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.
My journey to Stranded has been a tough one. Eight years ago, I met my ex-girlfriend through an ORG and suffered a very toxic relationship for over a year. Because of this, I lost the love I had for Survivor and playing ORGs. When I eventually met my wife and felt comfortable enough to get back into Survivor as a fan with my wife, I fell back in love with this game. I loved the sense of adventure, the strategic game play, and of course, the road to becoming a champion. I loved seeing some of my now favorite players dominate the game and reinvent how it’s played. I knew that if I could ever play another ORG, I wanted to play a game that was just as dominating as the legends we've grown to love. 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.
I hope that through my opening statement and through answering your questions today, I can prove to all of you members of the jury, 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 had an easy time talking to. 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. Our group chats were labelled Lurker and Lurker_test, which you might have seen on the group listings.
I also made some great relationships with Shan and Deshawn. Evvie and Xander also mentioned having great conversations with them, and so we planned to build a majority group involving both Shan and Deshawn. Danny was already becoming an early target from his inactivity. From speaking to everyone in the majority, not many Ancha members had spoke to Heather and there were already worries about Sara 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 rumour, saying Xander was already worrying about Sara, to start putting doubts about her in Ancha's mind.
I created this first chart of the tribe situation on Day 1.
To also reach all areas of the tribe, I came up with the idea to have each member of the stoner alliance get closer 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. This was a contingency plan, 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, as I was the only Ancha member who regularly attempted to talk to them. Sara had also talked about forming a F4 alliance including Myself, Xander, and Deshawn.
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 him more toward forming a true F4 with the twosome of Evvie/Xander. This way the F3 Stoners alliance had a clear F4 that Deshawn wouldn’t have the power to break and would also consider me his closest ally for building the F4 with him. 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 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 keep the heat off the established close 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. 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 previously given the role of forming a F2 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 long-term.
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 a target.
Round 2
After the first tribal, Sherea had left the game, I 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 of our tribe. I also started studying older seasons to prepare for challenges that may come. This was how I came to learn of the deadly sins, hetdensa, and the code breakers challenges.
I started to spread to Ancha that Deshawn wanted Sara out, as he had told me. 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 sociable and would start getting more and more offers from others to work together.
Round 3
Having mentioned the unscrambling words challenge and prepared words ahead of time for our tribe, we won against Kallpa again and had the opportunity to remove Danny to get an advantage for the following round. This was the round that I also started to look for an idol, as we finally lost our first tribe member. 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 a password forum 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, or until a member of our tribe was at risk for leaving. During one of my late nights, I happened to catch a temporary forum in the Ancha tribe camp. I opened the forum and luckily 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 did my best to prove to him through positive reinforcement 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 also a round where I felt not playing the game was the best strategy. I had a little bit of a spat with Evvie last round and so I needed to take a step back and reassess my place in the tribe. 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.
Round 5
This was when the threat of a tribe swap was starting to loom. The Kallpa deficit 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.
It was becoming clear that Heather was trying to work long-term with Evvie and Shan. 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, it was to use us as swing votes against Sara and Deshawn. We agreed with whatever plan Heather proposed just so we had every angle to work in the tribe should we need to lose an Ancha member.
However, once again plans were put on hold when we won another challenge. I had previously studied the Code Breakers challenge when looking at old seasons of Stranded. I was able to develop a system where I could use a string of guesses to determine the location of a color in a sequence while also removing other colors from contention. This allowed me to win the challenge for our tribe single-handedly. I put myself on the line during this challenge as I wanted to prove to my tribe that I had their best interests at heart and to further build my trust with them.
We would now head into a possible tribe swap with a large majority. However, Frosti quit the game right after Aaron left and we were instead given a single person swap of Deshawn for JR. I had convinced Deshawn to stay positive and figured Jeff wouldn’t just let Deshawn be voted out easily without a fighting chance. I read Jeff's words carefully about using every opportunity 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 for some sort of information-related challenge. 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.
