TeamNade Ep29 - Esports & Saudi Arabia

The speakers discuss the weather and the impact of global warming, as well as their experience with gaming. They also mention upcoming events and discuss the results of the recent HCS Open Series. Quadrant wins the EU region, defeating Into the Breach in the finals. What is happening, people? Welcome back to TeamNate podcast, episode 29. Today is the 10th of June, 2024. Nicely into the summertime now, although you wouldn't know it because it is freezing cold in England, which is fantastic. Shout out Global Warming, man. Joined today by the man himself, 4B98 in the new crib. What are you saying, bro? What is happening? A little bit of a wild one from you for Global Warming. Shout out Global Warming, man, you know what I mean? You got to keep it a stack. It's here to stay now, bro. There's no going back. We're past that point of no return. It's going to start getting hotter. Weather's going to go on a madness. It's going to get hot, I reckon. Yeah, 100%. I understand Global Warming is going to make it hotter, but it is. Apparently, we're threatened with snow in Scotland at one point. That's the thing, though, isn't it? With Global Warming and stuff, it just knocks off the balance of the natural weather. Cycle of the weather pattern, yeah. So it's like you get hot, like insanely hot summers, but you also get insanely cold winters. So are you going to tell me that the winter in Scotland is going to be summer, and the summer in Scotland is going to be winter? No, no, no. What I mean is that like, so like what, 2020, yeah, we know, 2024, 2022. I think it got to like 40 degrees in Manchester. Bro, it was hot, fam. Like, it was so hot. Like, I was sat there trying to write my dissertation, surrounded by screens, like sticking to the fucking leather chair that I was sat on. Like, went to the fridge, or the freezer, got an ice lolly out, like went by the window. By the time I'd moved from the freezer, and you were in that flat, you know, when I lived in that flat and overlooking the city? Yes, yes, yes. Like, the distance from the fridge freezer to the window, it had already started melting, bro. That's how hot it was in the flat. Yikes. But the thing is, that was just a big window. I just made that like a greenhouse. Oh yeah, like, I mean, but that's the thing, bro. Like, imagine how it's going to be for where I am now. If we get like a 45 degree summer, like, oh my days, it's going to be horrible. Yeah, I got the fan. We're chilling. Yeah, but the fan that was last episode of the episode before said it didn't work properly. I mean, it kind of does, but like it did try and like eat my blind. And plus now I've cleaned out the inside of my Xbox, like, another source of cool air. Want to dance? I feel like your Xbox is the best place to get clean air, clear and clean, cool air from. No, probably not, to be honest with you. But like, it'll run well when it's like minus 30 in the winter, I need a spacer here. You know what I mean? Just pack all the dust back in there, bro. Insulation and that. I don't think you should be packing dust into your Xbox though, Ruby. No, probably not. I'm starting to wonder if this is like part of the reason why I was getting all the random like issues on like Halo. Oh, what, the random game crashes and stuff? Yeah, like especially off on certain maps and modes, like it just randomly crashed, because like Touchwood, since it's happened, or since I've cleaned it, hasn't happened. But you managed to get it down to a T though. You managed to get like a certain thing, like a certain action in a certain place. That's what caused it. Yeah, it was like, if you had bots on Aquarius crash, or a grenade going off anywhere on the map, whilst you were also, it was either jumping or throwing a grenade crash. What was the one on Lightfire, right by the big door? That was always a grenade. It was always like, a grenade would go off near me, or someone in the kill feed would die because of a grenade. And then like, I'd be like ADSing, sprinting, or throwing a grenade, and it'd just go. And then every now and again, I'd get like one where I'd come off, where I'd literally be going through like the spawn animation, and then it'd go. The only crashes I get is when the game's loading in, and my game just decides it's had enough, and closes. Yeah, it just wants to close, yeah. Shout out Switch Space Engine, man. Best game engine in the world. Come on, shout out 343. Is it though? No, it's not. I was talking to one of my mates earlier about some of the rumours for the new Halo game, which we're not going to get into here, because like, I think it's 50% leak, 25% rumour, and 25% engagement farming at this point. I don't really know what is going on, but a lot of the stuff that I'm hearing about it is not making me very optimistic. The only thing that is making me optimistic is, apparently it's being built in Unreal Engine. Okay. Unreal Engine looks insane. The videos of Unreal Engine are getting better and better. They're getting wilder. Have you seen that body cam? Have you seen that? Yes. That's entirely built in Unreal Engine, and that's nuts. Or that tech test that they did in the Japanese train station. That was insane. There's ones that are like, I think you can find them on heaps on TikTok, that are just like mountains and stuff, and like massive mountains. Yeah, like renders of people. They're just getting wilder and wilder. I'm excited. Speaking of game engines before we get into the topics of today's show, I'm excited to see what Crytek pull out of the bag. Oh, yeah? Like if Crytek's new game engine doesn't reduce the NASA PC that a lot of people have to an absolute wreck inside of 30 seconds of the game launching, I'll be disappointed. They need to bring that back, man. They need to bring back the opening cutscene to determine whether your gaming computer can handle the strain of having to render each individual eyelash on someone's face. Jesus. You know what I mean? That's what needs to happen. And plus, like, Crysis is... Well, it's just fun, isn't it? I've never played it. Never played Crysis. You missed out, bro. Crysis was so good. I went back and replayed Crysis 1 the other day. It's on Game Pass, eh? It is on Game Pass, yeah, but it's like the old versions of it, so the graphics don't look that great. And obviously, it's an Xbox 360 version. Like, I originally played them on PC with my dad, and, like, they looked insane. I can't lie. Back in the day. But then, like, also, he must have been running them at, like, super low settings just not to, like, fry the graphics card or some shit. You know what I mean? So, but, like, I remember them looking nuts, and the gameplay was super fun. But, like... Damn. We'll have to see what comes out of that. You know what I mean? Hopefully something decent. Yeah, for sure, man. Right, anyway. Let's get into it. So, this past weekend, we had... HTS Open Series! Road to Atlanta. Let's go. Shout out. Like, I genuinely feel like we had, like, a seven-day break, and that was it. Not even that, probably. A bit less than that. Before we continue on this, some stuff to look out for this week. Tonight, HCS Pro Talk are celebrating their 343rd episode, and they've interviewed Tashi. For those who don't know, Tashi is the HCS lead. He's the big shot caller at 343, to do with the HCS. So, I think they said that that was filmed on... Friday the 7th of June? So, before this most recent, like, round of games. Their editor tweeted, like, quote tweeted their announcement for it, and he was like, you know, obviously, I edited this to make it into the product that it is. Just want to say that, like, this is a really good episode. I mean, obviously, technically, he's got a vested interest in saying that, but also, I don't think he would do, unless he genuinely believed it. You know what I mean? So, he was like, you know, it's a really good episode. A lot of the questions that were asked, and a lot of the answers that were given were very interesting. I think they said that comes out, like, 7 p.m. Central Time, which I don't know what that is in real time. You know what I mean? An actual time zone that people live in. I don't know. It's British Standard, British Summer Time, isn't it? So, 1 a.m. on the next day. Oh, okay. So, there we go. You know what I mean? If you're on BST, it comes out 1 a.m. in the morning. If you're on Standard Time, Central Time, it comes out at 7 p.m. Adjust accordingly to work out when it's out. But basically, I think they said it releases simultaneously on YouTube, Twitch, and