Hi everyone! I’d like to start off by saying this has been a great season, it has been awesome playing with all of you and it’s great to see you all again. I’d like to thank Billy, Livingston (HAPPY BIRTHDAY BITCH) and Kyle, all 3 dear friends of mine for hosting and encouraging me to play.
Now, down to business. I can’t believe I’m sitting here tonight. I’m not a big group game fanatic and so I don’t play games often. When I do play, I play to win, no matter how slow of a start. My whole game this season revolved around establishing a reputation of a quiet, observant and reserved player and to play on this perception to get my way in the future and I believe I executed this strategy to perfection.
It’s crazy how much I was able to get people to trust and underestimate me. I was able to have large amounts of control in this game, play both sides and still not be targeted. To put it into perspective, I went to 9 tribal councils this season and only had my name written down at 1 tribal council.
This season has been completely FILLED with twists, which would screw my game up. Vote blocks, vote linkers, the legacy advantage, idols and a shit ton of half idols. And yet, I never found a single one of these advantages, never won a single individual immunity challenge and I controlled the game and made it all the way here.
Ultimately, Survivor is a social game. Not a game of who can find the most advantages, or who makes the best moves and I believe I thrived. Any obstacle that was thrown my way, I worked around it and managed to get myself in a position in which I knew who was going home almost EVERY tribal council.
My journey began on the original Bhakti tribe. I established my position in the core of the majority alliance of myself, TJ, Jake & Wade, with Brian & Mykel also being close allies. I was able to get myself in a position in which all 5 of those people had me as their #1, #2 or #3 ally. I lobbied to vote out the inactive in Ethan and solidified connections. That being said, I was still very quiet during this stage of the game.
After 2 quits and a tribe swap, I found myself going to tribal with my core alliance of 4 as well as the 3 Purush outsiders in Savannah, Malachi & Will. Because Jake regarded me as his closest ally, he used his vote linker so we could split the votes and take out Will. I received 2 votes at this tribal, the only time I ever received any votes. Will was taken out here because he was a HUGE threat and we thought he may have the idol.
Now here’s when my game really kicked it up a notch. I got swapped onto the Purush Tribe. My ENTIRE ALLIANCE was over on Bhakti. I got Stephanie Johnson’d. Yet instantly, I took control of my new camp and easily lead a charge to slay mbarnish 5-0. I knew I would not work with him because of him supporting racism so I did what had to be done and got it done. During this part of the game, Brian quickly became my closest ally and I also worked closely with Hufus. But the biggest transformation relationship wise was myself and Malachi. He had voted for me on NewBhakti and we were against each other, but we settled differences and managed to work TOGETHER. I managed to build some trust with Malachi, opening options for both of us when we merged.
I managed to get myself into an AMAZING position once we merged. I still had my alliance with Jake & TJ, with TJ as my closest ally, I had an alliance with Mikel & Brian, I was working with Malachi, who brought Savannah with him and I was working with Hufus and Nehemiah. The only player I had no connection with was Josh, who happened to be the only person I was never on a tribe with.
I think its extremely impressive that I managed to have great relationships with 8 out of 8 of the people I was on a tribe with in the premiere headed into the merge. So I set forth a plan. The first vote was going to be Josh. But it wasn’t easy with all the twists this season. Savannah gave up immunity to Josh, so we switched to Savannah. Now, we knew Savannah could potentially have the idol, and I knew the minority was voting for Brian, so me and Brian made a plan to convince Josh to vote for Malachi. Josh thought that was the group’s consensus and voted that way. 2 idols got played and Malachi went home *1-0-0. It sucked because I did want to work with Malachi, but both Savannah and Josh became immune and there weren’t very many options.
What the majority alliance didn’t realize all game, is that I was trying to flip the votes so that the minority would take control of the game. This is the vote that Josh almost went home on. I gathered Savannah, Hufus & TJ as numbers to blindside Josh, as Savannah would be a number for me and we all locked in Josh until Hufus split because of moral confections when it came to saving Savannah. Still, I managed to pin my vote on Hufus and kept the idea of myself/Mykel/Brian being a Final 3 alive. This is when I really solidified trust with Nehemiah and we formed a bond.
At the next vote, I once again launched an attack on Mykel but he had found another idol and played it on himself and my closest ally TJ went home. This was a real low point for me, because I trusted TJ with EVERYTHING. Still, I was able to pin my vote on Josh and Brian and Mykel still trusted me.
At this point, I was in a very solid position, being in a Final 3 alliance with Brian and Mykel, and one with Hufus & Nehemiah. I wanted to originally target Josh this vote, as the vote had been between Josh and Hufus, both whom were consistently targeted throughout the game. But Nehemiah had gotten Josh on board to vote for Brian and I was not going to be drawing rocks and risking a 33% chance of me going, so I joined those 3 and voted Brian off, who was a huge threat and I had begun to start doubting his loyalty to me over Josh.
The next 2 rounds both Nehemiah and Mykel quit but I managed to win Final Immunity as well, which was a high point. Also, Mykel had planned on playing an idol on me, but I was going receive 0 votes anyways and Josh would have gone that tribal.
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Basically, to summarize, throughout the entire game, I had control in the majority alliance and in the minority alliance. I was able to be a double agent without anyone finding out. And if someone did find out, they couldn’t do anything about it because they needed me. I went through this whole game without an idol, advantage or immunity necklace to save me at any tribal. My social game brought me here and I spearheaded numerous votes. I went to every tribal except 1, made sure that my torch left unsnuffed and I knew who the vote was between EVERY SINGLE TRIBAL COUNCIL. I was never in danger while both Hufus and Josh had their names thrown out every tribal council. I deserve to win, I hope you guys can respect my game. It’s been a blessing and a pleasure and id love to continue to be friends with some of you! And Will, since we never really got to talk, I’d love to chat after the game! :)