Greetings to the juries, players, spectators, and hosts. I would like to thank you everyone for being a part of this game for the 3 months stretch, dealing with all my chaos but more importantly giving me the opportunity to get to know more people, working with new and familiar faces alike, and getting me to the final tribal council. Coming into this game, I didn't expect much considering it was a gigantic game but I was determined to do my best. Of course, this has meant lies, stabbing, and other things you deal with in Survivor. I'm so sorry if I left you in the dark, or if I blindsided you at any point in the game. But i believed the best way to make up for them is to go as far as possible, as I think it's the best way to honor the fallen. As the game comes to an end, I hope you appreciate my gameplay. I did not lay down a specific plan to follow this game, as I prefer to be adaptive to anything that happens. Playing with people I've known before can both be an opportunity and a risk - it's easier to build trust but also harder to shake off reputations. I knew that if I had to win, I need to form a strong alliance core while balancing an under the radar playstyle - while making, or choosing deliberately not to make, moves when it matters. Hopefully this doesn't turn into a diary, so I will try to keep it short. Feel free to ask me any questions later! I'll point out some key events here though:
My first tribe had a bunch of returnees like DLE, Jalmont, Trace etc. which I knew could prove to be both an opportunity and a threat. I also met new players like Blakers and got along well with him. All in all, the people I wanted to make it through did make it to the swap, and I left with good connections to all despite going to a quite a few tribal councils.
The second tribe was in my opinion a bit more eventful. I swapped with blakers, so I still had someone from my first tribe to fall back on. I also forged a close alliance with Clouds during this tribe, but also with Isa and Whydon. Ultimately, after a few tribal councils, there was a divide between those voting for Isa and those voting for Whydon. I ultimately decided to save Whydon, knowing that he probably trusts me and is well connected which could benefit me in the future. The swing vote was me and clouds, although Clouds didn't mention my name in his speech did he.... In any case, I was a part of that and looking back, I left my vote on Isa before clouds replied so in some way you could say I was the one that led clouds that way! This left me blindsiding Combee and Blakers, but I came up on the good side of the majority (me, clouds, Whydon, Dyo).
Then comes Finance, which I felt the most secured in. We had a strong alliance of five (me, clouds, josh, ssr, trace) and pretty much dominated every tribal. However, I was not complacent and decided to keep up a good relationship with in the hills during this time. This mattered in the end, as trace and I were quite screwed by our timezones in the pairing up challenge. In the hills reached out to me to pair with me, and I was very thankful that we maintain a good relationship. I could have paired with trace, but I decided he was a bigger threat if he makes it further. I'm sorry.
Legal was quite a mess challenge-wise, as we went to so many tribal councils. However, I swapped with clouds, SSR, and whydon and felt rather confident. One event of note was the jalmont elimination, where he reached out to me knowing he was the target whether his 2 advantages could be used in a way to eliminate whydon (note: i gave him one of the advantages - more on this later). I wanted to save whydon, and I really tried to find alternatives but it was risky knowing that jalmont would be the next elimination anyways. In any case, I had to let him go and stuck to my core alliance.
And we arrive at merge. Not gonna lie, I was very scared. Of the other 12 players, I had only been on a tribe with 7 (6 if you doesn't count my short time with zoa before he mutinied) which means half of the players haven't met me before. Additionally, we merged with a tribe of four compared to the other nine players. The first few votes were out of my control - since decisions were changing near deadlines when I can't be online, I ended up on the minority. However, I took this as an opportunity. I already had strong alliances with SSR and Clouds coming in to merge so I wasn't worried there, but I used the opportunity to strengthen my bonds with others on the minority like Josh, in the hills, and zoa while others may not be overly focused on them. I think this has led to good results, although I couldn't save all of them, Josh said he had my back while ith mostly voted with me and zoa also stated at one point that he trusted me a lot and would be fine with an F3 with me. At merge, I knew the core of Whydon-Eli-Ayia-Rad was my biggest threat so it was my goal to take them down. Along the way, I agreed to a blakers vote knowing that I blindsided him before multiple times and that he may not be up to work with me in the future. Zoa also emerged as a challenge threat, which has to be taken care of. One vote I'm sad about is ITH, but everyone was against him :( The SSR vote was very painful, but after a lot of thought I decided that SSR was the most dominant player, led the most votes, and thus was my biggest threat. So that is my story of how I arrived at this point.
Now you may ask, what have you done differently this game compared to the others? I will list you some reasons:
1) Although I have been to a lot of tribal councils throughout the game, there was none in which I was in danger of going home. I attribute this to keeping my visibility low, while keeping a strong alliance core and working with others that may be left behind. I'm thankful to everyone that worked with me, even if we never met before. It has been very nice playing with you!
2) I probably found the most advantages out of the others at FTC. The steal-a-vote that Jalmont played was mine, I found it from an advantage hunt during our first tribe. I also found the locations of the four clues for the idol hunt quite early, which i think i informed Isa and Whydon. On legal, I was the one to point out to Clouds about the clue to the idol sheet, and was also the one to gave the link to him.
3) Out of us three, I performed well in challenges. Although Josh did win more than me, I got second in both of the challenges he won and ranked within top three in many others. Although challenges are not necessary to win, it proved that I was willing to put effort into this game.
In the end, I would like to thank you everyone for being a part of this experience. I have some comments with regards to other speeches, but I will leave those for later as I think it's unfair since I'm posting last. Obviously, this speech can't capture everything that happened this game and there are a lot of minor details that i have to left out which I am more than willing to answer. I played a balanced mix of under the radar and positioning myself well that allowed me to survive every vote despite circumstances not going my way sometimes. The relationships I've built, some of which I cannot carry until the end, all mattered to me personally so I am thankful for that. I am also thankful that these relationships made you guys trust me, save me, and work with me even if I could not return the favor. Also thank you to you all for reading this very long post. In the end, I would just like to say your voice matters! Go out and #VoteDrookez. OK maybe not but, it's important to get the truth out there. This is the time to let #LETTHEMKNOW!!!!!!! Let Final Tribal Council Begin.