Texas is a hotbed of great foosball and Warren Vanlandingham Jr is one of the best players in Texas. What does he think of the ITSF World Series and what will help the sport of foosball?
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[00:02:05] And welcome to FoosTalk Live once again.
[00:02:07] Hey there, I'm Tom Robinson.
[00:02:08] We're back in action after being away in Dallas, Texas last weekend at the 2024 World Series of Tornado from ITSF.
[00:02:19] What a fantastic weekend.
[00:02:21] I don't really want to go into the details on how I got there and how I got home, but we maybe will talk about that in therapy later.
[00:02:27] Anyway, so we're back together again.
[00:02:30] And Randy, of course, the person who I really want to talk about foosball the most with out of the state of Alabama.
[00:02:37] Hello, Randy.
[00:02:38] Welcome back.
[00:02:39] Hey, Tom.
[00:02:40] Missed you, buddy.
[00:02:41] Yeah, no, it's last weekend and we had a couple of gremlins in the system.
[00:02:46] So we weren't able to get you in on the show last Sunday evening from the Westin Hotel for the 2024 ITSF World Series of Tornado.
[00:02:57] But hey, man, we talked about you.
[00:02:59] Yeah, I listened to the show.
[00:03:01] Shout out to Mike Green.
[00:03:02] I love you, buddy.
[00:03:03] And Donald, of course, one of my favorite people in foosball.
[00:03:06] And I watched a lot.
[00:03:08] Look, the tournament looked awesome, man.
[00:03:13] I really wish I could have made it.
[00:03:15] My wife and I went away.
[00:03:17] I was angry at her the whole time.
[00:03:19] Like I was in a bad mood.
[00:03:20] We had a terrible time.
[00:03:22] I was so mad at her.
[00:03:23] But the coverage was amazing.
[00:03:26] I mean, you know, Inside Foos was there.
[00:03:30] But it just it looks so it looks so good, dude.
[00:03:33] And the level of competition and everything.
[00:03:36] It just it looked it looked great.
[00:03:37] I mean, it really did.
[00:03:38] And the thing is, there was this this one kid from Austria that just kind of stole the show, man.
[00:03:44] Yes, Stefan, I believe his last name.
[00:03:47] Brumelter.
[00:03:48] Brumelter. Yeah, yeah.
[00:03:49] Yeah, something like that.
[00:03:50] Man, what a phenom.
[00:03:52] He stepped out there and took care of Ryan Moore.
[00:03:55] Brandon Munoz, Tony Spraeteman.
[00:03:58] And then I watched it.
[00:04:00] Yeah, you know, it's.
[00:04:03] And the thing is, he's he's a garlando player tornadoes, not as stable, but it looked like he adjusted well.
[00:04:10] Excuse me, Tom.
[00:04:11] I feel like and I've had this conversation with a couple of people that just, you know, foosball players that, you know, tour players that enjoy the game.
[00:04:19] And it's like, you know, when you're 17, one, you feel invincible.
[00:04:24] You know, your arm doesn't hurt and you can do whatever you want.
[00:04:27] And again, like I feel like when you when you look at some of the some of our top young players, Sammy and Jacob and kids like that, you know, like there's no financial burden, no financial responsibility.
[00:04:39] You don't have to worry about is my mortgage paid?
[00:04:43] Oh, am I can I go play?
[00:04:45] You know, they just go.
[00:04:46] They play. They enjoy it.
[00:04:47] And he just looked like he was having a really good time.
[00:04:49] Oh, yeah. You know, great for him and the kids.
[00:04:51] The kids awesome, dude.
[00:04:52] I really I really enjoyed watching him play.
[00:04:55] I think I think Jim said he won his garlando world championship when he was like 14 or something.
[00:05:00] Fourteen. That sounds about right.
[00:05:02] Yeah, man, that's crazy.
[00:05:03] Yeah, just that's crazy.
[00:05:05] He's like Billy Pappas or Sammy DeJon.
[00:05:08] He's got that that that fire at a very young age and really excelling.
[00:05:13] So, yeah, to do this on a tornado table when it's not his home table, that to me is pretty astounding.
[00:05:19] We watched.
[00:05:20] Of course, I sat with Nino DeJon in the stands and watched the match between Sammy and Stefan.
[00:05:27] Wow. Wow.
[00:05:30] I haven't watched it yet.
[00:05:31] How did it go? I know Stefan won, but how did it go?
[00:05:33] Oh, it was tight.
[00:05:34] It was very tight. In fact, it was ball for ball.
[00:05:36] And actually, I think it was Stefan's two row that did it.
[00:05:39] Oh, that's what I think carried.
[00:05:42] I mean, he beat he beat Ryan with it.
[00:05:43] He beat Tony like his match ball point on Tony was like a it was like a bump pull kick that he had.
[00:05:48] I mean, he that thing carried him through the weekend.
[00:05:50] He you know, look second, second open singles in that field.
[00:05:54] And then I think I think he got fourth and open doubles with his partner who is a good player.
[00:06:00] But by no means and no disrespect, no offense.
[00:06:03] But if you look at the top five, six, seven teams like that kid, that kid played some really good.
[00:06:10] He played some good for his ball.
[00:06:11] Made his country proud, I'm sure, for what he did last weekend.
[00:06:15] But yeah, good. Good for him.
[00:06:17] We'll be hearing this name again.
[00:06:18] I mean, I'm not going to go with Frederico Collignone at this level.
[00:06:22] It's too early for that.
[00:06:23] But who knows?
[00:06:25] You know, maybe he could be that caliber.
[00:06:28] Well, you know, again, he's 17 years old.
[00:06:30] Sky's the limit if he sticks.
[00:06:31] If he's saying, you know, obviously, I don't think a lot of American players understand European foosball.
[00:06:39] I mean, I certainly don't.
[00:06:40] I only know what I see and what I hear.
[00:06:42] But our players who have gone over that, you know, it's just a whole different world.
[00:06:47] You know, the draws have 30 teams and they have foosball every night.
[00:06:51] And so, you know, obviously the level of play over there is a little different.
[00:06:55] And I've heard like from Billy, he was like, dude, everybody over there is talented.
[00:06:59] They're all good players.
[00:07:00] Oh, yeah.
[00:07:01] They push each other and, you know, they play for pride and trophies and they're not worried about money.
[00:07:07] So it's just different.
[00:07:09] It's also a very deep field because you have a lot of players, maybe not top pros, but you have a lot of players to choose from.
[00:07:18] You know, the competition is fierce.
[00:07:20] Yeah, if he sticks with it.
[00:07:23] You know, he's 17.
[00:07:24] I mean, who knows?
[00:07:25] The kid might get a girlfriend tomorrow and forget about foosball.
[00:07:27] Who knows?
[00:07:28] Exactly.
[00:07:29] There's always that risk.
[00:07:30] They always run that risk.
[00:07:31] Well, I got to say, you know, after being in Texas, I mean, it was a great time at the tournament, but man, there were some pretty nasty storms during around the hotel in Dallas and some really tragic occurrences.
[00:07:45] There were a few deaths in the area.
[00:07:47] So that was rough.
[00:07:48] But hey, you know, the tournament went off and you know, if we're going to talk about Texas foosball, the best possible thing we can do is talk to somebody from Texas who's.
[00:07:57] I mean, essentially kind of a Texas legend, a guy that's been around foosball for a long, long time.
[00:08:03] So a name we've heard many, many times.
[00:08:05] Let's welcome Warren Van Landingham Jr.
[00:08:08] To FoodStock Live.
[00:08:09] Hello, Warren.
[00:08:10] Hello.
[00:08:11] How are you doing?
[00:08:12] Hey, thank you.
[00:08:13] It's an honor.
[00:08:14] Thanks for having me.
[00:08:15] Oh, absolutely.
[00:08:16] Yeah, no.
[00:08:17] Mike Green had said to me that he had chatted with you and said, you know, you'd be excited about coming on.
[00:08:21] So we thought, hey, why not?
[00:08:22] Let's let's talk about Texas.
[00:08:24] Let's get you on.
[00:08:25] And of course, you were there last weekend at the tournament.
[00:08:28] So before we talk about anything else, I just want to get your your your overall impression of what happened with the ITSF last weekend.
[00:08:37] Yeah, I mean, I like what they're doing.
[00:08:40] I like where they're headed.
[00:08:41] You know, I think I mean, if we're talking, you know, event presentation, everything, the tournament as a whole.
[00:08:50] Yeah, top notch.
[00:08:52] You know, it's hard as long as I've been playing as many tournaments I've been to to, you know, 100 percent like any tournament experience I have.
[00:09:05] Sure.
[00:09:06] But, you know, this one was pretty close.
[00:09:09] You know, I think the we're talking format on top of that.
[00:09:12] Mm hmm.
[00:09:13] Yeah, I think I would, you know, I would hit more tournaments a year, play more travel more if OK in this format.
[00:09:24] Huh?
[00:09:25] You know, I don't know if you like, I don't know if anybody notices how much I travel, but I mean, I get out, you know.
[00:09:33] Yeah, yeah.
[00:09:34] I've even played a couple of P4P tournaments in Germany.
[00:09:38] OK.
[00:09:39] You know, there's a time there was, you know, at least a 10, 15 year period where it was me and, you know, maybe two other Texans, you know, that I would see outside of Texas tournaments just going to everything.
[00:09:55] And being able to wrap everything up for the day, you know, in whatever city we're in at, you know, eight, nine, 10, 11 o'clock.
[00:10:06] What a gift.
[00:10:07] Yeah, that's unheard of.
[00:10:08] Yeah, that's a good time.
[00:10:10] I wish I could get back in the last 28 years of traveling, you know, and foosball.
[00:10:16] It's the bar in the hotel, I think benefited most because everybody was done by 1030.
[00:10:22] And I remember going to my room, I think that was there the first night.
[00:10:26] I didn't get there till Saturday, but the first night that I was there, I'm going down the hallway towards the the elevators and it's not far from where the bar location is.
[00:10:35] And man, it was like, like, it was just a din, a huge amount of noise.
[00:10:40] And I think, you know, that the Westin's 20 minutes at the most, maybe 15 from my house.
[00:10:46] So we were going back and forth quite a bit.
[00:10:51] But I would like to experience that out of town.
[00:10:57] Yeah, where? Yeah. You know, I don't have a car.
[00:11:00] I can't leave. This is where I'm going to be at.
[00:11:03] And I would like to experience this format.
[00:11:06] I can think of a lot of a lot of cities, a lot of towns that could have enjoyed more.
[00:11:10] You know that I just saw the airport to the hotel and back to the airport.
[00:11:14] Yeah. Yeah.
[00:11:16] And so it is in if people, you know, where the players, you know, regardless how much they really liked the I don't know the change was a shock for a lot of people.
[00:11:29] Right. Of course it is.
[00:11:30] It is for everybody's for everybody.
[00:11:32] But if you travel, if you go to as many events as I do, this is what I want.
