Ep: 121: Crypto The Game finale feelings check-in with it's creator, Dylan Abruscato

Welcome to the Feelings Check-In, a feelings-first look at the news of the week.

Takes no one asked for on topics everyone's talking about. I'm Natasha Hoskins.

I'm Dina Burke.

And this is Boys Club.

Wait, is it just Boys Club?

It's just Boys Club.

The Boys Club podcast?

No, no, just Boys Club. Guess what? Boys Club is doing our very first conference called Brand New. Dina, what are we gonna be talking about?

So we're gonna be covering a lot of the stuff that we cover on the this podcast. Crypto, of course, the new internet, digital culture, emerging technology. We'll be at the Austin Proper on March 12th, and we're pulling in some of the smartest people we know.

It's gonna be very fun. Tickets are now live and they will never be as cheap as they are right now. Today, go buy your ticket. Members and Zaddy holders get special pricing, and if you aren't a member, you can apply to attend Brand New. So go to boysclub.vip/brandnew, link in show notes. To get all the details and can't wait to see you in Austin. Yeehaw! We have a real treat today on the Feelings Check-In. We had on Dylan, the— Dylan, the Dylan, the man, the mystery, the main character of Twitter this week, the twisted mind that has brought us Crypto: The Game. And it has absorbed our entire lives and this podcast as well. So apologies for how much we're talking about it, but If you have been like, what's been going on? This is a great episode. He's just a lovely person and has built a really fun consumer crypto application.

There it is. You love to see it. You love to see it. Um, I do want to say, uh, we had an offsite, a team offsite scheduled for this week. Natasha, myself, and Miranda in person, uh, opportunity for us to get together in person and do some strategy and some road mapping and some planning for the year ahead. Did not do much of that.

Nope, Flappy Bird.

Because yeah, did a lot of Angry Bird or Flappy Bird or whatever. Yeah, Crypto the game really drove a wedge right through our the boys club offsite.

Yeah, next time season two I'm taking ten days off. Poor Miranda was such a good sport about it,

and she was not a player, and she had to deal with being around two players, and that's annoying. And it's probably annoying for people who. didn't play and are listening to this podcast right now, but I promise you it's a novel experience that he created that is like, I don't know, there's something in it. So.

Yeah. And even if you didn't play and even if you are not into computer games, which I'm not, and if you've never watched Survivor, which I know some people haven't, this is still a great interview. He's a fantastic builder. He's put something out that's really fun and interesting. And it's really cool to hear his story and to just Talk about what's happening. So give it a listen. Also, if you're in New York City and you played Crypto: The Game, we're going and getting some drinks tonight to lick our wounds. So DM me on Twitter if you want to come hang. Lastly, we put something out this week that I'm really excited about with PYUSD, PayPal's stablecoin. Dina, do you want to tell or do you want me to?

I can tell. So we are, as many of you know, You've probably heard the ad spot a few times. We're doing a summit during South by Southwest in March in Austin. The brand new summit, it's Boys Club's first full-day summit. It's going to be all things consumer crypto, new consumer internet, creativity. Uh, what's another C word that I can say?

Commerce.

There it is. So we're doing a full day of programming. We have folks like Li Jin from Variant. We have Dee Goens, who's the founder of Zora, coming by for keynotes. Tahini from Try Your Best and Outdoor Voices and Joggy. So a lot of really incredible speakers and folks that are coming back to do talks and workshops, a full day of fun. So if you haven't already bought your ticket, do that now. But the thing that we launched this week specifically is with PayPal PYUSD. Uh, PYUSD is PayPal's stablecoin and they are sponsoring 3 creators to come to Austin during those few days for an expenses-paid trip. Incredible.

Incredible.

To come and hang out with us at Brand New. I will say also concurrently to Brand New is South by Southwest, which is the cultural technology conference in the States. I'd say it's like one of the biggest ones. So as a creator, to be able to come down to Austin and experience Brand New in real life and then have the whole ambiance of South by Southwest around you and all the insane events and meetups and parties and stuff that happens around that conference is really special. So what you have to do to enter is post something online, a video, a post that explains why—

a

thread that works too— why you want to come. And we will be sharing those links around with the Boys Club community. And basically the folks that get the most engagement on their posts, we will invite down the top 3. So we're really, really excited about this one.

