Join us here at LeagueFeed.net as we explore the fast and shifting world of esports and the profound personal impact it can have. Our host, Ryan Gallagher, has an in-depth discussion with esports trailblazer David Graham of Valhallan in an exclusive video interview. David discusses Valhallan’s lofty goals–highlighting the organization’s dedication to esports as a vehicle for youth growth.
When it comes to David Graham’s vision, the limits of traditional competitive gaming don’t apply. He covers topics around Valhallan’s mission: To use the power of esports to help mold young people into strong, independent adults. Rather than viewing gaming as an isolated activity, Valhallan takes a fresh tack by emulating teamwork and camaraderie seen in more conventional sporting settings.
Come with us and explore the impact of gaming beyond solo play, delving into the educational aspects of the esports scene. If you want to listen along or watch the full interview head over to YouTube and enjoy:
Read the interview transcription…
Ryan:
This is the LeagueFeed.net interview podcast. My name is Ryan Gallagher. Today we have David Graham with us from Valhallan, and he’s going to explain just a little bit about what he does inside our gaming realm. So. Take it away, David. I think you’re more than ready to share.
David:
Thank you. So, within the esports world, what we’re really focused on is using esports as a mechanism to make kids better human beings. And so, they love to play the games. They love competition. Some kids are not, you know, acclimated or I guess set up to be sports guys and sports girls. So, we get them in and give them a way to get all those benefits of being in a traditional sport environment, but through video games and think that’s kind of power and beauty of the inclusive nature of the esports world, is that just about anybody can do it, given, you know, some good coaching, some good guidelines and a safe and non-toxic environment to thrive in. And that’s what we found.
Ryan:
Awesome! So when did you start Valhallan? How long has it been going on and where are you? Where are you today?
David:
We started at about the end of last year sometime, really trying to put our full heart into it. Let’s say we had some ideas before that and put together what it means. How do we want it to work as a business model? There’s a part of us that, you know, are entrepreneurs, and we want to make sure that it works for our franchisees. And then there’s also the part, like wholeheartedly, we want the kids to get something of value out of it, not just lip service to all these things that we’re talking about. So, we took about six months and put together a curriculum, put together a plan, put it into action, and found out like half of it didn’t work. Right. So okay, we went back to the drawing board, really nurtured and kind of fleshed it out and got it to where the kids were having a blast. Parents are seeing that this is the real thing. This isn’t just more game time, more screen time. This is actually, you know, changing their kids’ attitudes. They’re coming out of their shell a little bit more around family members. They’re able to talk in situations at the dinner table when they are a little bit shy. And you see people making friends and networking and, and doing all these things where it just wasn’t happening before, you know, they would kind of just go to their dark dungeon room and talk to their buddies online. But you didn’t know who those people were. It could have been a 53-year-old talking to a 13-year-old, and you wouldn’t know. And so, with our network and the way we do it, it just opens up that opportunity for parents and kids to get behind something equally at the same time.
And it shows the value. And so that’s really what we’ve done. And now we’re somewhere around the 65-unit range sold and probably have about 40 units open in the United States by the end of the year, 30 or 40. It’s a little bit slow with the permits and things that are out of our control. But yeah, we’ll have a bunch of arenas in the United States for sure, but wow.
Ryan:
So, when you say units, what is that like a franchise location?
David:
That’s right. So, a franchisee will have a small lobby, some set up for mom and dad to watch the tournaments. They’ll have 30 to 40 PCs. This isn’t a LAN center. So, throw that kind of concept out the window. This is training. We’re specifically bringing kids in at prescribed times, giving them a coach that they’re going to work with for 3 to 6 months at a time, going through a prescribed curriculum, getting them better at the game and stages whatever game they choose, and then also teaching them four other pillars, which are community, leadership, communication and teamwork. And those are just as important, if not more, than the actual game mastery, which is the fifth pillar.
Ryan:
Definitely. So, I mean, there’s so much to unpack in what you just said, but I think the main thing is, I had never thought of this concept before, but one of our writers interviewed another guy by the name of Jay Melamed. I don’t know if I’m not saying his name right, but he has a similar concept called XP League, and that was the first time I’ve ever heard of something like this.
David:
I was the principal investor in XP League.
Ryan:
Really? That’s cool.