[00:11:40] OK, so can you can you just can you can you clarify for the listeners what format was used specifically for this event, please?
[00:11:48] Yeah, so Swiss.
[00:11:51] Every event I saw except open mixed was five guaranteed qualifying matches regardless of your record.
[00:12:00] Mixed was four. I don't know about all the other events.
[00:12:03] I didn't play in over seniors.
[00:12:05] Seniors over 63 was was for.
[00:12:09] OK, so so anything that wasn't basically like essentially I mean, I don't see why open mix wouldn't be a main event, but it seems like the open events and the pro events.
[00:12:22] And now you couldn't play Pro events, correct? Right.
[00:12:25] OK, so all those were five and then everything else was four.
[00:12:29] OK, and in mix, you know, mix was on Monday and I'm sure I'm speaking for everybody by Monday.
[00:12:36] Nobody cared about not playing an extra match or qualify.
[00:12:40] You know, we were pretty much cooked at that point.
[00:12:42] You know, we were baked at that point.
[00:12:44] But yeah, so all you needed was two out of five matches or two out of four to qualify.
[00:12:51] Yes.
[00:12:52] And then you're in single limb.
[00:12:54] And yeah, you know, for me, just, you know, so you're not like I'm I'm very much introvert and I'm not real chatty.
[00:13:05] But if you want to get me talking, ask me about tournament formats.
[00:13:10] That's my opinion. Yeah. You know, ask me about points rankings and ask me about my dogs.
[00:13:16] And I'll probably just know this is perfect.
[00:13:18] Well, let's start here. What kind of dogs do you have?
[00:13:20] English bulldogs. Thanks for asking. Awesome. Awesome, dude.
[00:13:24] I love that. I got I got an American bully. She's my baby.
[00:13:27] I love her. It's like my dog and then my wife. It's like this. Cool. Right.
[00:13:32] So no, no, this is good. So because the formats now has become such an issue.
[00:13:37] Right. And everybody has their opinion.
[00:13:39] And I've said it on here before. Well, a championship format.
[00:13:42] I mean, it doesn't it doesn't bother me.
[00:13:44] I like I understand there are people that get frustrated because when I started, dude, look, I went to tournaments.
[00:13:50] I went to and out. It happened then.
[00:13:52] And I got to tell you, I've played Swiss and I've done round robins.
[00:13:56] And I love the fact that you get guaranteed like with this ITS of event.
[00:14:00] Right. If you played open, you're playing six.
[00:14:02] I mean, if you win two, you're guaranteed five at least.
[00:14:05] And if you get into the single limb, you're guaranteed six.
[00:14:08] Six matches in one event. If you go play a double limb, like depending on how big the field is, if you win six matches, essentially, you might be sitting fifth or playing for king seat.
[00:14:18] So, you know, I mean, and the huge difference is, you know, if I win six matches of any ten thousand dollar event or higher, ten grand or higher.
[00:14:29] Right. I'm probably going to be in the finals.
[00:14:33] I'm going to be out there, but absolutely it's going to take three days.
[00:14:36] Yeah. You know, and this I'm done in, you know, essentially one day and a day.
[00:14:43] That's like six hours, seven hours. They were knocking out an event.
[00:14:48] That's great. I can, you know, I mean, 28 years of traveling to tournaments.
[00:14:53] I'm sure I got a thousand stories about delays and whatever.
[00:14:56] But I'll tell you the most relevant one because it just happened.
[00:14:59] So we just went to Minnesota State. Okay.
[00:15:02] With Brandon Morland, we played out there.
[00:15:06] First of all, man, you can't meet a nicer group of football players.
[00:15:12] Minnesota. Yeah, dude.
[00:15:14] The players, the people running it.
[00:15:18] You know, maybe the friendliest on the planet, I think.
[00:15:20] I mean, I can't say enough. I can't say enough about them.
[00:15:23] But I'll tell you the, you know, schedule was bad.
[00:15:27] Everybody knows it. You know, the whole room was talking about it.
[00:15:30] How, how jammed up the tournament got with the conflicts and everything.
[00:15:33] We were the, the, the, they were, it was in an event room that's supposed to be kick everybody out at midnight or one.
[00:15:42] But we're playing the finals of open doubles at two thirty.
[00:15:45] Okay. A.M. on Sunday.
[00:15:48] We finish. And so I went back and, you know, I went back and watched the broadcast. Right.
[00:15:53] Watch the replay of the match. Right.
[00:15:55] And we finished the match and I hear Sadie and whoever was on there say, well, wow.
[00:16:03] Brandon and Warren, they don't look very excited. They just want open doubles.
[00:16:07] And I'm like, if this was finals, we played at six o'clock today.
[00:16:11] Like the bar still open people in the room to celebrate.
[00:16:14] We were the last match of the night. You know, there was no one else in the room.
[00:16:18] As soon as we shook hands, they're pushing us to the registration desk to get paid and leave.
[00:16:24] And, you know, and the event started the day before.
[00:16:28] And, you know, we, we were, we were there at nine thirty a.m.
[00:16:32] And stayed till two in the morning, two nights in a row.
[00:16:37] So when you, you know, when you shake hands at two thirty a.m., after all that's happened that whole weekend, you can't go grab a beer.
[00:16:44] I'm not much of a drinker, but I will have a celebration beer, you know, and there's nothing.
[00:16:50] No one's there. Everybody's gone anyways.
[00:16:53] If you need an explanation of why we didn't look, we weren't doing cartwheels and backflips and celebrating and high five and after just winning a ten grander.
[00:17:01] Right. That's why.
[00:17:06] Anyways, that's that's just the most relevant recent experience.
[00:17:09] But, you know, have stories like that all over the place. Right.
[00:17:14] Well, we had we had Seth Nelson on who put on Minnesota State and super nice guy.
[00:17:21] I mean, those dudes up there are great.
[00:17:24] You know, but it's it seems sometimes all too common in the world of foosball to where the biggest matches that should be the most celebrated and most watched.
[00:17:35] Go.
[00:17:36] Unwatched and nobody, nobody cares because you're playing a final at two o'clock in the morning.
[00:17:42] Like, dude, I don't want to play a final at two o'clock in the morning.
[00:17:44] Look, I go to bed. OK.
[00:17:46] For example, this show Sunday night. Right.
[00:17:48] I'm in Alabama. I think you and I are on the same time clock.
[00:17:50] Tom's an hour ahead. He's East Coast.
[00:17:53] We get done at nine quarter past nine.
[00:17:55] I've already taken all my nighttime drugs.
[00:17:57] So I start getting a little around eight forty five. Right.
[00:18:00] Dude, that explains everything.
[00:18:02] Oh, yeah.
[00:18:03] I turn into a chatty Cathy, but I'm up at five, dude.
[00:18:05] Like I'm in bed at nine and up at five every day.
[00:18:07] So when I go to a tournament, it throws my my clock way, way off.
[00:18:11] But I'm dude, I'm not the guy that wants to be playing a match at 11 or 12 or even one o'clock in the morning.
[00:18:17] Hell no.
[00:18:19] The typical response I get from tournament staff anywhere.
[00:18:22] It doesn't matter who they are.
[00:18:24] Doesn't mean you name a staff a tournament.
[00:18:26] It's you know, they call you after 1230 a.m.
[00:18:29] And they're like, well, it's only 1230.
[00:18:31] Well, yeah. If we walked in the door at nine p.m., walked in the door at nine p.m., we didn't play that fine.
[00:18:37] All right. It's only 1230 because we do that every Saturday.
[00:18:40] Sure. But we were there at 10 a.m.
[00:18:43] And we were there till two a.m. the night before and then usually to him the night before and back at 10 a.m.
[00:18:48] That's why it matters that it's 1230.
[00:18:51] It's tough.
[00:18:52] That is really tough.
[00:18:54] The idea of even playing in the morning before noon was was was rough.
[00:18:58] Although we did it.
[00:18:59] And but the best thing was there was a break at two o'clock.
[00:19:03] Everybody everybody was out of the tournament room having lunch, hanging out, doing whatever and a full hour of break.
[00:19:09] And then you come back and then you play the the elimination round.
[00:19:13] I thought that was the bad.
[00:19:14] The first day, you know, I didn't the Friday of the tournament.
[00:19:18] I know what to expect. Right.
[00:19:19] Then I saw the lunch break and everything.
[00:19:21] Oh, man, the next two days, I was ready for it.
[00:19:23] Mm hmm.
[00:19:24] Let me just eat just a little bit.
[00:19:26] I was ready for it.
[00:19:27] Mm hmm.
[00:19:28] Let me just eat just enough to make it till two.
[00:19:31] I know we're going to go get lunch, man.
[00:19:34] I was ready for it after the first day.
[00:19:36] I knew exactly what we're how the whole day was going to go.
[00:19:39] You know, over the years, like the biggest struggle for me is that people outside of foosball.
[00:19:46] Oh, when do you play?
[00:19:47] When can I watch?
[00:19:48] Mm hmm.
[00:19:49] When can I see you?
[00:19:50] I have an answer.
[00:19:52] Who the hell?
[00:19:53] No, I can't.
[00:19:54] You cannot tell somebody that's interested in watching you play when at these tournaments.
[00:19:58] You can't.
[00:19:59] There's no answer.
[00:20:00] Right.
[00:20:01] And that's frustrating.
[00:20:02] You know, I think, you know, this this format wasn't perfect.
[00:20:10] No, no format I've ever played in foosball is.
[00:20:12] But I'll tell you this.
[00:20:15] You know, the first time someone, you know, a table vendor goes, hey, you know, I should run a tournament,
[00:20:25] a foosball tournament for the first time.
[00:20:27] Let's run a tournament.
[00:20:28] Let's have people out, you know, whatever.
[00:20:30] Let's do a weekend event.
[00:20:31] He goes, let's do, let's do double elimination.
[00:20:34] I don't know.
[00:20:35] I've never done this before.
[00:20:36] Sure.
[00:20:37] Here we are 40 years later still doing double elimination tournaments.
[00:20:41] It's archaic.
[00:20:42] Yeah.
[00:20:43] You know, to me, it's just archaic.
[00:20:44] It's a scheduling issue.
[00:20:48] You know, it'd be another thing too.
[00:20:49] Like we show up on Saturday night if we play a double a limb.
[00:20:52] Well, there's nothing else going on.
[00:20:54] Yeah.
[00:20:55] But here there's conflicts.
[00:20:56] I mean, you know, I think most of these formats would work if they were no conflict.
[00:21:03] Period.
[00:21:04] No doubt about it.
[00:21:05] Start event, end event.
[00:21:06] If you're out of the event, you go play something else.
[00:21:11] That alone would advance foosball like 30 years.
[00:21:15] And just, you know, the refusal of people who come up with tournament flyers and scheduling and promoters to do a no conflict is unbelievable.
[00:21:26] But I tell you, you know, you people would still be playing that aren't people would travel more.
