Outlast follows four teams of four who are given the task of surviving in the Alaskan wilderness. One of those teams is Alpha Team, which is composed of Lee Etinger, who leaves almost immediately, along with Justin Court, Amber Asay, and Jill Ashock, who is often seen as the group's leader. The backlash against Jill started fairly early, and is rooted in how she interacts with the other teams on the show.

After Jill and Amber risk hypothermia to complete a challenge and wind up soaking and miserable, they come to a disturbing but undeniable realization: All they need to do is make the other teams as miserable as possible. Winning the game means outlasting the other teams, and that will happen a lot faster if they take steps to make the other teams' lives much harder than they would otherwise be.

Jill and Amber get Justin on board with this plan, and then proceed to execute a campaign of terror against their competitors. They steal sleeping bags, destroy camps, and pop the inflatables on other team's rafts. They cause some genuine human suffering for their fellow competitors, understanding that there will be no repercussions because they have been left to their own devices.