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| Paul's FTC | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 15 2018, 02:54 PM (870 Views) | |
| Tom Colicchio | Mar 15 2018, 02:54 PM Post #1 |
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This thread is for Paul's FTC. Paul has from 17:30 EDT until 18:30 EDT on March 15th to post an opening statement. At this time, the Jury will have access to the thread and be able to ask questions. The thread will close again at 18:30 EDT on Friday, March 16th. The Jury have until 18:00 EDT on Saturday, March 17th to vote. Edited by Tom Colicchio, Mar 15 2018, 02:54 PM.
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| Tom Colicchio | Mar 15 2018, 04:30 PM Post #2 |
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You now may post your opening statement. Please do not post more than your opening statement, and don't edit it other than to correct grammar or problematic tags. At 18:30 EDT jurors will gain access and may begin to ask questions. Do not post in your other finalist's threads, but you may quote and refer to answers from the other threads in your own. |
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| Paul Abrahamian | Mar 15 2018, 04:42 PM Post #3 |
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What’s up everybody? Super proud to be here. I had a great time. I don't think I played some evil mastermind, pulling all the strings, dominating game. I played a simple, aware game with some key elements. I absolutely fucking love and respect the two people I'm here with. I'd prefer to win, obviously, but I think both my competitors played with grace, and I consider them friends who totally rocked; I'm happy with any winner. With that said, here is my pitch... ![]() To me, the secret of this game is: never pushing too weak, and never pushing too hard. It’s a game about timing. For example, Courtney pushed too hard, and got voted out for it. It sucked! I knew she was safe during the Matthew vote. I knew Matthew was going. But she pushed a little too hard, a little too early and made herself into a threat that was unsaveable. I would have loved to do push hard for Courtney to stay, but if I had, I would have come 6th. Many people in this game pushed too hard at the wrong time. I kept my allies hidden so people had a difficult time deciphering who I was truly loyal to, and I was aware of what was happening at every moment in time. I had ears everywhere. Whether it was through Gear, Courtney, Chum, PG, I always had a pulse on the happenings of the game. Like, I loved Courtney. And no one ever knew we were allies. From like…Day 2, she was my number one. People didn’t realize that, and she would tell me things that were happening that people wanted to exclude me from. And she wasn’t the only one. Gear told me everything. Jared told me everything, Chum told me lots, etc. ![]() Matthew never was in my plans. He proved repeatedly that he wasn’t trustworthy. Early on, I made it a clear directive to get rid of him. Every time anyone asked me who was a threat, a leader, most likely to win, I always said Matthew. I hyped him up well beyond his power in this game. So, while at the end of the day his vote was “Courtney’s move”, it was built on a game context of me overhyping him, making small moves to get my way. Information is the strongest weapon in this game, and it always will be. If I know you’re coming for me, it’s easy to fight back. It’s easy to win a war if only one side knows it’s a battle. Matthew pushed too hard to get rid of Katharine early on, but more importantly, pushed too hard to get rid of me. He didn’t know that I knew he was gunning for me. Gear leaked to me that Matthew was preparing to vote me out at the final 8. So I knew I had to win immunity. I knew the combination of me being immune, and him pushing too hard would guarantee he left. I was right. I always pushed things in a general direction, and then let it snowball from there. ![]() I had clear targets in this game. From early on, I made it clear to several people that I wanted Matthew out. I never trusted him. He was a squeaky wheel, and always was. Early on, I did a test where I would tell people information, checked if that spread around the tribe. Gear, Courtney, Jared were trustworthy. They told me when people told them things but didn’t spread my information. Matthew...did not. Someone I trusted would tell me a piece of information, and soon after Matthew would tell me something that contradicted that. I knew he was lying any time he lied to me. ![]() I was never once surprised, or worried at a tribal council. I voted in the majority every single time except once (Courtney’s boot), and even there I managed to leverage that into power. I voted against the majority to keep my friend and was aware enough of the plan throw a target on PG’s back (who voted Courtney out). People thought I voted out Courtney, I didn’t, and I turned that into power in this game. I was immediately invited to a final 4 with Chum/Martin/Gear by Chum, after I just voted against him! I also left that vote with Jared who was 100% with me because he knew I voted with him. It gave me options, and security. I think that was my best move of the game. But overall I think my play was about whispering in people’s ears to sow dissention. In my eyes, Survivor is about the foundations you make early on to build (or let others build onto) later. Basically, I was constantly aware of the happenings of this game, and I was unabashedly myself. I shit-talked Matthew a lot, to people who he trusted. He thought he had Jared locked in as an ally forever, and I got Jared to vote him out. He thought Gear was his ally forever, and I got gear to rat out his secrets to me. People picked me over my “huge threat” enemy, because of my social game. This game is about making people like and trust you more than your enemies. I did that. ![]() I