FTC Opening Statement Drafts
Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2023 9:57:14 pm
FTC Opening Statement
I want to first thank the jury for a great season. It was a great experience playing with all of you and I couldn’t make it to the end of the game without your help. You all played an important role in me getting to where I am and I can’t say I did it without you.
It took a lot for me to consider playing another Online Reality Game. I actually met my previous ex in an ORG and dated for a year before we broke up. Once we did finally break up, I lost the love for Survivor and playing ORGs. When I eventually met my wife and rewatched all of Survivor with her, I fell back in love with this game. I loved the sense of adventure, the strategizing, and the amazing gameplay that came with it. I loved seeing some of my now favorite players dominate the game and reinvent how it’s played. I took a shine to players such as Jeremy Collins, Sarah Lacina, Tony Vlachos, Maryanne Oketch. I knew that if I could ever play another ORG, I wanted to play a game that was just as dominating as theirs. To play in a way that showed if I do get to the end, there’s no denying i was the strongest player of the season.
When I came across Stranded, I knew this would be my chance to get back into these games and see if I still had what it took to make it to the end. Stranded has been a long-running series and very well known in the ORG community, I had a personal goal that if I were to get into a season of this game, I would play my hardest, not make the same mistakes in my previous games, and play every day like my life depended on it.
I hope that through my opening statement and through answering your questions today, I can prove to you and myself that I did play the best game of the season and I deserve to be crowned as the winner of Stranded in the Andes.
Round 1
To start the game, I wanted to be that person everyone could talk to right off the bat. If you saw me online, you felt it was a good opportunity to talk to me and maybe build something moving forward. Conversation felt effortless with Evvie and xander, and we were able to solidify the F3 Stoner Alliance pretty quickly. You may have noticed the group chats labeled Lurker and Lurker_test. These were our group chats and modeled this way so no one would assume they were actual groups with players in the game. I had Xander make the group just in case it came back to bite me in some way, so I had some deniabiliy about the creation of it.
I also made some great relationships with Shan and Deshawn. Evvie mentioned that she liked Deshawn and Shan and Xander mentioned liking Xander so i had the idea to make a majority alliance of Myself, Evvie, Xander, Deshawn, and Shan just in case we needed to go to tribal council. Danny was already becoming an early target from his inactivity. From speaking to everyone in the majority, people were having trouble keeping conversation with Heather and there were already worries about Sara being a gamebot / super strategic early on. i remember Xander saying he heard Sara was an alternate so it’s possible she was a returnee from another Stranded season. I started to push this rumor using Xander’s name just so it wouldn’t come back to bite me.
There was also a consideration for the leader to be one of us (Me, Evvie, Xander) so we would know what was going on in the game from every angle, however Deshawn stepped up to take the role. We felt we had a good relationship with him and he’d most likely tell us what power the tribe leader held as he was close with all three of us already.
To also reach all areas of the tribe, I came up with the idea to have each member of the stoner alliance to get close to another member of the tribe and form a sort of pseudo F2. Evvie would take Shan, Xander would take Sara, and I would take Deshawn. However, I wanted to make sure I covered all my bases and went behind Xander and Evvie and tried my best to also form strong relationships with Shan and Sara, just so I had contingency plans going forward and would receive information from both of them should Evvie or Xander try to turn on me.
By the start of day 2, Danny and Sara had also asked to form some sort of alliance with me. By making myself available for as many hours as I could, I was able to catch Danny online in the very late/early hours. I think i might have been one of the only people to have a good conversation with him. Sara had also talked about forming a F4 alliance with Myself, Xander, Deshawn, and her.
Deshawn mentioned the alliance to me and it was clear we were becoming a very close F2. He had also mentioned that he enjoyed talking to Evvie, so I steered the conversation more toward forming a F4 with the twosome of Evvie/Xander joining Deshawn and I. This way the F3 Stoners alliance had a clear F4 that Deshawn wouldn’t be able to break and would consider me his closest ally. This group of 4 would also resonate for the rest of the season and is how we were able to get to the end.
By day 3, the game was looking like this. I made these graphs for my confessional every round and would help to outline the game for myself and viewers going forward.
We had won the first challenge in the game, so we didn’t have to attend tribal and take Danny out as an easy vote. However, I used the downtime to create a new plan. Xander had this strange issue with Sara and didn’t want to work with her longterm. He was convinced that Sara was a returnee player and would be super dangerous going forward. i needed some sort of way to peg Sara as a bigger target in order to have the 3 outsiders of the tribe (Danny, Heather, Sara) to go before any of the closer 5.
Luckily, Heather had a conversation with me where she said Sara was a target she wanted to go for. Sara had also mentioned Heather as a target after Danny. While this was going on, having me mention to Deshawn that Sara was untrustworthy and explaining Xander’s worry about her being a returnee had Deshawn spit out Sara’s name for a target. So now we had Deshawn say he wanted Sara out by name.
I formed a new plan with Xander and Deshawn to string along Sara in this F4 of hers but to also tell her that Heather brought up her name. Xander was given the role of F2 forming with Sara, so he would tell her about Heather first. Then I would confirm that information with Sara and say Heather told me the same thing. This worked out perfectly as Sara did believe us and thought she could trust us longterm.
At the same time, I had Evvie try and get closer with Heather and hopefully form some sort of alliance with Evvie, Shan, and Heather. This way it looked like lines were being drawn when in fact everything was being orchestrated within the Stoner F3. Now we had multiple targets outside of the 5 and there were already people going for each other without any of the Stoner F3 coming up as starting the rumors.
The following is a quote from my confessional outlining the entire situation:
After the first tribal, Sherea had left the game, I noticed that if you click ‘losers’ at the bottom of the forum, we would be able to see who left immediately. I also found through researching past seasons that all tribal councils could be found under https://strandedgaming.com/tribal-councils/. So from this point on, I always knew what was happening at every tribal council, even outside our tribe.
I started to mention to people that Deshawn wanted Sara out. This way Deshawn would be seen as someone playing hard early on and also see Sara as the target she is. This was also the round I solidified with Shan that we would work together. This was just a contingency and to make sure that Shan saw me as a closer ally than Evvie at the time. I wanted to be able to rely on Shan and have her rely on me more than Evvie as it was becoming clear that Evvie was very socialable and everyone was getting really close to her.
