By David
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#75843
G'day members of the jury.

Day 29, but it feels more like Day 50. Coming into a game with all returning players, I was pretty confident that this season would be full of dynamic gameplay, big surprises, power shifts, and ultimately would be an emotional roller coaster ride. Being prepared for this, it still lived far past my expectations. I am truly grateful to the hosts and production team for allowing me to give this crazy ride one more go. It probably sounds a bit contrived, but I am also thankful to each of you. Not only for the relationships and the connections we have created, but also for making this season a battle for the ages. I know that I have played a game full of betrayal, deceit, risk, and have gotten a lot of blood on my hands. I've made mistakes, and have burned bridges along the way.


With that being said though, I feel strongly that I played a very active role in the direction and outcome of this season. I want to be open and honest about the fact that my game was by design. From Day 1, I told myself that I needed to play a fearless game. If I was going to get to the end, I wanted to do it in a Bold way, and be willing to take big risks when the time was right. This is something I want to flesh out more with my responses to each of you, but I also don't want to write a novel for you to each start with. I'm going to highlight a few key factors of my game, briefly talk about the 3 Big O's (Easy now not orgasms, Outwit Outlast Outplay), then leave the floor open to you all for me to get into more detail with my responses.

Talking about risk, one of the biggest risks I took this season was the Tessa vote. I caught a significant amount of heat for this move, but it set a strong tone for for the remainder of the merge. We had a lot of POWERFUL social/strategic players in the merge phase. Having spent time with Imanpa in the past, as well as the new relationships formed during the swap, I had a bird's eye view to what I saw to be a dangerous nexus of power forming. I felt like Tessa and Tegan were setting themselves up to dominate the game. Even though I wouldn't be their immediate target, I would have handcuffed my ability to control the power down the line if I didn't take the first shot. I believe from this vote, I was able to leverage the perception that everyone was really mad at me. My target got so big, that I think some people felt I could be dealt with later, or wouldn't pose a big risk at the end with a mad jury, I leaned into this as much as I could.


I think a key factor to my game was my awareness. What I just spoke about is one critical moment where I was able to use my awareness of the tribe and the game to win the Touchy Subject immunity, while guessing myself for most of the negative responses. I was able to turn a bad thing (displeasure others had towards me) into a benefit for my game both in that challenge, and in terms of the perception that I leaned into like I previously stated. I was also very aware of the inter-personal dynamics during the majority of the merge, and used them to put myself in an optimal position to go deep into the game. After Kylie left, I was able to rebuild my relationship with Sharn to the point that we had an agreement to be transparent with one another. I doubled down on trying to control the narrative, and pushed for Tegan to be taken out even though they were probably the most well connected player in the game. Touchy subjects helped get the ball rolling, but I am confident that if Sharn and I didn't push hard for Tegan to leave that round, it wouldn't have happened. Tegan had already voted for me previously, so in my eyes this was better for me than anyone else. Sharn had a significant amount of control and awareness about things, probably to an even further extent than myself. But I was able to recognize that, and use a lot of the information she developed to strengthen my personal game. This allowed me to make even more informed decisions than I had before, such as taking Michelle out when I knew her and Jarrad spoke about taking me out, and had a F3 with Sharn, or eliminating Daisy after Sharn made it clear that Daisy was talking finals with her, but not with me, to secure myself a spot in top 3 with nobody coming after me in F4. That was a terrible run-on sentence.


Even though I played a risky game, I was the opposite of careless, constantly re-evaluating my situation and the dynamics of the game around each corner. When I needed to take more of a back seat approach I was willing to do that. My swap experience is a great example of that. After being ranked the highest on our first swap tribe, Sharn obtained and used the power to introduce another swap. This put me in a tribe where I had only met 2 of the members previously. Instead of being reckless and unnecessarily risky, I was able to strengthen my relationship with Sharn and Baden, which helped to leverage a better position on the tribe. I was also able to create just enough doubt about me holding loyalty to people from the other side, which I think helped initially to create a perception that I was low man on the totem pole.

