Ken's Questioning

[kenhoang]

Hello, Ken here! I wish there were better fonts on ProBoards but I'll stick with Arial.



Congrats to the both of you for making it where you have! IMO the endgame for each of you was very different but also very strong. At the time I was voted out I was definitely leaning one way, but I think I'm back towards the middle again, and am looking at each of your performances and answers to ALL questions throughout this tribal.


DARNELL


Darnell, you were a solid ally to me and my ride-or-die F2. I would have certainly taken you to the end if I had won the last two immunities, but whether I would have won the whole game? Ehhhh I'm not sure. I'm not superrrr loved around here for some of the moves I made, and you'll probably face the same problem. That being said, you being the only player to not have a single vote against them this game is pretty impressive, though I can't say I was always sure that it was your own social doing or not.

1. Say I win F4 immunity, how does the rest of the game play out for you? What would happen if I, you, or whoever would stay for F3 (Lindsey/Liz) won immunity at F3?

Oh well, I told Keith what was going on with detail because maybe my position within MY alliance wasn’t the best, maybe I needed new people to trust me. Thanks to ME, Liz survived that vote (I didn't know she had the idol). I stopped being mad, I forgave Taj, Ken and Lindsey because they apologized and had reasons for it, besides I was offline, I got over it.

2. Why tell Keith that people were voting for Liz at F9? It seemed to work out for you overall, but to me it was a really dumb thing that would have backfired on most people. I know that no one was telling you the vote, but to me, it seems that you really just panicked. There were at least three hours until deadline IIRC, plenty of time to tell Keith in the last hour/half-hour or so, if people STILL weren't talking to you. I know I was really busy that night, Lindsey I think was, idk about Taj or Jeff. And to be fair, we were on ALL DAY. I feel like you came on for the first time since challenge results the previous day, panicked, and didn't feel like waiting an hour for a response. I gave you a response the second I could, and I feel like the other three of us would've done the same. What were the positive/negative effects of that decision?


LIZ


Liz, being on the outs of a majority alliance at the merge definitely did not set you up to be in a great position going forward. You found the idol, which was quickly used effectively to escape being the merge boot. As things winded down, your challenge prowess was far and away impressive enough that you were able to scrape by to the end, defeating the odds and overcoming all but one of the 5 person "Icons" majority that entered the merge.
Still, I feel like a lot of your path here was luck. If Darnell hadn't told Keith you were being voted for at merge, you'd be done. If Darnell and I had pushed against Taj a little more at F7, you'd be done. If you had lost the F5 immunity, F3 immunity, and probably the F4 immunity? You'd be done. I feel like your social game wasn't nearly on par with Darnell's, and while you WERE in a minority, someone like Keith played an immensely better game in a similar position, and would probably have squashed Darnell had he made it to F2. Instead, I think you and Darnell have a reasonably equal shot.

1. What was your gameplan going into the merge? Who did you want to align with, what was the path YOU wanted, and how close did that come to actually happening?

2. Had you lost immunity at F4 or F5, do you think you'd be sitting here? What was your social path going forward at that point? To me, Taj was your only chance of getting farther socially up to that point, and you had just voted her out. The minority you fell into was very dysfunctional, causing a freaking 4-1-1-1 vote at F7, and it seemed to just show you guys were evidently confused and way out of the loop. If you can, prove me wrong.


BOTH


This is a nice jury question I took from the host of Good and Evil, so shoutout to Justin!

I'd like you to create a chart (Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets) with players on the Y-axis, and the round of the game on the X-axis.

Use a color coding system to show your relationship with each player, each round, throughout the game.

I'd then like you to choose 5 points on the chart where there was a social change made in your game, for better or for worse, and briefly elaborate on it in your response.

You can use whatever color-coding system or fonts or WHATEVER you want really, if you just get the basic look down. 


EXAMPLE



The chart should look a lot better than this, my example here is extremely basic, drafted in about 5 minutes, the colors aren't filled in, and I wouldn't care much of it. The chart should be CLEAN and EASY TO READ, so no freakin Wing-Dings or some other terrible font.


I'm glad to be here helping make this decision, and I wish you both the best of luck!

[liz]

Hey Ken,

I'm still finishing up my opening statement (seriously who the hell moves up a meeting by four hours!?), but I'll answer your personal questions right now because I think that they'll tie in to what I have to say there pretty well.

