Hello jury!

I want to just go out and say that I played this game cold and calculated from the very start. I worked hard and I always wanted to stay ahead of the curve. I found the first two shankara idols without clues to them, just by merily searching and searching because i wanted safety and power in this game.

In the beginning it was all about making connections, seeing who I can work with, and find a true partnership down the line. Vlad was an easy go to, he was active, social, and was willing and ready to play the game. My goal was to find allies who I can be upfront and be completely transparent with. I made very strong connections with renny and kyle, whom I would use these relationships down the line.

At the tribe swap I was sent to the temple. This was probably the biggest decision I made in the game that I think is what got me to this seat here. I was in possecion of two idols, and in the temple, i had the opportunity to get another idol. This would allow me to have 3 hidden immunity idols going into a merge. I decided to not go that route and go for the vote blocker.

I made this decision because i wanted to leverage the vote blocker with people within the game to see me as an asset for them. I wanted people to think that the vote blocker was going to be a tool for them. It is an advantage that is much less threatening to share than a hidden immunity idol. I told nearly half the cast of my vote block advantage, but i believe most players felt that the vote block would be used in a vote to help them, but i was merily waiting for my move to position myself in the game.

The merge didnt focus on two sides, but there was a fracture in the swapped nagajuna tribe. James was a solid player, and I specifically saw Ivy as someone who was ready to play the game for herself. I built those connections, but although i didnt follow through with them, i had so many moving parts and commitments that I needed to roll with the people who i felt i had the best chance at getting to the end with, and possibly beating.

I looked to see if i could save luke because he was alone in the game, and we had talked and i thought hed be a very nice addition and a really good ally to have, but there was no traction and merely nothing I could do except blow my own game up to save him. One of my few regrets on how i handled the beginning of the merge.

Me and dylan teamed up at the final 9, and we shared alot of the same thoughts. He was a bresh of fresh air and looked to play the game hard. He really assisted me in the Jake and James vote and helped me gain a grasp of the entire dynamics of the game. I felt i had his trust, but i also then realized that he was playing a very intricate and tricky game.

The final 7 was where everything began to unravel and i truly made my move to get this final 3 here. Everyone knew i had the vote blocker, and i was telling people throughout the whole merge "we can use it here, or save it later".

Dylan was telling me Ivy was gonna go at 7, Vlad aswell, but then we get to 7 and now they both wanted to get rid of renny. Renny was someone i needed to get to this point, and then i see zac wants to do renny. I realized Dylan was pretty close with vlad and that they looked like they were going to take control of the game. I handed renny one of my idols, and i wanted to take destiny in my own hands. Dylan even told me that vlad was planning to make a move on me at 7 a few minutes before tribal happened. I had to get my 3 of kyle and renny and disarm vlad and eliminate a formidable player in dylan.

After that, it appeared to be a war between me and vlad. Vlad was someone who i confided in about the game alot and truly thought i may be able to go very far with, but he was just too good, and i knew i wouldnt be able to make it here with him or if i did that I would have no shot.

Ivy, once dylan went, i had to find a way to dodge idol plays and get to this point, and there was no way we could have went further, you were a threat to win and had i voted another way, i wouldve been idoled out.

Zac, the reason why i voted you out over kyle was due to commitments i had in the game, kyle was one of, if not my closest allies since the start and i felt that i had a better shot against him than you and if the final 4.

I own all the moves i made, and am willing to accept any scrutiny and or tough questions, bring em on. All in all, my game was all about understanding relationships, leveraging, and simply powering my way to the end when needed.

Thank you guys

Hello Jury! :)

I will start this out by thanking you all, as this was one of the more enjoyable games I have been apart of.

~Pre Merge~

I started out as a member of the Nagajuna tribe, and life there was pretty uneventful. My main goal in this portion of the game was to form as many bonds as I could within the cast. I reached out to Josh early on, and we formed an alliance off the rip. I felt good with others such as Julian and Luis, who I lost both of them after the swap. I also spoke with Ivy and Dylan as frequently as I could to ensure I stayed in the game had we gone to tribal council. We ended up unanimously voting off Kevin, our weak link, and I didn't go back to tribal until after the swap.

~Post Swap~

I was lucky enough to be put on a pretty dominant Shankara tribe at the swap. It was here where I made my first contact with Vlad, Zac, and Renny. I helped my tribe win the next three challenges, and we ended up going to one tribal right before the merge. During this vote, both Renny and Cameron were discussed as possible people to go home. This is what I'd consider to be my first major move of the game. I was with Cameron on original Nagajuna, and I had just met Renny. Cameron was very short with me throughout the game, and he made me very nervous. Renny, on the other hand, I felt like I could trust. I ended up convincing enough people to shift their votes to Cameron so Renny could stay in the game.

