Top Secret Base Mailbag | Volume 1 (Patreon)

Welcome to the internet's first-ever mailbag column. I'm trying to keep myself from having a rambling preamble because boyyyyyy is there a lot to get to here, but this being our first time doing the mailbag, it's worth some table setting.

First, like everything at Secret Base (Top and regular), the approach we're taking with these is there will be one primary owner and then a bunch of contributors. We're getting to every question, we've put thought into every answer, but with 100 or so Q's there needed to be one primary A-giver. Oh, and this is Will. I'll make sure to note who each answer is from and I promise someone cooler will be the primary answerer in volume 2.

Second, we're going to assemble a FAQ out of these as we go. There are some questions that I have a hunch we'll keep getting (see Jon Bois section) so want to make sure anything that is clearly, consistently on y'all's minds can have an answer that lives beyond this.

Third, if you want to ask questions of us, we're fielding them from our Top Secret Agents and we'll do the next one in... a month? No sooner than a month. And maybe we'll hold off until July if we cook up something else for June. We're playing Calvin Ball here. Did someone say Calvin Ball? Wow, well that's just the perfect segue to dive into your questions...

Personal/General Part 1

• I've long suspected, and would really like to know...is the name Secret Base a reference to the Calvin and Hobbes strip when they argue over which bases Calvin touched? -Matthew

Yes! We rattled through so many names in trying to figure out the name. For a long time the name was going to be "Open Field," and then I think that had some copyright issues to it. From the moment Secret Base was suggested (by someone dropping this link into our Slack), we all knew it couldn't be anything else. -Will

• I really want to know what NBA team Jon roots for, if any at all! -Devin Weinbrecht

As a kid I was a Hawks fan, and if pressed to name a single team they’d be my answer, but ultimately I’m a bandwagoner whose rooting interests are entirely situational. This season I pulled hard for the Knicks, and now that they’ve been eliminated I’m pulling hard for the Wolves. Bandwagoning is a blast, and I find it especially rewarding as it concerns the NBA, where fun and fascinating teams assemble and disassemble very quickly. -Jon

• If you could cover any topic regardless of outside circumstances (money or time constraints), what would it be (sports or not sports related)? -Russell Wallace

The one that'll make your eyes roll but Jon and I discuss every now and then is the Cowboys under Jerry Jones. They're making a 10-part documentary on him now, but the issue with that is it will be Jerry Jones' story according to Jerry Jones. The version of it we all need is the accurate, real, like actually real story about everything that has happened under his watch. Not just leaning towards the gaudy or illegal or whatever debauchery has gone on, but even the mundane under him is fascinating. The issue is if he's involved with the telling of it, you can't trust it's the real story. Pulling the curtain to see the actual version would be my choice. So, that, or a doc about NHL dentists. -Will

• How many beans do you think you've eaten in your life? -Elijah Zelonky

Can't find my bean intake tracker but it's gotta be double digits if not more. -Will

• Did an athlete influence your favorite number/jersey number? (For me it was Tim Lincecum with the #55) -Joseph Germano

I wouldn't say it's my favorite number, but I wore 6 in rec league soccer because of Penny Hardaway on the '96 Dream Team. -seth

• personal favorite jerseys from the nba's western conference? -Wumbird

As a Celtics fan, Kobe Bean Bryant. KG's Wolves jersey was also very dope. -jz

• Secret Base Staff: If you could pick any sports game to add landmines to, which would it be? -Caylen

Let's include the caveat that these landmines have been created to add a sense of terror but have potential game-boosting ability if hit correctly and have zero chance of fatalities. With that said, hurdles. Any track and field really. Picturing the triple jump but with landmines that could either ruin the jump or send you flying in the correct direction. Or pole vaulters having to aim for spots to put their pole down that are safe. Steeple chase, replace the water with landmines. -Will

• What is your favorite memory of a sporting event you've seen in person? -prestochangeo41

The last year the Nets were in New Jersey and tickets were 50 cents per, me and some buddies went to see Nets vs. Kings, splurged on $3 seats, don't remember anything about the game but Salt-N-Pepa performed at halftime and that is a moment I will never forget. -Will

• DRAFT A 5-PERSON BLUNT ROTATION FROM THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES: 1. HALL OF FAME DEFENSIVE PLAYER (NFL) 2. JORDAN VS. BIRD (NBA) 3. A LEFT-HANDER WHO HAS FINISHED A REGULAR SEASON WITH >= 5 WAR (WINS ABOVE REPLACEMENT) (MLB) 4. FIRST-ROUND DRAFT PICK (ANY) 5. COACH (ANY). ONE OF YOUR PICKS MUST BE RESPONSIBLE FOR SNACKS. THANK YOU. -Grabson Diegomari

Okay I've thought about this for a while. 1. Ed Reed 2. Obviously Bird 3. Randy Johnson 4. Boris Diaw 5. Dawn Staley. Boris brings the snacks. -seth

• Question for specifically Kofie—what is your “best” episode of Psych? -Joshua Hansen

If I would have to answer I would for sure say (season 3, episode 4) "The Greatest Adventure in the History of Basic Cable". I often appreciated when Psych would often realize that the show could be anything they want it to be and not just solving murders. Making a Treasure Hunting episode was peak awesome and a nice way to showcase Shawn's "psychic" abilities and general knowledge. -Kofie

• I was wondering about everyone's fandoms! Not just sports; what do y'all talk about in your days off? -Keita O Erskine

I'd say a lot of us enjoy bonding over video games like Rocket League and Baldurs Gate 3. And a handful of us love sci-fi and fantasy fandoms like Star Wars and LOTR. Movies and tv shows aside, I enjoy watching esports and content creators on twitch. (Kofie is the bomb) -Char

Sports is definitely a big part of my life, and I definitely hate that because it's giving me too many emotional rollercoasters and painful heartbreaks over the years. (AKA Celtics) I also love watching Real Madrid and a huge dosage of combat sports. Personally, in the office, one of my favorite topics is when we talk about food and what to eat. -jz

Across the team, video games, food and music are the big common areas. Personally, enjoy making music, hiking whenever I'm out of the city, and sculpting/painting 40k (Orks for anyone curious). -Will

Editorial

• What is a sport moment from the last year that you went... Yeah, I'm making a video on this. -Brennan Keller

This. -seth

• Who’s an athlete you find fascinating but haven’t been able to do a video about yet? -Brandon Hahn

Ricky Williams. I'm sure we'll do a Prism on him sooner or later. He's one of my favorite athletes of all time and had a much more successful professional career than people remember, but generally a very interesting human. -Will

• Would Secret Base ever consider doing a piece on Auto Racing? -Hagan Ledda, Matt Beaty, Grazie, Kalvin Filarski

Four of y'all asked this so maybe we need to prioritize it. All of you had some different thoughtfulness here and touched on aspects of the answer for why we haven't dipped into auto racing. It's not in our wheelhouse so it takes us more time and makes us feel very fraudulent in our coverage of it, there are other creators out there who that is their thing and they do it well, so if we were to cover it I think it would need to happen in a franchise that doesn't currently exist in order to find our entry point for it.

