Natalie's Question (for real)

[Natalie Bolton]

First of all, congrats on making it to the final 3.  I am very happy to see that three deserving people made it to the end<3

Now, since I was not in this game for very long, I have about the same amount of knowledge about each of you.  So I am going to make this very short and sweet.  I do NOT know who to vote for.  I really don't know any of you so I want you guys to make my job a little bit easier.  

I have one question: Which person sitting next to you deserves to get my vote and why?  You can not choose yourself and if you do, I will not vote for you<3

That is all.  Good luck!!!

[Carter Williams]

This is a tough question for me. I'm gonna put aside any knowledge I have of Spencer and his pre-game alliances, because this is unconfirmed so far and say Spencer. Spencer was my closest ally this entire game and played an impressive game. Despite his time-zone disadvantage, Spence always voted for the right person and kept up to date on most stuff (admitedly thanks to me, a lot of the time). Spencer came into the merge really with one REAL ally and down 6 - 4 (at best!) and managed to come back, and sit with a 2/3 majority at f3.

Spencer won challenges when they really mattered and killed them against some serious competitors (myself not included lol). He made a strong descision to nominate the three strongest females at f8, ensuring a threat/ non-ally was to be eliminated. Compared to Nadiya, Spencer comitted more time to socializing, always messaging the group thread whenever he logged on and chatting up whoever was online. Also unlike my other finalist, he spoke to people about things unrelated to the game, putting in time to learn about them on a personal level. He answered every TC question every round in great detail (more than anybody else out of all 18 people that played this game) and with personality. His challenge wins guaranteed him safety all the way from f8 to f3, not having to scramble or worry once. Spencer deserves your vote because he's a loyal guy with a heart of gold. He put in the effort for this spot, literally posting every minute for five and a half hours to win a challenge. If that doesn't show drive and determination, then I don't know what does. 

[Spencer Bledsoe]

Hey Natalie! It's a really tough question for me, because I have respect for the way both of these people played the game, and I think you are choosing between three very different performances here, which should be interesting.

I would have to go with Carter. Aside from the fact that he was my closest ally, he did play a strong social game, not least emphasised by that big public deal he made with Ashley, which was instrumental in securing his spot in the Final Three. He was more active in the public chats and in private too, and I think he developed stronger connections with players, such as myself, Rudy and Ashley. I can't speak for everybody, but I got to know Carter a lot more than I got to know Nadiya.

He didn't win challenges, while I did, so despite the fact that we were the closest of allies and voted for the same person each and every time up until the Final Four, we actually end up sitting here at the end with very different games. But not winning challenges doesn't cost people the game - look at my season, Survivor: Cagayan, Tony didn't win a challenge either.

So in summation, I would go with Carter based on a strong social game.

Good luck with your decision, Natalie, and thanks for the question!

[Nadiya Anderson]

Alrighty. Sorry for the delay, I've been extremely busy with schoolwork.

Which person sitting next to you deserves to get my vote and why?

It would depend on what you value.

I'd like to preface this question by saying that it may come off as a bit hostile, but that's not actually my intent. I do think that the answers have been fairly one-sided up until this point, and I'm proposing an alternate viewpoint, based on what I've seen and heard from the people I was in contact with.

In terms of social game, if I'm honest, I think that I would give a slight edge to Carter. I think that Spencer's response to you shows just how little attention he paid to the dynamics of the group. (Rudy was much closer to me than he ever was to Carter, and Ashley was with me from day one and only jumped ship at the last minute, her relationship with Carter was basically nonexistent for a lot of the game, and from what I've see had absolutely nothing to do with her decision.) He's also making assumptions about how active I was in private chats, which is really just sort of silly. How can he know what I was like in private chat? He never tried starting one with me. In fact, he never once tried reaching out to me until the final four. Even in group chats, I rarely saw him go beyond generic "Hi, how's it going?" unless he was talking with someone that he was already friends with, or had been aligned with from day one, and he never once tried privately IMing me. (Before this comes up, yes, I did try IMing him. I rarely got a response, and if I did it rarely exceed single-syllable words). And, yes, this is mostly based on what I've seen, but I heard variations on that theme from just about everybody else whenever he came up in conversation.

Carter, on the other hand, made a bit more of an effort, even if it was only to try and get himself out of the crosshairs. He did a much better job of reaching out to people he didn't already know, and trying to get himself out of harm's way. He's also made some pretty silly assumptions (like, really, how the hell do you know that Spencer was the only person who talked to people on an out of game level? Have you seen my private chats? Do you know what I talked about with people? Give me a break!) but I think he had a bit more of a finger on the pulse than Spencer did.

In terms of strategy, well, we saw two decent moves at the very end of the game, and... well, that's about all I have to decide that one. They've both basically admitted they really only had each other for allies. For the most part, and this is not to knock them, but it's just being honest, strategizing with those two basically consisted of people telling Rudy what was going to go down, Rudy relaying it to them, and them agreeing. Until the final five, we didn't see any kind of move made by either of them. I again would ultimately have to give the edge to Carter there. I think that he made a very good plea to Ashley, and it ultimately worked out for him. I can't really say the same for Spencer's big endgame move, because after she screwed my deal I was always going to vote for Ashley if he was immune. Carter was widely considered a jury goat at that point, so there was really no way I was ever going to convince Ashley or Spencer to vote for him over me. He's essentially just taking credit for me making the obvious decision.

And, really, let's be honest. I would never have kept my end of that deal. I knew he had friends on the jury who would be much more inclined to vote for him, and that he was only approaching me as a failsafe in case he lost the challenge, and so he could get out Ashley, who he saw as a bigger threat. He'd ignored me for the entirety of the game up until that point. Why would I suddenly become undyingly loyal to someone who was clearly only using me, and never bothered giving me the time of day before that?

In terms of physical game, it's really no contest. Spencer did very well in some of the challenges, and he had quite a lot of good luck in challenges where the rest of us faltered. Nobody can deny that.

So, two out of three, I would say that Carter should get your vote by virtue of reaching out to more people, and that his move was better-executed and changed the game more than Spencer's did.

[Natalie Bolton]

Thanks, everyone <3

[rudy]

In addressing Nadiya there, My ideal F3 was Nadiya-Carter and myself, and I was closest to Nadiya since she put her life on the line in the game to draw rocks to keep me to the merge. I am not sure if Carter would have done the same thing in her position, maybe he would have, but if it ever came down to the F4 where it was Ashley/Spencer immune, and I had to vote for either Carter or Nadiya, I don't think I would have been able to backstab Nadiya right at the very end after saved my ass at the Final 12 (sorry Carter!).