Survivor Smogon Survivor: The Official (Started! Join server to spectate)

firstly, hey TheyCallMeJoshua! i genuinely don’t have a negative opinion of you, this is just a game after all! the point is to have fun, so as much as you thought it made your experience better to avoid talking to me, i found it fun to poke at that during tribal council! though i am actually really sorry if your feelings were actually hurt- i think we both found different levels of investment and emotional grasp in this game and i did not realize it harmed you. (you could’ve told me if i was being too out of line but you uh, didn’t bother talking to me so there’s no way i would’ve known)

so my questions will probably be brought to you from secondhand information because we really did not talk that much. there is one thing i would like to target and that is emotional manipulation. i apologize for the bolded, i am certain those two words spark a vitriolic reaction and immediate denial- but i feel like you have, whether it was intentionally or unintentionally, used emotional manipulation throughout your journey and that helped you a lot. some of the other jurors agree with this, so forewarning to be careful on how you present yourself. i do not think you are a bad person or anything, you seem to be very nice actually! but it’s something i’m curious about.

-in game, i had multiple reports of people feeling threatened to vote you out not because of any position of the game you were in, but because they felt threatened you would break down on them after they saw you in jury or out of the game. that was the first thing i heard when i asked people around f12. it wasn’t even a game reason that i heard about, so it was strange to hear about from my point of view. what do you think?
-clouds told me himself that he didn’t want to target you in the early merge because you had actively threatened to end your out of game relationship with him by stating that you didn’t know if you could be friends with him out of game because… he didn’t vote with you? i get we’re interacting with people and friendships coincide with game and all, but on the real i find this pretty disgusting behavior and i would feel like trash if i was threatened with this. what do you think?

in fact, i am myself confused because you wrote a sentence in your own ftc speech for calling you out for… actually ghosting me!! i didn’t lie on my parchment as well- i actually did try to talk to you twice after f12 and you didn’t reciprocate!! so... i don’t know what it was trying to achieve. were you trying to guilt trip me? were you trying to call me out? what was the point of it? imagine if i had been really hurt that well, you did ghost me and then i see that. (i’m not so don’t worry)

what do you think, do you agree or disagree with me? can you comment on any of these scenarios? if they are wrong from your point of view, please let me know! thanks and good luck <3
 
next is Clouds! it was really fun meeting you through this game and im happy i did! i think you have played a good game, managing to get to the end and be very much socially dominant over the other two, but also feel like you are overselling your benefits when it comes to particular moves such as through the rounds f10-f8 (none of these were pioneered by you and none of these people had any intent of targeting you, in fact you had clear benefits for searching for alternative options earlier because you were guaranteed mid-late merge anyway given the gamestate no matter on who remained with you), and the alternative options you had such as in f13 and f10 that would've made your road a little easier. I won't go into more detail because we talked about game awareness a lot so if you have any contesting arguments feel free to comment!

(Disclaimer: none of this affected me on a personal level and i think a silly game like this is worth so much less than an actual friendship so if there's tonal aggression it's in fairness of being part of the jury :] )

to be very blunt, i think you treated people like garbage on their way out, even gaslighting some of them. whether it was intentionally or not, some of the jurors have complaints with your style, but i'll just talk about my own experience!

around f10 or so I put a fair trust in you because my friend whydon was unfairly murdered at the hands of this f3. you went to dm and even go to vc me and talk about how that i would be safe for a while and that would be a promise you make. i obviously want to believe this bc 1. you know I'm not talking to half the game and 2. i basically planned on goating whoever helped me the most regardless which you were doing after that round. which obviously shows how well you connect with people! (I suppose in my case be in the set of people who cared to DM me haha)

however, if there's one thing I didn't do in this game it was lie to you.

at f8, you message me again and tell me that I'm safe. i ask you if i really am, and then you go into my dms pleading to not make any moves and that everything will be fine. i'm obviously a bit sussed out, and you talk to me in dms and vc over multiple hours that i'll be fine and that we'll get the split through. i make (at the time) a half joking comment that i'm not voting you at ftc if you're lying and you brush it off and say your vote's in. later, the votes are being read, you don't even say anything to me and i'm whisked away to jury??

what a practical blindside right? but imagine if i had really cared about the game. that's a lot of hoops and jumps to get someone out who has literally told you that you're free to vote him out at six or if zoa's idoling to let him idol me out. there were quite literally other options. even for someone like you, who actually cares about winning, if this happened to you you'd probably be a bit sad from an out of game perspective. so i will treat you the same in fairness.

truthfully i had told you that i was going to post absolutely nothing at ftc, and that i was free being a sacrificial lamb for late game for whoever you wanted to. in all game sense i was nothing but beneficial to your game opposed to other people who were actively considering targeting you, and you might have had an easier road getting to ftc instead of having to rely on other people lying about ssr's dominating ftc performance (which he, well, didn't have according to the jury but these were rumors you didn’t make anyway so as much as i feel that reasons out of ssr’s control led to his elimination, reasons out of your control led you to reach the ftc instead) for you to win f4 over him imho. maybe you disagree so I could be wrong though!!

so even on a game level it didn't make sense fmpov, and it was pretty emotionally manipulative imo because I told you multiple times to just tell me if I'm being voted out. If I had an idol it wasn't going on you anyway, so I really don't understand it. maybe from your pov you might have felt the need to play this way bc you thought it was best but as a friend to friend i guess i expected some sort of transparency with you? doesn’t really fit my realest human being quota.

it's not just me who had this particular issue with you so be prepared on how you respond. i don't have a question, just what do you think? again be sure to read my disclaimer, and I'm sure this is tough but this is something I'm questioning because it's important to what I want to see in a vote.

thanks again! good luck <3
 
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firstly, hey TheyCallMeJoshua! i genuinely don’t have a negative opinion of you, this is just a game after all! the point is to have fun, so as much as you thought it made your experience better to avoid talking to me, i found it fun to poke at that during tribal council! though i am actually really sorry if your feelings were actually hurt- i think we both found different levels of investment and emotional grasp in this game and i did not realize it harmed you. (you could’ve told me if i was being too out of line but you uh, didn’t bother talking to me so there’s no way i would’ve known)

so my questions will probably be brought to you from secondhand information because we really did not talk that much. there is one thing i would like to target and that is emotional manipulation. i apologize for the bolded, i am certain those two words spark a vitriolic reaction and immediate denial- but i feel like you have, whether it was intentionally or unintentionally, used emotional manipulation throughout your journey and that helped you a lot. some of the other jurors agree with this, so forewarning to be careful on how you present yourself. i do not think you are a bad person or anything, you seem to be very nice actually! but it’s something i’m curious about.

