Sorry Balki. Still love you.

Congrats, Flum. Well deserved.

Love you too, Balki.
But you're a fucking sociopath, damn.

We see the game result. Can we have an update on Snowy's soul?

Good game to Flum.

And Demon, I'm seriously sorry for everything I said and did. I went way overboard at FTC and should not have at all. Hope we can still be friends after that. After all, you are pretty great and played a lot better than I did.

My soul is no darker than it was prior to this game. I voted the best player, Balki, and everyone else did too. 10 people didn't decide not to vote you, the obviously best player, because I wanted to metagame.

You had a fundamental misunderstanding of what makes people tick, and it cost you the game. I'm surprised you're still saying this - I thught it was an act put up for your juror appeal.

I think I lost all respect for you but apology accepted VashtaNeurotic.

If you had taken me instead you might have had my vote and might have won ^_^

Maybe. I also think you would have tried to get rid of me tho.

Nooooooo!!!!!! Demon baby! I love you! How didn't no you win! This is a rigged election. I'm sure the DNC and russian had their hands in this.

That was super tight. Genuinely surprised Balki got no votes but it helped me out.
This was my third online survivor game but I only made it to the jury on the other two. It gave me first-hand experience on how juries think so it gave me a bit of a leg up I think in the final phase. I knew in my experience that the main thing that irks jury members is arrogance and taking credit for things they weren't perceived as doing.

Balki played a very manipulative game but I was hinging on it being too manipulative and he'd have trouble actually getting recognition for his most impressive moves since they were so subtle. I knew I had my more flashy game moves to compare it to, and I was really hoping the jury would get annoyed at his arrogance (which is very charming usually, but probably annoying in the context of being stabbed by him.)
I definitely don't think he played an easy game to play and props for juggling all his alliances without getting caught until the end.
Losing snowy at 5 was bad for me so I threw as much shade on Balki for that move as possible which at the time (before I knew how angry the jury was at him) I actually thought it was a good move for him. But yeah, making those blood pacts with multiple people were probably his biggest downfall, and he could have had tight alliances without them.
Either way, Balki is a genius in my eyes and I think if he played again (maybe needing to do it in an anonymous game) he'll have no issue fixing his main flaw and easily win.

Demon I knew not to underestimate but she really came alive at the end and it really can't be overstated how close it was. I did throw a lot of shade on her being apathetic (which wasn't entirely true) but it was no accident she did as well as she did. I think ghug gave a good picture of why her game was impressive in the jury thread. I honestly wasn't sure how she'd do in the game and she ended up being my biggest hurdle.

I think uclabb, snowy, and Vash ended up being the main reason I beat her because of their vocal support of me in the jury thread. If they weren't vocal and didn't point out some of the more subtle maneuvering I did I might not have gotten some votes. Reading some of the posts appreciating my game almost made me feel better than when I learned I won. Thanks all 3 of you!
Bozo, I was mildly surprised you voted for me to win after all my lying but I will still say now with no ulterior motive that I hope you join the discord server because you seem cool and I want you to see me when I'm not lying and in a new context!
Moscow and bo, thanks for your vote. You may have only voted me because it was an anti-demon bloc and you merged with the anti-Balki voting bloc. I still genuinely wish you got to play longer Moscow. I enjoyed our short stint together.

I enjoyed the challenge at every moment and there was never really any breaks to the excitement. One final thanks to everyone!
Also, hah! You were wrong ghug!

Hey so my final tribe messages list was 52 pages. I imagine this was near the lower end for the final four. I think calling me somewhat apathetic is a decent criticism and this really isn't my kind of game.

Good insight Fluminator, and well played. I had fun talking with a lot of players in this game, but probably with you the most.

I note that Snowy wants to use this moment to rub in my loss further. Fine. You're right. And I'm wrong. Mea culpa.

I think my pre-jury game was decent. But my final tribal counsel was abysmal. I generated this idea in my head during the game that "this is not a truth telling competition" and "this is a diplomacy website; people can appreciate a good stab." While all that is true, when a person gets tackled, they don't want to congratulate the dude who is standing over them, high-stepping and guffawing. I was tone deaf and naive. I started out my opening statement with: "Welp, this statement is long, and arrogant, and probably makes me sound like a douchebag. I guess I’m just going to embrace that." When you have to open that way, it's probably a good time to do some editing.

Lesson learned. Don't be an arrogant, slimy asshole if you'd like people to do nice things for you. And, I should probably add: don't ask them to make blood pacts if you care about your blood. I don't think I'm likely to make a "pact" of any kind any time soon.

Lots of growing to do.

Putting the results aside, I want to say that a great part about this game was getting a chance to talk with and play with so many people in this community. I haven't really played much diplomacy here, but I've played a lot of mafia here, and I like the people. This was my first chance to talk to many of you in a different context. And while there were elements of the game that impacted many of those conversations, there was also a lot of non-game moments where I was just kind of chatting with and getting to know folks. That was cool. I like these folks. Game aside, it was nice to get to know you.