Games Big Brother 12: Beach

Lorde

♕ The Queen ♕
Member
Head of Household: Results

Hey houseguests! The HOH competition has concluded, and it’s time to announce the results. Here are our top 3 standings...

1st place: @Hermes with 21810 points!
2nd place: @Mars with 9627 points!
3rd place: @Jabberwock with 5166 points!

Congratulations Hermes, you are the new Head of Household! You have 24 hours, or until August 7th at 12AM EST to name your 2 nominees in this thread. But stick around, because I have an announcement to make.



Comeback Chamber - Part 2:

Hey houseguests! As you have all known since I first let the house in on this secret, the Comeback Chamber's Round 2 has been in full swing. Scattered, Ephemera, Anna and Draskk all entered this room for their second (or in Ephe's case, third) chance to redeem themselves!

For the past few weeks, just like last time, the evicted houseguests have been sent to this room, being given difficult tasks to stay in the room, all to earn the chance to get back into the house. This time, only 2 managed to survive all the way to the end to compete in the Re-Entry competition. With that? Please welcome... @matsubara back to the house! As a result of coming back into the house, Anna will be immune for the week, meaning that Hermes cannot nominate her for eviction. Unfortunately for the others who entered this room, this means their time in the game is over, and they are officially out of the game for good. Scattered, Ephemera, and Draskk are officially the first 3 members of our jury.

With Anna's return, the Comeback Chamber is officially closed! No one else will be sent to the chamber, and no one else will be coming back from it.




Have-Nots:

Hello houseguests! Have-Nots, as you know, are over. But, since Anna, Flour, and Senkun pledged to be Have-Nots for the rest of the season? Well, though by technicality they won't be Have-Nots since the phase is over, they will be treated like them. Punishments are coming, look out for an update in the server later!



Yet another big update! Once again, @Hermes you have 24 hours from the timestamp of this post to name your nominees.
 

Hermes

Dynamic
Member
I will be nominating Jabber and Mars for eviction. There are so few options at this point, but someone has to be nominated. Good luck in the veto!
 

Lorde

♕ The Queen ♕
Member
Power of Veto:

Alright! Hermes has nominated Jabber and Mars for eviction. Now, the Power of Veto will commence. We're down to just the 6 of you, so everyone (minus Flour because of his penalty) will be playing in this Power of Veto! As for the competition? Don’t become a keyboard warrior now...

Type Racers!

Participants:
HOH: @Hermes
Nominee: @Jabberwock
Nominee: @Mars
"Random" Draw: @matsubara
"Random" Draw: @Senkun

The houseguest who scores the highest by clacking away on their keys will win the Power of Veto! You have until August 7th at 11PM EST to stay alive for as long as you can, giving you 24 hours.

A reminder that you need a source of documentation for your submissions (your name, a PokéBeach tab, etc.) to prove the screenshot was taken by you. As long as it's visible on-screen, drawn on, or through a Notepad app, that's fine. All submissions must be made directly to the host either through 1-on-1 DMs or through your Diary Room (preferably the latter, though). If a submission is invalid, you will be notified and be told what the problem is.
 

Lorde

♕ The Queen ♕
Member
Power of Veto: Results

Alright houseguests, the competition is over! After all that typing, here were the top 3 standings...

1st place: @Hermes with 141 wpm!
2nd place: @Jabberwock with 123 wpm!
3rd place: @Senkun with 17 wpm!

Congratulations Hermes, you have won the Power of Veto! You have 24 hours, or until August 9th at 11AM EST to tell us your decision with the POV in-thread.
 

Lorde

♕ The Queen ♕
Member
Week 8: Recap

Hello everyone! The second round of week 8 has concluded, and it's time to recap the general contents for our audience, since plenty has happened since anything was said in this thread.

- After Hermes won the first round's Power of Veto, Mars chose to walk from the game, leaving in 6th place. He has chosen to remain a member of the jury, and becomes Juror #4.

