[Jeff Probst]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 2:50:17 am #7046 Next up, Nate

So, congrats to the Final 3. You guys all played well to get here, regardless of what everybody else says.

I feel like I have nothing too meaningful to say that won't be covered by the other 9 people in the jury, but I guess I might as well use this opportunity to stroke my ego a little bit - and instead of most people who already decided who to vote for and are doing the same, I'm going to be a bit more direct about it.

Whoever compliments me the most gets my jury vote.

Be free to incorporate compliments into other people's answers. Quality of compliments > Quantity of compliments.

Good luck to all of you and again good game.

[Heidi]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 2:52:37 am #7049 Are we supposed to say something now or just incorporate our Nate compliments into our other answers?


Nate, I actually think you were playing a really great UTR game with great alliances, idols, and challenge prowess. Definitely a major threat to win, which is why you had to go. I always think unanimous votes post-merge are huge compliments, so I'm glad I helped arrange that

[Hayden]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 2:53:41 am #7051

How did you manage your communications with the other players in this game?

The biggest one that I think had a direct influence over the vote was Hayden though. I think what's interesting is that this is something that Hayden has been bringing up a lot in his own speech, but I believe that some of the seeds I planted with him early on are a big part of the reason that the end-game went the way that it did. Hayden and I formed a relationship early on in the merge. It was basically a showmance. We might be dating IRL after the game is over, not sure yet. But anyway, Hayden trusted me to take him to the end, I believe, and I think that's a big reason why he decided to flip on Sugar and come with Heidi & I, and then why he continued that path through the f5/f4. He could have flipped on Sugar and then split us up at 5, but he didn't, and I think it's because he trusted that we would go to the end with him, and he trusted that because of his relationship with me.

hmm not really lol , I had my own gameplan and I was the one who came up to you during the merge, and the reason why I flipped on Sugar was because it didn't benefit me , I wasn't going to sacrifice my safety in the game knowing you were going to be immune next round and with the possibility of Ozzy winning immunity
it didn't make sense for me

[Tammy]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 2:57:36 am #7054 One of the only regrets that I have in this game is not ever being able to find a HII, and the embarrassing truth is that I was never even able to get into any of the forums. I consider myself pretty decent at challenges, and pretty smart overall, but I still couldn't crack any of those clues. So the fact that you were able to find not one, not two, but THREE idols is one of the most impressive things I can think of in this game. Not only does it take smarts but it takes a whole hell of a lot of dedication too.

Beyond just that, I also think it takes a hell of a lot of balls to play an idol on someone other than yourself and that's something I admire. Like I know the word "big moves" gets thrown around a lot and most of the time doesn't have a meaning to it but I think things like that are the kind of big moves that actually impress me. even if it didn't work out, it's bold but not flashy for the sake of being flashy.

and I think you would absolutely be on the DVD cover for this season

[Hayden]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 3:00:08 am #7058

Next up, Nate

So, congrats to the Final 3. You guys all played well to get here, regardless of what everybody else says.

I feel like I have nothing too meaningful to say that won't be covered by the other 9 people in the jury, but I guess I might as well use this opportunity to stroke my ego a little bit - and instead of most people who already decided who to vote for and are doing the same, I'm going to be a bit more direct about it.

Whoever compliments me the most gets my jury vote.

Be free to incorporate compliments into other people's answers. Quality of compliments > Quantity of compliments.

Good luck to all of you and again good game.

lol Nate, aka ~idol whisperer~ you played a great game! and believe me you will be on the cover this season!
I mean you found almost every idol in this game , and you were running things back on Pohnpei, oh and the first thing I'm going to do once this is over is look at that super idol play the one you idoled out my nemesis from Portugal, and I will enjoy every post of it :D
but seriously I enjoyed our talks and I hope you got your circadian rhythm back to normal
later bud! :D

[Jeff Probst]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 3:02:19 am #7061 Thank you, Nate.

Next up: Rocky!

