While those actually in the stadium saw it on the RavensVision Jumbotron screen, it felt even more lifelike for those watching on their phone or tablet, unaware that it was a stadium activation.

But the process from inception to execution didn’t come without plenty of tests and rehearsals up to a few hours before the game. And the streaking Ravens doing their part to raise the stakes in a primetime Thursday night game only heightened the proceedings.

“I was so nervous,” says Harvey, the CEO and executive creative director of The Famous Group, based in Culver City, California that describes itself as a fan experience company. “I was about to black out when the bird went live.”

Thankfully, everything went off without a hitch. It went so well, in fact, that the team used different variations of the virtual bird nine times throughout the night in which the team clinched the AFC North and Lamar Jackson broke the single-season rushing record for a quarterback. Comparisons to Game of Thrones, a show that brands itself around the same dark and brooding motifs as the Ravens, were abound, as the Internet tried to decipher what it was seeing.

“The Ravens are not afraid to try something new,” says Andrew Isaacson, The Famous Group’s executive vice president. “The game’s circumstances were just a nice happenstance—it had nothing to do with the performance on the field.”

The video took off on social media—it got picked up across ESPN’s platforms and programs as well as Bleacher Report.