Selene's PathBefore I begin would just like to express my grattitide to Ripley, Mindy, Sil, Joss & Sidney for all their efforts in putting this game together. The love and craft that attended every detail, from the conception of the challenges to the graphics, and most especially to their eye for casting, as they have managed to put together all the pieces that made this game and gave us as players every opportunity to play our own games. Thank you
To those that did not manage to join Company,
Ma-Ma ,
Beatrix ,
Sarah ,
Call ,
Xenia ,
Rita &
Trinity , am sure you were all disappointed not to have reached the merge, but you still helped shape the game that eventually unfolded. The tribulations of Nostromo formed a battle hardened nucleaus that was a particular feature of the post-merge, and more directly, the events of the
Trinity vote, the fallout from which had long standing ramifications. Am thankful to you all.
To my fellow Finalists,
Mother Russia &
Xena thank you also, for the games you have played, as varied as each has been, I forsee this will be a true battle, and whoever wins will be most deserving. The onus is on each of us to now prove that to our Jury.
Which brings me finally, and indeed, most importantly, to those of you, the Company -
Storm ,
Cameron ,
Cherry Berri ,
Babydoll ,
Kaylee ,
Noxeema ,
Alice ,
Claire Bear ,
Jessica &
T-X - I am very honoured to be sitting before you all with the opportunity to put my case to you as to why I am most deserving of your vote. I am under no illusion that there are those of you who may not be best pleased with me, and while I will expect some anger or bitterness toward me and everything you feel I deserve - and please don't hold anything back - but also that there be an open mind. I welcome your questions and look forward to having this opportunity to talk to each of you once again.
For some it has been far too long.
I've been a bad, bad vamp.I think it is not unreasonable to suggest that of the 3 of us sitting before you, I had by far the biggest impact on the game. And loved every single minute of it, even when things were not going my way, but refused to ever let it get me down. Not only that, but I played the hardest, did more legwork socially, made sure had an ear everywhere, and unfortunately at times, it was required to be damn cold blooded.
I played this game hard from the very first day, all the way to the end and intend to do so even now. There was not a day that passed that this was not the forefront of my mind, of what needed to be done and when. All of my RL commitments that were pushed back or worked around needed to be in order to be here today. From that first weekend, whihc first put a target on my back, never once faded completely into the background, and always presented a prominant role in the game, ending up with more than my fair share of blood on my hands because of it. Every message I sent had a purpose, every piece of information I gave, the same.
Was mine a flawless game? No. It was extremely rusty at times to be honest, and there were some missteps along the way, most prominanatly, the stray Nox vote at the merge. But neither can either of my finalist rivals claim to have been perfect either. Even then there was always a purpose in what was done and why.
Indeed, each of the F3 have had flaws to their game, but in my opinion neither Mother or Xena did as much or needed to work as hard to make it to this point as I had to. Xena had one strategy the whole way through and never deviated. Stay Blue strong. That's it. Mother, by contrast, was largely percieved to be a peripheral figure, rightly or wrongly, and as such, especially once the merge arrived was never in any serious danger of ever being targeted, so could afford to keep her appearances sporadic.
There was an overreaching strategy to my game. Be as social as possible, keep as many connections open as possible, keep my otions, limiting those of others, and above all else when thinking about how and where every person in the game sat:
What do they want?
How are they going to get it?
What am I going to do about it?
These 3 questions were my guide throughout in determining the next step on my path. Sometimes I was fine to let events unfold, but so long as I had the information coming in would always be able to navigate any hazard that stood in my way. Always aware that I had a target on my back though actually helped in making my strategy such an effective one. If you can see where an attack is coming from you can do something about it. And this is what I was able to do, time and again.
So long as I kept a strong social game going and always appeared to be a viable option for everyone and anyone to work with, which underpinned everything I was doing, then the chances of me being the vote, (despite carrying a perma-target) was minimal. Or at least not without me hearing about ti, and being in a position to do something about it, if necessary.
