First of all, Ben - thank you for invalidating for two page rant against Josh. C’mon, man. :P

Anyway, to each of y’all:

Stan: I came into this Final Tribal Council fully intending to vote for Ben, but I do think you had an excellent Opening Statement, so call me on the fence, I suppose. Good for you, dude. I have a few questions for you specifically, regarding what you said there:

1. You talked about how you built up solid connections with certain people, so they could help keep you in if it came down to it. That’s great - my question is, do you think that’s as effective as having those broad connections across the board so you can save yourself it it came down to it? It feels like, to an extent, you were placing your fate in the hands of people like Ben.

2. You talked about how you talked to Gabe and Brian a decent amount. Why is it that, if I was grouped in with them, I wasn’t a part of that plan? Because I do feel like you rarely talked to me, and it only really came up when you thought you needed my vote. We had some solid talks, but I feel like you neglected talking to me, and why should I give you my jury vote if that’s the case?

Ben: Ben, I think of the two people standing up here, I had a much better personal connection with you, I felt like you would talk with me and it wasn’t always game related. Having said that, you flipped and flopped a bunch, and compared to someone who played a super loyal, if lowkey, game like Stan, it may seem more flashy, but it may also needlessly burn jury votes.

1. Do you think, if you’d gone through this game with zero challenge wins, it would be possible for you to still be sitting there? If not, do you think this weakens your case?

2. Why not bring Josh to the end for the easy win? I can tell you with 100% certainty that if he was sitting up there, you would have the game won.

Finally, I have an additional two questions to both of the finalists:

1. Stan touched on this in his opening statement, but I’d like both of you to further explain to me your thinking the round I left. Because, and you’ll see this in my confessional if you bother to read it, I was sure I was safe because Ben came to me with the plan to boot Brian - because he was obviously the bigger jury threat than me. Why take me out there?

2. Rank the jury from best to worst players. I’m curious what you thought about the competition, and please don’t bullshit us here - I want your actual assessments.

I do think you both played solid games, and you both deserve to be up there, as much as I’d rather quite a few other configurations.. But I think this was a fun game, so let’s have a happy and fun end, eh? Looking forward to your answers!

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1. You talked about how you built up solid connections with certain people, so they could help keep you in if it came down to it. That’s great - my question is, do you think that’s as effective as having those broad connections across the board so you can save yourself it it came down to it? It feels like, to an extent, you were placing your fate in the hands of people like Ben.

I agree that having broad connections with the entire cast would open you up to more options in this game and it provided you with avenues to make moves. However, by me sticking to my side and not really having strong social connections with say you, Brian and Gabe, it further reassured my place in my alliance and it strengthened my position in it. I was of no threat to flip at any point in time. Because think about it, say hypothetically, someone started a rumor that I was going to flip on let's say Tina. Whether that was true or not, Tina would step back and think.. well why would Stan ever flip on me when Gabe, Brian and Grant would simply take him out the next round. It simply didn't make sense for me to do that and I made sure that my allies recognized that. That notion helped reinforce my loyalty to my side. Flipping on any of my allies would be ludicrous for my game because say I flipped to take out Tina, yeah I would've probably bought myself a round or two, but there was no chance in heaven or hell that the three of you guys were going to let me sneak past the Final 6 or something. You guys were tight. I'm not going to lie, I placed my fate in the hands of my allies, but in the game of Survivor, you have to place your fate in your allies. Alliances are mandatory in this game. However, what I did differently was that I showed complete loyalty to my allies and ensured that I was so snugly lodged into each and every one of my allies' backpockets (including Ben) that it never crossed any of their minds to vote me out.

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2. You talked about how you talked to Gabe and Brian a decent amount. Why is it that, if I was grouped in with them, I wasn’t a part of that plan? Because I do feel like you rarely talked to me, and it only really came up when you thought you needed my vote. We had some solid talks, but I feel like you neglected talking to me, and why should I give you my jury vote if that’s the case?

