I'm totally sure that consistently scoring high helped me get to the final merged tribe. After all, before that, scores were determined by the whole tribe, so there's no way the high scorers would be voted out for the team's sake. Whenever I went to council, I always voted for the one I thought was the weakest link, both for score and activity, and so I tried to not betray my own ideals so they couldn't be used against me.

Post-merge, only one could be immune and the rest be voted out. This opened the chances, because high scorers were in danger of being eliminated for being a threat and low scorers were in danger like before. Like you say, I'm not a challenge beast, so I stood quite in the middle: not too high, but not too low. Therefore, whether if my tribemates wanted to vote out a threat or a "deadweight", I felt kind of safe.

Personally, I compare myself to yoshirulez!. Both of us stood quite in the middle scoring-wise, not being a true threat nor a "deadweight", yet we both made it here surviving several councils. The fact that two similar players made it this far proves that being consistent in your scores, even without winning challenges, is a successful strategy.

Yes, figuring out immunity challenges was definitely worth the battle because I was able to get immunity. The less tribals I have to worry about being voted out, the better is my motto. If you're going to compete in a challenge, you might as well go all out and win.

As far as what I got out of the game and the challenges is that it doesn't matter how big of a challenge threat you are, if you don't have a strategy and an alliance in place that won't vote you out, you're likely not going to win the game. Thankfully I had 2 alliances, the Harte Arbeit plus Patrick alliance, and eventually one with Palen and Yoshi.

FINAL TRIBAL COUNCIL

pacman1755 addresses the finalists one last time.

"Thank you for your answers, and good luck, because you have a lot to answer for."

Sitting down, the next juror takes his place.

-----

DEGGLE

"I'm going to cut right to the chase, and not be cute about it."

He turns his attention to gamerforlifeforever.

"Gamer, I begin with you. I knew your play from the beginning it was obnoxiously obvious but no one seemed to have wanted to vote you out even though there were many chances.

So I'm giving you a fitting question. What gave you the idea of falsely bringing your teammates to glory just to take them down one by one?"

gamerforlifeforever :

"My next question, is for yoshi. Though you can be posed as the underdog of the group how you do feel, honestly? To have come this far whether it be just as a goat or a legitimate player, which ever term you prefer? In short, how does coming this far make you feel about yourself?

yoshirulez! :

"Finally, EX Palen. You were considered one of the nicest players in this game, but with that you kept yourself going and going. And that is quite remarkable and admirable, kudos.

Did you ever think you'd make it out this far yourself, or did you think you would have fallen earlier in the game? If so or if not, why? What do you think was your best moment playing in this with all the other users?"

EX Palen :

-----

The order for this round is as follows.

gamerforlifeforever
yoshirulez!
EX Palen

I typically don't feel much about myself in regards to how far I've come, but rather that I feel the people I've played with have been reliable allies as well as formidable opponents, and I appreciate the fact that they've given me the chance to either work with them or compete against them. But if I really had to say, I'd say I feel pretty good about it. Coming this far has been my #1 goal for the entire duration of the game, whether I would wind up winning or not. I'm in it for the friends and I'm in it for the challenges. In the end, I'd say I feel quite accomplished and satisfied with how well I've done. It's taught me that I can work well alone, and it's taught me that I can work even better together with people, and that couldn't make me happier.

I never thought I would make it this far. I sincerely started to lose hope when I saw myself unable to participate in challenges after the merge, either for lack of skill, time, resources or even willingness. However, judging by the results, looks like I was more or less on the same boat as everybody, and that kind of saved me. That, and the surprisingly good results I had in the first part of the competition, which were a total surprise to me.

As for my best moment, without a doubt when collecting the answers for the challenge you ended up winning. I deeply value the bonds I have with everybody, be it family, friends or acquaintances, and whenever any of them show what I mean to them it feels very special and heartwarming. This is what has kept me going for the last years, so after seeing how somebody would entrust his life to me or how several people thought I was the nicest of the group, I felt peace in myself.

FINAL TRIBAL COUNCIL

With his questions answered, deggle sticks his tongue out at gamer, and then goes to sit in his seat.

-----

BLUBCREATOR

"My first question is addressed to gamerforlifeforever. Who do you believe least deserves this win?"

gamerforlifeforever :

"This, my second, question is for Ex Palen. Who do you think did the best overall?"

EX Palen :

"Now it's yoshirulez!'s turn. Why do you believe you deserve to win over the others?"

yoshirulez! :

"Also, one more for all of you to answer... Why is a carrot more orange than an orange? I urge you to think about this one carefully."

-----

The order for this round is as follows:

gamerforlifeforever
EX Palen
yoshirulez!

