Hi, everybody! Before I start, I would personally like to thank everybody who played this season for making it one of the best seasons I’ve ever been a part of, and in one way or another, you have all helped me get here to the end.
At the very beginning of the game, my goal was to play different than I have in other ORGs; play subtle, but strategic, don’t make too many enemies, and really think about what to do next in order to further myself.
Sometime after the results for the first challenge were posted, Daniel asked me to be in an alliance with him. I said yes, and was promptly brought into a chat with Tom, Zane, Bryce, and Daniel. I decided to keep an eye on Daniel, since he had decided to play strong from the start. But then my plans were disrupted when I was exiled by Xavier.
On exile, Jake messaged me asking to work with him since we get along fairly well. But the only problem was that he was on the opposing tribe. Being on exile gave me time to think which tribe I should go to. I had to weigh my options out.
I also wanted to take advantage of the power exile had, the Hidden Immunity Idol. I knew I had to find it; there was no way I was going to let a potential threat find it later on. So while I was searching for it, Daniel was voted out first, which made me dead-set on going to the other tribe to work with Jake.
I chose to stay on exile to keep looking, but Jake was voted out next, and I was left alone, with no connections and no ideas. I had to improvise.
Given that I had no allies, I felt it was crucial that I find the idol before anyone else to keep myself safe for at least some time through the game. To find out who really wanted me on their side, I decided to wait and let people come to me. I knew I could have initiated contact, but I wanted to know who was genuine. In the meantime, I continued to look for the idol. After Danish was voted out, I finally found it. I knew that following 4 rounds on exile, it might be obvious that I had it. Bjorn had approached me about an alliance, and he seemed very genuine about it. In addition to that, Zane had been offering an alliance to me for some time. However, I still wanted to take my chances that no one knew I had it, and wait a bit before I jump to one tribe. If I was eager to join one tribe, not only would it look obvious who I wanted to work with, but it would be obvious that I had found the idol.
I decided to try and subtly throw the subsequent challenges, in hopes that the person who beat me would choose to go to exile and I could start to work on my strategy. But the first and second attempts didn’t work, so I continued to be patient and wait until the moment was right. After Rayton was voted out, Lucky chose to go to exile, so I was able to join Savanne and take Bjorn up for his offer to an alliance.
There was a major issue, however, with his alliance. It consisted of him, Lucky, Nathaniel, and Danny…. which just happened to be every person left on Savanne, except for Lucky. But either way, for us to have any sort of chance to take control at the merge, we had to win that last immunity challenge, which we did. I had my mind set on sticking with this alliance, but also wanted to keep my options open. But Zane was voted out, and with him, my only actual connection to the original Noire tribe was gone.
Zane’s departure convinced me that I wanted to stick with with my new alliance on Savanne, since I had close to no connections from the opposing tribe. However, I wanted to prove that I was willing to make risky moves and put my neck out on the line for my allies. I didn’t want to be a silent goat who relied heavily on others.
I decided to make my first big move of the game to break the 5-5 division to 5-4 so I, along with my alliance, had the upper hand later on. I wanted to convince the opposing alliance that I was flipping, by lying about how the old Savanne tribe was not speaking to me at all or acting like I was any use to them, and just assumed I would be their sheep. Regardless of if they believed me or not, I decided to go with it and talk to Marco and Edward. Although they both sounded like they believed me, I wasn’t so sure. I was hoping that with some luck, they would give me their upcoming target, so I could play my idol on that person and shake things up, hopefully gaining some respect with it. My idol play, however, didn’t go as planned. Luckily, there was a crack in the alliance somewhere, because someone had voted for Lucky, the person who I had played my idol on, so the vote ended up being 5-4-0, with Marco the unlucky one out.
I thought that we could take control and make it to the final 5, and have me, Bjorn, and Danny make the final 3 (assuming it was a final 3 at the time); since we had made a deal to go to the final 3 and just fight fair for the title. However, things changed… Lucky flipped to the other side to vote out Bjorn, and after that, I felt that my chances of ever making it here were tarnished unless I somehow pulled 6 immunity wins out of nowhere.
I lost my trust in Lucky when he did this, especially considering I had played my idol on him instead of myself. But I wasn’t about to just give up. I decided to assume that Lucky viewed Bjorn as a threat, not our alliance. That meant there was still a chance Lucky would tie the vote at final 8 with Danny, Nathaniel, and I, and regardless of if he sided with us or not, it tied. Bryce was rocked out, and I felt slightly more confident.
The plan next was to then sway some of the old Noires to vote out Tom, since we viewed him as one of the mischief makers, and because he had that idol. When I won immunity, I was relieved to know I was safe. I wanted to take advantage of the time I had by looking for the remaining idol. Before this, Bjorn had given me the clue to the idol from his trip to exile. So, just as I had in pre-merge, I wanted to make sure nobody else found that idol.
Danny then decided that he didn’t trust Nathaniel anymore and wanted to vote him out. I knew Nathaniel was a threat, but I didn’t think now was the right time to do so. Danny and I eventually decided we could try to sway others into an alliance with us to take control. In order to both take a threat out, and prove my trustworthiness to the old Noire, I voted off Nathaniel.
