Foosball Radio | On the Road | FoosballRadio meets FoosballTV

[00:00:00] The following is a presentation of Foosball Radio. Foosball Radio On the Road Hey there, it's Tom Robinson with Foosball Radio On the Road. We are just wrapping up. Well, shall we say tearing everything down after an incredible weekend here at the 2024 ITSF World Series of Tornado.

[00:00:29] What an incredible weekend. We even had some tornadoes in honor of the weekend come through the Dallas, Texas area. A lot of power outages this weekend and some unfortunate damage, but they're recovering. Things will get better, the storms will pass and we'll be fine.

[00:00:45] At any rate, what an incredible tournament. The playing was fabulous. There was an incredible format, a Swiss style format where people got to play five rounds of qualification into the elimination rounds and lots and lots of great, great play.

[00:01:03] At any rate, one of the reasons this weekend was so successful was not just how the play went, but it was all about how wonderful the set and the coverage on FoosballTV and also inside Foos this weekend. Jim Stevens was here.

[00:01:25] The other thing that happened this weekend was an incredible setup. When it comes to the stage, when it comes to the way the pits looked when we were playing tables one, two and three,

[00:01:38] it was top notch and the reason for this is a crew from Germany with FoosballTV and I'm more than honored to have them with us this morning to talk about how this all came to be

[00:01:51] and it was monumental when it comes to just the setup alone and the way it came off. First of all, I want to welcome Julian Burtman. Hello. Welcome Julian. Hi Tom. You look like you're awake. Yeah, close to. And sitting right next to you is Daniel Sörger.

[00:02:12] Welcome. Hi Tom, thanks for having us. Absolutely. I'm really first of all amazed at what you guys pulled off this weekend. Thank you, appreciate it. Now do you do this a lot? So we try to do it as often as we can.

[00:02:30] In the past three years we had probably more now than 25 tournaments with broadcasts. Right. So we are developing one by one. Yeah, I'm sure it's a work in progress each time it gets a little bit better, a little bit easier to do. Yeah.

[00:02:45] Now media production, how long have you, first of all Julian, how long have you been involved with media production? Oh I just started with Fussball TV. I wasn't doing any media before so it was never really it was the first time shot. Okay.

[00:03:01] So the story is pretty crazy how we came to this project. What is your role with the company by the way? So I'm the guy who's into communication, who's trying to find partners.

[00:03:13] I'm the guy who's having a lot of ideas and Daniel needs to shut me down when they're getting too crazy. Shut you down? Yeah, my ideas are maybe sometimes too crazy but we are fitting very good perfectly together I guess. Awesome, so you're enjoying this role?

[00:03:29] I do, I do. Yeah, fantastic. And Daniel how about yourself, what's your role with the company? I'm the CEO and I'm also the technical director. Wow. All the technical stuff, that's my part.

[00:03:42] So being a CEO of a group like this, I mean that's most of the responsibility falls on your shoulders. Yeah. That's a challenge. Now the other thing I have to ask you both, you came across the pond for the ITSF,

[00:03:58] what did it take to convince you guys to come here to Dallas, Texas to do this coverage? What happened? So we like to progress with foosball and making it more available to the public, especially for non-fooceball players.

[00:04:13] So we were already thinking about how can we make it to the tornado world. Yeah. Then inside foos we've been partnering with them for European tournaments as well. Got it. Okay. And they, Mark contacted us and said, hey guys, you have the best product for foosball broadcasting. Yep.

[00:04:38] Which we very much appreciate. Yeah. Well we've been watching on, of course anything and everything about foosball we watch on YouTube and this kind of thing. And your product is superior. There's no question about it. Thank you. It's really fantastic. So, okay.

[00:04:56] Logistically speaking, when it comes to taking all this gear, all this equipment from Germany, right? Yeah. All the way to Dallas, Texas. Julian, get into a little of that. How'd that go?

[00:05:10] Oh, so first of all we find to try to find out which kind of equipment we can rent here so we don't need to bring it. Right. So we listed everything we basically need and there's way more stuff at home. Yeah, no kidding.

[00:05:26] Yeah, yeah, there's more at home for sure. So you only took half or a quarter? I would say probably 60%, something like this. Wow. And we rent some stuff here so, and then we need to figure out how we are able to bring it to the U.S.

