FF Big Brother 9: Swoosh wins!!

[MacReady]

7 hours ago, ET80 said:

@Outpost31, @swoosh...

If you win:

- Will you play in BB X?

- How will you change your strategy?

If you lose:

- Will you play in BB X?

- How will you change your strategy?

If I win, I will retire from Big Brother the same way I retired from football after the NFC Championship game.  This means of course that yes, I will play again if I win. 

My strategy will go immediately to helping those I want to see win.  Stacking the jury box.  So... My exact same strategy I used here.  I never expected to get to this point.  I didn't think it was possible for a player to go from winning BB to winning Survivor or vice versa.  Looking at all the BB winner curses.  Whicker straight up quit.  Finn essentially quit Survivor.  Then they're always an obvious target... So making it this far is an awesome achievement on its own.  But since I never just resign myself to my fate, I will have to make a considerably large alliance.  I'm thinking a 5 player alliance.  This will be to ensure I get to the jury portion because after the run I just had where it was win every challenge or you're out, nobody is going to let me sniff the jury next year if I don't have big numbers.  I'll lull them into a false sense of security by specifically and intentionally not winning any challenges up to the jury portion. 

If I lose... That one's even less likely for me to play.  This is like football.  I always say I can survive as many NFC Championship losses for the Packers as it takes, but I could never survive a Super Bowl loss.  To get so close and come up short would be a brutal killer, and I might not be the full me.  Not trying to get pity points here, just being honest.  I don't know what else I could do to get a win.  I stuck to my strategy to a T.  Not just my strategy for this game, but my principles and beliefs in winning Big Brother.

-Don't screw over the jury.
-Have a strong competition record.
-Remain cordial and conversational with everyone.

I don't feel as if I have any glaring weakness to my game this time.  I won 8 challenges.  I didn't betray a single member of the jury.  I had conversations with every member of the jury throughout the game.  The only players I ignored (Daboyle/Josh) went 1/2 right before the jury. 

So would I play if I lose here?  Probably.  I'm a glutton for punishment.  But if you ask how my strategy would change I couldn't tell you.  I wouldn't even know where to begin on changing my strategy.  Maybe I'd go full heel and try to purposefully betray as many people as I could. 

[swoosh]

2 hours ago, Outpost31 said:

Psh.  Can't name any threats.  Must be nice.

I had Finn after me at the start of the game because I made fun of his tummy.

I had Jason, ET, Finn going against me because my alliance of Orca and Pickle wouldn't nominate me and instead made enemies.

I had BCB against me because I called him out for his strategy and told him I was coming after him while you just said so behind the scenes.

I had Josh and Daboyle after me because of how I eliminated them in Survivor and because I admitted my strategy from the beginning. 

I had Gopher, Shady and Ted after me because they wanted to get rid of me as soon as we hit the jury portion.

And I had Jason after me because Dwight and I tried to win an HoH and he took offense to that. 

Also, @Dwight_Schrute, I am calling baloney on Swoosh's strategy of attacking support systems. 

Throughout the entire jury portion he was commiserating on how Ted and Shady got his people into the jury portion and he missed out on getting Daboyle/Josh into the jury portion. 

So going back...

TLO - I got rid of him because he would hold up the game.
Nazgul - This was Shady's baby.  Shady led the charge to get Nazgul out. 
Mission - Me again.  Very quietly me.  I very subtly suggested to Pickle that he would have to put someone up on the block that wouldn't make him another enemy.  Knowing the full time that I would be safer with the ET/FINN/JASON alliance than I would be with the Shady/Ted/Mission alliance (I already had reason to suspect Gopher was with the Shady alliance), I got Mission put up and I got Mission voted out.  So far, I've crumbled more support systems than Swoosh.
BCB- This was the one vote that Swoosh could claim credit for.  At the same time, I helped him because I also wanted BCB gone.  This had nothing to do with a support system. 
Finn - I had full control on this one.  ET and I both knew that if I took him off the block, Finn would escape.  I won veto here, kept nominations the same, Finn went home, I sucked ET in and got him away from Finn.
Pickle - This one he tried to get me out.  He failed. 
Josh - All me.
Daboyle - Don't know how he could claim credit for this as taking away a support system when he told me that Daboyle was part of his.
ET80 - This wasn't his idea.  It was Shady's and Ted's idea. 
Dwight - Again, I don't know how he can say he was attacking my support system.  I was up against you here.  Why attack my support system when you can instead just vote me out? 
Gopher - My baby.  Went after Gopher from the very beginning this cycle.  The plan was ALWAYS to get rid of Gopher.  This one was all me.
Orca - This was just a flat betrayal/lie and had nothing to do with destroying a support system, but maintaining his own.

