Welcome back to the three hamster voice podcast. I'm one of your hosts Nick. Joining me as always is my brother Alexander and our father How
awesome is that entry?
We are switching it He's cooking me immediately. We are switching it up today for many points. I'm very excited to be running the show for just a second because this episode is going to be a more focused on Alexander. So we thought we'd switch the sort of emcee and director of this moment.
I learned about this two seconds ago.
Well, it makes it a little bit difficult. So Alexander, what do you think? Well, I think
I'm not gonna be here. I could conduct an interview by myself, but I didn't think it would go down like that.
So anyway, so yeah. So we we we talked about this. I had done my Navy one where I talked about like me starting off my adult life and adult career and we were talking to talking to them about what they've done so far to start off their adult life or adult career and how it's a little bit different. Yeah. Well, how it's a little bit different.
Each of one of us has taken a different path and so we thought it'd be interesting to kind of talk about how we did stuff. Now, they're in the very beginning, and I'm at the sunset. Well, woah.
We're sort of going to be operating it like the submarine episode, where it's gonna be a more inquisitive and like focused on one person. These next two videos in this sort of vein will be about Alexander and my school and sort of what we got out of that. And then the end of that episode won't be like, well then I got out and retired of it, you know.
Then I did forty years of work afterwards.
Yeah. It's sort of like, what's next? What do we hope to accomplish? Sort of like aspirations because that's that's how school is, you know. It's it's one stepping stone out of like a 100. And we just wanna sort of highlight and talk about that, because I think we did have Both of us had a very unusual, like atypical schooling compared to other people. And I think we both had very interesting experiences and
Yeah. I mean, I think I think there's two things. Number one, it's not the typical 18 years old go to college and then do four years. And the other thing other reason why it's atypical is because in the middle of all this is COVID.
That's true.
Because you
were going to school during COVID, which I think taints, changes, warps your perception of how things go and makes things a lot more complex.
Yes. I agree. And, We both also started school at different points of COVID as
well. Yes. That's
true. We'll we'll touch on that probably. That'll be in the middle. But, before we get right into the the thick of it, I will not be
I get to play Nick. Oh. Well, how I look at this Oh
my goodness. Is that how you view your side?
He's got this deep voice that's wonderful to listen to. Wow. Anyway, so we got for because this is a Alexander episode he loves cider.
Apples. Likes apples. But
he likes cider so we got cider and we got it from a local cidery called Coyote Holt and they actually have beers also there.
Have a huge variety.
Yeah. It was we went to the we went to the tasting and tasted 20 of them.
Like 20? They sent me pictures.
They had like a bingo card worth of ciders. Yeah.
And and we did not taste the three that we're tasting today. So the first one we're gonna start off with is we tried two other ones that were like this. This is the sangria. Supposed to be fruity, supposed to be kind of
Sangria like?
Sangria like, red wine like, but we'll see how it goes. The the the amazing thing about the 20 that we did taste was that each one of them was unique and distinct in their own way. Mhmm. Now there were some groupings together like that the adventure series that had some similar taste profiles, but really it was a wide variety. So, we we decided to get three ciders that have really different taste profiles.
And, I will say on top of it, this is unnatural because out of the 20, they were all basically the same color. They were all like a dull green. There were some exceptions, but we actually got lucky. I was hoping to have this. Yep. We have a beautiful rose.
Blush.
Yeah, a blush.
Wait, what were the two that you said were similar that you tasted?
So, there was a sunset sangria.
Yeah. Oh.
Which was Oh, we're gonna get this wrong.
It was a pear, I think.
Strawberry and pear or
Yeah. Something like that. Okay.
And the other one was mango and peach or so. Yeah. It it was like it it was basically there was sangria then there was two other ones that were
In the sangria like
sangrias but they had different fruit in
it.
Got you.
Alright. And so like the one that another one that we're taking was aged in a whiskey cask. There was another one that we did, but this one's got berries in it.
Okay.
The operation is just a different one.
It'll be a weird one Yeah. Once we talk about it.
Alright. So let's give this one a try. I'm really curious. Really curious about While
they're tasting, I just wanna quickly begin this. This is going to be a interesting episode just because the time between Uh-oh.
Face. This is so good. Oh my gosh.
Okay. Well, I was just going to say the time between, instead of following nine years on a boat, eight years.
It was nine. About nine years.
Nine years on a boat. This will follow Nine years of college? I think you got to Was it five?
Yeah. Yeah. Like I think my my entire college career is like five and a half almost six.
Yes. So this is extremely good. Extremely drinkable.
Yeah. Well, let's quickly talk Well, let's talk about
it.
Yeah. I was just trying to fill the air. Yeah. Very tasty. Super refreshing.
Yeah. Really smooth as well. You can taste the undercurrent of an apple cider. Yeah. But then there's this really great fruity taste on top of it.
Yeah. I I mean, it's it's sweet. I like sangrias, but this is, to me, is like, peak. Like, this is way better. It's very tasty. It it Like you said, it tastes like cider, it tastes like the sweetness of the sangria. Yeah, I've I could down this is the issue.
See, I could see this with some ice and some fruit also, just like a sangria.
Oh, man. I was I was going the exact opposite.
You were just singing straight?
Well, hot day, really like heavy food, and this would just cut it.
Right. I I love it. Think this is really good.
Very tasty.
Alright. So Yes. Let's start us off.
So, we will begin by almost a spoiler. We're gonna we're gonna see what the result was. I I wanna know we get everyone into how atypical or unnatural that we're talking about. What did you go to school for? Okay.
Yeah. So my undergrad degree is in eSports. It says eSports on my diploma, which is kinda cool. But yeah, I I went to a lot of the those courses, a lot of the focus for that was in business management and event management with some broadcast and production in there. So like a lot of the classes that I took were very similar to a sports management class.
A lot of the that track was a lot of the similar classes. So I had a lot of classes with some sports management people, and then kind of veered off with eSports specific classes, and also business classes. Like, I took several law classes, I I took several like marketing, accounting, like those kind of business stuff.
And that led into you getting a masters also.
And that led into me getting a masters which is undergraduate is an MBA with a concentration in eSports. So, it's just like a normal MBA, for that entire track it was all just MBA classes, and then they were like, here's like three or four extra esports classes that'll give you the concentration. And I'm like, okay, sure. That sounds good.
Yeah. So, it is It's an MBA that
you have.
And a business administration. Yeah. Or business management.
Yeah. Well, yeah. So, it's a master of business admin. Yeah. It's the MBA.
So, it's a for real for real diploma. I feel like when people say, they're like, oh, you got it in video games, they're thinking it's it's lesser than. I feel like especially is the stigma.
Yeah. The the problem is, I think it's fun and silly to say that my degree has e sports on it, but I think the trouble that I'm running into is like a lot of people don't really know what that is unless they're specifically ingrained into the industry. Yeah. And so, it's like me kind of fighting to get into the door to be like, I have a real degree. I have a real diploma.
And this is how new this is. Yeah. When we were looking for it. So Alexander said, I'd love to go do this degree. Shenandoah University, which is where you went Yep. Was the first school to do a four year degree in eSports.
In in Virginia, yeah. There was one other college that was before us, Becker College. But Becker got shut down during pandemic. So
A big university.
Yeah. Not a not a super big one. But I I mean Shenandoah is not a big one either. No. But now you've got powerhouses kinda stepping into the scene. Like Boise of course is is the big one where my sort of mentors and teachers, a couple of them have moved to Boise to hit a much much larger school, larger program.
