{Eagle - Juror Alpha-Ten}

The Eagle stands, stumbling at first but slowly getting to its feet.

"I realize there has been many a question about what happened from my perspective. I do not want to take things away from the finalists, so I will only talk about what was particularly relevant to me."

"My 'big move' this round was going to be giving up immunity and competing against the Kestrel in firemaking. I had informed them that I was going to do this, and Cat and Capybara were going to take one another, so the only way it did not occur was if the Kestrel won final immunity, which they successfully pulled off. Well played on their part."

"I did attempt to convince the Capybara to vote for Kestrel in the final five round, but in something of a roundabout way; I told them that I was going to take Kestrel to the end if I won the final immunity challenge. I figured this may encourage them to round up the Cat and the Owl and eliminate Kestrel, since at the time we believed that Capybara was being taken to the end in every combination, and people thought it likely I would win FIC. If the Kestrel ended up here, I did not want it to look like I was behind it, because I think we are both one anothers' biggest advocates."

"As for the Bunny vote..."

It untucks a small diagram from under its wing.



"This was the state of preferred final fours at the time, from my perspective. The boxes are the preferred final fours, and the dots represent what final four each player preferred."

"Capybara mentioned his double vote early in the round, and I was able to obtain it by pretending I thought the Kestrel would not vote with us, so it would tie and if he was the one to use it, the double vote would not be in use in the revote and he would be eliminated. He handed it off to me as a result. I was initially trying to figure out a way I could hold onto it without repercussions - at first the plan was just to eliminate him, but he informed the Cat that I had it, and the Cat would have been badly burned by a Capybara vote there."

"The only other option seemed to be making a vote 5-2 against the Lion, because only relevant votes short of majority are revealed, so it became imperative to get the Rat on board a Lion vote - only five votes would be revealed, but I could claim to have used the double vote regardless. But when I went to the Rat, he was solidly in the anti-Capybara camp, and all of the reasoning I gave to him about why the Lion should go immediately went to the Lion and the Bunny, which made me much more nervous about the trio there."

It pauses.

"I did not want the Lion gone, because I believe I was considered the biggest 'threat' in the game after him. And I was also fearful of Bunny's position; we had a secret alliance, but their connections were much stronger with people who were not me, and if you check the final four graph you will see they are in every non-Aquatica combination, even Kestrel's. Kestrel had gotten a little annoyed over the course of the round that the Bunny was just throwing words at them and was not listening to what they were saying, so toward the end I asked if they would be okay with a hypothetical snipe they did not have to officially know about. They were initially dubious but they eventually accepted."

"So I went to Capybara and Cat about voting out Bunny 'to avoid an idol'; Cat was happy with it, Capybara was not. But then the Lion claimed to have an idol, and that was enough for the Capybara to switch."

The Eagle shrugs.

"If someone is able to dismantle ALPHA-SEVEN, my work is done. It does not have to be me. I am somewhat thankful to be spared the hatred at FTC, if I am honest; fourth feels a better position to end in than second or third, which is precisely why I was going to firemake against the Kestrel."

The Eagle tilts its head.

"I am uncertain. I believed I shaped the events of the game much more than the Cat did, and played a much more active game. The question would have been whether the game I played annoyed people enough that the Cat would take it anyway."

"I certainly had a better shot against the Cat than against the Kestrel, I think. The Kestrel played the same game I did, minus the Bunny and Hedgehog moves, and plus a far better social game and a far better job at staying under the radar."

Yo Eagle, do have a question. From your perspective what pieces of the game did Kestrel mold, because obviously I was more out of the loop than I thought on the game, but the general vibe I got was, Kestrel never had super strong preferences at the start of the round and just..went with the majority and played catch up. I can see your featherprints all over the game but it's a lot harder for me to see theirs and since they were your #1 ally, hopefully you'll be able to give clarification.

The Eagle considers this.

"I do not want to make the Kestrel's case for them, so please take their word over mine at FTC. This is from my point of view, not theirs."

"The one that is still in my mind, because it resulted in my elimination, was refusing my request to fight the Cat. They knew that Cat was more of an FTC threat than Capybara, but they also knew that Cat was near certain to lose a firemaking challenge, whereas Capybara had a shot at taking me out."

"Prior to this point, Kestrel and I acted as a unit for essentially the entire game. I don't think that is a massive surprise to anyone here now, but almost every piece of information I received was passed to the Kestrel, and I think likewise in the other direction. We would always discuss the voting options between us and come to a joint decision, even on rounds like the Bunny round where it was a 'move they did not know about'."

"I think the big difference in the two games was that I was willing to tell both sides that I was voting with them, whereas Kestrel would always hide their intentions until we had reached a decision. So when the decision was made, it usually appeared to be me convincing the Kestrel, because I had stated the preference earlier - despite the fact I had also stated the reverse."

"They went with the majority because whichever way they went would be the majority; the two of us stayed in the middle for the whole game. And I think their game is why we were able to stay in the center. I never received a vote this game, but I do not think the reason for that is my own; I annoyed a lot of people, and I played in an overt enough manner that I had to immunity run my way through both Final Fives. The reason for that is that no matter who I annoyed or irritated, Kestrel was always well-linked enough that both sides would still view us as a better chance of getting their way than going to someone else."

"They were at the center of a huge web of information and relationships. And yes, I think they may have had problems if I was in the finale, because to some extent I was their shield and you cannot take your shield to the end. But a) I am not sure that would have prevented their win anyway, precisely because of the relationships I burned, and b) they took the shot when they needed to and removed their shield from the game before FTC."