Hey jurors, this game has definitely been a hectic one for everybody. There have been plenty of twists, advantages, surprises, and changes in the game. So I believe that the person that wins this game should be the person that was able to adapt to their surroundings the most, as well as have the most influence on the game while keeping himself safe. On a day to day basis, I constantly had to re-shuffle my plans because of new information.
I was definitely the person that faced the most obstacles here. I was targeted since before the merge, kept myself in the game with immunity wins and idols. Although I can’t deny that these things helped, sometimes a lot of people associate challenge wins and idols with luck. People might say that someone with 2 idols and 6 immunity wins got here because they can click buttons fast and guess correct spots, however THAT IS NOT THE CASE. Immunity challenges represent effort in this game. I won many of these challenges because I took an effort to attend all these challenges, and when they were non-live, these also indicated my dedication to this game. The challenge about previously voted out people showed my knowledge of the people I was playing with, showing my dedication and social game. The sporcle challenge, I spent so much time of those, and was the only person to submit. The final voting chart challenge displayed that I knew the most about what was happening in the game, while Alex and Josh had more incorrect answers than I did. And with my 2 idols, it wasn’t luck. I got handed both of my idols from AJ and TJ, while Alex found his by luck. Josh found one idol by luck, and the other was given to him by Tim, his best friend on the site.
A large part of my game was making amends with people who I had previously had history with. TJ, he backstabbed me in a very recent survivor game, and was able to convince him that I wasn’t mad, to the extent that he gave me his zombie idol rather than anyone else in the game. AJ, someone I only interacted with because of my survivor series, I built a connection with him, and he considered me his closest ally and gave his idol to me as well. NOAH, someone I blindsided pretty badly in another game, I made amends with him, and he proved beneficial to me when he was one of the only people who stuck with me at merge. JOSH, someone I had history with after WANJ’s Survivor, I attempted to re-build a connection with him after that. He targeted me at first, but I kept trying with him, I didn’t give up, and proved to be a crucial ally toward the end-game. Even people who I didn’t really know as much before the game started-Jorge, Bernie, Emmett, Garrett, Steel-I never gave up on them after we had rocky spots, and it benefitted me. A large portion of my game was mending old relationships, creating new ones, and using them as I needed to get myself to the end. I didn’t need many of the immunity necklaces I had, and that was because of this reason. Among these rebuilt connections, I had one person that I knew I could trust 100%, and that was Alex. If he knew something about the game, he would let me know, and vice versa.
Another characteristic of my game was that I was straight-up most of the game. At the beginning of this game, I maintained connections with a lot of people in order to keep me safe, and as time passed, those connections were broken, some were my doing and some were other’s. But when merge arrived, and I knew I was on the bottom looking up, I began to be honest with people whenever they were honest to me. This made me look like a better ally than others. Plenty of people in this game lied to me and to others almost every vote, and it ended up hurting them in the end. I know Alex lied to a lot of people, I received complaints from multiple people and asking to vote Alex. I tried my best to keep the target off Alex, but sometimes his gameplay attracted votes regardless of what I did. When Alex’s name started to be brought up, he continued to play the same game, while I adapted and made my game different to keep myself safe.
My social game is another aspect that helped a lot. I cultivated connections with a lot of people in the game, and these connections benefitted me throughout the game. I could’ve easily been voted out right before the merge, but my connections are what helped me stay over Alan, who wasn’t really that big of a threat. At the merge, Alex, Steel, and Bryan told me that I was getting votes that tribal, and played my Shyamalan idol because of that. As I said earlier, I didn’t give up on people when our trust was broken, and I eventually re-gained trust with them later.
Throughout this game, I was never not playing the game. I was putting in maximum effort this entire game. Looking at my other two finalists, Josh has self-voted more than once, and at times Alex would simply ask for a vote. I won challenges, played idols successfully, and knew what was going on for the majority of the game. I tried hard to push certain targets like Brady, Bernie, and Emmett, which didn’t always go my way, but never gave up and eventually it happened. I adapted to this game after certain situations, while the two people sitting next to me are more static. I’m so glad that I’m here, thank you jurors for giving your time to this. I’d really appreciate your jury votes, because I believe I played a better game than both of the people sitting next to me.
