Tag Is a Professional Sport and It's Awesome | Next in Sports

so people say it's a new sport

maybe Chase tag with our set of rules is

a new sport

but the element of chasing and evading

you did it I did it you know everyone

has done it

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this is World Chase tag it's most easily

defined as the evolution of tag it's

Beauty that's all in the simplicity

it's one of those things where you don't

need to watch it for a long time to know

what's going on 20 seconds you have a

chaser an evader so easy to understand

you see one person chasing another

person and you immediately go Oh yeah

that person's trying to catch that

person so you people are somehow engaged

as to oh my God he's chasing him let's

see is he going to catch him or not you

know

and for anyone who's thinking that's

just tag I could totally do that we

guarantee you would not be able to catch

these people

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if you are not a world Chase tag athlete

if you have not trained this sport you

cannot touch us which is exactly how a

Pro Sport should be the skill level of

every athlete here is through the roof

that is what world Chase Tech has become

now it is incredible to be a part of

this sport from humble beginnings to a

viral sensation and broadcast on ESPN to

protecting their intellectual property

from competitors the story of world

Chase tag is a fascinating one but the

story isn't finished if anything it's

just begun and will take their small but

dedicated team to take this sport from a

niche following to a worldwide Sport and

phenomenon

this is next in sports

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[Applause]

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I'm here in Columbus Ohio at the Arnold

sports Fest also known as the Arnold

and to say it's an Eclectic convention

there's a lot of buff people a lot of

protein powder

ax throwing

medieval battles

but we're not here for any of that yeah

we're here for the world chased up

welcome to the wct6 championship

[Applause]

so why would a sport like professional

tag set up as one of the Premier Events

at what is ultimately a bodybuilding

convention

the answer is because it is beneficial

for both parties

[Applause]

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here's an opportunity to

educate a bunch of people about the

sport here but also because of the

number of people that we're drawing in

to see things that are Arnold's worth

related you're attracting a vastly

greater larger audience abroad so we

have an ability to generate and deliver

a curated audience for that specific

sport at a location that offers a lot of

different things and introduce them to

new fans

and it's really fun because people are

interested in all these new things so

here's a new sport here's something new

and exciting and anyone can do it so

everyone can participate

so right now World Chase Tech is focused

on exposing the sport to as many

eyeballs as possible

but the sport has come a long way since

its Beginnings in a backyard in England

I have a son who is really like he was

kind of athletic but he didn't like the

normal Sports

Christian Devoe the founder and CEO of

world Chase tag and also hype man in

training

in England we call it it not Target

we were always playing it like in the

park in the garden and stuff like that

and then over the years like our games

of it were tag have gotten more and more

sophisticated

so we created a way of seeing who is

better counted down a minute so by the

end of the minute the one that had the

shortest amount of tag time was the

winner

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for years the game remained in and

around Christian's backyard

after the 2008 financial crisis the

hotel company Christian worked for was

sold

instead of looking for a new job I

looked into patenting this Timing System

it turned out that you could patent it

and that was what sort of kick-started

everything really from there me and my

son started uh like a meet-up group like

in Hyde Park

those Park meetups turned into gym

Meetup

Meetup and then we decided to just do

our first event you know

we were lucky because they have a lot of

like good athletes in London and

he's

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he's

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this is the first sport in the parkour

world that has ever broken out into the

mainstream audience which is so exciting

because that is going to create

opportunities for parkour athletes that

have not existed up until this point

and when you look at those first meetups

as opposed to what this is behind us

like what goes through your head and how

different was it so it's more kind of

running based and the reason why we

developed was because those obstacles

their boxes and bars so you'd vote over

the box or you would crawl under the bar

and so we wanted to try and see if we

could create this variation of movement

and so my brother joined and we designed

like sort of the first iteration of the

Quad that you see behind you know

so while patenting a timing system was

key to copywriting the sport building

the quad or the arena where the action

happens was absolutely integral to World

Chase tags success

we all know who started this to carry to

Johnny to Mike to the athletes and to

the DeVos

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well when we first started in the garden

