Foosball Radio | Patreon Profile | Cam Burrows

[00:00:01] The following is a presentation of Foosball Radio. Since establishing the Foosball Patreon page, you have shown your kind generosity, helping Foosball Radio to continue. Now, we present to you the Foosball Radio Patreon Profile. Time to find out more about you. Hey there, it's Tom Robinson. Welcome once again to an episode of the Foosball Radio Patreon Profile.

[00:00:29] Well, on the road, technically. We are just at the very end of the 2024 ITSF World Series of Tornado, which took place this weekend, Memorial Day weekend, where we are today in the Westin Hotel in Dallas, Texas. And what a weekend. I have to say it was just spectacular when it comes to the whole production of this tournament.

[00:00:54] It turned a lot of heads, and a lot of people are already saying this is the future of what Foosball should be. At any rate, we're taking the time out now at the end here to catch up with one of our favorites when it comes to the Patreon list, the people that support this podcast, this broadcast. And our Patreon page, of course, has some great names, one of which is Cameron Burrows. Hello, Cameron. Hello. How are you? Shall I call you Cam?

[00:01:23] Cam's better, yeah. Cam, yeah. So, Cam, you've been a Patreon for quite a long time, but I also want to mention that, well, your leonhart.usa.com is, well, our sponsor of Foosball Radio, Foos Talk Live. Thank you for both of those things, first of all. I really am truly grateful for your support. Of course. Thank you for what you do. Oh, sure. Sure, sure.

[00:01:48] Now, this thing that we do with Foos Talk Live and Foos Ball Radio, didn't expect it to last this long. One day at a time. Exactly. One ball at a time. That's one ball at a time. And so, first of all, you came all the way from Vancouver to be here, Dallas, Texas. How did it go for you when it comes to the tournament today, or this weekend? Good and bad. Okay. Moments. I had a lot of good moments, but, yeah.

[00:02:19] If I, I didn't win, so there's obviously. Okay, okay. I saw some amazing playback on some of your highlights, some of the things you did. There was a, I think it was, I forgot what the match was, but you hit a, a push kick that was like magic. That was about. Disappeared the ball. Two weeks ago? Two weeks ago, yeah. That was at Moneyball in Portland. Yes, yes. So, this last month, I've had three, not just over a month, but Vegas, Moneyball, and then the World Series here.

[00:02:46] So, it's been quite a few tournaments in a short amount of time. Man. But Moneyball was the best of the three, for sure. Yeah. Okay. Played pretty well, as good as I was hoping to play. Okay. Okay. Two second places. Nice. We did get double dipped in Classic. Oh, did you now? Yeah. Okay. And with Modern Foos, they have stats, and I felt like we played well, especially in the first set. Yeah.

[00:03:15] I shot 70%, and my partner cleared 76. Wow. And we lost. Really? How does that happen? A really hot two bar and four breaks. Okay. Okay. But the things that happen sometimes in foosball. Foosball, yeah. Yeah. But I'm not upset at the way we played. Sure. And then I placed second in the Moneyball doubles, which is essentially open doubles with a higher entry fee. Okay. So, you get less teams.

[00:03:42] I believe it was $300 a team to enter that event. Okay. So, it kind of weeds out some of the teams that are in the middle. It's a lot of money, and they only pay out to the top three places. Ah, interesting. Interesting. Okay. Yeah. Moneyball is the name for a reason. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's a really great tournament. You know, the times I've had a chance to watch, of course, the matches there. And, of course, David Kala, who's there too with Modern Foosball.

[00:04:13] Adam Gilson and Clay Toomey doing the commentary. It's a really nice product. Really nice product. Absolutely, yeah. And I'd love to get to that tournament sometime in the near future. Who knows? But that part of the country is, well, there's a hotbed of players there too, correct? Yep. I'll be there when you come. Okay, nice. Awesome. Very cool. I feel like Vancouver, Canada and America obviously are different. We have different communities. Right.

[00:04:42] But I feel like Vancouver is very much a part of the Pacific Northwest community. Yep. All of the Washington State Open, Seattle Open, all of the Portland events. You'll find a few carloads of Vancouver players. We also do tournaments up in Vancouver. Yep. I think less of them come up to us, but every year we're seeing more of the Pacific Northwest. Right. U.S. passport. So we've had a conversation or two in the past on Foos Talk Live and Foosball Radio.

[00:05:11] I do want to refresh our listeners' memories when it comes to you and your beginnings when it comes to this sport. So have you always lived in Vancouver, first of all? No. I grew up in Edmonton, Alberta. Okay. Well, rural. I was about 45 minutes away from the city. Mm-hmm. Yeah, pretty far out, but the closest. No one's going to know if I told you the name of where I grew up. Understood. Okay. Yeah. No reference there. Edmonton is the closest.

[00:05:39] I grew up there until I was 24. Okay. And I started Foosball in Edmonton. Ah. So the person that got me into it was Will Strengths. Yes. Many players will know who he is. He's been around the tour for a long time. Mm-hmm. Very strong player. So at one point, I was playing at work and at school. At work. So... That's the first. Now, you were working where and then what kind of table? Uh, I don't know. Costco table. Costco?

[00:06:09] Yeah. It had both orange and white balls that had the seam, like two halves glued together. Okay. Not a good table. No. No. Okay. But the office, they bought it. So that's nice. Okay. I was working. It was just after I graduated high school. Mm-hmm. I worked in a welding shop for one year. Mm-hmm. During my high school, I took welding and I enjoyed it. Yep. After about seven months there, I realized that wasn't for me. Mm-hmm.

[00:06:38] But I learned to love foosball there. Yeah. They were just the table up in the office. No kidding. That's awesome. They were very passionate. Huh. They would throw $100 on a game. I saw a guy get picked up by his throat, put up against the wall. Really? They were very, very passionate. Okay. Okay. Bit of trash talking going on as well, I take it. Absolutely. Yeah. If you lost 5-0, you had to crawl under the table and you weren't allowed to play for one break. So if you lost in the morning break, you couldn't play at lunch.

[00:07:08] If you're up 4-0 and you come back and lose, so reverse shutout is what they would call it. Okay. You can't play for 24 hours, a full day. Wow. That's hilarious. Yeah. And I was a little intimidated to play at the beginning, just given how much intensity there was from the players. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I slowly started getting into it. After work, I would play a little bit. I found one player that was on my level and we started to develop together. There you go.

[00:07:36] And then after quitting that job, I went back to school and they had a tornado there. Okay. And in my head, I thought it was a bad table. I didn't understand. I'd never seen proper foosball. And even at the office I was playing, they didn't know the game. This is not unusual though, because when I think about, because I was raised on the Bonzini table as a kid, when I first saw something similar to a tornado of that style, I went, that's kind of cheap and plasticky looking.

