On The Verge of Collapse - The Story of Rooster Teeth

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RWBY, Red vs Blue, Achievement Hunter, Funhaus, and various other channels and IPs once dominated the online realm generating millions of dollars. A great achievement for five friends to start a company that has a higher ratio of success shows to founders. That is no longer the case.
Twitter: / joontheking1 (@joontheking1)
Discord: / discord
Inspiration for the thumbnail: / @shaynegravy
00:00 - Intro
1:37 - Our Sponsor!
3:16 - Five friends one dream
8:25 - The Story of Red vs Blue
40:20 - Achievement hunter begins
44:00 - Monty Oum revolutionizes Rooster Teeth
48:20 - The peak of Rooster Teeth and RWBY
1:03:39 - Purchased by Fullscreen/Downfall inevitable
1:16:50 - Trying to be Netflix
1:20:39 - Genlock and the glassdoor controversy
1:25:18 - Continued failures and millions of dollars in losses
1:32:36 - Two Founders leave
1:34:45 - Endless Controversies/On the Verge of collapse

[@JoonTheKing]

Install Raid for Free ✅ IOS/ANDROID/PC: clcr.me/aAt9jw and get a special starter pack 💥 Available only for the next 30 days!

[@DistrosProjects]

No

[@nightmare77_]

First

[@nightmare77_]

And its a shame that you accept doing ads for RAID. You officially are cringe.

[@nightmare77_]

Still like ur content

[@nightmare77_]

Keep up

[@myz5656]

So who's here after witnessing the collapse?

[@techzone1552]

me too

[@TheStormVergil]

sigh, when ray left, i left, wasnt the same anymore, and then fking monty died and i was like ffs, everyone i liked s gone

[@JackCabbit20]

Here!

[@JackCabbit20]

Agreed. It felt like it fell apart from 2015 from friends playing games to just another corpo. Love rays streams tho

[@HotFuss-gd9qr]

Here 🖐️

[@zachhatten261]

What killed my interest in RT was the distinct shift around 2015 where it went from friends playing games and making content, to a soulless corporation churning out content for the sake of content. It went from feeling like I was in the room watching some friends playing games and making jokes, to a company making things that tried to appeal to the largest amount of people while making it a chore to watch.

[@samsmith3278]

Yeah that’s like exactly when I dropped it too

[@abbierouse5713]

thiiiisss. the second ray left it all started to feel so soulless

[@JayHog1992]

@@abbierouse5713 He even admitted it on his early days of independent streams that the main reason why he gave up is that he was sick of only playing games he was scheduled to do. He wanted to try different content at his pace and not being bound by a contract. Worked well for him, his fans still watch him on Twitch and he's doing quite good with his girl and his friends.

[@DimT670]

jokes on you it was always a company trying to make money, which is why the "change" was possible in the first place

[@koizumiizumi5426]

this right here, this is so much the reason i stopped watching

[@N7Beowulf]

I don't know what's worse. The fact that RoosterTeeth went from being such a community stand point to the absolute train wreck it is today, or the fact that they're more than happy to throw Geoff out into the public eye every time as a scapegoat to cover their fuck ups.

[@matthewdaub]

Geoff deserves better. Yes he was an alcoholic asshole in the beginning. But he turned his life around drastically. He doesn't deserve to be the target for all the companies problems.

[@N7Beowulf]

@@matthewdaub I've said this before but they literally treat him like the sad alcoholic uncle of the company. Every time they fuck up it's "Quick, get Geoff emotional and put him in front of the camera so we can nip this in the bud." It's such a horrible thing and if he hasn't already (Haven't watched RT or AH in years) he should pack up and leave to start somewhere fresh. Only the truly deluded like Jack actually believe the company is worth anything anymore.

[@matthewdaub]

​@@N7Beowulfhe pretty much only does one podcast with Gavin and Andrew Panton. He seems to enjoy it. He deserves to create something with his friends instead of being forced to do tiktok shit with achievement hunter.

[@omgjlmiub]

Personally, I think Geoff feels responsible for the company so he takes it on himself to address issues and try to be honest. Which is so depressing, bc it certainly feels like hes the only one trying.

[@samflood5631]

Rooster Teeth did the same thing with Vic Mignogna by firing him from the role of Qrow on RWBY for false accusations of sexual harassment and assault.

[@shadlz1628]

This video is the embodiment of the “last online 10 years ago” meme. I feel so much nostalgia from watching the early roosterteeth days, but it slowly fades into sadness and depression as I get closer and closer to the present situation with RT. With Geoff being one of the last OG members left I can only hope that one day he’ll have the strength to eventually leave himself and live a happier life outside of RT.

[@AC-hj9tv]

Yea rt sucks rooster

[@cbbblue8348]

i feel its not embodiment but similiar, its more like the friend you played with 10 years ago renamed themselves and became successful, and while you try to reminisce and say you missed those days, they just say they dont missed it and they hate it when they are not famous

[@cyqry]

@@cbbblue8348 When an old friend of yours becomes a big-time streamer and no longer bothers to look at your messages because he only sees you as another fan now.

[@ArcadiaP]

Actually sad and upsetting that of all the founders, Geoff is the only one that misses being just friends with the rest; that success went too far up their heads. Like seriously, damn.

[@IronMan3582]

Johnny Depp once said “Money doesn’t change people, it reveals them”

[@kiethveseyofficial]

Not to mention they went woke too.

[@IronMan3582]

@@kiethveseyofficial woke can work if it is done constructively and with purpose, if it is being done for the sake of it and purely for clickbait views…it is undermining everything and does no one no favors and will not stand the test of time It’ll become what every content creator fears…cringe

[@albnoel]

@@IronMan3582 no. It’s always get woke go broke. When you have an international audience you don’t fill it with americas problem. We don’t care about america. We came for content, not a lecture

[@goldbirdie]

@@kiethveseyofficial … Joel didn’t

[@tsunderemerc2963]

It's honestly sad seeing Geoff trying to be genuine about what he missed and the others trying to joke it away.

[@ScottyDoesntKnow69]

His problem was going to sleep listening to CNN fake news on the best president we ever had. That’s what drove him to depression.

[@TwilightWolf032]

That "I don't miss it" comment was unnecessary. If he wanted to make a joke about it, he could have said something like "can we have the room clean this time?" By the way he said that, it sounded like he doesn't miss the time they spent together playing games.

[@NickolasZombie]

Timestamps?

[@hilgorgruppenschaaft2203]

@@TwilightWolf032 It’s unfortunate but I think he meant what he said. Like him or not, Gus is a legit dick and people are definitely not his favorite thing.

[@lifeunderthestarstv]

Heartbreaking. And so real. Someone has to be the first to feel something. That person was Jeff. The rest became corporate sell-out

[@mountnstream]

"Their company disbanding seems more and more inevitable with each coming day." And less than 2 years later, Warner Bros Discovery announced that they're shutting Rooster Teeth down, and selling off their shows and networks, after failing to sell the company. I would've guessed they would've lasted at least 5 more years after this video, so this came to a shock even to me.

[@devalk_]

Welcome others, On this day we all return

[@JackCabbit20]

Indeed we have

[@trippwraze1509]

I’m honestly surprised they lasted this long. I’d expected them to close shop years ago.

[@Gentlemenpickleesq.]

The parts about Geoff almost had me in tears he truly just seemed like a guy who was content with making decent money and having fun with his friends while making funny content however sadly that's the nature of businesses that get this big this fast when noone really has a strong business sense.

[@StorminNorman69]

The old gang of Geoff Jack Gavin Ray and Michael was my childhood

[@victorf6672]

The thing is, Geoff was not wrong, look at a group like the Sidemen who have been enduring the test of time, they are gigantic in their own right, have other businesses but they are able to keep growing because they remain loyal to the soul of their content, that being the comrodarie between a group of friends. That's what made early RT succesful, that's what made the Lets Play channel succesful, that is the thing television just cannot emulate.

[@iconic2310]

@@StorminNorman69 Geoff jack ryan Gavin Michael Ray and Jeremy were my favorite Still watch the old ah content

[@robholloway6829]

That point where he was talking about his wife being absent, going to bed lonely and having no joy, or motivation to enjoy himself after his daughter went to bed was something many men feel but don't talk about for exactly what is shown here; He's actively telling his friends and colleagues that he's depressed, struggling and probably knows his life is falling apart. What do they do? They laugh and mock him. He puts on a brave face, but that is absolutely disgusting from people who are meant to care about him.

[@regulargoat7259]

geoff ‘jokingly’ stalked ‘hot’ women in his car with gavin and called it ‘conenct the hots’. So he’s not entirely a good guy but eh who is at RT?

[@AliceMargatroid7]

Geoff deserved better. The man was always a genuine, heartwarming soul who wanted nothing more than to make jokes and make people smile. His Let's Play Minecraft challenges with Jack, Ray, Michael, and Gavin were my childhood. It disgusts me to think that people would make that Griffin joke to someone who didn't have a bad bone in his body whatsoever. No matter what happens with Rooster Teeth, I genuinely hope Geoff finds some happiness in his endeavors. Man truly deserves it.

[@Misanthropolis]

Tbf, I never liked Griffin. Let's be real - she was a terrible wife. She was some career woman and tomboy, it was clear their relationship had almost no romance and the mutual agreement to divorce was really just inevitable. There was no sacrifice in that relationship. Griffin wanted to do more professionally, so she straight up just abandons a great dude. I believe that Geoff would be better off if not for the divorce. I don't think that his daughter loves him that much either. It's clear she is being molded by her mother.

[@Claw.00]

@@Misanthropolis lmao you don’t know these people, how can you say that with such certainty (and misogyny). Please reconnect with people around you.

[@UnBR0k3enAngel]

I get that Ryan fucked up majorly, but its also weird erasure to not include him in the golden age of Let's Play.

[@imtired927]

"Rooster Teeth Co-Founder Geoff Ramsey Responds to Sexual Misconduct Accusations" You mean this guy?

