A Proper Introduction & Our Plans
Jacob 
Hello again! For those who don’t know me, my name is Jacob and I used to work alongside Brant on BrantSteele roughly from 2012 until my departure in 2017. In this post I’ll be recounting my work during that period, why I’ve come back, and where my knowledge currently lies in regards to the website and related information. I will also be lightly talking about how we plan to move forward for, at least, the next six months. So, if you’re mainly interested in what’s coming up, scroll down and look for the relevant header.
For those who do remember me, hi! It’s been upwards of four years and, understandably, a lot has changed. I may not remember everybody, and even for those I do recognize I may not have the best memory of our interactions, but it’s been great to see familiar users on Discord.
Speaking of, if anybody wants to chat or ask me anything (within reason), I recently joined the BrantSteele Discord server! If you decide to join, please make sure you respect the rules and be friendly. I’m also planning on popping into our subreddit soon.
With that, let’s jump in!
My Previous Work
Back in 2013, I discovered BrantSteele when a user of another website shared a link to the Big Brother 10 simulator. At the time, that was the only simulator and it had no logic. The specifics are gone to the wind but, being over-enthusiastic, I started to send Brant email after email about how fun it was and ideas I had to make it better.
Skipping ahead to a more established time, my main focus was on support- creating blog posts, bug-hunting, and so forth. As time went on, I continued to have more involvement with most aspects of the BrantSteele. In no particular order, I created the still current BrantSteele logo, started our subreddit, increased activity on Twitter, and created/ran Community Simulations and the Prediction Game. On top of helping Brant on internal things, I made myself very busy. Eventually, I took more of an interested in the actual creation of the simulators.
While I was always talking with Brant about potential simulators, I found myself starting to plan how certain shows would function myself. I believe the first result of this was The Hunger Games, designed by me, programmed by Brant, and virtually every event made by me. Releasing it on Christmas Day (2014) was an idea we agreed on because, at the time, there was no simulator of this scale and we both felt it would be a cool surprise. I don’t want to derail this post by getting too into the aftermath of THG, but it’s needless to say that it was jaw-dropping (I was still in high school by this point). We later added in several features, specifically to the core loop we added The Feast and Arena Events, prior credits applying.
Other shows I designed since then (including transcription of challenges and other necessary text): Dog Eat Dog, Total Drama Island, The Circle, and The Challenge (The Duel). The automated voting charts, which were introduced in TDI, were conceptualized by me and brought to life by Brant.
That is the extent of my contributions to the point I left, unless I’ve missed something. Now, the question is why did I leave?
I recall making a goodbye post at the time that has since been deleted, but the answer is that life was catching up to me. There were several pressing matters stacking up in my offline life, and on top of pressure I was putting on myself to finish The Duel, I hit a point where anything that wasn’t a top priority had to be put aside. Unfortunately, BrantSteele was one of the few things that wasn’t a necessity. In hindsight, I would have tried to reduce my presence instead of leaving, but it is what it is. I continued to watch shows like Big Brother for a period but, by the end of Episode 2 of Millennials vs. Gen X (Survivor), I decided to to stop. I haven’t seen a single episode of any current reality show since, and until recently had not been on BrantSteele.
It was toward the end of Q3 2020 that I started to consider returning. After seeing a wave of BrantSteele videos, the thought of returning didn’t bring hesitation like it typically did. By November (possibly earlier), I was back in contact.
Our original plan was for me to formerly return on the release a certain simulator I’m working on, but with April approaching, we made a quick decision to pull an April Fools joke.
What’s Next?
We’ve got some fun stuff in the works. The current plan is, while Brant continues to push out updated Survivor seasons, I will be preparing other content. When I finish content on my end, he will come in and create a simulator, so there will be other things to break up the chain of Survivor updates. As well, we recently decided that we will be doing an event in the coming months. There is one simulator on my end that we need to release prior to this, and we ideally want all 40 seasons of Survivor to be complete, but we are ultimately aiming for this event to take place during the summer. It will mainly take place on Discord, but the actual content will be on the website. We’re very excited to see how it shapes up. Beyond that, Brant will likely move to upgrading Big Brother and I will move to my next BrantSteele project.
Hopefully this post has given you an idea of my time with BrantSteele and what we’re aiming to do with the remainder of the 2021. Whether you read everything or just about our plans, thank you for your time!
I Love Money (Season 1) Added & A Brief Hello!
To go with April Fools, Brant and I have put together and released the I Love Money simulator (ILM)!
While I returned to BrantSteele unofficially a few months ago, the idea to create a proper ILM simulator (sim) came about within the last month as a last-minute April Fools joke. Due to the time crunch and difficulty in finding the full season viewable, the simulator is unfortunately missing challenge descriptions and educated guesses had to be made regarding certain details. We plan on revisiting the sim at another time to add the challenges and other improvements. If you know of a legal source for the full season of ILM S1, contact us!