-in game, i had multiple reports of people feeling threatened to vote you out not because of any position of the game you were in, but because they felt threatened you would break down on them after they saw you in jury or out of the game. that was the first thing i heard when i asked people around f12. it wasn’t even a game reason that i heard about, so it was strange to hear about from my point of view. what do you think?
-clouds told me himself that he didn’t want to target you in the early merge because you had actively threatened to end your out of game relationship with him by stating that you didn’t know if you could be friends with him out of game because… he didn’t vote with you? i get we’re interacting with people and friendships coincide with game and all, but on the real i find this pretty disgusting behavior and i would feel like trash if i was threatened with this. what do you think?

in fact, i am myself confused because you wrote a sentence in your own ftc speech for calling you out for… actually ghosting me!! i didn’t lie on my parchment as well- i actually did try to talk to you twice after f12 and you didn’t reciprocate!! so... i don’t know what it was trying to achieve. were you trying to guilt trip me? were you trying to call me out? what was the point of it? imagine if i had been really hurt that well, you did ghost me and then i see that. (i’m not so don’t worry)

what do you think, do you agree or disagree with me? can you comment on any of these scenarios? if they are wrong from your point of view, please let me know! thanks and good luck <3

I never threatened to end my out-of-game friendship because Clouds didn't vote with me. He can confirm that I was very upset at the way he handled speaking to me about the Outlaw vote. If I was threatening to end friendships over people not voting with me, I wouldn't consider Andy, Ayia, In the hills, Blakers, Clouds, RAD, or SSR my friends. This is simply not the case.

I tried to reach out to you at the beginning of the merge, and you completely dismissed me saying you wouldn't talk any strategy with me in the game. I spoke to you immediately after the first tribal council where you wrote a note on your parchment to try to discuss how you felt. I didn't feel any motivation from you to continue the discussion.
 
I never threatened to end my out-of-game friendship because Clouds didn't vote with me. He can confirm that I was very upset at the way he handled speaking to me about the Outlaw vote. If I was threatening to end friendships over people not voting with me, I wouldn't consider Andy, Ayia, In the hills, Blakers, Clouds, RAD, or SSR my friends. This is simply not the case.

I tried to reach out to you at the beginning of the merge, and you completely dismissed me saying you wouldn't talk any strategy with me in the game. I spoke to you immediately after the first tribal council where you wrote a note on your parchment to try to discuss how you felt. I didn't feel any motivation from you to continue the discussion.

TheyCallMeJoshua

clouds has no incentive to lie to me in that particular moment, and i can confirm that other jury members heard this story as well. if i was not confident in the above i wouldnt be asking about it. i am not trying to attack you, please do not take it as that! did i misinterpret it from your point of view?

regarding motivation, i did reach out to you after f12, you can check the logs yourselves! i am the last message in there.

can you answer the rest of my questions? :heart:
 
2 questions for everyone and i will judge my vote based off the answers to these questions. TheyCallMeJoshua Drookez Clouds

1: This game is large and long. What does the winner of such a long game look like?
2: How do you fit your answer to #1?

indiv question (others were asked on discord):

Clouds your opening statement is good work at selling yourself but it feels exaggerated reading it. i'm finding it difficult to believe that merge was so much at your whim as stated. 2 q's for you:
  • How did you start trying this game? you said you didn't start trying early but im confused on your transition.
  • Was there a point that you were humbled this game? your ftc reads as borderline arrogant. i'm looking for something other than joe vote because you claimed that it was a strategically better outcome for you. Can't double-count that.
 
Hi F3! Congrats on making it to FTC.

Drookez hi drookez <3 grats on making another FTC!! after your robberies in S6 and S9 i'm really happy to see you make it so far again and i think you played a very good game. you were literally never a target and i think you're pretty much a ftc lock as early as f10 which is really impressive! however, some people on the jury feel that your game is extremely similar if not essentially identical to one other finalist's game (i'll leave it to you to determine who that is but i'm sure it's obvious!) i'd like to give you this opportunity to list maybe one or two things about your game that make it unique and make it stand out from the other finalists' games. i know you mentioned some things briefly in your speech but i'd love to see you go a little bit more in-depth with some of those points. :)
 
TheyCallMeJoshua

clouds has no incentive to lie to me in that particular moment, and i can confirm that other jury members heard this story as well. if i was not confident in the above i wouldnt be asking about it. i am not trying to attack you, please do not take it as that! did i misinterpret it from your point of view?

regarding motivation, i did reach out to you after f12, you can check the logs yourselves! i am the last message in there.

can you answer the rest of my questions? :heart:

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the only thing I may have missed is the statement about the jury believing I used emotional manipulation.

This does come as a surprise to me. It definitely wasn't my intention to come across this way, so I apologize that I did come across that way. I think most of this may be stemming from how worried I was about the reactions of the jury if I were to make it to FTC because I can't say that I ended up on perfectly good terms with everyone.

As I was rereading your questions, I noticed some additional questions I missed.
As I was writing my speech, the past emotions I was feeling at the time were coming back. So that sentence was the result of me remembering how I was feeling in the moment. I didn't want to guilt-trip you. I felt like I was just letting you know how I felt.
 
2 questions for everyone and i will judge my vote based off the answers to these questions. TheyCallMeJoshua Drookez Clouds

1: This game is large and long. What does the winner of such a long game look like?
2: How do you fit your answer to #1?

indiv question (others were asked on discord):

Clouds your opening statement is good work at selling yourself but it feels exaggerated reading it. i'm finding it difficult to believe that merge was so much at your whim as stated. 2 q's for you:
  • How did you start trying this game? you said you didn't start trying early but im confused on your transition.
  • Was there a point that you were humbled this game? your ftc reads as borderline arrogant. i'm looking for something other than joe vote because you claimed that it was a strategically better outcome for you. Can't double-count that.

