Okay, Survivors. You weathered a stream of bizarre nonsubs followed by a strong and unpredictable merge group. Time to see who put it together a little better. On this vote, you want to see your name.
Sarah Wreisner: Shawn! *Go Shawn!* I must vote Shawn… although, holy hell, Bizek made a great case. But I gotta stay true to my dawg! 🙂 CAPS LOCK SCREAMING ALL THE TIME USA! I love you guys, and thanks to everyone involved for another fun game.
Erik S: this was an extremely hard decision for me. as i’ve mentioned, i tend to put more weight on the writing than others, and shawn consistently killed it, including a long line of immunities towards the end after an already great season. and not to take anything away from sarah either, who also put out some awesome material, but i believe shawn has the edge there. also, shawn was a brimley, and brimleys gonna brimley. however, sarah played the more strategic game while also maintaining a great stream of writing, and that’s definitely worth a lot.
you add all this up, in a split decision (115-113, 113-115, and 115-113), by the narrowest of margins this judge gives his vote to super cool beezy.
Matt Novak: I love Shawn. We got each other to the end in IIX, she has written some of my favorite stories ever on the site, and her playfulness is awesome. I was impressed that her game took a step forward this time. I thought some of the strategy was bad strategy, but it was certainly present and active, and I appreciate that. Despite those points in Shawn’s favor, and the fact that I absolutely want to see her win this game someday, my vote is for Bizek. Survivor is a game where you’re almost always gonna get knocked down, and figuring out how to get back up is the one thing that impresses me more than meticulous planning. Bizek had a plan, it got derailed, but she regrouped. And for that reason, above all others, Sarah Bizek gets my vote for Sole Survivor.
Peter Bruzek: This was a great game. Pretty much everyone in the final few challenges had a claim at winning, and that has, to my knowledge, never been the case. Both finalists played a solid game and certainly deserve to be exactly where they are.
If Shawn had played her normal game, the back half of the game would’ve looked totally different. There’s a certain awesomeness to killing that which you would see dead and writing too damned well for anyone to do anything about it. Shawn took out a threat, then teamed up with his former ally and took out the next threat. It wasn’t always clean, but it worked. she came from a minority, scrapped her way to the top of the heap, then did the challenges well enough to where no one was able to catch her. Sarah, you also played a hell of a game, and it was fun as hell to watch the whole thing unfold, particularly the expert way that you adapted to everything thrown at you over the course of the game. This one was close – the closest vote I’ve been involved in so far.
In the end, I vote Shawn.
Bret Highum: Shawn did a lot of things very well- she wrote brilliantly, picked a great set of players to ally with, and stayed loyal to them the whole way. But Sarah also did all those things, plus won the tie-breaker that ultimately determined the final four. By the narrowest of margins, I vote for Sarah to win.
Margaret Martin: I want to tell you that my vote on Survivor is for Sarah Bizek. She was a good writer, dug her heels in and made things happen a couple of times during play, and answered the questions at the end thoughtfully.
[That’s a 4-2 vote, Survivors. Let’s go to the very wordy Jonathon Pope after the jump]
Jonathon Pope: I had expected that by the end, there would be a clear-cut winner in my mind. Somewhere along the way, someone would do something so clever, audacious, or surprising that I would have no problem simply awarding them my vote. And considering the final two, it’s surprising that this is such a difficult decision. I think I’ve been spinning around in the Jury Room like a dog chasing his tail the last couple of days, searching for anything that gives one of these two an advantage over the other.
I looked at the game that I played in, trying to remove all prejudice that I had. Sarah never once talked to me during the game? As much a fault with my game as hers – not relevant. Shawn refused to respond to my offer of an alliance after helping eliminate Novak? Probably her best move.
I looked at both of their writing, hoping that something there would make this an obvious choice. I found that I am impressed with both of them, but couldn’t truly give one an edge over the other. (As a side note, I do find Shawn’s writing to be more terrifying, and if she comes up to Seattle I’m going to need some notice so that I can notify the authorities of my Canadian homeland* that she is close to the border.)