We did have some solid talks and I really enjoyed that. I'm glad I got to know you as a person but as I said in my opening statement, my social game wasn't as eccentric as Benny's or Josh's in terms of talking to people. I wasn't a social butterfly in this game and I am the first to admit that. I didn't neglect talking to anyone, I just didn't have as much time as I wanted. I talked to Gabe a lot because we do have a long past and although we're never going to be allies or best friends, we knew each other very well and we come from the same ORG board. It was really easy to communicate to him in case we had something mutual that we needed to accomplish. He's the devil I know versus the devil I don't. I think I spoke to you and Brian equally in this game. However, the main difference was that in Brian's case, I knew exactly where he stood with Josh. He was not working with Josh whatsoever. I knew he was a viable option moving forward in this game for me in case shit hit the fan once again. Part of this was the fact that Josh told me you and him had a little deal and that you Skyped all the time. Each time that you flipped your vote, you had retorted to Ben and Josh respectively that, in exchange for the flip, you wanted me out next. When you flipped against Luke at the Final 8, you had mentioned to Josh that you wanted Ben and then Stan. When you flipped against Brian at the Final 6, you told Josh or Ben (I can't remember) that you wanted me gone next. All of this came back to me via Josh and Ben and I think this is a testament to the strength of my social game with my allies. With that information, I knew exactly where you stood in this game and although it was fun to talk to you about life and such, I knew that strategizing with you was almost futile.

I think I deserve your vote because although I didn't make big moves and flip and flop like a social butterfly, I was able to use the limited time that I had and lodge myself integrally into very tight alliances individually with Josh, Ben, Sagar and Tina to the point where none of them even thought twice about voting me out even in the Final 3 vote. After the Sagar boot, I knew exactly what was going on and I subtly made sure that each move was made in my best interest. And in the two votes I was blindsided, I knew for a fact that I wasn't going home because I was indispensable to my allies who decided to flip at that time.

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1. Stan touched on this in his opening statement, but I’d like both of you to further explain to me your thinking the round I left. Because, and you’ll see this in my confessional if you bother to read it, I was sure I was safe because Ben came to me with the plan to boot Brian - because he was obviously the bigger jury threat than me. Why take me out there?

I think I provided my motive in the previous question. In my eyes, both you and Brian were just as big of jury threats had you made the Final 2. You guys would have swept the Baratheon vote minus Josh's and plus Gabe's and that's 5, enough to win without even constructing an opening statement. It all came down to the fact that it was in my better interest to keep Brian because we already had a strategic conduit in place between us, in case any crazy situation warranted it.

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2. Rank the jury from best to worst players. I’m curious what you thought about the competition, and please don’t bullshit us here - I want your actual assessments.

1. Grant - I think you were subtle enough and were willing to take risks in this game without an enormous target placed on your back as a strategic threat. I think I told you at the Final 11 that you were on the bottom of Baratheon and it's pretty impressive that you fought your way to the top and made moves to eliminate threats such as Luke. I remember at some point Josh and I were talking about this and we both agreed that you played the best game. You played a very good game and I think had you not sold Brian out so quickly, I wouldn't have been able to flip the script on you and you would've been sitting here in the Finals and would easily have won this game.

2. Brian - I see a lot of my game in you. Very loyal and very subtle. I believe that loyalty still accounts for something in a game filled with deceit and you would've easily swept every single jury vote without having a single drop of blood on your hands had you made the Final 2.

3. Luke - The puppet master extraordinaire. We may not have seen eye to eye, but I can acknowledge a great game when I see one. He was in cahoots with everyone in this game including myself at one point. He played a great game and was generally well liked by the cast. Huge, huge threat, though.

4. Gabe - I think Gabe played a very strong game. He made the right moves when he had to, and he rebounded from being at the bottom a few times even back at Lannister and lodged himself into a pretty nice alliance with Grant and Brian. I think the only downside to his game (and I'm guilty for this too) was that we each had cannons pointed at each other the whole time ready to fire whenever we had a chance while everyone else kinda took advantage of that to move forward in the game while Gabe and I went after each other.

