The World Foosball Tour had a smashing success with their first ever event! The 2025 Tour Kick Off was historic, in more ways than one. Ryan Moore jumps on with a full panel to talk about what worked and what didn't.
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[00:01:51] Visit www.original-leonhardt-usa.com and use promo code FoosTalk to save 10% off your purchase price. Live from the World Foosball Tour. We've got a packed house here on Foos Talk Live tonight. It's a little late. Thank you, Randy, for that, by the way. It's a little early. Yeah, a little early. Is that ready to roll? It looks muted. Well, wait a second.
[00:02:19] You probably want to hear us. Say it again. I got you covered. Let's go. Yeah, you probably want to hear us. The engineer. Yeah, yeah. There you go. Okay. So we are live here at the World Foosball Tour. We've got a packed house. It's not my fault. I'm good. Yeah, yeah. Randy, it is your fault. It is your fault, man. You and your pro doubles finals. Yeah, second place again. But you lost to a 16-year-old. That should feel good. I'm in a girl.
[00:02:49] 16? Wait, is he 16 still? Oh, God. He is 16. Yeah, when he turns 18, I'm going to punch him right in his throat. So April of 2027. Yeah, I'll be standing in his front door. Foos Talk Live. We're going to sound off here from World Foosball Tour. By the way, the first event of its kind, TKO, the tour kickoff here in Lexington, Kentucky. And, man, it's been dramatic. It's been momentous. I mean, I'm looking for all these adjectives to toss in here.
[00:03:19] So we got Ryan in the house. We got Adam. We got Clay. And, yes, Randy is here. He's still conscious at 1.10 in the morning. It's 1.10 in the morning. It's 1.10 in the morning. It's pretty early. God. Dude. All right. Involuntarily conscious, probably. Yeah. You know, I'm early to bed. I'm usually asleep by about 9. Sorry to hear that, buddy. But it's a foosball tournament, so I'm awake. Oh, yeah.
[00:03:48] And for this one especially, I mean, dude, when I got here Friday, I walked in the room. I was kind of, I was like, oh, my God, this place looks amazing. Because, you know, I've been to the Clarion so many times, but it's never looked like this, dude. Never looked like this. It's never looked like this. So, the setup, the production value, just the whole thing has just, it's been awesome. The tables have played great. The crew's been amazing.
[00:04:17] I mean, I got nothing but good things to say, man. It's been good foosball. The competition's been fierce. Obviously, Modern Food's doing their thing. It's just, whoever wasn't here sucks for you. Sucks to suck. That's why we posted that. I wish you were here. Yeah, sucks for you. You missed it, so, you know. Oh, well. Come to Vegas. Listen, I'm going to be in Vegas. I don't go to Vegas, but I'm going to be in Vegas. Hall of Famers were announced. Crazy.
[00:04:45] Bro, Vegas is going to be insane. Wait, who are the Hall of Famers again? Randy Raposo and Randy Raposo. No, Tony Spreedeman and Billy Pappas. Holy crap. Wow. I don't think there's going to be a better, not a better, a more momentous, as you would say. Momentous, yeah. A duo that's going to get inducted. Yeah. I mean, holy crap. Can we have them play together? Is that an option? Can we just make them play together? No. No? Well, dude, I don't judge that. I know. I know. Who plays with who.
[00:05:15] I know who they're playing with. Yeah. And it's not each other. So, but, I mean, dude, you're talking Tom Brady, Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan, first ballot Hall of Famers. Yeah. Right? Yeah. So, I mean. That's crazy. And I think that alone is just going to, people are going to want to come see that. Yeah. Yeah. I'm lucky. I'm really lucky. I'm a dude. You know. I don't go to Vegas. I don't go to Vegas. But you're going. I heard Billy was getting in. I told my wife. I said, I have to go. Yeah. I have to go. Billy's your home. Home. Oh, yeah. Homey?
[00:05:45] Is that how you say it? Homey? It's my homeboy. Homey. Yeah, it's my homeboy. Is he your homey? It's your dog. It's your boy. We're in Kentucky. It's okay to say that, dog. Is he your homey? Is he your boy? If we were in Cali, you could not say that. That's my buddy. That's my friend, I guess. Yeah. That's my pal. That's my pal. Yeah. So, I'm super pumped for him.
[00:06:13] And obviously, I mean, these guys, they just became eligible. And like literally months ago. Yeah. Last year. But Billy. Insta induction. Yeah. Billy turned 40 in September. I think Tony, they both turned 40 in September. Two weeks apart. Yeah. So, and that was it. So, but just that alone. I mean, you got to look. WFT, April, Vegas. The foosball is going to be amazing anyway. The set.
[00:06:40] I mean, look again, what's going on here is you can't really describe it with words. You just have to come see it and feel it. Yeah. It's a start. Yeah. But Vegas is going to be elevated from this. So, I just, I got to go feel it, man. I got to go see it. Oh, yeah. So. It's, again, you know, it sucks for not, for you not being here. Yeah. Right? If you're listening to this podcast and you did not make it. Okay. But, you know, you got another shot at this. Get to Vegas. Vegas is going to be, is going to be huge.
[00:07:07] So, okay, Ryan, let's get, let's get the, the lowdown here. You're, you've, you've almost got this thing under your belt now. The first one. How are you feeling? What's, what's going on? I feel good, man. I feel good. You know, uh, you know, a lot of this, um, preparation, uh, it's been going on for six weeks, you know? Yeah. Um, and, and we did not execute everything perfectly by far, but I'm more than happy with the outcome of the tournament. Cool. Uh, yeah. Yeah.
[00:07:35] I mean, it was, it was about 90% of what I thought it would be, which is, which is great. You know, there was a lot of preparation here on all sides. Um, you know, 90% of that was Ryan saying test Wednesday and Thursday. You know, you liked it. I was crying cause I was like, oh yes, I'm going to keep saying. I said test like 6,000 times. Test. Test. Do you understand though?
[00:08:03] Like I'm in the finals area going, okay, this is like the next biggest stage for foosball and I've never done audio ever, ever. And I bought a $5,000 audio system and I, I don't want it to, I'm sorry. I don't want it to fucking screech in the finals. You know what I mean? Like what kind of crap would that be? You know, it's like, well, I'm like, I'm nervous, but I'm nervously testing. Okay. Non-stop. Test.
[00:08:31] And I, and I want to execute. Like, you know, we, you know, me and Clay have been talking. You wanted to test-acute. We've been, yes, we want to test. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Careful. All right. We're in Kentucky. It's okay. It's normal. We, we wanted to execute in the finals. I mean, we really did. Me and Clay have been talking for weeks and weeks about how this finals is going to look and how, how this area is going to look. And it did not happen like it was supposed to. But it did not disappoint either. You nailed it. No.
[00:09:01] When, when you saw the final on the screen, it was like, wow, that looks good. I mean, it's, it's really, it was eye catching. It's, it, I, I really think it's just going to bring eyes to foosball. Yeah. The stage is, is, is just gorgeous, man. It's that's, that's what it's all about. And you get to focus on the players and the players only. Yeah. It's just, that's exactly what it should be. Yeah. I think we, we need to, we need to get a little bit more crowd participation, you know.
[00:09:26] Well, foosball players and people that are watching for years are just so used to watching and not being vocal or, you know, nobody, we're all friends, right? We all know each other. Nobody wants to support one player or another. Right. It's awkward. It's awkward. They just have to be deprogrammed. Pretty much. And retrain. Pretty much. Yeah. When the, when the stage is set and they're allowed to be themselves. Yeah. It's going to, it's going to be exactly what it should be. You have to demonize the reasons why people don't want to cheer against other people. Yeah.
[00:09:55] And, and that's going to take a correction and a change. Yeah. Okay. And, and changes like we've talked about this a lot about foosball, you know, with, on the tornado side, like a lot of things have been going downhill. It's like, you guys have to change if you want a different outcome. So there's going to be some, some territory we're going to be crossing where some people might be like, Oh, a lot of it was the music. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm going to, the music was extreme and we did not have it planned at all.
[00:10:23] But if we want to generate like hype and a different crowd, it can't be, you know, red hot chili peppers and stuff. It's got to be. Wait, wait, wait. No guns and roses. No, 1988. Pour some sugar on me. Let's go. It's got to be more dynamic. I mean, we've got to attract different people and stuff, you know, and photograph. The thing is, you know, we've had a good energy in here and I actually say a lot of it was due to the music. But it was also, you know, the forward thinking.
[00:10:50] But, you know, when it comes to the production of foosball, it is the absolutely most important part of the growth of foosball. And I know this. And Clay knows this. Clay and Vaughn and Foos knows this. They're literally donating their time because they love it. And so do I. Yeah. You know what I mean? Oh, that's it. It's it. It's it. Well, we want to see it succeed. We want it to be bigger than it's ever been. And collectively, I mean, you work with a team like this, man.
