Stranded in Greece :: View topic - Episode 13

Penny: Hi Jury! <3

Penny. Penny. Penny. Penny. Penny.

Penny. Penny. Penny. Penny.

^ (I couldnt get my picture to center lol)

Good evening Jury!

First of all I just want to say how excited I am to have made it to the end. When I came into the game I really had my doubts about how far I could go. To those who aren't aware, im not on the American time zone, and so this game really put a huge dent in my personal life, but I persevered as best I can.

Tonight I am hoping that I can showcase to the Jury that I played the best game. I cant wait for question time personally, because I know we are going to get some really thought provoking questions. I want to show you guys that I really was the only one here in control of my own destiny the entire time.

When I came into the game I told myself I would do whatever I had to do to get to the end. I feel that I played a strong social game first and foremost. I made friendships and connections with as many people as I could. Tactically I think that of the three sitting up here, my game was the best. Initially at the Helios camp I was the one who brought Helen, Brian and myself together. I set up a side alliance with Erin and brought Brian into that. The common misconception seemed to be that Helen and Brian were the leaders of Helios. Not only did I allow this misconception but I encouraged it. Brian and Helen were both my personal shields, who would take the hits while I escaped the limelight. This suited me just fine.

My game was full of risks and gambles and most of which the Jury may not be aware of. If you all go back to the very first Immunity Challenge you'll see that I kicked off the Helios vs Asteria rivalry right from the get go. This was a tactical decision on my behalf to create a division between the two tribes so that come merge time, I would be able to keep my soldiers in line and prevent them from flipping. As the tribal stage continued and Asteria continued to win, I changed the flow of the relations between both tribes. I started to socialise with Asteria, under the excuse that Rob was the only one I did not like. Helios followed my lead and eventually Asteria started communing with us as well.

When Rob originally mutinied to Helios, I came up with the idea to hide the real social dynamics of Helios and invented the entire split tribe persona. This ended up becoming the theme of the entire game, as Asteria were lead to believe that the Helios 4 were divided when in fact they were united for the most part. Once the merge came both Helen and Brian believed that Rob would save us using the connections they had made with him when he mutinied. I knew the entire time that Rob's intentions were fake, and that he only wanted to gather information about us. I was told by Helen and Brian to not do anything to shake up the Asteria tribe and that the almighty Rob would deliver us from salvation.

I didnt listen to either of them and went about convincing the person on the bottom of the Asteria alliance to flip across to me. Using the fake Helios tribal dynamics as well as the promise of a Final 3 alliance, I managed to make Daniel come across to us. This was the most important move of the game, as it allowed Helios a leg up even though our numbers were inferior. This move not only ensured my own personal survival, it ensured the survival of both Helen and Brian.

The argument I will make tonight is that both Helen and Brian's survival was directly dependent on me. I made the tactical calls for Helios throughout the game, and the entire time it was believed Helen was when realistically, both of them relied on my vote the entire time.

However some of my strategic moves didnt end up paying off. Astonishingly, Helen and Brian stupidly voted out Daniel (the one person from Asteria that had actually flipped) and in the process, pretty much wrote off not only my game but their own. I was furious at this decision, from a tactical point of view it was the dumbest thing I'd seen all game. Instead of staying strong with Helios + Daniel, Helen and Brian decided it would be 'smarter' to put our lives in Ted's hands, who had been playing both sides.

Admittedly I had nothing to do with the Ted vote. That day I was unable to be online and it was hard for me to do anything but listen to what the plan was. As I have already mentioned, I am on a different time zone, so during this time I was actually at work during the day.

The Ted vote went to plan and Ted was eliminated. Once here my next vote was going to be Rob. I pushed hard for Rob to be eliminated but unfortunately, these two experts wanted to vote out Joanna (even though she was clearly the weakest of the remaining Asterias). I continued to argue to vote Rob, I was positive he didnt have an Immunity Idol since he hadnt played it before now and was a much bigger threat than Joanna was. Eventually, they all decided on Christy, and she pulled an Immunity Idol and blindsided who I considered my closest and smartest ally, Erin. This was devastating for me, since Erin had been the one person I felt comfortable bouncing ideas across.

The Rob blindside was my idea once again, but its worth noting that it almost didnt happen. I spent all weekend talking with Rob and ensuring him that I would vote Helen. What he doesn't know is that I did actually consider it, but ultimately I knew she would win Immunity and I instead focused on telling him how good a goat Brian would be (which is true) and so, he changed his vote to Christy. Once again, the two experts here thought the smart decision would be to vote for Joanna, and keep Rob and Christy together as the two most powerful Asteria's. I pushed hard for Rob like I had never pushed before, and wouldnt you know it... they came to their senses and voted the way I told them to vote, and we all know, Rob wont home that night.

Now I haven't played a perfect game by any stretch. I have played the best I possibly could the entire time here. I have overcome repeated adversity and fought back with the numbers against me three times (once when the merge started, again when Daniel was voted out, and again when Erin was voted out leaving the numbers tied). I didnt hide behind Immunity, I was vulnerable at every Tribal Council and I am still here. But everybody here knows that Helen would have been voted out a long time ago had we had the opportunity to evict her. I painted the target on her as the threat right from the go. Helen took the hits that I would have had I not passed on the story about the split Helios camps. As for Brian, I never wanted to vote him out, because I dont think there is any way a Jury of people that love Survivor would ever vote for him to win when all he did was get in the way. He is the world's ultimate goat. I dont think he made a single move in the game that benefited anybody other than Asteria. Brian followed orders and was a yes man the entire game.

Yes I admit that I wasnt great in the Immunity Challenges. I admit that I wasnt overly proficient in guessing a number that other people had been assigned, I went out to target Rob on purpose in the hexagon challenge and I also didnt even waste my time on the Final Challenge counting as high as I could. Ill also admit that I spent most of the counting time working on my speech as well as writing up a detailed Fallen Comrades that I really enjoyed writing. However I also had a fair amount of fun telling Helen that I would beat her in the challenge, and watch as she felt the need to get 50-60 pages ahead of me. Every few hours I would message her and tell her that I would be staying up all night and that I would win because I had the advantage of being on a different time zone. Helen was so nervous about her place in this game that she needed a buffer of 6000 odd posts in order to win Immunity. I made her stay up all night waiting until I came online and smashed her record. In reality, I went to bed probably at about midnight my time. I didnt need Immunity, and I wasnt about to waste my time getting it. The fact was that whoever won Immunity was taking me to the Final 3 because I played a superior Strategic and Social game to both Helen and Brian. Ultimately I came out and tried as best as I could in the challenges, but as I have already said I didnt need Immunity and I think this is a really important point to highlight, as I have already stipulated a couple of times, I have been vulnerable at every Tribal Council so far and I have survived all of them. Helen NEEDED Immunity, her name was brought up to be eliminated at how many Tribal Councils? Probably about 4. If you want to award Helen the win purely on her challenge performances then you are certainly entitled to. But ask yourself this question: Why did she need Immunity so badly in the first place? Its because Helen was my shield in this game and I have already proven why.

Apologies in advance for this epic long post. I hope you have taken the time to read it as it points out key moves in the game that I alone made. Once again I will stipulate that I carried these two the entire way here, that I never was 'Immune' from the vote and that I played as honestly as I could while still playing a strong tactical game.

I am looking forward to the question period and I have thoroughly enjoyed the game. icon_chaos

Brian: Hey guys. I'll start out by thanking all the hosts, the cast, and everyone else involved for creating this great experience. I definitely enjoyed it, and hopefully everyone else did. Anyway, I'll get to the point because I think that out of the three finalists, I have the most to prove here if I even want a single jury vote. I'll also spare you from a round-by-round summary of the game events.

I'm guessing that almost everyone right now is thinking of me as simply a Helen follower who wasn't playing his own game and is hardly considering voting for me. The thing is: I'm not going to try to prove that I was the mastermind who was in charge of creating all the alliances, sub-alliances, making the major moves. Because I wasn't. I knew from our first day of conversation that Helen was a player I needed to align with to keep myself safe, so I offered her an alliance the first night. We created a 3-person alliance with Penny the next day and a variety of sub-alliances that we were involved in to make ourselves safe at Helios. I think the three of us started out pretty equal as far as our strategic discussions and sub-alliances went on Helios, but around the time that Rob mutinied, Helen had pretty much emerged in a league of her own strategically with me, Erin, and Penny behind her. Anyone talking to her could tell that she was the biggest threat in the game strategically, socially, and in the challenges by the time we merged.

So, I needed to stay on Helen's side. And I did this by not saying ANYTHING against her to make everyone think that I was fully loyal to her. I think the only person who even approached me about turning against her this game was Rob at final 6 because everyone else assumed I'd just follow her to the end? In fact, I significantly reduced my PMs to other players in order to help orchestrate plans that Helen was attempting and make sure that stories synced, just sending a short paragraph of confirmation to the people involved before the vote for the most part. Part of this strategy I developed was also due to time constraints while playing this game as well, and my schedule got significantly busier around the time we merged. But I was aware of what I was doing the whole time; I wasn't trying to make moves and failing. I was just lurking in the background, watching. Erin, for instance, apparently told Penny that she wanted Helen out eventually when they were working with Daniel, and Penny told Helen this. So, attempting to go against Helen was an enormous risk, and I wasn't going to to say a word about it to anyone until the time was right and it was full-proof allowing me with a path to the end as well.

I think that Helen trusted me to an enormous degree based on the PMs I got from her that she forwarded me from Penny and Rob primarily. And rants about Rob's attempts to scramble/manipulate after each vote that went wrong for him and Penny's crazy last minute plans before the voting deadlines that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. I had enough that I could've used to bring Helen down if I would've wanted by sharing this with the other players, but I wasn't going to do it unless the time was right. The way the game worked out, I actually was 100% loyal to Helen (and pretty much my alliance with Penny and the Helios core as well). However, there were points where I would have considered turning on her if the path to the end would have opened up without her. One of these points was taken away when Christy played her idol and blindsided Erin at final 7, forcing a 3-3 tie at final 6 where Helios needed to stay together in order to make end-game because I didn't want to risk my chances of making it to the final three with Christy, Joanna, and Rob still in the game. And by that point, Helen won every individual immunity challenge, so there wasn't actually an opportunity to take her out either.

I basically thought as Helen as my shield. We even discussed this once, prior to the merge. Even though the two of us were associated and I was aware of her game and the actions of others through her, no one looked at me as a big strategic threat like they looked at her. I was just the backup target when she won immunity, but even without immunity, I still managed to survive these votes because 1) I had proven to be loyal to my allies and they trusted me and 2) I wasn't considered a big threat due to what they deemed as my follower status. Would Helen have survived without immunity those last 4 rounds? I doubt it. She would've been idoled in place of Erin at final 7, for sure. I don't think that my game will be viewed as "strong" as Helen's, but I chose a different route and was here playing, putting as much effort as I could with it in the time that I had as anyone else. Hopefully some of you respect my game and at least consider me as a choice for your jury vote, and I'm looking forward to getting the chance to explain my actions further.

I didn't forget about Penny, but I felt that it was necessary as much as possible to elaborate on my own game and my associations with Helen since I expect that'll be my biggest criticism. Ask me anything!

Helen: Hey guys.

Those of you that have spoken to me for an extended period of time (basically everyone that made F8) knows how I can ramble on, and it is LONG. But, for those of you that (as Christy directly mentioned once) prefer the "too long, didn't read" option, I CERTAINLY DON’T EXPECT ANYONE TO READ THIS WHOLE THING, so there are summaries of each section in bold, and you can pick and choose if you care a lot about a given topic to come back later and read the whole section while we’re not busy doing TC Q&A. This is simply designed to give you insight into my thought process in how I made decisions throughout the game for anyone that is interested. I'm not asking anything more of people than to just go through the bold summaries unless you're interested in a given point because I know that I’m verbose.

The Challenges

tl;dr: I was a leader pre-merge, identified as a threat, and won four-consecutive post-merge challenges, demonstrating knowledge, preparation, and dedication

At the beginning of the game, I didn't plan on coming on strong in challenges. But, after stepping up to do the puzzle in the first IC, that plan fell through very, very quickly, because I realized that my goal of keeping our tribe of Helios strong, large, and intact was far more important. I decided that doing whatever I could to try to make sure we weren't at a numbers disadvantage at the merge was far more beneficial to my game than keeping my strengths a secret.

Others identified me as a "leader" of sorts because of that, having completed the puzzle in IC1, coming up with an innovating strategy to out-think the seven sins game in IC2 (which ended up not panning out, since Jeff told us that we weren't allowed to answer with our pre-prepared answers alphabetically :-P), being an asset for both solving (and attention to detail) with the word search in IC3, before finally solving the "bonus phrase" at the end of IC6 which got us the win and kept the Helios 4 intact to the merge---a pivotal point.

Making myself that big of a challenge presence is what caused people like Erin to decide (and tell others) that I needed to be targeted before we reached a Helios F4 or F5, since I would be too big of a threat. Preventing that from happening was a key part of my strategy that dictated some of my moves post-merge to pre-empt other groups from getting a majority that could take me out in the future.

Finally, winning the last four individual Immunity Challenges speaks for itself and truly sets me apart from Brian and Penny---as those challenges tested key skills of being able to read the mentality of the tribe, preparedness and knowledge of the game (as my OCD self has kept a voting history and challenge tracker to keep track of number of votes, number of clues taken, etc.), thinking fast and, most importantly, how dedicated I was to making it to this seat in the final by staying up all night long to secure my position here.

The Social Element:

tr;dr: people that I didn't have a relationship needed to go, I'm really long winded, and wanted to keep the lines of communication open with everyone as much as I could, I didn't start fights since there would be nothing to gain but bad blood, and after I got Helios the numbers advantage, I stopped the lying since it would just be unnecessary and rude

We all realize that keeping the line of communication open with others is a key component to this game. I did my best to ensure that. Of the (now) ~3200 messages exchanged at Kronos, I was privy to nearly 1300 of them (either sending or receiving those). That's 40% of the total messages here.

When we all first got to Kronos, I already had connections with Helios (including Ted), and through Rob, got to know Christy and Joanna, as well. The only people left were Daniel and Shawna---you guys, I talked to by and far the least. It was for that reason that I knew I had to target you early because I didn't have a relationship with you (like the others) and it would be much harder for me to play the game with you or work with you.

