FoosTalk Live | Ep 242 | Mathieu Bigz

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[00:01:50] Visit www.original-leonhardt-usa.com and use promo code FOOSTALK to save 10% off your purchase price. And we are live once again on Foos Talk Live. Welcome once again. I'm Tom Robinson. Episode number 242. And the wind, she's being a-blowing outside here in upstate New York.

[00:02:18] We're thinking maybe the lights may go out, but if they do, you'll know why we disappeared. Anyway, it's a rough night here in upstate New York. We're having 50-mile-an-hour winds after a long day of rain and snow and sleet and rain and, you know, all that kind of fun stuff. Meanwhile, sitting comfortably in Alabama, well, Randy Raposo. Hello, Randy. What's up, Tom? I didn't know you turned into a pirate when it gets windy. Oh, it brings it out of me, I tell you.

[00:02:47] Okay. It's hard to face, but there it is, man. It's like, ah. Okay. Yeah, the wind will be blowing. Yeah, like I say, it got rough here last night, and I went and played yesterday. I played a local, and I got home about midnight, and about 1 o'clock, man, I thought the roof was going to blow off my house. No kidding. Wow, so you've had a sample, too. No, no, there was quite a lot of nasty weather in the south. What was the situation?

[00:03:16] Do you have a lot of rain there, or was it just the wind? No, it was everything. A bunch of people are without power, so. Gotcha. But thankfully, like I got a buddy, his driveway's a mile long. He lives in the middle of the country, and he said this morning, he's like, yeah, our power's projected to come back on tomorrow night at around 1130. Ooh, ooh, that's rough. And the temperature, is it cold there? I mean, is it chilly? This week, it's going to drop into the 20s.

[00:03:43] We're getting another cold snap this week. Wow. Sucks for him. Yeah, and you went all that way to get away from that kind of weather. What can I tell you? I mean, look, honestly, so like the past week, it's been like in the 80s. And maybe, I don't know, my mind, it's been nice. It goes up and down. But it messes with your sinuses, man. Oh, no doubt. It's not fun. No doubt. No, it's not fun.

[00:04:13] But we got a cold snap coming, and then hopefully this will be the last one. We'll get back to normal. Either way, whether it's hot or cold, rain or sun, it's always foosball weather. Yep. No, I hear you. I hear you. Well, we are going to go even further north than upstate New York tonight. Because there's a great scene just north of where I live in a place called Montreal, Canada, or Quebec. Oh, that's an understatement. Oh, yeah.

[00:04:43] That's an understatement. And so we're very lucky to have with us tonight Machu. Is that how you pronounce it? Machu? It's actually Mats-ure. Mats-ure. Okay, Mats-ure. But you were really close, Tom. I'm practicing. I even went online to make sure I could get it right. But, man, I'm just not. But anyway, we call you Biggie. So Biggie is here with us tonight. And we're going to have some. Now, hold on. I need to hear him pronounce his last name properly, please. Okay.

[00:05:13] Super easy. Bijou. Bijou. Yeah, okay. There you go. Bijou. Matthew. There you go. Bijou. We'll call you Biggie. That works. A lot simpler, yeah. Yeah. A lot of struggle there. Now, we are going to get to talk tonight. But we do have a quick update from Donald Wilson. Donald, Donald, are you with us? Looks like the camera's kicking in. Oh, there he is. There he is, Donald. Yep.

[00:05:43] Can you hear us? I can. Donald, I know you promised us last week an update as to the stats from the World Foosball Tour TKO. What have you? Hold on. Hold on. Are you wearing that America jacket because we have a Canadian promoter on tonight? No, Mr. Wilson. You know there's a hockey tournament going on right now. It's like four countries.

[00:06:10] And actually, the United States just beat the bricks off of Canada. Anyway, go ahead, Don. Oh, stop. Glad you're here, buddy. Oh, now we lost. It was pretty even. It was pretty even until the end, I will say. Except the score. The score was not even. The score was not even. It was, if we take the empty net out, it was two to one. That's all I got to say. It could have been one to nothing. I mean, I'm just saying. Could have been. I'm just saying. Yeah. All right, Donald.

[00:06:38] Hey, the finals is playing next week in Boston, by the way. In Boston? Yeah, Canada's got to get there first. Okay. All right. Oh, they will. They will. They're playing Finland. They should be good. We'll see. So, Donald, what say you? What have you for us when it comes to the stats? Because I know we're confused as to how many people showed up, first of all, at the TKO. Don, we can't hear you. For some reason, your mic is off. I don't know how that happened. Hey!

[00:07:08] There you go. There you go. There's a little switch on here. And it was off. And I thought I kicked it on. But anyway. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. There's been several numbers floating around. But the official count is 365. Oh, okay. Good. 365. I thought 369 because I thought that's what I heard from Ryan. But it was 365. Okay. So, that's the official. Which is good. That's one of the biggest TKOs ever, I believe. Ever. Yeah.

[00:07:37] And just to let you know, I know Ryan probably talked about this, so I might be repeating some stuff. But 30 rooms was canceled right before the tournament. 30? 30. And, you know, there's... And there was people at the tournament that got sick and left. So, we know the rooms that got canceled were probably from people who had gotten sick because, you know, that's a lot of rooms are canceled just to cancel. You know? Right. I mean, football players do wait until the last time to get, you know, decide whether

[00:08:07] they're going or not. But just what I heard that weekend, yeah, schools are closed because the flu's bad. Right. And all these different places. So, you know, parents probably had to say, I can't go. I got sick family. So, we know that's probably the reason. We don't think people would just book rooms just to cancel. And that's kind of a bad thing anyway. But we're happy with that number. I mean, we had, like it was said, two staff members got sick.

[00:08:34] Donna, she was always like my right-hand man, except she's a woman. But she kept me going on, like, event start times and holes in charge and stuff like that, and she was deeply missed because she got sick. Right. And ended up going home. I remember that. Saturday morning. So, that made us down, too. And then Steve Dodgen was going to be one of our verifiers. But his roommate, Steve, got sick. Ken Williams got sick, I remember. Yeah, Ken Williams got sick. And he felt so bad for him.

[00:09:03] He said, I got to take him home because he is not feeling good. So, he left. So, that made me down a verifier. So, we were already strapped, knew it was going to be a big one. And, but I was able to pick up Luis Pulaski. He helped. And then Chris Boyd, he was doing it. And his wife helped some. And Luis's mom helped some, too. So, we managed through there. So, I was glad they helped us out. But like Ryan has said, we're going to make sure for Vegas, we're going to have more than we need just to make sure we have enough.

[00:09:33] We're going to have more registration. And then Kristen's back on board. She's going to be watching. Yeah. Yeah, she's going to be watching the charts. She's the best. And while she watches the charts, I'll be doing what everybody says I do best. And that's run my mouth. I said, I feel kind of guilty. I'm getting paid for what I used to get in trouble for. And that was talking to everybody. But it seems like that's an important part of a tournament is getting people the information

[00:09:59] they need, the instructions they need, the answers they need, and to keep up with verifiers and table maintenance, referees, and all that kind of stuff. And you're the best, Don. You get it done. Well, Mr. Donald, too. I mean, you know I'm there. If you need help, just ask. If you need help verifying or whatever, just let me know, man. It's, you know, I can run around for a few minutes and do that stuff. And you rest, too. Yeah, we do. We had several people after the tournament say, if you just asked, well, you know, I don't

[00:10:29] think about it at the time, you know, because I'm trying to, I don't know if y'all saw me at TKO, but every now and then I'd stand up and have my binoculars trying to look all the way down on that last table. And I was trying to help verify, too. So it's kind of hard sometimes. But yes, Randy, I will think of that in the future, for sure. Cool. Well, and now that I know, I mean, when I come up to the desk, you know, when I ask you if you need anything, it's not just, you know, I mean, if you need food or drink, but I mean, if you, if you need help, verify, whatever, you know, I'm there. If you need help, I got you.

[00:10:58] I appreciate it. I appreciate it. But I, I definitely, I enjoyed, I enjoyed all the reffing. Yeah. I, you know. And we're fixing them. We're fixing to make a new twist on that, too. A new what? A new twist on the reffing. Which is going to be? Which, which I'm going to get a list of all the refs we have and all the ones that come, all the ones that are reffed. And we're fixing to up the pay scale on the refs. Let's go. More money. Because it seems like nobody wants to ref.

[00:11:25] Do y'all have that problem up there in Canada with people reffing? We, we don't tend to ref that much. Players auto-reff their games quite a lot, but we do have, yeah, but I still feel it's an important part of the game, to be honest. You know, even at TKO, it would have been nice to see like an automatic, automatic ref on the table in that final, even the semifinals. I think it's important for the game. Number one, no conflict between the players. You're guaranteed there's a ref. So if anything happens.

