The almost 20 year friendship - and how it was ruined

I feel like I can be an emotional person, I may not show it much but it's something that does come out occasionally and for this article I feel they will. This is a personal story, one I debated if it needed to be made. Do I need to make this article, publicly sharing the likely end of a near 20 year friendship. Well yes, most of this story can be found throughout 12 years of Youtube videos and the end well that can be found in the comment section of a recent video. My thoughts are simple to quote Dana White " Alot of people in this room know how I feel about a lot of things, basically, I dont give a fuck is the answer to most things. Everybody is too soft, everybody is too sensitive about everything." This quote really fits how I feel. It's the mindset I've had about this situation.

The friendship started in 2004. I met Wanyá (his name was Casey back then), at a preschool sports program which was an introduction for kids into soccer, T-ball or a mixture of sports. My dad was the coach of the program and Wanyá had been a participant in the second season. He was 4 at the time and I was 5. After one of the events ended for some reason he knocked me on the ground and dragged me across the field. Somehow we became friends after that, not really sure how that happened. As the years went on we no longer participated in the program, but would still go every week. His dad had become co-Coach of the event now alongside my dad. Wanyá's younger brother also participated in the event. For years this was the time we would spend together. One hour a week we would just mess around at the event. Later on My dad and his dad would also coach Tennis which provided a second weekly option for us to hang out. Eventually we would hang out more, going over each other's house and spending a lot of time playing DS, especially Pokémon.

 In 2012 when I started the Epiccw youtube channel this was an opportunity for us to spend a lot of time working on cool videos together, this became the focus of our times that we would hang out and have sleepovers. We would make Beyblade videos and just random videos that probably don't make any sense if watched now. In 2016 the content got more serious, the launch of the GTA Online Race Playlist, a series we would make together all the way until January 2024. The focus of who would win an episode was exciting to make, the rules we followed were inspired for m both NASCAR and later Formula 1 as well. This was a major step. Content together was mainly focused on this one series though we did play a decent amount of Overwatch as well. 

It wasn't until 2023 that our content together took a massive jump. The channel needed work. It was 11 years since the start and it hadn't really taken off as expected, we had great chemistry in our content though, 18 years of friendship had helped. We knew what the other person was thinking or going to say. We launched a lot of new content together, A second GTA series, 2 Gran Turismo 7 series, Formula 1 Career mode and a monthly rotating series with different games each month. He also had his own Remote control car content and I had my own gaming content. Epiccw truly became a 2 person channel. Youtube shorts were gaining a lot of views and traction, we even hit our first channel pay out.

In September 2023 a change was about to happen that would lead to this moment. Wanyá had a new match on Hinge, A dating app. This was fantastic news, of course it was. Why would you not be happy for your best friend to meet a woman on a dating app. I didn't think much of it and moved on, he had a new girlfriend and that was whatever. Nothing really changed much, we continued recording our videos Sunday-Wednesday. We would skip playing together on Friday for him to hang out with his girlfriend but that was it. In December he announced to me that he was going to propose to her at the end of the month. I felt it was a bit weird as they only met 3 months earlier and only saw each other for less than 24 hours a week. I also found it a bit weird to not have met her before this proposal would take place, not that I felt like I had to but you would think "Hey I want my best friend to meet the woman I want to ask to marry me". 

The end of December comes and so does the proposal, she says yes and instagram posts get made and a congratulations Race Playlist episode is made. 

In mid January she's soon to be moving in with him and soon after I received an iMessage. "I've worked with you for a while on the YouTube channel and a part of it for years unofficially. It’s been an awesome time." and ​​"I don’t know any easier way to say this so I’m going to have to announce my departure from the channel. Ive been thinking about this and exactly how I was going to tell you for a while." and lastly "I need to move on, work towards my own goals and future. It’s been difficult structuring my time with recording for as long as we do most nights and working on my own videos. It’s taken a lot of personal time that I wouldn’t trade for a second but I’ve got to start moving towards my own goals. I want to start a family, work towards a career, get married. I’ve finally felt closer to what I want in life than ever before. I need to take that. I see that in you to as well with YouTube. I’m making this decision because I know that I can’t be reliable with my recording my own content and ours together, I can’t fulfill that commitment anymore." These were the main 3 messages, going into detail. That was it the content was done, no indication of this no talks, just a text in the middle of the day.

I was quite hurt by this, quite upset. I got this message when I was going to work, so reading it once I got inside was quite difficult. Everything was changed, all I wanted to do was cry in that moment but you can't cry in the middle of a Lowe's lumber aisle. Once I got home that night I put together a response, I sat on my bedroom floor and cried for a while. The now 12 year project which had hit new highs was broken just like that. Together we were going to get to new heights the Epiccw channel had never hit, we did record a few wrap up videos to end the series off. It was a sad end to an amazing run. 

So how did this affect our friendship? When I was told I don't have time for recording, and I can't commit to making 1-2, 2 hour videos a week, I was confused, who's super busy at 11 pm - 1 am, unless you're working that's usually free time. This was hurtful as it felt like " I don't have time for you." We haven't played much video games since then and honestly we haven't talked that much. I felt like if you don't have time for me why make time for you. 

The thing is I don't feel like this is a genuine choice of his own making, It feels more like a manipulative and toxic relationship that has led to this decision. I know it's not my friend Wanyá making that call. You don't just stop having time for your best friend in one day, I feel like he still wants to be a part of making content with occasional messages about video ideas and comments on a lot of the new videos. 

This all came to a moment in the comments of the 223rd GTA Online Race Playlist. Wanyá was leaving comments for the new series co-host Jonathan, tips on how to race. This set off beef between the two. I eventually chime in and comment to Wanyá about being "too busy" to make videos. Wanyá comments "Maybe I shouldn’t have wasted my time all those years making videos for someone so fucking unappreciative." which is just a ridiculous thing to say so i reply with "You probably shouldn’t have decided to throw away a friendship either." I felt so annoyed about all this for a while and that was me giving an honest take on the last few months. 

Wanyá leaves one last comment which really shows a lack of self awareness and a lack of understanding of what made our content great. " I didn’t throw away anything. You’ve just shown me you clearly aren’t thankful of the time I’ve put into the channel. Without me you would have fucking stopped that shit years ago. Getting barely any views on your videos till we merged and I saved your shit with RC. But it’s alright. “I just don’t have time” you’ve been making sly comments since it’s happened and I’ve stayed quiet because obviously me leaving the channel did mess up things but it’s just toxic now. In my opinion I’m the one who “lost” the friendship. You only cared about the videos. For as much as you “cared” about the friendship it was pretty quick the way you switched up after I stepped away from doing videos." 

Apparently Wanyá saved the channel. Not sure when that was, clearly the channel was a team effort. I managed a massive schedule and editing of 11-13 videos weekly but sure. The thing I find most ironic is the "it was pretty quick the way you switched up after I stepped away from doing videos." What am I supposed to do, quit because Wanyá stopped, he's specifically said to not quit when I was considering. So that's how a nearly almost 20 year friendship was ruined. Maybe there will be a day he realizes the mistakes to walk away from content and the friendship that was lost when choosing a few month old relationship instead. 

I'm happy though, epiccw as a brand is in a fantastic place, I have my friends Hope and Jonathan who are brought into the idea epiccw as a multimedia platform and the potential of expanding the brand into so much more in 2025 and beyond. This brand is my passion and honestly because of this friendship with Wanyá ending things look up because I was able to shift the brand focus from just youtube to so much more. Here's to a new era of epiccw!