Mario Lopez talks old school video games with his radio producers and some friends before digging into a fascinating conversation with one of the most successful professional video game players in the world, Tyler "Ninja" Blevins! Ninja has built such an insanely lucrative career streaming his video game play on Youtube and Twitch with millions of followers and subscribers. Mario and Ninja talk playing Fortnite, competing in video game competitions, and a few of Ninja's fans even get to ask him questions!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Mart another week, another episode of Listen to Mario LTM.
Mario Lopez here, and I've got a fascinating guest joining
us in just a bit, professional video game player name Ninja.
And for those who may not be familiar, there is
such an occupation as professional gamers in These dudes can
(00:25):
make a lot of money. Ninja specifically is built quite
a lucrative career streaming his gameplay on twitch in YouTube.
I'm talking my guys making like a half a million
a month at this point. It's insane twenty eight years old.
So I have so many questions for him, and even
got some of his fans to stop in and ask
(00:45):
his gaming advice. He's gonna be joining us uh in
just a bit before us, I got my radio producers
Frasier Nichols, Kyle All here to talk video games. Some
other buddies as well, if they want to chryhim in.
Here's the thing that I've always found fascinating about um kids.
Now because I got a couple, I'd love to watch
people do things as opposed to doing them themselves. Like
(01:10):
I'll tell Gia, don't you like playing with the toys?
Why do you want to watch these people unwrapped and
play with toys yourself. Don't you like to play? You know?
You hit me with Mommy likes to watch those shows
where they build houses. Don't you like watching them? How you?
I only you kind of got a point. I guess
(01:31):
point right. The same thing could have been could have
been said for cooking shows, right, So I guess I
kind of get it. My eight year old put some
perspective on it. I can kind of understand watching, Like
if you're a kid who's really into playing video games
and you're watching someone else play, you could learn strategies
and stuff like that. But when kids are just watching
other kids open presence or like you know, for Christmas
(01:51):
or Easter or whatever, I don't really get that. I
imagine it's sort of like you're living vicariously through them,
sort of like you would remodel for a lot of
those Great Advertiser or or a cooking show actually put
it in pretty good perspective. But this dude is like
obviously next level, and we'll get into how he made
that a career, and he's the Michael Jordan's Now of
(02:13):
video games. But do what happened to like old school
Miss pac Man and um Centipede had old school Tori.
I had the old school a Torii with the one
joystick with the red button. Remember that, Remember that the
red and then I remember what what was it? Did
it get to collegal Vision? After that it was a Nintendo.
Remember Pitfall was real old Pitfalls, so storry that was
(02:38):
like still black and white. I remember the one that
I thought that it started getting like the graphics I
thought were so cool. Do you remember um Ghosts and Goblins.
There was a little night in armor and then he
would like you had like an extra life with him
because if you hit him, the armor would come off
and he'd be kicking it in his underwear and still
trying to like kill ghosts and goblins. One of the
(03:00):
time hardest game. I want to see Ninja up on that. Yeah, exactly,
that was hard man. But then I remember when I
was consumed with Mike Tyson's punch out and I'll never
forget the day I finally make it, made it to
Mike Tyson because I had to get through all those fighters.
I'll never get that day and I finally and I
was so in awe and then he knocked me out
like in ten seconds because because you know that, and
(03:20):
then I found out there was like a there was
like a code you can cheat seven three seven, three
five nine six come. The code was that the Tyson code.
That was my party trick. I would go like to
the kid's birthday parties and I would beat Tyson. Everyone
would watch you beat Tyson. Ninja damn Ninjay trick. You're
(03:41):
a cheater face. I was putting in work. It's pretty impressive.
He remembers that because I don't know. A few weeks
ago we referenced that game Contra and I was like,
do you remember that code? And he remember the code
for that too. So there was codes for a bunch
of video games were cheap codes. You get the cheap
codes though, the cheat codes because if you were making
the if you were one of the game programmers, you
had to play through the game to make to check
(04:03):
for the mistakes. So you can have these codes for
like Unlimited Life, so that you could play through it
and look for the glitches. But where the codes public
knowledge or did they put out How did one become
aware of these codes? You know, you had to be
part of the insider trades like Nintendo Power or you know,
any of those any of the Insider mags. I forgot
(04:23):
their used to be video game magazine. Was video game magazine? Yeah,
gave you all kinds of insight and stuff. It was
before I mean now it's been replaced by people like Ninja.
You could call but you could call up the Nintendo
hotline and talk to a video game counselor. Did you
do that would help you? Serious? I never talked to
a counselor, but it was I wanted to be one.
In the early days, I was telling me he was
(04:43):
a champion in Pittsburgh. You were champion? What in like?
What we were all? Right? Back? You may remember the
Fred Savage vehicle, the Wizard back it was it was
he was a video game champion. Mario was up for that.
Oh really well in Pittsburgh. Tendo came to Pittsburgh looking
for its best players, and I went in there. We
(05:03):
played Super Mario, one, rad Racer, and Tetris. Yes, I
qualified to go to Nationals at Disney World. It was
a no expensive paid trip to Disney World. So I
wasn't allowed to make the trip to Nationals, but you
know I would have been. I could have been the Wizard. Wait,
how much time were you putting name back in the
(05:24):
day on the gaming. I wasn't putting in some of
this ninja time as you'll hear him talk about. But
you know, uh after school, you know maybe maybe you know,
maybe four hours maybe significant. Yeah, that's a lot of time. Actually.
What was your favorite game though? Like growing up, Mike
Tyson's Punch Out was a great one. The Mario Brothers
all any Mario brother game was a great one. Uh,
(05:47):
Zelda games were great ones. Later remember later when it
when went to like Super Nintendo and then n sixty
four they had NBA jams, the Madden Footballs. But the
sports game was good. I was always partial to uh
any of the fighting games like the Street Fighters and
those kind of games. And then I like driving games
a lot. I'm talking about Arcade now, not console like
(06:08):
I like driving games. Uh, the fighting games in the
sports one was fun. I do remember though, to the
uh which NBA game which was an NBA jam. NBA
Jam was the one where he's eat up Yeah, yeah, yeah,
that was yes, Yes, that was great. So for a
long time, because we've worked together for like seven and
a half years, would tell me just over and over
(06:30):
that he was the misspac man Champ like he could
play that one would beat him any of that. And
then randomly we I think it was last year, we
all went to this bar that's an arcade bar, and
he wasn't lying. However, my skills were intact. However, he
cannot play Mortal Kombat at all. Mortal Kombat. I was
a street fighter guy Rebbe. You had Mortal Kombat and
then he had street Fighter. Ad always be e Honda. Yeah.
