Join us as we dive into the exhilarating world of Jugger, a sport inspired by the cult classic film "The Blood of Heroes." Our guest, John Fawkes, shares his journey from being a fan of Rutger Hauer to becoming an active participant in this unique and adrenaline-fueled activity. Discover how Jugger combines athleticism with theatrical flair, creating an engaging experience for both players and spectators alike. We also explore the vibrant community surrounding Jugger, including events like Wasteland Weekend, where fans embrace their post-apocalyptic personas. This episode is brought to you by Paramount Pictures, featuring their new comedy "Casino in Ischia" starring Dominic Purcell.
Takeaways:
- The sport of jugger, inspired by the 1989 film 'The Blood of Heroes', combines athleticism and theatricality.
- John Fawkes discovered the film and sport jugger during the COVID pandemic and later became an enthusiastic player.
- Wasteland Weekend is a unique festival where jugger matches take place amidst a post-apocalyptic theme.
- Jugger involves players taking on roles and wearing creative costumes, enhancing the overall experience.
- Safety is a priority in jugger, with strict rules to prevent injuries during matches.
- The community around jugger is welcoming, encouraging newcomers to join and participate actively.
Links referenced in this episode:
John Fawkes:
- https://www.instagram.com/officialjohnfawkes/
- https://www.johnfawkesphotography.com/
Wasteland Weekend
- https://www.wastelandweekend.com/
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Paramount Pictures
- Republic Pictures
00:00:02
We're all living in a world gone geek.
00:00:04
It's time to geek hard or go home.
00:00:08
The podcast is real. Here's your host, grounded geek.
00:00:14
Welcome back, listeners, to another exciting episode of the podcast
00:00:14
is real. Today, we've got a special
00:00:14
treat for you. Our guest is none
00:00:14
other than John Fawkes, and we'll
00:00:14
be diving into the fascinating world
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of jugger. Now, if you already know
00:00:14
what Jugger is, it's because you
00:00:14
have seen one of the most unsung
00:00:14
movies of 1989. But if you're like
00:00:14
most people who haven't seen that,
00:00:14
you're going to find out what Jugger
00:00:14
is tonight. And it's a wild ride.
00:00:14
So thanks for joining us. But before
00:00:14
we get started, I want to make sure
00:00:14
that you know that our episode is
00:00:14
brought to you in part from our friends
00:00:14
over at Paramount Pictures, who have
00:00:14
a new comedy. Casino in Ischia, which
00:00:14
is new today on digital stars Dominic
00:00:14
Purcell of Prison break fame, a fading
00:00:14
action star who heads to Italy to
00:00:14
revive his career with a bold new
00:00:14
movie. But when the production spirals
00:00:14
out of control, his comeback turns
00:00:14
into a hilarious misadventure by
00:00:14
casino in Ischia on digital now not
00:00:14
rated from Republic Pictures. And
00:00:14
you can find out how you can get
00:00:14
a free digital copy courtesy of Paramount
00:00:14
Pictures, right on our social media.
00:00:14
So follow us there. Now let's welcome
00:00:14
our guest and explore the unique
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sport of jugger. In 1989, a film emerged
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that would spark a unique sporting phenomenon,
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the blood of heroes, depicted at
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a post apocalyptic world where teams
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traversed barren wastelands, engaging
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in brutal matches of jugger, a sport
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where players wielded sharp, dangerous
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weapons to score points by placing
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a skull on their opponent's spike.
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Goal.
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This gritty portrayal of athleticism, strategy and survival
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has inspired enthusiasts to bring jugger
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to life today. And tonight, we're
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going to delve into how this cinematic
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vision fuels their passion for this
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exhilarating sport. Today, we're
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going to explore this world with
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our special guest, John Fawkes. Welcome
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to the show, John.
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Hey, guys.
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Hey.
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I am so glad that you're here. When I saw that you guys do this,
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as soon as I saw that it was related
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to the blood of heroes, I was immediately
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intrigued. This is a movie that I
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absolutely adore. I had a vhs copy
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of it back in the day that I wore
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down to the tape. So much tracking
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issues in that tape by the end. I
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love this movie, and I don't know
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if most of our audience knows about
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this movie yet. We're going to find out.
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It's one of those movies that I think
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a lot of people, it's like a cult
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classic, but maybe a lot of people
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didn't see or didn't appreciate.
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And so we're going to get into that tonight.
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But before we do that, I want you
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to tell us a little bit about yourself.
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I know that we're going to cover the
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fact that you're a part of this brutal
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blood sport from this great movie,
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but tell us a little bit about who you
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are and what you do there in LA.
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Right. That's where you are right
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now.
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I live in Los Angeles. I live in Hollywood, actually, but I don't
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work in the film industry. I am a
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marketing consultant and I have a
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sideline in photography. And I've
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taken some photos at the event, the
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main event that we play at, which
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we'll get into, I'm sure, but neither
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of those have too much to do with
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jugger, other than taking photos
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at the event. Most of all, I'm a geek.
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I love fantasy and sci-Fi novels, fantasy
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and Sci-Fi movies, which is how I
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found jugger. And I like sports.
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Awesome planes.
