What differentiates me from Chris’s game? What did I do on my own? What did I do that benefitted me?
That’s the question I’m asking from myself right now as I'm writing this.. and I'm going to be unapologetically me.
Yes, Chris and I were a duo. That is something I wanted to lay down coming into the final tribal council, even though I knew that I’d probably get criticized for it. One thing that we both had in common was that we wanted to sit next to each other at the end. However, the 2 of us had a very different journey and 2 of us had a very different idea as to how we would get here and who we would get there with.
I’m going to break it down to 2 parts as to what I feel like I had solely DONE in this game. 1 the social game and the more social-related moves. The other part is the strategic decision-making.
The first part: social game. I tried to talk to a lot of people, I tried to go out of my way to be involved in talks, to get to know people. My social game helped ME get into the driving seat of this game and it helped me execute strategic plans during the season.
On Day 2 of this game, I made a CONSCIOUS decision that I want to be involved in an alliance with Luke-Kevin-Will, because I simply felt like I would be able to thrive in that alliance based on their personalities and what I perceived them to be like (loyal, trustworthy, people that would likely work with me on the long term). Meanwhile, Chris on the other hand had other people like Jay H, Niko, Devyn, at times Ben for a while when he trusted him. Whenever we discussed who we would get to the end with, we could never actually agree on it. We said we would agree on later, later. I consciously made decision to not only further MY own game, Chris’ game, but my entire alliances’ game as well. Will right here said I was his ride-or-die, Chris was my duo, Kevin considered me his number 1 as well, I’m pretty sure Luke trusted me in the alliance the most as well. Who else in this game can say that they had so many people trusting them so much? No one.
I had 3 people fully trusting me in the FINAL 4. 3 people that voted WITH ME throughout the entirety of the season. They didn’t work with each other all the time, they worked with ME. They listened to me and trusted ME the most, not each other. What else shows how much of a control I had if that doesn’t?
I made the alliance chat on DAY 2 to work with those 3 people (Chris was not part of it at that point) and they ALL trusted me the MOST in that alliance. THAT Alliance got me here. THAT Alliance was the reason people kept being voted out and that is especially true when the merge hit.
Why is that alliance so important? I was not only the ONE that formed it, but was the actual GLUE that kept it together, because ALL of those people trusted ME the most. I feel like that shows how well I positioned MYSELF in this game and how well I managed to get people on MY OWN SIDE.
And when Luke was ready to flip… who had the social awareness to realize what was happening? It was ME. I was the one who realized that Luke was ready to flip. Who had the strategic plan instantly to flip the script around? I was the one that saved the rest of our alliance by coming up with the blindside plan against Wender and then Luke. THAT BENEFITTED ME on the long term, because had I not realized Luke was plotting against us, he would have probably taken over this game and I would have lost control.
So, to sum this part up. I CREATED the alliance that was in so much control in this game, but if you look at it from an outside perspective. You could see that behind the alliance, I had the control. I had 3 out of the 4 FULLY considering ME their number 1s throughout this entire game and I truly feel like even Luke considered me his closest ally INSIDE the alliance.
I used my social gameplay to build such strong bonds that I was able to use that to be in the driving seat without ever taking the heat, without ever being a possible target up until the F6.
To further prove my social power: I was the one Willie was spilling the different alliance chats, not others. I was the one Luke admitted to that he wanted to blindside Chris, not others in our core alliance and I was the one who found out that Kevin had the idol, not the rest of my alliance. This further proves my point of being basically in control OF THE ALLIANCE because I was the one receiving the information. And why did I receive that information? Because of my social game.
I got this alliance to the end, that my duo did NOT want to go to the end with, because of how well I managed to control the votes, the relationships and how successfully I managed to eliminate anyone that posed a danger to it.
So when I talk about that alliance, it originally consisted of Will-Luke-Kevin-Myself and I talk about something that I truly believe I had major control over. And THIS alliance is the one that had the control over so many votes.
So, to the strategic-strategic side:
Final 14: I realized the votes would be 8-2-2-2. I identified that. I, myself, made the plan to go to Kevin and convince him to vote Niko with me to make it a 6-4-2-2. Why? I wasn’t talking much to Niko, we never really had game chats. I wanted him out before merge solely because of my own game, even though Chris liked him.
Final 12: Chris wanted Wender out. I wanted Devyn to go. Why? For my own game. Devyn was not talking much to me; he was talking a lot more with Chris. Wender, on the other hand, was talking to me a lot. This round we really couldn’t agree on what we would do. So, when you(Blu) told me Devyn was going to come after Chris, it didn’t matter whether it was the truth or not, because that is simply what I needed to get rid of Devyn. That gave me the ammo to completely pull the target off of Wender and replace it to Devyn and get her out of this game.
Came merge, Chris became the target in nearly all of the votes but I talked a lot to my allies: Kevin, Luke, Will. By this point I was pushing the idea that we can trust Chris, we can work with him. This didn’t just benefit him, it benefitted me as well. Chris was always going to be targeted over me by that point, but he was also always going to be loyal to me throughout this whole game.
By that point, he didn’t have the luxury to choose which players he wanted to go to the end with. The only way to the end was to stick with the 3 people that I GOT ON MY OWN SIDE.
Had it not been for the alliance that I kept together; this game would be looking completely different now.
Had it not been ME that realized Luke was going to flip, this game would be looking completely different. I worked out a plan to stop the flip and I successfully executed it.
All in all, I came up with so many ideas, plans in our alliance. I was sometimes sending essays to my allies in DMs, discussing the vote and relentlessly strategizing. I do believe in the end I had the most say in what was happening in the game and ultimately it was really I that sat in that driving seat and if you thoroughly read through the speeches, the answers, you could see what I’m telling is the whole truth.
„Coco was my ride or die”. „Coco was my duo”. „Coco was doing too much dirty work”(Dirty or actually I’ve done what no one else could do and took control of the game?) „In our Final 5 alliance of Coco, Will, Kevin, and Luke they all trusted Coco more than me, and Luke turned on me.” „I couldn't be the one to make up a lie about alliances that Luke was in with other people because Will would not have believed me over Coco.”
I truly believe this should give you a true idea of MY game and what I have achieved in this game. I truly think I dominated this game both socially and strategically with the help of my duo BUT MANY MANY TIMES without the help of my duo.
I just want my game to be seen for what it actually is and not be solely determined by the fact that I somehow forgot to lock in a vote or because I had a duo with Chris. I really needed to say these to prove it to my own self that I really did these. I KNOW I did this…
This is all I got, I guess, whether it’s enough or not, I’m content with the way I played and I’m content with what I have achieved in this game. Throughout the game, I was really nervous and I just wasn’t sure how others have actually perceived me and what they thought of me. I had huge meltdowns from final 6 onward, but I never actually gave up and just kept pushing and pushing, despite feeling so anxious and just overall expecting the jury to be pissed at me. However, now writing this answer, I finally feel relieved. I’m at peace with whatever happens, because I know I played my heart out, I’ve done what I could and I worked super hard, putting so many hours of dedication to get to THIS SEAT in the final 3. I didn’t just survive this game, I controlled it.
Thanks for reading this!!!!!!!! (this was so long X.X)