Liz, being on the outs of a majority alliance at the merge definitely did not set you up to be in a great position going forward. You found the idol, which was quickly used effectively to escape being the merge boot. As things winded down, your challenge prowess was far and away impressive enough that you were able to scrape by to the end, defeating the odds and overcoming all but one of the 5 person "Icons" majority that entered the merge.


Still, I feel like a lot of your path here was luck. If Darnell hadn't told Keith you were being voted for at merge, you'd be done.

I low-key addressed this in my OS teaser, but with all due respect that's actually not true. I had already decided to play my idol hours before Keith came to me with his suspicions. Darnell blabbing to him was still a mistake, and it did affirm for me that I'd done the right thing, but it wasn't the reason I pulled the trigger. 

I could give you a giant spiel about why I chose to play it that round, but it boils down to two things. The first was a mistake that I made when talking to Jeff about Alecia's voteoff. He mentioned that she had played a fake idol, and showed me an image of it, and I responded "where did she find that?". If I had been thinking more clearly, I wouldn't have used that phrase. What I should have asked Jeff was "where did she get that?". It was reasonably common knowledge that Morgan was trying to give Alecia a fake idol just for the lulz, and at that point I didn't know that Nick had barred her from doing that, so logically my assumption should have been that Alecia was given the fake idol by Morgan, or that she had simply created her own. By asking where she found it, I inadvertently gave away the fact that the fake idol had been hidden and needed to be discovered. It wasn't a terribly obvious mistake and it wasn't one that a lot of people would necessarily have noticed on the first go around, (and I'm still not 100% sure that Jeff caught the full implications of it right away), but it was enough for me to think that I was going to be suspected of having the idol.

Morgan telling me that Nick had prevented her from giving Alecia a fake idol cemented it for me. The fake that Alecia had played was definitely the one I had planted, and since you couldn't give fake idols away, that meant that she had found it on her own. I put two and two together and concluded that there was probably going to be a fairly immediate push to take my idol away, so I began watching for signs. 

This goes into the second reason. There's a general rule of thumb in archaeology about detecting fake Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions: the more perfect they are, the more likely it is that they're fake. The reason for that is that real Egyptian hieroglyphs were painted by slaves who were in a big hurry to finish the job before the guy with the whip came around. That meant that if they made tiny mistakes they didn't bother correcting them, because the slave drivers weren't going to look too closely, and they had a lot to get done. Forgers, on the other hand, need their work to be perfect, because any error could cause the forgery to be spotted. 

That whole round, everybody made a point of reassuring me that it was going to be Keith or Malcolm going, open and shut. No merge round in the game had ever been that straightforward or easy, and as much as everybody said that they wanted to just have an easy round for once, it just didn't ring true. I had already had my name mentioned earlier, why was it suddenly off the books now? Everything that they were saying was exactly what people who didn't want me to play an idol would say. So I decided to just go for it. Better to play the idol unnecessarily than to go home with it in your pocket. Keith came to me hours later and confirmed what I had already suspected, and that's the extent of it. 

If Darnell and I had pushed against Taj a little more at F7, you'd be done. If you had lost the F5 immunity, F3 immunity, and probably the F4 immunity? You'd be done.

Sure, and if I had bid on a different box I actually would have had two idols. If I had chosen to convince people to throw the challenge in the final 10 round Darnell would probably have gone home. The "what if" game works both ways, so with all due respect, I don't really think it's fair to diminish my game based on things that could have happened. They didn't happen. And I think it's fair to say that nobody here deliberately made bad decisions. The things that happened happened because everybody involved tried to make the best strategic decisions they could make. You didn't think it was the best idea to push Taj harder at final seven. Everybody in the final five/three played their best, and it didn't work. So it's not a fluke that I stayed, it's that it was smarter not to push Taj, and that nobody could beat me. 

Besides, you could could make similar arguments about just about anyone or anything. If I had pushed Keith a little harder you'd have gone home instead of Morgan and the whole scape of the game would have changed. If I had chosen to send Darnell home yesterday he'd have gone home. If Fabio had been active, Alecia might have gone home that round instead. There are a lot of ways the game could have been different, but those ways didn't come to pass. Does that mean you and Darnell suck because you might have gone home if I had done things differently? No. Does it mean Fabio's awesome because he might have survived if he had done things differently? No. 

