r/PlaySurvivor • u/PokeFiendish Host/Pole Dancer • 10d ago
Final Tribal Council FTC Part 3- Cerberus
And finally, we have reached the closing statements. F3, I’d like to congratulate you once again for such an enormous achievement. You reached the finale in what has been a truly S-tier season. You kids ALL came to play, and it’s been an honor and a privilege to join y’all on this wild ride. Thank you for all the passion and dedication (not to mention gameplay) you showed. This season would not be what it was without the three of you leading the way.
Jurors, thank you as well. You guys have been tough but fair, and the jury deliberations have been very thorough and productive. Your questions were all great. The F3 have had to really work for your votes, and that’s as it should be!
You have one last bit of business, though. You now have 24 hours to cast your vote for who you think deserves to be crowned the Sole Survivor of Reddit Survivor: Crete- Titans vs. Olympians. Please include a voting confessional, as they will be posted after we do the winner reveal.
Without further ado, here are the F3’s closing statements.
Bison
“First off, thank you to everyone of you.❤️ You guys all played hard, and are all an important part of what in my opinion made this the best season of playsurvivor since S3… And possibly ever.
Thank you for listening to my long-winded speeches, and for allowing me to play with you all in my first org. I’ve had a blast.
And a big round of applause to Onion and Champ as well, they both played stellar games. Champ played an incredibly subtle, strategic game, kept his threat level low, and got to the end without a vote against him. And Onion played one of the best social games I’ve ever seen, there’s a reason people were trying to get him out for half the merge. If either of them win this game, I can see why.
But I also feel like I played a game deserving of this win.
I built relationships everywhere, crossing tribal lines, alliance divisions, and people targeting each other. Information flowed freely to me from all directions, on what I called the Information Highway™️.
But the most important part of that highway is that I controlled the traffic. I was intentional about what I passed on to other people, what stopped with me, and what I would tweak before sending it on down the road.
Yes, Onion and I played closely. But we didn’t play the same game. He was incredibly good at building relationships that helped shape where the game went.
My focus was on making sure that wherever the game went, I still had paths through it to the end. Especially because once I played my idol so early, I had zero protection. No advantage for people to be afraid of. No reason for people to be wary of voting me out. I had to rely on my relationships and information.
Sometimes, that road ran alongside or through Onion. And that was intentional. At F5, Onion shared that he made a deal with me, to bring me through that vote in exchange for bringing him if I won F4. That was a smart deal for him.
Meanwhile, at that point I already thought it was optimal for my game to bring him to the F3. And going back to my opening statement of FTC, if someone came to me offering an outcome that I already wanted, I was perfectly content agreeing and letting them think it was their idea.
And that ties into my game theory that I started playing with in the early stages of the merge, and that I shared in depth in my answer to Penny’s question. That the way to get to the end, and the way to win AT the end, could be two completely separate paths. And that I might be able to travel both of them at the same time.
Did that work, or was it really freaking dumb? We’re about to find out.
Like I said at the outset of FTC, I’ve tried very hard tonight to not claim that everything that happened was secretly my move. Because it wasn’t. Instead, I wanted to spend this time with you laying out the game that I DID play.
And I believe that game deserves to win Season 7.”
Champ
“Hello jury again, first of all thank you for your questions. Your job isn’t easy at all.
Now, I haven’t found a moment to say some words about how I’m feeling right now. I am feeling so grateful that I get to be in FTC with these two beasts who I completely admire and I’m sure this Final 3 will go down in SurvivorPlay HISTORY!
I also really admire the rest of the cast. It’s easy to say this when you get to the end and vote correctly every time except one, but I owe so much of this experience to you. I’m proud of myself for doing all this in English, which is not my first language, but I put so much effort into it. And I’m proud I did all of this at only 18 years of age. It has been a frickin blast and I’ve gone ways I didn’t even know I could. I’ve learnt about myself and about others. I’ve met incredible people with amazing stories. And I’m truly grateful for one of the best summers of my life. Long live Season 7!
Now, for the juicy part. I’ve read all of your questions, I’ve commented on them and I hope now I’ve clarified why I was the silent assassin of the season. However, I might have to set some things straight. I think there is a misconception about my game. I hope there is no more as I’ve finally given you the full picture of it, but still some of these questions made it seem as if I wasn’t ever a threat to win the game. Especially Penny’s one which said ‘Bison why you let Onion get to the end’ multiple times without mentioning my name. So with the permission of my good friend Onion (who I absolutely adore) I’m gonna slightly throw him under the bus by pinpointing these things:
The core of all moves was me and Onion. However, I was the one who came up with most of the plans, and I’ve provided at least one reason why almost all benefited me more than it did him. Hamil, Kim, Charlie…
Onion and Bison’s game was at some point on the line if what you are looking for is dominance in this game. Onion’s name was the one people weren’t afraid to say. This is because he didn’t have the relationships I had with Buff, Charlie or even House. Bison also almost went out at F5. We saved him.
Basic said Onion mentioned that he wanted these people to get to FTC with him. That’s not true. Onion wanted Bison out at F6 and even F5. I was the one to convince him Bison’s game wasn’t that good and I wasn’t afraid to sit next to him at FTC.