Round 3
We happened to win another challenge and lose Danny to get an advantage for the following round. In this case, we were forced to put the Sara plan on the backburner again. Shan was becoming closer to me at this time as well and had mentioned that voting anyone other than Danny was stupid. I had to try and steer Deshawn away from the Sara plan for now and maybe consider Danny for the sake of our continued success. Xander also started to solidify more of a F2 with me and I figured he was the best person to have a true F2 with. We also started talking about idols in the game which got me thinking about finding one. Pre-game I had researched the immunity idol password forums and had already made an extensive list of phrases that could be used for a password forum. However, there wasn’t one found out in the open. I started to think that the idol could possibly be timed and the forum wouldn’t show up until a certain day or time. This is when i started staying up until 3-4am on the forum searching and checking for the forum. Eventually, I did find the forum and my extensive password list did come in handy. I had found the Ancha immunity idol.
This is also the round I formed a solid F2 connection with Deshawn and agreed that we would go to the end. I started calling us the Canadian Connection and do my best to prove to him through repetition and naming our alliance that I was truly with him. We also formed the group chat Andeez Nuts with Xander to properly organize our sara vote out plan for the future. At this point, I had the game outlined as follows:
Round 4
Unfortunately, we once again won immunity due to our advantage and Kallpa copying our wrong answers without checking them. This was the week Heather made that Chevy Malibooboo group to troll the Kallpa tribe. I deliberately ignored the group and didn’t post in it at all as it wasn’t worth making enemies with the other tribe. i also figured it was better for others to become bigger targets by continuing to talk trash to the other tribe.
This was also a round where I felt not playing the game was the best strategy. I had a little bit of an emotional spat with Evvie and Shan and so I needed to take a step back and reassess my place in the tribe. I felt that I may have weaved myself into too many areas and needed to just establish trust over gameplay.
I used this round to rebuild relationships and just talk about life with a lot of the players in my tribe. It was becoming clear that we would head into a tribe swap or merge with a huge numbers advantage, so there wasn’t any reason for me to game hard during this downtime. I once again solidified trust with Evvie, Xander, Deshawn, Shan, and Sara.
Round 5
This was when the threat of a tribe swap was starting to loom. The Kallpa defecit was growing larger and so I started to work on tribe swap scenarios. In the event I was swapped with Heather or Sara, I wanted to make sure they would stick with me, so I talked as much game with Heather as I could. In return, I gave all this information to Sara so she would continue to think i was with her. Heather was constantly bringing up Sara as a target for her and so it was easy enough to just let Sara know this was going on. There would be no way for Heather to deny it if it returned to her that I had said this, and she wasn’t buiding any alliances from what I could see.
I also started thinking about what move was the smartest for each person. It was becoming clear that Shan, Evvie, and Heather working together longterm would be a worry and so I had to convince Deshawn and Xander that we might need to stick with Sara in the event there really was an alliance brewing with the three of them. What was great for my game though was that Evvie would let me know everything Heather would tell her and so we knew when Heather would come to Xander and Myself to ask for us to work with her. We agreed with whatever plan Heather proposed just so we had every angle to work in the tribe should we need to lose either Heather or Sara next.
However, once again plans were put on hold when we won another challenge. This was the code breakers challenge where we had to guess a color code Kallpa came up with. I had previously studied this challenge when looking at old seasons of Stranded. I was able to develop a system where I could use a guess to determine the location of a color in a sequence while also removing other colors from contention. This allowed me to single-handedly win the challenge for our tribe.
We would now head into a tribe swap with a large majority. However, Frosti quit the game right after Aaron left and we were given a single person swap of Deshawn for JR. I had convinced Deshawn to go for this swap as I figured Jeff wouldn’t just let Deshawn be voted out easily without a fighting chance. I read his words carefully and explained to Deshawn that he should try his best to get as much information as he could as he would most likely swap back to us unharmed. I also mentioned to all the Ancha members that this might be challenge related and to not give any information to JR. This way we could possibly have an advantage when Deshawn and JR swap back.
Round 6
Luckily, instead what happened was a surprise merge. I was able to win the first merge challenge as well by using the typical maze trick (starting at the beginning and then the end, then join the two parts). I was able to finish the maze within 5 minutes. With my immunity, I was also able to play a little more aggressive this round. I created the group OA for all the Original Ancha members. Since we were at an advantage of 7-4, it made sense for me to continue to push Ancha strong. I was also in such a good place in Ancha that I didn’t want to risk any other Anchas working with the few Kallpa left.
Within the group chat I created a poll for who we should vote out between Jaime and Erik. Sara had already mentioned Jaime as a target and I had heard the name Erik from Evvie and Deshawn. It seemed that Jaime was really working the sympathy card with Deshawn and he was starting to really feel bad for her. Sara said that this was incredibly dangerous and that if someone could change our mind like that, they should probably go. Sara also mentioned that JR was suggesting Heather as a target as she mentioned Sara’s name to JR. Sara immediately wanted either Heather or Shan out but I was able to convince her to stick to the original Jaime plan. Eventually the poll was in overwhelming favor for Jaime as Sara started to push reasons for her in the OA group chat. This is when I started spinning to the tribe that ‘whatever Sara says, goes’ to further paint a bigger target on her.
This evening was also the night I found the Pachamama Idol. Once again, the hidden forum appeared in the dead of night when there weren’t many people online. I did notice Erik online at the same time but decided to go for it anyway. It didn’t seem like he noticed at all and so, I now had two idols in my pocket.
Round 7
It was becoming clear through conversations that the Jaime vote idea wasn’t sitting right with people. Deshawn and Evvie both expressed that they didn’t like the idea and would rather it was Erik or Deshawn. Deshawn did try to change the vote to JR but after a few conversations, it was becoming obvious that people weren’t comfortable switching the vote. I had Deshawn give up on the idea. In the end, Jaime was voted out 5-4-1.