[00:21:35] I mean, these things would happen.
[00:21:37] And, you know, of course, you got no proof, right?
[00:21:39] You can't.
[00:21:40] Well, now you do.
[00:21:41] But I mean, Texas State, Texas State does it every year and no to like no conflict.
[00:21:44] They get the flyer out.
[00:21:45] They put the events in the Times and they give you the boxes and you can pick here.
[00:21:49] And I mean, and Texas State gets a turnout every year, man.
[00:21:52] Texas State's one of the best.
[00:21:53] I mean, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:21:57] And, you know, even, you know, even they don't have it fully figured out like again, like, you know, I think a purest no conflict event would still even go even better.
[00:22:10] So, you know, I think we were in the finals of open doubles.
[00:22:15] Me and Vukow, right?
[00:22:17] And so I always give this story because I think Texas State is the best run tournament that hands down we have in the United States, right?
[00:22:25] In America, right?
[00:22:26] It's the best run tournament.
[00:22:28] But because it's still not truly no conflict, you get situations where we played for king seat on Saturday, the tournament around six o'clock, six p.m.
[00:22:40] We played the losers bracket final because we lost to Tony around five or six p.m.
[00:22:45] on Sunday and we played the finals on Monday around three or four p.m.
[00:22:50] Why?
[00:22:51] Now, how do you focus?
[00:22:53] Like, what's how does a competitor stay up for I went back and watched our winners bracket match was incredible ball for ball.
[00:23:02] Everybody on the table seemed like they were into it.
[00:23:04] I went watch the losers bracket match.
[00:23:06] And Vukow won that match by himself.
[00:23:09] It seemed like myself and our two opponents just seemed like they were just completely out of it because it had been 24 hours since we'd played like I look terrible in that match.
[00:23:18] And not the only reason we won is because VU was the only one on the table that was focused.
[00:23:22] But when you do that, it's like a coin toss to me.
[00:23:26] It's not competition anymore.
[00:23:28] You know, when you grow up playing sports like I have, you can't get a lot of competition.
[00:23:32] You have a scheduled start time.
[00:23:35] You prepare for it.
[00:23:37] You play it.
[00:23:38] It's over.
[00:23:39] You know, you can't do that when you don't know when you're going to play.
[00:23:43] I know championships been a big, you know, that, you know, of course, I could talk for an hour just on these formats.
[00:23:50] But I will tell you my experience at championship, which, you know, I wanted to share with Mary and talked about this.
[00:23:59] Let's come up with a better solution.
[00:24:01] But not that she listens to me, but I just wanted to have a conversation with her.
[00:24:04] But I lost in and doubles and mixed.
[00:24:10] I lost two very close overtime matches.
[00:24:13] OK, somewhere in the winter, somewhere around the quarterfinals.
[00:24:16] All right.
[00:24:17] To two, you know, pro seeded teams and we lose and we're going over time.
[00:24:21] We lose both events.
[00:24:25] I waited six hours and this is six hours.
[00:24:28] Not like, hey, come back in six hours.
[00:24:30] This is six hours the same day of check in brackets, wondering when you're going to go.
[00:24:34] Wow.
[00:24:35] You know, looking, looking, warming up, waiting, waiting.
[00:24:37] I don't know. I don't know.
[00:24:38] OK, they call me just by coincidence.
[00:24:40] Both events have been about six hours to go play a two out of three and lose five, four, five, four.
[00:24:46] And I'm out of the event.
[00:24:49] Six hours.
[00:24:50] What was the point of this great scheduling?
[00:24:53] If you don't follow it up with the second part of it.
[00:24:56] Yeah, you know.
[00:24:58] Anyways, well, but, you know, just again, you know, no conflicts like, like, you know, I see them playing the other guys that were waiting on pro teams and other events and we're waiting and they're playing all around.
[00:25:11] And you just see all this stuff go on if you if you obsessively watch brackets like I do and so unlike to complain about it.
[00:25:18] I mean, this ITSF format, the way it was run, it was so smooth.
[00:25:23] And I think it was the most player friendly experience that I've had in my limited experience when it comes to going to tournaments, but the most player friendly for sure.
[00:25:32] So let me ask you a question though, if I could, if I could intervene.
[00:25:35] So there was about 200 people at this tournament, right?
[00:25:38] How does the format do with 400 players?
[00:25:42] And I know they run it in Europe with like they said the Bonzini, the one they just had the Bonzini one had like 600 players at it.
[00:25:49] You know, I mean, that's that's a lot of player but how do we do with double, you know, double the turnout?
[00:25:54] Like, does it still run as smoothly?
[00:25:56] Is it still going to be, you know, the same?
[00:25:58] Are they going to be done at 10 o'clock every night?
[00:26:00] If they have more tables, if they have enough tables.
[00:26:03] If the events are, you know, regardless of the size, right?
[00:26:08] If it's no conflict, I can deal with whatever wait time you throw at me because I'm used to waiting 20 hours to play a match and advancing a bracket.
[00:26:18] OK, so if I have to wait, you know, 30 minutes or an hour to play my next round of the qualifiers because they got to they got to cycle through all the tables a couple of rounds before I get to play the next round.
[00:26:29] Man, give it to me.
[00:26:30] Throw it at me.
[00:26:31] Yeah.
[00:26:32] And I think they do have the flexibility to make it four rounds instead of five in a qualifier.
[00:26:38] They have that flexibility, right?
[00:26:40] If we're talking about we need to finish at a certain time.
[00:26:43] But then if I only have to focus one event for the day and I'm waiting as much as the next guy in the whole room, give it to me.
[00:26:54] You know, I'll compete at that, especially after what I've been through the last, you know, 20 years.
[00:26:58] Right. Sure. It's going to be a better, better situation.
[00:27:02] Yeah. Yeah. And you know, the time thing for me is like, like I said, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm an early riser.
[00:27:09] So, you know, when these tournaments get, you know, when I'm when you're there on a Saturday and, you know, your event starts, whatever.
[00:27:18] And, you know, but you're playing till, you know, oh, we're gonna call matches to 130.
[00:27:22] It's like, OK. And you're fortunate enough to not get a match called.
[00:27:27] You're out of there at 130. But if you do, you got to play if it takes 30 minutes or an hour, whatever. Right.
[00:27:33] So now for me and I can only speak for myself, but do when I get done and I go back to the room, I got a shower and go to bed.
[00:27:39] I got to turn my brain off.
[00:27:41] But I'm sitting there thinking about, you know, every match, the balls and mistakes I made, the things I should have did different.
[00:27:47] Dude, I don't end up falling asleep till four or five in the morning.
[00:27:49] And then they want us back.
[00:27:51] Minimum two hours away from going to bed.
[00:27:53] You know, we go to sleep after, you know, last match is called.
[00:27:56] Yeah, dude. And then it's like, oh, I have to I have to get up.
[00:27:59] I have to get up and I have to get ready and I have to hydrate, eat breakfast and then be in the room to warm up to play a match at 11 o'clock or whatever.
[00:28:08] It's like, dude, it's just a straight like the older I get now, you know, I've dude, it takes me like two weeks to recover from a tournament.
[00:28:16] It's so bad now. It's so bad, man.
[00:28:18] It's and even just playing a couple of events.
[00:28:20] I, you know, when I was a rookie, I'd played everything.
[00:28:22] Now it's like you're talking about no conflict.
[00:28:24] Dude, I'm not conflicting anything.
[00:28:26] Trust me. I'm like, I'm a nationals.
[00:28:28] I'm playing open doubles, pro doubles.
[00:28:30] That's it. Like I don't play pickup games.
[00:28:32] Dude, I would I would love to see these things just go smooth.
[00:28:36] And I have my own opinions as to why they don't.
[00:28:39] I think there's I think there's too many, you know, too many.
[00:28:43] We don't need rookies and amateurs.
[00:28:45] I think rookies and amateurs are the same.
[00:28:47] When I started, there was no beginners.
[00:28:49] There's there's too many divisions.
[00:28:51] There's too many events.
[00:28:52] There's too much fluff.
[00:28:53] I think we could trim the fat and really make it make it good.
[00:28:57] But I'm just I'm a guy that plays who's ball.
[00:29:00] So I don't I don't I don't know squat.
[00:29:02] I just go pay my money in place.
[00:29:04] I mean, you know, I think I'm OK with the different.
[00:29:07] Sorry, Tom. No, no, I think I'm OK.
[00:29:10] I'm OK with the different rankings if if it makes sense scheduling wise.
[00:29:16] Yeah, like I don't mind having events for the beginners who went to
[00:29:21] and out in something or who didn't qualify the rookies or the amateurs,
[00:29:25] giving them our own event if it fits into the schedule.
[00:29:28] If you put, you know, when a flyer comes out and you look at it,
[00:29:31] it says, OK, we start at, you know, 5 p.m.
[00:29:35] on Friday and we in the last events at 5 p.m.
[00:29:38] on Sunday. That sounds reasonable.
[00:29:41] Yeah. But the reality is that 5 p.m.
[00:29:44] that Sunday is going to go till four or five in the morning.
[00:29:47] That's not on the flyer.
[00:29:49] You know, well, it's like those events are going to get
[00:29:52] those days are going to get so extended that you really haven't
[00:29:57] scheduled it right.
[00:29:58] You really have a good job of schedule.
[00:30:00] Well, if you if you can fit it in, then we have have the event.
[00:30:03] If you have a certain time of the weekend where you can set aside,
[00:30:06] let's say for someone who's never played a tournament before,
[00:30:09] you know that all by itself, maybe, you know, set up in a certain
[00:30:13] set of part of the ballroom where where there's nothing else
[00:30:16] happening, that would be fine because no, I'm glad you said it.
[00:30:20] I like like I like looking at, you know,
[00:30:24] a pool does what the arts was doing in Vegas.
[00:30:27] What man World Series, a poker does.
[00:30:30] You should have.
[00:30:32] Handful of tables, small amount designated for 24 hour
[00:30:37] D.Y.P.s. There you go.
[00:30:39] Like let them like they're they draw it up.
[00:30:43] Eight teams play the drop another one right.
[00:30:46] Even single limb and they just go and people can play all they want.
[00:30:49] And man, the tournament directors can take a rake and take a cut
[00:30:53] and make a little bit off of it.
[00:30:55] And it's just going and people can play all they want.
[00:30:58] And then you have your serious stuff that's single limb or
[00:31:03] qualifiers to single limb or something that's no conflict.
[00:31:06] That's not, you know, those two paths aren't crossing.
[00:31:10] Right. I mean, I can't tell you how many times my open
[00:31:13] events been held up for a Goli Wars match.
[00:31:15] Yeah, right. You know, yeah.
[00:31:17] I mean, I'm not sure if it's because of the
[00:31:21] competition or the D.Y.P. from two days ago.
[00:31:25] Yeah.
[00:31:26] My open match gets put on.
[00:31:29] Here's a, here's a.
