Hello and welcome to a special bonus episode of Four Azeroth.
I'm Sean, and today I'm sitting here with a man who I forgot to
ask if I should call him by his name or by this ridiculous
handle he has chosen for himself online.
What I call you I. Call you case.
OK, OK, what is big old bucket of water?
So it's like a really niche reference to the TV show
players. I don't know if you've seen it.
It's a League of Legends. Like I think mockumentary is the
term. Like they cover a fake E sports
team and a big old bucket of water happens to be the top
laner. His name in that game, he's not
even a main character. He just has a really is a
ridiculous name. And I saw it and I was like, I'm
a steal that I didn't even spell it right.
But my old name used to be the King live.
And that was when I streamed a lot and I don't really stream a
lot anymore, so I wasn't even alive.
So I was like, well, what do I just want to be the king?
And I was like, that sounds cringe.
So I just changed it to something silly.
And I was like, yeah, whatever. But, you know, it made me laugh.
Yeah. So that's that's what we went
with. And I started creating content
again and people were like, I can't find what's this guy's
channel name again? And I'm like, it's not great,
but I might stick with it just because like I think it's
memorable. Like you see the that
combination of number or letters and you're like, yeah, that was
a guy that I watched, you know, so I don't know, maybe.
Yeah, it is. And it's sort of fitting because
you play mage in Warcraft. Yeah, that was that was actually
just the the season thing. I'm more of an elemental shaman,
but like they also use water, so, you know, like it works out.
Yeah. Yeah, I like it.
Big, big water guy. Hey, we're water fans here.
It's like nature's soda pop. So the more water we get, the
better. Casey, let's start off.
Why don't you tell our listeners who you are and why you're here
today? Yeah, so I, I think the best way
to say is I'm just a raid leader for a late see Wow Guild.
I've been making like YouTube content kind of documenting our
process progress throughout this year.
We've been playing for around 3 tiers.
So I went back, I, I found some numbers just to like give you
guys perspective. So we started in Cataclysm
actually for like a classic reading and we did tier 11.
This is my first tier raid leading for them.
And we are US. We are world 662 under mine.
We are 2262, Manafort, we are 1846 and then midnight right now
we're around 1000. But that might change because
Alura is really hard. So we'll see.
We'll see how that ends up going.
But yeah, we were basically the last week of the tier finishing
and I started just talking about our progress of the tier and
being like, hey, like this is a perspective that I don't hear a
lot in the in the scene because I think that everyone's playing
at a higher level. They're playing Hall of Fame or
raced all first and stuff. And you don't really hear about
the guys below that who are like, hey, hey, we're still
here. So I thought about kind of
giving that perspective a little bit.
I like that. What What is the biggest
difference between because some of our listeners don't rate at
all, we have we have across the board spectrum of of listeners.
What is the biggest difference between those ones who are
rating in that Hall of Fame range and your team?
To your level. So there's a lot of differences.
I think one of them is the, the people who are rating Hall of
Fame. They definitely, they start to
prioritize performance a lot more than like social.
So a lot of the people at our level, they are, they're just
getting into mythic rating mostly because they enjoy the
game. They're having a lot of fun
playing and they're like, hey, I, I'd like to dip my toe into
this. And they're having fun playing
with their friends. Whereas like at a Hall of Fame
level, you have to make sacrifices because it's like,
like you can't always have your best friend in the raid because
your best friend kind of sucks sometimes.
You know, it's just like something that you deal with in
the game. And it's like having to make
those sacrifices is very difficult.
So at our level, it's like, OK, do we want to make this decision
for fun or do we want to make this decision to get better?
And often times it, that's like a difficult call because like
you have all these connections to people and stuff and it is
really it's, it's very difficult to balance those two things at
this level. Yeah, that that is a huge
challenge. How do you when you're
recruiting? So I imagine at that, having to
have those discussions, do you see a lot of turnover at your
level to people that are leaving for higher product guilds or
people who are frustrated that you know you're not moving in a
certain direction or not moving fast enough?
So we've only been rating 3 tiers.
So I think it's really hard to say.
We've experienced a lot of growing pain specifically this
year that I can talk about later.
But for the most part we don't have too much turnover because
because everyone is such close friends that it's like like
imagining rating somewhere else kind of sucks.
We we had a guy leave last year who is really cool and he wanted
to pursue a Guild that rated three days a week and we only
rated two days a week. So I totally understand that,
especially because like, I mean, I'm the one running the gold and
part of my motivation is that like I want to play at a higher
level because that's why I pushed us to get better.
So it's like I, I get it. You know, if somebody says I
want to leave, I think a lot of people, especially at our level,
are kind of like spiteful where it's like you're I'm, I want to
leave. I want to find like something
that pushes a little higher and they'll be like, well, if you
leave, you're never coming back. It's like I, I told the guy, I'm
like, hey, if you want to go try that, go try that.
If you don't like it, you can come back to shoot me a message
and like, it'll be cool. I can't guarantee he's going to
have a roster spot immediately, but it's like, there's no hard
feelings. I get it, you know, So like
there's a little bit of turnover, but I don't think it's
crazy. No, it's not too bad.
Like that, that's, that's, that's really impressive because
I, I hear almost all of the time that the roster boss is, is the
hardest boss. So if you're keeping your
turnover minimal, I think that speaks to the culture you've
built. And we're going to get into that
a bit later. I want to talk about you
specifically, Boo. You're the GM, you're the raid
lead. Do you have any leadership
experience in like an outside job or in in other other video
games? I actually, I do have a little
bit of leadership experience. Just wanted to clear.
I actually not the GM. So I'm, I'm the raid lead.
I, I run the Guild with another friend of mine, Phil.
He is incredible. I do I could not do this without
him, but so for the leadership experience, I also like I, I
manage another YouTube channel for, for professional work.
And with that, I have to like work with editors and stuff like
that. And then beyond that as well.
