LAST EDITED ON 09-19-11 AT 07:54 PM (EST)

To be sitting here, facing the jury, I certainly didn’t play nice but the first thing I want to say is that I played to make this game as fun as possible for us. Those exchanges, the banter, all that was really meant to be fun and I hope we can continue to exchange on the board in a similarly friendly manner. My style of play is to be with everyone and, simultaneously, to be against everyone because that is the essence of the game: You need people with you to keep you safe but you need to get rid of them all to win. In BB and in Survivor, dividing the house or the tribe is stupid because a new HoH or a tribal swap can kill your game. You need a united group (that’s why I insisted on unanimous votes) but the game isn’t a team game. That’s where the deception comes in. Survivor China’s Todd (or Outback Tina for the old-timers) is the player that I emulated.

The first bond I made was with Jbug. I even offered her a F2 deal right away, thinking it would be a great thing if the first two people joining the game would be the last two standing. Maybe you will think it was luck that got us here but, believe me, it was a lot of hard work.

An offer was also made to Krissmiss and Zazzy, one based on “I won’t nominate you if you don’t nominate me and I’ll help keep you safe if you get nominated.”
But the biggest alliance I wanted to establish was with friends from the Survivor boards: Suzzee, Corvis and Dear Abby. Getting us 4 to work together seemed natural and could have been a good road to the end but that alliance never really gelled.

Wayne was the only one I didn’t approach, the only one I didn’t really know. The one thing I knew about Wayne was that he is a regular of the OT threads. My biggest concern from the start was an alliance of OT’ers, one in which I would have very little foothold.

With so many alliances, it was clear that I wouldn’t be playing for HoH in week 1 but I would want my allies to go for it. I’d have to keep my eyes open for any floaters in those alliances. What is a floater in my eyes? It’s the opposite of my game: Instead of being with everyone and against everyone, a floater is with no one and against no one. They depend on luck and the goodwill of others to get to the end and that’s definitely not how I play.

The game started and Jbug was the first HoH. A long time poster, I knew she had many friends in the OT but I had made first contact with her so what better way to test for an OT alliance. I suggested Wayne as the target under the guise that he was the last to join, not a really active player and since we wanted the first in the house to be the last standing, the last player in “should” be the first target. I even told her that, in order to avoid getting a target on her back, she should tell the other player nominated that they would be safe. I knew one of my allies was going up on the block so I had to show that I was working for their safety.

That went very well until Zazzy won POV and Suzzee became MIA. I had Jbug questioning “our” choice, wanting to know if I'd agree with something Abby suggested: backdooring Suzzee, Suzzee? Certainly not because she had always been loyal to me but I had to keep that to myself. I had to work on two fronts; getting Zazzy to sit on the veto, saying we could work more down the road while using that veto could get me nominated, and reassuring Jbug that she had made the right choice. I also had to reach out to Suzzee to get her more involved.

As soon as the veto ceremony ended, I had Dear Abby asking me to save Wayne. A member of my alliance wanting to save an apparent outsider meant one thing: Abby was with Wayne. When she insisted that we could still be in an alliance but vote our separate ways, I knew Abby was building something on the side and I had my next target. Briefly, the thought of keeping Wayne entered my mind. Afterall, if I won HoH, I’d need to have someone to put on the block and I had promised safety to everyone else! Still, it was easier to avoid being HoH than to count on winning those random games. Wayne had to go and Abby would have to follow.

After the first elimination, I had to work on Corvis and Suzzee to get them to agree to vote out Abby. Since Dear Abby told me she wanted to save Wayne and Jbug told me Abby wanted to backdoor Suzzee, I assumed Dear Abby had contacted Zazzy to use the veto in order to change the nominations. That would be more ammunition that I could use against Abby. However, it turned out I didn’t need to convince anyone: Corvis and Suzzee were all in to get Abby out and Corvis had already convinced Zazzy. Suddenly however, a new threat was emerging: Corvis had been too eager to get rid of Dear Abby so I wondered if it could be because Abby had suggested Zazzy as the next eviction. Was there a strong pair out there that didn’t include me? I’d have to take care of that threat.

