I was really happy with this song choice, both because it did so well that week, but also because it is really different from anything I listen to or usually enjoy. District 3 was also one of the acts that differ a lot from what I usually like, but I adapted to the task, went out of my comfort zone (I could easily have chosen something else) and it worked out great
This one was also a different song choice, that I really enjoyed. It's not the typical song you hear in shows like X Factor, or even see in these shows (from what I can tell) but it's a great song imo, and worked perfectly for Aiden and Sydnee. It's also very different from anything else I've chosen and still it got a great reception. I'd love to have seen this irl :P
This one was a challenge for me. Jamie is nowhere near being a favourite XF act of mine, and I didn't really know a lot about him beforehand, I had a couple of suggestions from him, all pretty different from eachother, but I thought this one was great for him - and really played to his strenghts, showing off what (at least) I could enjoy in his performances. Also I think this isn't the typical song either for these shows, or TF, but it went down really well and people really seemed to like it.
So what I'm trying to get at is basically - I've been choosing songs that really differ from eachother, using both artists that I really like, and some that I don't enjoy at all, but still managed to adapt to the task and find suitable songs that could work - or try to take risks and work with some kind of vision, and hope that it's well received (like the Mallory Knox song ) I worked really hard on varyign the song choices, and it paid off, and helped me grow into legit competition to the other contestants.
I feel this song shows my creative, risk-taking and adventurous mentoring approach particularly well and shows how I’ve been a strong and consistent contender since Week 1 as many people said this was their favourite choice in our team. I took careful note of Steph’s reggae vocals and style, and chose one of edgy Elliphant’s more mainstream and softer songs which suited Steph’s style well. I always want to stand out rather than be middle of the road with my choices and I feel Down on Life showcased that aspect particularly well. Both the other team leaders – Stacey and Aliyah – have complimented my creative, risk-taking mentoring style saying that they’re always interested in seeing what I come up with every task as I always put thought in to my choices. I also feel this song also showcases my teamwork attitude that I always choose songs which complement and yet provide a good contrast to the ones that we have (we had a pop, acoustic and indie pop songs so I wanted to provide a song with a bit of R&B/hip hop to provide a contrast). I always listen to my team to enhance my song choices, integrating their approaches into my style and I make sure we do our best as a team as well as individually which is what this whole process is about!
I feel this song demonstrates my dedication to this process particularly well as it shows how I dig deep into an artist’s catalogue to find the most appropriate fits and demonstrates my passionate approach to music in general. It also demonstrates how creative I am with my choices once again in how I used an indie rock artist’s most musical-pop song to suit that Queen/Foxy Shazam-esque showman in Stevie. I also wanted to avoid turning Stevie into simply a novelty act and give him some credibility with choice while retaining that fun aspect of his style which is what made him endearing in the show in the first place, once again showing the thought and the attention to detail I put into my choices. Additionally, that task actually highlighted my teamwork aspect best of all as I assisted my two team mates with their chosen artist/song with Youngblood Hawk and Jaymes Young to give us a really good set of songs. Both Nathan and Jacka too have noted how I’ve always been supportive of them – again I’ve always wanted us to do well as a team which is what this whole process is about and what will keep me coming back year after year!
This song particularly shows my dedication to choosing recently released songs by artists who have not been used before like I did last task with Kid Runner, Femme, Coin etc and I think people appreciate that. Coming into this forum as a person who wants to discover new music – I want to reproduce that experience for other people. It also essentially shows my attention to detail to an artist’s personality, style and vocals to find the most appropriate fit. I took careful note of Zara’s funky, sharp enunciation and euro-pop, edgy style, and found an equally edgy song by Shannon Saunders – Justin even commented saying that no one would suit the song better! More importantly however it shows my growth in this process – how I now prioritise choosing songs based more off suitability rather than simply ones I like, and how my entire attitude towards this process has been one to listen and learn from Pete, my team mates, the other teams and even the voters.
It also shows (along with my other song choices) my versatility in my love for all music genres in how I am interested in a variety of genres from indie rock (like Coasts/Fmlybnd) and electropop (Little Daylight/LIGHTS) to indie pop (Kid Runner/The Colourist), mainstream pop (Florrie), dark wave (Memoir/Xylo), glam rock (The Struts), folk (Chasing Grace) and euro-pop (like Shannon Saunders) etc. I enjoy many different types of music and so equally I’ve shown versatility in my mentoring approach. I am the bridge this year between mainstream and indie! It’s this combination of creativity, risk-taking and versatility in my mentoring approach combined with my strong consistency since Task 1 and diplomatic, willing-to-learn and team-working attitude which is why I should win this.
1. You may now vote for your winner, either Roxie or Robert. You just need to supply one name and PM BOTH r0ry101 and myself.
2. Everyone can continue to ask questions over the next 24 hours to help make your decision for who to vote for.
3. Voting closes tomorrow at 8pm. The winner will be revealed soon after.
4. There is still time to vote in the Team Factor Awards if you haven't done so already.
And to encourage everyone else, here is my question to both players:
There has been some shock among the viewers regarding Jakk's recent elimination, which clearly means they thought one of you two were the weakest of the top 3. Do you both think you've done enough to be THE standout in the competition and not just a default choice?
Roxie and her essays, I guess nothing changed since her past mentoring days in that aspect. Some very solid choices from both players here actually (still listening as we speak), you're not making my decision any easier. Roxie has made some amazing song choices over the course of the series, picking some flawless artists, while Robert has been the surprise of the competition for me - I never knew you were this good a mentor.
Before I vote, I want to know one last thing from both of you. I've asked this question many times while hosting myself, but I genuinely believe it adds something to the final decision.
My question: Why do you deserve to win Team Factor 3 instead of your rival, who has clearly proven to be an absolutely fantastic mentor as well?
Anyway, my question for you both is: What have been your highlights and most enjoyable moments of Team Factor? And did you ever expect to reach the finale?
I'd like to take a break from being Aliyah's spokesperson, and use my new personality to ask a question. Over the competition there's been a lot of predictable choices, and last task there has as well. Do you believe that you both truly have performed to your best capability? Are there any song choices that you regret or think could be improved with less predictable artists?
A recurring theme throughout this whole competition seems to be my name being brought into arguments/drama when I have literally done absolutely nothing and I personally find that hilarious.
Anyway yo peeps, finally got power and internet back (praise jesus) I'd be lying if I said I wasn't guttered to be out now, feel slightly done over knowing that if it wasn't based on just wins I'd of been through based on overall in this task (not being bitter before anyone says anything just feels slightly guttering knowing that would've happened), but on the bright side I can go knowing that at least my songs and my mentoring weren't judged as the worst of this whole task, you know silver lining .
Albeit leaving has been quite nice due to the fact I've had 5 PM's from random peeps saying they wish I was in the final (big thanks to those people) and then all the love on thread has been lovely as well, I've gotten used to seeing my name on DS and expecting a war about me, albeit that happened later on in the evening by the looks of it.
Now I'm just gonna clear somethings up because people seem to be throwing shade and shizz. No I didn't show my team mates any of my songs at all so that can stop being said right now, the only person I did show them to was my mentor (Aliyah) because as said in the task we were allowed to do that.
Now for Aliyah's post, I agree to an extent, and before anybody jumps down my throat going "omg you're so bitter, you're saying it just because your out" blah blah blah I've spoken about this to multiple people before I even got eliminated and this was during the earlier stages of this competition. Lately on games it does seems people will base it more on the song rather than how it suits the act and its been quite prominent in this game in particular where I've seen teams with songs where I've been like "HELL YEAH DOWNLOAD THIS STUFF NOW" but then the song isn't suitable, but another team will have songs which are pretty good but suit the act perfectly and will then lose (I am not saying Team Aliyah's songs were the perfect ones btw that'd be biased as hell, this is on the whole of the other two teams not my team). Albeit that is my view point on the whole subject and I know others will disagree with it but like I said my view on it and shizz.
Now for the traditional BS thank you's but cba with that as no one ever really seems to notice them XD.
And now for a bit of a hard question, as they're all too nice and easy so far, for both Robert and Roxie (eyyy its like Series 1 and 2 all over again, battle of the J's, then the battle of the A's now the battle of the R's, freaky stuff).
Roxie: You've spoken many times about your risk taking mentoring style. Your choices either go down well as seen with Steph Nala and Elliphant or flop completely as seen with Betty Who for Kitty Brucknell so why is it in this final task you seemed to of played it incredibly safe with choices like Chasing Grace and Laura Welsh (otherwise known as DS jizz acts) when throughout this whole process you seemed to always push for originality and risks but pretty much abandon that when its the final?
Robert: You mentioned in the BR when I was Ali's proxy whilst she was in France that Stacey in fact suggested the artists for you to use in that task. I'm all for judges assisting their mentors but when you're given the artist the work imo disappears so I think it'd be good to ask you if it wasn't for Stacey suggesting artists for you to look at or use at points in the competition, would you in fact still be in this competition or would you be out?
Cringey personality?? Lmfao. Have you ever known my actual personality? Everyone on my team knows me as a person and you clearly don't. If you actually knew me, then you would know how loyal I am, and I will defend and speak for her if I want to, it's called being a team. So I don't care of your opinion of my tragedy. It's not trying to be "sassy" but if it comes across that what I couldn't give two, I call it being loyal to someone who's my friend, mentor and teammate.
Well ya you've gone from being quiet and under the radar to insulting people and trying to start arguments with everyone so a change is clearly evident..
Anyway my question for Robert and Roxie is
What do you believe is your strongest quality that you have showcased in this competition and that makes you the ultimate player?
And to encourage everyone else, here is my question to both players:
There has been some shock among the viewers regarding Jakk's recent elimination, which clearly means they thought one of you two were the weakest of the top 3. Do you both think you've done enough to be THE standout in the competition and not just a default choice?
Well, all of my teammates were eliminated really early on, which forced me to do several tasks myself (although Stacey did help me too).. Still I managed to both win a task, and also get through to the final 3, where I also went through. I don't have any experience with these games at all, and in the beginning I had a hard time even knowing what to focus on - what made it even harder was that I only knew XF acts from the last 3 seasons or so, and definitely not all of them. I've looked up so many acts, listened through their performances and thought about both what would fit them good, and what I would like to hear them do, and my song choices have been a mixture of these. I've also taken into consideration what the people on here seem to like, although sometimes taking pretty big risks, that has paid off really well.
So I daresay I'm probably one of the contestants that has grown the most, and although I started off pretty weak I definitely do think the last four rounds have shown that I definitely do belong in the finale - perhaps even in the winning spot. Ofc, Jakk did have a great week last week, and both him and Roxie are very well known on these forums - both from earlier rounds, and other games, whereas I haven't participated in anything other than DS Factor before. I do understand if people think that the two of them should be in the finals, but apparently my songs the last weeks have brought me here - that's why I let the comments about people voting for people they know etc get to me - if anything I didn't expect to have 4 winning acts this week. I'm all up for you (the arrangers of this) writing out who voted for which acts if that would help or so.
