Randy Raposo gives his perspective on what you should be doing and thinking to move up the foosball ranks. We also catch up on new annoucements from the World Foosball Tour-including leagues!
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[00:01:52] Visit www.original-leonhardt-usa.com and use promo code FoosTalk to save 10% off your purchase price. And here we are, returning live once again of Foos Talk Live, episode number 257. Hey there. I'm Tom Robinson and happy Father's Day. It's one of those rare moments where I get to celebrate with my cats. Yeah, I'm a cat dad.
[00:02:20] But regardless, I hope that your dad is cool enough to play foosball with you today, or at least something to that effect. Regardless, you can listen to the podcast and, of course, watch on Twitch TV. And thank you for tuning in, by the way. And, of course, if you're going to talk about foosball, this amazing sport, it always pays when you've got somebody else by your side who wants to talk about foosball, too, and loves the sport just as much, which would be Randy Raposo from the great state of Alabama. Greetings, Randy.
[00:02:49] Hey, Tom, I always want to be by your side. I see. I love the sentimentality of that, you know? Yeah, buddy. Yeah. We're hanging. We're just foosball buds just doing our thing. It's been a while since it's just been you and me. Yeah. Looking forward to tonight. We're going to have some fun. I hope you had a happy Father's Day. My dog put together a little basket for me, you know, with her little paws, no thumbs. Wrote me a nice little card.
[00:03:18] And my wife swore the dog did it herself. Yeah. I was thankful. She's a good girl. But, yeah, happy Father's Day to you, all the dads out there, all the foos dads. The foos dads. Even if you don't have any children but you've birthed players, we thank you. And, yeah, I see my boy Chase. Matt Contois. These guys are already in the chat. It's going to be good tonight. Shout out to Eddie. Eddie Mubarak.
[00:03:47] I've been talking to Eddie. I love Ed. Ed's chiming. He's listening tonight. He said he's going to try to get some oysters. Yeah. So, yeah, Tom, I've had this thing that I've been wanting to talk about that I feel maybe just needs a little bit of transparency just added to it for players that maybe don't really understand. Maybe they do. Maybe, I don't know, maybe it's just something that we can, you know, have a discussion about. But. Well, I have questions for you.
[00:04:17] So, because. Yeah. Because we're going to talk about, okay, you're playing the tour and you're stuck in rookies. Yeah. And how do you move up? Or you're stuck in amateurs or experts. What? Dang. What do you do? Okay. Before we dive into that, just a quick aside here. Earlier today, I was watching Ryan Moore from World Foosball Tour giving us a live update on Facebook. And if you watch that, you probably heard lots of details, lots of things talking about nationals and, of course, worlds coming up.
[00:04:47] World Championships is now the official name, by the way. Got to get that straight. World Championships in New Orleans. Are you going to Nashville, by the way? Come on, Tom. It's three. It's three. Tom. I could walk there. We could leave at the same time. I could walk. You could drive. And I'd still beat you there. There you go. So, yeah. I'll be there for sure. Okay. And that's going to be exciting. There's the lucky doubles, which... Can't wait. Not that lucky, but I can't wait.
[00:05:17] Yeah, right. You could win an extra two grand if you do well. Somebody's gonna. Oh, yeah. No doubt. The other thing that I think was really thrilling is because we kind of... The last time we had Ryan on recently, I kept harping on him like, dude, what about the leagues? What about the leagues? What about the leagues? So now he's actually come out with... They have a name, and I think it's a site too, called the National Foosball League. World Foosball Tour National Foosball League.
[00:05:46] And we are ready to rock and roll that. I mean, it's going to include, obviously, the clubs that exist already across the country. And he also wants to structure it so it encourages new players to get involved. And so even if those new players have no interest in touring, they'll still be included in the rankings and the point system, that kind of thing. So whenever they play in their local quote-unquote league, they'll be noted.
[00:06:14] You know, that's been missing from the sport for, well, forever. Yeah. So... Yeah. I am a product of FIFA League, Tom. You are? Okay. I love FIFA League. And it was something every week. It was the night of the week. It was something to look forward to. It was building camaraderie and competition and structure and teaching players that maybe... Are used to playing a bar-style game.
[00:06:42] How to play more of a tournament-style game, even though they don't tour. And I think what Ryan's doing with adding this natural... Excuse me. National database. Yep. I think it's awesome because a lot of guys at that level that maybe don't have the ability to tour want to know, hey, you know, points. Yeah. Whatever. Where do I stand? But, you know, and another thing that it's really going to do that I think is phenomenal is it's going to eliminate sandbagging. Yeah. For all those guys that play locals and do well and they play high-rank... Like the guys in Tampa.
[00:07:12] There are a lot of really good guys in Tampa that play Masters on a weekly basis that don't tour. Same thing in Dallas. Same thing in Colorado. Yep. If these guys decide one day to come out and nobody knows who they are except they're locals, they're going to be beginners. That's not fair. Right. They're not beginners. Right. So I think it's all a net positive, Tom. This will balance things out in a great way. Plus, it'll incentivize those who do tour to certainly get involved with their club.
[00:07:40] And then the Nationals is going to be the location in which they do like the final big showdown between all the different clubs. The fist fight. The fist fight. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, let's go. So you can get your team together, your comrades, and head to Nationals and show them down. Yeah. I can't wait. Our team's going to be... Let's see. Kevin Walker. Shut up, Tom. Shut up, Tom. I already know what you're going to say.
[00:08:10] Shut up, Tom. Shut up, Tom. Shut up, Tom. Yeah. Tommy Yor, Sam Dijon, Kevin Walker, and me. Thank you. Thank you. Me, Tom Robinson. Oh, yeah. Well, you know, you got to have a boat anchor. What can I tell you? You know, you got to have an anchor. No, dude. That's a very consistent team, Tom. Very solid. I think it'll be interesting. But it'll also...
[00:08:37] Now, Ryan also mentioned that, you know, if you get new players involved in your scene and they do show up as part of, you know, the team members, they go to Nationals. Those are new people on the tour. And they're paying good money. And he said that there'd be some profit sharing involved in that for the local players. Oh, let's go. Right? Let's go. Right? See, this is what I mean. Okay? Anybody...
[00:09:02] Look, anybody listening, if you have somebody who's maybe on the fence or they don't like Ryan or what he's doing, all you have to do, right? Let's just take the personal whatever out of it. Just step back and look at what's happening. Yes. You can't argue with what this man is doing. Like, he is putting himself out there, dude. He is really trying to grow this thing in a way that's never been done before.
[00:09:30] And even if you don't like it, you have to appreciate it. Oh, are you kidding? I mean, he's actually single-handedly trying to make it better for the players. That's his goal. He's, you know, yeah, of course, you can't do something without, you know, making some money back. But at the same time, he really wants to focus on making sure that the sport grows. And one of the ways you do that. But, Tom, he should be...
[00:09:56] Look, again, anybody who's promoting foosball is a labor of love. Yep. Right? That's... Like, I've said this before on the show. I've told this to people. Tom, you know, I'm really not too shy. I kind of say what's on my mind. Okay? People... Look, if you're a foosball player, you go play your local. And you are, for lack of a better term, a dickhead. Right? Yeah. Don't do that. Right? Somebody spent money to get those tables. Somebody took time to clean those tables.
[00:10:26] Somebody took time to maintain those tables. Somebody is taking money, drawing it up, running charts. And then they're not supposed to be compensated. Time is money. Yeah. All for you to have a place to go play foosball. Go figure. So, we have to... We really have to change our approach and our perspective when it comes to these locals and our promoters. And just... Like, again, if you've got no skin in the game, you can't talk, dude. Go buy some tables and run your own thing. Sure. If you think it's that easy. Yeah. Go for it.
[00:10:54] So, we really need to start appreciating our promoters and understanding that it's okay if they make money off of foosball, dude. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's okay. Yeah. It's okay. Right? So, look, I have no problem if they want to charge more, if they want to make more, whatever. Look, if you're giving me an opportunity to play a game that I love, a sport that I love, then I have no problem compensating you for that. Sure. That's the whole idea. That's the whole point.
[00:11:20] It's great that people volunteer to help out and do the things that need to be done, especially just your average regional tournament when you've got just a day-long tournament and you've got people who really want to help support and that kind of thing. If they're not getting compensated necessarily, I guess it's okay for some. But wouldn't it be nice, though, to have an organization like, well, like World Foosball
[00:11:45] Tour saying, hey, if we can in any way compensate you for what you're doing and then be able to spread the wealth among the people that are really doing the most to help you do this thing, why not? Why wouldn't you do that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. We're foosball players, number one. And we love the game. We want to play it as much as we possibly can. But sometimes there's a cost.
[00:12:11] You know, it does take blood, sweat, and tears, as you know, to do it right and to make it happen consistently and to build that scene. And there's no guarantees, man. You know? There's always a cost. Nothing's free, Tom. Yep. There's always a cost, right? So, you know, over the 20 plus years that I've been doing this, I've met hundreds, if not thousands of people. And, you know, everybody has their own reason why they play.
[00:12:40] The majority of people is just because they love foosball, right? Right. But every once in a while, you encounter somebody who's like, you know, starts talking about the money. Yeah. There's this glossy look on people's faces like, oh, what? Oh. Okay. Yeah. This is not that. And this is the thing. Hopefully, I mean, dude, fingers crossed. Hopefully, it gets to that, right? That would be outstanding. Okay.
[00:13:09] Even just now, what Ryan's doing, right? The top 10 combined men and women. Yep. Next year, sponsored, right? Yes. That is already more than anything. And again, this is not a knock on any past promoters. I'm just saying, right? To be at the top and not have some type of, you know, something.
[00:13:34] I mean, this should motivate everybody from 11 down to want to get in that top 10, right? It's all about incentives. And like I said, I really feel like Ryan is pushing people to, well, he's pushing foosball to grow, but he's pushing the players to improve. Yep. And that, I mean. You've got to have a target, right? If you're going to, and we're going to talk about this a lot tonight. If you've got a target, you want to get to that target. How do you get to that target? And of course, motivating people to try harder to get to that target.
