Yes, they’d heard about the Dramatic Chipmunk thing Minnesota was doing. And yes, they had thought about doing something similar, just because when you have a 190 x 57 weapon like that, it’d almost be a shame not to.
But believe it or not, Super Nova was totally spur of the moment.
The idea technically traces back to primitive 2014. They were working the AHSAA Super 7 thing in December, and someone zoomed in on the eagle, which even on a puny 71 x 28.5 board looked intimidating. If they wanted a graphic to do something with on the coming Apocatron, that—a super-tight eagle close-up— might be something, someone suggested.