(06:52):
A lot of people don't want to be right with that.
Little Kara would get down on some thousand and slap
turn exactly that that that that that it turns out
there when Maria and I were actually playing Mortal Kombat,
he thought we were playing street Fighter. Briefly, I couldn't
have that was a whole another which one came out first.
I'm curious what was the bigger street Fighter was out
before Mortal Kombat. I like street Fighting and then they
(07:13):
had street Fighter too. Yeah, so that was that was
the jam back in the day. But I remember vividly,
Uh it was a Tori and then I remember Collegal Vision.
I remember my dad like I had to what was
the next big one after that? Because what is Collegion
I'm not Supervision. Remember that one. You gotta google that.
Collego Vision was real old school. I'm older than all
you fool stuff. Like Collego Vision was like a step up.
(07:33):
That was like the new that was like the Xbox. Right, yeah,
like normal kids had the Atri. But then if you
were on TV, you got just nic Vision. And then yeah, exactly, dude,
I'm like nine years old. So and then um, after
that was it an intense and then it was a
(07:56):
Superintendo or something Nintendo. Nintendo came out. I think around
this same time the first Sega came out, right, yeah,
or maybe like a year. I remember there was one
Christmas my brother got a Sega and I got a
Nintendo and it was Christmas. Yeah it was great, dude,
that is a good That was the big gift. That
was like I used to love and I played a lot.
(08:16):
I played a lot as a kid, not on about
four hours, but a couple of hours, an hour or two.
Maybe you know. My mom would and enough this and that.
But when I turned eighteen, I made myself. I said,
you know what I'm I'm I gotta put I gotta
put it away now because I said I gotta I
gotta like focus, grow up. I got scared, like the
real world's coming, right, So I did, I put and
never touched it again. I said, if I have kids
(08:37):
later on, I'll get into it. Bring that Clico vision
back out. Yeah, but I can't believe like some of
the old school games are still all out there. But
never touched it again because I just thought it was
going to consume me belittle. Did I know you could
now have as crewcorative career and they have these mega
tournaments and Arena's get field. It's on a couple of
years ago, I was flipping through channels like TBS or
(08:58):
something had like these gaming tournaments that were on. There
was a whole show that was dedicated to it, and
it was like a full stadium of people. Do with
the games now, Dude, like you're playing them and it's
way too quiet, and they look almost look too real,
and he looks too crazy, and I don't even know
how to figure it out. My kids are they're still young,
but they're they're playing all the little games on iPads now. Um,
(09:20):
they don't even ask for our console. They're they're just
all on iPads and they're really into a roadblocks, which
is sort of like a little junior version of Fortnite,
I think from what I can tell, right, so that
in my nephews and stuff, they're intil you played Fortnite.
Never played Fortnite, never, But I'm familiar with the dances.
(09:41):
But other than that, I am not familiar. So anyway,
let's get to our guest, because he's turned his video
game playing in again to a very lucrative career at
only twenty eight years old. Tyler Blevins a k A. Ninja.
Welcome to the podcast. Man, how are you. I'm doing great?
How are you? But I'm well. Thanks taking the time
to come in see you what you rolled deep in here?
You got a whole squad. Odd you got a fans
(10:02):
waiting inside the studio. I know you're one of the
biggest players in gaming. For Where did the passion for
uh these games begin? Yeah? Uh? It also when I
was really little, my dad had he brought games into
the house because he loved playing them. So he liked playing,
so he got them for us, but he would uh
So this is one of those things where my mom
(10:23):
actually told me the story, like, you know, a couple
of years ago. So I didn't even know this about
my dad for a while, but yeah, he would basically
we go to bad around seven o'clock, eight o'clock because
we're little kids, and he would just stay up and
play and beat video games all night and stay up
to like four am apparently. Really, And where are you from?
I'm from Illinois. I was born in Detroit, but I've
lived in Illinois whole life. Born in Taylor, Michigan, and
(10:43):
in Illinois. Right now, we're like forty five minutes away
from Chicago. Outside of Chicago, you remained there, I've not left.
And and so you started playing with Pops and then
you just fell in love with it and continue playing.
How how often were we playing a day all the time?
So I had a great balanced My parents basically said,
you know, uh, first of all, I'd be doing well
in school in order to play a lot of video games.
(11:04):
That was the number one rule. But during the summer
and things like that, it was like I had three
hours a day, and if I wanted more time, I
have to play outside, So like an hour of playing
outside would be like an hour of extra gaming. That's
a nice balance, it's actually perfect. Yeah, So I'd run
around for five hours and then just come inside and
play the game. You have brothers and sisters, two older brothers.
Were they into it as much as you were? They
were definitely not into it as much as I was.
(11:25):
They loved the game, They love playing with me. They
love just passionate though. No, definitely wasn't there. And how
did did you just how did you know you were good?
I mean, this is trial and Erran product. It's one
of those things where you know, you just start starting
to Jesus Christ, you start beating everyone around you, right
Like I just started eventually mopping the floor of my
brothers and I wasn't even trying. And then you know,
their friends would come over and I crushed them, and
then my friends would come over and I smoking fools.
(11:48):
And then Xbox Live comes out, which allows you to
play against people all over the world. And that was
when I was like thirteen, and that was when I realized,
you know, I'm really good. That's when you're you. You
were just next level. Was there a single moment that
you can point to that really launched like the trajectory
of your career? Um? I mean, definitely Fortnite like pushed
it all the way into the next level. When did
(12:10):
Fortnite hit the scene? About a year and a half ago.
It's only been about a year and a half. Dude,
doesn't feel like it's been around forever, for like ten years.
It's better. It's that right. Actually, just had a conversation
with Sound about that, like a couple of hours ago.