1) I think a winner of such a long game needs to be able to create long-lasting relationships quickly while remaining under-the-radar in terms of strategy. This was the ultimate social game because there were so many pre-existing relationships to navigate while still attempting to vote out the people who were well-connected or their close allies.
2) This game had 3 tribe swaps, so there were always many new people I had to talk to regardless of how far in the game we were. On my 4th tribe (Business), we were down to 20 people in the game, and yet there were still 6 people on my tribe alone that I hadn't played with yet. So while I voted out Liridium and DLE, I still tried to stay on good terms with the other Marketing players. During the merge phase of the game, I relied on the connections that I made to get the information on where the votes were going. Besides the Joe vote which I was completely left out of (SSR mentioned that he meant to let me know. I can't be certain whether this was absolutely true or not), I always knew who was expected to leave.
 
All 3 of you know how happy I was to make it far in this game, and even though it resulted in my elimination in 4th place, I wouldn't have played this game any other way. That being said, I still am undecided about who to vote for and your answers to these questions will lead me to my decision.

Clouds
  • You and I discussed every single vote together from f12 to f5 and voted together each time. Which votes would you say you deferred to myself and others on, which ones do you think you controlled yourself, and why do you think so?
  • You claim that Joe’s vote out at f13 opened up your game a lot and allowed you to make it as far as you did. If Blakers was voted out there instead of him, how do you think your strategy would have changed, and do you think you still make it to FTC?
  • The familiar formulation alliance of you and I along with Drookez existed from f20 all the way to f4. If Josh had lost f4 immunity and been an elimination candidate next to either myself or Drookez, would you have stayed true to the alliance and voted out Josh or voted out an alliance member to secure an easier FTC?
  • Who do you think was your biggest threat to prevent you from making it to the end, and what did you do to get them voted out?

Drookez
  • The familiar formulation alliance of you and I along with clouds existed from f20 all the way to f4. If Josh had lost f4 immunity and been an elimination candidate next to either myself or clouds, would you have stayed true to the alliance and voted out Josh or voted out an alliance member to secure an easier FTC?
  • One of your points as to why we should vote for you to win is that you were never considered as a target at any tribal council, and you also say that due to time zones you were kept out of the loop about a lot of votes that changed close to deadline. This could also be interpreted as playing a goat game of sorts in that you never were the leading force behind any vote and just voted wherever you felt the majority was. Please explain to me why I’m wrong.
  • Why did you give the advantage that you found to Jalmont, and how do you think his use of it to save himself and eliminate Outlaw affected your game?
  • You had a large amount of outside relationships from the beginning of the game to the end. Do you think your strongest allies were the people you knew beforehand, or did the alliances you formed with the people you met in game benefit your game more?

TheyCallMeJoshua
  • You talk about which votes during merge were beneficial, but not about how you made them happen. What did you do at f10 and f8 to ensure that whydon and Eli were voted out besides placing your vote on them?
  • After zoa played the first of his 3 advantages at merge, you came to me and others and said that you had no idea that zoa had any such advantage, even though it was practically common knowledge among those remaining in the game. Did you honestly not know about them, or was it an attempt to distance yourself from zoa within the game?
  • You were a target for elimination at multiple tribal councils, but survived every single time. Do you think it’s fair to say that you were the one who secured your safety at those votes, or was it the work of other people that kept you in the game? To put it another way, who do you credit the most for you making it to the end of this game?
  • You stated that you were at a disadvantage in not having many out of game connections to the other players, and told me that after outlaw was vote you thought that nobody else ever had you as their number one. Expand on this and tell us why it makes you more deserving of winning than the other two finalists.

To all 3 of you:
  • Give me one positive about each of your other finalist's games. What do you think they did well in this game?
  • Out of the people not in the final 3, who do you think deserved to win this game the most?
  • If you had to vote for a winner between your other 2 finalists at this FTC, who would you vote for, and why?
  • What was your favorite moment of this game?
Some other lighthearted questions:
  • Pancakes or waffles?
  • What was the worst challenge in this game, and why was it the business proposal?
  • Pokemon showdown tournament between the three of you, which tier would you beat them at and who would be your star Pokemon?
  • What's your go to song or playlist? (I'm running out of music to listen to)
  • Do you praise rufflets?

Sorry for making this so long-winded, but I have no clue who to vote for and I felt this would be the best way to make that decision. Congrats again on making it to the end of an 80 PERSON GAME, you should all be very proud of yourselves!
 
Survivor, as a TV show, is a game about several strangers working with and against another. However, it's obvious not all players in this game are strangers to each other. Are/were there players in this game that you knew you could trust and rely on simply because you had prior friendships with them? If so, does this diminish your placement in this game compared to others who did not have as many pre-game relations and had to start from scratch with most people?
 
I'm going to keep it short and pointed.

TheyCallMeJoshua I warned you at F7 that voting me out was a silly decision, as while you did have a good game, there were much larger FTC threats than me. And now you are standing next to two of them. As a result, I am telling you right now that you are unlikely to receive my vote. However, my question to you is this. You told me your game was as good as anyone else's. Back up your claim. What can you tell me you did objectively better than Clouds or Drookez?

Drookez We didn't talk much this game (which I do regret!), but I do respect your game a lot. You had a really good social game and I think a lot of people can attest to this! I don't think there was ever a point at merge where you were the consideration for the vote, which is supremely impressive. However, some might say you haven't made many "moves", thus making your game less impressive. Would you say you've made moves this game? If not, why should we still vote for you?

Clouds I think on paper, your game is the most impressive. However, there are things that the votes can't tell you. So, my question to you is this. What was the biggest thing you screwed up this game?
 
next is Clouds! it was really fun meeting you through this game and im happy i did! i think you have played a good game, managing to get to the end and be very much socially dominant over the other two, but also feel like you are overselling your benefits when it comes to particular moves such as through the rounds f10-f8 (none of these were pioneered by you and none of these people had any intent of targeting you, in fact you had clear benefits for searching for alternative options earlier because you were guaranteed mid-late merge anyway given the gamestate no matter on who remained with you), and the alternative options you had such as in f13 and f10 that would've made your road a little easier. I won't go into more detail because we talked about game awareness a lot so if you have any contesting arguments feel free to comment!