I had another concern: No one had tried to win HoH! With the clues that we were given, the answer had to be around 200 so, with Suzzee’s guess in the 400s and my answer being under 100, I knew that the game was indeed loaded with floaters. I went out on a limb, criticizing my allies for dodging all responsibilities and hoping to ride my coat-tails saying I wouldn’t have it. Avoiding HoH had worked for Dr Will so it was my strategy. I had to do something to keep it my own!

With Suzzee as HoH, the plan to eliminate Abby was set in motion. Corvis informed me that Abby had offered herself as the pawn in order to eliminate one of the non-Survivor-alliance members, Zazzy, Krissmiss or Jbug. My first thought was that it was perfect but then Abby set up a chat room so, with Corvis and Suzzee, we talked about the game. After that, I wondered if I could go through with the plan and still backstab her. To my surprise, Corvis was still just as gung-ho on the plan to backstab Abby so I told myself that I had to put feelings aside and do as planned.

At that point, Jbug proved that she was a strong player by winning her second competition in a row. That showed me that not everyone was going to throw the comps. Naturally, Jbug agreed to keep the veto but she was puzzled when she received news from both Kriss and Abby that they knew they were safe, that Suzzee had told them both that they were the pawn. It was time to let Jbug know that the plan was for Abby to leave but then another concern appeared: Corvis argued that we should leave Jbug in the dark, let her vote against Kriss since she liked Abby.

That sounded an alarm in my head: Corvis was playing for Abby’s jury vote. Sure, that meant Corvis was thinking about facing me in the end but I couldn’t let him pile up the votes. Under the pretense that a united vote is always best, I got him to agree to let Jbug in on the plan (even if she already was). I think I came up with valid arguments: Abby was nice and deserved the truth to come out, at the very least we owed her that. Also, Jbug had been convinced to sit on veto so leaving her in the dark now would make her mistrust us and she could possibly put us on the block. I had a few more arguments but those were the strongest ones. They worked and Corvis relented.

But then, Corvis showed me once more that he was playing behind my back: Kriss reported that he had “promised” her his vote only if she promised not to nominate him and to accept one of his suggestions if she became HoH. Krissmiss saw the benefits of us two being a closer pair while Corvis thought he was closer to Kriss than I. We’d keep tabs on our friend who was proving to be quite deceitful.

After Abby’s elimination, the next HoH was the first non-random one and an easy challenge to figure out at that. Throwing an easy comp would be hard because it would reveal my whole strategy. So, instead I decided to give the answer to some of my allies: Jbug, Krissmiss and Corvis. I thought Krissmiss particularly would want to be HoH. After all, I figured that, having been nominated twice, she’d jump at the chance of winning this one and being safe. Her answer disappointed me. She said: “Great answer buddy but you should submit it yourself.” Hummm…Wait, what? I had stuck my neck out for two weeks to save her and now she wanted me to do it once more and be the HoH that would protect her again. No way. I’d submit that answer and, if I became HoH, she could well become a replacement nominee. I mean, I really liked you, Kriss and I was honestly thinking that we could go far together but I needed more game play on your part.

But Zazzy won HoH and new problems arose. Zazzy showed that she didn’t trust me by asking me time and again what I would do if she didn’t nominate me. Whom would I target, whom would I vote against and would I promise once more not to nominate her. Weren’t we in an alliance? Hadn’t I already made those promises? When someone doesn’t trust me that tells me they are thinking of evicting me. I’d have to be extra nice to Zazzy but vote her out at the first occasion.

Like they say, people eliminate themselves in these games but Zazzy had the power so I had to pretend to be a good follower. To my disappointment, Zazzy had her sights on Suzzee. That was another sign of Corvis’ duplicity because I had told him that Suzzee would be loyal. Now I was sure that Corvis and Zazzy were a strong pair and they wanted me as their 3rd wheel so they were eliminating my options. Fortunately, I had many allies in the game so I could go along and still have numbers on my side. I agreed to voting out Suzzee to show I was with Corvis and Zazzy. The pain of sacrificing a dear friend was lessened by knowing I was saving another ally and that my alliance with Kriss would remain hidden.

