Post by Rodney on Sept 13, 2015 18:05:17 GMT
Yo! It’s your boy, Rodney. I want to open by thanking Julie for giving me this opportunity. This game was great from the beautiful graphics to the challenges casting and especially for dedication she put in to make it happen. I don’t know to what extent everyone realized it but she put in so much of her time to keep things running smooth and on time for all of us every day for the past month or so and who knows how much time of preparation before we even posted on the sign ups page. You made this what it was and for that I thank you.
As for my angle, I am going to set the tone by saying this; I am not here to win a popularity contest. I understand the type of game I played. All of you know this too. I am not going to sugar coat it. If my pitch is “Sorry guys, I didn’t mean it, please forgive me.” Then I’m walking out of here with 3rd place pretty much in the bag. No, I will spend this final tribal council unapologetically describing how I lied, stole andcheated strategized to pave my path to where I am standing. There are a lot of you who aren’t happy with me. There are a lot of you that still need answers from me. Please ask away, I have told some of you already, I want you to blast me. Give me hell. I deserve every second of it, but what I hope you take away from my response is that everything I did had a reason. Every move was precisely calculated, every flip was at the exact moment that would put me back on top. At every turn I outwit, outplayed, and outlasted.
I will start from the beginning. Original tribal lines. Day 1. Keep in mind throughout my explanations that it is in no way my intent to gloat or to be cocky. I simply want to explain the power I had found myself with in this game and what I did to use it. I truly believe I was calling the shots throughout most of the individual portion of this game, I will be talking about this a lot, please don’t take it the wrong way. Nothing was ever personal, everything was game related. On the first day I was placed on Xipaya, the Brain tribe. It consisted of Rodney, Erik, Natalie, Shirin, Ciera, Ken, and an inactive. Everyone loves the buffer of an inactive so the first few days were great. I really hit it off with Shirin. I talked to her more than anyone else but we never really got comfortable talking game together. Erik and I immediately jumped into hitching to each other and blindly trusting one another with strategy. It was very naive of both of us but the trust developed quickly and it turned out to be real. Erik was my #1 man by day 2. Our games were glued together. After Sandra left, the idea of an active player being voted off quickly became a reality so Erik and I were talking about bringing in 1 or 2 more for a majority. We both liked Natalie and Shirin so it was going to be them but we needed to decide which one would be the part of the tight nit 3 and which one would be the 4th (because that’s the lame stuff that mattered to us at the time.) Natalie was easier to approach about game since she wasn’t afraid to talk it with us so I kind of went to her and made a partnership then we decided to bring in Erik as a 3rd. This was Erik’s idea to do it this way as to make her feel more like she’s not on the outs. Pretty clever, Erik. So after it was solidified, Erik made us “The Three Corners” chat and we started discussing strategy there. All I knew was that I wanted these two and Shirin around. Ken and Ciera were on the outs and we pretty much had our pick. Erik and I, in one of our strategic binges, discussed how great it would be to keep Ken around. He as very new to the game and he was playing that way. He was leading the way in the challenges and in the chat. He was a canary in the coal mine, a human shield, and he seemed to trust me. Ciera on the other hand wasn’t around very much. Natalie and Shirin however were dead set on getting rid of Ken because he was a wildcard. I fought Erik on it a bit privately but we both agreed that it would be best to just go with the grain rather than against it. It was far too early to be sticking our necks out over something like this, let’s just agree with the girls and build some trust. So after I led him on all damn day, Ken was gone and that was effectively the end of Xipaya. The first merge came soon after.
