The Official DEATH BATTLE Fan Blog Just Became Official-er

Some g1s may be wondering why the Flash VS. Quicksilver prediction blog is not up. We apologize for those who were looking forward to it, but long story short, much of the ODBFB team is going to be signing official NDA contracts that make us official collaborators with ScrewAttack. Don’t fret because we’re not going away, in fact we will now be working much closer with the actual DEATH BATTLE ScrewAttack team going forward.

Surprise *throws confetti in the air*

There are several factors behind this change, though most of it is just legal jargon. To be frank despite the way some people view us, our group has always acted as volunteers who provide “additional” research to the show on the side, hence the name “additional volunteer research team” in the show’s credits. Despite our connection to the show, we haven’t actually ever had any official obligations or contracts to the show itself. Because our part is technically non-essential and the fact that prior to this we didn’t really have a legal connection to the brand our group was always in a sort of weird legal limbo.

We have some inside info, but not all of it. We have some contact with those involved, but we probably don’t communicate as much as some people may think. Most importantly however we have some huge standing in the ScrewAttack community (and elsewhere) as being connected to the show, but we personally also had enough distance from the show itself that we kind of still saw ourselves as fans first, rather than employees of a large company.

It’s all on a very thin tightrope, and it’s gotten progressively harder to balance on as ScrewAttack has dealt with larger internal growth and merging with larger companies that get a say in their on-goings.

It’s just not easy for a company to allow an organized group like us to have inside info and recognition, but also have us technically have the legal right to do or say things people in similar positions can’t due to legal contracts. Considering that we’ve kind of reached the point where we have to choose a side. We either need to become a larger part of ScrewAttack as a whole by signing NDAs and working closer with the team, or we need to essentially break ties with them to keep on doing our own thing.

Truthfully, many of us think it that working closer to the DEATH BATTLE team would be more beneficial for everybody. Many members of the ODBFB would really like to have more say in how episodes progress and ScrewAttack would prefer us to not be in a legal limbo. This is the way we see the new NDA we’re under.

Pros

1. Under this new contract we’ll be able to speak directly to and in more detail to all those involved with Death Battle. This includes the head writers, other researchers they’ve hired, and the animators. Given we’ll be signing NDAs, we’ll also be privy to the actual thoughts of those involved, improving feedback on both sides, and potentially increasing our impact on episodes (we mainly just sent in notes, and occasionally answered questions before).

2. Under this arrangement our team will more or less be officially contracted members of Screwattack, Fullscreen, and Roosterteeth. What this means is we’ll undergo evolution from the “additional volunteer research team”, to the “official research team”, so to speak.

Cons

1. Sorry but Ratchet & Clank vs Jak & Daxter is probably going to be the last prediction blog featuring the majority of the original ODBFB. For one if we’re working with the Screwattack crew much closer than before, it’s obviously going to get pretty unrealistic for us to have “predictions” anymore. We’ll just have too much insider knowledge regarding the fights, for us to not know outright what’s going to happen and for said blogs to not be spoiler-ish.

Likewise, and no offense to the community for this, but the reaction for when we disagreed with show results in the past was overtly negative. We totally support the right for everyone to (respectfully) disagree with an outcome and post their own counter arguments and thoughts regarding it (especially well thought out and moderate ones. But spamming comments using us as a banner, posting our blogs everywhere while claiming it to be the real results one instance beings Ben’s twitter for crying out loud), and making comments along the line of “X should just leave, and the ODBFB should take over” looks really bad and draws negative attention to our group and the show. This was SUCH a big problem previously given our grey legal standing, that to be honest it’s somewhat of a catalyst for why we thought these decisions needed to be made now.

If we’re going to be more officially affiliated with the show, THAT SHIT CAN’T KEEP HAPPENING!

Seriously guys we love you and you love us, but so much of that love is misplaced in this situation and it just makes things harder for everyone involved. Think about how our team members feel when false narratives of us being against the show gets spun or how that must look to important figures in Screwattack and Fullscreen. This is the kind of shit that can create wedges between people or misunderstandings. This is the kind of shit that can get people in trouble or get us axed, which should be the opposite of what most of you guys should want.

