Hey everyone. Thanks for taking the time out to read my speech.
If you're a jury member, it probably means you already have a pretty good idea of how I approached this game. I'd love to go and write 5,000 words convincing you all that I'm the only fair choice for the winner of this game, but you probably already know if you're going to vote for me or not (and you'd also know that's not my style).
As a kinda preface, I came into this experience not totally knowing what to expect. I kinda wanted to keep it on the down-low at the start, but it started to become really obvious later on. I'm really green with Survivor. I haven't really watched it before, and this is my first game (I haven't even spectated a Survivor game yet - maybe that would have been wise...).
I didn't come into this game with a grand strategy for how to conduct myself, or how I expected others to, or how I was going to change the Survivor world. Up to and including now I've been staying wary of the game-state, adapting my play, and winging it. Plus, of course, having an absolute blast. There hasn't been a single person in this game who I haven't enjoyed immensely, and who I wouldn't want to hit me up post-game. And I don't just say that because this is my FTC speech--you'd better take me up on this.
But as a twist to that context: I don't want anyone to look at me differently just because of my inexperience, or my rose-tinted glasses. This isn't a game about loving everyone; I truly believe that's helped me enjoy this experience greatly, but that's only a part of it. In the end of the day this is a game of survival. You can be the friendliest cuddliest person on the planet, but if you're not prepared to get your hands dirty and make smart calls, you will never get to the end.
I won't know for a few more days whether this is my inexperience & naivety at large, but.
I entered this game with exactly one goal in mind: survive.
To those ends, find the people who would work with me.
Find the people who I could ascertain the intentions of.
Find the people who were major threats and major players, and make the call: do I work with these people, or do I work against them in the background while keeping their gaze diverted elsewhere?
Knowing what I know now, I accept there are infinite more intricacies to Survivor that I'd never have known in my first days. I could have thought harder about who the big social players in Valor1.0 were. I could have idol hunted, or fought harder in the challenges. I could have straightened up my back, been braver and tried to make the kinds of cool bold plays that e.g. Meltan and Cobalion did. I'll totally own that. And the next time you see Tapu Lele in a Survivor game, you won't even recognise me.
But back to Survivor Legendary. My goal was to make it to endgame, and I would argue I've survived better than anyone. In this entire experience, I have taken a single vote and have not been targeted by an elimination conspiracy once. If this f3 went into an f2, I'm pretty sure it'd be Deo and I taking out Reggie, or Reggie and I taking out Deo. Call it what you will, but I call it survival - and it's something I'm proud of.
On the subject, this is something I want to take a moment to face head-on.
I may have been pinned for a goat this game. When the opinion polls went out, a fair few of you agreed (and no doubt some of the jury were of the same opinion). I'm sure there are those of you who are reading this speech now like "lolele u treid". But if I can ask you all one thing, I want to ask you to challenge yourselves on this assumption for a moment. I contest that I have played exactly as big and as bold as I've needed to, and gone completely undetected as needed. I can count the number of lies I've told on one hand. I've had a fucking brilliant time, and I've loved getting to know every single one of you.
Your vote is your own, and I'm not going to sit here and pretend to be a Survivor god who deserves a perfect Jury sweep (I won't even pretend that I really know what I'm doing). But I am going to ask you to take a moment to consider the way I've approached this game. I believe that I've adapted well to change. I've treated others with as much open-mindedness, kindness and honesty as I've been able at all turns. And I might not have played big, but I have played clever.
I guess I can take a moment to ramble at everyone who made it to Harmony. This makes more sense to me than a play-by-play for a couple of reasons.. Firstly I value the sum of my social interactions this game a lot more highly than I value any individual plays I've made. Secondly because you're the ones who are deciding whether or not I'm worth a vote.
Ultimately though I'm not sure what each of you values in a winner, and I hope I get the chance to work through that in the Q&A. So let's go with what I thought of each of you and my deepest darkest ragrets.
Volcanion
It was so much fun hanging out with you in Valor1.0. I really liked the way your approach to the game was so focused. Compared to someone like me who was quite aloof and kind of improvising as I went along, it was clear that you were thinking in terms of 'how does this effect my game?' from a really early point and that was sweet.
It's pretty hard to know what to say here. I feel like the first tribe swap probably burned you out a fair bit; in Harmony we didn't really reconnect (and we didn't really have a chance to). I think it's pretty clear I was down to work with you. But to say a whole lot more here would be pretty fake; our time together in Harmony was unfortunately very limited, and I'm not sure I have a particularly strong grasp of you as a player (especially compared to how I felt I did in Valor1.0). All the same, it was nice to get to know you. And if you're reading this thank you for having a read.