So I don't see anywhere in any eviction where Swoosh could possibly have taken agency in having a strategy of destroying support systems.  It doesn't add up.  He's great at plotting, but he wasn't a puppetmaster this game. 

Threats to win the game. Dwight asked if I only survived because there were bigger fish to fry. Are any of those guys bigger fish to fry? It probably depends on who you ask. I proved in Survivor I was a threat, so I don't buy it one bit. You need some degree of luck to avoid the block, but you don't just avoid the block by not being a threat.

Also, to this: 

"I am calling baloney on Swoosh's strategy of attacking support systems. 

Throughout the entire jury portion he was commiserating on how Ted and Shady got his people into the jury portion and he missed out on getting Daboyle/Josh into the jury portion."

I'm calling baloney on your baloney. Don't be slimy. The examples of taking out support systems were after Daboyle/Josh got evicted. That was when I said I had to adapt. Gopher for Shady. Dwight for you. I've already also acknowledged that I missed out on getting Daboyle/Josh to jury and that was one thing I regretted - jury management with getting "my guys" there. Please don't say I'm lying. I don't like that.

[swoosh]

2 hours ago, Outpost31 said:

You just confirmed what you were thinking.  As soon as you realized it couldn't be me, you knew you were voting Orca out.

It was literally only me, you, Jason, Ted, Shady and Orca left.  So if you were voting anyone out but Shady/Ted, you knew immediately that you were voting Orca out. 

So you lied to me and Jason about putting Orca up by saying you were afraid Orca would vote you out instead of Shady when you knew damn well you were going to vote Orca out. 

Yes, as soon as as I realized it couldn't be you (meaning it was either me or Orca), I knew it would be Orca going out. But that's not the same as knowing or wanting Orca out all around. That's reaching big time. Orca was a last resort. 

[swoosh]

8 hours ago, TedLavie said:

@swoosh I would appreciate the same breakdown vote by vote Outpost did. Very insightful 

 

You got it. Going to get shot #2 right now but will provide my thoughts/reasoning behind my votes today.

[MacReady]

14 minutes ago, swoosh said:

I'm calling baloney on your baloney. Don't be slimy. The examples of taking out support systems were after Daboyle/Josh got evicted. That was when I said I had to adapt. Gopher for Shady. Dwight for you. I've already also acknowledged that I missed out on getting Daboyle/Josh to jury and that was one thing I regretted - jury management with getting "my guys" there. Please don't say I'm lying. I don't like that.

And that’s fair for sure.  I’m not trying to be slimy or call you a liar.   

I’m just countering and saying that it seems more like you’re trying to fit what happened to a strategy rather than it having been a calculated strategy.  The support system argument, to me, doesn’t hold up.  For reasons I already addressed on every eviction, but on the Dwight/Gopher evictions especially.

Eliminating Gopher from Shady wasn’t your brainchild.  It was my goal from the start.  So on that one I feel like you’re trying to piggyback off my accomplishment.

The Dwight thing I’ll grant you because that was your vote, but it doesn’t fit as far as getting rid of my support system because I was on the block next to him.  Do you see what I’m saying there?  If you don’t get rid of him there you get rid of me, so it was really more like a fortunate thing rather than your plan because I was the target there.

