TF2: The P.R.P. Conspiracy 

in the well intro video it is possible the camera man is back-stabbed, not shot. The soldier capturing the first point alongside the demo man is a spy because the point is only being captured at x1 speed.

its probably just a shell company and the directors were either other teammates or randoms from the badlands they killed after filming

In the comic called meet the director we find out the Administrator puts mini televisions onto her messengers chests. If there are administrator aligned spies it could be that they're doing the same, the symbol for "Spectating" is a tv after all.

Then TF2 first came out, it had different story It was about 2 mega corporations that fight over the world domination (Sort of an allusion on Cold War). Mercenaries werent a separet charecters, but rather a general idea of that that class would look like. This is why Dispencers and Teleporters have "Provisions" and "Telemax" labels respectfully - they were just products that Engineers used in the fights So, my theory is that these cameramen were filming a training footage for a company that sold it to both RED and BLU, but wasnt assosiated with either if them

The strange Prima Prime copyright is such a neat little detail from those long forgotten game mode/map reels. Most people just click through them anyway but when I was a kid I would watch them hoping they'd have something in them other than a pretty dull "no shit" tutorial on how to cap on 2fort. I love these unnecessary deep dives into stuff like this, the TF world and lore is such a enduring, interesting mystery. I haven't watched those reel intros in over a decade since I first played TF2 and never noticed the copyright difference between PP and the Valve one in meet the team videos. The Well intro at 5:18 was a scout with a messed up SFM rig, this was found from a leak way back, from a few years ago. And I have a feeling that the note on the projectors of Dustbowl with AM/MA is likely just flipped lol like most symmetric maps of symmetric game modes like CTF, though its odd to see the symmetry on a Attack/Defend map. I think its important to mention that the Meet the Team videos and consequently the first comic came out after the game was released not before, so they're purely promotional fluff and not lore establishing shit like Overwatch's not copied ones and many other generic multiplayer games like League of Legends etc. I think its funny that CSGO has its own SFMs made by Valve too but has far less popularity as compared to TF2 despite it averaging 900k ish hopefully not bots concurrent players daily. Still I've yet to see a CSGO equivalent to Emesis Blu lol. Before those videos and the comics retconned much of the mysterious atmosphere of early TF2 you could only speculate on things like the advertisement posters and decals around maps, as well as the personality of Mercs based on their in-game lines and animations, and weapon descriptions (rip). These harp back from a time when the original story of TF2 wasn't a absurd silly one of Saxton Hale punching through yetis and goofy Halloween events with Blutarch man and Redmond being pushed into hell. The Prima Prime thing is probably just a filler, in-joke but its still interesting though and I never noticed it. Great video.

Nicely done! Fun little theory. I should mention that, since Zombie Infection is not an "official" gamemode (rather, community-made), it should probably be excluded from the theory. Other than that, there's just a few inconsistencies with the theory: - The drone shots (Badlands, Badwater, Steel), since Spy doesn't seem to have access to surveillance drones. If he does, why *only* use them for little briefing/training videos? - The cameraman being able to easily keep up with Scout's speed in the 2fort intro. - A few instances where the camera-Spy would've 100% been bumped by the enemy team (Badwater, Steel). - The PoV shot in the Target: Soldier intro.

Imma be honest. I've NEVER watched those intros. I just usually skip them so I can play the game. But seeing this video is making want to look through them to see if there are anymore clues than the ones you found. Anyways, great video and a pretty solid theory!

This video is super neat! Tf2 has such weird little details. Great editing and storytelling, fun to watch!

absolutely *stellar* work dude, the quality of the editing and script was nice, and this was a fun topic that somehow, in 17 years, i havent seen ANYONE discus. im rooting for you to pop off and blow up, youve definitely got the vibes of a great video essayist in the making

amazing video. everything about it is perfect, the introductions to each of the concepts are smooth, its easy to follow. The ONLY critique I have with it is the intro to the video. The "You are now entering orbit" is a very clever, but feels a bit dragged out. Maybe make Pyro acknowledge the camera in a way, and shorten the scene. It is perfect in every other way. You got yourself a subscriber!

