The Flycast - Is The OpTic Dynasty Back? | The Flycast Ep. 91

Episode Date: October 3, 2023

CENTR - Use Code OPTIC25 for 25% off first order Link: https://optic.link/CENTR Flycast Podcast presented by CordaRoy's https://cordaroys.com/products/optic-... Load the OpTic APP now here! https://OpTic.link/OpTicNation Rate the App 5-Stars! Check out the OpTic Podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/optic-podcast/id1542810047 https://open.spotify.com/show/25iPKftrl0akOZKqS0wHQG MB01VRXLRVBBYYQ Is The OpTic Dynasty Back? | The Flycast Ep. 91

Welcome back to another episode of the Flycast. Yeah, welcome back. Hopefully those in the office with us will be respectful and quiet while we do this. Because like this is what makes the office go round, not what they do. No Flycast. No Flycast. No production team is what I've always said. Yeah, no Flycast, no production team, no Flycast.

I don't even know if this office would exist without the Flycast. Would we even have a Call of Duty team? I don't think so. I mean, it's kind of like the back. Backbone of what we do. Well, this brings me back to what we tried to do. Me and Optic Jay had a few chats. And we tried to drop the COD team.

And it was just, I don't know, it was, it was something we tried to do. We didn't know how it would work. But I always thought that would have been a very good idea for Optic. Why didn't Jay five years later catch a stray out of nowhere? I have no idea how I was thinking about this. I think I was in like the shower or something. And like these were my thoughts. You're just thinking of J.

Yeah. And the shower thinking about the J. This is the only place to think about them. How insane is it that they were actually talking about dropping the cod team? Were you on the top of like. Is that where this is coming from? No. Oh, they talked.

They literally talked about this on the podcast the other day. Really? Yeah. Are you all doing fly-throughs right now? that's so funny but yeah I don't know why I was thinking about it but I was thinking like how

because I'm like my mind like I think like a business you know yeah and I'm like when infinite got control of optic you know what was going through their heads and it was like not instantly but very quickly that they make it known like they were going to do their they were going to do it their they were going to do it their way and just the fact that

didn't they have a talk with you about like firing you or something yeah like no they fired aaron that's fucking insane that's how it all started like that is absolutely i can't dude fucking insane like they thought like but what what do they think that they were just like because they have to know and jay has to know we're all we were all really close and like if something would happen to one person, we all would have been like... I really don't know. I just don't know.

I don't know how I was thinking about it, but I was thinking about that for some reason. And it was funny because I remember having a combo with Jay. And Jay was like, the thing with Jay is like he was so close to getting it, but he was so scared of authority. I think that was the thing with him. It's like, like, nowadays, if like, say we had like a CEO or somebody here that, like didn't

really understand Optic we would try to help them understand it but if they asked us to do something that wasn't going to work we would tell them it wouldn't work that Roger's really good about doing that and like hey we got to do this this is what our next thing is going to be

we did a partnership with this they want us to do this and we're like no that's not going to work our fan base wouldn't like it and it would be bad for the brand that we're going to work for but Jay would just say yes to everything because he'd be so scared about getting fired. That's what it seemed like to me. So like if the CEO of Infinite was just like, well, we have to do this,

Jay would immediately choose his side, even though he had been with us for a couple years. And it wasn't like, it always wasn't a, it never, it was not always a bad idea. Like a couple times he would come to me and say, I'm surprised like you are so against this because we would say something like, or they would try to do something with the creators or against the creators if you guys. if you guys don't upload this many videos you guys get fined or if you guys don't something like that something like that

and he would be like well I'm surprised like you're so against this because you know at the time that I would kind of complain about how the creators weren't uploading and I'd be like well that's the thing is like if I'm saying like damn these guys haven't uploaded in a while so it's hurting our content that is just me being like I wish they would upload more

or like I wish we would do what we used to do This would obviously help. This would obviously help Optic. It's not like we should punish them for not. Like that's just, it's, it's so close to getting it, but not getting it was, it was just, you don't want to create a toxic work environment because the only reason that Optic is where it is today is because of our chemistry as like a unit. Yeah.

Not, you don't want to get in and like fire Aaron because now you're the bad guy immediately. And nothing is going to go smooth for you anymore. No, nothing. and it was just like once they did that and it was just so much turmoil and then they were like well we just have to take the optic brand and completely start over so let's get rid of the cod team and i feel like they would they would have been almost like willing to lose us as well like optic has always been like that was what they wanted it wasn't like a you don't get rid of set and formal and crimsix and damon that was the team they were going to drop that team, the inner circle, the team we just did the inner circle with, they were going to drop that team. It's like, you don't drop that team without, without it meaning something more. Like, they wanted us all gone. There's, because they knew if they dropped that team, heck's gone, we're gone. It's just like how would they think that would work, though? Like, no one's going

ever support Optic. Like, that's not how it works. Like, you're not the fucking Chicago Bulls. It's not. It's not. And can just like start. They did not understand that. It's obvious they didn't understand it because that happened and then another brand still did it. Immortals still did it. We told Infinite for years it wouldn't work and then we and then the Immortals purchase happened. We told the Immortals guy it wouldn't work because remember, do you remember going to the cot team? No, like starting optic from the ground up. Oh, yeah.

Or starting, taking the logo and not any of the people and thinking it would be successful. Yeah. Do you remember going to the, to the, it was like an olive garden or something with the Immortals guy? Did I go? I'm pretty sure you were there. We were all there. It was like, I don't remember. It was all of us there except for Hex.

