Let's Play Live

"Let's Play Live brings your favorite YouTube entertainers from Rooster Teeth and beyond to one stage for a non-stop frenzy of gaming and comedy. Prepare to laugh your asses off at the idiots from Achievement Hunter and Funhaus and anymore else from Rooster Teeth or , doing what they do best (and worst). It's all of the insanity and energy of a rock show, but without the annoying drugs, vomit, and nudity. Get your tickets so you don't miss out because it's like nothing you've ever seen before."

- Official website

Let's Play Live! (often abbreviated as LPL) is an American live on-stage rock band concert-styled in-person gaming event as we one of the newest innovative forms of gaming entertainment created, hosted, directed, produced, orchestrated and performed by Rooster Teeth in which and where various Rooster Teeth staff members (Achievement Hunter, Funhaus, Game Attack), along with some non-Rooster Teeth employees who are special guest stars (i.e. Game Grumps, mega64) and occasionally audience members play video games, release shenanigans, funny drama skits/plays, magic tricks, dance, play musical instruments and sing in a wave of colorful lights and spotlights, music, sounds and smoke machines as well as release and perform comedy sketches on a large center stage at a theater or ballroom in front of a huge live audience crowd in person, especially including doing stuff they "aren't allowed to do on YouTube" (i.e. taking off their shirts). As the name would suggest, Let’s Play Live will feature members of Rooster Teeth’s Achievement Hunter and Funhaus (along with other fellow RT staff and special guests in a live setting which fans can attend and catch all the Rooster Teeth Achievement Hunter action in person (which doesn’t seem incredibly dissimilar to gatherings like DigiTour, which put digital stars directly in front of their fans). The website site for Let’s Play Live states the Achievement Hunter members will be “doing what they do best, having an awesome time playing your favorite video games.”

The event was co-founded by Rooster Teeth staff members Jack Pattillo, Geoff Ramsey and Gus Sorola. Ever since it's founding, Let's Play Live has grown, expanded, developed and evolved from a small "test event" concert at a decent sized theatre stage locally in Downtown Austin, Texas at Austin City Limits (ACL) Live back in mid-February of 2015 featuring only Achievement Hunter, newcomer Funhaus (which recently joined Rooster Teeth two weeks ago), and several other Rooster Teeth staff members (i.e. Adam Ellis, Gus Sorola) and special guests (i.e. creators of #IDARB) to a growing cross country franchise concert road trip tour featuring the entire Rooster Teeth Let's Play channel family network, with Achievement Hunter and Funhaus reprising their roles alongside fellow ScrewAttack! (now ScrewAttck's secondary gaming channel division and Rooster Teeth's newest gaming brand Game Attack), Kinda Funny, The Creatures and CowChop, with the event having already covered four major cities in four different states (Austin, Texas, Los Angeles, California, Chicago, Illinois, and Manhattan, New York City, New York) as of December 2016 and with four more shows and concerts to come in April of 2017 starting Newark, continuing through Baltimore and Orlando before finishing in Tampa. At present, Gus, Jack, Geoff and Bethany Feinstein are in charge of the event.

History and development

2014: Inception and idea

The idea and inspiration for the first Rooster Teeth in-gaming person event is said to have come from Achievement Hunter performing live video game play throughs at RTX 2014 live, powered and broadcasted by Twitch, playing Minecraft and GTA V Online in-person on the RTX center stage in front of a live audience crowd in a very similar manner, which puts the Achievement Hunter and some other Rooster Teeth staff members in front of a live audience to play games and entertain their fans. . Jack discussed the possibility of making this "idea" become a "thing" with Geoff and Gus on and off for a bit from time to time. The idea once again reignited and came to life in fall of 2014, following the success of Rooster Teeth's 2014 24-hour Extra Life live stream, benefiting Extra Life, a fundraiser charity benefiting hospitalized children. With 2014's Extra Life live stream raising over $442,000 for Children's Miracle Network (Rooster Teeth raised a total of $442, 389 for Extra Life), Rooster Teeth, which recently became acquired by Fullscreen, set their plans in motion for this concert, believing that people will pay to watch some of their favorite digital stars play video games in person, a Let’s Play Live event, which will premiere at the Austin City Limits (ACL) Live at the Moody Theater in Austin, Texas, on Friday, February 20, 2015. Initial plans were to host the concert in December of 2014, however, the release date was pushed back to February of 2015.

