- Tue Dec 15, 2015 3:58:40 am
#8495
First off, I’d just like to say “Thank you” to the players and hosts of this season, as well as to a number of Stranded alum who have been following the season. Not for just “being here” (super clichéd), but for the support I received from a large number of you over the last few days. It’s been a tough weekend, and it strangely met a lot getting messages from a lot of you who I haven’t really “met”. Truly, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
Anyway, onto my statement.
Survivor (and by association, Stranded) is a social game. It’s about playing the best you can with the hand you’ve been dealt, maximizing your successes, and minimizing your failures. This particular Final 3 have all played VASTLY different games, and I truly believe the win could come from any of us. It’s all going to come down to what the 10 of you appreciate in a winner. Is it going to be the challenge monster? Is it going to be the guy who kept stayed under the radar and built as many relationships as possible? Or are you going to award the win to someone who played the entire game on an iPad and STILL managed to make the Final 3? I’m going to do my best to convince you that while I wasn’t the most vocal person publicly in the game, I was working my ass off constantly to put myself in a position to make it another round, hopefully take home the title of Stranded Champion.
A Strong StartAs soon as I heard this next season was going to be “Second Chances”, I was ecstatic. In my only other game of Stranded, I failed miserably by not being present enough, and not building any real relationships during the game. I knew that was my biggest weakness, and I vowed to fix it. Enter Meku. I logged in as soon as possible, and found myself on a tribe with 3 other people who all had the same idea as I did. Build a strong core alliance, and have each other’s backs as soon as possible. I had conquered my first demon, and actually formed something on day 1, and set up the next two boots with this alliance. We floundered in the first two immunity challenges (Partly because of my horrible failings in the first challenge, and my complete absence in the second challenge). Rice went home first because of not showing up for the entire time the game was going, and John was voted off at the next round, despite being there for the challenge, and doing well in it. This speaks to my game when even in the early rounds, I was kept around for my loyalty and social gaming while a challenge asset was voted off.
My First Big Mistake(?)Then came the partner twist. I had received a few messages from people who had either seen my season, or liked what they saw from the first part of the game. I formed a strong relationship with both Sophie and Ozzy at this point, but opted to pair up with Lil, as I knew her game better. I also deduced that this was going to be how we were split up as tribes, and I hoped that I’d end up with either Sophie or Ozzy on my tribe at the swap rather than being paired with them. What followed was a challenge that I actually did well in, and then building two tribes. This is the moment in the game that I will call a mistake and something that I definitely could have done a better job on. I had focused so much on myself not having any belief in tribal lines; I didn’t take into account that not everyone was going to be thinking that way. I built two tribes that were (by my own partners kind words) “really terrible tribe divisions honestly”. I knew I screwed up, but I was confident I could make it work. I had already formed a solid (or so I thought) bond with Sophie, and we would only need 6 for a majority. I assumed we could form strong against Pirai and pull in Sophie. Oh how hilariously wrong I was. Sophie stuck with Pirai, Shane flipped to them to stay in the majority, and I watched an ally go home. THIS was my wakeup call. This was the moment that I realized that I needed to have laser focus for the rest of the game if I was going to have a shot at winning. From that point on, I knew I couldn’t rely on assumptions and that people would just instantly conform to what I thought was the best move. I was going to have to start working harder on building bonds with as many people as possible, and start using every advantage the game presented. And that advantage presented itself beautifully with the partner swap twist. If Lil and I swapped with each other every round, not only would be both be immune right up the merge, it would give me a chance to talk to everyone in the game and benefit myself when the merge hits. The short term gains were huge, and the long term benefit of having at least some sort of relationship with everyone was invaluable.
The Pre-Merge FusterCluckAt this point, I focused on the aforementioned relationship building, trying to help my tribe as much as possible in challenges, and using every advantage possible (even if that advantage turned out to be against a rule I had misinterpreted). I rarely had to go to tribal councils, and this suited me just fine. Even when I did, I would be immune. This allowed me to keep the target off of my back, not have to vote off any allies, and allow the Pirai alliance to fester. This all came to a head when we came to the round before the merge. Flicka approached me with music to my ears. “Artis and I want to vote off Sophie”. Finally. After seemingly dictating the alliance from the beginning, she was ready to flip things on its head. The plan was in place, the target was set, and Sophie was going home. This all came to an end when Rupert had to pull himself from the game for personal reasons. I can’t fault him for this (emergencies are emergencies), but that saved Sophie’s game. Had Rupert not been pulled from the game, Sophie would be a pre-merge boot. She was saved by luck. “No matter” I think to myself. “She doesn’t have the numbers; we’ll get her at the merge”. Oh how silly of me.
Merge TimeIts merge time, baby. And a big one at that. With 13 people all voting at the merge, we all knew it was going to be a mess. The odds of a majority alliance forming at this point was slim to nil, so voting blocs were “formed”. What followed was multiple tribals with 3 or 4 people receiving votes multiple times, but at no point was I ever a target. It was at this point where I became involved with a set of strong alliances. The Meku 4 (Mookie, Jenna, Kelly, Marissa), The Partners Alliance (Mookie/Lil, Flicka/Sugar, Kelly/Gabe) , a 4-some of active people I truly trusted (Mookie, Kelly, Sugar, Flicka), and obviously my partner who I. These “alliances” as well as having a working relationship with everyone in the game is what I planned to utilize to get to the final 3.
