[Jeff Probst]

Matt,

Here you can address the jury with your question or statement. You should keep it to one post that they can reply to. Try to include all of your questions/statement in this post and save any rebuttals or further questioning for the live council on Sunday.

Please do not ask the final three to go down any long lists, keep in mind that each question takes a very long time to properly answer and asking too much can be tedious.

The floor is now yours! Please post your questions/statements before Saturday at 8c/9e.

[Matt]

ok, ill keep this (somewhat) short

Simone: You definitely played a behind the scenes game. You let Kim take credit for all of the moves in hopes that she would be targetted instead of you. Which when you think about it is pretty smart but it sort of comes off like you were sheeping Kim. Then, when you were so reluctant to take her out despite the fact she was a huge threat, it seemed even more suspicious. Tell me a couple things you did that you yourself orchestrated but maybe Kim got the credit for. Also, I get playing a loyal game but there is such thing as being loyal to a fault and you were very near that boundary with Kim, why were you so reluctant to vote for her?

Kim: There is a very good argument that you played the best social game of anyone on the entire season. Do you feel like you played the best social game out of everyone and why? Another question, how were you able to get your allies to not flip on you when it was probably the better choice for their game (ie. Ryan, Simone) Was it their decision alone or did you have to convince them (if so how?)

Christina: If there is one thing that I hate most in life is when someone is a quitter and stops trying. I kind of feel (and I know im, not the only one) that when you realized you were all alone you almost gave up socially and started only focusing on challenges to get you to the end. Another thing, an argument could be made that you played a very one-sided game. Very physical. Tell us how you were a social and strategic threat as well

[Kim]

There is a very good argument that you played the best social game of anyone on the entire season. Do you feel like you played the best social game out of everyone and why? Another question, how were you able to get your allies to not flip on you when it was probably the better choice for their game (ie. Ryan, Simone) Was it their decision alone or did you have to convince them (if so how?)

Honestly, I believe I played the second best social game behind Cole. I think that Cole had the same connections that I had except he was able to cover them up by having this affair with Julie which made people think he was volatile. However, I still remember just casually talking to Roark, who mind you, told me that she was not happy with the way Cole treated Julie and she didn't want to work with someone like that, but then comes to me a few days later saying how Cole was not the same person that Julie made him out to be and then proceeds to make a groupchat with Cole/Patrick/myself in it with her. Cole just used his feud as a sort of self-made shield to cover up the real game he had going on underneath.

But beyond Cole, I do believe I played a great social game as well. Like I mentioned in previous posts, it's astonishing how just getting to know people and talking about them regarding non-game things can go a long way. I never talked game with Roark before she was officially in the game and she ended up giving me immunity simply because we connected on a personal basis. I believe the social game can only be as good as you are at connecting with people on a real genuine basis. Having the friendship/connection as a base, you can then use that bond to leverage yourself in strategic positions and thus make moves without having to worry about having immunity. Obviously, this strategy can backfire since if you're friends with everyone, eventually you're going to have to someone out. However, the strategical justification for this is you gotta do whatever moves you further in the game and I'm sitting here so I believe I did what I had to do in the best manner that I know how.

As for making sure my allies didn't flip on me, it's kind of a difficult question. Obviously this is Survivor, so you can never trust anyone 100%. But I just look back at what I said above and the same holds true for me. I look for people with two things: the first is for who I believe I truly connect with on a personal basis and the second is for who I believe are loyal people. When you combine those two qualities, you find people who you can 'trust' in a game as untrustworthy as this. Obviously there are other factors that feed into this such as if the people who fulfill these 'requirements' are big targets in everyone else's eyes or if they're at odds with each other, etc. For example, I mentioned how I knew Cole probably would turn on me at some point; however, he was aligned with Patrick and Simone who I believed were two people I truly trusted and believed would be as loyal to me as I was to them. I got along swimmingly with Cole and so sometimes you have to take risks with who you trust and Cole definitely was a great partner in crime to have even if I didn't fully believe he would be entirely loyal to me in the long run.

At the end of the day, it's a high risk high reward situation. The more you're willing to branch out and trust other people, the more you're potentially going to benefit, but also the more you risk screwing up. It also involves a mutual relationship where you work together on an even-playing field rather than one person just telling a bunch of people what to do (which is what my perception of Christina with you and Ali was like - Christina calling you a loser is not gonna make you more receptive to staying with her long-term). If you allow your allies to sometimes dictate the vote, they're more likely to want to remain allies with you since you don't just step all over them. Christina keeps calling people lapdogs and saying you gotta play your own game, but at the same time, if you don't respect the people you're loyal to and sometimes allow them to take the reigns or take the reigns together, then they're more likely to feel unwanted and flip on you. It's a very difficult thing to balance, but I believe I did as good of a job I could do at creating genuine allies who were both willing to go to rocks for me and tie the vote for me at the final four.

