Atomic Survivor: Dead Sea

Season 3 of Atomic Survivor, hosted by Nick, Jay O, Julia W, and series founder, Logan.

[survivedeadsea]

By a vote of... 4 to 3

Congratulations Luke! You have won Atomic Survivor: Dead Sea, Returnees VS Newbies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHzZLZvVvzk

Chart:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GknnplcyvSLkcMzw0wm5h0HULcGU99QamyTcc_5Of3A/edit?usp=sharing

[survivedeadsea]

Willow’s Jury Questions

Hi I first wanna start out by congratulating both of you for making it as far as you can. And thanking the hosts for a fun season. Im gonna try to keep this speech short bc I’m pretty tired. I guess I’ll ask you both the same questions. What were your biggest mistakes in this game? What were your opponent’s biggest mistakes in this game? And what were your favorite parts about this game? Alex I wanna know what moves you made in this game that didn’t involve winning challenges, I do think winning challenges is important but I wanna know what strategic moves you made in this game. I also don’t think you deserve all the shit the jury is giving you about your game, bc I feel like challenge scores should at least account for something, but being strategic is still important. Luke, you claimed to have been the one who flushed my idol, yes you were the one who exposed me for having it, but it was Jay who convinced me to play it. I think you made some good moves in this game but there were times when I would try to talk to you and you would say a few words and then stop replying so please explain to me why I should vote for  you. Sorry if a lot of what I said doesn’t make sense I’m kinda in a rush but thanks for a fun season!

Alex’s Response:

(good GOD alex)

My biggest mistake in the game was not making more effort during the 2nd swap to re-socialize with the fans. That was a critical period of time in which I felt way too confident in my position, while I could've been in trouble had we lost a challenge.

I was confident in my alliance with you, Jay and Colin – while still having John, and Luke and Zach being on opposite sides – and didn't take into account other alliances that could have been created during that time. I believe that is the main reason I wasn't included in the alliance that Jay and Zach created after the merge.

I think Luke's biggest mistake was voting against John at final 6. Had Luke voted for Jay, he could have gained more visibility and credit in the eyes of the jury for taking part in a move to eliminate a threat, something which I feel his game completely lacks. That vote was the end of his relationship with John, as evidenced by how Luke failed to blindside Ruthie at final 5 with him, and he lost any chance of being taken by John to the final 2 over me.

 Thanks for the support Willow, and I hope you don't mind if I'm going to use this answer as reference if any other juror is going to ask me about my moves.

I will divide my answer by game phases and try to make it as short and to the point as possible, but this is going to be quite elaborate.

 1.1 Pre Merge, Original Tribe – My first move in the game was offering John my double vote. He was the only person who I felt made an effort to get to know me and our conversations were always fun. John himself admits that move was pivotal, and I insisted to go on calls with him in order to make that relationship stronger, and it became so strong we were inseparable. John was my eyes and ears on that tribe, he gave me information from people like Luke and Dom, who weren't very responsive to me, and I gave him info from Jay back, who openly excluded him from the group of people she felt close to.

While I knew Jack was on the bottom, I had no guarantee it wasn't going to be me next. Evidenced by how Liana was able to get people on her side and thwart our attempt to take her out over Jack, I realized I still don't have control over the fans.

 1.2 Pre Merge, First Swap – as soon as the tribes swapped, I immediately got to work. I was able to get closer to the favorites (especially Kendall, thanks to John) and get into an alliance with Kendall, Sarah and Ryan. At the same time, I had an alliance with Willow and Jay (I suggested to add Colin later) in order to keep myself in the swing vote position. Liana was kept outside of any alliance, which made her an easy first vote so I can preserve my position and stay safe. At that point, I had the most information out of anyone in the tribe. Willow told me about her idol before anyone else, and she wouldn't even have to share it with Jay and Colin if it wasn't for Jay's reward clue which narrowed down the idol options.

 1.3 Pre Merge, Second Swap – The second swap left me with my alliance of four with Willow, Jay and Colin. I was reunited with John, and he filled me in about the votes which happened on new Qumran. I knew that Zach and Luke were both trying to vote each other out, so I was pretty confident about my position (in retrospect, a mistake) and focused on winning challenges, in order for Sam and Ruthie to be voted out on the favorites. That way I could keep all my connections for the merge and won't have to deal with new people so late into the game. Unfortunately, Sarah was evacuated, which severely hurt my game.

 2.1 Merge, Zach blindside – Once I saw Ruthie made the merge over Sarah, I realized I have to recalculate my options. The first challenge was very telling of the relationships in the game, and when I ended up at the bottom of the first round next to Ryan and Kendall, I knew that my position wasn't as good as I thought. Willow has also expressed her dissatisfaction with how Zach was suddenly in a power position, and she ratted his (or Jay's) alliance to me and John. While the move itself was initiated by Willow, she didn't have as much of a connection with Ryan or Kendall like I did, and I had to be the glue that make this unusual group function as an alliance and be the brain behind the strategic decisions. I instructed Kendall to play her double vote and played mine to ensure our numbers (in case a double vote was played on both sides) and take out Zach, flushing his double vote in the process.

 2.2 Merge, Taking out Jay (Step 1) – Following Zach's blindside, I knew Jay's alliance was still holding 3 double votes and very likely an idol, which means our chances of winning that vote were very slim. Everyone knew about Willow's idol too, so it was practically useless in most scenarios. I realized I need to win Touchy Subjects, a challenge I've won in the past thanks to a simple strategy I've developed, in order to make sure I won't be the casualty in the very likely case our alliance would be outnumbered.

My strategy was sending 2 identical lists, in order to maximize the chances of my answer to match the majority in each question. Added by the fact I had good social awareness, I was able to secure a win in that challenge. Right afterwards, Jay began targeting me and started to cause drama in the main chat, pretending to be on the bottom.

I assumed Jay must be aware of the power her alliance still possesses, and that she is trying to attract attention onto herself in order to play an idol. I decided to go on call with her and see to what extent she's aware of her leverage. Jay mentioned how she'd like us to target Willow and split votes on Ryan in order to flush her idol, a move that made no sense whatsoever to her considering we could just vote her out if we wanted in this scenario.

I decided to make the following calls:

-        Tell Jay that Ryan and Kendall are voting for her, in order for her to play an idol if she has one

-        Have our votes on Colin or Luke, in order to flush a double vote if the vote happens to succeed

-        Instruct Willow to play her double vote, in order to tie the votes if only 2 double votes are used by Jay's alliance and not all 3

-        Instruct Willow to only play her idol if all 4 double votes have been played, in order to ensure the idol isn't wasted unless all double votes are out of the game by the end of the round. I preferred Willow to stay safe in that scenario over Ryan or Kendall since she was closer to me

The result was: all double votes were flushed, in addition to Jay playing her idol for Colin. Even though my alliance would have been outnumbered no matter what (7-6 at best), I've successfully disarmed Jay of all the power she had at that point.

 2.3 Merge, Taking out Jay (Step 2) – Ryan's decision to flip was something I didn't expect, and it made me recalculate my strategy again. After winning immunity, I went to hunt for the idol and waited 15 minutes before I made my guess, in order for everyone to think I'm doing a puzzle. Right afterwards, John has been at exile for two hours and actually found an idol, but everyone were still convinced I had it. Ryan was not willing to go to rocks, which meant there were three possible scenarios if we play the idol:

-        We play the idol correctly on Willow, Jay is blindsided, but we're still outnumbered

-        We play the idol on Willow, but John or Ryan are voted out due to a split

-        We play the idol incorrectly, John or Ryan are voted out

I could rule out the option that John was the target, since he had connections with Luke and Ruthie that would keep him safe, however Ryan was still very likely to be the vote, and I felt like playing the idol at that stage was too early and too risky for me, even if we play it correctly. I convinced John to let me hold the idol during the vote, so no matter who was the target – I will still have the idol as a last resort to protect myself in the next round.