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Well, you're in the right place because.
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We.
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You'D rather play than watch. You don't like to watch. Is there
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anything.
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Yeah. To be clear, when guys say they like sports, it usually
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means like they watch sports and they can
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name players and tell you standings
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of major.
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They're a fan of the, of watching the. Yeah, right.
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I like to play rec sports and sometimes I'll watch major league
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sports. I couldn't tell you what
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the Dodgers record is right now. I, I'll
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watch occasionally. Mostly. Yeah.
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Yeah.
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I like to.
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Dodgers. Is that a dodgeball team?
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What is that? Now we here at World Gun geek, we celebrate everybody's
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passion. We don't care how involved
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they are. I do have a small little debate
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that has been arched throughout geek
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and nerd them forever. Is there a
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difference between a geek and a nerd?
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And I say there isn't. There's, first
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of all, it's, it's fine to be either
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there or, and to be both. You could
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be both. But a geek has a lot of
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information in his head that is mostly
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trivia and pop culture related and
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is just kind of, you know, geeks
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out about things, whereas a nerd is someone
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who also retains all of that sporting
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news information. So if you're, if
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you might be a sports nerd, if you
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can recite the baseball stats from,
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you know, wherever and all that kind
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of stuff, but if you're just a sports
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geek, like me, you just want to watch.
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And you care if the team that you
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town you live in wins. Right. Like,
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that's all I care about.
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Yeah, I agree.
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But it's okay to be either. We're fine with that. You know, we
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don't. We don't judge what kind of.
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How much of a fan you are. You're
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a fan regardless.
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Yeah. I don't know. Consistent definitions to them. I very broadly
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hear geek to refer to more pop culture
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stuff and nerd to be like, math and
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science.
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But there's no considering academic.
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Right.
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No.
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And then they're not. They're not mutually exclusive, like Jeff
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said.
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Not at all.
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Both. No.
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Right.
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You can be. I don't know if they call that a gerd or a neek.
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I don't know what. But you can be both
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or one or the other. But we're all
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part of the same.
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That's the point.
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Yeah.
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What is it? Genus. We're the same genus. The same family.
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Genus.
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So.
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Well, you're a nerd because you.
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That was very nerdy.
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I'm such a nerd.
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Love it. Love it. All right, so for people who don't know this
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movie, just really briefly, this
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is a movie. It came out in 1989. I was
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a senior in high school when it came
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out Utah. You had just started. You
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were a freshman in college. Right.
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Because I think you're a year ahead
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of me.
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Correct.
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And now everyone knows how old we are. And it starred the legendary
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Rutger Howard.
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Yeah.
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As. And it took place in a post apocalyptic world. Very mad
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Max type of world type situation,
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was even filmed in Australia.
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It was in Australia, where they roam.
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This barren wasteland, going from town to town, playing this brutal
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bloodsport for basically little bobbles
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and bolts and nuts and things which
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I guess are used for currency. It's
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never quite for alcohol.
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It was basically they for tribute. Alcohol and sex.
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Yeah. Well, the reason they're called juggers is because they take
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payment partly in jugs of liquor.
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That's. Yeah, basically they're live
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fast, die young minor league athletes
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who just travel around playing this
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blood sport in return for food, booze,
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and. Yeah. Hooking up with locals
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until they get.
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And the basic premise of the sport is there's a skull in the middle,
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like an animal skull in the center.
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Is it a dog skull? Then you have two
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players on each side that are a player
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on each side. That is the quick who
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grabs the skull and tries to put
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it on the spike of the opposing player.
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So it's sort of like capture the flag
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was more like, put the dog skull
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on the flag. And in the meantime, they're
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trying to, you know, basically kill
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each other to get there. The meantime,
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the rest of the juggers are all beating
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the snot out of each other, trying
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to make sure that they don't interfere
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and, you know, can get. Get there quick
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where they need to be. That's the
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basic premise of this movie. And
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there's a league in the movie, and
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they're trying to, you know, get
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better and get. Become part of this
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league. And there's a. A whole story
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of Rutger Howard's past, but we won't
00:07:37
get into all that. It's a great movie.
00:07:37
You guys will love it. What? The
00:07:37
reason I say all that is because
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our guest here, John, actually plays
00:07:37
this sport for real.
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He's an actual juggernaut.
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Yeah.
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In LA, there is a league that has decided to take the sport from
00:08:43
this movie and bring it in to real
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life. So let's start from the beginning
00:08:43
with your story. How did you first
00:08:43
come to find out about this movie?
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Tell us, like, what drew you to this
00:08:43
movie and to this sport?
00:09:01
Yeah. So when I was something like eight years old, which is way
00:09:01
too young, I watched Blade Runner
00:09:01
because I had a cool uncle. I still
00:09:01
have a cool uncle. He lives in the
00:09:01
Los Angeles area, so he is the family
00:09:01
member I see the most. But I was
00:09:01
at my cool uncle's place, and he was
00:09:01
like, yeah, sure, you can watch Robocop
00:09:01
and Blade Runner. Why not? And Blade
00:09:01
Runner immediately became my favorite
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movie of all time.
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Parenting.
