Round 1 - Check my technique

[mikeg]

Sup pigs. A lot of this thread will be my spammed monologue in my prod chat. I’ll try to organize it as cute as possible

[mikeg]

Pregame Confesh:

Hi, I’m drunk. For those of you who don’t know me, I am Mike..or better known as Mike G. This is my 10th year playing ORGs so it’s very likely you’ve played with me before, have seen me around or don’t like me. If you don’t like me, that’s something you need to work on. I first played XTC: Sierra Leone in early 2018 where I was able to use my “newbie” status to play an under the radar game and irrevocably destroy the rest of my cast by being the only player to be on the right side of the vote all season. I was going into FTC as a perceived goat, but was able to explain my game and be impassioned enough to narrowly miss out on the win in a 5-3 vote (the player who came in third place confirmed I would have won if the vote ended 4-4.) I was extremely proud of how I played Sierra Leone, but it wasn’t enough. I was immediately brought back to All-Stars, but my newfound reputation as a bloodthirsty strategic player preceded me, and I found myself in a sore spot from the beginning. Despite that, I was the swing vote in a 5-5 split at my first tribal and knew I was the sixth vote no matter where I voted. I think I voted correctly, but I chose the wrong buff and swapped into a 4-1 disadvantage and there didn’t seem to be much I could do. I provided a little excitement to prod (Carlos and Jay) as I NEARLY flipped the vote in my favor, but I was sent home nonetheless. Since XTC, I have whored myself around the ORG-o-sphere, playing in god knows how many, but of all the skype/discord games I’ve played XTC has always been my number one. After All-Stars, I have been in every VL of XTC since and I believe nobody else has been in as many as me.
I have a history with XTC that I doubt anyone else on this cast can possibly have, unless Jay is coming back. Jay hosted a Survivor game on Twitter and I played the first season. I ended up winning in a plurality vote but a win is a win! Jay asked me to help host the second season but…not everyone liked me on twitter so I hosted as Jay so people didn’t quit…that might be where my alias love originated. After helping Jay, Carlos played a season and won and moved to Skype to host his own Survivor game, XTC. So, in a way, I feel like I’m one of the OGs when it comes to this series and you can’t tell me otherwise.
In recent years, I haven’t taken ORGs as seriously as I once did. I will go into a game, be outrageous and accept that whatever happens, happens. The last game I went into wanting to do well and playing seriously throughout was Havoc and that was summer of 2020. Since then, this season of XTC will be the first game I really want to try in and do well. The last month has felt like the night before school with the butterflies the anticipation of coming back has given me. I can’t say what my strategy going into this season will be. I could be the otherworldly comedic-relief, the easy first-boot for having too many relationships or I can ease back into my UTR throat-slicer role I was in my original season. Regardless of which role I fall into and where my game goes, I am so god damn fucking excited to come back and make the best of this experience, no matter the outcome. Looking forward to seeing how much you all rooted for me. Until we meet again xx

[mikeg]

Day 1 before the game begins:

So game plan tonight is to sink my talon’s into any and everyone as soon as possible. I started 5 and AS off way too slow and it hurt my game. Season 5 was like playing kickball with toddlers so I was able to survive two tribals on a 5 person tribe but allstars I got my ass beat not taking advantage of the one world twist. There’s a chance for me to overcorrect and do too much too soon but I think it’s a risk worth taking. I was telling someone in a game last month that I’m never the vote out people feel bad about and that bothers me. My play style is very curated to not get me voted out but is more of a rat/unloyal game and to do that I almost never get super close to people. I’d love nothing more than to be the 4th-8th place vote out that’s hard for people to go through with, not the “eh we can vote Mike out whenever” or I never get voted out because people think they can beat me in the end

[mikeg]

Post Night 1 Call:

Night 1 call went as expected. They are always so painful and awkward it hurts. I usually don’t contribute much to them because it’s hard for me to force conversation. I feel good that everyone interrupted someone else at some point because that’s my biggest pet peeve and when I do it to someone else I want to melt into a ball and die.

My first thoughts on my tribe is KYLE!!!! I’ve been wanting to play with him since he first played XTC. I know he’s a very very dangerous player and can definitely outplay me in almost every aspect so I need to be careful but right now I want to work with him the most.

I’m realizing now that since my whole tribe played after me that I’ve viewed them all in their original seasons. It was hard not chiming it with things from their season but I did have to speak up with the deleted YouTube tribal because I’m very mad I couldn’t go back and watch it.