 2.4 Merge, Taking out Jay (Step 3) – Willow was voted out, Jay won an advantage in the auction and I won immunity. At that point, it was important to take Ryan out without playing the idol, so we can finally play it when Jay can't split the votes anymore to save herself.

The new and bigger problem was the advantage Jay just bought, and I suspected it's either a tribal skip, steal a vote, or a vote nullifier – any of which would make it once again very difficult to take her out. Early into the round, John and I were pretty sure we were going to the play the idol, so I hinted to Ryan he could be in trouble and that we must take Jay out now. John informed me that Jay got the message, but I wanted to keep trying and see if I can make her flush it. After talking to Luke, Jay has indeed played her advantage – exactly at the one round where she didn't need it.

The rest of the work was done by John. He got Ruthie and Luke to vote for Ryan, and with Jay out of the way we had the numbers to take out Ryan and keep the idol.

 2.5 Merge, Taking out Jay (Step 4) – Most of the strategy was done at the challenge. There was no way to secure a win since Scattegories has a pretty big luck factor (ironically we were given the letter J, too) but I could maximize my chances by putting together a huge list of items, over a thousand, where I could always pick not the first or second but 6th item that comes to mind. I tied with John, and at that point it wouldn't matter who won the challenge. The one isn't immune would play the idol and take Jay out for good. With no double votes, no idol, no advantage and no one to split the votes on, that was the safest shot we could take at Jay and it wouldn't fail.

 2.6 Merge, Endgame – Colin's blindside was a move initiated by John that I decided to go along with, for several reasons which benefitted my game. Taking Ruthie out at that point was tempting, but voting Colin would maximize my chances of not having to go to a tiebreaker in case I don't win immunity at final 4. With Luke failing to vote Ruthie out, and Ruthie owning her life to me and John, this divide-and-conquer was the best final 4 scenario for both John and I.

After winning immunity, I finally started to realize I had a legit chance of making FTC. However, between John, Ruthie and Luke – the only person I felt I can beat was Luke. How can I sit next to Luke at FTC without voting for John?

I knew this is going to be the hardest conflict I had in this game. As much as I want to win, John played a better game and he didn't deserve to go home. Instead of having this impossible conflict at final 3 where I could be manipulated into making a wrong call, I decided to make it clear that my default option is taking John to the end no matter what, so if Luke and Ruthie tie the vote against him I'm not going to be part of his elimination.

If John had won the tiebreaker, I'd take him to the final 2 and if he beat me, so be it. But if he loses, I'll do whatever I can to win FIC, vote Ruthie out and have a chance to beat Luke.

It was a move that was both strategic and moral at once, and the hardest decision I ever had to make in a game.

Luke’s Response:

Hi Willow! So I would just like to say that I didn't take full credit for the whole flushing your idol situation, I did indeed give much credit to Jay, Colin and Ruthie for also working with me on that! Your question to me is why should you vote for me when we didn't really talk all that much. First, I would like to apologise for not talking to you all that much, I do very much think that I am to blame for that and I'm sorry but I do think that you should vote for me! It was hard to talk to you at times due to the fact our tribe won immunity challenges a whole bunch I didn't really talk to anybody much due to that. I think you should vote for me based on the fact that I really did play an overall better game than Alex. Like you said, he did have the challenge wins and nobody can take that away from him but he lacked the strategic and social skills that I possessed. I navigated this game not having to rely on the immunity necklace to keep me safe, I relied on my alliances and my friendships as well as my good reading skills to be able to have a good read about what was going on. I firmly believe that a strategic game should be rewarded over somebody who really did nothing other than win challenges.

[survivedeadsea]

John’s Jury Questions

Hello final 2!! Congrats on making it to the spot that all of us ultimately wanted to make it to. Usually when I end up on the jury I am bitter and set on my vote. This time around I have the unique experience of having the two people I worked the closest with in the final 2. Alex, you and I bonded the very first night and I knew I could trust you when you immediately tried to give me the extra vote we all received LOL. After going on calls and talking every day our friendship became very sincere. We always knew we were on the bottom of something, and we continued to play from the bottom once the merge hit. You're a beast and it was amazing to get to know you. Despite what the jury may have to say to you, I know you are not a hateful person. Luke, you and I also bonded from the beginning of the game in LOHM and then our mess of a swapped tribe. We had some amazing times of you falling asleep without voting and struggling to keep ourselves alive and I was ready to be loyal to you. When we merged you did tell me about the big alliance and we got to work with each other without technically being on the same side. It was messy and we lied to each other a lot, but when it came down to it I was not going to make a move against you. I am not bitter that you voted me out anymore, still love you and am proud of you for making it to the end despite humiliating me by MAKING ME PLAY TETRIS AKDBSOSH.

So that was kinda just a rant but whatever I have a few questions for both of you. 1. Forget big moves. What subtle moves would you say you made to get yourself here? 2. Please write a 5 paragraph essay on why you love me ty

Alex’s Response:

John, I bonded with you in this game like no other and this is a friendship I'm holding very dear. I never found myself in a situation where I'm willing to risk my own chances to win a game so a friend of mine can win, and that was a feeling I had throughout this entire game. You deserved it way more than me, and the only thing standing in your way was that tiebreaker challenge. A few years ago I won a game almost unanimously after winning a tiebreaker at final 4, and by that time I sucked at flash games. It took me years to get better and figure out strategies to do them more effectively, but this is an important part of ORGs. I just want to say, you will definitely win Survivor games in the future, don't let this experience make you have any doubts about yourself or your ability to win challenges.

 To your questions:

 1. I think my most effective subtle move was faking my long idol hunt at final 8. Immediately after I did that, Jay messaged me asking "how was the puzzle?". She openly said the round after she's certain I have an idol, another round later Ruthie asked me directly if I have an idol. I have no doubt that this move worked and created the perception that I found one, however I still consider it a subtle move because it didn't have a big impact on the game in retrospect.

You did find an idol right after, but nobody even paid attention to the fact you were gone for two hours because everyone were so focused on me. So in a way, this move helped you hide your idol too.

 2. I'd expect no other question from you <3 I think you know most of the reasons already but I'll try to surprise you anyway ;)

 Well, where do I begin?

What probably sets you apart the most from other people I've worked and bonded with in ORGs, is the fact you're American. It might sound like the most trivial and irrelevant thing ever, but for someone like me who isn't a native English speaker and has little to no clue about how life in the states are, it is very difficult to find Americans relatable. I always try to initiate conversations that go beyond geographical and cultural boundaries to connect with people, and while I've been able to do it pretty easily with Europeans (non-UK) and Asians, Americans have always been a tough cookie. It's a huge hurdle if you want to establish a strong social game in a predominantly American community of players, and the fact that it played no role whatsoever in my relationship with you is an evidence to how open and flexible you can be with people from different backgrounds.

 Your other best asset in my opinion is your sense of humor, lightheartedness and goofiness. You always had some funny story for every situation which you weren't embarrassed to share, you cared very little what other people might think about you, you never held grudges against anyone or seemed to have any strong negative feelings despite the many frustrating situations this game has faced you with. This carefree and mature attitude was easily charming, and it made me want you to stick around no matter what, because the game would not have been fun at all if you weren't here.

 Lastly, and most importantly, you gave me what most people I met in this game didn't give me – a chance. And I know, some of them are saying now that they actually wanted to work with me, but it was me who isolated myself and mistreated them. I think you more than anyone know the truth, how badly I tried to socialize with people and how poorly were these attempts often received, because you had more or less the same experience (you just have more patience than me I guess).

You always said "yes, it's like that. These people are hard to talk to, I know what you're talking about". I think I had pretty good awareness of how much each person cared about me or was willing to put effort with me, my expectations were different. I've played in communities where the social game is different, and it was comforting to have you reassure me of my perspectives, even though you thought I'm a newbie.

