hello lovely members of the jury. it's the effervescent and always charming debbie mccoolguy! i'm gonna try and keep this short because i know that nobody wants a snoozefest novella to read for an opening statement when all you truly care about is the answers to your questions. so! here we go!

this game wasn't always the most exciting, and the premerge was catastrophically weak at best. but it really has come full circle for me from that super enjoyable day one where everyone was active and talkative to the last few rounds where i had heaps of fun. i started this game with one goal: to have as much fun as i could. i was playing as a hilariously ott character and i wanted to be as true to the spirit of mother debbie as possible. i know that somewhere in the middle there i faltered, and i'm sure i'll be getting shit for my distance and waywardness. but i feel like, in the end, i've played a very strong game.

when ib picked me first for his tribe, i was initially disappointed that i couldn't be on nick's tribe, but i ended up telling ib verbatim who i wanted on our tribe and he picked who i told him one, by one, by one, by one. once in our tribes, the Death Team alliance formed almost organically. the first four people on Ifbith just gelled, and although we looked for a fifth member and kept our options open, we ultimately stayed as a foursome that controlled every Ifbith vote. the outsiders of the alliance all thought there was a "boys club" of sorts, and included me in their talks of taking one of them out, not knowing i was never with them and was with the boys club all along. this set me up to never be in danger preswap. once the swap hit, i was lucky that fabio was inactive and Chikorita never went to tribal council.

at the merge, i took a backseat and let the "big players" come after each other... but that didn't even really happen. it was mostly a game of do what nick or misty want, but i was always on the right side of the numbers after the chris vote, and i was included in like 14 different alliances that were formed at various parts of the merge.

by the f6, i took fate into my own hands. i took a huge risk and it paid off - and sure, i may have lost Nick's jury vote with it, but nobody else had pulled off a move quite like that. i took another huge risk at f4 in tying the vote to save misty. i wanted to assure that no matter what i had a spot in final tribal, and i knew that with jenn and jerry as my f3 partners i didn't have as great of a chance as against misty and jerry who were always going to take each other out no matter what. and i did just what i set out to do in those last few rounds, and here i am.

i am happy with the game i ended up playing. was it the game i planned on playing? no, but there's nothing wrong with that and i'm actually quite glad i let things happen the way they did. i took risks, i made moves, and i was almost always safe regardless of my lack of challenge prowess.

this was longer than intended, OOPS! i'll end it here by saying i cannot wait for the jury's questions. thanks yul and LJ for being so shitty and giving us the worst FIC ever but also thanks for hosting this game. i had a ball. good luck jerry!!