[00:31:30] And it's not just because it's open, but it's because.
[00:31:33] That event didn't finish.
[00:31:35] The reason I'm complaining is because that event didn't finish
[00:31:38] or, you know, and now my event has started and it just
[00:31:43] shouldn't, shouldn't be like that.
[00:31:45] And I mean, I had things set up for the pit.
[00:31:47] I mean, it was a beautiful setup.
[00:31:48] You know, it looked like a like a real professional
[00:31:51] athletic event set up with the with the big, you know,
[00:31:57] stands and the stands.
[00:31:59] Yeah, stands.
[00:32:00] And of course they had this big mural behind it.
[00:32:02] It looked awesome.
[00:32:03] And of course he had tables one, two and three side by side.
[00:32:06] But my only question here is there were certain moments
[00:32:09] where we had the finals of let's say an open finals.
[00:32:12] The first one was a competition,
[00:32:14] and the second one was the national competition.
[00:32:17] And the second one was,
[00:32:18] and the third one was the national competition.
[00:32:21] And then the one right next door was let's say the national
[00:32:24] competition happening simultaneously.
[00:32:26] And they're trying to encourage people to cheer and,
[00:32:28] and, and yell and scream for the,
[00:32:30] for their favorite team.
[00:32:35] But.
[00:32:36] Is that an issue when it comes to distracting the other
[00:32:39] tables that are also playing.
[00:32:41] What do you think Warren?
[00:32:44] I think that's a good question.
[00:32:45] I think that's a good question.
[00:32:46] I think that's a good question.
[00:32:48] I think that's a good question.
[00:32:49] I think that's a good question.
[00:32:51] I think that's a good question.
[00:32:53] Here's,
[00:32:54] I think here's where cheering distractions, these things.
[00:32:58] The lines get kind of cross and people, you know,
[00:33:01] Oh, you're for this, but you're not for that.
[00:33:03] When.
[00:33:04] When we're playing on the.
[00:33:06] The tables in the main area that are literally 12 inches from
[00:33:10] each other. Yeah.
[00:33:11] Right.
[00:33:12] So yeah,
[00:33:13] we're trying to help the players to,
[00:33:15] to create a conversation with their outside voice and
[00:33:20] we're in an intense match.
[00:33:21] They're right there.
[00:33:22] Way different than if I'm in the pits and there's a crowd.
[00:33:26] They should be able to do whatever they want.
[00:33:28] Different experience because for one,
[00:33:30] they're not 12 inches away.
[00:33:31] You know,
[00:33:32] they're reasonable distance away.
[00:33:35] Right.
[00:33:36] But it's, it's, it's a,
[00:33:38] It's totally two different conversations.
[00:33:40] totally two different conversations. One should never happen, the other one should be encouraged.
[00:33:47] I will say just a sidebar, especially it happens to most of Worlds because I think Worlds gets the
[00:33:53] most people in the stands to watch the matches. Just the way the hotel's configured and everything
[00:33:58] that seems to be the only time I go to any tournament all year where I'm looking for
[00:34:04] a place to sit down happens at Worlds and people don't always cheer or they don't know when to cheer.
[00:34:13] I think everybody's so familiar with each other in foosball. You know somebody on both teams that
[00:34:19] maybe is a friend of yours or you like and how you're going to... Man, I think a simple solution
[00:34:25] is half the stands is for the yellow side and half the stands is for the black side.
[00:34:31] And if you're in those designated areas, that's your permission. Here you go. Cheer for that team.
[00:34:41] And if the people that are shy hesitate, don't want to cheer, all these things, if you did that,
[00:34:48] just like you go to any sporting event, it has a home on the wayside,
[00:34:52] man, you're going to cheer your ass off. You're going to say whatever you want to say.
[00:34:55] Yeah.
[00:34:55] You know, and you're just basically given permission. But when I'm, you know, I may on the left of me
[00:35:00] have the brother, mom or dad of one player and to the right of me have the best friend of the
[00:35:08] other player, you know, like, oh, what do I do? I can't root for the team, whoever I want to
[00:35:13] root for. It's awkward. You know, you don't know what to do. You don't know what to say.
[00:35:16] I mean, I just think stands would be a little more active and it'd be a lot more fun if you
[00:35:23] did something like that. Oh, yeah. Agreed. No, it's that's audience participation
[00:35:29] is really the thing that sets other sports apart.
[00:35:33] How to make some bets. Yeah. Yeah, it really does. I mean,
[00:35:35] like the darts thing, if you ever see the darts competitions that take place in the,
[00:35:41] it looks like a big giant huge pub and there's just people sitting at tables and chairs
[00:35:45] drinking heavily, watching these dart players and just never shut up. It's a constant den.
[00:35:51] It's like a huge, you know, my, I think my biggest takeaway of the World Cup,
[00:35:57] the ITSF World Cup was always the shot of the crowd. Yeah. That was, I think the thing that
[00:36:04] separated those matches from matches we see here was just the shot of the crowd,
[00:36:13] it was just such a small thing. How easy would it be to fix that? To have one side
[00:36:18] clearly cheering for the other and anyways. Well, no, and I mean, as far as we play our locals
[00:36:27] in a location that's loud, you know, it's, I mean, we're playing in public. So as a player,
[00:36:34] I think you kind of learn to work through that and focus and do what's in front of you.
[00:36:41] Yeah. The only thing that distracts me is karaoke, whether it's good or bad. I mean,
[00:36:45] it drives me freaking nuts. So when I'm at a tournament, like you said, when you're in the
[00:36:55] big room, it's like, there's all kinds of noise going on. So you just, I'm focused on what's in
[00:36:59] front of me. When I'm in the pit, it's completely different and, you know, I love it, man. I
[00:37:05] appreciate it. I really do. People in the stands and, you know, inside foods or whoever's
[00:37:09] there commentate like, man, I love that stuff. I get up for that stuff. It really, it just,
[00:37:15] it does it for me, you know? And I know there are some players that thrive in that atmosphere
[00:37:19] and some players that kind of crack, but, you know, as far as the cheering, Mississippi
[00:37:24] State a couple years ago was post COVID-22 maybe the one that Shannon Coley ran.
[00:37:32] Shannon was like, I want everybody cheering, dude. I was in the stands cheering the whole,
[00:37:36] I was screaming. So, you know, and, and I mean, I love that stuff. I do foosball. I mean,
[00:37:42] it's a participant. It's a participation sport. We should be able to cheer for whoever the hell
[00:37:47] we want to cheer for. So, um, may I, you know, like I said, it's just about execution.
[00:37:53] Yeah. Yeah. Setting up, you know, setting up the crowd the right way, encouraging them to
[00:38:00] cheer different things like that. I mean, it's just how you execute it. May I say that
[00:38:04] last week at the same time on Foodie's Talk Live, it was myself and Don Wilson and Mike Green
[00:38:10] off in the corner, you know, we're away from the stands doing the show and the women's open doubles
[00:38:16] final was taking place. It was an intense, intense match. Very, very intense.
[00:38:20] That was a great match. That was a great match. That was a great match.
[00:38:23] So there were people near where we were turning around and shushing us saying,
[00:38:27] be quiet, you know? We're like, well, we're not making any noise. We're not yelling. We're
[00:38:31] just sitting here having a normal conversation, but they were like, oh, shh, be quiet. So we,
[00:38:35] at the end of the show, we were kind of like doing the golf match thing. And yes, and
[00:38:40] next weekend we'll be talking about... Oh, it's a good thing I wasn't there,
[00:38:44] Tom. It's a good thing I wasn't there. Oh man.
[00:38:48] What can I tell you?
[00:38:50] You could tell me who it was. Tell me who was shushing you.
[00:38:53] You know, I think that responsibility falls on the event staff to just lead everybody,
[00:39:05] let them know what to expect, what to cheer for. You know, I've been to big events,
[00:39:14] you know? I think A&M versus Texas game at A&M sitting in the student section
[00:39:21] and they have cheer leaders for this, just for the crowd.
[00:39:25] Wow. Right?
[00:39:26] Yeah, there you go.
[00:39:27] And it was a great experience because you're like, oh, now I'm supposed to get into it.
[00:39:31] All right, let's get everybody going. You know, imagine just somebody just walking
[00:39:35] in and sitting down not knowing what's going on. Oh, now they know what to expect, right?
[00:39:40] Same thing. You know, if you make one announcement and say, hey, because I've,
[00:39:46] it's rare, but it's happened at Foosball tournaments. Hey, everyone be loud.
[00:39:51] Like you were saying, Shannon Cole was telling people, be loud. Okay. Well,
[00:39:55] that person's not going to shush you. If for some reason they want it to be like a tennis
[00:40:00] match, well tell the whole crowd, hey, I want dead silence while the balls in play.
[00:40:06] Right.
[00:40:06] And let's just get everybody on the same page. How hard is that?
[00:40:09] Yeah. It's not hard.
[00:40:09] The promoter sets the expectation.
[00:40:13] And you don't leave it up to, you know, 50 randoms to try to figure out what they're supposed to do.
[00:40:20] You know, it's never one word. It's not Foosball. It wouldn't work anywhere.
[00:40:24] Wouldn't work at any sporting event. So I left it up to them.
[00:40:28] Mike Green is just timing it. He's watching on Twitch TV tonight with a bunch of other folks
[00:40:32] and he says, Tom told them to shove it.
[00:40:36] I don't believe that for a second.
[00:40:37] I didn't use those words.
[00:40:39] I don't believe that for a second. Tom's too passive. I figured Green would have told them
[00:40:43] to shove it. So look, you know, I got a question, Warren, that I've been wanting to ask you.
[00:40:51] You know, you've played with some of the best players in the world over the years.
[00:40:55] You've played with Billy. You played with Ryan at Worlds a couple of years ago. Obviously,
[00:40:59] you know, you and Brandon Morland just won open doubles at Minnesota.
[00:41:03] You know, I had the chance to play with Billy a bunch.
[00:41:07] And people just always assume there's a certain expectation when you play with a player like
[00:41:13] that. How do you deal with playing with that caliber of player and your mindset going into
[00:41:22] match, just going into the tournament? Because playing with Billy, people would always put the
[00:41:27] assumption on me that if we won it was because of Billy and if we lost it was because of me.
[00:41:31] Right. And just, you know, how do you feel about playing with that caliber of player?
[00:41:37] How do you deal with that? And, you know, what's your experience with it?
[00:41:41] I tell you, there have been times where I didn't feel like I was leading up to the big event.
