OpTic Podcast - The Mystery Of Chessboxing | The OpTic Podcast Ep 105 Christmas Edition

Episode Date: December 22, 2022

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp — go to http://betterhelp.com/OPTIC to get 10% off your first month. Go to http://manscaped.com/optic to get 20% off plus free shipping.  Go to http://shopify.com/optic to sign up for a free trial and start selling online today. On BitRefill you can get thousands of digital gift codes for gaming, groceries, flights, hotels, e-commerce, restaurants, clothing and many many more! 1% to 10% bitcoin back, and 5% extra with the code OPTICGAMING bitrefill.com/optic Check out OpTic Nation here: https://www.nation.opticgaming.com/ Check out the OpTic Podcast here:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/optic-podcast/id1542810047 https://open.spotify.com/show/25iPKftrl0akOZKqS0wHQG MB01VRXLRVBBYYQ The Mystery Of Chessboxing | The OpTic Podcast Ep 105 Christmas Edition Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

And then I look at my opponent and he looks at me and we both just look defeated. And it's not even about the position. It's just the disrespect. You can't call your arbiter and be like, hey, this eight-year-old is using his phone as a banana. And if they win, they don't even shake your hand. They do this annoying kid thing where instead of giving you a firm handshake because they don't know that's the thing yet, they go like, and they slide it out as if they don't want to touch you. And then they just talkily get up away.

No, it tilts the shit out of me. You are definitely speaking from a place of experience, I could tell. Yes. And when I beat kids I like compete RL so much I enjoy it so much That might be the craziest out of context clip we have on the Optic podcast right there

Ladies and gentlemen Welcome to episode 105 of the Optic Podcast I'm joined by Andrea Alex and Nick Maniac Kersner My name is Blake This episode is brought to you by Shopify Better Help and

Manscaped She was really pumped about that one Which I love I love that energy Yeah why Before this even started you guys were pumped about Manscape. It's a cool brand. It is a cool brand.

You said your audience was 95% male. On Twitch, it's about that, yep. Do you have, like... Think about all the scaping they could do. The what? I'm not gonna lie. I know it has... Okay, this is probably not gonna make it the podcast.

It's like very, like, in your face, aggressive. Is it about... Okay, that's what I thought about you down there. You know, it seems like a good product. I just like the idea of equal standards for men and women, you know? That's good It's very progressive Never thought about that in my life

That's big I'm far from that That's a big thought Do you guys have like Is it Every time you go somewhere People bring up chess Because that's what I was about to do

That's what I was about to do But then when I think about it I'm like I can't resort to this first Just right off the bat We gotta talk about the winter trip At least you're the first I think you're the first person

To recognize that So we appreciate that a lot I don't know if I'm the first person to recognize it You're the first person to say it. I'm sure my favorite streamer, Lex Friedman, recognize it. But crazy name job right there. He's a chess nerd.

I mean, we spent half of the podcast actually playing chess. And Andrea was like, don't put it on. It's going to hurt up retention. And Lex is like, I don't care. And you just put a chess game in the middle of the podcast. Stopped watching as soon as we started playing chess, which is why I told him to put at the end. You sat through the entire game. I, how long is the podcast?

Like three hours close to? Yeah. I'm probably halfway through it's been my chest. I've listened to it when I was working out like twice now. So I have no idea what's going on because I'm hearing. I'm literally at the part right now where you guys are like doing chess moves. Oh no. And talking about like Queens Gambit, shit like that.

But it's like I'm literally like squatting or doing like bench press. And I'm hearing just hear the pieces move. Yeah. Does it motivate you to work harder? I don't it does nothing for me but for some reason it's in my ear are you just too lazy to skip it or like why I don't know I haven't I haven't listen you're in the boxing workout world do you listen to music or do yeah I have to listen to like EDM music every every time when you work out like I noticed it's really it's the same with chess I think it's like I like to say that it's my ADHD brain but if there's like lyrics it'll throw me off and it's funny during chess it makes sense but even when I'm working it's out. If it's lyrical music, it like, I lose focus. So you're just straight electronic, like, electronic dump-up, like, pumping techno of Vichie. Yeah. When you play chess, you can't hear words. No, no, not old school,

new school, because she also DJs. Do you really? Like maniac. No, like, we have two DJs in the house. Like where do you eventually? What if we like in a professional setting or like, I started learning for fun and I did like a party. Um, and then I was going to start doing more shows and then I started boxing. Um, so then that dream went down the garbage. My favorite thing when she DJed for the first time. Obviously, I was there front road to support her. She was. And then I wanted to go and dance behind her. But like this man who's a security man told me like, don't go there. You're going to distract her. He was wearing all black and cat ears. It was Halloween. And I found out he wasn't a security man. He was just controlling everyone. And it was her first groupie. And he had groupies at my first set. Him and these two girls. And they kept standing next to me with their phone screaming. Oh, you're so good. And I'm like, dude, I literally just like did nothing. And they're like screaming their head. I mean, that's not. And they're like screaming their head. What was the crowd like? Um, it was a Halloween party. When you say your first set, what's, how many people are we looking at out here?

Um, well, the total party or on the stage? I mean, the total party was like 40, 50 in the audience. Most people don't have a stage at the first set. So we're already off to a good start. Yeah. That's good. But, um, yeah, no, it was mainly just streamer friends and mutuals because that's and weirdos.

Were you doing like the, all right. Hold up. You know, this one goes out. Dude, I was so nervous. I would, I watch back videos in the entire time. I do not look. up once into the crowd because I was just like like I don't even remember it because I was so nervous and so stressed in your head are you thinking like oh my god this is my because summer ray

not saying you know a lot about her summer what do you know what caught your attention her talents in DJ and call my attention I was like who is this DJ it's summer ray but she DJs and I know a lot of people give her shit saying like oh you're not a real DJs There's a lot of influencers. So are you thinking of that? Like you're first, not that you're like, not a, obviously you're just learning and you're aware of that. That's exactly why I've taken it really slowly because I do want to be respected. And I like, I mean, the technical side in the software takes me hours.

And there's a lot of influence, like Charlie Jordan is another big TikToker who's doing a ton of DJing. Like it's obviously very, what's, um, Shantelle Jeffries. There's a lot of influencer DJs. Um, and I do have a lot of friends in the music industry who are actual like house or other EDM genre DJs. So that's why I've been really nervous and I don't want to perform for people until I feel like it's really good and like I worked really hard on it. Yeah. You don't want people like giving you that oh she's just she's a DJ that does nothing but just stands there. It looks even if I work my ass off on a set 10 hours like okay that's actually a small amount. They'll still say

that but but I was really happy because some of the people who did show up to my first set they work with Martin Garricks and some a lot of them actually would work with real music artists and manage them and they're like oh like for a first set like that was really good like better than most things I heard so that was like some good feedback are you um you said you were nervous but are you nervous because it's your first like DJ set or are you nervous because it's you and then like a crowd of people or is it like a number one fan yeah it was the guy with the cat of yours it was no i was there the entire time oh you but you weren't even the closest. The guy with the cat ears was closer. Don't rub it in. Do you not want her there?

No, I wanted her. That was one thing. I was, well, honestly, my head was down, so I didn't even notice anyone. Um, but the plan was that she would be next to me. We'd be like a duo. She'd be like, you know, supporting me. I just wanted to support her. This was when she was nervous. And that's why she wanted to have me up. I was really nervous. Is this like a 20, 22 thing? This is this year? This is Halloween. Oh, that's awesome. Um, I get more nervous when people I know are around. Yeah. Like I would, Exactly. I would prefer embarrassed myself in front of people

so where I would like never hear about it again. It's like wow, I just embarrassed myself in front of all these fucking people. Have you had any experiences? No, I don't know. It's a big fear of mine. Wait,

so you also. That's why I'm kind of pissed off. I landed in this industry because I'm just in front of cameras. Yeah, that's the thing. I feel like streamers are pretty immune to worrying about embarrassed.

In streaming though. Because when I stream, I'm if I The way I stream is like It's embarrassing The way I rage And I just cry about video games Like it's like embarrassing

But like that's fine Turn into therapy But when it comes to like real life Yeah And we were talking about like the e-sports awards Are coming up and You guys going? We are going

And it was like if someone wins an award Do I have to get up there? Are you absolutely not? Are you dominated? It is my biggest fear ever Form Formals nominated for like controller player of the year. And it's like if he better win.

But he's not going. So if he wins, do I have to go accept it? You know, and I have accepted it before. It didn't go well. Do you guys know about the acceptance speech? Do tell.

You know it better than I do. Well, I don't know if you guys know my, my pass, but I used to do a lot of drugs. I used to do a lot of drugs, but. So you used to be really cool? Not just kidding.

That's how I looked at it. That's how I looked at it. That's how I liked. joke that's how i looked at it but apparently no one else thought i was cool um but no during the acceptance speech i was on zanax i was stringing hell out no actually let me just let me put hex on the spot really real quick i was at the esports awards former won an award and then i was like i was a part of optics so i'm just like at the table and then hex is like yo if if uh formal wins you got to accept this And I'm like, what?

Like, what the fuck? This is literally my biggest fear is like accepting this award. Walk up to the podium. Everyone is quiet. And I have to just like, pull something out of my ass. But they didn't tell me. I thought I was just going for fun. And I don't think they knew this was like,

one of my like biggest fears is like public speaking. Even like doing this shit. And I'm just fucking quiet looking at me right now. But now doing the ESports Awards. Hex literally told me at the table. And I was like, what? And I was already doing like Xanax and stuff like that. So I just started drinking a lot.

I was super nervous. Went up there. I was like kind of slurring and stuff. Like afterwards, and then afterwards I blacked out. I was like in the hotel room. But everyone was like, oh my God, that was hilarious. Like he was so drunk. Like blah, blah, blah.

And I look at it like, Jesus Christ. I didn't think it was that bad from an outside perspective. Well, I don't remember the speech. Well, I mean, it's not. felt like there's video like if you know no wait no there's not video up and makes a toast yeah that was the vibe it was it was endearing it really was but it was just for you because of your whole brand and everything i'm not even talking about the dark side of stuff but even just the picture of you

holding the trophy it was oh no that's still i have that picture somewhere maybe it's on like my tinder profile or something i could probably google right now so i still honor i still honor the moment but it was just it was tough for me so i remember We were talking about DJing one time. And I was like, that's something like I would kind of want to want to get into. I was making beats for a little bit. Yeah. So it's like, I don't know.

I've always sort of been into music and like producers and DJs and stuff. But I don't know, just being. That's why I was wondering, were you more nervous, it being your first set or like getting up there in front of everyone? And everyone just like, it's like all eyes on you. Yeah. Before the thought slips to my mind, because it's very funny. This is what I notice about you. like you're obviously very outgoing and like very confident see i i hear that no i don't but like

like no like you're like hilarious like it reminds me a lot of my close friends but as soon as wait wait wait wait wait wait wait let me finish but but as soon as the spotlight's on like you're you're saying something and then the room goes quiet like yo why is everyone quiet well why is everyone listening to me like it's very funny because it's the very opposite of like the energy that you give which i think i i'm actually similar in that way as well Like I'm very loud and well that's what people see me as. I think I'm actually very quiet. My sister.

The entire day before the DJ said, you can go, I'm not going to do it. I don't know if I'm going to do it. I don't think I'm going to do it. I'm happy with my nervous. But are you actually thinking that or are you just like, I could as soon as I. Saying that so like I speak negatively so much just so there's like it puts pressure off me in case I fail. No. So I can't even even perform in front of one person.

