Fear the afro

[erica]

Sup playas? First off congratulations to all three of you for making it to the finals, I honestly was rooting for Ashley, but I believe that all three of you are very deserving players so I am very happy to see you three in the final three seats. My vote is completely up in the air, I believe part of being a juror is to be fair and give everyone a shot, because we truly don't know it all [despite what some morons in this jury might wanna think] so any of you can earn my vote despite our disagreements in the game, or if we were friends or foes. 

Here are some statements and individual questions:

Carter, out of the three your opening statement was the best in my opinion. Coming into the Final Tribal, I had no idea of who you were, you seemed like a total follower and your O.S. Makes it seem like you actually had some power. I don't really care that you never won a challenge, or that you played a more in-the-shadows game because you made it this far, and you have done a good job explaining why you should become the winner, so kudos to you. However, your social game has me a little puzzled, we had perhaps one conversation but then you went MIA, after that the only interaction we had was when you were calling me out and being rude at Tribal, I want to know what the reasoning was behind this knowing that I would be in the jury, why insult a juror and be unpleasant to them on their way out when you know you didn't have a real relationship with them before?

Spencer, you played a solid game, I think the move to put Ashley, Nadiya and myself on the block was by far the smartest you could have done. You did what was the smartest thing for you, and then you won a lot of challenges that you probably needed. Once, an amazing player told me that a great player does not need to win challenges to survive, and I have to say that I agree with that, if you NEED the challenge wins then strategically you have not been doing your job. Regardless you did show you had a solid game, both socially and strategically. There have been a lot of rumors of you having a pre-game with Jefra and Allie even going as far as saying you and Allie are BFF's in real life. I want you to address this, and explain the situation to me, if it's not true then tell me why people said it was such a thing.

Nadiya, you and I were close allies in this game. I adore you as a person, and normally I love working with you. But quite frankly I did not enjoy working with you this time, often times you would bring up stuff from other games into this one, align with people cause they were your friends from other series instead of the ones we met on this game, and then accused other players about pre-gaming and using their relationships with others. I found it hypocritical, if I am being honest, and it made it hard to work with you. Furthermore you whined a lot about the twists and challenges, and it was just unpleasant. I had never experienced this side of you, and I have to say I was disappointed. I think you did play a solid game, winning when you had to, making some moves, and being social enough, but the whole experience to me was tainted by what I saw as your attitude. I want to give you an opportunity to address everything I mentioned, and hopefully you won't take it as a personal blow.

As a final question I want to see how much attention you were paying to the people who are now voting for you. Therefore I need you to rank the members of the jury from 1 to 9, with 1 being the best player overall, and 9 the worst, explain your reasoning, their strategy in the game, their main ally [or allies], compare them to a player from the show [and say why], and tell me their biggest flaw in the game which would show why they are on the jury and not in the finals. 

Please allow me to remind you all that this IS an alias game, so I am going to vote for who I genuinely feel was a better player regardless of if you are a good friend of me outside the game or not. I came here to play as Erica, and that is how I want to vote. Best of luck to all three of you,

Erica

[Carter Williams]

However, your social game has me a little puzzled, we had perhaps one conversation but then you went MIA, after that the only interaction we had was when you were calling me out and being rude at Tribal, I want to know what the reasoning was behind this knowing that I would be in the jury, why insult a juror and be unpleasant to them on their way out when you know you didn't have a real relationship with them before? 

I mean I could ask you the same question. We had a back and forth feud (where I was, for the record, just joking around) pre-merge on the boards, you were rude and I was rude back. You knew I could very well be a juror and you a finalist, but expected me (and my tribemates) to take your humour as--well-- humour. You called me a stooge that night, and I made fun of you back. You played up your character this game and were publicly rude to many people. Yet, I'm sure you expected everyone to understand that and, ultimately, respect you for your gameplay were you to make it to the end, and check any biterness towards your attitude at the door. So, I expected you of all people to treat me with the same respect you expected from everybody. If I did offend you, which wasn'y my intention by any means, I apologize.

I need you to rank the members of the jury from 1 to 9, with 1 being the best player overall, and 9 the worst, explain your reasoning, their strategy in the game, their main ally [or allies], compare them to a player from the show [and say why], and tell me their biggest flaw in the game which would show why they are on the jury and not in the finals. 

0 - Kathy
I never spoke to you once, Kathy. We were on seperate tribes throughout your entire course of the game and I never had a chance to get to know you. I'm putting you at zero because I can't rank you, since I have no idea what strategy you used. I know you were close to Erica (at least reasonably, since she sided with you at the tie before the revote). Ashley told me you were quiet, but you could have been close to Allie, Gina and Jefra. That would be my most logical guess. Also, judging by Nadiya's OS, you and her were on decent terms. Your biggest flaw was probably not being active enough and not realizing how in trouble you were, despite your 3-1 majority as women. I'm gonna compare you to Purple Kelly, because in my game, you were absolutly invisble.