[00:08:06] That doesn't look very sturdy. Of course, I was wrong, but. And I'd never seen a wall pass. I'd never seen a rollover or a snake shot. I didn't see the game. I didn't understand what the table could do. Yeah. And then once I learned that and went back to other tables, I realized they're not even close. Yeah. No kidding. No kidding. So now as far as Leonhart, now you're, you're distributably in heart tables. How do you feel about playing on that table?

[00:08:35] I think it's really helped my game. Yeah. I, cause my style of game is very tornado. Mm hmm. This weekend there was a lot of Europeans here. Yes. And I find they all have a very similar touch to the game. Mm hmm. They start in a back pin and they're very brush heavy. Yep. Sometimes they'll throw in a stick and I believe that the tornado style of game is influencing a lot of the top players in Europe. Mm hmm.

[00:09:01] When I first started playing in Turin, the European players I met didn't really play that way. Yeah. But they, I think everyone's game is becoming a hybrid of the different styles. Isn't that interesting? And I think Leonhart is very comfortable for all players. Mm hmm. A Bonzini player can play their style of game on Leonhart without too much adjustment. Mm hmm. And a tornado player can play their style. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I had a hard time with my five bar.

[00:09:29] I do a weave and a lot of tic tacs. Mm hmm. And since the Leonhart foot is so thin, it took a lot of adjusting. Mm hmm. But once I made that adjustment on Leonhart coming back to tornado and having that wide foot, it's really helped my ball control. Much easier now. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. No, it's, um, it's extraordinary. And we're, I think we're coming into an era here in the States, you know, the States now where this is going to be much more common where there's multiple table situations. Absolutely. I hope there is. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:09:58] Um, we had a conversation, uh, briefly with, uh, with Fareed, uh, Luminous from, from ITSF. And I asked him directly, do you think, do you envision a time when, when you put on a tournament like this and there's multiple tables? And he said, well, obviously we wouldn't do it for the world series of tornado, of course, but maybe if there's a, another ITSF, uh, event that takes place in the States that he would entertain that idea. Would you enjoy a tournament like that?

[00:10:28] Absolutely. Not only would I enjoy it. So depending on who you're asking, cause I can wear multiple hats. Sure. I'm not just the Leonhart representative for America. I also sell tornado and Leonhart in Canada. Oh, you do. Interesting. Canada foosball shop. Gotcha. That was the start of the Leonhart endeavor. Yeah. We were only looking for Leonhart distribution for Canada. Okay. We had a few conversations with the owner and the marketing representative at the time.

[00:10:58] And we did a trial run with one small container of tables. Okay. And he said, you have two years to sell these tables. And we sold them in about six weeks. Wow. And then they came back and said, Hey, do you want to have exclusive exclusivity for Canada? Because we really liked the way, like they liked our ideas. Like your style. Like the effort that we were putting in and, and the results, right? They want, at the end of the day, they want to sell tables. Right.

[00:11:24] Now, if you compare, because you are distributing both types of tables, I mean, how does Leonhart do against tornado when it comes to just sales in general? Is that something you want? Yeah. So again, I could talk about it specifically in America. I don't have, my tornado distribution is limited to Canada. Right. Gotcha. So I can't compare in America. And I can't imagine that Leonhart is even close to what tornado is selling in America. Okay. Tornado has decades of history. Right.

[00:11:54] And I know it's, Leonhart wasn't. It's an American thing. Yeah. But I do think people are open to it because America, people from all over the world come travel and live in America now. Yes. And a lot of people from Europe come. And I believe that people view German products in a high regard. Oh, absolutely. Porsches. Yep. You know, I don't need to list all of them. Yeah. Top notch. Mercedes. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.

[00:12:20] So I don't think that it's strictly patriotism and they want to support America. I just think that it's the years and years of tornado being the table. Built a reputation that's still pretty stellar. Absolutely. And you can't deny it. The play is amazing. Yep. Yep. And some of the best players in the world, if not the best players in the world, come from tornado. Yep. No question. But in Canada, I think that it's pretty even. Okay. The games of tornado and Leonhardt.

[00:12:50] I'll pivot for a second just to add context. Sure. I grew up skateboarding and my whole, I developed as a skateboarder. And that's the way I view the world. And I learned this at a young age that skate shops cannot survive on skateboarders. Right. The really good skateboarders, they don't even pay for product. They get free product so that it's advertising. Exactly. And then the kids that look up to those skaters, they will then buy the clothes that they're wearing. Okay.

[00:13:18] But that's not enough to keep a skate shop alive. Yeah. The way to keep a skate shop alive is to make the culture cool. Our hopes of the culture. I don't know if it's necessarily something that skateboarding did. I don't know if it was like a marketing thing. I think it just could be. Something happened. That skateboarding is difficult and it looks cool. Like, I don't know if it was intentional from the marketing side of skateboarding. Maybe it was Tony Hawk. I don't know. At the end of the day. Yeah. At the beginning, it wasn't popular though. Right. He got made fun of for skateboarding. No kidding.

[00:13:46] But I noticed all the shops, they only survived because the guys that went out and worked on the rigs in Alberta that had a bunch of money would come back and they wanted to buy the clothes that they thought were cool. Right. Those are the people that support skate shops. So it's apparel and accessories and things like that. Exactly. But also... I don't think that foosball shops can survive on tournament players. Right. Tournament players are either going to win tables because they're giving away as prizes.

[00:14:12] They're going to buy used tables from tournaments that they're at and they stay in the community. Yeah. If I ran a league in Vancouver for nine years and we have an accumulation of tables, we sell those tables to our players. There you go. They're not buying brand new tables from the shop. Right. So I think that's a parallel to selling foosball. So it's developing new clients and new players that say, hey, where do I get one of those tables, man?

[00:14:40] I want to have that in my house so I can practice and get better at this game. And of course, then they would come to the shop. Yeah. We're easy to find on Google, specifically in Canada. I think more in the Leonhard in USA, it's people searching for us. Okay. I think that they're just stumbling across us at this point. Right. But in Canada, there's not too many foosball-specific shops. Okay. Okay. It's games rooms that sell everything as well as foosball.

[00:15:09] But I haven't met anyone from those, I guess we could call them competitors. Mm-hmm. But I don't even view them because they're games rooms. We're just foosball. Right. I haven't met anybody that works there that actually plays or even necessarily knows the rules. Mm-hmm. It's just one thing in their collection. So how does it compare? Because now we're living in the age when someone can just go into your website and choose a table and buy it that way as opposed to walking into a storefront like the shop to buy a table.

[00:15:39] How does that compare? Is there more activity online now for you when it comes to selling tables? Well, we don't have a brick and mortar. Right. We kind of do. Originally, there was no brick and mortar and there was no plan for a brick and mortar. Right. There is an advantage for players to come in. So the answer, the quick answer is content online. Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep. Viewers are everything. Mm-hmm. You can't argue the amount of views or eyeballs you get on a product.

