Chris' Opening Speech!

Howdy everyone! First and foremost, thanks to the hosts for allowing all of this to happen and this was a great opportunity. Second, I do want to start off by apologizing to anybody I might have wronged during the game as it was never my intention to get as bad as I did so to anyone with ill feelings, I am sorry. That said, I’d like to explain my game a little in the three different aspects of physical, social, and strategy.

As far as my physical game was concerned, I know I was not the most challenge-skilled person. I actually acknowledged this from the beginning for myself. However, I managed to win a total of three competitions- two Head of Households and one Power of Veto. Two happened to be the week before jury where I got my target out and the other in the Final Four. I personally feel that this was clearly not a case of winning a string of competitions just to do it, but winning the competitions that were necessary for me. I managed to get the person who had me out during my initial Head of Household and guarantee myself a spot in the Final Three in my second Head of Household reign. I always feel that it never hurts to do something for the fun of it, but if you do not necessarily have to do it or need it, then it is not a huge loss. Competitions for me fell in the category of that prospect as there were a few times I didn’t win that I felt I wanted and partially even needed to, however I didn’t. It didn’t hinder my game all too much considering there were numerous occasions people I was close to won challenges. That said, I might have only won three competitions, but overall in the season, I landed 2nd for a good portion of them as a few of you saw, alongside a few 3rds, 4ths, and above. So while I did not win a lot, I do think that this does show I had some challenge capabilities, official win or lose.

The next part I wanted to explain was my social game.This, I would say, was my strongest aspect. I always try to compensate my weaknesses for my strengths and so I was really worried going in that I would need to capitalize on my social to last. During the first few weeks, I did the best I could to socialize with as many people. I tend to like meeting new people and seeing old faces was also a huge relief to me as well. I legitimately got to know a few people on a level that was beyond the game such as and I feel like it was a positive influence on my game. Early on, I managed to have a pretty good impression of a lot of people and as the game went afoot it had dawned on me that it was very possible I could end up on some good graces of people in numerous parts of the house. I know it sounds crazy to think that the house was already divided up in the first few weeks, but I try to be perceptive of the game and at some point, I just felt that there were chunks and clusters that were together.

I started off in an alliance with Ben, Lee, and Luca (Fantastic Four). That then became Avengers with the same individuals including Jacob, but that ship sailed quickly after a few realizations with Ben/Jacob’s departure; both of these alliances were within the first week. Lee/Luca/Myself became Killer Bass. Before and during all this, I talked with Dwayne who was also interested in a Final 3 consisting of the two of us and Malik. Prejury was a consistent pattern of potentially good weeks to potentially bad weeks that could have gone either way for me! At this point, I still had close allies and alliances like the ones mentioned above and then casual conversations with others such as Loris, Hedger, Julia, Tobi, William, and a too brief attempt on Tom (I felt even with hitlist, it shouldn’t stop me from trying). Shortly after a few back and forth weeks of turnouts, there was an alliance with Jake, Hannah, Lee, and myself called Mystery Inc. Now, this was around the time jury started and the game got tricky as people were starting to show their cards all the while trying to hide them. Right after Hannah left, I had a concern that voting in the minority of a 6 to 2 vote would make me an easy target, but had some reassurance my social game would help me if I were nominated. The final alliance that I was apart of was one by the name of Nachosteak, which consisted of Lee, Julia, Loris, Jake, and myself following Hannah’s eviction. Under the guise of the stragglers of the games, we all sort of used it as a group to be safe and all. Despite it not always working out, I do feel like this helped me avoid getting out when I could have.

With all of this considered, I believe it played a massive role in my being able to avoid the block up until the Final Six. Even then, I managed to avoid being a final nominee with Lee’s help, up until the Final Three. I feel being the only person to go the entire game without a single vote to evict is a testament of how I used my social game to the best of my ability and I hope you guys can recognize that. That said, I know without it and the people in the game, I would not be here and that is something I cannot forget.

Finally, I would like to express my strategic game. My initial strategy was to stick to one alliance, but still maintain social bonds with people just in case for no bueno scenarios. Right off the bat, William approached me for doing a jedi mind trick of making the house think he had me as a target when he really didn’t. None of it made sense to be doing unless he actually had me, so I did what I did a lot during this season and bit my tongue on the matter and nodded. I think this came to hurt a few people such as Ben who got exposed for being in numerous alliances at a time. I’d like to point out however that I didn’t want put myself into more than one alliance until after it became apparent that a few people I thought I was with were already guilty of the same thing and I lost Jacob/Ben within the first 2 weeks. I had a good idea of who had who as a target yet downplayed it and acted oblivious for the sake of people not scratching their heads in regards to me knowing how X had this and that. The first five HoHs consisted mostly of this.

