Episode XV

[thiago]

FINALE TIME!



Time to exterminate zee competition. Bwa-ha-ha-ha!

[ellen]

LOL!

[thiago]

So, here we go!

As of now I still plan on taking Mark and Zac to the finals. I feel that it would be fitting to take the two people I have been genuinely loyal to. By voting either out, I will lose their jury vote and also look fairly skeezy, or at least skeezier than I already may look.

I feel that I will survive this round regardless, because Liam has offered myself and Bree his vote this round. He wants to take out Mark, preferrably, but is willing to vote off Zac if that's who we would rather eliminate. He told us we can give him our word after the challenge.

Ben and Knox's eliminations put the idea in peoples' heads that Bree and myself are running the show. This is why Liam came to us, because he thinks we have a tendency to flip on people (i.e. Knox). Ben tried to tell Mark and Zac last night that they should vote with him because Bree and myself are running the show. He told them things that they both already knew. Of course, Zac and Mark forwarded the exact PM to me so I was able to monitor everything that was said. I am of course the information fairy, so I showed Ben parts of the PM. I didn't want to deject him anymore than he already was, but I wanted him to see that everyone is very loyal to me. I figure him going to Apocalyptic Ponderosa with the idea that everyone runs back to me with any piece of information can be beneficial to my jury reputation.


The information fairy in action.

I really worked hard in the challenge so I hope that I did well, but of course you never know. I really hope Liam doesn't win because if Liam even gets a shot at the final Battle, which tends to be a test of endurance, he's going to win. He's on vacation while the rest of us work. We don't have the luxury of staying up for lengthy amounts of time. It would be an easy win for him. The jury would hand it to him, even though strategically he has made blunder after blunder. However, in a series dubbed "Good & Evil," regardless of their strategic success, Good in the eyes of the jury will prevail, so Liam cannot make it.

I am starting to think about how I will go about eliminating Bree. Of course, I could take out Zac or at least force at tie at 4, but I feel that the jury really doesn't respect Bree and taking her out, when they think she's my buddy, will look pretty good. Taking Bree to the end may look like Parvati/Russell facing Sandra, and we all know how that turned out. I've decided to spill my guts to Bree at the F4 and explain to her my dilemma of keeping her over Zac, because I have been alligned with him longer than my relationship with Bree has been together. I know I was "with" Bree before Zac, but Bree turned on Starr on Farrago so it took time for me to "trust Bree again." Of course I really didn't care that Bree did that, since Gloria was flipping anyway, and I immediately swooped in when Starr/Chad/Gloria wanted her off so that she had a friend. She has since been completely loyal to me and I appreciate that, but I think--and hope--she will respect the moves I've made and understand why I would vote her off. It's risky, but I think her suddenly getting voted off and sent to the jury, plus seeing that I played her on Reliquum, will leave such a bitter taste in her mouth that she won't vote for me, so I think this is really the only way for me to go. Bree respects gameplay, believe it or not. I refuse to make assumptions about anyone's votes because you know what happens when you assume...

I think that many decisions will be made during final questioning, so I'm not going to get too worked up over who will definitely win amongst the fans. I think that as long as we can take care of Liam now, and he already told me he completely understands if we eliminate him, we will all have a better shot at winning.

I can't believe I've made the finale. I was so nervous on the first day, worried people would find me boring, worried I wouldn't fit in, and suddenly everyone feels a "connection" with me, and I find myself in a tight alliance, albeit with people I didn't enjoy. This gave me time to build a counteralliance, slowly, with people I knew I could trust, which also took time and patience to figure out. I took a risk heading to Farrago, knowing I'd get an opportunity to mingle with the other tribe before the merge hit, and also avoiding a randomized sacrifice which could be disasterous if my alliance with Mark/Gabe/Zac/Knox (I never formally joined Knox but we always had Zac taking care of him) did not have the majority on old Reliquum, as I needed them in the merge. I made a tight bond with Gloria on Farrago, which allowed me to know who to use my apple idol on at the merge. I was able to do the impossible and keep the fans together against all odds, given how much of a mess our tribe was early on. By Round 5, there were 8 Fans and 11 Favourites left; now, at the Final 5, 4 of the 5 are Fans and there's only 1 Favourite left. Crazy ironic. Who thought the fans would ever have been so successful?

I think I have a real shot at winning this, but I have to tread carefully... it's still anybody's game.

19 down, 4 more to go...........



I'm armed. Yippee Ki Yay Motherfuckers!!

It's so difficult being badass...

[thiago]

It's tough voting Liam out, because I genuinely like him. I think he made some mistakes himself, and that's why he's in this position, but he's really done fantastic and I'm glad he got a taste of making it so far. However, he's a massive threat to win in the end, and to certainly win the next challenge. I know Liam is a direct person, so I told him that I voted for him.

Hopefully there is no funny business, but Liam should be leaving and we're down to an all-fan Final 4... things will start to get messy now.

[thiago]

It appears that my voteless streak will come to an end this round. Liam has decided to vote for me, which is understandable. We had a really nice chat last night and wished eachother luck.

He gave Bree and Zac his pitches, telling Zac he can't beat Mark/me in the finals, and telling Bree that me and her played the same game but I was more social so I will get credit for the moves. Of course, both ran back to tell me, which makes me feel secure about the vote most definitely.

