Achievement Hunter

Achievement Hunter is an ongoing series created by Rooster Teeth staff members Geoff Ramsey and Jack Pattillo, in which staff members and contributors from the community demonstrate how to earn achievements in various games and enjoy them in various ways.

Achievement Hunter was born from Pattillo and Ramsey's interest in gaming achievements and the realization that there wasn't a community-based achievement website. In turn Achievement Hunter was created, which shares the design, user profiles and forums of the main Rooster Teeth website. The site regularly releases achievement guides, Easter egg videos, and select volunteers from the Rooster Teeth community to help moderate the website. The Achievement Hunter Twitter handle is @AchievementHunt.

In 2008, Geoff Ramsey's interest in gaming achievements resulted in the realization that no community-based website related to achievements existed. As a result, Ramsey approached Burnie Burns, then CEO of Rooster Teeth, 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. 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.

In early 2011, Achievement Hunter hired Ryan Haywood as an editor, behind the scenes crew tech guy and as a recurring contract host after Ryan left the animation department of Rooster Teeth; Haywood later began being featured in videos as a main host in March of 2012, becoming one of the main cast 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 crew member on August 15, 2011. Jones was featured as a main host in Achievement Hunter in early 2012

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.

Achievement Hunter hired Gavin Free in early 2012, after he had assisted with the company for many years. Free joined Achievement Hunter in 2008 as a contract host before becoming one of the main six hosts in early 2012. 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 early April of 2012, having worked as a contract host for a year from 2010 till 2011. Narvaez flew down to Austin, Texas to complete his hiring on April 26, 2012 and he became a fully fledged Rooster Teeth employee by April 30, 2012. Later, in September 2012, contract editor Franco Scarcello created Five Facts; generally hosted by Pattillo and Ramsey, the series focuses on little-known facts about various video games.

In early 2013, Achievement Hunter introduced a competition series titled VS, in which the employees challenge each other to compete in games. On 20 February 20, 2013, Free announced that The Slow Mo Guys had been adapted and picked up by Rooster Teeth and further future episodes of the series would be released on Rooster Teeth's website, as well as the series' existing YouTube channel. A best of compilation was released by Rooster Teeth Productions for home video on 10 September 2013. In April 2013, Achievement Hunter launched their own channel on YouTube, which hosts a variety of their videos. Later in October 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.

Also, October 2013, Pattillo hosted a 24-hour live stream benefiting Extra Life, a charity benefiting hospitalized children. With appearances from other Achievement Hunter members and various Rooster Teeth employees, the live stream managed to raise $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. At RTX 2014 on July 6, 2014, community members Matt Bragg and Jeremy Dooley were hired as editors and secondary hosts at Achievement Hunter.

In early 2015, Achievement Hunter hosted the first Let's Play Live at the Moody Theater in Austin, Texas. On January 16, 2015, Jose Jones Castillo departed from Rooster Teeth and Achievement Hunter in order to pursue a career as an independent film maker focusing on virtual reality technology. He now serves as the founder and CEO of Viewer Ready, working on producing and releasing Virtual Reality gear and 360 content. He also departed from RWBY and no longer voices the character Mercury Black and was replaced by Yuri Lowerthol>However, Castillo attended RTX 2015 for one day. On February 5, 2015, Funhaus joined Rooster Teeth becoming a part of the Lets Play family and also started competing against Achievement Hunter in various videos. On April 17, 2015, Narvaez quit and left from the department of Achievement Hunter in order to focus on self employment and working independently, primarily consisting of Twitch live streaming video games, although he still fully continues to participate in Rooster Teeth projects he has worked on such as X-Ray and Vav and the Internet Box Podcast. He still continues to portray his character and reprise his role for the company's X-Ray and Vav animated series and fully continues his role on the Internet Box Podcast, still attend RTX and every future RTX in Austin, Texas (except that he is now a VIP Special Guest instead of a Staff Member for Achievement Hunter) as well as continuing to make recurring guest host appearances in Rooster Teeth videos from time to time. Narvaez stated that he would continue to remain a part of the Rooster Teeth family and community as a part-time employee of RT.

On July 2, 2015, Achievement Hunter launched a new YouTube channel, named after themselves, thereon 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.

As of July 6th 2015, the Achievement Hunter channel was created, and is the new home of most non-Let's Play videos. Previous to this, Achievement Hunter videos appeared on the Rooster Teeth and Let's Play channels.