5/6. Sagar and Tina- Sagar and Tina played very similar games. Both were victims of blindsides. They were very loyal to me, but both were seen as such big threats that stimulated people to turn on them at some point.

7. Josh - Buddy, you know I love you and you've done absolute wonders for me in this game. You played such a strong queen bitchy idgaf game and I enjoyed every second of working with you in this game. I think if it was based on strategy alone, you would've been at the atop this list because you played a sound strategic game. You zigged and zagged around the competition while still being loyal to me. I cannot express how appreciative I am, but unfortunately, you played very emotionally and alienated the entire jury. At the end of the day, Survivor is a subjective social game and you need people you have voted out to vote for you to win. And based on the preliminary reactions of the jury, you would've sadly lost against anyone. :( I didn't want to rank you at the bottom because were such a loyal ally and you don't deserve that, at least not from me.

8/9. Phil and Annette - I think these two players were very loyal to the original Baratheon without knowing that there was trouble brewing in paradise. You guys are both awesome people but I think the lack of awareness of what was going on in this game led me to place them this low in the rankings. I completely respect the honesty and you guys were very strong in this game, but as much as I do respect an honest and loyal game, keeping your guard up is vital in Survivor especially in game full of superfans.

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Ben: Ben, I think of the two people standing up here, I had a much better personal connection with you, I felt like you would talk with me and it wasn’t always game related. Having said that, you flipped and flopped a bunch, and compared to someone who played a super loyal, if lowkey, game like Stan, it may seem more flashy, but it may also needlessly burn jury votes.

I'm glad you felt that way. At the end of the day, I wanted to enjoy this game, and that went beyond strategic talks and frantic chats right before a tribal council. I hope that when people analyze my game, they see that I was playing a proactive game that furthered my safety, not only for the following round but for two rounds down the line. That usually mean taking out one person from each side of the game to ensure I was still in the middle.

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1. Do you think, if you’d gone through this game with zero challenge wins, it would be possible for you to still be sitting there? If not, do you think this weakens your case?

The answer is 100% no, because Stan has admitted he was going to bring Josh to the finals and I would have been surprised for Josh to bring me as well. It just worked in my favor that Stan admitted that he was throwing the challenge because he couldn't be forced to make a decision between two allies. My final three win was the only way I was going to make it to the finals. Disregarding that, I think I could have made it to the end without winning any challenges, but it would have been much more difficult. Winning challenges allowed me to have extra comfort in rounds where I knew a tie was possible (F8 & F6). I knew that because both sides were loyal to each other, the odds of going to Roulette was rather high, and I didn't want my game to end because of a dice roll. Being safe allowed me to actively push for ties, because I knew rather quickly after the final 8 that the only person willing to flip during a tie vote was you. That worked out well for me at the final eight since it took out the biggest threat to my game with the revote. In the final six, it helped generate the mistrust in you needed to vote you out. Had I not won immunity in those rounds, I still would have gone to roulette, but it would be a crap shoot whether the game would look as it ended up being. I think winning immunity shows strength beyond the social and strategic game, though it also causes a larger target to be put on you. At the end of the day, I played this game putting 100% into every aspect of it, including challenges. I treated every round as if I was the one going home, because my decision to play the game I played came with the caveat that the game could turn against me at any point. So I put my all into every challenge, never thinking that I was safe enough to throw a challenge at any point in the game.

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2. Why not bring Josh to the end for the easy win? I can tell you with 100% certainty that if he was sitting up there, you would have the game won.

While I knew that it would have been an easy win against Josh, the game I outlined in my opening statement was based on loyalty to one person. From the final eight onward, that was Stan. I was not going to break that loyalty for an easy win. I know Josh alienated a lot of people with his actions and his words throughout the game, but I wasn't going to cast aside a key part of my game so that I could have a cakewalk in the finals. Stan's loyalty to me was integral for me to get to the final three, and I respect his loyalty enough to keep him in the game. That's the game I had played from the beginning and it wasn't going to change at any point.