• What prevents y'all from doing more hockey videos? -Jack Hanley, Hagan Ledda

Hockey is in the ballpark of auto racing but for different ways. I'm a fan of it so I've done the bulk of our videos, but there are entry points that others have been able to cover it as well (Beef, Collapse). I think the tricky thing with hockey comes from a business side of things. We have to be mindful of sponsorships and we just haven't had anyone sniff around hockey content for a really long time, so it's a bit of a tactical decision to spend that time building stuff that has a better shot at sponsorship.

• What's a sports moment that you would love to make a video of but can't fit in a current Secret Base series? -Batti

Paul Pierce tweeting a picture of a rocket emoji -Kofie

• Heyo! Husker fan here and big fan of the team. Was wondering if you guys ever considered breaking down the science/art of choking franchises? -Alex Callan [question edited for length but thank you for the Nebraska chat Alex!]

I suppose the Secret Base angle to this would be to layout everything that went wrong, how close it came to going the other way, and then analyze whether or not logic can be attributed to their choking. That could be pretty interesting! Right now we're in a holding pattern for new series so we wouldn't pull this off any time soon, but that could be a solid one. Oh, and sorry for the time Colt McCoy did that thing that one time. -Will

• Wondering if you guys would ever do rewinder video on the 2017 Clemson vs Alabama national championship game i just think its one of the best and most entertaining cfp games ever with multiple storylines with one of the most clutch plays in the playoffs history to this point. -Robert Adams

We held off on that for a bit since everyone just wants to see both sides suffer after their run of success, but yeah that's a great episode for us to do in the future. -Will

• In several of your baseball centered series, a qualifier of “…in the post-integration era” is frequently used to describe the stats used in a given episode. Other than the obvious part about many people who play MLB would not be able to play MLB without integration, are there stats pre-integration that you’re comparing modern ball players to? Or is there more to that qualifier than may not be obvious? -Joel Erickson

As you alluded to, prior to Jackie Robinson’s 1947 breaking of the color barrier in MLB, many of the best baseball players were excluded, and another reason you’ll sometimes see things framed around certain timeframes is simply to weed out old-timey Herculean figures that always ruin things — most prominently in MLB being Babe Ruth. Just like how certain NBA scoring-based charts will be framed as over the last 50 or 60 years because of how Wilt Chamberlain dropped a million points in a million games. Doing so just creates much more dynamic datasets and charts on the sliding scale of time frame still encapsulated vs. perspective of accomplishment provided. Another reason at times we’ll use a specific cutoff date as opposed to everything always being “all-time” stems from how far back reliable data coverage and availability go for certain metrics. -Alex

• For every member of the team: If there was one video you could redo, what would it be and why? -Sera

When I started in August of 2021 the very first video I ever edited was a Rewinder for Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Trailblazers and the Pistons. At that point I hadn't really figured out the core rhythm/pacing of Secret Base's videos but felt I had all of the details down. I feel a lot more confident now than back then, but I would defnitely pace that video differently. -char

For me this would be "Chosen", not that I am not satisfied with anything we've done in it, but rather because I had so much fun in the creative process building the show from the ground up with Seth, Phil, Das and Ryan. It was a first time experience for me to creatively design and direct a show of that length and magnitude and I've enjoyed it so much that I want to do it all over again. -jz

Red Wings vs. Avalanche Beef History. I honestly don't know how I wrote something that does a decent job of chronicling that feud with a runtime under 10 minutes. Would love to go back and make that a multi-parter or a proper longform piece. -Will

• Will SB ever do a deep-dive on the curious events that happened during Pac-12 After Dark games? Seems like it'd be an interesting phenomenon to study. UCLA-Wazzu, UCLA-TAMU, Oregon-ASU, etc. -Aidan Young

Maybe? Would need to look into specific storylines and figure out if anything works for us, will put on the radar for our CFB coverage this season. -Will

• Would you guys ever do story on an esport? Some crazy stories out there and i think a game like rocket league would fit the channel the best. -Vickter

If I were to do an Overwatch League one it'd obviously be about the 0-40 Shanghai Dragons. However I would want to collaborate with someone from the Overwatch League Community because I don't feel like an expert in that field even though I watched OWL for 4 years. -Kofie

Personal /General Part 2

• For each of you, what's your favorite video/series that you got to a be part of, and what's your favorite sports moment that you got to witness live (either present at the stadium or live on TV)? -John Hopwood

Old series: Will You Be My Friend. Modern series: Beef History. Sports moment: first that came to mind is watching the Kick Six on TV -Will

I really enjoyed being on "the First", also the "Werid Rules/That's Weird" franchise. Just overall an extremely fun shooting and interaction experience. Favorite Sports moment witnessed live on TV: Paul Pierce 41 points vs LeBron 45 points Game Seven Eastern Conference Semifinals 2008/ Derek Fisher 0.4 second shot over the Spurs in 2004. -jz

Love doing Beef History and Prism the most. Was not there to witness it live but a moment that comes to mind is Liberty’s Teresa Weatherspoon and her insane half-court game-winner in the 1999 WNBA Finals (we did a rewinder on it and it is a very underrated Secret Base episode imo) -char

• Hey y'all, the dorktown 'story of' seasons tend to focus on teams that haven't won anything or atleast haven won anything for a very long time. My question to the whole team is who is your favourite team of this ilk, mine is Tottenham in the English Premier League. -Matthew Curtis

I feel like it has to be the Toronto Maple Leafs. As a hockey fan, I hate the Leafs. As a content creator, they are a gold mine where every vein is sadness. Also, I root for the NFL's Maple Leafs (Dallas Cowboys) and they fit this too but at this point I might hate them even more than the Leafs. -Will