One huge part of this season that was a main focus of mine as well was the currency system. I have never played with any type of currency in the past, and I assume the same goes for most of us. I knew that whoever was able to use the economy within the game to their benefit the most was likely going to have a good chance to win the game. From the moment we got the first idol clues, I told myself that I would save my coins for when I needed them the most, and that the longer I could hold onto them, the more likely I would be to succeed in the end game. I never spent a single coin in this game until the moment when Sarah was buying the bounty idol. The second the previous tribal ended, I sent her coins to top her up as a means of solidifying our trust, and so I knew whatever was in the most expensive box wouldnt be used against me. Mat and I had already made an agreement not to go for the bounties, but if I could have any access or knowledge of the contents of them without buying a bounty myself, it was a win win. I continued to hold onto my coins, and began to gain more as certain people were being voted out of the game. I was in the Final 5 with 75 coins to my name, but had not been fully honest with anyone about how many I truly had, including Sharn. The argument could be made that I did not need the challenge advantages towards the end game, but it was just as important to keep them out of anyone else's hands. I set myself up (with some help from many of you!) to control the economy within the game this season, and prevent anyone else from being able to cut my end game run short because of it.

I have a lot more to talk about, but I will leave it there for now and dive into these 3 O's


Outwit - This was a long game, but I think outwitting the competition was most important for the end-game. After Mat left, I knew that the perception would be "David lost control of the narrative". While I saw a path to the end regardless, I needed to outwit the rest of the F5 in order to regain control of the narrative. I faked to Ben and Sharn that I had an extra vote, which never existed. I wanted to paint a picture, without saying it, that it was in their best interest to vote with me that round. However, going into tribal, everyone wanted someone else out. You can read back on that tribal, people were pretty public with what they wanted, Ben and Jarrad wanted each-other gone, Sharn didn't care but had spent a lot of time talking about getting Ben or Jarrad out due to challenges. This set the stage for me to change the vote to Daisy at tribal, and still have the majority without ever having an extra vote. Everyone was talking as if Daisy was going to be taken to the end no matter what, and that was a roadblock lowering my chances of sitting here. I regained control of the narrative at F5 during that tribal, and set myself up to be safe no matter which of the 4 of us won.

Outlast - I got voted for at the first tribal council I attended on Imanpa. Since then, I have fought my fuckin ass off to keep myself in the game, and I've taken my fate into my own hands whenever I could. I played a really heavy role in a lot success in tribal challenges, but most importantly was able to secure the most Individual Immunity challenge victories at critical moments in this game. I've never seen myself as a "comp beast" or whatever the kids call it, but I was able to keep myself safe in the game on my own volition, winning mostly challenges involving being perceptive to the dynamics of the game, understanding the jurors, and being aware of the events that occurred this season. I didn't just win luck or skill challenges, I put my money where my mouth was and proved my understanding with my performances.

Outplay - Rather than flesh out how I feel I outplayed the members of the jury, I'd instead like to discuss how I outplayed Jarrad. During the merge specifically, I was responsible for taking out some of the biggest threats of this season. Some of the biggest moves that needed to be made, such as the Tessa vote, the Tegan vote, the Michelle vote, the Sharn vote, I was either directly responsible or played a heavy hand in deciding. I voted outside of the majority multiple times, like when Kylie left, or when Ben idoled Sarah out. Jarrad on the other hand was more often than not out of the loop for key decisions. He held strong social relationships, but they weren't strong enough for him to be able to influence the decisions that he wanted. He came to me earlier in the merge, and expressed displeasure with a lack of agency in the game. He didn't feel like people would see him as having been involved or being a decision maker. But nothing was done about it. He was able to take Mat out while I was gone, but that was a move Sharn constructed. Jarrad also set his sights on Ben from the middle of the merge, and was rigid about it to the point where the only time he was able to finally get Ben out was at F4 when Sharn beat him in the firemaking. I was able to control the last few rounds of the game in great part because Jarrad didn't falter his focus from Ben. It was as if he was Ahab and Ben was the White Whale. I was more fluid and adaptable to the game, which allowed me to consistently pull off the moves that benefited me personally.


This season has been interconnected like none I have ever played before. I didn't think even a few months ago that returning to play one last time was something I would consider. Hats off to a phenomenal season. Jarrad mentioned the fact that this was a cast of Legends, All-Stars, and Second Chancers. It has been such a dynamic adventure, one that regardless of the outcome, I am going to look back on fondly for the rest of my life.

