Tyler V. (VanHow10):
I know I've said this so many times but surely I'm about to be voted out of this game, right?
So I started to get into this in my previous confessional, but I saw that got cut off. So I'll rewind a little bit again.
Coming out of the final 8, it became clear that one side of the game (Mordecai/Andy) would be looking to vote out Alan and the other side (Nick/Raul) would be looking to vote me out. At first I thought let's just let go of Alan and keep moving forward with the final 3 I had in place but the longer I sat with that, the less I liked it.
The challenge answers had a lot to do with that.
Mordecai is seen as the biggest strategic threat in this game and honestly, that might be true. He's been really sharp and in control of the voting direction on the Andy/Mordecai side of things. Even more brutal, Andy got most trustworthy and nobody guessed that he would. As Alan so astutely put it, we all thought our connection with him was so special that none of us suspected he had it with anyone else. That's so so so dangerous.
So my final 3 is with 2 people who would beat me in a final 3! That sucks so fucking much. I like these dudes a lot. Andy and Mordecai are really dope and we've worked really, really well together but I'm not here to lose.
I'm barely on tengaged. I came back for this only because I was invited to it. This is pretty realistically going to be the last time I do this or one of the last times. I've never won one. I've never even faced a jury before. I want to so, so, so bad!! I can taste it, dude!!
Coming into this game, I had a very loose two part plan. Part one was create relationships pre merge that would protect me when someone tried to target me. Part two is strike first, always. Any time I sense I'm in any danger, think outside the obvious options for a guaranteed route to safety.
We saw this at the final 9. My side was targeting Alan, which wasn't going to work. I suggested the opposite route entirely, Alan flipped with us, and I only got 2 votes.
When we got into a situation at 7 where the only options were Alan and myself again somehow, this was not acceptable. Last night, I got on call with Alan and while we were talking I had an epiphany! If I'm getting two votes and Alan's getting two votes then all we need to do is find a third vote, pick a new target, and make it happen. That's where Max came in. He was bummed bummed out by the challenge results. Talking about being irrelevant. I knew he'd be down to make something new happen so I hung up with Alan, he got max on call and pitched the loose idea of us being the final 3 by starting with this move. I "got looped into" that call, we locked it in, and unbelievably it held!
So now we were looking at a 3-2-2 vote with both Alan and myself barely scraping by. That's a vast improvement from one of us going home, but the immunity idol was confirmed found today and Raul seemed like the likeliest candidate, so I was scared shitless that he was going to half desperately play and idol on nick, which would have resulted in a 2-2 tie between Alan and myself in which I'm totally exposed for trying and failing to make that move and I probably leave. So like 20 - 30 minutes before the vote, I duck into the bathroom at work and I start messaging Raul that I'm in total panic and I can't shake the feeling that it's me and if he has any other ideas to throw out there I'm game and he suggested Andy. Alan and I convinced him that we'd both vote Andy with him and just like that, I was completely safe.
3-2-1-1
Even if nick plays the idol, I make the last 6 and enter territory I haven't seen very often.
I am an absolute wreck. I've finished 6th twice, 4th once, 3rd twice, both times with final 2's. That's it. This is only my sixth time successfully navigating this far and pending the vote, I may not have even succeeded at this.
