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Post by John Carroll on Mar 26, 2021 15:23:48 GMT
Neleh,
I would say that the skill I used the most by far in this game was critical thinking. I thought through every single vote, and every possible outcome, to the point that I had a route to the final two planned out two votes before the merge. I was never simply trying to get to the next vote, I was always thinking ahead and calculating my odds to get farther.
Thanks for being so awesome, and I can’t wait to listen to your playlist on repeat after this!
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Post by John Carroll on Mar 26, 2021 15:31:53 GMT
Sean,
While I agree with you that luck certainly played a major part in my game, I don’t think it’s the primary reason I’m here. At the top six, it became clear to me that you, vee, and pat were not flipping on each other. Flipping on neleh would have gotten me to the next vote, but it would’ve resulted in gabe and I being voted out immediately after, as the three of you were evidently not going to turn on each other. So even though the odds were not on my side on the rock draw, the alternative option of flipping had a 100% chance of sending me home in the coming days.
I turned on gabe because of his strength in the live challenges. I foresaw the next ones being live, and thought that it would be best to take out the threat before he had the chance to take me out. At the time, I didn’t predict that it would be 2 v 2 at final four, as Vecepia told me that if I voted out gabe, she would vote out Patricia. Unfortunately, that did not end up being how it played out. But when I was deciding whether or not to go to rocks at final four, I had to think about where it would leave me. It had once again become evident that I was not going to be able to crack that alliance, which meant that if I flipped, I would once again be left on the bottom. In both cases, not going to rocks had a 100% chance of me being voted out next round, and going to rocks left me with a better chance overall of making it to the final two.
I hope this was a good answer, and that it gave you some insight on my thought process. I miss you Sean, and I’m so grateful that we got to play together!
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Post by John Carroll on Mar 26, 2021 17:01:26 GMT
Kathy,
Did I make some shady moves in this game? Yes, of course I did. I had to make sure that I was going to end, and unfortunately that meant that I had to make some people mad at me. Whether I wanted to or not, I had to vote out people I saw as friends, and separate my personal feelings from my strategy. I’ve been watching survivor for years, and the one thing that has become clear to me as the show has progressed is that hardly anyone makes it to that final tribal without blood on their hands. And even if they do, what does that say about the kind of game they played? Nobody wins this game by playing it safe.
Despite all of that, I didn’t enjoy betraying people one bit. All the conversations and connections I made were real, and it broke my heart to have to vote them out. However, you guys were all huge threats, so in order to win, I had to make sure to take you all out. I hope that the people I blindsided can forgive me for lying to them, and that you respect me for playing a strategic game.
And to you Kathy, I just want to say thank you for your kind spirit and understanding nature. Im so happy to have played with you!
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Post by John Carroll on Mar 26, 2021 17:02:13 GMT
Hey Patty!
My goal in this game was to fly under the radar. When we hit the merge, I too began to notice that there were a lot of people around that were bigger threats than me, so I decided to use that to my advantage. Aligning myself with big challenge threats like Neleh and Gabe meant that I was never anyone’s main target, which almost acted as my safety blanket. Even if a member of my alliance was voted out, there was still somebody around that was more visibly threatening.
So to answer your question, yeah, I definitely think I was a big strategic threat in this game. My goal was to make my opponents more focused on taking out my competition than taking out me, which worked in my favour, considering that despite not winning any individual challenges, I managed to be on the winning side of every single vote in this game.
I miss you pat, thank you for being a friend. I can’t wait to catch up with you at the reunion!!
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Post by Gabriel Cade on Mar 26, 2021 17:08:15 GMT
Whoops, I'm late to the game! Sorry!
I enjoyed playing with both of you immensely! You guys both deserve to win and you should be proud of how far you have made it!
I guess I just have one question for each of you.
John
1. This has just been bugging me the last couple of days: I was super oblivious to the fact you, Neleh, Vecepia and Patty joined together to vote me out. What was the point of alerting me to the fact Vee and Patty were voting me out, but promising that you wouldn't flip? Was it just to make sure I was comfortable enough to not question you and Neleh?
Vecepia
1. Vecepia, I'm so glad that you got to final two! You have rocked so many challenges (ex. when you told me you made a paper puzzle to figure out how to get the least amount of moves in the puzzle game -- the commitment!) and were always a pleasure to talk to. You told me at one point that you prefer to be transparent and you were even transparent with me about Neleh telling you she would vote me out the following round (which I thought was just her bluffing to get you on our side, whoops!). Despite being quite an honest player and trying to avoid betraying others, you managed to make it to final two! What do you attribute your success to?
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Post by John Carroll on Mar 26, 2021 19:48:30 GMT
Hi Gabe!
Voting you out is probably my biggest regret in this game. It was a very quick and last minute decision, and it was only until a few hours before the tribal deadline that Neleh and I decided to flip. We saw your success in the live challenges as a huge threat. We had briefly mentioned writing your name down to each other, however, I had no intention of actually doing it until Neleh messaged me and said she was going to vote for you. At that point, it didn’t matter whether or not I voted for you, because three people already had, so for the sake of preserving my relationship with everyone else going forward I turned on you. When I told you that I wasn’t going to flip, I genuinely thought that was the case. There was no ill intention behind that message, it was just supposed to be me letting you know as a buddy that there might be votes heading your way. I felt HORRIBLE when you went home, because I knew that I told you I was on your side, and I went back on it. So I am really sorry for voting you out. At the time, it seemed like the right strategic decision, but looking back on it now, it was a cheap move motivated by fear, and I shouldn’t have done it.
