Opening Statements

[!Chad!]

After roughly 41 days, Carrie, Julie, and Kesha have outlasted 17 others to make the final tribal council. Interesting enough, we have 3 different original tribes represented here. Now the power shifts to the jury of nine, where they have the ability to elect a winner.

To start, each of our three remaining castaways will post their opening statement here. Once they have done that I will allow the jurors to post questions in seperate threads they create.

I hope to finish this game and have a winner decided by Sunday night if possible. The Jurors can vote in their confessional whenever they are ready, please make sure to include why or your vote will not count.

Okay if the final three could post their statements as soon as possible.

[Carrie Underwood (someome)]

OK, well im really happy to be in the final 3. Leading up to merge I was always safe because I won an idol on the very first round, so everything was just about holding steady til merge, going into the merge I felt like I was in the minority, I don't quite know all the details of the large alliance that was in place, but I know there was one leading into the merge, so that certainly affected my gameplay. And very quickly it was realized that the only shot me, Kesha and Julie had of winning the game was if the 3 of us never voted each other out and went to the finals together, and we all agreed. I really felt like I could trust them both because I liked them as individuals and also I knew, that they knew, we all HAD to stick together. I had originally wanted to stick with my Coba group of Chris and AJ, but i knew I could never beat AJ as a previous winner (and I always dreaded having to vote her out cause I really liked her, but I knew it had to happen eventually) and Chris was constantly after me in the game, so Kesha/Julie were really the best way to go. Im sorry if anyone was offended or hurt by anything I personally did. And I dont really wanna say too much so that people are more open to ask questions! So thanks for your time

[Kathy Griffin [Katie]]

Pryvet Everyone! I signed up to play this game and really wanted to win, devoting all my time and energy. My strategy was planned early and I kept to the main gist of it throughout this game. My strategy was to play UTR but still have an impact on the game later on. I tried to stay as loyal as possible to the alliances made and only voted against those allies when I had to. I played this game with strategy and after the merge came, I felt I played it socially too. I'm not asking you vote for me to win, I would love it, but I am not asking. I just want you to keep an open mind to everything everyone says.

I started this game on a tribe with a dynamic that did not fit my plan. All strong males that were hard to understand and build a bond with. I made it my goal to win an idol before I was eliminated. Jacob, David and Kiefer were so strong and seemed so tight early on that I knew Ne-Yo was my only buffer. Early on I got an idol and my pass to the merge. Allowing me to continue to play UTR and not get attached to my tribe early on, my usually downfall. That part was pretty easy, allowing me to get to part two of my plan when the merge came.

Before the merge came I was switched to the Coba tribe with Kiefer. I decided to get to know Kiefer better and make a bond with him so I could get a better grasp of things if he ever knew anything I couldn't figure out. I talked to Carrie and loved her right away, building a bond that lead to an alliance that eventually included Julie (I'll talk about that more later). I did my part on the tribe and continued to lay low making communication with most of the tribe but not on a fixed daily schedule. I knew Chris and Tom from the past somewhat and figured it would be good to get with them early and have an alliance I could rely on during the impending merge. It was my idea to get this alliance together, and one that probably got me here.

When the merge finally came I was shocked that David and Mariah were eliminated, but it was better for me because I wasn't on Tikal. I continued to talk to Carrie and we made an alliance, that later included Julie and loosely AJ. I also had Tom and Chris, but I knew that Chris would not be looking out for my best interest because he is such a smart player. I did my best to not stick out much early in the merge so I wouldn't be an early casuality just for being strong like Jacob was. My plan became trying to steer my two alliances the same direction so that at 5 or 6 I could go the way I wanted and get to the finals easily. At the live round I felt loyal to Kiefer but I needed him out of the game for my plan to work so he became the target and I voted for Julie with both of my votes with Kiefer. After Kiefer left there were 8 left and I had to get rid of Nick and Kelli for smooth sailing. The round nick left I knew that the votes were going to be scrambled because no one was talking so I convinced Tom to vote for Nick and that caused a 2-2 tie saving Carrie, I then got my allies to revote for him and I was the reason Nick left the game. Kelli went easily and then we got the final 6.

