-Tyler "Ninja" Blevins.
Do I call you Ninja? Do I call you Tyler?
What is your -- What do I call you?
-I think Ninja is usually easier. Yeah.
-Ninja, okay, good. I'll just call you Ninja.
Does your family call you Ninja?
-No, like, when they're messing with me or trolling me sometimes
if I -- if they want to get my attention
because sometimes I just don't really -- I'm zoned out.
But my mom is the one who will usually will, like, joke around
and call me -- call me, you know, Ninja.
She's super proud.
-Aww, good. Proud mom.
You're a huge deal in the gaming world.
For those of you that don't know,
you have the number-one channel on Twitch
with 12.5 million followers.
You have over 20 million subscribers on YouTube.
This year alone you've streamed for 3,400 hours.
That's 142 days worth of gaming.
[ Laughter ]
Wow. [ Cheers and applause ]
That's a lot of stuff.
-That's a lot of video games, man.
-That's a lot of video games. -Absolutely.
-Right now "Fortnite" is the talk of the town.
That's what everyone is into right now.
-Absolutely.
-Why is that game such a giant game?
-You know, it's a lot simpler than people think
if you just kind of go into it.
You know, back in the day, I had to do, you know, so many chores
just to get my mom to, you know, get me a video game
because they're pretty expensive, right?
-Of course. -I mean, $30, $40.
You know, three years later $50. -I remember that, yeah.
-And now they're like 60 bucks a pop.
All right, and that's a lot of cheddar. All right?
So I can't imagine, you know, a 5-year-old, 6-year-old,
7-year-old, all the way up to, you know, even a 16-year-old
asking their mom for, you know, a $60 video game.
And "Fortnite" is free to play.
So, and a lot of people, a lot of families
usually have one console,
and it's also on every single platform, you know, imaginable.
So, and everyone can play with one another --
Xbox, PlayStation, PC.
Doesn't matter where you are.
You can all play with your friends.
So, it's -- you know? It connects around the world.
It's free to play and it's super fun.
-That's great. That's a good answer. It's free.
[ Laughter ]
-It's free. -It's free. That's why. Yeah.
[ Applause ]
And what do you think of parents that don't want their kids
playing "Fortnite" and the big controversy there?
-Dude, yeah -- no. It's simple. Are they doing well in school?
Are they doing well in their every day activities?
And if they are, then reward them.
And if they're not, you know,
it's a great motivational, you know, tool, right?
Same thing with me when I was growing up.
My parents would always, like -- what was I passionate about?
You know, I loved playing soccer,
but, you know, I wasn't, like, passionate about it.
I loved playing video games.
So if I wasn't doing well in school or anything like that,
they would just, you know, take it away.
Or be like, "Hey, if you want to go play during the summer,
play outside for two hours.
You play outside for two hours,
you get two more hours of game time."
-Yeah, yeah.
-So, I just run around with my friends playing, you know,
Cops and Robbers and stuff like that.
[ Laughter ] Yeah.
-I want to talk about New Year's Eve.
-Yes. -You're doing a big deal.
Explain to everyone what's happening.
4:00 p.m., New Year's Eve, you're gonna be in Times Square?
-Yes. It's, you know, not too far from here.
I'll be streaming inside, luckily.
-Smart. -Yeah, yeah.
-It's cold. -It gets really cold.
And it's gonna be overlooking Times Square.
It's gonna be an amazing 12-hour stream
with a bunch of special guests, friends, family,
and it's gonna be amazing.
We're gonna be doing some pretty incredible things, as well.
-It's really fun to watch you play video games.
A lot of people can't really wrap their head around it yet.
They're like, "Why would you want to watch
someone play a video game?"
[ Laughter ]
-I get it. No. Dude, it's so funny.
Why do you want to watch, you know, the best of the best
play football, soccer, you know, hockey?
It's like -- Why don't you go outside and you do it right now?
Like, if you love it so much, right, you can you do it.
-Yeah. -'Cause that's what it is.
There's so many people are like, "Well, why do you watch people
play video games if you can go play video games yourself?"
It's like, can you do that? -No.
-Can you compete at that high level and like, you know --
It's entertainment, right?
So you watch, you know, the NFL and things like that
because you want to watch people do things that you can't.
It's kind of the same thing with gaming and streaming.
-You have a couple signature things.
One is your signature headband that you have.
-I do. I do.
-Oh, you brought me one?
-Yeah, I got you one, too. Are you serious? Of course.
Would you like to put them on at the same time?
It's very simple. -Oh, yeah.
-Like, I actually kind of like yours more than mine.
But, yeah.
I mean, you just put the center right around.
You just wrap it up.
Whenever I get a win, it signifies --
Just a little bit. A little bit. Pull.
There it is. [ Laughter ]
Boom. -Wow, this feels good.
-It's beautiful. It's a clean -- It's nice --
-It feels right. Yeah. -It feels amazing.
-And then what is the pon pon dance?
-Oh, God, dude.
Dude, you have no idea, bro.
I get asked this more than anything.
-Really? -Yeah, the number-one question.
Because it's an interesting dance,
and an incredible song that I love.
My best friend back in the day linked me a song,
and he was like "Bro, you got to listen to this song, bro."
So, I'm pumped. I'm getting ready to listen to it.
And out of nowhere, you know, it's this foreign language.
I'm like -- I'm like, "What is this song, dude?"
He's like, "It's the pon pon, dude."
That was it.
-"It's the pon pon, dude." -"It's the pon pon, dude."
-And then he leaves.
-And then he just, like, faded away into the darkness.
Backed away. [ Laughter ]
One day I was playing "H1Z1," a battle royal game,
and sometimes it would take 30 minutes to win one game.
And when you win a game like that, it's not -- dude, yeah.
-You're exhausted.
It's like a pump of adrenaline. -Right.
And it's like, you don't want to just go into the next game.
Right? So, I was like, "I'm gonna do a dance.
I'm gonna celebrate."
So, yeah, I just started doing the pon pon.
-Can you teach me the pon pon?
-It's very easy. -Okay.
-Let's do it. -You guys are ready?
[ Cheers and applause ] -It's easy.
All right. You ready? -Let's do it. Yeah, I'm ready.
It's simple, man. -All right.
-Is there gonna be music here or we just gonna go, man?
-Yeah.
-All right, there you go. That's all you got to do.
♪♪
-That's it. I like it. -Yeah, dude.
-That's it.
Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, everybody!