Methodz on Better Days Ahead: \u201cI\u2019m definitely inspired by Nadeshot and what he\u2019s created\u201d Call of Duty LeagueWhen you think of people competing in video games, you\u2019d be forgiven for not immediately picturing budding entrepreneurs and internet personalities who can command large audiences and monetize them effectively. There are a few exceptions though: Matthew \u2018Nadeshot\u2019 Haag and Carlos \u2018ocelote\u2019 Rodr\u00edguez with 100 Thieves and G2 Esports, for example. While Call of Duty pro Anthony \u2018Methodz\u2019 Zinni isn\u2019t ready to lay down the controller just yet, he\u2019s subtly building a brand that he not only hopes becomes bigger than himself, but supports a cause near and dear to his heart. Building clothing brand Better Days Ahead with his co-owners Brandon Cansler and Will Donovan is not only a means of producing a streetwear line that anybody \u2014 not just gamers \u2014 would love to wear, a healthy portion of revenues generated are donated to charities that support mental health awareness. It\u2019s typical, especially in the Call of Duty esports ecosystem, for professional players to take advantage of their in-game name, which can be seen as a brand they\u2019ve been building for years, to sell self-branded merchandise to their fans. That\u2019s not the case with Methodz, though. Dexerto spoke to the Toronto Ultra player to delve into the decision, why he\u2019s so supportive of mental health causes, and whether he may follow in the footsteps of other players-turned-entrepreneurs in the future. Better Days Ahead \u201cI never really wanted to do Methodz merchandise but I always wanted to be involved in clothing in some aspect,\u201d he told Dexerto. \u201cI wasn\u2019t just going to make a shirt that says \u2018Methodz\u2019 and sell it and make money from people, that\u2019s not what I was looking for. Better Days Ahead was started by my friend, Brandon, that I met back in Call of Duty: Ghosts. They did two drops before I came on board but I was always watching from a distance. The mental health aspect resonated with me and \u2018Better Days Ahead\u2019 are three words that my dad has always said to me whenever something\u2019s going wrong. I just love what it stands for so I called them up and I said \u2018I have to get involved, I want to become an owner. What can we do?\u2019 And now, as you can see, we\u2019re making some headway. \u201cI joined in October of 2020 and I wanted to take it to the next level. I think mental health and gaming is this unspoken thing that has a huge stigma around it and, especially as a player, it\u2019s pretty scary because people who don\u2019t really understand it could see you as a liability if you were to come out and say \u2018I suffer from anxiety or depression.\u2019 This is my way to subtly support mental health and also give back to the mental health community. We give 10% of our profits to a mental health charity for every single drop we do and, importantly, we create dope sh*t!\u201d Discussions around mental health struggles and just how widespread and varied they are have multiplied drastically in recent years, with seemingly everybody being more relaxed in their willingness to discuss their experiences. While there may still be some people who believe expressing such difficulties and illnesses is a sign of weakness, Methodz and his co-owners have seen support from prominent players and other members of the Call of Duty community grow alongside their efforts with the Better Days Ahead brand. \u201cI\u2019ve had a few players come out and admit that they struggle with certain things as well,\u201d he said. \u201cEven though a lot of my friends don\u2019t struggle with mental health, they still support us and promote the brand. They\u2019ve bought the stuff and that\u2019s super special to me. With my peers, the fans, the organization owners, the managers, the players, there has been an outpouring of love and support which we\u2019re super grateful for. I just can\u2019t wait to keep growing because we\u2019re truly just getting started and I think there\u2019s a lot to be done and a lot to teach.\u201d Entreprenuerial spirit As established earlier, some gamers exit the server for good in favor of trying some new. While creating content and streaming seems to be the natural path for many to follow, some aspire to build something that just may end up being bigger than themselves and help to grow the very industry that helped them establish themselves in the first place. While, as Methodz told Dexerto, he\u2019s not ready to call it a day in terms of competing just yet, that doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s not been closely watching those that have gone on to do great things in their next chapter. \u201cI\u2019ve always had this dream of owning businesses,\u201d he explained. \u201cI\u2019m definitely inspired by Nadeshot and what he\u2019s created with 100 Thieves, he went from being a full-time player and content creator to becoming a full-blown CEO. I come from a place where I\u2019m \u2014 at least I like to think \u2014 pretty good on social media and I\u2019m decent at marketing, I\u2019m always anxious before every drop, but excitement is probably the overwhelming feeling I get. My co-owners and I all put a lot of time into the company. \u201cBetter Days Ahead is not a gaming apparel brand, we think of it as streetwear. My involvement makes it relevant in esports but it\u2019s not necessarily built specifically for the industry. We just partnered with Anxiety and Depression Association of America so that\u2019s super dope for us to be able to be recognized; we want to eventually be seen as a big global brand supporting mental health and, obviously, the gaming space is our main market right now because of my involvement but we\u2019re doing our best to grow it organically. \u201cIf somebody in the scene talks about mental health I\u2019ll always try reaching out and offer our clothing, like Mitch Marner [an investor in Toronto Ultra parent company OverActive Media] was rocking a Better Days Ahead shirt in an interview. It\u2019s awesome having good friends and supporters who are willing to represent such a good cause.\u201d Methodz is known for his aptitude to entertain others outside of facing off against his fellow competitors so, as fans of his may well expect, they can expect that to be an avenue he explores once he\u2019s ready to move on. With his goal of building and owning multiple businesses, and the valuable experiences he\u2019s already accruing while working on Better Days Ahead, the sky may well be his limit. \u201cI\u2019m a big food guy, so I definitely see myself being involved in some adventure there a while down the road but, for right now, I\u2019m still focused on competing,\u201d he assured us. \u201cAs soon as I\u2019m done competing, that\u2019s when you\u2019ll see me do a deep dive into full-time content, working behind the scenes, and figuring it out from there. We\u2019ll see where it goes. At Better Days Ahead we\u2019re still pretty new to this, we\u2019re not sitting there having meetings pitching to venture capitalists just yet!\u201d Better Days Ahead\u2019s latest drop is poised to be released in the coming days, with 10% of the proceeds \u2014 as per usual \u2014 being donated. Methodz and his colleagues are working with new manufacturers and distributors to further improve the entire experience for those who choose to support the brand and, subsequently, mental health initiatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Methodz on Better Days Ahead: \u201cI\u2019m definitely inspired by Nadeshot and what he\u2019s created\u201d Call of Duty LeagueWhen you think of people competing in video games, you\u2019d be forgiven for not immediately picturing budding entrepreneurs and internet personalities who can command large audiences and monetize them effectively. There are a few exceptions though: Matthew \u2018Nadeshot\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66770\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}