Post by Sydney Wheeler on May 8, 2012 18:38:53 GMT -5
OPENING STATEMENT
Hey guys!
First off I'd like to thank Lex & Brett (pre-dead!) for hosting. All the effort put into this game was superb and it really made me get into it. It certainly was a looonggggg journey but I'm happy to have played. To the Jury - this game had its up and down and I enjoyed the level of competitiveness from you guys. While my "side" took control of the merge in a large majority, the fight to change the game's dynamic never faltered. The first thing I'd like to address in this opening is what I'm sure is lingering on the minds of quite a few people; I didn't join this game with anyone, but yes we did find and sniff eachother out. I was slated to play Sausage II but had to back out...so they were expecting me to play this time. I did keep my "alias" hidden from a friend (Tom) for a good while into the game, but it came to a point where everyone was exposed to everyone in my side - so hiding really served no purpose and it's no fun when most people aren't doing it either. I feel this may be a question of it's own, so I'll save any other details if asked. As for the rest of my opening, it's always hard to satisfy everyone. Either I bore some people with a super long synopsis of my every move - or I am too vague. So I'll settle for a hopefully decent sized description of why I should win and hope your questions let me answer more!
MISCONCEPTION + LOYALTY
The common misconception of the opposing alliance was that it was Chelsea-Matt-Myself as a core three, with the rest of our alliance doing our bidding. This final three was Chelsea's intentions, but it was never my game plan or what I truly wanted. Early on, Chelsea had a finals alliance with Matt whilst I had one with Mick. We kept the person "hidden" from eachother until it came out. It was the two of us bringing those guys together into a voting block, and it really brought a sense of security. All game long my intentions were to go to the end with Chelsea and Mick, (the first two people I made this commitment with separately) and to betray as little of my allies as possible. (Mick's spot in finals was eventually replaced by Tom as he didn't have the drive to win with the way his real life impacted his game) I knew I could trust them to never betray me.
EARLY GAME
I had early game deals with Chelsea and Mick, and good relationships with Aras, Sandra, & Matt. I knew Chelsea and Matt were close, I didn't learn it was a Pre-Game until later on, but I had an idea with the way the tribes formed that they were solid. I knew the power I had in this tribe was very limited with Chelsea-Matt-Sandra. Chelsea/Matt were able to fill a good portion of the tribe with allies and connections by winning the Captain's challenge. The first Tribal Council I attended, Aras was the target as people perceived him to have pre-games within the Chorizo tribe. Some people wanted to leave me and Mike out of the plan, fearing we'd tell him as we seemed close to him. But of course I wasn't left out due to my alliance with Chelsea, so I got her to tell me and I used this information to form a relationship with Mike that would prove valuable later on in the game. I let him know I was the only Salchicha on his side. This first vote really showed me that I couldn't trust Matt very much. My game during the Pre-Merge stage was pretty breezy as I was on the dominant tribe winning challenge after challenge.
MERGE
Once merge hit, my goal was to get to the final four with Mick, Chelsea, and Tom. In order to keep Tom and Mick safe, I did have to play onto the "idea" of a final three with Chelsea and Matt to keep them from taking out my end game support. My other allies were Matt, Sandra, and Jay. I had two easy targets as I had limited to no contact with Chase and Shawna. I knew they were rallying against myself. So it was a foregone conclusion that I needed them out first. Shawna proved difficult, constantly avoiding vulnerability, but Chase was able to go first and that was pretty easy to get done. Andrew and Sekou were wild-cards, I had an okay relationship with Steph - I knew she knew Jay/Chelsea outside the game and I had still kept my alias from her...so I felt that I would be less safe with her than most people in my alliance. So I wanted her out sooner than later.