[00:11:17] These guys, modern foos are, we're not screwing around here. There's zero chance that what we do does not prevail. Yeah. There's no chance that it does not. Okay. There's no chance that it does not help. Yeah. Yeah. There's zero chance. And that's what is motivating about it. Yeah. There's no way that this just goes belly up. Yeah. It's impossible. Yeah. Right. That's why I'm here. Yeah. Yeah. Foosball is not going backwards. No, no, no. No, it's not going to happen.
[00:11:45] The whole goal is to flatline and then just explode. Yeah. I mean, we're going to do it. It's going to take a year. We'll get it figured out. Yeah. Yeah. Listen. Keep going. No, it's audio. Just keep talking. I saw that face. Just me and Adam doing what me and Adam do. Literally, we're going to do this little U-curve. It's going to look like a half pipe, dude. Nice. It's just massively going to go in the upward direction. Yeah. So, I mean, you guys did that this weekend.
[00:12:13] I mean, every single time I logged on, which was like maybe four or five times, I'm so freaking busy. Trust me. Yeah. But I would log on to see, and it's like 200 plus. I'm like, God dang, dude. I remember it was like 50 and 70 every time I logged on before. Yeah. Maybe sometimes 30 and 40 at states. And I'm looking at 200, and people are telling me it's like 400 plus in the finals. I'm like, fuck. Yeah, yeah. That's a lot of people. Yeah. People are stars. And that's not like 400 people are just sitting there 12 hours a day. You got people coming and going.
[00:12:43] Yeah. And you're maintaining that 200 plus. I'm like, man, that is crazy. I've had people texting me over the weekend going, hey, man, where is it? Where can I find it? Where is it? And they want to know again, and rightfully so. They want to know where to go. And in the past, you know, I don't have to mention any names here, but it was you had to pay. Now you don't. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's free. Yeah. I think we're all on the same page. If it's about growing foosball, we're not going to charge for it. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:13:14] That's anti what the goal is. It's just not what we're thinking. Make it easy. Yeah, yeah. Make it accessible. We don't want to just blow cash. Yeah. But we absolutely are not going to slow the growth of foosball due to cash. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? We're trying to bring foosball to the masses. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you don't know anything about foosball and somebody's like, hey, you want to see foosball? Yeah. Give me a couple bucks. We're like, what? No. But hey, check this out. It's free. Look at how cool this is. That's different.
[00:13:42] I mean, that's what's going to put the eyes on foosball. Yeah. So, like I said, I said it Friday night. I think foosball has turned a corner and things are never going to be the same. Yeah. So, I, for one, I had to be here. I was excited. I've been motivated. I had to see this for myself. I had to experience it for myself. I'm so glad I came. I wouldn't have missed it.
[00:14:10] And I am just so motivated going forward. I want to support the tour. I've told people, I said, this thing's going to take off. And if I can get on the train at the bottom floor, anything I can do to be a part of it, I want to be a part of it. So, I'm excited, man. I'm excited for what Ryan's doing. And Modern Foos and Foosball Radio. And let's, you know, let's go. Let's go. Let's make it big. Make it happen. Yeah. Make it happen. But listen, guys, I'm going to go to my room and cry.
[00:14:39] Thank you for letting me jump on. Is it time for a nappy? Before you go, it's only fair. Dude, great playing. You made it to the finals of pro doubles tonight. It was a battle. You had the best seat in the house to congratulate Sam and Hannah. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. You know, I was really close watching him beat us. I can only make that joke because there's two people in between us. No, but so, you know, I reffed some matches this weekend, man.
[00:15:07] I got to watch the open doubles final close up. I mean, the production value was amazing, but the foosball was great. Yeah. Like I said, man, I just, I've had, I've had, honestly, more than anything else, I've had more fun at this weekend at a foosball tournament than I have had in a long time. Yeah, yeah. So that's been the biggest thing for me. But Ryan, dude, thank you. Clay, Adam, thank you. Yes, sir. Tom, thank you. Gentlemen, you know, if you need anything, let me know.
[00:15:37] And I will see you guys in Vegas. Yeah. Hell yeah. You better. We'll make it. We'll make it. And now I will hand off to. Handing off to Adam Gilson. Let's go. Adios. Welcome, Adam Gilson. And Randy, you rock, dude. Yes, sir. Randy Raposo, you rock it, man. Dude. Hey, brother. See you, man. So, yeah, there's a lot of heart right there. That guy's into this. Yep. Look at that sag, though.
[00:16:07] Yeah, what is that? Pull up the pants. Holy crap, bro. Pull up the pants. We're not in Boston no more. Look at how he's flicking people off. Oh, my God. That's in his leg crotch. That's totally Randy for you. He's over here walking around flicking people off of the room. That's funny. He means nothing but love, of course. We all know that. Oh, yeah. Sagan in the room. Mostly. Come on, dude. Adam Gilson. Welcome, Adam. What up, buddy? How's it going? Oh, I'm loud. You're good. How are you? Yeah.
[00:16:35] Well, I think you're just right. Oh, that's good. Just right. So, okay. What the hell was that? Just right. Production. Put it on in. Sorry, go ahead. On a scale of. Oh, shut the. Oh, wow. Whoa. Boom. Boom. Boom. Let's call for a beer over here.
[00:16:59] So, on a scale of 1 to 10, as far as tournaments you've gone to, done play by play for, put it on a scale of 1 to 10. 1 being, eh. 10 being awesome. So, this is so far. This is so far beyond any kind of scale that I could come up with. Okay. And this is not hyperbole. This is not me blowing smoke because I don't do that. I'm here. I'm going to, as everybody knows, I've been very supportive of anything for foosball that's good for foosball. As long as it doesn't screw anybody else over.
[00:17:28] And I was really happy to be here. I was really excited to be here. But I've got to say something. And this is no joke. You keyboard-ass warriors out there that have opinions nonstop on Facebook, who have opinions and have thoughts and have this, but do nothing, take note what's happening here. Yeah. Take note what's happening here with Ryan. I know. I know, Ryan. You're going to be. I have fun with it. I know you have fun with it. I know you're looking to make money off of it. I know you're looking to do everything. But I know you're. I'm looking to make money off it? Well, I work no longer in the street. No, no, dude. No, no. I know. That's long term.
[00:17:58] That's long term. But I know the immediate term. It'll make money. It'll make money off of it. It'll make money off of it. I know in the short term, in everything like this, you're doing something. And Clay and I were not joking around when we said this is a new era for foosball. And it is. It is. It absolutely is. I can feel it in my bones. And I'm so excited to be here. I'm taking time away from my family to be here to do this because I know how important it is for the future of football. It's worth it. It absolutely is. And you're looking at a group of people up here that do something for foosball in their own capacity in any way that they can.
[00:18:27] And for those of you back there who think that having an opinion on the internet is doing something, you are dead ass wrong. Do something. Say it again for the people in the back. Dead ass wrong. He put you in your place. But all that aside. You got Tom Robinson saying, yo place. Put you in your place. Mother, shut your mouth. All that aside, I can tell you as far as when I used to be in sales and stuff like that, it was the memories and those things you take with you and never forget. And I'll never forget the finals this weekend.
[00:18:57] Yeah. Yeah. Those were huge. That was fun. And Ryan, that concept, that idea, I know you're still tinkering with it. And this is phase one, as you say it. But my goodness. Phase one. I will walk to Vegas if I have to. I don't care. That is going to be wild. So, no. Props to you, Ryan. And everything. It's just awesome, man. It's awesome. It's all about presentation. It's production. And it's a lot of bodies involved in getting this underway. By the way, Ryan, just a quick question.
[00:19:24] I know that the original rig that was supposed to be in this arena, and I call it arena because that's what it is, was a little different. And it just got delayed in shipping. Is that what happened? Yeah. We were really lucky to have what we had. I actually messaged Clay right before, and I said, bro, we got issues, dude. I'm like, this thing is not arriving. And I'm just going to be blunt. I speak of the truth. I really feel like still to this day, there's something fishy going on with this transaction.
[00:19:54] You know, I spent like 25 grand on all this scaffolding, or I call it scaffolding, trust systems. Yep. But it's hard to say that I got screwed over. And I'm not going to get screwed over, guys. I paid my credit card. It's just called a chargeback. It's simple. I just told them, F off. Yeah. But they did send this. They said it broke down on the way here. Okay. But they did send this from Florida. And I know something like this would cost five grand because I looked it up. But we got something here. So I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.
[00:20:23] But if I don't got that trust system in my hands in the next two days, I'll get my 25 grand back. I'll send it right. I'll get the app for him. Yeah. Right. I'll take an old guy. Take that. I'm an old guy. It's all right. But yes. No. So this system's close. Me and Clay has been talking about this, like I said, for like four weeks. Yeah. Not longer. And I've been sending him schematics. He actually sent me back like AutoCAD preview drawings and stuff.
