October 10, 2025 • 40 mins
#92Noon! Vikes - VGW - Survivor
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fan.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
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Speaker 3 (00:38):
Welcome back out on a three from football Feast pault
Archie with you pa off today. Vikings bye week, Nordo
as well. We hope they are recharging getting ready for
a two thirds left of the season. So it's still
a long way to go in the Viking season and
a healthy debate that you're gonna hear a lot about
the station already have and you're going to continue for
(00:58):
the next ten days on what the Vikings should be
doing at the quarterback position. Brett, let me let me
start here. We don't know who the starter will be
against Philadelphia for the Vikings next game, we presume, and
we don't know really a current update and we won't
until probably Wednesday or so maybe Tuesday on where JJ
(01:22):
McCarthy is in the rehabilitation and for his high ankle spring.
I think it's safe to say, Brett, this is going
to be a KFA and talker for the next week.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Trust me, it has been for It's been holding our
water for a while now. So yeah, there's plenty of opinions.
And you know, I've seen on the text line and
I've seen on the talkbacks. I wouldn't say fifty to
fifty split. I'd say more people want JJ back in there.
But there is a strong, you know, ride the hot
hand with Wentz, and JJ isn't ready contingency out there
for sure.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
I wonder if people really feel Wentz is hot. I
feel like Wentz is adequate. This is a writing adequate hand,
the known hand. You know what you're going to get
from Carson Wentz. We've seen it now over the span
of three games, and it is competent play. Maybe not
special play. Some missed receivers. Every quarterback does that to
(02:15):
some degree. But somebody that looks like he's played the
position before, somebody that has h that isn't gonna wilt
in the moment. Carson Wentz has completed sixty nine percent
of his passes. That's that is a good that's a
good NFL number, five touchdowns, two interceptions. He's done a
good job. I think of getting the ball to Justin
(02:35):
Jefferson something we did not get from JJ McCarthy, and
that's getting the ball to Justin Jefferson is how you
win games. That's that's important. Now he has also the
luxury of getting Jordan Addison back, and Addison has helped
in the last two games and been a contributing, very
big contributing factor last week as well. The the heart,
(02:56):
I think where this really galvanizes too oudiences the Wentz
versus McCarthy, are the people that are trying to win
games and the people that are trying to versus the
people that are trying to find out what they've got
in the tenth overall pick of the draft last year
in JJ McCarthy. If you want to win games, if
(03:19):
and this is a this is a win based league,
that we're all wired that every NFL game is important,
every win counts well, we all rolled into this bye
week feeling better because the Vikings scratched out a victory
against Cleveland. We care about this, We care about wins.
We can say we don't and we just need to
(03:40):
and it's easy to say, we just got to give
our young quarterback as many games as it is it
takes for him to get better, for us to evaluate him.
But the losses are really hard. I mean, that sounds
so good in theory, Brett, to just give your quarterback
long enough to evaluate him and for him to improve proove,
(04:01):
but losses are really really hard in the NFL. And
I don't know Brett that it's as simple as just saying, well,
you run McCarthy out there as long as it takes.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I mean, my stance on this, I think officially, is
that the big question is do you think Carson Wentz
can win the Super Bowl? And I think it is
as simple as that, because if the answer is no,
then there's no point in putting him out there and
just seeing at least you make some sort of progress
with your supposed to be franchise quarterback. But if you
(04:36):
think he can, or you think you've got a shot,
then by all means, stick with him and kick the
can down the road on McCarthy until next year. But
I just don't I don't think it's preposterous to say
that I don't think Carson Wentz is a super Bowl
winning quarterback at this stage in his career, even with
the weapons that he has and JJ and Addison and
TJ I just don't think winning the big game is
(04:57):
in the cards with that caliber of quarterback. So even
getting to the NFC Championship game is probably not going
to happen. This is the guy who's, you know, the journeyman,
who he's fine and he's good. He like you said,
you know what you're gonna get. I just think if
you're not in it to win the big game, then yes,
it's wasting a season, and yes you might get losses
(05:19):
and growing pains, but the idea is that you a well,
you could get a better draft pick, which is good,
but the idea is you could build something going forward
into the next year and hopefully if JJ is good enough,
ten years down the road.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
So if we think Wentz is not a super Bowl quarterback,
and I think that's true and probably very safe to
say that Wentz is not is very unlikely to lead
the Vikings to a super Bowl, does McCarthy give you
a path to a super Bowl that's any better? And
I think the answer is actually yes. I mean, there
is a scenario where McCarthy is and it's not so short.
(05:57):
There's still enough season left that mc carthy gets a
lot better every game and ends up in a scenario
where he's a really good quarterback by the time the
playoffs start, that's absolutely in play, that at least that's
a possibility. I don't think Carson Wentz has got that
intimate this at this stage of his career. And I
(06:19):
know obviously at one point, you know, you go back
to twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, it looked like Carson Wentz
was going to be a super Bowl caliber quarterback. But
we haven't seen that version of Carson Wentz in a decade.
McCarthy's got the full range of outcomes. Could be awful
and stay awful, could get just small amounts incrementally better
(06:41):
week in and week out, but also it could get
a lot better every week. McCarthy could and maybe he
gives you an upside, a super Bowl upside that you
don't have in Carson Wentz. Now, I am not suggesting
McCarthy's going to deliver a super Bowl and I don't
want to find myself in the preposterous statement tournament because
I'm not suggesting that. But I am saying there is
(07:01):
the full range of outcomes for McCarthy. It I think
includes this, you know, one percent or less than one
percent chance where JJ McCarthy could potentially get you there.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
I also think there's a generational divide to here. I
think there are some people of the older variety that
want to win, and they want to win now copyright
now to three, and I think that tends to lean
more towards Wentz because I think the you know, the
floor is probably going to be higher. You're probably going
(07:35):
to have a better chance of getting a playoff spot,
where with JJ you just don't know. You said you
have those three options of what JJ could be. Carson,
you're basically probably going to sneak into a wild card spot.
And I think there's not much higher of a ceiling.
I don't think there's much lower floor. I think he's
going to keep you in about that spot. That's what
good backup quarterbacks do that are veterans. I think that
(07:58):
the younger folk will probably say, let's go with JJ,
and yeah, even if we're thrown away twenty twenty five,
you know what you've got for twenty six and you
can move forward and maybe build a contender that you
compete year after year after year and not just trying
to scrape together one year at a time.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
So we don't know much about McCarthy yet. The positions
that he found himself in were really difficult. He was
under tremendous pressure by a battered offensive line in the
first two games. He finished the second game on a
obviously very nasty high ankle sprain, and so it's always
(08:36):
very tempting to go back and just say, well, JJ
hasn't played very well. I just don't know that anybody
could have played well in the positions that he got
dropped into against Chicago and Atlanta. Those were two really
tough spots, and to his credit in the Chicago game,
obviously he rallied valiantly in the fourth quarter. So I
think it's really hard to suggest that you know much
(08:59):
of anything about JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Now.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
When I try to just microanalyze what we've seen so far,
a couple things that't worry me. When he's had a
clean pocket. JJ hasn't always been accurate, hasn't always had
the vision that I want him to in terms of
finding his receivers and going through reads. But that's but
that's what you get with a young rookie and only
has to pass twenty times in the first game and
(09:24):
twenty one times in the second game. So I mean
just and you can understand why Kevin O'Connell wanted to
limit JJ's exposure. But when you're only throwing five passes
per quarter, it's really hard to get much of a
read on who JJ McCarthy is through two games, and
I just I think we just don't know now. So
Philadelphia's coming up, This isn't pretty good Philadelphia defense. Now, granted,
(09:48):
they just got worked by another third start quarterback in
Jackson Dart, and this would be JJ McCarthy's third start,
and so you could certainly say, hey, Jackson Dark can
go do it. He was a first round quarterback. Why
can JJ McCarthy another first round quarterback do it? And
that may end up being the case. Chemistefansi against the
(10:09):
Vikings throughout his rookie quarterback against a very good Vikings defense,
just decided to roll the dice and he almost got
a win out of it. I do believe it'll be
JJ McCarthy. He's healthy, and I do believe that it's
the right choice. Ultimately long term, it's just whether or
(10:29):
not you really have the forty to debate the losses
your young quarterback and quarterbacks. Quarterbacks lose games, and that
might very well be the case for McCarthy. Another X
factor that you have to consider on starting McCarthy is
the seat of the offensive lines health. I mean, if
we know Ryan Kelly's not going to play, he's on IR.
