FoosTalk Live | Ep 253 | Ahmed Taha on the Canadian HOF Open 2025

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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. And we are back live once again on Foos Talk Live. Hey there, it's Tom Robinson, episode number 253, I think. Anyway, after last weekend's big foray and a big chat about Florida State foosball,

[00:02:21] we are back again this week, this time heading north of the border to talk about Canadian foosball. But before we get to that, of course, it's always great when you're going to chat about foosball to have somebody around who just loves talking about foosball, which would be Randy Raposo. Hello, Randy. Hey, Tom, how are you this evening? Now, don't tell me, you got a headache already? No, dude, I haven't stopped all weekend, man. I'm actually, I'm waiting.

[00:02:47] I just, I wrote up an offer before I jumped on and I'm waiting for signatures so I can get this done because I need to make money. You are just going. But it's, ah, dude, I haven't stopped. But it's been, it's been an action-packed weekend and I'm going to be honest. I got a, I got a couple shout outs and then I'm going to be honest. I apologize to the Minnesota guys. I have not checked the Minnesota brackets all weekend. Reason being, I've been following Florida closely because my boy Chris Folsom's there. Yes.

[00:03:16] Shout out to Chris. Third and open doubles. He won pro doubles. Mm-hmm. I think he got, I think he got fifth and open doubles. Yes. And I think he got fourth and, I mean, fifth and open singles and fourth and pro singles. So Chris is having himself a weekend. I'm proud of him. Great stuff. And then he's playing with that, that punk kid, Sam Dijon, who won, who won pro singles, pro doubles and open doubles.

[00:03:46] And Sammy's weekend. Yeah, he played with that other punk kid, Jacob Balco. Those who, dude, these kids are playing great. But shout out to Jacob and shout out to, I mean, Sam, every weekend, Sam's weekend, it seems like lately. He's beaten people with his feet crossed and it's just real nonchalant. And yeah. And when he was, when he was playing, playing with Tommy, you're in open doubles. They were down to the fifth game against Dylan and, of course, Eric.

[00:04:16] Yeah. And that was, it was a very tight match. It was very well played. Well, that's a tough team. Yeah, yeah. That's a tough team. Yeah. But Sam, Sam. Got to give it to Sam. Because I was going to say, you know, it was the fifth game. They just did some table repairs. They got back on the table. Tommy scored. And then Dylan got the ball, scored. And so, you know, it was getting close. It was like 4-3, I think it was at that point. And then Sammy just, I think it was, was it? Yeah.

[00:04:44] No, it was, it might have been 3-3. 3 or 3. It was, it was very close. Anyway, Sam set the ball up on the two rod and his pull position and boom, gone. And that set the stage. And then it was Tommy who made a big steal and got the ball up front and ended the whole thing. Well, Tommy, Tommy kind of dominated all weekend. If you watch any singles, I don't think, I don't think it was close. No disrespect to anybody Tommy beat this weekend. He beat Jacob pretty bad.

[00:05:13] I didn't see the final against Kane, but I think it was three straight. And Kane is solid. Kane played great all weekend. So, but Tommy's just playing really, really well right now. Sam is, it looks like Sam's just playing with a ton of confidence. And it's great. The kid, the kid's good, man. I'm excited for him. It motivates me to want to play better. Oh, yeah. Um, so Florida state, obviously they're wrapping things up now. It looks like the tournament ran really well.

[00:05:42] It was very well attended. And, uh, you know, again, I watched a bunch this weekend, the stream, Clay and Adam, modern foods. The stream was amazing. Great job. Chat was chat was awesome. Yep. Um, I wish they had more cameras, but again, it's, it's better to have something than nothing. Uh, Dylan, Dylan, Dylan Marshall. I think the dude is grossly under, I know he's a master, but he's grossly on that dude. He was really good. Freaking good. Yeah. Yeah. Um, you got, you got to see him just fool around on the table.

[00:06:12] The dude is unbelievable. He was in a, in a singles match. Um, and I forgot exactly where, who he was playing now. I should remember, but, um, he hit eight, eight straights in a row. Eight straights. I mean, they were counting. They were counting and then he missed one. And then he did a, then he did a long pull. So he had basically out of 10 shots, he made nine. Well, and, and Eric, you know what you're going to get with there. I mean, it's not a surprise that those guys are in the finals.

[00:06:41] You know what you're going to get with Eric. Eric's super consistent. One of the best goalies on tour and Dylan's the dude's just, he's just good, man. He's really good. So, um, I got one more shout out. I got, uh, in my YouTube feed today. I want to shout this dude out. Um, guy named Mark Maddage. Okay. Uh, solid tour guy. Um, he's a pro player. Um, he actually modern just put a short out.

[00:07:09] He's the guy that hit the aerial on Sammy at the great lakes classic. Okay. That dude. Okay. Yeah. There's a short out of him doing it. It was, I mean, he does a bunch of cool stuff, but he's got a YouTube. Um, he's got a YouTube channel that he's building. It's called five bar of doom forwards, five bar of doom. Oh, I think I've seen anyway. Yeah. Yeah, man. And he's got to like, the dude's super knowledgeable and he's got a bunch of tutorials and he just talks foosball and talks about the, I mean, it's, it's good stuff.

[00:07:37] And I know he's trying to build this channel, but he, um, he made a video about me. I had no idea. I was just like, dude, I was just sitting there this morning scrolling and I saw it and it's supposed to, it's going to hit Tuesday morning at like nine o'clock. Cool. And I put, I put in the comments, I was like, is this real? And he was just like, he's like, yeah, man, our match at the TKO. And, um, I just, I thought it was super, super cool.

[00:08:02] So I just wanted to, you know, let the listeners know if you're ever looking for something foosball related, that's cool. That's beneficial. That's interesting. Uh, go to YouTube five bar of doom. Mark Maddage again, the dudes, dude, solid, cool guy. He's got some good content and, um, I've seen his work. Hit him up. Yeah, man. Give him a sub, uh, follow his stuff. And, um, I just wanted to give Mark a shout out, man. I appreciate it. So super honored. Yeah.

[00:08:31] You know, we should get him on, on, on air some night, uh, soon. Yeah, dude. You know? Yeah. Absolutely. Like you say, he's got a lot of, a lot of knowledge and he's, I love his comments. You know, some of the things he has to say, just, just really good dude. Yeah. He's been around for a long time. Knows foosball. Everybody, everybody knows who he is. He's a, you know, solid dude. So I just wanted to give Mark a shout out. So five bar of doom, go check them out. Check them out. Give them a sub, watch his stuff.

[00:08:57] So, and then, uh, we go from there to Canada. There you go. Well, Hey, I mean, this is, uh, this is, it's all about, uh, you know, Canadian foosball is, is, is kicking ass up late. There's, there's a lot of great players coming down for, for our tournament, uh, our tournaments, uh, especially in our area at the smash down. We've been seeing a lot of these guys from auto coming down and not the least of which would be our, our guests this evening. Uh, his, he likes to be called Taha.

[00:09:26] Is that correct? Does that prefer Taha? Yes, that's right. I go by Taha. Although it actually is not my first name. Right. That's right. Gotcha. Yeah. I've known Taha a long time. Could do Canadian. Look, Canadian foosers are no joke, man. They, they are a threat everywhere they go. Big time. They're a solid group of players. The only thing wrong with Canadian, like the only problem with Canadian foosers is they're from Canada.

[00:09:56] Other than that, they're great. I love them. I love them all. So, but yeah, dude, Taha. I dude, I've known Taha almost 20 years. So, and yeah, I used to come down to mass dates. Yeah. Adam, Adam Emmons, Stephen Bell. Yeah. Back in the day. Yeah. I mean. Yeah. Walter was just starting out. Sean Burke back in those days. Sean Burke. Yeah. Sean. Long time. Sean, he disappeared to Indiana. He just kind of said. Yeah. See ya.

[00:10:26] And, uh, just said, I'm, I'm, I'm going to Indiana and no explanation, but just went. So. Because the Northeast sucks. It's awful. Here we go again. Here we go again. Hey, I'm in, I'm in a mood tonight, buddy. Oh, I can tell. So we're going to have some fun. I can tell. Yeah. So Taha, what's, what's, what's going on, bro? What's going on? Well, um, we have a tournament in Ottawa next weekend. It's our third Canadian hall of fame open.

[00:10:55] Uh, so it's, uh, starts on Friday and it ends on Sunday. It's like a three day tournament and we have, uh, you know, open experts and rookie events, uh, DYP women's events, that kind of thing. Nice. And, uh, we also induct new members into our Canada foosball hall of fame. And how many, uh, how many people at a time are going into the hall of fame, by the way? The first two years we did three people each. And then this year we cut it down to two.

[00:11:21] Um, and you know, what we, as the committee reassesses that I'm on the hall of fame committee. Uh, so we, we, we assess that every year. And this year we decided to do two instead of three. Gotcha. It's, um, now, uh, is there an age requirement before you can actually be considered for eligibility? Yes. It's 40 years. 40. Okay. Just like America. Yeah. Yeah. Four years. At least 10 years of involvement in foosball, which is really kind of minimal. I would say. Okay. Yeah.