My question: Why do you deserve to win Team Factor 3 instead of your rival, who has clearly proven to be an absolutely fantastic mentor as well?
I've kind of answered this in the earlier answer but I think that I've grown from someone not knowing how to do this at all, to taking risks with both acts and song choices. I've embraced the challenges, and only become more confident with each one. Being in the top 3 was an even greater challenge, and having to compromise with the song choices since all three of us apparently are people with really strong wills but really busy schedules (:D ) I decided to let the two of them decide most of the acts, and focused on finding songs that suited what was chosen (it wouldn't have worked otherwise xD), or again - finding songs that seemed close to the music which I wished those acts would sound like. And that paid off really well too. So I guess to sum it up, my answer is that instead of being an experienced player who knows how to play the game, what to do etc, I've learnt so much, and developed so much that I've ended up winning a task, ending 2nd (behind jakk's awesome song choice) and winning this top 3 task too.
Anyway, my question for you both is: What have been your highlights and most enjoyable moments of Team Factor? And did you ever expect to reach the finale?
The most enjoyable moment for me was without a doubt in the top 7, where I was very certain there was no way I wouldn't end up in the BR, but the buyers really took a liking to my songs, reading those song names on there was so awesome and really boosted my confidence (and made me happy ), that I even managed to win made it all even more awesome, all the work had paid off Of course I didn't expect to reach the finale, especially when I was alone, and both of the other teams had three acts each left, that were all very strong. But after that week I thought I might have a chance after all!
Robert: You mentioned in the BR when I was Ali's proxy whilst she was in France that Stacey in fact suggested the artists for you to use in that task. I'm all for judges assisting their mentors but when you're given the artist the work imo disappears so I think it'd be good to ask you if it wasn't for Stacey suggesting artists for you to look at or use at points in the competition, would you in fact still be in this competition or would you be out?
I expected more about this in that BR tbh, but I might as well explain it now I had chosen the songs, and had ideas for the artists, easter etc, me not being at home at all, and driving like between cities in Sweden for several hours per ride, was all very time demanding, and I simply didnt have enough time to do the whole task that the other teams had both a mentor and three + two acts each to work together on. I resorted to what I could and asked Stacey (who still was my mentor) to help me with the acts since I wouldn't have time. Of course it did pay it's not (not saying Stacey is a bad mentor xD) but I did end up in BR and all in all that week wasn't a very proud moment for me. I had a really well thought through idea of a really chill atmosperic concert, but I didn't manage to do it justice since I didn't have time to look through acts for the songs thoroughly. But as I said, me ending up in BR at that point was probably the right thing. I would of course have chosen acts too all by myself if I didn't have Stacey's help (I did ofc have an idea on what kinds of acts I wanted to use since I had chosen the songs..), and I don't think the BR results would have been different if I had done it.
Anyway my question for Robert and Roxie is
What do you believe is your strongest quality that you have showcased in this competition and that makes you the ultimate player?
Hey Paulie It would have to be that I can adapt. Both when it comes to understanding what this game is about, what is expected of me, choosing songs depending on which act is performing.. I've been doing a lot of it, or else I wouldn't have come this far, at all :P Whilst the artist choices seemed to be a very big deal for the others in the top 3, I worked with the acts they chose, and did pretty good with them imo. Same goes for the musical week, where I agreed on your suggested plot (not a sign of lacking leadership as some implied ) and again, worked with/adapted to what we have. I think I'm pretty easy to work with because of this, and it allows me to focus on what's the most relevant, which for me is the song/artist matching and also related to the theme.
I think that was all, really have to go to sleep now, gnite
I'd like to take a break from being Aliyah's spokesperson, and use my new personality to ask a question. Over the competition there's been a lot of predictable choices, and last task there has as well. Do you believe that you both truly have performed to your best capability? Are there any song choices that you regret or think could be improved with less predictable artists?
I'll return to being Aliyah's spokesperson now.
Oh I missed this....
The "negative" comments I've received has mostly been concerning acts that "are used a lot on DS" "was used in another round of TF" "was used in NTA" etc... I haven't really been able to do a lot about that, except for look through all old game threads, and perhaps ask stacey/team members but otherwise meh, not realistic. Of course, as I mentioned in my answer to Jakk, I would happily have changed pretty much all acts for that round though, or at least given them a couple of more rounds of thought.
And to encourage everyone else, here is my question to both players:
There has been some shock among the viewers regarding Jakk's recent elimination, which clearly means they thought one of you two were the weakest of the top 3. Do you both think you've done enough to be THE standout in the competition and not just a default choice?
1) I believe I have stood out in this competition and have been a strong consistent competitor throughout. Right from Week 1 I stood out with my adventurous Elliphant choice for Steph and lively Florrie choice for PYT then in Week 3 I contributed towards all 4 of our songs and in Task 5 (The Musical) I spent 5 hours with Pete, choosing 5/6 of our choices, adding many plot elements, so I have been performing consistently since Week 1. I am also creative and love taking risks in my song choices too from choosing an urban, indie pop artist like Memoir for Sam Bailey to suit her big vocals in a more current, authentic way to using an R&B artist like Kimbra's most eccentric electropop song to suit Blonde Electra's crazy, fun vibe. Furthermore I am versatile in song choices I have chosen songs from many genres from rock (The Struts) to electropop (Femme) to indie pop (Kid Runner/The Colourist) to R&B (Kimbra). Alongside that I constantly go out of my comfort zone and have tackled some of the most difficult acts like Stevie Ritchie, Steph Nala, Sam Bailey, Blonde Electra with creative songs that people have enjoyed. I am also incredibly passionate in my approach to this game as Pete, Stacey, Aliyah and Nathan have complimented me on - I always think my choices through thoroughly and actively search for new songs - for example my Colourist song for OTY was released the day before!
Most importantly I am a great team player as Pete, Jacka and Nathan have said; Nathan even said a lovely thing about how I brought the team together with Pete. In a game which fosters amazing team relations (as Gav so eloquently put it), I feel that matters so much. It's important every task for the team to win and I have always been supportive of my team mates in that way. This is as much a team game as it is an individual one and they have been amazing. So overall no doubt Jakk and Robert are great but I do feel it's this combination of attributes actually which I think makes me well-rounded and therefore allows me to stand out. It's also why I believe I should win.
My question: Why do you deserve to win Team Factor 3 instead of your rival, who has clearly proven to be an absolutely fantastic mentor as well?
2) Hey Rick! I feel that I have answered some of this in my answer to Alex's question in how I stand out but to summarise and add some more information on: I feel I deserve to win because I have been a really well-rounded candidate and strong consistent performer in this process. I have an adventurous and versatile approach to mentoring with a good focus of both suitability and creativity and I am always taking risks. I have constantly been taken out of my comfort zone, mentoring difficult acts, and they have been received well. I have a strong work ethic and I am very motivated despite having a part-time job, clinical placements and my medical degree with exams all about. I have a friendly, supportive and diplomatic attitude when I'm with my team and therefore I have been a strong team player which is what this competition is all about! I have also demonstrated my willingness to learn too - to prioritise suitability as well as creativity, to look for songs which are more immediate and accessible, to analyse songs from the eyes of a viewer, to choose a wide range of songs to appeal to all people – all important lessons I have learned from Pete, my team mates, judges and viewers alike. I also am incredibly passionate about music in general and I feel that comes across in my choices which I adore. So again it's this combination of factors which is why I deserve to win.
Anyway, my question for you both is: What have been your highlights and most enjoyable moments of Team Factor? And did you ever expect to reach the finale?
3) My most enjoyable aspect of the process would definitely be the team aspect – getting to know Jacka, Nathan and Pete has been so amazing and it’s what keeps me coming back to this game! My highlight in terms of a task has been the musical task. I have always loved that task because songs are used slightly differently and the lyrics mean so much more – they have to fit in context. There's also a lot to think about in terms of a story and character development. It was also a really fun task in terms of teamwork - spending 5/6 hours with Pete making sure the plot ideas were as tight as possible, contributing 5/6 of my own song choices in the process. Moreover, there was a real sense of satisfaction seeing our story come to life! It was just so enjoyable to work with Team Pete, coming up with various twists such as Fleur having an affair with Steve Brookstein betraying Jake Quickenden - it was really fun task and I do think it was a strong showing from myself too (I still say we should have done that Panda Ross murder mystery last year! ).
I never expected to reach the final in the sense of how great everyone has been this year. Nathan tries hard and has chosen some amazing songs, while Jacka is so passionate about his choices and has also progressed so much, and not just them but everyone this year – Paul with his amazing Roo Panes choice, Arran with his Halsey choice for Diana, Pingu with that Luke Friend choice have all done so well since last year and that's great to see, we had new players like Robert and returning players like Jakk too who have had some great choices. So I feel the competition has been pretty open. But I feel the fact that I am here is just testament to my skill that I have managed to beat some amazing competitors. I believe overall I have been a strong contender – judges, other team members and viewers have all said that. I also do feel there was a reason how our team never came last (sometimes losing by only a point) until last week with two wins and I believe my song choices have been strong enough to contribute to that.
Also you mentioned something about the quantity of writing re my songs - it's not that I waste words but more that I have lot to say about different areas. It just demonstrates my analytical approach to whatever I do and that I put a lot of effort and thought into my song choices.
I'd like to take a break from being Aliyah's spokesperson, and use my new personality to ask a question. Over the competition there's been a lot of predictable choices, and last task there has as well. Do you believe that you both truly have performed to your best capability? Are there any song choices that you regret or think could be improved with less predictable artists?
4) Hi Arran - I do feel that I have always tried to use artists and songs people have not used before and be creative! That's what I always aspire to do! I think I showed that particularly well this final tbh with 5 artists - Femme, Kid Runner, Coin, Nothing But Thieves, Great Good Fine Ok never having been used before on this forum and all recently released songs. Even throughout the course of this competition I've either used songs from artists who have never been used before on this forum like (Memoir, FMLYBND, Markus Feehily, Xylo etc) or that I myself first used on the forum (The Colourist, The Struts) or that I used particularly creatively (Elliphant for Steph, Kimbra for Blonde Electra) so I believe predictability has never been a weak point.
I do feel there were a few song choices I have regretted but again these are always well-thought through and they more often polarise then being completely disliked - I chose Betty Who for example because her songs are always energetic and full of showmanship, and to me felt like the dance pop/indie pop Kitty would have released. Sure there are aspects I could improve like not holding onto songs for too long (like using Walking On Cars earlier before Jakk did hehe ) but on the whole I have been really happy with most of my song choices as they have gone down well for the most part hence why I am here right now.
Roxie: You've spoken many times about your risk taking mentoring style. Your choices either go down well as seen with Steph Nala and Elliphant or flop completely as seen with Betty Who for Kitty Brucknell so why is it in this final task you seemed to of played it incredibly safe with choices like Chasing Grace and Laura Welsh (otherwise known as DS jizz acts) when throughout this whole process you seemed to always push for originality and risks but pretty much abandon that when its the final?