Well, UT also had a pretty good University of Texas. Right?
Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if they have like a So the problem is, there are a lot of colleges that are in the esports space. Right. But not a lot that are like offering it as a Like courses, and like as an actual diploma or degree that you can get, and more they're just like, well, we'll treat it as athletics, so instead of, they're they're like giving like scholarships as if they were playing football, but it's not like these football players are majoring in football.
No. They usually have like communications degrees and things like Right.
So, the esports kind of work similar where they're like, this is a professional Super Smash Brothers player. We'll give them a full ride scholarship and they'll crush in the college scene, but they're getting a degree in marketing or whatever. Right.
To continue off of that, that was a really good intro, and I think it got everyone like sort of on the same page on like, okay, this is this is what you got in.
It still doesn't define what esports is.
Well, I just wanna say, why did you why did you wanna pursue it? I feel like that's the big one. Right? Like, why go into this unknown?
Why choose the suffering and misery of walking into the unknown when you could have chosen something a bit better? Well, I will say, I originally wanted to do teaching. I wanted to be a teacher. So you could say that making money was never an option for me.
It was never the mindset. Never
the mindset. But yeah, I I, in sixth grade, I had a history teacher, shout out mister Shed, and I fell in love with how fun and creative he was, and just like, I was like, I wanna be that for other kids. Like, I wanna I wanna be a history teacher. And then I was like, nah never mind. Well, mean,
you had always You were like the first one of the three of us to start playing real games. You know where you were you know we were Tonga on the PlayStation you know. Tonga too. Tonga. Yeah.
Yeah. But the only sort of competitive scene that Tomba has is a speedrun.
No no no no no. I I understand. But Are you are
you are you just referring to like just playing video games like as a general.
Yeah. General.
I mean, I've always been interested in video games and always been playing video games. But, I don't necessarily know if I like It wasn't really something that I was like, oh I can make a career off of this. I I think I knew for like a long time that like, I'm like okay at video games. I'm not the best. Like Mhmm. There's not a world where I am good enough to play video games for money.
So, one of the things that you didn't get you transferred to Shenandoah when you were a junior.
Yeah.
So you started at a community college, is a great option. That's what I did also before my chemical engineering degree.
Yeah.
Because you saved so much money. Anyways, were you thinking so what job were you thinking in esports? Because I think that's also important. And then were you thinking esports when you first started going to to Piedmont?
Well, what what I can say is that I went to community college because I was originally in the mindset of I wanted to be a history teacher, and then I just was like, I don't wanna do that anymore. I don't think that's a good fit for me. And I was like, I don't know what I wanna do. So out of high out of high school, I took a gap year, and I had so many different plans for what I was gonna do for that gap year, and all of them fell through. None of them ended up like working out.
So I literally just spent most of the year working for the bakery Yeah. During that gap year. Yeah. Which I think was fun because I got to talk to a lot of people working working in the front of the shop, but the things like I wanted to travel a little bit, but like my traveling buddy went straight to college. His mom's like, no, you're going to college.
Mhmm. And I wanted to do some internships, and none of those really materialized. So I went to community college with the idea of like, I'll figure out something, we got may as well get started. And then in near the end of community college, I saw an advertisement for Shenandoah, like on Instagram or something, and it was like, do you wanna get a degree in eSports? And I was like, yeah maybe. And
Well you had also started the smash club at Piedmont Community College.
Yeah. This was like around the time that smash ultimate had dropped and the switch was out and I was like this game is so cool I love this. And there was locals that were happening in our town at like a local game store, and one of the people running that had like started the Smash Club at my community college, but they had left, And so I was like, let me just retake that mantle, and we'll play games. And then I was like, this is awesome. I love this. And also I like talking a lot.
In case you didn't know. Well,
And I I was really getting into Smash, so I was watching a lot of like the the pro scene to you know get tips, tricks, whatever. And then I I was hearing the commentating and the casting, and I was like, I think I could do that. Like that sounds like a lot of fun. I think I could do that for real. And then I saw the advertisement for Shenandoah and I was like, oh I could I could do that. Well, think it's
it's it's funny when we me and him went to visit these colleges. We really only visited two of them.
Yeah. Visited Tiny schools.
They're both they're well they were both tiny schools but both they were they were on the cutting edge of the esports scene.
Yep.
So we went to one Mhmm. Randolph Macon which we loved. Yeah. But their program was so brand new. They had a new director and it wasn't really established.
Yeah. And honestly the big sell for me for Randolph Macon was it's like right next to a train track. Yep. And they're like, yo yeah our students just take a day trips up to like New York on the train. And I'm like that sounds sick. And then I'm like that has nothing to do with academics. What am I doing?
Yeah. The the dorm rooms are small.
The dorm rooms are small. Their esports arena like their area that they were practicing and playing was also really small.
It was a broom closet above the cafeteria.
Yeah. Like above their student center accidentally broke in.
Yeah. We got in and we're we're going around and we're like, how did you get in here? We're like, well we came up this back door because we saw it open and then we've crawled up past these mops and there we are in the back door.
Yeah. I think it's it's gotten bigger and like their program has gotten better of course. But I think seeing like what their setup was and their their guy at the time was relatively new. I think it was Alex Gunner.
Yeah. He just got hired. Yeah.
And he's he's moved on to different things. I think he's working at NACE right now, which is like the national collegiate esports program. And then we we went to Shenandoah. And
tell them why this was really different.
Yeah. Well, walking into Shenandoah, they're like, oh yeah, all of our esports stuff is in the armory. And we're like, what? And it's like this giant garage that's set up to have like twenty, thirty pcs in there with a stage and they had a production room, and I was like, cow, okay.
And and rather than having just one director, they had Yeah. They had three or four staff that were there.
Yeah. At the time, they had Joy Griesiak, Doctor. Joy Griesiak who was like the the lead there at the time. He's at Boise now. Zach Harrington and Christopher Scroggins Yeah. Who were both kind of like Chris was in charge of like the education stuff, believe. And then Zach was kind of like the assistant for the arena, really managing operations at the time.
Yeah. I mean, so we went from a broom closet to the arena.
Yeah. With like three main staff people, and like, I'm not gonna lie, Doctor. Grziak is crazy in the best way possible. He just has a vision and is super charismatic. So, when he's talking to you about esports, you're all in. You're like, okay, I believe you. We're here.
It also just sounds like there was just a better vision and it was already established Mhmm. At Shenandoah Moore.
Yeah. I mean, if if at that time when we were looking around for colleges, there was there wasn't a lot of colleges that were offering this degree at all.
Yeah. Yeah.
Or even courses and most of them were still trying to hire people like Randolph Macon had just hired this new director.
Yeah.
Where you went to Shenandoah, they had an arena, they had support from the faculty, they had some sponsors in to their program and it just it was such a night and day situation when we went up there. And Winchester is a fairly small town.
Yeah. So It's kinda just a college town. Well,
college town and apples.
Well, Basically. So
you you travel through Winchester going somewhere else?
Yeah. Mhmm.
You know?
Not even like it's off the beaten path. We're like thirty minutes from the border of West Virginia. It's it's a weird spot but fun.
Yeah. I mean I I was the So you got to cast Mhmm. While you were going to undergraduate and during your graduate things. I remember your mom and I sitting in front of the TV watching you cast on Twitch all the Rocket League stuff.
Woah. You're spoiling.
