TeamNade Ep16

What is happening, people? Episode 16, Team Nate podcast. We're back at it with the main man, 4z98. What are you saying, bruv? What is happening, everybody? We are back. Another week, another episode. Living the dream. Living La Vida Loca, Ricky Martin type beat. That's a name I've not heard in years. Every time, I have no idea, bro, but every time I hear Ricky Martin, I just think of the bloke off The Apprentice. Off The Apprentice? Yeah, there was a geezer on The Apprentice called Ricky Martin. I think he came second or something. And then he came back as one of the interviewers at the end. He came back. Oh, OK, yeah. Like. Oh, weird crossover. I know, I know, I know, I know. Apprentice. I mean, a different guy. Obviously, it was a different guy. It wasn't the same geezer. You never know, it might have been. Man could have had mental surgery done. Alan Sugar was like, this week, I'm sending you to a recording studio in Camden. And he's just there like, step back, boys. I'm the PM on this one. He's like, it's sort of like the intense music as they took the crossovers. Yeah. Da-da-da-da-da-da. The thing is, though, right, with The Apprentice is like, they'd all be sat around. And they'd be like, yo, like, well, I've got experience in the music industry. So I think I know what it takes to make a smash hit. And then like, you'd have that one bloke called like, Darren. Works in sales. You know what I mean? He's like a proper cockney geezer. And he'd just be like, nah, actually, mate, I think I deserve it. It's just higher than mine. OK. Don't be like Darren. Don't be like Darren. I can ego people that know more than you. That's, that is awful, I have to say. No. If we've got anything playing in the European Halo section, it's you have no respect for anybody ever. Oh, yeah, no. Fucking ego everyone. Like, anyone, anyone. Next time you go to the doctor's, yeah? And the doctor's like, yeah, we think we might have to amputate the leg because, you know, the bone is sticking out at a 90 degree angle. Ego him. Just be like, what the fuck do you know about bones, bro? Like, you know what I mean? I don't think I get to the point of egoing. I'm just going to be snaking the bed. Snaking his bed. Like, what are you talking about, bud? Can't hit me. Can't hit me. But he's like, will you just stop doing that? You just go, you can do it too. Face the camera. Oh, damn. Well, anyway, bro, what has been happening this week? What are you saying? Not a lot. Not a lot going on. It's been all right. It's stable, isn't it? There's nothing of, like, major, major notice. You know what I mean? Nothing major happening. I get you. You? You said me? Yeah, you. The you? I thought you said the you. I was like. What about, hang on, let's restart. How about you? How about me? Yeah, it was all right week. Not too bad. Got a bit dicey in the middle there. But other than that, it was pretty good. Dicey? Yeah, it was busy, man. I was busy, busy during the week. Like, a lot of stuff going on. Like, you know what I mean? Yeah, like, work-related stuff. Like, work, and then, like, it's one of them, right? Like, working from home, it's like, oh, easy to stay late. And you don't, like, I feel like if you work in, like, when I worked in an office, right, I never wanted to stay, like, past whatever time I was supposed to go. Yeah. But, like, now that I work at home, I'm like, literally, I'm like, oh, well, if I end up going over a bit, it's, like, not a big deal. Because you're already home. I'm already at home. Yeah, you don't have to commute to get home. Yeah, exactly. But at the same time, it's just like, hey, like, I'm Yeah, exactly. Which is, like, I don't really mind it. It's quite nice, like, going out after I finish work, like, a little walk and stuff. I'll be kind of, like, decompressing, like, rechecking into my actual life. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's the thing. I feel like the commute home after you finish your work is that sort of decompression. Yeah, 100%. So you need to edit it slightly. Yeah, 100%, man. Because that's the thing, like, walking to work or going to work, like, you get in the zone. You know what I mean? And then when you come in home from work, you kind of, like, Come out of it. You come out of the zone. You know what I mean? I mean, well, you know, I used to walk in the door at 9 o'clock in the zone. And by 5 past 9, I was out of the zone. But that's a different story. You know what I mean? Yeah. So if you sent that email, yeah, you're supposed to send it at 10 o'clock this morning. And it's, like, 5 to 5. But I'll send it now. Don't worry. On a Friday. Elite level tactics. You know the drill. Mentality. Mentality. What has been happening in the Halo scene? It's been a big week for Halo this week, bro. We are ramping up. There's a lot of news this week in the Halo. So let's take it from the top, right? This weekend, we are back. HCS Arlington in Texas. I think Arlington's in Texas. It is in Texas, isn't it? Yeah. Because that's where the Cowboys are and stuff, isn't it? So yeah, HCS Arlington is, like, this weekend. I think it's this weekend. It's either this weekend or next weekend. Let me just double check my dates here. Can't imagine. Yeah, no, it's this weekend. 15th to the 17th, isn't it? Yeah, I think they're flying out tomorrow, aren't they? Yeah. Of course, HCS Arlington, that'll be really good. Let's do a little prediction, bro. Oh, OK. We want Mystic Giant back in the play. Right. Let me hear. Do you want to go bar for bar? OK. Are we starting fourth or do top four? Yeah, let's do top four. Do you want to start from four or do you want to start from one? Let's start it from four. From four? OK, cool. Who have you got in fourth, bro? Sen. Sen? Oof. It's an interesting one. I've got Foe in fourth. Foe getting fourth. I think they're going to get fourth, bro. Honestly, I think I might be gassing them a little bit. OK. But I think Wootom is going to be the difference maker. Here, is Wootom actually that good? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bro, Wootom is like, Wootom is insanely good. He's just like, he's craps, right? And obviously, players have gone and competed on MNK before. Yeah. At these events. None of them as good as Wootom. Fuck me. Literally, this guy is ridiculous. I was watching an Eli the Ninja video, shout out, where he broke down a scrim. Specifically to look at Wootom. If you haven't seen this video yet, it's on Eli the Ninja's YouTube channel. I would highly recommend it to get an in-depth look at, or maybe an introduction to how this guy plays the game. But it was like an argyle flag, right? And I think it was in a tournament, actually. So it wasn't even a scrim. It was like, this was the, I think this was one of the games where they reset the bracket against Quadrant. Yeah. And basically, they sent three men down the snipe. And they left Wootom on his own, on the Gen side, holding that side of the map. And he takes down two of them on his ones. Do you know what I mean? The guy literally doesn't mess. When I watched that interview with Seeker, the guy, the boy interviewing him, asked him about Wootom. And he was like, yeah, you can put one shot, maybe two, into his back before he just turns around and fires you. Which I feel is handy to have on mouse and keyboard. Oh, yeah, 100%. Yeah. That's the thing, man. He just doesn't mess. And with him having that kind of flexibility to just kind of like, bang, he's looking this way. Now he's looking over there. You know what I mean? He's a really good player. So I'm going to say that he, alone, is going to catch out a lot of teams. To be fair, based off of what they've been doing in the qualifiers and the run up to it, they've been doing better than Quadrant. Fair enough, Quadrant won one of them. But ever since they lost Legend, it's not been the sort of same. No, and that's the thing, man. Quadrant is like, I feel like their current lineup is better than when it was with Chick. You know what I mean? I think Snipe Drone is definitely what they needed to kind of like, steady the ship. Yeah. And I think, and this is another thing with Foe. I think Chick coming over to Foe, it adds like, another level of dynamism to the way that they want to play the game. Well, it's the amount of work that he's done, the sort of, he's been against the big teams. Oh, yeah. And beating the big teams as well. So it's like, he's got that experience behind him to help drag a team through. Like, that's the thing, man. So you have like, Chick, who was part of that record-breaking Quadrant roster. Yeah. You've got the vet in Jimbo, who is like, Jimbo is just so, like, good at the game. Like, you know what I mean? Like, fundamentally, everything he does is like, just perfect. I feel like we played against Jimbo, didn't we? In that free-for-all tournament. Did you not play against Jimbo in that free-for-all? I didn't play against him. I don't think I played against Jimbo, but I feel like at one point we definitely did. He was definitely in it. Yeah. Because I remember when we were looking at the bracket on FaeFoo, just like, oh, shit. Oh, no, I don't want Jimbo in my group. Yeah. But yeah, like, he's just, Jimbo's like, just class. Mighty's obviously another really good, well-rounded player. And then Wooten, the young gun. Like, so it's, you know what I mean? Like, well, you know. All rounded off with the wonder boy on the coach. Wonder boy, shout out wonder boy, man. My man's like, my man handed out three, I was in his chat the other day, like, last week, and he handed out free advice for certain maps after he slammed us the day before. Yeah. He was like, yeah, here's like a little couple of tips. And my man doesn't have to do that. I mean, he's a coach for a competitive Halo team. He doesn't have to do that sort of thing. But he's like, even like being in his chat and playing against him and then going in to be like GG and whatever else, he's such a friendly guy. Yeah, that's the thing. It's brilliant. You know what the thing that like gassed me up the most about that was like that day when we searched and we were on his team and he immediately saw it and was like, yes, now the boys. I was like, yes, like this guy. You know what I mean? Like just instantly puts you at ease, innit? Yeah. Okay, who've you got number three, bro? What do you say? OpTic. OpTic. I've gone Sen. Oh, okay. Oh, I feel like there's a no OpTic in this top four for you. No comment. No comment. There's no way, there's no way you're coming Spades or SSG out of the top four. No fucking way. Yeah, I think OpTic are just gonna, I think they'll finish top six, but I think they're gonna come unstuck against the team that they shouldn't do. Okay. Like, you know what I mean? We're thinking four for Sen here. I actually think Sen would probably be a better matchup against OpTic. Yeah. Okay. Whether that happens or not, you know, obviously it's, I don't know. Cause OpTic are still incredibly good. Yeah, but are you basing that off of online dead zone? Cause you said land dead zone is a completely different beast. Land dead zone is a completely different beast. Like, don't get me wrong. I just think that, you know, like how, when they first started scrimming with dead zone and playing in the tournaments and stuff, they had those issues where it, like it wasn't quite fitting together. Like you could see the vision, just all the pieces weren't coming together at the right time. Like, I think when it gets to like late Saturday night, Sunday, I think we're going to see the same thing when the pressure is really on. I mean, obviously these players, I see, like, you know what I mean? They're all icy as fuck, but I think like we're going to see a little bit of a fucking crumble. The craps are feeling the pressure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I mean, like, you know, I have them coming back strong later in the season. I think they win at least one event this season. Yeah. Like at least. Hopefully they win the matters. Champs. I don't want to see them win champs. Or worlds, sorry. I don't want to see them win worlds. Okay, so Optic now you're in the top four. Sen, in number three for you. Sen at number three. Number two. Two out of two and one, because we know what, we were the last two teams to get a four to go. Yeah, we know who this is, right? Who've you got number two, bro? SSG. Have you got FaZe number