Ryan Moore takes a deep breath, just long enough to reflect about the WFT 2026 World Championships in New Orleans. Moore gets real about the triumphs and the challenges for the event and the future of the World Foosball Tour!
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[00:01:53] Visit www.original-leonhardt-usa.com and use promo code FoosTalk to save 10% off your purchase price. Once again, live here on Foos Talk Live. Hey there, it's Tom Robinson. Thanks for joining us on this Sunday evening on Twitch TV and YouTube. We are still thinking about just a couple of weeks ago.
[00:02:20] We're wrapping things up in New Orleans and wow, the memories are still very, very fresh. Regardless, you know, if we're going to talk about foosball, it's always a good idea to have somebody nearby who really digs the game. In fact, not just to play the game, but also to be a top ref in the pro level. That would be Randy Raposo from the great state of Alabama. What's up, Randy? Hey, Tom. Ooh, we sound a bit somber tonight.
[00:02:52] Well, the wounds from Worlds are fresh. The wounds. Yeah. Yeah. People, I don't think people understand how hard it is to go win at Worlds. I hear people talk and they're like, I'm going to go win this event at Worlds. They talk like they're going to the store to pick up bread. Yep. They really, like, it's, you know, you can never really pinpoint, like, who's going to win. It's just, it's tough. Every field is stacked.
[00:03:21] And so, you know, you go there and you put your best game on the table and see what happens. But it was tough. Worlds was tough this year. A lot of great teams, a lot of great players. The event itself was, I mean, it was great. You know, it was like last year, but better. You know, the venue was amazing. The room looked great. The tables, I felt like the tables were good. The balls were better. Yep. Oh, yeah. You know, everything about the tournament.
[00:03:49] I feel like the software was great. Everything ran really well. The tablets are a huge upgrade. Oh, the best. That is so cool. For minimizing. Yeah. For minimizing. Like, players are still figuring out ways around it. Like, there's loopholes. Because players are, players are so, they're so sneaky. Um, but it's, uh, it's definitely, it's definitely an improvement. So, but I mean, the man's here. The man's here. Let's talk to the man. Of course.
[00:04:16] Well, I mean, you know, uh, just to, just to say, you know, making foosball history, uh, forgive me for saying this, but making foosball history is never an easy task, right? It's never, never a simple thing just to say, I'm going to do it and just do it. Uh, but of course, you know, the, the person and persons and team, uh, world foosball tour, they've, uh, they've succeeded to set the bar at a very high level, uh, when it comes to any professional foosball worldwide. So there you have it. There's the introduction.
[00:04:46] Okay, Ryan, take it from here. But Ryan Moore. Yeah. He's, he's, uh, he's hanging with us tonight, dude. Um, how you feeling? Um, better. Amanda. How long? How long did you sleep after the tournament? Like, what was your stretch? You know, that's the thing. Um, my mom always used to tell me it takes her about a week to recover after one, like a major. Yep.
[00:05:16] And, and I would say that's pretty accurate, but this time I actually, um, I came home for three days and then I had to fly out. Mind you, I came home for three days. I did kind of take like one or two days off. Then I had to fly out to Colorado. And I actually closed, which I haven't even posted that yet. It was my life, but I actually closed on the sale of my first company, herbal healing. Wow. Um, so that took a solid week to, to get through that.
[00:05:44] So, and that was like, it was like, I was reliving worlds again because, you know, I was the one that was like heading that whole thing. And there's a lot more than just striking a pin at closing when you're not bringing your attorneys and accountants in, you literally have to do it all, right? All of them, you know, contract amendments and getting everybody on the same page agreeing. And it was just, it was a brutal couple of days inventorying the whole place. Well, that's, I mean. It was a brutal couple of days where everybody's just sitting in the room waiting for you to
[00:06:11] like do all this freaking pre-calc math. And, um, I mean, it was just a very complicated deal. It wasn't easy to close that deal. So, but I mean, that was, that was one of your first businesses, correct? It was my first, uh, first business. Exactly. Yeah. Like a child. I'm fully, I fully exited from the cannabis industry in Colorado now. Uh, and then I fully exited from the cannabis industry in Oklahoma and my only cannabis
[00:06:39] company I still have affiliation with is actually here in Kentucky. Uh, it's a new, it's a brand new company and the biggest company that I've ever been a part of. But, um, yeah, exited out of those. I've kind of retained some real estate. That's why the deal was so hard is we sold just the business, not the real estate. I had partners, you know, my sister was a partner and she actually took a bigger percentage in the store and bought the store from me with another person. So there's just a lot of moving parts, a whole lot of moving parts.
[00:07:09] And it was, let's just say that like, it was complicated. So anyways, long story short is I didn't get a whole lot of rest. Um, and it just, it just lags, man. It just, it just drags on and on and on and on. And, and, you know, at the same time too, my brain is going a hundred mile an hour. So no, not, not a whole lot of rest, but I'm good now. Like I'm, I'm solid. Nice. Nice. Yeah. Resetting, uh, and, uh, getting ready for what what's to come here, which is still the,
[00:07:38] the international, uh, arena. You've got, uh, Vienna coming up, correct? Yeah. So, you know, we're still buttoning up worlds. I mean, we haven't even done a whole bunch of posts, but there's, there's just a lot of moving parts right now. Um, with our team, that's going to be extremely fruitful longterm, but for now there's just a lot of moving parts and also the thing in, in Colorado.
[00:08:02] And, uh, but we're working on some, um, partnerships and deals, uh, with some amazing people, uh, in the foosball world, which has kind of stalled us a little bit, but we should have some content coming out as early as tomorrow. Um, to really start like, you know, showing how amazing worlds really was from a media side of things. I mean, that was the best, um, media pull from a tournament.
[00:08:29] I think foosball has ever gotten and anything and everything we could have hoped for to get at worlds. We got plus some, so we were just afterwards going like, wow, that never happens. Like usually you have high expectations, but we had high expectations and we exceeded those. Um, so we were, we were like, we were all just like Joe, it's like, uh, you know, he's, he's involved now. We were all afterwards. Like, we're just like giddy. Like we're set. Like we are, we're set for what we needed to start blowing this thing up.
[00:08:59] Like, this was it. This was, this was the players. They came in, they, they, you know, they, they pushed hard. They wanted to win. They put it all out there. Genuine. This was all genuine. This wasn't staged. This was genuine, like enthusiasm from the players. Genuine enthusiasm from the crowd. Yeah. I'd say about 80%, right? I mean, we got hype guys, but people wanted to, I mean, that, I know you guys felt that that was the craziest feeling inside of the foosball room you've ever.
[00:09:29] You felt your entire life. And I've been in like, I've been over in like, uh, France when they have like 800 people or something all in that big thing. And that was cool. But, and that was just big because it was like a lot of people there, but this was big because of the notion in the room. Like, yeah, you know, it was like 800 people from France that had no clue about foosball. They didn't really cheer. This was like blood, you know, all the CM types. It was, it was a standard. It was amazing.
[00:09:58] The Mario Tony match was, you could feel the end. Like that was the loudest I've ever like experienced in a foosball tournament in my life. It was unreal. It was so cool, dude. It was so cool. Yeah. This is what it should be. It's like, you know, you walk into that room and people are reacting this way and you're going, well, why hasn't it been like this before? This, this is damn. This is what it should be. People understand it, man. Yeah. They understand the assignment. Yeah. The players were invested.
[00:10:28] The players were invested in what was happening. Like the spectators were invested in the match. It was, it was, it was such a good match, but like people wanted, people wanted this guy to win. You know what I mean? And it was just, yes. Yes. And it was awesome. It was awesome. And you know, we were, we were truly like, dude, I've, I've, I spent five grand in Vegas 2025, just trying to get the crowd hype. Like I was like, look, pick a side. I'm giving away five grand. All I want you guys to do is get crazy.
[00:10:56] Because that five grand, if foosball blows up, that five grand is a nothing investment. Yeah. If foosball blows up. So I was like willing to like do anything and people would just, they didn't even care. Right. So, you know, I was talking with Joe before his term. I said, we have to figure out how, what is it going to take? I mean, we, we have a long-term plan on how to get people to cheer for people and that will work. Yeah. And that's really just making it territorial again, which, which we're going to be doing. But we're like, how do we do it now?
[00:11:25] And you know, a vet made a really good, um, a really good suggestion. Observation would be a better word. She's like, you know, because we all say like nobody wants to cheer for anybody because they don't want to get big people mad. She's like, well, you know, people would cheer. They just don't want to use their, their voice because their voice could be heard and they know who's saying it. And she's like, let's get some noise makers. Let's get some great. Great idea. And she's like, people will potentially, you know, create noise without actually using
[00:11:55] their voice. And what it did is it, it was just a compounding effect. People started using those clappers. Do, do, do, do, do, do. Right. That was cool. And people were going bananas. The whole room was just going, smacking each other. Like I was walking past the crowd and they're just smacking everybody smacking me. I was like, this is so surreal. And, uh, and, and what it did is it, it opened the door that people using their voice now. And once you start using your voice, more people are using their voice. Now there's a hundred people using their voice.
[00:12:23] Now it doesn't feel weird to use your voice no more. We just, that one idea broke through the barrier of the crowd getting involved. Absolutely. Investing. And, you know, it was a combination of that. And also the players were putting it all out there, the story behind the whole thing, people realizing we truly are filming this for, uh, much more than just YouTube. Uh, even though YouTube will get a good, good, a lot, a lot from this. Uh, so like, yeah, I mean, and it was a big deal. It's the world championships.
[00:12:53] I mean, it's the biggest event of the year. Uh, you know, 20 K, 8 K, uh, even the foosball tables for the women. I mean, their, their match was going for like five grand. Uh, so then, you know, there's some money on the line. Uh, all the pride was on the line. Um, for the top players, the top 10 men and women, not a lot of, uh, they knew about it, but this was the last and final tournament for the top 10 men and women to be sponsored for next year. We, we moved everything up to be worlds. Now is from worlds to worlds.
