The Ten21 Podcast

Konky says Man United are this season’s Tottenham, and Castro has to defend his club through its worst start in nearly 40 years. The boys react to Harry Kane winning the Ballon d’Or, Mbappé staying seated when Kane came to shake his hand, Messi finishing 5th, Mourinho’s Real Madrid winning El Clásico, and whether Lamine Yamal is too public with his girlfriends. Then, in the first-ever 10-21 Overtime, exclusive to the audio show: the Pentagon’s 90-day “doomsday” plan, generators, what athlete you’d survive with, and the birth of a survival gang called The Stupids.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s the TEN21 Halloween special. Castro tells the story of a floating head he saw in Mexico that turned out to look exactly like his wife’s great-grandfather, and Konky explains why he’s mad at Halloween, starting with weird Larry from the haunted house. Plus trick-or-treating rules, why some people don’t celebrate Halloween, a full Halloween candy ranking, Castro’s past costumes, and a horror-movie survival draft.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Castro, Konky and Rupert break down Ronaldo walking out on Portugal and the statement he wanted his coach to read, comparing him to Pelé and Maradona. They also cover Messi’s farewell game against Benin and the Tesla Roadster flying car reveal, including Konky almost getting scammed by a fake Elon livestream. Plus AI drive-thrus, Speed vs pro footballers on FC 27, and Castro’s baby shower.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Castro, Konky, and Rupert break down the biggest football story of the decade — Manchester City found guilty on 114 of 115 Premier League financial rule-breaking charges and debate what the actual punishment should be, from a 20-point deduction and $40M fine to a two-year expulsion comparable to the 1987 SMU college football death penalty.  They cover whether Pep Guardiola deserves sympathy, whether Erling Haaland's loyalty will finally break, the David Ornstein leak that went viral with 100 million views, and whether title stripping actually erases memory of what happened. Plus Cristiano Ronaldo's post-World Cup slump and whether he should hang it up at 1,000 goals, the Lamine Yamal Ballon d'Or vote swing against Harry Kane, the NFL kicker who hit the Ronaldo SIUU celebration at the Maracanã, the Mariachi national anthem on Monday Night Football, the State Fair of Texas food gauntlet, the EA FC 26 release and streaming landscape, and Logan Paul's doomed shiny Pokemon subathon.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Castro, Konky, and Rupert break down Manchester United's 12th-place crisis, the JJ Gabriel viral saga (including Castro's five-year-old Instagram DM story), and a genuinely wild football business story — how Brighton owner Tony Bloom (Star Lizard) and Brentford owner Matthew Benham (Smart Odds) spent 20 years running rival betting analytics firms and now sit 3rd and 4th in the Premier League.  Plus the Ballon d'Or race between Harry Kane, Lamine Yamal, Mbappé, and Messi (and whether MLS players should even be eligible), Antonela Roccuzzo speaking English publicly for the first time, the strict-dad debate covering Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, Michael Jordan and Messi, Raphinha as the best #9 in the world, and comments from the Hex episode including a Mark Cuban tweet on AI vs climate change extinction probability.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lionel Messi’s Argentina career is over. Castro and Adam look back at his journey from Barcelona to the World Cup, debate his place among the greatest athletes ever, revisit his 2016 retirement and ask what Argentina looks like without the player who defined an entire generation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hector "Hecz" Rodriguez — founder and CEO of OpTic Gaming, one of the most influential figures in Call of Duty and competitive esports history — joins Castro and Konky on the TEN21 Podcast for a fully unfiltered conversation covering everything from the future of AI in business to the alligator-filled Texas lake where he almost lost a boat. Hecz opens the episode by walking through his AI-driven business setup, explaining why he pays for premium Claude and premium ChatGPT and how he uses Claude as his primary backend agent to organize OpTic operations, marketing, and personal projects. He shares stories about the Bravo Pouches founder running 40 Claude agents and becoming a police officer after selling multiple companies, and lays out his belief that AI creativity is about solving business problems, not making pretty pictures. The conversation moves into fatherhood — Hecz talks about his miscarriage with his wife, having his 17-year-old daughter Liv, and how being a girl dad reshaped his behavior on and off camera. He then gives an insider defense of Good Good Golf, arguing that Callaway and the wider industry saw them as competition and that the team's biggest mistake was a delayed text apology instead of talking to their audience directly. The middle of the episode covers his OpTic leadership philosophy — accountability, being 15 years his players' senior, "sitting in the shit" when you mess up — and moves into an impassioned rant about marijuana sentencing disparities, Mexican cultural attitudes toward weed versus cocaine, and Federal drug policy. He also weighs in on the recent WNBA transgender eligibility controversy and the postpartum psychosis case dominating the news. Plus: kit talk (Vodafone Manchester