[00:11:55] But also just for, you know, every sport has a ref. So I definitely think there should be refs, at least for the big matches. Yes. We're, we're actually looking to that too, on our end to, to when we stream and whatnot, you know, especially for visibility for, you know, our sponsors to, to see, Hey, this, this is a serious game. So I think ref is part of the game. Just like hockey and, you know. Oh yeah. And that's it. You know, when you start with three fights in the first nine seconds, you need a ref. Is that a record? I gotta, is that a record?

[00:12:25] No, it's not. But somehow Canada ends up with a power play. It's kind of, you know, playing in Montreal. I'll give you that. I give you that. I give you that. Yeah. That is not a record. That is not a record time. And they probably started the fight too, right? Started the fight and then they got the power play. No, there was a verbal agreement. There was a verbal agreement. Verbal agreement. Well, we're going to try to avoid that in foosball. We're actually, we are planning on having a ref ready for the finals.

[00:12:55] And that's my, that's one of my jobs now that I can focus more on instead of looking at the charts is make sure I have the referees there and make sure we have them available and make sure when finals are coming, they're available for that too. That way we don't have to wait. There you go. Randy's one of them. Rematches. I didn't get paid for. I didn't get paid for that open doubles final. Oh, that's big. Wow. That's big. Yeah. And I figured that one was going to be like 120 bucks. So yeah, well here, here's what we're going to do. They're supposed to come pay us at the front desk.

[00:13:25] Yeah. Well, I don't, I don't have a problem with it. I want a ref anyway, so it doesn't hurt my opinion, but I know that as far as how it goes for refs moving forward, we need a system in place so that everything's just done correctly. Right. Yeah. And, and I know who was in that final. So if you need me to muscle up and get it from them, I will. I don't need you to muscle anybody. Believe me. If I want this money, I'll get that money. Oh yeah. I got you. We know a guy. Anyway. Yeah.

[00:13:54] His name is Donald. He'll take care of it for you. Yeah. If you want to keep playing, you pay. Anyway. But we are, we're going to start making the, the ref job a little more important. I mean, if they get compensation for it, they might be more willing to pay for it. So it's probably going to double from what it is now. You know, you pay a dollar a game. Basically it's going to be $2 a game. Cool.

[00:14:19] And if it's, and if it's a, you know, three out of five, you can make 40 bucks off a match. That's good. Yeah. That's great. So that's great. Yeah. So you do 10 matches over the weekend. I mean, I'm your man, Donald. If you need me, I might resign as term of director and go up to his table. I think he's cheating. Call a ref. I take it. Me, me. 10 a weekend. I'm talking. Let's do 10 a day. Yeah. Right.

[00:14:49] That would be a hotel room and a part of the flight. Yeah. All that. Right. Right. Well, we didn't need that many officials. I mean, they, they're pretty good about it, but if the problem was is, is when we needed them, I had to announce, had to announce, I had to announce, and it seemed like nobody ever would come. So I'm going to try to keep a list. I'm not going to try. I am. I'm going to have a list of all the players I know that's coming. That's going to be there.

[00:15:16] And we're going to make repping more of, of something that they can, you know, do. And, and a lot of them just don't want to lose friends, but if you're going to lose friend over that, they're not really your friend. Yeah. Come on. It's a sport. You know, so yeah, it's, it's no. And then I had somebody, I had actually a few people ask me about, you know, the open doubles final. I raft, I had on what I was wearing, which was, you know, a faux Boston Red Sox jersey. And they were like, why weren't you wearing a zebra, a zebra jersey?

[00:15:46] And I said, well, nobody, nobody gave me one. So, you know, is that, is that official, official referee? Yeah. And official. We have WFC logo. Yes. Yeah. We, we actually have the ref shirts there. They were there. I don't know why they never got put out, but I remember having the bag and said, oh, we're going to need these, but I don't think they ever made it into the building. Ah, and then the orange referee sleeves there. Yeah. You make them green, right? You make them green. Yeah.

[00:16:17] Reed gave me a bunch of ref shirts at the world series and told me to sell them to officials. You know, he want, he said, get 30, 30 euros, 30 bucks in shirt. And it's the long sleeve. He, I know that's what he said, but it's got the long sleeves. It's got the patch for what rank ref you are and all that kind of stuff. So cool. I do have some of them available. So, uh, don't we have a, we have a Twitch TV viewer. Uh, Eddie, I believe it's Eddie Mubarak has a question. Eddie Mubarak. Yeah. Eddie asked the, ask the question. Go ahead.

[00:16:47] See what he has to say. And, uh, by the way, uh, thanks for tuning in tonight on Twitch TV. I can only imagine what Eddie has to say to me. Jesus Lord, Eddie. So will there be changes for big matches without passing all events for future events? Pausing without pausing. He wants to know if we're still going to be pausing for the finals. I think Ryan made that pretty clear last night on the town hall. Yes, he did.

[00:17:13] Uh, if you, if he was on the town hall meeting, Ryan covered everything about the TKO as far as, um, changes going to be made. We know we had some mistakes. We knew we fell behind, but if you saw the new drawing of the, of the piss, did you see it, Randy? It looks like, uh, the circle with the four. Yeah. They call it the spider. Yeah. And it's going to be even higher where you got room between the legs.

[00:17:40] It's going to be 15 feet higher than what we had. I think it's going to be 25 foot or something like that. It's going to be huge, but there's room for sponsors, right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, sponsors aren't going to want their name up there if nobody's seeing it. Right. So in order to see it, people got to be in the pit. So, so we are going to continue to pause. Uh, but we're going to pay more attention to the schedule. Like we had a schedule that started one hour before the finals. We didn't even get all the first round done.

[00:18:10] And then the, the finals took a little longer than what we wanted to. Um, we actually spent two and a half hours Friday night and two and a half hours on Saturday night doing the finals. Cause we did women's and men's, but we was trying to get the music together, get the, you know, hype going and all that kind of stuff. So we, we're going to streamline it better. So it won't take as long. And, um, that way it won't be that big of a break, but we also had another event that started right after the finals. The finals.

[00:18:39] And so we had one event that didn't even finish all the first round. And then we had another event that opened up and it was both people playing in both events. So it was chaotic. We know it was crazy. Yeah. Well, we know, we know we have to fix it and we're going to work on the scheduling, but yes, we are going to make, we would like everybody in the finals. Well, and Ryan said, you know, this was, this was the first one. He said, I'm going to make mistakes, but we're going to fix them.

[00:19:06] I still, I still think the tournament, uh, I thought it was great. I know some people complained about, look, and again, this, this is what I'm going to tell people. If it was your final, you would want all eyes on you, the lights you, you. So again, if you, if you don't want to watch, then take the look, foosball players, they complain, look, take the time to go eat or take a nap or get off your, whatever you're going to do. If you're not going to watch the final, just, Hey, get something to eat and sit on the tables and watch it.

[00:19:37] And Clay said, Clay said the setup that was at the kickoff is not what's going to be. It wasn't even the setup. He said, man, there's going to be TVs. So basically where I was reffing, the crowd was behind me. They were upset. They couldn't see. Clay said, that's not going to matter. There's going to be a TV right here where they can see everything. And every time, yeah, it's going to be, it's going to, it's going to be, it's, I'm really excited. I haven't played in Vegas since Oh six, I think was the last time I went to Vegas.

[00:20:04] So, uh, um, you know, I got to go see big, uh, Billy getting dust, uh, inducted, hopefully Billy and Tony, but I got to go see Billy getting inducted. Of course, of course, Tony. And, uh, you know, and, um, um, man, I'm so, I got, I, I'm playing my buddy, Bruce in pro doubles. I have a stud open doubles partner. Um, I, I can't wait. So yeah. Hmm. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't say I was going to play with you easy there, buddy. Playing with Sullivan.

[00:20:34] He's spoken for, he's spoken for. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to, uh, that's, I'm going to, that's my, that's my pony right there. She's going to know something. The hall of fame ceremony. This will probably be one of the fastest ones we ever had. Cause I don't, I don't see them two talking 30, 40 minutes a piece. Do you? Listen, Billy already told me, he said, how about, he said, people get us confused. He said, how about you just go up there and get it for me?

[00:21:05] Done. Well, that's funny. No problem. Yeah. Well, anyway, uh, I could see Billy going up there, pushing his glasses up. Thank you. And thank you. Yep. You know, how many times have, uh, have we talked to Billy about coming on the show? And he's just. No, no, Billy. He's just, you know, he's busy. You can get him on the show, but. Oh, no, it's not even, it's not even that. It's not even that. You don't think? No, no, I know. I know Billy. It's not even that.