The thing is, if you present yourself as an option to a player/s, then they are less likely to want to lose you. Everyone likes to have options in the game. The trick is all about maximizing your options and minimizing those of others, so they become more dependant on you. So I never presented myself to people that their game was dependant on me, rather that my game was dependant on them. If people believe that you can be of use to them going forward they will want to keep you. Even if that means you have to then turn around and cut their throat, it has to be done. I can't deny that I was cold blooded at times - the Alice vote I had orchestrrated in particular comes to mind.
Additionally, I have often stated that for a Sulaco to win this game, it would require an all Sulaco F3. I said this when there were 10 Sulaco, and all the while when numbers were dwindling, still stood by this belief.
Just to be clear here, this does not mean I was Sulaco strong the whole way. I was Selene strong the whole way.
I was doing what waas in my own best interest, because there can only be one winner, and that is something I have never lost sight of. And as much as I downplayed my threat by having pissed some people off, think we are al big girls here and can acknowledge when things were done for game reasons.
As much as I loved playing with the Nostromo girls, at the end I knew if I were to stand any chance of winning then they would all need to be gone before the end. Yes, I may have ended up being the Queen Maker had I stuck with those girls, but in order to be Queen, sadly it meant that these girls would have to go. Sorry, Alice, Jessica & T-X.
Pre-MergeSo obviously pre-merge on Sulaco was relatively peaceful, compared with what Nostromo were enduring, and often my heart would go out to them, having been in similiar positions previously. My time here was focused on making and maintaining as many one on one connections as I could, and as much as possible avoiding being set in larger alliances. The main reason for this was the belief that sooner or later there would be a tribe reshuffle of some description, and having personal connections with everyone meant that no matter who I woud end up with, they would be people I could work with and just as importantly, I would be someone thy would likewise want to work with. It has been my experienc that too often those that get secure in an alliance neglect those on the peripherals. This I was determined not to have happen with me, as I invested as much time in talking with everyone who wanted to talk with me, and even those that seemed less interested in doing so with me, I still tried to make the effort with.
This is important, as it was here that my close (but largely secret) bond with Mother began and carried through all the way here to the final.
Of course, having avoided TC for so long meant that when we did go , it was always going to be interesting. I had discussed and highlighted many of Nox's many inconsistencies and attempts to put people against each other previously, real and imagined, planting the seed of doubt there, while building trust by doing so, but when Nox elected to mutiny (ironically I tried to also, but obviously got beaten to the punch here), decided it was time to pull the trigger and if I couldn't go after Nox, would undermine him by attempting to take out his closest ally.
My ploy to oust Cherry was 2 fold. Either Sulaco would follow my lead and we would go into the merge 'Sulaco Blue Strong', or it would splinter us as a tribe. Both had its advantages. If we hit the merge united and I felt secure in having the backing of Sulaco, then a pagoning of Nostromo would have suited me best. If however, as what happens and the crew was divided, it meant that I did not have the faith of everyone, so then this could open the door to whittle down the Sulaco numbers til it reached a point where I could once again take a leading role.
It's important to see the advantage of any given situation.
As it turns out, a slim majority were actually in an alliance with Cherry, and although one of that number did side with me, there was a clear division in the tribe now.
So, I have carried a target on my back from the first challenge, whihc first highlighted me as a social threat, all the way through to these past few rounds. This was re-enforced at the Survey just before the merge, where I was named as top in 6 catagories:
Sent the most msgs
least advantage clues
controlling the crew
smartest bitch
trust with your life
most alliances
Right there should have been more than enough to give everyone a heads up of the danger I posed. Again, after featuring so prominanatly in those results, it's impossible to say I was flying under the radar. Being well and truly on everyone's radar, and events would make this even more pronounced as that round progressed (as mentioned above), so I needed to take steps to dispell some of this heat, and again made the most of the situation.
