Survivor Thread 4 - Final Days - Jele Fanatic Survivor Champion 2020

Well done Wolfie! I was hoping you would make it to the end

Chewie wrote:Well done Wolfie! I was hoping you would make it to the end

Thanks mate. Representing camp Minto!

Well played to all. Congratulations Jele and Wolfie; commiserations to Mulvy.

Well played Jele and Wolfy, you guys played brilliantly, I just couldn't jag myself a challenge. Sorry I wasn't online for the vote, currently away on holidays. I am glad one of you two will win it. I played my heart out, you guys were just too good.

Thanks B/L for all the hard work you put into this, it's been a lot of fun.

Good luck Jele and Wolfy for next week!

Now, calm down, Neddly diddily diddily diddily, doodily. They did their best shodaiddily iddily iddily diddily diddily. Gotta be nice, hostidididildilidilly.......... AW, HELL-DIDDLY-DING-DONG-CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!! CAN'T YOU MORONS DO ANYTHING RIGHT??!?!?!?!?!

standard-issue wrote:Well played to all.  Congratulations Jele and Wolfie; commiserations to Mulvy.

Mulvy wrote:Well played Jele and Wolfy, you guys played brilliantly, I just couldn't jag myself a challenge. Sorry I wasn't online for the vote, currently away on holidays. I am glad one of you two will win it. I played my heart out, you guys were just too good.

Thanks B/L for all the hard work you put into this, it's been a lot of fun.

Good luck Jele and Wolfy for next week!

cheers SI, Mulvy ... and Ned!

Tough luck Mulvy congrats on getting so far.

Well done to Jele and Wolfie and may the best man win!

Well done boys

Thanks lads.

Does Ned get a spot on the jury..........

wolfking wrote:Thanks lads.

Does Ned get a spot on the jury..........

i’m just grateful Chewie hasn’t got one #hairybromance

thanks Welshy and Rabs

Bad luck Mulvy... So close.

Congrats Jele and Wolfie. Stallion effort to get to the final two. Good luck chaps.

I’m a bit late on this, but commiserations to Mulvy.
Well played and congratulations to both Jelejasof and Wolfie.
Good luck next week to you both.

Thanks lads.

Ok everyone and inparticular the members of the Jury.

I am now posting both finalists winners speeches.

I ask each member of the Jury to carefully read each post and to think of a question you want to ask both members that will help decide your vote.

Make your questions interesting, make both Jele & Wolfie really think about their answers and to earn your vote.

Remember you arent voting for your best mate, you are voting for who you think played the strongest game and for who deserves the title of Fanatics Sole Survivor.

Happy for the chatter and banter to keep up hear but lets leave the official business behind close doors for the time being.

Jele

First of all, a shout out to B/L for running this game – it has been outstanding.

Imagine I would have been at Leicester City-like odds to come this far. I’ve been an underdog from day one and am definitely the underdog in this last vote. I’m not a mod nor a Fanatics Immortal. I didn’t come into the game with a natural constituency or support base. I haven ‘t watched Survivor before (but I will now). But clearly over the last few months, things have changed.

How did a bloke with fewer than 500 posts and probably only known in the VSDT, draft and NFL threads get this far? Outwit, outplay, outlast.

For me, the penny dropped the first two weeks Black Widow were at tribal. By the time the music stopped, alliances had been formed and I (and JM) was left without a chair. I was a bit naïve and surprised when I got two votes at Black Widow’s first tribal council. And the following week, when Pookus and Sloth pushed to vote for SI – which I argued against – I knew I had to take control of my own game.

I didn’t have an alliance, nor existing relationships to fall back on. But I did have a bit of a code that I followed from then on all the way to the last Tribal selection on Tuesday. Stay strong and stay loyal to those who’d earned my trust and given me respect. Be prepared to take people down – if they come for me. And win as many challenges as I could.

Five times during the game, guys voted for me or showed they were prepared to flip or backstab. That made them targets. And five times I was able to take them down.

I was there for every big move in the game. I had to be, as I spent most of the game surviving on the edge. I scrapped for every bit of information and influence. When StuDogg, Pookus, Sloth, Chucky, MS and even Mulvy got voted out, I was there. When I learnt early on that Pookus and Sloth were using me (and JM) and were prepared to drop us like Siebold might have dropped a Broncos winger, I flipped twice to ensure both went home. Proving loyalty when I needed to. Or seeding doubt. When given the chance to flip on Chucky, who had earlier flipped on JM, I seized the moment. And when it came to MS, I saw the opportunity presented by the auction challenge. I even got SI on board with some underhanded tactics.