~Jury Phase~

I came into the merge in a pretty solid position. I was a part of the majority Shankara alliance and I felt close to many people within my alliance to know that I wasn't on the bottom. The first vote was Luke, who I can honestly say I regret not reaching out and getting to know you better. However I didn't feel comfortable rocking the boat at that stage and I went with it. After that, the alliance I was in wanted to blindside either Ivy or James, but I had been talking with both of them and they were both votes I felt I could use in the future, so I talked with members of my alliance and convinced the group to go after Jake instead, who also had not reached out to me. After that, Vlad was organizing a split between Ivy and James, with the intent of sending Ivy home. Knowing this, and having a better relationship with Ivy than with James, I swapped my vote from Ivy to James to make sure there was not a tie and James was voted out. Because of this, I felt like I had Ivy's trust, which came into play the next vote.

~End Game~

The next vote was the final 7 vote, where Dylan was ultimately sent home. I would say this is my biggest move throughout the game. Vlad, who was leading the alliance, wanted to vote out Renny, due to him not being able to communicate as well due to not having skype. At this point i felt pretty good about Renny, I felt like he was with me. I spoke with Renny and Josh and we formed our final 3 alliance. Josh had told me about his vote block, so all we had to do to get numbers was survive this vote. Vlad, Zac, and Dylan wanted me to throw a vote at Ivy because they suspected that Renny has an idol, which he did. Instead of voting Ivy, I went to Ivy and told her that the vote was Zac. At this point she trusted me, since she could've went home the previous tribal, so I convinced her to throw a vote at Zac. And with Dylan, Vlad, and Zac putting 2 on Renny and 1 vote on Ivy, that gave my alliance the numbers to blindside Dylan. After that, our main goal was to vote Vlad off. He won immunity in the final 6, so since I suspected that Ivy didn't really trust me anymore after the Dylan vote, I felt that was our best play. Final 5 was a bit trickier. Vlad had just played an idol on Zac thinking that's who we were voting, all while he had immunity. I noticed that and brought up the idea that Vlad could have had two idols. So after Renny won immunity, I suggested a split with Josh and Renny voting for Vlad, and I would throw my vote on Zac just in case. Turns out I was right. Vlad played an idol, and him and Zac did a minority vote split that we countered with my plan, and since Josh played his idol, the only other person that could have been voted out other than me was Zac. In the final four, the plan was to just win immunity. Luckily for us, we kept immunity out of our competition's hands, and we voted Vlad out last tribal.

~Summary~

I am aware a lot of you are thinking that I have been sheeping Josh, which couldn't be further from the truth. Me and Josh were partners throughout the season. We worked out deals together, and I organized my own votes, like the Dylan blindside. Unlike the people I am sitting next to, I didn't have an immunity necklace, an idol, or any advantages to hide behind the for the entire merge. With all of this, I only received any votes at 1 tribal the whole season, and it was only 2. I feel my social game was the strongest of the three of us, as I did my best to form 1 on 1 bonds with many of you. I purposely sat out or under performed in challenges during the merge so I wouldn't be painted as a target. I knew how big of a target Josh was throughout the merge and I capitalized on forming an alliance with him because I knew if things went downhill, he would most definitely be targeted before myself.

I enjoyed playing with you all, and I am ready to answer any questions you throw at me! :)

me going into an FTC where everyone thinks I'm a goat: https://imgur.com/gallery/91gnBum

Thank you to each of you for a really fun game. Before this I'd taken a multi-year break from Tengaged and I logged back in on a whim and decided to sign up for a game and see how it went. The only people I knew going into this were Josh (played together once before in opposing alliances), James (a well known and respected gamer) and Dylan (met in a fasting right before this game).

My strategy at the start of the game was to just talk to people - too often I've found myself at the end of my game with a few tight allies, and when I turn to people in my hour in need, they couldn't work with me, I just hadn't put in the work to talk to people enough. So starting on my tribe, I just strike up conversation with anybody who will answer. The only person I really hone in on is Vlad, who Dylan suggested I talk to, and we form a quick bond.

Through the premerge, I'm a pretty consistent tribe member. Solid performance in the challenges, I go to the temple once and work my butt off mastering Flappybird to get an idol clue to an idol that Josh has already found! But my allies knew (ie Vlad, Dylan, Josh) I was able to confirm to them that both of my tribe's original idols had been found. It was during the premerge that Josh and I became close allies - I found that our strategic thinking was extremely similar and he was pleasant to work with.

Once we hit the merge is really where my game took off. At the Luke vote, I was trying to balance competing alliances of James and also Vlad/Josh, but James' insistence on keeping Luke seemed like a clue to me that they might be working together, so I decided voting Luke was the best path.

