Post by porsche on Apr 12, 2016 5:41:11 GMT
I’m going to start this off with a warning. I wrote a lot more than I intended and I’m sorry, but I hope everyone reads this and gives me a chance at their vote. And if I personally hurt any of you, that wasn’t what I intended, and I'm very sorry, and if I got a chance to address anything in the jury questions, I would be grateful.
This is actually the first Big Brother game that I’ve played, and I knew coming in that I was going to have to change my strategy up. I’ve never been the type of player who can rely on challenge wins. In Survivor, that isn’t really a big deal, but Big Brother is a much different game.
I knew going in that I wasn’t the type of player that could rely on winning competitions to get through sticky spots in the game. My solution to that was to be great socially, so the sticky spots would not exist. I was never nominated in this game. Not once. That’s not because I was a nonentity or because I got lucky. I worked my ass off socially. Whenever I had free time, I was on AIM talking to people, being friendly and building relationships. I wanted to be covered with everyone, so no matter who won HOH, I was safe. The relationships that I built WERE genuine, but they also helped me advance in the game.
Early on, an alliance was formed of me, Marvin, David and Austin that became a very powerful group later in the game. A similar alliance was also formed with Amy replacing Austin. The next week, me and Jen threw the HOH to Mark and he formed an alliance of him, us and Cody. And although I had no official deals with Louise, Will or Sarah, I was close enough with all of them that it was as if I did. This meant that after Kaitlin’s eviction, everybody in the game viewed me as somebody who they wanted to work with.
Will’s eviction, which I played a part in making happen, was the turning point of the game, and I knew it was time to choose a side. Many people’s actions during the Will vote had felt shady, the chat with the me/Jen/Cody/Mark alliance had gone dead, and people like Jen and Austin had said there was something else going on. When I talked to David and he said Mark was someone he wanted to keep after telling me the opposite last round, that set off alarm bells and I knew there was something he wasn’t telling me. I told him about the other alliance I was in, and he confirmed what I had suspected, that he had been approached for a Cody/Mark/David alliance. People later told me that it was lucky Jen sold that alliance out so David put up Mark and Cody, but I actually felt like I did a lot of the groundwork a round earlier (During the actual final 8 however, Jen and David deserve the credit for those nominations).
During this time, I had won a secret Power of Veto for sitting out of the HOH competition. This was great but it forced me to make some hard decisions. Marvin was somebody who I trusted and wanted to keep around if I could, but I realized that people were worried I was too close to him, and if I used the veto on him there was a very good chance it would just mean we went up together next week. Plus with Sarah barely being online during her HOH reign and me not knowing what she would do if Marvin suddenly came off, it didn’t seem worth the risk. The next round, Jen was nominated with the Diamond Power of Veto. I was very tempted to save her, but I knew that if I did, the only possible replacement would be Austin, who would leave, and then I would still lose a trustworthy ally and I wouldn’t even have the veto.
After Mark’s eviction came the fast forward. This was the last round I had to use my veto, and I knew it was time to make a big move. I wanted to take Cody out with the veto, but with Cody immune, that meant I had to backstab Louise. Louise was someone I felt very close to since the beginning of the game, but I knew that if I didn’t use the veto and Austin or David went, then there was a very good chance I would get nominated next round. With Louise out and Sarah unable to compete for HOH, I had a great shot to take out Cody and it also guaranteed that I wouldn’t be an initial nominee. Austin and David wouldn’t put me up and Cody didn’t put me up. Additionally, one thing that I feel might get overlooked about the fast forward round was that my move would fail if I was an initial nominee: I would save myself but then Austin/David would be nominated and one of them would leave. My alliance with Sarah guaranteed that I stayed off the block and that I was able to get what I wanted during Sarah’s HOH.
After the fast forward, I was hoping Cody wouldn’t win either competition, I could get him out and be in a perfect final 4 where I was the #1 ally of everyone left. Unfortunately, Cody won HOH but I still stayed off the block. Sarah had the opportunity to backdoor me (and told me she was considering it for some reason), but the fact is, she didn’t backdoor me, and I made the final 4. After that, I won the competitions I needed to win to make it here, and that’s the danger you risk when you let a jury threat get so close to the end. But I also feel like I didn’t necessarily need to win. After I voted for David, I was able to got back in his good graces. I will admit that Sarah was set up well at the final 4 and final 3, but she needed competition wins (Cody winning F5 HOH, her winning F5 veto, her winning F4 veto) to get into that position, and even then it meant that she took two players they would have a lot of trouble beating to the final 3.
In conclusion, I played a very strong social and strategic game. I made moves, wasn’t afraid to stick my neck out, and let my allies go when they needed to be let go. I am also very proud of my social game. I made an effort to get to know every player in the game, and kept up good relationships with everyone, even when we both knew we were on different sides. Me never getting nominated is not an accident. I knew I couldn’t rely on competition wins, so I made sure I didn’t need them for the first 90% of the game. Whoever won HOH was either an ally, or someone who had bigger targets than me, despite it being fairly obvious that I was a threat. Finally, I was adaptable. The Diamond Power of Veto was a gamechanger and it could have gone to anyone who opened Pandora’s Box. But even though it took out a very close ally, it didn’t take out me, and I remained in a very strong position because I had more than enough connections.
I believe I played a very strong game, and I think I would make a very deserving winner of BB Rise and Fall 13. I’m not the type of player who can dominate competitions, so I played to my strengths and played to win while being the first player in the history of this series to have never been nominated. Even after Will called me out as a threat and TOLD people to nominate me, nobody ever did and I think that speaks a lot to the strength of the game I was playing. Best of luck to Sarah, and bring on your questions!
