Post by Grant Mattos on May 30, 2015 16:27:10 GMT -5
AHHHHHHH!!! CAVEMAN SMASH JURY WITH ROOOOOOCKS!!!!
But no seriously, I'm not actually gonna do that for this whole FTC. Thank you Katia and Audrey for hosting this, despite my frustrations its been a great game.
I know Jen has surely attempted to poison the minds of many of you, I have a lot to say in my opening today and I hope you will all take the brief time to read it. I want to make it clear that despite my outward "Goat" persona, which made it seem like I couldn't care less about the game or winning it, I actually did care. The Caveman Troll type character shtick was meant to make people not see me as threat, so I would be largely ignored for most of the game. Admittedly, I hid behind it for the first half of the game, I made close friendships with Joaquin and Kat especially, and I did not do too much strategically until near the merge.
Final 12: The halfway point, our swap tribe finally had to go to tribal council. I consider this round I first truly began to play the game. I had only made an alliance with Carissa and Sean at this point in time, but was very cordial and friendly to my other tribemates. Carissa betrayed me, and wanted to get me out first, but I was included in her blindside instead by Priya, Cyndi, Gina Marie and Nikki. Carissa's betrayal of me and her blindside was what prompted me to start taking the game more seriously, as things had gotten interesting at this point.
Final 11
At Final 11, we stuck with the decision of voting off Sean or Eddie. Sean's name WAS on the block, because he was actually active back then, and Eddie was not, so Sean was a bigger threat come merge. I insisted Eddie go here, because little did anyone know, Sean and I had a secret alliance, which Sean so cleverly named:
Eddie leaving marked the end of the Pre-Merge, and the beginning of where my journey started to get a lot more interesting.
Final 10
This was a pivotal round, I was reunited with Kat and Joaquin, my main allies from Parnu. This was where I also met Jen, and at this time I really liked her, and I believe the feeling was mutual. Jen had given her Immunity to me secure my vote against Nikki, who was targeting Kat, my closest alliance within the game. I was not going to betray Kat at this point in time. Nikki had also lost my trust by telling me lies which she got caught in when I asked for proof of what she was telling me.
Sean was an important swing vote this round, I had leveraged my Neeigerthal alliance with him but I also made another big risk here to secure Sean's vote, which was giving him my immunity necklace, assuring him he would not need to pick rocks in a 5-5 tie, the rocks being something Sean had told me was holding him back from voting Nikki with us. This helped seal the deal, and thanks to Colin's bootlist voting, Nikki left in a 5-4-1 vote.
Final 9
This was one vote that did not go my way, Sean sided with Jen and Priya was voted off in a 5-4 vote, after she flipped to our side. This was the round I told Jen I was playing for Kat to win the game, and I chose Kat over as I chose Kat over Nikki. This wasn't entirely true, I wanted Jen to get off my case by breaking down any strategical flaw she said in my plan to vote with Kat to a simple "I just don't care", so she'd stop bothering me.
When it came right down to it, I wanted to be in control in an alliance I was valued, rather than being a pawn for someone else. You may be saying to yourself right now..."But Grant, you were a Pawn to Joaquin and Kat! What's the difference?!" Well please read on and You'll see what I mean
Final 8
Final 8 was the auction round, and the round I finally took control of the game for myself. I was the one who suggested to Joaquin and Kat that we need to gun for the Mystery Boxes, which turned out to be a HUGE boon in the game. My reasoning here was that we were in the Minority 5 vs 3, and even a Double Vote/Nullify vote combo was not enough to circumvent that, we needed a big power. Joaquin to his credit, spread some money onto the Double Vote and won it, but the double vote was ultimately useless and did not affect the outcome of the vote.
The real reason Gina Marie went home, was because of my plea and final communication to Sean in our last Neeigerthal meeting:
Sean listened to me, he ignored Jen, and voted Gina Marie with us
. Without my securing Sean's vote here, Gina Marie stays, Kat goes home, we are looking at a completely different Final 3 then the one you see before you today.
Final 7
My favorite round of the entire game. Kat and I had worked together with Colin here to flip him to our side, as he was getting as frustrated with Jen's attitude as we were. Colin even in fact was willing to vote CYNDI because Jen was immune.
I decided to play my ABORT BUTTON power here, for a couple of reasons:
1. Colin was difficult to trust, if he was playing us, it was my ass on the block. By playing the Button if Colin voted me off, I had an opportunity to win immunity again, and form a counter plan. I did not believe he would vote Cyndi, but I did believe he'd vote Jen, so another shot making Jen vulnerable was my best bet for survival
2. If Colin was serious about voting Cyndi, and I played the Button, I'd see I could trust him, and his relationship with Cyndi would be tarnished, breaking up that pair.
In the end, I saved Cyndi who I had no reason to vote off, and got Jen out of the game once and for all.
Final 6
Sean was MIA, and set to Bootlist me. This put me into an Odd position. Knowing that I would be getting a vote every round from Sean's bootlist, and that no one would him off being non-existent, I made an alliance with Cyndi and Colin, I agreed to go Final 3 with them, and knew using Cyndi Nullifier would give us Majority at Top 6. Colin and Cyndi were ecstatic about this, and happily agreed. I did this for a couple reasons:
1. With Sean bootlisting me, all Cyndi and Colin needed to do was vote for me with Sean's bootlist for 3 votes, and with Cyndi's nullifier, I was gone. By securing this alliance, I avoided this likely possibility
2. Kat and Joaquin were my biggest threats to win the game
The fact is, and though this never came to fruition because Sean was removed, my alliance with Cyndi and Colin was actually a ploy to get them to vote for Kat, and not for me. In the Final 6 vote, were it not for Sean's removal, Cyndi was going home
I made this vote, not because so much I was "Playing for Kat to win" but because Joaquin and I had MANY chats about voting off Kat. Kat had expressed fears to me of Joaquin. All I had to do was warn Kat about Joaquin, and at Final 5, those two would be voting each other ( which is exactly what happened). Getting Cyndi here gave me more control of the end game.
But Sean was removed, so onward to Final 5.
Final 5
Kat and Joaquin turned on one another as I planned. I gunned for Joaquin here because I knew he was a stronger threat in challenges and would be my main competition for the Final 4 immunity. Kat would also be willing to force a tie at Final 4 to save me in the event she won Final Immunity. Kat would also be the target at Final 4 from Colin and Cyndi, not me, so unless she was immune I could vote her off with them.
Ultimately, Kat went home here which wasn't in my best interest.
Final 4
I busted my ass here, knowing I was 100% going home if I didn't win it, I went 10 hours in the Immunity, I stayed up till 3am that night and could have EASILY gone 15 if I needed to, Audrey had to stop me from posting. After I lost, Suddenly Colin decided he didn't deserve to be the Finals and quit. Although Colin said he believed he would have done the same had I lost immunity, I don't believe that to be the case.
I hope after reading this, you see I was not playing the game for someone else to win, I made a lot of strategic decisions, pulled off a few key moves and wins, and earned my spot here in the Finals. I was not dragged here, and I deserve to win this game and to earn a shot at your jury votes. Thank you everyone for reading and I'm looking forward to answering your questions!