It was really weird. I don't remember. Wait, Raj, were you at that? It was like the meeting with the Immortals guy and we were all at, we were at like a, yeah, we were like an olive garden or something. We went to, we went to Twin Peaks. there? Was Nick there? Yeah. My life's a blur. It was like Nick. It was like us,

Hi Poc, Zob, Big Timer, uh, uh, uh, bo's, like everybody. Okay. And the guy kept asking me like, well, I'm really excited about this. I'm excited

about Optic and I, and I, I can't wait to see what you guys do. Would you guys be willing to move to L.A.? like, all this stuff. And I was like, well, I kept saying, well, it depends. Like, have you talked to Hector? Because like, if Hector's down for whatever, we'll do with whatever you want to do,

you know, as long as you and Hector are on the same page. And like, because this is his vision. And he kept dancing around the Hector question. He was like, well, I haven't really had a chance to talk to him and really break everything down. No, talk to me, Raj. What is it? Rodg keeps... Oh, yeah.

Raj said he kept saying Hector and I are fine. He kept saying Hector and I are fine, but we haven't worked out the details. And so I kept saying to him, well, y'all need to work out the details before we have this meeting. And then I kept saying, does Hector know about this meeting? Was Hector invited to this? Like, he should be here. And it was just, it was so awkward because you could tell.

We had just gone through all the infinite stuff. So my patience is gone, completely gone. So I was just to letting him know, like, hey, basically, if you tried to do this without us, it's not going to work. And that's not like a cocky thing. I wasn't being arrogant. It's just like. I mean, that's just what the name is.

It is. you think of the Kotteam and then you think of the creators. Look what's happening with Faze. It's the same shit. Like the people that build these orgs, that's... Still feel like, I mean, is it... Because when I look at Faze, I still feel like I'm like, they're doing pretty good. But I'm looking at like, swag.

And I'm looking at like... You're looking at individual creators. I'm looking at maybe individual creators and like the persona they put on maybe. To where I'm like, they're still killing it. but really maybe internally they're completely falling apart the brand itself is not doing good not doing good at all yeah okay

well the creators are probably doing good they're probably all still millionaires and crushing but the brand itself is not in a good spot yeah I'm just surprised someone which is really it's really sad I wonder how it really went though if it was like because Optic and Fays are like yin and yang like yeah literally

the balance like we need that shit we were the guys that are a little bit too chill and like to chill and borderline family friendly not family but not family friendly but like PG 13

for a little while you wouldn't catch us smoking cigarettes we never talked about weed we got drunk every once in a while but like then you had phase and they were frat boys basically like pranks and pranks

and and flight and shit on fire. It was like you need that. I just don't, I think it got to a point they didn't even want to do that. Or they didn't want to, they saw so much success individually. They're like, dude, I don't need to like be hang. They started realizing their clout gets girls and parties and money and drugs in a crazy life. And I'm sure they've experienced.

They've all. I mean, I don't want to say all, but I'm sure some like some crazy shit has happened. in some of their lives. Like just with all the success they found so early, so young, it's like how long are you really going to like stick together in this one house and keep pumping out content together? How often are you going to do pranks or like skits? You don't need to.

I think once you get successful, you're like, I'm going to do what the fuck I want to do. See, I don't know. Yeah, I agree with you. And then you just love this shit and you just want to stick around. I mean, I will always use a sideman as the example. They're all individually, all seven of them are destroying what anyone over here is doing. Yeah.

And they all still get together and make videos. Now, granted, they're all getting paid very well to do it. And I think at one point, a lot of people got pissed because Ethan said, well, we're kind of more coworkers now than we are friends. And it's like, they're like, oh, my God, they're not even friends anymore. Like, I mean, I get it. But I completely understand that. I think there was a. we hang out every now and then like people I know like the production team hangs out a lot

that's because like it'll be it'll turn with us it kind of turns into like we only see each other when we come here to do videos yeah but that doesn't mean we're not friends it just means there's not there's not a lot of time in the day and we all live I think the thing is we all lived we all live different places yeah that's where the that's where the disconnect is because when the sidemen all live together you see them eat together Where did sidemen cut? Are they, were they all just born, not born, but did they all just start out YouTubeing? Start out doing YouTube and started out making videos together.

I think that's just like the core, at its core, our issue with Optic is that our creators didn't start as creators. And it's not, bro, that is always our issue. That is not our, that's just not us at heart. and not that we haven't made really good videos, not that some of us have been consistent at times, or we just, we were always just like pro players or...

I mean, if you break it down, the creators in Optic? Me, Bose. No, no, no, the creators. That only, all they've ever done is create. It's like, Pam now, myself and Hector. that's like I mean as far as like

Am you and Hex and the Boathe's sisters but they're all the way in L.A. Yeah. So it's like Am I missing someone, Raj? I don't know if I'm missing

he's being a nerd But I mean even since the beginning even since before the Boataz and Pam left it was like everyone that's like Big Chimer, Flamesword, Bose,

me I was the odd man out for sure. And I joined to make a documentary about you guys. We all, we all were like, all right, I guess we'll like figure this content shit out. Yeah. But like people that are just like the sidemen, they're so big. And it's just like I feel like they really know what they're doing. They're super comfortable with it.

Yeah. They know their audience. And I feel like, I don't know. Us is just like ex pro players. We're just like, we'll kind of make the content work because we're ex pro. players. So like here's some gameplay. Or like, oh, the ex pro player does a Q&A. X pro player. So it's like

interest. To us it was like, they're only interested because we're a pro player. And it's like, how do pro players think? And we just never just never really got into that creative side. And I don't know, like, there's things I want to do.