[00:20:53] Damn. Here, bro. Here's the easy way to look at it. I'm like, okay, okay, okay. Yeah. But what you see here today is the most basic version of what we are preparing for possible. Oh. Seriously? Yeah. This is, these ceilings are 12 foot and we can only put a fraction of it in here. Yeah. Interesting. You know, the whole thing about it is in preparation for what we want, we have to have space for
[00:21:22] branding and for sponsorships and stuff like that. So what we're going to see in Vegas, no matter what, I'm going to have this in my garage in Oklahoma. I don't really care. We're going to have a trust system that is exactly what we've been preparing for. And in Vegas, it's going to be pretty epic, you know. So now you're setting your sights on Vegas. What are you thinking now? Okay. I just, there's a whole list of things that happened this weekend.
[00:21:53] I'm going to make some adjustments as any good foosball player would. What are those adjustments? Yeah. I mean, just really, really quick, not to deviate. Okay. I am actually preparing for a next little small phase for the local tournaments. Okay. We got South Dakota. We got Wisconsin in between here. And I definitely have been working with both Terry Ward and Brett Nolan on these tournaments to try to make them, empower them, and make them the best that they can be.
[00:22:18] So there is a little bit of a thought process going into more of a local level promotion. But don't get me wrong. Yeah. It's nonstop. I've already got the next ideas. But yeah, this over here is the most baseline finals that we could ever run with what we're preparing for. We literally was not supposed to even have music in the finals until the last second. I was like, I've got to at least have music.
[00:22:48] Yeah, yeah, yeah. So test. Test. Test. Test. I was like, all right. You know what? So I went up to all four singles players and I said, what's your favorite song? I was just like, literally, it's why we took, it took us like 30 or 45 minutes. I'm sitting here. Dude, I'm over here scrolling on YouTube and scrolling on Spotify, trying to find these songs, getting past the ads, getting to the point, scrolling through the, you know, it's a three minute long song. So I'm like, all right, 15 seconds is the best starting point. So you need a DJ.
[00:23:18] You need somebody. No, I don't need anything. I just need time. He was the DJ. DJ. I just need time. Literally, I've spent the entire six weeks preparing for a production. I've not had time to create the production. Yeah. I know it may sound trivial, but there's a lot of thought that has to go into this. We're buying assets for all of time. Yeah. This is not a one time event stuff. We're literally preparing for all of time. So that kind of, you know, responsibility takes time.
[00:23:47] And there's some things I'm willing to like get done quick. And there's some things I'm just not. And that finals area is just not something I'm willing to get done quick. It's a good day one. It's a really, really good day one. Oh, yeah. Exactly. I was just hoping for a face change. And that was it. That was all I was hoping for. People are blown away. But your vision is huge. And you know what the future kind of looks like. Yeah. To the average fruiser to walk in and just see a giant new logo banner colors it. Welcome to the pit.
[00:24:14] And the spider over here, which I'm going to put that in it. No, it's not the kraken. It's the kraken. I'll tell you what. You all tell me what it is. The spider? It's the spider. The spider? It's the spider. Or the kraken. No, my mic is bigger and longer. What do you think, Adam? Which one's better? They're a team, dog. Listen. Don't be backing Clay up. Come on now. You know who looks better. The kraken. People are. People are. The kraken. Shut the hell up.
[00:24:43] I'm trying to talk right now. You let me know when I should come back. I'll be over there. People walk in and they see something they've not seen in American foosball. Ever. No, no, no. Ever. This concept has never been done in foosball because we've always seen a two-dimensional plane. I want a three-dimensional plane. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And to that point. People are walking in here taking pictures. Oh, dude. Of the pit. Oh, yeah. That first day, in between that seven or eight hours while they were putting up the light, I was amazed. You mean 12?
[00:25:13] Whatever. We were still doing this on Saturday. Dude, let me show you. This is my favorite response when people, I would count at least almost two dozen people came up in those first two days and just walked up and they did this. They went. And just nodding ahead. Or they did this. They went. Yeah. And take a picture. No, it's wild. It's wild. But the reality is, and I have to give some props to the people that were here and Clay for corralling those that needed to be corralled.
[00:25:42] But for the most part, there was such a lack of crap and garbage in that area. It looked so good. It looked so amazing. And that open space was so unclaustrophobic. It looked like you always kind of want to get in the pit. You always obviously want to win, right? But it made that rookie, that amateur. Like if I was still an amateur, if I was just starting and I saw that, that's my goal. I want to get there. Give me the hell in there, right? Yeah, that's the goal. Oh, yeah. And then this other thing that you did this weekend that I thought was cool, and I hope I hear more of this.
[00:26:11] And I know you're busy, but when Steve Murray showed up, you announced him. I love the thought of legends. People showing up, mastering the house for the first time. That was awesome. That's like, hey, man. That motivates me, if I was still playing, to get to that level. Yeah, and to be honest with you, we were so, you know, we had a lot on our plate. My only goal long term is to be the host.
[00:26:36] So really put a good time and share the love for the game that I got with everyone, right? And there's a lot of fun in this game. We have fun all the time. I'm scared on a mic to do it. I'll figure it out. I'm not, you know, it took me three minutes to do my first announcement at this tournament. Three minutes. Yeah, I did. I had to build up, right? But I'm good now. I can talk on that. By the way, you're a natural out there. I am now. Dude, trust me. It takes me a bit of time. I get comfortable. I'm good, right? It just takes a second. Well, you know who you're talking to. Yeah, right.
[00:27:05] I got a purpose, and I have nothing to hide. That's the big thing. People come to me with ideas all the time. I'm like, that's a really good idea. It's a really great idea. Yeah, we're going to definitely try to do something like that, but I got nothing to hide. You know, I can admit my faults. So at that point, it doesn't matter. Yeah. So yeah, you're right. I did that wrong, but dude, I only got so much bandwidth. I got to think about a million things. You know, there's... That's my next question is how do you sort of... I mean, do you make lists? I mean, what the hell do you do?
[00:27:34] Yeah, well, of course, of course. But the thing is, is there's so many... Anybody that walks into any room, and Clay knows this, and Adam, you guys have both talked about this a million times with me. It's like, everybody has ideas until they're the ones actually fucking doing it. Yeah. I mean, why don't you get to where we got today? You know, and it is true. And it's fine. And I'm not negative about this all, because I was the same way until I actually became a promoter. Or it's like, okay, look, people give me ideas, and I'm like, absolutely, you are right.
[00:28:04] I said, but just to be blunt with you, I only got so much bandwidth. I have priorities, and I have to make things happen. And something as simple and trivial as what you're saying, which is absolutely true, I just can't think about the 1,000 things that have to be done. Yeah. Because people always want to one-up what's current. I like the two-up. They didn't one-up what was. I always four-up. Yeah, you. And that's the trick. And that's really a trick. And hey, listen. Please, I'm happy with the ideas.
[00:28:34] I'm happy with the discussion. I'm a little bit more open, I think, than you guys are. And it's okay. I'm always open. What does that mean? Wow. Are you implying? Shut me down. Well, I shut down. Tell me what's the number one thing I shut down. I was testing over there, and you tell me, shut the fuck up. No. That is not what I said. You said, test, test, test. Shut up. It works. But I said, it will not be better than what it is. You've done a great job. It will be better. You don't need to test. That's all right. Test.
[00:29:02] How many times have I said that? Test. You don't need to test. No, it's good. And you settled into the weekend, and you stopped saying test. I did. It was still good. It's not my fault, though. I thought about it. Every time I said test, I was like, God dang, Clay's here with me. Hey, man. I know how to train people, dog. So anyways, you were saying you're open to other people's opinions more than us? Yes. Why? No, just curious. You didn't finish it. No, I'm just saying. I think I'm maybe more susceptible of it. I'm more like, I don't know.
[00:29:31] Maybe I'll be more hearing of it. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, but you hear a lot of it. Oh, you got to. You're a soundboard. When you're trying to be a promoter, you're a soundboard to 500 people. Well, this weekend, just under 400, I think. Was it just under four? I think it was just under four. Okay. You know, the thing was is, although I thought it was going to get up to 450, this is just under four active playing players. Yeah. I want to be very clear about that because I don't, I mean, I can't even count how many
[00:30:00] people came here just to see it and be a part of it. Well, you didn't play and you're here. Right, right, right. And the thing was is the room cells did insinuate a 450. And what? Dude, there's a leak. There may be 500 people here. One thing I did notice that I was very proud of, and I think that that's a lot to do with the environment, the music, the vibe, everything was, it was full. And to this day, I mean, what is it? Two, three, whatever. Every single day, all day long, it was full.