More information in the show notes if you want to learn more about how to apply. Also, if you hold 20 PYUSD in your wallet, you can get $100 off to the brand new tickets. So pretty hot get. So fun stuff. Hope to see you in Austin. Give this episode a listen.

Hey Natasha, what is crypto to you?

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On today's podcast, we have Dylan Abruscato, a very special guest. Very excited for this conversation. He is the founder, creator of Crypto: The Game, which has been torturing so many of us this week. So we're excited to get into that. Previously, Dylan was at HQ Trivia, PartyRound, which was then Capital. Dylan, welcome to the show.

Thanks so much for having me. And thanks even more for playing the game. I was bummed to see that you guys Uh, we're each eliminated, but it, it leads for more, more time to chat today.

I was gonna say I was voted off last night, so I have notes. I have notes for you.

Well, the main reason I wanted to come on, well, obviously, uh, always down to chat about, about everything related to the game, but I was listening to last week's podcast and there were some, uh, some criticisms that I had. I had to come on and defend my honor. Oh no. All valid, all valid, all valid. But, uh,

in fairness, we did say, so for new listeners, we did some unpacking of our experience. At that point, it was very early on in the game, uh, on last week's podcast. But we did say no one asked for our feedback. No one asked for our notes, but we're giving them anyway.

I appreciate the notes. And, and the, the, the most amazing thing about, uh, building as we go is that we have, we have just been like literally shipping live updates based on feedback we hear on podcasts and on Twitter Spaces and in DMs. So it was great.

I also feel like sometimes Dean and I forget that we're recording and that other people are listening. This often happens and I'm like, oh, it's not that big of a deal. It's not that serious. Whatever we said.

No, honestly, it was great. It was great.

Okay. So for people who weren't playing this week, can you give us a quick description of the concept of Crypto: The Game?

Yeah. So at the highest level, it's a massive crypto survivor game. Very similar to the reality TV show Survivor. In this case, everyone buys in for 0.1 ETH, which goes to a pot, and everyone's randomly assigned to a tribe. And basically over the course of 10 days, the tribes compete against each other, vote players out from within their tribe, and essentially the last person standing wins the entire pot. And within that, there are daily challenges and 24/7 chats and collusion and chaos and backstabbing that takes place on and off the platform. But yeah, it's, it's basically a massive crypto survivor game.

I love it. Dina and I have been playing, obviously, if you listen at all, you've been hearing us talk about it. And I think I'd heard about Crypto: The Game maybe like a few months before it had launched. And Tyler, who's on your team, had reworked the Boys Club website as a part of something you guys were doing, I think at PartyRound or at Capital. And He's our hero, and we always joke anytime we're doing anything on our website. We're like Tyler, the best person in the world. Like we are so grateful.

He's literally the best in the world at what he does.

He's so good. And anyway, so we at Boys Club have just been rooting for you guys and excited to play. I am also. I got into Survivor during the pandemic. I think many people did. My husband has. This is like I'm airing his dirty secret, but. He's watched every single season, every single episode of Survivor.

Wow. Amazing.

So he's like a real, really into it. One of us. One of us. Exactly. Like started watching it in high school and then whatever. Has been super into it. And then during the pandemic, he was like, you gotta, you gotta get into this with me. And now I'm a huge Survivor fan. It's the best reality TV show on the planet. I don't know. It's really great.

Yeah.

And so was very much looking forward to this game and didn't know what to expect at all and had so much fun. And so first off, congratulations. It's been been such a huge success. So clearly you've hit a nerve with a lot of people just wanting to have fun on the internet with their friends and meet new people and do something that feels fresh, um, on-chain, which has been what you've done, which is amazing.

Wow. Thank you so much.

You're welcome. I'd love to hear, how are you feeling?