[00:13:22] It's no longer January 1st to December 31st. It's the tour years starts after worlds and, and concludes at worlds, which mentally us foosball players already do it. Like everything's leading up to worlds. Once world hits, it's like you win or lose. Yeah. So now we have a new tour year starting. Anyways, long story short is the top 10 were crowned. So all these top players are pushing hard to get in that top 10. Cause anybody could have did it. Uh, I mean, it was all real. It was authentic. There was nothing fabricated.
[00:13:50] Like we were even on the verge of talking about like, maybe we have to fabricate it to start whatever, you know, whatever it takes to get foosball to grow. Like there's no not foosball not growing. It's not an option. They do that at live television all the time. I mean, if you've ever gone to a taping of a, of a show that, uh, like a, like a letterman or something like that, they coach the audience in advance. You know, when this light goes on, you will cheer. And I just saw somebody post on like inside or something, Facebook talking about pop darts on ESPN.
[00:14:20] Like, are you kidding me? I've been watching pop darts for a long time. Yeah. I've been watching them for a long time and really inspirational. And the reason why I say that is because it has not a whole lot of substance. It is easy to follow and understand. Kind of, I guess you, I bet you probably don't even know how the points are calculated. Um, but they started actually visually showing that, but what they did right. Which I don't necessarily agree with is they fabricated the crowd.
[00:14:49] If you look at, there's only two tournaments that are going viral right now at pop darts. One's in LA and one's at the ESPN in Orlando. They paid for that facility. It's like 30 K or something. Okay. And they hired in a bunch of people in the crowd behind them. Huh? And the reason why I know this is the same people at both. And these people are just being retarded. And when they do what's called like a whipple ganger or whatever, when they land a pop dart on a pop dart. And all of a sudden the crowd goes wild.
[00:15:17] Two guys, two buff guys rip their shirts off and they're in the dead center of the background. They both rip their shirts off. This guy flips a table. This guy shoots a confetti cannon into his balls and he's hurting. And like, it's just all this shit. And it's all staged. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's all staged. There might be some people there. But it's blowing up. It's going viral, right? They went from 300,000 followers in like four months. They're at 600,000 followers on Facebook.
[00:15:47] Yeah. No kidding. Quick observation. Because they're getting something like hundreds of millions of views in those last four months. A quick observation. Earlier today, I was just flipping around the channels and I was going past the layers of ESPN on my system. And I came across a pickleball match and it was, it turns out it was like a national championship of pickleball. And it was, it was, it was doubles. It was the open doubles match.
[00:16:11] And in the stands, there might've been a fraction of people sitting there watching from what we had at Worlds, you know, for foosball. And I mean, they were sort of cheering, kinda, but it really kind of took away from the actual excitement that could be generated from an open doubles match like that. And pickleball has 70 million players for God's sake. Guys, we, we, we crushed that. Yeah.
[00:16:38] From the, the, the, from, from your, your boys being in the background and the, in the finals area to the storylines, to the, to, to Isabel winning and showing authentic emotion. And not only that, I don't know if y'all choked up a little bit. I choked up a little bit when she won, like everybody choked up. Oh yeah. You know, uh, to authentic, to, to even the whole Tony singles thing. And there's a lot of controversy on that where, uh, Kevin brought in all of Costa Rica. Tony said, nobody's coming to my corner. And I told him, I said, you guys know who's coming in your corner?
[00:17:08] And Kevin was like, yeah, I got, I got my 10. And he's like, oh, maybe bud. He's like, maybe nobody. And I was like, I like that. And he looked at me and he's like, yeah. And I'm like, I like that. I like that storyline. So watch how we, we, we spin that storyline. But I mean, that really does some, some Tony up, you know, Tony is a lone wolf. He always has been. That's why he's one of the best singles players in the world. He's good. Great doubles player. He's a great player, period.
[00:17:36] But he is a lone wolf. He, he eats, he hunts. He does everything by himself. And then he shares with people, you know? So the fact that he's like, I don't want nobody behind me. I'm doing it myself. Like, that is Tony. I was like, that's why I was like, when he said that, I was like, I like that. And so I went over to Joe and I went over to Mr. Biggs and I said, hey, listen, this is what's about to happen. I want you to key in on that. So Joe, you'll see this.
[00:18:05] Joe was sitting there taking fucking 4K video of an empty stand behind him. Empty seats, I remember. Sitting there staring at for like three minutes or something. It would do, it's going to be epic. It's going to be great. But it really, it truly is the match. You know? And I mean, yeah. Anyways, sorry, tangents. No, no, no. That's, that's, that's perfect. Now, I was just wondering, you know, cause Joe obviously has, he's his history within the sport now since doing the documentary Foosballers.
[00:18:35] I mean, he, I saw him a couple of times on the floor when he was working the tournament. He looked like he was working hard. I mean, he was busting his chops to, to do the best he could. And I, you know, I just chatted with him briefly and he's like, man, I'm really sorry. I got to go. I got to do my thing. You know? It's like, that guy's dedicated. So, uh, and, and telling the story once all this is said and done and all the, all the footage is, is, is, is whacked together. And it comes up, I can't wait to see what that's going to be like.
[00:19:04] Me and Joe were, um, we're, we're, we're getting, we're getting, we're, we're getting some places. And we probably spent in the last month and a half of, I don't know, maybe. I know 10 days together or at the time, I mean, before worlds at one point, it felt like that was my job was actually to bring him up to speed and to get him what he needed, uh, in order to do it.
[00:19:32] He even was like, dude, he's like, I'm sure I'm annoying the hell out of you. And I was like, well, hard to get stuff done, but, you know, but it's very important. Um, but Joe is a visionary. He's a guy that actually can see things before they happen. Kind of like myself. And he knows what he needs to get, but he he's, he's intelligent. Um, who's ball couldn't ask for a better person in the position that he is taking right now.
[00:20:00] Um, in which right now isn't nothing official, but he is working directly with WFT full time right now. Wow. Um, nothing official, but as of right now we are, we are working together. Um, but that guy, um, will be the, you know, one of the main reasons why we take foosball to the next level. Yeah.
[00:20:23] So, uh, we're, we're working very closely together right now and, uh, just trying to finalize a lot of things, but he is, uh, he's going to be a big asset to foosball. Um, and he loves foosball and he, he plays it, you know, he's, he's like, I'm terrible at it, but he loves it. You know, he's genuinely, he's a fan. That, uh, brings to mind that I think maybe joy and Joe and I, and a few others should get together to do a, uh, maybe a special media, a special media match of some kind.
[00:20:53] Just saying, I'll take, I'll take Randy as my partner. Just, you know, just in case. It's like, yeah, yeah. Till hell freezes over. I'm sure. But Hey, whatever. Um, no, um, by the way, when you guys sat before the, uh, the, the big, the main event, you had the, uh, the, the sports desk, uh, you and Chase Pennell and, uh, and of course, uh, Keith Glenn sat up there. I mean, what did that feel like?
[00:21:22] You know, it was not what I thought it was going to feel like. First, I want to give you the backstory on it. Um, Joe came up with the idea. Um, I had told him we had been wanting to do something sports cast like, but, and we, so he came up with the idea to do it and initiated the whole thing. And it was like a week and a half before world. We're like, fuck, here we go again. You know, just like the tablets for nationals. Like we did that a week before worlds and we're like, God dang it.
[00:21:50] Like, and then me and Evette came up with the idea of where to put it. And then Josh actually built it. So we built it all in house. And, um, when I got on there, uh, actually, uh, Randy got to go up there with me and do some seed seed work. Okay. Uh, but when I got up there, like they, they, they, they asked me like the audio guy, we had audio engineer there and he's like, so where do you want this sound to go? And I'm like, well, to the stream recording.
[00:22:19] And I said, put it to the room. He said, you want to go to the room? I'm like, put it to the room. I was like, that's going to add some crazy, but yeah. And I said, put it to the room. It's going to feel like sports center in the room, you know? Um, so he did that. And then I was a little nervous for chase and for Keith. I'm pretty good on a mic now. I'm I've almost lost all my stage fright. You're an old pro. Um, but I was a little worried about them getting some stage fright and maybe not being as fluent as we'd like.
[00:22:49] Uh, but what was really cool is like, you put these earmuffs on and these things are like, I mean, they're legit, right? You can't kind of like what you're wearing. You can't hear nothing around you. So it truly felt like we were just talking on live screen to ourselves. We could only hear each other, some faint noise in the backs and you know, the slappers. And it truly felt like we were having a conversation with each other.
[00:23:10] Sure. So for not planning anything, for not scripting anything, which we should have already scripted some of this and there should be like a lead person that kind of sure blows the conversation. So we're getting what we need for TV and we've talked about this already, but for not having any script, I thought we did phenomenal. I thought it felt fluent. Um, and I thought it added a level of, of, of, um, energy to the room and online to the stream.
[00:23:38] I mean, I mean, people on stream were going nuts about it. Like, Holy crap, this is next level, you know? Yep. Uh, so yeah, it was, it was a really good last minute addition to the tournament added a whole element during the finals. And, uh, we have already ways of, we're going to make it better. We're going to do pre days. We're going to do the pregame shows before the day starts. So we can kind of get the story building from the very beginning, bring more names into it, bring, bring more storylines possibly through it.
[00:24:05] Uh, again, this is Joe, Joe, Joe's, uh, he's going to have a lot of, a lot of really good ideas. Uh, and he'll be able to take out a lot of my ideas as well that I can't actually do. Cause I'm not a video editor slash recorder slash production guy. Yeah. Well, the desk that I felt like the desk definitely added a level of professionalism. Like it brought it way up. And then I had no idea the desk was there for like three days.
[00:24:34] Cause I never just, I never walked in front of it. So I didn't know. So when you were, when you were like, dude, help me do the seeds. I was like, okay. And then you walk me over. I was like, I was like, what is this? Dude, this is so cool. And then when you see it from the other side, like when they're actually recording, it's, it's unbelievable. Like it really just elevates the whole thing. It's, it's super cool. Super cool. Yeah. Yeah. This is what, uh, this is what any, any professional sport needs. We need the spectacle.