Jaime did leave but there was a stray vote for Leslie. In addition to this, Shan was starting to consider flipping with the 3 remaining Kallpa to take out Sara or Xander as Shan was starting to see her place at 7th or 6th in Ancha. Evvie had also mentioned a similar thing to me about feeling their game slip away and so I had to do something to prevent Shan and Evvie from realizing they were in the same place in the game. I first established with Shan that we should form a F5 alliance with Evvie, Deshawn, and Xander to take down Sara.
I also had to push to Evvie that Shan was saying they were the Leslie vote. I also mentioned that we were all feeling our games slip away with Sara controlling the Jaime vote. I tried my best to sew discord between Evvie and Shan so that I could bring them back as bigger allies for myself rather than each other. Sara was also pushing for JR to be the next vote with me, so I had Evvie decide who should go next. This way Evvie would feel they had more power and that the Stoner alliance was still in full swing.
The following is a quote from my Day 15 confessional:
After the plan was established, I was able to get Shan to trust Evvie again, and also change the vote to Erik from JR. Shan also said she thinks she’s repaired her relationship with Evvie but to let me know if Evvie says otherwise.
To continue the plan, I explained to Deshawn that we need to start figuring out our endgame plans. Things are getting heated and we need to solidify that F4 we talked about with Evvie and Xander. I also mentioned that Evvie felt Deshawn was very loyal but a little guarded. I think firming the plan with them will be beneficial to us getting to the end. Deshawn agreed and said it's perfect as Xander has been working with us on the Sara fake F4 since Day 2-3. Evvie happened to come online around this time so Deshawn quickly talked to them and confirmed the F4 idea.
I was also able to get Deshawn to switch to Erik instead of JR and also mentioned there were rumors about him being the Leslie vote (rumors that I had started). Deshawn ended up coming clean as the Leslie vote to me and said we could use that information to solidify the F4 with Xander and Evvie by coming clean to them.
The last two parts of the plan (Xander convince Sara to vote Erik / Evvie convince Heather to vote Erik) ended up getting accomplished by me. I convinced Sara that people weren’t happy with the Jaime vote and we most likely need to go with the flow. I had Deshawn confirm with Heather that the vote plan was Erik and I also confirmed it with her. Deshawn also wanted to buy favor with JR and Leslie and told them to vote Erik.
Erik ended up leaving with a vote of 8-1-1.
Round 8
At this point I had a pretty good relationship with everyone in the game and I wanted to know who the stray vote for Xander was. Luckily, everyone was willing to give me information regarding their vote. The following list is from my Day 18 confessional:
JR ended up winning immunity and so the target shifted to Sara. It was the perfect time for her to finally go and everyone was looking to get Sara out so they could have some more fluidity with their moves. Once this was done, there was no longer a F7 Ancha promise that had to occur.
I ended up telling Sara that she was the intended target, and in turn she told me that JR was looking to target Deshawn or Myself. I ended up telling this to JR so that he knew that he couldn’t trust Sara and further push JR to voting for Sara with us. In the end, JR went against the idea of Sara and tried to work with her. Heather also went with JR to vote for me as JR was starting to convince others of how big a target I was.
Luckily, the relationships I built early on stuck solid and I was saved with a vote of 5-3-1.
Round 9
With 8 left in the game, I needed to solidify the 4 (Myself, Evvie, Xander, Deshawn) and make sure Shan didn’t realize she was in the 5th place position. If she did, it’s possible the outcast players (JR, Leslie, Heather, Shan) vote together and we go to rocks. This was also an incredibly dangerous round as Leslie had mentioned to Evvie the idea of a Shan/Evvie/Leslie F3 and to work with JR and Heather to get me out of the game.
Evvie came up with the plan to have the four of us vote Shan next, and then tell Shan we were voting JR. Leslie had a falling out with JR and so we thought we could tell her to vote another way from Shan and us, forcing JR and Heather to vote together without Shan or Leslie. The vote would end up 4-2-1-1. It was a brilliant plan by Evvie, however Shan ended up winning immunity the one day she needed it.
Once Shan had won immunity, there was no way for us to organize a proper plan in 20 minutes before IMs turned off. I used the chaos of the moment to convince everyone to throw votes on Heather just to save themselves. I told JR he would be saved if he voted Heather and he had Leslie vote with us as well. Shan also mentioned she heard the name Heather from others (i had first told Deshawn, Evvie, and Xander to spread the name out) and so I told Shan that it was cool with me and would put it in.
Since Heather was the last name heard before tribal and was an easy target for people (as she just voted with JR against Ancha) it was easy to get it done. The vote ended up beinng unanimous and quelled any worried of a 4-4 split. The F4 of Myself, Evvie, Xander, and Deshawn was successfully in power.
Round 10
7 was the magic number I kept pushing to the F4 and we had finally reached it. However, there was a risk that JR would still push for me as the biggest target and that I needed to go. At the same time, Evvie was struggling with the idea of Shan going soon, but Xander wanted her gone ASAP after that mistake vote Shan posted for him. I agreed that Shan was incredibly smart and would beat us in immunity challenges later down the road if we continued to keep her.
I ended up having a conversation with JR where we tried to work out a plan. He told me to pick someone I couldn’t see go and then he would pick one. i said Shan to him so that we would be thrown off as to who I wanted out next. JR in turn said Leslie. So with the three possible targets left, JR picked Deshawn. I said I would talk to Shan about it and JR would talk to Leslie in turn.
I brought this info to Deshawn and Evvie right away and said JR is targeting Deshawn and to expect that name from Shan. Shan ended up telling Evvie that I was also a possible target should I not win immunity. This is when I decided I had to start winning as many immunities as I could as my name would be coming up every round from this point on.
Luckily, I ended up studying and practicing the Match Game from previous season forums and was able to finish the challenge first. JR was still pushing for Deshawn and said that the alliance of Deshawn/Evvie/Abe needs to be broken up. This was great for me as no one has noticed how close Evvie and I are with Xander still and continue to try and get him to flip.
In the end, Shan, JR, and Leslie voted Deshawn but our F4 voted together sending Shan out of the game. This would also solidify Xander’s trust with me as I told him I had to convince Evvie and Deshawn to vote for Shan and explained how hard they were pushing JR instead. I needed JR in my pocket should we go to a F2 in the end.