[00:05:40] So we just took it with our packages. In the end, we try to find out if we are able to get big logistics or whatever to bring everything. But in the end, we try to have it as small as possible.

[00:05:52] Yeah, that's the amazing thing about today's technology when it comes to just basic equipment, audio and even video equipment is much smaller, much lighter than used to be. I know if you can look on our sound desk here we have something from 1998.

[00:06:09] It weighs about 22 pounds and it's just, you know, it's a beast of an old mixer. And it's bulky, it's difficult to carry around. Now of course the mixer you guys had, it moves certainly a bit larger but it seemed much more advanced. Yeah, yeah it was.

[00:06:29] We were lucky to have Israel from the event company. He did sound engineering for us. Okay, so now do you have to farm him out? In other words, bring him into the group to do this project or?

[00:06:40] Yeah we did. At the beginning it was a bit of a hassle. Okay. Yeah because they use the X32 compact. We used the X32 REC mixer. So they are similar. It's the same product family.

[00:06:56] So we had a preset that he could import but of course he had to find his way through our settings which were not easy. Right.

[00:07:06] Because we do a lot of stuff on it to have it as easy as possible for us because usually we are not big of a group. It's only like three to four people mostly. No kidding. No kidding.

[00:07:20] That's the other thing too because I come from the analog era. In the 1970s and I was learning radio and television back in those days. In college I had to learn basic television production.

[00:07:33] And of course in those days the cameras were huge and they were on big giant dollies and you had to drag them around a studio. There would be a three camera setup in a basic studio and we had to learn how to okay,

[00:07:45] you've got cameras one, two and three. You have to be able to communicate with each camera, each person who's running those cameras, ask them to line up a shot and then when their shot is ready then go to that shot and edit back and forth live.

[00:08:00] Challenging but a lot of fun. Yeah. So do you enjoy that aspect of what you do? Yeah very much. That's my favorite part. Yes. Maybe actually our life and we get to choose all the pictures and what we did this weekend.

[00:08:14] We had two cameras and we made them like a PDC camera. Okay. And Julian did a great job finding interesting shots. Yes. So that's the very first time we actually did it like this because we never had a person operating these two cameras this much.

[00:08:35] So we had to find a good solution for it. So Julian I take it that's something you pride yourself on that being able to creatively find the shot. Find the next shot.

[00:08:47] So we're always discussing about what we want to show to people and their different approach if you see different kinds of foosball productions and our approach was always we want to show people, we want to show emotions

[00:08:59] and we want to show things what people think are interesting in foosball without being a foosball player and that's a totally different approach of most of the players have when they start to enter making a foosball production

[00:09:12] because they are thinking okay I'm interesting into that kind of thing, what is the strategy, where's the ball going and we are thinking that somebody who's watching foosball and is not playing is going to

[00:09:26] oh how is this guy pulling the rod like this, how is making, what is this grip on the handle, how is putting it on so we are trying to show this to people so they are able to understand without we need them to teach to understand

[00:09:42] So showing people, showing emotions and showing things besides the table so they understand our game much better. It's exciting to see the product in action. What I really like is the slow-mo and really like the replays.

[00:09:59] That's what this sport definitely needs as you say to make it entertaining for anybody watching who may not necessarily be a foosball player. This has always been an issue and you guys have seemed to have I don't know, you've necessarily solved it all but got pretty close.

[00:10:16] We are on the right track I think and with the combination of the slow-mo's and the pictures we are creating we are not only making slow-mo's from a shot from above perspective, we are also having slow-mo's from how he is putting the handle

[00:10:33] how the body is moving. If you see Sallarin Roo, if she is moving her body while she is shooting I think that's such a great shot and everybody has enjoyed it so much

[00:10:43] and usually you only see it from above and you don't really see the motion of the body and everything and in the combination with Daniel is like observing I would say six pictures at the same time

[00:10:55] and he's trying to get a really good replay which takes a lot of concentration and everything you need to be very precise and I'm trying to change the camera angle every time he's switching the camera so he's switching the camera from camera 2 to camera 4

[00:11:09] then I'm going back with the camera 2 on something else I think could be interesting in the next moment and if we would be like two people more on the setup I think we could do even better even more? Yes, really

