Liz's Opening Statement (Part 1)

[liz]

OKAY SO, my work meeting that was supposed to be at 8 got moved up to 4:30 and I need to go deal with it, so here's the first half of my opening and I'll post the rest of it as soon as I'm home tonight. Sorry for the delay.

~ Liz's Opening (Part 1) ~

Sup, lovers?

Before anything else, I just wanna take a sec and thank Nick for all of the time and effort he put into hosting the game. It takes a lot of work to run something like this, and it takes a lot of guts to go out there and start a new series. So thanks for doing all that so we could come on out and have some fun. You rock! <3

And, hey, thanks to all of you guys for coming out and making this game fun. Everybody (with the possible exception of Fabio) brought something unique and interesting to the table, and this game was a lot of fun to play. Thanks for making this rollercoaster ride as great as it was!

Now, let's get into the brass tacks and talk about muh game. 

I don't want to go into a big long spiel detailing every single thing that I did in the entire game, because that's what the questions are for, and in my own blunt sort of way I think a lot of things that I said and did really speak for themselves. 

Which isn't to say that my game was perfect - no game ever is, and mine was no exception. I made my fair share of mistakes and social gaffes, and I'll totally own up to my failings. I think I played a fairly UTR game, although I don't particularly like categorizing my game that way. I think that UTR is a term that a lot of weaker players use to try and justify weak gameplay or goating, by making it seem like it was an intentional choice to just hide out and let the bigger threats get picked off without ever making moves. But flying under the radar makes sense if you can prove that you're capable of pulling up that yoke and soaring above that clouds whenever you want to, and I think that my game has totally shown that. 

Check it. In the first round, I was on the strongest starting tribe, Vicuna. That put me in a tricky position, because I wanted to make sure that I was an active contributor in the challenges and wouldn't get picked off if we lost, but I also knew that people would be side-eyeing Vicuna as threats whenever the inevitable tribe shakeups happened. So I opted to find a spot somewhere in the middle range, proving my worth without being an immediate threat. Yau-Man was the best hider in the whole cast, and I found his flag in under ten minutes, under the guise of a bet. After that I found a bunch of other people's flags, but kept quiet about it and helped other people on my tribe find them so that I wouldn't come off as a huge challenge threat. 

After that, we had our first swap, and I immediately dialed back my prowess a bit to keep myself from going home early. This proved to be a pretty smart decision at the first merge, when Yau-Man got picked off for being the biggest challenge threat. That decision right there showed me that tall poppies were going to get cut down pretty early, and it was in my best interest to hide my skills and play a more passive role going into the next few rounds. But just because I played passively didn't mean I didn't play. I knew Vicuna was going to attract attention if they weren't broken up, so I spread rumors that Malcolm and Amanda and Jeff were a tight three. Sure enough, Amanda goes home, and my target diminishes. There was some drama between me and Alecia, I made up with her and played nice so that she wouldn't push for me to go, and got myself included in the girls' alliance that she and Natalie tried to start - and in the movement to immediately crush it. 

Right around this time I picked up my idol, laid down a fake one in its place, and helped Natalie and Alecia figure out where the fake was hidden. I figured that it was a good litmus test of their loyalties - if they came to me, I knew I could trust them. If they didn't, I knew I couldn't. They didn't, and so I helped seed distrust towards her and Alecia to make sure that the girl's alliance didn't grow too powerful. 

STILL TO COME WHEN I GET HOME: The re-merge, more fake idol shenanigans, why Darnell had absolutely zero impact on my idol play despite what his opening statement claims, and much much more!!

[nat]

When did you ever try that fake idol deal with me? Sounds like BS. I don't remember that

EDIT: I know I shouldn't be posting but I seriously don't remember getting told about this idol thing

[liz]

I literally went into the girls alliance group chat and gave you and Alecia step by step instructions for how look for hidden links.

[Host Nick]

Pre jury is to have no part in this.

[liz]

~ Liz's Opening Statement (Part Deux) ~

As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted... 