You too Eli, appreciate it. I definitely didn't pioneer any of the votes between F10-F8, but I think it's hard to say anyone did. Throwing out a name doesn't constitute pioneering a vote, and I think several of us were on the same page throughout the range of votes to begin with. Following the F11 vote, SSR and I discussed Whydon as a good F10 vote, and with zoa/Josh always wanting him out, minds met on that one. For Hills, I figured my best bet was to allow him to be the vote between F10-F7 to lower my own threat level and also make RAD/SSR feel more confident in my plans to stick with the two of them. F8 was a similar situation to Whydon's vote, and while I know people had discussed with you about voting you at F6 and that you'd be okay with it, the alternative of a potential Josh vote should zoa idol was something I didn't want to happen. At that point I made it my mission to vote you but keep it vague with zoa and Josh, particularly zoa, so that he'd feel unsafe enough to burn the idol. It was a risk to not have majority on him, but based on how easily he supposedly played the idol on Business, I was pretty sure it could work out.

to be very blunt, i think you treated people like garbage on their way out, even gaslighting some of them. whether it was intentionally or not, some of the jurors have complaints with your style, but i'll just talk about my own experience!

Of the few people I didn't talk to on their way out the door after I voted them / had submitted a vote on them, you were definitely the one I had the least incentive to not tell and I'm seriously sorry for that, because looking back, it made no sense not to. I remember being worried that a couple votes would be thrown on someone unexpected during the tribals in that time frame, and talked to you about exactly that while still planning on voting you instead of Josh. I was pretty busy the day of, but it didn't excuse the gaslighting when we talked prior to the vote. I recognized pretty soon after the F8 vote went down that I'd made a mistake by not telling you and both Ayia and 3P1K, and I'd do that much differently if I had to do it over.

around f10 or so I put a fair trust in you because my friend whydon was unfairly murdered at the hands of this f3. you went to dm and even go to vc me and talk about how that i would be safe for a while and that would be a promise you make. i obviously want to believe this bc 1. you know I'm not talking to half the game and 2. i basically planned on goating whoever helped me the most regardless which you were doing after that round. which obviously shows how well you connect with people! (I suppose in my case be in the set of people who cared to DM me haha)

My own inexperience factored in the most by making an oversight on how much you cared about the game, but for a number of reasons I figured you cared to some degree and had plans of your own to get to the end. Around F10 I realized this probably wasn't the case, but at the time I saw you as a competitive person who'd play just as hard in any game. I also feel like you're also overstating how much we talked about the game at all in vc, since when we did, it was usually a series of brief conversations and then we'd go back to glitching up Pokemon Emerald or something. But one of my biggest faults in this game in particular was being so comfortable making false promises to those who I didn't actually plan to go far with, especially when the opportunity for my ideal F6 started to take shape and become a reality. This goes to anyone in this game (though you were by far the one this was the most relevant with), but I know and recognize that it's often better to be straight up than give false hope.

at f8, you message me again and tell me that I'm safe. i ask you if i really am, and then you go into my dms pleading to not make any moves and that everything will be fine. i'm obviously a bit sussed out, and you talk to me in dms and vc over multiple hours that i'll be fine and that we'll get the split through. i make (at the time) a half joking comment that i'm not voting you at ftc if you're lying and you brush it off and say your vote's in. later, the votes are being read, you don't even say anything to me and i'm whisked away to jury??

what a practical blindside right? but imagine if i had really cared about the game. that's a lot of hoops and jumps to get someone out who has literally told you that you're free to vote him out at six or if zoa's idoling to let him idol me out. there were quite literally other options. even for someone like you, who actually cares about winning, if this happened to you you'd probably be a bit sad from an out of game perspective. so i will treat you the same in fairness.

Yeah, my approach to the F8 vote wasn't respectable and the precedent for not being honest with you was the concern you'd try to flip things up if I had directly told you majority was on you. Although it was a lot more clear to me by this point that you weren't actually trying, I always had reasonable doubts that you would at some point and they just never came to fruition. And there were definitely other options at the F8 vote, but none of them made more logistical sense for my own game, and since a good # of people in the game had estranged Josh, I wasn't keen on him going home when we were on pretty good terms at this point. Doesn't mean I should've played the narrative that I'd be okay with the Josh vote though, and as I've covered by now, I know I should've told you I was voting you there.

truthfully i had told you that i was going to post absolutely nothing at ftc, and that i was free being a sacrificial lamb for late game for whoever you wanted to. in all game sense i was nothing but beneficial to your game opposed to other people who were actively considering targeting you, and you might have had an easier road getting to ftc instead of having to rely on other people lying about ssr's dominating ftc performance (which he, well, didn't have according to the jury but these were rumors you didn’t make anyway so as much as i feel that reasons out of ssr’s control led to his elimination, reasons out of your control led you to reach the ftc instead) for you to win f4 over him imho. maybe you disagree so I could be wrong though!!

so even on a game level it didn't make sense fmpov, and it was pretty emotionally manipulative imo because I told you multiple times to just tell me if I'm being voted out. If I had an idol it wasn't going on you anyway, so I really don't understand it. maybe from your pov you might have felt the need to play this way bc you thought it was best but as a friend to friend i guess i expected some sort of transparency with you? doesn’t really fit my realest human being quota.

Without seeing the text firsthand there's no surefire way of me being able to display what went into the F4 vote, but I think for anyone in the same scenario, convincing only takes you to point A while point B's only reached by the perception of the 2 people deciding the vote. I spent a decent amount of time after F6 playing up SSR's game to Drookez and Josh with Ayia's last words as a launchpad, but it's impossible to discern how much that truly mattered at the end of the day and in that sense, I'm not trying to take more credit than I deserve for the vote. Josh's reasoning for voting with me seemed to be a lot less geared towards strategy and more towards friendship, while with Drookez it boiled down to a night of discussion and debate between SSR and I about where jury votes were likely to go, as well as what different jurors are likely to base their votes off of. I never assumed there were any jury vote locks except for Whydon on Drookez, and I think SSR/Drookez and I saw relatively eye-to-eye on that.

All in all though, you're definitely one of the people on the jury that I should've done a much better job keeping it real with in this game, if not just for the fact that I consider you a friend and should've given you a whole lot more than what I did. Hindsight is 20/20 but I'd take a much different approach a second time around, especially now that I know you better than I did back then.
 
All 3 of you know how happy I was to make it far in this game, and even though it resulted in my elimination in 4th place, I wouldn't have played this game any other way. That being said, I still am undecided about who to vote for and your answers to these questions will lead me to my decision.

