Everyone at Roto riot has always been cool to me. You’ve helped me out before Drew Sean helped me, and Stacy‘s actually called me to help me with things so I’ve always had a great experience and I still love bot grinder and Bardwell so all love for everyone.
Haha nice - I agree with a hit of what everyone said. I do think there’s a lot included in that pass so it’s one of the things I didn’t fully support that you guys were saying but I do like you and back grinder a lot really I only watch you guys and Bardwell so I respect everyone’s opinion on this. And I don’t hate RR because it kind of helped me get into the hobby. As did DJI. That was a lot of unsolicited information. I just left you. 🤦🏻♂️
In retrospect I shouldn't have been talking about things that I heard as rumors, and I should have made it more clear that everything I was talking about was in fact just rumors. I also should have made it more clear of my skepticism of the rumors, but this is a podcast and sometimes not everything is articulated in the best possible way. I would hope that would be clear since BOTGRINDER is clearly hitting the dab hits every 10 minutes. Either way even if the price is justified I still think it's too expensive, and I even thought it was too expensive last year but I still went, and I'll probably still go this year.
No hard feelings. I get it that this is just two guys ripping dabs and shooting the shit. I just wanted to inject some facts and kill the mood, like always. If you think it's more expensive than you want to pay, absolutely. That's your prerogative. I just want that to be based on facts, and when people get facts like the price of the event or the profitability of the event wrong, I want to straighten it out. Bottom line is: the site is VERY expensive to rent, but we think it's amazing and worth paying for. Apparently at least a few people agree.
Same. More and more of this stuff has been turning into faa, government, conflicts, and whatever other issues. Halfway into this video, and i still don't understand what rampage is because it was not explained, and not everyone will know. Obviously, I'll watch the other video on it, but it really makes things confusing for some people...
All communities have "culture" associated with it - this is an unfortunate guarantee, that as the community matures, it loses the heart of what got it started. This is frustrating to see here as well.
I’ve had my issues with rotor riot largely due to lack of communication on their side HOWEVER it’s done and over we’ve all moved on but let’s look at some things we DO know. 1: rent of the property alone is over 20K (ask me how I know). Now let’s add in the rental of the showers. The payment of the people working. The insurance. The cost of bringing in specific people of interest. The cost of the “beverage” cart for those who partake in said beverages. Th food for food packages. Now after ALLLL that. Let’s add up the logistics of moving a literal store 8 hours away for a weekend. So yeah if 120k was an actual number take that and subtract the cost of everything I stated. So yeah I’m sure they don’t make that much at all if anything. This event is put on for the customer. One of the few times a company will risk a loss for their customer.
Every year, I'm astounded by how well the event is run. It is a freaking blast, and while it isn't close to being free for me, and is quite difficult to travel down from NY to -- it's so much fun that I do it every year. Can't wait for this one!
I really respect and appreciate that you are willing to call them out for speaking about this when they are very incorrect in what they are saying,not many other people have the balls to do that and I hate it lol. I do agree with them when they say it's expensive but I also agree with you, everyone knows the cost and decides to pay it or not go and it is a amazing experience to be able to fly with the RR pilots and fly those buildings and chase drift cars. I can't get that experience anywhere else right now.
Joshua, I appreciate you making this video in order to correct misunderstandings and set the record straight. And kudos to anyone who is willing to organize and set up a formal FPV flying event. More power to them! Best regards from Brasilia, Brazil.
Thank you Joshua, for not only standing up for the wonderful people such as Stacy and Drew but the entire Rotor Riot crew and the folks who work tirelessly every year to put on this event. Thank you for standing up for the folks like Gardo & myself who have embraced this event, with the exception of this year due to a huge life change incoming, as we struggle to find commonality in a world with other folks at the age of 45 & 50 but who have found literal friendships at this event. Thank you for putting out a video that actually shows how ridiculous that podcast was and how literally ignorant the information was spewed.
