Post by ryan on Aug 7, 2010 0:16:07 GMT -5
Firstly, I want to thank you all for helping make this game a great one. Regardless of how much you all hate me, we all made a contribution to make this game a success.
I first wanted to say that regardless if I betrayed you, lied to you, or backstabbed you, the non-strategic talks that we had were real, genuine, and from the heart. I believe I do have a knack for forming bonds and friendships with people, and in real life I treat these bonds as sacred, but in this game, I used it to my advantage. In the end, I’ll apologize for any feelings that I’ve hurt, because I definitely don’t enjoy hurting people’s feelings, but I can’t regret the actions I’ve taken in this game to improve my position.
When I lied or failed to tell the complete truth, it was for a strategic purpose. I never formed alliances, lied and backstabbed just for the sake of backstabbing. If ever I lied or backstabbed, it was for a reason, and it would – in some form or another – contribute to my strategy. We all played this game to win, and I felt the moves I made gave me a better chance to win. It never had anything to do with personal feelings, as I’ve made abundantly clear to many of you.
Now, I realize that I’m walking into the final jury questioning as the underdog, but I believe that this is because no one was really aware of my thought processes, strategies, and alternatives that I was presented with throughout the game. Thus, I will present a brief overview of my game below. It is long, so if you wish to skip it, jump to the ********** break below.
In the first round, I was nominated against Allan, and I was told that it was because we were both the last to approach Ray. I worked in a frenzy to talk to as many people as possible and secure some deals to ensure my safety. By doing so, I had a good working relationship with Jake, Stacey, Jay and Eric at this point. In this rush to save myself, I made some Final 2 deals that I never intended on honouring - the only one, real bond that I made in this round was the one with Robbie, and I truly did intend on trying to keep our alliance hidden such that we would make it to the end together. In the end, I presented myself as the more desirable and useful ally to the majority of the people in the house, and Allan was evicted.
With me escaping eviction, I knew that I wanted to fly under the radar for the next little while. Jordan convincingly won both the HOH and Veto this round. I actively tried my best to win the veto and keep the nominations the same in an attempt to earn favour with Jordan, but in the end Jordan won anyway – however, what was particular alarming to me was the fact that he did so in such a dominating fashion. The challenge was the one where we had to watch the Youtube video of the medley of kids singing Aladdin songs, and type the correct answer to the questions that Alex posed as quickly as possible. I consider myself a fast typist – upwards of 130 WPM on good days – but Jordan was even faster. The challenge prowess that he demonstrated was always in the back of my head.
After Ray was evicted was when the episodic fights between Travis vs. Jay/Stacey became more exposed. Although I had a working relationship with Jay and Stacey at the time, it soon became my goal to keep Travis around. If Travis and Jay continued to co-exist in the game, I knew they would continually be at each other’s throats – this would effectively leave me out of their crosshairs for a few weeks. So, my next goal in this game was to keep Travis alive as long as possible, in order to displace the nominations/votes away from my direction.
The loyalty and faithfulness I was displaying towards Travis began to cause suspicion on where my true allegiance lay, and I knew at around this point that Jay and Stacey began to hold me in less regard. Regardless, I was able to protect Travis for a few rounds. Chad and Steven were both evicted before him.
Finally, Stacey won HOH and possessed the strategic awareness to put me and Travis up together; this was one of the few nomination combinations where Travis’s eviction was ensured, and she did well to notice this. When Eric won veto, I quickly pursued him to use the veto on me: not because I felt unsafe, because I know that I did have the votes to stay; but by vetoing me, I would be able to actively work the house to keep Travis again. Alas, Eric did not succumb to my pressuring, and at the same time exposed he and I as a “final two pair”, thus furthering my reputation as an alliance-whore. This was not a good round for me.
It was also around this time that the Survey Says veto challenge was played. From this veto challenge I learned several things: that Eric was one of the few people that I may be able to beat in the Final 2; and the fact that Michael was held in such high regard. Prior to this, my conversations with Michael never progressed beyond superficial formalities, so I was curious to see what others were seeing about Michael that I was not. For these reasons, I began to aggressively befriend both of them. With Eric, I pushed the fact that we were both the ideal Final 2 goats, and there would only be potential success in the Final 2 against each other. With Michael, I was desperately trying to find some kind of common ground. I was finally able to find the conversation starter – pathetically, it was about engineering – and it served as the catalyst from which our strategic discussions could begin.
So at this point, my primary loyalties laid first and foremost with Robbie – with whom every decision I made prior was after deliberations with him - and secondly between Eric and Michael interchangeably.
