Hey jurors!

Day 1 when I saw this cast, I immediately made a final 3 alliance with Zach and Washed. We made it our mission to stand here together, no matter what, and im super proud that we are here together!

Some of you may be hurt by the actions of some of us & im here to own my part in all of it. I also kinda hate the long boring speech so if there’s anything specific you’d like to know lmk!

Some highlights of my game!
-        I had a target on my back on my tribe Day 0 and managed to get the numbers for myself to survive [love to washed, zach, ethan, shawn, stoner]
-        Became super close to a huge/controversial player like shawn to hide myself behind and separate from Washed/Zach. Shawn put me in an amazing position in the first swap & was a key person I needed with me during the second swap. I helped get Ethan to give the idol to Shawn to use for me & he was an important vote for me for as long as he stayed.
-        I was fairly strong in tribal immunities, only attending 3/8 pre-merge tribal councils
-        I found the ghost idol which helped win me an additional immunity idol that wasn’t needed
-        Constantly received votes and had to ensure that I had the numbers to survive. My life in this game was neverrrrrrrr secure
-        Managed to pull out a couple individual immunity wins and be relatively competitive throughout the game
-        I had a perfect tribal council voting record

Where I know my game lacked was making connections with people I wasn’t working with. That’s likely why I received more votes to evict over my other finalists; but I really tried not to get my nose too stuck where it didn’t belong if I knew I wasn’t going to be voting with you.

Thanks guys this was an amazing season! Looking forward to some questions!

Just writing something short to say I'm going to bed right now but will provide a full detailed speech tomorrow morning around 8:15 am CST

Speech Incoming in 10 minutes

This game has been an absolute whirlwind and I'm sitting here in the end because of my social game. I'm going to start from the very beginning, so that I can connect all the dots for you jurors. I was playing a separate group game with Nick, JB's Cutthroat, when Nick told me I should sign up for Zombies game. So, I did. I was under the impression that Nick had already played this game and was recommending it, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that Nick was in the cast and an ally of mine. That's how I got into the game.

I'm going to preface this next part by saying that Keith, Washed (Zach) and I are friends and previously made a Final 3 together in another group game. When the game kicked off, I had pre-existing friendships with Ethan Meow, Nick, Thomas, Gavin, Pi, Patrick, Matty, and of course Zach and Keith. Zach Keith and I reformed our previous alliance (Danielle's Boneless Ravioli) and intended to get all the way to the final 3 again. Of course, some of my friends don't like each other, so I had to navigate every alliance and vote very carefully. Immediately after being drafted to Etienne and losing, Thomas made it very clear that he wanted Keith out. Thomas pulled Matty in very quickly, and also had Red and Ethan Cow interested in getting Keith out. DBR (me Keith Zach) managed to pull in Shawn and Ethan Meow and Stoner to pull off a 6-4 vote saving Keith from an early boot.

Then came the next swap. Gavin was a captain and drafted me first, while Shawn as the other captain took Keith, Ethan Meow, and Washed to his side. Gavin and I knew each other from a castings early in my Tengaged life, so we were friendly. On this tribe, Noah was calling all of the shots. I immediately came clean to Noah, and told him that Stoner and I were with the 6 while the other 2 Etiennes (Red and Ethan C.) voted with Matty and Thomas. I believe because I was upfront with Noah, he and Pi and the others decided to vote out Stoner over myself. ALSO on this tribe, Patrick had begun to separate from Noah trying to get him out. When Stoner self voted, Patrick/Nick/Me were the only ones to vote Noah out. Due to this, Noah and co. decided to target Patrick the next vote, keeping me alive to the next swap. I was never on the bottom in this game as much as I was during these votes, and my social game kept me alive.

The next swap brought me back with more of my allies, and I think everyone is happy with how these votes went. Our tribe voted Pi out while the Les Innocents tribe voted Noah out, getting out possibly the toughest duo in this game. This set me up for a 12 person merge with the following people as potential allies: Washed (Zach), Keith, Ethan Meow, Shawn, Nick, and Sam. Sam and I hadn't talked too much to this point, but we hooked up with Zach and Keith shortly after merge and had a strong 4 person alliance.

