by David » Sun Apr 13, 2014 4:09:46 pm
My final speech:
So, I'm not sure what the appropriate length for this kind of speech is, so I'm just going try and cover my entire game. I also don't know how long I will be able to answer questions for, so hopefully I can explain myself well enough! Although, I would love questions as well ^_^. If you don't want to read the entire thing, the bold parts are the most important, so there you go!
Okay, so I'll start with the mole twist. We started by ranking our tribemates, which really catalyzed the need to form alliances and bonds with your other tribemates, so I did that. I got into a four person alliance that consisted, at it's core, of me, Grant, Kristina, and Ralph. Steph and Julie were pulled in for the majority, but weren't in the core four. In hindsight, 'the core four' would have been an amazing alliance name. Additionally, I was talking to Mike and had gotten him to trust me. At this point, I felt like I was doing a very good job in the game. In the first immunity, I stepped up as the leader and we barely pulled out the win. This crucial win just further cemented my position in my tribe. Right after the challenge, I also guessed that Ralph was our mole, and Whitney was the other mole. They were both not at the challenge and Nama's mole had said that they weren't there, so I assumed it had to be Whitney.... guess not.
Matt left, which didn't really affect me since he was going first anyways. In the second challenge, I was once again leader, and we won again. At this point, I tried to step back a little bit and let other people take the reigns for a bit. Leaders normally go home, and I didn't want that same fate. I thought that if we had a tribe swap that I could end up being vulnerable for taking the leader positions. Also, these early challenge performances not only cemented my current position, but opened me up to new ones. Mike and I had been talking and eventually formed another four person alliance with me, Mike, Grant, and Steph that was based on activity and challenge strength. This alliance is the one that I chose to stick to for most of the game.
At the swap, Grant left, and he was my closest ally at that point. As a tribe, we also gained Rick. The swap was an easy time for me just because Rick was the easy vote for me, and when Grant came back, he gave all kinds of information of the Nama tribe, which was amazing!!
Then, there was a merge. My plan going into the merge was to just stick by my alliance for the first few votes, and then take advantage of whatever was left of Nama, and make a move against some of the Ovambo members. So for the first vote, we decided that Cochran must go because he is least likely to have an idol. What happens next is where it gets somewhat interesting for me.
Sophie and Papa Bear are really pushing for me to vote with them next round, and I don't think it's a great idea for one of the original Ovambo members to go just yet, but I also want to keep Sophie and Papa Bear on my side. They had been giving me tons of info and input on the game that was so valuable to me and my alliance. So, my plan was to basically vote with them for this vote. That way, Papa Bear could still go home, but Sophie might be more inclined to believe me and give me more information that could hopefully give my alliance more leverage, which it did. I was able to kind of disguise the fact that I was aligned with them, while still keeping an open line of communication with every single person in the game. It worked out perfectly.
At this point, Nama has 3 members left, and we have 8. I figured it would be an okay time to just get rid of one of our own. Ralph revealed at the previous tribal council that he had an idol the whole time, and also revealed that I couldn't trust him as much as I thought that I could. The tribe consensus was that Ralph had to go. This was a really strange vote because it was like, unanimous. The goal at the tribal council was to get Sophie to play an idol that we thought she had, and it would have worked too! If it weren't for those meddling three seconds. At least now we were certain as to who had an idol.
This next vote was the first one that didn't go the way I thought it would. Sophie had told me that she was going to play the idol on herself, even though I knew that she knew the vote was going Whitney's way. This seemed really sketchy to me, so I went to Grant, Mike, and Steph and said if we put our votes on Sophie, the vote will be split so that if the idol is played on Sophie, it will be split three to three and we can revote to get out Whitney. If the idol is played on Whitney, our four votes will be on Sophie and she will go. It seemed like a good plan, and it was, but two things went wrong. We hadn't set anything in stone and Stephanie had to leave early, so we told her to just vote for Whitney. It still could have worked with just three votes. The other thing that went wrong was Julie flipping. I was not counting on that move at all, and was very surprised when it happened. Grant, who was still my closest ally, ended up going home. This left Steph, Mike, Kristina, and myself against Sophie, Whitney, Ashley, and Julie.
Two alliances of even numbers going head to head. At this point, everyone was scrambling and trying to get someone to flip to their side. At tribal, Ashley revealed an idol and Mike had immunity. The two vote getters, Kristina and Sophie, were also immune. This meant I had a one in four chance of going home. I wasn't prepared for that. I had worked so hard to get this far, and I didn't want to stick with an alliance that I wasn't even guaranteed to get to the end with. So I flipped. If I was going to go to rocks, I have to be assured at least a final 3 spot, and I didn't have that. I could only be promised final four in that alliance, and I couldn't accept that.