Even after blindsides, I made sure to talk to the people on the other side (like Christy and Joanna or Rob) to try to explain my reasoning (even if I couldn't explain the full story at the time) and more importantly, make sure that they still felt comfortable talking to me, even if they didn't trust me. Just keeping the line of communication open. After the first three merge boots, my game became a lot more straightforward with the Helios 4 looking for a run to the end. I didn't need to (and more importantly, didn't want to) keep lying to the Asterias after so much of it. I genuinely liked them, wanted to continue talking to them, and even if it wasn't fully about the game (or revealing important secrets about past, present, or future). At least to myself, I can justify the lies that I made earlier in the game as necessary to get to a comfortable position, but at F7 there was nothing to gain by being deceitful, and I had no intentions of lying if it was unnecessary.

Equally as detrimental as not talking to someone would be being deliberately argumentative, and stepping on people's toes. I did my best to avoid this, particularly with the Penny/Rob turned tribal rivalry. I tried to keep lighthearted, avoided the fighting at all costs, and behaved like I've always tried to with everyone---and that's just trying to be genuinely kind, no matter what has happened in the game, if I've screwed you or if you've screwed me---because there was nothing to gain but animosity by being unnecessarily rude.

Early Pre-Merge

tl;dr: Brian, Penny, and I worked together from Day 01 to get a majority, I proposed a "Nash equilibrium" solution to avoid getting challenge disadvantages, and we targeted weak performers

The very first night or two of the game, Penny, Brian, and I formed an alliance since, based on first impressions, our conversations with one another seemed to be the most natural and come with the most substance. We collaboratively agreed that we should branch out to a fourth and fifth person so that we'd be guaranteed a majority. Brian/Penny aligned with Erin, and Brian aligned with Jake (who then unforeseeably wanted to add Ted as their third instead of me). So together, we agreed that by appeasing Erin or Jake's wishes for the first round or two, we'd soon have complete control.

One important strategy that I shared with the tribe before the second immunity challenge was a plan to keep our tribe strong by not taking the clues. If everyone agreed not to take a clue, people would have an individual advantage to gain by taking it, and some would, so our tribe would be disadvantaged by one or more clue-takers, and that plan wouldn't work because people are fundamentally selfish. I proposed what some may call a "Nash equilibrium" solution: we all elect one person that we trust to take the clue for the group. That person will ask for the clue and share it with the whole tribe. This way, people won't have anything to gain by taking the clue (as long as we elect someone that we all mutually agree on) and we don't needlessly disadvantage the tribe. We would just end up with one clue disadvantage instead of multiple, and would stand to potentially have an advantage (or a greater advantage) over Asteria. Unfortunately, Ken spoke up that he wasn't in favor of the plan, so it fell through. And because of that, there DID end up being more than one clue-taker. Because of that, we DID lose the challenge. And Ken paid for that by being voted out.

After Ted's mutiny with his idol, we were mainly acting in self-preservation mode. We needed to trim the fat to keep our heads above water over Asteria, so the challenge liabilities were dropped. Penny didn't perform that well, and partially or wholly caused more than one of our losses, but Jan and Jake's aloofness needed to be addressed sooner.

Late Pre-Merge

tl;dr: align with Rob so that we'd have contingency plans post-merge if we were to get pagonged, and because him leaving on good terms and thinking that his friends were in jeopardy would prevent him from taking a clue to disadvantage Helios in IC6 and would also stand a chance at having his allies Joanna/Christy to throw the challenge for our safety

A game theoretical approach. You may agree with it, or you may not; it's totally up to you. But let me at least give you some more insight into what I mean.

You have to expect everyone to make decisions that are in their own best interests. I based my moves on preventing other people from having the opportunity to join up and take me out.

Rob joined Helios and we had no idea what to do. But I reached out and we had a great conversation, which was used as a foundation for an "F6/F4" agreement at the merge. But, in the back of my mind, Rob's best move would still be to axe us off when he had the chance, especially if he had complete control of Asteria like he claimed. However, Brian and I used this agreement as an opportunity to get the Helios 4 safely to the merge and then have good footing once we got there. This is when Erin's fabricated idol came into play, since if Rob truly liked Brian and I like he claimed to, Erin potentially working with Penny and having an idol would be cause for Rob to think that Brian and I would be at risk if we lost, and as such, needed to get him to get his allies on Asteria to throw the challenge. It worked.

Early Post-Merge

tl;dr: Shawna was targeted to prevent Asteria from having the numbers to eliminate Helios; Dan was targeted to prevent Erin/Penny/Daniel/Joanna from joining together after Rob was gone to target me/Brian/Ted; Ted was targeted to prevent Ted+Asteria from picking off Helios and taking a guaranteed idol out of the hands of the other side

At this point, I continued the game theoretical approach. If I saw a group of people that would have reason to band together against me, I needed to strike before they could---even if they claimed they weren’t going to, I put my trust in the numbers and anticipating their best move, because if I give people the power to take me out, it’s my own fault.

At F10, if Rob and Asteria took out Penny like they planned to, Asteria would potentially have a 6-3 majority and we'd face a potential pagonging without anything to do about it. The theory of my game was to put trust in numbers, not people, since people can lie. So, knowing that an Asteria advantage was imminent, we had to prevent it. I reached out to Ted so that we could 5-5 it. Penny got Daniel on board, getting us a 6-4. But, in the event that Daniel was lying about his allegiance, it was important to still be in good with Rob so that we'd know Asteria's target in case it was expected to be 5-5 so that we could potentially use Ted's idol to win the round. Shawna was chosen as the target since Ted wanted Shawna on the bubble, I agreed since I didn't talk to her much, and she was the least likely to have an idol played on.

At F9, now that Daniel proved his loyalty, Penny wanted to go forward with a 3-3-3 plan. I didn't like that idea since we had no idea of what the tiebreaker would be, including if there would be a re-vote, but she didn’t skip a beat at my arguments. Furthermore, I had actually talked to Christy/Rob (the targets) but not-so-much Daniel, who singlehandedly took me out of the challenge. Also, if Rob went as Penny had planned, Joanna could flock to Daniel, and Joanna/Daniel/Erin/Penny could form a majority to eliminate me/Brian/Ted (with Christy, finding us to be liars, probably joining Joanna). Thus, Rob could not go home. Ted wanted Daniel gone, and I agreed, but just to make sure something weird didn't happen with the vote since things were up in the air (and our game would be screwed) Brian and I joined in voting out Daniel.

At F8, Ted took initiative again to target Erin/Penny. However, it became aware to me through Rob that Ted had initiated two plans to eliminate Daniel and now the girls, by approaching Rob with them, and never telling me/Brian about proposing those plans, who Ted claimed to have an F3 with. Now, for the record, I actually do believe that Ted would've gone to F3 with us given the chance (though I'm not 100%); however, him jumping back and forth and him not telling us about his plans meant he was a brilliant game player and dangerous to us. If we let Erin/Penny go this round, Ted could rejoin Asteria and take out Helios one-by-one. I honestly did think that Ted would've gone with us to the end, but the path he wanted to take there left too much up to the decisions of other people, and would have been too dangerous for us. Voting him out is the vote that I've felt worst about, without a doubt. Now, after this vote, Helios needed to expect a 4-3 and needed to avoid any existing HIIs. We knew Ted had one, and were unsure about Rob. So we had to target Ted to prevent a 4-3 situation with the other side having TWO HIIs to wreak havoc on us. Also, since we only had four votes, we needed the other four votes to be split somehow (and I knew to expect Ted potentially voting against the plan, and for his intended target of Erin even if he was assigned to vote Penny), so luckily Ted’s proposed setup that Brian and I had to play along with to split votes was used against him and allowed our four votes to be a majority.

Late Post-Merge

tl;dr: voted survey answers of "most threatening" and "most deserving" to put a target on my head, continued to foster Helios unity and loyalty along with immunity wins to survive as a majority until the end now that we eliminated our ally’s other options where they could turn on us; Brian has my utmost trust and loyalty, we inform the other about everything we do and hear, and I'd have stuck beside him not matter what, hoping that he would do the same, if anything came up, to protect me as I've done for him, but of the two of us, I did more of the personal interaction with others to implement plans

At this point, the group voted me "most threatening to win" and "most deserving of winning" so I knew there was a target on my head. Up until this point, I had done my best with Brian to position ourselves into an alliance that didn't have any external assets that they could work with to turn on us and take us out. Erin and Penny NEEDED to work with us at F7 to prevent Asteria from threatening a tie at F6 or majority at F5 to proceed to take THEM out. Same would apply if one of them got eliminated. That was the goal all along of the first few merge rounds---establish a group as best as I could that couldn’t afford to turn on me early (like Erin had planned to, to eliminate a threat, if given the chance).

At F7, Penny insisted on taking control, like she did in many situations. Even though it would have been in our best interests to not hint to Asteria who our target was at all, so they'd have a flat 1/3 chance of playing the idol on the right person, Penny went through with a plan to try to fulfill her personal vendetta against Rob, and completely ignored anyone else's suggestions. In the process, she ignored reasoning that it wouldn't make ANY sense for Joanna/Christy to vote against their ally when they can, all the same, vote together to put three votes on our of our guys. She believed them anyways (after they’d already lied to her about voting for Rob once before). Her plan revealed too much to the Asterias allowing Christy to very intelligently play the idol on herself and take out one of our own.

From here on out, I knew that I needed to continue to foster Helios unity, loyalty, and trust to get to the end with the group that I’d worked so hard to solidify, and win immunity when I could to avoid the target on my head for what others perceived as being a jury threat.

I've talked to Brian at length ever since the beginning of the game. Much of the decisions that we made were joint decisions and joint plans, particularly in the first few rounds of the merge. I candidly shared with him practically everything that happened and all of my ideas for consultation, and to the best of my knowledge, he has done the same with me. He has my utmost loyalty, and I believe that I have his, as well. And through extensive conversations, our bonding meant that, regardless of immunity, at the F4, the worst that either of us could do was being in a tie against either Penny or Joanna, and that was because of the trust and relationship that grew more every night over the course of the past four weeks. The main difference between our games is that I was the one keeping in contact with our allies more frequently, be it Rob/Christy/Joanna, or Ted, or Penny, to implement plans and make sure things went swimmingly.

The End

Thank you for reading! Even if it was just the bold parts. It's been amazing playing this game with all of you; it's been enjoyable, exciting, and I hope that you all feel the same. I do apologize for the lies and the deceit and the victims that it took, but fundamentally, my strategy was just game theory, and pre-empting people from attacking me. I did my best to never make it personal. If there is any ill will, I absolutely accept and deserve that. Regardless, on my end, there are no hard feelings towards anyone, and I'm looking forward to hearing and answering your questions to give you more insight into my game and the game's of others, so that you can made an educated decision and vote for whomever it is that you think should win.

Helen: Hi Jeff and jury. Ready to proceed.

If I could, there are a few housekeeping matters from yesterday's end-of-evening "rapport" that I went to post only to see that the thread was locked...

Penny wrote:
Thats the problem with your strategic game. You looked towards the end but didnt think about getting there in the first place.

I did think about getting there, that's the entire point. If we "got to" the F5 with you, Erin, and Daniel, then Brian and I would both have been toast and at your mercy. You're angry about it because we were looking out for ourselves, which is the exact same reason that you wanted Daniel in, because he was a bigger asset to you personally. You're telling me that I'm making a bad move for myself by not giving into your F5 where I'm dead meat.

Not to mention, you brought up multiple times how Erin viewed me as a challenge threat and wanted to take me out before we even reached the end (since she was comparable in challenges and likely could've gone on the same IC streak that I did). With Rob gone at F9, Daniel could have recruited Joanna, and I'd have been expendable as soon as F8, so I wouldn't have even "got to" there in the first place.

This is why you refrained from telling Daniel your endgame plans in his FTC question yesterday because by answering honestly you would confirm that eliminating Daniel was right for Brian's and mine protection when all you've ever done is chastise us for it because it wasn't good for you. Moreover, you've acknowledged that I was a social and physical threat, meaning as soon as an alliance was comfortable and could dispose of a number, it would be me. F10 through F8 was all about protecting myself from you and others having the capability to turn and take me out.

You've pledged since Day 01 that your loyalty was to me and Brian, so either:

(1) you were lying then, because, as you've shared with the jury already last night, you were apparently as trigger happy as Erin to take me out, so I couldn't let you have the numbers to do it, and hence, Daniel fell victim.

(2) you really were loyal, and you're lying now to save face in your endeavor to have Carmen Sandiego erase history so that you can re-write it.

Penny wrote:
I made the big moves and the big calls. I was prepared to go home every night and took huge risks

Your big moves were all to eliminate your enemy Rob, which stood for you to benefit from more than others. You pressured Ted to flush his idol on eliminating Rob at Asteria, which luckily he didn't. You recruited Daniel to vote out Rob at F10, but we kept you from doing that since Rob was our asset for F9/F8. You tried to get Joanna/Christy to vote against their closest ally Rob at F9 (and you believed them) in a failed 3-3-3 that wouldn't have worked anyways because we told you Ted wasn't down for doing it. And then, you expected Joanna/Christy to vote against their closest ally Rob (again, since it's not like they lied about it last time) at F7 (and you believed them) in a failed 3-3-1 that Erin suffered for. You did take risks because you viewed the safety of your allies as an acceptable sacrifice in your personal quest to fulfill your blind personal vendetta on your arch nemesis.

Penny wrote:
The fact is if we'd voted for Rob not only that round, but the multitude of rounds beforehand he would have gone home. Christy playing the Idol is not my fault, had you two both trusted my judgement and voted out Rob just once before, we wouldnt have been in the mess in the first place. Erin will also share the amount of times that I brought Rob's name up for elimination, and the amount of times the pair of you shut down that option because "Oh he might the Idol, boo hoo."

Let me get something straight. You're mad that Brian and I didn't join you to vote out Rob the 17 times that you wanted to? Well, just to be clear, as long as Rob stayed in the game, "Rob" was the only name you were uttering since you apparently loathe him so much to want him out every round, meaning you wouldn't be targeting "Helen" and "Brian." This is why we targeted people OTHER THAN Rob. And yet, you chastise us more for not giving into your every reasonless impulse because WE are each playing the game for our OWN self-preservation and NOT playing the game for YOU.

Penny wrote:
This is completely false. I told you to vote for Rob the entire time, because I knew that if you happened to lose the Immunity Challenge, you would beat Rob in a challenge tie breaker and so my greatest threat would be out of the game while I would keep my numbers.

