Final Tribal Council

[Grant]

I'd like to make a joke about I'm the only reject who didn't make it to the finals out of our alliance. Something like:

"Well, this is awkward... But in all seriousness, congrats to all three of you. I'll take pride in knowing that the three people in my main alliance made it to the end. Who would've thought? Anyway, I'm really proud of all three of you for making it all the way and for sticking together (for the most part. David ). Great, great job, all three of you.

I'll quote my man Aras for my question: Take yourself out of it, assume I can not vote for you and can only vote for one of the other two. Who should I vote for? What did they do to make it to the end and why/how was it instrumental to them making it all the way?

Good luck guys :)"

I think I will pre-vote Stephanie

Stephanie
Awesome job :)

[Jeff Probst]

You may have already done some of these, but I'm copy/pasting for people who havent:


Well there are several things I need from you before the final Tribal on sunday. I'll list them in order of importance:

1. Prevote

Please pre-vote for who you would like to win the game in your voting thread now. You can always change it later, I will announce the deadline for vote changes at the start of Final Tribal Council.

2. Write your Speech

Please write your FTC speech if you have not already. Be ready to roll when you are called on at FTC and if you plan on not being here, I can simply copy/paste what you have already written. You can always change it later, but please post your statements/questions here now ahead of time so you do not eat up/waste our precious time :D

3. Give me a Confessional

There are some things i'm interested in knowing about you before you go into hte final Tribal. They are: Are you excited about the final three? Is there anyone you're looking forward to seeing again and being able to speak to? Are you bitter at all? Do you think there are deserving players in the final 3? What can we look forward to from you?

[Grant]

I typed this up on Ashley's thread but decided to move it here because I really don't want to campaign for any of them, or turn anyone off in voting for them because I campaigned for them. But, here are my thoughts on all three:

Steph was very clutch for her self/her team in the final few weeks (days?). She was very good pre-merge, socially and comp-wise, and she kind of went UTR post-merge. I don't know if she was busy or just not talking to me as much as she had been, but she seemed to have taken a back seat. It came a point right before the challenge where people voted who was the biggest threat, she asked me if I had heard her name and no one was mentioning her name at all. I was hearing my name a lot, I was hearing a lot of Mike, Kristina, Ralph, PB, so on and so on. It blew my mind that nobody had her on their radar, I put her as my biggest threat to win it all in that challenge, I believe. I think she might've taken a back seat post-merge behind me and Kristina and planned to ride a little until we were inevitably taken out, or until we took each other out, whichever happened first. After I got voted out, she seemed to "come back to life" a bit more and she was performing in challenges again how I expected her to based on how she performed pre-merge. I'm not saying she was throwing challenges because I don't know that for sure but I wouldn't be surprised based on her winning the final 3 in row? I think she was at the highest risk of being flipped on, maybe David/Mike take out Stephanie because they think they can't beat her if she doesn't win, and she came up big in each, including posting 8500+ times in the final challenge to ensure her spot in the final. She also picked up a clutch HII in there somewhere too.

Mike played an underrated game and I honestly believe that. I've said that a million times already, but Mike was at the bottom of Ovambo along with Matt and Ashley 1.0. He wasn't really talking to anyone except for me (his words) and he missed out on Ralph's majority alliance for being relatively afk to start. He got voted least trustworthy (though it was probably because I was telling people to put Matt in the middle so he didn't get an advantage if there was one for least trustworthy as Matt was a complete wildcard). He'd only really log in late at night at first, except for in challenges. I had already formed decent bonds with David and Stephanie, so I suggested Mike make the alliance with them + me because I knew it'd be a little weird for me to create an alliance with the one active player outside of the majority alliance when we are already in a majority alliance. Despite being in our 4 person alliance, Steph/David weren't 100% sold on keeping him and he was the one the initial talks were to get rid of if we lost that last pre-merge challenge. We go into the merge and Mike is the target for the Nama side. They think he's running shit because of what Ralph was telling them (though at the time Ralph/Kristina were running the larger alliance, IIRC. It wasn't until they considered flipping post-merge that I took the Ovambo group PM as my own personal soapbox). I think I was his biggest ally throughout the game (until I got sent home, obviously), so he was always honest (I think), open and upfront to me about what his plans were and myself likewise with him. He wasn't a big, obvious, in-your-face power player; I feel like he was more operating behind the scenes. I don't really know his game after I went home (obviously) but he made it to the end. His gameplay is sort of Parvati 3.0-esque in HvV (without the reputation and challenge prowess) in that he was "the next to go" a lot but still managed to make his way to the end. I'm surprised that he managed to make it with all of that in mind, but I'm also not surprised that he was able to do it.

David also played an underrated game. He and I always had each other's back, since like Day 1. When Ralph was making his original alliance, we needed a 4th (or 5th, I don't remember), and I suggested David and Ralph said something to the effect of "we're full, we don't need him but I guess keep David in your back pocket as a vote with us if we need it". That's sort of the point where I knew I needed a different avenue so that I could include David, Mike and Ashley 1.0, though when she went MIA she fell out of my plans entirely. He came through in the clutch a few times pre-merge in challenges as leader but I never thought he was particularly good in those challenges, and he proved that post-merge (did he even win any?). I'm not sure if he wanted to, he seemed to be out of challenges before they even began a lot (messaging Probst wrong or something?). David was more keen to try and work with the Nama side than I was, and he'd come up with plans to try and get them to like him/work with him, despite them PMing him saying shit like "David you suck" as he told me happened a few times. I don't know why Nama wasn't willing to work with him after the Ralph vote, maybe it was because he was better able to work with PB and PB went home? Like Mike, he was always upfront with me about what his plans were and we always had a back and forth discussing each move before we tried to execute it. I defended his voting out Kristina in another thread so I won't get into it here but I don't think that was that bad of a play for David, himself. at all. He seemed to be acting in HIS best interest throughout the game, rather than the alliance which ultimately was proven when he voted with Ashley to vote out Mike at the end. I'm sure everyone calling him a goat made him feel like a goat but I don't think he is a goat at all. He played a shrewd game, sometimes making decisions that make me go "wtf?". I don't think he thinks he can win here and I don't think the odds are in his favor but I certainly think he is deserving.