That's a good bit of trivia. It's like it's been
around for Air four. I don't know, just exactly five years. Wow,
I know, so WHOA, So what was it about? First
(12:30):
of all, I love video games too when I was
a kid and growing up. I'm a lot older than you,
so old school like that. Oh no, thank you, you're sweet.
But like now we're talking right now, Like you said,
you can play with people all over the world. It's
very interactive. But what was it about Fortnite? Because I
remember like Call of Duty was big and all these
(12:50):
other what was it about that particular game? Has that
surpassed all the other phenomenons. It's really why because it
is for you to play, and the other ones aren't
aren't free. I mean about nine percent of video games
you have to obviously. Hey, that's all point, right, that's
like the that's like, you know, you're not gonna give
out candy for free, like you're not gonna make money
(13:11):
that way. But with gaming it's different. So they all
their money they make is you know, with skins and
things like that inside the game cosmetics, and the game
is free. So that and it's everyone right, you can
play it on any consol, any system phone, so okay,
So that was the mass appeal. And then for those
who may not be familiar, is it a war game?
Is what is it? What is the how would you
describe the product? So it is a hunger hunger games
(13:33):
style Battle royale. So basically in hunger games they start out,
you know, all around in a circle with no weapons,
and then they have to go for the weapons or
you know, run away and do something else. In Last
Person Alive wins, Yeah, okay. And and how long does
an average game last? Okay, so if you're playing competitive,
it's about twenty five minutes if you make it to
the end of the game, but normally an average game
(13:54):
is like ten to fifteen minutes. Ten to fifteen minutes. Wow,
whenever these kids their reactions right here, You're fans are
freaking out, which we'll get to in a in a second.
And now they have these Fortnite World Cups, which is
which is fascinating. And I know you missed out on
qualifying for this year's Fortnite World because yes, the solo
Yeah right right, Why was that? By the way, dude,
(14:16):
I souls are a lot of RNG random number generated basically,
it's I mean, to be fair, I just didn't really
put a lot of my time and effort into solos.
I've been putting a lot of it into duos and
and duo's. It's just a team gets more of a
team effort. I mean, it's so it's like this when
this is how you know, I explain it to people
in solos, when you're playing against everyone, you know, it's
Noddy nine other players. If they have a thought that
(14:36):
pops into their head that might not be the right thought.
But there's gonna be no one to tell him what
to do, like to stop him. Like I'm gonna push
this kid. It's like no, no no, no, wait, man, Like
I can talk to my teammate, we can talk each
other out of doing something stupid. Different strategies. Yeah, But
in solos, man, if some dude just wants to push you,
because there's no one that's gonna you know, to tell
him to stop or maybe you know that's not the
right play, like he's just gonna do it, and that
kind of just happens. You know. It's just super super crazy,
(14:58):
you know. And where are the these competitions held usually,
so dude, ready for this in your basement or wherever
you play really so it's and nobody goes to like
an arena, so the finals will be in finals will be.
It's actually one of the most amazing things ever. And
they're just kind of setting the trend. Like a lot
of it. In the past, I had to drive, you
know what I mean to tournaments like hours away if
it was sometimes they're in l a. I'd fly across
(15:20):
the country for a tournament. Try explaining to my mother
eight years ago when gaming wasn't even nearly as big
as it is now, Like, hey, mom, uh, there's three
of my friends that you've never met and I've never met,
but we're gonna go and compete at a tournament across
the country where, you know, for ten dollars. And it's
like that's not going to happen. But now fortnight us
to be thirteen years or older to qualify for the
World Cup and you can play in your basement and
(15:41):
qualify and then everything is paid for when you actually
make it to the tournament. And there's no age cap. Correct,
you can be you mean, you can mean ninety years old?
All I know where the dances. I get down on
the dances. That's another thing, man, Like they're they're so
dance competitions. There should be on I'm my crush that
you know why there isn't. Actually really, they've done everything
(16:02):
else that starts. There's so many other types of tournaments stuff.
So okay, and now you've essentially built a lucrative career
out of that. When did you recognize that you're able
to make money off of it? Um? I was nineteen
years old when I first started streaming. I'm twenty eight now,
and it was I wasn't making a lot of money, right,
(16:23):
it was just like some ad revenue from playing commercials,
and you know, it's just like how on TV, more
people who you see the commercials, you make, you know,
more money. But it was and that was off of
a YouTube channel, no Twitch channel, so YouTube, I mean, yeah,
I did both. I uploaded a YouTube and Twitch. But
I'm sorry, educate me on Twitter Twitch. Okay, so it's
live streaming. Right. So let's so kind of like a
like a radio station if you will, right, you're listening
to the radio station. It's usually live. It'sund like rerecorded,
(16:44):
which is you know, on YouTube, you can record a video,
upload it and then you know, but you could have
recorded that ten years ago. Right, Okay, got it. So
you know, so if I go if I go live,
it's you know, live live, it's live. Okay, So I'm
sorry I interrupted. So you did the YouTube and the twitches.
And then eventually the Twitch started coming out with subscriptions,
so people can actually subscribe to the stream, just like
you would subdue magazine. If you like something in a magazine,
(17:06):
you receive it monthly for every month. People can choose
to you know, resubscribe to your stream. And eventually I
made it, like I think it was like a thousand dollars,
and I told my mom. I was like, I just
made a thousand dollars like playing video games, you know, streaming,
and she's like, okay, well, once you start making like
more money, like you might, I'll let like you can
stop going to school or like a mom. Yeah, She's
like I she didn't even believe it. I literally showed
her like the dashboard of like I like, mom, this
(17:27):
is the money, and she's like, well, I don't see it.
She's like let me see, Like let me she was
like I need to see the cash and then like
and then I'll considerate. Yeah. Right wow, And then it
just grew from there. I grew from there. Yeah. I
think I think I started when I quit my job
and stopped going to school. I think I was making
six figures. What were you doing? I was going to
(17:49):
local college, community college, and I was working at Noodles
and Company. This is like, this is like an awesome
um American story of of this day and age. Like
so it's so incredible. It's like a truly only American story.
