A new mascot stands on Guard
Upcoming Charlotte FC home stretch will feature pre-game knight as the second mascot of sorts to help bring pre-game video to life; plus Vargas to miss Saturday's game and preview of Portland
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Charlotte FC is slowly rolling out a ‘physically imposing’ and mysterious knight who ignites a pregame torch; created by self-described ‘huge nerd’ who loves ‘Lord of the Rings’
Do you know this man? Introducing The Guard, who protects “The Fortress” at Bank of America Stadium for Charlotte FC games this year. (Photo by Kevin Young of The 5 and 2 Project.)
Sir Minty isn’t the only mascot of mystery around Bank of America Stadium these days. The jovial oversized soccer ball with the bulging waistline now has someone to share the pre-game entertainment spotlight with among Charlotte FC faithful — somebody who might wear the title “sir” a little more aptly.
Introducing The Guard.
He’s a knight who appears on the field at Bank of America Stadium before games bearing a torch as a proverbial signal to fans it’s time to go to battle. If you haven’t noticed him since his debut at Charlotte FC’s home opener Feb. 24, you’ll have four chances to see him in May, every Saturday of the month, starting this Saturday night when Portland comes to town.
Charlotte FC and its fans like to call their home stadium a “Fortress.” Now, the fortress has an official protector. He’s a burly man suited up in armor, whose identity is known only to family, close friends and a select few Charlotte FC employees.
The Guard is part of the “weird parallel universe that Minty came out of” says his creator, Justin Drum, Charlotte FC’s director of event presentation and production, who confessed to being a “huge nerd.”
Creating ‘The Guard”: Drum’s love of epics like “Lord of the Rings,” “Star Wars” and the hit TV show “Game of Thrones” gave him the idea for The Guard. Drum, who joined Charlotte FC halfway through last season from a similar position with Austin FC, was looking to build on the vibe created from the first two pregame hype videos created for Charlotte FC by Triglass, a Minneapolis-based production company.
The 2022 Protect Our Fortress and 2023 Fight for the Crown videos feature abstract medieval themes with a queen, knights, spooky music, hazy smoke, flames, knights and swords, and an occasional Charlotte FC player posing with a formidable glare. To see the 2024 version, you have to go to Bank of America Stadium. It won’t be available online until after the season.
Drum said there was a scene in “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” that always stuck out to him.
“They light a torch to signal that they’re about to go to war,” Drum said. “And then that torch lights another torch of their allies, to call the other armies together because they’re about to go to war against the Orcs.”
As the pre-game video on the stadium jumbotron is ending, wearing the same armor as actors in the video, The Guard strides out of the players’ entrance to the edge of the field. He “punches up,” or raises his arm as he ignites the torch, which is a glorified grill lighter custom-made by special effects creators E1FX. He presses a button to ignite the flame and can extinguish it by taking his finger off the button.
Just as The Guard raises his torch high, the four torch towers — two flanking each goal — ignite in flames. “You get this really cool video-to-live element,” Drum said.
Drum said he was trying to take a page from the NHL’s Las Vegas Golden Knights, who do a “great job of incorporating the fake world into the real world.”
To smooth the transition from screen to live action, Charlotte FC’s entertainment team repurposed a video clip of The Guard from last year’s hype video. The clip plays on the stadium video board until an in-house cameraman goes live, shooting The Guard as he walks out of the players’ tunnel and onto the field. The footage is shot largely from The Guard’s waist up, to make him appear that much more “massive.”
“I wanted someone physically imposing,” Drum said. “Our Guard is 6-foot-5, 225 to 230 pounds. Especially with us being in a football stadium, one guy in the football stadium is so, so tiny.”
The Guard’s height and weight are about all the intel Drum is willing to share about the man underneath the armor. That and the fact that he lives in Charlotte and is a former baseball player.
“He texted me after the first game and said, ‘I'd love to post the photo you sent,’” Drum said. “I was like, ‘Don’t post anything. Don’t say anything. You can tell your friends and family. I don’t mind if it seeps out a little bit. But I don’t want anyone physically knowing who you are.’”
The problem, Drum said, isn’t just that they wanted to create mystique by keeping The Guard’s identity a secret.
“He’s the nicest human being of all time,” Drum said. “So it would completely ruin the entire façade that he’s just a mean guy with a torch in his hand.”
The Guard makes only one brief appearance on the field before the game. Then he changes clothes and watches the game with his family. “He’s like ‘This is the greatest gig ever!’” Drum said.