[00:41:50] Like I wasn't playing at my best or, you know, I'd just taken a couple months off
[00:41:55] work or personal reasons or had a joint replacement surgery on my finger, you know,
[00:42:02] these things. And I turned down partners like that because if I get my shot,
[00:42:11] if I'm going to play with them, I want to be at my best. And usually if I am,
[00:42:16] if I get to that point where, you know, I do get a Billy Brandon Morland to play,
[00:42:21] you know, I'm focused. I'm, you know, I'm at the top of my game if I even say yes to them,
[00:42:30] you know, especially if I travel out of town to play with them. You know, if I go through all
[00:42:34] that, like I know I'm prepared because I'm practice physically, I feel right. Like it just
[00:42:40] everything's falling into place, you know, getting there, you know, I mean, once you're
[00:42:45] in the moment, like I said, I mean, being that prepared just gives you a lot of confidence
[00:42:53] that, you know, you're going to even if one ball you make a mistake, the next ball you're
[00:43:00] confident you're going to fix it. You know, that's just experience, that's preparation.
[00:43:05] That's, you know, getting yourself out of, you know, tights, you know, jams and
[00:43:10] tough situations and in your locals and practicing at home and whatever last time you went to,
[00:43:16] I mean, all that stuff just, you know, bringing that to the table when you're playing with
[00:43:19] these good partners. But if now you have doubt, if you're not ready, you're going to burn a
[00:43:26] good partner. You know, I've been fortunate enough any, you know, I think, you know,
[00:43:33] I can't remember, but anytime I've landed one of those guys, which I do feel fortunate,
[00:43:40] I do feel blessed every time, anytime I do get to play with that caliber of player,
[00:43:46] I feel like I've made the most of it. You know, like I leave thinking, I don't know,
[00:43:51] not much else I could have done. That's what I want out of it.
[00:43:55] Of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I feel like that level of player, if you just do
[00:44:00] what you're supposed to do, then you put them in the best position to, you know, play their
[00:44:04] best foosball. And, you know, I mean, you and Ryan had a great run. You and Billy got second
[00:44:09] at Colorado State a couple of years ago. You know, that was his first one back for a while.
[00:44:15] You know, I know he probably touched the table, but, and Billy's Billy, but I mean, dude,
[00:44:19] you've always gotten really just great results. I mean, you've always been solid as
[00:44:24] far back as I can remember. So, you know, I just, I see like now, of course, man, but like,
[00:44:29] I see a lot of top players now, you know, they're branching out and playing with other
[00:44:34] players for different reasons, whether it be, you know, they're playing with buddies
[00:44:38] or it's monetary or whatever it is. And, you know, but it's like, if, you know,
[00:44:43] I got to play with Brandon Munoz a couple months ago, and it was just an experience
[00:44:48] for me, you know, again, same thing, man, I'm just thankful every time I get to play
[00:44:51] with somebody at that level. But it's like, I felt like if I just played good, right,
[00:44:58] I didn't try to set an expectation for myself. But if I, because I touch my table every day,
[00:45:02] I'm always practiced. I, you know, same thing. Like if I don't feel like I'm in a position to
[00:45:07] play well, then I'm, you know, obviously I don't want to burn a bridge. But, and with him,
[00:45:11] I just felt like if I just played good, then we'd be okay, you know? And I mean,
[00:45:17] It's all around the states with Billy, because it's something that Jim said on the broadcast
[00:45:24] when I went back and watched it. You know, I had been practicing my goalie game, you know,
[00:45:33] whenever possible, if there's opportunity in a draw to jump back and go, if I have people
[00:45:38] over like any opportunity just to get more and more time into my goalie game. And I was doing
[00:45:44] that a lot during that time because I thought I was going to be playing goalie for Brandon
[00:45:49] in an upcoming event. Right? So I don't know if y'all know this, but yeah, how much
[00:45:55] Brandon loves to play forward and, you know, hates getting stuck in goal, you know, like if
[00:46:00] he doesn't have to. And he and I have been playing together since we were, we were amateurs.
[00:46:07] And if we're playing together these days, I'm his goalie, he's the forward. That's how he
[00:46:12] wants it right. So I'm preparing for that, whatever. No, no, no tournament set in stone
[00:46:18] to play on, but I'm getting ready for it. I'm trying to stay ready in case he asks and
[00:46:22] I can step up. And then it was like Tuesday, Billy says, Hey, I'm going to Colorado state.
[00:46:29] You and Karen want to go, you want to play? And then Thursday we were there.
[00:46:33] Okay. Nice. Then the event starts on Saturday and we're playing and we get so many rounds
[00:46:38] deep. And Jim says something about, he could tell, you know, Warren and Billy really
[00:46:44] prepared and been practicing for this. And cause the, but really I was preparing to play
[00:46:49] with Brandon at something. I don't know when, you know, and I was trying to just stay ready.
[00:46:54] And when I got the call, I was ready. And, you know, it was, it was compliment, you know,
[00:46:59] but Jim thought that, you know, we had this planned and I looked like I was ready to
[00:47:04] play goal for him. And, you know, kind of fun. You were just, you were, you were ready
[00:47:08] to play. You're just ready to play. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean,
[00:47:14] you know, like Ryan messaged me at like 7 AM and then, you know, on the Thursday. And I think
[00:47:22] I was had a plane ticket and was on a flight, you know, eight hours later moments. That's great.
[00:47:30] If I'm not ready, you know, I burn a good partner. I waste it. You know? Yeah. Yeah.
[00:47:38] That's, I mean, that's like a fighter, right? If you got it, you got to stay ready. If
[00:47:43] somebody gets hurt or they can't, you know, they get hurt during camp and you get the call to
[00:47:47] step up, you want to be ready to go. So I believe me, I understand. I'm like I said,
[00:47:51] man, my table is right behind me. This is my office. I'm in here every day touching my
[00:47:55] table. I'm always ready. So, you know, it's, it's just, I think it's a good mindset to have.
[00:48:01] I know players that, you know, there's a tournament coming up, they'll practice
[00:48:04] for two weeks and go to the tournament. And after the tournament, they won't touch the table until
[00:48:08] they're getting ready to go play another tournament. But, you know, if Billy sends me
[00:48:13] a message and says, Hey, I'm going to this tournament and I, you know, I want to play.
[00:48:16] I'm sorry. I'm telling my wife, I don't care if, you know, we have a baby on the way. Well,
[00:48:22] you know, we'll name the baby Billy or whatever, but I'm, I'm going to play booze ball.
[00:48:26] It's going to happen. So, you know, tournaments are so tough these days. Everybody's good.
[00:48:33] You know, you could lose first round. Everybody's got a good fly bar, a good
[00:48:36] roll over defense. I mean, everyone's good. And, you know, I've been, you know, the highest
[00:48:42] rated player on the team enough times to know that that player doesn't want you to come along
[00:48:53] for the ride. Like if your goalie, they need your help, you know, if I play for somebody
[00:49:02] ranked higher than me, they need my help. I'm not along for the ride. Like I got to contribute.
[00:49:07] Yes. Or we don't win. You gotta have that mindset. You know, it's like,
[00:49:13] I get asked to play a lot of events, you know, by, you know, lower rated players and,
[00:49:21] you know, just got it. You know, that's why it's so hard sometimes to say yes. It's like,
[00:49:26] Hey, are you going to help me win this event? You're going to help me play our best.
[00:49:32] Are you going to contribute? Man, the answer is no. Then why bother? Yeah. I mean,
[00:49:38] yeah, it's where you got to be at. I know this is, I know this is ask Bass,
[00:49:43] Bass backwards if you're part, pardon me for saying, but normally here, you know,
[00:49:46] in food stock live, we have a tradition with somebody we've never spoken with before
[00:49:50] to get your origins. So, okay, let's do that. First of all, when was the first time you
[00:49:58] saw a foosball table? What kind of table was it and how old were you at the time?
[00:50:04] So, uh, my parents played. Okay. Casually they played since they were teenagers.
[00:50:12] They grew up in the Houston area and moved to Dallas when I was just a few months old.
[00:50:16] Right. My dad moved here for a job. So anyways, so when I was 12 or 13,
[00:50:23] a friend of my dad said, Hey, I'm moving. I'm between houses, whatever. Can you hold this table
[00:50:30] for me? It was like a glass top dynamo. Okay. Okay. So for that summer, for about three
[00:50:37] months, all my friends, I played soccer with a neighborhood, whatever. Uh, we played on
[00:50:43] that glass top dynamo and it couldn't be more wrong. I mean, you know, you can't stop the
[00:50:49] ball. You can't stop the ball. You can't, you can't be more different than a tornado, right?
[00:50:54] Didn't see a foosball table again until I was 20 years old. Really? A lot of people think
[00:51:01] I'm a second generation player because all the Dallas players, most of them know my dad,
[00:51:06] you know, my mom, because they would go out on a Saturday night and play pickup games and come
[00:51:12] home. But I never saw a foosball table that whole time. You know, I was with
[00:51:19] man coming on, you know, I've told, so it's funny. I've told different stories over the years.
[00:51:26] My story is consistent about how I started playing foosball, but it was my recent 50th
[00:51:31] birthday where, um, happy birthday friends there that I've known. Thank you. Have friends
[00:51:37] since, you know, grew up playing soccer with that, um, were around when I started playing
[00:51:42] foosball and started playing with me. And I'd hear their story. And then, you know,
[00:51:46] I hear one guy's story and another friend's story. And I'm like, it's different that my
[00:51:50] story and it's different than his story, different than his story. But we all were a
[00:51:54] little bit right, you know, with our stories. So, um, the story I've been telling is a
[00:52:00] little bit different than what I'm gonna tell you now, but when we were 20, we went to New
[00:52:03] Orleans for a Mardi Gras. And I think we went because we weren't 21 and, um, we wanted to,
[00:52:09] you know, we wanted a vacation. There was like, I don't know, six or seven of us. We
[00:52:13] wanted a vacation where we could have a cocktail, have a beer if we want to.
[00:52:18] Yes.
[00:52:19] But we're not 21 yet. Well, Mardi Gras is perfect. They're serving everybody,
[00:52:23] right? If you're over 18, they're serving you.
[00:52:25] Nobody's checking it.
[00:52:26] So we, we roll into the bar for middle of the afternoon to shoot some pool.
[00:52:34] This is like the second day of Mardi Gras. We were out all night before they have a tornado
[00:52:38] table. Well, a friend with me, he's like, Hey, my dad plays football and my dad plays
[00:52:44] football. And this is a guy I've, I must have, I probably knew this, but I've known him since
[00:52:48] the sixth grade, right? At this point. So he and I, man, we spend, you know, an hour just
[00:52:53] playing each other on this tornado table. But when we get back from Mardi Gras, I'm like,
[00:52:58] ask my parents, Hey, can we go start playing? And so it was, you know, it was M it was
[00:53:03] another friend of mine, another friend of mine, four of us that we went out to one
[00:53:07] of the local bars where they're having pickup games on Saturday night. And I saw a rollover
[00:53:11] and a brush pass for the first time. I saw a real tornado playing three months from then
[00:53:19] that three months from that point had my, had my first table immediately that day started
[00:53:24] saving up for a table. Awesome. Yeah.
[00:53:28] Uh, I found out that, uh, Angelique McLeod, which, uh, you know, Ed McLeod was Ed, right?
