Lincoln man wins $450,000 on Amazon's Beast Games

Lincoln-raised Esteban Zepeda recently won $450,000 on Amazon's Beast Games, a reality TV competition where 1,000 constants fight to win $5 million. Zepeda, who graduated from Lincoln High School in 2017, saw an advertisement on Instagram looking for people to apply for the Beast Games. "I'm not one to really like to do stuff like that, but I thought to myself, what's the worst that can happen?" he questioned. Zepeda sent in a 60-second audition tape and later was flown to Las Vegas for a Mr. Beast YouTube video that currently has 156 million views. Mr. Beast is a social media star with 356 million followers on YouTube. He is known for doing elaborate challenges, stunts and giveaways. In Vegas, Zepeda competed against 2,000 people for a singular spot with 999 other constants on the Amazon Prime show. At Allegiant stadium, most commonly known as the home of the Las Vegas Raiders, 2,000 people were divided into five teams of 400. They had to push boulders as a team. The last team was eliminated. Next, they had to secure a safe briefcase. Constants sprinted to a briefcase and opened it to see their fate. The next challenge was to find a safe flag. Zepeda had secured his flag. At this point, 1,100 people were left. They were on day four of sleeping on the ground in sleeping bags at the stadium with no connection to the outside world. Mr. Beast asked them to get in groups of 100. He said the key to success was if you trusted all 100 of these people. There were 11 platforms of 100 determined people on each one. He brought out piles of money. Only one person needs to step off the platform to earn the money but eliminate their team. The first pile of money was $5,000. A timer was set for 10 minutes. Nobody took the bribe. The second pile was $50,000. A contestant jumped off for the money before the timer even started. She didn't earn the money but did get her team eliminated. This was all before the show had even begun. A month later, the actual show began filming in Toronto. Zepeda fought his way to the top with extreme challenges. Eventually, he began a side quest where he competed against nine others for a $1.8 million island. He had to play hide and seek on the island against Navy Seals. If he was caught, Zepeda would be out. "I climb a tree, like, 30 feet up, and I just hide there. I'm there for three hours and the tree was full of fire ants. I'm getting bit up by fire ants in the Panamanian jungle. It's super hot and humid. I'm sweating," he explained. "The tree that I happen to be on was one of the few poisonous trees where the sap will burn you. I have blisters on my stomach being burned by this sap, but it was super fun. Like, the adrenaline rush was unreal, probably the most fun I've ever had in my life." Zepeda eventually became one of the top four contenders to be considered for the island. But just like how it started in Vegas, Mr. Beast had a bribe for the contestants. The island cost $1.8 million. There were four people left to win it; 25 percent of $1.8 million is $450,000. There were no tricks with the bribe this time. If you take the money, you only eliminate yourself. Zepeda got the first chance to make a profit out of the four. "I got the first chance and I was like, I'm taking this 100 percent like, this is way too much money to turn down," he said. He took the money and returned home. Zepeda said the key to surviving an experience like this is the friendships made along the way. "We were all going through a shared experience. So we all had each other to lean on, you know, we made really close friends and everyone was super, super kind," he said. "We just had each other to rely on, you know, to just talk and be each other's therapists. We had to have each other's backs." Zepeda ended up in 55th place out of 2,000 people in the end. He said seeing himself on television was surreal. He enjoyed watching it because he threw watch parties with his friends who didn't know the conclusion of his experience until it was live on air due to his NDA. "I️ played division one sports in college. I've been super competitive," said Zepeda, who played soccer for San Diego State. "So they figured that I would make it far, but they just never figured this far." The only thing he wished the producers added was the parts where he talked about Lincoln. "I️ did talk about Lincoln a lot, but they didn't add those parts," he shared. "I wish we could have touched more on it, since it's just such a small town, but it was just super cool doing this experience coming from a very small town where you don't get to have those opportunities much." You can watch the Beast Games on Amazon Prime.