I feel like your social game wasn't nearly on par with Darnell's, and while you WERE in a minority, someone like Keith played an immensely better game in a similar position, and would probably have squashed Darnell had he made it to F2. Instead, I think you and Darnell have a reasonably equal shot.

Well, I certainly think that my social game could certainly have been stronger. It's something that bothered me, but ultimately there wasn't much that I could do on that front. I have a job and a social life. Those things demand my time sometimes. I was here when I could be here, and I made the connections that I could make, and did what I could to strengthen them. In the end, those connections did get me to the final two, and Keith picked up a hell of a lot more votes against him than I did specifically because he was playing so well, jus sayin.  

1. What was your gameplan going into the merge? Who did you want to align with, what was the path YOU wanted, and how close did that come to actually happening?

My original gameplan was to try and work with Morgan and Lindsey. We had formed a bond early on in the game, and the three of us had very similar attitudes. I spent a lot of time looking out for Morgan and defending her whenever her name came up (including the round she left), but it sort of felt like we drifted apart after I got transferred from night shift to days and couldn't stay up late to have the same conversations that we'd enjoyed earlier in the game. That threesome would have been my ideal final three. 

As for the rest of the question and what exact route I wanted to take to get there, I don't honestly have an answer for that, because I never thought in those terms. That's not how I play or how I exercise control. Think of it as the difference between taking a journey by car and taking a journey by boat. 

When you travel in a car, there are only certain ways that you can get to where you're going. You can't just just drive anywhere, you have to take certain routes, and if the driver goes the wrong way, they're pooched. If you're taking a boat journey, you set out with a destination in mind, the captain constantly checks their instruments to make sure you're heading the right way, and making adjustments to the boat to ensure that it's maintaining course.

I'm a boat captain sort of player. I set out knowing that I want to get to the finals and what combination of people I think will be the most ideal for me to be there with, and then I work every round to make sure that I'm still heading in that direction. If I had a straightforward plan that I needed to adhere to, any deviation from it is like driving off a road and into the ditch, and fixing it is a huge complicated problem. But if I have a more flexible outlook then deviation isn't a big deal. I go slightly off course, I adjust, correct, and keep my nose pointed towards that ultimate goal. I was in trouble at the final six? I make a fake idol to save my ass. I needed to win Immunity? I won it. I lost my allies? I found new ones. And because I wasn't limited by road-driver thinking I could go into every round fresh, looking at the seas around me and making the best decision I could to get myself further in the direction I wanted to head. 

So how close did that come to happening? Well, I'm here, and I'm on at least equal footing with my opponent, so I'd say it happened more or less exactly like I wanted it to. 

2. Had you lost immunity at F4 or F5, do you think you'd be sitting here? What was your social path going forward at that point? To me, Taj was your only chance of getting farther socially up to that point, and you had just voted her out. 

I think if I had lost the final five immunity I probably would have gone home, but I think that there's a decent chance that I could have survived the final four and even final three. Lindsey and I had a deal going into the final four. Going into the final three, Lindsey knew that both you and Darnell were probably better than her at challenges, and neither of you would have taken her. Alternatively, if she forced a tie at final four, odds were pretty good that I'd have gone into a tiebreaker (probably against Darnell) and won it. In a final three scenario you and I would almost certainly have voted for the other. At the very least, if I was vulnerable in the final three, almost nobody would have taken me to the finals over Lindsey, and she'd have been all but guaranteed the win over Darnell, and probably could have given you a pretty decent run for the money as well. There was no downside to Lindsey forcing the tie there, and potentially a lot for her to gain. 

Final three, the only person I'd have lost that challenge to is Lindsey, since Darnell didn't compete. Lindsey's told me that she would have taken me, just to finish up her question for vengeance on the Icons. Whether or not any of this is true or not is ultimately up to Lindsey, but I think that in both cases it certainly would've been a logical move for her to keep me.  

The minority you fell into was very dysfunctional, causing a freaking 4-1-1-1 vote at F7, and it seemed to just show you guys were evidently confused and way out of the loop. If you can, prove me wrong.

I can.