- After that, the live double eviction began! The HOH competition was called Sporcle: a new quiz-focused competition that prioritized knowledge and speed.

- Ultimately, Jabber pulled out the HOH win, winning his first competition of the season!

- He decided to nominate Flour and Senkun for eviction.

- The POV was next, and that competition was Sorting Lab: a competition that prioritized reading the other houseguests to get ahead.

- With 115 points, Jabber managed to win the POV as well, gaining full power for the live double eviction!

- Jabber then decided to use the Power of Veto to save Flour, and then named Anna as the replacement.

- By a vote of 2-0, Anna was evicted from the Big Brother house, becoming Juror #5.



Special Announcement:

It’s time to make a special announcement: punishments are over! For Flour and Senkun, this means the following: no more vote tasks, no more Have-Not punishments, no more sitting out of HOH competitions, and no more POV penalties! For all intents and purposes, the game’s final weeks will be vanilla, as you guys have weathered every twist this season had to offer! Congrats!



Week 9:

With all that done, we've arrived at week 9! Congratulations on making it to the Final 4, houseguests! Let's get right into the HOH competition!

Head of Household:

We’ve got a fun one for you guys today!

CuBirds!

Cel has made a rulebook for this competition, because we both agree the actual one is terrible:

- In this game you have a table, and a hand. The table has 4 rows of birds

- At the start of each turn, you must play a card from your hand. When you play a species of bird, every card you have of that species will be placed where you play the card.

- You may play a card on either the left or right of a row on the board, but not in the middle.

- If there is already a version of the bird species in the row which you place your card on, you will collect all cards inbetween the two versions of the species. For example, if there were the following row:

[toucan] [robin] [reed warbler] [reed warbler] [parrot] [magpie]

and you placed a robin on the left side of the row, you would only receive a toucan card. If you placed it on the right side of the row, you would receive a parrot, a magpie, and 2 reed warblers to put in your hand.

- If you do not collect any cards from the table during your round, you may draw 2 cards from the deck.

- The numbers on the top right of a bird species’ card denote how many of that species you must have in your hand in order to create a flock of that species. The smaller number is a small flock, which is worth one flock, and the larger number is a big flock, which is worth two flocks.

- At the end of each turn, you are able to lock in one flock of birds, whether it is large or small.

- If one player has 0 cards in their hand, both players discard their hands and draw 8 new cards. If your opponent has lots of cards in their hand and is aiming for big flocks, this is a useful thing to try to set up.

- A player wins when they have at least one flock of 7 different species, or 3 flocks of 2 different species.

- Since we’re playing with 3 people, the first of you to 2 wins will be crowned the new HOH!

This is obviously something you guys need to coordinate your schedules for, so whenever you can, please figure out when it makes sense for you all to play this! We would prefer to have this done within the next 24 hours if possible.



Discussion in any 1-on-1 chats and alliances is allowed.
 

Lorde

♕ The Queen ♕
Member
Head of Household: Results

Hey houseguests! The HOH competition has concluded, and while you all played it live and for that reason know exactly who won, I still have a thread to update!

1st place: @Hermes, winning the 2nd and 3rd rounds!

Congratulations Hermes, you are the new Head of Household! You have 24 hours, or until August 14th at 7PM EST to name your 2 nominees in this thread.
 

Hermes

Dynamic
Member
I will be nominating Jabber and Senkun. Nominations don't matter this week and the real power is with the veto, so I hope there's no hard feelings. Good luck in the veto guys!
 

Lorde

♕ The Queen ♕
Member
Week 9: Special Eviction Recap

Hello everyone! This season's Special Eviction has concluded, here's the recap!

- Where we left off in the thread, Hermes nominated Jabber and Senkun for eviction.

- The final POV of the season was next, and that competition was Web of Lies: a puzzle competition that relies on knowing what's happened this season.

- With 8 minutes, Hermes managed to win the POV as well, gaining full power for the week!

- Hermes decided to discard the POV, leaving his nominations intact.