[00:11:25] The thing is, Daniel have to care about so many things at the same time so he's mixing the pictures he's changing the overlays with the names with everything Wow so he's putting the replays he's doing into a special folder to have a highlight replay after the match

[00:11:44] and so for example if the match is over I take over the mixing so I'm taking over the mixing control so Daniel is able to prepare the highlight after the match so if we would be more people and somebody could just care for this and this the grid

[00:12:04] so we have so many ideas we can do to make it even more interesting and also make it more professional like television yes we could do even if you think this is very good we could do much better I guess

[00:12:16] so this has always been the point of contention now I will grant you this Jim Stevens as you know has been at his profession as a play by play announcer for over 30 years within the sport

[00:12:30] nobody does it better and he had to do all of these things you guys are talking about by himself monumental task yes he had a system and it worked okay but what you guys are doing is next level

[00:12:43] it's taking things what he was already incorporating and doing but adding a couple of gadgets I guess you could say and a couple of really talented people to take care of all of that without having to worry about the play by play

[00:12:57] would I be correct in that assumption? yeah thank you again yeah we talked to Jim about it and he was very happy he told us many times that it's exactly what he dreamed of years ago okay

[00:13:12] but I also said to Jim and Mark I think Jim was ahead of the time yes when he did all this no doubt it's interesting how one individual like that can really make the difference

[00:13:25] and I think that's the gap that was desperately needed because of you know the sport itself was floundering for so long in the States and I think what Jim did was bring more attention to it so the players could feel like they're

[00:13:37] they're really being appreciated and could go back and watch their own match or others matches and really learn about each other's games if Jim had not existed had never you know done that I'm not sure where the sport would be you know I think we have that

[00:13:54] we are a big plus for Jim Stevens and Mark Torres with the commentary or production but the commentary is also a big plus for our production right so currently we making this kind of productions and we have German commentary on it

[00:14:08] but it's not easy to reach out to other countries in Austria, Switzerland and Germany so if we want to make football big we need English commentary for sure and we weren't able to get anybody we think it's gonna good with and the combination with our pictures

[00:14:24] and the commentary of Jim Stevens it's incredibly good and I think that also the commentary of Jim changed during the broadcasting because of the different type of pictures we gave him so I always remember this one thing he said

[00:14:42] when we first time showed a slow motion from a shot just close up for the handle it was like you see the rip no what did he said? you see the grip? you see the rip it was so awesome

[00:14:57] and I just watched to dinner in my eyes went up I was like this was amazing yeah you know it's the ability to tie it all together right you've got the images you've got the sound you've got the stage

[00:15:10] and then you've got to have something to tie all that together and to make it the entertaining product that it really is this exciting guys I've got to say there's if this is what we're looking forward to I am all in man

[00:15:24] I cannot wait to see what's going to happen next so where are you both going next? what's the next challenge? in two weeks I think it's two weeks right today we have the German Bundesliga it's a national league it's a second weekend

[00:15:41] we have three weekends for the men and we'll be the final weekend for the women got it I assume Hannah will be there and Sullivan because they were there the first weekend of course yeah I know Hannah and Sullivan are not Berlin Bears or Bears Berlin

[00:16:01] Bears Berlin sorry and that's really exciting too to see Americans being recruited to be on some of those teams have you guys been covering all of the Bundesliga? yeah yeah yeah like everything they do you're there so every time the Bundesliga is happening we will broadcast it

[00:16:26] and also all other big German tournaments like German Championship for example when I can say Daniel was working all the time building everything up the last time and was also doing some troubleshooting and when the tournament begins he was always running from playing to the stage

[00:16:44] to the broadcasting so the good thing was we had enough people to work there but Daniel played too good so he became German Champion in doubles so he wasn't able to control the mixer oops while working let's talk about your playing because yes you guys are

[00:17:03] you know media techs and you're doing your thing with the presentation of this sport but tell me about your career so Daniel you may as well start what's your career about when it comes to foosball how long have you played

[00:17:17] I guess the best way to put this is when was the first time you saw a foosball table how old were you and what kind of table was it? okay so the very first was a table made out of plastic when I was a kid plastic? yeah

[00:17:33] my sister and I got it was like multi-purpose tool for kids so we could play some pool on it could play table soccer on it right I never had in my mind that I would become a foosball player because at the time I played handball, European handball