[00:11:50] I wanted to ask what the prereqs were for getting in. So 40, 10 years. So is it 10 years of involvement or is it 10 years of, um, promoting? Do you have to have, you know, titles, open titles? Like what, what are the standards and prerequisites for being considered a hall of famer in Canada? There are three categories of players that generally get into inducted into hall of fames. There's player, and this is like a high rank player with many tournament achievements, you know, maybe appearances on team Canada.

[00:12:19] And then there's promoter, someone who, uh, you know, promotes the game locally runs, you know, DIPs tournaments, that sort of thing. And then there's a category called player at large, who is maybe like someone locally who has influenced a lot of people, um, you know, locally, but maybe hasn't gone out on tour so much. Uh, so these are three categories of players right now. We've mostly inducted people in the first two categories, people who have achievements and promoters.

[00:12:45] Uh, the first year we inducted, uh, Moya Thielens, Eric Dunn and Peter Thielens. Hmm. Moya. Wow. Peter Thielens, you know, promoter from Vancouver and also a long time player. Uh, last year we inducted, uh, Laurent back in Marcotte, who is a Quebec legend. Uh, I mean, this guy has, if you look at his Bonzini stats, he has like 89 titles or something ridiculous like that.

[00:13:09] Like, you know, he's, and he is like, as a, as a, as a, um, he, he, he's kind of, uh, he has a style in singles that is crazy. Like he can do anything at any time and his games are always fun. Matt is actually fun to watch. So he's, he's been winning titles for like 20 years. And then, uh, locally our promoter, Chris Thomas, who has been, uh, running tournaments and DYPs in our leagues for over 25 years. Um, and also Mitch Jang from Vancouver.

[00:13:38] Uh, so Mitch is like a local legend. Like I've, I'd never actually met Mitch, but everyone who comes from out from out West is like Mitch Jang, Mitch Jang. I learned from Mitch and he's, um, played since the late seventies, early eighties on all kinds of tables, uh, you know, dynamo and, and tournament soccer. Um, he had finishes as high as like seventh, eighth and some big U S tournaments. Uh, but they mostly know him in the Northwest. Interesting. Vancouver, that area. Yeah. Got it.

[00:14:08] And who's, uh, who's, who's getting in this year? This year we're inducting, uh, Paul G who was a long time, uh, Regina promoter, uh, runs, has run DYPs locally for over 20 years. And Linda Lee, who, uh, you've seen on tour multiple world champion and she's awesome in Canada. She's amazing. I think, um, you know, if you, uh, you had to pick, um, you know, especially, uh, female players, Linda, just generally speaking, male or female is one of the best out there.

[00:14:37] She's just, uh, just astounding on the table. Yeah. She has a very solid game. Um, you know, it was many years ago. Like I, like a lot of people, players from all over Canada had never met each other. Uh, but I, I've now run into most of the Canadian players and there's a lot more traveling back and forth, you know, like Linda and Paul are coming to our tournament and, you know, um, some players from Quebec and Toronto go to the Western Canada foosball championships and to, you know, the Edmonton tournament.

[00:15:08] So there's, there, you know, players in Canada know each other a lot better. And yeah, I met Linda for the first time a few years ago and I was, I was really impressed with her skills on the table and her competitive drive. Yeah. Yeah. You know, just, um, the only, uh, the only person I can compare her to would be, um, Mylin Tran. They, they seem to have similar games, although Mylin of course is European, but they, they seem to have, uh, the same kind of drive, the same kind of intensity on the table.

[00:15:38] Yeah. Yeah. Lin Tran is her. Yeah. Her, yeah. Competitive drive is just incredible. Like she believes she can against anyone and works really hard on the table and hits the ball with authority. Like she believes, you know, in what she does and it's really impressive. Hmm. No doubt about it. Well, it is tradition here on Foos Talk Alive that whenever, uh, a player like yourself appears, uh, we have to find out about you. We gotta, we gotta, we gotta dig a little deeper here.

[00:16:07] So, uh, first of all, the, the question being, um, when was the first time you saw a foosball table? How old were you and what kind of table was it? You know, I'd seen foosball tables as a child, you know, but the first time I really saw foosball being played, I was 15 years old and, um, I was living in Kuwait, uh, which is, you know, I, I came from the middle East. Uh, my parents were Egyptian, but they were expats living in Kuwait and I was going to

[00:16:34] university and I started playing there and I would like skip classes. To play foosball. Uh-huh. And, um, it was a, uh, red and blue table, like the Italian, like a Garlando with the blocky feet. And everything we did was super fast. Like you had to basically, when you got the ball, you had to release it within a second or it wasn't, it was considered that you're playing kind of slowly. Right. Wow. And, uh, people had shots, pull kicks, push kicks, like pulls, but it was, you know, like

[00:17:02] we were, we, we were good, but like, I never really saw, you know, I, I didn't see that competitive stuff until later, but for those teenage years, I played a lot of foosball and it was all quick stuff. It was like, I, you know, you were, you know, you did pass quickly, did shots quickly, but it was at a decent level. We, we had speed. We had some skills. Does, uh, Kuwait, uh, compete in the world cup? Yes. You know, after I left Kuwait, um, the, you know, there was actually the, the various

[00:17:29] campuses around Queen University had foosball tables in them. And, you know, I remember that the best player in the university, his name was Abdul Latifah Kandidi. And he later became a member of team Kuwait at the various world cups. Now he's in his fifties. He's older and he can't, he feels like he can't like be as competitive. He's like, I'm, I'm older now, but I mean, yeah, like the, the scene of foosball continued on in Kuwait.

[00:17:55] And when I last visited there a few years ago, I went to, um, like a foosball club that had the different kinds of tables and every table had like, there were like these pipes from the ceiling and they had like cameras pointing at each table so they could stream. And there was a little lounge area and I played a DYP. So, and it was, it was mostly tornado and the Kuwaiti players, you don't see them in North America often.

[00:18:20] Sometimes they go to Vegas, you know, the Europeans have seen the Kuwaiti players a fair amount and some Kuwaiti players have had very high finishes at, um, European tornado tournaments in, in, in maybe, um, not recently in the last few years, but in the, like the five years before that, I would say like, no. Yeah. I guess Kuwait is considered a, uh, it's a, it's a royal government, a kingdom. Is that correct? It is. Yeah.

[00:18:48] It has an Amir, you know, who is the equivalent of a King. Um, yeah. And it's, um, it's not a big country. It's a lot bigger now than when I left. Uh, now they're up to like, I heard over 4 million people when I left, it was like one and a half. Okay. But, uh, yeah, it's a thriving place and they have a very, uh, strong core group of foosball players, uh, that travel. So when you left, everybody was like, oh, it's cool. Let's go to Kuwait. Taha left. Right.

[00:19:17] No, I feel like they followed me. Like I came here and now I see them coming. I'm like, I came here first. You know? Yeah. So, so what are you, what are you doing to get ready for the world cup? Uh, well, I, I bought a, um, I have a tornado, Leonhard and the Bonzini that I own. And, uh, I have a Eurogarlando table that I borrowed from a friend here locally who didn't have room for it.

[00:19:42] So I have four tables and I do most of my practice on tornado still because, um, I, you know, I've learned that the Europeans are very good on tornado at this point. You know, there's not that much edge. Your only edge is to be super, super consistent on your own table. Got it. And you have to take matches. You have to take games on your own table and be able to take, if it comes down to it

[00:20:08] at the very least points on their table, but you cannot drop your own table. Right. So I do half of my practice time on tornado and I do the other half between Bonzini, Leonhard and Garlando. I practice maybe more Garlando because I'm not really used to it. I have played Bonzini many tournaments in the last five years or six, seven years. Um, but Garlando is like, I just got that table a month and a half ago. So I practice on that the most.

[00:20:37] Um, it's actually a really fun table. Oh, cool. What's different. What's different between Garlando and Leonhard? Is the, like the spacing different on the men, the feel, the rods, like what really, what's the difference? All right. So the Garlando, the rods are super, super light. So you can do a snake shot and just whip that thing so fast. Like, you know, on, on, on, on tornado, the rods are heavier. So it takes you some body movement to really bring the ball back.

[00:21:07] If you, to the rod, the head, the rod back in order to get good acceleration on it. On Garlando, you can do that with your wrist. Like you can just go like that, whip your wrist and you get a magnificent pull side snake. You know, um, the glass, the surface is sandblasted glass and they've gone to a new table, which is very, sorry, a new ball, which is similar to the fireball ball. They've changed. That was a great ball. Yeah. Yeah. They've changed balls many times over the last 10 years. This is their latest ball.

[00:21:35] They just introduced it about a month ago and it's similar to the fireball and it's the best ball they've had in years. It rolls pretty good. You can do controlled stuff with it. Um, there are big ramps in the corner and the side. So the tape, the ball will jump if you try to do something like a bank shot. Um, but the surface and the hard ball and the hard plastic of the man make it so that you excel, you can accelerate the ball really fast. Um, and you can make power with the rod without a lot of effort, like on tornado.

[00:22:05] Um, yeah. And the spacing of the guys, I do think it's different. Like the two bar spacing on the two men is slightly smaller. So you can make a push kick from the near side that actually goes into the near side of the net. Interesting. Okay. Like a short, like, like a short. Like a short. You can hit a push kick short. Right? Huh. Yeah. I feel the spacing on the men on the three and the two is a bit narrow. That's, I haven't measured it, but that's my belief.