Edited May 10, 2021 by Outpost31

[MacReady]

8 minutes ago, swoosh said:

Yes, as soon as as I realized it couldn't be you (meaning it was either me or Orca), I knew it would be Orca going out. But that's not the same as knowing or wanting Orca out all around. That's reaching big time. Orca was a last resort. 

And that’s what I’m saying.  Maybe I’m missing something in semantics, but it seemed to me you were trying to say Orca wasn’t who you planned on getting rid of at that point when that can’t possibly be the case.

Once the veto was used, you knew you were voting out Orca.  It seems to me like you’re trying to say you didn’t know you would be voting out Orca as soon as you decided you had to get him on the block, and we both know that’s not the case.

[ET80]

54 minutes ago, swoosh said:

You got it. Going to get shot #2 right now but will provide my thoughts/reasoning behind my votes today.

Holy moly, it's 10:45am CST... Sorta early to be knocking back shots, right? 

Tequila? Vodka? Or one of those kidney busters with Red Bull in it?

[swoosh]

1 hour ago, ET80 said:

Holy moly, it's 10:45am CST... Sorta early to be knocking back shots, right? 

Tequila? Vodka? Or one of those kidney busters with Red Bull in it?

I wish it was that kind of shot. I knocked back the Pfizer shot. 

[swoosh]

2 hours ago, Outpost31 said:

And that’s what I’m saying.  Maybe I’m missing something in semantics, but it seemed to me you were trying to say Orca wasn’t who you planned on getting rid of at that point when that can’t possibly be the case.

Once the veto was used, you knew you were voting out Orca.  It seems to me like you’re trying to say you didn’t know you would be voting out Orca as soon as you decided you had to get him on the block, and we both know that’s not the case.

You said it was my plan "all along". That's not true. My initial plan was going to suggest to Jason to put you up and then vote you out. That's when I learned that you and Jason were working together. If I suggested to him that he put you up, I thought it was very likely he would put me up instead and vote me out. Therefore Orca was literally my only choice. If you're saying I knew I'd be voting out Orca once it was Shady/Orca on the block, that's true. I even told Orca that, so I'm not sure what you're getting at with that. It was just an unfortunate set of events with Jason winning HoH, Jason putting both Ted and Shady up (I suggested you, Shady, Ted thinking he would put you and one of Ted/Shady), and then learning you and Jason were working with each other. The situation I was put into was either me or Orca.

[ET80]

13 minutes ago, swoosh said:

I wish it was that kind of shot. I knocked back the Pfizer shot. 

Ah, yeah... That shot. I'm a Pfizer guy myself. 

[swoosh]

2 hours ago, Outpost31 said:

And that’s fair for sure.  I’m not trying to be slimy or call you a liar.   

I’m just countering and saying that it seems more like you’re trying to fit what happened to a strategy rather than it having been a calculated strategy.  The support system argument, to me, doesn’t hold up.  For reasons I already addressed on every eviction, but on the Dwight/Gopher evictions especially.

Eliminating Gopher from Shady wasn’t your brainchild.  It was my goal from the start.  So on that one I feel like you’re trying to piggyback off my accomplishment.

The Dwight thing I’ll grant you because that was your vote, but it doesn’t fit as far as getting rid of my support system because I was on the block next to him.  Do you see what I’m saying there?  If you don’t get rid of him there you get rid of me, so it was really more like a fortunate thing rather than your plan because I was the target there.

Trying to piggyback off your accomplishments? You act like I came into this game with no strategy at all, never came up with a strategy along the way, and just floated to the end because their were biggest fish to fry. And now I'm just making everything up here. I don't get it. My strategy isn't some elaborate scheme. It's rather simple. I claimed my strategy was to come in here and focus on a social game centered around a few close alliances. I wanted to focus on not overcommitting and being able to adapt. Not only does it work for me (I don't want to have to message literally everyone in the game), it just seems more genuine to me. That was my strategy. Keep it compact. Also helps when you inevitably have to adapt. It couldn't hurt me if my alliances all got burned early, but I felt really good about my final 3 with Shady/Ted and figured the twins would make it pretty far as well (they always seem to have people coming after them which is for a different day, so I personally didn't think they would make it as far as Shady/Ted). It was only after the Pickle/Josh/Daboyle evictions that it became a strategy to take out people's support systems. I don't know why that's so hard to believe.