Luke’s Response: 

Ahhhh! I'm sorry for making you play Tetris, I'm sure you definitely hate that game now thanks to me so I truly am sorry! Okay so your first question asks about the subtle moves that I made that helped me get to the end. I'm not entirely sure that I made all that many "subtle" moves rather than just sit back and observe what was going on in the tribes that I was placed on and who was friends with him. A subtle move that I did make was telling you and Sam to vote for me during the round that I played my idol so that the other players (Ruthie, Zach and Nicholas) had no suspicions about us coming into the merge. I really think that this helped you and I especially because people didn't put his together as two people that were ever working together which is why I think you were left out of the alliance that was formed at the beginning of the merge. People assumed I was on the outs thanks to that one move.

My Essay of Love for John Coffey by Luke Blackmore: Wow....John Coffey and I first met at the beginning of Dead Sea. I knew immediately that I wanted to align with you because of your friendship with my loving wife and cat mom, Amanda Dandelion Cappuccino (I'm still feeling the repercussions from her about voting you out!). You added me on Facebook mid-way through this game and became my 727th friend which is a big milestone because 727 AKA 7/27 AKA Fifth Harmony's iconic album is my favourite thing. Working together in this game with you was incredible because we worked really well together which is good because when I inevitably propose to you when I get drunk next week, at least you know we'll be able to work together well ;). I'm totally kidding...unless of course you want to get married because in that case I'm on my way. I've never been really good at writing essays, evidenced by the fact that I've been putting off doing one for around a month now but oops, I have plenty of time to do that, this essay is more important.

I could rant for hours and hours about your eyes...or your hair...or your face...or your...coffey cakes (heh) but you already know that you're pretty so let's turn our attention to your love of dancing around and singing on Snapchat because honestly? My entertainment. You told the tribe one day that you were listening to a Swedish (i think?) boy band and you didn't understand the words to the song but it was still a bop and that you'd been dancing around to it all day and I thought to myself "huh...that is such a John Coffey thing to do, what a wonderful man"! I think you're purely an incredible person and I'm really glad we met in this game. I love that this is basically just a chance to kiss your ass and boost your ego so I hope I did a good job hehe. Much love!

[survivedeadsea]

Jay’s Jury Questions

Luke, at this point I'm leaning towards you, but I'm not sold yet. I always prefer a social and strategic player to a challenge-focused one, and you're closer to that bill in terms of options. But I need a little convincing. I'd like for you to explain your game strategy - how you manipulated others, things we may not have seen, why you worked with people, how you chose to talk to who, etc - while doing an American accent (preferably New York, Philly, Boston, or Southern, but I'll accept any dialect).

As for Alex, I'll be blunt and long winded, since we've been very blunt and long winded with each other this game. You addressed most of your jury speech to me, so I'll address most of mine to you. I'm not a bitter juror. You 100% still have a chance at my vote, even if I have a bias right now. But what I lack in bitterness I make up for in pettiness.

So, as the jury already knows, I accept your apology (if it was that - self defense might be a better word?) and apologize for myself for anything that may have been personal between us, regardless of if it was either of our intentions.

That being said, I do not think you deserve to win this game. I think you routinely confused the ability to win challenges with being a solid, well-rounded player, and I want to make sure my fellow jurors don't believe that winning a lot of challenges means you're a deserving game winner. As a hardcore strategist and socializer who has always relied on those things to survive in games, I feel like you coasted your way to the end and never had to play the actual game of survivor in order to win a place at the end, unlike Luke. You were always safe, allowing you to say and do what you wanted without consequence - and yet you still never seemed to be in control or organizing big moves. If I had immunity every round, it would make me want to play HARDER to ensure I deserved jury votes. From where I stand, your social game was nearly non-existent and your strategic game was "get jay out." The only thing I give you credit for is not taking John to the end, since he would've beaten you handily. Taking Luke was only slightly less risky.

So, since you're a challenge beast, I'm going to give you a challenge if you want my jury vote and the opportunity to potentially play a perfect game. If you don't want my vote, you don't have to do this and you can just campaign for everyone else's vote while I very actively campaign against you.

But, if you do want my vote and a shot at the elusive perfect game, I would like for you, very simply, to explain your strategy on each vote after merge to me. Defend your social and strategic game and prove to me that both of those things existed. Also say something about your jury management, since from where I'm standing every juror but John wants you to lose. So how did you outwit, outplay, and outlast? How were you more than a Joe Anglim or an Ozzy? What pieces of the puzzle am I missing?

Oh and I'd like you to explain your strategy while either doing a handstand or breaking eggs over your head. You may do the handstand against a wall if necessary. There must be multiple eggs and I want to see dripping yolks. Don't bother explaining the strategy if you don't do either of those things.

Good luck to you both and may the better player prove their worth!

Alex’s Response:

Jay, first of all I'm happy about the no bitterness. Pettiness is always welcome though.

 Challenges are part of the game of Survivor, and the fact that Luke didn't win even a single one of them is an argument against him when he's sitting next to me, who won almost every single one. I'm not saying they are any more important than the social or strategical game, but they are not something to be overlooked either. I believe I've played better than Luke strategically and socially, though it's hardly comparable when both of us have worked with completely different people, except for John (and I think it's obvious who was John's #1).

If you're looking for a fair comparison to the show, I'd say my game was the closest to Mike Holloway. He's also been fighting from the bottom and made it to the end with immunities, although I've won more challenges than him.

 Immunity is not a whole lot of power in the game. Being immune only means you can't be voted out, it doesn't give you any leverage in the game before the final 4 unless you combine it with a more complex strategy like I did, and yes I have definitely organized moves and I've been on the right side of the votes more often than not. I didn't play this game knowing I'd win every immunity (even though I've been toying with the idea once Nicholas left, to be honest) so while I was immune for a big portion of the game, I did anything but coast. It was a constant fight on many levels. If you want to talk to someone about coasting, I'm afraid Luke is your guy, because if we twist the question for a second I don't really see anything Luke did the entire merge (I'd say the entire game, but I'll give him that idol play, ignoring the fact he had to play it because he screwed his alliance over the previous round by self-voting).

 You can read all about my moves and my entire game in my very, very detailed answer to Willow (it's a bit more than "get Jay out"). If you want me to read it out loud while doing a handstand I'd love to, but keep in mind it would probably not be intelligible. Breaking eggs is out of the question since I strongly oppose the waste of food.

 I just want to address one last thing – you're saying that every juror other than John wants me to lose, I must be a great final 2 goat then. It's interesting because every time I won immunity someone was very frustrated, or told me that I'm a threat, that I must go otherwise I'll win, that I'm a smart UTR player (I think that one was from you) and so on. Reactions were pretty strong all over.

I would be expecting something more along the lines of "Hey Alex, what do you think about a final 2 deal? Seems like everyone totally hates you" or just general apathy to my existence (much like how Luke was perceived).

The only person who ever wanted to go to the final 2 with me was John, so while I do agree that some jurors aren't my biggest fans (for reasons I've addressed in their speeches) I'm confused as to why people still wanted me out of this game so badly if I'm such a perfect goat to beat. Maybe because I'm not?

Luke’s Response:

Hi Jay! I'm sorry this isn't in a video form but I can't do accents and it's also super late and I don't want to wake up anybody by laughing so hard at my butchered American accent! Your question was for me to explain my strategy. Coming into the game I wanted to play very quietly and not so cutthroat or visual as I did in my previous seasons and I think I did a good job of sticking to that plan. I was very quiet at the beginning of the game choosing to align myself with Dom and John because the three of us had a mutual friend in Miss Amanda Disney. In addition to this, I aligned with both yourself and Colin because I had played with Colin and really wanted to get to know you more. When the tribes switched I found myself in a bad position and to make matters worse, I fell asleep before voting which resulted in one of my closest allies, Dom, being voted out. From this point on I only had John and Sam to help me and I ensured my trust with them both by telling them about my idol and making them vote against me to ensure there safety with not only myself but also with the other side, putting them before myself. During the merge I really kept my non-visual game, only coming out of it when exposing Willow's idol in the tribe chat thanks to information given to me by you. I aligned with the people that I did because they were people I knew of but didn't actually really speak to I thought that this would allow me to make allies with people I wouldn't usualy align with such as you, John and Dom. I really do believe that I did a lot of things behind the scenes and that helped my get here because I was never really a target. Other than the tribal where I negated votes, I only received one other vote and even then, it was a throwaway vote. At the last few tribals where everything got messy, my name was never written down, no matter what was going on I had a safety blanket and I think that's why you should vote for me, I did all that without immunity.