[00:22:30] Um, so all these things make the table a bit slicker, but once you get used to the slickness, you can release shots really nice and fast on the table. Cool. Yeah. It's, um, every table has its own nuances. And I think a lot of it comes down to just the ball itself. Uh, one of the reasons I like the, the Leonhardt is because the ball is so easy to catch. Uh, you can kind of, uh, you can grab it and hold it and, uh, much more easily, uh, maneuvered.

[00:22:57] Um, I noticed a lot of the, like the German players, when I first saw them play on Leonhardt, they kind of smear the ball, kind of, uh, they, they, they, they possess it. And then they, they sort of, uh, move it around in a, in more of a fluid motion rather than tapping the top of the ball. They're kind of just moving it around more, more, more, uh, more great. I guess you'd say it looks more graceful. That's a, at least that's what it looked like to me. Yeah. The Leonhardt table lends itself to that.

[00:23:25] The ball is a little bit sticky and the surfaces is, is, is like this is hard. So, um, you get really good grip on the table. Yeah. Similar to the kind of grip that you get on the Bonzini, but because maybe the feet of the men are shaped different, there's, um, greater flexibility to do different things. Whereas I think a Bonzini, you, you, you have, uh, you can be very precise with a Bonzini shot, but it takes some, you know, finesse.

[00:23:54] A lot of practice. Bonzini is a really tough table. Uh, we played on it as kids in the seventies. Uh, we didn't know any better, but, um, you know, for us, it was just, you know, Hey, that was all we knew. And, and as soon as, uh, I saw, I think it was, um, maybe, uh, uh, a brown top quarter million dollar table. And I thought, Hmm, that seems kind of clunky, kind of, kind of cheapy by comparison to the Bonzini because of the, the metal men.

[00:24:22] And, uh, the sound of the goal in the Bonzini is my favorite. It's just, it's loud. It's like a bell going off. And it's, uh, it's kind of like that, uh, that, that addiction that you get from, from any other kind of drug. You just want to hear it again and again and again. Yeah. The sounds of the tables are all quite different, but I actually find one of the most satisfying ones is, is, are the tornado and the Garlando. There's like a metal smack to it.

[00:24:50] That seems like a, almost like a hammer or something like hit or something. Um, yeah. I noticed on some of the newer. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, rush. No, no. Orphan rush. No, I think on some of the newer tornadoes, depending upon where they're set up, it just seems a little more muted now for some reason. I'm not sure why that is, but, uh, I think I, it sounds different. I don't know. In Florida this weekend, they had those mics and the goals. They did do that.

[00:25:17] I think, uh, Clay said they were 57s. Yes. 57. Yeah. SM, SM 57. Yes. And he said they built little boxes for them and they stuck. And dude, if you were listening on the street, they sounded so good. Like it was whack tastic. So loud. Somebody scored. It sounded, it sounded nice. Really? I love the sound of a tornado. I mean, Leonhardt, Leon. I like, I like Leonhardt. I like the sound of a Leonhardt.

[00:25:44] And I, I love the way Leonhardt plays and I'll tell you like the, the foot of the Leonhardt, the man, I feel like Leonhardt's a very forgiving table, right? Between the ball and the surface. Like you said, it's, it's, it's really nice. But I feel like if, if you, if you can control the ball really well on Leonhardt, if you're, if you're somebody that practices ball control and those ball control drills, and then you take that same practice to tornado, it's almost too easy just because of the size of the

[00:26:11] foot difference when you go to tornado and the length of the man, the, the, the spacing from the bottom of the man to the top of the table. And so I, I, for me, I, I like the challenge of Leonhardt, even though it is a forgiving table. I do think it, it improves my tornado game. I actually do enjoy playing Bonzini just because it's a different style of game. Playing tornado foosball, like playing tornado foosball, if just the,

[00:26:41] I love tournament play. Cause I love to compete, but the, the repetitiveness of just doing the same thing over and over, it can get a little boring. Um, and I love that you can kind of just do whatever you want on a tornado, but I really love messing around on a Bonzini or anything else just to kind of mix it up. And it does like all the best tornado players in the world are multi, they're multi-table players. They're guys that play on all kinds of stuff.

[00:27:11] So I feel like if you want to excel at tornado, then playing multi-table is definitely the way to go. I think that's why a lot of the Canadians are so good. Cause you guys, you, you do play multi-table foosball. So, so very disciplined as well. You know, I, I've always found after going to a Bonzini tournament, because you see the Bonzini rods are telescoping. Yeah. This is really important because if you torque the handle at all before the moment that you

[00:27:40] really, that, that you really do need to torque it, the ball, the, the ball, the guy will just stop exactly where it is. Right. Right. Because the metal will just go against the metal. It will bend. And then that's it. You're you'll, the ball, you'll stop on the lateral exactly where you are. So you, it forces your mechanics to be more correct. You know, and then when you come back to the tornado, you realize how much the table lets you get away with in terms of like, you know, the, the, the, the, the rod is hard. The man is hard. The ball is hard.

[00:28:09] You can torque it way before it's the right time and still get away with it. But you know, that it forces playing Bonzini shows you how much you get away with on a tornado. Mm-hmm. I once heard one of the coaches for Team USA explain the difference. Uh, he said that, uh, the tornado table, uh, is built in such a way you can put energy into the table. You can put the energy into it.

[00:28:35] Whereas in other, other styles or other types of tables, the, the energy is, is, uh, is not, you can't put it as, as much energy into the table, maybe because of the way it's designed or where it's constructed, that kind of thing. But I always thought that was an interesting point, putting energy into the table and then learning how to, uh, pinch the ball at a specific spot, uh, to get the, get the, uh, the, um, the speed, the speed and the power. Um, but putting energy into the table.

[00:29:03] One of the early things that I think he showed me too was the fact that when I was playing, uh, just trying to shoot from the two rod, I was, I was pulling my body away from the table as I was trying to shoot. And he said, no, you have to come into the table. You have to put your, your, your arm or your, your, uh, your force into the table. And that made a huge difference in just the way, uh, the mechanics went, but it's, I think each table has its own characteristic that way.

[00:29:29] Well, like Taha was explaining the tornado specifically, you can get away with a lot. If you, if you're a big, strong person and you're able to swing through the ball, the ball's going to squib out because of the design of the rod, the man, the field, the ball where like Leonhart, Leonhart to be successful, you have to be smooth. You can't muscle anything on Leonhart because it's not going to do what you want it to do.

[00:29:57] And, and, and Bonzini is that magnified, you know, you're not going to muscle anything. Bonzini is a very finesse game. And, uh, and I know a lot of players don't like Bonzini. I don't like Bonzini. I don't like that game, that table, that table sucks. They're lazy. Yeah. But, but this is the thing, right? If, if you're able to, to start adding finesse into your game and bringing, bringing it into tornado, it makes such a difference, right?

[00:30:22] Like softening your hands up, grabbing loose balls, or even something as simple as playing goal and just having the opposing goalie shoot into your two rod and you not give it away to the opponent's three rod, right? Absorbing, keeping the ball in your air, just little, little things that make a difference. But, you know, I think for a lot of people, they, they get kind of headstrong when it comes to, you know, I play tornado. This is all I play. It's like, dude, I, I play foosball, right?

[00:30:50] Like I'll, you want to play on a Walmart table? I just want to play, dude. It's cool. But the, the, the way the tornado was built like a brick and it's just so solid. Like, yeah, dude. Again, people say, just hit the ball hard. Good things will happen. Right. And it's, and it's true. But a lot of these other tables, you're, you're, you're not really able to do that.

[00:31:15] But you really have to, you really have to be smooth and precise and look for holes. Yeah. I, yeah, man, I want to start, I want to start playing tournaments on Leonhardt. I, you know, I'd like to start getting something going here in the States on Leonhardt, but just time, time is a factor. Well, there's also, you know, the changes that have been taking place with the formats.

[00:31:39] So Taha, I'm interested, like in your local in, in Ottawa, what, what is, what kind of DYPs do you do? Are they typically a Swiss format, Monster? What's, what's, what kind of DYPs do you do locally? Our local draws are on Friday nights. And we, for many years, we did a regular double elimination. You know, in the years that I joined, it was always double elimination. You got one partner for the night and you played with them the whole time. Yep.

[00:32:07] In the last eight or maybe 10 years or so, we, we've moved more to doing some Monster DYP rounds so that people can come and go and people get a chance to play with different partners. And then we, we usually do a single elimination doubles event or singles event if there's not a lot of people. Lately, we've had quite a, quite a few people show up. So we've been doing single elimination doubles events after the rounds. Cool.

[00:32:36] And people can come for one or both. Some people have showed up just for the elimination and we've just thrown them in. Yeah. So we, we do, we do those DYPs on Friday nights and we have our league on Wednesdays. I can't imagine, you know, I can't imagine going back to, to double elimination for a DYP. It's always Monster now. It just, it's just so much more fun. Yeah. What's, what's your turnout looking like? How many players are you getting on a Friday? Um, last Friday we had 14.

[00:33:06] The one before that we had 22. Wow. Nice. So we have them four teams. It's not always that good. Sometimes there's only eight or 10 players. Um, and you know, it was maybe like a couple of years ago, every second Friday, there was nothing because there was not enough interest, but we use discord. Now we get, you know, people say if they're coming and we've had something on Friday pretty regularly for the last, uh, you know, half a year, um, almost. And a lot of times it's eight or more players.