- Flour then cast the sole vote to evict Senkun, making him Juror #6 and sending him to the jury house



With that, I'm handing the thread off to my co-host Cel, who will be managing this final week mostly on his own, so expect Part 1 of the Final HOH to be posted when he's ready. Congratulations on making it to the Final 3!
 

Celever

Wheeeee~
Member
Week 10: HOH Part 1

Hey everyone! I have hosted all season, but as Lorde has just moved to college, posting on the forums is now my responsibility. Only took 4 pages for me to post in the thread of my own game :p

The houseguests were tasked with beating the boss from Just One Boss on both normal and hard difficulty as fast as possible. And uhh... apparently I'm a God at this game, because I found it while searching for a comp for this, and completed both modes in 45-50 minutes. You'll see why that's relevant when you see the results.

No one was able to beat the boss on hard difficulty within 2 hours. We put the 2 hour cut-off into place to mercy kill the houseguests, as this was never supposed to take so long.

Resultantly, we decided to use the in-game timer to judge who beat the normal difficulty boss the fastest. The times are recorded as follows:

1. Flour - 8:41
2. Jabber - 18:31
3. Hermes - DNF


With that, congratulations Flour for winning Part 1 of the Final HOH competition. This grants you automatic entry into Part 3, and gives you a 50% chance of therefore ensuring your place in the finale, and choosing who will be there with you.
 

Lorde

♕ The Queen ♕
Member
Head of Household (Part 2): Results

Hey everyone! I happened to be on around the time the duel ended, so here's your Part 2 update!

Hermes and Jabber were given a board game: Letter Tycoon, a game all about buying up the alphabet, or as much as you can of it anyways. The game was in a Best of 3 format, and I have the results.

Jabber has won by a score of 2-0, meaning he will advance to Part 3 of the Final HOH, where he and Flour will duel to decide who will become the final Head of Household this summer!



Head of Household (Part 3)

As the winners of Parts 1 and 2 respectively, Flour and Jabber will compete in this season's final competition. By now I'm sure most of you know exactly what it is...

Know Your Jury!

This competition will be live, and the winner of this final competition will immediately have to evict 1 of the 2 nominees, declaring them the final member of our jury and cementing our Jury of 7. Because he lost Parts 1 and 2, Hermes will not compete in this competition, though it is recommended he still attend.
 

Lorde

♕ The Queen ♕
Member
Head of Household (Part 3): Results + Eviction Recap:

Hello everyone! Part 3 of the Final HOH has concluded, and here's the recap!

- Part 3 of the final HOH competition was Know Your Jury, the classic final competition that focuses on thinking about the members of this season's jury.

- Ultimately, Jabberwock won the competition with a score of 7-6, becoming the final HOH of the season.

- This made Flour and Hermes the nominees.

- Jabber, being the sole vote to evict either Flour or Hermes, voted to evict Hermes, naming him the final member of this season's jury.

Flour and Jabber, congratulations! You have done it, you have gone as far as you can in this game. Now, we've reached the end, and we turn the game over to our jury. You will both have the opportunity to plead your case to the jury of 7, and one of you will come out the winner of Big Brother 12: Beach. The finale will be posted momentarily.
 

Lorde

♕ The Queen ♕
Member
Finale:

Hello finalists! @EurekaTingz and @Jabberwock, congratulations! You have done what 10 others could not, and have reached the end of the game. There's only one hurdle left stopping you from winning this game… and that’s the jury. This jury of 7 will decide who wins this game, and the bragging rights that come with it. Let’s bring them back in…

- Juror #1: @scattered mind
- Juror #2: @Ephemera
- Juror #3: @Draskk
- Juror #4: @Mars
- Juror #5: @matsubara
- Juror #6: @Senkun
- Juror #7: @Hermes

Rules:

Alright, since we have some new players, here's how this will work. Flour and Jabber will have the floor here to argue, and debate one another as to why they deserve to win this game over the other player, whether that be building their own case or tearing down the other’s. To get the ball rolling, each jury member may ask each finalist 1 question each (though you do not have to). You can ask them both the same question, or you can ask them totally different things, that is completely up to you. All that matters is that discussion between finalists and jurors sticks to this thread.