David:
I know it well. Yeah, well he’s not with XP anymore but.
Ryan:
Oh really? No way.
David:
Way.
Ryan:
Okay. Yeah. That means our writer, Andrej, did the interview. I don’t know what it was a couple months ago. Maybe more. Um, yeah, maybe even in the springtime, before the summer. But, yeah, that was the first time I ever heard of the concept, but immediately it made sense to me. So, like, what do you think is a little different?
David:
We’re different from XP League in a few different ways? Yeah. So. Okay.
Ryan:
Yeah. Go ahead. Go into that.
David:
One of the reasons that I’m not an investor in XP League anymore, is that I felt like there were some things that, you know, I think there’s space for both of us. I don’t want to talk ill of anybody. I think that the way they do it is a little bit different in that they take a mobile first kind of approach. So, they have laptops, they go to a school, a library, a church they set up, and then kids come there, and we took an arena approach where we build out these locations in brick-and-mortar locations and you invest time, energy, furniture, fixtures, equipment, get all the, you know, fastest computers and best technology and put it in there. And we have a fixed approach. I think our approach is a little bit better for multiple reasons, but you can hold a birthday party at our location. You can’t do it in their van. You know, it’s a little bit different in that regard. Until very recently they weren’t on a subscription service. They were in a full season. So much like t ball, you would pay for a season. And then after that season you could just opt out. We think it takes longer to get what we want to accomplish done. And so, we took a more like a yearlong approach to teaching kids. And so, you need to come in. We financed that year monthly for our parents. And so, they can be a part of a bigger, broader strategy. And then the last thing I would say is different is our league and the esports league is big. It’s got probably 4000, 5000 teams that play every season.
And then, you know, however many kids that is I don’t know, it’s somewhere in the 15,000 kids’ range. And they’re not just made up of all Valhallen kids. We have the same ethos. Everybody that’s in there must be coach led. That must be non-toxic, zero tolerance for bullying, all those things. But there are schools that do not participate in the Valhallen arenas across the country now, we’re also in the UK and the EU as well. So, theirs is just their locations, their mobile units participating. So, a little bit different.
Ryan:
Yeah, that’s good to know. I’m obviously pretty new to the concept. But again, I think it makes sense in general that being in school, it works for certain kids, and it doesn’t work for other kids. There are gaps that are filled by extracurricular activities. A lot of the time, whether you know, it’s football, baseball, and now you have options like this, you know, if gaming is your thing and increasingly that’s becoming more kid’s things. So, who are you finding are the parents and the kids who come to you most often? Who is your customer base?
David:
You’d be surprised. Yeah, something like 75% of all kids stop doing any kind of organized sport or activity after the age of 11. And so, that’s a massive number of kids. Like it’s the, you know, major majority. And so, we’re not targeting just the kids that are, you know, in their rooms and they’re the kind of edge case scenarios. It’s really the predominance of all kids out there. And now most of the kids have tried, you know, soccer, t ball, baseball, basketball and didn’t like it for one reason or another. And now this is their competitive part of it, right? I mean, it’s what they’re really getting charged about, you know, teamwork and making some friends around a common goal kind of stuff. But we do have a lot of sportspeople, a lot of sports kids come to us who are good athletically, and then they already know what it means to work on a team and be coached. How you remain coachable and take good advice. You know that kind of stuff. So, ask for good advice. Yeah, you know, so many of those kids come in and they don’t even know how to ask, or they don’t know how to take that advice in the right way. And that’s part of our objective here. But, you know, don’t think we’re targeting a specific kid in that regard because it is so just wide open right now. 80% of kids play games. I mean, it’s crazy. Yeah, as far as the parent’s side, you know, one of the things we hear most commonly is I wish this was available when I was a kid. I would have totally done this.
You know, I wasn’t a sports kid. I was kind of just left to my own devices and didn’t have anything like this. And this is perfect, you know? And I think that’s a really powerful testimonial, kind of like a multi-generational testimonial. And frankly, it’s my story. That’s why I kind of dug the idea from the beginning, I was not a super athlete. I was not, you know, my claim to fame was winning pentathlon in fifth grade, right? I mean, I was a nerd, I was and so being, you know, now nerd culture kind of caught up to me, you know, like finally I’m the, you know, have some claim to fame here. Um, and so I think, I think there’s a lot of that going on right now as far as parents are concerned. Yeah.