[00:30:28] And historically, what I see is people go to the room, they go hang out, they go chill with their friends in the room. Now they're chilling in the foosball room. Yeah. And a big part of that, I think, honestly, truly, was the sheer amount of tables we had in this room. 63 all together, right? 63. Crazy. We only filled them once or twice the whole tournament. Yeah. By matches. But they were full the entire weekend. Yeah. Practicing, playing, whatever. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And I learned a lot.
[00:30:56] So we had a bunch of little off games, you know, beer pong. Incidentally. But here's the thing. People come here for foosball. Yeah. Give them more of what they want. Yeah. Kudos to you, though. Last night, there was a huge crowd gathered around the table with a speed bridge on it. Yeah. Having a blast. Seeing who can shoot the fastest shot. What was the prize again? What was it, like $100? Yeah, I threw $100 to the fastest pool shot in the world and $100 to the fastest snapshot in the world. And how many people made the attempt? I mean, it must have been dozens.
[00:31:26] I can't even count. There's quite a few. Yeah. It just kept going. I had to shut it down at some point. I was like, we were there for an hour. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, I mean, and to see the varied shots of the different kind of people that are trying to, well, I guess it was Sammy Dijon at first who was like the fastest pool shot. And then you had, the snake shot was, oh, God. Munoz. Munoz. That's right. Oh, that guy? Yeah. That dude. That other Munoz. Yeah. So I threw $100 for the pool and the snake. But what was fun about it is. Pool and the snake.
[00:31:55] We're not. Don't let that go. Hey, listen. We're in Kentucky, all right? How can you? Better than letting it come. All right. That's just me doing what I do. Good luck getting back on track. Tom, get this thing on the rails. Oh, no. We got him? F you, dude. It's a joke. Look at him. He got on the rails. Literally. I'm not going to pull on that snake anymore.
[00:32:25] Oh, no. Anyways, as you were saying. Yeah, it was like Joe Killian has the fastest pool shot in the world. I don't care what anybody says. Wow. It is a bunch of BS if you say different. As of right now, under official WFT review, it is 21 and change. I don't remember what it was. 21.5 something. Okay. Obviously, people have hit it faster. I get it. But you get five shots. Yep. To hit the fastest shot in the world.
[00:32:54] And you're off the table. And we're going to do this every single tournament. And you get to choose either the pool shot or the snake shot. All right? And whoever has the fastest one gets 100 boxes. You know, it's fun. It was a lot of fun. No, no. And all weekend long, I planned on this stuff. But, dude, I was still setting up until mid-Friday. You guys know this. Oh, mid. What do you call it? You call it 4 o'clock in the afternoon mid? Yes. Yeah, yeah. All right. We end at like 2 a.m. Mr. Wilson. Donald Wilson. The answer is no. What's up, Wilson? Somebody close the Discord.
[00:33:25] What's up, baby? Does this mic work? No, it doesn't. But you can always share your mic with him if you'd like. No. I'll just listen back later and make sure I didn't talk bad about it. Oh, we already did that. Yeah. What do you think the first 30 minutes was? Yeah, all about me. Yeah. I found a job. As long as you don't talk, keep following. He doesn't have a mic. Somebody tell him he doesn't have a mic. You don't have a mic. We can't. We can sort of hear you.
[00:33:54] There's four people over here. Oh, yes, we can. Eggs freezing in the below freezing temperatures. Who left the chair here? Randy. Where's Randy? Randy back there. Randy. Yeah, Randy. That's Randy's fault. They can't hear this. It's a bad radio. No, it's all right. It's all right, Donald. He deserves to see you at the table.
[00:34:20] So let's talk about the crew, though, because Don is your right-hand guy. Yeah, I mean, he's... Oh, poor Donald. Poor Donald. He made this happen. If we're done, I got teardown to do. I can pop back over there and tear down. If y'all need to know. If y'all... No, I'm just... We got... Y'all keep talking. It's only 1.38 a.m. I just wanted to know... We're not even 3 o'clock yet. Just people that stand out on your staff, people that made this thing happen, because you weren't doing this by yourself.
[00:34:50] I mean, shout out to, you know? Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, the poor dude right here, man. We need two of them, and we're going to find two of them. And, yeah, we had Donna. She got sick. Oh. So, we had three plus, you know, Mr. Wilson here, and she got sick. She only pit in a day and a half. Okay. And so, talk about straining this guy. So, we got a lot of upgrades we're going to be doing by Vegas. Absolutely.
[00:35:20] Yeah. Without question. There's no question that we're going to ever be short-staffed ever again. Okay. More staff, bigger venues. Yeah, I mean, Donald was slammed. I'm sitting there watching him like... I mean, he can handle stress like I can. Yep. I'll just say that. I'm sitting there watching him like, man, he is good at this, because that is a stressful job. He has four people in front of him, 14 hours a day. Yeah. Asking questions.
[00:35:49] And they're usually not happy, because, you know, people are in the middle of a match, they're serious, you know, life is crazy, whatever. And he can handle it. I mean, so... Nice. Kudos, bro. Yeah, yeah. Kudos. Nobody can hear you, but you're there. Round of applause for Donald Wilson. Yep. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thanks, Donald. Because I love foosball and I love people. All right, buddy. There you go. There you go. In case you didn't hear that, he said it's because he loves foosball and he loves people. That's what it's all about. Yeah.
[00:36:18] So, yeah, I mean, you guys got to roll. You got to do some stuff. You got to start packing up the gear here. That's the sad part, right? You got to pack this shit up and then move on. Yeah, we got a few... You know, yeah, it's sad, but man, there's a lot to look forward to. You know what? There was a two-ball rollerball that was just called. It's rolling. That would have been fun. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. You can hear it. See that? You can hear that. Things get exciting. Little man! We're actually watching a match over here in front of us.
[00:36:46] There is the youngest foosball player in the room, Asher, six years of age. Oh, you know what? I wanted to bring... Oh, sorry. Yeah, yeah. No, I was just going to say that. And there's a crowd gathered around, Asher and his table. Is this match of the weekend? Could be. I think match of the weekend was Yannick Hansen and Jacob Balkos. That's my official vote. Oh. That's your official vote in the pits? That's my official vote in the pits, yeah. I would co-sign that. That was a heck of a match. Trevor Park co-signed that, too. Yeah. Yeah. It's, I mean, you guys have to... That's just three people, though.
[00:37:16] I mean... How many hours did you spend doing play-by-play, by the way? Did you calculate how many hours this weekend? I mean, it was at least an hour. Well, so we usually do, like, all the p.m. hours. And so Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I'd say, and when it wasn't all day Friday, it was probably in the 20s for sure. Maybe close to 30 hours. Easily. Damn. Easily. Damn. We did something this weekend that we don't typically do. Typically, we do table one.
[00:37:45] And that is our feature table. We do not stream two or three. Yeah. And we typically record two and three and post them later. I'm in the middle of a damn recording. Get the hell away. Or bring me a drink, at least. Yeah. And so what we did this weekend, and to Ryan's credit, this was one of the things he wanted to do was to get two and three on stream if possible. And so we hooked up our system in a way to where if there wasn't something on table one,
[00:38:13] we just went and watched two and three. Switch back and forth. And so we had continued, and a large part of why we had nonstop hundreds of people watching throughout the weekend because it was nonstop action. There was always something on. How about the comments? Were there a lot of comments in the feed? Oh, comments were. Here's the thing. People are just begging to be a part of something related to foosball. They're starving for content. They're begging to be a part of a conversation about foosball.
[00:38:39] And when you go live on Twitch, a big part of what's so good about Twitch is the chat. And it's people saying, well, I think this. Well, the middle's wide open. Or this, you know, they should have done this. Oh, that was a good timeout. Nice slingshot. Oh, that was great. All that stuff. They like the interaction. And every now and then somebody comes in with some negative nonsense. They get the boot. No. Yeah. No. No interest in that. And people are immediately grateful that there's somewhere that they can talk about foosball
[00:39:06] without some 80-year-old Uncle Paw Paw Wally Rollover nonsense, no opinion, no new idea having piece of bleep to just sit there and ruin the fun. If you're not bringing something of value to the chat, we don't let you stay. You go be somewhere else on a Facebook group where they will absolutely love to have your terrible opinion. And so, yes, people are there to chat. And it's mostly wholesome. What Facebook group are you talking about? You know I will answer this question. You won't. I will answer this question. No, you won't.
[00:39:36] If you want to be one of the 5,000 clones on Inside Foods talking about, oh, my, here's another pandemonium that nobody gives a shit about. And what else do you want me to talk about? You're making me be the person that I would ban on Twitch. I just wanted to see if you would go there. Hey, here's the deal. I love foosball. We got two half champions in front of us. Two half champions? Is that what you said? You mean half champions? We're drunk. Where's my drink? That's, that's, so all jokes aside. Hey guys, this is Brandon Munoz.
