Hi Jury,
We all know this season was cutthroat, tough, and a true battle, from the day of the marooning we all gamed, and I gamed hard. My game was all about working with people who TRULY wanted to work with me, and I would give them my commitments and break my word as little as I could.
One of my strengths I believe is my strategic game, im a numbers guy, and I wanted smart rational players on my side. Some of you i didnt know, some i knew, but i wanted to leverage my position the best I could. Another one of my strengths is I try to make rock solid alliances, me, ikah, tim, bob from people i knew beforehand
When we came onto the season, it was Noah vs Nathan and Nathan was someone I really wanted to work with. We clicked, talk alot, and had common enemies. Common enemies is something that can really bond people together, its powerful. I chose to vote out Matt, and although i didnt target Matt, me ikah tim bob washed kevin jasoi and mark were the swings on that vote.
I then put a lot of effort in working with mark and jasoi and kevin and washed.
And I worked with Nathan closely until I had to blindside Cameron, one of my ultimate mistakes in this game, and it costed me dearly. I was scared Nathan/cameron were going to flip on us and work with Nik, and me and jasoi were tight. I am not a perfect player, but I think I know how to roll with the punches and rebound when I am down. It's not how you fall, its about how you get up.
I think I fully had my endgame gameplan once the merge started. It was me, ikah, bob, jasoi, mark, kevin and washed. I had immunity and I leveraged the hell out of it that vote. I created a final 7 that I wanted to stick till the final7. These were all people who I had their backs to the ultimate end and I wanted it to get to the 7 because I felt i could have gotten to this point if we stayed. I pushed hard for Nik to go home because Nik was such a powerful presence and Nathan was now working with Blake aswell, and I knew this was my shot to take complete control of the game. Nik put up a fight and I would see how Nik would blow up in main chat after hearing the name, and people would then be worried and wanted to switch off, and I was like "hold up, that is too powerful, we need to do this!"
The vote after I lost a lot of control, we had just won, and we all know when you win the vote the next one is not easy when it should be. I wanted to control my alliance of 7 in a non godfather'esq way and just slowly move this group. Bob strayed off and blindsided Kevin, which I knew nothing about and killed my chances moving forward. We targeted Nathan because Nathan was coming for me and I knew it. Kevin was someone who I considered a close ally and a strong player to move with me in the game and losing him just made my journey harder.
The next vote was even tougher, Bob was playing the middle, but didnt trust certain people from our 7. Mark had the idol, and he gave me the idol and we were even on call talking about whether we should have used it. Mark this was a mistake on my part I truly wish that I used it on you, as I wanted to continue this game with you.
The swapped tribe brought a new dyanmic. I didnt trust TJ, and me and Blake had an agreement to not vote eachother. Bob was defective and playing the middle, but he was someone I trusted very closely, although he was playing his own game as he should. When Blake targeted Bob, I had to alert him because I knew I needed Bob in this game.
The Nathan vote is where I should have been dead in this game. I tried to make a truce with Nathan and get everyone to vote Birks, and the whole tribe turned against me, ikah, and bob. TJ made the flip that is probably the biggest mistake in this game, and even used an idol nullifer. Me, Ikah, and Bob each had 1 immunity idol, and TJ used an idol nullifer and flipped on Nathan.
After this vote, we had 3 idols and won the vote, but I didnt trust TJ, i knew he was playing a back and forth game. I talked to Jasoi before the vote and he told me the vote was going on Ikah, and I alerted him and he played the idol correctly. This led to Megan getting voted out.
The next vote, I wanted TJ but Ikah was persistent on keeping TJ, and I really liked Washed but he knew he needed me, bob, and ikah to crack. Jasoi told me that he was voting Bob and thus Bob correctly played the idol. TJ told our alliance to throw a vote on Jasoi and I told my alliance hell no, a 3-2-1 is trying to be planned, and thus we won the vote and Washed went.
The vote after, Bob won immunity and I knew that I was probably getting votes and I wanted to use the idol, and thus I was safe and Birks went.
Final 5, Ikah won, and made such a huge error. Me and Bob were getting slandered so hard, and Ikah made an emotional decision and saved TJ, because they are friends, and ruined a final 3 that was in plan for a long time. Bob, you absolutely crushed this game, and we hadn't played in a long time, and it was an honor to play from day 1 to finale with you, you should have been here.
Final 4, I had such short time and I wanted Jasoi to be in the final 3 with me, i was willing to vote Ikah or TJ. Jasoi told me he wanted to go to firemaking against TJ, and then voted for Ikah, so he went home 2-1-1. Jasoi keep your head up high, you made it to 4 in a cutthroat season.
So my game was not clean, but I played my heart out, and I tried to play a loyal game to those who knew I was loyal to them. I did the numbers constantly, tried to stay ahead of the curve, and tried to play a rational game each time. Nothing was ever personal, and I leveraged my position when I could, played the bottom when I could, and won final immunity to get myself to this spot. No one ever told me what to do, and I played this game from start to finish. From 15th to final 3, I am proud and I hope i can be rewarded with a win.