The end game of the Final Four initially gave little indication of how the game was being played, because the assumption was that someone was attempting to gain an advantage over the others through trickery or force. The answers to the jury questions threw something into sharp focus for me: They were playing this game exactly the way I would have. For all of my talk about strategy, in the end, there’s no way I would have turned on Melissa and Brian, and possibly not Bret either. Some consider this a strategic weakness, but I don’t. It’s not exciting to watch, and I was one of the first to complain about it, but I can’t actually say it was a bad end. It was initially frustrating, but a solid and consistent end from all of those players. It took time and some pondering, but it won me over.
And so the jury questions provided the answer to me. It was the smallest of things. Sarah’s answers were forthright and compelling. I felt that after Matt’s elimination she played a solid game, and did right by her allies (with the possible exception of Brian, although nobody was ever surprised at that move).
Shawn also played a solid game, but one answer to a jury question stuck out to me:
1. Why were you OK with ties?
This question assumes that I was, when in actuality, I would’ve preferred NOT to have a tie. However, I wasn’t necessarily going to “bully” someone into voting with me. People were going to do what they were going to do. I just voted as I saw fit.
This may be true, but it fails to address the point that no real effort was made (from my point of view) to assess just how strongly Bret or myself felt about an impending tie. All pleas to vote with us were not just denied, they were ignored. No attempt at negotiation, no effort at finding an alternate target. I admit, I would not have been easy to convince, but Bret has admitted that he would have changed his vote to avoid a tie if he knew that Shawn and Sarah W. were not with us. Instead it was radio silence.
It’s the smallest of things, really. It feels ticky-tacky, but it’s the greatest difference in their game that I am aware of.
Seriously, in spite of my frustration in the jury room, this was a great game. I think I could go on and on about this game and what a difficult decision this was, but lunch time is over and I don’t think anybody really wants to read that anyway.
So how do I vote? GUILTY!**
I vote, to even my great surprise, for Sarah Bizek. Sarah, I’m sorry we never got to speak in this game. It was a flaw in my game plan, and it ended up killing me.
Shawn, you once declared yourself a Ninja. I said we would have to see about that. Turns out you were right. I declare you to be the Head Ninja of the newly created Ninja Department of Jonny-Jon Records (literally the greatest imaginary record company in the history of human existence). I haven’t handed out a new title in at least ten years, so as you can see it is the most dubious of honors. Feel free to add it to the special skills section of your resume.
*Just kidding. I’m not from America’s Hat.
**I just can’t get enough of this jury joke. I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m not.
————————————————————–
Hmm. Maybe I should have put a word limit on the vote, eh?
But seriously, folks:
The Champion of Spookymilk Survivor XIII: Sarah “Clarence’s Hope” Bizek
This was a very hard game for the jury to assess. So many of the tricky things SCB pulled off weren’t really made public (for instance, her role in Novak’s demise) and I think that could have helped her, but players saw enough of what she was doing anyway. Beezy’s submission for “It Lives” will go down as one of my all-time favorites, as will the beautiful, horrible incest story. Her road to this point was taken much differently than the road other winners took, and that took some adjustment for the jury.
This is also the biggest Survivor comeback in history, as SCB spent her first five games nonsubbing out before even reaching the merge before putting together a nice game and just barely missing the jury in Turbo. Here, though, I never doubted her, bitches (seriously, at the merge, I predicted she’d win. Brooks can vouch for this!).
It’s nice to finally have a female on the top of the hill again, but this goes deeper than that: Beezy is whip-smart, passionate, a laugh riot and one of the greatest goddamned people I’ve ever had the chance to know. I am thrilled that she won this game and am proud to immortalize her on the sidebar. Class of ’96 kicks, woooOO!
Meanwhile, there’s Shawn “What’s Wrong With You?” Ashley. So much of that stuff can apply to her too, and I definitely love some of the same things in her as are in Bizek (the casual cynicism and biting sarcasm, for instance). Shawn played a game worthy of the win in many seasons and I’m glad she wasn’t shut out. I figure she’ll win this game someday – hell, Novak finished in third and second before pulling one down.
So psyched that it was you two at the end, ladies. SO. PSYCHED. It’s nice to have a theater party at the end, because theater parties don’t quit. They’re so much more…well, you know.
