Jordan's comments and Q/A

[Jordan]

Hey guys. First off, Congratulations to the both of you. Neither of you are people I actually wanted to see in the final 2. No offense. You guys don't have the brightest personalities, but you two were the most important people involved in my eviction so I guess I should be happy that two people who beat me are in the end. lol I want both of you to know that I don't hate either of you or hold any ill will towards you. I was upset when I got evicted and rightfully so. My statements for both of you are going to mainly be about my eviction. If theres anything else I want to know, I'll read it in everyone elses Q/A's. I have my questions scattered throughout the comments, so read everything


Ryan, I was pretty upset with you right after being put on the block as a replacement. When everyone and their mother was assuring me that I would be safe and Stacey was the target, I KNEW I was screwed. Honestly, I don't blame you as much as the voters for my eviction because I do think your target was still Stacey. However, you were never around to talk and the fact that during this round especially, you being M.IA. did help lead to my eviction. Like you said in your opening, you didn't care who went. Well thats good to know! Thanks for that, considering you did say you wanted me to stay over Stacey while I was still in the game. One of the main reasons why I'm hesitant about giving you my vote is because your social game was complete garbarge. I'm sorry but it was, at least where I was concerned it was. I understand skipping vetos to take the money was strategy and being the ultimate pawn while trying to stay in peoples good graces was also strategy, but cmon... Big Brother IS and always will be a social game. It just amazes me that two of the least social people are in the final 2 but that is where strategy and a lot of luck come in. Out of the two of you, Michael was more social and that's not saying much at all. When I questioned you about skipping all those vetos, you claimed it was because unlike some other people in the game, you have a life. lol Wellll excuse us for showing up to competitions in a game we all signed up for and actually showed interest in every challenge because we wanted a say in what the outcome would be! Imagine that! However, not being around as much doesn't seem to have hurt your game either, so kudos for that I guess? I don't even really have any questions for you, honestly. Like Mike said in his questions, this is Michael's time to either gain my vote back or lose it. You are an underdog, your opening statement was well thought out and well spoken, but it's very likely that you'll lose unless you pull some amazing answers out of your ass during the jury process. But I'll ask you one thing, we've all read and heard why Michael chose you over Mike in the final 3. So I want an honest answer from you. He picked you because he thought you were the easier one to beat, right? I'm sure your reasons why he should keep you were quite captivating and convincing but lets be real man, Michael has a real problem owning up to things and I doubt he'd ever admit that's why he chose you. But we all know it is. Mike would've crushed either of you at the end. So what are your opinions and thoughts about this?



Michael, I had the biggest issue with you when I was evicted. Before I was even a replacement, Ryan came to me and said that he had specifically told you I would be the replacement. But before this when we spoke, you acted totally dumb about it and if I was going up, you didn't want to use veto. Is this true? Which is very laughable now since that is exactly what happened. That was my first warning sign about you but still wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt. Then when I was on the block, I KNEW that you were evicting me but yet you continued to play dumb. I think that you were embarassed to have been caught so the only thing you knew to save face was to lie, which is a stupid way of thinking if you ask me. What baffles me about you Michael, is that while you played dumb in the game, your goodbye message said that my eviction was all of your doing and you had been in control of the house for weeks prior. So why the contradictions? Why was it necessary for you to insult my intelligence in the game and then tell me you were in control after I was gone? If I was being evicted anyway, wouldn't the decent thing to do is to just tell me? You know, since I was going to be on jury. I guess what I'm saying is, you handled that situation totally backwards and the fact that you continued to treat me like an idiot after I called you out and knew everything you were doing was totally unnecessary and unless you can somehow explain the situation to me, you may very well be losing a vote. If you were really controlling the game as much as you say, then why did you say in your opening statement that your first move of the game was week 6 when you voted with me to waste Stacey's double vote? The way you acted in the game and the way your opening statement reads, your game is one big contradiction to me. Did you control everything or not? Were you this great strategic mastermind or did everything just fall in your lap and you rolled with it? There are a lot of differences between your game and Ryan's. Both of you played so differently, that if you're not going to own up to everything like someone who is actually proud of what they accomplished, then why should I even give you a vote?



Hopefully I didn't sound bitter because I'm totally not. I'm just incredibly critical, especially when I'm voting for a winner. lol Good luck to the both of you. You've both earned it.

[ryan]

Hi Jordan,

Thanks for your comments.

You are correct in that my primary target was Stacey that week. In my opening statements when I said, “I didn’t care who went [between you and Stacey]”, that’s poor phrasing for, “It won’t affect my game TOO severely if Jordan was evicted over Stacey.” Stacey was still my primary target, and I screwed up in not being able to secure the votes to get her evicted. I also partially attribute your eviction in Stacey’s ability to campaign and save herself.