According to Achievement Hunter’s Jack Patillo, the Let’s Play Live show may not have been restricted to just Austin’s city limits in the future. He told an inquiring Twitter user that the event could “expand into a larger tour” if it’s successful enough (which it could very well be, considering the Achievement Hunter panels and live video game play-throughs at Rooster Teeth’s annual RTX convention are always packed to the brim).

On January 21, 2015, Gus (and an archived post on Achievement Hunter's facebook page) ave more details on the event, writing that they "are going to be doing something totally new and totally awesome! Achievement Hunter, Rooster Teeth, special guests, games! Let's Play Live is just a month away! Come meet the gang, watch a one of a kind new type of show and brag to your friends that you were THERE and you actually saw it.". The fans can still get tickets here.

CAST:

The Achievement Hunter performers will be represented by the main six Achievement Hunter hosts (Geoff, Jack, Ryan, Michael, Gavin and Ray) with occasional appearances from behind the scenes Achievement Hunter editors Lindsay, Matt (Bragg) and Jeremy. The Funhaus team performers will be represented by Adam, Bruce, James and Lawrence. Not only that, but they will be joined by other staff members from Rooster Teeth and other special guests who are Internet personalities! They will be available before the show and after the show to do meet & greets and chat with attendees. On stage during the show they will be playing games and at times even occasionally selecting people from the audience to come up on stage and take part in the show.

GAMES:

As for what exactly will be happening on stage, the cast members and performers and their special guests will be playing games which include Halo, #IDARB, GTA V, Dive Kick, Prop Hunt, Minecraft AND MORE! Rooster Teeth promises that this is over a three hour long show which will entertain from beginning to end on a wonderful Friday night.

EXPERIENCE:

Achievement Hunter, Funhaus, Rooster Teeth, special guests who are Internet personalities, video games, shenanigans and comedy sketches. There will be exclusive merchandise not available anywhere else so Rooster Teeth encouraged the audience to come meet the gang, watch a one of a kind new type of show and brag to their friends that they were THERE in person and they really saw it. It will be an event not to be missed.

VENUE:

Rooster Teeth claimed that they are going to be taking over the show at Austin City Limits (ACL) Live at Moody Theater in it's home city of Austin, Texas and the venue is absolutely amazing. In case the fans never been there, there are no bad seats in the house. Period. Even the seat furthest from the stage is extremely close with a fantastic view. No binoculars are needed.

TICKETS:

Tickets were still available at this time. For more info, fans were encouraged to goo check out the Let's Play Live site for more information and links to ticketing. If they were in a hurry to find the tickets they were advised to go straight to the ticketing page and get tickets.

Rooster Teeth tweeted that tickets are now on sale via Ticketfly for the Let’s Play Live show in Austin starting at $39.50 per person. VIP ticket options are also available at $218 per person. Interestingly enough, no professional photography or audio/video recording equipment (cell phones, video cameras) will be allowed at the event. Professional photography equipment or audio/video recording equipment will NOT be permitted. This was either because Rooster Teeth wants to make the initiative exclusive for attendees or maybe that’s just Austin City Limits‘ policy.

Criticism ensued from several fans, complaining and criticizing that in addition to not being allowed to bring any cell phones, photo/video cameras, audio or video recording devices or any personal electronic devices whatsoever the tickets were also very expensive per person (including VIP tickets) and that this show will not be recorded or streamed to be published on twitch and YouTube because Rooster Teeth wanted this to be a very unique experience, although some fans were ashamed that a majority of them wouldn't be able to see it in person.

2015: Initial concert in Austin

Rooster Teeth Presents: Let's Pay Live!

Their first initial concert, called a "test event" was held on the night of Friday, February 20th, 2015, at the Moody Theater in Austin, Texas (full info here and here) starring Achievement Hunter and Funhaus (which had recently joined the Rooster Teeth family.

It was announced that Rooster Teeth would debut "Let's Play Live: The Documentary" on September 14, 2015. On that day, a documentary was released about the event for sponsors on their website. It can be found here.

