I apparently buried them with challenge e-mails. I have a couple from psap who was nice enough to keep me informed every step of the way.

Posted by dublinuf on 6/18/2014 12:33:00 PM (view original):
I will get some of them. Steve kept more of that stuff. If he wants to post some he can.

What are you, my site mail manager?  Lemme see what I have...

Looks like I only have stuff back to May.  I assumed dubs was keeping stuff, so I didn't.  Unfortunately, I don't have any of the "official" letters home, just some updates from a couple of players, speculating how things would play out.

Great, now no one will believe that I wasn't playing both sides, oh well. 

Congrats Tyson, I have no idea how you do it, but you continue to find a way to get to the end.  I voted for ahrens only because I know how much we fought just to make it through AR.

I saved my journal entry in Word, so I will share below. My first big mistake was staying quiet in the middle of the game. As psap mentioned in one of his forum posts, I was “late to the ballgame”. I was lazy communicating with people (until Big Brother) and thus was not as highly trusted. My second big mistake was choosing to trust psap over csudak. Now looking back, I really do believe that csudak was playing a straight-up game….and that an alliance with csudak, Ahrens, pola, and thebish would have been a better option. Also, psap’s goal from early in this game was to beat polabonez in the finals. As I wrote in my diary, I thought one of the big positives in aligning with polabonez was that he would be seen as a bigger target and would get eliminated before I….and with psap having so much control and wanting polabonez to stick around, I was destined to be dead meat at some point down the stretch.

I don’t see keeping the Diamond Power of Veto in my pocket as being a mistake. My best chance at that point was trusting in an alliance of pola, psap, geos, and I. Everybody was taking turns being a pawn, and it was my turn. Psap was the HOH at the time and polabonez was on the block with me. If I had used the special veto, I would have aggravated psap and put pola’s life in danger….so I would have damaged trust with two of the players whom I planned to work with down the stretch. My other option would have been to team up with Ahrens & thebish, but I had already nominated thebish twice for elimination, and flipped from Ahrens/csudak…so flipping back wouldn’t do much good with my jury popularity. I would be interested to find out what would have happened if I had used the veto. Psap also won the POV that week (due to a rainout) and seemed to have a lot of say in who coachbug and geos voted for, so he would have determined who went home. I’m assuming he would have kept polabonez safe and eliminated either Ahrens or thebish…..and that I’d be on the chopping block the following week. 


Journal Entry:
While we wait for the voting results, here's something else to think about. We are going to do another "Letter's Home". We would like each of the final 10 participants to send a letter home to dubs, red and myself. Included in the letter should be:

- What is the best move you've made so far.
- What move by someone else has hurt your game the most.
- How you expect to play down the home stretch.
- Who are your important allies coming down to the end.
- How you expect the game to end (who's gonna get voted out, how you expect to finish, who will win the game).

If you send in a letter to all three hosts by Saturday at 6PM ET, that includes the above conditions, there will be a "special opportunity" for you, regarding the game (mysterious eh?). As always, letters are optional, and will not be revealed (of course we may show the highlights in the post game). It's up to you, but I would say it's def worth it to submit one.

Q1: The best move I’ve made so far was saving Team Hubris from elimination with my picks twice in the Amazing Race portion of the game. The first time, we were u-turned and toward the bottom of the pack. The detour was the NBA & NCAA challenge where teams got points for the 2nd most in each category. Polabonez was out of town, so I had to complete both legs of the detour. We did so well that we ended up in 3rd place overall for that week. The second time was the final week of Amazing Race. We were tied with another team for last, and whoever was further from 57 NCAA rebounds would be eliminated. I made the picks, and hit 57 exactly.

Q2: There hasn’t been much, and I can’t think of anything during Big Brother. One move that could have hurt me was when Hufflepuff voted out Ghutton early in the game. I might have been likely to align with him at some point in the game. Another was when tubby, onside, and shoe were eliminated in Amazing Race…Polabonez and I were planning to work with them in the Big Brother portion of the game. I can’t remember if they were u-turned…but if they were, that was a big move.