[@FrostLordOni]

@@imtired927 Did you watch the video? That story was explained, and there was no misconduct on Geoff’s end. Geoff and Griffin had an open relationship and Geoff had been flirting with a fan, but when it started getting more serious he felt weird about the power imbalance and decided to not go through with it. Then the fan went out and accused him of cheating on his wife with her.

[@scarletjester7831]

Geoff is the only one that didn't let the fame go to his head to the same level the rest did, he seems to genuinely miss the old days when they were starting out and their job was basically just hanging out with friends

[@Eothr]

Update as of mid-2023: Achievement Hunter is gone.

[@ratch58]

Update to the update-as of early 2024: Rooster Teeth is gone

[@stewskeys]

@@ratch58 i saw this coming when they started always boasting about how RT is now a "corporate company" and they were always like.. weirdly proud about having to have all these meetings w/ ppl they don't know and just.. ehhhh. True shame. I miss the peak RT days, there was so much amazing content coming out consistently for quite a long time

[@ratch58]

@stewskeys I know it seems for the past 7ish years RT was just a rotting corpo skin suit. I miss what they were not what they became.

[@JackCabbit20]

Was looking for this! 😂. "Rooster teeth is dead and warnerbrothers killed it behind the shed"

[@Riley_HawkinsOSRS]

One thing I learned from this video: if you have a fuck ton of packages to send through the mail you can just drop it off at a loading dock.

[@smellsnoice3648]

Never heard that story before and it got good laugh out of me

[@darthXreven]

I have but one package and it's not detachable.....ehrm.... bada tss

[@jamesrivers1360]

@@darthXreven Stop you.

[@Abysalss]

@@darthXreven bow chicka bow wow

[@Dragonveign]

To this day "Brownman has left the game" is the saddest thing I've ever read, he went to do what he wanted, which is cool, but I'll always miss the dynamic of the era

[@UrbinoZokin]

And the worst thing is that you could still enjoy the nostalgia of the older content but that was tainted with the RH controversy

[@citizenvulpes4562]

@@UrbinoZokin yup

[@christopherrapczynski204]

I think super best friends final was worse

[@Sonicfalcon16]

@@christopherrapczynski204 I experienced BOTH Ray's was more instant where SBF made me go "oh sure ok they'll release the rest of the LP's and then quit" When in fact that was not the case they'll stop on the spot where they left off "right there" which was build up to a horrid gut feeling. They both hit the same for me but the rate of getting there was different.

[@NeoDMC]

@@Sonicfalcon16 Hey at least Woolie and Pat came back together for DMCV. What sucks is it likely won't happen for DMC6 since they live on opposite sides of the country now.

[@xSOCxGenesis]

I feel so fucking bad for Geoff man. You can hear the absolute pain in his voice through so many different clips. This company was this man's entire life he so obviously put every bit of his soul into it and that panel where he said he missed just being in a room with the original group, you can tell the thing he missed most was his friends. He just wanted to have his old friend group back, he obviously didn't care that it was this big successful thing at that time because money can't replace people, money can't put things to how they used to be when the company had started and it was still what it was meant to be. Friends getting together and enjoying games together. I really hope that things get better for the guy going forward cuz I had to pause the vid a few times when Geoff is like that, especially when the layoffs happened and all those people lost jobs, the dude is on the verge of tears the entire time and it just hurts so much to hear that coming from what I always felt was the funniest dude in the company.

[@reganator5000]

I honestly think that the whole thing has just been awful for him- I think the difference between him and the others is that they felt stable enough in life outside of the company to move on, whilst's Geoff's life outside the company hasn't gone great, so it's sort of the thing he's still keeping doing because it is stable and reminds him of better times.

[@frogfinance4605]

Doesn't help that he chose a now ex-wife that emasculated him at every turn and is sexually abusing their child

[@IronBridge1781]

@@frogfinance4605What?

[@111111hakar]

@@frogfinance4605 You're going to have to explain that one to me, I looked it up and the only potential thing I can find are some "leaked clips" on only fans and god only know I'm not paying to watch shit like that.

[@anthonysoto2923]

Calm down, he made cartoons.

[@thefanwithoutaface8105]

Whelp it aint "on the verge" anymore.

[@DsTslylee]

Feels real good

[@sixflags2008]

I think a big problem with Rooster Teeth and it's various channels is that they were heavily personality driven where the appeal was the people in those groups and the dynamic they had. When those personalities inevitably moved on to other things, the content just wasn’t the same with less/ different peolple and the audience felt that and started leaving too.

[@colinr0380]

Like Super Best Friends?

[@zacharylinzmeyer2113]

@@colinr0380 except SBF decided to end things before things got really ugly. SBF was entertaining until the end while Rooster teeth is just boring now

[@colinr0380]

@@zacharylinzmeyer2113 True. They split up at the best time in retrospect, although that Omikron playthrough got uncomfortable at times!

[@RisingRevengeance]

@@zacharylinzmeyer2113 Sucks that they ended as none of them are nearly as good on their own imo. But yeah it would've been far worse to keep it going.

[@zacharylinzmeyer2113]

To be fair to rooster teeth, they can't end things the way SBF did. SBF had maybe 4 people working there, RT has 500+.

[@IDontReadRepliesToComments]

Can you imagine how proud Monty must have been to have the anime he worked on be the FIRST anime to be exported from America to Japan?

[@Alex-re3qm]

Montys creation eventually got him the recognition he deserved if there was a 3d animator who deserved to make history like that it is monty

[@nathantower5565]

Monty was struck down by God for it so I hope it was worth it. I know how that sounds but if you die at the age of 30 to a stomach ache because you're allergic to latex there's probably some divine intervention in there.

[@morsletum5348]

"FIRST anime to be exported from America to Japan?" First you may wanna do some research and second the RWBY anime adpation sucked.

[@HusbandOfManyWives1776]

@@morsletum5348Also Didn't Rooster Teeth also crap all over his vision for the Anime?

[@SparkShadow212]

@@morsletum5348 I wouldn't say it sucked, but it was underwhelming.

[@ChirpsalotPlaysGames]

I got to say, Ray left at the perfect time when he did. Glad he got out before things got bad

[@JackCabbit20]

69th like. Nice. Nice.

[@JackCabbit20]

And same. Loving his streams. Found he was streaming ages later he left as i missed that minecraft vid and got confused for a long time

[@mountnstream]

I feel the same about Lawrence, Bruce and recently Matt Bragg. While Matt was fired, seeing all three of them, along with Ray, manage to stay afloat by streaming and other ventures, without the need for RT, warms my heart.

[@WorldinJeopardy]

Ray was my favorite and while I was sad he left, I agree that it was likely for the best for him.

[@cwj2733]

him leaving started the downfall of RT. glad he got out when he did. been watching his streams 6 years now

[@cerjmedia]

hello to everyone who came back to this video for no particular reason and there was definitely not a notable event that happened yesterday or anything

[@Celestial2107]

It pains me seeing Geoff trying his hardest to keep the company alive. The fact he's cried so much it hurts me and makes me wanna give him a hug.

[@Undying3001]

He cried because some unlikable oppression Olympics contender got ratioed. 😢

[@b1slee267]

@@Undying3001 not gon lie. As a black man, that shit annoyed me how she was going on her shit. Especially when she said she was ashamed for being black at times. Idc how bad and or crazy shit gets or how medias/ social media paints my people. I’ll be damned to say that shit. Then goes onto other fem victimized splainin. Nah

[@JakenTheGreat]

@@Undying3001 He cried because he could no longer pretend that the community wasn't hurting him. He knows what it's like to have a wall built up for years come crumbling down.

[@dissraps]

You sound like a weird person

[@bennitori4]

Geoff is probably the only creator left at RT where if he left, I'd still follow him. Dude's not perfect. But he seems like one of the few people who went into RT for all the right reasons. Everybody else seems to have started for the right reasons, before eventually losing their way somehow. No matter what happens with RT, I really hope Geoff reaches happiness.

[@theotherjared9824]

Roosterteeth died in phases. The first phase is when Monty died and the lead creative force behind the whole company was suddenly gone. The next phase was getting the idea that big budget = better and trying to bloat every single show they have with unneeded spectacle to mask the lack of content. Then the new people in charge felt they could do no wrong and often attacked fans with often valid criticism and dismissed them as haters that didn't get their vision. The final nail was Nickle and dime'ing their fanbase with confusing paywalls and subscriptions for previously free content as a way to stop bleeding money. This leads to today, where Roosterteeth is anemic at best and will likely be shuttered by Sony in a few years.

[@devinbender8428]

That who big=better there was a podcast with bernie where he talked about how expansion and bigger budgets was all Otter medias idea. Those big executives got all the profits from expansion. And RT was left to die

[@Zac_Frost]

There's so much truth in this, it's crazy. I remember how Miles and Kerry would go on tirades about "toxic fans" that just had some simple, logical questions about the show, or Barb yelling at fans at cons for the same stuff. (The whole "iT's A cArToOn!!!" bit). Like, they've said said a lot before that they were trying to present a detailed story with a really well thought out narrative, but then when fans have actual, logical questions about things, they tell those fans to shut the hell up and be happy with what they're given. It's really sad, as with the right people behind them, a lot of RT's content could have been so much more.

[@RickyUzumaki993]

Amen to that

[@RickyUzumaki993]

@@Zac_Frost I know, right?

[@mythoceanas8874]

What does Sony have to do with anything? Are you confused with Crunchyroll?

[@yellow_airman]

I remember when Bungie added Grifball as an actual game mode in halo reach, it was so awesome to see. It really is sad that that whole era of gaming/entertainment is dead and gone… only to be replaced by soullessness

[@WolfyRagnarok]

It debuted in Halo 3. I miss those days.

[@JoshuaNaslund]

The death of Monty and RT's inability to end the series that he had put literally everything he had into was the last straw for me. The man came in, made on of the HYPEST series at the time, literally breaking the internet with his TRAILERS, and RT seemed so hungry to keep milking that cow rather then accepting that it would never ammount to being the true passion project Monty intended it to be.