I called my friend on Discord to listen to my set before the event. And even in front of one person, it was like my closest friend. Like, yeah, as soon as there's people listening, I get extremely nervous, which is the reason why the entire thing felt like a dream. And I didn't even, I couldn't even make eye contact with any of, like, my best friends in the crowd. Because I was like sweating balls. I was so nervous. What do you think the most nervous you guys have been in front of like a production?

Because you guys do this kind of stuff all the time. Oh, and then I was going to say the other, it'd be the DJ set or when we won chess streamer of the year at QD's Cinderella's. award show. We just fucking Karu was going to take it. So we didn't even practice. No, we did practice. That's the thing. We did.

No, we did practice. And I messed it up because I was so nervous. That's true. We were going to say it was nice together. And I messed up my one line because like I just couldn't handle the nerves. I'm sure it's still won well though. No. Wait, what was it?

Cudy Cinderella had a. You don't know about the streamer awards? No, I thought I had like a cute name like streamies or something. Was it not? It was just streamer awards? Okay. Gotcha. Like there's no chess award

Unless it's one of your friends So that wasn't even a category That I think was going to exist otherwise And you guys didn't think you were going to take it And then you swapped the floor I really didn't think so So you both went up there and accepted it? Yeah

So you win there's a podium You go up There's a whole crowd looking at you And the whole bit was that we were gonna talk Like synchronized twins And say the same thing at the same time And guess who messed it up? Oh, that's cute

What did you do when you messed it up? I don't even know It was like one line One line that I had memorized and I don't know. We love chess. I don't know. I remember what it was. What's weird is like in, here we go, in the maniac comparing chess.

But for hate, or I used to compete in Halo and then like in Halo tournaments when I'm like focus. Like I'd be like on a main stage and there's like a crowd of people. Yeah. But it's like I'm not. I'm much more nervous like being in front of a camera or like something else rather than if I was if I had a DJ set or something. done like that it'd be like way more nerve-racking. Yeah, because you really focus on another thing that you're doing. So did you ever get that during like, all right, for in a halo match, I'm nervous,

but when the game starts and I like get a kill, it kind of goes away. Is it any, is it comparable like that at all in chess to where like you're nervous before it starts, but once you take a piece? I have nerves a lot before an event. It goes away. I mean, I have it when we do really big events that we're putting on. I'm like, oh, what if things are going to go wrong? And then as soon as it starts, it's fine.

Or for chess or for poker, things like that. So, yeah, once I'm in it, then I feel a lot better. I think it's a hard comparison because it's not like we've played chess on a stage in front of that. Yeah. I mean, I've seen you guys go to New York Parks. Like, I feel like that would be. But it seems like close-knit and, like, local. I don't know.

I used to get really, I used to get really bad nerves competing in chess tournaments. Would that? But not because of the. audience because of the competition. Yeah, just because of the competition. Is it timed? Yeah. Yeah. Is it like largely older men with gray hair? Because that's what I imagine. I imagine it's just you guys versus a bunch of old dudes. They're not old. They're not all old. Yeah, but it's just it is mostly dudes usually. Okay. That's cool. Um, sometimes you'll have like one girl thrown in there. No, it is cool. Nope. Yeah. See, I can't, I've seen like, I don't know where I saw it. Maybe scrolling TikTok or something.

But I've seen clips of you guys going to like, I guess it's new. York, like a New York chess park or something, and you're just like pulling up on random people. I think this might have, this might have random people goes crazy. Random fucking chess masters or whatever it is. Like, I guess at this point, do they know who you guys are? A lot of them do. Yeah, I was playing this weekend against someone and I was sitting. He's like, you know who you reminded me of?

I was like, who? The Borough Rex sisters. I was like, oh. No, I have it on camera. I feel like it's on camera. It's on camera. What is Borough? I have it on my phone.

They just butcher name. They just butchered both of that. Wait, that's not comparable at all. No, it was really funny. And we heard some really funny names. Botox is the most popular one.

Yeah. You liked that one. I liked that one. If I was playing against you, I'd use that. Are you one of them Botox sisters? Checkmate. Yeah, very intimidating. Yeah, I'm sure it would work.

I'm sure. I'd only throw that out when I'm about to win. So never. pocket that one for now yeah yeah yeah just just keep it just wait yeah would you guys ever do like you know like when they send like the you know it's like lebron james dressed as like an elderly man oh my god they did that i think i heard that still on the lex podcast yeah we did that oh i'm sorry i'm uninformed funny you don't look thrilled about it this no it was it was great we took like six hours to get into prosthetics and this was actually with envy you know before envy optic started i just want to say

this is weird hearing because I heard it on like one of my favorite people's podcast. And like now I'm hearing it in real life. And I bet you still didn't watch the video, did you? I didn't watch. I listened though. Honestly, the only thing that tilted me about that video is that I was so into character and shaking that I lost my game and we had barely any time to play the game. So it was both of you at the same?

We were so in character. Yeah, two grandies playing hustlers in the park. And that's the thing. New York? If we didn't show up in disguise, yes, they would, they'd know us. Which is so funny because one of the hustlers recognized me. from the way I touched the piece, which shows how well they know us. Yeah, I heard that.

But we were talking in grady voices. How you grabbed the piece. Well, I was like shaking, like, because I was, we looked like we were 90. So we were really good. I've never seen Andrea more in her natural habitat than in this video. She was like natural grandma. No, she was so good. She was so good.

When she dropped her bonbons, people came to help her. I dropped my bonbons. Like, oh, my bonbons. And I'm like, ugh. And everyone started dying because they thought it was an actual old grandma who dropped her bonbon playing the chess. And then they started helping me picking up my bonbons. And then you felt bad.

See, I remember here. A little bit. Yeah, no, I was like holding in my laughter. This, did they know,

or I guess, are you just that popular now to where if you go to like a chess, is it a chess park? Is that what it is? It's a very niche community. So like there's not a lot of people, a lot of big figures that make it, you know,

to the grand scheme. So yes. But you have, a chess club or a chess park. likely that they know us you have videos out there before anyone knew you and you were because i felt like those were the clips i saw and like you guys were so smooth that was her very first video ever i feel like i've seen a bunch of clips of Alex like smoothly just like talking shit to just random but i'm guessing they're really good i think those were earlier on and i was able to get away

with it more so the first ones that went viral i was just in new york visiting friends and just went by the park to film. My friend was holding the iPhone, and those ones blew up, and that was before anybody knew. And then it became a meta. Everybody started doing it, so all the chess streamers have done the IRL things now. And now we go back, and they're just familiar with it. Was this like something you knew was going to work for a video, or were you like actually? Because like these guys that are out there playing, they're not doing it for a video.

They're just doing it. Did you go out doing it sort of for a video? or like you were like let me go out there and see was this your first time doing that well so i always like hustling people in the park because my dad used to make me do it as a kid but no my hustling people in the park it was always chess i think she ended up with that beanie she's a hustler is there money involved um a lot of times there is and my dad would make me go when i was an eight-year-old kid and the thing is my dad would always play it up and he'd be like sweetie don't forget the horsey moves two up, then one over.

And then he'd make me play them, and often it would be for money. And then they would start swearing at me. Because they knew they were getting to hustle. Well, because they just get really upset. Trying to fight your dad and shit. Well, actually, the only ones who would swear at me were the French ones. The American ones would not swear. That's good.

Yeah. You know, that's one W for the U.S. No, that's true. Normally not like that. No, no, that's true. But no, they didn't know it was a video. We knew or I knew it was going to be a good video because it's one of those things that always is a very popular thing.

but I didn't know it was going to be as popular as it was. Was that already a thing? I had seen people do those kids. No, I think it was probably the first girl video. There had been other chess masters and those had had like millions of views as well. But this was the first one that was more of a contrast. That's sick. And now you guys speaking of, you know, you started with that IRL videos,

hustling old dudes in the park and now you're playing chess against the woman and then fighting her. Not just hustling old fighting her. I wasn't expecting that transition. Go ahead. Yes, that's true. Now, I'm simultaneously boxing and challenging. This weekend. Huh?

You've been making spinach omelets and broken out. No, I broke, dude. I got a text for my trainer. Huh? Running at 5 a.m. in the snow? It was eight. It was eight, but she went to the gym again today. I did.

I'm not impressed with myself. She avoided all the pizza. So I did. I didn't touch the pizza today. And I didn't touch the other stuff. Is it hard? Because I'm, last time I weighed myself a few days ago, I was 212 pounds.

I don't want to be 20012 pounds. I'm trying to be like 190, 195. When you're dieting for this boxing shit, is it really hard

like not eating that pizza? Because you seem like you don't care. You seem like, no, I'm just make this. It's not the pizza. It's,

I have a giant sweet tooth and there's been a bag of recess peanut butter cups and Oreos and every time I walk by the kitchen, the thoughts that goes, oh yeah, I gave it to the cookie dough.

I gave into the cookie dough yesterday. But you know what? I deserved it. I worked hard. That was the only thing I broke my diet, raw cookie dough. I think we probably burned a lot of calories yesterday. Not enough, though. I burned more processing.

Falling burns a lot of calories. So they probably brought us. It's our first day. No, you guys did great. Except you didn't come day two, so I don't respect you as much as I respect. Day two, gang. Yeah.

I heard he were really good from Andrea. I stayed up. He followed, yeah. I mean, all of us had went multiple times. and we went on like pretty challenging giant hills and he kept up. We hit the blues all day. Had a really good time. Yeah, it was great.

Now we're here. It was a good morning. Okay, it's not pretty challenging giant hill. It's fucking mountains. It's literally when, all right, I need to start managing this ski snow place because there should not be this like, there's like the, I don't know what you would call it. We talked about this on the flycast, but like there's like the training thing where like electronically takes you up. And it's just like if you're an idiot

We'll bring you here Which is like Which is where we were at We did that And then it's like okay You're not that much of an idiot We'll take you on there The bunnies slope

He's talking about the bunny slope Oh yeah you're not talking about A regular ski lift You're talking about the little baby Yeah And then we did the baby slope Where like you hold onto the thing And it drags you up

Yeah And I'm going down that That thing and I'm like Oh my God I'm nasty But then when we get to the real There's no it's way too much of a jump to go from the

I don't know the name of it is there a bunny slope from the bunny slope to the green mountain that's how you have to learn you have to like you're going to fall a lot but that's the best way to learn you're going to injure yourself

and it could go very wrong and I feel like that's I'm surprised I feel like you'd be like an adrenaline junkie like I feel like the fear would motivate oh I thought it it did until I was in the forest with my head on a log

People in the lift asking me if I'm okay. Matt Craig sliding down the mountain and I'm yelling his name. He can't even find me because I'm just buried in the snow. I'm deep in the forest. There's no, there's got to be something in between that. Because once I was feeling myself until I got there. Do the green? Well, the first day is always the hardest.

I think second day, maybe you would have spent less time in the forest. Maybe I should have went. I kind of wanted to ski though. skiing's gotta be easier right I don't know why are you skiing why are you snowboarding because I'm cooler um snowboarding schooling is way cooler I skied when I was a kid but she was too young

and then we moved and she never had the same experience our parents loved her more so in Canada they took her skiing how far apart are you they didn't depends six and a half no well we're six we're saying a new age now well skiing's class here and snowboarding is cool Yes. Well, I learned in high school with my cool friends, so that's why I learned how to snowboarding. Well, I went snowboarding once, and I ripped some pretty big slopes that day, so.

Skiers get money, they're classy, snowboarders do drugs, and they're crazy. I'm sure snowboarders get money. Olympics probably. What is bigger? You don't think Sean White? I don't know. I feel like that might be like a regional thing. Every rich person I see that goes to the mountains are skiing.

It's easier. How much easier? Have you tried snowboarding? I have tried snowboarding. No, skiing is definitely easier. Skiing is easier to learn, but harder to master. I started on skiing and then I tried snowboarding once. And then you're like, fuck this.

