Crypto: The Game Companion Podcast, Day 4: Adidas Challenge Drama and Holy Cabal betrayal with Rachlols

[00:00] We're Boys Club, and you're listening to the official Crypto the Game companion podcast, brought to you by Lens. For 10 days only, we'll be hitting on the biggest moments, juiciest gossip, and hottest takes from season two, Anon Island. Smash the subscribe. I don't know. It doesn't feel right. Perfect. No notes. [00:19] Hi. Hi. We've had a wild 18 hours. Ups and downs, I'd say. Ups and downs. A roller coaster of a day on Crypto the Game. And there wasn't even a challenge really or a vote. So we've got some stuff to talk about. Yeah. So there was a challenge that was released with a [00:42] Adidas, that's what we call it today, Adidas. And it was an NFT... [00:52] challenge where each tribe [00:55] bids on an NFT, putting their own money to bid on an NFT, and folks did not like it. We're going to get into what happened in the challenge, Dylan's response, and then we have a... [01:08] special treat with some gossip. Rachel Lowell's joins and then we'll do post of the day. But before we jump into it, a huge shout out. [01:18] To our partner for this podcast, Lens. We love you. Lens has been, honestly, main character of Crypt of the Game so far. Everyone is loving Lens. Everyone is loving the Bonsai airdrop that went out. Huge. Huge. So...

[01:33] If you haven't yet claimed your bonsai airdrop, fire up orb. Get in there. Yeah, Lens, incredible partner for Crypto of the Game. You can follow Crypto of the Game on Lens. You can follow Boys Club on Lens. We're at Boys Club. I'm at Dina.com. [01:46] Natasha's at Natasha. We grabbed those [01:48] OG usernames. Years ago and never been more in handy than now. Yeah, huge out of the lens. Get your own lens profile at lens.xyz and let's get on with it. [02:04] So big anticipation for this challenge today. Really exciting. A lot of energy in the beginning of the day before the challenge actually went live. People feeling really excited about Adidas partnership for Crypto the Game. [02:18] huge validation for [02:21] crypto the game and for the industry and people were excited. [02:25] That was the sentiment. [02:27] Then the challenge went live and the response [02:32] turned there were 10 one of one nfts up for auction in partnership with adidas one for each tribe if the winning bidder of each item is in the nfts tribe then they would receive an advantage and the tribe with the highest final bids would secure an advantage for the entire tribe [02:54] And the UX of it was slick. [02:56] It looks great. [02:58] The response was negative. [03:03] I'd say, yeah. So as soon as it went live, folks just, the reactions started pouring in. They ranged from...

[03:11] I'm too broke for this to this is [03:15] just a money grab and doesn't feel great. [03:19] And... [03:20] Yeah, chaos ensued on the timeline. People were not happy. And I think mostly it just felt like it was in conflict with the spirit of the game, which is about solving puzzles, challenges, riddles. It's not about who... [03:35] is the most flush with cash because this one felt like it was possible to buy [03:39] a win for your team and so that was really the main and defining sentiment and our king [03:47] Dylan Avruscato, I would say responded... [03:52] Couldn't have responded better. [03:55] He couldn't have responded better. He showed incredible leadership. He basically saw all of it. He saw all of it. He listened. He learned. He heard. And he sent this tweet. He said, I want to quickly address today's challenge. We were excited to partner with Adidas and onboard the masses, but I hear you loud and clear. It's not landing. Players are at the center of CTG. Our intention is to create an immersive, fun, player-centric universe. We wanted to give our [04:25] own something that was exclusive, iconically CTG, in a way that allowed us to partner with Adidas and help them cross into the crypto world. No one will be going home tonight. The game will continue tomorrow. And the resounding response from this is, this is how it's done. You owned up to it. You pivoted quickly. You listened to your community. A nice note from David Phelps here, classic example, that leadership isn't shown by things