Now at this next vote (final nine) it seemed like artillery was loaded on both sides - seemed like everyone I talked to was ready to make a big move, but I noticed that Jake had self-voted twice and was one self-vote away from being medevac'd (I was able to notice this immediately since I've had a google doc for this whole game tracking tribes, votes, immunity wins, etc.). I start pitching to both sides that if we try to make a big move and Jake just gets medevac'd, then we've exposed ourselves and wasted an opportunity for a blindside. It was around this time that I was trying to decide what allies I wanted to go to the end with - my number one pick was Josh but I wasn't sure who the third would be. Vlad pointed out that he and Kyle have each other added, and I figured, "Well, that was easy," if Josh and Kyle already like each other, Kyle should be the third. So from then on talking to Josh, I always pitch "You me and Kyle, you me and Kyle."

Final eight is the split vote between James and Ivy. James was a huge gamer and someone I'd tried to get on the same page as a few times, but we just didn't see eye to eye on strategy. Ivy seemed like a very savvy player as well but I knew ultimately he wasn't someone I could go long term with as we'd never been on a tribe together, so I knew I wasn't going to make any deals with Ivy I couldn't honor. Seeing Vlad push to keep James, who seemed like a massively bigger threat, revealed to me that it was too risky to keep James any longer and pull a successful Tyson, flipping my vote on a split vote to get James out.

Final 7 I heard immediately from Josh that I was the target. I work all day to try to get the other side into a split vote so that we can make a 3-2-2 happen, but its clear nobody's budging. Josh gives me his idol, I play it, I'm safe, the other side has already scrambled though and it ends up being a wasted idol. Normally I think being gifted an idol from another player can be a kiss of death in someone's game, but I think it speaks to my social game that I was able to get in good enough with one of the game's best players that he was willing to risk it all and give ME an idol.

Final 6 is the infamous endurance challenge where I lost a ton of sleep and tried so hard to lose to Vlad by a few minutes and just 1 point. At this vote, I talked to Ivy and told him our target was Zac when Ivy was the intended target in hopes of flushing Vlad's idol on Zac - mission accomplished, Ivy's out at 6 for being too big of a jury threat.

Final 5 I finally redeem myself, staying late at work over two hours to beat Vlad in the immunity challenge. I pitch to Josh and Kyle that we need to split our votes in case Vlad plays another idol and tries to engineer a minority split vote - a brilliant move, but just shy of working due to us splitting our votes.

In the end, I knew Vlad was who I wanted to vote out as he seemed like the biggest threat. Josh Kyle and I have identical voting records, 100% correct votes at all tribal councils (other than Josh's self vote and the Vlad/Zac split vote technically).

The last thing I'll say is just to ask for you to come in open minded. At the merge, I was one of only three players (the others being Zac and Kyle) to not be named in the superlative challenge, so I knew I was coming into the merge a fairly unknown quantity. I hope that other the last two weeks I've shown you what kind of gamer I am and that now I can clear up any lingering uncertainty.

Thanks for reading this essay, I look forward to reading your questions.

Hey guys! Grats all 3 on making it this far, it was a good battle and yall deserve to make it here.. right now for me it looks like one was really leading the trio while the other 2 helped with minor moves but my opinion can change..

I want all 3 of you to choose one or two things from the other 2 speeches and call that person out if you think they are lying. Also please explain how they are lying :) 

And Secondly if you had to pick one move that may win you the game what was it?

first off congratz to the final 3 well deserved all of you truly

josh:
you talked about trying to have relations with the cast which i get but from the start i thought that on my end you were one of the people i connected to the most which really hurt when u voted for me especially over ivy. i know thats not really a question but you can respond if you want lol.

also just wanna say i dont really have any questions related to the game i think i know who im voting for but at the same time i really dont.

question for everyone:
tell me the funniest joke you know

@vlad

So for Josh's speech, I feel like that he emphasized handing his idol to Renny was a key factor when in actuality it was me convincing Ivy to throw away her vote, giving the three of us the numbers.

And for Renny's speech, he talked about his social game, I mean yes he was tight with me and Josh, but he was targeted multiple times throughout the game, so I feel like people didn't feel that close to him besides Josh and myself.

I think the main move that could win me this game was orchestrating the Dylan blindside, had I not swapped my vote last time, I'm not sure Ivy would have thrown her vote at Zac that week.

Hope this answers your question :)

@james

A bartender says, “We don’t serve time travelers in here.”
A time traveler walks into a bar.

corny, i know but idc XD

I want all 3 of you to choose one or two things from the other 2 speeches and call that person out if you think they are lying. Also please explain how they are lying :) 

I had actually told kyle and renny about my idol at the final 5 and with this info I had brought up the idea of putting a vote on zac, as the minority split vote was a legitimate fact if vlad did have the idol. I used the idol as leverage there to aid my allies get to the final 3. If i didnt tell them about my idol, none of this plan would have happened and kyle would most likely be voted out 5th. 