From here on out, I'm gonna go downwards (from 8 - 1)


8 - Jefra
Jefra, I hate to put you so low, cause me and you had a few good talks prior to the Allie vote, but your refusal to not be in control really ruined my respect for your game. After Allie got voted out and you were on the wrong side of the votes, you didn't attempt to bounce back. Your allies were, you thought, just about everyone. Ashley, Gina, Allie, me and Spencer were all people you thought were with you 100%. You voted with random.org and didn't even campaign to me to save yourself. Your strategy was to stay in control and lead your friends to the end, dictating every vote. However, this not working out for you and your attitude towards that is easily your biggest flaw. I'm gonna compare you to Drew Christy, for obvious reasons (namely the control part).

7 - Gina
I'm putting you so low because you and I ever really spoke and you never attempted to form a bond with me of any kind. Allie and I were closer than you and I, so I probably appreciate her game more, subconciously. Your strategy was to lay low and glide to the end with your allies, taking out the biggest threats to you every round. Ally wise, you had Allie, Spencer, Rich (even though you voted him out) and Jefra, somewhat. Spencer ended up betraying you, and Jefra stopped being loyal to you after you didn't tell her about your plan to vote me out. Your biggest flaw was probably being less active and not having connections with so many people, making scrambling after Allie's elimination that much harder. I'm gonna compare you to Vytas, because you were the victim of a minority elimination of sorts and were kinda screwed when your closest ally (Aras-Allie) was voted out. 


6 - Allie
I really liked you Allie! Our convos were great, but you were pretty inactive and didn't put much effort into this game (thus the placement). Your closest allies were Spencer, Gina and had a similar situation to Gina when it came to Jefra. Your strategy was also to lay low and hopefully ride it out to the end by not being perceived as a threat. Your demise was caused by two things. 1, your inactivity and 2, your lack of an alliance with Erica which led to you being at the top of her bootlist and therefore our only option for a vote that night. I'm gonna compare you to Keith Tollefson from South Pacific, because you were a boot which resulted in a significant power-shift.


5 - Natalie
You're this high, because you only really got eliminated due to a shitty tribe swap which put you in an impossible position. Your allies were incredibly unknown to me (and still are), which is why I couldn't take you to the merge. Your strategy was also pretty unknown to me, but I knew you were friendly and affectionate and probably thought you could work off that. Putting the tribe swap shit aside, your flaw was being a bit inactive (I always noticed you almost never checked the boards) and not investing yourself in the game enough (although you clearly had a lot on your hands with CYS AS). I'm gonna compare you to Aaron Reisberger from China, because you got screwed by a swap just short of the merge. 

4 - Richard
Rich, I'm putting you in the middle because you were a good, active player, but you didn't make the right moves. You failed to realize how fucked you were after the Penner vote and how on the outs you actually were. Your allies were kindof a mystery to me, but I think I was one of them along with Coach, Spencer, Gina and maybe Rudy. Your strategy was to be friendly with everyone, be consistently active and hopefully let your good terms with people get you far. Unfortunately, friendships are not always alliances. Your downfall came from not being strategic enough and not flipping to the girls after the Penner vote, because despite sticking with the guys, you weren't part of our core alliance. I'd compare you to LJ from Cagayan, because you were part of the alliance that made the final 3, but you were taken out early due to being viewed as a liability.

3 - Rudy

I'm putting you here because you played a strong game but, like me originally, you were a bit obvlivious to some of the inner workings of the game (idol-wise n everything). Your allies were SKETCH and uncertain to me. They appeared to be just about everybody, me, Spencer, Richard, Erica, Ashley and Nadiya. Your strategy was to play up your jokes character in hopes of straying attention away from your strategic intentions. You also played more than one alliance and hoped to keep it lowkey. Your biggest flaw was probably this, because it led to me and Spencer finding out and targetting you from the Jefra vote. I didn't attempt to work any other angles and get away from the me vs you vs fake idols vote, because we didn't trust you. I'm gonna compare you to Shane Powers, because your trust was being questioned and you were really the only option at f5, because of idols and immunity. 


2 - Erica
Here you are, #2. You're here because you clearly had a good understanding of the game, but weren't able to make enough allies yourself enough to make it as far as you wanted, although you def got fucked by a twist. Your allies, as far as I could tell were Ashley, since you gave her an idol and were very active with her on the orginal TayTay, Kathy, since you sided with her pre-merge, Rudy, since he refused to vote you out while you were away and Nadiya, although this post gave me insight into your relationship. Your strategy was to be loud, play agressively and inconspicuously go all out. You hoped your relationships and friendships could take you to f3, despite overtly being a threat. Your downfall came from the alpha twist, your week of inactivity, but also from not having any form of relationship with Spencer or myself. Also, from what I've heard, giving Ashley an idol (I'm iffy on all that though, I'll be honest). I'm gonna compare you to James Clement in China (although you were obviously more intelligent). You were taken out early in the merge because you were seen as a threat, you were loud and you were funny.