What I’m saying is: EVERYONE GET NAKED.
Cheers, Survivor.
—–
(Other votes)
Brian David: Sarah Bizek.
Melissa Diamond: Sarah Bizek. “I take back the fickle, mercurial, and handsome things I said in the jury room. You *were* in this to win it. Shawn, you wrote well, and you chose a path that worked for you. Bizek, though — she saw the smoldering, zombie-pocked ruins of Survivor post-Novak, and she took up her sheriff’s badge and shotgun. She dawned her hat, spit out the last of her chaw, and mowed us the eff down.”
Oh, hell. Well, that’s just beautiful, right there.
111 comments
Comments feed for this article
October 9, 2013 at 9:28 pm
spookymilk
FUN FACT: Shawn had no votes against her all game long.
FUN FACT II: Sarah tied the record for votes received for a winner. She and Zack from season IX both had nine.
Here’s the full voting spreadsheet.
October 9, 2013 at 10:15 pm
The Dread Pirate
Are you going to share the off-site strategic shenanigans?
October 9, 2013 at 11:13 pm
beezypoof
i DID get a lot of votes. scary shit.
October 9, 2013 at 9:41 pm
AMR
Not printed: I read online.
October 9, 2013 at 9:51 pm
daneekasghost
Spooky did predict Bizek at the merge. I picked Bret.
After Beezy won the write-off I asked spooky if Bizek or Shawn became the favorite to win. So at least I eventually called it as well?
Awesome game ladies, I thought both of you played very, very good games, and I was excited to see how this vote turned out because I could see really strong arguments for both.
October 9, 2013 at 10:14 pm
MelissaDiamondPhillips
Do we get an explanation of “Clarence’s Hope” now?
October 9, 2013 at 11:12 pm
beezypoof
kelly, in college, created this weirdly…developmentally disabled (?) character that just he and i knew about. so i would look over at him in class, or something, and he’d be making this distinctly “Clarence” face. it REALLY evolved over the course of our being there together. and by calling me “Clarence’s Hope,” he’s proving himself that he picked me to win. 🙂
October 9, 2013 at 11:16 pm
spookymilk
I’m not sure if it makes me a bad person, but I still chuckle pretty hard when I think of Clarence.
To give a clearer explanation of the nickname, my character was very simple and he copied everything he saw. Beez would see the danger in Clarence doing so and would act as his caregiver.
How did we name him? Any idea how that happened? I don’t remember at all.
October 9, 2013 at 11:22 pm
beezypoof
i can only think about it being Olauson’s first name, but i don’t know why we would have done that? i dunno. i still laugh about Clarence, too. ALL. THE. TIME. and when i saw my nickname, i laughed out loud, literally. for a long time.
October 9, 2013 at 11:25 pm
spookymilk
Huh. It IS Olauson’s name, although I never even put that together. I doubt that’s what we had in mind.
October 9, 2013 at 10:16 pm
The Dread Pirate
Congrats Beezy!
October 9, 2013 at 11:10 pm
beezypoof
thanks!
October 9, 2013 at 10:17 pm
margaritamartini
Congrats, Sarah. You kept going the whole game against some weird shit, and you were a good teammate to me the whole way! You were sneaky and a good liar, too, getting Matt voted off. You taught me well, Obeez-wan.
October 9, 2013 at 10:24 pm
jontheelf
Wait, she was instrumental in voting off Novak?! I change my vote to Bizek. Wait, that’s who I voted for?
I need an explanation.
October 9, 2013 at 11:30 pm
beezypoof
hey jonathan. it wasn’t your downfall, or however you put it, that we hadn’t communicated during the game. not at all. bret would have gone before you, even given the sad Brian vote shit that had to happen, but then i caught wind that you were trying to get Team Vajeen to switch on me and vote me out. others made the suggestion, based on that, that we vote you instead of Bret, and i “went along with it,” though i would have suggested it myself if they hadn’t. it’s all good that we didn’t chat. perhaps next time we both play, we’ll be a powerhouse alliance. one never knows with this game. and thanks for your vote. 🙂
October 9, 2013 at 10:31 pm
spookymilk
Game Notes (There weren’t many near the end, sorry)
October 10, 2013 at 11:56 am
beezypoof
ah, but we WERE all just happy to be there. i like that i don’t get mentioned in the game notes at ALL until September. and not mentioned as part of Novak’s alliance. silly boy, Kelly. silly, silly boy.