Oh, sorry. He's getting ahead. Oh, you're
getting ahead yourself. We're still talking about getting to where
he is. Okay.
You know? I think that is a good place though to start transitioning to it. Because you Well, you got accepted. I got accepted. Right? You finished Piedmont. You finished community college. Yep. You applied. You got accepted.
Yep. And you graduated from Piedmont, so it allowed you to transfer. Right?
Yeah. And I I will say, the pandemic kinda hit in that time. Yeah. And if I I'm really upset about this. If the pandemic didn't hit, I'm pretty sure I would have gotten a double associates, which I was like, oh man, could have gone for extra credit. Shoot. But,
I just
got like a general associate's degree. I could've gotten a business associate's I think at Piedmont, if I had just taken one extra class. And, was like, I could've just tacked that on at the end there.
Yeah. Mean, don't know whether it would've eliminated any of those accounting classes.
I think it would have added one.
Yeah, was about to say. But, you got accepted. Yep. And, hello world, you got You're now a student at Shenandoah University.
Yeah. I didn't do any coding though.
And it was the pandemic.
And then there was the pandemic, which we'll talk about, I'm sure Yeah. In the next part.
And we're we're all done.
Yeah. We're we're all we're all done. Well, you got the big glass.
You got the big glass.
You don't have to chug it.
You don't have to Yeah.
This is so good, I would chug it.
But, yes. We'll be right back with the next part and our next drink, and we'll go deeper into what it was like at the university. Yeah. We'll be back. Bye. Bye. We return. Hello. Welcome. Welcome. We have a brand new set of drinks and glasses before us. What are we drinking?
So, this is called the apparition.
Yeah.
And, as you can see, it is very clear and crisp looking. This is a I think it's a limited production.
I think so.
And it is pumpkin flavored. Oh. So we will see. But it looks it looks so clear and really beautiful.
This was the typical color that we saw in a lot of the ciders.
Was about to say, when you guys were describing it, this looks like the colors.
Yeah. This is the sort of This was mainly what we were drinking. It would be like, woah, what is that flavor?
Yep. Sorry, gotta. Cheers.
Alright. Unrelated though, I have to say it was it's really weird you starting it. Even when you sat back down and we had started this, I had done like an inhale like like I'm ready to give the intro, and then you hit the intro, and I was like, oh wait, that's right, it's not me.
I cut you off. Wow.
That is a wow. It smells great.
It smells nice.
It smells very pumpkin y.
It tastes super pumpkin y. And, it is such a contrast to the sharpness of the first one.
Woah. Yeah.
I don't Just imagine like a pretty like subtle, but raw pumpkin flavor. That's what you're you're gonna get hit with.
Yeah. I love these because they all have like this very like, it's apple cider, you know. But, the other flavor from the sangria, or from this one, is still very strong. Where I'm like, yeah, if you gave me this blind, I would be like, that does kinda taste like a pumpkin. Interesting.
It is. I like it
a lot. I'm a fan. I'm a fan.
I did like the sharpness of the first one, but this one is really really drinkable.
Feel like sharpness doesn't do it
just Well, tartness maybe?
It had a
More bubbles.
It was just a vibrant flavor.
Yeah, was a vibrant
This one is a lot more subdued comparatively, but it is still a pretty good pumpkin flavor.
I I think the sangria kinda hits you in like the front with
the Right.
The notes of sangria. This one, I feel much more of the apple cider in the beginning, and then as it lingers, and as I like put my glass down, I'm like, the aftertaste, I hit them again. The aftertaste is all pumpkin.
Yeah. I love that. It's a very fall drink. In spring, but it's a very fall This
is really good though.
I'm a fan.
Yes. I'm really upset that I didn't go and try
the bingo card with you guys. Yeah.
All of these, both of these drinks, all of these drinks, both of these drinks have been amazing. I'm in love with them.
I would say these are of the better.
Yeah. I would agree. I mean, I think there was the sugar cookie, the Santa Claus sugar cookie
Yeah.
Was different, but I really liked it because it was different.
You like all the sugar cookie And
and the apple pie one was good too.
Yeah. Okay. They're very sweet ones. Yeah.
Well, that's not a surprise. You're liking all the sweet ones, not a surprise. Yeah.
Yeah. But, we will continue your journey. My interrogation,
I think.
Your interrogation. We'll talk about the beginning, which also includes your COVID experience environment. Yeah. And then, I would say the first, maybe like two years idea, and like really figuring out the direction of your beginning experience expectations, and then you're rough halfway through, I think is what
you're Well, the halfway point is kind of convenient because it's after you complete your undergraduate and then start your masters.
Yeah. Yeah, so, community college, the last year of my community college was 2019, and so that sort of got hit, and everyone's like, what do we do, COVID, you gotta go home, all of our classes are now online, and like a lot of my professors really struggled with that, I mean, understandably so.
Yeah, and Piedmont, but then, yeah.
Yeah, and then for Shenandoah, when I transferred, they let us move into the dorms, which was interesting. But, yeah, so we moved into the dorms. My roommate, which was my best friend Richard at the time, he was like, oh, should we just get in the city, and like it'll be easier, we don't need to worry about it, and I was like, no no no, please please, I've never had like the four year college experience, I wanna
He wants the dorm.
I wanna try the dorm, like it's so fantasized about it, like romanticized in movies and stuff, and then we were just confined.
Welcome to the jail.
Yeah, we were confined to this tiny room. Because of COVID. Yeah, because And like, we could leave to go get food from the cafeteria, but it would be like leave, pick up food, and then go back to our dorm. And so, at that time, especially in the beginning, it was like, we were like, I'm gonna move my desk as far into the corner, and you're gonna move your desk as far into the corner, and then we're we're gonna play games, but like, you know, we're gonna be in opposite corners.
Try to make sure our mics don't pick up each Exactly.
Well, and you meeting up with Richard was totally by chance. Yeah.
So when I was taking my gap year, Richard was actually the person I was thinking of that we would travel together, and he ended up going straight to college instead. But he, I don't think he knew what he wanted to do. And so, I think he was going for a computer science degree at first at a VCU.
No, is Wise done in
started at VCU, went to Wise, and then went to community college, and then transferred to SU. He had a much different experience of the college system than I did. And by the time, you know, he had gotten that, he was like, hey, I'm thinking about about going to Shenandoah. I'm like, yo, me too, that's crazy.
I mean, to put some reference around this, you had known Richard since kindergarten.
Yeah, for like my entire life, basically. And so, he was there studying, oh my gosh, I can't think of it, think of the word right now.
It wasn't like environmental science.
Yeah, was like environmental Or something of that nature. And so very different tracks, but also a big gamer, and also into like the same things that I was. So he'd be like, hey you wanna watch anime? And I'd be like, yes? And I remember we had the TV from down downstairs in our dorm and we would just both be laying on our beds because we're basically our beds are like right next to each other watching anime.
There was an arm link between
We hold hands if we wanted. That room
was small. Well, mean it wasn't as small as the Randolph Macon room Yeah. In which they were squeezing three people into.
Yeah. We we we were lucky in that our room was small, but not the smallest. So yeah, that that first year was or first semester was a bit rough. Thankfully Shenandoah was is a big nursing school, and therefore, lot of the vaccination, it was one of the big vaccination sites, they were using their athletic center, and so they actually were kind of in front of a lot of that lifting and returning to classes and stuff like that, because they were like, yeah, all of our people are vaccinated now, we can get back to business.