[00:14:04] Yeah. That's huge. And it motivates from the bottom up instead of the top down, you know. It's always been, it's always been backward. Like for a long time, it's been backwards, right? And again, this is not, it's look, Mary kept foosball alive. We all. No doubt. You know, some, some people may be like Mary kept foosball alive, but there were things that she did that were probably counterintuitive to, to the progress of foosball. At times. But it's sustained foosball. It's sustained it. Right.
[00:14:34] And now what Ryan's doing is he's kind of flipping all that, which is, you know, from a player perspective, it's wonderful because now it really feels like it's about the players. It is about it. Dude, $155,000 worlds, 20 grand for open doubles, paying out the 17th through 24th. Dude, pro doubles is, pro doubles is three grand, Tom. Wow. That's a lot of money. Wow. Yeah, man. I mean, the money is going deep. It's allocated.
[00:15:02] You know, it's allocated really well. You know, like I said, from a player's perspective, you can't complain. And the fact that like Ryan's listening to the players, right? Hey, man, we stood around too much at the kickoff. We stood around too much in Vegas. Okay. We're going to try this at nationals. It's like, dude, like I said, if you're a foosball player right now and you're only trying to see the negative, you got a problem, dude. Yeah. This is you. This is not a foosball problem. This is a you problem. Yeah.
[00:15:30] So, and for nationals, by the way, if you're not aware, there's going to be this new system called the A flight and the B flight. So you're in the A flight, you pay your fee. And if you can win three matches in a row, you make it to the semifinals automatically. Three, but you have to win three. And buys count. So if you get a buy in the first round, that's a win. Yep. Second round, third round, you win. Now you're in the finals. Yep. Great. So, but here's the thing.
[00:15:58] If you don't, if you get, if you only win two out of the three or one out of the three, then you have to, then you have the option of going into the B flight. You can, you can pay another fee, get into the B flight and it starts all over again. And again, if you win three in a row, three, three matches in the B flight, you're also in that, that final, final matchup. But Ryan also did say, right. Because, you know, foosball players are always looking for an advantage.
[00:16:27] There are going to be people out there that are going to say, you know what? I'm going to let the A flight play out. Let all those good players work their way into that final bracket and then make it a little bit easier for myself in the B bracket. Right. Right. But, but you got to pay double. Yep. So yeah, you want to be sneaky or maybe you're not even sneaky. Let's just say your flight didn't get in on time and you can only pay, play the B bracket. Yep. Sorry, bud.
[00:16:56] You still got to pay double. Yep. Right. Also, this is another thing that I think is phenomenal, right? Let's say you're playing with somebody at this tournament that you've never played with. Yep. You've decided to play an event. You go play a flight, come to find out you guys really don't gel. There's no. Yes. You're just not feeling it. Okay. Hey, you know what? Maybe for the B flight, we go in another direction and you go find another partner. Or you find, or somebody says to you, hey, listen, my partner's just bailing.
[00:17:26] He just doesn't want to play. Correct. And you can say, well, geez, you know, my partner did the same thing. Let's team it up and try the B flight. Let's hit the B flight. Yep. Yeah. So there's, I mean, like I said, and not even just that, it's the fact that everything is on a schedule. So you know when you're going to play. Yep. There's not going to be, you're not going to be chained to the room anymore. If you want to play all day, if you want to play every event within the boundaries of what the WFT is allowing you to play. Sure. Go buck wild. Right. Go for it.
[00:17:55] Like me, I'm playing two events, Tom. I'm playing pro doubles. I'm playing open doubles. So I know this is what I'm going to play. This is what I'm going to do. And then I can, if I want to go downtown, which I don't, but if I want to go eat, I can. If I want to go to my room and sit down, I can. I'm going to have my dog with me. So if I want to take my dog for a walk, I can take my dog, whatever. Right. It's not, we're not going to be confined to the room. You're not bound. Yeah. Yeah. Correct.
[00:18:23] So Ryan is really making moves to try and just improve the experience for the player. Yeah. And I think, dude, I just think it's awesome. He had this great point. He said, you know, I've done, I've got businesses, I've done businesses. And he, and he said, you know, like his, like his, uh, his, uh, his marijuana business. He said that, um, if, uh, if a customer comes into my store after they've heard my advertising, that's great. I've done my job. But if they come in there and they, they find something objectionable or something,
[00:18:53] they just, they find the experience on not so great. They're not coming back. Yeah. So he's using that same idea now with, with foosball tournaments. If you're not having a great time, it's unlikely you're going to find time to come back. Yeah. He doesn't, he doesn't want to turn people off to the tournament experience. He wants to turn people on, which is, you know, ideal, ideal to grow the sport. So, and now he's taking it to the grassroots level with the league system.
[00:19:22] And, uh, I'm Tom, I'm just excited to support this guy, man. How can you not get behind this guy? Yeah. Right. I mean, that's all I'm saying. Uh, Matt Contoy tells, uh, is telling you that, uh, Tony said she will watch your dog for you when you're at the tournament. Thank you, Matt. I appreciate that. Uh, but if anything, cookie will watch Tony. So, yeah. Hmm. Interesting idea. But, uh, no, it's, it's, uh, it's, it's, it's exciting.
[00:19:49] I think that this, this is about time this kind of innovation is introduced, whether it fails or it works or whatever the case, you got to do it. You got to try it. Uh, flight system. Now it's, it's not soon enough necessarily to implement it for the world championship. So we get that, right? So it's only for the nationals this time and world championship is going to be championship chip format for everything, I believe above pro pro pro pro and up. And then everything expert down is, is a standard double elimination.
[00:20:17] So yeah, because, because nationals was so close to worlds and a flyer for worlds was coming out. This is a test run for 2026. So depending, depending on if the players like it or if they don't, we'll determine on Ryan, you know, what direction Ryan's going to take the tour in 26. Yeah. I think, I think the players, I think it's going to be a hit man, but we got to play and see. We got to play and see. Yep. Yep. That's.
[00:20:43] And here's the other, the other thing that he also wanted to talk about today was, was Valoro, which is the new sponsor. Yeah. Valoros. Is there an international company? Uh, they deal in gold. Yeah. So they're like. Yeah. Sponsor. Big global sponsor. Yeah. Oh, okay. Now we're talking. Uh, I was trying to set Ryan up. I had a local Bob's lawn service.
[00:21:11] They wanted a sponsor, but I was like Valoro or Bob's lawn. And it was like, you get a balance. Global, you know, yeah. Global gold company or local lawn care. Flip a, flip a gold coin. See what comes up. I don't know. We, we flipped a Billy Tony and did you? Yeah. Yeah. You, uh, you flip, was it, did it come up Tony or did it, did it come up Billy? Yeah. That's, that's going to be a mystery, Tom. So all you know is Valoro one.
[00:21:41] Yeah. They just, you know, it's just one of those things. But again, to not, to go from like, uh, maybe this energy drink company to, oh, a global gold distributor. I guess a gold financial institute of some sort. I mean, I've read a little of the prospectus and it's like, okay, these guys are not messing around. Yeah. They have, um, a little bit of, what are they called? Scratch? Yeah. Scratch. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:22:11] Yeah. Well, you put it in a wad and then you put a fazool on the outside and you put it in your pocket and yeah. So yeah, it's never, yeah. Yeah. So anyway, it's a good time, but dude, I'm so, I'm just saying Tom, this thing, this thing's only like, it's like. Yeah. It's only, it's only going up Tom. So it's a, you get on board and you stay on board until you feel like you're, you can't handle it, but you know what? At least we're on board. At least we're doing it. Um, I'm, I'm, I'm here for the ride, Tom. Yeah. Ditto. I'm here for the ride.
[00:22:41] Ditto. So it's all good stuff, man. It's all good stuff. You know, I'm, I'm also curious to see how, how things evolve over the next year or so when it comes to, you know, if there's any adjustment to the point system, this kind of thing. And I think if there's anything, it might be a minor change here and there. And of course they have already done some adjustments when it comes to bumping people up or bumping people down. But I think this, this kind of leads us into the, the reason we're getting together tonight
[00:23:06] really is to talk about, okay, you're a rookie, you're an amateur, you're an expert, but you don't want to, you don't want to stay, you don't be like me, 66 years old and a rookie. So what do you do? How do you do that? Okay. We're turning to you. Let's talk about, let's talk about points a little bit. Because I think, I think a lot of players really don't have an understanding of how
[00:23:36] points are gained and lost. Right. And maybe you do, maybe you're just kind of winging it from tournament to tournament. I'm just going to tell the listeners what I do, what I've done, the way I've approached it. And it's different for everybody. Right. Mm-hmm. But, but at the base of what I'm talking about, right. You at least got to be able to play foosball. Okay. Well, there's that. So, okay.
[00:24:05] So, you know, there's, there are 30 year rookies that show up and have a good time. And again, this, this like foosball, I say it all the time. Tom, foosball is different for everybody. Right. But if you are, if you are really looking to move up, to advance, to become better, right. There's a few things you can do that are going to be so beneficial and make such a difference. Right. So like other than playing better. Well, play. So see, it's not okay. Playing better, but how do you play better?
[00:24:35] Like what, what takes you from where you are to where you could be. Okay. So, so one thing that made a difference for me, and this is something I've always done, but then I kind of took it to another level. But one thing I've always done is I've always chased better players. Okay. So if you're a rookie amateur, whatever, right. Iron sharpens iron. Right. I tell them, I tell local guys, you're only as good as your weakest player. Right. Right. We should always be building each other up, trying to help each other improve. Right.
[00:25:05] For years, it was one guy was at the top of the pecking order in a local group. He beat on everybody. He never shared information. And it was what it was where now I feel like that's kind of shifted to players are really starting to share more. They're trying to build their group up, help their group improve. And that's what we really want in foosball, because if you get better, I'm going to get better. Right. You're going to improve. It's going to make it tougher for me. I have to improve and so on and so forth. Right.
[00:25:33] So when it comes to touring and improving and gaining points. Right. I I'm pretty sure that I at the rookie level, you can't lose points. Not sure. At the end, I think at the amateur level, you. So that's just the base right there. You cannot go below that. Rookies. You can't go down. You can only go up. Right. Okay. Okay. So so when I really started to understand how the points worked. Right. And it's not a manipulation of the system.
