Goals and alliance structure

[Selah]

Initial goals:

1. Make contact with everyone on my tribe to get a feel for them.

2. Pick out a couple of players that are not as active or as promising to my game and target them.

3. Make several alliances. (My final 2 is with Goltemis, all others are secondary to me. If he is voted out before we merge then I will honor my secondary final 2 alliance with Brighton. )

4. Structure out the weaknesses and strengths of everyone on my tribe.

5. MAKE THE MERGE!!

[Selah]

ALLIANCE STRUCTURE:

Goltemis- final 2 alliance

Brighton- he has proposed a final 2 and I have bit part of the hook. As final 2 is so far out, I don't forsee all 3 of us making the merge or a position to choose so I don't think it hurts to have this secondary alliance.

Jason- he and I have agreed to work together. I think he is a straight player and is good to his word and he is exicted to work with a newbie. Whether he fully believes I am new or not will be determined later but he seems trusting at this point.

Bird Man- ahhhhh BioDork. I look forward to working with him once we are merged. I think that he will help to keep Goltemis off of radar. If he makes it then I am all for a final 6 with him. I don't want to promise anything past that point.

[Selah]

Well had this whole post all prepared and then posted it but didn't have my password in and this site doesn't let you go back and get it like SEG does......long and short is that I need to watch everyone over the next weeks to see who is with whom and who is protecting whom.

At this point I think the best final 4 I could set up is:
me, Jason, CP, and Brighton.

Raymond and Chad could be together and Chad wants to take out Brighton.

Benefit of that final 4 is that I think that CP is more loyal to me than he is to the others and I know that Jason and Brighton aren't on the best terms and would take me in a final 2 situation. Will need to watch and see how things develop!

[Selah]

Well I have set a few things in motion.....Jason being out of town for the past challenge is making this vote a lot harder for me to control. All I need is one person and Chad will go. If I meet too much resistance because of Jason being gone then I will have to re-evaluate my goals for this game and consider going forward with the final 4 plans that Chad wanted (me, him, Raymond, and Brighton). This would obviously put my friend CP on the outs which I am not happy about but if I can't get CP to agree to vote out Chad then CP will likely see the brunt of that if we lose again.

[Selah]

Well I went on vacation right after the merge and have had to completely re-vamp my game.
CrabbyPatti and Brighton are both out of the game and Raymond is working with Rock/Nurse/Liz
We were successful in voting out Nurse at this TC.

Final 4 possibility of me and Jason with ZHP and Bird.
This could be a great situation for me because I have been with Jason since the beginning and have helped him and I am sure that he has helped me. Bird (Eric) has made so many enemies just for playing the game and changing up alliances that it is just ridiculous. It is stupid to me that Nurse/Rock are all over Eric for "jumping" for no reason when Raymond jumped on his tribe! Things like that happen and you should have a better grasp on who you are trusting BEFORE that situation arises. It doesn't bother me so much that Raymond did this because he and I never had the alliance solidified and I ensured that Chad went out. I don't feel like he owes me anything but I do feel that there could be at least an amiable relationship there if needs be at the end of the game.

As crappy as this sounds, I need to get votes stacked on ZHP to at least match Jason so that once we reach the final 4, I can ensure that Jason survives to the final 3. ZHP did get a vote at this TC so that helps!
This is all if Eric is even an issue as I may have another idea to use Rock to take out ZHP before that comes about. Will have to move on that fast though otherwise I won't be able to hide in it.

[Selah]

Dang it...I must have not posted my last reply regarding the vote with Rock but I guess it really doesn't matter now.
Rock was voted out but not with the four votes that he SHOULD have been voted out with. This could cause a massive problem if ZHP is trying to flip because he could still cause a tie in the next round and take out Jason thus breaking my legs. It is blatently obvious that ZHP is not to be trusted as he voted for Raymond (at least that is what I am deducing)
I have not decided who needs to be voted out this round between ZHP or Liz. I would much rather keep Liz because at least she plays straight but I think that she is a bigger threat to me than ZHP.

Here is who is left in the game with me:
Jason
BirdMan
ZHP
Liz
Raymond

I have a few options to consider at this point but after ZHP's little shenanigans I don't think that I would want to consider one of them.

