Mathieu Bigz is passionate. It's obvious how he feels about the sport of foosball. Not only does he play at a high level, he also dedicates most of his waking hours to running tournaments in Canada. Listen to this episode of FoosTalk Live to get inspired.
[00:00:01] The following is a presentation of Foosball Radio. It's FoosTalk Live. Are you talking to me? Compelling and lively banter. Are you going to talk to us? Talking Foosball. Foosball was how I measured my value as a man? You took that away! Players and fans, promoters and pros. Unedited and raw. Talk, talk, talk. Living in the moment. We have a lot of important things to talk about. All while practicing social distancing. Cool. We'll talk. No big whoop. Let's get this thing started.
[00:00:31] Foos Talk Live. Hi, this is Tom Robinson, and I want to personally thank our Patreon pillars for their support of Foosball Radio and Foos Talk Live. Here's to our newest Patreon. Thanks to Randy Raposo.
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[00:01:38] Foos Talk Live is brought to you by Original Leonhardt. The Leonhardt Tournament model is the most popular foosball table at the ITSF World Cup. Designed and handcrafted in Germany, order online and have it delivered to your door. Visit www.original-leonhardt-usa.com and use promo code FOOSTALK to save 10% off your purchase price.
[00:02:07] And we are back and live. Hey, it's Tom Robinson. Foos Talk Live returns with episode number 320. And we're going to talk foosball, as we always do. Although, maybe tonight we might talk hockey. I don't know. We'll see. But if you're going to talk about foosball, it's great to have somebody nearby who really wants to talk about the sport and loves it very much, which would be Randy Raposo from the great state of Alabama. What are you shaking your head no? What's up with that? Whatever. Foosball.
[00:02:39] In the green room just now, we were having a little bit of discussion going on about something other than foosball, the hockey scene. But that's okay. We'll leave that for the imagination, for sure. Well, of course, the reason for all of this is because we are going to the Great White North tonight. We're heading across the border into Canada. And our returning... Oh, boy. Did he freeze big? Biggie? Yeah. Is it freezing? He's just stuck with his mouth open.
[00:03:08] There he is. Hello? Hello? Am I back? It did. It did. You're back. Okay. You're back, yeah. As I was saying, the reason we're going north is to, of course, talk about one of the better promoters there in the north country. His name is Matt Biggs. Did I get that right this time? That was close enough, I guess. I keep trying. I keep trying.
[00:03:37] You've got to give me credit for trying, at least. Here, I like to use Matt Biggs, especially for my English-speaking friends. Okay. But Matt's your pronunciation. Matt's your. Okay. Got it, got it, got it. Yes. Okay. I'm going to practice. I promise. So, hey, welcome back. It's been a couple of days. And, geez, I think most of 2026 has slipped past already. Go figure. And so, how are you doing?
[00:04:10] I'm doing great, Tom. Thanks for having me, guys. I'm very excited to be here. Looking forward to having a nice chat over foosball, of course. We have a tournament coming up, last of the season. And for a great 2027 year that's about to start really strong for us here in Canada. So, very excited to talk about that, too, tonight. Very cool. Yeah.
[00:04:36] We're looking forward to next week, of course, because the big Leonhardt Open is happening in Quebec City. Will you be there? Yes, I will be there. So, I am organizing the tournament as well. So, tournament director. Nice. You know, we have a nice crew here in Quebec. We're really well organized in terms of who does what. So, whenever we organize a tournament, it's not just one person.
[00:05:06] We have different departments. We could call it that. Where we have our streaming crew, our setup crew, our tournament directors. Even with the software we're using, it's very efficient. So, you know, there's not that much work involved to make sure that the tournament is running smoothly. But, yeah, I'll definitely be there. I'm very excited about this one. It's in a nice hotel, too. Similar to how you guys run it in the U.S., right? On the WFT.
[00:05:35] So, yeah, it's very exciting. Very exciting. And it's the last one of the year, too. Quebec City. It's a nice city. Nice place to go. For anybody who never visited Quebec City, it's probably one of the nicest cities in Quebec, Canada, of course. Yeah, agreed. So, guys never meet the trip. It's a nice one to come to, for sure.
[00:05:57] Yeah, it seems like they, especially that part of Canada, Montreal, Quebec, I mean, those are cities that just have this European flavor. And you'd think, geez, you know, they could maybe give us a few lessons on how to properly run a city here in America. Just saying. Beautiful architecture. It really does have beautiful architecture. Yep, no doubt. Beautiful building. Yeah, it's nice.
[00:06:25] Yeah, it was founded in the 1600s. So, there are some very old buildings in Quebec City that looks very European. So, yeah, absolutely a nice place to go. Well, I got to say, we have Leonhardt tables in this area at people's homes. So, we don't get enough time to really practice on them, really. I mean, every once in a while. We're losing time here, are we? Boy, we're having some issues tonight. What is the deal?
[00:06:56] Am I back now? Yes. Okay. Yeah, you're back. I'm going to have to make a complaint to our provider here in this area. I'm actually, yeah. Yeah. I'm writing corporate a strongly worded letter for sure. Yeah. Could you write it for me, Randy? That'd be great. I really appreciate it. All right. All right. It's going to be ugly. Sometimes you just need to get ugly. How can I tell you? Believe me.
[00:07:27] Anyway. Well, I want to know. I want to know why the Quebec Nordiques left Quebec. I want to know, too. Still don't know that. Matt Sundin, Joe Sackick. Peter Fosberg. Peter Fosberg. Yeah. Why'd they leave? What happened? Well, for us, the Nordiques, it's still, you know, even though I'm a half fan. It's a sore spot? Yeah. Yeah. It is a sore spot. It was like May.
[00:07:55] And then they went to Colorado and won a Stanley Cup. That's it, right? That whole story of my favorite goalie winning the cup two years before, moving to Colorado, and then winning the cup there. Cup again. Yeah. Yeah. I still love Patrick Waugh. I love Patrick Waugh. Yeah. What's goalie ever? That crooked nose. I watched a fight yesterday on the internet. Him and Chris, I was good. Yeah, it was good. It was good. It was good. Bravo.
[00:08:25] That's fun. Now, my question would be, Biggie, if you're running a tournament and you're streaming it, and a fight breaks out at a foosball tournament, you going to stream that? You think the fans would dig it? Ooh. Nah, it's in Canada. There's not going to be a fight at a foosball tournament in Canada. They're too polite. I can ask the question. Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen.
[00:08:55] Yeah, I mean, we do. That said, Tom, we do like to make our streaming WWE kind of style very entertaining. The guys at the stream love to use a lot of, you know, action. And I don't know if you ever had the chance to watch our streams. Oh, I have. Yeah. It's really entertaining. Yeah, yeah. So we try to use that WWE side of things where, you know, you watch foos, but there's also
[00:09:24] entertainment happening on the side. So that worked out really well, actually. We got a lot of people from, even from Europe, staying up late just to watch streams. A lot of the French team, the Germans also I've seen. So we've been out there for sure. Awesome. Getting out. Is Justin going to be one of the commentators again this year? I'm sure he will be throughout the year. He's actually not going to be in Quebec City. Okay.
[00:09:54] So we have Jeff, who's our lead streamer commentator. But yeah, Justin, even PB is also going to be there. He was there actually at the Canadian Bonzini Championships back in September. So we got some, some, some studs back there doing some good work. Yeah. They're funny. They're really are. They're really a trip to watch. These guys are just, they have a tendency to let loose every once in a while, which is
[00:10:23] great, which I appreciate that. Why not? Why not? Yeah. If you put somebody, if you put a headset on somebody in front of a screen and tell them to commentate foosball, I wouldn't expect them to do anything but let loose. Like what? Yeah. What are you, what are you doing? Yeah. Let's go. Let loose. Have fun. So I actually, I, uh, I was, I commentated for like 15 minutes in Michigan and it was,
[00:10:49] uh, Brandon and David against, uh, Mathis and Merv. Ooh, there's a good one. And I hope they lose. I hope they lose that match. Cause the stuff I was saying during that match is probably pretty bad. They're going to go back and watch it just to hear what you said. Right. Oh, I was. Yeah. Yeah. It was so Mathis and Brandon, something happened.