So and when you're the content, are you literally just
playing well, I mean, or are you like getting your
(18:10):
your strategies are coaching or so that's that's like a
very deep question for for if you know, if you
want to be a good streamer, right, the better streamers
I want who can offer more? Right, So, the more
talented you are the game, you have more to offer, right,
and if you're also entertaining, which I you know, I
pride myself and being you know, I do impressions and
I know movie quotes and stuff like that. So speaker, okay,
go on. So all those things, you know, will add
(18:31):
to the value of your stream. And you know, the
more the funnier you are, and the more you can
teach about the game, and you know, that will get
you usually more viewers. And then that's awesome. That's awesome.
So that I mean, they used to get in trouble
for playing videos. Now you're get rich. Um, so what
about when you're not streaming? What do you like to do?
I just spend time with my wife pretty much. Who's
(18:53):
in this room right now, my beautiful, lovely hello is
she is? She a game er too, so she also
manages me. But yeah, she has been gaming he whole life.
Been in the family. I like absolutely. I like that.
From Illinois, Yes, she's from she's from a central Wisconsin Okay. Neighbor,
neighbor right there. Very good, very good. And I long
been married now we have been married almost two years. Congratulations,
Thank you. You want to start a family, you know,
(19:15):
that's a very good question. We are actually kind I mean,
we definitely not right now, but we're still you know
everything's undecided. You're very I have two older brothers and
one of them already has two kids, so you know,
borrow them. Yeah, that's actually what we talked about. We're like,
you know, we kind of get our fixed in when
we visit them. Yeah, and then one thing I wanted
to get to the Fortnight Summer Block Party. You're part
of the Celebrity Pro and tournament. You're partnering with Marshawn Lynch.
(19:37):
That's gonna be so much rud. Have you played with
them before? So we actually have not practiced yet. So
apparently he likes to play. He loves to play. So
I went with marsh Mellow last year, so I'm gonna
try to win with marsh Sewan this year. Did Wow,
that was like the pretty cool cer Marshallow. Marshallow was amazing.
I absolutely love him to death. We hang out still after,
we keep in touch. How is it? How is his
Fortnite skills? He was actually really good? Real, Yeah, it was.
(20:00):
That's why I hope we get a little bit more
practic with the Marshal. I can Marshawn so I can
figure out you know, his like stop gap right skills
tap so I can, you know, because I'm not gonna
I don't want to put you know, it's just fun games, right,
it's for charity. So if he's not capable of playing
at like a super high level, I don't want to
take it too seriously with him and like just tackle it.
I'm gonna bring him some skills up right skills? Is
(20:23):
it more of what? I'm just curious? Is it more hand?
I like, how do you what makes what distinguishes like
a good player from someone? You know what? I mean? Like,
how what? What is it? I think it's just um
knowledge really of the game and how quick you are
thinking on your feet, right, There's so many things that
are going on, That's what it is, right thinking of
I mean, you gotta know you know your ammunition, guns,
(20:43):
you have? What? How many people are around you? If
there's a sniper that has a line of side on you,
you know, how Like you know when is the zone rotating?
How much longer is the storm gonna take? How much damage?
It's nuts. I mean, all these things are going through
my mind for you know, twenty five minutes. It's actually
super draining mentally, I beg so okay, before I let
you go I've got two super fans here that I
promised him they could ask one question and one question
(21:04):
each part of me. Come here, gentlemen. Awesome, I'm ready
hit me all right, which who wants to go first?
You go first? What's your first question? What's the average
amount of time you spend on fortnight and a day?
Probably eight hours? Eight hours? Wow? So that they took
a full time job? Wow? Okay, Now, but starting up,
you said you were like three hours, no, no, no,
(21:26):
start when I was. When I was starting on my stream,
I was probably streaming like fourteen or sixteen hours a day,
and then I would work like four or five hours,
and then I'd sleep like three or four hours, like
four years. Pretty unhealthy, Just like anything in life though,
that you you want success, you gotta put the time in.
I mean you have. That's another thing too. You have
so much time like to do you know, people, if
you work at nine or five job, that's only eight hours.
(21:46):
There's still so much time left in your day to
learn things and do things. These kids are gonna hit
up mom as soon as you get out of here.
Go ahead, what's your question? Um, what do you plan
to do like one fortnight? I don't think it'll go
away anytime soon. But um, yeah, you know. But I
came from you know, Halo, where I only averaged like
a couple thousand viewers, and I switched over to AD
one Z one and I started getting like five ten
(22:07):
thou viewers. I was really good at that game. And
then pub G came out Player on the Battlegrounds. I
started getting fifteen thy thousand viewers in that game. I was,
you know, one of the best of that game. And
then when I came out, same thing. So I'll just
go onto the next game, to the next game and
dominate that one. Is it? Um? You said? They're offered
on all the different consoles. It's literally anything you can
play it on, like the switch, Xbox, PlayStation, computer. I
(22:29):
play it on the computer, PC on the computer. Okay, wow, okay,
good questions boys, those are actually really good questions. Yeah.
Before I let you go, Um, quick questions, quick answers.
Ready song that's stuck in your head? Oh my god,
baby shark movie. You've seen the most uh probably ready
player one. Okay, last show you binge watched Lucifer on
(22:55):
Netflix Celebrity Crush growing up? Mmm, oh my god, like
Zoe from Zoe one on one watching that. Yeah, who's
the best celebrity at Fortnite? That's a that's that's I
don't know if I can ask that one who's the
best celebrity at Fortnite? Like who if you heard the best?
(23:17):
Or who have you seen that's the best? I mean,
apparently there are some epic NBA players that are really
really good. Yeah I have I've remember played with him yet,
so but I don't remember specifically. I mean, if I
just had to say it throwing it out there, I
would say from from say Marshmallow right now? Really yeah, okay,
definitely good. Nav is really good too, sorry and the
artist Okay, okay, Well thanks so much for coming. I
(23:40):
was fascinating. Man, you got me all fired up. I
don't even played the game's yeah that's the goal man. Yeah.
All of Mario dot com for all the info on
the Fortnite Summer block party, and you can follow him
on Instagram at Ninja. Thanks for stoping buck, so don't
forget new episodes and listen to Mario Dropping every Friday.