[survivedeadsea]

Zach’s Jury Questions

Now that i’m on the jury, where I should have been (thanks Willow, xo), I get to have a say in who wins the game. Obviously i’ve been out of the game for the longest out of any juror, therefore I missed out on witnessing the moves made during the critical jury portion of the game.

Before I ask question(s) about either of your games, I want to note two things. Firstly, congratulations on making it to the end! My vote will not be based on who I was necessarily closer with, or anything related. It will be purely based on who I think played the better game. Secondly, my vote as of now has not been determined and I am of absolute no clue on who I am going to vote for - so fight hard ;o

Luke. Our game history together has been pretty weird. We were with one another, then you voted me out (even in a tiebreaker), so I tried to vote you out, but you idolled and in the end we were on the same page (I think?) when I was voted out. I got to witness more of your game than I did Alex’s. You presented in your opening speech that you had social alignments, as you knew when to play the idol accurately, and the orchestration of flushing Willow’s idol out.

So I have a few questions for you, nothing big. a) Were you wanting me out during my vote out? b) Why, when you used your idol, did you vote out Nicholas over anyone else? c) What would considerably be your biggest move (or in other words, your most pivotal move) in the game, and why? d) If you could choose anyone to be sitting with you in the final two, who would it be and why? and e) Taken from a fellow friend, rank the jurors (including me and Kendall I guess) game’s from 1 (being the best) to 10? (being the worse) and provide reason.

That’s all!

Now onto Alex. We didn’t really connect ever, which may be because of the continuous merge swaps and us never really being together. However, our lack of communication won’t really interfere with my jury vote. In your opening speech, you stated that people assumed you were playing the game after my blindside. This will be addressed below as I have some questions regarding that. In addition, you displayed an excellence of a strategic game otherwise, including dethroning Jay, who seemed to be in a powerful position in the jury phase.

So, here are my questions for you! a) How did my vote instigate you as a player? What was your impact to my vote? What role did you play? b) What was the most pivotal moment in the game for your particular game? It’d help if you explain why this was pivotal. c) Who do you, in all honesty, think played the best game (provide details if necessary) d) Why should your gameplay be rewarded over Luke with the case of you winning 7 (give or take) immunities? In other words, why should competition wins be valued over not winning any competitions and still making it to the end? and e) Taken from a fellow friend, rank the jurors (including me and Kendall I guess) game’s from 1 (being the best) to 10? (being the worse) and provide reason.

And with that, my questions are concluded. Good luck to both finalists on not only answering these and other questions, but in general! Make the best player win, and once again, congratulations to you both on doing what basically everyone else couldn’t this game.

Alex’s Response:

Thank you very much for the kind words Zach, I was totally blindsided by the last minute jury swap and wasn't sure what to expect, so I'm happy you're willing to ask questions and take my input. We did talk at the beginning on the original tribe, then we split and you working on the opposite side to John during the swap is pretty much the reason we ended up not communicating afterwards. I saw you and Ruthie as one unit and since I never met Ruthie before the merge, there wasn't a lot of room for me to work with you closely.

 To your questions:

 a) The main reason why your vote was my first big play is simple – that was the first (important) tribal council I attended in the game, if we're not counting Jack and Liana. After we merged, I felt like Ryan was going to be the natural vote since I knew he had little connections with most of the fans, and that was the vote I was going to make until I learned of the alliance which included you, Ruthie, Luke, Colin and Jay. You had 4 double votes between you and possibly an idol from Jay's reward secret search, so I realized that letting you all go forward even just one more vote would be destructive for my game.

My role was mostly approaching Ryan with the idea and getting him on board, and to some extent keep Kendall updated and in contact with the rest of us, and instruct her to use her double vote (in addition to mine) to ensure we had the numbers in case one of you used a double vote too.

That was not an easy move to make, I've been told right afterwards how much of a threat I am, and I knew this would come. Going out of your comfort zone and go against a very powerful alliance is something most players don't dare to do.

 b) My most pivotal move in the game was during Willow's elimination. John found an idol that round (after I stayed hunting long on purpose, to make everyone think I'm doing a puzzle), and promised Willow that he would play it for her. I felt like that move was too risky, and definitely not going to help me after I was told Ryan isn't willing to consider working with me anymore. Even if we played the idol correctly, it would still leave the three of us in minority and me as the main target. John himself was very paranoid he could go home, and I had to go on call with him a few minutes before the deadline and convince him to not only not play the idol for Willow, but give it to me to hold in case he's blindsided. In that situation, no matter who was the target eventually, I would still have the idol in case I don't win the next immunity and could plan from there. Asking John to do that, break his word to Willow and put his life at risk was a very bold and difficult move, he passed me the idol literally on the last minute.

Eventually, after disarming Jay and her alliance of their double votes and idol at final 9, and of Jay's tribal skip advantage at final 7, that same idol was used to take Jay out when there was no doubt about John being the vote, and Jay had no way of protecting herself anymore. If the idol was played at final 8 and went back into circulation, someone else could've found it and mess up with my plans.

 c) John has played the best game in my opinion. I know, I am a bit biased because John and I have been very close and I know his game first hand, better than anyone else I believe, so I'm basing it on my personal experience.

John has been in the know about every single thing that happened in this game, or he simply predicted it correctly. He wasn't left out of any pre-merge vote, He predicted Kendall was the vote at final 9, he predicted Willow was the vote at final 8, he knew not to play his idol at 7 and then play it at 6. Once Jay left, John went from the obvious next boot to single handedly dictating the vote to take Colin out. I believe he had the highest chance of winning the game out of the final 4, due to both gameplay and likeability.

 d) This question is almost philosophical, but I'll try to give you the best possible answer without going too deep into it. It all depends on how you see the concept of being immune in Survivor – is being immune an achievement, or is it just a free pass to the next round? It depends who you ask, different people have different takes on this.

I can tell you that personally, I believe winning an immunity challenge is something that deserves credit. It requires time, effort, skill, and dedication – not any less than talking to people and strategizing to keep yourself safe, maybe even more. Seeing the same person winning immunity over and over might seem like it's the "easy way out", but it's not easy. Knowing you need to win, having all this pressure on you and still winning 7 times in a row is not to be taken for granted, I challenge all of you to attempt this in your next game.

Playing an idol for example, is a flashy move that also makes you immune. Is any skill required to find an idol? No, just luck, but an idol play still seem to be perceived as a move more than an immunity win. Playing the idol correctly is tricky, but an idol play is still practically an immunity, same thing for any advantages that make you immune.

While being immune is a privilege of sort, you still need to prove strategical and social abilities in order to be on the right side of the vote and succeed in making your moves.

My connections with Willow and John were pivotal in taking you out, and eventually taking Jay out – a process which took 4 rounds in total. There was a lot of work to be done other than winning these immunities, and at the end of the day I had by far more influence on this game than Luke had.

Luke was next to inactive while he was still playing in Switzerland, he also needed immunity (in the form of an idol) in order to survive, then he needed the 2nd swap to survive following that. Once we merged, Luke was not seen as a threat in any aspect of this game – after Ryan, he was the popular person to take to the final 2 as a goat. This is the reason why he's sitting here over anyone else, and I'm saying that as someone who had numerous opportunities to take Luke out. Why didn't I do it? Because he never posed a threat to me, he was providing information to John – which John relayed to me, and indirectly helped me execute my plans.

 e) Jury ranking:

 1. John – most of the reasons were already given in question c), but I will add my personal favorite about John – the fact that I was not willing to write his name down, willing to take him to the final 2, even if it means losing to him. We were so close it honestly didn't matter to me if he beats me, I'd be just as happy.