After the vote, I approached Mike and Steph and told them why I flipped. They both seemed to be okay with it, and I realized that I was their only option at that point. It's not like they could vote me out because they would get to the end with one of the other four and lose. I felt like I was the only person they thought they could beat. I was once again, in the middle. I wanted to stick with Mike and Steph, but wanted to keep Sophie, Ashley, and Julie happy as well. I talked to Sophie and Ashley and brought up the possibility of splitting the votes. This clearly was a very transparent attempt at a betrayal as they saw through it immediately, but they kept me happy by saying they would do it. I will be honest and say that the only reason that I survived that tribal council was because Whitney did not vote, but Steph and Mike would not be here either if that had not happened. Luck is a big factor in this game and it came into play at that tribal. Mike drew rocks, and came out on top, and Whitney left.
We are in the same place we were at the final 8, just with two people gone. Two alliances going head to head. Again, I became the one that was in the middle. I was approached by Sophie this time about flipping. We talked to Julie about flipping. Neither would budge. Stephanie found an idol, Mike won immunity, so they had to vote for me, meaning I would be immune from rocks. It all worked out perfectly for me that round as Julie ended up going home and Mike, Steph and I were on top.
The next vote, I was, again, in the middle. This was a constant theme for me in the game. Betraying somebody, but still making myself the person that could potentially flip. At the beginning of the game, I wanted to develop a strategy that put me in positions for people to offer me something and not the other way around, and I did that. I was actually considering flipping this time because I was guaranteed final three if I went with Sophie and Ashley, and I felt like I would have a better chance of winning. At tribal, I realized by Grant's smileys that the jury might not respect a move like that, considering Mike did go to rocks for me. So I stayed with them, and voted for Sophie. I made sure to lead Sophie on so that, if she had an idol, it might not get played. Once I realized that she didn't have an idol, that's when that little charade ended
This last challenge changed a lot of my perspective of the game. I don't want people on the jury to think that I was a goat that just did whatever I was told. I want people to know that I actually made moves and had a gameplan. I figured that my best shot at the end was against Ashley and one of Mike/Steph. This was because I felt like I could try and use Ashley's status of not being in the game the whole time against her. Ashley also told me about how she was the reason Papa Bear went home, and I just figured that I would have a better shot of winning. Against Mike and Steph, it's hard to imagine myself winning because they both played really well, but against Sophie and Ashley, it would have been the same thing. At the final five, I was faced with such a hard decision, so I just had to do what felt right. My thinking was that I could vote out Sophie now, since she was the most threatening, and then I could get out Mike/Steph, and my chances would be better.
So, here I sit. We started with 18, and I'm one of the final 3. I truly never imagined I could make it this far, but now that I have, I want to give it my all. So much of the reason why the jury is made up of the people it is made up of is because of decisions that I made. I thought I could play this entire game without letting my emotions get involved, but that just isn't the kind of person that I am. And I don't think that was a bad thing because I learned to balance my emotions with my strategy. I came in wanting to form a solid alliance, and I did. I wanted to do well in challenges, which I did (early on), and I wanted to be the swing vote, which I did. Every single thing that I came in wanting to be, I became. And a big part of this game is adapting, and you can knock my game all you want, but I adapted at every vote, and learned to deal with the twists that were thrown my way.
Strategy wise, I feel like I did very well. I made decisions that would not only benefit my current alliances, but could also open possibilities of new ones forming. The wall of text above I think describes my strategic game pretty well.
Socially, my philosophy is very similar to Brice's from this current season, 'I give you what you give me'. If I felt like I was being attacked, I fought back and didn't hold back. I did get a little out of hand at that one tribal council, but at every other time, I felt like I was never malicious or rude to people just for the sake of it.
Lastly, my early physical game is what allowed me to do so well at the merge. It set me up in alliances that would have never happened if I hadn't stepped up as leader early on. Later on, my physical game wasn't so hot, but I never felt like I needed immunity to stay in the game. I was never under the illusion that I would be some challenge god, which is why I was so glad that the alliance of me, Mike, Steph, and Grant worked out because I now had people on my side who could offer me something that I couldn't offer myself, which was challenge prowess.
In conclusion, I lied, backstabbed, and betrayed people, but this game is designed for that kind of behavior to happen. I promised myself that I would never put myself in a vulnerable position for anyone else, which meant I had to do whatever it took for me to leave tribal council still in the game. I know that certain promises were made about not voting for me if I'm at the final 3, but at the very least, I hope that this speech has made everyone understand that I'm not just a big goat and that I did make decisions that were for myself, and I have a brain, but a heart as well. I'm sorry if any of my lies hurt you, but I tried to make sure that if I lied, it had to be justifiable, and I stuck by that rule pretty well. At the same time, everything I did led to me being here, so I can't feel too bad. So, tonight, if you vote for me, awesome, if you don't, awesome! I just hope you can vote, not only with your heart, but also with your brain, because that is why I'm sitting here right now. Thank you for reading!