Everything I've said is the truth. If I were going to make up strategies, I would come in and claim I threw challenges because truth be told, there were plenty of times where it made sense to throw challenges. But that just seems lame. I'm not going to throw a challenge in an internet forum game. I've answered everything I've been asked truthfully. I have nothing to hide. 

Whether or not you wanted gopher gone doesn't change the fact that I also wanted him gone. Shady and Ted both can verify it was well known in our group that Shady was tight with Gopher. I knew what I had to do there. Two people can want someone gone for different reasons. But I'm not piggybacking on your accomplishments by any stretch of the imagination. 

Edited May 10, 2021 by swoosh

[swoosh]

7 minutes ago, ET80 said:

Ah, yeah... That shot. I'm a Pfizer guy myself. 

Poked with the same chip. Love it. 

[MacReady]

27 minutes ago, swoosh said:

You said it was my plan "all along". That's not true. My initial plan was going to suggest to Jason to put you up and then vote you out. That's when I learned that you and Jason were working together. If I suggested to him that he put you up, I thought it was very likely he would put me up instead and vote me out. Therefore Orca was literally my only choice. If you're saying I knew I'd be voting out Orca once it was Shady/Orca on the block, that's true. I even told Orca that, so I'm not sure what you're getting at with that. It was just an unfortunate set of events with Jason winning HoH, Jason putting both Ted and Shady up (I suggested you, Shady, Ted thinking he would put you and one of Ted/Shady), and then learning you and Jason were working with each other. The situation I was put into was either me or Orca.

Look back on this whole conversation and my responses.  This is fair.  It seemed like you were trying to argue this wasn’t the case.  We’re not arguing anything here and it got confused somewhere along the way.

[MacReady]

14 minutes ago, swoosh said:

Trying to piggyback off your accomplishments? You act like I came into this game with no strategy at all, never came up with a strategy along the way, and just floated to the end because their were biggest fish to fry. And now I'm just making everything up here. I don't get it. My strategy isn't some elaborate scheme. It's rather simple. I claimed my strategy was to come in here and focus on a social game centered around a few close alliances. I wanted to focus on not overcommitting and being able to adapt. Not only does it work for me (I don't want to have to message literally everyone in the game), it just seems more genuine to me. That was my strategy. Keep it compact. Also helps when you inevitably have to adapt. It couldn't hurt me if my alliances all got burned early, but I felt really good about my final 3 with Shady/Ted and figured the twins would make it pretty far as well (they always seem to have people coming after them which is for a different day, so I personally didn't think they would make it as far as Shady/Ted). It was only after the Pickle/Josh/Daboyle evictions that it became a strategy to take out people's support systems. I don't know why that's so hard to believe.

Everything I've said is the truth. If I were going to make up strategies, I would come in and claim I threw challenges because truth be told, there were plenty of times where it made sense to throw challenges. But that just seems lame. I'm not going to throw a challenge in an internet forum game. I've answered everything I've been asked truthfully. I have nothing to hide. 

Whether or not you wanted gopher gone doesn't change the fact that I also wanted him gone. Shady and Ted both can verify it was well known in our group that Shady was tight with Gopher. I knew what I had to do there. Two people can want someone gone for different reasons. But I'm not piggybacking on your accomplishments by any stretch of the imagination. 

I guess my point is that though it may have been a goal of yours, you took little if any agency in getting it done.

Essentially saying that Gopher/Dwight leaving were gifts from others.

The Gopher one makes sense that it’s what you wanted.  I made it happen because it was my goal, too.