[04:51] Going right, but what happens when things go wrong? Amazing work here. And Jesse Pollack, love the iteration and learning. FWIF, even if the game metrics wasn't perfect, the execution was epic. Love the learning attitude. [05:02] And I would say the sentiment in the chats, not publicly, is very much the same. Everybody who was maybe upset or felt [05:09] Rugged or wasn't happy with the challenge today really felt like this was the right response. All is good. All is well. And everybody that I've talked with unanimously has had a lot of empathy for the team and for sort of. [05:25] a misstep that happened. [05:26] . [05:27] Yeah, I think also really a big learning for me is like, is [05:33] If you approach something with the spirit of experimentation, [05:38] which really this industry does a lot and maybe honestly does too much, but I think for this game is totally appropriate. People give you a lot of leeway and as long as you're like transparent and open talking and communicating. And I think that that's what Dylan did today, really expertly. So I think like folks are like we're not. [05:59] It's a, it's new. We're in a dynamic environment. It's new territory and terrain, and we're all trying to figure it out together. And that's the fun of it. That's why we're here. And, uh, [06:11] And that's going to mean some... [06:13] mess ups along the way and so [06:15] Yeah, I think. [06:16] I don't want to dwell on it too much because mostly because we have some incredible drama that we're going to get into with Rachel, but all that to say, um, yeah, no, no,

[06:25] challenge today challenge has been recalled no vote tonight everyone's safe and tomorrow will be a new day with hopefully even more chaos [06:34] I love the chaos. I love the chaos. One other thing is that Dylan was going to come onto the pod today. He's unable to do so, but I'm sure we'll hear from him in future pods. [06:50] We have a very, very, very special guest for today's podcast segment here on the gossip segment of the pod. Rachel, welcome to the show. You'll know Rachel of [07:01] bankless fame uh also twitter [07:04] fame and just as an all around great gal. So we're excited to have you Rachel. Thank you. I love that you said Twitter fame. I'm so intimidated to tweet. It is so scary to put yourself out there like that. [07:16] I tweeted the other day and I was like, it's going to be hundreds of likes. [07:20] It's so good. You have to go away with that perspective though. You have to. Three. Three? I was one of them. I know you were and I was like I was almost embarrassed. I was like oh no. No. [07:28] I knew you were going to be like, I wanted this to hit and I didn't. And I wanted to be like, Rachel, I'm not. [07:33] This is the work. [07:34] This is the work of the Lord. [07:35] to put yourself out there. You should visit my Warpcast, you should visit Barcaster after this and take a look at my work there. Wait, I want to know what tweet got three likes, what [07:46] It was just a Shrek tweet. It was so stupid. Anyway. It was funny. It was a full Shrek. Rachel was like, me after playing crypto the game, like, I will bleed green or something like that. And I was like, it's so good. I saw it. I saw it. I can't believe it. Oh, didn't like it.

[08:01] My walls are up. They're as high as I've ever been. [08:05] Okay. I'm so honored to have Rachel here. [08:08] She is our resident expert on all things reality TV and [08:14] We had a reality TV level blow up. [08:19] last night in one of our balls and [08:22] Rachel was there. [08:24] with us every step of the way and she's here to tell her tale. [08:27] Really quick before we get into it. [08:29] We are not going to say any names. [08:32] and there's going to be no doxing. [08:35] And if you are part of the story, just know this is all in good fun. And it's so totally fine. No enemies are truly made. [08:43] It's all good. It's all good. And also, I don't want to dox the cabal either because it's a sacred space. So we're not going to talk about... [08:51] the contents of the chat. [08:53] Yes. OK, that sounds good. But I also feel like it's a cabal. Great. I think it's more like we're friends. [08:58] It all feels like [08:59] we all know each other and we're just like ideating and chatting and like have common totally. Okay. So we essentially had our first [09:08] receipts, proof, timelines, screenshots moment in our sacred cabal channel. And it was honestly like a work of art. It was really beautiful, but it was also 10:00 PM. And like everyone was like really feeling like the itch of the day. Like we had just played worm for like four and a half hours straight. [09:24] and then drama starts breaking out. So everyone's online. [09:27] And essentially, [09:29] Someone had in our cabal had taken screenshots from our chat and doxed a player that led to their demise.

