So I started off this game with a strong alliance of four, myself, Luca, Taco, and Waffle. I was talking to Waffle and Taco, as well as Luca, and we were able to all put this alliance together. We ran the original tribe (whose name is still impossible to type). After two easy votes we had control of the tribe before the inactivity of this season brought us to the merge.
At this point I also found the idol on my original tribe, which would be critical to my survival in the game later. I also kept it secret because I felt it would keep a target off of my back if people didn't know about my idol.
We entered the merge at a disadvantage, our tribe down in numbers, but the inactivity of this season took hold the few active members of my original tribe came together to vote out Thomas.
At this point I realize the people in my original alliance were a sinking ship so I reached out to Jack and Tyler in order to play the middle and get ties to both sides. I believe Tyler had me throw my vote to Thomas to prove I could trust them.
I did that not fearing the consequences of the action because I had my idol and I believed working with Tyler or Luca would both take me far.
However, Jasoi got voted out due to his inactivity which gave me the chance to continue the ruse with Luca as well as have bonds to Tyler and Jack and that alliance.
Then at final 7 Mark was supposed to go, but he was saved due to Taco's inactivity.
So at final 6 I looked to make a big move, me, Luca, and Mark were gonna take out Jack. Mark wanted to take out Drew, but he had gone to Jack trying to get him on board.
Jack came to me and informed me of the plan to take out Mark with him, Tyler, and Drew. I decided to go with mark and Luca because I didn't want to be an obvious fourth with Tyler, Drew, and Jack.
So I decided that I was going to go with Luca and Mark and try to make a big move. However, I was expecting Luca to use the idol on Mark and Mark to vote for Jack. However, Mark was insistent on getting Drew out so he didn't vote with us. Since Luca didn't use the idol and Mark didn't vote with us, Mark ended up going home.
But on the bright side, both Luca and I had idols going into the final five. This saved us from elimination and gave us the ability to take out one of the majority alliance members in Jack.
Then I won the final 4 immunity challenge which was critical because if I had lost I don't expect Luca would have given me the chance at a firemaking challenge since I lied to him about the idol.
However, I was under the impression that it was a final 2, so I gave Luca a shot because i would expect him to me to the finals over Tyler and i would expect Tyler to take me to the finals over Luca.
But here I am in the final three, I played both sides, I used an idol to save myself and I set myself up well between both alliances so I knew what both were thinking and kept myself from being a target during the late merge.