used gifs because I thought they were funny, even if they were annoying to some people. I allied with people I genuinely had fun talking to. People who have fun scheming, sending gifs and joking around are my kind of people. I’m an obnoxious, goofy guy, and I found early on people who would accept and work with me in the game because of that. I’m not everyone’s cup of tea. I have never been. But I aligned with people who would like me for being different, over the top and sometimes obnoxious. A wild child. I think that helped me in this game. An unconventional social game, perhaps, but one that made me have closer bonds in this game than anyone else. And I was always myself. ![]() I played a simple game that had clear directives and executed on them. I waited for the right opportunities, managed information, and was never left out in the dark on a vote. I never let emotion or paranoia lead me into bad decision making, I stayed calm. I knew where every single person was voting every single round. I think that differentiates me from my competitors. I played a simple, aware game based on FRIENDSHIPs. Would love it you let third time be the charm for your boy. |
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| Tom Colicchio | Mar 15 2018, 05:32 PM Post #4 |
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This thread is open for questions. It will remain open until 18:30 EDT tomorrow, Friday the 16th. |
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| JURY MEMBER: Matthew Van Melikian | Mar 15 2018, 05:32 PM Post #5 |
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Alright, here's an icebreaker for y'all: Unfortunately, there is one of you who I will NOT be voting for. Who is that person, and why not? |
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| JURY MEMBER: Martin Melin | Mar 15 2018, 05:35 PM Post #6 |
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What did you do specifically better than Jared did? |
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| Paul Abrahamian | Mar 15 2018, 05:35 PM Post #7 |
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Me. You are 100 percent not voting me. We were enemies the entire game, and I had no qualms with letting people know that. Early on, I clued into the fact that you didn't like me. You never treated me with much respect, and I returned the favor. I preferred to work with people who I liked, and liked me back. Edited by Paul Abrahamian, Mar 15 2018, 05:36 PM.
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| JURY MEMBER: Martin Melin | Mar 15 2018, 05:38 PM Post #8 |
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lol |
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| Paul Abrahamian | Mar 15 2018, 05:39 PM Post #9 |
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I think I was more aware, and was more of an active participant in our duo. I think we share a lot of moves, but I have a few more, and was a more of an active participant. I knew Courtney was going, and who was voting where. I voted correctly every time other than that, he didn't. He didn't always know what was happening, and when he did was a bit less of a crucial part of the vote. He was in the dark a couple times, I wasn't. |
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| JURY MEMBER: Martin Melin | Mar 15 2018, 05:51 PM Post #10 |
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Honestly, I can't vote for you. I was going to, but this puts it in a stark light that I just cannot. I disliked a lot of people in this game, but I tried to work with and talk to every one of them, as did Gear and Jared, at least in a token sense. I mean yeah, my connections with people like Jared, PG, Matt were pretty shit, and that's my fault. But with you, I was hearing throughout the game from Gear and Matt, for example, that you always left Matt's PMs last because you thought he was boring. I was hearing that your communication style turned nearly everyone off and here you come saying that you tried to be loud and proud, and everyone that didn't like you, you wouldn't work with. I don't think you are aware at all of how much you turn most people off in a social sense (including your alleged friends like myself), and I don't even think you care about the game on a social level. You were incredibly frustrating to work with and while the rest of us tried our hardest to tolerate you to get your votes, you tolerated nobody that you didn't like. Don't now expect our votes. |
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| Paul Abrahamian | Mar 15 2018, 05:55 PM Post #11 |
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I did work with Matt. We voted together multiple times. He didn't respond to me, either. Early on in this game, I was told by Courtney and Gear that Matthew orchestrated this elaborate plan to find the idol by searching through keywords. He told everyone but me. I was, at that point in time, working with him. I wanted to. I thought he was funny, and kind. But he didn't share that information with me. And lied to my face about it. I smiled and nodded, and continued to work with him afterwards. We told eachother where votes were going, and honestly? Sometimes I actually found him very charming. On a purely human level, whatever, hes fine. Doesn't change the fact that to me in the game, he was completely untrustworthy. I heard all the time that Matthew was insulting me, throwing my name around. We were the very definition of token-working together. I worked with people who didn't like me. Dude, you didn't like me at the start. We grew appreciative of eachother, but at the start we got off on the wrong foot. Throughout the game, we developed a pretty good working relationship. I worked with people I didn't like. I did it a lot. I would have had no problems if you were here at the end, either. Edited by Paul Abrahamian, Mar 15 2018, 05:58 PM.
