Well hello fellow ponies! First of all let me tell you that it's been a blast getting to play this game with you all. Regardless of how this FTC turns out, I'm proud that I made it to the end, I'm perfectly happy with how I played the game and I'm excited that I made it here with the ponies that have had my back all through this game. I will try and address all 3 aspects that you'll be judging us on, to try and give you the full picture of how I think I did. Aside from that, I'll try and explain to you how I made it this far, with the limits I had.
When signups for this game were announced, I was very unsure about signing up. I'm at a point in my life where I have a lot on my plate. I have a full-time job, I live in a timezone that makes it extra difficult to play this game and I have a lot of real life obligations that prevent me from being online as much as I'd like to. However, my love for this game and everything surrounding it made me sign up anyway. I knew it would be a struggle and that I'd need to make certain changes to how I usually play to make sure that I wasn't going to get voted out immediately because I wasn't going to be able to be as actively involved as I'd liked to. So I signed up anyway, never expecting to make it all the way to the end.
So how did I play the game? I knew that if I was going to want to make it far, I needed to make sure that I wasn't seen as a threat, but I also had to make solid connections and make sure that those connections had no reason to abandon me. I succeeded at positioning myself well the entire game, staying loyal to my allies throughout the entire game and by appearing to not be a threat. I'll get into those a little more:
PositioningAll through the game, I succeeded at making the right connections with the right ponies.
- On Apple Acres, I had two main alliances of three that were Always going to keep me safe: Granny, Coco, me and Lede, FlimFlam and me.
- On Everfree Forest, by pretending to be in a bad spot on Apples acres, I succeeded in making a really strong connection with Dash and Rarity, while also keeping my Original alliance with FlimFlam and Lede. Together, we formed the main alliance of 5 that had control over that tribe the entire time.
- On Fluttershy's Cottage, I made the most important move of this game. I got in a situation where I had to vote out one three close allies, whom I all had formed a group of three with: Dash(with Rarity), Granny(with Coco) and Lede(with FlimFlam). I made the call to get rid of Lede, because my connections with Granny and Dash would allow me to position myself much better during the merge and eventually led me to the finals.
- The merge: Still having a working connection with FlimFlam, a new main Alliance of 5 was formed with Dash, Rarity, Coco and Granny, while I still had a working connection with FlimFlam.
LoyaltyI've never voted out somepony I considered a close ally and remained loyal to my allies the entire game. The only exception to that is when I voted out Buried Lede, in a situation where I had no choice but to vote out an ally. At the merge, my other main allies got voted out without my support: FlimFlam was idoled out and I got blindsided during the Rainbow Dash vote because I didn't want to vote for Dash.
The easy voteThroughout the entire game, I'm pretty sure I was seen as a weak link, an easy vote and not much of a threat. I purposely took on this role and used it to my advantage as much as I could. I had enough connections to not have to worry much every time I was targeted and multiple ponies made the mistake of thinking I was an easy vote. Pinkie Pie targeted me and was voted out on Apples Acres. Fluttershy named me as an easy vote on Everfree Forest and was blindsided. Derpy Hooves targeted me for being an easy vote and got blindsided. DJ targeted me multiple times unsuccessfully and eventually got voted out for it. Soarin didn't target me when he was voted out but he was on the outs because he didn't think other ponies would be more loyal to me than they'd be to him.
In conclusion: I was the hill multiple ponies died on when they tried to break up our alliance. The final four consisted of all the ponies I was loyal to the entire time. That itself was a victory for me. It's very fitting that the final 4 didn't have a TC and Granny wasn't voted out, because Granny would have been equally deserving to be at this FTC. Let me get into the different aspects of the game now:
StrategicI've already talked about the main components of my strategy, so no need to rehash that again. My biggest move without a doubt was the Buried Lede vote. I'll get into that one a bit more. Even before going to TC, I had already made an agreement with Rainbow Dash that we'd stick together no matter what. At the time, Dash, Rarity and me was the Final three that I planned to fight for. I already knew Rarity had made it through her first TC and definitely had made some connections that would be helpful at a merge too. So it was between Granny and Lede. Coco was on Rarity's tribe and would probably be open to work with me again, if I took Granny with me to the merge. I also knew that Granny had spent time with ponies I hadn't talked to yet, and had a pen pal thing with Derpy, which I thought would be very helpful to possibly stay off the radar at the beginning of the merge. FlimFlam was isolated on a tribe with ponies that wanted him out, I knew that because FlimFlam had sent a Dragon Scroll to tell us that. So he had very limited other connections he could fall back on and would be loyal to me no matter what. Cutting Lede meant that both Granny and Dash would value me a lot more and ended up being the start of what ended up being an alliance to the end between our merge alliance.
SocialI've explained how on every tribe, I made the alliances I needed to make in order to survive. I stayed loyal to all of them and never had to backstab anypony. I pretended to be on the bottom to blindside the ponies who targeted me and ended up bringing my closest allies to the end. Despite being targeted multiple times, my social connections made sure that I stayed in the game, while the ponies targeting me were voted out one by one until they were all gone.
StructuralI don't think I've discussed this part yet, so I'll address the compontents here:
-Challenges: I think I've proved my worth as a challenge competitor, winning multiple individual immunities.
-Items: by only bidding on the goggles at the auction, I knew exactly who had which items. Knowledge is power and I shared the list of items with multiple ponies to make sure the ponies who had powerful items got voted out. Fluttershy, McColt, Lede. They got voted out without getting to use the items they had.
-Idols: The amount of idols in this game was pretty high. I never got close at finding any, but when I was targeted, I made sure the pony targeting me felt comfortable enough not to play an idol if they had any. I think the Derpy vote was the most important one there. I expected Derpy to have an idol and even though I knew the votes were there to vote Derpy out, I kept going to Derpy asking them to reconsider and to appear very concerned about getting voted out. If Derpy ended up going home with an idol in their pocket, not going to lie, I'd be super proud of how that vote played out.
-Swaps: at every swap, I assessed my position and did what was necessary to improve it and to make sure I'd never be in any danger.
I think that's all I have to say. I'm not sure what I'm going to need to add to my final speech
I hope you all respect the game I played, no matter who you vote. I'm happy with my game and I'm honored to have made it to the end. Thank you all for an amazing game and I look forward to the reveal and post-game chats.
Ariana Grand Pear
Topic: Opening Speech (Read 412 times)