No, actually, you said that JOANNA was the best shot of us winning the tiebreaker challenge. But you're right in saying that Rob was YOUR (and just YOUR) greatest threat.

One, I thought you already told the jury that you were targeting me every round? If that's not the case, then I suppose that keeping Rob in the game ended up being advantageous for me, huh?

Two, you claiming that you didn't agree all weekend long to vote out Joanna is about as historically accurate as you claiming that we're more responsible than you are for Erin getting idoled out, or later tonight, when you take credit for erecting the Greek Parthenon and then blame Brian and I for it being in ruins centuries later.

Penny wrote:
The two of you were stupid enough to believe that Rob would actually flip to us after we spent all pre-merge bagging him

Not only have you completely ignored the explanations about this that I gave you at F11 and F10, but you aren't even bothering to read what I already wrote to correct your misconception here in FTC. You can refer to the first point in the bottommost post on Page 2 of this thread (replacing typo: "we were with us" to "we were with them" explaining why it was important for Rob to trust us with his target to save with Ted's idol and avoid a 5-5 tie, and you didn't care about jeopardizing any of that because you constantly demand attention).

Penny wrote:
You're lucky that I fought so hard to keep us alive after the Daniel vote, or else all three of us wouldnt have made it this far.

I don't know how that's true, because until last night, you didn't even know the whole story about the Daniel vote, not to mention, the only thing you did at F8 was vote according to our plan (that is, after you tried to "help" by thoughtlessly telling Christy/Joanna/Rob that Brian and I were targeting them when the entire plan was founded on Christy/Joanna/Rob trusting us to vote for you, meaning you forced us to do otherwise unnecessary damage control because you have to try to ruin any plan that's not your own).

The three of us (you, me, and Brian) voted together for 8/10 TCs. The two that we didn't include when Brian and I took out Daniel who you just said you wanted to be your goat and then when you demanded that Brian, Erin, and I vote for Christy while you senselessly voted for Rob (meaning, even if Christy didn't play her idol, that Erin would have been subjected to a tiebreaker since you were that narrow-minded to still try to take Rob out and expect his closest allies to vote for him instead of one of the four of us that were targeting them).

We all need to accept that fact that each of us being here is partly indebted to ourselves, partly indebted to luck, and partly indebted to the other two, among a NUMBER of other things. If you think that you were guaranteed to be sitting here tonight no matter what anyone else did because you think that highly of yourself (you seem to forget how many times we could've joined the already-present effort to vote you out and did it successfully), that makes you delusional.

Penny wrote:
You were plotting against me from that episode. This proves that I am a better player than you.

icon_laughing

I don't even know how the fuck you get that, but okay!

It's easy to make baseless sweeping generalizations like "your strategic game was inadequate" or "I am a better player than you," but it's a lot more difficult to actually defend them without basking in your own ignorance about which plans were actually crafted by people besides yourself while hiding your own doesn't-play-well-with-others attitude.

Author:	Brenda [ Tue Jan 31, 2012 7:16:22 pm ]
Post subject:	Episode 13 - The Scooby Doo Reveal
Previously on Stranded Episode 13 - Final 4 The Scooby Doo Reveal Fallen Comrades Jeff: This is a great way to reflect on the game, complete your experience and also a great way to figure out a great jury speech since you will be going over every boot in the game and your experience with that person (or lack thereof). Good luck and I hope you can take the time out to do this. Helen: I never spoke to you, and it seemed like you getting voted out was a result of lack of dedication and inactivity. I guess that's all I can say. Penny: Helios were privately hoping that Rob would be voted out. So your eviction was sad for us. While you obviously didnt get much of a go, I'd like to think you were cast as Butch because you were something like the real Butch, and if that was the case, you would have done well. Brian: If you're new to these games, it's unfortunate that your experience started this way, but hopefully you stick with them and have a freer schedule at the start of your next game. Joanna: Butch – second chance plz Quote: Butch: i just; wanted something sooo bad and my internet wouldnt let me have it. fun while it lasted though! ik i couldve worked those people pretty well but it didnt happen. Brian: Ken, I liked you! I really did. You were one of the most active players of original Helios and it was clear you were into this game. You suspected Ted of taking idol clues and being suspicious from the get-go...and you were totally right. Unfortunately you didn't make the social ties that you needed and were caught on the outside of larger alliances. Helen: I really do think that you left before your time. Your conversations with others may have been infrequent, but they were better than a lot of other people in the game. I didn't connect with you until the day of your departure, and I wish that I had been able to do something to keep you around since I felt closer to you than Jake or Jan. Penny: It seems like ages ago we voted you off first at Helios. If its any consolation your sacrifice was not in vain, as your former tribe have dominated the merge in your absence. I know you were having fun with the game, I wish you made more of an effort to talk to me on a personal level because then the first vote may not have been so regulation. Quote: Ken: Helen: You were funny! Although I don't think you realized it. Some of the most (frustrating, and yet) entertaining moments were you trying to figure out challenges, like wanting to guess Ted for seven deadly sins over and over again even when he wasn't participating. Brian: Jan: Oh, Jan... Unfortunately, it seemed to everyone that you were the weak link in the challenges and socially. Despite your connection with Erin, it just wasn't enough to stay in the game. Also, thanks for giving me my first vote. One thing I won't forget about you was your enthusiasm...even if you were lagging behind us all a few minutes. Penny: Oh Jan! You were our tribe mascot for a while! I really enjoyed playing with you. Your character was really funny and I loved how uncoordinated you were at times. You definitely inspired me to have more fun with the game, and crack a few more jokes. I think in some small way you contributed to my social game and so I am thankful to you for showing up to play. It was fun while it lasted Jan! Quote: Jan: Brian: You were a great player to talk to, and it's really unfortunate that our challenge loss streak ended your game. Seriously, I'm sorry for blindsiding you. You were actually better at challenges than Penny, but you were a victim of not making an alliance early enough in the game. Hope you still enjoyed your experience! Helen: I was pissed when you voted for me, and I was then out for blood. But, when you apologized, it did seem very genuine. Although I was hesitant to trust you after that, you seemed truly kind-hearted, and you were simply another victim of needing to keep Helios strong to combat Asteria. Joanna: I always rooted for you over Rob Penny: Jake you were a loveable player on Helios as well even though I dont think you ever sent me a single personal message! I didnt really get much of a vibe from you in terms of being a strategic player, but not everybody comes here for the same reasons. I hope that you too got some enjoyment from the game and cherished the experience that we all shared for a time together. Quote: Jake: Brian: I honestly don't know who you were, but apparently you scrambled at tribal council to stay safe or something? That might've been the only time that happened this entire season based on the lack of excitement at our votes until the blindsides happened. Helen: Never spoke to you, either, but from Rob's input during his mutiny, you sounded very "bro"-ey. Penny: I was personally surprised most by your elimination, although I later heard that it was because you were likely to flip over to us. Its a shame you never got the opportunity to join up with us, since I certainly wouldnt have minded another number on my side. I think we may have clashed heads a couple of times in the Arena, but it was a while ago and I am not entirely sure. Joanna: Ryan – I would;e worked with you if you’d asked ;-; Quote: Ryan: Brian: Um, I heard mixed things about you. Both positive and negative. Apparently you left at a tribal council right after Rob mutinied back from Asteria that was filled with chaos? Apparently you were interesting enough to be missed and make an impression, so sorry that we never got to meet. Helen: Also from Rob's mutiny stories, he seemed awfully critical of you. But from talking to others, it sounds like you were very sweet, and just you. Hopefully this proved to be a good experience for you, and you can use it for building to another adventure. Joanna: Jeanne – I’m so sorry, if it makes you feel better my game was eternally fucked up because I booted you. Penny: My favourite memory of you is the amount of times I mixed you up with Joanna. I think this is because I thought the two of you were practically the same. If this is the case, you can be proud knowing that with a bit of luck and a role reversal, you would have made it all the way to 4th place. It sucks not being able to get to know you guys pre-merge, but I hope you enjoyed the game! Quote: Jeanne: Helen: This is where the game starts getting good... We barely talked. That's why you had to be targeted. You were a hit to avoid the idol, to keep the Rob/Christy/Joanna trio intact for possible future plans, and for the most competitive players to advance. Sorry that you had to be victim to that. Brian: You're like the only juror I didn't actually talk to. I'm sure you had the potential to go further, but it just didn't seem like you were closely connected to anyone in either alliance, making you the easiest person to boot first. Sorry that you were the first victim of our Helios alliance. Penny: I bet you didnt expect to be going out so soon Shawna and I think you had so much planned for the game that you unfortunately never got the chance to really explore. Your vote was essentially out of paranoia, it certainly was nothing personal. I regret that I didnt take the time out to get to know you on a personal level. Those first few days of the merge were crazy for me and I would have definitely loved to message you had you survived the first round. Unfortunately for you, Rob's apparent Immunity Idol saved him for quite a while, and you were the first victim in his place. Sorry girl! Joanna: ILU gurl gone way too soon Quote: Shawna: Helen: Another victim of not talking enough to the people running the show. You switching to our side seemed like a cowardly moved to compensate for your own laziness of getting to know your own tribe. You specifically targeting me in your last immunity challenge was another misplaced move that lead to your ouster. I hope no hard feelings, and sorry for the blindside. Brian: I hardly got to know you, but I think you were the biggest asset out of anyone from Asteria to allowing Helios to make it to the end. Thank you for your help, and sorry we blindsided you as a result! This was a move that was made, for one reason, to make sure that the power on original Helios stayed with original Helios. Joanna: Piss poor decisions Daniel… Penny: I was shattered to see you go so early Daniel! Without a doubt you were the one person on Asteria that took the time to get to know me when we first arrived and I intended to reward you by carrying you as far as I possibly could. My biggest regret by a mile is not asserting my authority over my alliance earlier and fighting harder to keep you in the game. I do hope you got some sense of satisfaction in seeing us eventually emerge victorious, and I have a feeling you were rooting for me this entire time. I hope I can go all the way and not let you down. Kudos to you for giving me a fighting chance. I owe you a great deal of thanks in this game. Quote: Daniel: Joanna: Ted – you’re welcome for letting you make jury, PUNK Penny: Ted you had a terrific game going that nobody could quite figure out! I think you were taken out well ahead of your time and you were one of the players that I would have been happy voting for at the end had you gotten this far. You should be proud of the way you conducted yourself this season and you should also be proud for fighting so hard to stay in the game for so long. You faced tremendous adversity and you defied the odds to stay alive until the merge. Well done! Brian: Ted - Wow, Ted. You really, really impressed me post-merge as one of the biggest players in the game. You weren't afraid to take risks. You were winning challenges, taking names, influencing multiple alliances. I give you lots of credit, and if we didn't get you out when we did, I would have been concerned because you were a huge threat to make it to the end. Helen: You are the one specific person that I feel the worst about voting out. I honestly think you may have been truthful to the you/me/Brian F3 (that is, unless you'd think one of us to be too threatening in an FTC). The issue is that the path you wanted to take to potentially get to that point was far too dangerous. It left my safety entirely in your hands, or the hands of Rob/Joanna/Christy electing to eliminate one of their own. Ideally, I'd have like to have voted out one of the Asterias instead of you, but then, we wouldn't have been able to guarantee eliminating an idol, which you gave us certainty with. That said, you played a brilliant game. For someone as soft spoken as you, you managed to survive on Asteria for two TCs as a spy. You did Helios a great service by getting us a merge majority. You had a very strong hand in the first two (and almost three) merge boots, while winning two ICs on your way to that. I am genuinely sorry that you were a victim to planning my endgame, but I have the utmost respect for the almost-secure position that you setup for yourself, and more than any other person, hope that there are no hard feelings. Quote: Ted: Brian: Erin - OUt of everyone, it hurts to see you the most on the jury. We were aligned since the start of the game, and as the game progressed, it became very apparent that you were one of the strongest competitors in all aspects: social game, strategy, and challenges. You being blindsided in probably the biggest tribal council of the season was unfortunate because if you weren't, there's a good chance you'd be sitting here instead of me. Helen: NOOOO! I hate that this happened. But it was a great play by Christy. I feel bad, in a way, because without immunity, it would have been me in your place. I enjoyed working with you, although I knew all along that you'd have turned to take me out as a threat eventually. I was shocked that the Asterias chose to take you out instead of Brian, since that would have hurt my game far more. I actually could have seen you winning if you weren't there target here Joanna: Erin – you love me GIT. OVER. URSELF. Penny: Words cant explain how much I valued our alliance throughout the game. Without a doubt you were the one I loved strategising with the most and without a doubt I had you coming to the Final 3 with me the entire time. You never backed away from the pact we made together on the first day and I loved logging in to see your name down the bottom knowing you were online and knowing I would get an impending PM about what scheme we should hatch next. I hope that you got some satisfaction by seeing us prosper after your blindside, and I hope you enjoyed the Rob elimination. I am so sorry you were Idoled out the way you were. I hope you enjoyed conversing with me as much as I did with you, and I hope that the time you spent here was enjoyable and productive. Thank you for being such a loyal ally and a great friend throughout this journey. Quote: Erin: Helen: What isn't there to say about you. I think you overplayed quite a bit and overestimated your own game, and your social interactions with others being somewhat of a flaw, I did enjoy playing with you, now that the dust has settled. In a different setup of original tribes, you and I probably could have been together til the end, but like you said, this ended up being a battle of the titans, and though I'm glad that I pulled out, I'd not have been surprised with either of the possible outcomes. Brian: Rob - I seriously can't believe you voted for Christy and sent yourself out of the game. I give you credit for playing a risky game and trying to make moves, but unfortunately, you were probably one of the wrong side of every blindside that happened in this game including your own. Next to Helen, I think we exchanged the longest, most-interesting strategic PMs in this game. Joanna: Rob – my constant damage control of your idiocy finally couldn’t keep up anymore Penny: You were my toughest opponent throughout the game and my true rival. This season I think prospered because of the Rob v Penny showdowns that were so often evident, whether that be in challenges or when it got even more epic and we faced off at so many Tribal Councils. Despite what I said, I never meant any of it personally, and I hope I get the chance to explain to you at Final Tribal that I was purely strategic in my apparent dislike of you. I saw you as a fierce rival, a fantastic strategist and overall a terrific competitor. Im glad I had the opportunity to play against such a great player of the game. While the blindside that I orchestrated on you would have been shattering, im sure you can appreciate my need to have you eliminated. To me personally you would have been a worthy winner of this game and in an ideal world, a great person to duke it out at the end with. I absolutely considered your proposal for a long time, but in the end I went with what would be the best decision for me personally. I hope someday we get the opportunity to play together again and team up to combine our magnificent talents. It would be a match made in heaven. Even though you were my rival and we never voted together once, you still get a love heart for being such a great player. Quote: Rob: Brian: Even though we didn't talk, you were one of my favorite players in this game. I thought it was amusing that the one non-game joke we did exchange about the fish actually carried through to your exit from the game. You probably made the biggest move of the game, blindsiding Erin at final 7, and you really were a great competitor and someone who probably everyone misses. Helen: She's amazing. In an all-Asteria F3, she'd likely have won. Hell, in an Asteria/Helios mixed F3, she'd probably still have won. I thoroughly enjoyed talking to her, and she was a great player, but too great of a competitor to potentially ruin our Helios F3, and for that, she had to be taken out before the penultimate TC. For that I'm sorry, because she deserved to make it; she was great, and I have nothing but respect. Penny: I wish so badly that you and I had started out on the same side, as nothing would have made me happier than sitting at the end with you. I know the person in you is disappointed in your elimination and shattered to coming so close but falling over at the final hurdle, but I also know the player in you is content with the game you played. It was great to see somebody ferocious and uncompromising fight their way to the bitter end. In most ways I have tried to play the game which I think you played to perfection. Your perfect blend of physical, strategic and social gameplay is what I would like to be able to play. You were an inspiration for my own game and for that, I am thankful. Joanna: Christy – I’m obsessed with you forever and ever and ever Quote: Christy:

Author:	Brenda [ Tue Jan 31, 2012 7:16:45 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Episode 13 - The Scooby Doo Reveal
Penny (Confessional): Im just going to devote 100% to this challenge. If I win, I will bring Brian and Joanna with me to the Final hopefully. If I can beat Helen, then I will win I think. Helen (to Brian, Penny): You guys are awesome! Only one more to go! w00tw00t Brian (to Helen, Penny): We're one vote away. Let's do this! Helen (to Joanna): Congrats on F4!!! Joanna (to Helen): hah thanks nothing like being the last man standing <3 Penny (Confessional): Ideal scenario for tomorrow is myself-Brian-Joanna. In that scenario I will be able to bring up two main points that I wouldnt be able to otherwise. Firstly that I was good enough to beat Helen and voted her out at my first available opportunity like I told everybody I would. Secondly that I was strategic enough to keep the two biggest goats in the game and then carry them to the Final 3. Final IC Jeff: Welcome, final four, to the final immunity challenge of the game. This will be a straightforward 24 hour endurance challenge. In a moment, you can begin counting. You will count by posting one number per post in consecutive order. The person who counts the highest by 7c/8e tomorrow wins the final Individual Immunity Challenge. If you mess up, you do not have to start over from 1, you just have to start over from the number that you messed up on and yes I will be checking. (It's easy to count posts per page). Remember: The jury is watching so you might want to give it your best effort. Joanna: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.. Penny: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.. Helen: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.. Brian: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.. Penny (to Helen): Almost there. Penny (to Helen): This is a pain in the arse but I havent won a challenge before. So I would like to win at least one. Penny (to Brian, Helen): If I had won a challenge before I wouldnt be bothering. But I hope you guys are prepared to stay up all night. Aussie time zone - dont forget. Helen (to Brian, Penny): You definitely have the advantage for that, having nighttime later. Boo you! Brian (to Helen, Penny): This is easily the worst night of the week for me because I have to get up early, and I have plans during the day tomorrow until the late afternoon. Good luck you two! Keep Joanna from winning. :) Joanna: 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105.. Penny: 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105.. Brian: 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105.. Helen: 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305.. Joanna (Confessional): idk i'm just crying about this challenge i have to make it look like i care ;-; Penny (Confessional): Counting challenge is really right up my alley. I should have no excuse. Australian time zone will mean I stay up all night. I took tomorrow off work too. I have to win this challenge so that I can tell the Jury this was my plan all along. I really feel like this challenge suits me more than any of the others, so if I dont win, it will be my own fault. Im so grateful that fate is in my own hands. Helen (Confessional): The plan is to come on strong at the getgo, and allot myself enough of a lead over the others that me having to be out for 3-4 hours isn't going to cause me to fall behind, especially with Penny's advantageous time zone since she gets to see what I do tonight before deciding what she's doing during her nighttime. Can't give in to Penny's attempts to have me let her win, and show her not through words but through actions that it isn't worth wasting her time. I'm going to go to bed in an hour or so once I have a 6000 post (or approximately 6 hour) lead, but going to leave my computer up on the "Who is online" page which automatically refreshes to make Penny think I'm still around to scare her away. Brian (Confessional): Ugh, Helen's going to win. I have to get up early tomorrow and have plans all day. It's a shame because my Internet is fast enough to beat her if I didn't have anything else to do. Having a life. </3 Joanna: 400, 401, 402, 403, 404, 405.. Penny: 400, 401, 402, 403, 404, 405.. Brian: 400, 401, 402, 403, 404, 405.. Helen: 1000, 1001, 1002, 1003, 1004, 1005.. Brian (to Helen): I hate my schedule. You are almost definitely going to get a lead big enough to clinch this by tomorrow afternoon I assume, at this rate. Keep it up! And good night. Helen (to Brian): No worries. Definitely lucked out with the timing though, because today or yesterday would have been just AWFUL for me, but tomorrow is aight. Hoping to get enough of a lead by tomorrow morning that Penny can't catch-up in the afternoon while I'm out. She'll probably do whatever she can to 2-2 it, but I'll do what I can here... me winning this should keep her loyal to the 3-1, I'd assume, since you/me should split votes whereas Joanna would take the Helios. Don't fret about it. Have a good night, and good luck with your stuff tomorrow! Penny (to Joanna): How do you think you'll go with that challenge? I would rather Helen not win if you get my drift. Joanna (to Penny): skyping sorry i'll be on later though. like way late. she's a baller though holy shit Penny (to Joanna): Its alright, im in a different time zone. Its only 4 oclock in the afternoon where I live and ill stay up all night. Ill catch up to her eventually. Joanna (to Penny): You know this is impossible right? She is posting every 2 seconds like how is that even possible? Fucking nerd Penny (to Joanna): She's got multiple windows open and typing them while the other page loads if that makes sense.Hopefully she doesn't get too far ahead and I can catch her later tonight. Ill give it my best shot but fuck shes freakin miles ahead. Joanna (to Penny): makes sense i'll do that although my case is hopeless. idk i just fear she is going to be uncatchable she already seems like it. Penny (to Joanna): She definitely seems uncatchable but at least in my time zone I should be able to get her if she stops. Im not going to do anymore so she thinks ive given up. Joanna (to Penny): yeah good call and good luck you're gonna need it lol Penny (to Joanna): I know lol. Thanks. Penny (Confessional): Blah. I hate counting challenges. Best chance to beat Helen is to not bother now, let her get so far ahead that she thinks she'll win and sign off. Later tonight ill come and go all night. It should hopefully be enough, because I have nothing to do tomorrow but fuck me typing numbers all night will hurt my head. Gah. Helen: What are you doing while post challenge-ing?? Helen: Finally pulled up this Hunger Games audio book? Been waiting for an opportunity to listen to it aaaaaaaand CRAMP Joanna: taylor swift <3 Penny: Ive got my iPod on shuffle. But then my internet craps out every 20 minutes and so I have to wait for it to come back. Im having a break for now, I will count more when I get home from work. Helen: 5000, 5001, 5002, 5003, 5004, 5005.. Penny (to Helen): Aww man. You mean I have to spend my night chasing down 5000 posts? Grrrrr. Helen (to Penny): I can give you the Hunger Games mp3 that I'm listening to! lol Penny (to Helen): I think ill put on the "LIVE TO WIN!" music by Paul Stanley. Thats in South Park where they all play WoW. Its practically the same thing lol. Helen (to Penny): HAHAHA yeah same thing. Love that episode, too. Penny (to Helen): Great episode. Good effort staying up until 4:25 in the morning. :P Its only 8.25pm here. Helen: 6000, 6001, 6002, 6003. Penny (Confessional): Logged in, saw Helen was 6000 posts in the clear. Massive fuck it from me lol. Joanna (Confessional): I can see my game ending right before my eyes it's so sad:( Penny (Confessional): I think im pretty safe regardless of who wins. Unlikely that Joanna will win, but that would be the only scenario where I could see myself losing. Penny: 414, 415, ..so yeah, I logged on and Helen was ahead by about 6000 posts... Awks. Joanna: hella awks Helen: Penny: 416.. , 9999, 10000! Penny: Yeah thats right, I totes counted to 10,000. Hot sheeeeeeeeeeeet. Joanna: hahaha<3 Penny: Jo Jo. Joanna: can we lol at brian still trying? Penny: Is he still going LOL. Brian: ..537, 538, 539, ..I wanted second. Penny: Helen is second Brian. Jeff: Final Immunity Challenge results! Penny, score of 416. Joanna, score of 461. Brian, score of 539. Helen score of 6003! That means congratulations, Helen. You have won the final Individual Immunity Challenge! You are guaranteed a spot in the final Tribal Council and cannot be voted out tonight. The other three of you, not so lucky. In two hours we have the penultimate Tribal Council, where one of you will become the final juror of this game.. See you then. Brian (Confessional): I assume Helen and I will vote for Joanna and hope Penny doesn't force a tie. If Helen betrays me, that would be ridiculous, so I hope to at least force a tie. Penny (Confessional): Nothing to do now but sit back and wait. I dont want to look like im scrambling by spamming Brian and Helen with messages. It also looks like im not worried and that I trust them both. I doubt whether they would take Joanna, since she'd probably win. I myself would do as much as I could to make sure everybody knew how relatively useless Brian and Helen really were. Brian (Confessional): Should I try to convince Helen to vote for Penny? I need to put some thought into this. How can I win? I need an angle. Helen (Confessional): In my mind a Joanna boot is a foregone conclusion. I still want to try to quell her for the time being, so that she doesn't approach Penny with someone she actually gets her to believe. I'll also explain to Penny why it's beneficial to her for Joanna to leave, since Joanna would take votes from Penny whereas Brian and I will split votes. It might be a 2-2, but I'm more inclined to say 3-1. I still think that I have better odds against Penny than against Joanna, but I'm only sure of Ted's vote, to be honest, and my gut tells me that Christy/Joanna would also follow him. I'd need to count on Asteria convincing Shawna, Rob not being bitter/hypocritical, or Erin's vote (who said when she left "my jury vote is up for grabs" which makes me think she's my best shot). Brian (Confessional): I need to do my research and see if I can find any other winners who basically said, "I didn't have the time to be on all the time, multi-managing all my alliances. I didn't talk to people, and I couldn't post 24/7 in endurance. But I spent the time that I had wisely and came up with an approach that got me to the end, despite being targeted the last several votes." ...or something. Ugh. Joanna (Confessional): I'm mean it's pretty bleak now Helen said she won't turn her back on those guys but idk I guess I'll try Joanna (to Penny): so you gonna vote for me? Penny (to Joanna): Probably. Im not gonna lie to you. I expect you'll be voting for me as well. Joanna (to Penny): No I'll probs vote Brian but yeah I figured! :( Penny (to Joanna): Brian huh? Even if we both vote Brian we'll still get a tie. I was depending on Helen losing but when I saw how far ahead that bitch was I just didnt even bother trying to catch up. Joanna (to Penny): Yeah it was understandable. What a fucking psycho. Are you willing to throw a tie with me? Penny (to Joanna): If I knew what the tie was, then I would. But we dont know what to expect, like if its that ridiculous thing where the two people who got votes become immune then I end up going home.. Joanna (to Penny): Ugh you're over thinking but I guess I understand :/ Penny (Confessional): Logged on to see Helen is 6000+ posts ahead of me essentially. I cant really pull an all nighter, since ill need to wake up tomorrow at a reasonable hour. So yeah, I tried to bluff Helen into getting her to stop this afternoon at a total I could reach, but there's no way im gonna catch her now. Im fairly confident that I will be getting taken to the F3 regardless and lets face it, Helen is my greatest adversary but I think using my Final Tribal speech to slag off Helen and her dependency on Immunity, I may be able to garner some extra votes. Plus Helen isnt liked. Joanna hates her for example. I think Christy and Rob like me more, especially the former. Erin will hopefully vote for me and so will Daniel. I hope that will be enough. Joanna (to Helen): Closing time - one last call for alcohol so finish your whiskey or beer. penny did indeed come to me. this may or may not be relevant since you will have the idol, but you said you wanted that reason and i'm giving it to you. i haven't talked to penny in god knows how long and she approached me. she is the only person stopping you from a guaranteed win. think about it you need four to win she has erin, dan, me, christy, rob AT LEAST. you probably have ted and shawna will most likely vote with me and christy. it's her game to lose. if you don't do this yeah you'll feel good about your decision now but looking back you'll say i had the game locked in the bag if i would have just done something that penny was going to do to me ANYWAYS but didn't have the chance. Helen (to Joanna): waving a lighter back and forth to the closing time lyrics Yeah, you present a very valid argument. And thank you for approaching me with that info, I really do appreciate you coming through. I'll update Brian on the happenings, but if you have a quote, that would probably be the best thing for me to forward to him to make sure that he's on board. I'm guessing that's when she reached out to you, about trying to pull a 2-2? Joanna (to Helen): Quote: How do you think you'll go with that challenge? I would rather Helen not win if you get my drift. She wanted to do the 2-2 with getting you out but that was before you won. Regardless that you've won though, you shouldn't let blind loyalty to someone who isn't loyal to you let you lose this game. All want is to see the finale not to win. Penny is going for the win. Erin, Dan, Myself, Christy and most likely Shawna will vote for her. And I'm not bluffing with the "I will vote for her if I'm on jury". You always pimp her up saying she was the one behind the plans. If I go it's because of you and Brian, not her. Those two very solid reasons are reason alone. She has been on the radar since the beginning and managed to survive. That's a huge deal. She has given you a reason to be disloyal, now run with it. Helen (to Joanna): Okay, so (cards on the table), I asked you when she approached you because I was hoping to trick you up. If you look at the address bar, you'll see the number assigned to this message. So, based on that, I knew that no one was having conversations that I wasn't privy to since like 3am this morning. However, after I sent that, I noticed that you and Penny probably did exchange 6-10 messages last night (which she told me what you guys talked about, though it may not have been truthful). I honestly wouldn't be surprised if you were telling the truth, but that's where I have to leave it. It was absolutely a valiant attempt, and one that I probably would've tried, as well, in your position, but that's not a decision that I'm going to be making tonight. Now, to re-visit this from Thursday... Joanna wrote: If Penny really has been painting you as the genius in charge when in reality she is then hats off to her she has my vote. I'm not saying that she's the genius in charge. Let's make that clear. We both know that I've lied about shit and planned shit, no hiding that. All I'm saying is don't believe everything you hear that people pin on me. That's not to say that EVERYTHING you hear that I do is actually Penny's doing. But if Penny has some idea to approach you/Christy about people targeting you or her, even though it's made-up, (a plan, which, mind you, is 0 for 2 in its attempts now), would you expect her to claim that she's the one who came up with it all, or that Brian and I are the ones conspiring your ouster? It's rhetorical, so don't answer. But it's just food for thought, is all. If you vote for Penny, that's fine. It's your vote and it's entirely up to you what determines it or who it goes for. Nonetheless, best of luck tonight, whatever happens; you're absolutely hysterical. I hope you realize the things I've said to you for the past few days has been real. If you leave tonight, I do think that you've played a great game to get to this point; and if you do end up still around, then I'm looking forward to an exciting and competitive FTC with you sitting there Joanna (to Helen): You're making a huge mistake. You will lose girl :( Helen (to Joanna): Then I lose If I'm gonna lose to Penny, then I would lose to you, too, then (Daniel, Rob, Christy, Penny) Whatever happens, happens; I can handle it. It's been great playing with you, Jo, I've loved every minute of it. Sorry that it's come to this. Joanna (to Helen): I betrayed Dan, I shit talked Rob and pissed him off, Penny will vote Helios over me we didn't talk all that much but whatever. You're going to remember this talk I had with you Helen (to Joanna): I will. And you're free to say "I told you so" on Thursday Joanna (to Helen): I'm just curious do you honestly think you have a chance? Or do you know you'll probably lose and just don't think a win is worth voting out an alliance member? Helen (to Joanna): I think that I still have a chance. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, I lose, and that's fine. But, even though you disagree, I'm content enough with these odds to go for them. It's not blind loyalty or obligation. Joanna (to Helen): I mean I understand it's just frustrating seeing you pick a maybe over a definite Helen (to Brian): sigh Joanna says that her, Christy, Rob, Shawna, Erin, Daniel all vote for Penny, and that taking Joanna to finals is the better call. Heh. Brian (to Helen): Um, I think you're winning in the finals regardless of what they say. I fear Joanna may get the Asterian vote if she makes it, and I'd just be happy with one vote. Helen (to Brian): Agreed. I still want Joanna out. She claims that Penny approached her to team up against us, so I'm going to ask her if Penny sent her the proposal this morning to catch her in a lie. I'll probably tell Joanna we'll go along with it until about 10 minutes before TC. I'll also probably tell Penny what I'm doing, explaining that it's with the intentions of keeping everything quiet until TC. Then, in the final minutes, I'll explain to Joanna how the message numbers prove that she has to be lying. Brian (to Helen): Hopefully even if Penny did approach Joanna, it was just to make sure I was the target rather than her. Helen (to Brian): I'm guessing that Penny actually did approach Joanna to force a 2-2 tie on me in the case that I didn't win immunity. They probably haven't talked at all since the immunity win has become all but official as Penny should realize (and I will explain to her in explicit detail) why it would be dumb to boot you, as Joanna would get the votes otherwise going to Penny and you/me will split. This doesn't change anything; everything is still set on Joanna, but the fact that she's probably telling the truth does make me feel a bit worse. Brian (to Helen): Yeah, Penny likely did approach Joanna, but I think we'll be fine still. If I go in a 2-2 tie, at least I don't have to answer jury questions? I'd hopefully win whatever tiebreaker there was though. Tonight's going to be very intense. I probably should force some free time in my schedule to prepare for it, so I don't go down as a total joke, which is what I'm fearing that my jury perception will be since everyone associated us but mainly just discussed strategy to you. We'll see how it goes, though! Helen (to Brian): I seriously doubt that there'll be a tie. They haven't exchanged any messages since before 3am this morning. I think Penny only wanted to take me out and not you, hence why they haven't messaged since. You'll be fine. And I think you have a much better argument for FTC than you give yourself credit for. It's just a question of communicating it. We have a few hours to prep. Part of my prep is definitely drafting an explanation of just what it is that Penny did every round, but probably saving that as a response to a question and not for my opening. Brian (to Helen): Thanks! I mean, I think you played a great game and are the favorite, but I'll do my best here. I'm going to be slow to respond the next few hours focusing on it so I actually have a chance to communicate it. Helen (to Penny): Thank you for sending that message, because otherwise, I would've stayed awake after my first alarm four hours ago Penny (to Helen): Yeah no worries haha. I was never gonna catch you at 6000 anyway. So never mind lol. Still the Helios Final 3. Im looking forward to being able to rename our tribe 'Helios' Helen (to Penny): Haha sorry Me too! So excited for that! Joanna came to me and said that she wanted to vote you out tonight, and went on to claim how you approached her about taking me out. Looking at the message numbers in the address bar (like this message is probably #3232 or something close to that), I'm guessing that you guys probably did have a conversation for five to ten messages back and forth last night, but haven't revisited it since. But that's fine, I honestly totally understand and it's no worries. Everything is still on track, as far as I'm concerned. Obviously, I want us three Helios still standing at the top to fulfill the alliance that we've had since Day 01, but also, I'd imagine that you realize it's better for you for Brian to be sitting there instead of Joanna, since Joanna will take away votes that you'd otherwise be getting (like Daniel, probably Erin, and even Rob tbh, maybe Christy), and since me/Brian being in finals means that he and I will split votes, which would also be better for you. So, it's still Joanna tonight. Everything should be all-set. We can revive our champagne toast from the first night And then move in to a hopefully enjoyable FTC! Everything sound good there? Penny (to Helen): Well I think if Joanna goes to the end she may potentially win, since she could get votes from Asteria members just to spite us. So I think we should be prepared for a little bit of back lash by the Jury. Yeah Joanna and I had a chat last night, it was mostly about the challenge though since I told her she was probably going home. It was just along the lines of; 'Holy shit Helen is miles ahead', 'lulz that girl is cray', 'So excited for Final 3', 'Yeah im not voting for you bitch, Helen is going to win', 'Suck me off Joanna you fat cow' Obviously I cant be bothered going to quote them lol. But yeah, our PMs basically turned into a bit of a bitch fight at the end. Penny (Confessional): Ill vote out Joanna. Like it would be criminal if she won because Asteria wanted to piss us off. At least going in with Helen and Brian the playing field is level, there are 3 Helios. So they have to vote for one of us. On top of that, I still get one of my preferred goats, plus I have Joanna on the Jury who is likely to vote for me (IMO) rather than a bitter, twisted Helen who would definitely vote for Brian. Brian (Confessional): I think Joanna is going home. She may get the Asterian sympathy votes, or something. I'd be surprised if I'm blindsided by a tie or go home 3-1, and I don't think Helen and I should push for Penny going at this point. To be honest, I think I want Joanna gone so I can kill her chances at working on an angle I'd possibly want to pursue.