DON’T PULL THIS SHIT!

2. Obviously being more officially affiliated with the show does bring some restrictions, particularly what we can say and do regarding the show on and off site. For example appearing in unrelated Death Battle material is against the rules. This unfortunately includes the Death Battle podcast set up by Lswan (he’ll probably have to step down from hosting it).

We’re also going to have to think of ourselves more as members of Screwattack, rather than just G1s. You will still be able to see individual blogs regarding vs matches, character analysis and such from particular members though. Interacting with the community likewise will still be a constant.

Now for the hard part.

Obviously none of us were forced into this agreement. Because of that each member had a choice to opt in or out depending on their current thoughts surrounding the show. Keep in mind some may not have liked the regulations we’d have to keep, some may have had mixed feelings regarding how show or site has evolved and some may just not care as much about this subject matter at this point.

Others seem to have just mysteriously disappeared off the face of the earth, thus causing them to not really make a choice.

Anyway here our final verdicts from our team in regards to what we want to do.

Final Verdicts

AkumaTh

Well, it’s been fun doing these. But if I want to continue being a researcher I can't make predictions. I remember the first time I made predictions. It was Robotnik Vs Wily. I've decided to focus on what each individual machine mentioned would bring to the party. My original prediction was for Wily, who I felt would be more defensive and his Ultimate Robot is less likely to betray him than Robotnik's. And I was right in a way. Metal Sonic did indeed betray Robotnik and Wily was not the first one to die. I missed my chance to predict Raiden Vs Thor, but my prediction for that would have been just this video. And then I joined the Unofficial (at the time) Death Battle Fan Blog. We did quick research and based our opinions on that. And it impressed Ben enough to allow us to be official.

To see my work being used in such a way is always something I love to see. From the Big sprite I helped make additional poses for to the Bucky and Toph sprites being used in Season 2. And now in this new situation the chances of that work being used again is even stronger. Sadly, that means I can’t predict a future match where my prediction would also be one video. But maybe when that match comes out I’ll mention it (it’s not like it gives a direct answer). I want to continue working for Death Battle as long as possible. And while this is a sad time, there will always be others to take the helm.

Lousy tactician

[Lousy won’t be giving a long verdict since he believes the opening suffices to explain everything. He’s decided to sign up.]

Ultraguy

I’ll admit I was a bit apprehensive at first, but I eventually decided to sign on. This was a big change and I do feel a bit of pressure to live up to new standards, but our experiences with the new set up have been incredibly positive so far. I’ve had a lot more fun researching and talking to the DB team than I have in a long time, and honestly it seems like a natural extension of where our team was previously(and for that matter meeting some of the Screwattack crew formally outside of just Ben has been fun as hell).

I still plan to stay active on the site and forums by the way. Granted you probably won't see me debate on upcoming matches now, but I think I’ll still try to get in on discussion on general ideas and characters as a whole. I’ll probably still make character analysis of my own for that matter, though I may have to get some clarification on how to go about it.

LSwan62

Hey guys. So I joined on to the team about a year ago, and I think it’s been an incredibly fun opportunity to do this. I like having stuff to research ahead of time to help out a show I genuinely enjoy. I wasn’t sure at first what to make of the new opportunity we got, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to try it, and whaddya know, it’s actually pretty cool, and I think some of you will be VERY happy with what we have in store for the future.

I’m probably not going to be doing prediction blogs in the future, since we have enough to research as it is, though if it’s kosher with this new arrangement and I find the time, I’ll give it a go. BTW, does anyone actually know what my first blog was? Artorias and Sif vs Finn and Jake. Oh how far I’ve come.

I wish I had more to say here, but I really think the opening covers pretty much everything you guys gotta know. OH YEAH, about the podcast, tune in to our newest episode (which is being released concurrently with this blog) to find out how it’s going to move forward in the future. And if you don’t watch or don’t know what I’m talking about, then, eh, don’t do that. Unless you want to. Do what you want. Let your heart decide.

Max of few trades

I don’t really have much to say that the others haven’t managed to say themselves. So i’ll be keeping this brief and simple.

