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Now in its third season, Crypto: The Game invites players from all around the world to participate online for a chance to win $150,000. The interactive experience is created and produced by Dylan Abruscato, who drew inspiration from being an “obsessive Survivor fan.” Abruscato and Ted (Not Lasso), the winner who beat out more than 700 others to claim the cash prize, recently sat down with Gold Derby to rehash Season 3. Crypto: The Game will be on the Emmy ballot for Best Emerging Media Program, the same category in which Abruscato received a 2019 nomination for HQ Trivia.
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The digital competition took place over 10 intense days in March, with players competing in a variety of challenges that tested their social strategy and gaming skills. This year, Crypto: The Game featured a “Resurrection Island” twist, which allowed one voted-out competitor to return for another chance at the money — that’s exactly how Ted triumphed.
Gold Derby: This is a brand new concept in the reality TV competition space. What can you tell us about the origins of Crypto: The Game?
Dylan Abruscato: Honestly, the origins probably started when I was a kid. I grew up an obsessive Survivor fan. Ted applies every season as well, and I don’t think either of us have ever gotten a call back. I used to play this CD-ROM version of it called Survivor: Ultimate, where you pick and choose an Australian Outback cast member and essentially play tic-tac-toe for immunity. Fast-forward to when my career was getting started in TV. I worked at SNL for Season 38 and helped out with the transition at Late Night from Jimmy Fallon to Seth Meyers. I was really obsessed with this idea of being a TV producer. I only stumbled upon tech by way of HQ Trivia. So, I initially pitched this idea as one of our future shows at HQ back in 2019 … and last year just felt like the perfect time to go all in and finally build this thing.
HQ Trivia did get the Emmy nomination in 2019 in the Best Emerging Media category. Was that a cool experience for you?
Abruscato: The coolest thing ever. I think everyone who starts their career in TV probably dreams of being nominated for an Emmy one day. Once I left TV for tech, I said goodbye to those dreams, or so I thought. At the time at HQ, we were just so appreciative that the Academy was recognizing emerging media and these interactive formats, and not necessarily just dismissing them as the new guard.
Where did the idea for Season 3’s big twist “Resurrection Island” come from?
Abruscato: I was watching a lot of Top Chef in between Seasons 2 and 3 of Crypto: The Game. So, it’s definitely heavily inspired by Last Chance Kitchen. A big piece of feedback that we saw from contestants after Seasons 1 and 2 of Crypto: The Game was … them asking for more ways to engage and more ways to earn their spot back in. In addition to the daily immunity challenges that contestants on Crypto: The Game participate in, there were these parallel resurrection challenges: think arcade games or scavenger hunts or digital puzzles.
On Day 1 was the get-to-know you phase, where 716 people were divided into tribes. Was there any rhyme or reason to who got put on each tribe?
Abruscato: No, it’s fully random. Once it starts, everyone’s randomly assigned to one of 10 tribes. But just like any traditional linear reality competition, there are twists and drama and things along the way. A few days in, after everyone was confident in their alliances and saw a clear path to victory, we essentially swapped the tribes. The next day, we gave everyone the ability to individually decide if they wanted to stay on their new tribe or return back to their old tribe. You had no idea what would happen if you went one way or the other.
Some players found a sneaky way to beat the pinball game after a hack was discovered. Do you encourage gameplay like that?
Abruscato: For sure. The beauty of this thing being an internet native reality competition is there should be Easter eggs and there should be ways to find immunity. There is a nostalgic and tried-and-true strategy of tilting the table, where you can manhandle the pinball machine in a way to artificially inflate your score. So we did build in a little Easter egg for players that wanted to almost tilt the table. I did not anticipate that to mean players were tapping their keyboard for eight straight hours to try to get the best possible score.
Hello, Ted! First of all, huge congratulations on your win. What do you plan on doing with the money?
Ted (Not Lasso): Thank you! I’m still pinching myself that I actually won after coming in second last year. In terms of the money, I wasn’t necessarily planning on winning. So, I think number one is setting it aside for taxes. And then one small thing that we definitely want to do is do a fun little get together with the Green Tribe, which was my tribe from Season 3, to celebrate the win together.
You actually won by just one vote over Akhil. What was it like watching the votes come in? Were you freaking out?
Ted: Yes, I was freaking out. The beauty of the game being digital is that you’re sitting there and you can see the votes come in and you can see first and second switch. Every time it would switch, my phone would blow up with messages like, “You’re in second.” And then, “Oh, you got back in the lead.” We were just freaking out and at that point it was like, OK, it’s up to the players, hopefully it lands in my favor.
Abruscato: Ted mentioned she came in second last season, but it wasn’t particularly close. Season 1 was a landslide as well. So, we had never had a nail-biting finale. Our team would always joke, what would we do if it was a tie? If voting had ended a minute earlier or if voting had extended for a few minutes, it really could have gone either way. So, just from a reality TV junkie, it was so fun to watch.
For Ted to place in the top two for Season 2 and win Season 3, you must be really, really good at this game. What’s your secret?
Ted: The one thing that we have in common across the three of us is that we all loved Survivor growing up or we’re Survivor super fans. I also grew up in a very competitive family, so I’m just competitive by nature. I love team things, so the social game was always fun for me. When it came to these challenges, I am just designed and wired to give it my all, no matter what.
For both of you, what was your favorite challenge on Crypto: The Game?
Ted: That’s tough. I have so many fun ones. I personally think I thrive in the Brick Breaker game. But my favorite ones are the scavenger hunts where there’s a ton of different clues, because it brings out different personality traits, or you get to see your tribemates in a completely different light.
Abruscato: We did an auction challenge, which was an ode to the Survivor auction challenges, which were always my favorite episodes as a kid. And we did that in partnership with Adidas … which was so surreal to see that they found us on this corner of the internet and wanted to be a part of it.
Is there a timeline yet for Season 4 of Crypto: The Game?
Abruscato: I would say not super imminently. It’s much more like linear TV in that sense. As Ted mentioned, it is a fully immersive, 24/7, 10-day experience, and I just don’t know that folks would sign back up if we were running it back in a couple months. We’ve done three seasons in 18 months and I feel pretty good about that cadence. But yeah, more to come on that soon.
What would it mean to both of you for the Emmy voters to embrace Crypto: The Game?
Ted: I would love it. As a participant, I think that this is the future of reality competitions. It’s immersive, it’s democratized, you can participate from anywhere. It’s set a completely new standard.
Abruscato: I would just be so thankful and appreciative and grateful that there would be any sort of recognition from the Television Academy on an emerging and interactive format that’s an ode to so many Emmy-nominated and Emmy-winning reality shows. I started my career as a page at NBC, and I remember every single day getting off the elevator in 30 Rock and seeing the wall of Emmys, and it was a lifelong dream of mine to one day win that. It would just mean the world to us and it’s definitely something that keeps us going.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
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