But I mean, I would have to look at like the sideman channel or something and see what kind of videos they even make. There's certain things I want to do. do like especially in the future with like fitness and stuff and I'm prepping for a marathon and I would like to make some kind of like documentary and shit about that but as far as just like pumping out a video every three days it's just like I don't even know what I would fucking do my brain just like doesn't my brain doesn't work like that sometimes I'm just like do I how many times have I even said this like do I want to be on camera and it's just like it feels

I've been doing this for eight years and it's still fucking weird for me to like sit in front of a camera or like someone pulls a vlog camera out it's just like I don't know natural there's a reason why I naturally went into pro gaming and not

content creation but I think maybe there could be a point where not only do we like pick up some big content creators or something and start maybe it motivates us to dabble into that fucking world

The thing with picking up content creators for Optic is that people want us to pick up the biggest of the biggest. But, like, they want us to pick up fucking Doc. Tim. It's Timese. It has to be, bro, I don't feel like, it has to be like, whoever we pick up.

Content creators that live in Dallas. That's what I'm saying. Whoever we pick up has to live in Dallas. And if they don't live in Dallas, they got to move to Dallas. That's just how it is. Yeah. And so you're not going to pick up fucking ninja. Like, hey, ninja, I know you're enjoying your life in Florida, living there.

But like, if you're going to join Optic, you've got to move to Dallas. He's like, all right. Yeah, I'll definitely move to Dallas for a while. Like, the same thing that's happened in Eastport salaries is happening in content creator salaries. I know concert creators that are getting paid fucking 25 racks, 20 racks a month. to live on the other side of the country and not be in any videos. And that's, I mean, that's fucking crazy.

Like, Mr. B said it himself, if you have the product, the product is the most important. And you can't expand until, you can't expand. You can't expand if it, if it is at cost of the product. So his thing is I make the best YouTube videos. I will always make the best YouTube videos. I can do this other shit as long as it doesn't affect the fact that I make the best YouTube videos. And like, that's kind of how, that's kind of how we're trying to, to be.

It's like, we're trying to make YouTube videos in Dallas with all of us together. And so we can't really stray away from that. You know, we have, we have a few exceptions right now, but we can't really do it anymore. Like, the exceptions we have are like unique scenarios where it's like the Boat's sisters, we merge with envy. they were within me. We really liked them. And then like Blake and George,

that's a little unique as well. But, like, other than that, like, if we're getting people, they're going to be in Dallas. So what's, so, like, who would you pick up? Who would you pick up? I just don't,

I think it would be someone I don't know. Yeah. Like, just is excited to do it. It has to be a YouTuber. But also has, like, some kind of following. Dude, it has to be. Like some young, like, clicks before he fucking blew the fuck up

and became. clicks or something like that. I love streamers and I love that we're all streaming, but nobody does YouTube. Yeah. Like we need a fucking YouTuber. But YouTube's tough. Yeah. I don't know what the fuck I would

what I would even make. Like a day in the life. Like there's gotta be something. I mean, I think like, do you want to make Evergreen shit? The thing is like, do you want to make shit that people can all, that is Evergreen that they can live on YouTube and consistently get views all the time.

Like our kind of like in TST our React videos they're pretty evergreen. Like we are nubs and we're reacting to Apex videos and so people are always going to want to watch that and it's not like time consistent.

But like when Casey Nistadt was killing it like if you watch the vlog you're not going to rewatch it. You know what I mean? Or like nobody, I mean very few people are probably starting Casey Nistat's vlog series from episode one nowadays. what I need to get out of my head, I think, is that I look at my channel, like, I kind of look at my channel, like, every video I've ever uploaded to my channel is, like, pretty solid.

Like, there's no, the worst will be, like, game battles, 4V4 clutch win with Bose scump and, like, that'll be the worst. But, like, other than that, like, I feel like everything's pretty fucking quality. And I need to, like, be willing to just do, like, I'm going to. do a React video for two weeks straight every single day and just like put it up on my channel or something like that. Like react to fucking, I told you the one thing and I still want to

do it, don't take my idea, but reacting to everyone in optics's first video ever that they made. And like that would that would be I think pretty good. Yeah, for sure. But it's just like do I, then I'm going to start doing that. Then what if I do that? However members there are,

say that takes up two weeks of like daily uploads or something. Then, like, what if the views are bad? And I'm just, like, thinking about shit like that. I'm like, dude, if I, I can't be fucking thinking like that. Like, I think it genuinely would just be a good idea. Like, the video would be good. Just to do it.

Yeah. I need to stop thinking, like, it, like, clutters, would, like, clutter my videos or... Yeah. Because all my other videos, I, like, sort of took pride in. I mean, there's nothing crazy, but it's like, I would genuinely, like, try to make them funny and blah, blah, blah. And now this would just, like, me be really. reacting and it would almost be like setting a new just like starting something new on my on my youtube channel which is like i don't know a little scary i guess it's fucking scary but also it's like

no one gives a fuck i'm about to start a whole new channel no one gives a fuck about my fucking youtube channel so like why would i fucking care because you care but then i don't know than everyone else yeah i i care about like i click on i'll see like 3k views for a react and i'm like Dude, I fucking knew it. I shouldn't have done this. But if I think it's a good idea, it should just do it, and it is a good idea.

So maybe you guys will see that series. I'm nervous. I'm nervous about this around the bar thing because I filmed four episodes. Fifth episode is filming this Saturday. And then it's... You want to say with who? Then I start up...