October 10, 2013 at 12:12 pm
spookymilk
Yeah, it bugs me when people aren’t trying to win. Boo. That did change, though.
As for not mentioning you until then…is that right? In my defense, Novak was sending me 90% of the emails I got, so I only got one perspective on things. You used to be a serial nonsub threat, so you weren’t forefront in my mind early on (though I considered ways that maybe you could do it, since I like you). I tend to focus notes on people once I see a way for them to win. Also, I just didn’t make enough notes, because I’d be forwarding emails to viewers and then forgetting to comment on stuff on the notes. I’ll try not to make that mistake next time.
October 9, 2013 at 11:08 pm
beezypoof
NO NO NO! i did NOT vote and Matt off. i did NOT want Matt voted off. Shawn misunderstood something I’d said, so instead of voting with Novak that week, she and Sarah voted FOR him. that is NOT what i wanted to have happen. at ALL.
October 9, 2013 at 11:10 pm
beezypoof
wait, *I* don’t even understand the first sentence of what i just wrote. i did NOT want Matt to get voted off, nor did I head that vote. i still think Melissa lead the way on that one, though i don’t know for sure.
October 9, 2013 at 11:13 pm
daneekasghost
I thought Shawn was one of the people pushing a Novak vote (was that the “snipers v. foot soldiers” argument?)
Shawn didn’t make great big plays, but I thought she was remarkably effective at eliminating who she wanted gone.
October 9, 2013 at 11:20 pm
MelissaDiamondPhillips
The “snipers v foot soldiers” thing was an email from Jon, I’m pretty sure.
October 9, 2013 at 11:23 pm
spookymilk
Shawn said it to Jon. It was my favorite email of the game.
October 9, 2013 at 11:25 pm
MelissaDiamondPhillips
Ah, so he was just quoting her back in that awesome “espionage-esque” email to her?
October 9, 2013 at 11:26 pm
spookymilk
That was “awesome,” eh? Yeah…that’s the email that made him the target.
October 9, 2013 at 11:31 pm
beezypoof
that IS the email that made him the target. 🙂
October 9, 2013 at 11:35 pm
jontheelf
I knew that email was make or break for me. Turns out, it was break.
October 10, 2013 at 1:24 am
beezypoof
outside of the novak vote, we voted the same the rest of the game until the margaret/sarah tie, and we did that knowingly. so how do you know, Brooks, that it was her strategy and not mine?
October 10, 2013 at 1:41 am
daneekasghost
I was complimenting her execution, not necessarily her strategy, based on a lot of her emails that were forwarded to me by Kelly once I gained observer status.
October 9, 2013 at 11:19 pm
MelissaDiamondPhillips
It was me and Brian. We’d been plotting the Novak ouster for some time, down to the point when we’d actually start whispering the rumors to other people, and to whom. It was the long con, man. It was kinda painful. Sorry, Novak. I didn’t mean to be that duplicitous.
Though I should add that Novak declared he was planning to back stab me the whole time, so maybe I shouldn’t feel so bad about having the same plan…
October 9, 2013 at 11:26 pm
beezypoof
oh honey, it wasn’t you AND Brian, don’t be silly. 🙂 you were the powerhouse of the David siblings.
October 9, 2013 at 11:29 pm
MelissaDiamondPhillips
I don’t know how this perception of me as a “powerhouse” came up. I told Margaret I was super sad about being cut out of the Girl Power ensemble, and she said it was because I was “more power than girl”. I’m not sure when that happened.
Though, really, Brian needs credit where credit is due. Novak was scheming with him prior to merge, and he pretty much told me, “That guy’s dangerous. Let’s take him out after the merge.”
October 9, 2013 at 11:33 pm
spookymilk
The “power” stuff is a tad overblown, but you played a very nice game.