Q3 & Q4: While playing Big Brother last time, I learned that it’s important to play both sides without getting caught, as I need to keep myself safe when the power shifts from week to week. My top ally right now is polabonez (although I had a hunch for a while that he has a final 2 deal with psap). I don’t think that pola would dump me because he has done most of the strategizing and believes that he can easily beat me if we make the final 2. Right now, I am pretty sure that we are in a great position. We have been playing the game closely with csudak/Ahrens (who have ties to thebish/usfbully), and showed our loyalty when pola gave them an idol during Amazing Race. We did a big favor for psap in the most recent vote by saving geos, and I don’t think we damaged the relationship with csudak/Ahrens in the process. Coachbug (who has ties to hardknox) and I honored our deals to keep each other safe when we were HOH in back-to-back weeks, so I feel like I can count on him down the stretch. 

How do I plan to play it down the stretch? The great thing about our current position is I’m pretty sure that csudak/ahrens will go after psap/geos if one of them wins HOH…..and psap/geos will go after csudak/Ahrens. So we won’t have to do any dirty work and can then continue to play with the side that survives. Honestly, I’m hoping that csudak and Ahrens get eliminated first because I believe that they are more connected than psap and geos. I’ve also surrounded myself with players who are bigger threats than I (polabonez, csudak, psap), so I don’t think that I will be anybody’s #1 target…and can make my way deeper into the game. 

Q5: Of the final 10, there seem to be five pairs: polabonez/me, csudak/Ahrens, coachbug/hardknox, psap/geos, thebish/usfbully. The players that are most likely to win will be the ones who can adjust when their partner is eliminated. Also, as we get closer to the end, the houseguests will want to eliminate strategic threats (polabonez, csudak, psap), who are likely to win the game if they make it to the end. 

There are so many possibilities for a winner! My top choice right now is Ahrens. He has quality connections with me, polabonez, csudak, thebish, and usfbully. But I’m pretty sure that he is psap’s #1 target, so he will have to survive longer than psap. Csudak, psap, and polabonez have all played outstanding strategic games….if one of them can make the finals, they have a great chance of winning. Two possible picks for a surprise winner are usfbully or coachbug. Coachbug has stayed “under the radar” and is connected to polabonez, myself, psap, and geos. Usfbully made some interesting moves as HOH last week…he kept some players safe who nominated him the previous 2 weeks…that will either turn out to be stupid or will put him in a good position down the stretch. 

In order for me to win, I need to find my ruthless side. If players help me get further in a game or if I screw somebody over in a game, I feel like I need to pay them back in future games (which is what hurt me in the last survivor game with dubs). It will be difficult to eliminate players like polabonez, csudak, Ahrens, psap, and usfbully:
-I’ve played all 3 phases of this game (over a 5 month period) closely with polabonez
-I took ghutton over csudak to the finals of Survivor 11, and took ghutton over Ahrens to the finals of Big Brother 2…after they both kept me alive earlier in those games
-Psap kept me alive in Survivor 11 (when I was put on a tribe with no allies) and I turned on him in Big Brother…it would be difficult to turn on him again
-usfbully kept me off the block last week after I put his game in danger the week before…it would be difficult to put him on the block a second time if I won HOH

I will say that horvie did make what would be considered the worst move, by my estimation.

He went home with a Golden Power of Veto which would have allowed him to remove both people nominated from the block and replace them himself after the PoV thus stealing control completely from the HoH.

And he was voted out on the next to the last vote to be able to play the Golden Power of Veto.

Posted by stevedotdec on 6/18/2014 2:04:00 PM (view original):

Posted by dublinuf on 6/18/2014 12:33:00 PM (view original):
I will get some of them. Steve kept more of that stuff. If he wants to post some he can.

What are you, my site mail manager?  Lemme see what I have...

Wishful thinking I suppose.

I enjoyed reading them all.

Especially since two or three people would right about being aligned with coachbug and how no one else knew about their alliance with him.

I was one of them....

Horvie and I talked about coachbug. We didn't fully trust him, but I fully trusted him. Wouldn't have posted his sitemail to me unless I thought it was relevant:

From:
polabonez
To:
coachbug
Received:
6/18/2014 12:00:00 PM
Subject:
RE: Grats
Message:
Thanks for the vote Dennis....

It was a crazy game... In Survivor, you pretty much stick with your alliance because if you don't, you are the odd man out.

This one was much different, as everybody I was working with kept disappearing, and I really just had to keep readjusting.

Hopefully dubs puts up the letters from home.. horvie and I talked about it and while we both trusted you, we both knew that you were the wildcard to win.. we could tell you were playing quietly, but playing well... definitely worth the top 3 finish.... and had you won the last HOH, well, everything would have changed.