• Who was everyone’s favorite player/athlete growing up? -MVPeyton16

Penny, Moises Alou, Terrell Davis, Allan Houston, Kurt Thomas -Seth

Daryl Johnston, then Ricky Williams, and always Steve Yzerman. -Will

• For anyone from the Carolina-Virginia area, what's your go-to Cookout order? -Madison Thunderfist

There is a Cookout in Chapel Hill that used to be a Burger King so it's one of the few cookouts you can go inside. There they also sell Cookout T-Shirts with your meal sometimes. I often get the Big Double Burger (Lettuce, Tomato, Ketchup, Mustard, and ONiion) with cajun fries, hush puppies and either a Cheerwine Float or a cookies and cream milkshake for sure. -Kofie

• Why does Jon Bois dislike the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? -TBBaconeer

I won't speak for Jon but I've never heard him share any strong feelings about the Bucs in either direction. If you have proof otherwise, let's address it next month. I mean, he did dodge this question so... -Will

• If Home Alone was remade today, who are the 4/5 Starting Lineups used in the movie? (Assuming Starting Lineups are also still being made) -jquads12

Ok so it's hard to tell who was used other than Deion and Larry Bird (I think) in the original. I think it'd have to just be the biggest names - LeBron and Mahomes for sure, maybe throw a little shade at Justin Fields if the movie is still taking place in Chicago, and then Caitlin Clark. This answer doesn't feel right nor funny so I have done nothing but waste all of our time. -Will

• What does baseball look like in 17776? -Aaron Milgram

Like football, I’m sure it looks like a million different things, and there are definitely endless Calvinball-adjacent variants. Like Calvin and Hobbes’ version of baseball that has at least 23 bases as well as a secret base. By the way, fun fact: that strip is where we got our name. https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1988/05/22 -Jon

Jon, we went over this in the first question, but your supporting link is helpful. Wondering now if I should move it up to earlier. Excited for you, dear reader, to have already seen whether I included it at the start or not! If so, all credit to Jon. -Will

• What is one player's nickname you'd like to change? -Timbo

I don't know that any of Marc Gasol's nicknames really stuck, but a gigantic fuzzy Spanish man who played for the Grizzlies should have been called El Oso. -Seth

• Every secret base employee vs a grizzly bear. How yall winning? -Sam Principe

By hiring a larger grizzly bear. We could use an intern anyway. -Will

• Why? -Geoffrey M

Got bored. Hi Geoff. -Will

Dorktown

• I think I read or heard you all say somewhere that you use Google Earth for your videos. Is that true? If so, how in the black magic did you learn to do that? As an emerging data analyst, I'm hella impressed. -Big Z (similar questions asked by Seth Reithmeyer and 1 Baseball Elephant)

Sometime around 2012 or 2013, I pulled up Google Earth to create some sort of animated GIF I was going to use for an article (can’t remember what it was, exactly). I started pecking around in the options and found that it allows for the embedding of image files and drawing simple polygons. Before long, it occurred to me that I could ditch the maps component entirely and create a blank slate by simply embedding a solid-color .png and stretching it across the whole planet, then populate it with whichever images I felt like: labels, photos, newspaper articles, charts, whatever.

The bottleneck then became, exactly how many assets will it allow you to dump in there? The answer turned out to be “however many your machine and its fans can handle.” I lay everything out using my MacBook Pro, but when it comes time to actually record the footage, framerate quality is paramount. When Alex and I started piecing The History of the Minnesota Vikings together, I found the point at which my laptop finally reached its limit and it just could not hang, even if I moved the camera incredibly slowly and sped it up in the editor later. So for that project, I ended up using a desktop. My desktop’s specs were actually pretty comparable to those of my MacBook; the difference was that a desktop can cool itself down far more efficiently. The cooler it stays, the better the framerate.

I’ve been using Earth to make video for about nine years now, and it’s taken a lot of those years to figure out how to navigate all the various nuances and quirks of a piece of software that, while incredibly well-developed, is being used to do something it wasn’t intended to do. I’m still kind of amazed it works as well as it does. - Jon

• I would love for you guys to break down each step of the creation process for a typical "Dorktown" docuseries. I'm a college student pursuing a career in sports media, and your work has been incredibly influential and inspiring for me (thank you!), so seeing how those types of projects come together - particularly in regard to researching old newspaper archives and such as well as creating the remarkable visuals - would be incredibly interesting. -Ben

Lol yeah right, nice try ESPN. Not giving you the secrets. It's hard to really dive through this because it's such a lengthy process, but boiling it down here in a way that anyone can run with and find their version. We don't do it the correct way, there is no correct way, we just found our way. So, find a topic you're interested in, research the shit out of it to find compelling angles that may interest others, find the supporting materials, outline it and script it and do more research and change the script and record some voiceover and build the visuals and then realize you got stuff wrong and fix that wrong stuff and then repeat a ton of those steps until you have something that you're mostly happy with (but importantly, never FULLY happy with) -Will

• For Alex: what makes you gravitate toward the statistics side of things? Is that just something we see in the Dorktown videos, or is the actual dynamic between you and Jon like that? -Allie DeLap

So, much like Jerry Seinfeld wondering about Tim Whatley’s party, there’s some ambiguity in this question; specifically, the word of emphasis. If you’re emphasizing the word “statistics,” that’s always something that’s been a big part of my life and a subject of great fascination. Jon & I for years have basically been messaging each other at all hours of the day and night on that stuff, and there was no limit to how outrageous or obscure our “u up?” musings would be: from fawning over the 1899 Cleveland Spiders’ run differential to NFL games in which both teams kneeled on the ball in the waning minutes of the game to the 6th-inning OPS allowed of some baseball squad or player in 1937 to the fact that NBA teams that score exactly 84 points in a game have a better win percentage historically than teams that score exactly 85, 86, or even 87 points in a game to the wondrous sample of 42 passes thrown by Cards QB intended for Larry Fitzgerald across Weeks 11-15 in 2012 to the 1/26/13 Northern Illinois-Eastern Michigan college hoops game to ’87 Bo Jackson having painted both 2-homer and 3-touchdown masterpieces at the Kingdome to marveling at ’98 Bobby Hoying and Adrian Dantley’s absurd scoring efficiency and some of Elmore Smith’s shot-blocking exploits.

