ASHLEY QUESTION

please sum up why you should win in two to three sentences

On day 1 I came in with the biggest target on my back and here I stand on day 25 with zero votes casted against me, being in almost majority vote every round, 1 correct idol play, and a few immunity wins. I started from the bottom and had to work my way into a position of power to dictate the rest of the votes while others were given a position of power to start with in this game. I had to blend in all three Social, Physical, and Strategic aspects to get where I am today.

NATHAN QUESTION

I have the same question for all 3 of you. Overall, who did you feel was the biggest threat in this game? And whether you succeeded on getting them out or not, why do you think you played better than them?

A the start of this game Brenden became my biggest threat because of how many friends he had sitting with him at merge. Nobody was going to touch him and it confused me why nobody questioned this. Instead of fixating on him, i decided to work around it and take out all the people he's close to, to weaken him. In the end after most of Estoy left he wasn't viewed as a threat to me anymore.

Near the end Daniel then became that threat. He played a great social game and had many jury votes. He was also very fixated on a side that did not benefit me so he became my target. That is why I told you and vlad to vote him instead of brenden at F6, so I could idol out who was my biggest threat at that point.

I feel i played great given the circumstances I was in on day 1 to what i've accomplished both socially, strategically, and physically. It was not an easy road for people who were in my shoes.

I don't really have any questions but I'll make my comments with my thoughts and you can feel free to comment on them I don't mind

Ahmed - You play up being a big threat since day one but you listed 5 ride or dies (which excludes a lot of people that were loyal to you) and this is a luxury many of us did not have so I don't see how you were a big target pre merge. Other than that, the main flaw I see in your game (aside from your word meaning nothing) is your obsession with Brenla. From day 1 you wouldn't stop talking about how he was going to win this game and now you sit with him at final tribal. You had TEN tribal councils to make it work and you were unsuccessful. You can blame it on nobody wanting to vote him but you had 2 idols between you and Vlad and I'm sure you could have made something work. I guess we finally get to see see the showdown you so badly tried to avoid.

Brenla - I honestly have to apologize to you for not being more honest and trusting of you in this game. You were, in my opinion, the biggest Estoy threat coming into the game based on the numerous connections you had and you made it here both by working with people who were already your friends and by forming new bonds which is something that a lot of people did not do. Impressive final 4 challenge as well.

Austyn - I am so so glad that you got your chance back in this game. Personally, I think you got screwed over by the bloodline twist pre merge or you would not have been booted at all, so I’m sorry for that. From what I've read, you had the correct reads and your explanations for your decisions during these last votes make a lot of sense to me so congrats on that!

DANIEL STATEMENT RESPONSE

Although I listed 5 people I’d be loyal to does not mean it would be reciprocated. I had to choose a select few from a cast where people considered me a threat and build something from there. As oppose to others having already a group chat going into this game.

As for Brenden I mentioned it before. Pre-merge I saw him controlling much of estoy and that was threatening to me. Instead of fixating myself on him I ended up going for people around him which reduced the threat I saw him as. One of my main flaws in previous group games is I fixate myself in one person every round. This time around instead of focusing on Brenden a5 merge I did what was next best, take out his considered army. This diminished the threat from him because he didn’t have control after. By the time I wanted use my idol. Who was my biggest threat? It wasn’t him. It was you. That is why I didn’t idol him out. On top of that, the moment you went to rocks for him and put me at risk is when I realized I could side with you any longer.

NATHAN QUESTION

I have the same question for all 3 of you. Overall, who did you feel was the biggest threat in this game? And whether you succeeded on getting them out or not, why do you think you played better than them?

Entering the game, the biggest threat in this game to me on my tribe was.... KRISTA! I viewed Krista as someone extremely connected because she was close friends with like all of estoy except me :(. So I wanted her to be terminated in one of the first couple votes however, I knew that would be difficult so I began slowly planting seeds of doubt into my peers mind, Shyanne/Dan, letting them know I think Krista is calling the shots. I ultimately didn’t get to see that plan come into fruition.

Upon returning to the game I had two big targets 1. Vlad. I knew a lot of people saw Vlad as a ring leader and needed to take him out. I knew how big of a support system he had. He was a threat and I was able to help you see that leading to you flipping on him.
2. Brendan. Given the way the things went down it did not make sense for me to vote out Brendan. He was a threat but at the end of the day I do think I have played a stronger game than him. It didn’t make any sense for me to vote him out at the current situation heading into the F3 because I believe that I stood an equal shot regardless of if it was you or Brendan in the F3 with Ahmed and I.

