Hello everyone, it’s nice to see you again.
It’s an honour to be given the opportunity to play in All-Stars. I’d like to thank the hosts for the game they provided us and the work they put in to make this happen. Shout-out to Nathan especially. To the players, thank you for making the game what it was, whether by being a fun presence to be around, keeping it real, your strategic insight, the random jabs you had… or a mix of these aspects.
What’s beautiful about this game is that you can win in over nine thousand different ways. Ways that contradict each other. In BB11, I was one of two players who dominated the game. I won a ton of comps, was rarely nominated, and had major influence on how the season went down. This time in BB15, it was the opposite. I fought from a virtually powerless position. I never won HoH, my veto wins were only used to save myself, and I was constantly being nominated! Even with the difference in game style I still managed to get to the end again.
No matter how bad your situation seems to be, there is always room to turn it around, and I’ve proven that this game. Your position is always temporary, how people feel about you can change, and you’re never untouchable. The more of a frontrunner you become, the more likely people will try to steal it from you and take you out.
I knew if I tried to get ahead of the pack, I wouldn’t be able to hold on to my lead. You guys are All-Stars. I don’t have the social game to save me if I become targeted. So I was patient. I wanted you guys to think I wouldn’t be able to win. Think that I’m not dangerous to you. Make it seem like you can get the focus on me if you found yourself in a precarious situation. Doubt my ability to end your game. So here I am now, pleading my case to be the winner of this season. I was taken to the end and I’m ready to steal the win at the very last moment.
Whether or not you help me with this final hurdle, I respect your decision and it has been a fun game. Morgan would also be a deserving winner and I’ll still be happy to see him win if I don’t. Because Morgan, you were a great ally and I enjoyed playing with you at every step. I’m glad I trusted you and I know you had a lot of great ideas.
So let’s delve into my field of view!
I’ll start by saying that the game I ended up playing was not something I decided on Day 1, but as the weeks went by I saw the role of the perpetual pawn staring at me. Instead of fighting against it I tried to use the role to my advantage, molding myself to be a non-threatening player with barely any allies. Being nominated so much gave me the credibility I needed to prove myself as a straightforward individual, someone that doesn’t have deals and alliances with everyone. You could have me in your corner without much fear that I’d betray you or go back on a deal. In short, take my words at face value and scale me down your target/distrust list.
I also want to say that my main strength is strategy, which… is a very wide topic, and I sure don’t want to ramble on and make this speech 10 pages long. Simple things like how you use your social game, what information you tell people, how/when you lie, the reads you develop and who you decide to align with will have an impact on the game: Either through direct moves, how people view you and each other and what they want to see happen. Perception feeds off all of these things, and I built myself up to be straightforward. Forecasting also played a big part in my words and strategy. While I can’t say for sure what someone would do with new information and ideas I gave, I looked at what was possible and what was likely, what I could change, and anticipating whether I could dig myself out of the hole or not if things went south. For instance, I made this big ‘speech’ in the house chat after Mackie’s eviction. The outcome was uncertain, but I was feeling good about it because of the reads and predictions I developed.
Then there’s my biggest weakness, which is my lack of social game. There’s no game motive behind it - I’m just not a social person. And for me, making big changes to my demeanor, extraversion or how I approach people was not a path I wanted to take, ESPECIALLY when the game is over 2 months long. I still wanted to stay true to myself. But I did put effort into being more social, even if the result was pitiful lol. Therefore I try to compensate for this weakness with strategy, challenges and help from my allies’ social prowess (when I think about it, ‘allies’ is singular here b/c it was pretty much only Mackie) to boost my standing in the house for me. Once he left though, I had to carry myself with deals, logic and comps and I was successful.
Finally there’s physical game. I won a couple comps, including BOTS and the crucial final 4 veto where I took out Ben, who was arguably the biggest threat in the entire cast. Winning an HoH would’ve been nice but oh well, I had to adapt as I would constantly lose them, or have no one from my side win them for that matter.
Fantastic! Now let’s talk about some decisions I made in this game.