(10:51):
If Brian O'Neal and Donovan Jackson can't go either, and
JJ McCarthy is at eighty five percent on his Hankel spring,
that might be enough for me where I say, you
know what, I don't want to put JJ into that
position where once again he's got to scramble for his life.
Although offensive line played gallantly last game, so you could
(11:13):
make a case that maybe it doesn't matter if Kelly
and O'Neil and Jackson don't go, although I think I
think it does, and a young quarterback may not fare
as well behind a worse offensive line than you would
necessarily get from Carson Wentz, so that that will be
an X factor as well, watching this offensive line and
seeing where where Jackson really are too. At the end
(11:37):
of the day, I'm on team JJ for at least
the next month of games, and just take your lumps
and see where you are reevaluate. You've got to give
him a long enough run that you can decide whether
or not he's whether or not he's suitable to keep going.
But I think I think right now, Brett, it's going
to be JJ week seven if the ankle allows. I agree.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I think you got to go with JJ, just because
I don't think you know, there isn't In my mind,
there isn't benefit long term for the Vikings to play
Carson Wentz and get a wild card spot and get
bumped in the first round or even the divisional round.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
I just don't.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
I don't see what the long term benefit besides just
letting JJ watch for another year. But I mean, if
you're talking about building a contender that competes year after
year after year, I think it's better to take your
lumps now. I get punting on the season is something
that makes people want to puke. You get a higher
draft pick, and you get JJ experience, and then hopefully
(12:36):
you can move forward with a franchise quarterback that you
can have for a decade. That's where I would go.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Now, Brett, you were the producer for many episodes of
Video Games Weekly. You are your video game enthusiast. Like myself,
I believe the Xbox is dead and for a quick segment.
Next segment, and in part because you're here, Brett, I
want to give a eulogy to the Xbox. We'll throwback
(13:05):
to Video Games Weekly. It was on in the air
for thirteen years, I believe, and we haven't really circled
back and done much video game talk. Let's talk about
the rather said and totally avoidable death of the Xbox.
When we return to camp hand and look at you, hacker,
the pathetic creature of meat and ball hands, handing and
(13:29):
sweating as you have went through my corridor.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Stunning.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
How can you challenge a perfect immortal machine.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Now it's time for Video Games Weekly, industry news reviews,
what's great, what's gone? Everything you need to know about
video games now along with Andy Reiner, here's the fans
Paul charge yet.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Video Games Weekly? Oh I missed that open. I haven't
heard it. And you know it's been probably four or
five years, I don't know, four years since we had
Video Games Weekly, Brett, and you know, we really haven't
talked video games. Runners doing great at Gearbox. They just
shipped up orderlines four. He's in a great spot now.
For those that remember our old show, the I want
(14:32):
to talk about the Xbox, which I believe is dying
a slow and certain death, and how in the world
did we get here with the Xbox. The current generation
of Xbox hardware is five years old, and what we've
seen in every other console life cycle is the price
(14:56):
of the hardware. It comes down over time. It launches
that it's h bighest point, but then as the chips
become more widely available and the cost of scalability, the
price has come down on the hardware. The Xbox X,
the current generation of Xbox is five years old, and
Microsoft has raised the price of the console twice this year.
(15:21):
You can now pay seven hundred dollars for an Xbox,
a five year old Xbox console that is no better
than the versions that were shipping five years ago. Microsoft
has made an epic blunder with their pricing, and then
they've made it so that not only is the hardware
expensive now. The single best reason to get Xbox was
(15:45):
game Pass Brett you know this for fifteen dollars a month.
Originally you had access to roughly one hundred games, including
all the Microsoft first party games, and game Pass was
a great reason to get an Xbox. Fifteen bucks a
month I've got games I can try out find some
things that I would never otherwise play. But Microsoft has
(16:06):
doubled the price of game Pass, including two price raises
in the last year. Now it's three hundred and sixty
dollars a year for game Pass, so one of the
key value propositions has been eroded that way. As well.
Microsoft tried to raise the price of its games, its
(16:28):
published games, to eighty dollars per game, but the fan
backlash was so great they had to only raise it
to seventy. Now what else has Microsoft done to kill Xbox? Well,
it rolled into They rolled into our I guess you
could say out of the Xbox three sixty generation, which
they which they won by with great exclusive game franchises
(16:51):
like Halo and Gears of War, which were really good.
Halo one, two and three built the original Xbox in
the Xbox three sixty. Gears of War was a legitimate
sensation and a great multiplayer shooter, and they've managed to
make such bad Halo and Gears of War games that
those franchises are practically dead. Meanwhile, Sony going strong with
(17:15):
their exclusives like Last of Us and God of War
and Spider Man and Horizon zero don They've still got
great exclusives going. And then Microsoft thousands of layoffs this year,
including it really important studios for them, like Bethesda, who
makes the Elder Scroll series, the Skyroom series, and Blizzard.
(17:36):
These are incredibly expensive to buy and important studios, and
they spend all this money buying Bethesda, all this money
buying Blizzard's like three years to clear all the the
hurdles to get Blizzard forty billion dollars I think for
Blizzard active in Blizzard, and then you lay everybody off
because you can't afford to pay him anymore. It's so dumb.
(17:58):
They've had to cancel six notable games and just insult
to injury, just like they've done in Windows eleven. Microsoft
has now put ads into their Xbox operating system, which
some people are pretty upset about, including me. I don't
love that. And the last single mention that I think
has really hurt the Xbox. You look at the runaway
(18:21):
success of the Nintendo Switch as a hybrid portable gaming
system that could also be docked and go onto your TV.
Microsoft leading up to this generation have seen how popular
the Switch was and at any point during this generation
could have made their own portable gaming system. That would
(18:42):
have that would have been dockable. It would have let
the games that you buy on the Xbox hardware be
playable also on your portable gaming system. They could have
done that and ultimately decided not to, and I think
that was a missed opportunity as well. Well, let me
ask you this, Brett, as an avid gamer, is the
(19:04):
are you an Xbox owner? And if so, are you
a happy Xbox owner.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
I've been an Xbox guy basically my entire life because
of Halo, Like that was the first games I grew
up playing, was Halo two and Halo three. Halo three
is probably still one of my favorite games ever. I
mean that's a perfect arena first person shooter and story.
So I still have Xbox now, and like I tried
to switch over to you know, PC Master Race ha
(19:30):
ha ha, but I just can't keep up with the hardware.
Like I'm if anyone has a graphics cards with the
let number three in front of it, I'll take it
cause mine just stinks. So there's still the price point
with PC that I'm not really comfortable with. But like
game Pass, that's probably gonna have to be canceled. For me,
it's probably over. I mean, I liked Halo Infinite, but
(19:51):
they didn't update it at all like it. Once the
base game was out, that was pretty much it. They
barely touched it after that, and even if it played well,
it still wasn't very good. I am concerned about the
game Pass thing. I think the hardware is going up
just across the board. I don't know if that's the
case with PS five or not, but I'm still probably
(20:12):
going to be an Xbox guy, but I'm going to
have to take the lumps, probably not get game Pass anymore.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
It's unclear when the next generation is coming here, but
I think Xbox is going to see massive, massive migration
away from their system when the next generation rolls around,
which we're getting close to or five years into this generation,
so we're getting we're getting close to that spot right now. Now,
how did myself get here? Where they're way way behind
Sony and hardware sales, in gameplay, they're losing ground to
(20:41):
as you mentioned, the PC market as well. It goes
back to the original two Xbox consoles, the original Xbox
and the Xbox three sixty. When Microsoft spun up the
original Xbox team, they had to pull people. They had
(21:01):
to convince people to risk their careers by pulling them
out of other successful places inside of Microsoft like Windows
or Outlook or whatever, DirectX and pull those people into
the new Xbox system on an unproven console. And they
found these these people that were so passionate about gaming,
(21:24):
and they loved gaming so much they were willing to
walk away from a great career at Microsoft to go
to the Xbox team. And it was a small team
like one hundred hundred and fifty people that launched the
original Xbox. And the original Xbox was something of a flop.
