Let me start by saying thanks to all of you. Cast was beautiful, multicolored, hosts were absolutely amazing! This season has been amazingly messy and I'm glad that I was a part of it! I've only started playing ORG's since this summer, but I believe that a long time will pass until I encounter season like this again. It has been an honor to play with so many great players! I want to say that coming into this season, I didn't knew which role I would take. Though it was only my fourth ORG I have been playing from a challenge beast to a UTR player. I think I didn't knew exactly until the merge. My game for sure had flaws, I think don't have to mention an unsuccessful idol or leaked alliance at merge, but I think I've played a great game and I should be a Sole Survivor. So let's start my reasoning why.
Pre-Swap
When I started the game I was excited to see my Koror Nemesis-Buddy Aaron. Tho we didn't talk much at the beginning, but I knew that I have at least one person that I know. Meanwhile I had great conversations with Daniel, he was active, participated in challenges and was easy to talk to. So not long after that, me, Jay and Daniel formed an alliance and when we lost our first challenge we were thinking who to take with us to form a majority. Of course my number one pick was Aaron and I was excited, when Jay was on the same page with me about Aaron and Ryan was the obvious vote. But then the unthinkable happened, Aaron dug his own grave by trying to set a distrust between Ryan and Christina, but when tribe is so small it doesn't take long for that to spread around. So Aaron was found guilty and shady, so he was a first sacrifice I made (which surprisingly was my strategy afterwards) and Aaron went home. Christina was our number four and Ryan was pretty much an outcast of our tribe, so it wasn't surprising to everyone that he went home after that.
Pretty sad that Jason went home as well, because we wanted to play together too (Koror), but I guess if Jason wasn't voted out then, then I wouldn't be here.
Swap
Me, Jay and Christina got new tribemates - Erin, Andrew, Seamus and Matt. Matt was a person, that I instantly clicked with, like I said in my ROP, Matt was a big social threat, but I still had a great time talking with him. I didn't talk with Seamus much, our convos were pretty "small talk" and fakish. Andrew!! LOL! Best love-hate relationship I ever had! Erin didn't talk that much with, so she was my first target after we lost the challenge. It's pretty surprising that Those 4 didn't group up to take one of Naxos tribemates, but I got Matt and Seamus against Erin and Andrew, so Erin was the first vote. I thought that I had a good relationship with Andrew, so I told him that we are voting Erin as well, because I thought that Andrew won't be voted out in the next tribal. Anyways, I got called out in the tribe chat by Erin, making me look like a bad guy, who is responsible for her being on the chopping block, but that all was an act, to make everyone even more agressive towards her, so she could play her idol and get Matt (Thanks to Andrew) out. He was a lot bigger threat than I was, so I think that was a great decision. I lost one of my biggest allies again and then I found myself untied again. I was surprised that Seamus voted against me, but then he explained everything and our relationship went to that "small talk" state again. I think that after that tribal I understood, which way I want to play this season. I want to play by myself. I will have allies, but I won't sacrifice my game for them, which influenced my way of playing at the merge that I will talk about in the other section. Matt got voted out, so I went on a good side with Andrew and Erin for that shit not to repeat itself. Erin got voted off after that and then the fun began!
Merge
Ohh man, where to start with this one, huh? I had Seamus, Daniel, Jay and Christine with me, but I knew I had to get more people on a good page with me, which were Alissa, Hedger, Hudson and Ben. I got sick of Christina (Erin warned me that she will flip on us), so by my new strategy I wanted to make this season fun, not TribevsTribe thing, so I started making that unsuccessful leaked alliance of Hudson, me, Hedger, Alissa, Ben and Daniel. I thought that this would actually work out, but then I got called out for the second time in the main tribe chat. The one guy, I didn't talk to at that time, got leaked info about me. Thanks god my crazy brains took the idol clue, insted of competing in the challenge, so I could give the clue to other people to show my trust to them and gain trust for myself. Not after that I cracked that clue and got the idol. Mackie was my first choice to vote off, because I had no word with him and got called out, but I knew that Christina is planning something as well, so when Alissa offered her I accepted the offer. I thought Daniel was good with the plan, but unfortunately he went to the other side and voted for Seamus, which didn't matter that much, because Andrew and Hedger went to our side and helped to vote Christina off.
Daniels vote off was even harder, because he was my biggest ally at that point, but I knew I can't work with him, because he was on the other side of the baricade, so I let him go(Sorry) and sticked to the other alliance. Alissa and Hedger became my number one allies. Vote came in and we got to a revote after Andrew flipped to the other side, but fortunately he decided to go back and vote for Daniel after it. So I had voted off my 2 ex-tribemates at the early stages of the merge.