No matter how you vote tonight, I hope we can still be friends going forward, because I really did feel like you were a good friend throughout this whole game. You’re the best, man.
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Post by Vecepia Towery on Mar 26, 2021 19:56:32 GMT
1. Vecepia, I'm so glad that you got to final two! You have rocked so many challenges (ex. when you told me you made a paper puzzle to figure out how to get the least amount of moves in the puzzle game -- the commitment!) and were always a pleasure to talk to. You told me at one point that you prefer to be transparent and you were even transparent with me about Neleh telling you she would vote me out the following round (which I thought was just her bluffing to get you on our side, whoops!). Despite being quite an honest player and trying to avoid betraying others, you managed to make it to final two! What do you attribute your success to?
Hey Gabe!
I very much enjoyed playing the game with you and getting to know you as well! It was so much fun. I feel like there are a couple things I can attribute my success to. I think the first being the people that I became close with, if it wasn't for them then I wouldn't have made it nearly as far as I did. The other being my persistence and dedication to work on a challenge (if it was an overnight one) and make it as perfect as I thought I could be (or until time ran out). Not only for the individual immunity challenges, but also for the tribe ones.
A game like this is really hard for me because I absolutely do not like lying to people or betraying them or having them feel some sort of way about me. It's sometimes hard for me to separate game and personal. So I try to interact and be as up front as possible with people, even if it could have come back on me. For example, me telling you about Neleh, you could have easily gone and spoken to her about it and she could have been mad with me over that, but I find that just being honest goes over better than being short with someone or just not replying to them.
Sean and I bonded night one and made an alliance and Pat and I shortly thereafter. When the tribe swap happened I had to get to know all these new people, and I got close with Paschal, I know that having that relationship with him was one of the main reasons I made it through the tribe swap. When merge happened I had no idea where Sean and Pat's heads were at and I prayed they would still be there and willing to work together once the merge hit. We immediately created a group chat and every single day with every single challenge and every single vote we were together. We'd talk about every possibility for if this person goes then what does that mean for the next vote, etc. etc. During the rope cutting challenge we were strategic in how we picked people hoping it would show that we weren't as close as we were. I often times wondered if people did know we were closely working together or if we were good at hiding it. When I joined back with them I knew that we would either need to stay with who they were close with on their side or I would have to pull someone from the Rotu tribe. That's when I started to get to know you, Neleh, and John. I immediately clicked with all of you, you were all easy to talk to. As the numbers got smaller and smaller, I knew that the game was going to be super hard for me, because that's when I was going to have to go against a person that I had genuinely gotten close with. At that first tie vote, we really wanted John to go as all of us were closer with Neleh and you at the time and didn't want to betray either of you. We just couldn't get either of you to take that leap so we had to do the rocks. On your vote out, I did make my one promise that I knew I wouldn't be able to keep and that was if they voted you then I would vote Pat the next vote. I struggled with that SO much, but my deeper loyalty still remained with Pat and I wasn't going to vote her out the next time. Then with the final vote, it killed me to cut Neleh. Her and I probably spent more of the game talking personal stuff than we did game stuff, so it truly did feel like I was super betraying a friend. I even had to ask one of my own friends for advice on what I should do. But yeah, I think forming those genuine connections with people and seeing their thoughts and ideas not just looking at people as a what can you do for me sort of thing or what sort of number are you for me thing definitely helped.
Thanks for the question, can't wait to reconnect at the finale. 💙
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Post by Vecepia Towery on Mar 26, 2021 20:32:09 GMT
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Post by John Carroll on Mar 26, 2021 21:26:10 GMT
I am a huge fan of survivor. I’ve been watching the show since I was twelve, and I’ve been obsessed with it ever since. All my favourite players have done whatever it takes to make it to the end; John Cochran, Parvati Shallow, Todd Herzog, all of them betrayed and deceived and fought their way to end.
Coming into this game, it was never my intention to play dirty. It wasn’t until part way through that I realized that everyone I was playing with was so kind and genuine, and the only way for me to make it to the end was by being the bad guy and making some tough choices. Just like my survivor heroes, I had to betray my alliances and my friends to make it to the final two.
I believe I played a smart game. I made the best decisions I could with the information I had at the time. I calculated my odds with every decision, and always made sure I knew where everyone was voting at every tribal. I outwitted my opponents by making them think they could outwit me, and took them out before they got the chance to do so. I always made sure that me and my alliance were on the same page, so that we were able to effectively eliminate our competition without any room for error or miscommunication. I believe this kind of strategic gameplay is what sets me apart from my competition
No matter how you vote, i am so extremely grateful to every single one of you for playing a fantastic game. I don’t often get the chance to meet a lot of new people, especially not ones as kind and fun to talk toas all of you. Although I tried to play a pretty ruthless game, it was really hard for me because I did genuinely like everyone so much!
I hope that you all can respect my gameplay, despite how I may have hurt you. But more than that, I hope that my desire to win didn’t mess up my chance at pursuing real friendships with you all. Winning this game would be so incredible, and I’d be truly honoured if you casted your vote for me tonight.
Thank you for making this experience so awesome, and I can’t wait to catch up with you all! #johnforsolesurvivor2021
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