Mackie and Morgan were my two main allies: Mackie was the propaganda artist, and Morgan was the tactics operative. With them I would bounce off a lot of ideas and I knew I could count on them to have my back, as I had theirs. This turned out to be hugely beneficial to me early on, as they were using the veto to save me no matter how much it would damage their game. It sucked when I had to vote between them, but I wasn’t about to shy away from a tough decision. Ultimately I wanted Mackie to stay and I thought he would by a 3-3 vote (lol @ me). When that didn’t work, I knew Morgan was still on my side, even after I drove him closer to isolation by taking Joe out and by trying to evict him the following week. Because he needed me, and I needed him too.
At that point, we were on a losing streak with the HoHs, as the people on our side would hit the curb one by one. And I had to prepare myself for it. It was clear that words weren’t going to change people’s allegiances. However, they might just change who goes home next, hence the long ass wall of text I wrote in the main chat about how I wasn’t targeting the couple. Disclaimer: I still don’t know if it was smart or not, or even if it had any effect, but I’ll explain my thought process behind it.
First, I just lost my biggest shield. There was no reliable way to verify if I was next to leave or not so I operated under the assumption that this was the case. I needed to find a way to stay if I’m sitting next to Morgan or Jake. Stating that I was never going to target the couple (while encouraging others to do it themselves), meant different things to different people, and I was curious to see if anyone would approach me about it and give me something to work with.
While I’m sure Ben and Tasha didn’t appreciate what I did, the fact remained I wasn’t coming after them and I had good reasons for it, which I have said in my wall of text. So at the minimum they should want Jake and/or Morgan gone over myself. If they spare me I might just get the breathing room I need to bulldoze through the rest of the game.
Morgan didn’t have to worry, I told him I still wasn’t gonna put him up regardless and he had no reason to go blab about that. It changes nothing for Jake as well, he knows he’s safe with me in power.
I believe I was Ali’s and Jess’ next target either way, so I wasn’t losing anything here. Trying to make a side-deal with them would probably get back to Ben, Tasha and Brian which would be bad for my credibility. So I gave them no reassurance.
Brian was the big question mark to me. He had the best pulse on the house and wasn’t gonna risk giving me any ammo to use against him, so I don’t know what he was working with or what was the best plan for him moving forward. I just knew he was successfully playing the middle the entire game, and he’d want to continue staying in that spot. I did tell him I wanted him around because I saw him as the most astute out of the entire cast, which at that point would be good for me. Make him think he’d be the last option in my target pool. I even told him I wouldn’t nominate him about 20 minutes before the fake double eviction. The hopes were that he’d feel okay with a wildcard like me to stay in, but I dunno if I was successful with that.
From there I was able to strike a deal with Ben and avoid the block during Jake’s eviction. When we entered the double eviction of BOTS, anyone could’ve gone home that week depending on who won what comp. Brian took the shot at the power duo, unfortunately it didn’t work out how he intended, and he was set up for doom at final 5. Morgan and I were able to win out the last few comps and here we are in the final 2!
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So hey, I know I didn’t win that many comps. I also wasn’t social enough with a lot of you. I had very few alliances. Can I still say I played my heart out? Absolutely. I worked hard for this and I hope I’m not being ruled out just because I won before. I was strategizing my ass off with Mackie, with Morgan, and by myself. I was constantly poking around to understand players’ thoughts on various paths and events, searching for slips and how much they were hiding from me so I could plan ahead. I never lost my cool despite losing ally after ally and being faced with likely defeat. When I saw that we could have a mutual goal, I gunned for it. I may not have dominated the season, but I sure as hell survived it. One way or another, I survived all 9 of my nominations. Even a cat doesn’t survive this much.
That’s my piece, folks. I played the best game I could with the cards I had. Please let me represent this season! I’m looking forward to your questions, roasts, anecdotes, and all that jazz. Whatever I did or didn’t do, I will own it, and I’ll expand on specific things if you ask because I did try to keep this short... Even though it wasn’t that short. Whoops. See you guys on the other side.