The Final Two

[John McGuire]

Hi everyone

Wow, we have come to the end of the game.  It's been so great spending this time with you all.  I now have to announce who I will be taking with me into the final two.

The person I am taking to the final two
























































is.......













































































































LIZ!


Sorry James, you've been a great housemate and I wish you the best, your inactivity didn't help and I've been closer to Liz throughout the game.

Over and out.

[Julie Chen]

Congratulations John and Liz! You are the final two of Big Brother: Down Under!

Please post your Opening Statement by 8pm EST on Sunday night (10am AEST on Monday morning).

[Liz Nolan]

Thanks J Mac<3

[John McGuire]

I have always sought to play the game honestly and respectfully. I wanted to do the best I could and the goal was to make final two, but I wanted to do it without treading over everyone else in the process. I think I have been a good competitor who has got on with everyone and hopefully been liked by everyone. I wish Liz all the best and am happy I am in the final two with her as she is great.

Good luck and thank you.

[Liz Nolan]

Hey guys! I'm super excited to be here. I had tons of fun playing the game and chatting with people along the way. Before I get into things, big shoutout to Julie for hosting this game for us<3.

Despite this being a relatively quiet, low key game, I think I played it hard and well. I won 4 challenges overall; 3 vetos and 1 HOH. But I played the game on a deeper level too. I was a part of several different alliances and always kept a read on the pulse of the house. Doing so helped me make it to the final 3 without being nominated.

In the first round James (after forming a 1-1 thing) brought me into a group with him, Jeff, Jason, and Vanessa. I was skeptical about the group, but was encouraged that my social game was working. Since I felt like somewhat of an outsider here, I made sure to develop alternative paths.

This is precisely why I used the veto on John that first round, what I think was the first move of the game. Him and I hadn't even spoken yet, but I knew if I saved someone with the veto then I could count on them for at least a little while. Since John became one of my closest allies and he chose to bring me here last round (<3), I think this move worked great.

Two other important bonds I worked to strengthen were with Steve & Meg. I loved chatting with Steve and we seemed easily comfortable talking game with one another. Same with Meg, she was so fun to chat with before going inactive. Eventually (I think Meg was hoh?) we became a trio.

When it was Jeff v Day at the final 9, my vote was seemingly in the middle. Jackie/James were for sure voting Day out and wanted me to tie it up and Steve/Meg/Austin(I believe?) were voting Jeff out. I eventually settled on voting Jeff because I felt like Jeff/James/Jackie were a tight trio where I'd be 4th at best, while the other "side" was more open.

After that, even though I didn't vote with them, James invited me into another group alliance with him, Jackie, and Meg. I feel like you can never have too many people looking out for you in this game and I wanted to ensure my safety if one of them came into power, which Jackie did the next round.

I knew this alliance would only be temporary though bc I wanted to break Jackie and James up. Originally I wanted James out first, but then I switched my target to Jackie after she betrayed me by vetoing James during my HOH because I no longer trusted her and saw her as more of a comp threat than James.

I tried to give a general outline of my game and hope I wasn't too wordy lolol. I played all areas of the game (strategic, social, challenges) to the best of my abilities. I'm happy to explain anything else too and am looking forward to your questions.

Best of luck to John<3, who I thank again for bringing me here!

[Julie Chen]

Houseguests, it is now time to answer questions from the jury. As some members of the jury have not come online, I have taken it upon myself to create my own questions for you.

Jeff's Question
Who was in your main alliance and how loyal were you to those people?

Vanessa's Question
Why do you think you made it this far in the game?

Julie's First Question
What was your best move in the game?

Julie's Second Question
Why do you deserve to win more than your fellow houseguest?

Julie's Third Question
What was your worst move in the game?

You have 48 hours to answer these questions (7pm EST on Wednesday night - 9am AEST on Thursday morning).
Once you have answered these questions, the jury will have 72 hours to vote for their winner.

Good luck John and Liz!

[Steve Moses]

hold up julie i'm about to grillem because the sanctity of game demands it! haha

[Liz Nolan]

Jeff Weldon

Who was in your main alliance and how loyal were you to those people?


