it's not clickbait on March 9th I'll be hosting my last Theory episode at which point I'll be handing off the channels to someone else there it is that's it send tweet we're all done here that's all you need to know right oh wow forgive me by the way if I uh I'm a little bit more disorganized than usual uh normally I would want to script out something like this pretty precise nicely but with an announcement like this I wanted to bring it back to just us there there's no one else in the room there's no
teleprompters there's no nothing it's just the way that this whole thing started it's a conversation between us and uh sorry that I keep getting emotional about this um I I I'll try not to but but it's a big deal you know like if you think about it this channel is Stephan my first child really before we had Oli before we had skip cat back that like it was this this was our baby this channel has been going for 13 years I think in total it's it's somewhere around like 1,200 theories and um only half of
those are FNAF shocking I know we actually did stuff that wasn't FNAF related but this has been a literal third of my life and I'm going to miss you I'm going to miss this I value what we have here I value this conversation this openness this relationship that we share and I'm sad that I won't be able to see you every week which then I guess prompts the question of like why why am I doing this now why am I making this announcement today why am I walking away from the channels well to be honest
um it was Tom Scott you can blame Tom Scott Tom just did his Farewell video and I'm like huh well he was able to do it I want to be able to fly away and helicopter obviously that's not it um but really my reasons for making this announcement today is probably largely the same as Tom's reasons or Seth everman's or Captain Sparkles or Papa meats or Stampy Lads like there's a lot of these videos that are coming out these days and there's going to be a lot more happening throughout this year Steph and I have
known this video would be coming for the last 3 years we weren't sure it was necessarily going to be today we didn't know exactly when it was would fall but we knew it was going to happen eventually that's why over the last couple years we've been Staffing up so much that's why we partnered with a larger company to help run the channels that's why we've been spending so much time outside of this box training up the team to make the best videos that they can because we knew that we couldn't do this forever we knew
that honestly we didn't want to do this forever for as much as I love you and I love overthinking things and I love theorizing I don't love late nights I don't love the fact that Steph and I have been work first for over a decade where I'm sitting down at dinner with my best friend and we're talking about business Logistics or we're talking about animatronic toes I miss the days where I could just sit down on the couch with her and play video games and it's not for Content or I'm playing a game and I'm
not thinking about what theories are going to come out of that I miss it so that's that's a big reason that is that was a big one right there uh but also just the internet's changing my life has changed in the last 13 years I I mentioned Ali before he's the coolest little dude and he's getting older by the minute and I watch him and he is so much fun and he is so much smarter than I was when I was his age he also probably knows the FNAF or better than I do which is
a problem that I should probably address at some point but honestly I want to be able to spend more time time with him another sad fact of the matter is is I'm getting older I'm 37 now the other day I actually had to Google my own age and you know that when you have to start like doing math in your head to calculate how old you are you are over the hill my friends though to be fair to my credit I think I'm like the only 37-year-old out there who has an unironic appreciation of skibby
toilet then again maybe that's the problem right like maybe that's not a good thing and honestly because this is all about us being honest there is a bit of a selfish side to this when you think about it there's only really two ways to step away from a YouTube channel you either just decide the day that you stop uploading and you're like I'm done or you just keep uploading videos from now until the heat death of the universe and you watch as your relevance slowly dies or your passion slowly dies and for me and my
journey in this place I always wanted to go out on a high note and when you stop and look at the last year this has been the best best year in the theorist lifespan ever like no joke it is our highest view year uh it is the year where we launch style Theory and immediately put our foothold in a brand new space and that took off and now we're one of the top style and fashion channels on YouTube and that kind of completes the trifecta of hey we now have a top channel in four different
verticals that are completely different and no other YouTuber really has ever been able to do it to that scale that's amazing this is also the year where I was able to meet you guys guys at our Broadway show I was able to play at the PGA and show that hey YouTubers aren't particularly good at golf but they can make your event relevant for like a couple of minutes it was also the year that I got to host the streamy awards and it wasn't cringe I mean to be to be fair the streamy awards are always
a little bit cringe but uh it was it was the right amount of cringe when I pull up videos of all my favorite creators and I watch them and all of a sudden I start hearing people just casually dropping that's just a theory it's just a theory a game theory now this is just a theory people at the end of the day it's just a game theory that's just a theory a Freebirds Theory also a lot of lore so if you're a big Theory head proceed at your own risk I did not know about this
Theory okay that right there that is incredible that's the note that I want to leave on and that's how you just know it's the right time all of those reasons coming together saying hey this is the moment and then it's hard to say because change is scary change is hard but sometimes the right decision isn't the easy decision the easy decision would just be to carry on doing this and do FNAF part 332 but that wouldn't be the right decision I think the best way to explain it is with a video game analogy feels appropriate