David was the first casualty at the merge. I was truly sad when he went home, but it would hurt my game a lot more had it been Kimmi as the ragtag voting bloc had wanted. I switched my vote to David on the revote to protect someone who I had much stronger relationship with.
Lil was taken out next. It was simply a case of her painting herself as a major threat, and there was very little chance to sway enough people away from that vote. Ultimately, it helped my game more to not have a partners target on my back.
Marissa was the next to go home. While it may seem odd taking out someone who I had been working with since the beginning, I had reservations about her true allegiances from the moment she was swapped to WaiWai. She had grown very close with Sophie, and I could not trust her. I assume (Marissa, I’d appreciate clarification on this) that her true allegiances lay with Sophie, and that I would be cut at the earliest convenience. Then Kelly came to me saying the same thing I was already thinking. The two of us worked all day to put together (what I think) was the blindside of the season. This was where my working relationship with everyone started to shine. I was able to lock down a vote that (if everyone had voted, Artis) would tie things between Sophie and Marissa, and put 3 votes on Flicka. Sophie would go home on a revote if she didn’t play her idol. This is the only part of the game where I’m truly not sure what happened. Marissa went home (which was the second best option at that point) because Artis “forgot” to vote. He claims that he was going to be voting for Flicka (which would have caused a tie, with Sophie going home had she not played her idol, and Marissa going if she did) so it ultimately didn’t matter. All it did was create animosity towards Artis. I received a message from Artis the next day with his thoughts on the alliances that had formed. They were completely off base. I only bring this up because not only had the blindside went down almost perfectly, but the real allegiances were never revealed.
I don’t want to bore you all with a play-by-play of every vote off past this point. All of the work I had performed in the early rounds is what led to the rest of the merge boots. I had surrounded myself with people who were happy to paint themselves as a bigger target than I was, the people who went home (while I consider them friends) were all ones who did not want me near the finals, and I pushed every vote I could to maintain a core alliance that would never turn on me until it was too late. I had accomplished my second goal of this season, and truly formed the bonds I had always wanted to.
At the Sugar vote, I had Jenna/Shane/Sophie all ready and willing to keep me around while Sugar wanted me gone. At the Flicka vote, it was the same situation. Even when it was probably in their own best interests to keep around someone who was better in challenges and could beat Sophie for immunity, I was the one who stayed because of the relationships I had formed many rounds earlier.
Conclusion and Final ThoughtsI hope what I’ve written is enough to sway some people who might have been on the fence, and reiterate to people who were already planning on voting for me WHY I deserve to win this game. Don’t hold back on your questions, I’m an open book tonight. Rake me over the coals if you have to.
Now I have to give credit where credit is due. Sophie, you MURDERED those challenges. You were either narrowly beating out known challenge beasts or crushing everyone in sight. Your holding onto the public idol was amazing as well. Whether it was from knowledge that I wasn’t privy to (I’m sure the truth will come out at this tribal) or pure luck that you didn’t go home, it was still ballsy as hell. Shane, your willingness to call people out for their bullshit was incredible. Not a lot of people would be willing to do that for fear of being voted out, but you managed to pull it off. So kudos for that.
It’s no secret that a lot of what it takes to win this game comes down to luck. Bad luck can end your game before it really begins, and good luck can come out of nowhere and save you when you were 5 minutes from being eliminated. But what makes a truly great winner is someone who can take advantage at every opportunity and MAKE their own luck.
The Artis vote is probably one I'll get some slack on, and that's deserved. Artis, all I can say is that I did not want the vote going to a tie. I knew as we were sitting in tribal that the vote tying could only lead to you likely still going home, but if it didn't, I definitely didn't want rocks to end up sending one of my allies that was in a better position than you or I home. And then after that, I think the game started to work in my favor while simultaneously working against me. I mean in my favor since my commitment to beating the odds and winning literally spiked through the roof, and each challenge win made me more motivated to win the next, since I knew I was in trouble if I didn't. Kelly leaving meant that one more person who would for sure have a better case against me in the Finale left, and then my partner leaving right after that left me with mixed feelings on my state in the game. The Final 7 round was probably one of the most bittersweet experiences I've ever had in Stranded, since Gabriel was probably the person I had the most in depth conversations with and had built a lot of trust with even after I lied to him back at WaiWai. I was able to play my idol (which ugh I sadly found just seconds before Gabe) to keep myself safe, but losing an ally was tough, even if they were going to write my name down. And then the Final 6 and Final 5 both made me think that I actually had a chance at winning the game. Sugar was far and away the biggest social threat left, because she was amazing as fuck even when we hated each other, and so her leaving made the only person I knew I would for sure lose against that was left in the game Flicka. Flicka was everything to look for in a winner, and that's why her leaving was a decision that I think everybody was in agreement with (even Shane, who said so afterwards). I think a lot of questions may come up about why Mookie is still here when I could've had a better chance at beating Jenna, but I just don't think I could argue as well against Jenna's game as I could against Mookie. Mookie's was very clear cut: Lay low and make people think you're the strategic mastermind that's slightly less threatening than the current threat. Jenna on the other had a huge hand in many votes. Ultimately, I'm more than pleased about how this merge went down. I've lost many allies and seen many people go that were huge threats to me having a chance at winning.