5) Hi Jakk - glad to see power's come back. I see your point but there were 7 artists that I used in the final, 5 of which have never been used before - Femme, Coin, Kid Runner, Nothing But Thieves etc that have never been used before on this forum, leaving alone the fact that they were all fresh, recent releases. I had 5 new, risky choices so I felt I was allowed to play safe with my last two - both songs again have never been used before (except Tonight in NTA which I myself used and many voters here would not remember) and are both again recent releases. I definitely did not abandon my originality in the final and my thought process has always been to interest people with new material which is the whole reason I came onto the forum in the first place as I said before. I think also the fact that I only choose recent releases this task just shows how actively I search for the newest songs that people would not have heard of before and how I generally strive to be as unpredictable as possible even in this task.
Anyway my question for Robert and Roxie is
What do you believe is your strongest quality that you have showcased in this competition and that makes you the ultimate player?
6) I actually feel my strongest attribute is my willingness to learn! I have learned so much from learning about new artists, appreciating new styles of music and keeping a conscious effort to be unpredictable from Aliyah/Jakk last year to listening to Pete’s advice to select immediate sounding and more accessible songs, appreciating more varieties of music like indie pop and acoustic, choosing songs which appeal to a wider range of people, to Nathan’s advice in choosing more anthemic songs! It's my willingness to listen to constructive criticism from everyone, and my experiences being put out of my comfort zone (mentoring those difficult acts I have talked about before) which is the whole reason why I have this creative, risk-taking mentoring style and responsible for my versatile taste in music. It's this willingness to learn, to adapt and to integrate other people's advice into my mentoring style which makes me the ultimate player as I am a bit of everyone’s tastes who I have had contact with essentially while having a unique one of my own.
Well ya you've gone from being quiet and under the radar to insulting people and trying to start arguments with everyone so a change is clearly evident..
Anyway my question for Robert and Roxie is
What do you believe is your strongest quality that you have showcased in this competition and that makes you the ultimate player?
I haven't insulted people thank you very much nor have I tried to start arguments. I'm sorry you don't know me as a person but that's your misconception not mine.
I'm not going to comment on any of this drama, as I don't really have an opinion on any of it. Congrats to Roxie and Robert for making the final two. I will only comment to apologize - both to Roxie and Nathan - for my absence towards the end of the task where I stepped in to offer advice. I have been, quite honestly, running myself ragged with work the past few weeks, and I have had barely any time to breathe, let alone offer suggestions that I'd be proud of offering.
My question, however, has to partially deal with the drama. For both of you, this ride to the top has been riddled with controversy over your actions, relationships with mentors, etc. Moreover, there has been plenty of commentary regarding how people ~actually~ vote in this game. As such, how do you think that I should be evaluating this final two? What factors should I be considering, which ones ought I ignore, and why, based on this, do you think I should be voting for you?
As a second question - also for both of you - why should I not vote for the other person? This is different from Rick's question. I want you to very specifically tell me what the other persons' missteps have been, and rather than telling me why you should win, I want you to tell me why the other person should not. There has been enough drama and bad blood in this game where you two should be able to throw out being nice to each other for a couple of sentences in this answer.
No discredit to Roxie here at all but I'd just like to say why I think y'all should vote for Robert, being his mentor and all that.
Firstly, Robert has I think exceeded everyone's expectations including mine. When I originally asked him to participate in this game he was really tied up with exams/studying at the time and was unsure about how much time he'd be able to put in, but still went ahead and entered which I was really pleased about because I knew he had an awesome music taste from when I spoke to him about songs in DS Factor.
I want to highlight the fact that I've never put him in the boardroom either (no I haven't been biased; if I had been then Tommy would've lasted longer). Obviously he faced the final one when he was my only team member left, so that was by default. I feel like this is actual proof of how consistent he's been throughout and although his songs show that too, there's more to it, like all the 'behind the scenes' stuff that nobody else sees. The way in which he's dealt with some previous 'team issues' as such really impressed me, he's always got on with every task putting any personal issues aside and worked super hard.
I also wanted to pick up on what somebody wrote earlier about asking if he'd still be here without my input and the answer is absolutely. I helped out with some act choices during one round (which we didn't even win) and Robert's ideas are without a doubt better than most of mine and he's won everything all on his own - literally, even without the assistance of other team mates further on into the game which is a disadvantage to other teams, so he's had to put in a real lot of effort especially with a crazy busy schedule which I know has been difficult at times but he's never let me down.
I feel as though he really deserves this win, so votes would be really great. I think that covers everything I wanted to say anyway.
I'm not going to comment on any of this drama, as I don't really have an opinion on any of it. Congrats to Roxie and Robert for making the final two. I will only comment to apologize - both to Roxie and Nathan - for my absence towards the end of the task where I stepped in to offer advice. I have been, quite honestly, running myself ragged with work the past few weeks, and I have had barely any time to breathe, let alone offer suggestions that I'd be proud of offering.
My question, however, has to partially deal with the drama. For both of you, this ride to the top has been riddled with controversy over your actions, relationships with mentors, etc. Moreover, there has been plenty of commentary regarding how people ~actually~ vote in this game. As such, how do you think that I should be evaluating this final two? What factors should I be considering, which ones ought I ignore, and why, based on this, do you think I should be voting for you?
As a second question - also for both of you - why should I not vote for the other person? This is different from Rick's question. I want you to very specifically tell me what the other persons' missteps have been, and rather than telling me why you should win, I want you to tell me why the other person should not. There has been enough drama and bad blood in this game where you two should be able to throw out being nice to each other for a couple of sentences in this answer.
Because you're not here to make friends.
Not sure I understand the first question, but if it is about the votes, and how much the voters have been influenced by me or my teammates, I think it's pretty obvious I haven't been involved in trying to make anybody vote for me since I don't even know anybody, and most of my teammates disappeared as soon as they got eliminated even, nor do I think that stacey has (I mean, she isn't the most popular here either xD sorry stacey ) done any fishing for votes. Do I think Roxie or anyone on her team has done it? I think there's a reason beyond just the votes that the two of us ended up in the finals, and I don't want to speculate on what the other teams have done in this matter
When it comes to the stuff about relationships etc, it's all been very fun and stacey is a very dear friend to me, but to think that she's been favoritising me or whatever else we got accused of to have been doing, should all just be ignored. I've grown and gotten so much better at this during this short period of time, and that is what has taken me all this way despite being on my own for so long, and I have singlehandedly won a challenge, and placed in second when I didn't win. The songs I've chosen, even in the beginning, have all been very well received, placed in the top, and I've put down so much time into this (especially since I was alone while he other teams had 3 mentors each etc and I had to do three times the work or so, while I also had clinical placements, long travels across the country etc just like Roxie) and worked so hard for it, and apparently it has paid off that's why I think you should vote for me.
The other question was a lot harder. For me, I had just heard from Roxie in ds factor earlier, and heard that she was a pretty good mentor, but I've always thought it weird that Pete mentioned her having a huge amount of suggestions for each task as a positive thing. For me that's a bit confusing since the only times I had a lot of selections was when I wasn't sure at all about what I should go with for the acts, if you have an idea for what fits together I believe there is that 'perfect song' or as close to it that you can get, that you should be able to find as a mentor. Furthermore, I have to say, even though I like Roxie on a personal level, the final task where we had to discuss acts and order etc, she kind of went with the bulldozer method, wouldn't accept anything that she didn't have a clear idea on beforehand (unless especially Jakk fought for it for days) and wasn't very reasonable at all in the discussions. I decided to let them discuss and choose pretty much all acts, with some inputs, and decided I was going to show off my mentoring by working with whatever was provided, especially since we all had stated we wouldn't be able to be there for the most part of the days we had until we needed to submit the songs. We made a deal on how to choose the songs, and when we were decided, Roxie decided that we (/Jakk) had been unfair to her, and pretty much broke the deal. That whole task was a horrible experience... Now you could also see it as Roxie having a strong will or so, but I think you should be more flexible than that and give the others a fair competition - if you are good enough to win you should be able to work with whatever you get.
So in alignment with what Stacey has done for Robert and considering our mentor Pete unfortunately had to bow out of the competition I would like to pay the same courtesy to my fellow Team Member Roxie.
This post isn’t about why you shouldn’t vote for Robert (Not to say Stacy was taking any shots at Roxie, she wasn’t.), but rather why I think you should vote for Roxie. I think like Stacey said Robert been a pleasant surprise to a lot of people and absolutely fair play to him, he’s had some great choices and impressed people, well done.
Roxie has been a living example of the “Team” in “Team Factor” right from Day One. In our team we had an unfortunate no show along with two people not brimming with experience (Myself and Jack) and Roxie who was the most experienced within the team. In addition to doing her own work and trying to ensure she brought out the best in herself she was there along the way with me and Jack offering her insight into our own choices. She pushed us to challenge ourselves rather than anybody else so that we could do better for us.
Roxie NEVER stopped looking for better songs in ANY task. Even with mere moments before task DL’s she would be there questioning whether there was anything we could do to improve our song list causing a lot of eleventh hour discussions. Whether it was the start of the task or just before the DL Roxie never seemed deterred and never wanted to settle, always wanting to do the best for herself and the team.
This has led to some incredible song choices (Like Elliphant, The Struts and Shannon Saunders among many others) and the reason why she has made it into the top two. While Pete was a great mentor for our team, Roxie was also there providing Moral Support and Constructive Criticism. She has stayed away from any drama and if you factor all these things together, I think it makes Roxie a worthy winner of Team Factor 2015.
Go On Roxie...#TeamFun2015AlwaysAndForever :):):):)
I'm not going to comment on any of this drama, as I don't really have an opinion on any of it. Congrats to Roxie and Robert for making the final two. I will only comment to apologize - both to Roxie and Nathan - for my absence towards the end of the task where I stepped in to offer advice. I have been, quite honestly, running myself ragged with work the past few weeks, and I have had barely any time to breathe, let alone offer suggestions that I'd be proud of offering.
My question, however, has to partially deal with the drama. For both of you, this ride to the top has been riddled with controversy over your actions, relationships with mentors, etc. Moreover, there has been plenty of commentary regarding how people ~actually~ vote in this game. As such, how do you think that I should be evaluating this final two? What factors should I be considering, which ones ought I ignore, and why, based on this, do you think I should be voting for you?
As a second question - also for both of you - why should I not vote for the other person? This is different from Rick's question. I want you to very specifically tell me what the other persons' missteps have been, and rather than telling me why you should win, I want you to tell me why the other person should not. There has been enough drama and bad blood in this game where you two should be able to throw out being nice to each other for a couple of sentences in this answer.
Because you're not here to make friends.
Hi Justin dw about it – work takes priority! Hope you enjoyed the songs nonetheless.
