[Jeff Probst]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 4:17:51 am #7136

I'm really torn on how I'm going to vote tonight and your answers will impact heavily on how I vote.

Heidi:

Can you think of a time where you thought you were in control but later found out that you weren't?
How much do you think luck and advantages contributed to your game and do you think you'd be in this position without any lucky breaks or advantages?

Tammy:

Can you give an example of a time where you either went against Heidi's wishes, or convinced Heidi/your alliance to do something that Heidi initially didn't want to happen?

Hayden:

When you were on the bottom, what strategy did you have in place to make sure you survived and eventually got into the numbers? Or did you just coast and hope for the best?

Well played to all of you, it's been an honour to be part of such an amazing season with incredible players. Thanks also to Jeff Probst and all the hosts for taking the time to run all of this for our often ungrateful and moany asses (myself in particular).

[Heidi]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 4:29:22 am #7144 How much do you think luck and advantages contributed to your game and do you think you'd be in this position without any lucky breaks or advantages?

Hey Penner:

There are two distinct times that I thought I was in control but I wasn't, one moreso than the other. The first was the first vote at the merge when Richard went home. I sort of knew there was a good chance that the whole thing was falling apart because we didn't really get a chance to coordinate our votes, and they ended up going two different ways, but I really thought that Val was with us and she wasn't. That hit me low, and I had to go into overdrive after that tribal council to get her back on our side and regain control of the game.

The other time I was a little surprised is when Val went home. I had gotten a feeling that Tammy and I were in danger, but when we both became immune I thought for sure that you, Nate, and Ozzy would go for one of Hayden, Sierra, or Sugar instead of Val. I knew very well that you and Nate were not entirely with me, but I was pretty shocked to see Ozzy flip to the other side for that one round. I think he's even admitted at one point after that tribal council that he probably made the wrong move.

Otherwise, I think I had a pretty good sense of when my head was on the chopping block and when it wasn't. I was such an obvious target for so many people, so that made it easy to figure out when I was going to be getting votes. It also helped that I had a bunch of relationships, some of them through Tammy, that made it a little more obvious when I was in danger. That allowed me to counter-punch and get myself out of those situations, especially in the rounds where I didn't have immunity.

The only real "lucky break" I think was really an act of God was getting to pick the tribes for the final swap. That put me in a really great position on the new Saipan tribe, and played a big part in getting to the merge with some numbers (though it took one round after the merge for that to play out). We ended up winning those two challenges, so the makeup of my tribe didn't end up mattering in that period, but I can think of a ton of situations where I may have ended up on a tribe that could have won two challenges or a tribe where I could have survived two votes to make it to the merge.

There was the round that we picked rocks, where I went out of my way to be extra obnoxious so that I would get the votes initially and be immune for the random draw, so I wouldn't even put that up to luck entirely either. Though I can say I think that the way that the numbers worked out with the odds and whatnot really convinced my allies to go for that move to save me. There are a number of "lucky breaks" and "advantages" that a lot of other people came into this game with and received along the way, but the game is about playing around those and putting yourself in the best position possible to withstand the unexpected. I did just that and I'm sitting here today as proof of that.

[Tammy]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 4:30:33 am #7145

Can you give an example of a time where you either went against Heidi's wishes, or convinced Heidi/your alliance to do something that Heidi initially didn't want to happen?

Well the most glaring example is when I had to convince Heidi to vote for Ozzy at the final 5 when... Ozzy was voting her out. I don't know what homegirl was on that round but for some reason even as Ozzy was explaining that he was turning on us, Heidi was refusing to see it or something. During that f5 scramble, you were the one that Heidi wanted to target but because you/Ozzy were targeting Heidi, we had to depend on Hayden, and I knew that our better shot at getting Hayden was to make sure that we booted Ozzy. It kind of took a moment to have Heidi grasp that but I think it's because she was so in love with Ozzy. No joke, she's obsessed with him. She has his picture as her lock screen. it's kind of creepy actually.

