Hey Hali! I will definitely hit you up about chatting after the game. I would be glad to answer any questions you might have outside of these ones. You weren’t kidding when you said it’s gonna be a lot, but I’ll try my best to answer them all in full detail.

In your question/statement, you say that “after some initial non-game chatter, both of you essentially gave me the middle finger and refused to talk to me anymore.” I frankly do not agree with that statement. I will say that we did have some non-game chatter very early in the day, but I did in no such way give you the middle finger verbally at all. You said “Heyyyy message me when you get the chance.” However, I was never able to even see your message until about 10:30 because I was at Skyzone. When Skyzone closed, I did say to you, “Hey I was at Skyzone! I'm driving home now so I'll talk to you soon.” Those were the only two messages we exchanged that entire night. However, I was most definitely not ignoring you at all. I’m not gonna assume you’ve been to Skyzone, but it’s basically a trampoline establishment where you jump around for about 2 hours. During this time that I paid money for, I did not go out to my car just so I could check my phone to see if someone messaged me. In addition, I do not have data like so many people do so the only way I could have messaged you is if I stayed in the Skyzone parking lot where there was wifi while my friends sat in my car impatiently waiting for me to finish. The message I sent to you was when I had just left the building and was in my car where I was close enough to get the wifi. Frankly, if that time just so happened to be immediately after the votes were due, then so be it, but it’s not like I purposely appeared out of nowhere right after the vote just so I could say talk to you soon. I genuinely thought I would get home on time to talk to you before tribal was put up so I could talk to you about why I did what I did, but when I got home, it had already been posted and obviously it’s against the rules to talk to someone who had been voted out. Also, the huge reason why I didn’t just tell you that I was voting for you before I left for Skyzone was because I knew that if I told you that I was voting you almost 4 hours before the voting deadline, you would have worked your butt off to ensure that you didn’t go home and I wouldn’t have been able to do a single thing about it because I wasn’t able to communicate with anyone. It would have been like telling someone 4 hours ahead of time that there is a guy who is coming to their house to murder them. Obviously, the said someone would rationally call the cops and figure out a plan to ensure that they didn’t die when the 4 hours were up and the murderer would not have any idea that this was going on and would likely end up getting arrested (or in my case, voted off). You would have likely made a plan in those 4 hours and I could have very well ended up being the one voted out because I wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it. I’m positive you see my dilemma now. I basically had 3 options. 1: I could have done what I did the actual day you were voted off. 2: I could have told you that I was voting you off before I went to Skyzone and give you an entire 4 hours to ensure you didn’t go home which would likely have ended up in me being booted. 3: I could have lied to you and told you I was voting Fran when in reality I was voting you. Out of those 3 options, I believe that I picked the least damaging one. The second one would have got me voted off and the third one would have been giving you a middle finger to the face because it would have required me to lie straight to your face. The first option is obviously the least volatile of the three and I sincerely do apologize if you felt dissed that I “ignored” you, but just know that I did take into consideration what I could do and that was honestly the best option at the time. If we had ended up talking about the vote earlier in the day before I had left to go to dinner with my friends, then I’m sure we could have discussed taking Fran out. Honestly, at that point though, I knew it was the prime time to take you out and I probably would not have changed my mind about voting you so it wouldn’t have changed much anyway. The only thing it would have changed is that it would have put me in the position where I would have to lie to you about voting Fran out or you would instantly know something was up. And if I lied to you about voting Fran, that is way worse than not telling you I’m voting you. As you already know, I was gunning for you for a long time, but I just didn’t know how to flip on you without hurting you because we had actually talked a lot more in the votes leading up to then and I was becoming more invested in our relationship than I knew I should be which was making it that much harder for me to flip. However, a series of events leading up to your vote set it all into motion. One of the main obstacles holding me back from flipping at the Matt vote was Fabio. He was tight with you and I trusted him 100% so I didn’t want to lose his trust by voting you out. However, when he got idoled out, there was really nothing holding me back at that point. The only thing was that you were able to convince me that Ciera was making deals with you and John and that they were trying to get me or Chelsea out. I don’t know how true that was, but if it was true, then I am glad I didn’t trust Ciera. However, if it wasn’t true, then it means you lied straight to my face which I do not appreciate as much as you don’t appreciate me “ignoring” you on the