Opening Statements

For the final time, welcome Pearce Tribe. Also welcome again to the jury: Aaron, Spooky, Ryan, dnash, Milli, Shy Guy and Shelby- voted out at the previous tribal council.


DAYMAN and Kachina. Congratulations on making it this far into the game. You've both played a great game to get here. But now your fate lies in the hands of 7 people you've had a part in voting out of the game.

Tonight each jury member will get an opportunity to comment or pose questions to you. Their objective is to help determine who to cast their vote for to be the winner of the game.

Before the jury begins their part. I'll give each of the finalists 1 post to make opening statements. Try to keep it brief at first as (based on how these things usually go) you'll have plenty of opportunity to explain every vote, how you thought about each player and all sorts of other random things to explain.

To keep things clean and tidy. I'll give each juror a separate thread to comment/ask your questions once the finalists have made their statements.

Jury!

Let me tell you, this game was something special to me. When a game is this exciting, suspenseful and intense, it always means the cast is top notch, and I really have to give all of you credit for bringing your A-games.

Like Adam suggests, I don't want to bore you all by giving an entire breakdown of my game at this point. I hope I will have that chance as each of you ask about the details surrounding your interations with me and your eliminations.

I am confident that even though most of you were quite observant about what was going on, there are still some surprises about my game that have yet to be revealed.

I will say that this game challenged me the entire time. It was a maze and a minefield to navigate through all these great players and to end up here. I hope that I played the game in such a way that showed respect to each of you and that garnered some respect from you towards me.

The path for me here wasn't without obstacles. Not every vote went exactly how I planned, mostly due to Adam's idol extravaganza. However, I was able to deal with the twists and surprises as they came, put myself in the best position no matter the circumstances, and utilize the twists to my advantage as well.

At one point in my confessional, Adam posted that he "was fascinated by my strategic game, because I put more detail into one round than he does into an entire game." It kind of made me laugh and realize that I probably take the game too seriously, but I do love playing it, and I hope that you appreciate that part of my personality.

I'll wrap up by saying thank you to Adam for all of his efforts putting together this excellent game.

I am excited to hear what the jury has to say to us.

Thanks!

First, I'd like to thank DAYMAN for bringing me to the final 2.  Though I think our first interaction was for the sake of fact finding, effectively conning each other to some degree, as things unfolded we became a great team, and I'm honored that he chose me for the final 2.  

This game was interesting.  Certainly one of the more difficult games I've ever played, partially because I had to work overtime when my original tribe entered the merge in a minority - yet 3 out of 4 of us made it to the final 4.  There were certainly a number of obstacles, and while it's difficult for me to say I'm entirely without some feelings of guilt, on a personal level, of the ways I accomplished that, I do think it's one of the more detailed and effective games I've played (the fact that I imagine most of the jury sees me as largely responsible for their demises, and with good reason for that, being a testament).  Still, I have a lot to explain to some of you - I also ask that you all keep in mind there were like 10 idols - or some crazy number - played this game, and being aware of that and guarding against it was essential in every step of this game.

I was on the right side of every vote, be it through idol plays or majority vote, barring 1 vote (and I'd like to ask Shelby for the permission to explain that... Shelby?) - not that I didn't have doubts that things could go another way, but what I expected as the most likely outcome was ALWAYS the outcome... and that was no accident.  And even with that, I managed to buffer myself to ensure people would give me another chance next time, even when they probably shouldn't have.

Dayman played a fantastic game, and throughout this, seeing what he's capable of and the level he thought through each step was incredible.  He proved himself to be such a strong player, beyond what I could have hoped for.  His game was incredibly strategic and planned out, at such a cerebral level; whereas my approach was more to stir the cup and read the tea leaves, stare into the sky and plot the charts, rely on sonar to relay things back to me, then come up with a tactical approach to further a constant objective.  Both were very effective, and I personally don't think either was better or worse.  I hope all of you give us both the chance to explain ourselves.

Jury - I have a lot to explain to all of you, and in many cases, a lot to thank you for.  While our objectives and strategies may not have always (or often) been mutually compatible, I did enjoy talking to you throughout this, and thank you for putting up with me.  

Adam - thank you for hosting (and for putting up with me) - such a great game, and I'm glad to be part of it.

Ok. Jury you'll each have an opportunity to approach the finalists with questions and comments. Like I said, I'll give you each a space to do that to keep everything more tidy.

My only request as far as questions is you keep it somewhat limited. I know how these games work and sometimes the jury members each ask 10 questions and 20 more follow ups after the finalists answer.

And now I turn it over to the jury.

I think we just need Aaron and Shy Guy to finish up. If either of you don't have any additional comments/questions, post so like Shelby did.

Jury members - if you know who you want to vote for already, feel free to post your votes in your confessional area. Hopefully the other 2 will get on tonight and question/comment if you are still waiting on that.

Jury- if you haven't voted go ahead and do so. If it is a tie vote, I'll continue trying to reach Aaron for a vote.

I'm really hoping it's a close vote either way. It seems like everyone says it's a super tough choice. Hopefully some went one way and some the other way. It would be a shame for a landslide in this case with us both putting our hearts into it at an elite level.

Good luck to you Kachina! It was a sincere pleasure!

I want a slaughter, one way or the other.  Either I taunt you for months about your epic loss, or you taunt me about my epic loss.  What's the fun in anything else?

Good luck, Dayman!  Really was a fantastic game.  Glad to play this game with you, and at the level we both did - and with the rest of you.  Thank you to everyone for making it so fun.  Even Adam, I guess.

Yeah, Adam was alright. Stingy with the idols though.

OK, I have the votes. Thank you for everyone for an outstanding season. I'm going to post "episodes" here, culminating in a live finale where I'll announce the winner. Hopefully I can get everything done and posted in the next week and we can have the winner announced by next Friday.