Hello final two! Congrats to both of you for making it this far and good game to you and the rest of the cast. I also really want to thank the hosts for all the work they've put in to make this a great game.
Both of you have played respectable games and, in my opinion, have both gotten here on sound UTR strategy with a few comp wins to boot.
But I think you guys have had enough of people telling you how your games were played or what you did wrong. So why don't we mix it up? I'd like to hear what you believe was the main or ultimately fatal flaw in each jury members' game. Similarly, was what your fellow finalist's greatest mistake. None of these have to be a specific event or a novel (unless you want it to be).
My other question is: what is your biggest regret in this game? As long as you get the point across it can be as long or short as you like.
That's it for me. My vote's not in yet (typical JMac right?) so don't assume I've gone one way or another. Good luck!
Hey J-Mac! Thanks for the change of pace with the questions, SHOULD prove to be interesting I think.
Jackie – was perceived as too very active and shady with apparently lots of bonds in the house. Even though she was in the Frozen 5 alliance we still voted her out over Adam who was believed to have been less well connected but just as loyal if not more (at least pretty sure that was the reason, this was like a month ago lol).
Adam – related himself to the Frozen 5 somehow. When Pilar was HoH I think she mentioned to me that Adam said something along the lines of “people won’t be happy if I get nommed” or something like that. If that was the case that was a BIT of a flaw lol, considering it showed that he was aligned to some group and it wasn’t Pilar so of course she is going to try taking him out eventually.
Vanessa – was unable to make the connections to save herself after being associated with the Frozen 5 alliance. Once it was outed we would essentially be sitting ducks if nommed.
J-Mac – disinterest in the game down the stretch. I know I really liked talking to you when you were online but not a lot of people (from what I heard) talked to you a lot and because of that you were seen as sorta inactive in people’s eyes. That and you voted to evict Adam and lied about it initially, so when Aisha was HoH she was ready to avenge that.
Charlotte – similar issues of not being online a lot and not being able to make the necessary bond with Pilar in order for her to want to keep Charlotte over me at F8. She was seen as a pawn and once you are nommed so many times, eventually you are going to get eliminated.
Pilar – specifically keeping me was a big flaw in the her game. Less specifically she didn’t have a lot of really strong social connections (tmk) because people had a tough time connecting with her in every day chit chat.
Aisha – was too big of a threat and people realized it too soon. She didn’t have a strong enough relationship with Michael to get him to want to keep her around as an ally/friend versus voting to evict her as a threat.
Kevin – especially down the stretch seemed fairly busy irl so he wasn’t online as much to make bonds on AIM and everything. Also was seen as more of a threat vs. Penny/didn’t have as good of a relationship with Michael which saw to Michael voting to evict him.
Michael – when you win comps, you need to keep winning them, simple as that. Michael was basically a comp beast and was NOT subtle about it. His game was very public and because of that he was a likely threat at the end so he needed to be voted out.
As far as regrets, I’m really not sure to be perfectly honest with you. I think if I could pick anything, it would be not making stronger connections with more people and keeping them up throughout the whole game. Hardly talking to Charlotte is certainly up there on the regret list, mostly because she was obviously a house guest and she had as much power as everyone else in the house with an equal chance at winning HoH. I think I got lazy later in the game when it came to logging on Aim and talking to people, allowing others to initiate more.
I feel like while my bonds are definitely not BAD, they could most definitely be stronger.
Thanks Zach, not a big deal but you forgot to name Penny's mistake/flaw. Those are great answers though
My bad! Imo Penny's biggest flaw is simply not having more involvement in the game and not having very strong social relations. This is ultimately a social game and I don't think she had the connections that would have kept he safe had she not been seen as a goat near the end of this game.
Jackie - Jackie's biggest flaw was becoming too closely tied to an early game alliance. Early game alliances are inevitably broken up, and when that happened, she positioned herself perfectly to be the Frozen Five's fall guy.
Adam - Adam's biggest flaw, I think, was not solidifying a solid alliance sooner. People assumed he was a part of the Frozen Five when he was not. This assumption was based on the fact that Adam was a successfully social player, but he had not made the deals others thought he had made. I think if he would have been quicker to name an alliance that extended beyond individual agreements to look out for one another, he would have had a larger safety net to catch him during the "No HoH" round. Vanessa - Vanessa was very loyal to her alliance, but I think her fatal flaw was that she was transparently close to some members of the house and transparently distant from other members of the house. Were she to have built a better bridge with players that she was not aligned with, I don't think Team Canada would have been as quick to evict her during my first HoH.
Johnny - Johnny, bud, I think your biggest flaw was that you couldn't be as active as other members of the house. Everyone had a really positive impression of you (at least until Michael blew up at you for flipping your vote), but because you weren't as accessible on AIM, people didn't feel as secure with you. If you'd have been able to log more time into AIM, I would not have been in the least bit surprised to see you at the end.
Charlotte - Charlotte, I think you were hindered both by your time zone and your hesitance to engage in small talk just for the sake of being pleasant. I remember writing in my confessional early on that you were very quick to discuss challenges or votes, and that I was having trouble learning about Charlotte the person vs. Charlotte the player. Our relationship quickly improved, but I think that might have given others the impression that you were untrustworthy.
Pilar - I think that your biggest flaw in this game was your temper. You were not afraid to go toe to toe with your enemies. Your fighting spirit is admirable, but there is also something to be said for handling your enemies in such a way that a relationship could be restored. There was never a chance of you restoring the bond with Michael, and as such, it became very tricky for anyone to reach across the aisle to you.
Aisha - This is going to sound really stupid, but your biggest flaw in this game was that you were too good. Playing a perfect game might work with a cast of players like Colby and Woo, but ORGers know to learn from their mistakes. You needed to hide your threat status more, either by being more low key about how well-connected you were or spreading more distrust among the other houseguests so that there would be some other targets you could hide behind.
Kevin - I think that your biggest flaw was that you were unwilling to make the move on Aisha during the live round. If you would have nominated her like Pilar wanted you to, you could have kept Pilar as a bigger target to hide behind while still evicting a huge jury threat. Damaging the relationship with Pilar, however, left you without a key ally moving forward, and I think that discord is one of the main reasons why Team Canada wasn't able to hold it together into the final rounds.
Michael - Similarly to Pilar, you have a very fiery temper. When someone appears to have done you wrong (even if they weren't meaning to do so), you will let them have it. While this did not directly contribute to your eviction, I think it would have come back to haunt you if Zach took you to the final two, and it generated enemies for yourself that players like Aisha did not have to worry about.
Zach - Zach's biggest flaw was not making the same bonds with Team Canada that he did with his Frozen Five companions. This is at heart a social game, and that involves being friends with both your allies and your enemies. Had Team Canada won more comps, he would surely be in the jury.
My biggest regret in this game was relying too much on portraying myself as the "party girl." I did this very intentionally, to lessen the target on my back, but it had unintended consequences with my social game. I wasn't able to forge bonds that were as deep as I would have liked them to be, and I think that this perception may lead to the moves I made throughout the game being devalued. If I could play this season again, I would definitely de-emphasize that aspect and tried to lay low through ways other than a forced persona.
I hope that answers everything! Let me know if I missed anything!