I used to play a lot of Valerie. I'm in a Valor and that's kind
of where I practice like IG Elling, they call it there and
like that. That kind of helped a little
bit. So when I came over to Wow, it
was nice that I got to start in Cataclysm, which had ten man
rating and like leading in a 10 man is a lot easier than leading
in a 20 man. And in a 10 man it was a lot
more comfortable too, because it's like these guys are all my
closest friends and the 20 man. I'm not going to say that we're
not like all friends, but it's like they get a lot more people.
I'm not as close with everybody as I was in that 10 man.
So it like, yeah, I think starting small and like kind of
growing with it. I it helped me learn a lot
beyond that. I mean, I used to work in a like
a restaurant and stuff and I was kind of like, felt like a like a
leader. I wasn't a manager, but like,
you know, you have like the, the people on the shifts who are
like, you need something like ask me, I could help you out,
you know, sort of thing. So yeah.
You're the go to guy. Yeah.
So while I was like, I'm not like I'm not like working on
Amazon or something like I, I have a little bit of leadership
experience. Yeah.
All right, if the bartender needs a big little bucket of
water, for example, you're the person.
I'll go grab that bucket of water or a bucket of ice, you
know, I, I, I'm there for you, you know?
I love don't ever change it. It's the best.
It's the best handle ever. Please don't ever change it.
That's good to hear. Yeah, it's good stuff.
OK, so you're right. Then where where do you go for
you to improve? So you're going to coach your
team and stuff to get them up, but where do you go for you to
get better? What resources do you use?
So I mean, there's a lot of avenues you can get better, like
you can focus on personal performance, which I think it's
kind of like a, like, I, I think it's a, it's a bad idea.
You go down the rabbit hole and it's like, if you're always
focusing on yourself, then like you're like, you're not helping
the group as much as you could be.
So you have to kind of take care of yourself though too.
Because I do feel like there's a balance where, especially when
you're starting out, when you're recruiting people, you have to
be I, I at least perceive that you have to be respected as a
player. I think that if you bring people
in and you like people probably played that group where it's
like, are you like join a pug and like the raid leader is
telling everyone to do things, but he himself sucks.
It's like, you know, like he, he has to, he has to take care of
it. So I mean, like I to fulfill
that. I play the game a lot.
I, I watch all this like high end content.
I try to learn the best of the for my class and I try to make
sure that I'm playing well. As far as raid leading stuff,
there's not a lot available. The you have the raid leader
exchange pretty good discord, although I'm kind of afraid to
ask questions in there because they have I have seen them be
kind of mean to people sometimes.
So it's like a little scary and then like.
Shout out to Draco. It's a good community, like
genuinely, I think the, the reason that they're me in there
is because they expect you to do your own research.
They they don't expect you to just come in there and ask you
them to do everything for you. So sometimes people ask
questions and it's like, I think like you don't get to see like
the prep that that person's done.
Maybe that person feels like they've done a lot of prep, but
yeah, like you, you should be practised in like figuring
things out for yourself. And I understand it, but like,
yeah, it is it is kind of scary, you know.
And then the other thing too is like YouTube, you can go to
YouTube, but like on YouTube, the only thing available is like
Max has like a raid leading series from like a while ago and
it's like that's not perfectly applicable all the time.
It's good advice, you know, but like I'm not like he's leading
every stroll first Guild and I'm not.
So it's like some of the things like don't always apply.
So aside with that, that's kind of like it.
There's like some smaller creators who are doing, you
know, like similar things, but it's like sometimes I feel like
you watch it is like, I don't fully agree with the advice, but
like you can take bits and pieces and that's kind of the
idea is like somebody's going to say something might not be 100%
right, but it's like, Oh yeah, that's a good idea.
You know, you can kind of go with that.
So other than that, I mean, like, I'm basically like Guild
lean is basically running like a business.
So you can kind of like look around and like you can listen
to like different business people talk about things and
like working with like employees and stuff like that.
Not quite the same thing, but like this.
There's some transfer, you know, So yeah, there's a lot of
information everywhere if you know where to look.
But like, I don't think it's perfect.
I don't think I'm doing everything correctly.
You know, I'm like I'm, I'm just figuring things out as I go and
that's all you can do, so. Like that, Yeah, you're
progging. You're progging with the team as
a whole. It's we're going to get there.
We're going to, we're going to figure it out.
Yeah, making a lot of wrong decisions along the way, too.
You figure it out, you figure it out.
It's. I somebody told me once that a
wrong decision is better than no decision.
So yeah, at least you're doing that.
Have you considered 21st manning?
Have you, Because obviously huge advantage in that you have you
see Max scribe all the top guilds doing it is have you have
you considered that as opposed to being in playing or are you
like I want to be in this fight? So right now I'm at the point
where I just want the best for the Guild.
So on Laura, I was considering 21st Manning, but I think one of
the bigger issues with 21st Manning at our level is the
roster boss. I I I like not not not to strike
my ego. I play pretty well in game.
I'm not I'm not not the best player.
I'm not the worst player. So like putting me in unless
there's somebody who is better than me, it doesn't really make
a ton of sense for the raid. And then beyond that, also like,
yeah, people just call out and stuff and it's like, well, who's
going to jump in and play for them?
So I was kind of debating 21st Manning because I was like,
well, if somebody does call out on this boss, I can hop in.
I know I'm going to play well and that'll work.
But yeah, like it just instantly first week on Laura, it's like
we like call outs. I'm just like, well, I'm just
doing anyway. And then after I played like 2-3
nights, it's like, OK, does it make more sense for me to sit
and bring someone else in or just make more sense for me to
play? So that's kind of like the thing
that we running into and Laura, I have done it for other bosses
on like re clear just so other people can play and I think that
it's fun. I do think it's a trap, though.
I think like there's a lot of things you see these top guilds
do that I see a lot of people try to replicate at our level.