There was also my relationship with Mike. I did want to have a couple options with members of the opposing alliance and the two people I saw fit were Mike and Semhar who I really liked. Semhar, I felt, was more of a closed book, and more gung-ho about taking out my side that I ended up most content with Mike. Mike and I agreed to watch out for the other person depending on whichever alliance took control. While Stephanie was doing the same thing (talking to members of the other side) my stance in my alliance allowed for me to get away with that. (It was apparent that Mike and I talked, but nobody in my side cared to do anything - except maybe Sandra but she wasn't in a position of power due to alienating herself by being a bit lippy with her future plans) My side won out, and I ended up helping Mike to become the last outsider to our alliance. It was nice to have him last the length he did for options sake.
SETTING UP END-GAME
A pinnacle point in the game was the double Tribal Council. I turned Tom against Jay and got the ball rolling to oust him once I heard that he was plotting to take out "big threats." While I know he didn't have the numbers to take me out in those upcoming rounds, I came to the conclusion he wouldn't want to me very close to the end of the game. At this point, I needed to remove anyone in the game who didn't have me as a top one or two ally. Come final six, I made my move to take out Matt, the person I felt was the biggest Jury threat to my game, securing that three of the four other people in the final five would view me as their number one ally (Chelsea/Mick/Tom) - and to get my desired final three. (Chelsea/Tom) With this move Chelsea had to stick by my side to stay safe, despite how unhappy I knew she was with Matt's departure and Mick/Tom were already loyal to me.
CONCLUSION
I feel I have a very strong case to make and hope you give me your ears. I do feel strong about my game - I had access to all the Hidden Immunity Idol in this game (Mick and I kept the second one I pulled out a secret until the last couple rounds it could be used.) I fought hard in each immunity challenge and have the leg up in wins. I know competition value isn't worth much to some people, but it does show drive. I really do want this win. I felt that my presence was seen by others as in the core to my alliance, which I was, and established myself as the "decision maker." I brought my closest allies to the end and walked right into finals.
Thanks for reading and I hope you guys have an open mind and are willing to hear more about my game! I'm happy and confident with the moves I chose to make to reach this point and I'm ready to fight for it.
Good luck to the other finalists as well!
[/size]Hey guys!
First off I'd like to thank Lex & Brett (pre-dead!) for hosting. All the effort put into this game was superb and it really made me get into it. It certainly was a looonggggg journey but I'm happy to have played. To the Jury - this game had its up and down and I enjoyed the level of competitiveness from you guys. While my "side" took control of the merge in a large majority, the fight to change the game's dynamic never faltered. The first thing I'd like to address in this opening is what I'm sure is lingering on the minds of quite a few people; I didn't join this game with anyone, but yes we did find and sniff eachother out. I was slated to play Sausage II but had to back out...so they were expecting me to play this time. I did keep my "alias" hidden from a friend (Tom) for a good while into the game, but it came to a point where everyone was exposed to everyone in my side - so hiding really served no purpose and it's no fun when most people aren't doing it either. I feel this may be a question of it's own, so I'll save any other details if asked. As for the rest of my opening, it's always hard to satisfy everyone. Either I bore some people with a super long synopsis of my every move - or I am too vague. So I'll settle for a hopefully decent sized description of why I should win and hope your questions let me answer more!
MISCONCEPTION + LOYALTY
The common misconception of the opposing alliance was that it was Chelsea-Matt-Myself as a core three, with the rest of our alliance doing our bidding. This final three was Chelsea's intentions, but it was never my game plan or what I truly wanted. Early on, Chelsea had a finals alliance with Matt whilst I had one with Mick. We kept the person "hidden" from eachother until it came out. It was the two of us bringing those guys together into a voting block, and it really brought a sense of security. All game long my intentions were to go to the end with Chelsea and Mick, (the first two people I made this commitment with separately) and to betray as little of my allies as possible. (Mick's spot in finals was eventually replaced by Tom as he didn't have the drive to win with the way his real life impacted his game) I knew I could trust them to never betray me.