My next tribe, NewXipaya was made up of 3 brains, Rodney, Shirin, and Natalie. 3 Brawns, Colby, Courtney, and Rob. And 2 Beauties, Parviti and Andrea. This tribe could be described in two words. Dominant. And inactive. We didn’t lose a single challenge but there wasn’t a lot going on in between. The general dynamic was not that of tribal lines, strangely enough so I used that too my advantage. Colby appeared to be the leader of the brawns and he was not quiet about his dislike for his old tribemate, Rob. Colby and his harmless little sidekick, Courtney, were all about working with the brains and I to get rid of Rob then the Beauties. Parviti and Andrea also stressed that there was no unity at all with the beauty tribe. Everyone was inactive and they were free agents. Colby and Courtney ended up becoming my main allies here because I could never really get a hold of Shirin and Natalie, and I made sure Colb and Court knew about that. We talked every chance we got and started to build some trust. Nothing much happened on this tribe but it’s safe to say I got swap-laid because along with not losing a challenge, the relationships I made set me up for the damage I would deal the rest of the game. On another note, I did get in to the secret location on NewXipaya and the idol was already missing. At the time I pretty much narrowed it down to Parviti and Colby just based on activity and experience. Colby had really been putting on this fearless, battle tested leader thing whether he realized it or not. That is kind of how I saw him. So when he didn’t do well in the puzzle challenge then gave Candice the idol clue, I thought he was trying to tank the challenge to save his buddies but I now realize it was more that he just isn’t very good at puzzles. So I grew weary of Colby and Shrin/Nat got a little more active and just before we swapped again I let them know the idol was missing and it was probably Parviti or Colby. I hope this information helped lead to the Parviti failed idol play the next round but I don’t know. Regardless it flushed an enemy idol and I couldn’t have been happier with that.
The next tribe was New Saluma. (Rodney, Colby, Courtney, Alex, Andrea, Rob) The night we arrived I noticed they had less idol clues, and they were the same clues we had, meaning it was probably the same password. I was stuck at work so I didn’t remember what the password was. It was at home on my laptop in a huge spreadsheet of options. (a survivor and a big brother contestant combined) So I was slacking off at work in the back room, frustratingly trying to remember which combination it was when Courtney comes up to me and is like, “Rodney, Look! They never got the last clue, I bet the idol is still there, I’m gonna try the names you were telling me last night.” I had told her what the BB name was. I knew that one, but I couldn’t remember the survivor. So here I am furiously typing in everything I can while Courtney is bumbling around feeding off of the hard work I spent cracking this thing the night before and of course she finds it first and of course it’s the same password and of course it was the same exact confirmation to get the idol. All I had to do was post the lyrics to some Beyonce song in my AIM chat with Julie. I should have just tried that instead of re-cracking the password. When Courtney messages me again “omg Rodney! I got the idol! I’m so happy” I about died. I freakin lost it. All that hard work, not once, but twice, and this naïve kid gets it instead. I couldn’t believe she told me. I knew I had her. So once again we never lost a challenge but this tribe was very important to my game. I was introduced to Alex and I was solidified in to the Brawn’s alliance. Me, Alex, Colby, and Courtney were now a tight-knit group. I was locked in with them. At least, that’s what I had them believing. It wasn’t anything I was going to screw up in case the now battle tested brains grew closer without me over on their tribe together but my every intention was to meet back up with them. Another thing happened on this tribe that you will see right away is very very notable but at the time I could never have imagined it. Andrea and I started talking. We had been on the same tribe for 2 rounds and we finally really started talking. We really hit it off and I knew it was legitimate because she was shy. Nobody had really talked to her by this point in the game but I had gained a close ally and friend out of her.