I know a lot of that is from my POV so it's not incredibly helpful but that is all I have. The point of it all is that all three, I believe, can make a pretty good argument for why they deserve to win. I honestly think my vote will come down to who presents the best case and all three are capable of doing so.

[Grant]

I'm very pleased with this final 3. They are (were?) my three biggest allies throughout the game. All three of them are deserving, though I think it goes something like Steph > Mike >> David, in my opinion. So yeah, I'm pretty excited about the final 3.

I'm looking forward to talking to each of the final 3 members. It's strange to be in an alliance with three people who I talk to the most, and I get put on the jury where no one can really back up what I'm saying while the people on the jury each have someone else to back up their own misinformation and usually wrong perceptions (Kristina/Ralph, Ashley/Sophie, Sophie/PB, PB/Cochran, Julie/Ashley/Sophie, etc. etc. etc.) It's kind of annoying how people still act like they are so sure they are so right. It's funny how Sophie and Ashley both act like they controlled the game and they're talking to me like I was just some sort of pawn. To sum that up in a short and sweet sentence: I'm looking forward to finally being able to talk to "my people" again.

I'm not bitter at all. The final 3 + Kristina are the only people after I got voted out who didn't vote for me to go home. I was pretty excited at the thought of the final 3 being the three other people in my main alliance, whether they were as committed to it as I was or not. I'm glad that one of "my people" is going to win the game. If David flipped and voted Mike out, the jury would have blindly voted for Sophie (if she makes it) which would have disappointed me because she was the least deserving of the final 5, IMO. If I had an influence in that (which I don't think I did), then I'm glad because it worked out exactly how I wanted. I think Ashley deserved to be in the mix, esp after her performance in the final tribal but she's getting annoying acting like she played better than she did. I hope the final 3 don't act that way. I hope I didn't act that way, though I feel like I probably did.

What can you look forward to from me? I don't know, I guess we'll see. As for tomorrow, I plan to go in to the finale expecting to vote for Stephanie but I certainly will have an open mind and can be swayed to vote for either. I feel like, as of right now, Stephanie will probably win.

I'm mostly looking forward to seeing how things actually went, so I can see if things were actually going according to how I expected. I'm still curious how things go after the game is over. Do people keep in touch? on this site or how does it work?

[Grant]

Two quick questions:

When you say speech, how long is it supposed to be? I thought what I wrote was maybe even a little long in tandem with my question but judging by Ashley and Sophie in this thread it's going to be a coming of age tale with gifs.

Secondly is it cool if I re-word my speech when I get called on? The gist of it will be the same, just different wording/formatting and maybe a little more support to counter any trashing other jurors do toward any of the other three. I'll have a working rough draft in notepad to not slow anything down.

Trashing Mike for the classic Hatch move because it made you mad during your mental breakdown is a little disappointing, and voting for David because he tried to vote Mike out at the last tribal council is also disappointing. What were the previous 30 days for? And I thought I had a big head, boy, these girls...

[Grant]

I'm going to change my speech if you don't mind, to something like this:

I CAN USE WORDS!!!!

Anyway, hey guys, long time no see.

In all seriousness, though, congrats to all three of you. All three of you did really well. You made it to the end which is something the other 15 of us couldn't do, especially me, so props on that.

I'll take pride in knowing that the three people in my main alliance made it to the end, even if I was the only reject who couldn't make it. It makes me feel better about myself after being made a chump so early post-merge :) Who would've thought when Mike said "We can make the F3 with this group", that it'd actually happen? (rhetorical question - we all knew it would happen )

I'm really proud of all three of you for making it all the way and for sticking together(?). I don't know if you noticed or not but I was quietly rooting for you guys and for all three of you to make it. I think all three of you deserve to win so I'll be content with whoever among you wins :)

--

I have two questions that I'd like all three of you to answer.

I'll quote my man Aras for my first question:

1. Take yourself out of it, assume I can not vote for you and can only vote for one of the other two. Who should I vote for? What did they do to make it to the end and why? How was it instrumental to them making it all the way?

And for my second, unrelated question, I'll channel my inner Heidi:

2. If you could compile your own F3 that included the most deserving players of the game (according to you), who would've made it? And, in a brief sentence or two, why?
Feel free to say yourself and/or each other and/or any jury member. The only caveats are that you can only give three names and that you cannot say me(Grant) and if you do then you suck and I won't vote for you (yes serious), so don't do that. :)

--

Good luck, guys. Just remember, this is just a game. Have fun with it and enjoy yourselves.

[Grant]

Nice TC, all three did well I think. David upped his stock, Mike might've lost some stock especially with that final answer.

I'm still going to vote for Stephanie

--

Stephanie
Tough decision but I feel like Steph played a very similar game to my own game, except a much better version. For that, I have to give her my vote.

[Grant]

It's honestly really bothering me having to decide between the three. I've re-read everything in the FTC to make sure I was making the correct choice and I think I am. She and I played hauntingly similar games, she was just much better at it than I was, and much more subtle about it.

The 2nd question was a softball question so everyone had a shot to butter up some jury members and I think it did a little more harm than good for Mike.

so sorry M&D