[00:17:53] handball? yeah so no real interest in it at that time exactly but then I got injured we had a foosball table in our school so we played every lunch break and when we didn't have to go to what's the word to the lessons yeah right so class yeah

[00:18:15] yeah to class exactly and my best friend and I we got hooked and then we went to the city because we knew there was like a small club so you were a teenager at that point? yeah exactly it was in April 2008 when we really started playing foosball

[00:18:35] we decided okay let's go for it nice and so what was the first time you actually went to a full competition like a full tournament that would be in October 2008 was the P4P German championship gotcha and how did you do in that tournament? not so good

[00:18:53] hey we all got to start some place yeah that's it but we improved very quickly so I'm very ambitious everything I do I'm full on it or I'm doing nothing at all and I assume that that Leigh-at-Heart being your home country table it is now, in the beginning

[00:19:13] it was Ulrich oh okay gotcha gotcha gotcha I haven't played on that one I'm sure I haven't I actually went to Germany once and played in the training center in Hanover they have 14 tables beautiful location one of the back rooms there was a benzene next to a tornado

[00:19:39] and around the whole perimeter of the room near the ceiling were all these trophies and I was looking at them closely and every single one of them had Federico Collinion and Blazend on there on the placards I was like oh okay

[00:19:57] I guess he's been here a few times wow pretty impressive place but super super nice people and great players there was probably 40 players for a Friday night they said to me we're very sorry but people don't put vacation like what? you got 40 players on vacation

[00:20:19] they said easily on a Friday night they might get 60 65 players so I was impressed so did you have something like that nearby your house not really okay gotcha gotcha we have our club Copeland's we have some players we did some tournaments before Covid hit us

[00:20:41] now we're trying to get back on track yeah right got it so okay tell us about that big win you just made reference to you had to do the production but you won the doubles with Ruben Heinrich he's my steady partner and how many times

[00:21:03] does that happen to you in your career so far it's the first time we actually made it to the end we lost the semi-finals two times before in 2017 and 2018 no kidding congratulations thank you okay Julian when was the first time we saw a foosball table

[00:21:23] what kind was it and how old were you at the time maybe I saw one when I was young but the time I remember was when I was 17 18 I was in the club getting out having some drinks and stuff right so in Germany you're allowed to I'm aware

[00:21:49] the drinking age is a little different yeah it is they had four living tables in that location so it was a discotheque people were playing and I was like what are these guys doing there I just went over with a friend of mine

[00:22:07] and the first thing I saw was the guy who pinned the ball back on the 3 bar yeah back pin and he just smashed it without moving the ball over the angle into the goal in a millisecond I was like okay I want to be able to do this

[00:22:29] it really hooked me in a second it was crazy if this wouldn't happen I think I wouldn't be here so it was just really just watching an individual do something spectacular yes yes there was one guy who was able to do something special I was like okay

[00:22:49] was this somebody you've since seen he wasn't a pro player so no he was a local guy who was able to play on this table very good and doing some crazy trick shots but he wasn't a tournament player so it's also now it's 18 years ago 18

[00:23:07] and for you as far as your career in Boos Bowl what kind of achievements have you seen at tournaments? oh sometimes I'm good sometimes not that good probably my best result was being second in the Leonord worlds okay nice that's fantastic yeah and I've been German champion

[00:23:27] and became second in the team competition with Daniel so we played together at Koblenz for the Bundesliga team that's also the way how we connected and 2017 2016 we became German champion and that's not easy in Germany to win the team competition because usually every year the same fucking team

[00:23:55] it's like FC Bayern Munich they're also winning every time so you guys have rivalries clearly yeah there's people you really want to beat badly who's your main rival what would you consider as far as the other teams? oh of the teams between the teams who's your main rival

[00:24:13] question so the best team is of course the Hannover 690 team but the rival I don't know they are not real rivals I think it's a little bit different here in the US you have these rival stuff hero and villain stories we also had on the doubles final

[00:24:33] yesterday or the day before so we usually don't have these things really? you need to bring on a little bit of that drama yeah I know that's why we loved so much the broadcasting here because it had a lot of drama all the time oh yeah

