Greetings, distinguished panel of jurors. I, Absolita, stand here before you in the final 3, and it's my job to convince you that I'm deserving of your vote. Regardless of our relationship in this game, ally or adversary, I hope that you'll at least give me the courtesy to hear me out as I explain my game in this speech.
To start off, I want to make clear what my plan for this game was originally- after being placed on a strong tribe with plenty of people I got along with, I wanted to keep that core group to the end. I had a large hand in developing the early Tsuki alliances, with Newz, Jordan, Alan, and Ryan. As well, I secured closer relationships with Sanda and Chandler that panned out in the later stages of the game (admittedly in different ways, but that's another story). With a solid core, I was able to get through the only vote I was a part of pre-merge. This leads into another strength of mine in this game, as I was always giving 100% in challenges and that had a huge hand in getting me to the merge, and through to the finals.
Despite that, it's also leading into where I felt I was lacking in this game- because I wasn't at risk early on, I was a little too comfortable with where I stood. Despite being in a good position at the merge, having a large alliance with plenty of people I trusted, I struggled to make key connections that would have made my road here much easier. The first few votes for people like Abel, Bobby, Kyle, and Cameron were missed opportunities in retrospect. I didn't have great relationships with them, so I felt that keeping them was a huge risk. Knowing that I was already being looked at as a physical threat, I worried that rocking the boat was the wrong move this early on, even though that may not have been the case.
This risk-averse style wasn't all terrible, though- even when I actually became someone who was heavily targeted, I had a lot of room to play around. I was always finding myself some form of immunity, whether it was through winning challenges, finding idols, or using the Soul Wish to my advantage. I feel that the prime example of this was during the aftermath of the final 8 vote where one of my closest allies, Newz, was eliminated. I won the next two immunities, and along with the Soul Wish™, was able to use that to force a change at the final 6- with myself and Sanda safe, the group of Chandler, Nahuel, Isiah, and Ryan was forced to turn on each other, causing enough of a crack to give myself and Sanda a much better chance in the coming votes. As proof of this, look no further than the final 5 vote- despite having a very clear path to the final tribal council through winning immunities, I wasn't the main target. Ryan wanted to go after Nahuel, and Nahuel had no close allies left, creating a split decision where me and Sanda controlled the votes despite not having a majority.
Regardless, I feel like the end-game was relatively easy. After clawing back a lot of the power I lost when Newz and Jordan left back to back, my process of deciding votes was very simple. Chandler and Ryan had played exceptional strategic games to this point, so I felt that targeting them was the best move for me when it came to those votes. Isiah's boot was a bit different, in that he was often overlooked- but at that point he was much closer to Ryan than anyone else, and as I wanted to target Ryan at final 4, it felt like the best decision to have Ryan and Nahuel still here, and still at each other's throats.
So, after Chandler, Isiah, and Ryan left, here I stand, in the final 3 with Sanda and Nahuel- both of whom have played very different games from me. Nahuel played to a much more social angle, and maybe that will earn him a win, but I do feel like strategically he was very clueless at times and that ended up being to his detriment, as his fate wasn't determined by his own gameplay. Sanda and I worked very closely together, and this relationship was mutually beneficial. I always had someone to confide in and level with, as well as someone I could trust, and she had the same with me. At the same time, she is my competitor, so in terms of her game, I think she was obviously much weaker socially, as she's a very outspoken person and didn't manage her relationships well. Regardless, I have a lot of respect for her gameplay and I couldn't have asked for a better ally to work with.
Now, there you have it. Some key stats to point to:
5 immunity wins!
2 idols found, and 5 votes voided!
i was on the right side of the votes in all but 2 votes!
i only received 1 (successful) vote against me this entire season!
i received 1 soul wish! wow!
Anyways, if you have any questions for me I'll answer them as soon as I can get to them. If you read this entire thing, then thank you! If you skipped it and don't plan on voting for me, then that's okay too! I know some of you didn't like me very much, but if you want to work out any issues we have, I'm willing to do that before and after the winner is revealed!