It really has been a wild ride from start to finish. Not only was this my first group game, but I got final 3 in my first group game, and I am so proud of that. I was originally on the Sud'ba tribe, and remained there until merge. My tribe never lost a comp, and was absolutely a group effort. It wasn't an easy journey, post merge I had a group of people after me, and I had to do everything I could to save myself day after day. I am very proud of how i've done, and even though I did not win any immunities, that doesn't make a good player. I was strategic, I thought 5 steps ahead, and every possible outcome. I have had many close calls, but always guarenteed my safety. I was loyal to those who I stand by right now all the way to the end, never breaking their trust or ever giving them a reason to doubt me.

You should vote for me, because I showed that someone with very limited survivor experience can make it to end, and be strategic enough to win. No matter the outcome, I enjoyed playing with you Rubes, and you Luther. Thank you for being very loyal allies.

can we ask questions now??

Hello jury! I would just first to say that this is my first FTC, so i may not be the best at it, but i will try to get my points across the best i can.

Im going to generally touch on my game including the premerge and merge, and will go into it more specific if need be.

===PRE-MERGE===

My premerge game was spent alot on building solid relationships. Right away i reached out to Chris and solidified oursleves as a f2 i wanted to stick with. On my original tribe, Voin, i tried to make a connection with everybody except Peter (Inactive) and Britt (another inactive). I wanted to work with Rohan, but he was being extremely sus and voted my REAL F2, Rubes, so i sold him out and voted him off I also picked up the Voin idol. At the tribe swap, i was in a 5-1 minority. Luckily, this entire tribe hated each other, and so Tim was going 4-2. I didnt want this. So, i informed Tim in hopes he had an idol so we could get Ben out. Which we did. Unluckily, he transferred to Sud'ba, so he was still in the game.

====MERGE====

Right off the jump, i wanted OG Voin to stick together. Doing this, we voted off Tim. Ethan got medically evacuated, and i pushed for Joey to go at FF over anybody for the simple fact i knew if Ben went, Chris would be targeted instead. So, i made everybody in Voin for for Joey, to keep Chris safe 1 round longer. Ben went, and this was the round i started setting up for my blindside of Jonathan. I just want to say this: Whether or not Rubes had flipped with me, i was going to get Jonathan out. I had set up a plan with Chris to do it without her, all it would need were the Voin people splitting their votes, which they were always keen on doing before i convinced them not to in fear of a move being made.  I was willing to sacrifice an idol on mine to take Jonathan out if it came to that. I was just that threatened by him. Eddy also went along with my plan here, which i dont think was a good move at all for him. I needed Eddy for this 1 vote, and after which i was going to discard him, but he didnt realize this. F6 did cause some problems. Rubes was considering to flip, and i would also like to add this WAS THE WEEK MY F3 WITH RUBES AND CHRIS WAS MADE, it was never brought up before this. Eddy was trying to play us, i could sense it, so we voted Eddy. However, rubes was seriously going to flip. I could tell by the way she was acting. So, i spent about 20 minutes hammering into her why she NEEDS to vote off Eddy here, and eventually, i convinced her. My main reason was if Eddy could convince you to vote off me or Chris, thats evidence enough why hes going to win and you need him out. Final 5, i clutched immunity, and we send Gio packing, who was at that point my biggest competition for comps. F4, i won again, and we voted off Kai.

During the first half of merge, i didnt participate in comps on purpose, this was to mask my comp capability. I got my true f2's from day 1 here, all while masking them both from the rest of the cast. I made big moves in the permerge, and the merge, all of which benefited me. Rubes may have talked to both sides and "played the middle", but despite that, she was loyal to me. She was loyal to me and whatever i wanted she agreed with. I knew what i wanted from the getgo, and i worked my ass off to make it happen.

Jury, i resect your decision, and i cant wait for questions.

Chris, I have 2 reasons not to vote for you:

1. You pmed me saying that you don't care who wins...

2. You were on the outs of some decisions/votes throughout the season, while Rubes and Luther were a part of all of them.

Tell me why I'm wrong and I should still vote for you despite this.

(BTW I recommend being kind, I'm a juror and a human being)

Luther, I like your speech and I think you played a fantastic game.

While you did make great moves like manipulating Eddy at 7 and Rubes at 6, there were also 3 times where you got extremely lucky in my opinion.

Everybody gets lucky if they make it to the end in a game like this, so I would like you to try to acknowledge your shortcomings/moments that you were helped by the survivor gods.