[00:33:34] Sometimes it's 14, 16. Yeah. And is it predominantly tornado? Is that all you play on? Or do you guys mix it up? At, at the pool hall where we play, we now have five tornadoes, one Leonhardt and one Bonzini. We rarely work the Bonzini or the Leonhardt into the DYPs unless there's a big Bonzini or Leonhardt tournament coming up and people want to practice. Okay.

[00:33:59] And we might call some of the rounds on those tables if there's maybe players in that round that are playing on that, you know, that people are like, I want to practice my Leo. We have a Leo tournament coming up. So we've done that, uh, in the league, we do work them in. Like you'll have out of every seven weeks that you play, you'll play five weeks on tornado, one on Bonzini, one on Leonhardt. But in the DYP, it's almost always just tornado. Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah. I'm, uh, I'm, I'm curious about your schedule this, this year besides, uh, the, the

[00:34:28] the world cup, where else are you, where else are you headed on tour? Um, I'm doing a little bit less this year than, than I did last year. I had a really busy year last year, but this year, uh, in May we have the Ottawa tournament coming up next weekend. Uh, Dallas is two weeks after that. And then the week after Dallas, there's a Bonzini tournament in Quebec city. Oh, okay. Yeah. And then I have a couple of weeks off and then I fly to Europe for the world cup. Ice. Yeah.

[00:34:58] Wow. Um, I know the, uh, the, it looks like a pretty, pretty packed schedule after world cup, uh, you know, nationals and of course, uh, the, uh, the, uh, uh, tornado championships. And, uh, there's, there's quite a few things being added to the list of late. Uh, in fact, I found a couple of things that the beach town beat down is, is, uh, been added to the list. So that's all coming after, after world cup. So do you need some time to recover when you get back from world cup?

[00:35:28] Yeah. I mean, I'm, I'm in a pretty heavy practice period right now and I I've had a pretty hectic year, even leading up to this. And I am planning on maybe, uh, going to less tournaments in the second half of the year. The only thing that's that I've really, that I've actually committed to are, uh, like, uh, the Bonzini tournament and Michigan States. Um, I may do the tornado championships. I may do Colorado. So, um, yeah, those are the ones I might do. Gotcha.

[00:35:57] Is Colorado happening? I don't think anybody's got confirmation on Colorado. Yeah. I haven't heard anything about it. Yeah. I mean, they didn't have it last year, but, uh, who knows? Hopefully they'll have it this year. I don't know what happened. Yeah. Just so. I don't know. There, there was, there was no notification. I was looking for it today. In fact, to see if it was out there yet. Yeah. I haven't heard anything. I've been asking. Yeah. Dude. World's in New Orleans. Have you been to New Orleans? I've never been to New Orleans. I have been to Louisiana once for work, Baton Rouge, but I've never been to New Orleans. Yeah.

[00:36:27] New Orleans. No, it's, um, different. Well, it depends on what part of town you're talking about too, right? I mean, if you're, uh. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. This is going to be, this is going to be downtown at a classic joint. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's not going to be by the airport. So it's, uh, this, this should be, this should be pretty good. I'm, I'm looking forward to it every, every year, uh, they do Louisiana state and they've been running nationals there too.

[00:36:57] And it's, um, it's not too far from the airport. So it's, you know, the Hyatt Regency, I believe it is. This one coming up. Yeah. It's a four-star Hyatt. We got a 30,000 square foot ballroom. Ryan's doing it up, man. So, um, I'm telling everybody, if you can make it, I feel like this is going to be, probably the biggest, biggest worlds ever, man. So what's, what's a flight running for you? Like if you, if you were coming to new Orleans or typically, so you're going to Dallas, what's your flight running to Dallas?

[00:37:27] If you don't mind me asking. You know, I bought the trip on points. So I used some points and maybe like $180 more to get the ticket. So, uh, but I would say that, okay. If you're going to Dallas at just a regular time, it's probably five or $600, but that was Memorial day weekend. Wasn't that right? Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Right. And it, when I actually looked at the ticket price just with money, it was like a thousand dollars.

[00:37:56] Ooh, that's crazy. And that is that Canadian dollars or American dollars? No Canadian. Yeah. Still a thousand. Cause so it'd have been like 30 American bucks. No, no, no, dude. Flights are correct. Look. Okay. Vegas, dude. You used to be able to fly in a Vegas round trip for 99 bucks. My flight to Vegas issue was 500 bucks. And I booked it like, I don't know, three months in advance or whatever.

[00:38:21] Like, you know, I, I try to keep an eye on it, but dude, these flights are insane, man. They're making it so tough. Yeah. And as again, for it's one flight, I know like for you, it's different. You got to fly to a bunch of tournaments, but lucky for me, I'm in an area where we're, you know, we're pretty saturated and I can just drive. So it's just, it's tough, man. It's a struggle. Yeah. And flying within the U S is a lot cheaper.

[00:38:49] Like I I've actually sometimes driven to Syracuse, which is three hours away, parked at the airport and flown inside the U S because the ticket price is like half of what I can get here. Yep. Yep. So, you know, and I need to get to the airport here anyway, you know, like Ubers or whatever. So what, you know, if I have to drive three hours gas, I mean, it's almost the same thing really, but you know, so I've done that. I've done that. And, um, it's tough cause Ottawa is not a big airport. You know, if it was Toronto, I, we could get cheaper flights. The Toronto guys have it so good.

[00:39:20] Um, there are people who have it worse. Like look at Jeff Schneider in Saskatchewan. Like whenever he wants to get anywhere, it's a thousand bucks a pop. Right. Wow. That's insane. Nope. Speaking of Toronto, um, looks like they've got something called the Toronto foosball club summer epic. That's coming up, uh, August 1st through the 4th. What's, uh, what's up with, uh, with that one? Do you know anything about that tournament? Well, I, I've been to the Toronto tournaments before. So, uh, as you're probably aware, they have this Toronto foosball club. Yes.

[00:39:49] And it's, um, it's actually moved, but it's moved to somewhere that's not too far from where it was before. Right. It's in the same area. And they've taken like a spot in like this big, um, this big building that's being converted into like, you know, adult entertainment, like mini golf place and, you know, frisbee place. And there's like the golf, the, the foosball club. So they've taken a place there and it's nice because it has really nice high ceiling. So there's good ventilation for when you play. Cause that was a problem with the old place. Right.

[00:40:18] Um, so yeah, they've got, um, mostly tornadoes. They've got a couple of Leonhards. Um, they even have a Bonzini, but no one ever plays on it. So I think they took it out and they've got a Roberto Sport. So this tournament starts on Friday night and actually goes into Monday. Although the Monday events are, I think like team event and something else. Um, the main events will end by, I think Sunday night. Got it. And, uh, they've gotten good competition there in the past. Uh, Sam has come out and Sam and Nino have come out. Tommy, you are came out last time.

[00:40:48] Um, we, we, we played them. That was a tough match. Um, and, um, Scott Ramsey, like the, you know, Rochester crowd came out, uh, from Buffalo. Um, yeah. So the Buffalo guys came out. So they get, they get some Americans. We, we don't, we don't, we don't, we don't seem to get a lot of Americans in Ottawa to our tournaments. Uh, at the most, it's like Mark Drolet and maybe Richard Burnett from upstate New York. Right.

[00:41:15] Um, but Toronto gets a good turnout from the States and then the people from Montreal and Ottawa come out and people from out West fly. So they, they get a good, um, turnout. And of course there's a lot of local Toronto players that are really strong, uh, that don't tour as much like Mario Reganello. Mm-hmm. And Mario Inuzi, even Mario Inuzi, he, he's, he's toured less the last couple of years. Uh, and then they've got like a solid group of pros, new Tyson.

[00:41:44] Um, you know, there's a strong local player base. Sean. Sean. Sean. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Jacob Barnett. Who's, um, just, just a great player. Yeah. Jake is in Spain right now. Um, okay. You know that he's, um, yeah, he's, he's working in Spain. He's working in Spain. Okay. Yes. Yes. In fact, he's, he's, he's my partner at classic doubles at the world cup. Nice.

[00:42:12] And it's expected that if we are called on to play in the team event, that we'll probably play together as a team. So nice. Yeah. Yeah. Jake is, um, I'm, I'm, I'm actually going to Bilbao first and spending a few days with Jake to, to practice together. And then we're heading to the world cup. Excellent. Wow. Yeah. Best of luck on that. Jake has been improving. Mm-hmm. Drastically, man. I mean, he's, he's been good. He won amateur singles at worlds a few years ago.

[00:42:39] And I feel like after he won amateur singles, he just kind of, you know, he kind of took off and, um, he wasn't an expert for very long and they jumped up to pro and, um, he's just really been progressing. I feel like he's been, uh, maybe flying under the radar as far as his progress. But I mean, he was just in the finals open doubles with Trevor. And, um, I saw him, I said, do you look good, man? You lost some weight.

[00:43:06] And, you know, he said something and we giggled and, um, he's, he's a funny, he's a funny guy. He's a funny, funny guy, but, um, definitely, definitely a solid player. Smart guy. I mean, smart guy. Everybody knows he's a smart guy, but, um, so who's going to play front classic doubles? I mean, you know, he's, he's, uh, he shoots a rollover, uh, his pulls ugly as all get out, but I mean, it does score.

