Henlo everyone. I want to first and foremost thank you all for even so much as clicking on this speech and giving me the chance to convey my heart and my game to you.
In this game, I played fearlessly, if there was a move to make I made it, I never just went with the flow and I always did whatever I could to improve my position in the game no matter the risks. The strongest aspect of my game was the mental game, the throat-cutting, the taking people out. I was able to designate a target and make sure they would go home almost every tribal council of the season post-anarchy, excluding Asa's vote out and my own.
The weakest aspect of my game was Blame. I took the responsibility for every blindside because I had a large hand in every blindside. I didn't put the blame on my alliance members, I took it upon myself because I was responsible for those moves being made.
I didn't play flawlessly, I got voted out, but I don't see that as a bad thing. If anything, that was the best thing that could've happened. It gave me a second wind and allowed me a lot of insight on who I was as a player and what I needed to do. Having that chance to be out of the game and gather myself was a huge advantage. I rose from the ashes.
A lot of you I had tight bonds with that were broken along the way, but just understand that was necessary to my survival, it wasn't because I want to.
With that out of the way, I think it's time to give you all a run down of my game as a whole, step by step.
Anarchy
At the beginning of the game I was so excited to see a twist like Anarchy. It leaves so many options and gives you a chance to create a bond with anyone and everyone. There was no tribal lines, no boundaries. I immediately had a friendship with Solar, we really hit it off. I started talking around and on Day 3 me and a couple people I got along really well with, Nathan, Ally, Aaron, and Gabe created the "Drew is Slightly Above Average" alliance. This alliance proved to be very crucial for me in this game. I bonded with my alliance and did my best to win challenges, and I only ended up seeing Tribal twice during the Anarchy phase. Once when my good friend Chrissa got voted out, and once when we voted off Romain. The Romain vote was pretty straightforward, I chose to save Nathan because I didn't want to betray a fresh alliance and I felt that Gavin and Romain were too close. The bonds I made during this point were huge for the tribal phase and into the merge
Tribes
I was pretty happy with the tribe swap, I got put on a tribe with 2 people from my original alliance, Jaylen who I had a bond with, Gevonte who I thought was really cool, Dani and Gavin. I didn't really click with Dani at the time, but I really liked Gevonte.
I had a solid group of people that I could rely on due to my connections I made during the crucial Anarchy phase, and I stuck with Aaron and Gabe. I got really close with Gevonte as well incase we ever wanted to betray Gabe, which was discussed. I orchestrated the vote out of Gavin when he tried to gun for me and I had a hand in both Dani and Jaylen going home, I even won a crucial immunity as had I not Dani may have been able to swing the vote. Overall my work in the tribal phase was pretty crucial, I kept people close to me close and I was able to get people outside of my alliance out, excluding Gevonte who I wanted to keep around.
The Fake Swap
I want to at least mention this because it had a huge impact on the following merge tribal. When I got put on the all-female tribe, I was in the middle. It gave me a chance to reconnect with Ally and Asa, and allowed me to talk to Eva and Jennifer, two people I didn't really talk to much during Anarchy. Eva seemed so driven to work with me and get her on her side which I was very surprised by because from what I've heard, the "Returnee Alliance" didn't have much interest in me.
The Merge (by tribal)
I was so excited to make merge and I felt like I was in a decent position. We still had the full alliance of 5 and it seemed to be going strong, and on my personal agenda I wanted a returnee gone. I had a lot of ill will toward the possibility of a returnee alliance existing and I didn't really feel super close to any of the returnees excluding Gabe. Dusk was immune and Gabe was in the alliance, and while I discussed flipping on him we never really decided on going through with it, so we were left with Tom and Eva. Due to what happened on the fake swap, I felt like Eva didn't seem genuine with working with me, so I gunned for her. I also felt like I was closer to Tom than I was with Eva.
