shockorscoff.com - interactive fake betting website for video game event

ShockORScoff.com

interactive fake betting website for video game event

tools/skills used: GitHub, Jekyll, HTML5 Canvas2D, imgur.com API, Google Sheets API, Pixelmator, MSPaint

Project Overview

In 2019, I created ShockORScoff.com, an interactive web experience designed to engage the gaming community during the yearly Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3). What started as an observation of scattered fan interactions evolved into a fully realized live service betting game (with no real money involved) that thousands of fans used to predict and track gaming announcements in real time.

The Vision

For years, an independent gaming media collective called the Easy Allies hosted popular “Betting Specials” for major gaming events that were hotly anticipated in the greater community. These were exciting and comedic videos in which their members would predict what might be announced from Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft during their presentations throughout the week of E3. Every year, fans would anticipate these videos and discuss their own takes on the “bets” in YouTube comments, forums, and on social media, but there was no centralized way to track community participation.

I had registered ShockORScoff.com in early March 2019 based on an inside joke from an Easy Allies livestream, and I knew it had a ring to it, but I hadn’t figured out how I could use it. A couple of months went by, and as E3 season started to draw near, I got the spark: a website to turn the Easy Allies Betting Special into an interactive experience. I could centralize and amplify existing community participation by creating an interactive, shareable, and immersive extension of the event.

Bringing It to Life

I pitched the idea to Josh—my friend from college and the best developer I know—to build a platform where users could submit predictions, earn virtual points, and track their “bets” throughout the week. We had less than three weeks to build the site if we wanted to launch alongside the 2019 Betting Special, which meant fast iteration, lean problem-solving, and a laser focus on execution.

Josh built out the entirety of the site functionality and integration while I focused on the front-end design elements, UX/UI, and branding, ensuring it aligned with Easy Allies’ visual identity to give the site an official feel.

Within a few days, we had built a site using on the previous year’s bets as a template. I emailed it to Kyle Bosman—the main creative force behind the Betting Specials—to pitch the idea of a simultaneous launch alongside the upcoming special. It would be mutually beneficial: the site would have the most success if it launched in some sort of official-ish capacity, and if it spread, it would bring more views to Easy Allies and foster community participation.

I asked what he thought about the site and whether they had finalized the bets so we could incorporate them ahead of time. His response was enthusiastic—and complicated.

Surprise! Scope Creep

Kyle’s updated vision for this year’s Betting Special introduced a more intricate wagering system, adding new complexity beyond previous years. Instead of a simple point-based system like they always had before, this year’s special would use virtual currency (“Don Bucks”) with proper wagers and odds, mirroring real sports betting.

Kyle was open to keeping the site as-is, but I knew that without adapting to his plan, it wouldn’t fully immerse users in the experience. I wanted people to feel like they were playing along, and in its current form, it wasn’t going to be a hit.

I went back to Josh with the good and bad news, stressing just how crucial it was to execute on this expanded vision. He was understandably hesitant, but he powered through, completely rewriting the backend to support the new wager mechanics and fleshing out crucial functionality to enhance the gamification aspect.

Upon reading the new plans I’d had a vision of participants sharing branded, skeuomorphic betting slips with their usernames and wagers on forums and social media, and I set out to make that a reality. I even mocked up a Don Buck with Don’s face, reinforcing the site’s playful branding.

After a couple of weeks of late nights, steady momentum, and back-and-forth emails with Kyle to align on details, the site became a fun, polished, and fully interactive experience ready for primetime.

Crashing Success

Easy Allies promoted the site at the end of their 2019 Betting Special video. The video was an hour long, but as viewers reached the end, ShockORScoff betting slips started popping up on gaming forums, Twitter, and Reddit.

Within hours, thousands of submissions came pouring in, pushing it beyond its API limits and crashing the site—a testament to its immediate popularity. The overwhelming response energized Josh, who quickly introduced caching for greater stability and brought the site back up in under an hour.

By the end of E3, we had received just short of 7,000 submissions from users engaging with the site, along with thousands of posts sharing tickets and links to their submissions across gaming forums, Reddit, and Twitter.

Key Takeaways & Impact

Creative Leadership: Led the ideation, branding, and UX for a viral community experience.
Rapid Execution: Turned a raw idea into a functional, high-traffic platform within three weeks.
Engagement Strategy: Designed personalized, quickly shareable content to facilitate and encourage organic spread—by sharing their bets, users were inherently promoting the site.
Problem-Solving Under Pressure: Navigated technical and interpersonal bottlenecks to keep the project on track and reach the finish line.
Sustained Engagement: Conceived the site in the vein of a “live service” model that necessitated ongoing visits throughout the week as bets closed and scores updated dynamically, allowing users to continue sharing and bringing in views.

Looking Back

ShockORScoff.com remains one of my favorite projects from concept to execution. As a long-time fan of Easy Allies, I had always envisioned ways they could better market themselves, and this project was an example of that potential in action. Even years later, community members still reference ShockORScoff in Betting Special discussions—often mistaking it for an official project—demonstrating its lasting impact and seamless integration with the Easy Allies brand.

Ultimately, despite its success, ShockORScoff remained a one-time project due to several key factors:

Interpersonal Challenges: My sole collaborator and the brains behind the code, Josh, opted out of future work on the site at the end of the successful run. Introducing a project vision and navigating financial compensation between friends proved complicated from the start, and without a clear agreement on how to compensate him, it was difficult to continue requesting enhancements and pushing for important features, leading to strains in our working and personal relationship. When Easy Allies asked to send a small payment to endorse the site, I directed it entirely to Josh—though it certainly didn’t cover his effort, and the lack of an agreed-upon compensation model made financial discussions delicate.
Continued Development Considerations: In early 2020, I worked to reverse-engineer the code and make updates for a potential upcoming Betting Special, corresponding with Kyle about plans. I made some updates based on his ideas, but the focus for the next video remained unclear.
Key Stakeholder Departure: In March 2020, Kyle announced his departure from Easy Allies. Since he was the primary creative force behind the Betting Specials—and a key reason for my engagement with the group—I decided to end the project on a high note rather than continue without his involvement.

ShockORScoff.com remains a high point in my creative experiences and an exciting example of digital engagement, viral content, and community-driven design—demonstrating the impact of strategic creative vision.

A read-only version of the site lives on at ShockORScoff.com.