If you reach down for your beer or are taking a handful of popcorn, you might miss The Guard altogether. Drum said as the spring goes on, he’s hoping to broaden the effects associated with his appearance, by adding more LED lighting as well as a physical prop The Guard can light. But he’s careful to keep his appearance short.
“I didn’t want him to get overly used that he gets hokey or cheesy,” Drum said. “I want him to remain mysterious.”
That Drum is given the freedom to come up with fresh ideas and adapt as he goes along is one of the benefits of working for a club in its third year of existence, Drum said. He has also worked for the Chicago Bears, the San Francisco 49ers, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Houston Dynamo.
“They’ve given a lot of liberties and freedoms to let us try things,” Drum said. “That’s the fun part about working for a new franchise. I’ve worked for a lot of historic franchises. They’re very much like ‘Don't mess with the (49ers logo) oval’ [or] ‘Don't mess with the (Chicago) bear head.’…
“It’s fun to be in a new organization that’s like, ‘Let’s try it and see if it works. And if it does, great. It can be a thing that goes on forever.’”
Charlotte FC president Joe LaBue encourages staff to try new ideas.
“The worst thing we can do is be stale,” LaBue said.
Related Fútbol Friday article:
“Sir Minty, mascot of mystery” (July 29, 2022)
Notable: Vargas out with yellow card suspension; Westy and Smith squaring off in celebrity challenge; Crown Legacy clothes drive
Tavares in his first MLS start in home opener vs. New York City FC. (Photo by Kevin Young of The 5 and 2 Project.)
◼️ Hottest player suspended: Winger Kerwin Vargas, who has scored two goals in the past three games, will have to sit out Saturday’s game against Portland after being issued his fifth yellow card Saturday in New York. By MLS rule, he’s suspended for his next league game.
“It’s disappointing because Kerwin’s a player who’s in form at the moment,” Coach Dean Smith said. “He scored a really good goal against Toronto the other week and got a really good finish last week against New York. He looks a threat, so he’s going to be a loss for us. But we’ve got players who are pushing to get into the (starting) team. I’m saddened because I’ve looked back on the cautions that he’s received and they’re a little bit harsh — a few of them.”
Possibilities to fill in Vargas’ spot on the wing are Iuri Tavares, who started the first five games of the season there, Brecht Dejaegere, who has seen time this season both on the wing and at attacking midfielder, and first-round draft pick Tyger Smalls, who impressed in his MLS debut in Saturday’s 2-1 loss in New York, where he got off a shot on his first touch of the game in only six minutes of play.
◼️ Brit on Brit showdown? Both captain Ashley Westwood and coach Dean Smith have been asked to participate in the Wells Fargo Celebrity Putting Challenge on Monday at Quail Hollow Club in conjunction with next week’s golf tournament. Rather than taking their invitations in a competitive light, Smith’s first thought was that it would be like them being paired on the same “European Ryder Cup.”
◼️ Clothes drive for Crown Legacy: Charlotte FC’s MLS Next Pro team Crown Legacy FC is hosting a clothing drive for every home match in May. Fans who donate two or more articles of clothing to benefit The Relatives will get a discounted ticket to a game May 8 or May 15.
Up Next: Charlotte FC (3-5-2) vs. Portland Timbers (2-4-4)
When/Where: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte
How to watch: FREE on Apple TV’s MLS Season Pass. Find information about how to subscribe for future games here.
How to listen: WFNZ 92.7 in English, WOLS 106.1 in Spanish.
Notable:
Charlotte FC kicks off a stretch of four home games in its next five games. After enduring three losses in its past four games, the club could use some productivity during this stretch. Charlotte FC is looking to get back to the form that saw it go unbeaten in 14 straight matches at Bank of America Stadium — a streak that ended with a 3-0 loss to Minnesota in its most recent home game on April 21.
This is Charlotte FC’s first-ever matchup against Western Conference opponent Portland.
The Timbers are third in MLS with 20 goals scored, but also second in MLS with 21 goals allowed. That should provide an opening for a Charlotte team that’s been struggling to score. (Charlotte FC’s 10 goals on the season are better than only three teams in MLS.)
Center back Bill Tuiloma is out with a hamstring strain.
In honor of playing on May (the force) 4th, there’s a Star Wars lightsaber foam stick giveaway to the first fans through the gates. Parents of young children might want to sit between siblings at the game Saturday. If it’s anything like the preview my three sons got with the foam lightsabers, the temptation to spar is real.
Carroll Walton is a longtime baseball writer with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution now in her third season covering Charlotte FC. She would love to hear from you. E-mail her with questions, suggestions, story ideas and comments!
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