Hello and welcome to Good News York. Thank you
so much for tuning in I'm your host Danny Tripodi
and I'm super excited to Introduce the man the
myth the legend Rob O 'Connor. Thank you so much
for for coming Rob. How are you? I'm great, man.
Thanks for having me. This is exciting. Yeah,
yeah, definitely so Rob I know about elite gaming,
but tell people that might not know about elite
gaming. Yeah, there's a lot of misconceptions
about what we are. It's hard to describe to people
what we do without actually being there. A lot
of people have preconceived notions. They either
think we're like a Dave and Busters. or an internet
cafe from years ago where you go check your AOL
email, right? But we're very much more of an
advanced or not professional gaming center, but
more advanced gaming center. And we also do a
lot with STEM, CTE, and technical careers as
well, because it's all related, right? When you're
playing games, you're... Excited about technology
usually so you want to learn about technology.
In fact this morning We have a field trip there
and we're going we're doing some fun minecraft
Programming and things with the kids. So it's
really exciting. So it's a little bit of everything
really we do a lot of events we do You know,
we teach kids how to do exactly what we're doing
now with podcasting We have a content creator
studio there for them. We do video streaming
So like when we're playing matches for eSports,
we stream them out on our twitch and YouTube
channel So we teach students how to do that.
We also have dipped our toes into drones and
Lego robot because it's all related, right? I
mean, we're living in a technological society
and now we're technically, you know, in the micron
era, right? So here we are. That is fantastic,
Rob. What made you want to start Elite Gaming?
Oh, man. Do we have long enough? But well, it
was really a passion for gaming that really got
me and my business partner, Matt, excited about
it and started. We actually started talking about
this like pre COVID doing something like this.
And originally, it was just going to be an event
we were just going to do. And that was before
we even knew about retro game con, which is an
amazing event, by the way, we go on and on about
that. But We're just like getting like a like
a eSports tournament and a little bit of a trade
show thing You know for more of like the you
know, the eSports and gaming video gaming the
modern games type stuff but as we got into it
we realized that Syracuse really didn't have
a Big community for that or a place for the community
to get together for those type of games So we
said we you know, we we kicked around some ideas
and we decided well everything's kind of shut
down now, so we really can't do anything. Let's
travel around a little bit and tour some facilities
that do esports and find out what they're doing
right, what they're doing wrong, what their challenges
are, what their successes are, and maybe we can
make something work. And you know, after three
or four years, COVID finally started dying down,
so we took the plunge. moved into the most museum.
We run it a wing there for a year and a half.
We had like 20 PCs, a small stage. And we quickly
realized we had some people come in doing tours.
And some of those people were educators, principals,
school administrators. And we quickly realized
that there was a need or there was a definitely
an interest from school districts to figure out
how to engage their kids because they're gamers
anyways, right? They're going home gaming. And
a lot of these kids are not engaged with school.
You know, they're just they're not traditional
sports kids, right? Yep. So that's kind of how
we kind of took our spin into where we are now.
We quickly outgrew our space. We now have 60
PCs and a bunch of consoles and things like that.
So that's kind of in a nutshell. That's how we
started. Nice. That is fantastic. I mean, and
it is a beautiful facility if for people at home
watching it. It's so impressive that Syracuse
has something like this and I think it's something
that kind of mystifies the older generation because
they're like Well, what are they doing down there?
But that leads me into my next question What
is something that most folks get wrong about
the younger generation and gaming because you
know, I've heard it before It's like ah these
kids they're always on their computers that I
don't know what they're doing. They're playing
the fortnight Could you talk about that a little
bit? That's exactly what they say to you. Yeah,
there's a lot of, you know, for the last, I don't
know how many decades and decades it's been pounded
into their heads that gaming is the devil. You
know, it'll rot your brain. You're going to end
up smoking weed in your mom's basement the rest
of your life. And, you know, you're going to
be unhealthy. Your your brain is going to rot.
So. It couldn't be further from the truth. Yes,
you know those stereotypes are stereotypes for
a reason because obviously that did happen, right?
But now it's evolved so much even in the last
five years. It's evolved so much that it's really
cool when we finally get like a parent or a teacher
or a Superintended a school superintendent there.