EARLY GAME
I had early game deals with Chelsea and Mick, and good relationships with Aras, Sandra, & Matt. I knew Chelsea and Matt were close, I didn't learn it was a Pre-Game until later on, but I had an idea with the way the tribes formed that they were solid. I knew the power I had in this tribe was very limited with Chelsea-Matt-Sandra. Chelsea/Matt were able to fill a good portion of the tribe with allies and connections by winning the Captain's challenge. The first Tribal Council I attended, Aras was the target as people perceived him to have pre-games within the Chorizo tribe. Some people wanted to leave me and Mike out of the plan, fearing we'd tell him as we seemed close to him. But of course I wasn't left out due to my alliance with Chelsea, so I got her to tell me and I used this information to form a relationship with Mike that would prove valuable later on in the game. I let him know I was the only Salchicha on his side. This first vote really showed me that I couldn't trust Matt very much. My game during the Pre-Merge stage was pretty breezy as I was on the dominant tribe winning challenge after challenge.
MERGE
Once merge hit, my goal was to get to the final four with Mick, Chelsea, and Tom. In order to keep Tom and Mick safe, I did have to play onto the "idea" of a final three with Chelsea and Matt to keep them from taking out my end game support. My other allies were Matt, Sandra, and Jay. I had two easy targets as I had limited to no contact with Chase and Shawna. I knew they were rallying against myself. So it was a foregone conclusion that I needed them out first. Shawna proved difficult, constantly avoiding vulnerability, but Chase was able to go first and that was pretty easy to get done. Andrew and Sekou were wild-cards, I had an okay relationship with Steph - I knew she knew Jay/Chelsea outside the game and I had still kept my alias from her...so I felt that I would be less safe with her than most people in my alliance. So I wanted her out sooner than later.
There was also my relationship with Mike. I did want to have a couple options with members of the opposing alliance and the two people I saw fit were Mike and Semhar who I really liked. Semhar, I felt, was more of a closed book, and more gung-ho about taking out my side that I ended up most content with Mike. Mike and I agreed to watch out for the other person depending on whichever alliance took control. While Stephanie was doing the same thing (talking to members of the other side) my stance in my alliance allowed for me to get away with that. (It was apparent that Mike and I talked, but nobody in my side cared to do anything - except maybe Sandra but she wasn't in a position of power due to alienating herself by being a bit lippy with her future plans) My side won out, and I ended up helping Mike to become the last outsider to our alliance. It was nice to have him last the length he did for options sake.
SETTING UP END-GAME
A pinnacle point in the game was the double Tribal Council. I turned Tom against Jay and got the ball rolling to oust him once I heard that he was plotting to take out "big threats." While I know he didn't have the numbers to take me out in those upcoming rounds, I came to the conclusion he wouldn't want to me very close to the end of the game. At this point, I needed to remove anyone in the game who didn't have me as a top one or two ally. Come final six, I made my move to take out Matt, the person I felt was the biggest Jury threat to my game, securing that three of the four other people in the final five would view me as their number one ally (Chelsea/Mick/Tom) - and to get my desired final three. (Chelsea/Tom) With this move Chelsea had to stick by my side to stay safe, despite how unhappy I knew she was with Matt's departure and Mick/Tom were already loyal to me.
CONCLUSION
I feel I have a very strong case to make and hope you give me your ears. I do feel strong about my game - I had access to all the Hidden Immunity Idol in this game (Mick and I kept the second one I pulled out a secret until the last couple rounds it could be used.) I fought hard in each immunity challenge and have the leg up in wins. I know competition value isn't worth much to some people, but it does show drive. I really do want this win. I felt that my presence was seen by others as in the core to my alliance, which I was, and established myself as the "decision maker." I brought my closest allies to the end and walked right into finals.
Thanks for reading and I hope you guys have an open mind and are willing to hear more about my game! I'm happy and confident with the moves I chose to make to reach this point and I'm ready to fight for it.
Good luck to the other finalists as well!