This is the problem with youtubers not realising their own context as content creators. You can speculate and spitball conversation in private without implying that what you're saying is actually impartial, checked and legit. But the act of recording it and publishing the conversation so that the public can consume that, you're inferring a lot with that act, so you have a responsibility to get your facts right before you start defaming a genuine effort to do something (albiet expensive) good for a community. You can certainly do something like it for free, but that that's not an event, that's just an informal meetup. But as soon as something costs you money and you need to pass that cost onto the visitors, you're into a contractual agreement with them and become legally liable to the risks your event might expose the visitor to. You can be laid back and chill about it all you like, but in this case it just reads that you don't understand how to handle serious responsibility well. The truth is, you (the visitor) want your event managers to make money to pay them to be able to fully commit to that job. Otherwise you will find the event, no-matter how brilliant it is and how much demand there is for it, /will/ collapse and disappear because it just isn't worth it for those putting their legal neck on the block.
Well said. Some just don't get it! Saying it's $800+ is simply incorrect. It's actually half of that! Like JB pointed out. And for what you get, that ain't bad. Where else you gonna be able to fly a place like that with drift cars, etc, etc, etc?
I bought my pass and I’m excited to go. The price is absolutely reasonable. I fly for free all the time but I’m willing to pay for the experience and fly in a environment that is not something I have common access to.
Agreed, 100% there is a bit of hypocrisy in day to day life. I just wish that our hobby would exclude trash talking prices for services. If you're not down for spending you money or lack of, just pass. Spend your money however. In RR defense, it a dream they are trying to make happen. Dreams aren't cheap!
I gotta say, the past 3 years were magical; the people, long term friends are priceless. Stacy is awesome as well as Drew, Tyler, Shawn, Joshua and the list keeps going on. What a great family ❤ Sadly, I will not be there this year as I am way out west on a travel adventure with my daughter. Hope ya'll have a blast; I am gonna miss ya!
I took my 15yo son to Rampage last year. We had an amazing time and I thought it was totally worth every penny. Yes, it cost a lot - and we aren't going this year because we can't afford it again - but I do hope to get back again someday. Got to meet Bardwell, watch Steele fly through my own goggles, and chase a drift car. All things, as Bardwell says in the video so aptly, that I would never have experienced if not for Rampage. Not to mention memories that my son and I will share forever. Considering the cost of renting GTI, the cost of drift cars running all weekend, and the giveaways, not to mention staff running the event, it was pretty clear Rampage was a labor of love for the hobby by RR.
Hey Bardwell, Flite Fest DOES NOT require AMA. They did like 4 years ago, but not anymore. Flite Test had their disagreements with AMA just like you, and that is why they created the FTCA. But you should totally try to make it out to this years FF. It's their 10th year anniversary and will be the biggest/longest one yet. Would love to see some Bardwell videos with you freestyling around moving targets.
Yeah. Unfortunately, May is a time of the year where it's virtually impossible for me to take off from my day job, but I'd love to make it down one year.
I don't know what it is about this hobby, but it seems to attract a lot of "hater" mentality. "My way or the highway" type attitudes. I see it in forums, where people are hostile to beginners asking simple questions. Or people talking crap about someone's flying style/ filming style/ quad setup/ etc. Or hating on some of the bigger FPV channels. I know there will always be those kinds of people in every hobby, but I feel as small as FPV is, it feels more prevalent in FPV. People need to chill, be considerate of others, and stop being a cranky old man
Pretty much any hobby that attracts: 1) mostly men 2) is technical in nature, and therefore attracts mostly intelligent people who are good at solving problems and 3) Has a fairly low cost of entry, will always be riddled with lots of "my way or the highway" types, etc. It is just the nature of the beast.
Yeah, I love Bot but haven’t agreed with him on his stance on this one. You and him are the RU-vid channels I watch all the time so I like to hear both sides of this one. Yeah, they keep saying the $800 is just for camping, but it’s literally everything included. you just have to look at this as a vacation if someone was going on a long weekend for a vacation this is the money they’re spending on it. I don’t think it’s that unreasonable for what it is. Yes it’s a lot of money but when you take everything into account, I think it kind of works out, hell I’d love to be able to go to
Im so glad you came out with this video because I felt the same exact way in regards to the baseless numbers and forced insurance. Both of which were frustrating to hear coming from one of my favorite RU-vidrs
I'd only go to Rampage if Bardwell & Steele were there. 🍺🍺 And I stopped by Rotor Riot in Orlando on my Florida trip with my son and let me tell you they were the nicest people working there. And I just went to see the place and never even bought a thing. But they treated us so good when I said I just was there for a visit.🙏🤝 Tyler Crane and Rotor Riot are top notch and I only wish I could one day get to a premiere FPV event like Rampage.