1- Ashley

I respect your game tremendously. Yes, people helped you out a lot, but this was because you had made them trust you by being such a great, social game-player. Your strategy was to do whatever it took to get to the end, and play as strong of a social game as possible, making bold moves along the way. Your allies were all over the place, but to me they seemed to me myself, Erica, Rudy (ish), Jefra (ish), Gina and Allie, at a certain time, and Coach. Your downfall was due to not really having enough CLOSE allies and being not lowkey enough and thus seen as a threat. I'm comparing you to Cirie Fields in Panama, because you played a strong game, but got cut in a tiebreaker right at the end, to much of the jury's dismay.

Loved the question Erica! Hope you liked my answer.

[rudy]

I knew more than you about idols Carter, I just pretended I didn't. Nadiya confided in me her idol was fake during the Allie vote.

[Carter Williams]

My bad! Erica's asking the question to see what we really knew about the behind the scenes info and the inner-workings of the game. I tried to stay up to date and informed, but, as is to be expected from everyone, I don't know absolutely everything. If anything that proves the whole loyalty thing but that's beside the point. I appreciate the correction.

[erica]

Hi, jurors can we keep the comments about the way you played the game to the jury board, or at least until all the finalists have answered to ensure people answer what they really think and NOT what they think you wanna hear // change their answers since someone else got them wrong?
Thanks.

[erica]

Nov 9, 2014 1:10:05 GMT Carter Williams said:

However, your social game has me a little puzzled, we had perhaps one conversation but then you went MIA, after that the only interaction we had was when you were calling me out and being rude at Tribal, I want to know what the reasoning was behind this knowing that I would be in the jury, why insult a juror and be unpleasant to them on their way out when you know you didn't have a real relationship with them before? 

I mean I could ask you the same question. We had a back and forth feud (where I was, for the record, just joking around) pre-merge on the boards, you were rude and I was rude back. You knew I could very well be a juror and you a finalist, but expected me (and my tribemates) to take your humour as--well-- humour. You called me a stooge that night, and I made fun of you back. You played up your character this game and were publicly rude to many people. Yet, I'm sure you expected everyone to understand that and, ultimately, respect you for your gameplay were you to make it to the end, and check any biterness towards your attitude at the door. So, I expected you of all people to treat me with the same respect you expected from everybody. If I did offend you, which wasn'y my intention by any means, I apologize.

I do want to point that I never took it personally any of those comments. Actually, I wanted to meet you the most out of the guys because of your signature and the fact that you were kinda funny around, and we bickered. However, your argument is slightly invalid because I am NOT a finalist, and you are. I just want to know why you decided not to cater to the jury more, in order to have them respect you more coming into the final tribal. 

[allie]

Carter, I sat there hours competing in the crate challenge where our tribe had more then the other two combined. That's effort.

[Carter Williams]

Nov 9, 2014 2:05:58 GMT erica said:

Nov 9, 2014 1:10:05 GMT Carter Williams said:

However, your social game has me a little puzzled, we had perhaps one conversation but then you went MIA, after that the only interaction we had was when you were calling me out and being rude at Tribal, I want to know what the reasoning was behind this knowing that I would be in the jury, why insult a juror and be unpleasant to them on their way out when you know you didn't have a real relationship with them before? 

I mean I could ask you the same question. We had a back and forth feud (where I was, for the record, just joking around) pre-merge on the boards, you were rude and I was rude back. You knew I could very well be a juror and you a finalist, but expected me (and my tribemates) to take your humour as--well-- humour. You called me a stooge that night, and I made fun of you back. You played up your character this game and were publicly rude to many people. Yet, I'm sure you expected everyone to understand that and, ultimately, respect you for your gameplay were you to make it to the end, and check any biterness towards your attitude at the door. So, I expected you of all people to treat me with the same respect you expected from everybody. If I did offend you, which wasn'y my intention by any means, I apologize.

I do want to point that I never took it personally any of those comments. Actually, I wanted to meet you the most out of the guys because of your signature and the fact that you were kinda funny around, and we bickered. However, your argument is slightly invalid because I am NOT a finalist, and you are. I just want to know why you decided not to cater to the jury more, in order to have them respect you more coming into the final tribal. 

Admitedly, after I had survived the Rudy vote and I realized I actually had a strong shot of making f3, I regretted my attitude towards some jury members (you and Jefra, notably), as I had maybe not been the friendliest. That having been said, I hoped my jokes would be taken as such, but reading them over they can come off as a little dickish. All I was saying before was that, as somebody who played up someone charecterised by their comical lack of respect for other players on the boards, I thought I could act the same towards you. After your vote I held no ill intent towards you, and I hoped that was mutual. If that's not the case then it's an honest mistake and I feel a lil bad, because I had a ton of respect for the game you played.

[Nadiya Anderson]

Ordinarily I try to respond to jurors in the order that they ask their questions, just as a respect thing, but I thought that this was something that I really needed to address. 

