Well, first of all, I want to say thank you to the hosts for making this season possible and for casting me, the experience was truly amazing and I'm really glad you decided to make me a part of it, I hope I didn’t dissapoint you. To the jurors, I want to say before I begin with my speech that I’m really grateful that I met you all, and that nothing that I did during the game was personal or mean spirited, since I genuinely liked everyone and would love to be friends with you all after this is over.
I’d like to think of myself like a social butterfly, and I really believe that my way of playing games shows it. In every game that I play, whether we are on opposite sides or not, I try to have a genuine connections with everyone in the house. Not only I do this because I love meeting people, but because it shows me the real you, and it also shows you that you can always connect with me in any kind of way, and that’s something that benefited me in this entire game.
It was never a secret that I was riding the middle 100%. I never really was tied to anyone, because since Nuno’s HoH, in which I was nominated and was able to stay with just a difference of 2 votes, the house became a really divided place, that oddly enough divided itself between white guys and poc+women. In both sides I had loyalties that had a lot of power in their sides, meaning that I had all my bases covered.
From the “outcast”, aka white guys, side, I had strong relationships with Slim, that started since Day 1 when he and I created an alliance with Nathan, and even though he was the one that put us together, we stayed with each other because we knew that we could benefit us both, with Patrick, who I bonded with pretty quickly, and whose relationship helped me slide through the final phases of the prejury and the beginning of the jury phase, with Tommy, someone that I had a rocky relationship with, but I decided to maintain for my benefit, until the point that we actually worked together and not only faking it in order for us to not get targeted by the other, and with Nathan, whose HoH I had a lot of information, considering how much he trusted me (Also shoutout to you boo). They all (except Nathan, because he was nominated next to me) voted against me the first time I was in the block, all with the excuse of “I’m sorry, I was allied to Nathan”, information that I had no problem spreading around to the other side smoothly enough so it wouldn’t be put on me, and even with them doing so, they still decided to take me as one of his helpers later in the game.
The other side was another one that I bonded with, but I think the most important for me were Evan, Mia, Malik and Jessy. Malik and I had a more personal relationship than it was game, and even tho he and I never really had a huge game bond, he still trusted me enough to give me his fruit basket info (that I swear I did not spread around lol), and to keep me around the loop of what he was thinking, that gave me a sight of at least what people were telling others. With Jessy it was the same, and she also gave me her beliefs on the white guys (and just cast overall), another thing that helped see a little but more of the house. Mia and Evan were two people that I liked as people in ways I couldn’t describe. I enjoyed talking to them both and to be quite honest, I wish I had been able to play with them a little more. I always saw them as the “leaders” of the other side, not because they were the royalty of diversity, but because of how many links they had. They were overall the most liked by their side, and the most feared by the other. Even when you guys voted to evict me, for the same reasons that the outcasts did in week 2, you still saw me as someone that could have been part of your group, and that can be from either my composure in the situation, or because you didn’t see me as a threat, which considering the people I was next to, I totally can see why people would think that.
When people were making their plans to get the other ones out, I was never the main one people were trying to get out (or at least not as a main plan), but I made sure it was that way. Like I said, both sides, even when they knew I was in the middle, they trusted me information, but why?, well easy, because I gave them information back.
My strategy always was to slide by, and to do that, I had to make sure every single person in this house had a bigger target than me, the way to do that, was to be a little bit of a rat. I was given information, and it never was the full bread, but instead it was little pieces, but those pieces were enough to feed the anger of each side. Every time I talked with any of you, I made sure you 1) were aware of how people perceived them and 2) they trusted me enough to give me more information to spread around. Someone I sometimes used to spill info to was Slim, especially in the prejury, because he gave me information about the outcasts, while I gave him information of the other side, and I trusted him not to say much, but when you get information, they reflect just a bit, and I’m sure that’s something that happened there.
Another example of me trying to throw flames to the gas was my HoH. I had just been tried to get out, and yet again, I stayed by a close vote, and after I won HoH i was put in a position that I had to nominate 3 people, and I was obviously going with the votes i received to evict, but I had to put on a show, to make it more dramatic. The first part of the plan was to get the “secret vote”, that was Malik, to reveal themselves, and I knew that would eventually happen because everyone knew it was him, I was even confirmed his vote by one of his allies, and with him being called out on it, he would have said it was him. With this I was also able to create a bad blood between Malik and Tommy, who along with Evan, knew about the plan. This “fight” also later brought another fight, that was Patrick vs Malik, and this also later brought Evan vs Patrick: The sequel. So even when I was having the blood of 3 (and by the end of the week, 4) people, all of that was overshadowed by the fights going on between everyone.
I would like to believe that I didn’t have much blood on my hands, because even when I totally (could have) ruined my relationship at some point with someone, like I almost did with Malik, Mia and Evan, not only was I able to establish a decent bond with each one of them, to the point that once again, I wasn’t targeted.
My social game let me go through this game, and I can say that at some point at least I tried to have a connection with every single one of you, and that I knew where your heads were mostly (Maybe the reason why the first comp I won was actually Touchy Subject lmao). I never needed a 6 people alliance to get me through the game, all I had was bonds with every single one of you, that helped move a step each time, and that’s what made me, and I’m quoting Evan, “someone you did not want to be up against in the block”, because you would end up going home, and that was the case 5 times, and not because I was carried by my two friends Roxxxy Andrews style, but because I made sure that me walking out the door would never happen.
Once again, I love you all, it was an amazing experience, and I really look forward to answering your questions (that you probably will have, because the language barrier made this speech a tad confusing).
Always and Forever,
Yara ”Ricki” Sofia
marico el que lo lea