But regardless of how obscure or prominent the statistical stuff that we kick around is, we always pride ourselves on our ability to use them in videos to further a story or paint a picture that provides some context and perspective, with the charts we build serving as our primary vehicle to convey that. And as it turns out, numbers and stats and charts can be quite an effective storytelling tool.

However! And this might very well not be the case, but it’s one of the potential ways my brain interpreted the question: if the emphasis is on the word “you” (i.e. as opposed to Jon), I’d be remiss to not throw out there that of course the benevolent overlord of Dorktown is every bit as big of a statistical dork as you’ll ever find on top of being Planet Earth’s foremost chartmaker, which is most definitely not a paradigm limited to Dorktown video. -Alex

• I enjoy studying statistics largely due to Dorktown's videos, and am very interested in getting into studying sports stats. How would one even begin getting comfortable with studying/analyzing mountains of data from sports databases? Do y'all have any preferred databases? -Eric Ayma

I'll start with the last question first: all of the Reference sites and Stathead are amazing. They are great people making a great product. If unfamiliar, google "[insert sport name here] Reference." I'd say that is what we're using as a resource for stats 98% of the time. What's the other 2%? I don't know, just didn't want to be a liar in case there's something else. As for "how to get comfortable," don't have any good tips other than know what you're looking for when you go into it so it can be digestible. Every single stat can mean so many things depending on the context or objective, so if you understand your goal, you'll understand what to look for and what to compare it to, and over time as you get more familiar with the database itself and the available data, you can expand as you go. I guess the tip would be don't treat it like a pool where you're diving in, dip your toe in and get comfy. -Will

• In the history of the Seattle Mariners documentary Why did you guys not include more detailed explorations of the Mariners 1997, 2000 and 2001 playoff runs? And are there any plans for a part 7? Or an updated version talking more about the 2010s with Kyle Seager and Nelson Cruz? I love that documentary so much, it inspired me to become a huge Mariners fan! -Jake Huffaker

Generally speaking to the first part, we think about our storytelling as capturing the correct and accurate version of OUR story and therefore focus on the details tied to that. I put "our" in caps because we aren't trying to tell THE story, history kinda already did that. We want to find our own angle or unique unraveling of the topic, so sometimes that leads us to prioritize certain details/events/names and deprioritize others. As for a part 7, no plans as of writing this but who the fuck knows with those guys am I right? -Will

"Business"

• Tone gets lost in text and ‘why’ questions can inherently sound mean, but with nothing but love: why did you wait so long to make a Patreon? -Casey Kutnyak

Lot of different answers, none of which is the main one so I'll rattle off the big ones. Part of it is since we work within a large company, the timing needed to be right to have the buy-in and trust of who we report to/are supported by. We've always thought we had the ideas to justify it, as well as the support of all of y'all reading, so we had the belief for ourselves that it would make sense and justify us trying some new stuff, but we needed it to be the right time for the higher-ups to agree.

Another part has to do with bandwidth/resources. To do something like this (or anything really) we didn't want to half-ass it. Everything we make or do involves a calculation of if we're capable of pulling it off with what we've got, and if we are then what's the trade-off/what's it preventing, and based all that - is it worth it? So, similar to the company aspect, the stars needed to align and we're glad they did.

Lastly, a lot of it is our personal feelings towards doing something like this as creators. Just like y'all do, we see the folks who make (sometimes massive) blunders and there is always (even now) a degree of fear that we will alienate some of y'all. At the same time, when thinking about who all is on YouTube, there are folks that are unfortunately worth being alienated because they are there for different reasons and if a video happens to be about someone who's not a cis male. The fact we can use Patreon to justify brand new shit we otherwise wouldn't make and also keep out the toxicity that can invade YouTube (fingers crossed), it felt worth taking the chance as creators. -Will

• I'm not sure if you guys are making Collapse videos anymore, but now with Bill Belichick gone, will there possibly be a Patriots Dynasty Collapse? Thank you for giving this question a look and for all your incredible work you've all done! -HunterMeister (similar question also asked by Nicolai Martinussen) 

Short answer: I hope we'll make more Collapse, if so the Pats are now a good topic. Long answer: Collapse is one of our series (The Worst being another) where from a business standpoint, they have been hard to package for sponsors to get interested in. In order to justify our jobs, so much of our business is tied to direct sponsorship of video, and taking a series called "Collapse" to a brand makes for a tough sell. That's why it has hit the back burner, but is personally top of my list for series to bring back when we have a "do whatever we want" mode. There are still so many great stories to be told , and the list only grows year after year, so my new and very TBD hope/wonder is that we could pull it off as an early-release model like Pretty Good. Use Patreon as the justification for a run of episodes so they check a business box even without a sponsor, then drop them on YouTube at a later date. -Will

• I’m curious how the timelines vary between videos. From writing to upload, how long does the average video spend in production? -Ethan May

For Rewinder/Beef/Prism/etc, it's typically two weeks for researching/writing, two weeks for production, barring us going long with an episode. -Will

• Has the team ever kicked around the idea of a live event/tour of some kind? It'd be cool to see what y'all would do with the Annex in person, but are there any other ideas you'd have if you did have the opportunity to host a convention or go on tour? -Jacob Kief

We would LOVE to do this. I think the Annex does finally give us an anchor to build around, but we've always dreamed about doing something live - could be a variety show sort of thing, could be a film festival sort of thing, could be a Come Hang With Us And Watch Old Shit sort of thing. If we do, would definitely make sure there are some perks for patrons. -Will

• Will there be an official request for story topics at any point? -Danni Silversmith

We're in the thick of productions that we promised for potential sponsorship which has us locked in on topic selection, but we do want to give y'all some say in future videos we work on. -Will

• Is there a chance we’ll ever see Mariners or Stieb get a physical media release? -Caleb Edmondson

Legally, we'd get in big ol trouble. That's where we'd need to license/obtain rights to everything we use. But if you wanna buy some DVDs out of my trunk lmk. -Will

• Will you ever make a video covering Professional Wrestling? From any country. Doesn't have to be just WWE. Or maybe do beef history/prism on Profesional Wrestling? -Mark Heel

"Wait, why is this under business?" Well, my sweet and favorite reader, this question actually can offer some insight for how we think/operate. We have never touched professional wrestling, partly because it's out of our wheelhouse, part of because it's fake, so it's a little different from what we're used to. Now, having said that, we've actually started to get sponsor interest in wrestling in a way where we previously wouldn't have considered it, but good chance before the end of 2024 we have a WWE Beef History which could open the door for even more WWE content. -Will

• What do I gotta do to get english football talked about more? -Comrade Jay

This is another interesting one. Same answer about it being out of our wheelhouse so we've less frequently had stories that we were super comfortable telling, but we know we're missing out on so many soccer fans. One tricky thing about monetizing video is since we are part of an American company, it's difficult to monetize global viewership. I genuinely don't know why, but it actually benefits the business to target an American audience from a metrics-that-we-can-count standpoint. I know that's not a good reason, but it is (I believe) part of the reason we rarely get asked to make this content for sponsors. Hopefully that changes and we can bring on someone who really knows the sport well in order to speak to it in the way that it deserves.

