At one time or another, everyone has been fascinated by Team 10, but is it all for real? The squad of vloggers who live in a mansion and create content together led by the one and only Jake Paul have had their fair share of very public drama. Between the extreme pranks that led to their actual neighbors not being Jake and co’s biggest fans, to former members revealing the pretty intense reasons why they ended up ditching the crew, there has been no shortage of people wondering time and time again, is this all just fake and to get some YouTube views? In Shane Dawson’s docuseries, The Mind of Jake Paul, we finally got our answer from Nick Crompton and later, Jake himself.
The former COO of Team 10 didn’t hold back when Shane straight-up asked him what the deal is when it came to filming all those outrageous videos and as Nick explained, while the people involved are all real, everything viewers see is pretty fake.
“I feel like it fixes a lot of problems especially, some of the big problems where people just think something that’s not true. I feel like pretty much everyone that’s a little bit older knows that it’s all fake. It’s just difficult to say that, the fake, when there’s still loads of young kids watching and enjoying it and I don’t want to be responsible for ruining that whole thing and say to a bunch of kids, ‘everything you’ve been watching isn’t real,’ Nick said.
OK, WOAH. So if you’ve ever tuned in to one of Jake or any other Team 10 member’s videos, then you know, their lives seemed very over the top. The intense pranks and just over-the-top way the 21-year-old former Disney Channel actor and his crew are living all seemed a bit too good to be true, and Nick confirmed that what you see is all created for entertainment purposes. But there has been plenty of very real drama along the way…
What happened with the Matinez Twins?
As Team 10 fans know, when Emilio and Ivan took to YouTube to explain why they left Team 10, they accused Jake and the squad of bullying them and really making their lives miserable. They were living in a country they weren’t originally from, learning English, and they felt they were treated fairly. This prompted Team 10 to even tweet out a statement addressing the allegations the twins made in their video. According to Nick, the guys were in on the pranks Jake did to them, as everyone was.
“I was super close with the Martinez Twins as was Jake, as was everyone on Team 10. It was super fun and we all loved each other. Then all of a sudden, they came out with this video saying we bullied them, using examples from Jake’s vlogs [about pranks] that were not real,” Nick said in the docuseries. “Everytime something happens, we don’t want to tell everyone that everything is fake so we just keep taking these hits.”
Is Jake actually dating Erika Costell?
One aspect of Jake’s on-screen life that seemed a bit off to fans sometimes is his relationship with Erika. It was hard to viewers to know if this relationship was legit, especially after the confusing ride that was Jake’s relationship with former Team 10er, Alissa Violet. While Jake once said that he and Erika weren’t actually dating, it seems that over time, their fake romance that was just for the cameras blossomed into something real. As Erika and Jake both confirm in the docuseries, they really are an couple now, although at first, it wasn’t as legit, it took time for them to really fall for each other like any other couple does. As for Nick’s opinion, well he is a Jerika shipper too.
“I don’t know why people thought Team 10 was cast and that you cast Erika as Jake’s girlfriend. The stuff that we do is dramatized, but it’s still real people,” Nick explained. “Erika is one of the best things, in my opinion, to happen to Jake. I just like them together. They both have the same work ethic, they both work around the clock, and Erika will tell Jake how it is, which I don’t think he’s had from girls before. If she’s not happy with him, she’ll let him know. I think them being together is a good thing.”
Do the members of Team 10 pay to be there?
As Nick explained, no, this isn’t true. Everyone who Jake recruits to be on Team 10 the web star believes has potential to contribute to the company he’s created.
“Jake fulfills the role of CEO. There’s no way anyone would ever be signed to Team 10 because they bribed their way in. He would never accept someone if they thought they couldn’t be something because then he’s a failure. And this is another thing. That money doesn’t go in Jake’s pocket as everyone likes to believe. It goes in Team 10’s pocket, it’s a business,” Nick said.
Is Jake actually a nice person?
Although Nick said he has texted Jake a few times since he left Team 10, he hasn’t heard from his former friend. Nick told Shane he often wonders then if their friendship was legit after all, but he insisted that Jake is a nice person. He takes things personally so when Nick decided to leave the business, Jake ultimately was hurt by that decision.
“The whole world thinks we wanted to make a spectacle of ourselves or Jake wanted to make a spectacle of himself. I see what everyone else sees in these videos, but what they don’t see is what happens when the videos get turned off. Not many people get to see that side of Jake. He has done a lot of dumb stuff but there’s a lot of things people don’t know and the reasons behind things,” Nick said. “I knew when I told him I wanted to leave he would want me to leave right then. He does take things very personally and I think with someone like me leaving might have hit more than it has before. I tried to do it in the best way possible, but it was very abrupt with me and he asked me to leave, so I left. I’ve texted him a few times about certain things, but still have not heard anything back.”
“So that’s how Team 10 unfortunately works and I don’t know how that happened or the mindset was like that, but if someone leaves Team 10, it wasn’t just fully a business, it was a family and if you don’t want to be in that, then you don’t like us and you must have something against us. Something along those lines is the thought process. When people leave, you’re not supposed to talk to them,” Nick added.
Jake takes it personally whenever someone has decided to leave the squad since he feels like he gave every former member so much of himself and his resources, as he admitted to Shane.
“I’d say anyone who’s left has just used us. I don’t think they realize they use us, but when these people come into Team 10, I give them everything. Managers, agents, house, food, money, fame, camera men, editors, brand deals, everything I give it to them,” Jake said. “Then, they forget where they came from after a couple of months and they’re like, ‘I can do this on my own, why is Team 10 taking a precentage of my earnings? I want to do something else.'”
He even admitted that when Chance Sutton left Team 10, Chance apparently stole the YouTube account he had created with Anthony Trujillo since Anthony stayed in Team 10. This is not what Chance told fans, claiming he and Anthony decided Chance would be the sole owner and creator on the channel.
“I had a second account, but I gave it to my friend because when Chance left Team 10, he stole their account. Chance and Anthony had an account together and Chance left Team 10 and switched the password and stole the account and Anthony was left without anything so I just gave him my second account that has like a couple million subscribers,” Jake explained.
He went on to explain that looking back at some of his antics in the past though, he understands he wasn’t always portrayed in the best light. But his drive to outdo himself and just keep getting bigger in a sense, all stems from his drive to just make his family proud.
“You learn from your mistakes and looking back, there were definitely moments I was cocky but to me, it was always in a fun and playful way and growning up, I was always super competitive playing sports. That’s the vibe of where I’m from and that carried over into YouTube and becoming successful,” Jake said. “To me, I love to just create and build and watch things grow. I like to challenge myself and see how hard I can push myself. Throughout this process, I learned I want to show other kids who are from small towns that they can become as big as you want. If you work for it and truly are passinoate about what you’re dong. And I also just like to make the people around me proud, I like to make my parents proud.”
So for Jake and those involved, Team 10 is very much real to them. But everything you end up seeing on YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter, most likely isn’t always super authentic. Just know that yeah, everyone in that house is all in on it.
Love J-14? Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for fun, exclusive videos with your favorite stars.