Was a great time.. Thanks for playing along with me (even though you were targeting me) and thanks for the vote

-Tyson

-----Original Message-----
From: coachbug
To: polabonez
Sent: 6/18/2014 11:02:00 AM
Subject: Grats

You played a hell of a game. You made my first go round a lot if fun.

You were my target throughout this whole game. You were the expert on this game, taking you to the end would just be silly. I was tightly aligned with psap and my plan was to get you out around f4 or f5. (Now I know that wouldn't have happened with psap wanting to beat you in a final)

I never trusted you. I thought I was just a pawn. Which is why I truly thought I was gone when psap was on the block with me.

But you were honest and straight up with me and that is why you ultimately got my vote.


I look forward to playing with you again.

- Dennis.

Good luck in hbd!


--------

Bottom line is I thought he was with me. He might be the player to watch out for in future survivor games.

Posted by dublinuf on 6/18/2014 9:49:00 PM (view original):
I will say that horvie did make what would be considered the worst move, by my estimation.

He went home with a Golden Power of Veto which would have allowed him to remove both people nominated from the block and replace them himself after the PoV thus stealing control completely from the HoH.

And he was voted out on the next to the last vote to be able to play the Golden Power of Veto.

I was only allowed to remove 1 nomination, not 2. And it had to be used before the POV. Still stupid not to use it though. Like I said, I thought my best option at the time was to trust a 4 person alliance of psap, geos, pola, and I. I thought I was a pawn and either Ahrens or thebish would be eliminated (until the pov, where I wasn't allowed to use it anymore). Changing the nomination at that point would have went against psap and put pola in more danger....damaging trust with 2 of the 3 players I wanted to go to final 4 with.

Had absolutely no idea he was with Psap. Just lucky they ended up on the block together

Posted by horvie78 on 6/18/2014 10:20:00 PM (view original):

Posted by dublinuf on 6/18/2014 9:49:00 PM (view original):
I will say that horvie did make what would be considered the worst move, by my estimation.

He went home with a Golden Power of Veto which would have allowed him to remove both people nominated from the block and replace them himself after the PoV thus stealing control completely from the HoH.

And he was voted out on the next to the last vote to be able to play the Golden Power of Veto.

I was only allowed to remove 1 nomination, not 2. And it had to be used before the POV. Still stupid not to use it though. Like I said, I thought my best option at the time was to trust a 4 person alliance of psap, geos, pola, and I. I thought I was a pawn and either Ahrens or thebish would be eliminated (until the pov, where I wasn't allowed to use it anymore). Changing the nomination at that point would have went against psap and put pola in more danger....damaging trust with 2 of the 3 players I wanted to go to final 4 with.

Jsyk; I didn't know about psaps plan when you asked me if you should play it. I honestly thought we were good w Psap, you, geos, and I.

Had no idea Psap had other plans.

I would have loved to be in the final 2 w Psap (and even wrote a letter of home saying it), already wrote my speech about it:

"If you don't vote for me, Psap will win".

Honestly Psap could have played us both if he stuck with it.

Wish the letters to home would have survived. I said a lot.

Basically that if you (horvie) ****** me over I was dead because I trusted you 100% and that Psap or Csudak would win because I trusted then more than I should.

Turns out I was right

Here was the Advantage Power of Veto:


As you convince Michael J. Fox to beat Star Fire for you, you are a bit hesitant.

Lucky you, he his good.

As he finishes the game, Leon comes on the screen and tells you that you have won the Diamond Power of Veto.

Exceptionally useful, it allows you to remove a nominee from the board and replace it with a nominee of your choosing (instead of letting the HoH do it.)

You have to use it before the Final Five and it must be used before the PoV competition. Still, whoever you use it on cannot go back on the block and neither can you. (which is why you need six just in case you use it on someone, there still has to be a potential replacement nominee out there.

Congrats.

Also to thebish:

Your question about regrets: I would answer differently now.

I do regret voting you out. I thought after I survived you deserved to be around. I think the right move was voting you out because of your challenge skill, but I do regret it after we just made a deal.

Felt like you played an amazing game and I would have definitely voted for you to win over most of the jury

Posted by stevedotdec on 6/18/2014 2:11:00 PM (view original):
Looks like I only have stuff back to May.  I assumed dubs was keeping stuff, so I didn't.  Unfortunately, I don't have any of the "official" letters home, just some updates from a couple of players, speculating how things would play out.

Share them!

Will teach me to not log into my Trinity account and reread it lol