Hey, Nicole! You were one of the people I did regret not making more effort with to bond socially, but timing frequently seemed to never work out. I dunno why! But I always thought you were a pretty cool chick… even moreso when you broke my perception of you being a sweet, innocent, average girl, by going after Animal in the basecamp chat. Haha. I told you that, though, I do believe… and your confessional is one I’m interested in reading. Anyway, enough of that. I don’t want you to think I’m just trying to pander to you!
Was I ever calling the shots? I’ve kinda outlined in my response to Ricky why this is sort of a complicated question for me to answer because my strategy pre-merge was never really to become involved with a huge alliance of people where I would play the “leader” role as I did in Bali, since it put targets on lots of people’s backs early on in the game, and that’s why a lot of people ended up leaving. I suppose the best way I can really explain this is by outlining each round… so, prepare for an assload of text, most likely.
Round One: I was immune, and again, not wanting to stir any shit and bring more focus on to me, I let Vaishya and Shudra do what they were gonna do (although I knew who was going on both tribes).
Round Two: I actually gave Honey an ulcer and then kidnapped Aaron’s fiancée and held her hostage under the conditions that he quit the game. Sorry. (Just kidding. I hope you’re okay, Honey. <3)
Round Three: I kind of mentioned in my opening statement how this round factored into my overall game. Basically, it was clear as day that Ricky was going to idol Brookie and send Fei packing. I could have easily tied the vote between Fei and either BK or Jordan, or I could have told Fei to vote otherwise, or I could have told Jordan to vote for BK. I chose not to, of course, because sending Fei home was better for me in the long run. So, in a sense, I held a lot of power in that round. I used it to my own benefit, masking it as a moment of being deceived and hurt.
Round Four: I would say this was a round where I had to work to make sure the end of Vaishya’s tribal council involved Lexi going home and not Jedda. Woods, knowing they would vote for him, and knowing Zack might vote for Lexi, strongly pushed for a vote against Jedda, sending him outta the game 2-1. I had to stand my ground and convince Woods it was not the better idea, and in doing so, I did get my way.
Round Five: This was another one of those rounds where I held a lot of power that I’m not sure Ricky or anyone else realized. I worked myself into a situation here where I had the choice of who to send home: Jedda or BK. I actually considered keeping BK for a bit, until it occurred to me that he was a wildly unpredictable player who would likely never be able to keep anything I said to him a secret. Especially since I think he was the reason that you guys got into that huge fight at basecamp. I chose to keep Jedda in hopes that he would trust me even more (especially after letting him know how I advocated against voting him out the round prior) and we could build on a relationship or friendship, and I also knew that keeping Jedda would help to continue Ricky seeing me as a potential ally.
Round Six: This was where the time I put in with Jedda totally paid off! Jedda told me that there was a plan to vote me out of the game, and with my then pretty newly formed relationship with Animal, it was a pretty simple, straightforward round. I do think that Animal and Jedda would have preferred voting out Brookie, but I strongly advocated for voting out Quanz. I did this for a couple of reasons, mostly because Nax had spent a lot of time reassuring me that Brenda was getting the idol. I was relatively vocal about my intentions to vote out Brookie, and continued to be once I realized that the target was on me, to continue allowing people to think I was oblivious to the whole thing. I felt that if Nax was going to surprise me and give the idol to someone else, the obvious choice seemed to be to give it to Brookie. I couldn’t risk that, and pushed for the vote to be on Quanz, thus pretty much ensuring my safety and eliminating someone who I was also very worried about in the game, since I could tell he was keeping his cards to himself, much like I was trying to do.
Round Seven: Now, forgive me for this, but after the auction, I do believe I was one of the first people that morning to go around telling people that if we were going to make a move against your alliance, that it was you that had to go. I won’t assume that this wasn’t on anyone else’s mind, as people were quick to agree with me on this, but I do think that I got the ball rolling here. It was just a matter after that to figure out how we could work it out. I don’t know if any one person was in charge of this round, as it was really a concerted group effort.