After the merge DBR took absolute control. We pulled Thomas over (and Sam in the revote) to vote out Ethan Cow, then voted out Red easily, and followed those 2 up by voting out Gavin. All 3 of those players had voted against me on the Stoner and Patrick evictions on Les Innocents, and felt (to me at least) like the biggest unknown voters left in the game. Getting them out paved an easier path for my DBR alliance to play both sides a bit and get to the end.

The next 3 votes hurt the most but had to be done. Shawn was a strong player, but unfortunately was everyone's target and also nearly revealed to the entire cast Keith's ghost idol, which he had to play as a fake idol first in order to receive it as a real idol. Keith ultimately played it on Washed in the final 6. Shawn and Ethan Meow were a unit, and I knew that getting Shawn out would do 2 things for sure: 1) It would appease Nick, Sam, and Nathan, and 2) It would bring Ethan Meow closer to my side and lock in a for sure extra vote for me going forward.

Thomas was next. Thomas had, again IMO, seemed to give up after he failed to get Keith out during the first vote in the game. He voted with us to get Ethan Cow out, but then went back to voting with Nathan and Nick to trying to get Keith out. Thomas, similarly to Gavin, was an unknown in my mind and was easier to remove from the equation for my game.

Nick was the hardest vote for me in this game. I consider Nick a friend, even though I don't think he wants anything to do with me after how I treated him in this game, and I don't blame him. Like I said from the very beginning, I had many friends in this game and was constantly juggling how to handle them all targeting each other. Because my loyalty was with Washed and Keith, I had to keep Nick at an arm's length, which he caught onto very quickly. I blamed not voting Keith on things like knowing he had an idol (the ghost idol, he would have left with majority votes anyway), or wanting to "keep shields in front of me" long enough until the Final 7. In the Final 7 I had my 4 person chat with Sam, Washed, Keith, and I, I had Ethan Meow as a for sure extra vote, and that left Nathan and Nick. Nathan and I had begun to talk too, as Nathan thought I, like him, was out of the loop in the Keith/Washed/Sam alliance. I had to lie to Nick about wanting Keith out, only to stab him in the back to further mine and my alliance's game. But, that was my strategy in this entire game. Keep as many friends in the game as long as I can, and stab them in the backs when they began to hinder me. Because Washed/Keith/Sam wanted Nick out, I had to comply. I hated this about my game and Nick and other jurors, I understand if you don't want to vote for me because of lies or how I treated you. That's the hard thing about playing Survivor group games on Tengaged. We all have a lot of friends on Tengaged, but I play Survivor to win. To Outlast whoever my competitors may be. And because my loyalty was to Washed and Keith, I had to vote out everyone else in order to get here.

After Nick came the finale. I was worried that Sam had an idol, but voting him out made the most sense here. I like Sam, but if he got to the final 3 he would win the game. Sam is a great player and had good jury support (or so I thought) and more importantly, wasn't in my original DBR alliance. Luckily, Sam only had half of the super idol and thought Shawn would give him the other half, BUT, Shawn had given me the other half early in the game. Ultimately, getting Sam out gave DBR a 3-2 advantage in the final 5.

Ethan - Voting you out at final 5 was also really tough for me. You were great to work with all game, but we kept you in the game as long as we could. If Nathan hadn't won the f5 immunity, I think Nathan would have been voted out. But, he won and you were the only person not in my alliance that was eligible to be voted out.

Then came the final immunity. All I needed was for Nathan to lose the competition, and he would go. Of course that's what happened, and Zach, Keith, and I did what we set out to do from the moment that the cast was announced: Get all 3 of us to the Final 3. I received 1 vote all game, from Nathan at the final tribal council.

My social game is what has gotten me this far. Ultimately, had I been voted out during the Les Innocents swap, this game would be very different. But I managed to convince Noah, Pi, Gavin, Red, and Ethan Cow to vote out Stoner and then Patrick instead of me, and was in the majority of every single vote from that point on because I knew what everyone was doing.

Thank you all for an awesome group game. I have no ill will towards any of you, and very much enjoyed playing with some of you again and meeting others of you. Good luck voting for the winner, I hope I've detailed enough in this why I think I deserve to win.