[00:43:35] Um, so at the multi-table tournament, we had a multi-table tournament in Quebec, um, about a month ago, uh, towards the end of March. Right. Nice. And, uh, you know, people had their home tables. It was like ITSF style. You had your home table. So you play game here, game here, and so on. And I, uh, I played with Jake in both classic and open doubles. And we came third in both events. I played forward in classic on Leonhardt and Bonzini. Um, and for Bonzini, that's definitely the right choice for Leonhardt.

[00:44:05] I think so too, because strangely enough, my, my pull mechanics on most tables are actually better than they are on Tornado. Maybe it's because of the way I started. I started on as a teenager with a, you know, the Italian style table. Maybe it's the handle. I don't know what it is, but my struggle with a pull on Tornado for, for years now, I've been trying to perfect the pull, but I find it actually easier to shoot on other tables like Leonhardt. Uh, so Jake is playing up on Tornado and classic, and I'm playing up on probably the other tables.

[00:44:36] Leonhardt, we'll see. I'm sure we could switch there, but I think on Garlando and Bonzini, I think I might play forward. And then in, um, yeah. And if we play together on the team, probably, probably he would play up on Leonhardt and Tornado and I'd play up on maybe Garlando and Bonzini. How is his game? How is his game on Leonhardt and Bonzini?

[00:44:59] I mean, he's, his game looks, it looks like it's very Tornado specific, like mechanically. Yes. Yes. Um, he, he, his, his Leonhardt game is very good. Like almost to the level of his Tornado game. Like I would say he's got a pro level Leonhardt game and he's had good, he's, he's done well in Europe. He's still, he's still, um, learning, I think on Leonhardt.

[00:45:24] But, um, like there was a tournament this weekend, it was on Tornado, but he's, uh, he played in that this weekend. And so he, he basically has a tournament every week from now to the world cup, something crazy. He's 25. He can do it. You know, I can't, can't afford to do that anymore. I need, uh, these days I just do rest and practice and that's it. It's so I have time for you. That's what I have energy for you. I know all about it. Yep. Listen to you.

[00:45:54] What are you, what are you like 40 something? Four. Yeah. Yeah. Can I say? Not, not 64, 44. 44. If I could only be 44 again. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I remember being 44. See? Wait, look. We've got, we've got forties, fifties, and sixties covered tonight, folks. Yes, we do. It's a, well, no, actually I'm 49. I, I, I, I, all right. Ruin the fun, dude.

[00:46:24] Oh, sorry. But like, you know, I, I, I didn't, I honestly didn't notice it. And the foosball table was the first place I noticed it. Is it? Like, I would be like, I used to get to these balls before. Like people not used to not get fast stuff on me. Like what happened? Like I'm not as quick as I used to be. Like, it's not a lot, but it's noticeable. It's enough to be noticeable. And I only started noticing it like a few years ago, like maybe 45, 46, like around there.

[00:46:51] And now I have to, it's a struggle not to keep falling further behind. I have to try and stay better in better shape and et cetera. It's, uh, you have to make, make, uh, make adjustments, uh, for the, for the lack of, of, um, energy, I guess, when we get to this age. When I, you know, when I play, I just have to kind of, well, just hope. Just hope. Just hope. Oh, all right. Oh, I hope, I hope I don't break, I hope I don't break my hip today.

[00:47:20] Oh, I hope, hope I don't fall down in the middle of a game. That would, that wouldn't be good. Um, I'm, I'm curious though, Taha, when you were, you know, when you first, uh, came to this side of the world and started playing in Canada, uh, was there anybody in particular that used to, used to follow a lot and, and, uh, emulate? Anybody that, uh, you thought, Hey, I want to play like this dude.

[00:47:46] You know, when I first started on tornado around 2001, I played like, I was sort of, first of all, I was blown away that there was such a thing as tournaments on in foosball. Yeah. You know, I played in university, but I'd never known that it was like something outside of like a university championship or something that was something like that. So there were those first couple of years I ordered several seasons of inside foos from Jim and they used to come on those cassette tapes. I don't know if you remember those. Oh yeah. Yeah. And my favorite, my favorite player was Frederic.

[00:48:16] Fred. Oh yes. Oh yeah. And, um, just his, like, I don't know if you've ever seen him play pickup. Just, just, just goofing around. Just. Yeah. And, and I don't know if you've ever seen him play pickup or even play like loose style on a table other than tornado, because he would do it on Bonzini. He would make the top Bonzini players look like children. It was insane. Like he would play the German players.

[00:48:44] He would go into a tournament and not lose a game. Wow. You know? Wow. And if he decided to just start like doing whatever, he would just, he could just crush people. Like there's, there's a, there's a match where he beats Ruben Heinrich in three games in 11 minutes. Ooh. Including, including the time between the games. Really? Like it's. Yeah.

[00:49:06] Um, so like overall as, as like just somewhat, like a Frederick, um, Bobby Diaz defensively. Mm-hmm. Um, pull shot, Lafredo. And strangely enough, I used to really like Gary Edgeworth's pull shot when he played back in the day. I don't know. Maybe if I saw it today, I would change my mind. But I remember liking Gary Edgeworth's pull shot. Um, but yeah, I mean, Lafredo obviously with it, with this pull shot.

[00:49:36] Um, yeah. I mean, even more recently people like, um, Ben Wilford, he's a friend of mine. Like even I learned from him. Mm-hmm. Um, yeah. I mean, I would say those are like my biggest influences. Yeah. No, it's, and, uh, it shows new game. You really seem to have, I was watching some of your, uh, earlier matches, uh, from this last couple of years on YouTube today. I found several, uh, several, uh, interesting matches.

[00:50:01] One with you and Jacob Barnett playing, uh, uh, Isabel Steli and, uh, Sullivan Rue. I believe that was last year. Yes, that was last year at Worlds. It was, yeah, in the winner's bracket, the winner was going to play Tommy Yor. Yeah. We went five games with them. That was a good match. You did a nice job on Sullivan. I mean, she, she, she's going to dominate anyway, but you did a nice job on her, uh, she likes that, that straight push. She just looks at the straight hole.

[00:50:29] And I kept saying to myself, ah, take away the straight, take away the straight. And you were doing it. And, uh, she was getting a little frustrated there at that point. But, um, great, great, really nice playing. Um, I got to say, you know, there was another guy you were playing with. I think his name might've been Luke. Um, but he had a, a kind of a, an open-handed, uh, Euro pin shot. Oh, Nico. Nico. Serena. Nico. Yes. Nico. Really interesting player.

[00:51:00] Yeah. He's, uh, he's a Slovakian. Okay. He's actually moved back to Europe right now, but yeah, he lived, uh, I can't remember like somewhere up in the Northwest. Uh, so he would be, you know, be in Portland, Vancouver, like those tournaments. Um, yeah. It shoots like a, a, a pull pin. Yes. So that sort of thing is very, is very common. If you go to Europe, there's people who shoot like pull pins. There's people who shoot pins like a push shot. There's people who shoot snake from a pull position and people who shoot snake from a push position. Yeah.

[00:51:29] You know, like all the way across the net, you see all kinds of stuff, uh, more variety out there than you see here. Um, in terms of shots. Yeah. He's wild out there. He set it up as a pin on the, the, the push side, all the way to the push side and then come across the face of the net and, and find the hole. Um, I think you guys are playing at the, the match that I watched, uh, Shropples, the Shropples. Um, yes. Brainy and Jerry. Yes. Brainy and Jerry. Yeah. The Shropples.

[00:51:57] Uh, tough, tough match for sure. Uh, but, um, yeah, I was, uh, Nico was really, really interesting to watch the way he set up the shot. Yeah, no, it's, it's, it's, it's, it seems unique for us here, but like I said, if you go to Europe, there's all kinds with pin shots, uh, because it's Europe is a tournament is a common where there's a heavy tradition of pin shots. Mm-hmm.

[00:52:26] You know, coming from Germany, coming from France. So, um, you, you really see a lot more of that there than you do here. And that's why, you know, I mean, Nico's European and that's kind of why he shoots it. Makes sense. Yeah. Makes sense. I had a feeling that, that, that certainly was his origin and just, you know, it's, it's so much, uh, so entertaining to watch the, the, the change, the differences between that and, and let's say a Tommy Yor, who we, we all know is just fast and fierce. And does it the same way every time.

[00:52:55] He doesn't seem to have, he doesn't seem to play around much. Yeah, no, I mean, Tommy, you're trying to figure out how to deal with Tommy Yor and Tony Spreedman are probably two of my top priorities right now. Like I'm watching a lot of Tony play. Um, yeah, I mean, cause this is, I mean, that's the competition, right? And I've been watching a lot of European players. Like I watch football hour, you know, for hours every day at this point. Okay.

[00:53:21] Uh, just looking at the competition, trying to see the other players and, um, just get as much information as I can. How do you feel about a championship format in the U S? I think that all the things that people say they like about championship format are actually things that they like about single elimination. Um, my personal opinion is that there's nothing really great about seeing people play on when there's no chance to finish first. Right.

[00:53:49] Um, if you're going to put extra matches, put them at the beginning as qualifying matches. Um, I do agree that single elimination is great. It's the way it should be. Um, that's how most other sports are. You know, there's just one final and one semifinal. If, if, if you lose too bad, uh, come back next time, you know, uh, you know, I understand that people pay a lot to go to tournaments and that's part of the problem. Um, and that's why I think if there's going to be qualifying matches, put them at the beginning where they matter.