[@CynicalReviews]

"The many grooming allegations that require a spreadsheet to keep track of." Oh no...

[@BudMasta]

What's the point if comments like this? Yeah, we all watched the video too 🤡

[@coonurkan]

Oh hai, CJ.

[@mechanomics2649]

@@BudMasta What's the point of comments like this? Mad about nothing lmao

[@YouAreStillNotablaze]

@@BudMasta It's like the scary movie you can't watch, but I scroll to comments to know what to expect about the video and if I really want to watch it.

[@BudMasta]

@@mechanomics2649 who's mad? Can you imagine the internet where everyone just said "i agree" or even worse reddismisms like "THIS^" to everything everyone else said? Every post and comment would be unreadable. Commenting a quote from the video EVERYONE JUST WATCHED definetely comes off as tism behavior.

[@YukiKurosame]

this video really made me feel for Geoff. Hearing him talk about how he misses his friends and all the personal problems he was no doubt going through while involved with the company is really heartbreaking.

[@RandomGamerCory]

and made me what a pathetic man with no backbone he is and you know that comment about girff being the office plaything was true with how he reacted

[@mccovalova]

@@RandomGamerCory Yeah you're right. He should be a big strong macho man like you, a sonic fan. Calm down Cory, he's not your dad.

[@1ztype343]

@@RandomGamerCory Geoff will do more sitting on his ass than you'll do your entire life. Have some respect.

[@RandomGamerCory]

@@mccovalova oh no i make lil videos with game characters and have some characters in a pic i made a decade ago ahhh i better sit down in front of a camera and start crying over a kid thats not mine and blm or tell depressing stories of having no desire in life to do anything but turn on cnn on a shitty laptop and fall asleep or a be a drunk for 40 years honestly if me making stupid videos on youtube will be the saddest thing in my life im happy with that

[@RandomGamerCory]

@@1ztype343 ya like make money playing and recording games and got lucky doing it at the time when most game/movie companies took your content down for using assets have a kid that dislikes him, have a wife who cheated on him with anything that moves, got pegged by said wife, drunkard for 40 years, breaks down crying at the dumbest shit, go to sleep depressed every night watching cnn, cant even remember half his life from the drinking. the dude made a company playing video games most successful youtubers do that hes not some hero, i used to like geoff a lot when i watched achievement hunter in the golden years hes just become such a sad sad man on camera since than and notice unlike geoff i wont make a video crying about wanting to come beat you up lol

[@undrahh]

R.I.P Monty, I can’t believe how rooster teeth did him dirty with rwby, his vision for his show was altered dramatically after he passed away.

[@randomcenturion7264]

The Shane Letter opened my eyes to just how much and how quickly they Fucked everything up after he died.

[@everythingpony]

​@@randomcenturion7264how e?

[@JockcoZ]

@randomcenturion64 That Letter was just pages of a little bitch crying he didnt get promoted. Miles and Kerry were the ones working with Monty on the show. Bullshit his wife had any say.

[@yoalightbulb2571]

R.I.P Roosterteeth. Thanks for all the years of laughs and happiness that you guys brought us during our time growing up. Roosterteeth may die, but it will never be forgotten.

[@SideScrollersPodcast]

Hey it’s Craig from ScrewAttack. I see the top comment is about the ScrewAttack/RT relationship - very flattering as ScrewAttack is often a forgotten piece of the online video space. Joon, if you ever want to know more about it - or more about what I heard and saw while I was with RT I’m more than willing to share. Hope to hear from you 👍

[@EmmureMARIO64]

Tell me!!

[@RhetoricalGamer]

Miss those day of Sidecrollers, SGC and G1 days.

[@bobthebuilder6085]

Dude I grew up on screwattack, I still watch the top 10s for nostalgia sometimes.

[@SideScrollersPodcast]

@@RhetoricalGamer Yeah it was good times indeed. Maybe they should come back.

[@SideScrollersPodcast]

@@bobthebuilder6085 appreciate you growing up with me :)

[@irvin5294]

My heart goes out to Geoff. Such a legend in this field. So many hours spent just watching Geoff and Jack make videos together.

[@KlaireMurre]

geoff honestly comes off as such a nice guy after watching this. Seems like he'd be such a fun guy to just talk to. i almost wanna just give him a hug from half these clips tho :( i miss the 2010 era of RT so much sometimes.

[@nickthepick8043]

You know what? That is fair. Geoff is nice in that regard. But on some level, I think he has a stake in this. He's not blameless, but he might be better off than most of them.

[@Burger_pants]

@@nickthepick8043 everyone but michael and gavin cheated on their wives/gfs there are text logs and proof on the kiwi farms... geoff was one of them.

[@SmoothTurtle840]

@@nickthepick8043 Oh definitely, and I think that’s why in these clips he is so distraught. He knows a lot of this is his responsibility, things that he could’ve prevented. Obviously there are many things that were out of his control, like being acquired, Monty Oum’s passing, and the Ryan fiasco, but those do not make up all of the reasons why Rooster Teeth is in the place it is today. Nevertheless, he persists to hold his baby (company) afloat, and that is very commendable.

[@nickthepick8043]

@@SmoothTurtle840 Fair enough. I'm just looking back on the time when he addressed the layoffs. Clearly, he was being genuine, and I can feel for him, but when he started talking about the "Haters" it made me lose respect for him in that moment. Because it just came off as deflection. But I'll say this, in contrast to his other colleagues, former or otherwise, he is one of the few with a huge amount of self-awareness. Something they lack. Ask anyone, and they'd tell you that they'd prefer people with admitting their uncertainty with humility in regards to criticism, instead of the opposite of those characteristics.

[@Zbuuza]

I was an RT fan from 2008-2015. When Monty died, how the company handled his death behind the scenes when it came to Monty's creative projects, made a lot of people angry. I know whole swathes of the community started leaving. The views started to tank because we saw the disrespect to Monty and his wife plain as day, and it left a bad taste with everything. The sadness with Geoff was starting to kick in around this time too, and when Ray left it was like the last nail in the coffin. There was a sharp cutoff after RWBY got chewed up and spat out.

[@ringthatkill]

Pretty much me too

[@STARSRav3n]

Yep. What they did really showed their true colors

[@everythingpony]

What happened?

[@STARSRav3n]

@@everythingpony with montys death?

[@everythingpony]

Yes

[@LAZERAK47V2]

I remember way back in the day when AH was just a bunch of dudes in a room playing on Xbox. I remember the first Minecraft episode where Ray and Michael had to play split screen, the old office that was too small to fit desks for everyone. But when I found out about all the controversies and the toxic workplace, I was not surprised. The signs were all there when they started caring more about their image than their products.

[@enickma910]

Geoff always felt like a tragic character in this story, and you capture that really well in this video. He was roped into this whole thing because he wanted to do something fun with his friends, and it grew out of control. He didn't even realize it had ruined his life until it was too late. Not to say he's a perfect cinnamon bun, he definitely contributed heavily to his tragedy, but that doesn't make it less tragic.

[@TurbidTG1]

I’m just happy he stopped being an alcoholic, he seems so much more happier now!

[@MrFredstt]

It was pretty tragic to hear. And then the daughter part was really depressing. Hoping his life is in a good spot now though

[@youtube.handle69]

@@TurbidTG1 turbidddddd :') also yes I agree

[@GetBenched2010]

He facilitated the toxic environment at RT and covered Haywood's misdeeds up for years. He deserves everything he's gotten. Especially when you consider how he behaved during the #kickvic drama. Karma's a bitch.

[@youtube.handle69]

@@GetBenched2010 I don't understand, where is the proof he was aware of and covering up haywood's actions?

[@Vodraek]

There was just this point a few years back watching Achivement Hunter where I suddenly stopped feeling like I was watching a real group of normal guys sat in a room having fun playing video games together, and was instead watching a group of employees being paid large amounts of money to sit in a room and act like they were having fun playing video games together, and I could never really get back into it after that point. It lost that organic feeling and I just felt like I had nothing in common with these guys anymore

[@Mark___Zuckerberg]

I felt the same feeling around 2015. I stopped watching completely around 2016. The lack of the Original Crew really messed with the chemistry.

[@papermario13]

That's a good way to put it, I miss the true anger they would feel. It made those moments they would joke way better. Because your right they used to be a group of friends. Now they are all just co workers. I think after they entire ryan thing I just couldn't watch anymore his banter with the group was the last bit of glue

[@Killdust99]

For me it was whenever they moved into that aircraft hanger. The second they moved out of that one office for me it started to lose a lot of magic. Then with Ray leaving was the mail in the coffin for me

[@Pherioxus]

It kind of reminds me of Top Gear. When Jeremy Clarkson got into a fight with someone on BBC and was fired, Richmond and James Top Gear with him because they were genuine friends with each other. BBC tried to keep Top Gear on life support by replacing them with other celebrities that didn't really know each other that well and it showed, they didn't mess with each other as the original trio did, the banter wasn't real, neither were the reactions to the banter, the new Top Gear crew were just strangers acting like friends. Most Top Gear fans just moved on to The Grand Tour which the original trio started because their chemistry was real and infectious, you can't replicate that.

[@BryenGraver]

It wasn't this past series of Minecraft YDYD, but the previous one where Matt had an aviary and Geoff, Michael, Lindsay, Jack, Trevor, Gavin, and Fredo were all there as well. The first few episodes were so pure, everyone was having a good time playing with one another that they didn't enforce the YDYD rule for at least the entire first episode (and if I remember right, they just gave everyone three lives when they officially started playing YDYD to give one another more time to play together). It felt like such a solid throwback and everyone (especially Geoff) acknowledged it straight up, that it just felt like old times. And it really did. The chemistry lit back up despite it being dormant for, by that point, years. Never forgot that series, at least until it spilled into the Achievement world mini-games and such, slowly moving back into this new direction.

