It was generally assumed they might expire at F5, but most people didn't want to take the risk of having you around at F5/F4 with your challenge prowess. That's definitely fair though, and that's an element I wasn't aware of so I appreciate the infothis isn’t a question, but just for clarification. the last time you could use an idol/advantage in this game was at F6, meaning I would always use one after winning 3 straight immunities, because I just had to win one more immunity to get full use out of them, and not burning them would be unnecessarily risky. if any of you actually obtained one or asked one of the people that i showed the idol to (joe or josh), you might know this critical piece of information. anyone saying they forced idol burns or whatever isn’t really expressing the full story.
I remember telling Whydon I was in a vc with Joe / that I vc'd with Joe, but we never had a pecking order or discussed one. That first merge vc for Joe and I was 90% catching up on things, and 10% discussing future hypotheticals
Maybe that was the case, but our play was still based on burning your idols and making sure you didn't get further into the game. Most people that were alive then would agree with this. We couldn't have known your advantages wouldn't work after F6. So maybe you didn't burn your idols because of our actions, but it's still a collective effort to do our best to make you burn it - no matter if it was necessary or not.this isn’t a question, but just for clarification. the last time you could use an idol/advantage in this game was at F6, meaning I would always use one after winning 3 straight immunities, because I just had to win one more immunity to get full use out of them, and not burning them would be unnecessarily risky. if any of you actually obtained one or asked one of the people that i showed the idol to (joe or josh), you might know this critical piece of information. anyone saying they forced idol burns or whatever isn’t really expressing the full story.
I have mentioned some of my plays in other posts, but I'll give you a quick runup here too. Although I may not have made any flashy moves, I believed I put myself in a comfortable situation at all times. Despite being on the minority, I was never voted during this merge. I attribute this to allying with others that were on the minority such as zoa, ith, and josh so that I have the numbers to be safe (in addition to being allied with SSR and clouds of course). I was also able to keep my strongest allies in the game until it was my choice to let them go, unlike some others which were forced to see their closest allies eliminated. I also believe votes were quite locked since F11, but we needed to play around advantages. Of course in hindsight it didn't matter (zoa was using his idols anyways), but we didn't know this and we had to play around making him play it (in our minds) vs staying in control of the vote which I think we did successfully. Playing up other threat levels were also crucial to my overall strategy.I'm going to keep it short and pointed.
Drookez We didn't talk much this game (which I do regret!), but I do respect your game a lot. You had a really good social game and I think a lot of people can attest to this! I don't think there was ever a point at merge where you were the consideration for the vote, which is supremely impressive. However, some might say you haven't made many "moves", thus making your game less impressive. Would you say you've made moves this game? If not, why should we still vote for you?
I know this can be spun to seem like a positive, but I feel like a big part of this was having those strong connections outside of the alliance of you/me/SSR to begin with (like in my case, hills and Joe), and so it was less of being forced to see an ally eliminated and more having to make tough decisions on which friends and allies would be better to proceed in the game with. I don't want to undermine your social game at all though since I know you had an excellent one, I witnessed it firsthand–but that's just how it feels from my perspective.I was also able to keep my strongest allies in the game until it was my choice to let them go, unlike some others which were forced to see their closest allies eliminated.
I understand this point, but obviously keeping Joe around was much more beneficial for you. Since he was only one vote away from being saved, it's not like the whole game decided to turn against Joe and there wasn't anything you can do (compared to ITH's elimination which had a solid majority, for example). I also think you didn't have a firm grip on ITH's vote, who is also your ally, which ultimately led to Joe's elimination.I know this can be spun to seem like a positive, but I feel like a big part of this was having those strong connections outside of the alliance of you/me/SSR to begin with (like in my case, hills and Joe), and so it was less of being forced to see an ally eliminated and more having to make tough decisions on which friends and allies would be better to proceed in the game with. I don't want to undermine your social game at all though since I know you had an excellent one, I witnessed it firsthand–but that's just how it feels from my perspective.
Nah hills only voted Ayia because Whydon was worried Eli had forgotten to submit a vote & tied it as I mentioned a little further back in the thread, and Whydon basically went all out trying to get him to vote off (which wound up being necessary to prevent a tie)I understand this point, but obviously keeping Joe around was much more beneficial for you. Since he was only one vote away from being saved, it's not like the whole game decided to turn against Joe and there wasn't anything you can do (compared to ITH's elimination which had a solid majority, for example). I also think you didn't have a firm grip on ITH's vote, who is also your ally, which ultimately led to Joe's elimination.
