Hey everyone, 'grats on making it here and all that. This is Brandon btw, this username rules ass and forums are wack as shit, so I made it not expecting to have to do anything serious on here. That was a mistake! I'd just like to preface by saying I bear absolutely no ill will toward any of you, nothing I say here is personally targeted and only exists within the confines of the game, and I hope that we can all be chill and get a drink if you're ever in my neck of the woods (don't be, Long Island is a shithole!) FTCs suck ass, so I'm gonna try and keep it as stress-free for y'all as one possibly can while trying to decide on a winner of a game that some of us dedicated our lives to for like three months straight.
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TBZ, at the time of me writing this, you have not yet submitted your speech. I don't really have much else to say to you unfortunately.
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Tommy, whether it's gameplay or actual feelings, I give you big props for buttering up s16 people, since we do make up such a large portion of the jury, and even more credit for buttering me up, because anyone who knows me knows that I love me so, so much. Feel free to lmk after all this if this was just gameplay, but you've definitely convinced me that your comments are genuine (and all very very true! Brandon WAS so robbed! I agree completely! :D) Either way it shakes out, kudos for this.
You said at one point that you "did a good job of booting people close to the order that (you) chose, and every vote to now (you've) had at least a big say in who goes." I think your perception of things pre-merge into early merge were incredibly strong, and I think you played a pretty solid game. My issue is that I don't really believe that you had the agency you say you did, and when you did exercise agency, it actively hurt your chances. I think you played a flawless EIMM game and had a winning strategy for that type of game, where all of the finalists win together. But taking Eli to the end, and Ryo to a much lesser extent, feels like a complete blunder.
You say in your speech that you intended to have both in your f4, and even talked Ryo down from voting out Eli at f6. The jury debated about this play for hours because it seemed completely asinine, though this was originally attributed as Ryo's decision in our eyes iirc. The clarification that it was you is helpful, but damning. It was integral to your plan to get Ryo to vote against his best interest here, which you did pull off, but this only allowed for letting the biggest challenge threat AND biggest jury threat to survive long enough to demolish the final challenge. I believe this whole plan was against YOUR OWN best interest. It was going to be a difficult endgame no matter what, having Clouds, Torin, Ryo, Eli, and Zach all still around at f8. You were going to have to sit next to at least one, and instead, you consciously decided to sit next to TWO, including the biggest threat still on the board by the time f6 hit. You played well, but coming into FTC, public perception would say that you allowed at LEAST one player perceived to be stronger than you take a seat at the end.
Tommy, what I want from you is to either CLARIFY if and why you intended to sit next to highly visible threats at the end, or to EXPLAIN that YOU were actually the one who held the agency in the Tommy-Eli duo and not the other way around, and how your under-the-radar/second-in-command game should be valued over Eli's more visible game. I don't want to hear both, either one or the other please.
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Ryo, there is no doubt in my mind that you played the best game out of 81 other people all the way up to the merge. You made calculated plays and improved drastically over your first outing, which was only just a few months ago. You were genuinely impressive and easily the most improved player from then to now. Most importantly to me, you actively demonstrated the fact that you wanted to be here. I know how bad you wanted to win, and you played your heart out the whole way. I'm very proud of you for having gotten here, truly. You were my #1 ever since we landed together on Cyber and I am deeply appreciative that you never really broke loyalty to me.
That said, we've talked many times about how you wouldn't want to earn FTC votes through pity, and I will clarify here that if you do get my vote, it is not because you are my friend. From my perspective and the perspective of much of the jury, from f12 tribal onward your game kind of derailed entirely. You lost the control and agency you had conducted during the first 50 or so days, and as far as I could tell I'm not sure you ever really got it back. Allowing Eli to get here, when we both discussed from the outset of the merge that he was the biggest threat to win, is pretty egregious. I do have to give you some credit for catching yourself at f5 though, because if Zach left because he knew the vote was on him, I am somewhat impressed that you escaped being the target there instead.