The most frequent videos come from the six, most prolific employees and top golden Achievement Hunter cast members: Geoff Ramsey (Rooster Teeth co-founder/Achievement Hunter co-founder), Jack Pattillo (Achievement Hunter's first employee and co-founder), Gavin Free (Red vs Blue Season 7 director/Host of The Slow-Mo Guys/Creative Director of Rooster Teeth), Michael Jones (Host of Rage Quit and the Off Topic), Ryan Haywood (former animator, editor, producer, technical director of the 10th season of Red vs. Blue and present Rooster Teeth's Game Fails YouTube channel manager) and Jeremy Dooley (creator of Imaginary Achievements/Community Hunter turned full-time employee), who replaced Ray Narvaez, Jr. (Community Hunter turned full-time employee turned full time streamer) as of October 16, 2015 in Lets Play Minecraft Episode 177: Blocking List (Part 2), almost 6 months after Ray left Achievement Hunter with his last Achievement Hunter video in Lets Play Minecraft Episode 151: Brown Out uploaded to YouTube on April 17, 2015 on Ray's last day.

A new Achievement Hunter weekly podcast titled Off Topic was announced in early October of 2015 by Michael Jones. Four test episodes aired live and were only available to "Sponsors" 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 and Rooster Teeth employees and special guests. On October 26, 2015, Gavin Free was promoted to the Creative Director of Rooster Teeth replacing Burnie Burns who was promoted to the Also, October 2015, Larry Matovina was hired as an employee of Rooster Teeth. Larry was officially hired as a member of Achievement Hunter in January of 2016, working as an editor for Achievement Hunter, mostly editing Let's Plays. Also, in late 2015, Max Bernard joined the team working as an editor and contract host in charge of the community videos titled Great Levels in Gaming, which debuted on December 29, 2015.

On February 2016, Lindsay Jones was promoted to the general manager of Achievement Hunter, having worked as a editor and recurring guest host for 3 years from 2013 until early 2016. On March 19, 2016, Kdin Jenzen departed from Achievement Hunter as a content creator, editor and recurring guest host but Kdin still continues to work at Rooster Teeth. Kdin changed departments and now works at The Know. On April 28, 2016, Achievement Hunter hired Kent Cook and Neal Werle were hired as editors. On May 16, 2016, Mica Burton was officially hired at Achievement Hunter working as an editor and recurring host. On May 27, 2016, Andrew Blanchard was hired and joined Achievement Hunter working as a part time worker, and an editor after formerly working as an intern for them.

Unlike any other dedicated-achievement website, Achievement Hunter is highly dependent on public contributions and has guides across different games and platforms, allowing the site to expand its focus from Xbox 360, and Xbox One games to those on PC, PS3, PS4, Steam, iPhone, and Windows Phone 7. Along with the main Rooster Teeth website, Achievement Hunter has achieved great popularity since its inception.

The Achievement Hunter offices have mostly been in the same building as the rest of the Rooster Teeth departments, The first being the Congress office, the second was at 636, the third was inside of Stage 5. The only office that has not been directly connected to the rest is the current one, based in Stage 4.

Series
Fails

Later that same year two new series were introduced, Fails of the Weak in Halo Reach being one of them. This series highlights mistakes and glitches found in Halo: Reach; most of these videos are submitted to Achievement Hunter by the community, depicting themselves failing. Each Friday, Jack and Geoff upload a video with at about ten fail clips showing the fails with both of them commenting on the fail's humor. "Fails" met with great success and even spun off its own YouTube channel, GameFails. They have recently shown their 100th Fails of the Weak video and made a montage of fails to celebrate. Upon its release, this series moved into Halo 4. Since episode 200 the series has included fails from any game.

HORSE and PIG / Achievement Hunt
The other series that aired in late 2010 was Achievement HORSE with Jack and Geoff, also featuring exclusively Halo: Reach maps. Similar to the basketball game of H-O-R-S-E, the players win rounds to give the other player letter (e.g. Jack wins round 1, Geoff gets a letter H) until one player has spelled out "horse" and wins the game. In this version of Horse, the players (typically Geoff and Jack, but more recently other Rooster Teeth employees have been playing as well/in their stead) compete in an obstacle course until one of them reaches the objective and wins the round. The obstacle courses are Forged in Halo: Reach and are sent to Jack and Geoff by fans. Occasionally they will play a shortened Achievement PIG due to time constraints. So far there have been two company-wide tournaments with employees from Achievement Hunter and Rooster Teeth. Additionally, there is Achievement Pig for Trials Evolution, which also features fan sent obstacle courses, alongside with the Halo: Reach Horse series. Upon its release, this series moved into Halo 4. In October 2013, the HORSE series was replaced with Achievement HUNT, which is the same basic concept, except a different game is used every round.

Rage Quit


In 2011, a new series debuted, called Rage Quit, in which "test subject" Michael Jones, is subjected to difficult or exasperating games until "he eventually has an aneurysm and we have to rush him to the emergency room," as described by Geoff Ramsey. Michael often plays smaller, lesser-known XBLA games of low quality, adding to the level of frustration. Since its creation, it had become a hit weekly series. Beginning on May 1, 2014 however, the show now airs every other Thursday, interchanging with Play Pals. The show went on a hiatus starting October 9, 2014 due to Michaels absence because of the Lazer Team filming project, but has returned as of January 2015, airing every other Thursday as before.