Yeah, and they see our space. They see the kids
interacting with each other they see That it's
more than just video games. I had one dad come
in or me was a teacher Come in and says I don't
understand what they're doing. All they're doing
is mashing buttons They're not really doing anything
and I'm like, well, that's like saying chess
is moving pieces of plastic around on a piece
of wood Yeah, I said we on the surface. Yes,
that's what it looks like but if you take a minute
step back get rid of your preconceived notions
and Take a deeper look at it and really understand
what's going on. It's way more than that And
conversely, we've had moms come in after their
son or daughter has been in our program for a
while, like tearing up because their son or daughter
has done like a 180. You know, their personality
is coming out. They have friends. They're looking
forward to going to school. They're engaged.
Their grades are going up. They want to go to
school because they can participate in this.
They have a friend group. Their confidence is
rising. And now like, oh my God, they're thinking
about college. They didn't think about college
before. That's amazing. Right. And there's now
college programs for esports, right? Oh, hundreds
and hundreds. It's amazing. It's basically like
it's the new age athlete, you know, esports player.
Yeah, for sure. I mean, as of the last time I
ran some reports, there's over 200 colleges nationwide
that are actively recruiting with scholarships.
Really? Four students, right? SU is one of them.
Yeah, I was familiar about that. That's crazy.
I didn't realize the number, though. 200 schools?
Plus. Wow. Yeah. Yep. And last year, they awarded
about $25 million in scholarships. Wow. So, and
these aren't pro esports players. A lot of people
think you have to be a pro player. Right. You
don't. Yeah. If you do well in high school...
you get recruited, you just continue to play
in college. You don't have to be a pro that goes
to the big multi -million dollar tournaments
and stuff like that. You don't have to be. But
that's the exciting part. And what's cool about
it is a lot of people think, again, that if you
go to school and you play esports, you gotta
do something. You gotta be a computer programmer
or a computer science major or whatever. No,
you can be a doctor, lawyer, accountant, and
still play esports. Yeah, it's just a sport.
Yeah, it's just like all the football players
up at SU they don't they're not going to school
to be a football coach. Yep. Right. So it's the
same sort of thing. But we're noticing the the
preconceived notions are slowly slipping away.
The older even some of the older generations
have that light bulb moment where like, oh, okay.
Yeah, you know, and what I really enjoy is when
mom and dad come in. and they see their son or
daughter competing, you know, in our facility
and, you know, high fiving their friends, you
know, walking, maybe walking away with a trophy
and getting their pictures taken and, you know,
things like that. It really that's the light
bulb moment that we like live for. Yeah, because
they realize that their son or daughter has found
something. They found their tribe. They found
their people. You know, the saying I use is when
you're in a room full of nerds, you're not a
nerd anymore. You're just like everybody else
sitting next to you. I like that. And as a parent,
that's all you really want for your kids is to
be happy, healthy, and to have a productive life
and be excited about getting up every morning.
Yeah, absolutely. No, that is fantastic. So I
was going to ask you, can you tell me about a
moment or a student that... remembered why your
work matters, but I think you kind of answered
that. If you do, though, is there one that really
stuck out to you? There's been actually quite
a few, actually, which is exciting to say. Nice.
Yeah, there was one kid he graduated last year
when he first came to us when he was a freshman.
Wasn't going he didn't go to school the first
like three weeks of school. Wow. Um, Syracuse
city school student didn't go to school for the
first three weeks of school. And then he decided
to show up at our place. I'm like, well, that's
great. You're here, but you can't stay. You have
to go to school in order to be part of this.
Okay. I'll go to school. So now he started going
to school. So he's going to school on a regular
basis, which wasn't happening before. He was
having a good time at e -sports, making friends.
And then we get it as, you know, they have to
read, do it. Give us the report cards. They can't
come unless they have good grades. So his grades
weren't great. After a little while, we're like,
well, you got to get your grades up, dude. You
can't. You got to hit the pause button with esports.
Got to get your grades up. OK, fine. Next semester,
his grades were fine. Going to school. Came in.
He got in trouble one day doing something he
shouldn't have done in school. I don't even know
what it was. Sorry, dude. You're on probation
at school. Can't come in. Yeah. Okay, fine. I
won't get in trouble, you know, whatever. Yeah,
so fast forward four years He's now in college
for computer science doing eSports in college
So that's amazing. It's it's pretty cool. And
like I said, he isn't the only one but he was
kind of like our first one Yeah, we currently
have a Syracuse City School senior Being actively
recruited by SU really to play Super Smash Bros.
Nice And SU currently has the number one Smash
player in North America. Really? Up there. On
a full scholarship. Wow. A full scholarship to
SU. Yep. By playing Smash Bros. Yep. That is
amazing. It's crazy, right? Man, my parents.
