I really enjoyed our interactions throughout our time together and I considered you my closest ally in the game. I was pretty hurt when you ignored me the entire tribal council I was voted out during, while you had told me prior "you will be fine!" I thought that was pretty poor jury management but maybe there was another motive or maybe you were just weak, idk. Feel free to shed some light on that. That's not my question for you but you can address it if you wish.
I want to make it clear to you, that I also considered you my closest ally in the game (once you had left, it was Michelle, which is my reasoning for my answer to Tessa), and I can't help but to feel a large part of indirect responsibility for your going. It had became apparent to Mat, David, Kylie, and Sarah that I was close with you, and I was hoping that they'd seen it as a way to benefit their own game through my providing of information on where your head was at, but I think they saw through that and since you were not also as close with them as you were with me, they decided you needed to go. I was still protected in that way even after you left, but it was not what I wanted to happen, and really kicked my ass into a different gear. I had mentioned to both you and Michelle multiple times that it would probably have been a good idea to get closer to that group (Mat, David, Kylie, and Sarah). Maybe it was because you didn't see yourself aligned with them or not but I fully believe that if there was a more working relationship established with these people that you wouldn't have left this round, and the dreams of us actually ending up together here at the end would be true.
Ever since we first met and started chatting, I can confidently say there was no one else in this game who I felt like I could actually talk like myself around and be no holds barred on a social or game level. We cracked each other up on multiple occasions and once we'd linked up, you brought me so much comfort and almost a safe haven for my own ideas and to speak on concerns or frustrations of the game. It really meant a lot to me when I'd mentioned watching a show and the first thing you did was pull it up and start watching it, and I think that's a testament to the pull we had on each other, and I knew as soon as you left that night and I'd voted you out, that you were really upset with me. I had no idea you were even receiving any number of votes once tribal had started. It had been mentioned but I was confident it was going to be on Ben or Mat that night, and I was willing to do whatever I had to do to make it happen, but I was told from pretty much every person that I'd reached out to very shortly before votes were due, that it was going to be you. That night I hadn't even voted up until the very last minute of voting and so I think my avoidance of telling you the vote was on you was my own denial of it being real. I didn't want to tell you it because it's not how I imagined things going, and I felt hurt and betrayed in the same ways that you probably feel hurt and betrayed by my voting for you. If I had known earlier, I would have undoubtedly stuck my neck out for you, because you being in the game with me was a part of every plan that I had envisioned. I am very, very sorry for not just shooting you a quick whisper before votes were read to let you know it was happening, and above all else, I hope that you understand this and don't hate me for it, and that we can actually be friends after this.
I have two questions for you both and they are pretty straight-forward and I don't want pandering. Nobody plays a perfect game, there is always room for improvement, so I'm curious what both of your thoughts are. Genuinely, what would you say was your biggest mistake in the game? How would the game be different if you hadn't made such a mistake? I'm looking for accountability, I'm looking for awareness, and I'm looking for a genuine answer.
There's a few reasons why I think this happened, but I think my biggest mistake in the game was going too hard for too long for Ben to leave. Ben was your bounty, and no that's not why I wanted him to go so bad, but around the time you had left, we had mentioned wanting to vote out Ben so that you would get your bounty. It never happened, and instead the opposite did. This planted the seed in my head that Ben was not someone that just lacked on a social front but it really put in to perspective that he was just as viable of a player than anyone in the merge, which I feel like more than proved itself, but in my wanting to gun for him so hard in pretty much every round from the Final 6 on, it kept me from realizing the other dynamics that were at play. Especially once the first attempt to take out Ben had failed, it told ME that Ben was an extremely strong player, when in fact I think it was Sharn pulling most of the strings. It kept me from realizing just how close David and Sharn were and kept me from realizing the decisions they would make in taking out Daisy. Through my insistence of wanting to get Ben out, David and Sharn both lied to me on repeat agreeing with me for how much of a threat Ben was. I knew as soon as Daisy left, though, that there was more to it than what they had been letting on, and it put me in a position where I had to play from an especially adverse position, one that would mean that I needed to come off weak versus strong in order to make it to the end, instead of a more aggressive approach. If I hadn't went for Ben from Final 6 onwards, I could have more carefully considered each individual left and made more specific decisions on how to get to the end, which would have included taking Sharn out earlier than she left.
My second question is to flip the script: what would you say was your opponent's greatest mistake in the game and why should it cost them the win?
David's greatest mistake was relying too closely on Mat, Sarah, and Kylie. I came into the game with Mat and Kylie specifically out of those 3. Sarah joined up with us at the merge after having met Mat, Kylie, and me on Arumbera 3.0. David trusted Mat, Kylie, Sarah, and me enough to put his own neck out on the line to vote for Tessa although it was completely unnecessary that he did that. David knew that Kylie had the advantage and was going to play it, so no matter what, Tessa was going to leave. In this way, he put himself in a much harder spot where he had to recover from broken words from before the merge with people that he had grown close to, and rely too heavily on that group. I had a similar situation obviously whenever I voted for Sharn instead of Kylie, knowing that Kylie was going to go, so that I could gather information from both sides and be in a much more solid and steady position. This means my biggest mistake is the opposite of David's. David's biggest mistake was breaking his word to too many people in the name of taking risks for his own benefit, instead of realizing the safest path taking the least amount of risks as the best way to go. His social game was not as strong as mine was, and relied too heavily on fate to get him to the end game than making sure he got there himself.
I hope that I was able to utilize it in a way that you respect!