Post by Spencer Bledsoe on Nov 8, 2014 16:37:25 GMT
Hey guys!
I wanna start off by thanking everyone for being a part of this adventure. It was a fun ride for me, it was an uphill battle most of the time, but I've got some great memories and the game wouldn't be the same without everyone here.
Let's get down to business, though. There's a lot of ways of going about this speech, but I'm Spencer Bledsoe, an awesome chess player, so I'll approach it in the most logical manner I know. We all love the game and we all know it's all about Outwit, Outplay and Outlast.
Outlast is pretty straightforward, I think. The three of us here managed to Outlast the rest of the field, and for that, I wanna congratulate Carter and Nadiya for this great accomplishment. Well done, guys, and may the best man or woman win!
I think I did a good job in the Outplay department too. I don't think I stood out as the MVP of any challenge before we merged, but I won a series of really important challenges throughout the last few days that allowed me to get to the end with my closest ally Carter, and I think I really took control of my own fate when I needed it most. I won more Individual Immunity Challenges after the merge than everyone put together - I unleashed my inner #BeastModeNerd when I needed it! And that's why I think I fulfilled the Outplay component.
I guess some people would argue that I just won my way here to the end, and I didn't have much in the way of strategy or social game in the Outwit department, but I did make some strategic moves along the way. Both at the first Taytay vote and the first merge vote, the men were outnumbered and everyone knew a man was going home, and while I definitely didn't want to turn on any of the guys on either occasion, I did everything in my power to protect both Carter and myself, by talking to various girls and trying to get them to look at other options, which for the most part was successful.
The biggest strategic move I made was by winning the Alpha Challenge, which allowed me to split the 5 girls into two groups based on who voted Allie out and who didn't vote Allie out. My plan was to take out one person from each side, which would get us to a 3-3 situation with the girls still fractured. This worked for me because Jefra went home next and the boys got the majority. Obviously idols and things complicated matters after that and we couldn't just ride it out to the end, but I think this play did change the course of the season and allowed me to propel myself to the end.
The other big strategic play I made was to make a Plan B at the Final Four. We all saw the public deal made between Carter and Ashley, and so I offered a private deal with Nadiya so that if one of us won Immunity, we would vote together to force a tie and give the other person a fighting chance. I knew I'd likely be a huge target at the vote if I didn't have Immunity, so I set up this insurance policy to improve my chances. In the end, I won Immunity and I didn't need it, but I honoured my word to Nadiya and forced the tie that I promised her.
Basically I was at the bottom of the totem pole all game - I was supposedly Penner's first target after Ethan went home, until a lot of drama shifted the attention onto both Jon and Jonathan. Then I was in a Taytay minority. Then for one round I finally had some numbers on El Nido, although we had to vote out Natalie who we believed would work with us, so it wasn't as great as we hoped. And then we merged and I was back in the minority. I rolled with the punches as long as I could, and then I won the all-important Alpha Challenge which allowed us to really change the game in our favour. I powered through against the numbers and against the odds and fought my way to the end, and hopefully my plight was an impressive one from the perspective of the jury.
Thanks everyone for a great ride! I will leave it here and I look forward to see what you guys wanna ask me and answer any questions you may have and hopefully you think my game has earned the title of Sole Survivor.
Thanks everyone and good luck Carter & Nadiya!
#TeamSpencer
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