October 9, 2013 at 11:33 pm
beezypoof
but that’s only because he was scheming with Brian against Brian’s sister. not sure he would have recognized him as “dangerous” without that. and yes, it’s true, Novak is one of the most dangerous dudes around here, in the context of the game. it’s true. and i see the reason for that move, and, as i said somewhere else, though i didn’t want him out and would never have voted for him, i see that i would never have gotten this far if he’d stayed in the game. so thanks, i guess?
October 9, 2013 at 11:34 pm
spookymilk
And I’d like to point out, too, that by the end, Brian was playing a very good game. Big things in the future for that cat, I tells ya.
October 9, 2013 at 11:35 pm
MelissaDiamondPhillips
Thanks, Kelly, for always being there to kick my ego down a notch. 😉
October 9, 2013 at 11:44 pm
beezypoof
Brian hadn’t said a strategic word in the game. even after you came on board with Lycans (which i sort of pretended not to know), he was quiet….doing what Novak said. so the fact that two votes in to our “alliance,” Matt was out….well, it seemed pretty clear to me that you were in charge of that. also…never believe a word Peter says. 🙂
October 10, 2013 at 2:29 pm
nibbish
never believe a word Peter says
Wait, what now?
October 10, 2013 at 3:24 pm
daneekasghost
I miss the days when nibs and I sometimes worked together instead of just pretending to, all the while knowing that neither of us is serious about it.
October 10, 2013 at 3:26 pm
daneekasghost
Which only really happened as Vogons and then in Turbo.
See? I won one, he won one. It was mutually beneficial!
October 9, 2013 at 11:18 pm
spookymilk
Really? I misunderstood our conversation that one night, then. You’d voted for him the week before to “put the fear of God into him,” I remember. I thought I remembered you saying you weren’t voting him out but you wanted him gone…? Apparently, that’s not the case.
October 9, 2013 at 11:25 pm
beezypoof
no. i voted for him the week before, yes, with Shawn, knowing that he wouldn’t be voted out, but wanting to make him feel like someone was out for him (he was SO SO SUPER powerful at that point), and when i was talking on the phone to Shawn about it, i said to HER that i’d eventually want him out so she thought i might be serious, at that time, about an all-girls thing. but i would never have written Matt’s name down. to be VERY CLEAR: i recognize that there’s NO WAY i could have own if he’d remained in the game. but it was shitty for him to go then, particularly because i knew i was the next target, and i wasn’t sure what to do about that. i figured it out, though.
October 9, 2013 at 11:27 pm
spookymilk
Well, kiss my grits. That all makes perfect sense, but it’s still news to me.
October 9, 2013 at 11:35 pm
beezypoof
and i didn’t have to even attempt anything strategic before then, because he was doing it all for me, though I’m sure he lied to me on many occasions. well, maybe voting for him was SLIGHTLY strategic, since it did freak him, but i didn’t mean for him to get voted out. ever. and…i think i WILL kiss your grits.
October 10, 2013 at 12:04 am
mbnovak
I didn’t ever lie to you Bizek. I was trying to get you to the top. The other 3 ladies who finished in the final 4 too.
And I love you even more for having voted for me that week. 🙂
October 10, 2013 at 12:44 am
hungry joe
basically, nowak was going for a swanky harem.
October 10, 2013 at 10:07 am
The Dread Pirate
I think the preferred expression on this site should be “dog my cats”
October 10, 2013 at 12:15 am
mbnovak
See, I figured sticking with you would buy me to 5, at least, and, if you were willing, more than that. I thought it was my best shot in this game, and yours too, and I was willing to stick with you through it all. I never would have bothered to call you if I felt otherwise.
I was impressed you picked up the pieces and kept together basically what we already had planned. Well done.
October 10, 2013 at 12:23 am
beezypoof
i’m remarkably happy to hear this. i know it’s stupid, cuz it’s just a game, but it’s nice to know that a guy like yourself, who could conjure up pretty much anything he wanted in a game like this, would pick me. and i would not ever have written your name down ( i mean besides the one time i did, knowing that it would do NOTHING but potentially freak you a bit). i didn’t give a shit about “all girls,” or whatever, until it became clear that Sarah was voting with Shawn, Margaret, and me. then i was like, “well, that’d be fairly cool, i suppose.” anyway…thanks, Matt.