All of Mario dot Time to catch up on the podcast,
(24:01):
and please make sure you follow Listen to Mario on
I Heart Radio and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever
you get podcasts. More fun next week. Thank you so
much for listening.
Mart another week, another episode of Listen to Mario LTM.
Mario Lopez here, and I've got a fascinating guest joining
us in just a bit, professional video game player name Ninja.
And for those who may not be familiar, there is
such an occupation as professional gamers in These dudes can
(00:25):
make a lot of money. Ninja specifically is built quite
a lucrative career streaming his gameplay on twitch in YouTube.
I'm talking my guys making like a half a million
a month at this point. It's insane twenty eight years old.
So I have so many questions for him, and even
got some of his fans to stop in and ask
(00:45):
his gaming advice. He's gonna be joining us uh in
just a bit before us, I got my radio producers
Frasier Nichols, Kyle All here to talk video games. Some
other buddies as well, if they want to chryhim in.
Here's the thing that I've always found fascinating about um kids.
Now because I got a couple, I'd love to watch
people do things as opposed to doing them themselves. Like
(01:10):
I'll tell Gia, don't you like playing with the toys?
Why do you want to watch these people unwrapped and
play with toys yourself. Don't you like to play? You know?
You hit me with Mommy likes to watch those shows
where they build houses. Don't you like watching them? How you?
I only you kind of got a point. I guess
(01:31):
point right. The same thing could have been could have
been said for cooking shows, right, So I guess I
kind of get it. My eight year old put some
perspective on it. I can kind of understand watching, Like
if you're a kid who's really into playing video games
and you're watching someone else play, you could learn strategies
and stuff like that. But when kids are just watching
other kids open presence or like you know, for Christmas
(01:51):
or Easter or whatever, I don't really get that. I
imagine it's sort of like you're living vicariously through them,
sort of like you would remodel for a lot of
those Great Advertiser or or a cooking show actually put
it in pretty good perspective. But this dude is like
obviously next level, and we'll get into how he made
that a career, and he's the Michael Jordan's Now of
(02:13):
video games. But do what happened to like old school
Miss pac Man and um Centipede had old school Tori.
I had the old school a Torii with the one
joystick with the red button. Remember that, Remember that the
red and then I remember what what was it? Did
it get to collegal Vision? After that it was a Nintendo.
Remember Pitfall was real old Pitfalls, so storry that was
(02:38):
like still black and white. I remember the one that
I thought that it started getting like the graphics I
thought were so cool. Do you remember um Ghosts and Goblins.
There was a little night in armor and then he
would like you had like an extra life with him
because if you hit him, the armor would come off
and he'd be kicking it in his underwear and still
trying to like kill ghosts and goblins. One of the
(03:00):
time hardest game. I want to see Ninja up on that. Yeah, exactly,
that was hard man. But then I remember when I
was consumed with Mike Tyson's punch out and I'll never
forget the day I finally make it, made it to
Mike Tyson because I had to get through all those fighters.
I'll never get that day and I finally and I
was so in awe and then he knocked me out
like in ten seconds because because you know that, and
(03:20):
then I found out there was like a there was
like a code you can cheat seven three seven, three
five nine six come. The code was that the Tyson code.
That was my party trick. I would go like to
the kid's birthday parties and I would beat Tyson. Everyone
would watch you beat Tyson. Ninja damn Ninjay trick. You're
(03:41):
a cheater face. I was putting in work. It's pretty impressive.
He remembers that because I don't know. A few weeks
ago we referenced that game Contra and I was like,
do you remember that code? And he remember the code
for that too. So there was codes for a bunch
of video games were cheap codes. You get the cheap
codes though, the cheat codes because if you were making
the if you were one of the game programmers, you
had to play through the game to make to check
(04:03):
for the mistakes. So you can have these codes for
like Unlimited Life, so that you could play through it
and look for the glitches. But where the codes public
knowledge or did they put out How did one become
aware of these codes? You know, you had to be
part of the insider trades like Nintendo Power or you know,
any of those any of the Insider mags. I forgot
(04:23):
their used to be video game magazine. Was video game magazine? Yeah,
gave you all kinds of insight and stuff. It was
before I mean now it's been replaced by people like Ninja.
You could call but you could call up the Nintendo
hotline and talk to a video game counselor. Did you
do that would help you? Serious? I never talked to
a counselor, but it was I wanted to be one.
In the early days, I was telling me he was
(04:43):
a champion in Pittsburgh. You were champion? What in like?
What we were all? Right? Back? You may remember the
Fred Savage vehicle, the Wizard back it was it was
he was a video game champion. Mario was up for that.
Oh really well in Pittsburgh. Tendo came to Pittsburgh looking
for its best players, and I went in there. We
(05:03):
played Super Mario, one, rad Racer, and Tetris. Yes, I
qualified to go to Nationals at Disney World. It was
a no expensive paid trip to Disney World. So I
wasn't allowed to make the trip to Nationals, but you
know I would have been. I could have been the Wizard. Wait,
how much time were you putting name back in the
(05:24):
day on the gaming. I wasn't putting in some of
this ninja time as you'll hear him talk about. But
you know, uh after school, you know maybe maybe you know,
maybe four hours maybe significant. Yeah, that's a lot of time. Actually.
What was your favorite game though? Like growing up, Mike
Tyson's Punch Out was a great one. The Mario Brothers
all any Mario brother game was a great one. Uh,
(05:47):
Zelda games were great ones. Later remember later when it
when went to like Super Nintendo and then n sixty
four they had NBA jams, the Madden Footballs. But the
sports game was good. I was always partial to uh
any of the fighting games like the Street Fighters and
those kind of games. And then I like driving games
a lot. I'm talking about Arcade now, not console like
(06:08):
I like driving games. Uh, the fighting games in the
sports one was fun. I do remember though, to the
uh which NBA game which was an NBA jam. NBA
Jam was the one where he's eat up Yeah, yeah, yeah,
that was yes, Yes, that was great. So for a
long time, because we've worked together for like seven and
a half years, would tell me just over and over
(06:30):
that he was the misspac man Champ like he could
play that one would beat him any of that. And
then randomly we I think it was last year, we
all went to this bar that's an arcade bar, and
he wasn't lying. However, my skills were intact. However, he
cannot play Mortal Kombat at all. Mortal Kombat. I was
a street fighter guy Rebbe. You had Mortal Kombat and
then he had street Fighter. Ad always be e Honda. Yeah.