2011 Smaller Series
Also in 2011, four new series were created by the Achievement Hunter staff for their audience. The first series is "This is...", which introduces new video games that came out recently. The game presented in "This is..." typically is released a day or two prior to the "This is..." video and is often accompanied by some achievement guides from the Achievement Hunter staff for the new game. The second series is titled "Things To Do In:" and presents its viewers with alternative ways to play and interesting things to do in video games like Saints Row 3, Modern Warfare 3, Skyrim, and Minecraft. The third series made was called "A Look Back At" and was a spin-of from the "This is..." videos. In "A Look Back At," former Achievement Hunter employees Fragger and Ray re-introduced old XBOX 360 games that might have been overlooked in their release but are now considered classic games.

Let's Play
The final series that aired that year is called "Let's Play". The "Let's Play" videos are some of the most viewed and liked videos from the fans of Achievement Hunter. The first "Let's Play" videos are from Michael Jones and Geoff Ramsey when they were playing Saints Row 3 together with live commentary. Eventually more videos were made from the staff of Achievement Hunter, varying from Saints Row 3 to Assassin's Creed to Trials: Evolution, however the most popular videos are the "Let's Play" for Minecraft with Jack, Geoff, Michael, Gavin, (formerly) Ray, and Ryan. The Minecraft videos receive millions of views each week and, since fans like them so much, the Achievement Hunter team decided to "upload new Minecraft Let's Plays each week until we die," as stated by Geoff Ramsey. Due to their huge popularity, the "Let's Play" videos received their own dedicated Youtube channel, Let's Play, which is updated every weekday with videos. This includes GTA V on Monday, GO! on Tuesday, a series Let's Play on Wednesday, VS on Thursday, and a Minecraft Let's Play on Friday. Bonus Let's Plays have also appeared on the weekends or as extra videos during the weekday.

VS
This show is a competition show, where a champion is challenged by the challenger to a game of their choosing. The trophies are two wrestling belts and a golden rooster. Whoever wins in an episode gets to keep these for a week or until at least the next episode, where they get challenged. Starting in episode 52, Lindsay officially joined the VS line up. The challenger rotation was initially the order of their desks clockwise (Gavin, Ryan, Jack, Geoff, Ray, Michael), then determined by the results of a Go Kart race in VS Episode 52. The new rotation was Jack, Ryan, Michael, Gavin, Ray, Lindsay, Geoff. In VS Episode 104 Geoff stepped away from the lineup to be full time host of the show and the rotation was reset again. The new rotation was determined by the results of Mini Golf, resulting in an order of Ryan, Gavin, Matt, Michael, Jack, Lindsay, Ray, Jeremy. With Ray's leaving, he has been since removed from the lineup.

GO!
This show is a competition to get a visible achievement or perform a certain task (assigned by Geoff) in any game the players choose. The winner is awarded a sticker to be placed on a crude paper board that (originally) Gavin Free and Geoff Ramsey made. The first player to fill up their section of the board (five wins) with stickers will be awarded a pizza party with Geoff and a friend. In GO!, Geoff is the host, while Gavin, Ryan, Jack, Michael, and (formerly) Ray are the competitors. Lindsay and Kerry are also on the board though their appearances have been very few. So far only Ray and Jack have won pizza parties.

Full Play
This show is simply full playthroughs of older games, like Resident Evil: Revelations. This series is usually only hosted by Michael, who sometimes has guests with him. There have been 2 full playthroughs so far, Resident Evil: Revelations and State of Decay, as well as an ongoing series in Banjo-Tooie.

Cast

 * Geoff Ramsey: (2008–present)
 * Jack Pattillo: (2008–present)
 * Gavin Free: 2008–2011 (recurring contract host), 2012–present (cast)
 * Michael Jones:  2012–present (cast); crew, recurring contract host (2011-2012)
 * Ryan Haywood: 2011-2012 (crew, recurring contract host), 2012–present (cast)
 * Jeremy Dooley: 2014–2015 (crew, editor, recurring secondary host) 2015–present

Crew

 * Caleb Denecour: (community manager; 2010–present)
 * Lindsay Jones: (general manager: 2016–present; editor, recurring host: 2013–2016)
 * Matt Bragg: (editor, recurring secondary host; 2014–present)
 * Steffie Hardy: (production manager; 2014–present)
 * Trevor Collins: (lead editor, manager; 2014–present)
 * Larry Matovina: (editor; 2015–present)
 * Max Bernard: (contract host; 2015–present)
 * Mica Burton: (head of streaming, editor, recurring host; 2016-present)
 * Kent Cook (video editor; 2016-present)
 * Neal Werle (editor; 2016-present)
 * Andrew "Andy' Blanchard (editor, part time manager; 2016-present)