[00:54:18] And maybe, you know, like the, here are the matches that determine whether you get to play for first or not. So at least the matter then, and your elimination matters too. You don't, you don't get this sad spectacle of, you know, like Rob Ash, after shooting a tic-tac against Tony shooting a pull kick. Like, cause they can't finish first anymore, you know, uh, I think that's, that's not a good look for us. Well, so how do you feel about Ryan changing the format for nationals with the flights?

[00:54:45] I, I think it's interesting and I, I, I don't, I, you know, I hope, I hope it works out. Like, honestly, I, I don't wish anyone, you know, like it's foosball. I want everyone to succeed. Anyone who's doing anything with foosball to succeed. I hope it works. It's, it's unusual. Um, I would have preferred like in Europe, you, if you go to the Bonzini worlds or any world series, you get four qualifying matches of two out of three. And if you win two or more, you're in the A bracket.

[00:55:13] If you can only get one out of four wins, maybe you don't belong in the A bracket, right? Right. But those are matches, not individual games to seven. They're matches of two out of three. You know, I, I, I really think that that's the way to go, but I'm, I'm interested to see what's going on. I'm interested to see how people respond to what Ryan did. Maybe it will be good. Maybe it'll be great. And people love it. I'm going to see, I can't be at nationals because it's in that window for me, but I hope, I hope it succeeds.

[00:55:42] I'm looking forward to trying it out. I think, uh, you know, like you said, the championship format, single elimination, I, I enjoy, um, not playing at two in the morning, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm early to bed. Anyway, I'm an early riser. I'm up at five every day. So for me playing at two is not conducive to success.

[00:56:06] Um, so when we're, when we're done at nine or 10, I'm good. I'm happy. And I usually just go to my room and take a shower and go to bed and get ready for the next day. So if, if we can get to that point where, and again, I know people like to hang out and maybe, you know, party a little bit, have a cocktail, whatever. Go out and sign C. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:56:32] Especially, especially in new Orleans or in Nashville or whatever, dude, for me, I'm going back to my room. So it works out, but I, I would love to see foosball get to that point where we're competing for 12 hours, right? We're competing from 11 to 11 and then it's a wrap. Right.

[00:56:53] Um, so, you know, whatever it's going to take to get there, I, I understand Ryan's crunching the numbers and it's, you know, he's approaching it from a business perspective. Um, I mean, dude, I, when I look at like Florida state, I'm, I'm a bracket junkie. I'm a little bit of a bracket nerd and a points nerd. And I love looking at that stuff.

[00:57:14] But when I look somebody's name up and they've played 14 events, it's like, it's your prerogative. It's your money. I get it. I don't know how I play two events and it takes me a week to recover. So it's again, it's different for everybody and I get it, but I don't know how people can do that. I just, I don't understand. Well, like, like eight, nine events for a weekend. I mean, it's, it's a lot of, yeah, it's a lot of play.

[00:57:44] It's a lot of foos, it's a lot of foosball. It's a lot of foosball. So I don't know. I mean, when I was a rookie, I used to love entering, you know, all the events I could enter. But I mean, as you get more competitive, you really have to pick and choose, you know, like, uh, there's so much, you know, tension during the weekend, you know, like you have to, and you want to pick, you want to pick where you want to put your energy. Yeah. I mean, yeah, it's, it's, yeah.

[00:58:12] I mean, getting rest for me is one of the biggest things at a tournament these days. Like, it's like rest and foosball. I only have two things I do at a tournament, right? And I eat really well, get good food, good hydration, all these lessons that you learn, right? Get, get food, water, electrolytes, rest. Yes. Yes. Yep. It's essential. It's essential. It's part of the recipe for success, man. And it's taken me years to really hone this, this thing that works for me.

[00:58:41] And, um, it's unfortunate when, uh, something extracurricular gets in the way or, you know, whatever. Again, I, you know, I'm not, I don't party. I don't drink. I don't, I don't do anything like that. When I go to a foosball tournament, I am there to play foosball. So, you know, I, I want to leave my best stuff on the table. And when I'm done, I, I go to bed. So that's, that's what it is for me. And again, I know it's different for everybody. I don't judge anybody, man. You're spending your money to come do this like I do.

[00:59:11] So you, you go buck wild, but, um, you know, when you're conflicting an event and again, I feel, and this is no disrespect from beginners up. You're here competing like I'm competing, but I feel like there's no, there's no prestige at the top. There's no incentive to move up. Um, and I know, and I know Ryan's changing that he's working on that.

[00:59:37] It's just, um, you know, for a lot of us, we've aspired to be, you know, better players to turn pro or turn master or want to move up where other people have been content. Just, you know, being rookies and playing foosball. Like I said, that's okay. Yeah. It's different for everybody. That's fine. But, um, I feel like sometimes we're, we're penalized for wanting to improve and, and, you

[01:00:05] know, I look, I don't want Ryan's job, man. Ryan's got a hard job right now. He's trying to make everybody happy. So, Todd, do you have a, a, a plan to, to move through, uh, the, the, the, the rankings and become master? Is that, uh, is that your goal? You know, um, around 10 years ago, I wrote five year goals and one of them was to be a master in foosball. It's been nine years since then.

[01:00:34] I'm not a master yet, but I believe I play at a pro level. Yes. I can even at this point be competitive against masters. Uh, like, uh, Jeff Schneider and I took third at Wisconsin. Yes. In open doubles. And I said, a nice run. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. We went five games with Munoz and Mara's. And I think we could have had it. No, we could have, you guys had, you guys had them. You guys had them. You did. Should've got a ref. You had them. Yeah.

[01:01:02] It was like, but you know, it showed me that I can play at this level. And like, one of the things of playing at this level is, and this is like, to me, I think this is one thing that differentiates a pro from a master is like when you get the ball, if you have one chance to put away a master player and you don't, then it's on you. Right. You know, like that's it. You deserve to lose. Right. Cause you're not, Tony is not going to give you a second chance. Right. Tony will bury you. You have to bury them before they bury you.

[01:01:31] If you get one shot, wherever it is on the table, you need to be planning how to get that ball into the net without anyone touching it. Whether it's like a shot from the back or a pass from the back, or you're on the five bar, like that last point, have a plan for it and plan to put it away because you won't get, most masters won't give you two chances to put away a game or a match. Yep. Yeah. There's that, that, uh, that extraordinary chess match that takes place, especially at

[01:02:01] that level with master players who really observe every single thing you're doing and look, and look to exploit every single weakness they can see if they, if they find weakness, they're going to exploit it. And like you say, kill or be killed. Plain and simple. It's not, it's not even just weakness. You could have a habit that's a, that you think is a good habit. That's worked for you at the levels you played at before.

[01:02:28] But if you have any kind of habit at all, someone will find it. Someone good enough will find it and use it against you. You have to be not exploitable. You know, even what you think of as good habits have to be examined to see whether it's always the right time for it, you know? Oh yeah. Yep. Yeah. We think about the, uh, the story we hear a lot. Uh, we talked, you know, Kevin Walker, who is our, our local, uh, uh, master and, uh,

[01:02:57] Oh yeah. I cut my teeth against Kevin Walker for years. Yeah. Right. Um, and he, uh, he was at a, at a, at a world championship and, and he was going up against, you know, the bigs and they, they found a tell on Kevin and it was just a slight, just a slight lifting of his, of his hand on the rod just before he would shoot just a little bit of a change in his, in his grip. And they noticed it and they started talking to each other about it. Did you notice what he's doing? Oh my goodness.

[01:03:27] This is what he's doing. And they, they basically spread that around. So, you know, Ryan and those guys were, were, uh, you know, they're getting wise to him, but then of course he found out they were talking about him and he changed that as, as, as Kevin would do, but he was still a threat at the time. It's just, you know, they were looking at any little thing they could figure out, you know, about his game. And, uh, they did find that one little tell. Yeah.

[01:03:54] Anything that gives you a one goal edge or even anything that you can do to prevent one goal from going in against you, like just anything, like just going after lose balls, you can improve those things. Just that one goal edge is, is sometimes all you'll be able to get. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a, it's a, it's a game of inches or millimeters. If you like. It is.

[01:04:21] Well, the, the better players tend to figure out what you like and not let you have it and then make you try to beat them with your bad stuff, you know? And that's why the goal is to not have bad stuff. So. That would make sense. Yeah. That makes sense. I'm just saying, right. Every look, everybody, everybody has a, like a comfort zone, right. That they just want to be in when they're playing.

[01:04:49] And when you play somebody and they make you uncomfortable, it's very difficult to execute and focus when you're uncomfortable. So you, you have to work on being, being comfortable, like be uncomfortable, be comfortable being uncomfortable. Excuse me. Okay. Okay. So, and, and, and again, when, when you understand that, um, they're going to figure out, well,

[01:05:19] he likes this side more than this side. He likes to push side more than the pull. Or when it's four, four, he's definitely going here or it's a crunch point. He needs it. He's going to go wall. When people start figuring that out about you, you, you really have to start strengthening other parts of your game. So, um, again, uh, I, I see when I'm playing lower rank players right away, I'm just trying to obtain information early.

[01:05:48] So that way later on, I can just exploit the information they've given me. Right. And make them beat me with their bad stuff, which good luck. Right. I, I know, I know you like this, this, and this, and I'm not going to let you have this, this, and this. So tell me what else you have. And a lot of times they don't have something else. So, um, one or two options. Yeah.

