Farewell Channel Awesome, and thanks for everything.

Hey everyone, Ryan here and I am sad to say that I have finally decided to part ways with Channel Awesome. This was a very difficult decision to make after spending 4 years with the company. A few reasons are that I’m going to be focusing on writing my first video game related humor book and moving my Awesome Video Game Memories review show to Amazon Prime later in the year, making it very difficult for me to hit the 2 videos a month that Channel Awesome requires of it’s producers. Battle Geek Plus has always been one of the smaller and more unknown shows on Channel Awesome despite posting 2-3 videos a week until now.



The main reason I am leaving is the utter discontent I’ve been feeling about the site for a long time and the entire #ChangeTheChannel movement that was recently brought to light with this document compiled by MarzGurl, Allison Pregler and many other past contributors.



Not so Awesome Document



Battle Geek Plus was one of the 2014 pickups on Channel Awesome along with another 40+ producers, but I want to tell you all my history with the site and what it was like being a contributor there.



In early 2008, a few months after my dad passed away, I discovered the 5 second movies and the Nostalgia Critic Cloverfield review. I started getting obsessed with watching the Nostaglia Critic which helped me cope during the grief of my dad’s passing. I immediately bookmarked the TGWTG website in April of 2008 and started watching all of the videos there from the feud with the AVGN and saw many contributors like Linkara, Suede, Benzaie, Angry Joe, and many others start posting videos there. It wasn’t until 2009 after watching the First Anniversary Brawl that I was getting inspired to make a show and wanted to be part of TGWTG, but Battle Geek Plus wouldn’t begin until 2011. I even pitched the idea to my site partners Josie and Heather that we needed to make a website just like TGWTG that featured our Battle Geek Plus videos.



Fast Forward to 2014 about 3 years after Battle Geek Plus began, I was having trouble keeping a job after getting fired from my previous job in 2013 and went to a temp agency where I was assigned jobs that would only last anywhere from a day to a few weeks. It was really stressful for me during this time because I had no idea how I was going to pay my bills or how long I would be employed at any given job. After watching The Nostalgia Critic Lorax review, I saw Doug doing an open call for talent and I immediately jumped on it and sent an email. After a few months of grueling waiting, I was at my desk at work and got the email saying I was accepted into Channel Awesome. Sadly, 5 days after celebrating all the good news, I was let go from that job and my goal was not to starve and be homeless before I would debut on Channel Awesome. Luckily I was able to get another job a few weeks later which eventually became my current full time job.



Months later, me and all of the 2014 contributors who made it onto the site got an email from Mike Michaud regarding when we were going to have a skype call with him to discuss when we would be debuting on the site. In October 2014, I was in a skype call with Michaud and fellow 2014 newcomer Brandon Tenold which went smoothly. I was unaware of Michaud’s reputation back then, but he was professional and answered all of my questions. One of the things he told me was he would introduce me to Doug and Rob at some point. This never happened and I had to introduce myself to Doug and Rob on skype before the TMNT 2014 Nostalgia Critic review later. He also told us that in one year, we’ll grow so big that making videos will be our full time job (at the time of this writing: Still waiting on that). Mike tells us that he has an open slot in November 2014 for our debut and we accept. We’re given the login info for the scheduler and I start setting up our videos to be posted on the site.



November 2014 arrives and I’m super excited to finally see our new Hotline Miami parody sketch posted on the top of the TGWTG site. It felt like a huge dream come true after all these years. In prior years, Battle Geek Plus was recognized by former MMA fighter Bas Rutten who loved our old Boss Booten Parody videos, sent us free shirts, and invited us to hang out with him on the beach. We were also featured on Screwattack and Smosh Games as well. Earlier in 2014, we had just secured a deal with PDP and Nintendo at E3 2014 to make a promo for their Wired Fight Pads. I thought with all this success as a small channel, everyone on TGWTG/Channel Awesome was going to LOVE us! If Nintendo of all places recognized and loved our work, we were gonna be the next big mega stars on Channel Awesome!



Haha…… how wrong we were….