[Heidi]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 3:08:30 am #7070

[Rocky]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 3:09:26 am #7073 suuuuuuuhp guys.

first and foremost, thank you to poody for hosting me a second time and putting faith into me to be a ballin dude, and thanks to all the hosts that did shit to make this season studly.

second of all thank you everyone for playing with me and putting up with my nonsense. i know i'm stupid, but i embrace it, so props to all of the people who put up with me these last few months.

awright lets get to business. before i played in this season of stranded, i was a lowly little guy from Faroe Islands, busting shit out and messing around with it all. i had to start from the bottom, with little allies, and all the allies i did have were gone by final 9. I hustled and bustled afterwards, smooth talking the people in power, and managed to find myself in the final 3.

why am i talking about myself? for two reasons, one is cause i'm baller and two is cause my boy hayden is sitting right there having a very similar journey, and IMO even a better one than i had. i lost that game after a 4-4-1 jury vote and the tiebreaker was not in my favor. however, to this day, i believe i should have won. the system was broken, fuck the rules, i think i deserved the win and i almost had the votes to prove it.

however, i'm seeing de ja vu. i'm seeing a chance to make it right, by giving hayden, my protege, a chance at nabbing the win with a similar playstyle as my own (an even BETTER one, imo).

hayden, brohan, you had my vote socially when you were my top ally. however, you earned it in every other way by showing that a successful underdog play-style is more impressive than starting with power. at least in my opinion.

i hate to not give heidi or tammy a chance to win my vote over though, so heidi/tammy, reading what you saw above, why should I NOT vote for hayden and instead vote for one of you two? tell me "rocky, shut your damn mouth, hayden was nothing like the legend you were and here's why".

hayden, i dont really have a question for you, but feel free to respond to heidi/tammy's question, cause i'm basically asking them to roast you.

awright guys, GL, and awesome game.

[Hayden]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 3:16:03 am #7077 hahah Thanks man!
I still remember our talks about how to crush it in a FTC! :)
and it's okay, I can handle myself

[Heidi]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 3:17:06 am #7079 Well I've already explained in one way why I don't think that Hayden deserves to win the game but I'll do it again, slightly expanding upon what I said before.

The main reason I don't think he deserves to win is that he had a much easier path to get here than I did. Like I said before, every move in this game for me was life-or-death. Every move in this game for Hayden was not life-or-death, but just a matter of other people making decisions around him and him playing along. Sure, there's an argument to be made for the follower game, but I think it's a much easier game to play. When you have no agency to make moves in this game, you are also exposed to a lot more risk. There were targets on my back that Hayden never really found on himself, so I don't really respect the very little effort he made to make it here. He was in the minority on more votes than I was, I believe, and is really only here because nobody saw him as a threat to win the game. To be left in the game because you're not threatening isn't "good gameplay" - but I'd argue making it to the final three in spite of your threat status, is.

I never really saw the social side of Hayden personally, and every interaction I had with everyone else on the tribe pretty much indicated that he was taking orders from Dan and Sierra, while they were around. He really wasn't in the driver's seat until the final 5, at which point he made a really fucking stupid decision to go to the final 4 with a pair of allies. Sure, Ozzy and Penner were threatening, but he was potentially putting himself at risk, numbers-wise, if he didn't win immunity. He got an ounce of power and made a terrible decision. Again, it wasn't life or death for him because nobody has worried the entire game about him winning. So I think it would be foolish for the jury to reward him for going out of his way to be seen as someone who wasn't likely to win the game.

[Tammy]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 3:18:05 am #7080

i hate to not give heidi or tammy a chance to win my vote over though, so heidi/tammy, reading what you saw above, why should I NOT vote for hayden and instead vote for one of you two? tell me "rocky, shut your damn mouth, hayden was nothing like the legend you were and here's why".

Well if we're talking underdogs, I'm not sure that Hayden is any more of an underdog than I was? I came into this really not knowing anyone, and even my ally was someone that I had never played with before. I know not many of you were there for this, but I literally couldn't even figure out how to send a PM the first round of the game and I didn't realize there was a separate board for challenges until Jeff directed me to it I didn't have relationships from former seasons to depend on, and I had to basically get to know everyone and have everyone get to know me from scratch. I definitely am not someone who just started at the top. In fact, I'm not sure I was ever "at the top." I think I had to ~ball out~ just as much to get here in a couple of big ways (immunities, extra votes, partner necklaces).

[Jeff Probst]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 3:19:47 am #7082 Thank you, Rocky.

Next Up: Richard!

[Rocky]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 3:19:50 am #7083 alright ladies, thank you. hayden, if you want to respond to either of them, feel free, but otherwise i got what i need and i'll make my decision tonight poods. thanks for having me.

[Richard]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 3:22:41 am #7086 Hey guys. I’ll make this quick because I know that you are going to be doing a ton of writing tonight

Heidi and Tammy: When I look at both of your games, I have a hard time figuring out which of you actually pulled the majority of the weight. With that being said, my question is:
How was your game different (and better) than your partner’s game? Specific examples would be helpful here. I want you to really own your game and talk about stuff you did without your partner's knowledge.