Ryan:
Yeah. And I know for me, my parents, it’s hard to conceptualize because, when I talk about video games or something with my dad, it’s like he’s only played me at Madden, then lost like 70 to 80% of the times he’s played me and like, you know, Marvel versus DC universe on the PS3, like fighting and you know, we’d whoop him, me and my brother. So, it’s like he doesn’t really get it. So how do you conceptualize that for parents that, you know, don’t see a need for this or like, do you bring them in to show them what’s going on or how do you break that barrier?
David:
We have the Boomer league too. So for the adults to come in and play on the PCs and participate just for fun, only it’s a little bit competitive, but we all suck. So, whatever. And that’s kind of fun too. But the way we really do that is like making it a very low bar to entry, right? We say, look, I know, you don’t get it. Come in for a week and try it out. Like, sure, whatever. We play different games on different days. I don’t know what your kids into Fortnite, your kids into, you know, Valorant, whatever it is, come into all of them. Just sit through it. You know, it’s an hour and a half class, two hours sometimes sit through. If they like it, they like it. If they don’t, they don’t. And if you don’t see the value after that, hey, like, we didn’t do our job right, you know, no harm, no foul. But at least the worst thing that happens is they have a good time, you know. And so, I think you just have to do that low bar approach because, you know, it is kind of unorthodox. It’s a 0 to 1 kind of idea. It’s not something they’ve heard of before. And the value proposition is hard to make to like to let your kid play another hour and a half of video games. On the mom’s radar. You know it’s not the dads. By the way, you said, dad, how do I convince dad? It’s always mom. 75% of all household income, the discretionary income is spent by the mom. And so that’s who we really have to convince. You know, dad’s pretty much like, let kid do whatever he wants, you know, like, yeah, mom’s like, do you really need another hour of gaming?
You’re already always on that thing, you know, kind of approach. So, we have to show just what I said at the beginning of the call is that this isn’t just more gaming. This isn’t just more screen time. This is productive screen time with an agenda, an ulterior motive, if you will, of making them better human beings.
Ryan:
Yeah, it’s wild. Up until now and even still now, like, we’re kind of in the such early stages with gaming because, you know, with any other sport that’s new or any other organization that’s new, you would have, pretty much like set rules of how when this takes place, where it takes place, things like that, how to do it. Some like code of conduct and just general things like that. And I think with it, like especially with the internet and in gaming too, it’s like you don’t really have these spelled out rules as much. Yeah.
David:
So, like in matchmaking, what do you need? Why do we need a schedule? Right. Um, but I think there is some value in working within an organization, a structure that’s been laid out, tracking your progress over time, finding friends that want to work together and build. Build a team that is better than just, you know, randoms that you matchmake with online. You know, your ego is fine and all that, but, like, do you know how this guy plays? Like, that’s a whole different story, right? Sure.
Ryan:
Sure. Yeah. I mean, it’s like getting to know people. There’s working to a common goal, like you said, and then also doing it in a way that, like just kind of increases, well, increases your skills and increases like more than just gaming, like you said. I think that’s kind of the main difference for me when I’m thinking about, you know, leagues like this and the benefits of them. Yeah. That’s kind of where my mind goes.
David:
My analogy is like if you play Lacrosse. Okay. Lacrosse is kind of popular now. Soccer, kind of popular now. But, you know, 20 years ago, nobody played either one of those really. And people kind of leaned on. Well, at least they’re outside exercising. Yeah. They’re doing something. Well, I think the kind of at least they’re here is at least they’re playing with their friends. At least they’re in a safe, non-toxic environment. And I think this industry is going to grow into what we know, as, you know, soccer, lacrosse and all these kind of ancillary sports, pickleball getting a lot of traction right now, all these kind of ancillary sports that are getting picked up are going to become the baseball, you know, and the football and the, you know, in soccer, in lacrosse and all that stuff moves up the rank. And we kind of fill in that next step. So, I think it’s just very new. I think it’s, you know, not evergreen in the minds of, of parents right now. But we’re working on it. We’re changing that, you know, as much as we can.
Ryan:
So, who are the main leaders of the organization? Is it mainly you or do you have some other like leaders and partners who kind of like driving the goals and the next steps of Valhallan?