The Dwight one I would still argue.  I thinks it’s disingenuous to suggest you were trying to get rid of my support system when I was more aligned with Orca at the time than Dwight, and you can’t say you were taking away my support system when I leave if you don’t do that, so it was more like keeping a support system for you (in me) than eliminating my support system.

 

[swoosh]

HOH 1 winner: Orca

noms: TLO and ET80

veto 1 winner: bcb

veto ceremony: bcb saves et80. orca nominates Finn

final noms: tlo and Finn

Evicted: TLO 8- 7

special update: Matts was evicted/banned.

Vote: Fin

Reasoning: Coin flip tbh. TLO is always inactive and fin is inactive 90% of the time. Impartial. 

 

HOH 2 winner: Shady

Nominations: Dwight and Nazgul

veto 2 winner: outpost

veto ceremony: outpost saves Dwight. Shady noms bcb

final noms: Nazgul and bcb

evicted: Nazgul 10-3

Vote: Naz

Reasoning: I wanted to go bcb here, but it was Shady's HoH, and Naz going was fine too. It was more important for me to show Shady some love early in the game than look to fill some personal need. Classic example of knowing when it is appropriate to push and when to sit back. I did ask Shady/Ted that the next time we had a chance at bcb, we would take it, and they agreed. 

 

HOH 3 Winner: Pickle Rick

Nominations: Finn and ET80

Veto winner: Jason

veto ceremony: Jason saves Finn. Pickle noms mission

orca wins Pendant of production. cannot be nominated this or next cycle.

final nominations: et80 and mission

evicted: mission 7-5

Vote: ET

Reasoning: If you don't know already, I'm very rarely going to vote mission out just because. We're two of the best looking dudes in the house. Brothers. ET is a good dude though. More on that later. 

 

HOH 4 Winner: Finn

Nominations:  pickle and bcb

veto winner: daboyle

veto ceremony:  daboyle saves pickle. finn noms josh

final noms: bcb and josh

evicted: bcb 10-1

Vote: bcb

Reasoning: I wasn't even working with Josh yet, but this was a no brainer. I pushed hard here for obvious reasons. I needed some revenge after being bent over the barrel and shown the 50 states in Survivor. 

 

HOH 5 Winner: Orca

Nominations: Finn and ET80

veto winner: outpost

veto ceremony: outpost doesnt use it

Final noms: Finn and ET80

Evicted: Finn 8-2

Vote: Fin

Reasoning: I didn't care too much either way and there was absolutely no reason to push one way or the other. It was early in the game and I wasn't working with either of them. 

 

HOH 6 winner: jason

nominations: outpost and dwight

veto winner: Dwight

veto ceremony: dwight saves himself. jason noms pickle

final noms: outpost and pickle

evicted: pickle 5-4

Vote: Outpost

Reasoning: This was my second major push, but this time it failed. I wanted Outpost out here. I knew where all the votes were going to be and suggested to Shady and Ted that we keep it close. They both agreed. I told them I was voting out Pickle and Ted was supposed to vote out Outpost. I really had my vote in for Outpost, so if Ted followed through, Outpost would go home by a vote of 5-4. Ted (rightfully) decided to play it safe and switched his vote to Pickle a couple of hours before the vote, and that sealed Pickle's fate. The only time I lied to Ted/Shady. 

 

HOH 7 Winner: Outpost

noms: josh and gopher

veto winner: gopher. 

veto ceremony: gopher saves himself. outpost nominates shady

final noms: josh and shady

evicted: josh 7-1

Vote: Josh

Reasoning: With Pickle being eliminated, this is when I set up an alliance with Josh and Daboyle. I would have loved to send gopher packing here, but he won the veto and Shady was picked up. I wasn't going to vote out Shady so this was a no brainer. I was upfront with Daboyle about it and figured by telling him the truth ahead of time, I could salvage the alliance. There was some benefit to this, as Daboyle would be stuck on an island without Josh, but this wasn't the intention of that. I only voted out Josh cause he was against Shady.