Clouds
  • You and I discussed every single vote together from f12 to f5 and voted together each time. Which votes would you say you deferred to myself and others on, which ones do you think you controlled yourself, and why do you think so?
  • You claim that Joe’s vote out at f13 opened up your game a lot and allowed you to make it as far as you did. If Blakers was voted out there instead of him, how do you think your strategy would have changed, and do you think you still make it to FTC?
  • The familiar formulation alliance of you and I along with Drookez existed from f20 all the way to f4. If Josh had lost f4 immunity and been an elimination candidate next to either myself or Drookez, would you have stayed true to the alliance and voted out Josh or voted out an alliance member to secure an easier FTC?
  • Who do you think was your biggest threat to prevent you from making it to the end, and what did you do to get them voted out?

Drookez
  • The familiar formulation alliance of you and I along with clouds existed from f20 all the way to f4. If Josh had lost f4 immunity and been an elimination candidate next to either myself or clouds, would you have stayed true to the alliance and voted out Josh or voted out an alliance member to secure an easier FTC?
  • One of your points as to why we should vote for you to win is that you were never considered as a target at any tribal council, and you also say that due to time zones you were kept out of the loop about a lot of votes that changed close to deadline. This could also be interpreted as playing a goat game of sorts in that you never were the leading force behind any vote and just voted wherever you felt the majority was. Please explain to me why I’m wrong.
  • Why did you give the advantage that you found to Jalmont, and how do you think his use of it to save himself and eliminate Outlaw affected your game?
  • You had a large amount of outside relationships from the beginning of the game to the end. Do you think your strongest allies were the people you knew beforehand, or did the alliances you formed with the people you met in game benefit your game more?

TheyCallMeJoshua
  • You talk about which votes during merge were beneficial, but not about how you made them happen. What did you do at f10 and f8 to ensure that whydon and Eli were voted out besides placing your vote on them?
  • After zoa played the first of his 3 advantages at merge, you came to me and others and said that you had no idea that zoa had any such advantage, even though it was practically common knowledge among those remaining in the game. Did you honestly not know about them, or was it an attempt to distance yourself from zoa within the game?
  • You were a target for elimination at multiple tribal councils, but survived every single time. Do you think it’s fair to say that you were the one who secured your safety at those votes, or was it the work of other people that kept you in the game? To put it another way, who do you credit the most for you making it to the end of this game?
  • You stated that you were at a disadvantage in not having many out of game connections to the other players, and told me that after outlaw was vote you thought that nobody else ever had you as their number one. Expand on this and tell us why it makes you more deserving of winning than the other two finalists.

To all 3 of you:
  • Give me one positive about each of your other finalist's games. What do you think they did well in this game?
  • Out of the people not in the final 3, who do you think deserved to win this game the most?
  • If you had to vote for a winner between your other 2 finalists at this FTC, who would you vote for, and why?
  • What was your favorite moment of this game?
Some other lighthearted questions:
  • Pancakes or waffles?
  • What was the worst challenge in this game, and why was it the business proposal?
  • Pokemon showdown tournament between the three of you, which tier would you beat them at and who would be your star Pokemon?
  • What's your go to song or playlist? (I'm running out of music to listen to)
  • Do you praise rufflets?

Sorry for making this so long-winded, but I have no clue who to vote for and I felt this would be the best way to make that decision. Congrats again on making it to the end of an 80 PERSON GAME, you should all be very proud of yourselves!

1) When Whydon was coming up as a potential name at the Final 10 vote, I was going around to Clouds, Drookez, and SSR discussing that fact that Eli/Whydon/Ayia were a tight trio and they'd always vote together. However, I can't confirm how much of an impact this had on the decision because SSR claimed to me in a discussion that he organized Whydon's vote. I believe I helped spread this to others though.

I don't feel like I had to do too much to ensure that Eli went at final 8. At that point, he was being kept around as competition for Zoa in the challenges, and he wasn't doing what others had intended him to do. I can't say that I had to do anything special to ensure he got voted out there.

2) This was a lie. I was told about Zoa's SwP and his idol before the start of the merge, I believe. I found out about his second idol later during the merge. I didn't want to be labeled as a pair with Zoa in case people would get the idea to vote me out in the scenario that Zoa kept winning immunities.

3) I believe my social game was a large reason that I remained in the game at this point. Obviously my sole vote isn't the one that saved me, but like I had mentioned in my opening speech, I could have been the easy vote at plenty of points in this game. I was able to have people come to my defense when my name was thrown out. I think it was a mixture of both. If I didn't create those relationships with you, RAD, Clouds, Ayia, and Drookez, I would have been voted out for it.

4) I felt like Outlaw would have my back in this game no matter what. He would go to the end with me regardless of whether I would beat him or not. To speak on what you had told me the other night, you mentioned that you never would have voted Drookez out even if you thought he'd beat you. That's how I felt with Outlaw. Once he got voted out, I always felt like I would be the 3rd or 4th wheel to another pair or group. This is apparently exactly what happened as you have mentioned that I had been considered to be voted out at the Final 4 had I not won immunity.

5) I think Clouds is someone who is easy to talk to. Even if he's being fake, he is someone who you can easily initiate a conversation with, and it will go on for hours. This is something that is very beneficial in this type of social game.

Drookez is someone who I never saw considered as a vote. He went through the entire merge without ever receiving a single vote against him. I think that is very impressive.

6) I would choose Zoa. I completely respect how he completely demolished the Redemption Island twist and he still managed to make it to far while having that target on his back. He would have been such a huge contender had he won those last few immunities.

7) Between Clouds and Drookez, I think I would have to pick Clouds. I think Clouds had more working relationships with people throughout the entirety of the game than Drookez.

8) We actually got asked a confessional question similar to this yesterday, so this is a good question.
I really was gagged when Joe got voted out. I didn't hear his name a single time. I'm sure it wasn't that great for Joe, but it was pretty epic to see that happen.
The mock tribal council on Finance was also incredibly fun and deserves some special recognition.

9) Waffles, for sure.
10) Considering I had no clue what to even attempt to do for the business proposal, that would have to be the worst challenge.
11) As some people who have seen me battle on Pokemon Showdown may know, I am not that great at pokemon battling. However, I would probably pick to do the PU format, and I'd use Lilligant as my star pokemon because Quiver Dance, Petal Dance, Own Tempo is OP.
12) I happen to listen to a lot of Ariana Grande. If I had to recommend a song, God is a woman is my favorite.
13) I think the more important question is: do you?
 
