NZXT PODCAST - #189 - FlyQuest CEO! (Brian Anderson)

Episode Date: October 18, 2024

On this week's episode of the NZXT Podcast... We have Brian Anderson joining us as he talks about his time before and now as CEO of FlyQuest! Catch the replay at twitch.tv/NZXT!

What's good, everyone. Welcome to episode 189 of the NCC podcast, the official podcast of the NCC community. This podcast recorded live on Fridays at 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on the official NCC Twitch and is available to stream on demand on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and SoundCloud. My name is Mike. It was me as always. It's Ivan. How are you doing, Ivan? How I do, baby boo?

Happy Friday. I'm super excited for today's podcast because we have a very special guest. But before I introduce them, I want to make one quick announcement. So for those of you who are tuned in live right now on Twitch.tv slash nzxte, you are going to get access to a very, very special giveaway, thanks to our buddies at FlyQuest. Type exclamation giveaway in the chat. You'll get a link for a chance to win a $100 gift card that you can use on the FlyQuest shop and get yourself some nice gear. And if you stick around to the end of the show, we will give you a secret word.

I can't tell you what that secret word is just yet. But that secret word will give you a bunch of bonus entries into the giveaway. So stick around and stay tuned. And with that, I would like to introduce a special guest for the day. His name is Brian Anderson. Brian, how are you? I'm great. Happy to be here.

You're in Paris right now, right? I am. We were lucky enough to qualify for World's Quarterfinals. So I'm coming to you live from the Renaissance Hotel in Paris. It's a lot of fun. We're having a great time. We're excited about our match on Sunday. Wish us luck against Gen G.

Can you say something in French, please? I'll speak a French a little. Oh. Three years of high school French. That's all I know. Devastating. For those who don't know who you are, Brian, can you let everyone know who you are exactly?

Yeah, I'm the current CEO of FlyQuest, formerly the CEO of Beast Coast. If you guys have any Dota 2 fans in the chat, then yeah, basically day to day, I manage all the business marketing, you know, corporate development activities at FlyQuest. Very, very important job. And I guess for those of you in the chat, or for those of you here who don't know who FlyQuest is, like, can you explain a little bit about what FlightQuest is? Yeah. Usually I say we're in North Midwest. American e-sports organization, but recently we picked up Australian Counter-Strike team. So now I have to say we are a global e-sports organization, primarily playing League of Legends in North America and the LCS, but also now have rosters across multiple titles, big in the FGC. We run the Red program, which also has Valerent, Counter-Strike, and then we also have

our Counter-Strike 2 men's program out of Australia. Yeah, that's mostly what we do. and do a lot of awesome content as well across multiple titles. And we do want to get into everything that Flaquit is about, but before we get into that, we want to get started with you. So how did you get started in video games? What video games did you play as a kid? Yeah, I've always been basically totally obsessed with video games.

I grew up in Indiana and West Lopjean, Indiana. Not a lot to do as a kid. basically in the middle of a bunch of cornfields. But I did have two brothers. And so all three of us basically just grew up playing like any video game we could get our hands on. We were big Super Smash Bros. players. Old school, like Legend of Zelda,

Ocreen of Time, the N64 was kind of, you know, what I grew up with. What was you and your brother's favorite game? Oh, man. Probably like Mario Kart for the N64. We played a lot of that game. And then I was actually a... Destroy friendships for sure.

Yeah, yeah, brotherhoods and friendships. And then the first ever competitive Eastport or video game I ever got into online because my parents wouldn't let me play like, you know, online games. I never had like Xbox Live or anything like that was actually League of Legends, interestingly enough, when I was like an eighth grader.

And so that's how I really got into Eastports was playing League of Legends back in, you know, pre-season one times, basically. Nice. And we know you're super busy as the CEO, but like what's your favorite game right now that you're playing? Still League of Legends. I still have my old group of guys from high school. We probably get on like a five-man unranked stack playing league

at least like twice a week. And we have for the last like decade, basically. So still playing a lot of league, a couple hours a week, or at least I try to. Recently we've switched over to risk of rain too, which is another amazing game. that game's awesome for the kind of like rogue light aficionados in the chat um what else i've been playing oh with vampire survivor when i want to just like turn my brain off and uh just play play a bunch of other other games first of all risk green two goat game it's one of the best it's actually so long i can play like a thousand hours of that game it's so awesome i think i'm at like 300

hours and i was like sucked in the music the thing's so good but i also want to talk my Steve McCown. Yeah, I have too many hours in that game. I want to talk a little bit. Actually, that was actually our question, which segues into it, is I know you're a big league guy since you're playing since you were a freshman in high school. Yeah. I'm embarrassingly bad, though.

I've been playing for over 10 years, and I'm still hard-sug gold. So, like, don't, I'm outing myself right now as a total noob. But at least I play the game. Honestly, don't even worry. I'm bad, too. But what was the first champ that you learned? and it was now your favorite, I guess, Maine. Oh, yeah.

Back in season one, I played Twitch Jungle, but I was like in eighth grade and I didn't understand how Jungle worked. And so I would just take exhaust Ignite Twitch and I would just gank level one mid every game. And back then, people didn't realize you had to take Flash. Like, because it like wasn't a thing in Dota or, you know, Han, which is like the precursors of League of Legends.

And so Midlanders wouldn't take Flash. And it turns out that if you don't have Flash mid in season one, Ignite, exhaust, Twitch, which is one shot kill you every single time. So it was like a guaranteed first blood every game. And then I just perma roamed. And I would have like 50 kills, like legitimately by the end of the game. So for the first two years of league, all I played was Ignite, Exhaust, Twitch Jungle with no smite. I was a complete menace.

And then after that I started playing Jacks, Jack Stop. And I played that for years and years. Wow. Well, I guess I also kind of tricked. A villain origin story. Yeah, I know. I heard Jack said, I'm like, oh boy, he did him with a little light. Yeah, up later, of course.

So you played, you played League of Legends in high school. Then you went to Indiana for school. And you actually have a finance. Can you go into why you went into, was it finance, consulting, and public policy? Yeah, I, I went into IU, actually with the idea of kind of following in my parents' footsteps. Both my parents are biology professors at Purdue. And so I actually went into to IU originally being a double major finance and biology. And then after one semester, I was like, never mind.