Nadiya, you and I were close allies in this game. I adore you as a person, and normally I love working with you. But quite frankly I did not enjoy working with you this time, often times you would bring up stuff from other games into this one, align with people cause they were your friends from other series instead of the ones we met on this game, and then accused other players about pre-gaming and using their relationships with others. I found it hypocritical, if I am being honest, and it made it hard to work with you. Furthermore you whined a lot about the twists and challenges, and it was just unpleasant. I had never experienced this side of you, and I have to say I was disappointed. I think you did play a solid game, winning when you had to, making some moves, and being social enough, but the whole experience to me was tainted by what I saw as your attitude. I want to give you an opportunity to address everything I mentioned, and hopefully you won't take it as a personal blow.


Well, I certainly don't take it personally, because it was definitely a flaw in my game, but I'd like to offer a few rebuttals if I may.

If I'm gonna be totally honest, I didn't enjoy working with you either. I found it unbelievably frustrating that you were so hardcore against Kathy and Natalie because you saw them as inactive, and for some reason that was a bigger deal to you than making the smart move and voting out Jon. Even when you knew that it personally mattered to me on a level beyond the game, you didn't want to listen to me. That made me feel like you don't care about my feelings or what matters to me. Then I felt incredibly used and disrespected when you asked me to help you get the idol but tried to make it so I couldn't possibly find it for myself. It was like you wanted to take advantage of my skills for your own personal benefit, but still put yourself in a better position. And then at final eight, you gave away the idol that I helped you find to Ashley, which was an unbelievable slap in the face. And I'm not saying all of this to try and minimize whatever I did, but to emphasize that you weren't the only one who was frustrated in our relationship. I don't know what was in the water up in here, but for whatever reason you and I just didn't seem to connect the way we usually do. 

Secondly, when did I ever say to you that Jefra or Spencer or Jon or Allie or whoever's pregame made them a bad player? It would be pretty silly to harangue someone for using a strategy that I was also dabbling with. It'd be extra stupid to say that to you, since you were working with me, a known friend of yours. I wanted to vote for people who had those alliances precisely because I knew exactly how powerful they are, and how hard they are to beat. If someone else is using a powerful strategy, why the heck wouldn't I want to stop them? In fact, I think the only time I ever talked smack to anybody about pregaming was when I was telling Ashley that we could probably beat Spencer because of that exact thing, but that was more about trying to boost Ashley's confidence and keep her from doing something stupid than me actually believing that. So, I respectfully disagree that I was hypocritical about it; I wanted people who pregamed gone because I knew firsthand how dangerous those unbreakable alliances can be.  

Thirdly, I do not ever recall whining about challenges or twists in this game, much less doing so "a lot". If you can give me some specific examples I'd actually like to hear that, because I honestly can't think of anything I did beyond generic griping that everybody was prone to. 

Now, as for my whole previous games stuff, I think that that's been blown totally out of proportion. There was only one person in this game that I targeted because of previous games, and that was Jon. However, I stand by my reasons for targeting him. He and I applied together, he found out who I was and then lied about not getting cast, specifically so that he could undermine me and work against me. Then, to top it off, he alias outed me on another board and told everybody who I was here. So, yeah, I brought out-of-game drama here, and I used it to go against someone who already used out-of-game stuff to dick with me twice. Beyond that, Jon is a horrible player who's been caught cheating on a few occasions, and has done some other shit that really doesn't bear repeating here. Believe me when I say that jakbott (Danielle in this game, for anybody who doesn't know) is a picnic by comparison. I won't apologize for wanting him out of here. 

And, yes, there was one person I could have voted off, and didn't, and previous games played a factor. That was Rudy. But, I'm going to point out that you and I both made that decision together. You had wanted Kathy gone forever, and would have happily voted her out over Jon, plus I knew that Rudy could get the guys and we would have numbers in case something went wrong while you were away. Did that mean that I trusted Rudy implictly? No. I had a very hard time trusting him, and he had a hard time trusting me. And, sure, I also knew who you were, but only because you told me you knew who I was and wound up revealing your alias. We wound up working together before that, and it didn't really change much except to make it more annoying when one of us did things the other didn't like.   


On the total opposite end of that spectrum, I hated Ashley's guts in the last game that she and I played together, and she hated mine. I figured out her identity before the game even started, and I had a finals deal with her, and I fully intended on honoring it. I never once judged her on that previous game. Same goes for Gina. She wasn't aliasing, and I knew exactly who she was and how many games she's powerhoused her way to the finals of, and I still liked her and wanted to work with her, even when I had proof that she wasn't really all that loyal to me, because of who she was in the context of this game. 

Contrast that with people like Jonathan, who it turns out I'm friends with, but still called out for crosstribe communication, or Natalie, who I'm very good friends with, but who I was perfectly willing to vote out because it was obvious her heart wasn't really in the game. I know Kathy from other games, and I know that she's hard to trust at times - but I still trusted her and would have worked with her long term if things had gone differently. I knew who Carter was and exactly what kind of strategy he uses, but I chose not to use that knowledge to my own advantage even though I could have. Richard's another person that I had heard of before this, and I had several people warn me that he was a snake who could not be trusted. I went ahead and trusted him anyway, because I wasn't willing to take other people's word for it. 

