Val!
Long time no see. So in terms of what happened with your elimination and what was my part in it, I'm sure you already know this but obviously I voted for Yve and had no involvement whatsoever in your demise and was genuinely blindsided there. I didn't even realize it was the Fenrir plan until you told me yourself just before Tribal Council that you heard you were getting the votes, I believe from Penner? So I really wish you hadn't played your idol when Courtney left too, ugh, or else you would've essentially been tipped off to play it then and there and who knows how differently the ensuing game would've played out and how long you may have stuck around.
Obviously the stray votes from Catalie and Melinda did you in too, with Catalie voting Cassandra and Melinda voting Russell. Then there's Cassandra's extra vote which was decisive, so really it was just a lot of things going wrong and suddenly an 8-6 majority crumbles and one of our own leave, and I think we were all pretty shocked.
In terms of why Fenrir targeted you specifically, I guess Yve probably has more insight there but for whatever reason I guess you were the more agreeable name amongst the six of them. Whether that's for in-game connections, out-of-game connections or a combination of both, again, I can't speak for that but afterwards the Fenrir just assured me that it was never going to be me in danger and despite voting separately we'd still protect each other moving forward. I remember having these conversations with Kim and Tammy especially. I was told the plan happened pretty last minute and given the whisperfest at Tribal Council I believed that to be true.
I went into depth in terms of why we put our votes on Yve in my response to Jeff's thread, in terms of why he was the target from the Munin end those first two rounds of the merge. I do believe had Jeff not won that first immunity he was going to be getting the votes, and then once he won it, then it was promptly switched to Yve as the next alternative. I feel like Jormungand had drama and dissension amongst their five which made it convenient to put focus on them, coupled with OG Munin having an agreement, fear of Cass/Kim/Penner playing the OG Fenrir idol (which we believed would expire that round and one of them had and would play) and Tammy being more of a middle woman, Jeff and Yve were the "easiest compromise" votes while the dust settled and people figure out where they fit into the dynamic.
I never really understood why Catalie and Melinda stray voted rather than stuck to the plan we had in place, but I guess Catalie said something about being spooked with the whispering going on during Tribal Council because she didn't buy it was going to be Yve anymore (although Yve would've left on the re-vote if she stuck to the plan, as I believe Cassandra's extra vote wouldn't be valid on the re-vote). Melinda, really no clue, I guess she and Yve had an out-of-game connection from years back and she didn't want to step over that, but the stray votes certainly put the nail in your coffin and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't peeved about it.
Obviously losing you was a huge blow as you were truly an integral part of my game given all the time and everything we'd been through together, but I recovered and capitalized from your elimination by solidifying my allegiances within the Munin grouping so I was more than just a number to any one person within that alliance of seven, as it obviously wouldn't hold up for too much longer. I did feel like you leaving gave me the opportunity to work between Joaquin/Russell and Cristina/Loveita/Melinda as I felt both those factions wanted to work with me and Catalie before they ever banded together and I worked that to my benefit.
Another way I recovered was I actively appealed myself to the Fenrirs to make myself be someone they could play with and make moves with, because I wanted to avoid a situation where they piled votes on me as they did you and subsequently Russell. I knew the Munin/Fenrir tribal lines would disintegrate quickly and wanted to make sure my game didn't disintegrate with it and I still had a viable path forward. I made it clear I was willing to play my own separate game from Catalie and willing to vote a different way from her if I need be, and I do believe it paid off for me in that sense and showed myself as someone willing to jump across tribal lines rather than set on riding out the Munin majority, like when Loveita and I flipped on Joaquin at nine, and even though the idol play hindered it momentarily, I made the same move at seven, this time with it paying off.
My reasoning for voting out Kim over Russell at four, well there are two components. The first is how I saw the jury makeup and where I'd pull in my support over theirs. It's clear none of us (with the exception of Catalie for Russell, I guess) really have any vote in the bag and I certainly know I'm fighting hard for each and every vote I hope to get, but obviously I was factoring who might be inclined to vote for who in the various final three scenarios.
Ultimately I did feel that Kim had a really good shot at getting votes from the likes of Cassandra, Penner, Jeff and Tammy, and I'd have a better chance at opening up the possibility to receive those votes against Russell than her. I also felt I had closer working and social relationships with the likes of Cristina/Loveita than Russell did, and Melinda was a tossup whether I was up against Kim or Russell. Based on their jury speeches, I don't really think I'd have been more likely to get Catalie/Joaquin's votes if I took Kim over Russell either. I know that coming here with Kim would probably lock up your individual vote more definitively, but I did feel overall in the entire jury of eleven that I'd open up the opportunity for more support going my way by taking Russell over Kim. I obviously very much still hope to earn your vote over both Russell and Yve through my responses here!
The second aspect is the game aspect and arguing how my game is better than Russell's compared to how it's better than Kim's. I already told Kim in her thread why I personally would've voted her to win over Russell and Yve, but I do feel like she played an extremely clean game, was less targeted than any of us and was generally impenetrable by virtue of the social and strategic relationships she cultivated. She was never viewed as a top threat, but never someone who had negative attributes thrown her way either in the way that Russell/Yve did per the survey. A lot of her game style mirrored my own, not necessarily perceived as one of the biggest threats, but connected enough to not be an easy name to throw around, but I felt she had potential to argue it better given, again, she never received a single vote until her elimination at final four while I received a stray vote here and there.
On the contrary, I believe I can argue I outplayed Russell from this angle, because he was actively antagonizing Fenrir at the start of the merge and pushing Fenrir away from him, due to everything that went on between him and Cassandra and also him and Jeff, just to give two examples, which resulted in him nearly leaving over Jeff had Cristina flipped and Tammy voted with Fenrir. He wasn't cultivating social relationships which drew people in to him and kept him safe from a strategic perspective, he was actively pushing them away and making those people target him and relying on Munin to bail him out, which contrasts to Jeff who said he was legit wanting to work with and protect me and me alone from Munin due to our social connection, just to give an example of where my game excelled over Russell's. Ultimately, I stand by my choice as being the best one for my winning chances and hope this provides the insight you were looking for.
