Achievement Hunter was an American video gaming division of Rooster Teeth Productions. Founded by Geoff Ramsey and Jack Pattillo on July 6, 2008, the website was originally based on the achievement mechanic in video games but grew to become a core component of Rooster Teeth, hosting a wide variety of videos related to video games. Achievement Hunter dissolved after publishing its final video on October 1, 2023, with all members having moved elsewhere within Rooster Teeth, which itself closed in May 2024.
History and development
2008–2010: Inception
In 2008, Geoff Ramsey's interest in gaming achievements resulted in the realization that no community-based website related to achievements existed. Since Ramsey and Burnie Burns, then Rooster Teeth CEO, were both "huge achievement fans" and dueling each other to get the most achievements in their spare time, Ramsey had an idea to begin developing a website where gamers and fans could look up information on how to get specific achievements.[1] Ramsey approached Burns about creating a website based on achievements; Burns agreed, and Ramsey created Achievement Hunter, which shares a similar design to the main Rooster Teeth website.[2] Ramsey later elaborated, saying he had grown tired of making Red vs. Blue and enjoyed working on this new, creative outlet in his spare time.[3] Alongside employee Jack Pattillo, Ramsey regularly released achievement guides and Easter egg videos, often receiving assistance from select volunteers from the Rooster Teeth community. David Dreger also assisted in the founding of the site.[4][5]
Geoff Ramsey's interest in gaming achievements led to the creation of Achievement Hunter.
Shortly following his employment at Rooster Teeth, Jack Pattillo largely assisted Ramsey in the founding of Achievement Hunter.
2011–2012: Employment growth
In 2011, Achievement Hunter hired Ryan Haywood as an editor and manager; Haywood later began being featured in videos as a host in March 2012, becoming one of the main crew members. Four new shows were introduced to Achievement Hunter in 2011. One of them, Rage Quit, led to the official hiring of Michael Jones as a full-time staff member in August 2011.[6]
In December 2011, Achievement Hunter also began creating Let's Play videos. The success of the videos resulted in a weekly sub-series in 2012, in which the main hosts play Minecraft. Weekly Let's Play videos focusing on Grand Theft Auto games are also released.[7][8]Let's Play Grand Theft Auto was typically released on Mondays and Let's Play Minecraft on Fridays.
Achievement Hunter hired Gavin Free in 2012, after he had assisted with the company for many years. In March 2012, Achievement Hunter debuted Game Night, in which Ramsey and Caleb Denecour play games with community members; the series switched to a live stream format in 2014. Community member Ray Narvaez Jr. was hired in April 2012, having worked as a contract host for multiple years. Later, in September 2012, contract editor Franco Scarcello created Five Facts, which was generally hosted by Pattillo and Ramsey and focused on little-known facts about various video games; it was not renewed for a sixth season in May 2016.[9]
2013–2015: Popularization and the Let's Play Network
In early 2013, Achievement Hunter introduced a competition series titled VS, in which the employees challenge each other to compete in games. In April 2013, Achievement Hunter launched their own channel on YouTube, which hosts a variety of their videos. Later in 2013, the company retired Achievement HORSE, replacing it with Achievement HUNT, in which a variety of employees challenge each other until the word "HUNT" has been spelled.[citation needed]
In October 2013, Pattillo hosted a 24-hour live stream for Extra Life, a charity benefiting hospitalized children. With appearances from other Achievement Hunter members and various Rooster Teeth employees, the live stream raised $340,000. This charity live stream has become an annual event, with 2014's Extra Life live stream raising over $442,000 for Children's Miracle Network.[10] At RTX in July 2014, community members Matt Bragg and Jeremy Dooley were hired as editors and secondary hosts at Achievement Hunter.[11]
On February 5, 2015, Achievement Hunter officially founded the Let's Play Network YouTube channel. The channel acted as a platform for multiple Rooster Teeth owned and affiliated groups and divisions to upload gameplays. Some of these groups included the likes of Funhaus, ScrewAttack, Cow Chop, Kinda Funny, and Sugar Pine 7. Although, a majority of the channel's videos still consisted of Achievement Hunter's content.