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I thought Daryl Hanna was super hot. I thought Rutger Hauer
00:09:26
as Roy Batty was, like, the coolest
00:09:26
movie character I'd ever seen. So he's
00:09:26
been my favorite actor ever since.
00:09:26
And so in late 2020, when there wasn't
00:09:26
much going on because of COVID and
00:09:26
everyone was marathoning movies and
00:09:26
tv shows, because what else can you
00:09:26
do? I decided to have myself a Rutger
00:09:26
Howard movie marathon. And. And so
00:09:26
I watched the blood of heroes. I
00:09:26
watched Blind Fury.
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Blind fury.
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Flesh, flesh, blood.
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Hitcher.
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They Hitcher. Yeah, I think those Hitcher.
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Lady Hawk. He was in Lady Hawk.
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Oh, Lady Hawk. Yes, I was Lady Hawk.
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That was great.
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Yeah.
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I watched Empire Slayer to the movie.
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He was in the original Buffy the vampire Slayer movie. That's
00:10:17
right. That one. That one I did see
00:10:17
as a kid. And I did not realize at
00:10:17
the time that that was him, actually,
00:10:17
that I rewatched. I was like, oh,
00:10:17
yeah, played run.
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There he is.
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Yeah.
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So I marathon one of Paul Rubin's greatest roles as well.
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He had one of the best lines, by the way.
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Most of these I'd never heard of before. I never heard of the blood
00:10:37
of heroes until that day. I was like,
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I'm bored. I'm going to marathon
00:10:37
Rutger Howard movies I'd never heard of.
00:10:37
I'd heard of the Hitcher, because
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I think it's one of his. More. The
00:10:37
Hitcher and blind fury are pretty
00:10:37
well known. Lady Hawk, flesh and blood,
00:10:37
the blood of heroes, those I discovered,
00:10:37
like, on that weekend that I think it was
00:10:37
probably a whole weekend for the
00:10:37
number of movies I watched. Just
00:10:37
the weekend. I was like, oh, post apocalyptic
00:10:37
sports movie. Okay, sure. Yeah. It's
00:10:37
got Rutger Howard. It's got Vincent
00:10:37
D'Onofrio. It's got Joan Chen, who
00:10:37
I wasn't familiar with until I saw
00:10:37
that. Yeah. Actually has a lot of
00:10:37
pretty somewhat well known actors.
00:11:25
Yeah.
00:11:25
Now I'm on his name.
00:11:27
Lindo Delroy.
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Lindo Delroy.
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Lindo was in there.
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Oh, and also, by the way, Hugh Rice Byrne. Hugh Cry God, the guy
00:11:32
who plays Lord vile, was also toe
00:11:32
cutter in the original Mad Max and
00:11:32
a Morton Joe in Fury Road. That guy.
00:11:32
It's the same guy. Yeah. Yes, it's
00:11:32
the same guy.
00:11:53
Cool.
00:11:54
And then he died. He died a couple of years ago. So he's not
00:11:54
a Morton Joe Furiosa. Hugh Bryce Kern,
00:11:54
I believe that's, yeah.
00:12:03
That's amazing.
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So he is a apocalyptic film legend.
00:12:07
Right? That's incredible. Now I'm gonna have to rewatch it.
00:12:13
And so what were your, what were your thoughts after seeing that
00:12:13
movie then, for the first time?
00:12:18
I mean, I just thought it was a brilliant concept. A post apocalyptic
00:12:18
sports film just sounds kind of random
00:12:18
and dumb. And really, it was in this
00:12:18
time period shortly after Mad Max,
00:12:18
when there was just a craze for kind
00:12:18
of knockoff post apocalyptic movies.
00:12:18
But it was one of the ones that actually
00:12:18
had an original idea and executed
00:12:18
it well. I mean, it's like a low budget
00:12:18
art film, but very well done. I mean,
00:12:18
not that low budget, I guess, Vincent
00:12:18
D'Onofrio, Rucker Hauer. But I'm
00:12:18
not Mad Max high budget. And I loved,
00:12:18
I loved the world of it. I loved
00:12:18
the setting. It's not exactly post apocalyptic.
00:12:18
It's more like post post apocalyptic
00:12:18
because it's nothing. The apocalypse
00:12:18
didn't just happen, and humanity
00:12:18
is not on the verge of extinction. The worst
00:12:18
is over. Civilization is starting
00:12:18
to come back. There is actually like
00:12:18
a trade network between cities and
00:12:18
towns where villages provide food
00:12:18
for the big cities that are built
00:12:18
out of these giant underground bomb shelters.
00:13:15
All right, the main cities. That's right.
00:13:18
In the original version that I still haven't seen, but I've heard
00:13:18
in the original version, there is a
00:13:18
scene that didn't make it to the
00:13:18
american cut, the blood of heroes,
00:13:18
where the main characters get sort
00:13:18
of stopped on the road by the highway
00:13:18
patrol. So, like, there's an actual
00:13:18
functioning government that goes
00:13:18
beyond, just beyond just one village.
00:13:18
So this is like civilization starting
00:13:18
to come back. And, like, it's not just
00:13:18
everyone killing each other like
00:13:18
in Mad Max. It's a kind of a crappy
00:13:18
civilization, but one that works
00:13:18
and humanity's not going to die off.