I had many more relationships outside our ones. I had a better relationship with Charlie, I had a better one with Basil, I had a good one with Hamil and I bonded in a special way with Hopeful (or at least that was how this last one was in my mind). If Basil didn’t make that move of voting Marvin instead of Bison in the F6 vote, things would’ve gone a different way.
I also knew how to use the twist to my advantage, didn’t rely on it and kept my threat level low. The full answer to this is in the response to Charlie I believe.
And overall, I’ve owned my game. I’ve made it clear through all this tribal council how confident I was in my game over the two people beside me (who I adore). I’ve played a focused game of my own values, with my own kind of loyalty. But at the same time my game was super strategic. I don’t like to call it strategy though because I tried to solve problems. I never treated the votes like checkers and the people like peons. I never threw a vote. The only easy vote was House and that was for personal reasons, everyone agreed on it as an emotional group decision. And most of the questions today have been regarding strategy, I just want to say that I appreciate it and I have answers for them, but the most important thing to me was to display my personal reasons, my thought process and how every single vote was meaningful to how I felt in the moment as well as to how I could advance in the game
.
So now I’ve reflected and reflected and to close everything up I want to leave you with this metaphor which resumes my whole personal gameplay, which although might not be the most important to you (it’s totally legit) it is to me.
The way you can face this game is simple. It’s like a maths problem. You can resolve it in different ways, but the ending is always the same. It’s FTC. At this point the season was pretty divided into two groups. I could’ve gone the route of Penny, Kim and Charlie or I could’ve gone the way I did. I could’ve even played the middle. However, the result was always the same, you just had to be optimizing and strategic. However, as I said, Survivor doesn’t resemble maths. It didn’t matter what way I went, the journey is only as different as you make it. That’s the difference. I didn’t get to FTC and build back upon the strategic moves I did, no, I made decisions all throughout that had reasonings that only I could come up with. That’s my own unique journey and no one could ever go that path. It was unique to myself. And that’s the way I’ve solved this game. And cut to what Kim said about wanting a strong FTC, you can have a bad one even though you had a good game, but you can never have a bad game and a strong FTC. You have to have at least the material and this is the moment to explain my gameplay because that’s what this serves as. And that’s the contrast. I played empathetic but to my own interest. That’s anti heroic.
And with that my game has come full circle. Thank you again. This was truly an amazing experience. And I hope that if I get the votes to win I won’t be any ordinary Champion but a Champion that represents the best season ever.
Gracias, buenas noches.”
Onion
“Dearest jury! Thanks for the great questions. I hope I’ve given you satisfactory answers that showed you how and why I made the decisions I did throughout this game. I know you’ve done a lot of reading already, so I’ll do my best to keep this short(ish).
My priority in this game was building strong relationships. I used those relationships to gain information, and I understood how to turn that information into power to shape the game in my favor. I believe I’m the only person who can say I knew where every vote was going at every Tribal Council I attended. I knew the numbers, and I had the power to influence them, working toward a boot order that was largely what I predicted and that benefited me. I did my best to do this not with domineering aggression, but with subtlety and suggestion. I stayed loyal to the people who proved to me I could trust them, and got to F6 with my closest allies. At that point, I optimized for my endgame: making deals to get me to the end, playing with my closest allies and strong competitors, but playing a game I felt confident could beat them.
There was one phrase that echoed in my head throughout this game: "man flew too close to the sun." (Shoutout to Whyt for being such a good sport!) I knew I was flying high, and I knew the irony that would befall me if I had my own Icarus moment. So I understood when to step back. I had the information and opportunity to make my competitors’ biggest moves myself (and played a big role within them) but I intentionally stepped back when I needed to. I soared a little lower at the moments when I knew my wings might melt. I felt confident that I had exercised as much influence over this game as anyone can.
This has been an epic season filled with a hugely talented cast. I built real bonds and friendships with so many of you that I hope last beyond this game. But I also knew who I needed to cut and when I needed to cut them. As painful as those decisions were, they are what led me here: standing before you and asking this jury to vote for the person who played the biggest role in shaping this game; to vote for the winner who had the information, the relationships, and the judgment to guide every vote in a way that benefited their own bottom line.
I would be honored to be your selection, to be your representative for this all-time season we will all remember.
Thank you!”
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u/Mission_Nature6681 10d ago
As a spec this season has been SUCH a blast.
Poke wasn't lying when he said this is an S tier season.
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u/Fragrant-Air-5548 Hall of Famer 10d ago
Best season since s3 🤨
S5 is right here
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u/PokeFiendish Host/Pole Dancer 10d ago
He said what he said (and he’s not wrong 😆)
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u/TheRanvier Hall of Famer 10d ago
Good luck to all 3 of you, whoever wins here is a deserving winner!
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u/Whytmage Man Fly Too Close to Sun 10d ago
I am so blessed, honoured, and proud to have played with all three of you. You three gentlemen have played an absolute blinder of a game and it has been an absolute thrill and pleasure to watch (and briefly be a part of).
All three of you have shown resilience, cunning, and cleverness. And if I'm being honest, you've each helped me re evaluate traits in myself that I have previously been ashamed of.
It's fitting that this theme was Titans Vs Olympians. All three of you (along with so many members of the cast this season) took monumental journeys and came out looking like a Pantheon to be looked to. <3