Keep in mind, this is not THE answer, it's the business answer. If asked straight up I'd just say, idk, convince us there's a story worth telling so we aren't just left to our own devices wandering around the internet looking for something cool. -Will

• Will you ever cover Irish Hurling, Gaelic football, Middlesbrough FC, Aussie Rules Football, cricket, or [insert similar sport here]? -Samson Preece, Kobie Yeboah Fan Club President, ItohRespectArmy, Ruairi O'Gormon

Unfortunately, when it comes to YouTube the answer is probably not. Frankly, we would butcher any of these. That said, the Annex now gives us a way to talk about stuff we never thought we would or could (hi MichaelHall5429). If you want us to tell a story about one of these sports you love, something really helpful would be to point us in a specific direction (which some of these askers did to their credit) because otherwise, we have no entry point into sports that are very, very over our head. I still can't believe I talked about cricket at all, and I am sorry to all cricket fans for it. -Will

• When making the videos, how much consideration is given to the fact that a non-zero amount of the viewers have little knowledge of the sport in question? -Knut Aron Fludal

A lot! My goal with every video is to make it entertaining and informative for people who know the topic better than I do and for people who know nothing about the topic. I don't wanna waste anyone's time. -Seth

• As a budding documentarian/filmmaker myself, I was wondering about what your research process looks like (dorktown/pretty good specifically but also across the board). How do you normally decide on these topics? How much research does it take before you start writing scripts and how does it compare to more traditional modes of creating documentaries? Do you ever interview first-hand sources? Thanks, huge fan, let me know if y’all need an intern! -Jack Kabel

First, thanks for the kind words Jack. For us, topic selection usually comes down to two things: 1. Is the producer excited by/interested in/passionate about the potential topic? 2. Are we looking to fill a void in the publishing calendar for either sponsorship or seasonality reasons? We usually pitch some ideas we're into, the ones that are a good fit get the greenlight, and then the proper research/outlining/writing begins. For Rewinder/Beef/Prism, that timeline is roughly 2 weeks. Because of our work situation, we hit a point a long time ago where we started making videos that didn't really rely on anyone else, aside from people to have already given quotes or the games to be played some time ago. Don't really interview sources, just repurpose what already exists and often package it all up into a first of its kind, all in one place sort of piece. Most would say this is pretty different from "traditional documentary" from a production standpoint, but it's all just a factual record of something so we're still making documentaries at the end of the day. Don't sweat tradition, break that shit and make it your own. -Will

• Are yous all remote working these days? Or is there still an office life? If so what's it like? -PerfectlyAdequate

Mostly remote, but those of us who are still in the NYC area go into the office most Wednesdays. Every visit is a little different, some days are much more packed than others, but for the most part it's a good mix of actual work and just being social. We pretty much always take a 12-1 lunchbreak on those days, sometimes hangout at a bar nearby afterwards. Pretty normal/boring stuff. -Will

• I've got a potentially weird, possibly selfish one: I'm working on a family history project that involves tracking down information on a Grandfather who was very nearly drafted for the early Chicago Blackhawks. Instead, his father died, the family farm needed someone to inherit it, and Great Grandma didn't want any son of hers playing hockey on Sundays. My question is this: how would one go about tracking down scouting reports, team communications, or any sort of records that might shed light on this part of my Grandpa's history? I reckon it's a longshot that any such records exist, but longshots are what we've got left. -Mister Magpie (included entire answer in case people reading have tips)

This doesn't overlap all that much with my own research history, but the best thing I have to offer is: 1. the PR/research departments of large sports organizations are often pretty cool, and at the very least are usually sitting on a trove of archival documentation. 2. University libraries sometimes have catalogs of stuff like this and are excited to help out with requests. -seth

• What is the bare minimum amount of information you'd think to use for either a topic in a video, a tangent or the video in its entirety? I'm impressed with the way you guys sneak in information about something obscure and not expand further, so I'm curious how far are you willing to let that stuff build up in a video/series. -Noah T

Not a great answer but... anything? It could be a one-liner aside we find interesting or a deeper dive tangent, unless we're hard up on a word count it'll probably stay in. The goal for most information is that it points back to the story we're trying to tell in some form or fashion, but we're also playing calvin ball here so whoever is writing it can justify the importance of whatever. -Will

Personal/General Part 3

• Have you seen any of BobbyBroccoli's content? They similarly use Google Earth to tell stories with a more scientific take. Who is your favorite YouTube creator besides SB that you like to watch? -Jon, But Not Bois

Oh for sure, BB's doing some great stuff! The creator that the team collectively talks about/enjoys the most is Summoning Salt, it might not be close. Or Skip Bayless. He's on YouTube, right?
-Will

• any tips on running your own sandwich shop? -Gabe Taylor

They're pretty easy to run if you start by never opening it. -Will

• This could be for anyone, I guess... What's your top sports moment, one that gives you chills just thinking about it? Makes you cry seeing the footage/hearing the call? -Erik Helmle

Not that I am fan of either Conor McGregor or Jorge Masvidal, but Conor's 13-second KO of the Great Jose Aldo and Jorge's 5-second flying knee KO on Ben Askren were both so chilling when I saw them. Also, when Kawhi's shot finally went in after bouncing years on the rim against the Sixers in Game Seven in 2019 was just... magical. -jz

Definitely this for me. -Will

• What's your favorite nickname in sports? -Yutao Wang

Big Baby -Seth

I know Kevin Durant doesn't like it but Slim Reaper is too hard to just forget about -Kofie

• What is the most excited you’ve been over the most niche sport..? -Luke Jerromes

If we're talking niche, then probably watching the most recent college football playoffs heyooooooooo. First time I saw jai alai I felt like I'd shotgunned a Red Bull. -Will