[00:26:03] It's that's you know, this isn't counting cards or using a court using a court bat and baseball. This is this is being calculated as far as my approach to a tournament. Right. Okay. So. I play my events. Right. I know how many points. So before it before an event, what I do. Right. And again, this is my approach.
[00:26:30] I'll I'll go into my player profile and I'll take a screenshot of my player profile, which is my name, my points, the events I'm playing. Right. And then when the event starts, I'll go into the bracket. I'll find myself in the bracket and I'll find my seed. Right. Okay. So at that point, I know in order to not lose any points, I at least need to get to that seed range. Right.
[00:26:57] So for players listening, the way the points work, let's just say you're 25 seed. Right. It's 100 teams. You're a 25 seed. So you're a top 25 seed. You're the top quarter half of the bracket. Okay. You're a 25 seed. In order for you to not lose points, you have to finish 25 through 32. Right. Interesting. If you. Okay.
[00:27:21] If you finish 33 through 48, that next bracket down, that next grouping down, you are now negative eight points. Negative eight. Okay. It's, it's not every space. It's not 25, 26, 27. No, it's from, it's from groupings. Right. So 17 through 24. Okay. 17 through 24, 25 through 32, 33 through 48. And then the same thing in the other direction. Right.
[00:27:49] So if you're the 25 seed, if you finish 25 through 32, you are equal. You're even. You didn't gain points. You didn't lose points. Okay. So now let's just say you finish 17 through 24. You have now moved up one spot and you are positive eight points. Huh? Okay. Okay.
[00:28:12] So for me, I go and I look at my seed and I go, okay, I got to get here in the winners and I'm even. Right. Okay. And then in my brain, I don't focus on that. Right. I focus on playing foosball. I focus on, you know, the matches one ball at a time, try to be in the moment.
[00:28:37] But what I do is I'm cognizant of my placement, right? A lot of people will say, don't look at the brackets. I don't look at the brackets. It's okay to look at the brackets. There's nothing wrong with looking at the brackets, right? It's okay to see where you are. You want to know who you're going to play. You want to go scout the team you're going to play. You want to get information. You want to have a clear view of what's going on. Of course. Yeah. Of course. Right. So I know if I'm the 25 seed, right?
[00:29:06] And 17 through 24 is going to get me at a net positive, right? I'm watching the bracket. When I win that match to get the 17th, I now know I am at a net positive for this event. Right. And my brain, maybe it's just me, but suddenly it's like, I just calm down a little. Ah, okay. Just relax. I breathe. Because now it's like, okay, I'm not losing any points at this event. I'm just going to relax now.
[00:29:36] I don't have to think about it. Everything going forward is just me focusing on foosball and having a good time. Is that all about like winning your first match or first two matches typically to level up like that? Or who knows? So again, it all depends on your seed. Okay. Okay. It just depends where you're seeded. Because this is the thing, Tom. The more points you gain, the harder it's going to get. Yeah. Right? Once you start becoming a higher and higher seed, gaining points is going to become more difficult.
[00:30:06] Right? So, okay. So 17 through 24, right? 13, uh, 13 through 16, nine through 12, seven through eight, fifth through six. Then you get in the four, three, two ones. Right? Okay. So all of those different spaces will gain you or lose you eight points. Okay. So again, I'm the 25 seed, right? Now I finished seventh, right?
[00:30:35] 25 to seven, right? So 17 through 14, 13 through 16, nine through 12, seventh, eighth. That's four. Eight times four is 32. 32 points. I've now, I've now gained 32 points for this one event, right? Yeah. Now, without having to make the finals. I lost you. I lost you, Tom. Say again? Without having to make the finals. You know, you're, you're still getting 32 points regardless, you know?
[00:31:05] But, but that's, and that's not it, right? People forget bonus points. So typically the bonus points are added to the, wherever, whatever place they pay out to. Typically there's bonus points there. Oh, got it. So if they pay out to fifth, if they pay out to seventh, if they pay out to ninth, there's bonus points there. So that 32 points could potentially turn into 64 points, depending on what the bonus points are, right? Got it. Okay.
[00:31:34] So, so if you play four events, right? And you're able to finish above your seed in each of those events, right? Then you are going to walk away from the tournament having gained points. You can calculate the points by knowing where you were seated, where you finished. The only place where you might have a hard time is if you finish in the bonus points, because calculating the bonus points is a little bit different. Okay.
[00:32:04] But it, but you'll know, right? That you finished a tournament in a net positive, right? So then at that point, you're just sitting there chewing your nails, waiting for the points update to see how well you did. Right. But for, for rookies, for amateurs, for experts, right? If you're looking to improve, gain points, move up, get to the next level, right? You have to find players that are winning. You have to ask them for information. You have to practice and apply this information.
[00:32:34] And then you have to continue to play and improve, right? One of the biggest things that I find that a lot of players at the, at the lower levels do, not all, but, but a lot of them is they play their rookie events. They play their amateur events and that's it, right? If you really want, if you really want to improve, you really want to grow as a player and you really want to have an opportunity to gain points, you have to play expert pro and open. You have to.
[00:33:04] Okay. Because you want the experience of playing the better players. True that. It's just, again, the more you play, the more experience you get, the more exposure you get, the better you're going to be. It's, it's, it's never going to negatively impact you to, to play better players. Right. If, if you're, if you're, if your approach is right, right? Cause there are still players out there that are saying, I don't want to donate. I mean, what do you, what do you don't, you're here to play foods. It's a tournament.
[00:33:33] You're here to play. What are you donating? That's the wrong way to think about it really, you know, because you're, you're gaining, like you say, gaining that experience. And I'm, I've tried just about every time I've gone to a tournament. Yes. You know, rookies and amateurs, of course, that's, that's always a thing, but I've always tried to at least play experts, if not pros, just, just because, you know, you know, sure. Sure. You're out in two sometimes that's fine. But even still, you might, you might end up winning a few matches and, and finding out,
[00:34:02] well, Hey, there's some things that are working against experts that I do that I never would have known otherwise. Of course. Of course. Of course. And I see, I see in the, in the chat, Buffalo, Buffalo, watching the Brexit. Matt McCrory. Yeah. It can mess with people. No. And you know what, Matt? And I, and I, I agree. It can. Right. So this, this, like I said, for me, right. I've really had to focus. So over the past couple of years, I've really focused on just more of the mental aspect of foosball.
[00:34:31] Like I said, chasing better players. Right. So after world, after worlds last year, I had a, I had a good day Saturday and I had a bad day Sunday and I, I had some struggles and it wasn't physical. I play, I play foosball every day. It was just my brain. So I reached out to somebody, uh, you know, um, who has been revered as a coach and, and
[00:34:59] has been a great player and still a great player and coach and, uh, has helped, has helped a lot of players improve. Um, and, um, and I reached out to him because I needed help and, um, and it's, it's just made such a difference with my approach and being able to focus my energy in the right places. Right. So watching the brackets. Yeah, I would, I would, so I'll, I'll tell you guys, I would get to a tournament and look
[00:35:26] at a bracket and see names in the bracket. And my brain would start like the gears would start turning. Right. And I would start thinking about matches with these people that might never happen. Right. Like I would, I would make myself a little crazy. And, and again, like my approach changed to where I, I only have to beat the person in front of me. I don't have to beat the whole bracket. I just got to beat the next guy in the bracket. I just got to win my next match. So, you know, for me, staring at the bracket isn't necessarily, it's, it's not a bad thing
[00:35:55] for me because I'm able to really focus on what I'm doing. I'm, I'm able to focus on what's going on in front of me. So it's all, it's all, it's all practice for me. Right. It's I'm, I'm always trying to improve in some aspect of foosball. Right. But as far as gaining points and moving up, this has been my approach. This is what's worked for me is just understanding. Cause again, how are you going to, how are you going to gain points if you don't even understand how the points work? Right.
[00:36:22] So, so knowing how they work will at least give you, you know, the knowledge you need to go into an event and go, okay, well I'm playing this event. I'm this seed. Let me just play my best foosball and see how it goes. And maybe I'll gain some points. Right. But when the tournament's over and they update the points and you go, how did I lose? Or how did I get? At least you have a, you have an understanding now. Right. So when the, when the tournament's done, right.
[00:36:52] I have that screenshot from before. And then I screenshot my player profile after my, my dear friend, Wesley Parrott, he calls it a report card. Report card. He said, how's my report card? That's a good one. And I've told, and I've told Wesley, I said, Wesley, we strive for consistency, right? That's the goal in foosball. Consistency is what it just, it can, it makes you better being consistent. The best players are the most consistent players.
[00:37:18] I said, when a tournament's done, my goal is always single digits under my name. Mm-hmm. That's it. Right. So I know if, if I play one event, two events, four events, eight events, as long as there are single digits under my name, I've achieved my goal for the weekend. Whether I've won an event or I haven't won an event. Yes. I've been, I've at least been consistent. Right. So when the next tournament finishes, listeners do me a favor, right?
[00:37:46] I want you to look at the, the players that are winning. I want you to go into that player profile type to, okay, Hannah Smith, excuse me. Now, Dr. Hannah Bufkin, right? Type, type her name in and just see when she's got a bunch of yellow ones and some twos and threes and some fours and fives. That is the definition of consistent. Oh yeah. And that, that is the goal. That is what we strive for. Consistency.
[00:38:15] So we just, you know, we're, we're always trying to improve for, for those of us that are, that are striving to be our best selves on a foosball table. Those of us that are striving for excellence and, and wanting to see how we stack up against the best players in the room this weekend. This is just another aspect of tournament foosball, right?
[00:38:43] Like I, I'm, I'm, I'm pretty sure before nationals, I have a pretty good roundabout idea of where my points are going to be because of how I've been tracking my points. Right. I'm like, I said, Tom, I've been doing this for a while, so I'm pretty good about it. I also know that if I have a good nationals and a good worlds, right. Right. And then, and then the last two or three tournaments I played for the year after that, Mississippi,
[00:39:12] Louisiana, whatever small regionals I play. If I do well at those, I have a very strong chance of, of reaching my ultimate goal of becoming a master. Right now that is, that is all hinging on my play. Okay. So if I go to national, if I go to nationals and I, and I, you know, drop a turd, I'm going backwards.