And it's just like I kind of just like feel like why?
You know, like there's the 21st man.
I don't think it's as necessary for us.
If I did 21st man, would we get the enough like value out of it
to like warrant doing it in the first place?
Or would it just be like worse Also then I have to like have
people customize their UI for me and like that sounds kind of
annoying as well. And then like also like things
like splits. You see, like these top guilds
do splits and it's like, should we do splits?
It's like the answer's no, we should not.
Like there's a bunch of other things that you just like to see
these guilds doing. It's like, no, should we level
10 characters? No, we shouldn't.
That's that's a bad idea. That's it.
Couldn't. That's the most true statement I
think anybody's ever made. Like, should we do splits?
No, I got to be honest, I don't. I'm not even sure the Top Gear
should be doing splits. Well, it like, it feels like the
answer for like how to improve is is glamorous, you know, like,
yeah, we should do all these 15 different things that like the
race is doing or whatever. I don't even know what they are,
but I'm sure that you could come up with a number of things
that's like, oh, this was really cool.
The race does this, should we do this?
And the answer is no, you shouldn't.
You should to get better at rating, you should read more.
That's kind of the answer. You should read more, do a
little bit of prep, watch some guides, you know, maybe playing
your cooldown, stuff like that. Practice your rotation on a
target dummy. It's not, it's not glamorous,
but that's the answer. That's how you get better at the
game as you play the game more. So yeah, that's kind of my take.
Yeah, no, it's good take. It's good take.
Let's talk about the guilt specifically.
So I'm going to use the term race to world last Guild, but I
don't think I think we've seen these three tiers.
You're trending away from race to world last.
Maybe this tier you get a month off more fingers crossed
somewhere in that range. But what are some of the
challenges of leading a Guild at your at your level?
I mean, like, where do you start?
You know? So right now I, I'm going to go
for the more unique things because it's like I feel like
there's, there's a lot of challenges you could probably
guess, but right now it's actually interest where, where I
don't know how many weeks in the day, like 2-2 ish months, a
little bit over maybe. And people just people just
start to lose interest. You know, right now we finished
raid and what do we do? We log on to Abraham mayhem.
We play some mark Raiders, we play some path of exile or
something. It's like when you're a race to
Alaska, you, you never stop raiding.
This is something that we mentioned briefly before the
show is that like you see all these Hall of Fame players like
sitting around and they're like, there's nothing to do.
And it's like, well, I still feel like I have six weeks of
Lura Prague left, you know, like I'm like, I, I have so much left
to do that it's like there's no end insight.
And I think that that's one of the biggest challenges is that
like, as you get later in the season, when you lose interest,
not only do you lose interest, but you play worse.
You know, it's like we're, we're on the hardest boss that we've
ever fought and everyone needs to be locked in 100% of the
time. And like that's that's really
tough to do when it's like people are kind of like, well,
you know, it's the summer, kind of kind of want to go outside.
I'm feeling it too. I'm not going to not even going
to lie. It's like I was doing raid the
other day. We're wiping in phase one as
which is the lyric experience. And I'm just like, I kind of
want to play Path of exile. I'm not going to lie, guys, I
kind of would rather be doing anything else right now.
But no, I mean, like we'll get through it and like we'll kind
of truck through. But yeah, it's it interest is
really difficult. I don't know if you you
experience the same thing ever, but.
Yeah, I, I definitely, there are definitely times when it's like,
OK, the interest is waning and just like I just don't feel like
logging in and you sort of shift into that raid log mentality.
What are some of the things that you do to to keep the team
focused and and dialed in when you when you could tell that
they're thinking about playing Poe instead of of the game?
Well, I was talking to one of our other officers about this
last night and they kind of they're, they're always like the
one that like reels me back in because like I'm, I'm sometimes
I'm a doomer, I'm not going to lie.
But like, I was talking to them and they're saying, well, like,
yeah, I could see why this might seem like people are not
interested, but I think it's a good sign that everyone is
playing together. You know, when, when we log out
of raid, we don't all go our separate ways.
It's like some of us go play arc Raiders together.
Some of us that were playing Path of Exile or whatever, and
then some of us are playing ARM, ahem, immediately.
And it's a great time. Everyone's having fun.
So it's like, Oh yeah, maybe, maybe it's not terrible that
we're doing other things as long as we're doing things together,
you know, I think that that's good.
Like everyone enjoys playing, hanging out with each other.
And then like also like in Raid two, my interest is is wavering
a little bit, but like also, I mean, we're fourth night on
Laura 160 poles deep and we're still having fun.
We're joking around like the rain nights aren't miserable.
I would rather be a little further than we are.
But it's like as long as we're not like yelling at each other
and raid like it's a good time, you know, like we're not.
If we're if it was a very bad vibes, then I think that would
be way worse because that's when people quit, you know, they're
like, well, why am I here? I don't want to be here.
This isn't fun, you know, So at least at least it's fun, you
know, so we have a good time like that.
Like that, that's you're that other officers.
That's very astute. Like, yes, we're not playing
well, but we're still together. You're still building that
camaraderie. You're still like, the team is
together. You're not at each other's
stroke. You're not logging up, going.
Oh, man, I hate Casey. Why does he get hit by a Glade
every time? Yeah.
Why did we make him a seed carrier?
This was the worst decision ever.
Yeah, it definitely, it could be really rough.
But no, they're they're very intelligent.
And it's like, like I said, with the Guild leader too, it's like
I couldn't I couldn't do it without these people because
it's just it is a lot of work to handle alone.
And that that was actually the next difficulty that I had for
Race to World last build that listed here is that when you
start out, you're kind of going at it alone a lot of the times,
at least in my experience. Maybe if you did you start your
Guild from the ground up or did you like did you join into it
or? No, I just so the Guild that I'm
in now, I joined and they had been around for 13 years when I
joined them, but that the Guild and actually Guild prior to that
was I've been together for two years.