There are so many variables, situations and decisions that have occurred which I would like to discuss further. I look forward to shedding some light on my perspective of this crazy season. I truly feel like I would be a deserving winner of our season, one that would represent the game appropriately. Thank you
 

David

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By David
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#75921
1. FUCK: Sharn- Our relationship provided the key for me to gain access to a lot of critical information, permitting me to be proactive in most of my decision making.
2.MARRY: Mat - Allegiance with a strong, intelligent player helped me to both reinforce my ideas with another perspective, and keep a threat in front of me.
3. KILL: Michelle - An exceptional triple threat who checked all of the boxes, holding no loyalty to me long term.

While I played a cut-throat game, I believe I was able to develop strong relationships that supported and strengthened my ability to sit in the Final 2.
 

David

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#75924
Hi Sarah!

I appreciate the kind words. I'd like to think we were absolutely friends, and look forward to speaking more once this is all over!

I'll keep it short and sweet too. I respect the difficult decision you and the other jurors have. I'm proud to sit here in front of all of you superfans and superplayers! I just made that one up, patent pending :idea:


The weather in Indonesia is pretty nice, or so I'm told :cool: Ol' Davo is more in his element in Australia, though :hattip:

Image
 

David

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#75937
Hi Tegan, it's great to get the opportunity to speak to you. I'll get right to it!

I agree with what you said: we never had an opportune moment to form an organic working relationship. I could tell from afar that you had a lot of great connections that gave you options further down the road in the game. I also made it more difficult to bridge the gap after doing the Tessa vote. Nevertheless, I was appreciative and surprised to find your Souvenir in my inbox :grin: I hope that I was able to utilize it in a way that you respect!

Now for your two questions. No beating around the bush here:

Numbah One

My biggest mistake of the game was how I handled my relationships during the round Tessa left. I was extremely caught up in the uncertainty and chaos following myself receiving a vote, and Kylie receiving 2. Tessa came clean to me about her and Sharn being the 2 on Kylie, and you about my vote. I played nice, but it became clear to me that the power wasn't with me there. I got so caught up though that I ended up being really shitty and shady to people like Daisy, Baden and Ben who hadn't given me any reason to do that. I had just met Daisy, and I felt like we really hit it off. But I fractured our relationship from the start, which was absolutely an error on my part; Both game wise and personally. Baden and Ben had both been honest and open with me from before we merged, and I think my choice to deceive them was a poor one. Especially with Baden, I feel like our game relationship never truly recovered after that. We had spoken about working together with Daisy come merge, and my actions made that very difficult to accomplish.

The butterfly effect from changing anything that early in the merge would be difficult to accurately depict, but I'd like to give you as authentic of an answer as possible here. If I were able to be honest and transparent about the situation with everyone I deceived, I believe my perception as a player (and potentially as a person) would have been more positive. Possibly for the rest of the time I spent in the game. We had the Touchy Subjects challenge very shortly after that round, which for me was quite lucky as an opportunity to take advantage of the poor perception. If I didn't have that perception though, I don't know if I would have won the challenge. I also don't know that I would have needed to, which is arguably the better position to be in at that point in the game. I won't give you a play by play of how I see each round transpiring from then on, but instead shine the light on a few key dynamics that I think would have been different:


- I feel like Ben and I had been developing a strong bond, which was majorly set back here. While we were able to come together at multiple points during the rest of the season, I think our working relationship would have been more substantial and deeply rooted. I made the assumption that Ben's loyalty was stronger with you and Tessa than it would have been with me. I didn't spend the proper time to value the one-on-one relationship we had already created at the time.

- My actions created animosity from some. At the time mainly Daisy expressed it directly to me. For me to make anyone in the game feel that personally insulted or upset is always a mistake. I appreciate that we were able to continue to maintain a dialogue and work towards repairing our relationship. If I would have handled the initial situation with more sensibility and tact, the damage would not have been done in the first place. I am confident we would have ended off on a better personal note in this scenario.

- After the fallout from the Tessa vote, I had my guard up a bit higher for the rest of the season. I think part of my paranoia stemmed from knowing that I could have handled the situation a lot better. I also knew that I would need to be really careful to prevent it from negatively affecting my game and my relationships to the point that it ended my stay on Uluru. I am a verbal communicator, so sometimes I struggle to be a natural version of myself in an online medium. With that said, not having my guard up as high would absolutely have made it easier to be natural.