[00:11:17] They were having a conversation and I said, let me, I said, let me translate for you guys. There's no mics on the table. And I was like, we, we, we, we. And it was like, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye. And, uh, yeah, yeah. So, yeah. Whatever. Whatever. I don't speak French or Spanish. So that's just what I assumed they were saying. But anyway, they worked it out. You got the Spanish on one side, French on the other. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. They, they, they, they sorted it out.
[00:11:47] They, they, yeah. Language barrier be damned. They got it straightened out. So, uh, well, yeah, the commentator stuff's fun. Anytime you can be involved is fun, you know, but like at the level big's involved, I mean, he's running some big tournaments up there. I actually wanted to ask you the one, the one you got coming up in March, that multi-table tournament. I told my wife, man, like, I really want to go up there. The problem is like the dog. I know Canada has some like breed specific legislation and the dog we have is pretty breed specific.
[00:12:17] So I don't know if we could get them over there, but what I wanted to know is like the format. I mean, something like that multi-table tornado Bonzini, Leonhardt, that's amazing. How do you guys run that event? Like what, how do you, could you break it down? Like, how do you do that with the three tables, please? What type of format and how does it work if you could? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, just to start off that, that Niagara Falls tournament is a big one for us.
[00:12:44] We, we were so lucky to get this opportunity and we are actually the falls group who are partnering with actually reached out to us because of visibility online, social media. We just had the attention and they're like, oh, these guys are running foosball tournaments in Canada and they wanted to organize something because they were starting to have a small player base down in Niagara Falls. So we sat down with them, saw the opportunity.
[00:13:14] They saw an opportunity and we ended up making it work. So the location is incredible. I think we cannot have a better location for such a big tournament. Cool. And the way we do it, you know, obviously in Canada, we have multiple associations. So in order for this to work, we need to work together essentially. Right. So it's not only the Quebec tournaments in this case, we also have the Ottawa crew,
[00:13:40] the Toronto crew that are helping out either with tables or time or, you know, volunteers that want to help. We're bringing in 36 tables. Nice. 24 of those belong to the AQBM. So we have Bonzini's and Leonhardt tables, which is the two tournaments we run yearly as well. We have a few tornadoes and then that's where the Ottawa crew and the Toronto crew help us out on getting the additional tornadoes to run that 36 table tournament.
[00:14:10] Um, it's, uh, in terms of the format too, you know, I, I, when I started promoting foosball, my goal was to promote it for players that might not have the opportunity to travel, uh, or play in bigger tournaments. And my goal was to bring big tournaments in our courtyard, essentially like in our yard. Right. And so, um, the idea was to replicate also the world cup.
[00:14:40] And a lot of players don't have that opportunity. It's very hard to qualify, uh, costs a lot of money to travel. So we want to be able to bring that same experience here for our guys, our community. And that's what exactly what the format is going to be. So essentially we're going to have a classic doubles. We're going to have, uh, open singles, open doubles.
[00:15:06] Um, we also have junior categories, senior category and, uh, women's. So we try to get any categories as we can. Hopefully we can fill those out. If not, we have, uh, possibility to send all those players over to the open division and play there as well. So if there's not enough teams, they'll still be able to play. Um, but that's the idea here and really bring it the same way. So the, the, it's a one day format, it's a Swiss system.
[00:15:36] So, you know, first event, I believe it's, uh, uh, Thursday classic doubles. You play five or six rounds race to eight, and you're guaranteed to play 50% of the matches on your home table. So at the beginning of the event, you pick your table. You did. Okay. Okay. Your matches. So let's say Randy, you pick tornado. Well, out of the, let's say six matches, you're guaranteed to play at least three matches on tornado.
[00:16:03] It could be more, but there's at least three that you're going to plant tornado. And then the other is going to be random depending on your opponent. So you can play three other on Bonzini or split Leo Bonzini. Um, it really depends. Um, so that's really cool. And then in the final round, once you qualify to the eliminations, it's going to be best of five and it's going to be one game on your home table, one game on the opponent's home table, so on and so forth until the last game.
[00:16:33] If it's two, two, that fifth game is played one ball and then two balls on each day. So you're literally sitting over. So just, just like the world cup. Nice. Exactly. Um, we're having a team event as well. So it's not a national event. It's more of like a clubs event because we're trying to promote clubs as well. Um, I like to compare it. You know, if we go back to hockey, you got the NHL, which is like the, the, the different teams. And then you got the Olympics, which is the nations.
[00:17:01] Uh, so we're really trying to build a kind of an NHL style, uh, for the clubs here in Canada to be able to have a competition between the clubs. And that's kind of replaces that national team aspect, but the format is exactly going to be the same as the world cup national team as well. So again, just to bring that national, that world cup feeling and that world cup experience, uh, here in Canada. We were just having this conversation last week with, uh, Matt McCrory, uh, from the
[00:17:31] 716 about, uh, leagues, et cetera. And the fact that, you know, the Northeast, the Northeastern section of this, of the States and of course, Canada, we haven't really seen a major or a really good size regional. And this sounds like it, like this is going to be it. This is going to be the one right here. So we appreciate you doing that. Yeah. Yeah, it is. And, um, you know, again, we were really lucky to have this opportunity.
[00:18:00] Um, and the guys at the Falls U group, you know, the plan is to do this long-term. So we're very excited for this. Oh, nice. Yeah. Nice. That's awesome. It's just, it's not just a one year one-off kind of thing. It's really something they look to help us with promote. Uh, they love foosball and they just feel it's the right fit. They're actually doing the same thing for darts and chess tournaments. And, you know, decided to kind of do the same thing for, for foosball.
[00:18:29] So we just jumped on the train and, you know, luckily enough for us, hopefully this all works out, but yeah, it's probably one of the biggest multi-table, uh, tournament in North America. Yeah. So I know a hundred percent as of right now, I mean, outside of what's happening in Dallas, um, with Texas state, this has to be the biggest multi-table event in North America for sure. Um, but you were saying that like all of the federations, you know, on this side of Canada
[00:18:58] coming together with tables and stuff like that. How is it difficult for you guys to work together? Is it pretty, you know, is it pretty smooth getting all the promoters to work together? Like if you could talk about that a little bit, cause I, I just, I I'd like to touch on that if you could. Yeah. Um, I mean, I'll say this, um, we, we've, all of our associations have pretty much been running for 20 plus years.
[00:19:23] Um, and you know, there's been so much evolution throughout the sport of foosball through, you know, which table should we play on? You know, what's the best format? What's the best ranking? Like there was so many conversations that right now we're at a point where everybody's aligning cause we all agree that, you know, multi-table is the way to go. And we realized that we love playing all the tables.
[00:19:48] So even, you know, Ottawa, who's very tornado based, they started playing Bonzini and coming out to the Bonzini tournaments in Quebec. Cool. Uh, Leonhard as well. So, you know, there's really that nice relationship between all the association and it's been working out really, really well. And we're very happy and proud about that. Cause I know, you know, sometimes it can be hard with all the challenges of, Hey, my table, your table is now. So we kind of put all that behind us and we were finally able to work together.
[00:20:16] Uh, to make the sport grow and, and give it what it deserves. Uh, you know, in Quebec, we started playing 20 plus years ago. I started playing on the Garlando table, red, white, and blue, not even the Euro. And it's like those little square fastball kind of no passage style. Um, it converted that kind of died down and it converted over in the, the Quebec players split between tornado and Bonzini for a very long time.
[00:20:45] Uh, but we always enjoyed playing all tape. And that's where kind of that culture in Quebec started, um, where you had the tornado crew and the Bonzini crew. And then at one point it kind of merged and, you know, like I'm talking about 15, 20 years ago, there used to be big competition between the two who had the best table, who was the best players, et cetera. And you know, now it's at a point where, Hey, everybody loves playing every table. It's all foosball.