None of that, but even though it was a traditional college per se, there was a lot of commuter traffic into it because it was some people that had spent some time with their CNA, were going back for their RN training. They had a site in Northern Virginia.
Yep, they had a site
in Northern Virginia. So it was definitely kind of a hybrid. Although you'd said some of your teachers were still struggling with online and Zoom classes.
Every teacher
had a learning period.
I mean they went from, oh yeah, this class is in person, dah dah dah dah to like, you need to do everything over Zoom now. And now
you gotta really familiarize yourself with these services, these operations, you know. Exactly.
And I think even even in the e sports realm where a lot of these people are more familiar with like technology, Some of the professors are a little older, but eSports still struggle in that regard because there is that in person aspect that's really helpful for a lot of these things. I will say, I also got super into Genshin Impact at this time, and I was grinding during my classes.
Dude, I know exactly what you were talking about. I remember playing Genshin in my apartment. I think, now I was a good student in
my
school, but on the day that it came out, I pulled an all nighter, called out of school, and stayed up for like twenty more hours after that playing it. And I was like, hey so and so, I'm having a migraine. Yeah. Hang up.
I'm not I'm not up for it.
And they were like, oh, hey, you know, take care of yourself if you're ever feeling under the weather because it's during COVID. Yep. I was like, gosh, I feel bad. Yeah. Was so hooked on it. I know exactly when you were taught. Yeah. Dude, that's a moment.
It really was a moment. Yeah. Unfortunately Genshin came out at the perfect time. Yeah.
Well, mean, so during that time, you were still casting though, right? Had you even begun? It was like
So at the beginning, I hadn't. I So the interesting thing is that, you know, when you and I were talking when we were visiting schools, I was thinking about casting and getting into that. But I didn't know how to get in once I was at the school. Yeah. And so, for the first semester of Shenandoah, I actually wasn't doing any casting. I joined the smash team Oh. Because I was
like Collegiate smash player over here.
Well
He's a letterman. Yeah.
Well I joined the smash team because I was like, man, I am running these fools at my community college, like no one can touch me, I'm crazy. And I thought I was pretty good. Getting to college I was wrong. I'm like oh man I'm playing Jigglypuff, I should be playing a top tier, everyone is just smoking me. It just it wasn't I I was not as good as I thought I was.
Which was a good wake up call that I think a lot of people have especially like coming from like your your group of friends. Your bubble. Yeah. Your bubble.
Well, it's like they they say when you when you go from high school to college to pros, each one of those steps is a 1% step.
Mhmm. Right?
1% of the high school players get to play college.
Yeah.
And 1% of those players that get out get to play pro athletics.
Yeah. Yeah. And I also realized that I just I'm a say it, some of those players got that dog in them, it's not me. I don't have that dog.
I will give you the perfect story for this. You had never played baseball organized.
Yeah.
Alright. And so one year you said, I wanna try to play baseball.
I remember.
And so I said great, I mean I played baseball from the time I was eight till I was 13.
Mhmm.
And we had talked about it, your mom and I had said, the reason I got out of it was because they weren't having fun anymore. It was always about not playing the game, it was about Winning the game. Winning the game at all expense. I don't mind being competitive. You know, if I play video games I wanna win, but if I don't win, I don't win.
Yeah. Yeah.
It's a binary, right?
Yeah.
You either win or lose. It's always the case. You went to baseball practice, you went a few times and that they were horrible.
Yeah. I would say specifically the coach's son was really mean to me. Yeah. Because he realized that I did not care that much about And
and we we'd always joked when you were born that you were gonna be a left handed pitcher because even bad left handed pitchers make pitchers make $10,000,000 a year.
Yeah. Well, I missed out on that opportunity. But yeah,
so We talked we we started this off. It's not about the money.
You know? You're right. But you know, a $10,000,000 salary would be nice. Yeah.
But I mean, I think, you know, we've talked about that there's that competitiveness or that desire to win, oftentimes, you know, spoils the fun of playing the game.
Absolutely. I agree. Absolutely.
Yeah. But yeah, I realized that I I don't really have that same competitive spirit. Like a lot of the A lot of my teammates were They would grind smash. Like they would wake up, play smash, eat food or not eat food, and just grind smash and just keep playing, and they're like, I'm learning this tech for this character, and I've spent three hours just in the practice room doing this, and you know, I'm like, wow, that's a lot, and they're like, yeah, yeah, you know, it's not that bad. I put on a YouTube video or music in the background, and I just kept going at it.
And I would be like, okay, in the practice room, and I'd be there for fifteen minutes, and I'd be like, I wanna do something else. I wanna have fun. I can't
grind Genshin right now.
Exactly, I'd be like, I could be rolling. I could be rolling for characters. And so, after that first semester, and also I realized that I don't do well with pressure in that way. A lot of times, I was kind of a weird person on the team. The character that I play is like a very easy to kill character, and the format in college is crew battle, which means that we're like a team that share a bunch of stocks.
So like if I do well and I three stock my opponent, I go against their next opponent with three stocks, but if they hit me down with two lives and I win, I go into the next game with one life. And so it's a weird format, and with my character, which don't get me wrong, I've seen a lot of good Jigglypuff players, I'm not coming for Puff. For my character, we didn't, they didn't know where to put me in the line.
The rotation,
And so, often times they would just put me at last, because they're like, well here's our best player, they're gonna go before you and hopefully clean it up. And then if our best player doesn't, I'm like, hey, okay. And all the pressure's on me.
Clutch up.
Yeah, exactly. And I had to clutch up. And sometimes I did. Other times I did not. I freaked out.
There would literally be a moment where I would be sitting there at the on the couch ready to go in and I'd be watching this video of this Japanese oyster farmer that's like, I get up at 6AM and I farm oysters and you can do it, you can do anything. And I'd be watching that and be like, I can do it, I can do it. And then I'd sit down in the seat and I'd like, I'm freaking out, I'm messing up all of my combos and I cannot do it. It was at that point that I was like, I don't think playing competitively is for me. I wanted really try to get into what I wanted, what I really wanted to go to school for, which was casting, and like being the commentator to talk over these games.
Specifically for Smash, because it was the game that I knew the best, It was the game that I was like, I can talk about this for hours. So you just put me in front of a microphone and a camera, and I will sit there, and I will tell you about Smash, and I'll tell you about like, why this matchup is happening, and why this person is losing because man, that that's a sortie versus this other character, and they are just kinda losing out on every inaction, and here's why. And I really started like putting my foot out there for casting. Like I was kind of annoying about it, in the way that they had some more experienced people. There were two graduate students at the time who were really just doing most of the casting for the school, and I was like, Hi, I'm here, I'd like to cast.
And they're like, Well, have you done it before? I'm like, No. And they're like, Okay, well maybe we'll go for like lesser known games, or we'll see where we can fit you in. And I would just be like, okay, well I'm here. I'm like
Well I mean this is is one of the things that we've we talked about over the years is that a lot of these people coming in to cast have a social media presence where they were already casting.
Yeah. Not necessarily in the collegiate environment, but like more professionally Right. For sure. But yeah, I would literally just like sit in the production room, like I'd be like, hey, can I sit in here? And they're like, yeah, you can sit and watch.
And then I would just sit there, and then I'd wait, I'd wait, and they'd be like, okay, you know, for the semi finals, you can cast cast a game. I'd be like, great, I have my suit right here, I'll hop in here. Or they'd be like, hey, one of our casters dropped out last minute, do you know Valorant? And I'd be like, yes, I do now. Yeah, I'll guess.