I could try to get Ray to come along and take out ZHP this round which was what I was originally planning anyway because I don't want a tie at 4th to screw out Jason. (I don't think that Bird would stick with ZHP now after his litle charade) I wish that Z had stuck with Eric because it would have given me more credibility in going after Raymond to take out Z right now.
But unfortunately I have to deal with the fact that
Z
Liz
Ray

could very well come head to head with
Bird
myself
Jason

Jason can't beat a tie against ANYONE! So this could very likely set up Z, Liz, Ray, myself to go final 4 and me out at 4 if they stuck together.
Raymond has proved that he is unreliable so another option that I could play with is to offer Liz protection and have her help me take out Z now. OR I could go after Ray by telling her that he is unreliable and doesn't stick around to vote when he is supposed to...he is inactive and doesn't deserve a shot to be in the final 4.

I really like Liz but I am afraid that she could go on an immunity run and go all the way. I am not convinced that she would win just because of strategy concerns but it is still an option.

BUT I do t hink that she is very reliable in voting actively. I want to run this idea past Jason to see what he thinks. But I personally believe that taking out either Ray or Z right now is the best thing that could happen.....I think I will push for Ray.....because Liz and Z will be upset with him for not coming through and being inactive and I could sell this plan to Jason and Bird as well so it will make all happy but ensure my safety to the fnals even more.

[Selah]

OK....so I caught Z when he was feeling guilty about the flip before he left for Italy and confirmed that he absentee voted for Ray on this next vote...so his vote is not dangerous to me.
Bird has immunity and wants to vote for Ray.
I knew that Ray would be a simple vote to get since both sides were peeved at him but another vote has been worked out compliments of my partner Jason and apparently Liz and Ray are willing to vote out Z. I really didn't think that this vote would be an option because Z did flip to their side on the last vote and so they wouldn't be mad at Z. But apparently Jason has been talking with Liz and she and Ray are willing to vote out Z. This is really all about Jason because he is the one that could be in danger because if there is a 2-2-2 vote then he will be the one ultimately ejected from the game. I trust his instincts on this and am sure that we will both be ok.
This just has to work because if not then Jason goes and I have made fast enemies of Z and Eric and would be an easy 5th out for both sides to agree on.
Jason will continue to stay in Liz's ear and I am going to get in Ray's ear on this.
If this works then the next vote will be for Liz which will leave Ray/Bird/me/Jason as the final 4......in this situation I would have 3 men there who all are loyal to me and would at that point take me to the final 2.

[Selah]

Well well well......my little plan is coming together nicely I must say!
Z was voted out last week and now I can move on to Liz.
Ray has immunity which I couldn't have planned better if I wrote the script because I wanted him to be completely safe because that means that he will feel safer with me telling him that I am voting for Liz and he will feel more open to tell me how he feels without worrying about repercussions.

My absolute only concerns left in this game are

1. if Ray goes on a winning streak and decides to take Bird to the finals.

2. If Bird wins immunity at final 3 and decides that Jason is the better adversary at final 2.

Both of these are very real options and really it doesn't matter who goes out at this point, there is a real chance that I won't be sitting in the finals because there are smaller threats out there. Even if Ray wins immunity again and we take out Bird...I am still left with the possibility that Ray could win yet a third time and take Jason over me! It doens't matter how you cut this cake!
I know that these are all possibilitites and I am relatively...ok 99.9999999% sure that both Bird and Jason would choose me if they win the final IC, there is always that worry at this stage in the game....have I made the right decisions....have I decided on the correct people to be with me in the end.....do I have their loyalty just as I am loyal to them? So many questions and the clock is ticking to an end!

[Selah]

Bird has told Liz and Ray that he is voting for me. He has come to me to let me know that he did this in case they bring it to me to blackmail him. They have not done so which really doesn't surprise me since I told Liz that I was voting for her. Bird may have done this simply to avoid getting a vote but he inadvertantly may have helped Jason IF Jason didn't make it online to vote. I did see that he has been on so I believe that Jason will also have voted for Liz but haven't heard a for sure on that.