Bree told me last night that she is taking me to the finals no matter what. I feel terrible because I know I'm not going to do that. I hope that I can win the F4 challenge so that I can reveal everything to her, without being targetted as a result. I need to explain to her the situation, and my dilemma, being that Zac and I have been aligned since the start and she broke her word to me mid-game when she voted for Starr over Tina, and that took time to get over.

Bree was even prepping for final Judgment by telling me what she will use as her argument, which makes me feel even worse because, unless she wins the final Battle, I know she won't be sitting there. The fact that she assumes she will be there tells me that by voting her off it's really going to be a massive blindside, so I'm going to have to really be careful with how I handle her elimination.

[wendy]

May 25, 2013 23:21:43 GMT -5 thiago said:

FINALE TIME!



Time to exterminate zee competition. Bwa-ha-ha-ha!

I see that you failed Art in your primary years.

[thiago]

FINAL 4!!!! WAHOO!!!

I have cleared my schedule after work today so I should be able to post for about 8 hours. I'm really not looking forward to it, though. It'll take a miracle for them to vote me off but it only takes 2 people to realize I'm a massive jury threat to make it happen. I also really want to win immunity so that I can work on Bree's jury vote without worrying she will run to the guys to vote me off when I reveal to her everything that has gone on, and why I have to vote for her.

Time to kick this game up another knotch!

[thiago]

YAY! FINAL 3!!

I wanted to win the immunity challenge for 2 reasons.

1) Be able to say I won the most merge challenges, and tied Mark for individual challenges won, so he can't use that fact over me in a jury argument.

2) Be able to tell Bree everything that happened, manipulate her a bit into understanding my tough position in voting her off, an villainizing Mark a bit, without the risk of them going back to each other, comparing notes, and booting me.

I spoke to Bree and she was pissed at first when I told her about my counter alliance with Mark/Zac/Gabe but I made sure to throw in that Gloria wanted to throw the challenge with Starr to take her out on Farrago but that I pushed hard to keep her in, and suddenly she loves me and hopes I win. She's telling me that she owes her survival to me. She absolutely hates Mark. She will still be pissed when she's voted out though because she's still working me and I think she's still going to feel devastated even though I told her that I'm "undecided, leaning toward voting her." I've done the best I can do with working her as a jury vote. Time will tell.

I know that one could argue that by taking Mark, someone I'm not sure I can beat, that I'm not playing the best game I could. However, I have to argue, what does it say about me if I take two goats? How would you view Kim if she won by taking out Sabrina/Chelsea and taking Kat/Alicia, or about JT if he took Erinn instead of Stephen? They wouldn't look as great as winners because they were willing to risk it all to beat the best.

If I win, I want to know that in any circumstance I would have won, and by taking Mark I'm really putting that challenge to the test. I also could easily get hammered by the jury by betraying so many people and Zac could win by default, or Bree's story could win by default. That would be humiliating.

I care about Mark very much and I needed him as much as he needed me. Without each other, we wouldn't have been able to run the game like we did. I think I was much more social, and also did a lot of things that he wasn't aware of. I do think he thinks he played more behind the scenes strategy than I have, but there's plenty he doesn't know, such as me ratting him out to Bree as we speak...

I already have a notepad outlining points I want to hit on in the FTC, and also have a rough draft of my opening statement. I don't want something tl;dr but at the same time I have so much to say that people don't know; at the same time, maybe I should simply hightlight the best things I did and not bog people down with reading.

[chase]

I think that both Alicia and Kat were bigger jury threats than Chelsea and maybe even Sabrina. You should have picked Tarzan and Christina.



Regardless, congrats on making it to the end; it's been a lot of fun watching you play!

[thiago]

This is a tough jury so far, man. They're busting my balls! I'm glad I have to fight for this, though.

[thiago]

I decided to go with a video for my closings. We'll see how it turns out.

Posting in here so I can format etc. as I'll be busy later. Waiting until noon.



Mini Table of Contents for those in a tl;dw position

0:00-2:15 Introduction
2:15-6:20 Thank Yous
6:20-9:05 A bit about me/Game mentality
9:05-14:20 Game moves overview
14:20-17:50 Final Judgment closing arguments
17:50-20:50 Conclusion

I know that it seems a bit long but I think it goes by pretty quickly, at least I hope so.

Big thank you to everyone. This will probably be my last post in my confessional. I hope you've all enjoyed reading it and I've tried to make it as interesting for you, as viewers, as possible. Thansk again for everything and you can always message me at gvse5Thiago as this is likely the SN I'll use after the game, since my old one doesn't get any use anyway.

Here's to hoping I can win... methinks it will be a close one.

[thiago]

Mark's playing the victim card. Oh brother. I don't buy it for a minute.

Hopefully my "apology" will keep the voters off voting based on feeling bad...

This is going to be a close vote when it really shouldn't be IMHO

It's Mark's own fault for not coming into this swinging expecting that we'd both just stroke one another's ego in front of the jury. I've exaggerated how much I didn't need Mark, when the reality is that I did need him very much, but of course I need to set myself apart from him and comments like Liam's are exactly what I was hoping for, even if it isn't true.

Sigh.

[thiago]

It's been a pleasure everyone. Hoping for the best tomorrow night.

Please message me on this SN if you want to chat after the finale. gvse5Thiago

I doubt I will use my old SN much since no one I really talk to is ever online anyway.

Cheers
T/B