Getting to the final two wasn’t about luck. Nor was it about being “meek and weak”. People sometimes confuse noise for strength, power for leadership, confidence for competence. It was about outplaying, outwitting, and outlasting. I realised from day one that I wouldn’t – couldn’t – win a popularity contest, but rather than just accept the numbers and the “predictable” outcome, I did something about it. Build relationships with individual tribal members, not rely on shaky alliances. Find the guys in the game who felt like me. Leverage the acrimony between the two main alliances to position myself as a swing vote, who ended up influencing the outcome of pretty much every vote from then on. Of course I couldn’t do that alone, which is why those relationships – and sticking to my principles – mattered. I worked hard to stay loyal and bring my guys along as far as I possibly could. Which given my own position, was no mean feat.

Even at this weeks’ tribal – where logic and even Mulvy’s own arguments suggested I’d be better placed to take him than Wolfie, I stuck to my code. Back the guy who’d worked hardest to earn my trust. And get rid of the last guy in the race who’d shown a willingness to vote me out. All the way back in week 5.

This all sounds a bit cold when I re-read it. I hope that’s not entirely how it comes across. I have had a blast playing the game this year – probably to the detriment of my fantasy team, especially during those damn auction and snake draft weeks. And I’d hope to hold on to the relationships built through the year. Definitely looking forward to drinking bourbons at Easts Leagues at the next Fanatics catch-up. Going back through the thread was great – it’s a shame to have lost the early tribal threads as there was some hilarious banter in there (Chucky and Pookus in particular, and Teeth for his A+ gif game). And obviously having come this far with Wolfie, all I can say if it’s not me, then glad it’s him.

So why vote for me? I’ll take everyone at their word that this is not just a popularity contest (surely there’s no better bloke on the forum than Wolfie?) or an opportunity to take revenge, but a genuine nod to how the game was played. Throw away your preconceptions and even your pre-commitments, and vote for the guy who played the game best. Ask yourself how a bloke like me – surviving at the margins, never safely ensconced in an alliance - managed to navigate the year, without ever really being in danger. Winning an idol in round 9, not being able to hold it myself, but never actually needing to use it (nor see it used against me). Winning immunity in 11 out of 19 challenges, a record no other contestant can match. The first tribal member into the final two. Flipping when I needed to, and somehow not paying the price. Patiently taking down those who had shown a willingness to flip on me. And all the while staying true to the principles that have gotten me to the brink of victory.

Wolfie

Dear jury members,

Let me firstly start off by saying that playing this game with you all has been a fantastic experience. I have thoroughly enjoyed every challenge, tribal council, conversation and interaction, private message and everything that has gone along with the game. You are all a wonderful group of individuals and the game wouldn't be what it is without all of you.

I firmly believe I deserve to be the sole survivor as I've played the game with intesnity, integrity, played tactically, thoughtfully and as respectful as possible to everyone involved. I've played a lot of the game without the safety net a lot of others had in relation to alliances and played dangerously under circumstance along with fully investing with as many people as possible to get where I am. I've also made great friends with a lot of you and loyalty has been as high as it possibly could have been in relation to where I am in the game.

My journey has been a fun ride with many moments needing patience, smart tactics, right circumstances, the strong ability to read people and strong judgeing of characters. Let me take you through my journey. Excuse the timeline on some things as most of this recollection is done by memory and some thing may not line up perfectly, but it's all there;

Washing up on camp Minto was a pleasure. It was clear from the members on the two tribes, Widow seemed more like the alpha tribe and Minto the underdog tribe. In camp early on, this became very talked about. it seemed from the get go, there was a direct line of thinking of eliminating the mods out one by one. While I appreciated this thought process, I thought from early on, this was a bad tactic. I tread carefully from the get go and dabbled my toes in two alliances. Rabbit was obviously a close connection and then DK, Matt, Teeth and Sajjos seemed to line up. We obviously had a bad run of losing challenges. I have no regrets with how Minto played challenges, we worked well together truthfully. Maybe too much thought and suggestions leading to indecisiveness perhaps. Probably should have just went with things a bit more forceful but it is what it is. with No Worries getting the boot early it obviously showed the majoritys hand and the thinking of getting rid of mods quickly. The thoughts were that these mods would eventually team up with the Widow guys to outnumber us was too strong to break and it showed moving forward. I thought that tactic was too shallow for the game and was never going to play out in the end. I didn't fully invest with the Minto guys ridding mods (Rabbit, Matt etc) right away but made it known I was somewhat on board. I felt more comfortable siding with Chewie, Random, ST and Archer. This was looking like a nice strong alliance. Little did I know odds were stacked against us once a pandemic swept across the island.