I don't think I've started a Guild since Burning Crusade.
Well, I mean, like, and that's that's an interesting thing too,
is that like guilds don't just like spawn a lot of the times,
but it's like our Guild was a classic Guild.
So it had been around prior to me joining.
And then when I joined it, eventually I pivoted us to
retail. And I was kind of like the
driving factor in doing that, which also meant that a lot of
the responsibility fell on me. I was really leading Cata.
There's ten of us that like the people were kind of losing
interest again. And I was like, well, the only
way to keep the Guild alive is we we do content that's new and
the only new content is in retail.
So we should go retail. That's what we play already.
We did Mythic plus. And I love the drive to go to
retail. And then doing that, I had to do
all the recruiting. I had to do all the boss
strategy. I had to like figure out like,
how do we even get into Mythic, you know, and I'm doing like all
this like prep to get us into it.
And then like once we got into undermine, it's like I had to do
all the weak auras at the time. That was huge thing.
OK, we have to kill sticks, bunk drunker.
How are we going to do that? You know, So like I had to do
all this prep and at the time, like I was kind of doing it
alone. I had the Guild leader still, he
was around. But it's like when I'm the one
leading the charge, I don't think he knew exactly how to
help me. You know, It's like I'm, I'm
kind of handling everything. But I would say that like the
biggest thing at our level is that you need a friend.
Like if you, if you're going at it alone, there's no way you're
going to survive. I think that like sometimes you
get into things with friends where it's like, Oh yeah, we're
going to do this cool thing together.
And then you find out one friend's doing all the work and
there's like the other friends are like, Oh yeah, we're doing
this cool thing together. You know, that doesn't work.
Like you need to delegate, you need, you need help and yeah,
you're just going to lose your mind.
I think that like, at first I feel like I did a lot of heavy
lifting, but like, I mean, this tier, we wouldn't be rating if
we weren't for the ALEA. There's just no way.
I've told him multiple times they're like, hey, I don't have
an enemy to do anything right now.
And he would kind of pick up and he would hit up with that a lot
with that. So no, yeah, you need, you need
people on your side. There's no way you can do this
alone. I like that.
How did you recruit people into helping you with that stuff?
That's tough actually, because nobody wants to do it.
That's like the right? Thing nobody wants.
Nobody wants, you know, extra work for nobody.
Well, yeah. And like, everyone loves to
complain about things, but nobody's going to be like, the
one to step up. So, I mean, when there's a
problem, we kind of just like, we have a few people on the
court. Like I said, the guild's been
around a while and we've had a lot of people who, like, have
been officers who are still around.
You know, we ask them for help sometimes and like, they help
out. And like we have, we have
recruited officers from within and like it, it is kind of a
test cuz it's like, I think that the problem is too, like we're
asking for help, but we always don't know what help we need.
We just know that we need it. You know, it's like, so like
we're like, hey, come in, like help us out.
And then the person comes in, it's like, well, we don't really
give them anything to do. And then they're thinking the
same thing, which is like, I don't know how to help right
now. It's like, if you don't tell the
person what to do, they're not going to know what to do.
So also like, I think I'm prior bosses, like when the bosses are
easier, there's not as much like everything's kind of going fine.
You want to smooth sailing, you know.
I think that it's like it's hard to tell what work there is to be
done, but it's like when you really hit that wall when you're
on dementias for 500 poles, when you're on Laura, that's when
it's like, oh man, there's, there's stuff that can be done
and people who can help with things.
And I think that's where people kind of step up.
So yeah, when it, when it's really hard, that's where you're
going to feel who steps up and who doesn't.
And you kind of just got to, you got to find the people who do
and you got to hold on to them because I think that that's,
that's, that's where, that's where they shine, you know?
I like that. I like that going it alone.
That's I think, I think a lot of raid leaders will be able to to
hear that and instantly, instantly, like I can't really
think of the word right now, but when they it makes sense, I feel
like I'm having a stroke. There's a word when you hear a
thing and it makes sense to you because you experience it.
I don't know what the word is right now.
I don't know, relatable. Yeah, really.
There we go. That's what we're going to go
with. I think you're looking for a
little more difficult word, but that's.
Yeah, the oysters are going to let me know afterwards in the
discord. They're going to come tell me
what word, what word I forgot. But what else?
Is there anything else big, anything that we wouldn't expect
that you have? I mean, I wrote down like
there's like roster and bench management.
I think that you would probably expect this to be worse for us.
I'm, I'm assuming for for a lot of guilds at our level, this is
pretty bad. I would say for us, it's
actually not that bad. And I can maybe provide like an
anecdote for that to help people.
Is this is not like, I think when you have a lot of
confidence in what you've created, Umm, I think it helps
when people join us and they raid with us.
I, I'm very confident that like this is the place you want to
be, you know, like we're not elite, but it's like the people
that we're bringing in. I, I, I see like the level of
player that they are a lot of the times and it's like they're
not like, I don't mean that in like a demeaning way.
They're they're good players, but it's like a lot of people I
understand, haven't they? They don't raid at a Hall of
Fame level. Most of the groups they play
with are bad. And when you recognize that when
people come in and they see, hey, these guys are having fun,
they're pretty good at the game. And it seems like they kind of
kind of like they, they know what they're doing like a little
bit. I think it's like, I, I'm pretty
confident when people play with us and like they want to keep
playing with us, you know, like this is a place people want to
be. And I think that when you have
that sort of mentality and like you create that culture.
Yeah. Like when people join us,
there's, there's not a lot of turnover, like I said.
And like the people that do turnover, it's, it's never like
in a bad way. I don't think people are like
rage leaving our Guild or anything.
So yeah, like if you yeah, to avoid turnover for us, it's kind
of just like, yeah, just just have fun, you know, have a have
a good community and like kind of building that a lot.