I feel that out of anyone I have actually stayed out of the drama and controversy. In fact out of everyone in this competition, I am probably the one who has not had any major arguments with anyone. Also I most definitely did not vote hound considering most of the usual suspects like Aliyah, Jakk, Pingu etc are in a team that is against me so I can’t exactly send pms to them. Also I have essentially been mentorless for three tasks now (thanks Justin…Jks jks ) so I have actually been disadvantaged in that way for the past few tasks and I have not actually made that big a deal out of it. Tbh even while we were in teams and Alex is fully aware of this, I have always said vote for your favourites otherwise who wants a victory handed over to you lol? So I do feel I have been neutral and fair throughout the competition and that it should be taken into account in a positive way! I have no idea about the other teams and I think it would be wrong of me to speculate.
As to what Robert’s done wrong in the process, I prefer to talk about my strengths really then judging other people’s weaknesses (that’s for you all to decide). But I suppose something that was noticeable for me is that Robert has been quite inconsistent in that he really only showed up in Task 6 – 2/3rds of the way through the process. While it is understandable that he has had medical commitments, I am studying to be a doctor too and yet I have been here as a strong contender since Task 1. Also I feel in terms of predictable choices, Robert has made the most. I understand he is new to this process but even so I quit traditional games a year ago and I am not always in the loop what gets used. Either way there is a helpful search function on the website which is really not that difficult to use – you can do it on google as well to find out whether an artist has been used before! I just feel more importantly that people should evaluate our performance equally and not give special consideration to other people in a way. Moreover, Robert told me something about these passionate arguments within his team which suggests that there is a lack of team spirit potentially (I'm not in the team so it is impossible to conclude either way). I loved my team but more importantly we bounced ideas off each other to come up with best set of songs to approach these tasks which is the whole reason why it’s called Team Factor and not Individual Factor. It’s important to do well as a team as well as individually and at times I just feel Robert has not shown that? Robert is a sweet guy either way and I am sorry if any of this sounds harsh Robert but it’s just how I feel.
The other question was a lot harder. For me, I had just heard from Roxie in ds factor earlier, and heard that she was a pretty good mentor, but I've always thought it weird that Pete mentioned her having a huge amount of suggestions for each task as a positive thing. For me that's a bit confusing since the only times I had a lot of selections was when I wasn't sure at all about what I should go with for the acts, if you have an idea for what fits together I believe there is that 'perfect song' or as close to it that you can get, that you should be able to find as a mentor. Furthermore, I have to say, even though I like Roxie on a personal level, the final task where we had to discuss acts and order etc, she kind of went with the bulldozer method, wouldn't accept anything that she didn't have a clear idea on beforehand (unless especially Jakk fought for it for days) and wasn't very reasonable at all in the discussions. I decided to let them discuss and choose pretty much all acts, with some inputs, and decided I was going to show off my mentoring by working with whatever was provided, especially since we all had stated we wouldn't be able to be there for the most part of the days we had until we needed to submit the songs. We made a deal on how to choose the songs, and when we were decided, Roxie decided that we (/Jakk) had been unfair to her, and pretty much broke the deal. That whole task was a horrible experience... Now you could also see it as Roxie having a strong will or so, but I think you should be more flexible than that and give the others a fair competition - if you are good enough to win you should be able to work with whatever you get.
Robert I'm slightly surprised at some of the comments here because that's not how I remember it. I'm not sure why you're saying Jakk was fighting for his choices for days as we had decided all our acts pretty much on the day we received the task lol! Or that we had some deal that I broke - I'm not sure I ever agreed to anything like that? I do feel you are overdramatising the situation as well as it was a simple disagreement.
I do apologize that I was quite firm in what I wanted (I think we all were tbh) but I disagree with all the views that I was being unfair. Andrea and The Dolly Rockers are both the only choices I really got and that too keeping in mind both are versatile acts that you both had a chance at using effectively. We all got to the decision of using 1D together. Jakk got Dean, Ray and Alex and Sierra. You were the only person in the end who wanted Matt as well so you got a choice. I actually wanted us to swap Ray to Joelle to make it fairer on you as she was an act you wanted. Tbh all of this debating could have been avoided had we just all selected two acts we wanted like I suggested in the first place and debated the last which would have been easier and fairer but you yourself wanted to debate all 7 choices out Robert.
Also I think you have misunderstood what Pete meant by lots of suggestions – not that I have lots of different suggestions for each act but lots of combined suggestions of different acts and songs, that Pete can rely on me having a range of different options and avenues we could down to suit our current set of songs. I think that shows I am a capable team player as well as a leader. If anything I think my wide variety of act-song combinations is what makes me flexible to make me able to mentor a whole range of acts.
Aw Nathan I just saw that amazing post. That's so lovely - thank you! And believe me you guys have taught me a lot more than I've taught you lol - you have both done such a great job and my favorite bit of team factor as I said has been getting to know you guys - so much love! #TeamPete2015NeverGonnaGiveYouUp
Gotta love Roxie's essays, you must be a right chatterbox in real life.
Also just saw this and your other post too Will - thanks for the support! And yes I most definitely am! Think I spoke to Kevin and Alex till 4am once haha discussing X Factor Nigeria lmao.
Also just saw this and your other post too Will - thanks for the support! And yes I most definitely am! Think I spoke to Kevin and Alex till 4am once haha discussing X Factor Nigeria lmao.
As to what Robert’s done wrong in the process, I prefer to talk about my strengths really then judging other people’s weaknesses (that’s for you all to decide). But I suppose something that was noticeable for me is that Robert has been quite inconsistent in that he really only showed up in Task 6 – 2/3rds of the way through the process. While it is understandable that he has had medical commitments, I am studying to be a doctor too and yet I have been here as a strong contender since Task 1. Also I feel in terms of predictable choices, Robert has made the most. I understand he is new to this process but even so I quit traditional games a year ago and I am not always in the loop what gets used. Either way there is a helpful search function on the website which is really not that difficult to use – you can do it on google as well to find out whether an artist has been used before! I just feel more importantly that people should evaluate our performance equally and not give special consideration to other people in a way. Moreover, Robert told me something about these passionate arguments within his team which suggests that there is a lack of team spirit potentially (I'm not in the team so it is impossible to conclude either way). I loved my team but more importantly we bounced ideas off each other to come up with best set of songs to approach these tasks which is the whole reason why it’s called Team Factor and not Individual Factor. It’s important to do well as a team as well as individually and at times I just feel Robert has not shown that? Robert is a sweet guy either way and I am sorry if any of this sounds harsh Robert but it’s just how I feel.
Yes, this was quite an uncomfortable question indeed :P
I think as I mentioned earlier I haven't had any songs that hasn't been well received, (except maybe bongo bong, which i had an explanation for :P ) even though you didn't notice much of me in the beginning (when other things were in focus.) but I'd like to say I started up higher than expected,and since, I've only moved upwards, either winning the task (like this top 3 task where i got 4/7 songs, or the buyer's week) or ending up in the top 2, except for the bad week I had which I have explained earlier (in which idk where i ended).. Speaking of predictable choices - I don't see why digging in the indie swamp is necessary - and I don't think predictable songs is necessarily a bad thing (although I'm not exactly sure which ones are predictable) as long as they fit the artist well and people want to vote for them (I mean, predictable and boring or bad in another way should be lower down in the scoreboard, otherwise it's not a bad thing, is it? Idk)
Also, what are you saying about my team? :P I have no memory of something like that, there were some discussions especially between me and Paul, pretty similar to the one you/we had, but Paul and I were able to reason and compromise with eachother, and we learnt from our differences - and had a great last task for Paul before he got eliminated, which was really surprising. I think that's a lot more important when it comes to teamwork - people with strong wills being able to combine those wills, listening to eachother, respecting eachother and eachother's choices - discussing songs, acts etc, suggesting alternative routes, and most importantly working together towards getting better, and getting results on a higher level. Unfortunately he got eliminated before we had the chance to really show off though ;(. Oh, and all of the ppl on the team still speak with eachother, and at least I really enjoy their company (although it feels like Lucas left ages ago xD) So implying we couldn't work as a team or anything like that also seems like a half-hearted attempt at finding a negative. But I get it, I had a really hard time too with coming up with something negative to write about you
Robert I'm slightly surprised at some of the comments here because that's not how I remember it. I'm not sure why you're saying Jakk was fighting for his choices for days as we had decided all our acts pretty much on the day we received the task lol! Or that we had some deal that I broke - I'm not sure I ever agreed to anything like that? I do feel you are overdramatising the situation as well as it was a simple disagreement.
I do apologize that I was quite firm in what I wanted (I think we all were tbh) but I disagree with all the views that I was being unfair. Andrea and The Dolly Rockers are both the only choices I really got and that too keeping in mind both are versatile acts that you both had a chance at using effectively. We all got to the decision of using 1D together. Jakk got Dean, Ray and Alex and Sierra. You were the only person in the end who wanted Matt as well so you got a choice. I actually wanted us to swap Ray to Joelle to make it fairer on you as she was an act you wanted. Tbh all of this debating could have been avoided had we just all selected two acts we wanted like I suggested in the first place and debated the last which would have been easier and fairer but you yourself wanted to debate all 7 choices out Robert.
Also I think you have misunderstood what Pete meant by lots of suggestions – not that I have lots of different suggestions for each act but lots of combined suggestions of different acts and songs, that Pete can rely on me having a range of different options and avenues we could down to suit our current set of songs. I think that shows I am a capable team player as well as a leader. If anything I think my wide variety of act-song combinations is what makes me flexible to make me able to mentor a whole range of acts.
Well Jakk and me wanted to go with the acts we chose the first day, but you never agreed, and kept saying you wanted to change the acts, then you didn't log in the next day. During the night, next day, you logged in, and kept asking us to change Ray/Matt to Joelle, although I told you I would be away next day (which was the same day as the songs had to be sent) and wouldn't have time to spend on looking for songs even further. I spent leads of time the day before to find songs to have for safety if any acts would get changed, and that last night, you insisted on changing the acts just as I was about to go to bed - that's when i said that I didn't want to change Matt anymore. It was your act originally, as was many of the others. The agreement we had was to allow Jakk to pick the last two songs since you had chosen - if not all, then a majority - of the first five acts (or at least they were yours originally..) When Jakk finally chose two acts, you didn't agree on them, but instead wanted to tweak that too. It was a bit weird, since we spent so much time on letting him make the last two choices, and we all were desperate to sleep, and you still didn't agree even though you had suggested most of the acts we were going to use and told us we were treating you bad and unfairly.... So to say that Andrea and the Dolly Rockers were your only choices is not true at all. I stayed out of this discussion last time because you didn't seem to be possible to reason with very much (you agreed on changing to Joelle only the last day when I had already chosen my acts and was going to send them in - and you didn't want to switch Andrea for Joelle, which kind of was her replacement, but you wanted to switch one of the acts Jakk chose, which would've given us even more arguing, not coming to a decision etc.) This might very well be because of you "being quite firm in what you wanted" but it felt like talking to a wall at times - and I felt sorry for Jakk more than once in that discussion, and we both tried to end it several times and just go with what we had... I don't feel like discussing this any further since it was mainly between you and Jakk, and I just wanted us to come to a conclusion (and not when I had decided, or had some ideas already. I wanted more time than a couple of minutes or so to check for alternatives etc....) As I said, I had a hard time finding negatives, and the strong will you have and unwillingness to compromise etc was the thing I noticed the most so that's why I mentioned this at all, you definitely do deserve your spot here Roxie
So in alignment with what Stacey has done for Robert and considering our mentor Pete unfortunately had to bow out of the competition I would like to pay the same courtesy to my fellow Team Member Roxie.