It was competing against at the time PlayStation one or two,
(21:44):
and that was really a tough That was a tough battle.
But they had Halo and what they proved in the
first Xbox was that they had the best online networking available.
And it turned out people loved to play online, and
nobody knew that yet, and so many didn't know it yet.
So when they launched Xbox three sixty with a similar
size team and all these dedicated gamers inside of Microsoft
(22:07):
to make the Xbox three sixty, it was designed for
online play first, and it totally caught Sony f guard
and they ended up crushing with Halo, with Halo two,
Halo three. Call of Duty. Absolutely the place you played
Call of Duty at the time was on the Xbox
three sixty. But then what happened. Xbox three sixty has
(22:32):
an amazing run. It goes extremely well other than the
right ring of death at the beginning, and all these
other people from Microsoft Microsoft start getting into and deciding
to go into the Xbox side of the business. They
start getting middle managers, they get non gamers, and those
people end up joining the Xbox team and watering down
(22:59):
the Xbox experience and putting non gaming priorities into the Xbox.
When the Xbox won launched the Acounsole after the Xbox
three sixty, all they talked about was t TV connectivity.
The didn't even talk about gaming. They talked about how
this was going to be your set top box and
you were going to stream all your television to it.
They had non gamers littered in the Xbox side of Microsoft,
(23:23):
and those people have been there ever since. Those are
people that they weren't gamers, They weren't people that were
willing to risk careers on an unknown they were taking.
They were taking an already proven product and just trying
to iterate on it, and it wasn't good enough. And
those people they're still making dumb, dumb game decisions at Xbox,
(23:44):
and I don't believe Xbox is ever going to recover,
and I don't think it's going to be a significant,
significant part of the video game landscape going forward. I
hope I'm wrong, but I believe that is the case.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Well, I do want to end the the video games
segment if we can, with what do you play in
these days? Do you have any top of your head?
Speaker 3 (24:08):
I because I am playing Borderlands for it's really good.
It is uh. I think it's a little challenging. It's
uh the to me, more challenging than the previous Borderlands work.
It's the universe and the planet that you're playing on
is just gorgeous, Brett it is. It is absolutely beautiful.
It's tons and tons of loot. It's like I said,
(24:32):
it is challenging. There's a ton of ton of different
ways to change and upgrade your characters. You can make
it very specific to you and your style of play.
I'm playing a tank build right now. It's it's Borderlands
is good. I think it's a I think it's a
very good game. That's what I'm playing right now. What
are you playing? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (24:49):
I Well, thanks to the new and improved Xbox PlayStation
relationship basically that I got going on, I'm playing Hell
Divers on my Xbox all the time. That that is
by far my favorite game. I couldn't run it on
my PC, so I had to basically wait until Xbox
and PlayStation made up. So yeah, I've got an odst
(25:10):
that just drops in on random planets. It's so much fun.
I don't know if you ever spent. It's completely PvE,
it's all co op, and you're basically the collective community
is fighting against factions of enemies and trying to liberate
the galaxy.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
So it's so much fun.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
It's a blast.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Hell Divers has been a huge success. Hell Divers too,
I assume, yes, yes, yeah, a huge success. Originally I
think PlayStation only, right, but now it's on everything correct.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Yeah, So it was PlayStation only, came to the PC,
and then now it's on Xbox as well. So they
had a collab with.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Yeah. Yeah. So anyways, it's been fun going back through
Little Video Games Weekly one Segment edition. When we come back,
Mitch Moss from vsin to talk about the shocking, startling
successive circa survivor. This has becomes as big as anything
in sports gambling. If you will, we'll talk to Mitch
(26:10):
about the circus survivor phenomenon, and I may even give
him some input into my selection for this week when
we return to the Friday Football.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Feast, join the fans, Meat, Sauce, Lucky, Save Farm, and
Hastings tomorrow for their October celebration. Join us from noon
to to tomorrow opening of toy Land Yard Games and
mar Pull details now Cavan dot com. Key Recounter.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
The final segment of the Friday Football Feest. Paul charching
with you PA back Monday? Do we know Bret is
PA back Monday?
Speaker 2 (26:55):
That would be a presumptive guess.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Yes, Okay, we're gonna go with Monday. No idea if
that's actually accurate or not, but that won't stop us here.
Accuracy not necessarily that important. But what I can say
with confidence is I am joined by Mitch Moss, the
co host of Follow the Money on VSON. Mitch and
I talk every week during the football season, and I
(27:17):
wanted to touch base with Mitch on the phenomenon that
is Circa Survivor.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Hi, Mitch good Church, how are you, Pale?
Speaker 3 (27:27):
I'm doing great, Thank you. It's it's fun to be
back on the Friday football Feast. It's it's been a
little while since I moved to Utah, so I haven't
been on since since week one, and it's it's nice
to be back, and it's great to have you on
the show. I've got and I've got an entry. I
only had one entry into Circus Survivor still live. And
what I find is, I'm just astounded it how much
(27:49):
of my mental energy is going towards Circus Survivor and
how big this contest has come. Can you describe how
circus first, just like mechanically, how Circus Survivor work.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
So it's one thousand dollars per entry, and you can
get up to ten entries to begin the year, and
a lot of people do that. So that's ten thousand
dollars right there out of the gates. And then you know,
since this thing has gotten so big, people have decided
to like team up with each other and turning. Let's
(28:24):
say you, me and five other people working on the
show right now, we all say we're going to get
ten together, Well we could have seventy entries and work
our way and find a path to try to get
to the end that way. And so this thing has
grown exponentially from like five or six years ago when
they first posted it the first ever legal Survivor contest,
because it's something that like out here in Las Vegas,
(28:44):
we kind of forgot about. And you know, it's like
it was always the points spread and the total and
atf contests and then player props, and then it's like,
well wait a second. Here, people in the Midwest and
the Northeast and then all over the country they love
playing in Survivor contest. Why was it never a legal thing?
And once they brought it to Circa, I mean, it
has spread like wildfire. And so to give you an example,
(29:07):
two years ago twenty twenty three, it really took off
and it got to more than nine thousand entries, so
the contest was worth north of nine million dollars. Last
year jumped to more than fourteen million, and this year
charge it took another leap all the way up to
almost nineteen thousand entries. So the entire prize pool is
worth just a little bit shy of a nineteen million
(29:29):
dollars and you said it correctly. This is what I
spend an overwhelming amount of my time during the week
thinking about when it comes to the NFL.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
And talking about right on VSA on your show Follow
the Money, which I encourage you to listen to. You
can follow the YouTube channel at vson Live and you've
got a VSA app as well. It's great. I'm on Thursdays.
The way Survivor works is you can only pick one
NFL team. You just need them to win one NFL
team each week, can't you It's the same one twice.
(30:01):
I think most listeners are very familiar with this, but
the stakes are so high and it's so different here
because the thousand dollars per team, the Big nine almost
nineteen million dollars that are in the prize pool, and
you're playing against so many teams. Mitch that this really
does change my strategy because I have to find some
way with my one little team. I got to find
so many to differentiate myself from nineteen thousand other teams.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
There, there's no doubt, and what you want to do
is you want to avoid the team or the teams
as much as possible. That the masses will be on
and now that did not Like if you did that,
if you were on the most popular teams for the
first month, you're still alive. That is until last week
because we saw bombs go off multiple times, with the
Rams losing on Thursday night, with the Cardinals going down,
(30:49):
with the Bills going down on Sunday night, that eliminated
a massive chunk of the field. In fact, starting the
week we had there were more than twelve thousand people left.
It's now down the four than six hundred and forty six.
So like, this is the crazy thing. Twenty one teams
were still selected last week. I think twenty five teams
the week before. So you will see an entry on
(31:09):
the Titans like every single week, just in case that
landmine is hit, and it was last week. So my
guess is that's probably a big group of people that
had a bunch I could be wrong on this, but
they had a bunch of the Cardinals and they said,
let's put one on the Titans just in case they lose,
and we're going to have an edge there. But you're right, like,
if you have one entry, I think you need to
(31:30):
be looking at the teams that are not going to
be popular at all, but you still think have a
good chance to advance and survive. And it's such a
week to week league. I think that's a great way
to look at it. Like what team is in a
good schedule spot, Which team just played a great game
that probably won't duplicate that this following Sunday. Which team
is coming off of an absolute stinkbound that might rebound?
