post-merge people

[M. Gustave]

12th place: peter whitman


we didn't get along too well this game, to say the least. so much of what you did i just completely didn't understand at the time; it's only now, when i know about all the items and machinations, that i really get what you were trying. but after you tried to get me out unsuccessfully, and with what appeared to be a major long shot, i felt like i could never trust you. my biggest regret is how i treated you; i was, for the most part, really fake, which i'm sorry for because i really dislike fakeness in people. i try to be genuine with people but i didn't do that with you, and i'm disappointed in myself for that. you certainly could have shaken things up though, if your plan had worked things would have looked tremendously different during the merge.

11th place: buckley


poor buckley! i really barely got to talk to you, and from what everyone else says about you i missed out. you leaving was very sad from a personal perspective, and i hope you're doing alright now. the timing of your departure might have inadvertently been a big help to me; i felt like there was a good chance of my fivesome of {me, oracle, suzy, duke, herman} getting outnumbered at an 11-person tribal, which was conveniently skipped. possibly i'm off base on what would have happened, but it's yet another example of events having unexpected effects.

10th place: young writer


i said above that i was unhappy with how i treated peter; you're another player that i wish i could go back and do better with. after a rocky start, i started to view you as a real ally, and i'm really thankful for all the youtube videos you introduced me to - speedruns, exploit videos, and cgp grey's informative content. the doubts crept in when peter arrived and you two seemed to just get along great instantly; i was convinced that you were tight with him and richie, who i also was getting suspicious of by then. but basically blowing you off and not messaging you when your name was on the block? that was a dick move, and i apologize; i was too sheepish to look you in the eye. i'm less sure now that getting you out was the ideal move; like you told me, you were on the periphery socially, and it's the social threats that win out in the end. taking out someone like madame or even the difficult-to-hit richie would have been a lot better, not to mention the constantly-immune margot.

9th place: herman blume


you, more than anybody else in this game, have full license to be pissed at how i played. you going home was a direct result of me bungling communications and making it too obvious to richie that he wasn't really the vote. thanks to that, he and royal were able to tip off madame, forcing a late change onto you to keep myself safe. this was a horrible, terrible, dreadful thing and i hate it. me realizing how badly i'd fucked things up, combined with guilt from the writer vote and my good friend duke leaving, were a big part of my downward mental spiral that lasted several days. as for what i thought of you, you were a solid dude. we didn't talk much; some of that was your schedule, and a lot of it was me being lame. i'm embarrassed to admit that i didn't judge you very fairly, you clearly had a game going and were brought to an untimely end. my biggest questions were who you were closest to, because i didn't do a good enough job of getting stuff out of you.

[M. Gustave]

8th place: duke


duke! you were a great friend and ally and you having to leave was devastating. i wanted to roll with you to the very end, and i loved our conversations. that it wasn't super obvious to everyone that we were close was the icing on the cake. i think you were doing a great job as a semi-floater and really could have made it far in better rl circumstances. i hope you're doing well out there!

7th place: royal tenenbaum


like herman, you were a player i greatly underestimated for too long. your game intelligence was seriously impressive and you deserved a far better placement than what you got. at least your absence was for a not-sad reason; looking now i feel that going for someone other than you would have been a much better move for my winning chances, but i was so mentally drained at the time that i couldn't muster the energy to get it done. madame or richie, again, would have been better to vote out. whether it would have been actually possible to do, i'm not sure. if not for your trip, you're probably at the final 3 honestly, you were behind a lot but managed to be really utr compared to more obvious players. and extra props for replacing in and helping out the mods. your public post was something that i think helped to slap me out of my depressive stupor, so i owe you a lot of thanks.

6th place: margot tenenbaum


you were, in a word, awesome. great socially, beastly in challenges, and very smart strategically. you were immune for seemingly ages when it would have been so nice to vote you out, and you coming last in the jaguar shark hunt was a huge shock to me. but even then, i could only get you out because madame made a final 3 deal with suzy and oracle which i walked into and would be out if not for richie's "generosity." i have no doubt that you're a really experienced player, and that my feedback on your play wouldn't be super helpful, so i'll just say that i knew i couldn't compete with you in the end. you were great as a person, and i would have gladly worked with you for longer if you hadn't been such a threat to win in my eyes.

5th place: suzy bishop


oh god, suzy... this was not a vote i was thrilled with. you were one of my absolute favorite people, and you played a damn good social game. your one mistake was leaving richie out of the margot vote, because that's what inspired him to get you out over me. if you had won i would have been perfectly satisfied, because you were just... good. i count you as a real friend that i made, and hope we can stay in touch. the vote was between you and oracle (because richie was literally unable to vote madame), and while i love both of you i figured you had way better chances to win than oracle. and if it wasn't clear, the idol play was just so richie could show off to the jury - oracle only voted me because richie claimed he was locked in on voting me, so it was totally possible to just straight vote you. but then, richie wouldn't have been able to idol someone out, and he wouldn't have had leverage over me - i made a deal with him as the price of this faustian bargain. i hope you didn't take this elimination too hard, you played like a winner and if you haven't won before, i'm certain that you'll win one before long.