Round Eight: Brookie.
Round Nine: This one was sorta outta my hands, but again, I didn’t really mind it. I just used it to my advantage (this is discussed a lot so far in Woods’ thread, but I’ll go into it again here for you!). Ricky, Nax, Jedda, and Jermaine were voting for Woods pretty much from the get-go, which meant that he was dead in the water. I knew that Woods, Brenda, and Animal were going to vote for Ricky. I’m pretty sure that he couldn’t have been saved against anyone in a tie-breaker in this scenario. So for me, I just used this round to my benefit; I told Animal about the vote, instilling doubt in Jermaine and gaining trust with Animal (although I know he was a little bit of a grumpy gills about the whole scenario). I protected myself with Ricky, Nax, and Jedda, allowing them to think that I could still be trustworthy, if even slightly, in case our foursome (me, Jermaine, Brenda, and Animal) were to shatter. So that’s what that was.
Round Ten: Ricky loses to Nax. I tripped Ricky while he was trying to cross the finish line. Wewps.
Round Eleven: Pretty much all of us were on board for making sure Nax went after Ricky. Again, a group effort. I never deviated from this plan.
Round Twelve: This is also known as my darkest moment in the game! Huzzah! Jermaine wanted Animal gone. I “agreed.” I withheld the information until I decided whether or not it was worth using it. Animal and Brenda wanted to target Jermaine. They were both two people I strongly considered as threats going forward. Both sides pressured me to vote the other way, but I knew I had to make the choice for me and not for them, so, to buy myself an extra minute in thinking about it, I voted for Jedda. With much personal grief over it, I decided that the possibility of the jury giving Jermaine credit for the Woods vote, the vote split, and getting Animal out on top of being a returning winner was much worse than anything Animal could bring to the table at the final tribal council. The unfortunate thing about this round for me is that I did strongly consider going to Animal to say, “Hey, we need to vote out Jermaine!” I wish I had brought it up sooner, in a way, even if voting out Jermaine was probably the hardest thing for me to do. In the end, through convenience, I ended up getting what I wanted for my own game, anyway. It was also sort of provoked by the fact that Jermaine would not budge on what I was wanting, which was bringing Brenda to the end over Jedda, who I felt posed a bigger threat. So I guess this was sort of my way of saying that I was going to get what I wanted, not what he wanted.
Round Thirteen: I wanted Jedda gone. Knowing there were potential risks in Brenda voting me out with Jedda, I encouraged Animal to speak with her and let her know/believe that Jedda was indeed a bigger threat than me. Apart from that, I took the power into my hands by studying up (I made a Word document for that final challenge) and winning the final challenge, ensuring my safety and my spot in the final three.
So yeah. That’s my round-by-round analysis of when I had control, and when I let other people’s control work to my advantage.
NOW ON TO THE SECOND PART OF THAT QUESTION…
While, in the overall cast, I didn’t ever really feel like I was exactly on the top for a long time pre-merge, I never really felt that I was on the bottom. Of course, I had some worries the first round, which is why I fought hard to win immunity and assure that this would not be a concern going forward by giving myself time to actually get to know people. I felt a lot of people were coming to me with information, and wanting to work with me, so I did my best to hold on to the things that people were telling me and use them to my advantage. With all that, I never really felt on the bottom. But I never let myself feel too comfortable, either, because pretty much as soon as that happens, you get bit in the ass.