 

HOH 8 Winner: Dwight

noms: daboyle and orca

veto winner: outpost

veto ceremony: outpost saves orca. dwight noms jason

final noms: daboyle and jason

evicted: daboyle 4-3

Vote: Jason

Reasoning: I wanted Jason gone for obvious reasons (newly formed alliance above), but the Jason/Outpost "rift" actually worked to Jason's advantage. People wanted to keep Jason and Outpost in the game because they'd keep going after each other first.

 

HOH 9 Winner: Outpost

nominated: jason and ted

veto winner: gopher

veto ceremony: gopher saves ted. outpost noms et80

final noms: jason and et80

Evicted: ET80 5-1

Vote: ET

Reasoning: This was the weekend I was out of town for. I came back and got my vote in a couple of hours before votes were due. I made a little bit of an effort to keep ET, but backed off. I had talked to Jason far more than ET, but I felt really good about ET in a few short conversations I had with him leading up to this. I sensed Jason was just talking to everyone and I didn't know where I would ultimately stand with him. While I hadn't talked to ET much, I sensed there was an opportunity to get close. The consensus seemed to be the house wanted to keep Jason around because of the shield the Jason/Outpost "rift" created and ultimately decided to stay in line here. Wasn't worth pushing. 

 

HOH 10 Winner: Ted

nominated: Outpost and Dwight

veto winner: gopher

veto ceremony: Gopher doesnt use it

final noms: outpost and dwight

evicted: Dwight 3-2

Vote: Dwight

Reasoning: This one has been talked about a good amount. I just lost Pickle, Josh, and Daboyle, and only had a few close allies left. I had talked to Outpost far more than Dwight and felt there was an opportunity to get close to Outpost here. At this stage in the game, I knew I needed Jason and Gopher gone, and from my conversations with Outpost, felt that he wanted them gone as well. I knew Outpost wanted Ted gone as well, but that was a risk I had to take. 

 

HOH 11 winner: Outpost

nominated: ted and shady

veto winner: Swoosh

veto ceremony: Swoosh saves ted. outpost nominates gopher.

final noms: shady and gopher

evicted: gopher 3-1

Vote: gopher 

Reasoning: Had no choice here because gopher was going up against shady, but I wanted gopher gone so it worked out well. We were getting down to the nitty gritty and gopher had to go. Before this, Shady was positioned like a champ. He had our final 3, he was extremely close with Gopher, and I knew he was also talking with Outpost (you don't touch me, I don't touch you) and Jason. Also with Orca to a degree, but he felt he burned that bridge when he voted out Pickle earlier. I considered Shady the strong favorite at this stage. I even had conversations with Outpost saying how good Shady was doing around this time. I could never backstab him, but I had no issues with going after someone I knew he was close with. Gopher took precendee because not only was he the closest with Shady, but I shared some of Shady's other allies. That wasn't the case with Gopher. I talked to him once or twice all game. 

 

HOH 12 Winner: Jason

nominated: ted and shady

veto winner: ted

veto ceremony: ted removes himself. jason nominates orca.

final noms: shady and orca

evicted: orca 2-1

Vote: Orca 

Reasoning: We've discussed this a good amount, so let me know if you have any further questions on it. Orca was a last resort when it couldn't be Jason (HoH winner) or Outpost (close with Jason). 

 

HOH 13 winner: Ted

nominated: jason and outpost

veto winner: ted

veto ceremony: ted doesnt use it

final noms: jason and outpost

evicted: jason 2-0

Vote: Jason

Reasoning: Outpost gets saved just because he didn't go around cussing people out in thread. Shady and I agreed we would vote with our hearts and not our heads with this one just because it felt like the right thing to do morally. Outpost was by far the bigger threat with his resume. I feel Outpost likes to ignore this. He can say whatever he wants about his game and it's true, it was a damn good one, but he's only sitting here because Jason did what he did. We had his life in our hands. Ted would've voted out Outpost. Outpost isn't sitting here if Jason doesn't cross the line.