The criteria that a juror uses in making their decision is completely up to them, as by design there are no wrong jury votes. No right, no wrong, only what the jury makes of the finalists. Votes can be changed at any point throughout the finale, so don't feel like you're locking in a permanent decision when we're only just starting. Jurors, cast your votes in your DR (and tag a host when you do), and these votes will be revealed when the finale is over and a winner is to be crowned. At the end of the finale, the finalist with more votes from our Jury of 7 will be crowned the winner of Big Brother 12!

The finale will last for 72 hours, or until August 22nd at 6PM EST. Finalists, use that time to show the jury why you should win. Jury, use that time to make your decision. Alright guys... this is it! Good luck!
 

Jabberwock

#Jovimohnaeliackvid
Forum Mod
Articles Staff
Member
Hey all!

Man, what a trip it's been. When NP reached out to suggest I apply, I took a look at the thread and the wiki, and it just about blew my mind. I've been around PokeBeach for over 6 years now, playing forum games almost as long, but the scope of this one fair enough blows all the others out of the water. It combines the competitive rigor of The Challenge with the social conniving of Mafia, and boasts a richly documented history I'd be hard-pressed to find anywhere else. It's been a wild ride, and I'm honored and proud to be here now.

I went in with a couple goals in mind: don't make enemies, but as much as possible, be memorable. For a new player, this seemed especially important. I allied with a number of players, including many of you, but didn't make sweeping betrayals, and managed to avoid enmity enough to survive being nominated on six separate occasions. I avoided making myself out as a threat for virtually the entire game, but was also able to win competitions when it mattered later on. And even with a streak of earlygame losses, I'd like to think I covered the memorability part too. :p

I knew the game would be about striking the right balances, between alliances and manipulation, between friendliness and falsity, between making an impression and not becoming a threat. Obviously these aren't the easiest balances to strike — y'all know that as well as anyone — but I've struck them well enough to make it this far, and I believe I've struck them well enough to earn your votes and win this game.

Looking forward to those questions. :D
 

EurekaTingz

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Hey jurors! I hope all is well. :) Now, uh, get ready for somewhat of a short recap...

Now, I guess it's time to get down to business! I have a history of making it far, but never quite winning in PBB. I've lost in a Final 2 scenario more times than I'd like to remember, and that's usually due to me not really putting in the work to get that win, and that's just the truth. But this season? It was completely different. I came into this game with one goal in mind, and that goal was to win. Although I make it far each season, I'm never able to edge it out over my competitor(s) and bag the win I've been craving. So, that's why I walked into this season with a game plan. A game plan that ultimately worked and propelled me to where I am sitting now.

So, there it goes! The game begins. If you know me and my history with PBB, you will know that my strategy can drastically change with every season I play. This season, I wasn't going to be a flashy player early on like I was in BB7, and I wasn't going to let myself get nominated week one like I usually do. I was here to make a new name for myself and put a stop to some of those unideal trends, and I was able to do just that. I wasn't a flashy player right off the bat, because that was nowhere near the strategy I had set up for myself. However, I knew that I needed safety; and I needed it badly. If you ever feel in danger in the game of Big Brother, it's only natural to fight for safety, and that's what I did with the Safety Suite, where I ended up winning it.

My main goal for some of the game was to downplay my abilities. If I acted like my usual self in PBB, clueless and just "there," then who would go after me? I especially needed to kick this strategy in to full gear after I won the first Safety Suite of the season. I do think that I was able to successfully accomplish this, because when I did become a bigger threat later on, I was still saved with the Veto in the Double Eviction, and ultimately taken to the end!