On the return, Archer and ST didn't make it, so this is where Matt and co looked to strike on their mod annihilation. Even though, I'm not a mod, I believe Matt and DK had me on their hitlist, and DK showed that later after he was eliminated. Maybe not right away but I was never going deep in that alliance. Matt and I didn't speak at all much in camp and DK was quite shady towards me. I believe they showed their cards towards me early on. Teeth was a good lad and did amazingly well to get as far as he did. Rabbit was a great alliance and poor lad was a bit torn in the end. DK and Matt were pulling Rabbits strings but he didn't see it until DK showed his hand after his elimination. I could have gotten Rabbit further and wanted to but I feel his unwillingness to shift from that alliance hurt him in the end. I tried but that showed my hand with him I beleive. I managed to keep myself floating across two alliances the best I could, but my affliction was always with Random and Chewie. To be honest, Randoms post he put out there in the main thread when he was elimated was all spot on.

Again, I tried to make moves with Rabbit and Teeth to turn on Matt and DK but to no avail. Teeth would have been up for it, but wanted to stick with the majority. However, my gameplay managed to offshoot me getting the boot before Random, Chewie etc. Sajjos was unfortuantely outed and I made the play with that Minto alliance to gain trust after it was only myself and Chewie left I believe at that point. It worked and I managed to outlast everyone bar the four core Minto alliance group. I do thank Rabit for this, and this is why I tried to be truthful with him to side with me to get him further, but DK and Matt convinced him they had his back and they would go further.

B/L put out a warning on how the game was played I believe in relation to Minto's blindness and tunnel vision and it was never going to end well for them. I could see what was happening but no plays were being made. I was hoping before the tribe switch to target Matt and/or DK through Teeth and Rabbit but was not needed. It's funny, Rabbit said that DK and Matt didn't trust me as I was siding with the mod alliance, and that was long before I had even spoken to Welshy or Mulvy. I know Chewie and Random were talking but at that point I hadn't spoken to anyone over there so my position was interesting. Communication started to be made between myself, Mulvy, Welshy, MS and my options became open.

Before tribal switch, the boys were actually going to play an idol for me across tribes to turn the tables on Matt or DK if we lost. It became clear that myself and Widow members were on the same page, and they knew they were losing numbers in Chewie and Random, and I know they would have the numbers over the others. With the switch up, I think Matt and DK jumped on JM pretty quickly and again to get numbers I was at the bottom of the food chain and targeted heavily again. Throughout the whole game I feel even though I had close relationships I was always near the bottom of the chain. Pookus had hit me up at one point to join with him if I made it through but we know what he was up to and how that played out. Welshy and the boys were onto him right away anyhow. One thing I did in this game was never close any doors. I was able to always leave things open ended and leave doors ajar everywhere. I was tough when I knew I was going to turn my back on that specific person, but it needed to be done.

With the tribal merge, the relationships I had built worked out perfectly for me at that point. I felt this was a clear turning point of the game. I was on board hard with Welshy, MS and MUlvy and we saw the result of them thowing the challenge to rid who we wanted to rid. We had a clear line of what we wanted to do and the numbers warranted what we were doing. Before merge Rabbit showed his hand to me that it was best for him to ride with the majority so I knew if we lost, I was gone. Luckily that didn't happen. that made it clear that I had to eliminate Matt, DK, Rabbit and even Teeth. Luckily I didn't have to write Rabbits name down. I told him I never would, and I never did, I didn't have to with the tribe swap.

One by one with the new alliance and tribes that I had worked with, we got rid of everyone I wanted to, one by one. Being aware of every single person in the game and doing what I needed paid of to get my revenge on the Minto alliance. yes, I thought of it as revenge. I was open and honest with the new Widow alliance my intentions based on what went on in Minto and who should go and when. Saying all of that, I knew that I was near the bottom of the current alliance in Widow, but I was happy with that for the time being. I started building the relationships more with these guys to see how far I could get.