00:13:18
And there are no more cars. Those are
00:13:18
long gone. But there's still stuff
00:13:18
being made out of tires and scrap
00:13:18
metal that's left over from the apocalypse.
00:14:02
Yeah. Even some of the armor was made out of tires.
00:14:05
Yep. A lot of tire armor, which we use in the real life version.
00:14:05
Tire makes very good armor. It's
00:14:05
reasonably light. Stuff bounces off
00:14:05
of it. It looks cool. Looking cool
00:14:05
is a big part of how we build our
00:14:05
armor. It's not all.
00:14:19
Well, I mean, you know, it is. It is a priority. I mean. I mean,
00:14:19
yeah.
00:14:24
I mean, we're there to put on a show, you know? Yeah.
00:14:28
Yeah. Well, let's talk about that then. So that this was when
00:14:28
you were eight. Obviously, you didn't
00:14:28
start doing this blood sport when
00:14:28
you were eight.
00:14:40
Jugger. Eight year old John.
00:14:42
I watched when I was eight was when I watched Blade Runner and became
00:14:42
a Rutger. Howard fan. Jugger. I watched
00:14:42
in 2020.
00:14:49
Oh, my bad. You're right.
00:14:51
Yeah. So what happened was I went on the Wikipedia page for Jugger
00:14:51
for the blood of heroes. And on the
00:14:51
Wikipedia page, there's a little
00:14:51
note, by the way, this has become a real
00:14:51
life sport. And I click over to the
00:14:51
page on jugger. Turns out there are
00:14:51
two versions of the real of jugger
00:14:51
that are played in real life. There's
00:14:51
the armored version, where people
00:14:51
beat each other up, and the unarmored
00:14:51
version that's more like fencing. One touch,
00:14:51
you're out, which I still haven't
00:14:51
played because there's not a league
00:14:51
in LA, but I'd like to try. And then
00:14:51
it's in the armored version on that
00:14:51
page, there's a picture of it being
00:14:51
played at Wasteland Weekend, which
00:14:51
is this post apocalyptic festival in
00:14:51
southern California that kind of
00:14:51
grew out of the Wren fair, largely.
00:14:51
It's like if the Ren Faire was a five
00:14:51
day festival instead of, like a thing
00:14:51
you go to for the day. And it was post
00:14:51
apocalyptic instead of elizabethan.
00:14:51
And everyone was in costume, and I'd
00:14:51
heard of it before and hadn't gotten
00:14:51
around it going before then, but
00:14:51
I saw that and I was like, oh, yeah,
00:14:51
I'd been thinking of going to that.
00:14:51
And so I immediately went to their
00:14:51
facebook page and said, I'd like
00:14:51
to try out. And they said, all right,
00:14:51
well, tryouts happen at the beginning
00:14:51
of summer, so come see us in June. And
00:14:51
so I just, like, took a note of that.
00:14:51
And the following June 2021, I just
00:14:51
showed up to a park in Pasadena and
00:14:51
started, started practicing with
00:14:51
them, which, by the way, no one has
00:14:51
ever done that before, just to be
00:14:51
clear. They're like everyone who
00:14:51
finds everyone who gets into jugger,
00:14:51
they go to Wasteland weekend first
00:14:51
and they find it there. Or they're
00:14:51
friends with a jugger. Or we've had
00:14:51
a couple people who got into Wasteland
00:14:51
weekend and, like, read about the
00:14:51
juggers and decided to try out in
00:14:51
advance of their first wasteland
00:14:51
weekend. But I'm the only person other than
00:14:51
the founders of the league, because
00:14:51
the league kind of predates wasteland
00:14:51
weekend. Other than them, I'm the
00:14:51
only person who decided to become
00:14:51
a jugger first and then basically just
00:14:51
went to wasteland because he wanted
00:14:51
to play jugger. So I remember at one
00:14:51
point, at one point during tryouts,
00:14:51
I was asking people questions about
00:14:51
wasteland weekend, and they were
00:14:51
just like, messing with me and telling
00:14:51
me it was the size of burning man.
00:14:51
Like, oh, yeah, it's about 5 miles
00:14:51
across. It's not that big. It's like
00:14:51
4000 people quarter mile across.
00:14:51
And one guy's like, wait, so you haven't
00:14:51
been yet? No. Wait, so, like, who
00:14:51
here do you know? No one. How did
00:14:51
you find us? Internet.
00:17:20
Rutger Hauer.
00:17:21
Yeah. That's fantastic.
00:17:24
My good friend Rutgerhauer pointed me in this direction.
00:17:27
Yeah. Yes. My very, my idol, ruckerhauer.
00:17:33
So when you first show up for this practice, you don't have armored.
00:17:33
Like, when do you start? Like, how
00:17:33
do you get started then? When do
00:17:33
you start building armor at some
00:17:33
point? Like what?
00:17:44
Yeah, yeah. They give you advice on building armor. I mean,
00:17:44
you can show up with stuff, but I didn't.