we just had very sort of simple

obstacles like we used a couple bins the

garden bench and things they got but as

we started taking more seriously we knew

we needed sturdy obstacles so we

invested in some scaffolding and just

started to play around with a few

designs

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and as we played no more we started to

get an idea of what worked and what

didn't work and over time we developed a

sort of first draft of the quad and we

managed to build it all

you're the evader right yeah I am the

Chaser if I land there right where are

you gonna go

if I land in that hole if you jump in

the land yeah I'll go over there would

you you know my momentum if I land here

momentum's gonna take me here we quite

quickly realized that the action is

better when there's interaction with the

obstacles wow

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one of the really key things to

understand is a concept called EQ which

is evasion quality and that's how much

protection a certain obstacle provides

for the evader so a high EQ obstacle

provide a lot of protection a low EQ

aerial will not provide much protection

so we use a lot of these metrics to kind

of fine tune the quarter actually got

more data

probably the most important one is

evasion ratio so how many chases end in

Innovation and we like to have about a

30 evasion ratio

so why the 25 to 30 like where'd that

number come from

sort of three things that determine the

evasion ratio one of them is the length

of the chases another one is the overall

size of the quad and the other one is

the complexity of the obstacles

that's why the quad design is so

important because the complexity of the

obstacles is what allows us to create

that 30 evasion ratio

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but what's been really interesting in

this event is that I think all the teams

are really well prepared and even though

we've been playing on the squad for

quite a long time there's still new

moves coming out to drastically new

moves

but those moves can't be practiced

without an actual quad to practice on

which makes it difficult for the top

athletes in the sport our team last week

we just flew to Atlanta to go train on

the quad before we come here so this is

our first competition that we've ever

had training time on the course that we

actually compete on

foreign

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one of the most important things for a

startup like World Chase tag is exposure

and the best way to get exposure is to

have people actually play the sport so

we've come to Suburban Atlanta to check

out one of the very few places in the

whole United States that actually has a

quad

foreign

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this is Jared Apollo she's an American

Ninja Warrior and the owner of Nyx

Training Center along with her partner

Michael Johnson he's also an American

Ninja Warrior

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all right the quad here it is literally