[00:16:08] And the more content that we can produce and put out there, the more eyeballs we're going to get and the more people that are going to funnel into foosball. Yep. And I believe that is an area in which foosball is lacking. Mm-hmm. I'm not criticizing this weekend or modern foos because I think that they're in the right direction. This is a really... No question. This is what the community needs. Oh, desperately. So I also want to contribute to that. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[00:16:34] There is a huge advantage for a player that says, the main question I get, what's the difference between Tornado and Leonhardt? Mm-hmm. And if they can't come into a store and play the tables, it's really hard to explain it. That's a big deal, isn't it? Right? I mean, you've got to get your hands on it before you make your decision. And luckily, we have the Toronto Foosball Club. Mm-hmm. Yep. So there's more context here that I haven't put in. I can talk forever, so I'm going to try to keep that short.

[00:17:04] Not a problem. It started... I didn't start with the Canada Foosball Shop. Okay. I started promoting in Vancouver locally. Mm-hmm. I moved to Vancouver from Edmonton, like I said, so I've been in Vancouver for about 11 years now. Mm-hmm. And I knew that there was a lot of really strong players in Vancouver, so I was excited for the move. Mm-hmm. And when I got there, there was no tournaments, and there was a little bit... Nope. No scene? There was a scene.

[00:17:32] They played a couple nights a week, but it was very tense. There were some personalities that didn't mesh well with each other. Okay. And a little bit of drama there. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And then my touring partner, his name is Dylan, we lived in different cities, but we would meet at the tournament, and then we would play together, and then we would just go our separate ways. Okay. We didn't really practice or talk about strategy. Right.

[00:17:57] Our very first event that we did good in was pro doubles in Vegas as beginners. Okay. And we played Roto, because we didn't even talk about a zone strategy. Oh, yeah, yeah. But we both had talent, and we were both up-and-comers. Mm-hmm. Canada is a small community for foosball. Mm-hmm. And a lot of the players already had partners that they play with all the time. Okay. But luckily, Dylan and I moved to Vancouver, I believe it was the same day. The same day? We didn't know. Huh.

[00:18:26] I said, hey, are you going to the Washington State Open? He's like, yeah, I just moved to Vancouver. It's pretty close for me. I'm like, oh, I just moved to Vancouver. And then at one point, we ended up living like five blocks from each other. Yeah. So we went from just meeting at the tournament to actually playing every week and practicing. And then that year, we won, this is 2014, so 10 years ago. Yeah. In Texas, it was not this hotel, but Dallas-Fort Worth. Right. It was Tornado Worlds 2014.

[00:18:55] We won rookie doubles, which came with two tables. Nice. He was studying for his master's in architecture, so he sold his table. But I took mine, and I put it in a pub, and I started the league. Ah, that's how that works. Okay. I saved, we call them loonies. We don't pay with quarters, but $1 coin in Canada. I saved the loonies that we were getting from the table, and we bought more tables. Someone else came in, saw what we were doing, helped us out, bought a few tables for us.

[00:19:24] That's a really great business story, really. I mean, you think about it. You're taking your winnings. Instead of just keeping those winnings, you're reinvesting those winnings in a scene. That's awesome. Yeah, absolutely. Wow. And then that community went for about nine years. They just shut down. It's almost a year since they've shut down. No kidding. So the location, the landlord raised the rent to a very unrealistic price, and they left.

[00:19:51] But between now and then, I also run Canada Foosball, the nonprofit organization. Right. I took over as president of that in 2018. Mm-hmm. And I quickly realized that we can't survive on volunteers. Yeah. We have so much that we need to do, and the only way to get it done is to hire people and pay them their actual wage. Right. Hold them accountable. Hold them accountable. Hold them accountable.

[00:20:18] And so we decided, or at that point, I realized I needed to sell tables. Yeah. And we were not getting deals from the local distributors. Huh. They've never shown up to tournaments. Mm-hmm. They have no interest in actually helping promote. Just trying to move product. That's it. Just looking for man cave sales, essentially. Yep. And yeah, one of the main goals was to get distribution. And while I'm doing all of this in Vancouver, Dan Packer was doing this in Toronto.

[00:20:47] I'd never actually met Dan, but everyone had said that Dan and Jesse were the Cam and Dylan of the East Coast. There you go. And the pandemic hits. I'm redirecting a lot of my attention. I now work from home. Yeah. I used to commute over an hour and a half every day. So I get a lot of hours back. Sure. And I'm no longer spending three to four nights a week at the pub. But I'm still foosball focused. Yeah. So it was actually a really good pivot for us. Mm-hmm.

[00:21:16] And Dan reached out, and he said, hey, I see you're doing a lot of work. Do you need help? And it was an immediate yes. I do need help. Mm-hmm. And Dan has been one of the most valuable, if not the most valuable person to come into the Canada foosball realm. Yeah. He's something of a really good personality. You know, really, really level-headed and dedicated to what he's doing. That's awesome. I also want to shout out Jamie Tove because she's no longer helping with Canada foosball or playing foosball.

[00:21:46] Okay. But she was, before Dan, she was the one that was the most valuable for the organization. Yeah, nice. A lot of the people that put in a lot of time don't get the recognition that I feel like they do. Isn't that the case, though? Right? I mean, there's, you think about, and we're sitting amongst a crew of people who are now tearing down this set that was built for this tournament. Man, there's so much work going on here. These guys are working their tails off just to get it done.

[00:22:16] But it's, you know, you need that. You need the people that are dedicated. And, of course, well, in this case, I'm sure they're getting paid for their time. But you need crews. You need people to help support you. You can't do it by yourself. And this isn't the first tournament they've done this for. They're here at every tournament every other week all over the country. Exactly right. So when it comes to the ITSF World Series of Tornado, you've played in it. You've seen what they can do.

[00:22:46] What is your overall impression? How do you feel about just the tournament itself? I haven't had enough time to digest fully, to be honest with you. It's an adaption period to the single-a-limb. I'm on team single-a-limb, but it's a tradeoff, right? There's not a right answer. It depends what you prioritize. Personally, I think that's what you're going to lean towards as a player in which format that you like. Yeah.

[00:23:13] I do notice that with everyone qualifying, it makes the qualifying rounds not important. Sure. I can't say personally that affected me because every qualifying round that I played, I know that I tried, and I felt like all of my opponents tried. Yes. There was no point where they took it lightly. But I do know, I'm not going to name names, but there was people in men's singles, men's doubles that just forfeit. Huh. They're like, I'll just get in anyways. I don't care about my seed.

[00:23:43] I'm going to go ahead. Wow. So that screws up the seeding aspect. Yeah, I can see what you mean by that. I'm kind of surprised that somebody would be that cavalier about it. Yeah, and I was talking to other players about this, and I heard some good suggestions as to how to... To change that? Yeah. Okay. And that would be to put money into the qualifying. So if you qualified second overall, if you got paid for that, that would incentivize players to not... Oh, of course.