Overall, I believe I succeeded in taking out my early targets and my end game targets. Be it they may not have been eliminated at my hands but I used the target on their back to give myself the opportunity to be in the final 3.

ASH QUESTION:
please sum up why you should win in two to three sentences

I believe I should have your vote because I overcame the most adversity in this entire game and continued to evolve and improve on my mistakes. I clawed my way back from edge and returned into a group with many tight bonds. I was able to defy the odds and be one of the last three standing. My overall perseverance and game-sense allowed me to outwit and outplay all 5 of my opponents upon returning where I was in the driver seat for the bulk of finale night.

I’m so sorry that was like 4 sentences plz don’t penalize me. :)

Questions for all three of you:
   1. Who were you hoping to take to the F3 in an ideal scenario and why those people?
   2. Of the two other finalists who would you vote for to win and why?

Question for Ahmed and Brendan:
   Clearly people on the Edge of Extinction form bonds with each other.  Were you worried that the jury would be rooting for Austyn to win once he came back into the game?  Did you consider voting him out for this reason?

Individual Questions:
Ahmed
   Clearly we were not on the best of terms coming into this game.  When did you decide you actually wanted to work with me?  Also, were you the random votes for me in those first couple tribal councils? Still have no idea who that was...

Austyn
   Edge is part of the game and I'm not going to hold it against you that you were voted out.  However, you spent a lot less time playing than Ahmed and Brendan.  Do you think the moves you made and relationships you formed were strong enough to compensate for your reduced time in the game?

Brendan
   We barely talked this whole time, wish I definitely regret cause I think we could have worked well together.  I guess my question to you is, did you go to the end with Austyn because you guys are obviously incredibly close friends and you didn't want to vote him out or was there strategy behind it?

Congrats to all three of you, I haven't made up my mind at all who I'm voting for yet.

TOFU QUESTION

   1. Who were you hoping to take to the F3 in an ideal scenario and why those people?

For me this changed a lot through out the game because everyday my perception of jury threat changes. There were points where I thought of you and Shyanne as f3 then you and vlad, then Jess and vlad, and so on. Near the end of the game 100% I was bringing Nathan to f3 because I felt we had diff groups of people mad at us. Then I was either bringing vlad due to the same reason as above or Austyn if he didn’t play a good game coming back from EOE.

2. Of the two other finalists who would you vote for to win and why?

Probably Brenla simply because austyn didn’t make any wow moves coming back from EOE given he had an extra vote in his pocket.

3. Clearly people on the Edge of Extinction form bonds with each other.  Were you worried that the jury would be rooting for Austyn to win once he came back into the game?  Did you consider voting him out for this reason?

For sure I was 100% worried about this. My initial thought though was if austyn can play a perfect game coming back then he’d be my biggest threat and I would vote him out. Given how f6 went, his extra vote/Brenden idol were flushed, it was already a critical mistake. By then instead of being a jury threat he was more of an ideal f3 option.

4. Clearly we were not on the best of terms coming into this game.  When did you decide you actually wanted to work with me?  Also, were you the random votes for me in those first couple tribal councils? Still have no idea who that was...

On day 1 I’ll be honest I did want you out, but then I thought to myself how secretly working with you would be great because nobody would ever expect it. During the joint tribal was when I decided I want to work with you 100%. So I targeted Austyn even though people were saying Jess or you were the easy vote. When you came back from EOE and I saw how everyone was still targeting you. I approached you again with the duo alliance and was genuine about it. I did want to protect you hence why I voted against my alliance that day and got willie to flip. All those random tofu votes weren’t me also lol. The only time I voted you was when I knew it would be 5-4 with ess going and my vote didn’t matter. I wanted it to appear I’d still vote you so nobody would suspect I wanted to work with you, and I didn’t want to piss off the other side. Sadly vlad used the idol when I tried getting him not to.

Hope that clarifies things.

Answer to Tofu

Questions for all three of you:
   1. Who were you hoping to take to the F3 in an ideal scenario and why those people?
   2. Of the two other finalists who would you vote for to win and why

1. I definitely was hoping to take daniel as one. This game was about how could i work in the game and take existing relationships out of it and daniel/I didnt have a huge existing relationship but we were able to grow throughout the game and I appreciated that and working with him was fun. I think daniel played the best game out of everyone and he deserves to be here but i told him from the start i would ride to the end with him and i wanted to hold that part up. The third person didnt matter to me, i would have loved for it to have been another friend or just someone for us to carry along who i didnt think had a shot. I loved everyone i worked with but i worked with daniel super closely the whole game and for that reason i would have stayed true to him.
2. I think at this moment - i would vote for austyn to win. I love ahmed and i think he did play a great game but i do think that he is acting like he was a bigger target then he truly was. I think austyn tried to make genuine relationships which looked messy at times but he had not many pre existing relationships and clawed his way to get here at the end. Ahmed had people that wouldnt vote him at all and i think that benefitted him a ton towards never being voted. I also think ahmed did a lot of lying that was just unnecessary with some people which his game looks very messy towards the end of it all.