Going into the re-merge, I didn't have much in the way of solid connections. I had tenuous connections to Malcolm, Jeff, and Taj via the old Vicuna tribe, and slight connections to Morgan and Lindsey based on our early talks in the game. I had hoped that these connections would help pull me into a bigger alliance, or at least keep me from being targeted right away. 

I've already explained my reasons for playing the idol in my response to Ken, but I'll summarize them again here: 

It boils down to a mistake that I made when talking to Jeff about Alecia's voteoff where I inadvertently gave away the fact that the fake idol had been hidden and needed to be discovered which made me 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 which prompted me to begin watching for signs of an impending Liz blindside, correctly spotting those signs, and using the idol to take out Morgan.


Keith mentioned the possibility that they might change the vote now that he knew about it, so I decided to try something sort of risky and went to Jeff about blindsiding Darnell in order to keep old Vicuna together. I reckoned that Jeff wouldn't be a fan of either of these plans, and would bump me up the kill list accordingly. Whether or not this actually tipped the scales, I don't know, but I'd like to think it helped.  

I actually would've preferred to keep Morgan here, since I'd been steadily driving a wedge between her and Keith and I wanted to keep that up as long as I possibly could to keep the heat off of me. But the fake idol business meant that we knew the black vote was on her, and it was smarter to avoid a potential 3-3 split and take Morgan out. 

I also would've preferred to keep Jeff in the game longer. He asked me to try and save him, and I did, reckoning that a pissed off challenge threat Jeff would be a pretty handy ally to have. Ultimately that got bogged down due to poor communication, and we couldn't have done any better than to force a tie anyways. As a result, we wound up just letting nature take its course there. 

From then on I took a much more pragmatic attitude towards strategy. It was very apparent that everybody knew who they wanted to be in the finals with, and (with the possible exception of Keith) none of those people's dream finals partner was named Liz. So rather than pushing my own agenda, I opted to go on the defensive, make sure that my own ass was covered and use everybody else's momentum against them, ensuring that they took each other out and never got around to targeting me. And this didn't always work, but it worked long enough to get me to the point where I had relatively little competition in the challenges.

Which brings us to the final six, and that infamous fake idol ploy. That was more of a desperation measure than anything else, but I think it's a beautiful example of the sort of game that I played, because it's a move that I prepared for ages before I'd ever have to use it. I was extremely careful to avoid directly lying to anybody for the entire first two-thirds of the game, specifically in anticipation of a moment like this. By establishing a reputation for being straightforward and honest even to my opponents, I had a great foundation to work from if I ever needed to pull off a really big lie. If I had been known to scheme and plot and do whatever it took to get ahead, people would've doubted me and it could never have worked. But because I'd laid all that groundwork in advance, when I pulled the fake idol people had just enough incentive to take me seriously. In fact, it swayed every single vote away from me.  

After that point I was always immune, but I never stopped strategizing. Only an idiot assumes that they'll be safe, so I always planned for a worst-case scenario. Whether that meant reassuring people that I knew full well that Keith would kick my ass in the finals and that I'd happily vote him out if it came to that (Sorry, Keith), or making the deals I made with Lindsey to ensure my safety at the final four in case Ken won and the black vote wouldn't work, I did whatever I could to try and work with the cards that I was dealt. I don't know if it would have worked, but at the very least I'd have tried. 

So, anyway, that's my game in a nutshell. I look at my game the way I look at myself: not necessarily pretty, not always brilliant, not the most artful or skilled, and I don't know anybody that would call it classy or refined, but, hey, I think it's still all right.

I'm not going to come into this FTC telling you that I played harder or smarter or better than anyone else, because I really do think that my game ultimately speaks for itself. I've got nothing to hide, and I'm happy to answer any questions that you guys might have, and hopefully to earn your respect and your votes for the title. And if not? Hey, I'm just glad I got to come out and have a good time. 

Thanks again for the wild ride, y'all!