[00:24:49] much more than we are used to having it in Germany Germans are boring I don't agree with that I can say that's fine if you want me to edit that out later we could do that one of the things about when I mean rivals

[00:25:09] I'm from upstate New York we're in Albany New York and there's the New York City faction and there's also Buffalo New York and Syracuse and they come to our tournament we want them to walk away losers not always the case but there is a rivalry

[00:25:29] and if we were to go to where they play same idea they want us to lose badly not always the case but it's a friendly rivalry though there's not a lot of people are not getting nasty with each other but there is this trash talking on the side

[00:25:47] and a little that going on which is fun it's entertaining as well no question we start getting personal about somebody's mother then we have to cut there's the line you're not going to talk about my mom you know what I'm saying we're going to step outside here

[00:26:07] this is foosball is meant to be a family it is a family and of course everybody knows everybody so even if you're two and a half feet away from your opponent and you want to kill that person across the table you can go have it up here

[00:26:23] and enjoy that makes the sport so special from my perspective so you're not able to touch your opponent but you are every time so close and it's so intense and only this little foosball table is like giving information from one person to the other and it's crazy

[00:26:41] what do you and I'll start with you Daniel what do you think that foosball needs is not being done what do you think needs to be done next that's a very good question I think we need better tournaments better formats for broadcasting if we want to evolve

[00:27:01] foosball to the public and to non-fooceball players so I think right now we are doing the best we can with what we got okay gotcha gotcha gotcha anything that you can think of right now that you would say okay if I had all the money

[00:27:17] in the world I'd want to do this what would it be I think I would like to place like a premier league I have 8 or maybe 16 but I would for beginning I think I would start with 8 people and would play for several weeks 15-16 weeks

[00:27:39] every Thursday for example so a specific day in the week so people know this is foosball evening this is competition time and then have them play if you have this kind of format you can present the players I think that's very important you need to make them icons

[00:28:03] so people can relate to the players exactly right I agree there has to be more emphasis placed on the skills and the talent the top players if they get more recognized and given more attention so much the better then people want to strive to be those people

[00:28:25] exactly yeah when you reach this there will be new people coming to sports beneficial for all of us why are those people having so much fun what's going on over there I got to find out what's going on so okay Julien your turn when it comes to foosball

[00:28:43] what would you do differently so I'm very much on track with Daniel yeah right it's always about people people are not starting to play foosball because they besides us because we're crazy but most of the people won't start foosball only because they see some crazy

[00:29:05] things happening on the table most of them will start or connect with foosball because they see emotions and people are acting and they have their icons and we need to create something like this so in this kind of tournaments we're trying to do our best

[00:29:21] and people are used to it they know when they have to play they know the timings and everything but we know only 10 minutes maybe 5 minutes in advance of a match who is playing next so there's no kind of pre-production there's no in Germany we are

[00:29:39] in the Bundesliga we know exactly which matches we will have and there we are doing some kind of pre-production we put the people in front of the green screen we make movements we put this into the production so it looks like a real TV production

[00:29:55] because these kind of people are able to produce things in front of the tournament saying okay we are two weeks before matches happening they show local things they show how the people are training so there's a pre-production and I think this is a thing which would make

[00:30:15] our product much better oh absolutely we need these kind of things and we need to build heroes and villains and to show a story and all of this together would be my wish to do and yeah we are trying to find out how we can support

[00:30:33] it's not that easy if you see this tournament there's a lot of costs to everything to bring this trust system to build up the people in the tournament office there's so many people who are building all these 50 tables up and yeah somebody needs to pay for that stuff

[00:30:49] right it's not cheap either it's not cheap and also if we are saying hey we want to have only 8 players yeah who will pay for all the other things we need to do to make it look good this is a conflict all of us

[00:31:05] not only the broadcasting people also the guys from ITSF every other tournament organization need to think about what kind of structures we can develop and implement give us the opportunity to have these kind of things what Dan talked about sure plus also don't get too much money

[00:31:25] investing in because if we are saying we need some sponsors but in the first place we need to have a product which is capable of getting market-efficient and if we always had the discussion with players as well we are saying hey

[00:31:43] you need to do this and this so we get a better product and they are saying yeah but where are my big sponsors there's no reason for me to do it and we are saying yeah what's coming first you know first is we need to develop you