Hayden: Honestly, I'm open to voting for you tonight. One thing that I value in a Stranded contestant is self-awareness, so I want to ask you this:

Being in Ponderosa, it appears to me that the people who might vote for you are only doing so for lack of better options (votes against Heidi/Tammy). Are you aware that if you win, it will be because you got votes against Heidi and Tammy and not votes for you to win?

If you acknowledge that, I could really see myself voting for you. Otherwise, I would have a really hard time justifying giving my vote to someone who was immune through the first portion of the game because their partner didn't even bother showing up (while the rest of us worked super hard), went to sleep for the middle of the game and only woke up at final 6.

[Hayden]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 3:30:56 am #7093

Well I've already explained in one way why I don't think that Hayden deserves to win the game but I'll do it again, slightly expanding upon what I said before.

The main reason I don't think he deserves to win is that he had a much easier path to get here than I did. Like I said before, every move in this game for me was life-or-death.

I agree that I had a much easier path than perhaps Heidi, but it is your actions and how you carry yourself in this game that's going to make people targeting you. All the alliances I've been with, all I've heard let's get rid of Heidi because no offense but they couldn't tolerate you.. which left you no choice to depend on immunity win and having an idol getting played on you, I just chose a different route which helped me

I never really saw the social side of Hayden personally, and every interaction I had with everyone else on the tribe pretty much indicated that he was taking orders from Dan and Sierra, while they were around.

I did try my hardest to connect with you, and perhaps you didn't really see it in our PMs because the other other day you told me yourself you were bad at messaging

He really wasn't in the driver's seat until the final 5, at which point he made a really fucking stupid decision to go to the final 4 with a pair of allies.

lol no , it was a big risk but I had to prove to the jury for someone who hid behind targets that I was just as capable of taking the biggest threat of this game.
and let's be honest what was not clever.. was you still attempting to save Ozzy when he was in fact throwing you under the bus. I mean even Tammy was upset with you on that one

[Heidi]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 3:33:51 am #7096 Hey Rich - thanks for the question!

I think my game was obviously different than Tammy's game, in that I was maybe a little more confrontational and upfront than Tammy in the way I felt with things. That's just a personality difference that really results in us playing the game in a different way. I do think it's a strength to a certain degree, because it makes you an unknown entity. There were people in this game who were targeted because they were sort of question marks, like you and Val both, actually, so I wanted to make it very clear where my allegiances were and who my targets were. I am naturally a leader, and I think displays of loyalty are good ways to build trust with those you are working with. Especially with a big merge like we had here, you're playing a game of building coalitions. I think that Tammy was better at executing plans, but I was better at coming up with ideas and thinking about their short and long-term impacts. To get people to join into my "cause" I felt like being vocal was the best way. Who is going to join up with someone who is playing half-heartedly?

I'm not going to lie and say that there are things I did without Tammy knowing about them. I don't know if she'll say the same thing, but in my mind it made sense for us to play as a duo since we were being viewed as one. Any attempt, real or fake, to show that there was distance between us wouldn't have worked in my opinion. There weren't a ton of pairs left in the game so there was a big red target on our back's as a unit, so it made sense to play with a unit. Sharing information really helped us to advance us in the game, as we were collecting strategic intelligence from different corners of the game. I had better relationships with you, Val, and Ozzy, while she had better relationships with people like Sierra, Hayden, and Sugar. You were a huge part of our pre-merge safety, which I think oftentimes goes overlooked in these final tribal councils, and Val and Ozzy were crucial parts of Tammy and I surviving the early and middle stages of the merge.

Sierra, Hayden, and Sugar were sort of a package unit after a certain point in the game, and I don't think those relationships payed off as much as mine did. Also you, Val, and Ozzy were sort of pieces from separate parts of the puzzle that I had to bring together, whereas Sierra, Hayden, and Sugar all very much came from the same corner. So we were playing both sides of the field, and it was very much joint effort, but I think that for a large part of the game I was very much steering the direction of our game.

[Heidi]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 3:39:25 am #7097

Well I've already explained in one way why I don't think that Hayden deserves to win the game but I'll do it again, slightly expanding upon what I said before.

The main reason I don't think he deserves to win is that he had a much easier path to get here than I did. Like I said before, every move in this game for me was life-or-death.