I wasn't confused about that round at all. I knew the numbers weren't there, and I didn't bother fruitlessly trying to change them. I knew that come final six it would time to shake things up, and I knew that everybody else knew it too. Why would any of them make a move at seven and leave our three intact? It wouldn't have made sense for anyone's game, and I wasn't going to insult their intelligence by asking them to commit game suicide. (Although I did politely ask Taj to consider it - knowing full well she probably wouldn't, but banking on the fact that it'd give me more options at the final six. This, incidentally, is probably at least part of the reason why pushing for me to leave didn't work that round). Instead I set my sights on keeping myself alive, and didn't really concern myself with what Malcolm or Keith did. Even if we had voted together, it wouldn't have changed the ultimate result, and making a spirited visible effort to rally the troops would only have drawn unwanted attention to myself. 


Hope that straightens things out a bit, Ken! I'll try to get that Powerpoint stuff up a bit later after I finish my OS.

[kenhoang]

Thank's Liz! It's a spreadsheet not powerpoint just an fyi, but your answers were solid!

[kingdarnell]

Congrats to the both of you for making it where you have! IMO the endgame for each of you was very different but also very strong. At the time I was voted out I was definitely leaning one way, but I think I'm back towards the middle again, and am looking at each of your performances and answers to ALL questions throughout this tribal.

Hey Ken! Thank you very much for your words, just like you I do feel both Liz and I had different ways of securing ourselves spots tonight, and even though I'd love getting your vote tonight, it's good to see it's a fair game.

Darnell, you were a solid ally to me and my ride-or-die F2. I would have certainly taken you to the end if I had won the last two immunities, but whether I would have won the whole game? Ehhhh I'm not sure. I'm not superrrr loved around here for some of the moves I made, and you'll probably face the same problem. That being said, you being the only player to not have a single vote against them this game is pretty impressive, though I can't say I was always sure that it was your own social doing or not.



1. Say I win F4 immunity, how does the rest of the game play out for you? What would happen if I, you, or whoever would stay for F3 (Lindsey/Liz) won immunity at F3?

You were also my absolute ride-or-die and  one of my goals this season was to have that, so thank you. Whether you would have beaten me here tonight, I don't know, I guess we'll never know but  obviously after Taj left, I knew I had to care about who I would sit next to. I thought you had everything to win, you would've swayed many of these people's minds in no time because you're absolutely good. My vote at final four meant little because there were other three votes already, and I didn't think I could sway Liz out of voting you, her biggest challenge threat. Even though I saw going to final two with Liz as benefitial because my pitch would be different and unique, I wasn't willing to stick my neck out for her if you won the F4 challenge. Lindsey despised Liz, and besides Liz was acting super dumb and immature since we voted Keith so I would have let her go. Going to F3 with you and Lindsey would be getting to the final tribal council no matter what. I had faith in myself when it comes to endurance challenges so I was aiming to win it and then vote you as the last juror. Whatever happened, I was going to be sitting here and I would have *not* being mad at being sitting next to you. We played this together for a long time, we had talked about a F2 for so long, it would've felt pretty prophetic and even if I thought I would have an uphill battle, I would be content with it. When you lost the F4 challenge and I told you I wanted you to win, I meant it.

At F3 I would have taken Liz to FTC over Lindsey or yourself. I don't really Liz had outwitted or outplayed more than a couple times with her bluffs. I love how this game worked for me because at F6 or F5, there was no way I would have let you go, I needed you at F4, whatever happened there. And when Liz won the immunity my plans turned outside down, and I adapted. It was a game based on circumstances and I think I did my best in every single circumstance I encountered. I was free to play in every circumstance, and I knew what was the right thing to do in every circumstance. I had options, I didn't rely on anything or anyone. I was getting here no matter what.

2. Why tell Keith that people were voting for Liz at F9? It seemed to work out for you overall, but to me it was a really dumb thing that would have backfired on most people. I know that no one was telling you the vote, but to me, it seems that you really just panicked. There were at least three hours until deadline IIRC, plenty of time to tell Keith in the last hour/half-hour or so, if people STILL weren't talking to you. I know I was really busy that night, Lindsey I think was, idk about Taj or Jeff. And to be fair, we were on ALL DAY. I feel like you came on for the first time since challenge results the previous day, panicked, and didn't feel like waiting an hour for a response. I gave you a response the second I could, and I feel like the other three of us would've done the same. What were the positive/negative effects of that decision?