[01:06:14] Well, and that's, that's, that's just some of the stuff I've learned. So when you start playing these top guys, you know, it's hard to make them uncomfortable, but if you're able to make them uncomfortable, um, you have a chance. Like Taha said, Tony, you're not going to get two chances against Tony or Tommy or even Brandon, you know, so you really have to take advantage of, of the situation.

[01:06:43] So, um, it's beautiful. That's one of the things I love about foosball. You know, it's, it's, uh, the, the, the mental, the mental warfare, right? Physically, we're all going to achieve a point where this is as good as I'm going to be physically. Right. And then at that point, it's when you have to start developing, you know, your mental game. I mean, you always should be working on your mental game, but, um, I just, I, I was thinking, love it, man. Keeps me up at night. You got to take your geritol.

[01:07:14] Yeah. Never hurts. Pretty soon, Tom. Pretty soon. Yeah. I just, I just applied for my AARP card. Oh, look out. Look out. You'll get some great. I'll tell you, this is great benefits right there. You got lots of magazines, you know, from AARP. Great stuff. Who in the hell reads magazines? Yeah. Yeah. Case in point. You know, AARP. Okay.

[01:07:44] I just look at my phone. I just look at my phone. I need a magazine. Get out of here. Make sure, make sure you don't forget any of those discounts, you know, like this. Five to 10% discounts on the, on the early bird special. There you go. See? Yeah. There you go. Yeah. Worth it. Let's go. Yeah. I use my AARP card to get a discount on Geritol. Perfect. It's perfect. Oof. Man.

[01:08:13] Oh, good Lord. Yeah. So, so Taha, we're, we're hoping to see you sometime soon here in this area. I was wondering, what do you think, um, a lot of talk going on about doing something in the Northeast, like a, like a good size regional tournament, uh, maybe like a, a Can-Am or some sort of, uh, some sort of collaboration between Canada and, uh, and upstate, uh, New York and of Kansas, uh, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire.

[01:08:41] Uh, it just seems like there's enough of a base here to, to do that. What, what do you think? Do you think you'd like to participate in something like that? Yeah. I think anything that, that makes foosball that, uh, you know, lifts up foosball is good. Um, I mean, I remember the days when we used to have New York state tournaments. Yes. Oh yeah. They were good. I used to enjoy going to them and, and, um, they were in Syracuse, right? I guess. Mostly Syracuse and occasionally up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:09:10] And then they moved to Albany for a couple of years, but I think they were still West Goat. Yeah. There was one in 2014. And I met, I mean, I met Maryland, Maryland state too. That was a good tour. Oh yeah. Always good. Yeah. I mean, we have, there, there, there's a good group of players. And of course, you know, you know, Tommy, you're loose here now. It would be great to see a nice tournament in the Northeast, nice big tournament. Yeah. Well, let's, uh, let's see if we can put something together. We keep throwing the ideas out there. Randy's Randy's working on something behind the scenes.

[01:09:38] He's not saying exactly what's going on here. Okay. All right. Looking forward to that. We'll see. Maybe. Always asking for a progress report, but, uh, you know, be a little cagey to keep the, keep the cards close to the vest here. I get that. Yeah. I mean, listen, it's, you know, things are in the works. Nothing's guaranteed. So we're trying to sort it. We're trying to sort it out. So I think the hardest part right now, not just finding a venue and tables, but it, the hardest part is going to be fitting into the schedule because there's just so much

[01:10:08] going on. Well, we got the venue part sorted. We got the date. We're trying to get the, we're trying to get the table sorted. We're trying to put a flyer together. We're just, you know, we're working through, uh, the hard stuff now. So that way we can iron, iron out the small wrinkles and then hopefully get it all out within five to six months before and start really just kind of pushing it and advertising it.

[01:10:38] Cool. So people can make plans to come, but, um, we still have a few things we have to finalize and, um, yeah, hopefully, hopefully in the next month. Cause I think our, I think our goal was to, um, have everything finalized and then start advertising in June. So, um, but we got to wait and see 2025, 2026, 2025.

[01:11:10] 2026, 2027, 2028. We, we don't want this to be a one-off. Okay. We, we'd really, we'd really love to collaborate with the New Hampshire guys, the Albany guys, the Syracuse. Like we want this to be a Northeast regional thing where everybody has input, everybody gets involved. And we just kind of grow this into something big for the Northeast. So, I mean, the Northeast, look, I, you know, that's, that's where I'm from.

[01:11:37] Um, and, uh, some of the best players in the country, some of the best players in the world are from the Northeast. Um, and, uh, it, they deserve to have good foosball. You know, there should be, there should be good tournaments in the Northeast. And I feel like, um, it's, it's, it's been sorely lacking. I mean, Canada, you, you, you guys always do a great job, man. You guys are on it. Um, and I know the scenes locally, like Albany, you guys do your thing and New Hampshire does their thing.

[01:12:07] And my guys are doing their thing. I feel like if we could all just collaborate, like, you know, Matt's up in, in, uh, Northern New York. And, but if we could just get everybody to kind of pull resources and pull together, we could really do something pretty big. Yeah. I mean, the, the talent is here, you know, those, uh, all those people you mentioned, of course, they're all, uh, capable of doing this individually. But as a group, I think we could do something pretty, pretty spectacular. No question. Yeah. Yeah. So like I said, we're, we're getting it all ironed out. So, yeah.

[01:12:37] And, uh, hopefully we'll have some information here in about a month. Cool. But yeah. Well, maybe something one time. So, so Taha, uh, before we jump off of this thing, tell us, uh, give us the dates, times, everything you got going on for this one. You got coming up. Our Ottawa tournament. Yeah, buddy. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. It starts on the next Friday, May 9th. Uh, it starts off with a DYP.

[01:13:06] We're also running classic doubles, but it's, it's single elimination on the Leon Hart only. Oh. Um, and then also expert double starts at night and then the events continue the next day. It's, you know, like a whole three days. And then, you know, we have rookie doubles that starts on, um, Saturday morning and then open singles and open double starts. We stopped for the hall of fame ceremony at seven on Saturday. And then we pick up after. And that's when I think women's and expert single starts.

[01:13:35] And then, uh, on Sunday, rookie singles and open mixed start. Um, we run a similar format last year. Um, and we got, uh, we, we, we, we tried to space the events so that people of different levels always have something to play. And that's why the rookie events start, uh, you know, later in the weekend. And so, so that there's something for rookies to play as the open events are ending so that you get, uh, the tables are all in use. So, yeah, it's, um, we're excited for this.

[01:14:04] There's people coming from, uh, you know, a lot of people coming from Quebec. Cool. Uh, some people from Toronto. A few people are flying from out West. Um, yeah. Yeah. So how many tables altogether? We are going to have 10 tornadoes and one lean heart. Oh, good. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. So you would expect, um, um, 120, 130 players, give or take. No, we don't get anywhere near those. Oh, okay. Uh, okay.

[01:14:33] No, no, uh, no, because it's, no, we mostly draw from a crowd just within Canada. So, uh, like the, we, we, we, we typically get around 60 players. Oh, gotcha. Okay. Yeah. The competition is tight. Like, um, Toronto, Toronto has a big player base, but they're at a point right now where a lot of their older players, like new Olavo, Mario and Nutzi, like they don't travel so much anymore. And there's a crop of younger rookies that are coming up and they're the guys who come out.

[01:15:03] And then there's, you know, there's a few other players who are looking to get tournament experience. But, um, yeah, no, we, we top out around 60 players. Um, okay. We just, yeah, we just, yeah. And this is all happening at tailgaters. I understand. Yeah. It's a really big pool hall and we get like the back section of it for our tables. Oh, cool. It's pretty, it's a good setup. And, uh, what's, how's the food there by the way?

[01:15:29] Well, I, I am not a huge fan, unfortunately, but the local players do seem to enjoy it, but I feel like a lot of it involves chicken fingers. Oh, okay. Okay. But, uh, but there is a, there's a wrap. I really, I like to get on tournament weekends. That's kind of my little, my little treat there. Gotcha. Gotcha. So they do have one really good wrap on the menu. And then, um, the rest of it seems to be mostly, uh, chicken fingers and wings and that sort of thing. Two things.

[01:15:59] One, chickens don't have fingers. Two, you can't say they have this wrap that I like and then not tell us what kind of wrap it is. Oh, it's, it's like, um, it's a wrap that it's, it's got like chicken breast and it's got like a, like a chipotle mayo and bacon tomato. And they, they put it in like a non bread type of non bread. Yeah. It's pretty good. Yeah.

[01:16:28] You had me, you had me a bacon. No, dude. I love, I love chicken fingers. I love chicken fingers. I do. I just, I don't understand why they call them chicken fingers. Chickens don't have fingers, but I digress anyway. All right. Tenders, tenders, chicken tenders. There you go. It's the tender part of the chicken and it's a deep fried typically. Typically. Delicious. I love it. Yummy. Honey mustard. Go. Yeah, I know.

[01:16:57] But after eating that for a whole weekend, you might be like, you know, you have something else. Is there anything else? Like it's, it's salad with the, with the chicken or it's the chicken on its own or it's in a, or it's in a, whatever, it's in a pasta or a taco bowl. Yeah. It's all the same chickens. Yeah. Still chicken. Chicken fried chicken. Chicken fried chicken. Tastes like chicken. Oh, delicious. Just a, just a forewarning.