Spotify. And I think they also have, like, other podcast directories that they're listed on. So, you should be able to pick it up, basically, from wherever you are by Tuesday, tomorrow, the 11th. Wherever you get your podcasts. Wherever you get your podcasts. So, keep an eye out for that. I'm sure that it has the potential to send a few waves through the community, I think. I mean, I'm saying that as kind of speculation. I don't really know. Secondly, on Thursday, we have the continuation of the NA Pro Series on LVT. Because we've gone back to Sunday, Thursdays. Which, we'll get into why that could potentially be a problem when we go through the results for that in a second. So, let's get into it. Let's go. So, on June the 9th, we had the EU, the LATAM region, and the ANZ region. So, the EU region was pretty good games, to be fair. But, as per usual, Grand Finals was Quadrant through the winner's bracket, into the breach, the lower bracket. And Quadrant took the Game 5 Slayer to win the Series 3-2. So, Quadrant, obviously, SLG, Snipe Drone, Seeker, and Glory. And into the breach is this old foe roster, Jimbo, Mighty's, Wootam, and Chick. So, there were some rogue comms at our gym, I can't lie, bro. Yeah? Yeah, he was, like, he full-casted the whole Open. He was casting it, not casting it, sorry, he was streaming it. Comms on everything, right? Apart from, obviously, like, when they were going into their, like, team talks and stuff. And I was, like, I was half watching it and half listening. I was, like, doing something else. But I just heard Wonderboy go, the comms are getting a bit hectic. We need to calm this down. Like, before they were about to go into the game against Quadrant, and I was, like, and then I looked at the chat, and the chat was a madness, is all I'm going to say. Jimbo was on his shit-talking thing, I think. Nice. So, moving over to the last time reading, it was Alpha Esports, which is Drift 117. Oh, sorry, Drift. Taffen Burns, Acid, and Noble. And they were playing Alpha, which was, I think I'm going to get this right. We wore Rorsch, Stryki, and it says StepStars on Faceit. I'm not sure if that's his actual game or something. But Alpha Esports swept them 3-0. Obviously, that Alpha Esports is the old... Oh, God, who did they compete under, as in London? Who's this? The Taffen Burns team in London. Um, SWAT Esports. Oh, SWAT, yeah, SWAT Esports, and then they were Wargaming Arlington. So, shout out to those guys. Um, so, shout out to those guys. And then in the ANZ region, we had Mindfreak, which was Scoobmeister, Swayze, Plasma, and Rice. And they took on WOW in the Grand Finals, which was NChef, Crispy, Spectre, and Cheezen. Again, if this is not the correct game of tag, it's because I'm taking it from Faceit, and sometimes that stuff can be a bit iffy. And Mindfreak swept them 3-0. So, shout out Mindfreak. Fair. And then in the NA Open, teams qualified for Thursday. So, in the upper bracket, we have Sentinels and Bittersweet. Bittersweet is the current incarnation of the Bon Vore, Yaxxum, Piggy, Mortlething. And then Sentinels is unchanged, as far as I'm aware. And then we also have Cloud9 and PURE. So, it's quite interesting. So, Cloud9 is obviously Tusk, Saab, Suspector, and Sceptifier. This PURE team, I don't know why they're not competing under the organization that they're signed to, unless they were only signed to the org for the one event. But it's Tolic, Druk, Cherished, so you pick up their collectors out, and Last Shot. So, those would be two interesting matches to watch. I kind of have Sen beating Bittersweet, and then playing... I think Cloud9 and PURE is either going to be a sweep, or it's going to be a Game 5. I don't think there'll be any in-between in that. I think PURE should take it. I think they're the better team, but we'll have to see. And then, in the lower bracket, there is ReversalPurphy versus StopTheGlaze. ReversalPurphy is Common, BreakingShot, Haynes, and SuperCC. SuperCC making his return to 4v4. And StopTheGlaze is the current Gunplexion pick-up squad, who apparently took down Complexity, new-look Complexity, which is, I think, Ryan00b, Huss... Ryan00b and Huss have stayed the same. Descendant is out at Complexity. No idea why. And obviously Spartan is out for the year, pending appeal. And they've picked up Mikwin, who's out at Native Gaming. And somehow Ryan00b has also managed to attempt to reign out of retirement. Don't know why he's managed to do that. And I don't really know how I feel about that, in terms of whether it makes their team better or not. I mean, Reign is a very solid player, a very underrated player. But will it give them enough to replace Spartan? I'm not really sure. Feeds on to our next match-up, which is Complexity versus Scion Esports. Complexity we just went through. Scion Esports is obviously UziZuzi, Rebirth, and Darkmatter. And then we've also got Still Deciding versus Passion United. Still Deciding is Rammy, KingJ coming back, the GOAT, shoutout. Let's go, KingJ. Manny and Collect, and Passion United, Unchanged, Palfeas, Bejesus, BigBlue, and Matthias. I actually don't think that's an Unchanged team, because I think Scuds was on that team before, but could be mistaken. And then we've also got Incognito versus Ascendant Baseline. Incognito is a roster comprising Ascendant, KingNick, Barcode, and Gilkey. Now, a lot of people are saying that that could be New Look Native. If it is, I would assume that Nick isn't going to be on Native Gaming. How so? Because APG's contracted to Native Gaming. And if APG was out, they would have said something, I'm pretty sure. And then Ascendant Baseline is Sylvanic, Boom, Exo, and Ibanez. Next. And that might pretty much wrap it up. Now, obviously, before I alluded to the fact that playing on Thursdays could potentially be a problem when I think the games are supposed to start at 3. The problem as Reverb, shoutout Reverb, friend of the show now, spoke about on Twitter is the fact that he has a full-time job. Playing on a Thursday is not really viable for him, but then also they've qualified for the Thursday. And if they don't play, then they risk potentially forfeiting their chance to get any pro points. And as an up-and-coming organization and team within Halo, Scion Esports obviously needs to compete to the best of their ability. Yeah. He got a reply from Richie Hines, who basically said to him this was the way we've done it since year one. At which point, I can't remember, I can't remember who it was that said to him, was like, yeah, that's fine. But in year one of the HCS, we had 30 organizations playing salaries, and now we have 12. So... You know what I mean? I mean, I think the point Richie Hines was trying to make was that, like, the players didn't want to be playing all day, Saturday and Sunday, which I can get behind. But it's kind of a situation where it will favor, especially in these Opens when there are more of the top-level pro teams, because obviously there's no FaZe, there's no OpSec, there's no SSG, there's no Shopify, Native Gaming's not there in full force. You know what I mean? When these five teams, plus there's probably a few more that I'm not mentioning, when these five teams do get involved, these Thursday slots are going to favor teams that are salaries. Because they don't have to move around, you know, the other things in their life, like their job, which they need to live. So, you know what I mean? But yeah, interesting situations. Obviously, we'll recap of what happens in that next Monday, alongside the eight teams that are going forward to next Thursday. And that's about it for the Halo. Hey, yo. Clean, precise. What more do you want? It's good, that, isn't it? It was very clean. Didn't even practice it or anything. Have you got notes? I have about 150,000 tabs open in Google Chrome, which probably means that my CPU is screaming at me right now to close something. But, you know what I mean? It's bringing up the task manager. It's an iPhone, bro. Like, it can deal with it. Bring up the task manager to see if they're getting any NPOEs. I mean, it does sound like it's about to try and take off. It is what it is, man. You know what I mean? Oh, well. Now you get to listen to me ruin all that with the COD results. Because I stutter and can't get my words out. That's okay, man. We support a stutterer. I don't know if you do. No, I definitely don't. Especially not when it's you, bruv. Yeah, tell me about it. Anyone else. Yeah, like all the time in the world. Take your time to get out what you need to say. Forbes, absolutely