I didn't want to go against either alliance yet because I didn't know which way to lean. Julie was disliked but Carrie seemed to be a strong favor to win. Chris was in the same boat as Carrie in my mind and I didn't know how the jury felt about Tom. So I decided that little harm could be done if AJ was voted out. So I targeted AJ, she would have gone if it wasn't for her idol. AJ stayed and because of Carries vote I didn't leave. I made sure I won that challenge to stay and Tom left, ultimately forcing me to choose my alliance with Carrie and Julie. I knew I couldn't beat AJ so I couldn't do an alliance with her and Chris and I couldn't let Julie and Carrie know I was strategizing behind their backs because I had a solid route to get here.

So sadly I voted out Chris the next week, against what I wanted to do. I would have voted for someone else but I didn't know if AJ would self vote so I didn't throw a vote her way to stay loyal to Chris. Voting out AJ was the last step in the game. I went from UTR and slowly rose through the merge. I won three immunity challenges, two of which were rather important for me to stay in the game.

Thanks for reading this, I hope it's not too long.

[!Chad!]

Julie has until tonight at 10pm EST before I do something about her taking forever.

[Julie Chen [streetlightrox]]

Sorry I've been a little busy...

Alright, first I'm really excited to be in the final three and to have made it this far. My original strategy was to be in a firm alliance and just not be voted off early. Luckily, we had Pixie on our tribe who would be an automatic first boot as she never showed up. I didn't get an idol early on, so I really had to be there for my tribe or else I could've easily been the next to go. When Brad, Jacob and David joined Tikal, I gained an extra few rounds because neither Brad nor David had an idol, and old Tikal wanted to stick together. An alliance of Nick, Jacob, and myself developed, and Brad was voted out. After David and Mariah's elimination, I found myself in an alliance with Jacob, Kiefer, Nick, and Kelli. However, I was approached by Carrie to stick together, and we worked to get rid of Jacob, one of the biggest threats. After Jacob, Kiefer was the obvious choice. At the final eight, AJ was supposed to be the target, but I found myself in a tight spot when my two closest allies (Nick and Carrie) were tied for the boot. I had to make a decision, and Nick was the bigger social threat. After this, I tried to lay low and let my new alliance of Carrie and Kesha decide where to go from there. The target was on Chris, but he went on an immunity run so Kelli was next to go. After another tie, Kesha saved our alliance by beating Tom and Chris at the challenge, securing us a majority and eliminating the biggest all-around threat in the game. At the final four, it was just a matter of beating AJ and we were set. I had a great time playing with all of you, and I'd like to now apologize to anyone who I pissed off with my decisions. Good luck Carrie and Kesha, and thank you jury for listening.

[Carrie Underwood (someome)]

Well said, lets get this thing rolling!

[!Chad!]

Y'all can ask questions now, please make haste

[Kathy Griffin [Katie]]

For those of you who don't understand my strategy, it was just behind the scenes so I wouldn't become a target. I looked at winning strategies, and often players who played UTR for the first half of the game had alot stronger end games. Evidence is that I got only one vote aginst me this whole game while Julie and Carrie got alot more than that.

I'm really frustrated that some of you don't see that. It's fine if you don't vote for me, but it's bothersome when you don't because you didn't understand how I played.

[!Chad!]

AJ, Mariah, and Kelli still haven't shown up for questioning. Questioning will end Sunday at 6pm EST. Then I will open the thread for Closing Statements. The Finale will be posted Monday at 8pm EST unless I get all of the votes and all closing statements are posted by 10pm EST Sunday.

[Mariah Carey [Latisha Banks]]

Sorry I haven't been a very active juror! I know who I'm casting my vote for, and it's because I believe they had the best strategy based off of the opening statements!

Congrats and good luck ladies!