In response to Craig's question:

This is towards Skyler and Tyler, was emotion any part of your gameplay? Please explain how and why.

I always try to separate emotions from gameplay in these games. Every move I make is strictly game. I find a group early on that I put all of my trust into and I'm sitting next to both of them. That's not a fluke. The way the game was set up in order for us all to survive and play the middle effectively we needed each other. I stayed loyal to these two not out of emotion, but because the game dictated that. Each round that someone left it was never a personal vote off, but a move that needed to be made to further my game.

I know personally you were hurt by the move I made to vote you out and I completely understand that. I did fight all day to try and flip the vote for you, but when I realized the votes weren't there I couldn't risk sinking my game. If I voted in minority I would've been toast. I enjoy each person on a personal level, but I try and look at the game very objectively. Each round I would run scenarios with Skyler and Eric in order to see what each move would do for us. We looked at it from strictly a numbers point of view. Never once was a vote personal or was there any emotions behind it, despite their being explosive moments in this game.

I hope that satisfies your question!

@Alf

Eric, who do you think deserves to win? Tyler or Skyler?

Out of Tyler and Skyler, Tyler deserves to win because he was willing to talk to the other side to keep himself in. Part of this game is social networking and Tyler succeeded more at that than Skyler.

@Spark

In your jury speech you said that "my allies were being voted out: Kolby, Brandan, Craig, Spark. And after every one of them was voted out, I felt powerless," and yet you voted against 3 out of 4 of those people. You couldn't have exactly felt powerless if you managed to get you allies voted out over you. Care to explain?

I voted against Brandan because I was afraid Tris had an idol. He said in the main chat that it was okay to vote him out (which was a setup that I saw), so in that moment, I was playing defensively because someone else had the power with that idol, not me.
I voted you and Craig out for the same reason you voted Craig out. The majority wanted you gone, so I had to follow if I didn’t want to be the next target. I felt powerless then because you were two of my closest allies and it felt like I had no other choice. After you were out, I worked hard to make sure that didn’t keep happening because it was becoming a pattern.

Also were you loyal to the trio of you/Tyler/Skyler until the end? Would you have gone down with that ship if it came down to it, or would you have tried to save yourself?

Yes, 100%. And I showed that in the final 9 when the ship was collapsing for us. Eli was targeting Tyler/Skyler for being sneaky, so I worked with Joe and Tris to make sure that didn’t happen. I could have easily flipped sides and gone with Eli, but I wanted to stay with Tyler/Skyler because I knew they wouldn’t vote me out (and that came to fruition in the final 5 vote against Alf).

To Craig

"This is towards Skyler and Tyler, was emotion any part of your gameplay? Please explain how and why."

Honestly no it didn't play at all into my game. I voted the way I needed to in terms of what was gonna put me in a better situation and what was gonna give me a numbers advantage in the following round. I never felt hurt or betrayed by anyone that tried to make a move against me and I never let that influence who I was targeting next.

Question

All 3 of you made little to no effort to get to know me, work with me, and quickly disposed of me. Why is that?

What was I to your game?
What do you know about me

To Spark

I chose to ditch you solely because the numbers weren't there for you. You weren't able to go on calls so by talking with tothers on calls i just felt more personally connected with them. I wanted to prove myself to the alliance I had with Brian/Eli because I knew they would be able to get me further in the game than if i was to try to pull something without them knowing about it.

As far as what sets me apart from the other 2 is simply that i wasn't afraid to be looked at negatively for my votes. I never groveled or apologized for blindsiding someone I stood where I stood and did so happily rather than backpedal and try to make it look like something it wasnt.

You're right! I lied ALOT to almost everyone in this game and had fun doing it. I threw the vote on joe during the craig vote and was planning on doing the same with your vote. But then I was able to figure that if i thre another hinky vote people would know it had to come from either me eric or tyler and i didnt want to jeopardize their games so I went back on my word to you in order to protect them because I figured you were a goner anyway. The lie about craig leaking the chat was just to take heat off of me because i was on a tribe with so many people who i didnt know and they had no reason to keep me I thought it would be me or craig and I needed leverage on craig. My lies caused people to question eachother which took their eyes off of me.