like the one and only outside of um

competition for the moment right just

about there is one gym that just got

their quad in like last weekend so it's

pretty exciting we are the first

official quad in the country though

so World Chase tag how'd you find out

about it how does that Journey begin we

weren't sure exactly what we were

looking for but we knew we wanted to

have Ninja and Parkour in the original

gym and we wanted a bigger gym to be

able to allow us to do a lot of

different things

we found like World Chase tag on YouTube

and we found it on ESPN and we started

watching it and I was like no this is

definitely something that I really want

to have in the gym but since no other

gym in the country had a quad yet like

trying to figure out how we were getting

one and logistically what that would

look like and like what that would do

for our business if it was going to be a

loss or we were going to make money off

of it was like a big thing I was like I

think this is going to be great and

everybody was kind of like oh well

nobody else has one are you sure you

want to take that leap but when we

reached out to them they were super

excited the team that came to build it

had representatives from all over the

world comes there's a little bit of

trial and error but then we got the quad

would you say at this point from you

know your business perspective has it

sort of paid for itself is it turned to

profit at this point we've only had it

for six months now so it's starting to

catch up and pay for itself it's

definitely something that was a good

investment on our part and I think as

the sport continues to grow we'll

definitely be able to turn a profit on

it

what is it do you think that

um will really take the sport to the

next level I think more gyms getting

quads will definitely help the sport

grow it'll give more people the

opportunity to see what the sport is it

also gives the athletes opportunities to

film content on the quad which then

gives them sponsorships which brings

bigger companies in

one two three

back in Columbus Vanessa gets to see the

end product of being able to practice on

a quad like this

Uber this thing yeah from the stand it

looks kind of small but being on here it

is actually kind of daunting the

obstacles actually look so much bigger

like in real life just you can see it

they're actually really big for me not

so much does every corner have a name

yes so this corner is called The Ridge

for me if I were the Chaser it's hard to

dive through these bars so I usually go

up and over like in this position here

so he'll come up yeah oh wow in this

position here is incredibly scary for me

as you can imagine so for me I have to

Dart out of here and hope she doesn't

drop down and catch me on my way out

right

so tell me about how this is a trap in

this situation I can go any direction if

she goes that way I just jump down after

she goes that way I come down the front

line and then basically your last option

which is probably her best in this

situation is go to Cross Court right

here or there but then I drop down too

so this position you have every

direction covered if the evader is smart

they're getting out of here before I'm

ever even in this position so is your

goal if you're up there you're starting

up there do you try and get up here if

Jess is starting behind the ridge here I

am just attacking that trap position

that we're talking about so I'm in and

I'm up

okay so what's this corner called This

is the Tilted Cube because it literally

looks like a cube that's tilted

what you'll probably see in the most

viral tags of world Chase tag which is

that gate Vault dive so if you get in

this trap you're within the cube as a

chaser and they're still stuck there

they're almost done for at this point

because if they go this way it's open

for me to tag but if they go this way

you ready

she got away from that one because that

smile yeah she's small and she got low

she knows what to do to get out of the

situation it really has become a

physical form of Chess like every move

has a counter move and that just happens

so what's happening in like milliseconds

and it looks like they're just running

around aimlessly but we're all thinking

about all these things that we're

talking about as we're doing the chases

so after everything Jess and Kyle showed

me I wanted to see it in action so I had

one of the best tag athletes talk me

through the strategy as it happened

I would say like when I play I'm trying

to push the evader into a certain corner

so I can again box them in this is Omar

Zaki a teammate of Kyle's on the

Hollywood Free Runners and he's talking

me through the matches back in the

Chasers have had to learn how to play

their game in the corner so well so

she's so she's got her box in right now

oh oh wow oh my gosh so it's on you as

the Chaser you have to make a move yeah

you have to force me to do something she

did really well she boxed Amy in she got

in the corner but she didn't execute on

that trap it's really tough because in

that moment your brain is sinking of

five or six different things you could

do you have to be decisive you have to

make a choice exhausted the decision

also like the interesting thing about

playing her is that we're not getting

paid a salary so why play her why risk

it we're here because we want to play we

want to be great athletes we want to

take this more to the next level so

every athlete is so dedicated to this

theme to see it grow to be in this venue

for the first time to have so many

people seeing this board for the first

time

Apex son dodged a bullet in the group

stages the only one in sudden death

World Chase tags appeal is because of

how viscerally pleasing it is

world-class athletes performing at their

Peak the hard part is turning into a

successful business

let's talk about finances a little bit

you know they're outside investors in

Chase tag at the moment yeah our

investors were just two clothes which is

good because the partnership between us

is very comfortable

Tupelo is Tupelo Honey World Chase tags

investor and production company and it's

owned by this man we produce 800 events

a year we have a tremendous client base

NFL people NFL teams ACL cornhole

professional fighters league on and on

and on

so tell me about your relationship with

World Chase tag I was intrigued by it I

stayed up all night watching every

single video they had on YouTube and I'm

like wow five hundred thousand three

hundred thousand two million and then

this is like 2019 I believe and I'm like

wow this fits a lot of buckets of

something I've always envisioned that

could be really a global product didn't

look expensive to produce it looked cool

it had the cool factor I thought it

would be an 18 to 34 viable product call

these guys in the UK and we negotiated

back and forth for like eight months

it took eight months because World Chase

tag was being courted by multiple

companies and investors we get

approached a lot by TV like do an

entertainment thing but for us you know

of course it has to be a sport Carrie is

totally supportive when we explain to

him we don't want to do entertainment

right that has a sporting element I have

a thing about forced drama there's

enough drama in sport done correctly

that you don't need to force it it was a

tough negotiations but finally we made

it through we became partners and we

funded the initial launch of world space

Tech as you know it now this is World

Chase tag the planet's ultimate Pursuit

contest which takes being hunted down to

a spectator like couldn't have asked for

a better partner like that who's like

really supportive who understands us

completely

one of the most critical things Carrie

glotzer brought to World Chase tag

in World Chase tag from social to

broadcast

so tell me about Tupelo Honey's

relationship with ESPN and then how

you've got World Super Bowl honey is a

big vendor for the Tupelo Honey

producers lacrosse MMA basketball

college football for ESPN and other

stuff

the value is exposure visibility

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talk to me about their management and