Survivor, as a TV show, is a game about several strangers working with and against another. However, it's obvious not all players in this game are strangers to each other. Are/were there players in this game that you knew you could trust and rely on simply because you had prior friendships with them? If so, does this diminish your placement in this game compared to others who did not have as many pre-game relations and had to start from scratch with most people?

The answer to this for me is that Outlaw is someone I knew I could trust and rely on solely because he is my best friend on discord. I don't think this diminishes my placement because I didn't really get to work with him. I was on Governance with him, but we only went to tribal once. Inferno was the intended vote for if RAD had been voted out at the Diplomat's summit (A first impression vote), so I don't think my relationship with Outlaw impacted that vote. I was unlucky in that I never ended up on the same tribe as him again.
 
I'm going to keep it short and pointed.

TheyCallMeJoshua I warned you at F7 that voting me out was a silly decision, as while you did have a good game, there were much larger FTC threats than me. And now you are standing next to two of them. As a result, I am telling you right now that you are unlikely to receive my vote. However, my question to you is this. You told me your game was as good as anyone else's. Back up your claim. What can you tell me you did objectively better than Clouds or Drookez?

Drookez We didn't talk much this game (which I do regret!), but I do respect your game a lot. You had a really good social game and I think a lot of people can attest to this! I don't think there was ever a point at merge where you were the consideration for the vote, which is supremely impressive. However, some might say you haven't made many "moves", thus making your game less impressive. Would you say you've made moves this game? If not, why should we still vote for you?

Clouds I think on paper, your game is the most impressive. However, there are things that the votes can't tell you. So, my question to you is this. What was the biggest thing you screwed up this game?

I think I did a great job of getting people to trust me as well as getting them to want to work with me. I feel that I had to work much harder than Clouds/Drookez in that area of the game because I was playing with people who I was unfamiliar with. I mentioned in my opening speech that I could have been an easy vote at any point in this game solely because I didn't come in with too many connections. I think people like Blakers, Combee, and Zoa can agree (please correct me if I'm wrong) that it was more difficult to find footing when other people already had their alliances created as soon as they ended up on the same tribe as someone (or a group of friends) they've worked with in another game.
What makes it even more incredibly difficult is that there are many pre-existing relationships that I didn't even notice right away. I couldn't just throw out a name because what if the person I'm talking to has known this person for 4 years and has plans to work with them?
 
I think I did a great job of getting people to trust me as well as getting them to want to work with me. I feel that I had to work much harder than Clouds/Drookez in that area of the game because I was playing with people who I was unfamiliar with. I mentioned in my opening speech that I could have been an easy vote at any point in this game solely because I didn't come in with too many connections. I think people like Blakers, Combee, and Zoa can agree (please correct me if I'm wrong) that it was more difficult to find footing when other people already had their alliances created as soon as they ended up on the same tribe as someone (or a group of friends) they've worked with in another game.
What makes it even more incredibly difficult is that there are many pre-existing relationships that I didn't even notice right away. I couldn't just throw out a name because what if the person I'm talking to has known this person for 4 years and has plans to work with them?
I do think your argument has merit. It is impressive you got here despite having very little social connection pre-game. However, I think this argument is poisoned by the fact that I don't think you had the strongest social game, especially compared to the people you stand next to. I felt I had to initiate much of our conversation (and I think others felt the same way), which obviously doesn't help you when you already don't come in with many out of game connections. But thanks for your time! If you can think of any other parts of your game you feel are clearly better than Clouds and Drookez, please let me know, I'll leave it open.
 
2 questions for everyone and i will judge my vote based off the answers to these questions. TheyCallMeJoshua Drookez Clouds

1: This game is large and long. What does the winner of such a long game look like?
2: How do you fit your answer to #1?

indiv question (others were asked on discord):

Clouds your opening statement is good work at selling yourself but it feels exaggerated reading it. i'm finding it difficult to believe that merge was so much at your whim as stated. 2 q's for you:
  • How did you start trying this game? you said you didn't start trying early but im confused on your transition.
  • Was there a point that you were humbled this game? your ftc reads as borderline arrogant. i'm looking for something other than joe vote because you claimed that it was a strategically better outcome for you. Can't double-count that.

1. I'd base my own jury vote for the winner of a large/long game on effort and determination, as well as how calculated the decisions they made were and how well they accounted for every impact, direct and indirect, that a vote would have. Everyone's got their own criteria though, which is what makes Survivor fun, and perception plays such a huge role in things that one person's good decision may be another's mistake.

2. Although making good friends and meeting people I otherwise wouldn't get to know was a big part of the reason I signed up for this, I'm hyper-competitive by nature and came in with strong hopes to win. That meant effort/determination were 2 of the things I held close by and displayed throughout the game, from establishing at least a small connection with everyone I played with during the game (barring fake merge), to spending at least a couple hours each tribal period (after the first swap) considering the impacts a vote would have and how each vote would change my own path to the end. I'm definitely on the bottom of the sacred "list of good challenge players", and I knew it'd be a weakness of mine that I'd have to compensate for during the game. Going to 28 tribals–a # on the higher end compared to most in the game–and being immune at just 2 but still standing here at the end makes me feel like I've accomplished this, but that's all up to you guys to decide.

Individual:

- At least in my eyes, trying and tryharding aren't mutually exclusive; I was always trying during the game but focused more on getting to know people and making personal connections early, as opposed to considering a route from tribe to tribe of the best series of votes and the role I'd need to play to contribute to making them a reality which I put a lot more focus on around halfway in the game.

- Yeah, absolutely. I think I was most humbled by my conversations with Eli above all else, both during the game (F12) and right here during FTC, since he's particularly good at breaking down my inconsistencies and faults in the game in a way that's set up for good self reflection and not hostile. If the speech sounded arrogant at all I'm sorry, that's far from the intention. Goal was to capture the strong points of my game but stay humble, understanding that each outcome in the game had other factors aside from myself that led to it, as all Survivor games do.

All that aside though Andy, for the few years I've known you it's clear we've had some visible differences in things, especially looking at something like Showdown policy back in the day, but I should've put that aside a lot more for this game and just focused on talking to you friend to friend. When a couple people rushed to tell me you were doing what you could to make people aware of Hills & I's friendship, I took that as a "game on" kinda thing, but it was definitely extra and influenced how I talked to you after merge hit more than it should've. I think if we were on the same tribe for more than just 2 votes, things would've played out a lot differently and we would've hit things off on a better note.
 