[@chrisxd146]

I stopped paying attention to RT in 2015 (roughly), and it seems like that was the best time to jump ship considering how devastating the company's downward spiral was. Out of the whole crew it seems like Geoff was one of the few guys who truly wanted to do something fun with friends, but instead he had to run a company with shitty business partners and colleagues. I sincerely hope he finds his happiness again after being beat down for so long, the guy absolutely deserves it.

[@NorthStarBlue1]

The 2010's were really a terrible time to be one of the older breed of content creators who just wanted to have fun making videos. That was right around the time the corporate world had finally realized just how much profit they could squeeze out of the internet and the people using it, and if you weren't as good of a salesman as you were a personality, they would beat you down and pick your bones clean without a second thought.

[@brainrich1358]

Now that Roosterteeth has shutdown, I really hope the original 4 now have more time to hang out with each other again.

[@martinkurien8813]

This whole time, Rooster Teeth was a joke name which coded “Cock Bite” into a business friendly form… I’m so mad I never knew this

[@HoooookayBuddyy]

Tbf it doesn’t really translate, it makes half sense when you know the context, but even then it’s a reach lol.

[@apallo.11]

same i've been a fan for about a decade now and it never clicked lmao

[@Headspr0uter]

as someone who only saw like 3 RT videos back in the day i thought it was a spin on the phrase "like hen's teeth" which describes somethings extreme rarity.

[@William-Morey-Baker]

@@Headspr0uter same... pretty sure thats actually closer to the truth

[@tylergaye5457]

@@William-Morey-Baker I don't think so. I'm like 90% sure their logo is officially called the cock bite.

[@Kazinator21]

Seeing Geoff as a kid and growing up watching them all it hit me so hard seeing him plead out loud through the veil of humor his sadness. I didn’t understand it because I myself didn’t understand mental health and drank to combat my sadness. Geoff’s cry for help urged me to get help and reevaluate who I kept close. Thank you for the video it brought back a lot of bittersweet memories but has made me who I am today. People like Geoff just need someone to hear him not just listen.

[@orionhan2431]

Except constantly crying about it in a video for everyone to see isnt really helpful to his mental state. It reeks of being addicted to a "Pity Party". He wont improve as long as he is online

[@Kazinator21]

@@orionhan2431 bad take. You’re only judging someone in the lens of what you publicly see about them. Realize that and have some empathy.

[@mute9520]

I don’t think I’ve ever left a KZbin comment, ever. But holy shit. Listening to him talk was honestly gut wrenching. I can’t imagine.

[@ur-ray5679]

Same ...it hurts

[@cgraham6]

I always thought Geoff was the tough guy of the AH crew. Turns out I was wrong. If there's one thing I've learned from years of working around nothing but guys, it's that you either have a thick skin, or you grow one quick. The constant insults, the crude humor. I wish guys could learn to show a little more respect for each other, but that's just not going to happen.

[@zestylem0n]

The real death of RT was in business direction and leadership. They tried to be a production studio to compete with things like Netflix, but they never had the in-house talent or budget to make serious inroads. They gave huge opportunities to their own staff when no one else in the industry would trust someone so inexperienced. They basically failed to definitively move themselves from web series creators to a professional studio. RWBY is led by inhouse talent with no external portfolio, gen lock was the same, a lot of their animated shows followed that mold. They keep falling into this middle ground between hobby passion project and industry-level production. But all the while they are charging as much as Netflix, or Disney+, or HBO max. They have basically picked a fight with the biggest kids on the block, and are now getting mugged in slow motion. Gaming moved to Twitch and the donation model, podcasting is an incredibly oversaturated space, and they destroyed their community goodwill through controversies and price hikes. Their content model has stagnated, and everyone else either caught up or moved on to the next thing. They had a loyal, matured (wealthy) fanbase that they completely squandered. Nowadays there's a whole surge of talk shows that are very profitable, focused around live donations, an attractive studio, and engaging personalities. RT had all the necessary resources to pivot, but like so many other trends, they just missed the boat.

[@NoName-oc6wz]

I'm not sure what idiot at RT thought it was a good idea to have 12 different podcasts but they need a serious talking to.

[@silver1407]

i always felt that was the issue too their voice acting and overall production quality betrayed them, it felt like they were an xbox 360, playing cutting edge titles, doing cutting edge things, at the cost of horrible quality while doing it

[@handsoaphandsoap]

Absolutely this, there is no reason why RWBY is being led by two guys that have no previous production credit. Once the main creative force in Monty passed away, someone else should have stepped in as everything the show was most heavily criticized for was the responsibility of those that took over the show, i.e. Miles and Kerry. RWBY and Gen:Lock are massive productions that require a lot of moving parts to work in tandem with one another, there's already an issue of scope there with the resources RT had so adding inexperienced management on top of that was a recipe for disaster. Miles and Kerry didn't have any sort of animation experience to be in charge of an animation production, they didn't have any sort of writing experience either to be head writers for the series, and while I think it's kind of cool that RT gives inexperienced creatives a chance, you should still always always have someone at the helm that knows what they are doing. It's a massive red flag if a junior animator enters a production with more animation experience than the production leads.

[@infinitygohan]

The fall of Funhaus was one of the biggest bummers of my early 20's

[@SovietRussia777]

Yeah same

[@swagzilla3000]

Nothing made me laugh harder than those early funhaus vids

[@ZeeImperator_2077]

@@swagzilla3000 "I wanna be an actor" - James Willems

[@Bobodododo]

@@swagzilla3000the thing is that the new people are still pretty funny, but keeping the old audience through so many changes is difficult and building a whole new audience just doesn’t work with group centered videos

[@JustaRandomGuy890]

They were my favorite content creators by such a large margin

[@galinuva1538]

The way you explained setting up a LAN party made me age 50 years.

[@PenguinDT]

Glad I'm not the only one. Wait 'till the audience hears about dial up modems. Seriously though, it's pretty solid and to the point summary.

[@Sweetguy1821]

Me and my friends had 16 player halo lan parties, was such fun and simpler times.

[@chexmixkitty]

@@Sweetguy1821 Same, but ours was only 8, but it was still really fun

[@ceast5273]

God, my big red flag was when they kept buying up these mildly successful youtube channels by the pound, then those channels either collapsing, rebranding, or being absorbed into some other channel within two years. FunHaus saw moderate success, but definitely suffered a loss of major staff in a quick period.

[@Shank5ter]

Funhaus stabilized after that. They lost what, 2-3 supporting people fast. But Adam, James, Elyse, Bruce and Lawrence held down the fort for years after that

[@xWORLDxCHAMPIONx]

Makes me wonder what would’ve happened if Inside Gaming hadn’t ended.

[@GaaraSands16]

exactly. what ever happened to cowchop?

[@cmm3699]

I was a huge inside gaming, then a funhaus fan, but I stopped watching funhaus regularly after Bruce left, then I stopped completely within a couple months after. I also fizzled out from watching AH after ray left. I tried to watch rwby on their app during season 4 or 5, but it was so buggy that I had to stop watching it since I didn’t want to pay a membership fee to a platform that was so unreliable.

[@deletedwaffles]

@@xWORLDxCHAMPIONx It would be Funhaus with less of a budget and then eventually end altogether after Machinima fell.

[@daisukeakihito9832]

Seeing Geoff so torn up and nearly in tears as he had to sit there and deliver the news about RT letting go of so many people. My god, I haven't watched RT or Let's Play or much of their content for years, but I remember spending hours watching the crew do their thing and that he was always a lovable goofball who was so much fun to be around. I can't begin to imagine what it must've felt like seeing his and his friends' dream falling apart around him.

[@lukew6725]

I don't know, it came off as a little unhinged with how he was talking about the "haters" and almost seemed like he implied it was the audiences fault for not caring enough about their content.

[@Thegamingg00bers]

⁠@@lukew6725seems more he was sending a message to the haters along the lines of “you’ll watch this and feel accomplished and fulfilled like you predicted it but this is a heartbreaking setback and we’re going to work hard to not let this happen again” but then again once they sold the company to a bigger corp it was pretty much out of their hands most likely. Seems like they stayed the face but suits made all the decisions as far as cuts. Another guy only knew 2 days before hand that alot of his team would be let go.

[@fadn4]

Ray Narvaez kinda pulled a Sark from Machinima, in that they both pulled out essentially the ultimate heist of getting out of a company doomed to collapse slowly at their respective highest points

[@vinnigan6502]

The less Burnie ran things, the more downhill it went IMO. I know he himself chose to more into more of a creative role, but I think his guiding vision was so important in making the RT I loved. Now that he's gone they're completely unrecognizable.

[@nathanhargenrader645]

Yeah I could not agree more with this. Burnie was the creative force behind the company. As the company very quickly grew beyond his control you could see things unravel. It's extremely sad.

[@skwerleyz]

He kinda corporatized/commercialized the whole company did he not?