Death Battle is the biggest thing I have ever been involved with in my entire life, things have changed greatly for me ever since I was asked to start helping out. Ben, and Screw Attack as a whole has massively changed my life in ways I never thought would. Over time I went from a simple fan, to a guy in the background handing off my notes, to now being a legitimate member of the team, I can even call some people behind the show my friends. I owe it to them to continue doing my best for them and the show, they deserve that much from me and I’ll work tirelessly to live up to their expectations and trust.

Change is scary, I know this better than anybody, but sometimes it needs to happen in order for people to grow and be happy and more successful. This is one of those times and I hope you all understand that, we all had a choice in what to do next.

I’ve made my choice and I’m standing with this show till the end.

Hero’s Shade

Wow, the ODBFB is no more. It feels like the end of an era.

*Takes off hat in moment of silence*

So now that Ben has given each of us a choice to leave or stay, to be honest I was certain I was going to walk for a while.

That being said, I can't help but partially blame myself for this happening. I was the one who agreed to appear on the Discussing Death Battle Podcast as a member of the ODBFB. I should have known this would only cause drama, but I let my emotions get the better of me.

Just look at it from a business perspective. The research team for the guy working for you publicly criticizes episodes of the show you now own/represent. That makes them look bad, and members of the Screwattack staff catch flak for it. But this is out of Ben’s hands since we're not actual employees of SA or under any sort of agreement.

Basically, this is the plot of Captain America: Civil War, only not nearly as extreme and nobody is actually fighting or in any sort of danger (and we respect everyone's decisions here).  We operate outside of SA, RT and Fullscreen’s system, so we're given a choice to either sign up and become official members of the DEATH BATTLE  team, or retire from our research team positions to do our own thing.

Kind of a funny coincidence that that movie came out at around the same time that this was 

happening.

Anyway, I've had a week to think this over. Here's what was going through my head:

I remember the reason I first came to this site, it was the community, first and foremost. Real, genuine people who were a blast to hang out with, several of them now my friends. It's true that what really brought me to SA was Goku vs Superman, before that I only vaguely knew it as that channel that did Top Ten videos. But what can I say, that DB drew in plenty of new viewers, but it's not the reason I stayed. My main attraction was discussing with the charming folks on the site. We talked about video games, TV shows, and general nonsense. Just shooting the breeze and having a good time. Sure, we were fans of DB but discussion in the comments only revolved around that about 10% of the time.

I still remember when Craig was featured on a daytime news network, it absolutely blew my mind. He referred to Screwattack as: "A community for gamers, not the games," or something to that degree.

I really love DEATH BATTLE, but I actually also liked shows like Hard News and The Industry (granted that was more recent, but still), even their Top Tens and other videos to an extent, because they made me feel closer to the SA staff and they seemed like such relatable human beings and generally fun guys to hang around with. I would have LOOOOOVED to see more shows like that! It seemed they really wanted to get closer to their community.

Now, given it's what brings in the most views and consequently marketing value, I can understand why DB is the main focus. I just really liked when it was more of a cult following with a close-knit community.

But a lot of great things that start out small grow until it becomes big.

However…

After looking over the agreement, it's not going to compromise my friendship with you guys or relationship with the community at all, which was my main concern.

In fact, by the time you're reading this, I've already signed the NDA days ago. You'll notice that my demeanor hasn't changed a bit in our chats. Those of us who signed speak with Ben in a day more than we ever have in a month, are much more involved with discussions regarding matches, and speak freely with everyone involved with the show, including the various writers and animators on a friendly basis. We also get tons of exciting insider information ...that we're not allowed to talk about here. This is more than what we asked for, and we're grateful for it.

The only thing I'll have to be concerned about is how I speak about DEATH BATTLE in a public light, and not to leak or disclose any information that isn't public, the latter of which we were already doing.

If this becomes a con that outweighs the pros, we can opt out of our agreement. Ben isn't forcing any of us to stay.

In fact, he's very generous in giving us this opportunity despite what happened (and he didn't just make me say that).

This is a bittersweet moment for all of us though. We'll have to say goodbye to the Fan Blog, but that's because we're off to bigger and better things.

Gentlemen...it's been a pleasure.