00:17:44
I wanted to show up first and get guidelines
00:17:44
on how to make it. So I showed up
00:17:44
with, like some shin guards in a
00:17:44
cup, maybe. And you don't need armor
00:17:44
the very first day of tryouts, you
00:17:44
don't really need armor because they
00:17:44
go over. You don't play the whole
00:17:44
game yet. You're just kind of going
00:17:44
over the basics as tryouts. As practice
00:17:44
goes on throughout. The practice
00:17:44
goes from June to September, about three
00:17:44
months. As it goes on, you buy or
00:17:44
build stuff and start putting your
00:17:44
armor together. Some people are very
00:17:44
good. There are a lot of people in
00:17:44
this community who are very good
00:17:44
at making stuff. There's a big contingent
00:17:44
at wasteland weekend of people who work
00:17:44
in the film industry, making props,
00:17:44
making costumes, making movie sets.
00:17:44
There are a lot of people who are
00:17:44
like Ren Faire people who do blacksmithing
00:17:44
and stuff like that. We actually
00:17:44
have a kind of a famous. The high referee
00:17:44
of the league is kind of a famous blacksmith.
00:17:44
One of the league founders, who's
00:17:44
now the commissioner, is like a welder
00:17:44
by trade who's also learned to blacksmith
00:17:44
and knows how to build basically everything.
00:17:44
Another guy makes chain mail as a
00:17:44
hobby. I'm not good at any of that.
00:17:44
So I used actual sports gear as the
00:17:44
basis for all pretty much everything
00:17:44
that I make and then decoed it up. I'm
00:17:44
not a guy who can make chainmail
00:17:44
or. Yeah, you have to deco it up. You
00:17:44
can't just look like you just bought
00:17:44
stuff off the rack. But I mean, like,
00:17:44
all I attached.
00:19:18
Look like a ML MLB catcher, right?
00:19:22
Yeah, I. Yeah, I. Funny you say that. I just bought a pair of
00:19:22
catchers, like knee and knee pad
00:19:22
shin guard combos because I've been
00:19:22
wearing military knee pads and shin
00:19:22
guards separately, and they keep
00:19:22
slipping and I'm tired of it. But,
00:19:22
yeah, I need to, like, paint all
00:19:22
that up in a camo pattern. And I
00:19:22
have this new set of, like, biker
00:19:22
armor that I have in deco that I'm
00:19:22
gonna. That I'm gonna paint in a
00:19:22
camouflage pattern and attach strips
00:19:22
of camo so it looks kind of like
00:19:22
a Gillieson. Yeah. Okay, speaking of
00:19:22
the deco. So we have. This gets into
00:19:22
the league concept. We have two teams
00:19:22
and they have distinct identities.
00:19:22
One is the army of Los Angeles. That's my
00:19:22
team. And the other one is the red
00:19:22
city Raiders, which, like in the
00:19:22
kayfabe or the lore, the army of
00:19:22
Los Angeles is the professional army
00:19:22
of the city, state of Los Angeles.
00:19:22
Red City is a biker gang that controls
00:19:22
riverside in our little roleplay
00:19:22
thing. So they. They are a lot less uniform
00:19:22
in their appearance. They're bikers.
00:19:22
We all wear camo of some kind and work
00:19:22
that into our appearance. So that's
00:19:22
why everything I've made has involved
00:19:22
a lot of camouflage. My original armor
00:19:22
was a set of hockey pads that I attached
00:19:22
some tires to on the chest, and I
00:19:22
covered it in this, like, faux alligator
00:19:22
skin latex, but it started to fall
00:19:22
apart because when you punch holes
00:19:22
in foam, the holes want to tear wider
00:19:22
and wider. So I'm making new armor
00:19:22
this year.
00:20:53
Gotcha. Now, in the actual sport, there.
00:20:56
There are.
00:20:57
In the movie sport, there are positions. There's the quick. That's
00:20:57
the one who's trying to get the skull
00:20:57
to the spike. There's the.
00:21:05
There's a slasher or slash, right?
00:21:08
Yeah.
00:21:09
There's a griffin.
00:21:10
And then there's the chain guy.
00:21:13
He's the griff. Or at least. At least, right.
00:21:16
That was the term they use in the movie. So we don't use all the
00:21:16
position terms in the movie. We use
00:21:16
the term quick, as in the movie,
00:21:16
and then the movie uses, like, specific
00:21:16
terms for all four of the other positions.
00:21:16
We just. We have the quick, the chain.
00:21:16
We don't bother with the riffer term.
00:21:16
And then each team is. Then all the
00:21:16
other people who have sticks are
00:21:16
collectively called enforcers. Up
00:21:16
to one person on a team is allowed
00:21:16
to have a hooked stick. In the movie,
00:21:16
they're called the slash. The two
00:21:16
other people with straight sticks
00:21:16
in the movie are the drive and the back
00:21:16
charge. We do use the term back charge.
00:21:16
That's basically the goalie, the
00:21:16
guy who stays back and stays near
00:21:16
the goal. We don't really use the
00:21:16
term drive. I've heard the term interceptor
00:21:16
used for someone who's faster and
00:21:16
uses two sticks. We have some weapons
00:21:16
that you don't see in the movie.