They lied to me. They said, you gotta get up.
Video games aren't gonna pay the bills. Man,
I'm jealous. That's amazing though. And the other
story, I mean, you guys helped change that trajectory
of that guy's life. I'd like to think we helped
a little bit. I can't take full credit for it,
but if we can change a few lives. I mean, finding
a community, like you were saying, where you
don't feel alienated, I'm sure that had to have
felt good and reason why he kept coming back,
you know? Yeah, yeah, I think that's a big part
of it. Yeah, because you have common ground with
everybody in the room, right? Whether you play
Smash or Rocket League or Fortnite or, you know,
Rivals, you all have some common ground. You
know, you're all there, you're competing against
other schools and, you know, and they don't just
come, a lot of people think that they just come
and hang out and play games. That isn't what
we do there. We It's very structured. We have
practices We have scrimmages and then we have
matches against other high schools. So it's it's
very structured It's very much like a ball sport
structure. Yeah You know and we hold them accountable
just like I explained. Yeah grades attendance
discipline You got to be on point or else you
can't be part of a team and and part of what
a big one of our biggest challenges if I'm being
perfectly transparent is The kids who come to
us initially aren't used to being part of a team
Right gamers aren't right. You're at home usually
by yourself Yeah in your room bedroom, whatever
and you're communicating with people But you're
not used to being in the same room with them
and communicating with them and being part of
a regular Team yeah, right. So that's a different
dynamic that a lot of kids aren't used to yeah,
but They learn how to do that, right? They learn
how to be accountable to their teammates, you
know, you're playing rivals You have five other
teammates. Yeah, right and you play usually you
play a very specific role Yep, whether you're
a tank or whatever, right? And your team counts
on you to be there when you have a match against
another school and they expect you to show up
to practices so you know what the other teammates
are doing and build your skills together. So
that's a dynamic that we tend to have to work
on quite a bit. But guess what? That's an employable
skill that these kids have to learn. Absolutely.
Could you talk a little bit more about that?
Because being a gamer myself, I have a little
bit of a bias towards other video game players
because That's something that I know that these
younger generation have a lot more of is being
able to communicate with one another. Just being
a team player from from this aspect of e -sports
and like working together to accomplish something
or win it at games. You know, could you talk
a little bit about that? Yeah, I mean, it's the
the communication skills. We've talked to a lot
of colleges, SU, Herkimer, we work with those
folks. We've talked to a lot of the SUNY schools.
Their biggest shortfall they see with high school
students coming into colleges, lack of, they're
not prepared for that environment, right? Their
lack of communication skills, their lack of time
management, right? Their problem -solving skills,
their critical thinking skills, motivation, right?
All that stuff is baked into eSports. I mean
in any traditional ball sport as well. Yeah.
You know, I have two boys two sons 28 and 24
now they're off doing their own thing now. Yeah,
but my oldest this is before eSports They're
both gamers by the way grew up gaming with them
on my lap we had tons of fun ratchet and clank
and Jack and Daxter and you know all those games
and But in school my oldest found marching band
Nice loved it. He started out when he was in
seventh grade all the way through high school
had a great experience He learned a lot of life
lessons He learned how to interact with people
how to interact with people you didn't necessarily
get along with Right how to resolve those conflicts
and kind of put him aside and focus on the work.
Yep And then my youngest was a soccer and lacrosse
kid. So he experienced stuff that way. Yep But
my point is is they're both well -rounded young
men, at least I think they are, they're doing
well. And I think a large part of that is because
of what they experience at school and all those
lessons they learned. How to be coachable, how
to show up on time, how to be ready to work when
you show up. Those are all skills that unfortunately
a lot of the gamer kids aren't exposed to because
a lot of high schools in... and other things
don't have those kind of activities for them
to do. So they're just kind of filtering around,
right? They're on the fringes. Esports captures
those kids that are just kind of on the fringes.
Just my head is full of statistics. They're in
New York State alone. There are between 500 ,000
and 600 ,000 students who do not participate
in any after school activity. So that's a half
a million students. that do not participate in
any school activities. So those are the kids
that are not experiencing everything they need
to experience to be successful later on, right?
They're missing all that, those soft skills.
They learn, they're usually pretty good at the
technical stuff. But all those soft skills, they're
kind of missing out on because they're not involved
in anything, because they go to school sometimes.
and they get good grades sometimes. And they
just kind of do their thing. They're just on
the fringes. And honestly, I was one of those
kids in school. I didn't play traditional sports.