It's just easier to do certain. But skiing on really hard slopes was very scary for me in the past as well. I have to say, though, I was proud of her. We never really did something like that together. never done like a physical activity together. Yeah, you guys were like gone. What do you mean? We do activities together.

Not like intense physical activities. Like a sport. Like yeah. No, we've never done that. We've fought each other. No, we did judo. We did judo. Okay, for a stream.

We did a judo class. Like, we did a judo class. I guess also it's really sad because it only happens for content. But we kind of got to go on our own. Um, you know, that question came up a lot, but. Even though I think it would be a very entertaining match, we can't punch each other in the face. We can, like, pinch each other, poke each other, fart each other's face, but, like, I can't punch her. Why did, when you saw your older sister skiing, why did you choose snowboarding?

I didn't even know she skied. I was so shocked. When she came on the hill with me, I was like, you know how to do this? Because, like, it never happened before. So I was so excited. I was a good skier as a kid. Wait, so yesterday was your first time on the slopes together? Yeah.

I didn't even know she knew on ski I was saskwatching shit Yeah Wait you didn't know pulling up to this That like you both were gonna have to them out I thought she was a noob What? That's actually way

So how did you did you You learn like separately? So think we're six and a half years When I was in middle school She's like going to college And she was like all for in her own Homeless She was in high school

With her drugs Pretty much Probably up to no good Neglected Smoking weed That's not true That's not true Sorry please continue

I forgot what I was saying. We derailed you a little bit on the one. But you were, so you were like, wow, my sister is so cool. No, I just, the bar was very low. So the fact that you could actually do it was cool. It's like we were on the bunny slope and then you guys left with Sasquatch. I was like, all right, I guess we're stuck here. That was so funny.

We didn't even get to snowboard. We didn't even get to the easy hill because we kept trying to get the shot with Sasquatch. We just rode the list of Sasquatch. Yeah. When I, before we started this podcast, We did the flackass. And I probably talked for an hour about how it wasn't easy.

And it was... Look, not everyone's a natural. It was some of the most painful things I've ever gone through. Like I said, I'm in the forest. My head is hitting logs. I don't know how to turn right. And somehow I'm going from bunny slopes

to this literally going down a mountain in Colorado. Yeah, I don't know how you even... What happened to the other kids? What were they doing? I think Matt told me he was going to record behind me to get some footage. So I go and suddenly I'm going 80 miles per hour down the mountain. And so you just went on your own. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah, it was bad. Before anyone could find me, I'm in the forest. Did you end up okay or did you get a serious injury? I don't know. I don't know.

Yeah. I don't know. Everything's sore. I haven't been the same mentally, physically or spiritually. My wrist hurts. My tailbone hurts. What else can I complain about? It was cold. That sounds like would you do it again. You debated going to go this morning. Yeah, I was going to go this morning, but I was talking to Ellie and he was thinking about going. And but I made up a meeting or something. I kind of wanted to ski because they were saying, I'm not going to call out who, but someone said skiing is very easy. It is.

And I was like, you know what, that would be fun. Because snowboard. I'm going to just snowboard next time just to prove a point. I would like to see. Please. I will be right behind you or in the forest. I don't know. But yeah, I was thinking about going today in this skiing because it was fun in that we planned on,

this is the Optic winter trip, planning on doing this snowboarding video. As you can tell, we're all wearing matching pajamas. Optic learns how to snowboard ski, do all this shit. But I don't know if they're going to come out with a video. I don't know how much footage we got half of a. I just want to say you in the tree. The footage of you in the tree. learned. Did they get footage of you guys? Maybe this video. You know? You want to know how hard.

They should carry the video and then it'll be us like falling and learning. I would like to read for a second. Because everyone's heard Nick's pain, right? He fell in the forest. He laid on his back. His tail bowed. All right. You hear me out. They don't even get it. Once we leave the body. I'm telling you, it was dangerous. No, it sounds like I could have sued for millions. Like, but I'm not. Because I'm with optic. But like, I could have, I could have got a check for this shit. You like signed the waiver. That's true. You did sign a waiver. Yeah, but I could sue optic, right? Please go. Please tell me your experience about skiing. It was fun.

After babysitting all you nobs, we leave the buddy slope and Austin looks to us. And he's like, finally, guys, you guys can tread. Did he really say that? We're going to snowboard. And we were also, I like, because first of all, it took us three hours. We sat just in the rental for three hours because it took so long to put the man in the Sasquatch suit, which is understandable. But I'm ADHD.

I do not sit still for more than 10 minutes. So I was cooped up. I was like, oh, morning. I was like, I'm so excited. Like, I haven't snowboarded in two years. Like, I've been looking forward to this for weeks for this day. Okay? And we get to the slope.

And we have to do one shot. So the plan is that Sasquatch, my sister and I sit on the lift together. Austin, the cameraman, is on the lift in front. And he records us going up. We get the shot for the sponsor. And then we all get to snowboard happily ever after for the rest of the day. like three, four, five times to get the shot? So, well, first, we had to

know what goes into the shit. No, they don't. First Sasquatch had to get skis. Poor Sasquatch. They wouldn't let it go with the bear's hairy feet. So that takes an hour. Then we go and then Austin's not in front of us

and we have to keep shredding down the hill with Sasquatch. Shredding down the hill. Poor Sasquatch. He's skiing down this giant mountain dressed as a hairy monster. Like he doesn't have gloves. He didn't have gloves. No, no. Did he, and he didn't, did he have, he had his, you know.

He had his hairy. Just his hairy hands. He'd swap him out for ski boots because they wouldn't let him take his, uh, Sasquatch toes in. So he had ski boots. Yes. Yeah. But like the rest of it was not made for winter weather.

And it's a big hill too. Yep. Um, so first we do that pretty, pretty big size hill twice. We still don't get the shot. At this point, Alex gives up. And it's just me and Sasquatch. I didn't give up. I was just so cold.

Yes. She didn't give up. She was cold. Right. Um, and then you know the lift that we did today. The one that the first time you got it for like wow, it just kept going. It felt like forever. We ride that one with Sasquatch. I swear that lift ride is like 10 minutes just going up. That's how I felt leaving the bunny slope proceed. Yeah, well, this was a real one. So you guys did the blue yesterday, the one that we did a bunch today? You did it with Sasquatch? After three hours of Sasquatching around. And poor Sasquatch was so cold. Yeah, we don't. Yeah. But you guys made friends with him. Well, we didn't. We sat on. He was cold.

He didn't break character at all with me. But it's a 15 minute chairlift, so like you can't just see. Yeah, I sat next thing silently for- He actually was like that the first chairlift. He didn't break the first. It was the second chairlift that he was like, Yeah, I guess it is kind of cool. My guy's Sasquatch.

What's funny is when they see how realistic this Sasquatch look. And he tried so hard to. He didn't break for hours until the third second chairlil. His eyes were exposed the whole day. It was like flurying. It was two degrees. He didn't have goggles. No, no.

All the videos, his little eyes just look so sad. We should have put the man and goggles. Yeah, all of us pull up to the ski place, sat this realistic, Lord knows how much the suit costs. 40 grand. Or how much, how long it took to. That's what I heard. No way.

How long it took to get dressed. Because we were waiting there. That's, I mean, our group was raging at you guys. We thought someone was fucking up. I mean, dude, it was literally us sitting there. Alex was asleep on her jackets. She was laying down. We were raging.

We were like, someone was fucking choking. She was laying down in her cover jacket sleeping. I fell asleep. I didn't blame you at all. But we were sitting there and it was Matt and Sasquatch in the bathroom together. I'll leave the rest up to you about what happened in there. He eventually got dressed.

And they got him out. Oh, I don't know, man. We were sitting there for, I think you guys got there before us. We go in. We get our shit right away, like, real quick. And then we were just waiting on you guys. You guys pulled up two and a half hours later. with Sasquatch.

He walks in, just playing character the entire time. The biggest celebrity of the town, first of all. At some point, I asked him, I'm like,

this was on the third chairlift when he started opening up about life and stuff. I was like, Sasquatch, are you tired of people asking for photos with you? And he looks and he's like,

grr. That's what I'm saying. He pulled up on us and it was like, yo, Sasquatch, and not, didn't say a word.

But can you imagine being at a ski lodge and then Sasquatch walks in? That's a dream. Yeah, imagine seeing Sasquatch skiing. Okay, wait, where are you guys from again, like originally? Canada.

Romania. Is Bigfoot Sasquatch, like, is big of a thing up there? I would imagine to be more of a thing. People know about him. Okay. I feel like, you know, you're up in Colorado in the mountains and the trees, and then you see Sasquatch on skis. That's a celebrity.

Yeah. You know when I knew he broke? Because people loved seeing him in the mountain. Like, huh? Like, people loved seeing him. Like, they'd get so. He was so excited to start waving. Someone is like, can you twerk for the video?

And he was like, oh, girl. And he, of course, Sasquatch, he was giving him the show of his life. But at some point, like, yeah, this was like four hours in after we had been, like, skiing all day. And we still didn't get the shot. Like, he just started. He couldn't take another photo. Hey, he did the thing, though. He had red knuckles by the end of it.

Oh, God. I met the man behind the mask at the end. He was the trooper of the day. Was he okay? He was okay. but he was very red. Aw. He was very red,

but he did his thing. Yeah, we were the one at the peak, the top of the mountain, Austin and I are ripping off his little hairy hands. And like,

first of all, those things are buttoned in really well. And like, I'm trying to balance. And then we're like putting new gloves and like, and his hands were so cool. Like I had to shake the hand warmers

and like we're like huddling our hands together. And like finally I see his human hands. Like it was like the weirdest. It's going to turn into the saddest commercial ever. Poor little sask. That like, Did he get a check?

He got a check. He was 6.5. He's better. He gets paid well. He gets paid well. He's in the freezing cold. No gloves. No.

I can't believe he didn't have goggles. He shredded on the skis, though, honest. Yeah, no. He loved that. He loved that. I think he really enjoyed that. Yeah, apparently it's skied for like three years. Well, when the skiers tuck the pole in to the side and then get that really juicy angle,

that's how I know they got it like that. You know, like when they like tuck the pole. I did that a little bit today. And they get that real streamlined angle. Yeah, he was doing that. I know, he was very good on the snow. Poor little Sasquatch. All right, Matt Craig's yelling at me.

We got to take an ad break real quick. We'll bear it back. Continue this combo. I don't know what's going on. We're going to get everyone in here. Ad break real quick. Bear it back. What's up, guys?

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where you can convert your crypto into digital gift cards without creating an account. Remember to use code optic gaming to get that guaranteed 6% back. Let's get back to the podcast. Yo, Matt, y'all at them real quick. Let's get this on the podcast, though.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Watch, Matt. I'm going to, Matt. I love that you yelled at the people playing chess not talking. The chess turns are silently playing. Just had that, and you guys, everyone listening,

you don't know the real Matt Craig. Those big daddy energy. I like that a lot. If shit needs done. And there are the people in the office, not the quiet chess players in the kitchen. Dude, they've been playing chess for like two hours.

I know. I respect it. That's actually really funny. I want you guys to like spectate them and. No. I just, I turn into two. I want people to have fun.

I want to play more smart. See, I'm not, I used to think. like that. Mosh. Something about me. I've changed.

Something's not right with me lately. I'm very negative. Wait, no, yeah, we should talk. Wait, okay, what are you guys? No,

okay. What were you guys saying? Last night at the Optic Winter Trip where in Breckenridge, Colorado, we've talked about skiing and snowboarding. We talked about, do we talk about beer pong at all night one?