[00:25:04] We need that kind of, uh, intensity and, uh, man, uh, if that's what we, we have in store for the future, look out, look out. That was our first dry run. Yeah. You know, literally Joe, uh, he's an expert in video editing. He's an expert. Even he's, he can produce things. Obviously you saw foosballers. He's, he's put many things on many different TVs. He's done from cartoons to real, to documentaries, to, to anything and everything on the sun. But one thing he doesn't know is streaming. One thing he doesn't know is live shows.
[00:25:33] So he was actually coming in the hot seat going, you know, well, Ryan, I want to do this. I'm like, we can't do that. Cause we have to do this. And he's like, okay. Um, and you know, when I, when I was talking to him, like it was a cluster. Like everything looked peachy and great, but on the backside guys, my ass was getting burned. Like I was furious with how many things that were going wrong, but nobody sees. And I'm really good at masking it. Yeah. Um, but it truly is the most difficult thing.
[00:26:00] Uh, any producer production guy, all these, even the audio guys, the video guys, everybody's kind of like, what the fuck? This is a retarded because it's not just filming for something. We're literally doing live feed for the people, live production. We're doing live streaming and we're doing post-production trying to get all three at the same time. So we're trying to create something in the future. We're trying to give a product online right now that looks like something we're trying to create in the future.
[00:26:28] And we're trying to make sure everybody in house gets a great experience too. Oh yeah. And the fact is, if I concentrated on just one of them, it would be amazing, but the other two would fail. So, you know, he didn't understand like streaming because he's never been a streamer. That's super fine. Totally cool. Um, and, and, you know, the audio guy was even like, you know, I've, I've never done, I think, I know he didn't say this, but he probably never did live at the same time doing recording at the same time doing live stream. Cause he didn't have a clue about live stream.
[00:26:58] Right. So it was just an absolute cluster. And for the fact that we was piecemealing it together, uh, I mean, me and Yvette had an idea of everything. Cause we did already the streaming. We did already the live. We just didn't do all the content for post-production. Uh, so yeah, it was just, it was a cluster and it still went exceptional for it being a cluster, but yeah, it was, there was a lot of, a lot of, uh, things happen in the world
[00:27:24] that every single tournament we're, I mean, you're, you're going to see it. I don't know about Vienna. Vienna, we're going to definitely do a really hard push for Vienna. We're going to have our camera guys there. We're going to be filming it. We're going to be live streaming it. We're going to be doing everything. But even at TKO for sure, cause we have so many people in house, we're literally going to be trying to do similar, not quite, quite as hype as worlds, but okay. Similar things at TKO and we're building to the next world championships.
[00:27:51] How much of a, when you go to Vienna, how much of that are you going to be bringing with you and how much of that can you actually get there when you're in Europe? Yeah. So we're still finalizing everything. All I know is we sent a truckload from worlds to Vienna already. Oh, so. Oh damn. Yeah. There's already, there's like 30 tables over there already. We just shipped over 30 tables in a container. We did, uh, some like pipe and drape. We did some audio equipment.
[00:28:19] Um, the place we're at is like the nicest, uh, potentially, I mean, yeah, it's probably the nicest venue, uh, for who's ball tournament ever. And when I say that, I don't mean like, like it's not going to, it's not a hotel and venue. It's just sheerly a venue, but it's like super upscale. It has like the second floor UFO looking sitting area, huge stage, a huge LED screen and lighting. The whole facility already has lighting throughout the whole place, audio throughout the whole place. So it's already all built out.
[00:28:49] So we don't quite need all that stuff except for the fact that it's stupid expensive to rent it. Um, so we're just bringing our own audio in, but like all of the stuff, all the lights is already there. We're going to just use the LED wall. It's going to be actually a really cool setup. It'll be an LED wall versus like what we'd normally have. And there'll be three tables with these huge LED screens behind the people. So that'll be a really cool new setup. But yeah, we're already planning for that. Um, but yeah, yeah.
[00:29:17] I mean, uh, I have my hopes. Me and Joe got to get some stuff worked out. Uh, but I have, uh, after worlds, that was, that was the one place we crushed it. We absolutely crushed capturing media for foosball to grow, which was to be honest with you guys, our priority. Okay. We prioritize that over many things at worlds. Uh, so it did kind of give some people maybe less of a great experience in some situations. We had some nights that went long.
[00:29:47] We had some nights that went perfect. Um, you know, Wednesday and Thursday was perfect. We had everything done Thursday night, but like four matches and handicap doubles. Literally every event was done Thursday night. Um, and we actually, uh, me and Reed, you know, we use, uh, Claude obviously, uh, for a lot of, uh, our coding and stuff, but we, uh, he did some reports, um, because we're trying to utilize AI to even help us optimize the tournaments a little bit.
[00:30:14] And even Claude was like, look, the majority of your people got a great experience at worlds, but there was absolutely these really bad issues and we already knew them. Right. Okay. Uh, and that's kind of what we have to keep grounding ourself with. We hear all the complaints. We hear all the problems and they hammer us and it sits right up here at the top of the brain. It's a few people, even I wouldn't say a few, maybe even like 10%. We probably had 10%. Um, but the other 90 year old, like, yeah, I had a great time.
[00:30:43] Everything went fluid, but there's some events that was like way back. But most people, it went fluid, you know? So, um, So you're referring to specifically what Saturday and Sunday nights are, uh, where, where the, the bottlenecks took place. Yeah. And, you know, even Friday and the, there, there was many reasons for it.
[00:31:07] One of them was actually software related, um, with a, it was a very small problem that we didn't really catch. And once we caught it, we didn't really get it fixed properly. Um, but like our system automatically calls matches and we have this priority threshold that we set up. And the, the flights have super priority. Meaning if you're still actively in a flight, it will not play in another event. But besides that, it's just prioritization after that. Right?
[00:31:37] So when somebody gets knocked out of the flights, well, they play everywhere else, right? Everywhere else. They play anywhere than ever else. The issue we were having is the system. And I may not be saying this Hunter, right? So sorry to read if I'm saying this wrong, but this is what I got from it. The system, the settings that it was put in kind of put everything in that same bucket. And if something, everything has a priority setting. So like, let's say handicap doubles is 50 and open mix is 55.
[00:32:07] If both these matches are available at the same time, it's going to play open mix. And the way we're building our system, we're probably giving away too much intel right now. The way we're building our system is if this handicap doubles gets two rounds behind, it'll gain 10 points, which will then pit it priority over the next. So with a number game to tell us if something's been, if something's a day behind, it started yesterday, it automatically gains points. Like, there's this number game we're going to be playing to make this a perfect auto call system.
[00:32:35] But for Worlds, it had it to where everything was super priority. So event at 50, if they were still in an event at 55 points, it would not play them until they were out of this event. So it was not automatically calling people for most all the specialty events. And it was our staff manually was calling. And when we do manual calling, we have this in Vegas, you have an eight-minute average, sometimes 15 to 30 minutes that a match won't get called when it was ready to be called.
[00:33:05] Whereas everything else, it's just boom, auto call. So we were having some of these issues where people are like, I'm waiting around all day. Hey, it's not conflicted. Like, look, and I didn't even know about this until somebody came up to me and said, look, I'm not, it's not conflicted and it's not calling me. And I'm like, that's impossible. And I go on the back end and I see their match sitting there in the tree. And I'm like, why the hell ain't this being called? And I was like, well, maybe they're holding it for some reason. I went up there and they're like, no, it's, we're having some issues with the auto call, this and that.
[00:33:33] And long story short was like, it was maybe like three hours away from being fixed. I would say maybe we could add a fix in three hours, but there's so many fires going on at Worlds. Like it's just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. So a lot of these negative experiences that players had, that mothers had of kids and all this other stuff was literally due to that. Um, I don't want to blame it entirely on that, but that was a good chunk of it. And this is just the power.
[00:34:01] I mean, we're creating a new technology that is going to just blow the experience away for everybody. I mean, it's going to be amazing. I mean, and for the local promoters and for the state promoters and for anybody and everybody that uses it, it's going to be like, holy crap, it's the best software ever. But we're literally working through the kinks and it comes at a cost, you know? Well, it's, it's like everything that, uh, that's worthwhile. It takes, uh, it takes a long time to go through the crucible of, uh, of real action of real, real life experience.
[00:34:29] Uh, not just for people, but for the, for the, for the, uh, software, obviously. Uh, yeah, you just got to get burned a little along the way. And it's tough because all I care about honestly is throwing the best tournament. So when I see these negatives and I hear them and it's not only do I hear them, like, it's like people in your face kind of like, this is kind of horseshit. And I'm like, yeah, you're, you're not wrong. I mean, like it is horseshit. You know, I'm like, but you know, I don't know. Like if it's bad enough, you want your money back?
[00:34:58] Like, I mean, for me, it's not about money. I really want people to have a great time. Um, but yeah, I mean, we, we had to do that. We, you know, so anyways, we had, for the majority of the people at Worlds, I think it was an amazing tournament. It was well ran. Everybody played quickly. Open Mix was highly affected with this problem. Uh, Handicap Doubles was highly affected with this problem. Uh, and also scheduling.
[00:35:28] Um, Expert Mix, highly affected. Junior Events, highly affected. Um, and we even have like senior women's doubles. Like we have a report of everything that was like, we, we know how long people wait for. We have literally reports of like every single person that waited and how long they waited and the average wait time. And because that way we can look at this tournament over tournament and say, are we, are we getting better at this? You know, are we getting better at people waiting? Are we getting better at the optimization? Is this point value and that point value working?
[00:35:58] Is it not worth, so, you know, so anyways, it's exciting as much as it's painful to have to go through it. So that, that's the, that's the ugly side of Worlds where we had a lot of failure, um, just with getting people through the matches. We played super late, um, Sunday night, Monday morning, which we always do, but it was too late for a lot of main events. Uh, a lot of that was also prioritization of content. Um, you know, so we didn't get the award ceremonies off.
