Animal

[Sandy]

Animal, please post your Opening & Closing Statements Here.

[cody]

Animal's Final Tribal Council
Hey guys! Before I begin my spiel, I just want to say thank you to everyone. You all had a hand in making this experience a huge part of what it was, so thank each of you for your role in this game. Whether it was by your wonderful hosting dedication, your meaningful interviewing duties, your undeniable support in the series, or your presence in the game itself, and now either on Pre-Jury, Jury, or my other finalists - thank you all. This journey has been amazing, and you've all had a large hand in keeping it real. So thank you. <3

Brenda and Joe- I love you guys. Thank you both for making this final 3 so amazing, and I wish you both the best of luck when it comes to the finale. You are both amazing people and I would be glad to see either of you win, but of course I want it myself. :3 hahaha <3 Good luck!

Jury, I ask each of you to keep an open mind when it comes to casting your votes. We've all played different games, so all we can ask of you is that you keep your vote fair and vote for who you feel played the best game of Survivor between the three of us. I wish you all luck with your decisions, though! PS. I know I have a lot to say, so I will include a TL;DR Sparknotes version after my huge spiel, so don't feel intimidated if you don't want to read through it all - please do at least read the Sparknotes if you haven't got the time for the full thing! Here we gooooo.

Opening Statement

SPOILER: Click to show

Coming into the game, I never expected to make it this far. I'm honestly so shocked to have made it to this point in the game, after everything. Day one, I remember feeling out of the loop because I was in class while everyone was Skyping and calling each other, and then the next couple of rounds I felt even more out of the loop to what I deemed a looming alliance. When I noticed this group rising (whether a] through print-screen slip ups, b] through challenge coordinations, or c] through things Jedda confirmed for me), I wanted to counter it immediately. I began rallying up troops to counter it as soon as I could, including Aaron, Fei, Zack, Woods, Joe, Jermaine, Brenda, and my side-alliance with BK and Quanz. I wanted to make sure I was well-protected if I was going to try to counter a major alliance. If I was going to have a large sum of people against me, I wanted to make sure I had a large sum of people on my side, so that's what I went for.

This hit a boiling point the round Nicole and I had our blowup, which I feel actually changed the game a lot. It kind of ignited a fire in a lot of people, and people began seeing the line in the sand and I became frustrated that people seemed scared to go against Ricky and his alliance, so I wanted to openly out myself as being against them, just to prove that there was a "rebellion" of sorts out there. I wanted to prove that if people were afraid to go against Ricky, that there was hope, and that they wouldn't be alone. This would encourage people to join my "side."

However, things ran so slowly for my little "rebellion" and I began considering other options when Ricky approached me for an alliance. I think he begun to see that people weren't 100% with him anymore, and I was very unsure of where everyone stood myself, since no one really proved the rebellion was on until the merge, so I definitely considered other options, and at one point I even considered Ricky and Nicole two of my closest allies in the game- I just had no relationship with Nax at the merge, which is why I wound up back on the side of the rebellion. Finally, people wanted to strike and I rejoined the rebellion I felt I created. The main reason I did this is because I felt if I went with the five (myself, Woods, Brenda, Jermaine, and Joe) that I would be in a swing-vote scenario if we made final 5, but if I went to the final 5 with the other side (Myself, Jedda, Ricky, Nicole, and Nax) that I'd have to rely on others to get myself to the end, and I didn't want to have to rely on others, so I went with my strategic gut.

From there, I had a final 3 alliance with Joe and Jermaine and an implied final 3 alliance with Brenda and Woods, and I was still close to Jedda, and I had a respected relationship with Ricky. The only person I had a small connection with was Nax, and I wanted to target him, but this was the round after a good majority of the cast said I was the biggest threat to win the game (during TC questioning when Brookie quit), and then I proceeded to get a good chunk of positives from the “majority rules” competition, so due to that: I wanted to take a bit of a UTR approach these next few rounds.