[00:53:35] Yeah. McLeod was the owner of tornado back at the time she went to my college. She
[00:53:39] was a few years older than me. So I tracked her down. Um, I heard that, you know,
[00:53:45] her dad owned tornado foosball. She gave me a $500 off manufacturer coupon for a
[00:53:51] thousand. At that time it was a thousand dollar table. So all I had to do is
[00:53:56] $500 had a brand new table. I've been three months since, you know, pretty much knowing
[00:54:00] what a tornado is at that point had a table, man, start playing seven days a week.
[00:54:05] I'm addicted right off the bat. Um, it's, you know, I'm off, I'm up and running like
[00:54:12] at that point and all those friends they played, um, they all ended up getting their
[00:54:18] own tables and they played competitively for about a year, um, year and a half,
[00:54:24] less than two years. They all like, you know, families and got jobs and started
[00:54:29] doing other things. And I stuck with it. You know, I kept playing out of the group.
[00:54:34] That's done. That's how it started. I mean, it was good back then, you know,
[00:54:37] cause when I, when, if I wanted to seek out foosball, um, and this is 1996,
[00:54:43] but I want to see on Dallas. I mean, there's four or five tournaments a week to go to
[00:54:49] by the time I got good enough to actually win the tournaments, there were nine
[00:54:52] tournaments a week in Dallas because Friday and Saturday night, there were tournaments on each
[00:54:56] side of town about, you know, 50, 60 miles from each other. So I always tell people like,
[00:55:03] I couldn't hold a girlfriend during that time. Cause I'm playing tournaments seven nights a week
[00:55:08] and nobody wants to stick around for that. Right. I was an addict. I mean, I wanted to
[00:55:13] play all the time and I did, and I would go and play a tournament and I'd come home and
[00:55:17] practice. And you're, uh, you're the first time you, you won a major. What was that? Where was it?
[00:55:26] So I'll tell you a long way around that story just cause, um, it's, it's, it's special to me.
[00:55:33] So when I first started, the next closest person to me in our group had been playing
[00:55:38] already four to six years except for the guys that I brought into it. Right. Okay. And, um,
[00:55:43] these are friends of my parents that they introduced me to and the first, really the
[00:55:47] first group of football players that I spent any significant time around. Right. And, um,
[00:55:52] they all took me in, you know, um, it's junior, you know, and they take care of me and whatever.
[00:55:58] Um, I always thought, man, how do I catch them? Like very few of them even have,
[00:56:04] you know, a couple of them have jackets and I thought it was cool saying in the world,
[00:56:08] they got tournament jackets and I just want one of those and I'll quit playing football
[00:56:12] at the time. You know, I get one of those. I'll be happy. I mean, I would be done with
[00:56:17] football. Right. Well, it was about, it was a little less than a year later, about 10 months
[00:56:23] later, um, I won, um, rookie singles at our DFW championships, got a jacket. I'm so happy.
[00:56:32] Then I went to one of my first tournaments where I had to get on a plane. We used to
[00:56:36] go to Oklahoma tournaments and Houston. And so I was traveling, but the first time I really
[00:56:41] got on a plane was, um, Wisconsin nationals won rookie doubles there. And I think at this
[00:56:50] point, I don't remember what I think I've been playing less than 18 months at this point.
[00:56:55] And that was a complete surprise. The guys that we beat in the finals, they can,
[00:57:00] Hey, can you give me some tips? I'm I don't know what I'm doing. You know, like,
[00:57:04] I don't really, I honestly really didn't know what I was doing. I just got hot and
[00:57:09] I had a good partner and, um, you know, really kind of overachieved, I think,
[00:57:13] than what I should have. I played a, uh, 10 year old, uh, Tony Spreedman in the losers
[00:57:19] bracket at that time. And, uh, I don't think Tony be mad at me for telling this because
[00:57:27] I think he's told this story before, but my partner made him cry. So she, uh, so I played
[00:57:34] with David Rattick's girlfriend at the time got there, had no partner. She needed a partner
[00:57:39] who played together. She's loud and she yells when she scores. And especially if she doesn't
[00:57:44] score a clean one. And, um, he made 10 year old Tony cry, but he said it was great
[00:57:49] motivation for him. Like he, I mean, he told me this was, you know, for 10 years ago,
[00:57:55] he was like, Hey, next time you see Robin Hester, you tell her that I remember,
[00:57:59] you know, like, wow, you know, that's amazing. I've never, I haven't heard that
[00:58:05] story before, but yeah. So anyways, that would, that would, that would have been my first, like,
[00:58:09] you know, big, big event to win. Yeah. And, and do you turn pro master when
[00:58:17] man, these points, um, really kind of wrecked that story. So, um, the first time around,
[00:58:25] I was, I was an amateur for two years, semi-pro for three, a pro
[00:58:31] for four. It was the first time I had master points, but back then there were 60 to 80 masters.
[00:58:38] Oh, yeah. Right. But I was technically a master, you know, I had master points and, um,
[00:58:45] I'd been playing, you know, whatever that, you know, seven, eight, nine, 10 years at that point,
[00:58:49] I guess. Um, and so I was technically a master, but over the years, my, I would say my doubles
[00:58:57] points have never gone backwards. I've never lost doubles points, but I've been turned pro
[00:59:04] from master to pro two times without ever losing points just because the ranking changed.
[00:59:10] So I'm a master one day and I'm a pro the next without losing. Right. But I'm not the only
[00:59:15] one. There's a lot of masters, you know, they did the cutoff, right? I will only keep 16
[00:59:19] masters. I will only keep 12 or whatever, you know, they decided to do, but both times
[00:59:24] they turned me pro, I was a master again in less than, you know, less than two years.
[00:59:30] Yeah. Well, it's just, you know, like I wanted to, I want to debate Mark Torres on here so bad
[00:59:36] every time he talks about rankings. Um, I've never won a major. We can make it happen.
[00:59:42] We can make that happen. Right. Like, you know, so by his standards, I shouldn't be a
[00:59:47] master, but at the same time, you can't keep me in pro every time you want, you want pro
[00:59:52] singles at worlds last year or the year before? Uh, two years ago, two years ago.
[00:59:57] The different beast because at one point when they split, you know, they split the points
[01:00:03] off right. Um, singles is a whole nother situation, but, um, as far as, you know,
[01:00:10] so at that time in singles, when I'm a pro, when I won worlds, um, I think I was
[01:00:16] 21 in the world in doubles, you know, other two, two different store, two different,
[01:00:22] you know, situations. But, um, you know, then there's elite division, uh, Sparky and I won
[01:00:27] the last elite doubles event that they ever had in Vegas. Okay. Um, so every time they push
[01:00:33] me down to another bracket, I, you know, you can't keep me there. So where do you put me?
[01:00:37] I haven't won a, I haven't won a major. Um, I've gotten close, you know, have some
[01:00:42] seconds, some thirds and some fourths. But, um, so, you know, it's, I think my arguments
[01:00:49] kind of changes what Torres Torres' argument a little bit, you know?
[01:00:53] Yeah, he's, uh, he's a bit of a purist in so many ways, but I think, uh, the biggest
[01:00:58] problem has been the changing the points every time. And of course, no one can quite
[01:01:04] tell us exactly why the points work the way they do necessarily. Um, it seems to
[01:01:09] favor certain players over others. And it's just, it's a very odd thing the way it's set up.
[01:01:14] Now, of course I was having conversations with people from, from, you know, from Europe and
[01:01:19] from the ITSF and they reset the points every year. You know, you start from zero every year.
[01:01:25] And so I'm wondering, what do you think about that? Do you think that would be
[01:01:28] a more fair way of going about it? Well, you know, the, the rankings need
[01:01:35] a complete overhaul, something that, um, is not easily to talk about by just changing one or two
[01:01:42] things. Like you're asking me what, how, what I would do is what I see pull doing, APA specifically
[01:01:52] is all of their locals all over the country, who knows all over the world, actually,
[01:01:58] I don't know how far they extend, um, results are in it into the same system.
[01:02:03] Yes. So they have a true handicap because the way we're at now, um, you know, there may be,
[01:02:10] you know, there may be 5,000 to 10,000 players that play, you know, on a weekly basis in
[01:02:18] America, right? But our biggest tournaments have 500 players. Yeah. Oh, they never going to
[01:02:24] get an accurate point system, a fair point system. You're never going to be able to do
[01:02:28] a real handicap with that little data. But because you enter your results, your weekly results
[01:02:37] into the same system, everybody does eventually you can compare that data with other people
[01:02:41] in other cities, states, and regardless if they only play each other once a year, um,
[01:02:47] and you have a true handicap system. Uh, you have a true what, you know, ranking, so to
[01:02:53] speak. But until that happens, there's nothing that's going to be accurate. It's all going to be,
[01:02:59] um, you know, whatever the promoter decides to do because it thinks it'll increase turnout or
[01:03:05] whatever the promoter reacts, you know, some reactionary decision they make because people
[01:03:10] were complaining on the internet, you know, it's, um, some arbitrary point spots, some
[01:03:15] arbitrary legacy points that are in there, you know, none of it matters. None of it's
[01:03:20] going to be accurate until we start capturing the bulk of our competitions, which are weekly events.
[01:03:27] Right. Yeah. I mean, you add up, add up, add up weekly matches across America and then add up,
[01:03:34] um, you know, all the weekend tournaments that we go to, man, it's no comparison.
[01:03:39] Yeah. Huge difference. No, it's there's, and a lot of people who play just in their locals,
[01:03:44] they go, let's say, let's say if you go to Kentucky for the TKO, a lot of times you'll
[01:03:49] see folks that never tour and they go to these, these, uh, these tournaments like a TKO
[01:03:53] and they're ranked maybe a rookie and they play like an expert.
[01:03:58] We have so many, I mean, so many players like that here locally, you know, um, just don't
[01:04:03] travel. I mean, they, you know, used to play Texas state and worlds every year then world
[01:04:10] went away. Um, some of them even skip Texas state because something it's a bad weekend or
[01:04:18] whatever, but yet, um, they're playing three, four nights a week here and they're competing
[01:04:23] in there. They're good. Um, you know, that they, you know, our weeklies I think are some of the
[01:04:30] toughest in the country. If you can win our Saturday night tournament, you're good enough
[01:04:34] to win a title in your ranking somewhere. Like you just are. It's been proven. I've seen
[01:04:39] it. I've been watching it for 20 plus years. Our locals are tough and, um, and they
[01:04:44] produce good players, you know? Um, but man, half of them are ranked correctly. You know,
[01:04:52] if, right? Um, you know, when, when, you know, Brandon wins a lot, I'm not gonna lie. I mean,
[01:04:59] he, you know, we track stats sometimes locally, he does win a lot, but when he shows up based
[01:05:04] on what he's ranked, you would think he would win a hundred percent of the time he shows
[01:05:09] Of course. Yeah. Yeah. But, but he doesn't, you know, he doesn't win a hundred percent. There are
[01:05:16] plenty of players here that are under ranked that if he's not on his game, we'll beat him.