00:21:16
We have sword and shield. We have dual
00:21:16
swords. Those I don't think are in
00:21:16
the movie at all. But so we allow
00:21:16
it. We allow a few things that are safe
00:21:16
and cool that are not in the movie,
00:21:16
but we have the rule of one chain
00:21:16
and one chain. And, of course, one quick
00:21:16
per team. That's required because
00:21:16
they're the only ones who can handle
00:21:16
the skull and score.
00:22:31
Right, right.
00:22:35
It's funny cause I think of them kind of like the seeker in Quidditch.
00:22:35
Right? Like they're the one who's
00:22:35
looking for the snitch there at the
00:22:35
end. And if they can capture it,
00:22:35
that's the end of the game. And that's
00:22:35
what the quick trying to get the
00:22:35
skull on the spike is. The end of
00:22:35
the game. And then. So in the film,
00:22:35
ty, they do three. It's kind of like
00:22:35
hockey in that they have three periods,
00:22:35
but it's three. It's 100 stones three
00:22:35
times.
00:23:02
How do you guys do the timing? Do you guys do the timing?
00:23:05
Let's explain it for people who haven't seen the movie. There's
00:23:05
a guy who throws a rock at a metal
00:23:05
thing, 100 rocks.
00:23:12
It's always an old guy throwing stones at, like, a metal
00:23:12
plate or a God.
00:23:16
He does it kind of slow, and you have to score before that hundredth
00:23:16
stone hits the panel, which there's
00:23:16
a break. You guys do that as well?
00:23:26
No, they tried that early on, and it's very hard to get the stone
00:23:26
thrower to be consistent about it
00:23:26
because they want to watch the game.
00:23:26
That's the weird thing. In the movie,
00:23:26
this is the only form of entertainment,
00:23:26
and one person in every town volunteers
00:23:26
to do that instead of just watching the
00:23:26
game. So we actually play it. Instead
00:23:26
of three periods, we play it with
00:23:26
two halves and we don't time it.
00:23:26
The high referee just kind of makes
00:23:26
his judgment call about when either
00:23:26
when the audience is losing interest
00:23:26
or when we're getting too tired or for
00:23:26
the second half when we have to wrap
00:23:26
it up because there's, like, a concert
00:23:26
or something after us because we.
00:24:06
Oh. Cause you have a schedule.
00:24:07
We play in front of the main stage, so there's always going on
00:24:07
right after us. We have a time slot
00:24:07
right before us. There's always,
00:24:07
like, a metal band doing sound check, which
00:24:07
is great because they'll, like, play
00:24:07
some riffs as we're walking up there
00:24:07
and introduce us. But, yeah, the
00:24:07
high referee just kind of makes a
00:24:07
judgment call. But it's usually about
00:24:07
20 minutes, a half, and then we'll
00:24:07
have a burlesque show at halftime
00:24:07
while we're resting up.
00:24:38
Interesting. So then tell us, are there any. Are the rules different
00:24:38
then? I guess it's like when you
00:24:38
guys are playing, like, how. How
00:24:38
does a match, like, progress? Like,
00:24:38
what. What will happen? What would
00:24:38
we see if we were watching?
00:24:54
Well, like, for starters, in the movie, it's played to one point.
00:24:54
As soon as someone scores, it's over.
00:24:54
And it's often over in, like, 20
00:24:54
or 30 seconds, which is, like, not
00:24:54
fun. So. So we don't. We don't play
00:24:54
to one point. We play till we're
00:24:54
done. We, in the movie, there are
00:24:54
also, like, metal weapons, which
00:24:54
we don't do because this is real life.
00:24:54
So the sticks are usually rattan
00:24:54
sticks, which we will add. We'll
00:24:54
pad with, usually yoga mat or pool noodle
00:24:54
or a mix of both. The chains are
00:24:54
plastic chains, and they will, at
00:24:54
some point along the chain, have
00:24:54
a breakpoint where the chain is connected
00:24:54
with some rubber inner tube. And
00:24:54
that is so that if the chain wraps
00:24:54
someone and you yank on it, the chain
00:24:54
will break. Instead of dislocating
00:24:54
their shoulder, which happened, or choking
00:24:54
them out, which happened a lot. The
00:24:54
dislocation, not like strangulation,
00:24:54
I don't think has happened, but there were
00:24:54
some dislocated shoulders in the
00:24:54
early years until they started requiring
00:24:54
breakpoints. So no metal weapons.
00:24:54
No bladed weapons or sharp edges. No
00:24:54
zip ties, because those can cut people.
00:24:54
No helmets with nails sticking out
00:24:54
of them, which I'm told there was
00:24:54
in the first year. I don't know why.
00:24:54
What? So in the first year, they
00:24:54
weren't, like, playing the game.
00:24:54
They were just, like, doing some sparring
00:24:54
matches and not playing the whole
00:24:54
game. So maybe it's not quite as
00:24:54
crazy as it sounds, but it's still
00:24:54
pretty crazy. Like, I guess I had
00:24:54
nails sticking out of this helmet.
00:26:24
Wow.