(31:50):
You know, so there are some there are some bottom
feeders that you have to take in order to advance
this thing. And oh, by the way, at Circa Charge,
the unique thing about this contest is they came up
with their own rules where Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday
is a separate week, and then the Christmas Day games
also a separate week. So you have to plan ahead
to which teams are playing on the holidays, because if
(32:13):
you use all those teams up and you get to Thanksgiving,
well you're out. You can't advance. So you have to
like right, and that's very tricky to do because a
lot of the matchups are going to be like pick'ms
and then like who's hurt, who's not? Who do I save?
You know. The whole thing is a mind game.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Throughout the entire year, those step Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday,
those those there's only like I don't know, three four
games or four or five four games. I think only
four games. You can only pick from eight teams on
that one. The Christmas Day ones only got I don't
know something like that as well, like three games, and
so you have to you've got to hold those teams
(32:47):
back to some degree. Can you game theory question for you?
Mitch Mitch Moss co hosts of Follow the Money on
Vison talking about Circus Survivor the absolute phenomenon that it is.
Can you win by picking good teams earthly and then
just hoping there's enough variance later that the teams that
are bad early are actually pretty good by the end
(33:07):
and you can then go back to these bad teams later.
Can you win by picking good teams early? Do you think?
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Well, I think that that's been the recipe this year.
Had you done that last year, you would have been out.
And I think ninety seven percent of the pool was
out after Week three because all the good teams were losing.
And you know, I guess that's the beauty of the NFL.
We can go into the season thinking well, these teams
are going to be incredible, They're going to win twelve, thirteen,
fourteen games. I can fit them when they are seven
eight points, you know, favored in those games. And I
(33:36):
want to target the teams that are going to be really,
really bad. So I would actually say this I have
been focusing on because I've gotten away. It was some
weeks with using some bad teams, but I'm focusing against
the true stink bombs of the league. Right, Like, who
thought Cincinnati was going to be this bad? You can't
(33:56):
anticipate Joe Burrow going down for the year, but we
all thought that the defense in the offensive line would
be troublesome. But this bad. So like if you're fading
the Bengals and the Packers are going to be super
popular this week. That's been a great recipe. Same thing
with the Titans until last week. And look, I mean
that that there's never going to be a fun way
to lose survivor. And if you were on the Cardinals
(34:17):
last week, you clearly had the right team. That's just
an all time loss. And that's that's I guess. The good,
the bad, and the ugly of the contest is that
it's such an adrenaline rush, and you love being a
part of it. But there's never going to be a game.
Doesn't matter when you go out week two, week eight,
week thirteen, it's going to it's always going to be
super painful. But I just think you've got to play
(34:39):
a week to week charge to downs to your question,
and you can't really bank on, you know, the teams
that you think are elite all the time and the
teams that are really really bad throughout the entire year.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
You made passing reference to this Cardinals loss, which was
just epic. I mean, three astounding plays had to go
against the Cardinals and they all did. From your perspective,
as somebody that's been following Survivor and Circus Arrivor for
all this time, where does that loss rank all time
in terms of bad beats?
Speaker 1 (35:08):
Well, in the last five years, five or six years
since Survivor came along. I thought the Rams on Thursday night,
because they were think about this. When when the Rams
had the ball first in goal to three yard line
with what a minute left whatever that was, two minutes left,
they were almost they were minus nine to fifty to
win the game. So their probability was like ninety seven
percent in that range based on different models whatever. And
(35:32):
they lost the game. So that was pretty bad. That
had nothing on the Cardinals loss. There was a game that,
in fact, I was involved in a couple of years
ago where the Browns were like a seven point favorite
against the Jets, and of course the Jets were really,
really bad, and the Browns scored a touchdown with about
ninety seconds left to go up by thirteen. They missed
the extra point. They kicked off. Jets scored a touch
(35:53):
on right away, got the on side kick, scored like
on a Hail Mary or whatever. It was final, like
a couple of seconds, and they made the extra point
and they won. I won. That was brutal. I think
the Cardinals loss that knock had to happen. It was worse.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
Yeah, that knocked me out that year. That was a
that was a real You had that one bad beat yep, yep.
Other side of that, yeah, uh, never trust Deshaan Watson.
I'll that was a learning experience for me.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Pure Yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
Still still carrying the baggage on that on visan where
you can talk about anything, right, how much of your
weekly discussion is on Survivor and how much has that
changed over the years, Well.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
It's more and more certainly because of how how big
the contest has gotten. We talk about it probably every day,
and you know today when we're running down the entire
schedule of games, every game will be pretty much brought
up like any unless it's like like a true pick them,
you will say, what do you think is this a
Survivor play? Like we'll go spread total player props and
(36:58):
then Survivor has to be a part of the discuss.
So yeah, it's just it's gotten that big and it's
only going to get bigger, you know, out there, I
wouldn't be surprised if they get to twenty five thousand
people next year whatever it is, and they built the
documentary around that. It's gotten really popular as well, so
I think, you know, it has to be talked about
quite a bit, and that may maybe, you know, once
(37:19):
it gets down to you're only sitting in a couple
hundred entries, then people might be turned off by because
they've been most people have been eliminated at that point.
But I still think it's like a new It's because
we're a sportscamling network, so it's a new story, right
it's like, oh my god, the power ball is now
two million dollars. Well, people are fascinated by that kind
of stuff.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Are there survivor experts? You know, like thirty years ago,
nobody thought they'd be fantasy experts. Are there survivor experts?
So there are people out there making a living just giving
survivor advice.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
They have I've seen like websites take off where they
where their models are actually pretty good at projecting stuff.
But we so we bring on some guests who you know,
they've been playing Survivor for a long long time. And
I'll tell you and they're like professional sports betters, Like
they understand the gist of the whole thing righty, Like
(38:10):
they get game theory a lot, and they understand they
might not win it every single year, but they know
absolutely what they're doing. And I'll tell you, you know people
who are really good at this stuff as well, poker players,
Like we have one guy who name was David Baker,
who's the professional poker player. He's dynamite. He had a
great World Series of Poker. Like listening to him to
I've learned so much from him in the last like
(38:31):
two years just listening to Survivor like he gets it,
and I think his poker background has a has a
big reason, you know, is a big reason why. So
you know, I'm no expert at it, but I think
I'm getting better. And I was a part of the
one hundred final one hundred and fifty last year when
fourteen thousand people got in it. I had the Giants
against the Panthers in Germany and they lost in overtime.
(38:52):
And let me tell you how good that one's helped.
But and you know, so I'm getting better every single year.
But you know, to listen to people, and I think
that's the beauty of Survivor. By the way, is that
I want to have partners because I know that I'm
going to miss multiple angles on a bunch of these games,
and I might present something to them that they're not seeing.
So to bunce that off somebody or multiple people, I
think is that that's one of my favorite things to
(39:14):
do throughout the entire football season.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
All right, Mitch, thank you for the background on service Survivors.
It's a total phenomenon. Survivor is a super fun way
to play. I love how simple it is to play
and just how an absurd amount of strategy there is
in Circus Survivor. Mitch. I'll talk to you on Thursday
for Follow the Money on VS and thanks so much
for joining. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
Thanks, yeah, thanks charge quickly. My wife is in it
for the first time. That's all she talks about.
Speaker 4 (39:40):
Now.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
Next week's saying she's still alive. All she talks about.
And she loves football. I love the forty nine ers.
She only cares about Survivor.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
I love it. See bring it Circus Survivor bringing marriages together.
I love it. Yes, fantastic, Thank you Bench all right, Judge,
and thank you for listening everybody. I really appreciate this.
It's been a ton of fun. Friday football feast back
again with a little Southern Utah flavor. Some rain over here,
which is pretty uncommon. Miss you all. I wish there
(40:12):
were still still heading out to Buffalo Wild Wings and
on Fridays, but you know this is this is the
life right here. You name all that. Brett, thank you
for your help today. Really appreciate it. You've been great.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
Thank you you as well.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
Absolutely common Man coming up next, please stay tuned. Everybody,
talk to you soon about podcast. Today's Paul Allen Show.
