Alec's Art (So Classy I Know)

[Alec]

OK, I think it’s probably smart that I decided to wait on doing my confessional. I’m still frustrated as fuck with how that challenge went down, but I’m not fuming like I was. Still irritated with Brandon right now, we’re supposed to be a F2, but he intentionally didn’t try in a challenge that, if we lost, we’d BOTH be vulnerable. Like, C’MON dude - you didn't post anything! REYNOLD did more than you. Let me reiterate, REYNOLD. DID. MORE. THAN. YOU. Like, ugh. So frustrating.



Alliance still looks cool though, amirite?

Anyway, I know like, hypothetically, I’d be fine if my tribe went to TC. But sunk cost is a very real thing, and after I realized I’d been going for like, 5 hours, I figured I’d finish the job.THEN I PROMPTLY got proboards fucked, and fucked by my team not being around...really at all. A bit here and there, but Team A may as well have stood for Team Alec. I guess I can take solace in that Cochran isn’t going, which was very possible if Team D lost (and trust me Fabio was pitching that haaaaaard) but still. I WANTED TO BE IMMUNE DAMMIT. If I’m first boot after having one of the better comp performances, imma be pissed.

I mean, strategically speaking, I understand throwing comps at this point. I’m pretty sure that’s Brandon’s strategy - appear weak, lessen his threat status. And hell, I’ve taken free rides before - in this format, it makes sense. So maybe I’ll adopt that moving forward. BUT JESUS, is it so much to ask for SOME help in the comp? Like, better to be safe than not, especially with a 1/5 shot of going?

Anyway, the dynamics of my TC are pretty interesting. I know I have Fabio/Brandon/Cochran’s votes pretty much locked, which is 4 of 10. I have little to no confidence in securing Reynold and Naonka’s votes, although I did cut a deal with Reynold to keep him good and vice versa. (Literally zero intent on honoring it, granted - actually seems like I’ll actually be going DIRECTLY against it, which I find kinda funny tbh.)

However, there is a block I need to worry about - Matty/Carter/Sierra/Joaq, who are all twisted people, all good friends. If they vote one way, there’s a good chance that’s how the vote will go. And I could definitely seem them wanting to break up a Warriors counter-block, if they go balls to the wall. I’m not sure if Matty/Joaq/Carter typically play that way, but I could see Sierra aggressively targeting one of us, especially given all the controversy with her in Warriors 7. I think she’d do Brandon over me, but I can’t be certain - need to suck up HARD to that twisted block.

SPEAK of the devil Sierra just sent me this.



Of course she wants him out. Goddamit Brandon, I want to be in FTC with you, ut you need to show up. Playing down your target isn’t working, so you gotta steer into the curve, get on, and campaign. I can’t do EVERYTHING man.

I’ll type more later, right now my roomie’s going to sleep and he hates me typing because I’m “too loud.: *shrugs* Cast assessment and stuffz later.

[Peih-Gee]

I picked you to win. Had to go with the only person to vote me out of this series. Good luck!

[Alec]

Sept 11, 2015 3:24:33 GMT Peih-Gee said:

I picked you to win. Had to go with the only person to vote me out of this series. Good luck!

Aww I knew there was a reason I liked ya'.

[Alec]

Apparently the vote is going 5-5? Goddamn these people are insane. Fuck it, 1/3 shot of going home? I'll draw rocks.

[Alec]

So um, Rey is voting Joaq, and it looks like it's gonna be 5-4-1. God bless you Reynold, you beautiful, lovable moron.

[Alec]

Soooo things have gotten pretty interesting, all in all. I’m actually fairly fascinated by how the dynamics of this game are shaping, because it seems like pre-game relations are causing a serious effect on the macro-dynamics.

As a whole, this game seems to have taken a Twisted Crew vs. Warriors Peeps tint, at least from my perspective. It’s kinda like the Cold War - no side wants to take a shot at the other QUITE yet, given how the pre-merge works - if you vote one of them out, and suddenly you’re on a tribe with four of them - yeaaaaaaaah not ideal. The capacity to be swapfucked always exists, but if you approach the game cautiously, there’s a good chance you’ll be spared to merge. Granted Twisted Crew didn’t have much issue going right for the head and targeting Brandon last round, so maybe that’s just my and my side’s strategy - but I feel like, in sparing Joaquin, they’re gonna adopt a serious approach, and not target any core members, for fear of reciprocation.