Round 11
From this point on, my main goal was to get out the threats of Leslie, JR, and Deshawn so that the F3 stoner alliance could get to the end of the game. I knew I had the best chance again them as Deshawn was loved by everyone in the game still and JR/Leslie getting to the end felt like an automatic win.
I started to float the idea of getting Deshawn out next. He had already won an immunity and it’s possible that at F4, he could beat us and ruin our F3 plans. From this point on, I spent hours studying challenges and practicing just so I could put my plan into motion. I ended up destroying the bricks challenge with a score of 100, compared to JR’s 47 and the rest of the tribe getting single digits.
This was also the round I started pushing to Xander more and more that this season might be a F2 FTC and that the two of us need to stick together if we’re going to the end. He had just berated Shan on the way out and so I couldn’t think of anyone else better to bring to the end with me. Xander agreed and said he would take me with him shoud he win the final immunity challenge.
Since Evvie and Xander we constantly worried about an idol, we had to push to JR that he was leaving. At the same time, I had built a F2 type relationship with Deshawn and he was more worried about Evvie and Xander flipping on us. I reassured him as much as I could that they wouldn’t do that and there was a clear path to the end.
JR also thought he was leaving and was pushing for Deshawn to go to all of us, since I wasn’t an option. We just kept it quiet with JR and let him believe that he was going. In the end, the blindside worked and Deshawn ended up leaving with a vote of 5-1, with JR and Leslie unknowingly voting correctly.
Round 12
The last big target for me was JR. He had been clawing his way through this game and was on track to make F4 should he win the challenge. Thankfully, Evvie ended up winning the challenge and JR was the easy target to leave. JR pushed for me to go incredibly hard, but I had built such a solid relationship with Evvie and Xander that they couldn’t possibly let me go, despite winning 3 individual immunities in previous rounds.
I had to curb any doubts from Evvie or Xander by telling them that their names were pushed to me by JR and Leslie and that JR specifically wanted Evvie gone. I couldn’t let them know that JR had told me straight up that he was targeting me as it would give them more reason to consider the move. So I did my best to copy/paste some messages to Evvie and Xander to show that JR was targeting Evvie and for me to vote for her.
In the end, Xander and Evvie stuck true to me and I stayed with a vote of 3-2. This was a critical vote for me as I knew I couldn’t use my idols anymore (they were only good until F6) and I was truly vulnerable. Jeff’s message during tribal about this being the last night to use an idol was to throw off everyone in the game, and JR actually attempted to freak us out by pretending to have one.
Round 13
In order to secure the Stoner F3, I had to once again win immunity. There was a risk here that Evvie and Leslie might vote together and force a tie in some way. I did end up winning immunity again and was able to secure my place at F3. I also wanted to make sure Xander was safe so I pushed to him the idea that Evvie might try to tie the vote and to make sure he voted for Leslie. I also explained to him that if he tried to force a tie or if Evvie tried to force a tie, there was a possibility they would go home for doing so. With me having immunity, and two people being tied for votes, the only person elligible to get voted out would be the person attempting to flip.
This squashed any plan Leslie, Evvie, or Xander could have possibly attempted and caused Leslie to go easily with a vote of 3-1.
Round 14
To end my game, I once again won immunity. I had practiced the box challenge from at least 15 of the previous seasons and tried my best to get my times down to fastest winners of all time. As an example, in Stranded 38, Sherri finished the challenge in about 21 minutes. I ended up finishing in 20.
I decided to vote Evvie out as there were so many times she was attempting to work against me with Shan, Leslie, and Heather. I’ve also seen Evvie talk through multiple tribal councils and plead her case for her gameplay extremely well. On the opposite end of things, Xander was never asked any serious questions at Tribal Council. Jeff constantly asked him how he was doing, how’s the weather, what’s his favorite color, etc. It was clear to everyone that Xander followed whatever plans I had set out and never took any opposing plans seriously. Evvie and Deshawn were the ones I planned a lot of the game with, but Xander was with us since day 1 and mostly just had a vendetta against Sara and Shan because he didn’t know how to talk to them. Xander happily agreed and listened to me for every single plan I had and was happy as long as I went after Shan for him when I could.
—
I set out to play as hard as I could, to prove to myself that I could win this game, and play a game that was all-encompassing. I won 5 individual immunities, including 3 in a row from F4 to F2. I single handedly won the Code Breakers tribe challenge. I found 2 hidden immuniity idols. I made an effort to be an open book that people could talk to at any time, and in turn people kept me around despite being the biggest threat in the game. Winning immunities helped, but there were key moments in the game where I could have been voted out, however the relationships I built helped me to stay. I always knew how the vote was going to go, I always voted correctly, and despite getting voted for, i was never worried enough to use an immunity idol. I studied past seasons to the point where I always knew the challenge that came up; to the point where I was the equivalent of a returnee player without being one. I played an all around game combining social, strategic, and challenge threat.
This is why I hope you choose me to be the winner of Stranded in the Andes, and I’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have for me. Thank you for reading!
I want to first thank the jury for a great season. It was a great experience playing with all of you and I couldn’t make it to the end of the game without your help. You all played an important role in me getting to where I am and I can’t say I did it without you.
It took a lot for me to consider playing another Online Reality Game. I actually met my previous ex in an ORG and dated for a year before we broke up. Once we did finally break up, I lost the love for Survivor and playing ORGs. When I eventually met my wife and rewatched all of Survivor with her, I fell back in love with this game. I loved the sense of adventure, the strategizing, and the amazing gameplay that came with it. I loved seeing some of my now favorite players dominate the game and reinvent how it’s played. I took a shine to players such as Jeremy Collins, Sarah Lacina, Tony Vlachos, Maryanne Oketch. I knew that if I could ever play another ORG, I wanted to play a game that was just as dominating as theirs. To play in a way that showed if I do get to the end, there’s no denying i was the strongest player of the season.
When I came across Stranded, I knew this would be my chance to get back into these games and see if I still had what it took to make it to the end. Stranded has been a long-running series and very well known in the ORG community, I had a personal goal that if I were to get into a season of this game, I would play my hardest, not make the same mistakes in my previous games, and play every day like my life depended on it.