I agree that I had a much easier path than perhaps Heidi, but it is your actions and how you carry yourself in this game that's going to make people targeting you. All the alliances I've been with, all I've heard let's get rid of Heidi because no offense but they couldn't tolerate you.. which left you no choice to depend on immunity win and having an idol getting played on you, I just chose a different route which helped me

So I was a target because nobody liked me? Because what I was told dozens and dozens of times, by almost everyone, including yourself, was that I was being targeted because I was a threat to win the game. I find it hard to believe that I was targeted over and over again simply because people didn't like me.

Whether I was Hitler or Michael Phelps, I guess we'll find out tomorrow night

[Tammy]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 3:39:29 am #7098

How was your game different (and better) than your partner’s game? Specific examples would be helpful here. I want you to really own your game and talk about stuff you did without your partner's knowledge.

Hi Rich! So, I touched on this a little bit before but I'd like to go into it in more detail.

So for one, Heidi sacrificed her positioning in this game in order to engage in feuds, randomly. I think at times Heidi was maybe more concerned with being a character than with winning? For instance, the Sugar feud. I mean I still to this day have no idea where that even came from? It seems like Heidi just woke up one day and decided that she hated Sugar and was going to fight with her. I think things like that opened Heidi up to being a target, she kind of put herself in the firing line. I did the opposite. I sat back and tried to build relationships with people, and I used the fact that Heidi had a craving for the spotlight to advance my own game. I used her as a vote shield for sure, and I used the fact that I'd be immune if she were voted out to my advantage in order to force myself into people's long-term plans. People had to kind of be more honest with me, more open with me, etc. because even if they got rid of Heidi, I was never going anywhere.

Another instance where I think my game reads superior is when Heidi found the extra vote. It had to be passed to me because there was almost no chance I would be the one going home either round, because I was able to hold on to my necklace for longer and because I was never really at risk of leaving. If Heidi went home, the vote would go with her, so she transferred it to me. and I could have done whatever I wanted with it at that point, and that gave me a lot of power.

When it comes to deciding which of Heidi or I played a better game, I think it can kind of be done by figuring out if either of us could have made the finals without the other. I never received a vote against me. I was immune more than any other player in this game. and I think at some point everyone in the game kind of realized I'd most likely be sitting in the final 4 no matter what, if not final 3. if Heidi left, I was immune and became a pivotal vote in those last few rounds and I think I had a strong enough game to get myself to the end no matter what.

Could Heidi have made the end without me? No, I don't think so. Not just because she almost went home every round and needed my vote, but also because I think specific relationships of mine benefited her, not to mention sending the game to rocks. Had I not played that extra vote for her, Heidi would have left, and I still would have stuck around for a while longer. I also feel like in those last few rounds, I was more in control and more aware of what was going down then Heidi was.

Also the round that Val left, I threw immunity to Heidi so that we could both be immune, since I think the boys wanted her out there and just defaulted to Val when we were both immune.

I think that Heidi stood in the spotlight for a big part of the game and made herself the center of attention, but I was kind of behind the scenes much more aware of what was going on at times. I also hid my relationship with other people from Heidi a bit more, I think whereas I knew basically everything that went on with Heidi, who she was close with, who she trusted, etc. I held my cards a bit closer to my chest and, people like Sierra/Hayden/Penner can attest to it - the rounds where Heidi was targeted, I was working to set myself up so that if Heidi did leave, I had options.

[Jeff Probst]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 3:40:41 am #7099 Thank you, Richard.

Next up, Sugar!

well, I'll keep this short and sweet cause that's how I roll!
Congrats to all of you and thanks for making this experience so much fun.
Heidi, good game, I hope you get out of it whatever it is that you wanted.
Hayden, you're a great person to chat with...it's a shame you decided you'd be better off here with the girls than with Penner and I...but I understand.
Tammy, In a different game you probably would have been my number one ally, I had a blast getting to know you and thanks for keeping this fun. Good Luck to you all! you're all awesome in your own way!!!

[Heidi]

- Mon Oct 24, 2016 3:42:06 am #7100

I think that Heidi stood in the spotlight for a big part of the game and made herself the center of attention, but I was kind of behind the scenes much more aware of what was going on at times. I also hid my relationship with other people from Heidi a bit more, I think whereas I knew basically everything that went on with Heidi, who she was close with, who she trusted, etc. I held my cards a bit closer to my chest and, people like Sierra/Hayden/Penner can attest to it - the rounds where Heidi was targeted, I was working to set myself up so that if Heidi did leave, I had options.

More like you waited to mention it until five minutes before tribal council so that I wouldn't freak out. None of the things you "held back" would have changed our plans if I had known them.