I'm going to go go just do full business with the idea of like basically being a lawyer after I graduated. And then through my time at IU, I kind of like really fell in love with finance and the analytical side of it and kind of like the strategy. And then I ended up graduating and going into investment banking in New York as kind of my past. half. And really for business school, like, it's pretty easy to have like multiple majors, like basically all the classes are like the, you know, the basic classes you have to take. Like everyone has to take accounting 101. Everyone has to take finance 101. So you can just kind of like tuck into a bunch of majors if you have like multiple AP credits going in. And since I went to a state school in the Midwest, like they're required to take all your high school

APs. So it was it was not that hard. Be school preschool preschool, as they said. Why did you, why did you have bio and those are like two completely different? the family business. It's a family business. My dad was a biology professor. My grandfather was a biology professor. Like, you know, both my brothers went to grad school. So I'm the, I'm the black sheep of the family since I, I'm not an academic. We talked a little bit about this before the stream, but, you know, Purdue and Indiana, Indiana now being undefeated in football. I know. Which is insane. The first time in 1960s. How does it feel? Yeah. It's a bit bitter.

sweet because I'm still kind of a Purdue football fan, to be honest with you. I like IU basketball because they're actually good when I was in college and then like rank number one in the country for a bit. Though we had disappointing and you know March Madden's runs every year of course. But for Purdue football, when I was in like grade school, Drew Breeze was the quarterback. So I like fell in love with Purdue football when we were like good and like going to the Rose Bowl. And interestingly enough, one of my best friends in middle school, his dad was the defensive coordinator for Purdue football. And so our like first grade birthday party was at Rossade Stadium and the red shirt freshman quarterback played quarterback for both sides. And it was Drew Brees at the time.

So we actually played like pickup football Drew Brees when I was in like first grade. So ever since then I have to be like a die hard Purdue football fan. Ooh. Wow. That's pretty cool. So from from, you know, graduating and and getting your start in like investment banking and finance world and all that. Like how in the heck did you get into like into becoming like CEO of Beast Coast and just gaming and how did that transition happen for you? Yeah, not easily. I will say I think I always knew at some point I wanted to work in video games.

When I was in banking, I worked in a specialty called TMT, which is telecommunications, media, telecom, or technology media telecom, excuse me. So basically that's a lot of like technology related companies because that was kind of what I was interested in. I was the guy in the, like in the cubicle area that had the gaming keyboard in the office. Like I had the cherry blue switches with all the RGB lit up everything. Everyone else was like using like normal like business chicklet keyboards and I had all my gaming referrals that I brought into the office.

So I always like was a bit of a different breed, I guess. compared to the other bankers. And I always wanted to work in, like, technology in some way. But it was actually, like, not that easy. So after I was done doing, like, two or three years of banking, I kind of knew I was done, like, I was working 100-hour weeks in New York City. And, you know, you learn a lot, obviously, but it's definitely a bit of a grind. And I was trying to basically, like, break into e-sports.

And frankly, I, like, couldn't. So I really feel bad for a lot of people that are young trying to get into e-sports. It's really a small industry. And I thought I had, like, an amazing resume, like, Wall Street, like, you know, did well in school. And I was applying for like, you know, entry level accounting and finance jobs at like, you know, cloud nine and like, no, not even hearing back like from, you know, my applications and stuff like for years. And I was like, wow, this is like really frustrating. So I kept like chugging along in finance until eventually I sort of just gave up.

And I was like, you know what? Like if no one's going to hire me, I'll just do it myself. And I founded a esports team in 2019 with a buddy of mine grants in. And that was Beast Coast, which ended up becoming a Jota 2 focused organization in South America. And then we also had a bunch of fighting game players and content creators in North America. We did like Pokemon. We did a bunch of fun stuff. It's kind of like a small e-sports work. And so really I kind of had to like pave my own way because I really couldn't figure out how to get a job in e-sports.

Well, I mean, that's a good way to do it. Just make up the job yourself. Yep, exactly. How long were you around with Beast Coast? It was there for about three years. It was like an awesome kind of like time, but it was all like self-taught because like, you know, we didn't really know anyone in these sports. Like we were both like outsiders looking in who were really just like fans who thought we could, you know, start something. We thought we knew a lot about Dota and League of Legends and fundraising.

And it was a really amazing time. You know, shout out to Grant and all the folks over at Beast Coast. Yeah, I was there for a little over three years. How often did people get confused? with the band Best Coast. Yeah, that was definitely a bit of that for sure. I don't know if our SEO was super strong when it came with Beast Coast, but it is what it is.

So from from Bees Coast to FlyQuest, how did you get that call? Did someone just say like, hey man, we like what you're doing to go over here? So I did have one thing in between. So actually I left Beast Coast with the idea of actually launching a gaming-focused venture capital fund. So I was actually in the process of raising a VC fund. Those can basically raise capital in the US and then deploy it in Southeast Asia with a couple of partners.

So that was basically maybe 15% through that process, which might have taken like over a year basically to kick up something like that. And in the middle of that process, I got kind of a random phone call from someone I knew in banking, weirdly enough, who basically was the financial advisor to the FlyQuest now ownership group. that actually went acquired FlyQuest, and they basically got a call, I got a call from them, and they were saying, hey, we just sold this e-sports team to this very notable sports investor in New York.

They're asking around to try to find kind of a new, young, esports executive on their wish list. It was like, has to have worked in e-sports before, has to run e-sports organizations, has to have a background in finance, because that's like where the ownership groups, like, you know, finances, money comes from

is basically their careers in finance. And it turns out like that list of experiences is like quite short. Like there's not a lot of people that have worked on Wall Street and also run esports organizations. So I kind of got into the process that way. And I originally I thought I was just having like a 30 minute informational meeting with our owner, the Viola family. But then when it was supposed to be like a 30 minute like chat turned in like three hours and I was basically offered the job on the first call. So that was the and then because I've been playing League of Legends since I was. in eighth grade, completely obsessed with the game, you know, maybe like 7,000 hours in League of Legends in my life,

to get the opportunity to run an LCS organization was like truly like a dream come true I'd had since I was a kid. So it was like a very, very easy yes. Like when do I get to move to L.A., basically? That's amazing. It was just like you were born for this role, basically. Yeah, the high school gamer boys in Discord were like pretty pumped when I told them I was moving to L.A. to run FlyQuest. That's awesome, man. And you mentioned the Viola family.

You know, I know who they are. Mike knows who they are, but there might be people who don't know. Can you explain, like, who that family is and what they actually own? Because they have an impressive portfolio. Yeah, they're very experienced in successful sports investors. So basically, they also own the Florida Panthers, which happened to win the Stanley Cup this year. And then quite recently, they announced that they were minority investors. in Ipswich Town, which is basically,

it was a tier two soccer club in England that just got promoted into the Premier League. Maybe it's like tier one, and then you go into Premier League. I actually don't know exactly how the promotion system works, but it was like one level under Premier League, and then it got promoted. And so Flaquas won the LCS this year. The Florida Panthers won the Stanley Cup,

and Ipswich Town was promoted into the Premier League. So yeah, our family office ownership group is pretty pumped about how their sports investments have gone the last 12 months. Mike's a big hockey. Mike's a big hockey nut. So when the Panthers won, he was like, is there anyway that? Yeah, we have a framed Panthers jersey in our office that says, like,

FlyQuest as, like, the name behind it. And then we shipped, like, signed FlyQuest jersey when we won the LCS that said, like, Florida Panthers on the back as, like, the nameplate as, like, a little, you know, cultural exchange. I do think we probably know more about hockey than they know about G-sports, but it's a lot of fun working with them. That's cool. And then when you became, when you finally got, you know, offered the job, were you nervous at all?

