Austin Analyzes, Articulates, and Alliterates...Awesomely

[Austin Carty]

Welcome F3 - congratulations to all three of you on making it here. Regardless of the means you did it in, it does take some effort to get to the finals, so I will give all three of you props for succeeding where the jury members failed.



The Final Tribal Council, for those not on the jury, is about one thing: saving face. Katie, you’re making a hell of an attempt to do that. But you failed to realize something - this is not YOUR time to shine. Us jury members get our say, and I know exactly how I’m going to use mine.

When you, and Kass as well for that matter, made your moves, you forgot the critical tenant of how Survivor works: at the end of the day, the jury has to like you. I will not let you mitigate the critical failures of your game. Don’t give me the bullshit about playing more strategic or being more invested - your social game were appalling. In that regard, LJ is ahead by miles, and it’ll probably give him the win. My vote is not locked just yet, but I respect social game more than anything else. You need to prove to me you played the social game, or you won’t get my vote.

Katie, I’m gonna say it flat out: you had a pre-game alliance. There is no reason for Kass to flip on myself when she did for you of all people. Not once were you two on the same tribe, and I can count the number of times I saw you on AIM before my boot on one hand. She had no impetus to save you, and the people on the jury are not idiots. The supposed “haters” know what you’re up to, and you just demonstrated that by having knowledge supplied to you about the jury house. I can’t imagine who the source is. As far as I’m concerned, in a true alias game, you would not be where you are now.

Relying on a pregame is a weak move and inherently cowardly. You and Kass put yourself at an unfair advantage over the other contestants outside of the context of the game. I respect the moves you made, but the fact that they were built on a false foundation makes it incredibly difficult to vote for you

That being said, I do have questions for each of you. If you answer them just the right way, you may just be able to earn my jury vote. Like I said, I’ll consider anything.

F3: To the final three as a whole, I have a request for you. Rank the jurors in terms of their gameplay, 1 being the best, 8 being the worst, and your reasoning for their placement.

Candice: What did you do in this game? I honestly have no clue where you went. Why did you stop going on AIM? Did you just vote however Kass or Katie told you to?

Katie: It was either you or me at my vote off, and you managed to divert the target because I had this nifty little souvenir.



Props for managing that, but you’ll forgive me if I’m somewhat curious as to how it went down. I have a few questions about that vote-off, so please indulge my narcissism for a bit. First, who told you I had an idol, and when did you find out about it? Secondly, was this the sole reason why you targeted me? Finally, when you blew up at me after the Todd vote out, what were you attempting? Were you just trying to inject chaos into the game as a way to scramble, or did you have something against me specifically?

Also, on the topic of said blow up, I would like to say I feel vindicated - Katie wasn’t voted off when I thought she should’ve been, and look where she is now. There’s a reason I wanted to cut you, Katie, and I think you understand that more than you were willing to admit when we discussed it.

LJ: Explain to me your strategy entering the merge, and how did it change as the game progressed? Why do you think you made it to the end?

I look forward to reading each of your answers. Hell, it’ll be entertaining if nothing else.

[katiecollins]

First off, thanks for making me the topic of conversation for like 90% of your speech. Much appreciated <3

I admit that my social game was not the best and I really should have tried harder to connect with more people. Then again, it might have made me seem like more of an asshole due to all the blindsides I participated in during the game. However, I did play the social game in some capacity, as everyone was willing to work with me late into the game. Ultimately, my moves were strategic but you can't MAKE those moves unless you're able to talk with people socially and get them to trust you enough that you can vote together. Also, I had numerous conversations that were unrelated to the game, including yourself, LJ, Teresa, and Brian. I think that qualifies as part of the social game.

Okay about this pre-game bullshit, I was close with exactly one person coming into this game. Yes Kass and I are close friends online and there's no denying it and no getting around it. However, my game did not rely solely on Kass because we are but 2 votes and couldn't have done shit with just the pre-game. I got to the end by flipping back and forth, so clearly I was able to work with a bunch of people in the game and not just my close friend.

And for the record Brian was the one who told me about the jury house anger so my info regarding that had nothing to do with my premade at all.

Juror Ranking:
1) Kass - she was in on every single vote until the F4. Love her or hate her, she dominated the season.
2) Austin - had an idol, had his hand in many alliances, probably would have won if he didn't leave at F8
3) Brian - played a great game and controlled everything until his boot episode.
4) Yul - played a solid, slightly UTR strategic game and an incredible social game with everyone
5) Teresa - played really great social game but overstretched herself a bit and got blindsided by her alliance
6) Todd - didn't have a chance to play much game.
7) Julie - ditto Todd
8) Jay - obvious

I may be wrong about this, but as far as I remember Brian and Kass both told me about your idol when I approached them about trying to vote you off at the final 8. I actually didn't target you because of the idol as I didn't know it existed when I targeted you. I saw you as the person controlling a group of people I had no sway in (namely you/LJ/Yul) so I wanted to cut off the head of that group. My blow-up against you actually had nothing to do with chaos creation or a personal vendetta, it was entirely strategic. Kass and Brian weren't fully convinced of voting for you at that tribal council, so I went up to you and threw that tantrum to get a rise out of you and get you to spill things. It took longer than I expected, but it pushed the cracks of you and Kass/Brian enough that they made the decision to vote you out.

I mean yeah you were totally right about me being such a wild card that I could get to the end but I wouldn't have admitted it at the time because I wanted to stay in the game.

[briansback]

I had host permission to tell Katie that Julie (Rob) discovered who she was.

[LJ McKanas]

Thanks Austin for the questions.

For the first one here is how I would rank the jury and I am basing it on who I believe would have won had they made it to the end:
1. Yul - He played a nearly flawless game by making it all the way to the F5 but he was as much feared of winning as anyone else especially when he's strong at challenges too.
2. Brian - He was the lesser evil between him and Kass. He played a very good social game and was a key vote in most of the blindsides because he was in with Kass.
3. Austin - You were likable, you were also strong in challenges, I still remember the day you still went on to beat me in that tug of war and had you made it the end I do believe you had a good chance of winning.
4. Kass - I ranked her fourth because a lot of people didn't really like you so in spite of what you did you may have a hard time to win the game but it was not impossible with the right combination of people in the F3.
5. Teresa - I only rank her fifth because she got blindsided and I wish she should not have told anyone of the idol but herself because I think that's what ultimately got her voted out.
6. Julie - you were feared too much to win the game that they had to blindside you out first.
7. Todd - you weren't just strong socially enough to be someone that people would be rooting for.
8. Jay - I know you are very likable and could have had a strong social game but you were too out of the loop that it was hard to see if you would win had you made it to the end.

For the second question, my strategy going into the merge was just to lay low. Not stand out too much but still be in the loop of what's been going on. I wasn't even that bad in the challenges but I have kept to myself how strong I could be with puzzles so no one would think I'm a threat. I also had in mind to stay loyal to my Athena tribe despite the numbers disadvantage that we had but as the game progressed it seemed like it was not likely to happen because it seemed everyone had their own agenda so I adopted accordingly and went where my gut tells me to go. Aligning with people who I seemed trustworthy enough to vote with me at that round but still in the back of my head I wished for an Athena to make the finals because we were the underdogs this season. I have accomplished that and even stayed loyal to at least one Athena who I decided to take with me to the end. As I have said in Brian's thread, as long as the vote wasn't me then that means I get to fight another day in this game. I stayed out of the radar but I was not non existent. I was socially capable, I had a good grasp on the challenges and overall I got to the end without a scratch of a vote on me and all this without relying on any outside relationships but with the relationships I have built in this game and this game only.

Thanks Austin and good luck with your decision