When Jake won HOH, I knew my bond with Robbie would keep me safe from Jake’s wrath, regardless if Jake mistrusted me. With Jay and Stacey nominated together, both of whom did not trust me, it didn’t matter to me which one of the two went home. I obliged to the HOH’s wishes, and evicted Jay.
Then I won HOH. I wanted to keep my wall of allies – Robbie, Eric, and Michael – safe, and I knew I was safe from Jake for awhile. This left me with choosing to nominate from the pool of Stacey, Mike, and Jordan. Of the three, I had the best working relationship with Jordan, so I kept him as my veto replacement and nominated Stacey and Mike for eviction. With Michael winning the veto competition, I did not foresee his strong relationship with Mike, and he blindsided me by vetoing Mike off the block. With Jordan as the veto replacement, it did not really matter to me which of Jordan or Stacey went home. Stacey was the strategic threat, while Jordan was the challenge threat, and both were good options to send home. The house chose to evict Jordan, which was probably the smartest move, and serendipitously probably good for my game too.
Mike proceeded to win the next HOH, and I knew I was in a bit of danger this week. The worst thing for my game would be to be nominated against Robbie. When Jake and Robbie were the initial nominees, I breathed a sigh of relief. It was my wish for the nominations to stay the same so that Jake would be evicted over Robbie. I was fine with ANYONE winning veto, besides Jake, because Jake winning veto meant I would be the replacement on the block against Robbie. And although it was risky, I also didn’t want to win Veto, because if I used it to save Robbie, I felt one of Eric or Michael may have been the replacement. I got greedy, because I wanted ALL of my allies safe. And in my eyes, probability dictated that Jake was probably not going to win if everyone had an equal chance of winning. Regrettably, Murphy’s Law always prevails, and my risk of throwing the veto did not pay off: Jake won veto, and I was the veto replacement. I didn’t want to nor need to campaign against Robbie because I knew Michael and Eric would keep me over him, but this round was tough because it was the round I lost my closest ally and best friend in the game.
With Robbie gone, I knew Jake would be coming to me for assistance, and I accepted his proposal of working together. Nevertheless, my primary allegiance lay with Michael and Eric, but it was nice to have added security in Jake. It was also here that I began to think of the end game. I felt like Jake and Stacey were the big jury threats and no one would be able to beat them if they were to reach the final 2. I was active in discussions with Michael and Eric in coming up with plans to get rid of these two jury threats.
Michael won the next HOH and nominated the two jury threats: Jake and Stacey. It was preferable for my game for Stacey to leave before Jake, because I knew Stacey would be gunning for me while Jake would probably still kept me safe. However, in my mind, I knew that if one of them was evicted this round, the other would be evicted the very next round. Mike ended up winning veto and saved Stacey. I was put on the block against Jake (due to his Replacer powers), but I knew I was safe because Eric would keep me over Jake. In addition, even though I knew I was safe, I coerced Eric to use his Voider power on me anyway for two reasons: 1) It would further guarantee my safety by an even greater margin, and 2) It meant that if Eric and I were nominated together in the future, that he would not be able to use his Voider power in that round for his benefit.
Eric won the next HOH, but the plan was always to get rid of the last jury threat and the person the person who was a direct threat to my safety in the game. Stacey was the target, and after being nominated for the fourth time, was finally evicted by my vote.
The Final 4 was, I believe, the first time that I was in actual danger of going home. All members of the final 4 had individual alliances with every other member, and I knew I was in peril of going home if I didn’t win the HOH competition. I hustled and won the competition when I most needed it, guaranteeing my spot in the Final 3. My relationship with Mike was the weakest, so he was one of my nominees. And in order to salvage a jury vote, my second nominee was Eric, who volunteered to be put on the block.
In the Final 3, I was able to provide convincing arguments to Michael to take me to the final 2. I presented myself as the less likable one (in the eyes of the jury) between Mike and myself and also provided convincing personal reasons. I pursued Michael with arguments that appealed to both his sense of logic as well as his emotions, and was able to convince him to take me to the Final 2.
********
And here I am.
If you did read this all, thank you – I appreciate it.
I hope I have proved myself as you someone who was actively thinking about this game, and who made strategic decisions in order to be positioned in the optimal manner. I am a fighter, I never give up, and I’ve worked hard to get to the end. Even after being on the block for a total of four times, it was through my strategic positioning that I was never evicted. I know I may be faulted for throwing so many challenges, but that was also strategy. When people are specifically targeted for being challenge threats, why would I want to be labelled as such? Further, winning HOH and veto only guarantees you safety for one eviction - the alliances, bonds, and strategy I developed carried me much further than any single competition Win would ever have. Most people knew that I was an alliance whore, but did nothing, or simply weren’t able, to stop me.