With the Woods blindside (which I knew about in advance) I wanted to be cautious myself, since I didn’t want to give any reason for me to be blindsided. This is more or less when I began re-questioning my final 3 alliance with Joe and Jermaine. I wanted to keep Woods, because I didn’t agree with the blindside- why throw away a sure-fire path to the final 5, and then the final 3 (since I probably would have gone with them.) This put Brenda in a precarious position, because if she voted with us (Joe, Jermaine, and I) to eliminate Jedda, Nax, or Ricky- then she would be willingly placing herself into the Untouchables… I actually would have encouraged Brenda to side against Joe & Jermaine, because why should she selflessly sacrifice herself for an alliance with Joe & Jermaine, when they weren't so willing to selflessly sacrifice themselves for hers and Woods' well-being. Also, it would have saved me from having to split them up later, too. Anyway, luckily for Joe and Jermaine, the Untouchables twist happened then and they didn’t have to worry about that.

However, I was still weary of Joe/Jermaine and wanted to split them up soon. And since I viewed Jermaine as the mastermind (he pushed Joe to go through with the Woods blindside), he was the bigger threat in my eyes. It also helped that I found myself personally closer to Joe anyway! Brenda and I begun considering other options in Nax (tying the vote 3-3 with him [by voting Jermaine, who would have left due to past-votes]), but I decided against it because I wasn't sure how much I trusted Nax with it, and I decided we should wait one more week to strike, which paid off. Luckily I didn’t make the move anyway since Nax voted Brenda lol.

Moving forward to final 5, Jermaine and I wanted each other out. I think we viewed each other as our biggest threats in the game, and I knew with Jermaine gone, I'd have Joe's complete loyalty, so I went to get Brenda and Jedda on board with me to eliminate "the returnees" (Jermaine first, who was the bigger threat between him and Joe). Then at final 4 I would have options with Joe since I didn’t think he was as threatening as Jermaine (and I viewed Joe as my closest ally at this point, since he at least kept me in the loop during the Woods round). I kind of wanted Brenda to win immunity this week, because I feared if the vote was between Jermaine and Brenda, that Brenda would have gone home (Jedda and Joe would have likely chosen Jermaine over Brenda) but if it was between me and Jermaine, I felt much more confident that I would get the most favorable outcome (Jermaine leaving). Anyway, Joe told me last minute that Jedda and Jermaine were actually voting for me, but I wasn’t sure Jedda would. I suggested that he vote for Jedda so he wouldn’t have to decide between Jermaine and I: this was something I didn’t want Joe to do, not only because I was unsure of his decision, but because I felt horrible putting him in such a shitty position, but he kept me anyway (thanks Joe<3).

Finally in the final 4, not only did Jedda prove that I couldn’t trust him, but he also had the strongest case to present to the Jury from my perspective. I don’t just mean that he had friends on the Jury, but he was a legitimate threat. He and I mingled during the game a lot to compare notes from both sides of the game, and due to this, a lot of information was shared. Jedda had a huge control over information distribution in this game and had a huge impact on the game because of this.

TL;DR Version
(too long; didn't read? Sparknotes version!)

SPOILER: Click to show

From the beginning, I came out guns blazing and I didn’t want to take a backseat approach to anything. I uncovered a possible alliance between a large group of people, which I nicknamed “Cult of Ricky” in my confessional, and I began exposing them and rallying troops to protect myself. From there, I found myself in a strong position at merge because I wound up reconciling with Nicole and Ricky, meaning I was playing both sides, because I was unsure if my rebellion was gonna pull through for me- I wanted to be protected just in case and have a back-up plan (which at one point, Nicole/Ricky actually had my full loyalty)!

At merge I wound up siding with my rebellion, because I felt I had a huge hand in its creation, and that would be a better selling point to a Jury than “I chose Ricky’s side and relied on his support to get me to the end.” I never really doubted Ricky and Nicole’s loyalty to me, but I just felt I would be able to play a better game if I could control my own destiny rather than rely on Ricky and Nicole.

