Get Good Gaming

Get Good Gaming was a gaming channel that starred Paul and Connor. The content of Get Good Gaming was LAN games, their most played games on the channel were GTA5 and Minecraft.

Before Get Good Gaming
Before Get Good Gaming was developed to what it ended as, the channel existed as Googly Eyes!, a Mixed Reality gaming channel. Googly Eyes! was shut down in September 2017, with their last MR video, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWbS6FBpnNA PaintBall Madness! | Rec Room VR [Ep 1] ], being published on September 4th, 2017.

Prior to Googly Eyes occupying the channel, this channel was named It's WhateVR, another VR channel that Matt had wanted to pursue. It's WhateVR was created on April 8th, 2015 and was the brand of the channel until it was rebranded to Googly Eyes in December of 2016. Any videos of this VR content have since been deleted or made private on the channel.

The Start of Get Good Gaming
The channel was rebranded to GG in September of 2017, soon after Googly Eyes was canceled. The first official Get Good Gaming video on the channel, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9AB7Ojlye8& Co-op Bed Wars! | Minecraft Lan Party [Ep 1] ], was published on September 25th, 2017. This shift meant that the main talent on Get Good Gaming was now four people total in every video, rather than one to two people in Googly Eyes' videos. The four people were Paul, Connor, Tanner, and Matthias.

Get Good Gaming started out with a lot of variety on the channel with their first five videos being each a different game as follows: Minecraft, Overwatch, Rocket League, Ultimate Chicken Horse, and PUBG. Occasionally, one of the members was unavailable for a shoot, and they would replace them with a guest from Hi5, such as C.J., Woods, Sam, Patrick, Bryan, and Gunner. Skratch, a friend of Paul, Connor, and Tanner, also made an appearance during remote GG.**

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the team was forced to work from home for a few months of 2020. Their first remote video was release on April 16th, 2020: "Golf It But In Human Fall Flat!?". Throughout this time there is a mix of the four of them playing games and just Paul and Connor playing games. Their final remote video during this period was published on June 25th, 2020: "Playing HORSE With Sports Cars! | GTA5".

The Second Era of Get Good Gaming
In December 2020 and January 2021, GG started to implement changes to the channel, which the viewers quickly noticed. Videos began to star only Connor and Paul rather than the quad-team that the viewers were used to. The final video that Matthias and Tanner appeared in on the channel before the big announcement was "Runners Vs. SemiTrucks! | GTA5", which was posted on January 7th, 2021. A few videos prior to this as well as the videos following this were recorded remotely and were only featuring Paul and Connor. The absence of the full crew in the videos is what triggered fans to believe Matt and Tanner were going to be removed from the channel. There are a series of remote videos featuring Paul and Connor that are presumed to be due to a COVID-19 scare at the studio, which ended up being a false alarm, but still ended up having some recording sessions be done from home. Since Get Good Gaming uploads are published a few weeks after recording, these videos from this COVID-19 scare that occurred in late 2020 did not get uploaded until 2021. These remote videos lasted from January 4th, 2021, with the video "Golf It Troll Course Challenge!", until January 29th, 2021, with the video "We Built A House Out Of IRON BLOCKS In Minecraft Hardcore!". The only exceptions within this time are the video on January 7th including Matt and Tanner and one video that was filmed in their studio prior to the posting of their final remote video.

On February 6th, 2021, Get Good Gaming released a video on their channel titled "Get Good Is Moving...". In this video they start off with a cinematic scene of comments they've gotten regarding the absence of Matt and Tanner in the recent videos. They address many things in this video that viewers had questions about, and even some topics that viewers did not directly mention. In this video they address the following topics:


 * Get Good Gaming moved sets from orange base to upstairs of red base, they show off the set while it is in its early stages of development. They called this a "Mid-Set Move Update".
 * Their set will be a "multi-functional set".
 * They will be starting a new channel under the Get Good Gaming franchise called "Get Good Gaming Clips", this channel has yet to be announced or linked in their videos.
 * Their clips channel will include funny moments, out of context moments, perfectly cut screams, and more.
 * They're going to be starting a podcast. The name has not been announced and the channel for uploads has not been released either.
 * Their podcast will include various guests.
 * They shared they are indeed back at the studio and are using green screens for their videos.
 * Matthias and Tanner will no longer be main talent in the videos on Get Good Gaming, though they directed fans to the OVERKILL channel.
 * They stated that guests will appear on Get Good Gaming since they do have two extra PC setups available, guests may include Tanner and Matt.
 * A disclaimer was made that video production will remain the same because Paul and Connor have always been the people who came up with video ideas for the channel and such.
 * There is a likeliness for VR content to appear on Get Good Gaming in the future.
 * They are planning to begin streaming on Twitch for content as well as clips to add to their clips channel.
 * They are going to continue updating the set as time goes on and as they need to add things.

Since this announcement, there has continued to be demand for Matt and Tanner to return to the channel, but Paul and Connor have shown no signs of a desire to respond to those comments since it has already been addressed. They've since continued with their regular content although they did respond to and like some comments under their announcement videos that made requests and had questions for them about the content of the channel. Some of the comments were suggesting people to collaborate with such as JeromeASF, Paul's friend Skratch, Markiplier, and Jacksepticeye. Further, they responded to comments expressing desire for game variety to return to the channel saying that this is a change they will soon implement. Additionally, they stated they are searching for podcast and game suggestions in the comments of their videos to better gauge what the community wants from them directly.

The End of Get Good Gaming
As of late March 2021 to early April 2021, many fans speculated the ending of Get Good Gaming as the channel had started to halt uploads, with most of the speculation occurring once the channel had gone a week without uploading and without official comment from Paul, Connor, or Hi5 themselves. The last upload on the channel as a result of this is "Runner Vs. Deadly Bus! | GTA5" from March 26th, 2021.

The reasons for speculation continued to grow as time went on. This is beginning with the lack of videos on the channel as stated above, and then furthering into the fact that Connor and Paul both had removed their titles of Producers for Get Good Gaming from each of their Twitter profiles.

Additionally, Connor began mentioning on his personal platforms that he would be developing a new stream schedule, beginning with a tweet from his Twitter reading: "'Trying to figure out a new stream schedule. Kinda wanna do like a couple hours in the morning and couple hours in the afternoon. Thoughts?'"with a poll underneath of it with the options "Yuh" and "Nah". This struck fans as odd due to the fact that morning streams would conflict with his job at Hi5. (Source for Tweet: [1 ])

Further, Paul stated in his Discord as well as slight mentions on his streams that he would have more time moving forward and would be releasing more of his high effort and highly time consuming videos more often as well as reworking his stream schedule to begin earlier in the days and be streaming more days each week.

Speculation was furthered when Get Good Gaming's editor Jake Bryant posted publicly on his Instagram about no longer working with Hi5. The picture was of the Hi5 sign in Blue Base and the caption read: "'Feels just like yesterday I was brought on to work full time. The past 3 years have been great, but I just walked out of my last day at hi5. So sad to see it end but can't wait for what comes next. Thanks for the opportunity to work with such great people! @hi5_studios'"(Source of Instagram post: [2 ])

On April 7th, 2021, Connor confirmed on his stream that he was let go from Hi5 after receiving many questions about it. He went on to say he sees this as a new beginning and says he is unsure on the direction of the channel as a whole moving forward, as that is the decision of Hi5 and not himself or Paul. His statement is transcribed as: "Is it true that I left Hi5? Uh, I didn't leave Hi5, I was let go from- I was laid off from Hi5, so. Um, yeah, it just- it is what it is, right? That's their decision as a company um, I y'know, I tried to do my best to prevent it from happening on my side but at the end of the day it's their decision to make the right steps for, for their company y'know, so, it is what it is, right? Now all we gotta do, is do our own thing, push, keep going."

He continues on to discussing his relationship with Paul:

"I will have to say, or I do have to say, that Paul and I's, I feel like Paul and I's relationship and friendship has been a lot better since. I feel like there's, let's be completely honest, then you're working with someone like that, when Paul and I have been friends since we were in high school, right, there's always gonna be tension, right. But Paul and I, I feel like with Paul and I, because we're focusing and doing our own thing, we're able to like, not have that tension there. And it's been- it's been really nice. It's been really cool."

