Hey everyone! First I wanna thank everyone for this game, because it was a ton of fun and I wouldn't have wanted my All-stars experience to be anything less, and also want to thank the hosts for running another (hopefully successful) season of Stranded. This series I hold very dear to my heart, so getting to play in it for a THIRD time is a dream come true. I know all the power is in your hands right now, and hopefully I'll be able to show you guys the game that I played and why I think that I deserve to win this game.
Stranded in Portgual
Man was I a train wreck the last time I was in Stranded. For those of you who don't know, it was my second chance after an extremely sub-par performance in Namibia, and I was just ITCHING to prove myself, and it resulted in me completely losing my mind, on more than one occasion. I ended up making it to the end of the game (a lot of it on my own accord) but it wasn't worthy of a win, and looking back I definitely understand that. I was newer to ORG's at the time, and since then I have had a lot more experience under my belt, and have become a pretty accomplished gamer, and I think that the game I played here in the Marquesas was a complete 180 from the last time I was here. I was very observant, calm, and thought through all of my decisions rather than being neurotic and borderline psychotic like my previous game, and that is really what I set out to do here. At the Cast Reveal of my last game, Frank made this comment: ...I want to see a calm and collected Cochran in all-stars, this was South Pacific Cochran, that can be Caramoan for you. Make it happen.
And I really think that's what happened here, I made that 180 transformation from being the trainwreck who just wanted to play hard, in to the player that I feel like I have the talent to be, who played hard, but also smart. Nuku Hiva
The tribe pick ended up falling for me in a better way than I ever would have expected. I was sort of surprised when I was picked by Sarah, but it allowed me to start building that tribe from that point onwards, and that was definitely the tribe that I would have rather been on to start the game, because original Hiva Oa had a lot of BIG personalities, and seemed like quite a train wreck. Picking Ralph was a no brainer, and I don't think that was a surprise to anyone. At the time, I had a really good relation ship with Papa Bear, and even though he ended up being the joke of the tribe once again, having that relationship paid off when I put in the good word to him about Chad and he chose that to be his pick.
We hit the tribe forum and Ralph and I immediately clicked up, and I also reconnected with Chad who I have been good friends with for a while, and that formed a core 3 that would really run the original Nuku, and would be what I was playing to see as the F3 for the duration of this game. I was also really happy to see Carter (who I had watched play the season prior) and Katie (who I worked very close with in Portugal) on the tribe as well. I was never in any danger, and with the help of that threesome we were able to stay in the middle of two fivesomes (one with Debb/Carter and one with Katie/Caryn) to a point where I was never in any real danger. In addition to that, I had a good relationship with Sarah and that created a sort of threesome with myself, her and Carter, even though, to me, it was obvious that her and Carter were a lot closer than they were to me. The way that the alliances were set up, myself and the threesome had helped make every vote on original Nuku to be unanimous. Meaning that everyone had felt safe enough to stick with us. Also, I had a really good relationship with Debb and Carter, and I valued them enough to make that alliance the one that would go to the next phase of the game.
NuHiva Oa
I lose Chad to Refuge, but that's fine because I have a solid foursome, and I also gain an ally in Vytas. Vytas spent a lot of the game trying to distance the two of us by telling everyone how he wanted to get revenge for the last game we played together, and I think that it was a pretty easy sell. The minute that we met back up, we were able to talk it over, even though I knew that there was no real ill will over what had happened in Portugal, but it was an easy sell all the same. It was easy enough to make the other Hiva Oa's on the tribe think that he was on their side for the first vote, where we blindsided Ted. Ted was a gamer, and the person who I had the least of a relationship with on that tribe so it wasn't that hard of a decision for me. Also, the target from the other side turned on to my main man Ralph, and that wasn't something that I would ever be alright with, so getting Ted out of there was easy.
The next vote was hard for me, and was one of the two times this game that I didn't vote in the majority. Vytas was apparently selling the story about him targeting me very hard and it had the rest of the tribe convinced, or so they said. He also had the kind of attitude where he would do whatever he felt just to make the game a little more entertaining for himself, and that's not exactly something you want in the game, but I KNEW he had my back so I wanted him around. Debb/Carter/Ashley didn't feel the same and decided to blindside me. I lost a LOT of trust to these three here, and it made we wary of working with them come the merge, whereas before I was set on working with them. Also, they tried to play it off that it was something in my best interest to get rid of him, but that didn't sit well with me due to the fact that they still felt they had to leave me out on the vote.
