Stephen: What was your thought process behind every single vote you cast, and what purpose did it serve to get you here?Great question, Benry!
Ashley was the first vote I cast all game and I think it would have been a unanimous vote if it wasn't for the fact that everyone with the exception of Boo and I self-voted that round. Ashley was an easy decision; we had to boot someone and she was inactive. She hadn't participated all game and didn't belong in the game. It was a fair vote.
Minus being one less player in the game, Ashley wasn't a major strategic vote on her own, but seeing Boo and myself be the only actual voters that round was the opening I found to working with Boo more closely. It was after that round that Boo and I really said our alliance was meant for all the way to the end of the game.
Sherea wasn't a vote I was extremely involved in. Boo asked me if we should go for her, and again, it was a fair vote and didn't set back my game at all, so I went with it. It was a safer vote than anyone, given that the Auction had just taken place that round and targetting anyone or sticking my neck out too far came with major risks given the unknown prizes floating around that round.
The round Kelly and Sydney were eliminated from the game, I voted for
Kelly. I had never spoken to her, but Boo had and had gotten the impression that she wanted to tear our old Kapor alliance into pieces and I trusted his judgment on this vote. I didn't need anyone in particular out this round, and if she was making plays, she was someone who could either break the balance I'd found in the game, or make things a lot more interesting. I said I would stick with the plan to keep Kapor together, though, and I wasnt willing to break that to make my game more interesting.
The vote itself wasn't significant and my vote that round didn't even count since the potential threat and her ally both self-voted out of the game, but a discussion I had over AIM with Boo over the vote was a big moment for me in the game because of all the information I got out of our conversation. I found out who had the HII (Christa), where people stood, and most of all I got a very good feel for Boo and the way he made his decisions.
After this, I went missing because of my phone issues, so obviously I didn't have any active influence over the round. Instead, my vote was taken from my bootlist, which listed the self-voters from the Sherea vote at the top. Theirs, then ours, then in rough order of who I felt closest to at the bottom and less close at the top right under the self-voters. My vote ended up being for
you, which I explained to you as soon as I came back and saw what happened.
If I had been around, I would have done everything in my power to swing the vote around to
Christa. Between her HII making her extremely dangerous, and my alliance with Greg made at the very start of the game, I would have tried to blindside her that round and protect my ally who would have otherwise gone. Boo came to me for a decision on each and every vote, and I would have swung it to Christa because of the threat she and her HII posed... but I wasn't there, Greg left, and I couldn't really help it.
If the plan had worked, it would have shaken up the game a lot, and I feel like voting the way I had planned probably would have HURT my chances of making the end, but Greg was my ally and it would have been the right thing to do.
Next,
John. I won immunity this round and didn't need to make any mjor moves with the vote, but when Boo came to me for a target for the round, I saw an oppurtunity to make sure the vote went how I needed it to. Still, I had a suspicion that Boo had other alliances or people he was closer to than he was to me, so to avoid making a suggestion that would bother him, and to get a bit more information from him, I drug my feet until he gave me 2 choices:
Christa or John.
I wanted Christa out more because I worried about the possibility of her booting my ally, but she had the HII and so it was better to hold off on booting her that round. If she broke her self-voting streak and cast a vote, she would probably play the HII and that could have ended in disaster, so voting out John was safer than booting Christa. I made sure to play up that Christa was a threat when explaining why we should boot John instead, so that in the next round we would have her decided upon as a target even though the immediate threat of her HII would be expired.
The other possibility was that she self-voted a 3rd time, in which case she would have been removed from the game, either with or as opposed to John, so not voting for her was just smarter and safer and set me up better to survive the next round.
My next vote was for
Christa. Aside from her prowess in challenges and her friends on the jury, she was a good target for the round because she was an easily agreed upon target. It made a late round without Immunity that much simpler. I also did campaigning this round, opening up to Sugar and asking her her thoughts on the vote, since she seemed to be working the hardest in challenges and I figured she probably didn't feel the safest, so I worked on socializing with her more so that she wouldn't think I would target her and vote against me to counter any paranoia.
My last vote was for
you. As I said in my confessional, as long as the player who left wasn't me, I would make the finals, which is really all I ever wanted in this game. Boo had already said Sugar was down for voting you out, and we would go to the f3 together, so once you didn't win, I went with that vote as it was simple, fair, and meant the people still in who worked the hardest all game went to finals.
Before the IC, my other two options would have been Sugar, who I liked well enough and talked to a decent enough amount, or Boo, my main ally for most of the game. While Boo was obviously a huge threat to win, if he was willing to go to the end with me then I wanted to go with him, because it was the right way to play. I didn't want to go to the end taking out a close ally and deserving person just because he would likely win it all. Thats not how I wanted to play. I wanted what Boo wanted, the most deserving in the end, and that meant that you were my vote.
Wow... that was really long. I have a bad habit of rambling, but I enjoyed answering this one, so thanks! Good luck with your decision, Benry!