My main ally in this game was John. I saved him with the veto in round 1 and from that point on we worked very closely together. I would say that I was extremely loyal to J Mac; close to 100%. If anyone talked about targeting him, like when Jackie brought up that we should try to take him out in case he won the vault power, I tried to steer the convo/target in other directions. The only way that I "wasn't loyal" to John was not letting him in on the other alliances and deals that I had.



Vanessa Rousso

Why do you think you made it this far in the game?


I think I made it far into the game because I starting playing hard from the get go and didn't let up since. I don't want to be boring and restate everything from my opening statement, but I made good connections, won competitions, and kept a read on who was close with who. In addition to getting into alliances, I also think what helped me get here is turning on my allies at the right points. For example, James started the 'renegades' (V, Jeff, James, Jason, and I) in round 1. Even though I liked this group on a personal level, after a little bit, I sensed that I wasn't that well positioned here. No one really talked game with me 1-1 or much at all. I didn't have a choice of who to vote when it was you/Jeff on the block, but I made the game move to vote against Jeff the next round. I felt like the J's were all close and maybe aligned, which I saw as a threat, and it's what the people (Steve, Meg) I was now realigning myself with wanted me to do. If I hadn't made that move, I would have left a strong group in the game, lost the trust of some strong people, and I don't think I'd be sitting here if I hadn't done that.



Julie Chen

What was your best move in the game?


Honestly, I didn't play a flashy game with huge strategic moves. But that's not because I wasn't a strategic player. It's became my game just didn't necessitate huge moves. Instead it was just a series of small moves and constantly making sure I was well positioned. Like I outlined above though, I think voting out Jeff was probably my biggest move.



Julie Chen

Why do you deserve to win more than your fellow houseguest?


I love John, but I think I played a much more active game. I tried to be social with people and as such was involved in many different alliances and consulted with people on all the votes. I also won more competitions and made it to the final 3 having never been nominated.



Julie Chen

What was your worst move in the game?

My worst move was nominating Austin. I should have just done James and Jackie as my noms straight up. I was counting on the veto being a skill competition, which I figured John or I would have the best shot at, so James would stay nominated and go home. I shouldn't have taken that risk though or trusted that Jackie wouldn't save James if she did won. I did believe her though because just the round before she was showing me the screenshots Steve sent her of James throwing her under the bus, so I figured she wouldn't trust him.

[John McGuire]

Jeff's Question
Who was in your main alliance and how loyal were you to those people?
My main alliance was with Liz and Meg until Meg became inactive and then it was just Liz.  I think I was incredibly loyal to Liz (and Meg)as evidenced by me bringing her to the final 2. I offered support to everyone else in the house when I thought they deserved it but I did not form any other alliance with anyone else, it's not my style.

Vanessa's Question
Why do you think you made it this far in the game?
I think partially because I flew under the radar.  At heart I am a quiet, fairly inoffensive guy keen to get on with everyone.  I don't think I was seen as a threat. I also think it is because of the very strong alliance I formed with Liz - we were a smart team, we won a lot of challenges and were able to protect each other.


Julie's First Question
What was your best move in the game?
I don't think I had any one single move that I can describe as my best.  However I was very strong in competitions and won four HOH competitions as well as The Vault - the secret's out now!  So I think winning competitions would be my best move.

Julie's Second Question
Why do you deserve to win more than your fellow houseguest?
First of all, I'm so happy Liz and I made it to the final two, the worst thing is having to be in competition with her.  I think I have proven to be the most successful competitor - I grab onto a challenge and don't let go.  As I said, I won 4 HOH competitions and I also won The Vault competition.  The Vault was one of the hardest comps in the game and I think the fact that I was tenacious and stuck at it until the bitter end shows my strength and capabilities. No-one else in the house won as many HOH's as me and add to that The Vault and I think I am the more deserving winner.