[00:21:34] He's just, you know, he's, he's just, you know, he's busy and things and time and, uh, you know, uh, anyway. I know who you're saying. Uh, but I'm, I'm excited. Uh, I'm excited to see him getting Dr. Tony, of course. I mean, that Tony. That's going to be great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like there's. Now last year's, uh, hall of fame had about 450 players. So it was huge last year. Dang.

[00:22:11] I'm sending me letters to send out for visa approval to come. I've probably sent out 20 or 30, maybe more for them to come and some for the, uh, world series as well. So we're going to have a good experience from overseas for sure, because we have a lot of, uh, well, everybody from overseas plays risk-free and open doubles and singles.

[00:22:37] So that's a big draw there because, you know, that's, that's no risk. You get the money and you pay your, your entry. So that's also easier. That includes Canada, right? Donald? That includes Canadians. I don't know. I don't think you fly over water. Well, there's a couple of rivers. What is it? Lake Erie or? I think it does. It has. It includes Canadian players. The Mississippi River. Yeah. There you go. Yeah.

[00:23:05] Because, uh, I remember, I remember making sure, uh, people like, uh, listen, who was it? Uh, Mario, uh, wait, Tony Gashi and a bunch of them from up there. I remember, I remember them getting, uh, risk-free and we had to get their money back when they placed in the money. If I'm wrong, we'll tell them I'm wrong. But I mean, I'm pretty sure it does include them international players. They don't say overseas anymore. It says international players. I mean, technically it's international. Yes. Yeah.

[00:23:35] Oh, no question. No question. Um, but it's going to be good. We expect a big crowd. It's going to be at the Westgate again. I like the Westgate cause the, uh, the monorail is there. You can get on it there and go all the way into town or take a bus, but you got to walk away to get to the bus. But one good thing about the Westgate is Walmart delivers there. So I'm set. It delivers. Now, you know, that strong wind that y'all have right now. We had that in Mississippi yesterday. Yeah. Wow. And it totally destroyed my chicken coop. Did it really?

[00:24:05] Wow. Chickens everywhere. Oh, they already heard that. They all right. But I had to rebuild. And as I was trying to rebuild it yesterday afternoon, I almost became airborne because me and my daughter, me and my daughter had each end of the tarp, a 20 foot tarp. But the wind just hit it right through her up against the coop. And I kind of had to lean back and catch my ground to keep from getting up in the air. And I looked at her and I said, that could have turned out bad. So, uh, we, we had us a time, but, uh, yeah, I got it. I almost got it fixed.

[00:24:35] I'll have it completely done tomorrow, but we had some strong winds. We had some bad rain and tornadoes last night, but I slept through it and we're all here today. So I guess we're good. Yeah. Well, we're glad to hear you're safe. That's, uh, that's, that's rough stuff. Um, and, uh, yeah. Wow. I think that. Well, thanks for having me on here for talking about TKO and as it goes for TKO, I want to, I'm going to mirror what, uh, what, what Ryan said. We had probably 90% people, 95% people loved it.

[00:25:03] And you're always going to have a small number that is going to have something, you know, but, um, it, it all turns into a combination of a lot of things. Yes. We made some mistakes, but yes, people waited for the last minute to go to the table. Then some didn't turn results in when they left. And so when you add all that together, it marks for a disaster. And so we're going to make sure we have plenty of verifiers checking up on it. Uh, if somebody leaves without doing a match, I'm going to put them on a sheet of paper and

[00:25:32] that's like going to be a warning and, uh, figure something out, you know, to do, but anyway, you know, the perfect tournament, you know, it can be achieved. It just takes a lot of work, but it also takes the players to help us, you know? Yep. Absolutely. And, uh, most players do want to hurry up and play. It's the ones that only play in one or two events that, uh, I guess is the ones that really kind of, uh, are the ones that are effective when people take too much time because the other ones are playing back to back to back.

[00:26:02] And so I could see them sometimes trying to stall it, but you know, we're going to try to avoid that and move forward and try to get the perfect experience for everybody. Awesome. And I'm excited to see what the future holds. Like whatever you see in Vegas, world is going to be better than that. Sweet. Wow. Hang on. The experiment continues. And yeah. And Donald, we do, do appreciate you taking the time to, uh, to talk to us about this and may your, may your chickens long live long and healthy lives. Oh yeah. They still did good. I got about 20 eggs this morning.

[00:26:32] All was good. All right. That's good. We had a little talk. I had to talk to my rooster. Actually, I plucked his long tail out of his, out of his backside because he attacked one of my grandkids. Ooh. Okay. You know, they don't like that. They, they protect the herd, right? That's what they do. They protect all the hens. And one of my grandkids went running by and it just started running after him and he was going crazy.

[00:26:56] And when he got to him, he jumped up and just popped him with his, with his, I guess, feet. They have claws. And I said, yeah. They actually have claws. Yeah. Yeah. The claws. And it scared him, but it didn't hurt him. But I said, oh, you got to go. No, we can't have that. So I put it on Facebook. Anybody wants a rooster, they can have it. It's, uh, it's, it's up for anybody who wants it and come Friday. If nobody wants it, he's going to be Saturday supper. Okay. How delicious is he? That's that'll be the determining. There you go. We will find out.

[00:27:26] There you go. I just, just want to keep up my history of giving chicken, you know, info. There you go. Well, Donald, thank you for the, for the update. We do appreciate that. All right. No problem. Hey, it's, it's good to see you, uh, Matthew. You and, and, and your last name was what? Boja. Bijou. Good Lord. Bijou. But you can call me Biggie. Like everybody. You'll simplify. I'm going to, I'm going to stay on. I'm going to get off of here, but I'm going to keep listening. Cause I want to hear what you got to say.

[00:27:56] I want to hear what you got to say. I hope, hopefully I can come see one of y'all's events up there. One of those. There you go. It would definitely be nice to see you. Yeah. I would love to do it. Y'all have a great show. See y'all. Thanks, Tom. Thank you, Donald. Andy. I got to say, it's, it's always good to get the chicken update. That's, you know, it's kind of like a become a regular feature here on food stock. We're, we're known for it. People have been, people have been fist fighting over eggs at Costco. So, uh, yeah.

[00:28:25] So anyway, all right, here we go. Business. Biggie. It's, uh, first of all, next weekend is, is the team Canada qualifiers for, for, uh, the world cup. What's going on with that? What's, uh, tell us more about that. Yeah. Very, very excited for that. Um, it's going to be the 14 best players in Canada, um, qualifying for a spot on the national team.

[00:28:52] Um, so we, we thought, you know, we were going to put like a point system in place and that's eventually what we're going to do. But, uh, for the time being, so we have a selection committee, we have Jake Barnett, who's in charge of that now. I saw that. Um, and you know, based on results of the past years and, you know, tournaments, he put kind of down this formula where the top 14 players based on the results are, uh, you know, selected

[00:29:19] to participate in the tournament and qualify for the, uh, for the event. So, uh, there's going to be a few spots that are going to be given, uh, spots on the championships or singles, doubles, uh, and then also to be part of the national team as well. So that's going to be, and it's also going to be live streamed on our, uh, Twitch channel, AQBM Foosball. Um, so you guys will be able to see live action, uh, of technically the best players in Canada trying to compete for the spot. Yeah. It's going to be great. AQBM. Is that on Twitch?

[00:29:49] Do you say it's on Twitch? It is. It's on Twitch. Yeah. So it's our, so, um, AQBM is now, um, we used to be AQBB. Which, uh, used to be the, um, longest, uh, you know, it's been 20 years. The AQBB exists, which used to focus on Bonzini tournaments in the province of Quebec. Uh, most recently we made the move. We had been talking about that for, you know, quite some time, uh, to see the possibility

[00:30:17] to expand and, and be a multi-table association as you probably know, or maybe not. Um, the province of Quebec has been very, uh, multi-table oriented. So we used to start back in, I started playing in the early 2000s, uh, on Garlando and it wasn't the championship Garlando table. You guys know now it was actually the square foot, no passage table. We used to call it the red, white, and blue. And that's like, most of us started playing on that table. A lot of us.

[00:30:44] It's similar to the Fabby table, um, you know, kind of style, uh, fast paced game. And we used to have like 500 players out these tournaments over the weekend, like all across the province. It was insane. Like we used to go to the bar on, on weekends. We used to put a buck and if you won, you would literally cost you $1 to play so many games, right? If you never lost, you kept playing. And it was like the whole weekend, Friday, Saturday, you just kept playing. And it was like that everywhere in the province.

[00:31:14] So it was really big. Um, and then, you know, we eventually moved on to tornado. Uh, so those players, the tour kind of went down. There's many reasons for it. I won't get into that, but, uh, then a lot of players moved on to tornado and we also had a Bonzini scene and the Bonzini scene also grew here. Uh, you know, we have a lot of French players in Montreal coming from France and, you know, it's the French table. So, uh, there was a small community that started growing. Um, and so it kind of split the two player bases.