Author:	Brenda [ Tue Jan 31, 2012 7:18:11 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Episode 13 - The Scooby Doo Reveal
Temple Council #13 - Kronos Jeff: Welcome final 4, Let's bring in the jury: Shawna, Daniel, Ted, Erin, Rob, and Christy voted out at the last Tribal Council. Penny: Signing in Jeff. Im afraid I am still incredibly angry about the challenge. I just cant fathom how I didnt win. Penny: Yeah. Looks like its me by himself here. Hai Jury hw r yew guiz? Erin: Penny: That doesn't even make sense. Sorry baby Jesus for my atrocious assault on the English language. Jeff: First thing's first: Helen, I can't imagine you would give it up, but are you keeping Individual Immunity? Helen I'll keep my immunity. Thanks, Jeff! Also, thank god the challenges are over, because my internet is shit tonight. So if I'm laggy... Jeff: Helen, glad you won Immunity tonight? Did you know it was this do or die? Helen If I didn't win immunity tonight, after winning the past three and being voted good things at F7, I'd not be surprised if I was voted out, or received half of a tie vote. I'm glad to have this around my neck. Jeff: Joanna, you're the odd woman out in this equation, is this a foregone conclusion? Joanna jeff, there is no way i'm going home tonight Shawna: Joanna no i'm kidding shawna i don't want you to get your hopes up :( it is. it's my fault though. the only chance i had was if helen lost immunity and well.... we have all seen what a psycho she is... Shawna: Helen <--- psycho no denying it, either Jeff: Brian, being honest here as it's so close to the end. Who is the biggest threat to win out of the 4 of you? Brian Helen. I think it's been clear for some time that she's the favorite to win this all. Jeff: Joanna, do you think if Helen hadn't won Immunity, she would still be safe tonight? Joanna nah she wouldn't Jeff: Joanna, have you grown to respect any of the other 3 players more after spending time with them alone over the past day? Joanna not really Christy: Joanna i never got to do my scoody doo reveal! :( i'll post it in ponderosa though doubt anyone will read it its fuckas long. Erin: Jeff: Alright everyone. At this time all votes are final. I'll tally the votes. Erin: Penny: 10 minutes to play the Hidden Immunity Idol. Penny: I think I should be ok tonight. Ive been ignored by Jeff at every Tribal so far and ive been safe. Hoping this pattern continues. Erin: Joanna erin make a smiley to me Erin: Joanna perfect! Joanna helen if your vote out for me goes over one line then i'm not voting for you and viciously campaigning against you in jury Helenchecks vote FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK Jeff please don't show mine. jkmaybe Penny: I spent the challenge time coming up with my Final Tribal speech. It better not have been for nothing. Totes voting for Joanna if I get sent to the Jury. Not even kidding. Erin:icon_lol Joanna that was really rude penny. guess i'm back to voting for helen! Penny: Nooooo. I actually spent yesterday coming up with reasons why Joanna was such a sexxii biatch. ... Penny: Reason 1) She's a sexxii biatch. Joanna hmmm alright i'll reconsider Jeff: Alright, I'll read the votes! Jeff: images/councils/ktc13.html Jeff: First vote: -- Brian -- "lol" Jeff: Second vote: -- Joanna -- "Here's hoping for a Helios final 3." (One vote Brian, one vote Joanna, two votes to go) Jeff: Third vote: -- Joanna -- "It's been great playing the game with you. You're hilarious. I hope there are no hard feelings. At this point, there's a line in the sand, and that's why your name is on my ballot tonight. And if you're right, you can feel free to wave your finger in my face." (One vote Brian, two votes Joanna, one vote remaining) Jeff: Final vote -- Joanna -- "Sorry girl, but you're probably voting for me" Jeff: And that means Joanna rounds out our jury. Joanna wtf i did not put lol i put nothing :( Penny: Jo Jo. . Its been great fun girlie! Shawna: Erin: Brian Bye, Joanna! Penny: My comment wasnt shown, I said that I was voting for you because I figured you were voting for me. Thats hell awks. Joanna toldja i wasnt doucher Joanna way to go helen you lost my vote! i thought someone was just being a bitch and copying me :( Helen Good game, Joanna! Christy: Erin: Joanna pennys got my vote! *smuff* Jeff: In 30 minutes time, Final Tribal Council will begin. So final 3, if you haven't already. Think on your opening statements so we will be ready to go. Final Fallen Comrade Brian: Lol, I didn't get to know you, but you were hilarious on the board. Skyping during challenges, fearing you were going home every vote, etc. And honestly, even though people said you were a goat, you could have won in the final three by continuing to play that role. Helen: Joanna is hilarious. Her attitude and lackadaisicalness are much of the reason why the closing days of the game were so enjoyable because her persona was just so humorous. Rob never gave her much credit for her strategic game, but as it turned out, both Joanna and Christy were far superior strategists than he, and her game has been underrated. That's much of the reason that she can't make it to finals because her sitting there is a guaranteed win on likability facing an Asteria-heavy jury. Penny: Joanna you were always very funny and alot of the times I just laughed out loud at the random stuff you had to say. I dont really know what you offered to the game in a tactical sense, I think people kept you in the game because you just wanted to follow the leader and try and Natalie your way to the end. I wish you would have been more receptive towards me, since you seemed to come across as quite cold whenever we spoke. But I guess I single handedly destroyed yours and the rest of Asteria's dreams. So I dont mind if thats my punishment. Quote: Joanna (Final Words: "I was skyping but we got in a fight so I'm writing this. ;-; This was probably the most frustrating games I have ever played. Having no one listen to you or trust you was so so very annoying after a while. But with that being said, I still enjoyed every moment. I made many mistakes but also made some pretty great recoveries. I was one spot away from the finals and I don't think that's too bad. It's been an honor to play with (some of) you all :) NVM he called me back l8z" Vote Reveal Brian - Joanna "Here's hoping for a Helios final 3." Helen - Joanna "It's been great playing the game with you. You're hilarious. I hope there are no hard feelings. At this point, there's a line in the sand, and that's why your name is on my ballot tonight. And if you're right, you can feel free to wave your finger in my face." Joanna - Brian "lol" Penny - Joanna "Sorry girl, but you're probably voting for me"