As far as my social game being garbage with respect to you, I apologize. I do feel that we had a pretty good connection going during your reign of HOH in week 2 – for whatever reason, we stopped talking as much in the weeks leading up to your eviction. I’m of the opinion that it was a two-way street, however, and I think we can both accept some of the blame for the deterioration of our relationship which culminated in me putting you up as a veto replacement. However, if you think a contributing factor to our lull in conversation is a result of my boring personality, then I really don’t know what I could have done differently.

When you questioned me about throwing all of those veto competitions and I responded that it was because I had a life, that was a really stupid “cover” for my strategy (which was the conscious decision to appear weak in challenges). I didn’t want to outright say that, “I throw challenges because it helps my game!”... but in hindsight, I really shouldn’t have made that comment because EVERYONE has a life outside of the game. However, I was on the defensive and didn’t think quick enough or well enough on my feet.

Now on to your question!

QUESTION: What are your opinions and thoughts about why Michael chose you over Mike in the final 3.

Well...
I have trouble keeping up with what Michael’s reasons for keeping Mike - he’s waffled on his statements so many times, I’ve lost count. I believe his latest version of the story is that it was a combination of all of the reasons that he’d previously mentioned, with the addition that Mike was his best friend since the beginning but their relationship somehow fractured by the time Final 3 rolled around.

If we are to believe this latest version of the story, then we can conclude that I am the factor that was able to dismantle the single strongest alliance in the entire game. Mike, who is on the jury and thus has no motive to lie, states that his primary loyalty rested with Michael. Michael claims that his loyalty was devoted entirely to Mike. Yet, somehow Michael’s loyalty finally fractured in the Final 3, due to my presence.

What the fuck? Even I am not conceited enough to accept this version of the story as truth, as flattering as it would be.

Michael has stated that he completely disregarded my reasons for keeping me in the game. Even when one of my reasons was: “You have a better chance of beating me than Mike.” But no, this reason was apparently not even considered by Michael, nor stated anywhere in Michael’s response to Mike.

Let’s not insult anyone’s intelligence any further. I was taken to the Final 3 because Michael thinks he has a better chance of beating me than Mike. Michael is a smart, logical person, and his decision made complete logical sense. He had the foresight of bringing to the finals someone who he believed to be less popular among the members of the jury. I just wish he would admit it.

[michael]

Jordan--
I think there has been some massive miscommunication between us because we didn't talk all that much in the game and so we never fully trusted each other. Here is my point of view on everything that happened. Take it or leave it because I feel that you don't believe anything I say- which was ultimately my fault :/

Quick answers (since I listed your ?s out as u asked them) with explanations below….

Did I know you were going up? Yes. Eric told me first, so I asked Ryan and he confirmed it to me. I asked because I knew for sure that I was using the veto on Mike. So I lied to you here, no question. I also think this was the catalyst for all the things that happened between us. I also looked through our entire chat history, and this is the only lie I ever told you. (NCIS is still awesome )

Was my ultimate goal that week evicting you anyway? NO. Using the veto was a chance for me to save Mike. That was my goal. Somebody had to go up and it was you. In no way, shape, or form did I affect Ryan's decision to specifically put you up. I didn't talk to Ryan much at that point either. I have/had no reason to lie about this.

Was I a strategic mastermind or did everything fall in my lap? The latter. I saw opportunities and kept an open mind because I NEVER REALLY HAD A LONG-TERM PLAN. This isn't to say that I didn't know what I wanted to happen each and every week, because I totally did. Fortunately for my gameplay, I had many options along the way. Given that, I considered all options and I took things one day at a time in this game. There really is no reason to look too long term because things change on a dime in this game. This mentality made me not think about jury because I never expected in my life to be F2 when I evicted you. In my goodbye message, I was speaking my mind in anger because you had wrongly accused me of expecting to evict you all along.

EXPLANATIONS:

I don’t know if you know this, but this is my very first ORG ever. Because of this, my game was split into two "phases". In the beginning, I didn't understand the purpose of these types of games and I skipped competitions, didn't socialize with others, etc. Basically I wasn't as into the game and active. It landed me on the block a couple of times and thanks to your generosity in week 2, I wasn't a target for not engaging in conversations during your HoH reign. I don't know if this was the case for you in your first game, but this is what I felt. At one point, I was going to quit, but there is a rule that apparently does not allow quitting. I just had no idea I was supposed to do these things. So, in the beginning I was NEVER controlling anything or masterminding anything--I had no idea what was going on with everyone else, which might have come across as "dumb" and un-socializing to you. Ultimately this helped my getting here because people back in the early stages didn't find me to be a threat in challenges or socially. Obviously, I DID NOT plan this out. I adjusted my game accordingly based on what happened every week. This may or may not be a factor in why you think my game play is "contradicting".