And I had a small friend group. I didn't do much.
I went home and rode my bike a lot. You know,
that's what we did back then. But now because
kids go home and play games, they're comfortable
there and that's okay. Getting them out of their
comfort zone. Getting them involved with other
people, you know and and and learning how to
interact with people is a big thing because College,
you know when you go to college you got to learn
that because you're you're in the mix You're
not in high school anymore. Your professors are
not looking over your shoulder saying no you
need to redo this You need to redo that you hand
in your paper. You get an F. The professor says
Better luck next time. Yep, right. Yeah, right
and you're responsible on your own. You're in
the dorm room Nobody's your mom isn't shaking
you to wake you up. You know, the bus is around
the corner. Yeah, so Being involved with stuff
like this and not just esports any after -school
activity Yeah makes kids better students and
they learn employable skills, too. I love it
So tell me what gives you the most hope about
the future of what you're building at elite gaming
hmm, I I hope that we're making a difference
to some some kids. Yeah. And I hope that that
eventually the tides will turn and video game
playing video games won't be looked down upon.
It'll be looked at not even superior, but just
on the same level as a lot of other activities,
you know? Yeah, because I mean, you know, you
play video games, people when you tell people,
Oh, yeah, I was playing battlefield last night
like, Oh, right. nerd, you know, or you know,
I was playing Baldur's Gate or whatever you're
into, you know, there's still that negative stigma.
So hopefully we can change that too. But more
importantly, I hope that we can help kids find
their place, find their where they're comfortable
at and really excel and do well and Like every
parent wants their kids to be happy, healthy,
excited, make a good living, and be a productive
member of society. And if we can do that through
what we're doing at Elite, I'm all for it. That
is fantastic, Rob. I truly, I wish you did this
a little bit sooner when I was in school. I get
that a lot. I get that a lot. I think being envious
of it is hopefully it's a compliment. So before
I let you go. Yeah. I have to do this to you.
Sure. I came up with a few questions last night,
just five questions, and I want to do kind of
a rapid fire thing. I didn't print these out
for my note card, so I apologize. That's all
right. Go for it. So just off the top of your
head. Are you ready? Yeah. What is the best video
game of all time, according to Rob? Well, long
answer is I have the best memories. Playing with
my boys. Okay, so and we probably played Sly
Cooper Sly Cooper. Yep. Okay, it's like Cooper.
Yep. In fact, I was just at I'm getting the name
wrong mega Who's Alex's in Sun's place? Oh Megaton
Megaton games. Yes. I was just there. Yep earlier
this week I bought a ps3 disc with all three
of the Sly Cooper games on it nice And I'm going
to I'm going to do them again. I love it. Yeah.
Number two, Xbox, PlayStation or Nintendo. What
do you prefer? I'm a PlayStation guy. PlayStation
guy. PlayStation guy. Always have been. I've
had a PS one all the way to now PS five. Really?
Yeah. I've never and I have access to PCs. Yeah.
I was waiting for you to say PC Master Race.
No, no. Yeah. Number three, what matters more
gameplay or graphics? You're a gameplay guy or
does it gotta look really pretty? Wow. Graphics
grab me first when I'm watching a trailer or
a screenshot, but the gameplay I think is more
important. I love it. The graphics grab you,
but if the gameplay is crap, I'm on to the next
game. Two more. Tekken, Mortal Kombat, or Street
Fighter? I gotta go Street Fighter because I
played it in the arcades. Growing up. Yeah, and
the on the cabinets man. So you're an OG. Yeah.
Yeah, I suck at it I'm horrible at it. My muscle
memory is not good at all I even screw up now
when I'm playing battlefield or whatever, right?
I I go to reload but I'm now I've got a rocket
launcher on my shoulder. So I'm horrible at that
stuff because those type of games I'm horrible
at What What game franchise has the most toxic
fan base? Oh Geez It's it's a big one There's
two yeah, there's two that stand out to me I
want to say I want to say call duty. Okay, and
and for tonight for tonight. Okay, dude. Yeah
and Yeah, yeah, it gets a little sweaty it gets
it gets toxic man. It does you know, but to back
up a little bit too, and part of what we're doing
at Elite, not to get back into that, but we teach
kids how to be responsible digital citizens.
So there's no toxicity allowed. It's so important.
It is. We're slowly changing the culture because
now we're actually, another big thing we do is
we help school districts start eSports programs.