[00:39:39] If I go to worlds and I drop a turd, I'm going backwards. That's just, that's just the fact of the matter. And that's all based on my play. It happens. But if I'm, but if I'm consistent, right. If I just, if I'm consistent, I make good decisions and I take each match one ball at a time, the results are going to be what they are. And who knows, maybe I finally achieve the ultimate goal that I've set for myself.
[00:40:08] This is, this is making it more clear that, that if you're not aware now, not to mess with your head necessarily as, as Matt McCrory pointed out, but to be aware of how this all functions long before, let's say you make it to your next level, whether it be expert or pro, whatever the case, it's really beneficial because you now start to understand, okay, I've got a, there's a target and, and I have to play above my, my, my, my, obviously my seed.
[00:40:37] And if I can do that consistently, that's where the progress starts to take place. Of course. Of course. Yeah. Look at, okay. Look, look at Jacob. Jacob was a beginner, like four or five years ago. Yeah. Yep. Jacob was a beginner four or five years ago. How do you go from 800 points to 53, 54 hundred points in, you know, four years? Right. How? Right. Is it because, is it, he got lucky or, no, because the kid is consistent and he's gaining points at every tournament, right? But think about this.
[00:41:06] At the lower levels, when Jacob was a rookie and an amateur, he was having success at levels above his, that expert, even at the pro level. When he was an expert, he was winning pro events. So Jacob's, let's, again, Jacob's an expert playing pro events. So as an expert in a pro field, he's a mid, he's a mid rank, right? Okay. Somewhere in the middle of the, middle of the pack, as far as his, his seed. Yeah. He's a mid-level seed, right?
[00:41:32] So he's a mid-level seed finishing in the top four, three, two, one as an expert, right? So think about he's, he's gaining 40, 48, you know, 56 points just on seed points and then, and then getting bonus points for being in a final, right? And he's doing that in pro he's winning expert. Uh, you know, he's, he's doing that through two, three, four events throughout the weekend.
[00:42:01] So he's coming away from a tournament with four or five, maybe even 600 points. That's a lot of points. Yeah. Like not, not everybody can do that. Not everybody can do that. I want you to understand, right? But if, if you can come away from a tournament having gained 30, 40, 50 points, that is outstanding. If you can do that every single tournament, every one you play, think about that. If you play five tournaments a year and you gain 50 points, that's 250 points, right?
[00:42:31] That's good progress. Again, you can go from rookie to amateur fast. You can go from amateur to expert. And the thing is that it's not always going to stay 50. You're going to have a good weekend where you win an event. You're going to gain 150, 200 points. Yes. And it's, it's, you're going to see the shift, right? But again, it all starts with one, you got to play, you got to be able to play foosball, right? So you, you have to be, you have to be practicing the right things. You have to be playing consistently.
[00:42:59] You have to be chasing the better players to get good information and, uh, and applying that information. So this, like I said, Tom, this is just another aspect that I feel like players may be, they know that the point, they know what the points are, but they just don't know how the points affect them. Okay. Okay. Well, okay. Here's a, here's a question, a hypothetical, let's say, and, and, and we could probably use you as an example. Okay. You're, you're pro and you're chasing pro master.
[00:43:29] And the way things are structured these days, it takes a while, you know, it's, it's a difficult, it's probably the most difficult jump to make within the, the ranking system. So, but let's say you do it. Let's say this next year, boom, you're now pro master. Now what? Now you've got, look at the field, you know, you look at the pro other pro masters and now we're talking about the top, the, you know, the, the, the, the very best. Um, now what, now what do you do?
[00:43:59] Um, so I just keep trying Tom. Keep doing it. So again, iron sharpens iron, right? So I just keep chasing those guys at the top because so, you know, what's funny is I know players that are, you know, expert amateur players, um, that know everything. They know everything. You can't tell them anything.
[00:44:30] They, they know everything. Right. And there's a reason that they're at that level and they're probably going to be at that level for the entirety of their foosball career because they're not willing to be humble and listen to anyone. It doesn't matter. Sure. Okay. But masters are always learning. Okay. I know for a fact. Okay. Okay. Tony is still learning. I know this is not me.
[00:44:59] I'm, I'm saying my coach is still coaching. Tony. Tony is the goat, the pinnacle. Yeah. And Tony is still always learning. Right. I, I was, where was it? I forgot what tournament it was, but Paul Smith just won open doubles in Illinois is on a table with Billy and Billy's trying to teach him how to do something. Like masters, again, becoming a master doesn't mean it stops. That's right. Okay.
[00:45:28] That's just the beginning, Tom. Yeah. That's just, that's just the start of something new. Yeah. It's, I mean, obviously it's a, it's a, it's a, it's the ultimate phase in your career. That's where you, that's where you want to, want to, uh, you know, finish off and maybe, you know, crack the, the, that top 10 someday. Uh, yeah, I see. That's, that's, you know, uh, you're funny, Tom. You're funny.
[00:45:52] Um, look to, to, so I, I, I just want to be, I just want to be there, Tom. Yeah. I want to be there. And I want to, because I feel like, I, I feel like, um, you know, achieving that goal is, um, not everybody's going to be able to do that, Tom. I agree with that. I agree with you there.
[00:46:17] And there's only just so many, you know, master spots, I suspect, uh, that really, well, you know, I, here's the other part of the debate though. I mean, it's like, are there too many masters? Should it be, should be, should there be, uh, I don't know, some sort of interim between the pro and the master level? Uh, we don't want to complicate things too much, but. They tried that. They tried that. Okay. Not successful. Yeah, they tried that. Well, again, Tom, look.
[00:46:47] I was an expert for 15 years. Okay. Okay. The expert field. It's expert fields hard. The expert field is the biggest. It's the thickest field in, in points. Okay. Cause so many players can get to expert just based on ability, right? You can, you can be, you can be a good physical player and get the expert easy. A couple of years, you know, play a few tournaments a year and you're an expert. And it's, it just, it just happens. Right.
[00:47:16] The problem, the problem is making the jump. Um, there are players that have achieved pro based on just physical ability. Cause they're that good. Right. Yeah. But to make the leap from pro to master, you really, it's, it's right here. This is the biggest thing. That's the change. A sort of a hundred percent, man. A hundred percent. So, and, and, and, and I'm going to tell you for, for expert, the hardest,
[00:47:45] hardest part from going from expert to pro was that last, like 200, 250 points. Because again, understanding the way the points work, the seedings worked, I would get close and then maybe make a bad partner decision or just have a bad tournament. And like, but I'd be a high seed and then have a bad event. Boom. And I'd lose 40, 50 points.
[00:48:12] And then, um, you know, it was, it was like one step forward, two steps back. Right. Yeah. And, and then when I, when I, like I said, when I changed my approach, cause I, I got to expert easy. I was one of those guys that got the expert on physical ability easy, you know, but my, my brain was like a bowl of applesauce. So, uh, you know, but, but when I really started to just think about foosball rather than just play foosball, the mental game, it man.
[00:48:41] And that's when, so once I hit pro, right? Like it was, I still remember when, when did I, I was a few years ago, but I remember I turned pro and I was like, okay, like I could do this. And then I really started just like approaching things from more of an intellectual perspective and, you know, like, you know, reading books and then asking questions and not even just asking questions, but asking the right questions, asking the right players or right questions, chasing the guys that are winning.
[00:49:09] Like I said, and, and it was like, dude, I went from 3000 to 4000 fast, like faster than I went from 2750 to 3000. No doubt. So it's, it's, you know, again, understanding how the points work. And I mean, dude, I, I love foosball, Tom, but foosball is one of those things. There's so many different layers, levels and intricacies to foosball, you know, it's astounding. It's like, oh man. And I love it.
[00:49:39] It's amazing. But trying to, trying to understand all of it is like trying to understand the way a woman's brain works. It's, it's amazing. Well, uh, here's, well, uh, and going back to what we were talking about in the first half of the show is the fact that, you know, now there's going to be more incentive, more, more reason, more, more drive to, to, to do the, the things you need to do to improve because, Hey man, if you get to that, that, that higher echelon, there could be sponsorships.
[00:50:09] A hundred percent. Right. That's, that's motivation for, for anybody. So think about it. If you're already a master and you're right there, you're in the 11, 12, 13 spot. Why, like I would be doing everything I could to come to these events and try to be successful. So that way I could crack that top 10 and get that sponsorship. Right. But it's, it's, it's different for everybody, Tom.
[00:50:38] It's, you know, it's again, Vin Diesel, Vin Diesel in the first fast and the furious said, I live my life a quarter mile at a time. I, I live my life one foosball tournament at a time. Well, okay. Okay. Uh, I, that, that is a, that's quotable right there, but let's make a t-shirt out of that one. I'll live this, I'll live the sport one, one tournament at a time. I'm just, I'm like one, I'm a tournament finishes and I'm like, the next one's this date. It's on my calendar.
[00:51:08] And all the days in between are just days leading up to that tournament. You know what I mean? Like I, I go, I go, I go to work and I do what I need to do. And I spend time with my lovely wife who's amazing and gives me the freedom to play foosball. Cause she understands how passionate I am about it. Yes. I spend time with my dog and I do what I got to do, but my brain is like foosball, right? Like, so.
[00:51:36] So it's, it's called, it's called narrow cast here. Yeah. You're focused in on that one idea. Tunnel vision in so many ways. Like a horse of blinders. Yeah. Yeah. But that's good though, because you really do need that because it's funny. You notice, um, and, and especially when it comes to people who are just either they played at one time and they're getting back in and they're just getting adjusted again to how the game is played or learning from the, from, from scratch again.
[00:52:03] Um, you notice how, uh, those earlier, those beginner players that are getting back in, they don't have the knowledge or the, the, the, even the wherewithal to stop the ball and set it up, they're just swinging at it. You know, just got to hit it up the, up the table or hit it, hit it into the goal as quickly as they can. They're not taking that moment to say, okay, I'm setting the ball up. I'm going to wait. I'm going to look at a hole and I'm going to shoot at the hole.