With Eva out and the likelihood of a returnee alliance decreased, I had to take a hard look at my position in the game. My alliance was strong and I started getting really close to Asa, who was outside of my alliance. I also began talking to Jenn and Tom more. The It got to a point where my tight bond with Gevonte was becoming more of a burden as Gabe seemed to lose trust in me because of it. I decided Gabe would be a smarter option to keep around so I made the decision to vote off Gevonte.
The next vote was straightforward to me, as our alliance all had relationships outside of it, and Dusk wasn't really close to any of us. We felt the next plan of action was taking out Dusk which I agreed with. I didn't really trust him so I just chose to vote him out as it didn't make sense for me to flip at that time.
This is when things got messy. Ally was so savy and I didn't want her to get any furhter in this game. Ally didn't take too kindly to that and did what she could to turn it around. The alliance came out, everything, and I did my best to make sure I wasn't on the receiving end of too much heat. Nobody would vote Ally so I chose to join in with the people that weren't in the core of the "Drew Is Slightly Above Average" alliance and get the target off of me and onto someone else. The only person I could rally the votes for was Gabe. I didn't want to vote Gabe off as It wasn't advantageous for me but it was my only option. You either roll with the punches or you get knocked out. I fought hard to save myself and succeeded.
I had to do serious damage control, I had blown up my alliance and made some enemies when I tried to gun for Ally. The new alliance of Myself, Asa, Jenn and Tom seemed to be the best option for me. Unfortunately the auction rolled around, something I couldn't at all prepare for, and I left empty handed. This tribal was crazy, and Tom got one over on us for sure. Unfortunately Asa was the one to leave, the person I was considering my best ally at the time.
I was playing from the bottom consistently trying to improve my position in the game but whenever I did I'd just be kicked back down to the bottom of the minority. I lost the immunity challenge and did my best to save myself but I couldn't seem to garner any votes other than Tom's. I got voted out, and it was the worst feeling. I felt like I had failed.
During my time on Redemption, Asa and myself discussed who had a better shot at making it to the end. We talked it out and in the end Asa and I agreed that I had a better shot, and I promised I'd do everything I could to get to the end and do my absolute best. She gave me this opportunity and she gave me my second chance in this game.
Getting my second wind, I didn't have safety coming back, I was given a 12 hour grace period to reintegrate before votes were allowed to be cast and I worked hard to get myself in a good position. By the time it was time to vote, I had forged a tight Final 3 alliance with Jennifer and Nathan. With that done, I had to start trimming down the people who I didn't want to sit in the end with. I was aware Ally had a double vote, so I did whatever I could to make sure she would play it, and she wasted it and used it on me. With Tom gone and that double vote played, I had secured my path to the end.
The next tribal we decided between Aaron and Ally. I wanted Aaron gone because he was far more capable in Immunity challenges, and my tribe agreed. I was still worried about an idol so I wrote Ally's name down to force a tie if one was played.
Then came Ally being voted off. This was a very difficult thing to do because I had gotten so close to Ally. Even though we were against each other we ended up making this super strong bond and she truly feels like a sister now. I made sure Nate and Jenn would vote Ally over me, Nathan and Ally were close but I did whatever I could to make sure than Nathan would rather take me over her, and I succeeded in that.
Closure
I think I had many successes in this game. I had a strong strategic game, I won an individual challenge in the premerge but I didn't rely on immunities and I made bonds with almost each and every one of you on the jury, whether they were broken or not, they were forged at one time and that's what landed me here.
I burnt a lot of people, but if you feel burned by me, there's a reason. I can honestly only apologize for being an asshole if that's why you feel burned, because I was an asshole sometimes, but I can't apologize for any move I made. Every move I made was crucial to landing a spot here at Final Tribal.
I played the best game I could, I don't think I could have done it any better, but it's always easy to look back on things in hindsight and nit-pick.
I wish my two competitors the best of luck, and thank you for reading this speech. I'll enjoy hearing questions from you all and answering them to the best of my abilities.