So tired. Couldn't be more tired. No, it's, it's been great. Honestly, it's, it's currently day 9 of 10, so we have 61 players left. They're currently all running around the internet trying to find the one individual immunity that's out there and guarantee themselves a spot in tomorrow's finale. And yeah, honestly, it, I'm so blown away by the support and participation and virality of this thing. You know, I'm, I'm a, a first-time founder and this is an idea that's always been in the back of my mind. And it's one of those things where it was like, I always wanted to build it because I always wanted to play it. And I think that is why it's resonating with so many people. I wasn't just trying to force something on-chain for the sake of it being on-chain or— I've been a Survivor fan my whole life. I apply every season. I never got a callback, but I've literally just always wanted to play Survivor and I've always wanted to play Survivor online with my friends. So that was like the earliest impetus behind the idea. And, uh, yeah, to answer your question, I'm tired first, but just grateful, grateful after that because, um, yeah, it's just amazing to see so many people that are having fun with, with an idea that you thought of basically.

What has been the process of building it? So I understand it's you, it's Tyler, it's one other person.

Yeah. Brian.

Bootstrapped, I understand. How long have you guys been working on this and how has that process gone?

Yeah. So it's been, uh, about 2 months, which is wild. Because if I know you both played, but the amount of just like product and engineering work that, that has gone into this thing is, is insane from the sound effects to the animations to the orbs. And I know Ty did your site and it looks incredible, but like he just went all out with orbs and countdowns and animations and transitions and waves and lightning and it's so good.

Stressing us all out. I got to say those countdowns, man.

Yeah, I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I'm so glad. But But yeah, I'd say it's like, it's an idea that I've had kind of my whole life. I grew up playing this CD-ROM game called Survivor Ultimate in like, you know, 2002. That was probably the most rudimentary form of the game that you see now, which is you pick one of a few cast members to play as and you play the most simple challenges that are so easy to win and you vote people out and the whole thing takes place in the course of like a half hour and like, but for some reason I just like kept going and I kept playing because I kept wanting to play Survivor as a kid. But, you know, fast forward to 2018, uh, I joined HQ Trivia, um, which I know you had mentioned. Uh, and, and for those of you listening or, uh, for either of you, if you, if you didn't play HQ, it was a live interactive mobile game show where if you answered increasingly difficult trivia questions with a live host and you got them all correct, you won or split a cash prize. And it went bonkers viral. This thing, Crypto: The Game, has hundreds of players, has had millions of live concurrents seemingly overnight. And the reason that I joined HQ and was so excited about it was this kind of grand vision of a live interactive TV network. So in the same way that HQ took a traditional TV game show and made it live and mobile and interactive, essentially for the internet. The same could have and should have been said for a Shark Tank format or a talent competition or a dating show. And in my mind, as a huge Survivor fan, the Survivor format. So first had this idea, I'd say like properly internally at HQ in, in 2018. And it's just been one of those things that's always been in the back of my mind every time I'm thinking about what's next career-wise or between jobs. Like, should I build that Survivor game? And you know, you can talk to any of my friends from HQ or just like personal friends. Like I, it's just one of those things I've always been talking about. So. Fast forward to a few months ago, Capital, which is what PartyRound rebranded to, was acquired by a larger neobank in the space. And luckily, Ty, who was on my team at PartyRound and Capital, is a fellow Survivor fan. And we kind of just like immediately bonded over the idea of properly building this thing. Luckily, Brian, who was also with us at PartyRound and Capital, was on board as well. And he has, uh, before Capital, he was at DraftKings, so has a ton of experience, um, building out like gaming infrastructure and things like that. So yeah, we just kind of all agreed to do it for fun and, uh, rev share and an equity split and have just kind of been like nonstop grinding on it for the last few months.

It feels a little full circle, Dina, because when Dina and I first met and the jobs where we found each other, we were working at a company and it was during the HQ trivia craze. And our office was so into it. Like everybody blocked off meetings, like everyone would go into the conference room. It was just, I remember the mayhem of that time. And it was really interesting to sort of have the same experience this week with Dina where we're like, drop everything. It's noon. Like it's time. So I would love to hear more about your decision-making around incorporating crypto, doing this on-chain. Why was that important to you and the team and what do you feel Like this tooling enables in a different sort of way what you've said, you've had this idea for years. And so I'm curious when that idea sort of merged with what's happening.