[00:52:29] Whereas, you know, every, every good, uh, amateur and expert and pro already have that. They already have that down. So getting beyond that point of just not being able to think when you have possession of the ball, how do you do that? Well, it's so again, it's not just practicing your five and your three. Relaxing. Is it just pushing your, just getting your psyche more relaxed to me?
[00:52:58] What is it that, what is it that, that, uh, allows you that? No, it's all practice. It's all practice. Right. So like, even when I'm home on my table, I'm, I'm practicing that stuff. Right. Like it's, um, like I'm envisioning myself doing these things in a match, trying to make good decisions. Um, I'm doing clockwork by myself. I'm, you know, I'm not practicing lazy.
[00:53:27] I practiced lazy for a long time now by practicing lazy. What I mean is I'll do something and not really do it with intent. I won't be aggressive about it. Okay. If a ball goes, if a ball goes by me on my table, I watch it rather than actually try to dig it out. Grab it. Um, you know, just practicing lazy. And I found that that really affected me in tournament play. So then when I started practicing the way I want to play in a tournament, because Tom,
[00:53:56] I played hockey most of my life, right? We practiced hard. So the games were easy. So in foosball, why wouldn't I practice hard? And it's like I said, it's not just a physical part. It's like in my head, I'm, I'm going over mentalizations. I'm thinking about it. Yeah, man. And then like watching video, watching video. So again, like Jim Stevens inside foos. Uh, and, and now with the modern foos guys, like there are so many matches out there to watch.
[00:54:26] Road to pro with Chase Pennell. I mean, there's, there's some great instructional videos. Of course. Chase has instructional videos. Uh, Zeke Cervantes from Arizona. He had a bunch of good stuff. I mean, there are so many people that are willing to, you know, put themselves out there and give information for people to improve. But it's like, you can watch foosball. I mean, this thing I'm on this, this, this computer, there's so much foosball in this thing
[00:54:52] at the tip of my fingers that I can just watch and learn and gain information from. Um, so like I said, the whole thing is just, um, I'm just always looking for ways to practice and improve, not just physically on the table, but my brain always. Right. Like I said, scenario situations, four, four timeout. What do I do this thing, that thing. And again, it's, they're all situations I've been in, right?
[00:55:19] They're all situations that I've been in and I've made good decisions and I've made bad decisions. So what was the difference? Right. And understanding what the difference was and then trying to make the good decision. And thinking a little extra, a little extra something that, that you gained, that you institute into your, your routine of thought when you're. Of course. Gain possession of the ball. Of course. What am I doing now? What, uh, what, do I just like throw it?
[00:55:49] Just get rid of it? Yeah. No, it's, and this is the thing, Tom, understanding that if you make a good decision, right. And your opponent makes a good block. That's part of foosball. That's it. Right. Yeah. So one of the things that I've really had to, and again, it's all practice, Tom. One of the things I've really had to work on is the negative speak, right? The, the mental. Yeah. Yeah. Your internal voice.
[00:56:19] Yeah. Correct. The self-introspection and being self-deprecating and just really eliminating that from the mental side of my game because that's okay. That's huge. That is. Okay. So I'm going to, I'm going to tell you, and I got, look, man, Brad Gilbert winning ugly. This is like, you know, I've, I've, I've read a lot of these books, but this is one thing that I really took away from that book, man, Brad Gilbert tennis pro. He was a top 10 player. And the thing is, most people don't even know the guy because his game was just, he wasn't
[00:56:48] Andre Agassi or Jimmy Conner. He was just a solid pro player, right? Consistent. He says this in this book and winning ugly. It's right here on my desk. I'm looking at it right now. He said, if I'm on the court and I'm, you know, thinking negatively or saying bad things about myself. He said, now there's two players on the court that want to beat me, my opponent and myself. Yep. So in my head, I go, wow, dude, that's pretty big.
[00:57:18] Right. Because I'm, I'm really bad about that. Like, come on, stupid. Don't, you know, don't be a dummy. You're better than that. Don't make bad, you know? And it's like, I really had to stop all that and just go again. Okay. Blinders. Like, dude, there's a problem on the table. I'm a math guy, Tom. I love numbers. Right. So there's a problem on the table. I have to come up with a solution. There has to be a calculation that helps you solve that problem.
[00:57:48] And, you know, here's another point that you just, I think you just kind of touched on too. But again, every so often you see a player who, even though it might not be all that serious necessarily, they're playing and they goof up or they miss a pass or the shot goes errant, you know, some kind of mishit or whatever the case. And they pull their hands off the rods and go, oh, you know, they're like, like really frustrated.
[00:58:14] And they're expressing the frustration in the moment of the match or the game. And it's like, wait, wait, wait, what are you doing? You know, you know, mentally inside it, I understand. But, but physically taking your hands off the rods or, you know, just saying, ah, you know that you lost a possession or you lost an opportunity to regain the possession of the ball, it just, what are you doing, man? You know, you can't kick yourself like that.
[00:58:39] So from, from my perspective, when I see a player do that, it's done. They're beat. It's over. That's it. I've got them. It doesn't, it doesn't matter. Right. So I've had to learn that nobody plays perfect. Nobody plays. Nobody does. Everybody makes mistakes. Right. So my goal is to take care of this ball, right? With the ball that's in play, I have to take care of this ball. Right. In the moment. And if, and if, correct, Tom.
[00:59:09] And if my opponent makes a good decision and scores a point, good for them. Awesome. That ball's gone. I can't do anything about it. Me getting frustrated. Right. So that again, it's all, it's all energy. Right. I, I don't want to waste an ounce of energy being negative. Yeah. I don't want to waste an ounce of energy in a place where it's not going to positively impact me. Right.
[00:59:35] So again, you might not, you might not know this, Tom, but I used to be a pretty emotional guy. All right. I had a, I had a, I had a pretty, I had a pretty short fuse. I'd get upset pretty easy. Right. Okay. Where, where now, right. It's, it's, I have, you know, I'm older. And, and I, you know, things have changed. I hope so. But well, I tell my, I tell my wife, I grow old. I don't grow up. Right.
[01:00:02] But when it comes to foosball, when it comes to foosball, I just, I, I, I've really just kind of come to understand that me acting a certain way or bringing anything negative to the table is not gonna, there's no value in that. Nothing positive. It's not gonna positively impact me. Right. So if I make a bad decision or I make a mistake, the only thing I can do is, okay, let's not do that again.
[01:00:33] Yeah. Right. Just note it and say, okay, that's, that was a learning, a learning experience that, that happens. And just to, just to share with you a little bit of what I do as, as a, as a voice acting coach, uh, working with brand new voice actors who are just learning the field. One of the things we try to stress and they don't seem to get right away is that we're, they're on microphone. They're reading something. They're reading words. And people, when they read out loud, they make mistakes, right?
[01:00:59] They're reading too fast or they, they stumble over a word or there's mispronunciation. And it's the same idea. It's like, ah, dang it. I just screwed that up. And they, they physically, you know, get frustrated and it's like, wait, wait, wait, you need to stop, take a deep breath, go back to the beginning of a sentence where you feel like you made that mistake. And then just read it again. Cause we're, we're going to go back and net it anyway, you know, no big deal. But it is, it's so common to see that, you know, when someone is being, uh, they're
[01:01:28] under, um, should we say tutelage and they're learning things, they don't give themselves enough credit to say, Hey, okay, I just goof that up. How do I not do that next time? Or it just happened. So what, what's the big deal? We all do it. Well, and, and, you know, I have a few players that I'm just kind of, you know, helping to
[01:01:53] improve and, and for most of them, I find the toughest thing for them to do is, um, um, like the negative self-talk and understand that, you know, when a situation, when a situation happens or a ball passes, there's nothing you can do about it. So there's no reason to get frustrated. Right. Like just, okay. I've learned more from matches I've lost way more from matches I've lost than any match I've won. Right.
[01:02:22] So, so when a tournament's done, right. And, and these players that I, that I talked to and I, and, um, you know, these are dear friends of mine. We talk about more than foosball, but when it comes to foosball after a tournament, I'll call them and I'll go, okay, what's the takeaway, right? Like, what did we learn this weekend? What's one thing, what was one thing that we can learn and improve on? And for me, it's, I always the ride home, I'm sitting there going, okay, what was the
[01:02:49] situation that, you know, that I can learn from. And then I just take that. And I try to grow from it. Right. Because again, um, every tournament I'm trying to improve exponentially. So, you know, when, when you're a rookie player and you're working on your five bar and your three rod or your defense and your two rod. Right. And then you work your way up to amateur.
[01:03:16] And I feel like there's so much emphasis on the physical aspect of the game that we neglect to teach these newer players, the mental aspect until they're way down the line. Yeah. And if we, if we can help them with the physical stuff, as well as the mental, I feel like they'll progress way faster. Way, way fast. No question. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, like everything else in life, you know, anything you learn, there's going to be steps.
[01:03:46] You got to take the steps and understand the process before you can actually progress and move forward. You know, it's, it's a, yeah. Like you say, the physical thing, the, the, the muscle memory, those, those, those are all things that come with time. Right. So, but it's the mental, the mental aspect, I think is the most fascinating part of this and anything for that matter, when it comes to, uh, whether it's competition or, or, or learning new things. Um, I, you know, here's another thing that I wanted to ask you about.
[01:04:14] And it happened to me this last year, in fact, at a couple of tournaments, you get into a match and, you know, you've got a really good forward or a good partner and you roll over the competition, like the first game, boom, you know, five, five, one done. Right. You get into the second game and then suddenly there's a change across the table. They do something, they adjust, something happens. And you know, damn well that you've got the skills to, to dominate or maybe win that second
[01:04:42] game, but suddenly it's four, four and they get, they get, they, they, they win, they, they win the second game. Oh, dang. You know, what happened there? What, what was, you know, so, okay, we've won one, they've won one. And we ran, rolled over them in the first game, like really bad. And then suddenly they, they adjusted somehow. Now, then the third game comes, suddenly the mental thing gets, gets in your way.