So this is a point I've seen a lot of people mention. In an 80 player ORG hosted within a community, pre-game relationships will exist. Yes, they allow trusts to be formed easier. However, it's often not mentioned that these pre-game relationships also become a double edge sword in the right circumstances. Let's take DLE - although I was with him only on our first tribe, I have been repeatedly told by many others that "they know he was a threat that needs to be taken care of". Obviously, a part of that came from his prior experiences in survivor so managing your own reputation become a key part of this game. From my perspective, I didn't rely solely on pre-game relationships. I was close with clouds, someone who I never met before this game, and worked with him till the end. I also made other allies along the way that I've never met before. Of course, I also allied with people I knew before such as SSR and whydon, but i also built relationships with others in the game. In the pairing up challenge, I paired with ITH (someone who I just met) while others paired right away with their old allies. I think the biggest evidence here is my other 2 finalists, Josh and Clouds, who are both my allies and someone I had very limited interaction with prior to this game. Also there are many other players in the game that have a lot of pre-game relations and were eliminated along the way, suggesting that it's not the only reason someone go far in this game.Survivor, as a TV show, is a game about several strangers working with and against another. However, it's obvious not all players in this game are strangers to each other. Are/were there players in this game that you knew you could trust and rely on simply because you had prior friendships with them? If so, does this diminish your placement in this game compared to others who did not have as many pre-game relations and had to start from scratch with most people?
And you were okay with hills voting that way? As he was your ally, I expected a little more influence from your side.Nah hills only voted Ayia because Whydon was worried Eli had forgotten to submit a vote & tied it as I mentioned a little further back in the thread, and Whydon basically went all out trying to get him to vote off (which wound up being necessary to prevent a tie)
This is cool, I'll bite:Here's a fun one. Describe your gameplay in the form of a legal Pokemon moveset. If you want, feel free to get creative and discuss team options, checks, counters, etc. like a Smogon analysis. Mine would be something like
zoa (Nidoking) (M) @ Wide Lens
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Sludge Wave
- Earth Power
- Blizzard
The premise behind zoa is to take advantage of his Sheer Force ability, which describes his strategy to win individual immunity as much as possible. He is equipped with a Wide Lens in order to more easily find any available idol or advantage, should he fail to win individual immunity. Substitute represents when he has to hide behind such idol or advantage. Quiet nature is chosen to coincide with his social game.
I'll quote where I talked about this a little while back to avoid being redundant, but I hear you:And you were okay with hills voting that way? As he was your ally, I expected a little more influence from your side.
You'll see on post-game review but I harbored some pretty intense guilt for not saying anything during your vote, and ignorance is bliss in the sense that sometimes I wish I wasn't told about it to begin with. But I know as someone who knows Survivor even better than I do, you can see why it'd be smart to keep quiet there, as awful as it feels. In hindsight, I could've said something like "keep your votes" when Whydon was trying to get hills to vote off and you guys were discussing it in the alliance chat, but I didn't know how likely it actually was that Eli hadn't submitted a vote. His concerns that maybe he hadn't developed while we were in a vc and slowly progressed, but it still seemed up in the air.
I would like to preface this with saying that I do not intend to ever use this moveset in an actual battle.Here's a fun one. Describe your gameplay in the form of a legal Pokemon moveset. If you want, feel free to get creative and discuss team options, checks, counters, etc. like a Smogon analysis. Mine would be something like
zoa (Nidoking) (M) @ Wide Lens
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Sludge Wave
- Earth Power
- Blizzard
The premise behind zoa is to take advantage of his Sheer Force ability, which describes his strategy to win individual immunity as much as possible. He is equipped with a Wide Lens in order to more easily find any available idol or advantage, should he fail to win individual immunity. Substitute represents when he has to hide behind such idol or advantage. Quiet nature is chosen to coincide with his social game.
Congrats to the three of you for making it this far! You’ve all played some very strong games and I believe that any of you could still win this game. My vote could still go to any of you. I respect that FTC is one of if not the most stressful part of the game for a finalist, so I won’t be grilling you or asking for essays.
Clouds threat management from 20 to 13 arguably took care of itself by virtue of who all made it there, and this definitely could’ve continued into the middle of the merge as well. Was threat management something you did, or something you took advantage of?