00:26:24
We have a lot of stories about people getting, like, concussions
00:26:24
and dislocated joints in the first few
00:26:24
years before all the safety rules
00:26:24
we have now were implemented. Since
00:26:24
I've joined, no one has been immediately
00:26:24
hospitalized. We've had a couple
00:26:24
of injuries where people were like,
00:26:24
I'm going to go to the hospital in a
00:26:24
few days after wasteland weekend
00:26:24
is over, but it's not urgent. I had
00:26:24
one of those, but we've had no, like,
00:26:24
this person needs an ambulance incidence
00:26:24
in the last three years.
00:26:58
It's just a flesh wound.
00:27:01
Did you notice that when you said hospitalized? I don't know whose
00:27:01
house it was, but someone had an
00:27:01
ambulance going by the background.
00:27:01
Did you hear that?
00:27:09
Yeah, it was funny.
00:27:11
As soon as you mentioned hospitalized, it sounded like people
00:27:11
aren't listening on the podcast.
00:27:11
You'd be like, wow, real clever, Jeff,
00:27:11
putting on a sound effect in there.
00:27:11
No, that was a real ambulance.
00:27:20
Yeah, I'm really going to the hospital.
00:27:22
That was hilarious timing. Yeah, that's crazy. And I don't want
00:27:22
to. I'm hoping not to offend with
00:27:22
this question, but.
00:27:34
Oh, no.
00:27:35
So is it, like, legitimate, like, you guys play to win, or is
00:27:35
there. Do you guys have any kind
00:27:35
of theatrics that you add into, like.
00:27:43
Oh, yeah, yeah.
00:27:44
Storyline? Are you like. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, kind
00:27:44
of like, you know, I mean, almost
00:27:44
like pro wrestling.
00:27:51
Yeah, kind of. So we like to say it's about 70% sport and 30%
00:27:51
theatrics. I mentioned that wasteland
00:27:51
in general grew out of Ren Faire. The
00:27:51
founders, the people who started
00:27:51
our league, they did something called
00:27:51
battle Pageant at Ren Faire. Which
00:27:51
is the simulated medieval combat, which
00:27:51
the specific thing they did kind
00:27:51
of got discontinued at that Ren Faire
00:27:51
that we go to. So I never saw it,
00:27:51
but I guess it had a mix of staged
00:27:51
mass combat and actual, real individual
00:27:51
combat that was a bit stylized. So
00:27:51
this is heavily inspired by that.
00:27:51
The individual combats that are not scripted,
00:27:51
but a bit stylized. That's kind of
00:27:51
the lineage of our version of jugger.
00:27:51
So we are playing to win. It's not
00:27:51
scripted. You really can't script
00:27:51
a five on five sport, but it is a little
00:27:51
stylized in that we will exaggerate
00:27:51
our movements a bit. We will pull the
00:27:51
hits a little bit and not follow
00:27:51
through as hard as we could, especially
00:27:51
if we're hitting the head or the back.
00:27:51
We will fight until we can tell that
00:27:51
we've lost. And, like, when we go
00:27:51
down, we're not on. We're not. It's
00:27:51
not like a boxing match where we
00:27:51
literally can't get up. We're taking
00:27:51
the loss when we know we've been
00:27:51
beaten, because if we actually fought
00:27:51
until we couldn't get up, we would
00:27:51
not be getting up within a matter
00:27:51
of minutes. It would be. It would be
00:27:51
a while. We. We would die. These
00:27:51
are. These are wooden sticks we've seen.
00:27:51
Yeah, I. Yeah, we would. We would
00:27:51
honestly not, like, get broken legs
00:27:51
and stuff, like, in the movie. So
00:27:51
we're not trying to cripple each
00:27:51
other as far as, like, storyline.
00:27:51
We don't have, like, a story for the games
00:27:51
theatrically. Like I said, there
00:27:51
are two teams that represent city states
00:27:51
in Southern California. To the extent
00:27:51
that there is a role play, the idea
00:27:51
is that these two cities are allied,
00:27:51
and the league is kind of the two
00:27:51
of them showing off their alliance
00:27:51
to everyone else. Like, look how tough
00:27:51
our people are in, and look, we're
00:27:51
friends now. So the nice thing about
00:27:51
that is it doesn't require us to
00:27:51
pretend in front of the audience
00:27:51
that we're, like, enemies or anything.
00:27:51
Like, we can actually have good sportsmanship,
00:27:51
and it's not something we have to hide.
00:30:09
Yeah, that's cool.
00:30:12
Beyond that, it's not like a story behind the game or that we
00:30:12
try to do.
00:30:17
There's not, like, an overreaching, like, story arc for
00:30:17
the season or whatever.
00:30:22
No, we don't do anything like that.
00:30:26
And you mentioned earlier that you have a jugger name. Is there
00:30:26
a Persona that comes along with that?
00:30:26
Like, do you have a backstory?
00:30:35
Yeah. My juggernaut, because we haven't Hydra. So I chose that
00:30:35
name before I even made it to my
00:30:35
first tryout inspired by the actual
00:30:35
medieval monster, not the marvel
00:30:35
weird, whatever. Whatever. Hydra
00:30:35
is an alien hive mind or something I
00:30:35
only saw in America.