[01:05:09] It's like, oh, dang, I didn't think I was going to be here. What am I doing? Why, how do I, how do I avoid losing this third and final game? And, and, and a couple of occasions, you know, we get taken out, you know, in, in two, in two matches in some cases. And it's like, well, it shouldn't have happened that way. Okay. What do you do to adjust to that? Oh, you know, it's all situational Tom. Right.
[01:05:38] But you won the first game pretty easy. Yeah. Okay. You know. Okay. So, so, okay. So this is a thing that I've had a few people tell me, right. Hey, they're doing this. They're doing this. Do you notice like talking to a partner, maybe it's a DYP. And they tell me no way. I'm not, man. I'm so into the game. I'm paying attention to what they're doing. Right.
[01:06:06] That's when you need to be paying the most attention to what they're doing. Right. So if, if you roll them five, one, and they adjust, right. Then you already know you're not playing the same team in game two. Yes. Physically, it's the same two players, but you're not playing the same team in game two. So why would you play the same game? Assuming that it's going to work. Right. Right.
[01:06:36] If they made an adjustment, you need to make an adjustment. Right. Now, again, they came out. Did they play fast? Did they like, what did they do? Right. Understanding what's going on situationally. Okay. Look, I'm going to, I'm going to tell you, there have been times where I've played players that are just physically better than me. They're younger than me. Yep. They're faster than me. They hit the ball harder than me.
[01:07:02] And they walk away from a match having lost to me frustrated because they thought they should have beat me. Right. Right. And, and the only reason they didn't was because I out thought them. Yep. You adjusted. I, I beat them with experience and I out thought them. If it was always about who was the fastest or who hit the ball the hardest, then, you know, these young guys would, they'd be killing us all the time, Tom. Right. But under understanding what's happened.
[01:07:30] So you beat the team five, one game two. Now it's getting a little tight. Maybe you're getting uncomfortable. You know, do you control the pace? Do you use your timeouts? Maybe you do some switching. You have to start making them uncomfortable. Right. That's not what you're doing. Right. If, if you're just going to keep doing what you're doing. Thinking it works. It's a definition of insanity. Doing the same thing, expecting a different outcome. Okay. I'll give you an example, Tom.
[01:07:58] Um, experts. Singles, Worlds, 22, maybe 23. I got to the finals of that event. Okay. And one of the, one of the things that really made a difference for me, I played, uh, this guy, CJ Cannon, really good. Oh, sure. I know CJ. Sure. Man. Okay.
[01:08:22] So, um, and this was again, something that I had learned and I'm taking it into this tournament and we play game one and he beats me. Like five to one. Right. And I walk away from the table and I think, I think it was Maggie Strong was there and she said something like, you know, you suck or that was bad or whatever. And, uh, you know, just like really motivational.
[01:08:46] So, um, so I just kept thinking to myself, I'm like, am I going to just keep doing the same thing, expecting a different outcome? Or am I going to make some changes? And when we got back to the table, I, I said, Hey man, I'm sorry. And he said, for what? I said, for what I'm about to do. And he chuckled. Right. He chuckled. He chuckled because he, he just beat me pretty bad. I mean, he, he handled me really well. Yes.
[01:09:15] Uh, well game two comes and man, I hacked the daylights out of him. Like I just started playing really fast and aggressive and he just kind of kept doing what he was doing. And, uh, and then I beat him pretty good that second game. And then I beat him and I'm look, and I'm not saying I, I, I hacked him. That was my goal. I'm not going to, I couldn't sit there and just let this dude roll me. Right. And that's something that I had done in the past. Right.
[01:09:44] I'm like, well, let me see how this goes. And then I go into game two and he beats me five, one again. And I shake his hand. Then I walk away upset with myself because I just lost to this guy when I did nothing to change the outcome. Right. So I came out and I, I controlled the pace. I controlled the tempo. I controlled the time of possession. I dictated the way the match was going to go. And, and I beat the guy and this guy, dude, he was, he was good, man. He's still good. He's solid player. Yes.
[01:10:13] But that one win in that match flipped a switch in my brain that I was like, why haven't I been doing this for the past 10 years? Okay. Okay. And, and that, that decision changed everything for me going forward. I got to the finals of that event. Unfortunately, I got double dipped by a, by a good player. Okay. Uh, but irrelevant, right?
[01:10:39] I was there, uh, biggest field I'd ever gone through to get into a final. Mm-hmm. Uh, still, still proud of myself for the result, but understanding that foosball is situational. Right. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I, I can control the outcome. Me. I can control the outcome. I get the ball. It doesn't matter what the guy on the other, there are too many players out there that get frustrated because the guy on the other side of the table is playing a different style. You know, they're playing whatever.
[01:11:09] Something weird. Their games. Yeah. Their game's ugly. I don't like it. That's irrelevant. That's what foosball is to them. My job is to beat them. That's it. And play your game. That's it. I got to figure out like, that's it, Tom. There's a problem on the table. I got to come up with a solution. Right. Like I said, man, really understanding it and keeping it as simple as possible. Right. At the, at the root, at the base of this thing. There's a problem on the table and I have to come up with a solution and that's it.
[01:11:37] And when I started understanding it and approaching it from that perspective, it changed everything. Everything. Everything. So. Now, it is true. And I, and I've noticed this over the years that, that singles and doubles are completely different games in so many ways. Of course. They're completely different games. Yeah. So you, you've got a real strong singles game. That's, that's great.
[01:12:03] How does that change or affect how well you play in doubles? Is there, is there, does it help improve if you're a good singles player? Absolutely. The best singles players are the best doubles players. Okay. Okay. Absolutely. And, but the thing is being a good doubles player, isn't more, isn't so much your ability as much as it is, are you somebody that other people want to play with? Mm-hmm. Right.
[01:12:30] You could be the best player in the world, but if you're an absolute douchebag, it doesn't, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Right. So. So, uh, understand it like singles is just you, it's you against everybody. You control everything. Right. So being a great singles player is, is, it's only going to positively impact your doubles play. If you know how to be a good, a good partner. Okay. Right. Okay.
[01:12:57] It's going to negatively impact your doubles play. If you're a douchebag. So, you know, if you, this is the thing, this is the thing you could play with somebody and maybe you're a douchebag to everybody else, but you and your partner just mesh. Like you guys have chemistry and this is your BFF and everything's cool and they know how you are and you know how, and it's, and it works for you guys. Right. That's irrelevant. It's all about the team chemistry. Right. Chemistry is what makes a difference. Right. So, you know, you're a good forward.
[01:13:28] He's a good forward. You're a good goalie. She's a good goalie, whatever it like, again, switchability, understanding situational play, not having an ego, not, you know, dude, again, playing foosball like doubles for me has always been, I love playing doubles. I love doubles more than singles. I like playing singles. Singles is cool, but I love doubles. I love doubles. Right. But I would much rather play with somebody who's eh, that I love than play with somebody
[01:13:56] who's amazing that I want to stab. Right. There's always that issue. Breaking out the hardware, you know, it could happen, but we don't, we don't want to see that of course at a tournament, but that's, you know, your inclination or that's how you feel. It's, it's happened before and whatever, dude, you get a couple, you get a couple of napkins, clean it up. It is what it is. But. First aid, no big deal. No big deal. Whatever. Whatever.
[01:14:24] So, but, but look, I had this conversation with somebody the other day. He called me and he said, you know, I'm realizing singles and doubles are not the same. I'm like, listen, you stupid banana. Of course they're not the same. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, but, but again, having a, having a really good understanding of, of foosball and then singles and doubles and like the dude. Okay. You know, Chris Folsom and I, we've been playing together for five years.
[01:14:54] Chris and I, we work because we're friends off the table. Yes. Um, and I love Chris, right? Chris is one of my best. I love Chris. You can rely on him. I could call Chris right now and tell him I was jammed up and he'd come help me out. Right. But more than that, right. The chemistry on the table, it's like our styles are different. Our approach is different. Um, but on the table, you know, we're interchangeable. I shoot a rollover.
[01:15:24] He shoots a pull shot. His five's different. Yes. Um, you know, his two rods different. The way we play defense is different. So, you know, there there's, I feel like if we switch, we're not losing anything. Uh, you know, and again, Chris has been playing. Chris has had the opportunity to play with masters here recently because he should. Chris is awesome. Yeah. So, you know, he's, he's getting, he's getting a ton of exposure and he's learning and he's
[01:15:53] bringing that information back to me and we're growing as a team. So, you know, and again, even if Chris wasn't, uh, you know, a 42, 43, a hundred point pro and he was just an amateur, it wouldn't matter to me. I would play with the guy cause I love the guy and we have fun. So, you know, it's not always about, um, I'm going to play with this guy because he's a master, he's a pro. And it's sometimes it's just about finding somebody that you really chemistry with and growing as a team, dude. Yeah.
[01:16:23] It's, it's interesting how, uh, especially if you've, you haven't played with somebody before, but you know, they've got a great game. They've got a really good and you're confident that that person, Hey, you know, cause I'm a goalie. Hey, I've got to find a good forward. That's all I need. That's not the whole picture. That's really not the whole thing because, you know, a, if you haven't played before together, uh, they don't know your tendencies. You don't know their tendencies. Um, uh, if they, if, if they, you know, maybe know you as a person, that's one thing, but
[01:16:52] if they don't know how you behave, uh, or not behave on the table, there's, there's going to be a factor there that may prevent you from being a good team. Um, no, look, Tom, again, I, I have, you know, I have people that I enjoy playing with. Um, I mean, Chase is in the chat. I mean, Chase and I played worlds last year. We got top 10 first time we ever played. Wow. And it wasn't, and it, and it wasn't just because of ability. It's because I love Chase.
[01:17:21] He's my buddy. And, you know, and, and, and that makes more of a difference than, uh, I mean, obviously the physical play, we have to play foosball, but I'm, you know, um, I'm gonna, I'm gonna play my best for this guy. Cause I know he's going to play his best for me. We communicate, we, you know, we gelled as a team and the chemistry was in it and it works out. That's not always the case. Right. Yeah.
