Hello to you all! First of all, before going through the schemes that have been afoot this season, I want to thank all 17 of you for one of the most exciting and neveracking season that I have ever played in. You 17 are some of the strongest players I've faced off against, and I didn't even know it at the time due to the Secret Identities twist. This twist gave me a new look at certain contestants I would not have otherwise been able to meet, and more than ever made things strictly strategic as opposed to personal. None of my moves were based on personal vendettas, rivalries and all the rest, they were simply to increase my standing among 17 strangers.
Although many jury members may assume that there wasn't much gameplay on Ashanti due to us only voting out inactives, nothing could be further from the truth. From Day 1, everyone started strategizing, plotting and conniving to weed out the threats, their competition and those that were considered untrustworthy. However, since we took a beating in the first few challenges, the 5 strongest contestants were forced to stick together, despite the deep divisions within. We originally decided to stick with Cho, Matt, Josh, Selina and myself, with Alexis on the outs due to challenge weakness, no true ties on the tribe and Selina's clashes with Alexis. Selina had many problems with Alexis over Alexis' tracking down of Selina's IP addresses, Alexis' alleged bounty hunting job, and simply personal issues. As Selina was tight with Josh, this created an instant and deep division within the tribe, a supposed roadblock that turned into a blessing.
As I needed people from either side of the chasm for certain moves, I knew that I had to socialize and build trust with both sides of the chasm. I was able to build trust with Alexis, Josh and Selina over a short period of time, as well as my original allies of Cho and Matt. By making everyone feel as if they had me as a number, I functioned as a sort of glue, holding the Ashanti tribe together to ensure my survival and my allies' safety, due to my social game.
Once Mollie and Heather were voted off due to being Dagombas, the glue began to flake off, as everyone was trying to make a core alliance within the 6, as no one was willing to be the person who missed their opportunity to change the game in their favor. Due to Cho and I both gaining the trust of both sides of the rift, we quickly became part of two foursome alliances, one with Matt and Alexis, one with Josh and Selina. Everyone trusted me to some extent to follow through with their plans, due to a good social game.
When analyzing these two duos, it became clear that as Selina was an extremely strong competitor, and due to Josh and Selina's relative loyalty as compared to Matt & Alexis (who were targeting each other, trusting Cho and I instead), we had to go with Matt and Alexis instead. With our four as an alliance, and two outsiders having immunity, the only option was to eliminate Selina and Rachel, thus swiftly bringing me into the final 6 and getting rid of two extremely strong players that posed a serious threat to my game, all the while protecting people that I trusted due to my great social and strategic game.
Btw, for all those wondering, why exactly did Selina go first? Because Alexis was paranoid about the Ashanti idol and wanted to thus catch Selina off-guard, while I had built the social ties with Cho for him to tell me of the idol long before the merge began. So, I just played along as if the idol had not been found yet, protecting Cho and his (really her) secrets when I needed to and getting rid of him when I needed to. I knew about the idol due to my relations with Cho, and the knowledge was used to my advantage in the future due to my decision to get rid of Cho and Matt. But I'll get to that in a bit.
Once Kelly went unanimously as was expected, 5 members remain. Although Josh was the outsider, I spent a large portion of time bonding with him, going as far as to spend until 5:00 AM, having fun watching Big Brother re-runs together. I spent a considerably larger portion of time with him than anyone else as soon as Selina was blindsided, as I knew that I'd need his loyalty soon. When it was 5 Ashantis remaining, I realized that after Selina had gone, Alexis and Josh weren't diametrically opposed to each other as they used to be, and furthermore, Cho was a far larger jury threats as opposed to Alexis and Josh due to his social connections and strategic abilities, which Alexis and Josh simply did not exhibit in nearly the same scale. Furthermore, Matthew had supported Cho from Day 1, so he had to go as well, leaving myself, Alexis and Josh. I knew that if I could somehow use my ties with both of them to convince Alexis and Josh to join each other along with myself, I'd have a much better shot in the final three as opposed to with Cho, Matt or both, since not only have these Alexis and Josh talked with very few other contenders as compared to Cho and Matt, they've been perpetual outcasts of the Ashanti and Arcca tribes, saved only by myself and to a far lesser extent Cho and Selina respectively. So, with a bit of work to sever the tie between Alexis and Cho (and a LOT more Big Brother 2 re-watching), I had these two on board for the final three. The work to convince these two enemies to ally merely for my personal benefit was unfathomable only a few days ago, and was a result of my great social gameplay, as it most likely never would have happened otherwise.
Now that I had solidified my stance as far as alliances, the next two tribal councils were self-explanatory. Since Cho had the Ashanti idol, Matt had to go first with Cho shortly after, getting rid of a considerable jury threat and leaving me with Alexis and Josh.
In the ways that one can be remarked as having played a good game, I have performed them all. I've been able to relate to and garner trust within all of Ashanti and at least gain a rapport with some of the Dagombas due to my social abilities, my strategic skills allowed me to pick the right move at the right time to improve my position to where it is now, and I've won four of six immunity challenges, so my physical game is without question a strong point in my game. Quite simply, I believe that I have outplayed both Alexis and Josh in all ways, and as such I implore you, as the jury of 8, to vote for me to win the title of Sole Survivor.
I would like to thank you all sincerely for this experience, and I'll see you all at the reunion show :)