Finally the merge came and it was time to start seeing some action out of all the potentially energy I had been storing. I had just gone 3 rounds where I only had to vote out one active player but I had myself in position to be safe at every turn. I was itching to finally get in the real fight. The first challenge, much to my dismay, was the auction. This was the only thing that could possibly throw a wrench in my plans and here it was. I looked back to the previous season and saw she had something good in box #1 so was hoping it would stay the same out of laziness. I don’t know if that’s what it was or if it was random but I bet all my money on box #1 and I won immunity for the round which was nice but I would have preferred the idol. It was no mistake that I had at least one very very strong ally from each original tribe. From the brains I was finally reunited with Erik, from the brawns I was very close with Colby, he legitimately wanted to take me to the end just like Erik, and from the beauties, Andrea and I were really hitting it off. I had options for days but I already had my plan ready. The brawn alliance (nicknamed SexBangGang… sigh) knew I still had connections with the brains but I was of course primarily an honorary brawn. This along with Alex’s supposed connection with Erik allowed us to pull the brains and brawns together, if only for one round, to clear out some of the middle ground before we started going at each other. Erik was really the only brain that knew about my mole operation inside the brawns. Erik knew everything. He was my go to, I told him every idea I ever came up with and he told me his. Alex thought he could trust Erik but Alex was shooting himself in the foot. In the Sexbanggang chat, we were scheming about how we would eventually turn on the brains after we picked off a few beauties. Alex went along with it but privately told Erik about our plan. Erik immediately told me about Alex’s loose lips so even though it was the Brawn’s problem, I still had to pretend I was with them so I had to be careful when talking fake-real strategy with Alex around. If this isn’t confusing enough for you, don’t worry. Everything changes very soon. So Alex, Colby, and Courtney led on the beauties which I luckily didn’t have to be a part of since I was a secret brawn. In the “Beauty Buster” chat, consisting of every brain and every brawn, we worked together to decide on who to take out. People were mulling over Angie when I stepped in and pretty much said how stupid that was, we need to get rid of the threat, and that is how I called my first of many shots in this game. Parviti was voted out later that night.
Trying to keep track of everyone and what they are all doing at any given moment is a fool’s task, but I like to consider myself the all seeing eye of this game by any standard that you can be one. If someone told anybody what they got in the auction, I knew about it. If someone was trying to make side deal, I knew about it. That is how far my tentacles reached. I put myself in a position socially and strategically where I could go whichever way I wanted and I would probably have still been sitting here. Nevertheless, I had a few liabilities to deal with so my mind was made up. They were Courtney’s idol, and Alex. Numbers-wise, the idea that the brains “didn’t know I was with the brawns” is how I was able to get things to work out on either side. The brains knew I was with them so they happily voted out a beauty to keep their numbers over the brawns 5-3. The Brawns saw it as 4-4 so they didn’t have a problem with leaving the brains alone until this point too. I was the one who really knew what was going on though, what nobody else had accounted for was Andrea. At this point in the game, nobody knew of my secret weapon, I don’t think anybody knew her true allegiances because of how erratically she was voting, but she was doing that for a reason, Andrea was calculated too, and I finally had the numbers that I was happy with to make my signature move. The plan was to scare the brawns into thinking the brains were about to turn on them. I was going to use my influence with the brains to get them to vote Courtney. Courtney was going to play her idol to flip the script, and unbeknownst to the brawns, Alex would be blindsided and Courtney would burn her idol in Parviti fashion. The night before, Courtney wasn’t online but I had Colby and Alex eating out of my hand with this plan. Alex was the only other person who knew about Courtney’s idol and he was so into my plan that he actually spilled the information about it. Alex nearly did all the legwork for me, He was going to get Erik to have the brains vote Courtney and he offered to talk to Courtney about playing her idol when she finally logged on. It was going perfectly, but then for the first time in the game I met the real Courtney. She logged on the next day and she saw right through me. Courtney, I don’t know how you did it but you were the super hero to my super villain at every step of the way. You never made things easy. So my ties with the brawns are officially cut and Courtney starts putting together a chat against me, trying to flip everyone she can, but she didn’t account for the social game I had played to this point. My ties with Andrea went into effect and she was able to help me hold the vote. I guess she lied to Courtney and who knows who else did because Court thought for sure she had me. She was begging Julie to close the voting early. Finally the votes were read and my ties pulled through, Alex was gone and I had total power.