October 10, 2013 at 12:26 am
beezypoof
p.s. i was totally impressed i picked up the pieces, too. seriously never thought it would work.
p.p.s. have i ever told you that you’re awesome? cuz you are. and i should have.
October 9, 2013 at 11:45 pm
spookymilk
At the merge, Brooks and I predicted the top eleven. Here’s how we did. The parentheses are how far off we were from the actual.
Me:
11. Sarah Wreisner (7)
10. Erik Sundberg (0)
9. Pete Bruzek (2)
8. Melissa Diamond (2)
7. Bret Highum (2)
6. Brian David (2)
5. Matt Novak (4)
4. Margaret Martin (1)
3. Jonathon Pope (4)
2. Shawn Ashley (0)
1. Sarah Bizek (0)
You:
11. Erik Sundberg (1)
10. Shawn Ashley (8)
9. Sarah Wreisner (5)
8. Matt Novak (1)
7. Pete Bruzek (4)
6. Margaret Martin (3)
5. Sarah Bizek (4)
4. Brian David (4)
3. Jonathan Pope (4)
2. Melissa Diamond (4)
1. Bret Highum (4)
I was 24 away from correct, and Brooks was 42 away. Aw, snap! A slaughter!!!
October 9, 2013 at 11:49 pm
daneekasghost
Bizek winning the write-off really sunk my predictions.
October 9, 2013 at 11:56 pm
MelissaDiamondPhillips
I was just about to post that. Bizek took down my own larger scheme in that tie breaker moment. *shakes fist dramatically*
October 9, 2013 at 11:53 pm
dkautz
Man, why don’t you ever ask me to do this stuff?
October 10, 2013 at 12:05 am
MelissaDiamondPhillips
Your steadfast love for my fiction probably got you blacklisted.
October 10, 2013 at 12:06 am
spookymilk
I did! I sent out an email to a bunch of people asking for them, and you were one. It was a blurb at the end of the intro to a forwarded email though, I think, so maybe it got missed.
October 10, 2013 at 12:10 am
dkautz
Found it. It was full of Novak emails. Probably not good for anyone to put something I ought to be reading along with a bunch of Novak emails.
October 10, 2013 at 12:14 am
spookymilk
Oy, yeah. Sorry. When I run XV we’ll do it.
I have a new theme and twist for XV already. Time to get excited! Is anything happening before then? Guys??
October 9, 2013 at 11:57 pm
jontheelf
Man, you both had me finishing third. And for a moment there, at Novak’s elimination, even I thought that was a possibility…
October 10, 2013 at 12:07 am
spookymilk
DK and I were both bullish on you. When you told us you were finishing 7th, after you were gone, we agreed that we both disagreed with you pretty strongly.
October 10, 2013 at 12:12 am
dkautz
Time to start posting PODCASTS!!!
October 10, 2013 at 12:15 am
spookymilk
Yes, I’ll have to put them up soon. The sound on some is rough as hell. I know adobery has some way of fixing that. I think? It seems familiar.
October 10, 2013 at 12:18 am
dkautz
I hope he can fix all the allergic sniffling I do throughout them, too!
October 10, 2013 at 12:13 am
mbnovak
I really thought 5th was a possibility. It should have been. If Bizek hadn’t been on vacation…
October 10, 2013 at 1:11 am
beezypoof
would it have mattered if Shawn and Sarah hadn’t voted you? i don’t remember what the number of people was at that point. i felt like it still wouldn’t have mattered, but i could be out of my mind on that one. maybe it’s just something i told myself when i realized Shawn though i’d SUGGESTED we vote you out.
October 10, 2013 at 1:18 am
mbnovak
No, if they’d have voted for Bret I’d have been safe. So basically, your vacation killed me.
October 10, 2013 at 1:13 am
beezypoof
and if you’d gotten to fifth, you would have gotten at LEAST to third. you, me, Margaret. that’s to say if she and i were still in the game at that point.
October 10, 2013 at 1:21 am
beezypoof
i shall not take responsibility for that.