And then for like the bench management, I think that that's
probably the most stressful thing is like when we have a lot
of people that we want to play with, it's like, OK, you can
only have 20 in raid and it's like managing that.
That is probably the hardest part of leading the Guild to be
entirely honest, because it's like, like I said earlier, you
have to make that balance where it's like, OK, we need to pick
the best person for this roster and the best players are not
always the best fit. Where it's like, okay, this guy
maybe doesn't fit in as well. And it's like or this like this
person is an important part for like the Guild culture.
And it's like that's something we want to maintain.
And it's like you're comparing the players and I would say that
our our skill discrepancy, but within the Guild, it's like it's
not too bad. Like most of our players are
around the same skill level. So like sometimes we're making
decisions where it's like, OK, this guy might be a slightly
better player, but like this guy is going to be a lot more fun to
be around. You know, it's like, I don't
really know. So it's like, it's hard to say,
but yeah. Those vibes matter.
We, we have a cat in our Guild that I think unanimously across
the board, everybody in the Guild agrees that he has the
greatest talent for breaking tension and keeping things light
out of anybody. And whenever he's in like it'll
be whatever point of the night. Everybody has these moments in
the night where it's like a really bad wipe just happened or
you feel like you've hit a wall in progress and everybody's So
you can sort of feel the, the frayed, frayed nerves happening.
And in that moment, he'll be like our our raid leader, our
raid that his name is Cindy and he calls her Sydney, but he'll
he'll say Sydney and then he'll ask like the most obvious
question from the prep that we've done, you know, am I
supposed to push this extra action button?
Well, you know, it's just like, and he obviously knows the
answer, but it just the way he asks it, he actually sort of
sounds like a cat even is just just it breaks attention and
that that doesn't matter. Having that end does matter.
Yeah, like that's what you can't because you can't manufacture
that stuff. But it's like, what?
I'm talking the whole night. I'm going to sound upset.
I can't hide it, you know, like somebody, somebody dies.
Also, as a raid leader, too, you see everything, you know, you're
like, watching this guy. You're like, what is he doing?
Like, yeah. And like, yeah, when you see
that, it's hard for me to stay motivated because I'm like,
guys, guys, come on. And yeah, having those people
that are, like, going to joke around.
And that's something I've tried to get a lot better at, too.
Is it like when you're frustrated and people are like
joking around and stuff, it's easy to get more frustrated
around. Like why, why are, why are you
guys goofing off? Like we're playing terrible?
And it's like, that's something that I've gotten a lot better.
It's being like, like you can't, you cannot kill that.
You know, if they, if they're having fun, let them have fun.
You try to go through it. It's like, hey, guys, we're
pulling, you know, but like, I'm not, I'm not going to crash out
or anything. But it's like, yeah, when the,
when the vibes are good, you want to keep the vibes good.
And it's like, if we're joking around but we're playing bad,
that's fine because I like, we can just dial back in, you know?
But like, yeah, once you kill the vibes, it is so hard to
bring it back. So having those people that like
are going to keep it up, you know, it's, it's important.
Yeah, Do you get that disappointed dad sound?
I sometimes I'll be like, OK, one of these two arrows has to
hit Demi arrow. You both missed.
Yeah, I, I've sighed a few times and I try not to.
My brother gave me a quote that I, I, this sticks with me a lot,
he says. Like when people audibly sigh,
like you hear it, it feels like they are releasing their
negative energy and they're giving it straight to you.
Like, so yeah, I try to, I try to avoid stuff like that because
like, I don't like, I don't want to be mean.
I don't think I'm the type of guy to be mean.
I think I, I think I have been mean.
But like, I don't, I don't like that, you know, like I don't, I
don't like feeling mean or like feeling like I'm bringing people
down. So I try to be the person I want
to be. But yeah, it's at this point a
dad does kick in sometimes. I think it happens for everyone.
I. Like that.
That's a great quote. I'm going to, I'm stealing that.
I hope that's OK. I am.
Yeah, I mean, I took it from my brother.
He you could take it from me. I have another good quote here
from one of our Raiders too, regarding bench management that
I think has been helpful for me this tier, which is if you ever
like wondering about like who to bench and stuff, you're making
the right decisions. Like I said, you have to make
the right decision that you feel like for the Guild.
But somebody told me this tier, you don't bench players, they
bench themselves. And that's something that I, I
kind of agree with too, where it's like, yeah, you're looking
for people to like play and like people who don't play.
And it's like, OK, well, this guy, guy didn't fill his vault
this week. And he also is not fully
upgraded yet. He doesn't have sockets or
something. This is an extreme example.
Nobody in our rates like this. But like, yeah, like if they're
not putting in as much effort as somebody else, it's like, yeah,
you got to take the guy who's putting in more effort because
you have to like, kind of you have to facilitate the culture.
It's like, what culture do we want to have in the Guild?
Do we want to have a culture of people who don't put in the
effort and don't keep up? Or do we want to be like, hey,
like doing these things is important to us, you know?
And it's like, you don't necessarily.
I don't think you need to draw a hard line, but like the people
that you recruit and the culture that you keep is like that's the
community that you create. So yeah, I think that's kind of
a good way to look at it. Let's talk with it.
We keep mentioning culture. We keep bringing it up.
How do you do that? How do you build this culture of
success? Is there anything you actively
do to make sure that your culture stays safe?
So just to preface this, I don't feel like I'm particularly good
at this, by the way. Like I think I'm, I think I'm
doing it and I think I'm figuring it out as I go.
But like, I don't think I'm, I'm like a guru or anything, which
is why a lot of the times, like in my videos when I talk about
it, it's like, hey guys, like this is how I feel.
But like I'm this is not a guide, you know, like I said,
take, take bits and pieces, you know, But yeah, it depends on
who you ask in the guilt. Maybe, maybe some people say I
do a pretty good job. Maybe some people say they're
upset. I don't know.