[00:21:13] And because of that, we're able to bring some events like this and, and promote it. And we're, we're very excited. And, you know, just to, I do want to know if this is good timing here. And we launched three new weekly tournaments in the province and three different areas, three different cities, three different tables. Huh? So we launched one on tornado, one on Leonhardt and one on Bonzini.
[00:21:40] They're actually once one, just this Friday was the first one on tornado. We have three tornado tables at a, uh, uh, location called district golf, which is an indoor golfing, uh, facility with the big screens, right. Where do you swing? Um, and, uh, we're, we're actually partnering up with them. They're very excited to have us. And it's very different from promoting it in bars. Uh, kids are allowed to be there. So we're going to be able to get the schools coming out and, and get the players from
[00:22:09] university or, you know, kids that aren't 18 and over because in Canada, it's 18 and over. So you can't drink before that. So we still get the young kids, the high school kids to come and play. And, uh, we got another partnership with what we call soccer IQ, um, which is a, uh, an indoor soccer facility. There you go. Uh, and again, same partnership. Uh, kids are going to be there where we have one, one facility has the Leonhard tables. The other one has the Bonzini tables.
[00:22:38] And we're just, you know, working our asses off to promote everything we can and get the kids to play, get everybody to play and makes it make it accessible. I think right now it's, it's hard to get on a table. Just any kid can just go play after school, whatever it's hard here in Canada. Um, so we're really working on that to make it grow because we do have a lot of kids that want to play and, and we're really working hard to get that done. Accessibility is an issue. Tables are expensive.
[00:23:06] And so when I started playing, there were, there was an arcade at the mall that had two tables. Um, there was a table in just about every pool hall. There was a bunch of, like we had, we had an indoor soccer place that had a table. Uh, the roller rink had a table. So like I could go out any night of the week and find foosball. And now all those places are gone. There are tables. The only place you can find tables in a bar. So it, you know, for kids, it's definitely difficult.
[00:23:33] Um, but accessibility for sure is an issue, but, um, the, the, the multi-table facet, like, okay. So I remember, uh, when Mary switched to warrior, I don't know, was that mid 2000, like 20 years ago, maybe. Um, I don't know if you remember the foos, the foosball board, the old foosball board, people used to get on there and argue and, and I'll never forget. It was Mario, Mario Reganello. Uh, people were talking about like, you know, playing that tornado over warrior.
[00:24:03] I like whatever. And Mario just said, dude, I'm a foosball player. I don't play tornado. I play foosball. And that stuck with me for a long time. And I think people are really finally starting to understand, um, like the benefits of playing multi-table foosball, like how good it is for you, how much it benefits your game to play multi-table foosball. And I really, really hope that it starts to trickle down from Canada into the United States
[00:24:29] because, uh, I mean, it's, I had a Leonhardt and I traded it and I got a Bonzini because I feel like the transition from Bonzini is tougher. So I really wanted to start practicing my Bonzini game, even though I don't like French Bonzini players. I like the table. Um, so anyway, I, I, I really love the game. The game is so different from tornado. You know, it's, I mean, it couldn't like the contrast. It couldn't be any more different.
[00:24:57] But, um, as far as like promoting the foosball, like what you guys are doing is outstanding because down here, I feel like promoters are, it's gotten better, but I feel like some promoters are at odds. If, if our promoters ever put their heads together, man, this thing could be amazing. Like we could be, we could be having five granders every weekend, you know, it's, it's, you know, well, and you know what? I don't think that that's, I think that that might be coming up in the future, you know,
[00:25:25] with the WFT trying to unite all the promoters under one umbrella, you know, but, um, but like you said, dude, it's been 20 years in the making. So, well, you know, it's, it's, uh, worm was not built in a, in a, in a day. So, I mean, it, it, it is, am I freezing still? A hundred percent. Yeah. Dang. I'll just hang out. How's that sound? I'll just hang out. Let you guys.
[00:25:54] It's always at the end of a sentence. Okay. Okay. No, this is the future. Yeah. This is the future. This is, uh, and, and better internet, better internet. That's the other thing. There it is again. Yeah. Nah, dude. That, but that, that, that multi-table event, like I saw the flyer and I told my wife, I'm like, if we can figure out what to do with the dog, I will try. Cause she's never been, she's never been in Niagara Falls. So I would love to come. It's beautiful place.
[00:26:22] Honestly, the location is probably in the best settings we could have had. Um, and, and again, you, you, you were saying Randy, like. Honestly, the best players in Canada are multi-table players. Nobody says, Hey, I'm just a tornado player. Or I'm just a Leonhard player, or I'm just a Bonzini player. The best, like all the guys we sent on team Canada last year were all multi-table players
[00:26:49] that played on tour, went to, you know, WFT tournaments. We're playing all our provincial tournaments in Quebec, Bonzini and Leonhard, you know, really all of them. So there's so many technical aspects that make you good on, like make you improve on each tables. Like Bonzini, you're going to get a lot of the cuts, right? You're going to see angles on Bonzini that you never thought you would ever think about shooting on tornado.
[00:27:18] And you're like, wow, there's a hole there. Well, that also converts back to tornado to be able to play those, those holes and those shots and say like, Oh, I didn't even realize I could shoot there now, but you know, because we're used to shooting maybe a little bit more square and pounding the ball harder on tornado than we are in Bonzini where it's finesse. And it's a little bit. Yes. Yes. A hundred percent. It broadens your game. It widens your game for sure. Yeah. For sure.
[00:27:46] And you adapt your stance, your techniques, and you just become a better player overall. Even the reading is sometimes different, right? The way you're going to read a situation on Bonzini is going to be different from Leonhardt and, and, and tornado, right? I feel Leonhardt's probably, geez, you don't want to be a goalie on Leonhardt. The net is so big and it's like running all over the place, you know? The foot of the, the foot of the man is that big.
[00:28:13] So yeah, it's, it's, that one's tough, but no, if any, if anybody from Portugal is listening, I applied for my dual citizenship. So team Portugal, baby. Let me know. Cause I'll never, I'll never make team USA. You can dream. But again, you see Randy, the table and that's why we're doing it because all the American players that want to come over and experience what it is to be at a world cup.
[00:28:42] That's, that's exactly what it's going to be. Right. And the format is fun. I know, you know, I love Ryan. I love what he does. I think the flight format is amazing. I personally like it, but I really liked the Swiss format, the way, the way it's handled. Like you're, you're playing on that day and your result is the direct correlation to how you're doing that day. Like your performance, your seats, you know, you're playing good. You're going to be seated higher.
[00:29:12] You're, you're beating some masters. Maybe you shouldn't, but that weekend or that day you're playing lights out. You deserve it. And it helps with the confidence. You're not stuck with the same ranking. You're like, man, I can do this. You know? So there's a lot, there's a different mentality behind that format. And then it's single tail, right? Just like any other sport. Like I relate a lot to tennis in that area where some, some good players lose run run of us open and you know, anything can happen.
[00:29:42] Anything can happen. Anything can happen. And like you said, if you're, if you're playing good, if you're having a good week, especially like dude. And it's happened to all of us, right? You're playing great on Saturday and then Sunday comes and you can't find it. It's like, you're just a whole different player on Sunday, you know? And it happens to all of us, but I've never personally, I've never played in a Swiss format tournament. I've never played, you know, and I would, I would love to experience that. I would. Yeah. I would.
[00:30:08] I mean, you know, playing your rounds, qualifying, going to the, into the, you know, the KO, the single elimination. I mean, that's why I, I've been wanting to go to Texas for a couple of years now, but I just haven't been able to do it. My wife, my wife's a teacher. Yeah. My wife's a teacher. That's her last week of work. So the timing just hasn't been right. But I think, I think with this school year, what I'm going to do is I'm just going to leave and not tell her. Just make it happen.