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| Paul Abrahamian | Mar 15 2018, 06:03 PM Post #12 |
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This game is about trust. When I tell Matthew something, and I immediately hear that Matthew told somebody what I told him multiple times, yea, I never had a legitimate long term deal with him. We still voted together every single round until he left. We still talked through every single vote. I had no problems working with people who I didn't like. For me, the crucial part is that I couldn't trust him long term, or with any super-important information. We still worked together. We were just ready with daggers ready to stab. |
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| JURY MEMBER: Matthew Van Melikian | Mar 15 2018, 06:10 PM Post #13 |
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Honestly, I wanted to work with you in the beginning as well. But I was more connected with Gear and Jared, and Bai before he was voted out. I never felt like I got the window to talk strategy with you, and thought you were more interested in memes and gifs and dumb rankdowns or whatever, so that's the way I made conversation with you. But I preferred to talk more extensively about the game with my allies, and I guess our styles of play clashed. Which is fine. Why I did not inform you about the idol plan, is because you decided to fuck off right before merge, and decided to not respond to any PMs of mine for more than two full days. And you didn't even tell me were you went, which you apparently did tell to the likes of Gear. I also didn't inform you because I intended to vote you out at that TC, but only switched to Bai after Gear told me he liked you. That's it. That's why. You claim that you were against me from the beginning, but here you say that you wanted to work with me until merge hit! What's going on inside that head of yours? And let's tally the votes that we voted together on, shall we? Chris: No one liked him. Katharine: She was a loudmouth and blew up against Jared in public. Bai: I wanted you gone but voted Bai because Gear wanted me to. Evan: He was a gold, and he was the gold decided on there. Jenn: She literally wasn't there. And as for "talking through every vote", the most I ever got from you was that Bai was snakey, and that's it. No talking through anything. I feel like you are just trying to say what Martin wants to hear, unaware that people can prove you wrong just as easily. |
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| JURY MEMBER: Matthew Van Melikian | Mar 15 2018, 06:11 PM Post #14 |
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Oh, and then you promised you wouldn't be gone for stretches of time like that again, but then you did it again during the merge. And according to Jared's opening speech again, during the PG vote. |
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| JURY MEMBER: Matthew Van Melikian | Mar 15 2018, 06:14 PM Post #15 |
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What could I have told other people that you had told me, which was crucial information? I have never heard anything from you that would in any way have hurt you if I told it to others. I do not go into this game thinking that I should keep my lips sealed unless I am explicitly told I can share information, even trivial information. |
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| JURY MEMBER: Matthew Van Melikian | Mar 15 2018, 06:18 PM Post #16 |
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And you also claim that I didn't respond to you either. Whenever I was online and able, I responded to everyone's messages in order of which one I received first to last. If I didn't respond to you one time, then I probably didn't respond to anyone at that time. |
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| JURY MEMBER: Chumlee | Mar 15 2018, 06:22 PM Post #17 |
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Hey Paul, congratulations on making the final tribe council! My question for you is, why do you think you underestimated Jared as an FTC contender? |
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| JURY MEMBER: Martin Melin | Mar 15 2018, 06:26 PM Post #18 |
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Paul, your response to me is that the deterioration of your relationship with Matthew is Matthew's fault. This may well be true. You certainly won the battle you had with him strategically and helped to vote him off. However, firstly, Matthew is on the jury and you are not. Secondly, my main quibble with you is not really about your relationship with Matt. It's about your lack of self-awareness of how disliked you are. For example, you insisted on only talking game with people who you were online at the same time as, which was incredibly annoying for a lot of people. You made it transparently obvious who you liked and who you did not, who you talked game with and who you sent obnixious gifs of your face. I was one of the lucky ones. You're correct that our relationship was eventually repaired, and the reason for that is because I pandered to you. After you said I was really patronizing or whatever, I continued asking you to work with me anyway and trying to make you like me. Your social game was terrible to all of us, and nearly all of the jury has gripes with you. But you come into this tribal council lauding your loud, brash, obnoxious social game as if it was some kind of funny joke we're all laughing at, when in reality it's poison that we all dislike, and will be your undoing. |
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| Paul Abrahamian | Mar 15 2018, 06:43 PM Post #19 |
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Its my fault too. Obviously, my perspective (and everyones) is that he was a big bad guy who wasn't advantageous to my game, and at times was disrespectful. Everyone is the hero in their own story. Thats fine. I admit I was the same back. I'm not a perfect dude. Dude, look at my speech. I know people don't like me. My entire life people haven't liked me. I'm obnoxious. I know that. To be clear: I'm working with a different definition of social game. I had close bonds that kept me safe. Gear, Jared, Courtney: these people advocated for me, and made themselves into bigger threats helping me. To me, that is "social game". My jury management was bad in some ways. Because I do not appeal to everyone. I never have. I worked to try to be nice, likeable, but something about me bothers people. It always has. You can come in here and say my personality is poison, but I'm proud of who I am. I tried to be nice and be myself, and to me that matters. If that doesn't matter to you, you don't have to vote for me. Its not a funny joke, its who I am. Edited by Paul Abrahamian, Mar 15 2018, 06:54 PM.