[00:24:12] ...drop out. Yeah. ...are just... So we've done Swiss. So I run tournaments in Vancouver. I haven't done Swiss. Okay. But in Edmonton, they've run Swiss. I'm sure AQBB in Quebec. Mm-hmm. Many of the cities have used Swiss. But the way we do it is instead of having open doubles, then pro doubles, and am doubles, we keep our rankings. Okay. So we use House of Tournaments at the moment, which is IRP plus others.

[00:24:42] Okay. Okay. So, for example, we were talking about the Pacific Northwest. Yep. All of those tournaments that I've gone to for years, those don't count towards my IFP points. Uh-huh. And I may only go to one IFP event a year. Yeah. So I have a different ranking in House of Tournaments than I do in IFP. What is your current ranking in IFP? Expert. Expert. Okay. Okay. Now, I mean, with your level of proficiency, is that accurate? Expert? Or would you be more considered a pro?

[00:25:12] I would... Pro, I think. Yeah. Yeah. But I didn't win expert in Vegas this year. Okay. Okay. I don't think I'm the only one that is under-ranked. Yes. But if someone were to complain and say that I should be a pro, I wouldn't argue against it. Okay. I think my results... I've won open singles. I've won open doubles. Yeah. I've second in money ball, losing only to Brandon Munoz and Ryan Moore. Yes. Yeah. I get it. Yeah. But Vegas is tough.

[00:25:42] Every tournament, every bracket in Vegas, Worlds, Colorado is not easy. Oh, no question. The pros that have been pros for 15 years, if they went down to expert, they might not win expert doubles that weekend. Isn't that interesting how that works? Two out of three. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's tough. But just to close the loop on this Swiss system. So we use House of Tournaments rankings, and then we do a Swiss six rounds, two out of

[00:26:09] threes, and that would seed into open, expert, and amateur. Right. If you're ranked pro and you seed into expert, I'm sorry, you don't get to play. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. If you're a beginner and you ranked in open, congratulations, you made it into open. Yeah. You're allowed to go up, but you cannot go down. That's another question that comes to mind because this event, of course, is based upon an international organization.

[00:26:37] There were players from other countries like Germany and Austria. Take, for example, the 17-year-old phenom Stefan from Austria. He was killing the top pros, top pro masters. He's taken it to the table. But he doesn't have an IFP rank. You know, what do you think should happen to a player that, well, I guess if you didn't

[00:27:04] know him, you know, how would you rank him before he, you know, arrived at a tournament like this? Well, they do know him. He won Garlando singles. Right. As a world champion before he showed up. Sure. So I think anyone... But no IFP points, though. I think that you need to build relationships with the promoters across the world. Yeah. We're only a keyboard away from talking to them. Mm-hmm. So I can't really answer for Europe, but maybe I'll answer for Canada because that's actually something that I deal with. And then maybe the answer relates. Sure.

[00:27:34] Running Canada Foosball, I've been a contact point for anyone asking questions about players from Canada. Okay. And IFP has had tournaments where they always change the rules based on, like, they'll do one thing and then they'll find a flaw and then they'll change the rule to counter that flaw and then they'll find another flaw. It's constantly evolving. I don't want to say changing because the change is good. Yeah. Oh, sure.

[00:28:01] But I think for me, the answer is, like, call me. Yep. Ask me what this player is ranked. Mm-hmm. And if you find that I'm lying to you, then don't trust me. But we have our own ranking system. Yeah. I have a Vancouver Foosball rating system. Oh, you do? For nine years of play. Every tournament is counted for in there. Yeah. But to just say blanket, anyone who's not American is expert, I think is not fair. Yeah. Yeah. More context to go back to Dylan and me promoting in Vancouver. Mm-hmm.

[00:28:31] We were ranked amateur on tour and we were some of the strongest players in the city. And then to have players that were convincing, hey, come with us. Vegas is so much fun. Yep. Like, if you come once, you'll be bit by the bug. Yeah. Like, it's, Vegas is the tournament for us in Vancouver. It's the closest flight. Flights are pretty cheap. There's food open late. Like, it's a good environment. Yeah. And trying to convince them to come and then they read the flyer that they're going to be

[00:28:59] ranked higher than us when we're beating them every week. Mm-hmm. It's really difficult to convince them. Right. You can't blame them. There's sometimes, there's players that show up and they're not a rookie. They're not an amateur. Yep. But if I don't know personally, I know the promoter in their area and I can just get you the answer. Yeah. And we know who runs the communities across Europe. Why can't we just ask them? It should be like public knowledge, public interest. I think it's just communication. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:29:29] It's like a blanket rule is not going to fit everybody. Some kind of a data source where you can just go in and go, okay, here's a name. Here's what they've done in the European tour. Wow. These guys are winning all these different events. Maybe when they step in, they need to start out a pro. Yeah. You know? And in Edmonton, so this goes back to Will Strengths promoting. Mm-hmm. He was the one that did the Swiss system I was referring to where you just get seeded into your group. Right. And if you seed lower than your rank, you're out. He had four rules.

[00:29:58] If you hit one of these four criteria, you're pro. Okay. Like, if you played for the men's national team before, you're pro. Yep. If you're ranked pro on IFP, you're a pro. If you've won open singles or open doubles at a major event in Canada, you're pro. Like, I forget the fourth one, but there's ways around it. That's great criteria. That's a way to judge someone's past performance and put them in the right bracket. You know?

[00:30:25] Interesting, though, you know, this weekend, the level of play here, the level of performance, even in amateurs, because I played amateurs with Carl Fleischer, one of our other Patreons. By the way, Carl Fleischer, I don't know if you know Carl at all. No. Terrific guy. He's from the Denver area and just super, super smart and a lot of fun to play with. But we had some challenges in the amateur division. You know, I'm thinking, oh, you know, we should be able to win at least a couple of matches.

[00:30:55] Not so much. There were some really strong, I would say, expert level players in the amateur division here this weekend. Just saying. But if they are expert in IFP, they get bumped up. That's what I mean. Right. It comes down to the amount of touring that you do at the end of the day. Yep. We played, Dan and I played in Vegas last year, and we won handicap doubles. As experts, which means we go to seven.

[00:31:24] And we were playing beginners in both king seat and the final. Oh, wow. And as we were walking through the hallway, he said, okay, we have to take advantage of the things that they haven't learned yet. And I looked at him and I'm like, Dan, they probably played for 40 years. And they show up and they were seniors and they played for so long. They just haven't toured. Right. No one makes it to the final of handicap unless even as a beginner, even having to go to four. They have a game. Yeah. Everyone's got a game. Yeah. You can't take anything lightly.