There was really nothing. We had a good time. We had a couple drinks. You guys dethroned George and I. Hitch got absolutely hammered. He's been hungover. sense. This is why you guys got altitude.

I've seen him for, I would say, 30 seconds total this weekend. 30 seconds. It was a good 30 seconds. I like that he comes up occasionally to remind us that he's here. And then he just goes back and slumber. Hey, guys. And yeah, he came down and made an appearance last night where you guys were playing Super Smash Bros in the corner eating cookie dough.

That sounded fun. And singing. And singing. Yeah. You know, those three go really well together. We had a lot of fun. That's good. I'm glad you guys.

This was last night. I missed that. Yeah, no. I was exhausted. Yeah, because I got beat up hard on those slopes. I was.

We know, Nick. Can you tell us again? I don't know if I mentioned that. Nobody was here to hear it again. I don't know if I mentioned that. So yeah, so yeah, when I got to the green slope,

I don't know, I'm just kidding. And to talk about the elephant in the room, we did white elephant and you got a Gucci beanie and the rest of us got little trinkets that looked like the bottom of a hot topic. And we got a Gucci bean.

No, I got it. And she's been wearing it all day. And she's, She also has the speaker. Yeah. And what did we get? No. I don't.

I could go get what I got. You can't. Go get it. It's like right. You got very special. It honestly looks really nice. You got the only sentimental gift. If there's a Botez fan out there, the, in that 90, 95% male category and once the, I got something.

The 95% male is just all of chess. We actually have more females than most chest. I thought this was special. to you. It has all your friends on there. Oh, you thought I was keeping this? Wait, you're really auctioning this off? You really are selling? What else would I do with it? You need to give this an optic fan because it has everybody. Yeah, they'll pay for it. No, you should, this thing in 10 years is going to be worth a lot more. It's going to age like fine. Is this an event? See, I'm, I'm a genius. I watched you do math. I, yeah, I thought about it. You were like, okay, Gucci Beanie's $340. Well, I thought about it. I get this sign by eight creators and sell it in four years from

Well, it went deeper than that. I was like, shit could hit the fan very quickly. I could have to, optic cadence. That's what you were thinking about. He's thinking about all of this during. I just made up a whole new life in my head. Like, I'm no longer in optics. Somehow I'm in Colorado.

I'm about 15 minutes down the road. I'm in a trailer park. I'm paying 400 a month. But I have this. It was a two-hour drive. But I have this. As you guys know, every trailer park he passed, he asked us what we thought the rent would be.

No, he did it. Yes, he did. Why would you know? I know you guys are blessed and shit, but like where I'm from in the fucking hood of Hager's Sousa? No, just, okay, the reason I'm laughing is because I don't see going into that position. You're obviously. You just wouldn't have good enough internet. Wait, what?

Like, you know what? I don't want to compliment you anymore. I did the first time. And I didn't get, so we're not going to do it again. But I think it'll be just fine. Well. And you've got a really great memento for the weekend. see how my brain works is like if.

Or you could just enjoy it, you know? I did the math. I'm like, I'm not getting that Gucci hat. I don't give a shit about the speaker. I have my own. So what's the next best thing? It's definitely,

you guys will see on the white elephant video. It was the most calculated game of white elephant I don't know what. We should re-gift it for a charity. We took a 20-minute, like, cut break in between that. Oh, it wasn't a cut. Yeah, we'll see how much. they used from that. It was the bulk of video.

It wasn't a cut. But we were like, well, we were like kind of trying to figure out the rules. And it was like, no, since you wanted to keep that, like that it's over now. And then George is stuck with socks. He's like, you're really going to end it on this? George flew to Colorado. There's no way it ends now. I mean, to be fair, Hitch flew to Colorado and then stayed his room for two days.

That is true. George at least got some socks. Poor Hitch. Because it's not like Hitch. Poor guy. Because he loves this shit. He lives for this shit. But I don't know how much they're going to include.

from the white elephant, but it was a 20-minute discussion, which I thought was off-camera, but I guess I was miced up, so they'll use what they want. But it became, everyone walked out with what they wanted to. Peer pressured.

George was stuck with socks. He was like, I can't end like this, but I'm like, doing the math. If I try to get the, I can't get the Gucci hat. If I try to get the speaker, someone's going to steal it from me, you have some Atari shit.

I don't care about that. It was pretty cool. He loose it as a... He's got a Pikachu Waffle maker. Yeah. Don't give a shit about that. The odds of that going home and the plane are zero. But then George did have those low-cut Haynes socks.

So I thought about it. I did make the low-cut. I did make one 10-second, I had a 10-second thought of like, wait a sec, those good jokes. I mean, this is Blake and Hitch. And I don't live, laugh, love. Yeah.

Hitch is Mr. I don't actually know who I am. But maybe in 10 years, this could go for something. I think so. I don't know. Just on their signatures alone, I think we're off. That's what I'm saying. There's got to, do you have crazy fans?

Not in the good way. Yeah. Yeah. You don't want to know about that. If it's in a good way, it's not crazy. Like crazy has to be a bad way, I think. So you do. Yes.

Yeah, pretty. What? Can we talk about that? There are women in the internet. Has something happened? I don't think we can't. I don't know. Can we?

Or you don't have to talk about what happened. I mean, it's quite the juicy stories. All right, right. Well, you can't talk about the story if you want. I can't say, like, a word about it pretty much. Okay. I've never talked about it. I don't know if we can't.

Is it like a chess fan thing? No, it's like the stalker, dude. We have a lot of stalkers. I think that's unfortunately the how it goes. But it's the norm for women. I hate it. It's the, yeah. Yeah.

It's probably really, well, I'm sure, It's the same in every sort of like category, but I look at it and like a, well, I don't even know if I'd put you guys in like e-sports, but like the, you're not, no, but I'm saying like the internet. Excuse me. We're on uptick. I'm just thinking like internet, internet famous. I don't, I don't really know how to put it. I feel like influencers. I don't know if they're like, because it's not like a. That's what they call.

That's what people. That's what Twitter. If I am in the car with an Uber driver. But it's probably, you guys, I say I'm a creator. It's probably not like crazy chess fans. What are you guys like going by? It's probably. Chess, are you, wait, wait, hold on.

I know nothing about chess ranks. And I'm just going to go back for one second. It's not the chess. Do you guys have, what are your, a master? A master. And what are you? Sorry, we're having two different conversations. I just realized that you guys were, she's an expert.

An expert and a master. That's cool. Yeah. That's really cool. See, from the cod scene, we don't even have a rank system right now. So you guys are way better off than us. You guys have had a rank system for like probably 300 years. So are the,

because it is kind of weird how the influencers or I don't fucking know what you want me to call you guys. Whatever you guys are. Master and expert. No, please don't call it. Yeah, that's probably worse. That's insulting. Because I'm sure the, like chess player. It's just easier.

I'm sure the weirdness isn't coming from like just the chess side. It's coming from being a female streamer on Twitter. Yeah, of course. Yeah, it's very common. I mean, and it's wildly known on the internet. Did you? How much of a, not fan base, or maybe fan base, but like before you got, were you guys popular at all before you got on Twitch?

Like in like the chess? No. I don't, in like the chess world. What lunch table did you set at? In like the chess world or like, were you guys known at all on the internet besides. question actually. I don't think that's ever been asked. Alex, you can go. Um, not really. I had a few random photos where I was playing chess that would go viral before Twitch. Photos? It was really weird. I was in college and like they kept popping up on Reddit and it was on like the front page and on this

subreddit called gentlemen boners. Um, so I thought it was really uncomfortable. Um, because basically I had started a Facebook page where I had post chess content when I was in high school. school because I wanted to get students to make money somehow. And that's where I would source a lot of my students. And granted, most of them were a little bit crazy. But it worked, you know, it did what it had to. And so in that sense, it got actually the attention of like chess.com and they reached out to me because of that page. And I did get invited to like quite a few tournaments because of that since there was not a lot of people who were social. But in terms of like, did people know you because you're actually good chess. players or were you guys like girls who play chess you know it was more the latter where it's like you have a personality you become famous but it's also kind of similar to like the other big chess creators for example agamador was the biggest chess YouTuber and he was like slightly lower rated than I was at chess but he was incredible incredible at explaining and he was really popular so it's more of a personality thing I think a lot of times I mean in the esports side of things a lot of that

kind of has the same trajectory in terms of it's not all always the absolute best player who makes the best content. But I think you guys have done an obviously incredible job of bringing that to the masses. And hopefully girls too. And I actually think that's been a really cool thing about chess creators because for most chess players, you can't make it because you're just not going to be that good. And even if you are that good, it's really, really bad in terms of the compensation and just not having stability.

But now there's so many chess players who are incredible chess players, just not world class that can make a living. Is chess considered a board game? Yeah. Would you say it's your favorite board game? Because like imagine just like apples to apples is your favorite after all this time? No, Chess is my favorite game. Candyland? Candy lane goes crazy.

I love board games, though. I do try and she always quits on me. I do you like life where you like spin it and you get to choose your career? I have played that before. Oh, you hit the dentist and it's just like no one can stand a chance anymore. I only like games though when there's like some kind of stakes. it's casual. Have you always been like that?

Have you always been a gambler? Yeah, because my dad used to make us bet whenever we'd purchase us. If you guys were tag team and you know old men in New York and hustling them and you were eight. But I think it messed me up a little bit because I can't enjoy games unless I see something

on the line. So the first day I saw Optic was playing, what do you mean? I was like, no stakes can't play. Yeah, and I kept trying to put stakes. That did kind of go shit. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. If there were stakes, I thought it would be hilarious, but it did not work out. I do like a game with like rigid rules where it's like if it's kind of like up to whatever

and it's like subjective. No, someone needs to win and someone needs to lose. Yep. Is that why you like chess so much? Because it's like if you lose, you know you, if you lose, you know you did something wrong. Yep, yeah. But that's also why I like poker because if you lose, you lose money. You won like a crazy amount of money.

Yeah, but like poker is more of a gamble than chess. It is more of a gamble, but it's all. also one of those games. You are a little poker fiend with your little tournaments. All I wanted to say about poker is like the best poker players are the ones who are the best in the world. So it is a luck game, but there are pros for a reason. Yeah. Play poker at all, Andrea? No, she can't.

They flew me out once to a poker tournament and they told me I could play because it was supposed to be in Florida. And I was really excited and I learned some theory and I practice and then I got there and they're like, you can't play because you're underage. So I have a couple more months. When you said chess.com, which was this crazy for you? I think you said chess.com invited you to something or to play something because you were like more social. Was that like crazy to you that chess.com like reached out to you because of your Facebook shit? Well, they wanted to start making chess content. That's the hardest shit of all time.

I don't know what's wrong with me, man. No, that was a good question. That was great. This reminds me of when you were explaining white elephant rules and we were all confused. Yeah. I mean, I didn't know the rules. I never played like growing up. I never played white elephant.

No, I'm just teasing. It wasn't surprising because the stuff they wanted me to do was chess content. It wasn't surprising. It was chess content. Were you like kind of big already or not? I don't know. No, there was just nobody who did chess content. So as far as that went, I was like I understand why.

There were the origin story. I feel like the origin story. The chess bras had a big. impact? There was other streamers who also were the first ones who started streaming chess, but they weren't doing educational stuff or for other platforms. And that was one of the first streamers. So they were there. But the reason that I actually started making my own content, rather than doing other things was because Chess.com saw the page. And they're like, hey, come do this thing called Chess Center and we'll pay you. And I'm a college student.

I was like, whoa, get paid to talk about chess. Heck yeah. Did you fly out for that? No, because I could just do it from my, I filmed all. I filmed. all of these from my dorm room. Yeah. So it was great. Did you always feel social or I'm sure you were. It was honestly. When I think of chess, I think of nerds who aren't that socially, you know what I'm saying.