In that same vote, renny had actually mentioned that we should just put 3 votes on vlad and call it a day. It was mainly more deliberation between me and kyle about what to do on that vote.

And Secondly if you had to pick one move that may win you the game what was it?

One move that I believe won me the game was not letting Renny sink at the final 7 and choosing Dylan to go home. Renny would have been dead in the water at 7 if i went that route, but i realized that letting that happen would not let me have the game in my hands and give Dylan, Vlad, Ivy, and Zac a whole lot more leverage and power moving forward. I gave the idol as insurance, but making a move on Dylan, who wanted to work with me, was very ballsy and i believe payed off huge.

josh:
you talked about trying to have relations with the cast which i get but from the start i thought that on my end you were one of the people i connected to the most which really hurt when u voted for me especially over ivy. i know thats not really a question but you can respond if you want lol.

James you were one of the first people i spoke to in the game, and I really enjoyed working with you and thats why betraying you and going with a different group of people was tough, but it was mainly due to the fact that i had built deep bonds with people on my swapped tribe in renny kyle and vlad, and coming into the merge there was the idea of targeting the other tribe. I saw ivy as someone who was more alone in the game, and everyone started to see you as a contender to win. sometimes things we cant control such as swaps really affect the game, and i may have misread the situation but i thought that we had different people we wanted out and had 2 different paths to the end.

As for a joke: i like dark humor, sorry lol

A man is attending the Super Bowl, when he notices an empty seat. Thinking this to be strange, the man asks the person sitting next to the empty seat if he knows who sits there. The guy replies: Well, I bought two tickets for my wife and I a long time ago, but she passed away. So the man asks: Couldn't you have brought someone else?

"They're all at the funeral."

Hello, hello.

Yes, I was the first merge boot and most people didn't get the time to know me because I'm just some irrelevant orange level who would be an easy boot. But I did try and I did play hard in the pre-merge phase, I just never really had a chance. I have no beef with any of y'all, communication is a two way street, and y'all are there so good job on you.

I am going in completely open-minded, you each have a 1/3 chance of getting my vote. Would have been 1/2 chance if Vlad was here because he was NEVER getting my vote. So bad decision voting him out.

Anyway. Kyle and Renny, we never spoke. Josh, we spoke little and you said you were going to save me and then you didn't so there's a little grey area there, but it is what it is.

~

My task for each of you is, I want you to describe your own game in one word and I also want you to describe each of your opponents' game in one word.

Thanks and good luck because I have seriously no clue how I'm voting.

My task for each of you is, I want you to describe your own game in one word and I also want you to describe each of your opponents' game in one word.

my game i would characterize as misdirecting

Rennys game: defensive
Kyles game: agile

@luke

my game- stealthy
I did whatever I could to ensure I wasn’t a target, and I think I did well, receiving only 2 votes throughout the entire season.

Joshs game- calculating
Josh had a game plan from day one, and he was set on carrying it through. Unlike myself, he wasn’t able to hide it very well.

Rennys game- loyal
Renny was a great ally in this game, he was straight up with at least me and josh this entire time.

Vlad's question:

In Kyle's opening speech, I don't recall him being the one to rally the alliance to vote Jake. From where I was sitting, I was talking to you, Vlad, we came up with the idea and then got everyone on board with it, I was not under the impression that Kyle was leading the charge on that one.

In Josh's opening speech, I think the biggest lie is that he played this game cold and calculated. Maybe I'm a sucker and this is just how well he played me, but I actually thought Josh was extremely friendly, personable, and pleasant, maybe one of the nicest guys I've met on this site. Looking back at our conversations and the way we spoke to each other when working together, its hard for me to buy that he was solely strategy driven - I think he genuinely liked me and Kyle and that's why he stuck with us. Maybe those things aren't mutually exclusive.

I will say though that in defense of my suggestion to Josh that we do three votes on you, Vlad, at the final five, that was just me spitballing ideas and that message ended with me suggesting we do a split vote. I was on the bus on my way home when I typed that so the message was sort of just a stream of my thoughts, but I take issue with the depiction that I was not a part of the strategy at that tribal.

If I won the game, I think the defining move would have been the James vote out. My decision to flip my vote during the split vote to guarantee that James get the majority of the votes was to weaken the James-Vlad-Dylan alliance - a powerhouse alliance of three of the most strategically gifted players I've encountered in my 10+ years of these games.

James's question:

Here's a joke for you - my odds of getting a single jury vote

Luke's question:

My game in one word: patience

Josh's game: cool

Kyle's game: chill