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1. Stan touched on this in his opening statement, but I’d like both of you to further explain to me your thinking the round I left. Because, and you’ll see this in my confessional if you bother to read it, I was sure I was safe because Ben came to me with the plan to boot Brian - because he was obviously the bigger jury threat than me. Why take me out there?

My motive for taking you out that round was because I was starting to see that you were playing a game similar to mine. My strategy was dependent on having to polarized sides that would fall on the sword for their allies. When I came to you with the idea of voting out Brian, you almost instantaneously agreed to it. That was a huge red flag for me. You let it slip to me how close you were to Josh and that you could get his vote, also. Knowing that you could potentially have influence with someone on the opposite side of the game could endanger my game, especially with the final five being the following round and having three people was majority. I couldn't risk having a second person that could choose sides in the game, which is why I wanted you out over Brian, who could be taken out the next round.

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2. Rank the jury from best to worst players. I’m curious what you thought about the competition, and please don’t bullshit us here - I want your actual assessments.

1. Luke - Luke was great at the social and strategic game. He connected well with everyone and seemed to know what was going on at any point in time. He was my biggest ally but also my biggest threat because I knew he was so shrewd that he could change the game in the blink of an eye. His only blunder was blowing up over the conversation we had, but disregarding that, his gameplay was great.

2. Grant - I don't think people give you the credit you deserve for the game you played. You always showed that you were willing to entertain other options in a game that was muddled in loyalty and trust. While others didn't care to acknowledge the other side of the game, you were able to keep connections with both sides, showing you saw the bigger picture, and a testament to your social game.

3. Gabe - Gabe's game was very impressive because he made it to the final four when he was on the outs as early as the pre-merge. He was an underdog but didn't allow anything to stop him from making it further in the game. He was able to put personal feelings aside to make decisions that benefited his game, and was able to play a loyal game as well.

4. Brian - After Phil and Annette were voted out, Brian deserves a lot of credit for making it to the final five. He played a fiercely loyal game and his personality was his biggest asset. He was so good at connecting with other people. The ultimate fan favorite.

5. Tina - I also don't think people give credit to Tina for the game played. She was one of the better social players and also had a good head on her shoulders strategically. She forged connections on Stark, Regina, and Targaryen that would have brought her very far into the game, without exposing how threatening she really is. She was the most well connected member of the majority alliance at the final nine. I honestly think that she would have made it close to the end had she not been voted out when she was.

6. Phil - Phil was as good at the social game as Brian was, and that's a big compliment. He had made a secure alliance on Baratheon and Brymmdreng to keep him safe, and it was only the fact that Josh turned on Baratheon did his game falter. It has to be commended that one of the main reasons he was voted out at the final 10 was because many of the people in the majority couldn't keep him in the game because they'd feel too bad (a swift execution rather than a prolonged death). When your enemies have that much empathy for you, that is a really good social game.

7. Sagar - When I saw the cast, Sagar was the person that worried me the most because he is so good at Chronicles. He has a good personality and can hold his own strategically and in challenges. He also proved to be a loyal person, which I respect a lot. I think people knowing he was threatening ended up being his downfall.

8. Josh - Josh's game was passionate. Everything he did, he did so with vigor. He kept his ears open and was willing to make moves to get him further in the game. His downfall was that he was very passionate, even in confrontation. Between the votes cast being biting and him getting into fights with people, he ultimately was playing for second place.

9. Annette - I honestly don't think Annette deserves to be last on this list, because she had so much potential to be the best player in this game, and it was only the Red Wedding that caused her game to be cut short. Annette was enigmatic, and had a great understanding of the game of Survivor. If the Red Wedding didn't happen, I could see her being the Tara or Sarah of this season. She had a great social game, but I think being too trusting at the merge ended up being her downfall.

Thanks for your answers, and your exceedingly high placements for me, that we all know are obviously 100% true. Best of luck to both of y'all.