day I voted you out. The next big event that pushed me to vote you out was that you specifically stated when I asked you about the vote that Ciera was the obvious target to vote out. I was actually going to be okay with that simply because she had just idoled out Fabio, my best ally. Then came the vote where Chelsea and I were 100% loyal to you and you totally blew that trust when you didn’t vote for Ciera with us. You had lied to me about the vote several times one after the other and said things like, “Yes! After she idol'd out Fabio, it's the only course of action” and “This one is for Fabio 100%” and “are you still voting for ciera??” You completely reassured me a ton of times that Ciera was the target and lied to my face numerous times. I will tell you right now that I was definitely very upset when I found out you voted against me even after you reassured me all of those times. Basically, the whole point I’m bringing this up is because you are questioning me about my jury management and saying how poorly I did at it when in reality, I never even lied to you whereas you specifically lied to me straight-up at least three times in a row. I know you’re not saying you had awesome jury management at all, but I do believe it is one thing to criticize someone severely for something they did and it is another thing to criticize something severely for something they did if you basically did the same exact thing. I am saying this primarily because you were requesting insight on how you could win the game and I am going to give you some insight right here. Essentially, if you do not vote for me to win because of the way I treated you on your way out the door (even after the arduously detailed explanation I gave you for why I did what I did), then you know exactly what you have to work on in your next game if you want to win when you make the final tribal council; your jury management because you did the same thing to me that I did to you albeit arguably worse. If you do vote for me to win because you understand the complications I went through on Day 28 when you were booted, then you can ignore the previous insight I just gave you. I hope this explains in detail that I was by no means giving you the middle finger or ignoring you on purpose or even trying to hurt you on a personal level the night that you were voted out. I 100% enjoyed the conversations we had throughout the game and I really did begin to like talking to you a lot more as the game progressed regardless of what other people say about how you were impossible to talk to or took forever to respond. Unfortunately, when you did not vote Ciera that tribal, I knew right then and there that you had duped me and after all the trust I had put in you and all the reassuring statements you had given me, it was all a lie. As much as it did hurt me on a personal level, it had to be the most perfect move for my strategic game. When you attempted to backstab me and it fell through, it gave me the prime opportunity to flip on you without breaking the loyalty we had and losing your trust because you broke it first. I knew that this was ultimately the perfect situation for my game because I could vote you out without the fear of hurting you due to flipping on you since you flipped first. This was part of my jury management right there. I knew when the right time to flip was and I had no regrets when I did. If I would have flipped say 2 rounds earlier, I would have likely lost Fabio’s vote because he trusted me a ton, I would have lost your vote because I flipped on you after we had become close, and I would have likely lost John and Matty’s vote because I flipped on the Jaruud alliance as a whole. However, by waiting just two more votes, the perfect opportunity to flip and vote out the biggest threat in the game presented itself and I could sneak in and do it without the fear of losing all the Jaruud votes since you all flipped on me first giving me an ample reason to flip on you guys. I know you could definitely classify this as luck, but I have watched the real Survivor a ton and if there’s one thing I hear a lot, it’s not a matter of if you should flip; it’s a matter of when you should flip. I could have definitely flipped earlier in the game, but by sticking it out longer and knowing that an opportunity would present itself sooner or later, I was able to conserve the Jaruud votes more so than if I had flipped earlier on because then you guys would be super pissed at me. As for both the Tyler and John votes, I knew they were both going home pretty much no matter what happened and I did talk to them before they went out. I especially felt for John because he endured that challenge for a whopping 10 hours just to get voted out which couldn’t have felt good at all and so I obviously felt emotional for the guy regardless of me wanting to gain his jury vote or not. I just think everyone should know that I never intentionally wanted to hurt someone who I voted out. Obviously, I did in some cases and I will get to that in their respective questions, but I never ever said anything volatile about someone and never laid out personal attacks on people just for the sake of doing it which was a big part of my jury management. I tried to be genuine, but in the end, if you know people are going to screw you over, you’re going to have to get your hands a little bit dirty whether you like it or not. I know you are criticizing my jury management particularly and everyone seems to think that Fran did such a great job of being a kind hearted soul to everyone on their way out. Kudos to her for outwardly achieving her