[00:31:54] And I know we've been pivoting a bit here. That's my fault. No, no. That's fine. But going back to the ITSF World Series here this weekend, there wasn't the depth that you see in a Vegas or a Tornado Championships event. Colorado State, Texas State, et cetera. But every single event was, every bracket was hard. Oh, yeah. Every matchup was ridiculous. Yeah. Anyone listening, if you still have access to Coral to look at, you should look at Tony Friedemann's run in Classic.

[00:32:23] Just his five qualifying rounds. Yes. Was insane. Yeah. He played five Masters in a row. Wow. Wow. And that, so the way Swiss works, if you win, you play someone who won. If you lose two, you play someone who lost two. I got you. And you play people at the same rankings. Yes. So even though people are losing, you're still running in to Ryan Moore, Todd Lafredo. That's a fine how do you do. Yeah. Yeah. There's no easy way to the top. That's for sure. Yeah.

[00:32:52] Usually in the open bracket at a Vegas or the other majors, because this is the first one of this kind. So all the majors, historically, you have 20 rookie teams, 15 amateur teams, a few expert teams filling that bracket of 110 teams. Yeah. Yeah. Here, there's not that. Like, every team was so tough. Yeah. And that's a testament to, I think, people wanted to know or see what this was like. And I think there was a sense, even though there was a very short window of promotion

[00:33:20] for this event, I think there was a sense that there's something special, something different about this. You know, we have to go and see what it's all about. So I think there was a really good contingency of top pros, pro masters that showed up to see what's this all about? Is it something we can get behind? Is it game changing? I ran into several pro masters on the way down here today who were just sitting in the lobby and I just walked over and said hi.

[00:33:46] And one of them said, hey, this was extraordinary. This weekend was just pivotal. And I'm like, hmm, that's how they feel. And they're all basically agreeing to that, that this was a pivotal moment in what they're hoping would be what all tournaments were like in the future. Well, in Europe, this is how all tournaments are like.

[00:34:14] And those guys, so I've also toured in Europe. These guys have toured in Europe. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I'm surprised because they know what it's like. Like they played this format before. Sure. All of them have been in this exact situation. The single elimination takes a bit of getting used to. I guess. But I'm for it. I don't think that. I told you earlier in Moneyball, we got double dipped. Yes. We won king seed at about 7 p.m. on Friday. Mm-hmm.

[00:34:43] And we didn't play until 7 p.m. on Saturday, the final. Wow. That was also due to, maybe it was Thursday, Friday. I'm mixing the dates up. But it's also due to my partner having to work. Mm-hmm. So it was Friday. Thursday night, we had won it. But they didn't play it that night. We waited. And then Jeff was at work all day. Yeah. On Friday. Okay. And we don't play until a full 24 hours later. Wow. This is nice because you just continue to play. Oh, yeah.

[00:35:08] I don't like sitting king seat and waiting overnight, playing your finals at 10 a.m. the next morning. Oh, my goodness. That is the worst. And all the momentum you might have built up during the rise to the top is gone. And you've got to start from zero again. The team you're playing is just, depending on how far they've climbed through the loser bracket, they played at least one match, but they could have played 10 matches. Right. They just continue playing until they get to you. Yep. They're fully warmed up. Yep. Yep.

[00:35:37] These are the dilemma of the different formats that have been around for so many years, what we've all become accustomed to. What's right? What's wrong? How do we fix it? You know, does it need to be fixed? What's a good alternative? I've got to say, I mean, I enjoyed a double elimination tournament like everybody else. But you're right. There's just too much time in between matches.

[00:36:02] I love the fact you play continually for the first five rounds, take a break, come back, do the elimination round. And then if you win, you're in. But if you're not, well, you're done. Better luck next year. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And the whole thing is resolved. All the events are resolved by 10, 15 at night. Yep. End of story. One thing to note, though, I do, when I'm looking at the charts for the World Series and other tables in Europe,

[00:36:31] it's almost a new player winning every year. Oh, interesting. And if this was double 11 this weekend, does Ryan or Tony climb back? Like, we don't know, right? Right. That's a very good point. Well, it's hard. They get beat once. But it's really hard to beat them twice. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm not saying that the players can't, but. I mean, and Tony is famous for that. You know, coming back through the losers bracket and just annihilating and double dipping the king seat.

[00:37:00] That's just something he likes to do. Yeah. So, and I still think there's room for that. You know, there should be some events like that, but I don't know. I think you mentioned his name earlier, David Kala. Yeah, David. Yeah, David. He's been doing double elimination, but he does or similar to this weekend. And if you're playing the DYP, you can't play mixed. Yes. He chooses the events to try to avoid the conflicts because it's the conflicts. It's not the double limb that sucks.

[00:37:29] It's the conflicts in the double limb. Yes, exactly. Yeah. You know, you've got, you know, there are contemporary tournaments we have on a regular basis where, you know, if you're a beginner or a rookie, you could be in 10 events. If you are a beginner female, so you can play every mixed, every woman's event, every open event. There was one year at Vegas where there was a player, I believe she was in 26 events and did well. 26 events? Did well in all of them. Wow.

[00:37:58] So, yeah, the whole event was held up for, I would say, over a day. No kidding. Some majors where designated mix doesn't finish until 8 a.m., 10 a.m. Monday morning. That's astounding. You're playing all night. Oh, my God. And it's only because of conflicts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's, you know, there's clearly a better way of doing this. And I think this is a great example this weekend. So how about you? What's your next stop as far as the tour is concerned? I'm taking a break, actually. Are you?

[00:38:28] Yeah. Okay. This was, you asked to do this Patreon profile before, and I told you I wanted to finish something before I do that, and I want to finish that now. Okay. It relates to growth and promoting, I told you before. Yes. I'm just producing content. Yes. But I'm basically making a video series. I'm trying to put everything that I've learned from the game out to the world for free. Nice. Because the world needs it.

[00:38:57] Also, I've learned so much on YouTube. I became a fan of YouTube really early on. Big time. And I just want to give back to the YouTube world. Not just the foosball world, but anyone interested. Like, this is what I know, and I want to share it. So it's a teaching series. Yes. Nice. More than that. It's also, so I have a few videos up on a YouTube channel already. Okay. My channel is called Foosball Fanatic. Mm-hmm. And at first, so I don't want to get too deep into it. Sure.

[00:39:26] I'd be happy to talk about it once it's done. Love to hear more about it. Absolutely. I was talking to Jerry Todd this weekend, and I gave him the whole rundown. I just don't want to do too publicly until, I'd rather finish it first. No, no, no. I mean, but I think that's compelling in the sense that of recent history, we haven't seen too many. You know, I mean, we've had Foos by Tony and Foos by Brandon, which is individual lessons. Yeah. But the video series, I mean, Chase Pennell, and maybe, well, I'm trying to- Unreal Foos. Unreal Foos.

