Ball

**Ball** is a contestant from *Season 9* and *Season 14*.

In *Season 9*, he emerged as the only real strategist of the minority alliance after a chaotic merge vote, where his subtle but effective gameplay allowed him to survive the late game and scrape by into the Final Three, where he was eliminated just one day short of the Final Tribal Council.

Returning for *Season 14*, he made another deep run into the game. Staying in the majority throughout the pre-merge, his passivity at the merge would land him in the minority. He staved off elimination through his effective use of the Water Wand, but was eliminated at the Final Five after failing to convince Mugabe to join his side.

## Season 9: Puffle Island II

Starting off on the dominant Plokolp, Ball managed to stay in the background as his tribe won the initial immunity challenge. Even after a tribe expansion, Ball and his tribemates’ dominance in the challenges, along with Lindsay forfeiting the final tribal immunity challenge allowed them to stave off Tribal Council until the merge.

Upon merging, Ball (correctly) identified Reindilf as a potential challenge threat, and planned by blindside him in an attempt to pagong the original Yarray tribe. After winning the first individual immunity challenge over Reindilf, he worked on getting numbers for the vote. This plan fell apart, however, when a four-person alliance emerged between the original Yarrays, Twinkerbelle and Ÿęêt. Coupled with the fact that all of the loyal remaining Plokolps had different agendas for the vote, it was ultimately Whiskers who was blindsided in a 4-1-1-1 vote.

Finding himself on the bottom, Ball attempted to find cracks within the majority alliance. Despite a herculean effort at the next immunity challenge, he ultimately lost to his rival, Reindilf. He and Plokolp ally Pebbles were intent on voting for Twinkerbelle, the ringleader of the opposing alliance. Ball, however, managed to catch wind of the impending split vote between him and his ally, and realized that he was the primary target. Knowing that the majority alliance would hold strong, he betrayed his only ally by casting his vote for Pebbles, sending him home in a 3-2-1 split vote, shocking the other four.

Lindsay realized that Ball’s strategic prowess could put his alliance in danger, and began to openly campaign for his ouster. Once again, Ball lost immunity to a member of the majority alliance, but refused to give up. He correctly deduced that there was a Final Two deal between the two original Yarrays, and laid low for the vote in the hopes that the alliance would collapse upon itself, which it eventually would. That night at tribal, after being told by Twinkerbelle that she was taking a shot at the duo, he took a risk in casting his vote for Ÿęêt to keep the blood of the blindside off his non-existent puffle hands. This ended up paying off, as after the vote tied 2-2-1, he survived the re-vote over Lindsay with only one vote cast against him.

Despite the successful blindside, this sense of security was short lived, as when mutual target Reindilf won the next immunity challenge, Ball found himself back on the chopping block. Still, Ball persisted, attempting to turn Reindilf’s ill will against Ÿęêt into a vote for him. This proved successful, as Reindilf voted in Ball’s favor against Ÿęêt, forcing a 2-2 tie. In the ensuing tiebreaker challenge, Ball managed to pull out the win, sending an upset Ÿęêt to the jury. Ball knew that despite the makeshift alliance between himself and Reindilf, it was every puffle for themselves at this point. Although he managed to put up a fight in the Final Immunity Challenge, he ultimately was unable to beat Reindilf. In the end, Reindilf deduced that he was more likely to get Ball’s vote if he were a juror than Twinkerbelle’s. He cast the sole vote for Ball, leading to him falling one day short of the Final Tribal Council.

As a juror, Ball would prove Reindilf’s judgement to be incorrect, as he would cast the deciding vote for Twinkerbelle, believing that she had played a stronger strategic game.

## Season 14: Puffle Island III

As a result of the Instant Merge, Ball began on the Kotikini tribe, where he was instantly popular among the other castaways. After making a good first impression on immunity winner Candy, she selected him to go on the Forest Quest, although he would be unable to find anything. Being personally asked to join the majority alliance by Candy upon returning, he was quick to agree in voting out Smegma. After pulling out an immunity win the next round, he was approached by Villager with a plan to blindside Candy. However, he chose to relay this information to Candy herself, and voted against Villager for her betrayal.

Ball would be selected to be on the Hanumi tribe by ally Tuesday. Although they won the first challenge as a result of Candy throwing it, Tuesday approached Ball with the idea of doing the same. With his approval, he threw the immunity challenge, and Ball joined him in voting out outcast Tina in a clean 2-1-1 vote, although receiving a vote from Blue in an attempt to cover up her loyalty to Tuesday.

When the tribes merged the next round, Ball was dead set on voting out Mugabe as soon as he came back. Mugabe, however, would essentially replace Ball in the alliance without him noticing after he made amends with Candy. Although approached by Villager with the preposition of flipping like Raspberry, he ultimately stuck to what he believed was the plan in voting out Mugabe, although Villager would be the one sent home to his surprise.

While he questioned his alliance on why he was left out of the vote, he was much calmer voicing his frustrations than Raspberry. Being used to playing on the bottom from his last season, he began to calmly look for cracks in the majority alliance. Unfortunately, the two most vulnerable alliance members, Blue and Mugabe, ended up being immune for the round. He then chose to campaign against Raspberry, anticipating a split vote, and figuring that the latter was already doing the same. The round would be sent into chaos, however, when Candy activated the Free-For-All on her Forest Quest. As a result, Ball received the Water Wand, which could negate a vote cast against him. The following Tribal Council, he was initially put into a dicey situation when Raspberry negated Candy's vital double vote cast against him. Ball would then turn the tables masterfully on Raspberry by playing his own advantage on himself, which would tie the vote. Luckily, Ball was the majority's secondary target, and he survived the revote unanimously.

Although happy to still be in the game, he remained focused on bettering his position, being the only one left in the game not in the core four alliance. After the immunity challenge, an opportunity presented itself when Blue suddenly approached Ball and revealed Candy's plan to blindside Mugabe. The two agreed to vote Candy, and assuming that the vote would tie 2-2-1 as Blue claimed it would, Ball would then convince Mugabe to flip over on the revote. This exact scenario ended up occurring, with the vote being tied between Ball and Candy. Immediately, Ball attempted to reel Muagbe in, reminiscent of what he had done with Reindilf five seasons prior. Unfortunately, Mugabe had deduced that it had been Tuesday that had masterminded the entire round, not Candy, and voted to keep Candy as a result. Thus, Ball's game came to an end that night, leaving 2-1 on the revote. He thanked his competitors and AJ for giving him a second chance before heading out, placing fifth and becoming the third member of the jury.

At the Final Tribal Council, Ball praised Candy's leadership and style of play in comparison to the covert and over the top gameplay of finalists Tuesday and Mugabe respectively. This, along with sharing a closer bond with Candy, won her his jury vote, which would be vital in her winning 3-2-0 after the tiebreaker.

File:BallVotingS14.png

## Trivia

* Ball had the most votes cast against him in *Season 9*, with seven (eight including re-votes).
	+ Ball received votes at every Tribal Council he was eligible to receive votes.
* Ball was involved in two consecutive tiebreakers (a re-vote and a fire-making challenge).