United, Sharp United, Croatia checker, Inter Miami pink), the fantasy football last-place challenge (national anthem in a red dress at a bar), Mexico City Michelin star restaurants including Pujol and Ladyboy, why he snuck out of Castro's wedding early, the Whatnot founder story, his upcoming live-selling venture, and the viral alligator lake boat story where he had to swim to a runaway boat at Lewisville Lake and traded it in the next day because of the gators. Topics: Hector Rodriguez, Hecz, OpTic Gaming, Call of Duty esports, Claude AI, ChatGPT for business, AI agents, gaming podcast, Latino gaming, girl dad, Good Good Golf, Callaway, Garrett Clark, Matt Kendrick, esports leadership, OpTic Texas, WNBA transgender debate, marijuana policy, Whatnot, Bravo Pouches, Mexico City food, Pujol, Lewisville Lake, Dallas podcast, Castro1021, Konky, TEN21 Podcast Episode 24.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Castro, Konky, and Rupert reflect on the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001 — where each of them was the day it happened, how it reshaped their lives and the world, the one question Konky typed into YouTube that sent him down a decades-long rabbit hole, the Building 7 story most people forget, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars that followed, the COVID parallel of being told how to think, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's trial date that isn't until June 2028. An honest reflection, not a conspiracy episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Castro and Konky break down the biggest stories of the week on Episode 22 of the TEN21 Podcast — the fake San Francisco 49ers player arrested for scamming 26 women out of over $1 million using stolen NFL helmet photos, the GTA 6 Extended Look that debuted on Netflix and broke Twitch, Elon Musk's take on AI eliminating every job (and whether GTA 6 could actually become a career), the full Good Good Golf controversy including the CEO's tweet accusing Callaway of throwing them under the bus, the Nepal flash flood that killed 675 and left 2,498 missing, KFC in China launching an Oreo chicken burger, an EA FC 20-70 gameplay leak, and a quick-fire "The Year GTA V Came Out" segment covering Bitcoin at $130, Wembanyama at 9 years old, and Cooper Flagg at 6.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Los Aliens is officially out of Kings League Mexico. On this episode of the TEN21 Podcast, hosts Castro1021 (Edwin Castro) and Konky sit down for the longest and most transparent conversation they've had about the entire three-year journey — from the moment Gerard Piqué first slid into Castro's Instagram DMs, to being ambushed and told to sign a contract "right now" at 4AM Spain time, to how they actually found out Los Aliens was done: through a social media post. The episode begins by revisiting Dallas United, the seven-a-side team the pair founded in 2022 to compete in Chris Paul's TST tournament — the pivot from streaming FIFA to owning a real football club. Castro and Konky detail how a Dallas United documentary sits finished but unreleased, and why they left TST under circumstances they still can't fully discuss on air. They then walk through the entire Kings League Mexico story: the initial Piqué zoom calls with Cosmos Group lawyers, the months of contract negotiation with their Spanish legal team, the red flags around merchandise revenue, TV rights, sponsor category restrictions, and franchise ownership terms. They tell the full story of the launch event ambush — being pulled off stage minutes before the introduction, told to sign a contract immediately with no reception and their lawyer asleep in Spain, and later realizing that in most jurisdictions including Spain that would qualify as signing under duress. The behind-the-scenes stories keep coming: the roster construction mistake in Season 1 (older retired Liga MX players over active seven-a-side talent), the $1,300 jersey order Konky never received, the sponsors Kings League blocked including Underdog, Gillette, and a potential Xbox deal, the packed watch parties and 20,000+ concurrent viewers, the Season 2 rebuild with Coach Chesabow, the Club World Cup peak beating DJ Mario's Spanish champion team, and the emotional moment of Castro's late brother-in-law Cato being at that game. The second half covers the King's World Cup Nations in Milan where Castro represented Team USA alongside Jake Paul, the double-goal loss to Morocco, and the return to Kings League Mexico. Castro and Konky detail the "money market" chaos rolled out with six days' notice, the mass exodus of presidents like Herman, West Cole, and Simeos, the viewbotting scandal that inflated bonus payouts for certain streamers, the "dirty money" offers they turned down, the Corey Leone partnership that almost happened, the player pay realities ($75-$100 per week in early seasons), and the Kelvin Olevda $10,000-for-two-games quote that clarified where things were headed. The episode closes on the anticlimactic ending — finding out via social post that Los Aliens was done, the commissioner quitting mid-negotiation, the league now being run by its social media director, and Castro's honest reflection on whether he'd do it all again. Plus: what could come next in TST, the MASL, the Ballers League, or a hypothetical Kings League USA. For anyone who followed Los Aliens, the Kings League movement, or the intersection of streaming and sports ownership — this is the definitive record.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.