I admit I panicked a little. I wasn't able to be here most of the day and when I got here it seemed like something weird was going on, like you told me it was Liz but weren't able to explain any further. While Taj and Lindsey didn't respond initially, nobody was talking to me and there was nothing discussed in the alliance chat. It felt like tribal was an hour away, I had no idea the vote was secret or anything related to the dynamics of it so that's when I talk to Keith. Then Lindsey finally explains the dynamics of the vote to me, and it was too late. I was mad at y'all, I didn't care, and I completely understand if you think I didn't need to be mad or that it was dumb, the truth is I felt rebellious because I felt there were suballiances and I was some irrelevant member of the main thing. The negative effects were clear, I put my alliance and friends in jeopardy because I felt in a vulnerable position. I was possibly seen as a child people had to babysit, a volatile brat and someone who people may not put their full trust in. I was a complete mess. BUT if we talk about the positives, I used a situation where maybe I panicked and acted dumb, maybe I didn't act the most strategical that round, maybe I was erratic, but I used that as a turning point for myself and my journey this season, I didn't let my game sink because I felt left out, I UNDERSTOOD and took blame for being away, I moved on, I didn't flip on my core alliance but instead solidified my position in it by talking and making up for the time I was away. When we hit our lowest point, we're open to the greatest change so honestly, if you're going to blame me for a moment when I didn't act smart, at least give me credit for how I learned from it, and how I got through the situation and my emotions after I fucked up, how I moved on. I'm personally proud of myself I'm not afraid to say it. The only reason I'm pointing this whole situation out is because that was the time I woke up and said, I NEED to be part of the decision making, I need them to go to me every time something is going to be discussed. If I was a second class ally, that's when I turned the tables in my favour and that's when I decided if the game was going to be played, I was going to be a crucial part of it all (that's when you and I started discussing our FTC resume too). I picked my activity up for the rest of the ride and played a game I'm proud of.



Wow I love that second question, I'm going to work on it right now. I'm not over yettt.

[kingdarnell]

So hey, proboards decided to go crazy and delete my long response so, let's do this again.




So OKAY, most of the mildly negative and negative ones are just for people that wouldn’t talk to me at all, or visceversa. I think not talking to Natalie more is my fault, but in the case of people like Liz, Yau-Man and pre merge Malcolm, that’s on them.


POINT A: ROUND 7

My activity until this point hasn’t been super high, I purposely kept it low. It was enough. I was friends with most people, I had an alliance, I didn’t want to be seen as THE player especially when most people had an average-to-low activity ratio. But this round things began to speed up, and I had a super busy day after the challenge. My social game has been good. Positive. But in such an important turning point, being inactive and not to communicate with people? Bad. Pretty bad. My social game stopped being steady and instead became very shitty with all that happened. A change for the worse, and the way I treated Jeff the round after wasn’t much better either. It was something I knew I had to change.


POINT B: ROUND 8/9

During this period of time I knew lots had to change for the better. I picked my activity up and kept it like that until the end. I knew I had to make up for everything so I knew communicating and understanding was the way. I knew I had to work hard in my social game in order to make the endgame. I talked to you, to Lindsey, to Taj and all was well. We all were still friendly with each other, we wanted to move on together, and I still had you as my ride-or-die. I made sure I listened to people because I was complaining I wasn’t being listened to earlier, that’s how we let Malcolm go instead of Liz, we cared for what Taj had to say. That to me is a big change, and something very characteristic of having social awareness. I did my best to be in everyone’s good side. Lindsey would tell me you weren’t in her endgame plans which was helpful for us. I was in good terms with Malcolm and he wanted to work with me, and Liz was okay with me but she was extremely hard to reach, and I didn’t bother. I developed a friendship with Keith which eh, was amazing. I really wanted to work with him so when he offered me a final two I was like, shittttt, I can’t commit to this, but I’ll do my best to commit to our pairing. I really liked Keith as a person and I knew he’d be loyal too. Our relationship grew so strong that the “minority” that was supposed to be Keith, Malcolm and Liz totally dismantled. The vote where Malcolm left was 4-1-1-1 and I knew who was voting who with hours of anticipation. I kept the majority, the control and got rid of the adversity.

I turned the adversity into dust and instead of trouble there was only CHANCES for me after this.