[@MrGeorgeFlorcus]

I feel like out of the original founding fathers, Geoff, Burnie, and whether you like him or not, Joel, were probably the most key. Each of these people had different talents; Burnie had the vision and the foresight, he knew what needed to be done to make RT what he wanted it to be, and knew who to ask when he was in the dark. He scouted out talent, sought out opportunities, and exploited them to immense success despite his peers' doubts. His general intelligence, competence, and realistic understanding of his own abilities and limitations made him the best CEO RT ever had. Geoff seemed to have the strongest connection to the community and to the social aspect of the company; always the most emotionally sensitive member of the 5, he was never afraid to get personal, to tell personal anecdotes and to speak from the heart, and his decision to create Achievement Hunter, despite the negative consequences it had for his older friendships, was one of the best decisions in the history of the company. AH was really the face of daily RT for many people, especially the KZbin community, where they got most of their views. Fostering a group of talented, funny people with great onscreen chemistry and genuine offscreen friendships as THE premier group to see the RT community more often than any other department, a fact than holds true even in these waning days, was a stroke of genius. And Joel, for all of his spicy hot-takes, seemed like the most financially savvy person in the 5, if not the whole company. Securing a series of brand deals, sponsorships, and making more than a handful of shrewd investment decisions behind the scenes formed a stiff backbone to an otherwise back-breaking expansion that no-doubt played a key role in keeping RT alive as long as it did. And all of them are smart as hell, no doubt about it. Burnie was the president of a successful and growing company at the time he quit RT. He literally was the last person to quit his old job, not because he was scared, or because he doubted the success of RT, but because he just was just so happy and fulfilled with his crazy successful and lucrative day job. I bet anything he took a pay hit at first when he went to RT full time. Joel managed to keep up a career in acting in LA despite never landing a major role; with bit parts and extra roles alone, Joel managed to stay in the gray in LA for the better part of a decade before joining RT, and as mentioned before, his financial savvy was probably very important to early-to-mid RT. He claims he helped bring in 10s of millions of dollars for RT during his career and honestly, I don't doubt it. And according to an anecdote by Burnie, when Geoff Ramsey joined One Support, he was coming in as an inexperienced, uneducated army vet, making 8 bucks an hour, and he already had plans to buy a house for a minimal down payment, with nothing to back it up but his crappy wage and his veteran benefits. And he made it work. 'Nuff said. Matt, to me, always seemed like kind of a weaker Burnie; similar skill set, but outshined in every category; not as sharp, ambitious, or visionary. He always seemed like he was trying to emulate the success of others, as opposed to Burnie who always envisioned creating his own platform and finding his own path to success, even if that meant treading unknown waters. And Gus, as much as I like him, if any of the founding fathers was just along for the ride, it was probably him. He serves as an entertaining host and relatively likable unscripted, but he never struct me as having the genuine talent or foresight that the other did. He always seemed like he was kind of just banking on RT being successful forever, or else he'd be done for.

[@Misanthropolis]

@@skwerleyz No, that was the guy who replaced Burnie shortly afterwards.

[@Farts911]

While I agree, I do think that his ambition for RT to keep going higher and higher but in reality not having enough resources or the talent too ultimately would have catched up to him as well. The main reason they sold in the first place was so they could do more expensive and bigger reaching projects, so it would have happened with him or without him in charge. While in reality they should have just grounded in their niche they had and expand within that but instead they got to close to the sun and burned.

[@AshenCorvum]

I don’t want Rooster Teeth to burn, never wanted them to fail. At a certain point they moved away from being a bunch of friends hanging out to trying to out-do KZbin, netflix, Amazon. It’s not what kept me engaged the years before. They changed, and a lot of people didn’t think for the better. I just hope in the years to come, things get better, they return to being a place of comfort, a haven for the misunderstood nerds who like cool weird things.

[@Calv_]

It's basically just a history of friendship podcast but listening to ANMA is probably one of the best things I've listened to from RoosterTeeth in ages. Geoff and Gus just chatting about Austin + their stories around places is great to me. But damn I wish I could have old RT Podcast + Off Topic, etc. Before the pandemic I started to drift away, but the content just got stale really quick, it feels like they went for their own trends etc to chase views. Really sucks.

[@Truck_person]

Rooster teeth took a turn from the fuck you fuck it channel, to the woke channel

[@NateTheScot]

They got woke, they went broke... That was the nail in the coffin. They kept bringing on what basically amounted to diversity hires, who were great doing their own content, but didn't fit with everything RT were doing, and yet RT tried to force them into everything anyway, which just brought all the content down a fair bit. There was the coloured chick they brought on who was actually really cool and fun doing her own stuff and content she cared about, but when they kept trying to force her into the Minecraft stuff which she clearly hated, and she would spend the ENTIRE VIDEO MOANING, COMPLAINING, AND SAYING IT WAS STUPID, it just ruined the whole thing. The infamous Minecraft Assault Course 2.0 video was probably the breaking point for a lot of people. it's a shame how a company that used to just be some nerds having fun, tried to pander to the woke crowd and so ended up getting devoured by them, because as we all know, you can never be woke enough and there will ALWAYS be those in the far left who have a problem with something. It sucked ALL the joy out of RT and AH, and just killed the escapism aspect when the agenda stuff started getting SO HEAVILY shoved into the content. Diversity hires are fine, but LET THEM DO THE CONTENT THEY'RE GOOD AT! Hiring a black person for the sake of saying you have a black person, then trying to shove them into EVERY PIECE OF CONTENT is not only blatant tokenism, but just built resentment towards the person in question. I remember she got so much hate after that minecraft assault course video and it wasn't her fault. She didn't want to do it, she didn't want to be there, but they made her and it sucked. The fans hating on her for that were way out of line and i hope she went on to better things because RT treated her so badly especially early on. Idk if she's still there or not, but i hope not. She seemed like a genuinely cool person (sorry i can't remember her name it's been like half a decade since i watched RT/AH stuff now so my memory is not great).

[@AwesomeFreakMadd]

I agree with Calv that the ANMA podcast might be up your alley. As someone who listened to RT Podcast from Drunk Tank days, it's nostalgic as fuck.

[@AwesomeFreakMadd]

@@Calv_ I personally feel the podcast is better again now that they're in studio. I love Brian when he comes on too, he brings in that old man energy too Lol

[@ALookIntoTheEulenspiegel]

1:22:00 "Animation for a mecha series is very expensive!" This would be true. If it was DRAWN animation. In 3D animation, mechas are actually great, because they don't need to have expressions, they move very stilted and you can add as many details as you like, because they don't have to be redrawn for each frame. I don't know where that person is coming from but as a 3D artist and character animator of 10 years: mechas is basically always easier to animate than people. Add that with Mecha series often playing in space, an easily reusable environment asset and you probably have one of the cheapest ways you could run a 3D fully animated show. Now, they didn't do all those things, but the statement alone that Mecha shows are more expensive than other 3D shows doesn't ring true to me.

[@PassiveSmoking]

The real expenses for Gen:lock were twofold: 1) Haddock's crippling perfectionism apparently led to the same scenes being animated over and over again because he wasn't satisfied with this or that detail. 2) They hired a bunch of big name a-listers like David Tenant and Maisie Williams, and that required everyone on the production who got a line to be paid SAG rates which massively inflated the budget. The sad thing is I actually quite liked Gen:Lock, it felt like it had a strong first season and I would have kept watching had they not taken the absolutely bone-headed decision of not showing the second season on the RT site at all, even to those of us who had paid for FIRST, which felt like a huge slap in the face to those of us who had contributed to paying for its production. It was one of three things that prompted me to cancel my FIRST sub (the other two being Ryan Haywood and RvB Zero). I enjoyed Gen:Lock as presented but I think I probably still would have enjoyed it as much had it had slightly ropey animation and the standard stable of RT voice talents. After all, bot RvB and RWBY had both of those and I still enjoyed them.

[@ALookIntoTheEulenspiegel]

@@PassiveSmoking That is an interesting insight, thank you!

[@Caboose47]

All I'm gonna say is, poor Geoff. Dude deserves so much better.

[@ruralgoblin]

People who didn't grow up with the 2009-2014 era of KZbin will never understand how crazy and new and awesome things were. As stupid as it might sound, Rooster Teeth was pretty much the MTV of the early 2010s. Popular internet personas, tons of skit shows and news segments series, AHWU, The Know, RT Animated Adventures, LETS PLAYS. It was awesome, and I miss those years often. My heart will always go out to Geoff, Jack, Gus, Burns and any of the core AH members. They're all too good for what the internet and rooster teeth have become. 2012 era AH is a relic of a time where there were no internet politics, where you couldn't be policed by big business and people were experimenting and constantly expanding on a platform that had incredible potential. They were all abused by a system they revolutionized. It's a goddamn tragedy.

[@rdf274]

they had me at "why are we here"

[@skyurspruch1590]

You are spot on with the MTV comparison. It was so awesome being on the edge of that content during that period. It was all fresh, from the heart.

[@ChangedMyNameFinally69]

Lol of course you're whining about politics

[@rushpatriot2866]

@@ChangedMyNameFinally69 you're the only one whining about it. Simply mentioning and being negative are completely different. Plenty of people don't go to a entertainment video to hear people preach about politics cope

[@Suwawako]

@@rushpatriot2866 Exactly what I think. I think most people use media (like youtube and gaming) as an escape from reality, so why should we be dragged back into it?

[@AVGNROCKS1996]

The fact they not only completely changed Screwattack into Death Battle, but also nuked the entire catalogue of non Death Battle videos still pisses me off. A decade worth of gamer media destroyed to make it easier for nerds to see if Goku could fuck Twilight Sparkle up in a fight.

[@MingeBorea]

Death battle is literally shit too. From animation quality to inaccuracies, it fucking sucks. Og screwattack was had so many good videos and I wish I downloaded the videos.

[@RivalLinkVO]

THANK YOU. I feel like no one ever talks about how they killed off screwattack, and as a big fan throughout middleschool and highschool , its definitely what soured me on RT as a whole. Even before all the different shit went down.

[@theretroshogun2961]

@@MingeBorea It's weird because the only thing I like from Rooster Teeth is death battle

[@ColdNorth0628]

@@MingeBorea animation quality is hit or miss. They did wonderful with raiden vs excalibur as well as thor vs sun wukong being unique to count recently. It all just depends on what your going for.

[@William-Morey-Baker]

i still like Death Battle...

[@SouthernMercenary]

less than two years later and it finally got shut down.

[@MrHerky61]

They said if we disagreed with them they didn’t want us in the audience. So I left the audience.

[@motherbird470]

yup i remember that

[@harrisonfitzpatrick4542]

God I remember watching that podcast where Geoff was talking about Millie and being lonely. When I was younger I chuckled like everyone else at the table but now being a veteran having battled my own loneliness, I feel horrible for not recognizing that he was essentially screaming for help. I fell off rooster teeth/ AH awhile ago, I hope he is doing better.

[@harrisonfitzpatrick4542]

@@emcoates9290 thank you I will have to check that out.

[@mrreyes5004]

Uh, no disrespect, but if he was "screaming for help", why didn't he outright say so? I'll never understand that weird beating around the bush/posturing that people do.