[01:17:45] So sometimes you gotta, you know, kiss a couple of frogs, I guess, but, um, you know, it's, it's just one dude. Like, you know, there are players out there that if I'm, I'm just, I'm being honest, you know, it's just you and me talking here, Tom, nobody's listening. So I'll just be honest. I know. Okay. You know, there, there are certain players that, um, you can ask me, I'm, I'm going to be nice, but I'm, I'm just not going to play with you just for the simple fact that, um,
[01:18:15] one, I'm not giving events away. Right. And by that, by that, by that, I mean, I, I work very hard to be able to go play foosball is a luxury for me. Right. So when I do go play, I typically play two or three events and I'm not just going to give an event to somebody because they think that I should play with them. Right. Right. Yeah.
[01:18:42] I'm not, um, you know, I've had people offer to sponsor me and that's great. I don't, I'm okay. I do well. I don't need this, you know, again, and, and, and, and, and that's all, that's fine. Right. I, I play with people that I love that I want to play with, but if, you know, I've had offers to play and this is not directed towards any one single person, I'm just saying, it's
[01:19:05] like, if you're not willing to understand situational foosball, if you're not willing to like, okay, I'll give you an example. If I'm going to go play with Billy, if I'm going to play with Ryan, if I'm going to play with Tony, if I'm going to play with Brandon, I am always going to defer to these guys. Right. You tell me what you need me to do.
[01:19:29] And I, I have the ability to do what you ask to keep you comfortable so you can focus and play well. Right. Right. I'm never going to tell those guys what to do. They don't need me to tell them what to do. Of course. So, so understanding that it goes the other way as well. Right. Like I, I don't need somebody telling me, Hey, uh, set your guys up here and do this. That's not what I need.
[01:19:59] I need you to just make good decisions to clear the ball effectively and I'll take care of everything else. Right. That's not how, that's not how this, and I'm, and I'm not saying this is a lot of is to be, and this is why Tom, I don't play a lot of DYPs. I don't play a lot of draws. When I do, I typically ask whoever I draw, Hey, how do you want to play? Cause I'm fine. Okay. I just want to have fun. You want to play for you're the forward. No problem. I'll play goal. We'll have a good time. Sure. Do you want to have fun or do you want to win?
[01:20:28] And that's what I'll ask them. And if they say, Oh, I want to win. I'll be like, okay, if you want to win, then can you do what I need and I'll play my best for you. And if we lose, you can tell everybody it's my fault. I don't care. It doesn't matter. It's a draw. I don't like, I don't care. Tuesday night DYP, dude. I don't care. Right. Right. But again, if you just want to have a good time, I'm going to support, I'm going to be right back here trying to get you blocks and I'll coach you through this thing. There's no issue. Right.
[01:20:54] But it's when, it's when the guy that's been playing barroom foosball for two years tells me that, you know, this is what I need you to do. It's like, no problem, buddy. I got you. You know, it's, it's, it's, it's all situational. And, and that's why, like I said, I'm not, I'm never going to be mean or rude to anybody. It's not, you know, I've had that happen to me when I was a new player. I'm not going to do that. Absolutely. I would just, I just avoid it. Yeah. I just avoid it. No, there is.
[01:21:23] It's, uh, and, and this has been spoken to until it's dead in the water, but it's just, you know, uh, there are players out there that, that go to their local DYP and they're, you know, they're, they've got a certain opinion of their own abilities. And if they get stuck with a beginner or somebody who's not as, not as quote unquote, uh, reliable, they get all kinds of steamed up and just, you know, walk away and throw their hands up. Now, why? You know? Why? You know, it was, I, right.
[01:21:53] Why? Why would you do that? And, and everybody, everybody at some time or another, especially if you get to a certain level of proficiency is going to play with somebody who doesn't have the same ability or same, same level of, uh, of proficiency. So why would you do that? Not just to yourself, but also to them. I mean, well, you know, it makes no sense and it, and it really makes for, for hurt feelings for some folks and they don't come back. I'm going to tell you, especially at the, at the lower level.
[01:22:20] I mean, everybody does it, Tom, but the, the throwing your partner under the bus thing, like that's okay. So when I really started assuming responsibility for my play, it really made a difference and affected, you know, how I improved. Right. When I, basically when I stopped making excuses, blaming my partner, you know, whatever it, okay. Perfect example. I was at that Knoxville tournament a few weeks ago.
[01:22:49] Um, I played with, uh, Billy Kaler's wife, miss, miss Kathy, sweet, sweet lady. She's getting back into foosball. Right. She played great. She played great. She, she did her best. She played great. I couldn't have asked for better. Um, we were playing Eddie and Tori Grossman. I think we rolled them pretty good in the first game. They beat us in the second game. And then the third game, third game, we were up three to one. I had the ball and I got in a rush to win. Right.
[01:23:19] I started, I started thinking about chase in the finals and, you know, being in the cabin with my wife and other things other than the ball right in front of me. And then, you know, good on Eddie and Tori, they came back and they beat us in that third game. And it would have been easy for me to just blame Kathy, but it wasn't Kathy's fault. It was my fault. I bonered it. I had the ball at three, one with a timeout. I didn't take care of the ball.
[01:23:48] I didn't make a good decision. I didn't even use my timeout and they came back and they beat us. So Kathy did her best. She played great. This guy lost. It was my fault. So again, understanding that is going to help me going into the next tournament. Like I walked away from that. I didn't sleep that night. I was so disappointed in myself because I know better. But I said to myself, this is a lesson I needed to learn. Right?
[01:24:15] Like I would rather learn this lesson today and lose this tournament and go to nationals and be successful than win this tournament and then go to nationals and make this mistake. Right. Right. That makes sense. No, it makes total sense. Total sense. And again, you know, these things that happen to us, those moments where we're just not in it. Just not 100% focused. A second. A second time. It's all it was. I took my eyes off it for a second. Oh, dude. Done. Done.
[01:24:45] Yeah. You know, especially at the level you normally play. Most people can take advantage of just that much of an error. So, man. Eddie, it won't happen again. I know Eddie's listening. It won't happen again, Eddie. You got lucky, buddy. I want it. And I love it. And no, and I love Eddie. And the thing, Eddie's a competitor. He never gave up. He was down. He just kept digging. And that's the thing, man. That's the thing I love about foosball, dude. Now, let's say Eddie, you know, Eddie's mindset's a little different. He gets frustrated.
[01:25:14] He starts throwing the rods. At that point, it doesn't matter. But Eddie just, he buckled down. He was focused. He wanted to win. And, you know, he played great. Torrey played great. But it's, again, it's situational foosball. Understanding the situation and knowing that I've got this really tough team down. And I need to finish them. Yes. And I didn't. Killer instinct. It's the killer instinct. Yeah. Yeah. No, I could kill it. I could kill them, but I love them. I don't want to kill them. I just want to beat them in foosball.
[01:25:43] So, you know, Tom, that's what I mean. The brain part of it. I love it so much. Yeah. And we're always growing, learning, and improving. And that's the wonderful thing about foosball. And, you know, for any new players out there or for any old players who, you know, are looking to improve and move up, you know, if you have any questions or if you just want to talk foosball. Yes.
[01:26:10] If you see me, just come talk to me, man. I promise I'll, like, if, as long as I'm not in a rush to go do something, I will do my best to hang out and talk. Going into the finals in two minutes, then that might not be a good time to talk. But, you know, there's always that, oh, listen, I'll catch up to you later kind of thing. Absolutely. And here's the thing. There was a time, 70s, 80s, maybe the 90s, there were certain top players that didn't
[01:26:40] want to tell anybody anything. Didn't want to talk to anybody because they didn't want to give away their, quote, unquote, mastery, their secrets, you know, that kind of stuff. Great secrets. You really just don't see that anymore. So if you're afraid to approach even a Tony Spraderman when it seems apparent that he has some time, I would, you know, I can't speak for Tony, but I would say, hey, you know, why not ask? Why not? Dude, Tony's awesome. Tony's awesome. He's super, I mean, listen, I'm going to be honest with you.
[01:27:09] You know, after a tough one, if he just takes an L or something, if he loses one, you might want to give him a little bit. But Tony is probably the greatest ambassador foosball's ever had. He is. And he's just a good dude. Loves to teach. Loves to talk about. Well, he just loves to play foosball. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's a different attitude now. You know, it's like, okay, if you really truly think that if you're going to talk to
[01:27:36] somebody like a Tony Spraderman or a Billy Pompas or something about how to do something better on the table, they're not worried about you, man. They're just not. They're not worried that they're going to give away some dire secret that's going to kill their career. It's just not going to happen, you know? Well, this is the one thing I'm going to tell you. And this is the one thing that I've noticed that I find, right? And I'm going to tell anybody listening, if you come up to me and you ask me a question and you want me to show you something, I'll show you, right?
[01:28:04] A lot of these guys, if they take time, they'll take time with you. But understand something. They're going to show you some stuff. And the next time they see you or the next time you talk to them or whatever it is, if you're not implementing what they showed you, because the foosball players are not dumb. Again, time is valuable, right? If you want to learn, we'll help you as long as you're going to implement what we show you. Use the actual advice.
[01:28:34] Yeah. But if you just want to talk, come talk, right? But if you're wanting to get on a table just to get on a table, I don't know people's motives. If you want to play pickup games, sure, we could play pickup games all day. Sure. But I've seen one or two certain top players spend time with somebody just for that certain somebody to turn around and be like, oh, yeah, he showed me this and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, what did you do with it? Like, nothing. I'm like, you didn't practice?
[01:29:04] No. I'm like, dude, you're a bonehead, man. All you did was waste that poor guy's time. And understand, that guy is never going to give you that time again. That's right. If you'd gone home and practiced, he would have noticed, and the next time he would have showed you more. All you did was screw yourself. So keep that in the back of your head. Keep it in mind that it's like gold, you know? And don't be looking at, what's the phrase? Look a gift horse in the mouth. Yeah. Do you know what that means, Tom?