Drookez it’s impressive that your name never popped up as a vote, but there were also instances where you were out of the loop. Did you have control over the flow of the game, or was it optimal to rest on your laurels/relationships and not have to get blood on your hands?
TheyCallMeJoshua as someone who didn’t know anybody coming into this game, I respect and admire that you were able to make it this far with few connections prior to the game. You stated earlier that for a decent portion of the game, being the one to push a name was rushing into unfamiliar territory and not worth the risk of jeopardizing your game. Did the point come where this is no longer a problem, and if so, did it make sense to try to assert yourself into more of a controlling position?
If my questions cause any redundancy, I’m sorry about that, and feel free to call me out.
Thanks Blakers, appreciate it! I'd say my focus on threat level management in relation to others in the game didn't become much of a focus until merge, as is the case in most Survivors, and since most of the votes in the 20-13 range occurred on the Legal tribe I can for sure say there's some truth to how you felt there as a witness. It's definitely true that threat management handles itself to some degree, since some players are always going to be perceived as bigger threats by virtue of their name and relevancy in the community/history in social games. As a newer player, I did use this to my advantage a little, emphasizing the importance of not allowing some of the more experienced players to advance too far to people like Josh and hills (who are also relatively new), but this is something pretty much anyone in my spot would do so I don't consider this unique to my own game. Instead, I think the most important component of my own threat management was instead playing up SSR's game when I could to Drookez & others, especially after zoa lost F6 immunity and I knew the route of votes to take me to the end had to be zoa -> RAD -> SSR, with the F4 vote being heavily dependent on how the last immunity challenge went.Congrats to the three of you for making it this far! You’ve all played some very strong games and I believe that any of you could still win this game. My vote could still go to any of you. I respect that FTC is one of if not the most stressful part of the game for a finalist, so I won’t be grilling you or asking for essays.
Clouds threat management from 20 to 13 arguably took care of itself by virtue of who all made it there, and this definitely could’ve continued into the middle of the merge as well. Was threat management something you did, or something you took advantage of?
I'm going to answer this both on the forum as well as in the discord server.I'll ask you guys to put your question responses in discord because I'm gonne be on mobile for the rest of FTC probably and probably wouldn't see them if they are ITC. This is also probably the only set of questions I'm asking (though I may/may not discuss things with you guys on discord after your answers.)
I'm also not gonna lie, I've been way too busy (caught up in this election KEK) to read the entirety of the ftc questions (so if anything here is a repeat, sorry! but if you want my vote you should repeat your answer :P ), though i 100% read your speeches.
Drookez: Ily drookey :)
What is one thing aside of threat level management you did far better than clouds? Fmpov Clouds did better socially with me than you did and me/you didn't exactly strategize. Why should you get MY vote?
What is the one part of your game you are the most proud of?
Did you make any mistakes along the way you can pinpoint, or are you content with how things played out?
Clouds: Congrats on making it, was a pleasure playing with you!
What set you apart from Drookez's game, differentiate yourself as hard as that might be?
Was there anything in merge aside from the joe vote that really didn't go according to plan, if so how did you compensate?
What is the one part of your game you are the most proud of?
Josh: Wattup Josh, good to see you here >:)
You played from behind basically since premerge tribe due to the lack of pregame connections and I think thats commendable. But maybe for the same reasons you were likely sitting at a disadvantage in every jury. What did you try to do to make your FTC odds stronger against this web of friends you had to deal with?
What is the one part of your game you are the most proud of?
If you had to change one part of your game what would it be and why?
i was left out of the loop because due to timezones, I could only be online until 4 hours before deadline and a lot of changed were made then. Yet, I was still informed that joe and andy were counter votes in both cases - so it did not come as a complete surprise. Instead of going with the majority, I stuck by voting the people I thought were more threatening to my game (you and Eli). Joe and andy were potential allies for sure, but I only met them at merge and they weren’t part of my core alliances so I was neutral about their elimination. Since F11, I believed the list of people that had to go was pretty much set in stone so the only thing that mattered was when they should all be eliminated. I knew who were the threats I needed to get rid of, and I did my best to have the numbers to do so. I believe I had good control of the game considering that I was never targeted despite being minority on the first 2 votes, while others were all eliminated or repeatedly targeted (Josh).Congrats to the three of you for making it this far! You’ve all played some very strong games and I believe that any of you could still win this game. My vote could still go to any of you. I respect that FTC is one of if not the most stressful part of the game for a finalist, so I won’t be grilling you or asking for essays.