[00:30:38] So I don't know. It's safe. Don't worry. Not a problem. It's not, it's not anymore. Not anymore. She'll listen to this on the way to work tomorrow. So love you anyway. Oops. But that's the point, Randy. You're, I mean, I like to prepare for my events and that's something that I find really tough is playing different events on the same day, even focusing on singles and doubles.
[00:31:04] You know, like if you want to play to the peak of your abilities, like you're coming in the morning, waking up, you're like, okay, today I'm, I'm focusing on my single games. What do I need to do? How do I need to analyze this thing? How does my defense is like, what is, what is it going to be? And, and to me this year at worlds, like I honestly played really good in singles. I even qualified in flight eight, which I surprised myself, but I was very happy about that.
[00:31:34] Awesome. Nice. And yeah, I beat, you know, I, I beat some really good players. I never thought I was going to beat that day, but I was in the zone. I played great. I didn't make many mistakes. And because I was focused when I woke up in the morning and I said to myself, like, Hey, you're focused on singles, whatever happens today, your lights out. I didn't save energy for another event because I'm playing with another guy and, you know, rethinking my strategy. Like I was just all out singles today. Let's do it.
[00:32:02] So, and that's what that format allows you to do in the Swiss system is just today is singles, tomorrow's doubles. Next day is something else. And then I focus on my, my day at work, if I could say. Yeah. So I think that's why there's also a lot of difference in results and there's a lot of upsets because we're used to specific format guys, you know, always going to the same brackets and stuff like that. Even at worlds, there was this debate where, you know, how many times can somebody be Tony
[00:32:31] twice over a weekend in singles, right? Like think about beating him once, imagine twice. Wow. I think if you do beat him once, I mean, you deserve to move on and beat the next guy for the title. Right. Like it's, it's, and that's, that's where I feel that comes, that comes into play. And that's why we have the world championship to know who was the real best player on that specific day. Essentially. Bad day. Yeah.
[00:33:00] No, and that's one of the things I really enjoy about the flight form. I like the, my only gripe about flight is, you know, when the event doesn't finish on the same day, I feel like it should, like if it starts on a Saturday, it should finish on a set. And, and with worlds, I know that happened with singles, open singles, open doubles. I mean, open singles, women's singles, and then open doubles and women's doubles. They did that Saturday and Sunday. They, and I, and I feel like for us, that's as close as we're going to get to Swiss in that sense.
[00:33:30] Right. In that regard. But you're absolutely right, dude. Like for me, we're all, we're all crazy. We're all weird. Like my brain, the way my brain works, I have to like going into a tournament. I have to like talk myself into playing singles. Sometimes I'll play it. Cause I'm like, well, I'm here and there's, I'm not playing anything until tomorrow. I'll just play singles. And then I'll play trash. I'll play like trash and, and I lose points and that drives me nuts. And I get frustrated with myself. But, you know, knowing that like, this is all I have to do today.
[00:33:59] I can just focus on this thing. Like that, that, that, that really does a lot for, you know, for somebody like me, it really does a lot. It does a lot. You have to set priorities. Like, you know, today, this is my agenda. I'm not allowed. It's there. Right. Yeah. That's, that's for me. That was my biggest struggle. And that's why, you know, even the world cup. And when I was thinking about these things, you know, cause I actually analyzed it maybe almost 10 years ago.
[00:34:28] And when I went to, I went to Europe also play a couple of tournaments there, uh, played the Bonzini world championship. And I was like, I playing so good. Like I, I really felt that I was just up a level in these formats. And I, you know, I kind of sat down and analyzed it and said like, okay, well that makes sense. Right. Cause now my attention is really focused on that event and I can prepare better. I can gauge my energy too. Right.
[00:34:55] I know when I can sit down cause, uh, you know, round Robin or Swiss, right. It's, you have your, your rounds one after the other, and you're just kind of warming up too. So you kind of get better as you play. Cause you're in that groove. Like you said, when you're playing well, boom, boom, boom, everything follows through. Then you have your small break and then, you know, you just focus and get ready for the elimination now. Right. So there's no overthinking. And to me that that's the whole world of different in, in just my performance overall.
[00:35:25] Like, and, and I think for foosball that, that switch from flight or Swiss to me, it's honestly, it's almost the same. There's no real difference to it. Uh, except if you, the seating, um, maybe we could talk to Ryan about that, but you know, for example, if you qualify in flight a, you should get a better seat than anybody who has a better seat than you that qualified in flight. Makes sense. Right.
[00:35:50] I mean, at nationals, the first time they ran flight, Chris and I were the two seed in pro doubles. We didn't qualify in flight a, we qualified in flight B, and then we went to the elimination bracket and we were still the two seed. So see that, that shouldn't like, you should be, um, if you're the number one seed in flight B because you were number two in flight a. So like, yeah, we were, we were, we were the number one seed in flight B. Yeah.
[00:36:14] And you would, unless 32 in flight a that pass and 32 in flight B, you would be seated 33. That's, that's the way I see it. You, so you'd be the first seated of flight B because you got the better seat there. So yeah, your seed, you keep it. If you qualify in flight in flight, there's another situation where I know, for example, Billy was supposed to play on, on, in singles and he didn't. At worlds. At worlds. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:36:41] He didn't get to play flight a, but he was going to play flight B, which is fine. Like for the guy that didn't qualify, then the three guys that would play Billy in their flight B would be like, geez, you know, the guy didn't even play. So, but he shouldn't get a seed since he didn't qualify in flight a. Anyway, those are small adjustments. Like, and if we're able to make those adjustments, I think, you know, Swiss and flight would exactly be the same. Yeah. And that's where, and that's where Swiss, that's where Swiss eliminates that because
[00:37:10] basically the six matches you're playing in Swiss flight a flight B, there's those six matches right there. Unless you, you know, you qualify in flight a, it's three matches you're in. So I see, I see. Yeah. The, the, yeah, it definitely would make a difference, but you know, I've, they've always said that the reason they can't run Swiss is because the, the lack of number of tables. I was going to say. So. Yeah. The table issue. I mean, what would you do?
[00:37:41] I mean, yeah, that's, that's, that's true. It does take a lot of tables. I think Lee and Hart, I'm not sure exactly how many tables they had. They had what? 1300 players, but they had like 640 singles. Wow. Yeah. I forget how many tables we can actually check, but there's a lot of tables. There, there, obviously a few hundred, maybe close to 200 tables. You hope so. But for 600 players. Right.
[00:38:07] I mean, I mean, it, the, the other thing is I, you know, you're running like race to seven or race to eight, I believe. Not sure. Maybe they're running best of three. I don't, I don't, not sure about that one, but either way. Sure. You need more tables, but I don't think to the extent where, for example, you would, you know, your tournament would be not on time. Right. So not that, you know, and then you could decide how many rounds you want to do. Right.
[00:38:37] Do you want to do four rounds, five rounds, six rounds? And then it's single KO. So nobody's in conflict. And keep in mind that there's only one category. Like there's no expert amateur pro. So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Same much. Right. And I think one cool thing to do is you split division. So you do whoever qualifies, I don't know, the first, you know, a couple hundred players, division one, then the rest division two, even you can have a division three.
[00:39:04] So you're running like three tournaments, single KO with the number of tables you have. And there, there's no conflict, right? That's another thing where flight, you might have some conflicts, right? There's, there's like, okay, this guy's. Oh yeah. You can't play pro right now. And to me like worlds, we had expert doubles and pro doubles playing on the same day. Like, you know, expert first, then pro, but some guys in expert are going to go deep in pro. Like it's going to happen.
[00:39:32] So that was probably one of the reasons why those events didn't finish the same day. And it's hard. Art Dullar was in the finals of pro doubles. He's an expert. So I mean, there, there are, that's all, that's always going to happen. And then, and then the thing too, is if you decide to go, okay, we're going to do a race to eight, we're going to do round Robin, six rounds each game. We're just going to do one game race to eight. People are going to complain. Why are we doing race to eight? Why aren't we doing three out of five?