David:
We have a very robust team, you know, my company franchise. Or you can see it on my shirt. Here is a franchising company. We own 4 or 5 different brands. So just from a business perspective, we have a leadership team that manages the kind of work on the business. Like how do you read panels, how do you build over time? How do you make a better business? So, there’s tons of people, we’re 50 people or so that work on just that. Um, how do you get open? All that kind of stuff is kind of a little bit generic in the sense that it’s not brand specific, right? For any business. And we have all that kind of tucked away and have for years. So, we brought in subject matter experts, um, a few different people that are in VP positions that work for TSM that have started their own organizations within the esports space. And so, a few different people like that. Awesome. Luke Zelon was one of them. He worked for TSM. Chris Barstad started his own league and then it kind of got bought by another company and then we acquired that company. So, we merged 2 or 3 of these huge leagues together to create an esports league.
Ryan:
And the people like yourself and some of the other guys that you mentioned. What games are you guys playing in your or personally like what gets you guys excited about furthering, you know, Valhallan and this business.
David:
Well, I think if you’re going to have an esports platform, you’re really going to make esports grow. You gotta do it kind of at the grassroots level. I think we’ve seen over the last five years, you know, taking this huge private equity venture capital approach to esports probably wasn’t the right tactic to go in. If you want to win the hearts and minds and actually monetize consumers, you have to go in a different way. And I think that’s one of the most exciting things I think we’re doing is we are actually taking the harder route to get there and getting in front of people, winning their hearts and minds, making them understand what esports is and how it benefits everybody around. That’s kind of exciting to me, you know, to take a different tact and a different monetization strategy, certainly, than the industry has seen to date. And hopefully by doing that, we become, you know, we become the tee ball field or the little league field in every community where, oh yeah, you want to get into esports? You got to go to Valhallan. Like that’s the starting rung. That’s where you start. I mean, the thing to do, just like you would say, oh, you want to get into baseball, you got to go to a tee ball. I mean, you got to go to Little League. And so, I think that’s kind of the exciting part of this is it is still kind of the Wild West in e-sports. I think a lot of people have done a lot of good testing to date, but never really kind of cracked the track, the profitability model. And so that to me as a businessperson is a very interesting kind of pioneering stage.
Ryan:
Yeah and will you guys guess like there’s a subscription or like a, you know, yearly cost or whatever, but will you make money off like, you know, when there is an event or, you know, a championship like that’s, will you make money from sponsors or make money from streaming, or is that.
David:
I have a real problem, like slapping somebody’s logo on a kid and like basically pimping them out to the world? That’s not what I want to be about, right? So, if Lenovo came to us and said, we really want to sponsor you guys and let me put my logo on your jersey and be like, probably not. If there was some context to that, if it was like Saint Jude’s or something like that, who obviously has a really big investment into making kids’ lives better, or if it was, you know, some other organization like that, okay, maybe we would make some kind of an exception in that regard. But sponsorships to me, you know, if you look at sponsorships in the esports world, it reminds me, you know, I’m old enough to remember the internet when it wasn’t a big thing yet. And in 1999, everybody was going to throw up a banner ad on their website and they were going to be millionaires. And that’s what I think sponsorship networks are today to e-sport. It’s a great hope and prayer, but if you don’t see the ROI on it, it’s never going to be anything. And it won’t continue. It may have a fleeting moment, which even banner ads did. Right. And, you know, some part of that is going to continue. Google makes billions and billions of dollars, but some parts of that is just slapping logos on stuff and then like having a commercial run, you know, in between tournaments, it’s just not working. Yeah. So, we’re going to figure out some model with sponsorship, but I just don’t feel like that’s a model to move forward for us–not a monetization strategy.
Ryan:
I think that’s a really nice approach. And it sounds like you’re giving a lot of thought because a lot of other people would not have thought as much. You know, they would probably just say, oh, yeah, like we need this, you know, like, this is this is the way it’s done. So yeah, I think it’s really interesting.
David:
It is the way it’s done. It unfortunately hasn’t been working out for people. Yeah. I don’t. And to the tournament, you know, entry fees and all that. I think part of being a part of our organization is that you don’t have to do that. It is my plan as of right now that none of our tournaments will have entry fees. If you’re a part of our organization and what we’re doing already, you’ve already paid for your entry, right?