Question for Ahmed and Brendan:
   Clearly people on the Edge of Extinction form bonds with each other.  Were you worried that the jury would be rooting for Austyn to win once he came back into the game?  Did you consider voting him out for this reason?

A: It had some concern for me but i dont think its fair to be rooting for someone just because they came back into the game at F6. Due to my position in the game at the end, it didnt make sense for me to vote out austyn who is my very good friend. I would have taken him here no matter what. The other players in the game besides nathan (sorry buddy) since he lied his way around this game, i wouldnt have wanted in the end because i think they played very good games. Austyn played a bit chaotically at the start and at the end but worked his way into a position where ahmed felt that he could beat him which is why nathan and i went to the fire making.

Brendan
   We barely talked this whole time, wish I definitely regret cause I think we could have worked well together.  I guess my question to you is, did you go to the end with Austyn because you guys are obviously incredibly close friends and you didn't want to vote him out or was there strategy behind it?

A: i wish we could have worked together too but i never felt like you wanted to talk to our side when we got the chance so i felt like i couldnt trust off of that and i just kinda wanted you out cause we werent speaking at all. I think with austyn, its a bit of both. My positioning late game relied on austyn and him helping us while earlier in the game; i was completely okay with him leaving cause i knew it would lower the target on my back. I would have voted him out if i thought it would help my game but when he returned, we were outnumbered so we needed him more then ever and I appreciate him sticking true to me.

TOFU QUESTIONS

Questions for all three of you:
   1. Who were you hoping to take to the F3 in an ideal scenario and why those people?
   2. Of the two other finalists who would you vote for to win and why?

1. Upon returning to the game my ideal F3 was Daniel/Nathan. I believe those two gave me the best shot to win given everything I had heard on edge and I knew there were a couple camps rooting for certain players in the game. Immediately after I returned Brendan/Daniel flipped the Ahmed vote to Vlad leading to an idol play this blunder flubbed up my game quite a bit and it was the only time in the finals where I was extremely disappointed in my allies. Because to put it quite simply it was the wrong move. Once Daniel left my ideal final pairing changed. It was almost guaranteed at this point that one of Ahmed/Vlad would be in the F3 given their competition track record. After Nathan flipped and voted out Vlad he became removed from my final 3 plans. I knew Ahmed had lied to many people and made quite a few enemies on the jury and I figured Nathan’s big move would garner him lots of jury favour over Brendan. So I quickly adapted my F3 grouping.
2. This is very tough because yes Ahmed lied to so much of the jury however, I was unaware that he was in the driver seat most of post merge. All I knew about him is that he’s flipping and lying. Brendan on the other hand played a strong social game. I do think he was helped entering the game with 85% of the cast being his friends but I can’t fault him for who was cast. At the end of the day I would ultimately vote for Brendan by a hair however, they both played strong games.

Austyn
Edge is part of the game and I'm not going to hold it against you that you were voted out.  However, you spent a lot less time playing than Ahmed and Brendan.  Do you think the moves you made and relationships you formed were strong enough to compensate for your reduced time in the game?

I do think the moves I made were strong enough for you to vote for me. I convinced Nathan to flip and I convinced everyone in the finals that there were bigger threats to me. I was telling them all a different person was the largest threat to win. I spread Brendans name around, I spread Ahmed/Vlads name around. I spread Nathan’s name around. I orchestrated so much chaos during finale that I didn’t receive a vote. I had everyone focus on each other because of what I was saying them. I got a group of close pals to turn on one another. I was able to manipulate the remaining players using info that I received from edge and at time fabricating info when needed.

When it comes to relationships I think this part is tricky for me. Half the cast I didn’t/don’t really speak to on a daily basis. So I am aware I lack in this aspect outside of the game however in the game I am pleased with the relationships I created because each one benefitted me in the game. It helped me in the edge comp, it helped me pre swap and it ultimately helped me in the finale. I hadn’t spoken to Ahmed/Vlad/Nathan literally ever. So I was able to avoid them voting for me just based off of the brief conversations we had. So relationships in the game were as strong as they could be and outside of the game they continue to lack with literally the entire cast. :)