The next HoH came along and this one I wanted to win in order to eliminate Zazzy. Corvis would also have to go up on the block because I didn’t want him to save Zazzy. Unfortunately, I lost that challenge in a tie-breaker and, to make matters worse, Corvis won it. I had to be a nice follower one more week but I feared having to choose between two allies again. Jbug had proven more trustworthy and a stronger player so she’d be my choice to keep but, for the same reasons, she was their main target. To save her, I came up with what I think was a terrific plan if Corvis would only nominate Zazzy as the “pawn”. Here is how I presented it to him:

>what I would do is use the tension between jbug and the duo of Zazzy and Kriss. I know Jbug isn't with them and she has voted the way we wanted from the start and went along with our suggestions when she was HoH and had veto.
>If Zazzy and Kriss are nominated, there will not be a veto used to save someone else, that is guaranteed. As a benefit, you gain points with Jbug for next week and that can be your explanation to Zazzy for putting her up as a pawn: You don't want to create an enemy for F4 when 1 vote decides everything.
If you nominate Jbug and Kriss, one of them stays in the house and could win POV next week. Now, if Zazzy or Kriss win POV this week, we still control the votes because I will vote for us. The worse could be a tie and you break that tie.
>With Zazzy and Kriss on the block and no veto used, we eliminate Kriss and then, at F4, you still have the rivalry between jbug and zazzy to protect you. If Jbug wins F4 POV, I’m sure she votes out Zazzy while you know Zazzy would eliminate Jbug. You’d have F3 guaranteed.

Of course, I would have asked Jbug to eliminate Zazzy right there and then but Corvis didn’t need to know that. Even if my plan was apparently leading him directly to the F3, Corvis decided to keep Zazzy safe. That really showed me where I stood but, surprisingly, I wasn’t the target. I had convinced them that I was in their alliance. Corvis even exposed that alliance in the main thread! Who does that?! On the one hand, it reassured me that I wasn’t his target but, on the other, it put a new challenge in front of me: Jbug and Kriss would know I had multiple deals. I was still hoping to save them both if one of us could win the veto but it looked like I’d see one more ally voted out. Fortunately, Jbug won veto but now I had to really start playing because the replacement nominee would be either me or Zazzy and I had very little doubt where Corvis’ true loyalties rested I once more tried to get Corvis to nominate Zazzy but it was all for nothing. I had to save myself so I told them the facts: Kriss had a wonderful underdog story to present to the jury. Surprisingly, it worked. I was sad to see Kriss go but it had been do or die for my game.

The rest came down to winning both the F4 HoH and then the Power of Veto. Finally, I had won the two most important competitions to date so I would be able to finalize my plan. The whole idea was to be in a similar position to the one Hatch had in Survivor Borneo. I wouldn’t need to win the final competition because I would be taken to the end by the other two. Unfortunately, Corvis took my move very personally even if that wasn’t the intent. He threatened to make it his mission that I lose even if he had to give the win to Jbug in the process. If that was the way things had to be then I’d adapt again and go for the win in the F3 hoH just as hard as I had in the last 3 competitions. I thought I had the right strategy to win 4 out of those final 7 events but it turned out that 3 wins were enough.

Jbug has played a good game as far as competions go but she won the early ones, when some of us (I’m sure I wasn’t alone) weren’t really trying to win them. I won the ones that really mattered so you can’t say she outplayed me. She doesn’t have anyone’s blood on her hands but that’s because she followed my directions. I have often read on the Survivor boards that viewers hated the result because the jury was bitter, causing the better player’s loss. Maybe some of those posts were even yours, so I ask you to look at my actions as being strictly game moves and nothing personally directed at you. I consider you all good players who just happened to get surprised this time.

I will be more than happy to answer your questions. Bring ‘em on!

Thanks Dear Abby!