• What is a particular game (teams and date) for you that got you hooked to the first team sport you fell in love with? I go with Super Bowl 48. -Zach S

My first sports memories are watching the early 90s Dallas Cowboys Super Bowls with my family. My dad grew up in Chicago but said "fuck being a Bears fan" and rooted for Staubach, so I inherited that fandom and had a pretty good run growing up to cement my rooting interests early on. -Will

• what's your favorite hot dog toppings? -plushifoxed

Ketchup, yellow mustard, and potato chips (ideally BBQ or Fritos) -Will

• What creator who used to do series on the main channel would you most like to collaborate with again? -Captain Gobblestopper, First of His Name, Lord Emperor of All Turkeys Not Under Dominion of the HokieBird

Think this has to be Bomani Jones (if we're allowed to go back to 2012) -Will

For me it has to be Spencer Hall just because we've only worked together sparingly and I would have learned a lot from him early on. -Kofie

• My question is: which NBA player do you think would have the better legacy if they won the finals the year they didn't. For example, would LeBron have an even better legacy if the Heat beat the Mavs in 2011 and potentially three peated or what if Charles won with the suns against the Bulls in 93. Could go the other way too, what if the Lakers lost against the Celtics in 2010, what if the Bucks lost to the suns in 21. I've really enjoyed everything on the Patreon and I'm very excited about this too! All the best! -Multiple Man

I think that answer almost certainly lies on the ring/no-ring divide. Charles is a great example in the no-ring-to-ring category, and I suspect a large swath of NBA Fans With Opinions would totally discount Dirk/Jokic/Giannis if they'd never won one. -Seth

• If you got to have a meal with one athlete, doesn’t matter the timeline or dimension, who is it and what are you having? Steak and surfer Kelly Slater? Kmart food court from the universe that stayed open and Cecil Fielder? The universe where Ryan Leif won a Super Bowl and you guys eat Cheetos driving around town smashing mailboxes? -Michael Gauthier

Crab legs with Jameis Winston. I mean, I'd eat anything with Jameis just to listen to him talk for as long as he wants, but we both like crab, so. -Will

All Things Jon (Minus Earlier Things Jon)

• Jon, your stories about Dave Stieb and Larry Walters are two of my favorite stories you've done. I didn't know who Stieb was before the Dorktown series and now I wish I could meet him and chat about baseball for hours. My question is: how did you settle on your musical selections for all your videos? I noticed some songs get put in regular rotation like Keith Mansfield, Brett Weir, and Nicolo Bardoni, but you've introduced me to things like French Dream Pop from Serge Sauvage with the Stieb miniseries. What's the process like of finding a song that perfectly encapsulates the emotions in your videos? How do you hear about these songs in the first place? -Elliott Anderson

Thank you! I actually was lucky enough to chat with Dave for hours on the phone after the series dropped. He’s an incredibly cool guy with tons of interesting stories to tell and things to say.

My music selections come from many years of crate-diving through the APM catalog. There’s an ocean of amazing stuff in there, much of which seems to be entirely forgotten, and it’s just a matter of diving in there until you find it. I found some via a process of hunting and pecking, like “I want something with synth or sax that’s between three and four minutes long.” Eventually I found composers who had a sound I liked and dug through their individual catalogs, which helped me find more composers and more albums and whatnot.

It took me many years, but by this point I have a folder of about 700 tracks that I sort by length, and once I have an idea of how long or short of a track I want, I can narrow the choices down considerably. If I can’t find anything that hits quite right, I’ll take a track with a sound I do like and search for something similar from that album. -Jon

• As a Chiefs fan, how do you honestly feel about the current Chiefs dynasty? Are you currently or think you will ever get bored of winning? Do you think there are ways that the team can still improve, notable weaknesses, or other teams that are potential threats? Any individual players on the team you have unique opinions on? -Travis Shumway

I honestly feel great about it because my team wins Super Bowls all the time. Right now I think the team is about as good as it can realistically get, thanks to the defensive resurgence. Although I absolutely love lightning-quick twitchy wideouts like Xavier Worthy, I do wish they had one more prototypical larger WR1 who could fight for 50/50 balls. I think my only unique opinion is of Kadarius Toney, who I absolutely love. I’m a huge fan of Kadarius and hope to explain why in a two-part Pretty Good dropping in August and September. -Jon

• Does Jon have any plans or updates about the eventual sequel to 17776/20020? I'll wait as long as I have to in order to read it, but it's been a while since I've heard news on that. -Xander Toftness (also asked by Saracene)

The only thing I can say at the moment is that I do have ambitions of doing more 17776. What form that’ll take, when that’ll happen, where that’ll happen, I can’t say at the moment. Putting 20020/21 on ice halfway through is something that I still don’t feel great about, because I know y’all were looking forward to the rest, and I hate the feeling of setting expectations for something and not delivering.

The main reason I dropped it was that it just didn’t make sense business-wise. 17776 was a passion project that I really believed in artistically and that people really enjoyed, and at that particular time it actually did make sense – it put our name out there to a new audience of people, established us as different, so on and so forth.

When I decided to start 20020, my hope was that I could make more while also continuing to do the day job stuff that, uh, is good for business and brings in money. That turned out to be completely unrealistic. I typically juggle multiple projects at once, but I’ve found that fiction writing is such a challenge that it doesn’t allow room for other things – I have to give it my full attention, or none at all. Trying to do it all was overwhelming and stopped being fun, and if it wasn’t fun for me, it definitely would’ve showed in the finished product.

So all that said, while I definitely don’t want to set expectations, much less make guarantees, it is absolutely something I want to continue doing whenever and wherever it makes sense. If nothing else, I do have a good idea of where I want the story to go next. (Nine, Ten and Juice are doing great and always will.) -Jon

• Jon can you bring back The Dugout? I want to feel young again. -Goose Shanglebert

The Dugout was one of those “tons of fun while it lasted” things. I’ve found that all the recurring series I’ve been a part of fall into one or two buckets. The first bucket is stuff that, time permitting, I could do forever. Stuff like Dorktown, 17776, and Pretty Good is like that – I feel like when I do return to those things, I feel good about doing so, and more importantly I feel like I could make something that people wanted. The other bucket is the stuff you do for a while, have fun, and move on as your abilities and interests keep evolving. Breaking Madden’s a great example, so is The Dugout. Today it exists in the form of Nick and I calling each other up on the phone once in a while and making stupid baseball jokes for an hour. Nick’s doing great, by the way.