 2. Jay – Jay had the second strongest social game after John. She made sure to establish a working relationship with everyone, in and out of her alliance. She was the only person other than me to win challenges this season! One of them being literally a mini-Survivor game. She was always in a position of power, even when she lost the vote, she knew how to get up and fight back. No one would've beaten Jay in this game with any combination of jury, period.

 3. Ruthie – Ruthie was the silent killer of the season. She went to every single tribal in this game! (Except for one) and got no votes against her up until the final 5. This is pretty amazing and an evidence to nearly perfect social game. The only thing that kept Ruthie from winning this game was the fact she was open and genuine about the relationships she had, which ultimately made her too big of a threat to consider going against.

 4. Willow – Willow made the biggest sacrifice in this game, in order to help the people she considered her closest allies. She gave up on a comfortable spot in the majority to play a much riskier game and if it wasn't for my immunity run, she could've made her way back into a power position later. She had the social skills to make herself a popular ally while not being seen as a threat.

 5. Zach – I will admit that I don't know much about your game first hand, mostly from what John, Jay and Ruthie have told me since we weren't together for a long time. You had a tough time being on a losing tribe and you went through a few crazy votes. Like Colin, you've been paired up with Ruthie and Nicholas for the most part. However, you were the one person I felt the most threatened by when you left (after Jay). Jay claimed it was your idea to bring together the alliance, and the fact you were able to get back with Luke after trying to vote each other out is an evidence to a good social game.

6. Colin – The only major flaw in Colin's game was the fact he's been constantly paired up with other people (Jay, Luke, Zach) and never actually seen as an individual player on his own right. This fact prevented him from creating new alliances because the perception was there's always someone he wouldn't go against. He was eventually blindsided by John, mostly for not having much of a relationship with him like Luke and Ruthie had.

 7. Ryan – Ryan has openly admitted he's struggling with the social game. I don't know a lot about his pre-merge, but it seems like he was an easy target from the beginning and didn't manage to improve his position throughout the game. At final 8, Ryan refused to go to rocks and ended up going home next after Willow, which I believe was the move that cost him the game.

 8. Kendall – Kendall's game was not necessarily the worst, but she has definitely been the least active after the merge. Her fight with Jay felt unnecessary to me, and that might've been the reason she was voted out. She wasn't around to change her vote that tribal, and she's not around here to take part in the jury, so I think based on activity it's fitting to put her last.

Luke’s Response:

Oh wow! Okay, you're asking us to do so much ahhh. I'll go ahead and answer each of them, thank you for giving me a chance to be able to explain some things! a) I absolutely did NOT want you to leave on your vote. I was 100% with you at that point, I know things had been a little rocky between us at that point but I was willing and ready to work with you but unfortunately Willow had other ideas and betrayed the alliance. I seriously wanted you to stay, though. b) When I was using my idol, I did think very hard about who to idol out because I had five options, Same, John, you, Nicholas or Ruthie. John and Sam were my allies feeding me informtation, Ruthie and I were fairly close and had talked a little, you and I had been together since the beginning of the game and had been fairly honest with each other up until that point and I wanted to salvage some sort of relationship with you at that point. Then there was Nicholas. Nicholas had played in Hokkaido with both Ruthie and myself and Ruthie had been willing to go to rocks for him in that game to try and save him. I tried to think about a time where I'd seen you and Ruthie be that good of allies to one another and I couldn't. To me, it seemed like Nicholas was the glue that was going to keep you and Ruthie together so I decided to take a direct swipe at the head of the snake and eliminate that so there was some chance I could use the both of you in the future without the danger of Nicholas being there. c) My biggest move in this game absolutely game at the final 4. Alex told me he'd take John over me to the final 2 but would take me to the final 2 over Ruthie. John was my closest ally but to ensure my space here at the final 2 I had to vote my ally John and take the risk and hope that Ruthie pulled out a win over John in the tiebreaker challenge which she thankfully did! Making that move, using Alex's words against him to better my position in this game was absolutely my biggest move and allowed me to sit here at the final 2. d) If I could have anybody to be sitting here in the final 2 with me it would be John. We made a pact day one to make it all the way until the end and we almost had it. Had Alex not spilled the truth about taking John to the finals over me, I would have voted Ruthie out and stupidly gotten 3rd place. I had to adapt who I wanted to sit here with me to the person I least wanted to sit with but here I am and I'm going to try my best. e) Ordering people's games from the worst to the best is always hard for me but I'll give it a go: (please don't let these affect your decision, I'm trying to be honest!!) 1. Jay - Absolutely flawless. She got herself into a good position in the merge with a large alliance and although that didn't work out, we still managed to flush an idol together and make it through several votes. It took an idol to take her out which just goes to show how good of a player she is. (Ranking out of 10: 10) 2. Ruthie - Ruthie always has a great social game. She was close with you, me, Colin and Jay whilst also sneakily being in contact with John and Alex and being in a good position come (Ranking out of 10: 10) 3. John - John, like Jay and Ruthie was in a good position. He was being protected by myself on one side and Alex on the other side which allowed him to slide by virtually unnoticed for a little while. Add in the idol play that took out Jay and here he is, top 3 of my rankings (Ranking out of 10: 8) 4. Colin - Colin was in the alliance that majority for approximately one round but he was involved in the exposing Willow's idol and wasn't really too much of a threat for anybody. The only reason he was taken out was because I was too busy trying to save John to realise that Ruthie was being a lil' sneaky queen! (Ranking out of 10: 7) 5. Zach - Your game was good, you were obviously taken out at the first merge vote by no fault of your own. Willow betrayed the alliance and you were voted out and I think you were targeted because people saw your potential of being a reall good strategic player. Your pre-merge game was amazing and you got insanely lucky with Nicholas joining our tribe. (Ranking out of 10: 6) 6. Willow - Willow really had the potential to be a good player, and she was, but she stumbled when she told Jay about the idol and then proceeded to turn her back on the alliance. This was a mistake that she couldn't recover from because after being exposed as idol holder and betrayer, there really wasn't much else she could do. (Ranking out of 10: 5) 7. Ryan - Ryan also had the potential to be a phenomenal player but I just don't think he was around all that often. He was come to the tribe chat to add his daily cheese emoji but I just didn't see him make those connections to stay. (Ranking out of 10: 5) 8. Kendall - We never talked, she wasn't very active in the tribe chat and was never really seemed to control anything. (Ranking out of 10: 1)

[survivedeadsea]

Ryan’s Jury Questions

Alex. Where should I start? I suppose it all went down hill when you assumed that I would vote out anyone that wasn't in our alliance. Step 1 to a good alliance, you want to try to make a power play by involving your teammates how about you tell them what you're doing. In the words of a Mr. Khaled, "you played yourself." I suppose step 2 would be playing nice with others, and not overestimating your own importance in the game. Which leads into the next problem of your gameplay... Did you forgot who decides whether or not you win? (Here's a hint it's everybody that you made mad in your pointless conquest for power).

Luke. Stay lit man. Yeah you voted against me but you're pretty cool so that's okay.

Alex’s Response:

Ryan, I must say I don't really understand your statements.

I did tell you everything that I was doing, and I always kept you updated with what was going on (pretty sure I did this more than others in our alliance).

I didn't assume you would vote for anyone, you simply never opposed to any vote that I brought up to you. Everything I said was always open for discussion and you were always welcome to give your input, I feel like you didn't communicate with me as much for me to understand what was your point of view and what were your interests in the game.

When I told Jay you're voting her, that didn't come out of nowhere. Jay herself asked me if you're voting for her because she wanted to know who our target is, I explicitly told you there was a chance of her alliance having an idol which is why we must keep it quiet.

About playing nice, I feel like Jay was the only person I mishandled and I addressed that in detail in my opening statements, and according to her she isn't holding any grudges. I didn't involve myself in any other dramas or fights, like I never do in games.

I truly feel like if you only had talked to me, you would understand the logic behind things that I did in the game. I wanted to work with you, I would've saved you if you gave me the option, but you decided that I don't exist for you after Kendall left and just relayed my messages to Jay instead of trying to work it out with me. That wasn't very nice either.