Tahuata
This merge started out as crazy as you would expect, but I feel like I was positioned enough to make it past the first few votes with out much of a problem. I reconnected with Chad, Sarah and Katie, as well as started to build a relationship with Jolanda (Jo and I started to form a sort of alliance, even though that never ended up being followed through). Katie was getting a wrap for being a little crazy from over on Refuge, so she was willing to vote for pretty much any of them off, which allowed me to target Mia with enough support to make it happen. She saves herself from merge boot by winning immunity, and the target shifts to Lisa, who was my target the round prior, and in addition to that she didn't really have any loyalties at that point and that is very dangerous. Tribal happened and well, I have to thank Sarah for saving my skin. This is the one vote that I really think is a blip on my resume, because the Idol just wasn't a factor to me and it should have been. but yeah, Sarah makes the decision to throw a vote, and saves my life in this game, which was a good move for the both of us because Katie seemed to be completely against the Refuge group (her), and lol I was still in the game (me), and after that I was indebted to Sarah, and I planned to pay her back.
The next round, the target was Lisa again because I really had relentlessly targeted her the round before, and I knew that she was throwing my name out to people and I couldn't have that. The challenge happens and Lisa, Ken and Myself take the clue. I get in to the forum after the idol is taken, but before the forum was closed, and I assumed that Lisa found it. She made this insane puzzle for the last idol, so why couldn't she find this one? I had been hearing all day about how there was a plan to get rid of Ralph or I, that Ken, Mia, and Ashley were trying to push (with the help of Lisa), and if the Idol had been played and this was the truth, Ralph would have went home. So, Mia became the new target (Something I was fine with pushing because I had done it a few rounds before) and it had support of the 5 some, but Ashley and Jo were left out due to potentially being involved with the Ralph vote plan, and Sarah for having a relationship with Mia. Tribal comes and we have our second tie, and Debb decides to switch up to vote Lisa out on the revote, which wasn't expected. She explained afterwards that she didn't know what the plan was, but I felt she just wanted Lisa out for being against her at the start of the merge. This is the round (F11) that I start getting noticed for being in the middle of things and having a lot of power in my alliance.
I did some damage control here with Ashley and Sarah, but I decided that it would be a good idea to tell them the truth rather than feed them crap about meaning to tell them, which may have isolated them from me a bit but I thought that lying about it was unnecessary so I didn't. Also, after tribal I get this PM:
You motherfucking piece of shit
Justified I guess, I mean I lied to Mia about the vote and she was upset, but that PM chain got out of hand really quickly, and a lot of the stuff said was really personal, even though SOME of it needed to be aired out on both ends, I'm sure. This next vote, I am told by Ashley that she is with me again, and that we cleared things up, but I am getting told by others (Chad and Debb, namely) that she is once again targeting Ralph with the help of everyone that isn't part of the Nuku 5some. Sarah also had told me she was voting on my side, but she seemed distant after the vote the night before. Then, I win my first immunity, ever! It was a little bit of a cluster fuck at the end, but it couldn't have come at a better time due to the fact that we ended up drawing rocks at that tribal. I had the option to give Ashley immunity because the challenge was such a cluster, but I didn't and I stand by that decision. After hearing all day that Ashley wasn't with me, I was hoping that here not having immunity would deter her from going to rocks, because if she was really going to flip and I gave her immunity then she would have no reason to stick with my side. Her deciding to vote with the Refuge confirmed that she wasn't with me, enough so to put herself at risk to rocks. Sarah ends up drawing the Purple rock, which sucks because I never really had the opportunity to pay her back for keeping me alive at F12, but it also wasn't terrible because it limited the options that Debb and Carter had as far as making a move, and kept me in the majority where I had power. The threesome of Ralph/Chad/Myself gets called out here, and is the main selling point for trying to boot one of us (which was a good point actually).
I lose my PM's this weekend, but I get in to the forum and find the HII literally minutes before they are shut off. I tell Chad and Ralph immediately about it, but hold off on telling Carter and Debb. The plan is to boot Mia unless she wins immunity, but Chad and I talk about how Carter has been pretty obvious about the fact that he considered Ashley one of "us", and how she may have replaced Sarah as potentially making a move when it came down to it. We push the issue and Ashley goes home, further limiting Debb and Carter's options as far as making a move goes. Mia also decides to patch things up with me (or try to) because she is in a rough spot, and we decided that even though we didn't like each other, we needed each other around if we wanted a chance at making the end game. Ashley leaves ME with the comment saying that Debb and Carter would make a move at F7.