This post isn’t about why you shouldn’t vote for Robert (Not to say Stacy was taking any shots at Roxie, she wasn’t.), but rather why I think you should vote for Roxie. I think like Stacey said Robert been a pleasant surprise to a lot of people and absolutely fair play to him, he’s had some great choices and impressed people, well done.
Roxie has been a living example of the “Team” in “Team Factor” right from Day One. In our team we had an unfortunate no show along with two people not brimming with experience (Myself and Jack) and Roxie who was the most experienced within the team. In addition to doing her own work and trying to ensure she brought out the best in herself she was there along the way with me and Jack offering her insight into our own choices. She pushed us to challenge ourselves rather than anybody else so that we could do better for us.
Roxie NEVER stopped looking for better songs in ANY task. Even with mere moments before task DL’s she would be there questioning whether there was anything we could do to improve our song list causing a lot of eleventh hour discussions. Whether it was the start of the task or just before the DL Roxie never seemed deterred and never wanted to settle, always wanting to do the best for herself and the team.
This has led to some incredible song choices (Like Elliphant, The Struts and Shannon Saunders among many others) and the reason why she has made it into the top two. While Pete was a great mentor for our team, Roxie was also there providing Moral Support and Constructive Criticism. She has stayed away from any drama and if you factor all these things together, I think it makes Roxie a worthy winner of Team Factor 2015.
Go On Roxie...#TeamFun2015AlwaysAndForever :):):):)
I think it's awesome that you're supporting your team and all that, but in regards to the comment about Pete not being here...well that was his own choice to quit and not support his team to the very end. I think it's quite funny that Roxie mentioned in her post below as well about your 'team spirit' yet your mentor isn't even here lol and remained bitter about certain issues previously.
To add to my earlier post, Robert has always had loaaads of ideas during every round too and I very often left things all down to him, especially in the later stages after he won the buyers task because it showed his capabilities. Of course I was always around for any help he wanted/needed and advised, but I knew he could do amazing on his own and then was able to take the credit for it which was my main priority, to make him shine and I guess that paid off. Something else that I love is how Robert is able to find songs for quite literally any artist with a wide range of musical knowledge, genre, tempo, gender etc and has always found something suitable for even the lamest of acts.
Re: the drama situation, Robert was specifically brought into drama by Aliyah so could barely completely avoid it, I think that's irrelevant as to what makes the qualities of a winner. It'd be kind of lame if you didn't speak up and get your point across. Plus, seemingly Roxie was involved in a drama during this last task, awks.
Hi Justin dw about it – work takes priority! Hope you enjoyed the songs nonetheless.
I feel that out of anyone I have actually stayed out of the drama and controversy. In fact out of everyone in this competition, I am probably the one who has not had any major arguments with anyone. Also I most definitely did not vote hound considering most of the usual suspects like Aliyah, Jakk, Pingu etc are in a team that is against me so I can’t exactly send pms to them. Also I have essentially been mentorless for three tasks now (thanks Justin…Jks jks ) so I have actually been disadvantaged in that way for the past few tasks and I have not actually made that big a deal out of it. Tbh even while we were in teams and Alex is fully aware of this, I have always said vote for your favourites otherwise who wants a victory handed over to you lol? So I do feel I have been neutral and fair throughout the competition and that it should be taken into account in a positive way! I have no idea about the other teams and I think it would be wrong of me to speculate.
As to what Robert’s done wrong in the process, I prefer to talk about my strengths really then judging other people’s weaknesses (that’s for you all to decide). But I suppose something that was noticeable for me is that Robert has been quite inconsistent in that he really only showed up in Task 6 – 2/3rds of the way through the process. While it is understandable that he has had medical commitments, I am studying to be a doctor too and yet I have been here as a strong contender since Task 1. Also I feel in terms of predictable choices, Robert has made the most. I understand he is new to this process but even so I quit traditional games a year ago and I am not always in the loop what gets used. Either way there is a helpful search function on the website which is really not that difficult to use – you can do it on google as well to find out whether an artist has been used before! I just feel more importantly that people should evaluate our performance equally and not give special consideration to other people in a way. Moreover, Robert told me something about these passionate arguments within his team which suggests that there is a lack of team spirit potentially (I'm not in the team so it is impossible to conclude either way). I loved my team but more importantly we bounced ideas off each other to come up with best set of songs to approach these tasks which is the whole reason why it’s called Team Factor and not Individual Factor. It’s important to do well as a team as well as individually and at times I just feel Robert has not shown that? Robert is a sweet guy either way and I am sorry if any of this sounds harsh Robert but it’s just how I feel.
Robert I'm slightly surprised at some of the comments here because that's not how I remember it. I'm not sure why you're saying Jakk was fighting for his choices for days as we had decided all our acts pretty much on the day we received the task lol! Or that we had some deal that I broke - I'm not sure I ever agreed to anything like that? I do feel you are overdramatising the situation as well as it was a simple disagreement.
I do apologize that I was quite firm in what I wanted (I think we all were tbh) but I disagree with all the views that I was being unfair. Andrea and The Dolly Rockers are both the only choices I really got and that too keeping in mind both are versatile acts that you both had a chance at using effectively. We all got to the decision of using 1D together. Jakk got Dean, Ray and Alex and Sierra. You were the only person in the end who wanted Matt as well so you got a choice. I actually wanted us to swap Ray to Joelle to make it fairer on you as she was an act you wanted. Tbh all of this debating could have been avoided had we just all selected two acts we wanted like I suggested in the first place and debated the last which would have been easier and fairer but you yourself wanted to debate all 7 choices out Robert.
Also I think you have misunderstood what Pete meant by lots of suggestions – not that I have lots of different suggestions for each act but lots of combined suggestions of different acts and songs, that Pete can rely on me having a range of different options and avenues we could down to suit our current set of songs. I think that shows I am a capable team player as well as a leader. If anything I think my wide variety of act-song combinations is what makes me flexible to make me able to mentor a whole range of acts.
Lol yes you're a 'risk taker' and that's an awesome quality to have, but Robert has hardly been at all 'predictable' with his choices. I mean everyone has been at times, even some of your finale songs were. Our team issues were always resolved within like, minutes and a lot of that comes down to how compromising and adaptable Robert was, which I briefly spoke about earlier. I think the fact that Paul has come in here to defend Robert several times too speaks volumes.
As for your comment about Robert not showing up until later, that probably comes down to the fact he's incredibly easy-going (which is a quality I really admire in teams) and in the very beginning he was also super busy so didn't have as much time, although still put his all into every task. Don't give me the "we're both medical students" thing either, you don't travel for half a day between locations.
I think it's awesome that you're supporting your team and all that, but in regards to the comment about Pete not being here...well that was his own choice to quit and not support his team to the very end. I think it's quite funny that Roxie mentioned in her post below as well about your 'team spirit' yet your mentor isn't even here lol and remained bitter about certain issues previously.
To add to my earlier post, Robert has always had loaaads of ideas during every round too and I very often left things all down to him, especially in the later stages after he won the buyers task because it showed his capabilities. Of course I was always around for any help he wanted/needed and advised, but I knew he could do amazing on his own and then was able to take the credit for it which was my main priority, to make him shine and I guess that paid off. Something else that I love is how Robert is able to find songs for quite literally any artist with a wide range of musical knowledge, genre, tempo, gender etc and has always found something suitable for even the lamest of acts.
Re: the drama situation, Robert was specifically brought into drama by Aliyah so could barely completely avoid it, I think that's irrelevant as to what makes the qualities of a winner. It'd be kind of lame if you didn't speak up and get your point across. Plus, seemingly Roxie was involved in a drama during this last task, awks.
In regards to Pete and our defence of him, we do it if we feel its justified. Im aware of why he needed to back away but I won't discuss that here because its not my place to do so, and it probably doesn't need to be discussed. But I do know that none of us on the team held any hard feelings over it, if we did we wouldn't have praised him.
As far as "The Aliyah Drama". I wouldn't really refer to it as a drama rather than her getting upset at her last remaining team member being eliminated when she felt he should still be here. Im sure you would have done the same had Robert been eliminated and not felt like he should have been so.
I don't think its "lame" to not stand up for yourself, just pick and choose the battles so to speak. Is it really worth to get riled up by a difference of opinion via Keyboards. On a personal note I probably have more respect for people if they walked away from it. Roxie didn't really get involved in it, she was brought in via implication like Robert was, but she didn't go back and forth arguing the toss with people. If that's how others choose to handle the situations then fine , its just not personally how I would go about it every time I was brought up in a situation. (I have been guilty of it before, we all have and this isn't a shot at how Robert handled himself as he has done well throughout the majority of this im just generalizing). I just think the ability to restrain yourself is a good quality to have...Just in the same sense I don't believe "Telling It Like It Is" is in itself a credential, rather just another way for being confrontational.
I should like to point out for irony sake this isn't me trying to get into an argument with you or whatever , it would be kinda counter productive to my point. Its been a fun series at times, other times a little stressful but yeah it is just a game
Thanks you, I'll do my best Arran it'll take time but I'm sure the ego will be fine in no time. I promise to quit all this pete/aliyah style if I get the chance too btw, maybe that'll help.
Oh and I've started the next task btw, thanks for the tip though
I think it's awesome that you're supporting your team and all that, but in regards to the comment about Pete not being here...well that was his own choice to quit and not support his team to the very end. I think it's quite funny that Roxie mentioned in her post below as well about your 'team spirit' yet your mentor isn't even here lol and remained bitter about certain issues previously.
Hey guys. Obviously you are free to say whatever you like, and obviously my name will come up in context sometimes, but can I respectfully ask that I'm left out of any comments like this.
When I left I just made a brief announcement without a big speech, rant or fuss and haven't posted since. Some may still see this as 'bitter' and that's fair enough (during that last evening I did allude to a couple of issues I had with that task, though I did send the PM before Jacka was fired so it wasn't a direction reaction to that) but to be honest I suffer from RL stress and anxiety, I reacted quite badly to a behind the scenes issue and didn't like how the game was affecting me.
I just decided that all the dramas of the game weren't the best environment for me if I was to remain directly involved. I apologise to everyone - especially my lovely team, obviously - for leaving you in the lurch. I hope people understand and that this post isn't responded to negatively.
I have still been speaking to my old team regularly and offering unofficial support to Roxie; I made it clear that I was still there in friendship for anything she needs, which actually hasn't been much other than checking her explanation posts to accompany her 3 'favourite' songs, so she is pretty accurate to say she's been mentorless!