In response to Spark's question:

Tyler
Tbh I need to know more about your postmerge gameplay. The premerge makes sense but your postmerge section feels lacking. Go round by round if you have to but we want to know your game, not a highlight reel of it.

Apologies, I tried to keep my opening statement shorter and sweeter. I can break it down round by round and give some strategical insight into why I made certain decisions.

The first round of merge I wanted to align myself with members from the other tribe in order to better position myself with everyone. This why the alliance of me, Brian, Eli, and Skyler was formed. I wanted to keep Craig because I knew Craig would be loyal to me, but at the same time I knew that fighting too hard to keep Craig would paint a target on my back. When certain people weren't budging I knew that he would inedibly go home. If I voted him out I risked compromising my position.

The second round I knew that Joe painted a huge target on your back. At this point he was the most vocal. I knew that losing Craig as a number would hurt us for this vote especially because it was final 12, no one wanted to make a move where it could possibly tie. The same people who were hesitant to make a move this round didn't want to throw out another option and risk being blown up. I knew I had to bite my time and wait. It sucked because I knew you would be loyal Spark, but if I voted to keep you it would've been the same exact situation with Craig. I needed to set myself up in the middle and with both of you gone it was possible. I did fight to keep you, but I had to play it smart.

When it came to the Josh vote this is when a majority alliance was formed. The alliance that Skyler and I had made with Brian and Eli paid off. We were able to bring in our closet ally, Eric. Eli brought in his closet ally, Alf. This was a plan made the previous round, but the chat was made for this round. I knew they were genuine about making a move when Eli was the one to make a chat. I wanted to target people who were less vocal than the likes of Joe because it meant Joe would still be a target ahead of me. We (Skyler and I) had discussed with Eli and Brian to vote for Josh previously and knew he'd be open to that. When he started pushing it I went along and let him take the reigns because this moved helped me anyway. I hadn't spoken to Josh and at this point reaching out to him would just be useless if I was voting him out. I also made a chat with Joe, Justin, and Skyler. This was to formulate maybe a working relationship. I wasn't voting with them, but they were under the assumption I was so were shocked when we flipped.

The next vote for Ryan things got tricky. I was able to convince Joe that I was still on his side and the Josh vote was a one time thing. I knew this was a lie. I needed to vote off one more of his numbers so he'd be completely isolated and need to work with me rather than want to. We truly convinced them we were voting for Eli because it was leaked and Eli played an idol. This idol was misplayed. We were able to successfully force a misplay due to paranoia of us playing the middle which is why my position was blown up immediately following that round.

Although my position was blown up briefly, I read the game correctly. The target of Eli was much greater because of his allies like Alf, Brian, and Justin. We needed to just ensure we made it past this vote. It didn't matter what happened as long as my core allies in Skyler and Eric remained in tact. I think it speaks dividends to the position I put myself in that Joe felt in necessary to use us as numbers when we were the public enemies of the entire group. He knew he'd be fucked if he voted us out. My relationships at the time with Alf, Eli, and Brian managed to have a stronger influence on them preferring to vote for Skyler over me. So in the case that one of my allies did leave, it wouldn't be me biting the bullet.

Tris quitting was huge because he never answered my messages and he was a true wildcard. The game became easier when I wasn't thinking about what he was doing.

This next round left Eli even more vulnerable. I knew Joe had been wanting to target Eli for rounds which is why I left both of them in the game. It had Joe focus on Eli and give us that 4th vote at 7th that we needed. I'm glad Joe didn't trust me too because that paranoia had him misplay an idol as well. Based on my actions in the game whether I knew it or not had an idol misplayed twice at the jury phase of the game. Since it was late game it was time to start taking out the big targets like Eli.