[01:05:21] Interesting. Yeah. Anyways. Well, it's, it's a dilemma that that's, that's been going on for
[01:05:26] a long time and hopefully that, uh, maybe with this, this influx of the European influence,
[01:05:32] things will start to change a bit. Like I said, um, promoters out there, uh, organizations
[01:05:40] start capturing your local results and things will get better over time. That's that data.
[01:05:46] You know, let's, let's, um, yeah, that should happen. You know, no question about that.
[01:05:50] I'm not going to name names, but we got some players right now. I think,
[01:05:53] well, one of them's listening right now. Um, he regularly beats us. Okay. Okay. And
[01:05:59] he's, uh, he's maybe an expert, right? And he only turned extra recently. He's been beating us for
[01:06:06] years. Wow. You know, and, uh, um, that's not uncommon story. Okay.
[01:06:12] No, I think between Florida, Texas and Colorado, I, you know, I feel like those three,
[01:06:18] those three bases have that level of player at the local level that, you know, guys that
[01:06:25] compete play pros and masters weekly, you know, multiple days a week and just don't tour. And
[01:06:30] if they did, you know, I mean, like you said, if there's no local data, these guys are going to
[01:06:36] go to a tour event. They've never been to something. They're going to be ranked the
[01:06:39] beginner or rookie and they're gonna, you know, they're going to clean house at the lower
[01:06:42] levels and they're going to scare people at the top level. So, you know, it, there needs
[01:06:46] to be something like I said, I mean, we're just beating this dead horse, you know, it's,
[01:06:53] but, uh, so what's, what's the rest of the year looking like for you? We plan to hit this year.
[01:06:58] So I, I hit, I went to a lot of tournaments. I think, um, you know, we were in Oklahoma two
[01:07:06] weeks later, we were in, um, Minnesota two weeks later, we were in Vegas, no,
[01:07:12] backwards Vegas and Minnesota. Then two weeks later I was here, you know, for the world
[01:07:17] series event, right? I think that's wrecked me. Like that was, you know, I'd like to space those
[01:07:24] out a little bit more, right? So, um, you know, there was opportunities to go to Illinois state
[01:07:31] and money ball and all these things, you know, that are right here. And, um, physically
[01:07:36] I'm kind of banged up, but also, um, it's summertime wife wants to take some family
[01:07:40] vacation. So this is a long way of saying that, um, there's a chance maybe I'm done till worlds.
[01:07:48] Really? Just because the last two last couple months have been crazy. Yeah. You know,
[01:07:53] I would normally probably most time have played four tournaments in four months and I've played
[01:07:58] four tournaments in two months. Right. I mean, you've got so opportunities. You've got
[01:08:04] Illinois state next weekend. You've got Ohio state coming up. There's also the beach town
[01:08:08] beat down. I mean, there's, there's a few opportunities here and none of those are
[01:08:13] going to happen for me. So, um, you know, right now, um, I have, you know, I have a flight
[01:08:20] and hotel booked for nationals and, um, I'm most likely pretty sure, um, I'm not going to
[01:08:27] nationals. I'm gonna end up, you know, cancel my flight and cancel hotel. Um, just because
[01:08:35] um, June and July just looks like two tough months for me. Yeah. Family wise, physically,
[01:08:41] like it's just the way it's just played out. It's just a fluke. Like, um, I normally nationals
[01:08:46] is an event I go to. Uh, that is one that I usually don't miss wherever it is. Um,
[01:08:50] I've only missed a few times since I've been playing, but I don't think I'm going this
[01:08:54] year, but only because of my schedule. Understood. So I'll, I'll continue to play locally.
[01:09:01] Uh, you know, when I, when I'm not traveling, I just play more locally. That's, I mean,
[01:09:05] it's, you know, I still end up playing. I just, um, you know, leave for three or four
[01:09:11] hours and play and come back and sleep in my own bed is the only difference.
[01:09:14] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I get good practice. Um, got a handful of good players here that
[01:09:19] that'll come over once a week and, um, let me work on my singles game. You know, we do
[01:09:24] that. So I'll still be playing a lot, just won't be getting on a, getting on a plane
[01:09:30] to do it, you know? Flying has been, has been carrying its own risks. And just a,
[01:09:37] just a quick overview. When I, when I, when I went to Texas this last week,
[01:09:40] it was six delays going to the tournament on the flights and then five delays coming home
[01:09:46] on the, from the tournament. So there's the risk of flying. Yeah. And that's why I,
[01:09:53] I enjoy living in the South because I can, I can hit tournaments just driving five or six hours.
[01:09:57] And you know, that's why I've been able to play so much who's ball. So I, you know, it's,
[01:10:01] it's a different animal, but, um, do when you, yeah, good. No, I was going to say,
[01:10:07] when you want to come back on, we'll get Torres on here and we'll moderate when,
[01:10:10] when you guys, oh yeah, let's do it. I might need a referee.
[01:10:15] Yeah, we can do that. Yeah. I'm ready and I can handle it.
[01:10:18] I'm self-spoken. So I need a chance to speak, you know, towards me.
[01:10:25] By the way, Warren, I have the, the power of the mute so I can always mute
[01:10:30] anybody I need to mute. So yeah, yeah. Randy, you know, the luxury that I had when I,
[01:10:38] you know, first started playing is that, um, Oklahoma city, you know, three, four hours away
[01:10:45] at three tournaments a year. Not when I first started playing this, is that this, a lot of stuff
[01:10:49] unfolded about the time I was expert, right? Um, also had three tournaments a year. Houston had
[01:10:54] three tournaments a year. Austin had one or two, um, and I may be missing something, but,
[01:11:02] and then, oh, then, then in our own, my own town, we had three or four because, you know,
[01:11:06] we had city championships, we had state, we had worlds, all these things. So I could do all
[01:11:11] of these things, just getting in a car and driving less than four hours. And tournaments back then,
[01:11:19] I was working for IBM at the time. Uh, I was IBM 12 years. I had a lot of vacation time,
[01:11:24] so I could take Friday, Monday off and play every single event. So, you know, tournaments
[01:11:31] were three day tournaments back then. So, you know, leave, get in the car Friday afternoon,
[01:11:37] come back Sunday night or come back Monday morning. You had to come back Monday morning.
[01:11:41] And do that 12 times a year without ever getting on a plane. That's nice. Yeah, that was nice.
[01:11:50] So when we have something in our hometown, like we have, we recently had DFW championships,
[01:11:55] we had the world series. And when I see players that, um, you know, I know they're
[01:12:02] in our local bars three, four nights a week playing and they don't show up for those things.
[01:12:07] That drives me nuts because, um, man, when's the next one going to be? You don't know. Like you
[01:12:12] can't, you know, Tulsa has got a scene now, but Oklahoma doesn't, Houston doesn't, you know,
[01:12:18] you know, Austin, I mean, just, yeah, blows my mind because you couldn't keep me away from
[01:12:23] these events when I was learning how to play and when I was wanting to, you know, you
[01:12:27] couldn't keep me away. And even, you know, at my busiest, maybe I sit out three or four of
[01:12:34] those and it's still more football than most people play in a year. Right. Yeah. No. And I
[01:12:41] tell my wife, I'm like, you know, one day I'm physically not going to be able to do this anymore.
[01:12:45] So I want to do it as much as I can until then, you know, I mean, I just, I love
[01:12:50] to play foosball. So, you know, yeah, sorry. No, just the fact that, like I said,
[01:12:56] I moved to Alabama nine years ago and I've been able to play so much because like I'm
[01:13:02] 30 minutes south of Birmingham, but Mississippi State is five hours. New Orleans is five hours.
[01:13:08] Lexington is six hours so I can hit the kickoff. I can hit worlds. I can hit Mississippi State.
[01:13:13] I can hit Louisiana State and then now Nationals is going to be in New Orleans,
[01:13:17] which I'm thankful for. You know, Florida State's eight hours away. You know,
[01:13:22] they had a Tennessee State one year. I think they're trying to bring it back,
[01:13:26] but even Dallas, dude, I can drive to Dallas in like eight and a half hours. And that in
[01:13:30] a car for me is nothing because, you know, I drive to Massachusetts in 19 hours. So,
[01:13:35] you know, I kind of like you if something's local and people complain and they don't hit it,
[01:13:41] it drives me absolutely insane. Eight hours is about like right there where I'm no longer
[01:13:50] but if I keep it under eight hours, you know, I was going to say, you know, my wife
[01:13:54] so supportive. You know, she, you know, she's a foosier. She understands, but more importantly,
[01:14:00] you know, like we talked about it. It's like, man, I don't want to age out,
[01:14:04] you know? Yeah, sure. We'll do this forever. I'm not going to be able to play at the level
[01:14:08] I need to play at. There's hope. So there's hope for me. Let me, you know, go to a few
[01:14:15] extra tournaments and you know, because in the beginning when her, when we were first dating,
[01:14:19] we first got married. Um, generally if I went, she went, you know, she's a foosier too and she
[01:14:25] plays and everybody but nowadays she doesn't play as much. And so, you know, it's nine out
[01:14:31] of 10 times I'm going by myself, but she understands, you know, like I'm physically not
[01:14:35] gonna do it forever or at least not be able to play at a high level. I think I'll always
[01:14:38] be able to play foosball, but there's a difference when, you know, you go to an event
[01:14:44] you're expected to be the top, you know, 2% there and you have to compete against the top 2%
[01:14:50] there and physically be never do that. You know, um, and the anyways, there's some kids
[01:14:55] coming up that are going to be a brutal in the next, you know, five to 10 years that these kids
[01:15:00] stick with it. They're going to be tough to beat especially no matter what the situation might
[01:15:04] be. Uh, yeah, it's, it's, uh, it's going to be an interesting future here in the next 10,
[01:15:08] 10 years. Um, so, so Warren is it's, it's so cool that you could join us today, man. Um,
[01:15:14] you know, we've heard your name so many times in the past and I have a feeling we'll be hearing
[01:15:18] your name a lot in the future as well. Uh, I know that you did some promoting in the past.
[01:15:22] Um, what was that like for you and how, how are you still doing any promotion?
[01:15:28] You know, I had to run locally where, um, I had tables on location, multiple locations and,
[01:15:35] you know, running weeklies and, um, you know, I did that, um, think,
[01:15:41] you know, reached a point where, you know, actually had a kind of injured my back and
[01:15:47] it's got to a point where the thought of lifting another table, moving another table,
[01:15:54] breaking down another table, um, after so many years of running tournaments is really,
[01:15:58] that was the part of it. So I actually, you know, I really enjoyed running and playing in
[01:16:03] my own events. Um, some people can't do this. People don't like it. I really enjoyed it.