- The last part is more meta, because it involves decisions that are being made as I type this. In this alternate timeline, if I was to have made it to the Final 2, I have no question that my chances would improve. Even just with something as simple as certain people feeling a bit better about voting for me to win. But I think it could have amplified to being as big as jurors having a ton more respect for my overall game. I don't want to speculate too wildly here, but I also want to be introspective.


Numbah Two

I believe there was one critical flaw in Jarrad's game that both distinguishes our style of play, and limited his ability to take an active role in the decisions that were made this season. Jarrad refused to take the risks he needed to in order to receive the outcomes that he wanted. You outlined a perfect example of this. You held loyalty in Jarrad, and he had expressed to me that he felt very close to you. Yet he didn't direct the vote away from you, or even tell you during tribal that he would be voting for you. Instead, he voiced his displeasure afterwards in the fact that he didn't have agency in the game, and felt like people would see him having not influenced any decisions. You usually have to take some risks in order to avoid that from happening. We all make mistakes though, myself included. Where this became a bigger issue I feel is when he failed to do anything to try and prevent what he already recognized to be an issue for himself. Jarrad honed in on Ben as his target for a significant part of the merge, which alienated Ben from wanting to work with Jarrad. It also completely limited his options for the end game. While he was able to get to F2, I think survival held too much individual weight for him.

Jarrad focused too much on Outlasting, but not enough focus was given to Outwitting and Outplaying the competition to a strong enough extent. I was far away from perfect in the latter 2 categories myself. But I tried to seize as much opportunity as I could at every stage of this season, sans a few moments. I fully agree with Jarrad that I played a cut-throat game, and sometimes burned people because of it. From what I am hearing though, Jarrad had to burn a few people himself that trusted him.
 

David

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#75940
Does that mean the house sold? Nice :cool:





If you know, you know :wink: It was great playing this game with you Daisy! I Hope the move goes well.

Sorry, I had to.
 

David

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#75943
Hi Sharn.

This one will be hard to write. So I will do it with some music on at 2 AM, like the night owl you know I am. I think I'd be doing our relationship a disservice if I didn't find a good tune to (loosely) describe this or us:





In a fucked up way, it is kind of comforting to know that you were just trying to emotionally manipulate me. I'll be honest, it is difficult to be as vulnerable as I want to be here out in the open for everyone to see. But I owe it to you, and it's something that I have a desire to do myself. Especially since I fucked you over, plain and simple. I don't blame you for a second for doing what you needed to do. Conversely, I completely understand if you or others harbor ill will against the decisions that I made, or how I conducted myself.


My answer is a bit dynamic, since my perspectives evolved as the season evolved. I want to talk about what lead up to the moment where we fractured for the final time. I also want to give you a definitive answer in terms of a specific moment where I was 100% sure I had to take the shot.


I feel like it is appropriate to start at the round where Kylie was voted out. Obviously we began developing our relationship during the first swap of the game, but this was the moment we started to repair the damage that had been done from our messy break-up. I feel like that night something came over me, and allowed me to be authentic and raw with you in a way that I hadn't been able to previously. I'll share an excerpt from my confessional from the Kylie boot episode, "But anyways, Sharn and I had a really vulnerable discussion earlier. I think we can come to a place where we have some trust with one another again, but I don't want the impression to be that I am playing her. I mean the things I say, and am willing to be loyal to her." I didn't rebuild our relationship with the specific intention to tear it back down at my convenience. It was important to me on a personal level.


We consummated our re-bonding by strong-arming a unanimous Tegan vote the following day. At this point, I had a significant amount of trust in you. We had our own connections, but our partnership was mutually beneficial, especially with a double tribal around the corner. The lead up before, during, and after double tribal was probably the moment that I became sure of the fact you had, and would likely hold the most agency in the game. We went into 7 with your ass being covered from every angle, which was the first documented moment where I verbalized going against you since we got back together. Not so much against you, but against your options. After Michelle gave you coins, and you decided to get the Tribal Advantage close to the deadline, I began to feel more threatened by your game. I think it might have been a mistake for me to let you purchase the advantage, instead of topping up the bid. But I'll save that for another response I have in mind to another Juror. I digress, I wanted Michelle out during double tribal, but knew we couldn't pass up the shot at 7. She was too good, and held too much loyalty to you. This is where the game began to take a turn in my eyes.