And it was at that moment that I was like, I don't know any other game. Like, I did a lot of, as you mentioned earlier, a lot of Rocket League, and I was like, I don't know anything about this game. And Valorant, I don't know anything about Valorant, but I'm like, I'll do my best.
And then you had to do League of Legends. Yeah. They
didn't really let me cast League of Legends too much, because they were like, you know League of Legends, I'm like, no, do we have a Smite team? I could cast Smite?
I think it's It was pretty cool for your mom and I.
It's pretty cool for me too.
Because we would we would get on Twitch and we would watch him cast. And I think the funniest thing is like your partner Zan would go, hey master hamster or
Yeah yeah yeah.
Master hamster's mom said this. So.
Well yeah yeah, so one of the graduate students, Xander Merle Smith, also an Alexander, but goes by Xander, I think legally, is now a professor there, one of the lead educators at Shenandoah University. Was a grad student at the time. I really looked up to him as a mentor for casting, and we did a lot of casting together early on, because after grad school he left to go to North Carolina for a little bit, and then eventually came back. But I really looked up to him, but I'm not gonna lie, some of the times this man, he just talks to talk, and I love it, and it makes some really weird moments, but it would also be like, I'm like this is probably bad practice for me. But yeah, I'd be I'd be sitting during breaks or commercials, looking at my phone, and you and mom were watching, so mom would be texting me something, or like Xander would say something like, oh throwing spaghetti on the wall.
Or I'd say throwing spaghetti on the wall. And Xander would be like, wonder where that comes from. And like during the break mom would text me and be like, oh it comes from da da da da da. And I'd tell Xander, was like, hey fun fact it comes from this. And then like during the show he'd bring it up.
It was crazy because it was probably only 50 or 60 people watching on Twitch. Yeah, generously.
I remember popping in every now and then from my apartment, because I would see your guys' texts, I'd be like, oh they're watching They're watching him right now, and I'd pop in, and you'd you know, I'd see the game, and then I'd hear your voice, and I'd like, oh. It
was a really cool moment. I There was a moment where I did, you know, going back to that statement, I did feel like there was that dog in me, where there was a moment, there was a couple weeks where I was casting every single night of the week. Yeah. And it felt really good. It was really exhausting, but it felt really good, because I felt like I was really practicing and working on my craft, and getting better at what I was doing.
I was learning other games, like I'd played Overwatch before, but I'd never really thought about the competitive strategy of the game before, and so I was like talking to players, I was like interviewing the coach, I was really trying to step up my game knowledge, and then I was doing other things too, like I'm like, okay, if there's no games for Shenandoah, let me start looking through other platforms, or other Discords, or tournaments, and see if I can get in, and a lot of that was just like free, they're like, we can't pay you but if you volunteer
Well the other thing that because we we saw a couple of events that you did Mhmm. And it was always You you always tried to be professional about how you presented yourself. Yeah. Because like you would be jacket and tie Yep. And the other guy would be in pajamas.
Yeah, and that was kind of the thing that I was like, we are In my mind I was like, we're competing with traditional sports is to like, for attention, right? Like, I want to present myself in the best light possible, and I don't want people to tune in or like accidentally click on this channel and be like
What's this guy in a pajamas talking about?
It's like, oh they're like sweaty gamers, they like never leave their room, like I don't want that perception. And so I would always dress up, and oftentimes I would overdress my counterpart, which I realize now, not great, not an awesome thing to do on my part, but at the time I thought like the best way to do is super present myself.
I don't I never thought of it that way because I think that in every time in your life, each person has their own style. Yeah. Like you'll see lawyers that come in with bow ties.
Yeah.
Right? That is their style. Mhmm. That is that is the way they do it. They're not trying to overdress, they're just saying, this is how I present myself.
Yeah. I think mainly it's like, I I wanna at least sort of match my my counterpart, so if they're coming in with like a t shirt, I don't want a full jacket and
tie Well Xander used to always wear a vest, right?
Yeah, Xander loved wearing vests, which is awesome, because I love vests, so I feel like our our style kinda matched a lot. But there were other people that were like, yeah, I don't have a suit, I just have like a polo. Mhmm. And I'm like, okay, yeah, I have a polo too. Or I'd be like, yeah, alright, I'll just take off my jacket for this, and then we'll I'll just have like the vest or just the the button up, so I'm not quite like over over dressing them completely.
Yeah. Mean, I think if you look at football Yeah. They all wear jackets and ties.
Yeah. It's There's of like a standard for the dress code. Esports is so new. There's not that standard yet.
There's definitely like an expectation of production as well in that regard. Like football casters or other sports casters. And we can't say that like every sport has the same
No no. I mean, if you look at professional lacrosse
Yeah.
Those guys are in polos, NGs, you Yeah.
They're having a fun
time. Yeah.
But to sort of springboard off of that, and go into it, I think just to continue this conversation in your progression, you were getting into casting and all that good stuff. Yeah. I think it also allowed you to peer behind this window, and really started seeing events and productions as well.
Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. This is the time where I was like As like a little backstory, we have been to eSports events before when we went to the Smite World Championship. True.
We were able to, we went a couple years, two or three years, and it was always like so much fun, because at the time we were playing Smite, it was so much, it was just like a fun casual game, and then going and seeing the pros, and seeing the energy from the crowd, it's like, this is so sick. And then, I think working these events as like backstage, as like a cast, or whether it's like a local event for the college who's like hosting an invitational, or like them giving us opportunities to go and work for like professional events, I just fell in love with it. There's an energy with live events that I love so much, and I think that has still persisted. It's not something that's died out for me at all. I just, I wanna be at the live event.
I wanna be anywhere involved, and yeah, I think the energy of a live crowd, no matter what it is honestly, people get hyped so easily, and it's like if I get hyped, you get hyped, and then you get hyped. It's a chain reaction. Yeah, a chain reaction.
Looks like when we were talking about music, the live event just Yeah. Can really kill it.
Oh my gosh, yeah. And I feel like more recently, like I've loved concerts, but more recently I feel like I've fallen more in love with live concerts and events like that, where I'm like, just get me in there, get me in somewhere, I wanna be a part of this, like I think I have such a passion for this, I wanna just be a part of it. And then being a caster for live events, oh my gosh, you just feed off of the energy of the crowd.
Well, we're coming up to the end, but I'd Yeah. Like for you to talk about the event you did in I think Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Well, let's talk about a variety of events Yeah. That you've attended, as well as the different roles that you were able to play. Yeah. And then, sort of going into what's next.
Yeah. Do you wanna do that now, do you wanna wait till next?
We're gonna take a break?
Keep that energy.
Okay. Okay. Hold on to that energy. I'll hold on, dude.
We'll be right back for with more drinks and more stories.
Yep. You guys finish.
Hey. Welcome back. Thanks for sticking around. We're on our third part, and we're gonna round this off with a very exciting drink. It doesn't look as unique as we would have liked. What are we drinking though? Because I can smell it.
Well. Very aromatic.
Very aromatic. Very sweet.
So, just like getting hit in waves of of it.
So this one is a little bit different. This one is a cider. It's called bellberry. Supposed to be sweeter, but it's also aged in a whiskey cask.
Yes.
And we tried another one like this. And so when we initially got it, we thought it would be darker because it would be like an oak. Like the oak put some flavor into it. But we think it's a metal cask.
We think it's a metal cask because it had that you had a metallicy tinny taste into it.
Like you do with like a wine that's aged in in steel cask.