The MergeThe most obvious problem being, with so many Sulaco at the merge and so few spots at the end, a way had to be divised to ensure I was in one of these 3 spots. So, when the Trinity vote came out the way it did, had to make lemons into lemonade. Create bonds with the 4 Nostromo girls (which I would have done anyhow - in fact I actually did try to go there on the mutiny for this purpose even before the Trinity vote, but Nox I assume had the same idea and beat me to it) and keep the division between the Sulaco numbers, get close to Nostromo so I would not be a target of theirs, because with so few numbers they would be seeking both allies and cracks. And if I could be an asset to them more than others, then trhey would not target me and buy me the time I needed until I was ready to target them.
The proof is in the pudding, as they say, because this, on the whole, this is exactly what transpired. This let Nostromo do some of the damage and was fine to have it happen. They could deservedly take the credit, but more importantly, it would take some heat off of me, as a target while increasing the targets on their own backs growing larger with every round they survived in tact. So that when it came time to get back with whatever was left of Sulaco, the threat of the Nostromo girls getting to the end would override any distrust any of the remaining Sulaco would have in working wiht me. This was especially important after losing Babydoll and Kaylee.
So I set about on a path to play the middle to some degree. But you can only play the middle if you have decent enough connections to do so, knowing the right information and knowing who you could and couldnt work with. For example, I knew that there would be no place for me in the end game, so long as Cherry or Nox were there, so it was pointless trying to reconnect with Sulaco until they were both gone.
So the merge comes and although on the surface Nostromo are down 9-4. In reality it was 6-3-4. Although I was keen to get something going with Nostromo, I didnt expect it to happen straight away, but layed the groundwork on which credit to Bbaydoll, got us talking seriously with the 4 Nostromo girls. Again I was keen for this, especiallly as I had a penalty vote coming that round and needed to not be targeted. If Xena's split at the merge had've worked and Nostromo had thrown their votes at me, as I know my name had gotten thrown under the bus at this time, then with the penalty I could have gone 5-5-4. Didnt know half the game would end up with penalties also, lo. But as it cost both of the girls that went out at this point, the message was clear. Avoid further penalty votes, lol.
My point about having, keeping relationships and alliances is also critical here, as we were able to turn what was a problematic result, with Nostromo nothaving voted as we had discussed, and indeed myself slipping in thinkking of being clever and adding an extra vote to Nox, which in the end turned up stray. It was all a bit embarassing actually. Thankfully we did get on the same page at F11, and Cherry was voted out.
Here is a case in point about those questions I mentioned earlier.
What do Old Sulaco want? One of Babydoll, Kaylee or I gone.
How are they going to do it?
Get the Nostromo girls to flip.
What am I going to do about it?
Make sure they stay tight to us.
Just when things seemsed to be heading in the right direction, the weekend came. By the time Sunday rolled around the landscape was changed uttery, with the back to back rounds. Losing Babydoll (who had been seeking out a return to Sulaco - which unnerved Nostromo, and not keeping up the 1:1 chats with them also), and Kaylee (engaging in that fued with Xena - which obviously made reconciliation with Blue problematic to say the least) saw 2 of my 3 closest allies depart in the space of about 15 minutes.
Everytime I would look at my sig from this moment on, I was thinking of that night. A constant remindr and a motivation.
This became my strength.
However, what it underlines is the importance of timing, and keeping options open. Mistakes I was not going to replicate. The fact that numerous people in the game informed me that evening I was not the target through these rounds again highlights my point about keeping personal connections with other players outside of alliances, as I could be an option for them - moreso than they percieved Babydoll or Kaylee to be.
This was the low point.
There is no getting around that. I wouldn't forget and it was my motivation to keep going hard all the way to the end now.
So although I had reached the point in the game I had been targeting as being when to start re-emerging as someone to be taken as a serious contender, it was not quite how I had envisaged it. But again, the ability to call on other connections, be able to adjust and adapt, and work with the people still in the game once again shines through here.