[00:31:55] and the production we are hoping that somebody is coming very fast to us and saying hey we are your partners but yeah one thing needs to come first and we need to try to figure out what our milestones to get there we want foosball to be

[00:32:13] a professional sport and players are always complaining about price money but you don't get price money and sponsors if you are not available to the media so yeah it's what I really liked about the media coverage for you guys when I watch your productions

[00:32:31] you have images of the players up on the screen and their names and it's beautifully highlighted and it's like oh wow we need to do that here that's really cool stuff man and it's again it says to a viewer that this is something you got to watch this

[00:32:55] look at these people these individuals are about to compete against each other and I guess was it world cup? there's a media day when the players come in and they have to meet with the media and they get all these these preliminary things done that's brilliant

[00:33:13] we did this yeah we said we want to make pictures from all players who are there so we can bring them into the broadcast and to show them before the match yeah that kind of thing we need the only problem is

[00:33:25] if we are at the world cup for example they are near 2,000 players so we yeah if you have other sports they are big companies with big productions they have up to 200 people sometimes to make a a big soccer match or whatever and we are only maybe 4 or 5

[00:33:43] sometimes we are 10 people if we are lucky at that kind of events but we are not capable of making stuff for 100 people to be prepared if this one guy is coming to the final done right there on the spot before the competition kicks off that kind of thing

[00:33:59] it's got to be all done I'm sure as time goes on you will find that and perfect it no doubt but wow I love production and you always can tell if it's being done with skill and talent and of course the heart you show that on the screen

[00:34:19] brilliant stuff really great job thank you so much my highlight of the whole week was when we were talking to Israel so the guy who is coming from the entertainment company here I asked him what does he think about our production

[00:34:35] because he was all the time around us he was managing the audio and he's not into football so I always try to ask people who are not into football what do they think about what we are doing presentation yeah that's the only feedback I really care about

[00:34:51] I really don't care I care a little bit about the feedback of the players but much more important for me other audience who are not into football because these are the people we want to reach out yes exactly you got to make it consumable yeah yeah

[00:35:07] that's it people who are not playing football should watch football because it's interesting and fun to watch and Israel I asked Israel he was like yeah it was so much fun I did some mistakes with the audio because I was so much watching watching the game

[00:35:23] and he was like oh I need to put this audio down and he was like I did one or two mistakes because I was so excited about the broadcasting and he watched all the time the screens of us and seeing all other nice pictures we had

[00:35:35] which wasn't in the mix but also on the screens he was so excited and said it's awesome this is again this process you're going through you're so far and above what we ever expected when it came to just covering the sport so thank you both for that

[00:35:55] what about your relationship with the ITSF how is that going how do you feel about the collaboration with the ITSF yeah we've been partnering with the ITSF in the past because we also wanted to be part of these kind of productions and tournaments and present them

[00:36:13] to the world but lately conversations were a little bit difficult oh interesting for the ones you've seen before we didn't find an agreement luckily we had one here due to Inside Foods yeah but I will continue to talk to Farid he's the president of the ITSF

[00:36:35] he's really a pretty extraordinary we had a chance to chat with him this weekend and the chat went on about an hour and 24 minutes on air so he has a lot to say he's awesome he has great visions but I think we need to find some concepts

[00:36:55] how to make this vision come to life right and that's the point where we're struggling right now to come together and find a win-win situation sure sure well it's like always there are people working on foosball and there's so much space to develop because nothing is built here

[00:37:11] you know they are players but it's not like you're going into the city and you're thinking oh where can build my house because here are houses everywhere it's not like this everything is free the concept has to be well you have to agree between you and the ITSF

[00:37:31] agree what is the concept what is the overall image how are you going to brand this yeah and both so everybody has ideas how to do it and of course making some very special top 8 having a Premier League very exclusive if this is fitting into the ideas

[00:37:51] what the ITSF want for developing the sport in general so they not only have to care about the top productions and top premium sports they have to care in first from my perspective in developing national federations and give them a reason to work locally and to give structures

[00:38:11] that's much more important in the first place for me getting support by government getting money from other structures so these are things which the ITSF should or is focusing a lot of we need to find a way from my perspective to get things together okay

[00:38:33] but it's not easy as always yeah it's people and people tend to have different opinions sometimes and some people have you can see here is a problem we need to solve if we are going to do that together how do we do that