[00:39:59] Well, because you take, you take 30 minutes to get to the table when you get called and then you got to wrap. You got to warm up. So the match doesn't start for an hour and then you're going to play three out of five and that's going to take an hour rather than just getting to the table and playing a race to eight. That could be done in 20 minutes, you know? So I think the, like there's, there are some cultural differences for sure between what happens here and what happens around the world. So, you know, and, and, and all that, all that makes, you know, makes the mess.
[00:40:30] So, um, I don't know who's, who's, who's got it right. You know what I mean? Who's got the solution and who does it right. Got to keep working at it. We just got to keep, uh, you know, whatever, whatever rise to the top and everybody says, Hey man, this is it for me. This is what I love. And everybody, you know, uh, says maybe 85% of the players do the same thing. That would be the way to go then. You know, it's, yeah. Well, well, the, the, the tablets, the tablets definitely helped, but then people, what people started doing was they'd come up, put their name in the tab.
[00:41:00] They put their number in. Right. And then they take off. So they have to find, they have to find a workaround for that. They have to find a workaround for that. So, you know, they still need the, uh, the people going around the auditors, you know, checking people's bank accounts, auditing people. So, um, because like I said, cause I saw it, people would come up and be like, put their number in, watch it turn green and then, and then walk away from the table. And it's like, dude, who's the bathroom 20 minutes later. Yeah. It's 20 minutes later.
[00:41:30] They come back and it's like, Oh, okay. So, you know, and you don't want to be a rat. You don't want to rat them out. But at the same time, it's like, you know, dude, if that happens, you know, if that happens 10 times, you know, per, per event, per round, I mean, you're losing hours of foosball, hours of foosball. Yeah. Really? So no, it's a little different when you're doing something, uh, you know, more intimate when there isn't seven, like, so what do you, what are you thinking? How many players are you expecting big?
[00:42:00] I mean, we were expecting quite a lot. Now we did get one small bad news where the ITSF is hosting their world champions league at the same time, like the club, same weekend, same weekend. Oh yeah. So that's going to hit, that's going to hurt the numbers a little bit. Um, we were honestly hoping to get 200 players, 250, hopefully that would, that would be a good number.
[00:42:28] Um, you know, we have about a hundred and so Canadian players. We were expecting maybe, I don't know, 30 to 50 European players. And then maybe it was for Americans. So yeah, that, that magic number, I was hoping to get about 200 players for that event. Uh, we'll see. We'll see. We're, we're going to promote it. Hopefully we can get a, you know, us players that are not in a club or European players
[00:42:54] that are not in a club, uh, to come, but it's a, that that's a little bummer. The good news is we're hopefully going to repeat it next year. And I think also next year we'll have the world cup. So it's just that first event, uh, we'll be able to promote it quite a lot, show some videos of how it went and, and hopefully, you know, get people excited. But if you do want to try it out, I mean, it's, it's an awesome event. It's a different format, different vibe.
[00:43:20] It's you, and you grow so much coming back from that tournament in terms of, you know, your foosball IQ playing different players too, right? If you're, you're fed up of playing, you know, just in your local area and the same players over and over, and even just playing tornado players overall, you want to try something new and see, Hey, what it's like playing a Bonzini style player or Leonhardt style player. This is going to be the place to do so. And I think you'll, you'll be surprised. You'll be surprised.
[00:43:48] And I think a lot of people, sometimes they're scared of the unknown too. They're not wanting to play on another table. Not players like that too, right? Obviously we're not all full multi-table players. Some players, uh, just like playing Bonzini. Some players just like playing tornado or they're, it's like the really their preference and they're, they are going to play once in a while, but they're not necessarily going to commit to it. Um, and it does happen, but it's very few of them. Most of the players are going to play multi-table.
[00:44:18] We even had some players who were diehard Bonzini players. We never thought we were going to convert to anything else. I ended up buying a Leonhardt and we're like, wow. And most recently talked to me about, Hey, I might want to try to buy a tornado and start playing on that too. We're like, see that that's the kind of hype we want to be able to build an openness to different style, different tables. I like to see it as like a tennis match. Again, tennis is my go-to related to foosball.
[00:44:46] I think there's so many parallels, but it's like playing the U S open Wimbledon and right. You got clay, brass and hardcore essentially. Interesting. They're all different. They all, you know, all the different styles. And, and obviously there's a little bit more difference to it because the men are different, the balls, the surface. But at the end of the day, like you said earlier, Randy, Mario, are getting a little saying foosball is foosball. And that's all there. Yeah.
[00:45:11] Canadian players now have that mentality of pay foosball is foosball. And if you want to grow, you want to be the best player. You're going to have to start playing all tables. Yeah. And that that's the mission. Well, our mission at least to be able to bring sport that aspect of the game, which I feel makes everybody win. Right. Look at a Spraydeman, uh, this last week or so in, uh, in Europe cleaned up, man. I mean, Leonhardt. Dominated. Yeah.
[00:45:41] Yeah. I really did. Um, a quick question from the audience. Um, will, uh, you guys be using the coral software for, uh, for registration? Yeah, we will. Um, coral or multi-table is honestly the go-to software. It has everything in there. Again, we want to replicate the, uh, world cup format. Um, so yeah, it's going to be coral. The players will have to register. U S player will have to go through US TSO also. So good.
[00:46:11] Okay. Jim or, or Miriam are your go-to people for, uh, for that. If ever you have any issues registering, you will have to pay your ITSF dues, uh, to participate in this tournament because it is a, an ITSF seven 50. Um, and we're trying to work some, maybe some world cup spots. We'll see not, not done yet. So hopefully we can add that to the list, uh, to help promote and players that want to earn their spot to have a chance to go to the world cup.
[00:46:41] Hopefully we're working on that to get that available to the players. Um, but yeah, yeah, it's going to be, um, there'll be a good one. Now you've been, how are you guys? Oh, sorry. Go ahead. No, that's, that's fine. Uh, I was just going to say you've, you've been, uh, uh, been recognized a lot of late, uh, when it comes to not just being a player, but also being a ring announcer for, uh, the world foosball tour. You're, you're the voice, man.
[00:47:08] Um, how about, uh, this tournament coming up in Niagara Falls? Are you going to double duty, uh, with, uh, some ring announcing? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I like to, I like to, uh, be on the mic. I like to, you know, hype the crowd. I'm a very chill guy outside of that. But when it's time to show it's, I like to, I like to, you know, get everybody on their feet. Absolutely. I'll, I'll do it. Uh, I love doing it. The world's this year was crazy.
[00:47:38] Yep. The energy we get from that, the players are excited. You know, I'm lucky enough to be in, in the ring and seeing the players come in and their faces and that energy inside there is just incredible. I'm sure people in the whole room felt the same. Oh yeah. It was, it was something. Yeah. That was, it's incredible. The whole production. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's exciting. But yeah, I'll definitely be in Niagara Falls.
[00:48:07] Um, for sure. Promoting that and, and, you know, making a good experience for the players. Absolutely. Isn't it different on the floor though? For real. When you're down there, doesn't it? It's like, wow. It's great. Even, you know, walk out with that, that money prize money and doubles. That's like, you feel the guy's so nervous. You know what I mean? They're like, it's so intense seeing the money there. No, what's at stake. Like you feel it.
[00:48:37] You feel it times, times a hundred. Oh yeah. Such a good feeling to know that who's ball is live. And well, the guys are, the show is good. Right. Like it's not, you know, you, you feel the adrenaline they're playing for something. Nobody can say they're, they're there to, you know, not win, or obviously they are there to win, but that extra intensity of like, I really, really, really want this title.