right whoa It's Game Theory H did it check the game part of it off but the way I like to think about it is Earthbound I think I've made it pretty clear over the years that that is without question my favorite game of all time sans's Nest all that you're all familiar with that but what you might not be familiar with at this point is how the game ends at the end of Earthbound after you save the world everything opens up to you you can revisit every single location that you've been to you can talk
to every NPC that you met on your journey and it's this incredible moment as a gamer you see just how many lives have been impacted thanks to your journey and then after spending as much time as you want talking to all those people you end up back home you go back to where it all began where you were just a kid waking up in bed and starting your adventure and even though your mom's there and your dog's there and your weird telephone dad's there it feels different somehow like sure this is still a place of
love and acceptance and comfort and security but you just don't quite fit anymore because you just traveled the world you made all these new friends you are different you grew up and your relationship to this place grows up it evolves in case you couldn't tell I'm Ness which uh I guess would also mean that I'm also Sans but I was also nest in the FNAF movie which just opens up all sorts of weird Cannon slap a thumbnail on that one so anyway there you have it that is why I'm leaving I hope you can understand
but that obviously begs the question of like what happens to the channels well for the next 10 weeks we're going to have ourselves a big old going away party if unas anas taught us anything it it taught us that you probably shouldn't use urine uh for a personal sauna but if Unis anas taught us two things one was uh to not soak in your own urine but two was to appreciate the time that you have left so that's why over the next 10 weeks we're going to have a bunch of theories that are going to
be a lot of fun revisiting old favorites uh getting some closure on things we're going to see some familiar faces a lot of awesome stuff although to be fair I think it's nine weeks and I think we counted this one as week one that was stupid of us that my friends is how you wind up getting Wario being 10 ft tall mathematical rigor should have double checked the numbers so I have nine theories left on each of the channels but we're going to call them Matt Pat's final 10 because that just sounds better at which
point then on March 9th we're going to have that big going away celebration Matt Pat's final Theory and I just Dust Away I stand a stride my music man and I just whiping n nigh off into the distance but then something special happens do the channels go away with me no actually I've always thought that anyone can be a theorist right if you are passionate about a topic and you love to overthink it and over research it then congratulations you're a theorist and that could range from hey I have family recipes that I'm constantly looking
to refine to hey I want to create the perfect fantasy sports team cuz here's the thing Sports Bros at the end of the day if you are in the statistics and numbers and doing calculations to see if your team won or lost you're just playing a glorified Dungeons and Dragons game ha to break it to you're one of us my friends and and sure game theory is a format that I created it's a show with this very excitable host who makes a lot of cringey dad jokes and says the word lore a lot but at
the end of the day it's more than just the host it is a show it is a format and at a broader sense it is a state of mind it's a way of thinking and approaching the world around you it's more than just the host and when you think about it not a lot of YouTube channels function that way we're special in that regard like you're not going to be able to get another Markiplier stepping into the Markiplier channel and you're never going to be able to recreate Jenna Marbles and and to be honest you're
never going to get another mat Pat either but you can have another game theorist you can have another film theorist or food theorist or style theorist I think in a lot of ways we almost function kind of like the Doctor Who of YouTube where as one host Fades away a new one kind of respawns in their place and they're able to put their own unique Spin and flavor on the format and make it their unique thing you have eras of the different theorist channels and so you know my era is fading away and someone new
is coming in maybe this is the David Tenant to Matt Smith transition right that was good solid series of episodes right there so who then is going to be taking over the channels well I don't know if you've noticed this but fewer and fewer of the words that I'm saying in any given episode are actually mine if you go down to the credits you can actually see in the description that there are certain names that have appearing more and more frequently like yeah I'm listed on every single one as the writer because I touch every
single script I polish it into my voice but in all honesty the bulk of what I'm saying is coming from someone else it's their research it's their work why should they have to filter their creativity through my voice I've always envisioned these channels as a place where we could Spotlight all sorts of creators I mean it even goes back to the original URL of this channel right it isn't Game Theory it was always the game theorists because this was a place where you could find a lot of like-minded creators all with a passion for gaming
and education that's why we had the partner shows like gin Goomba with culture shock or Drake with smash history or Ryder with a brief history or Austin with the science and Lee with break break down they were all here because we all had a similar goal to educate people through the lens of gaming and then YouTube pivoted and then made it so that way doing a channel in that style doesn't really work anymore but we still try to keep that ethos Alive by making sure that we're regularly covering small Indie projects stuff like only cans