Hedger vote... Oh man... Everything was alright, I was even considering flipping and making other alliance, so when I heard that Seamus is doing shady stuff and is on the chopping block, I couldn't be more happy. We still hadn't a good relationship, I started to get a good side with Andrew, I knew that we actually could talk honestly. Alissa wanted to vote Seamus at first, but then she changed the vote onto Mackie. I was pissed off, I didn't want Mackie to go, I wanted Seamus out, but Mackie wasn't on my future alliance plan, so I didn't resist that much. But ohh boyy, when Alissa told me that she wants to vote Andrew out?? Nonono. I tried to change vote onto Mackie again, but Alissa didn't listen to me and I knew I couldn't make her do it my way, Hedger was undecided, but I saw that he is leaning to Alissa. That's when I saw that I have no input on this alliance and then I told Andrew that he is on the chopping block and he showed me his idol. Then I started our FIRST honest conversation with Seamus and he was more than keen to start an alliance, when I said that our side was planning to get him out. I want to make a point here. Seamus created our alliance chat, but he wasn't the guy who planned all of this. I knew I had to make myself more UTR after two first votes, so I ain't making any alliance chats myself. I got Andrew, Seamus, Jay with me, so Ben and Mackie were all we needed for Hedger to get voted off. But as we all know that didn't work out and Andrew used his idol in time and idoled out Hedger off the game.
It's 4vs4. Alissa is pissed, she's left with Mackie's group - the former minority vs our new formed alliance. As we know auction wasn't that beneficial to our side, so sadly that got Andrew eliminated. One more moment here. Do you think it was Jay's plan to give Seamus a necklace? No, I thought about this, when Seamus told that he had a black pearl, so after Jay won it, I was the one who told him to do it, though he wasn't too keen about it.
Jay's vote off (aka mine vote off). I was the one who was supposed to be voted off and I would be if I laid my arms, but I struck a convo with Alissa, what Jay or Seamus didn't do. It was really hard to message a person, who you betrayed before, but I knew that was the only way I can evade my vote off. Mackie told me before, that the "the person who found the idol" was fake, made by Alissa, so when I told her that, Alissa was pissed and was ready to take out Mackie. But after some time, I think her heart cooled off and she started thinking rationally. She made the vote on me to go on Jay, saying that Seamus and he are a power duo, tho Jay had 2 strikes already. She told that she has a good relationship with Hudson, so after Jays vote our trio + Seamus(what happened) can take out Mackie. Jay went home and from minority I got the power I needed.
Mackies vote off. Everything went according to the plan. Hudson, me and Alissa got together and made things happen. Seamus were running all over the place, saying that he can get BEN TO FLIP OMG and I was sitting pretty, while he didn't even know what was going on. It's interesting, that Mackie didn't trust Ben that much, but he was the only one who stuck with him and didn't know what was happening. Our 4 voted for Mackie and sent him home.
Alissa's vote. Sad vote, because Alissa played a great game, but everyone knew that she would win, if she reached the end, so it was obvious vote after Seamus won the immunity.
Final 4!! Everything is fine. I actually wanted to get Seamus out and take Hudson and Ben to the f3, cuz I could beat Hudson more easily in the final challenge. Got every puzzle, but I guess luck was on Seamus side amd he managed to guess the overall score and guarantee his spot at f3. So it was obvious who should go. Hudson was a god. Played a great overall game. Wasn't so UTR as Ben is (Managed to flip on his allies at the right time) and wasn't so OTT as Mackie was. So if he managed to get past that vote, he would be greatest player I ever seen, but OMG!! Seamus tells me that Ben votes for me and I can't believe in this. I think Ben had/has the greatest chance against me at the end, he would loose against Hudson or Seamus at the end for sure, so it was shocking that he wanted a guaranteed f2?? But what's it for, if you can't beat either of them at the end?? Anyways, I managed to win the tiebreaker and get Hudson out.
Seamus vote. Ohhhh man. I knew I gotta take Seamous out at some point and that option only opened at f3. I managed to win almost every FIC challenge and get Seamus out of his "Challenge beast" pedestale. I knew what has to be done, because I can't talk about my strategy that I'm not sacrifising my game and letting my allies go, when needed, if I would take Seamus to the end. So it was an obvious decision. I didn't want to lie to Seamus, so I told him, that I'm voting against him. But ohh man, I didn't excpect that. Seamus was furious. Jeesus. I didn't think that he would be so bitter and would start threatning me that he and Jay will vote against me, just to show that I can't win. I mean, what? If I would be voted off by Seamus at f3, I would vote for the best player and wouldn't be so bitter about this. He's probably spammed how bad am I in the Ponderosa and will make a hateful speech against me, but even after knowing that, I stuck with my decision, with my strategy and got him out. I had no chance of winning against him, because I think a lot of jury members think that he was in control all the time in our alliance. But the loudest person isn't always the one who made the speech.
The end
In the end I want to say, that I think I'm deserving to be Sole Survivor. Maybe I'm not that likeable as Ben is, but I believe that I played a better game than he did. We both had our flaws and advantages, but I think I was in control more than he was. I put a lot of time and energy into this season and I want to win this really bad!! So please, consider my pitch and give me all the questions you've got. I'm feeling overhelmed! Thanks for reading this long af novel of my game!