Meltan's Questions

Did I getcha for a second there?
That speech just seemed to fit too perfectly to pass up
If you can name the Survivor who made it, you get a bonus point (doesn't go towards the Jury vote, but a point nonetheless)

My vote is completely undecided at this point - I know a lot of Jurors say that, but in this case it's real. I think all three of you played incredible games and I'm glad it's you three who made it here, because this was the FTC I was hyped for.

Questions will be here soon. Unfortunately no more pictures though I'm away for the weekend so I'm stuck on phone, and I didn't prep any further than this.

Meltan I'm pretty sure it's illegal to be this amazing ♥

Bonus point goes to Deo

Absolutely, let me explain.

I'll start off by saying I do truly apologize that how I acted bothered you on a personal level, as I did very much aim to never get into personal attacks and to keep everything strictly business. Obviously I did not achieve that with you as it related to the Uxie vote, so I am sorry. I will explain why I acted the way I did and why I think it benefited my game, but really none of that matters relative to how I obviously made you feel so my bad on that.

As you pointed out, I very much played both sides through the first two votes, and intended on continuing to do so though the fact that Uxie had 6 votes was unexpected to me and complicated things. You see, you (and by extension Regi and Tapu) kept working with me after that vote for lack of other options, but that was only a small part of it for me. I knew that even when my lies were revealed (as they were sure to be), you three would keep working with me as long as that was your best option since you and Regi were very rational players and Tapu seemed pretty committed to that group as well. Thus, my main concerns were twofold: (a) ensure that you truly *did* have no other option; and (b) ensure that while my spot had been blown with your group that it did not get blown with the Mystic group. Those two points are related of course, so I will expand on them together. Once Uxie went out there were eight people left in the game, and Coba/Hoopa/Celebi/Poipole was a block of four - if they wanted to they could easily have reached out to you to Christy Smith me which would have left Poipole in a very powerful position between two blocks of three who each could have thought they comprised 4/7. The way to avoid that happening is to make sure that if your group tried to throw me under the bus (which you and Regi both did, not sure about Tapu) that you wouldn't be believed; I had already built up loyalty and trust with the Mystic group by having voted with them twice, the first time 'despite knowing we didn't have the numbers' so I knew that at a base level they'd already be reluctant to believe it, and this just made the story too much. I had multiple people (off the top of my head I want to say all of Hoopa/Celebi/Coba though I could be wrong) come to me kind of flabbergasted saying stuff along the lines of "So this is weird, but Regi and Meltan are saying you had said you were voting with them both times, that you claim to have voted Coba...and also somehow are currently claiming to have voted Celebi? Doesn't make any sense but I guess they're trying." I think this is also around when Poipole was talking about being confused why you and Regi seemed to think I was claiming the 7th Coba vote because that didn't make sense either.

In short, by sticking to my story I made it much less likely that I would be exposed to the Hoopa group (who just as you were prior to that vote had no reason to suspect I'd ever be working with you; the first thing I did post-merge was go to them and tell them you were trying to build up forces to make a run at Hoopa, and I made it very clear in all my conversations with them throughout the merge how much I didn't want to work with your side at all). By doing that, I avoided having both sides decide to call a cease-fire to get me out, if anything helped build up even more dislike between the two sides since a few of the Mystics seemed to get defensive on my behalf about the 'stories' Regi was telling about me, and so allowed me to keep playing both sides without arousing suspicions from Coba/Hoopa/Celebi until later I hoped.

But again - having said all of that, none of that excuses making you feel like shit as that genuinely was not my intention and was not something I wanted to do in this game as I don't think there's any room for personal attacks. So I apologize genuinely.

Uh oh I started expanding on this in Cobalion's thread gdi tapu lele

In short, my strategic game leading into f3 heavily augmented my social game. I didn't have the build-up in the first two tribes to go in swinging with a superstar spectacular manipulative or strategic game. My strategic play in this game was reaching endgame as the player with the strongest social game still standing and I succeeded in that.

Totally understand that a lack of deceptive game may be a factor in your assessment of my game, and your final vote decision. But I don't think that the suggestion I had a lack of strategy is fair. I just implemented my strategy in a very different way to e.g. you, Reggie, or Deo.