[00:49:02] So that's, it's, it's WFT has done a really good job for that. Well, it's, it's a prime time. Basically. You know, you've got, uh, each, uh, the, uh, the folks from ESPN, uh, at the worlds this last year, Joe Hessling, uh, you know, just, it looked like he was working his ass off. I mean, I, every time I saw him and just, you know, say what's up, he'd, he'd be like, Hey man, I'm just really, I've got, I got stuff going on. He was just running the cut the entire weekend.
[00:49:30] So I have a feeling that the, uh, the film, the, uh, the special that comes out on, uh, ESPN Ocho in 2027 is going to expect going to be pretty spectacular. Um, and that has it, how does it feel to see yourself on camera doing this kind of thing? What do you, what do you think about that? That's cool. It's cool. I love it. You know, I wouldn't do it if I didn't like it. I mean, it's fun to be part of their show, the excitement.
[00:49:58] Uh, you know, I got the chance to speak with Joe too. Uh, amazing guy, not much, honestly, just at the beginning of the weekend. And after that, you know, it's working, working, working the camera crew, everybody was running around. Um, but again, I love it. I love the show. I love what they're doing. It's good for foosball, good for visibility. You know, even now with all the, the, um, social media attention that we're getting the clips that WFT are putting out, you know, they look really awesome.
[00:50:27] Like every time you scroll, you're like, Oh, and I, you know, sometimes you're like, Oh, I've seen that clip. You know, I'm going to skip it. No, every time I'm like, ah, I want to watch it again. Like, it's so cool. You know what I mean? Like just the way it's presented, it's very exciting. And I can only put myself in the shoes of a non-foosball player or somebody that doesn't know about it. Be like, what is this? You know, like, wow, it looks spectacular, you know? Yeah.
[00:50:52] It's, it's the, it's generating excitement and there's so many, so many other people watching these things are not foosball players. Clearly, you know, you've got a million or more hits on a, on a clip. I mean, clearly it's not all foosball players. There's one clip. There's one clip. There's one clip. That's got over 11 million views. 11 million? One of the reels has over 11. Yeah. Hannah, Hannah and Sullivan from last year. It's got over 11 million views. Wow. There's a couple that are over a million, but there's a few that are like two, three, four,
[00:51:21] five, six, seven, 800. You know, it's, it's crazy. The views are good. They're getting a bunch of views, man. They got a few over a million. They got that one over 11. And then they got a bunch in the hundreds of thousands. And then they have a bunch out of like 20, between 20 and 80, 90,000 views. People, there's definitely eyes on it now. And it's only going to get, it's only going to get better. There's only going to be more like with the new production with Joe and his crew and what they're going to be putting out. It's just going to get better. It's going to be crazy.
[00:51:51] It's a good time to be in foosball, man. It really is. Mm-hmm. And I checking it now, but I, the biggest video was Tony's videos, snake shot on, I believe Tom York. And I think that video got like close to, Hey, I'm, I don't want to say a number there, but I think it's like 30 million. Is that, is that, is that on Instagram? Is that on Instagram? Yes. Oh, I was talking about, I was talking about Facebook. I don't have Instagram still.
[00:52:21] Okay. Yeah. So I think the biggest one right now, we can edit this out if I don't have the right number, but I think it's like close to 30 million views for that Tony versus Tom, your Tommy, your not Tommy. Your Tommy. Yeah. So yeah, that wasn't, that one was just ramping up WFT posting about it. And I was like, wow, this is incredible. You know? So yeah, just that whole hype, that whole visibility. We've never seen it.
[00:52:51] I don't know if you guys feel that way, but I've been playing foosball for a very long time and these has never happened. You know, just everybody, everybody's kind of on the same energy level of, you know, Hey, something's happening. We're getting good vibes. Yeah. We're getting visibility. Maybe it's, I don't know the internet, the way we're promoting it.
[00:53:18] We didn't promote it the same way before, but people are talking about it and even more than ever. And I think the numbers are showing it. You know, it's just incredible. We're even here. You know, what's cool about the Quebec scene is we used to have a couple of hundred, like 500 players at tournaments back in the early 2000s. No kidding. We were lucky enough to have, uh, the Garlando table again, uh, in every single bar in the province.
[00:53:48] So from one side of the province to the other, everybody was playing foosball back in the day. So we have this player base of guys either that, you know, want to come back or, or they're still somewhat playing or their kids are going to start playing or, you know, there's this background. We're lucky enough to have it so that we know if we put the right environment, we're lucky environment, get more tables out.
[00:54:12] Like we used to have in the early 2000s and get places where kids or anybody can go play foosball. We have a high chance of coming back to something like that, uh, with everything that's going on, the promotion, you know, the hype, the nice videos we can share. You know, I even share WFT videos at our tournament just to get people pumped. You know, that's what we did last time till the tornado world. People are looking at it. They're at the screen, you know, just. You know, feeling the experience.
[00:54:41] That's what I want to bring back, you know, as a promoter, you know, the goosebumps that I get being in that room, playing those matches, bringing this back home for the players so that they can also feel it. And what foosball brings to the table. It's addicting. Once you get a taste of this too. Um, so, uh, for, for, for, for 2027, uh, what kind of changes are going to be happening for you guys?
[00:55:07] Uh, you know, in your, in your, uh, tournaments, anything new that you want to, uh, uh, mention to us that, uh, going to be happening this next year? Uh, well, we're always trying to do things bigger, better as well. Uh, you know, we're, I'm, um, we're starting off the year in January in Montreal, uh, for the Leonhardt Canadian championships. Yes. Um, and obviously Niagara, your biggest tournament. So that's going to be exciting.
[00:55:36] Again, we're in a huge ballroom. So the hotel is, we're going to have actually the full floor to ourselves, literally. So that's, that's a first for us. Very exciting. You know, downtown Niagara Falls. I think that players can enjoy. There's going to be a lot of activities. We're trying to work also with local tourism, uh, to, to be able to help us out with, you know, Hey, you want to go to this place or give out free stuff? And I don't know. We'll see.
[00:56:04] We're trying to get the best out of it. Um, a lot of things to do. You can bring the whole family, et cetera. So that's going to be a big, big plus. Uh, then we're going back in May for Quebec City Bonsini at the same hotel. We're going to be, uh, this, this weekend. So what we like to do is we do two tournaments in Quebec and two tournaments in Montreal and both on the different tables, right? So in January is lean heart.
[00:56:32] Then, then we go to Quebec city on Bonsini. Then we go to Montreal on Bonsini and then we, and the year back in Quebec city only in heart. Uh, so both cities can play both tables and then the multi tables, kind of the cherry on top and everything. Yeah. Um, you know, on, again, on our end, we're right now we're focusing this year. I will say, um, we're going to keep the standards that we're used to in the tournaments.
[00:56:56] Um, but we're putting a lot of effort in recruiting and promoting, you know, our player base, wanting to get players to play more accessibility to the tables. So that's really going to be our focus in 2027. So that coming, you know, 2028, we're going to be able to get more players, better experience, bigger tournaments, hopefully that that's going to be the long-term goal.
[00:57:24] Um, we also have another nice tournament coming up at the end of November, 2027. That is going to be an ITSF, uh, America's cup. Uh, and that one actually is going to be a ITSF world cup qualifier also. So ITSF is giving out spots to whoever's going to win, uh, the singles, doubles, uh, women's event, juniors, event, seniors event.
[00:57:50] That's going to be the exact same format as the Niagara Falls tournament multi-table. That one's going to be in Trois-Rivières, which is in between Quebec City and Montreal, right in between. Um, that place is, is really amazing. It's, uh, it's actually my hometown. So I'm able to have a lot of contacts over there to be able to get a great venue. Uh, we've been hosting our multi-table tournament there for the past two years. Uh, so they've been very helpful.
[00:58:17] So that's going to be the America's cup where we're going to get nations, Canada, U.S., uh, Mexico, hopefully going to be able to get South American countries as well to come up and compete for the America's cup essentially. So all the nations are going to compete against one another and we're trying to promote that as well. Uh, multi-table again, and same, same format, Bonzini, Tornado, Leonor. So everybody's welcome to that one.