We do everything. We go in and they tell us,
here's a classroom. We want an eSports program.
We design everything from the floor up. We sell
them the chairs, the desks, the PCs, the consoles,
monitors, headsets, gaming mice, whatever. And
then after that, we help them build the program
the proper way. Because there's been a lot of
schools that have tried it. They hopped on that
trend. They fell right on their face because
they didn't know what they were doing. Usually
a teacher was kind of voluntold that you're the
eSports coach. Hey nerd, come over here. That's
exactly what happened. Bill, you know Mario Kart,
right? Right. That's exactly what happened. And
again, gamers in that generation, the teaching
generation, 30s or something like that, they
didn't grow up being part of a team again, right?
So they don't know the team dynamic. So that's
what we do is we help them. get started, we help
them be successful. We have support for the teachers,
the coaches. Yeah. And we do have actually have
one on one or digital coaching for the students.
Really? Yep. And then we we have reporting back
to the administration and we really make sure
it's successful. The the analogy I use with schools
is like, if they don't have a football program
and they decide to start a football program.
Yeah. and you pull up with a truckload of helmets
and pads and then say drive off and say good
luck. That's exactly what schools are doing when
they buy computer because you can buy computer
equipment anywhere. Yeah, you go to Amazon and
buy computers, right? I mean, it's everything
afterwards to engage the students and to run
a structured program. And that's where they start
seeing the benefits. If they're just showing
up and playing games like they do at home. Yeah.
What's the point? Right. School administrators
kind of lose interest. Teachers lose interest.
They get burnt out and then the program fizzles
out. Next thing you know, the secretary has an
Alienware computer on their desk, right? You
know, because they're like, what do we do with
these things? And that's not exaggerating. That
has happened. I've seen it. I believe I walk
into the reception office and there's an Alienware
computer and she's doing Microsoft Word. Outlook.
This outlook screams on this. So we're there
to help school districts get started and do it
the right way, because you can do it the wrong
way really quickly. And now we're getting into
a STEM, CTE, and AI. Programming that the schools
can do with their gaming PC. Really? Could you
talk a little bit about that? Yeah is the big
that's a huge buzzword right now I feel like
a lot of people want AI, but they don't know
exactly what a right. Yeah, you talk a little
bit We like robots. We don't like robots, you
know, what do we do? Yeah. Yeah, so there's actually
there's several Game development AI tools right
now. Yeah, where a student can go in and write
some prompts. And literally, the AI will develop
the game for them. Wow. And then what the exciting
part is, is then they get the gameplay, right?
They type some prompts, and they say, I want
to do a parkour, you know, Minecraft style parkour
course, with this, this and this. Yeah. AI generates
that for them. Then they get to play it. And
they say, like, okay, well, but then here's the
exciting part is, you then you task the student
like, well, do you think You know, how come you
don't have a starting line? Do you need a timer?
Do you need this, you know? So what the AI does
it takes away all the mundane, you know Python
programming and stuff, you know, but it lets
them concentrate on being creative The gameplay
right like we talked about not so much the graphics
and the environment that'll come later Yeah,
it's more about the logic in the gameplay, right?
So you're you're kind of You're kind of you're
kind of programming. You know, you're kind of
doing those if then statements, but yeah you're
not actually typing them out. It reminds me of
the old typing games that they would train little
kids, you know, like a K through third, you'd
have to type out the words. It's like a more
advanced version of that. So they're learning
those skills without actually thinking about
it. Right. Right. That's fantastic. I mean, because
because realistically, I mean, if you if we don't
want to be perfectly transparent. Yeah. Computer
science, computer programmers, those kind of
jobs are going to be definitely affected by AI.
Right. So for being honest, That's the way it
is. But they're not predicting that AI is going
to be as creative as humans are. They're not
going to know how other humans want to interact
with a game. They just do what they're told.
So there's always going to be a place for that.
So it's more of an AI augmented type thing than
just AI doing game development. And there's going
to need to be a workforce to do that, you know,
it's just like the analogy. You know, people
are, you know, really scared of AI and, you know,
and roughly so in some degree, you know, it's
valid. But, you know, the same thing can be said
about, you know, when Henry Ford started making
cars. It's true. People are petrified of those
horse market went downhill. Right. Literally.