Well, Hector is this Saturday. That's the only one... That's the only, like, endemic person I've done. Like, as far as, like, the optic fan base is concerned. What the fuck? could you talk to Hector about? We'll figure it out. I mean, you can talk about anything.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just wondering, because you've talked to him so much. I bet I'm phone. I'm picking out your brain and wondering if you're, like, thinking, like, okay, they hear us talk so much together. What is something they would not hear about? I think I'm going to talk about. Or no. I'm going to talk about a lot of his, like, CEO, like, uh, responsibilities and,

and like the difference between being owner and not CEO and owner and CEO. Because when we first merged, we had a CEO. Then, you know, that CEO went somewhere else and now Hector's CEO. And so like what's the difference there? What's like talking to the board? How do you like is ever nerve wracking even though you're the owner of Optic to like a bunch of like probably business stuff, especially in the heat of like what's been going on in e-sports right now? but you say you're nervous about it I'm nervous about the channel not about the are you making a new

channel whole new channel yeah the entire new channel and I thought about it a lot is because if I depending on how this vegan video goes on my personal channel like I don't want I want I think I'm really passionate about around the bar so like I know I'm not going to hold I'm not going to ease up on it but like if the vegan video doesn't do well I don't want the hitcheride video the hitcheride channel to just be around the bar. Like I just want around the bar to be around the bar, you know? So but and I'm also nervous because I think I'm the first, I'm the first person in Optic to do a podcast not like in,

it's talking about Call of Duty or like Halo or with Optic people. Yeah. Like the first episode's Mango and it's like, I hope. It's not on my channel. So luckily like hopefully it, it hits like their fan bases, you know? Like the Mango episode and then the Mike P episode and the Mystic episode, like those are all different fan,

very different fan bases, but like, you know, I watch a lot of hot ones. Makes you scared like, God, is anyone that fucks with me gonna even wanna? Right. But, but I mean, you know, they're biased, but having Matt there and having, like, Austin Cox there, like making the drinks, like, they don't, they didn't know who Mango, was, they didn't know who Mystic was and they were like, dude, that

well, Matt said the Mystic episode is like one of the most entertaining ones. He's like, a podcast he's been a part of. So, Matt's also, Matt also loves YouTube and Mystic is like obsessed with YouTube. Like, we were talking about YouTube the whole time. So, I don't know. I'm excited about it. I'm excited to tackle

it like social media wise. Like, I've got a shorts editor and clips editor and yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh shit. it'll go well maybe like I know there's um

I don't know if it probably doesn't work the same for YouTube but I know TikTok if you make a brand new account and put up like a few videos it like pushes it out but like the your F4U page I don't know if YouTube is like that I'm glad you said that I should put out instead of putting out like the page and Roger ones

that I've already edited I should put out the mango ones first then and then do the page and Roger ones after more like TikTok yeah on TikTok you're gonna do TikTok and you're gonna do TikTok YouTube Reels. Everything. YouTube shorts and then YouTube shorts and the episodes are going to be on the same channel. Then I've got a clips channel where like it's long form clips.

And then I'm going to put the TikToks on TikTok and then the Instagram reels on my personal Instagram. So. Yeah. I'm fucking nervous. The shout off center. They're sponsoring it. No, you're killing it. And you're going to be killing it.

I hope so. Like it makes me, I feel, I like just started streaming again like three weeks ago and that just hearing all that makes me be like just like God, I need to fuck. I mean like you said, I've, like you said, I've stopped, I've completely stopped running. Like I don't have, I have, but that's just that I haven't had time to. So like, it's not I have, I have proven nothing yet with around the bar. In fact, I am nothing but like $7,500 in debt right now. So hopefully we can even that up. Yeah, I've been on a, well, speaking of you killing it,

you threw an insane off-season TST event, a rock and roll punk themed. And did it turn out to as good as you hoped? Yeah, I mean, yeah, there's a lot of things to, so last year we did it and it was just kind of a crazy idea. and like it was fun but it was nerve wracking because like not a lot of people went and it was like not a lot of people not a lot of people really understood what it was it was like okay so there's an invitational for cod but there's also a melee open but there's also like this that and the other that's happening like why are we opening Pokemon cards here and then there's a blockups two map after this and then after that there's like people are playing soccer like it's just like a weird it's a weird idea so like people people didn't know what it was, but people understood what it was, you know, after, after watching it. So we announced it this year and I was really excited about the announcement.

We did a whole photo shooting or video shooting stuff. And then the ticket sales went online and the ticket sales did not start well. It was like the ticket sales went online. VIP sold out immediately, which VIP was like 70 tickets. So VIP sold out immediately and then like nine tickets sold. So 79 people And we were getting like one ticket sale a day for like three weeks So like one

And I was like oh my God no one's coming again Like Did no one come last year? Like are you just talking like the crowd and people hanging out? Yeah so the crowd So in melee We had a hundred and it was like a hundred and twenty entrance in melee Which is like not bad

But like majors get like 900 entrance and it's way less money. They're playing for like $7,000 in majors, and mine was like $25,000, or they're playing for $10,000 for first. So I couldn't like understand it, but apparently a bunch of people in melee have been burned a lot of times.

Like people, brand new person comes in and they're like, here's a lot of money, and then they don't pay out. So like everyone's kind of hesitant. So I was like, maybe if I just prove myself this time, don't come next year. Then, so then not a lot of people

were signed up for melee either, It was like, I don't know, like 40 entrants or something like that. So I was like, oh my God. And that was like two months out. So I remember I made the decision at that time. If you've been following me on Twitter the last two months, I am sorry. I apologize. Because I made the decision at that moment, like there's no shame in my game right now.

Every other tweet's going to be about the offseason. And I, you know, I'm done with that. So you got me for 11 more. months. I think it worked though. I must have. So, so we, we had, uh, we ordered the passes, the, the general admission passes. And we ordered the merch when it was two months out.