Additionally, if we look at our game records, I can proudly say that I did my best this season, and I'm proud of the way I played. It got me this far, and I'm proud to reflect on this season and view it as one of my better runs in my PBB career! I mean, just look at my record! I was nominated three times throughout the entirety of the season. I was vetoed twice, and the only time I was a final nominee was in the final three. Because of this, I did not receive a single vote for me to leave the entire season! Lastly, I am leaving this season with a total of five competition wins, which I believe ties me for second place with the most competitions won this season. I know competitions aren't everything, and I can say that I was able to safely balance that out with my social game! :D

Now, I'd love to go more in depth with my gameplay, so please, ask me questions! Everything I did this season had a purpose, so I'll be able to answer your questions. :) Additionally, the only reason I'm not recapping every single element to my game is because I don't want to run out of material when you guys do start asking questions, so like I said, please ask me some heavy hitting questions!

(if i made any typos or if i made any errors im sorry :c but feel free to correct me!)
 

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Scattered mind

Competitive VG Forums Mod
Forum Mod
Member
To both finalists, please explain more about your alliances. Did you start them? How did you operate within them? Did you come across any moral or stratigic dilemmas with them?
 

Senkun

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Congrats for Final 2:
Jabber: How did you find your way in working and strong alliances as a new player?
Flour: How did you manage to change your playstyle so drastically during this season?
 

Hermes

Dynamic
Member
Hey guys! I know I gave you my congratulations when I left yesterday, but I wanted to say it again: congrats on making it to the final two! I have my questions prepared for you both.

For Jabber, what was the main reason you decided to go for Anna during the double eviction? Initially you had Flour and Sen on the block, before you switched Flour out to target Anna. At that point in the game myself, Flour and Sen were connected and that left you and Anna on the outside. Taking Anna meant you wouldn't be able to compete in the HOH, and you'd have all three of us targeting you next. So my question to you is this: how did you decide to take Anna out of the game in what looked like an on-the-fly decision during the double eviction? How did you rationalize the decision? I just want to understand, because from my perspective the decision seemed bad for your game.

For Flour, you've certainly played a strong game, and I know that because I played alongside you all this time! You made plenty of moves that were strong and calculated: taking out Brave, Draskk and Anna (the first time) were all big moves that you made on your HOHs, and that's very impressive! But for all those moves that look strong there's one that confuses me, I want to ask this: why did you choose to evict Sen at the final four? I'm not bitter about it, but it caught me by surprise since we'd discussed voting Jabber out all week up to that point, and I'd love to see if there was a deeper reason behind the decision.

I'm looking forward to your answers, good luck guys!
 

EurekaTingz

Aspiring Trainer
Member
To both finalists, please explain more about your alliances. Did you start them? How did you operate within them? Did you come across any moral or stratigic dilemmas with them?
Good question, scattered! I'll get right to it.

When the game first kicked off, I knew that immediately I wanted to work with Hermes, seeing as he was my coach allllllll the way back in BB6, a full six seasons ago. He was one of the most helpful people to me that season, and fun fact, it was my first ever season in PBB! He suggested that we both work together, and I obviously agreed. So, we got to talking, and then Hermes brought up the idea of creating a bigger alliance. I'm a firm believer in never wanting to be the one who creates the alliance, because I feel like that the person who proposes the alliance and creates it can be potentially screwed over if the alliance is to shatter.

Anyways, Hermes and I were thinking of people to include in the alliance, and we decided on Draskk. The three of us were able to make it far and dominate for a good portion of the game. A little bit later down the line, Mars approached us with an alliance. He wanted to essentially work with us and take out people he saw threatening (Anna and Draskk to name a few). This quickly became a sticky situation for me, and as you said, I was faced with not only a strategic dilemma but a moral one as well. I tried my hardest to appease both Mars and Draskk, which was definitely not an easy thing to do. At this point of the game, I had to keep my cards tightly to my chest, whilst giving enough information away to avoid raising suspicion.