In addition to all that, sometimes it's just best to be honest with people because if you're honest with someone when you're against them, they're more likely to trust you when you're with them. This is the situation that happened with Ryan. Multiple times in the game I heard that he was coming after me. So instead of trying to circumvent it, I straight out confronted him and half the time it was a misunderstanding and we were able to work forward together. Don't get me wrong, Ryan was a sneaky rat at times, but once we both aired our grievances against each other, it was much easier to work together. I even told him at the Final 4 that I couldn't vote Simone out if Christina won immunity because I'd been with her and she's proven her loyalty to me since the swap. Not only did this more likely make Ryan respect me (it's probably one of the big reasons why he was okay going to the tiebreaker), but then Simone mutually feels obligated to do the same for me.

I hope that answered your question!

[Christina]

~*Christina’s Response to Matt*~



Christina: If there is one thing that I hate most in life is when someone is a quitter and stops trying. I kind of feel (and I know im, not the only one) that when you realized you were all alone you almost gave up socially and started only focusing on challenges to get you to the end. Another thing, an argument could be made that you played a very one-sided game. Very physical. Tell us how you were a social and strategic threat as well

I am sorry that you feel this way. I did not give up socially, I just think I had to change my approach in the game when Ali was voted out. I did have a shift after this point because I realized that every single person lied to me about the vote. Julie told me she was voting Patrick, as did many others’ during the Ali boot round. Simone/Kim were not my true allies, and I finally was realizing that. Roark, someone I was starting to bond with as a middle-girl, lied to me! The only person I may have had was you. The rounds when Chrissy/Jonas left, and pre-merge, I was more social in the instant messages because I had more strategic game to play. Once Ali left, I was told by Kim that I was too much of a threat to work with. I was told that maybe she would work with me if I was able to get through a few rounds.
With this information, I tried and tried during the Julie boot round and nothing socially worked: My three challenge wins caused me to have to play a strategic game a different way. I think the perception that I was completely absent from instant messages is false. I was around and talking to everyone even after this point. I think the number of messages I sent may have decreased due to the less amount that people were willing to discuss with me about the game? That is the only thing I could think to say about this claim. I apologize if I spoke less after this point in your eyes.
I was a strategic threat by vocalizing in the tribal councils my plan, and by pointing out alliances and groupings. I would call people out to make others’ feel unsettled about their own positions in the game. This helped lead to the tie breaker when Cole left from a rock. I also strongly was trying to have Roark and yourself trust me enough to make moves, even though I was hearing from Simone/Kim about how you were telling them that you wanted me out as soon as possible. My strategic game was turned on it’s head when Ali left because of the position I was put in. I did not give up and adapted to this change by working myself to be even more feared. I planted the idea socially that I may have 2 idols, not just 1. I planted the idea of voting out people to get them taken out and break up majority alliances: Cole and Patrick leaving the game.
I feel like socially—even though it wasn’t all positive—I was very effective in my chaos and fear tactics. I also was very strategic with who I would call out and the way I would vocalize this. It was a different type of social and strategic game then I think many others are used to. However, I was unable to have influence in an under the radar/quiet way. I had to be loud and vocal because I was painted a target that was never going to go away. Nothing I did was ever going to be quiet or under the radar.

Thank you for these questions and good luck with your decision.

[Simone]

I was reluctant to vote Kim because we both played a side by side game with no difference and I knew if I got the opportunity to explain myself, I could back myself up. I was struggling to see where she had out ran me in terms of the game besides the obvious factor of my work getting in the way of the live events. Had Kim ever broken away from me and made her own move that I was completely in the dark about? No, she didn't. She and I both flipped on our own terms to vote for Patrick at the F7 council when the last conversation I had with her was about voting you out. What would Kim have done if she didn't have me at the F6? She had no intentions of working with Ryan and she was ready to give in to Christina's F3 deal and ride that out unless an opportunity to vote Christina arose. She most likely would have gotten voted out because of the perceived threat she was if I wouldn't have been there with the necessary connections to make the move. I literally told her "Ryan has an extra vote, we don't have to give into Christina and we can make our own move by voting for Roark and that would give us the advantage going into the F5 with Ryan" because after the F7 council, Ryan was against you and Roark. Even at the F6 I continued to hustle and I continued to find ways for us to make our own moves without having to just give into a Christina immunity run. The only advantage she had over me coming into the merge was she had original connections I hadn't of met yet and she was quick to knock Jonas and Julie out which started to pigeon hole her game into the me/Patrick/Cole alliance side of things. We also convinced her to give up Kat on our original swap tribe and put her entire fate in our hands and she was dangling by a string there.

I am a loyal player. I get what you're saying loyalty to a fault. I was loyal to a core group of people but I was in no way dragged by any of them to get to this point. I remember one tribal where Patrick laughed at people for "thinking they knew the relationships in this game". I was always lumped in as super close with Kim. Patrick/Cole were lumped together but I had always been with them and they both considered me their number one since the beginning and I did a good way of distinguishing myself as a solo player away from them and let them take the heat as some sort of duo like everyone was perpetuating so if a move did come against them, I wasn't in the cross fire. Kim and I's relationship was the same, we were a solid duo but I also did a good job at establishing myself as someone outside of that others could trust in order to gain a leg up. Kim was putting her eggs in one basket with the four alliance where I was always establishing backup relationships.