no prisoners are taken. Steps up to the mic. You're going to fucking speak yet? Yeah, exactly, bro. You know what I mean? Every day. I'm going to spit at you, Junior. Fucking Forbes constantly getting ego chopped by the English language I am. Actually, it's embarrassing. No, no, no. It's fine because you're not English, isn't it? It doesn't matter. Because you're Scottish. It's the language I was taught and I still don't know it. Yeah, but I mean, I don't think many people do, to be honest with you, bruv. That's a fair point. You know what I mean? I know English people from England that can't speak English. They speak some weird regional dialect. Like people from like the deep, the depths of Yorkshire, bruv. Oh, my days. I can't understand them. Yeah, but you don't want them. You don't want to understand them. No, actually, that is very true. I don't want to understand anything. You don't want to understand what they've got to say. Sorry if you're listening from Yorkshire, but I'm not from there. I'm like, you know what I mean? I'm from Lancashire, bruv. War of the Roses. We don't forget. Right, OK. Right, OK. Oh, dear, man. What's been going on in the Cod, bro? They've been calling the Cod after the War of the Roses. Yeah, man. But I mean, it's like, bruv, I gave you the choice before we started recording. Did you want to follow it after our big topic of the podcast, or did you want to follow it after the Halo, bro? Yeah, you know what I mean? You know what, I'll take War of the Roses over WhatsApp. Yeah, I mean, you know, I would do as well, man. It could have been so much worse. It would have been fucking hilarious, though. You go all a bit old that's coming up, and then me go, right, the Cod. Right, yeah, all that. Yeah, that's mad, that. But did you hear about the Cod results? You know what happened on Friday between the subliners, bro? Oh, dear. Right, here we go. Cod results. Yeah, Friday the 7th of June. Surge won New York Subliners 3. Rocker won Heretics 3. Bays 3. Ravens 2. Shut up, man. I'm so glad that phase clutched that up, because obviously when we were speaking on Friday, you were like, yo, like, yeah, I was like, they won't keep it up. And then inside, I was like, come on, don't embarrass me. I think you were mid-game doing something, and you just went so dead and cold, just like, that won't last. Just like, okay. It is what it is, man. To be fair, you were right, it did not last. But the way that you said it, like, that won't last. I like the Ravens, bro, but they're not quite there yet. Fuck the Ravens at the same time. Yeah, well, yeah, yeah, kind of, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We know. Nothing else really surprising. Surge looked better against New York, but it's New York. We're just too much for them for that day. Saturday the 8th of June, we have Boston 0, Surge 3. New York subliners 0, Legion 3. LAC 2, Ravens 3. Heretics 3, LAG 0. So, as you probably have noticed in that one, the subliners losing 3-0 to the Legion. It's quite a big shot. They're probably the maddest team in the game right now, bro, because you never know what they're about to do. Like, I swear they don't know what they're... What's that striker called, bruv, who plays for West Ham? Antonio. Uh-huh. Like, you know, he did an interview where he was like, they were like... Because isn't he one of these geezers that's going to be like, that's come up from, like, the lower levels of English football? Like, he's played at various different levels of English football, I think. I think so. Someone said to me, like, oh, Antonio, like, how do you stay so unpredictable when you're in the box getting marked by a centre-back? And he was like, well, if I don't know what I'm about to do, then that guy's definitely not going to know what I'm about to do. I feel that's the mantra for the subliners, that they must have that big on the wall in the training room. If they don't know what we're about to do, if we don't know what we're about to do, then they definitely won't. And you know what I mean? You live by the sword, 3-1 in Serge. You die by the sword, getting swept by Legion. I don't know if it was, like, a really bad subliners performance or a really good Legion performance. That's Legion now, two games on the bounce. 0-6, like, 6-0 against Optic and New York. They're doing bits, bro. They're just funnily, like, they've put Johnny into the team and then now it's working. Maybe he is the GOAT. Like, maybe he was the secret sauce that they were missing. Apparently so. He was terrible last time he was in the league. He's going to be on Thieves next year with Ghosty, bro. He comes in, does bits, goes to Thieves. Fucking Thieves. I don't think Ghosty will stay there for much longer. Nah, I think he'll get picked up by a team, to be honest with you. Yeah, well, the Thieves-Ravens game, that went all the way to Game 5. That was quite an interesting watch. What round did it go to? Do you know? I think it was round 11. Oh, really? Oh, okay. So he went right the way then, yeah. I can double check that. Carolina, Thieves. Yeah, it did. Went round to round 11. They won 6-5. Things you love to see. You always love a game 5 round 11. Game 5 round 11 is what separates the men from the boys, 100%. Um, and then we'll move on to Sunday, the 9th of June. We had LAG 0, Phase 3. Ultra 3, Heretics 1. And that was it for the weekend. Was it? Yeah, that was it. Was it really? Apart from the Optic 2, Rocker 3. But we don't talk about that. Do we not? I mean, I think we can talk about that, bro. Why? Um, because I want to speak... Well, I saw something on Twitter, right? I want to get your opinion on it. First, I want to talk about this Heretics, uh, Ultra. Did you see the almost very nearly 1v3 that Insight made? If he got that, that would have been insane. Insight is known for that sort of, like, CDL, the search clutches. He did so well to, like, isolate them. I mean, it was respect that they're showing him as the singular player on the enemy team, right? Which, yeah, I feel you have to do, knowing who he is, right? But, like, the fact that they showed him that much respect and still didn't get the bomb down in a 3v1 when they were on the bomb is insane. Like, you know what I mean? The fact that he almost gunned all three of them was nuts. He must have been literally a bullet off killing that guy that was, like, top AC. I think so, yeah. Is that top AC where he was, or is that top... No, it's not top third, is it? What is that place called where he was? I can't remember. Top church, underneath top AC. No, underneath top third. If you know, you know. Yeah, the ACs, yeah. Yeah, but I don't know if that's top AC or the bit, like, looking at the, um... You know, like, the long high building that kind of looks at the diner? I don't know if that would be top AC. I mean, I think both of them are mostly top AC, that side. Well, yeah, they're all top AC, aren't they? But, yeah, talk to me, man. Optic rocker. Optic. It's 0 for 2, if I'm not mistaken. Yes, 0 for 2 for these qualifiers. It's currently in the lower brackets. I don't know who we're going to go in this week, because last week it was Shotzi. So this week it is... Everybody on Twitter says Pred. Pred? Oh, it's because he was in London, isn't it? You know what I mean? No, he wasn't. He had the purple belly on. I mean, I know I did that joke last week. I'm going to keep doing it, bruv, because that video is fucking hilarious. I just don't know what to say about the Optic game. It's like, the searches, they both went round 11s, but it was like, it was 5-1, I think, in the game 5 search to Optic, or 5-2 or something. The rocker game was 5-2 to rocker. They got it back to 5-5 and then decided to round 11. Nah, we don't want that, no thanks. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely got battered off the map on the Vista hardpoint in game 4. 1-4-4 to 2-50. I don't know, it's just like, they've come out of Major 3. This is like the Optic cycle. You win a Major, you think you're sick, go into the qualifiers, get battered, do a really poor show in the next Major, make a team change, repeat the cycle. Yeah, I feel Optic definitely do seem to suffer from that LAN hangover. You know what I mean? I just don't know what to do. I don't know what to say about it. Do you think it could be because of the people, like the culture that they have around them? That winning is absolutely everything to them. And I don't mean scum and formal and that. Because obviously they know that winning one event means nothing, but winning 10 events means everything. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. I mean, and I don't mean Hex, because he also knows that. I mean all the sort of other backroom people that they have. You know what I mean? Do you think that they bring the trophy back, they do their pieces of content, and they've constantly got these people hyping them up and being like, yo, you're fucking sick, bro. And then it kind of allows that complacency to slip in. You know what I mean? I don't know if it's with the people that are around them or just in their own head. Because it's like, the problem that I find with Shotsu more than anybody is, it's like he blows really hot or really cold. There's never like an in-between. And you think he came out of that major three or went into major three being told he wasn't a superstar by like a lot of people. And then he won that, then it was like, oh, he's a superstar. And it's like, now he's just fallen off a cliff to like hand it back to them to be like, no, I'm not. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't think it's the people around it. I don't think it's the people around her. It's just more like their own issue. Their own mental. Yeah. Which is a good place to pick up on what I wanted to speak to you about. Have you seen Kenny's tweets? Yes. Okay. I don't know if you've seen the quote tweet or not, but obviously the Kenny tweet was something along the lines of on Iron As bottom of the league thinking that they've won a major. Or that was kind of what it was alluded to. Right. And someone quote tweeted and was like. Yeah. I don't see other people doing this shit when they lose an online series. Yeah, the online shit got people with an average placing of last acting funny. Yeah. And it's like, I kind of like, I can kind of see both sides of it. Because obviously Kenny's like, you know, don't forget who we are. And don't forget who you are. You beat us today, but you won't be us tomorrow. Yeah. As in tomorrow, meaning at the next major. But also like, I can understand where this guy's coming from being like, yo, I don't think he's saying this shit. I think you should literally just be like, GG is not a day or something like that. You know what I mean? Or like, GG is a lot of mistakes that we need to, like a lot of mistakes. We made a lot of simple mistakes, like back to the lab or something like that. Right. Because it is just kind of like, I don't know, maybe it ties into that sort of like that mental aspect, that complacency aspect of they're just kind of like, they're going into a game like that. And they're expecting to beat rocker, which they should be doing. But yeah, they're going into it with the wrong kind of mindset and mindset of like, oh, it's fucking rocker. Like, you know what I mean? Fuck it, man. Like, do what you want. We'll beat these guys. We're better. You know? Yeah. I get what you're meaning. So one of the replies was the prize pick daily. There's some fucking boy on Twitter. Shoot straight and win matches, Ken. There's no excuses for losing to either of those teams. He was the only one he replied to. And he was like, I know we're playing bad, but some of this is just hilarious to me. Well, we already come to tourney. These matches are the highlights of some careers, it seems. So it's like they know that they're doing shit wrong. It was like, even as like his tweet after the match was like actual joke of a performance. Gigi's men for Minnesota. So they know that what they're doing is stupid things. But it's like the attitude that some people, it's like you think about John, like the Johnny boy, they've won the first online game. It's like for the split for Legion, like they've been bottom team and they won against and they've won against Optic, the people that won major three fair enough, like well done. He then did like a fucking Fortnite MO. It's like, right. Okay, I get it. You've beaten the major three champions. Okay, you finally won a match. Okay, but it's like you're, you're, you've forgotten about where your entire organization has currently been. And that's struggling the entire year. I mean, in that situation, like maybe it was a case of. He knows he's on a shit team. He knows that bottom of the league. But he also knows that they shouldn't have won. Yeah, you know, I mean, like, maybe, maybe within the league, like, and this is, I feel this is only something you would know if you were either a in the league. They knew someone in the league or see had very close contacts with someone who knew how the players felt. But maybe within the league, there is a feeling of kind of like, I don't know if it's like resentment for optic, because I'm not really sure if that's what you'd call it, but kind of, you know, like, when you just like, I'm going to take you down a fucking peg right now, like that sort of feeling, you know, I mean, yeah, because I mean, optic is optic, like, you know, I mean, like, you know, I mean, that name has weight, wherever it goes. So it's like, maybe it's one of them. I don't know. This one's a speculator. All right. Would you like the fixtures for this upcoming weekend? Hit me with it, bro. Okay, so Friday, the 14th of June, we've got rocker versus New York subliners, optic versus Ravens, and then Boston versus phase. Okay, I'd like to say quite easy runnings and top three wins all around, but I don't know anymore. This is the 14th year? Yes. Okay. Saturday, the 15th of June, Ravens versus heretics. I think that's going to be a good game. Yeah, definitely. LAG versus Boston, surge versus Legion, and also versus LAT. Okay. I'd say heretics to win it, LAG to win it over Boston, because Boston, I'm just so far off the pace. The surge Legion one would be quite an interesting one, because obviously, Legion are running quite a high winning against two top three teams, or top four teams. So they're going to go against surge, who's like the next team to really compete for that, like top five, really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that'll be interesting to see how they come up against them. And then the ultra game against LAT, that'll be quite a three. I think that'll be a three now. Sunday, the 16th of June, we've got ultra versus rocker, LAT versus phase, New York subliners versus optic, LAG versus Legion. So the main game of that weekend will be the New York subliners versus optic. That'll be quite an interesting one, because that's the losers semis rerun. Rematch, yeah. To be honest with you, I have optic in that. Right now, I'd probably put New York. I just think that New York are clearly making mistakes. Yeah. You know what I mean? New York, I feel like they're just prone to making these continuous cascading, catastrophic errors, where one tiny little thing will happen, and then suddenly, they're not in contention for the map. Yeah. You know what I mean? And it might even be four, five, six, seven plays later, but because this one tiny little detail wasn't checked off a minute and a half ago, they're out. You know what I mean? I don't think... I mean, because both optic losses were game five. Yes. That's what you were saying before, and they both went to game... You said they both went to game five. I don't know. They both went to game five. I'm not too sure if they went around 11 on the lead in one. But that's the thing, because... No, it went around nine. What? This weekend, Subliners got swept and went to game four hardpoint with Serge. Like, a Serge? A Serge? If I'm reading that right. Yeah, with Serge, right? So it's like, I feel like Optic should win it on paper. And I think in practice, they're also going to win it because obviously, we just spoke about Subliners making mistakes. And two, Optic coming off the back of two teams that they shouldn't have lost to. Yeah. And then it's like, okay, now we actually play a good team. So let's actually try. You know what I mean? I think that their mentality going into this matchup will be completely different because they're like, it's the Subliners. You know what I mean? Hope so. So anyway, a team made first there, people. Forbes rooting against the team he's loved for his entire life, and me rooting for the team that I really don't like. Don't get used to it, because that's the only time it'll ever happen. Yeah, 100%. Next week, back to business as usual. You know what I mean? Back to usual. During the intro, fuck Optic. Yeah, exactly, bro. You'll be like, yeah, welcome to episode number 30. I'll just be like, yeah, fuck Optic, man. Get them out. Get them out. Don't be worried. It's Blaine here. How you