Anyway good luck to the final two tonight and take care all. :)
Comments
Robert
District 3 - Doo Wop
I was really happy with this song choice, both because it did so well that week, but also because it is really different from anything I listen to or usually enjoy. District 3 was also one of the acts that differ a lot from what I usually like, but I adapted to the task, went out of my comfort zone (I could easily have chosen something else) and it worked out great
Aiden/Sydnee - Abducted
This one was also a different song choice, that I really enjoyed. It's not the typical song you hear in shows like X Factor, or even see in these shows (from what I can tell) but it's a great song imo, and worked perfectly for Aiden and Sydnee. It's also very different from anything else I've chosen and still it got a great reception. I'd love to have seen this irl :P
Jamie Archer - Floods
This one was a challenge for me. Jamie is nowhere near being a favourite XF act of mine, and I didn't really know a lot about him beforehand, I had a couple of suggestions from him, all pretty different from eachother, but I thought this one was great for him - and really played to his strenghts, showing off what (at least) I could enjoy in his performances. Also I think this isn't the typical song either for these shows, or TF, but it went down really well and people really seemed to like it.
So what I'm trying to get at is basically - I've been choosing songs that really differ from eachother, using both artists that I really like, and some that I don't enjoy at all, but still managed to adapt to the task and find suitable songs that could work - or try to take risks and work with some kind of vision, and hope that it's well received (like the Mallory Knox song ) I worked really hard on varyign the song choices, and it paid off, and helped me grow into legit competition to the other contestants.
Roxie
Steph Nala: Elliphant – Down On Life (Task 1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ves2IImEWjM
I feel this song shows my creative, risk-taking and adventurous mentoring approach particularly well and shows how I’ve been a strong and consistent contender since Week 1 as many people said this was their favourite choice in our team. I took careful note of Steph’s reggae vocals and style, and chose one of edgy Elliphant’s more mainstream and softer songs which suited Steph’s style well. I always want to stand out rather than be middle of the road with my choices and I feel Down on Life showcased that aspect particularly well. Both the other team leaders – Stacey and Aliyah – have complimented my creative, risk-taking mentoring style saying that they’re always interested in seeing what I come up with every task as I always put thought in to my choices. I also feel this song also showcases my teamwork attitude that I always choose songs which complement and yet provide a good contrast to the ones that we have (we had a pop, acoustic and indie pop songs so I wanted to provide a song with a bit of R&B/hip hop to provide a contrast). I always listen to my team to enhance my song choices, integrating their approaches into my style and I make sure we do our best as a team as well as individually which is what this whole process is about!
Stevie Ritchie: The Struts – Put Your Money On Me (Task 3)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GuUbziASwE
I feel this song demonstrates my dedication to this process particularly well as it shows how I dig deep into an artist’s catalogue to find the most appropriate fits and demonstrates my passionate approach to music in general. It also demonstrates how creative I am with my choices once again in how I used an indie rock artist’s most musical-pop song to suit that Queen/Foxy Shazam-esque showman in Stevie. I also wanted to avoid turning Stevie into simply a novelty act and give him some credibility with choice while retaining that fun aspect of his style which is what made him endearing in the show in the first place, once again showing the thought and the attention to detail I put into my choices. Additionally, that task actually highlighted my teamwork aspect best of all as I assisted my two team mates with their chosen artist/song with Youngblood Hawk and Jaymes Young to give us a really good set of songs. Both Nathan and Jacka too have noted how I’ve always been supportive of them – again I’ve always wanted us to do well as a team which is what this whole process is about and what will keep me coming back year after year!
Zara Larsson: Shannon Saunders – Silly Little Things (Task 7):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxaetOJScgU
This song particularly shows my dedication to choosing recently released songs by artists who have not been used before like I did last task with Kid Runner, Femme, Coin etc and I think people appreciate that. Coming into this forum as a person who wants to discover new music – I want to reproduce that experience for other people. It also essentially shows my attention to detail to an artist’s personality, style and vocals to find the most appropriate fit. I took careful note of Zara’s funky, sharp enunciation and euro-pop, edgy style, and found an equally edgy song by Shannon Saunders – Justin even commented saying that no one would suit the song better! More importantly however it shows my growth in this process – how I now prioritise choosing songs based more off suitability rather than simply ones I like, and how my entire attitude towards this process has been one to listen and learn from Pete, my team mates, the other teams and even the voters.
It also shows (along with my other song choices) my versatility in my love for all music genres in how I am interested in a variety of genres from indie rock (like Coasts/Fmlybnd) and electropop (Little Daylight/LIGHTS) to indie pop (Kid Runner/The Colourist), mainstream pop (Florrie), dark wave (Memoir/Xylo), glam rock (The Struts), folk (Chasing Grace) and euro-pop (like Shannon Saunders) etc. I enjoy many different types of music and so equally I’ve shown versatility in my mentoring approach. I am the bridge this year between mainstream and indie! It’s this combination of creativity, risk-taking and versatility in my mentoring approach combined with my strong consistency since Task 1 and diplomatic, willing-to-learn and team-working attitude which is why I should win this.
1. You may now vote for your winner, either Roxie or Robert. You just need to supply one name and PM BOTH r0ry101 and myself.
2. Everyone can continue to ask questions over the next 24 hours to help make your decision for who to vote for.
3. Voting closes tomorrow at 8pm. The winner will be revealed soon after.
4. There is still time to vote in the Team Factor Awards if you haven't done so already.
Good luck
There has been some shock among the viewers regarding Jakk's recent elimination, which clearly means they thought one of you two were the weakest of the top 3. Do you both think you've done enough to be THE standout in the competition and not just a default choice?
Before I vote, I want to know one last thing from both of you. I've asked this question many times while hosting myself, but I genuinely believe it adds something to the final decision.
My question: Why do you deserve to win Team Factor 3 instead of your rival, who has clearly proven to be an absolutely fantastic mentor as well?
Anyway, my question for you both is: What have been your highlights and most enjoyable moments of Team Factor? And did you ever expect to reach the finale?
I'll return to being Aliyah's spokesperson now.
A recurring theme throughout this whole competition seems to be my name being brought into arguments/drama when I have literally done absolutely nothing and I personally find that hilarious.
Anyway yo peeps, finally got power and internet back (praise jesus) I'd be lying if I said I wasn't guttered to be out now, feel slightly done over knowing that if it wasn't based on just wins I'd of been through based on overall in this task (not being bitter before anyone says anything just feels slightly guttering knowing that would've happened), but on the bright side I can go knowing that at least my songs and my mentoring weren't judged as the worst of this whole task, you know silver lining .
Albeit leaving has been quite nice due to the fact I've had 5 PM's from random peeps saying they wish I was in the final (big thanks to those people) and then all the love on thread has been lovely as well, I've gotten used to seeing my name on DS and expecting a war about me, albeit that happened later on in the evening by the looks of it.
Now I'm just gonna clear somethings up because people seem to be throwing shade and shizz. No I didn't show my team mates any of my songs at all so that can stop being said right now, the only person I did show them to was my mentor (Aliyah) because as said in the task we were allowed to do that.
Now for Aliyah's post, I agree to an extent, and before anybody jumps down my throat going "omg you're so bitter, you're saying it just because your out" blah blah blah I've spoken about this to multiple people before I even got eliminated and this was during the earlier stages of this competition. Lately on games it does seems people will base it more on the song rather than how it suits the act and its been quite prominent in this game in particular where I've seen teams with songs where I've been like "HELL YEAH DOWNLOAD THIS STUFF NOW" but then the song isn't suitable, but another team will have songs which are pretty good but suit the act perfectly and will then lose (I am not saying Team Aliyah's songs were the perfect ones btw that'd be biased as hell, this is on the whole of the other two teams not my team). Albeit that is my view point on the whole subject and I know others will disagree with it but like I said my view on it and shizz.
Now for the traditional BS thank you's but cba with that as no one ever really seems to notice them XD.
And now for a bit of a hard question, as they're all too nice and easy so far, for both Robert and Roxie (eyyy its like Series 1 and 2 all over again, battle of the J's, then the battle of the A's now the battle of the R's, freaky stuff).
Roxie: You've spoken many times about your risk taking mentoring style. Your choices either go down well as seen with Steph Nala and Elliphant or flop completely as seen with Betty Who for Kitty Brucknell so why is it in this final task you seemed to of played it incredibly safe with choices like Chasing Grace and Laura Welsh (otherwise known as DS jizz acts) when throughout this whole process you seemed to always push for originality and risks but pretty much abandon that when its the final?
Robert: You mentioned in the BR when I was Ali's proxy whilst she was in France that Stacey in fact suggested the artists for you to use in that task. I'm all for judges assisting their mentors but when you're given the artist the work imo disappears so I think it'd be good to ask you if it wasn't for Stacey suggesting artists for you to look at or use at points in the competition, would you in fact still be in this competition or would you be out?
Well ya you've gone from being quiet and under the radar to insulting people and trying to start arguments with everyone so a change is clearly evident..
Anyway my question for Robert and Roxie is
What do you believe is your strongest quality that you have showcased in this competition and that makes you the ultimate player?
Well, all of my teammates were eliminated really early on, which forced me to do several tasks myself (although Stacey did help me too).. Still I managed to both win a task, and also get through to the final 3, where I also went through. I don't have any experience with these games at all, and in the beginning I had a hard time even knowing what to focus on - what made it even harder was that I only knew XF acts from the last 3 seasons or so, and definitely not all of them. I've looked up so many acts, listened through their performances and thought about both what would fit them good, and what I would like to hear them do, and my song choices have been a mixture of these. I've also taken into consideration what the people on here seem to like, although sometimes taking pretty big risks, that has paid off really well.
So I daresay I'm probably one of the contestants that has grown the most, and although I started off pretty weak I definitely do think the last four rounds have shown that I definitely do belong in the finale - perhaps even in the winning spot. Ofc, Jakk did have a great week last week, and both him and Roxie are very well known on these forums - both from earlier rounds, and other games, whereas I haven't participated in anything other than DS Factor before. I do understand if people think that the two of them should be in the finals, but apparently my songs the last weeks have brought me here - that's why I let the comments about people voting for people they know etc get to me - if anything I didn't expect to have 4 winning acts this week. I'm all up for you (the arrangers of this) writing out who voted for which acts if that would help or so.
I've kind of answered this in the earlier answer but I think that I've grown from someone not knowing how to do this at all, to taking risks with both acts and song choices. I've embraced the challenges, and only become more confident with each one. Being in the top 3 was an even greater challenge, and having to compromise with the song choices since all three of us apparently are people with really strong wills but really busy schedules (:D ) I decided to let the two of them decide most of the acts, and focused on finding songs that suited what was chosen (it wouldn't have worked otherwise xD), or again - finding songs that seemed close to the music which I wished those acts would sound like. And that paid off really well too. So I guess to sum it up, my answer is that instead of being an experienced player who knows how to play the game, what to do etc, I've learnt so much, and developed so much that I've ended up winning a task, ending 2nd (behind jakk's awesome song choice) and winning this top 3 task too.