October 10, 2013 at 1:14 am
hungry joe
if people had listened to reason, you would’ve been 10th.
October 10, 2013 at 1:17 am
mbnovak
That wouldn’t have worked so well for Shawn and Bizek.
October 10, 2013 at 1:20 am
beezypoof
sure wouldn’t have. sure would NOT have.
October 9, 2013 at 11:53 pm
beezypoof
thanks to all for your votes and for your critical thinking. i know this game was weird, especially here at the end, and i’m sorry it was “boring” for the jury. i appreciate the many compliments i’ve received, bot on my writing and on my game play, and i’m pretty humbled to have won. never would have predicted, nor did i ever see it coming. although….shit, four months of constant Survivor. my soul is a little dead. 🙂 you guys (and that includes “gals”) are super great!
October 10, 2013 at 12:20 am
spookymilk
Also, I want to thank Pepper for her wonderfully idiotic cheerleading routine throughout the season. I find it poetic that we had a mascot for the first time, and she was female, in the season that saw females dominate more than in any other season by far.
October 10, 2013 at 12:47 am
hungry joe
yup. at first it was amusing, then it was like, “are you still keeping on with this?”, then it became ascended to awesomeness.
October 10, 2013 at 1:07 am
hungry joe
it became ascended to awesomeness.
i’m copyrighting that….
October 10, 2013 at 1:22 am
mbnovak
Rightfully so.
October 10, 2013 at 7:29 am
AMR
/Opens mouth a bit, has nothing to say.
/Looks at shoes.
/Kicks tiny pebble.
October 10, 2013 at 9:32 am
christinapepper
Awwww, thanks dudes! It was a fun way to follow the game.
October 10, 2013 at 1:22 am
mbnovak
Huge congrats to Bizek. I’m really excited to see a female winner again, and someone who proved to be a really solid ally too (until she wasn’t…).
Mr. Nibbish and I happened to be able to go out to dinner tonight. We’re considering that the second live finale ever, since we did summarize our votes for each other and discuss the game at great length.
I think this was definitely the right result, and now next time everyone will know not to trust women.
Congrats Sarah!
October 10, 2013 at 1:30 am
beezypoof
also, frickin’ invite ME next time. shit.
October 10, 2013 at 1:31 am
mbnovak
Hey, everyone in the jury room knew they could show up.
October 10, 2013 at 1:33 am
beezypoof
but i wasn’t IN the jury room. couldn’t we have met up AFTER 9:00? my feeling hurts.
October 10, 2013 at 1:33 am
mbnovak
If you want to drive up to Alexandria, I’ve got some Surly in the fridge I’m willing to share.
October 10, 2013 at 1:35 am
beezypoof
you act like that’s SO far away. i don’t drink, though. 🙂 tell me what kinds of soda you’ve got laying around there, and i MIGHT be convinced….
October 10, 2013 at 2:06 pm
mbnovak
Um. I have no soda. And I’m regretting that right now.
October 10, 2013 at 10:42 am
MelissaDiamondPhillips
I was in the jury room, and *I* didn’t know this. How did I miss that invite!?
October 10, 2013 at 2:06 pm
mbnovak
Clearly you weren’t paying enough attention. Just like in the game! Ooh burn!
October 10, 2013 at 1:27 am
beezypoof
until i wasn’t? when wasn’t i?
October 10, 2013 at 1:29 am
mbnovak
When you left me all alone with that bully Shawn.
October 10, 2013 at 3:39 am
mybiggirlshoes
Wait- I’m a bully??
October 10, 2013 at 1:31 am
beezypoof
oh. yeah, when i went on the vacation that had been planned before Survivor even started? yeah, you’re right. totally shitty ally. 🙂
October 10, 2013 at 3:33 am
mybiggirlshoes
Congrats, Sarah!!! You deserve it & I love you!!! 🙂
October 10, 2013 at 11:28 am
beezypoof
thank you, honey. means much coming from you. love you, too!!!
October 10, 2013 at 10:52 am
mybiggirlshoes
I feel like a winner anyway with 3 immunities in a row!! That’s some Brooks level shit right there! That has never happened to me in this game. I felt so happy after that! Thank you everyone for letting me play!!