[09:36] So they were essentially kicked out of the tribe. Player one, we'll call them player one and player two. Player one goes into full inspector gadget mode and starts pulling screenshots of who saw her message that was shared with the person who architected her leaving [09:49] and the time zone that they were in, and the tribe that she thought that they were in. I want to add one thing to this. How it all started, [09:54] in our chat. [09:55] And this was my bad. I was sent an anonymous tip in a separate thread by somebody who said, I do not want [10:02] to cause any issues and I do not want this to come for me. [10:05] But there is a secret agent. [10:09] in the holy cabal. I'm going to call it the holy cabal. [10:12] And I was like, no way. I didn't even really believe her. I was like, what? And then she sent me evidence. [10:17] to someone doxing somebody in a different tribe. [10:20] through a screenshot. [10:21] And I was like, are you OK with me calling this out in the holy wall? [10:25] And she was like, yes, just don't bring it back. [10:28] So I go to our chat and I say, look, I said, who is sending screenshots from this chat? [10:34] Not cool. [10:35] And then I said, this is a sacred space. [10:38] And feathers are ruffled and people want to know what I'm talking about. [10:41] And I don't want to get into it. This was, I saw this as a warning shot. [10:45] not a witch hunt. I was like, this is a warning shot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. I wasn't trying to root it out. I was just, and then I followed up by saying, feel free to screenshot out your own demise. [10:54] People are everywhere and information will come back. And it's a very bad look to turn on this group. It's a very bad look. [11:01] And then what you said began where Inspector Gadget came out and was like, we're rooting the cause of this out of the group.

[11:09] Yes. Okay, so [11:12] And this person, player one, is like, there are only three tribe members in our cabal. And so she starts furthering her investigation and she takes it into private DMs. [11:22] Five minutes later, [11:25] Sheen's got screenshots enter our cabal group chat that and it's a conversation between player one and player two. [11:31] So like dramatic pause, we're all reading these screenshots. [11:35] Player one confronts player two and she's like, "Did you message someone in s***? Are you on Central Time Zone?" And player two's like, "I can't recall. No, no, I did not share any information with anyone in this s*** team." And then the tide starts to turn. Player one's like, "Nah bro, you're s***." And then player two is essentially like, "Listen, I'm gonna get voted off tomorrow anyways, like, whatever." [11:56] That's really good screenshots end. [11:58] So now let's go back to the holy cabal. [12:00] We come back and everyone's digesting this information. We're reading the screenshots. [12:15] And what's crazy is this chat is like, [12:17] going off and then i have like seven other side chats with people being like [12:22] Holy shit, are you in this chat? Are you seeing what is going down right now? And I feel it is my fault. So in between all of these like, [12:32] this public shaming and back and forth. [12:35] I'm like... [12:37] Putting little memes into the chat. Yes. You're like, I'm tired. I'm going to bed. And people were not going to bed. No, I need to see some sort of... People were just waking up. Exactly.

[12:47] And so we're back in the cabal. We're reading these screenshots. Everyone's trying to just like make peace and [12:53] And then player two pipes in. And after she sees the screenshots of her own private conversation and goes, [13:00] Quote, "Listen, my bee. [13:02] I just want people to build decentralized products. My tiny little brain is trying to wrap around betrayal and building decentralized products and how they correlate. So it was a big red flag. [13:12] So anyway, we tried to sage the chat. [13:15] There's one other thing I need to add. [13:17] to this whole chat. Yes. When it first started happening and people started losing their mind that someone had broken the trust of this holy ground. [13:25] that we all use to commiserate and befriend each other and [13:29] There's actually no like strategic gameplay happening in this chat, I will say. It's all just like emotional support to one another during the game. [13:38] And... [13:39] So when people started to go off and be like, [13:41] what I can't believe this. I can't believe this. [13:44] Someone else said, didn't we have someone in season one [13:47] Also send screenshots. [13:49] from this chat. And the sweetest person in this chat, I will not name name, [13:53] said, I just need to come clean and say, yes, that was me. It was truly an accident. It was an error. I didn't mean to do it. She had to revisit this trauma that she had of we've all done this, sending the wrong text message in the wrong area. Dina says, I want to follow up and vouch for this person and say, yes. [14:10] It was an accident. This was not-- that was never intentional. [14:14] And she's like, thank you. [14:16] And then [14:17] Player two, who ended up being the traitor of the chat in the game, responds and says, I would never forget I was the victim of the demise.