Let's say I'm the bad guy here and I'm in the wrong. Why did you vote for John? Why did you vote for Willow? These people have done no wrong to you, so I am honestly confused what exactly you're trying to say here?

If you want, feel free to talk to me anytime and you'll see I'm not the devil you think I am.

I was playing the entire jury phase of this game from the bottom, so jury management wasn't on top of my priorities. I knew that a lot of people want me gone, and winning immunity after immunity didn't make them want me gone any less. I focused on staying alive, keeping my allies alive whenever possible and eliminate the threats. As far as I know, this is what you do on Survivor and I don't really see why anyone should be mad at me for playing a game.

I wasn't more important than anyone else and I was never seeking power for myself, only tried to strip other players of their power to level the playing field. I'll have to ask you to elaborate more on these comments so I can answer properly.

 (NOW it formats properly.)

Luke’s Response:

Hi Ryan! Thank you for calling me "pretty cool", I appreciate that. I'm sorry we didn't really talk until just before you were voted out but I hope that doesn't affect your decision and that you can see that I really have played this game. Thanks!

[survivedeadsea]

Colin’s Jury Questions

Okay woo so first of all, congrats to the final 2, and thank you to the hosts for putting so much effort into this game and making it so enjoyable!

I suck at jury speeches bc I never know what exactly to say, but I'm just gonna go through both of yall's speeches, give my thoughts, then ask my question so we can all move on.

Alex. Frankly, I'm not a fan of your speech. Like, you claim to be this kind of lone wolf type player no one talked to and no one wanted to work with because you were an "outsider" from the community. But that's.... literally wrong. Pre swap, I was like your biggest fan. I wanted to work with you so badly, and everyone I talked to felt the same. That carried into the merge, where I still wanted to work with you, but you isolated yourself, tried to blindside me and vote me out for whatever reason I still don't understand, then completely ghosted on me and never responded to me again. Sorry, but that ain't a game winning strategy. Going further into your speech, I respect you trying to make amends with Jay, but dedicating your entire speech to her and acting like everyone else is just going to vote how she does is not gonna get you any respect from the rest of the jury. Lastly, literally never mentioning Luke's gameplay, when he's the only person standing in your way of the win? Interesting. ANYWAYS, my question! Finally! I firmly believe that had you not won all those challenges, there would be no possible way that you would be sitting in the final 2. Do you agree? Why or why not?

Luke! King! Congrats on making it to final 2! Thank you for actually addressing your gameplay honestly in your speech. It saved me from the headache of Alex's. Honestly, I'm probably going to vote for you bc your gameplay is far superior, cruising through merge, and having a successful idol play under your belt, but I have to be #fair so. I'll make a bullshit question for you. Which two members of the jury would you like to see in the final 2 besides Alex and yourself?

Alex’s Response:

Luke’s Response:

Hi Colin! Thank you so much for saying what you said about my game, I'm glad that the things I've done haven't gone unnoticed and I'm honoured that you're even considering voting for me after what happened with the confusion of your vote. Your question to me was who would I like to see in the final 2 besides Alex and myself. I would very much like to have seen Jay and Ruthie make the final 2. They both played really good strategic games and I think they were well placed enough on the tribe to have definitely made it there had it not been for John's idol and Alex cutting Ruthie at final 3. I think it'd be a very tough final 2 for me to address and decide who to vote for but it'd be great seeing them both sitting where I am right now.

[survivedeadsea]

Ruthie’s Jury Questions

Congratulations on making it to Final Tribal Council!  Like I said before, I love you both and I’ve enjoyed getting to play again with you Luke- and actually work with you a good chunk of the game this time (What’s up Hokkaido!)!  And Alex I enjoyed getting to play with and getting to know you.  We were on different sides but I enjoyed our talks, you’re really easy to talk to.  You’ve both played a good game in different ways.  While one of you stayed in by being a challenge beast, the other stayed in by playing more of a strategic game.  

Alex- Luke touched on what was probably his biggest regret in the game, I’m curious to know what your biggest regret is, or if there is anything you would do differently if you could hit a rewind button.  

Luke, I have to say, you idoling out Nicholas was one of my favorite parts of the game.  He was my closest ally but it was just SO FUNNY.  I say that to ask this, what was your favorite moment of the the game?

Alex’s Response:

(I love formatting errors.)

Luke’s response: 

Hi Ruthie! I echo what you said, it was really fun to get to play with you for a longer time in this game than we did in Hokkaido, you were a wonderful ally and I adore you so much! Your question to me asked what my favourite moment of this game was. My favourite moment in this game was just after Zach had been voted out, you, Jay, Colin and myself were all feeling very down about just being blindsided so the 4 of us concocted the plan to call out Willow's idol and just be really messy in the tribe chat. It was SO funny to see it happen and I thorougly enjoyed working that out with you guys and then the fact that it actually worked and we successfully flushed the idol was amazing.

[survivedeadsea]

Luke’s Opening Statement

Before I start my opening statement I would first like to thank the hosts for hosting such a fun game that kept us on our toes and I’m incredibly happy that I got to experience the whole thing by making it all the way to the final 2, it’s been a wild ride.

During the early stages of the game, the Qumran tribe winning the first two immunity challenges allowed me to take a backseat and play a more observational game than I would usually play and also allowed me to find the immunity idol on day 1. Doing this allowed me to feel out my tribe members and see who I could and could not work with throughout this game and this ultimately got me added to two different alliances: one with Dom and John and another with Colin and Jay. If I’m being honest, I was absolutely more loyal to Dom and John BUT the fact that the entire tribe all had a common target (Jack) for the upcoming double tribal, meant that I didn’t have to show my cards. A tribe swap after the double tribal saw Jay and Colin go to the other tribe which allowed me to work more with Dom and John. After losing Dom at a tribal council that I slept through (probably my biggest regret) I knew I had to start playing the game. During the tribal council where Nicholas was voted out, I had both Sam and John confirm with me 100% that I was getting the votes because I didn’t want to misplay my idol and in addition to this, I told both of them to vote for me so that I could be a sole vote for Nicholas to leave and also so that I had a direct link to see what they were thinking at the next tribal since they would assume John and Sam had no idea about my idol. However, I survived because my tribe won the next two immunity challenges and then the merge hit.

At the beginning of the merge, I found myself in an alliance that consisted of Zach, Jay, Colin, Ruthie and Willow and I felt good that at least half of the tribe wanted to work with me and with my close connection to John, I seemed set to make it far. However, after tribal council and it was revealed that Willow flipped on the alliance and voted out Zach it seemed like I was serious trouble. Colin, Jay and I came up with a plan to call out Willow’s idol to get her to flush it next tribal and it worked, we successfully flushed the idol and Kendall, somebody I didn’t talk to, was voted out. The next few votes resulted in Jay and Colin going home due to the fact that I was trying to protect John as best as I could due to the fact we had a final 2 deal. Jay was ultimately idoled out and Colin was voted out due to miscommunication but I didn’t directly vote for either them and John still trusted me so at this point, I felt like I had a good shot.

The last two rounds of the game are where I really did fight for my spot here at the final 2 despite not winning any of the immunity challenges. At final 4, I was going to vote for Ruthie and go to the final 3 with John and Alex. However, Alex called me and told me that he was taking John to the final 2 no matter what but would take me to the final 2 over Ruthie so I didn’t want to give him what he wanted. I voted with Ruthie against John, my original final 2, took it to a tiebreaker and it paid off because Ruthie won. Alex won the final immunity and brought me to the final 2, as predicted.

Whilst it might not seem that I was a very visible player, I think I did a lot of different things that acted as catalysts to help propel me to the end. Idoling out Nicholas, flushing Willow’s idol, voting out John and using Alex’s words against him all proved to work out for me in the end as I’m sitting here at the final 2. Alex might seem like the obvious choice to win but he has personally attacked some people in this games, his social game was absolutely terribly and he had to rely challenge wins which means we didn’t get to see how he really truly plays this game and he is so unbelievably cocky, going as far as to say he wants another immunity challenge to make it to the final 1 and win this game.