This marks the halfway point of FTC. Congrats on getting this far.

The person who is least deserving of the win is yoshirulez! Out of the finalists, he was the least threatening in challenges, and like Palen, he didn't make any strategical moves post-merge. The winner of Survivor shouldn't be a goat that was brought to the finale because he played a 3rd place game.

A carrot is more orange than an orange because oranges look like they have a bit of a yellowish tint to them. Carrots have a more noticable orange color to them.

Overall, the best surely was gamer. He was the top scorer almost every time in the starting stages and also managed to win a challenge after the final merge. His consistency was incredible, and winning that puzzle made clear that he's not only skilled at videogames.

As for the general question, oranges sport a pure and bright orange from absorbing sunlight, carrots sport a corrupted and darker tone of orange for growing underground. If carrots look more orange is because their color isn't pure, that's all.

Now I know this might be a stretch, and it very well may not be something people really hold in high priority, but due to the fact that I understand the true basis of the competition I feel like I should deserve the win. A lot of people enter a lot of competitions with only one thing on their mind: Winning. Yes, winning is of the highest priority, but what's also important is making sure you keep the event fun. No matter how well you do in the competition, if you're an a**h*** about it, you're still an a**h***. Throughout the challenges I made sure that we had fun not only competing in general but competing against each others' high scores and such. The end goal isn't always the most important part, because once you've reached the end, there's nothing left to do. Fun is what matters most, and while I do think I should be the one to win, my focus is still more put towards the fun aspect of things.

Games are meant to be challenging and fun. There's no reason to take the fun out of it. I think the person who made the challenge most enjoyable should be the one who wins, whoever that might be.

As for carrots and oranges, Carrots are more orange than oranges because the oranges get sunbleached due to the florida sun. Carrots, who live underground, always have much more color.
The real question is though, why are pumpkins more orange than either?

FINAL TRIBAL COUNCIL

Seemingly satisfied, Blubcreator takes his seat, coming back to find that someone has removed his seat. After asking all the jury and Leggy, and the finalists, nobody could determine the location of his stump. So for the remainder of this tribal council, Blubcreator will stand.

-----

PATRICK STAR

"First, to yoshi. What was your strategy the whole way through?"

yoshirulez! :

"Next, gamer... WHY DID YOU VOTE ME OUT!?"

gamerforlifeforever :

"Finally, Palen... WE WERE TRIBE BUDDIES. HOW DID WE DRIFT APART SO MUCH? Like really I became friends with some sort of ferret afterwards."

EX Palen :

"Additionally, to all of you... WHICH OF YOU HAS IT? YOU BETTER TELL ME WHICH ONE OF YOU IS KEEPING MY DUCK SAFE RIGHT NOW. IF YOU HARMED HIM YOU GOING DOWN FOOL."

(AN - I know gamer "returned" the duck to Patrick, but I wanted to keep this question for all of you. Answer as if gamer didn't give Patrick his duck back, for the sake of hilarity and a good time.)

-----

The order for this round will be

yoshirulez!
gamerforlifeforever
EX Palen

I'll be honest, I didn't have much of one to start with. I didn't bother to think of merges beforehand so I literally just thought that they were just gonna be challenges. I guess you could say my strategy was to do my best and do it every day, as a golden rule and a must. When merges finally came around, my initial strategy was to just try and motivate them to submit some scores (which did work initially but stopped after a while) and then vote off anyone who wasn't having fun / wasn't competing / wasn't planning on competing just to show my fellow tribe mates that I will be active and try to help out. As for endgame, well, I pretty much just hoped for the best. Not much else one can do.

Also, I'm pretty sure Palen has the duck. I hear he's very kind to animals and stuff, so chances are it's in good hands.

I did NOT vote you out Patrick. I voted BLUBCREATOR at that tribal council. At that time, I was still on your guy's side. It wasn't until AFTER that blindside that I decided to turn on the alliance. I can give you PM proof of my vote once the game's over if you'd like. I'll post it on this thread when that time comes.

I took care of the duck after Furret got voted out. It was the last remaining symbol of our Harte Arbeit alliance, so I made sure to take great care of the duck as if it were my own pet. 

You're jumping to conclusions too fast. Just like gamer, I didn't vote you out that council, and Leggy has proof of it. I always saw you as an ally for having endured the disappearance of the initial tribe, there's no way I would vote a try-hard like you out, even more in a challenge where we couldn't know how everyone fared besides the winner. 

I've seen countless animal species during my stay in Hungriger and the different tribes, but I'm quite certain I've never seen a duck. Plus, if it was a personal belonging of yours, looks like nobody could see it unless they entered your tent or you openly showed it. I don't recall the latter, too busy before, during and after councils, so there you go.