A good player should be able to be humble in my opinion, and self-awareness is a key factor in my decision!!! :)

I believe i got lucky at the tribe swap, f6, and f5.

Tribe swap should be obvious, i got put in a 5-1 minority, but i was really lucky everybody on the tribe hated each other and would NEVER vote for me.

F6- I got lucky with the fact i couldnt go home because i had basically a super idol for that round, i also think that if it isnt a truth serum round, that the gameplay would be extremely different. I think Eddy honestly tried to make it tie 3-3 between Rubes and Kai, and make me, chris, and himself draw rocks. Eddy, feel free to correct me on that. But because of the truth serum, he couldnt do that. So instead, they tried to get rubes to flip when she didnt, and i got to keep my idol.

F5- I think i got lucky because you made a typo on Earl, and if you hadnt you wouldve won immunity. If you win that immunity, im not sure what happens at 4. (I do think Kai would have gone at 5).

Gio,

1. When I said that, I meant I would be happy for Luther or Rubes regardless.

2. People on the outs often get cut off first when numbers dwindled down. I didn't. I solidified myself in a group of three early on, and I talked to nearly everyone, and when they weren't useful anymore, we voted them out. Even after Ben publically going after me, painting a target on me I ensured I got just enough votes to stay. If anything, me not being a part of every single decision and still making it here is proof that I can manipulate my way into the finals.

Chris did you vote for me at my tribal

Luther why did you vote me instead of Ben even though you knew i had little to nobody?

Rubes why did you vote for me when i wanted to work with you?

Luther why did you vote me instead of Ben even though you knew i had little to nobody?

Im gonna be honest, i think you were the best at comps in the game and that was one of the only chances we couldve had to take you out. You may have had nobody but you could have won out if we let you get too far.

Tim, I did not.

Rubes FTC Speech

I came into this game with no expectations of what I’d do and no expectations of how this game would pan out. I was placed on the Voin tribe at the start of the game in which was nice because I was with my f2 (Luther) so I knew I had someone I could rely on if we went to tribal council. It turns out we went to every tribal council! But more on that later.

F16 Vote (Peter): This vote was fairly simple as Peter was not active at all and hadn’t even joined the group at this point. Everyone had unanimously agreed to vote for Peter but my DUMB ass forgot to vote and self voted! I soon realised that somebody ELSE voted for me at that tribal and keep in mind this was the only vote I received all game! I asked around and fairly quickly figured out it was Rohan that voted for me.

F15 Vote (Britt): At this point I knew it was Rohan who had gunned for me at F16 tribal council and I was meant to be in an alliance with Rohan, Luther and Jonathan! I was also in a separate alliance with Kai, Jonathan and Luther and then a bigger alliance with Giovanni in it! So I felt pretty secure on all areas as I continued to build my connections with them! I wanted to vote Rohan but everyone was certain on doing Britt since she was the least active and we wanted to win a challenge! (We didn’t 😪).

F14 Vote (Rohan): This vote was fun because Rohan didn’t really have a clue that this was going to happen. He seemed to trust in our alliance even though HE voted for me at the very first tribal. I pushed for Rohan on this vote purely just to return the favour. I think Rohan is great and very entertaining! But my connections with Jonathan, Giovanni, Luther and Kai were all much stronger than my connection with Rohan.

F13 Vote (Yawn): There isn’t much I can say about this vote really? The only thing that pops up in my head is that by this mark I’m really started to build a relationship with Chris who is on the other tribe. He was the only member of the opposite tribe I was talking to at this point in time.

F12 Vote (Sam): Sam ended up quitting which was interesting. It wouldn’t have made much difference though because Sam was still going nonetheless. I believe this tribe was myself, Giovanni, Jonathan, Kai, Chris, Sam and Ben at the swap. I once again went to tribal here and the vote was supposed to be Sam as I worked very closely with Gio, Kai and Jonathan here! We wanted to keep Chris and Ben’s rivalry going for as long as possible meaning the vote by deduction had to be Sam.

F11 Vote (Tim): This was a sticky one for me as I liked Tim, we weren’t the closer but we were on good terms. It’s just my loyalties lied with Ben and his side over Tim. This was a fairly straightforward vote and at this point I am aligned with the original Voin crew as well as Chris and Ben and Eddy. These are my main connections which play a big part in my endgame gameplay.