I hope that through my opening statement and through answering your questions today, I can prove to you and myself that I did play the best game of the season and I deserve to be crowned as the winner of Stranded in the Andes.
Round 1
To start the game, I wanted to be that person everyone could talk to right off the bat. If you saw me online, you felt it was a good opportunity to talk to me and maybe build something moving forward. Conversation felt effortless with Evvie and xander, and we were able to solidify the F3 Stoner Alliance pretty quickly. You may have noticed the group chats labeled Lurker and Lurker_test. These were our group chats and modeled this way so no one would assume they were actual groups with players in the game. I had Xander make the group just in case it came back to bite me in some way, so I had some deniabiliy about the creation of it.
I also made some great relationships with Shan and Deshawn. Evvie mentioned that she liked Deshawn and Shan and Xander mentioned liking Xander so i had the idea to make a majority alliance of Myself, Evvie, Xander, Deshawn, and Shan just in case we needed to go to tribal council. Danny was already becoming an early target from his inactivity. From speaking to everyone in the majority, people were having trouble keeping conversation with Heather and there were already worries about Sara being a gamebot / super strategic early on. i remember Xander saying he heard Sara was an alternate so it’s possible she was a returnee from another Stranded season. I started to push this rumor using Xander’s name just so it wouldn’t come back to bite me.
There was also a consideration for the leader to be one of us (Me, Evvie, Xander) so we would know what was going on in the game from every angle, however Deshawn stepped up to take the role. We felt we had a good relationship with him and he’d most likely tell us what power the tribe leader held as he was close with all three of us already.
To also reach all areas of the tribe, I came up with the idea to have each member of the stoner alliance to get close to another member of the tribe and form a sort of pseudo F2. Evvie would take Shan, Xander would take Sara, and I would take Deshawn. However, I wanted to make sure I covered all my bases and went behind Xander and Evvie and tried my best to also form strong relationships with Shan and Sara, just so I had contingency plans going forward and would receive information from both of them should Evvie or Xander try to turn on me.
By the start of day 2, Danny and Sara had also asked to form some sort of alliance with me. By making myself available for as many hours as I could, I was able to catch Danny online in the very late/early hours. I think i might have been one of the only people to have a good conversation with him. Sara had also talked about forming a F4 alliance with Myself, Xander, Deshawn, and her.
Deshawn mentioned the alliance to me and it was clear we were becoming a very close F2. He had also mentioned that he enjoyed talking to Evvie, so I steered the conversation more toward forming a F4 with the twosome of Evvie/Xander joining Deshawn and I. This way the F3 Stoners alliance had a clear F4 that Deshawn wouldn’t be able to break and would consider me his closest ally. This group of 4 would also resonate for the rest of the season and is how we were able to get to the end.
By day 3, the game was looking like this. I made these graphs for my confessional every round and would help to outline the game for myself and viewers going forward.
We had won the first challenge in the game, so we didn’t have to attend tribal and take Danny out as an easy vote. However, I used the downtime to create a new plan. Xander had this strange issue with Sara and didn’t want to work with her longterm. He was convinced that Sara was a returnee player and would be super dangerous going forward. i needed some sort of way to peg Sara as a bigger target in order to have the 3 outsiders of the tribe (Danny, Heather, Sara) to go before any of the closer 5.
Luckily, Heather had a conversation with me where she said Sara was a target she wanted to go for. Sara had also mentioned Heather as a target after Danny. While this was going on, having me mention to Deshawn that Sara was untrustworthy and explaining Xander’s worry about her being a returnee had Deshawn spit out Sara’s name for a target. So now we had Deshawn say he wanted Sara out by name.
I formed a new plan with Xander and Deshawn to string along Sara in this F4 of hers but to also tell her that Heather brought up her name. Xander was given the role of F2 forming with Sara, so he would tell her about Heather first. Then I would confirm that information with Sara and say Heather told me the same thing. This worked out perfectly as Sara did believe us and thought she could trust us longterm.
At the same time, I had Evvie try and get closer with Heather and hopefully form some sort of alliance with Evvie, Shan, and Heather. This way it looked like lines were being drawn when in fact everything was being orchestrated within the Stoner F3. Now we had multiple targets outside of the 5 and there were already people going for each other without any of the Stoner F3 coming up as starting the rumors.
The following is a quote from my confessional outlining the entire situation:
So now I think the plan is as follows. Evvie needs to build an alliance with Shan and Heather without including Sara. Then, Deshawn and Myself will go with what Deshawn thinks is his master plan, and vote for Sara. Hopefully by telling Heather that Sara is gunning for her, Evvie is able to get all of them to vote Sara. Regardless of what Sara tries to do, it looks like all votes land on her. Heather plans to speak to me and build rapport. So closer to the vote, Deshawn will go to her and tell her about this huge plan to get rid of her. Heather verifies with me and I tell her that yes, this is the plan. Heather gets us all to vote for Sara and Sara goes. Heather thinks it's her plan, Deshawn thinks it's his. It sounds perfect in theory and keeps F3 Stoners out of the spotlight.Round 2
After the first tribal, Sherea had left the game, I noticed that if you click ‘losers’ at the bottom of the forum, we would be able to see who left immediately. I also found through researching past seasons that all tribal councils could be found under https://strandedgaming.com/tribal-councils/. So from this point on, I always knew what was happening at every tribal council, even outside our tribe.
I started to mention to people that Deshawn wanted Sara out. This way Deshawn would be seen as someone playing hard early on and also see Sara as the target she is. This was also the round I solidified with Shan that we would work together. This was just a contingency and to make sure that Shan saw me as a closer ally than Evvie at the time. I wanted to be able to rely on Shan and have her rely on me more than Evvie as it was becoming clear that Evvie was very socialable and everyone was getting really close to her.