As the game progressed, like I mentioned earlier, people were starting to show their cards and I was picking up on potential divides. Dwayne had Malik with him, who I vividly recalled Julia mistaking for when we were all entering the house. Thus, I felt Malik and Julia at the time were on good terms. I had the strong belief of a group consisting of Hedger/Nicol/Jake with potentially Julia as well. Then there was Luca/Lee/Myself. Finally, Loris/Hannah are two I felt were good socially, just not in specific groups as of yet. I managed to talk to people in the suspected groups at this point for the greater good and managed to get into alliances. Having said that, my first major move came out of reaction to Luca’s HoH reign. At this point, I was growing skeptical of how a few people were acting- not out of paranoia, but out of some of their behavior with myself and other people. I was made aware that Luca intended to vote out Jake during my reign despite me not wanting that. During Luca’s HoH reign, Mystery Inc had a strong forming and I saw potential given Killer Bass talked about nominating Jake/Julia and I was intending to essentially do the same. Unfortunately, Hannah got nominated as a result of Luca speaking with Hedger and that was all I needed to know Luca had higher loyalties. Just to clear it up a bit, I’m not going to accuse the pot of being black while im the kettle, but Killer Bass was my highest priority up until this point. After that eviction, I was concerned for my safety in the game, and stuck even more to my reads of the groupings. Lee, who by then was my declared F2, winning HoH then was pivotal as we talked about having Hedger the target at the time. This was also when Nachosteak formed. The following week, Jake nominated Luca, yet wanted Nachosteak and such to vote Dwayne out. I knew since the noms were made I was going to need Luca out despite the want of him staying, so I did instant work by talking with Malik who I knew would want to keep Dwayne, Nicol, and Julia. Did I feel bad for this? Yes, especially considering that I truly could have just evicted Dwayne all by tying the vote and making Jake happy for it. The problem with that was that A) I could trust Dwayne a lot more and B) On the totem pole of legitimate allies, I didn’t particularly feel all that high with a few people.  I do feel my concerns were justified during later revelations and me deciding to make the first move had a positive influence. Despite a slight mishap, I ended up getting the outcome I hoped for and tried to play off the whole thing as an accident.

After this, I did my best for damage control with Loris and Lee, although it appeared there was more to be upset about at Julia. I don't think I went unscathed by the whole thing, but I felt I avoided more repercussions than she did at the time.. Julia managed to win HoH and because we both committed to said move against the Nachosteak alliance, I felt safe that week. Another hard part came with trying to save Lee who was nominated and the prime target during this week. People in the game had a lot of duos pegged- Malik/Dwayne, Hedger/Nicol, Lee/Me. The two of us already had leaked alliances of us dating back to the first weeks. My approach to getting a majority vote was to first seem indecisive of my vote to Malik and Loris. Dwayne and Nicol were lock ins for having Lee as hitlist. After a lot of talking, and once again with Lee's help, we ended up with a 3-2 turnout in our favor.

Final 7 became the week in which it just seemed better for Nicol to leave. We didn’t til around early jury, which I blame myself for, but to ensure my chances of making it to the end, she had to leave since I had Malik/Dwayne, Loris/Lee, and was still talking to Julia in between. So Nicol ended up going that week, Which brought us to Final Six. Now Loris said he was willing to be dragged to f3 with me and Lee. I feel this was the week what little paranoia i had showed as with Loris’ reign as I found it odd I got nominated and not Julia. Despite being saved with POV, I thought this could have showed a potential Julia/Loris F2. The vote between Malik and Dwayne sucked a lot for many reasons, but I was going to stick with Lee and thus Dwayne got 6th. In Final 5, I needed 1 of 2 things to happen right after Lee won HoH once she nominated Julia and Malik. The first was for Julia to win POV because at this point Loris was going to be the easiest person to take to final 2 and my f2 suspicions and a chat with him on not necessarily wanting Malik out but whoever was nommed with him was enough for me. I also didnt put it past Loris to save Julia and then me and Malik get 5th and 4th.The second was Lee winning POV. Lee expressed wanting Julia and then Loris out which meant if things went good, I could have a win win. In the end, I managed to get option 1. Final 4 HoH took place despite me feeling secure in my positioning. Around here I had a feeling that depending on who won POV I might be guaranteed F2. It was pondered what would happen if each person left in f4 between Lee, Julia, and Malik and I tried to prepare myself for whatever. Once Julia fell behind, there was mention of a deal to get Malik out. The odds of it happening were slim to none however and eventually Julia got 4th. With me and Malik having grown close things throughout the game and my original Final 2 deal with Lee, things looked up! In F3, I tried the best I could as I wanted to win a final competition despite feeling like both would take me. Ultimately, Malik won out and took me and thus the Final 2.

So yeah, all in all, I don’t really view myself as some inner challenge beast, social god, or mastermind of the game. If anything, I feel like I was quite well rounded in my strengths and weaknesses of the games with being physical, social, and strategic. I know I certainly wouldn’t have made it all the way without the help of others and I am really thankful for that, but I do want to use this to show everyone that I did things, even things I didn’t personally want to do, to simply further not only my chances of surviving in the game, but winning it in the end. I hope that you, the jury can respect this while making your decisions on who should win this game.

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