The next round taught me a lot about this game and it really humbled me. I was so caught up in what I was doing that I realized the hard way I had a serious flaw, I was so busy working new people and putting together plans that I wasn’t retaining the friendships I had already made. At one point in the round Natalie casually referred to me as her #1 ally and it really made me stop and think, not just about the mistakes I was making but the amount of power I held. Anyway, there obviously was a weak link as far as the brain alliance was concerned and Courtney, being Courtney, found and exploited it. I wasn’t expecting anything but for Angie to go this round without much drama but I had not put enough into my relationship with Shirin and that was my fault. She had every right to do what she did, she didn’t even find out I was in on the brawn’s chat until the night Alex left. She was looking for a shake up and I never saw it coming. You could point to this round and say I don’t deserve to win because I am just lucky to be here but I have something to say about that. The only reason we had a revote was because Shirin flipped last minute and it didn’t allow enough time for Colby and Mike to flip their vote for me, but I assert that if she had flipped earlier, I would have found out and there would have been a counter move, my connection with Andrea saved me this round, she found out about the flip and she was able to tie the vote and force the revote. Once I had a chance, I ran with it. Andrea pulled Mike into the equation and I was finally able to work with him. We made somewhat of a f3 deal together and it allowed Mike to flip on the revote and sent Shirin to the jury and flushed Courtney’s precious idol.
The Angie vote was kind of biding time but I’d be lying if there weren’t politics involved too. Erik and I were afraid Andrea was protecting Courtney. We didn’t want to force her hand into making a move on us so we went with the vote Andrea wanted and we took out Angie. I was also able to interrogate some useful information out of Courtney and figure out that she had been given the vote nullifier
The next round, Courtney showed once again that she wouldn’t go down without a fight. I tried to lie to her to keep her from making a move but of course she found out she was the vote and that made for a stressful night. The tight bonds I had formed proved strong and Courtney’s last stand, fruitless. Try as she might she was not able to flip anyone against me. I had everyone who was with me believing they were in my long term plans. Courtney, I can’t express enough how difficult you made my life this entire game and I was so happy to see you go.
The Erik vote was the hardest thing I had to do this entire game. I saw it coming like a car crash in slow motion. I tried to stop it, I tried to put it off, but it was coming and I had to man up and face it. Erik would have taken me to the end. I know that in my blood, I wanted to do the same for him but Erik and Andrea didn’t get along, and Andrea had the powers. My friends were making me choose so I made my decision. Erik was smart enough to guess that Andrea had the idol and she might play it on him but Natalie kind of scolded him over the whole idea so he went along with the Colby vote. Julie told us she was doing early results but I still hadn’t voted. I didn’t want to. I just wanted it to go away. Finally after Julie yelled at me enough I skipped the parchment and just typed the four letters into my voting booth and logged off in shame. I still hate thinking about it to this day. I feel like I lost a friend over it, but it was what I had to do.
After Erik left, Natalie lost her trust in me, I had to force her hand into voting the easy target, Ciera, out. I was a little thrown off that the round otherwise went so well, I wasn’t expecting Colby to join back up with us but he was very thankful over the idol play. This allowed Andrea to hang on to her double vote which really sealed Natalie’s fate. I fought with Andrea for 2 straight days. I had a promise with Natalie that I wanted to keep so bad but Andrea held the power with her double vote and her voting block of Mike. It got to the point where we had to step away from the game because the disagreement was hurting our friendship. In the end I had to make another tough decision. I put it off until the last second, desperately trying to change her mind but I couldn’t. If I went against her it would have gone to rocks, 50/50 between me and Colby. I couldn’t do that. I apologized to Natalie and once again put in my vote in disgrace. My biggest regret in this game was handing the power over to Andrea. I knew I would always be safe but if I had my way I wouldn’t have done a few of you so dirty.
Colby was the last to go. I told him I’d tie the vote for him but I was paranoid. I had made it way too far to be played by Mike and Colby so I knew Colby had to go.
This game was an emotional roller coaster ride. My name was written down in 6 straight votes. SIX. Yet I sit before you here today. There’s a reason anybody who has even put my name down is on the jury. I played a game that is rare. You don’t see people like me make it so far. It just doesn’t happen, but it was no fluke, I showed discipline and patience. I was sure that every time I had to change the tides it was at the exact moment where it needed to happen. Every move was calculated, every connection was for a reason. I did things I’m not proud of. I happen to know that tears were shed on multiple occasions because of what I had done. It wasn’t easy, in fact at times it hurt me just as much. I’m not a villain but in this game I played one and I hope you agree that I played it well. I gained trust and I broke it when it was no longer needed yet I still had the numbers. I always retained the numbers. It’s safe to say that if you are sitting on the jury it is because I called your name. I deserve your vote, not because you should like me, but because I played the best game I will ever play in my life, because the moves I made, the power I worked to obtain, and the way I executed them are deserving of the status as Sole Survivor. I say this with the upmost respect for every one of you, but I say it boldly. I outwit, I outplayed, and I outlasted you.