like Mandela catalog like Oho owo see I learned but if we're doing that for all these other creators why aren't we doing it for the creators on our own staff who have been in the trenches doing the research writing these words to deliver to you over the last couple years I have been fortunate I have been so blessed to have this platform available to me that you've given me over the last 13 years but I think now it's time to pass it on to the next Generation it's time to give someone else a shot but
I've realized that I'm getting off track here so back to the question who's taking over first off it's not going to one person but rather four I would not wish my schedule on anyone like sure I'm willing to not sleep for the last 13 years of my life but I feel like As Old Man YouTube passing this along to the Next Generation I should probably do my best to try and make it more sustainable for them it's also going to people that you're already familiar with you've seen them showing up in shorts you've seen them
here on the couch with me for GT live you've sometimes seen them washing their hair with me in my own shower don't read too much into that but it is accurate most importantly though they're each an expert in their own individual subject matter and they've been spearheading the creative of the channels for the better part of the last year and I think what's maybe the most fascinating about all of this is that each of the four of them come to us from a completely different angle you know so for instance you have Lee right Lee's
going to be taking over film Theory and Lee has been with us for 10 years 10 years it's crazy I believe he was actually editor number three for the channels we had Ronnie and then we had Ryder foot of a fet uh and then we had Lee I think his first theory that he ever worked on was Rosalina's Peach's daughter uh peach is dead one of my all-time favorite episodes that we've ever done on the channel and over time he rose up he had his own show on the channel here he had breakdown which were
these just beautiful documentaries that were edited in such an incredible way and since then he's been spearheading a lot of the creative on both the writing and the visual side and then of course you have Amy over on style Theory and Amy is actually a very different case here when she first approached us I think it was six years ago she didn't know about the channels all she knew was that she wanted to learn everything that she could about digital video and that theorist was kind of the place that you went to to learn that
stuff like we were the best when it comes to analytics and optimization and programming and things like that she got in and she just devoured everything that we threw at her so much so that she eventually got to the point where she was so good that she was Consulting the largest mobile game company in the world based off the stuff that we were working on here in studio incredible and all of that while being responsible for packaging somewhere around like 500 episodes across all the channels and then she helped me and Steph brainstorm style theory
for 2 years before the channel eventually launched hoping that maybe one day she would be able to rise into the hosting rle for it and now here it is and then of course you have Santi and Tom uh Santi over on food Theory and Tom over here on Game Theory and interestingly enough they both grew up watching game theory we were their childhood show which to be fair just shows how old we are Santi would eventually go work at mythical with Rett link before coming here where he is Bravely spearheading food Theory and letting me
mercilessly make fun of all of his recipes uh he's much better than I give him credit for I just like giving him a hard time then Tom he worked at uh Disney and fox but he knew all along that he wanted to be here right like this was his aspirational goal he wanted to write here he emailed us a cold email Outreach we just miraculously saw it decided to audition him and he crushed it his first episode that he worked on was actually watching every single installment of the Pokemon anime to calculate Pikachu's level and
to be fair that was his pitch like I have asked people to do some crazy things in the past but not even I'm that brutal like you can only watched team rocket blast off so many times but he's like this is an episode I'm passionate about I think I'm going to knock it out of the ballpark and I'm going to show you how committed I am and he has been so committed ever since so committed in fact that I told him hey if you're joining the channels you do realize that you're going to have to
read every single FNAF book and he's like boom he did it and we're up here going crazy in the FNAF attic but not only did he read every FNAF novel he also read every single hello neighbor book yeah he went that far currently he's working his way through bendy cuz new movies coming out if nothing else I think that really proves his level of commitment and also his appropriate level of insanity he he's a bit off the cuff at times like I don't know if you saw on a recent GT live but uh Tom was
here on the couch with me and he actually denied that the moon existed which was a choice main character from the chat says that sounds like somebody who doesn't have a flag on the moon I mean that's if you believe it's even there the moon I don't think he actually believes that but if he does we're going to get some weird Majora's Mask theories let me tell you when I go out at this point I am recognized at least five times it's crazy it's it's a really high number at this point and it's it's a
fascinating split because 50% of the time it's like oh my gosh your matat you were my childhood I loved watching your FNAF theories and and I'm always like well you know the fnaf's still going and they're like what no way and we talk about the new game and it's always really fun but the other half is oh my gosh you're Matt Pat you are my childhood I'm watching you right now I loved your most recent Theory that's awesome that's such an honor I have been so honored to be a part of all of your lives
but I think it's time for someone else to have that honor I think it's time for someone else to get to ruin some childhoods and that's just kind of leaves us with one final question right which is what about me you know where do I go do I just retire to a beach somewhere do I whip a n off into the distance no I'll still be here uh obviously first off we've got our final 10 episodes like I said so that's well it wasn't 10 episodes however many episodes are left between now and March 9th
