Posted by awags on 1/9/2012 4:58:00 PM (view original):
-----Original Message-----
From: awags
To: Arfy
Sent: 12/23/2011 7:28:00 PM
Subject: RE: Yesterdays vote

I don't have a final two deal with anybody. I expect that I will need to win that challenge in order to make sure I make the final two.

-----Original Message-----
From: Arfy
To: awags
Sent: 12/23/2011 7:21:00 PM
Subject: RE: Yesterdays vote

Gotcha!

Just out of curiosity. I'm assuming you have a final two deal with Nelson. How much do you believe he will actually take you if its his choice? Just wondering. Gimme a percentage.

-----Original Message-----
From: awags
To: Arfy
Sent: 12/23/2011 7:11:00 PM
Subject: RE: Yesterdays vote

Steve was expecting nelson to be sent home.

-----Original Message-----
From: Arfy
To: awags
Sent: 12/23/2011 7:03:00 PM
Subject: Yesterdays vote

Is this the vote where Nelson flipped sides and is no longer voting with those other guys? Is that why Stevedotec seemed so surprised?    

Survivor X – Game Recap

To start, I’ll go over some information about the Idols. Every idol had 7 clues… 5 of them helped you find the movie, book, song, or game, and two of them helped you find the specific location inside of that category. I tried my best to make sure no clues would work by themselves and more than likely you would need to collect 4 or 5 clues to figure out the exact location….

THE MOVIE IDOL (Found by awags), played by bfkfraser to protect himself and nelsonba25:

In the OK Corral (Gunfight at the OK) in the movie, Tombstone:

Clues:

i: “Cochise” (Cochise is the county that Tombstone resides in)
i: “Revelation 6:8” (from the bible: “I looked, and there was a pale horse, and its rider's name was Death. Hell followed him”, One of the famous lines in the movie which was referenced a few times.
i: “TB” (Googling “TB” will tell you that it is the medical abbreviation for Tuberculosis, the disease that famously held Doc Holliday down)
i: “Graveyard Décor” (Tombstones, duh)
i: “Heston” – Of course he was in Tombstone, playing Henry Hooker, the rancher that helped out Doc.
i: “Leap Year’s 300^th” (The 300^th day of the year on LEAP Year is October 26. The Gunfight at the OK Corral took place on October 26, 1881
i: “Wink-Start. “ (Doc Winks to start the gunfight although the Earps were hoping to prevent it)

Fun facts: The rookies won the movie challenge both times… but were unable to solve the riddle. Awags solved this idol and received none of the clues himself.

Also, All of the movie tiebreakers contained a person who played in the movie Tombstone.. For example:

The scene from “The Rock” was showcasing Michael Biehn as Commander Charles Anderson, who also played Johnny Ringo in Tombstone.

The second movie challenge asked you to name the movie (Big Lebowski) and showed the picture of The Stranger, Sam Elliot, who was Virgil Earp in Tombstone

The third was a clip from the scene Titanic, focusing on Bill Paxton (Morgan Earp)

THE BOOK IDOL (Found by awags, played by nyaggie98)
Inside the Safety Deposit Box in The DaVinci Code

Clues:

Ii: “Golden Ratio” (The golden Ratio is 1.61803399), also commonly known as PHI, a divine intervention code referenced multiple times in the book and the basis for all of Da Vinici’s paintings (theoretically)
ii: “Teacher “(“The Teacher” is the main Villain you track in the novel)
ii: “Robinson R22 Conceptualist” – Robinson R22 is a helicopter. The person who is believed to conceptualize the helicopter? Da Vinci.
ii: “Harvard” – Robert Langdon, the book’s main character, was a professor at Harvard
ii: “Colorful Writer” - The author of the DaVinci code, was Dan Brown
ii: “Zurich” - The bank of Zurich, is the location of the idol (the safety deposit box was inside the bank)
ii: “1.1.2.3.5.8.1.3.2.1” - This was the code given and used to get into the safety deposit box at Zurich.

Fun Facts: All of the books used in the challenges were books that were made into movies, as was DaVinci Code.