[00:58:45] And everything's on our website too, aqbm.ca. You can see all our tournaments, all our upcoming tournaments, the flyer, all the info is all on there. So trying to get the word out as much as we can. And, uh, what, what time are you guys starting this week, uh, at, uh, the open? Uh, we're starting, uh, Friday is going to be pro-am and open mix. Uh, we're starting at 7 PM. Okay.
[00:59:10] And then we're running that, the, the open events are on Saturday and pushing to Sunday. We do double KO still cause our player base, um, you know, we can still allow ourselves to do double KO. Uh, as long as we don't, as long as we stay within that a hundred to, you know, 120 player base or so, we can still afford to do this format without going over and, and having too much delays.
[00:59:37] But if we do more than that, we'll see eventually. But yeah, that's a, that's the format we're using. So Saturday, Sunday is like, uh, we have expert amateur, uh, no, sorry, rookie amateur expert, and then open events. That's what we're doing. Very cool. So let's just, let's just say, for instance, I decided to come up this weekend for this tournament. I've never played in a Bonzini event, never played in a Leonhardt event. What would I be rated at your tournament?
[01:00:06] So we, we count whatever your WFT ranking is, um, minus one, I guess, because it's not your table, but still tornado players are very good on Leonhardt. So, of course. So Randy, you, and honestly, like we, what we do is you're ranked pro. So you, you would go down to expert because it's not your table. Oh, I am a sure.
[01:00:36] Should be beginner. Oh boy. We allow, like, obviously, you know, top rated masters are never going to play expert in our tournament. Of course. Of course. Like we're, we're going to be picky. Like I say, expert, you might be, have to play open. We'll see if you come. We'll let me know. Well, I can't, not, not, not this, this weekend, my wife and I, we're, we're, we're going away
[01:01:03] this way, but no, I, you know, I just, I've always been curious about stuff like that. So. We try to be as possible. Honestly, you know, it's so hard when you get new players, but, you know, at the same time that, that when, when people say, yeah, but it's not my table to me, that just doesn't justify it because again, foosball is foosball. Yeah. Dude. At the end of the day. Yeah. At the end of the day, I'll, I'm going to take my lumps. I'm going to stay right where I'm at. It's not a big deal.
[01:01:32] Believe me, especially I, and I don't want to discourage any, I don't want to cause conflict and I definitely don't want to discourage anybody from playing. So I'll, I'll take my lumps. It'll be, it's fine. I just, I know there, I know there are some people out there that would be like, like you said, it's not my table, man. I've never played on it before, but how can we prove that? Yeah. Yeah. Right. We're used to that. Honestly, everybody who wants to play the lowest category, they want to play more, you know, they want to win, right?
[01:02:01] They want to give them a shot to win, which we understand. But even a rookie category, like that category, you're not allowed to make it in rookie unless you're like, you were an amateur and you lost enough points to go down to, because we use the system. So if you're not familiar with the elo system is we, there's like a 50 point you can get on a win and you can lose 50 points on a loss. And that's if like, you're the greatest player against the worst player.
[01:02:31] So if you beat the best player, you could win 50 points by beating that's the max. That's the max. Okay. So if you're playing against a player that has about the same ranking, you're, you would only get 25 points for a win, but you would also lose 25 if you lose. Right. So that's, that's how we play it out. So players either like we see you play and we're like, okay, you've never touched a table in your life. You're here at our tournament. Okay. You're going to be a rookie.
[01:02:58] And those are the exceptions because everybody who comes to a tournament has played before. So, you know, or you start as an amateur, you have to get beat up for like two, three tournaments and beat up bad. And then you lose so many points that you're still motivated to come back and then you'll be able to play rookie and then if you smash rookie, then you're back up to amateur. Yeah. So that's how we do it. But it's good because we don't want players to stay like we want our player base to improve.
[01:03:27] We want our players to get better. That's the goal, right? We, we do everything to get the players to practice, get better, wanting to be the best. And even during our multi-table event, we did the mistake. The first year we did that. What we do is we do division one and then we have the payouts. And then division two, we have another percentage and there's other payouts. We realized that first year we did it. Shit.
[01:03:52] Payouts from second division, like first and second place were higher than like four, five and six and open, like in division one. Huh? So some guys looking at the chart and they were literally sandbagging and not playing like purposely losing the division two to be able to win that division and make some money. So we had to rethink the way we were going to do it. So this year the flyer is a percentage of all the entry fees.
[01:04:21] So let's say first place in division one, just saying random numbers here, but like 50% of the whole price pool. Then second place is 40 and so on. And then division two is like 1.5%. And then second place is 1.25%. So you're sure that everybody in division one has a higher money and play deeper so that you want the guy to say, Hey, do I really have the chance to win first place in division two?
[01:04:48] Or maybe I can get a better result and lose in round of 16 and get more money in the round of 16 than I have by winning the division two. So we avoid sandbagging in that way as much as possible. And again, it just gets the players to play the best they can. So that's the idea. Yeah. That's, that's the hardest part about it. Yeah. It's just, it's just crazy that players, they think like that, right? Like, uh, yeah, I'm going to do all this. I'm going to, I'm going to, yeah, I'm going to go down when, when the B division and get
[01:05:18] a bag of loonies and go home, you know, or medals. So some do it for the medals. They just want to win. Yeah. We got some good looking medals, some big bling. They're really heavy too. You got, we got them made. Uh, with our logo on it and everything. So they're pretty cool. So a lot of people just want to win the medals, which, you know, at the, at the end of the day, they also want to pay their, their, their weekend off a little bit.
[01:05:46] So they want to play in division one instead. We're trying to cut that out as much as we can. Well, I think there's, there is, uh, so much that, that needs to be talked about when it comes to just generating more interest. And I think we covered a lot of that tonight, but there's so much more yet, uh, when it comes to ideas. Um, now if anybody has ideas for you as a promoter, how do they reach out to you? How do they, uh, how do they say, Hey, Biggie, I need to, I got to tell you something.
[01:06:14] I, I, I noticed, uh, uh, a certain thing that at another tournament, could you do that kind of thing, would they be able to approach you about ideas? Oh yeah, for sure. Okay. You can, if you, uh, want to send me a Facebook messenger message or email me, uh, at, uh, Quebec baby foot at gmail.com. Absolutely. Send over your ideas. And, uh, you know, we, we're, we're lucky, honestly, like I'm probably the voice of the
[01:06:43] Quebec, uh, community, but you know, we have a great team. And I never say it enough. Like I wouldn't be able to do this on my own. I'd probably have a burnout right now. If we was going to do like everything that, you know, I still feel we have a standard of tournaments. People love coming to our tournaments and people who've never been just come once. And trust me, we'll, we'll probably get you hooked just by the experience, the fun, the vibe you're going to get.
[01:07:12] We're trying to make it top notch with the means that we like, you know, with what we have, right. We're trying to give the best experience and we, we, we pull it out. You know, we, we were able to make something nice and the team behind it is, is what makes our success. So we have like a strong community. We're holding together. That that's also how we were able to get in with the other association, say, Hey guys, here's what we're doing.
[01:07:39] We want, if we're successful, you guys are successful. We're, we all win at foosball. Right. And we were able to bring in other association, make strong partnerships, uh, being able to, you know, and, and make it serious. That allowed us to, to also get other partnerships with other outside association. Like I said, we started weekly tournaments with, with the company called soccer IQ, another district golf.
[01:08:04] Like those partnerships would not be available to us if we didn't have the team that's able to, to work in the backend every time. And they don't, they, they focus on what they do best. You know, that's, that's, that's, that's what I like when we reach out to people, you're like, Hey, what do you like? And what do you want to do? You know? And they're like, well, I'm good at this. And I'm good at that. Like we even got our podiums built by one of my good friends.