I am not a robot. My game wasn’t flawless. But I believe I have played an excellent strategic game such that I deserve the title of Winner of SUX 9: Agrabah.
I first wanted to say that regardless if I betrayed you, lied to you, or backstabbed you, the non-strategic talks that we had were real, genuine, and from the heart. I believe I do have a knack for forming bonds and friendships with people, and in real life I treat these bonds as sacred, but in this game, I used it to my advantage. In the end, I’ll apologize for any feelings that I’ve hurt, because I definitely don’t enjoy hurting people’s feelings, but I can’t regret the actions I’ve taken in this game to improve my position.
When I lied or failed to tell the complete truth, it was for a strategic purpose. I never formed alliances, lied and backstabbed just for the sake of backstabbing. If ever I lied or backstabbed, it was for a reason, and it would – in some form or another – contribute to my strategy. We all played this game to win, and I felt the moves I made gave me a better chance to win. It never had anything to do with personal feelings, as I’ve made abundantly clear to many of you.
Now, I realize that I’m walking into the final jury questioning as the underdog, but I believe that this is because no one was really aware of my thought processes, strategies, and alternatives that I was presented with throughout the game. Thus, I will present a brief overview of my game below. It is long, so if you wish to skip it, jump to the ********** break below.
In the first round, I was nominated against Allan, and I was told that it was because we were both the last to approach Ray. I worked in a frenzy to talk to as many people as possible and secure some deals to ensure my safety. By doing so, I had a good working relationship with Jake, Stacey, Jay and Eric at this point. In this rush to save myself, I made some Final 2 deals that I never intended on honouring - the only one, real bond that I made in this round was the one with Robbie, and I truly did intend on trying to keep our alliance hidden such that we would make it to the end together. In the end, I presented myself as the more desirable and useful ally to the majority of the people in the house, and Allan was evicted.
With me escaping eviction, I knew that I wanted to fly under the radar for the next little while. Jordan convincingly won both the HOH and Veto this round. I actively tried my best to win the veto and keep the nominations the same in an attempt to earn favour with Jordan, but in the end Jordan won anyway – however, what was particular alarming to me was the fact that he did so in such a dominating fashion. The challenge was the one where we had to watch the Youtube video of the medley of kids singing Aladdin songs, and type the correct answer to the questions that Alex posed as quickly as possible. I consider myself a fast typist – upwards of 130 WPM on good days – but Jordan was even faster. The challenge prowess that he demonstrated was always in the back of my head.
After Ray was evicted was when the episodic fights between Travis vs. Jay/Stacey became more exposed. Although I had a working relationship with Jay and Stacey at the time, it soon became my goal to keep Travis around. If Travis and Jay continued to co-exist in the game, I knew they would continually be at each other’s throats – this would effectively leave me out of their crosshairs for a few weeks. So, my next goal in this game was to keep Travis alive as long as possible, in order to displace the nominations/votes away from my direction.
The loyalty and faithfulness I was displaying towards Travis began to cause suspicion on where my true allegiance lay, and I knew at around this point that Jay and Stacey began to hold me in less regard. Regardless, I was able to protect Travis for a few rounds. Chad and Steven were both evicted before him.
Finally, Stacey won HOH and possessed the strategic awareness to put me and Travis up together; this was one of the few nomination combinations where Travis’s eviction was ensured, and she did well to notice this. When Eric won veto, I quickly pursued him to use the veto on me: not because I felt unsafe, because I know that I did have the votes to stay; but by vetoing me, I would be able to actively work the house to keep Travis again. Alas, Eric did not succumb to my pressuring, and at the same time exposed he and I as a “final two pair”, thus furthering my reputation as an alliance-whore. This was not a good round for me.
It was also around this time that the Survey Says veto challenge was played. From this veto challenge I learned several things: that Eric was one of the few people that I may be able to beat in the Final 2; and the fact that Michael was held in such high regard. Prior to this, my conversations with Michael never progressed beyond superficial formalities, so I was curious to see what others were seeing about Michael that I was not. For these reasons, I began to aggressively befriend both of them. With Eric, I pushed the fact that we were both the ideal Final 2 goats, and there would only be potential success in the Final 2 against each other. With Michael, I was desperately trying to find some kind of common ground. I was finally able to find the conversation starter – pathetically, it was about engineering – and it served as the catalyst from which our strategic discussions could begin.
So at this point, my primary loyalties laid first and foremost with Robbie – with whom every decision I made prior was after deliberations with him - and secondly between Eric and Michael interchangeably.
When Jake won HOH, I knew my bond with Robbie would keep me safe from Jake’s wrath, regardless if Jake mistrusted me. With Jay and Stacey nominated together, both of whom did not trust me, it didn’t matter to me which one of the two went home. I obliged to the HOH’s wishes, and evicted Jay.