[00:36:27] Like these are the, these are the negatives that happen, right? Not everything goes perfect. And, and I'm totally cool with it for one reason. I know I finally understood myself just before Worlds. Sorry, I'm on this long rant. No, no, it's good. But I finally understood myself before Worlds. I'm like, I'm always pushing me and my team so damn hard that I pretty much do it until we start failing enough to where it's uncomfortable. And then I kind of just pull back.
[00:36:53] So I always push ourselves to slight failure before I finally start pulling back and say, all right, let's hold off. Let's not push so hard guys. Let's, let's just perfect. And it's just my ambition to try to like get the next thing done, you know, um, you know, get to that next level. So I'm always pushing us to failure. So I got, I got to give my team a little slack there. Cause it's my fault. You know, I want this, I want this, I want that. I want this, I want that. Well, you can get it, but it comes with a cost, you know? Yeah.
[00:37:22] If, if X is true, then Y well has to, has to give, or if Y is true, then X has to give and some, something has to give. So yeah. Josh always said that he's like, will you quit buying shit? And I'm like, what are you talking about? He's like, every tournament I got more shit to do. Like, yeah. Like this tournament was those kiosks, you know? And that was just one, one of the items. But it was. Yeah. Let's, let's talk about that. That those screens. Sorry, bro. Yeah.
[00:37:49] The, the screens that were there, that, uh, the, the big touch screens, they're kind of, uh, uh, monitors turned on their sides. Um, those are really cool. I mean that, and we've never seen those before. And, uh, how did that happen? What are that, how did that come about? The power of the players, man. You know, people give us ideas and we like, we take the good ones and we, we don't, the bad ones. You know, the players said we'd like to have a screen to see the matches, you know, for some of us older folk that don't like to get on the phone.
[00:38:17] We'd also like to see other people when they're playing and find their friends and, um, just some sort of generalization, general marker. Somebody that maybe the phone dies. That was a situation. Somebody said they wish they had it. Um, European players, maybe their internet's out. Uh, there was just a lot of these situations, different situations that people were asking for a centralized match list that they could see. So we were like, okay, let's do that.
[00:38:43] And then, uh, I was going to get an LED one, but those were like four grand. And, and then I found this one, which is basically the same thing. It was like 1300 bucks. And I was like, okay. And I was like, that's cool. I was like, you know what else we could do? We could have another one hyper focused on like the events that are happening today. We didn't fully realize it. Um, but focused on the events that were happening today. And it would be like videos that are playing on like the finals tonight at 8 PM, get your seats.
[00:39:09] And like, you know, for Laura, like we saw that a little bit, like sponsored ads and stuff like that. So one could be more like hype and, and information. And the other one is just straight like match logs, winners. And, you know, Reed really did that. So we had all the ideas, but Reed realized all of this. So, um, he's the one that made those look pretty. Cause all I did was say, Hey, this is what I'd like. And he did it. I'm like, excellent. Very cool. Great job.
[00:39:37] It reminded me of an airport, like arriving and departing those big screens. I was like, I was like, nice. See tables, players. There's a lot we can do. So it's good. You know, there's a lot, a lot that we can do with those. Cause they're, they're basically computers. They have USB ports. Um, so I don't, I mean, we haven't looked into it, but my speculation is we could do a lot of things. You could even have like photo booths there.
[00:40:01] You could do things like you could literally attach like a, uh, some sort of like video recording. You might be able to talk to it one day and like have like a little AI Donald there. How you doing? What you need? AI Donald. Oh boy. Donald's watching, by the way. Donald, we, we, we love you. We love you. Yeah. AI is coming for your job, Donald. And AI Donald.
[00:40:27] So the, the, uh, the, I forgot what you called them, but the, like the live lessons, how were those? Those seem like they were pretty well attended. The level up. Yeah, level up lessons. Um, so we got six out of eight of them off, uh, learned a lot. Golly, I learned a lot as much as other people learned a lot. A couple of things I learned and I, nobody even told me this, but I felt it. And I heard people say stuff and, and that was enough for me to like, want to switch things up. I always focus on the things I got to fix.
[00:40:56] Number one is like it being in the center of the room, maybe wasn't so great because it was probably distracting to a lot of people. A lot of people were probably listening to that as they were playing and trying to not misinformation. I had people tell me they were in the pits and they're like, oh yeah, I heard you say something about this. And that was my realization. Like, Ooh, wow. Those were probably way too loud. So, and, and, you know, too many people are probably listening to that. It's probably distracting. So in the future tournaments, I want to kind of figure out a way to like pull it to the
[00:41:23] side of the room and then have the, uh, speakers focused on just that area. So only if you're in that area. Yeah. Um, so that was one of the things I wanted to change right away. I need to pull back from it a little bit. It was a little too many of them. Um, and I need to pull them away from the main days when I'm going to be slammed. Cause I'm barely, it was Saturday and Sunday. I got one off each day because I was just slammed. I'm like, you know, sorry, this and that. But besides those, but pulling back a little bit, maybe doing like one a day max and, or
[00:41:53] maybe three or four and not on the main days, um, would be perfect. Moving it off to the side would be perfect. Otherwise, man, I loved it. I thought I felt good doing it. And I felt good, like vibes coming from it, uh, from the players. Like you can see people's like mind and like, they're like almost like, ah, okay. Ooh. Oh, you know, me and Brandon was talking. A lot of people was, you could just have, you see those aha moments.
[00:42:21] Um, and then like, just, it's just value. Right. So it's like, how do I give people value so that they have a better experience, a better time at our events. Um, but not cost money. Cause that's the problem. Value always costs money to give people value. And this is one way of doing it. It's just, it's my time. Um, so it's, it's made to be more of an in-person experience kind of thing.
[00:42:47] Uh, you know, so there's a lot of these little value things that we're wanting to add. That was one I had at the very beginning in 2025. Like all these ideas that are just not coming up now. I've talked to you many, many times, Tom. I told you there's just so much in the tank right now. Yeah. These are all ideas that were thought about even before I took over. Um, they're just finally starting to get realized. Um, one step at a time. Right. I mean, you, you can't, Rome was not built in a day. Um, quick question about the level ups.
[00:43:16] Are there recordings of those available through the subscription on YouTube for a world foosball tour? Yeah. So if you, uh, or WFT all access, you can go on table one hundreds. Uh, I don't, and to be honest with you guys, I haven't been able to be on YouTube last two weeks. It's been out a little bit. My wife, uh, she's, she's had, uh, some stuff she had to work through this last week as well. Uh, but I don't, it should be on there. It should be on the table one hundreds all day, all access pass.
[00:43:46] And then you just have to find the times that I did it. And then you should be able to tune into everything that was said there. I know that whatever we did record, we plan on pulling that to the WFT all access being like its own videos. Um, but that's just kind of the, the beginnings of, of level up that will become its own, um, like lesson campaign on YouTube. We're leaning towards actually keeping that under all access, but it's a very, very
[00:44:12] expensive endeavor both to create it, to it's, it's not even like I could do an hour and I could probably get 10 videos from that hour, um, worth of content. It's not really that part. The part is actually creating it, harnessing it, editing it, curating it to where it's nice. Yep. And then following up with it, following up with people. Like that's the expensive part. And you know, everybody at WFT is paid. We're all paid and they're paid real wages.
[00:44:42] We're not paid cheap. Everybody's paid real wages here. And that's why we're getting shit done. You know, uh, foosball has always needed money. And I was able to do it and Floro coming in and NuFab coming in, even, even crane at worlds. I mean, this stuff's massive, right? But everybody's a paid position, uh, real value paid position. Uh, so what that means is when I, when I enable something and it takes a week's worth of somebody's
[00:45:11] time, well, that's 1300, 1400 bucks. Yeah. You know, that's what that costs me. That's real cost. So again, we, we, we're trying to figure out how we monetize it to where it actually makes sense. And it gives people the value that they, they, they get from it. But we plan on having that online, maybe by the end of year, maybe as long as we can get caught up. Yeah. So it was, it was set to be a sooner, but that'll be super cool. And then everything for beginners, like all a level up for beginners will be completely free.
[00:45:41] So that'll be all, you know, like, it'll be like, Hey, go to world foosball tour YouTube. And not only is it like all the videos of all things, it's like also videos to learn because we want people to get better faster. Like that's what will keep people playing as they learn just something that goes, Oh, and then they're like, Oh, that's cool. I just learned that I did it, you know? So, um, yeah, level up has a, there's a, there's a reason for level up, uh, to, to grow foosball. Nice. It's part of it. That's a, that's a huge part of the experience for sure. Yeah.
[00:46:11] When you go to world. It was good. I sat in on, uh, on a couple and I mean, it was super informative, good information. Like I said, I knew it would be. Um, but I, so I have a question about officiating. I feel like, so the tablet, the tablets were super cool. Like when you got called to ref, you punched in your stuff, the tablet basically tells you your reffing tells you what the players owe. Like it really eliminates the desk, which makes it really nice.
[00:46:40] Um, but I still felt throughout the weekend that there was a delay in getting officials to tables. How significant was that in impacting how the tournament ran? Like, cause I still feel like that's kind of a problem, right? Like getting refs to tables. Was that noticeable or was that really not a big deal for the weekend? I don't have enough information to be able to give you a real answer. I got you. I didn't hear enough about it.
[00:47:09] That's usually how I hear things. It's like, I've been waiting all day for a ref or this and that. And you know, uh, I read, if you're listening, can you pull a report to see how long it took for a ref to get to the table after they asked for it? There you go. Okay. Yes. I'll pull a report in about 15 minutes. I'll have it sent to you. There was, there was, there was a couple of matches that I reffed where I was like doing
[00:47:36] something and I heard them calling for a ref and I was like, nobody's going. And then finally I was like, all right. And I just went over and did it, but it was like 20 minutes. Um, but it just like, I have an idea for something that I would like to do to help with the official, uh, the officiating situation. But it's something that would need to talk to you off, you know, off screen about, but I like, there are, there are players that want to officiate.