Ryo, what I want from you is to either CLARIFY your game during the merge to the jury in order to show that you hadn't lost control, or to EXPLAIN how your consistent effort and dedication through the whole game outweighs your sloppiness down the stretch. I don't want to hear both, either one or the other please.
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Eli, I would describe your game as "effortless", with all of the positive and negative connotations that come with that label. All throughout the game, you frequently commented on how little you cared about the game, and wished people would just vote you off already. At first I always suspected you cared more than you let on, but by the end of it all, I genuinely can't tell if you were telling the truth or not this whole time. That's the thing, I have absolutely no idea what of anything you did was gameplay, or having other stuff to do/not giving a shit. Extended stretches of AFK followed by absolute challenge dominance when you actually wanted to participate in them; being gone for large portions of socializing/strategizing and popping in like 10 minutes before like "heyyyy what's the vooooote", yet still having everyone wrapped around your finger. I don't know what was real and what was gameplay, not that it makes a difference because its all ultimately a part of what got you here, for better or worse.
But the crazy thing is that none of that ultimately matters. Despite all of that you played ridiculously optimal for someone who was AFK for such large stretches of game from beginning to end. The fact that you were able to make so much out of seemingly so little, while maintaining control the entire way through, is absolutely bonkers. My hat's off to you for making it look easy, because everyone who busted their ass throughout the game to be in the game-winning position that you are in will let you know that it is most certainly NOT easy.
I just wish I didn't feel so confused about this, because in my brain, I would be more than willing to vote for you, yet in my heart of hearts, voting for you feels wrong. As someone who put so much into this piece of shit, I want the winner of this massive, all-encompassing game to be representative of the people who really put their whole ass pussy into this game, and I do not feel that from you. Yet I can't deny that you played the most consistently strong game of all 81 of us.
Eli, what I want from you is to either CLARIFY to the jury how much you actually cared about this game from start to finish, to show that you worked as hard as the people who wish they were sitting where you are, or to EXPLAIN how your effortless stranglehold on the game should outweigh the time and dedication others fruitlessly sank in. I don't want to hear both, either one or the other please.
Sorry brandon, I missed this at the bottom of the previous pages oopsies.
So yes, I agree with your point about this being a tough decision who to take, and I had decided early. I don't think I need to go through the playerlist 1 by 1, but vast majority had more pregame connections and votes for me. This was inevitable, its how these games work and you are right it was one thing I did need to overcome.
I really felt for my own game, that if I was going to lose to pregame favour then that is something that inevitable. I don't think there exists some wild janky f4 where there is no one with strong pregame. This is something I felt like I had to face regardless and if I was going to win, I have to do it on my own terms. If I take clouds, or zach, or torin etc, all of these people have lots of votes they can receive based on friendships and oog jury favour. However, these players also played independent games which were not reliant on me. I wanted the ftc to have to talk about their moves with me in it and also be working with me. I think my game suffered a lot based on lack of rep, no matter what I did I seemed to never get credit while others picked it up easily. I think I played my best possible game given the pregame connections, and would genuinely be interested to know who people would take instead. I think as mentioned before that ryo and eli existing here together is a weakness for their game, as it shows that neither had the ability to get the other booted. Had I allowed one to go home, then I am sure ryo or eli would be bragging about this right now as jury give them the credit. I want no one to get independent credit besides me and for that to happen I had to drag eli to f4.
There are literally any number of moments to show I had the power over eli:
1) on separatist he had the previous tribe allies, I still left with the stronger connections from this tribe
2) when eli leaked me and I cut him off after the viper stuff, he was effectively dead in the water until I picked him back up again, he complained to tbz about this in game
3) eli in his jury speech speaks about f10, if I flip here his game is completely sunk while mine is not, eli is relying on my vote to have anything in this game
4) at f8, this is obvious and i hope clouds defends this point to jury but without me eli obviously goes home here, he relies on me to stay in the game again
5) f6 is repeat, you think it is bad play but my jury speech is reliant on my absolute control of the game and eli is effectively my goat, he has done nothing without me all of merge and anything successful he has done has been with my say only, I think everyone else on this f4 would definitely agree eli is the weakest player here gameplay wise, but I have learned over the course that perception is everything in survivor which is probably something i would need to work on if i play again. You can play flawlessly but if everything you do goes to another its unavoidable, im hoping via my jury arguments its kinda clear how much influence I had this game.