Eventually, the time came where Hermes and I couldn't trust either of them, and we knew we had to flip on the both of them. At this point, Hermes and I had been juggling the piñata back and forth, unsure to whether it would be good or bad. However, we were taking that risk; a calculated risk, may I add. And in the end, it gave me the title of HOH! With this HOH, I knew I couldn't mess around. Even though I felt bad for doing it, I knew it had to be done, so I nominated Mars and Jabber. Once Mars vetoed himself, I saw the window open to take out Draskk, and I took it. Then, Draskk was evicted 2-1. The week following, Hermes and I were targeting Mars, but... he walked. So yeah, I hope that helped you get inside my head a little with how I operated in my alliances, and how I was able to weave in between them!

Great question, scattered!

Congrats for Final 2:
Jabber: How did you find your way in working and strong alliances as a new player?
Flour: How did you manage to change your playstyle so drastically during this season?

Thanks for the question!

I was able to change my playstyle drastically during the season due to a lot of factors. As I've stated, I wanted to play a sort of "under the radar" type of game, but I also wanted to maintain a good position in the house and have some sort of say in what happened throughout the game. Right off the bat, I didn't feel safe when Ephe won HOH. So naturally, I gunned for the Safety Suite competition. Afterwards, I knew that I needed to lay low, because if I continued to allow myself to win competitions, then I'd just be targeted consistently for it.

So, I laid low, which I could say was a gameplan that I was able to enact successfully. Three weeks later, I happened to be in the lead for HOH, and I 100% wanted it. I wanted to evict Anna, mostly because I heard that she wanted to nominate me back in Week 2. I don't know how much truth there was to it, but I wasn't taking any risks. I won HOH, but unsuccessfully got her out, so I took out Brave instead.

After this week, I was ready to lay low again and slip past the following week, but I wasn't able to do that. When Anna won HOH, I was obviously nervous and stressed out. I got nominated and knew that I needed to win the Power of Veto, which I did! At this point in the game, my playstyle had shifted from playing under the radar, to playing more of a strategic and calculated game. A prime example of this was when I was willing to risk it all in the instant eviction and I sacrificed a lot just to win the HOH and take the shot at Anna.

Thanks for asking! :D

Hey guys! I know I gave you my congratulations when I left yesterday, but I wanted to say it again: congrats on making it to the final two! I have my questions prepared for you both.

For Jabber, what was the main reason you decided to go for Anna during the double eviction? Initially you had Flour and Sen on the block, before you switched Flour out to target Anna. At that point in the game myself, Flour and Sen were connected and that left you and Anna on the outside. Taking Anna meant you wouldn't be able to compete in the HOH, and you'd have all three of us targeting you next. So my question to you is this: how did you decide to take Anna out of the game in what looked like an on-the-fly decision during the double eviction? How did you rationalize the decision? I just want to understand, because from my perspective the decision seemed bad for your game.

For Flour, you've certainly played a strong game, and I know that because I played alongside you all this time! You made plenty of moves that were strong and calculated: taking out Brave, Draskk and Anna (the first time) were all big moves that you made on your HOHs, and that's very impressive! But for all those moves that look strong there's one that confuses me, I want to ask this: why did you choose to evict Sen at the final four? I'm not bitter about it, but it caught me by surprise since we'd discussed voting Jabber out all week up to that point, and I'd love to see if there was a deeper reason behind the decision.

I'm looking forward to your answers, good luck guys!

Hey Hermes, good question that I do have a deeper reasoning for!

So, I was fully on board with the plan to vote out Jabber that week, I was honest about that bit. However, I started thinking. I went into the vote considering voting out Senkun, and if you were able to read my DR, you would see how back and forth I was and how much of a mess I was. I knew that Sen and you were much closer than I was to Sen, but with Jabber, at least I could walk in to the final 3 knowing I'd have more of a chance being taken to the final two had Jabber won the final HOH. With Sen, I didn't have that same comforting feeling.

