-SCOTT'S FTC SPEECH-
Hello jurors and fellow finalists!
First of all, I want to say thank you to Mikito for casting me and for a fun and successful season. You picked a hell of a cast full of some great players and people.
Second of all, I want to congratulate my fellow finalists. Jurors, although I would love your vote, a vote for either Flo or Chandler would be completely justified. I believe all three of us deserve to be here for various reasons. I will not talk badly about either of them. Not only were they loyal allies, but both are incredible people, and if I get 3rd or 2nd, I know that I got beaten by people both worthy and deserving.
Rather than bore you with every detail of my game, both pre-merge and post-merge, I will try and summarize for you my strategy for you as succinctly as possible. Obviously, I will provide much more detail when answering your questions, but for now, let me give you some insight on how I played this season.
One thing you should know about me is that I am an extremely loyal Survivor player. Now, people like you Brenden might start laughing upon reading this, but let me just say this. You can't be loyal to EVERYONE. You will sometimes have to write out checks you can't cash. Lying is sometimes a necessary evil. I lied to people, yes. So did Flo and Chandler and I'm sure most or all of you also lied. Let's face it, to do well in Survivor, you sometimes have to lie. Like me or not, I hope you can appreciate my undying loyalty to a certain group of people in this game. So my strategic point Number 1 was to REMAIN 100 PER CENT LOYAL TO A CHOSEN FEW.
When the cast was revealed, I immediately knew who the three people were that I wanted to work with this game, Brian , Chandler and Jesse. Then, I was placed on a tribe with Chandler but not Brian and Jesse. Of course, this wasn't my ideal situation, but I knew I had to make the best of it. So, I immediately went to work building friendships and game relationships with people on my tribe, especially Monica, while at the same time studying the opposing tribe and the potential relationships between players on both tribes. This is the thing a lot of Survivor players forget....you cannot ignore people on the opposing tribe, especially your allies. While I was separated from Brian and Jesse, my goal was to make sure that the biggest threats to them on MY TRIBE were removed from the game. The Buttercup blindside was my idea. I knew she had strong relationships with members of the OT, and I knew that the people she was close with over there were a threat to my two allies on the OT, so Buttercup had to go, and she did. So my strategic point Number 2 was to NOT IGNORE THE OTHER TRIBE, AND TO ALWAYS KEEP IN MIND INTER-TRIBAL POLITICS TO FURTHER YOUR GAME AND THE GAMES OF YOUR CHOSEN FEW.
As the game progressed, I became closer with Monica and she became my number 3 on my tribe behind Chandler and Elian. After the Buttercup vote, my Osaka tribe never went back to Tribal Council, so I spent my time strategizing with Brian and Jesse to help navigate them through their various tribals. I knew that my game future would be greatly hurt if one of them left. At the same time, Brenden and I started talking. We had a rocky past coming into this game, and I knew there were some trust issues between the two of us. Brenden is a master strategist and challenge player and I know he knew the kind of player I was....adept socially and strategically. I considered Brenden to be my biggest rival, so I decided to resist going after him right away and to try and keep him as close as possible to me to avoid him targeting me. So my strategic point Number 3 was TO KEEP BRENDEN CLOSE TO KEEP YOURSELF SAFE, AND THEN STRIKE AT THE RIGHT TIME.
Shortly after the merge, Flo and I started talking and we made an immediate connection. It turns out that she is from the Lehigh Valley, very close to where my two kids live. We hit it off and teamed up. It turned out to be a great game move, for shortly after merge, I lost two of my chosen few, Brian and then Jesse. Had it not been for my relationship with Flo, I probably wouldn't be here on this side of the room talking to you fine folks. Flo immediately took the place of Brian and Jesse. Although this was unexpected, my alliance with Flo was calculated and planned even before losing Brian and Jesse. I knew Brian was a big target and that Jesse and Elian were pair partners, so I needed another strong ally. I couldn't count on Monica to be that person once she transferred her gambling dice over to Brenden. I chose Flo and Flo chose me, and the rest is game history. So my strategic point Number 4 was TO ALWAYS HAVE A CONTINGENCY PLAN IN CASE YOUR CHOSEN FEW GET VOTED OUT.
1. Loyalty to a chosen few
2. Remove targets of your chosen few regardless of tribe configuration
3. Keep your rivals close and strike at the appropriate time
4. As the game changes, adapt and always have a Plan B.
That's all for now. I didn't want to make this too long so as to lose your interest. I look forward to discussing my most influential game moves in more detail including the Buttercup blindside, building up an army to take out the game's biggest threat, Brenden, how I acquired my idol without either bidding on it or finding it, and my strategic moves post-merge where I successfully played the middle to keep out of the line of fire. Bring on the questions! I promise to answer them with 100 per cent honesty even if some people might not like to hear it and even though it might cost me a potential vote.