I think I vibed well on the call with Allie as she took the lead on the challenge and I chimed in a bit with different strategies. After the call ended she thanked me for that in our one on one chat so I’m taking that as a good thing. I’d like to call with her tomorrow because I want to work with her

So I definitely want to latch onto both Kyle and Allie and make us the center of this tribe if possible and I’m unsure of how the other 3 fit. I’m not going to be picky though

Taylor is good. I know she’s good. She has a lot of things to connect with everyone on our tribe, myself included, so I need to get to her before other people do and keep that relationship going.

Amber and Austin seemed the most nervous on the call. Austin arrived last. Amber left early. I rooted for Amber hard her season and I know Kyle did too. I’d love to talk to her more and get to know her better

Austin is a MESS. I’ve played a mini-esque game with him before and have hosted him in Mimiaire. He didn’t mesh well on the tribe call and if he’s the easy consensus boot going forward I won’t do much to save him.

It wasn’t a perfect Night One but it’s been better for me than a lot I’ve had in the past so I’ll take it as a win. I feel like I talked enough, contributed towards strategy with the challenge and created one on one chats with my tribemates. Small tribes are scary so I’m feeling the pressure to move quickly, I just can’t spiral out of control.

[mikeg]

Also a cute stat I was thinking about. I believe of this entire cast I have the highest placement on a past xtc season AND the lowest placement on a past xtc season. Nobody else rocking a 2nd or 20th

[mikeg]

Before the challenge:

Before I start calling people:

On the call everyone said they work 9-5s and we’re all happy we don’t have to be available all day…just about everyone was available all day messaging.

I had the most natural flowing conversations with Allie and Kyle which is why I want to call them both before the challenge. Make that a priority

Amber was good messaging with as well but it felt a little forced?? We both were funny at times though. I think we just need to warm up some more

Taylor stopped messaging during work which is fine. We connected on a few things but I want to talk to her more about Taylor Swift and her experience with cutthroat and hosting an org

Austin is 3 hours behind so he didn’t get on until later. He’s holding conversation well enough and is wanting to push for a tribe call to strategize. That’s smart of him. I realized that he told me he was loyal to me in a message last night and I didn’t say it back!!! Idiot!!! Why didn’t I say it back? I hope he didn’t catch that. I do really like austin and shouldn’t just assume he can be an easy vote here. Recently I’ve tried avoiding talking to him like I just noticed he has a zombie bite on his arm


What I’m wanting most out of my call with Kyle is to establish us being big threats and it being beneficial to work together. I’m really hoping he feels the same way and I don’t seem too desperate on the call. I also want to talk about relationships we may have and which relationships could pose a problem for us

With Allie I want to be a little vulnerable and tell her I want to come into this game as a different player. I know she was voted out of xtc for being cold and didn’t have much time to connect with her tribe on all out. While I do genuinely enjoy her and want to talk more to her because I like her, I am knowingly trying to emotionally manipulate her by laying the friendship card on heavy

[mikeg]

After calling Kyle and Allie:

Ok so that was like when you go to a Grindr hookup and you sit there with your hands on your knees talking about whatever tv show is trending before you start doing what you both knew you are there for.

Kyle and I knew the whole time we were there to say we wanted to work together (I hope) and it was a little awkward getting to that point.

I really hope he does want to work with me because I’ve wanted to work with him for so long!!! I know it’s cliche to tell someone you’re similar players and should work together but I really feel that with Kyle. I also don’t tell many people that because I don’t think many players are similar to me because most people are bad

I can out-strategy just about anyone, but charming people like he can? That’s just not in my wheelhouse. And forget about challenges. Winning those is overrated anyway

Took a different approach with Allie and right away told her I wanted to do things differently this game and come out a little stronger than I normally do. I told her I liked her on the call last night and messaging today and wanted to tell her instead of waiting like I usually do and ending up regretting not just saying something. I also highlighted her telling me she appreciated me bringing strategy to the challenge on call because I normally wouldn’t do that so her saying that made me feel like I did something right

She said her criticism was she moved too fast in past games so my thought now is if I move fast with her she will appreciate that. It was easy to keep the conversation going on call and I really liked that. We couldn’t talk for too long because she went on call with KYLE before me but I’ll take what I can get

[mikeg]

I wanted to place myself during the bidding to be on the items where I could try and make deals and make deals I did. I’m the only person who communicated with the other tribes and that was a huge risk to do in front of the entire cast right away but this game is about doing things differently and I went for the jugular. We may have won anyway but I feel I really sealed the deal and kept my tribe safe. WHAT A RUSH

With being safe this round I’m going to try and get on calls with the rest of my tribe and get a better idea of where I want my game to move going forward.

[mikeg]

Hope you like to read, Viewer. I just have a lot of feelings