[00:39:55] Eric Dunn as well has his own. But it's been a while, you know, since we've got anything fresh. And I think that we can, technology's changed. Yep. I've got a tornado and a lean heart in my house, and I bought a high-quality camera, and I've got a video editor lined up. Excellent. So, I've got nothing. I was hoping to do tornado championships, but I've got a family commitment that weekend just lined up there. Gotcha. Okay. So, Colorado State is likely my next, but my focus when I get home is-

[00:40:25] That's going to be significant, for sure. To just pump out this content. Yeah. Wow. That's exciting. Also, the shop, too. So, I told you before, almost every customer that comes in blind, that's not a tournament player, asks the difference between Tornado and lean heart. Of course. So, I made a video comparing the Tornado versus the lean heart. Love that. Yeah. And then it's so much easier. Again, the non-profit is basically held up by Dan and me doing everything.

[00:40:54] The for-profit is only Dan and me doing everything, and we both have full-time jobs and lives. It's essentially, it's like 80 hours a week, I would guess. Wow. It's full-time. Yeah, that's a lot of work. My real job. My coworkers complain about work-life balance because we're busy, and I don't tell them fully what I'm doing because it's clearly competing. Like, if I could survive on foosball alone, I would do that. And I just don't need to tell them all of that right out of the gate.

[00:41:22] They know that I, like, they're very aware. Yeah, that you play. Yeah. But is there any opportunity to get a table in your workplace? I work from home now. Oh, got it. Okay. I actually fought for that prior to the pandemic. Okay. If I didn't have a dog right now, I would be, I can work remotely. So I would just be chasing tournaments and couch surfing and just hanging. That's the best. But I've got a dog that... Ain't technology grand, right?

[00:41:49] I mean, a good portion of what I do with voice coaches, as a voice coach, when I'm working with a student, it's oftentimes done through Zoom and facilities at home that I use, obviously. And I can do that most days of the week. Yeah. And I have no problem with that. And I think that's the wave of the future. Yeah. You know? So I fought for that for years because I would drive, like I mentioned before, it's over an hour. It depends if I'm going against the flow.

[00:42:18] Like, if I'm leaving the city, it's not as bad. But when I'm coming back, it's really bad. Sure. One and a half to two hours every day. That's a lot of extra time and money. I would get to the office. And the team that I was working with were in Calgary, Montreal, and Nelson. So not one of my coworkers was actually in my office, but my boss wanted me to come in. And for years, I'm like, I just don't understand. I'm like, can you just explain to me why? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:42:44] And then at one point, I basically, it was an ultimatum. Like, I'm going to be leaving. Yep. I was going to move. And I was like, I'm going to move. I can either stay in my current position and work over there. Mm-hmm. I can get a promotion and I can help us find new work as boots on the ground in a new region. Yes. Or I can quit. But I'm going there. And they chose option one. They said, well, yeah, we'll keep you working remotely. Mm-hmm.

[00:43:14] And I was supposed to start April 1st, 2020. And then March 13th, I don't think everyone here knows what happened. But my whole work went, our whole company went remote. Yeah. So I'm at home all day, which is nice. I have flexibility. And I've told them. It's a much better work-life balance. Yeah. And I'm working too much. But that's because I chose this life. Yeah. I'm young. I have a good opportunity in front of me. And I care a lot about foosball.

[00:43:42] There are some companies I know who have complained publicly about their workers not wanting to come back to the office. But they've also proven statistically that productivity has risen. People are more productive in their own environment. Go figure. And to me, it's just objective. Tell me what I need to get done. Mm-hmm. By what date. Mm-hmm. I either do it or I don't. And if I don't do it, then clearly it's not working. Right.

[00:44:11] And if I do do it, it's clearly working. Yeah. I don't understand the arguments against it. Depends on the context. Like, everyone has a different job, right? Yeah. I'm speaking specifically for my tasks, my day-to-day. Sure. Sure, sure. Obviously, some companies are going to be better with people in the office. If you're going to the office and your full-time occupation requires you sit on a laptop or a desktop computer the entire time you're there,

[00:44:37] then technically you don't have to be there having the need for light and heat and restrooms and coffee and Internet. That company's spending all that money in that building, maybe leasing the space or maybe owning the building. I mean, think about this. I mean, New York City right now has so much extra office space. They can't find occupants for half of the office space in Manhattan.

[00:45:07] Convert it. Right. Convert it over. Exactly. Exactly. I mean, think about the people that own those buildings and they thought, hey, here's a great investment for the future and oops, suddenly we can't find tenants. What's that all about? But you know what? It's a good change. That's life. Yeah, exactly right. Thanks change. Yep. Well, you know, I got to say, it's great to be sitting in the same room for change and to be at the same tournament together.

[00:45:34] I'm hoping that happens again soon and my voice holds out. But it's an absolute pleasure having you as a sponsor when it comes to Foos Talk Live and Foosball Radio. You know, Leonhardt USA is just great. I love working with you guys. And if there's anything I can do that anything better we can do for you, please let us know. We're always looking to improve our product as well.

[00:46:04] So as a Patreon, what drew you to that? Why did you become a Patreon? This is, I just love anyone that puts work into foosball. Okay. Okay. I don't know if this is a compliment or insult. I mean it as neither. Okay. It wasn't you. It was anyone that filled your role I was going to support. Okay. I... This might be a bold, I don't know.

[00:46:32] I don't like putting too many opinions out there because I'm very, very opinionated. No, I get you. I get you. But I don't think that putting foosball behind a paywall is the smartest idea. Got it. It costs more than Netflix. And you think, again, you can't rely on foosball players to support foosball. I think that the live streaming on Twitch and the free matches on YouTube. Yep. That's the way to go. Yeah. That's my personal belief. But I pay. Even if I don't even watch for six months, I pay them because they support foosball. Oh, sure. Sure, sure.

[00:47:00] So anyone that's supporting foosball, I support. Okay. Because I put in so many hours and I realize how, again, it's not very fruitful for a lot of people, but it's a labor of love. So, yeah. Yeah. I support people that support foosball. Thank you so much. I mean, it's... After subscribing, I really do like your content. Thank you. But I did that before I even listened, to be honest. Okay. As soon as I found out you existed, I just immediately did that.

[00:47:26] The odd thing that I keep going over and over in my mind as to why, but back in 2018, when the foosball radio first became a thing as a podcast, there was no other options. There was really nothing else out there. Sure. But I couldn't figure out why. Now we've got a bunch of products, which I really like. I really like what Modern Foos is doing with theirs. There's certainly Pandemonium with Mark Torres now, which I really enjoy too. And I just...

[00:47:56] It's like, you know, we need more of that. We need more coverage. We need to get not just one group or one person doing this, but many. And, you know, if it's media, that's great because that means you're getting out to a wider audience. All of the above. Even here, I keep telling myself that I'm going to do it. I bought that new camera. Yeah. I wanted to produce more content. I would love... I don't know if you're a fan of the UFC, but they do Embedded. Oh, yeah. Prior to a big...