So we ordered it for at most 250 people, 300 people that were going to be in the venue. Because like, that would be double of what it was last year. Yeah. And then over the, over the two weeks leading up to the event, the, the, the, it, it, It just... Yeah, I ain't buying shit till the last minute. Dude, it turned a crazy... We sold out of general admission passes.

All 400 passes. We had a space to get them in the venue. We just didn't have the passes. So, like, we just didn't order enough passes, and we didn't order enough merch. The merch was gone. And I asked our merch... Really?

I asked our merch guy, like, hey, can I get a... Like a beanie? He was like, dude, you're asking for so much stuff. And I was like... He was like, we order... ordered this like when there were only 60 tickets sold. So we ordered probably a fifth of what we should have ordered, a fourth of what we should have ordered.

So that was gone immediately. Like just online, right? Yeah. Are you talking at the venue? At the venue. So they ordered it for, they ordered it for sale at the venue. So there was just, I mean, I don't know if we're going to reprint it or anything, but, but I mean, it was a massive, I think, I think I said this in the flycast last year,

the offseason last year, even with all the sponsors. ships and everything. I think we ended up going negative like seven grand or something like that, which is not horrible. Obviously, you want to make money. This year was positive, but a lot.

I found out the number yesterday, and I would be transparent if I could be, but it's a good amount. And which I'm happy for because I feel like I was very, That was the last thing that really surprised me. And I was very, very excited about that because hopefully that means we can do it again next year. Like, hopefully it's a resounding yes that we can do it again next year. Because not only do we raise money for charity, all the players got paid.

Like the top 16 for melee and they don't have a lot of money in their scene. They all got paid a lot of money. Like, especially if you get first place, that's 10 grand, which is like unheard of in melee. And then all the cod players got paid. and then what was first for Cod I think it was like 3,700 a player

or something like that maybe it's just 3,000 something like that and then last place last place if you just show up to the event you got like I think it was like 300 bucks

or 350 bucks maybe it's 500 bucks it might even be 500 500 500 yeah my man Bose does five did kill it come in

did kill it come in last oh he did he didn't come in last Yeah, so he gets $500. So, yeah, and so the players get paid. The spectators have a pretty good time because there was a lot of shit going on this year. The guitar here was there. The Smash 64 was there.

We had some fun events. But then also, like, we raised a shit ton of money for charity and the company makes money. So it's literally a win for everyone. That's a fucking dub. There's a dub for everyone. And so I was very, very, very excited about that. I'm glad that people are starting.

I think after this year, people really understand what all season is. It's a bunch of shit happening at one time. And you raised... Dude, like 215K or something like that. It's fucking insane. Crazy. I saw you on... Were you feeling like emotional about it?

Yeah. What? Yeah. Of course. I assume so, but I saw that. I was like, oh my God. hitch my cry. That's like, cry.

Cry. Everybody. They put my mom and Alexis beside me because they thought I was going to cry. So like they made sure they were beside me. If my mom wasn't in a Mohawk, I might have cried. But I can't be crying with my mom and a Mohawk

beside me. I walked in. Yeah, right? Just throw shit off. I walked in and like, okay, so people, I'm maniac. Why didn't you go to the event?

I pull up to the event. My burio card's at like nine. I probably got there like 730. and I'm like chilling in the back with some of the pro players and stuff like Zinny was back there, Hilton was back there, some of our production. And I already like didn't feel...

The day before I didn't really feel well, but I was like, oh, whatever. Like, I probably ate like shit and like I just don't... And then that day, I streamed and during my stream, I felt like, I was like, dude, I could almost like have a fever right now. Like, I just don't feel good. I mean, like, the rage doesn't help.

But as in like the staring at a monitor wasn't helping. But like I felt okay. But towards the end, I was like, I kind of got a, like, I feel like I'm getting a fever. Like, I'm going to just get off. So I got off, went home, took a nap, woke up from my nap feeling terrible, which is what happens anyway. Anytime I've ever taken a nap, I never wake up like, oh, I'm ready to go now. Like I woke up from my nap, felt terrible. And I text page and I was like, hey, I might not show up.

Like, I feel, I just feel really. really bad. I don't know what it is. I told her, I think, like, it's almost that feeling you get, because I had COVID twice. And I know that feeling of like, I think I might have COVID. It's a, it is a different feeling from being regularly sick. It's like a different type of, yeah. It's not like you're like snoddy and shit. It's like an airy. It's like a head, head cold type thing. Yeah. And I just felt like that. And I was like, I might not show up. Like, we have a COVID test here. And I might take one. But like, I just feel off. But I really do want to come like hitch doing this thing like especially what it stands for like and me being

the face of mental health I was like this is my time to shine yeah it's my time to chug a beer yeah I have to show up to this event plus I and it's not like I have to do anything fucking crazy I just go play drink beer play Mario card yeah but I was but I was like God there's no I should drink though and um text page I was like hey I'm gonna come but I yeah I I don't feel good, but yeah, I'm still going to come. So I get there, I'm hanging out in the back. And then I'm talking to some people. They say something.

I was like, yeah, I don't, I just, I don't really feel good. I think it was the, uh, the hyper dude from the UK. What's his fucking name? Warren? Yeah. He came up to me and he was like talking all like this. They're like, what are you hung over? And I was like, I was like, no, and I'm fucking hungover.