Ryan:
No, that makes sense. So, like for if we’re keeping that tee ball or little league comparison. Like if these guys, these kids show up to practice or practice sessions, whatever you’re going to call it, when do they get to the game or when do they get to the championship or do they get to the championship? What are they guaranteed?
David:
A season is for the year. So, you can be a champion of each game and each season, just like traditional sports, the season still goes on, but you’re just a part of the training and you practice year-round. So, any season you can be a champion. We do have a little bit of orthodoxy, a little bit unorthodox. You don’t get on a team right away with us. So, we call those early people who come in and then they spend about a month with us before they get placed on a team. And, you know, it takes a little time to get to customize Jersey and a lot of things that are going on in that time. So, there’s some good reasons for that. But then after you kind of prove yourself, you kind of learn what does it mean to be non-toxic? How do you control my emotions both when I win and when I lose? What does it mean to be a good team player? You know, all these things that we require kind of as our creed. Then we say, okay, you’ve done that, you’ve passed that. Here’s your jersey as your transition into becoming a teammate. Here’s your team. And it’s probably going to be a couple of guys that they were in that early stage with, right? I mean, they all kind of leveled up at the same time. And they become recruits. We have recruit, elite and then legendary status.
Ryan:
Very cool. It reminds me of like, any good coming of age film where they, you know, the kid is skateboarding and he finally gets the Zephyr sponsor, you know, and Dogtown or you know, something like that. That’s cool.
David:
Well, we learned this in our old brands that kids like milestones, you know, if you have to set the kind of next milestone ahead of them when you get here. This happens when you get here. This happens when you get to this point. You’re able to use this equipment, you know. So, we open up different things and different times and that keeps them on path and keeps them, you know, the carrot still out there somewhere for them to go to the next level and we want them to do that because. Well, I mean, it’s a business first. So, you do have to keep them around for, you know, 9 months to 12 months, then make it profitable. But we also want them to do that because the curriculum taken all at once would be too hard to consume. And so, we want you to practice what we want to teach you, what you need to know, practice what we’ve taught you, and then we’re going to come back and tell you what we’ve taught you, just to make sure you got it. And so that’s kind of our approach to all of it. And so, we need you around for a little while to really get to that next level. And I’m not just talking about mastery. I’m talking about self-control, talking about leadership. I’m talking about teamwork and communication. All those things take time and practice. So that’s what we do with them over that period of time.
Ryan:
That makes a lot of sense. I think that’s part of the reason people like gaming a lot, too, is because inherently, as human beings, and whether you’re a kid or adult, you need some incentives or you need some boxes to check, you know, and gaming obviously is great for that. Like I just did good in a game I won. So, I get a new character…
David:
You know, I never thought about it that way. But yeah, Milestones are built into most of the games unlocking the characters and whatnot.
Ryan:
Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, it seems, it would go well with a curriculum and with a campaign like you guys are running. So that’s interesting. Other things I wrote down. I noticed, I mean, we’re LeagueFeed which is a League of Legends-centric site, obviously. So, how much of League of Legends or how many players do you have of League of Legends and how, you know, is that big?
David:
Not just yet. Okay. Yeah. 150 champions, thousands of items. I think it’s a little bit hard for an eight-year-old to kind of get into that world, which I mean, to me, it sounds like an opportunity, by the way. I think it’s an open opportunity for us to be successful in that space. But most kids are coming in asking for different games. I think you would agree that that’s an 18 and up game.
Ryan:
Yeah, yeah.
David:
So, we haven’t really gotten to that too much yet. Very open to hearing discussions on how we think we can get younger players more involved. Maybe we limit the champions. Maybe we don’t know. I’m saying champion, but I know nothing about the game. So, I think there’s something like that. But you know, we limit some of the things that they can use and different milestones and then put them through their pacing a little bit. Yeah. So, it’s not just like super free for all the time and it’s just too much to consume. So, you gotta take it kind of bite by bite.
Ryan:
How do you choose games, like guess what goes into that? Are you basically choosing games from the coaches that you guys have or are you choosing games from what the kids are interested in or both.
David:
The latter, yeah. If the kids are demanding Fortnite. We play Fortnite two days a week and they’re demanding, you know, Valorant and we do that Overwatch. It’s got to be games kind of conducive to the kid, more kid friendly stuff. And so, we’re also testing non video games. So, we’re testing chess. We’re testing some of the board games you know.