[00:48:02] I know there are players that want to officiate, but I feel like, um, you know, people got to learn the rules, obviously. There's just, there's been classes or, or, uh, uh, opportunities for people to learn more about roughing. I mean, is that? Yeah. Yeah. But you know, like the officials clinics usually on a Thursday, some people don't get into Friday or Saturday and then like taking the test. Sometimes it's hard to take the test and then, you know, even practical application of the rules.
[00:48:29] It's, it's hard for players to have the opportunity to do that. So there's, there's like, and, and there's a list. I mean, I've seen the list. It's huge. And, you know, Donald and I have talked about it, but like, there's a lot of players that are officials that just don't officiate. So, yeah, I mean, you know, we've talked to every single possible route with officiating. I mean that, you know, again, um, you know, we, we've studied like what the ITSF did.
[00:48:55] We ultimately decided to go away from that route, which is they provide the rest for free. We need to call for it. But the problem is, is you get skippy or you get nothing. Um, and what I mean by that is literally at world cup, I called for a rep. We waited for 20, 30 minutes and they said, sorry, no rest available. Play on. I'm like, yeah, like, come on. I mean, there's, you know, there's people in, and that, and that's because they have paid reps or they have people that are volunteered reps or whatever it is. Um, but there's only so many of them.
[00:49:24] And the thing is, is when it's free, people are more likely to call for them. Yeah. So they're not as available. So we decided to say, yeah, we're not going to go that route. We're going to go ahead and make the supply and demand. But right now the supply is short. The demand's high. Um, you know, and I actually blame some of that to being a table issue too. I mean, there's a lot of table issues, but like all the resets, all the jars, all that shit would go away if our table just wasn't so janky.
[00:49:51] Um, and, and that was something else you were talking about with, uh, referees. I did hear a lot about maintenance. Holy balls. A lot of table maintenance. A lot of table maintenance. We literally have to pay, um, let's just say Leon and Terry, uh, they are, they are overly compensated to literally sit in that chair. And that's all they do because table maintenance is the most prone item. Right. There's literally, they're, they're doing one thing.
[00:50:19] Then they go to the next, then they go to the next and the new rod, rod, rod, rod, rod, rod, broken man, this, that. And it's the world. It's people ain't messing around. They're like, I want good equipment. Yeah. I'm like, I feel you. Uh, but you know, this stuff is, is brutal because every rod costs me. I think our cost on a rod now is like $49 and we sell them for 63 for one run. We make $14 on, on the $49. I mean, dude, it's insanity.
[00:50:46] And so like, you know, at a state tournament, we have 20 rods go down. That's a grand. That's basically my profit margin on what I make on these state tournaments. Seriously. So it's been pretty brutal. Um, so that at least we've somewhat pulled to a minimum by having a set Leon, a set Terry fight master, um, to do that with, uh, refs. Could I subsidize a ref to come there full time? Sure. But is that going to solve it? That only help because who refs when that person's reffing already. Yeah.
[00:51:16] You know, a ref is 30 minutes. Table maintenance is fine. Um, so it doesn't quite work. So it's like, okay, maybe I need to subsidize five refs. Okay. I subsidize five refs. That's five grand. Uh, okay. So I guess, you know, on 700 people, I need everybody to give me $8 more and then it's five refs enough. Will five refs run out eventually? You know, like that's the question. Well, it depends on how many matches you've got simultaneously. I mean, you've got a hundred tables. That's a lot of matches underway.
[00:51:46] Look out at Tom. At one point, there was three matches going on and open doubles in the elimination. And there were three and there were three certified pro officials officiating those matches on three tables touching each other. Wow. That was at one time. So that's three tables out of a hundred tables. Like, so there's three refs right there. That's yeah. But it's, it's something I should look into.
[00:52:12] I mean, we, we've always talked about like one of the biggest holdups is refs and table maintenance. Um, this was before play came online. Like we're always like, we need to get better with referees. We need to get better with table maintenance. And we've gotten better with table maintenance. I think it's probably the best that we can honestly do financially. Um, with the refs, uh, I should probably do a little bit more digging to see if it was a problem. Um, because yeah, sure. There's how many of those 20 minute, 30 minute circumstances was there five all weekend? Not too bad.
[00:52:42] Yeah. Was it, was it a consistent 20 minute wait times 50 or a hundred? Yeah. That's a lot of time, you know, so we can look into that and kind of see, um, and what's good as we have to have this system in place. We can do that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, like I said, I, I have, I have an idea. Um, you know, I'm not just bringing you a problem without a, some type of solution. I have an idea. I like you. Yeah. So, but it's something, it's something I want to talk to you off air.
[00:53:10] It's not, you know, nothing to talk here about, but yeah, man, it's, you know, whatever's, whatever's going to help who's ball help these tournaments run smoother. Cause worlds definitely, I felt like overall it ran, it ran pretty well. It was very smooth. Uh, you know, the eliminations for women's doubles and open doubles, like women's doubles got done pretty good, but it was 16 teams, open doubles, 32 teams. And then it kind of, you know, it slowed down, but I mean, you're talking to it. It wasn't software that did that.
[00:53:40] It was matches. It was, it was, I hate to say it. And I even put up PSA out to the top players. I was like, guys, help me as much as possible. Get these matches started. Cause a lot of times people go there and warm up for 20 minutes and then they're like, Oh, I got to fix something on the table. Oh, I need a. And, and the thing was, is like, I even said that in the PSA, like, look guys, get to the table, check the table. If you can, as soon as possible, make sure there's any table maintenance you need. I understand changing. This is a world championships.
[00:54:10] If I'm a player, I'm going there and saying, Hey, this, this bumper, I'm not playing until this bumper's fixed. I understand that. But warming up a long time, just because you're not ready. And then calling a ref to come over to stall a little bit. And then to get a, you know, a table maintenance, whatever that's brutal. And what happened was, is we had a match round after round after round of matches, not starting for 40 minutes, literally 40 minutes later, the match doesn't start.
[00:54:37] And so it's brutal because what that means is we can't have a one day, like optimized schedule for open unless I start making changes, which I'm, I'm actually doing for Vienna. So Vienna, we have no tolerance. We have no tolerance. We have a 12 o'clock deadline every day and the facility closes. So, you know, basically we have to be out by 12. So what I'm going to test out in Vienna, which I don't think is too big of a drawback, but for anyone it'd be for the masters a little bit, but we're going to be doing two
[00:55:07] out of three and just the qualifications and flight A and flight B of open events, and then going to three out of five for the eliminations. So this is my one step to try to make it still happen to where it's a one day final. I think for most masters, I don't think they're going to lose a two out of three for the most part, because you're a top player, you're playing somebody typically lower ranked, and then you're playing like an expert. So you should still win. But in Vienna, there's no other option. We can't play past 12 o'clock.
[00:55:36] So we're going to give it a shot. We'll see what the masters feel about it. They feel like it's total crap. The other option is either really strict rules starting at 9 a.m. Even that's not going to solve it. We finished, I think, open singles at 1240. If you look at the charts, everything's more transparent. It's right in the charts. Mind you, all the charts are East Coast time, so they're not quite right one hour back. But open finished even later.
[00:56:05] I think it was a 130 or something like that. It was 130. Yeah. Yeah. So that's not due to software. That's not due to scheduling. That's not due to anything besides the masters taking 40 minutes to start a match. So that's why I'm like, okay, I'm going to make this change. And I agree with it. Yeah, I can defend it. And I have to have the match. I have to have the tournament done in one day. I have to have a scheduled finals.
[00:56:32] If we want to have ESPN, we want to have somebody do live with foosball. It has to be scheduled and perfect. And if we can't get to that, then that's no one. And I don't want to make it second day. It would be easy for me just to have the finals. We could run it Friday and Saturday, the elimination brackets all the way to the finals, and then just have finals only on Sunday. And it's just the finals. That'd be easy. That's a possibility. But that kind of sucks for play flow. As a top player, I wouldn't like that for play flow.
[00:57:02] I've been playing singles. Let's get it done. So I'm taking all that into consideration. But yeah, things got to change. And I don't think the Masters are necessarily going to stop doing the 40-minute pre-match situation. So the other ideas go there and be strict. Like, hey, you haven't started. You're forfeited. How does that look, though? That's a tough call. You can't go forfeit somebody at the World Championships because they hadn't started in 20 minutes. They're going to say, oh, this is this ball. Like you said, us foosball players, we're crap.
[00:57:33] Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We're crap. But no, but Jacob and Eric were on last week, and they both kind of reiterated what you just said. They're like, we like the fact that that's one of the positives of flight is the event starts. You qualify. If not, you go to flight B, you qualify. And then the elimination is the same day. So if you're playing really well, then you know the event's going to finish today. If you're playing really well and the elimination isn't the same day, then who knows if that play is going to carry over, right?
[00:58:01] So that's one of the benefits of flight. So I think, you know, doing the flight and then the elimination on a separate day, you know, I don't know. I don't know how popular that would be. That's the way it's been historically, and I still haven't found a full solution for, like, TKO Nationals. Yeah. A four-day event. You know, if Thursdays, they'll come in day. I can't have pro-single starting at 10 a.m. on Thursday, right? Yeah.
[00:58:27] So that's why I always had A, B on Friday, a limb Saturday morning, A Saturday night, B Sunday morning, a limb Sunday night. See, I was able to do that six events like that, you know, six and six, so a total of 12 flight events. Yeah. Whereas at, like, five-day events, I can say, all right, three events, three events, three events, three events, four days of three events.
[00:58:53] So I did three days of, you know, six, and that's why I can do that. But, you know, there's less people at these other events. If there's more people, it would be an absolute cluster. So the more people that come, the more we need to extend the tournament. Right. That was my next question. Yeah. I mean, the flights, that was one of my biggest issues when I created it was they didn't start and finish on the same day when I first created it. I was like, yeah, it's the only thing that sucks. And I'm like, you know, but every time you try to figure something out, it's like collateral damage.
