This game has been a blast and I'm in this final 3 because of my gameplay. I laid low when I needed to and split the set the first time I went on the block to give myself an easy poll instead of one that would have sent me home. Down the stretch I got every set up that I wanted except for going up for fifth with my #1 ally.
Essentially, I joined this game and immediately knew that I wanted to trust two people, top20fan33 and deshonBANNEDISBACK. Cam and Desh had one major ally in common, Colter. I honestly planned on just riding with those three people as far as I possibly could and just rode the momentum through the first 6 sets. Before CallMeTheGOAT and lBrice went up, Cam asked me how I felt about volunteering to go up against Goat. To each their own, but volunteering and getting "flavored" has never been a way I like to play the game. In my opinion the best strategy is to avoid the block as much as possible and if you do have to go up, go up against someone you have a chance against.
That's when I had to pivot and reassess my game. I put all of my trust into Deshon and he reciprocated. We went all in and nominated Colter/ ryanr36 and forced a split with me going up with Ryan instead of with Jaylen, Icyz, or Brice again, whoever Bryce and Cam were nominating. I created the Colter/Ryan set and pushed it as hard as I could to Brice, Icyz , Goat, and Jaylen and it worked out great landing me in the Top 8 fresh off an easy set against Ryan. We pushed Cam/Bryce next and were unsuccessful getting split into Cam/Brice. We felt that Brice was going to survive after being up 3/4 the last sets and I realized that we needed to get some votes out of Bryce's camp. Cam leaving would take one out.
The next move may have been my best move in the game. Jaylen and Crayadian were both numbers for Bryce at one time or another, both not helping Desh or I, or even really talking to anyone else. We convinced Bryce and Cray and Cam that we were nominating Jaylen and Icyz and then told Brice and Icyz that we were nominating Colter and Cray. That created a perfect split getting Jay and Cray both up, 5 votes on them each and 3 each on Colter and Icyz.
I knew this would likely backfire on Desh and I eventually and make it obvious that we had been working together so closely, which is a large part of why we went up together for 5th. We managed to at least put the two most flavored players in Icyz and Brice up together for 6th, and I had beat Deshon before in a Stars poll so even though I really did everything I could to avoid it I felt that if we found ourselves with no way around it, I could survive it and I was right. At least going up for 5th made it easy to avoid being up for 4th against Icyz or Jaylen.
Now here is why I think I played a better game than either Icyz or Colter.
Icyz, while being a very nice person to talk with, didn't make any moves in this game other than survive polls. He went up anytime his name was in contention and never successfully pushed a counter set. If this game has truly become a popularity contest and you want to vote for him because he went up every time it was a possibility that he could go up, please go right ahead.
Colter had a lot of allys and ran the game early, he really did. But after Deshon and I flipped it on his head, he lost control. I'm not 100% on how he voted for 5th but I truly believe the only reason he avoided the block was because we all felt (as his track record has proven) that he is an easy beat any time he sits on the block. While it is part of the reason I felt comfortable nominating Icyz/Jaylen for 4th and letting him slide unnominated, I actually had a really good time talking to Bryce this week and genuinely gained a lot of respect for him this week, he's a good person.
TL;DR - vote me to win Stars because I played the best game, and gameplay is the most important factor at play. With this finals appearance, I have made finals in 7 out of the 14 Stars games I have played. 50% finals appearances and 1 win previously doesn't happen on accident. Please reward my gameplay and vote for me to win here: https://tengaged.com/poll/bigbrother-game-226863 .
