Justin's Speech (All-Stars)

Wow. When I entered this season, I truthfully never expected to make it this far. I know that’s what everyone says, but I mean it. I barely qualified this season and was fully prepared to take over a ROTI character, before awards from World Tour meant that I could participate.

I felt fairly confident with my team, as I had previous bonds with Duncan, Geoff and Katie. Now, I’m not going to lie and say that the winning streak didn’t help me, because it did, but I’m confident that I would have survived the pre-merge even if we didn’t win so many challenges.

For the Dakota vote, I worked with Duncan to eliminate her, as he made some good points about her possibly working with Beth. Though nothing was confirmed, Beth has always expressed interest in bringing girls with her to the finale, so sparing Dakota was just a risk that I didn’t want to take. At this point, I realised that Katie wasn’t as loyal to the original cast as I first assumed since even though she knew that we were voting Dakota, she decided to vote off Geoff instead.

Now comes to me voting out Katie. Brick approached me prior to the challenge and asked me to throw the challenge to vote out Katie, as we assumed she was still working with Beth. I wasn’t willing to throw the challenge, but we lost regardless, whether the challenge was thrown or not. I reluctantly voted Katie since when I worked with Beth’s alliance last season I was out as soon as it came down to just our alliance.

Next came the Molly vote, and sorry SirHigh but I needed to vote in the majority, or I would’ve been a target for seemingly being allied with Beth. I was also approached by Zoey who asked me to join her alliance of her and Sam, which I remained neutral towards. The low numbers meant it wasn’t particularly appealing, but it was an option that remained on the table.

Then I made the merge, which I had not expected to reach. At this point I was approached by Sam who told me about his theory about there being a winner’s alliance. A lot of his points made sense, but I wasn’t going to blindly trust him. Bridgette, Geoff, Sam and I made an unofficial alliance formed to make sure the winners didn’t dominate the game.  I was now in a very weird position where I was on very good terms with Duncan, and Brick by association, and also was in the alliance with Bridgette, Geoff and Sam. I don’t feel great about being lying about where my loyalties lay to both sides, but I’ve been on the wrong side before – in Action ,I was in the minority from the large five -an majority, while I was on the bottom on the World Tour alliance, hence I was cut at five. I didn’t want that to happen again.

I tried to save Zoey. I was gunning for Beth, worried that she had lots of hidden little alliances, which wasn’t untrue, but ultimate Zoey made her own undoing by desperately trying to get rid of Sam after being manipulated by the winner’s alliance. I tried to not be associated with the Beth vote and claimed that I didn’t know others were voting her, although I’m not sure how believable that was.

At the final eight, I knew that I needed to choose my side. If I went with Bridgette, Sam and Geoff then I was risking rocks, along with the fact that the winners had the idol. Thankfully, Noah’s double dealing was exposed giving everyone an easy vote and allowing me to delay my decision. Duncan also officially confirmed the winner’s alliance to me before Beth publicly announced it, and I pretended to be surprised since I had obviously known about since before the last vote.

Final seven. My decision seemed clear, side with Bridgette, Geoff and Sam and begin eliminating the winners. Except, I began getting reminded of World Tour where once the minority was gone I was immediately targeted. Though I had a final two deal with Sam, he was also closely tied to Geoff who was clearly a package deal with Bridgette, and I realised there was a strong chance Sam might turn from me if it guaranteed him a spot in the final three. There was a chance, and I couldn’t let that happen. I also had an official final three with Duncan and Brick, which was another route to help me reach the finals. So, I voted Geoff. I wanted to go for Bridgette, nothing personal but I was closer with Geoff and had never really bonded with Bridgette, but I was told that the votes weren’t there as Beth wanted Geoff gone, as obviously she was allied with Bridgette. But when the revote happened, I switched my vote to Bridgette, as I had wanted to do from the start. That’s why I weirdly switched my votes.

For the next vote, I initially sided with the majority and voted Geoff. I was feeling fairly confident, until plans changed, and Sam was the target. I didn’t want to vote him out, as sticking with Duncan meant he was 100% making the finale, and would be my biggest threat in the jury, which I still believe, as Duncan your speech was very thought-out and informative. I stuck with Geoff until Sam said that he had the votes for Beth. I agreed but was disappointed upon learning that Geoff betrayed the voting block, although I can’t say I blame him.

It was the final four, the furthest I’d ever gotten. I voted Duncan since there was no point voting anyone else, I sincerely doubt there would’ve been a consensus for another target. And then it came to down to luck. The box I chose I random, I was unsure of the previously given hint. Geoff won, and honestly I assumed he would take Beth since they worked together in the endgame of this season.

I’m not stupid, I know I was chosen because I was thought to be easier to beat in the jury, and maybe you’re right. I don’t think my speech is awful, but it’s very hard to look at your work objectively. I hope I’ve done enough to secure some votes, but even if I hadn’t, I don’t mind. These past years have changed my life, I’m almost unrecognisable from the selfish jerk that I first arrived on the island as. I’ve made some of the best friends in the world, and even if I haven’t ended up on the best terms with all of you, you were fantastic. Thank you to anyone who listened this far, and I eagerly await the conclusion to All Stars.

**Winning Speech? No (2nd)**