[00:31:42] So there's some tornado, some Bonzini, um, and eventually Bonzini kind of took over. We got some players that invested on tables and stuff like that and really started a tour, which was the AQBB. Um, so for a couple of years, it was really the main table that players were playing on in the province of Quebec. There was obviously a couple that were still playing on tornado and touring in the States and the rest of Canada and all that. Uh, but in Quebec, Bonzini was predominant.

[00:32:08] And, um, you know, we still had this thought or, you know, kind of, Hey, we're multi-table first and foremost, we're multi-table. We have a lot of players that were not touring anymore because it was just Bonzini. So we kind of, you know, thought about it and we're like, okay, let's, let's figure this out. So we thought maybe tornado and stuff like that. And then, you know, we were lucky enough to have, uh, Canada foosball. So Dan Packer, uh, Cam Burrows that, um, had a partnership with Leonhard.

[00:32:37] So, uh, we decided to talk to them and eventually got a nice partnership going. And what was great with the Leonhard is it resembles a lot of the old school Garlando obviously improve, right? Improve gameplay, more control and stuff like that. But the essence of the quick fast play, uh, that we used to play on really, really reflects the player base. So we were able to bring a lot of players back because of that.

[00:33:03] And this year in January, it was our first ever, uh, Leonhard tournament. So we officially announced the association being the AQBM, which is French for, uh, Association Quebecoise Baby Foot Multi-Tap. So we replaced the word Bonzini for multi-table, uh, which really brings, yeah. And it was really important to us to put that word in just because, um, we really want every foosball player background to be part of this community.

[00:33:33] Uh, you know, everybody has a favorite table for sure. Um, but everybody loves foosball at the end of the day. And I think it was important. And that's also part of our mission, you know, um, to be able to bring everybody together, um, and, and making sure that foosball stays foos, no matter what table you play on and have players, you know, because of that participate in playing different table styles and, and a little bit like the ITSF, the world cup, you know, like that's coming also in, in, in June this year. Yes.

[00:34:03] Um, and our tournament. So that, that's also where I was coming to, uh, to say is that the multi-table championship that's coming, uh, in about a month and a half from now is going to be an insane event. Um, and we're really excited about that. March 27th through the 30th, right? March 27th for the, for the multi-table? Exactly. Yeah. We're, we're going all out, uh, 36 tables, 12 tornadoes, 12 Leonhards, 12 Bonzinis. Whoa.

[00:34:28] Uh, it's going to be the biggest, uh, tournament in Canada in a really long time. So, uh, we're, we're really excited. A hundred percent, you know, world cup format. This is also to prepare our team and whoever wants to come participate for the world cup. That's coming, uh, this summer. Uh, but this is going to be a really, really good event to, you know, showcase your skills, your multi-table skills. And we're really trying to put it all out there, uh, for that weekend. I saw in your address, uh, three rivers.

[00:34:58] Um, it's spelled in French though. I had to get the translation, but three rivers. Yes, correct. So I simplify that for you, but it's actually Trois Rivière, which literally means three rivers, uh, which is a suburb about an hour away from Montreal. Okay. Um, the reason, the reason why we're doing it in three rivers is it allows us to have, uh, an insane venue. Uh, it's going to be, I don't know if you guys remember that first, uh, world cup back

[00:35:27] in 2006. Um, I believe it was in Hamburg and you could actually, there was like, uh, people could watch from, uh, from up above, right. They were able to watch the, the matches. So we're, we're going to have something very similar to that. Um, I mean, can I share my screen? I do have the venue. I like it. It's really worth it. I think you can. Yeah. I think you can. Okay. Let's see. Oh yeah. Okay. I see it right here.

[00:35:54] So, um, yeah. Uh, yeah, this is our flyer actually. You guys see it? Let's see. It says watch stream. I think we can do that. Hold on a second here. There we go. Yeah. You guys see that? Oh yeah. Definitely see that for sure. Yeah. So this is our flyer. So yeah. Wow. Yeah. We love it. We have, uh, we have a great team to be honest.

[00:36:22] We have some guys that are working really hard, uh, putting this together. Um, obviously I'm not alone. Yeah. Never do this alone for sure. Um, we have some great guys, the posters, the, you know, the staff, uh, even our streaming team is amazing. They're doing a really great job. We're getting a lot of views and, you know, we were lucky enough to get some sponsors, uh, for that venue. So, you know, it's really exciting. But what I want to show here is really the venue per se is, is this. Check it out.

[00:36:51] This is where it's going to be held. Yeah. It's going to be insane. Like it's huge. Like we're really excited about that. And, and that's why we're doing it in three rivers. So, uh, we have the opportunity to have this amazing venue. Uh, it's going to be huge. We're hope we make it exciting. And, and our mission is, you know, we want to give back to our community. Uh, the AQBM used to be the AQBB has been around for 20 years now. Right. So we're starting to get the word out.

[00:37:18] People are starting to know us, but foosball has been really big in, in, in Quebec. Most specifically, uh, we, we literally have the biggest tour in Canada right now. So it's just, you know, we, we want to give back to our community. We want to give back to our players. Um, and we want to bring the best players in the world, right? Our mission is to try to bring the best players in the world to play at our venue and, you know, bring that multi-table aspect also here in North America.

[00:37:46] I know it's big in Europe, a little bit less here in Canada and U S. Uh, but I know there's, there's a lot of openness with the players now to, you know, play multi-table more and more. So we want to be able to bring this every year and, and see how many players we can get, how many big names we can get out here and, and promote the sport as much as we can and give this gift to our foosball players to play the best in the world. That's a great concept. Um, incidentally that, that, uh, the floor there, I mean, is that some kind of a sports complex normally?

[00:38:14] Is it available for any other kind of sports? Um, I'm not sure if they do sports. They do a lot of events. It's a industrial place. Um, I, I mean, they do conference, they do venue. I'm not exactly sure, but I'm sure they do other sports in there. Yeah. Um, but yeah, this is, this is a place that used quite a lot here in three rivers for, for big events, big shows, um, could be really anything. Yeah. That's great. And, uh, how about the hotel accommodations? Are you got a lot of those nearby?

[00:38:44] Yeah, we have a couple of hotels. So, uh, we have, uh, the Delta hotel, um, that's there. We're, we're actually going to post that very soon. We're still working out the partnership with another, like we have, uh, Delta that confirmed with us. Um, and we have, uh, L'Hotel Gouvernard, uh, also that sharing, uh, you know, special player packages and stuff like that, that it's going to be right next to it, uh, close to downtown. So yeah, uh, a lot of people, a lot of partnerships that are being still being worked on right now.

[00:39:13] What's, uh, what's the projected turnout for this thing? Well, so we don't know, right. This is the, this is a first, um, just to, you know, we, we just did the, uh, North American lean hard tournament. Uh, we beat a record, which is 108 players, uh, for us, which is pretty big, but you know, we used to have about 70, 80 players. So we really increased our player base by, you know, let's say about 20, 25%. Yeah. Yeah. In just a, maybe a year or so. Right.

[00:39:42] So we're really excited about that. And we just kind of started promoting a bit more and, and, you know, being online a little bit more with our social media and stuff like that. Um, but I mean, sky's the limit, you know, we'll, we'll do whatever it takes. The thing you guys need to know is that we're going to be doing this event every single year. So, um, we want to, we want to bring the competition level. Uh, we want to make it, you know, the tour event that you guys want to come to when you come to Canada. And that's what we really were going to strive for.

[00:40:12] So, you know, we're, we're, we're not really basing ourselves on numbers. We're trying to promote this as much as we can. We'll get what we get for that first time. I know multi-tables, a different format. It's not the format we're used to. It's going to be really the world cup or it's going to be a one event per day. Uh, you'll have like, uh, men, women, uh, junior and senior events, and you'll have to pick and choose between each one. Right. A little bit like, uh, last year at the ITSF, uh, world series in Texas, similar to that.

[00:40:41] Um, but really that's the only format that works for multi-tables. So, um, honestly, it's going to be an exciting event. We want to be able to push it every year. And, you know, we're, we're long-term vision. That's what we have a little bit like, like Ryan has at the world foosball tour. Um, you know, we'll, we'll, we'll adjust, we'll make things better. And that's really, we have kind of the same vision as that. So we're really excited. Nice.

[00:41:05] So for, for the team Canada qualifier, um, is this multi-table and, and what's the format for that? Is it singles doubles? Like how do you guys determine your, uh, your team? Um, so it is going to be singles and doubles. I don't have all the final details. Um, maybe we should have gotten Jake on here. He has everything, uh, put in place, but for the, for, for yeah, Jacob, uh, Barnett. Yeah.