Yeah.
So it was good, but this one much different aroma off of it is. For It's smelling. As soon as I open the can.
It smells very berry. Very berry. Very berry.
Dink. While they are drinking, and I just wanna re ramp Alexander back up into it, because we did take a a momentary break. Live event. Oh my gosh, you guys are making such
It is it is. Once again, we picked three very different flavors.
Do you ever have those Trix yogurts?
God, what the heck? He's right.
That's what it is. It has a like a almost a fermented taste to it. Like yogurts.
Yeah yeah yeah yeah like
Like the yogurt.
Oh, okay, I see what you're saying. I was thinking alcohol fermentation. No, no. But like yogurt. Yeah, no, I It almost has like a Almost like a kombucha kinda Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Honestly, kombucha's a really good comparison. If you added this if you made this slightly more vinegary Yeah. It would just taste like a kombucha. Yeah.
I still think this is really good though. Oh, that is tasty.
I think it's better than the other one that we tasted.
Yeah. Although, I will say, I can't tell where the oak part or the barrel part is coming through. I think it's not apparent to me.
I think it is that steel tinny taste that you get from it. It's a little bit, you can taste a little bit of it.
So subtle.
It is very subtle.
The fruit is
so powerful. The berry is a berry blast.
But I think for me the berry's more an aroma rather than a taste. I don't think it's
Well it's still you know hitting me. Yep.
Either way. I guess I can see what you're saying where I feel the cider on my tongue and the berry more on like the top of my mouth.
Yeah. Yeah. It's still very strong. Very strong. Very unique.
Very unique. I I Yeah, we'll talk about which one we like best. But, yeah.
On now. Go ahead. Just to continue it, you were starting to do your undergrad, you finished up your undergrad, we were at your graduation. Yes, you were. Which was very exciting, but then you were like, I'm not done yet. Yes. And then you went to grad school, and I think that is when you started doing all these cool trips and places. Or did you do anything before that in your undergrad? I don't specifically remember.
It's kind of a blur Yeah. That that line.
The Myrtle Beach one was pretty cool. Yeah. Was that
That was your grad.
Was Didn't you do that twice though?
Oh my god.
You're freaking me out. No, I did it once, and then I helped out in grad for the second time.
Okay, gotcha.
But yeah, so the live events, it's hard to tell where like the live, like when it's undergrad to grad, because I didn't wait, like you said, I just went straight from Yeah. Graduating to like, yeah, I'm not done yet, let's let's get there.
You're like three weeks and I'm back in it.
Yeah yeah. I put two more quarters in, I got some extended time, I'm there.
Yeah, exactly. But yeah, there are a lot of really big moments that I think about as those kind of moments, where I went down to Orlando for the Halo Championship Series, so the majors for Halo, which again, not a game I've really played or know about a lot. But I wasn't casting, that was like a full professional event. I was down there working as registration and merchandise at the time, but it was so cool, because they gave us all access passes, so I'd just be like
Is that where you met Golden Boy?
Yeah, that is where I met Golden Boy. Alex Mendez, AKA Golden Boy, very famous caster commentator host. Think we I think Wasn't he in your Who would you have a meal with? Maybe. I can't remember. It's been a while since we've done that one.
Yeah, you're right.
But, yeah, I met him there. He came to the merch table and wanted to buy like a shirt or something. And I freaked out.
Fanboy.
Yeah, it was genuinely one of those moments where I was like, I'm fanboy ing right now. And my supervisor at the time was like, here's a poster, get him to sign it. And I was like, oh, thank you so much, oh my gosh.
My hero. Yeah, and I was like, hey, would you sign this poster? Also, I'm a caster, I love what you do, I've seen what you do, would you mind giving me some like tips or whatever? And he'd be like, hey man, just like, he was so chill, he was so great, he was like, you know there's a lot of divas in the industry, but they don't last long, so just be nice to people. And I'm like, that's what I'm doing, that's me,
I'm nicer. But that was a really great moment for me, because I was like, holy cow, there was that moment where I was like, I see a professional event, I got to go backstage whenever I wanted to, and I met my hero when it comes to casting, And there was that period afterwards where I was super motivated to just get stuff done.
Well I think you talk about divas, you're not locked into being a caster. You like all of the events side of stuff.
Yeah. For for me it really is just like, get me in anywhere. Yeah. If I don't know how to do it, I'll learn real quick. Yeah.
And this is where like, that gap year going to the shop was actually really helpful in like a weird way, where I was working at the shop during my gap year after high school, because I showed up to HCS and they were like, hey does anyone know how to use Square? And I'm like, me? I know how to use Square, we use it at the shop. And they're like, okay well you're going down to merchandising, and then my supervisor's like, hey, this might be really complicated, but here's how Square works, and I'm like, easy, I got it, I know how this works. And he's like, wait, really?
I'm like, yep, dude, this is my bread and butter, I get it. But yeah, no, literally registration is so fun, because you get to talk to a bunch of people, and a lot of people are like, oh this is my first Halo tournament, I'm really excited to just sign up with my boys, and it's like, dude that's so sick, good luck man, I hope you do well. Or you get to see some of the players who are like, like the security's like, sir, I'm sorry you can't come in, you don't have a badge, and the person's like, I left my badge in the hotel, but I'm this really famous player, you should know who I am. Security's like, sorry I can't
let you in the building without a badge. Or people would come to the table and they're like, hey I'm so and so, I need my badge. And I'm like, can I have confirmation? I have no idea who you are, because I didn't watch any professional Halo at all.
Well, other game, did you play CS:GO before you
I didn't really play CS:GO.
But you've casted that, right?
I've cast CS:GO like once or twice.
Oh, okay.
But Valorant was the other game that I cast a little bit more with frequency. Now it was Valorant was one of those moments where a high school company called Stay Plugged In, who's like a high school recruiting company, like high school to college, collage.
Collage.
Yeah. High school to college, they're like a recruiting platform, it's like a pipeline to get high schoolers who are good at video games into colleges that want good players. They would hold lands, they'd hold like big tournaments at Shenandoah, and that was one of the first times where I was just sitting in the production room, and they're like, hey, our like, our lead caster for Valorant isn't feeling up to it, he's been casting for like five hours today, six hours whatever. We need someone to step in. And I was like, I'm here.
I have my suit. I'll put it on. Get me in there. Choose me. Yeah. And they're like, alright I guess he's here. Get him in here. And then I was casting to Valorant, and my co at the time was like, do you know anything about Valorant? And I'm like, nope. I've never seen this game. But you know, I will not say I'm a god at Valorant. I'm just, he gotta kill, yes! You know, you're just getting really excited.
Yeah, yeah.
And because of that, in a very weird turn of events, because of that and because I was casting a lot at Shenandoah, they had a sort of kind of relationship with a lot of the collegiate stuff, and Dreamhack Atlanta was happening.
Oh, I remember that.
And they were like, hey, we're holding the NACE or the It wasn't nace, it was one of the other collegiate kind of like finals for Valorant, and we need casters. And so Shenandoah was like, hey, we've got casters, we can get you in there. And I was lucky enough to be one of those people that they selected where it's a Dreamhack Atlanta, the big turn Who was
the guy that was in the glass door Ludwig. Ludwig.
Ludwig was there, he had his famous glass box stunt or whatever. Where he
just lived in the box.
For like twenty four hours or thirty six hours or something.