Clouds threat management from 20 to 13 arguably took care of itself by virtue of who all made it there, and this definitely could’ve continued into the middle of the merge as well. Was threat management something you did, or something you took advantage of?
Drookez it’s impressive that your name never popped up as a vote, but there were also instances where you were out of the loop. Did you have control over the flow of the game, or was it optimal to rest on your laurels/relationships and not have to get blood on your hands?
TheyCallMeJoshua as someone who didn’t know anybody coming into this game, I respect and admire that you were able to make it this far with few connections prior to the game. You stated earlier that for a decent portion of the game, being the one to push a name was rushing into unfamiliar territory and not worth the risk of jeopardizing your game. Did the point come where this is no longer a problem, and if so, did it make sense to try to assert yourself into more of a controlling position?
If my questions cause any redundancy, I’m sorry about that, and feel free to call me out.
Hi, In the hills. I’m doing well. How about yourself?Congrats to all three of you for making it this far!!! You all deserve to be here for sure
I don’t really have any burning questions, just wanted to say congrats :)
I’ll ask an easy one just so this post isn’t empty (sorry if these have been asked already i mostly skimmed through this thread)
Clouds from my perspective your game involved telling just about everyone just about everything that’s going on in the game (except joe_durk ) would you say this is accurate, and if so, are there any regrets with being so open about idols, votes etc.
TheyCallMeJoshua Hello Joshua. How are you. Who would you say your closest ally was this game and how did your relationship with them help or hurt your game?
Drookez you were the only one of the remaining people not to tell me I was being voted out (even though I already knew before either clouds or josh said anything to me) I would say we were pretty close, is there any reason you didn’t extend your condolences/goodbyes to me before the vote?
Idc if you guys answer these or not lol I’m just here to say congratulations and I hope all three of u enjoyed the game regardless of what happens :)
Love you Rad. <3 (small heart) I believed I had a better long-term view of the game than clouds. I knew who I needed as allies and who were threats to my game, while Clouds’ approach seems to be about making false promises he knew he couldnt deliver, especially if he already knew he needed to get rid of them sometimes. While that is a fair play and I respect it, there’s a lot of potential risks when you need to eliminate people from the game - and from what others are saying, it seems that clouds did not deliver on having a good sendoff with most people. I also outperformed him in most challenges and advantages find, which I believe is also an important part of survivor and proves that I’m not gonna get complacent just because my name hasn’t been brought up. I made strategic moves along the way that benefited my game, such as eliminating trace during the pairing up challenge because I knew he would be a big threat going forward (sorry Trace). Socially, i got close with people I wanted to have by my side and most of them did trust me even if we had not met before. For example, I told ITH about the votes during finance and built a relationship with him even if we already had a dominant finance alliance - which shows that I was open and had alternative options. This did matter, because ITH and I did pair up together while others mostly stuck with people their know. I think I should get your vote because of my strategy, my willingness to work with people that will help my game, and having a non-complacent attitude by trying my best in challenges and advantages and making allies even if I felt secure.I'll ask you guys to put your question responses in discord because I'm gonne be on mobile for the rest of FTC probably and probably wouldn't see them if they are ITC. This is also probably the only set of questions I'm asking (though I may/may not discuss things with you guys on discord after your answers.)
I'm also not gonna lie, I've been way too busy (caught up in this election KEK) to read the entirety of the ftc questions (so if anything here is a repeat, sorry! but if you want my vote you should repeat your answer :P ), though i 100% read your speeches.
Drookez: Ily drookey :)
What is one thing aside of threat level management you did far better than clouds? Fmpov Clouds did better socially with me than you did and me/you didn't exactly strategize. Why should you get MY vote?
What is the one part of your game you are the most proud of?
Did you make any mistakes along the way you can pinpoint, or are you content with how things played out?
Clouds: Congrats on making it, was a pleasure playing with you!
What set you apart from Drookez's game, differentiate yourself as hard as that might be?
Was there anything in merge aside from the joe vote that really didn't go according to plan, if so how did you compensate?
What is the one part of your game you are the most proud of?
Josh: Wattup Josh, good to see you here >:)
You played from behind basically since premerge tribe due to the lack of pregame connections and I think thats commendable. But maybe for the same reasons you were likely sitting at a disadvantage in every jury. What did you try to do to make your FTC odds stronger against this web of friends you had to deal with?
What is the one part of your game you are the most proud of?
If you had to change one part of your game what would it be and why?