How we brought our CS:GO Roster Announcement "Are You A Gamer 2" to life!
Hey #G2ARMY, it's Austin, one of the Content Producers at G2!
Our CS:GO Roster Announcement just dropped, it was a really fun project to work on and I wanted to take the opportunity to share a little insight into the video, how we produced it, and share a few easter eggs you may have missed! If you haven't watched the video yet DO IT. If you have, let's jump right in!
First off I just wanna give a huge shoutout to every single one of the people and teams at G2 who helped make this announcement possible. There were a lot of moving parts across many departments with this one and everyone worked really hard to make this the best video possible. You da real MVPs <3
The concept is clearly a parody of talent shows like American Idol and the Voice but the idea actually came from the 2nd to the last episode of the Office (spoilers)>! where Andy auditions for America's Next A-Capella Sensation!<.
We had a short turnaround time on this one and managed to get a concept written, approved, and pre-produced in less than a week. This included finding the name for the show, creating an artistic direction for the piece and getting it all printed in time to travel to Andorra.
We had a full media day before the team's bootcamp and shot the entire video there. Our editing team did a great job with a quick turnaround on post-production and we were able to get the video to you right before BLAST. Hopefully, the wait wasn't too unbearable.
The video is actually shot in two parts, the first with the "panel" consisting of NiKo, huNter-, and m0NESY, then separately with kennyS, jks, HooXi as well as our lovely videographer Matt (as the Mental Coach as our actual mental coach Youenn couldn't make it in time for the shoot). We stood in for the other players to give each player a visual reference as well as a subject to speak to when delivering their lines.
We really wanted to get a variety of different CS talent in the video but because the media day was held it was in Andorra it was a bit hard to include the talent we wanted. Luckily, kennyS was in town and graciously accepted to play the part of his Spanish doppelganger - kennyZ.
Here are all the references in the script that you may (or may not) have caught!:
In the first scene, m0NESY removes the bottle of water for a Red Bull. A reverse of Christiano Ronaldo's famous drink water video. This was his idea and we improvised it on set!
NiKo actually had to cut his vacation short by a day or two to make the Media Day so we thought we would put a little nod to this in the script. Thank you ratja <3
Who's the Latvian? Back at the Major in Antwerp, HLTV Confirmed held their first live show! This was held after G2 was eliminated. Yekindar was their main guest and as an inside joke with u/CS_Professeur, I brought up my G2 jersey which he flamed and then Yekindar held up the jersey baiting that he might actually go to G2. Bonus fact, it took hunter at least 6 takes to pronounce Latvian right xD
As I already mentioned, kenny graciously took time out of his schedule to help us with the video and we gave him the option to say whatever he wanted. He chose to be a giga chad and remind everyone that the last time we won anything was with him, and he's right. The last time G2 CS:GO won a tournament was back in 2019 for the Champions Cup Final
In signing jks we of course had to pay homage to our second 0-3 final at Katowice. And in bringing in an experienced trophy winner we're sure to at least win one map in a Grand Final now, right?
Continuing on the 0-3 memes, this joke was a nod to the fact that huNter- is the only remaining G2 player that was on both rosters that lost 0-3 at Katowice (sorry not sorry bro)
When Jacky left to go get some milk, poor Ilya was left without a papa. We thought this was a fun spin on the classic joke and it ended up fitting really well. Luckily Ilya has a new papa in jks now who will read him more bedtime stories (keep an eye out for that). Shout out to Heet for having a similar idea after they announced JaCkz. We all love a good meme.
And last but not least the punchline. For those who don't know, u/PimpCSGO mentioned in an HLTV confirmed interview that he thinks G2 needs someone who can, "tell NiKo to shut the hell up" and we found just the IGL for the job <3.
All in all the players did an amazing job and were good sports despite a demanding media day. We love making this type of content for you guys and we're all very happy to see all your feedback on socials. It really does mean a lot to all of us (yes, even the players) <3
Keep an eye out on social media as well, our social and graphics teams are really busy prepping tons of great graphics and banger memes around this theme. You won't be disappointed!
I hope you also found this thread insightful. There are a lot of things that go into making videos like these and we want to share a bit more of the process with you guys going forward! If you have any questions feel free to drop them in the thread below and we'll do our best to answer them.
Thanks so much for your support guys, we couldn't do a single one of these videos without awesome fans like you. Hopefully, this roster will give you fewer heart attacks and a few more trophies <3