THE MUSIC IDOL (found by Nelsonba25, played by csudak)
In Reno, by the dead body, in Folsom Prison Blues

Iii: “Maximum Security” – (Folsom Prison was one of the first maximum security prisons)
iii: “Big Cigar” – (Lyric from the song: “Probably drinkin’ coffee and smokin’ big cigars)
iii: “Hello.” - (Johnny Cash’s famous intro: Hello. I’m Johnny Cash)
iii: “The Biggest Sinner “– (Cash’s self proclaimed nickname, he declared he was “the biggest sinner of them all”)
iii: “Free without Riots” – (He did his performance at Folsom for free, and it was a complete success)
iii: “By the Cadaver” (Cadaver is a corpse, like the man Cash shot just to watch him die)
iii: “The Biggest Little One” (Reno’s nickname – The Biggest Little City in the World)

Fun Facts: 20 minutes after nelson guessed “Next to the gun that shot the man in folsom prison blues” robust_trex also guessed “In Reno in Folsom Prison”, Either answer would have counted, and it was a 20 minute difference.

The answers to the Music challenges were: Waylon Jennings, City of New Orleans (sung by Willie Nelson), and Kris Kristofferson. Add Johnny Cash to those three, and you have THE HIGHWAYMEN

THE GAME IDOL (Found by awags, played by awags)
On the flying saucer in the game Q-Bert

iv: “SCHNOZZ” (A nose, generally referred to as a very large nose)
iv: “Disco Pyramid” (The game is played on a multi-color changing pyramid!)
iv: “Wrong Way!” (Remember those purple creatures that run along the sides of the cubes? They were UGG and Wrong Way)
iv: “Colorful Serpent” (The other villain out for QBert, the purple snake?)
iv: “Disgruntled Profanity” (Every time QBert got caught, he would have the little bubble on his head saying @!#?@!, one of the first video game profanity filters)
iv: “A Flying Saucer” (This is where the idol was, on that multicolored saucer QBert used to get to the top of the pyramid)
iv: “Color Wheel” (Same…)

Fun Facts: All of the video game challenges showed a game that was on the NES, as was QBert (among many other platforms, but hey…)

On another note… The Book idol was re-hidden, but both times the winning tribe was going to get book clues, they did not successfully answer the tiebreaker. So no one got any of these clues…. It was another book that became a movie, though… Here are the clues, in case any of you wants to try and figure it out.

AND NOW, SOME LETTERS FROM HOME.

I enjoyed reading them, hell it is my only connection to what is going on “inside” the game… So I figured most of you would too:

-----------------------------

From:

FishNasty

To:

polabonez

Received:

12/1/2011 3:00:00 PM

Subject:

SURVIVOR - Letter to a Friend

Message:

Pola

Things on the island are quite different then they may appear. While each and every one of the rookies got picked of one by one, I stand alone and must make new friends (and enemies) as each day passes. It isn't easy, but then again surviving never is.

I feel like I am now in 'Boondock Saints' mode, avenging the loss of my most recent captain wildpike. It was a very sneaky move by bfkfaser to play an idol, yet one of utter betrayal.

Me and the other members who looked to that guidance will avenge him and I feel that if I don't win, I will go out swinging. I would put my chances at 30% of winning this game, with arfy being the most likely with his vast friendhips and allies.

Hope this letter finds you well, and next time you hear from me I will be Survivor champion........

Onside’s letter from home (He was eliminated just prior to this challenge)

From:

onside

To:

polabonez

Received:

11/30/2011 11:51:00 AM

Subject:

Letters to Home

Message:

Dear polabonez,

I hate everyone.

With love,
onside

From:.  apple_butter

To:   polabonez

I have become friends with mojo and pike through the game, but pike just got completely hosed by a super magical idol of superness. (Can't complain, I found all three idols the first time, but that was a Shakespeare game).

Also, being a senior in college the first time, and a full time law clerk this time is a big difference on time. I am not going to lie, pike and mojo have been carrying me, but I have stuck with my friends and been loyal.

Going to see if I can help mojo win. If not, oh well. I don't really deserve to win this time, but the Sandra mantra of as long as it isn't me has been working for me.

So, if you could throw in some more Shakespeare movie stuff like 10 Things I Hate About You or She's the Man, I would appreciate it. Yes, this is the obligatory movie paragraph, but hey, have to follow the rules of the letter.

Arfy will likely win I suspect. You can't let someone that good at the game get this deep.