[01:17:20] It's not settled yet, but there may be another smash down August, the weekend of August 16th or 17th. I'm sorry. Saturday, August 17th is, is penciled in. But again, it's hard to shoehorn that stuff in. We tried to get something in a couple of weeks before tornado worlds, but we'll have more details coming up about that. Um, before we say good night, I, Randy, while we've got a witness here, we have to settle up. Yep.

[01:17:51] Yeah. What do I owe you? 20 bucks? We talked about 20 bucks and then you said, let's make it a hundred. Let's make it a hundred. All right. So I owe you a hundred bucks. Well, uh, last week, Todd, just bring it to speed. We had a little side bet about Florida state. And I was, uh, I said, you know, I'm going to go with my, uh, my homeboys. I'm going to go with, uh, with Tommy and, uh, and Sammy, uh, because they're playing open doubles. I thought, you know, they're going to have a pretty good shot at, at, at winning this thing.

[01:18:19] And, uh, sure enough, they pulled it out of the fifth game, uh, against Dylan Marshall and, uh, his partner, Eric Hiltner. So just saying, you know, take your time. I got nowhere to go. I got nowhere to go. Sorry, Tom. I got nowhere to go. You think Dylan Marshall over Tommy or, I don't know if I, if I would have. No, no, I took, no, I took, I took my boy Folsom and Jacob Alcos. Yeah.

[01:18:48] Jacob and Chris. Oh. Which is also a pretty darn good combination. Didn't they get, when they got third or did they get. Well, they, they played for King seat against Tommy and Sam. Gotcha. So, and then, uh, they lost, they were up in the fifth and Jacob couldn't close it out. And then Dylan and Eric got like three or four breaks or something. Oh, okay. They ended up, they ended up, they ended up pulling it out in the fifth. So, um, yeah, that's fine. 20 bucks. I'm a man. 20 bucks.

[01:19:18] I'm a man of my word, Tom. When I see you, I'll, I'll pay you. Okay. All right. That's not a problem. 2026. Yeah. Sometime, sometime in the near future. 2026. 2026. Ah, this guy. Yeah. You know, I'm not, I'm not a gambler, but you know, I went for the, for the, for the even money on this one. He just took the sure thing is what he did. That's pretty much it. Tom's not dumb. Yeah. Tom's not dumb. Hey, you know, I'm just saying, um, when we were in Las Vegas a few weeks ago, of course,

[01:19:47] we found the, uh, the sports betting parlor. I mean, place is massive and it's all TV screens and you can sit in these, these little, uh, compartments or booths, I guess you could call them, uh, and, and bet on any sport you want. Anything that happens to be, you know, what you can pet, you know, bet on whatever. And I'm thinking, man, why, why isn't the foosball, you know, up there? Cause that was, you know, that would have been cool, but it wasn't. Yeah. Maybe next time. Yeah. Maybe next time. Yeah. Yeah. It'd be good to see that happen.

[01:20:16] Yeah. Just, just, just for the fun of it. Um, you know, what's 20 bucks between a couple of couple of chums anyway. But anyway, uh, that's listen, that's, that's, that's baseline. If you knew what really went on in that room. Oh, I know. 20 bucks is baseline, buddy. That's nothing. So now I'm talking about the foosball room. Who do you pick for worlds this year? Like the tornado championships or someone else. Tony's on a tear.

[01:20:47] Yeah. Well, who's playing with who I gotta, I gotta see the teams. I gotta see the matchups. Right. Oh yeah. That's right. Right. I mean, if it's Morris and, uh, sprayed him in, it's not even money, but it's pretty close. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if they're playing. Right. Who's Tommy playing with? I would say it's probably going to be Eric, uh, just because Eric and he seem to have, uh, you know, they had the, they're really solid. They're really tough, tough. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they, they won, they won the kickoff.

[01:21:17] They, they bonered at the hall of fame, but, uh, Eric blocks Tony really well. Uh, yes. Is Ryan playing worlds? That's, that's a question that I would want to know. Um, if Tommy and Ryan are playing, then that changes everything. I don't know, Tony, I don't know who Tony could play with that would make it.

[01:21:45] Um, I mean, Tony and any other masters, you know, is he's got a chance, but Tommy and Ryan are, I think the favorites at that point. Yeah. Yeah. Especially if, if, uh, Ryan's in it, if he's in it, the gas factor. Oh, I think he's in it, man. I think he's pretty itchy right now. Yeah. He's, he's, he's running these things watching and I think he's wishing he could be playing. So I think he's got, I think he's got a little itch in him.

[01:22:14] And, um, but again, I don't know if he's going to play, so we've got to wait and see. Time will tell. We'll start making book on, uh, on the side here. See what happens. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Double or nothing. There we go. Double or nothing. Uh, you, yeah. Anyway. All right. I gotta go to, I gotta go to bed. I'm done with you guys. Well, Tom, thank you so much for joining us tonight. We really appreciate it.

[01:22:44] Um, a shout out to Mario for, uh, for, for getting all together tonight. Uh, Mario has been, uh, really instrumental in Ottawa and you guys, uh, really getting some great streaming. By the way, I should have asked you what's, uh, what's the streaming situation for, uh, for the hall of fame. Are you doing, uh, is it going to be broadcast? Yes. It's going to be streaming on YouTube. Um, yeah. Mario does the streaming and he's got some help this time. Uh, so yeah, that's going to be good. Um, I'm just going to give my own shout out to the whole Ottawa crowd.

[01:23:11] Everyone at OFA, um, no, like, uh, they, we have a really good group of people and they help out. Like our, our tournaments are like a community effort. People help prep the tables. Other people transport the tables. Um, you know, it's, it's really, uh, it's nice to see as, see that happen. It's kind of similar, like the way the Quebec guys are, everyone pitches in. That's nice. So shout out to OFA. Absolutely. And, uh, best, best of luck and congratulations to the hall of fame inductees.

[01:23:40] Uh, really, really terrific. So, um, quite an honor. Um, anyway, if, if there's any time you want to come back in and just hang out with us, man, you're more than welcome. Uh, especially when we start making book on stuff, you can come in and we'll, we'll, we'll give you the, the even odds if you'd like them. So. All right. All right. So, uh, it seems like there's easy money to be made. Whatever, bro. Listen, listen, making it's one thing.

[01:24:09] And collecting it's another. So. Are you betting on the maple leaves, uh, in the cup for this year? No, no, no, I'm not. I'm not that stupid. No. I'm not that dumb. No, no, no. Anyway. Oh. Taha, thanks. Thanks. Thanks for coming on, bro. I hope the tournament goes good. Okay. No, thanks. Thanks. Thanks for having me. Yeah, you bet. Yeah, man. I'll see. I'll see you soon. And our best to everybody there in Ottawa. And of course, uh, we'll, uh, we'll have you back here sometime in the very near future.

[01:24:36] But, uh, once again, uh, Taha from, uh, from Ottawa, Canada, of course, talking about the Hall of Fame, the Hall of Fame Open coming up this next weekend at Tailgaters. Looking forward to that and hearing more about it, of course. But, uh, thanks for tuning in on Twitch TV tonight. Uh, we do have, uh, more coming up very soon. We'll have some more information about the ITSF Dallas, uh, Dallas, uh, situation. We're going to have some folks on for that very soon. But in the meantime, uh, stick around because we have the, the Foos Talk Live Tournament

[01:25:05] 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. The Canadian Foosball Tour presents the Canadian Hall of Fame Open 2025. May 9th through the 11th at Tailgaters in Ottawa, Canada. It's the 2025 Boise Bash.

[01:25:32] May 16th through the 18th at Q Billiards in Boise, Idaho. 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 Championships, June 5th through the 8th at Poplar Creek Bowl, Hoffman Estates, Illinois.

[01:25:59] The ITSF presents the World Cup and World Championships 2025. June 23rd through the 29th, Saragossa, Spain. The World Foosball Tour presents the 2025 National Championships, July 10th through the 13th at the Millennium Maxwell House Hotel, Nashville, Tennessee. South Florida Foosball Club presents the 2025 Beachtown Beatdown, July 25th through the 27th.

[01:26:28] Lilo's in Lake Worth Beach, Florida. It's the Toronto Foosball Club Summer Epic 2025, August 1st through the 4th at the Toronto Foosball Club, Toronto, Canada. Canada Foosball presents the 2025 Vancouver Island Foosball Championships, August 22nd through the 24th at Courtenay Legion, Courtenay, British Columbia.

[01:26:52] The World Foosball Tour presents the 2025 Tornado World Championship Foosball Tournament, August 27th through September 1st at the Hyatt Regency, New Orleans, Louisiana. The 2025 Great Lakes Classic is now scheduled for October 2nd through the 5th at the Hilton Garden Inn, Lansing, Michigan.

[01:27:14] The 2025 Louisiana State Foosball Championship, all set for December 4th through the 7th at the Clarion Hotel, Kenner, New Orleans, Louisiana. 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.

[01:27:42] Foos Talk Live is a product of Foosball Radio. With gratitude, we recognize our Foosball Radio Patreons. Our Foos Talk Live sponsor, original-leonhart-usa.com. Tune in again next week for another episode of Foos Talk Live. In the meantime, we'll see you foosin'.