Yeah, I'd say it was kind of like a combination of things. Um, you know, when I first thought of this in 2018, it definitely wasn't a crypto game. I'd say probably around the time that I, you know, minted my first NFT and I was a huge, I say was, but I still am like an obsessive baseball card collector and the experience and like rush of opening a pack of cards and like hoping you got a rare one or a good one or an autograph or a relic, like that experience was mimicked for the first time, like post-reveal, seeing what you got when you minted an NFT, basically, if it was a good one or a rare one, et cetera. So that was the kind of first like light bulb, like personal moment for me that like, this is really fun. And like, there are fun ways that we can build things on the internet, like using this technology. I would be lying if I didn't say that a big reason was because of the pain points that we saw at HQ using something like PayPal for paying players and having them withdrawing funds and just between processing times. And I think we lost money on a bunch of transactions if they weren't under a certain threshold for withdrawal. I just personally couldn't imagine building a game where you pay players on any other financial rail. And then the last reason is probably just the audience. Like, you need to be chronically online to be good at this game. You need to be willing to spend the equivalent of a couple hundred dollars to buy into this game. And a lot of the puzzles that we're using for challenges are on-chain puzzles. And I always thought that was very fun to solve. I think you both follow Shlomo on Twitter, but like his crypto puzzles were always something that piqued my interest as a follower and I was like, oh, that could be a fun challenge idea for, for the Survivor game. So yeah, I think it's just like this, this audience or corner of the internet that we're all a part of just seemed the most ripe and down to try something fun on the internet. Um, I couldn't imagine like having to convince 400 Web2 consumers to spend a couple hundred dollars on a, on a game.

The crypto culture side of it. And like you're speaking to this very engaged, also very well networked audience has been a huge part of why it's been so successful. But I think it's really interesting, the sort of crypto payment rails part of it as well. And kind of makes me think, how can you port that over into other gaming experiences that maybe it's Survivor and, but it, maybe it's Survivor with like a different niche on the internet that maybe isn't crypto culture, maybe it's something else. And so I think that unlock around sort of like the pool. Crypto, easy in, easy out. TBD legality. We won't have to talk about that, but like, that feels like it could be an unlock for other good games. That feels really exciting. And I, I'm sure you're thinking about as well.

Yeah, 100%. I think, um, it's a, uh, luckily it's a game of skill and not a game of chance. Um, it's not just a, you know, a raffle or lottery or anything like that because of the challenges and the voting. But, uh, but yeah, I mean, the goal has always been to get progressively more on-chain with each season. So for season 1, the extent of the crypto was basically sending 0.1 ETH to the multisig and us sending 90% of the pot to the winner's address on file at the end of the season. But this was always meant to be a V1 for like our immediate networks. And I'm blown away by the response, but it was like intentionally built for a few hundred people. I think for season 2, we're really excited about this mechanic where you mint an NFT, which is your slot in the game. And when you get voted out, that NFT burns. But similar to hedging a parlay, you could hypothetically sell that NFT, which is your slot in the game at any point throughout the competition for a lot more than what you paid to get in. So Natasha, for example, like yesterday you're about, if you felt like you were on the chopping block or in jeopardy, you could have sold your—

I didn't, I didn't think I would.

That's the thing. Everyone, everyone thinks they're gonna win if they're still in, but But if you want to essentially cash out or hedge at any point throughout, you could hypothetically sell your NFT for more than you paid for. That's awesome. Yeah. So just fun mechanics like that that I'm really excited to introduce for future seasons. And I think something that Survivor has done really well is this, it's kept this high-level idea of everyone's on the island and you vote each other off and there are tribes, last person wins the pot, but every season there's a twist. I'm thinking of calling season 2 Aynon Island, and this is this like NFT-based mechanic. But Survivor had Redemption Island in, in one season, which I would love to do. And I'm sure you both would've loved that as well for the season where basically if you get eliminated, there are kind of like off-channel challenges that you can complete to try to get back in. And yeah, just like sky's the limit with, with mechanics and, um, especially with crypto.