Julie's Third Question
What was your worst move in the game?
Tough one Julie!  I did pretty badly on some of the challenges which weren't great moves.  I think also I probably wasn't involved enough with other people.  I could have socialised more and built a circle of friends to protect me if Liz & Meg were both voted out, which could have been disastrous for me.  The decisions I made were what I thought were right at the time but in hindsight I could have done more in these two areas.

[Julie Chen]

Thank you John and Liz!

Jurors, it is time to cast your vote for the winner of Big Brother: Down Under!

In order to cast your vote, MESSAGE ME with the name of the person you want to win by 6pm EST on Friday night (8am AEST on Saturday morning). The results will be posted at 7pm EST on Friday night (9am AEST on Saturday morning).

John and Liz also need to compete in one last challenge. Whoever gets the highest score in this challenge will receive one vote should the final vote be split evenly among jurors (1-1/2-2/3-3). (The results of this challenge will not matter if there is a majority vote.) The final challenge is Cat Bowling: www.brandextract.com/catbowling/

Good luck John and Liz...

And happy voting, Jurors!

[Steve Moses]

first of all i want to thank julie for hosting this game. it takes a lot of effort to do it and its something we should all be thankful for. Unfortunately others didnt feel the same causing this to be a terrible season where 9-10 people quit when they didnt get their way or were inactive and that made this a terrible season. Lets be honest does anyone really deserve to win when there was only half the game played? i dont think so but here you both are. 

Disclaimer: I can only speak from my experience and from what i've heard. Also i dont count anything pre jury. If you respond with anything you did or reference a move you made then I wont vote for you. 

John:

ok im gonna get this one out of the way. John, I dont respect your game at all. You played a great inact game (with me at least) and that wouldnt want me to vote for you. coupled with the fact that you were always on when you needed to be but never to be active to just talk. Plus you give basic no answer to the questions because again you haven't done anything but win some comps. again as you're saying you made no moves for your self even tho you won stuff. if you cant even do that why should i even vote for you. also you said you didnt get into any other alliances but at the end of week 4 and first week into jury you made an alliance with me. so for you to say that is bs and shows me how much you respected me. which i know wasn't much because you didn't even bother to answer me because your head was too busy being up james' ass and making moves for him. so please say something give me something deep and substantial because if you give me some one or two line crap then dont even bother. 

Liz:

i kinda have the same feeling about your game. it seems like you made 3 moves week 2 and then you did nothing but win some comps and do jackie and james' bidding. The somewhat redeeming quality is that you at least made the smart move by getting jeff out. After that you just made bad moves. After jackie does james' bidding and puts austin and I you dont use the veto on me to protect meg. Who ended up being inact and for this season I shouldn't be surprised. The only person you would have pissed off was james and /or jackie. Then you could have taken me john and you and saved austin killing their games making us loyal and no one would have even though about coming after you specifically because austin and i would have been bigger threats. I understand since you were in an alliance with them but you could say the same about me and you knew i didnt have anyone else so you should have known I would have been loyal to you. Plus the fact that you gave me some half ass message at the end bothered me. But then you did the dumbest thing for your game after I left and left jackie and james in while sending home austin. Normally this would just be a bad move but its even worst because i told you it was a bad move. before i left because I liked you I was like hey take austin because he is alone (basically me #2) and james and jackie are close because clearly jackie put me and austin up to appease him for his game. you made terrible strategic decisions but were saved by comps. Usually i'm all about comp wins but with such a short season and so few people to play against its not a valid argument imo. 

btw totally didn't see that you're biggest move was my move. your biggest move was me using the veto on austin and giving you that opportunity and for you to take credit for that after telling me not to use it....pick something else please

Basically the biggest social move both of you made was to align with 3 worse people than you to further you along. Jeff tried bullied people into what he wanted to do(who backstabbed John), james lied and tried to act like he was the most loyal person ever(who backstabbed jackie and jeff), jackie is a sore loser(who backstabbed me). you both made it farther than me by winning more comps so congrats but you have to play an all-around game for you to get my vote. So please convince me to even vote because if neither of you will put in real effort then I wont vote and i hope its a tie so it can be decided by a comp because that the only way you got here. 