[00:38:47] and how do we come to a consensus where all parties are involved and making that happen having that single goal never, never easy to do that I hope that the production we have made here is helping us also to be able to do more tournaments like this

[00:39:07] yeah this was a proof of concept yeah yeah I agree you know this is and so I was just walking down the hall before we did this interview and I ran into a couple of top pros that were just relaxing in the hallway and one of them said

[00:39:23] hey this was monumental this was game changing forgive the expression this whole weekend was that good and to hear a top pro say that and the others that were with them said yeah this was a pivotal moment in American Stop Boosball this changed the game completely

[00:39:47] yeah I also heard it many times this weekend from players yeah what we hoped for speaking from the perspective of foosball being a player and it's my first time in the US yeah no kidding I meant to ask you about that

[00:40:05] how about yourself Julien is it your first time no no I played two times tournament here so I was in 2018 I was here to play the last week at the tournament hall of fame and five weeks ago I was also there yeah okay fantastic

[00:40:19] so what do you think so far yeah I really like it here feel very welcomed except for the tornadoes and the straight line winds of 60 miles an hour you probably don't care for those yeah that's I wasn't expecting that we are still safe in this big building

[00:40:37] so it feels like this I expected the weather to be very hot and dry but it's actually very humid here yes this time of year especially can be very very volatile because of the change the seasons are changing and of course the hot the cold and they clash

[00:40:53] and everything gets crazy but hope you come back soon yeah I hope so too no it's if if Fareed has his way there will be plenty of opportunity in very near future with our conversation before he was just mentioning that this again proof of concept

[00:41:13] he feels is a success because of the whole thing but of course because of the image you guys projected what it comes to the audience can't ask for better right now so wow fantastic so when it comes to the food in America what's your favorite food Daniel

[00:41:33] okay so he's struggling I can say I'll explain so in February 2020 I watched the game changes on Netflix I'm sorry I was always very concerned or focusing on my health so I switched to a plant based diet so I'm vegan yeah that's where we're difficult here

[00:42:03] especially in Texas so I've tried to find food that's vegetarian and eat this all the week it's getting better here and now if you go let's say north to the the northern states we tend to have a little bit different perspective when it comes to our diets

[00:42:27] we do tend to be more plant based and there's more of that, more options there's a chain called Coralife in the northeast where it's only salads it's custom made salads and you can have whatever toppings or if you're a vegetarian you can go there and

[00:42:47] it's beautiful, some great food but so okay I'm sorry I don't really have an answer for your question I got you Julian how about you, what's your favorite American food to be honest I would like the barbecue here in Texas we already had two

[00:43:05] I hope we can have this evening another barbecue and I hope there's something for Daniel to eat yeah Texas BBQ is pretty nice to be honest I'm with you on that one there's just some times you need to make the make the trip

[00:43:27] out there to the BBQ and really sample it well you know guys I know there's a lot of work yet to do to get on the way now when are you leaving for Ruffer Germany tomorrow morning, tomorrow morning probably less delays in the flights

[00:43:41] I think because today there's I know that the DFW which is right here the airport there's over 300 delays and cancellations because of the weather maybe tomorrow's a better time to go hopefully we always got an email from American Airlines if we want to change our plans

[00:44:01] we can do it for free but of course we don't want to if it's not necessary what flight is it from here to home it's 10 and a half hours 10 and a half hours we are crazy man yeah you are I still remember the flight on Lufthansa from Boston

[00:44:23] from Logan airport and to I wasn't on it we're going the trip wow what a great trip and the food was phenomenal the food it was on my flights as well they had wing options I was very surprised and very happy about it awesome

[00:44:47] first of all a pleasure to meet both of you likewise nice playing the other night with the pickup games Julian we had some fun we played a bit of some crazy games but hey I'm looking forward to seeing you both back in the states and near future

[00:45:05] we would love to the other thing too is that we're going to be watching your product very closely it's really exceptional all of the best of luck when it comes to making this happen and improving it along the way we're excited for you guys thank you appreciate it

[00:45:25] well foosball radio on the road Julian workman and Daniel joining us today as we wrap this whole thing up as everything is being packed up we've been watching the boxes and of course everything being torn down but what a weekend man I'm looking forward to the next one