April

From:    stevedotdec

To:        polabonez

Dear Pola,

Life on the island is wonderful and blah, blah, blah...

You don't want to hear about that, you want the inside scoop! So here it is...but first, I want to tell you a little about how I see the game itself (this will be more than four paragraphs, I hope that doesn't DQ me!).

I'm a huge Survivor (game reference!) fan, I've seen every season since the first one, with only 2 exceptions for times that I've been deployed. Back in the day when I was still playing GD (another game reference!) and I saw that there was going to be a GD Survivor, I signed up immediately...and then I wondered, how the heck it was going to work.

When Survivor first came out, it was presented as being like The Lord of the Flies (book/movie reference!!!), the strong will overtake the weak. But as Richard Hatch showed us from the start, it's not physical strength that makes you strong, it's political/social strength.

I thought I knew how to win Survivor, but what I learned is this: I know how to get to the end of Survivor. It's all about making ever expanding alliances. You need one person you can absolutely trust, then it's all about making mini-alliances within larger alliances, BUT at each expanding stage of your larger alliance, you have to make sure your alliance-within-the-alliance is the majority.

Now, the thing that I thought about winning, was that as long as you didn't go back on your word, if you played the best strategic game, you win. I did that in my season...but I didn't win. I had my partner to trust (mr_mojo), and started making bigger alliances. I was the deal maker and I never went back on a promise once. When I got to the final 2, I thought I was a lock to win...and lost 5-2.

Then I read the Season 9 thread. You did basically the same thing that I did...and YOU WON. So maybe it's about the makeup of the jury, or maybe I just don't have that winning personality/forum presence...we shall see.

As far as this season goes, for my second go around I decided that I'd go the passive route. Plenty of "dead weight" have won the tv version of Survivor. One person runs the game, brings a floater to the finals, and the floater wins because all the bitter jurors vote against the person that actually played/ran the game. So as much as I hate it, I'll let my alliance make the mini-deals and let them bear the wrath of the jury this time...it is KILLING me not to be the one "in charge", but so far so good.

Here's how it breaks down. From the start, I got with mr_mojo again. Then bfkfraser, who was our 3rd in Season 6 contacted me and there's 3. awags is 4.

awags has made a lot of side deals. From the start, we knew about the "big alliance" that wildpike was trying to organize (what a bad idea, you can’t possibly stop leaks trying to put together a group that big together), partially from awags' "spy" arfy, but also from mr_mojo who has been a secret agent since just about the beginning. nelsonba25 came in with us in the first tribe, so there's our solid 5.

I think it's fair to say that while awags has been our "leader", as he has enlisted the most outside help, I've done more than my fair share of plotting our strategy and influencing the votes.

There's more that I want to say, but this is way too long as it is, so let's wrap it up. How's the rest of the game going to end? Can/will I win? If not me, who?

With one more vote to go in the tribal section, I'm in pretty good shape...but not a lock. awags has a LOT of options, and while I'm 95% sure that he'll stick with "the 5", he could go a different way. As mentioned earlier, arfy is his "spy". nyaggie98 is clearly a friend of his, he's looked out for him during the game, even giving one of his idols to him to save him from a vote. And csudak was one of his partners in Season 9. I don't know if any of those 3 know about his relationship to the others, but it is possible that awags has a separate alliance of those 4. We shall see, but if that's the case, I don't think he can win. He would have to screw one group for the other and that group won't forget.

nelsonba25 is watching out for texan123. And the rest (apple_butter and FishNasty) are just numbers that we haven't picked off yet...though maybe one or both will have roles to play yet...(on a side note, I really wanted to play the game with dubs and apple_butter this season, but dubs is such a big part of the game, I figured he would be targeted early…and he was…so I never reached out to them).

The bottom line is, if awags is solid with us (which I think he is) and if nelsonba25 doesn't try something with texan123 and some of the stragglers, "the five" should get to the final 5.

If my tribe loses this last tribe challenge, I'll know a lot more about how to play the end game. If not, FishNasty and apple_butter will be the first 2 members of the jury (barring something changing between now and then). The final 9 will be where the game will get interesting. The two big questions left are, can I trust awags/nelson to stick with us (I think I can) and if so, how do we navigate the final 5. awags has at least one idol left. If things work out as planned, he will save it for 5 and hopefully, the plan will be to vote nelson out at 5, and then awags at 4. But, this is the part of the game where you have to start playing by feel. Who can you really trust and how far?