Lived in a box. Yeah. And I was on one of the main stages casting Valorant for like the collegiate finals. And it was such an incredible moment to be there, and to experience that. And then of course they gave us an all access pass, so I'm just walking around the convention center whenever I wanted to.
And we got interviewed afterwards by this guy who was like, yeah, doing a piece on like all the people, whatever. And you know, he asked about like, what's esports, what's going on, why should we care? And I was like, oh my god, this peak, like, I ever get anything better? I'm on main stage, one of the main stages for DreamHack, I just got interviewed, like, oh my god, my life is going crazy. And it was, I think that with the halo was really, all within a short period of time of each other.
Yeah. And all, I was like, that's it, I've made it. I've said it, my life's over. This is perfect.
So the two that I remember that I think that I'd like for you to talk about is, one is the Virginia High School League. Mhmm. Because I think that that's a very unique perspective because going from going to a college that was the first one, the first to have eSports Yeah. And now you're seeing this high school league. Yeah. And the other one was the crazy one in Myrtle Beach Oh, yeah. In the middle of the restaurant.
Yeah. Yeah. You wanna do you wanna You want me to talk about boost? Okay. I'll talk about VHSL first, which is the Virginia High School League, as you mentioned, so obviously we're located in Virginia. What? But probably your state has some sort of statewide eSports program for high schools in particular.
Well the high school league does all sports. Yes. And so they added eSports into it.
But like people don't immediately think of it.
Right, right.
If you're just like, oh, it's the high school eagle, and you're like, oh, they do soccer, football,
or baseball.
You know, they're not gonna be like, oh, they do smash, or you know, Valorant, or whatever.
Virginia has a pretty large one. I think it's still run by PlayVerse's, but I'm not sure. And then North Carolina actually also has a big one. I'm sure there are other states too, but those are the ones that I've worked with the most. Yeah. And so VHSL, because Shenandoah is, like you said, one of those first schools to have an eSports program, and they have a big space for it, they every, I was gonna say every year, but really every semester
Right.
Hold these finals for players to have that opportunity to travel, to be at a live event, and to get streamed, get on the big stage, and play. And often times the games are like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Rocket League, League of Legends, and then sometimes like something like Valorant or Overwatch. But oftentimes when you're talking about school, it's difficult to get shooters Yeah. Into the mix.
Right. Tough genre though.
Yeah. To sell. It's tough. Now I will say, my high school, I'm always looking out, whenever I was running these events, looking out to see if they'd do well or show up, and they'd only show up for League of Legends, but they would never get very far.
Well I think the reason I always think about that is because you played a different role than Caster.
Yeah, for VHSL, they wanted to do something a little different. They At the time, Shaun Kelley was running broadcast production, and he is a big sports nerd, and so he loves the idea, or loved the idea, I don't know what his feelings are now, but loved the idea of like a an analyst desk, or like a red zone table kind of situation. Yeah. So oftentimes, he would have like three or four of us sitting in a couch area, and we would kinda, in between games, because a lot of the setup, especially when you're switching from game to game, takes a bit of time. Yeah.
And so oftentimes, we would be talking about the games that happened, or the games coming up, and kind of making our predictions, and then there would be other people out on the floor with a desk doing the commentating actually. And so it was really interesting for me because I could fill in either of those roles, and so they're like, okay, what do you want to cast? And I'd be like, Smash, give me Smash, every single And then when I'm not casting Smash, they're like, okay, you're in the back at the analyst desk. So literally for like eight to ten hours straight, they're just locking me in the back room. Yeah.
They'll bring me pizza occasionally if I'm hungry, but I'm locked in there with like three other guys who were like looking up at the monitor watching games, and then making notes and talking about them in the kind of downtime.
I mean this is what football does. It's like when you go to halftime of a game, they go back to the desk and there's Terry Bradshaw, these retired professionals that are talking about the game and whatever. And so it's, it it is
And I'm just like that, a retired professional.
That you know, I always thought it was, they looked at that sports management kind of Yeah. Framework in order to do it.
And I would say, just thinking of the of how other huge esports work as well, they also have analyst desks. Yes. They also follow this formula. League of Legends, they obviously have a desk of like four. Yeah, it's usually four.
That like do a recap of like, oh, you know, let's go down on all these plays. Let's like do like a, know, what was the turning point? What was the really big moments? And then, you know, part of that is also like, you were saying it's like, what do we expect to see next? Which Yeah.
I think is, that's, I think it's very important. Like, I think the formula works as we're seeing in mainstream sports. Yeah. And I think it's not the wrong wrong call to try and just follow suit with that. Especially if you Because it does, it adds more personalities and more opportunities Mhmm. For people to fall in love.
Not only that, but it's it's a known quantity for the viewer.
Yeah. Yeah yeah yeah.
So you want it you want it to be, this is a different sport, but here we're gonna do the things that
Yeah.
That are meaningful.
You're like, oh, it's not unfamiliar how it's I
would say the the big difference is, especially with like high school, comparatively to like professional, is like, the players are completely unknowns. Teams are completely unknowns. So I would have like ten minutes like before the players show up to like with my notebook out on the floor being like, hey, who do you play? Like what are you expecting? Yeah. Who's the best team here?
Yeah, but this you know, you're doing it for a different audience. When you're doing the League of Legends World Championship, you're doing it for the world. You were doing it for mom and dad and grandma back there. They wanna see their or or their or their boys back at the high school.
Yeah. Exactly. And so like that's also something that you have to take into consideration, because I don't know, in more professional medias you can be a bit more brutal with the way that you're saying things, but in college, or especially in the high school, you're like, you can't say, that team got dominated. You have to be like, both teams put up a good fight, but obviously, you know, this high school has a bit more experience in the land, in the in person environment.
Yeah, it's not the results that were expected, you know. Yeah. You gotta do like some fluff, but also like, you should like admire the people going out there and doing it. Yeah.
Well, it's like you said, there is a certain amount of pressure to go out there.
For sure.
For And like, if you're on a team of five, and you do something that, your teammates know when you make a mistake.
It's true.
Even Rocket League where there's three people you can go, look that guy is just missing all of his bits and You
know, actually it's easier to see someone who's crazy good than someone who's maybe not so good.
It's true.
Yeah. Because you're like, did He's he's like dribbling in the air and he just did a flip reset. Yeah, exactly. He's he's still going? Yeah. Like okay, that one guy on their team is is crazy.
And I would say for the most part, when you see someone slip up, you usually just turn it and be like, wow that other person really saw the advantage. Yeah. Right? You don't be like, oh they messed up. It's more like, oh the other person just took advantage of a moment.
Or something that I'm really empathetic to and that I use a lot is like nerves, right? Like it's their first in person event, they're just really nervous.
But I think it's a very uplifting experience because, I mean, five years ago, or six years ago, high school students wouldn't even get these opportunities. Yeah. Which I think is the most important thing, right? If you're a football player in high school, and you're going to games, you're like, wow, there's hundreds of people, right? You're already getting
You've been playing since you were 12 or 10,
or Well, just like you're already getting accustomed to this environment, but if you're a gamer, you're like, yeah, I've been like in my room.
I've been in my basement. Right?
Yeah, you're like, I've just been playing in my room, now boom, I'm in like a public area. Yeah,
yeah. So that's why the Myrtle Beach thing is so different.
Okay, I'll get to the Myrtle Beach, I wanna make a real quick comment, especially with high schools, it was really apparent that some schools were way more accepting about their e sports programs, and others were not. Yeah. So often times you'd have like, Miss Wilson, the geography teacher showing up, and she'd be like, I don't know what's happening.