The following round saw you discussing the pros and cons behind the usage of your Tribal Advantage. We had talked about many options, but I feel like you intentionally didn't mention to me that you planned to send me away until late. Maybe it was truly a last 30 minute decision. Regardless, I was left with a bit of egg on my face. All I really cared about was the perception and the narrative. While I sat there, waiting for tribal to be over, I had a lot of time to think. I felt like the move asserted your dominance over me publicly, without accurately painting a picture of what our dynamic was like behind closed doors. I have mentioned this before, but you took control of the narrative that round. This is when I knew that going to the end with you would be very dangerous.

To be blunt, I began to more significantly warm up to the idea of not going to the end with you at this point. I went over the numbers, the jurors, the moves, everything. It really seemed like you had a heavy shot to win this game against anyone. I do want to bring one point up though, since it was a big factor for me. At F10 or F9, I was persistent in asking the hosts if a F3 or a F2 had been confirmed, or if it will be left ambiguous. It was going to be left ambiguous, which sparked my suspicion (I think this is around when we talked about a possible F2 happening instead of F3). The jury numbers made sense, and from my research of Australian Survivor, a F2 is possible. Especially recently. I kept the idea of the F2 in my mind, which added fuel to the fire for me to think about not going to the end with you from even before the Final 6 tribal. Regardless, I think that tribal was one of the main catalysts for my shift in decision making. I was going to play for myself for the remainder of the game, making decisions that I felt would benefit me the most. The Daisy vote was the next step, which of course lead to the infamous F4.

I can't even say that I was fully at 100% that you were going to go at that point. Even when Ben spoke to me before tribal, promising me a vote at the end if I sent it to firemaking, I still told him that I was probably going to have to send him home. Once tribal started, and I thought about it more though, I knew that the time was now. One of the main reasons, was to give myself 2 shots to take you out. I had already established your threat level with Jarrad prior to tribal that evening, so I knew he would vote you out over me in the F3. But you were so close to the end, if I let you get to 3, one win would have secured it for you. Seeing you win the firemaking was a lot of mixed emotion for me. I think I felt every range of disappointment, to comeuppance, to fear, to empathy, to guilt, and so many more feelings.

Once we hit Final 3, the decision had already been made for me. After surviving the tie, there was no way I could let you sit next to me in the Final 2. You were the player of the season, and I would have been willingly taking second place by following through with our agreement. It wasn't the ending we had planned. I had to make some really difficult decisions. But to answer your question, I knew for 100% certain that you could not sit next to me in the end at F4 tribal. But at F7/6 was when I really started to believe it.


It's 4 AM now so I'm going to go on to the bonus point. I might add to this tomorrow when I'm not falling asleep. My favorite thing about getting to know you during the game. This is such a simple yet such a complicated question to answer. I'm going to answer it Nice David style (or at least try to!):

I think my favorite thing about getting to know you specifically as a person has been the shared enthusiasm we have had, as well as the inspiration that you give me. Both with the game, and with personal conversations, I almost always felt engaged and enticed to keep speaking with you. It was always so natural. You would always tell me that you were going to bed, and we would keep talking for 30+ minutes after anyways. You always had new and interesting things to talk about with me. Even when there wasn't much to talk about in the game. I also had some of my most meaningful conversations in any game of my life with you. After I reached Final 2, I went back to read the conversation we were having before it all went down, when I was talking to you about affordable access to sports programs for kids and shit like that. I can admit that it fucked me up a bit. I was so comfortable and inspired to be open and passionate with you. I felt pretty dirty. It really made me feel how hurt you must have been, and that is devastating to think about. Ultimately we were playing a game, but damn if you didn't make it feel as real as it can possibly be! You brought out the best in me, maybe sometimes the worst too, but I wouldn't have it any other way. It has been one of the greatest pleasures of this game to be able to have gotten to know you so well. I am excited, and maybe a bit nervous, for you to finally find out who I am (unless y'all already know and I just sound like a dummy here!)
 

David

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#75968
Hey Mat!

