Hi everyone, thank you for this lovely and exciting game. I know that some of you may be wondering how I got here so I ask that you come in with an open mind. This game was hard fought from me, especially being the target quite a few times, but I developed the necessary social bonds and focused on my social game so that I would have loyal allies around me to protect me whenever my name came up. I made subtle moves throughout the game to downplay my threat level and worked on my bonds to give me a flow of information like knowing about Allthat’s steal-a-vote, Rubes’s legacy advantage, Nate being one of the people who flipped, etc. and that set me up for making it to this ftc.
Pre-merge, a lot of my game was focused on building social relationships, especially since most votes were pretty unanimous. I aligned with Scodawg, Allthat, and Rubes day 1, the Witches Coven, and created strong bonds with Nate, Taytay, and Ravioli. During the merge vote, a lot of things happened there. I asked Allthat to give me the idol clues from her old tribe because they had won immunity multiple times and assumed that someone from the perceived Zack, Cam, and Brandon trio (whom I had tried to paint as the enemy) probably had it. Because I had immunity and knew that the vote had been leaked to them (and therefore they would probably play an idol), I decided to throw my vote on Brandon so I could look dumb, moreso on the outs, and downplay my threat level. I did not expect Nate to be one of the people who flipped but he had told me the previously the night before that he and Brandon had created a secret deal where if Nate voted for someone on our “side”, Brandon would vote for someone on his “side”. I also gave Scodawg and Allthat a fake immunity idol clue beforehand, just in case. With the Nate vote, I knew his name had come up but I will be honest that I did not know Sco had flipped since Nate had thought Joao had flipped and Joao did not want to do Zack.
At this point, I had really strong bonds with Rubes, Burgta, Ravioli (Tea time with Tay), and had been working on building something with Joao and Cam. I immediately went to Joao and apologized for thinking he had flipped and rebuilt that trust and relationship up. This vote, though Rubes went home, Rubes and I teamed up and spent the whole day working on Cam to try and get him to flip over to us. We sent him the game Sco and Brandon were in and highlighted the alliance between Zack, Sco, and Brandon (which Joao had told me). Though the queen got voted out <3, I believe we ultimately played a role in getting Cam to flip (I know he made a f2 with her that day) which became integral for the next few votes. Cam than created the Fantastic Five of Ravioli, me, Joao, Tay, and him which allowed me to set up my endgame. With the Brandon vote, I knew I was the target here and that they were trying to get Burgta to flip on me but Burgta and I had created a really strong and genuine bond that made it so, even though she knew Brandon beforehand, she would be loyal to me <3. The next vote was simple as we decided to split the vote on Scodawg here just in case he had the New School idol and then Zack left the next vote (though Cam had tried to flip Ravioli and Burgta on me). Cam had voted me so once I won immunity at final 5, I pushed for him to go since he was one of the biggest threats to my game. For my endgame, I had finals deals with Ravioli, Tay, and Joao that I had worked on and that’s what allowed me to get further. I knew Ravioli wasn’t going to flip on me because we were bb’s and repaid the loyalty that Tay had given to me by sending her to fire against Joao and once Tay came out, I knew that whoever won in the final immunity challenge would take me.
At the end of the day, I didn’t get here through luck, it was through my social game and having strong bonds with people. I became a threat throughout most of merge, especially winning the first 2 immunities and especially getting a 3.55 on that challenge where we had to rank the players (while second place was 4.44 and it ranged till 7.33). I had to get scrappy and maneuver through when people tried to vote me out, but my relationships are what got me here today and I am happy to sit here with Ravioli <3. Good luck to you Rav <3.