When it came to finale I had to set myself up where most people wanted to take me to the end. I'm not sure whether or not I was always the target of Justin/Alf at 6th, but I knew that I had a solid 3 votes. Skyler was willing to go to rocks for me which meant I would've been safe no matter what. I knew Joe wouldn't be willing to go to rocks so when he flipped I wasn't surprised.

From then on it centered around taking out Alf and Joe who I saw as jury threats. Joe may have pissed people off, but was playing a good game. Alf had a lot of friends in the jury. I knew the both of them wanted to vote out Eric that round, but it didn't matter because I needed people who I could trust to not send me to a fire making challenge since I was clearly the worst at challenges left in the game. If Joe didn't win final immunity he was going out 3-1.

Joe ended up quitting which made f4 easier for us. Now, I sit here before you.

If I missed anything or you want any more clarification, let me know. Thanks!

Eric - I think social game is one of the most important things in this game. You were always the swing, so please elaborate more on your social game and why you think it was so good.

In my last season, I was called out for flipping every single vote and not being loyal. So I decided that this game, I would play the exact same game but be a loyal member of an alliance. Thus, my social game was great because even though I was firmly cemented with Tyler and Skyler, everyone still wanted to work with me and I was included in every group that wanted that “duo” out. And when I wasn’t in the group, people told me and I worked to make sure I was included. I also used my social game to take out my targets and I will use an example to explain:

In the F9, my main target was Justin because he was the largest social player in the game other than me. I knew this because I went to both Joe and Eli in the F9 to test the waters and see if they would vote him. Both told me no. But I thought that was weird –- how could the two leaders left in the game both be protecting Justin? The answer was that he was playing a great social game. So in the F7, I decided to try asking them again. Joe initially said no, so I gave him key pieces of information so that he didn’t trust Justin and he wanted him out at F6. That was one shield gone. When I asked Eli, he said “No, but I will at F6.” Now, this was where I turned on Eli. Back in the F13, he had said the same thing about making a move against Joe’s group: “No, but I will next round” and when next round came, Spark went home. I couldn’t take that chance so close to the end, so I voted Eli out and Justin lost his second shield. In the F6, Justin was left defenseless and my work with Joe came to fruition when he turned on Justin in order to avoid rocks.

The aim of my game was to protect Tyler/Skyler and to take out my targets. I did both with my social game, and that’s why it was great, Brian.

In response to Brian's question:

Skyler/Tyler -  The two of you to me were in the same position all game. So I wanted you both to explain why you are better than the other, and explain to me how you were the decision maker over the other person.

Early on in this game I pulled Skyler out of an unsalvageable minority. Had I left I be, everyone would've been fine pinning him in the minority and he may have been voted off very early. I chose to not let that happen because I knew he could be useful to my game. I encouraged his villainous side throughout this game. Whenever he was like "should I do X (x being a lie or something of the sorts)" I would always try to respond with something like, "They think you're the villain anyway so why not." This tactic worked more often than not and influenced him to be more aggressive in some of his moves. I knew that this would not only paint a target on his back, but rub people the wrong way.

I also talked him out of some hasty decisions earlier in the game that would've been flashy, but non essential moves. At the end of the day we did make a lot of decisions together, but I would always make sure whatever we moved benefited my above anything else. He didn't feel like he had much control in this game, but I felt like the opposite because I never had super specific targets. It allowed me to fluid between round to round in which I could make the best possible move and not be fixated on voting out one person.

Lastly, I tried to make amends with people after I had lied to them to try to keep a working relationship. Even when Joe and Justin threw me under the bus I still kept a level head and tried not to lash back. Anytime I felt targeted or threatened I didn't feed into it and wanted to keep all options on the table.