Appreciate the kind words, and the incredible reference. I'll answer your question two-fold:

The hardest move for me to make on an emotional level was taking out Sharn. It was really difficult to see Kylie get voted out, and I had a few other moments of weakness as well. This was the most difficult one that I had been personally involved in. It added such a high level of seriousness to the game on the last day before F2. I knew that once I took the shot, there was no going back. We developed a really close connection, and to hear in the moment that we would likely not speak after the season was over, it put a dark cloud over everything. It felt akin to the end of Old Yeller somewhat. For me though, it was a decision that I knew I would need to make individually for my game. Sharn might not have had rabies (arguable), but it became too dangerous to let her stay around.

I enjoy the comparison to the Chameleon, and I think it is apt. You hit the nail on the head, I was very adaptable to each situation, both with my gameplay and how I managed my perceptions. I want to flesh out the eyesight that you brought up though; I think this was key. I constantly maintained oversight into multiple different critical dynamics throughout different stages of the game. I had blind spots, but insured them through joint efforts with close allies. Here is a great metaphor:

"The chameleon’s ability to switch freely between synchronous and uncoupled saccadic eye movement is like having two movies playing in your head, and if you wanted to only watch one, you could." I think this is quite a hilarious comparison, considering I have expressed to a few of you how I feel like my mind is constantly going like a hamster wheel; sometimes requiring me to hone in on the one specific thing that I want to think about. It's a blessing and a curse, since my read and react system is usually turned up pretty high. Being able to juggle multiple situations and dynamics simultaneously can give you a leg up on the competition. It is exhausting though, especially within the confines of this game. Over-analyzing a situation or person can end up leading to analysis paralysis. This is something that I work hard to try and avoid in my life and in the game, but know that I falter on sometimes.

The chameleon might not be indigenous to Australia, nor is it the most dominant in the animal kingdom. But within the confines of this season, its characteristics provide a successful disposition.
 

David

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#75974
Hey Big Ben!

I don't want to sugar coat anything, you are completely right. On numerous occasions this season, I lied to you about what was happening, or what I would be doing. I spoke about the Tessa vote a bit in another response, but this was probably the biggest/first main example. I'll paste below part of the excerpt where I mentioned you:

"I feel like Ben and I had been developing a strong bond, which was majorly set back here (referring to when I wasn't honest with you the round Tessa left). While we were able to come together at multiple points during the rest of the season, I think our working relationship would have been more substantial and deeply rooted. I made the assumption that Ben's loyalty was stronger with you and Tessa than it would have been with me. I didn't spend the proper time to value the one-on-one relationship we had already created at the time."

It was wrong of me to do this, I could have handled the situation a lot more cleanly. I was unnecessarily dishonest with you, something that was a complete error on my part! We didn't work together for the round after this when Kylie left, but I felt like (at least from my perspective) our dynamic improved quite a bit after this.

I fully understand being upset with me breaking my word time and time again; I can't blame you for finding little reason to want to award me with your vote. If I didn't keep my word to you, why should you feel obligated to keep your word to me? I want to try and shed some light on some of the reasons why I believe I deserve YOUR vote. Reasons for BEN, not for the jury.

- I did break my word with you. I also worked with you to pull of some successful plays, and to help keep one another in the game ​(The Michelle vote is a great example). I feel like we were able to build past some of the damage that had been done, in pursuit of a better future.
- I never cast a vote against you this season. We spoke after some of the fallout earlier in the merge about how we knew we likely wouldn't go to FTC together, but that we had mutual interest to continue to stick together in the short term. It just ended up lasting longer than we anticipated!
-At F5, while messy, I solidified a decision to vote Daisy out, which kept us in the game at F4. I know this wasn't ideal for your game over Jarrad, but it put me in the best position to succeed.
- You already mentioned this, but I gave you the opportunity to compete for a spot in the F3.
- Jarrad may have said he would vote for you in the end, but like you said, he voted for you over and over and over again. I hope you know the level of respect I hold for you. If you were sitting here with Jarrad over me, I am very confident that I would have given you my vote to win.

I don't expect or assume your vote by any means, especially with what I have outlined above. I think these factors are important. But there is one factor, one promise that I made to you, that is the most important of the entire Final Tribal Council. One bond that we made that I vowed to never dishonor, no matter what!