(06:52):
A lot of people don't want to be right with that.
Little Kara would get down on some thousand and slap
turn exactly that that that that that it turns out
there when Maria and I were actually playing Mortal Kombat,
he thought we were playing street Fighter. Briefly, I couldn't
have that was a whole another which one came out first.
I'm curious what was the bigger street Fighter was out
before Mortal Kombat. I like street Fighting and then they
(07:13):
had street Fighter too. Yeah, so that was that was
the jam back in the day. But I remember vividly,
Uh it was a Tori and then I remember Collegal Vision.
I remember my dad like I had to what was
the next big one after that? Because what is Collegion
I'm not Supervision. Remember that one. You gotta google that.
Collego Vision was real old school. I'm older than all
you fool stuff. Like Collego Vision was like a step up.
(07:33):
That was like the new that was like the Xbox. Right, yeah,
like normal kids had the Atri. But then if you
were on TV, you got just nic Vision. And then yeah, exactly, dude,
I'm like nine years old. So and then um, after
that was it an intense and then it was a
(07:56):
Superintendo or something Nintendo. Nintendo came out. I think around
this same time the first Sega came out, right, yeah,
or maybe like a year. I remember there was one
Christmas my brother got a Sega and I got a
Nintendo and it was Christmas. Yeah it was great, dude,
that is a good That was the big gift. That
was like I used to love and I played a lot.
(08:16):
I played a lot as a kid, not on about
four hours, but a couple of hours, an hour or two.
Maybe you know. My mom would and enough this and that.
But when I turned eighteen, I made myself. I said,
you know what I'm I'm I gotta put I gotta
put it away now because I said I gotta I
gotta like focus, grow up. I got scared, like the
real world's coming, right, So I did, I put and
never touched it again. I said, if I have kids
(08:37):
later on, I'll get into it. Bring that Clico vision
back out. Yeah, but I can't believe like some of
the old school games are still all out there. But
never touched it again because I just thought it was
going to consume me belittle. Did I know you could
now have as crewcorative career and they have these mega
tournaments and Arena's get field. It's on a couple of
years ago, I was flipping through channels like TBS or
(08:58):
something had like these gaming tournaments that were on. There
was a whole show that was dedicated to it, and
it was like a full stadium of people. Do with
the games now, Dude, like you're playing them and it's
way too quiet, and they look almost look too real,
and he looks too crazy, and I don't even know
how to figure it out. My kids are they're still young,
but they're they're playing all the little games on iPads now. Um,
(09:20):
they don't even ask for our console. They're they're just
all on iPads and they're really into a roadblocks, which
is sort of like a little junior version of Fortnite,
I think from what I can tell, right, so that
in my nephews and stuff, they're intil you played Fortnite.
Never played Fortnite, never, But I'm familiar with the dances.
(09:41):
But other than that, I am not familiar. So anyway,
let's get to our guest, because he's turned his video
game playing in again to a very lucrative career at
only twenty eight years old. Tyler Blevins a k A. Ninja.
Welcome to the podcast. Man, how are you. I'm doing great?
How are you? But I'm well. Thanks taking the time
to come in see you what you rolled deep in here?
You got a whole squad. Odd you got a fans
(10:02):
waiting inside the studio. I know you're one of the
biggest players in gaming. For Where did the passion for
uh these games begin? Yeah? Uh? It also when I
was really little, my dad had he brought games into
the house because he loved playing them. So he liked playing,
so he got them for us, but he would uh
So this is one of those things where my mom
(10:23):
actually told me the story, like, you know, a couple
of years ago. So I didn't even know this about
my dad for a while, but yeah, he would basically
we go to bad around seven o'clock, eight o'clock because
we're little kids, and he would just stay up and
play and beat video games all night and stay up
to like four am apparently. Really, And where are you from?
I'm from Illinois. I was born in Detroit, but I've
lived in Illinois whole life. Born in Taylor, Michigan, and
(10:43):
in Illinois. Right now, we're like forty five minutes away
from Chicago. Outside of Chicago, you remained there, I've not left.
And and so you started playing with Pops and then
you just fell in love with it and continue playing.
How how often were we playing a day all the time?
So I had a great balanced My parents basically said,
you know, uh, first of all, I'd be doing well
in school in order to play a lot of video games.
(11:04):
That was the number one rule. But during the summer
and things like that, it was like I had three
hours a day, and if I wanted more time, I
have to play outside, So like an hour of playing
outside would be like an hour of extra gaming. That's
a nice balance, it's actually perfect. Yeah, So I'd run
around for five hours and then just come inside and
play the game. You have brothers and sisters, two older brothers.
Were they into it as much as you were? They
were definitely not into it as much as I was.
(11:25):
They loved the game, They love playing with me. They
love just passionate though. No, definitely wasn't there. And how
did did you just how did you know you were good?
I mean, this is trial and Erran product. It's one
of those things where you know, you just start starting
to Jesus Christ, you start beating everyone around you, right
Like I just started eventually mopping the floor of my
brothers and I wasn't even trying. And then you know,
their friends would come over and I crushed them, and
then my friends would come over and I smoking fools.
(11:48):
And then Xbox Live comes out, which allows you to
play against people all over the world. And that was
when I was like thirteen, and that was when I realized,
you know, I'm really good. That's when you're you. You
were just next level. Was there a single moment that
you can point to that really launched like the trajectory
of your career? Um? I mean, definitely Fortnite like pushed
it all the way into the next level. When did
(12:10):
Fortnite hit the scene? About a year and a half ago.
It's only been about a year and a half. Dude,
doesn't feel like it's been around forever, for like ten years.
It's better. It's that right. Actually, just had a conversation
with Sound about that, like a couple of hours ago.
That's a good bit of trivia. It's like it's been
around for Air four. I don't know, just exactly five years. Wow,
I know, so WHOA, So what was it about? First
(12:30):
of all, I love video games too when I was
a kid and growing up. I'm a lot older than you,
so old school like that. Oh no, thank you, you're sweet.