But I think you want to have fun, but you want to get better.
That's my take, and I think both are very important at our level
anyway. But being bad isn't fun.
So if you're bad, you're not having a very good time.
Being bad is relative, by the way.
So for us at this point in time, we're progging Laura and we're
dying to glaze and stuff. That feels bad to me right now.
But like also like feeling bad for somebody might be like, oh,
we're on Paladins and we're dying to Shields or something.
You know, it's like that like that.
That's different levels. You know, if that's the hardest
boss that you thought that's the hardest boss, you thought you're
there, you know, so being bad is relative.
But if you're probably in the tier for like 20-3 weeks
straight for me and you're wiping to the like the same
mistakes and stuff, especially if they feel really silly,
there's just so much pressure to like meet your goals that it's
like, you know, I feel like once you get that late in the tier,
I'm like, I'm not having fun anymore.
Also, it becomes harder to recruit later in the tier
because it's like everyone's kind of like burnt out.
They're like, I kind of want to quit the game.
There are some people who are like late in the tier, like I
want to kill Laura still. But like it just things become
more difficult as time goes on. People lose interest, like I
said, And then people start pointing fingers when they're
frustrated. So it's like you end up in this
situation where it's like, OK, we want to have fun, but we're
really bad. And now people are angry and
it's like, OK, you have to at some point prioritize being good
at our level anywhere. That's that's what we're
feeling. But also getting better isn't
always fun, where it's like, OK, and we have to hold people
accountable. And I think that's really
difficult to do when you're like, friends with everybody,
especially if, like, people are kind of like, grandfathered in.
If you have like older members in the Guild where it's like,
well, you've never called anybody out before and now you
start doing it, it's like, well, OK, hold on, Buster.
You know, you also have to like, you just have to make
sacrifices. You know, like we raid twice a
week and like, I don't know, there are things that I'd like
to do on Tuesday, Thursday sometimes that are not Wow.
And it's like, you got to do it. You know, that's I have to be
there every single raid. And you have to put in the work
outside a raid. You have to fill those vaults.
You have to gear your character right now, like start of the
season, especially like you have to run so much mythic plus just
to keep up and like get your character geared.
And we're a Tuesday, Thursday Guild, which means that on
Tuesday we're going in and we're not geared at all.
Like this first Tuesday was actually really rough.
It's, it's really disheartening. You go in on Tuesday and you
have fun on the raid. It's like we killed 2 heroic
bosses. And you like look at like a
Guild on Wednesday and it's like they go in five item level
higher than you and they kill like 4 heroic bosses like
easily. And I'm like, what?
Like you could do that. So, you know, I, yeah, I, I
think that like getting better isn't always fun, but also being
bad isn't funny either. So it's like you have to, you
have to find that balance in between.
I like that there is a huge difference.
I I used to be in a Tuesday raid Guild.
I don't think I'll ever go back to rating on Tuesday.
That's insanity. We get servers that are pushed
to come up. It's the worst.
Yeah, we do. We are Thursday, Sunday, right
now. The EU Guild that I, I'm in, I
don't raid with them, but I'm in, they raid Saturday, Sunday.
And it's just like, I don't know, having shifting off of
that Tuesday just feels so nice to give you that day to breathe
and just let let Blizzard figure out whatever potential bugs or
new features, unintended features we might get.
No, we, we've been talking about that this year a lot because
just like, yeah, there's so many issues with beyond the the first
day thing where you're like lower year level.
Now this happens every week by the way.
You feel it the most in the first week, but every week after
that we are always at a lower item level.
Then I go to the rates Sunday, Monday, just like flat out, you
know, people don't always have time to log in after work to go
get their upgrades or whatever. They have to go upgrade their
their things run 5 dungeons or whatever we did.
I did like 100 ritual sites that first day and I was like trying
to. Avoid course.
Yeah and just to like upgrade my weapon.
I didn't even get it I don't think.
Maybe I got 1 before raid but it is ridiculous.
Yeah, you. Love ritual sites, are they the
most fun content? You've ever done the best
content in the game, man. Yeah, the ritual sites there,
they're OK. Like, I don't know.
But we actually, we had a lot of fun with it actually, I'm not
going to lie. There's fun in everything.
By the way, if if you take one thing away from this, this talk
there is fun in absolutely everything.
If you find it, you have to have be with the right people.
But we did our ritual sites and the way that we did it is we had
we had four of us and we were speed running and we had two of
us go to the left and we had two of us go to the right.
And whoever killed the three guys first, we were like, we
were kind of like amped up on. I was like, yeah, we got it.
You know, it's we were having a really good time.
Yeah. And like, I don't know, we, we
killed 2 hours running ritual sites or something.
And like, it was a really good time.
I enjoyed it. And now if I, if I was doing
that every single day, I don't think I would enjoy it.
But like, you know, for like the time period, you know, you can,
you can make things fun. We, we did endeavours during the
pre patch. We were, we did so many
endeavours back when like they were like really difficult to
level up. You did not get a lot of XP for
those things. I think that we were flying
around like one of the Dragonflight zones.
I, I forget like the underground area, but like we were just like
collecting herbs and stuff to get like 10 points at a time and
like we were having a good time doing that, you know?
So yeah, there's fun everywhere. You just have to find it.
But yeah, I forgot what I was talking about before that.
But you know, I got, I got a little, little rant there.
It's fun. You're just talking with the
fun. It's snuck in there.
You haven't. You haven't mentioned your
guilds name yet. I don't know, maybe you don't
want to, but I'd love to know the Guild name so that we can
track your progress and cheer alongside you as it's happening.
So the Guild is Rad R capital R capital R space capital A space
capital D in classic, it was just rad RADI.
Don't know why we changed it. I think it's because on area 52,
I think rad was already taken. But yeah, no, I think I think
it's a fitting name for us. I I, I mean, it's the best goal
I've ever been in. So I don't really do it.