In taking this approach, there’s also the added benefit of having a LARGE target put in front of you. Because Warriors acted defensively in saving Brandon, Twisted Crew came out of it looking like the bad guys, the overplayers - and people have taken note of it. Naonka, who had no affiliation going into this game, seriously seems to be all about taken down their pre-game, and has allied herself with another pre-game (still not sure if she knows about that, but *shrugs* ) to do that. A few words to someone like Ian, painting them in juuuuust the right light:

“Man Ian, Reynold was the easy boot, but those dastardly folks decided to try and take out a player in Brandon, and if not for some quick thinking that pre-game would’ve run shit. THANKFULLY, our Defiance pre-game can hide in the shadows and wait for the right moment.”

Oh yeah, Cochran has been going on and on about making a Defiance pre-game, and I haven’t said a word to Ian about this supposed Warriors series. If he sees it as Defiance vs. Twisted, he’s apt to take our side, especially because there’s so much overlap between Defiance and Warriors.

I’ve actually been working fairly close to Ian - I was like “I know you can have tight partnerships, I’ve seen it, so let’s do that this time bro.” I know he’s rather ruthless when it comes down to it, but that’s a ways away - also it’s harder to cut people in Survivor than BB, because you can’t just win comps to determine the outcome of the season. I feel like I have a solid idea of the way Ian thinks, and Survivor is all about talking on the same wavelength (which incidentally is why knowing someone going in is such an advantage, and why pre-games often have a huge effect on All Stars games) - knowing who he is and how he plays, I feel like I know how to handle him and work deep going forward.

Anyway, for this vote, it was always between Tom and Matty for me. However, in line with the thinking I previously outlined, I don’t want to go straight for Twisted Crew - especially Matty, who seems the most open to working with other options, and would play a mediator role. Also, Tom is the more aggressive player (more on that in a sec) and getting him out early gets rid of someone I know I can’t truly trust moving forward, and to an extent reduces some of the variability in the game. I feel a little bad because me and Nav are friends, but I think he’s the first guy to take this sort of thing in stride, he’s all about strategy.

Also, he scrambled hard, but he didn’t do it in the best possible way. He should have made up some BS, told everyone the same story, and showed a clear target people would have been OK booting. In my opinion, that could have flipped the vote. But he told people different things, and quite damingly, tried to sell Ian down the river to me. True or not, it’s best for my game if Tom goes out, so I just want to Ian, copy/pasted what he was saying, and made sure he didn’t get hyperparanoid and flip or anything. (I trust Brandon and Nay to vote with me - Ian going crazy is always a possibility, granted I think he’s smart enough not to do anything this early.) Nay already wanted Tom out, Ian seems to REALLY want Tom out now, and Brandon is ambivalent, but I’d be incredibly surprised if he went to bat for him in any capacity.

I’m not entirely sure where Matty’s head is at for this vote - he seemed hesitant to vote Tom to a bunch of people. Brandon had suggested getting him as a 5th, so I told him Tom was the name going around - it’s entirely possible that he told him, but I think Tom knows his back is against the wall anyway, if his haphazard scrambling is any indication. Ultimately, I don’t know where Matty is voting, but I don’t think he’s gonna go against the tide on this one - he could, but I don’t see it happening.

I think this vote will go 4-2, 5-1, or 4-1-1. I’m realizing that I’m getting cocky, so if I went it’d be a complete blindside - but I really, really think this’ll be a simple Tom vote, unless Ian decides to flip and somehow convince Naonka which is uh.....a biiiiiiiit of a long-shot. Ciao, people.

[Alec]

I mean on one hand I know it's an attempt to throw me under the bus, especially given the info Nav' shared with Brenda, who shared it with Cochran, who shared it with me and Fabio. ON THE OTHER HAND, it's a compliment and my ego is huge. Sooooooooooo yay?

(Nav's convo w/ Brenda btw)

[Alec]

FINAL 16 (Been forgetting to do these round indicators, o well starting it now)

OK, so this round is kinda confusing, kinda frustrating. The challenge was pretty much luck, HOWEVER, despite all the complications, I managed to basically draw the ace and get it in two guesses, which was far and away the best guess. HOWEVER, for the third. Consecutive. Time. I was put on a team with Brandon, and once again, he led us to defeat. 16 guesses dude? C’mon your killing me man. When we made our F2 you said jokingly I’d carry you, but these continuous pre-jury TC’s are killin’ me. Putting myself way way way too far out there premerge, which I do not enjoy.

Anyway, I had gone to bed early the night before, so I didn’t see results til like ~ 5 in the morning. The only person on when I hopped on AIM was Sierra, cause she lives in New Zealand and the magic of timezones was in play. We shot the shit for awhile, vote talk came up, and glancing at TC I was like “oh I’ll just continue my non-aggression stuff and target Brenda.” Well, shortly thereafter I get a message from Sierra Dawn, who’s like “Sierra just told me your targeting Brenda?” And I’m like, ugh, fuck. Of course she blabs the info first second she gets it. SIERRA I WANT TO WORK WITH YOU, YOU’RE MAKING THIS VERY DIFFICULT.