[01:08:30] He built the whole like wooden podiums and then another guy got all the nice stickers. And one weekend we painted the podiums. So we like have the color. So if you guys see our, our pictures now, we have like the nice podiums there in our pictures. Uh, we're looking at adding, you know, a nice back image to make it look a little bit better. Stuff like that, you know, make, make it fun, make it nice for the viewers, people on social media to say, Hey, these guys are serious.
[01:08:58] I want to know more about this and that's what we do when, and we're doing a good job. Uh, but yeah, it's a lot of work, but again, we're lucky to have the people to that are pulling in the right direction and do it for the right reasons. I think that's also important. We got a lot of volunteers, right? Like a lot of these people are taking their own time and energy because they love foosball. It loves what it gives them and it's able to get it to the next level. So big shout out to all of them. Yeah. That wouldn't be possible without them.
[01:09:28] That's, uh, that's the main idea is to get everybody in, in pulling on the same end of the rope and making this happen. Um, quick question before I let you get back to your, uh, your life. Um, this next year, 2027, you know, we're back at it again. We have another full schedule of stuff happening, not just in Canada, but all, all across, uh, uh, North America. What's it, uh, what's it going to look like for you when it comes to your tournaments, um, for the, the world foosball tour, are you going to be back in the, the ring announcer seat?
[01:09:56] Are you going to be doing that, uh, in 2027? Yeah. 20, 2027 is going to be a big foosball year for Mr. Biggs. That's for sure. Nice. Uh, I'm excited. I plan to do a lot of tournaments, uh, obviously going to be on the WFT tour for sure. Good. Uh, even planning. I know Bonzini celebrating their hundred year of foosball. One hundred years. So I'm, I'm looking at 100 years. Yeah. Bonzini celebrating a hundred. Yes. Wow.
[01:10:26] So I heard that we're going to do something special. So definitely want to go out to that one. Okay. Um, yeah, obviously all our tournaments that we're hosting worlds for sure. Lee and heart thinking about it strongly. I mean, who doesn't want to be at a tournament with 1300 players? That's awesome. Yeah. So yeah, for, for, for me personally, I think there's going to be a lot of foosball playing, a lot of traveling and very excited to what's, uh, coming for 2027.
[01:10:55] And so we're, we're, uh, we're anxiously awaiting to see how things go. Of course this next weekend and, and anytime you want to come back and let us know what's up, man, we're, we're always open. Uh, that is if our internet's working. That is. Yeah. Okay. I got you. I got you. No, no. I appreciate it. Tom. All good. Thank you so much, guys. Honestly, it's always fun to talk foosball. You know, it's my passion. Love it. Oh yeah.
[01:11:22] Uh, it's a great, always, always a pleasure. I like watching the show too. Sometimes when I have the time to watch you guys, it's always fun, you know, Sunday night relaxing and, uh, hearing about foosball. So appreciate it. Uh, yeah, absolutely. It's, uh, it's good. And, and again, if you know, anybody has any questions or, you know, want to know about how we're promoting and, and needs help and assistance, I'd be glad to, uh, you know, help anybody out.
[01:11:51] I, I mean, we're such a small community. I think the one thing we can do is, is together and, and help each other out to promote this. And, and I really feel we're, we're going to make it happen. Like, you know, there, there's not much like we're at the last, you know, at the end of the tunnel where we're going to see the light of all the work we've done and something great is going to happen for foosball. And, and it's, it's really exciting.
[01:12:18] And I'm telling you the stars are aligned and I can't wait for that moment. But, you know, until then we need to work together, promote the sports, love the game, love whatever table you're playing on. And be open to other tables, other styles. It's very, uh, you know, it's fun. Randy, anything you want to ask before we, uh, actually let Biggie do, do, uh, well, what everybody does on Sunday nights and just relax. No, buddy.
[01:12:48] Thanks for your time. Of course, you know, if you need anything, just, just reach out. I'm always here. So hope everything goes good this weekend. And, uh, uh, March bro, a couple months away. I'm gonna see what I can do. I want to go. I think we're going to do that. I think we're, we're going to have to make, uh, make plans. We're up to be there. I think that, uh, I would love to see both of you guys. I think, uh, honestly, I think this is the tournament that brings us together. You know what I mean?
[01:13:15] Like it's the one and, and, and hopefully we can make it work over the years that it becomes, you know, the next big thing after obviously world foosball tour and world championship. And it's a different format, right? So it's a different, different format, different, different players, different energy, different vibes. So hopefully it all works. But I think that's really the one that will help maybe grow that multi-table scene because, uh, I'm a fan of it.
[01:13:42] I love multi-table and I think it's, it's a different vision of the sport that everybody should embrace. Let's establish the tradition and, uh, make it happen. So, so Biggie, thank you so much for what you do, man. You're, you're putting so much time and effort. It's, uh, it, it's not going unnoticed by any means. Appreciate it guys. Thank you so much for having me again. Yeah. Yeah, buddy. All right.
[01:14:09] And once again, guys, thanks for tuning in tonight on Twitch TV and YouTube. Uh, sad, uh, to say that, uh, we had some issues when it came to the feed, but, uh, if you want to download the podcast, uh, that will be in its entirety in the sense it's separately recorded. So you'll hear the entire thing, uh, without having to see our faces, but that, that's something you'll have to turn to, uh, as of later tonight and tomorrow. Meanwhile, thanks for tuning in to Foos Talk Live episode number 320 with, uh, Biggie Biggs.
[01:14:38] And, uh, we're looking forward to 2027. Of course, next week, if you want to get to that, that Leonhardt Open in Quebec City, go for it. Get there and, uh, and have a great time. But thanks again for tuning in. 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. High Fidelity Refurbished Foosballs.
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[01:16:08] Using technology to create a better foosball experience. Foosball tournaments are everywhere. Foos Talk Live proudly presents a weekly update of events near you. With the Foos Talk Live Tournament Beat. Here's what's up. It's the Mississippi Fall Open Foosball Tournament. November 13th through the 14th at the Back Porch. Brandon, Mississippi. The ITSF presents the 2026 Quebec City Leonhardt Open.
[01:16:38] November 13th through the 15th. Hotel Voyager, Quebec City, Canada. Buffalo Foosball presents the 10th anniversary tournament. November 20th through the 22nd. Bison Billiards. Buffalo, New York. Tucker Creek Foosball presents the Turkey Bash. Saturday, November 21st. Sonora, Kentucky. World Foosball Tour presents the International Championships of Foosball. November 25th through the 29th in Vienna, Austria.
[01:17:07] The 2026 North Carolina State Championships. Thanksgiving weekend, November 26th through the 29th at the Crowne Plaza in Asheville, North Carolina. It's the 20th annual 2026 Louisiana State Championships. December 3rd through the 6th at the Holiday Inn, Metairie, Louisiana. 518 Foosball presents the Frozen Foosers Smashdown. Saturday, December 5th. Trick Shots, Billiards, and Wicked Eatery Clifton Park, New York.
[01:17:37] Looking ahead to 2027, don't miss the Battle in the Bayou, Louisiana Open. January 15th through the 17th at the Knights of Columbus Hall, Crowley, Louisiana. The World Foosball Tour presents the Tour Kickoff. February 4th through the 7th. Nashville, Tennessee. The South Dakota State 2027 Foosball Championship.
[01:18:01] February 26th through the 28th at Royal River Casino and Hotel, Landro, South Dakota. Canadian Foosball and the ITSF present the 2027 Canadian Multi-Table Championship. March 11th through the 14th, Doubletree Inn, Niagara Falls, Canada. The World Foosball Tour presents the 2027 Hall of Fame Classic. April 7th through the 11th in Las Vegas, Nevada.
[01:18:30] 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. 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.
[01:18:58] And by Boise Foos Works, high-fidelity refurbished foosballs. Foos Talk Live is a product of Foosball Radio. With gratitude, we recognize our Foosball Radio Patreons. Our Foos Talk Live sponsor, original-leonhart-usa.com. Tune in again next week for another episode of Foos Talk Live. In the meantime, we'll see you at Foosin'.