one? Yeah. Same, right, so. There's just something about FaZe, they're just such an annoying team. Yeah. They just, no matter when, even when you think they're down, they just wrap it around. It's like, they're able to stay alive one shot. Especially Renegade. Renegade, I don't know how he does it, but my man gets one shot and he just skirts around and survives and becomes such a problem for everybody he comes up against. I think that's the thing, man. Like, I feel like, with, this might be a bit of a controversial opinion right now, right? But with like, FaZe, Yeah. I feel each of the players is capable of such a disgustingly high damage output at all times. Yeah. Like, if they get away one shot, it has to be a priority to go and hunt that player down. Whereas with some teams, if they get away one shot, it's kind of like, oh, well, like, we know he's, we know he's in Attic or in the gold pipes. Like, we can just bypass that guy. I feel with FaZe, like, you just have to continuously stomp them into the ground until they stop moving. That's the only way to beat them. Yeah. So you have to apply so much pressure, pressure to FaZe to subdue them because they just keep coming back every single time. Yeah. Like, you hit them once, they'll come back even harder. Yeah. Like, that's the thing, man. Like, they're just, they're just too good. Like, in all aspects of the game, they're all disgustingly individually talented. They've got ridiculous levels of team play and coordination. The mental is insanely strong. Like, I feel like it'd be very, very hard to check any one of them out individually. And if it was going to be any of them, it would probably be Renegade. Yeah. Rather than, like, I don't ever see Royalty lose composure, ever. You know what I mean? And like, you know, as we know, if you drop in quotes, like, I'm Frosty and you're nobody, usually you're not allowed to lose composure. Yeah, you can't go with that. Leave the that and then drop it. And Snakebite's not losing composure in front of his future wife, is he? So, you know what I mean? It's going to be Renegade. Oh, well. There we have it. That's our predictions. So at least we're agreeing on top two, but then third and fourth is just, it's squirrelly. I think, like, fourth is probably my most outlandish pick. Oh, yeah. I don't mean, I don't know, I don't know, four against Quadrant and that'll do all right, but I don't know about, like, the NA teams. I think they've got most of the NA teams, to be honest with you. I don't know. I'm not convinced. I feel like they've still got a little bit of work to do to convince me of that, but I'd be quite willing to be proved wrong because I'd like to see a European, like, a European team. Oh, yeah. Like Quadrant did last year, I want to see a European team in that top four, top three. I think it's good for Halo. It's good for the European side of Halo as well to show that we are here, we have the players, it's about finding them. It's good for everyone, man. And, you know, I sent you that tweet the other day, didn't I, about that Geezer that was complaining about the London event and how expensive the prices were and that meant that no ARM teams would go. Yeah. And it's just like, do you really think that no one plays Halo outside of America? Yeah. Like, you think it's just two blokes in a shed rubbing sticks together and then these top eight players, that's it? Yeah. You know what I mean? There's not as much exposure, you know what I mean? There's not that many in that top group. Well, who was it? I remember you said to me, I can't remember who it was that you heard it from or seen a tweet on, it's like majority of the people that you come up against in EU servers are like the top players. Yeah. There's so much in between the top players and like high-end diamonds that you just continually find random new players that you've never been, that you'll continue to play against. Yeah, that was the thing. Like, legend said that playing matchmaking is easier in America than it is in the EU. Yeah. Because in the EU, every player above like a certain level in Onyx is a pro player, basically. Whereas like in America, you have all of these, like just like these like random people that aren't like, they're not interested in competing, but they're just like Onyx 1800 for some reason. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's just like, oh, right. Okay, cool. That's wild, but it is what it is. You know what I mean? Speaking of the HCS London. Oh, yes. It's finally been announced. We know the dates. Fucking cool. We know the locations. We know what's going on. So HCS London is the 31st of May to the 2nd of June? Yes, sir. 31st of May to the 2nd of June at Twickenham Stadium. Obviously in association with Quadrant, which I think that's gonna be, it's gonna be amazing. I wonder if they're gonna say, bro, right, on the comms when it gets to grand finals, I wonder if they're gonna make any reference to the Havoc turf. Hope not. You know what they do at the rugby? They're like, oh, it's Havoc turf. I hope not. I kinda hope they do. I believe. You believe? Yeah. Well, I mean, lucky for us, the hotel's only around the corner, so. Oh, yeah. Easy money. Speaking of which, Team Nade are going to the one, baby! Yeah, Team Nade at HCS London soon. I'm so excited to change the Twitter name to Team Nade at HCS London. That's what I'm more excited about than actually going to the event, bro. No, I feel like, I actually go into an event because I've never been to an event. Oh, yeah, it's gonna be sick. And then to see, to have the possibility of meeting folk that you play in the scene or you've spoken to, and even the players themselves, it's such a cool thing to think about to me. I've got quite a few people that I'm excited to actually see. Is it? No, I'm not gonna, let's not name names. No names, no names. No names. Is it who I think it is? It might be. I feel like we'll see him, we'll hear him before we see him. Red or blue? I'm whipping the phone up, bro. I feel like, we're recreating the video. Hit flag again, bro. Surely not. Checking in with the team? Yeah. Who is Scott in the scene? What do you mean, bro? Who's gonna be in the scene, then? Oh, mate, I