[00:48:26] Usually the pay-per-view cards prior to that big event on Saturday. Okay. They release a video every day, and that's showing the main card fighters their travel, their training, their dieting, their weight cutting. It would be cool to see Lynn's journey through Europe over to Toronto, playing in the Toronto Foosball Club, coming here, winning her first World Series title. My Lynn Trani, she's a beast, man. Absolutely. Oh, man. She's amazing. Interesting.

[00:48:53] But I want to do that from my perspective. Yes. There's a lot of stuff on the back end of my life that leads up to these events as well, but I just can't... I just don't have... I'm one person. Yeah. Yeah. And when I get here, I need to prioritize being a player. Mm-hmm. I feel like my game has come up a lot since the pandemic, shifting from being in the office to at home where I have two tables. Sure. I can be on a meeting where I don't need to contribute, and I can just practice my five bar while I listen. Nice.

[00:49:23] It's just a different... Also, at the pub where I was playing weekly, there weren't as many top players, and it's weird for me to just go there and treat it like I'm trying to win every point. Mm-hmm. It's not fun for anybody. Right. So I would just play a funsy game. Sure, sure. But I would come to a tournament, and I would realize that I still have these flaws. So I think it's a flaw in a series. Like maybe option A and B are great. Okay. Once they take away option... You need an option C.

[00:49:53] Sure. So I just added option C to all of my series during the pandemic, and then my game leaped quite a bit. Interesting. And the guy running the tournaments. Oh, man. You're... Well, you know, you're going to burn yourself out here. We've got to be careful, right? You know, we've got to keep it in perspective and get more help. Yeah. But I think the next step is the video series that I'm working on. Wow.

[00:50:24] Like, I forget where I heard it, but I heard to make a list of your top 25 priorities. Mm-hmm. And then to rank them. Mm-hmm. And then look at the list of 6 to 25 and write, never do these. Because they take away from the most important. Yes. And you can justify in your head, oh, I'm being productive because I'm doing things 17. Mm-hmm. But just do number one. Like, figure out what you need to do and do it now. Yeah. And that's where I'm at.

[00:50:51] Because at this point, the maintaining the shop and the nonprofit is a full-time job. Yeah. And we're not growing. And if we don't grow, it's not sustainable for our workload. Right. Right, right. So we need to make leaps. And it's the same as all these productions. Every single time we see modern foos, it's newer. They're evolving. We just need to keep evolving for our side, Canada foosball. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, with the kind of effort you're putting in, I have a feeling that's going to happen. Yeah. That's great.

[00:51:21] I haven't thought about an alternative. I just. Yeah. No, that's so. All the way. Thank you for what you do, man. I mean, it's Canada, USA, Europe. I mean, this is, this is all one big family. And I think that, you know, again, I keep reiterating the fact that I think this weekend kind of showed that the European style in America with, with international flavor, this is where it should go. The payouts need to change a bit. Yeah. If you win and you can't pay for your hotel. Well, that's a problem.

[00:51:50] It's also a blend, right? Because in Europe, I played a tournament in Germany that had a hundred players. They capped it at a hundred teams. Okay. A hundred players? A hundred teams. A hundred teams. Yeah. Either way, five euros to enter. Wow. Five. Yeah. It's just like. Five euros. To cover costs, basically. Yeah. And you play for the bragging. Like, it's also. For the glory. And the Germans. So there were four Germans here, at least. I don't know actually how many players are here. Yep. That play and are strong players. Mm-hmm.

[00:52:18] They were not allowed to play in the men's event because they are not men's national team members. Huh. Like, I don't know all of the ins and outs of it, but basically they already have a lineup. And if it's not four players from that lineup, you can't go. Whereas Canada, we had the team that we represented. Mm-hmm. We're, we, so we had applicants apply at the beginning. 17 people applied. Okay. And the four that made it, none of them are here. Huh. And we just went down the list. Okay.

[00:52:48] We have no problem. Like, if anything, I think that's better. We have guys that played for the first time this weekend for Canada. Okay. That's experience that's going to make them better. Yes. So I guess maybe I'm. No, no. I don't agree with the way that. Like, I wish that the German team could have played. There was enough of them here. Like, it would have been nice. Yeah. It seemed. Well. And the seating. Let's put it this way. Let's say they do part two of this, this tournament next year at a different time. Maybe when more people can be here. More.

[00:53:17] You're going to see that. Right. If they gave more notice. Yeah, exactly. It's hard to get up. Like, even from Canada, it was hard. Because I had already booked Moneyball. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Everyone's got limited vacation days. Not everyone, but a lot of people have limited vacation days. And there's also funds and things that, you know, you kind of have to set aside money to do this kind of stuff. Absolutely. It ain't easy. But, yeah. I think next year, it sounds to me like they're already planning on it. Next year, doing this event again.

[00:53:43] And right here in Texas, I think it's appropriate because it's kind of like where the original championships used to take place anyway. When it came to the world. That's where my league started. Yeah. Was winning in Texas. Yeah, exactly. So, they're doing the right thing at the right moment. And, man, what a cool time to be a part of this and to see and just watch the whole thing take place. I just wonder what they're going to do for payouts.

[00:54:11] Because American events have always been really high entry fees. Decent payout. I was going to say, it depends on what you're relating it to. Yeah. But enough payout that if you're winning open events, you can pay for your wage. And this gets down to, you know, we keep talking about building a pro tour. So, a pro tour wherein if you're a pro or pro master, you end up with a sponsor.

[00:54:36] And that sponsor takes care of all your expenses when it comes to hotels and the things that you normally have to spend on your own. But also helps you with entry fees. And so, you're sponsored and you play for much larger prizes. Even looking back at the million dollar tour. Where I made the mistake of looking at my past results at world championships or other majors. Sure. And then looking at what the payout would have been if I got that place in the 80s. Mm-hmm.

[00:55:05] And not even adjusting for inflation. It was like, oh, that's like, it's significant. Yeah. It was a lot of money. A lot of money. Yep. And, yeah, to win a few hundred bucks. As it should be, though, because it is a professional sport. If it's treated this way as an athletic competition with very high level of proficiency, high level of commitment and dedication to becoming a pro, there should be remuneration as a return. Eyeballs. Yeah.

[00:55:35] Without eyeballs, there's no money. Yep, exactly. Exactly. Again, that goes back to my paywall thing. I just don't. Not the Patreon. Patreon's great. Oh, yeah. You're also, it's a ton of free content. Yeah. But, like, the biggest events in the world should be free. Yep. And they should be put on YouTube, like, almost immediately. Yeah. Like, just, I don't see why we would wait. Like, I don't think that the anticipation, like, I don't know the plan.