In how viral this has gone in the crypto circles and how much people are into it, there What you spoke to at the beginning is it's amazing. There's so much great feedback. People are so invested and excited about it. And I wonder how you have been handling both the useful feedback and criticism and, and out of a goodness of people's hearts wanting to be like, this would be fun or this would be interesting while also balancing, I'm sure, a lot of really intense, one, pressure to just deliver a game that's really fun to people or having I don't know. I've been sitting on calls every night at 8 PM with groups of people and people really give a shit. And I'm like, whoo, man, there's an intensity to this game and a variety of people playing it. And so I'm curious how that has been and like how you've been able to balance like, okay, these are, this goes into a pot that's useful for me. And we can think about for this season or next season, this is stuff that's not my vision for the game or has just been just negative. feedback and how you've been sort of balancing that, the onslaught that I'm sure you've been getting from players and—

Yeah, honestly, I think just the fact that, that I, uh, wanted to build this because it was a game that I wanted to play helps so much with that. So if someone says, oh, I, you know, I've been searching the, the screen for a hidden immunity idol, and I'm in my head, I'm like, oh, as a player, that would be sick to find a hidden immunity idol. Like, that's something we should prioritize building tonight. Whereas if someone says like, oh, you should be able to create a DAO and split the pot and, you know, there should be bots and all this stuff. And it's like, as a player, like I personally think that would ruin the game. So I'm not, you know, maybe we do that in future seasons, but yeah, just kind of like using my personal player hat to decide like what is important to prioritize and what's not. Luckily this is season 1 and V1 and was always meant to be. Essentially like a beta for, for, you know, those in our immediate network. So I think like having that excuse has always has, has come in handy. But luckily, even though everyone wants to win and is very invested in it, like it seems like the overarching mindset is like, this is so great. And like, I, I'm, I, yeah, anything that I'm adding could only make it more fun in the future. So I think everyone's like overall on board with having fun on the internet.

I think so too. What has not gone as you expected, or like what's been the most surprising thing so far?

Yeah. Okay. So I think this like kumbaya, like we're all in this together. So I love Wagmi culture and like, I know it's a big thing in crypto, but I always thought that in a game where you have to vote each other out and one person wins, that would be a lot more ruthless and cutthroat than it is. And there were a lot of tribes, and I don't know if either of you were a part of this, that were like, you know, we are refusing our right to vote and we're abstaining and we're gonna hold strong. And like, I respect that decision. It's a bold strategy and we'll see how it plays out for folks. But I guess I'm, I was like very surprised, uh, by how, how much everyone wanted an individual game to be a team game.

Did you expect that? Like, I'm sure there's more people in the game now than you had anticipated.

Meaning more players in season 1?

Uh, no, I mean more players left by night 9.

I think this is about where I imagined it. I think last night in particular was a bloodbath because so many tribes withheld voting. And, and that's something we, we very clearly need to fix for the future. Like in Survivor, you can't like refuse your vote. Not something that honestly crossed any of our minds, but I thought like wanting to vote each other out would be the most fun part. But maybe that's just like my sick mind.

I just gotta say, it's kind of sweet that the unexpected emergent behavior is something that's so kind to the community. Yeah, everyone's so wholesome. So wholesome, yeah. Everyone like wanting to take care of each other in these little Telegram chats. So there's something kind of nice about it too.

Oh, for sure. I love it. It's, uh, it's very like Harry Potter, you know?

Oh, that's so funny. I just have to say about the hidden immunity aisle. 2 funny things that happened to me. I saw you guys post a picture of Jeff Probst with holding a hidden immunity idol, and I was like, great, there's gonna be a hidden immunity idol. Like, I know exactly what that is. Like, okay, I'm gonna go down this rabbit hole. And then I saw someone respond, and it was like a screenshot of them in Google search, and it was like Survivor necklace game. And I was like, these, these fools. Yeah, yeah, they don't even know the core game.

I know, I know.

You don't deserve to win. And then I went down a completely wrong rabbit hole. I spent at least 2 hours yesterday being like, okay, we're all in this tribe, Barracuda. Barracuda was the Outback season. This is who won that Outback season. I'm in the Wikipedia pages on it. I'm like, they hid it. They, it's in the wiki links. Like I'm like going through wiki links trying to find something like Command F Survivor or like Crypto the Game on everything. You

would do well on today's challenge.