October 10, 2013 at 2:05 pm
mbnovak
Brooks level?
*coughastherecordholderformostconsecutiveimmunitiesItakeoffensecough*
October 10, 2013 at 3:33 pm
mybiggirlshoes
Is that true?? How many in a row? I’m so sorry, Matt! Credit where credit is due!
Also, Wriesner (Sarah) has had many in a row too! Surely she holds some record somewhere?
October 10, 2013 at 3:39 pm
spookymilk
Novak holds neither the record for straight solo immunities or straight immunities overall, but he DOES have a small argument for the former.
Patrick Kozicky holds the record for solo immunities in a row, with five. He pulled that off in season III.
Brooks has the record for most immunities in a row with 15. In Turbo, his team never lost during the 12-challenge team segment, and he won the first three in the solo segment.
Novak had nine straight immunities in season IX, which didn’t have teams at all. However, for the first six of those, half the field won immunity, and during Patrick’s streak, only one or two people could win it.
October 10, 2013 at 3:41 pm
mybiggirlshoes
How do you know all of that so quickly? I’m impressed. 😀
So the goal is to beat 5? That’s the record??
October 10, 2013 at 3:42 pm
spookymilk
It’s all about spreadsheets, precious: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0An6FFVv73n78dGtqb3VaVTdvS3FiVVp1OWFUblhwcEE&usp=drive_web#gid=0
That’s one of many.
October 10, 2013 at 4:24 pm
mbnovak
I think I count for solo immunities. There were no teams. On the other hand, it’s not like I hope anyone is impressed by my game in XI, so… whatever.
October 10, 2013 at 2:29 pm
nibbish
Team Brimley was insanely fun (emphasis on the ‘insane’, of course). You were a great teammate, and I very much enjoyed watching you kick some asses.
October 10, 2013 at 3:33 pm
mybiggirlshoes
I loved our team!! 🙂 Awwww hugs, nibbsies! You are the best!!
October 10, 2013 at 3:16 pm
The Dread Pirate
If I had survived one more elimination to the merge, I think it would have been hilarious how much I had already misread the tea leaves I hadn’t bothered to read.
I was convinced that Melissa was working against me immediately (she wanted to punish Barnaby) and I assugreyed that she would be working with Brian. Because Brian was a Lycan, I thought he and Novak may have been working together. Therefore, I thought Novak and Melissa were probably paired up. Did you follow all that? For that reason, I never approached Melissa with a “all I want to do is eliminate Novak and have no designs on actually winning” proposal.
Instead, I picked Beezy to be my Lycan pairing. It looks like that wasn’t the best of choices. That darn Novak gets his tentacles into everyone!
October 10, 2013 at 3:18 pm
spookymilk
You were right about one thing: Melissa was basically working against you from the beginning.
October 10, 2013 at 4:53 pm
The Dread Pirate
I could see that from the very first email conversation we had.
October 10, 2013 at 9:00 pm
MelissaDiamondPhillips
What!? Look, I would’ve been happy to give Barnaby a good shin kick, and I often joked about Burros’ Revenge, but I wasn’t plotting against you early on because of that. I was plotting against you early on because you’re one of the Big Guns who was most assuredly going to take me out if I didn’t take you out first. And it had been my plan to pick off the Big Guns one by one. You were one of the first on my list by virtue of being on my team.
October 10, 2013 at 3:18 pm
mbnovak
It rarely helps me, but it frequently hurts you!
October 10, 2013 at 3:36 pm
mybiggirlshoes
Wriesner and I constantly chatted about trying to win immunities for our fellow Brimleys. Such a good team. We kept them in spirit until the end. 🙂
October 10, 2013 at 3:37 pm
mybiggirlshoes
WHY DO I KEEP MISSPELLING WREISNER?! W.T.F. Sorry. *blush*
October 11, 2013 at 4:09 pm
adobery
Congratulations Bizek! :::Hugs::: Shawn.
I have yet to read everything, but I’ll get through it all eventually. I’m a couple months behind and I’m betting Brooks will find a way yet. But congrats for now!
October 12, 2013 at 1:16 am
mybiggirlshoes
I missed you!! ☺