I promised you that I would sleep with milk in my beard if I made it to Final Tribal Council, bookending the arc to our unbelievable journey. I finally did it last night. It was stinky. But fuck is my beard ever soft now
 

David

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#75976
Hey Baden! Thank you for waiting! This has taken a while to get through lol

"I was gonna look for who took more active steps in defining their own game, making moves and taking chances, and that hasn't changed at all."

This resonated with me for the rest of the season Baden. I was so impressed by your voice memo move and seeing you shift the dynamics of the game, leaving it all out there on the table. I have said this before, I know I did not play anywhere close to perfectly. But every single day I had this idea you expressed, among many other ideas I had in the game constantly on the forefront of my mind. I did not want to stand idly by, or try and hide my way to the end. I think I've fleshed this out quite a bit in previous responses. While I've been asked a similar question to the one you have, I wanted to give you a secondary example of a regret that I held in the game, so I wasn't just copy pasting the same answer to you.

David, you definitely played a riskier game, and even though you made enemies with your playstyle, you still managed to claw your way to F2. Tell me, what's your biggest regret from your path to FTC?

I have outlined what is my biggest regret/mistake, but another moment of regret/mistake came from when Sharn purchased the final Bounty Box. I had been telling people that I would go for it, and that I likely had enough money to get it. I gave thought to if it was smart to spend the money now, or try to hold onto it for later in the game. Sharn got money from Michelle, and ended up deciding to purchase the box. While I knew what the advantage was and who had it, I couldn't help but feel like it might have been an error to let her do that. She even told me how much she was going to bid, so I had every opportunity to seize it for myself. I chose not to, giving Sharn the opportunity to up-stage me at her leisure. I think in the moment, I was over-confident to think that I would be able to more strongly influence Sharn to use the advantage to my benefit, without me having to spend my coins on it. It was beneficial to save them for the end game, but I think I would have held a stronger capability to direct the narrative from earlier in the merge if I purchased the advantage.


And a couple small questions for you both. Let's suppose a hypothetical twist where you got to pick one of us jurors to join you as a finalist, making the other 10 vote among an F3. Who would you pick, and why?

This is a very complex thought experiment. I would have to say Daisy. I feel like Daisy had the opportunity to receive votes due to her social game, and strong relationship building. But I wanted to sit at the end and be able to distinguish the style and moves of my game from the other finalists I was with. It's difficult to say what votes could be won or lost by the inclusion of Daisy, but I believe that I would have still held a formidable chance to plead my case. Plus, I think it would have been kind of fun to see her talk maaaad shit about me at FTC :laugh:


And the converse of that, let's say you won a power to nullify a jury vote entirely. Whose vote would you cross out, and why?

I can only base this off of my perceptions, since technically I am still in the game. But I would have to say Michelle. Her and I never developed a strong working relationship, and I played an active role in eliminating her. I know that her and Jarrad developed a strong relationship, so I would not be surprised or blame her for being inclined to give him a vote to win the game.


This isn't technically a question, but tell me something I don't know. The most intriguing something wins. Just curious :p

I am going to give you 3 completely random answers!

1. I was a classically trained pianist (read that word slowly people) as a kid for about 12 years, but I switched to the drums as I got older

2. I have reoccurring dreams of being able to fly. I don't know why. I don't know how. It's pretty cool sometimes. It can also be terrifying.

3. The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell (ok you probably know this one)
 

David

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Banana Reunion!

The bond that we created on Imanpa was special. I am not sure if I said it in confessional, or just in passing to someone here, but that night and day when we were down to 4 was one of the most real feeling experiences I have ever had in an online game. It is obviously so different than Survivor in real life, but the emotional exhaustion and determination was very real. The Bananas made this experience more fun than it ever could have possibly been otherwise.

I read how you feel, and it was powerful. I think it is most appropriate for us to speak in more depth about all of the feeling about it if you would like to after tonight. I hope that my actions never created an idea that I held no fondness in my heart for you. I had a special relationship with you, one that impacted me well beyond the confines of this game. I don't want to pander though. I want to give you an answer.



David

During one of our very first conversations, and frequently after that, you mentioned that you were studying Australian Survivor and how they do things. Please explain your thought processes, from F6 to F2, for the boot order. Did it go as you’d planned? How did your research factor into your decision-making?