Oh, bummer. Huge bummer for me. But my final, like, Guess was going because the only interaction that I thought you could do on the page was there's like a little chat for people who didn't play, and I was like, okay, maybe I'm supposed to enter the winner. It was like the first woman. I think her name was like Lisa or something like that. And so I was like, yes. And so I was like backslash and like trying to enter names, and it wasn't working. And then I had a friend text me, and they were like, "I got it." Oh, and I was like, man, I was. I was going to take that person down the wrong path. So I'm glad that—

Yeah, it is always very funny. I don't know if funny is the right word, but watching people go down these rabbit holes, like we just— a couple, a couple of players either accidentally bought in twice or sent, sent 0.1 ETH to the multisig after entries closed. So we went through and like refunded a bunch of players yesterday from the multisig and one player was was DMing the account like, I found the transactions from yesterday and like, I'm on it for this challenge. And in my head I'm just like, no, those are literally just refunds.

Oh no.

So yeah, you can't like, you wanna, you wanna, um, scream like you're not on the right track. Like I saw the, the, the chats yesterday in real time. People were doing like backslash immunity, backslash things like that. But it's just like you almost have to let them play the game without interfering.

I don't know how you've done it. You've remained very strong. I, I, I, I don't think I, I would just be telling people. I'd be like, it's, it's this, you should go do it. Yeah.

Luckily they're, we're so busy that I don't, um, that, yeah.

Are you like in real time making adjustments to challenges?

Yeah. I mean, the fir— the first challenge, uh, what, which was the IRL scavenger hunt for a clue that was hidden within Chris Dixon's book in Williamsburg. We were supposed to launch Pac-Man that day and Brian and Ty on the team were basically like, we need, we need more time. Like, what can we do? Instead, and, and that like literally the night before it went live, I was like, what if we just like hit a, hit a clue IRL and just like, so yeah. So the night before that challenge, we made, thought, thought of that and, and built it and shipped it. The night before the hidden immunity idols, I was on a Twitter Spaces where I heard someone say that would be great. And we, we built it. Wow. The tribe shuffle, that was never supposed to happen. Uh, I had a, a friend who's playing the game call me and was just like, Way too confident, just like sitting pretty. I run my tribe. I have it in the bag. And I was like, you know what? We are gonna, I am going to shuffle tribes because people are way too cocky and confident right now. So, um,

I love it. Yeah.

So, so all of it is in real time.

Okay. A few more questions. I feel like, I don't know if we can ask you who you think is gonna win because voting's gonna be live tomorrow. Yeah. When this episode airs.

Yeah. No comment.

So it feels risky.

No comment.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

I do wanna say that the boys club, we, Natasha and I have, I'm not gonna put a target on anyone's back, but we have our favorites and we have some side chats and I'm gunning for, for those folks.

Um, right. Yeah. I, I think there, there are definitely a few, um, outcomes that I could see taking place. I think either, uh, and, and I don't know if you said this on, on the episode or not, but for those of you that don't know this, if you are eliminated at any point throughout the game, On the finale, the power then switches back into your hands and you cast a vote for the winner. So you can't just be like a ruthless backstabber and expect to win. You almost need to play a respected game amongst your peers to have a shot. But but yeah, I could see a world in which people log in and they recognize a name from one of their tribes or an early alliance and want to support them. I know you mentioned you know the boys club chat like a very very famous. Survivor strategy is women supporting women. So I could see a world in which that happens.

Yeah. But by the way, Dylan, you probably put a target on our back. You, you tweeted earlier this week about the Female Alliance and then we were like, okay, blow us up. Why don't you?

I was like, why are you coming

for us like

that? That was not supposed to put a target on anyone's back. That was me as a genuine Survivor fan, like seeing it happen in real time in the Um, I was trying to introduce you to the other females playing the game.

I totally get it. It's all good.

It's all good.

It's great.

Okay. This is a community question. Who is Wilbert?