Speaker 4 (40:34):
We're listening back to, bringing show and interviews like going
to the iHeartRadio app
Speaker 3 (40:38):
For kfan dot com
Fan.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Babies cry, and that's normal, but if you're feeling overwhelmed,
it's okay to step away. Never shake a baby. Shaking
can kill, and one and four don't survive. Survivors off
the face permanent brain damage. You learn more and give
today at never shake mn dot com.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Welcome back out on a three from football Feast pault
Archie with you pa off today. Vikings bye week, Nordo
as well. We hope they are recharging getting ready for
a two thirds left of the season. So it's still
a long way to go in the Viking season and
a healthy debate that you're gonna hear a lot about
the station already have and you're going to continue for
(00:58):
the next ten days on what the Vikings should be
doing at the quarterback position. Brett, let me let me
start here. We don't know who the starter will be
against Philadelphia for the Vikings next game, we presume, and
we don't know really a current update and we won't
until probably Wednesday or so maybe Tuesday on where JJ
(01:22):
McCarthy is in the rehabilitation and for his high ankle spring.
I think it's safe to say, Brett, this is going
to be a KFA and talker for the next week.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Trust me, it has been for It's been holding our
water for a while now. So yeah, there's plenty of opinions.
And you know, I've seen on the text line and
I've seen on the talkbacks. I wouldn't say fifty to
fifty split. I'd say more people want JJ back in there.
But there is a strong, you know, ride the hot
hand with Wentz, and JJ isn't ready contingency out there
for sure.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
I wonder if people really feel Wentz is hot. I
feel like Wentz is adequate. This is a writing adequate hand,
the known hand. You know what you're going to get
from Carson Wentz. We've seen it now over the span
of three games, and it is competent play. Maybe not
special play. Some missed receivers. Every quarterback does that to
(02:15):
some degree. But somebody that looks like he's played the
position before, somebody that has h that isn't gonna wilt
in the moment. Carson Wentz has completed sixty nine percent
of his passes. That's that is a good that's a
good NFL number, five touchdowns, two interceptions. He's done a
good job. I think of getting the ball to Justin
(02:35):
Jefferson something we did not get from JJ McCarthy, and
that's getting the ball to Justin Jefferson is how you
win games. That's that's important. Now he has also the
luxury of getting Jordan Addison back, and Addison has helped
in the last two games and been a contributing, very
big contributing factor last week as well. The the heart,
(02:56):
I think where this really galvanizes too oudiences the Wentz
versus McCarthy, are the people that are trying to win
games and the people that are trying to versus the
people that are trying to find out what they've got
in the tenth overall pick of the draft last year
in JJ McCarthy. If you want to win games, if
(03:19):
and this is a this is a win based league,
that we're all wired that every NFL game is important,
every win counts well, we all rolled into this bye
week feeling better because the Vikings scratched out a victory
against Cleveland. We care about this, We care about wins.
We can say we don't and we just need to
(03:40):
and it's easy to say, we just got to give
our young quarterback as many games as it is it
takes for him to get better, for us to evaluate him.
But the losses are really hard. I mean, that sounds
so good in theory, Brett, to just give your quarterback
long enough to evaluate him and for him to improve proove,
(04:01):
but losses are really really hard in the NFL. And
I don't know Brett that it's as simple as just saying, well,
you run McCarthy out there as long as it takes.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I mean, my stance on this, I think officially, is
that the big question is do you think Carson Wentz
can win the Super Bowl? And I think it is
as simple as that, because if the answer is no,
then there's no point in putting him out there and
just seeing at least you make some sort of progress
with your supposed to be franchise quarterback. But if you
(04:36):
think he can, or you think you've got a shot,
then by all means, stick with him and kick the
can down the road on McCarthy until next year. But
I just don't I don't think it's preposterous to say
that I don't think Carson Wentz is a super Bowl
winning quarterback at this stage in his career, even with
the weapons that he has and JJ and Addison and
TJ I just don't think winning the big game is
(04:57):
in the cards with that caliber of quarterback. So even
getting to the NFC Championship game is probably not going
to happen. This is the guy who's, you know, the journeyman,
who he's fine and he's good. He like you said,
you know what you're gonna get. I just think if
you're not in it to win the big game, then yes,
it's wasting a season, and yes you might get losses
(05:19):
and growing pains, but the idea is that you a well,
you could get a better draft pick, which is good,
but the idea is you could build something going forward
into the next year and hopefully if JJ is good enough,
ten years down the road.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
So if we think Wentz is not a super Bowl quarterback,
and I think that's true and probably very safe to
say that Wentz is not is very unlikely to lead
the Vikings to a super Bowl, does McCarthy give you
a path to a super Bowl that's any better? And
I think the answer is actually yes. I mean, there
is a scenario where McCarthy is and it's not so short.
(05:57):
There's still enough season left that mc carthy gets a
lot better every game and ends up in a scenario
where he's a really good quarterback by the time the
playoffs start, that's absolutely in play, that at least that's
a possibility. I don't think Carson Wentz has got that
intimate this at this stage of his career. And I
(06:19):
know obviously at one point, you know, you go back
to twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, it looked like Carson Wentz
was going to be a super Bowl caliber quarterback. But
we haven't seen that version of Carson Wentz in a decade.
McCarthy's got the full range of outcomes. Could be awful
and stay awful, could get just small amounts incrementally better
(06:41):
week in and week out, but also it could get
a lot better every week. McCarthy could and maybe he
gives you an upside, a super Bowl upside that you
don't have in Carson Wentz. Now, I am not suggesting
McCarthy's going to deliver a super Bowl and I don't
want to find myself in the preposterous statement tournament because
I'm not suggesting that. But I am saying there is
(07:01):
the full range of outcomes for McCarthy. It I think
includes this, you know, one percent or less than one
percent chance where JJ McCarthy could potentially get you there.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
I also think there's a generational divide to here. I
think there are some people of the older variety that
want to win, and they want to win now copyright
now to three, and I think that tends to lean
more towards Wentz because I think the you know, the
floor is probably going to be higher. You're probably going
(07:35):
to have a better chance of getting a playoff spot,
where with JJ you just don't know. You said you
have those three options of what JJ could be. Carson,
you're basically probably going to sneak into a wild card spot.
And I think there's not much higher of a ceiling.
I don't think there's much lower floor. I think he's
going to keep you in about that spot. That's what
good backup quarterbacks do that are veterans. I think that
(07:58):
the younger folk will probably say, let's go with JJ,
and yeah, even if we're thrown away twenty twenty five,
you know what you've got for twenty six and you
can move forward and maybe build a contender that you
compete year after year after year and not just trying
to scrape together one year at a time.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
So we don't know much about McCarthy yet. The positions
that he found himself in were really difficult. He was
under tremendous pressure by a battered offensive line in the
first two games. He finished the second game on a
obviously very nasty high ankle sprain, and so it's always
(08:36):
very tempting to go back and just say, well, JJ
hasn't played very well. I just don't know that anybody
could have played well in the positions that he got
dropped into against Chicago and Atlanta. Those were two really
tough spots, and to his credit in the Chicago game,
obviously he rallied valiantly in the fourth quarter. So I
think it's really hard to suggest that you know much
(08:59):
of anything about JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Now.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
When I try to just microanalyze what we've seen so far,
a couple things that't worry me. When he's had a
clean pocket. JJ hasn't always been accurate, hasn't always had
the vision that I want him to in terms of
finding his receivers and going through reads. But that's but
that's what you get with a young rookie and only
has to pass twenty times in the first game and
(09:24):
twenty one times in the second game. So I mean
just and you can understand why Kevin O'Connell wanted to
limit JJ's exposure. But when you're only throwing five passes
per quarter, it's really hard to get much of a
read on who JJ McCarthy is through two games, and
I just I think we just don't know now. So
Philadelphia's coming up, This isn't pretty good Philadelphia defense. Now, granted,
(09:48):
they just got worked by another third start quarterback in
Jackson Dart, and this would be JJ McCarthy's third start,
and so you could certainly say, hey, Jackson Dark can
go do it. He was a first round quarterback. Why
can JJ McCarthy another first round quarterback do it? And
that may end up being the case. Chemistefansi against the
(10:09):
Vikings throughout his rookie quarterback against a very good Vikings defense,
just decided to roll the dice and he almost got
a win out of it. I do believe it'll be
JJ McCarthy. He's healthy, and I do believe that it's
the right choice. Ultimately long term, it's just whether or
(10:29):
not you really have the forty to debate the losses
your young quarterback and quarterbacks. Quarterbacks lose games, and that
might very well be the case for McCarthy. Another X
factor that you have to consider on starting McCarthy is
the seat of the offensive lines health. I mean, if
we know Ryan Kelly's not going to play, he's on IR.
