Leet Heat Travelogue
Posted June 23, 2025, updated on June 23, 2025
Earlier this year, I got to be on an episode of Leet Heat! Jason, Mark, Annie, and the entire crew were phenomenal to work with! I’m a few days behind publishing this after some very necessary days off, but I wrote most of this months before the episode aired, so I could tell you about my experience while it was fresh. Consider this a little peek behind the scenes.
The show
For those who haven’t seen it yet, Leet Heat is a game-show concept from the mind of Jason Lengstorf. If you like Jeopardy, web development, and Hot Ones, you will certainly dig this! It’s basically “the worst technical interview ever,” as two contestants spin a wheel of categories and answer questions based on what it lands on. Should a player get the question wrong, they’re docked points, their spice level is increased, and they have to eat a spicy Deno Nuggie! The higher a player’s spice level, the hotter the bite, up to level 10.
Every game also starts with one “Leet Heat” tile. When a player spins and lands on that tile, their spice level is automatically increased, and they have to eat a spicy bite. Plus, once a category is played through, that category also becomes a “Leet Heat” tile! That means players eventually end up with a five-in-six chance to automatically down some spicy noms! Whoever gets the most points at the end of two rounds of spinning and spice wins the game and… well, bragging rights, essentially!
On the set
Walking into the studio, it was so cool seeing the setup in person. The whole thing is shot on several high-def cameras with Mark Techson hosting, Annie Sexton serving up punishing Deno Nuggies, Jason producing a la the “man in the chair,” and the contestants at their podiums, all mic’ed up. Watching Jason’s crew handling lighting, sound, hair, makeup, props, set design, still photography, and video production was amazing. (Also, special thanks to Jason Hill for the photos you’ve seen so far!)
Standing in the midst of all that made being there all the more real and my nerves started getting to me. My biggest fear at that moment was seizing up in front of the camera. Thankfully, everyone had my back. My opponent, Brittany Ellich (who also got to shoot an episode of Web Dev Challenge, you should check it out!), was super encouraging leading up to our shoot. Mark was ever the consummate game show host, checking in on us when he could, keeping us loose, and making sure it was fun the entire time.
After our episode was in the can, I hung out for the rest of the day and got to see more of the behind-the-scenes process. The goal was to shoot five episodes in a day, which Jason and the crew managed to knock out on time despite setbacks and hold-ups. Given the number of moving parts and variables, it’s hard to describe how impressive a feat this was. Once a groove was found, everything and everyone felt in sync.
Now, this will be the corniest line I’ll ever write, but the real magic was indeed the amazing group of people I got to connect with along the way. Whether it was someone I only got to chat with online before that day, or someone I’d never met before, it was a blast hanging out with the other contestants! There’s something about connecting with other developers and engineers that re-energizes me about this work. It gets me wanting to learn and build! If you’re reading this and we met on the Leet Heat set, you were an absolute pleasure to hang out with, and I hope we can do it again sometime!
A thanks and a plea
I can’t thank Jason enough for letting me be a part of this! If this is how you’re learning about Leet Heat, I can’t wait for you to watch these episodes. Some are hilarious, and some are real nail-biters!
If there is something I could ask of you, though, it’s that you please share these with your colleagues or even people outside the tech community! We’re in a time right now where the tech industry can use some levity. It’d make me so happy to see Jason and others do more cool stuff like this! The more eyeballs these get and the more companies see people like this kind of content, the more companies might be willing to sponsor it, and the more opportunities we create for our community to make and build fun stuff together!