But like now we're talking right now, Like you said,
you can play with people all over the world. It's
very interactive. But what was it about Fortnite? Because I
remember like Call of Duty was big and all these
(12:50):
other what was it about that particular game? Has that
surpassed all the other phenomenons. It's really why because it
is for you to play, and the other ones aren't
aren't free. I mean about nine percent of video games
you have to obviously. Hey, that's all point, right, that's
like the that's like, you know, you're not gonna give
out candy for free, like you're not gonna make money
(13:11):
that way. But with gaming it's different. So they all
their money they make is you know, with skins and
things like that inside the game cosmetics, and the game
is free. So that and it's everyone right, you can
play it on any consol, any system phone, so okay,
So that was the mass appeal. And then for those
who may not be familiar, is it a war game?
Is what is it? What is the how would you
describe the product? So it is a hunger hunger games
(13:33):
style Battle royale. So basically in hunger games they start out,
you know, all around in a circle with no weapons,
and then they have to go for the weapons or
you know, run away and do something else. In Last
Person Alive wins, Yeah, okay. And and how long does
an average game last? Okay, so if you're playing competitive,
it's about twenty five minutes if you make it to
the end of the game, but normally an average game
(13:54):
is like ten to fifteen minutes. Ten to fifteen minutes. Wow,
whenever these kids their reactions right here, You're fans are
freaking out, which we'll get to in a in a second.
And now they have these Fortnite World Cups, which is
which is fascinating. And I know you missed out on
qualifying for this year's Fortnite World because yes, the solo
Yeah right right, Why was that? By the way, dude,
(14:16):
I souls are a lot of RNG random number generated basically,
it's I mean, to be fair, I just didn't really
put a lot of my time and effort into solos.
I've been putting a lot of it into duos and
and duo's. It's just a team gets more of a
team effort. I mean, it's so it's like this when
this is how you know, I explain it to people
in solos, when you're playing against everyone, you know, it's
Noddy nine other players. If they have a thought that
(14:36):
pops into their head that might not be the right thought.
But there's gonna be no one to tell him what
to do, like to stop him. Like I'm gonna push
this kid. It's like no, no no, no, wait, man, Like
I can talk to my teammate, we can talk each
other out of doing something stupid. Different strategies. Yeah, But
in solos, man, if some dude just wants to push you,
because there's no one that's gonna you know, to tell
him to stop or maybe you know that's not the
right play, like he's just gonna do it, and that
kind of just happens. You know. It's just super super crazy,
(14:58):
you know. And where are the these competitions held usually,
so dude, ready for this in your basement or wherever
you play really so it's and nobody goes to like
an arena, so the finals will be in finals will be.
It's actually one of the most amazing things ever. And
they're just kind of setting the trend. Like a lot
of it. In the past, I had to drive, you
know what I mean to tournaments like hours away if
it was sometimes they're in l a. I'd fly across
(15:20):
the country for a tournament. Try explaining to my mother
eight years ago when gaming wasn't even nearly as big
as it is now, Like, hey, mom, uh, there's three
of my friends that you've never met and I've never met,
but we're gonna go and compete at a tournament across
the country where, you know, for ten dollars. And it's
like that's not going to happen. But now fortnight us
to be thirteen years or older to qualify for the
World Cup and you can play in your basement and
(15:41):
qualify and then everything is paid for when you actually
make it to the tournament. And there's no age cap. Correct,
you can be you mean, you can mean ninety years old?
All I know where the dances. I get down on
the dances. That's another thing, man, Like they're they're so
dance competitions. There should be on I'm my crush that
you know why there isn't. Actually really, they've done everything
(16:02):
else that starts. There's so many other types of tournaments stuff.
So okay, and now you've essentially built a lucrative career
out of that. When did you recognize that you're able
to make money off of it? Um? I was nineteen
years old when I first started streaming. I'm twenty eight now,
and it was I wasn't making a lot of money, right,
(16:23):
it was just like some ad revenue from playing commercials,
and you know, it's just like how on TV, more
people who you see the commercials, you make, you know,
more money. But it was and that was off of
a YouTube channel, no Twitch channel, so YouTube, I mean, yeah,
I did both. I uploaded a YouTube and Twitch. But
I'm sorry, educate me on Twitter Twitch. Okay, so it's
live streaming. Right. So let's so kind of like a
like a radio station if you will, right, you're listening
to the radio station. It's usually live. It'sund like rerecorded,
(16:44):
which is you know, on YouTube, you can record a video,
upload it and then you know, but you could have
recorded that ten years ago. Right, Okay, got it. So
you know, so if I go if I go live,
it's you know, live live, it's live. Okay, So I'm
sorry I interrupted. So you did the YouTube and the twitches.
And then eventually the Twitch started coming out with subscriptions,
so people can actually subscribe to the stream, just like
you would subdue magazine. If you like something in a magazine,
(17:06):
you receive it monthly for every month. People can choose
to you know, resubscribe to your stream. And eventually I
made it, like I think it was like a thousand dollars,
and I told my mom. I was like, I just
made a thousand dollars like playing video games, you know, streaming,
and she's like, okay, well, once you start making like
more money, like you might, I'll let like you can
stop going to school or like a mom. Yeah, She's
like I she didn't even believe it. I literally showed
her like the dashboard of like I like, mom, this
(17:27):
is the money, and she's like, well, I don't see it.
She's like let me see, Like let me she was
like I need to see the cash and then like
and then I'll considerate. Yeah. Right wow, And then it
just grew from there. I grew from there. Yeah. I
think I think I started when I quit my job
and stopped going to school. I think I was making
six figures. What were you doing? I was going to
(17:49):
local college, community college, and I was working at Noodles
and Company. This is like, this is like an awesome
um American story of of this day and age. Like
so it's so incredible. It's like a truly only American story.