Then I won HOH. I wanted to keep my wall of allies – Robbie, Eric, and Michael – safe, and I knew I was safe from Jake for awhile. This left me with choosing to nominate from the pool of Stacey, Mike, and Jordan. Of the three, I had the best working relationship with Jordan, so I kept him as my veto replacement and nominated Stacey and Mike for eviction. With Michael winning the veto competition, I did not foresee his strong relationship with Mike, and he blindsided me by vetoing Mike off the block. With Jordan as the veto replacement, it did not really matter to me which of Jordan or Stacey went home. Stacey was the strategic threat, while Jordan was the challenge threat, and both were good options to send home. The house chose to evict Jordan, which was probably the smartest move, and serendipitously probably good for my game too.
Mike proceeded to win the next HOH, and I knew I was in a bit of danger this week. The worst thing for my game would be to be nominated against Robbie. When Jake and Robbie were the initial nominees, I breathed a sigh of relief. It was my wish for the nominations to stay the same so that Jake would be evicted over Robbie. I was fine with ANYONE winning veto, besides Jake, because Jake winning veto meant I would be the replacement on the block against Robbie. And although it was risky, I also didn’t want to win Veto, because if I used it to save Robbie, I felt one of Eric or Michael may have been the replacement. I got greedy, because I wanted ALL of my allies safe. And in my eyes, probability dictated that Jake was probably not going to win if everyone had an equal chance of winning. Regrettably, Murphy’s Law always prevails, and my risk of throwing the veto did not pay off: Jake won veto, and I was the veto replacement. I didn’t want to nor need to campaign against Robbie because I knew Michael and Eric would keep me over him, but this round was tough because it was the round I lost my closest ally and best friend in the game.
With Robbie gone, I knew Jake would be coming to me for assistance, and I accepted his proposal of working together. Nevertheless, my primary allegiance lay with Michael and Eric, but it was nice to have added security in Jake. It was also here that I began to think of the end game. I felt like Jake and Stacey were the big jury threats and no one would be able to beat them if they were to reach the final 2. I was active in discussions with Michael and Eric in coming up with plans to get rid of these two jury threats.
Michael won the next HOH and nominated the two jury threats: Jake and Stacey. It was preferable for my game for Stacey to leave before Jake, because I knew Stacey would be gunning for me while Jake would probably still kept me safe. However, in my mind, I knew that if one of them was evicted this round, the other would be evicted the very next round. Mike ended up winning veto and saved Stacey. I was put on the block against Jake (due to his Replacer powers), but I knew I was safe because Eric would keep me over Jake. In addition, even though I knew I was safe, I coerced Eric to use his Voider power on me anyway for two reasons: 1) It would further guarantee my safety by an even greater margin, and 2) It meant that if Eric and I were nominated together in the future, that he would not be able to use his Voider power in that round for his benefit.
Eric won the next HOH, but the plan was always to get rid of the last jury threat and the person the person who was a direct threat to my safety in the game. Stacey was the target, and after being nominated for the fourth time, was finally evicted by my vote.
The Final 4 was, I believe, the first time that I was in actual danger of going home. All members of the final 4 had individual alliances with every other member, and I knew I was in peril of going home if I didn’t win the HOH competition. I hustled and won the competition when I most needed it, guaranteeing my spot in the Final 3. My relationship with Mike was the weakest, so he was one of my nominees. And in order to salvage a jury vote, my second nominee was Eric, who volunteered to be put on the block.
In the Final 3, I was able to provide convincing arguments to Michael to take me to the final 2. I presented myself as the less likable one (in the eyes of the jury) between Mike and myself and also provided convincing personal reasons. I pursued Michael with arguments that appealed to both his sense of logic as well as his emotions, and was able to convince him to take me to the Final 2.
********
And here I am.
If you did read this all, thank you – I appreciate it.
I hope I have proved myself as you someone who was actively thinking about this game, and who made strategic decisions in order to be positioned in the optimal manner. I am a fighter, I never give up, and I’ve worked hard to get to the end. Even after being on the block for a total of four times, it was through my strategic positioning that I was never evicted. I know I may be faulted for throwing so many challenges, but that was also strategy. When people are specifically targeted for being challenge threats, why would I want to be labelled as such? Further, winning HOH and veto only guarantees you safety for one eviction - the alliances, bonds, and strategy I developed carried me much further than any single competition Win would ever have. Most people knew that I was an alliance whore, but did nothing, or simply weren’t able, to stop me.
I am not a robot. My game wasn’t flawless. But I believe I have played an excellent strategic game such that I deserve the title of Winner of SUX 9: Agrabah.