To Brian,

on paper we had almost identical voting histories. I think the biggest differences between us is in how we acted and reacted to the events during the game. For instance when we blindsided Joe/Justin and had them upset with us Tyler was scared that it would tarnish his good boy hero reputation so he apologized groveled came up with excuses as to why he had to go against his word and I just didn't care at all about that stuff I was much more upfront I wasn't afraid to take the backlash of my decisions even if it made me look like a bad guy. I was willing to be the "head of the snake" if it meant I got what i wanted.

In response to Josh's question:

Question

All 3 of you made little to no effort to get to know me, work with me, and quickly disposed of me. Why is that?

What was I to your game?
What do you know about me

Josh, I owe you an apology for not reaching out to you. I do have me reasons for game. One, the same effort was not reciprocated toward me. Not blaming you, but I felt I was in a strong enough position to where I didn't necessarily need your vote. At the same time, I didn't think you'd work with me. I knew you were aligned with Joe, Ryan, Justin, and Eli. Joe/Justin reached out to me and I was on a tribe with Eli previously where I started the communication there.

I knew Eli wanted to vote you off soon and it was discussed with the alliance. I didn't want to reach out to you, try to get to know you, and have you think I'm voting with you just to vote you out a round later. The first two rounds were unanimous votes, and I tried to go against that. I knew you weren't a swing vote because you never voiced that to anyone or was that ever brought to my attention. So, those two rounds made it difficult to reach out to you when I knew how you were voting and I needed to talk to the swings.

I do apologize for not being more attentive and communicating with you, but I didn't want to do it just to vote you out immediately.

To Josh

I made no effort to try and work with you because your name was the one I was trying to push around because it was the main one Eli was willing to do and i wanted to make sure I voted with Eli for those rounds. We had 0 relationship so I figured there was no way for you to help my game only hurt it.

in this game you were the common name to connect me with members of OG Velas you were the vote that helped me solidify my spot with a mixed alliance and set the cards up to get Ryan out right after.

I genuinely don't know a single thing about you. :/

In response to Spark's first question:

For all of you
First a more personal one which is why did you guys ditch me? I'm not mad, just curious.
And also, why should we vote for you over the other two? You guys were such a trio but we have to pick one so why should we as a jury pick you as an individual?

Sorry I totally went over this! I hate that it feels like we ditched you because I genuinely fought for you. The votes weren't falling into place so I had to take my chances and keep trust with as many people as possible.

I think you should vote for me over the other two because of a few things. One, I was the one who brought this alliance into fruition. This alliance doesn't exist without me. Two, I had a heavy influence in the direction we took. I wanted to keep these big targets in. They may have had similar agendas, but this was mine and I pushed that idea heavily. This why people like Erik/Kolby continued to go as far as they did for pre-merge and why Joe/Eli were in the game as long as they were. I needed these targets to focus on each other and try to take each other. They were always going to be more vocal than me and if I stayed quiet then I knew I could evade most votes. My work was done behind the scenes. Lastly, I never needed an immunity challenge to be safe in this game. The both of them won two immunity challenges (yes one of Eric's is when Joe quit) my point still stands. I didn't throw challenges, but I also didn't need to try super hard because I was confident I would have the votes most tribal councils. I only ever felt in danger because of idols and those were misplayed because of the paranoia I would cause.

Thanks!

@Josh

All 3 of you made little to no effort to get to know me, work with me, and quickly disposed of me. Why is that?

For me, it was a matter of taking power in the game. You were one of the two people left in the game who I talked to very minimally (the other was Ryan) and because I play a very social game, I figured I would have more control with people I talked to on a regular basis. I really liked the convos we had, though.

What was I to your game?

For just my game, you were someone that wasn’t talking to me as much as everyone else.

What do you know about me?

I know that you felt uncomfortable with the Original Velas group because Eli and Brian voted against you in the first TC. I know that I was one of the few people you talked with. I know you were in a BB game that had two houses (that I assume eventually merged) and that it was wild for you. And I know that you like going on walks outside because you sometimes (but not always) get to see a family of deer.