Community Hunter

 * Franco Scarcello: (contract editor; 2012–present)

Rooster Teeth

 * Kerry Shawcross: 2010–present
 * Burnie Burns: 2011–present
 * Joel Heyman: 2011–present
 * Adam Ellis: 2013–present

Former Staff

 * David Dreger  (Rooster Teeth contributor; 2008; died in June 2013)
 * Brandon "Fragger" Light: 2011–2013 (recurring contract host)
 * J.J. Castillo: November 2012 - January 16, 2015 (crew, editor, producer, shooter)
 * Ray Narvaez, Jr.: 2010–2011 (recurring contract host) April 6, 2012 – April 17, 2015 (cast) 2015-present (recurring guest)
 * Kdin Jenzen: 2013-2016 (editor, guest host) 2016-present (The Know host)

Current Shows

 * Achievement HUNT
 * Achievement Hunter: Behind the Scenes
 * Achievement Unlocked (Achievement Guides)
 * AHWU
 * Countdown/Top Five
 * Fails of the Weak
 * Five Facts
 * Game Fails (Game Fails Channel)
 * Game Night: Live
 * GO!
 * Grab Bag
 * How To: with Joel and Adam
 * Let's Play
 * Minecraft
 * Full Play
 * MegaCraft
 * Off Topic
 * Play Pals
 * Rage Quit
 * Shenanigans
 * Sunday Driving
 * Things To Do In
 * Versus

Past Shows

 * Achievement HORSE
 * Achievement PIG
 * AH Predicts
 * A Look Back At
 * Coming Soon
 * Forced Enjoyment
 * Game Kids
 * Game Night
 * Game Time with Burnie
 * Imaginary Achievements
 * Let's Build
 * Pajamachievements
 * Quick Bits
 * Retro Active
 * This Is
 * Trials Files

Schedule
Videos hold to an irregular schedule except for the following:

Monday

 * Let's Play GTA
 * AHWU

Tuesday

 * Let's Play

Wednesday

 * Let's Play

Thursday

 * Let's Play

Friday

 * Let's Play Minecraft
 * Fails of the Weak

Trivia

 * All the Achievement Hunters have edited videos during their time at Rooster Teeth.
 * Gavin (formerly) edited Minecraft Let's Play, Things To Do In, and Let's Plays. He edits Slow Mo Guys episodes.
 * Michael edits Rage Quits and Let's Plays.
 * Ray (formerly) edited Achievement Guides.
 * Geoff (formerly) edited Trials Files and Red vs Blue. He runs the Game Kids channel.
 * Jack edits Achievement HUNT and AHWU.
 * Ryan edits Let's Play GTA and was previously in charge of the Game Fails channel.
 * Lindsay (formerly) edited Minecraft Let's Plays, Let's Plays, Let's Builds, and edits Things To Do In and Versus.
 * Caleb (formerly) edited Game Night. He runs the Community Hunter and Game Kids channels.
 * Kdin edits Countdown/Top Five, (formerly) Coming Soon, (formerly) Let's Builds, Minecraft Let's Plays, Let's Plays, and any other bonus videos.
 * Matt edits MegaCraft, Let's Plays, and (formerly) Let's Builds.
 * Jeremy edited (formerly) Imaginary Achievements, Minecraft Let's Plays, Let's Builds, and edits Let's Plays and music videos.
 * Trevor edits Game Kids Let's Plays as well as runs the Community Hunter and Game Kids channels.
 * Fragger (formerly) edited Retro Active/A Look Back At.
 * Franco edits Five Facts.
 * Kerry (formerly) edited Go!
 * JJ (formerly) edited Let's Builds.
 * Larry edits Let's Plays.
 * Let's Play - Surgeon Simulator 2013: Alien Transplant, uploaded on Jan 31, 2014, is currently the most viewed video on the YouTube Let's Play  channel.
 * Let's Play Minecraft, uploaded on May 11, 2012, is currently the most viewed let's play on the YouTube Rooster Teeth channel.
 * Matt Bragg (Axialmatt) and Jeremy Dooley (Jerem6401) from the Community Hunter Channel were officially hired by Achievement Hunter at the second AH Panel at RTX 2014. The two joined the group in the panel.
 * Fails of the Weak, Five Facts, Trials Files, Let's Play Minecraft, Versus, Rage Quit, Achievement Hunter Weekly Update, Halo Achievement Horse, and Things To Do In are the only Achievement Hunter series to reach at least 100 episodes.
 * Ray is the first Achievement Hunter of the main six to leave in order to pursue streaming full-time on Twitch.

Team Names
Most of the Achievement Hunters who have recurring pairings end up giving themselves team names.