I'm a real big fan of each one of these people--Jay and Jenn and Mike--and I totally think all 3 deserve their place in this final 3 and a chance to plead their cases at final tribal. And I think each person has a genuine claim to why they ought to be the winner and representative of this season.

Jay--Jay's definitely been one of the pleasant surprises for me this season, both as a player and as a character. His confessionals were always great to watch, a sort of bravado in the way he talks about his game. He brought the JUICE this season, and I can't imagine what the game looks like without him. Season 6 just feels like the season of Jay...he's been at the focal point of seemingly everything, particularly with this merge game.

To my mind, Jay has played the best and most affective strategic game. It seemed like he was a dead-man walking at so many points, and yet he always figured out a way to get his head off the chopping block. Would I vote for Jay to win if I had a vote in this final tribal? Absolutely. But I would understand the jury not voting for him on the back of how he's managed some of them? He's been more boisterous and cocky than Jenn or Mike, and juries just won't always reward the guy who's slitting their throats and running the show...though if the jury believes Jay didn't play a good game and didn't control shit, then I think they're mistaken here.

Additionally, I really appreciate Jay's comeback from a slow start to things. It reminded me of myself in season 5, taking some time to get my footing and not being much in the loop initially. The overall story of Jay in this game is super compelling and I hope the jury can see the full picture of his game. Jay's played an awesome game and I hope he gets rewarded for it.

Jenn--I forget who brought this up in the prod round table, but I think the difference between Jenn and Jay's game is indeed that Jenn didn't have to really play as hard pre-merge. She had her relationship with Kilby that protected her when some wanted her out...and while people like Joey and Harrison were playing the middle well and managing different alliances. But that's not to say Jenn did anything wrong pre-merge. She had a massive target on her back for being a Conquest winner, and to fly under the radar and do less was probably her best move and is the reason she was able to maneuver at merge.

The flip definitely switched for Jenn at merge, and she pretty much always had her finger on the pulse of the game. I'm not sure if people realized how in the know Jenn was, especially after Kilby left. Her social game was killer and it's the reason she had so many options and routes to ftc towards the end of the game. I think her timing was also really smart, and ultimately keeping Jay around probably benefitted her game a lot. And one could make the argument that Jenn had a bigger hand in keeping Jay in the game than the other way around. Though it was definitely a partnership.

Jenn deserves to win because she's played a super solid game, despite having a target on her back. Jay was a bit more visible in the game moves of this merge, but from a viewing perspective, I think Jenn was doing just as much behind the scenes. She was also super adaptable and just kept rolling with the punches all the way to final tribal. She also won some key challenges down the stretch.

I think sometimes you have to just go to the end with the people you've worked with and trusted versus getting GOATS there with you. Taking Jay to the end is obviously not ideal for Jenn's winning prospects, but I totally get the rationale behind just getting to FTC and having a chance to plead your case.

P.S. Jenn--if you win this game you should retire from ORGs. Stop while you're on top.

Mike--From start to finish I've been a Mike fan, and I'm really happy to see him at final tribal. I think a lot of us thought that at a certain point, going in the merge, that Mike was essentially a lock for final tribal. Though I don't think most of us would have said that Mike would have a real shot to win here...I mean, I probably did because I'm a loon...

Anyway, I think it's clear that Mike didn't "control" things in this game in the same way that Jenn or Jay did...but he still SURVIVED, was never really a target after the early stages, and pretty much always voted in the majority at merge. Conscious or not, I think Mike's strategy to use Jay and Kurtis as shields was brilliant...and to never really find yourself in danger throughout the merge is impressive no matter what.

A jury can reward someone with a vote to win for so many different reasons--strategy is only one of those elements. I think it's easy to overlook that it's a social game--Mike was (mostly) friendly with people and worked to make good bonds. And he's someone that people wrote off in this game, leaving him to be the likable underdog who now sits in the end. Plus the narrative writes itself. If Mike wins, I think it's partially due to people in the game overlooking how rootable a worst to first story can be.

And you know what, sometimes it just pays to be a nice guy. I would 100% support a Mike win for this season.

From the moment I heard what the theme and twists for the season were I was super excited, and I think it all worked out so well. Having two tribes playing "in-the-dark" was so refreshing. One of my biggest gripes with open-id games is pre-game connections and people knowing each other inside the ORG community--only knowing who is on your tribe forces you to focus on the people on your tribe and not worry about your potential friend or ally on the other side. I think we pretty much saw it work out that way this season. Yea, people speculated often about who was who based on the silouhettes but really impacted gameplay much, if at all.

I personally thought this season would favor newbies, who just don't have the connections like others in the community, yet we saw a lot of new-ish people go out early...though I think that was more due to just inexperience and some mis-steps elsewhere.

Related to the "in the dark" twist, I loved that there was no swap and that we got to see dynamics shake out and shift on Vecher and Utren...more so Vecher with all their twists and turns. I feel like people have hard-ons for swaps and that they're such a necessity for Survivor games; but, at this point I think no-swap is the real twist. Everyone is playing for the swap and I think it's a lot more interesting to see how original tribes play out for longer. Even on Utren, I think we saw a lot of tension build and build and build leading up to an unpredictable Sarena boot.
Plus, even without tribe swaps we got nothing close to a pagonging. The game was FLUID.

Additionally, I thought blinding light and the way idol clues were distributed brought a lot of intrigue to the season and made for some *drama* and fun gameplay...particularly the round where the Vecher majority (Adrianne/Dustin/Alex/Jay) decided to randomize who would get blinding light and it ended up giving it to Adrianne and Dustin for a consecutive round, which followed by people going rogue to make sure Dustin/Adrianne didn't get blinding light.

It was unfortunate that the first merge twist resulted in Queen Adrianne getting booted, but it was a twist that people knew about and could play around that round...Vecher just kinda misplayed things a bit, and the craziness from their pre-merge seemed to catch up with them.

And Samm pulling off the silouhettes during tribal instead of reading the votes was adorable and I loved it. A FRESH approach to things!

If there was anything I could change about this season it would be some of my absolute faves making the merge and not going out so early.

Rob is easily my favorite character of the entire season. I could go on and on, but he's just awesome. And I truly hope to see Rob in some game somewhere b/c the ORG community is better with him in it.

I know Jacob sort of fell flat, but I'd love to see him play some other game too. I think if he can learn from his mistakes and also just put more time into one of these things he'd be an electric player to watch.
Same goes for Anders...he could be a star in any ORG he plays...and I think things only go up for him after this experience.

Adrianne is just a Queen. End of story. We were so robbed of her not being on the jury.

Kilby caught a lot of flack from the VL this season, but he was such a necessary component to this season. He was the perfect heel character and made the pre-merge on Utren fun to watch.

Jayden is probably the #1 person I want to see play Endure again. He's so f'ing smart and could win any season that he's put in especiallyw ith some experience under his belt now. And he's enthusiasm for the game was simply great.

Gibby was another huge surprise. He far out-did my expectations for him, both as a player and character. And I think he showed a really fun side of him that I'd like to see again...but like, just not in any game I'm in.

I also really love Joey and Harrison and hope they're proud of how they played and making it to the finale is a great accomplishment.