[Gary Hogeboom]

12 people left, that's one for every month of the year!

1. On paper this looked like a much simpler vote than the last one. The Valentine tribe seems split in 2, Are these old lines or has a new majority formed? Do you expect similar voting blocks next round?
2. Were you surprised at all by Jeff's departure? Tell us why Jeff going was good for your game. If it wasn't, what's your plan to pivot going forward?
3. It seems like idols are having an effect on every tribal without even coming out. How can you maintain control over votes without knowing the location of idols and advantages? What do you know for sure about what people have up their sleeve?

uhhh, Danni usually puts some corny emojis in these so here:

[Russell]

1. On paper this looked like a much simpler vote than the last one. The Valentine tribe seems split in 2, Are these old lines or has a new majority formed? Do you expect similar voting blocks next round?

I think tonight's vote was just to ensure that the more tight Fenrir 6 weren't going to take the game. There were pushes to shake things up beyond tribal lines (like my poor attempts to target Lov or Cris), but ultimately with so many people you have to vote for what's the most equilibrium common good. For me, I was just trying to stay alive.

2. Were you surprised at all by Jeff's departure? Tell us why Jeff going was good for your game. If it wasn't, what's your plan to pivot going forward?

I wasn't super surprised because I did vote for him, but I was surprise that it wasn't super close. Either a vote steal was used or someone is trying to pretend to have used a vote steal to frame Lov or Cristina lmao.

3. It seems like idols are having an effect on every tribal without even coming out. How can you maintain control over votes without knowing the location of idols and advantages? What do you know for sure about what people have up their sleeve?

The age old winning strategy of Survivor isn't to control votes, it's to ensure that votes aren't going for you. I've done a piss poor job of that, but I've also done a piss poor job of controlling votes.

Thankfully I don't believe my chances are entirely over. People aren't looking at me as a failure, but more of some idiot savant, which is great. Plus, Poody gave me the chance to address some of the ideas that I'm super connected in the game. While I feel like I do have some connections, it's because of what's happened here and not what's happened outside the game. The only person I felt like I really pregamed with was Val and she's out.

Moving forward, I do have to duck utr a bit sadly. I think one of the benefits of surviving an attempted blindside is that people aren't going to try to do it again.

Do I have a path toward the end? Not at the moment, but the deeper we get into the merge the more pressure there will be for people to make a name for themselves. For me? Simply getting to the end will be such a feat that I know I'll have the ability to argue my way to a possible win. It's the reason I'm even here in the first place, I can always sell myself a win if I make it to the finals- it's just getting there that's the problem.

[Russell]

One of the more interesting storylines/narratives of the season, from my pov, is old school players coming back on and thinking that lying about votes is still a thing. Everyone talks, everyone's going to know who voted for who in modern Survivor.

Cristina's move to pretend to have her vote stolen would've worked 5 years ago, but in a game like this it doesn't play at all. First, if someone stole a vote from the Fenrirs, they would steal Jeff's because that's who their target is and they know 100% that person is going against them.

I think if I were Cristina, the better lie here (and hell, it might even be the truth) is that you weren't going to stay Munin strong until you saw that Tammy was going to flip and then you just had to because of numbers.