Ryan:
Yeah. One of the other sites that TreasureHunter.media owns is called mykindofmeeple.com. And that’s a trading card and board game site. So yeah, I mean, the content around that is seemingly endless too. And I mean, there’s a million and one strategies for all these games, whether it’s, you know, Chess or Magic the Gathering or all these other kinds of interesting games that aren’t digital, but I digress there.
David:
It’s hard to, you know, track this nationally. You know, let’s say we have 100 arenas open next year. It would be hard for us to kind of track those board games nationally and come up with a system. We are building an internal system right now to track all of our tournament play, though, and so that’ll be a free league tracking system that will open up to the public. I think there’s definitely a need for that right now. You know, there’s a lot of pay to play kind of things out there that are pretty good. But you know, most schools don’t have that much money. And if you want to run a little local tournament, why should you have to pay that much? So, it’s kind of our mentality about it.
Ryan:
And guess one of the questions I wrote down that I was interested in talking to you about kind of like dancing around it, but like, obviously you said the game toxicity. And then obviously there’s the competition element. Um, so like, how do you guys’ kind of blend that when you’re teaching, like you want to win and you want to get better, obviously. So that’s like the competitive side of it. There are winners. There are losers. And you know, sports and esports teach that. Um, but then balancing that with the toxicity, like you said, knowing how to win, knowing how to lose and not getting to that toxic level, like how do you what’s your guess way of teaching that? Because it is such a complex issue or it’s emotional.
David:
It’s an emotional thing and we’re dealing with kids. Yeah. Haven’t had fully brain development, right. I mean, there’s still very much passion over logic. Right. And so that only comes through practice and time. You have to know, it’s not all carrots and sticks. It’s just repetition. Sometimes it’s saying, you know, bashing your keyboard isn’t going to really help you become better. If you have that frustration. Maybe you talk to your buddy sitting next to you. How can we get better instead of just taking it out on the keyboard? By the way, that keyboard is $45. You’re going to have to pay for it, you know. No, I’m just kidding. But yeah, there’s a lot of different methodologies that we use. We go back to tried and true methodologies too. We work with a lot of educators and instructors. This isn’t that we didn’t invent coaching. You know, coaching for any sport is going to work for this and set some core level. And so, we’ve really navigated some of those kinds of already tried and true methodologies into what we do and how we do it. Um, you know, dealing with emotional energy and trying to stay calm. That’s like 90% of it, right? And just like figuring out your triggers for these moments of outrage or these moments of toxicity. If somebody says something to you how do you react? Well, it’s not that they’re bad for saying it to you, but you’re just as bad if you react negatively. Like how do you handle that situation? I mean, the easy thing is just to turn them off. You don’t have to say anything like, you know, just maybe they just never realized that. You don’t have to say you’re such a jerk whenever somebody is a jerk to you.
David:
You know, like, turn them off. You don’t have to listen to it anymore. There’s a solution there that you maybe just haven’t come across. And then, you know, especially girl gamers right now are getting it the worst. You know, they got voice changers and stuff, so they don’t get picked on and just hate that for them, because I think this is one of those few sports, if you want to call it that, that it’s certainly one of the few competitions out there in the world that women and men are really on the same playing field. Right. I don’t even know why they have women’s leagues in this. Like, I think they want to dedicate their time and energy. They could be just as good as a guy at any of it minus the toxicity, that bunch of kind of jerk dudes are throwing out there, right? So, like, let’s get that out of the system. Let’s give them that even playing field that they deserve to play on and, and make sure that we all hold ourselves accountable on both sides, you know, and let’s see what happens. And we see a lot of girl gamers really thriving in our world. Yeah, we’re talking about that.
Ryan:
It’s true. I definitely agree. And I feel like with the internet and obviously gaming, there’s so many people involved. So just like there’s so many people involved, there are people represented in esports or streaming that are doing their own special thing. But yeah, I think it’s really interesting.
David:
I’m not calling out any organization or anything that’s doing special things for girls. I think that’s great. I mean, gamers are doing great stuff. I saw some stuff online about them and, you know, there’s a lot of different groups doing their thing. I’m just saying, like, it would be great if it was just an even playing field without the toxic.