Round 3
We happened to win another challenge and lose Danny to get an advantage for the following round. In this case, we were forced to put the Sara plan on the backburner again. Shan was becoming closer to me at this time as well and had mentioned that voting anyone other than Danny was stupid. I had to try and steer Deshawn away from the Sara plan for now and maybe consider Danny for the sake of our continued success. Xander also started to solidify more of a F2 with me and I figured he was the best person to have a true F2 with. We also started talking about idols in the game which got me thinking about finding one. Pre-game I had researched the immunity idol password forums and had already made an extensive list of phrases that could be used for a password forum. However, there wasn’t one found out in the open. I started to think that the idol could possibly be timed and the forum wouldn’t show up until a certain day or time. This is when i started staying up until 3-4am on the forum searching and checking for the forum. Eventually, I did find the forum and my extensive password list did come in handy. I had found the Ancha immunity idol.
This is also the round I formed a solid F2 connection with Deshawn and agreed that we would go to the end. I started calling us the Canadian Connection and do my best to prove to him through repetition and naming our alliance that I was truly with him. We also formed the group chat Andeez Nuts with Xander to properly organize our sara vote out plan for the future. At this point, I had the game outlined as follows:
Round 4
Unfortunately, we once again won immunity due to our advantage and Kallpa copying our wrong answers without checking them. This was the week Heather made that Chevy Malibooboo group to troll the Kallpa tribe. I deliberately ignored the group and didn’t post in it at all as it wasn’t worth making enemies with the other tribe. i also figured it was better for others to become bigger targets by continuing to talk trash to the other tribe.
This was also a round where I felt not playing the game was the best strategy. I had a little bit of an emotional spat with Evvie and Shan and so I needed to take a step back and reassess my place in the tribe. I felt that I may have weaved myself into too many areas and needed to just establish trust over gameplay.
I used this round to rebuild relationships and just talk about life with a lot of the players in my tribe. It was becoming clear that we would head into a tribe swap or merge with a huge numbers advantage, so there wasn’t any reason for me to game hard during this downtime. I once again solidified trust with Evvie, Xander, Deshawn, Shan, and Sara.
Round 5
This was when the threat of a tribe swap was starting to loom. The Kallpa defecit was growing larger and so I started to work on tribe swap scenarios. In the event I was swapped with Heather or Sara, I wanted to make sure they would stick with me, so I talked as much game with Heather as I could. In return, I gave all this information to Sara so she would continue to think i was with her. Heather was constantly bringing up Sara as a target for her and so it was easy enough to just let Sara know this was going on. There would be no way for Heather to deny it if it returned to her that I had said this, and she wasn’t buiding any alliances from what I could see.
I also started thinking about what move was the smartest for each person. It was becoming clear that Shan, Evvie, and Heather working together longterm would be a worry and so I had to convince Deshawn and Xander that we might need to stick with Sara in the event there really was an alliance brewing with the three of them. What was great for my game though was that Evvie would let me know everything Heather would tell her and so we knew when Heather would come to Xander and Myself to ask for us to work with her. We agreed with whatever plan Heather proposed just so we had every angle to work in the tribe should we need to lose either Heather or Sara next.
However, once again plans were put on hold when we won another challenge. This was the code breakers challenge where we had to guess a color code Kallpa came up with. I had previously studied this challenge when looking at old seasons of Stranded. I was able to develop a system where I could use a guess to determine the location of a color in a sequence while also removing other colors from contention. This allowed me to single-handedly win the challenge for our tribe.
We would now head into a tribe swap with a large majority. However, Frosti quit the game right after Aaron left and we were given a single person swap of Deshawn for JR. I had convinced Deshawn to go for this swap as I figured Jeff wouldn’t just let Deshawn be voted out easily without a fighting chance. I read his words carefully and explained to Deshawn that he should try his best to get as much information as he could as he would most likely swap back to us unharmed. I also mentioned to all the Ancha members that this might be challenge related and to not give any information to JR. This way we could possibly have an advantage when Deshawn and JR swap back.
Round 6
Luckily, instead what happened was a surprise merge. I was able to win the first merge challenge as well by using the typical maze trick (starting at the beginning and then the end, then join the two parts). I was able to finish the maze within 5 minutes. With my immunity, I was also able to play a little more aggressive this round. I created the group OA for all the Original Ancha members. Since we were at an advantage of 7-4, it made sense for me to continue to push Ancha strong. I was also in such a good place in Ancha that I didn’t want to risk any other Anchas working with the few Kallpa left.
Within the group chat I created a poll for who we should vote out between Jaime and Erik. Sara had already mentioned Jaime as a target and I had heard the name Erik from Evvie and Deshawn. It seemed that Jaime was really working the sympathy card with Deshawn and he was starting to really feel bad for her. Sara said that this was incredibly dangerous and that if someone could change our mind like that, they should probably go. Sara also mentioned that JR was suggesting Heather as a target as she mentioned Sara’s name to JR. Sara immediately wanted either Heather or Shan out but I was able to convince her to stick to the original Jaime plan. Eventually the poll was in overwhelming favor for Jaime as Sara started to push reasons for her in the OA group chat. This is when I started spinning to the tribe that ‘whatever Sara says, goes’ to further paint a bigger target on her.
This evening was also the night I found the Pachamama Idol. Once again, the hidden forum appeared in the dead of night when there weren’t many people online. I did notice Erik online at the same time but decided to go for it anyway. It didn’t seem like he noticed at all and so, I now had two idols in my pocket.
Round 7
It was becoming clear through conversations that the Jaime vote idea wasn’t sitting right with people. Deshawn and Evvie both expressed that they didn’t like the idea and would rather it was Erik or Deshawn. Deshawn did try to change the vote to JR but after a few conversations, it was becoming obvious that people weren’t comfortable switching the vote. I had Deshawn give up on the idea. In the end, Jaime was voted out 5-4-1.
Jaime did leave but there was a stray vote for Leslie. In addition to this, Shan was starting to consider flipping with the 3 remaining Kallpa to take out Sara or Xander as Shan was starting to see her place at 7th or 6th in Ancha. Evvie had also mentioned a similar thing to me about feeling their game slip away and so I had to do something to prevent Shan and Evvie from realizing they were in the same place in the game. I first established with Shan that we should form a F5 alliance with Evvie, Deshawn, and Xander to take down Sara.
I also had to push to Evvie that Shan was saying they were the Leslie vote. I also mentioned that we were all feeling our games slip away with Sara controlling the Jaime vote. I tried my best to sew discord between Evvie and Shan so that I could bring them back as bigger allies for myself rather than each other. Sara was also pushing for JR to be the next vote with me, so I had Evvie decide who should go next. This way Evvie would feel they had more power and that the Stoner alliance was still in full swing.