Author:	Brenda [ Tue Jan 31, 2012 7:18:35 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Episode 13 - The Scooby Doo Reveal
Penny: Helios reigns supreme! Penny: Our new tribe name for thirty minutes is HELIOS! GET YOUR BROWN ON GUYS! WEEEEEEEEEEEEW. Helen: "like" Brian: Penny: Before we go to Tribal, best of luck guys. Its been great playing with you this season. Im obviously going to try my best to win. But the three of us, regardless of what happens, are the winners in my eyes. Well done all of us! <3 Helen: Agreed, you guys! Congrats, and good luck! Brian: Yep. Congrats on making this far, and good luck! Penny: Tribal should have started 5 minutes ago shouldnt it? Brian: I still need to finish my opening, so I don't mind. Helen: I need to cut stuff. #typical Penny: Oh you guys! I finished mine yesterday. Ive been sitting here for half an hour bumping old threads. Brian (Confessional): I'm not delusional; I understand these games and juries really well. I'm going to be absolutely crucified tonight. The jurors are going to say I didn't make any big moves and just followed Helen. They're going to say that I was boring and that I didn't talk to them nearly enough. All of that is completely true, and I'll likely end up in 3rd place without receiving a vote. If I do somehow win, I'll possibly be considered one of the worst winners in Stranded history and not All-Star material. However, I'm still going to try AS HARD AS I CAN to steal that win. The issue is that every juror votes so fundamentally different and what crazy angle I can make to appeal to one juror may not appeal to the others. I'll try a lot, though. My biggest weakness is the lack of PMs I sent to people not named Helen. That's going to bite me. I'd have a much better chance if I just made casual conversation with the other players, even if I had no intention of working with them. So that's a weak angle I'm going to have to find a justification for (the actual truth is that I just didn't have time, but I need to make it sound better than that). I made my position quite clear the whole time, and didn't say a word against Helen knowing that if I did, she'd probably get it and not trust me. So I generated that full trust with her the best I possibly could knowing that I'd be in the core of her plans and that even if they went wrong, I wouldn't be the one who went home. - Also need to hope that I don't screw up Helen's chances of winning and give it to Penny. As a juror, I'd vote for Helen

Author:	Brenda [ Tue Jan 31, 2012 7:18:52 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Episode 13 - The Scooby Doo Reveal
Jeff: Welcome everyone, Final 3: Helen, Brian and Penny, You have come as far as you can in this game on your own. Now it is up to the jury to decide a winner. The seven people you had a hand in voting out, now will decide which of you to crown the winner of Stranded in Greece. Let's bring in the jury: Shawna, Daniel, Ted, Erin, Rob, Christy and Joanna. Before the jury will speak, I will open the floor to the final 3 to make your opening statements. We typically don't have closing statements so make sure your opening ones are good. This is your chance to change some opinions on the jury before we begin. Good luck! Quote: Penny: Hi Jury! <3 Penny. Penny. Penny. Penny. Penny.Penny. Penny. Penny. Penny. ^ (I couldnt get my picture to center lol) Good evening Jury! First of all I just want to say how excited I am to have made it to the end. When I came into the game I really had my doubts about how far I could go. To those who aren't aware, im not on the American time zone, and so this game really put a huge dent in my personal life, but I persevered as best I can. Tonight I am hoping that I can showcase to the Jury that I played the best game. I cant wait for question time personally, because I know we are going to get some really thought provoking questions. I want to show you guys that I really was the only one here in control of my own destiny the entire time. When I came into the game I told myself I would do whatever I had to do to get to the end. I feel that I played a strong social game first and foremost. I made friendships and connections with as many people as I could. Tactically I think that of the three sitting up here, my game was the best. Initially at the Helios camp I was the one who brought Helen, Brian and myself together. I set up a side alliance with Erin and brought Brian into that. The common misconception seemed to be that Helen and Brian were the leaders of Helios. Not only did I allow this misconception but I encouraged it. Brian and Helen were both my personal shields, who would take the hits while I escaped the limelight. This suited me just fine. My game was full of risks and gambles and most of which the Jury may not be aware of. If you all go back to the very first Immunity Challenge you'll see that I kicked off the Helios vs Asteria rivalry right from the get go. This was a tactical decision on my behalf to create a division between the two tribes so that come merge time, I would be able to keep my soldiers in line and prevent them from flipping. As the tribal stage continued and Asteria continued to win, I changed the flow of the relations between both tribes. I started to socialise with Asteria, under the excuse that Rob was the only one I did not like. Helios followed my lead and eventually Asteria started communing with us as well. When Rob originally mutinied to Helios, I came up with the idea to hide the real social dynamics of Helios and invented the entire split tribe persona. This ended up becoming the theme of the entire game, as Asteria were lead to believe that the Helios 4 were divided when in fact they were united for the most part. Once the merge came both Helen and Brian believed that Rob would save us using the connections they had made with him when he mutinied. I knew the entire time that Rob's intentions were fake, and that he only wanted to gather information about us. I was told by Helen and Brian to not do anything to shake up the Asteria tribe and that the almighty Rob would deliver us from salvation. I didnt listen to either of them and went about convincing the person on the bottom of the Asteria alliance to flip across to me. Using the fake Helios tribal dynamics as well as the promise of a Final 3 alliance, I managed to make Daniel come across to us. This was the most important move of the game, as it allowed Helios a leg up even though our numbers were inferior. This move not only ensured my own personal survival, it ensured the survival of both Helen and Brian. The argument I will make tonight is that both Helen and Brian's survival was directly dependent on me. I made the tactical calls for Helios throughout the game, and the entire time it was believed Helen was when realistically, both of them relied on my vote the entire time. However some of my strategic moves didnt end up paying off. Astonishingly, Helen and Brian stupidly voted out Daniel (the one person from Asteria that had actually flipped) and in the process, pretty much wrote off not only my game but their own. I was furious at this decision, from a tactical point of view it was the dumbest thing I'd seen all game. Instead of staying strong with Helios + Daniel, Helen and Brian decided it would be 'smarter' to put our lives in Ted's hands, who had been playing both sides. Admittedly I had nothing to do with the Ted vote. That day I was unable to be online and it was hard for me to do anything but listen to what the plan was. As I have already mentioned, I am on a different time zone, so during this time I was actually at work during the day. The Ted vote went to plan and Ted was eliminated. Once here my next vote was going to be Rob. I pushed hard for Rob to be eliminated but unfortunately, these two experts wanted to vote out Joanna (even though she was clearly the weakest of the remaining Asterias). I continued to argue to vote Rob, I was positive he didnt have an Immunity Idol since he hadnt played it before now and was a much bigger threat than Joanna was. Eventually, they all decided on Christy, and she pulled an Immunity Idol and blindsided who I considered my closest and smartest ally, Erin. This was devastating for me, since Erin had been the one person I felt comfortable bouncing ideas across. The Rob blindside was my idea once again, but its worth noting that it almost didnt happen. I spent all weekend talking with Rob and ensuring him that I would vote Helen. What he doesn't know is that I did actually consider it, but ultimately I knew she would win Immunity and I instead focused on telling him how good a goat Brian would be (which is true) and so, he changed his vote to Christy. Once again, the two experts here thought the smart decision would be to vote for Joanna, and keep Rob and Christy together as the two most powerful Asteria's. I pushed hard for Rob like I had never pushed before, and wouldnt you know it... they came to their senses and voted the way I told them to vote, and we all know, Rob wont home that night. Now I haven't played a perfect game by any stretch. I have played the best I possibly could the entire time here. I have overcome repeated adversity and fought back with the numbers against me three times (once when the merge started, again when Daniel was voted out, and again when Erin was voted out leaving the numbers tied). I didnt hide behind Immunity, I was vulnerable at every Tribal Council and I am still here. But everybody here knows that Helen would have been voted out a long time ago had we had the opportunity to evict her. I painted the target on her as the threat right from the go. Helen took the hits that I would have had I not passed on the story about the split Helios camps. As for Brian, I never wanted to vote him out, because I dont think there is any way a Jury of people that love Survivor would ever vote for him to win when all he did was get in the way. He is the world's ultimate goat. I dont think he made a single move in the game that benefited anybody other than Asteria. Brian followed orders and was a yes man the entire game. Yes I admit that I wasnt great in the Immunity Challenges. I admit that I wasnt overly proficient in guessing a number that other people had been assigned, I went out to target Rob on purpose in the hexagon challenge and I also didnt even waste my time on the Final Challenge counting as high as I could. Ill also admit that I spent most of the counting time working on my speech as well as writing up a detailed Fallen Comrades that I really enjoyed writing. However I also had a fair amount of fun telling Helen that I would beat her in the challenge, and watch as she felt the need to get 50-60 pages ahead of me. Every few hours I would message her and tell her that I would be staying up all night and that I would win because I had the advantage of being on a different time zone. Helen was so nervous about her place in this game that she needed a buffer of 6000 odd posts in order to win Immunity. I made her stay up all night waiting until I came online and smashed her record. In reality, I went to bed probably at about midnight my time. I didnt need Immunity, and I wasnt about to waste my time getting it. The fact was that whoever won Immunity was taking me to the Final 3 because I played a superior Strategic and Social game to both Helen and Brian. Ultimately I came out and tried as best as I could in the challenges, but as I have already said I didnt need Immunity and I think this is a really important point to highlight, as I have already stipulated a couple of times, I have been vulnerable at every Tribal Council so far and I have survived all of them. Helen NEEDED Immunity, her name was brought up to be eliminated at how many Tribal Councils? Probably about 4. If you want to award Helen the win purely on her challenge performances then you are certainly entitled to. But ask yourself this question: Why did she need Immunity so badly in the first place? Its because Helen was my shield in this game and I have already proven why. Apologies in advance for this epic long post. I hope you have taken the time to read it as it points out key moves in the game that I alone made. Once again I will stipulate that I carried these two the entire way here, that I never was 'Immune' from the vote and that I played as honestly as I could while still playing a strong tactical game. I am looking forward to the question period and I have thoroughly enjoyed the game. Quote: Brian: Hey guys. I'll start out by thanking all the hosts, the cast, and everyone else involved for creating this great experience. I definitely enjoyed it, and hopefully everyone else did. Anyway, I'll get to the point because I think that out of the three finalists, I have the most to prove here if I even want a single jury vote. I'll also spare you from a round-by-round summary of the game events. I'm guessing that almost everyone right now is thinking of me as simply a Helen follower who wasn't playing his own game and is hardly considering voting for me. The thing is: I'm not going to try to prove that I was the mastermind who was in charge of creating all the alliances, sub-alliances, making the major moves. Because I wasn't. I knew from our first day of conversation that Helen was a player I needed to align with to keep myself safe, so I offered her an alliance the first night. We created a 3-person alliance with Penny the next day and a variety of sub-alliances that we were involved in to make ourselves safe at Helios. I think the three of us started out pretty equal as far as our strategic discussions and sub-alliances went on Helios, but around the time that Rob mutinied, Helen had pretty much emerged in a league of her own strategically with me, Erin, and Penny behind her. Anyone talking to her could tell that she was the biggest threat in the game strategically, socially, and in the challenges by the time we merged. So, I needed to stay on Helen's side. And I did this by not saying ANYTHING against her to make everyone think that I was fully loyal to her. I think the only person who even approached me about turning against her this game was Rob at final 6 because everyone else assumed I'd just follow her to the end? In fact, I significantly reduced my PMs to other players in order to help orchestrate plans that Helen was attempting and make sure that stories synced, just sending a short paragraph of confirmation to the people involved before the vote for the most part. Part of this strategy I developed was also due to time constraints while playing this game as well, and my schedule got significantly busier around the time we merged. But I was aware of what I was doing the whole time; I wasn't trying to make moves and failing. I was just lurking in the background, watching. Erin, for instance, apparently told Penny that she wanted Helen out eventually when they were working with Daniel, and Penny told Helen this. So, attempting to go against Helen was an enormous risk, and I wasn't going to to say a word about it to anyone until the time was right and it was full-proof allowing me with a path to the end as well. I think that Helen trusted me to an enormous degree based on the PMs I got from her that she forwarded me from Penny and Rob primarily. And rants about Rob's attempts to scramble/manipulate after each vote that went wrong for him and Penny's crazy last minute plans before the voting deadlines that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. I had enough that I could've used to bring Helen down if I would've wanted by sharing this with the other players, but I wasn't going to do it unless the time was right. The way the game worked out, I actually was 100% loyal to Helen (and pretty much my alliance with Penny and the Helios core as well). However, there were points where I would have considered turning on her if the path to the end would have opened up without her. One of these points was taken away when Christy played her idol and blindsided Erin at final 7, forcing a 3-3 tie at final 6 where Helios needed to stay together in order to make end-game because I didn't want to risk my chances of making it to the final three with Christy, Joanna, and Rob still in the game. And by that point, Helen won every individual immunity challenge, so there wasn't actually an opportunity to take her out either. I basically thought as Helen as my shield. We even discussed this once, prior to the merge. Even though the two of us were associated and I was aware of her game and the actions of others through her, no one looked at me as a big strategic threat like they looked at her. I was just the backup target when she won immunity, but even without immunity, I still managed to survive these votes because 1) I had proven to be loyal to my allies and they trusted me and 2) I wasn't considered a big threat due to what they deemed as my follower status. Would Helen have survived without immunity those last 4 rounds? I doubt it. She would've been idoled in place of Erin at final 7, for sure. I don't think that my game will be viewed as "strong" as Helen's, but I chose a different route and was here playing, putting as much effort as I could with it in the time that I had as anyone else. Hopefully some of you respect my game and at least consider me as a choice for your jury vote, and I'm looking forward to getting the chance to explain my actions further. I didn't forget about Penny, but I felt that it was necessary as much as possible to elaborate on my own game and my associations