Afterwards, I continued my search for the idol and began to plan the best thing to do to ensure my victory. I knew that others might consider me a threat, so I put all my effort into these challenges to gain the clues to the idol so I could keep myself safe even without immunity. I won immunity once again and gained another clue, which kept narrowing down my search. It became very clear to me that regardless of where everyone stood in the game, Tom had to go before he had a chance to change the game up more than he already did. I talked to Danny, Lucky, and Edward about this, and we came to an agreement that we couldn’t take our chances with Tom being in the game anymore. So with 4 votes, Tom left the island.
At this point, I started to feel like I’ve been too quiet; what if the jury wouldn’t vote for me in the end for not being bold enough? I had taken a risk by playing my idol at the final 10, and I did manage to get rid of a big threat with Danny, but would that be enough? Before Tom was voted out, I decided to devise a plan to get me to the end with people I feel I had a chance against. So I went to Danny and told him that to get us to the end, we would have to get Xavier out with or without the help of Lucky, and then convince Edward to vote for Lucky. We still assumed that it was a final 3, I figured in the end, Danny and Edward are the 2 that I had the best chance against, even if they both had a fair shot at winning.
After winning the following reward challenge, I knew that I could find the idol before Tribal Council. I was hoping however, that Danny or I could win immunity, find the idol, and play it on the other so we would both be safe for the final 4. But Lucky won immunity, so I really had to think; given the chance Lucky will flip again, who’s their target? I figured it had to be me, because I knew Xavier wanted me out and since he was working with Edward, Xavier could easily convince him to vote me out. Finding the idol was my best bet right now because Lucky had his mind set on voting me out with the other 2, so luckily, I found it hours before Tribal and played it on myself. Unlike what happened before, I played it correctly, saved myself, and Danny and I were able to get Xavier out like I had planned.
Now, at the final 4, winning this immunity was important to making sure my plan would work out the way I had been hoping. I wanted to convince Edward that Lucky was a bigger threat than Danny. I knew that if I didn’t have immunity, Edward and Lucky would vote for me and it would go into a tie again. So I put in hours of effort into the roast, and thankfully, I won.
I had to be smart, though. I couldn’t just tell Edward that Lucky had to go next, because it would a mistake to not talk it through with him. I could risk seeming too demanding. I was planning on voting Lucky regardless, but I asked him “Who do you think is a bigger threat between Danny and Lucky?” He said Lucky, like I had hoped. I knew he wasn’t gonna tell me anything otherwise, no matter what he was actually planning on, so I decided to stick with it and hope Danny wasn’t going to get caught in a tie. Lucky was voted out, and I entered the final 3.
Unfortunately, it was a Final Two. Personally, I thought that if I didn’t have immunity, I was getting voted out unless I could convince them I was the better choice. So I gave my best effort in the challenge, but it wasn’t enough. Edward won immunity, the one person I didn’t want to have immunity.
After this, I felt crushed; everything I had done to get here might have just been for nothing. So I decided to talk to Edward about how I felt. Even though I was being completely genuine with him about how I felt, I knew my only chance, though a small one, would be to convince him that it would be best to fight fair because we both really wanted to win this season, and that it would gain him respect if he brought me to the end instead of Danny. That’s all I could give Edward to think about. Not only that, but Danny was even trying to convince Edward to vote him out, so I figured.. maybe it isn’t over for me yet. Although, I felt it was still more likely he was gonna vote me out…. but.
The exact opposite happened. Danny was voted out, and I managed to make it here. I have Edward to thank for that. I think that if I hadn’t talked to Edward about this at all, he would vote me out in a heartbeat. Maybe not, but it’s possible I was able to persuade him to my favor.
Alright, now that I’ve explained my journey, you might be thinking… why should you vote for me?
The first reason would be I think I played a subtle game. I never played too bold or too quiet, I always stayed right in the middle and considered every option possible to further myself to this spot. I believe that this exact gameplay was key to how I landed here. It allowed me to see where everybody’s heads were at with every Tribal Council without becoming too aggressive.
The second reason is I was able to take some risks. I did play two idols this game, one worked, one didn’t, but I feel my first idol play shows I was willing to take risks to not only prove I was playing the game, but that I deserve to win this.
The third reason is I didn’t make any enemies. Although I did vote out Nathaniel, a loyal ally, and he seemed upset, I don’t think I have an actual conflict with anyone here, and it is a social game (yes, I acknowledge that I didn’t talk to 3 people on the jury however, and I apologize for that.)
And the fourth reason is no matter who I was working with or trying to help, in the end, everything I did was to further myself and to look out for myself only. I had to prioritize. You need allies to advance, but in the end, you have to keep all your options open and really think about what’s best for you, not what’s best for your allies. When it comes down to it, the only person you want to see winning the game is yourself.
Well, jury, thanks for your time. Edward, good luck, and I will be happy to answer any questions you have for me.