As for my angle, I am going to set the tone by saying this; I am not here to win a popularity contest. I understand the type of game I played. All of you know this too. I am not going to sugar coat it. If my pitch is “Sorry guys, I didn’t mean it, please forgive me.” Then I’m walking out of here with 3rd place pretty much in the bag. No, I will spend this final tribal council unapologetically describing how I lied, stole and
I will start from the beginning. Original tribal lines. Day 1. Keep in mind throughout my explanations that it is in no way my intent to gloat or to be cocky. I simply want to explain the power I had found myself with in this game and what I did to use it. I truly believe I was calling the shots throughout most of the individual portion of this game, I will be talking about this a lot, please don’t take it the wrong way. Nothing was ever personal, everything was game related. On the first day I was placed on Xipaya, the Brain tribe. It consisted of Rodney, Erik, Natalie, Shirin, Ciera, Ken, and an inactive. Everyone loves the buffer of an inactive so the first few days were great. I really hit it off with Shirin. I talked to her more than anyone else but we never really got comfortable talking game together. Erik and I immediately jumped into hitching to each other and blindly trusting one another with strategy. It was very naive of both of us but the trust developed quickly and it turned out to be real. Erik was my #1 man by day 2. Our games were glued together. After Sandra left, the idea of an active player being voted off quickly became a reality so Erik and I were talking about bringing in 1 or 2 more for a majority. We both liked Natalie and Shirin so it was going to be them but we needed to decide which one would be the part of the tight nit 3 and which one would be the 4th (because that’s the lame stuff that mattered to us at the time.) Natalie was easier to approach about game since she wasn’t afraid to talk it with us so I kind of went to her and made a partnership then we decided to bring in Erik as a 3rd. This was Erik’s idea to do it this way as to make her feel more like she’s not on the outs. Pretty clever, Erik. So after it was solidified, Erik made us “The Three Corners” chat and we started discussing strategy there. All I knew was that I wanted these two and Shirin around. Ken and Ciera were on the outs and we pretty much had our pick. Erik and I, in one of our strategic binges, discussed how great it would be to keep Ken around. He as very new to the game and he was playing that way. He was leading the way in the challenges and in the chat. He was a canary in the coal mine, a human shield, and he seemed to trust me. Ciera on the other hand wasn’t around very much. Natalie and Shirin however were dead set on getting rid of Ken because he was a wildcard. I fought Erik on it a bit privately but we both agreed that it would be best to just go with the grain rather than against it. It was far too early to be sticking our necks out over something like this, let’s just agree with the girls and build some trust. So after I led him on all damn day, Ken was gone and that was effectively the end of Xipaya. The first merge came soon after.
My next tribe, NewXipaya was made up of 3 brains, Rodney, Shirin, and Natalie. 3 Brawns, Colby, Courtney, and Rob. And 2 Beauties, Parviti and Andrea. This tribe could be described in two words. Dominant. And inactive. We didn’t lose a single challenge but there wasn’t a lot going on in between. The general dynamic was not that of tribal lines, strangely enough so I used that too my advantage. Colby appeared to be the leader of the brawns and he was not quiet about his dislike for his old tribemate, Rob. Colby and his harmless little sidekick, Courtney, were all about working with the brains and I to get rid of Rob then the Beauties. Parviti and Andrea also stressed that there was no unity at all with the beauty tribe. Everyone was inactive and they were free agents. Colby and Courtney ended up becoming my main allies here because I could never really get a hold of Shirin and Natalie, and I made sure Colb and Court knew about that. We talked every chance we got and started to build some trust. Nothing much happened on this tribe but it’s safe to say I got swap-laid because along with not losing a challenge, the relationships I made set me up for the damage I would deal the rest of the game. On another note, I did get in to the secret location on NewXipaya and the idol was already missing. At the time I pretty much narrowed it down to Parviti and Colby just based on activity and experience. Colby had really been putting on this fearless, battle tested leader thing whether he realized it or not. That is kind of how I saw him. So when he didn’t do well in the puzzle challenge then gave Candice the idol clue, I thought he was trying to tank the challenge to save his buddies but I now realize it was more that he just isn’t very good at puzzles. So I grew weary of Colby and Shrin/Nat got a little more active and just before we swapped again I let them know the idol was missing and it was probably Parviti or Colby. I hope this information helped lead to the Parviti failed idol play the next round but I don’t know. Regardless it flushed an enemy idol and I couldn’t have been happier with that.