think I've actually seen his team. No way. Yeah, but I can't mind who it is. Oh, fuck it, though. No, you can find this out and tell me later. He always seems to get on like decent teams, I think. Well, he's a beast for one. He's been around for ages, though, and he knows everyone. Yeah, well, he's pushing for it. But... I'm not gonna... Anyway. I might be a slight over-exaggeration, but... Speaking of LAN events, did you see LVT Halo's announcement? No, sir. No, I did not. So, LVT are hosting a LAN event in May. Right, okay. It's the 17th of May to the 19th of May. Nice. Or it's Titans Orlando powered by LVT Halo. 12 and a half thousand dollar prize pool. 12 and a half thousand dollar prize pool. 500 dollar FFA. They're going there to do the broadcast. It's minutes from Universal Studios. It looks quite good, actually. Like, it looks pretty cool. So, if you are interested in going and competing at that, check out LVT Halo on Twitter. I assume this is gonna be NA only. Um... But... To be confirmed, I think. Yeah, to be confirmed. The seeding starts on the 5th of May for that. So... I actually, like, part of me kind of, like... I kind of want to see pro teams go and compete. But at the same time, it's like, I would kind of like to see an event where, like, it's just the top AM teams. Yeah, I get it. With maybe, like, a lower level pro team. Like, you know what I mean? Like, if, like, Cloud9 turn up, then, mate, imagine if no other pro teams turn up, it's just Cloud9 and they just get fucking battered. Yeah. So, like, yes and no. Like, I want to see pro teams, because it'd be good for what it is. Yeah, it'd be good for you, yeah. You want to see, you want to say no, because you want to see the other teams that are not the top teams get in the spotlight. Yeah, that's the thing, man. Like, I want to see Jaxson go to the moon, bro. That's what I want to see. You know what I mean? Mellow, like, just get Mellow on a team. Mellow. You know what I mean, like? I can't say I've ever heard of Mellow. If you've ever watched a Royal Two stream or video, Mellow is in every single one of his games for some reason. I've no idea why, like, Mellow's just in there, bro. Right. It'd be nice to get those sort of, like, the advertisement for those younger players. Yeah, exactly. Not as known players to get their spotlight. Yeah, right, that'd be pretty cool. Yeah. So, yeah. Oh, another big announcement. I don't know if you saw it or not. Straight Rippin' is back. We've got a round of applause for Straight Rippin'. I can't say I know who Straight Rippin' is. You sent me a montage. I can't believe. Have you watched it yet? No. I sent you Straight Rippin' Halo 3 montage and you did not watch that. Mate, I'm... That is shocking. I'll get to it. I'll get to it. But it's like, you know, tell me about it. Tell me about Straight Rippin'. Straight Rippin', right, okay. I'll read you their statement. It starts a bit dicey because it starts with the word straight fans. You're asking for a counselling if you know what I mean. Red flag. Red flag. But anyway, right. We last stepped foot on the Halo Championship Series main stage five years ago. There isn't a comma there. I just forgot where I was written. Since then... That's line one. Since then, we have remained devoted to the gaming industry, working hard on producing major esports programs, supporting various game development studios and sharpening our professional skills and capabilities. More recently, we attended HCS events again and saw firsthand the love and affinity that you still have for our team. The support towards our merchandise collaboration with Space Station and the stories you shared with us reminded us more clearly than ever that Straight Rippin' belongs in Halo. No matter the twists and turns that we have gone through in our personal lives, it is an incredibly grounding and humbling experience to know that there is still a home for us in Halo esports. Like many of you, we have loved Halo for more than two decades and we owe the franchise our deepest gratitude for the opportunities it has afforded us in life. Side note, I feel like Stellar and or Flamesword probably had a part in writing this. Yeah. You know what I mean? Talking about gratitude and opportunities in life, I assume like straight up hippie shit. Do you know one thing I have noticed when you're reading that though is we need like a brand new book reading. Like an audio book. Is that what that was? Yeah, you've been practising that. You've been practising that before I've come on tonight. Bro, I don't even think I've read this when I saw it originally. It's the first time I'm actually reading it all the way through. It was so clean. It was like you've been reading like an audio book for somebody. Mate, I was the goat in reading one page of Admire Some Men in year 10 English. Right, okay. You know what I mean? Everyone cheered when it got to me, so my part's the real... No, they didn't. That was a lie. No. Basically like I always got told that I had to slow down when I was reading because I couldn't read like... I could read fast, like so fast that like everyone read one page and I'd just do it in like half the time that everyone else did it. But then when I had boys in the class that were just like, didn't know how to pronounce the word the. You know what I mean? It's not hard to be better than that. But I, you know, just an observation. It's not hard to be better. It only feels right to announce our return and commitment to playing a role in the Halo ecosystem. We are excited to bring our esports production capabilities, competitive spirit and love and appreciation for you, the Halo community, along with us. As we embark on this new chapter, we want to express our sincerest, I've actually never seen the word sincerest written down before this. It looks like a fake word, yeah. Appreciation towards our incredible fans, staff and partners. Your enthusiasm towards our team fuels our determination to push the boundaries and set a new standard for straight ripping. Let's write the next chapter together. Stay tuned and hashtag stay ripping. Signed by Tom T. Square Taylor and Everett Small Coleman. Very good. Thoughts, feelings, what you saying? Don't