with Helen since I expect that'll be my biggest criticism. Ask me anything! Quote: Helen: Hey guys. Those of you that have spoken to me for an extended period of time (basically everyone that made F8) knows how I can ramble on, and it is LONG. But, for those of you that (as Christy directly mentioned once) prefer the "too long, didn't read" option, I CERTAINLY DON’T EXPECT ANYONE TO READ THIS WHOLE THING, so there are summaries of each section in bold, and you can pick and choose if you care a lot about a given topic to come back later and read the whole section while we’re not busy doing TC Q&A. This is simply designed to give you insight into my thought process in how I made decisions throughout the game for anyone that is interested. I'm not asking anything more of people than to just go through the bold summaries unless you're interested in a given point because I know that I’m verbose. The Challenges tl;dr: I was a leader pre-merge, identified as a threat, and won four-consecutive post-merge challenges, demonstrating knowledge, preparation, and dedication At the beginning of the game, I didn't plan on coming on strong in challenges. But, after stepping up to do the puzzle in the first IC, that plan fell through very, very quickly, because I realized that my goal of keeping our tribe of Helios strong, large, and intact was far more important. I decided that doing whatever I could to try to make sure we weren't at a numbers disadvantage at the merge was far more beneficial to my game than keeping my strengths a secret. Others identified me as a "leader" of sorts because of that, having completed the puzzle in IC1, coming up with an innovating strategy to out-think the seven sins game in IC2 (which ended up not panning out, since Jeff told us that we weren't allowed to answer with our pre-prepared answers alphabetically :-P), being an asset for both solving (and attention to detail) with the word search in IC3, before finally solving the "bonus phrase" at the end of IC6 which got us the win and kept the Helios 4 intact to the merge---a pivotal point. Making myself that big of a challenge presence is what caused people like Erin to decide (and tell others) that I needed to be targeted before we reached a Helios F4 or F5, since I would be too big of a threat. Preventing that from happening was a key part of my strategy that dictated some of my moves post-merge to pre-empt other groups from getting a majority that could take me out in the future. Finally, winning the last four individual Immunity Challenges speaks for itself and truly sets me apart from Brian and Penny---as those challenges tested key skills of being able to read the mentality of the tribe, preparedness and knowledge of the game (as my OCD self has kept a voting history and challenge tracker to keep track of number of votes, number of clues taken, etc.), thinking fast and, most importantly, how dedicated I was to making it to this seat in the final by staying up all night long to secure my position here. The Social Element: tr;dr: people that I didn't have a relationship needed to go, I'm really long winded, and wanted to keep the lines of communication open with everyone as much as I could, I didn't start fights since there would be nothing to gain but bad blood, and after I got Helios the numbers advantage, I stopped the lying since it would just be unnecessary and rude We all realize that keeping the line of communication open with others is a key component to this game. I did my best to ensure that. Of the (now) ~3200 messages exchanged at Kronos, I was privy to nearly 1300 of them (either sending or receiving those). That's 40% of the total messages here. When we all first got to Kronos, I already had connections with Helios (including Ted), and through Rob, got to know Christy and Joanna, as well. The only people left were Daniel and Shawna---you guys, I talked to by and far the least. It was for that reason that I knew I had to target you early because I didn't have a relationship with you (like the others) and it would be much harder for me to play the game with you or work with you. Even after blindsides, I made sure to talk to the people on the other side (like Christy and Joanna or Rob) to try to explain my reasoning (even if I couldn't explain the full story at the time) and more importantly, make sure that they still felt comfortable talking to me, even if they didn't trust me. Just keeping the line of communication open. After the first three merge boots, my game became a lot more straightforward with the Helios 4 looking for a run to the end. I didn't need to (and more importantly, didn't want to) keep lying to the Asterias after so much of it. I genuinely liked them, wanted to continue talking to them, and even if it wasn't fully about the game (or revealing important secrets about past, present, or future). At least to myself, I can justify the lies that I made earlier in the game as necessary to get to a comfortable position, but at F7 there was nothing to gain by being deceitful, and I had no intentions of lying if it was unnecessary. Equally as detrimental as not talking to someone would be being deliberately argumentative, and stepping on people's toes. I did my best to avoid this, particularly with the Penny/Rob turned tribal rivalry. I tried to keep lighthearted, avoided the fighting at all costs, and behaved like I've always tried to with everyone---and that's just trying to be genuinely kind, no matter what has happened in the game, if I've screwed you or if you've screwed me---because there was nothing to gain but animosity by being unnecessarily rude. Early Pre-Merge tl;dr: Brian, Penny, and I worked together from Day 01 to get a majority, I proposed a "Nash equilibrium" solution to avoid getting challenge disadvantages, and we targeted weak performers The very first night or two of the game, Penny, Brian, and I formed an alliance since, based on first impressions, our conversations with one another seemed to be the most natural and come with the most substance. We collaboratively agreed that we should branch out to a fourth and fifth person so that we'd be guaranteed a majority. Brian/Penny aligned with Erin, and Brian aligned with Jake (who then unforeseeably wanted to add Ted as their third instead of me). So together, we agreed that by appeasing Erin or Jake's wishes for the first round or two, we'd soon have complete control. One important strategy that I shared with the tribe before the second immunity challenge was a plan to keep our tribe strong by not taking the clues. If everyone agreed not to take a clue, people would have an individual advantage to gain by taking it, and some would, so our tribe would be disadvantaged by one or more clue-takers, and that plan wouldn't work because people are fundamentally selfish. I proposed what some may call a "Nash equilibrium" solution: we all elect one person that we trust to take the clue for the group. That person will ask for the clue and share it with the whole tribe. This way, people won't have anything to gain by taking the clue (as long as we elect someone that we all mutually agree on) and we don't needlessly disadvantage the tribe. We would just end up with one clue disadvantage instead of multiple, and would stand to potentially have an advantage (or a greater advantage) over Asteria. Unfortunately, Ken spoke up that he wasn't in favor of the plan, so it fell through. And because of that, there DID end up being more than one clue-taker. Because of that, we DID lose the challenge. And Ken paid for that by being voted out. After Ted's mutiny with his idol, we were mainly acting in self-preservation mode. We needed to trim the fat to keep our heads above water over Asteria, so the challenge liabilities were dropped. Penny didn't perform that well, and partially or wholly caused more than one of our losses, but Jan and Jake's aloofness needed to be addressed sooner. Late Pre-Merge tl;dr: align with Rob so that we'd have contingency plans post-merge if we were to get pagonged, and because him leaving on good terms and thinking that his friends were in jeopardy would prevent him from taking a clue to disadvantage Helios in IC6 and would also stand a chance at having his allies Joanna/Christy to throw the challenge for our safety A game theoretical approach. You may agree with it, or you may not; it's totally up to you. But let me at least give you some more insight into what I mean. You have to expect everyone to make decisions that are in their own best interests. I based my moves on preventing other people from having the opportunity to join up and take me out. Rob joined Helios and we had no idea what to do. But I reached out and we had a great conversation, which was used as a foundation for an "F6/F4" agreement at the merge. But, in the back of my mind, Rob's best move would still be to axe us off when he had the chance, especially if he had complete control of Asteria like he claimed. However, Brian and I used this agreement as an opportunity to get the Helios 4 safely to the merge and then have good footing once we got there. This is when Erin's fabricated idol came into play, since if Rob truly liked Brian and I like he claimed to, Erin potentially working with Penny and having an idol would be cause for Rob to think that Brian and I would be at risk if we lost, and as such, needed to get him to get his allies on Asteria to throw the challenge. It worked. Early Post-Merge tl;dr: Shawna was targeted to prevent Asteria from having the numbers to eliminate Helios; Dan was targeted to prevent Erin/Penny/Daniel/Joanna from joining together after Rob was gone to target me/Brian/Ted; Ted was targeted to prevent Ted+Asteria from picking off Helios and taking a guaranteed idol out of the hands of the other side At this point, I continued the game theoretical approach. If I saw a group of people that would have reason to band together against me, I needed to strike before they could---even if they claimed they weren’t going to, I put my trust in the numbers and anticipating their best move, because if I give people the power to take me out, it’s my own fault. At F10, if Rob and Asteria took out Penny like they planned to, Asteria would potentially have a 6-3 majority and we'd face a potential pagonging without anything to do about it. The theory of my game was to put trust in numbers, not people, since people can lie. So, knowing that an Asteria advantage was imminent, we had to prevent it. I reached out to Ted so that we could 5-5 it. Penny got Daniel on board, getting us a 6-4. But, in the event that Daniel was lying about his allegiance, it was important to still be in good with Rob so that we'd know Asteria's target in case it was expected to be 5-5 so that we could potentially use Ted's idol to win the round. Shawna was chosen as the target since Ted wanted Shawna on the bubble, I agreed since I didn't talk to her much, and she was the least likely to have an idol played on. At F9, now that Daniel proved his loyalty, Penny wanted to go forward with a 3-3-3 plan. I didn't like that idea since we had no idea of what the tiebreaker would be, including if there would be a re-vote, but she didn’t skip a beat at my arguments. Furthermore, I had actually talked to Christy/Rob (the targets) but not-so-much Daniel, who singlehandedly took me out of the challenge. Also, if Rob went as Penny had planned, Joanna could flock to Daniel, and Joanna/Daniel/Erin/Penny could form a majority to eliminate me/Brian/Ted (with Christy, finding us to be liars, probably joining Joanna). Thus, Rob could not go home. Ted wanted Daniel gone, and I agreed, but just to make sure something weird didn't happen with the vote since things were up in the air (and our game would be screwed) Brian and I joined in voting out Daniel. At F8, Ted took initiative again to target Erin/Penny. However, it became aware to me through Rob that Ted had initiated two plans to eliminate Daniel and now the girls, by approaching Rob with them, and never telling me/Brian about proposing those plans, who Ted claimed to have an F3 with. Now, for the record, I actually do believe that Ted would've gone to F3 with us given the chance (though I'm not 100%); however, him jumping back and forth and him not telling us about his plans meant he was a brilliant game player and dangerous to us. If we let Erin/Penny go this round, Ted could rejoin Asteria and take out Helios one-by-one. I honestly did think that Ted would've gone with us to the end, but the path he wanted to take there left too much up to the decisions of other people, and would have been too dangerous for us. Voting him out is the vote that I've felt worst about, without a doubt. Now, after this vote, Helios needed to expect a 4-3 and needed to avoid any existing HIIs. We knew Ted had one, and were unsure about Rob. So we had to target Ted to prevent a 4-3 situation with the other side having TWO HIIs to wreak havoc on us. Also, since we only had four votes, we needed the other four votes to be split somehow (and I knew to expect Ted potentially voting against the plan, and for his intended target of Erin even if he was assigned to vote Penny), so luckily Ted’s proposed setup that Brian and I had to play along with to split votes was used against him and allowed our four votes to be a majority. Late Post-Merge tl;dr: voted survey answers of "most threatening" and "most deserving" to put a target on my head, continued to foster Helios unity and loyalty along with immunity wins to survive as a majority until the end now that we eliminated our ally’s other options where they could turn on us; Brian has my utmost trust and loyalty, we inform the other about everything we do and hear, and I'd have stuck beside him not matter what, hoping that he would do the same, if anything came up, to protect me as I've done for him, but of the two of us, I did more of the personal interaction with others to implement plans At this point, the group voted me "most threatening to win" and "most deserving of winning" so I knew there was a target on my head. Up until this point, I had done my best with Brian to position ourselves into an alliance that didn't have any external assets that they could work with to turn on us and take us out. Erin and Penny NEEDED to work with us at F7 to prevent Asteria from threatening a tie at F6 or majority at F5 to proceed to take THEM out. Same would apply if one of them got eliminated. That was the goal all along of the first few merge rounds---establish a group as best as I could that couldn’t afford to turn on me early (like Erin had planned to, to eliminate a threat, if given the chance). At F7, Penny insisted on taking control, like she did in many situations. Even though it would have been in our best interests to not hint to Asteria who our target was at all, so they'd have a flat 1/3 chance of playing the idol on the right person, Penny went through with a plan to try to fulfill her personal vendetta against Rob, and completely ignored anyone else's suggestions. In the process, she ignored reasoning that it wouldn't make ANY sense for Joanna/Christy to vote against their ally when they can, all the same, vote together to put three votes on our of our guys. She believed them anyways (after they’d already lied to her about voting for Rob once before). Her plan revealed too much to the Asterias allowing Christy to very intelligently play the idol on herself and take out one of our own. From here on out, I knew that I needed to continue to foster Helios unity, loyalty, and trust to get to the end with the group that I’d worked so hard to solidify, and win immunity when I could to avoid the target on my head for what others perceived as being a jury threat. I've talked to Brian at length ever since the beginning of the game. Much of the decisions that we made were joint decisions and joint plans, particularly in the first few rounds of the merge. I candidly shared with him practically everything that happened and all of my ideas for consultation, and to the best of my knowledge, he has done the same with me. He has my utmost loyalty, and I believe that I have his, as well. And through extensive conversations, our bonding meant that, regardless of immunity, at the F4, the worst that either of us could do was being in a tie against either Penny or Joanna, and that was because of the trust and relationship that grew more every night over the course of the past four weeks. The main difference between our games is that I was the one keeping in contact with our allies more frequently, be it Rob/Christy/Joanna, or Ted, or Penny, to implement plans and make sure things went swimmingly. The End Thank you for reading! Even if it was just the bold parts. It's been amazing playing this game with all of you; it's been enjoyable, exciting, and I hope that you all feel the same. I do apologize for the lies and the deceit and the victims that it took, but fundamentally, my strategy was just game theory, and pre-empting people from attacking me. I did my best to never make it personal. If there is any ill will, I absolutely accept and deserve that. Regardless, on my end, there are no hard feelings towards anyone, and I'm looking forward to hearing and answering your questions to give you more insight into my game and the game's of others, so that you can made an educated decision and vote for whomever it is that you think should win. Jeff: Thank you for those novels, I will now allow for the jury to read these a bit, and then I'll open the floor to them.

