Creators in project teams, led by adaptive or planning leaders, iteratively engage in idea search and selection processes for innovation (i.e., idea journey). Adaptive leaders, using emergent strategies, demand creators’ mandatory overtime and extensive work efforts, a practice called “crunch.” We explore how creators’ experiences of crunch with adaptive leaders affect subsequent career and innovation. We hypothesize that crunch experiences with adaptive leaders make creators discontinue working as creators. If they persist, enhanced innovativeness occurs due to knowledge transfer. Analyzing the data of creators in the video game industry, we find that creators tend to become inactive after experiencing crunch with adaptive leaders (i.e., the after-crunch syndrome), but effects on survivors’ subsequent innovativeness are inconclusive. The analysis also suggests reverse-buffering effects of teams’ social cohesion because it causes potential feelings of indebtedness. These results challenge the idea that an adaptive approach in managing project teams, considered essential for innovation, is unquestionably beneficial, and that social support during crunch might not be an effective solution for the after-crunch syndrome.