Ryan:
Yeah.
David:
Yeah, these, these guys, they’re just salty. They got beat by anybody but picking on the girl, right?
Ryan:
Yeah. I mean and again that’s guess where you guys’ step in. And that’s another lesson for you guys.
David:
That’s why we’re seeing such a success rate and the parity of girls and boys being involved. And you know and it’s kind of exciting. That is kind of the exciting part is we see a lot of girl gamers getting involved and really enjoying themselves and being a part of it equally as equal members of teams and stuff.
Ryan:
That’s really cool. I guess, yeah. To kind of wrap some of this up. What’s, what’s next for you guys. Do you have any big events coming…
David:
We do a Ragnarok event. Sorry. Didn’t mean to talk over you. We do a Ragnarok event two times a year early in the year. Usually, Q1 sometime is going to rise to Ragnarok. That kind of sets the stage for our bigger event, which just happened a couple of weeks ago. So, we’re kind of in the middle of our big events. But, you know, every single season we’ve just kicked off the fall season. So, it’ll be rolling out. I think we’re in week five of that. So, in a few weeks, we’ll finish that. We’ll go into winter. Winter is kind of where we try some different stuff out. It’s a little bit shorter of a season, so we try some new stuff and if you like that kind of thing, you jump on board and get involved. We’re always running camps. We’re always running different workshops and micro tournaments. The local league, I mean, the local arenas are now running their own local leagues too.
Ryan:
So very cool. Yeah.
David:
So, if you want to be your hometown hero, you can do that. Or you want to become a national hero or now, you know, we’re also rolling out into Europe and the UK pretty strong. We just signed a master franchisee in the UK, and they’re going to roll out probably 100 units over the next two years, or 100 arenas or so over the next two years. And then we’re getting the groundwork for a European expansion right now.
Ryan:
Wow that could be huge.
David:
You know, Europe has, what, four times as many people and a third of the geography. So, it’s very dense and very populated. And we feel like there’s a big need for what we’re offering all throughout Europe, especially like Denmark, Holland, Germany, France, places where it’s already very popular. Esports are blowing up over there. And so, I think we’ll do well in those spaces. Name worked very well in the Norwegian parts of the world.
Ryan:
That I mean, we, I work with writers from, from all over the world obviously. So, you know, they’ll, they’ll be hearing about this for sure when we post it. But yeah, I mean there’s almost infinite, infinite possibilities and infinite interest it seems out there.
David:
So that’s our next couple of years is just really honing in on that, keeping true to our message, keeping true to the underlying value proposition of esports in general is to have a good time and then do it in a way hundred percent a fair competitive environment. And that’s really what we want to set up for our kids.
Ryan:
Very cool. Well, I’ve one more final question to ask. What are you, David Graham? What games are you playing right now? What’s most interesting to you?
David:
Yeah, I get this a lot. So, everybody thinks I’m like a super big gamer. I do run a few companies, so I don’t have a ton of time but.
Ryan:
It’s tough, right?
David:
I spend some time with my kids, and so that’s kind of our time together. And they like Overwatch and Apex. And so, I think that’s probably where I spend most of my playing time right now.
Ryan:
Cool. Yeah. It’s a thing called work that gets in the way of a lot.
David:
Gaming would have been great if it wasn’t for all that work I had to do. Right? Yeah. I’m very blessed. This is something I’m passionate about. We get to come to work with and work with all my best friends, so it’s kind of awesome in that regard. We just do fun stuff and build bigger companies and better so we can help more people. I mean, it’s. It’s just great.
Ryan:
So cool. Well thanks again David. I really appreciate it. And I’m sure the viewers on League feed will love to hear about this. Let me know.
David:
Let me know how I can get League of Legends into it.
Ryan:
We’re going to put that that question out there to our writers and editors and hopefully online too. So yeah, maybe we’ll get some coaches coming forward or something.
David:
There you go. There you go. We need to get a bigger youth involvement in League of Legends. Tell you what. Everybody agrees on that.
Ryan:
I’m sure our writers and our community would agree too. However, they do love playing, you know, Valorant and some of the other games as well. But yeah, I’m sure they’d love to see you guys get into some league.
David:
Well, I appreciate your time.
Ryan:
All right. Well. Thanks, David.