Right. Yeah. And, you know, all the all this
industry around horses equine. Yep. Gone. Literally
almost overnight. Yep. as soon as Ford got that
factory running. Yeah. So, you know, there's
going to be another shift. It's going to be a
pretty seismic shift. Yeah. But I think kids
that are embracing technology and those are our
e -sports kids. Yeah. Embracing technology, learning
about it, doing it the right way are going to
be successful. Right. And and gamers. are three
times more likely to become engineers than non
-gamers. So it's just the way our brains work,
right? And I've heard that story time and time
and time again. We get a parent coming in and
say, oh yeah, my older son, he's an engineer,
or he does this, or he's an architect, or whatever.
He goes, yeah, but he's a gamer. He still games
with his buddies at night. So I think AI, it...
Nobody really knows for sure where it's going.
Yeah, but I think the kids that are more technically
oriented and Are encouraged to be technically,
you know to learn the basics, right? So that's
what we're there for to do is build that foundation
Yeah, you know build a solid foundation So when
they go off to school or sometimes they can go
right to the job market some of the skills Yeah,
they have a good foundation to work off of absolutely
I mean you're you're providing them the the tools,
you know that I think that's one of the most
important things is getting involved in it at
the ground level, you know, versus, you know,
20 years from now, I was like, ah, no, I never
bothered to learn that AI stuff. Right. You know,
kind of use it or lose it. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Rob, is there anything else that we didn't talk
about? that you would like to mention? Any events
that are happening or anything you want to bring
up? Well, this weekend, I don't know when this
is going to air, but... Air tonight. Oh, really?
Okay, great. Yeah, so this Sunday, we have one
of our high school invitationals. Nice. So we
have high school, we have over 100 students coming
in from different high schools all over central
New York. We're doing Smash, Rocket League, and
Fortnite. But we also have some teams come and
do some scrimmages for rivals and maybe Madden,
I think like that too. So it's great to get the
kids together. They're competing online in their
own school districts, but it's great to get them
together. They can meet each other. They've been
playing each other for a little while now. They
can meet each other. And dude, the friendships
are just instant. Oh, I bet. They're absolutely
instant. And I saw this really cool dynamic a
few years ago. We have a Syracuse City School
student. In fact, the one that's being recruited
by SU, Smash player. And we had a school come
from Central Square. My alma mater, by the way.
Go Red Hawks. And the demographics couldn't be
more different. The social economic couldn't
be more different. Up in Brewerton, Central Square,
there's cows and corn up there. Down here, not
so much. They met each other for the first time.
yeah within five minutes they're sitting on the
couch playing super smash talking talking about
characters having a good time instant connection
it's amazing and i found out later they exchange
gamer tags so now they compete against each other
on a regular basis they play nice so that's what
gaming really is you know and it's it's great
to see that and and kids on the spectrum tend
to gravitate towards gaming. So we're giving
them a cool space to hang out and be part of
something. And then, of course, kids with certain
physical disabilities can still participate too.
So that's what's really cool about it. That's
another cool factor about it. I love it. You
are making a difference in Syracuse. And thank
you so much for doing that. I mean, it truly
is a cutting edge. Thanks. Yeah, it's been a
fun ride. It's been a great ride. And the exciting
part is we're kind of just getting started. I
love it. You know, there's so many like, just
for instance, high schools that don't have esports
programs. You know, only about 20 % in New York
State of the 700 something New York State have
esports programs. So we're really excited about
the future of that. And, and it's getting easier
to talk to Adults, yeah and and teachers and
admins about eSports, you know Three years ago
four years ago. I was like mmm gaming at school
Algebra we want out more algebra, but I think
they're realizing now that it gaming is a great
conduit To get kids attention and get them engaged
Right. That's all it is. It's just another way
to get kids engaged with school and The population
of gamers in school, 70 % of the students walking
the hallways in middle school and high school
play games, play video games, whether it's on
their phone or their Switch or their PC or whatever.
The culture is there. The population is there.
Let's grab those kids that are kind of, you know,
just again, floating around. Let's get them engaged.
Let's get them excited and see what happens.
I love it. Rob, thank you so much for coming
on and truly appreciate it. Thanks for having
me, man. This is awesome. Absolutely. I love
the set here. Oh, thank you. This is this is
I feel like I'm at home. This feels like home,
man. This is awesome. Yeah. Welcome to my basement.
Yeah. All right. Well, thank you again. And any
time you have anything coming on, feel free to
to let us know and we'll get you on Good News
York. We'll do me. Love it. All right. And thank
you for tuning in to Good News York. I've been
Danny Tripodi and I'll see you next time. I've
been Danny Tripodi. What the fuck?