really know to be honest. So, you know our mutual friend who hates Snipe Down? Yeah. Despises Snipe Down. He won't be happy with it. Oh, he won't be? No, because Snipe Down was an integral part of straight ripping back in the day. In fact, I think Snipe Down got his first, his big break on straight ripping. Ah, okay. But straight ripping's like one of the OG orgs from back in the day. Right. So like it was like straight ripping, instinct, triggers down, final boss. From like the Halo 3 days and stuff when Halo was like ridiculously big. Yeah. I mean, it was big before that, but like that was like ridiculous levels of hype surrounding the eSport. Okay. You know what I mean? So it's cool to see them come back because realistically like, you know, we need, the competitive ecosystem definitely needs more org support. Yeah. You know what I mean? 100% needs more org support from organizations. Orgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgadorgador Back in the last week, Europa Halo, which was the HCS grassroots partner to EU, announced that they were ceasing operations immediately. They did it on their 7th birthday as well, which was even more sad. We knew that Europa Halo was not really going to be very active this year, which at the time was kind of an unusual decision, I thought. Especially coming off the back of Blackpool, which did numbers. They sold out every team pass. In fact, I think they added more teams and they couldn't bump it up anymore. It was pretty busy for a small room. I say a small room, it was a pretty big room, but it was busy. There was a lot of people there, even people that weren't players. There was a lot of people that weren't players that just went to spectate. Obviously, they've also done the spring series, the summer series. They've done opens and cups and stuff, just to keep the ecosystem in the EU ticking over. So it's sad to see them go. However, they put out a statement on the 7th that said, As of today, on the 7th anniversary of Europa Halo, we announce the ceasing of all activities at Europa Halo. Platforms will start to shut down from today onwards and official lines of contact to reach us will be limited. Wish to thank all the players, supporters and amazing staff we had over the last 7 years. Our recent line event at Blackpool to support European Halo was for sure the main highlight. A lot of the teams agreed it is time to end this chapter in the Halo ecosystem and we wish to thank everyone who supported us along the way. Any questions or queries can be directed to individuals on the team. If you don't get a response from official channels, right? And then, pretty much everyone who's anyone has commented on it and said how sad they are about this. We've got Quadrant's old coach, Quadrant's current coach, Shirzy1, Dan Gaskin, Halo Creation. And then we have Mr. Tashi. You know who Tashi is, don't you? He's part of the 343, isn't he? Correct! He's part of 343. In fact, he's not just part of 343. He's Halo Esports and Viewership Lead at Microsoft slash 343 Industries. Okay. Would you like to know what his statement was? Yes, please! GG's and thank you guys for all the efforts! Exclamation mark. End of tweet. Jesus, fuck. Fucking hell. Might as well I just write, yeah, nice one, go for it. Cheers, Lazar, cool. The most amazing thing about him saying that, right? Is the replies. Like, the replies. Oh my god, right? Spartan. Doc, do you not realize how tone deaf this is? Like, fucking Tyler. You know, who is, so Tyler is Quadrant's old coach. Without wanting to be disrespectful, HES has not done what is necessary for Europe, and this is for more than 10 years. When will this change? On the next Halo? Question mark. Fucking hell, man. Oh, mate. It's just literally just like, what? Like, what are you on about? You know, and see, like, I have an opinion on this. I can see both sides of the argument as often. I feel I try and look for both sides of the argument. So Europa Halo is more than likely, now this is pure conjecture. I don't really know. I don't have intel. I'm just kind of reading between the lines here from things I've seen other people say, things that have been implied, little bits and bobs of information picking up around the web. Europa Halo more than likely has finished and ceased operation because they, European, like, Halo in Europe, like, really needed some kind of big activation from Microsoft. It needed some kind of, like, money spent on it, some kind of marketing plan. Like, something needed to be done. If they wanted to improve the life of, like, the ecosystem in the EU, right? Like, the ecosystem is good. It's still healthy. It still functions and operates as it should do. But, like, there are, it does significantly, like, when you look at it compared to America, I mean, I know I've just been going, like, you don't know people who play Halo outside of America. You're an idiot. But the American, like, let's not beat around the bush. The American scene is head and shoulders far and away better than what's going on over here. Yeah. You know what I mean? Might be a population thing. Might be a regional thing. I don't know. But, like, Halo in the EU, it can get pretty bleak, right? So, Europa Halo didn't get the support they needed from the HCS, which is kind of surprising when they're a HCS grassroots partner. Like, when, you know, when I joined Europa Halo, they told me that it was, what was the word in that they used? Oh, that they weren't just a tournament organizer. They were a tier one partnered tournament organizer. And they were, like, super proud of this fact that they'd managed to achieve this status. You know what I mean? That they had the backing of the company and the studio and, like, that they were there. They were a representative. They were ready to go. They were putting on for everybody else, right? It seems to be that that wasn't reciprocated in the slightest. In fact, I know at the point where I was with Europa Halo, the HCS were very blasé about what they would or wouldn't get involved with. Yeah. But at the same time, I feel from the HCS's point of view, well, it's a business decision. You know what I mean? They're not going to give money to these