I know exactly. You're not the first. Did you always, were you always a social person or were you just like social in the chess world? I think it was mostly social in the chess world because the standards in the chess world are so low. But I was also lucky because my generation of players, I had a lot of really close friends. And all of my close friends were actually super fun. But almost everybody else in the chess world was... I mean, that's like the spirit of Optic, right?

Yeah. I mean, call me crazy. But like, I mean, growing up, I was an Optic fan. Optic was the only cool org. And it was optic and face. This is what I tell everyone. I was a D1 athlete. I don't give a shit about this.

I was cool. No, I'm just kidding. I was I wasn't like none of these people. Most of the time it's pasty kids who have no social skills. They game. They're nasty. This is the cares though. That's why I didn't like the chess community growing up because Alex at least had some cool chess friends. Like she got really lucky. There were people who were fun. Were your chess friends from like high school or internet? Internet? Well, more like international tournaments and internet. So then we'd go and we'd meet up at tournaments and we'd play chess but we'd also have a fun time.

fun time. This was all before Twitch. This was in high school and even middle school. How many years was that or when did when was Twitch? I started streaming my college. Like when did you graduate high school compared to when did you start Twitch? I graduated high school in 2013 and I started Twitch in 2016 just as a hobby and I went full time into it in 2019. And then I started dragging Andrea actually around 2019 to do some sister streams. Also the videos of her are hilarious. She looks like a 12 year old. I mean, I was like 15. I know, but you look so young.

It was so cute. And we'd have these little bets where it would be like, we're going to play chess and the loser drinks water. I was also like a little bitch. And like I was like, I'm not drinking five cups of water. That's dangerous. And now the stuff we do for videos.

Yeah. Well, I was, you know, I was a little. Little ground. I was very shy on the internet. I mean, the sister stuff is cool. I mean, it's a cool dynamic anyway. But you guys, I like how you play it up. The sister bets.

But you guys are actually like that tight. It's because we're very competitive and we can't play games without wagers. So we just bet with each other all the time. But sometimes we actually get tilted. Oh, yeah. I was going to say is there, I think back to my childhood. And I have a brother who's like a year and some change older. And like he was never into the multiplayer, me versus you.

I'm, I beat you. I'm the best. He was never into that. But I always, I don't know. always like got off on that on like the competition of like beating him was it were one of you like more competitive than the other or was it always like uh most definitely yeah well okay so i feel like you were the most more competitive really and like really i was definitely Alex maybe it's just but but but really actually it kind of makes sense she didn't play what do you mean because

there was no prize yeah maybe it's the vocality is that I don't even know if that's a word out of Andrea. Well, I think it's because Andrea had a good run this trip, so it made it seem like she was more competitive. Oh, are you talking about when we were playing games with each other? I'm just, well, it's probably just because you're louder. Yeah, I think it's just because I'm more aggressive. You're, yeah, boxing and shit.

So I guess maybe that's just how I look at it. Have you ever, have you guys ever put hands on each other or like got aggressive over? We tried to fight as kids. I was obviously bigger, but then one time she sat on my face and farted and I never touched her since. And I only learned that from her. No, I did not do that too. She would lock me in the closet and fart.

So I thought that was just getting revenge. I was a little kid trying to fend for myself. She was because she was being annoying. This is over chess? No, we would just argue over things as kids. Has it ever gotten bad over chest? Over chest? Like, we just get really pissed at each other, especially when our shit talking a lot.

Like we get very tilted It's hard when you're live We were doing a little clip earlier And you guys are just Saying a little something A little something little something And it's like we're trying to get a clip here And you're I'm not losing

Wait what? Whenever I was like I'm trying to throw down my hat Or I was like I was like Alex just lose And it's like when you lose I'm going to throw down my hat Or some shit

And then it's like no I don't you're like No let's play it out And we'll see you Can't lose all purpose Well, we were shit talking a little bit at the beginning. So, like, I really wanted to beat her. And I didn't really try the first one.

So the second one, we were getting kind of sweaty. My favorite was when my dad tilted the shit out of Andrea recently. That was one thing I wanted to mention. Like, our competitiveness and our shit talking, it all comes from our dad. And that's why I was going to say, I'm a little less competitive because she grew up with my dad. And there was, like, constantly going each other. And then I kind of had more hobbies other than chess. Like, what are you trying to say, Andrea?

Like, like, you're well-rounded. I had other outlets. you know, but Alex and dad, they were just always like this. But now the more time I spend with her, it brings it out of me. What was your dad, a chess? He loves chess. Was he good? Like really good?

He's a really good teacher. You guys better than your dad? He had a chess club, yeah. We are better, but he was a good player. He was like 1800. Okay. Yeah, that's about where I'm at. Yeah, he would come with us to every single tournament.

He knew everyone. Like, he was the chess dad. Why did he get you? Why did he get you guys into it? much. If he, is 1800, does that mean your life is like, in chess? Or he just kind of liked it. You just kind of like it. He just liked the game and wanted to teach us stuff. And then we both had good results early on. So then he found something and he would always, whenever we'd want to do other things, like I really like gymnastics. He'd say, do you think you'll ever be good at anything else as good as you

are at chess? And be like, I don't know that. Then stick to chess. And that's why we stuck to chess. And that's why we stuck to chess. That was quite an influence. What else would you want to do? I really liked dance growing up. I love gymnastics. What kind of dance? Old types like hip hop, jazz, ballet. But my parents couldn't afford classes, so I was never really good. And then I really liked track, but they couldn't.

I had too many chess tournaments. Like I really liked music. I played piano. I had a lot of hobbies I really liked, but they're all too expensive. And I couldn't go to them because I had a cheap practice chess. Yeah, chess is a choice. cheap, cheap sport. They just drive you, 20 minutes to more than chess club, and it's a $5 entry fee,

and you play all weekend. But it doesn't pay, like, like that doesn't. No. Is there, or, when you look at, like, chess tournaments and stuff, would you, is the person who running, who is running the chess tournament sort of like cashing out, and all the chess players are just like, we're addicted to chess, but we love it so much. We're almost playing for free, and we're, we're getting fucked and this needs change.

Is there like some kind of revolution happening? Honestly, most chess organizers, because I feel like chess is popping right now. Yeah, but everybody gets fucked. That's the thing. Chess organizers don't have a lot of money and they give the money to attract top players. And then chess players also usually don't have a lot of money, so they're not going to pay a lot.

So it's just one of those things where there's not a lot of money unless you're one of the top 10 in the world. When I think of chess, I think of like really classy guy in a sweater. Yeah, that is outside of a car. It's not the guy who goes to play at a chess tournament. When you go at the chess tournament, it's the fucking guy that you never spoke to.

I don't want to call this one guy out, but it's been on my head. One of my friends went back to play a tournament, and his opponent was scratching his face the entire time and putting it in his ear and then licking it. I had a teammate that used to go like this. When he would die in Halo, he'd go like this. Yeah.

That's not even bad. And also he knew he was on camera. So maybe it was a technique, but that's kind of more of what you expect. It's not really the classy people. It's the people who really like chess can be more even chest bums where they just really love it and they get addicted to it. Yeah. Is that, is someone taking advantage of that? Like in the, because I understand how people can be addicted to chess and it,

chess is like a universally known thing, a universally known game. But it's, every time I hear about chess, you're like, chess tournaments or like chess pros or chess grandmasters master they're like they're not rich or they don't why if you want to make money in chess you basically have to teach or do other stuff the way that I've seen people take advantage is like they start these huge chess schools or they start their own tournaments with their own rating system and then they make a lot or educational sources online because parents are willing to pay for their kids to do chess classes and playing tournaments even if they're not going to become elite players But why aren't the chess, the people winning the tournaments are like close to?

Why aren't they getting? Is the prize money shit? Prize money is shit unless you're top, top in the world. Because there's just not enough sponsors. I mean, there's a lot of things that went into this for a while. Like the International Chess Federation was really bad at attracting sponsors. They were so bad at attracting sponsors that the only sponsor they got for the women's championship was a breast enlargement company. But it was also like,

at least there's money, you know. Something. Something. And I was, gaming has not had its share. We definitely had its share of very questionable sponsorships. Yeah. No, but honestly.

When I, when I played with the shit era. Yeah. I was, I went, I've been going to Halo tournament since like 2007, early 2007.

I went pro in 2008. And then I was pro to like 2020 17. But like, I was playing there was no salaries there was not it was like you show up and you play in this whatever it could be just some ballroom it could be some big event whatever but you just show up and play but it's like now that I'm looking back at it it's like the owner of that who was running it and like a few of the people under him they cashed out and it's like the players

no one got shit. The people who were like actually entertaining it, like even like some of the top pros, like... You guys have a lot of viewers watching? I don't, I don't know. I don't know the viewer count for back then. I'm assuming it was pretty good or like somewhat... I mean, streaming and like streaming that shit now is obviously a lot different

and it's a lot better now. But like back then, I'm assuming the numbers were almost the same. because Halo 3 was really popular. I don't know if you guys know anything about like Halo or anything. But like the people who were like running this shit, it seems like they have money somehow. But it's like all the players, the players weren't getting shit. And I was pretty much in that era. I kind of look at it like the NBA.

So whereas I was in like the 60s and 70s whereas like these guys are putting on a show. Sort of like the owners are cashing out. And then now East. sports is sort of, it's like sort of graduated to like now people have salaries and it's like there's sort of, I mean, you could say insane money, but I don't know, I feel like the players always kind of get screwed over because it's like sort of something they love. And I feel like it's probably the same for chess because like the players actually love it. So it's like regardless of the prize money, they're going to play it. Um, I think you should, just, just definitely share

that with other games, but it was the game where you wouldn't really have an audience for it. So there wasn't a way to make money off of chess except for entry fees, but most of the entry fees would go towards, you know, the prize money, the hotel, paying arbiters, things like that. So it was just really hard to juice out that much money because it's just the chess players themselves actually paying. But what I did want to say, similar how you mentioned that it's gotten better right now, it has also gotten a lot better for chess where now there are sports teams that are signing chess players, you know, maybe there'll be things like a professional league in the future. Now there's

actually a lot bigger opportunities because people actually watch chess. So that's changed everything. But before people watched chess, there was just very little money. Was it Twitch? It was the pandemic, actually. Really? Yeah. When the pandemic happened. Is that 2020 was the year like flipped to where? Yeah, because I don't feel like I heard about it. Yeah. Or didn't. Yeah, it was not that I cared. And Chess.com had these crazy stats about, like, people doubling new users every single day. And then Chess viewership on Twitch 10X. But it was also kind of happening in terms of the Chess.com viewers because people were staying home and it's just the world's most popular game.

And now people need more games to play. So I think that's why it started. Because then Queens Gambit happened like six months after the pandemic. And it helped boost things. But we had already seen the spikes before. I joined. So, all right, I was probably in 2008. There was never salaries.

Like, there was these teams, they had sponsors. No one fucking ever had salaries, anything. There was like the shit prize money. And then I sort of like retired in like 2017. And that's sort of the year everyone started getting salaries. And then it was, it started off. Bad year to retire. Yeah, dude.