The most enjoyable moment for me was without a doubt in the top 7, where I was very certain there was no way I wouldn't end up in the BR, but the buyers really took a liking to my songs, reading those song names on there was so awesome and really boosted my confidence (and made me happy
I expected more about this in that BR tbh, but I might as well explain it now
Hey Paulie
I think that was all, really have to go to sleep now, gnite
Oh I missed this....
The "negative" comments I've received has mostly been concerning acts that "are used a lot on DS" "was used in another round of TF" "was used in NTA" etc... I haven't really been able to do a lot about that, except for look through all old game threads, and perhaps ask stacey/team members but otherwise meh, not realistic. Of course, as I mentioned in my answer to Jakk, I would happily have changed pretty much all acts for that round though, or at least given them a couple of more rounds of thought.
1) I believe I have stood out in this competition and have been a strong consistent competitor throughout. Right from Week 1 I stood out with my adventurous Elliphant choice for Steph and lively Florrie choice for PYT then in Week 3 I contributed towards all 4 of our songs and in Task 5 (The Musical) I spent 5 hours with Pete, choosing 5/6 of our choices, adding many plot elements, so I have been performing consistently since Week 1. I am also creative and love taking risks in my song choices too from choosing an urban, indie pop artist like Memoir for Sam Bailey to suit her big vocals in a more current, authentic way to using an R&B artist like Kimbra's most eccentric electropop song to suit Blonde Electra's crazy, fun vibe. Furthermore I am versatile in song choices I have chosen songs from many genres from rock (The Struts) to electropop (Femme) to indie pop (Kid Runner/The Colourist) to R&B (Kimbra). Alongside that I constantly go out of my comfort zone and have tackled some of the most difficult acts like Stevie Ritchie, Steph Nala, Sam Bailey, Blonde Electra with creative songs that people have enjoyed. I am also incredibly passionate in my approach to this game as Pete, Stacey, Aliyah and Nathan have complimented me on - I always think my choices through thoroughly and actively search for new songs - for example my Colourist song for OTY was released the day before!
Most importantly I am a great team player as Pete, Jacka and Nathan have said; Nathan even said a lovely thing about how I brought the team together with Pete. In a game which fosters amazing team relations (as Gav so eloquently put it), I feel that matters so much. It's important every task for the team to win and I have always been supportive of my team mates in that way. This is as much a team game as it is an individual one and they have been amazing. So overall no doubt Jakk and Robert are great but I do feel it's this combination of attributes actually which I think makes me well-rounded and therefore allows me to stand out. It's also why I believe I should win.
2) Hey Rick! I feel that I have answered some of this in my answer to Alex's question in how I stand out but to summarise and add some more information on: I feel I deserve to win because I have been a really well-rounded candidate and strong consistent performer in this process. I have an adventurous and versatile approach to mentoring with a good focus of both suitability and creativity and I am always taking risks. I have constantly been taken out of my comfort zone, mentoring difficult acts, and they have been received well. I have a strong work ethic and I am very motivated despite having a part-time job, clinical placements and my medical degree with exams all about. I have a friendly, supportive and diplomatic attitude when I'm with my team and therefore I have been a strong team player which is what this competition is all about! I have also demonstrated my willingness to learn too - to prioritise suitability as well as creativity, to look for songs which are more immediate and accessible, to analyse songs from the eyes of a viewer, to choose a wide range of songs to appeal to all people – all important lessons I have learned from Pete, my team mates, judges and viewers alike. I also am incredibly passionate about music in general and I feel that comes across in my choices which I adore. So again it's this combination of factors which is why I deserve to win.
3) My most enjoyable aspect of the process would definitely be the team aspect – getting to know Jacka, Nathan and Pete has been so amazing and it’s what keeps me coming back to this game!
I never expected to reach the final in the sense of how great everyone has been this year. Nathan tries hard and has chosen some amazing songs, while Jacka is so passionate about his choices and has also progressed so much, and not just them but everyone this year – Paul with his amazing Roo Panes choice, Arran with his Halsey choice for Diana, Pingu with that Luke Friend choice
Also you mentioned something about the quantity of writing re my songs - it's not that I waste words but more that I have lot to say about different areas. It just demonstrates my analytical approach to whatever I do and that I put a lot of effort and thought into my song choices.
4) Hi Arran - I do feel that I have always tried to use artists and songs people have not used before and be creative! That's what I always aspire to do! I think I showed that particularly well this final tbh with 5 artists - Femme, Kid Runner, Coin, Nothing But Thieves, Great Good Fine Ok never having been used before on this forum and all recently released songs. Even throughout the course of this competition I've either used songs from artists who have never been used before on this forum like (Memoir, FMLYBND, Markus Feehily, Xylo etc) or that I myself first used on the forum (The Colourist, The Struts) or that I used particularly creatively (Elliphant for Steph, Kimbra for Blonde Electra) so I believe predictability has never been a weak point.
I do feel there were a few song choices I have regretted but again these are always well-thought through and they more often polarise then being completely disliked - I chose Betty Who for example because her songs are always energetic and full of showmanship, and to me felt like the dance pop/indie pop Kitty would have released. Sure there are aspects I could improve like not holding onto songs for too long (like using Walking On Cars earlier before Jakk did hehe
5) Hi Jakk - glad to see power's come back.
6) I actually feel my strongest attribute is my willingness to learn! I have learned so much from learning about new artists, appreciating new styles of music and keeping a conscious effort to be unpredictable from Aliyah/Jakk last year to listening to Pete’s advice to select immediate sounding and more accessible songs, appreciating more varieties of music like indie pop and acoustic, choosing songs which appeal to a wider range of people, to Nathan’s advice in choosing more anthemic songs! It's my willingness to listen to constructive criticism from everyone, and my experiences being put out of my comfort zone (mentoring those difficult acts I have talked about before) which is the whole reason why I have this creative, risk-taking mentoring style and responsible for my versatile taste in music. It's this willingness to learn, to adapt and to integrate other people's advice into my mentoring style which makes me the ultimate player as I am a bit of everyone’s tastes who I have had contact with essentially while having a unique one of my own.
I haven't insulted people thank you very much nor have I tried to start arguments. I'm sorry you don't know me as a person but that's your misconception not mine.
My question, however, has to partially deal with the drama. For both of you, this ride to the top has been riddled with controversy over your actions, relationships with mentors, etc. Moreover, there has been plenty of commentary regarding how people ~actually~ vote in this game. As such, how do you think that I should be evaluating this final two? What factors should I be considering, which ones ought I ignore, and why, based on this, do you think I should be voting for you?
As a second question - also for both of you - why should I not vote for the other person? This is different from Rick's question. I want you to very specifically tell me what the other persons' missteps have been, and rather than telling me why you should win, I want you to tell me why the other person should not. There has been enough drama and bad blood in this game where you two should be able to throw out being nice to each other for a couple of sentences in this answer.
Because you're not here to make friends.
Firstly, Robert has I think exceeded everyone's expectations including mine. When I originally asked him to participate in this game he was really tied up with exams/studying at the time and was unsure about how much time he'd be able to put in, but still went ahead and entered which I was really pleased about because I knew he had an awesome music taste from when I spoke to him about songs in DS Factor.
I want to highlight the fact that I've never put him in the boardroom either (no I haven't been biased; if I had been then Tommy would've lasted longer). Obviously he faced the final one when he was my only team member left, so that was by default. I feel like this is actual proof of how consistent he's been throughout and although his songs show that too, there's more to it, like all the 'behind the scenes' stuff that nobody else sees. The way in which he's dealt with some previous 'team issues' as such really impressed me, he's always got on with every task putting any personal issues aside and worked super hard.
I also wanted to pick up on what somebody wrote earlier about asking if he'd still be here without my input and the answer is absolutely. I helped out with some act choices during one round (which we didn't even win) and Robert's ideas are without a doubt better than most of mine and he's won everything all on his own - literally, even without the assistance of other team mates further on into the game which is a disadvantage to other teams, so he's had to put in a real lot of effort especially with a crazy busy schedule which I know has been difficult at times but he's never let me down.
I feel as though he really deserves this win, so votes would be really great. I think that covers everything I wanted to say anyway.
tl;dr - Vote Robert x
Not sure I understand the first question, but if it is about the votes, and how much the voters have been influenced by me or my teammates, I think it's pretty obvious I haven't been involved in trying to make anybody vote for me since I don't even know anybody, and most of my teammates disappeared as soon as they got eliminated even, nor do I think that stacey has (I mean, she isn't the most popular here either xD sorry stacey
When it comes to the stuff about relationships etc, it's all been very fun and stacey is a very dear friend to me, but to think that she's been favoritising me or whatever else we got accused of to have been doing, should all just be ignored. I've grown and gotten so much better at this during this short period of time, and that is what has taken me all this way despite being on my own for so long, and I have singlehandedly won a challenge, and placed in second when I didn't win. The songs I've chosen, even in the beginning, have all been very well received, placed in the top, and I've put down so much time into this (especially since I was alone while he other teams had 3 mentors each etc and I had to do three times the work or so, while I also had clinical placements, long travels across the country etc just like Roxie) and worked so hard for it, and apparently it has paid off that's why I think you should vote for me.
The other question was a lot harder. For me, I had just heard from Roxie in ds factor earlier, and heard that she was a pretty good mentor, but I've always thought it weird that Pete mentioned her having a huge amount of suggestions for each task as a positive thing. For me that's a bit confusing since the only times I had a lot of selections was when I wasn't sure at all about what I should go with for the acts, if you have an idea for what fits together I believe there is that 'perfect song' or as close to it that you can get, that you should be able to find as a mentor. Furthermore, I have to say, even though I like Roxie on a personal level, the final task where we had to discuss acts and order etc, she kind of went with the bulldozer method, wouldn't accept anything that she didn't have a clear idea on beforehand (unless especially Jakk fought for it for days) and wasn't very reasonable at all in the discussions. I decided to let them discuss and choose pretty much all acts, with some inputs, and decided I was going to show off my mentoring by working with whatever was provided, especially since we all had stated we wouldn't be able to be there for the most part of the days we had until we needed to submit the songs. We made a deal on how to choose the songs, and when we were decided, Roxie decided that we (/Jakk) had been unfair to her, and pretty much broke the deal. That whole task was a horrible experience... Now you could also see it as Roxie having a strong will or so, but I think you should be more flexible than that and give the others a fair competition - if you are good enough to win you should be able to work with whatever you get.
This post isn’t about why you shouldn’t vote for Robert (Not to say Stacy was taking any shots at Roxie, she wasn’t.), but rather why I think you should vote for Roxie. I think like Stacey said Robert been a pleasant surprise to a lot of people and absolutely fair play to him, he’s had some great choices and impressed people, well done.