Stranded in Greece https://greece.strandedgaming.com/

Episode 13 - The Scooby Doo Reveal https://greece.strandedgaming.com/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=254	Page 1 of 2

Author:	Brenda [ Wed Feb 01, 2012 10:33:45 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Episode 13 - The Scooby Doo Reveal
Jeff: Okay, Daniel my boy. Are you ready to go? Daniel: Firstly, congratulations to all three of you! You've succeeded at what thirteen of us fell just short of accomplishing. No matter what means you've used as an ends, objectively speaking, you three have outwitted, outplayed, and outlasted the rest of us. Some of your endgame methods might appear to be lazy, or even unscrupulous compared to the competitors you are sitting next to, but fair is fair, you got us, you got all of us. Major props! While you guys HAVE gotten to the very end, I certainly admire some of your gameplay more so than others. I'm gonna get one of you out of the way. Brian, I really have nothing to address toward you. Like the actual Lord Brian Heidik, you played a callous, clinical game. But very much UNLIKE Lord Heidik, you were another player's bitch the ENTIRE game. You never went out of your way to make moves on your own accord, and I simply cannot respect this method of gameplay. Sorry, bud. You'll have to really, REALLY, REALLY impress me to earn my vote tonight since I'm not entirely decided yet, but don't press your luck. Brian: I understand. I put myself in this position and was willing to risk having to enter tribal council with an extra low chance of winning based on my strategy. So I'll just try my best and hope to impress you somehow. Daniel: Why risk this though? Why not make a move at some point? Imagine how your game could have played out if you had blindsided Helen at F9? Brian: At F9, the dynamics were too complex, and I feared you working with Joanna and Erin/Penny over me along with fearing that Asteria would reunite and I'd lose Ted's support if I took out Helen. I aimed for safety at that point. I slightly elaborated on it, but at final 7, if we could've taken out Christy successfully, immediately at final 6, that was the first time I legitimately thought and detailed a plan to take Helen. I discussed it in my confessional during the final 7 round, but I was going to approach Erin after the vote and tell her that she COULD NOT warn Penny about this plan (since Penny might warn Helen), explain all the sub-alliances that Penny was involved in with Helen and sell-out other aspects of Helen's game to make Erin trust that she might not have known in order to get her trust. I discussed a way to get Helen out that round, potentially being idoled (if the idol hadn't been wasted the round before), or even with the majority. I felt that then, I could've gone to the end with Penny and Erin (being safe at final 5 with Helen gone) and been responsible for taking out the biggest threat. But the way the game worked out, she won immunity at all points where I had a chance to take her out, so I couldn't. And at final 6, I wouldn't with the 3 Asterians left in the game. Daniel: Penny, oh Penny. The ever tenacious Penny. You were the impetus in my flip at the merge. I like you as a person, and I wish I could be sitting next to you right now, but things just didn't work out did they? I was played, I get it. I do have a question that I believe I already know the answer to but I'm going to ask it anyway. If the plan at F9 went smoothly and Rob was booted, what would have been your next course of action? Would I have gone next regardless? Another Asterian perhaps? How would your endgame plan have changed? I look forward to your answer, thanks! :) Penny: Hi Daniel! My end game changed completely when you were blindsided and it hurt me big time. I honestly hadnt thought so far ahead. I wont sit here and tell you that you would definitely have been in the F3 with me, because I am going to be 100% honest with everybody tonight. However, the thread that Rob started after you turned to us definitely would have helped you. To me if we had continued and Asteria grew to really dislike you, I would have absolutely taken you to the Finals with me. Because I believe that would have maximised my possibility of winning the game. For what its worth, I didnt play you. I was completely unaware that you were even the target and you shouldnt have been voted out that night in the manner that you were. Both Erin and I wanted to keep you and we were both shocked when you got sent home. Ill say again that voting you out was a huge tactical error by Helen and Brian. They robbed us of another vote and that cant be overstated. The two of them were at times a hindrance to me and did at times actually get in the way of the plans I was putting in place to get to the end. Helen: Alas. If Daniel is in finals with you and Erin, I'm not. Penny: Thats the problem with your strategic game. You looked towards the end but didnt think about getting there in the first place. I gambled all game that I would be going to the end and made the best moves not only in my interests, but in both of your interests as well. You two tried to play safe, which is evidenced by your obsession over the Immunity Idol. It didnt get played for like 3 or 4 Tribals, yet it came up every time with the pair of you. I made the big moves and the big calls. I was prepared to go home every night and took huge risks. The pair of you were content on surviving on the words of Rob and Ted, who were both obviously playing us. You're lucky that I fought so hard to keep us alive after the Daniel vote, or else all three of us wouldnt have made it this far. Brian: Um, isn't it smart to consider all the scenarios and the possibility that the idol MIGHT come up? Because it was out there, and it did come up, so it just makes sense to idol-proof votes as much as possible. And keeping Ted with us and agreeing to his targets was partially to prevent his idol from being used against us also. Penny: Um it didnt make sense because nobody from Asteria was going to play the Idol when they believed they had a 6-4 numbers advantage and would be looking towards the end themselves. The logical thinking for the Asterians was to keep the Idol for as long as they could. You all waited so long to flush the damn the Idol. Fact is I brought Rob's name up for elimination at EVERY Tribal Council and you both flat out denied it. How many times did Rob play an Immunity Idol? Daniel: And finally, the head honcho herself - Helen. Where do I start? You DOMINATED this game, physically, strategically and socially. It is without question that you do deserve the win more than the other two tribemates and I think the rest of the jury will agree to that. So, I'll lay it out simple for you: 1.) Are you sane? Seriously, 6200+ posts in your final immunity challenge is excessive, no? Was your plan going into the challenge to drive everyone else into committing suicide out of shame? I mean, shit! 2.) What does it feel like to subvert free will and have your own collared bitch yapping at your ankles for the entire duration of the game? The bitch in question, which of course I just got done speaking with, being Brian. Helen: Haha! Thanks, Daniel! I really appreciate and respect your views on the game and how to assess the finalists, and I'd like to think that I'd approach it the same way in your position. Sorry that things didn't work out between us. 1) I'm not sane, at all lol. Up until this week, I've been on break, so I've had heaps of time to dedicate to the game, which is much of the reason that many of my plans and relationships were able to be as developed as their were. I owe much of my ability to being here to the fact that my "life" hasn't resumed until this past Sunday. I expected that if I lost the challenge, Penny/Joanna would team up to 2-2 me into a tiebreaker to make it to the final. Whereas, if I was immune, Penny wouldn't see the reason to vote out Brian over Joanna. So it was important. It wasn't my intention to make anyone shit themselves or kill themselves, but my thinking was this: Penny spent the first few hours of the challenge trying to convince me to let her win because she hadn't yet won immunity. Knowing that she was in the AUS time zone, I also knew that she had the advantage in that she'd know how late she would need to stay up posting in order to beat me. If the number she needed to reach was at all realistic, she'd attempt it, and take advantage of the opportunity to eliminate me. I couldn't let her have that, so I spent an extra few hours listening to an audio book and clicking away (and still got eight hours of sleep). Now, after I won the challenge, she's re-scripted reality to make it sound like she prevailed by "tricking me" into trying too hard even though we all know she'd have tried to win immunity herself and take me out given the chance, and she wanted that chance badly. 2) I appreciated Brian for being loyal to me in the game. He was always there to talk to. He had very sound judgements and was always very reasonable. It was very calming to believe that I would potentially always have his trust, because I told him practically everything to keep him loyal to me and made sure he didn't question. And I have confidence that Brian and I will continue to talk long after this game is over. I (and I think he does too) understand that no one on the jury is likely going to realize the full extent of his gameplay over the course of the next two days, but I hope that episodes or confessionals or something will allow you guys to give him a bit more credit post-game for the intuition and intelligence that he did bring to the table. Daniel: Alright, thank you guys. Good luck to all three of you guys! You (mostly) deserve to be sitting where you are! Jeff: Alright guys, I hate to break up a fight, you all know that... BUT we must push on with this tribal for Ted, Erin, Rob, Christy and Joanna will get their turn.

Author:	Brenda [ Wed Feb 01, 2012 10:39:47 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Episode 13 - The Scooby Doo Reveal
Ted: Which James Bond character do you think you, your fellow finalist/s, me and any relevant jurors are most like? You may not pick James Bond. Give as much detail as possible. I will be judging you based on variety, justification and quality of your answers. Penny: I believe I am like Elektra King, because I tried to collaborate with everybody to achieve my goals. I held game related grudges as well. I believe Brian was like General Grubozaboyschikov, because nobody knows who that is and they actually have to google him to find out what he actually did. Helen is like Octopussy. She was a 'jewel smuggler' because here she is at Tribal Council trying to justify playing a strategic game when in actuality I was the one calling the shots. Octopussy is attempting to 'steal' the game from me tonight. To me Rob was Auric Goldfinger, symbolically in this game he was my primary antagonist, although hopefully he knows it was never anything personal between us. Erin would be Bill Tanner, to me she was my number one ally or 'chief of staff' and always helped me with my decision making and kept me on track during the early stages of the merge. Ted, to me you will be Vesper Lynd, because you were 'born on a dark and stormy night'. To me you were also a double agent, working for both Helios and Asteria. Christy to me is like Christmas Jones. When we initially met, Christy was distrusting of me, but over the course of the game we began to trust each other little by little. I am not a Bond fan, so this question was very difficult for me. Helen: My knowledge isn't that far spanning, but here's my attempt: Ted: Oddjob, silent you may be, but very deadly when you chose who and when to attack, being intimidating with your approach of how quiet yet successful your attacks were Helen: Goldfinger, connections to far-reaching places (his gold deposits) as an analogy to my far-reaching social links to other people, with a very methodical approach to completing tasks Penny: Jaws, in her approach that she always thrived on attacking Rob and would have bit out his jugular if given the chance Brian: Man with the Golden Gun, with his gun embodying his assassin like characteristics making hits on the individuals that were important for us to remove from the game Rob: Dr No, elaborate evil plans and mad scientist like persona with his approach Erin: Moneypenny, amicable nature, kindhearted, good-natured, and very easygoing Brian: Rob: Emilio Largo Rob, like Emilio, was basically the "villain" and leader of the other side from our perspective the whole game. Erin: Christmas Jones Fierce, Very fierce, smart, competitor in all forms. Worked in Kazakhstan to dismantle nuclear warheads. Helped Bond on his missions. Just like Erin helped her allies out in the game. Bill Tanner: Brian: I was a loyal ally and great in a crisis, ultimately. Vivienne Michel: Christy was considered to be a girl next door the whole game. Even when we didn't like working with her, everyone loved talking to her. Penny: Strawberry Fields Faced and Identity crisis: Agent Strawberry Fields was built as a supporting character, but by the end of the series, everyone was debating whether she was a main, lead character or not. This sort of supports Penny's argument at this tribal council. Rosa Klebb: Helen They were both fierce and resorted to any measures (such as torturing) to get what they wanted. Helen essentially did whatever was needed and everything she could to make it to the end of the game. General Gogol: Ted Everyone wondered about you. Were you a villian, were you a hero? General Gogol's status is left uncertain. What was he? You were a major character, but we don't fully understand you. Brian: Boo to not having an edit button here for typing and bad formatting. Jeff: Okay. Thank you, Ted.

Author:	Brenda [ Wed Feb 01, 2012 10:42:04 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Episode 13 - The Scooby Doo Reveal
Jeff: Next Up, we have: Joanna! Joanna: Wow congrats guys. You came into the merge with the odds stacked against you and were able to take advantage of my tribe members when you needed to (much to my dismay :( ) and come out with a solid Helios final 3. I’m only going to be addressing Penny and Helen tonight. Brian: Joanna: Penny! Wow I knew you were a gamer but every post you have made so far in this thread has me seriously fanning myself. You know we didn’t really talk all that much during the game but I knew that was because I wasn’t a part of your plan, and you definitely weren’t a part of my plan, so I appreciate you keeping the bullshitting to a minimum. I am amazed at how hard you had to work for your tribe. I think creating the fake division and leading a dumbass such as Rob to believe it and he comes back to Asteria to tell everyone, was probably the best move of the game. And you thought of it, so kudos. I also like how you have emotion, personality, and humor, three characteristics the other two severely lack. It made me feel comfortable to talk to you the few times we did talk. I honestly think you SHOULD have this in the bag, but some of the members are still wavering on the jury. I think just because Helen built this persona that she is a “great player” shouldn’t be the reason she should get votes. You intentionally kept your strategic mind under wraps while Helen didn’t bother, and now you’re at risk for being seen the emotional and unstable player to Helen’s calm cool collected which simply isn’t the case at all. Basically I think you’re doing phenomenal so far so keep fighting. Just the fact that Helen/Brian feel like they need to gang up on you, shows how awesome you’re doing. So I just have one quick question. Final 4, I look back now and see you had no real intention of trying to get Helen to lose and hopefully voting her out, so why bother PMing and implying that that was what you wanted to happen? I just kind of saw that as a lack of respect on your part, because there was no reason to lie to me at that point. Helen: There seems to be a disagreement here. Even though Penny claims to take credit for creating the fake division, it was something that Brian and I devised while working to get Rob to throw the F11 IC for Asteria. We were the ones messaging both Penny and Erin with explicit instructions on how to respond to Rob's messages to convince him that Brian and I would be endangered in the event of a loss. That was the origin of the plan, and it came from us working with Rob. Penny: Come Final 4 I had every intention of trying my best to beat Helen. As ive already pointed out, my timezone is different to you guys, so I actually wasnt online much when Helen really got going and built a substantial lead. You'd know from watching that I started with everyone else and kept the pace, but I had to leave while the rest kept going. When I arrived Helen had roughly 6000 posts and I couldnt catch her even though I wanted to. I tried to bluff Helen to keep her to a total I could reach, to her credit, she didnt buy it and set a target I simply couldnt reach. I did message you prior to this as I had every intention of voting with you to oust Helen. You'll note though, that once I had surrendered to Helen's mammoth total, I did PM you and say I would probably be voting you out, since I needed Brian at my end game. I hope this answers your question. Thank you so much for your support! I've really done my absolute best this game so I loved reading your comment and know that you respect my game. I cant imagine how much it would suck to be eliminated at the Final Tribal Council, for you to have such an unbiased and controlled comment I think really shows your maturity and your level headedness. I wish we could have been allies. Maybe next time. Joanna: To my dear Helen. No questions, just comments. You know I can’t help but smile watching Penny slowly rise from the ashes in this FTC and watching you continuously fumble. This whole game, you were incredibly condescending towards me and all the other Asteria members. I honestly did not believe you were legitimately serious with some of the things you said to me. I could not get through your PMs without rolling my eyes roughly 10-15 times. It just amazes me how one person can be so rude, disrespectful, and conceited. You are void of any kind of emotion to the point that you came off as very unlikable. Remember when I was discussing with you that you needed to keep me because you probably wouldn’t be able to beat Penny? You didn’t agree to go with me and I asked if it was out of loyalty or because you seriously thought you could win. I know unfortunately that it was the latter. You were so cocky going into this but you now spend the majority of your time fighting against Penny and what she is saying rather than showing what you’ve done. You’re constantly on the defensive which looks really, really bad on your part. Penny should kill you with the votes hands down. Thank you for playing, choose your final three wisely next time, and don’t let that inflated ego get in the way. :) Best of luck to all of you! <3 Helen: I apologize that I came off that way to you guys. I never intended to be rude, disrespectful, or conceited in the way that I treated you. Completely aside from the game and strategy, I will absolutely take your criticisms to heart and try to use them to better myself as a person. Thank you for your honest. On the topic of final three, it's completely alright. I've said all along that my intention was to make it to the final to be judged by a jury of peers, and if they determined that I didn't deserve to win the game over one of the other finalists, then fair enough. If Penny outperforms both Brian and I in jury votes, then she has my accolades. And although the outcome may (or may not) have been different if you were sitting here instead, I'm still satisfied with this, because this entire exercise was intended to be a learning experience for me, which is why I want my game to be judged against others at the end, whatever the outcome, to weigh how well I actually performed. Thank you for your insight and critique, and whatever the verdict, all the best.

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