I just like, I just don't feel good. Like I was, so they could just kind of tell. that's so funny and then I'm talking to like James and he's saying that J.P. is super sick and then Joey just got just got tested positive for COVID. I was like dude right when I heard that I was like fuck dude I fucking I was like I guarantee not guarantee but I was like I might have COVID. I was like this is like not I should not be here and Zinni is like dude why are you here if you're sick just like calling me out I'm like dude do I like should I fucking leave like I'm down to do this but I genuinely don't feel good and this literally could be the start of COVID like

this could be the night where it's like okay but then I like drink some beers go home wake up and then I'm like oh my God I'm sick and I did not want that to happen yeah so I made the executive decision I was just like I'm just gonna go like I can't walk around here thinking like I might have COVID especially because fans are gonna try to meet you and all that yeah and it's I'm gonna be meeting fans like yeah Holly even said, Holly texted me was like, you were sick? Who were you around? And I was just like, I was the only person I was even near was like James.

Yeah. But she was like, yeah, because the baby. And I was like, I know. I know. I understand. Like, this is why I'd left. Like, just to make things easy. But so yeah, I wanted to, wanted to definitely be in the event.

But yeah, that is why I did not show up. I wish I would have. You did show up. You just left. Yes. I did show up. You showed up and then you came out to me and you said, Hitch, I might lead. I had my phone in my hand texting you.

Really? Like, that I was going to leave. And then I saw you. And I was like, yo, I think I'm going to leave. Like, I just do not feel well. You're good, man. You're good. But I am glad.

But you did set me up for fucking failure. Oh, you had to do it. I filled in for you. And I suck at chugging beers. They did a, they did a, they did a slow-mo? Aren't you in first by like a lot? By a lot. And then I came in last.

Shit would happen like, it looked hard. It's so hard to play. 64 is impossible, bro. that you're like hammered and shit but it looked like like dude you would just spin out and then you'd be on like just on a wall and you couldn't figure you would start driving backwards and and i'm i'm bad so i'm drinking the beer and i'm like can't get it down and then so i had to do this and swallow and when i do that for some reason in the other hand i swirl the beer and they made dude because blake and george

were on the couch and they love their favorite thing to do in the world is roast me and then slime and Nick, I don't know if you're familiar, but they're from the yard. And they, that's what they do too is they just roast each other. And then, so they just blast me. I go back on the couch and they, for, for, they were like, damn, why did you do like a wine-tasting swirl of your beer? And I was like, I couldn't get it down and I don't know why I swirled it. And then I come in last, I'm in first place. I haven't finished my beer yet.

I'm about to finish the race. So I have to stop. So I stop at the finish line to finish my beer. And as I'm finishing my beer, the rest of them pass me. And I coming forth. No way. Out of four. And it was horrid.

Was it only four people in the whole, and doing the whole thing? It was eight. So the top two from each race, move on and play finals. Who won the whole thing? Lucky. He's a melee player. Okay. What Pam get?

He make finals? Pam did not make finals. Damn. Man. Mario Kart was my fucking game, too. It was fun. I walked into the venue and I see girls with like the old school. punk look

their thong up to like oh my god yeah I forgot they were there yeah that is the first thing I saw when

when I fucking walked in that shit you know what theme we're going for next year I can tell the flycast for yours what is

90s hip hop yes that's what we're going for I wonder if the gaming scene will appreciate that though you know hex is

hecks will literally show up just because of that hex and omens are going to be hype as fuck yeah but yeah now that's cool Yeah, so I already have, I mean, thinking of ideas of side events and things to do in the venue.

Because what I want TSC to feel like is a convention, something where you can play something over here, you can watch something over here. If you get tired of watching here, you can watch something else over here. Like people were bouncing around watching Guitar Hero, Smash, Cod, then they would play, they would play ping pong, they would play, you know, there's a bunch of shit going on. Dude, it's crazy. That's what I like. It's just crazy to me. You put that together. Like, I know you have a team that, like, helps. Yeah, I mean, you just, you can't, I couldn't, you, it's, this is literally impossible to do without Corey and Atlas.

Like, it's, it's, it's still just fucking insane how, like, this thought you have in your brain literally comes to life in this venue. It's, it's insane. It's just really dope to see. Some, like, kind of, kind of, some stuff is happening behind the scenes where, like, some issues are coming up. And offseason might have been affected by it. It still might be, but. so I was kind of having brief conversations with some people here like on the corporate side

they said well if next year if something happens next year would you be willing to do it online and I was like you've given me a taste of throwing an event what could you even do though like we did a ton of online events before trying to do it in person and doing it in person is dude it's so much more where you make people

play like S&D with throwing knives and shit. No, just like throwback tournaments that were raised money. During COVID in 2020, we did a thing where we threw four different tournaments every Wednesday for a month. And at the end of the month, we ended up raising it was like, yes, I think, no, that was the year we raised 69-420. No, you got to keep these in person.

Yeah. But dude, in person is so, so rewarding. Like, seeing the people have fun playing the games. And it's lighthearted but still competitive. That's my favorite part is like, you know how like in Cod, I kind of make the pro players do something a little bit weird? They take a tequila shot before they play or they play on a map that used to be banned. Or it was banned, but it's not. But I unban it for a day.

I make the melee guys do the same thing. And they've been playing the same game for 20 years and nobody does that to them. Like they play hardcore, same maps, same characters. And then here I come. Like, hey. Do you think they're low-key talking shit? Like, God, this stupid fucking rule said, I know I wouldn't have lost this dog shit. You needed that money.

Yes. I think, I think for sure that. That for sure happens. Like, what was it? Just maps? Yeah, so there's two stages that are normally banned, that I own band, if we hit a certain milestone. And we hit the milestone on Saturday.