Roxie has been a living example of the “Team” in “Team Factor” right from Day One. In our team we had an unfortunate no show along with two people not brimming with experience (Myself and Jack) and Roxie who was the most experienced within the team. In addition to doing her own work and trying to ensure she brought out the best in herself she was there along the way with me and Jack offering her insight into our own choices. She pushed us to challenge ourselves rather than anybody else so that we could do better for us.
Roxie NEVER stopped looking for better songs in ANY task. Even with mere moments before task DL’s she would be there questioning whether there was anything we could do to improve our song list causing a lot of eleventh hour discussions. Whether it was the start of the task or just before the DL Roxie never seemed deterred and never wanted to settle, always wanting to do the best for herself and the team.
This has led to some incredible song choices (Like Elliphant, The Struts and Shannon Saunders among many others) and the reason why she has made it into the top two. While Pete was a great mentor for our team, Roxie was also there providing Moral Support and Constructive Criticism. She has stayed away from any drama and if you factor all these things together, I think it makes Roxie a worthy winner of Team Factor 2015.
Go On Roxie...#TeamFun2015AlwaysAndForever
Hi Justin dw about it – work takes priority! Hope you enjoyed the songs nonetheless.
I feel that out of anyone I have actually stayed out of the drama and controversy. In fact out of everyone in this competition, I am probably the one who has not had any major arguments with anyone. Also I most definitely did not vote hound considering most of the usual suspects like Aliyah, Jakk, Pingu etc are in a team that is against me so I can’t exactly send pms to them.
As to what Robert’s done wrong in the process, I prefer to talk about my strengths really then judging other people’s weaknesses (that’s for you all to decide). But I suppose something that was noticeable for me is that Robert has been quite inconsistent in that he really only showed up in Task 6 – 2/3rds of the way through the process. While it is understandable that he has had medical commitments, I am studying to be a doctor too and yet I have been here as a strong contender since Task 1. Also I feel in terms of predictable choices, Robert has made the most. I understand he is new to this process but even so I quit traditional games a year ago and I am not always in the loop what gets used. Either way there is a helpful search function on the website which is really not that difficult to use – you can do it on google as well to find out whether an artist has been used before! I just feel more importantly that people should evaluate our performance equally and not give special consideration to other people in a way. Moreover, Robert told me something about these passionate arguments within his team which suggests that there is a lack of team spirit potentially (I'm not in the team so it is impossible to conclude either way). I loved my team but more importantly we bounced ideas off each other to come up with best set of songs to approach these tasks which is the whole reason why it’s called Team Factor and not Individual Factor. It’s important to do well as a team as well as individually and at times I just feel Robert has not shown that? Robert is a sweet guy either way and I am sorry if any of this sounds harsh Robert but it’s just how I feel.
Robert I'm slightly surprised at some of the comments here because that's not how I remember it. I'm not sure why you're saying Jakk was fighting for his choices for days as we had decided all our acts pretty much on the day we received the task lol! Or that we had some deal that I broke - I'm not sure I ever agreed to anything like that? I do feel you are overdramatising the situation as well as it was a simple disagreement.
I do apologize that I was quite firm in what I wanted (I think we all were tbh) but I disagree with all the views that I was being unfair. Andrea and The Dolly Rockers are both the only choices I really got and that too keeping in mind both are versatile acts that you both had a chance at using effectively. We all got to the decision of using 1D together. Jakk got Dean, Ray and Alex and Sierra. You were the only person in the end who wanted Matt as well so you got a choice. I actually wanted us to swap Ray to Joelle to make it fairer on you as she was an act you wanted. Tbh all of this debating could have been avoided had we just all selected two acts we wanted like I suggested in the first place and debated the last which would have been easier and fairer but you yourself wanted to debate all 7 choices out Robert.
Also I think you have misunderstood what Pete meant by lots of suggestions – not that I have lots of different suggestions for each act but lots of combined suggestions of different acts and songs, that Pete can rely on me having a range of different options and avenues we could down to suit our current set of songs. I think that shows I am a capable team player as well as a leader. If anything I think my wide variety of act-song combinations is what makes me flexible to make me able to mentor a whole range of acts.
Also just saw this and your other post too Will - thanks for the support!
I think as I mentioned earlier I haven't had any songs that hasn't been well received, (except maybe bongo bong, which i had an explanation for :P ) even though you didn't notice much of me in the beginning (when other things were in focus.) but I'd like to say I started up higher than expected,and since, I've only moved upwards, either winning the task (like this top 3 task where i got 4/7 songs, or the buyer's week) or ending up in the top 2, except for the bad week I had which I have explained earlier (in which idk where i ended).. Speaking of predictable choices - I don't see why digging in the indie swamp is necessary - and I don't think predictable songs is necessarily a bad thing (although I'm not exactly sure which ones are predictable) as long as they fit the artist well and people want to vote for them (I mean, predictable and boring or bad in another way should be lower down in the scoreboard, otherwise it's not a bad thing, is it? Idk)
Also, what are you saying about my team? :P I have no memory of something like that, there were some discussions especially between me and Paul, pretty similar to the one you/we had, but Paul and I were able to reason and compromise with eachother, and we learnt from our differences - and had a great last task for Paul before he got eliminated, which was really surprising. I think that's a lot more important when it comes to teamwork - people with strong wills being able to combine those wills, listening to eachother, respecting eachother and eachother's choices - discussing songs, acts etc, suggesting alternative routes, and most importantly working together towards getting better, and getting results on a higher level. Unfortunately he got eliminated before we had the chance to really show off though ;(. Oh, and all of the ppl on the team still speak with eachother, and at least I really enjoy their company (although it feels like Lucas left ages ago xD) So implying we couldn't work as a team or anything like that also seems like a half-hearted attempt at finding a negative. But I get it, I had a really hard time too with coming up with something negative to write about you
Well Jakk and me wanted to go with the acts we chose the first day, but you never agreed, and kept saying you wanted to change the acts, then you didn't log in the next day. During the night, next day, you logged in, and kept asking us to change Ray/Matt to Joelle, although I told you I would be away next day (which was the same day as the songs had to be sent) and wouldn't have time to spend on looking for songs even further. I spent leads of time the day before to find songs to have for safety if any acts would get changed, and that last night, you insisted on changing the acts just as I was about to go to bed - that's when i said that I didn't want to change Matt anymore. It was your act originally, as was many of the others. The agreement we had was to allow Jakk to pick the last two songs since you had chosen - if not all, then a majority - of the first five acts (or at least they were yours originally..) When Jakk finally chose two acts, you didn't agree on them, but instead wanted to tweak that too. It was a bit weird, since we spent so much time on letting him make the last two choices, and we all were desperate to sleep, and you still didn't agree even though you had suggested most of the acts we were going to use and told us we were treating you bad and unfairly.... So to say that Andrea and the Dolly Rockers were your only choices is not true at all. I stayed out of this discussion last time because you didn't seem to be possible to reason with very much (you agreed on changing to Joelle only the last day when I had already chosen my acts and was going to send them in - and you didn't want to switch Andrea for Joelle, which kind of was her replacement, but you wanted to switch one of the acts Jakk chose, which would've given us even more arguing, not coming to a decision etc.) This might very well be because of you "being quite firm in what you wanted" but it felt like talking to a wall at times - and I felt sorry for Jakk more than once in that discussion, and we both tried to end it several times and just go with what we had... I don't feel like discussing this any further since it was mainly between you and Jakk, and I just wanted us to come to a conclusion (and not when I had decided, or had some ideas already. I wanted more time than a couple of minutes or so to check for alternatives etc....) As I said, I had a hard time finding negatives, and the strong will you have and unwillingness to compromise etc was the thing I noticed the most so that's why I mentioned this at all, you definitely do deserve your spot here Roxie
To add to my earlier post, Robert has always had loaaads of ideas during every round too and I very often left things all down to him, especially in the later stages after he won the buyers task because it showed his capabilities. Of course I was always around for any help he wanted/needed and advised, but I knew he could do amazing on his own and then was able to take the credit for it which was my main priority, to make him shine and I guess that paid off. Something else that I love is how Robert is able to find songs for quite literally any artist with a wide range of musical knowledge, genre, tempo, gender etc and has always found something suitable for even the lamest of acts.
Re: the drama situation, Robert was specifically brought into drama by Aliyah so could barely completely avoid it, I think that's irrelevant as to what makes the qualities of a winner. It'd be kind of lame if you didn't speak up and get your point across. Plus, seemingly Roxie was involved in a drama during this last task, awks.
Lol yes you're a 'risk taker' and that's an awesome quality to have, but Robert has hardly been at all 'predictable' with his choices. I mean everyone has been at times, even some of your finale songs were. Our team issues were always resolved within like, minutes and a lot of that comes down to how compromising and adaptable Robert was, which I briefly spoke about earlier. I think the fact that Paul has come in here to defend Robert several times too speaks volumes.
As for your comment about Robert not showing up until later, that probably comes down to the fact he's incredibly easy-going (which is a quality I really admire in teams) and in the very beginning he was also super busy so didn't have as much time, although still put his all into every task. Don't give me the "we're both medical students" thing either, you don't travel for half a day between locations.
In regards to Pete and our defence of him, we do it if we feel its justified. Im aware of why he needed to back away but I won't discuss that here because its not my place to do so, and it probably doesn't need to be discussed. But I do know that none of us on the team held any hard feelings over it, if we did we wouldn't have praised him.
As far as "The Aliyah Drama". I wouldn't really refer to it as a drama rather than her getting upset at her last remaining team member being eliminated when she felt he should still be here. Im sure you would have done the same had Robert been eliminated and not felt like he should have been so.
I don't think its "lame" to not stand up for yourself, just pick and choose the battles so to speak. Is it really worth to get riled up by a difference of opinion via Keyboards. On a personal note I probably have more respect for people if they walked away from it. Roxie didn't really get involved in it, she was brought in via implication like Robert was, but she didn't go back and forth arguing the toss with people. If that's how others choose to handle the situations then fine
I should like to point out for irony sake this isn't me trying to get into an argument with you or whatever
Good luck to you and Robert
Hey guys. Obviously you are free to say whatever you like, and obviously my name will come up in context sometimes, but can I respectfully ask that I'm left out of any comments like this.
When I left I just made a brief announcement without a big speech, rant or fuss and haven't posted since. Some may still see this as 'bitter' and that's fair enough (during that last evening I did allude to a couple of issues I had with that task, though I did send the PM before Jacka was fired so it wasn't a direction reaction to that) but to be honest I suffer from RL stress and anxiety, I reacted quite badly to a behind the scenes issue and didn't like how the game was affecting me.
I just decided that all the dramas of the game weren't the best environment for me if I was to remain directly involved. I apologise to everyone - especially my lovely team, obviously - for leaving you in the lurch. I hope people understand and that this post isn't responded to negatively.
I have still been speaking to my old team regularly and offering unofficial support to Roxie; I made it clear that I was still there in friendship for anything she needs, which actually hasn't been much other than checking her explanation posts to accompany her 3 'favourite' songs, so she is pretty accurate to say she's been mentorless!
Anyway good luck to the final two tonight and take care all.