guys. Because, well, what are you going to give to us? Like, you're saying there's a community, but we don't see it. You're saying that people are interested, but we don't see it. Yeah. And then, obviously, Europa Halo goes and puts on a LAN event, which does really well, which, you know, like, I can't describe to you how. Like, obviously, year one of the HCS, they had the EU regional finals in Valencia. And I was like, when that was there, I was like, fucking sick. Year two, there'll be an EU event. I can go to it. It's going to be so much fun. Like, fantastic, right? And then they changed the way that crowdfunding worked. They changed the way that the amount of support that the HCS gave to everybody else around it. And suddenly, there isn't an EU major. It gets pulled and given to OpTic for Arlington last season. Yeah. Which, slightly annoying, is what it is, right? But the reason why that the Valencia event didn't do well is because Valencia is actually quite a hard place to get to, it turns out. Yeah. And it's at a DreamHack, which is, like, it's not just a Halo thing. Like, this in London, it's just Halo. Like, Blackpool was just Halo. DreamHack, you had, like, I think in the same day that they had the Halo game, or the same weekend, it was like, there was a Counter-Strike tournament, there was a StarCraft tournament, there was, like, some other kind, like a Rainbow Six tournament or something. Like, you know what I mean? It's like, it wasn't, it's not just a Halo thing. Yeah, there's lots of different things going on. There's a lot going on, right? Which, okay, saying they need some big marketing activation, so putting Halo as an event, you know what I mean? Putting Halo as a title, an event where you have the opportunity to, you know what I mean? Like, events are, like, the best way to market anything realistically, right? Yeah. And you've got your title at the same event where your target demographic in theory would be. But it still doesn't work, and it still doesn't kick off, and, like, you still don't get the numbers you were looking for, the viewership figures or whatever, right? So they decide, no, we're not sending anyone to Europe this year. It's a waste of time, it makes no sense. Yeah. Because that was only Europe, and you couldn't do, you couldn't pull the numbers that we would want to see to send American teams over or whatever, right? And now, because of that, as a knock-on effect, the biggest player in the scene is gone. Yeah. You know what I mean? I want to add something onto that as well, because I've had a quick gander through the tweets. Shoot, bro. Which I find quite interesting is, obviously, the boy who was leading Europa Halo, who started it. Yeah. He was like, yeah, that's me, I think I'm done, I'm going to hang out a bit and pass it on to somebody else. Which then came the tweet as it was going to be less active in comparison to the previous years. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Followed on to that, two days later, was the Capture the Mic format live show that they wanted to do. They needed hosts. There was three, four tweets about it needing new hosts. Yeah. Then followed on from that, casters wanting to cast for Europa Halo live events. This was what got me at the time, right? Because they were like, yeah, we're scaling back production, and then they started talking about doing all this content. Yeah. And it's like, well, I don't understand that. My thinking of it is like, yes, they're trying to reduce what they're doing. I do understand why they did that, but go on. So, obviously, they were losing the person who was in control of it all. They needed new hosts for the format, and then they needed new casters. Part of my feeling is that they didn't get what they needed. Yeah. To the point where it was like, well, we're going to have nobody running the ship. We're going to have lots of different things we want to do with nobody to do anything with them. Yeah. Nobody seems to be wanting to do it, so might as well just call it a day. Just call it a day. The other side of it is, well, to add on to that as well, is the other European stuff as well. Like the other, the one that we previously talked about. Yeah. They obviously did a joint thing at one point, and now there's so many different, like two or three. If Europa Halo was still ongoing, there'd be like two or three of them in the same space fighting over this smaller market. Same demographic, yeah. Smaller than compared to NA. NA, yeah. So you're then spreading all these small amount of people that are willing to do work into these different organizations across three of them, and there's not enough people to do all that. No, and this is the thing, right? I was having this conversation the other day with someone else. The geezers that are involved with Atlas, right? Yeah. They… I completely understand them wanting to work on their own thing, as in like, you know what I mean? So it's like their casters, their observers, their social media people, like all of these things that they've got set up already in place to create their company, in essence, or their TO, right? I completely understand why they would want to go and work on that over working on Europa Halo, because that's their baby, it's their idea, it's their project. That's what they want to do, right? I get that. But like, why Europa Halo couldn't attract these people is kind of beyond me. Like, you know what I mean? The thing with Europa Halo, right, is it's almost like they didn't trade enough on the fact that they were the HCS in the European Union. Like, you know what I mean? My entire thing going into it was just like, well… You know, obviously they covered the game as assembly line. Like, I wrote the pitch document, and the entire thought process that went into writing the pitch document was, well, who are we? Are you mad? Like, should we get anyone else? Like, we're Europa Halo, bro. If anyone's going to cover this, it's us. Like, you see that name there, where it says Europe, and then it says Halo, that's us. Like, that's what we're doing. We're doing this. And it's just like that thought process just apparently is not something that they had. On that, based off of what your