we got those uh I'm going to be on GT live from now until the foreseeable future probably until the end of the summer that feels about right and then we have the big going away video on March 9th after that I you know stand aside as Santi Lee Amy and Tom step up and take over the hosting role but I'm still going to be here I'm still going to be alongside the creative directors talking about programming brainstorming ideas for upcoming episodes that's awesome I love that I don't want to give that up but the other
cool thing about this is that it opens up the door for me to turn the script for the last 13 years I've been commenting on other people's IP but now that I'm stepping out of those roles I get to create the IP still as a part of theorist but I get to create things that are going to challenge those new hosts of the channel things that I've had in the back of my mind from years of studying media that I can now make a reality and the channels can comment on them things like for instance
I have a lowii mystery series that I think you're really going to D it's basically like if you took a lowii channel and applied an ARG narrative to it it becomes lorei I am so stoked about this the music is sounding really good the animations are coming together really well that's going to be launching in a couple weeks we'll see if Lee over on film theory is going to be able to solve it in April I'm actually going to be coming back onto style Theory to host a giant fashion show that we're doing there we
all collectively had this thought of like hey online Brands online influencers are coming up with their own apparel lines why is there no place to Showcase that sort of stuff then it hit us like hey we have a style and fashion Channel why aren't we doing it ourselves creators and fashion by style theory that is coming to you in April hosted by me some of the time that I'm not hosting the channels I'm going to be practicing my runway walk because let me tell you if I'm sashing down the runway if I'm stomping the runway
it's not going to be pretty right now so I need to practice that a little bit there's also this animation show that we did a pilot for in like the middle of last year it's basically like if you took Gravity Falls but aged it up and made it about adulting it's really really solid and also there's this video game idea that I wanted to do for like so long that I've never had the opportunity to really like dive into and and make reality but now it's my chance to step into the role of Scott cin
and challenge the new game theorist there's always been the memes about are Scott cofin and I the same person not yet but who knows maybe starting later this year and those are just the immediate things that I have on my t-o list because I want to make fun cool things for you and even if it's not a weekly episode I still want to give those things to you cuz I think you'll like them you matter to me you you are so important to me every single one of those people who stopped me on the street
it's an honor right it's interesting because of this whole transition I've been thinking a lot about my time on these channels and the evolution that we've gone to together in the beginning right I was kind of like the edgy older brother where I would talk about like oh did you know that link is dead and let's make some boob jokes and then at a certain point I evolved into dad Pat right I I became a little bit more mature I had the team around me uh I had to be more careful about who I was
saying was dead on a regular basis uh instead of talking about boobs I ended up talking about Luigi's bulge that felt like the right decision at this point I think I'm kind of evolving into a grandpa Pat you know for lack of a better term uh and just like your grandparents hopefully cool grandparents but uh just like a grandparent you know you don't get to see me all the time and I don't get to see you all the time and maybe we call and talk to each other every once in a while but but at
the end of the day that Grandpa loves getting to see you maybe he shows up at a special event maybe he shows up at a Holiday uh maybe he shows up at the the theory Weare fashion show who knows but he so looks forward to seeing you and the love that he has for you it doesn't go away that Grandpa is so proud of you and he cherishes the relationship that you've had so much and he is so honored to be a part of your life to have been a part of helping you grow and
helping you experience the world and he looks forward to seeing you at the next event and if you see him on the street we'll hang out and hopefully he brings you cool fun gifts I know this is going to sound cheesy and I know the internet will probably Rak me over the coals for crying for one but I love you guys I do you're not just numbers you're not just add Impressions you're not just merch sales what you have done for me and from everyone I talk to what I've done for you is special it's
special when I was in Middle School I had this goal of making the world a better place because I had been a part of it didn't have to be big didn't have to be curing cancer but I wanted there to have been a ripple impact just because I was there butterfly effect and all that we've done it I think we've been able to achieve something great here you have taken me on the wildest craziest 13-year ride of my life and I'm so grateful so grandpa Pat is going to sign out now and I'll be around
for a couple more weeks I'll be living around the house for a while we'll have a big uh family reunion celebration then I'll go off to my little Shack in the woods my retirement home down in Florida and I'll I'll pop in every once in a while anyway uh at this point in my notes I had it written that we're going to start a countdown clock of that like final 10 episodes final Nine episodes so start that I don't know what it's going to look like yet hopefully the editors don't rip off Unis anas too
much if they do I hope they change it um and with that and with that I'm going to say for one of the final times not the final time but one of the final times as always my friends remember it's just a theory a game theory thank you thank you for watching