Both Steele and Bardwell were there last year. Not sure if either of them did any sort of announcement about it, just were there. Probably better that way TBH
I am extremely fortunate to travel the world and to have flown in some incredibly iconic places, but I will clear my extremely busy schedule just to buy a premium pass for this event, before they sell out, because the experience is worth it.
Bro! All I have to say is I tip my hat to you sir. 🎉. Sincerely. What you said is 100% accurate. And!!! If anyone doesn't know Stacy is a friggin rockstar !
First and foremost kudos for doing this! You hit the nail on the head with regard to literally everything! It's a blast and it's all inclusive package is super convenient and well worth it. Yes Stacy is awsome ❤
This is a subject that Botgrinder had no worthwhile reasoning whatsoever to bring up. WaWa, WaWa Wawa. Oh Geez. Get Over It. Let Botgrinder Go out and setup his own "equal" event that offers what Rampage offers and see what its costs. Cant Do It!
Great video, glad you made it. Bot grinder needs to fly and improve. Not rant and rant. He's lost my sub. Grim is a complete waste of life. Nothing but negative videos. He's just damaging the hobby not contributing to it. Hope they both "learned something today" 😂
Really nice breakdown on this Joshua. I love your videos. been following you for years. A lot of people just don't do their research. You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned the camp onsite vs at a hotel. I am coming from Arizona. What I love about this event is we go with friends and enjoy the comradery with our buddies and have a good time away from all the crap going on in our regular lives.
I wish i could go to Rampage......I thought the prices were reasonable.........After 7 years of FPV, I'm still dying to chase a drift car..it will happen one day (I will probably have to pay the dirift car driver to let me fly around their car while drifting)
I'm going - and am really looking forward to it. I went for the Platinum pass, but honestly probably would have selected the Glamping pass had there not been a last minute bait and switch on Platinum vs Glamping pass offerings.
If I lived in the USA, I’d totally pay the $$$ to glamp and go. Saves me time and effort that I can spend on other things. I get that not everyone has the spare money to do that. However I live in Australia and I’ve never heard of a comparable event over here. So count yourselves lucky that you have such things and can go enjoy them.
well said. large fpv events are not for everyone but i'm really glad that larger fpv events exist. i hope to make it to rampage one of these days. same for flite fest! some of my best fpv memories are from international open. i'm just glad we have these opportunities to meet up with large groups of folks that enjoy the same hobby that i'm into.
Proline by the Fire is the rc crawler equivalent to this event. $80 for 4 days of camping on site, over 800 people in the rocks for multiple days. I dont know how they make it so cheap but it was pretty impressive. Hopefully RR will figure it out to work better for those who cant afford it. For $350 though, with the drift cars and bandos available seems to make sense. Plus RR is a business and they can be as greedy as they want.
One big difference between Flite Fest and other such RC events is that you can have a LOT more people active at the same time, because you're not limited by FPV channel sets. With FPV, you can only have at most 4 pilots active per flight line at a time. This limitation puts a hard cap on the number of pilot passes that you can sell. The only way to increase this cap is to 1) increase the number of flight lines, but that's hard because if two flight lines are visible to each other, then they will stomp on each others' transmissions, or 2) decrease the number of flight-minutes each pilot gets, which reduces the value people get from the experience. I would argue that the reason a non-FPV RC event is cheap is because you can sell more tickets and spread the cost over more people.
@@JoshuaBardwell I fully agree with you. Way more limitations involved and the spot it is held at is quite impressive. No hate from my end. I think it’s cool that you guys are able to go back and fourth with different opinions and knowledge about these things. Love what you’re doing Josh, have a good one👍🏼
I'm a fan of all involved. I'm excited to get to Rampage at some point in the future. I find it incredibly difficult to believe that Stacy, or any of the RR team, would take part in an event designed to take advantage of people's financials in a shady way. There's way too much to lose. Given the state of things in 2024, I'd be surprised if they turn much of a profit but I hope they do.
I'm Canadian and look at Rampage the same as travelling to the US for a sports event. $850 would barely pay for a good seat to a big game, certainly wouldn't include food and accommodation, and I won't be meeting any of the players. RRR is actually a very good deal depending on your perspective.
Hell yeah! Were you the group of Canadians that we met last year? Huge shout out for your comment and positive influence and if you are part of the group we met, know that you made our event last year, we haven't stopped talking about how awesome it was flying with you guys and how kind you all were!