00:31:02
It's an organization very much like the Third Reich, and they do
00:31:02
base their name and their logo on
00:31:02
the mythical creature Hydra, because
00:31:02
one of the things they say is cut
00:31:02
off one head and two will replace
00:31:02
it.
00:31:17
Someone told me that in the comics, Hydra turns out to be like
00:31:17
an alien parasitic hive mind or something.
00:31:17
But I. Oh, wow.
00:31:24
I haven't read comics in a while.
00:31:29
But I was inspired by the monster because I knew I was going
00:31:29
to get hurt playing this game. And I
00:31:29
did get hurt in my very second practice
00:31:29
when I was trying out, my helmet
00:31:29
popped off because the chinstrap
00:31:29
sucked and I actually got punched in the
00:31:29
mouth instead of in the helmet and
00:31:29
just. I'll send you guys the photo.
00:31:29
It's great. I'm just like, covered
00:31:29
in blood. There's even a video of it
00:31:29
somewhere. I'll have to see if Wolf
00:31:29
girl still has that. She's one of
00:31:29
our players who took the video, but
00:31:29
I. Wolf girl.
00:31:59
Nice.
00:32:00
Yes, we all have cool names. I came up with the name Hydra because
00:32:00
I knew I was going to get hurt. And
00:32:00
Hydras only get stronger when they
00:32:00
get hurt unless you do it just right.
00:32:00
So that was symbolic for me. But
00:32:00
actually, there are naming conventions
00:32:00
for the two teams. Red City is just generally
00:32:00
like a name that sounds like a biker
00:32:00
would use it as a nickname. Like
00:32:00
just vaguely. If it sounds like a
00:32:00
nickname a biker would have. Army
00:32:00
of Los Angeles is we mostly name ourselves
00:32:00
after american weapons systems like
00:32:00
Tomahawk or Seawolf. And I got lucky
00:32:00
on that because the Hydra there is
00:32:00
actually a rocket pod. Yeah, the
00:32:00
Hydra rocket pod. An anti armor rocket
00:32:00
pod carried by helicopters. So I
00:32:00
was lucky that I just happened to
00:32:00
choose a name that fit that rule.
00:32:48
Is there somebody named Star wars?
00:32:51
No. That might weapon system.
00:32:56
You know, someone could be called Patriot, I guess. Maybe a
00:32:56
specific weapon system rather than
00:32:56
the overarching patriot would be
00:32:56
one.
00:33:03
Yeah, that's interesting.
00:33:05
Yeah, there are a lot of open names.
00:33:07
Sidewinder. There's so many.
00:33:08
Harper, we have a Sidewinder. Sidewinder is a new. Wait, no, sorry,
00:33:08
I take that back. We have a player
00:33:08
who used the name Sidewinder for this
00:33:08
other thing called Neotropolis, which
00:33:08
is a cyberpunk festival run by the
00:33:08
same company. And we do a different
00:33:08
thing there that's more like pro wrestling
00:33:08
that scripted. He's the name Sidewinder
00:33:08
in that.
00:33:31
The name sidewalk on their page. It's kind of the logo looked
00:33:31
like american gladiators.
00:33:37
Yeah, gladiators. That is inspired by american gladiators.
00:33:37
And the running. Yeah. A different thing
00:33:37
that we do that is a lot more scripted,
00:33:37
more like pro wrestling. At this other
00:33:37
festival that grew out of jugger
00:33:37
or they grew out of.
00:33:53
The festival, we have some cool festivals.
00:33:56
Yeah, yeah. It's a very fun community with these themes.
00:34:01
In Ohio here, we've got. We got the Ren Faire. We got the Great
00:34:01
Lakes. Not Ren Faire. What's it called?
00:34:01
Utah? Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival.
00:34:01
No, it is. It's like a ren faire,
00:34:01
but it's called something else. I can't
00:34:01
think of it. All of a sudden, the
00:34:01
girls just going on right now. Medieval
00:34:01
fair. I think that's it. Yeah, those
00:34:01
are. They're always medieval related.
00:34:24
Although you're looking to the past. You guys are looking into the
00:34:24
future out there.
00:34:30
Most of us are in Ren Faire. Yeah, I got into Ren Faire after
00:34:30
I got into jugger. I got talked into
00:34:30
it because one of the juggers. I
00:34:30
mean, a lot of the juggers do Ren
00:34:30
faire, but one of the guys on my
00:34:30
team, Colonel Megadeth, has the coolest
00:34:30
gig at Ren Faire. He's. He's the
00:34:30
upright man, which is basically the
00:34:30
mafia boss of the town. So while
00:34:30
everyone else is, like, at their
00:34:30
station, like, blacksmithing or roleplaying
00:34:30
a shopkeeper or whatever, he just
00:34:30
gets to wander around the Ren Faire
00:34:30
playing cards and scamming people.
00:34:30
He just walks around and threatening
00:34:30
people. Yeah, it's great. So I I I get to
00:34:30
be one of his henchmen, and it's
00:34:30
great because we're the only people
00:34:30
at the whole Ren faire who gets, like,
00:34:30
threatened to break patrons legs
00:34:30
and throw them in the river is weird.