I was nervous a bit. I mean, I think I got a lot of my e-sports imposter syndrome sort of out of my system running East Coast. Like I basically been running an e-sports organization for years already. And so the opportunity of like taking a small organ, growing it was like basically something I already done. So this was like my second at bad. And in my head, I was like, oh, there's so many things I wish I could have done differently at East Coast, like, things we could have been more efficient with or, like, different strategies of how to enter games or hiring or, you know, whatever it was.

And so to be like, oh, great, like, let's run it back with FlyQuest was pretty awesome. And I was also pretty familiar with FlyQuest because I've been following the LCS, you know, religiously for, you know, years and years. So, but there was definitely some areas that were uncertain. Like moving to Los Angeles from New York was definitely part of them, part of the uncertainty there. And then obviously, like, I'd always been, you know, viewing, like, the riot ecosystem from afar. But it's very, very different. It really just depends. Like, the developer, they're all different, like, which games you play in.

We mostly worked with Valve historically at Beascoast, but then at FlyQuest, it's mostly riot titles, especially when I joined. Now we're much more diversified. So just, like, learning the ropes there, how things work. Like, my first week on the job, we had, like, the first ownership meeting. So sat down with all the owners. it was like Jack and Steve from Team Liquid and Cloud 9. Reginald was there from TSM and then little old me at this conference table.

And I was like, this is kind of surreal. So that was probably the first time I ever felt like kind of like anxious about the role. But after that it was kind of business as usual. What was the most exciting thing for you when you took over the job? Like what was like the thing that you were like, man, I can't wait to do this. Yeah. I think for me like, you know, I do think a lot of people in e-sports, frankly, are a bit, jaded. Like, they've been in the ecosystem for a really long time. Like, they've been in the ups and downs.

You know, obviously, I've been in sports now for years and years as well. But for the LCS, like, it was fresh for me. So going to the, I'd never actually been to an LCS game in person. I'd been to, like, playoff matches and, like, you know, finals and stuff in stadiums before. Worlds and Madison Square Garden, you know, a couple years prior to that. But I'd actually never gone to, like, an LCS, like, studio game in L.A. So going to my first match, going behind behind the scenes, like into the green room with the players and kind of like celebrating after our first win was definitely like a great, you know, first moment. So we kind of, we don't usually have many CEOs on NCD podcast surprise, but we kind of want

to learn, especially for people here that are one getting into e-sports or getting into like school and they also want to become like an owner or a CEO of a company. Can you explain like your average day? as a CEO of FlyQuest right now? Yeah, a lot of it is meetings these days. I think at the beginning was a bit different. When I joined FlyQuest, it was about like seven people, and I was brought in alongside Chris Smith, Papa Smithy.

He was running the competitive side. I was supposed to run the business side as like partners, basically. But it was a very, very small organization. And for us, like our first mission and basically the first like six months on the job, that was focused on like hiring a team and expanding. Like we obviously got a material capital infusion from our ownership group as part of the purchase transaction for the business. And it was like, how can we expand?

Like how can we build out an exact team? How can we kind of like, you know, turn FlyQuest from, you know, there's some really, really talented people working there, but I think they were just undercapitalized for a long time. How do we kind of like take FlyQuest to the next level? So really for the first six months, it was all about hiring a management team that I had a lot of confidence in. and kind of building out our verticals, hiring business development staff. There was no corporate development, like, you know, sales arm at Flagwest at all. So launching that was definitely, you know, a big lift.

And then after that, like my day to day has really been all about, like, you know, setting the vision at FlyQuest, like what are our overall objectives? And then basically a lot of meetings, meeting with my management team, meeting with kind of third parties that are critical to our success, whether this is developers, whether it's partners like NST, and then working internally with the kind of director reports that work with me to make sure that on a day-to-day basis we're executing and hitting our goals and KPIs and things like that is really kind of my core focus.

So when it comes to being the CEO, it's really about vision, setting the company culture, setting kind of high-level processes, and then basically being like the face of the company when it comes to, you know, third party stakeholders that can really decide whether your company is successful or not. What's like, what's like the hardest part of being a CEO? And then on the other side, what's like the fun and favorite part about it? Yeah, that's a good question. The hardest part, I think it's probably just managing all the different perspectives.

Really, I think, you know, the interesting thing about being a CEO, I think if you're coming into it from an outside perspective, I think it's pretty easy to be like, oh, CEO just gets to make decisions, like, oh, he gets to just be like, he comes in, you know, slams his fist on the table and he's like, we're doing this today. Totally incorrect. If you're managing a company like that, it's going to be a complete disaster. The thing that CEOs actually get to do is they don't have fiat over, like, the ultimate decisions you make. Otherwise, like, you know, why do you have an exact team to advise you and things like that? What you really do have fiat over is the agenda meeting, right? You get to decide what the topic we're going to discuss today is.

if we are done discussing it, if we need three more hours to come to a consensus, do we need consensus? How is that consensus going to be made? What are our goals for this project? Those are the things that I think ultimately I get to decide for the most part when it comes to running an organization. And then you have to just trust the people around you to give you good advice and then execute the vision.

So that's really what I focus most of my time on is basically setting the agenda and then setting up my team for success. I think the idea of service-based leadership, I think, is super important. My job at the end of the day is to find really talented, creative, and ambitious people, and then either get out of their way if they're like a type A person who can go and be independent and be kind of proactive or try to set them up for success and kind of like sand down the edges of things that are kind of getting in their way, get roadblocks out of the way, whether they need more staff, whether they need more capital, whether they need introductions,

certain partners, things like that, that they, can't really do on their own coordination between departments like those are all the different things i think really um kind of level up like west on a day-to-day basis that i focus on what's your ultimate vision for flight quest yeah i want flag west to be the number one e-sports team in the world like you know bar none i'm very ambitious i think there's a path to get there i think we have an amazing brand fly quest is more than just an e-sports team um you know we have an an incredible mission. We have an incredible set of rosters. But at the end of the day, I'm incredibly bullish on the future of e-sports. Like, I'm a fan first, and then I'm the CEO of