The bottom line is, IF awags doesn't have a second alliance, and IF he didn't make/break too many promises along the way, and IF he gets to the end, he will probably win. If I get to the finals, and not against awags, I think I can win (I even think I could win with a well worded speech against awags, but it's not likely). Any combination of finalists without awags will come down to final speech and forum reputation...so we'll see what happens. I liked my chances in the finale of Season 6 and lost. I don't like my chances nearly as much this time...but, if I do get to the end, I probably have a better chance of winning this time.

Steve

From:     mr_mojo

To:      polabonez

To: polabonez
from: mr_mojo(agent 1)

Subject: Operation "Riders on the Storm"

It is my pleasure to report that I was able to "Break on through to the other side" of the Super Alliance. It has been an honor and privelege to work with awags, stevedotdec and bfkfraser on this. Although awags might be quite the threat. I'm not sure how many angles he is working. As for enemies I've stayed clear and have worked the other alliance quite well. When the bomb hits that I am not working with them I could get some angry messages. I'm pretty confident in my ablility win this game. I have a solid nucleus with four others and of those four, three are really strong. If I don't win I have to think awags or stevedotdec. It'll all depend on if we make the final three.

From:          texan123

To:          polabonez

The island is complex this year. There are so many alliances and side alliances, its hard to keep track of it all. There was one point in the game where I almost voted off dawgnuts only to check my sitemails and see he was in one of the alliances. And how appropriate was it that the Shotgun tribe played the Tombstone idol? Lots of shotgun and rifle action in that movie.

As for how confident I am in winning this time around; I don't think I can win but hopefully I can make top 5.

From           nelsonba25

To               polabonez

So, basically, awags has been running things since day 1. He's planned everything, found numerous idols and made sure what he wants to happen, happens. I've been the right-hand man, watching him figure things out and then doing the bidding...which is nice, since I haven't participated in a challenge in about a month. And everyone keeps throwing my name around to get voted out, but it's all part of the plan. Like Mr. Miagi said in Karate Kid "Wax on, wax off". Or something...

And now, since I don't have much time, here's a quick rundown. Awags and I controlled 3 of the 4 idols at one time. awags gave the one to someone to do a sweet vote off. wildpike has been trying to vote me off since the beginning. It was my idea to have everyone vote for me last time and backdoor wildpike. apparently it ****** off fishnasty.

Basically, if mr_mojo, awags_myself and stevedotdec aren't in the final 4, something really strange has to happen, or I'm not as much in as I thought I was. I'm betting on awags to win. I wish I had more time. There has been some awesome stuff going on behind the scenes!

From:     csudak

To:     polabonez

Where do I begin????

This game has been different than the last two times playing. I'll be honest I haven't had as much time to focus on the "Social Nework"-ing aspect of the game.

From the beginning the selection of the original tribes was a bit of a "Monkey Wrench" since many of the people I knew best in the game were in my tribe. Awags immediately contacted me about an alliance, as did onside. My immediate and steadfast alliance was with awags who had I worked with previously, but because of success in challenges I was able to get through the first set without having to expose my myself to onside.

After the next tribe split I was a little nervous. I was lucky to join up with wildpike, nyaggie, and atcchris to join against the 3 rookies. We did pretty good in challenges, so that was easy to move to the next split, and the majority of my alliance made it through.

The early challenges of the 3rd split did not go the robots way, but we had the numbers to keep the alliance in tact.

As for how I feel about the my future in the game, its the "Same old song and dance" as the last 2 times I played, just get to the merge and hope I have the numbers to get to 5 or 6 and do my best in challenges. I honestly don't have a great idea right now who is with who, but if I don't work my way into the top 6 I'll be surprised. I'm putting my money on awags or stevedotdec to take the whole thing.

Compared to my last two games, this one has been pretty tame behind the scenes for me. Maybe its the quality of the players, or just the fact that by this point many alliances and suballiances and even double secret probation alliances already planned out. But no matter what I always have fun and just try to play things straight up.

Hopefully I can go on a run in the individual immunity challenges.