Further elaborating on the perspective of his own thoughts after questions continue to flow in, he says:

"So is GG still a thing? I don't know, I don't know what their plan is for that channel. I can only assume that they probably won't continue it considering me and Paul were the last two remaining talent on that channel. It is what it is, right. Just gotta push, just gotta keep going. I can't sit on it, can't simmer on, y'know, like the anger behind it if there is any. Instead look at it, for me, I look at it as an opportunity for a new beginning. To keep pushing forward. 'Cause uh, right now, it's on me. It's not on anything else, it's only on me. Having that mentality for me is really, really calming." The clips these quotes are taken from can be found here:

First paragraph: [3 ]

Second paragraph: [4 ]

Third paragraph: [5 ]

Fourth paragraph: [6 ] During a stream that was also on April 7th, 2021, Paul reinforced Connor's sentiment from his perspective, stating that Paul chose to leave Hi5 rather than being laid off or anything similar. He continues to re-explain this sentiment in later streams as people begin to find out about it and desire an explanation. Paul states he has no insight or idea of the direction Hi5 wants to take the channel itself. Paul's statement is transcribed as: "'To further elaborate for you guys for those who are wondering, and those who know that I'm from Hi5, those who don't, y'know, this is I don't know, something. But yeah, no, I have not been working at Hi5 for like a week now. I did choose to leave Hi5 personally, what they're doing with the channel is beyond me. I don't know what their plans are, whether or not they're gonna put out a statement or not. Again, I don't know either. And obviously I'm not gonna speak for anyone who got laid off or anything like that. Obviously Connor has made it public that Connor has been laid off, Connor is doing full-time content creation as well, but yeah.'"A link to this statement can be found here: [7 ]

On April 13th, 2021, Matthias released an official statement on the community tab of the Get Good Gaming channel explaining the absence of videos and the reason for Paul and Connor's departure from the company. The statement reads:"'Hello everyone! As you may have noticed, GG stopped uploading about two weeks ago. I apologize for not updating you sooner; I was undergoing surgery out of state the week this all happened, and the following week I've been recovering. As you may have assumed, GG will no longer be uploading content anymore. Before we get into the 'why,' I'd want to let you in on some other things that were happening behind the scenes that were never clearly communicated to you. I want you to know I am sharing these points with you because I believe you deserve to know the circumstances of what happened. I do not wish any ill will toward any of the past team members on GG, and I wish them great success in their futures as content creators. Non-the-less, this is what went on behind the scenes: Around the end of November of 2020 (about 4.5 months ago), Tanner and I were asked to step down from GG so that the team could pursue their passions of going deeper into the gaming community and playing games that either Tanner and I weren't good at and wouldn't be entertaining, or weren't four-player games. Naturally, Tanner and I obliged; we wanted the team to pursue what they believe would be better for the audience and more fulfilling for the team. I was excited to see the team wanting to take risks, change things up, and engage and excite our audience once again. At that moment, Tanner and I reconstructed our priorities and schedules to ensure we were working on projects that mattered as well, filling the time that opened up by leaving GG. Within the first couple of months, we noticed the content not changing as initially pitched. GTA and Minecraft continued to be the staples for months, and our departure from the content was not clearly communicated to you either. When the four of us met in early November, I asked the team for this to be communicated to the viewers soon. I believe it was my mistake as a leader not to make a more specific deadline. Months went by without communication to you or any shift in content, so we asked for these changes to be communicated to the audience immediately. They produce a more defined strategy for shifting the content like they originally pitched. That was the video you saw on Feb 6th, which I am sure, as you could tell, checked neither of those boxes. It made it sound like Tanner, and I just up and left one day. About this time, Paul's personal Minecraft gaming channel started amassing massive views. We at the studio were very supportive of this, and we're very excited to see one of our own having so much success. Though, and understandably so, it was only a matter of time before Paul put in his two weeks, deciding to invest all of his time into his projects. Paul leaving left a void that we couldn't fill. At this point and time, we didn't have the time, money, energy, or resources to continue GG since covid. Since new strategies were never implemented, the channel was losing revenue; we were spending more than we were making on GG. Closing the channel was the only option. Some of you might think Tanner and I should have gone back to save the channel, but as I specified earlier in this message since we were asked to leave, we took on other responsibilities and other projects that didn't make this time investment possible. Spending more time on GG would mean I would sacrifice time with my family, and my family is #1 to me under God. I want to add situations like this and REKT are tough for me, but I still stand by allowing people to express themselves and explore other creative avenues inside or outside of Hi5. What other companies do, is force employees to sign rigid non-compete contracts that I believe stifle creativity. These contracts fixate on scarcity and fear rather than abundance. It may be a 'smarter' move in the business world, but business and money are never my focus. You guys are my focus. I want people to be creative and have success, whether it makes Hi5 money or not. I want people to tell compelling stories that change hearts. Yes, freedom sometimes creates conflict, competition, and heartbreak, but I believe it is worth it in the end. In the end, does it matter who changes the world, or does it matter that the world has been changed for the better? I want to say thank you to the team for the enjoyable times that we had on GG, and I want to thank you for supporting us on this channel to get there. I think we all had a different idea of where this would go, but it isn't in the Lord's plan. I pray for the team's success in their future projects, and if you enjoyed their work, I suggest you support them too. Love you guys. - Matthias'"The community post has since been taken down.