FlightQuest second. Like, I just love competitive video games. I've loved them my whole life. And so for us, like, our mission is to take FlyQuest, like, all the way up to being competitive with, you know, some of the organizations that I think are the best, you know, run, best brands, most successful competitively in the world, whether that's Team Liquid, T1, G2, You know, that's kind of the peer group that I really, you know, respect and, you know, want to aspire to. And I think we've made a ton of progress in the last, you know, year and a half since I joined. We still have a ways to go. But first LCS championship, first Counter Strike Championship, multiple FGC titles this year,

feels like we're making a lot of great progress. And we're also, you know, really, really lucky to work with folks like NCXT to kind of help us get there as well. Is it a coincidence that you guys started winning ever since you part of the time? with mzht that's true that's very true it's funny um you guys are definitely the uh the good luck charm like it's like the rabbit's paw but i also think um we just hired um a really amazing new partnerships director patrick ben um i think he's probably watching this so shout out patrick um and he has only attended five e-sports tournaments so far it was and he's we've literally won every single one of them so i don't know what like monkey paw shenanigans he was up to when we were when we were hiring him but literally

he has not seen us lose a single game in any context. He was a big Counterstrike fan. So we were like, oh, let's send you down to Dreamhack Atlanta, even though we don't have a booth. But we'll just like, you know, just so you can like meet people and like meet the team, won that tournament out of nowhere, be like a top 10 team in the world. His first ever League of Legends match was coming to LCS finals. We won that. Yeah, it's just been quite the run for Patrick and NZXT. He's there at he's there right now, right?

Yes. Yes. Yeah. Let's go. Yeah. Yeah. If only Patrick's luck would rub off on the New York Yankees because they got destroyed last night and extra in. Oh, yeah.

That was heartbreaking. It wasn't like two home runs in the last inning to choke it away. I was actually messaging him because I know he's a big Yankee fan. I was like, I'm so. Yeah, yeah. So I love that your mission is to be the number one e-sports org in the world. And you guys have definitely had an amazing run this last year, year and a half. But just so you, I'm going to ask you straight up, like, how do you feel, how do you feel so far about your, like, your mission here?

Like, do you think you're on the right path? Yeah. Like, how opposed to you. So our goal as a company is, like, number one of e-sports team in the world. The mission of FlyQuest is, like, a bit different because I think it really, like, informs, like, the path to get there, right? Like, you can win all the championships in the world. But I don't think you get to that place, that, like, upper echelon of e-sports without doing something more than just winning. So the actual mission in Flagwest is basically to, like, you can win.

leave gaming better than we found it. We really, really view gaming. The reason why it's so special to us is obviously the thrill of competition and, you know, this kind of like childlike wonder that gaming kind of brings out of people. And for me, it's like, you know, kind of a personal thing that I just love. And I know that people around the world love as well. But it's also a FlyQuest's really special mission. It's something that, you know, I inherited that we've, we've tried to keep, you know, our eye on the ball on as best we can, is utilizing our platform as an e-sports team to have like positive impact in the world around us. So not only are we going to try to win trophies in every game we play, but we also want to make the communities better. So I think for us,

like for LCS, it's all about, you know, making our fan experience as strong as possible, the best merchandise, the best like fan meets, like the most player and fan engagement, but it's also, you know, initiatives like we're doing at Worlds right now where for every minute of gameplay, for any team, we're donating a dollar to a different charitable initiative that's related to kind of our localized the localizations related to worlds right so for for for berlin we're partnering with a bunch of community gardens we raise like almost 10,000 dollars for community gardens in Berlin which is a thing that they really care about we care about as well with our eco focus and then in Paris we actually just announced it yesterday we're working with one of the largest and I think the oldest animal wear

animal welfare groups in Paris to kind of rescue stray animals you know in Paris and we'll be donating money for every minute that we're playing in worlds as well. So a lot of fun, kind of charitable initiatives that kind of go beyond just competitive e-sports that I think also are kind of hopefully, you know, make it so. FlyQuest is really, you know, leading the charge. Yeah, and that was to be totally transparent with you and our listeners here, that was actually one of the things that really kind of sealed the deal with NZXT when it came to deciding, you know, do we really want to work with this company, FlyQuest?

it was, you know, we saw what you guys were doing besides esports, you know, and for us, that's huge, because we're kind of on the same wavelength there where we just want to make gaming, like, better, basically, and accessible to as many people as possible. And you guys are definitely leading the charge there when it comes to e-sports orgs, doing more for the gaming community besides, you know, just winning championships, basically. So you love to see it and I appreciate that. So besides all that cool stuff you guys are doing, what's one thing you wish people would know or knew about FlyQuest?

I think probably the thing I wish people knew the most about FlyQuest was just an introduction to all of our programs outside of just League of Legends. I think League of Legends is obviously kind of our tent pole title. You know, it's the most popular Eastport North America. But we have so many amazing initiatives that I think our fans would really get behind. Our Fly Fighters initiative with the FGC, we have the most popular fighting game roster and most successful fighting game roster in the world now, which is an amazing program. I'm also a huge fighting game fan from back in my East Coast days, so it has a special place

of my heart. And then we also have the Red Program, which is our women's e-sports program and marginalized genders. Really, really important to us as well. We try to field the best rosters in the world when it comes to Counterstrike 2 and Valorant game changers. I think we have a really special group of people involved with those programs. And I think if we can have our LCS audience, like, you know, have a little bit more attention on those programs. They'll see, like, how amazing of competitors we have across those titles.

I do want to go a little bit into the initiatives you guys are doing to, like, help the community. because I saw someone in chat, The Psycho Kitty, like, they asked, like, does FlyClass have any more environmental initiatives lined up? I always thought that was a neat differentiator

between your organization and others. And you literally just talked about how you guys are donated to local charities. I also want to point out, like, this isn't just like a new thing. Like, you guys have been doing this for a very long time. Like,

you guys did scaling up for those that don't know in League of Legends, there's a, there's a guy, there's a dragon. And if you kill it, There's like different types of dragons. And you guys would donate to certain orgs based on like those type of dragons. Like inferno would be solar neighbors.

Ocean was our ocean. And like all this other stuff. You guys did tree quest, sea quest. You guys do so much into it. Do you guys have anything that you guys want to talk about about that? Yeah, I think great question. I forget the name of the person that you just mentioned in the chat that mentioned it. But I think it's a great question.