The next tribe was New Saluma. (Rodney, Colby, Courtney, Alex, Andrea, Rob) The night we arrived I noticed they had less idol clues, and they were the same clues we had, meaning it was probably the same password. I was stuck at work so I didn’t remember what the password was. It was at home on my laptop in a huge spreadsheet of options. (a survivor and a big brother contestant combined) So I was slacking off at work in the back room, frustratingly trying to remember which combination it was when Courtney comes up to me and is like, “Rodney, Look! They never got the last clue, I bet the idol is still there, I’m gonna try the names you were telling me last night.” I had told her what the BB name was. I knew that one, but I couldn’t remember the survivor. So here I am furiously typing in everything I can while Courtney is bumbling around feeding off of the hard work I spent cracking this thing the night before and of course she finds it first and of course it’s the same password and of course it was the same exact confirmation to get the idol. All I had to do was post the lyrics to some Beyonce song in my AIM chat with Julie. I should have just tried that instead of re-cracking the password. When Courtney messages me again “omg Rodney! I got the idol! I’m so happy” I about died. I freakin lost it. All that hard work, not once, but twice, and this naïve kid gets it instead. I couldn’t believe she told me. I knew I had her. So once again we never lost a challenge but this tribe was very important to my game. I was introduced to Alex and I was solidified in to the Brawn’s alliance. Me, Alex, Colby, and Courtney were now a tight-knit group. I was locked in with them. At least, that’s what I had them believing. It wasn’t anything I was going to screw up in case the now battle tested brains grew closer without me over on their tribe together but my every intention was to meet back up with them. Another thing happened on this tribe that you will see right away is very very notable but at the time I could never have imagined it. Andrea and I started talking. We had been on the same tribe for 2 rounds and we finally really started talking. We really hit it off and I knew it was legitimate because she was shy. Nobody had really talked to her by this point in the game but I had gained a close ally and friend out of her.
Finally the merge came and it was time to start seeing some action out of all the potentially energy I had been storing. I had just gone 3 rounds where I only had to vote out one active player but I had myself in position to be safe at every turn. I was itching to finally get in the real fight. The first challenge, much to my dismay, was the auction. This was the only thing that could possibly throw a wrench in my plans and here it was. I looked back to the previous season and saw she had something good in box #1 so was hoping it would stay the same out of laziness. I don’t know if that’s what it was or if it was random but I bet all my money on box #1 and I won immunity for the round which was nice but I would have preferred the idol. It was no mistake that I had at least one very very strong ally from each original tribe. From the brains I was finally reunited with Erik, from the brawns I was very close with Colby, he legitimately wanted to take me to the end just like Erik, and from the beauties, Andrea and I were really hitting it off. I had options for days but I already had my plan ready. The brawn alliance (nicknamed SexBangGang… sigh) knew I still had connections with the brains but I was of course primarily an honorary brawn. This along with Alex’s supposed connection with Erik allowed us to pull the brains and brawns together, if only for one round, to clear out some of the middle ground before we started going at each other. Erik was really the only brain that knew about my mole operation inside the brawns. Erik knew everything. He was my go to, I told him every idea I ever came up with and he told me his. Alex thought he could trust Erik but Alex was shooting himself in the foot. In the Sexbanggang chat, we were scheming about how we would eventually turn on the brains after we picked off a few beauties. Alex went along with it but privately told Erik about our plan. Erik immediately told me about Alex’s loose lips so even though it was the Brawn’s problem, I still had to pretend I was with them so I had to be careful when talking fake-real strategy with Alex around. If this isn’t confusing enough for you, don’t worry. Everything changes very soon. So Alex, Colby, and Courtney led on the beauties which I luckily didn’t have to be a part of since I was a secret brawn. In the “Beauty Buster” chat, consisting of every brain and every brawn, we worked together to decide on who to take out. People were mulling over Angie when I stepped in and pretty much said how stupid that was, we need to get rid of the threat, and that is how I called my first of many shots in this game. Parviti was voted out later that night.
