Since cat-and-mouse gameshow The Traitors hit our screens back in 2022, it’s become a global phenomenon. Based on the Dutch original De Verraders (and taking heavy inspiration from party games Mafia and Werewolf), The Traitors sees 22 strangers take up residence in a luxury castle and complete gruelling challenges to earn money towards a communal prize pot. To win the cash, the ‘faithful’ contestants must find and banish the ‘traitors’ hiding in their midst while avoiding the nightly ‘murder’. America, New Zealand and Australia have launched their own versions of the hit reality series and earlier this week, The Traitors Ireland finale was broadcast in the UK to millions of viewers, after a successful run on RTÉ late last year.
There are plenty of strategies to win. Betraying a close friend was the name of the game for traitor Harry Clarke in season two, Stephen Libby and Rachel Duffy proved that teamwork makes the dream work in season four while faithful Oyin Adeyemi won The Traitors Ireland by being really great at spotting who was up to no good – and who was playing as part of a team.
Along the way, we’ve seen mediums, murder mystery writers and police detectives talk a big game about their years of experience in seeking out liars – before swiftly being given the boot from the castle. So what’s the secret to Traitors glory? If you ask self-confessed console warriors Adeyemi and season four’s unshakeable faithful Jade Scott, they’ll tell you it’s gaming.
And it makes sense. Video games teach you how to work with others, pick up on clues and sharpen your critical thinking, which are all key to cutting through the deliberately deceptive drama.
There was plenty of beef on The Traitors Ireland, which featured the most chaotic group of contestants yet. Within the first few days, all the traitors had publicly turned on each other and the faithful managed to banish four in five nights at the roundtable – but that only seemed to cause more confusion.
“We were like uncontrollable school children,” says Adeyemi. Still, while the contestants tied themselves in knots with fake accusations, the eventual winner shared surprisingly accurate assessments of what was really going on with those closest to her – biding her time before dropping destructive truth bombs that cleared the path to victory.
“My plan was to listen a lot more than I spoke because I didn’t trust myself to be constantly yapping while still picking up on things,” she explained. “When I did speak, I wanted it to be something substantial instead of a theory that just caused more confusion.”
“I think a lot of my success was down to being a gamer,” says Adeyemi, who preferred her pink Nintendo DS to a bike as a kid. During lockdown she played a lot of Among Us, the cutesy multiplayer game that replaces faithfuls and traitors with hardworking crew members and murderous imposters. It was the perfect trial run for her appearance on the show. “I love puzzle and rhythm games, so my attention to detail is sharpened. I also like horror games and being in The Traitors felt like a lowkey nightmare at times.”
At 23, Adeyemi was one of the youngest contestants on The Traitors Ireland, and with just a few days to prepare after another player dropped out at the last minute, she went into the game feeling very unsure of herself and her social skills. She doesn’t feature much in early episodes because she would take herself off to quiet corners of Slane Castle, struggling to cope with the stress. Adeyemi admits she was physically shaking during the first roundtable. “It all felt a bit much.”
That changed quickly. Adeyemi spent her youth playing Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. with siblings – and quickly found the team-based setting familiar. “A lot of people were playing the game differently, which was frustrating, but I knew we needed to be united. Most of us were working towards the same goal.” After nailing a couple of traitors, she was unstoppable.
“Being a gamer really helped with my deduction skills and being able to join up patterns. I learned long ago that a game developer isn’t going to put anything in their game that didn’t serve a purpose and it was the same with the traitors,” she explained. “I knew everything was happening for a reason – the people that were killed off, the dramas that were going on – so I just needed to figure out the reason behind it.”
Season four fan-favourite Jade Scott is a big button masher and applied to take part in The Traitors because she loves “anything that’s like a real life video game.” She prepared by playing indie multiplayer game Dale & Dawson Stationery Supplies and survival adventure Project Winter. “I was in full social deception mode… In hindsight, that might not have been the best idea.”
See, her strategy was to act suspiciously enough to draw attention, therefore making it unlikely that the true traitors would murder her. But she overcooked it and became a main suspect throughout her stay in the castle. “I figured I could control when I lost, because I could sit and defend myself at the roundtable whereas if you’re up for murder, you can’t do anything about it.
“I just did well arguing with people,” she says of surviving all the way to the final. “I’m quite a critical thinker, so I could bring up perspectives that the other players hadn’t considered and I just got really good at defending myself.”
She admits the plan did “backfire” though because she exerted so much energy defending herself that she couldn’t focus on working out who the traitors were. “I just spent a lot of my time on the back foot.”
Scott got into gaming via sandbox titles Minecraft and Garry’s Mod after a stint noodling about in virtual dollhouse The Sims. She soon moved onto online multiplayer shooter Counter-Strike 2 and strategy battle arena game DOTA, where trolls sometimes take advantage of the chat functions to abuse other players.
“Those experiences definitely helped how I communicated with others in The Traitors,” she says. “But it was mostly people having a go at me because I was a woman – or they weren’t very good and wanted someone to blame. I don’t have the time of day for people like that any more.” She was also wary of telling her fellow contestants about her love of gaming. “I didn’t want to be seen as really clever and super strategic… or as someone who sits alone in their room, not talking to anyone.
Post-Traitors, Jade’s avoided social deception games and has focused on story-driven titles instead – The Outer Worlds, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Blue Prince, Slay The Spire. “It gives me a good escape from daily life,” says Scott, who’s still juggling Traitors fame with working on her PhD at Warwick University after earning a Master’s degree in Biomedical Science. She’s also started backing herself more (“I go into my lab meetings with way more confidence”) and has returned to streaming on Twitch. “I know The Traitors finale was watched by 9.6million people but I was [just as] proud of playing Cult Of The Lamb with 50 viewers last weekend!”
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