FINAL TRIBAL COUNCIL

Patrick Star looks more confused than he did before he began asking questions. Returning to his seat, he finds his duck has taken up residence, and gone on to have a family in his absence. Not wanting to move his ducks, he sits behind his stump, and looks at his ducks, fondly.

"With that..." Leggy announced, "We have one more juror to listen to tonight. Furret, take it home."

-----

FURRET

He stands for a moment or two, collecting his thoughts.

"Okay so first of all, congratulations to the three of you, you did what myself and 9 others, including muffin, were not able do. Still, I'm pretty frustrated that it's not me sitting in your shoes. But that's enough of me, I'm now going to address each one of you individually."

"Yoshi, I'm going to start with you because frankly, out of the three finalists I know the least about you and the way you played this game. We were unable to contact each other before the merge and even then our paths never crossed. What I want from you is to tell me a move/plan/decision that you came up with and/or set into motion. Or did you really just ride the coattails of others all the way to the end while goofing around? I personally would find the latter a dishonorable way to win a game like Survivor."

yoshirulez! :

"EX Palen, Like with yoshi, we never interacted before the merge. However, we did talk during the merge. And you put on an act. A damn good act, looking back at it. You had me completely fooled, so props to you for that. I believe you voting me out was a smart move for your game. What I don't understand is, well, everything after.
It was revealed that gamer was bluffing and he had already used his real idol at that point, so why not get rid of him at final 5? You could have reeled in deggle, the last remaining member of the Harte Arbeit alliance, and backstabbed gamer when he didn't see it coming. That'd eliminate a huge challenge and game threat, and boost your own resume for an overall winning position. What also shocked me was the final vote off. Why deggle, and not the guy who was literally labeled the person who would win the game?

I think challenge wise you did well, I would just like to know your thought processes for the final 5 and final 4 vote offs, because at the moment I don't understand and I want to give you an opportunity to explain your game to the jury, because a lot of it might have been behind the scenes."

EX Palen :

"gamer, Honestly shocked that you're sitting there at the final tribal council. Biggest challenge threat out of the gate, won an immunity challenge, and managed to survive all the votes. Still, I think I did save your butt by building the Harte Arbeit alliance. That gave you enough intel to convince everyone you needed to vote your way with the use of a bluff when you were most vulnerable; after having misplayed an idol and having won the previous immunity challenge. God knows what you did after that but whatever it was, it convinced two people to stick by your side despite being called the biggest threat and most likely to win the game.

Challenge wise you did well, and again mad props for turning the final 6 vote in your favor. Whenever confessionals/a script of the season is released, you'll see that I was also planning to get you out the next vote. So good on you for getting me first I guess I don't necessarily have any questions for you, but I am interested to know what exactly you told your fellow finalists to keep you in the game over both Blub and deggle."

gamerforlifeforever :

"That's about all I have to say. I really enjoyed this whole thing. Proud of how I played, creating an alliance and setting myself up for a decent shot to make it to the end and win. Sorry if I come across as rude to anyone in confessionals."

-----

The order for this final round is

yoshirulez!
EX Palen
gamerforlifeforever

My main acts that made our team a little better was rallying the few members we had and attempted to inspire them to double up their effort on the scores and work on the goal a lot harder. The only time I ever road the coattails of the others is when we discussed who should be voted off, in which it was obvious who we should vote off in the first place. It wasn't necessarily leeching off of their good decision, it's just that they suggested it first. Anyone would have suggested it, they just happened to mention it first. In some cases we had the exact idea at the same time even.

In the end you could say my rallying is more supplemental than anything, but considering everyone else's actions I'd say it was more fundamental than anything, evident by pacman's clutch during the Star Fox score challenge. Me and him were trying at the same time and I think that gave him at least some motivation to do better than he's ever done at the last minute.

This was a group challenge, the only people who road the coattails of others would be the ones who didn't compete at all. A group effort consists of everyone's support and it all adds up to the advancement they make in the challenge.

Well, if I have the opportunity to explain my game, then I'll use this chance to say I had already decided to vote you out on my own before I was reeled in to blindside you. I just put an act because I didn't expect the person I voted out to contact me AFTER sending the vote, so my reaction was heavily improvised. Just wanted to clarify this, because I'm not someone that likes to backstab anyone.

On to the question at hand, my game was decided ever since the first challenge. I foresaw that the final challenge would be a showdown just like those challenges, and thus I wanted certain players to last so I could face them if I also lasted. Those certain players were the two users that scorer higher than me, pacman and gamer, and yoshi, who set up an early score and whom I used as the wall I had to surpass. I couldn't save pacman from council because of very bad timing, but the other two managed to save themselves.