[@ahshitherewegoagain7461]

@@mrreyes5004 Because sometimes people dont want to outright say it, either due to backlash or anything else. Its just how some people are LOL

[@mattiasjohannorglaan2967]

@@mrreyes5004 Are you one of the lizard people i've been heard about? It's hard being vunerable, especially in front of possibly hundreds of thousands of people.

[@harrisonfitzpatrick4542]

@@mrreyes5004Great question, I can only speak to my experience and trauma from the military, and I am gonna go out on a limb and say that Geoff has similar aspects. I am not saying his military service created trauma but in order to get service members to do really shitty jobs the army instills some very good methods of denial when it comes to recognition of stress, weakness and PTSD. This is not a bad thing the army does, it needs soldiers to embrace the suck to get the job done for lack of a better term. The downside to that means that when soldiers or veterans need help they do not get/ ask for it, it’s a sign of weakness or we don’t wanna even admit we have issues do to the culture that was instilled in us. I along with many other veterans where and still am terrified to address our issues because of army culture/ indoctrination. Now add to the fact that Geoff was apart of the culture as well as being in a society that did not really except mental health issues until recently (even more so for males until very recently) and is a public figure. That a bad combo for for admitting issues let alone addressing them.

[@matthewdaub]

As a kid I would have given my left leg to work at rooster teeth, now you couldn't pay me three salaries to work there. It's gut wrenching to see how much everything has changed in ever single way. Atleast ray and Gavin's channels are still making great content.

[@frosthunterzz]

Jeremy's too

[@TheMijman]

It's weird how fans of them who eventually worked they're never seemed to last longer than a year

[@kane357lynch]

They shouldn't have gone woke. They turned their back on its fanbase because inclusivity

[@shazang0]

@@kane357lynch What do you mean by this?

[@kickitwithdavid1500]

Sure

[@zionfreeman303]

Rage Quit first introduced me to Rooster Teeth. I just loved hearing Michael yell crazy shit will playing games. If he's still working for the company, I hope he's fulfilled and still having fun.

[@pupper9474]

He's become a raging sjw I believe.

[@darkaoshi27]

​@@pupper9474OOOOOOOOOHHH.....now I REALLY want to make him mad. Not because of his beliefs. But because it's going to be sooooooo easy!!

[@clockworkcat8576]

​@@pupper9474could be worse tbf

[@josh_miester_x511]

​@@clockworkcat8576worse than a raging sjw?

[@JockcoZ]

@@pupper9474 He was a raging brony 10 years ago. Its michael.

[@sharrpshooter1]

This whole video runs the same way going through a photo album of you and your best friend from birth who eventually went down a dark path would. So most nostalgia and pride to have been there leading up to the peak, until you lost contact with them sometime after, only to find out their current fate with immense sadness.

[@thatsallreviews]

I see a lot of well-deserved talk about Geoff, but I've always had a soft spot for Gavin & Michael. I found Rooster Teeth through the Rage Quit videos and their dynamic was always so fun.

[@prosklystios]

Same. Rage Quit No Luca No was the very first video I watched. Got hooked ever since. I hate what happened to the people affected by Ryan, but ever since he was fired from the company, AH hadn't been the same.

[@purplewolfranger22]

@@prosklystios imho everything started going downhill once ray left, and then went even further to shit when everything that happened with Ryan came out and he was fired.

[@snyperwulffgaming9575]

@@purplewolfranger22 I don't think it went that badly down hill after Ray left. Everyone is stuck hard on somehow him having been the big thing that held them all together or that he carried everything. Ray was funny sure, but he wasn't ungodly funny or entertaining. I wasn't the slightest bit upset when he left and enjoyed Jeremy when he came into the group. I think it started to actually really fall when Monty died, and then the shit with Ryan came out and it's just been worse.

[@dangerousboxx666]

@@snyperwulffgaming9575 the 6 guys with Ray was just a better mesh imo. And a lot of people's. Jeremy is fine but AH with Ray was the golden age. Him leaving was a huge blow.

[@ulsedovthur5741]

@@snyperwulffgaming9575 It was less him leaving that signaled the eventual downside but more WHY he left. He jokes about it all the time on his stream, how if he had stayed he be recording episode 1,000,000 of Minecraft. He left because the content was starting to seriously become… derivative, I guess? That’s probably not the word I’m looking for. It was the start of the business going corporate in mentality. Same shit, different day.

[@kirstacksf1899]

Being a Rooster Teeth fan around 2010-2014 was such a pleasure.. I can't remember the point exactly when I drifted away from it as a fan.. but I can remember how much I loved the content in those earlier days with Burnie, Geoff, Gus and co.. I remember getting off work late at my shitty student summer job and looking so forward to watching RT when I got home. This was super interesting, especially to see what happened after, but also sad - and disappointing - in the end. Geoff especially tugs at my heartstrings. :(

[@bubbajFool]

Yeah, I started around 2012. I go back and watch the old stuff from time to time for the nostalgia, but the new stuff just don’t hit the same.

[@24kNick]

We all just grew up

[@jamesjiao]

The content was interesting for a time.. i guess I pulled away because most of the content were just too childish?

[@DerpityEllis]

@@jamesjiao Personally for me, I just think it was after Ray left that kind of was the final straw. Change in the formula was always making RT somewhat harder to watch, and 2015 was not a good year with both Monty's passing and Ray's leaving along with two people who just weren't Ray coming in to "fill the void", for me the corporate side of RT was starting to become more apparent around that time.

[@ActiveSufi]

I stopped watching when Ray left-

[@silver1407]

I bet some japanese people were watching the english RWBY with japanese subtitles thinking to themselves "damn these voice actors suck"

[@Faaaaaabri]

Man I used to want to work for RT so bad. I used to love their content I remember when I first stumbled upon achievement hunter and that lead me into everything else. I didn’t have any money but what I did I would use to buy their Merch. Sad how it ended up but nothing lasts forever I guess

[@Natsukiiiiiiiiii490]

I don't remember when Burnie said it, but he said something along the lines of "you shouldn't strive to work at RT, you should want to build your own RT" I grew up wanting to work there more than anything, but Im glad I heard that advice early on. You never know how things will change, companies, peoples, etc.

[@troyisfilming]

So…did you ever create your own RT?

[@Boyzby]

You can always leave a company though. It's like when people were first laid off at Game Informer and then Ben Hanson left to form MinnMax with other editors. He got to do both, which is why I never fully understood the quote from Burnie all these years.

[@sorrenblitz805]

I think at this point the advice should be "You shouldn't strive to work at RT you should strive build something better than RT."

[@paigehunt5109]

I thought about this quote during the bit about the interns. Extra sad considering we know how often Brunei was asked on how to work for his company.

[@Upsetkiller456]

The start up of RT and Monty's story is honestly pretty inspirational; Rather sad things went the way they went.

[@johnynoway9127]

it is how it goes 90% of thw time. Starts all nice and happy and cool and it either dies after a few years or it starts rotting from fhe inside

[@YukitoOnline]

Monty has been rolling in his grave a lot after his death..

[@shockrobin5000]

That's just factually wrong. He died of an allergic reaction during a routine procedure at the dentist.

[@johnynoway9127]

@@shockrobin5000 stress is a contributor tho. The most healthy people are those with least amount of stress in their lives.

[@thesquishedelf1301]

@@johnynoway9127 Except that has nothing to do with unknowingly being wildly allergic to a local anaesthetic and nobody having an EpiPen or similar nearby.

[@MoonlightBrillance]

Who’s here since they announced they’re shutting down?

[@ackyfacky4332]

Had this video in my Watch Later for ages. The shutdown finally got me to watch it.

[@bsmotorsport1449]

Given today’s news of Rooster Teeth ceasing operations very soon, I think a Part Two to this video or a revamp is in order.

[@soloalien5]

Dang. Seeing the old videos of them just hanging out is depressing. Seeing a bunch of friends with a dream turn into a corporate was sad, but to be expected.

[@RickySama240]

Honestly i wish if RoosterTeeth were gonna down this bad, i think they should make a heart felt video that ends their reputation in a bang or a good ending instead of the dwindling decline.

[@soloalien5]

@@RickySama240 once RWBY starts to get really bad in terms of reception and money I think they will have to shut down. They still have their huge studio and large number of employees not to mention the expensive equipment they use. I think all of the money they made in prior years will dry up soon.

[@nickchavez720]

I think of rooster teeth as being a symbol of the rise and fall of the internet. Once upon a time the internet was the wild west. Free, open, and had none of the baggage of tradional entertainment media industry. It fostered an environment for creatives that didn't exist before. It became so big that it challenged conventional entertainment as we knew it. It was a golden age and it was glorious leading to success of many and creation of great things. But all things must end, and like how the wild west eventually became settled and tamed, so did the internet. It got tamed. Too much money was at stake to be as wild any more. Greedy people came in once all the hard work was done to take full advantage of it without really knowing what it made great in the first place. Now the things that made it so great are gone and we can't do that any more, or at least as much. That wild west is just a memory now...kept alive by the legends it birthed and loved by the people who yearn for the freedom we can no longer have. Edit; I'm coming back here now that RT has officially shut down and the last season of RVB finished. In keeping with the wild west theme, I feel like I just saw the last performance of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. An era has finally ended and I'm not sure how to feel. Maybe someone may come around inspired by the past and make something great just like how the western was inspired by what came before it. God willing that someone will have learned from not just RTs successes but also failures. RIP Rooster Teeth. I don't believe in speaking ill of the recently deceased. So I'll just say I wish things turned out different. I really do.

[@KammyLou]

I’ve been on KZbin since 2006 and this is literally one of the best comments I’ve ever seen. Very well said.

[@MinersLoveGames]

Amen to that, man. I use the exact same analogy when I talk about the internet of then versus the internet of now. I remember when I got my first advertisement online, it was on Addicting games and I was so confused. Now they're everywhere. Wild West is settled. "I wish things were different. But it weren't us who changed."