So and when you're the content, are you literally just
playing well, I mean, or are you like getting your
(18:10):
your strategies are coaching or so that's that's like a
very deep question for for if you know, if you
want to be a good streamer, right, the better streamers
I want who can offer more? Right, So, the more
talented you are the game, you have more to offer, right,
and if you're also entertaining, which I you know, I
pride myself and being you know, I do impressions and
I know movie quotes and stuff like that. So speaker, okay,
go on. So all those things, you know, will add
(18:31):
to the value of your stream. And you know, the
more the funnier you are, and the more you can
teach about the game, and you know, that will get
you usually more viewers. And then that's awesome. That's awesome.
So that I mean, they used to get in trouble
for playing videos. Now you're get rich. Um, so what
about when you're not streaming? What do you like to do?
I just spend time with my wife pretty much. Who's
(18:53):
in this room right now, my beautiful, lovely hello is
she is? She a game er too, so she also
manages me. But yeah, she has been gaming he whole life.
Been in the family. I like absolutely. I like that.
From Illinois, Yes, she's from she's from a central Wisconsin Okay. Neighbor,
neighbor right there. Very good, very good. And I long
been married now we have been married almost two years. Congratulations,
Thank you. You want to start a family, you know,
(19:15):
that's a very good question. We are actually kind I mean,
we definitely not right now, but we're still you know
everything's undecided. You're very I have two older brothers and
one of them already has two kids, so you know,
borrow them. Yeah, that's actually what we talked about. We're like,
you know, we kind of get our fixed in when
we visit them. Yeah, and then one thing I wanted
to get to the Fortnight Summer Block Party. You're part
of the Celebrity Pro and tournament. You're partnering with Marshawn Lynch.
(19:37):
That's gonna be so much rud. Have you played with
them before? So we actually have not practiced yet. So
apparently he likes to play. He loves to play. So
I went with marsh Mellow last year, so I'm gonna
try to win with marsh Sewan this year. Did Wow,
that was like the pretty cool cer Marshallow. Marshallow was amazing.
I absolutely love him to death. We hang out still after,
we keep in touch. How is it? How is his
Fortnite skills? He was actually really good? Real, Yeah, it was.
(20:00):
That's why I hope we get a little bit more
practic with the Marshal. I can Marshawn so I can
figure out you know, his like stop gap right skills
tap so I can, you know, because I'm not gonna
I don't want to put you know, it's just fun games, right,
it's for charity. So if he's not capable of playing
at like a super high level, I don't want to
take it too seriously with him and like just tackle it.
I'm gonna bring him some skills up right skills? Is
(20:23):
it more of what? I'm just curious? Is it more hand?
I like, how do you what makes what distinguishes like
a good player from someone? You know what? I mean? Like,
how what? What is it? I think it's just um
knowledge really of the game and how quick you are
thinking on your feet, right, There's so many things that
are going on, That's what it is, right thinking of
I mean, you gotta know you know your ammunition, guns,
(20:43):
you have? What? How many people are around you? If
there's a sniper that has a line of side on you,
you know, how Like you know when is the zone rotating?
How much longer is the storm gonna take? How much damage?
It's nuts. I mean, all these things are going through
my mind for you know, twenty five minutes. It's actually
super draining mentally, I beg so okay, before I let
you go I've got two super fans here that I
promised him they could ask one question and one question
(21:04):
each part of me. Come here, gentlemen. Awesome, I'm ready
hit me all right, which who wants to go first?
You go first? What's your first question? What's the average
amount of time you spend on fortnight and a day?
Probably eight hours? Eight hours? Wow? So that they took
a full time job? Wow? Okay, Now, but starting up,
you said you were like three hours, no, no, no,
(21:26):
start when I was. When I was starting on my stream,
I was probably streaming like fourteen or sixteen hours a day,
and then I would work like four or five hours,
and then I'd sleep like three or four hours, like
four years. Pretty unhealthy, Just like anything in life though,
that you you want success, you gotta put the time in.
I mean you have. That's another thing too. You have
so much time like to do you know, people, if
you work at nine or five job, that's only eight hours.
(21:46):
There's still so much time left in your day to
learn things and do things. These kids are gonna hit
up mom as soon as you get out of here.
Go ahead, what's your question? Um, what do you plan
to do like one fortnight? I don't think it'll go
away anytime soon. But um, yeah, you know. But I
came from you know, Halo, where I only averaged like
a couple thousand viewers, and I switched over to AD
one Z one and I started getting like five ten
(22:07):
thou viewers. I was really good at that game. And
then pub G came out Player on the Battlegrounds. I
started getting fifteen thy thousand viewers in that game. I was,
you know, one of the best of that game. And
then when I came out, same thing. So I'll just
go onto the next game, to the next game and
dominate that one. Is it? Um? You said? They're offered
on all the different consoles. It's literally anything you can
play it on, like the switch, Xbox, PlayStation, computer. I
(22:29):
play it on the computer, PC on the computer. Okay, wow, okay,
good questions boys, those are actually really good questions. Yeah.
Before I let you go, Um, quick questions, quick answers.
Ready song that's stuck in your head? Oh my god,
baby shark movie. You've seen the most uh probably ready
player one. Okay, last show you binge watched Lucifer on
(22:55):
Netflix Celebrity Crush growing up? Mmm, oh my god, like
Zoe from Zoe one on one watching that. Yeah, who's
the best celebrity at Fortnite? That's a that's that's I
don't know if I can ask that one who's the
best celebrity at Fortnite? Like who if you heard the best?
(23:17):
Or who have you seen that's the best? I mean,
apparently there are some epic NBA players that are really
really good. Yeah I have I've remember played with him yet,
so but I don't remember specifically. I mean, if I
just had to say it throwing it out there, I
would say from from say Marshmallow right now? Really yeah, okay,
definitely good. Nav is really good too, sorry and the
artist Okay, okay, Well thanks so much for coming. I
(23:40):
was fascinating. Man, you got me all fired up. I
don't even played the game's yeah that's the goal man. Yeah.
All of Mario dot com for all the info on
the Fortnite Summer block party, and you can follow him
on Instagram at Ninja. Thanks for stoping buck, so don't
forget new episodes and listen to Mario Dropping every Friday.
All of Mario dot Time to catch up on the podcast,
(24:01):
and please make sure you follow Listen to Mario on
I Heart Radio and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever
you get podcasts. More fun next week. Thank you so
much for listening.
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