[01:29:33] Do you know why you don't look a gift horse in the mouth? I'm sure it comes from, let's say, Old England or something like that, that phrase. Well, the reason why is because you can tell a horse's age by the length of its teeth and the size of its gums. Oh, interesting. Okay. So that's why you don't look a gift horse in the mouth, because then you know how old the horse is, right? Oh, God. If somebody gave it to you, so it could be just really old horse. And you don't want to. It could be an old horse on its last leg, and you're just like, ah, hold on, let me check. I don't want this horse.
[01:30:03] It's an old horse, right? Yeah. Yeah. So. It's, that is, I've always heard that phrase, and I always, I understood its meaning, but not necessarily as much as I do now that you've straightened that out for me. I appreciate that. Never look a gift horse in the mouth. Yeah. Yeah. Don't, don't, don't eat yellow snow. There's so many, there's so many good old adages. Anyway. Sorry, Tom. No, no. No, it's, it's, it's all wisdom.
[01:30:31] It's all, it's all foosball wisdom, grasshopper, you know, wax on, wax off. Wax off. Wax on. That's right, sensei. Wax on. Yeah. That's right. So, um, your mentor, I know you've talked about, uh, Dana Marr, um, and, uh, he's still, still your, your sensei. Is he still? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Absolutely. Okay. Yeah. I love Dana. I love Dana. We got to hang out in Vegas, um, spent some time together.
[01:30:57] Uh, the guy's just got so much in his brain and he's just, you know, some people, some people can play and some people can teach and some people can play and teach and, you know, he's a very special individual when it comes to being able to teach foosball. Um, and, uh, and he's always willing to help players that are wanting to learn, not waste time, but actually learn foosball.
[01:31:26] So, um, you know, reach out to Dana if, if you're wanting to, uh, you know, if you're wanting to learn, improve, whatever it is, just, uh, I, I think he's on Facebook. I'm not on Facebook, but he's on Facebook. You know, he was, he was on the show a couple of years ago. Um, and he was talking about how, uh, he likes to work with people of course and help them. But he said, uh, he said to me, because I'm strictly a goalie, he just said, Hey, listen, if I had 20 minutes with you, I could, I could get you to the next level pretty
[01:31:54] quickly, you know, I'm like, well, okay, that, that would be great. That would be cool. Um, I don't think we've ever met each other in person, but maybe that'll, that'll change in the near future. But, uh. Dude, if I had known, I would have introduced you in Vegas. Yeah. If I'd known. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's okay. That's, that's fine. No, it's, it's just, uh, he was one of our, one of our, especially one of our earlier guests and he was, uh, he was a blast. Just a, a lot of fun to talk to. Dude. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of stories. Good dude. Yeah. No doubt. Oh yeah.
[01:32:23] And, uh, you know, has been through the wars, quote unquote. So bringing that, that wisdom to the table. Um. Played the best. Played the best. Beat the best. Yeah. Oh yeah. So, uh, Nashville, obviously, uh, Nationals is going to be your, your next biggie. And, uh. Yes, sir. Who are you playing with? Uh, Chris and pro, Chris Folstman pro. And then, uh, Mike Philbrook in open. Oh, Philbrook. That's right. I think you mentioned that to me before. Um, yeah. Philbrook is the best man. I just love the guy.
[01:32:52] He's just a great dude. I love Philbrook. Yeah. Yeah. I've known Philbrook a long time. Um, and, uh, he's, he's told me he's expressed interest. Uh, you know, basically Mike, I don't know if people know this. Mike loves golf. Mike's a really good golfer. Big golfer loves golf. Um, and, and he's really kind of stepped away from foosball, but. Well. Uh, came out. Go ahead. No, I was going to say, I mean, he hits the ball like a pro. I mean, he's just out. It's out there. What? Like two 82 90. Every time he drives the ball. It's just crazy guys.
[01:33:22] Oh, golf. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Dude. He's yeah. Yeah. He, um, I have some friends that play, uh, like Adam Emmons plays with him a bunch. And he's like, dude, the guy, he said, the guys, you know, he's one of those guys that's, he could probably just be good at anything, anything he focused on. Um, you know, Mike's, Mike's just an athletic guy, but, um, you know, he came to the kickoff. We played at the kickoff and, um, Mike and I had played some events in the past and, um, we did, we did. Okay. Uh, I think Mike was a little disappointed in our finish. Okay.
[01:33:52] Um, and, and, um, he really kind of felt like he should have played a little better. So he, he told me, he's like, dude, I'm gonna, um, he's like, I'm putting the time in. He said, I, I really, he said, I should have played better. I could play. He said, I know he could play better. Mike's a, Mike's a beast. He's a killer. I don't think. Yeah. For, for, for any of the young players, like you don't know who Mike Philbrook is, like go watch some early 2000s videos of Mike Philbrook. The dude's insane.
[01:34:18] You, uh, they, they say that you walk into a tournament room, you can hear his shot across the room. Oh yeah. That's a Philbrook shot. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. I mean, he's, uh, you know, yeah. So, um, he wants to play national. He's like, let's play nationals. Let's play worlds. He's like, I think we can, I think we can win. I said, I think we can win. So, um, so we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna play those two. And, uh, Chris and I, Chris and I are going to play pro doubles at nationals. We're going to play worlds.
[01:34:48] And then, um, Mississippi scheduled for end of September. And that one's just kind of like, uh, that's, that's a, I got it. I hit that one. I, you know, Mr. Donald, I love Mr. Donald and his, um, he always does a really nice job in Mississippi and I have to go support that one. So after that, uh, just kind of up in the air, how I'm going to finish the year. Well, you'll go to, go to world championships. Of course. You'll be bit world. Well, yeah.
[01:35:15] So, so nationals worlds and then Mississippi and Mississippi's the end of September. So then October, November, December, I'm going to try to squeeze before the end of the year. Louisiana. Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Probably. No, it's, uh, it's shaping up. I think there were, we're, uh, what about halfway through the year now. So we've got a, got some great stuff to look forward to. And of course, world cup is kicking off in a week. So that'll be exciting to see what happens. And this is actually one of those, there's odd weekends where we really wasn't a whole lot
[01:35:43] going on this weekend necessarily. Yeah. Um, but, but that's okay. Everybody needs a break. So. Oh yeah. But, uh, dude, this is super valuable stuff that you've shared today. Um, I, I don't know why we haven't done this before. Oh, I'm here, Tom. Yeah. I mean, I'm just, uh, you, you ask and I'll talk. Nope. I'm here, dude. Whatever you need. I have to say that, uh, uh, if there's, uh, if anybody hears this, uh, especially as the podcast, they don't see anything.
[01:36:13] Ryan is actually dressed well tonight. I have to say. No, I'm, I'm wearing a hockey. It's a chiefs jersey. Chiefs. Nice. Joel, who owned the chiefs? Oh, sorry. I love slap show. That's a great movie. So, yeah. Um, but yeah, it, it's, uh, it really is a great pleasure to get, uh, gain any, any kind of knowledge from someone like yourself with, uh, with such a, a great history in this game. And it's, uh, you know, uh, chase Pennell, we're going to, going to, got to drag him back here sometime soon.
[01:36:43] Cause he, he talks about the physical aspect of the game too. And he's quite, uh, quite good at that. But, uh, everybody who has tuned in tonight on Twitch TV, man, thank you so much for chiming in, man. This is a good conversation this evening. Uh, Eddie, Eddie was with us tonight. And, uh, Jason, of course, uh, uh, Drifter Radio, I think, uh, chopped in at one time, at one point here. But anyway, we do appreciate you guys tuning in on Twitch TV.
[01:37:08] And, uh, incidentally, I'm, I'm now wearing an official logo of our, our new sponsor for, for Foos Talk Live tournament beat, um, Boise Foosworks. And, uh, yeah, they're, they're making a, a really nice ball for, for, it's a refurb, obviously, but it's, uh, considering the issues that have been happening with tornado balls of late, uh, they've really made a difference and, and, uh, you know, kudos to Mike Veidt for, uh, for doing that.
[01:37:35] And of course, jumping on as our, as our new sponsor and want to thank him personally for that. But, uh, so any, any parting shots you'd like to make before we go? Nah, nah, man. This was honestly, Tom, this was fun. I enjoyed it. Um, cool. Love talking foosball, man. Always love talking foosball. So yeah, buddy. Yeah. As is always, man. Uh, thank you so much for, for, for being here and, uh, and being, being you just, just being you and happy, happy dog dad day.
[01:38:06] Thanks, buddy. Happy cat dad day to you. And, um, it doesn't have the same ring though. Cat dad day. It doesn't, not quite the same ring. I don't know. Just, just saying, you know, but, uh, we are, uh, this has been episode number 257 of Foos Talk Live. Thank you for tuning in and stick around. Yes, we have the, uh, the coveted Foos Talk Live tournament beat coming your way next. Time now for the Foos Talk Live tournament beat brought to you by Boise Foosworks.
[01:38:34] High fidelity refurbished foosballs. Professional foosball is a game of precision, a matter of accuracy, consistency. Boise Foosworks presents the high fidelity refurbished foosball. Meeting the highest tornado ball standards, high fidelity foosballs are soft, quiet, with a true roll and good durability. Exchange your balls for the high fidelity foosball at the best price with a money back guarantee.
[01:39:01] Contact Mike Veidt on Facebook Messenger or look for him at your next tour stop. Boise Foosworks, saving the planet one ball at a time. Foosball tournaments are everywhere. Foos Talk Live proudly presents a weekly update of events near you with the Foos Talk Live tournament beat. Here's what's up.
[01:39:24] Music City Nashville Foosball presents the Nationals warmup June 21st at the Moxie Vanderbilt Hotel, Nashville, Tennessee. 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.
[01:39:54] South Florida Foosball Club presents the 2025 Beachtown Beatdown, July 25th through the 27th. Lilo's in Lake Worth Beach, Florida. Don't miss the 2025 $18,500 Ohio State Foosball Championships and Hall of Fame. July 31st through August 3rd at the Crowne Plaza Columbus, Worthington, Ohio.
[01:40:18] 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.
[01:40:40] 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.
[01:41:01] 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.
[01:41:27] The Foos Talk Live Tournament Beat is brought to you by Boise Foos Works High Fidelity Refurbished Foosballs. 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'.