I would try and go into more detail but I don’t want this to be multiple pages long and I wanted to leave room for you guys to ask me some questions so I look forward to hearing from you all.

[survivedeadsea]

Alex’s Opening Statement

Hello everyone

 First of all, I must admit there's still some tea to be spilled (and I know how much y'all love tea). Some of you might have figured this already by now, but if not then you should probably know this before I go any further with this speech – Alex is not my real name, and I'm not new to ORGs.

I've been playing Survivor ORGs since 2009, in many different communities and series, this is about my 12th game and 5th time in an FTC. I've won games. I've hosted games. This is nothing new or special to me. You're all welcome to add me on my real facebook/skype if you wish to keep in contact or if for some reason you think I'm making this up right now.

The reason I've been less active on the first week of this game was because I was still playing in another game (which I applied to long before this), and I didn't really know what to expect from tumblr. I've played with people from tumblr but I'm not too familiar with the community so it was a gamble for sure, and little did I know I'd become so invested in this the way I was.

I've been recently playing in a closed ID community where the gameplay is much more cutthroat and impersonal, which could be the reason why some of you thought I was playing too aggressively. I give every season a chance no matter how inactive or uncompetitive it seems, because at the end of the day most of us do want to win.

I'm not just competitive, but also a direct, opinionated and introvert person. I'm well aware this package is a hard pill to swallow and you won't see me applying for a popularity contest.

 When this game started, the only person who was willing to give me a chance was John. He was honest enough to admit that people on tumblr games like to stick to what they know and I was an easy target for many, but he still wanted to play the game with me because of the genuine friendship we had. This moment was what gave me the drive to continue despite the impossible odds and win all these challenges in order to prove my worth here.

I could just give up, sit in the corner and cry about how nobody wants to play with me. That's the easiest way to go about things, but it's not who I am. Instead, I focused my efforts in the people who were willing to work with me and went full force against those who weren't. I wasn't going to go down without a hell of a fight. I'm not a victim and never will be.

I'm confident in what I bring to the table in Survivor and I can see why people are threatened and bothered by that.

 After the Zach blindside, I felt like people started to realize that contrary to popular belief, Alex was playing this game, and oh dear he's even playing it well, how dare he?

I felt the way I and my alliance (especially Willow) were treated for making that move was somewhat condescending, as if we're not allowed to commit such deed without the seal of approval from the season's highest authority – Jay.

As soon as I won Touchy Subjects, Jay immediately put a target on my back. At that point her alliance still had all their double votes and very likely an idol, then she was able to get Ryan on her side too after she just voted for him, then she got an advantage. Jay had so much power in this game that my only goal in the next few rounds was, somehow, get her voted out. That goal required a lot of work, which naturally came with a lot of frustrations too.

 I want to take this opportunity to address Jay here publicly, because I didn't get a proper chance to do it in the game and I know she's hurt by things I've said, which I believe she misunderstood and took personally.

 Jay, I don't use snapchat and I've no idea what is going on in your personal life. Honestly I don't even know what the term "night terrors" mean (I assume nightmares?).

I was not referring to this in our last conversation which went south, and I apologize if it came across that way. Please do remember I'm not a native English speaker and I don't know how the tone of things I say sound to natives over text, even if it's grammatically correct (we went on call once so you know how I'm like) and yeah, I'm human too and I make mistakes.

Never ever in my entire ORG career I was told by anyone that I hurt them personally in any way, I'm not involving real life in ORGs, open or closed ID, I'm just not going there.

You openly told me you're regularly seen as a villain in your games and you had bad fights with people. Well, I never had any. I think I deserve a bit more benefit of the doubt here than you're willing to give me. We did get along pretty decently until that point and I genuinely liked you, but you were a huge threat and I needed to push for you to go (and flush your advantage). Would you not have done the same thing to me if you could? I think it's clear there was nothing personal about it, but if it wasn't then I'm making it clear now.

By the time we had that conversation (final 7), there was a legit chance of me being the next voted out and you sitting here. As a juror, I do not appreciate it when a power player is playing the victim to gain sympathy – whether it was your strategy or you just did it for fun – so that comment was supposed to help you aim for my jury vote, not insult your game. You chose to interpret many things I've said as insults when in fact they weren't, same with how I reacted to your "meltdown" following the Zach vote.

I've repeatedly told you during the merge that I respect your game, that doesn't mean I have to like everything about it. We can disagree and have a civilized debate like adults.

If you think that Luke played better than me, by all means go ahead and vote for him.

I ask you to be fair and not abuse the influence we both know you have on this jury and your status in this community to paint me as the big bad wolf. Please be fair with me the same way you'd want me to be fair with you if I were on the jury and you were here.

I ask you as someone who is experienced with ORGs, as a host and a friend of Logan – don't make his game's FTC personal, it's not about me and you. Let it be about gameplay and let the jury vote based on their perspective of me and not yours. I believe that's a fair thing to ask.

 I've already written a lot and I didn't even get to talk about my game, but I do want to leave something for your jury questions. I'm afraid my gameplay is not going to be the hot topic of this FTC (hope I'm wrong) so in case you want a detailed description of my moves, plans, strategies, and of course how I won all these challenges, ask away.

I've got everything prepared anyway but I felt like addressing these issues first and not bore you with a wall of text.

 Good luck to Luke, and… you know, may the best woman win.

[survivedeadsea]

Final Immunity!

Congratulations final 3 on making it this far in the game! Unfortunately you have one last hurdle before you can sit at FTC.

For this challenge you will have 5 separate parts that will test you in many different ways.

Endurance: For the endurance potion you must message your host chat and say “I would like to begin my endurance!”. Then every minute you will need to submit a digit... if you miss a minute, delete a message, edit a message, interrupt the flow of the digits, or miscount your score will be frozen.

Logic: For the logic portion you must attempt to get the fastest time in this puzzle: http://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=193c6b892986

Luck: For the luck portion you will be attempting to get the highest total in Yatzee! https://cardgames.io/yahtzee/

Strength: For the strength portion you will be attempting to get the highest score in Mouse 101: http://www.funny-games.biz/the-mouse-101.html

Speed: Once you all can come up with a time to do a live competition we will be assigning you a plethora of tasks, each for one point... the first person to complete the given task will gain a point... the person with the most points will win this part. This part will be a 2 hr live competition.

For each part you have a possibility of getting 1st (2 points), 2nd (1 point), 3rd (0 points). The individual with the most points out of all 5 parts will win the last individual immunity, a guaranteed spot in the final 2, and the sole vote to eliminate one of your other two competitors. If you have any questions please dont be afraid to ask!

Survivors ready? Go!

Everything must be completed by 7/7 @ 7est, once the winner is announced they will have about an hour to make their decision on who to take to finale.

[survivedeadsea]

Rights of Passage (Pre-Jury)

Luke: We didn't meet in this game but hi icon!

Alex: sorry but I never got to meet you

Ruthie: ROBBED QUEEN! I was really hoping the vipers would make it through to the end this time but I love you and you are amazing, I don’t remember if I voted for you or not but I wish you didn’t self vote!

John: [Nothing]

Luke: We didn't meet in this game but hi icon!

Alex: sorry but I never got to meet you

Ruthie: Love you, really.  I love playing with you and sorry you didn’t make it further. 

John: we never met and idk who you are but rip

Luke: We didn't meet in this game but hi icon!

Alex: sorry but I never got to meet you

Ruthie: I’m really sorry, you didn’t deserve to go when you did, I feel like I was paranoid about that vote maybe? I don’t even remember it was so long ago but you were really nice and I liked working with you. 

John: we never got to play together but your character is Mari and I love Mari so I'm sure I would have loved you rip icon

Luke: Crackedt king

Alex: we talked a bit and I know that you're straight, but not much more than that :( I tried to save you on our first tribal but people had other opinions

Ruthie: I am really sorry but I literally don’t remember you alsjdfsldfj I’m sure you’re nice though!