The following is a quote from my Day 15 confessional:
We decided that I could bring up the Erik plan to Deshawn and that Evvie could bring up the Erik plan to Heather. Then we would have to re-establish the Shan-Evvie relationship and get her to vote Erik and save JR for a Sara blindside the following week. We ended the conversation with the following boot order:I ended our conversation and also noted the following plan in my confessional to get things back on track:
10th - Erik
9th - Sara
8th - JR
7th - Shan
6th - Leslie
5th - Heather
4th - Deshawn
1. Re-establish the Shan-Evvie relationship under the guise of a flip to take Sara downAnd the following chart standing:
2. Have Shan agree on voting Erik and save JR for next week to vote out Sara
3. Have Evvie convince Heather to vote for Erik instead of JR
4. Have Abe (Myself) convince Deshawn to vote for Erik instead of JR
5. Have Xander convince Sara to vote for Erik instead of JR
After the plan was established, I was able to get Shan to trust Evvie again, and also change the vote to Erik from JR. Shan also said she thinks she’s repaired her relationship with Evvie but to let me know if Evvie says otherwise.
To continue the plan, I explained to Deshawn that we need to start figuring out our endgame plans. Things are getting heated and we need to solidify that F4 we talked about with Evvie and Xander. I also mentioned that Evvie felt Deshawn was very loyal but a little guarded. I think firming the plan with them will be beneficial to us getting to the end. Deshawn agreed and said it's perfect as Xander has been working with us on the Sara fake F4 since Day 2-3. Evvie happened to come online around this time so Deshawn quickly talked to them and confirmed the F4 idea.
I was also able to get Deshawn to switch to Erik instead of JR and also mentioned there were rumors about him being the Leslie vote (rumors that I had started). Deshawn ended up coming clean as the Leslie vote to me and said we could use that information to solidify the F4 with Xander and Evvie by coming clean to them.
The last two parts of the plan (Xander convince Sara to vote Erik / Evvie convince Heather to vote Erik) ended up getting accomplished by me. I convinced Sara that people weren’t happy with the Jaime vote and we most likely need to go with the flow. I had Deshawn confirm with Heather that the vote plan was Erik and I also confirmed it with her. Deshawn also wanted to buy favor with JR and Leslie and told them to vote Erik.
Erik ended up leaving with a vote of 8-1-1.
Round 8
At this point I had a pretty good relationship with everyone in the game and I wanted to know who the stray vote for Xander was. Luckily, everyone was willing to give me information regarding their vote. The following list is from my Day 18 confessional:
1. Sorry dude, wish we had a better chance to talk more. - AbeSo it was clear that Shan ended up voting Xander. After talking to Shan, I was able to get her to admit it to me. I ended up copy/pasting this message from Shan to Xander, Evvie, and Deshawn to just push that she was untrustworthy to our F4 cause and could flip on us sooner than later. However, the target for the evening was looking like JR.
2. You’re a threat to me, therefore, you have to go. - Evvie
3. O NOES NO VOTE COMMENT WHO COULD THIS BE -
4. You’ve all sucked the life out of this game. Aren’t we here to play for fun? - Erik
5. I am so sorry, it looks like this is the only way I can stay. - Leslie
6. Ugh this feels wrong, but it was either me or you pal - JR
7. You’re a nice guy, it’s nothing personal. Take care, mate! - Deshawn
8. Nothing personal mate. - Sara
9. …No hard feelings. - Heather
10. No comment - Xander
JR ended up winning immunity and so the target shifted to Sara. It was the perfect time for her to finally go and everyone was looking to get Sara out so they could have some more fluidity with their moves. Once this was done, there was no longer a F7 Ancha promise that had to occur.
I ended up telling Sara that she was the intended target, and in turn she told me that JR was looking to target Deshawn or Myself. I ended up telling this to JR so that he knew that he couldn’t trust Sara and further push JR to voting for Sara with us. In the end, JR went against the idea of Sara and tried to work with her. Heather also went with JR to vote for me as JR was starting to convince others of how big a target I was.
Luckily, the relationships I built early on stuck solid and I was saved with a vote of 5-3-1.
Round 9
With 8 left in the game, I needed to solidify the 4 (Myself, Evvie, Xander, Deshawn) and make sure Shan didn’t realize she was in the 5th place position. If she did, it’s possible the outcast players (JR, Leslie, Heather, Shan) vote together and we go to rocks. This was also an incredibly dangerous round as Leslie had mentioned to Evvie the idea of a Shan/Evvie/Leslie F3 and to work with JR and Heather to get me out of the game.
Evvie came up with the plan to have the four of us vote Shan next, and then tell Shan we were voting JR. Leslie had a falling out with JR and so we thought we could tell her to vote another way from Shan and us, forcing JR and Heather to vote together without Shan or Leslie. The vote would end up 4-2-1-1. It was a brilliant plan by Evvie, however Shan ended up winning immunity the one day she needed it.
Once Shan had won immunity, there was no way for us to organize a proper plan in 20 minutes before IMs turned off. I used the chaos of the moment to convince everyone to throw votes on Heather just to save themselves. I told JR he would be saved if he voted Heather and he had Leslie vote with us as well. Shan also mentioned she heard the name Heather from others (i had first told Deshawn, Evvie, and Xander to spread the name out) and so I told Shan that it was cool with me and would put it in.
Since Heather was the last name heard before tribal and was an easy target for people (as she just voted with JR against Ancha) it was easy to get it done. The vote ended up beinng unanimous and quelled any worried of a 4-4 split. The F4 of Myself, Evvie, Xander, and Deshawn was successfully in power.
Round 10
7 was the magic number I kept pushing to the F4 and we had finally reached it. However, there was a risk that JR would still push for me as the biggest target and that I needed to go. At the same time, Evvie was struggling with the idea of Shan going soon, but Xander wanted her gone ASAP after that mistake vote Shan posted for him. I agreed that Shan was incredibly smart and would beat us in immunity challenges later down the road if we continued to keep her.