What separates my gameplay from Animal’s? Well, Animal and I weren’t aligned every round, first of all. I don’t think he and I even spoke to one another much until about the fourth round, which is when we kind of started to work together and lay the foundation of an alliance. What separates me from Animal is that, well, I used him to my advantage in this game. I knew that I had to take sort of a much stealthier, background role here in India and rely heavily on observation and information-gathering, whereas I kind of let Animal appear to be the more visible one. In short, I used him as a shield. Hell, I used anyone I could as a shield, but I knew that with Animal, I could gain access to more people. I don’t want it to sound like I’m saying that I clung to Animal because I thought he could carry me, though. I’m just trying to say that I was using my resources to my advantage, and Animal isn’t the only one I did this with. I did my best to remain friendly with as many people as I could in case of impending doom, so I could run elsewhere and it wouldn’t seem entirely out of last minute desperation. It just so happened that Animal and I were working for the same cause, which was in taking down your guys’ highly intimidating alliance. I think I’ve said it elsewhere, but I do believe that Animal and I’s alliance was mutually beneficial. We both wanted a lot of the same things, but the thing is that I could have voted him out if I wanted to (as is evidenced in round twelve), whereas I worked hard to ensure that he would not be so inclined to do so to me.
So I guess to cover the old outwit/outplay/outlast motto…
Outwit: I think that a lot of people saw parts of me as transparent and emotional, and quite honestly, I did want that. When Nax brought Jermaine and I into a Skype conversation after the Fei/Greg incident, I pretty much used my typically quiet nature to my advantage and feigned anger. I had a few acting roles like this. Another one, I already mentioned, being when I had to pretend the vote was on Brookie just in case anything went awry and I was sent packing (fortunately, this was never necessary, but it never hurts to be cautious). Generally, I had to pretend I was weaker than I let on, by not showing to be the same person I was supposed to have been in Bali; I did so by being more UTR (although I still feel I maintained strong visibility) and by not trying as hard in challenges. Also, I had a lot of people thinking that I would work with them, when I kind of just as quickly went behind their backs and voted them out. I know it can be seen as a detriment, but, there are several people on the jury who I think thought I had their backs, or that I could possibly, and for some, I did use that to my advantage, and then made my own decision on whether or not it was time to cut that person out. A lot of things that happened in this game benefited what I wanted for me, and I jumped right on those opportunities. Not to mention, I mean, I do think it was kind of silly for them to let someone such as myself who had previously won this game in a 6-1 vote remain for so long. Any number of them could have thought to vote me out, since I was not immune for any part of the merge really except for the Untouchables and the final challenge, yet I had built a good rapport with the remaining players enough so that they both did not seek to eliminate me and worked on my behalf to see that I wasn’t eliminated.
Outplay: I always find it awkward to answer this one because it sorta just seems the same as outwit, doesn’t it? I mean I feel like outwitting is outplaying. Either way, as I’ve argued, I’m the only one sitting here who has voted every single person on to the jury. No one else here can make that claim. I intentionally voted in the minority (the Fei vote) when I felt it would benefit me, and I otherwise always often voted in the majority, even if I didn’t need to, when I knew it would benefit my game. Every vote I cast, I cast for a reason. While Animal and Brenda are sitting here with me, I’m not sure that they can say that they got what they wanted every round. Yeah, sure, voting out Jermaine sucked a bunch of donkey balls, but it had to be done. I told my stupid conscience to go eff itself and moved on with it. It was what I wanted, even if I cried about it. Feelings suck, ya know.
Outlast: Of the final three, I have the honour (much as I did in Bali) of having my name actually written down the least. Although the Wiki page says that Brenda accrued one vote in total, she had her name written down at least three times, although it’s four, if I’m not mistaken (I believe Nax voted for her on his way out, and Ricky voted for her at the final ten). Aside from the two votes in the sixth round, my name was never written down again. I wish that I could say that I had zero votes like I did in Bali, but I still think it’s impressive that I made it this far, largely without immunity, with a particularly visible target on me, while having sorta had my name written down the least. The only way I can possibly outlast Brenda and Animal, or anyone else, anymore than I already have, would be for y’all to vote for me to be the winner of this game.
So yeah! That’s that. I apologize for that novel. Heh. In the end, I’m kinda happy that you aren’t that sure of what my strategy was, because it was always my intention to keep people entirely unaware of what I was doing, so, I’d like to think that this is sort of proof of that having been executed successfully.
Anyway, on top of that, I apologize to your eyeballs, Nicole! If you possibly need to know anything else, just let me know.