You brought up a good point about when I asked them who'd they take to the final two, and how you said that they would both lie to me since I was the only voter that week. I obviously knew this, and even after you said it, I needed to ensure that I was taken to the final two regardless. Jabber had more competition wins than Sen, and no hard feelings at all, but I knew that Jabber would have a better chance at beating you in the final HOH competition. I knew that I really did not have a chance at winning against you, because your resume was just too good compared to mine. So, by keeping Jabber, you would go after him in the final three, and he was more than likely to go after you in the final three as well... meaning, I'd stay untouched and guarantee myself a spot in the final two.

Was it my biggest mistake this season? It could very well be, I guess we'll see once the jury votes are revealed! But at the time, I viewed it as another calculated risk that I needed to take.

(sorry if these answers were all over the place, it's pretty late and im going to bed right after i send this.)

Anyways, thank you for the question!
 

Jabberwock

#Jovimohnaeliackvid
Forum Mod
Articles Staff
Member
To both finalists, please explain more about your alliances. Did you start them? How did you operate within them? Did you come across any moral or stratigic dilemmas with them?
I started the game off with a strong alliance I was proud of having put together: the Chaos Blossoms Squad, which started with me reaching out to you and then us collectively deciding to align with Brave and Anna. I think Chaos Blossoms served us all well — we had a strong level of trust, and with a bunch of sub-connections to other players, we were able to hold together until about Week 4, when Flour unfortunately took the opportunity to force us apart.

While we were together, I really liked this alliance because, at least for the first several weeks, it felt like it was based on mutual trust and a shared interest in going all the way with each other. None of us really took the lead over the others, and none of it felt manipulative. One of my favorite moments of the game was when Anna won HOH on Week 2 — I just remember us all being super excited, thinking for the first time, "Hey, this could really work!"

My other strong alliance this game was with Draskk, an alliance which we expanded twice to include first you and later Anna. Mad respect to Draskk; I think he was probably the one player this game whose loyalty I doubted least. I've got no shame in admitting that he took the lead in this alliance more often than not — he kept trying to pull all these crazy moves that, had they worked out, would have made for some game-changing blindsides. Unfortunately I think he just made the wrong enemies, and I think that's the only reason I survived where he failed.

My main contribution to this alliance was trying to rein in Draskk's power plays where I thought they were misplays. In particular, he was convinced that you (scattered) were playing two sides and would ultimately betray us, which, largely because of Chaos Blossoms, I had a hard time believing. To be honest, I'm still not sure what the truth was — only that it would have been a huge mistake for me to move against you and betray Chaos Blossoms on that alone. So I held him back from moving against you as long as I could.

Where that fell apart was in Week 5, when you and Draskk were pitted against each other. I ended up choosing to stick with Draskk because, in the week directly following Chaos Blossoms's first eviction, I was much more sure of his loyalty than I was of Chaos Blossoms's strength. A moral dilemma if there ever was one, and I'm sorry it resulted in you getting evicted. :(

Hope that all makes sense, though. In spite of a couple hard-to-solve dilemmas, I think the many-friends-few-enemies approach ultimately worked out. I'm proud of those alliances this game.

Congrats for Final 2:
Jabber: How did you find your way in working and strong alliances as a new player?
Flour: How did you manage to change your playstyle so drastically during this season?
Ohman, it was definitely a lot to manage. I started in familiar territory; I had the advantage of having been around PokeBeach a long time, so I reached out to my old staff colleagues scattered and Brave to form the basis of my first alliance. We also decided to reach out to Anna, since she was the other new player apart from me — who better to form an alliance with than somebody who doesn't already have other connections? We got to talking, shared a bit about ourselves, decided on a team name and some lovely art for our DM group, and that was that. A really great group of people, and — at least until we got broken up — a really solid alliance.

Draskk reached out to me first, though I'd been mulling over reaching out to him, too: he was another familiar face from old PB days. We exchanged some information and shared some of our targets and strategizing, and over the next couple of weeks we earned each other's loyalty. Draskk kept me in the know when I kept getting put on the chopping block, and I talked to my other contacts on his behalf when he seemed in danger — ultimately culminating in my vote to keep him over scattered in Week 5.