I knew something was fishy when he dropped that 160k net profit. I don't know what actual attendance was last year, maybe 400-500 people. At that level they're probably around 200-250k GROSS on ticket sales, so unless there's some huge sponsor secretly subsidizing the event there's no way it was anywhere near 160 net. Also thank you for making this video Joshua. When I saw bots take I was a little concerned the idea of it not being worth it would spread through the community, and I don't want that to happen because I love rampage and want to continue going. I'm glad to hear from the other side of the coin.
I love bot and grim, i dont always agree with you, bardwell, but i still respect and love you too. I dont always agree with bot either. But i love and respect all of you guys. In this instance i agree with you josh. Im not a fan of putting people down for how they spend their money. No matter what RR charges the customer has the choice to spend it or not. Good on you for correcting what they said. They admitted it was hear say and they didnt know for sure. Multiple times they stated that. But they needed the facts and you set them straight. I know those two will respond with dignity and be cool about it too. Im making this comment because i want to give credit where it is due. Because there has been things ive disagreed with, i need to also stand up for the things i agree with. We dont have to all agree to like each other. But facts are fact 🤷
i like the comment, but what is always left out is that some people have good jobs and a lot of money, others have bad jobs and little money, so they can't afford it. So the event is only for people who can easily afford it. I think that's the background to Botginder's comment. I'm sure there are some people who would like to take part, but can't afford it because it's just too expensive. and since there are enough people who can just pay that, they can also take such prices. like in the normal world a 2-class society, it has also found its way into FPV with this event.
ALL MultiGP events require each person to have a AMA membership. Something many racers dont like. Rampage is a "influencer" event, while IO is a pilots event. What I want to kno, is why pilots are not just getting along, instead of making videos talking about other pilots...........
So is AMA kind of frowned on by the community in the US? I'm a new-ish pilot based in the UK and we have an organisation called FPV UK who provide insurance, legal rep etc. Haven't joined yet as I'm not ripping quads around (just tinywhoops around the garden) but I did talk about them in my recent video (as well as speaking highly of JB 😉) which is about fpv and my impression of the scene as a noob, threats etc. I spoke positively of FPV uk and organisations like it, as they seem to best represent the hobby in a governmental sense. Wasn't much of a deep dive though, maybe time do do some research on the AMA. Edit - Spelling
The AMA has deep governmental lobbying ties in the US and when regulation first started taking hold(back in 2014/2015) instead of using that lobbying power to help the community they sat on their hands because they thought that the regulation would end at drones and FPV and skip traditional RC airplanes. This left many drone and FPV pilots(many of them AMA members at the time) with a bad taste in their mouth. Now there are other groups analogous to the AMA that serve the interests of FPV and drone pilots like The FPV Freedom Coalition.
@@modquad18 as the hobby grows its probably best to think about it as a sport like football ⚽ where there are rival teams who disagree on a lot of shit, but at the end of the day everyone loves kicking a ball around. I presume the AMA are in some way FPV focused? What I like about FPV UK is that it differentiates FPV from the "I've just bought a dji let's see how high I can send it" crowd. May join them for theinsurance when it makes sense to 😂
I’ve been to 3 RR Rampage events and I go mostly for the party and hanging out with all the dope people. Imo, the VIP package is def worth it if you can afford it. Yes $850 is a lot of money to most of us. Add in travel expenses and all the crap you’re gonna break and its a big bill. If you love FPV freestyle you definitely have to go once! 🤙🤙
i feel like all that was taken from this is that bardwell has a different opinion on rampage than bot, and that if you want to go you should, and if you don’t want to then don’t. I mean wasn’t that were we started 🤷♂️
When you click on the tickets from the home page, glamping is the first selection after the platinum pass. It is more clicks and not as easily available to see as you are with the separate ticket options.
It will be interesting to see what the attendance is like with those price points. Or rather I should say it will be interesting to see the demographic that can afford both the package and the time off work.
Wait. Are you trying to devalue the tickets by arguing that the buyers don't really want them? But also arguing that they're so valuable that people scalp them? Meaning they're actually under priced?
@@JoshuaBardwell Depends the way you look at it. I'm saying when an events sells out year after year, scalpers are always there to make some extra $$. Not saying they're underpriced, but if you want to go there: No they're way to expensive for what you get in return.