Mesprit
You were my absolute favourite in Valor. Now it's public you know it's true.
Some other shout-outs are truly due (Uxie and Victini for starts, who I got to know a lot better towards the end of Valor1.0), but you were the ultimate standout. You were really enjoyable to talk to, your approach to game-related stuff was sensible and effective; idk fam you were just a really likeable cool calm collected influence and I think a big part of Valor1.0's cohesion is owed to the way you worked with so many people.
I know when Harmony rolled around again you were keen to work together, and I would have been there in a flash. Your circumstances were rough..this game is very demanding on time and can be extremely exhausting if you've got a lot going on irl as well. It seems like you made the right call for you re. the medevac.
Just want you to know that notwithstanding the outside influence, from day one I'd have really liked to see you get here. I hope we get to play another game soon.
Uxie
asdfghjkl;'
Hopefully it's not too egotistical to say that not many things in this game truly blindsided me. Generally even when stuff went down that I didn't like, I was kinda able to anticipate it in some way or another. Whether I thought it was particularly likely or not, I could tell where the counterwagons were coming and who I could and couldn't trust to vote whichever way.
So to be level with you: I didn't anticipate you getting voted out that TC. I was thinking at most you had about 3 votes on you. The fact you ended up with only 3 votes supporting you totally took me by surprise. Unless I've been entirely bamboozled, those votes were yourself, Meltan and I. And if I'd known there were greater shenanigans at play, I would have warned you about them. It seems you were voted out due to paranoia that you had an idol, and I have no idea why nobody just had the idea of leaking your wagon back to you so that you'd play it if you did. All in all I was really disappointed with how this TC went down, and disappointed in myself for missing it happening.
Yeah I don't have tonnes to say here socially that I haven't already said. You were a delight. We got off to a slowish start in Valor1.0 I suppose but once conversation started flowing there (and again in Team Harmony), you were consistently one of my favourite people to chat to this game. I enjoyed the way you played as well. You were definitely more in my follower vein, but I never got the sense that you were totally clueless - just carefully assessing your next move and that kinda thing.
It was a huge shame to see you go. If I had a rez I would've used it here. >_>
Cobalion
A lot of the kind of stuff I want to put in this spoiler, I think we spoke about pretty openly in the Tribal Council that saw you eliminated.
I wouldn't call this my biggest regret (that's coming up later). But it's definitely my biggest shame that by the time we started genuinely talking about stuff, I didn't have enough clout to actually help you in any tangible way.
The comments you made about my play really resonated with me. It was quite late to change my approach to the game, and following on from that I can't really pretend I had some brilliant master plan the whole way. It's pretty obvious that I've been making things up as I go along, and you helped me realise that the trajectory of my play wasn't particularly clear; I was just co-existing. I hope that since then I've been a more interesting player. It reminded me to keep myself in check: if I'm going to play more of a support role, what separates me from a literal sheep? Am I following along because I'm frightened to make a decision and play big, or am I following along with the right people to maximise my chances of endgaming?
At least since then, I like to think I've been able to more capably focus on playing more of a self-aware game. It's probably manifested in ways that are pretty hard to actually show to someone, but it felt important for me to say something here.
Meltan
I know that you did what you did in Mystic2.0 because you knew you had a better chance of endgaming without Articuno being around. For the record, pretending I didn't know why Arti was voted out over me is one of the very few lies I kept up for the entire game up til now.
It was a really cool and respectable move on my part. I just hope that you feel reasonably satisfied that I kept up my end of the bargain as far as helping you out in Team Harmony went. I meant every single word in my last couple of PMs to you, and you already know the reason why I voted you out. I hope that the landslide outcome of that TC better frames what I was trying to say, and makes me seem like less of a treacherous bastard.
You weren't afraid to take a stance for Jirachi in the first TC, and from what I heard it was obvious that you played hard right out the gate. I really wanted to get a chance to play with Solgaleo after meeting him at the start of the game, but I kinda understand why you played the second TC the way you did as well.
You made some massive calls, and some massive plays. Some of them were a little bit problematic, but all in all if you'd made it to FTC I'm pretty sure you would have absolutely swept. Your story was absolutely incredible to follow, and it was a pleasure to be a side character in it. ♥ ilu Nutto.
Poipole
Poi I think you were brilliant, and it didn't feel like our time together was quite up when you were voted out
I knew that it was a distinct possibility, it's just not something I really took the time to think through.