The response to our Hotline Miami sketch on TGWTG was far less than stellar, but I was like “eh, it comes with the territory and they’ll warm up to us!”. I thought because Doug started putting in sketches in the Nostalgia Critic, people on the site loved sketches….. until I finally started reading comments on the site (which I never did in the past because I know how toxic comments sections are) and realized…. holy shit!…. the TGWTG/CA fandom really HATES sketches… and our channel was mostly about sketches…



When I started posting to the old TGWTG site in November 2014, getting scheduled was an absolute nightmare. The old TGWTG site could only post about 7-9 videos a day and on our scheduler/internal site, not only were the current producers posting their videos, all 40+ of the new 2014 producers were posting their backlogs, as was I, since I had about 150+ videos ready to go, so it was pretty common to see 10-12 slots already taken out of 9 available no matter how early we scheduled in advance.



After our disastrous debut, our videos would usually be at the bottom or 2nd to bottom (above a podcast since those always go last on the list). I used to think everyone on TGWTG got tens-hundreds of thousands of views, but I was surprised our debut Hotline Miami sketch only got about 2000+ views and all of our videos posted afterwards would only get 200-300 views. Maybe 600 if we were lucky. I do understand that management wants to post the videos that will bring in the most revenue on top which is fair, but it did feel pretty crappy after a while to always be posted on the bottom. I would convince myself “Well, 1200+ other people would kill to have my spot, so I should be grateful!”. There were times that people would take up all of the available slots and my video would be the one bumped off the schedule, forcing me to reschedule and find an open spot with less than 9 videos in desperation. In 2014, the CA Youtube Channel had just been launched and people were already using Youtube rather than content aggregator sites, so it was no surprise my videos were getting really low views. Luckily when we moved over to the new CA site that could do 12 videos instead of 9, scheduling was no longer a problem.



I do recall that the transition from TGWTG to CA was pretty smooth on my end as the admins posted my section without trouble… except that all of the videos I had on TGWTG were now gone, but the admins let me re-schedule some of the older videos on the new CA site later.



The big turning point for my time on CA was when I was coming up with the Channel Awesome Capcom Bidding War (based on Capcom reportedly going on sale in 2014) and thought it would be a fun idea for the CA producers to yell random numbers and I would have a fun plot involved. Since our scheduler/internal site had access to EVERYONE’s emails, I emailed everyone I could and literally JUMPED out of my seat when I got an email from Doug less than 3 hours later saying he agreed to be in the video and within 6 days, he already had the footage for me. I was so incredibly floored how fast and professional Doug was in communicating with me and getting his cameo footage to me really fast.



For some reason back in 2014, Michaud didn’t invite me to the main CA Producer Skype Chat, so after emailing people for the CA Capcom Bidding War, I was finally invited to both the CA Producer Chat and our special side chat by Tom White (heisanevilgenius) and I was floored seeing all the names like “OMG, there’s Doug! there’s Linkara! there’s Angry Joe!!! THEY’RE ALL HERE!!!!!! AAAAHHHHH!!! I’M PART OF THE ELITE CIRCLE!!!”



The CA Capcom Bidding War was probably the most important video I did for my channel because I was able to reach out and get to know my fellow producers who have become some of my closest friends to this day. Doug posted in the CA Producers Chat that he needed cameos for his TMNT 2014 NC review and his Hocus Pocus review which I immediately jumped on.



I also realized that so many other people weren’t in the skype chats, so I took it upon myself to try to invite everyone who wasn’t in them. I also participated in many discussions like helping producers out with tech stuff, getting producers into screenwave, and just having a good time with everyone. In 2015, I JUMPED at every cameo opportunity producers were posting in our skype chats. Which you can see here.



Regarding the CA fanbase and the overall toxicness of the community, I have met a ton a great people and friends from it, but the absolute worst of it came to me when I finally finished and posted the CA Capcom Bidding War video for my producer spotlight in 2015. I remember showing the finished product to my crew and we all thought just like Kevin Smith’s Mallrats preview screening reaction at San Diego Comic Con 1995: “WE JUST RE-INVENTED E.T.!”. I was thinking we were gonna get millions of views and subscribers, people would start tatoo-ing Battle Geek Plus logos on their arms, Spielberg was gonna approach me with a movie deal (har), etc..