It's always weird watching grim ripper or bot these days, these two "fpv influencers" do nothing but beat down the hobby these days. It's truly weird to see this, rotor riot rampage is a huge event that helps fpv grow.
So true, they are not helping or contributing to fpv. More moaning about others. They are farming views by rant videos. Grim dedicates videos to ranting about rotor riot.
JB, Great video. I was watching that last night and yelling at them the whole time. I was yelling because I knew they were doing this off the cuff, and no facts were collected. I am pretty sure that no damage was done to anyone and I love Bot he is awesome. Fact is without Grim Ripper I do believe Bot would have been a lot more cautious with the statements. No offense to Grim Ripper it is his style to not research much at all. Love all that you do JB.
Taking no sides as I think both JB and Bot are incredible creators and good for FPV however overall on this i do fully agree with JB. No one is forced to go and if it offers something that some people can’t get then that’s great. There are times we all look at things and think “Jesus wow that’s a lot of coin” ect however running an event is crazy scary money and risk a lot of the time. Frankly even IF RR did make $160k of the last one and no one knows of that’s true then good luck to them. What people also have to understand is RR may need that to even doing what they do, no one should be sorry about people, creators or events making money. We are all material girls in a material world and if your not making money they you can’t keep doing it. RR is a big old concern and it now employs people along time the core team. That’s fantastic but let’s not pretend they are making it all pay via RU-vid or just the Rotor Riot Store, multiple income streams is incredibly important and IF and that’s a BIG IF rampage is one of them then thats OK to , we all win. With staff overheads and costs just staying in business is hard today especially in a niche world like we are in. While I have poked drew over the “you don’t get to know” thing I honestly wish Drew, Shaun and the team over there all the very best and success with Rotor Riot as overall it’s a force for good in FPV. Enjoy Rampage the luckily folks who go.
bot and his crew are living in they own realities, want everyone else around them to do all the hard work while they get to reap all the benefits.....and when a person does put in all the hard work, then you dont deserve it cause the work they did didnt add up to the same amount. I use to support him and a few of the other influencers in his discord until the things I owned after working my whole life, I didnt deserve......so in that light, they do not deserve the free money I was already giving them and spend it on someone like JB or BaconNinja, or hey, if you are into drugs, making bad life choices, the alphabet gang and cry cause the world and life isnt fair, bots discord will be perfect for those types.
I'm starting to lose any respect I had for bot. Always so negative anymore and always hating. I'm sorry. We all can't have the public buy a piece of land strictly for us to fly at. That was free and that's not open to the public. He's complaining about money and yet he was donated land essentially. Nobody complained about that. Just stop worrying about what other people are doing. Don't worry about somebody else's pocket!
So much thanks for letting me know that it's a big drunk fest after dark, not an experience I ever have or will pay for. And now I know I'm not missing anything. Besides, I'm always broke, 😆.
I think there just need to be a clarification between expensive and overpriced. Yes paying between $300 and $800 for a weekend is expensive, but for the event you are attending I wouldn’t call it overpriced at all. I’ve never been to rampage (hoping to go if I have the money) so I couldn’t estimate cost, but as someone who works media at live events I can tell you that the average person has no idea the expenses or man hours that goes into running something like rampage.
It's funny cause now it's even more a topic of conversation. If deadcell really want to hate on rotor riot they ought to not talk about them at all lol
Lets be honest there is a bias thing on both sides here. Bot probably has beef or some animosity towards RR since they blew up and are a big company now. But Josh has some too because he works with them and are friends. And we all have our biases. We would all say dropping $1000 to see Taylor Swift in the nose bleeds is too expensive but we dont critique T-Swift. When Minecrafter Dream was charging $100+ for a ticket to see him sing we would say that was over priced. Could RR lower the price ? Probably. I mean the airsoft thing would be the opposite, airsoft would be more expensive since you are shooting at each other, you have pyros being used, if its a MILSIM event thats a whole new beast compared to FPV. At the end of the day it is expensive and over priced to some people and to some it's worth it as well.
@@KOrnhOliO1 I’m not attacking bot at all. Honestly I’m just tired of all the drama everywhere. I enjoy this hobby and other ones to remove drama out. Yes FAA and government in general has brought drama into this hobby, but I can tune out of drama fest on RU-vid.