After Woods was blindsided (which I knew about since Joe told me about it beforehand), I changed up my game plan, because people had said I was the biggest threat to win. I wanted to remain calm and cool, and even though I wanted to target Nax, I didn't want to make any big moves or give people any reason to blindside me. I feel this proves I had a good awareness and was able to adjust myself accordingly. Due to this, I waited to make my strike against Joe and Jermaine (mostly Jermaine, because he was the one who lead the charge and therefore had a stronger case for the Jury) until after Nax was gone.

Speaking of which, at final 6, Brenda and I were in a strong position to change the game up, but I decided to wait another round because I knew it was too early to make the big move. At final 5 I made my move against Jermaine, and in short- people chose me over Jermaine. I think I was the only person in the final 5 who legitimately wanted Jermaine gone, and he wound up being the one to go, so I think that proves I had heavy influence. PS. I was the only person in the final 5 who had 0 past votes against them (at the time lol).

At final 4, I felt Jedda was the biggest threat (not only did he have a lot of friends in the Jury, but he and I coordinating played a huge role in how the majority of this game went down, and I think Jedda controlled the majority of the information flow in this game, so he would have deserved to win, IMO.)

In Summation...
I feel I played the strongest game out of the finalists, and I hope I was able to clear my game up a lot for you guys. I was strong in challenges by never casting a vote until the round before merge (winning the Amulet of Ganesh once + individual immunity once), strong socially (I was aligned with everyone at the merge, except Nax and I feel I was on good terms with most everyone in the entire game), and strong strategically (I exposed alliances, called people out when I needed to align with their enemies, made big moves and pulled off big blindsides.) Hopefully this is all worthy of a win, because I feel I played the game to the best of my ability, and I hope you keep that in mind when you consider your vote for winner of iSurv1vor 19: India!

If you have any more questions about my game, please let me know – I look forward to answering any and all questions you may have about the game. Thank you for the opportunity, and good luck with your votes and questions everyone!!

Animal out.~

[cody]

Btw guys I won't really have much (if any at all) Internet access from 8am tomorrow (Saturday) until 8am Sunday, and I have an exam on Monday... but I will make this my priority all day on Sunday, who needs to study?! Just letting everyone know, so don't be scared if I take a little bit, I will do my best to work around this.

Also: Ricky, once I see Brenda's opening statement is up, I'll post my answers to your questions.

[cody]

Hey guys! Just wanted to keep everyone posted:

I'll write and post my Closing Statements after my exam which is at 5. Gotta study it up since I am like 5+ chapters behind!

[cody]

[: Animal's Closing Statement :]

Alright, hey guys. This is it: the end of our journey. I can't say I didn't have my share of fun, laughter, excitement, stress, and disappointment, but it all came together to make this one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had in my life. I came in questioning whether I'd be able to handle a game where I play as myself, and I come out of it feeling more empowered than ever. I made a few friends along the way, and I can genuinely say I've enjoyed my time getting to know each and every one of you, despite half of us starting off on the wrong foot - we certainly ended up better than ever, so thank you guys for that. Thank all of you for the hand you all had in making this experience what it was.

My game included a series of polarizing (yet in-the-middle) strategic decisions. I wanted to be polarizing from the beginning for a reason: I wanted to be noticed. From the beginning of the game, I was Anti-Ricky's group, not only because I wanted to take down a group that I noticed I wasn't a part of, but because I wanted to be someone who made a difference in this game and who had enough spotlight on them to win the game in the end. I realized being polarizing from the beginning would put a target on my back and it would make it extremely difficult to make it to the end, yet somehow I am still here. I was never an Under the Radar player unlike my two opponents, and despite what Joe or Brenda say- they didn't NEED to be Under the Radar, and I'm living proof of that, and so is Rob Mariano (for Joe). Two of the biggest stages of this game were festered by the strategic rivalries of myself and Ricky, followed by the strategic rivalries of myself and Jermaine. Since I "won" both rivalries, some may say I played a deserving game, but that is up to you guys.