For us, like, that's up is so poor to FlyQuest's identity. It's something we definitely want to keep going and doing. Frankly, it's something we inherited from kind of the legacy management group of FlyQuest, like prior to my tenure. And it's one of the things that we, like, very, very quickly, you know, wanted to solidify and continue, you know, TreeQuest was a super important initiative that we ran back in 2023. In 2025, we'll be doing another very, very large eco-focused campaign.

yet to be unannounced. It'll be announced alongside our LCS program for 2025 as well. It's kind of like our typical cadence. But we really want to just make sure that there's at least some focus, basically whenever we have a very, very large competitive event coming up. So for example, when we signed our Counter Strike team, the Australian Counter Strike Team, as actually one of our staff members who had this great idea, where basically we're going to rescue endangered species in Australia in conjunction with our Counterstrike team's competitive. success. So I think it was either you get, um, forgetting the exact way it worked, but either sniper rifle kills or pistol kills. Every time we got one, um, we won a round, like a pistol round, I think we would adopt a koala in Australia. And they're like these, they like names and everything. So I think there's a, there's a one like Jensen or something. And there's a bunch of, um, like koalas that we rescue in Australia. We made like koala t-shirts where it was like a koala holding a sniper rifle in a tree. Um, it was very cute. And basically if you, um, bought the shirts, you also, you also, you also, got to donate all the profits from that t-shirt also went to the koala rescue initiative. So we definitely try to have that sort of eco-friendly or kind of local community initiative for all of our major e-sports tournaments now.

But for next year, we're going to be announcing kind of like one larger campaign that basically spans all of the different esports more similar to TreeQuest. But this year, it was kind of more like separate initiatives related to each different team. I'm showing the koala sniper. That is sick. It sold out in like five seconds. I was like, dang, we should have ordered more of these. I need that.

Yeah, yeah, it's like a eucalyptus sniper rifle. It's like a super fun. That's so cool. Oh, yeah, you guys also did something with the Hurricane Helene as well, right? Initiative well? Yeah, it was kind of one of those things where we were in the process of kind of setting up the systems for our charitable campaign for worlds. And right when we were sort of kicking that off, Hurricane Helene happened and there's just so much devastation, you know, across the hurricane path. We're like, oh, you know, and obviously, like, you know, the eco initiatives are so core to fly quest, like, you know, belief logo.

For us, you know, climate security and those sorts of things just really, really matter. So we're like, okay, immediately it was like, how can we help? We need to do something to kind of support folks. were devastated by Hurricane Helene. So we basically immediately were like, okay, let's just match whatever donation we were going to give to these programs for worlds. Let's just match that donation and just kind of double it up

and send it to the victims of Hurricane Helene. So that's what we're doing. So appreciate everyone who's been following the world, and we're excited to send that donation after the tournament. You guys are doing a lot of good in this world. We're trying our best. You know, I think e-sports sometimes in gaming, has like a bit of a bad rap occasionally, but I think there's so much good it can do that

that's really been like the focus. And obviously, I haven't what you said about NCXC also resonated with us when it came to like, you know, how we how do we can make it. So like gaming is for everyone and how NCXC kind of like puts, you know, a system of every price point like in gamers' hands for the customization things. Like that was like, oh, this is like such a non, it's like such an obvious partnership, right? That, yeah, just made a lot of sense. So we're trying, we're trying our best out here, but it's, you know, we can always do more. Yeah. But yeah, so that's a great segue into the actual partnership, because I do want to ask you,

like, you know, we've been partnered for almost six months now at this point. Like, what's, how's it been for you guys working with NZXT? Oh, it's just been awesome. I mean, you guys are getting us up with all the PCs for the boot camps, all the PCs for, um, like was HQ. I mean, the other biggest thing is our NACL program, uh, obviously our kind of developmental program for league. That's a remote program. So it's actually hard to make sure that like all of those, you know, players have all the, you know, set up they need. Sometimes they need different,

different, you know, upgraded components. So you guys have just been fantastic with hooking up, you know, everyone on the team with the PCs they need to compete at the highest level. And then we've done so many cool initiatives. You know, we just shot an awesome documentary on our NACL top liner, Surdy, who's like probably the number one prospect coming out of North America. that video totally crushed. And you guys helped us out with that as well to tell Sturdy's amazing story. I think that has like 70,000 views on YouTube now

or something like that. So, yeah, I'm pumped about the partnership and I'm excited for hopefully many, many years of working together to come. Yeah, and like we were saying earlier, I feel like we hit the jackpot, to be honest, because as soon as we started working together, it's like you guys just have been untouchable, man. Like in every game you can possibly think of,

you guys keep... Link, look, let's go. I'm putting Cloud 9, Team Liquid on notice. Yeah. How did you guys first hear about NST? I'm curious. Like, were you guys in some, like, boardroom, and you're like, we need partners, and then let's put up a, let's put up NAMO board,

and then NZXT showed up there. Yeah, it was actually an intro to, I just got intro to Brian, who for the podcast listeners, for context, is kind of the global marketing. What's Brian's title? It's a global marketing director, global marketing lead. I don't remember off the top of my head for NZXT. Met Brian, you know, came to an LCS match, had like an initial conversation.

They're just like, hey, what are you guys up to? What's Flakew's up to? And I think we just immediately hit it off, kind of what you were saying. I've been around kind of like the overall like mission and how we think about how partners are the most successful in e-sports. It's all about like building something together. like what's the platform that you're building, not just like the logos on different, you know, assets and things like that. It was all about like, how can we utilize what NZXT does best to add

value, not to just our pros, but our fans? And once the conversation was centered around like that as the objective, it like very quickly, we realized that there's something there. I still remember the first time you came into our office and I met you and I remember thinking to myself, this guy has a really nice mustache. We should. Definitely. Yeah, I had a really bad mustache that week. I just gotten back from a vacation in Mexico, and I had a, I had the Mexico vacation stash. And I was like, should I keep it for this meeting?

I don't know. My girlfriend kind of likes it. Very quickly that went away. But I did have a really bad ginger mustache for like a week when I came into your eyes as office. Surprise you actually signed to you with us. Yeah, that was the deciding factor for me. Oh, I got to grow up for next year. We need to work with them.

So we Did you have a little Pari-goti since you're in France? Oh yeah That would be awesome I can't really grow a beard unfortunately But I can't grow maybe like some like sideburns And like a little yeah

A little Fouminchu or something That sounds fun So I mean we kind of talked about You know Paris right now or France And I mean Yeah we're Paris

Everything Big match on Sunday Big match I mean, Black Quest has done, like we said. I'm feeling confident. I'm feeling confident. I know Gen G is cracked, but like, who knows? You know, who knows?

You said something like they did really well with Scribs, right? We've been doing pretty well in Scribes. I don't want to leak too many scrim results, but I would say we're, you know, the Scrim World Championship doesn't win you any trophies, unfortunately. But I would say Western teams historically don't do great at in scrams when it comes to these International League of Legends tournaments. I know I think Mad Lions, like said that they went like zero in 20.

and scrimms against Eastern teams while they're at worlds. I can confidently say our record is better than that. We can leave it there. So, yeah, we have some legit confidence going in. I think we're still underdogs, but, you know, that's a fun place to be. You can play loose. You can have some fun picks. We whipped out the pocket pick Nunu in our last match against HLE that won us a really awesome game.