So, yeah, I knew who a lot of people in this game were - but for the most part I didn't let that influence my game, and I often chose to deliberately ignore those factors when I made decisions. Just because I knew who someone was and/or what their reputation was, that didn't stop me from working with them or against them, except in Jon's case, and that was an extreme circumstance to say the least. 

To sum that up, I won't say that my attitude was always awesome. I'm in probably the most high-stress life situation that I've ever been in, and it's not going to get any easier in the foreseeable future. So I have a shorter fuse than usual, and I'm more prone to looking at the negative side of things. I'm a naturally critical and somewhat bitchy person, and some aspects of this game brought that out in me. But at the same time, I don't think that I was anywhere near the spoiled hypocritical pregame-obsessed player that I've been made out to be. I'm sorry if I gave off that vibe, because I think I've proven pretty conclusively that that's not where my head was at. 

I'll get to the other part of your question (and to everybody else's questions) tomorrow, but I wanted to address that attitude thing first and foremost, and hopefully patch up some of those ways that I misrepresented myself. 

[Spencer Bledsoe]

Hey Erica!

I definitely would agree with you that a strong player doesn't need to win challenges, but the way I play challenges is to go all out. I gave the challenges everything I had, whether or not I needed to, because I gotta give it everything I had, otherwise it means that I'm not doing everything in my power to get myself to the end. Especially at the latter stages of the game, I'm not the type of person to sit back and not try to win a challenge because I think I would be safe or something, so I went hard and I didn't expect to win every challenge from the Alpha onwards, but I did, and I would hope that's not a flaw in my game, but everyone will have varying opinions of my challenge wins and what they meant in the context of the game, and that's completely understandable.

As for the rumours, I didn't start this game knowing anybody. It was only after the tribe swap that I got the chance to talk to both of those ladies and I recognised both of them from different games, which naturally gave me an immediate connection to them. Do people seriously think we're real life BFFs, lmao!? That's kinda hilarious since Allie lives in Canada and I'm in Australia, so I have no idea why people would think we know each other in real life, but yes we did play 1 game that I know of together and we did work together in that game. Having said that, I didn't really get to work with either Allie or Jefra in this game - I did try to keep them off the chopping block early after the merge because I thought they (or Allie at least) would side with me if we got down to the wire, but then both Allie and Jefra started targeting Carter who was my strongest ally, and I really couldn't have that anymore and I had to vote out people who were a threat to my core alliance, even though I thought they might not necessarily target me. I did tell Allie an hour before her vote what was happening as a courtesy to her, but she really didn't have time to act and I was certainly not going to write down Carter with them. Unfortunately the nature of ORGs is that even when we're playing alias with brand new AIM accounts and all, we tend to recognise people since the human mind is very adept at seeking out patterns. However, the alliances that I made and protected in this game were created in this game - yes I recognised a couple of people from other games, but I never really had much opportunity to work with them, and hopefully you can see that I made bonds with people here and I honoured and fought for those people.

Now for the rankings! Let's do this!

9. Kathy - I know Carter ranked you as a 0 Kathy since he never got the chance to talk to you, and I'm in the same boat since we were never on the same tribe, so it is naturally hard to rank your game. However, it seemed as though your bonds with the girls - or at least the Coron girls - weren't strong enough to get you through that vote, despite the majority the girls had over there. I'm going to go ahead and compare you to James Miller from Survivor: Palau because you got voted out on a tribe of 4 because seemingly your connections weren't as strong as some of the others. Evidently you had your connections with Erica and Nadiya, but they weren't strong enough unfortunately.

8. Richard - This is a hard one to choose, but the primary reason I have put you at #8 Richard is largely not your fault. You were a strong member of the Coron boys, but you ended up being in a minority with Coach because of Jon's crazy antics. That's largely out of your control, and the same can be said of Coach as you two were strong players who just couldn't catch a break. Your blindside enabled myself and Carter to survive and ultimately thrive, and under different circumstances, you could have manoeuvred your way to the end and I could be sitting where you are, but I would say that your connections with the remaining boys wasn't as strong and that played a part in your vote. I would compare you to Roberta "RC" Saint-Amour from Survivor: Philippines because of the similarities with how you went home - voted out in the merge Tribal after having little to no friends left in the game, largely because you were a sane person on an original tribe that had a fair bit of insanity, like Tandang lmao.