Since I was so polarizing, yet protected by my allies and immunities, when the merge hit I knew I needed to appeal to everyone. With that, I aligned myself with Nicole and Ricky as well. Not only did I not want to be targeted by their group, but I wanted a safety net in case my group didn't pull through for me, since I wasn't positive. I know "polarizing (yet in-the-middle)" sounds like an oxymoron (and I guess it is), but I say this because I was so contested by half of the cast, that I found it best to align with the entire cast, and wound up in a situation where I was polarizing, yet literally in the middle of the alliance spectrum. I guess this is because when I knew someone would want to target me, I tried aligning with them in an attempt to thwart their efforts.

When everyone called me the #1 threat to win the game, I sensed I needed to lay low for one single round, and I did. My UTR round was very different from Brenda or Joe's UTR pre-merge, because not only was it only one round for me, but it was for good reason: because everyone said I was the biggest threat to win, and the fact that I understood this and translated it into a game move proves that I was well aware and able to adjust my strategy based on how I'm being perceived. When Brenda and Joe played UTR, they had no reason to other than to let others make moves and so they could remain clean.

Anyway I made it to the end despite being called out numerous times on being threatening, and I think people like Jedda and Jermaine realized this, because on their way out: they targeted me. But due to the relationships and alliances I had set up, I remained safe, and managed to make it to the end.

~~

This game is about three components, and I don't mean outwit, outplay, and outlast.

I am talking about one's strategic, social, and physical games.

~ Physically ~

I was safe from elimination 4/5 of the pre-merge Tribal Council (granted, one of which was because Jordan quit.) and I won 1 individual immunity, but I was second place in quite a few. Of the finalists, I went the longest in the endurance challenge, and I was first in the first two challenges of this very game - and people viewed me as a threat - but no, I did not play UTR because of that.

~ Strategically ~

I made several alliances (1] myself, Joe, Jermaine, 2] myself, Woods, Brenda, 3] myself, Ricky, Nicole, Jedda, 4] #AnimalHouse, 5] INDIVIDUAL alliances with Joe, Brenda, Woods, Zack, Jedda, etc.) I pitted alliances against each other, and I strategically wanted Brenda to win the F5 immunity to ensure Jermaine's elimination (I figured Jedda and Joe would be more likely to keep me over Jermaine than they would be likely to keep Brenda over Jermaine: paid off when I stayed 3-0 in the re-vote), I "switched sides" when the times called, I placed myself in the final 3 with the final 3 that I wanted, and I basically considered every single option on every round- I always wanted options and never turned anything down because I wanted the ability to pick and choose.

~ Socially ~

I feel I played a very social game in which I made myself available at all times. If I wasn't on the computer, I signed on Skype from my phone if I was available. I always fancied a talk, and wasn't afraid to Voice Chat to be able to connect with people. I feel like I was relatable to people and always got along with everyone, even when on opposite sides as them (except when Nicole and I had our blow-up <3), but even after that, we wound up aligning and being able to have a chat: hence, I always made myself available and never wanted to completely cross anything off the table. That all said socially, I believe I have made true and lasting friendships in this game, because I don't think I was ever fake just for the sake of a game, and I genuinely enjoyed conversations with you all. You all made this game fun and I look forward to how we all are after the game, regardless of the outcome.†

Due to a combination of my physical, social, and strategic game play, I think I played the most deserving of a win. I hope you all can see it that way, but if not: that's okay. We've all come a long way and the game is winding down, so thank you all for your time, good luck with your votes, and may the best (wo)man win!

Good luck Joe and Brenda as well. I love you guys!

PS. If anyone has any questions at any point, feel free to ask more. Even though this is my closing statement, I am still available to answer any of your questions, so you can post on the board, or you know where to find me. So with that said - thank you for your time, and good luck with your decisions.

<3