sort of your interactions with them and

sort of how that relationship has

evolved and grown yeah we first started

talking to Kerry glotzer and and he

proposed the relationship with us

um and again great relationship right

out of the gate with Carrie felt

confident that we were going to have a

steady partnership

um you know a two-way working working

relationship that he was going to look

for us to help build it just as much as

he was going to build it himself we're

coming at you from the world famous

Arnold sports festival where the most

amazing Parkour athletes are wowing the

crowd with one thing on their mind don't

get caught it's not

and so from a storytelling perspective

you mentioned does that take more

investment from from your part more

investment from their part both like how

do you build that more sort of

complicated production the the social

aspect of it is a big piece the

expanding or Lane notion of just trying

to get a different audience to our

network is a major piece that is still

viewership but it's expanding that lane

a little bit so we look at demographics

how is it performing on social media

most of the time it's very positive of

just yeah ESPN again not taking

ourselves so seriously risk-taking and

showing differentiated content

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while World Chase tag was finally

testing the waters of broadcast TV

competition emerged all right Sean your

time to beat is two minutes and 11

seconds and the tagger you'll be up

against is your Nemesis Dynamite

Christian refused to gamify his sport

but Fox's ultimate tag had no qualms

about doing just that and they used

quite a few athletes from World Chase

tag as well as big NFL names like JJ

Watt this

ultimate tag we need to talk about

ultimate tag can you talk to me about

what that time was like when it came on

the scene it was a difficult time for us

they had taken a lot of things that

taglines and stuff that we had used we

were still early enough that people

don't recognize the difference between

like what's theirs and what's ours you

know when people see this they think

it's us you know and this was a big

problem for us because if it was if it

was done well then no one would want us

and then if it wasn't successful

than when we're trying to approach other

broadcasters they will say oh yeah I

heard that didn't work diving the

world's fastest tagger ultimately

ultimate tag was canceled after just one

season and Christian feels like they're

still alive because of passion for the

sport for me I've invested everything me

and Damon will sit and we will debate

for an hour on why is that bar there

there's zero possibility that someone at

a show like that some producer is

thinking about safety or range of

movement or game play it's just like

what does it look like if it looks good

in a scissor reel but when you cut it to

the competition the gameplay is just not

going to be as good as simple as that

[Applause]

the event at Arnold Fest was a roaring

success from the perspective of the

world Chase tag team and for the Arnold

sports Fest organizers those guys and

those women are in such extraordinary

shape I mean they're so flexible they're

so quick and they are just as fast as

hell yeah looking forward to seeing it

on ESPN well done to all of you as

always thank you

it's another element in making the sport

more legitimate but there's still a long

way to go

when you're thinking of how tag is run

and how it's growing are there

improvements that you feel like they

could make to make the sport better the

fact that the women's league exists was

like the one thing that we wanted to

happen and now it's existed and I think

it's just going to keep growing so I

really love that when you're thinking of

the future of world Chase tag what a

success for you

success to me is getting the sport to a

point where there is financial gain

being made not just by World Chase Doug

but by all of the people within the

community when the athletes can be like

pro athletes and they can make a living

out of it they can not have to have

their like second job and that sort of

thing when the gyms are profitable when

it's in schools this to me is Success

when people not just the people at

worldchester but when everybody is

making a genuine living from it that's

success

I can see why they're always packed

auditoriums and why there are so many

millions of people the more they tune in

and watch that you can do it when you

order you can do it when you're young

when you get it does inspire people

foreign

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