[00:41:33] So for the, uh, qualifier next weekend, uh, it's going to be, yeah. So there's a singles qualifier doubles qualifier. I think there's two spots in each to be, uh, to be one. Um, and it is going to be a multi-table format. So we're going to have three of the tables similar to that, uh, multi-table venue. So Bonzini, Leonhardt, and Tornado, uh, players will have to play on each table. Um, I'm not, like I said, I'm not sure exactly how that's going to go about, but I know for a fact that everybody's going to play against everybody.

[00:42:03] There's going to be like a round robin or Swiss system. And then we'll have the final phases to determine who's going to be, uh, moving on. So we'll try to play as many matches as we can so we can really get the best players to, you know, the best players always win, obviously, right. After a certain amount of games. But, uh, yeah, that, that's really what the format's going to be about. More or less a Swiss system kind of, kind of, kind of thing with, uh, with, uh, qualifying rounds. And then of course the finals, um, I'm curious who is, uh, who is your best Bonzini player

[00:42:32] in Canada? Is there a name? Uh, we have a few, we have a few, uh, there, there's a few of them that stand out. There's Francois Vallure that's been winning a lot in the past year, uh, playing great. Uh, there's Matthew Saveria, uh, who's been phenomenal, uh, been playing great. He actually smashed everybody and it wasn't Bonzini, it's Leonhardt, but he smashed everybody at the last Leonhardt tournament. Uh, but all these guys are, are multi-table players.

[00:43:00] Um, there's Larry, obviously myself, we're, we're, we're up there in terms of, you know, uh, especially multi-table. I think the top players in Canada are all multi-table players, so they can play Bonzini, Leonhardt, Tornado. Uh, so they, they don't have any favorite tables. They like them all. And, um, yeah, I think it's, uh, it's good. Yeah. Those, I would say Francois Vallure has been winning a lot and Saveria would be our top two players right now. And those, uh, two players will have, uh, uh, a difficult time with the French players.

[00:43:28] By any, do you think they're going to have, give them a fight or what's going on? Those guys are French. Well, I mean, from France, yeah. Bonzini players, they're French. Come on. French Canadian. There's a big difference, you know? Yeah, I get it. I get it. There should be, there's probably a rivalry though, right? I mean, there must be some kind of, uh, uh, it's a point of pride. Who's, who's better on Bonzini, France or Canada?

[00:43:55] Uh, I mean, obviously I think France has a little edge here. They have like really good players like Miguel dos Santos, um, you know, to name a few, but, um, I mean, we did some, we had some amazing results at last year's world. I know, uh, Francois was there. I think he, uh, finished, you know, round of 16, maybe around that, uh, did really good. I know the year before Matthew Saveria was there, he actually beat Tony in the first round. I know it's not Tony's main table, but still, uh, Tony's a competitor.

[00:44:26] So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So he beat Tony in that, that first elimination round to kick him out of the tournament and single. So that was pretty nice. Uh, but yeah, I mean, we're, we're competitive. We're competitive. We're, we're, we're going to bring out a good team this year. I think it might be one of the best teams we ever had, uh, that we're going to be able to bring forward some good players in the qualifiers. And, uh, we're really excited. We're really excited. We'll have a good array of different styles. Uh, and like I said, a good multi-table background.

[00:44:53] Well, if you look at foosball globally, all the best players are multi-table players. Yeah. So, you know, I think to improve at foosball in any aspect, multi-table is the way to go. You know, each table has its strengths and its weaknesses. And, you know, I mean, tornadoes just hard and fast. And, uh, you know, I, I personally, I love the Leonhard table. I love everything about the table. I think it's, I think it's wonderful. That Bonzini, I, I like it because it's foosball.

[00:45:23] No, but it's a different style of game. You have to have a little finesse. And, and I think, uh, again, the best players in the world are all multi-table players. They adjust well. And, um, you know, I, I wish, um, more American players would have an open mind when it comes to multi-table play. There is, uh, it's, it's, it is a different style. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but I, I get you. I mean, tornado, like you said, is really the, you know, fast pace, hard shooting table.

[00:45:51] Uh, Bonzini is more finesse with its different, you know, obviously the men are different. They're not counterbalanced. There's weight at the bottom. It's, it's a different style. You know, Bonzini makes you look at the angles a little bit more, uh, tornadoes, a bit more square table, you know, and then you got the lean heart that's in between. And what I like about the lean art is, is really the fact that, um, it's easy to adapt on that table. Like you don't have to play tons of hours on the table to actually have something going.

[00:46:21] Yes. Um, you know, like you might have to do with the Bonzini to, to get it, you know, a good game out there. Um, so it's really something that I like about this table that a lot of, a lot of, you know, existing players that don't necessarily, it's not their home table or new players to come up with their own style and allows a lot of variety, uh, with that table. That's what I like about it. Uh, really brings a lot of, you know, good players together.

[00:46:46] Um, it's, it's something that I feel, you know, it's going to be a table to consider moving forward. And I know I'm making maybe a big statement here, but I think that's the table that might unite different, different styles, different player backgrounds. And, and that can help the game. You know, uh, it's not perfect. You know, it's not my personal favorite. I love tornado. That's by far my favorite table, but I feel that Lee and heart is really, um, you know, a table that brings everybody together. Good second choice.

[00:47:15] No question about it. What, um, what are your impressions of the ITSF and, and, uh, what Farid is doing, uh, combining with, uh, Texas state this year? Uh, how do you feel about that? I mean, I, I'm a, I love it. I I'm a fan. Honestly, I love, I love the format. Um, you know, I think it's, you know, you come to an event, you come prepared. What I like about the ITSF is the fact that today, you know, you're playing singles, you prepare for singles.

[00:47:45] You don't have any other events. You can focus strictly on that. Uh, next day is doubles. You focus on doubles. Uh, everything is scheduled. You know, when you play, you prepare, right? Every, every sport you have preparation, uh, and you want to know when you're playing to be mentally, physically prepared to, to start playing. And that, that's what I love about this format. It's not a marathon. It's really like you prepare, you focus, you're ready to go and game on. So, um, I like the fact that it's coming over here to North America.

[00:48:14] Uh, I think it's great. I know it's not a format that everybody likes and I understand that. Um, but for me personally, I think it's, it's, it's nice. Uh, and it's good for the show too. Yeah. I think once somebody actually experiences it and get, you know, cause like last year, the, the turnout for the ITSF in Dallas was okay. You know, it wasn't, it wasn't huge, but, uh, the people that did go and experience what it was like were really, really down for it. I mean, it really did work.

[00:48:42] And, uh, I think generally speaking, most people are pretty positive. And the turnout wasn't that big. And that's true, Tom. But I think that the level of competition and the players that were there was, you know, insane. I remember just in the round Robin, we played three masters team in doubles. Right. It's like, and, and even the other teams are like pro teams. Like it was, it was intense, but it was fun. You know, the, like no easy games.

[00:49:10] It's not like your double KO first round. You start with an easy team, you know, either rookie or amateur, uh, you just had to be there. You had to compete from game one. So that's what I liked about it. And it's like, you know, if we compare it a bit to tennis, cause I like to compare foosball a lot to tennis in terms of the format. Uh, you know, you have different tables, uh, or tennis, you have different courts, right? You have different surfaces. You have played, you have the fast speed, right? Yeah. So it's, it's very similar and they're doing it, you know, one round at a time.

[00:49:39] And it's like a single KO and you know, you're, you're playing that event that day and, and that's it. Right. So you really can prepare, uh, mentally, like I said, physically and be at the top of your game. And that's what really, what I like about that format and what the ITSF is doing. Um, I love it. So the, uh, next weekend for the, uh, the qualifier, are you guys doing what you normally do? Was everybody going to bring, uh, bring food to pass?

[00:50:08] Uh, yeah, of course. Yeah. Of course. I love that. That is the best idea. You get the best food and it's, uh, it's, it's everybody, everybody has something they like for sure. Right. What a great idea. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I think I know. And I got to tell you, I didn't know that that's how you guys picked your team. You know, I think, um, yeah, I think, no, I think it's pretty awesome.

[00:50:32] Obviously one, it's fair to, you're getting the best players that are playing now. Um, you know, as opposed to. To the way we do it, which is. You know, again, I don't, I don't, I'm not a hundred percent sure, but from what I hear from different people, it's more of a popularity contest. So, and, uh, it's unfortunate. Well, it's unfortunate because I would love to go. Not that I'm saying, not that I think I'm good enough, but I think if the opportunity

[00:51:00] was there, uh, for me to try to play my way in, even, even if I don't make it, I just, I'd love to try, right. To represent my country, you know? So have a shot. Uh, I think now, man. So when did you guys, is this the first year you guys have done that? Or is this something you've done before? Um, it's actually the second time we do it. So we did it last time, um, for Spain. So we had a qualifier. Everybody had to, you know, qualify to get in. Um, it wasn't always like that, to be honest.

