Revali

Hey Revali! We honestly didn't get a chance to talk too much during the game, but in our small amount of interaction, your PMs were overloaded with charm and personality, more than pretty much *any* other player out there. I think it says a lot that I tried to vote you off, met a TON of resistance, and then in the aftermath you approached me and proceeded to lay out the charm. If I vote for you, then I feel like I'd be voting for a classic social game over games that benefited from twists and advantages.

That said, you yourself described your game as "UTR," which often has a negative connotation. Speaking personally, I apparently was someone who was playing an "UTR game" but I had no idea I was doing this until after being voted off and just realizing how far out of the loop I was on so many things. So I want to know - what is the distinguishing factor that leads your game to being labeled as "UTR," and was this a conscious effort on your part? You also went bold enough to say that playing UTR is the superior way to play - can you point to any times that Mipha or Urbosa were harmed or almost harmed as a result of them NOT playing an UTR game?

*blushes* Well thanks, it's nice to hear people begin with a compliment and call me charming. Did you like my picture btw? You didn't respond before we became leaves in the wind.

That's both a good question and a difficult question to answer. After all a lot of people use shorthand like UTR to just mean any game that isn't immediately obvious to explain. Still I'll try and describe what it means to me. Reminder this isn't fully holistic, Survivor is a hard game to quantify. Under the Radar games are determined by how people react when your name is brought up as a vote. Someone who is on the Radar (someone like Oaki) people will react with an "makes sense", for people who are Over the Radar (easiest example is someone like Epona) people will react with either fear or elation at the idea. For someone who is Under the Radar (easiest example being Kohga) the reaction is more of a "but why?" or confusion at the suggestion, like it just doesn't make sense. Granted I'm sure there are counterexamples to this, but gameplay determination is intrinsically tied to perception, so I think it makes sense. 

My main goal was to give everyone some reason to want me around, even if it was one that didn't make me especially close. To Sidon I was a tool, a vote who could be used to deal with more pressing concerns at the the time. To you and Oven I tried to be the person who you could ally with when you tried to flip the game on the "Big Talkers Alliance" (Though I didn't quite get to that point with so, so I guess I was just a charming person who wanted to make it so neither of us was in trouble). To Horse and Epona I was their presumptive ally, maybe not as close as F3 material, that I could not be sure but still someone who was endeared to them and could be permitted to live. None of these were super close relationships (though I did try to make the last one close and Epona and I did have many days where we did keep each other informed and watch each others backs, that just faded after the unmerge and it was apparent I would lose incredibly hard against them due to their work being the Epona Express) but they were enough to keep the majority off of me. Just being the third person from the bottom of the "list of people X wants to vote off" is usually enough (since the last person might win immunity). In fact the round I received the most votes, Final 8, was when not one but TWO people were immune, and both were much more likely to receive votes at that point than me, it was unfortunate but my life was necessary to avoid  Mipha and Oven and Urbo (well maybe not them cause of everything they had) from quickly following suit. 

 Granted I was imperfect at giving everyone a reason not to kill me, but I did it with enough people you weren't able to get anyone on my wagon, and enough that Horse wasn't able to get more than one other vote on my wagon and as everyone who plays this game knows, maintaining the amount of conversations to do that in this game is a lot of work, especially when a lot of them can break, but hey, when I try hard I can do it.  

The reason I find this way the best way to play is because well, it's the most effective. Survivor is a game about survival first and foremost. Someone who is on the radar rarely has enough clout to reverse wagons once they get going, and while Someone who is above the radar might inspire fear, if people are smart they will be cut down.  People prefer games like that to UTR often because they WANT it to be true that it is more valuable, that being the one great person who made the big move should be rewarded, but that just...isn't the case most of the time. It is very much needed sometimes, that is true, and it is more memorable, that is true, but the subtle moves and small things or more often collection of small things that almost always matter more,

As such at the cost of being well know and seen early on they become dependent on winning immunities or items or something else. There's nothing wrong with any of those but I do think there's an issue of needing them. I tried to make it so I could survive any twist, even if just barely and while there were certainly point that could have gone wrong, they were less abundant than those of either of my colleagues.

Urbosa was on the radar most of the merge, while they were out of the public eye the first couple rounds, on their five/five tribe they probably needed immunity there to survive. At final 8 they probably needed immunity to make it through, from final 7 on they probably needed immunity. There's a reason a lot of people don't find Ben to be a compelling winner and why people didn't vote for Brad Culpepper, because while yes they were safe, the cost was isolation of themselves in a way that made them DEPENDENT on the tools that made it to the end. This is the reason why urbosa not being UTR was a huge flaw in their game. 

Mipha was always on the radar from the moment I met them. Like Urbosa did rally quite hard about how Mipha needed to go (and I agreed a lot with that) and while I did vote for Patricia the round they went, they were the person I most wanted gone at the start of the round. When they returned with a vengeance they spread lies about idols and various information, so much that it was apparent that they couldn't be trusted with really anything except their own self interest. If they didn't have immunity at 8 there's a good chance they would have paid the price and for a majority fo F7 they were the target, the mod mess up is evidence of that, not to mention Sidon immediately wanted them out at F6 over me. They put themself too on the radar instead of being more subtle with their information and they paid for it. They did make it to the end though and did happen upon enough people who didn't want to just sit around and lose to Sidon or Epona, but I'm pretty sure that would have been true of anyone who came back from redemption, Mipha just happened to be the person who did. To be fair they do deserve credit for working hard to get Kohga to talk to them and not going the round Oaki went (though imo that could have easily changed if Oaki was just around in the afternoon).