Kylie. You are absolutely correct. While I didn't watch full seasons back to back, I watched episodes, clips, read the wiki, and did whatever else I felt would be beneficial to try and familiarize myself with the format. I know Stranded is often ahead of the curve when it comes to the decisions it makes about the structure and format of the season. But it is not unheard of for real life events being similar to what the production team here decided to incorporate.

Firstly, seeing the tribal where players swapped places gave credence to the fact that inspiration was being drawn from the show. I believe the twist on the show was a bit different, but still had a member being voted to swap to the other tribe, instead of being voted out. A significant amount of the Australian format seems to be similar to the American one, but knowing that the hosts were inspired by the Australian format made it seem rather logical to try and correlate similarities between the show and this game.

I think the main factor where my research impacted my decision making was the F2. It is risky to play expecting a F2 or a F3, but it is also risky to try and play as if both scenarios were possible. I can be fully honest, my game was being played in a way that would be more beneficial to have a F2. I didn't think this was unfounded though. I used my logic, research and a bit of gut intuition to try and plan around what I figured to be the most likely format outcome. At F6, it might have seemed illogical to want to keep Mat in the game to most people. I felt strongly though that I was able to be the better challenge competitor if the time came, and he would continue to be public enemy number 1 even at F5. Could he have won out and beat me in the end? It's always possible. But knowing that multiple strong challenge competitors still existed diminished that worry to an extent. I don't think I was going to get my way at F6. But looking back on my confessionals, I think I would have gone for Daisy during that tribal I didn't attend.

There is a bit of a disconnect for me, because through 5-2 I set into motion my end game plan that had evolved in part from my experience the previous round when Mat left. It's hard to speculate what I might have felt or thought if the outcome had been different at the time. But the honest truth is that my goal for the boot order from 5-2 was to maintain myself in a position where I was the least likely to be voted out, with as much control over the outcome as possible.

I'll try and be as blunt as possible here to outline my thought process. Voting Daisy out was to put me in a position where I was protected no matter which of the 4 of us won immunity. I gave myself the opportunity to pull the trigger on some very difficult end game decisions, instead of relying on the outcomes of other people's actions to contribute to the decisions that I needed to make.

To answer your follow up, I can't say that the F6-2 went as I had planned or envisioned from the get go. If my foresight was stronger, I would have purchased the Bounty that Sharn had, and attempted to leverage it in a way that would have connected my initial plans with the outcomes that ended up occurring during the last 4 tribals. With that being said, I am very confident that my ability to pivot at F5 altered the trajectory of the season for me. Not every single plan is going to work, but if you can maintain strong adaptability and outside-of-the-box thinking, opportunity will be there for the taking.


This was my interpretation of what you asked me. If you meant something a bit different, feel free to let me know and I can make a more accurate response to what you were looking for.

Bonus question: Did you ever make that blackberry ice cream?

This is going to sound beyond over dramatic, but it is exactly what happened:

The day that you got voted out, I had literally just gone to the grocery store hours prior to buy frozen fruit. I was eating your desert on the deck not 30 minutes after you were eliminated. It's hard for me to really put into words the thoughts that were going through my mind at that moment. I felt a lot of emotion. I felt guilty about how it all went down, even though I wasn't a part of it. It's something Mat and I discussed a fair bit at the time. But it's something we continued to discuss as well. I wished so much that we could have gotten to enjoy more of this game and the experiences that were had together.

But at least I was sad with a nice sunset, and a delicious treat that I very much enjoyed. I'll never look at frozen blackberries the same again because of you Kylie :crazy:

I am very excited to get to reconnect with you. I respect the decision that you make here, regardless of which of us get your vote.

I want to share a confessional quote from the very first day of this game, that in retrospect is so much more impactful than I could have ever known:

"I may have started an avalanche of banana dialogue with my picture, but i did not expect it to be a focal point. "
 

David

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#75999
This is David, reporting in for his final Confessional of the season before Final Tribal ends.

I've fought the good fight. Our time is coming to a close. These are the moments you work for. Win or lose, I left it all out there. Fucking proud of my game, and I feel confident that I have a shot to win this season tonight!
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David

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