[00:51:30] Uh, we've, we've probably went through the same battles that you guys did and, you know, everybody wants to make the team. Everybody wants to compete for their country. I think it makes sense, but, um, yeah, I, I do feel this is the best approach to give everybody a shot. Now, obviously you have to have a certain, you know, ranking or certain results, right. To be, to participate. And that's what we kind of did, right. So we put together the 14 best players based on their past result. Multi-table. So whether it was a Bonzini, Leonhard tornado tournament, doesn't really matter.

[00:52:00] Uh, as long as they got the points to qualify and be part of that qualifier, uh, then you get a shot and you have your chance of being on the team. Now, the way the format is done is we're going to play a lot of games. So we're going to make sure that, you know, and, and usually the more you play, uh, the best players do stand out and that they're, they're most probably going to be at the top here. So, you know, I, it's not just like a one time, you know, you play once you're in, you're out, you know, we don't want to leave it up to chance.

[00:52:27] So, uh, we still try to compete hard and, and play a lot of games to be able to get the best players out. But I like the idea of having like a point system too, right? Like, you know, just, you know, this multi-table event coming up is, is going to be one of them, hopefully, um, that we're going to think to for the next world cup, right. We'll, we'll definitely consider that and, and add points to that. And, and, you know, you'll be able to then qualify or have a seat even, uh, based on that result. Cause it's, it is a big competition. It is multi-table.

[00:52:56] If you're able to win that one, I mean, you deserve to be at a multi-table world cup kind of thing. So, um, I think that makes sense, but I mean, there's no perfect way, right? There's, there's definitely no perfect way. Everybody has their say. And like TKO, you know, 95% of the people were happy. You still get 5% no matter what, of people that are unsatisfied and stuff like that. It happens, but you know, it is what it is. We have to make a choice and, you know, yeah. Yeah. Perfect solution. No.

[00:53:26] So is it, is it 14 mixed men and women or is it 14 men and 14 women? Uh, or is it like, what's the, like, what's the foundation for the whole thing? So the women's team and the senior team is already selected, I believe, because we don't cap the amount of players that we need. Um, it's really the men's team. So it's really for the focused on men.

[00:53:50] Uh, I believe we had around 30 people that, um, applied for, for, for the qualifiers. Um, so we had no choice, but to limit that to, uh, you know, we decided to have it 14, I think. Uh, and you know, 14 best players will, will have a shot to, to qualify, but it's only for men, only for men. Nice. Yeah. Okay. And how many out of the 14 can actually qualify? Is it, uh, just a. Um, so, so here's the thing. There's one spot that's already given.

[00:54:20] I didn't, so there's Mario Riganello. Uh, we, we feel that he like, based on his results, I mean, he's the best player in Canada right now. This is a no brainer. Exactly. So he gave him the spot. That seems pretty. It just. Mario, that seems pretty obvious. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So I don't think anybody's against that. Uh, so that there's already one spot. So technically there's eight spot left to be on the team. So there's six starters, three reserves.

[00:54:48] Um, and then we're allowed three singles players and three doubles team based on the size of our association or federation. Um, so we're still, you know, and that's what we're going to qualify for, uh, over the weekend. And then the rest is going to be picked amongst the team. Uh, that's, you know, the players are going to be selected to be able to vary and select the best players that, you know, feel that can compliment the rest of the team to go there. That's awesome.

[00:55:17] That's a, that's a, it's a great way to go. Um, it's something that, uh, yeah. Yeah. Um, is it, is it similar in any way to, uh, to what the Europeans are doing when they do their qualifying for, for world cup? I have no idea. I don't know how they do it, to be honest. Yeah. So I know they, they play all year round for it. It's a good question. Yeah. I, you know what, come to think about it. I think, um, I heard this, but I'm not sure if it's true, but, or accurate.

[00:55:43] Uh, I think France has a selection committee and that selection committee changes every world cup and they actually have, you know, one person or group of people that decide who's going to be on the team. So it's really handpicked who are the best players I believe. Uh, but I'm not sure how it is for other nations to be honest. Yeah. Yeah. No, who, uh, who came, who came up with the idea? Sorry, Tom. No, no, go. Who came up with the idea for the point system? I mean, cause I, I, I like it.

[00:56:12] I think, I think this is, I think this is a great way to pick your team legitimately. Yeah. I think it makes sense too. I mean, these are part of discussions, uh, we had, I, I talked about this to Dan Packard, the cam at Canada foosball, um, you know, a while back we, we, this is a process that, but I believe I honestly, I don't even remember. Uh, I know I thought about it. They probably put it in place, but we want to work on this and it's not set in stone yet. Cause it's not like official.

[00:56:41] We want to do it for, we thought we were going to do it for this world cup. Uh, but obviously Cam Dan have a lot of stuff. They had other projects. Uh, but that's the, you know, that's what we want to do moving forward so that every single tournament will count and players will know, Hey, this tournament is worth this many points and this will allow you to be able to qualify or be part of that qualifier. Uh, but I guess as a group discussion, you know, just to avoid any drama. Cause like I said, you know, we we've been through the ups and downs of, you know, going

[00:57:11] to the world cup and everybody wanted to participate. And, you know, I think it's just fair for everybody to. You know, make it based on the results. And, and even if you're a top player and you haven't been playing for X amount of years, well come back, play, prove yourself and, you know, show that you're ready to go and that you're still one of the best. So, and, and it just makes sense like, like any competition. So you have to earn it. Yeah. Yeah. Regardless. Yeah. It makes, it makes a lot of sense.

[00:57:36] I know there's, um, uh, the talk of the changes when it comes to, in the U S with, uh, you know, Ryan has been examining that the point system. He has a new committee that, uh, is, is, you know, basically establishing points and we're, we're, we're hoping that this is, um, much clearer, much better, uh, than it has been in the past. Um, have you in Canada experienced a similar issue when it comes to developing a point system? Um, that's a good question, Tom. So, uh, in Quebec, we have our point system.

[00:58:05] We actually use the ELO system, uh, which is similar to what they use in chess. Uh, it's been working really great for us. Um, and you know, we really liked that format. Um, the only downside with that is I guess that players that haven't been playing for, you know, maybe inactive players that come back, they still have their same, ranking or rating, if I could call it. Right. Uh, that's what the ITSF uses by the way. So they actually have a yearly ranking and they actually have a player rating. So they split those out, which I think is really nice.

[00:58:35] Um, and we're having discussions about that to see what we want to do to see. All right, well, your yearly ranking is going to be based on your performance, but your player rating is going to be based on, you know, the history, the skill level, the history, exactly that as a foosball player. Um, but I know that the ITSF is also coming up with something called Glyco, I believe it's called, which is another similar ELO format. So it's a different formula, but kind of the same.

[00:59:04] Uh, and they're coming up with that. Honestly, I don't know exactly what the difference is, but, um, they're, they're, they're actually planning to do that. So we're, uh, looking to maybe going over to Coral, uh, the new ITSF, uh, platform, uh, putting everything there. We always had a vision of having every Canadian in the same ranking system, uh, but have one national ranking, but being able to split it per region or per province. And we never had the chance to do this.

[00:59:32] And Coral might be our solution here moving forward to be able to, um, see what's going on out West, right? So Canada is large. We don't have that many players, uh, compared to the U S obviously. Um, so it's hard to compare ourselves and say, Hey, how are the guys doing in Vancouver? How are the guys doing in Ontario or Quebec and just compare each other based on results? Um, you know, so having that system in place will allow us to be able to, to do that.

[00:59:59] But for Quebec specifically, and like I said, we've been pretty much the only foosball association that has the ranking. We have the history in Quebec. So, um, we've had like 20 years of results and ranking, right? So our, our point system has 20 years of, you know, background. So there's a lot of history associated to it. So players are really in their spot. And, you know, when a new player comes along, we know exactly where to put him based when

[01:00:25] we were able to compare him with other players with the same skill level and attribute him their, their starting ranking. So, um, it's a, that's where we stand in terms of, it's, it's a complex issue. Uh, and everybody has a slightly different way of looking at it. So there's, there in lies, I can see why, uh, especially with promoters like, uh, like yourself and of course, uh, uh, Cam and, and, uh, Dan, you guys have, uh, have really, uh, it seems like you've taken things in hand and, uh, done the right thing and, and really

[01:00:54] looked around to see what works best and, and, uh, or, or working on that. That's great. Yeah. It's always improving. There's no, there's no perfect solution, but it's always trying to get better. Um, I mean, obviously, you know, Ryan with the WFT, I think has another set of challenges, right? There's obviously a lot more players. There's a lot more, you know, gap between the different categories and how do you rank a certain player base and how do you want to rank a player so that they can come out again? Right. There's no perfect solution.