DarkHyruleLord

[DarkHyruleLord has been MIA for over two years so it’s most likely that he won’t be able to stay or sign up since we’re pretty sure he doesn’t even know this is happening.]

Psb123

[Psb likewise hasn’t been very active as of late, though he is aware of the new arrangement. Thus far he has not chosen to sign up, but this could be subject to change at any point in the near future]

Samurai Spartan

In light of my colleagues’ decision to move forward with this new plan, it pains me to say that I will no longer be a part of the Volunteer Research Team. In addition, I will no longer be supporting ScrewAttack, Rooster Teeth or Fullscreen Entertainment. While there are countless personal reasons for my decision, the core of the issue is this…DEATH BATTLE has reached a point where public image and professionalism have taken priority over community and friendship.

In the past, the Volunteer Research Team’s integrity and ScrewAttack’s internal stability were not conflicting goals. We were more or less a group of consultants that provided research whenever Ben asked for it. Though we were never paid or compensated in any way, Ben placed our usernames in the credits as a gesture of recognition and respect. At no point did Ben mention or even imply that we ‘represented’ the show beyond that.

For me at least, our integrity and impartial perspective were the Volunteer Research Team’s two most important attributes. Though we were huge fans, we recognized that DEATH BATTLE and its creators were not perfect and we took it upon ourselves to become a sensible and unbiased voice within the community. However, this all changed in March shortly after Ben Singer expanded the inner workings of DEATH BATTLE. New employees were hired and the direction of the show had fundamentally changed. Perhaps Ben realized too late that the Volunteer Research Team’s lack of professional oversight posed a serious threat not only to his position but to the position of his employees.

While I fully understand Ben’s need to protect his employees, I feel that the NDA contract violates the Volunteer Research Team’s basic principles. I would have loved to have worked for ScrewAttack on a professional level, but Ben’s terms essentially require us to become official, unpaid employees with restricted access to public discussion and community interaction. Nothing about that arrangement seems desirable to me. Though some words have been said about potential positions at ScrewAttack, Ben has made similar promises before... Promises he failed to keep. The unpleasant exchanges that resulted from the recent controversy just made everything worse.

In the end, I ask only three things out of life and one of them is the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change. After the dust settled and I finally allowed my anger to subside, I realized that I simply couldn’t change what DEATH BATTLE has become. In some ways, I’m happy to see just how far ScrewAttack has come in the past four years. However, I feel that DEATH BATTLE’s rise to prominence has had a negative effect on the community as a whole.

Like many of my friends and fellow g1s, I came to ScrewAttack for DEATH BATTLE and stayed for the community. I’ve made more friends on this website than any other place that I can imagine and up until a few weeks ago, I believed that people like Ben and Chad were my friends too. In fact, my involvement with the show and the community can be traced all the way back to 2011 when they answered my question about Chun-Li, Mai, Rogue and Wonder Woman’s sex appeal in their second Q&A video.

It may sound sort of stupid, but that simple act put me on a path towards many great things and I would have never been such a devoted fan if Ben and Chad hadn’t answered that oh so ‘important’ question. It was the little things like that that made DEATH BATTLE what it was. Now… Well… I’d be hard pressed to say that the show has been able to maintain that sense of intimacy. Well, I guess this is goodbye then…

I’d like to thank Chad, Shaun, Brian, Craig, Nick, Sean for producing one of the best shows the internet has ever seen. And Ben if you’re reading this, I owe you the most thanks of all. Despite recent events, I will always respect and appreciate everything that you’ve done for me. You inspired me to pursue my own career in writing and storytelling and a couple of years from now I believe I will look back on the moments I shared with you and the g1s as the very first chapter of a great life story. Words cannot describe the just how important DEATH BATTLE is to me, but if I had describe the essence of it I’d say that DEATH BATTLE is a sort of nexus through which all fandoms meet.

It’s a place where passions are shared and where millions of people can explore new characters and new worlds. While we may spend hours arguing over the fates of fictional characters, it is the real people behind those endless debates that make DEATH BATTLE such an amazing phenomena. Sometimes our passions burn a little too intensely and we begin to place more importance on our favorite characters and personal opinions than the people around us. Passion is and always will be DEATH BATTLE's blessing and its curse.