doing, you? First of all, before we even get started, fuck Optic. Today and forever, fuck Optic. But that is it for the fixtures. But if you see me wearing Optic skin on Halo, no, you didn't. It's not me. I think I have seen him wear one before. Because they go hard, bro. I can't lie. Yeah, you know. And plus, I like Optic Halo way more than I like Optic COD. Because you've got the big man on the team. Big man. Speaking of the big man. Wait, which big man are you talking about? Which big man are you talking about? I'm talking about THE big man, bro. Right. That's right. Dead zone. Highest place in 1.92 average place in Infinite. Yeah. That's insane. Actually, right, this is a good point. Because our mutual friend was chatting to us about, obviously, the event last week. Saying about Optic Phase Grand Finals, wasn't it? Yeah, Optic Phase Grand Finals. Talking about how going to the Grand Finals through the losers bracket was such a disadvantage, right? Yeah. Because he was saying to me, he was like, do you not think it would be fairer to do it like in COD? And I was like, no. Because personally, I don't like the way the Grand Finals is done in Call of Duty. But that's just my opinion. I like the double elimination aspect and a reset of the bracket. Because it's really, if you're going into that Grand Finals, best of seven, from the lower bracket, like, it's very much a prove it. Right here and now, that you deserve to leave this room tonight with that trophy. Yeah. Everything that you've done before doesn't matter. You have to prove it now. You know what I mean? And I like that aspect of it. I like the uphill struggle nature of it. And he said to me, he was like, you know, how many teams have done that in Infinite? Do you know how many teams have done that in Infinite? FaZe did it. FaZe did it. In dominant fashion. Yeah. Eight straight. We'll have to go in 2-0 down. But eight straight still. Has SSG done it? SSG has never. They've reset it. They've never won from the reset. So I'd say... Well, SSG smashed Cloud9. Two. Two. Who's the other one? I feel like it's going to be one of the older teams that I don't really know. In 2022, when they did regional finals for LAN events. Oh, Jesus. In the MX regional final, the Pittsburgh Knights came into... So the Pittsburgh Knights was the Taffin Buttons team at the time. I think this was like Taffin Buttons, Pellew... I want to say Acid and Drift. But also I'm not really sure. I know the other team had like Johan. And like, bro, like that went to Game 14 Slayer. Jesus. And then Pittsburgh Knights won. That's the only two that I could find on LAN. Where the team from the losers bracket reset the bracket, right? But that kind of puts it into perspective with this Penguin stat. Because I think he's like 3-11 in grand finals or something like that. Yeah. 3-8 in grand finals. He's been to 11 total. And it's like of the three that he's won, I think he went to all three through the winner's bracket. Of the eight that he's lost, it's like they were all from the lower bracket. Okay. So it really does put it into perspective as to how much of a disadvantage that is, right? So he says to me, he goes... So what he was like, assume that they get rid of the requirement to reset how would you balance it? He was like, what would you do? And I'm like, well, I kind of want your opinion on this, right? Because I think this is a good idea. I was talking to him yesterday. He thinks this is a good idea, right? So best of nine, no reset, best of nine. But the team that goes through the winner's bracket starts 2-0 up. Right. So in effect, the team from the lower bracket obviously has to win five games. Yeah. And the team from the upper bracket only has to win three to win the event. What do you think? I don't know. How many slayers would be involved in that? So I think it's normally... Well, it goes objective, objective, slayer, objective, slayer. And then at best of seven, it goes objective, slayer. So it would be, what, four slayers? But one of them would be off the board immediately. So you would still only play the same amount of slayer games, assuming it went to game nine, as you would in a best of seven, if it went to game seven. If I've done my maths right. I don't know. I don't know how I feel about that. I feel... So obviously, you want the winner's bracket to be an advantage. Yeah, because that's the thing, right? It's like, being in the winner's bracket into the finals, obviously has to still confer some kind of advantage within the Halo system. Yeah. And you also kind of want coming from the loser's bracket to therefore have an inherent disadvantage, or else it's just kind of like... See, the thing that I don't like about the COD system is... There's no advantage. There's no penalty to being in the lower bracket. Apart from the fact that obviously, if you lose, you get sent home. The sense of you have to play far more games, though, as well. Yeah. But then the query with that is like, are you playing so many more games that you end up getting into your flow state? Or are you playing too many games that you burn yourself out? Yeah, exactly. And this is like the balancing act, you know what I mean? Because it's obviously like, if you go to game five, 49-49 Slayer, in the loser's finals, you may be going to be a bit burned out. But if you just blow through that team 3-0, like it's nothing, then maybe you get to the grand finals and you're like, okay, yeah, we're Gucci, we're ready to go. Providing, of course, there isn't like a mad 40-minute wait whilst the other team turns up, sits down, sets up, warms up. Like, you know what I mean? There must be a time limit on how much time they can do that for. I mean, I imagine there must be. But at the same time, like, I don't really know. To be perfectly honest with you, I'm not really sure. If there is, it's probably in the rulebooks somewhere. You think about like the streams and stuff, like there's not that much of a break between games. No, there isn't. But they do fill it with a load of shit, don't they? You know what I mean? Yeah. Because they've got obviously like, from the point where the loser's final ends, you've got recap of that, of what happened. Like an outro for that. Then it goes to a five-minute ad break. And then you've got an intro into the series. Then, what is that, intro into the series. Then they get an analyst to talk about matchup, key players that they want to talk about. And then like, if they did in London, like they got everyone off the stage and took them out to the fucking loading dock by the bar, to then walk them all back in again to sit them down at the station so Guy Blayes could introduce everyone one by one. Which I'm not saying is a bad thing, because obviously it's part of the showmanship and like the pageantry of it. But at the same time, you've got to think in it, like that would be something that would actively take you out of the flow state. Yeah, it would do. Yeah. And if there's like, what, four or five things there. So like, if each one only took five minutes, you're talking 20, 25 minutes. Maybe even 30, 40 minutes, I guess. I don't know. No, do I. So I imagine it would be somewhere around 20 minutes, but yeah, certainly an interesting one. Definitely. Yeah, I think that's it. I think that's it. Definitely. But yeah, man. Well, that's me done with the cod. If you'd like to take us on to our main topic of the... Main topic of the evening. Yeah, thought about different ways to approach this, right? But you know what I mean? I thought it definitely... Like 100%. You know what I mean? I thought about maybe addressing this in the form of... What I'm about to tell you is all about this. I thought about just going straight for the facts. I thought about coming out swinging. Thought about standing on the soapbox. Like, I've put a lot of thought into it, right? But ultimately, what this boils down to is control. What we're about to talk about next and... Control. Control. Not the game mode, but like... I mean, yeah, it could be the game mode. I don't think it is, personally. But, you know, control of public image. Control of people. Control of the narrative. There you go. Public image and people, that's point A. Point B is the narrative. Okay, yeah. Of course, what we are talking about now is Saudi Arabia, the Public Investment Fund, eSports and sports washing. I'm going to try and not get too political into this. I'm going to try facts, not opinions and feelings, because I think it's important to talk about the facts. Yeah, it's all bogged down in thought, where we don't want to state the facts that are the matter. You know what I mean? It's like, I feel pretty passionate about this. I think that this is something that needs to be talked about. Probably, we're not going to be the only people talking about this. But, you know, I would. But I think it's an interesting thing to talk about. And I think it's important that people know what's happening. So, this is obviously, like, we live in the UK. We're both, well, like, you're heavily involved in football. I'm kind of- Heavily? Well, heavily. I say heavily, as in, like, you watch games when it's on every week. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? I will watch games occasionally, but it's pretty hard to escape the football narrative in the UK. Yes, 100%. It's quite a big culture. Obviously, a term like sports washing, we're familiar with what that means, because we've seen the takeover of Newcastle United. Which, you know, maybe you've seen on the news recently, that there's also the possibility of a 400 million quid takeover of Everton from a Saudi consortium. Oh, really? Yes. What's the Saudi consortium called? I don't know. Now, you see, that would be interesting, right? Because of what I'm about to tell you, yeah? Because- See if I can find it. Well, the consortium with the Saudi royal. Oh, right. Yeah. Okay, that's fine. That's all I need to know, right? Because we can- and this will be interesting to come back to in a little bit, before we get on to the really heavy stuff. But this first came to my attention on- I mean, I'd known about some stuff that the Saudis were doing with esports, because I'd seen a couple of promoted tweets talking about how Riyadh was going to be the global center of esports going forward. And you know what I mean? All this, that, and the other. And at the time, I remember seeing it and thinking, that's interesting. But Saudi Arabia is not doing too great right now. You know what I mean? Are they not? No, bro. No, they're not. I mean, they want you to think that they are. But I'm gonna play dumb here. Why are they not doing so well? We'll talk about that. Don't worry. Don't worry yourself. We'll get into that. We'll go through that. I'm going to pretend to be the crowd as you do your TED talk, okay? That's okay. Why not? Why are they not doing well? So on June the 7th, the esports awards, you know, esports awards who have awarded Dan Gaskin, who have awarded Bravo, both Halo casters, who accepted a nomination from Bound. It was either the best controller player or best newcomer of the year. I can't quite remember which. But, you know what I mean? They, you know what I mean? I think they gave Faker like a lifetime achievement. They've given recognition to big names in the overall esports community. They've shown recognition to people in the Halo esports community. I'm, you know, I'm assuming they've also shown stuff to the COD community. I'm pretty sure Puckett won something from them once. And they were hosted by Goldenboy, who I feel like, you know, whichever esport it is that you're interested in, there are a couple of names that everybody knows. I feel like one of them is Goldenboy, right? So on the 7th of June, the esports awards announced a historic esports event named... Oh, sorry. This is the headline of the article. Historic esports event named new host world's most prestigious night in the esports calendar. And then the press release goes on. I'm not going to read the whole press release because not a lot of it is relevant. But the bit that is relevant is this first bit here. The Esports Award and the Esports World Cup Foundation, remember that, have announced a three-year partnership that brings the world's most prestigious esports award ceremony and platform to the Esports World Cup. The world's largest gaming festival set to take place this summer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Okay. And then all hell broke loose on Twitter. Yeah. Because a lot of their talent said they weren't going to rep it anymore, Goldenboy included. Yeah. A lot of people had opinions on this. Like we, well, like I do, you know what I mean? You can decide whether you have an opinion on it or not after we finish speaking. You know what I mean? It's completely okay whether you agree with me or you disagree with me. But I looked at this and I was like, Esports Awards, Saudi Arabia, Esports World Cup. It's all a bit, you know what I mean? It's all looking a bit dodgy. It's all looking a bit dicey. So you might be asking, what is the Esports World Cup? Well, they've provided a nice, super slick, you know what I mean, website to take you through it. Right. So the Esports World Cup is an elite multi-genre Esports competition that will take place annually in Saudi Arabia from 2004 to 2024 during July and August in a world-class venue in Riyadh, Boulevard City. Boulevard City. And this tournament has the most ridiculous prize pool I've ever seen. 60 million plus dollar prize pool. 30 plus Esports clubs. 19 titles. 2,000, over 2,000 of the best Esports players in the world. Like this is a huge, huge event, right? You remember when... So let me take you through what's going to be involved first. So we've got Apex Legends. You remember that recent team pickup from Team Falcons? Yes. Counter-Strike 2. Dota 2. EA Sports SC24. ESL. I'm not sure what ESL is. E-S-L. ESL. I think it's something like a racing game or something because it says the format is races. Fortnite. Free Fire. League of Legends. Honor of Kings. I have to look that one up. Honor of Kings has got a... It's a MOBA that you play on your mobile. ESL is Counter-Strike 2. Is it? Yeah. So they got Counter-Strike 2 and Counter-Strike 2. ESL Pro League. Founded in 2015, the game. Counter-Strike 2. No idea then, but it's going to be there. I've no idea what that is because the logo is incredibly small, but I can work out the word mobile top and it's called MSC. It's the Mid-Season Cup. That's got a $3 million prize pool. A lot of these games that have these big prize pools, they are mobile games. There's one here, this one really I thought was interesting. The only... I can't work out what this esport is, right? And you can't... This website, as nice as it is on the surface, there is no depth to it whatsoever. You can't click on any of these... Isn't it like hyperlinks? Yeah, you can't click on anything to see what this actually is, right? Okay. But it says very clearly at the top is the word women. Oh no. Again, interesting. Overwatch 2. PUBG Mobile. $3 million prize pool. PUBG Battlegrounds. $2 million prize pool. Rainbow Six Siege. Rocket League. Starcraft 2. Street Fighter. Team Fight Tactics. And Tekken 8. Those are the confirmed titles that are going to be taking place. I did see something about Call of Duty might be doing... Might be getting involved as well. I'm not sure how that will work because obviously... I saw a lot of speculation on Twitter about like, are Team USA going to run the pockets of the world because they've got all of these people? And then someone was like, no, Team Canada is going to be better. You know what I mean? If they play in the CDL, I don't think they'd be able to play in this. No. Because I'm 99% sure it's in every CDL contract that they're not allowed to play for money anywhere but the CDL. Yeah. So I don't know what's going on with that. But obviously, you know what I mean, bro? Like, how much did I say that prize pool was? $60 million, over $60 million. So the question is, right, who's funding this? Yeah. Would you like to know who's funding it? Of course I would. The Public Investment Fund, who own Newcastle United, who... And I will explain why this is. If they buy it, it will also be owned in Everton. Sorry, I just let a cough and I did that directly into the mic. That was probably horrible for the listeners. It's horrible for me. It's horrible for you. So, you know, what is the PIF? So the PIF is an investment fund. Again, super slick website. Has $925 billion US dollars. That's a billion with a B, worth of assets under management. And the PIF is an instrumental part in achieving the goals of Vision 2030, which is a Saudi governmental program which aims to achieve the diversification of the economy and, you know what I mean, of Saudi Arabia. Because obviously, Saudi Arabia, a lot of its money comes from oil production. Yeah. You know, there's a lot of things that can go wrong with that. You know, the oil might run out. Everyone might start driving EVs. Suddenly, you know what I mean, people don't want to buy oil anymore