7. Allie - I thought you were sitting in a great position after the merge, Allie - basically the best position out of anybody - because you were in the majority and Carter and I wanted to work with you and we thought you were going to side with us after Richard went home to take out some of the girls. However, you stalled and you waited too late to make the big move which you could have made, and instead the other girls hit you before you hit them. I thought your biggest mistake was simply not making a move and trusting the girls too much, and it cost you. Your main allies were obviously Gina and Jefra, who didn't vote for you, and you could have used Carter and myself to make the big moves and seize control, but you simply didn't. I would compare you to Leann Slaby from Survivor: Vanuatu because she was also in a great position along with Ami Cusack but waited too long to make the big move that would have been your ticket to the finals, and instead the other girls got you out.

6. Natalie - Natalie, you could have been a real force in the game, but you got screwed by a twist as much as anybody else, and your wings were clipped before you could even fly. You made such a strong case on why we should save you and I was genuinely considering it, but the opportunity to finally vote a girl out was too much to pass up, and unfortunately you happened to be the one banished to El Nido with us. The game could have played out way differently if we had won that challenge on El Nido. I would compare you to Silas Gaither from Survivor: Africa, or you could go with Lindsey Richter for similar reasons - the reason being that you were playing a good game but got screwed by a novel twist - as was Silas until the first ever tribe swap in Survivor history which screwed him.

5. Jefra - Jefra, your game is so fascinating. As the Alpha, you obviously had a fair bit of say amongst the girls in the early part of the game, and then as the game progressed, you grew overconfident in your bonds with people and you expected them to follow you and from what I have heard from people, I would say that you didn't really treat them and talk to them the same way as you did in the early parts of the game. You thought you had Ashley, Allie, Gina, Carter and me, but in reality you didn't have half of that. I think your game bears an insane amount of similarity to Abi-Maria Gomes from Survivor: Philippines - she too was in a powerful position but became overconfident of her alliances and was forced to sit helplessly and watch as her alliance was voted out until she was all alone and voted out herself. I would say that complacency was your downfall. Your strong early game increases your ranking on this but the way you played post-merge really hurt your chances.

4. Erica - Erica, I would rank you higher if it wasn't for a factor beyond your control which pulled you away from the game for a couple of rounds. I expected that your bootlist would have the boys you had never been on a tribe with at the top, which had me really worried, but then after your return, we chatted and you revealed that you hadn't placed us near the top, which gave me so much respect for your game in the sense that you didn't cast votes for strangers until you actually got a chance to talk to them. I thought that was really decent. You had strong connections with some of the girls, especially Nadiya and Ashley, which could have allowed you to get right to the end of this game if it weren't for the Alpha Round (sorry!) but your social game was solid and kept your name completely off the block when you were away, which I think highlights how well you played that. I would compare you to Trish Hegarty from my season Survivor: Cagayan, because you both had loud voices and big personalities, an ability to start fights (in your case fun fake ones) over nothing and nobody really wanted you out until the round in which you actually left, in which idols influenced the Tribal Council, just like suspected idols put the vote on Trish rather than Tony. As for your biggest flaw - I would say it was the perception of strong association you had with Nadiya and Ashley, which made it dangerous to keep all of you around.

3. Gina - I have a lot of respect for Gina's game, because it was really under-the-radar, and it was a complete performance until the rug was swept out from under her feet at the Allie vote. Unlike Jefra, after the Allie vote Gina remained level-headed and she made highly logical proposals and didn't throw in the towel at all. Gina, I think your social game was very sound - everyone liked you and nobody could say a bad word about you, and I think that speaks volumes about you. The biggest flaw is similar to Allie though - not making the move when you could have to propel yourself into a position of control, and after that it was too late. I'm going to draw the comparison to Tamara "Taj" Johnson-George from Survivor: Tocantins, because both you and Taj were often in minority situations, you both had flawless social games and you were extremely likeable, meaning that you could have been extremely strong in the Final Tribal Council but you were both voted out a couple rounds before the Final Tribal Council and your games both came to a premature end - in her case because she was taken out by her allies sooner than expected and in your case because of a game twist.

2. Rudy - Just like Gina, Rudy was an extremely strong social player. I don't think there's anybody here who didn't love it when you forgot all of our names, told us about your ex-wives (or ex-husbands in the case of your third one, unbeknownst to you at the time), revealed your illegitimate son Frosti and coined the infamous VaGina. Sure it was all fun and games, but it was extremely endearing and nobody wanted to see that come to an end. You were an important part of Jon's alliance with Carter and me and as you mentioned, you would have been next to go after me without Jon's antics. I fully expected you to go home when you were down 3-1 on Coron, but the fact that you got through that speaks volumes about the adeptness of your social game and the way you were able to swing things in your favour. Perhaps the biggest flaw in your game was that while everyone liked you and everyone wanted you around, you weren't able to get yourself into a position where you were anybody's number one priority - Carter and I were close, Ashley and Carter had a closer bond as it turned out and so forth. I would draw the comparison to Robert "Bob" Crowley from Survivor: Gabon - aside from the fact that you are both old enough to be my great-great-grandfathers, you both played impeccable social games, and the way you survived Coron is so reminiscent of how Bob got through the Final Four stage of Gabon and ultimately won the game. Unfortunately somebody flipping at the last minute is the reason you went home, which is the opposite of Bob, but in both cases, we are looking at two strong older guys who would have been a huge shot at winning at the end.