This did however now put me in the position of being at the heart of 3 straight blindsides of Nox, Alice & Claire.
What all this proves is that I was both socially and strategically aware, flexible, dynamic and adaptable.
When playing the middle you need to have created and maintained such a strong social game. It is not that I had a Plan A and was able to stick to it all the way to the end, but circumstances necesssitated something far more dynamic. Staying Sulaco Strong would not work as I would be well down the pecking order, so had to change it up and was happy to go along with Babydoll & Kaylee in starting something new. So, team up with Nostromo at the merge and work that to F8. (Crashed out at F10, not by my doing it must be said.), then when that faltered embrace being the swing vote between 2 factions, one ostensibly of 4 orig Sulaco, the other of 3 orig Nostromo. And from there, continue to position myself as the swing through the coming rounds and use that effectively, before closing the game out with Mother & Xena.
There were other scenarios devised, including going to the end with Nostromo, but the above was basically what turned out to be my roadmap to the endgame.
The BlindsidesThe first of these begins with setting up the Nox vote. It was time to have Mother and I not only talk but to act. We had agreed the previous night that she would vote with me for Nox, while I made sure to get back close to Alice, Jessica & T-X. Jessica had long spoken of having a 5th, but without her saying, was always pretty confidnt it was Mother she was referring to, even though played surprised by this. This served the purpose of keeing how close we were undr wraps. It must be once again pointed out that whatever tools were needed I would use. In this round for example, I really used the emotive route to secure those bonds, a plea of desperation for acceptance, and knowing that Nox had been throwing my name under the bus, that I wanted to work with them, and that I had no loyalty to Sulaco, before pushing for the target to be on Nox, for him basically saying he didnt trust me to my face and effectively tried to paint me as a target once agian. My stated intent to target him certainly think helped secure Nox as the target, as none of these girls had said who they wanted to vote for prior to my stated intent. Meanwhile Jessica was able to 'convince' Mother to flip at that vote, but as previously mentioned, this was all preplanned and discussed between Mother and I, but we executed it this way in order to conceal our tight connection from Nostromo. If Jessica felt as though she could continue be the go-between at least at that point, all the better for us.
But if anyone had picked up on the fact we were a pair, it could have spelt danger, so it was necessary to do it this way.
A word on this relationship with Mother and I. By now it should be pretty clear as we voted together on the last 5 TCs, but we had in fact been working together stretching back since before the Trinity vote. I was able to draw Mother in as a close ally back then, because so many others had written her off as someone to vote out. Even though for the next few rounds we voted seperate, each and every one of these votes was discussed between us, and agreed to vote seperate, and knew what was happening ahead of time. This again, was done both to hide the closeness of our relationship, by Mother's sporadic appearances I was able to keep her with some intel and stay close with me, and she was likewise feeding me info about what the other Sulacos were up to and talking about, etc.
In fact, had the plan with Babydoll, Kaylee, Alice, Jessica & T-X worked out, we could have taken this to F8, where Mother was to then help us knock out the Green girls. In other words, she was the sleeper. Mother was always part of my long term plans, when noone else really wanted to work with her or saw her as particularly relveant, other than through necessity. Mother deserves some love.
Moving on to F7, and with Xena and Claire isolated, not once did either of them reach out to really attempt to draw me back in, so the onus was on me to convince them I was ready to get back together with them. As much throuhg necessity as anything, I was able to convince these girls (along with whom Mother had 'returned'), Sulaco was able to 're-unite', as the heat of the target on the backs of the Nostromo girls by this point was impossible to ignore. And with that, we were able to oust one of the Nostromo women, the very dangerous Alice. This blindside was both a personal strategic highlight, but also was fused with great sadness as I could not give Alice any indication this was coming. I am sorry, Alice, as I genuinely loved talking with you and I know it was an utterly cold way to be sent out, but it had to be done.