[@uria3679]

Who here agrees that as long as Texas remains independent aka lazy, the media that comes from it will only get worse?

[@nickchavez720]

@@MinersLoveGames the wild is west is gone. All thats left are men with wild hearts with no where to go... im guessing that is why Burnie jumped ship when he did. He saw the writing on the wall and knew that he didnt belong there any more. So he left on his own terms rather than be forced out.

[@Phisherman10]

Hit the nail on the head. People can make legitimate livings off of KZbin and Twitch and the like but it’s come at a cost. The cost is that it all starts to feel the same since everyone is trying to chase the same trends and not piss off sponsors by being themselves or having original thoughts.

[@ironwarriorhonsou9303]

This still burns. So many lost people and potentials that all have slowly drifted away from what was something great so long ago. Now all we have is Geoff suffering and that hurts so bad.

[@CrazyAznKT]

This video is about to blow up

[@jacobcrabtree1857]

I know I fell out of rooster teeth but reading through these comments it seems a lot of us did around the same time. I don’t like to dunk on the new crew bc people and companies grow and change (and I like them all, mostly) but the dynamic was so different. On the old crew it seemed like there was always someone to be the straight man, on the new crew everyone wants to deliver the punchline. The joke never lands bc everyone tries to one up the joke and it goes on and gets louder, it gets exhausting.

[@matthewdaub]

This is honestly the reason I stopped watching ah. The old crew would have times when some of them wouldn't talk and others would be doing funny, there were moments of "silence". Now everyone is talking and screaming all the time and you can never stop and catch a break.

[@kirstacksf1899]

Yes, same, it was interesting to read these comments and find old fans who left around the same time I did (there was not a specific moment or bad feelings, I just kind of disconnected from the content at some point there). I'm sure new fans emerged around that time, but I think there was definitely a switch flipped around 2015

[@4oh63]

I joined the site in ‘05, before season 3 of RVB. I watched the shows evolution, the crews evolution, the contents evolution, the sites evolution, and more and more it became less about the community. There were so many new shows and podcasts and the site became new crew or cast member I had never heard of pushing new shows I didn’t care about and the community aspect just became harder to be involved with. The podcast became overly produced, more complicated than it needed to be. When it became regularly live streamed with a set and production staff and stage hands and a control room and the personalities went up to eleven it all started to feel performative. The drunk tank years of the podcast, with the revolving shitty songs but mostly consistent cast (Burnie, Gus, Geoff, Joel, and…ugh, Jack or Matt), it felt like a peek into the breakroom for an hour of just these guys we liked talking about stuff we’re interested in. Then as the company became more successful, it was homes in LA, owning Teslas, flying first class internationally to cons where people waited hours for their autographs, like fuck off. Burnie was the only thing keeping me on the podcast and when he finally left the it I never listened to a new episode. I still listen to the old episodes(200 and under usually) consistently. RVB became so convoluted, it should’ve ended after season 5, should’ve ended after season 8, but 10 was really where I was done with it. When they moved into filming in Halo 4 and dealing with the federalists and Locust or whatever I just couldn’t keep with the nonsense.

[@imalwayslast3170]

The people weren't being themselves anymore and trying way too hard to be funny...which made it worse. Trevor is a great example.

[@codyt8541]

And then it devolves into just screaming lmao AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[@Huffle1964]

I will always care for Geoff way more than the other members. The way he always seems to actually care when something goes down with the company, He always the one that seems to put his true feelings or concerns out. Especially when he breaks down it kills me alil cuz I feel like hes put so much of himself into the company. Its just sad seeing him having to waste more of himself on a company that doesnt really seem to care.

[@GreekDudeYiannis]

Geoff seems like the last heart of the company, for better and worse. I just want him to be happy, because this company not only brought him some of his highest highs, but it seems to have etched some permanent lows.

[@chickencurry420]

He's such a silly, fun dude most of the time so it's really jarring seeing him get real like that. He gets genuine now and then but to see him break down like that was something else. It's always upsetting to see such fun guy get beaten down by life like that and I wish nothing short of the best for him.

[@danielrowson3379]

Agreed, honestly it seems like RT kind of broke him.

[@ruralgoblin]

@@chickencurry420 being like 15 at the time watching my hero cry over being a failure when all I ever did was look up to him broke my heart more than once and still does any time I see the clips. Geoff is and always will be a treasure, no matter what he does. The golden days are long gone and I don't think any new hot trend will ever replace the dawn of Let's Plays and the explosion of internet personalities. I was lucky to grow up in its prime

[@Thor-Orion]

@@ruralgoblin I'm with you! So grateful to have come of age in the golden age of the internet. Before influencers and celebrity culture came in and laid waste to what was the best time to be consuming online media.

[@planetachilles8712]

I was an avid watcher of Michael and Gavin back in the day, but I grew up and didn't really check in. It's insane to see this years later and find out what happened

[@bhunt799]

Me to Channel Awesome: Perhaps I treated you too harshly.

[@Living_Target]

Truly wish the best to Geoff. Seems like a person who turned his life around and is picking up the pieces. I hope life goes better for him.

[@sirajjiwani128]

I'm not sure how long ago you stopped watching RT but he thankfully genuinely seems to be doing better! He's continued staying sober, he recently got a new girlfriend after his divorce from griffin, he's lost and kept off a bunch of weight, he's super big into bicycling, both for exercise and as a way to spend time with Miley :), and he started a new podcast with Gavin called F***Face (f*** face) in which he seems as energetic and excited as he did a decade ago. I'm so genuinely happy for him, if anything tragic were to ever happen to him I'd be devastated, he's honestly like a dad I never had.

[@Living_Target]

@@sirajjiwani128 I stopped around 2014 but I'm glad to hear he's doing well. Honestly even the divorce surprised me, didn't know about it till I watched this vid.

[@diegodunn-humphrey512]

Dick ridaaaaa

[@doodadamlol]

His life is going great by the sound of it. I listen to Fuckface (His and Gavin's podcast) regularly and it seems like his life is going just how he wants it to, and he's having a lot of fun with it. Plus I recommend anyone who likes the "old" RT/Achievement Hunter vibes listen to that podcast, it's great.

[@malif1279]

@@sirajjiwani128 ayyy that's good to hear, hope things continue to get better for him and everyone else

[@dan5974]

Rooster teeth hiring unpaid interns is really scummy. Tempting a carrot over these wishful kids. Pathetic decision making.

[@guywiththebottle]

Land of the free baby.

[@bernlin2000]

Just emulating Silicon Valley...let's not pretend they invented that culture, at the very least.

[@user-zo5jo3ox5g]

I remember listening to the podcast from like 2014-2016 and thinking everyone that worked there were so lucky and prayed I’d be able to one day

[@dan5974]

@@bernlin2000 fuck Silicon Valley too. At no point did I say RT started it, so please don’t assume.

[@dan5974]

@@user-zo5jo3ox5g I was the same. I was watching the shorts in 2010 and just loving every release. I watched AH grow and become this massive entertainment source and I wanted to be a part.

[@maskedcucco4576]

The thing that broke me with the Ryan and Adam situation is that happened, what, less than a year after the Vic Mignogna situation? Ryan, Geoff, etc. all came out against Vic because they don't support someone doing what Vic did (only thing that's ever been proven is that he ate a jelly bean and made a vore joke in reference to the other VA's signature on the jelly bean) and then it comes out that some of their other employees are doing something 1000000x worse. There was no waiting to see what was discovered or anything like that, Vic was fired instantly. Then it comes out what Ryan did and they decided to wait to see what would happen.

[@AgentxSmithx]

What they did to Vic was atrocious.

[@FrancisYorkMorganFBI]

honestly looking back at it. it's probably for the best that vic got out of this shithole.

[@Null041]

​@Nicholas_Miles the dude deserved it

[@Marveryn]

@@AgentxSmithx according to people who were not there but saw picture, he got too close to his fans.

[@aeonstar293]

I remember when my friends and I all found red vs blue, it was just 2 episodes. The halcyon days.

[@Celestial_Wing]

Wow Monty animated the all four RWBY trailers in just 2 weeks? Damn dude was a machine.

[@GreyhawkTheAngry]

You have no idea.

[@Xenmaru00]

all while maintaining his own personal project: Dead Fantasy, a crossover between Dead or Alive (the fighting game series known more for its female cast being buxom babes, versus its fairly intuitive and fun gameplay), and Final Fantasy. many of us knew him first through Haloid (shown in this very video) but then we encountered the first Dead Fantasy and... he was extremely skilled. his passion projects were incredible.

[@raymondduong3868]

he animated the Red Trailer in 2 weeks, not all 4. still an impressive thing to do. animation is difficult to do alone

[@yosiyyahu.bar.stephen]

If you’ve watched the RT Animated Shorts, this would come as no surprise. They specifically said “Yeah Monty pretty much just works and when he’s not working, he just sort of powers down!“ so he was nothing if not an absolute unit.

[@Celestial_Wing]

@@yosiyyahu.bar.stephen I thought they meant that he just comes in does his job and when there's nothing to do he goes into hibernation mode and sleeps like a robot

[@ksfallenangel5770]

Geoff has a good soul. He's a good man. He's an honest man. I hope nothing but good thing in his life after all these trials and tribulations.

[@Ramsey276one]

Same

[@Jay_Rainstorm]

I hope he can find time to just play video games with his friends once again.

[@MM-vs2et]

@@Jay_Rainstorm I hope someday in the future Geoff uploads a video where its just him, Jack, Michael, Gavin, and Ray playing minecraft doing fuck all with shitty microphones, shitty capture cards, and last gen consoles, on a small ass cramped room.

[@davi0121]

Try listening to his and Gavin's podcast, F*ckface. Pretty good content, and Geoff sounds like he's having fun.

[@will_of_europa]

Jeff isn't a man. He's a boy. A femcog boy. He needs to grow up.

[@TheMumboGumbo]

The video of audiences reacting to Monty’s rvb animation for the first time made me cry. For Monty and for RT.