I ended up having a conversation with JR where we tried to work out a plan. He told me to pick someone I couldn’t see go and then he would pick one. i said Shan to him so that we would be thrown off as to who I wanted out next. JR in turn said Leslie. So with the three possible targets left, JR picked Deshawn. I said I would talk to Shan about it and JR would talk to Leslie in turn.
I brought this info to Deshawn and Evvie right away and said JR is targeting Deshawn and to expect that name from Shan. Shan ended up telling Evvie that I was also a possible target should I not win immunity. This is when I decided I had to start winning as many immunities as I could as my name would be coming up every round from this point on.
Luckily, I ended up studying and practicing the Match Game from previous season forums and was able to finish the challenge first. JR was still pushing for Deshawn and said that the alliance of Deshawn/Evvie/Abe needs to be broken up. This was great for me as no one has noticed how close Evvie and I are with Xander still and continue to try and get him to flip.
In the end, Shan, JR, and Leslie voted Deshawn but our F4 voted together sending Shan out of the game. This would also solidify Xander’s trust with me as I told him I had to convince Evvie and Deshawn to vote for Shan and explained how hard they were pushing JR instead. I needed JR in my pocket should we go to a F2 in the end.
Round 11
From this point on, my main goal was to get out the threats of Leslie, JR, and Deshawn so that the F3 stoner alliance could get to the end of the game. I knew I had the best chance again them as Deshawn was loved by everyone in the game still and JR/Leslie getting to the end felt like an automatic win.
I started to float the idea of getting Deshawn out next. He had already won an immunity and it’s possible that at F4, he could beat us and ruin our F3 plans. From this point on, I spent hours studying challenges and practicing just so I could put my plan into motion. I ended up destroying the bricks challenge with a score of 100, compared to JR’s 47 and the rest of the tribe getting single digits.
This was also the round I started pushing to Xander more and more that this season might be a F2 FTC and that the two of us need to stick together if we’re going to the end. He had just berated Shan on the way out and so I couldn’t think of anyone else better to bring to the end with me. Xander agreed and said he would take me with him shoud he win the final immunity challenge.
Since Evvie and Xander we constantly worried about an idol, we had to push to JR that he was leaving. At the same time, I had built a F2 type relationship with Deshawn and he was more worried about Evvie and Xander flipping on us. I reassured him as much as I could that they wouldn’t do that and there was a clear path to the end.
JR also thought he was leaving and was pushing for Deshawn to go to all of us, since I wasn’t an option. We just kept it quiet with JR and let him believe that he was going. In the end, the blindside worked and Deshawn ended up leaving with a vote of 5-1, with JR and Leslie unknowingly voting correctly.
Round 12
The last big target for me was JR. He had been clawing his way through this game and was on track to make F4 should he win the challenge. Thankfully, Evvie ended up winning the challenge and JR was the easy target to leave. JR pushed for me to go incredibly hard, but I had built such a solid relationship with Evvie and Xander that they couldn’t possibly let me go, despite winning 3 individual immunities in previous rounds.
I had to curb any doubts from Evvie or Xander by telling them that their names were pushed to me by JR and Leslie and that JR specifically wanted Evvie gone. I couldn’t let them know that JR had told me straight up that he was targeting me as it would give them more reason to consider the move. So I did my best to copy/paste some messages to Evvie and Xander to show that JR was targeting Evvie and for me to vote for her.
In the end, Xander and Evvie stuck true to me and I stayed with a vote of 3-2. This was a critical vote for me as I knew I couldn’t use my idols anymore (they were only good until F6) and I was truly vulnerable. Jeff’s message during tribal about this being the last night to use an idol was to throw off everyone in the game, and JR actually attempted to freak us out by pretending to have one.
Round 13
In order to secure the Stoner F3, I had to once again win immunity. There was a risk here that Evvie and Leslie might vote together and force a tie in some way. I did end up winning immunity again and was able to secure my place at F3. I also wanted to make sure Xander was safe so I pushed to him the idea that Evvie might try to tie the vote and to make sure he voted for Leslie. I also explained to him that if he tried to force a tie or if Evvie tried to force a tie, there was a possibility they would go home for doing so. With me having immunity, and two people being tied for votes, the only person elligible to get voted out would be the person attempting to flip.
This squashed any plan Leslie, Evvie, or Xander could have possibly attempted and caused Leslie to go easily with a vote of 3-1.
Round 14
To end my game, I once again won immunity. I had practiced the box challenge from at least 15 of the previous seasons and tried my best to get my times down to fastest winners of all time. As an example, in Stranded 38, Sherri finished the challenge in about 21 minutes. I ended up finishing in 20.
I decided to vote Evvie out as there were so many times she was attempting to work against me with Shan, Leslie, and Heather. I’ve also seen Evvie talk through multiple tribal councils and plead her case for her gameplay extremely well. On the opposite end of things, Xander was never asked any serious questions at Tribal Council. Jeff constantly asked him how he was doing, how’s the weather, what’s his favorite color, etc. It was clear to everyone that Xander followed whatever plans I had set out and never took any opposing plans seriously. Evvie and Deshawn were the ones I planned a lot of the game with, but Xander was with us since day 1 and mostly just had a vendetta against Sara and Shan because he didn’t know how to talk to them. Xander happily agreed and listened to me for every single plan I had and was happy as long as I went after Shan for him when I could.
—
I set out to play as hard as I could, to prove to myself that I could win this game, and play a game that was all-encompassing. I won 5 individual immunities, including 3 in a row from F4 to F2. I single handedly won the Code Breakers tribe challenge. I found 2 hidden immuniity idols. I made an effort to be an open book that people could talk to at any time, and in turn people kept me around despite being the biggest threat in the game. Winning immunities helped, but there were key moments in the game where I could have been voted out, however the relationships I built helped me to stay. I always knew how the vote was going to go, I always voted correctly, and despite getting voted for, i was never worried enough to use an immunity idol. I studied past seasons to the point where I always knew the challenge that came up; to the point where I was the equivalent of a returnee player without being one. I played an all around game combining social, strategic, and challenge threat.
This is why I hope you choose me to be the winner of Stranded in the Andes, and I’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have for me. Thank you for reading!