Aside from that, there wasn't really a round where Heidi decided who the vote was on? Most of the time, Heidi was getting the votes, and she and I had to figure out who the people who didn't want to vote for Heidi wanted to vote for and go with that. I swear, taking care of her was such a chore some times

Also random and not that big of a deal, but people can confirm or not but I was the first to push Rocky's name as the one to go the round he left in our alliance group message. We were debating on a target from the other side and the only one I was willing to vote was Rocky, because I had a relationship with Hayden/Sugar/Sierra. I don't necessarily think I'm the reason he left but that was more me than it was Heidi at the very least.

The last moment that I think could apply here is the f7 round before it all went to rocks, you/Hayden approached me about the possibility of voting out Ozzy if Heidi won immunity. Had Heidi won immunity that night, and I felt that you and Hayden were both genuine about it, I would have gone behind Heidi's back potentially to boot Ozzy in that vote. Potentially. That was an option that I kept open, because I still felt that I would have been okay since you would have needed Sierra and Heidi out ahead of me still and I could have worked a lot of angles after that.

[Hayden]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 4:30:58 am #7146

I'm really torn on how I'm going to vote tonight and your answers will impact heavily on how I vote.

Hayden:

When you were on the bottom, what strategy did you have in place to make sure you survived and eventually got into the numbers? Or did you just coast and hope for the best?

Well played to all of you, it's been an honour to be part of such an amazing season with incredible players. Thanks also to Jeff Probst and all the hosts for taking the time to run all of this for our often ungrateful and moany asses (myself in particular).

Hey Penner!
I already mentioned this in my OS, but I'll gladly mention it here again :) , when I came into the merge, my main GOAL was to make sure that I get alot of options on my side. It was very obvious that there was going to be some divide at the merge between Dan's alliance and whoever was against it. I had to prepared and pick someone from the other side that I found common ground with, and was going to have my back, and that person was Tammy. So, I proposed to her that we should look out for each other. Therefore, my main goal was to have a plan B in case I were to be in a minority in the next coming rounds. Back in my season (Nepal), I got screwed at the merge, I ended up being in the minority and I didn't have any backup plan, this time around. I made sure things were going to work out differently, I didn't want to repeat the same mistake twice. So when that day came and my side happened to be on the minority, I was confident that I was going to get away because I had good relationships with people and despite being on the wrong side of numbers , I was always in a better position than those who were vulnerable.

I hope this answers your question, thanks Penner! :)

[Jeff Probst]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 4:35:21 am #7147 Thank you, Penner.

I want to thank the Jurors for their patience and questioning tonight. And I want to thank the final three for answering all of the questions thoroughly. I want to thank my cohosting staff for devoting so many hours to this to make it great and I want to thank everyone who participated for making this one of the best seasons of Stranded to date.

With that said, I will now give you a chance to say a closing statement.

Jury, you will have until tomorrow at 7:00c/8:00e to get your final votes in for the WINNER of Stranded with Allies.

Final three, I need you guys to vote for who of the other two members of the final three you would like to win in the event of a tie.

Good luck everyone and I'll see you tomorrow at 8c/9e for the reveal of the winner and the post game fun.

[Heidi]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 4:36:13 am #7148 For the record, my hesitance to vote Ozzy out was pretty low once I found out he was targeting me. My public expressions of distress were because I really loved Ozzy and hated to see us turning on one another, Tammy.

[Tammy]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 4:45:18 am #7151 Thanks so much everyone!

so after the first speech I was concerned there was one, uniform opinion with this jury about me and the game that I played but I was glad to see that as the speeches progressed everyone else seemed really open to different things. I do feel that there were some of you that were willing to vote for me. People are going to have their opinions on whether I played second fiddle to Heidi, or whether Heidi was the beautiful figurehead and I was the brains and the brawn of the duo. I've presented my case for that and I just hope it was enough.

The one thing I do want to touch base on is the possible notion that I didn't have the drive to win. That to me, Heidi and I being the final 3 was enough for me. That's absolutely not the case. I have always wanted to win. I've always had my eye on the prize. Reading through Heidi and Hayden's posts, there were times tonight where both of them attributed different things to me that I think help prove my point as to why I should win this. From Hayden saying that he sought me out as the person from the other alliance to bond with and potentially work with down the line (and I believe it's possible that Sierra and Sugar felt this about me, too), to Heidi saying that I was better at executing plans. I always had my eye on the prize, from start to finish. and I think if people underestimated me and looked at me as just a second-string... maybe that's the reason that you're sitting there and I'm sitting here, honestly. food for thought.