Trying to keep track of everyone and what they are all doing at any given moment is a fool’s task, but I like to consider myself the all seeing eye of this game by any standard that you can be one. If someone told anybody what they got in the auction, I knew about it. If someone was trying to make side deal, I knew about it. That is how far my tentacles reached. I put myself in a position socially and strategically where I could go whichever way I wanted and I would probably have still been sitting here. Nevertheless, I had a few liabilities to deal with so my mind was made up. They were Courtney’s idol, and Alex. Numbers-wise, the idea that the brains “didn’t know I was with the brawns” is how I was able to get things to work out on either side. The brains knew I was with them so they happily voted out a beauty to keep their numbers over the brawns 5-3. The Brawns saw it as 4-4 so they didn’t have a problem with leaving the brains alone until this point too. I was the one who really knew what was going on though, what nobody else had accounted for was Andrea. At this point in the game, nobody knew of my secret weapon, I don’t think anybody knew her true allegiances because of how erratically she was voting, but she was doing that for a reason, Andrea was calculated too, and I finally had the numbers that I was happy with to make my signature move. The plan was to scare the brawns into thinking the brains were about to turn on them. I was going to use my influence with the brains to get them to vote Courtney. Courtney was going to play her idol to flip the script, and unbeknownst to the brawns, Alex would be blindsided and Courtney would burn her idol in Parviti fashion. The night before, Courtney wasn’t online but I had Colby and Alex eating out of my hand with this plan. Alex was the only other person who knew about Courtney’s idol and he was so into my plan that he actually spilled the information about it. Alex nearly did all the legwork for me, He was going to get Erik to have the brains vote Courtney and he offered to talk to Courtney about playing her idol when she finally logged on. It was going perfectly, but then for the first time in the game I met the real Courtney. She logged on the next day and she saw right through me. Courtney, I don’t know how you did it but you were the super hero to my super villain at every step of the way. You never made things easy. So my ties with the brawns are officially cut and Courtney starts putting together a chat against me, trying to flip everyone she can, but she didn’t account for the social game I had played to this point. My ties with Andrea went into effect and she was able to help me hold the vote. I guess she lied to Courtney and who knows who else did because Court thought for sure she had me. She was begging Julie to close the voting early. Finally the votes were read and my ties pulled through, Alex was gone and I had total power.
The next round taught me a lot about this game and it really humbled me. I was so caught up in what I was doing that I realized the hard way I had a serious flaw, I was so busy working new people and putting together plans that I wasn’t retaining the friendships I had already made. At one point in the round Natalie casually referred to me as her #1 ally and it really made me stop and think, not just about the mistakes I was making but the amount of power I held. Anyway, there obviously was a weak link as far as the brain alliance was concerned and Courtney, being Courtney, found and exploited it. I wasn’t expecting anything but for Angie to go this round without much drama but I had not put enough into my relationship with Shirin and that was my fault. She had every right to do what she did, she didn’t even find out I was in on the brawn’s chat until the night Alex left. She was looking for a shake up and I never saw it coming. You could point to this round and say I don’t deserve to win because I am just lucky to be here but I have something to say about that. The only reason we had a revote was because Shirin flipped last minute and it didn’t allow enough time for Colby and Mike to flip their vote for me, but I assert that if she had flipped earlier, I would have found out and there would have been a counter move, my connection with Andrea saved me this round, she found out about the flip and she was able to tie the vote and force the revote. Once I had a chance, I ran with it. Andrea pulled Mike into the equation and I was finally able to work with him. We made somewhat of a f3 deal together and it allowed Mike to flip on the revote and sent Shirin to the jury and flushed Courtney’s precious idol.