But if you guys are looking for us, you want to follow along.
I I do stream our Prague. I I will say that I mean like
it's from this talk to like I'm not always in a great mood.
I try to be in a good mood, but I was like, I don't know if I
sound disappointed like it just does.
This is the raid environment. I'm trying to, I'm trying to
keep it up. I don't think I'm mean.
But I also don't really reply to chat because I feel like, I feel
like I'm like focused on the raid, you know, if you're raid
leaders like talking to chat, it's like, what are we doing?
You know? So yeah, but.
I like that. Let's talk a little bit about
that before we wrap up your your journey.
So you decided to share this journey on YouTube to help.
But you know, like you said, give us a voice that we don't
really see a lot of. What's the end goal?
What happens as RAD keeps climbing in ranks?
Will we eventually be watching that?
The big old bucket of water Hall of Fame channel.
I think like, so we're so far away that are like talking about
Hall of Fame sounds like kind of ridiculous.
You know, our goal this tier was to get better.
And I think that like, we had a lot of difficulties with goal
alignment this last year and like figuring out what we want.
And like, I feel like this tier has kind of opened my eyes a
little bit more to like, oh, this year we wanted to get
better. And then what does that mean?
And like eventually we found out that means pushing world rank
like a little bit. So right now what I want to do
is I want to kill Laura hopefully in the next 3 or 4
weeks and then like be done with that.
I think Hall of Fame could be in the cards if we got like a
little bit better. You know, we're pretty far away,
but I think that would be cool. But for the most part, like with
the channel, I'm just trying to make cool videos and like talk
about interesting things, you know, and like if people can
follow along and they can like you can be helpful to people.
Part of the reason I created the channel is because like I said,
there's not a lot of resources available.
You have the raid leader exchange, you have some like one
off YouTube videos you can go find, but like there's nobody
like telling you how to do this. And that was kind of like a
frustrating thing for me where it's like I'm experiencing this
thing that radar IO is telling me 1000 other guilds are
experiencing and nobody's talking about it.
And I'm like, OK, well, maybe somebody should talk about it.
Somebody should open that discussion.
So I'm not the first person to talk about it on YouTube.
Like I said, there's there's there's other channels and stuff
that you can kind of tune into, But like for the most part, I
think there should be more people talking about these
things, maybe not in guide format, but like talk about what
you're experiencing, the things that you're going through,
because like it is relatable. A lot of people experience that.
A lot of people are playing the game and doing raid content.
And I think that like, yeah, I think mythic boss is the only
thing that's highlighted. And Wow, when it's like what I
love is reading. I, I love, I love reading.
I love running the Guild and playing together and progressing
these bosses. I find that the most
interesting. So I wanted to kind of make
more. I love that.
It's absolutely my favorite channel for this level of play.
Like it's 100% if you are listening to this and you're in
the same situation or you're used to be in that situation or
you aspire to be in that situation, I definitely
recommend following the channel, watching it.
We're gonna get to those plugs in a second because it is.
It's good to know it's good also for people that are a different
area, like having the perspective.
How are other people experiencing the game?
Like you said there's 1000 of the guilds experience but nobody
talks about. It's just like the biggest
gaslight ever. It's like you race the world
first, or your Hall of Fame or you just don't exist.
Yeah, well, it's crazy. Like the numbers on radar IO
too. Then I go there and I see that
it's like, yeah, there's 1000 guilds above me and I'm like,
where are they? Like, like it's, it's crazy to
think that they all exist and there's there's a thousand other
communities just like us who probably feel the same way where
it's like, dude, these are the this is the best like Guild I've
ever been a part of. It is like I've I just never you
never meet them. Like sometimes you join a pug
and that's something that actually I, I for for what
rating content is I really enjoyed watching like Max's like
undercover raid leader series. Because if you ever see those,
these videos, he hops in with these people and these other
guilds. He he goes undercover and he'll,
he'll just pug with like a Guild and he'll join Discord comes
with these guys and they are always the funniest people
you've ever seen in your life. And it's like, that's not
unique. That is every Guild I've ever
pugged with. You join in and they just say
the most ridiculous things. And it is, it is like it's
objectively hilarious. And it's like, I want more of
that, that that's what I want to see more of that because I think
that, yeah, you see these different communities and how
they function. It is funny.
It's a really good time. So I love that stuff.
Yeah, it's absolutely. Well, I was watching.
I don't catch a lot of his live streams.
What I do see is YouTube stuff. There was one of his last
YouTube videos that they do clips.
He was watching one of your videos on stream.
He he has reacted to it a little bit, which has been really cool
for us. We've definitely like some of
the members in our Guild have gotten the kick out of this.
I did write this down to be clear.
I think it's probably objectively a bad call for me to
maybe making YouTube videos about our Guild.
I I think that like I didn't start making videos like for the
Guild. It wasn't like, oh, I'm going to
put us on the map or anything. You know, it's, I think it adds
like a whole new layer to the Guild that people have to
navigate where it's like, oh, I hope I don't get like put in a
video or something, you know, But I think that some people
find it cool. Some people probably find it
obnoxious. It does have it's pros and cons.
So like, for example, a lot of people are like messaging us.
They're like, I want to join your Guild and I'm like, you
don't know anything about us, but like, thank you.
But yeah, lots of people have gotten kicked out of like
watching Max Reactor and stuff. I do think that like it has been
an interesting way to kind of communicate like goals and stuff
and where my head's at. So hopefully, if anything, maybe
that's a positive where it's like, I think that like, how do
you get somebody aligned under the same goals?
You know, it's like, you could, you could post a big Discord
message, you have a Guild meeting.
There's a couple of ways that you can do it.
Weirdly enough, me talking about my thoughts, maybe it helps
people just be like, Oh yeah, that's how he feels.