[Selah]

Well this vote went pretty much as I thought it would. Bird voted for Liz while Liz and Raymond voted for me. Bird says that he did this because he felt that I would be more understanding than Jason would be if he had them vote for him. Well I think that Bird is feeling a little uneasy and so he wanted to stack votes on me. To me this shows a complete lack of control of the game. If you are having to stack in the final 4 but didn't think to do that several rounds ago then can you really claim control over the game? I think that he sees that he lost control the second that we took Z out of the game and now he is sure that he is next and is just hoping that a tie situation comes into play. Well.....now he is really in a pickle....
He has offered Jason and myself final 2s...and has gone so far as to tell Jason (hello!! Jason is my final 2 alliance and the only person who has been there with me on this whole ride!) that he thinks that I need to be voted out next because I am "unbeatable"
This really isn't a smooth move to make at this stage in the game. Not when you have all your cards in a row and you are supposed to be in the trust stage of the game. I feel a bit like Parvati in that I can just sit on the beach and wait for my final 2 to start while he is scrambling to rearrange things at the last possible second.
Will this work for me? Who knows! Sometimes the person who scrambles last...scrambles best!
I have been talking with Raymond and showing him that I am a straight shooter...blah blah blah...so that if the time comes that I decide that I need his vote, I will have it.
If I knew Eric's prior votes then I would know for sure if Jason needed to have immunity or if I needed it. I really think that I need it because I am a bigger threat. I will just wait to hear from Ray and play it by ear. I would hate to vote Eric out because I do think that he deserves to be in the game, but I am not about to throw Jason under the bus just to make Eric happy.

As far as final 3 going into a final 2....I would pick the person that I had the most loyalty to and the person who I think deserves the spot.

[Selah]

Can you believe this?
I sure can't!
I didn't think in a kazillion years that I was going to win this last immunity challenge!!
The last challenge I worked with Jason and gave him answers and made sure that he sent them in before I did so that he would win immunity. I felt that this move gave us more options in case Raymond wanted to play ball and take out Bird. But Ray didn't want to play and even went so far as ignoring my posts to him! I couldn't believe that he did that because if anything he could have played to my ear and I would have voted for Bird!
But since he didn't and I didn't want a conspiracy to cause a tie between me and Bird, I decided that I would join Bird in his quest to take out Ray.
I have learned so much about Bird in this game. I still consider him a friend but I can see how people feel about him. He does things just to make himself look good. He throws his allies under the bus just so that he smells better. He lied to Ray and told him that he was going to vote for me too. In all reality, Bird has done this twice and the reason is that he wants to be the only one who can go to finals and say that he had no votes the whole game! Well to me that is a VERY unnecessary and self serving move and I don't appreciate it at all! It is something that I wouldn't do!
Anyway, fast forward to the final 3 challenge.....I finally was able to get a hold of Jason and learned that he was still very much for our final 2 and planned on taking me if he won. So, I helped him catch up on the answers and then I had to guess on a few before I finally submitted.
I later got word on Chet's answer and sent that to Jason just in case we had to have cerulean, I wanted to make sure that Jason had that point and won the challenge.
I can't believe that blue was accepted too!! YAYAYAYA!
How exciting!
Of course Bird is trying to make me feel sooooo crappy for lying to him about Will's answer but seriously, what can he expect? He made it very clear to me that he had promised Jason a final 2 on top of telling me that he wanted me to be with him in the finals. How can I trust that!? I can't! It makes no sense to me why he would even be trying to get answers if he had already submitted so my mind is screaming that he hadn't submitted and was just wanting the correct answer so that he could get the point!

Anyway, I have this decision which really isn't a decision that I have to make. More of just a formality...of course I am taking Jason!
I have done nothing but ensure his safety since the beginning of the game and I am not about to sweep him out now! I think Bird has played a good game and he deserves a spot in the finals.....loyalty comes first and while I am loyal to Bird (through the final 6)....I am loyal to Jason to the end.
I hope that once this is read when the game is over that Eric and everyone else will understand my feelings and thoughts of the game. I am proud of my game and proud of my partnership with Jason.

Now...I just have to get the votes without making Jason look like a coat tail rider or talking badly about him in any way!
Wish me luck!

[Purple Rock]

That's to much to read but.....

1. if Ray goes on a winning streak and decides to take Bird to the finals.

Are you joking....or serious? LOL

[ZhanHuPwns]

Jul 31, 2008 13:13:05 GMT -5 Purple Rock said:

That's to much to read but.....

1. if Ray goes on a winning streak and decides to take Bird to the finals.

Are you joking....or serious? LOL

LMAO

[Purple Rock]

Well, seriously........come on. There is a better chance of him getting to actually make a vote in TC then there is for him to even participate in a challenge.

And we both know how hard it is for him to actually vote. *eyeroll*

[ZhanHuPwns]

ye lol.

but didnt he win a challenge? i think i remember that... it was probably a luck challenge