Oh boy… what delusions of grandeur I had…

The response to the CA Capcom Bidding War was critically panned and I got numerous “get the fuck off the site”, “never make videos again”, “what a 40 minute waste of time” comments. One person from Europe even found my personal Facebook and told me to kill myself for making the video. Another person literally wrote a college thesis on why I’m not funny and how I don’t belong with the “elite” producers of Channel Awesome. My entire E3 2015 was ruined because while I was waiting in line for games and events, I couldn’t stop checking the feedback on my phone.



After that, I felt like “We’re finished! We’re gonna get kicked off the site! How did I make something so terrible that literally ruined everyone’s careers?”. Luckily, nothing bad really happened and everyone moved on to get mad at Doug’s Jurassic World clipless review a week later. We were still safe on the site.



Luckily, the CA Capcom Bidding War got a second chance at life after we did cameos for the Nostalgia Critic Hocus Pocus review and people actually began to like it and voted it up. It truly was like Kevin Smith’s Mallrats finding it’s home on VHS. Despite what the haters think, I still had a great time working on the video and it helped me get to know my fellow producers.



Sadly, since my videos were usually at the bottom of the site, I would get little to no comments and maybe 200-300 views. It was nice when I had 2 regulars who would comment on every video I uploaded, but stopped commenting as site traffic went down.



In 2017, I decided to stop focusing on sketches and moved onto my Awesome Video Game Memories review show since it was getting the most traction out of everything else I was doing. I reached out to Doug for a cameo in our Nintendo vs. Sega video and he immediately agreed to be in it. I was initially reluctant to do another massive crossover after the CA Capcom Bidding War in 2015, but decided to just make a big crossover video with Doug only instead of more producers. Not only was the reception to the Nintendo vs. Sega video a complete 180 from the CA Capcom Bidding War regarding feedback, it was one of our videos to break over 100k views.



Working with Doug is always awesome as he’s eager to always help us out, but it can be a double edged sword at times. We would get a ton of positive comments, views, upvotes, and ad revenue from the crossovers we did, but our numbers would plummet a week later and nobody would stay for the rest of our stuff. People in the comments would say without any remorse, consideration, or compassion that they would come to see Doug and not us which was kind of discouraging.



Around this time, my Awesome Video Game Memories videos were starting to get bumped up on the CA site, no longer being in the last slot like my sketches. I would usually get the middle spot, and sometimes the spot below Doug’s NC videos on Tuesdays. I had finally felt that I redeemed myself for the CA Capcom Bidding War debacle. But sadly, as the site was dwindling in traffic, my videos would barely get the views I wanted as I would notice Vimeo uploads for NC episodes would get 20k views while I would still be stuck at 200-300 views.



In 2018, I had decided that I would be focusing less on YouTube and would be focused on getting Awesome Video Game Memories on Amazon Prime, along with writing my first book, so getting the 2 videos a month requirement was going to be tough for me. I was planning on leaving Channel Awesome at the end of 2018/early 2019 after I had possibly gone to the CA 10 year anniversary, get my book out, and have my show on Amazon Prime. I was hoping to leave on good terms without any drama as I was going to pursue a new direction in my online career.



Then… #ChangeTheChannel happened.



I had grand delusions of being part of the CA 10 year anniversary and even set aside vacation time from work for it. I honestly thought my crossovers with Doug, being active and helpful in our skype chats, and the admins bumping up my videos on the site would have at least given me a chance of getting in, but in hindsight, I was one of the smaller producers, so I wasn’t really expecting to get in, but I had aspirations to be in the anniversary.



I also understood that YouTube ad revenue has been in the toilet for a long time and that CA would need to save costs, so it was understandable if I wasn’t getting invited. When we asked the admins about the status of the CA 10 year anniversary, we were told there was going to be one, but the cast and crew were not finalized yet. A few people involved (who I will not name) broke their silence and told us that the entire cast was already set and it was going to be a much smaller crew than before. Several of the long time producers who definitely deserved to be in the anniversary were furious and left the site on the spot.



I wasn’t exactly mad that I wasn’t invited, but was more angry that we were lied to our faces.



Unfortunately, the 10 year anniversary was canceled after the majority of the leads left the site.



We started pushing the CA Admins if they were going to respond to the allegations made from #ChangeTheChannel and when they told us they were going to respond, that kind of gave us hope that things were going to get better.



