Austwins

Austwins
Alliance Profile
Big Brother 17
Members	Austin Matelson Julia Nolan Liz Nolan Jace Agolli Affiliates: Vanessa Rousso
Votes Against	17
HoH Wins	5 (Weeks 3, 4, 8, 9 & Day 78)
Times Nominated	9
Veto Wins	3 (Week 8, Day 78 & Week 11)
Lowest Placing Member	Jace Agolli (17/17)
Highest Placing Member	Liz Nolan (2/17)

Austwins (formerly known as Tres Amigos) was an alliance on Big Brother 17 that consisted of Austin Matelson, Jace Agolli, Julia and Liz Nolan. The alliance started off as Tres Amigos in Week 1 when Austin, Jace, and Liz bonded. Unfortunately, Jace became evicted for his erratic behavior and irritating several houseguests. Despite this, Austin and Liz remained very close to one another though they were easy targets due to houseguests speculating that Liz was a twin. When Julia entered the game, Liz and Austin would reunite as the Austwins. Later on, Julia became evicted in Week 11, Austin became blindsided in Week 12. Fortunately, the alliance found success in Liz who became the runner-up.

Members

Jury Austin

Evicted Jace

Jury Julia

Runner-Up Liz

Affiliates

Jury Vanessa

Moves

Week 3

Starting in Week 3, the alliance met up occasionally in the HoH room to discuss their plans and targets. Liz and Julia switched out continuously throughout the week, where they then became informed of everything occurring. Seeing as the High Rollers had removed Audrey from their group due to her constant lying and rumors originating from her, The Sixth Sense decided to use Audrey as a weapon and shield to go against them. Audrey had since then become inducted into a sub alliance known as The Sleeper Cell consisting of Austin, Clay, Shelli, Vanessa, and herself. As members continued to keep The Sixth Sense a secret, they maintained to work on relationships to gather information from the opposing the High Rollers as their mindset on getting them out continued to grow each day. It eventually led to Da'Vonne's downfall, and she became evicted the week prior. Austin and Vanessa were then crowned the two new HoHs and agreed to spare Audrey and backdoor someone else on the opposing side. While the rest of the house was led to believe that Audrey was the target, the group settled on Jeff being the new target seeing as he was playing multiple sides of the house and it eventually became found out he wanted Shelli gone so he could work with Clay. The same scenario happened with Austin and Liz where Jeff wanted Austin gone before the jury stage so he could bring in Liz. He was nicknamed the "male Audrey" by the Sixth Sense. With Austin becoming dethroned, James and John stayed on the block. After John managed to win the power of veto, Vanessa was due to name a replacement nominee. The alliance agreed that it was the perfect time to send Jeff home. However, they struggled to find a reason to put him up without exposing their alliance in the process. Eventually, they staged a fight, where they managed to get Jeff to throw Austin, Shelli, and Vanessa under the bus in front of the whole house, giving them a valid reason to backdoor him. On Day 29, Jeff became evicted from the house.

Week 4

On the fourth week, Liz and Shelli managed to become the HoHs. The group once again agreed that they needed to keep Audrey around so she could go after the others and so the other side would still target Audrey before them. Due to Jason's knowledge that he received from Da'Vonne and constant talk about the Twin Twist, the group feared he would go after Liz, thus making him the target for the week. After Vanessa became the PoV holder, she became informed that Audrey was throwing her under the bus and accusing her of making a final two deal with Steve. Eventually, this got back to Shelli who took it as Audrey trying to turn the Sleeper Cell against each other. Fed up with Audrey's antics, the group decided it was best to send Audrey home. During the week, Austin decided to make a deal with Jason without telling the alliance. He exposed the twin twist and made it clear he wanted Julia evicted once she entered the game to have Liz to himself. Eventually, this information got back to Vanessa and Shelli and they both agreed they couldn't trust Austin going forward. On Day 36, Audrey became evicted from the house.