goal, but because I am trying to win here, it is only fair and just that I show everyone what Fran really thought of them. Because my social game was good enough for Fran to trust telling me all this even after everyone apparently knew I was a weasel :p, I am going to be the nice informer that I am and let everyone know that Fran did say a lot of harsh things behind people’s backs, especially many of the Jaruud members. She said things like “And as you know we HATED Fabio” and “You guys get Matty on board cause I am not voluntarily subjecting myself to the torture of talking to him” and “I am voting for Matty because he is sinfully boring and I am never going to talk to him” and “Jaruuds are literally the worst people to talk to.” I can bet that all of you cannot find an example of me ever saying something like this voluntarily behind someone’s back or to someone’s face for no reason. The only example I could possibly think of is if I was mad at Ciera after she idoled out Fabio, but at least my frustration was justified in that case. So finally, to answer your question, of course I could have improved my jury management, primarily in the Matt vote and the Ciera vote. In every other vote however, I believe I did everything I could to make sure people were not pissed at me and I never ever stooped low enough to gloat at people when they went out the door. When Fabio was idoled out, Fran and Ciera were publicly celebrating and while it was definitely a good move on their part, how does posting a bunch of unnecessary gifs on the tribal council page gain Fabio’s vote? I am sure a lot of you have seen Big Brother and when somebody makes a good move and is super happy about it, it is customary to go into a “separate” room with your partners in crime to celebrate so that you don’t piss off the jurors who are voting for you to win the game. In Survivor, it is pretty much the same way. If you publicly celebrate at someone’s departure, that is likely the last thing they will remember of you before they leave and I am willing to bet Fabio feels like the gifs were definitely unnecessary and it could be enough to cost Fran his vote. So you may believe Fran “has jury management skills!” but the Fabio vote gloating was definitely not an impressive way in my eyes to gain a juror’s vote…at all. All those quotes I listed above were things Fran said directly about the Jaruud members in particular and it was not a smart move to tell me, an ally of the Jaruuds, because how can I not share the mean things that were said about my allies with them? I am sure this is more than you were looking for Hali, but I needed you to know the full extent to which this jury management went on both on my part and on Fran’s part.

Jury Score Reports (Scale out of 10)
Tyler:
Physical-4
Social-6.5
Strategic-8
Tyler was not exactly a beast in challenges. His pre-merge challenge showings were not all that great, but he always put in the effort and tried his best to succeed. Socially, Tyler was great. The only problem was that his social game was a little more secluded within his alliances. If he could branch out and be that social with everyone, he could do some damage. Strategically, Tyler was not afraid to make moves. I was able to see pre-merge that if he wanted something done, it was balls to the wall #noregrets and it usually worked out. Unfortunately, at the merge, I think his social game was the thing holding him back.
Misty:
Physical-6
Social-8.5
Strategic-7.5
Misty was not a big stand-out in the challenges this season from what I was able to observe. She was definitely no sluff-off, but she was not a frontrunner either. Socially, Misty killed it. Everyone who she did talk to became drawn to her, and as I said before, she gradually was able to hypnotize her fellow Chonos members into doing what she wanted. Strategically, Misty definitely had potential. She knew what she had to do, but the implementation was the problem. She knew that she had to get the swing votes, but by the end of it, she had ended up targeting one of the swing votes thus putting her alliance down a number.
Matt:
Physical-4.5
Social-7
Strategic-5.5
From what I saw, Matt was not the best challenge-wise, or at least for me, he didn’t stand out as a big threat in them. Socially, Matt did a pretty decent job. When he did talk to people, he liked to talk about their personal lives and by having you open up to him about your real life, it made him seem like someone you could trust. I did not see a lot of strategic element in Matt’s gameplay at least from my perspective. He could initiate a plan, but it was more of a lackluster approach and the plan kind of just ended up sitting there. However, if he did begin to back it up more, I think he could really carry out some moves.
Fabio:
Physical-8
Social-9.5
Strategic-9
Physically, Fabio had his great moments, but he also did have a few hiccups…going back to that 1000 post challenge ;). Socially, the guy was the best at the job. He became friends with nearly everyone and everyone trusted the guy. No one wanted to get rid of him and a lot of people probably had him in their Final 3 scenario. I think his social game played into his strategic game a lot. By not outwardly strategizing too much, he was able to make himself look laid-back and a non-threat. However, he would be casually filtering in his plans through his nonchalant social game which is honestly an amazing talent. Really the only way he can improve is to somehow not let people realize/see that he is this glue that holds everyone together. It's a tough thing to fix, but it's really the only area he can improve in.