[00:59:22] It's like, what's the lesser of two evils here? If they work proper, it's like, well, maybe that's the lesser of two evils here. So long story short is, like, I loved flights starting and finishing, but the problem was is twofold. They went late, too late. And when we stopped for singles, it pushed the other flights even later. Yeah.
[00:59:48] So there's definitely some optimization I'm already doing for Vienna. Vienna is kind of our next optimization look on the flight format to see if we can actually rear it in even closer to making it perfect. So anyways, can you imagine double elimination with 700 players? That's now the total this year was what? Seven. It was over 700, correct? Yeah. Yeah. It was 703.
[01:00:18] So it was over 700. I thought it was even closer to eight, but I'm not I'm not I'm not complaining about 700 player showing at any time. Yeah. So we're more than happy with it, you know, so we got the flyer out a bit late, honestly, this last year. So I wasn't you know, I was actually kind of happy overall. And we did OK. You know, we did all right when it came to like people stayed longer and they played more.
[01:00:44] So they stayed for on average four and a half days versus three and a half days. So an entire extra day and then played an entire extra day of events. So financially, even though we were basically the same, we increased the payouts by 20 grand. We brought in about 20 grand more. So it was a it was a wash on that perspective, which allows us to continue keeping those same payouts short of getting more sponsorship. It doesn't allow us to push it forward.
[01:01:11] We can't keep going up with payouts unless we have more players or more revenue somewhere. But needless to say, we don't you know, like I said in the very beginning, I never want to retract. So I'm only going to push forward when I feel safe. I can't push forward knowing that maybe I might have to retract like to be that. I don't like that. You know, let's get some sponsors. Let's get we'll start utilizing our content. Let's find other revenue streams outside of the players pocketbooks.
[01:01:39] And that is what will ultimately allow us to keep driving those payouts north. Yeah, it's what? 175. That's that's it hasn't been done in recent memory. Yeah, yeah. No, it's still it's still just hanging out. It's it's hanging out there at number two. Yeah. Back in the, you know, the days and confused days, the three, four years of whatever you call it. Yeah. Yeah. The mirage, the four year mirage. Right. The myth.
[01:02:09] The myth, the legend. Yeah. Legendary times like like King Arthur. Came up and then disappeared. Yeah. Yeah. So we have somebody actually I just want to mention we have one of our viewers tonight is in Vienna. And they're anxious to know is there going to be a flyer coming out soon for Vienna. Yeah. So, again, post worlds. That venue was a rough get. Holy crap. Vienna.
[01:02:35] Vienna is a very rich and popular city. Yeah. OK. And when I say rich, I mean, like you can't get into any of these venues without showing out some serious bucks. They just don't do it like America. America, we can negotiate rooms with the hotel and this and that. And in Vienna, they don't really have many hotels like that. And they're all booked.
[01:03:00] So this was a numbers game for me trying to figure out something that that can become sustainable. And at the same time, give the player a good experience. So we finally found the venue, which was the only venue. And that's why we're on Thanksgiving, which next year we won't be on Thanksgiving. But the answer is yes. It took us a very long time to get the venue. That was right before worlds. We didn't have time to initiate the entire info packet. But I have final read.
[01:03:30] Read just sent me back. I literally have a new schedule for Vienna. I sent it over to read. I actually wanted him to cross compare it with our robots just to see if our robots are smart enough now to give us insight on whether or not the schedule is good. If there's flaws, if there's going to be really bad things that it sees. This is more of a test because we're not so sure AI is going to be able to give you a schedule yet. There's so many nuances and mental notes that AI can't know.
[01:03:59] So I'll be interested. He sent that to me right when we were on here. I'll be interested to see what it finds. Because I already know a couple of the sour parts of the schedule. So I wonder if it picks up on that. But, yeah. So, anyways, long story short is we have a 75,000 euro payout. This is the biggest in European history. Garland or there was, yeah, Garlando like two years ago or something like that.
[01:04:26] Flora threw in money and it was 70,000 euro, which currently right now Leo is 62,000 or maybe after rewards maybe like 66,000 or 67,000 euro. So this is the biggest payout tournament in Europe that we've ever heard of. So largest in history. And it's in Vienna, which, again, it's hard to get it out. There's not many big tournaments in Vienna. And there's a reason. Like, it took me. It took me. I have two months. This is no lie.
[01:04:55] I have two months worth of my year. This year. I have two months into this Vienna tournament already. Wow. Dang. Yeah. It's been a lot. And even that's just me. That's not counting Jennifer, who's been hitting on a time and on it too. Yeah. So it took a lot to get to where we are today. But, anyways, I have final draft of payouts, final draft of schedule, final draft of entry fees, everything. It should be final tonight. I'm going to send it off to, like, one or two other people.
[01:05:23] And then we should have it up hopefully, like, by midweek. Nice. Very cool. Yeah. By Wednesday, I would say. And there's also a lot of curiosity about 2027 and TKO. What's the news? Sorry, guys. Come on. Anything you can spill? Anything we can, like, can we scoop this? Yeah, absolutely. I was supposed to actually announce this at Worlds, but I don't know if you guys remember that award ceremony I did. It went way too long. And so I was like, all right, I got to get this finished. I skipped a few things even in that, and that was one of them.
[01:05:52] I didn't even think about it until the end. But, yeah, so, you know, this place we had been trying to go to – I'm sorry. We had tried to go to there. We finally went there. It was a great city but a terrible hotel. So we're not able to go back there in the summer because it's impossible because of how expensive it is. So what I did is I made sure to get us back into probably one of the best cities for foosball location-wise, environment-wise, price-wise.
[01:06:21] So we're going back to Nashville. Nashville. Let's go. We're in Nashville. Nice. But we're in Nashville, a much nicer hotel. Airport shuttle about 12 minutes from downtown. Sweet. Has a tap bar into the hotel. It's got a 40-tap beer tap bar in the hotel, indoor-outdoor pool, huge banquet area. Really, it's a nice hotel. So we're going to be having the hotel. It's a Sinesta right there at the airport.
[01:06:50] So we're going to be able to have all that information on our website the next couple days. Nice. Good room rate. I think we're at like $129 a night, which, again, anytime you get $130 at a nice hotel is a win for everybody. And, yeah, so we're going back to Nashville for TKO. And this may be a home for it. Honestly, I like the East Coast. The East Coast was pretty cool. Please. Please come back. No, no. There's nothing wrong with it.
[01:07:20] I'll give you another hint, okay? Nationals is not finalized. Vegas is finalized. And on our website, the dates for TKO and Vegas are final. Yep. But Nationals is not finalized. And the reason for that is local, like the actual ballroom itself was amazing, right? Beautiful. Yeah. Great. The turnout wasn't amazing.
[01:07:50] It was lower 300s. The location wasn't amazing because there was nothing around it. But many people loved the fact that it was at a casino and had a lot of fun there. Many families hated it because they were really strict on kids. Yeah. So there was still – it wasn't like just a win-win, right? It wasn't like just an ace in the hole. So I have not finalized – they want us back.
[01:08:15] I have not finalized that contract because I'm still looking for better options. I want that everybody has a good time location. You know what I mean? Yeah. So there's a lot of options. I mean, there's actually inner city Louisville that just became an option. Back to D.C. is an option. I can't get in St. Louis right now. I'm trying. I still have maybe one or two outs there.
[01:08:44] I still might try to entertain Colorado. That would be kind of cool. Denver. But that is very difficult. I mean, more difficult than any of them to get into. That's the reason why they haven't had that Colorado State. So Nationals is still pretty wide open as far as where that could be. And I also have to be like cognitive of the other tournaments that are around that time to like not be too close. So there's – some of that has to play into it. But Nationals is still – that could be an East Coast tournament. Could be.
[01:09:15] Hmm. But the East Coast – the turnout was great, honestly. We had, what, 364, I think, at that tournament with the snowstorm? Mm-hmm. Yep. I mean, the ice was thick, but the players didn't care. I think we would have hit 400. I mean, I had 10 people tell me they didn't come from that, and that was just the people that told me. I think we would have had 400 at TK Hub, which would have been sick. I mean, you know, obviously weather is always going to be a factor no matter where you go. But it's just, you know, that time of the year sometimes you get that kind of stuff. If you were in Dallas, you would have got snowed out. Right? Exactly.
[01:09:45] For that storm. Yeah. It didn't matter where you were at. Go figure. They were getting snow in Dallas. And, by the way, just before, you know, we went to New Orleans, like not even four or five days before, there was that tropical cyclone that came across the border of Texas and Louisiana, which didn't amount to much, but it could have been a whole lot worse. And it could have jogged to the east and could have messed things up. Just saying.
[01:10:14] I think we may have lost a couple people from the Houston area on that. Okay. There was, we actually at Worlds, we had quite a few rooms back out literally the day before or like two days before or three days before. Because like when I went there, even as I had been traveling there, I was like, yep, we got more rooms than last year. We're good to go. Like we're going to have a fat turnout, right? This is going to be the biggest one we've had in a long time. And then, you know, I didn't look at the rooms again because when you get there, you set up and it was just craziness, right?
[01:10:42] And then, you know, after the dust starts up and we start seeing there being, you know, like 700 plus, but not 800 like we were hoping or like even 770, I think was my original estimate. And I was like, man, you know, this doesn't make sense. Like I'm usually like really close with the rooms. And then I saw, I went back and went to the rooms. I saw 32 rooms drop. Oh, wow. 32 rooms. And that's, that's not room nine. That's like on peak 32 went down. I'm like, huh? I mean, that's, you know, it's only, it's still like 5%.
[01:11:12] I'm like, you know, a lot of people may have just been like switching rooms to each other or like, you know, joining up. There's a lot of situations why this happens. Yeah. You know, last minute they can't go. They got hurt. I mean, there's always reasons, right? There's times you were going to the tournament and you couldn't go last minute. Right. Um, but yeah, we have like 32 rooms, like roughly five or roughly 8%, seven or 8% of the rooms actually backed out like two to three days before the tournament. I'm like, holy crap. Okay.