The Angie vote was kind of biding time but I’d be lying if there weren’t politics involved too. Erik and I were afraid Andrea was protecting Courtney. We didn’t want to force her hand into making a move on us so we went with the vote Andrea wanted and we took out Angie. I was also able to interrogate some useful information out of Courtney and figure out that she had been given the vote nullifier
The next round, Courtney showed once again that she wouldn’t go down without a fight. I tried to lie to her to keep her from making a move but of course she found out she was the vote and that made for a stressful night. The tight bonds I had formed proved strong and Courtney’s last stand, fruitless. Try as she might she was not able to flip anyone against me. I had everyone who was with me believing they were in my long term plans. Courtney, I can’t express enough how difficult you made my life this entire game and I was so happy to see you go.
The Erik vote was the hardest thing I had to do this entire game. I saw it coming like a car crash in slow motion. I tried to stop it, I tried to put it off, but it was coming and I had to man up and face it. Erik would have taken me to the end. I know that in my blood, I wanted to do the same for him but Erik and Andrea didn’t get along, and Andrea had the powers. My friends were making me choose so I made my decision. Erik was smart enough to guess that Andrea had the idol and she might play it on him but Natalie kind of scolded him over the whole idea so he went along with the Colby vote. Julie told us she was doing early results but I still hadn’t voted. I didn’t want to. I just wanted it to go away. Finally after Julie yelled at me enough I skipped the parchment and just typed the four letters into my voting booth and logged off in shame. I still hate thinking about it to this day. I feel like I lost a friend over it, but it was what I had to do.
After Erik left, Natalie lost her trust in me, I had to force her hand into voting the easy target, Ciera, out. I was a little thrown off that the round otherwise went so well, I wasn’t expecting Colby to join back up with us but he was very thankful over the idol play. This allowed Andrea to hang on to her double vote which really sealed Natalie’s fate. I fought with Andrea for 2 straight days. I had a promise with Natalie that I wanted to keep so bad but Andrea held the power with her double vote and her voting block of Mike. It got to the point where we had to step away from the game because the disagreement was hurting our friendship. In the end I had to make another tough decision. I put it off until the last second, desperately trying to change her mind but I couldn’t. If I went against her it would have gone to rocks, 50/50 between me and Colby. I couldn’t do that. I apologized to Natalie and once again put in my vote in disgrace. My biggest regret in this game was handing the power over to Andrea. I knew I would always be safe but if I had my way I wouldn’t have done a few of you so dirty.
Colby was the last to go. I told him I’d tie the vote for him but I was paranoid. I had made it way too far to be played by Mike and Colby so I knew Colby had to go.
This game was an emotional roller coaster ride. My name was written down in 6 straight votes. SIX. Yet I sit before you here today. There’s a reason anybody who has even put my name down is on the jury. I played a game that is rare. You don’t see people like me make it so far. It just doesn’t happen, but it was no fluke, I showed discipline and patience. I was sure that every time I had to change the tides it was at the exact moment where it needed to happen. Every move was calculated, every connection was for a reason. I did things I’m not proud of. I happen to know that tears were shed on multiple occasions because of what I had done. It wasn’t easy, in fact at times it hurt me just as much. I’m not a villain but in this game I played one and I hope you agree that I played it well. I gained trust and I broke it when it was no longer needed yet I still had the numbers. I always retained the numbers. It’s safe to say that if you are sitting on the jury it is because I called your name. I deserve your vote, not because you should like me, but because I played the best game I will ever play in my life, because the moves I made, the power I worked to obtain, and the way I executed them are deserving of the status as Sole Survivor. I say this with the upmost respect for every one of you, but I say it boldly. I outwit, I outplayed, and I outlasted you.