During this, Matt was still on board and Falcon and JM were trying to still attack mods. Teeth made it back which posed a potential problem too. Jele and I started talking and it was clear we clicked right away. We felt each other out and both agreed that we were on the same page and were always going to side with Mulvy, Welshy, SI and co. It seemed Jele was close to SI and I was more close with Welshy, Mulvy and MS. From that point, I felt I held the power over so much of what was going on. As long as Jele was on board with me, we had our way with whatever we wanted, and it felt great. The flipping that we did was intense but no matter what, we held the power. The moves while not up to us all the time, we could control and asses every move together and what was right. it's ahrd to say out of the two of us who was the more domiinant in making the plays with flips etc. I think we both were strong in that point, but I was never shy and talking to people, gaining some trust, but flipping the vote. I feel I might have been more open at times to people in regards to this.

I still felt being somewhat on the outside as teh alliance got deeper as did Jele, it was getting close to make a move or else I felt the 5 Widow guys were going to be it. I was deliberating whether to make a move to someone or play it safe as opting to someone to flip would put the target squarely on me. I know Mulvy was thinking this too. MS however then came to me and I was in. We made the move on Chucky. Not really speaking to Chucky, I know this was risky with Mulvy and Welshy, but for me, it had to be done and had no issues doing it. I knew going with MS and doing this move just moves the target on his back. That's exactly what happened. Luckily the relationship I built with Welshy and Mulvy, they understood the move eventually but I still claimed my loyalty to them and flipped back to take out MS. MS was looking to build power and he was having a good shot too. I had a gut feeling he didn't have an idol but the majority thought he did and wanted to not put it the vote on him to try and get an idol out of him. It didn't work but in the long game it didn't cause a glictch to what we were trying to do, but that play could have been costly.

Mulvy and I got closer and I built more trust with him. We made somewhat of a pledge to hold strong together and he let me in on a secret that he was Ned Flanders. The trust I felt I was building with everyone was excellent, yet still genuine. Even them Marlin and MS still needed my vote. At that point, I felt even more powerful with how things were going. The next big play I'm not proud of;

Marlin felt in trouble and so he should have as he was gone. It was the challenge where it was him, Welshy and myself up for elimination. It was clear that MS and Marlin wanted to vote Welshy but Jele and I talked and couldn't do it. It had to be Marlin and I sure as hell didn't want it to be me. I think Jele was a little quiet when his decision was made, but I didn't really have a problem talking to people I was going to vote for as mentioned earlier. It's hard but that's the game. Marlin then confided in me and asked me if he was in trouble. He devulged the info that he had an idol and asked if he should play it. This was risky BUT, I was quite confident Welshy was getting the other votes. It was a gamble but I trusted MS and Marlin that I wasn't getting any votes and I knew Mulvy, Welshy and SI were going Marlin. I was adament for Marlin to use the idol. I knew this would have tossed Welshy if they were true to their word plus putting the target again the week after on Marlin. This worked like a treat. No one knew Marlin had the idol and it was a surprise so it was working perfectly for me. I feel awful for Welshy but during this whole game, my position looked shaky at various times I feel so surviing the week was the goal. This play is something I never shared with Jele. All along even though I was so close with these guys, the back of my mind was always telling me they were strong from the start. I might not have been in the danger I though I may have been, but couldn't take any chances.

This move also boxed MS in and he eventually went. It was a great play for me, and for Jele really. The rest is history really just played out itself. Jele and I were always tight and the more things went on, it looked like we were safer and safer. SI's departure also helped me truthfully but that's another story.

So in conclusion, that's how it played out. I knew the aim of the game was to really read everyone and let big plays come to you at times. Devulging all this info might not get me votes here, but I still firmly believe I deserve to win with coming from the outside of a Minto alliance to top 2. I want to be honest here with what played out, no point keeping secrets in the endgame. I've played a lot of people, built trust, broken trust but for the most part, I've been loyal to where it mattered most. The only play I feel bad about is telling Marlin to use his idol, I probably didn't need to, but this is Survivor. If I wasn't on the chopping block though, I never would have done it. That's the one thing I regret for Welshy's game.

You have two deserving winning right here to vote for, but I feel the position I had been in from the start and come from to the end warrants me as sole survivor.

Thanks for reading.

Wolf

PM's have been sent to each member of the Jury and I am currently awaiting the questions.

I have given a 7pm Sunday deadline.

Great insights from both pledges.
Very interesting reading.
This is going to be a difficult decision.

Don't hold some of the poor spelling against me, jeez more proof reading was needed.

Wonderful speech from Jele, that's going to be tough to beat.

With what Jele said, I feel the same. If I'm getting beaten by someone, I'm glad it's him.