~Ronald Weasley's Opening Statement~

Hello Jury!

I came into this game as a boy………………



But I am leaving as a man………………




Okay no. For realz:
First, I will say I have loved getting to know everyone here as much as I could in an alias formatted game. I have loved that aspect of this the most and it is the best part of a game like this to me. I think I have had the chance to laugh with every jury member at some point and it has made this an enjoyable journey.
I joined this game after a long hiatus and was not expecting to do very well. I am happy to have surprised myself in getting here in the end. I feel like I have made it this far due to my strategy of a consistent strong social game. I do not rely on challenges, or items, or prizes, etc. I rely on my social ability as a player and to make people feel like they can 1) trust me 2) need me in some way over someone else in the game. I feel like that aspect of a strong social game can get anyone far in the game if done well. I feel like with that as my specific strong point I was able to do just that.
I did not want to make this opening statement too long and will welcome any questions the jurors have. I will get into specifics as needed, but just want to highlight my greatest accomplishments in this game:

1.) Having 0 votes casted against me this entire game by anyone.
2.) Having a social bond and relationship, to some degree, with everyone on the jury/getting to know everyone
3.) The Lockhart elimination was also a huge point in my game that turned some tables. I was waiting awhile for Pomfrey/Fred to come around to working with me. I didn’t want to wait any longer; Maxime wanting Fred out//Mira wanting Pomfrey out—I brought up the idea for Lockhart to go (outing a chat he made earlier in the vote day) and save the 2 allies for me as the game would continue. I feel like this move alone advanced me into a much safer middle merge/end merge. So, I am considering this a third accomplishment for me.

Again, I expect questions that will get more specific so I won’t go into a detailed round by round summary—but feel free to ask for one if needed from me. :P I do not mind writing a paragraph for each round on what I was ultimately thinking/doing. Just do not want to overwhelm.

Thanks, and good luck with your choices.

Welp. I think I was the odd man out when creating an opening statement and not going through each round of gameplay.

So, let’s do that for the ones that casually like to read. =)

I will start my second part of this opening statement as: I did not want this final 3.

I had many “close allies” in this game. I think the closest would be Pomfrey. I bonded with her so much at the start of the game, I was shouting to the black goddess above when she never ended up back in my tribe pre-merge. I never thought I was going to get to work with her again. I had other strong bonds with Draco/Fred and thought the same. Cormac is someone I was able to stay close with initially in pre-merge through the Rita vote but then we got separated. My point is, my social game was glossed over many allies and figures of trust. So much that even though I came into this merge game as a ‘minority’, I was not the ‘minority’. I had strong allies that had a need for me. This goes into the point #2 above. The point of: People having a need for me to stay in this game over other people, ie. Newt, ie. Mirabella ie. Draco, Pomfrey/Fred/Cormac (in my eyes) would not have wanted me to get 12th place. They weren’t done with me yet. That is because of my bond with them.

Furthermore, As much as I had these allies of trust. I still worked on the people I did not know. Relationships like Amos and Lily(people I voted for in the pre-merge) I still socialized with them, bonded. SO much so that this got Lily wanting me to stay over Draco(preventing me from getting votes later in the merge). I bonded with Angelina, gave her the items that Mirabella was giving me to try and have Angelina vs Mira on who would find the Slytherin idol. Bonding with Angelina to keep her off my back until Pomfrey/Fred/I were able to take her out.

The ultimate plan was for Mirabella to get 6th place. I ideally wanted to get Cormac/Draco in the end with me. I wanted to somehow make that happen. The shocker that occurred was Final 6 Cormac/Draco became scary to me. More so Draco, he had more of a strategy then I had seen in awhile and I expressed to Pomfrey the distrust in that—the thought of Draco/Cormac approaching Fred for a final 3, Pomfrey/Me getting 4th and 5th. Therefore, Cormac getting 6th seemed the best thing to do. Going further into that, Final 5: Mira would have left. Which is the reason I did not enter that tribal wanting to vote for Fred. Final 4: Again, Mira would have left without immunity. My back up plan: Fred/Pomfrey/Ron final 3, or a Pomfrey/Draco/Me final 3

Final 6 I had the following alliances: Fred/Pomfrey/Ron, Draco/Mira/Ron, Cormac/Draco/Ron, Pomfrey/Me were also talking a lot wirth Cormac for that to be a potential. Mira/Pomfrey/Me was also a potential. I was guaranteeing myself F3 no matter what due to social game.

Hope that explains that round a bit more and highlights more of my social game. I feel like it was well shown, but maybe it was hidden more then I realize.