Matty:
Physical-7
Social-5
Strategic-4
Matty’s physical showings were actually underestimated in my opinion. He carried Oronar through that first challenge by figuring out the word within seconds and posting at an amazing speed. He was right on Hali’s tail in the challenge she won immunity. People simply put him aside because he wasn’t as active and assumes he wasn’t good at challenges, but from what I saw, he could bring it when he wanted to. His social game was actually very good prospectively. When he did put in the effort, he was good, but unfortunately, he wasn’t active enough to show it. Strategically, I didn’t see much of that side of Matty. With Matty, it is really just of a matter of whether or not he can become more active. If he does, I think he can do great things.
Hali:
Physical-9
Social-8
Strategic-8.5
I think Hali is a pretty balanced triple threat. She is amazing at challenges and is certainly not afraid to show it. Her social game with me personally wasn’t too much of an intense relationship, but I know she was able to get many other people to trust her simply by chatting with them. As far as strategy goes, she was always a main component in what plan was carried out and that’s part of what put the big target on her back. As for how she could improve, I think she needs to dial her awesomeness-for lack of a better term-down a little bit so people don’t see her as the #1 threat she really is. She comes across very leader-like and that’s who ends up getting targeted in Survivor so if she could take a step back and let someone else assume that position and then get rid of them when the time is right, she could make it to the FTC without everyone having the mindset that she needs to go before the Final 3.
Ciera:
Physical-5
Social-7
Strategic-8.5
Ciera did not stand out in challenges from what I saw. She even missed out on one in the merge. Socially, I had conversations with Ciera here and there and when I did, they were quite enjoyable, but I just don’t think I had enough with her to really have an impact on either of our games. However, what she lacked physically and to an extent, socially, she made up for in the strategic realm. She had tons of moves she initiated and her options were limitless because she was able to concoct so many plans. Unfortunately, I think that was her downfall because she made plans with everyone in the game and when those people cross-analyzed, they realized she had outwitted them. Somehow she was able to sneak by week after week and it was impressive so to get better, I think she needs to improve her challenge performance and she needs to limit her strategic promises to less people so that there is a smaller chance that people realize they were promised the same thing.
John:
Physical-8
Social-9.5
Strategic-7.5
John was consistently a presence in challenges. He may not have taken home the gold, but he was always close to it. I’m sure if there was a more creative challenge, he could have come out on top. He came in 2nd and 3rd on numerous occasions and was definitely not sitting on the sidelines. Socially, I didn’t talk to John too much at the beginning of the merge, but as the game was coming to a close, he and I really got a lot closer and he was actually one of the more enjoyable people to talk to in this game. Also, he obviously seems to have had very tight bonds with a lot of other people in this game so he was set up there. Strategically, I think John only started to really shine near the end. He was very smart to never put a big target on himself by taking on a leadership role, but I think people saw him as Hali’s follower in the beginning as a result of that. However, when Hali left, he really proved to everyone that he was no follower and that he was a strong competitor who wanted to win this game.
Chelsea:
Physical-6.5
Social-8
Strategic-7
Chelsea was good at challenges for the first part of this game. However, once the merge got going, she seemed to fall back a lot in challenge placement and she became a non-threat in the physical area. Social-wise, I got to say, Chelsea is very underrated. She won the immunity challenge that was literally testing everyone’s social game. She may not have done the best job at talking to everyone, but she made super serious relationships with more than a couple people in this game. However, strategically, I think that is what hurt her the most. By taking the people who she had those close bonds with to the Final 4, the majority of the people on the jury are people who she didn’t have as good of a bond with. You have to put people on the jury who will vote for you rather than bring them with you into the finals because then they can’t vote for you. I know Chelsea is a gamer and knows how to play, but unfortunately, I think this one didn’t align to her benefit.
Francesca:
Physical-9.99
Social-6.5
Strategic-7
Physically, nuff said. Socially, Francesca was by no means the worst. She made an effort to talk to people and she didn’t sit back and wait for people to come to her. However, the part I think she needs to make sure she works on is that she definitely did alienate select people, particularly on the Jaruud tribe, and said not-so-nice things behind their backs which in my opinion is not a smart move because words can travel. A lot of the times when Fran initiated conversation with me, I always felt like the conversation was simply her gateway to talk about strategy with me thus never making it feel meaningful. I’m sure that is not the case with everyone, but it was definitely a challenge to feel like Fran actually cared about anything I was saying. Strategically, Fran was always running new scenarios through her head and I think that’s why people began to see her as a gamebot. It wasn’t necessarily a negative aspect, but it certainly made people perceive her as someone who always had a hidden agenda. Everything she did looked as if it was calculated out to be in her favor. However, it definitely showed to everyone that she was not a lazy player at all.