POINT C: ROUND 10

I wouldn’t call Taj an adversary, just someone who had different plans than mine. She wanted to get rid of you and at this point that was a no. So the change made during this round came in courtesy of Keith. Keith inspired me to be bold. He talked to Liz in order for her to vote Taj. I had such a closed minded view of things, I really thought Liz wouldn’t let Taj go, and when I learn she would… you know, Lindsey and I don’t have a bad relationship, we have a pretty understanding one and it has improved the last few rounds. Why don’t I talk to her? And I went for it. I was successful. My social game changed here because I didn’t only had chances now, I had options. Many options. I got to the point where I could maneuver the game the way I wanted and pitch anything to anyone fearlessly.


POINT D: ROUND 11-12

At this point, same as the previous round, I had a good relationship with every single person left. I used my social game in a deceiving way. I could not be all flowers and butterflies anymore and after I learned to be bold, I felt free to do so. Ken takes credit for making me see Liz was just buffling and we lie to Keith in order to out him. Using my social game in a cutthroat way was hard, I don’t think I excelled at it. I think Keith and Ken realized something was off with me. I kept it okay in order for it not to backfire at me. Still, it was good enough that people didn’t talk to each other and realize I was playing a very sneaky game because they trusted me. How many times didn’t I tell Ken I would take Lindsey out (taking Liz’s “idol” into consideration), and it was true. Then suddenly, I was working with Lindsey. I had talked about making final two with both Lindsey and Liz, and I doubt that ever reached other people. I afforded being sneaky without the consenquences of it because people trusted me enough not to doubt my word.


POINT E: ROUND 13

Of course being clueless about the challenge is tough. Not being able to pitch my case to Liz and formally solidify our final two sucks and of course you never want to leave your destiny in other people’s hands and much less when you can’t defend yourself but I forgive myself for it, I know I would have been okay neverthless because Liz and I had already talked previously.



It's great having you as a juror because you're very passionate even with this duty. Playing this with you especifically was fantastic and a true change to my ORG career. Whatever you decide to vote, it's completely fine, it's the game, and I had a blast. I thank you a ton for your complex questions and especially for your time. If there's any further questions, I'm here for them. 

HUGS, #DARNELL

[kenhoang]

Thanks Darnell, good luck to you!

[kenhoang]

Going to F3 with you and Lindsey would be getting to the final tribal council no matter what. I had faith in myself when it comes to endurance challenges so I was aiming to win it and then vote you as the last juror. Whatever happened, I was going to be sitting here and I would have *not* being mad at being sitting next to you.

You would be sitting with Lindsey if it were me and her in F3 is what I'm getting here?

[liz]

~ Liz's Response to Ken, Part Deux ~

H'okay, Ken! Here's your spreadsheet!


As you can see, my relationships with most people were positive on the whole, but there were few people that I actually wound up trusting for the long haul. But, just because I didn't always trust people, didn't mean I didn't still like or value them, quiet though I may have been about it. 

Point A - Round 2 (AKA The Music Festival of Doom)

This was probably the round that got me my (in my opinion somewhat undeserved) reputation for being antisocial. We got Falcon Pawnched with a tribeswap right around the time that I remembered that I had agreed to do some freelance security work for a big music festival in my area. It turns out that what I thought would be a lighthearted gig was in fact fourteen hours of country music hell that involved me getting thunderstormed on for four hours, flipping off Blake Shelton to his face, and nearly being deafened by a fireworks display. 1/10 would not recommend. Unfortunately, it also meant missing out on two straight days' worth of social interactions with my new tribe. We also lost the challenge and I wound up having to go to the second tribal council with no better strategy than "do what everybody else wants to do". When you have to abdicate responsibility to that degree that early, especially being on a tribe with people who were destined to be some of the most complex strategists in the game, it's borderline catastrophic. The social fall from grace that I suffered this round resonated throughout the next couple of rounds, and the subsequent Yau-Man boot really discouraged me from trying to be more of a social dynamo afterwards.  

So, basically, I went from having an incredibly strong first round both socially and physically to being completely sidelined in round two, and tripping over that hurdle wound up causing a lot of problems going forward. 

Point B - Round 4 (Lizlecia and the Jungle Goddesses)

This round was one of the biggest turnarounds for me in terms of strategy. Up to this point I was primarily receiving information via various channels, and it was becoming apparent that I wasn't someone that people were looking to adopt and take into the deep reaches of the game. So, when Alecia came to me grousing about the majority rules challenge and how we hated each other so much, I decided it was time to choke down that big ol plate of crow that I'd dished up for myself, and make peace. I went from being someone that Natlecia couldn't stand to work with to being one of the key members of the Girls' Alliance. Of course, some of the other people in that alliance were also card-carrying members of the Icons, so it didn't go anywhere, but I think it shows a positive shift for me. Rather than holding on to my obsession with targeting her, I let it go and reshuffled my priorities, and worked myself into a better position. It's also worth noting that I didn't just rest easy in this alliance, but I kept my eyes on the cracks within it so that when it imploded I wouldn't go down with the sinking ship. 