So I was like, oh, shit. So the top 64 of the tournament, it was unband. But I also made it made sure it's competitive. So I gave, I added two stages to the rule set and I gave the players two bands. So if they wanted to just ban the two, they could. But they ended up not doing it. And a lot of people played like the actual goofy stages and it was a lot of fun. And then you got the Cod Kids complaining about input delay.

Now, I wonder, I don't know if you heard. but I mean Bose dropped two gooses so it has to be input delay or something it has to be I didn't know that I didn't see

well that's what Zuma was saying I was like does it I forget how we started the combo but he was like yeah man there's fucking input delay

and I was like is it input like I'm sure it feels shitty but I'm like does it feel shitty because we're so spoiled

with how our games feel now or is it like something with how y'all have it set up the only reason there would be input delay is because

of the devices that we use on the 360s to let them use their PS4 controllers. Yeah, that probably does so. But we've tested it. It's a fighting game thing. So like, fighting game is way more frame based than FPSs are. And

it's supposed to be instantaneous if anything, it's half a millisecond. I think we forget how shitty it fell. I think people just forget how shit it all is. You would see it someone hit a no scope and you're like, oh. Right. Because it was like you just didn't see that because it's hard to fucking do.

Imagine, imagine, I've wanted in the off season, for one of, an off season eventually in life, I'm either going to throw a Halo 2 or a Halo 3 is going to be a part of it. I want to see. And Halo 3 is 30 FPS. Isn't it? I think so. 30 is crazy. Melee came out in 2001 and it's 60 frames. Really?

Melee 60 frames. Maybe it is 60 frames. one of them it might be halo two one of them's only 30 frames halo two probably because original halo two felt pretty bad and that's on the original Xbox isn't it yeah and you just don't think of it though until you touch it again but we are spoiled with how games feel and i'm like i kind of fucking hate it because like i remember in halo three like aiming was pretty hard and like you had to like lead your shots but i always felt like my shot was like one of the best. Like I always just had

like a really smooth shot and it was, shooting was never an issue in like any game I played but then like Halo like five comes around. I'm like dude, I can't aim but somehow like everyone else it was it was so hard to aim but there was like input delay

and I don't know it just felt like fucking shit and now in Halo Infinite it feels so much easier to aim see I want to say it's so easy to aim. See I want to say it's so easy to aim but then I keep thinking back to my game plan. I'm like, is it fucking easy to aim? But it's just back then playing on 30 fBS

and now everything's 240 FPS or... No, the guys, especially the guys that didn't play last year. It's way easier. Like the attaches and Zuma especially. Like, they just forget how shit it is. Like it's... I don't think it was an input delay thing

because the monitors we use are great and the... The little adapter that we use is really good. But, dude, I mean, Damon dropped up 49. Like, Seth had a 1.3 the whole weekend. They even drop 49 kills? Yeah, it was one away from a 50 bomb. You know that if anybody was going to complain about the delay,

Seth would be the first person to complain about it. But Seth played last year, so he remembers how shit. And Seth's also a freak, though. like he'll play good on he hopped on valerent and played with us and he was just like i haven't played in a year and then he hopped on and he's just

ding ding ding ding i'm just like dude and i pull up his stream and he's just he's just crack slouch forward trying so hard he's just a pure gamer like he when he gets in that game like he might not show it he might be reading chat but like he wants to be on the top of the leaderboard

when him and zinny are playing ex defiant just pubs like he's not trying to let zinny out kill him like sure it's just in his fucking blood to do good dude he's sitting back he's been sitting backstage and i'm i go back there to eat and he's got a football game on his phone and i'm eating and he goes he goes so like what's what's our finals happening because he's already in grand finals and i was like oh it's like you know at this time or whatever he was he was like oh so we're probably going to play it's like yeah you probably you guys are probably going to play pat's team he was like like, dude, they're taking this so serious.

And I was like, you're in finals with a 1.34 KD. You're taking it. I will admit, though. I saw them play. I think it was Zinny's team. And this was like after Zinney tweeted, this was the series Zinni tweeted like, holy stacked fucking teams for a charity event.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I watched that series. And Cess team like kind of, it seemed like they were having fun. Like they weren't, like they were. Oh, yeah, yeah. scump sniping and like they didn't seem like they were just like it seemed like they were treating it like a charity event and like for fun but you know at the back of fucking sass had he's not yeah he's trying to lose i mean all of them bro all of them are sitting there trying to win they're all they're all trying to win they're all those type of people that are trying to win that those are like my soft spots for events that i like to throw is i like to make them fun but not too goofy where it's not competitive where people are just like, oh, yeah, let's run around with throwing knives or whatnot.

Or in Smash, like, let's play pokey floats with items on and throw pokegoballs at the ground or get the hammer. Like, no, I don't want all that. Like, I want people to actually, they're playing for 25 racks. Like, but let's throw, let's throw a few variables at them and see, see who can adapt and how fun. Didn't Shotsie and Pred never play that game? Yeah, Shotsie didn't have that amazing of a time? tournament. Really?

Yeah, he went even. But how do you not go even when Damon's dropping 50 and Seth's like out of 1.3? And Pred, Predd played really well. But did Shotsie say he'd never played before? Yeah, he had never played that game. Dude. The last time he had played it was last.

I don't know if I believe him, bro. It's fucking Shotsie like. Yeah, true. He'll say some crazy shit. Because to go against Krim, Pat, who else was on the team? John and Clayster. John and Clayster. Crempat John and Clayster, that's a fucking Black Copts 2 squad.

That's like the dynasty team. That's like the complexity dynasty, but John instead of TEPI. Like to, I don't know. Teep's got to play next year. I just can't imagine playing against never playing that game and then playing against people who would have been winning tournaments in that game and like still doing well. And it's funny. Shotsie still had like movement and shit.