1. Ashley - I think Ashley's social game was on another level to anybody else. Whenever I logged in (minus my evenings) whoever was online, Ashley was one of them. It showed a huge commitment to the game, and it allowed her to develop connections with so many different people. You could argue that this was a double-edged sword because she betrayed more people than anyone, but taking a step back and looking at it from the outside, it exemplifies the complete nature of Ashley's social game. I thought she was originally tightest with the Taytay girls, but she also had strong connections with Erica and Nadiya, not to mention getting a huge promise from Carter. Plus the incestuous sex was fun, am I right? I'm still worried that fever she came down with was morning sickness, but even if it was, at least Rudy will have a grandchild before his impending funeral. Cirie jumps out as a perfect comparison to make, but I don't wanna say the same thing, so I will be different and say Malcolm Freberg from either of his seasons, since he was so good at finding idols, playing them in a manner that benefited himself greatly and an all-round social threat who narrowly missed out on making it to the end, and could have been a strong contender if he had.

Thanks for the questions, Erica, and good luck with your decision!

[rudy]

Natalie the only challenge you complained about to my recollection was the f4 tiebreaker

[Gina Crews]

Nov 9, 2014 4:56:50 GMT allie said:

Carter, I sat there hours competing in the crate challenge where our tribe had more then the other two combined. That's effort.

Allie really was a beast in that challenge. <3

[Nadiya Anderson]

Still working on my answer to this (and everybody else's) question. I'll try and have it up tomorrow afternoon. 

[Nadiya Anderson]

Alright, here it (finally) is. Don't ever take an education degree, kids. It sucks up all your free time and makes you want to sleep or die or both. 

As a final question I want to see how much attention you were paying to the people who are now voting for you. Therefore I need you to rank the members of the jury from 1 to 9, with 1 being the best player overall, and 9 the worst, explain your reasoning, their strategy in the game, their main ally [or allies], compare them to a player from the show [and say why], and tell me their biggest flaw in the game which would show why they are on the jury and not in the finals.


Coming in at number 9: Natalie

The reason why Natalie ranks at number nine, even though she's my boo and I love her to death, is that she pretty openly admitted that she wasn't really trying hard. She wasn't playing to win, and she was happy to be an extra vote until she was no longer needed (her words, not mine.) I love Natalie as a person, and she is amazingly kickass when she wants to be, but I don't think her heart was really in it this time around.

Strategy: Basically already been summed up.

Main Ally: Me, probably.

Player: Gabriel Cade in Marquesas. Natalie wasn't really interested in playing the same game that other people were playing, and just did her own thing. Ultimately a change in the tribes got her voted out.

Fatal Flaw: Lack of heart


Coming in at number 8: Kathy

I really wanted to rank Kathy higher, but I think what ultimately got her this low is that she didn't have many opportunities to shine strategically or physically. There were a lot of times where people questioned Kathy's activity, but I think she actually did a great job of working in the challenges when she was able to be here, and she definitely did an amazing job in the crate challenge.

Strategy: I've heard a number of things about what Kathy was up to, but I honestly can't guess what her ultimate plan was.

Main Ally: Erica, towards the end.

Player: Holly Hoffman from Nicaragua. Had some rough spots near the beginning, but managed to pick it up later on and show that she was a competitor. 

Fatal Flaw: Rudy was more helpful to me long-term, plus spotty activity made her an unreliable ally.

Coming in at number 7: Allie

I think that Allie was very good when she was here, and she definitely had the werewithal to get herself into a good alliance with Gina, which could have helped her control the entire game. But she had some issues with sickness and activity, and that got her a reputation for being inactive, which wasn't necessarily deserved, but it made it hard for people not to view her in that light. 

Strategy: A bit more UTR, letting Gina take all of the hits and sticking loyal to her alliance.

Ally/Allies: Gina.

Player: Sierra Reed in Tocantins. Was sick at the very beginning of the game, and that made it much harder for her to get a foothold in the game.

Fatal Flaw: Erica's reverse bootlist, really. If that hadn't been a factor I don't think she'd have gone home then at all. 

Coming in at number 6:  Richard

Like Kathy, Richard is ranked a bit lower than others because he got taken out too early to really shine. I was actually furious that Richard left over Spencer, and I consider it probably the move that cost most of the girls the game. If Richard had stuck around, not only would Spencer's late-game IC run not have happened, but I probably wouldn't have

Strategy: Richard knew he was on the outs and he did a brilliant job of getting himself back into the swing of things. If the girls (I've heard that it was Gina who led that charge and I have absolutely no damn idea why) hadn't randomly swung it back to him, I think he'd have been in a great position to change things up when tensions inevitably got too great, and he definitely had the activity to pull off some challenge wins.

Ally/Allies: Rudy for a bit, me going into the merge.

