. So then it shifted to "okay how do I get people out who are going to be in the way of my comp wins or my idol finding". Even IF Eric played up being weak at challenges, keeping him in still helped me because it kept me in long enough for him to take me to the end. Had he not "let me" win those challenges, I wouldn't even be able to be here pleading my case. So no matter what, it was completely the right way for me to play it.

CBS Survivor Player - I will always always always answer Eliza Orlins for this. Her social game is less than spectacular but she's a puzzle beast and I know in her heart she has a burning dedication to win the game if people would let her. I also love what she's doing running for District Attorney in NYC and share so many of the beliefs in what she's fighting for.

I will literally type essays upon essays if it means getting your vote so if you have more questions let me know and I'll sit here responding to all of them!!!

@Ben

My questions to you are...
-->When did you officially know you couldn't bring me to the end?
I knew I couldn’t bring you if I won the final immunity challenge and you didn’t. We played very similar games and I think that was already making me a little unsure by the final 5, but once I won immunity, I knew you could have made an even more impressive claim that you never won immunity while I did.

-->Who was your biggest competition this season and why?
Overall, my biggest competition was Keith. Considering it was becoming apparent that Johnny was going home at any tribal council in which he did not win immunity, I made it my goal to take out Keith and it took three rounds before he ran out of idols and it stuck. I do want to clarify that Keith was never my “villainous foe” (I really like talking to Keith – even in the round where it was him or me going home, I talked with him more than anyone else); however, he was my competition and he had the best chance at winning.

Johnny, I now have to point out where you have mistaken me and where your faults in logic are:
1.        I never attempted to win challenges because you had idols. I mentioned before that you only targeted the two people that beat you in immunity challenges – Keith and Ryan – and if: I won immunity, you stayed safe with an idol, and then I lost the next immunity, I could be a target when I never needed to be one. I also want to add that I did not know how we would ever compare in challenges until the final 3 and that is why I spent so long bringing your guard down so you were less prepared to go against me in the final immunity challenge.
2.        I do not know anything about your conversations with other people, but you said “I do not deny the fact that my strategic and social game were lacking” – the reason I brought you to the final 2.
3.        You “took down an alliance” through physical means, which only affirms my point above that I took you, not because you convinced me, but because you had no social or strategic game to bring to the table at the final tribal council.

Hey congrats guys
Eric - I offered you a much less risky way through the final 4, not having to go into a fire challenge if Johnny were to win immunity. Did you not believe me or was risking a 2-2 really the only way for you to go?

Johnny - Do you think you have any redeemable personalty traits that would make me wanna vote for you?

@Both

BOTH: Compare each juror to a CBS Survivor player and explain why you gave them that comparison!

---

@Johnny

I think you guys missed out on this.  Also, Johnny I'm usually someone that remains open-minded but I think it was telling that since our first conversation was at the final seven there wasn't an end game with me in it you wanted.  However, I also felt that I was in a pretty good position most of the way.  I get what were you trying to do at the Keith vote and it made sense.  I did know the votes were coming for Zach but I wasn't sure if there was going to be a minority split per say as I heard you thought I was dangerous and me in Tbart were fighting that round along with Rick.

@Eric

So are you telling me your plan was always to bring Johnny to the end?  For example, if Ryan had won final four immunity does Johnny still leave or do you vote me instead?  Or do your plans change and you want to go to the end with Ryan then?

I completely misread that i thought you said COMPARE YOURSELF to a survivor player so hold on LOL

Keith, I'm not really going to address this. You played a shady middle of the road game where you had no real loyalty to anyone and looked to protect only yourself. You pretended to be with people you weren't with, and I don't respect that kind of game at all. You can play without unnecessarily lying to everyone in the game.