[Steve Moses]

also please Please give each jury member (besides davonne) an overall Edgic rating and explain why. if you dont know what it is please google it. I know you have internet

[Liz Nolan]

I was closer to Meg than I was with you as her and I had aligned before the two of us did. Had I known she would go completely inact then I would have more strongly considered using the veto on you. However, I know Jackie had her eyes set on John by that point too, who I've explained was my biggest ally and I wouldn't have risked him. You were the biggest comp threat to me left in the game at that point too so at the same time I knew you had to go before things got down to it. I realized you were such a comp threat after you won that 5 minute posting challenge with only 1 off from a perfect score.

When did you tell me to pick up Austin? I just reread our PMs and I don't see anything about it. If you sent it after the eviction maybe your PMs were disabled and I didn't get it. Putting him up over Jackie when I was HOH was also a calculated risk on my part. Jackie and I had a solid prior relationship whereas Austin and I hadn't talked much in recent rounds or game ever. So it did not make any sense for me to blindly trust him and destroy the relationship I had built with Jackie.

I'm also not sure why you're saying getting Jeff out was "your move" because you saved Austin. Jeff was already nominated before the veto was used. So the votes (you, Meg, and I) were already there against Jackie & James since Day was inact at that point or regardless I think J Mac would have evicted Jeff in a tie breaker (he can confirm or deny if he wants?). I didn't tell you not to use the veto so that Austin would go home it was so that you wouldn't gain a ride or die ally. We can share credit for the eviction if you want, but I'm not going to agree with your claim that it was 100% you and pick a different move.

Vanessa: MORP4. Vanessa was sweet and I think would have gotten the narrator edit for the first few episodes at least. Word around the house was that she was also playing really hard the first few rounds. In addition to being sweet, fans would see her as positive I think because of her fighting spirit.
Jeff: MORP3. Jeff was definitely playing a strategic game and would have gotten at least average amount of airtime. I say MOR instead of CP bc I think others he was aligned with would be pictured as more in control. Jeff was a fun, likeable guy so without a doubt positive.
Steve: CPM5. I'm sure you would have been heavily featured. You put a lot of strategic thought into things and also played active in influencing others. Mixed because you were always nice and likeable 1-1, but you also had some public drama with James and a self righteous final speech.
Austin: UTRP5. I don't know much about Austin's game so this may be an inaccurate perception. He was active around the boards though so definitely max visibility for an UTR character.
Meg: UTRN3. Didn't really do much besides when other people instructed her. She was important during her HOH, but I also see her coming off negatively there because she was the first to keep inactvs safe. Good move obv, but "casuals" wouldn't like it.
Jackie: MOR2Neutral. I think the only time Jackie would have gotten significant airtime would have been when she used the veto on James. Deleting her account after being evicted negated any prior positivity she had earned.
James: CPP3. Going inact means I won't rank his visibility above 3, but he was very visible before that. He was also always posting nice things around the board and trying to start fun convos. Behind the scenes he was def playing the game though. For example, forming the renegades but then telling Meg that Vanessa said she was a threat immediately after she said it.

Hopefully my answers have inspired you to vote either for me because I explained myself well here/in other questions or to vote against me for Johnny Mac in order to spite me.

[Julie Chen]

Houseguests,

I have been called into work all day tomorrow. I am extending voting another 24 hours until 6pm EST on Saturday night (8am AEST on Sunday night). I will reveal the results then too.

Apologies for the inconvenience,

Julie.

[John McGuire]

Steve
It's entirely up to you if you want to vote or not, I don't want to force you to do something you don't feel good about doing. It's also your choice to disrespect the way myself and Liz played the game, but at the end of the day we are in the final 2 which indicates we played the game exceptionally well otherwise we wouldn't be here and you or two of the other housemates would be. There are many many many different ways to play and win this game, and not one right or wrong way. The point of this game is to win, and whether that is achieved by winning a lot of comps as I did or by playing a social game, or anything else, all methods are valid. I don't think it is in the spirit of the game to blame the final two for being the best to play the game.