John: I actually wanted to work with you but you never really got a footing in our tribe. Blame that double tribal cause it could have been interesting had you swapped. You were a pretty chill dude

Luke: Your vote off sucked, I was excited to see you in this game but ultimately I guess it just didn't work out.. Sorry king!

Alex: sorry but I never got to meet you

Ruthie: We always end up turning on one another (i.e- I always turn on you except for that alias game) but that has to change, I love you, my fellow Georgian, if you wouldn’t have left you would have won the entire freaking game, know that. 

John: AJSJAH ugh I'm so sorry dude your vote was so messy. I love you outside the game but we didn't talk like any game at all this time around. I still feel bad that we never got to work together

Luke: I FUCKING LOVE YOU SO MUCH. LET ME APOLOGISE FOR FALLING ALSEEP AND DOING THAT TO YOU I FEEL SO BAD. But I mean hi you went on and won Switzerland so like! King! You're one of my closest friends now, I love you so much.

Alex: congrats on winning Switzerland! I didn't get to talk to you a lot but I heard you're a cool dude

Ruthie: HARDEST VOTE BY FAR.  This was the one I self voted in to get out of making a decision between you and Zach.  I LOVE you so much Dom, you are such a nice person and I love playing with you, I’m sorry I wasn’t more loyal (one day we will play a game where I don’t turn on you) you are still one of my favorite people in the community, when is Brandy going to play her first ORG??? Bye! <3

John: you're my OG and you were taken from us too soon but at least you were able to focus on Switzerland!! Eat your rice

Luke: Robbed queen

Alex: you were nice to talk to in the time we spent together, you really helped us in challenges

Ruthie: I think you are the one person I never played on a  tribe with or maybe we did and we didn’t really talk much, but I think you are so nice!  

John: we haven't played together since that one game where we all got idols and I idoled Chris out. I low key thought you were coming for me for revenge LOL you were lovely to talk to while we were on the same tribe though

Luke: GOD. I am so sorry for doing that to you but it was either you or me and at least you went out in iconic style so it wasn't all that bad? Forever a king. 

Alex: sorry but I never got to meet you

Ruthie: MY RIDE OR DIE!  I told you EVERYTHING, every little thing and oh my god, Luke using that idol to get you out was the funniest thing EVER!!  I’m sorry I lost you but you went out in an epic way, you are my favorite person to spill my entire game to (even when you spill what I say to other people) xoxo <3 Liana- I think you are the one person I never played on a  tribe with or maybe we did and we didn’t really talk much, but I think you are so nice! 

John: I loved talking to you on that mess tribe, the way you were taken out was iconic yet tragic. I hope to keep talking when the game ends wya

Luke: Eurgh a queen. I adore you so much, I'm so sad that you got voted out after the swap. I love you!

Alex: sorry but I never got to meet you

Ruthie: SAM, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH, I loved working with you through this entire game, you deserved so much better, if only we knew Sarah was self voting you might still be here with me, I loved getting to know you and working with you, it was a fun ride, I hope we get to play again and be on the same side again. 

John: usually when we play I'm the inactive one getting online 5 minutes before tribal but we so switched roles this game LOL you had me so stressed at times on that messy tribe. Ily and was so sad to see you go

Luke: Another robbed queen, you're one of my #fans and I adore you for it.

Alex: I was so sad you were medevac'd girl :( such a robbed queen! I really hope we can keep in touch after this game

Ruthie: SARAH queen of getting striked out, I love you and I love that we’re connected by Ned aka the sweetest guy in the Tumblr Survivor community. <3

John: [Nothing]

Luke: I WAS SO SAD ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU. After us never really connecting on the original Qumran we ultimately came together at the merge but rats exist and you were voted out. You're a good friend of mine and a king!

Alex: you were cool to talk to on our first tribe, then we never really got to talk again unfortunately

Ruthie: ZACHARY I LOVE YOU SO MUCH, the way you left had me SO SHOOK, you were all it seemed like I had at that point and I hate that you left.  I had so much fun playing with you, when Nicholas was gone you were the one I spilled all my tea to, you SHOULD have made jury. 

John: [Nothing]

[survivedeadsea]

ANNOUNCEMENT

Your rights of passage are due before tribal council! Here is the cast list:

Colin Jay B. Ryan Willow Kendall

------------------------------- Zach Sarah Sam Nicholas Liana Dom Nic Jack Lily Shea Madison

[survivedeadsea]

INDIVIDUAL IMMUNITY

Over the next 24 hours, you will be playing my personal favorite endurance challenge…

Keith’s Tuk Tuk.

Here’s how it works:

When you are ready to begin, you will send a message to your Hosts Chat saying “Turning on my Tuk Tuk and beginning to ride.” For the next 30 minutes your job is to tell us every 10 minutes that you are still riding along. You will do this by sending us “I’M STILL CHUGGING ALONG.”

After 30 minutes, as you may guess, we will turn up the speed. Now every 5 minutes (for 15 minutes) you must send a message saying “I’M STILL CHUGGING ALONG.” After those 15 minutes? Every 3 minutes you must send us the same message for yet another 15 minutes.

At that point if you’re still trotting along, you must then send us the message EVERY MINUTE until you can go no longer.

FOR EXAMPLE: If I send a message saying “Turning on my Tuk Tuk and beginning to ride” at 2:45PM I must send a message at 2:55PM, 3:05PM, and 3:15PM saying “I’M STILL CHUGGING ALONG.” each time. Then at 3:20, 3:25, and 3:30 you must do the same, and this continues on as the speed increases.

For your convenience, here is the list of speeds and time frames you must send your messages by: “I’M STILL CHUGGING ALONG.” -Every 10 minutes for 30 minutes (3 messages) -Every 5 minutes for 15 minutes (3 messages) -Every 3 minutes for 15 minutes (5 messages) -Every 1 minute for as long as you can (AS MANY AS YOU CAN)

NOTE: You cannot send “I’M STILL CHUGGING ALONG.” any earlier than you are supposed to. If you do, your time will end. You also may not edit any of your posts.

The beauty of this part of the challenge? Us hosts don’t have to be there for you to start! We will be checking your timestamps to make sure you are within the minute mark. Otherwise, you’re on your own. This means you need to know when to turn up the speed and send your messages. Once you mess up, you are eliminated. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask any of the hosts.

[survivedeadsea]

INDIVIDUAL IMMUNITY #6

For this immunity challenge we will be testing your long-term memory! We will be asking you twenty questions about the game... in the event of a tie the person to finish answering in the fastest amount of time will win immunity! Sharing answers or questions in any fashion will results in immediate removal from the game. When you are ready to answer message you confessional chat...

This is due 6/29 (LOGAN’s BDAY!) @10 est

[survivedeadsea]

INDIVIDUAL IMMUNITY #4 RESULTS

First off... Luke and Ryan have chosen to be excused from this competition, they will not receive a strike.

Now onto the advantages and disadvantages... these were discussed between the hosts before the auction:

Jay's minor disadvantage was a -2 deduction from the total score

Ruthie's minor advantage was a +2 addition from the total score

Alex's significant advantage was a +5 addition from the total score

Coming in last (5th) with a total of 17/33 points is...

John

Coming in 4th with a total of 19/33 points is...

Colin

Coming in 3rd with a total of 21/33 points is...

Ruthie

Which means the winner with a grand total of.... 38/33 is Alex! Congratulations Alex, you have a 1 in 6 shot of winning this game. Your votes are due tomorrow night (6/25) @10 est

Jay came in 2nd with a total of 27/33 points.

[survivedeadsea]

INDIVIDUAL IMMUNITY #4

For this competition you will be watching some of Nick’s personal favorite survivor moments. Below are a list of 5 videos you will need to study over the next couple of hours. When you think you have the videos down pretty well you will message your host chat and I will administer the competition. 

If there is a tie, the fastest time wins immunity and a 1 in 6 chance of winning this game!

VIDEO A:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6VhGylLcT8

VIDEO B:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btloxK8_3f4

VIDEO C:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm7O6nZzG1A

VIDEO D:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-5B4Wu4ZxU

VIDEO E:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1GYWTVE0zY