Sara had already mentioned Jaime as a target and I had heard the name Erik from Evvie and Deshawn. Sara was really pushing for Jaime to go as she was good at convincing people to not vote for her and let her stay another round. 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. It was better for my game to continue to push the Ancha strong idea as Sara targeting an Ancha would start the train of Ancha boots too early. Eventually a poll was created by me in the OA group, and in overwhelming favour for Jaime to leave, as Sara was really pushing her name. This is when I started spinning to the tribe that ‘whatever Sara says, goes’ to further paint a bigger target on her rather than myself.
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 (listed as away) 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 JR. 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. It was becoming clear to me that this was a very volatile position for the Ancha 7 strong alliance and I had to figure out a way to try and keep Ancha together for one more tribal.
I 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. I also had Evvie decide who should go next. This way Evvie would feel they had more power and that the Stoner alliance was still their best option to get to the end. Evvie decided that if an Ancha couldn't go just yet, Erik was the best option for their game. Because JR had already made a lot of people mad, the rest of Ancha was looking to get rid of JR, so I would have to do a lot of work to get the vote switched.
I ended our conversation and also noted the following plan in my confessional to get things back on track:
1. Re-establish the Shan-Evvie relationship under the guise of a flip to take Sara down
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
And the following chart standing:
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. - Abe
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
So 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.
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.
JR suggested a plan to me where Shan and myself joined him and Leslie to vote Deshawn. I brought this plan to Shan who told Evvie right away and considered that voting for me might be a possible option should I not win immunity, 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 JR still hadn't noticed how close Evvie and I are with Xander and constantly approached him to flip when he never would.
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 Xander 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 would be a true underdog story.
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. I needed Xander to trust me over Evvie like i had been establishing with him since round 2, and I was hoping this would pay off in case he won the final immunity challenge,
Since Evvie and Xander were 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, 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 convince Evvie and Xander that JR was targeting Evvie before they won immunity.
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
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, however I also wanted to make sure Xander was safe. 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 eligible 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
At this point, there was a close to zero percent chance anyone would take me to the FTC. 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. Xander did promise he would take me to the end, but I couldn't just leave it up to chance. Building my F2 relationship with Xander was more a contingency plan, and I'm glad i didn't have to rely on it.
I decided to vote Evvie out as there were so many times she was offered to work against me with Shan, Leslie, JR, and Heather, and had to turn it down. 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 always offered to flip, but never took it seriously and always lied to the person offering the plan. Xander was also 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. I knew Xander would stick with me because of the bond we established from day 1, and because I helped him get out his primary target, Shan, when she wanted him out of the game. I never had to do this for Evvie as she was always on every player's good side, except for Sara who went out earlier in the merge. Based on the In Crowd challenge as well, Evvie and Deshawn were pegged as the most likely players to win the game, and I knew i couldn't take a risk bringing Evvie to the end when she had a similar target to mine.
Conclusion
I entered Stranded wanting to play a game that was just as dominating as the legends we've grown to love. 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. To truly represent Survivor's mantra of Outwit, Outplay, and Outlast.
Outwit - I listened to every single player's thoughts, feelings, emotions and changed my game to adapt to how they were feeling. I let Evvie take over the game with the Erik vote when she was at a low point. I took out Shan when Xander was worried about her. When Sara was becoming too aggressive, I cut her loose for the benefit of others trusting me going forward. Everything I did strategically was to benefit my game but also let the game weave and flow on its own. To ride the waves when I needed to, but also make my own waves when necessary.
Outplay - I won 5 individual immunities, including 3 in a row from F4 to F2. I single-handedly won the Code Breakers tribe challenge through research and practice. I found 2 hidden immuniity idols. 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 broke multiple Stranded challenge records and consistently pushed the limits of what playing hard is.
Outlast - I made an effort to build strong relationships, and in turn people kept me around despite being the biggest threat in the game. 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 was able to get players out before they were able to go after me, or if they did go after me, it was too late for them to make that move. JR preached day after day that getting me out was the best for everyone's game, but no one was ever able to do it.
I played an all around game combining social, strategic, and challenge prowess. I truly lived this game every single day since June 8th and will until the very last. What I've accomplished in this season is my love letter to the game of Survivor, and I believe I did the name Stranded proud.
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!