Player: Michael Snow in Caramoan. Michael was a solid all-around player who could have done quite well for himself, except that going into the merge he didn't have strong enough ties to the dominant alliance to get himself into a secure position, even though there were people that wanted him to stick around longer. 

Fatal Flaw: Possibly previous reputation, because I know that Natalie had spread it around that he was untrustworthy, but also a bit of bad luck.


Coming in at number 5: Jefra

I love Jefra a lot, but I honestly didn't understand her strategy this game. She started off very strong, but then she seemed to basically ditch the girls for Spencer, which made little or no sense, and then I heard that she was coming after me for previous games. Now, far be it from me to degrade somebody for making decisions based on other games, but I was her ally last time we played together, so it seemed like a really random out-of-nowhere moment.

Strategy: From what I can tell, Jefra's strategy was to hook up with a group of people that she wanted to work with and/or could control, and dictate the outcome of the game based on that. It actually worked out decently well, and got her to the final six. And, hey, if it hadn't been for the fake idols, she could potentially have gotten much further than that.

Ally/Allies: First the girls, then Spencer, and by extension Carter.

Player: I would compare Jefra to Brenda in Nicaragua. Jefra was a fairly dominant player who made some good moves premerge, but when the merge game she wasn't able to maintain her power position, and her refusal to change her playstyle got her voted out.

Fatal Flaw: Stubbornness.


Coming in at number 4: Erica

Girl, you played a very solid game all the way around, but what ultimately made me rank ya this low is that you sort of gave up at the end. Ashley was toast, and then you chose to give her an extra idol and let yourself go home instead, so that Ashley could keep playing. I totally respect that kind of honor and self-sacrifice, I really do, but after the rest of us spent a solid week working our asses off to accommodate you being gone, it was really kind of frustrating - especially since you basically refused to throw the Alpha duel, which would have instantly sent me home if I had lost. I dunno, maybe that just feeds back into the weirdness between us.

Strategy: Getting into a good solid alliance with the girls and working together to dictate the course of the game, supplemented with strong challenge performances.

Ally/Allies: Active people, and a begrudging alliance with Rudy after Kathy left.

Player: I'd probably have to compare you to Janu in Palau, because you were willing to give up your spot in the game to give a strong likeable player a shot at going deeper into the game. 

Fatal Flaw: Being unwilling to compromise your principles. It's a positive trait, but if there's one specific thing that put you on the jury, it's that. 


Coming in at number 3: Gina

Gina played a very strong game, and played very well strategically and in challenges. She had a lot of alliances and a dynamite social game, plus she was never willing to give up even when it looked like she was basically toast. Definitely one of the top players, I'd say. 

Strategy: Forming tight alliances with Ashley and Allie right off the bat, and forming secondary alliances to camouflage her true intentions and get herself further into the game. 

Ally/Allies: Ashley and Allie at the beginning, me and Rudy later on. 

Player: Rob Cesternino in Amazon. Played a great social game and made a lot of alliances, but it ultimately came crashing down and she wasn't quite able to recover. 

Fatal Flaw: If anything, being unwilling to vote for Allie when it was brought up, and/or helping push the vote to Richard instead of Spencer. If Gina had been a bit more flexible on Allie, it would have made her a heck of a lot less untrustworthy, and if she'd let Spencer go a lot of the craziness that ensued at final nine wouldn't have happened. 

Coming in at number 2: Ashley

I think Ashley played a solid game, but from a purely strategic standpoint some of the things she did really just didn't make a lot of sense. She backstabbed her alliance with Gina to go with me and Rudy, and then backstabbed me and Rudy to go with Carter and Spencer, who she'd spent most of the game trash-talking, insulting, and trying to vote off. She also stated on a few occasions that she felt like she had played an awful social game and it'd be an insult if she won, but still tried 

Strategy: Pretty much to go to the end with whoever she arbitrarily felt like she liked more at any given moment in time, talk shit about everybody else. 

Ally/Allies: Whoever was most entertaining.

Player: Chaos Kass, for the "I'm going to betray my allies now because of something I imagine they might do later, even though I really don't have much proof of it" factor. 

Fatal Flaw: Betraying allies who never would have turned on her, letting emotion dictate her game. 

Coming in at number 1: Rudy

What ultimately makes me rank Rudy above the rest is that he played a relentless strategic game. He knew what was going on at almost every point, and nobody really knew exactly how well he was doing and how much information he was getting. If he had made it to the finals it would have been a tough sell to beat him. 

Strategy: To use his connections and make sure he was always on the right side of the numbers, while keeping everybody happy and entertained. 

Ally/Allies: Me, Ashley, Gina, Carter. 

Player: Yau-Man Chan in Fiji. Great older player, very smart and game savvy, but got cut short just before the finals. 

Fatal Flaw: Not outing that my idol was fake, not having incest sex with Ashley. 

[erica]

Thank you to all three of you.
I found some of your responses rather interesting, and I believe it showed A LOT about your awareness on the game.
I will read all your other answers before making my decision.
Best of luck to all three.