4) I felt like Outlaw would have my back in this game no matter what. He would go to the end with me regardless of whether I would beat him or not. To speak on what you had told me the other night, you mentioned that you never would have voted Drookez out even if you thought he'd beat you. That's how I felt with Outlaw. Once he got voted out, I always felt like I would be the 3rd or 4th wheel to another pair or group. This is apparently exactly what happened as you have mentioned that I had been considered to be voted out at the Final 4 had I not won immunity.

I understand this. What did you do to combat that disadvantage and how does it make you more deserving than the other two finalists?
 
All 3 of you know how happy I was to make it far in this game, and even though it resulted in my elimination in 4th place, I wouldn't have played this game any other way. That being said, I still am undecided about who to vote for and your answers to these questions will lead me to my decision.

Clouds
  • You and I discussed every single vote together from f12 to f5 and voted together each time. Which votes would you say you deferred to myself and others on, which ones do you think you controlled yourself, and why do you think so?
  • You claim that Joe’s vote out at f13 opened up your game a lot and allowed you to make it as far as you did. If Blakers was voted out there instead of him, how do you think your strategy would have changed, and do you think you still make it to FTC?
  • The familiar formulation alliance of you and I along with Drookez existed from f20 all the way to f4. If Josh had lost f4 immunity and been an elimination candidate next to either myself or Drookez, would you have stayed true to the alliance and voted out Josh or voted out an alliance member to secure an easier FTC?
  • Who do you think was your biggest threat to prevent you from making it to the end, and what did you do to get them voted out?
To all 3 of you:
  • Give me one positive about each of your other finalist's games. What do you think they did well in this game?
  • Out of the people not in the final 3, who do you think deserved to win this game the most?
  • If you had to vote for a winner between your other 2 finalists at this FTC, who would you vote for, and why?
  • What was your favorite moment of this game?
Some other lighthearted questions:
  • Pancakes or waffles?
  • What was the worst challenge in this game, and why was it the business proposal?
  • Pokemon showdown tournament between the three of you, which tier would you beat them at and who would be your star Pokemon?
  • What's your go to song or playlist? (I'm running out of music to listen to)
  • Do you praise rufflets?

Sorry for making this so long-winded, but I have no clue who to vote for and I felt this would be the best way to make that decision. Congrats again on making it to the end of an 80 PERSON GAME, you should all be very proud of yourselves!

Individual:

- I think it was always give and take for both of us as opposed to one of us controlling the other's vote, throughout that entire range of votes. F12 was definitely more give for you, F11/F10 seemed to be a middle ground, F9 was more give on my end but F12/F9 I think were both our own versions of "show this guy I want to go as far as possible in the game with him". F8/F7 seemed to be mutual again, and even though I think you've known Eli/Ayia longer than I have, we both knew it'd be mutually beneficial to have those votes go how they did. F6 was straightforward (rip zoa), and then F5 Josh and I were either voting you or RAD, eventually decided to go RAD there.
- Joe and I were a dynamic duo, and the realistic probability of us getting far together in the game was pretty low. If not for the pretty crushing score on the partner challenge, pretty much everyone in the game knew we were each other's #1. I think if Blakers were to go there, a path to the end still existed for me, but given the usual threat balancing dynamics after a merge in most Survivor games, the likelihood of me getting to FTC was slightly lower as long as Joe was in. Should Joe have still been in, I would've played more UTR/"careless" so I'd be considered the lesser threat of the 2 of us when someone eventually tried to get one of us out.
- As much as the #familiar-formulation dream team would've been an iconic F3, I would've voted you at F4, or Drookez if you snagged immunity. Still the dream team though and I hope people enjoy reading it post-game lol.
- I don't think there was any chance I was beating zoa at the end of the game, and if there was a chance, there shouldn't have been. The road to burning the SWP + 2 idols was a long one but I do think my vague statements and implications that I might not vote with him played a role, since he expected me to be a vote with him probably 2nd to Josh in the late game stage. I could've taken the alternate route of just not talking to zoa like some did, but it didn't feel right to me since we at least had established a decent relationship.

Collective:

- Love this question, glad someone asked it. For Drookez, he's one of the most energetic and loveable people in the full 80 player cast, and his friendliness was nothing but a huge asset to his social game. TheyCallMeJoshua had less pre-existing connections than both of us when starting the game, and didn't get demotivated in a merge full of a lot of people who knew each other, some for years. Having the odds a little more against you and getting here can't be understated as a solid achievement.
- Zoa, hands down. Nobody put quite the amount of effort he did into the challenge and idol/advantage part of the game than he did, and he came back from Redemption Island after being the first one to get sent there. Even though people were critical of his social game, I would've probably voted for him at FTC because I don't think many others wanted the win quite as bad.
- I would lean Drookez at the start, but it wouldn't be clear cut. I think they both played respectable games and FTC performance would be the determining factor, either of them could've won my vote.
- It's hard to top our mock tribal before a tribal, that was pretty 10/10 and would do it again. But I think an underrated moment of the game was the household items challenge. The absurdity of so many of the items made it pretty fun and it was cool to see how inventive everyone got with some of the submissions, and for the challenge to come down to 4 points at the end was perfect.

General:

- Waffles, Belgian & homemade with blueberries, strawberries, maple syrup, and whatever else, but hey I'll settle for toaster waffles too (;
- Uh yeah hal, so, basically, my EBITDA formula comes from the uh, financial practicality of, like, the business, and expected revenue, and..
- Neverused all the way, bringing in da bad guy specs Duraludon halfway through the game when its threats are gone and spamming flash cannon
- Anderson .Paak - Make it Better never a day this doesn't improve my mood big time
- I eat Rufflets for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and sometimes as midnight snacks
 
Survivor, as a TV show, is a game about several strangers working with and against another. However, it's obvious not all players in this game are strangers to each other. Are/were there players in this game that you knew you could trust and rely on simply because you had prior friendships with them? If so, does this diminish your placement in this game compared to others who did not have as many pre-game relations and had to start from scratch with most people?

Sure I think that serves as a positive for someone like Josh, but the weight that has on your own vote is something only you get to decide. He definitely didn't have no preexisting connections, ex. Josh and I knew each other coming into the game (but got to know each other a lot better during the game). But he definitely had less friendships coming into the game than Drookez and I, and is as new as I am to the community (S11).
 