Brett:
Physical-7
Social-8
Strategic-7.5
I was by no means a physical threat, but with that said, I was not someone who didn’t give effort. It was definitely a big goal of mine to not stand out as overly impressive in challenges and at the same time, not be a burden to my tribe in challenges. I know that strong challenge threats are the people who are targeted at the merge and I did not want that target on my back. Socially, I was very strong in the beginning of the game. However, as the merge came around, I did dial it back a little bit because I knew that if I talked too much to everyone, people would start getting suspicious of where my true loyalty lied. Unfortunately, I think that I overcompensated for that especially in the Ciera vote which is definitely an aspect where I can improve. As far as strategy goes, I think I was doing a great job up until about the last 2 or 3 votes. I stayed under the radar while still having a big say in what happened. However, I think that if I was really smart, I would have turned on Chelsea before the FTC . In hindsight, even though she was my best ally, she was also my biggest hindrance. Everyone sees her and I as interconnected and can’t really differentiate our strategies from their own experiences. If I had voted her out, people would have been able to see me carrying out my strategy firsthand and really gotten to see me as the individual player I actually am and not just a half of a whole.

I think I would make for an iconic first winner because of the overarching journey it took for me to get here and because of the moral standard it would set for all future players. At the beginning of the game, I’m sure no one would have predicted me to even make the merge. I was inexperienced and I didn’t have many of the same personal interests that everybody else seemed to share. However, I was able to put all that aside and I adapted to everything thrown at me. I tried out various strategies; some worked, some didn’t, but that’s the beauty of giving it everything you’ve got. I persevered and showed I could overcome differences. I was basically an outcast personality-wise. I didn’t watch OITNB or Game of Thrones, I didn’t have a conventional job like half the cast does, and I didn’t have the ability to say I already graduated college like so many of you already have. If I win, it sets the tone for all the players who don’t fit in in their real lives. It will show people that the popular player with all the friends (Fran and all her supportive jurors) is not the only person who can prevail. It will show future players that the big fancy moves and having the best accessories (Fran’s immunity necklace) are not mandatory requirements for success. But most importantly, it will show everyone that anyone has the opportunity to win no matter how inexperienced or different you are.


Lastly, you said, “At one point, and I don't know how true this is, another contestant said that it would be terrible if you two were in the finale, out of respect for the game.” I feel it is only fair that I refute that statement with my comparative explanation of the first season of actual Survivor and the first season of 39 Days. I end this multi-faceted questionnaire with this:
If you look at Season 1 of the actual Survivor, Richard was not the most liked person by any means nor was he a super competitive beast in challenges. If you look at me, my game actually parallels his a lot. I was not the first person picked for a tribe and I wasn’t a super huge asset/threat in challenges. He didn’t really make big moves. He wasn’t even the first to come up with the alliance idea; he was just the first to actually have his alliance succeed just like I wasn’t the first to have an alliance, but mine with Chelsea succeeded. He had two allies who stuck by him through thick and thin (Sue and Rudy) similar to where I had Chelsea and Tyler. He was not the most outward of the three nor was I. Kelly (Fran in my case) was close to him, but she never did commit to his alliance. Kelly won a ton of challenges as did Fran, but at the end, it didn’t matter because the man who played the more under-the-radar game and aligned himself with bigger personalities won out. At the Final Three Immunity Challenge, Richard chose to eliminate himself early because he trusted both Kelly (Fran) and Rudy (John) to take him to the Final Two regardless of who won. I chose to eliminate myself early because I trusted both Fran and John to take me to the Final Three regardless of who won. As you can see, my game was very similar to Richard’s and to get to the moral of the comparison, Jeff has said on multiple occasions, “We thought the show would be a disaster now that Richard won. He wasn’t likable. People might think he’s a villain. He’s manipulative, playing people, playing on their emotions… we thought our dreams had vanquished. But it wasn’t a disaster at all. As it turns out, Richard winning became the very best thing that could have happened to the show, because of all the qualities we feared. The lesson from the first season of Survivor is that there’s no such thing as a good winner or a bad winner.” Richard’s win set that lesson as the tone for the future of Survivor and I hope to do the same with 39 Days. Thank you