• Will Pretty Good Episode 4 ever come back? -Jake Relis (also asked by Lucas Mergendahl and thousands of people over in community chat and comments)

Episode 4 is so inextricably rife with rights issues that there’s no salvaging it. Not only is it scored wall-to-wall with unlicensed music, there are all kinds of unlicensed images and visual materials that I didn’t really try to make any kind of fair-use argument for. The project files are long gone, too. Releasing it in literally any form would instantly expose us legally, so unfortunately, that particular video is gone for good. I do appreciate everybody’s interest in it, though. If there’s any consolation, it’s not all that good if you ask me – not nearly as good as you remember if you’ve seen it, and not nearly as good as you imagine if you haven’t seen it. But hey. No guarantees, but maybe one day I could remake it as a reward for some kind of subscription count goal or something. -Jon

• Question 1 (for Jon): Hi Jon! Big fan! You mentioned Fukuyama's "The End Of History" in REFORM! and I was wondering if that was something you had only come across recently or was it influential in previous works of yours? I've always thought that 17776 and 20020 are excellent examples of "Fukuyamaist Fiction", which is a term I have completely made up.
  
  Question 2 (for the team): Hi team! Big fan! How many microwaves do you have in the break room? Thanks! -Tucker Legate

The end-of-history stuff hasn’t really been an influence of anything else I’ve done. I think I first got wind of it in my early adulthood, when friends of mine would come home from college and go on and on about the stuff they learned. I was like oh, that’s an interesting idea, but I definitely never read the book or explored it any deeper than surface-level. It certainly seemed pertinent once I started exploring 1990s electoral politics, though. I think we have one microwave in the break room. -Jon

Two. -Will

• Will Jon ever bring back Love De Luxe (theme music for Chart Party)? Going along with that, will Chart Party ever come back, or is Dorktown the complete successor? -Justin Bank

I picked Love De Luxe as the Chart Party theme because I thought it perfectly set a sort of anti-excitement vibe. I’ve found so many bangers in the music catalog by this point that it’s fallen out of the rotation, but maybe I’ll bring back that track someday. As for Chart Party itself, the documentary component definitely lives in Dorktown now, but it also featured an experimentation/gaming-out component, like the “Barry Bonds without a bat” or “Surrender Index” episodes. I’ve taken a break from that stuff in recent years but I’m returning to it this year in the form of a couple of Pretty Good episodes. I wouldn’t be surprised if Alex and I do some similar stuff with Dorktown in the future, though. -Jon

• Jon, the people have been waiting for years with no update. Some of us think about it almost every day—you can't just drop a masterpiece like that on us and never follow up on it. So I'll ask the question on everyone's mind: when are we getting Supperjumpin' 2? -Eli Powell

I’m too old to Supperjump now. I’m passing this sport along to the next generation of fast food athletes. -Jon

• Can we get a deep dive on Steve Dalkowski / Earl Weaver? -Steven Cramer, Tom McGhan

I lumped these here because they feel like topics ripe for Jon and Alex. Like most things, never say never, but also not in the cards at the moment. -Will

• Jon, who would be your dream pick to replace Harrison Butker as the Chiefs kicker? More seriously- do you think he should be replaced? Also, Biakabatuka over Fuamatu-Ma’afala? I know I’m biased but that’s just an insult. -The Real Ben Shapiro

Jon could not answer this because he is training to become an American football placekicker for unrelated reasons. Also, no offense to Fuamatu-Ma’afala, but he wasn't in the original NFL Blitz so his name couldn't be said in a way that fully embedded itself into my brain. -Will

• hey Jon, what'd you get at the store -ranatalus

No comment.

Personal/General Part 4

• What are everybody's favorite teams in each sport and why? Example: I grew up in Western New York, so I root for Buffalo Bills and Sabres. But there's no NBA or MLB nearby, so when I went to college in Pittsburgh I became a Pirates fan, if for no other reason than tickets were like 12 bucks in 2008. -Adam Foote

Cowboys via my dad, Red Wings via my aunt and uncle, Texas Longhorns because I always thought that's where I'd go for college -Will.

Knicks because of my dad/a babysitter/my best friend/them being good when I was little and living in New Jersey. Liberty as a subset of Knicks fandom, Yankees because they're on TV and I'm not about to be a Mets fan. I used to be an Oakland Raiders fan (because the first time I ever did fantasy football I had both Rich Gannon and Tim Brown on my team, but I stopped following them after they lost that Super Bowl to the Bucs. It was too much for my heart. -Seth

• Favourite dad joke? -Zach Benedict

I think the best dad jokes don't exist before or after they are said, only in that moment where they are uttered. Without being right there, it's difficult to properly appreciate them (whether positively or negatively). Having said that, I do enjoy the super basic "I'm hungry", "Hi hungry, I'm dad." -Will

• who's your 83rd favourite college football player? -liam says bring back card show (please)

Cedric Benson. -Will

• For the Beef History crew: what’s a recent beef that you’re excited to see blossom in the near future? Jaire Alexander vs Justin Jefferson looks to be a great new one. -Jackson M

I think for me it's that the WNBA is finally covered regularly/closely enough that we have a feel for the personalities and rivalries involved ... and there's a lot of beef, and I'm excited to reflect on it some years from now. -seth

• Can you explain the last decade plus of Buffalo Sabres hockey? -Vince Brugnoni

In one word: unfortunate. In three words: did not qualify. -Will

• What is your favorite ad featuring a highly touted athlete who turned out to be a bust? For example, forever seared into my brain is a TV ad Brady Quinn appeared in shortly after being drafted, promoting some sports drink/supplement whatever. The premise of the ad was your workout isn't finished until you use their product. Brady does some exercise, then drinks the drink or whatever and dramatically looks into the camera and says "NOW I'm done." It's very silly and idk why I still remember it strongly. -Timothy Estabrooks

I don't know if this fits the bill, but the athlete-led commercial that lives in my brain forever is from the late 90s, early 00s, when Jose Lima did a series of ads for a Houston based Tex-Mex spot called Casa Ole. The song from those ads will never escape me. If you dare, give it a listen. -Will

• I was curious what the least athletic play you've ever seen is. -lolplatypi

I guess it's technically not a play but the first thing that came to mind which I haven't been able to improve upon is the time Joe Paterno (rest in piss) shit his pants on the sideline and ran across the field behind the play to get some new drawers. It's just perfect. -Will

• What is the worst major league curse (past and present) that was the most suffering in your guy's eyes? This can also be a future episode idea to find out which curse was statistically detrimental to a team in each sport -videopar97

I have many friends from Chicago and I could feel their pain for the Cubs curse... -jz

• With the NFL Europe games being announced, what NFL fanbases can most seamlessly translate from the NFL to real football? -Moe Boom!