[00:40:06] I'll translate for you. Thank you for, oh, okay. Hi, my name is, my name is Brandon Munoz. Brandon Munoz. Brandon Munoz. You don't even know how to pronounce Spanish. Don't talk about pronouncing. Don't do it. Say, I speak two languages. You speak just one. I speak English and redneck. Okay, okay. That's true. What do you know about that? That's true. I speak Cajun, Spanish. No. And Spanish. I live in Lafayette. I speak, I'm allowed back in Costa Rica. Man, what's next?
[00:40:36] I don't know. Oh, Vegas. You tell me. South Dakota. What's next for us? South Dakota. Somebody close the Discord. Were you demanding something? No, I mean. You sponsored. What's up, Bob? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Give us a reason. Yeah. Yeah. What's up? Are we going to have a WFT team in ITSF tournament? What is that? I don't know. WFT and ITSF? What is ITSF? What is that? ITSF has a championships league, which is a club's team.
[00:41:07] Didn't they just ruin Europe with that? Yeah. I'm pretty sure they ruined Europe with that from my understanding. I don't know, but we can make a team. My bad. Just let me know. Tommy wants to use your mic. No, I'm kidding. All right. What was I saying that was good? Well. You said no hablo espanol. No, we said. Then this is why I don't drink. He took a shot. Oh, listen. Hold on. I want to say this. No, I'm saying that's why I don't drink.
[00:41:36] Not this is why I don't drink. I gave him a shot. Okay, not a shot. I gave him a little small glass of Johnny Walker Blue. Sir, that was in the privacy of a hotel room. I don't need my business out there on Front Street. You need to spend some time in prison, man. This is not dry snitching time. Well, it's too late now. Oh, he drank the whole thing quick. Yeah, it was nice. It was good. But be that as it may. I'm still working on mine. Yes. Yes. The Twitch chat was amazing this weekend. There was, I mean, a small fraction of people who were not welcome.
[00:42:04] They were shown the way out the door. For the most part, people are begging to be a part of something foosball related. Yeah. Something positive. Something where they can just enjoy and have fun and not be this grumpy old pile of bones that you've seen in foosball for so long. Look, they do need to just go with themselves and just cry to each other. Yeah. And I have people that... But I want to focus on what's good. There were lots of good things this weekend. Today was the challenge.
[00:42:33] And because there's a lot of BS that came today. But it has been so productive. Yeah. It's been 90 to 95% good to bad. And I tell people that... I've said this two or three times. I said, I learned recently why my mom went bad with the mindset. And it was because you always concentrate on the negative. Yeah. Yeah. You can't do that. It's so much more impactful to your brain than something positive. Right? So as soon as I felt that one time, I swear to you, it was the first time it ever happened to me.
[00:43:03] I'm like, I'm only doing good stuff. And everybody's like, Ryan... Somebody says, like, Ryan's... He's going to screw this all up. And I was like... Oh. I thought about it for like 15 minutes. I'm like, why would he say that to me? Like, what did I do? Maybe he might... Maybe other people might think this way. I was like, oh. That's what happened to mom. Yeah. That's what happened to mom. Yeah. I'm like, oh shit. Let me update what I said. Fuck that guy. You know what I mean? Fuck that guy. I'm focusing on the 99 that said yes. Let me update what I was saying earlier about do something.
[00:43:33] Yeah. Don't be a shithead. Yeah. Can we just say... No, go ahead. Go ahead. You can say that. Go ahead. I just want to say this because I'm going to just focus... Keep focusing on the positive. And one of my favorite things that happened this weekend was obviously the finals events. I thought that was awesome. It was great production. But one of my other favorite things that was happening, and I am excited for this because I'm a gamer nerd, right? You left some Easter eggs this weekend. You did some stuff that was unannounced. And one of my favorite things was the golden ticket you gave to the singles winners, right?
[00:44:03] And I'm wondering, what other ones happened this weekend that we don't know about? Or you don't have to talk about them if you don't. If they wanted to be just little surprises. Or what? Do you have more coming? That was the only Easter egg that actually happened this weekend. I had a couple more planned that I won't say because I'm going to use them later. Okay. Cool. I surely had too much time involved in setting this thing up. It took me a while to become more active in the tournament. So that was a good one, though. Everybody that won a main event singles.
[00:44:31] And I've got to be a little more clear. There's people that won some singles that weren't main events. And you can see it on the flyer what is considered a main event and specialty event. We got a game of the weekend. It's an absolute weekend, bro. Yeah. The dude's like five years old. Okay. But the people that won main events are sponsored by the World Foosball Tour now. Okay? So for all of 2025, well, I should say, I'm sorry. Okay. For Hall of Fame, Nationals, and Worlds, we're going to sponsor them. We're going to get them fitted out.
[00:45:01] Whatever jersey they want to make. We're going to make it nice. Patches. Whatever. I don't really care. They're going to be sponsored by the World Foosball Tour. Look in the park. We're putting our money where the mouth is. You know what I mean? Our goal is to get the players sponsored. Okay? And so we're going to go ahead and do it. Why not? I mean, you know what I mean? Let's get the ball rolling. Let's start it and let's go from that. This is the idea of making things so attractive for people who maybe even have gotten out of the sport for a while because of whatever reason to come back.
[00:45:30] To come back and strive to be the best again. And, of course, the idea that they could benefit. I mean, who knows? In a year's time, you've been talking sponsors. You've been talking some money being put into the sport. Who knows that the top pro masters and pros could make a living at this eventually? Am I stretching it? Yeah. I would never guarantee anything more than I know can happen.
[00:45:59] What I can guarantee you is that you will see consistent advancement major over major for all of time if I'm in charge. There will never be a time in which I just maintain. I will quit before I maintain. Yeah. Understood. What is my purpose here? It's not a money thing. So what is my purpose if it's not advancing foosball? Yeah. Yeah. And that's the only thing I can promise you.
[00:46:29] I will never promise you anything more than I know I can do. And I promise you that foosball will be advanced from major to major every single time something will get better. That's all I can say. Good. Done deal. I think that's something we can accept. Yeah. I mean. I think there's consensus here. Hey, if you can't accept that, then call me and I'll talk to you about it. It's time for you to pick up a new hobby if you can't accept that. What's wrong with your brain hole?
[00:46:57] So you're anti-stagnation and I love that. Well, yeah. Because I'm not here to make cash. I mean, dude. Yeah. I actually blew a lot of cash and I'm happy to do it and it's fun. Here's the thing. I appreciate the love and the praise, but it's a little much. I honestly truly – I did this and I'm thinking like I'm creating like the coolest foos cave for all of us, all the friends. You know, like let's create a cool environment we can all come to and hang out with. That's what I felt this weekend. Yeah, yeah.
[00:47:25] You know, it's like let's just create like a place we'd all just come to and just hang out and just chit-chat and have a good time. You know, so when people thank me, you know, Clay's like, dude, just shut up and take a compliment. I'm just like, yeah, there's so much more, man. There's always so much more. There's always more. And I think – and if you listen to this and you like foosball and you see the direction it's going and you dig it, give Ryan a compliment. He needs practice accepting praise. Right. Yeah, no. Because he's not comfortable. He doesn't even like me saying that. I just had a blast.
[00:47:54] He doesn't even like me saying that. Yeah, just be like I had a blast. Me too, man. Hell yeah, bro. That makes me happier all day than, man, thank you so much. I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm starting to learn to say thank you. No point. I appreciate it. But really it's just like, fuck yeah, Bills have a good time. You know, it's good. It's the positive vibe that you're receiving. And hey, what could be wrong with that?
[00:48:16] I'll tell you something I learned about Ryan in these last weeks or maybe a couple months even having conversations about and then leading up to the event itself is, Ryan, you're a pretty strong personality. You kind of sometimes can give off my way or the highway vibes. You've been so open-minded and listening to actual ideas. And I get scared of people who don't hear new ideas. And, dude, you've been down to just do whatever. And if it works and if it's good for the tournament, it's good for foosball, let's give it a whirl. And there are places where, you know, you say test for a few hours. Yeah.
[00:48:45] And it goes a little long there. Because I don't feel secure with it yet. Right. Until I feel secure, I won't do it. You know what I mean? So I think I ain't done. Yeah, you can listen a little longer. You got to flex that, just exercise that muscle. And the thing is, that's what gives me hope about all this is that Ryan, he has the give a shit. The gas factor is engaged. But he's also, it's not just like I'm doing this, so get in line or get behind or whatever that is. He's actually hearing ideas.