I think we worked pretty well together this game. Straight after the merge I was pretty defensive around you, basically because you were an old Mystic I didn't know. Then when votes started swinging the 'wrong' way, it just seemed intuitive to me that it must be the factor who I understood the least (i.e. you).
I'm sorry that I misunderstood you this way early on. It wasn't fair to assume that you were lying straight to my face, rather than assessing other players' motives. I probably took some people at face value and others with too much cynicism, and you're firmly in the latter category.
I wish I had more to say here, but I do feel guilty for the way I didn't really treat you like we were on the same side til right at the end. I think maybe we should talk more about it postgame or something. I might be craving forgiveness a little.
Hoopa
Hoops you're my biggest regret this game.
I absolutely loved chatting to you the whole way through Harmony. Even though we were blatantly on opposite sides the entire way through, we had some really nice chats and like yours ended up as one of my longest PM chains by a mile outside of the F4. xD So legit, if reveal goes down and I'm someone you secretly hate, you'd better get ready to chase me away with a stick post-game.
I know that you knew you were in trouble at the end, but I wish I'd had the courage to actually talk with you about it. I tried to be pretty level with people throughout the game, and there's so few blatant omissions I made that the fact I was talking to you leading up to your elimination and misrepresented the numbers is eating me up inside.
This was something I was encouraged to do; but the details of that don't really matter. It's something which I decided to follow through on and that was icky of me. Your social game was so strong, that you were somewhat of an unknown by the end. I didn't know how to guess what you'd do if you knew you had a really serious chance of being eliminated then and there. In my mind you were so stronk you'd
like swing a 4-1 back against me and then march into FTC and win in a landslide and I'm not even sure how much of this is rhetorical. you were an absolute force of nature, and you're one of the people in this game I think I've learned the most from.
Celebi
You have absolutely no reason to vote for me and I realise that. xD
Thank you for sticking around and still chatting in F4, when the others were getting a little quiet. I was legit in throwing down the guess that you were the funniest person in the game because you were consistently absolutely hilarious. I really hope that you had as much fun playing this game as I did, and got the same positivity and warmth back from others that you consistently put out.
I hope you enjoyed that I was willing to listen to you at the 11th hour and put up a case to Deo about how much of a threat Reggie actually is in endgame. And I hope you enjoyed that I (slightly accidentally) created the 2v2 there. To steal Reggie's word, it was pretty epic if I do say so myself.
Similarly to Hoops, you were one of the people in the game I most consistently worked against but also one of those who I enjoyed chatting to the most. So I'm definitely grateful to you for your lovely company, and I greatly admire your social game.
Reggie (I know you're still alive but you get to be subjected to my cheesy nonsense as well)
Duuuude it was so much fun working with you this game.
I know we didn't connect all that well in Valor1.0, but I'm glad that the twists and turns and confusions of Mystic2.0 got us chatting more. The way you approach this game is fascinating to me. I think because I'm a hardcore "follower" and find it a little bit challenging thinking about the game as a massive chessboard rather than a big mess of people, those who take a calculated strategic approach to the game really impress me. And what was cool, is that to me you straddled the middle-ground here perfectly.
You were never cold or impersonal to me. You never appeared to treat others like they were your pawns to launch you to endgame. But you also had this knack for seeing a what the next move was, that had me like "whaaaat". Yeah. It's been a major pleasure.
I'm not sure that I actually voted for you in F4 because I thought you were going home, or wanted to see you go home. Deo and I spoke really openly there and in the end I think we made the right decision. In a way, I think I just had to satisfy myself that I wasn't just a sheep blindly following you because that was the only way I knew how to play. I'd been working with you and Meltan through Mystic2.0 and Harmony, and at that last moment I needed to prove to myself that I was actually my own player and not just your right-hand-egg-dude.
This probably doesn't make any sense but I hope in some abstract way you do see it for what it's worth. I think this game is a better place for having had you in it, and it's amazing and awesome to me that you're new to this as well.
Deo (DITTO)
There's so much to say here but some of it might be better left til after the game anyway.
There were a few times this game where I legitimately didn't know how to take you. After the merge, when I realised that you were the swing vote that was discreetly working against us, for a little bit I was just baffled and didn't even know how to react to you. But having gone through the entire game, I've developed more and more respect for the way you conduct yourself.
You're clever dude. You've played a multi-faceted game, and you've been consistently extremely fun to co-exist with.
Definitely expect a Tapu Lele appearance in your inbox after this is all done.