We could, yeah, that's a whole new podcast. Like, Jesus Christ. The amount of things I look back on and I'm just, like fuck man fucking that's a whole different podcast but to 2017 I stopped and then that

it sort of started up at least in halos like people were getting like $500 a month just to like play and it's like you look at that now and it's like huh like how the fuck what the fuck's $500 a month but then it's like within like three years went from like 500 to people Halo pros now are probably getting like 6

to 10 to 15K depending like how what your personality is and like how much you bring to the team or whatever but i guess it's that i that happened in like 2017 where it's like the salaries and the sponsors or whatever started happening and it's sort of like the players sort of forced organizations to be like i'm not joining your org unless you pay us this much do you think it's going to continue like this or do you think i think it's going to continue like that i think it's going to continue like that i think it's going to continue like that. And I was, I'm wondering if it's going to happen for chess because chess is like more newer as far as like spectators. So I'm wondering if it's going to like, because I see,

well, I don't know. I don't know. There's not really chess is like so singular where it's like you're just that one person. So it's not like a team thing. They brought like grandeur into esports. Like now I can go and watch people play Apex Legends at my home stadium where the Carolina Hurricanes play. And I can go watch people play Apex in the P&C. arena. Similar to chess, I mean, you're about to do a event that you're going to play chess. A chess is definitely broken into popular culture a lot less than gaming though. So that's why, yeah, like you're saying chess is really behind. You guys broke out like 20-20 and now it's like it's going to be on that. Exactly. Chess. Chess players are going to be like, I'm going to fucking

in our life tournaments yet. Which we're working on for next year. That's like one of a kind. And yeah, those events happen rarely. But I feel like you have to, you know, as like a whole community, You have to incorporate something that's like, oh, you get the general public interest in. And I'm sure, I mean, I feel like Queens Gambit probably had a huge part of that. That was one. Because it's just, you know. Oh, yeah, I just watched a Netflix thing because I was died in the pandemic. And now I know about chess.

As chess players, do you guys, I don't think I've seen it. Do you guys like that movie? It's a movie, right? It's not a TV show. It's a show. Oh, she, Jesus. Is that a good representation? I'm going to let Andrea take it because she loves this question.

No, you don't. You know, you guys are chess players. You guys probably get asked these questions. That is the most common question we get asked all the time. Not your fault. Yeah, you can ignore that. Let me think of something else. Yeah, I think it's a most common question.

People actually care about it. No, it's a good question. You know what actually does give a shit, do they? Huh? No one does care, do they? About Queens. Yeah, Queens Gamb. Well, I mean, that's like Ninja.

But it's, no, it is. I think it got popular for a reason. I think people appreciate someone just the skill of chess of it being a one-on-one. There's not really, I mean, you told me earlier, White has a slight advantage,

but it's not, it's just a one-on-one. If you lost, you fucked up somewhere. And it's like, that's as, that's as fair as it can get. So I think, like, the human population is, like, sort of appreciating that somehow.

I mean, yeah, Queen's Gambit was great for people who've, like, never seen chess and like at least they have some sort of understanding and like you know if you run into a random person on the street it's likely that they've heard about the show so like a lot of the things we're talking about like the pandemic yeah just helps chess become more general and it really does give you a look into how obsessive chess players get i don't think she was actually obsessive enough about chess because she stopped playing for a few years i would say chess pros they would not have

had that gap what about who was the one Was it Billy something? Bobby? Bobby? Didn't he quit? Young? He kind of went crazy and he did end up quitting young. Wasn't it like 23 or something? Or am I tribut?

I think he was older than 23, but I don't remember his exact age. I think he was in his late 20s. He was very political and he was definitely going crazy. So he didn't quit. And he believed that basically the Russian KGB was making him go crazy because, you know, chess was very much. seen through the lens of the Cold War and stuff like that. And yeah, then he ended up moving to Iceland,

which, you know, has his grave and they have a lot of Bobby Fisher memorabilia. Is that how you pronounce it? Yeah, I can't say we have any, like, gaming things related to the Cold War, so. A little more history on the chess side of things. A little more. You have salaries and an audience, but we have history. Well, I think people are going to, I don't know,

they'll care not about the history of chess maybe but i think yes but you have to give it to them why it's getting yeah like the boat has sister someone that's what i mean no for real are you guys going to come to the fight i've heard that optics pulling up which is fantastic so are you coming blake when is it December 11th i have to go to the esports award wait esports awards Those are after. That's like the 12th or something. I think it's like the 12th and the 13th. I was like, wait, that day kind of runs about.

I'm tired of traveling. If I can make it, I would love to come out and see you fight someone. Would you at least watch Andrea on the TV? I would for sure watch. I don't even want them to watch anymore. Wouldn't come. I'm like a low-key, not a hater. I watch all, I'm like, I'm watching all the Jake Pauls and all these,

the misfits boxing, something, something. A Super Smash Bros. That I just worked with, I believe, is playing. Yeah, I know if you guys as friends is fighting too. Yeah. So I'm nervous. I would love to go. Nervous. I got friends there. I mean, I'm sure once it's going to be closer the day. I'm nervous for Andrea. I watched. I just been re-watching like. Well, I still hyped her up for a DJ set. I was there the entire. I was always going to

you. What's it like knowing your sister's about a fight? Um, so when I was watching minks fight, I was so nervous and every time she got hit, I felt like I was mildly going to throw up. And I looked at Andrea, I was like, I'm so happy. It's not you fighting. I never, that's what I'm saying. I used to be the same. I used to be very against violence.

I couldn't watch it. And I would never have seen myself taking up something like this. I'm joking because Andrea is going to have me and our dad in her corner while her box. I'm like the odds are me or pops are going to pass up when I watch you get hits. And that's just going to be so embarrassing. Sorry, I'm going to knock her out in under 90 seconds. There won't be much to have to anticipate. Good.

Do you have like a chance? cheesy line planned? Like my opening punches? No, I meant like, you know, if you knock her out, then you just like checkmate. Oh, no, I haven't thought that far. I mean, I assume like the adrenaline rush will be so intense.

That'll just be like, be going like, towards the camera. Yeah. And then my dad's over there. Sure, yeah. So you're fighting someone that's, all right. So I don't really know anything about this.

It's a chess. Has this already been going on? It's a chess. slash boxing event. Yeah, so Ludwig, a big YouTuber. Has it, has an event already happened? No, it's like for chess. No, no, chess boxing already exists.

Okay. It originated in London. It's the first creator chess boxing event. Yeah. But people have chess boxing championships already, but this is the first one that's getting attention. It's a real sport. They're like chess anything else?

Because I feel like chess and boxing would not be the two. This might be the only intersection, actually. That's a crazy crossover. I thought there was another one, but I forgot. Is it like chess swimming, you know? No, I actually don't know anything else. It might be the only other sport that they. My dad used to make the kids do chess basketball at our chess club.

Yeah, but not like, like, it's chess boxing is a real sport. Like there's world champions. Is it always chess first? Down, what a buck? It's seriously in gyms for it. And it's like very widely known. Isn't it boxing and then chess? Or is it chess than boxing?

No, which one do you do first? You just sit there like with a black eye. Unfortunately, start with the chess and you end with the chess. I wish it was more boxing oriented. But you should talk a bit about your strategy. So Andrea is playing a woman Grandmaster. This woman Grandmaster is three to 400 points higher, which if you would put like this likelihood of Andrea winning, I don't know exactly, but it's probably 10 to 20 percent that she wins straight up games. Coming from an average Joe, why does this fucking Grandmaster genius nerd agree to a boxing match with this young, young shredded?

No, okay. She's also shredded in her way. Wait, pause, pause, pause. Jokes aside, it is like going to be a really mainstream event. Like, it's almost sold out. We're right before the undercard. Because we also agree to fight six weeks before the event. Everyone had been known about, and who are fighting had known for months, four to five months.

But why she agreed to do it. I mean, there are a couple of side reasons, but like, then is going to be huge and exactly how we're talking about things that break chess into popular culture. This is going to be one. Like, creator boxing fights are huge. This is going to be huge. I didn't know. And it's supposed to be somewhat more entertaining

since it's involving a new twist. I didn't know that. There's going to be a lot of new eyeballs on her. I mean, if you ask anyone on the street, like, hey, would you rather watch someone play chess or play chess and then fight each other? It's always fight each other. So it's a great opportunity.

I didn't know this was a thing. Why did you agree to it? Or did you get asked, Alex? I got asked and I said no. No. Well, we got asked at the same time. And Andrea also didn't want initially.

Were you debating it or were you like, fuck you. So the reason I said, so Ludwig asked us like four or five months before it if we wanted to fight. And I knew we couldn't because we were supposed to be in Thailand for our chess travel show. Because we're always traveling the end of the year where we're like traveling for like two months doing a show on Twitch. And then it was four, six weeks before the fight when I was talking to them. And that day we had a call where we found out that we moved our show to next year. So then that day I called Ludwig and said, I want to fight. because I can make it.

Because before, obviously, if you need to be training every day, you can't be traveling for a month. So we were not, I was not supposed to be in town. Alex didn't want to fight. I would have, I don't know if I would have really considered it,

but it just felt like a sign because it was like, oh, this is canceled and this call happened. I'm like, I think I want to do it. But I just signed up without thinking. How lame would it be if you'd train for all this boxing and just lost in chess? That's what I'm saying.

Like, what could? I've been training my boxing very seriously for that reason. Or how does it work? Okay. Okay, let me explain it. Yes. You're walking to the ring, music's playing. What are you playing?

What's your music? Oh, my music? You're in the locker room. You're just want to rock by the night before. Then you walk, your left jab, right hook. Then you walk out, the crowd's roaring. The music's playing. What do you, what the music are you playing?

Is that, is this how it works? Or am I just imagining Florida Mayweather. Okay. So there's a walkout song, okay? All right. I'm going to set the scene. Okay. This is how to just go.

So first of all, how does the tournament work? You're going to play chess for four rounds and you're going to box for three. You're going to start with the chess and you're going to end with the chess. So the crowd is rolling. Alex is carrying me in on our shoulders, my walkout song. Wait, is this imaginary? Hell yeah. She's going to carry me in on our shoulders.

Yes. Or maybe we're going to learn a choreograph dance. It'll be one or the other. Or both. Or both. Actually, that'd be great. A TikTok dance. Yeah, you're very good at those.

Little Oozevert just one rock is playing if they allowed copyright music, which I honestly don't see happening because it's on YouTube, but who knows? Who knows? You go, you sit down at the chess board. I see Dina, the woman grandmaster. She's in great shape. She's got eight years on me. She's much better at chess. We sit at the board with shake hands, play chess for two minutes, then we go in the ring. We fight for 90 seconds, and this is exactly what's going to happen. I'm going to knock her out in that first round, and we're not going to have to play any more chess, and the fight's going to end there. This whole time you've been saying woman, Grandmaster. I'm picturing like a 45-year-old Russian woman like ready to throw hands.

Oh, she's a Russian. So she's 28. 28, yeah. Sorry, the title is, some people think it's sexist. We're like, why do you have to specify their women? But it's because it's a title she won. That's women grandmaster. Women grandmaster. Yeah, because there's different titles for men and women. But she's 28. She's young and in good shape. And she's coming all the way to the U.S. She's getting a visa for this. But she's a grandmaster? Yes. She's a professional chess player. Is male grandmaster and woman's grandmaster? Nothing of just grandmasters.

Is this what you pictured? Nothing of what I pictured. Okay. Okay, she doesn't look intimidating in that. But yeah, I mean, she's a nice, she was my good friend. Well, she is pale. That's the first takeaway. But no, to be honest, no.

This is. It's like a young, attractive chess player and you're like, well, she is pale. She's going to get her ass beat. No, that's about the only thing. That's the only thing chess-wise is in great shape. And he goes, she is pale. Well, I think chess, I think pale. I don't even know what to say to that.

Get us out of here, bro. Talk to us about Christmas. Good Lord. Andrea, I'm incredibly excited for your event. I do hope you beat her ass. Respectfully, though. Thank you. In chess and.