The direction and future for the channel itself is currently unknown since it was not specified within the statement from Matthias what would be doing with the channel, whether that is a rebrand or a deletion, it is unclear. Viewers in the comments are extending their condolences and appreciation comments to the channel and the hosts of the channel as well as asking some questions such as:


 * Where is Connor going?
 * What about the new set?
 * How many channels are left?
 * So is this channel being cancelled?
 * Are the videos going to be deleted?

To which, only two of these that we are aware of got a response from Matthias. A fan asked:"'Is Connor still at Hi-5 Studios?'"To which Matthias responded on the Get Good Gaming account:"'No, GG was not profitable, so we couldn't afford to keep the team.'"Another concerned fan asked:"'Are the videos gonna still be up or is the channel gonna be deleted?'"Matt responded:"'The videos will stay up.'"On April 18th, 2021, Paul posted a video titled "Why I left Hi5" where he explained his side of the story for the whole situation. While he did not go in depth, he explained his reasons for leaving as well as cleared up misinformation he found within Matthias's community post on the Get Good Gaming channel community tab.

Paul's video did not attack anyone directly but rather explained his side, and stating how there is a large possibility for a disconnect within the communication surrounding the cancellation of the channel. This is seen through how he specifically stated that:"'I'm not calling Matt a liar by any means, Matt could be misinformed on a lot of this in this situation because leading up to this, I had hardly ever even talked to Matt for the past several months anyways. The entire off-boarding process was kinda between Kevin and I, because a few months ago Kevin did kinda become the supervisor of Get Good Gaming, so him and I were the ones that did a lot of the conversing and everything. And no, guys, this video is not to try to send hate to Hi5 Studios, I do not have any ill will towards absolutely anyone. So if you think this video is gonna be filled with drama or you think I'm gonna be spilling some tea, that just ain't gonna happen, I'm sorry. I don't want anyone to have any misunderstandings in the public.'"He continued the video to go into the reasons he left Hi5 in the first place, with the biggest reason being that the direction of the company did not align with the direction he and the GG team were trying to take Get Good Gaming as well as he himself did not align with the direction of Hi5. He personally disagreed with some of the decisions made at Hi5. He shut down the idea that his departure was due to his personal success, and stated he specifically told Kevin this.

Continuing, he stated that although he was the creative supervisor of Get Good Gaming, he said the content became rigid and he felt like the vision for Hi5 studios would not fit for the gaming channel, stating walls were put up and it became difficult to create content on Get Good Gaming, causing Paul's motivation to tank due to being unable to express creativity freely.