[00:56:00] So, as a player, like, when I'm not here, I'm very up to date on the stream and what's going on. I don't know, like, was this all free? Was this all not all? Not all. There was an aspect or two that it was free. I believe there was a couple of matches that were featured. I don't know if it was, it wasn't Twitch. It might have been YouTube, something like that, but only a few. Does it stay up? It will. Okay. Yeah. Because, yeah, I like the idea. If you miss the event, you can just watch it tomorrow. Right. Exactly. And that's the way it should be, you know, at all times. Yeah.

[00:56:30] No matter what the level of a tournament level is, it definitely needs to be accessible. It's like the mentality of newspapers. There was a limited amount of pages. Yeah. So, it was really, you're really particular about what you put into it. Yes. But that's gone. Now, it's an unlimited amount of paper, and you just throw as much stuff up there as you can. Yep. And some of these matches might not hit until three years from now or ten years from now. But they're still going to exist. Yeah. They're still going to be there. Yeah, yeah.

[00:56:57] It just takes one influencer, one celebrity, one moment that they talk about it, that it could hit the algorithm, and then everything's there. Then take off. Yeah. I think throw as much at the wall.

[00:57:12] We were talking with Julian and Daniel from the group called Foosball TV, and what a fascinating conversation these guys were saying how, you know, their initial production, when they first got into Foosball TV, and they were doing a production very much like this weekend, they had 600,000 viewers in the first month.

[00:57:41] 600,000. I posted one video of me doing a five-bar weave into a middle player pass on the three-bar, and then an immediate push kick. Yep. And then I put another ball on the table. So going back to skateboarding, there's differences between single clips and a line. A single clip is much harder, and you work really hard to get one single take, and a line is where you're putting together a string of clips. So I've taken that into Foosball. Yeah. If players look at any of the content.

[00:58:11] I'm really bad, historically, for posting. Like, I'm not a social media person. Yeah, yeah. I see the value in it. Sure. But even for my series, I didn't want to show my face until I realized that, objectively, it's better to see who the person is. Sure. Sure. It's not what I would naturally lean towards or want to do. Mm-hmm. But all of the videos I posted up until now, I do, like if I show a series, so the push kick, I do the five-bar pass. Yep. I show option one. I put the ball in the same place. I show option two, option three, option four. Cool.

[00:58:41] But I do it in a row. I'm not cutting the camera ever. I'm making sure that I hit all of them in a line, essentially. That's cool. And that's just the way that my brain's been programmed. Yep. I posted that on social media. I got three point, I haven't checked it in about six months, but it was at 3.4 million views. Whoa. People will watch. Really? Yeah. 3.4 million? Just from a push kick series. That's phenomenal. And I don't even shoot a push kick series. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool.

[00:59:08] Well, hey, if that's any indication of how it's going to go, then yeah, man, you know, full speed ahead. This is great. Yeah. 3.4 million. We could check now. It's probably more. Yeah. It's been months since I checked it. Jeez. That's amazing. That's astounding. Clearly, that's the right avenue to take for your video series. That's very cool. Yeah. That's short form, though. That's more of like catching the attention span. The week, I think, at the beginning, because I posted, I was on Instagram.

[00:59:38] Yeah. That's where I initially posted everything. And then I put the other ones on TikTok. So I just batch uploaded all of the ones that I already had. Okay. I just showed a bunch of different series that I have simultaneously. And the one that took off the most was the five bar weave at the beginning. It's something about the rhythm and the sound and the tempo. And the attention span of people now is short. Yes. Especially on that app. Like that plan is to just scroll through until you see something. Yep.

[01:00:05] So I just need to take that away from my next videos. Yeah. You got to start immediately. There's no... You can't... Even podcasts now. They take highlights and they throw it at the beginning. Oh, I know. You have to gauge... Like if you can get someone for 30 seconds... I don't know the actual numbers, but... Yep. ...of the metrics. But if you can get someone at the beginning, once they click like full screen, you have them for your full video. Gotcha. But the retention at the beginning is like super important. And that's an interesting metric. You have to...

[01:00:34] You know, we gauge that very specifically now. In the days of analog radio and TV, we had rating systems, but they were very inaccurate. Yeah. How do you know? The data was not accurate. Now, it's hardcore, man. You know exactly what the numbers are. You know how many people have looked at your video. Getting more precise, too. Yeah. I think they're tracking eyeballs. Yes. Are people looking away from their phone when this is on? No kidding. A little creepy. Wow.

[01:01:03] They know exactly what people are looking at and for how long. That's extraordinary. And so much data to gather. Yeah. And if you can read that data, you can reverse engineer it. And if you have a conclusion you want, you can create the path needed based on previous historical data. That's extraordinary. I mean, that has such potential, but also some danger, too, when you think about it. I think everything's equal. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[01:01:29] I think, not to get philosophical, but the yin-yang, half good, half evil, a little bit of good in the evil, a little bit of evil in the good. Yeah. I think another quote, every negative carries with it the seed of equal or greater positive. Right. And I think so many times, and most people listening probably can relate, something bad happens in your life. Mm-hmm.

[01:01:53] And then 20 years later, as you connect, because you can't connect thoughts ahead of time, but when you look back, you realize it was actually good. Mm-hmm. Like that negative thing turned out to be good in your life. Maybe you needed to leave that job. Yes. Maybe that relationship was not good for you. But in the moment, it's bad. You don't know it. But I don't think that everyone does the same thing for good. Like, it could be a good scenario that turns bad. Mm-hmm. Like, maybe that car accident you got in was because of that dream job you took on the other side of town. Right.

[01:02:20] So I try, like, I honestly, I don't put any, I don't put good or bad on any situation. Yeah. It's just a situation. Yeah. We add the... And you deal with that situation whatever way you can at the moment. What's in my control. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Well, Cam, I got to say, first of all, it's so cool to hang out. I think they're going to kick us out of here pretty quick. Yeah. Getting close. When are you heading back to Vancouver? Well, it depends on the storm. Yeah. Some flights are delayed. Yes. Even leaving my room to come down here.

[01:02:50] So we're still in the hotel. I just walked a few minutes to get here. And it was hailing. The winds were crazy. Yes. I know. Nobody's flying out right now. That's for sure. I'm rooming with my friends Jeff and Sarah. And their flight got delayed, I believe. Yep. So I haven't checked. Yeah. I'm sure mine is too. Mine was supposed to be 3.40 this afternoon. I don't think they're going to make that. 6.45 is my scheduled flight. But yeah. Yeah. So wait and see.

[01:03:18] But hey, let's do this again sometime soon. Looking forward to seeing you out there. You know, whenever you and I can certainly sit down and talk again. I want to hear more about your video series. I want to get the word out there as soon as we possibly can when you're ready, when you're set. Yeah. Of course. I'd be happy. I appreciate the opportunity. Oh, absolutely. And thank you again for being a Patreon supporter and a direct sponsor of Foosball Radio Foos Talk Live. We are so grateful. Yeah. And thank you for what you do. Thank you.

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