Agree that in the short-term it made you (as well as Regi/Tapu) much less likely to trust and work with me, but I trusted that since both you and Regi had proved to be extremely rational people and players that as long as I was your best option - as I knew I would be - you would stick with me. I did always intend to swing back to you and offer you a lifeline; as I explained I certainly was not willing to sign up for going to the end with Coba/Hoopa/Celebi! While you say that it made you more likely to go after me in the short-term (and it did), it crucially also made it much less likely in my mind that you would be able to convince Hoopa/Celebi/Coba to unite against me as we saw happened in the game. Just as you were stunned to find out through the Uxie vote that I was not your loyal soldier, so too did I think it would be very hard for Hoopa/Celebi/Coba to be convinced that I was not just as loyal to them and so by continuing to lie about it, it made you and Regi's pleas to them seem that much more contrived and desperate, which is why I think they were disregarded rather than acted on. And then once I had ensured that the two sides would remain divided, as I said I knew that you and Regi were very rational players and so with the Mystics being unwilling to vote me out with you I trusted that when I came back and offered my vote to you it would be accepted.

I knew that at that point in the game you/Regi/Tapu were on the bottom, in need of someone to work with, and willing to take a deal that was your best option even if it was from someone you didn't trust. I also knew that at that point Coba/Hoopa/Celebi were very much in power in the game and so it was very very crucial that I remained someone they fully trusted as by contrast they had *zero* incentive to keep me around if they thought I was disloyal. I thought that the best way to ensure I remained fully in the middle of the two groups was to ensure that anything you three told the Mystics would be viewed as a longshot story from people on the bottom trying to disrupt the majority...which is exactly what "Deo has been playing both sides all merge! Even now he is saying he voted Celebi!" sounded like.

Was it possible I was wrong in my analysis? Absolutely. And as I have already said (though it bears repeating) I wouldn't have done it even if I knew it were the right play if I had known it would cause you as much pain as I now know it did. But the intent of the choice was always a strategic one and never a malicious or personal one, and I did it because I thought it was what was most likely to benefit me in the game.

"He didn't even see it fit to mention in his speech that Hoopa and Cobalion and Celebi came to him saying "Reggie is gunning for you!", when they were telling the truth and he believed my lies over them."

I mentioned this elsewhere, but I think it's funny you repeated this given it's just not remotely true. I never for a second believed you over Hoopa/Coba/Celebi at all, and knew they were telling me the truth that you were aggressively bussing me. I didn't work with you and bring you to the end because I trusted or believed you.

Alright, quick question for both of you since you're here

It's final 9, but on the vote you're the only one to flip (making it 4-4-1 Celebi-Uxie-Poi). As per the rules, PMs get disabled and all discussion has to take place in the public thread.

Both of you were playing both sides to some degree here. How do you deal with everything you say being public for 24h?

I obviously didn't have a plan for that eventuality since until the deadline I didn't know Poipole would self-vote. I'd have had to either assess if I could afford to take a public stance or else continue to play the middle and just be noncommittal publicly.

---

Yes, in fact, I did. Let's pretend mespirit didn't medevac.

Then the vote would have been, in theory, 5 for someone on our side, and 5 for celebi.

I actually had made a deal with Cobalion that if it came to a 5-5 tie, we would work together for the next two votes that one of us would flip on our side on this vote, and one of us would flip on our side on the next vote, so the numbers go back to 4-4, but we also have our 4-man connection between the sides preserved and ready to go as the numbers keep dropping and the sides dissolve.

Unfortunately we never really worked it out fully because lol medevac. Also I think the vote never would have actually tied 5-5 anyways, since their target was Mespirit (who was on their side...) and ours was celebi. So assuming mespirit didn't vote for herself, the vote always would have been

5-4-1 celebi-mespirit-meltan(?)

or

6-4 celebi-mespirit.

But if the vote really did go 5-5 celebi-mespirit, let's say it was like

Celebi voters: (Mespirit, Reggie, Meltan, Tapu, Uxie) VS. (Celebi, Coba, Poipole, Hoopa, Deoxys)

That's where coba and I would have the deal where I would flip on my side to save celebi, because cobalion liked celebi and I wanted to get closer to him, with the intent that coba would help me next vote. In the real game, it worked out fine as well since (mespirit -> uxie) was 2 people on opposite sides which brought the numbers back to 4-4.

I'm more interested in what both of you would have said in the thread given that circumstance - or was this all planned out to the degree that you feel like you wouldn't have needed to say anything?

@deo - Voting Mesprit on the first vote would have made it clear that someone in our 5 wasn't actually with us, and that would have come up to some degree in public if it had tied. I agree that voting Mesprit was a good option (not only did it dodge the idol, it also was something we would have very likely compromised on) but it doesn't change that if the 5-5 happened, there would be some very awkward questions coming your way which could only be answered in public.