There will be times when your fans and even your friends will turn against you. That much is inevitable. But with time, we become better at picking our battles and the people that are worth being around. DEATH BATTLE and the g1 community will always have a very special place in my heart, but I’m afraid I must travel the rest of the road alone. Farewell and thanks for all the memories!

Thanks for reading and supporting us throughout the years. We’ll see you all soon.

---------------------------------------------------------

Phew well now that we’ve got the basic lowdown and all of the ODFB members thoughts out of the way, we figured we should give the man in charge (Ben Singer) a chance to speak on the topic.

Hey everyone! This is Ben, Death Battle showrunner, here to commemorate this unique and game-changing addition to the Death Battle production process! The Volunteer Additional Research Team was created several years ago, and Death Battle production was quite different back then.  I didn’t have a team for scripts, research, or animation. I was handling the vast majority of the workload, and ensuring I had the proper analysis was easily one of the most tedious parts of the show. The Fan Blog had already reached out to me regarding their content, in which they created quality posts of research and verdicts regarding upcoming match-ups. So I figured, why not have them share their research? I had been looking for a way to involve the g1 community in Death Battle, anyway! As many of the blog members were long time g1s and friends, I knew I could trust them to support the show and represent it well. As they would be volunteers in this arrangement, I emphasized that they were never required to do anything for Death Battle. By their own accord, I also refrained from having them sign NDAs or Contracts so they could continue making their prediction blogs and similar content. This meant they were still separate from the overall production of each episode and were rarely involved in any decision making. Still, the system worked well at the time. I couldn’t have asked for a better team of people to help keep Death Battle in check.

As the show grew and evolved, it became clear the research process needed to as well. Unfortunately, with so many changes happening to ScrewAttack at the time, this ended up being much more difficult than I predicted. Prior to 2016, I attempted to hire many of the Fan Blog’s members onto the ScrewAttack staff as official researchers. This is something I’d been fighting for since early 2015, as these guys deserved to be recognized and rewarded. I was actually pretty nervous about this because I knew I couldn’t afford to hire them all, as much as I wanted to. I can’t get too detailed without breaking NDA… but after a lot of work and promises that idea fell through outside of my control. It was incredibly frustrating and disheartening, but it was what the big picture called for. Instead, I was told to move current ScrewAttack members to the Death Battle team. While it isn’t the all-new team I had pitched and gunned for, I am very confident in the people who have joined Death Battle’s production. However, as the show grew, the audience did too, and I saw confusion and even disrespect about the Fan Blog’s role develop certain some parts of the community. Like the in-house team, Death Battle’s relationship with the Fan Blog had to change. Therefore, the Volunteer 

Additional Research Team was ended, and in its place is a new official Research Team!

So what’s changing? Each of the old team was given the opportunity to join, so it’s made up of many familiar faces. The researchers now have constant direct communication with the in-house team from the beginning to the end of each episode’s production. They now have all the means they need to correctly check and balance the show. They are still volunteers, which means they are not required to participate in any particular match-up. It’s entirely up to each member to decide where they want to participate. I also encourage them to prioritize their own lives and careers over that of Death Battle. If they choose to leave the team, they can do so at any time. The only restriction is that now they are officially tied to ScrewAttack and its parent companies. While this means they can’t do conflicting things like prediction blogs, it doesn’t cut them off from the community at all.

Ultimately, the researchers so many have come to trust will now have an infinitely larger impact in the show’s process! The greatest difference from before is that now ScrewAttack and Death Battle as a whole can officially regard the researchers not as fans, but as teammates. As the circumstances are much less vague and unofficial, this also opens more opportunity to bring aboard other researchers in the future. I’m excited to have the team unified – researchers, writers, and animators alike – and Death Battle’s future looks brighter than ever! I’d like to thank the entire team of volunteers for their inspiring dedication and effort to help make this show what it is then and now. Honestly, this show can be incredibly difficult at times for dozens of reasons and it’s people like this team that inspire everyone else to keep going strong. 

Thank you everyone for supporting the show throughout the years. I’m thrilled to keep moving Death Battle forward!