You ask me to choose between second-in-command or under the radar but that is not really a hard choice since I definitely was not second in command this game, especially after you left the game.
So why is my under the radar game better? This is probably where my philosophy differs from some survivor players. I don't think being public is a big deal personally, the only time this matters is in ftc, when you hope people assign credit to you. My failure in eli being more "public" than me is not currently a failure, it is only a failure if post this council people still believe he played a great game despite doing effectively nothing.
I know a lot of org players believe that being on the bottom and surviving is good play, and that may be true, but only if you survive on your own terms and help flip the game. When eli survived at f8, does anyone here truly believe that the ryo vote in his favour came from them talking it out? I would be shocked if you did. I made the link and got it through. Eli didn't make any social plays to escape his bad position, there was nothing unique about his game except for the fact I convinced ryo to keep him in. Eli was on the bottom and public, but beyond that there is nothing but oog friends.
Why my under the radar game is better than this is as follows:
1) I was able to take no risks, I reliably made it to f4 and saw my path. I did not have to dice roll on certain things happening often and my gameplay was far more analytical and had more foresight. I knew the f4 at about f10. I did not play the game council by council, but often knew who the type of people would be going over the next few phases, and influenced votes so that path would suit me.
2) I was able to consume all info. Whenever something happened I was immediately informed, almost without exception. I was valued by many and everyone trusted me with their precious info which allowed me to keep my spot in control. Examples of this was ryo leaking me lots of s16 stuff, or tbz leaking me loyalist items. My info came from all over the game, with a lot of people confiding in me due to being more under the radar. Most of eli's info was relying on me sharing, which also allowed me to filter what I would like him to know.
3) Whenever I flipped, people continued to underestimated my position. Oftentimes people seemed to see my calculated moves as misplays for some reason. I think this is clearly false because regardless of whether anyone agrees if I sent this game in a good direction, I certainly chose the direction it went in and therefore at the very least moved the pieces how I wanted, be that good or bad. This allowed me to flip back whenever I wanted and truly force through any vote without repercussions (when I voted zoa, but immediately flipped into the good graces of torin and ryo again).
4) I was able to force people to blunder, without them second guessing my motives. Everything I said people took as genuine. This is absolutely one of the most powerful things in survivor or any org. It helped me to flush clouds idol and get him out, which is something i desperately wanted. I do think if clouds had idol in hand at f7, he had a decent chance to make it to f4. I think most agree if clouds was sitting here he probably wins, and everyone wanted him out but my play was what put him in a position to be voted. If I wasn't under the radar and genuine, this could never happened. No one was believing eli for a case like this.
5) My game was under the radar because I was never threatened much beyond f14 where I managed to reassure my way out of the vote. I went to you yourself and buttered you up after hearing the news and ensured we were still together. From that point up I was never a vote option because I always stopped everything before it built up, and systematically removed any threat to myself before it got big. Examples of this were pisx, totters and psy who could've flipped with zach.
If anything came from this I would like you to not appreciate the fact my game was under the radar for the most part because, I never was threatened enough to be public. Had I been in a situation where my name was up I am sure I would've lived, as at every point in merge I had majority on me side. Eli's game is more public because he failed to stamp out threats to himself before they manifested, and relied on someone else (me) to stamp them out for him.
I was never afraid to make plays this game, which I think is obviously very difficult to do while staying under the radar. However, I manged to do so and I think any game is going to be better under the radar, provided you can prove yourself at ftc. Survivor is a game of managing your threat level to get to the ftc, and I managed my threat level better than anyone else in the game. This is why you see me as under the radar.