Point C - Round 6 (Idol Hands are the Devil's Playthings)

This could probably double up with round seven, because that was the round where everything went straight to hell in a handbasket. Almost all of the social connections that I'd built up til this point turned out to have been fake, I had to play the idol to save myself, and so on and so forth. I ultimately put the C here because it's where I had the fateful conversation with Jeff that wound up causing the idol play. So in this case I'd say it was a bit of a downturn in my social game. I made a goof, I put myself in a position where the idol play was more or less inevitable, and so on and so forth. It's also a significant turning point because with the idol being gone, I now had to play a much different social game. How you act after playing an idol is almost as important as knowing when to play it. Acting butthurt or arrogant is the quickest way to make sure that you follow your idol out the door. So I had to be gracious and act like it was no big deal, make sure that the people who'd voted for me knew I didn't take it personally, etcetera etcetera. So out of this sharp downturn came more of a positive upturn, and I was able to use that to open some doors and get myself into a slightly better position for the coming rounds. 

Point D - Round 10 (Fake Me Harder) 

This round pretty much affected my social dynamics with the whole cast. Keith giving me the means to create the fake idol created a whole new level of trust and security that hadn't been there before. Lying to everybody else about the idol meant drawing on previously-established social connections and using them to build trust - which I was shortly going to wind up destroying. A huge part of this play involved strategic withdrawal. Rather than repeatedly making claims about the idol's existence and contradicting myself, I basically just put the onus onto everybody else to figure out how to deal with it, reckoning that any deals I tried to make would cause people to think hard about the idol and conclude that it was a fake. So I only showed it to a few people, and openly made it clear that I didn't care who went home. In retrospect I probably should have pushed Keith harder to avoid getting Taj out of the game at that point, since she was one of my best points of contact in the Icons, and exercising a bit more control would probably have looked better to the jury. Oh well, live and learn.

Point E - Round 11 (Logic Jam)

This round was a big change in my relationship with Lindsey particularly, but also my relationship with Keith. I could pretty easily have let him twist in the wind here and told all of y'all that the idol was a fake. After all, Keith and I never had an actual final two agreement, and I knew that he had a lot of connections that I didn't have. But I felt like it would be a dick move to turn on him after he gave me the original screenshot, so I chose to stick to my guns. It probably cost me some social favor with the people who were lying to me (and who'd been lied to about the idol's realness), but I would rather have done my due diligence as Keith's ally than screw him to curry favor for myself. At the same time, when the initial tie vote came in, I was able to work things out with Lindsey to ensure that I'd still be okay if Keith left. Vengeance or no, I'd say it's at least a decent mark in my social game's favor that I was able to patch things up with a person I voted for three times in a row. 


Thanks again for the questions, Ken! Hope this gives you a bit more of a window into my game. 

[kenhoang]

bump to make sure Darnell sees my follow-up question

[kingdarnell]

Aug 29, 2016 13:22:50 GMT -5 kenhoang said:

Going to F3 with you and Lindsey would be getting to the final tribal council no matter what. I had faith in myself when it comes to endurance challenges so I was aiming to win it and then vote you as the last juror. Whatever happened, I was going to be sitting here and I would have *not* being mad at being sitting next to you.

You would be sitting with Lindsey if it were me and her in F3 is what I'm getting here?

Sorry missed it! My mindset during the endgame was that you were harder to beat than her, so I can see myself taking her to F2, if I won the FIC. Right now, I really don't think that would've been smart. I think I was blinded by what people were saying about you. And by my own perception of you. Lindsey is easy to underestimate because she's quiet. The truth is she's really likable and would've beaten most of us. But it never happened. And maybe if that F3 happened things would've gone differently. It was a perception I carried in my head based on rumors and I think talking to you would've given me a different perspective, whether it changed the outcome or not. What I wanted to do most of the game was going to F2 with you,  maybe that could've happened at that point if I looked at the bigger picture.