And maybe maybe it helps motivate some people, might help
demotivate some people where they're like, Oh yeah, he's kind
of disappointed right now, you know, like, but like, yeah, for
the most part, I, I hope it's net neutral.
You know, this guy is kind of the thing.
But no, I, I have fun making the videos and it was a good way for
me to kind of like express myself is kind of what was a
nice thing. So.
Yeah, it's, it's good transparency, right.
So like it, I could see it being helpful in, in, in either of
those situations, whether somebody sees it and they think,
oh, that those are his goals. I agree with that.
I'm going to double down and, you know, push and align myself
with that. Or if somebody watches a video
and thinks this is not what I want, yeah, at all, then they
they can leave, they can move on, they can step down for the
right team, you know what I mean?
If they realize. Where you're headed and and the
goals you have aligned aren't for that.
I think that's healthy in both regards.
I think having everybody aligned on the same target is is very
important. Well, I I said too, like if
people don't like, yeah, if, if people don't want what I want,
if that's like the majority consensus and the Guild that's
like, I am comfortable just like taking a step back because I do,
I do way too much work right now for like to be like making
people do things they don't want to do.
So I'm like, OK, yeah, if we don't want to do this, like I'll
just, I'll just rate, I'll just show up.
And like, I, I love the community.
Like I'll stick around. But it's like, yeah, if somebody
else wants to do it, like they can do it, you know?
But if we're doing what I want to do, this is what I want to
do, you know, so that that's the sort of thing.
But yeah. And I think I, I do think you
provide it's because, you know, like you mentioned, you know,
you're a little bit nervous asking questions in the radiator
exchange. You're, you're not alone in
that, right? That's that's the thing.
I think a lot of people, a lot of us walk around all day
thinking like, I'm the only person experiencing this and
nobody else understands. But you're, you're going on
YouTube and you're like expressing these feelings and
expressing these thoughts and, and explaining what it's like to
be in your situation. And I, I mean, I, you could
probably throw a dart and a board and, and, and not miss,
you know, every other raid lead in that thousand Guild range has
felt that way or feels that way now.
Yeah. And seeing somebody else say, it
could be like, oh, I'm not, I'm not the only one who feels this.
Way well, and that's part of what I wanted to do with the
videos too, where it's like I, I, I want to be a little bit
more raw with it where it's like I like I'm feeling real emotions
and like they're not always good.
You know, sometimes you, you have a really bad raid night and
it gets me down and I'm like, and I gonna go on a video and
I'm like, I'm not gonna put people on blast, but I'll be
like, hey, like we had a rough night, you know, and like, I'm
kind of disappointed, but I'm trying to look at the positives.
Like, like we did this thing while I learned this thing, you
know, and like, I don't know, I, I, there's definitely like, I
think there's people that maybe watch the videos and they, they
don't like them. But like, for the most part, I'm
just trying to like, I'm trying to be a real person.
You know, I'm a real guy who runs the Guild.
I, I'm experiencing real things that a lot of other people are
going through. And it's like, I just want
people to have somebody to connect to.
And if some people don't relate to that, that's fine.
But for the people that do, hopefully it's, it's, it's
beneficial for them to know that like, hey, you're not alone.
Like there's, there's a lot of people going through this.
I like that. I'm a real guy.
Yeah.
That's what isn't what Anakin says when she says you're a
slave and he says no, I'm a person.
That's it. I'm a person.
No, I'm a person. Man, I'm gonna really disappoint
you. But I I'm, I'm not a huge Star
Wars guy. I haven't seen too much of it.
That's OK. That's that's for me.
You're not missing anything.
It's if you weren't born in the early 1980's, the best is behind
you. Is the new mandalorian out?
Is a Mandalorian something movie?
Yeah, Mandalorian and Grogu is out.
I haven't seen. I'm I'm not a huge fan of most
of the the television shows. Oh, OK, it is out and it's
currently getting dummied in the box office by Obsession and the
backgrounds. Yeah, good.
Obsession is if you haven't seen, this has nothing to do
with the show. I saw your we're gonna rap in a
second. But if you haven't seen
Obsession, it's so good. Oh definitely gonna see it.
Yeah, it's amazing. We're we're going to wrap down
want to be Congress in your time.
Casey, I want to thank you so much for taking the time to talk
to us today. And can you tell our listeners
where they can find you? Yeah, I'm this is going to be
tough. I'm big old bucket of water on
YouTube. That's I'm not going to spell it
out, but well, maybe I should. I, I don't know.
It's a lot. The link The link will be in the
description. But I'm also on Twitter, Yeah,
some of that tweet things you can you guys can find me there X
the everything app. But yeah, that's the yeah, I
make YouTube videos. Sometimes I stream.
The links are all there on the YouTube though.
If you if you go there, I think that's the best place to be.
You stream to Twitch as well or just to YouTube?
I stream to twitch, YouTube, I just like I don't really know if
it affects the channel or anything so I just I just do
twitch but I probably should stream to YouTube.
I agree when you stream. So here's a little inside
baseball. When you stream to YouTube, it
shows up in your subscribers feeds as a new video.
But anybody who subscribed to you just for your videos will
see every time you go live and they'll go and click.
Instead of being a a 1015 minute video, it's a four hour VOD and
it's the most triggering thing. I have unsubscribed from
channels because of it. I hate it.
Yeah, I, it's funny because I I watch all of my streams on
YouTube. I actually hate Twitch.
It's just gotta drop that, right?
Yeah, I hate Twitch, but like, yeah, I don't know if I, if I'm
going to stream somewhere, I think the chat experience I
think is better on Twitch. I don't know, It's it's kind of
my logic, but no, yeah, catch me on YouTube.
Definitely give Casey a follow. Go watch his videos, like,
subscribe, comment for the algorithm and enjoy that
content. Casey, thank you for being here
listeners, thank you for being here and we'll see you next
time. Until then, may all your hits be
crits.