[01:11:42] Um, so it ended up, ended up being like on track with last year. Yeah. Okay. So I was like, huh? It was like 32 rooms. That would, that would insinuate something like, um, 60, 70 people. Roughly that. Yeah. So that would have put you over the top. Average on average, that's 2.14 is actually the number. Yeah. Yeah. So it was interesting to me, but. Well, yeah, it's, uh, maybe some of that, some of them were from Houston. So maybe that storm, they just said, screw it.
[01:12:11] Maybe my shit's going to be screwed up. I don't know. You know, I mean, as football players were finicky, like, you know, we'll decide to go or not decide to go based on one trigger point. Right. So. Mm-hmm. No doubt about that. Well, Hey, you know, regardless, I mean, it was still a phenomenal event. Uh, there was as far as just, you know, an experience. I mean, dude, I mean, uh, Thursday night when I first got there, got a chance to go out and see some amazing music, uh, in New Orleans. And of course the food.
[01:12:41] I mean, what can you, what can you say? Um, what are the odds of us being back there again? Well, it's not off the table now. Okay. Um, it's not off the table. It was off the table. Um, well, it's, it's, it's off the table going back there on labor day. Okay. So that might be the sacrifice if we want to keep it there, which I don't see why we've moved it. Um, and what I mean by keep it there is a new Orleans. The thing is, is the city of new Orleans loves us.
[01:13:10] They absolutely love us because they're trying to bring more events like us there. They're, they're utilizing us as like a, I don't know, bait for other companies, uh, literally posting our stuff. I don't know if you saw the media that we had out there. We had like three news companies, uh, the city of new Orleans, like likes to take our videos and pictures and stuff like that and utilize it as like, this is in new Orleans. Uh, and, and they take care of us guys. I mean, they take care of us and they just sent an offer across the table.
[01:13:40] That was like, wow, you guys are really wanting to invest in us, not cash wise, but like exposure wise. And they're like, yeah, we would love to have you come back. Cause I've already kind of flirted with the idea that, Hey, I won't be able to come back because there's no availability on neighbor day. Um, so anyways, they, they, they did send a, uh, uh, something across the table that, you know, I can't say right now that was like, oh, well, that might change things. Nice. Yeah. We love that. I like that. That's that.
[01:14:10] Okay. You guys are really putting a for effort and it's not cash. Like they're offering the same amount of rebate as, as, uh, this year, but. Sweet. Wow. Well, I don't know about you guys. The exposure that I was like, that is probably worth it. I don't know about you guys, but I took a few Uber rides to get around town and it's interesting. Most of the Uber drivers were like, oh, you were the foosball tournament. How'd you know about that? Well, yeah, you know, I've been talking to people all day long from the foosball tournament. So clearly Uber. Yeah, driving back and forth.
[01:14:39] The Uber drivers were happy we're in town. Oh yeah. No. Well, that's the whole thing. Like, so the city incentivizes you to come, right? They'll give you literally a kickback on rooms. Um, and what that does is a, they still make money on the sales tax revenue of that room. B you're spending money in their city. So all the people in there, they're making sales tax revenue as a city, but they're also providing revenue for all their businesses. Yeah.
[01:15:08] Like it makes total sense. And I've talked to, you know, this was one thing I started doing right away as I started talking to convention bureaus in the cities. And instead of just talking to hotels, I actually would go to the city and say, Hey, look, what can you guys do to subsidize me on this big event? And all worlds is the only event that's big enough to actually do this with like a TKO is too small to telling them I'm going to bring four or 500 people. The city is not going to do anything, but a thousand, you know, there's something about a thousand that rings a bell where a city's like, you know what? Okay. Let's see if we can help.
[01:15:37] And so some of these cities have, have bidded to actually bring us business there. Orlando is one of them. Orlando has been trying to bid to get me to come there for the world championships, uh, lately. Um, they're, they're, they're pitting out some pretty good offers, but they're not touching New Orleans. Well, I don't know. Like screw everybody. You weren't your, this is your home. When it comes to Orlando, I'm not sure about, I'm not, I'm not sure about Orlando or, or I'm not sure about Mickey mouse, but I understand goofy is a hell of a player. Just saying.
[01:16:08] Yeah. Um, yeah, you know, I mean, I think the players like New Orleans, you know, um, uh, you know, it's, it's, it's got its issues, but it's got a lot of cool stuff. It's got great food. The venue is amazing. There's a casino close by for people that want that. There's obviously party heaven. Um, but even if you just stay at the hotel, you're in luxury. It's got that wow factor. It's right next to the super dome going up and down the escalator. You almost feel like, uh, I don't know, like important. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
[01:16:38] Just be in there. Yeah. It's significant. Damn. Their, their breakfast buffet is expensive, but man, it's phenomenal. Yeah. Golly. Just the, just the gravy and biscuits alone. Now it's worth the price of admission right there, you know? Right. And then you got new Orleans, the players down there. I mean, some of the nicest people you ever meet, um, and, and, and some of the funnest people you ever meet, which is why their locals are doing so well. I mean, literally that's what creates a good local scene is having fun. Like if you're not having fun at your local scene, you're not growing foosball.
[01:17:06] You cannot grow foosball if you're not having fun at your local scene. And, uh, shout out to Tony. And they have a lot of fun people there. So shout out to Tony Toko, who's, uh, who's a player, but also runs Antrevalia, uh, the, uh, the restaurant. Um, I, I, I know all three of us were actually in that restaurant during that, uh, during that time we were there. So I went there twice. Twice. Damn. Okay. Once before the tournament and once after. Yeah. I took my mom, sister, and wife out there the first time.
[01:17:36] And then just me and my wife went out the second time. But he wanted to dine us. He did the whole, the whole spiel, you know? Yep. Uh, me and him even, uh, we toasted a glass of, uh, Louis the 13th. Ooh. He had some Louis up in the top and I was like, I haven't tried that yet. And he's like, his waitress or, or whatever brought over like a menu and showed the price. And he didn't, you don't have to get a full ounce, which is what's, you know, stupid expensive. And like, you can get like a third of an ounce or a fourth of an ounce or whatever. Okay.
[01:18:06] And I looked at him and I said, I'd like to taste that. Let's do some of that. He's like, he's like, are you done? I'm like, no. I was like, I think I want to taste some of that. I'm like, it's within my budget. It was like 50 bucks or something. You know, we're tasting. So I was like, all right, yeah, let's do some of that. And he ended up bringing it over. They did the whole spiel. I didn't even post it. I don't know. I'm a little subconscious about that kind of stuff. But he, he, he was like, it's on me, you know? So I'm like, you're the man, bro. Yeah. Seriously. Oh yeah. Wow. Oh yeah. He's super cool. Oh yeah. Yeah.
[01:18:36] What about the flan? Did you have the flan? The dessert? Yeah. We had, we had the bread. What was it called? Was it bread pudding? I guess maybe. I don't know. We had the bread pudding. We had the cheesecake. And then, and then the flan and then like some ice cream too, or something like that. That flan was amazing. Yeah. I, I, I've had dreams about it.
[01:19:01] I told him when I went there, I was like, look, I'd just like for you to just do all of ordering for us. Like just, I'd just rather just do table sharing. So he, he got us a steak. He got us the fish. He got us a duck lick. He got us some soup. Um, um, I mean, there's, you know, the, the, the, the, the etouffee or, or the gumbo, you know, that gumbo. Oh yeah. Uh, I mean, dude, I mean, there was even a couple other things.
[01:19:31] I think it was like prawns was one of them. Um, I mean, it was just, we just kept bringing stuff and we just ate it all. No, he killed it, man. He's, he's definitely a good host. And you know, the thing is he's been trying to, he's been trying to get me to come in there for a long time. Um, and I just, I didn't know who he was and you know, he just seemed like, you know, come on, man. You know, I got a pretty nice restaurant. I'm like, you know what I mean? I'm like, sure. You know, it's cool. And then finally I was like, you know, we got there early and I was like, you know what? You know, this guy, uh, I forgot his name.
[01:20:00] He must have been wanting me to come to his restaurant. A little restaurant. Tony Toco. Let's just go there and try it. Then we get there and I'm like, Oh wow. I've been missing out. Uh huh. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. There was, uh, I think that's your, that's one of the main reasons I want this tournament to stay in new Orleans. Yeah. Yeah. He was talking about maybe getting involved next term, next time too. Oh, nice. A lot of sponsorship going. Yeah. There you go. Yeah.
[01:20:27] Something, you know, um, but he's super nice to me. I'd be more than happy to, to push more. I think he had, he said he had something like 60 or 70, like the foosball players come through there. He did. Yeah. So 10% of the tournament went there. I mean, that's pretty, let's go. It's a good week. That's a good week for any restaurant for God's sake. But, uh, no, it's, it's, uh, it's brilliant to, to, to think that, Hey, we found this place that, that worlds really fits. It really fits the city. It fits the hotel. It, it.
[01:20:57] The hotel loves us too. Oh yeah. Like the hotel loves us. And the only reason why I say that is like, they, if I asked for it, they just say yes. And that is so rare. Nice. They're just like, yeah, whatever you want. And everybody's like, well, duh, you're bringing a bunch of money here. I'm like, but not, you don't get it. Like they're giving us a freaking insane deal. Like, so it's not like if we were, if everybody's paying one 89, one 90 at night, sure. But we're paying like bare minimum. Yeah.
[01:21:24] For this hotel, you know, and we get a free comp ballroom. Right. So we're paying bare minimum for this hotel and they're still treating me like they would any other person that brought, you know, a million dollars worth of revenue to them. Right. Um, so they, they treat us amazing. They treat our staff amazing. They treat our players amazing. Even if you don't look like you're rich, if you look like homeless, they don't care. They treat you the same. Cause I've seen it firsthand. We got a couple players. You know, I'm just like, wow. I mean, this is so much better than a, than a double tree. Right. Oh.