Clouds I think on paper, your game is the most impressive. However, there are things that the votes can't tell you. So, my question to you is this. What was the biggest thing you screwed up this game?

Part of the reason was that I was pretty busy IRL on the day of the tribal and when the votes were read, but I had zero reason to not tell Eli, you, and RAD that I was voting Eli at the F8 council. I remember writing in my confessional that I had planned on saying something, but it was still a huge oversight and not a cool thing to do to 3 people I consider good friends now. Head was in the clouds or something ...

ECERDhHU0AAUVVO.jpg
 
2 questions for everyone and i will judge my vote based off the answers to these questions. TheyCallMeJoshua Drookez Clouds

1: This game is large and long. What does the winner of such a long game look like?
2: How do you fit your answer to #1?

indiv question (others were asked on discord):

Clouds your opening statement is good work at selling yourself but it feels exaggerated reading it. i'm finding it difficult to believe that merge was so much at your whim as stated. 2 q's for you:
  • How did you start trying this game? you said you didn't start trying early but im confused on your transition.
  • Was there a point that you were humbled this game? your ftc reads as borderline arrogant. i'm looking for something other than joe vote because you claimed that it was a strategically better outcome for you. Can't double-count that.

1) Overall, the winner of this game has to be determined and persistent to last until the end.Playing over 30 challenges and meeting a lot of new and old people can be overwhelming, but I think a deserved winner do not let their guards down no matter how secure they are. Making allies with both people that would work with them anyways and new people are very important. I think another important factor is subtlety. Considering that this game lasted 3 months, power playing too early only means more eyes on you. Playing under the radar in my opinion is the wise choice here, especially if you have a secured path to the end.

2) My answers to the above shaped how I played this game. Although I did met many returnees that I knew before, I did not rely on those alliances to carry me through the game. Perhaps the most evident is the other finalists here, I had very limited talk with josh before and none with clouds, but I was still very open to work with them both to reach where I am today. Also shoutouts to Zoa and ITH, two people i never played with before and they were crucial to my strategy. In terms of challenges, as stated before that although I was not in a position where I need to win them, I never abstained in any and have also placed high in a few challenge during merge. As for playing under the radar, I think I achieved what I wanted to do. Forming a strong core alliance that I knew would give me the numbers to keep me safe was one of them. I think most people agreed that me clouds ssr were a threat, but we were securely safe up until F4. I think in part this was due to playing under the radar, which was a success. Maybe not a play in the typical sense, but playing up others threat levels also helped me get no votes during merge.
 
I understand this. What did you do to combat that disadvantage and how does it make you more deserving than the other two finalists?

I would say that one of the ways I combatted this disadvantage was by spending more time trying to convince people, when necessary, that I wouldn't ever flip on them. Whether this be when they voted against me or even if it was when the number of players was dwindling down. Although I didn't expect to be their number 1 ally, I wanted to be able to make it further in this game. Even though I wasn't happy with Clouds for voting out Outlaw, I told him that I wasn't going to just vote him out because of that (which I wasn't planning on doing anyways). When I was blindsided by the Joe vote, I made it clear to my allies that I wasn't betrayed by their decision. If any thought of me flipping on them crossed their minds, they could have voted me out for lack of trust. I think one of the things that I have above the other finalists is that when I was targeted at three tribal councils, the people that I had committed to working with helped prevent me from leaving.
 
All that aside though Andy, for the few years I've known you it's clear we've had some visible differences in things, especially looking at something like Showdown policy back in the day, but I should've put that aside a lot more for this game and just focused on talking to you friend to friend. When a couple people rushed to tell me you were doing what you could to make people aware of Hills & I's friendship, I took that as a "game on" kinda thing, but it was definitely extra and influenced how I talked to you after merge hit more than it should've. I think if we were on the same tribe for more than just 2 votes, things would've played out a lot differently and we would've hit things off on a better note.

yea i thought we had an okay relationship on my end, i wasnt going out of my way to reach out to anyone this game since i was burnt out around halfway on business and just wanted to be done w/this game. i was suggesting eli in an effort to reach out to you & pick up the pieces of joe's group to hopefully kingmaker/lay under radar long enough to 8th after josh threw his name out but apparently you already had decided you didn't want to ally with me this game. oh well maybe next time

i dont think your relationship with hills this game was overstated considering
as much as I love the dairy product I had known hills for at least twice as long and wasn’t letting him go anywhere.

my experience with hills on it helpdesk was he was a quiet contender for being eliminated on challenge performance but a chill dude and understandably radio silent on business since marketing was willing to vote him out. most of the expunged-marketing narrative with the ninja vote was to weaken you in prep of merge, which im guessing is due to blakers/combee's experience with you this game reaching to the other expunged marketing. figured similar idea would work to sway one more if it needed to happen, which did w/the DLE vote.
 
yea i thought we had an okay relationship on my end, i wasnt going out of my way to reach out to anyone this game since i was burnt out around halfway on business and just wanted to be done w/this game. i was suggesting eli in an effort to reach out to you & pick up the pieces of joe's group to hopefully kingmaker/lay under radar long enough to 8th after josh threw his name out but apparently you already had decided you didn't want to ally with me this game. oh well maybe next time

Oh yeah for sure, I think as a product of you feeling burnt out/us not talking a ton + the claims of you trying to pin a target on hills & I likely being exaggerated, I had more or less assumed it wasn't worth trying to get anything going. And you voting Joe in the first tribal we attended together made me think further efforts weren't worth it, but hearing this from your pov after the fact provides a lot more clarity. In a different game with different circumstances, it's a whole new story, but in some ways it was the hand we were dealt there

my experience with hills on it helpdesk was he was a quiet contender for being eliminated on challenge performance but a chill dude and understandably radio silent on business since marketing was willing to vote him out. most of the expunged-marketing narrative with the ninja vote was to weaken you in prep of merge, which im guessing is due to blakers/combee's experience with you this game reaching to the other expunged marketing. figured similar idea would work to sway one more if it needed to happen, which did w/the DLE vote.

Yeah the hills relationship wasn't understated, I didn't know how much he was gonna care about the game in the long run but I was definitely in the mindset of going pretty far into the game with him if possible, and us finally meeting up on Finance made it seem more realistic

The main thing this game was missing was an In The Hills and EasyOnTheHills power team (:
 
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