[01:16:08] And, uh, it kept me busy, you know, I love, you know, I like when I'm on staff at
[01:16:13] tournaments and I like it, I enjoy it, but it got to a point where, um, I just didn't want
[01:16:18] to move another table and eventually got rid of my tables and somebody else in Dallas, luckily,
[01:16:25] you know, fortunately stepped in and took over. And, um, so, you know, the chance to,
[01:16:31] to run something big or, um, the opportunity to do something, you know, maybe bigger on a
[01:16:36] bigger scale or something. Uh, I would love the opportunity to do that again, but, um, nothing
[01:16:40] in nothing in the near future plans. Okay. You never know. So would you be happy if,
[01:16:48] uh, the world series of tornado came back every year? Yeah. I mean, you know, the, the
[01:16:56] the very first, um, real positive spin I heard on it from Jason Wicks and Steve Murray was that,
[01:17:04] um, now instead of one big event a year, we have two. Like you're not losing Texas state,
[01:17:09] you're gaining another event in your hometown. So, um, I'm behind that. I like that idea.
[01:17:15] Cool. Uh, you know, I think, you know, the only, you know, people are saying something about
[01:17:21] the weekends and I don't know, I just like having another event, you know, that I hear locally.
[01:17:27] It's only for me, there's no, it's only positive that can come from it. Yeah. Absolutely.
[01:17:33] It's really kind of a way of guaranteeing that, uh, in a given year in the future that,
[01:17:38] that at least most of the players are going to be in Texas at one time or another
[01:17:42] to play in a fantastic tournament. So Texas state, we can't wait for that to come back
[01:17:47] and we can't wait for a, for a world series of tornado to come back either.
[01:17:51] We're looking forward to all of that. Um, yeah. Yeah, dude. I wish I hadn't
[01:17:56] event 20 minutes from my house. That'd be sweet. Right. Sleep, sleep in my bed. Oh yeah.
[01:18:03] Yeah. It's not lost on me. I appreciate it. Like I said, uh, you know, I'm one of the more,
[01:18:07] you know, traveled fuzers, I think, um, you know, out there. And so, um, it's a luxury,
[01:18:17] you know, I really enjoy it. I appreciate every minute of it. Absolutely. Well, I have to say,
[01:18:22] uh, that I do want to give a shout out here before we wrap things up, uh, because of last
[01:18:27] weekend, uh, getting a chance to, to hang out, uh, first of all, kudos to my partners,
[01:18:33] Michael Veit, uh, from Boise, Idaho and Carl Fleischer, uh, from Colorado. I'm both those
[01:18:39] guys played really well. And I, I was honored to be asked to be played to play with them.
[01:18:43] And man, I mean, you know, uh, Carl and I, you know, actually found a lot of common ground.
[01:18:48] He's a really cool guy. He's an engineer and has a lot of, um, a lot of interesting things
[01:18:53] to talk about, but you know, it's, you know, you never know who you're going to meet
[01:18:56] sometimes at a foosball tournament. But, um, the other thing was we did a lot of talking
[01:19:01] to, to other folks, uh, including for, uh, for read, for read lunas. Uh, we talked with
[01:19:09] Michael Stahl Jr. We talked with Jason Wicks. We talked with, oh my goodness, um, Sissy Whipple.
[01:19:17] We talked with a, with a lot of individuals. Oh, the guys from the German team, the German
[01:19:22] foosball TV sat down with us to do an interview. So these are all coming up here
[01:19:27] on foosball radio, foos talk live in the very near future. So stay tuned for that.
[01:19:32] Warren, uh, anything you'd like to, to, uh, to wrap this up with what, what would you like
[01:19:36] to say when it comes to, um, just in general about foosball, anything that, uh, that we
[01:19:40] haven't mentioned tonight? That's pretty broad Tom. Um, don't get me started. Yeah. Um,
[01:19:56] yeah, I dunno. Um, you know, I think we, we, we talked a lot about, um,
[01:20:03] you know, the local, local events and, uh, I really like, um,
[01:20:14] you know, if you talk to, uh, like pool, for example, right. Um, those guys play all year
[01:20:21] around to qualify for their biggest event of the year. Um, it's good for promoters
[01:20:28] to see, um, 10,000 players playing for one goal than 500. You know, I think, um,
[01:20:38] more attention needs to be given to the grassroots local stuff and treated like a major
[01:20:46] then, um, you know, throwing these weekend events and hoping people show up and, um,
[01:20:53] leaving that up to, you know, as our, our main route to sponsors. So if,
[01:21:01] you know, if we could really, um, you know, all the, all the individual promoters out there,
[01:21:08] all the, you know, the people that run the biggest organizations and foosball,
[01:21:13] if they could all come together under one umbrella and present ourselves that way to
[01:21:18] the masses and, um, you know, with, you know, a few leaders, um, everybody taking, I don't know.
[01:21:29] I think we all come together that way. I think foosball will be better off for it.
[01:21:33] We'll have a better chance at, um, growing, surviving, you know, agreed, whatever you gotta
[01:21:40] do. Randy, how about yourself? But what, uh, what, what say you? What, uh, what would you
[01:21:45] like to ask more before we go? No doubt that was, nah, man. I think that was spot on very well
[01:21:50] said. Uh, I'm dude. Thanks for coming on, man. I, uh, now, dude, I look forward. I mean, if
[01:21:56] I don't see it nationals, I look forward to seeing you at worlds. Hopefully we can hang out
[01:21:59] and, uh, you know, kick some balls around whatever, man. I just,
[01:22:03] you two would make a great team. I'm not good enough to play with the Warren.
[01:22:06] So I doubt that, but you know, it's funny, Randy, man, I can't man. I don't remember.
[01:22:15] You said we played a long time ago. Like I, you beat me one time. I think I've seen your results.
[01:22:21] Like, I'm sure. I'm sure you're a great player. Uh, mediocre. I just get lucky.
[01:22:26] I get good partners. Not mediocre. Not mediocre. Yeah. It is what it is. I like,
[01:22:31] look, man, I just like, like you, I just, I just really love playing foosball. So
[01:22:36] well, that's, that's all that matters. That's all that matters. Uh, yeah, you know,
[01:22:41] well, that's why we do this every week. I have food stock live. Uh, we are back again next week.
[01:22:46] And again, we'll have lots of, uh, extra details and extra, extra episodes in between.
[01:22:52] We'll be releasing some just for our Patreons, but also some for general, for general use,
[01:22:58] but that'll be happening here in the next couple of weeks. And so stay tuned.
[01:23:02] But, uh, well before I go, before I forget, I'm looking down here. Um, now Steve Murray, who's,
[01:23:07] who's been putting on Texas state for years, what 30 plus years now. And this year he,
[01:23:14] he decided, you know, I'm going to come back and help out with the ITSF, even though he
[01:23:18] retired officially last year. Um, he is such a great guy when it comes to hospitality.
[01:23:24] And he, he promised, you know, that myself, and I think with the Jim Stevens arriving,
[01:23:28] he said, I'm going to have something special for you guys. So he did a bit of research and he found
[01:23:33] an IPA, which is, which is Texas based. It's out of, um, it's called Pettacola's Brewing Company
[01:23:39] in Dallas, Texas. And I got to say, I have to share the name with this, this IPA. Now
[01:23:43] you're going to see it's in reverse, uh, reverse print here on the screen because I don't
[01:23:47] have my screen set up properly, but you can see the can and the title of this IPA is
[01:23:54] Sit Down or I'll, or I'll sit you down.
[01:23:58] No, it actually reads right, Tom.
[01:24:00] Does it read right? Okay. Sit down or I'll sit you down.
[01:24:04] Unless I'm dyslexic. It looks right to me.
[01:24:08] Looks backwards on my end, but, um, so that's gotta be a Texas phrase.
[01:24:13] Yeah. Just imagine hearing that in Steve Murray's voice.
[01:24:15] Okay.
[01:24:18] So if you see, if you see Steve Warren, if you see him, Sue, just tell him to sit down
[01:24:23] or I'll sit you down. See what he does.
[01:24:26] I probably won't say that to him, but, um, or I'll say Tom said.
[01:24:32] Tom said, there you go. Lead with that.
[01:24:34] Sit down or I'll sit you down. It's, uh, and again, the hospitality there, of course,
[01:24:40] in Dallas was just fantastic. And I'll go back every time I can.
[01:24:44] But anyway, so Warren, thank you so much for it's just a pleasure, you know, getting a chance to
[01:24:49] chat with you and, uh, and of course pick your brain about, uh, about tournaments and things
[01:24:53] that, uh, that we need to change. And yes.
[01:24:55] Yeah. Pleasure's all mine.
[01:24:57] Yeah.
[01:24:57] You guys are legends. Thank you for, uh, keep people talking about as well, you know?
[01:25:03] Yeah, we got it.
[01:25:05] I look forward to hanging out, man. Again, thanks for coming on, dude. I appreciate you.
[01:25:09] Anytime.
[01:25:09] And we'll be back again next week with, uh, Foo's Talk Live episode number 211.
[01:25:14] In the meantime, uh, stick around. Uh, we have a Foo's Talk Live's Tournament Beat.
[01:25:19] We'll catch you next week.
[01:25:38] The Canadian Pro Tour presents the 2024 Edmonton Foo's Ball Championships,
[01:26:00] June 28th through the 30th, 8415 24th Street, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
[01:26:06] It's the 2024 Beachtown Beatdown, July 26th through 28th at Lelow's Lake Worth Beach, Florida.
[01:26:15] The 716 Buffalo Foo's Ball Club presents the Buffalo Foo's Ball Championship, July 27th
[01:26:22] at Bison Billiards in Buffalo, New York. Get ready for the 2024 Ohio State Championships,
[01:26:28] August 1st through the 4th at the Crown Plaza, Columbus North Worthington, Ohio.
[01:26:34] The 518 Foo's Ball Club presents the Heat is On Summer Tournament, August 10th at Don Carlos
[01:26:40] Social Club, Fall River, Massachusetts. The 518 Foo's Ball Club presents the Sizzling
[01:26:47] Summer Smashdown, August 17th at Trickshots Billiards and Wicked Eatery, Clifton Park,
[01:26:53] New York. The 2024 Tornado Championships officially on August 28th through September
[01:26:59] 2nd at the Clarion Hotel in Lexington, Kentucky. The 2024 Florida State Championship and Masters
[01:27:06] Open coming up September 26th through the 29th at Holiday Inn in Clearwater, Florida.
[01:27:12] Mark your calendar for the 2024 Michigan State Championships, October 11th through the 13th
[01:27:18] at Lansing, Michigan. More details coming soon. Two Gun Productions presents the 2024
[01:27:25] Halloween Open, October 31st through November 3rd at Magoose in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It's the 2024
[01:27:33] North Carolina State Championships, November 28th through December 1st at the Crown Plaza
[01:27:39] in Asheville, North Carolina. Don't forget the 2024 Louisiana State Championships, December 5th
[01:27:46] through the 8th at the Clarion Hotel in Kenner, New Orleans, Louisiana. Each week we do our
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