So I basically tell her I’m not sure, and I may not be able to get the vote off of Carter. (And also work on securing a side deal I’m not sure has any merit, and may be used against me to make me seems shady - C’MON KERI LEMME BELIEVE IN YOU.) I talk to Arisa and Brandon, tell them to run damage control so we can secure Brenda’s vote, saying Sierra’s spreading stuff to try and save Carter. I talked to Brenda myself, got her on board the “vote Carter” train - I don’t want her voting JT and forcing a tie. But, looking over these chats, and due to the sheer confidence Carter seems to be exuding towards Brenda and his relationship, I’m not entirely certain we have her aboard. I’m hoping we do, but it seems 50/50, and could turn if Carter or Matty (ok if Carter lbr) decide to reveal to her that we’re gunning for her.

Yes, we’re going for Brenda over targeting a member of the “Twisted Crew” AGAIN. Look, I get that it seems bad, and honestly I feel like this whole round has been kinda sloppy, since everyone is being told different things, but keeping the targets around, focusing people’s efforts on this pregame that, against all odds survives vote after vote? You couldn’t write a better antagonistic narrative. Also I don’t trust Brenda as far as I can throw her.

I got J.T aboard, which was pretty easy since we’re friends, co-hosts, etc. and he hasn’t been around enough to really have a different opinion besides survive. Brandon was supposed to work on getting Carter/Matty aboard for a Brenda blindside, but it didn’t really work out. Carter’s apparently tight with Brenda, and doesn’t want to vote her, even if she’s supposedly voting him. Matty doesn’t really care, and will flip if it goes to a tie, but he wants to vote JT with Carter and see if it goes 3-2-1 or 3-3 because Carter is THAT attatched to Brenda. Not to mention people outside the TC are asking questions about it, and figuring out what our story is, so what we’re saying doesn’t get blown up, is a task in of itself. GOD this round feels so sloppily played, all in all.

Ultimately we have the votes regardless, because Matty isn’t gonna draw rocks for Brenda, but this round, as a tool to be used moving forward in gaining trust and allies, just feels like a mulligan. I’m sure I have more to say but I wanted to get something out to explain what I see as going on.

[Alec]

Nothing really to talk about the round that just happened. (OK there is but your getting cliffnotes because I'm lazy) JT/Coach discussed putting Cochran and Naonka as their third and fourth, but once word reached some of the Warriors clique, they received a lot of pushback and it was neatly pushed back for Steph, then Court. Ideally, Carter and Joaq would have been at the same TC, so one of them woulda stuck around, but unfortunately luck wasn't on my (or their) side. Fabio also didn't really want them gone, but there was no way we were talking them out of sparing Twisted Crew again, not after all the rounds we pewit it off. The structure of the round didn't leave for a lot of vote manipulation in that regard - the only talking points that could be reasonably disccused were 3rd and 4th, and those didn't even end up mattering.

Joaquin's boot TC was interesting, since it was 3-2-1-1-1. (Some idiot either thought they could vote Sierra or threw their vote away.) Really close for comfort, and Sierra was messaging me, telling me how they had post counts figured out, and were trying to structure their votes in a top half / bottom half way on Cochran and Brandon. Explains some of the votes, anyway - luckily, the division didn't work out that way, so we didn't have to see if it would have worked for them. I don't think they really had the numbers anyway, but the wrinkle with how bootlists worked, as convoluted and fucking confusing as it was, ended up helping my side, I guess.

Sierra messages me, talking to me about this, and I think she sees me as a frontrunner. Thankfully she knows I'm not targeting her (I hope anyway) especially since her side targeted Cochran and Brandon over me. Moving forward, I want to get rid of Stephanie and Courtney - their wildcards who can slip under the radar. Matty and Sierra will always be huge targets going forward ( Twisted Crew even bigger ones though ) so I keep them around, keep relations good with them, and slowly chip away at outsiders. I'm beginning to visualize how the merge is gonna shape out (provided I'm not blindsided or things don't otherwise go to plan) but I need to figure out a way to establish a core without seeming obvious about it, and figure out a way to progress from there, since I don't think I'd benefit from an outright pagonging, even as "connected" as I supposedly am. The best part of playing aggressively is that you have more control of the flow of the game, in my opinion at least, so your less apt to get comfortable, which odds are is when you get blindsided - if I'm seen as some ringleader, odds are sitting on my laurels is what will lead to my downfall for people itching to shake up the game.