I don't know. I, I genuinely don't know because I, I don't have access to the telegrams that are like being used to collude and plot your alliances. We like very strategically made tribe-specific and general chats for the game, but Um, we had everyone connect their Twitter accounts so you could like collude off platform. I, yeah, I don't, I don't know. Apparently from what I hear, because everyone keeps telling me everything, but Wilbert is, uh, a, a, I guess a, a Telegram character who is influencing the decision of the game. So I don't, I don't know who Wilbert is, but

I can, uh, for the listener, he is puppet master of last night's vote. My experience of last night was. that I, for my mental health, didn't check anything until like 8:40. I was like, gonna have 20 minutes. And I knew from some other people that I was, I was not voted for yet. So I was like, okay, not voted for yet. This is great. And I had remained pretty quiet all day cuz I was like, my strategy is like fly under the radar, go hard on the last day, and then big social push on the last day. Yeah. And like corral, you know, love for me to win.

Great strategy.

And so I'd remained pretty quiet on the chats. And then I was like, okay, not voted for, great. And then I was like, who, who should I target? Talking to a few different people. And then an alliance member was like, you, you need to message this person, Wilbert. And I was like, who's Wilbert? And he was like, well, he's, he's who you can get your instructions from for tonight. So I messaged Wilbert on Telegram.

No way.

And I was like, I hear you can be trusted. And Wilbert was like, hi, and then gives me a name to vote for. And I was like, who's that? And he was like, your assignment.

No.

And I was like, who does this guy think he is? And I was like, I'm taking out this guy. I'm waiting to the very end. very end and I'm taking out Wilbert. And so I like try to like find any sort of way to match his telegram to who he could be in the game. And I couldn't, and I couldn't. And then I did end up using his— I got one more confirmation from another alliance member that was like, I voted with Wilbert. He's who I'm taking my instructions from.

And is that person still in?

Yes. Yes. That person, both people actually who got instructions are still in. But then with 20 seconds left, I got 2 votes against me.

On voting, are you ever going to reveal who voted for who? Uh,

I'm not this season. I think everyone that was eliminated wants to know who voted for them. I think, yeah, I think, uh, I don't know what, what good can come out from that. I think it would just create like personal and professional vendettas. But then also when, when a lot of the tribes were abstaining from voting, folks would reach out and basically say like, if I, if I decide to cast a vote, I need to know that like my tribemates won't know it was me or that, or who I voted for. And so I, I publicly tweeted that season 1 votes will remain anonymous, and I can't go back on that despite the insane bribes I've been getting to.

I do wanna say I got voted out on the Flappy Bird challenge. I do also wanna say that I had the highest number of efforts in my group and the lowest score.

That would've been me. I, I literally can't get one on Flappy Bird. I don't know how people do it.

I don't know how people do it either, but I then got voted off even after campaigning and showing that I actually round out the team really well. I bring these other skills to the table that aren't gaming. I'm not going to be a gamer, but there's like these other kids who can do the gaming stuff. Yeah. Uh, anyway, that didn't work. I got voted, I got 2 votes against me that night and I was so pissed. I wrote a really angry message to the group and I said, if I ever find out who voted for me, you are banned from Boys Club parties for life. And I sent that in like 5 different groups. And then I woke up the next morning. I was like, man, probably a bit too much.

This is why we can't reveal. I got my fair share of, uh, Angry DMs that the next morning have were followed up with. I'm sorry, I slept on it. Thanks for building such a great game.

My experience of this was as soon as I got voted off, I was like, "I'm tweeting." I was gonna spend the full 41 ETH on throwing a party for you nerds, and none of you had my back in the end. And Gina was like, "Just just just like just wait. Just sleep on it. Just see how you feel in the morning." And I was like, "Fine." And then in the morning, I was like, "Never mind. Everybody should like get together and have a beer." And like, we should all. Yeah, this is.

I think this is why, uh, on, on the actual Survivor, you, you don't like see who voted you out until you watch it, because by then you have like months to get over the—

Totally.

The pain of being backstabbed.

Yeah.

I do say that we would like to formally pitch you to do, you know, the like Bravo after-show episodes where it's like a recap, you bring on the guest, the person who was voted off.

Oh yeah, for sure.