Nope.



I immediately messaged Greg (Mike Michaud’s brother and our head admin who manages the site updates) and Doug saying that the response was unacceptable and that they need to fix things ASAP. I did get a response saying that they would consider my request after talking it over with everyone, but the damage had already been done as many of my friends were leaving in droves and the CA YouTube channel was losing subscribers at a rapid rate.



The final nail in the coffin for my departure was their 2nd response statement which still did not apologize and only answered a few hand picked statements.



I couldn’t take it anymore after reading this, so that’s what told me to finally leave for good.



I decided to leave much later than most of my friends because I had 4 crossovers with Doug I wanted to release for the April Fools theme for April. Coincidentally, people seemed to like how I wrote the Nostalgia Critic in the crossovers, so I decided to release them all as a silent protest. My timing was pretty bad on my part, but my last crossovers with Doug seemed like a fitting way to go out in style.



Thus ends my 4 years at CA.



Concerning the management, I personally never had a problem with Mike, Greg, and Doug as they were always polite and professional with me. But after reading the Not so Awesome google doc, I was pretty shocked to see what happened far before I came onto the site and I knew I couldn’t stay on and support the site after reading all of it. Even though I didn’t have a hard time, I cannot ignore the fact that others suffered in different situations than mine. It was so incredibly heartbreaking reading the experiences of everyone who suffered during their time on CA.



One thing I do regret is that CA barely did much to promote their other producers, so many people were unaware that we’ve been on Channel Awesome for as long as we have. The site did producer spotlights which really helped us out and Doug also did an awesome spotlight promo for us with kind words. But after a week, our traffic would plummet down to nothing again. I know Doug is always super busy, but I would have liked for him to do more NC crossovers with us since I’ve always wanted to do a Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li crossover with him also using my Kung Kwon Todd character. Even with the TGWTG website changing to CA in order to make it less Doug based, fans still ONLY went to the site to see Doug and we were always neglected.



If I do want to say one positive thing, during the 2017 charity livestream, I wasn’t able to call in due to problems with Skype which really sucked. However, the next day, Doug took the time to talk with me privately, so that completely made up for missing my chance to talk on the livestream and that meant the world to me.



I was never one of the bigger producers on the site, but there were times that I did grow exponentially and gained a ton of views and subscribers. However, more important than that, I made some of the best lifelong friends anyone could ask for and leaving the site has not affected my friendship with any of them at all. We still keep in contact every day and help each other out.



It’s incredibly heartbreaking to see something I loved so much like CA fall apart after it helped me get through 2 of the hardest times of my life (my father’s passing in 2008, and struggling to keep a job in 2014). I thought when I got onto the site, my entire world would change and even though things didn’t turn out the way I was expecting, I did grow alot as a person and a video producer being on the site. I’m proud to say that I was able to work alongside giants like The Nostalgia Critic, the AVGN, and many others.



Unfortunately, in order to grow Battle Geek Plus as a brand and a business, I needed to finally part ways with CA as there was no real long term benefit from being associated with them anymore.



I sincerely hope that CA and everyone involved will learn from this experience and conduct business better for their current and future contributors. I wish them the best of luck and to recover from all this.



Thank you Channel Awesome, for all the opportunities and doors that you opened for me. Especially for helping me get through 2 of the toughest times in my life. Working with Channel Awesome was one of the greatest privileges I’ve ever had in my online career and I will always cherish the memories being there.



Also, thank you to all the awesome fans and supporters that I met through the site. I’m happy that I got to show my work in front of a bigger audience.

As for my fellow producers and predecessors, I know it took alot of courage to part ways with CA and express everything in the google document. I stand by you all now to #ChangeTheChannel for the better.



So that ends my story regarding my involvement with Channel Awesome.



If you want to follow me, you can follow me on twitter @ThatRyanMolina and the main Battle Geek Plus account @BattleGeekPlus.



Follow me on twitch on the Battle Geek Plus Twitch Channel.



Subscribe to the Battle Geek Plus YouTube Channel.



Make sure to watch for the announcements of my upcoming book and Amazon Prime show! You don’t wanna miss them! :)



- Ryan