The next section of the video, Paul discusses the rest of the team. He confirms none of the Get Good Gaming team works at Hi5 studios anymore. Within this section, Paul dismisses the information that Matt said Paul put in "2 weeks" at the company, saying he told Kevin he would stay for as long as they needed him to until they figured out what to do with the channel, which was many months. He worked with them and gave them many options and ideas to do with the channel, but in the end they opted to simply end the channel. Paul had talked to the rest of the GG team before he had left the position. He said that although he feels horribly about his decision resulting in the whole team being out of a job, that was not his intent.

He moves onto the community post itself and says it is disappointing and unclear, using Paul as a pivot point for why the channel has ended. Paul provides clarity on the fact that Tanner and Matthias were asked to step down, but says the reasoning was not explained. Stating Tanner and Matt both admitted to their motivation and passion being lost for Get Good Gaming, as well as Paul and Connor did not want rotating talent on the channel, and due to Tanner and Matthias's unavailability, there was inconsistent ability to shooting.

Discussing the moving video that Matthias insinuated was poorly done, Paul said it was not Paul or Connors choice to move Get Good Gaming, and that they were simply told that they were moving bases in the end of 2020, and were very rushed.

He also continues into the finances, stating that the channel indeed was not very profitable and that he understands the sentiment of finances being a factor. Continuing, he states that money being said it isn't a factor should not be included.

He continues into more personal opinion within the video and questions people had about his personal content and whether or not him and Connor would be making a new collaborative channel, to which he stated he will not be doing.

This video has since been taken down, a re-uploaded version can be found here: [8 ]

On April 19th, 2021, the community post on the Get Good Gaming channel was taken down as well as Matthias asked Paul to private his personal video, to which Paul complied. Paul's video was not even public for a full day.

On April 21st, 2021, there was a video uploaded to the Get Good Gaming channel called "Saying Goodbye To Get Good Gaming", where Matthias opens the video as stating it will be the last video on the channel.

This video does not go into much detail on the situation due to Matthias saying it isn't necessary to have all that information public and that the information was not clear on either side. The only piece of misinformation they address from the previous posts was the fact that Paul did indeed not put in two weeks at his job, but rather many months. Though, Matt states that this small detail did not change the outcome of the situation.

Matt states he realized he messed up when he watched Paul's video as well as stating it was his mistake not to consult the GG team as well as Kevin, who was supervising the channel. Discussing the shift in the vision for Hi5, he states this was implemented around nine months ago and that it simply did not interest all the channels.

Matthias confirms they will not be taking down the channel, nor taking down the videos.

The video ends with words of sentiment from Matthias, and Kevin resonating and reminiscing on when Paul started at Hi5, saying he is happy for Paul and his future. Matthias continued by stating that Paul, Connor, Justin, and Jake's links will be in the description of the video.

Many fans in the comments of this video noted that Paul seemed quite down and that they wish his opinions and perspective that they saw in his original video had been displayed more within this explanation video regardless of the sentiment of not wanting too much information free to the public.

Get Good Gaming has been officially cancelled and halted all uploads as of April 21st, 2020.

Milestones
* Note: At the transition from Googly Eyes! to GG, the channel has roughly 600K subscribers (this is an estimate).

April 5th, 2018- 1M Subscribers

September 23, 2018- 1.5M Subscribers

November 7th, 2020- 1.75M Subscribers

Trivia

 * There used to be a cameraman for GG, in the channel's early period.
 * Each of the members had colours they chose to represent them.
 * Sep 2017 - Mar 2020:
 * Connor - Purple
 * Matt - Blue
 * Paul - Pink
 * Tanner - Orange.
 * Mar 2020 - Jan 2021:
 * Connor - Blue
 * Matt - Green
 * Paul - Pink
 * Tanner - White
 * The first couple videos had just a blank black wall, with no lights on the wall nor the desk.
 * Paul and Connor use green screen while filming in red base, so there are no assigned colors to either of them.
 * In August 2019, GG began using animated characters in their thumbnails, with differently designed characters for Minecraft thumbnails specifically. The IRL thumbnails returned in December 2020.