This has been an absolute blast, and getting to be here after 7 years and getting to play this and accomplish everything I wanted to accomplish is really indescribable. No matter what happens tonight, I feel really #blessed.

and good luck Heidi & Hayden!

[Kelly Wigles]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 4:50:53 am #7154

Thank you, Penner.

I want to thank the Jurors for their patience and questioning tonight. And I want to thank the final three for answering all of the questions thoroughly. I want to thank my cohosting staff for devoting so many hours to this to make it great and I want to thank everyone who participated for making this one of the best seasons of Stranded to date.

With that said, I will now give you a chance to say a closing statement.

Jury, you will have until tomorrow at 7:00c/8:00e to get your final votes in for the WINNER of Stranded with Allies.

Final three, I need you guys to vote for who of the other two members of the final three you would like to win in the event of a tie.

Good luck everyone and I'll see you tomorrow at 8c/9e for the reveal of the winner and the post game fun.

[Heidi]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 4:52:10 am #7155 First, I want to echo a bunch of what Jeff said about the players and the hosts both making this such an incredibly fun and exciting season to play in. As much as I love getting to be in the final 3 because I have a chance to win, I'm equally as happy that I am in the final three because it means I got to be a part of the action for the entire game.

Coming into this game not knowing anyone was intimidating. In these returning player seasons, social dynamics that were formed before the season (both within the Stranded canon and on Skype chats) are more important than social dynamics that develop over the course of the game itself. I also, honestly, did't have a lot of time to message for a good part of the game after the first swap. I needed to be highly strategic and very focused in on certain individuals whom I knew I needed to survive another round in the game. Despite all of you trying over and over again to get rid of me, I'm still here, alive like a real cockroach queen. Hurricane Heidi was a forced to be feared in this game, and like most storms, I was truly unstoppable. I zigged and zagged at the right times to stay in the game - this isn't luck - this is strategy and an understanding of numbers that has propelled me to the end against all odds.

I've said this before and I'll say it again: Tammy and Hayden didn't face the same sort of adversity that I did. We're different people and we play different games, sure, but I don't think either of them played with as much on the line as I did here. I put everything out on the table in order to propel myself forward, and it worked - over and over again. Things didn't go Hayden's way a number of times and he's still here. If things hadn't gone my way the rounds I wasn't immune I'd be sitting on the jury, trying to decide if I wanted Sierra, Penner, or Nate to win this game. Tammy made a lot of moves in this game, but it's a hell of a lot easier to make moves when you have an insurance policy in an ally who is a vote sponge. If things didn't go Tammy's way - she got a free pass through the next round in the game! It's a lot easier to play when you know a mulligan is always on the horizon.

I don't understand how all of you could continue to target me for being a threat to win and then turn around and not reward me for getting to the end after I defied all of your efforts to take me down. I kept proving you right. I was a threat to win and now I'm here - my presence in the final 3 is a testimonial to just how right you were about my ability to play this game. I made it out alive even though you had your sights set on me. I overcame it all.

Again, thank you so much for the fun game, and thank you for your questions tonight. I hope I could answer everything - I take pride in how I've conducted myself at tribal councils throughout this game, and I hope that this wasn't an exception.

Finally, good luck Tammy and Hayden - may the best player win

[Hayden]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 4:52:15 am #7156 Guys, thanks for the questions, I had fun. I really thought I was going to struggle tonight despite being ESL but it turned out quite well actually! All I can say is I think I’ve played this game very well and I’ve grown and learned from it and I can proudly say that I’m no longer the same person that I started playing in my first Stranded. Sure, I had weaknesses, I wasn’t the loudest , certainly was not the craftiest of them all but I’ve played with the card that I had and I’m not ashamed of it, and it was a pretty damn good UTR game.
I was always in a good position even when I found myself in the minority. In the end, I didn’t get a single vote cast against me which was a major tap on the back , I befriended those who were in power and were on good terms with them. and last but not least I made great relationships here, I had a blast thanks for the ride guys it was a fun experience!
and
good luck with your decision!
best of luck to Tammy and Heidi <3