[00:49:14] So if you have an idea, I'd say holler at him. Pump it up. Yeah. I mean, it's either a yes or a no or something else. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of innovators out there and people that are working in local promotions, doing things that are different and making a difference in their own neighborhood. And then you see an organization like this, which is there to support those people. Man, what else could, you know, how, you know, this could be really huge. I'm looking forward to the time when we can start to establish, you know, clubs across the country
[00:49:43] that show up at a tournament like this and represent their club. You know, that would be really freaking cool. Yeah, yeah. That's the Nationals, man. Yeah. This is probably the last year of Nationals, and it'll become the National League Championships. Oh, wow. By 2026. Awesome. So we will have American clubs and beyond as long as, you know, everybody plays on the same table. But the National League Championships is what that is. Yeah. Okay. And so, you know, we'll figure out what that is.
[00:50:13] People ask me the questions about it. I was like, I don't know. Honestly, I need to talk to all the local promoters, and let's figure out this perfect soup of an idea that makes it where we all work together. We're able to bring in new players. We're able to meet the needs of the existing players. It is a tough balancing act, but it's possible. And it's just possible with people having an open mind. And it is hard to do. But, dude, you cannot beat positivity. There is nobody.
[00:50:42] I don't care how negative you are. If you are positive in the face of someone negative, they have zero choice but to join you. You could argue that. But if they don't join you, if they don't join you, I'll just be there and be like, I'm having a great time. Well, I'm having a shit time. Well, I'm sorry for you. Please join me next time you're having a great time. Get out of my life until your depression is cured. Yeah, no, I can't do it. I just can't do it, man. I mean, it is, you know, both of them are very contagious. Yeah.
[00:51:12] And I choose to be on the higher side. There you go. Well, I think that especially just in this next year, the changes that are still to come. I mean, I can't wait. Dude, I'm positively giddy. Highlight of the weekend. Oh, sorry. No, go ahead. No. I'm asking. Oh, highlight of the weekend. Yeah. Yeah. Highlight of the weekend. My highlight of the weekend?
[00:51:41] Oh, snack. You know what? I think what I like was that you said you're going to walk in here before the tournament even started. You're going to walk in here, your jaw's going to drop, whatever. And then I walk in here, my jaw dropped. So that's my highlight. There he is. The second we got in here, I was like, man, I can feel this. There's a change in the air. There's a change in the water. So, yeah, my highlight of the weekend specifically is the vibe change, the new thing. And I know.
[00:52:09] But I can tell you for one thing, things have changed. Yeah. Oh. This is the new era. This is the evolution the door has opened. You know, it's like, oh. I don't believe in evolution. You don't believe in evolution. I'll give you guys two thoughts about the brand that I loved when I talked about fan brands that goes along with what you said. Is there's two things when you look at the banner, any banner, look at any banner you ever see in this entire room. Okay.
[00:52:38] There's two things that you will not know, but you'll feel. One, the most important is it is forward thinking. Look at it. Everything is moving forward. Oh. Everything. Ooh. Left or right? I like that. And here I was just thinking it was italics. No, no, no. It is truly forward thinking. And we put that in there. The second thing. I love it.
[00:53:06] Nobody knows this, but we're releasing it live right now. Oh. Unedited and raw. Yeah. Check, check, check, check. There it is. Check. Test, test, test, test. The second thing is if you look at the logo, it is the dimensions of a foosball table in a toilet. Yeah. The ratios are identical to a foosball table. That's sweet. I know what's going on there. Yeah. But on a subconscious level. On a subconscious level, you can look at it and you can relate to it and you just don't even know.
[00:53:36] You have no clue. And you won't, but now you will. Yeah. It's comforting. So it is a foosball brand that is forward thinking. Love it. And this is. I love that. And it says, what the fuck? Whoa. And I'm happy with that. I don't care. You'll remember WFT that easily. Yeah. That's kind of what we do with MF too. Is that right? Right. That's right. Hey, MFers. Yeah. Yeah. Welcome in. We got the MF podcast. We got the MF Twitch. The MF everything.
[00:54:05] MF Patreon. The WTF MF tour. There you go. Oh, man. According to you dudes, I think foosball radio is going to have to do some image changing here. Yeah. Let's just call it the FU. FM. Do something family. More like F me. Foosball University. Oh, that's already been done. We'll get there. We'll get there. So, okay. Closing thoughts. Clay? You got Ryan next to you, man. Yeah. Tell him the straight stuff.
[00:54:35] We've had straight conversations. All right. What's one thing you want to tell Ryan for next time? Well, that conversation would happen anyways, but why not do it live in a place where I might not be happy about how it comes out? I think, well, it's selfish for me that the pit experience has been unbelievable this weekend. And I'm really, I'm not joking when I say that I'm really proud of the Fusers here who respected the invisible boundary of the pit. Yeah.
[00:55:05] And we talked about hopefully we won't need pipe and drape and this. It never was an issue the entire weekend. I can count literally on one hand how many times I had to ask people to move. And nobody gave any pushback. Damn. I think, so my focus is on that pit experience and what it's like there as well as for the stream. I would like a lot of, I would like a lot of, I want to pick the matches we get and see, you know, it's all selfish. I just want to pick what's on the stream.
[00:55:34] I have no credit. Nothing went bad. But the internet was great all weekend except for the 10 minutes where I said this thing will happen and then it happened. But there was no, there was no loss of service all weekend. There were no fights. There were no like, you know, like I was like probably three of the four arguments that happened all weekend. All by yourself. I think, no, they were with people.
[00:55:57] But no, I think the main two things about feedback is it went great and all the planning is worth it and freaking nailed it. And I know there's a million things that you want to fix and I believe they'll all get fixed. I would like a say so in who we get over there. And I think I can help. I think I can help with verifying matches and all that stuff. We did that actually this weekend. I'd love to do more of that and I want to be a part of what makes things go more smoothly. And I'm competent in all the technology that's going on here. So I'm just saying I'm down to do more.
[00:56:26] I'm down to do more tournaments. I'm down to do more at the tournaments. We just heard that live and it's for the record right there. Adam, how about you? But it wasn't under oath and I didn't swear on a Bible and I didn't swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. I know what it's like to be in court and this ain't court, but pretty close. Yeah, yeah. So, Adam, what about yourself? What would you like to tell Ryan? Well, I'm going to co-sign what he said just because I always support what... What's his name again? Clay. Clay. Yeah, what Clay says.
[00:56:55] Yeah, we support him. And I'm committed to what happens this year and everything else going forward with the World Foosball Tour. And my question for you is, are there any more... No. You don't have to give anything away. But do you have any little Easter eggs you can at least hint at? Like, just something to look forward to.
[00:57:21] Maybe not at any one of the tournaments that are coming up soon, but maybe at World's just something. Like, give me something. Give me a hint. Give me a taste. I want something to look forward to. Mmm. Tantalizing. That's a horrifying sound. Oh, boy. Don't look at anybody after you make that sound, bro. Don't look at me. I'm gone. This is my good elbow. What? Did I catch you way too off guard? Did you go lizard person? What the hell?
[00:57:50] You got too much of this vodka or whatever you got here. Huh? Bless your heart, man. This is Gatorade. Oh, yeah. Okay. Now you tell them, geez. God. What do you got? No, no, yeah. I mean, one of the most important things for me was to identify each tournament and make them very different from each other so people knew when they went to a specific tournament what they were going to kind of get. And they're all going to have a different vibe, a different feel.
[00:58:15] So what you can expect for the Hall of Fame is very Hall of Fame-y. And it's something that has never been presented properly. And it's going to have a feel to it. We've already been working on this. It's going to have a feel to it that will not be so nostalgic, but will have some. And we are going to turn the Hall of Fame into a true meaning of what it means to be in
[00:58:42] the Hall of Fame and give people a reason to actually want to think about being in the greatest Hall of Fame of foosball there is in the entire world. There you go. So we have that for the Hall of Fame. For the Nationals, again, we're turning that tournament into the National League Championships. So now it's going to be more of a nation. Every single state or every single club against each other. It's a team event, but on the local level.
[00:59:10] The people you play with all the time are going to be your allies in war against everyone else across the nation, whether it's in your backyard at another club in your city or somebody across the nation in Cali. The National Championships is going to become your home base where your entire club is going to come and support you and try to win that National Championships. I honestly think that's going to become one of the biggest tournaments of the year. And the World Championships is the easiest one for me.
[00:59:38] It is who is the absolute best player in the entire world. And when we're talking about that, it may sound trivial, but at the end of the day, we're going to put the pressure on these people. By Vegas, we're going to have just an uptick in production. By Worlds, we're going to have a full presentation. Where's that going to be? We're going to be talking about it because me and you have to work directly together to
[01:00:08] figure this out. Oh, my hourly rate just went up. Cha-ching! Cha-ching! Yeah, boy. Now, Worlds, I think, will have enough content to make my vision come true as far as what I see for foosball. And then by 2026, I can't promise this because I won't promise you nothing, but we'll have a product that's sponsorable. And everybody's like, sponsors are the way there.