While I do agree with Urbosa in the sense that anyone who makes it to the jury deserves to be on the jury, since there isn't exactly a rulebook on when jury MUST start, I can answer the sentiment of "which jurors played games that I would be unlikely to vote for". I have already said that I mostly vote on my relationship to the jurors, but I feel just saying "which jurors are you least connected to" isn't exactly a fair way to answer the question.

Probably the most repugnant quality in a game that would cause me not to vote on it on face is unnecessary betrayal. Betrayal itself is not a quality, sometimes staying with your alliance is death and you need to vote out someone, so it is necesarry sometimes, but voting out and ally when you don't have to or taking advantage of somewhen where your back is no longer against the wall is something that is more likely to lose my vote than gain it. Once again I feel my tolerance for this is out of step with most of the community, or people have a much higher tolerance for what they consider to be "necessary" betrayal.

As such despite most of the jury being willing to vote for them, one person who I'd say fits this is Kass, now granted, most of Kass's gameplan seems to rely on finding an alliance and sticking to it, going to long lengths for them, so they aren't a perfect fit, but they're treatment of me round 1 and they're attempt at patching it both left me wholly unsatisfied. I was the person who was immune round 1, I was the one person who was not going home and they'd always have to deal with, I was a person who wanted to work with them soooo badly and I was the one person who couldn't have an advantage, and yet I was left out completely. I was the one person who not telling about the vote it makes very little sense to and even in the case of "but they may counterplan" even the cowardly "PM when nothing can be done trick" would have been better than what I got, nothing.

And when they did apologize, it didn't strike me as someone who was sorry about what they did. They're first line was about how awkward they felt about having to meet me, not about how sorry they were that they left me out, and it still very much felt like a PM where they were more sad about the consequences of their action not working out than anything else. Of course Kass can tell me if this was wrong since I doubt they have any reason to lie to me now but it left me....unsatisfied. Meanwhile Kohga just straight up didn't apologize for voting me in the 4-4 round and I appreciated that a whole hell of a lot. 

I was gonna put Oaki on here, because he could have used anyone for his plan with Hunnie but explicitly chose one of the people who meant him no ill will, but his position was desperate enough I get why he would if he felt it'd have any chance of success. 

Second would actually be you, now calling me a tool who you used is not exactly something I'd ever consider to be exactly a good way to get my vote, and doing so on its own isn't rough but considering that was the time you were talking about how you were actually a big softie and everything kind of puts a bad taste in my mouth. However, it's how you handled that 4-4 that really loses you my vote. Cause that vote you literally tried to kill me, and I wasn't even mad that you tried to kill me, I got it, but afterward you had the GALL to get mad at me for trying to fucking save my own life instead of letting you coutnerplay and save Kass, someone who was always going to want me dead, and you also tried to leverage you saving me, which as you've said, you did because it let you do what you wanted anyway, like give me a break.  I'm pretty sure you remember the lashing I gave back before trying to get you on my side again because it was necesarry in order for me to not just get targeted the next round. AND this might not be accurate but you also had the gall to get mad at Mipha when allying with y'all would have just ended their game right then and there, like at least with Mipha they were immune and you literally tried to save them the round before so I get that a little, but seriously man, that rant, once you made it my respect for you was gone.
Meanwhile Epona was a quick, "sorry I did whatever caused you to do that", a much better response even if potentially hollow. 

I'm not sure that was the answer you were expecting but it sure felt good to type and I'm not going to play nice just because you can cause me to lose the game with your vote. Bad jury management I get, but I'm not the type to grovel at the amount of disrespect you've shown for me and my game. You're allowed to do it and you certainly haven't been as bad as you could be but I don't have to roll over for it.

Also an addendum, I did actually end up targeting people almost exclusively after they betrayed me, this may or may not have actually been a concious effort on my part. But

Patricia on tribe 1 knew I was voting for them and I was willing to listen to a counter-vote...which they lied about (as did everyone else).
I suppose mipha on tribe 3 didn't do anything wrong, but robbie did tell me straight up he didn't trust me and would vote me out.
Link I owe an apology too though, they targeted horse but didn't have any ill will against me.
Horse literally lied about putting me in his final 3.
Patty I had already targeted and did for the next 2 rounds.
Kass had already expressed their intent to kill me.
And since I didn't vote out oven everyone else had tried to kill me at some point, though regardless of whether it was me or Oven I suppose I had already commited to the "take out the big threats", and I did vow to vote for Urbo, though once again, stabbed in the front.

I wasn't mad at you for trying to save your own life, I was mad that I felt like I got played into a corner where I *had* to vote for you because you, Urbosa, Mipha, and Oven were all stonewalling me. I even tried to get in on a blindside on Kass if there was one and asked people explicitly about that option, and everyone said nope, the vote is on Oven, which I knew was bullshit because Oven had been openly throwing Mipha/Urbosa under the bus to me and both of them weren't phased by it, so I knew some kind of counterpush was happening, and I wasn't confident that it wasn't coming my way. I was heated as hell after that vote, not because you did something to save your own skin, but because Mipha stabbed me in the back after Kass was one of the primary reasons she didn't go home.

Fair. You also were like "you didn't do anything for me either", but you did lead with all the other stonewalling which was the main reason for your anger and this definitely clarifies a lot. My response might be a bit harsh but it definitely reflects how I felt about receiving that post, though I probably got caught up in the me. Also note I hadn't read this before assigning my gif so I think a general frustration/dissapointment one like the one I gave Epona is more apropos. 



Also

When you stick out your neck the guillotine drops, though I will stick out my neck to protect someone I value. I did rail hard against you about voting Oven for example. I just had...few people I wanted to do that for and the people who I wanted alive were usually not being targeted, why change that? I won't disagree that I was afraid of being the person everyone hated though, and hey, if you were right about nobody having ill will towards me, it worked.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who stated the obvious about FamiliarDuckFace.