[01:01:24] R and RN, it's a bit smaller, right? So a little bit smaller, a little bit easier to handle, uh, a little bit easier, I guess, to rate players, but we're thinking it through. So like I said, our vision is to grow, get a lot more players. So we want to make sure we have it right, right away. Um, and I think I like the idea of splitting a rating and a ranking, uh, for players so that at least we have their history, but it might not be their yearly ranking because they might be inactive. And, and, you know, I think it's going to be easier to handle.

[01:01:52] And I think it's, it's a good way to, to, to rate those players. Very, very cool. Well, it's, it's, uh, it's extraordinary. We're looking forward to this, uh, this process you're going through next weekend, but also, you know, the multi-table event coming up, uh, you know, that, that to me, I, we've, we've talked about this before on Foos Talk Live, but it just seems like if there's going to be something happening in the Northeast in the near future, when it comes to major events,

[01:02:18] that having at least two tables, two different types of tables would be a, just an awesome way of getting, uh, attention and, uh, more people to, to come into the, into the, uh, into the area to play. And you guys are doing it, which is, which is awesome. Yeah. We, we, like I said, we, we want to try to promote foosball and, you know, a lot of players are doing a lot of great things. You know, we have Cam and, and Mike Stahl doing Foosball Clubs USA and we're just, you

[01:02:46] know, uh, one part of the, the foosball success, right? It needs, you need different aspects and, and I, everything's coming together. I think it's a fun era of foosball right now. It's very exciting. Uh, and, and I've been playing for 20 plus years and, and, you know, ever since my first days when we had like 500 players in Quebec, it's the first time I'm feeling that kind of vibe of, wow, this is going to be big. This is going to be exciting. And it's, it's coming at all angles, right?

[01:03:15] So that's, what's really exciting about it. Um, and I think a lot of that work is, is the player base. Like we, we have guys like Mike Stahl, like Cam that are working really hard to grow, um, from schools, you know, Foosball Clubs USA. And we're having somebody here in Quebec, Steve, uh, who's doing the same. Uh, it's the FQST. So it's Foosball Quebec, uh, table soccer federation.

[01:03:40] Um, and he's really promoting, uh, local events, uh, recreational play, uh, trying to get, uh, curriculums in schools and stuff like that. So we can get tables out to kids and, and, you know, high schools, uh, and, and really grow, you know, the player base that way. And I think that's something that's been lacking on our end here, especially I know Foosball Club USA has been running for a very long time. And, you know, I heard the success was tremendous. I had the chance to see, uh, Michael at the Leonhard tournament.

[01:04:10] He came out in January and we had a good talk and he was telling me, I think there's like 500 kids playing in Michigan, which is wow. Like that's incredible, you know? Um, so, and it starts like that, right? Every sport has a player base and, and kids move up and, and, you know, they become, you know, semi pros and pros and they go on the big tour and that's, that's, you know, the regular follow through of things.

[01:04:36] So, um, it's really exciting and, and we're having the, the, the opportunity to have a great team here in Quebec, uh, that are working really hard. Like I said, we have a team of streamers that are doing an amazing job that allows us to have visibility. Yeah. How can we, we can watch it on Twitch TV, obviously, but there are other, other platforms as well. Um, I believe we're on YouTube. So every time you stream, we actually post all our content on YouTube afterwards. So it's not live.

[01:05:02] Uh, but everything that's live is, is on Twitch, AQBM foosball. Uh, we have a great group of guys that are working really hard to, you know, and at the multi-table event, I just got note this week. Uh, I think there's going to be like five tables that are going to be streamed or something like that. Like it's going to be insane. They're, they're really taking the time to make this nice. And, and, you know, we want to bring the visibility out there and just not one table, right? It's obviously a multi-table event. There's probably the finals are going to be on more than one table.

[01:05:31] So, uh, they're really bringing the production out. So we're really excited about that. Um, even everybody, like we have such great people that, you know, and you, you've probably organized tournaments before and, you know, it's not, you need the crew. You need people to invest time in bringing the tables there. Uh, you know, we have a big trailer. We just bought our, our, our new Leonhard table recently. So we used to be just Bonzini tables.

[01:05:55] So we recently went from 12 Bonzinis to 24 tables, adding the 12 Leonhard table. So we got herself a brand new trailer, a place to put it. So we just drive it around and, uh, we can do tournaments pretty much anywhere as long as we have a venue and we bring the tables there and we have a whole team that's there to unload the trailer, you know, set the tables up full team that brings it back up. And then we ship it back into our, our lot and, and that's it. So, but all that takes a lot of time, a lot of preparation.

[01:06:23] So we're really lucky to have that big team, especially, you know, we're doing it because we're, we're passionate about it for the love of the sport. So nobody's getting paid. These are like a hundred percent people that doing it on their own time. And, uh, it's, it's exciting to see that we have so many people backing us up and we're able to, you know, these, just the North American multi-table championships is like music to my ears, you know, and I still can't believe we're doing it here in three rivers. So hopefully it all will bring it to the next level.

[01:06:52] Hopefully we'll be able to get more players to come. And in the next couple of years with everybody's effort, the world foosball tour, uh, you know, local promotion, recreational play will get the youngsters come out and, you know, get, get foosball grown. Like it deserves to be honest. I think this sport deserves so much more than, than what it is right now, because it's such a fun game. It's just about knowing how we're going to promote this. Um, and, and I really, I really love where, where it's going right now. Well, thank you so much for your enthusiasm.

[01:07:20] It's, uh, it's contagious, right? It's, it seems like we're, we're, we're, we're, we're goosebumps when I talk about this. That's awesome, man. I mean, dude, we, we can't even get people a clean tables, right? I mean, it's, um, we have, uh, issues sometimes that way. Although, um, I will say in deference that right after the, the, you know, the TKO world foosball tour, first event, um, we came back to the five one eight, uh, that very next weekend,

[01:07:49] we had our biggest turnout in probably five years. That's awesome. So yeah, that's great. And people offering to help. Well, when, when you, when you look at, uh, different, so like the soccer, the soccer world cup, right? It's once every four years when the world cup's going on, uh, youth soccer registration increases. Right. So it's, it's just, it's just like anything else. If we can just get, if we can bring foosball to the masses, if we can put eyes on it, then there's no way it won't increase.

[01:08:19] Yes. So, you know, I, it's just a matter of, uh, everybody just, you know, doing their part, man. Generate the excitement. Be the, be the, be the cause. You know, a hundred percent. Yeah. You know, I look, I, I, I would love to come play this multi-table. I'm all about multi-table. I love it. I mean, I'm all about foosball. So, uh, so you got this multi-table event coming up. Uh, you going to be in Vegas in April? I will be in Vegas. Yeah. Already set. I'm excited about that.

[01:08:47] I'm going to be, uh, going to be playing with my good boy, uh, Callum, uh, Calum. He's really well in, in, in Texas. Yeah. Calum Oaks. Yeah. Really excited. Yeah. Yeah. He's awesome. Love playing with him. We played a few times together. We actually got amazing result at Texas state last year or the ITSF world cup world series. Uh, got fifth and open doubles. Uh, you know, so it just going to be fun. It's my first Vegas. So, uh, that's exciting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:09:17] It's going to be, it's going to be great. So let's sit down to worlds a couple of times, but everybody told me, uh, Vegas is the one. So I'm excited to be there. And plus it's going to be Tony. I just found out now that it was Tony and Billy, uh, inaugurated in the hall of fame. So that's, that's like awesome. Right. Uh, the same year. I know Billy for, yeah, Billy's been, he came to Montreal a few times. Uh, he actually, uh, uh, stayed, I believe last year, uh, in Montreal.

[01:09:44] And before that, obviously he, he used to go out with Jen, who was from Quebec and she's in Boston now. You probably know. Yeah. So, uh, he, he's been playing with us a couple of times, been chilling with him and he's such a great guy. Uh, good, good sportsman. And, you know, it's going to be great to see him inducted. I think he deserved it for me personally. And I, and people in Quebec know, like Billy's probably, um, one of my favorite players to see play, uh, by far.

[01:10:11] And if he was a little bit more motivated, more motivated, um, I think he'd be one of the greatest of all time just by, you know, his shots. And he does things that nobody can do on a table. And I love all the other players too, but Billy's something special. I agree. Look, I've told people if Billy had Tony's motivation and will to win and drive, nobody would ever beat him. Nobody would ever be. Ever. I agree. Yeah.