I think Boys Club should do that for season 2. We'll do the, the post-show coverage.

I would love nothing more than that, honestly. Like when I spoke, when I spoke to you about this idea, I was like, the ultimate goal would be like a companion, like a fan podcast, basically, like a companion show. So perfect. Um, that sounds great.

Post-game coverage from Boys Club.

I love it. Sounds right. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds great.

Well, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for, uh, providing so much fun and anxiety for us the past 10 days. It's been a pleasure.

Yeah, honestly, it's been so, it's been so fun to watch.

And can't wait for season 2. We'll be there.

Amazing. I hope you win season 2.

Thanks, Dylan.

Thank you.

Take care.

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Not investment advice. Crypto trading involves risk of loss. Cryptocurrency services are provided to US and US territory customers by Payward Ventures Incorporated. PVI DBA Kraken. Okay. We're going to get into some draft tweets here, but before we do, a little housekeeping. As you know, if you listen to this podcast, we have moved To Online, which is our internet news stories show, to a different feed. Please go subscribe to that feed because we're going to stop posting To Online to this feed and then you will miss it. So that link is also going to be in the show notes. That's just a quick piece of homework for you. Go there, subscribe. That's all.

So for those who don't know, Draft Tweets is the part of the show where we go into our drafts on Twitter, X, I suppose. Draft Xs. And we read off some of the drafts that didn't make it to the timeline for a number of reasons.

Uh,

I have one here. It's not very funny, but it's kind of topical.

Let's hear it.

Telling my husband I can't help with the kids' bedtime because I'll get voted off Internet Survivor. It's a true story. True

story, that one. Oh my gosh, my favorite moment. I had 2 favorite moments really quick watching. Do you know, it was desperate day 6, day 7, I don't know what it was, Floppy Bird day. And I was in a room outside of her office working on something, trying to write something, and I hear her just go, okay, okay, let's just do it. Let's just do it, dudes. Just let me know how how to do it. I'm here. And I was like, okay, she's on a call with her team and she's trying to get better at Flappy Birds. And then it wasn't working what they were teaching, trying to teach her. And then she goes, I know this is the worst OPSEC in the world and maybe we can find a workaround, but like, does someone want to just sign into my wallet? And I was like, she's at the edge of herself. And then her, her kid comes home. Oscar's what, 7, 8?

7.

7 years old. He's great at Roblox. She was like, Oscar, I'm so glad you're home. Sets him up in front of the computer and is like, you work from here. You need to get above a 40 And then comes back upstairs and she's like literally editing redlined documents on her cell phone because her kid has her computer. And he's so sweet. And he's like, he's coming up the stairs to the office and he was like, Mom, I can't do it. 41 is a really high number and the best I've gotten is 7. And Tina was like, well, okay. And he was like, I really want to help you. And Tina's like, well, this is how you can help. And I was like, oh my gosh. I

was in a dark place. I really knew that I was, it was in big trouble and I ended up getting voted off that night. I knew I was in trouble. Could not play that game. So yeah, mistakes. Well, mistakes were made.

Oh man. Okay. Here's my draft tweet. Me to my friend who's been pregnant for 220 days, in quotes, me at 1 day pregnant, baby's craving a Xanax. It doesn't really work, but what I'm trying to convey is, you know, 1 day pregnant, me 1 day pregnant, baby's craving is a Meme format that's going around Twitter this past

a good one,

a really good one. It's a really funny ones, and I had a girls weekend. One of my friends is so pregnant; she's 220 days, 22 days pregnant. She's been pregnant forever, and I kept everything. I kept making a joke: one day pregnant, baby's craving a margarita, baby's craving a whatever, a sauna, like everything. And I was just like, man, this was a joke, and she does think it's funny, but this is also probably so annoying, and I wish I couldn't convey it. And then I kept being like, what do you guys think the best format of? tweet is. And they were good sports, but it's too— it's too much cognitive load.

What do you think is more annoying? Having— getting that joke a million times over one weekend, or having to then workshop the joke for Twitter at the end of the weekend? Because I think they're both equally annoying.

Yeah, they were like, go play your Survivor game,

please.

Okay, see you next week.

Okay, bye.