Hey y'all,

Honestly, I entered this game trying to play differently than I usually do. Usually, I play a quieter game and don't necessarily have much control over the rounds, however, I told myself going into this that I wanted to make moves, control votes, and honestly play a cutthroat game. I even told one of my friends that I was potentially going to try to be a villain.

I started this game and saw Zach and Keith with whom I have worked before and immediately we knew we would be solid as in the past. I knew I was going to do whatever I could in order to get us three to the end together. I made moves and voted out certain people in order to get myself and get Zach and Keith here with me.

Three major points I want to emphasize are that I...
- Never had a single vote cast against me all season
- Voted in majority every round
- Had merge idol and didn't have to use it to save myself as I knew I wasn't in danger

Specific Moves:

20th: Matt T (Mattyboy0005) |6-4|
-- I was a part of this 6-4 blindside as it was essential that I didn't allow Keith to go home so soon in the game, so I worked with my allies - Keith and Zach - to secure the votes to complete the move and save Keith.

17th: Alex (Path) |4-3|
-- After the tribe swap, we had to make sure that the minority of 3 didn't know who we were voting for so that an idol wasn't used. I wanted to target Path over Nathan and Sam and so I came up with the vote for Path and pushed that onto my allies and got them on board to vote out my target.

14th: Pi E. (3pi14159) |4-3|
-- It was pretty clear that Pi and Noah were a duo, but after Ethan exposed that final 2 it just made it more obvious to everyone else. Even still, Shawn and Ethan M. were hesitant to vote Pi and really wanted to keep him in the game which was highly concerning. Even Keith was very adamant that we should keep Pi over Ethan C. but I pushed hard all day arguing with Keith about it and thankfully Zach came and backed my logic up that getting Pi out was essential for our game moving forward.

12th: Ethan Cow (Brittney) |6-6/6-4|
-- This was an interesting vote, as I had just been pushing hard the round before for everyone to keep Ethan C., but then this round I had been pushing people to vote for Ethan C.. Ethan and I had always been pretty cordial to one another this season but because of my constant loyalty to my trio we were never fully on the same page. I didn’t want Shawn out this round because I knew he would be a number for me and my trio and that I was vital that the strong side of Nick, Ethan, Nathan, etc. lost a member before they could get too strong. For the entire day this vote, it seemed like the numbers wouldn’t be there to keep Shawn in the game and my allies weren’t doing much of anything to secure the votes of others. So, at this point I went to work to get Thomas to vote with my alliance as well as Sam. I remember going to Keith and Zach after and telling them we had the votes to do it and they were very surprised, thinking we didn’t have more than 4 or so and that Shawn was going to end up going home, but I put in the work to make sure that didn’t happen. Sam eventually got wary of the vote after Zach apparently told Nick he was voting Shawn out, so Sam told me that he was voting Shawn out but then if it tied he would flip. The vote did tie, and during the revote I again went to those I was talking to to re-secure their votes and make sure that nobody flipped to the other direction and messed it up. Ensuring that my alliance had a strong majority leading forward is what helped kick off the merge period of the game and allowed us to run the votes for the remainder of the season.

11th:  Red (Jmctwin) |8-2-1*|
-- After the round prior to this where many expected Shawn to go home or at the very least expected rocks and it didn’t happen, it seemed like people were scrambled and didn’t really know what to do. Nathan came to me that night in a concerned manner telling me he was going to vote with me and he was on my side and just let him know who I wanted out. I just kinda told him Red was my target because Red had gunned for me in the comp the days prior and he was a part of the “other side” if you will. Nathan said he would be ok with that and suddenly I wake up in the morning and I find out that Nathan is spreading Red’s name out like wildfire and people I talk to seem to be on board with it. It was perfect for me, since my target was getting out because I threw his name out there and I didn’t even have to get the blood on my hands.

10th: Gavin J.W (greyconverse) |6-((4))|
-- This was also another sort of simple vote where my side ran the game, but I remember Gavin saying that Sam and I were going to win the game and I do believe that we were playing the best games at the time and that he hit the nail on the head by calling us out, though it clearly didn’t put a target on my back because still nobody came after me and I never got any votes.