[01:00:37] I'm just going to be quiet with you. I am the sponsor. Yeah. Yeah. Right now. Okay? Yeah. Now, it may not show you in your pocket, but I'm the initial sponsor, so there's levels to it. Let's just say I had a sponsor next to the World Foosball Tour, but they gave us $100,000. $100,000 ain't going to do shit for foosball, right? Yeah. I got $200,000 in this room. Yep. Okay? So, when we're talking about sponsors, I'm not looking for $100,000. I'm looking for $5,000. Okay?
[01:01:05] And what $5,000 does is it actually gets to the players and it actually gets to the growth of foosball. Yeah. And to do that, I have to give somebody worthiness. We have to give somebody worthiness of spending that kind of money. Yeah. And the only way to do that, it may not be 2026, but the hunt will be on in 2026. Yeah. And what we have to do is show them views across multiple channels. Millions and millions of views.
[01:01:31] Where their logo could be implanted on the screen and I could say, hey, look, we're getting 20 million views a month. I want one cent per view. That's reasonable. Is it? Yeah. Well, yeah. Well, that's a lot of money. A cent per view when you're getting 20 million a month is cha-ching. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're talking hundreds of thousands. A month. And eventually. Yeah. Yeah. Correct.
[01:01:59] And so now we're talking something that actually goes down to the players. Okay. And we got to be very cautious here. This is my last thing. This is a long story. Sorry. Monologue here. This is great. Yeah. Yeah. I freaking love it. We're here at first. He has 20, 250 hours left on his recording. Let's go. My fly's not until two tomorrow. Here's the last thing I'll say. Okay. The one thing I won't do is jeopardize the sustainability of foosball. Yeah. I will not allow this to be a roller coaster.
[01:02:28] I will not. I will turn down sponsorship over and over and over again if I don't think it's sustainable. Okay. And what I mean by that is if I said, somebody says, I'll give you a hundred grand right now and you have to raise payouts tomorrow. All hundred thousand has to go to payouts. You may not like to hear this. I'll say no. Yeah. And the reason why. Not yet. Is because that hundred thousand may only be one year and then boom, it's gone.
[01:02:58] Yeah. When they're gone, they are gone. And I'm not going to lose money. I will break even all day and reinvest every single profit in foosball back into foosball. But I am not going to be a just cash dump. Right? Right. So we need a sustainable growth where foosball grows at the rate that the payouts grow. So if somebody donates or somebody sponsors money, we're going to use a big portion of that towards foosball growth, social media, awareness of foosball.
[01:03:28] We're going to grow foosball. We're going to make it to the point where we can have multiple sponsors. If we have multiple sponsors, now if one drops, it's not that big of a deal. Yeah. If we have one sponsor and they drop, it's a huge deal. It's a disaster. This has happened. I'm not going to let history repeat itself. God bless Brennan Flaherty. He just passed. Okay? Yep. He was a sponsor of the tour at one point. He crushed it.
[01:03:53] And when he dropped, my mom felt that the intriguing value of the player, she had to reproduce what he could give with his money. Yeah. And she could not sustain it. And the tour dropped. And there was this big deflation. And it will never happen under my watch. I'd rather have slow, sustainable growth that will forever go in the upward direction than ever have one downturn. Yeah. Great. Yeah. That's fantastic. So that is where I'm at.
[01:04:18] I will take the turtle route because I really want to protect the feel and the value of the tour and try to take the turtle route to the top. And just for all of you out there that look at the 70s, that was a fantastic sermon. That was awesome. I love it. I'm sorry. It was great. It was good. That was a good analogy. It wasn't really long. No, but it was good. It was good.
[01:04:40] But, no, just to put a bow on it from my end, those of you who look at the 70s and the million-dollar tour as some kind of rose-colored glasses, do you know who the first and only sponsor of that tour back then was? It was the actual tables. It was the tournament soccer. The manufacturers. It was a house of cards, and it was not well thought out. And what happened? That is where we are. Yeah. And that became the model. What happened? That became the model after that.
[01:05:07] And this is one of the first times I've heard somebody try to do something else. That was the greatest era of foosball. It happened in one freaking year, and it was gone because it was not sustainable. It was not sustainable. One hit or quitter. Yeah. So we're not playing those games. We're not playing stupid games. We're playing long-term strategy here. I'm even more excited. Ryan, I'm even more excited. This is the time to focus. This is the time to get it done. This is the time to be in this sport.
[01:05:37] And watch this thing. Stand back and watch this thing happen. Yeah. We are so psyched, man. Can I sneak in one more request for Vegas? Oh, yeah. A steak dinner. A steak dinner. A steak dinner. Oh, man. You know, I was supposed to cook you guys a steak. Yeah. Do you think I don't know that? You think I don't know that? You think I don't remember that? Yeah. You think my stomach's not growing right now? Master Seth. It says Master Seth. Hey, look. We're at the Westgate. I have not ate at the steakhouse there. Okay. But I heard it was actually really good.
[01:06:06] Okay, but I want to taste that it's good. I don't want to hear about it. I don't want to hear about it. I want to taste it. I'll tell you what. Sorry. Anecdotal doesn't work. If you guys show me 500 plus reviews in Vegas or 500 plus views at any time, I'll buy you guys Wagyu at the fucking steakhouse. Whoa. I can guarantee that right now. Woo! Let's go! He's putting money on it. You're buying a steak, bro. He just put money on it. That's like a buck. If I'm making bets on it, I win. It's a game called I win. Go, win! I want some Wagyu.
[01:06:36] Yeah. Wagyu. It's a little waggle, waggle, waggle. So in Las Vegas, this is my last comment about this upcoming event. We had this conversation earlier this weekend. We were going to do Foos Talk Live in front of a live audience at this event. Randy messed it up. Yeah. A little of that. But no, it's something technically we should probably work in advance and then get it technically worked out and have it happen because, I mean, that's what it's supposed to be, right?
[01:07:06] We have an audience. People are hanging out. We Q&A, whatever you want to do. I think for Vegas, that'll be so workable. Foosball Town Hall. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. The Town Hall meeting. Live. Live and in color. Unedited and raw. And promoted. Promoted in advance. Talking foosball. It just means I listen to the show, man. I just know the opening. You ready to get this thing started?
[01:07:36] This is Foos Talk Live. Hey, folks. Tom Robinson here. Oh, that's right. I've been listening. Yes, you have. You've been very active on the chat as well, which is, we love that. All while practicing social distance. Well, I'm going to have to rewrite the intro. You do. That's all it took. We're post-COVID. That's all it took. Things have changed. I've been listening. No more glass shields, okay?
[01:08:05] Those are done, man. Put your mask on. It's time. It's called a sneeze shield, by the way, in case you're wondering. Good luck introducing fancy language to Ryan over here. I thought it was a – oh. What does that mean? That's a dangerous question. I use chat GPT. Okay, leave me alone. I'm surprised you just said the letters in the right order. Chat GPT. We need a chat WFT. Oh, there you go. That's actually a really cool idea, chat WFT. Do we have a match of the week? Do we have a match of the week, Ben?
[01:08:35] Big Paul the Bear right here? No, I don't think they call him that anymore. Yeah, chat WFT. You're on to something, dude. Yeah. That mind of yours. Wow. I still say it's Hanson versus Balcos. But that's your call to make. I'm just putting in my two cents. What does the match of the weekend get? And what do I get for asking that question? You get nothing. Okay, well, that's fair. Ever. You get the love. That's fair. That's fair. No, the winner gets 300. The loser gets 200. Nice.
[01:09:05] And, you know, there's a lot of wins. And we focus on those wins more than the losses. But we remember the losses this weekend. There was plenty of fails that we did. We're not stupid. Well, some people are. We learn from those. And we focus on the good ones. Yep. And we make all more good ones. Okay? And the match of the weekend was a little rough because we had so much going on. Yeah. We'll fix that in Vegas, too. Absolutely. And that's why I came to you very openly and said, Look, I need to lean on you a bit on this. What was the best match?
[01:09:35] Yep. What did you have? That was it. And that was it. So, Balcos. Balcos. Balcos. Is he a master? Yeah. He is now. Oof. Yeah. Just came. He was before this tournament. Yeah. And his opponent. His opponent was Yannick Hansen. Yeah. Yannick. Okay. Yannick. Yeah. Sorry. Yannick. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, he said it was like the first time he's came over here in, I don't even know, ever?
[01:10:03] I wasn't familiar with this game. But you know what? We were over there drinking at the bar and he said, This is the most fun I've had in like 10 years. And he's German. Yeah. They never have fun. Yeah. Oh, was I not supposed to say that? Everybody's just like not laughing? I was a joke. So, my wife's from Europe and she knows him very well. He's a very straightforward type guy. He's German. Yeah. He's not BSing. He's not saying it to fluff around or nothing like that. Fluff around? Yeah. No fluffers in German. No. Well, I mean.