[01:10:38] That's my opinion, but I just, you know, he's probably one of the smartest players out there. There's no doubt about that. Just smart. I mean, you know, I think that, well, his physical ability, I think, uh, it's, I think it's second to none, the things he can do on the table. Yeah. Uh, I, I think a lot of people underestimate his, his mental ability, but he, I mean, Billy's kind of like a savant when it comes to foosball, man, I'm telling you, he just,

[01:11:04] he sees things it's, you know, to, I mean, to, to achieve that level, to be the best in the world at something, uh, I, you have to, you know, you have to have that thing. So, uh, but yeah, man, I, like I said, I'm pumped for my boy, him and Tony. I mean, they're both first ballot guys. So Vegas is going to be great, man. I'm glad you're going, man. I get to see you. We can hang out, play some foosball. Uh, Callum, dude, Callum's been playing great. You know, he's playing like a beast.

[01:11:34] I know. I know. I saw his results at TKO. He did, he did amazing. So yeah, he's been, he's been great. Great. Love playing with him. Great guy. And, uh, we're going to have some fun for sure. I'm excited about this one. Oh yeah. Make plans to sit down, especially, uh, just, uh, just the, maybe the three of us and do, do a bit of, uh, some, some live broadcasting there from, from Vegas. That'll be a lot of fun, of course. But, uh, looking forward to this, uh, this, this, this year, 2025 is just shaping up to be

[01:12:02] one of the greatest years in the history of foosball. And, uh, and I, and I don't say that lightly, you know, it's, uh, it's really everywhere you look, everywhere you turn. There's just excitement, people getting into this and, and, uh, and, uh, you're, you're part of that, that enthusiasm. We really appreciate you taking the time to, uh, to share that with us. Uh, pleasure to be here guys. So excited. And, um, if I could just give a little, uh, shout out of our tour this year and what tournaments are coming, if you don't mind. Please do.

[01:12:30] So we're going to have, so, so, so I just want to say we had one of the best turnouts at the Leonhard tournament. Uh, this is the second one we did. Uh, we had the chance to get Lynn Tran, uh, from, from Leonhard foosball come by too. She was amazing. It was a, it was such a fun event, uh, record turnout for us, 108 players. So that was really exciting. The venue was great. Um, the playing field was amazing. Uh, we're going to have our next one, the North American multi-table championship.

[01:12:58] If you guys want information, feel free to reach out. We'll definitely be glad to give you some information about hotels and the venue and whatnot. Um, feel free that, that, that's going to be the one that we're going to try to host every single year and hopefully we'll get more and more players to come out. Um, and especially at that venue, I'm looking at it right now, which is like amazing. Uh, then we're going to have Quebec city. We're going to have a Bonzini tournament in, uh, end of May, uh, at Hotel Le Voyageur. So we're doing it in a hotel. So that's pretty cool. We love being in Quebec city.

[01:13:28] It's fun. It's exciting. It's the only city where we have a hotel to host it in. Uh, so kind of the vibe at, you know, us tournaments where you guys do it in a hotel as well. Um, and then we're going to have the Canadian Bonzini championships, uh, in September in Montreal again, and we're finishing off the year for Leonhard in Quebec city again, going back to Quebec city for the, uh, provincial Leonhard tournament in that same hotel. So, uh, switching it up, you know, it's the first year we're having the multi-table tour.

[01:13:57] So we're really excited about that. Um, and we have some great sponsors too, uh, that are backing us. Honestly, uh, you know, we have flight hub that's there. That's, uh, been great. Anything that has to do with, you know, plane tickets, reach out to them. They're amazing. Um, we also have our software, matador AI, uh, amazing job there. They're actually a conversational AI tool for dealerships. Um, they're really big in the U S but they're actually, um, helping us with texting our players.

[01:14:26] Uh, so we're, we're lucky enough to have them and have a texting tool. You know, we're, we're still a little bit smaller, uh, but we do, you know, with those sponsors, we still have the ability to, to do some good promotion and, and do some good events. So thanks to them. Uh, so yeah, really, really excited. And, um, you know, thanks for having me guys. This is, this is fun and it's fun to talk about foosball. I mean, this is, you know, thing we love and putting the word out there. I actually, uh, we started streaming.

[01:14:53] I'll, I'll just end it on a fun fact here because we actually, um, we started streaming on a very funny note where we're like, okay, we need to get visibility out there. And I've been playing for 20 years and I got some close family and relative that have never seen me play, but they know I play foosball. And, um, one time I go to a friend's house. It's actually, um, uh, not to call him out, but it was the very, uh, great foosball player in Canada and he's at home watching on Twitch, just some guy playing some random video game.

[01:15:23] And I'm like, what are you watching? And he's like, yeah, this guy's playing this video game. Just like one, you know, first person shooter kind of thing. And I'm looking at him like, there's 10,000 people watching this right now. And he's like, yeah. And I'm like, are you kidding me? And I was like, okay, we, we have to have visibility here. And, and, you know, we started working with the stream team and putting the, and we're doing great. Like we have people reaching out now, like, Hey, can we come to your tournaments? Uh, when's the next one? And people we've never heard of.

[01:15:52] So we're, we're really able to reach a lot of people and new players. So it's really exciting and fun. And, and just having these shows and being able to talk about it really helps the whole community, you know? So, um, thank you for what you do, Tom. It's amazing. And Randy as well, you guys are awesome. And we just like hanging out talking about foosball, man. It's, it's nothing to us. We're just kind of, we just, this is what we do. And if people tune in awesome, if not, you know, they're lost. My favorite thing, my favorite thing to talk about. I blew a gasket today.

[01:16:21] My wife and I had lunch with a friend. We're at Longhorn and I'm sitting there, they're facing me and I could see the TV behind them. And they had pickleball on ESPN on TV. And I blew, I blew a gasket, man. I said, and I'm not going to say what I said, but I was like, I was like pickleball. Really? Pickleball? Get out of here. Foosball, we can't get foosball on TV. Oh man. I know. But you know what? It doesn't matter. The internet, the internet's where it's at right now. Yeah.

[01:16:48] So I feel like, uh, Twitch, right? Twitch, YouTube, Instagram. And again, Modern Foos, shout out to those guys. They're putting eyes on it. So. Foosball's ready for prime time. That's it. Absolutely. You know, that's, that's up. And, uh, and happy 50th anniversary to SNL. Just this is coming out of nowhere. I know, but tonight is the, the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live. And of course they are always been ready for prime time, but we are. Yeah. Well, when are they going to do a foosball skit? I know.

[01:17:18] One of these days. Jeez. Ah, whatever. I'll go on there. I'll do a foosball skit for them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so, so Biggie, I don't know if you'd notice, but my lights are kind of going on and off, going on and off. I've been watching. It's, it's, it's either the house is haunted or, or the, the, the power's about to go out. Um, but yeah, so we've been very lucky and I think it's, it's all attributed to you being with us tonight to keep the lights on. We had to do it, had to maintain, maintain, but, uh, thank you again. Thanks for having me guys. You're very welcome.

[01:17:47] And, uh, let's talk again soon. We'll see you in Vegas, but in the meantime, again, uh, March 27th through the 30th at Three Rivers in Quebec, Canada. Uh, it's coming up. It's the, the first annual North American multi-table foosball championship, man. It's going to be good. Uh, featuring Tornado, Bonzini and Leonhardt. Yep. Good stuff. Good luck with the Torni, Biggie. I'll see you, uh, see you in Vegas, bro. Looking forward to it. All right. Thank you so much, guys. Appreciate it. Looking forward to seeing you soon. Take care. Likewise, Biggie. Cool.

[01:18:17] And stay tuned. Uh, as long as the power stays on, we've got the, the 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. It's the 2025 South Dakota State Championship, February 21st through the 23rd, Royal River Casino, Flanbro, South Dakota.

[01:18:47] Back for 2025, it's the Arnold $5,000 Foosball Championships, February 28th through March 2nd at the Columbus Convention Center, Columbus, Ohio. Take your vacation with the 2025 Costa Rica Summer Beach Tournament, March 13th through the 16th at the Amapola Resort and Hotel Jaco, Costa Rica. House of Tournaments presents Moneyball Northwest, March 13th through the 16th at the Crown Plaza

[01:19:16] in Portland, Oregon. The 2025 Wisconsin Foosball State Championship, March 20th through the 23rd, Mad Apple Billiards in Appleton, Wisconsin. Tavern Players Magazine presents the Hayloft Foosball Tournament, March 22nd at the Hayloft Hobbs Tavern Brewery and Restaurant, Ossipi, New Hampshire. The first annual North American Multi-Table Foosball Championship featuring Tornado, Bonzini

[01:19:43] and Leonhardt, 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.

[01:20:08] 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.

[01:20:38] 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.

[01:21:03] Our Foos Talk Live sponsor, original-leonheart-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'.