9th: Shawn "King" G. (Shawnlolpop123) |7-2|
-- This was difficult, because I do like Shawn but there was just a lot of drama and such in the game because of fights he would involve himself in and how he was leaking information to others such as how the ghost idol operated. It was kind of a large consensus by the tribe that they wanted him out at this point and it just kind of worked that way.

8th: Thomas S. (Tcold312) |7-1|
-- The vote was between Nathan and Thomas all day and there was definitely a lot of back and forth about it. However, voting Thomas wasn’t exactly something I wanted to do, but at this point in the game it made sense for my alliance moving forward and just something that had to be done.

7th: Nick D. (Jmain14) |5-1-1|
-- Nick was a big threat to me in this game, I felt. He could win competitions when he needed to and had a lot of sway in the votes for a while and it was honestly concerning. I wanted to get Nick out here before he lasted longer and became even more of a threat to me and my allies. The fake idol play was such a mess, was unexpected, but did make for good tv.

6th: Sam A. (s73100) |3-2-1|
-- Sam, this was something I wrestled with for days. I wrote above how I came into this game wanting to do whatever it took and for once not get dragged down by being undyingly loyal to those who would clearly beat me at the end. The truth is, I wanted to be sitting here with my final 3 and I was scared you would win out. I also felt like if you sat here in the end, it was likely that you would win the entire game, and I truly wanted one of my final 3 members to win, as was the plan from day 1. I understand that you hate me, and feel totally betrayed. There was a point where I thought that maybe I would take you over Keith and Zach because of how close we had gotten, but I had to ditch that idea because I knew I couldn’t do that to Keith or Zach whom I have known for months and speak with every day nearly. Truthfully, I could have waited until 4th to take you out, and what was what I was going to do originally, but again, I was worried you would win your way to the end with all the comps you kept slaying and I felt like here was potentially the only spot to make such a move. I made the mistake of letting a comp threat win to the end before, as you know, and I didn’t want to do it again. I don’t care how you vote, but I hate that I’ve lost you as a friend. I’m sorry.

5th: Ethan Meow (ITZ3THAN) |3-2|
-- Ethannn, at this point you were the only person not in my original final 3 alliance left (aside from Nathan who was immune) so I had to vote for you with my trio. However, even if I didn’t have that final 3 alliance, I was always unsure if I could trust you after you gave me a fake idol and tried to have  me believe it was real. That broke a lot of trust there.

4th: Nathan (Nathorix) |3-1|
-- At this point, it just came down to getting my final 3 to final 3. I worked closely with Nathan all game, and enjoyed doing so and I kept him safe on my occasions and got votes off of him at different points in the season, I just couldn’t take him to the end over my alliance members.

Summary:

-- I believe I played a very strategic game that was under the radar but also I was in plain sight. Everyone knew I was a big threat (as evidenced by Gavin saying so as we left the game), but yet they still never once tried to take me out. I made strong plays early on in order to get myself and my allies a majority in votes such as the 3pi vote and the Ethan C. vote, which I believe were likely my strongest moves. I was never in a position where I needed an idol, nor was I in one where I needed immunity. I acted as though I wasn’t playing the game as hard as I was to most people or that I wasn’t taking it seriously, and I believe my final 3 probably didn’t know how hard I was gathering votes and playing the field, but I was. I had an edited idol board all game that I would even edit every single day and send to Zach and Keith. I would cross off all of the numbers that my allies and I had guessed and which ones couldn’t have the idols based off of the clues. Updating my board every day made it possible for me to find the merge idol in the end.

Please ask me any and all questions. My whole game is open for discussion. Thanks

This really started as a Zach unanimous win but.... those speeches!

I have some statements and questions. Feel free to answer or not. But they will determine my vote.

Washed.

Ok wow I wasn’t ready for that speech. It was good. I want to reverse now. I’m curious if you can tell me about any mistakes you made or what you could have done to make stronger relationships throughout this game?

Keith.