2016: Three sequels and growth: Los Angeles, Chicago and Manhattan

In 2016, three more Let's Play Live! shows and concerts were held, with the first at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on June 17 (full info here) the second at the Chicago Theatre in Chicago, Illinois on August 19 (more info here, here, here and here and the third to be held at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, New York on October 8 (full info here). Achieveemnt Hunter and Funhaus repreised their roles from the first concert (excluding Ray, Spoole and Joel Rubin) These events also feature appearances by other members of the Let's Play family; Funhaus, ScrewAttack, Game Attack, Kinda Funny, Cow Chop and The Creatures (full info here).

Let's Play Live! 3: Chicago, Illinois

Let's Play Live! 4: Manhattan, New York City, New York

2017: Popularization and expansion: Newark, Baltimore, Orlando and Tampa

On March 2, 2017, Rooster Teeth announced that their will and intentions to expand the Let's Play Live" into a full blown cross country tour franchise, adding four more shows in April. Rooster Teeth’s Let’s Play channel is once again bringing its show on the road. From April 24-30, 2017 the video game hub will travel to four American cities as part of its latest Let’s Play Live tour.

At each Let’s Play Live show, the Rooster Teeth personalities who frequently appear on the Let’s Play channel will play games with each other, interact with fans in an “IRL,” (meaning in real life, aka in person experience) and offer an exclusive experience that won’t show up on YouTube. Several members of the Achievement Hunter team, led by founder Geoff Ramsey and Jack Pattillo, will attend the events, as will the hosts of the Funhaus channel lead by Adam Kovic and Bruce Greene, a fellow gaming hub Rooster Teeth launched in back in February of 2015, two weeks before the first Let's Play Live event.

After first launching Let’s Play Live in its home city of Austin back in mid-February of 2015 two years ago, Rooster Teeth brought its event series across the nation of the USA with a three-city cross country tour that hit, Los Angeles, California in mid-June of 2016, Chicago in mid-August and Manhattan, New York City in early October of that same year. The 2017 edition of the tour franchise sequels will begin in Newark and will run through Baltimore and Orlando before concluding in Tampa in a matter of one week on the last week of April, 2017. “We managed to sell out out home base two years ago and we also gave away three major cities last year, so we’re not going to rest until we’ve disappointed all of America,” said Ramsey and Pattillo in a press release. “This time around people can expect a more nuanced performance. Think Othello meets The Three Stooges.”

After first launching Let’s Play Live in its home city of Austin in 2015, Rooster Teeth brought its event series across the nation with a three-city tour that hit New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago in 2016. The 2017 edition of the tour will begin in Newark and will run through Baltimore and Orlando before concluding in Tampa. “We managed to sell out three major cities last year, so we’re not going to rest until we’ve disappointed all of America,” said Ramsey in a press release. “This time around people can expect a more nuanced performance. Think Othello meets The Three Stooges.”

The press release did not reveal pricing details, though previous Let’s Play Live shows have tended to be fairly spendy. Tickets for all four dates will go on sale on March 10th, 2017.

Event Dates

Event Date	Concert Name	Event Location	Starring
Friday, February 20th, 2015	Let's Play Live!	Austin City Limits (ACL) Live at the Moody Theatre, Austin, Texas	Achievement Hunter, Funhaus, creators of #IDARB, other RT staff and special guests/internet personalities.
Friday, June 17th, 2016	Let's Play Live! 2	Dolby Theatre, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California	Achievement Hunter, Funhaus, ScrewAttack, Kinda Funny, The Creatures and CowChop.
Friday, August 19th, 2016	Let's Play Live: Chicago	Chicago Theatre, Chicago, Illinois	Achievement Hunter, Funhaus, The Creatures and Kinda Funny
Saturday, October 8th, 2016	Let's Play Live: New York	Manhattan Center Hammerstein Ballroom, Manhattan, New York City, New York	Achievement Hunter, Funhaus and CowChop
Monday, April 24th, 2017		New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), Newark, New Jersey	Achievement Hunter, Funhaus
Wednesday, April 26th, 2017		Hippodrome Theatre, Baltimore, Maryland (8:00 P.M.)	Achievement Hunter, Funhaus
April 2017		Orlando	Achievement Hunter, Funhaus
April 2017		Tampa	Achievement Hunter, Funhaus