[14:26] Which was a very tense thing to say. Yeah. And then I tried to walk it back and I said, [14:31] Who amongst us? [14:33] has not sent the wrong text to the wrong person. That's a universally bad feeling. But to me, that was the first red flag that I was like, oh, someone's feeling guilt about something. [14:44] And it was the red flag to me that Player Two was in fact the person who had screenshotted. And... I do want to say, in Player Two's fairness, [14:52] We all went to bed last night. [14:54] feeling, lots of feelings. The chat was, you know, the like hazardous material [14:59] symbol. [15:02] That's what the chat had on it. Police tape. Police tape. [15:07] And I will say... [15:09] They were the first we were all looking at the chat all night all morning waiting to see what was gonna happen because player one left and [15:16] Yeah. [15:17] They were like, I'm out. And I will say, Player 2 put... [15:20] a really... [15:21] thoughtful mea culpa. [15:23] in this morning first thing. And really [15:27] Eat shit on it. [15:28] Yes. [15:29] Yes, I do feel like the spirit of generosity was flowing in this chat. [15:34] Like people were kind, they were receptive. I think [15:37] ultimately forgave her. [15:39] But she was not a good fit for this time in this group. [15:43] At this moment in time. In this moment, it's not a good fit. And I feel like no hate. Like, I feel like it's a game. I get it. [15:48] But, [15:49] We don't need that right now. We have to rebuild what was broken and we can't do it with player number two. I miss player number one.

[15:58] I'm like, come back. [16:00] Like she had vengeance that she was seeking for, and I wanted to see that play out. And now she's gone. So if you're listening to this, [16:07] Come back. [16:08] Come back. And also to player two next season. Next season. Oh, yeah. We can rebuild. [16:13] All debts are washed. Totally. Baptism between season one and season three. A redemption arc, even. [16:20] Yeah, and one of the things that they said is, I did not see a villain arc in my story for this season. And I felt that. I was like, who is this? [16:30] Who am I to judge? [16:32] - Totally. - We've all made mistakes. [16:34] I think that this is probably a very pleasant woman [16:37] And I think that it's all in a game. And that is the seriousness is so it's nothing. It's it's vapor. [16:45] But I will say in the moment when the chat was going off, I... [16:48] was literally losing my mind. I was like, I am in [16:53] A World War III moment. I am living in war times. [16:57] . [16:58] I don't know. [16:59] how I felt so responsible because I fired the first sheep. [17:04] But I thought it was going to be like a little bit of like, hey, just like wake up to the fact that there's like... Community management you thought you were doing. I thought I was community managing. [17:12] And then I got several texts that said, thank you for your leadership. And I thought, I'm a wartime CEO. You just got your purple heart. You got your purple heart last night. [17:21] This is just a classic [17:24] like reality show finale. This is, we were comparing it to The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.

[17:30] Like this was that moment and... [17:33] I feel like it was beautiful. It was like a work of art. [17:35] So I wouldn't take it back. Like, I'm sorry we had two sacrificial lambs in this, player one and player two. [17:40] We'll see you next year. [17:41] but everyone handled it very well, but it was spicy. [17:45] It was so spicy. And Rachel, you... [17:48] Dina woke up and she was like, "I need the play-by-play. I'm catching up." [17:53] And I was working out this morning and you sent a two minute voice memo that was a masterpiece, a master class. Hanging in the Louvre. [18:01] It was incredible. So thank you for coming on, for sharing your truth of the evening. [18:07] And to player one and player two, we'll see you next season. [18:09] See you next season. Thanks, guys. [18:11] Thanks. So post of the day. I like this orb post, very balanced post here. Got some good engagement from TIRL4U. They said, I like the track suits for what it's worth. [18:31] Also another post here on hey.xyz from at lens. And it's a video. It says every time crypto the [18:41] - Yeah. [18:42] And like, you just kind of got to see it. It's a visual. It's a visual one. But incredible work as ever. And we'll see you tomorrow. [18:52] See you tomorrow.