Those weren't the only people I talked to, though; naturally, it benefitted me to talk to several different veteran players in Week 1 and get their takes on the game. In fact, I think what helped my game the most (maybe ironically lol, considering he was out to get me in the endgame) was talking to Hermes during the Week 1 HOH. He mentioned that he had no interest in winning that week's comp, because doing so would only put a target on his back. Rather, he wanted to play a more social game, relying on connections rather than competition prowess. This made a lot of sense to me, and over the next few weeks I consciously adapted my play to emulate it. I tried to win a couple HOHs that I didn't end up winning, but I covered for it by talking to people, and making sure I wasn't left in the dark on evictions from then on. Hermes did it masterfully — I don't think my social play came anywhere close to his — but I managed well enough, and I won the HOHs that mattered to make up for it in the endgame.

Hey guys! I know I gave you my congratulations when I left yesterday, but I wanted to say it again: congrats on making it to the final two! I have my questions prepared for you both.

For Jabber, what was the main reason you decided to go for Anna during the double eviction? Initially you had Flour and Sen on the block, before you switched Flour out to target Anna. At that point in the game myself, Flour and Sen were connected and that left you and Anna on the outside. Taking Anna meant you wouldn't be able to compete in the HOH, and you'd have all three of us targeting you next. So my question to you is this: how did you decide to take Anna out of the game in what looked like an on-the-fly decision during the double eviction? How did you rationalize the decision? I just want to understand, because from my perspective the decision seemed bad for your game.

For Flour, you've certainly played a strong game, and I know that because I played alongside you all this time! You made plenty of moves that were strong and calculated: taking out Brave, Draskk and Anna (the first time) were all big moves that you made on your HOHs, and that's very impressive! But for all those moves that look strong there's one that confuses me, I want to ask this: why did you choose to evict Sen at the final four? I'm not bitter about it, but it caught me by surprise since we'd discussed voting Jabber out all week up to that point, and I'd love to see if there was a deeper reason behind the decision.

I'm looking forward to your answers, good luck guys!
Oh good q. Definitely one of the most exciting parts of the game for me, haha.

That decision was based on two main factors: (a) I had essentially no solid connections among the remaining houseguests at the time — just tenuous ones with you and Anna, and I wasn't confident in either if worse came to worst — and (b) I saw an opportunity to forge a new connection by explicitly sparing Flour.

The fact that this meant putting Anna up for eviction, when she was all but certain to be voted out, made this an extremely hard decision indeed. What it came down to was that I wasn't sure where Anna stood at that point in the game, especially after she set up Draskk to be evicted earlier on. She'd promised an explanation a couple of times, and I pressed her on it, but she wasn't able to provide one beyond vague distrust. Draskk survived that eviction, but it got me worried enough that I couldn't trust Anna as an ally for the rest of the game. While I respect her play and had a ton of fun playing alongside her in our various alliances prior to that, I do not believe, if she had won HOH the following week, that I would have been safe from eviction.

Meanwhile, even though I'd only talked to Flour a few times, I knew he was a strong player and I figured it might be enough to get me into his good graces if I spared him there. At a point where I was largely devoid of alliances, it seemed like a great opportunity to do something nice for somebody else with the hope that they might do the same for me later on. I can't be sure why Flour spared me over Sen the week after, but I believe that at least on some level that had something to do with it.

Long story short, it worked out. If I had gone with the status-quo approach of discarding the veto and leaving the Flour/Sen block unchanged, I think my days in the game would have been severely numbered. Instead, by making a big unexpected move, I pulled through. Far from being bad, I think that makes it the best move I could have made for my game. :)
 

Ephemera

just a little longer...
Member
Hoi hoi!

I'm the juror who spent the least time in the house so I'm gonna need a lot of catching up :p

Anyhow - to both of you, what in your opinion was the strongest part of your gameplay?

I'd appreciate it if you talked about your game both in the general sense and also naming specific moments in the game you think were strong.
 
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