(10:51):
If Brian O'Neal and Donovan Jackson can't go either, and
JJ McCarthy is at eighty five percent on his Hankel spring,
that might be enough for me where I say, you
know what, I don't want to put JJ into that
position where once again he's got to scramble for his life.
Although offensive line played gallantly last game, so you could
(11:13):
make a case that maybe it doesn't matter if Kelly
and O'Neil and Jackson don't go, although I think I
think it does, and a young quarterback may not fare
as well behind a worse offensive line than you would
necessarily get from Carson Wentz, so that that will be
an X factor as well, watching this offensive line and
seeing where where Jackson really are too. At the end
(11:37):
of the day, I'm on team JJ for at least
the next month of games, and just take your lumps
and see where you are reevaluate. You've got to give
him a long enough run that you can decide whether
or not he's whether or not he's suitable to keep going.
But I think I think right now, Brett, it's going
to be JJ week seven if the ankle allows. I agree.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I think you got to go with JJ, just because
I don't think you know, there isn't In my mind,
there isn't benefit long term for the Vikings to play
Carson Wentz and get a wild card spot and get
bumped in the first round or even the divisional round.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
I just don't.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
I don't see what the long term benefit besides just
letting JJ watch for another year. But I mean, if
you're talking about building a contender that competes year after
year after year, I think it's better to take your
lumps now. I get punting on the season is something
that makes people want to puke. You get a higher
draft pick, and you get JJ experience, and then hopefully
(12:36):
you can move forward with a franchise quarterback that you
can have for a decade. That's where I would go.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Now, Brett, you were the producer for many episodes of
Video Games Weekly. You are your video game enthusiast. Like myself,
I believe the Xbox is dead and for a quick segment.
Next segment, and in part because you're here, Brett, I
want to give a eulogy to the Xbox. We'll throwback
(13:05):
to Video Games Weekly. It was on in the air
for thirteen years, I believe, and we haven't really circled
back and done much video game talk. Let's talk about
the rather said and totally avoidable death of the Xbox.
When we return to camp hand and look at you, hacker,
the pathetic creature of meat and ball hands, handing and
(13:29):
sweating as you have went through my corridor.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Stunning.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
How can you challenge a perfect immortal machine.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Now it's time for Video Games Weekly, industry news reviews,
what's great, what's gone? Everything you need to know about
video games now along with Andy Reiner, here's the fans
Paul charge yet.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Video Games Weekly? Oh I missed that open. I haven't
heard it. And you know it's been probably four or
five years, I don't know, four years since we had
Video Games Weekly, Brett, and you know, we really haven't
talked video games. Runners doing great at Gearbox. They just
shipped up orderlines four. He's in a great spot now.
For those that remember our old show, the I want
(14:32):
to talk about the Xbox, which I believe is dying
a slow and certain death, and how in the world
did we get here with the Xbox. The current generation
of Xbox hardware is five years old, and what we've
seen in every other console life cycle is the price
(14:56):
of the hardware. It comes down over time. It launches
that it's h bighest point, but then as the chips
become more widely available and the cost of scalability, the
price has come down on the hardware. The Xbox X,
the current generation of Xbox is five years old, and
Microsoft has raised the price of the console twice this year.
(15:21):
You can now pay seven hundred dollars for an Xbox,
a five year old Xbox console that is no better
than the versions that were shipping five years ago. Microsoft
has made an epic blunder with their pricing, and then
they've made it so that not only is the hardware
expensive now. The single best reason to get Xbox was
(15:45):
game Pass Brett you know this for fifteen dollars a month.
Originally you had access to roughly one hundred games, including
all the Microsoft first party games, and game Pass was
a great reason to get an Xbox. Fifteen bucks a
month I've got games I can try out find some
things that I would never otherwise play. But Microsoft has
(16:06):
doubled the price of game Pass, including two price raises
in the last year. Now it's three hundred and sixty
dollars a year for game Pass, so one of the
key value propositions has been eroded that way. As well.
Microsoft tried to raise the price of its games, its
(16:28):
published games, to eighty dollars per game, but the fan
backlash was so great they had to only raise it
to seventy. Now what else has Microsoft done to kill Xbox? Well,
it rolled into They rolled into our I guess you
could say out of the Xbox three sixty generation, which
they which they won by with great exclusive game franchises
(16:51):
like Halo and Gears of War, which were really good.
Halo one, two and three built the original Xbox in
the Xbox three sixty. Gears of War was a legitimate
sensation and a great multiplayer shooter, and they've managed to
make such bad Halo and Gears of War games that
those franchises are practically dead. Meanwhile, Sony going strong with
(17:15):
their exclusives like Last of Us and God of War
and Spider Man and Horizon zero don They've still got
great exclusives going. And then Microsoft thousands of layoffs this year,
including it really important studios for them, like Bethesda, who
makes the Elder Scroll series, the Skyroom series, and Blizzard.
(17:36):
These are incredibly expensive to buy and important studios, and
they spend all this money buying Bethesda, all this money
buying Blizzard's like three years to clear all the the
hurdles to get Blizzard forty billion dollars I think for
Blizzard active in Blizzard, and then you lay everybody off
because you can't afford to pay him anymore. It's so dumb.
(17:58):
They've had to cancel six notable games and just insult
to injury, just like they've done in Windows eleven. Microsoft
has now put ads into their Xbox operating system, which
some people are pretty upset about, including me. I don't
love that. And the last single mention that I think
has really hurt the Xbox. You look at the runaway
(18:21):
success of the Nintendo Switch as a hybrid portable gaming
system that could also be docked and go onto your TV.
Microsoft leading up to this generation have seen how popular
the Switch was and at any point during this generation
could have made their own portable gaming system. That would
(18:42):
have that would have been dockable. It would have let
the games that you buy on the Xbox hardware be
playable also on your portable gaming system. They could have
done that and ultimately decided not to, and I think
that was a missed opportunity as well. Well, let me
ask you this, Brett, as an avid gamer, is the
(19:04):
are you an Xbox owner? And if so, are you
a happy Xbox owner.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
I've been an Xbox guy basically my entire life because
of Halo, Like that was the first games I grew
up playing, was Halo two and Halo three. Halo three
is probably still one of my favorite games ever. I
mean that's a perfect arena first person shooter and story.
So I still have Xbox now, and like I tried
to switch over to you know, PC Master Race ha
(19:30):
ha ha, but I just can't keep up with the hardware.
Like I'm if anyone has a graphics cards with the
let number three in front of it, I'll take it
cause mine just stinks. So there's still the price point
with PC that I'm not really comfortable with. But like
game Pass, that's probably gonna have to be canceled. For me,
it's probably over. I mean, I liked Halo Infinite, but
(19:51):
they didn't update it at all like it. Once the
base game was out, that was pretty much it. They
barely touched it after that, and even if it played well,
it still wasn't very good. I am concerned about the
game Pass thing. I think the hardware is going up
just across the board. I don't know if that's the
case with PS five or not, but I'm still probably
(20:12):
going to be an Xbox guy, but I'm going to
have to take the lumps, probably not get game Pass anymore.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
It's unclear when the next generation is coming here, but
I think Xbox is going to see massive, massive migration
away from their system when the next generation rolls around,
which we're getting close to or five years into this generation,
so we're getting we're getting close to that spot right now. Now,
how did myself get here? Where they're way way behind
Sony and hardware sales, in gameplay, they're losing ground to
(20:41):
as you mentioned, the PC market as well. It goes
back to the original two Xbox consoles, the original Xbox
and the Xbox three sixty. When Microsoft spun up the
original Xbox team, they had to pull people. They had
(21:01):
to convince people to risk their careers by pulling them
out of other successful places inside of Microsoft like Windows
or Outlook or whatever, DirectX and pull those people into
the new Xbox system on an unproven console. And they
found these these people that were so passionate about gaming,
(21:24):
and they loved gaming so much they were willing to
walk away from a great career at Microsoft to go
to the Xbox team. And it was a small team
like one hundred hundred and fifty people that launched the
original Xbox. And the original Xbox was something of a flop.
