Achievement Hunter is hosting a “Let’s Play Live” event at the Straz Center in Tampa on April 30, as part of their “East Coast Tour.”
Started almost nine years ago, founded by Geoff Ramsey, Achievement Hunter is part of Rooster Teeth, an Austin, Texas based Entertainment Company. Originally formed to show video game players how to attain special accomplishments in various games, what are known as “achievements” on the Xbox console version of games, Achievement Hunter now presents YouTube videos of their team playing through many different games as entertainment for their nearly 1.3 million subscribers.
As the channel grew larger and more popular, the idea of doing live events formed from Jack Pattillo, one of the stars of Achievement Hunter.
“Let’s Play Live came out of my head. Two and a half years ago I pitched this idea of taking our show and putting it on stage,” Pattillo said.
The “Let’s Play Live East Coast Tour” is the first tour of these events, though it is not the first “Let’s Play Live”, as Achievement Hunter has hosted single events in Austin, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, each having great success.
There was initially some confusion as to what exactly is Let’s Play Live, as this had never been done before. It can be described similarly to a concert, just replacing a rock band with the Rock Band video game.
It very much is similar to the Achievement Hunter’s YouTube material, though it being in front of a live audience adds a special flavor to the event.
“It’s a lot of fun making videos, making content that we do, but having that direct audience interaction, hearing an audience laugh, or react or groan, it changes up the atmosphere so much that it’s totally unique,” Pattillo said. “We like to think of ourselves as rock stars at times, but really we’re not. We’re the kids on stage playing with plastic instruments while pretending to rock out.”
It will not just be watching the Achievement Hunters on stage too, as the crew plans for this to be an interactive event.
“We have some stuff to give away, we might pull some audience members up to help out with certain things,” Pattillo said.
It seems to be a unique event, something that the Tampa Bay/ Hernando County area has not quite seen, and something that very well may change how performers interact with their audiences.
“There’s a lot of plans we have, but it’s going to be us goofing around on stage, doing stuff that either we can’t on YouTube, or wouldn’t work on YouTube,” Pattillo said.
The best part of the performance, according to Pattillo, is not necessarily playing video games on stage. Instead, he seems to relish the opportunity to meet fans and get to see areas and people he would normally not get to see.
“Interacting with fans, meeting fans we never had a chance to actually interact with in person, more than anything. That’s the best part, getting up on stage performing for fans, meeting fans before and after the show, shaking hands and taking photos. That’s honestly my favorite part of the shows,” Pattillo said.
A few tickets to the April 30 event are still available, and can be acquired by going to www.roosterteethlive.com. Fans can use the code “letsplay” to get $20 off of their tickets for what seems likely to be an entertaining night.