They're not playing in England this year, but the Raiders fan base feels like they're just west coast hooligans. Thinking that then reminded me that Guy Fieri is a Raiders fan, which now has me wondering if there is a British Guy Fieri. Anyone know? Drop a comment if there's someone comparable. -Will

• What's your favorite letter? Like, of the alphabet. Not favorite mailed letter. That'd be silly. -Calum Wolfgang

Biased but W because it's the only English letter that's multisyllabic. -Will

• "Will You Be My Friend" with Will Buikema felt like the ultimate reality tv show for sports nerds like me; were there any highlights that were left on the cutting room floor? -Epurrely Lazy

I have no clue where the footage is but would love to just release a full length, zero edit version of the Jared Allen episode. I literally hung out with him for nearly an entier 18 holes of golf and he was incredible the entire time. Really great sport, and a handful of holes where we weren't filming we just chatted - from my experience, really nice guy. Also, Marquette King still calls me out of the blue sometimes and every time it feels like a prank? Need to check in on him. -Will

• What were the conversations like when deciding to place your podcast in a place like the Annex? I'm excited to learn more about the lore of the place and would love to hear how it came about. -Isaac Springer

Early on we kicked around things we like or wanted to do or didn't want to do, not that this became the be-all, end-all objective but making Welcome To Nightvale But Sports has felt up our alley for a while. For the space it exists within, that came about from discussing our videos as basically archives of events or stories and picturing where those archives would then be housed. We're also excited to learn the lore of it! Lot of shit going on that even we don't know about yet. -Will

• A simple one: Favourite sports venue you have been at to watched live sports? Any sport or building type. -msboo001

Enron Field (aka Minute Maid). Great ballpark, but more importantly just incredible that Enron had the naming rites for a few years. Old Yankee Stadium was cool too. -Will

• Are you able to determine with statistics who is the most successful athlete rapper of all time? -FRESHPOETIC

What does "success" mean though? Would need to start by framing that in order to figure out what stats we'd be looking into. That said, yeah probably. -Will

• Who would be a better baseball player, a guy who will foul off every pitch in the zone every at-bat until he's walked, or a pitcher with infinite stamina who will always give up 4 earned runs for every 9 innings pitched? -Nathaniel Lowry

If by "better" you mean the better player to have on your team, I would choose the pitcher. You're guaranteed a pitcher going a full 9 innings and only giving up 4 runs, if the average runs scored in a game continues to be around 9 then that means you have a dude who you know if you roll out onto the mound then it's better than a coin flip you will win. IMO, that infinite stamina is what moves the needle for me. -Will

• What scene or line from a video that you made still makes you laugh? -Braden Kattman

This. -Seth

• So I posted about this on the topic chat. I have been working on a video idea called Snapshot and although I have put a lot of time and effort into it I doubt I'll ever make it into a video, want it if it any good? -DANN FROM THE BAND MINISTER

"Want it" in the sense of "want to watch it," then yeah, share it when you've got it! -Will

• Jeremie Biakabutuka (or his dad Tim) reference! Want to talk baseball: in the event of expansion, are there any locations that stick out? You can list as many as you’d like. -zarchepelago

lol I'm glad someone appreciated that. Honestly my first awareness of Tim was because of the original NFL Blitz on N64 because I'd always play as the Panthers (super good in a balanced way) and the way the announcer said his name locked into my brain. But then was extra happy when his son tried out for the Wings. Anyway, New Orleans jumps to mind, baseball's big in the state. More teams in Canada would be fun. Memphis deserves more professional sports. -Will

• What's it called, where you don't watch any live sports purposely. But you still follow it a lot because of social media and weekly recaps of entire leagues. -Toad_Tm

Very, very unique brain rot. -Will

• What is your favorite college football player who never became a long-term player in the NFL? -Quinton Moore

Got to meet Aaron Murray leading up to the draft and thought he was one of the nicest dudes. As for favorite because of their play in college, probably Denard Robinson. -Will

• When Ed Krieger wins his football game in 17776 after staying in the cave for 10,000 years, do you think he will leave? Or will he just chill in the cave forever? -Jack Peimotor

If you had your own cave would you give it up? No way. -Will

• BIAKA.... Speaking of Tshimanga, what is your favorite "name game," which is to say a game that is singular enough in that player's history to make it the logical attachment to remembering some guys. Biakabatuka's 3-1-3 game against Ohio State in 1995 is one of my favorite choices in the genre for Michigan football, but I would love to hear ideas from the gang. ...BATUKA -Craig Barker

Despite being a Cowboys fan, I have a really fond memory of watching the first Giants-Patriots Super Bowl with some friends in college and "The Helmet Catch" remains such an absurd/unbelievable moment and (sorry David) no other reason to remember David Tyree. I also still can't get over the Minneapolis Miracle any time I see it. -Will

• Do you all have a no-no list for topics/projects that you feel have been overdone or there isn't a unique perspective to be had on? As a Yankee fan I want nothing more than a history of the Yankees but I understand that it's not really on the same level of a story that needs to be told like the story of the Mariners or Dave Stieb. -Jake Glatzerman

I think our no-no list is more so tied to people who are gross. Other times we'll skip a topic when there's already been an unbeatable piece (particular 30-for-30s), but still there are times where we see something good but realize they left something out or took a different angle. Some of it also just comes down to what we think people would be interested in. The Yankees/Cowboys are good examples of teams that seem to have a bit of fatigue after nonstop coverage, but also know there are things about them that everyone can enjoy (beef, their downfalls, etc) -Will

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If you have made it this far, I am sorry/what's wrong with you. I think we answered every Top Secret Agent who submitted a question and wow. That was a lot. We're sitting at almost 11,000 words and honestly, I'm loving every single one of them. This was a fucking blast and hope at least some part of it is interesting to you! Let us know what you think in the comments, after writing all of this out it really makes me want to address mailbags with some video component moving forward but we'll see. Thank you all, love you all, and we'll see you soon.