I LOVE this type of videos, with deep diving into TF2 forgotten lore mysteries

im not sure if this makes sense to anyone else but me, but when a spy is dominating another spy, he will sometimes say that the dominated spy is an embarrassment to spies everywhere, which could support the theory. or maybe im reading in to this too much

More evidence against the director is that when Sniper asks if he wants to keep filming while he goes into combat the director says "You have a disease, don't ask me to enable it" and choses to stay in the van. Whereas the PRP cameraman is actively in the fight filming the combat.

I personally think that the camera man may, while could be the spy, wouldn't make a bit of sense, especially because it would mean that the spy was working under the announcer, as she basically has every intel. What i would find more likely is that the person may be an individual working for the announcer as an info gathering agent and getting footage to recruit new workers for both sides essentially. Although, i think that this could be a stretch by a long shot and it could be just videos made as if it was a class for mercenaries

Wow this is actually amazing! Good job mate!

This video and the production quality goes hard you need more subs bro. keep it up🔥

I honestly thought it was just some civilian working for Prima-Prime to expose Mann Co for their illegal activity. They do violate the Geneva Conventions with the weapons and tools, so Prima-Prime might be an independent studio made by some civilian's.

The last shot of the Well intro was shot from the perspective of a mouth-breathing scout. Shounic made a video about the intros.

There's even more to this than you're seeing. Who Spy is and what Spy knows has changed dramatically since the game launched. They changed his character bio to make him less of a quadrouple agent, they rewrote his meet the team video, lots of things have been reworked or retconned. One of the few connections we have to that original vision for the character is his original 2007 real-life trading card, which among other things says that Spy is a master of "the byzantine details of who really runs things." So yes, not only is Spy very likely the cameraman, he used to be directly connected to the entire team-fighting setup, long before Mann Co entered the picture.

If it is a Spy, in one of the swismiss comic's he someone finds a reporter and a camrea crew quite fast for a battle. Sure it might be plot convenience, but it would make a lot more sense! He was also by a phone, so he could of just called any nerby Spy with a camera to pretend to be the new reporter, record, and get them out of the death penalty. Its not very useful if one of your men(a spy) dies due to unforeseen mistake!

2:39 meanwhile meet the soldier:

maybe the cameramen is just someone hired by the mann brothers to give instructions to new mercenaries. also P.R.P is lke an acronym for purple, Red and Blue makes Purple, so i guess it's just a guy recording to give instructions to new mercs. Oh boy, the fandom is gonna create some OC's for the cameramen.

This fits so well with one theory that:tf2 was originaly supposed to a "darker" and "glimmer" game,being that the original plot was that blu and red owned half of the world,focusing on a more spy film like scenario (even if it's a parody about it from what i heard)

Quick note: the notes that have "-MA" and "AM-" appear to be mirrored. This probably happened due to modeling jank, idk i'm not a gamedev. What I can say is that -MA is probably the correct initials since the dash is on the left.

To be honest This is my favorite theory from you Because I never thought about the cameraman and i actually had goosebumps while watching this Maybe because you added a music from The Caretaker or that’s literally 2:11am now in my country and I’m alone lying on my bed in the pitch black room But i loved the unsettling feeling you gave and want more videos like this and I loved the music you added from the Caretaker at the beginning