In early 2015, Achievement Hunter hosted the first Let's Play Live at the Moody Theater in Austin, Texas. In April 2015, Narvaez departed from the company as a full-time employee to focus on Twitch live-streaming, although he continued to voice his character for the company's X-Ray and Vav animated series until its eventual cancellation.[12] In mid-2015, Achievement Hunter launched a new YouTube channel, named after themselves, where they upload series of videos that were previously uploaded to the Rooster Teeth channel. Additionally, they moved out of Rooster Teeth's Stage 5, Austin Studios office into their own office nearby.[13]
Dooley was promoted to a main host in October 2015, during an episode of Let's Play Minecraft.[14] A weekly podcast titled Off Topic was announced in early October, hosted by Michael Jones. Four test episodes aired live and were only available to "First Members" on their website. The first official episode aired to the public after the initial tests. Jones serves as the main host of the show and makes the most frequent appearances alongside other Achievement Hunter employees and special guests, including Patricia Sommerset, Arin Hanson, Chef Mike Haracz and Samm Levine.[15][16] He also hosts the after show Last Call available for First Members only.
In January 2016, Lindsay Jones became the head of Achievement Hunter, succeeding Ramsey.[26] In April 2016, Achievement Hunter launched two new shows. A new series called VR the Champions premiered on YouTube and featured Haywood, Dooley, and other members testing out new gameplay in virtual reality.[27] In addition, a First Member only show known as Theater Mode was created, and includes hosts like Jones, Ramsey, and Pattillo, as well as others, watching horrible movies and commenting on them.[28] Later in 2016, Achievement Hunter introduced RouLet's Play, where hosts play a game at random, Heroes and Halfwits,[29] a sort of dungeons and dragons gameplay with Haywood, Jones, Ramsey, Griffon Ramsey, and Gus Sorola, and Schooled in which Ramsey and his daughter Millie teach kids to play video games in hopes of defeating the main Achievement Hunter members.[30]
In February 2017, Ramsey announced his sabbatical from the company. At this time, it was also announced that Trevor Collins was the new head of Achievement Hunter, succeeding Jones.[31] Later on, two months into his break, Ramsey and Millie premiered the second season of Schooled.[32] This time around the kids were being trained by the main members to battle each other. In April, Achievement Hunter went on tour on the east coast to perform Let's Play Live! with Funhaus in New Jersey, Maryland, and Florida.[33]
As part of Rooster Teeth's Pilot Month, a test episode of a new ghost hunting show called Achievement Haunter premiered on May 17, 2018. The episode was considered a success and the series was green-lit for an eight episode first season, which aired on October 31, 2018.[34]
Hardcore Tabletop, a show that takes board games and gives them real world twists, premiered on August 21, 2018. The first season had Achievement Hunter personalities play Monopoly with real money, with the potential to earn up to $20,580.[35] The second season, titled Hardcore Tabletop: World Series, aired on April 10, 2019, and returned to Monopoly with Diaz as the winner of the previous season and competitors from the Let's Play family including actor Dante Basco.[36]
2020–2023: Final years
On June 10, 2020, Achievement Hunter premiered their new show titled Hardcore Minigolf, where employees and friends of the company compete in a tournament style game of mini-golf.[37]
On October 6, 2020, Haywood announced his departure from the company following a leak of explicit photographs and amid accusations of grooming fans, including some underage. On October 7, Rooster Teeth issued a statement saying they had "parted ways" for breach of the company's code of conduct.[38] In a livestream held after a brief hiatus from the fallout, Pattillo and Michael Jones denounced Haywood, announcing that several videos featuring him would be removed from Rooster Teeth's library.[39]
In May 2021, three featured contract missions created by members of Achievement Hunter were added to Hitman 3.[40][41]