Oh, he was still doing his thing. Yeah, he was doing his thing. And then did Pred play before? He had to. Well, the thing is, is a lot of those maps are Cold War maps. So they knew all the spons and shit because they played them in Cold War. They played Express S&D. They played, you know,

Ray and Hardpoint. They played slums. Like all that, they're all in Cold War. So they were used to those. So I'm sure they did a lot better on those maps than the random ones. But yeah, it was, I mean, it was a massive success. You know, Pringles came through. They sponsored the Call of Duty event or the Call of Duty tournament.

And they also dropped a lot of money, a ton of money for charity. So shouts out Pringles, man. I mean, if you guys, like, we do, we got this podcast every week. If you, you know, we could always use some snacks. I need some snacks right now because I just ran a time I didn't think I would ever run. Ever? And then I haven't ate besides this smoothie. Bro, seven, let me check my pace.

This morning, I woke up 4.50 a.m. I'm like, do I go back to sleep or do I carry the logs? And I'm like, let me get the fuck up. Let me just get this runover with. Yeah. I did a half mile warm up. and then I did three miles at a 726 pace. When I tell you I was fucking trying,

like my note or not note, just my caption on my Strava app is fuck out of my face. In all caps. You know how much like dopamine was going through my brain for that to be my caption? Fuck out of my face. 720 pace, right? 726 pace.

That's crazy. Three mile run. That is crazy. only like usually I'm running 940 I think my typical mile like when I do like I have six miles on Sunday and I'm gonna my pace will probably be like 947 or something yeah so to just try as hard as I did today it really took a lot out of me and like I honestly don't even feel good like I wanted to go home go back to sleep but I was like fuck it let me just go to the office I'll stream for a little bit get some food do the flycasts and then I think I'm playing C S S S S S

with scump but i've been on my fucking i've been running five days a week um foam rolling stretching lifting weights on top of it my diet hasn't been the absolute best but like i don't know man i'm starting to like fall in love with running again because i looked at my notes in in august i ran twice and i think july maybe a just a few times too so and then not until the end of or like mid-september did i start running again i'm I'm on Monday. On Monday, I'm going to Arizona. I'm staying there for like a month.

I'll visit. I'll visit here like once for a few days. Let's let them know. You're disappearing. Hitch quit. Nope, didn't quit. Just going to Arizona. Hitch is going to Arizona for a month.

So you're going to see me. I don't know. We're going to pull something out of my ass, I guess. I'd like to see that. It could be one-on-one sit-downs. I'm going to have to figure out some guests. Could be just be regular one-on-ones like this, or I kind of want to try to find something fun to do or something.

Just substitute me in for Ace, or Ace in for me. And then you can have guests. Maybe I'll have, maybe I get Hex the co-host or something. And then have more guests or something. Yeah, but regardless, I think when I go to Arizona, I mean, I'm definitely going to start running again because I'll actually be finally settled. I get high every time I run now. Do you? Like it's like, I'm like

Run this high? It's I don't, it's not something I would say like everyone should do, but it's like there's something about it. Oh, I can't wait to get back. I really can't wait to get back. It feels like really good to like now be in the swing. This was just my last run of week three on my program. I'm running five days a week. And then next week I think we're going to keep the same mileage.

but prepping for a half marathon at the end of the year. And it like, I've said this before, man, like sometimes and you hear me talk about it, like with YouTube and creation and shit like that. And it's just like, I just don't know if that's in my heart or like, I don't know. What do I want to do? Where does my life go? Like, hear me talk about like that, shit like that. But just having something like a run or like buying some sort of running program or knowing someone

that's a runner and like them helping you out looking at my like schedule for the week of my runs just gives me like something to be proud of yeah for that scheduled run on sunday for six miles and i know i can just do it as slow as i want but once that six miles is complete and i even like gave a little more effort at the end like i just feel fucking good like it even if the rest of even if i'm arguing with my girl even if heck sent me a text, pissed me off, even if fucking I'm stuck with content creation or streams going

bad, it's like I still got that fucking run him no matter what happened today. It was, I still got a W for the day. And it's just, I'm telling you, it's a cheat code. Try it out. We've set it time and time again. I had someone on my stream tell me literally this morning that he's been running because

of me and Hitch and the Flycast. So, yeah, I just appreciate all the feedback I hear and this isn't just a platform for us to just talk about trans people not being in Halo tournaments and like random stuff like that. Like we really, I think we know some things sometimes

and we want others to feel inspired listening to this sometimes. At least that's my goal with some of my content. is I don't know just slowly figuring this life shit out and I do appreciate the feedback that I hear

and I hope you guys do get something out of it because I'm back on my shit and I've been eating healthier and it feels good and it feels good speaking of eating healthier I have to go eat

I need to go eat because I have to go get all the couches from ESA so I got to go what are you going to go eat vegan Chippole Okay

Again All right For the ninth time this week All right Sorry I'm leaving you for a few episodes Flycast viewers But you'll be back in a month But I mean whenever I come back and visit

We'll probably shoot a flycast then So it's really only two weeks for you guys And then you get to see a little bit of us Also we hit a milestone During the offseason That a flycast sexy calendar Is going to be coming to a We got to figure this.

I need to know what's... A doorstep near you. A lot of whipped cream. Because this is going to be people's profile pics. A lot of melted butter. We'll see. We'll have Nick pop out of a birthday cake. Something.

Thank you all for watching. We'll see you the next one. It'll be back in a month. Matt Craig, play that outro music.