Boilermaker Rick wrote:
Ok, here is me channeling my inner sini to create a manifesto on my game. If anything, I think it provides an interesting perspective on what happened as it went on. I will say that both Dr. Ken and JORR played great games too. In many ways, they played better than I did and I think all of us are deserving for our own ways.
So, let me start by saying that I'm probably the biggest Survivor fan on the board. I have seen every episode of the series from the start, which seemingly is now more than 550 episodes. I've even tried to convince my wife to let me try out though it is a hard sell to take a 40 day vacation alone to play a game and then come back with parasites and other long term health issues so you can be "That guy from Survivor who got 11th place" when you walk through the supermaket. I point this out for one specific purpose and that is to say how much I enjoyed getting the closest approximation to being on the game that is possible. I had done season 1, and I was voted out first because no one trusted me. That sucked simply because it felt I didn't even get a chance to play the game. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to win and collect the cash prize that newper is graciously providing but it was more about the experience. At the start, I set these goals for myself and hoped I could do most of them.
1) Make the merge
2) Make the jury
3) Win an immunity challenge
4) Find a hidden immunity idol
5) Make the final 3
So, from day 1 I started working on them in that order. I immediately created an alliance of 3 with RFDC and Dr. Ken. Once that was secured, I worked on doing the same with Nas. This alliance merged together pretty quickly and suddenly we had the numbers advantage on our tribe if needed. It did help that two of our tribe members for some reason signed up for the game and literally stopped playing right after that. I would end up voting with this group of 4 throughout, with one notable exception I will get to later. This plan worked out pretty well for us as time went on. We were still working with the rest of the tribe but if things went downhill we knew that we were working together. So, the merge came and the biggest flaw in our plan came to be. Donspiracy seemed to figure this out and made a very strong move to jump to the side of the game where he had the numbers. Donspiracy would have made it far sticking with our tribe but ultimately he and IMU were going to be 5/6 of our group.
So, after that vote we were screwed. They had the numbers and could pick us off one by one. I had been talking with JORR pretty much since the merge and I knew that my only lifeline came from him as his team had already tried and failed to vote him out once and would again. JORR also was a great person to work with because he has the most amazing ability to find hidden immunity idols. It was going to take a lot of things to go our way to get any of us to the finals. There wasn't really room for any of us on the crowded alliance on the other other side. Nas was still working other people on the other tribe but they seemingly were very strong together when the numbers were close. However, the foundation was being laid to eventually switch up the numbers. Now, here is where I am not even sure if I was playing a good game, or JORR was playing a great game and I was along for the ride. RFDC went home, and then it was the toughest decision I had to make. We had to prove to JORR that we would vote with him so we turned on Nas and voted with everyone else. Nas was going home regardless but this was the best play we could do and I thought it was needed. We were down to 2 and JORR's alliance took a shot at him but he played the immunity idol and saved himself which then made things 3-3. The immunity challenge ended up with Dr. Ken, JORR, and me all with the tiebreaker advantage. I had finally done enough to convince JORR I could be trusted and we all voted for boyd after we all made an agreement to go to the end together.
After that, I did talk to Peeps and consider turning on JORR as I think he is the clear favorite to win this and if he does win then it is well deserved. However, I could tell how strong the (((Syndicate))) was and it seems pretty obvious that if any of them besides JORR had made the end they would get every vote. Everyone likes Peeps, donspiracy made a big move, and boyd gets angry a lot and people don't want to be on his bad side. So, it came to the last challenge, which I was able to win and then we could get rid of Peeps who was a bigger threat to win the game than even JORR.
So, I accomplished all of those goals except the hidden immunity idols. It wasn't for a lack of trying. I think newper got roughly 30 emails from me on it, and I went 0 for 30. From Gormandize, to Franksgiving, to boardsplaining I kept on trying. I could tell the morse code one immediately but my wife started asking what those strange beeps were from my phone and I knew that I would have to let that one go.
So, to sum it up, I've enjoyed playing with all of you. I played as hard as I could, but quite honestly as a fan of the game JORR played a better game, and Dr. Ken deserves a ton of credit for getting to the end without ever seeing the tv show and also not making anyone mad. I can say for certain that I wouldn't have made the Final 3 without either of them and any of us are deserving. Thanks to newper. This was a lot of fun.
My main alliance in this game was Peeps. I didn't really have any discussion throughout the game with anyone other than he and Rick. My original plan was to try to get to the final with the two of them as they were the two guys I thought I could trust the most- as much as anyone can be trusted in this game. But if you're going to win you have to gamble on people at some point.
Peeps seemed to be a leader of the alliance I voted with for most of the contest. There were two votes where I played idols and it appeared I would have been voted out without doing so but the votes were actually set up by Peeps and me to make it appear that way. Peeps knew I had the idols and directed the vote against me. Boyd also knew but the others did not. I knew the first one had newper scratching his head because he even posted something like "it appears hijinks were afoot in that vote."
The vote where Boyd went out was the critical one in the game. I wasn't sure what to do there. I had come to believe that I was the number 3 guy in my alliance with Peeps and Boyd. I flat out told Rick I was probably going to vote for him or Doc. I didn't want to get outnumbered by the remains of the IGA and voting for Boyd was going to set that up. I was going to play the idol so I wasn't concerned about that vote specifically but I was looking down the road. I had to make a choice. Rick, Doc, and I formed what turned out to be an airtight alliance the rest of the way. I still wasn't 100% sure it would go the way it did. I thought there was a possibility Rick and Doc would join Peeps to oust me. I felt bad about turning on Peeps but then he turned on me in the same vote.
And I knew if Peeps won immunity in the last challenge I was out for sure.
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