Joe Ovies and Jatovi McDuffie discuss the inclusion of Rocket League in the BODYARMOR State Games of North Carolina
Hey, it’s Jovi’s from 99 9. The fan joining me is Jim Toby McDuffie, Bull City gaming on twitch and Utopia just finished running the state games, the body armor, state games, Rocket League tournament over the weekend. You Toby What’s up man? Not too much, not too much. That tournament took about seven hours, so I’m finally catching up on sleep today. Seven hours. My goodness. So you know, you and I have talked about Rocket league in the past and before we get into the actual tournament itself, I think you agree with me of all the video games that are being played competitively. Rocket League is probably the easiest one for sports fan, General sports fans to understand its soccer with rocket powered cars. What more do you need to know? Yeah, it is, it is easy to get into the fans jump right in when, when you start watching a Rocket League game, you get hooked. Especially because you can tell when it’s a close game. Just like any soccer game, basketball game, you were on edge when you saw Katie pick up that ball when you watch a Rocket League tournament and you know, you’re the two teams are in overtime, It’s game seven and the ball hasn’t touched the ground. And you know, the game is done when the ball touches the ground, you were just panicking. It is. I mean how people talk about how game seven of hockey in the playoffs is the best. I don’t know. Rocket League may be able to challenge that. That’s a bowl. That’s a bold statement. The cool thing about Rocket League is like any other sport though. Um You know, I can I can go out and golf right reportedly, but I but I can actually go out there and do it. And then you’re in all of the people who actually can do it incredibly well, right? You can see Tiger Woods do it, Phil Mickelson do it. Uh, same with basketball, you and I can just go to a court somewhere. Play a pick up game. No big deal. We get the basics of it and we have some fun Rocket league is kind of the same way and when I play with it. Yeah, I can get around. I kind of have my own sloppy garbage game where you know, cherry pick some goals here and there. But what you’re talking about these guys flying through the air, making sure the ball stays in the year, so it doesn’t hit the ground and the game ends before they go to overtime and things like that. That’s some pretty incredible stuff as you kind of like flutter and all the tricks to go along with it. Seeing some of these goals in the body armor, state game championships. They were incredible. Oh it was phenomenal. I mean you can hear it in my voice while we sat there and cast the actual tournament. How did he make that? That is impossible. Uh The beauty of Rocket League especially even in the video game world, How you talked about you know us going out and playing horribly golf in this tournament. For example we had some pro players. You and I can’t go to a golf tournament down the street. Say it. Uh any one of the numerous golf golfing courses that are we’ll use we’ll use Lonnie Poole over N. C. State’s campus as an example of this. Yeah. So we could go there and play golf in one of their tournaments that they have. We’re not playing against Tiger Woods Phil Mickelson or anybody of any caliber on golf in these Rocket League tournaments or even any e sports tournament, you could be paired up with a pro player and you just not really know because you may not be up on all the individuals that you could find on the various sites, uh, from liquid Pd A to the Rocket League Championship Series. Um, so yeah, it’s wild jumping in these tournaments and seeing these pro players do some phenomenal things and even those average players, I can’t do it. But I was, so let’s, let’s actually talk about the body armor state games, Rocket League tournament that you held, He said it was about seven hours or so. How many teams ended up getting involved? Uh, we had roughly about 2026 teams you that couldn’t show because a player may have just like any online tournament, A player maybe had something to do with their parents or with their significant other. So that team possibly had to back out. So in grand total we had about 20 teams that played For the big prize. And we’re talking about a variety of ages to the team who won the team we wanted. What was there was a pro player on? That team was 14 years old. Yeah, yeah Joe. We’re sitting here with gray hair and this kid with 14 years at the age of 14 and his teammate who was only 15 And his other teammate was only 12. They just want $900 awesome, awesome. I wish I could have done that when I was 12, 13 or 14. Like 900 bucks. Play video games. That’s not that bad. I guess. I guess that’s where we’re at right now. I don’t think people quite understand the money that’s involved with some of these tournaments. The body our mistake games had a nice little prize pool for somebody to win, but we can get we can get some serious money elsewhere in the Rocket League tournament scene. Right? Yes. I mean, all of the sports take, for instance, for for some numbers In 2007, No, 2016 Dota two, which is a big another big sport out there. It’s similar to legal legends, however they put on a tournament That tournament prize fool was $21 million. It’s incredible, Absolutely incredible. But it’s also great to see. And I guess, um you know, if if we weren’t coming out of a pandemic, the other cool thing about some of these e sports tournaments, including those for Rocket League is the people involved. I mean, if it was fun to watch on a screen, it’s probably even more fun when you’re actually watching the players, you know, across from each other with their setups, with the scene with the screen, you know, before the pandemic, you were running the Triangle E Sports Championship and Kerry where they were involved with Fortnite and super smash brothers, uh, and my kids were involved with this and it was a lot of fun, but it’s even more fun when you’re seeing, you know, the the action on the big screen while the people are on the stage, also reacting to what’s going on and just like any other sporting event, you’re feeding off what the players are doing and the players are feeding off the crowd. So, you know, for the, for the, for the sake of this conversation, you know, the body, our mistake games is doing cool things by involving e sports. But going forward, I would imagine that you’re you’re hoping to have like, an actual audience for an event like this. If you want to reference what a land for an individual who is not in e sports, that’s kind of what it looks like. All the only difference is you’re taking the actual players and putting them in front of that screen. So you see them playing the game all around you, but you also see them physically playing the game in front of you. So people are screaming, doing and I, and yeah, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a fun time. It’s a real fun time, Atlanta. That’s best moment of this Rocket League tournament that just completed. Uh, I will admit the grand finals because as I described earlier, that actually happened the game, the final uh, series of seven games was literally like watching uh, the nets and the Milwaukee go back and forth. I mean you were on pins and needles, you had two proteins going back and forth doing things that you’ve never seen or believed that could happen. And in the final seconds of every game, either it was, you know, a last second shot or a last second goal that happened, that you couldn’t believe they got all the way across the field and did it or it goes into overtime and you’re on pins and needles waiting for the ball to drop and how it just stays in the air and the players passing it and you begin to think, okay, they’re just showing off. But then you realize this aerial dance that they’re putting on actually is working and it’s for a purpose and not, hey, I can do this. No, they’re really doing stuff. That is just amazing. So yeah, I would say that game that full last series because you knew all the money was on the line and it goes a full seven games and you’re just battling back and forth. Even the little guy who came to visit here, uh, he even got to watch some of it. Very cool, very cool. All right. So we appreciate it, man. And maybe next time I’ll actually enter into this Rocket League tournament and we’ll see how long I last. Hey, me and you jail. Well, former teams. All right, Let’s do it, man. I’m with it.