As to your accusation that I formed an alliance with you, yep we had an exchange where you asked me if you could talk game with me and I said it was fine I was happy to work with you and that was the end of the conversation. However to me it soon became clear that any alliance with you was not going to work, which was confirmed in my mind after your public outburst about James. I didn't offer you any further support or discuss an alliance with you after our initial conversation. I'm sorry you thought I was disrespecting you - that wasn't my intention. At the time I thought that my energies should be focused on the strong alliance I had with Liz (and Meg) instead of fostering other alliances. I realised that getting into more than one alliance didn't work for me - I didn't want to be working with two or more groups with each group telling me the other group were the bad group, or one group telling me that Person 1 was evil and gunning for me and the other group telling me Person 1 was supportive and on my side - which happened more than once in this game. It wrecks my head. However the main reason I wasn't replying to messages and may have appeared 'inactive' was that I have an offline life as well and there were period when I was so incredibly busy I didn't have to time to log in regularly - I have two very busy jobs, a family, I got sick....it wasn't ideal and I wish I had been more social and had more time to log on but it is what it is. I'm sorry.

I don't understand what you are referring to when you say "you're saying you made no moves for your self even tho you won stuff. if you cant even do that why should i even vote for you." I didn't say anywhere in my answers that I made no moves for myself. I'm sorry I can't really respond to this because I don't understand what it is referring to.

I also don't know what you are referring to when you say "your head was too busy being up james' ass and making moves for him" I was not in an alliance with James and I did not make any moves for him - can you point out the examples where I made moves for him so I can respond to this in the way you want? James was a fun, kooky guy who was always trying to be super-nice and involved - I thought he deserved some of that nice-ness returned to him, so yes I did respond to his posts with a few nice comments but I wasn't 'up his ass'.

VANESSA - MORP4. I thought Vanessa was very likeable and she had a great sense of humour - a sort of ditzy but smart appeal. I think she would have been a popular housemate with viewers and her sense of humour would have made her good for the cameras. This would have given her positive coverage but I don't think she would have been the focus or seen as a potential winner as she didn't perform great in comps and seem to drift away in the weeks before she was evicted.

JEFF - CPM4. I thought Jeff was likeable but I think underneath everything he was a fierce competitor and was in it to win at all costs, that's why I give him CP because you were never quite sure with Jeff - it's something which I can respect him for though because that it what the game is about, winning. I give him mixed because that kinda personality can divide people, but is usually a guarantee you will get good visibility.

STEVE - CPM5 Steve was usually a nice guy, but he was also very good at speaking out and saying exactly what was on his mind. He has a quite complex, very interesting personality and you never knew what was going to come next from Steve (which can be a good thing), which is why I gave him the CP. Again, this kind of personality can divide people and I think Steve would have a very mixed reaction but would always be extremely visible as his personality is the type that draws people to him, whether for good or bad reasons.

AUSTIN - UTR Neutral 3 Austin seemed a great guy but he didn't draw any attention to himself and was very much under the radar, to me anyway Because I wasn't involved with him much and he wasn't a strong presence in the game I rated him neutral and a visibility of 3 as he did seem to become less and less involved as the game went on.

MEG - MORP3 Meg had a great personality, middle of the road which is exactly the rating I have given her - not loud not quiet, not pushy but not meek, in it to win it but not with an all consuming ambition. Definitely a positive with good visibility until she went inactive.

JACKIE - MORM4 Jackie was great with a good sense of humour until she went inactive and caused some problems which was a shame and caused me to look on her not so positively.

JAMES - OTTP4 James was a super nice guy who always tried to get on with everyone and always wanted to have fun and was always keen to be talking, talking, talking. Sometimes it was a little too much, hence the OTT rating, but his heart was always in the right spot. It was a shame he went inactive - almost at the same time as Jackie did, which was weird.


I agree the fact that the number of inactives in this game was disappointing - maybe Julie should run another game with all us actives in it plus some extra people who promise to be active so we can fight it out again with a full house!

Well Steve I hope this answers your questions and has at least convinced you to vote if nothing else.