You might think that I didn't vote them out simply because of this, but there's something else: since the first challenge, nobody did better than them overall and thus nobody stole their place as good candidates for victory. I wanted the best players to last, and those two were clearly above the rest. No offense meant, but it wouldn't have been fun otherwise, I needed those two to keep myself striving for more.

In final 5 I voted out Blub because he didn't deserve to be here. Me and Patrick already voted him out in the second council because we felt he wasn't trying enough, and despite what you told me of him holding back, someone that had already been eliminated once should know better than holding back. Since he didn't make much of a change, he didn't deserve this second chance he was given.

In final 4, the top 3 who would fight for victory would be decided. We had the perfect candidate, two try-hards and a goat. Getting rid of the perfect candidate could have allowed me or anyone else to win more easily, but I personally think it would be a low move. If I win, it must be fair and square, in a direct showdown just like this one. There was a clear outsider, and we made sure he didn't get a chance for victory, because all he did was lurking in the shadows while his tribe saved him or the rest were busy eliminating potential threats.

In the end, I've tried my game to follow my own principles of honor. If I didn't have two threats besides me, what would motivate me to try harder? If those threats demonstrated to not be totally unbeatable and I had a chance to win in the battlefield, why should I try another strategy? Should I aim for the win no matter what, or should I aim to have fun in a thrilling competition?

After the final 6 vote, getting Palen and yoshi to side with me was actually really easy. EX Palen had a Woo Hwang kind of mentality, though I believe that he was ultimately swayed over to my side for the long-run after I gave him my vote as the player I'd entrust my life to, I think that choice gave me the best ally a guy could ask for. Yoshirulez! was just as easily swayed over to my side, and from there Blub and Deg didn't stand a chance.

As far as your statememt goes, I was also pretty surprised to continue seeing other people getting voted out, until the final 4, then I knew I'd be in the finale because of what I said earlier. Now I'm more glad than ever that I decided to take you out when I did, because this game could've gone in a completely different direction had I not made the switch and the idol bluff. In fact, I think we'd both be sitting on the jury. I hope that the other Harte Arbeit members will look at the smart moves I made to change the game and base their vote on that, because I know you, being the student of the game that you are, see that I played the best game of the 3 standing here today.

FINAL TRIBAL COUNCIL

-----

OK, this is it guys, this is your last chance.

yoshirulez! :
gamerforlifeforever :
EX Palen :

Tonight, you will be doing the final things I have to have you do.

First off, you will make your closing arguments. You can make it as long or as short as you want, but you will tell the jury one more time, taking into account everything said, to convince them to vote for you to win this game. This is the last time you will be addressing the jury, and as such, this is your last chance to get out anything you may be holding back.

Basically, speak now, or forever hold your peace.

You only get ONE post for this, and it can be done in any order, it doesn't matter. What does matter is you make a post at any point, for the sake of cohesiveness. Additionally, all three of you will be given the same PM to answer, and I want you to answer it as honestly as you possibly can.

The next post I make will involve the jury voting for the winner of this game, and after that, the game will be a couple days at most from its conclusion.

Well, I guess I'll start of the closing statements by asking the 5 of you on the jury to look at the overall game that the 3 finalists when making your vote. EX Palen and Yoshi both played 3rd place games strategically, and they didn't win any individual immunities, and the only argument that Yoshi's trying to make is that they "had fun". Just imagine a jury's reaction if someone came onto the real Survivor show, made it to the final tribal, and made that the basis of their argument as to why they deserved to win. He would be the laughingstock of the game, and he'd get no votes in the final tribal.



Now also imagine if someone with EX Palen's mindset came into the game and decided he'd take the strongest player to the finale because of "honor". Oh wait, you don't have to imagine, because someone already did that, his name was Woo Hwang. http://survivor.wikia.com/wiki/Woo_Hwang



Had Woo taken Kass instead of Tony, the guy who played the best game out of them all, then he would've won the million dollars. Most jury members in Survivor look at who played the best game of Survivor to determine who deserves the title of sole Survivor. In this case, there's no doubt that I would win Survivor with all the jury votes.



Now let me ask you this members of the jury, who are you going to vote for as the winner, the guy who dominated in challenges, and made the best strategical move in the game by pulling the fake idol bluff thus taking out Furret (me, gamer), are you going to vote for a Woo Hwang clone (EX Palen), or are you going to vote for a goat (yoshirulez)? If you have any respect for the game of Survivor, you'll vote for the guy who outwitted, outgamed, and outlasted everyone else, and that person without a doubt was me, gamerforlifeforever. Thank you for taking the time to hear me out, and I hope you'll do the right thing.