With Claire and Xena now satisfied that 'Blue Strong' was once again a thing, I was able to once again weigh up my options, continuing to entertain the option and possibility of further flipping back again to Nostromo. With respect, Jessica was by far the biggest single threat i the game at this pont and had she not won immunity then 'Blue Strong' would have held. But upon learning of her Immunity win, Mother's arrival on the scene brought a late change, and once again we flipped together to take out Claire, who we both knew would have been a massive end game threat, having played a very clean game while avoiding to ge much blood on her hands and was very well liked. Although this undoubtely served my purpose, and had been entertaining the thought of linking back up with T-X & Jessica, credit where credit is due, it was Mother that made this come to pass, that once she made a case and was open to this, I was on board.
This was the right move for me, because going to the F4 with Mother, Xena and Claire would mean I would be the 4th wheel and uncertain of reaching this point. Eliminating Claire when we did secured this spot here today, beside Xena and Mother, immunity pending. Thankfully Xena won the last 2 immunities, and we were abe to send the final 2 Nostromo girls, Jessica and T-X to the Company, even though I was aware they were still working it at F5, but knowing what was happening was still and all pretty comfortable.
Ok, I suck at Missions, but...Admittedly, mission performances is the weakest section of my game by far, but by being so poor I was able t use this to my advantage as well, as it meant that I was never an immunity threat, and therefore somene that people could always 'deal with later'. The problem is, by the time later would come, I would be indispensible.
Again, this bought loads of time to get to be in a position where I could begin to really once again exert my influence on the game.
Even in the pre-merge my contributions to the winning streak that Sulaco enjoyed was miniml, but at least I put my hand up every time, bar one, in order to make sure there would be no penalties.
Summary
I own a pretty substantial slice of this game. Not going to say I was the boss all the time, because I didnt need to be, but for large chunks of it, both pre-merge and post, I played one of the most prominant games of anyone here. I had a target virtually from thr get go, that only got bigger by the time of the merge, and then some, and carried it throughout, until I got right here.
However, I played one of the most dynamic social games out here, even if it wasnt perfect, it was more than functional, and I believe to have been superior to either of the other finalists. It not only served its purpose in the game, and allowed me to maintain awareness, flexibility, adaptability and have the options to do what needed to be done, when it needed to be done, to get me here.
This in tandem with my strategic game, very much went hand in hand. These are the strongest strings on my bow, so have to play them in unison, to put myself into positions where I was able to effect the overall outcome of this game, played hard, and have had an absoute ball, every single step of the way. Even when things were not going my way, I refused to let it get me down, but look for alternatives, found other options, and tried as best I could to make everythin I did in this game count for something.
With due respect to my fellow finalists, and I have given credit where credit is due, I definitely think based on overall gameplay from go to woah that I should at least be strongly considered worthy of your vote.
I loved getting to know every single one of you and cannot wait to find out who you all are. Yes, I know I hurt some of you, and sent more than a few of you off to the Jury disappointed and probably pretty pissed at me, these were game moves, that ensured I got to this position right here.
As you have read in this thread, this has not all been just about me. I have given credit where credit is due. Because noone can play one of these games alone, unless your name is Boston Rob and casting has set you up with a cast of dummies.
But noone here is a dummy. I complemented the hosting team at the outset of this for the casting here nad I meant it. This has been a wonderful cast, filed with some truly exceptional players and characters, and it has been both a pleasure and an honour to play with you all.
Please fire away with all of your questions. Be as brutal as you wish, because no doubt I deserve it, but please I would hope that you all come into this with a somewhat open mind and I intend to be as open, honest, and own everything I did.
Some of you it has been too long since I heard from, and I literally can't wait to have the chance to answer all of your questions.
Obviously am still going to fight for every one of these votes, but she definitely has the inside running on those, and this is a big headstart. Although on the flip side, she definitely didnt do herself too many favours towards the end in ingratiating herself with the Nostro girls, by all accounts so thats something. Will it be enought o offset her earlier connects with Alice etc? 