experience was, maybe those boys or boys, girls, whatever, however they identify themselves, have gone to Europa Halo, experienced what is there and gone, we can do this better. Potentially. And then come step back and go, all right, we're going to go do our own thing and try and be better than you. It wouldn't surprise me. I mean, I know for a fact one of them did used to work with Europa Halo. Yeah. The only thing I would say about that is like, yes, you've gone off to do it better, but what you've done in that process is you've made the original one have to go, right, well, we can't do this anymore. Yes. To a degree, in the sense of, there's not enough people going around to do what they need them to do. Oh, yeah, for sure. So you take away all the staff from one bit. It starts to drip away. People don't want to do it anymore, so they come away from it. That then becomes an unusable organization. So it's like, well, now you've diversified everybody over all of it. If you put everybody into the one and have one hub for it all, it would be so much better than it is instead of spreading over three, in my opinion. I mean, yes, what you're saying is correct, right? But I would also disagree with, I get what you're saying, right, as in like, well, the talent pool is not that big, so splitting it up into three is like having a detrimental effect on the OG player in the scene, right? Yeah. However, the Europa Halo production staff were by far leagues ahead of anything anyone else had. Yeah. Like, there was one boy there that wrote an API program to automatically update the, it was like the API that they use on the stream overlay, and it would basically, like, automatically update based upon what happened in the game. Like, apparently that was a first of its kind thing. No one else had that. Which is great, but unfortunately that is useless if you don't have the casters or the observers. But they had better casters. I know, but this is what I mean. Now that those casters are not there and they need new casters and nobody's stepping into that spot, they're now at the point of where it's like, well, we can't cast it because we've got nobody that wants to do it. I think the problem, the main problem that they had was like, to put it bluntly, it's hard to get excited over someone else's, they're not excited about it themselves. Yeah. When the answer to every question is no, we can't do that because we don't have any money. Yeah. When that's the answer to every single one of your questions, it gets difficult really quickly to maintain motivation to go in. Because don't get it wrong, let's not get it twisted, no one who's there is salaried. Yeah. No one gets paid. Everyone's doing it out of, you know what I mean, out of a love for it. You experienced it. I experienced it, bro. Literally, the conversation went, we need some money. Okay, let's make some content. No, we can't do that. Why? Because we can't get editors. Well, let's go and find them. No, we can't do that. Why? Well, we just can't. And it's just like, wait, what? Wait a minute. There's plenty of editors out there. Yes, they'll want to charge money, but there'll be other ones that are willing just to do it for free to get the experience. Yeah. This is the thing. It's literally like, just turn your thing into a pipeline. Just use it to just churn out decent quality talent for production, casting, everything. You know what I mean? Everything to do with together. Because when you look at what LBT has done, like, I mean, obviously, I know that the guy that runs LBT has a background in broadcasting, so he's already using his existing skill set on something that he loves, which is like, well, then the passion is going to be there. The quality is going to be there. They care about the scene. They care about the ecosystem. But you look at the people that they've attracted to come and sit in those other... Like, look at the on-screen talent, right? So you've got Eli, former Halo 2 pro, former pro coach. Yeah. Mikowski, former Halo pro player, former pro-level analyst and coach. Active, former pro player. Like, fucking Tony, HCS commentator. Tools. Tools, yeah, right? I think Tools has just been on LBT since its inception. Like, he's grown. Tools has grown with it. And, like, Tools is fantastic at what he does. You know what I mean? That's what I was going to say. You can get new casters, they just have to perfect what they're doing in the time of actually experiencing it, because you don't get better by not doing it. No, exactly. And you can only get better at being a caster when the games are ongoing. You can practice all you fucking want in, like, games that have already happened, but if you're doing it live, you can get the flow of it and understanding what you've got to do and what you're meant to say at the time. Yeah. But to try and be like, well, we want, like, the experienced ones straight away, that's really the ability to combat because they're already snapped up. Right, that's the thing, man. Like, that's, you know, as much as it annoys me from a spectator point of view, when I'm turning on EHL and you've got bloke, like, you've got this one bloke who looks like they found him in the uni library and just said, oh, you want to come and do a bit on camera? And he's just gone, yeah, okay. And he knows nothing about the HCS, nothing about any of the players in the scene, right? At least one, he's got the, the ball to go and put himself out there. You know what I mean? Right? And at least two, they've got the ball to give people a chance. Yeah. Like, you know what I mean? It's just like, you know, I understand that Halo was the premier TO, quote unquote, in the region. And I understand that, like, their standards were high, but. Sometimes you've got to, you don't get the new talent by having the, that you've got the, you don't get the new talent by not giving people chances. Exactly. And that's the thing, like, you've got to be, you've got to be open to work with people. And I just think that, you know, I just think ultimately, like, you know, as much as they want to say, like, don't get me wrong. Right? Like what Tashi has said is incredibly tone deaf. Yeah. And it's incredibly, like after