She's also our friend. Yes, she is our friend. No, respectfully. Well, she was sad. But, you know, fights a fight to fight. I'm actually going to be worried. I mean, yeah, I don't want her to get injured long term, but I will knock her out. You're going to take away some of her long-term ego.

I hope you do. He's a professional chess player. She's going to get worse that chess out if she gets a concussion. Are you, do you, are you thinking like when I get in there, it's like a different, because I want to see if like this could be, I don't know if it'd be like a viral clip, but like this could be a big. Yeah, I mean, that's how I'm thinking about it too. Even Minks was in there like brawling, but if Andrea is just,

right hook, jawed, uh. That's why I'm so nervous, though, because I've only had six weeks, like the chances that I do land a combo, but I've been training my ass off. You both have six weeks? Yeah, we both entered six weeks. But yeah, I'm going to fight my heart out,

and we're also the only women fighting, so it's like, yeah, there's a big opportunity to make a lot of impressions on people. Oh, you're the only women in the? Yeah. Oh, shit. Yeah. That's cool.

But so exactly. So, like, if we don't even land any punches, and I'm like, women's talk, As is why they're right. All right. From an idiot perspective, you walk in, you have to play chess first. How long is that? Two minutes.

Is that long for chess? No, it's short. It's short. What do you mean? What is, because I'm used to seeing people play chess just boom, boom. They're like stopping the clock. Two minutes on the clock. There's two minutes on the clock.

You're just playing. You have four rounds each, so eight minutes. So there's only two minutes on this thing? But two minutes for round, yeah. So they both have eight minutes for the entire game. So she could not, so she could not play? No, you both have eight minutes. So could you sit there and be like, fuck, I don't know what to do.

No, because if you lose on the clock, you're going to lose. But if you have eight minutes, then you can sit for a long time. No, because you're getting two minutes every round. So I multiplied it so give you the total. But yeah, if you spend more than two minutes, you're going to. Like, would it be possible to lose in chess? Yes. If you lose on the board, you lose the fight and the fight's over. And there's a high chance because there's more chess.

Wait. Or if you lose on the clock. It's one competition. But you play chess for a little bit and then you go box. I get that. But I'm wondering how couldn't you just, if you didn't, you're saying you could lose round one in chess before you even box. No, I mean, you can stall. Yeah, I was going to be stalling for the life.

Round one, you can stall. Round two, it's going to get harder. Round three, you can't. Like, well, actually, round one. Well, that's why I'm asking is the time control being reset after each round or do you have one time control the entire game? They haven't been very clear to be honest. I'm pretty sure you have to be playing chess. Yeah, it's in what 10 days? 12. No, but to be honest, I have asked them a lot of questions and they're like they still haven't decided the format for the time, but I know that like yeah, I can stall for round one, round two. So I'd like two decent chances to knock her. I mean, no, I have three chances to knock her out. If I don't knock her out by round three boxing, the, the, the, the, fight will be decided by the fourth round, which is chess.

Are you worried at all? Because when we went to a chess boxing gym in London, and after you do exercise and try to play chess, it's really hard to think, especially if you've been punched. I would imagine. I was, but I'm not anymore because I think I'm in really good shape. So you think she's going to be more tired than you? Yes. Yes. Because I feel like I just compare it to Halo because that's what I play, but it's like, I don't

think if I had to say I just ran a mile and came back to my station, I had to play Halo or box or whatever it's like I don't I feel like it would still be muscle memory is it you're you definitely much more out I mean think of it like you're super out of breath you just got punched in the head like and and chess like you you miss one move and you blunder piece and the game is over so a lot of gaming probably is muscle memory like I don't it's just the fucking the chess mine is so weird because it's so like 10 steps ahead even where exactly like I said earlier I'm we were trying to get like some shot of me like throwing my head oh mad Alex loss but it was like you were explaining no I'm gonna do this and this we like stop for a second

you're like no Alex I'm gonna do this this this and then you're gonna do this and it's like yeah and then checkmate and it's just that was literally like in my head I'm like five moves ahead and it's just I guess something like Halo or Call of Duty is not the same to where you have to think like that you probably are thinking ahead but it's different for sure And you're, well, obviously you're coming back to the same board. So it's, I don't know, is it weird coming back to the same board? Is it like someone could get hit hard as far to where it's like, you kind of. That's why like there's big upsets, like the world champion at chess boxing.

Has there been big upsets of like, say, I, I, you're saying this girl is a grandmaster, so she's better than you. Yes. Do you think in a, if you guys sat here right now, you played 10 games of chess, do you think you'd beat her? If she should win one or two max based on her stats. Draw or win one. Yeah. But if you right hook her in the jaw, and her brain goes crazy. Yeah, obviously.

She could change. Yeah, but I mean, remember, I'll be getting punched too. No, you won't. So, like, theoretically, if Mike Tyson were to get into chess boxing and he didn't lose in the first two minutes. But what is the qualification to get in? You're so out of, I mean, yeah, you can't compare that. Yeah, he'd have to knock him. He'd have to play enough chess that he doesn't lose on time and he survives the first round and then knock him out on.

But is there like a, do you have to be a certain level of at chess to even get in? I mean, it's not that big of a sport. So they just kind of really let anyone. Yeah, you don't have to know what you're doing on the chess board. Because like if your opponent's also a nub, which no offense is some of the people in the fight, they don't really play chess at all. They've been only training boxing. They haven't been training chess. They're going to be doing who.

God knows what on the board and then they're going to fight it out in the ring. I'd fight a chess player. Dude, just figure it out. I'd fight a chess player. Survive for two minutes and then go out there and throw hands. I would just sit there round one like, for the love of chess. Yeah, a lot of the fighters aren't like me and my opponent and the under card are the only people who are chess players. The others are just content creators who want to box.

Yeah. Yeah, I was, uh, I'm not going to say who I talked to, but I talked to someone about doing a boxing match in 20, 23. We'll see, though. I was going to ask, because you really need to physical stuff. When he asked me, I had a fucked up back for like three, four months. So it's like I couldn't run. I couldn't do anything. So it's like, I don't even know if I could like train for it.

But I don't know, maybe. I mean, it's not no chess match. But I just know it's like they're going to match me up against fucking some experience fighter. Oh, is it not a creator? I think it would be. Yeah. I mean, he could be new to boxing as well. Who would you guys fight if you had to fight someone from Optic?

Optic, I don't care. I want to fight Hitch. Like right now, yeah. Just for fun. There's so many years of tension there. Who do you think you couldn't be in a boxing fight in Optic? Who do you think is the strongest fighter in Optic? If we had to pick one person.

Who do you right now? Both. You? I think so. I think Nick's up there for sure. Probably. I would give it to you as well. Better accept that match next year.

Nothing against them, but it's. I mean, you do a lot of weight. I feel like a basketball. The boss is also in good shape, yeah. Sabas or hex, I would. That'd be cool to see X in the ring. They could break my nose, bro. Yeah, listen.

He turned around kind of pissed off. Yeah, he did. The Halo, the Halo World Champion just turned around kind of pissed off that we weren't as afraid of. You get one world championship and then think you could throw in. When we first start talking to the optic people, like one thing I was really excited about being in like, obviously male dominated org. Like most of them is like, oh, like we could do fitness content. Like I have people to do that with because it's not very popular, but like I would love to see more optic people doing stuff like that I really hope you actually do it. Optic boot camp question mark.

I would be so much fun. I would be down for that. I don't know. There's not many of us that would. That would sick. I believe Blake would do it. Shotsie wakes up early in runs. Sebas would do it.

Yeah, I don't think there's many of us. But I think we could pull something out. I guess, yeah. I could probably get Hitch and Georgia into it. I don't think so. Maybe for one video. Consistently, probably not. Yeah, no, you'd have to be this back.

Imagine we go to like an army, military. What if they send us out for a week? That'd be awesome. Keep your ass in a shape for a week. That'd be awesome. That would be hilarious. Have some. See who cries first.

Just scream at us. Yeah, that would be hilarious. Can we just suggest that this happened? Yeah, I think that would be a great video. Yeah. The thing is, I want to see, I want to see the fucking the true nerds. I want to see the formals. I want to see scump just standing there as a military sergeant just screams at him.

That would be. Can you imagine? It's not funny if the more athletic people do it. Everyone has to do it. Yeah. Do you guys know Shatzy? Have you met Shatzy? Can you imagine Shaltzy getting yada by a drill sergeant?

He's trolling, bro. He's trolling. Just kind of smiling. And I feel like I'd kind of smile as well. But I don't know. Or I'd cry. I don't know. There might not be an in between.

lock it in. I'd lock it in. But you're right. We would have to get like some true. Yeah, it has to be entertaining. We'd have to get some, a mix of a healthy mix.

You know, Miss Gifted Camp Canute? Did you guys see any of that? I don't think so. Miss. Do you know who Miss Kiff is? I know who Miss Kiff is? I know who.

I know. I know of him. Yeah, never mind. Yeah. Was that all creators? Um, so Canute is a Twitch streamer who was a really big

bodybuilder and pretty much just took like one of the biggest orgs on Twitch, which they're not like, They're not opt-agamers. They're content creators, more like Alex and I. O-TK, one-tracking. For 30 days, every day, they woke up and trained as a group and went to the gym, led by the sky and they did it all live.

And it was honestly really cool to see the progress. And they did progress at the start and at the end to see where everyone was. That's sort of like my, I don't enjoy, I don't want to say my age. I think me and Andrea are the same age. But yeah, I'm 31. So I'm 29 I'm great getting up there The point is I don't

She's like 18 The point is I grew up in like the video game world And for whatever reason I just like don't I don't know I have like no drive to play video games anymore I mean that's So I kind of want to get into like Like I would like to do something like that

But I don't think Because I think it's a call of duty It's a whole game they don't want to do this shit Some people like What the fitness? of. Yeah. Some people,

I think a lot of people would be interested in high-al content. No, maybe these people. Yeah, you could get one or two. But I'm the call duty team, the Halo team, the rocket team,

these people, they're maybe. But that's like exactly how like orgs are growing. Like, you know, you have a balance of both. Like me and Hitch were talking about titles and thumbnails of like,

oh, I went, I did a, or did two a days for 30 days. This is what happened. Yeah. shit like that. Like, I think that's sort of, I don't know, I guess like my next step in my career.

That's really exciting. Because it's also, it's not even about like the look or. 100%. No, I agree. That can only be a good thing for the scene as long as it's done. I think people are very ignorant to the fact of how much a diet and exercise, like, affects your mentality. Wait, what if it was something where we did a gamer and health challenge where you're doing

the training, you're eating right, and you're also training at this game because you can also see the impact it has when you're doing the physical and mental health. Well, the thing is, I don't know if, I don't know how much of an impact there is because the, I think there's a huge impact on chess, for example, when I'm healthy and eating rise. Yeah, I see, I see the Elo gains when I'm eating healthier and being more healthy. Because, well, maybe, but it's, it's such a low percentage of people that do that so where you can't really, you won't really see a

noticeable difference. It would be cool to track. The thumbnail is juicy enough that like does being healthy make you a better gamer. But I'm saying, I'm thinking of like when it's actually work. Yeah. Because some of the best gamers I've known, whether it's Halo, whether it's Call of Duty, whatever, they're not.

Yeah. It's what it. But that's a product of the culture. surrounding the scene. I think scumps, I could be wrong here because I'm not like the biggest call of duty fan or like I don't have the most knowledge about it. But like, I think some of scumps's worst years individually were like he was buff. Yeah. And it was, there is not buff.

I mean, you don't have to be buff, but just like healthy. There's not many healthy gamers. And I don't know. It could. It could be. I think it's a time constraint mostly. Yeah. I don't know if it's like a time.