Keep reading to see a summary of how I Love Money works, or skip ahead for a brief introduction from me.
Simulator Summary
- In Episode 1, there are 17 solo contestants who compete in a challenge. First and second place become captains and take turns picking their teammates. The last person to not be picked has their check voided.
- Each team must select a new captain each episode and cannot pick the same contestant back-to-back. This occurs on the first Events page.
- Teams compete in a challenge and the captain of the winning team becomes Paymaster. As Paymaster, one gains the ability to void the check of another contestant. The captain of the losing team does not receive any sort of punishment.
- The losing team must nominate three people for the Bottom 3 during The Vault. This process is very free form in nature, thus it’s difficult to translate in a timely manner which is why not much context is included on this page currently.
- The Power Outing is simply a chance for the Bottom 3 to vouch for themselves to the Paymaster before the Elimination Ceremony and is reminiscent of rewards in other shows like Survivor.
- The Elimination Ceremony has one key feature, which is the Paymaster saving/eliminating the Bottom 3 in whatever order they choose. This is reflected on the Voting Chart as some Episodes show a BTM3 and a BTM2, while others have two BTM3.
- After teams are disbanded, the challenge winner each episode becomes Paymaster (and can be back-to-back). The contestant who places dead-last is automatically placed in the Bottom 3.
- The Paymaster does not participate in The Vault and, with the exception of Episodes 10 & 13, the other contestants must nominate two more people.
- In Episode 10, the dead-last loser has their check voided immediately and, as a result, three people need to be nominated during The Vault. In Episode 13, there are only three contestants that can be nominated and so there is no dead-last loser or vault.
- Also in Episode 13, immediately following the check being voided, it is revealed that there is a jury who will eliminate one of the remaining contestants. Now, because a contestant quit before the jury could do anything on the actual show, we don’t know exactly how jury was meant to function. We came to the conclusion that they would likely act in a similar fashion to every other group decision in the game- naming a single contestant as a group.
- The final 2 is a challenge in similar fashion to The Final Challenge in The Duel.
The voting chart is relatively self-explanatory, but here is a key for the less obvious elements.
- bold text – Team Captain
- italic text – Dead-Last Loser
- Dark Red Cell – Voided Via Challenge
- BTM3 – Was either saved first or the first person called up had their check voided.
- BTM2 – Was either called up second and saved, or the second person called up had their check voided.
Brief Introduction
Hello! This was not part of the April Fools post- I have indeed returned. I was originally going include a lengthy summary of my history on BrantSteele before and currently, as well as current/future plans, but I think for the sake of time I’ll be doing that in the next couple of days. What I will say is that I am excited to be focusing on the simulators again and I can’t wait to see more ideas become a reality. My intention was to officially return on the release of another… project, but the timing of this served itself better. That’s all I’ll say for now.
Thank you for enjoying and supporting BrantSteele for all these years and for the reception of I Love Money, it’s good to be back.
Big Brother 22 Prediction Game
As a last minute decision, we are doing a Big Brother 22 (All-Stars) Prediction Game this season. You can select 4 unique choices and one alternate here. Points will start on Week #2, and your alternate will replace your choice if they are evicted on Week #1.
Sign ups are now OPEN and close at the start of the Week #1 eviction episode. It’s up to you whether to sign up early to reserve your favorites or wait until there’s more information available at the end of the week.
Survivor 40 Winners at War Prediction Game: Episode 14 Results
You can view the results for episode 14 below. If you see any errors, these will be quickly addressed.
Thanks especially to Brandon for helping with these results each week.
Survivor 40 Winners at War Prediction Game: Episode 13 Results
You can view the results for episode 13 below. If you see any errors, these will be quickly addressed.
Thanks especially to Brandon for helping with these results each week.
Survivor 40 Winners at War Prediction Game: Episode 12 Results
You can view the results for episode 12 below. If you see any errors, these will be quickly addressed.
Thanks especially to Brandon for helping with these results each week.
Survivor 40 Winners at War Prediction Game: Episode 11 Results
You can view the top scorers for episode 11 below. If you see any errors, these will be quickly addressed.
Thanks especially to Brandon for helping with these results each week.
Maintenance Thursday at 2 AM
The BrantSteele.com server (with all the newer simulators) will undergo maintenance for an upgrade Thursday at 2:00 AM Eastern Time to better handle the extra traffic. During this time, there will be about 10 minutes of downtime. Make sure to save your simulations!
Survivor 40 Winners at War Prediction Game: Episode 10 Results
You can view the top scorers for episode 10 below. If you see any errors, these will be quickly addressed.
Thanks to Brandon for finding an error with a player’s score being off 2 points at tribal council. I’ve also changed another player’s score. See why in the comments.
Survivor 40 Winners at War Prediction Game: Episode 9 Results
You can view the top scorers for episode 9 below. If you see any errors, these will be quickly addressed.
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