Who knows what we have cooking? I mean, God, everything in this past six months, but crazy. I mean, we've got some mad scientists on Black Wesley Legend team for sure. So we've got some fun stuff cooking up. So, I mean, I want to talk a little bit about everything you guys have won because for those that don't know, like, you know, winning like a tournament or like a split is huge. But winning in so many different games as one organization is almost like unheard of.

Usually one team is good and one thing and one team's good at another thing. You guys have, I don't even, I can't even keep track of it. You guys, I want to shout out our competitive team, especially, you know, Andrew Barton, Chris Smith, Stephanie Harvey, everyone that really runs our competitive side of the business. We have had a weirdly successful year, I would say. You know, fingers crossed, this list level of success continues, but first ever LCS championship for FlyQuest this season, which was amazing. We got second in spring split as well, which is only the second time Blackquest had even broken the top two. Now we're top eight at Worlds, which is an incredible.

achievement for our League of Legends team. I think this is the second time ever that an NA org has actually made it out of Swiss. So obviously we had kind of a lucky Swiss draw, but you can only beat the teams in front of you and we were able to do that. So I feel awesome about that. Our fighting game team, I think we've won like 25 first place trophies at like major and semi-major fighting game tournaments this year, kind of peaked at a two winning two trophies at Evo, which is like the World Championship for Fighting Games in Vegas this year, with Street Fighter, with Punk, and Guilty Gear with Nitro. I don't know if there's ever been an org that's won two of the like the four major games at Evo with like back-to-back championships.

Like my voice was, I was in the crowd out. My voice was like so hoarse. So my screaming. Because after Nitro won, I was like, emotionally drained. I was like, oh my God, I can't believe we won Evo. This is like such a miracle. And then we won again like two hours later with Punk. I was like, oh my God. I can only take so much. So that was super fun. And then yeah, coming up, we have two more really important tournaments for our Red program with Game Changers, which is like basically currently happening this weekend with the third qualifier for the land final that we're very optimistic about. But yeah, it's been a crazy year of competitive success.

Oh, and I forgot the, we just won Dreamhack Atlanta for our Counterstrike team. We picked up the Counterstrike team just like, I think it was like three or four months ago at this point. I don't know, time kind of flies in Eastport. It's hard to keep track. And they just took down their first trophy. So when I joined Flequist, there was no trophy case. We had to express get one built for the office. So I feel pretty blessed.

Man, that's awesome. What a good problem to have. Yeah, it's been super fun. Definitely. What do you think is something that can make esports better? I think really it all comes down to like the relationship that teams have with the community at the end of the day. I think sometimes teams need to do a much better job. And this is something I challenge my staff with, like, on a daily basis of, like, building, like, an authentic, like, fan community.

I think with traditional sports teams, for example, there's kind of like a geolocation advantage. Like, you know, hey, you're just the Boston Celtics. Like, you just get the Boston community, like, naturally. And because there's, like, these stadium events every day or every week for basketball for the season, it's easy to, like, bring people physically together and develop, like, a sense of, like I said, community. but there's kind of like unique identity, supporting each other. I think that's something that, like, ESports Orcs in general can do a better job of, like connecting their fans to their players,

connecting their fans to each other. And it's something that's definitely a priority for us moving forward. What are your predictions for the future of e-sports? Like I said, I'm actually incredibly bullish about e-sports. I know there's a lot of talk about, like, e-sports winter and things like that. But at the end of the day, like, there are so many people that just love playing competitive.

of video games, I can only see a super bright future ahead of us. I think in general, the meta game of like e-sports business of like massive venture-backed businesses like never really should have happened. Like these are not like venture companies in a lot of ways. Like these should be owned by family offices that have longer term investment horizons, kind of lower expectations when it comes to, you know, revenue growth over a certain timeframe. Maybe be more sustainable. But at the end, And I think developers need to continue to provide additional opportunities for or to monetize and things like that. But at the end of the day, there are still just hundreds and hundreds of thousands of League of Legends fans in North America. There are millions of Eastports fans in the United States and around the world.

And so just tapping into that, you know, potential fandom, whether it's like a casual gamer that can get, you know, pulled into e-sports and telling the stories of the players that are still amazing. Yeah, I only see esports continuing to grow. And I think for us, we really view our goal as like we need to cement ourselves as like a top two to three esports organization in North America. And then as esports continues to kind of like global, you know, become more global, you know, we'll have opportunities to compete at an international level with, you know, millions of people watching. And that's really what's going to take Black West to the next level. Awesome. I have one more question for you before we get into the community questions. And that is why do you, Brian Anderson,

love e-sports. I'm just like such a fan. There's so many amazing moments that just have me on the edge of my seat that give me goosebumps, like thinking about the storylines, the players, like the clutchness. Like, you know, I'm just obsessed with competition in all of its forms.

And for me, like video games just like scratch that edge. And I think it always will. There you go. All right, we got some questions from the community here. The first one is from Sage the Plug. I'm still confused on the name Flight Quest. What exactly does it stand for?

It's a very interesting choice. I don't think it stands for anything. The lore of this, you know, so first of all, names in general, I think the more you say them in your head, it just becomes like, you know, a proper noun. And the name sort of is just like irrelevant. Like, what is a Laker? Like, people don't even know that like the Los Angeles. Lakers used to be in Minnesota, and that's why, like, because there's like 10,000 lakes or

whatever. So the name makes no sense being in L.A. that they're like the Lakers now, but it's just become like a word. And so it's kind of like irrelevant. My understanding is that FlyQuest was the name of the like gaming club that the former owner's son of FlyQuest, when it was first founded in like 2018, it was like the name of his like high school gaming club. club or something. And that was like, yeah, it was like not very well thought out. Like it was not some marketing agency that like did a bunch of like focus groups and was like gamers love quests because of like Zelda, but like fly has this like visual identity. No, I think it was like some high school kid that made it up. And then his dad was like, this seems good. And it kind of stuck. And at this

point, I think we're in too deep. So I love the what we stand for as a brand. I love our logo. I love our visual identity. And at this point, FlyQuest, yeah, I think it's here to stay. But I can't say that it's the world's greatest, you know, name that has like a real deeper meaning. I wonder what you guys would, what name you guys would come up with now? You could rebrand it. I think naming is so hard. Like, you know, what is, like, is Team Liquid a good name? It's like, I don't know. Like, what does it even mean? I still don't even know what the heck NZXT means, to be honest. Yeah, exactly.

