Tom

Tom played in the fourth season of Survivor: Big Brother. He placed 16th out of 17 players.

## Profile

**Do you have any org experience? If so, what have your past org experiences taught you?** "I have participated in several ORGs during the past year, and believe I have learned from each of them - I am very hard on myself so even if an ORG goes well I still look for the negatives to improve myself and my game - some may see this as self destructive, however I think it's a strength to be able to critique yourself, and use that to improve how you do things.

I guess I'm just gunna break down what I learned in all of them... (this is gunna be long... sorry)

Survivor Spain (Billy's) (6/16) - This was my first ORG - but it built the foundations for my base strategy that I have used for ORGs after that. From this ORG I kept a strong relationship with my allies, but did not keep that much of a relationship with a couple of people, which ultimately led me to being idoled out of the game.

From this I learned that socially, I need to keep relationships with everyone in the game, even if I am not working with them currently - I need to be more fluid in my plans rather than seeing one path to the end and staying rigidly on that path.

Surfvivor Borneo (10/20) - This ORG I was trying to play a game that kept the previous mistakes in mind - it started off well, as I was in the middle of the tribe going into our second tribal (first one was unanimous anyway and the person quit so...) and even after choosing a side, I managed to talk my way out of being committed to one side, and my options stayed open.

However, my downfall was being too sociable - I was seen as an alliance leader, and had led several votes by that point, so as soon as the merge hit, all eyes were on me - and I was an immediate target - eventually ending up getting idoled out of the game.

From this I learned that the base parts of my game works - however it still requires tweaking to ensure I can find the balance required, to keep my options open, but also not be seen as a threat for it - I need to learn to play a more low-key game

Survivor All Stars (Billy's) (19/20) - my time on this was short lived before I got idoled out at the first tribal - I did still learn a little from this though - I was too set in my plan on who I wanted to work with that, again, I didn't keep my options open, and as I was the only one to do this, I became the target to the minority group, as again, I was seen as a ring leader. This solidified what I learned from my previous two ORGs - that I need to be social enough that my options are kept open, and I need to avoid being seen as the leader of an alliance, as that puts too much of a target on me.

Expeditions S1: Origins (3/19) - this was a shit show... this is where I realised that I did not learn from any of my mistakes from before - I started off strong, ensuring I wasn't the immediate target, but as soon as my closest ally, Alec, got blindsided at my first tribal, my game fell apart. My game up until this point was to have one close ally and work with them to the end - however when that immediately failed, I panicked, and my social game fell out the window - I only focussed on surviving each vote, and not about securing jury votes - I only spoke to as many people as I needed to to get to the end of the game, and that ended with me becoming a goat at the end. this kind of solidified what I learned from survivor spain - I need to make relationships with everyone - I can't just focus on staying alive, I need to look further ahead - how will my actions affect later in the game, and my chances of winning.

Pokeorg Hoenn (Winner) While I did win, I did still learn a lot. I think I combined the good parts of my Spain gameplay, and Surfvivor gameplay, to actually play the game in a way that meant I could win. I learned how to control my anxiety, and how to play from the bottom, and turn the game on it's head to regain power, which up until my point I hadn't really had to do.

My gameplay was not perfect though - I too readily told people about the advantage I found, so by the time I used it, the entire case knew I had it, which nullified its power - I also was a little too trusting of the wrong people - the people I ended up trusting closely, and planning to go to the end with, were plotting to get me out several times during the season, while the people I fucked over, while I wouldn't have beaten them, were more loyal to me...

I need to try and find loyal people, but play the game hard so I can beat them - going to the end with a goat is a simple way to win, however if they are smart enough to know they are a goat, then they will likely take you out to try and win."

**How does your strategy change knowing that this org mixes survivor and big brother together?** "So... as you see above, I have never played a BB ORG - so while I know the basic contexts of the layout of each round, I'm going to need to very quickly pick up on how to play BB very quickly to be able to keep power in the game on the rounds where I am less familiar with.

More than ever, I will need to keep relationships with everyone in the game, and keep my options open, as the person on the bottom of the survivor round, could win HOH and have all the power the next round - however I need to make sure I don't get caught playing every side - while this is what I plan on doing, I need to ensure the people I am 100% loyal to don't start questioning me, otherwise my game plan falls apart.

I need to find a balance, as if I am not able to, I will probably fail miserably and sputter out in magnificent fashion... (hopefully not though... :P)

As I learned from previous ORGs going into a game with a set strategy never normally works out, and you need to be fluid to make it to the end - you need to roll with the hand you are dealt and make the most of it.

I think I am good at doing that - I am a dungeon master of a D&D Group, and a player in another - I've always found that this has helped me in ORGs - in D&D you never know what your players are gunna do - you can plan as much as you want, but if you plan too much the it's harder to deviate from your plan when a player throws a curveball.

As a player, you need to remember that your actions have consequences - how you talk to an NPC will change the story, and how each of these characters will react to you, and that can easily change how difficult things will be for you.

Both of those things have helped me with ORGs - I guess they are kind of transferrable skills - being able to change my plans in a second if required, and realising that my actions have consequences, making me think a couple moves ahead and how my actions will affect my game, and my chances of winning.

'A tiny butterfly flapping its wings today may lead to a devastating hurricane weeks from now'"

**Are you a good confessionalist? Do you have any examples of your confessionals?** "I am trying to improve my confessionals. I am admittedly better in putting my thoughts into words when i'm speaking, rather than when I'm typing them out, which used to leave my confessionals a little lackluster. However, in Pokeorg Hoenn, I used to talk out loud to myself (i'm weird ok...) and write down the key parts of the "conversation" in my confessionals.

I'm trying to get better at longer confessionals, but these longer confessionals take planning - my style is more to use my confessional as a place to rant - so it gets used semi spontaneously - what's in my confessional is normally what is going on in my mind at that time - a burst of shorter messages more frequently rather than longer messages spaced out.

I get explosive sometimes in my confessionals, just because I know it isn't the best for my game to explode AT people :P but at the same time, someone exploding is still fun to watch"

**Pick 3 words that you would use to describe you. Then if you want, explain why you chose the words that you did.** "Driven (will do anything I can do to reach an end goal) Cautious (i always take my time, to assess every situation before making a decision to try and make sure that decisions I make are the right ones) Empathetic (I struggle sometimes with blindsides once i have got to know people - my "tragic flaw" in ORGs if you will - i try and get to know people and help people who need it, and while in a game like this, it may not be the best thing, I'm not willing to change myself completely just to win)"