everything you've done for Halo in this part of the world, it's insane. That you should turn around and have been like, GG. Yeah. Thanks for your effort. Like, you know what I mean? But like, let's not get it twisted. Like, those boys had one foot out the door already. Yeah. They were, in my opinion, they were looking for a reason to leave. Like, I understand that like, shit gets difficult. I'm like, they were probably fed up of the constant pushback. Cause I mean, you know, everything I said to them was no. What if everything that HCS said to them was no? You know what I mean? Oh, we need drops. No, we need, we need a bit of money for a prize pool. No. We need help organizing an event. No, that's your job. That's your job. You're a TO. You do it. You know what I mean? I can understand it. I can understand it from that side because they need the turn on what they're investing into. Yeah. This is the other thing, right? And when, you know, obviously like when Europa Halo is not cast in the opens, when Europa Halo does not want to produce any kind of content, when, you know what I mean? And it's just like, well, you know, you're not, you're not showing these people why they should care. Like, yeah, you did the LAN and that showed them why they should have an event in the EU. Right. And it helped that that was in association with the two partner teams at the time from the region. Yeah. 100%. But like, you need to build on that. It's not enough. Like, yeah, I know, you know, I know that's really hard to, it's hard to like hear. And it's probably really, like, it sounds really shitty for me to say it. But like, I feel like in this industry, especially, you can't take your foot off the gas. No. Ever. Like, you've just got to keep just being like, okay, cool. Because like, especially when you're dealing with a company who, so 343 is obviously owned by Microsoft and Microsoft is owned by the board and the shareholders, right? So the shareholders want return on investment, which means that the board wants return on investment, which means that Microsoft wants return on investment, which means that 343 wants return on investment. In fact, doesn't want return on investment, needs to show return on investment, which means that the HCS does exactly the same thing. They need a return on their investment, which means that when it comes down to it, the question that they're asking is, what have you done for us lately? Yeah. That's the only thing that they care about is what have you done for us lately? Like, yeah, cool. Like, you put this event on in November last year and it did numbers. But what have you done for us this year? What have you done for us today? What have you done for us now? Yeah. Like, I don't remember the last time Europa Halo was live on Twitch. Blackpool. Blackpool or that Atlas event. But apart from that, that was the last time I've seen them live on Twitch, which is one of your best platforms to get engagement. 100%. And this is the thing. And it's just like, I don't know why they didn't just like, I don't know, kick the keys to the Europa Halo Twitch over to someone. You know, like for example, right? So you've got Ubernik, big content creator. Yeah. From the EU. From fucking Ireland. You know what I mean? The boy that runs Europa Halo, also from there. Like, boom. So like, and you know, I'm not saying that all Irish people know each other, but surely that's a point of contact. That's commonality. Yeah. You know what I mean? Right. You've got Spiteful, another European content creator. You've got all of these pro players. Like, all just like, I don't know, organize something. Like, yeah. You know, something where you can just be like, okay, yo, like, so Ubernik's going to take over the Halo event. You've got all these people coming in. It's a community play day. Like, we've got some, you know what I mean? Like where pro eights are being played and we're going to stick the, we're going to broadcast it on Europa Halo. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I don't know. Like be creative, think outside the box, do something to produce a bit of content. I do something to gain viewers, like drive engagement, like start a conversation. And it's just like that. It's just like, no, like we do tournaments. That's all we do. And it's like, okay, cool. Yeah. Sorry. Like, it is what it is. Like, but like, you know, the EHL and Atlas cast in the opens was definitely the nail, like one of the final nails in the coffin for that. I, bro, maybe it's just me and the way that I think about things. Right. But when I saw that Europa Halo, we're like, go check out these guys. Part of me was like, oh, that's cool. Cause they've got the co-sign. And another part of me was just like, what? Yeah. What? Like, what are you doing? Come on, check out these guys. Fuck that. Come check out these guys. It's like Sainsbury's being like, oh, sorry. Like look at Tesco over it. Fucking yes, no. Look at that. The snazzy uniforms. They've got broccolis in aisle three. Don't fucking go mad in Tesco, lads. No, you can't come in there. We're closed. What's that? No, we just have the buildings. We don't have anything in the buildings. We just have the buildings. We used to be great. Yeah, we did used to be great. Yeah, that's right. But not anymore. Cause we're, we're, we're waiting, bro. We're waiting. Don't worry. Don't explain it to me cause I don't understand it. Yeah. Maybe we're not meant to. Maybe we're not meant to man. Maybe we're not meant to. You know, you know what it is, bro, right? There's only two words that can describe this situation. Oh yeah, what's that? Elite that. Elite that. That's all we have to say about it. Four dead there. Elite that. Can't go four dead there. Um, on a slightly brighter note, where Europa Halo is concerned, um, now, I don't know if it was two guys like bullshitting or whether this was actually, um, a serious cause. I started a serious conversation. Um, I don't know, but the founder of Europa Halo obviously put his tweet out saying, it's an amazing journey. Thanks to everyone that helps. Can't speak about it publicly, but it's a happy to have a conversation privately. 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