Week 5

During the fifth week, Vanessa won her second HoH competition alongside Jackie. Upon winning, Vanessa immediately made it known she did not want to stay as HoH. She and Jackie agreed on a plan to have Vanessa become dethroned so Jackie could remain the sole HoH. With this plan also game a deal between the two where they vowed not to backdoor or target each other. Jackie originally wanted Liz as the target because her sister would begin playing the following week whereas Vanessa saw it as the perfect opportunity to get rid of Austin since he lied about the deal he made with Jason and exposing the twins. The two eventually settled on Austin and managed to get six others: Jason, Meg, James, Clay, Shelli and Becky to agree to the plan and the eight then established a top eight deal known as Dark Moon, excluding Austin, John, Julia, Liz, and Steve. Jackie decided to put up Liz and James, where James agreed to throw the BoB for Jackie to remain HoH. Vanessa put up Clay and Becky to guarantee them winning and have them be both safe for the week. However, the plan derailed after Liz managed to win the BoB by herself, thus dethroning Jackie, having Vanessa as the sole HoH and Clay and Becky remaining as nominees. Due to Liz's guaranteed safety for the week, the twins accomplished their mission to survive the first five evictions. As a result, Julia officially entered the game as an individual houseguest at the next live eviction.

Even with Jackie's dethronement, the house agreed to target Austin still. Vanessa felt she has caught him in too many lies and was unable to work with him. As the POV competition grew near, the houseguests had to choose the players that would participate per Big Brother's standard rules. Vanessa eventually drew a houseguest choice and chose Shelli. Speculation ensued by the Sixth Sense that the others were not happy with this decision due to their supposed negative facial expressions. Ultimately Clay managed to win the power of veto, where the alliance again was under the impression that Jackie, James, Jason, and Meg were not pleased. Shelli and Vanessa grew suspicions that the others planned to win the veto, leave nominations the same and evict Clay. Upon this speculation, they also realized Austin was a number despite his radical decisions. Once Vanessa told Liz about Austin throwing Julia under the bus, they agreed to confront Austin about his lies (including voting for Audrey to stay). Eventually, Austin was outed, and the alliance decided to give him another shot as long as he would stop making side deals that would put the coalition in jeopardy as well as lie to their faces. Vanessa struggled with the decision to save an ally (Austin) or to fulfill Dark Moon's wishes and backdoor him after giving them her word. Eventually, Clay and Shelli managed to convince Vanessa that Austin was a number for them that would never put them up over the other side. Clay and Shelli told Vanessa that Dark Moon would not last since the three of them were on the low end of the totem pole and had she backdoored Austin the following targets would be Julia, Liz, and Steve who were already essential numbers on their side. The group agreed to spare Austin and struggled to target either Jackie or Jason. Eventually, they felt Jason was the more strategic threat, calling him the "glue" of the other side and Vanessa had already made a deal with Jackie that she would not backdoor her. The trio managed to get Liz, Steve, Julia, Austin, Becky and John onboard to backdoor Jason. On Day 43, Jason became evicted.

Week 6

Following Jason's eviction, it became revealed that the Battle of the Block would officially end. Therefore only one HoH would be crowned every week for the rest of the season. James and Shelli were the last remaining two in the HoH competition, and Shelli vowed for a deal that would protect her and Clay for the week if she were to throw it to him. James agreed, and he was crowned the new HoH, making it the first time since Week 1 that the Sixth Sense was not in power. Following his win, Austin, Julia, Liz, and Vanessa were not happy that Shelli made a deal with James that would protect only herself and Clay. Also, the other side of the house had begun to speculate if there was a majority alliance, consisting of the Clelli, the twins, Austin, and Vanessa. As speculation about James' nominations grew, he told several people that he was going to split up a power couple that week. Many concluded that it would be Clay and Shelli. Upon hearing the news, Clay and Shelli began to scramble because they felt everyone was blaming them for Jason's eviction. They began to throw Austin, Julia, and Liz under the bus to James to try to keep themselves safe. It eventually got back to Austin and the twins, and they agreed to support James in his decision to target Clay and Shelli, feeling betrayed. The following day, James nominated Clay and Shelli for eviction and explained he had to go back on his word because of their involvement in Jason's eviction. After the nomination ceremony, Shelli made it clear to Vanessa that she was done with the Sixth Sense alliance and blamed Austin for them going up on the block. She also made it clear that she regretted having a hand in saving Austin and preferred Jason to still be in the house. After hearing the news about turning on the alliance, Vanessa felt betrayed by Shelli and later told James she was onboard to split up Clay and Shelli. James informed Vanessa that his plan was for nominations to stay the same to ensure one of them leaves. Austin, Julia, Liz, and Vanessa later agreed that Clay and Shelli were disloyal and untrustworthy and felt better if one of them left the house.

Trivia

• The Austwins (minus Liz) were evicted in different phases of the game.
  • Jace was the only member of the alliance to be evicted pre-jury, Austin and Julia were jury members while Liz was the only one to become a finalist.