The second "phase" which I delineate to be right after Travis was evicted (week 6) is when I began playing the game and getting into it. I told myself that I would stop sitting on my ass and do stuff in the game since my ally Travis was just evicted. So I did. You were there to help me in my first move of the game--blindsiding Stacey/Jay. Fortunately for me, it helped that many people began asking for my help week 5 and suddenly, I was on even terms with everyone else in the game. Again, I did not plan for people to suddenly begin including me in decisions. Call it a stroke of luck or lightning striking, but it just happened. In essence, what I am trying to say is that YES I lied by playing dumb about the replacement nominee, but I ALSO didn't know what exactly what I was doing early on. I think the combo just made me seem all over the place to you.

Nonetheless, your eviction falls in the second "phase," where I consider myself to have known what I was doing (more or less ). This is true. In my goodbye message to you, I told you I was "running things for the past COUPLE rounds." To me, this was 100% legit (I literally meant TWO, not the whole game so sorry if there was confusion there). I mean, I WORKED WITH YOU the previous round and we were successful! And, in the event that you were evicted, I would have successfully gathered 3 votes to evict you: me/Mike/Eric. 2 rounds where I got what I wanted. I was full-on expecting a 3-2 vote (see next paragraph for why), but it came out unanimous and I don't really know why. Again, my goodbye message was NOT geared towards thinking I was F2 and for the jury, so yes in retrospect that may not have been a good idea on my part because Jake went off on me the round right after that. At least I was speaking my mind and not lying about anything in my goodbye.

Back to your eviction. Right after you were put on the block as the replacement, I automatically told Mike that I wanted to vote you out, for fear of alienating myself due to his extremely close ties with Stacey. I NEVER told Mike anything about wanting Stacey out, EVER. So if this is where you got the "intuition" that I wanted you gone, then it was miscommunication. He said yes, and I knew Eric wanted you gone since he had gone around complaining about how he wanted you evicted for being too under the radar after your reign as HoH. There were 2 votes right there. Jake and Robbie, I felt were going to stick to Ryan's wish that Stacey would be evicted. It was the ORIGINAL plan and we had all just worked together perfectly the round before. There were 2 votes right there. Since I was expecting a 3-2 vote count, I knew that I found myself in-between: the swing vote. This is why I had options!

Now--this is the IMPORTANT part--I was OPEN to ANYTHING. So I was feeling out both sides, as I told you explicitly. When you came up to me about a possible Mike/me/you alliance, of course I was excited! This was a huge turning point for me. Mike was a close ally, you would become my ally, you were much more trustworthy than Stacey, etc. A win-win scenario, as I told you. I decided to vote to evict Stacey. IT WAS DONE. Mike wasn't online yet, but I was going to tell him to switch votes to be 100% certain about the three of us working together. But then instead of trusting this, you continued to push the idea and "hope you are wrong" about me and Mike deciding to evict you anyways. REALLY? I just told you that I was going to keep you and then you doubt me. This was a huge warning sign to me that you couldn't trust me or Mike in the game. I really wanted Stacey gone since she was my major threat, but in reality you ended calling me out on nothing. I was absolutely confused: dumb to you? Now I think what happened between us was that you assumed I was evicting you before I had even done so. This is not to say I am blameless because I gave you reasons to distrust me by lying to you about not knowing you were the replacement. It was stupid on my part to do that since there was no benefit in doing so, and I know that now. The three of us might have worked wonders. I hope you can see my point of view.

Sorry if you felt that I was treating you like an idiot--that was never my intentions. I did handle the issue badly, but it WAS because I was still deciding. Afterwards, as I told you in our conversations, I DID post back and forth in the DR changing my plans. The decision was hard because I didn't know if you would hold a grudge for basically me putting you up on the block vs getting my biggest threat Stacey out. I think the deciding factor for me was when you pushed a little too hard and got me nervous the morning of the eviction. I don’t remember why I was online in the middle of the day that round, but I should have stayed offline? Right after you called me out, I had had enough and told Jake that I was going to evict you, setting my final choice in stone (and where I grew balls according to you ). So that is my side of the story. Take it or leave it, and I hold no hard feelings and sorry for the novel…I seem to be writing many of them these days

[Jordan]

Thanks guys. Both of your responses please me
I will have to say that after reading them, I've realized that your games come down to two main things. Convenience and Adaptation. Ryan's game, was one that he played out of convenience. He played the pawn/alliance whore because it was easy and suited him better. Since he's won before, I can totally see how he can get away with that kind of strategy and succeed. Michael's game while it was inconsistent at times, he was always willing to adapt and I think in the end if you can roll with the punches while getting your hands dirty and still remain in the good graces of most people, you're doing just fine for your first game.

Good luck fellas!