My biggest pet peeve is when teams that had a name that was an acronym, just dropped the acronym. Like, TSM used to be like Team Solo Mid, but technically their name now is just TSM, and it has like no meaning. And it's like, well, how does that make any sense? Like, I don't know. You're just three letters.

Like, so yeah, I don't know. I feel like e-sports names, like a lot of them were made by like, obviously gamers and a lot of them were like pro-gamers. and they just had like a funny idea for like their clan tag, and then it just stuck with you for like, you know, years and years. And now it just is what it is. Yeah. A follow-up question from Sage, they ask,

does FlightQuest have any interest in spearheading a brand new popular game into e-sports? Yes, we definitely do. We have a couple cool projects actually related to that, interestingly enough, Sage, for next year. Also, there's a couple upcoming games that I think will become major e-sports, probably most notably deadlock. Definitely game we're keeping our eye on. It's like in closed alpha, I believe,

or closed beta right now on Steam, but it has like 150,000 concurrent players constantly. It seems very fun. I have not tried it yet, but a bunch of FlyQuest staff have codes and have tried it out and they say it's amazing. And then I personally think there's a lot of like niche competitive ecosystems,

like retro games or things like that that have a lot of like e-sports potential, if given just like a little prize pool and some production support. So I'm not sure we're going to be like, you know, setting up like an annual league for some of these titles, but definitely one-off tournaments for like niche games that, you know, deserve kind of another run

at competitive success. It's definitely something that I think would be a lot of fun. Sage commented, ooh, deadlock. Hell yeah. All right. A question from The Psycho Kitty. Does FlightQuest have any more environmental initiatives lined up? I always thought that was a neat differentiator between your organization and the others. Yeah, we definitely have one for World's currently happening.

And then definitely for 2025, we'll be kicking one off. That'll basically be an annual campaign for next year when we announce basically around our start of the LCS for 2025. Will be the timeline that stuff gets released. All right, I say the most important question for last from Danielle Fott. They want to know what is your favorite thing about Delilah? The one was my dog. I have a two and a half year old black lab. Delilah, I was also the office dog.

I bring Delilah into the office like three or four times a week and she just runs around and terrorizes all the staff. She's very energetic and always just wants to play. Yeah, I think Delilah, you know, probably the, probably her, like, little cute face. I love, she, like, puts a little face, like, on my lap and, like, looks up at me while I'm, like, trying to work. me while I'm like trying to work because once you want attention, like the cutest thing over. I lied. We have another final question. She's like to ask on.

We'll keep asking questions here. From Numi goes roars, what does quote unquote gaining fans mean to you? Does that mean social media engagement, merchandise purchase? What does that mean in a business sense to you? Yeah, I think it's a great question. So for us, I think the exercise we think about a lot is like how do you actually turn like follower into a fan so or like a viewer into a fan and to us a fan is someone who like engages with us on a consistent basis like someone who has like real affinity for our um initiatives and then basically collaborates with us and engages of them so i think if someone buys a piece of premium merchandise like a jersey definitely a fan if someone's like regularly liking and retweeting our stuff and commenting and engaging with our community i think that's a fan if you're

active in the Discord and, you know, a leader within our community. Like, I think that's like a super hardcore fan. So I think all of those things justify a fan. But really, someone who just loves FlyQuest and wants to support us, regardless of kind of what actions you're taking. We, how we measure fans is basically those, those variables. But yeah, anyone that just loves FlyQuest and supports us as a fan. Everyone better be a fan this weekend, a Sunday.

Everyone needs it. Spirit Bomb is Dragon Ballsie Spirit Bomb into Paris for our match against Gen G. We need it. Let's go, everybody. Do it. All right. Now it's time for my favorite part of the show. That is where Mike is going to ask you a bunch of random questions.

So take it away, Mike. All righty. Rapid fire question. Rout off. Up to you if you want to go into it. But is Flash on D or F? Uh, F or Flash. If you could be any league champ, who would it be?

Vigo. Oh. the Blader Roo King. I like it. If you could remake a game, what would it be? Morrowand, Elder Scrolls 3. My favorite video game of all time.

But the graphics are terrible. Yeah, but it's still great game. But it's the go. In this remake, do you want to update just the graphics, or do you want to, like, switch things up, like a new story or something? No, no. The story's so good.

Everything about the game is perfect, except for it looks hideous. What's a game that you deem as underrated that people should play? Dude, Risk of Rain, too. If you haven't played Risker of Rain 2, you're missing out. It's actually, like, so fun. It's so good. And it's not a really expensive game either.

It's so worth it. I think it's like $9 for me. And it's always on Steam Summer Sale. Like, put it in your, like, wish list, and it'll notify you. And you can get it for like four bucks probably. So good. What is something you wish you were good at or what to get better at? Business-wise, being organized.

Lifewise, golf. Do you have any tips for someone that wants to work in the gaming industry? Start your career doing something incredibly valuable outside of e-sports. So go be an accountant, go be a lawyer, go work in partnership sales for a major sports team, non-E-sports, and then bring those skills into e-sports. I think it's actually the best way. I like that. Your favorite guilty pleasure?

Favorite guilty pleasure Man Probably just spending all afternoon Being lazy around with my dog That's a good one I love that What is something that people don't know about you Especially as a CEO

I think because When I like introduce myself And like people hear my background They're like oh finance dude from New York Turned like Eastport CEO They assume I'm kind of a bro I guess I'm kind of a bro But really at heart

I'm a giant nerd And I think people underestimate how nerdy I really am. Who is your hero? My mom. Very inspirational lady. And what motivates you? What is the thing that really gets you driving as becoming a leader? Yeah, I think really it's, I feel a lot of responsibility to our fans and our staff to build something really special.

I think I've been given the keys to like an amazing business. And so for me, it's all about just like, how can we like live up to the expectations of our community and to the players and like, you know, put them in the best possible position to be successful. And at the end of day, I think that that's what matters most. What is a lesson that you learned that really struck with you? You can be even a mistake too, that really, you know, kept with you. Yeah.

I think the biggest lesson in business is probably like don't be afraid to fail. Like the first thing you do, the first thing you try will always not be successful. You know, certainly, especially if you're trying something new. The keys to success are iteration and being open to constructive criticism. I think those are like really key variables to be successful in business. Like that. All right. I got these two questions.

So we got a fun one and then like a kind of like a broad, serious one. So the fun one, the scenario is you can. get 50% off everything you buy for the rest of your life, or you can get 50 cents every time you punch a punching bag. I think 50% off because, like, 50 cents per punch is like, I'm pretty sure I watched like a Mr. Beast video. He like had people like do a thing like over and over again for like $1. And like I think it was like bicep curls with like one pound weights or something.