Now that Mia and I were on good terms and weren't exactly targeting each other, it makes sense for me to keep her as a sort of meat shield. We had a conversation that showed to me that she really hated Debb and Carter, which made it pretty easy to see Jo needed to leave, which would hopefully leave Debb and Carter with no real options. They were hesitant at first, but after pushing it, Jolanda was booted. Also, after the conversation with Mia, I knew that if she DID make a move with Carter and Debb, she wouldn't be set on working with them, and that I could get her in to my court on the vote afterwards.
At this point I tell Debb and Carter that I have the idol. I didn't just blatantly ignore everyone saying that they would make a move at F7, but I did what I could to try and stop that from happening, by leaving them with some one who really didn't like them, and was actually giving my threesome the opportunity to make a move at that point as well. Getting rid of people that would work with Debb and Carter proved to almost work, Debb had even said to me that Carter eneded to be convinced to make the move, and when Ralph had asked him about making that move on Chad earlier on in the day he had said that it wasn't smart. I have to give Debb credit here because she did a good job of convincing Chad and I that she hated Mia enough to still be with us. I was a little doubtful, but Chad said he felt she was firmly in our corner so I rolled with it. However, I didn't just leave my life in the game open like that, I made sure to tell everyone who knew about my idol that I was worried, and I might/probably will play it, so that if a move were to be made, it wouldn't be on me. I lose Chad here, which sucks because we were doing such a good job here, and if we had made it past that one vote we would be SO close to making the end of this game. This is the ONLY time post merge that I voted outside of the majority
Final 6, I win immunity, allowing me to use my Idol on my main man Ralph, getting us a free ride in to the F5. I made a risky move here in getting rid of Debb, but it was definitely my best bet at making the end, because I had been given so much flack for being in control of my alliance that I didn't see a world where Debb would take me to the end over Carter and Ralph. Also, Mia was still seen as a huge threat for the end game so it made sense to use her as a meat shield for one more round, because all I had to do was make sure she didn't have immunity and she would have went home. It ended up paying off, and I win immunity yet again at the F5, Mia goes and at WORST I am in a tiebreaker with Carter or Ken this vote (I had Ralph in my pocket for this vote 100%), and I fancied my luck going up against them after seeing how I had been fairing in challenges compared to them. It didn't matter either way, I won the F4 challenge (third in a row) and won my place here in the F3, and was able to get rid of Ken, who I felt was the biggest competition left for me in the final tribal. TLDR
I know that this is a pretty long read, but I had a lot to talk about when it came to my thought process for everything on this game, so all of it had to be said. I tried to bold the main points of all of the paragraphs, so if you just want to skim then go for it :) . I really feel like I was a VERY well rounded player this time through, and I played to my strengths the best I could, as well as found out that I have some new ones:
Social game- I had good in roads with pretty much the entire cast minus a few people come the merge. The connections that I made on original Nuku really helped me shape this game to my benefit. I was able to make stronger bonds with those that I knew, and new ones with those that I didn't, and I feel like I had a sort of respect from the entire game going through all of it. My social grace helped keep the Nuku together as long as it did (even though I obviously am not taking sole credit for this) and I think that even with out my immunity run, things would have shaped close to the same going in to the end game.
Strategic game- In Stranded in Portugal I got a ton of shit for making promises and moves that were unnecessary, and even though I did make a lot of decisions in that game they weren't always the right ones. This time through, I still feel like I was in the drivers seat as far as my own fate in the game, and every decision that I made was carefully thought out, and I feel that I made all the right decisions to put myself here with what I feel is a really good chance to win this game.
Physical game- This? Lol who would have fucking guessed that I would have won FOUR out of the 9 immunity challenges after the merge. One challenge I didn't participate in, so half of the challenges I played in were wins. That being said, I don't think any of the wins were really necessary, or that I was in any real danger with out them. F10 was nice to have because we drew rocks, but the vote wasn't on me that night, it was on Ralph. F6, I had my hidden immunity idol, and F5 I had Mia as a shield that I feel would have gotten votes over me regardless as long as she didn't win immunity. The only one I feel like saved me from getting votes was the F4 challenge, which wouldn't have sent me packing because I know for a fact that Ralph would have voted to keep me around.
I really think that I deserve this win, I played really hard and as smart as I could, I had a target growing on my back this whole game, being called out on more than one occasion for having power in my alliance, and I still managed to hit the end. My two opponents here, I feel, have been a little less out in the open as far as what their game was, and more or less played second fiddle to Debb and myself, while I feel like my game was visible and well played. Hopefully you guys feel the same.
I want to wish Ralph and Carter luck, and congratulate them again for making it to the F3. Ralph, we've been talking about this since as long as I can remember and the fact that we made it a reality is just so amazing to me, and I'm really glad we got to do this.
by Cochran » Sat Mar 14, 2015 3:51:30 am 