What does 7 years without update does to the community

Damn, its true I've never seen anyone question those vids. Cool video

Never thought someone would make a video about these intro videos. Most of the time, they are just the things that exist and are completely forgotten until they are mentioned. The main reason for that is that they were made for the old maps and in a limited amount (The only exception being the Zombie gamemode. I was actually quite surprised to see one when I first played it). This video gave me a stimulant to go and rewatch all of them, and they are pretty goofy I would say. My favourite is the Steel one. I really love the ending part of that intro where Heavy fails to jump over the gap and falls to his demise. It is both funny and creepy due to how it cuts right there. As for the identity of the cameraman, the most basic answer would be that Valve used no clip and random characters to record it. But if we ask the question from the lore perspective, there is no reason why Spy isn't the one to record these. One commenter's suggestion of it being some randoms from the Badlands also works. But what if the cameraman is a cameraman from Skibidi Toi-

One of the most unique tf2 videos. Amazing

The company's a front for Helix Technologies

Meet The Camera Mann

Whether this works in the full lore of TF2, or not, what a great take! Well done. Something to consider, at 5:20 the cameraman would most likely be running backwards to get that shot. So, Scout zooms by and the cameraman might be able to keep up with him if he turns and runs forward.

wow underrated yt btw cool theory

_Message Incoming_ You've earned yourself a subscriber!

the the cut off in 9:31 of is a theory a game Th- is so funny lol

Also the prima prima logo used as of their logo and the first letter of both words is ontop of eachotherr which could be inspired from finos film a greek movie company that started in the 40s and if you look at their logo its almost the same

About Scout's Mom photos...

its only 1 camera man because camera man never dies

No, its not the spy, its the observer.

3:27 MCMLIX is the year of Copyright written in Roman Numerals which is common for the time (old films and TV, pre 2000s?), MCMLIX is the year 1959 as you said. Rephrase, I’m just pointing out that the Roman numerals are common for the time

Lore of TF2: The P.R.P. Conspiracy momentum 100

the ma am thing is simply a flipped texture, you can see the dash is even on the other side. also i think that its not any of the mercs, i think no one is even behind the camera regardless, these are fictional worlds, not every unnamed character has a backstory, it was most likely not written to be anyone at all. i feel the camerman dying is solely to be funny and not lore relevant. it also wouldnt make much sense for the original mercs to even be fighting the gravel wars in 1959. they fight in the gravel wars in 1968 and are still starting to get to know eachother at that point, scout would be like 13 when the instructional videos were recorded. this is still a good video nonetheless, please keep looking into the tf2 lore. there is so much to explore and i am still learning new things all the time. if i truly had to guess, i would say the watcher, which is a meme sub class in tf2, you can see a watcher in the background of the lumberyard halloween event (community map). although i dont believe it to be true that is my best guess.

bro this is so underrated 😭 fire video btw

6:56 camera stand

I wish we had more map videos, there so cool

I bet it's a Spy with that one Beard Camera Cosmetic thingy...but who knows... Edit: I stay corrected and kinda proven,since I wrote this before watching the whole video and the video shows😂

Bro this is the kinda stuff that emisis blu would have lol

Bro really wanted that add revenue 😂😂

great video for the Observer spies

great video! got a new sub

i found 3 french names that start with M Marcel, Maurice, and Maxime it could or could not be one of these idk

In the zombie intro when the spy dies in the a spy's is in the area where he died

banger subbed plus liked plus comment WOHOOO

I'm willing to bet gaben recorded the intros

I am. I am the camera man.

I love that intro!

is it safe to assume that in some clips spy was invisible and recording?

I mean i guessed?

I.. what? none of this made sense, this isn't how you theory craft

I do like this theory. 👍👍👍

hear me out maybe it's just tutorial videos?

Is this another arg cuz i dont get it

0:07 🤨🤔

:333333 i love your voice orbit :D

Cool.

HOW DO YOU HAVE SO LITTLE VIEWS

Here before this blows up

Nice video ^_^

i think a theory based off of the most recent map recording is kinda lame cus it wasnt made by valve

Nah I thought it was a great theory :)

9:31 "a gay"

The camera man is clearly saxton hale, its show in \Team Fortress 2\tf\media/cyoa_intro_stage1.webm