A Note from Sarah

[Sarah Hrejsa]

Hey Guys! Sorry I took so long to post, I hope you both had a wonderful holiday

It's kinda bittersweet to see you two at the end. I was allies with both of you, but you both betrayed me in the end. I understand the strategy of the move, but it still hurt at the time, especially since I was completely blindsided by it. Anyways, congratulations on making it to end. You both played fabulous games and deserve to be here for your own reasons.

Nicole, I do want to make a comment to you about what you said in other post about wanting me out because you were afraid that Porsche had a stronger relationship with me and your spot was shaky if I stayed in the game. I wish you had talked to me about any of this because that wasn't true at all. I was planning to keep you safe as much as I was able to. If we had gotten to final four and I was HOH, I wouldn't have nominated you because from what I knew of Porsche and Renny's relationship, I wouldn't want to risk your safety. This is all water under the bridge now, but I wanted to correct that mistaken assumption.

I'm still at a slight crossroads of who to vote for. I've read your responses to some of the others which have covered many topics and having been going back and forth. At this point, I just have one question for you both before I decide.

1) What was the biggest weakness in your opponent's strategy?

And if there's anything else you guys feel I should know, feel free to share

I'll read this and any other responses you guys post to the other questions and make my decision. Again, congratulations! I consider both of you friends and am glad to have played this game with you. Love you both

And just because I've had this on my computer since the middle of the game

[James Rhine]

My finger was aimed at you Sarah.

[Nicole Schaffrich]

Hi Sarah,

Thank you for correcting me and filling in the gaps. The reality is that my decision wasn't based on a lack of trust but on an effort to keep the odds in my favour as much as possible. But had I communicated better with you, the ending of this whole game could have been different. I'm sorry for not coming to you about it.

To answer your question, I think the main weakness in Porsche's game is, like I described in another post, her sometimes emotional gameplay. I don't mean to suggest that her game wasn't strategic (it definitely was) but Porsche occasionally let her personal feelings make her decisions for her instead of adhering strictly to smart strategy. I consider this a weakness because it essentially puts your game at risk, even when there are less risky options available. Risk is admirable when it pays off, but in a game like this, I think risk is sloppy. I prefer to rein in as much as I can and keep every possible variable under control. Some of the more personal decisions that Porsche made in the game may not have yielded the negative outcomes they could have, but to rationally analyse the game will show that even risking these outcomes is, ultimately, a strategic weakness.

Thank you again, Sarah.

[Porsche Briggs]

Hi Sarah

I think that Nicole played a great game and took things step by step much like I did and I think that underestimating her opponent was her weakness toward the end.

She has said that she felt that when she chose to evict Dustin and keep me that she felt that in the final HOH that she had faith that her and Renny would pull through in the final HOH competition. I have seen it mentioned that I was a social player and I think that my competitive abilities were overlooked.

In regard to me playing based on emotion I can see why that was said. In the end with Renny I had just discovered that I was lied to and of course I was not happy about it and I said so in response to Dustin's question but it was also the best choice strategically. Nicole has stated that while she would have taken Renny to final 2 that she would have had a tougher time in stating why she shouldn’t win the game and I agree that for myself going against Renny in final 2 would have been a struggle for me.

More times than I can count I felt emotion in regard to choices that I had to make but went with the best strategic choice. An example of this was with Steven. You and I both were very fond of Steven and when he was asking for my vote I wanted so badly to vote in his favor and I know that you had a hard time with that week as well but in the end I went with the best game move over how I felt on an emotional level.