I don't know because I truly believe like I perform better when I'm, I'm just in an overall better. My brain is just better when I'm eating healthier. When I'm moving. Because like as a human are ancestors and all the shit from thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of years. It's like every single century people are, the humans have been moving around. They have to do shit nonstop. They're like, but we're like the first century.

that is like we can sit down we don't have to do shit so and i think our like bodies are sort of like revolting against us to where everyone's depressed now everyone has anxiety now and i i kind of truly believe like not eating right and exercise and stuff is a big part of that but i don't know when i look at all the best gamers i just don't well yeah if your body's not entropying? How do you pronounce that? Are you really gaming hard enough? Like when you're sacrificing your own body for the game? I don't know. I'm teasing. I think we're looking at this in two very different ways because you come from the very hardcore gaming world where you game all day and you're just playing in tournaments. We obviously were looking at it more on content like YouTube videos,

titles, streams, numbers. I think the audience, and I bet you could even ask them like would the hardcore gaming audience be interested in seeing their favorite favorite gamers try more IRL challenges. I think majority would say yes. I think like, I mean, we're biased because we tested this. We started in chess. Then we went out into IRL. Our top videos are still chess.

Yeah, but our IRL has been the greatest growth recently. And that's what we're going towards. So I think I would push back on that, but continue. How would you push back? Our highest performing streams have always been chess streams, but IRL also does well. But that's because it's boosted. They are boosted. But even when they aren't.

I don't know. I think if you did it really... I think the reason why... And also our best IRL streams were also boosted. I mean, I guess the chess videos are also a mix of both. So it's not,

I'm not saying... People are interested in both, but I do think one content is usually better, but I think having a mix is great. Yeah, that was kind of going to be my point. Yeah, it's not like so black and white, pretty much. I think Donnie wants to like to see it.

It's not about, you know, if you would actually be. actually end up being the best gamer. It's more about the challenge and I think it likes to see that side of you. Well, I understand how it'll get views, the content, whatever, but do you think chess play, what's, what's it got, Magnus, something? Magnus is super into health and fitness, yeah. Okay, so do you think he's considered a pretty healthy chess player and like he's one of the more athletic chess players? Yeah. Do you think as a whole, if people were more strict about their diet and exercise that they would become better chess players, even at the elite level.

Yeah, and actually a lot of our coaches and tournaments would be very specific about things, like not eating carbs close to your game because it's going to make you more sleepy. And people can get away with not taking care of themselves. But when they're playing in high level tournaments, yeah, absolutely. Everything counts. And you're supposed to also be working on your stamina. Because if you're playing a game for six hours and you're training before and after and you're doing this for weeks, stamina is one of the biggest.

thing. So if you can work on that, it helps. And that's actually one of the big arguments that people have used to say why women are worse than men in chess. And I've heard this from pros. And they just say, because it's also an athletic sport because of the stamina. Now, I'm not saying I believe. I was going to say, do you think? No, they think it's like a physical stamina thing where if men are able to last for longer, that's going to give them advantage at like the highest levels. Yeah, I would have never thought that existed. Do you think that's true? I think differences, obviously. exist between men and women and at some point you're looking for any kind of edge so something like that might make it more favorable um but i you know i think there's different advantages that could

make things more favorable for women in specific situations too like being able to multitask or stuff like that yeah what's the level of eye contact like in chess because i feel like if you just like stared at me while i was playing chess like i've tried doing that before but but people are so into the game they don't even notice yeah yeah No, you really don't make contact. There's not too much out of game manipulation stuff. No, not really. Kick them in the shamed.

Maybe when you're a kid and you're pissed off, you look really angry at them. That's true. Have you had losses that you, has there been someone you played against that you, let me bring this back to Halo? To where there will be this, like, annoying nerd in the Halo community that's like, no one wants to lose who because they're just this person. And it's not that like we don't like them in real life.

Like if you talk to them, whatever, but it's like something about them. Their play style, their attitude and game, they kind of say some little shit. It just pisses you off. Is there people in the chess world or like a loss? All the kids. Losses that you've had that it's like you know you're better than them. Hustling people. But something you perform worse because of what, I don't know, what they say, who they are.

Yeah, many times you can get in your head if you're intimidated by your opponent. Little kids are so annoying. For me, when I was in high school, it was just like other high school boys because they were just, they always had an ego and they're very arrogant and like I would play amazingly the entire game, make one small mistake at the end. Start raising their hands in the air. They start yawning. They get up. They go for a walk when like they were losing the entire game. Like, yeah, there's people really cocky and like don't, you don't feel like they deserve the win.

Is there a specific group? Is it the little kids? Yeah, it's the little kids. And I'll tell you the story that has scarred me. No one's as bad as little kids because they are so freaking annoying, but they don't even know they're being annoying. That was probably me. I was playing this tournament in Vegas. And I was playing against a kid.

And my opponent, who was a man in his 30s, was also playing against a kid. Now, my opponent is sitting there thinking and his eight-year-old boy picks up a banana, starts talking on it as if it's a phone. And he starts going like, like, he does that. And then my opponent pretends to then pick up an imaginary phone. And they talk to each other. But they're not making noise. They're just talking. And then I look at my opponent and he looks at me and we both just look defeated.

And it's not even about the position. It's just the disrespect. You can't call your arbiter and be like, hey, this eight-year-old is using his phone as a banana. What adult calls an arbiter on an eight-year-old? So is it like that type of shit like messes you up? It just makes me really mad. their feet are just swinging on the chair they're on their knees because they can't see the board

they're hyper they keep shaking they're looking up at the ceiling every time they make a good move they take a sip of water and they go ah yeah that would be so and if they win they don't even shake your hand they do this annoying kid thing where instead of giving you a firm handshake because they don't know that's the thing yet they go like

and they slide it out as if they don't want to touch you and then they just talkingly get up away no it's it tilts the shit out of me you're definitely speaking from a place of experience I could tell Yes. You have a mental strategy against the next kid you play? I'm just not playing in tournaments with a ton of kids anymore. And when I beat kids... We can't all, like, compete R.L. so much.

I enjoy it so much. That might be the craziest out of context clip we have on the Optic podcast right there. Are you... What if we don't want to? Are you guys... No, we're going to get a little more existential before this thing ends. I feel it. I assume you guys aren't into that world as in like...

the tournament. Like I'm sure there's a whole community of like the top whatever players. And you guys are sort of more leaning towards like the content creation shit. Yeah, but you're not in that. We're friends with a lot of them and a lot of them started doing content now or they'll be in videos or we've watched them compete in tournaments and commentated on their games.

Yeah. You got to bring your people with you? Do you have rivals? Is there another sister group? Oh, we have rivals. But they're not sisters. Let's not talk about it. Okay.

It's okay, they're dead. No free. Publicity. That's good. Fuck down. They're probably trash anyway. Honestly, we try to take a better approach. We do sometimes meme about rivals.

But the truth is like, we're just trying to make our best. That's all that matters. That's bullshit. You're trying to fight someone. Are you guys interested or I don't know, I don't really understand how you guys came from chess to be in this, like, e-sports scene? Are you asking us why we're on optic?

Just rephrase it and then you have the clip. So why are you part? I'm saying even when I go to It's because we lost our other parents And you guys picked us up at the table. I'm saying, let me explain. How did you guys get here? So all the orgs, right, they stemmed in hardcore gaming.

All of your friends as well, it seems like. No. Our friends aren't gamers. We went to some little house party over there. Oh, no. That was a streamer party. Those were mainly content creator. So mainly most or, I mean, if you look at like 100 thieves,

like they started with like competitive teams and now they have a lot more content creators. Faze still stays pretty competitive. I'm trying to think of OTCA is an example of one org that has no actual gamers and just content creators. But orgs are moving more and more into wanting to branch out into the content space and sign people who do obviously stuff like, you guys are do a really good job at the Irish.

content but we were signed as creators because orgs can sign competitive gamers and creators was there like a community you were in before this like we had no one like who are your friends now just the two of us we can make it if we try i mean we had like chess community that's kind of it i i grew up on the chess community and i started twitch just in the chess community so it's like all of the other chess streamers. And then eventually we started kind of collaborating with just more people who do variety and things like that or people who wanted to learn chess. So that was mostly what we did.

I mean, I saw Andrea Rep. Optic, the green wall hoodie at the top of a mountain today. That's true. This is our new family. You're never getting rid of us. We're here now. No, trust. We need you guys. We definitely do.

Please fucking stay here with us. Yep. Well, you know, I didn't expect episode 105 to be a deep analysis of the metagame of chess. I didn't want to, man. I'm sorry. I had a great time. I could literally sit here and talk to you guys and learn about your bachelor's. Just one thing I want to talk a little bit more about. Sure. So like what happened when you were in those trees in the snow? No, please. I'll tell you. I have to piss so bad, but I'm trying to play it cool.

An eight year old. I could go for a little bit more. Rode by him in a pink suit. It was a girl. You're lying. Lasting Taylor Swift. Oh my God. No. Wait, you're lying.

Make his head on the trees. No. Wait, you didn't mention the kid. Now everything makes sense. Why you're so pissed? Yeah. Let me make.

Let's talk about it. And then we got a rat. I got a piss. Or I could piss. We can go about whatever. Anyways. Uh, all right.

So we do the bunny or the shit slope. The noob slope. The nubes slope. Oh my God. I was kidding. We don't want to actually hear about it. We do the shit slope. We do the bunny slope.

Then it's onto the real slope. I do the real slope. I do the real slope. I go down. I'm wrapping this up quick. I do the real slope. I'm going down. I'm going at least 100 miles per hour.

At least in my head. That's the speed I'm going. Long story short, I'm trying to stop, whatever, doing my left toes up. I stop. And I just keep going to the left. In the woods is on the left. But I just can't go right.

I just keep going to the left. Stop. Go again. Some other trail is meeting me in the middle here. I think we're even close. I'm passed out or I do a somersault. I'm in the middle of both the lanes of like some other slope in us. Get up.

Somehow I make it to the forest again. Passed out in the woods. I get up. Then I go, go a little bit further. I wreck again. Somersault backflip. My tailbone hurts. This has to be told because this is very important.

This is very important because you have to know the story before this happened. We do. We heard it all day. I wrecked about 10 times. So I'm in the middle of the slope. And I'm just laying there like, 20 seconds. Holding my back, my tailbone hurts, my wrist hurts from calling myself or from catching myself.

I see like four people coming past. Like some older man, he comes past me. Some mom or something comes past me. Some like teenager comes past me. And then I see this little thing coming down in a pink outfit on skis. and then I start hearing music. Keep in mind I'm just laying out, just laying out in the middle of the,

in the middle of the slope. This little girl, probably eight years old, just comes skiing down right past me. Playing, she has some JBL or some speaker hooked to the side of her pants. It's like I just slowly hear like Taylor Swift that's just coming past me. And at this point I'm like pissed off. I'm like, what the fuck?

How can I do this? Then I just see this eight year old and this pink outfit coming past me. just skiing right past me with her family. She's wearing a pink outfit. She has Taylor Swift playing from her hip. And she just goes past me, and I'm just laying there, just sprawled out. I don't know what to do.

I'm contemplating whether to get the snowmobile to come get me. So many great memories. And that's how I ended mine. From the Optic Retreat, man. We have had such a great time out here in Breckenridge, Colorado. Thank you guys so much for tuning in

episode 105 of the Optic Podcast. If you made it. There's at least four, at least four. Four of you guys, thank you so much for listening to all of this. All four of you mean everything. Alex Andrea, thank you guys so much, Nick. Thank you, of course.

Thank you guys so much for watching the Optic Podcast. We will see you in the next one. Happy holidays.