I haven't played a group game in about five years, and coming back to play this season reminded me how corrosive and insufferable the community on this website can be. I hate to add to the negativity that seemed to ramp up in the end-game, but since I have no questions for the Final 3, I'm going to take this time to instead muse over the concept of Internet Vitriol writ large. Read on if you want, it makes no difference to me. 

I suppose what I'm interested in is the question of how, exactly, Internet Hatred and troll culture have become par-for-the-course; anonymity is one factor, sure, but I think on this website in particular users tend to use virtual Survivor games as an outlet for real life discontent. I heard someone got doxxed in Suitman's series; someone posted an obituary of a player whose relative had recently passed away. There is no chance, in my eyes, that something so callous and cruel could stem from anything other than utter personal misery, exacerbated by games that force players to make, and break, temporary virtual relationships with other players who may or may not already feel isolated in their personal lives. I mean, is it a coincidence that so many gay teenagers gravitate towards Tengaged, a platform that allows for the cultivation of gay friendships and 'gender faking,' which is in essence a form of virtual drag? These things are often impossible for gay teens to experience in real life, and so the Internet swoops in and satisfies these needs before they can be lived in truth.

But there's no harm in online friendships and virtual drag. Those are good things, and some of the first queer friends I ever made were on Tengaged, when I was a bored and closeted teenager. What bothers me is the bitterness that I see on this site, the random and often violent bursts of emotion that result from a game with no prizes, no real consequences, no 'purpose' other than the enjoyment of said game. If someone is voted out of a Survivor group game at 10th place, are they upset because they've been deprived of the fun they might've had in the remaining 5-6 days? Are they upset because they've been betrayed by these temporary Internet friendships? Or does the anger merely stem from competition, when all of the effort spent trying to win no longer has a proper outlet?

I think it's perhaps a mix of all these things, and maybe also an expression of personal dissatisfaction. I mean, a website like 4chan survives almost exclusively off of the pubescent testosterone of social outcasts with compromised moral compasses. Tengaged is nowhere near as toxic, but I wonder if some of these aggressive impulses come from the same psychological source. I'm not above this, either, and I don't mean to sound self-righteous. I remember being bitter over games as a 16-year old, posting absurd things for attention. But at 16, I smoked too much. I had few ambitions and too much time on my hands. I suppose coronavirus reminds me of those years in a sense -- the boredom, the sense of aimlessness, the lack of real social stimulation. I look back on a lot of my old blogs and feel embarrassed. I'm not sure why I had the urge to say any of those things I posted, and I wonder, for some of you, if you'll one day stumble back onto this site and wonder the same thing. I wonder if, a couple years from now, you'll have a rogue memory of something you said to a complete stranger over a game that you can't recall.

A counter-argument, for the sake of debate (with myself): It's Tengaged. It's simply not that serious. I'm reminded of that tweet from Tyler, the Creator: "Hahahahahahahaha How The Fuck Is Cyber Bullying Real Hahahaha Ni**a Just Walk Away From The Screen Like Ni**a Close Your Eyes Haha". Yes, valid, but given the amount of time required to play in a group game, or reach TV star, or wait for a key to pop up in a Castings, the amount of time one spends on this website must have some correlation to how important it is in one's daily life. Otherwise, why do any of this? Why waste hours searching for idols in old blogs, or saving up T$s to buy a new design, or discussing strategy with an ally? It's meant to be fun, but it's clear to me that so many people here do not have fun playing these games, and I can't seem to reconcile those two things.

I suppose if there's a purpose to this ramble — and really, there's not, I'm just bored and caffeinated and procrastinating an assignment — it would be to question the motives of the people who use this website, and to point out that perhaps our reasons for being here — fun, the spirit of competition, the unique opportunity to form connections on the Vast Decentralized Internet — do not align with our behavior, which often ruins the experience for everyone involved. It reminds me of Ouija boards, how, while everyone waits for divine communication, someone nudges the planchette with their fingers and spoils the fun. That is to say, pleasure is a collective experience. It takes only one rotten apple to sour the barrel.