F10 Vote (Ethan): I mean LOOL this doesn’t really need an explanation but I mean gg Ethan on not getting voted off.

F9 Vote (Joey): This was a slightly more interesting vote as we got to see the sides peak a little bit. It was clear that Ben and Chris were never going to stop gunning for one another so my alliance thought it was best to take out one of Ben’s allies to “weaken him” a little bit which did pay off. This didn’t affect me too much as I was aligned with Ben but not Joey.

F8 Vote (Ben): This is the one vote that I voted in minority for and I did so on purpose due to the fact that my alliance (Gio, Jonathan, Luther, Kai) weren’t sure if Ben actually had any advantages or anything. So I mainly voted Eddy here just to make sure none of my main core alliance members were voted out in an awful way. I could have voted Ben but I was thinking more strategically and luckily nothing was pulled out at this tribal.

F7 Vote (Jonathan): And here is where my stress levels rise. Luther decides to flip at this vote and work with Chris and Eddy to target Jonathan and Giovanni as they were believed to be a duo in the game. Luther proposed this to me and I originally declined. Luther used his extra vote which meant that it was Chris + Eddy + Luther x2 vs Giovanni + Jonathan + Kai and supposedly myself. This makes it a 4-4. However I was able to put myself into the middle of this vote as I later said to Luther that I was thinking of flipping. I believe that this vote was VITAL in not just me making it here but Chris and Luther making it here. If I didn’t flip at this vote then the vote would be a 4-4 and on the revote Luther wouldn’t have an EXTRA VOTE again so Chris gets voted out via the majority. This would have changed the game MAJORLY and I do not think Luther or Chris would be sat here if I didn’t make the move to flip WITH them. I am by no means taking credit for this move but I am more so taking credit for the succession of the plan, if that makes sense?

F6 Vote (Eddy): Again an awful awful awful vote for me. It was so so painful my god. Luther was my f2 from day 1 and I knew I was never turning on him and so I knew that if I voted Chris out here then it doesn’t look good on my loyalties towards them. I feel like it would have messed with my path to f3. I said in my confessionals first weeks that my ideal f3 would be with Chris and Luther and I knew I wanted that to happen. So AGAIN I was placed slap bang in the MIDDLE for this vote. I was very happy that I was never a target because I was working with both sides but it was also very stressful as I knew I’d be letting down one side and unfortunately it was this side. You can all blame me for your vote offs and I take full responsibility for it but at the end of the day it is a game and this is what I felt in the moment! I have no regrets and I still love you as a person Eddy.

F5 + F4 Vote (Giovanni + Kai): These votes weren’t pretty straightforward for me yet I still was approached by Gio and Kai because I feel like I gave them a little bit of hope which was maybe not great of me to do so and I apologise if I messed with you guys a little towards the end there with your plan but I was never changing from my ideal plan. But what I will say is there may have been a part of me that was praying one of you would have won the immunity challenge and I felt so bad for you Gio when you misspelt the correct answer. Both great players and left while still fighting which I appreciate.

Overall I have won 0 competitions as I am clearly not a comp threat but I truly believe I was able to use my social and strategic ability to get myself into a position where I was never once a target aka the middle! I was able to get all the info from both sides because both sides needed me. I was able to choose who I wanted to work with and when I wanted to work with them and I think I played a pretty great game overall. I respect all of you jurors and if you have any queries just ask. I won’t keep rambling because I know you probably have questions for me but thank you if you chose to read any of this haha!

Luther, you are 100 percent right.

You were obvi lucky that Ben and Tim hated each other at the tribe swap lol (as was I)

Yes, we were going to go to rocks at 6, where your alliance would have had a 2/3 chance of being cut down at rocks since I had immunity, but the truth serum stopped that.

I was thinking of you somehow getting the idol at Voin, but the Earl thing works too XP

I really appreciate the self awareness. Great job!!! Rubes is gonna have to come with some heat to get my vote after that!!!

Chris I hope you get one vote by a special someone because I will die laughing

I would just like to add on the Jonathan vote

This move was happening regardless of if Rubes flipped. I was VERY willing to try everything. I had already laid out a plan with Chris to get Giovanni to change his vote last minute to make it 4-3-1, and if that didnt work i had a plan laid out to where i was going to use my idol to idol out Jonathan.

This game, from the f9 onward, i had my boot list planned out. I was not going to let ANYTHING get in the way of it.

giovannimaxroma
Chris I hope you get one vote by a special someone because I will die laughing

I had to laugh