I'm just a chaperone.
Yeah, exactly. And she'd just be sitting off to the side, and so there were times where I was coaching some of the teams where I'd be like, hey, you guys got this. You know, just do what you were practicing, whatever. And then other teams would show up where, like Miss Smith is like, we're in there, We are really into the day. And I'm like, okay, alright, I'm gonna take
a couple steps back. But yeah, the other event that you're talking about, we did a collegiate invitational. It's become an annual thing. The Myrtle Beach Board of Tourism and Commerce, I believe, hired the university to run an e sports event in Myrtle Beach, and the location that they chose, they actually just did another one not too long ago, still in the same place, is this restaurant called The Hangout, which is kind of on the boardwalk on the strip or whatever. And the thing that they're known for is that they have every thirty minutes, they have an emcee come up and do like a dance or whatever, and the staff will dance.
So like they'll do the YMCA or whatever, and the entire staff will do it. The restaurant is two floors, and there's a bit There's not a big stage, but there's a circular stage in the middle, and it's weird, it's crazy. It's like a very loud and noisy place. They've got alcoholic drinks called the shark attack where they'll bring it out and they'll pour in the red liqueur into the blue that'll make it go crazy and they'll blow whistles and people will be yelling and screaming. Very hectic place.
They've got massive TVs.
And you're in the middle of this casting.
Yeah, and so they were like, this is the perfect place. They're gonna love this. And so we held a Rocket League Invitational there with 12 colleges in total. And it is the, I think the strangest, weirdest cast I've ever done, because not only am I not separated from the audience, which sometimes I've been in the audience, but also, you were just hearing yourself the entire time.
Because it was going through the
Yeah, going through the speakers. That's tough. You're getting that feedback every time you talk.
And then you're trying to hit that thirty minute mark.
Yeah, yeah, and then yeah, every thirty minutes they're like, okay, get off the stage, let this guy get up there and do his thing. And also, because it's a restaurant, it's a public place, people are coming in and out, many people who are not affiliated with esports don't know what esports is, so I'm up there trying to talk about how Boise is taking on Shenandoah University, and these people are walking in just staring at me, like a head on a swivel dress like what is going on?
Why is this guy in a jacket and tie on the beach?
Thankfully I actually wasn't wearing a jacket and tie, I was just wearing a Hawaiian tee for the most part, and some khakis. But again, yeah, it was a really strange environment where people weren't heckling me, but they were giving me the weirdest looks. And then like every thirty minutes they're like, alright, get off stage real quick. And so I'm just like in the wings while people are like, why?
Chicken dance.
Yeah, or the chicken dance. Wild. Wild. And I I will say the logistics of it was a nightmare.
Yeah, I'm sure.
Crazy. Especially like, you know, talking with these people, they're like, yo, what is your internet situation like? Like, what what does that look like so we can stream? And the, I it's a restaurant. They're like, don't know, we have normal internet, it should be good enough.
Then getting Average. Yeah, and then getting there and being like, oh, it is not good enough for what we wanna do. Or like, they're like, yeah, you know those big TVs, they're controlled by a fire stick, and then they're like, first day we're there. Yeah, the fire stick's not working, I don't know how we're gonna do this. And they're like, oh no.
That's tough. Yeah, but yeah, I have very vivid memories of like, running wires, running lines, gaffing stuff down, getting like the little covers to make sure people aren't just tripping over wires Yeah. And unplugging everything. And then we also had a side event where we invited high schoolers from local high schools to come out and play Smash. And that wasn't like streamed or casted unfortunately, but I remember being like, okay, my block for Rocket League is done, I'm gonna run upstairs and check on Smash, and a Ganondorf player won when I was watching, and I'm like, what is going on?
What the upset? But, yeah, and then we also were playing around with cameras that were moving, so actually having a camera that someone was carrying, and also having one of our people doing in field reporting, where you're talking to parents, or people in the crowd. It was hectic, it was wild. I love the idea, it's just crazy. And I think the kind of conclusion here is that when I was in grad school, a lot of that time that I had where I was casting every single night, faded, unfortunately.
Because you had classes.
All of my classes were at night, because a lot of the MBA classes are set
up Working.
Yeah, they're set up for working individuals, which I appreciate to an extent. Yeah. But there's that point where I'm like, please, I'm gonna skip this class to just let me cast Smash. Yeah. But I realized that I just I couldn't cast as much.
I started running some casting workshops for the university for like new talent, and then people like Maldi, like Tiny Shiny were coming in, and I was like, oh my god, I don't have that dog. She's got that dog for real. Yeah. And I I I just I started casting less and less, and it I was like, I just can't, because all my classes are during like that prime time. Yeah.
So all my classes are like four hours, so it's like seven to eleven, or six to ten is I think is actually the time slot that they were at. And I'd be like, that's when our games are, what do I Yeah. And that's when most other people who were looking for casters were looking for people to do that remotely
Yep.
During that time. And I'm like, I can't cast anymore. But then after that, you graduated. And then I graduated.
And then you graduated. You got thrown out into the world. Yep. What's next for Alexander? What is the plan? I know we talked about events. Talked about production. Yeah. I think with our time remaining. Yeah. I think we don't we don't need to end this on like a, hope, that's where it's ending. Yeah. But, it's just like the idea, the hope. Here's what
I'll say. I've been casting much less lately. You need a really strong internet connection to be
You need a reliable internet
connection. You need a reliable internet connection. The internet here is strong, but sometimes not great. Yeah. It goes in and out. We're not, we're kinda out in the country.
Yeah, we are in
the So we don't have that fiber. But yeah, that's what I'll say is, the next steps is maybe looking for casting, but it hasn't really been the main thing on my mind. The main thing is events. Getting involved somehow. Yeah. I was just volunteering for a large convention here on the East Coast, and I am reinvigorated. I wanna do it again. Heck yeah. So looking for live events in any capacity.
And any type of event. You would do a concert if you'd
I'll do anything, yeah. If it's a live event, I'm there, get me in.
That's where we end off with the journey of your schooling. I think it was pretty It was busy, and it sounded like a whirlwind, and I think that's how I would describe my school. Just a whirlwind. You go in, you run around the revolving door who knows how long, you step out and you're like, where am I? But, yeah. Thank you for sharing.
Well, hold on.
Favorite drink?
Favorite. Yeah. Is it?
Rapid fire, the sangria one was my favorite. I like that one so much.
You choose.
I know. I'm trying I'm sorry. The silence is not good on a podcast. I'm gonna go with the Operation. I I really like that a
lot. That's the second one, the pumpkin one?
Yeah. I'm also gonna go with the Saint Grier. Such vibrant.
Oh, was great, but I just I like the pumpkin, it was so different.
I was not disappointed with any of these. I was surprised and enjoyed all of them. In any case, thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for following the journey. Tell us how you feel about this sort of switch up of MCs. It might happen again.
Getting replaced.
But either way, thank you so much for watching. We'll catch you in the next one.
Later. Oh my god. Yo, that's crazy. You ended it perfectly. I had just enough time to stop before the alarm went off.
Did every everything do okay? Go.
Oh, insufficient space. Uh-oh.
We went over 128 meg gig. Oh, insufficient space on that. Let me go get
Yeah. We don't have the
Yeah. We well, I need to go get the two terabyte thing. Yep. I'll be right back. Yes. Yeah. The it's still safe on the on the camera. I'm just saying.
Yeah. Yeah. That's