[01:10:33] Dude, apparently he's a ladies man over there. I don't know. The guy gets all the girls. But it's Germany. Yeah. That's true. He's a wienerschnitz. It's Germany. It's Germany. I don't know what that means, but I like it. Yeah. So, anyways, he's a ladies man. Yeah. Yeah. No. Apparently, he's a ladies man over there. So, you know, the guy's not fluffing around. There's no fluffing. And that match was on table, too. It was on stream. It was recorded. You can go back and watch it. I believe. And it had a crowd.
[01:11:02] The bleachers on that side were full. What was the final score on that match? I want to say it was 9-7 in the fifth. Yeah. 9-7. Maybe 10-8. Maybe. Huh? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I mean. They weren't. They were sober. They were chilling. And it was early in the weekend. So, you know. People. The match of the weekend this weekend is going to be different than the matches of the weekend in the future. Yeah. People are just learning that they're allowed to cheer. Yeah. That's a good thing. There will be a transition.
[01:11:28] There's been a few people that have had so much power by being a top player that have swayed the way that people are allowed to cheer. Because when you cheer against someone, they will give you the most meanest look you've ever seen in your life. And you lose a friend sometimes. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. But sometimes what we have to do is the meaning of that win has to be more than them giving a shit about the opponent. Yeah. You want your friend to win so bad. Who cares if that guy is mad at me? Who gives a shit?
[01:11:57] I want you to win, bro. That's what we've got to create. Who's over friends? And I have to add something to this. So the Modern Foose Reach, as far as all the post-tournament stuff that's going on out there, the millions and millions of views that everything gets, it's amazing. There's people watching Foose. I can tell you right now, I know for a fact, more people are seeing Foose Ball than have ever seen Foose Ball in the history of Foose Ball. No question. And one of my favorite things that was happening is two things. One, people are changing the way they play on the pit tables because they know.
[01:12:25] They know that it's going to be seen by a lot of people. They want to make it to the Clips. My favorite moment this weekend, I'm going to add this to my favorite moment, was when you said to Eric Hiltner, hey, give me another three million view video. And this dude, right before a match, ear-to-ear smile. Normally Mr. Serious, just ear-to-ear smile. You want to close? Yeah. If possible, yeah. No. All night.
[01:12:54] We're leaving it open all night. No, I'm just kidding. This one we can close? No, but leave it open. What you're hearing right now is Ryan Moore working to shut down the end of the tournament here. Of course, we're doing our best to get to the end of Foose Talk Live episode 240. But it's great to see you in action, man. It's like, hey, he's got to make decisions here. Yeah.
[01:13:22] Isn't it funny watching him turn into an adult when he has to do adult things? Yeah, yeah. It's cool. What does that mean? I think you know. I'm 35. I think that might have been on camera. Am I not a man yet? Shut up. The men are talking. The smile. The smile was there. The smile. 6'4", 260. Hey, shut up. Hey, I don't care what you bid, dude. Say that a hush. When you have to say how big you are. I'll pull this car over right now. Don't ask Tom your. I saved his life. Yeah, he did. Saved his life.
[01:13:50] But I have to backtrack, though, and say it was really awesome to see Eric have that response. Oh, yeah. And I know that that is having a ripple effect in anybody that goes there into the finals. And after that match, he came over. He goes, dude, you got to see the last shot of that match. Yeah, he did. He goes, I hit a good one. And also, to win the Open Doubles final, he hit another. I mean, it's just Mr. Instagram. That's just all there is to it.
[01:14:17] It was funny because I was, you know, over there just doing the music and I'm like, I'm looking at Blake. Blake's over there really controlling the music, but I'm controlling the sound. And as you could tell by the choices. Test. No, no, no, no. That's me. That's not Blake. Yeah. But I picked up what you said. I literally was like, man, you know what this match is missing? A two. And as I said, B. Eric hit his first slingshot. And I was like, oh. And it shut me straight up.
[01:14:46] I was like, no shit. Like, wow. It happened. Yes. The match was missing a two bar. That slingshot is nasty. That was one of the biggest views, right? So when he won that match on another, that exact slingshot, yesterday we hit three million on his clip. And I guarantee you, the one from the Open Doubles final where he won it with that shot, that's going to get a lot of views as well. Yeah. People love, people are loving it. W's.
[01:15:15] Yeah, W's all around. GG's for sure. Fo-cho. So we're getting content. We're getting views. We're getting likes and all kinds of positive. Fluffers, too, apparently. Fluffers, yeah. This room's still going. We got Germans. German fluffers. German fluffers. Yeah. What else are we getting? That wasn't in my contract, Tom, but okay. Okay. I mean, I'll try anything at least three times.
[01:15:41] This next turn in the evolution of World Foosball Tour is going to be a big one. So we're looking forward to it. Ryan, I know you don't want to hear this, but dude, you freaking rock. Yeah. Thanks, buddy. We're having a good time. Yeah. That's it. We're just having a good time. But we are, I think we're about time to pack things up, too. It was supposed to be 20 minutes. We're hour and 20. Hour and 20. Hey, did you want to press record or no? Well, we did that already.
[01:16:10] That's funny. Okay. Just making sure. That's funny. We're recording twice and streaming. Oh, yeah. There you go. Get wrecked, nerd. Whoa. I make a joke? Oh, is that what that was? Hey, we can be friends. All right. All right. So this is, again, Foos Talk Live. A little late for this Sunday, but that's okay. I got to pee so bad right now. Yeah, man. He's got to go. His name's been twitching. But thanks for tuning in. Mine's been lack of moving. And we're going to be back again next week live.
[01:16:40] Foos Talk Live. You guys. We're such adults. Can I say this? Shut up while the man closes. Can I just say this? You guys are just freaking pricks. That's all there is to it. Whoa. Hey. Finally. We get some Tom. Come on. We get the real Tom off air. You guys, man. Hey, Tom, have you ever been here? Have you ever said a cuss word? I've had him hit the hip hop. Have you ever heard him say a cuss word on air? You missed it. I haven't. I haven't. You know what? It happened so fast, you missed it. Say ass. He just said freak.
[01:17:10] Why'd you say it like that? You can't say it like that. That's not ass. Say butthole. Say butthole. Butthole. Intersection. Unedited and raw. That's a chode. Sad. Sad. 401k. You dirty MF-er. Oh, yes. Liver transplant. We have popped many cherries tonight, aren't we?
[01:17:40] Oh, my God. Popped many cherries. I mean, is that not a sign we should stop? Cherries. Unedited and raw. Okay. This is a fitting end. We're looking forward to the future of the tour. Okay. Let me rephrase it. This is a fucking fitting end.
[01:18:09] Look at him go. We got it, Tom. He broke it. We're alive. He broke the wall. Hey, Mike. They made me curse. All right, Tom. All right. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, thank you, man. Let's go do the shots. Let's do it. And we have Foos Talk Live Tournament Beat coming your way next. Foosball tournaments are everywhere. Foos Talk Live proudly presents a weekly update of events near you with the Foos Talk Live Tournament Beat. Here's what's up.
[01:18:39] It's the 20th. It's the 20th.
[01:19:09] The 20th and the 20th through the 23rd Mad Apple Billiards in Appleton, Wisconsin. Tavern Players Magazine presents a Foos Ball Tournament. March 22nd, Hobbs Tavern Brewery and Restaurant, Ossipi, New Hampshire. The first annual North American Multi-Table Foosball Championship featuring Tornado, Bonzini, and Leonhard.
[01:19:34] March 27th through March 30th at Three Rivers, Quebec, Canada. The 2025 Hall of Fame Classic, April 9th through the 13th at Westgate Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada. RK Foosball presents the 2025 Florida State Championships, May 1st through the 4th, Holiday in St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Florida.
[01:19:58] The 2025 Minnesota State Foosball Championships, May 2nd through the 5th, Wyndham Garden, Minneapolis, Minnesota. The ITSF presents the 2025 Tornado World Series and ITSF Gold Series Finals, May 23rd through May 26th at the Westin-Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, Dallas, Texas. It's the 2025 Illinois State Championship, June 5th through the 8th. More details coming soon.
[01:20:27] Each week, we do our best to give you the most up-to-date listing of foosball tournaments near you. If you have an event you'd like to add, send us all the details at foosballradio at gmail.com. Tune in every week for the Foos Talk Live Tournament Beat. Foos Talk Live is a product of Foos Ball Radio. With gratitude, we recognize our Foos Ball Radio Patreons.
[01:20:53] Our Foos Talk Live sponsor, original-leonhard-usa.com. And thanks to InsideFoos.com for use of their audio during the show. Tune in again next week for another episode of Foos Talk Live. In the meantime... We'll see you at Foosin!