Final Speech - Horvie
I’d like to begin by saying I had a great time playing Big Brother this summer. Thanks to Arfy for the creative challenges and for putting in countless hours hosting this game. Thanks to all of the other housemates…this season had an extremely strong group of players, and I feel very fortunate to have reached the finals. There were definitely some “lucky” moments along the way where I could have easily been evicted, and someone else would be sitting in the finals instead of me. Please know that if I targeted or voted for you, it was NOT personal and out of respect because you were a threat to win.
Here are 3 reasons why I believe I should win the game:
1. I put myself in a position where I had power, but was not viewed as a huge target. I made some strong allies, but not too many as I only communicated with about half of the players in the game. This was important because I did not get caught in lies. A lot of players were constantly forwarding sitemails, so it was key to be selective with whom I shared information. The nice thing was that my allies were talking to the players whom I wasn’t communicating with, so I usually knew how they were going to vote anyway. The following really illustrates how I put myself in a great position: THROUGH THE FIRST 9 EVICTIONS, I DID NOT WIN A SINGLE HOH AND WAS NEVER PUT UP ON THE BLOCK.
2. After about 4 or 5 evictions, I decided to make a big move and turn on my original alliance (Host Alliance – dubs, pola, ghutton, and I) in order to go after the power players in the game. When the host alliance was offered to me I felt like I had to go along with it. I never intended to stick with it because if I made the final 4 with pola and dubs, I would have had no chance of winning. They had a lot of control and always seemed to be a step ahead of everybody. I wrote about my decision to turn on the host alliance in my first diary submission to Arfy and identified my main targets going forward as dubs, psap, and polabonez (the power players). THOSE 3 PLAYERS ENDED UP BEING ELIMINATED IN THAT ORDER DURING THE FOLLOWING 3 WEEKS! I had a vital role in eliminating dubs and pola (twice), and a supporting role with psap. If you want more details, feel free to ask. I believe that the elimination of dubs, psap, and pola opened up a possible path to the end for the other housemates.
3. I won challenges when it was necessary and made some key moves down the stretch. Toward the end of the game, everybody knew where the alliance lines were drawn and it became imperative to win challenges. In the final-7, I won POV to save myself when I was on the block with csudak and most likely going home. I won the final-4 POV, allowing me to cast the sole eviction vote that week. I won the final-5 HOH and the final-3 HOH, which is a huge reason why I am sitting in the finals. During the final stretch-run, I also worked with some players outside of my alliance in order to help keep myself safe when we didn’t have power. I worked with bperkins multiple times…notice how I was the only player from my alliance at that point (csudak, tsut, ghutton) who was not put up on the block when bperkins was HOH. Working with bperkins was also essential in eliminating polabonez for the second time. Ahrens and I also worked to keep each other safe multiple times throughout the game. I would have been eliminated during the final-6 (when I was on the block with bperkins) if Ahrens hadn’t made a final three deal with myself and ghutton.