for whatever reason. There's a new type of plastic invented that, you know what I mean, like... Oil becomes scarce. Yeah, oil becomes scarce. There's a lot of things that can go wrong, right? So the Saudi government's idea to diversify the economic, you know what I mean, to diversify what they can do economically and therefore secure the economic future of the country has got to be commended because it's a brave step. They've got, you know what I mean, they've got a plan. They know what they're doing. They know how to execute it. They're going to do it by investing $925 billion worldwide. They're going to buy football teams. They're going to do this. They're going to do that. They're going to host eSports events. You know what I mean? They're doing all of this stuff, right? Except that they're doing it because of the other stuff that they're also doing, which is operating one of the most authoritarian regimes in the world anymore. So the guy that's in charge of the PIF, which is the public investment fund, on their website, this is the Saudi Vision 20, again, really nice website. Their web design is actually very nice, it's very flashy, but, you know what I mean, remember when I said this is about control, right? It's not about control. It's about control. It's about control. It's about control. It's about control. It's about control. It's about control. It's about control. It's about control. So the first quote on this page is from custodian of the two holy mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who is obviously the king of Saudi Arabia. And then you scroll down a little bit and you get the main man, who is his royal highness, Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, crown prince, prime minister, and chairman of the Council of Economic and Developmental Affairs. Now, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is a gentleman that we've spoken about before on the podcast, if you are a long-time listener, I think we mentioned him a while ago. And he is, in effect, the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia. Everything that goes on in Saudi Arabia, everything, He has authority. He has authority over. He is the number one guy. He's the top of the food chain. Anything that he wants to happen, happens. And that includes the, you know, all the not-so-savory things that they do. So kind of going back to the beginning, what is sports washing? Sports washing is utilizing sports, eSports, eSports are a sport, to cover up and distract from the bad things that someone is doing, right? It's a definition for any listeners that are unfamiliar with the term. And, like, when you talk about bad people, bro, the Saudis are pretty fucking bad. I'm talking gunning down people at the border bad. Indentured servitude, bordering on human trafficking bad. Crimes against humanity bad. Assassinating journalists in other countries and doing some pretty horrible things to them, bad. Women are second-class citizens bad. And, you know what I mean? Like, these are some pretty fucking bad people. And this is the people that eSports as a whole is taking money from. To shore up the long-term commercial viability of the industry. Yeah. Like, and when you get into bed with people like this, that's never a good thing. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's good for a lot of trouble. It just opens the door for so many potential, like, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, it's, you know, on the one hand, I can understand it from these organizations and the players and, like, you know what I mean? Like, you want to talk about Ronaldo going to whichever team in Saudi it is that he plays for. Guys, at the end of his career, opportunity to go and play in a league, hot country, loads of money. You know what I mean? Insane, obscene amounts of money. Shit tons of money. Shit tons of money. Why would you say no to that? Yeah. You know what I mean? Imperial, how? Joining an absolute god squad. Probably on an insane amount of money. We don't really know because we don't know the ins and outs of a contract in eSports. Like, we do in the regular sporting world. Messi being paid to promote Saudi Arabia. $25 million over three years. Didn't even have to play there, just asked to promote him. Like, five social media posts a year or something. Kevin De Bruyne talking about how the fixture list in the UK has got so bad and in European football has got so bad. That you can go to Saudi, earn all of this money, and not have to put his body through hell to do it. And it's like, this is cool, right? Like, you know what I mean? Again, you're getting the point, right? You are shoring up the long-term sustainability of your organization. You can afford to put together an absolute god squad of players and win a championship. Yeah. But at what cost? You know what I mean? At what cost, man? And like, this is like, in my opinion... I know I said I wasn't going to try and get into opinions and stuff, but like, in my opinion, this is the issue that the wider world kind of has. Because Saudi Arabia, the public investment fund, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have so much money that it makes it very hard to say no. Definitely. Yeah, 100%. And because you're getting so much money, it's incredibly easy to turn a blind eye to everything else that they're doing. Everything else that they're doing. You know what I mean? Yeah. And it's like, I don't know, man. Obviously, I want esports to succeed. I want to see players get the recognition they deserve. But I don't particularly want it like this. No, you don't want Saudi involved. No. Like, you know what I mean? I mean, like, you know, it's very easy to sit here and, from a Western view of the world, go, this is wrong. You know what I mean? Yeah. But at the same time, like, because, I mean, let's call a spade a spade, right? There are things that the UK does, which I'm like, yo, what the fuck? The things that the US does, which I'm like, I'm not happy with that. Yeah. You know what I mean? Things that China does that I'm like, where are we going with this, boys? You know what I mean? But like, this is like, fucking next level, in my opinion. Yeah, it's getting dangerous. It's just kind of like, I don't know, man. Like, you know, a fantastic video that I watched earlier, it's called Saudi Arabia is poisoning eSports, we should care. It's called by Sideshow Valorant. He's a mad-looking guy with a nutty mustache. He kind of looks like he's like a magician in the 1910s. But a lot of what he says is very valid. One of the things that he says is that, like, you know, when part of this Vision 2030 thing is to bring in, like, reform, not just economically, but like, culturally and socially? Yeah. And it's like, in Saudi Arabia, women are now allowed to drive and go to a football game. And that's a good thing. That's a dub. You know what I mean? And it's just like, what the fuck? Like, that's fucking, like, to me, from where I'm from, the fact that in fucking 2023, they're allowing that, as in, like, they've only just allowed that, is wild. And that's just like, basic low-level shit. And that's just like, basic low-level shit, before you get into the crimes against humanity and chopping up journalists and fucking consulates and stuff. You know what I mean? They're hidden behind a money wall. Yeah. And it's just like, how much, like, where does it stop, man? You know what I mean? Like, where does that line essentially get drawn? Where does it get drawn, yeah. Yeah. Because, you know what I mean, the UFC, events in Riyadh. WWE, events in Riyadh. Boxing, events in Riyadh. Fucking, what was it, Club World Cup? In Riyadh. Weren't they trying to get the Champions League final? In Riyadh. And it's just like, bro, like, this is wild. Like, you know what I mean? They want it to be, like, the sort of, like, sporting and entertainment hub of the world. Which is fine, right? But it's like, how can you do that? And then all of a sudden, like, and then also have all these underlying issues. It's like, you know what I mean? Like, bro, like, I'm not... If I was a woman, I wouldn't feel comfortable going to Saudi Arabia. No. If I was a gay man, I would definitely not fucking feel comfortable going to Saudi Arabia. No, not at all. Like, you know what I mean, bruv? Like, but it's like, if you're opening the world, if you're opening your country to the world, I feel like you can't have these kinds of things going on. No, not at all. But they're not going to deal with it. No, because everything starts and stops with the Crown Prince. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's just fucking wild, mate. But, you know what I mean? I mean, like I said, man, I urge anyone to go and watch this Saudi Arabia is poison esports video. There's a lot of really good videos out on YouTube. If watching a video isn't your thing, you know, quick Google search for Saudi Arabia human rights abuses brings up multiple pages from Amnesty International. You know, well, yeah, multiple pages from Amnesty International. Other reputable sources talking about it. You know, Google, let me make sure I get this name right. This is the important one. Google Jamal Khashoggi. If you want to know what happened with him. Right. Go and research what it is that these people have got going on. Form your own opinion. Wild. Some wild things. It's just nuts, man. Like, yeah. And I think that, like, I mean, I understand it, right? Because money is money. But at the same time. Sometimes it comes at a higher cost, you know? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I know, but what are you saying about what you think is wild? It's wild, but it's just they're slowly trying to diversify themselves and take over and get a finger in every pie they can. Did you know, right, that the PIF had a 10% investment into Heathrow Airport, for example? I didn't know that. I found out today. Did you also know? In Terminal 5. Well, I'm not going to lie to you, right? Like, I've been to a few different, like, I'm not going to lie to you, right? Like, I've been to a few different, like, you know, Middle Eastern countries. Yeah. They do culturally love the designer product. I can't lie to you. They sure do. And when, like, I found out, I was like, it kind of does explain Terminal 5. You know what I mean? I was like, I can see that. I can see the investment going to good use there. Um, they also have a large investment in a company called BlackRock, which I found very interesting. I can't lie to you. Because BlackRock is one of these sort of, like, shadowy hedge fund super companies that owns literally everything. It is. Um. Fantastic. And I was like, oh, right. Okay, it's all kind of started. I'm starting to see the fucking, you know what I mean? The trail of money is leading into very interesting places here. Because this public investment fund really does have its fingers in everything. You know. I mean, maybe, maybe, maybe it's super cynical. And maybe the Saudi Arabian government and, you know, therefore, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is, you know what I mean? Maybe their intention is to start to become a more progressive nation. You know what I mean? I think that's also wishful thinking. If they're going to do that, they should deal with the underlying stuff first. Yeah, like not gunning down Ethiopians at the border. That would be a start. Clean your house and then start to branch out. Yeah. But you know what I mean, Ruv? It's just, it's just wild to me. And like, I completely sympathize with all of these people that are saying that they don't want to work for the Esports Awards anymore. If this is what they're going to be involved with. Yeah. 100%. You know, I, I know I said that stuff about like the football players and obviously the Esports. I don't think that. As an individual, if you are comfortable being a part of that and understanding that, and understanding what it is that you're being a part of, then that is fair enough. As an organization, I think some of the Esports organizations need to hold themselves to a way higher standard. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like I've seen on the website there that like FaZe Counter-Strike is confirmed. The FaZe Counter-Strike players want to go and play for that amount of money. Fair. It's their choice. They know what they're signing up for. I don't think that the company should be endorsed in that shit. No. But, you know what I mean? It's their choice at the end of the day, I suppose. I know. What the fuck, what do I know, bruv? Yeah, what do you know? I just sit here, you know, looking at stuff on the internet. Chatting boffles. Yeah, basically just talking shit. But yeah, that was a bit of a fucking heavy topic. I'm really glad I don't have to follow that with the card. See, aren't you glad that I gave you the choice? Yeah, if you dropped your card. Halo or Saudi Arabia. If we started it and then dropped that on me, I would have never been able to follow with the card. Nah. I'd be like, no, no card this week. Because that situation is a madness. It's actually wild. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's so fucking difficult to try and be like, try and talk about OpTic losing to ROKR if he's just gone, yeah, Saudis and that, you know? Gunning Ethiopians down to the border. Yeah, right, no worries. OpTic 2, ROKR 3. Yeah, exactly, man. Yeah. Well, I think that might be one of our heaviest topics yet. Yeah, 100%, bro. That's definitely one of the heavier ones. Obviously, to the listeners, I feel like it's important to talk about stuff like this. Yeah. I feel, you know what I mean? I feel like it's important to... I don't want to say raise awareness because that's what this is, right? Like, this is... It's not raise awareness, it's just make it, it's like... It's like, I wanted to talk about this because I think this is, personally, I think this is fucked. Yeah. Personally. That's why I wanted to talk about it on the podcast. You know, if you also think it's fucked, cool. If you think I'm talking a load of shit and I should keep my nose out of it, cool. That's fine. I just wanted to talk about it because... It's something that you have an opinion on. It's something I, you know what I mean? It's something I have an opinion on, like... And you don't want to just let it go underneath the carpet and forget about it. No, no, no, no, no, like, you know what I mean? Like, you know what I mean? I mean, it's just... It's just a madness, bro. Like, that's all there is to say about it. Like... But... There's a lot of that going around, isn't there? There is. Literally, I swear to God, bro, like, every day I'm like, this is... The next day, the maddest shit in my life. You know what the maddest shit I saw? What's that? What's that? That camel going down the zipline again, bro. What the hell, bro? It's just amazing. Fucking do the outro. Fuck this camel. The outro? That video, is it? It's just Twitter video, bro. Twitter videos. Amazing. Twitter's just getting wilder and wilder. Here, I'll tell you what, right, before we go. Twitter videos. I don't know if this happens to you or whether it's just... But, like, when I, like... You know, like, when, like, you scroll over the video and it'll play in the little window? Yeah. And then you can obviously turn the sound on and view it within the feed. Or you can open it. And obviously it views it full screen. Every time I now open it, it just leaves, like, the fucking play pause button on the big, in the middle. And then, like, the timeline on the bottom and I have to, like, double tap the screen. So, you know what I mean? I have to press it once to open it and then press it once to get the overlay to go. And I'm like, I swear that never used to happen. Maybe it's your phone, though. It could be. As we established about London, that your phone... It has its moments. It definitely has its moments, but... It's ropey at the best of times. No, my phone's, like, 99% of the time it's chilling. That one time it... Yeah, when that one... Freaks the fuck out. Yeah, that one time you could send a carrier pigeon by the time it loads up your Snapchat. Yeah, well, that's just Snapchat, though. Goodness. Everything else it's fine with. Like, it's just that app specifically it doesn't really like. But then, like, I guess that's because it's power usage and shit, isn't it? Because it's, like, when you open it and try... I mean, I am... Yeah. Because if this was my computer and I was, like, fuck's sake, every time I open Chrome, it, like, goes wild. It just slows the fuck down. I'd... Be getting a new one. Sure. But here's what it is. Well, yeah, any closing thoughts, bruv? Anything you want to say? No. No? Not really. Fucking sody. So that was it. Episode 29. Thanks for listening, people. I hope you found something of interest. I don't want to say enjoyed it. I hope you found it within the podcast. Obviously, let us know what you thought. TeamNadePod on Twitter, slash X, whatever you want to call it. But yeah, you know what I mean? Stay safe out there, people. And we'll catch you next week.