Dooley departed Achievement Hunter in 2021, moving to a recurring role,[42] while Bragg's full-time role was dissolved in 2022, leading to part-time contract work.[43] Meanwhile, several Achievement Hunter employees began new projects over its final years: Ramsey and Free started the podcast F**kFace with Andrew Panton; Pattillo and BlackKrystel moved to Inside Gaming; Lindsay Jones continued their voice work as Ruby Rose in RWBY VTubing; and Cooke produced several projects at Rooster Teeth.[44]
On September 18, 2023, Rooster Teeth announced that Achievement Hunter would be dissolved, with remaining cast members Michael Jones, Collins, Diaz, and Lee moving to a new channel called Dogbark.[44] The final video—a Let's Play of Burnout Paradise, like Achievement Hunter's first video, featuring Ramsey, Pattillo, Michael Jones, and Collins—was released on October 1.[45] The Let's Play YouTube channel was subsequently taken over by F**kface,[46] publishing its first video under the rebrand on October 6, 2023.[citation needed]
In March 2024, it was announced that Rooster Teeth would be shut down.[47] Dogbark published its final video on April 21 and was later rebranded Mikey & Fredo post-closure, with Michael Jones and Alfredo Diaz taking over the former Dogbark channel and social media accounts. The Let's Play channel published its final video on May 1.[citation needed] In July 2024, the skeleton crew still working for Rooster Teeth post-closure announced that nearly 4600 old Achievement Hunter videos that were originally published on the Rooster Teeth YouTube channel have been moved over to the Achievement Hunter YouTube channel.[48]
Let's Play Live! was an on-stage event produced by Rooster Teeth in which the Achievement Hunter members play video games and perform comedy sketches in front of a live audience. Their first event was held on February 20, 2015, at the Moody Theater in Austin, Texas.[49]
Three more Let's Play Live! events were held in 2016, with the first at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on June 17,[50] the second at the Chicago Theatre in Chicago, Illinois on August 19, and the third at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, New York on October 8. These events also featured appearances by other members of the Let's Play family; Funhaus, ScrewAttack, Kinda Funny, Cow Chop and The Creatures.[51]
With members of Rooster Teeth that work outside of Achievement Hunter, the group works with different charities to raise money through livestreams and other methods. This is in part to Jack Pattillo being a part of Achievement Hunter and Rooster Teeth's Charity Director,[52] causing him to be a large part of organizing events, promoting them on the Achievement Hunter page, and asking fans and friends to be a part of the event. He summed up the point in a statement; "When Rooster Teeth calls on its fans to support a cause, we can count on them to help us make a huge impact."[52]
Through cooperation between Make-A-Wish and the Achievement Hunter parent company Rooster Teeth, the members of Achievement Hunter met teenager Erik Battany during RTX in August 2015.[53] Battany and his family had been gifted VIP passes to RTX 2015, meeting them at a VIP party and the next day played with members for an Assassin's Creed Syndicate mission. On May 23, 2014, there was another visitor through Make-A-Wish, a boy named Jacob.[54][55]
^"RIP Ex-Achievement Hunter Knuckles Dawson". 343 industries. 343 industries. June 22, 2013. Archived from the original on September 24, 2016. Retrieved August 15, 2016. Knuckles Dawson was one the original achievement hunters for Rooster Teeth back in day he created a large library of achievement videos while narrating the viewers through the achievements.
^ abDooley, Jeremy [@JeremyNDooley] (May 26, 2021). "Big news for ya!💜🧡" (Tweet). Retrieved January 9, 2022 – via Twitter. Hey everybody! I just made the announcement today on Chit N Chat that Kat and I will be staying here in the Northeast after the pandemic is over.
^ abPattillo, Jack (July 19, 2023). "Hey there folks, Jack here". Reddit. Archived from the original on August 15, 2023. Retrieved August 15, 2023. myself and BK are now focused entirely on Inside Gaming, stepping away from daily Achievement Hunter duties.