It was competing against at the time PlayStation one or two,
(21:44):
and that was really a tough That was a tough battle.
But they had Halo and what they proved in the
first Xbox was that they had the best online networking available.
And it turned out people loved to play online, and
nobody knew that yet, and so many didn't know it yet.
So when they launched Xbox three sixty with a similar
size team and all these dedicated gamers inside of Microsoft
(22:07):
to make the Xbox three sixty, it was designed for
online play first, and it totally caught Sony f guard
and they ended up crushing with Halo, with Halo two,
Halo three. Call of Duty. Absolutely the place you played
Call of Duty at the time was on the Xbox
three sixty. But then what happened. Xbox three sixty has
(22:32):
an amazing run. It goes extremely well other than the
right ring of death at the beginning, and all these
other people from Microsoft Microsoft start getting into and deciding
to go into the Xbox side of the business. They
start getting middle managers, they get non gamers, and those
people end up joining the Xbox team and watering down
(22:59):
the Xbox experience and putting non gaming priorities into the Xbox.
When the Xbox won launched the Acounsole after the Xbox
three sixty, all they talked about was t TV connectivity.
The didn't even talk about gaming. They talked about how
this was going to be your set top box and
you were going to stream all your television to it.
They had non gamers littered in the Xbox side of Microsoft,
(23:23):
and those people have been there ever since. Those are
people that they weren't gamers, They weren't people that were
willing to risk careers on an unknown they were taking.
They were taking an already proven product and just trying
to iterate on it, and it wasn't good enough. And
those people they're still making dumb, dumb game decisions at Xbox,
(23:44):
and I don't believe Xbox is ever going to recover,
and I don't think it's going to be a significant,
significant part of the video game landscape going forward. I
hope I'm wrong, but I believe that is the case.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Well, I do want to end the the video games
segment if we can, with what do you play in
these days? Do you have any top of your head?
Speaker 3 (24:08):
I because I am playing Borderlands for it's really good.
It is uh. I think it's a little challenging. It's
uh the to me, more challenging than the previous Borderlands work.
It's the universe and the planet that you're playing on
is just gorgeous, Brett it is. It is absolutely beautiful.
It's tons and tons of loot. It's like I said,
(24:32):
it is challenging. There's a ton of ton of different
ways to change and upgrade your characters. You can make
it very specific to you and your style of play.
I'm playing a tank build right now. It's it's Borderlands
is good. I think it's a I think it's a
very good game. That's what I'm playing right now. What
are you playing? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (24:49):
I Well, thanks to the new and improved Xbox PlayStation
relationship basically that I got going on, I'm playing Hell
Divers on my Xbox all the time. That that is
by far my favorite game. I couldn't run it on
my PC, so I had to basically wait until Xbox
and PlayStation made up. So yeah, I've got an odst
(25:10):
that just drops in on random planets. It's so much fun.
I don't know if you ever spent. It's completely PvE,
it's all co op, and you're basically the collective community
is fighting against factions of enemies and trying to liberate
the galaxy.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
So it's so much fun.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
It's a blast.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Hell Divers has been a huge success. Hell Divers too,
I assume, yes, yes, yeah, a huge success. Originally I
think PlayStation only, right, but now it's on everything correct.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Yeah, So it was PlayStation only, came to the PC,
and then now it's on Xbox as well. So they
had a collab with.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Yeah. Yeah. So anyways, it's been fun going back through
Little Video Games Weekly one Segment edition. When we come back,
Mitch Moss from vsin to talk about the shocking, startling
successive circa survivor. This has becomes as big as anything
in sports gambling. If you will, we'll talk to Mitch
(26:10):
about the circus survivor phenomenon, and I may even give
him some input into my selection for this week when
we return to the Friday Football.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Feast, join the fans, Meat, Sauce, Lucky, Save Farm, and
Hastings tomorrow for their October celebration. Join us from noon
to to tomorrow opening of toy Land Yard Games and
mar Pull details now Cavan dot com. Key Recounter.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
The final segment of the Friday Football Feest. Paul charching
with you PA back Monday? Do we know Bret is
PA back Monday?
Speaker 2 (26:55):
That would be a presumptive guess.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Yes, Okay, we're gonna go with Monday. No idea if
that's actually accurate or not, but that won't stop us here.
Accuracy not necessarily that important. But what I can say
with confidence is I am joined by Mitch Moss, the
co host of Follow the Money on VSON. Mitch and
I talk every week during the football season, and I
(27:17):
wanted to touch base with Mitch on the phenomenon that
is Circa Survivor.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Hi, Mitch good Church, how are you, Pale?
Speaker 3 (27:27):
I'm doing great, Thank you. It's it's fun to be
back on the Friday football Feast. It's it's been a
little while since I moved to Utah, so I haven't
been on since since week one, and it's it's nice
to be back, and it's great to have you on
the show. I've got and I've got an entry. I
only had one entry into Circus Survivor still live. And
what I find is, I'm just astounded it how much
(27:49):
of my mental energy is going towards Circus Survivor and
how big this contest has come. Can you describe how
circus first, just like mechanically, how Circus Survivor work.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
So it's one thousand dollars per entry, and you can
get up to ten entries to begin the year, and
a lot of people do that. So that's ten thousand
dollars right there out of the gates. And then you know,
since this thing has gotten so big, people have decided
to like team up with each other and turning. Let's
(28:24):
say you, me and five other people working on the
show right now, we all say we're going to get
ten together, Well we could have seventy entries and work
our way and find a path to try to get
to the end that way. And so this thing has
grown exponentially from like five or six years ago when
they first posted it the first ever legal Survivor contest,
because it's something that like out here in Las Vegas,
(28:44):
we kind of forgot about. And you know, it's like
it was always the points spread and the total and
atf contests and then player props, and then it's like,
well wait a second. Here, people in the Midwest and
the Northeast and then all over the country they love
playing in Survivor contest. Why was it never a legal thing?
And once they brought it to Circa, I mean, it
has spread like wildfire. And so to give you an example,
(29:07):
two years ago twenty twenty three, it really took off
and it got to more than nine thousand entries, so
the contest was worth north of nine million dollars. Last
year jumped to more than fourteen million, and this year
charge it took another leap all the way up to
almost nineteen thousand entries. So the entire prize pool is
worth just a little bit shy of a nineteen million
(29:29):
dollars and you said it correctly. This is what I
spend an overwhelming amount of my time during the week
thinking about when it comes to the NFL.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
And talking about right on VSA on your show Follow
the Money, which I encourage you to listen to. You
can follow the YouTube channel at vson Live and you've
got a VSA app as well. It's great. I'm on Thursdays.
The way Survivor works is you can only pick one
NFL team. You just need them to win one NFL
team each week, can't you It's the same one twice.
(30:01):
I think most listeners are very familiar with this, but
the stakes are so high and it's so different here
because the thousand dollars per team, the Big nine almost
nineteen million dollars that are in the prize pool, and
you're playing against so many teams. Mitch that this really
does change my strategy because I have to find some
way with my one little team. I got to find
so many to differentiate myself from nineteen thousand other teams.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
There, there's no doubt, and what you want to do
is you want to avoid the team or the teams
as much as possible. That the masses will be on
and now that did not Like if you did that,
if you were on the most popular teams for the
first month, you're still alive. That is until last week
because we saw bombs go off multiple times, with the
Rams losing on Thursday night, with the Cardinals going down,
(30:49):
with the Bills going down on Sunday night, that eliminated
a massive chunk of the field. In fact, starting the
week we had there were more than twelve thousand people left.
It's now down the four than six hundred and forty six.
So like, this is the crazy thing. Twenty one teams
were still selected last week. I think twenty five teams
the week before. So you will see an entry on
(31:09):
the Titans like every single week, just in case that
landmine is hit, and it was last week. So my
guess is that's probably a big group of people that
had a bunch I could be wrong on this, but
they had a bunch of the Cardinals and they said,
let's put one on the Titans just in case they lose,
and we're going to have an edge there. But you're right, like,
if you have one entry, I think you need to
(31:30):
be looking at the teams that are not going to
be popular at all, but you still think have a
good chance to advance and survive. And it's such a
week to week league. I think that's a great way
to look at it. Like what team is in a
good schedule spot, Which team just played a great game
that probably won't duplicate that this following Sunday. Which team
is coming off of an absolute stinkbound that might rebound?