[@isaacandersen1]

When I saw that episode for the first time it was amazing

[@TheDixlexxik]

when Burnie explained that Monty died, its taking him everything to not cry and such

[@noblegalifreyan4551]

After seeing what they did to rwby be glad he died to not see how they ruined his baby.

[@lazymansload520]

I’d say their problem is like this; Every company has to decide if it wants to be a great company or a big company. There are pros to cons to both. Rooster teeth’s problem is that they refused to pick. They want to work on a variety of projects like a big company but try to make it intimate and passion driven like a great company. These things do not mesh so well.

[@RickyUzumaki993]

Yeah, sounds about right to me.

[@ltchugacast131]

But hot damn just because they tried we got some beautiful gems and side splitting laughs. RT was a threat to legacy media along with the other golden age KZbin channels, and I feel like the downward spiral of RT is a symptom of legacy media successfully sinking their hooks in and attempting to use the RT brand to artificially inject themselves into the top level alt media sphere without putting in the effort or learning the ropes of how that field works. Burnie and the founders literally helped build the culture that became KZbin so if anybody gets it they do.

[@HistoryBird575]

Shout out to KZbin for recommending me this after finding out that it finally shut down.

[@rhettorical]

Looked this up in light of the company shuttering. They literally got popular because they were the first, but I never realized just how bad they were. Their collapse has been a really long time coming.

[@natani___7666]

It’s sad growing up and seeing that the company you loved as a kid turned into a hollow, blackened shell of what it was when you loved it.

[@jackrabbit1704]

Gutted and stripped by a *woke* soulless corporate machine.

[@misaefre]

absolutely. i was 12 when i started watching, and now at 23... theres just nothing left there anymore. i tried to stick it through after ryan (bc i really love alfredo and trevor) but it just got harder and harder with every video and now its unbearable

[@Khets_hostage]

Kinda how g4 has been since it’s return as well

[@Mr_Edwards_1995]

I feel bad for Geoff. He seems like the type of man that just wants to spend time with those he cares about and love those close to him, and doesn’t care about the money. In the end those close to him drift away and to hear his own wife and daughter not respect him is one of the worst things a man can experience.

[@tothehomestuck]

And to think I used to desperately apply for jobs and internships at this company. Looks like I dodged a bullet.

[@ricksturgis4451]

My heart breaks for Geoff so much. I had no idea he went through all this... He just seems like a genuine and passionate guy.

[@keabonhall2436]

Straight up that Halo animation by Monty was sick for it’s time, but it’s even more impressive that RWBY somehow still looks like that

[@mooseknuckle420]

💀

[@GigaChadh976]

Looks like what? Lifeless? Lazy? Like an entry level animation project?

[@ImmaLittlePip]

I mean s1 - 3 RWBY has some jank but you can see the passion put in them during the fights Modern RWBY is lifeless

[@GigaChadh976]

@@ImmaLittlePip yeah the trouble is everything else. Not to mention the lifeless voice acting

[@keabonhall2436]

@@GigaChadh976 i was referring to its time. it was genuinely wild that someone essentially independently created this. it is choppy, telegraphed, and the lighting is awful; that’s just a few problems. The ambition and drive was there

[@Flarocket]

1:25:17 one of the key parts of this time was not only did they raise the rates of first memberships, but they also turned off all active grandfathered accounts that were using PayPal. As a "consolation gift" for years of loyalty, they included a steam code for vicious circle.

[@ajknight8640]

That price increase was crazy, about as much as netflix at the time. I cancelled asap, luckily just before my yearly payment came out 😬

[@allthegoodnames.aretaken]

That explains how I have that game. And yeah that's when I just stopped paying for it too after several years. Can't say I ever played the game either.

[@spritemon98]

Isn't that their failed videogame that the let's play crew stopped promoting?

[@XANApwns]

@@spritemon98 how to tell when someone hasn’t watched the full video

[@NateTheScot]

Yeah i gave First a try when i was still watching their stuff many years back for the binge watching of RTAA, but then i found that half the RTAA's weren't even on there so i had to go find them on KZbin anyway, and i was like why am i paying such a lot, to access RTAA, when i'm having to still go hunt for them on YT?? So i cancelled and just kinda lost interest in anything else they had, since any of the good content was locked behind First after that as they attempted to make some profit. It's sad, but the way YT has changed over the last 20 years has definitely fucked them over too, as with a lot of creators.

[@BigStankyFish]

Ray and Geoff were always my favorite. It genuinely depresses me that we are where we are now.

[@the_competent_gamer9454]

I take solace in the fact that Ray left when he did, quite literally right before everything hit the fan. He's happy now doing his own thing and bei g with Tina. I wish him and everyone else from the crew all the best

[@dominicdo2719]

Man I missed the old Rooster Teeth. First time I found them was when RVB was at around 6 season. I think the golden age was around when Michael, Gavin, and Brown man were all in AHWU. The good old times

[@thegameplayer125]

what makes their demise fascinating to me is that many of its peers like machinima, screwattack, channel awesome, yogscast, and others like it have been collapsing along side rooster teeth. it's fascinating witnessing a domino effect where a major channel dying can set off a chain reaction where many of their peers collapse with them

[@warlordofbritannia]

I think it’s less a cause then effect thing, but an overall trend of the dying off of these conglomerate channels-often for the same reasons, like (alleged) workplace abuse, increasingly stale content, original talent leaving, overexpansion, etc.

[@mbxx2]

Yeah sometimes I think there's just a certain set life span for these sort of personality driven gaming channels, usually around 10 - 15 years.

[@sailorhatguy5763]

I still miss Creaturehub and Cowchop at their prime

[@SuperNuclearUnicorn]

@@warlordofbritannia yeah they basically just happened to all make the same dumb mistakes that tend to happen when a small group of people accidentally make a multi million dollar business

[@KTDTopaz_Universe]

“A Chain is As Strong As The Weakest Link...”

[@SweD5425]

I remember watching Fails of the Weak and listening to Geoff just explode in laughter. Those were good times.

[@perteraboofolympus150]

the weapon stance "bug" wasn't a bug it was intended made doing certain cutscenes easier to impliment along with modling being easier. This was the reason chief in game was mostly modeled using his pistol in some cutscenes aswell as some NPCs like keyes and the like. It was a feature used mainly during the 343 guilty spark helmet cutscene with jenkins to model the characters standing at a more relaxed pose and talking since the rigging for marines and the chief were mirrored. Its just a hold over and then later made a feature when bungie realised the purpose of a low ready stance for machinima purposes.

[@ItsFayko]

Seeing Roosterteeth in this state is heart breaking to me. I used to watched it, loved the inside jokes- hell. Part of me still remembers the Achievement Hunter upload schedule with VS on Thursdays. GTA Mondays, Minecraft on Friday and I think GO was Tuesday? I watched them for years, got into RWBY, Day 5, watched the Sunday Driving videos, watched any animated adventure that would come out and so much of my early sense of humor was born from my time spent watching this channel, and I am sure that there is still some foundational comedy in my head that stems from this company. I realize now as an adult that a lot of these issues took deep root while we as the audience was none the wiser but its still wild to me.

[@RTRyles]

Burnie always said that the Warthog going through the wall on Valhalla in season 8 was the changing point of the company. I’ve always agreed, but now, I think it’s the apex. Everything really went down from there. The future poor management of the animation side of the studio has really ate the company alive. And I agree with Geoff that many people have decried the end of rooster teeth for years, but having been around to know what mod points and the emodity was, I can only really look back and say the end is coming. And I’m not happy about it either. Rooster Teeth basically defined my personality. And I know the day will come soon when Rooster Teeth just isn’t a thing anymore.

[@harrymason4300]

Personally I think everything after Reconstruction was mediocre.

[@normanmerrick9493]

Now maybe it’s just me but I have to disagree with both of you. To me personally, the true definitive moment that could be considered the moment the company’s fate was sealed was Monty’s passing. From that moment on, rooster teeth was beginning its downward spiral that it continues on to this day.

[@whiskeyhound]

@@normanmerrick9493 Nah, as bad as Monty dying was, a lot of the problems with the direction of the company started with Fullscreen buying the company.

[@haloguru2552]

Yeah, I remember the emodomy and karma system. God, that was ages ago. Website went to shit when they changed it. So much of that website and community shaped my teenage years because I was a loner in highschool. Even had a ldr with a girl I met on there and eventually met up with her irl.

[@PR0MAN01]

No that was the end of season 13 of RvB. The perfect ending to the series and the best arc in the series.

[@disaceter1130]

There are a lot of things you can point at a say "This is why they failed," but in my opinion, all of it really boils down to "It got to big for its britches." Too many projects, not enough funding, and not enough employees to handle the work load. They basically became the Buzzfeed of the gaming community.

[@THE_BEAR_JEW]

Yeah agreed. It's easy to just point to the drama but as you said, it was just too much growth for the sake of growth. The d*ck scandals and death are good for a video because people like drama and emotion. However, that is nothing compared to overstretching your company and taking on more than you can handle. We see mega corporations try that and fail (look at Sony with handhelds, Netflix trying to compete with movie theaters, Ford investing heavily in Rivian), so it comes as no surprise that RT over-expanded.

[@samsailor7598]

Perfection comparison!

[@benjibutt5796]

Something that this video didn’t touch on (either because the information came out after the fact, or because the video was already long enough, I’m not sure) is that the reason that Bruce Greene left Funhaus was that he actually received information about Adam Kovic being a serial sexual harasser. Early on there wasn’t much information available to the public about Adam’s true nature and behavior; everyone thought he was just a bit of a sexual deviant, and got wrapped up with Ryan. However, it came out that Adam had a habit of harassing female coworkers. Notably, he even harassed Autumn Farrell, Bruce’s now wife. In any case, Bruce brought this information to RT HR and recommended Adam be fired, and he was laughed at. That’s why he left.

[@Masterom2000x]

RIP Monty Oum. He'd be disappointed for sure.