[01:21:53] So, or like, double tree is not even bad. So what's better than aquarium? Aquarium. There you go. There you go. Yeah. It's like, they don't treat you nearly as nice, huh? Well, well, I have to say, I mean, it's the experience in general is just phenomenal. And, uh, and congratulations, man. I mean, I know you're, you're, you're killing yourself to get this right. And that's, that's your nature. That's great. Uh, don't beat yourself up too much here.
[01:22:19] Uh, but, but it is, it's a, it's really an honor to, uh, to get a chance to, to participate in these kinds of events that you're putting on. And, and man, keep it going. Keep this going, man. It's awesome. Hey man, we can keep going as long as the players keep going. You know, like it all comes down to the players at the end of the day. Right. And we're going to start really pushing on new players. It's a whole huge topic. Well, maybe they will save that for another day.
[01:22:43] Um, but you know, that's really what it's going to come down to is also not only taking care of all existing players, but really go growing foosball from the outside in. So, uh, you know, so that's, that's, that's the next big step. That's, that's when, when, if we accomplish that, if we break the elephant in the room, there is nothing stopping us.
[01:23:08] And I guarantee you, if we see moderate, I mean, single percentage, one or 2% growth year over year on a local level, I mean, modest, then we were, there's nothing stopping us. But we have to see that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and that's why play is so important to get out to all these places and to be able to help them to give, to make it easier on promoters. So they just have a better time. Like this is the whole point, right? You got to have a good time at a local level.
[01:23:38] So let's make it stress-free. Let's make it work-free. Literally. This is going to promote for you, you know? Um, and that ultimately creates a better experience at that local level, which creates more players, which creates better experience for all the players. Right. So that's the next big step, cracking that code. Wow. We cracked that, which mind you, we have now five full-time people right now.
[01:24:08] Full-time. Five full-time people that are working towards cracking that code. Mm-hmm. Man. And very, very smart, capable, honorable people. I mean, it's not like we got five, we got five people that I would take to many of my teams all day. Actually, well, Jennifer has been on my team for years now. Mm-hmm. But we got five people that I'm like, yeah, I'll ride or die with you guys. Like, this is a good team, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, it's exciting, guys.
[01:24:38] Like, we're very, very optimistic. You know, we have our own office. We, you know, talk to each other all the time. We're starting to work out now. Like, me, Reed, and Josh, we go working out now together and stuff. Sweet. So, you know, we haven't fully got to do that a whole lot, but tomorrow we're going. We already said tomorrow we're back. We're going. Mm-hmm. So, yeah, it's just all good, JoJo, man. It's all good stuff. And the players are having fun. Everybody's having fun, right? That's the whole key behind this whole thing. But we grow it on a local level.
[01:25:06] If the local promoters can kill it and share that same vibe, same energy, same enthusiasm, and same amount of patience, then we'll be able to crack the code on foosball, and it's going to blow up. And we're actually about to do our first leg of Europe. And so that whole entire business plan and entire future plan is about to come out. Wow. That's exciting. We got a lot to talk about here. Too much. Yeah. Just keep going.
[01:25:34] But the door is always open, man. You're like, shall we say, auxiliary guest host kind of guy. Just step in whenever you want to. And we always look forward to hearing what's going on. By the way, next week here on Foos Talk Live, we have the women's doubles champions, Linda and Hannah. They're going to be with us. And we're looking forward to that. In the very near future, we're going to try and get Joe Hesslinger to jump on as well
[01:26:02] to see what he has to say about his end of this whole thing. But I've got to say, Ryan, man, you're killing it. And looking forward to the future for you. Yeah. Me and Joe, we talked. We might jump on together. Oh, good. Because you'll get to see how we feed off each other. That would be awesome. That would be fantastic. There's a lot of conversations me and them have had where we're like, okay, look. Like, they're all great ideas.
[01:26:32] We have to decide which of these great ideas go first. What's most durable? They're all real possible ways to, like, kill the content sector. Crush it. Be better than anything that's ever happened. Be original, authentic. Like, all of the above. Like, he's got great ideas. But, like, let's figure out which ones we can actually implement, like, financially and, you know, bandwidth-wise. Yeah. Go with the practical first and then go for the fanciful later. For sure.
[01:27:02] It'll be a monster interview for you. But, yeah, no. And then Linda and Hannah, that was great. They came out to the Pokemon song. Oh, yeah. This is where the story comes in, right? You know, you see the way these individual teams, the way they work together. And, of course, the story that goes on. I mean, just Hannah alone. I mean, she's got an incredible story when it comes to playing this sport of foosball. And Linda.
[01:27:31] Your first female pro master in the history of foosball right there. There you go. Absolutely. So we're looking forward to that. Meanwhile, you know, we have a huge amount of people tuning in tonight. Thank you for everybody tuning in to Twitch TV and, of course, YouTube. This episode will be available as episode number 314 as a download for a podcast in this next 24 hours. So, by all means, download it and listen again.
[01:27:59] But thanks again, Ryan, for joining us. We're looking forward to having you back real soon. Randy, any closing comments or questions? No, dude. Just thanks again for coming on. Whenever you get some time, I know you're busy. Hit me up and, you know, I'll tell you what I got stewing in my head about the ref stuff. Good luck with Vienna. And as always, if you need anything, just let me know. Yeah. Hit me up tomorrow late or just late any day.
[01:28:28] Okay. You know, like 6, 7, 8. That's my best times for conversational stuff. Yeah. Cool. And I won't remember. So hit me up, bro. I'm 24 hours at a time. So if we don't talk in 24 hours, it's out of my head. All right. That'll work. Hit me up, brother. No, I'm more than happy. Like I said, it's, you know, and by then maybe, I bet you Reid already sent. And Reid already probably sent me a few.
[01:28:59] I don't know if he's listening. But anyway, yeah. I mean, I'll know more information about the refs at that point too, to be able to give you more context. I'm like, hey, yeah, it is an issue or it is an issue or what the averages were and all that. So. Yeah. That'll work. Yeah. Appreciate that. Hey. And then. No, thank you, Tom. Thank you, Randy, for, you know, doing the coverage and, and keeping the, the people in the know. And so it's always, it's always awesome, man. Thanks for coming out to Worlds too. And setting up a chop. Sorry, I didn't get to talk with you.
[01:29:29] But, you know, I always try to, we did it. We did it at Nationals. Well, I, I completely understand, you know, when it comes to world, what was going on at Worlds that, that, that, that evening, especially on Sunday night, man, it was just crazy. So, you know what? We, we still had a great time. We got some great interviews in and, and we'll always come back. Always. As long as you'll have us, that is. Just saying. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. We will, we'll never crash a party where we're not welcome. But, but nonetheless, hey, if there's anything we can do for you, by all means, let me know anything at all.
[01:29:59] Just, just hit me up. For sure, brother. All right. Well, guys, have a great night. Randy, get some rest. And Ryan, we'll, we'll talk to you very, very soon. And again, thanks for everybody tuning in tonight on Twitch TV and YouTube. Stick around now. We've got Foos Talk Live's Tournament Beat coming your way next. Time now for the Foos Talk Live Tournament Beat brought to you in part by foosgadgets.com. Using technology to create a better foosball experience. And by Boise Foosworks.
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[01:30:54] 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. Since 2019, FoosGadgets has used innovative ideas to build foosball training tools and accessories. Their goal is to make your foosball practice more fun and effective. Hey Foosers. The FoosGadget Speed Bridge is a great tool for all of you practice-aholics out there like I am.
[01:31:20] From the FoosGadgets Speed Bridge to the Tornado Gold Guard to the Gold Guard Plus. Visit the site for a great selection and pricing. FoosGadgets.com. Using technology to create a better foosball experience. Foosball tournaments are everywhere. FoosTalk Live proudly presents a weekly update of events near you. With the FoosTalk Live Tournament Beat. Here's what's up.
[01:31:47] Get ready for the 4th Annual U-Bird Championships of Foosball. Great Lakes Classic Warm-Up. Saturday, October 3rd. At River Rock Lanes. Ishpeming. Michigan. The John Sniper Jellison Memorial Foosball Tournament. Is being held Saturday, October 3rd. At Eddie's Tavern. San Antonio, Texas. Here comes the 2026 Great Lakes Classic Regional Championship. October 15th through the 18th. At the Doubletree Inn by Hilton.
[01:32:17] Grand Rapids, Michigan. The 3rd Annual Interstate 80 Nebraska Shootout 26. October 16th through the 18th. At the other side, Kearney, Nebraska. OKC Foos Presents. The OKC Halloween Open Foosball Championship 2026. October 30th through November 1st. Mr. Seas. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The ITSF presents. The 2026 Quebec Leonhardt Open.
[01:32:46] November 13th through the 15th. Hotel Voyager, Quebec, Canada. World Foosball Tour presents. The International Championships of Foosball. November 25th through the 29th in Vienna, Austria. The North Carolina State Championships. Scheduled for November 26th through the 29th. More details soon to be released. It's the 20th Annual 2026 Louisiana State Championships. December 3rd through the 6th.
[01:33:14] At the Holiday Inn, Metairie, Louisiana. Looking ahead to 2027. The World Foosball Tour presents. The Tour Kickoff. February 4th through the 7th. Location details coming soon. The World Foosball Tour presents. The 2027 Hall of Fame Classic. April 7th through the 11th in Las Vegas, Nevada. More exciting details soon to come. Each week we do our best to give you the most up-to-date listing of foosball tournaments near you.
[01:33:43] 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. The Foos Talk Live Tournament Beat is brought to you in part by foosgadgets.com. Using technology to create a better foosball experience. And by Boise Foos Works. High-fidelity refurbished foosballs.
[01:34:10] Foos Talk Live is a product of Foosball Radio. With gratitude we recognize our Foosball Radio Patreons. Our Foos Talk Live sponsor. Original-Leonhard-USA.com Tune in again next week for another episode of Foos Talk Live. In the meantime... We'll see you foosin'. Foos Talk Live.