(31:50):
You know, so there are some there are some bottom
feeders that you have to take in order to advance
this thing. And oh, by the way, at Circa Charge,
the unique thing about this contest is they came up
with their own rules where Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday
is a separate week, and then the Christmas Day games
also a separate week. So you have to plan ahead
to which teams are playing on the holidays, because if
(32:13):
you use all those teams up and you get to Thanksgiving,
well you're out. You can't advance. So you have to
like right, and that's very tricky to do because a
lot of the matchups are going to be like pick'ms
and then like who's hurt, who's not? Who do I save?
You know. The whole thing is a mind game.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Throughout the entire year, those step Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday,
those those there's only like I don't know, three four
games or four or five four games. I think only
four games. You can only pick from eight teams on
that one. The Christmas Day ones only got I don't
know something like that as well, like three games, and
so you have to you've got to hold those teams
(32:47):
back to some degree. Can you game theory question for you?
Mitch Mitch Moss co hosts of Follow the Money on
Vison talking about Circus Survivor the absolute phenomenon that it is.
Can you win by picking good teams earthly and then
just hoping there's enough variance later that the teams that
are bad early are actually pretty good by the end
(33:07):
and you can then go back to these bad teams later.
Can you win by picking good teams early? Do you think?
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Well, I think that that's been the recipe this year.
Had you done that last year, you would have been out.
And I think ninety seven percent of the pool was
out after Week three because all the good teams were losing.
And you know, I guess that's the beauty of the NFL.
We can go into the season thinking well, these teams
are going to be incredible, They're going to win twelve, thirteen,
fourteen games. I can fit them when they are seven
eight points, you know, favored in those games. And I
(33:36):
want to target the teams that are going to be really,
really bad. So I would actually say this I have
been focusing on because I've gotten away. It was some
weeks with using some bad teams, but I'm focusing against
the true stink bombs of the league. Right, Like, who
thought Cincinnati was going to be this bad? You can't
(33:56):
anticipate Joe Burrow going down for the year, but we
all thought that the defense in the offensive line would
be troublesome. But this bad. So like if you're fading
the Bengals and the Packers are going to be super
popular this week. That's been a great recipe. Same thing
with the Titans until last week. And look, I mean
that that there's never going to be a fun way
to lose survivor. And if you were on the Cardinals
(34:17):
last week, you clearly had the right team. That's just
an all time loss. And that's that's I guess. The good,
the bad, and the ugly of the contest is that
it's such an adrenaline rush, and you love being a
part of it. But there's never going to be a game.
Doesn't matter when you go out week two, week eight,
week thirteen, it's going to it's always going to be
super painful. But I just think you've got to play
(34:39):
a week to week charge to downs to your question,
and you can't really bank on, you know, the teams
that you think are elite all the time and the
teams that are really really bad throughout the entire year.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
You made passing reference to this Cardinals loss, which was
just epic. I mean, three astounding plays had to go
against the Cardinals and they all did. From your perspective,
as somebody that's been following Survivor and Circus Arrivor for
all this time, where does that loss rank all time
in terms of bad beats?
Speaker 1 (35:08):
Well, in the last five years, five or six years
since Survivor came along. I thought the Rams on Thursday night,
because they were think about this. When when the Rams
had the ball first in goal to three yard line
with what a minute left whatever that was, two minutes left,
they were almost they were minus nine to fifty to
win the game. So their probability was like ninety seven
percent in that range based on different models whatever. And
(35:32):
they lost the game. So that was pretty bad. That
had nothing on the Cardinals loss. There was a game that,
in fact, I was involved in a couple of years
ago where the Browns were like a seven point favorite
against the Jets, and of course the Jets were really,
really bad, and the Browns scored a touchdown with about
ninety seconds left to go up by thirteen. They missed
the extra point. They kicked off. Jets scored a touch
(35:53):
on right away, got the on side kick, scored like
on a Hail Mary or whatever. It was final, like
a couple of seconds, and they made the extra point
and they won. I won. That was brutal. I think
the Cardinals loss that knock had to happen. It was worse.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
Yeah, that knocked me out that year. That was a
that was a real You had that one bad beat yep, yep.
Other side of that, yeah, uh, never trust Deshaan Watson.
I'll that was a learning experience for me.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Pure Yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
Still still carrying the baggage on that on visan where
you can talk about anything, right, how much of your
weekly discussion is on Survivor and how much has that
changed over the years, Well.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
It's more and more certainly because of how how big
the contest has gotten. We talk about it probably every day,
and you know today when we're running down the entire
schedule of games, every game will be pretty much brought
up like any unless it's like like a true pick them,
you will say, what do you think is this a
Survivor play? Like we'll go spread total player props and
(36:58):
then Survivor has to be a part of the discuss.
So yeah, it's just it's gotten that big and it's
only going to get bigger, you know, out there, I
wouldn't be surprised if they get to twenty five thousand
people next year whatever it is, and they built the
documentary around that. It's gotten really popular as well, so
I think, you know, it has to be talked about
quite a bit, and that may maybe, you know, once
(37:19):
it gets down to you're only sitting in a couple
hundred entries, then people might be turned off by because
they've been most people have been eliminated at that point.
But I still think it's like a new It's because
we're a sportscamling network, so it's a new story, right
it's like, oh my god, the power ball is now
two million dollars. Well, people are fascinated by that kind
of stuff.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Are there survivor experts? You know, like thirty years ago,
nobody thought they'd be fantasy experts. Are there survivor experts?
So there are people out there making a living just giving
survivor advice.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
They have I've seen like websites take off where they
where their models are actually pretty good at projecting stuff.
But we so we bring on some guests who you know,
they've been playing Survivor for a long long time. And
I'll tell you and they're like professional sports betters, Like
they understand the gist of the whole thing righty, Like
(38:10):
they get game theory a lot, and they understand they
might not win it every single year, but they know
absolutely what they're doing. And I'll tell you, you know people
who are really good at this stuff as well, poker players,
Like we have one guy who name was David Baker,
who's the professional poker player. He's dynamite. He had a
great World Series of Poker. Like listening to him to
I've learned so much from him in the last like
(38:31):
two years just listening to Survivor like he gets it,
and I think his poker background has a has a
big reason, you know, is a big reason why. So
you know, I'm no expert at it, but I think
I'm getting better. And I was a part of the
one hundred final one hundred and fifty last year when
fourteen thousand people got in it. I had the Giants
against the Panthers in Germany and they lost in overtime.
(38:52):
And let me tell you how good that one's helped.
But and you know, so I'm getting better every single year.
But you know, to listen to people, and I think
that's the beauty of Survivor. By the way, is that
I want to have partners because I know that I'm
going to miss multiple angles on a bunch of these games,
and I might present something to them that they're not seeing.
So to bunce that off somebody or multiple people, I
think is that that's one of my favorite things to
(39:14):
do throughout the entire football season.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
All right, Mitch, thank you for the background on service Survivors.
It's a total phenomenon. Survivor is a super fun way
to play. I love how simple it is to play
and just how an absurd amount of strategy there is
in Circus Survivor. Mitch. I'll talk to you on Thursday
for Follow the Money on VS and thanks so much
for joining. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
Thanks, yeah, thanks charge quickly. My wife is in it
for the first time. That's all she talks about.
Speaker 4 (39:40):
Now.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
Next week's saying she's still alive. All she talks about.
And she loves football. I love the forty nine ers.
She only cares about Survivor.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
I love it. See bring it Circus Survivor bringing marriages together.
I love it. Yes, fantastic, Thank you Bench all right, Judge,
and thank you for listening everybody. I really appreciate this.
It's been a ton of fun. Friday football feast back
again with a little Southern Utah flavor. Some rain over here,
which is pretty uncommon. Miss you all. I wish there
(40:12):
were still still heading out to Buffalo Wild Wings and
on Fridays, but you know this is this is the
life right here. You name all that. Brett, thank you
for your help today. Really appreciate it. You've been great.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
Thank you you as well.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
Absolutely common Man coming up next, please stay tuned. Everybody,
talk to you soon about podcast. Today's Paul Allen Show.
Speaker 4 (40:34):
We're listening back to, bringing show and interviews like going
to the iHeartRadio app
Speaker 3 (40:38):
For kfan dot com
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