And even like the strongest dude in the world can only do like 50,000 in like multiple days. but like in my life I'll probably spend like hundreds of thousands of dollars on like random stuff plus like a house to live in and stuff like that. So I think if you get 50% off, it probably adds up more. Also, it's much more time efficient.

I agree. That's what I was like, oh, I see Sage wrote money and exercise like that. That sounds great. It depends. It's just a bet. 50 cents is not that much money per thing. I mean, I guess it adds up.

But I think given, yeah, I feel like it's like a dollar per hour thing. It's like, okay, how much am I making per hour punching a punching bag? I can only do it for maybe like two hours a day. I'm probably making max like $1,000 by doing that. So because it's 500 punches. Every time you wanted to buy something, though, it's like, you know, you're going to go get a cup of coffee. You're like, let me punch this thing three times.

But you can also hack this question, but being like, if I get everything for 50% off, I'll buy a thing and then sell it. And then infinite money glitch. There you go. Oh, there you. I didn't think about that. That's actually a good way going around it. You can just sell it off after.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Buy something for $100,000 and you get it for $50, and then you get it for $50,000, and you just get $50,000. You see that over and over again. That's the finance degree coming to get you. That's a big brand. That's a big brand. Finance guy here.

And then the final fun question, this is like a broad question. So I want you to kind of take it how you want to interpret it, is what is one thing that you want people to do? Hmm. What is something I want people to do? I think I want people to just be friendlier in general. Like, I come from the Midwest in Indiana where everyone, like, says hi to you, everyone waves to you. Like, there's just like a general cultural expectation of like common courtesy and like friendliness. Like, you know, you know all your neighbors and things like that.

And then I moved to New York, which has a reputation of being a bit edgy. And then I moved to L.A., which I think also has a similar reputation. And so, yeah, I just think people should get to know each other a bit better. Be friendly. I like that. No one says hi to me in the morning. I hate it. Yeah.

Just say hi to someone, you know. Don't be weird, but don't be creepy, you know. But be friendly. I like that. That's a great way. All right. I think I'll go into the announcements and then we'll go ahead and give way that code for those that are waiting for the... Yeah, this goes on.

Thanks for having me, guys. Yeah, of course. So let's go into a little bit of the announcement. So we just brought, we just have our brand new Cracking Elite. It's now in our stores now. So you can get it from an authorized retailer or on our own website. I actually just installed it. I think I got in the box somewhere in the back here.

But it's awesome. Super dope. Great screen. You know, you can get it in like so many things. There's a new RGB ring around it too that you can customize. Super dope. So you can look at n60.com or n16.com slash retailers. if you're outside of the U.S.

Oh, tune in to the podcast next week as we have a special Cracket episode featuring our CAM product manager who will go over everything new about the Crackin. It's super cool. We'll go into it. We'll show you everything about that.

Oh, we also just upgraded our pre-bilts with our newest cases. So you can check it on nccc.com. Go to the pre-brute section. We have your H5, Flow, H6, 87, 9. So you can get some award winning And I can specify that we have award winning cases As our new pre-built

So keep an eye out for that We have our PCs at Best Buy Which is crazy So you can look at Estimation Point Best Buy I think I still have the command in chat Or you can just look at Best Buy.com And just look up at 60 PCs You can find I think we have three of them

We have a player two Player 3 and another player two Or something like that Oh We have lots of stuff happening in our discord uh so look at nccc.com or sorry discord.g slash nzxte uh you can enter into our monthly wallpaper uh monthly wallpaper contest monthly setups contest you can win a poochie a plush and if you have a plush you can also show that and win a $25 theme gift card so super cool

join the discord seriously there and there's also some cool stuff happening can't spoil it but there's a lot cool stuff happening soon. Uh, and then going into Mr. Brian Anderson here, uh, follow flyquest at flyquest.

at flyquest.g, uh, flyquest. Uh, I have their commands in chat as well, uh, Slamich point fly quest. You can follow them on all social media platforms.

So you see, these guys are dope. These guys are amazing and everything. This weekend. Come on. Yeah. We need it against G. This Sunday.

Huge match. biggest match of the history of FlyQuest probably. I mean, if you are in North America, you are rooting for FlyQuest. This is any chance. Yeah, let's do it. We need it. Brian, where can we follow you on social media? That's a great question.

I don't really do social media that much, to be totally honest with you. So I think I have a Twitter. I don't really use it. I think it's at little wrong button. I actually don't remember. My gamer tag is wrong button. from my old gamer days in high school. I don't tweet that much.

So just follow FlyQuest. That's where you're going to get all the awesome FlyQuest news and updates. I do love that your initials are BA. Those are like the two most common video game buttons. Yeah, yeah. I'm a very generic name. It's very hard to find the only internet. So I think that is it.

So for those out here, we're doing a giveaway for, a $100 gift card to the FlyQuest store so you can get just saying you can get some really nice jerseys and rep FlyQuest this Sunday just throwing it out there again we actually wanted to ask you there's a secret word that we kind of have for those that are listening live on the podcast that gives them 500 extra entries into the giveaway which is letting you know most people win based on the secret word so if you're still here You're into good, you're into good runnings. We want to ask you, Brian, what the secret word should be? I think it should be fly win. Fly win. Okay.

Let me update that right now. Air horn. All right. Fly win. Everyone refresh your gleams. Everyone refresh your gleams so that, because I just updated it. But fly win is the secret code. Brian, do you have any last words before we go ahead and end the podcast?

and also rooting for them on Sunday. Yeah. Thanks for having me, guys. This is super fun. I don't do a lot of media, so it was great to talk to you both today. Special thanks to NZHT for all the amazing support they give FlyQuest and all the support they give gamers wanting to use the best gear in e-sports and gaming. Yeah, reflush this weekend, roof for us whenever we're playing.

And, yeah, please follow us on social media. All righty. Ivan, do you have any last words or anything like that? I do. Just want to thank Brian. for being here and joining us on the NZXT podcast. We are not only, you know, appreciative, but also I think we're very happy with the partnership

we have with FlightQuest. So we appreciate all the mutual support here. Appreciate it, man. Yeah. All righty, you guys. So thank you guys for joining us. We're tuning live every Friday at 10 am. at Pacific Standard Time on the official NCCC Twitch.

And over there to listen to previous episodes on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and SoundCloud. Got any questions for us? Send an email to podcast at NCOF. ncc.com or tag at n60 on social media platforms everyone root for fly quest this sunday sunday sunday sunday sunday sunday sunday sunday sunday sunday you are rooting for fly quest because this is this is our chance to win guys it's crunch time yeah it's crunch time guys good luck bryan good luck fly quest good luck everyone have a good weekend and uh thank you guys for joining us have a good day everyone thanks everybody peace