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| Paul Abrahamian | Mar 15 2018, 06:48 PM Post #20 |
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Yeah, I agree with this. I didn't want to overt-strategy with you because I thought you would leak what I said. I care a lot about information. Maybe over-care. Def a problem on my end.
I told you my family was in the hospital and that I was dealing with that. I didn't want it to be a big deal because I don't think outside factors should matter. And then I come back and continue hearing you throw my name out, even after I thought we reconciled.
I mean, I wanted to work with you at the beginning. And at various points, too. We drifted towards and apart throughout this game at various times. In a simple way: against from early on, in a complex way: mostly against from early on, but the magnitude of that varied.
Kat was my number 2 ally. I loved her. She was my first friend. I didn't like how you talked about, and to her.
Fair.
My ally. Me/him/gear were working together. I tried really fucking hard to save Evan.
Another person I bonded with. I wanted me/gear/PG/Jenn/Evan to be a thing. I really, really liked Jenn. I was trying to keep her safe, but she vanished. Again, another inflection point where we majorly drifted apart.
I don't give a fuck about telling people what they want to hear. |
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| Paul Abrahamian | Mar 15 2018, 06:50 PM Post #21 |
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Jared wasn't around the entire night of the PG vote, I was gone for two hours. We were in different time zones. He was equally to blame there.
Early on, I told you I liked Jared and Gear. I talked with small things, first. When things I tell only you spread, that makes me not tell you big things. I never let you know anything about me that could hurt me. Katharine, Courtney, Gear, Jared all had information about me that could hurt me. I trusted them, so it didn't leak. |
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| Paul Abrahamian | Mar 15 2018, 06:53 PM Post #22 |
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I don't think I did! I think, coming into this, that I thought we were on similar footing for chances to win. Like I said, I fucking love the two people I'm up against. Jared played super fucking well. I came in 100% expecting a fun, friendly battle with someone I consider a friend. Dude deserves to win, and played a great game. I knew that most of this game. I think the rest of the game underestimated us. We talked about it a lot. One of our most frequent topics was how "big threat" players like you aren't actually playing that well. No one would ever realistically let you near the end. Its not a huge coincidence everyone turned on you. You're too likeable. I learned early on that Jared thinks the same way I do, that 'big players' are just signing their will early. So, honestly, I really don't think I did. I properly assessed him as a real threat. |
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| JURY MEMBER: Matthew Van Melikian | Mar 15 2018, 06:57 PM Post #23 |
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Okay, I think you made some fair points, and said a bunch of stuff that I disagree with. But I think that it is a bit disingenuous for me to continue arguing with you while you and I both know that I am not going to vote for you, no matter what you say. I think both of our times are better spent if I continue questioning Gear and Jared, and you continue answering questions from jurors who might, possibly, have a chance to vote you. I hope we can reconcile after the game, at least. |
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| Paul Abrahamian | Mar 15 2018, 06:59 PM Post #24 |
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Same. I think you're a fine, funny, good writer who happened to just be my enemy in a goofy online game. Literally 0 hard feelings at all. Everyone needs a good rival, and I hope the specs and whatnot at least had fun with our rivalry. If you want to call me names and shit, go ahead. I think that is part of what makes FTC fun. |
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| Paul Abrahamian | Mar 15 2018, 07:05 PM Post #25 |
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^ Like, in my bio to apply I just wrote that I want to make these things fun again. If I can cause drama in a game that seemed designed to be drama-free and boring, I'll do my best while still playing to win. I wanted to make it more like the show. I thought Paul was a funny character that had infinite gifs and memes to play with. I wanted to bring Katharine to the end from day 1 because she was absolutely hilarious and a troll. I wanted to work with Jared because I thought he was funny, and thought similarly. I speak a lot of hyperbole, but seriously, dude, call me whatever you want insult me however you want. Its the juries time to speak their truth. |
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