Interestingly enough. I would say you made x10 more effort than either of the two next to me to actually get to know me on a human level. Yet you claim this as your weak spot, and Zach claims it as his strong point. I started the train of getting to know you sure, but despite the outcome, I did enjoy talking to you about things outside of this game. Yet the jury seems to believe you are the goat, while Zach the snake. I’d like to give you to chance to explain how the Red vote went down. I leaned on you for a Thomas blindside. The way I see it. It was you who pulled the pin, not Zach. Am I correct? Or is the jury, and you are simply the goat ready for slaughter?
You said you don’t like long boring speeches. Well that bored me. I want to see you fight for this win. If you don’t, you have no shot at my vote.

Zach. Sneaky sneaky Zach. Say the truth and the devil will set you free. Own it. Own to this jury the way you ruthlessly played Nick like your pawn. The nice guy act is laughable. You played the villain. Now assume the role. My question to you is. How, and why, specifically, did you play Nick to your advantage in this game?

Sucked ASS except for 1 so that’s who my vote is going to

Zach. Sneaky sneaky Zach. Say the truth and the devil will set you free. Own it. Own to this jury the way you ruthlessly played Nick like your pawn. The nice guy act is laughable. You played the villain. Now assume the role. My question to you is. How, and why, specifically, did you play Nick to your advantage in this game?

Gavin, awesome question. And you're right. I played Nick's loyalty to my advantage and screwed his game over to help my own game. He and I always thought at some point we would come together and run the jury. BUT, as we all have stated Keith Washed and I had a Final 3 deal from the gate. I used Nick's friendship and loyalty to figure out what he was voting, and what other people were voting as he often told me plans from people I didn't talk to much, like Nathan early on or Thomas. His information helped my game proceed day by day until I didn't need him any longer, and put a knife in his back.

@Gavin
You're probably right, I might have talked a lot more non game with some of you than actual game itself. And that's kinda what I was getting at with "keeping my nose out of things". A lot of times I felt secure or safe with the numbers/idols and didn't feel a need to discuss game to the extent that Zach or Washed likely did with you guys.

The red vote from MY perspective played out like this:
- washed and nathan had some discussion about voting for Red & I woke up to messages from Nathan about wanting to do that, so I spread it further.
- When I talked to you Gavin, you made it clear that you wanted to keep Red in the game and I offered Thomas as another potential target. To me it was the easiest name to get a yes to, because Thomas had voted on "our"side - but had also voted me out earlier in the game. It was reasonable I would want him out.
- Ultimately we all wanted someone out that had voted WITH Ethan Cow and was *more* connected. We also had some support from nathan in voting that way, and Red had been a personal target of mine due to him voting me for 20th..so it just made sense.
- I worked A LOT with Shawn to get him on board because he did NOT want Red to go. That made it even more clear in my mind he was a dangerous player. Shawn threatened to self vote this round but I managed to get him and Ethan both back on track to help get the vote through!

I'll also add, the Idol Shawn had given to him by Ethan Meow was something I kept from the Washed/Zach alliance and was able to use to my own benefit. They didn't have the same kind of idol protection I had, which is why we had different approaches towards the votes

I'd also like to add a bit to my answer for Gavin: Although I did claim my social game was my strength, there were definitely times when I felt any socializing wouldn't help my game (specifically Gavin after you voted twice with Noah to get out Patrick and Stoner, I felt like you were firmly opposite me) and times where I didn't feel I had to talk to some people (like Pi early) because I knew everything they were doing from other people I had talked to spilling the beans about their plans

Zach. I actually appreciate your answer. But now I need you to convince me that was not luck. Did you not walk in with that trust? Clearly explain to me how you earned that move. Not that it was handed to you.

And Keith. Thank you for your answer. Let me be clear. If you want this win. You better stand up and fight harder than your speech did.

Would yall want a longer vote by vote rundown?
I thought those were boring and annoying but I'm down to give tons more info if u want!

I walked in with trust from Nick that I gained by actually not trusting him in Cutthroat (JB's game). So, in this game I had Nick believing that I owed him from last time and that I missed out by not trusting him previously and not to do that again. He caught onto the fact that I wasn't doing as he wanted, but I used my social skills to pin it on other things and keep his trust until I had to move on from our partnership. It wasn't lucky that Nick, or anyone trusted me, I had to build that trust.