My Opening Statement to the Jury

Jury,

I feel fortunate but also very happy to be sitting in front of you today with the chance to be considered as the sole survivor of this thrilling game. Thank you to Kathy for hosting a very professional and fun game that kept us on our toes all season. I am very proud of the game I played and look forward to hearing what my fellow players have to say about it. From my perspective, I feel that my game demonstrated an exceptional social element and a subtle but underrated strategic one. I was definitely not an individual challenge threat, but I did my part in helping my pre-merge tribe succeed, and I did win two of the key challenges of the season; the one which allowed me to choose my tribe members and the final immunity which secured my spot in the finals. Beyond those two wins, I made sure to always have my finger on the pulse of the game and ensured that I always survived whatever situation I was in, whether it be by the protection of other players' idols, clever manipulation, or simply general likeability.

Before I ramble on much longer, I would like to give a shout out and congratulations to my FTC partner Elsa. With by far the highest post count, she has demonstrated a very successful game and is a worthy person to be sitting next to. I would like to conclude by pointing out a similarity and a difference in our two games. The similarity I noticed is that we are both seemed to take a similar approach with in our separate alliances. It seems we were able to be in leadership roles yet also slightly hidden targets as some of the more "powerful" players were voted out before us. That was definitely intentional on my part, and I wouldn't be surprised if Elsa says the same. That being said, I have to say that a big difference between us is that Elsa was always in the majority post-merge, which gave her the ability to sit back and relax knowing that her alliance had an advantage. Whereas I was always in a minority, fighting every night to survive, and was able to outlast all of my alliance members and everyone but one of the dominant alliance. Perhaps you will see this as more impressive and perhaps not, but for me, that is an accomplishment all by itself.

It has honestly been a pleasure to play this game with all of you and that is not just sucking up. I rarely have a game where I like every player and participate in little to no drama. I think it is a good reflection on the cast Kathy put together that we all played hard with integrity and managed to keep things civil and friendly the whole time. I welcome all your questions and comments now and hope you all had as fun a time playing as I did.

Thank you.

Jury,

I feel fortunate but also very happy to be sitting in front of you today with the chance to be considered as the sole survivor of this thrilling game. Thank you to Kathy for hosting a very professional and fun game that kept us on our toes all season. I am very proud of the game I played and look forward to hearing what my fellow players have to say about it. From my perspective, I feel that my game demonstrated an exceptional social element and a subtle but underrated strategic one. I was definitely not an individual challenge threat, but I did my part in helping my pre-merge tribe succeed, and I did win two of the key challenges of the season; the one which allowed me to choose my tribe members and the final immunity which secured my spot in the FTC. Beyond those two wins, I remained focused on keeping my finger on the pulse of the game and ensuring that I always survived whatever situation I was in, whether it be by the protection of other players' idols, clever manipulation, or simply general likeability.

Before I ramble on much longer, I would like to give a shout out and congratulations to my FTC partner Elsa. With by far the highest post count, she has demonstrated a very successful game and is a worthy person to be sitting next to. I would like to conclude by pointing out a similarity and a difference in our two games. The similarity I noticed is that we both seemed to take a similar approach within our separate alliances. It seems we were able to be in leadership roles yet also slightly hidden targets as some of the more "powerful" players were voted out before us. That was definitely intentional on my part, and I wouldn't be surprised if Elsa says the same. That being said, I have to point out a big difference between us is that Elsa was always in the majority post-merge, which gave her the ability to relax a little more knowing that her alliance had an advantage. Whereas I was always in a minority, fighting every night to survive, and was able to outlast all of my alliance members and everyone but Elsa from the dominant alliance. Perhaps you will see this as more impressive and perhaps not, but for me, that is an accomplishment all by itself.

It has honestly been a pleasure to play this game with all of you and that is not just sucking up. I rarely have a game where I like every player and participate in little to no drama. I think it is a good reflection on the cast Kathy put together that we all played hard with integrity and managed to keep things civil and friendly the whole time. I welcome your questions and comments now and hope you all had as fun a time playing as I did.

Thank you.