There, a vaguely CP-ish confessional. Don't have a ton of inter-personal shit to talk about, SINCE THE ROUND WAS SIX GODDAMN DAYS AND THAT IS SLOW AF. ( <3 you JW )

[Alec]

FINAL 12

This game is weird. I mean like, the boot order has gone more or less how I wanted it, barring Joaq and Carter, but I feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel like I’m seen as some uber powerful player. Like, when JT/Coach were considering flipping on Cochran, I’m the one who has to go reassure Cochran AND put the pressure on Coach to stay loyal. Like, Brandon comes to me and is basically like “go talk to people” and it's kinda frustrating because I don’t WANT to be the nexus of this alliance. Yeah it’s nice being in good with most everyone, but I’m not completely without perspective - just because things are good now, doesn’t mean they’ll be good down the road. Especially once people like Sierra and Matty are out.

In that sense, this challenge is kinda a blessing and a curse. I’m with five allies, but Ian has always been someone I don’t trust fully - we were allies in another game until he decided we weren’t, even when I was planning on going to finale with him. He’s a good guy, but that doesn’t mean he ain’t a snake in the grass - and if we lose, now would be the time to take him out. There’s no other obvious target on our side (well Naonka mentioned Coach because he’s not in our “core” but yeah that ain’t happening lol) so it’s a good a time as any to boot him. If we hit merge, I wouldn’t put it past him to gun for me, and this game has been about preemptive strikes, from my perspective - giving the other side a potential ally is a no-no.

There’s also the issue of the makeup of the other tribe. Sierra and Matty are both there, as is Sierra Dawn (who ALREADY tried to get Cochran out) and I can’t see Courtney drawing rocks. So, if they lose, odds are Cochran or JT would go. I could live with either going gamewise (although I really want Cochran to make jury, since he just missed it last time) but I think both are more loyal to me gamewise. Cochran said he wasn’t voting against me - knowing him that’s PROBABLY a half-truth, but I don’t see him going after me anytime soon. Especially after I’ve been nigh single-handedly covering his ass God knows how many times, haha - I don’t think he’s THAT game-motivated. I haven’t bought myself into finals with him, but I have bought some short-term goodwill, which is still pretty damn good in my book.

If we do “merge” next round, I think my target would be Sierra Dawn. My group has already burned her, even if I don’t think she’s directly gunning for me. Also the longer I can keep Sierra (the other one) and Matty in the game, the less the target goes onto me. If the pressures there I’ll probably have to cave (especially because Brandon wants Sierra gone, which makes things harder) but I’m gonna do my damndest to keep them around.

Provided Ian goes this round, a pretty optimal boot order would be:

11: Sierra Dawn

10: Courtney

9: Sierra

8: Naonka

7: Matty

6: JT

5: Cochran

4: Fabio

(That moment when you realize you want to Pagong all the female reps. WOOPS)

Which leaves me in a F3 with Brandon and Coach. I’m probably the odds on favorite there, and even if I DON’T win, one of my buds who hasn’t one before wins. Pretty perfect in my book. The only tricky thing would be reeling Coach in after blindsiding his brother, and also convincing Brandon to eliminate Fabio over Coach at F4, but I think it's doable. I love Fabio, but he’s won games before - I want to take him as far as possible because he’s one of my best ORG friends, but I think one of the other two deserve a shot to win. And, I’m not lying down at the end, no thank you haha. I especially want Coach there, since Brandon doesn’t care THAT much about being the ultimate winner. (Seemingly at all sometimes, to be perfectly honest)

[Alec]

Also I know it's been posted before but I seriously love this GIF. It's REALLY hard to find a winners quote for an Alec rep, but damn if Nav didn't find it, haha.

[Jaclyn]

ur confessionals are ok i guess

[Alec]

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELL THEN:

[Alec]

6-5 for Steph.

God. Fucking. Dammit. BRANDON, DUDE, are you kidding me? Like, I know you're not super invested, but other people WANNA do well, and bringing back the ONE person who can fuck it all up, shockingly enough, is NOT helpful. I'm fuming right now - I get that he wants to be friends with Cameron, but fact is, you already voted him out. He's not gonna deny you friendship at this point if you keep him out of the game, hell Steph and Sierra get along even after Sierra, you know, ruthlessly backstabbed her. And if someone got that upset over an ORG, outside the context of the game, then maybe not someone you really need to be friends with.

I'm so frustrated right now. We had it locked it up, and now its anyone's game. Which fine, fun for all like, three of the viewers I guess, but we'd played hard to get that advantage, and now one dumb decision could cost us a shot in the game. UGH.

[Jaclyn]

you seem displeased