The Story of LEET

What it takes to create a new sport? Where did the idea come from? Who are the people behind LEET?
Read the Story of LEET by Jake Maki-Petaja, Co-Founder

Dreams

My childhood was about dreaming big dreams. I was a sports hero, a world champion, an Olympic athlete and a superstar. I was an active player in many sports, but the reality was that I lacked support to be able to change these dreams into clear goals. Eventually, I was able take the action, but it was too late to become a professional soccer player, racer or golfer.

Idea of LEET

Some years ago, I started to really think of how I could combine all passions with sports, business and TV. Then, out of nowhere, a day before I got married, after a few drinks, I told my best man, “I think I should create a new sport, launch it as a massive talent show and eventually create the world’s greatest global sports league. To be really able to think out of the box, conditions must be extreme; once your bachelor years are over in 15 hours time, you have to decide what you are going to do with rest of your life!

I spoke about it with my friend Keni, with whom I had founded a prominent training company. He liked the idea, and said that when the time is right we’d give it a go.

Action time

When the time was right, our buddy Iiro started the action by making cold calls to the biggest top executives. Everyone seemed to be willing to meet young guys who were on their way to creating something big and new in sports. So we hopped on a plane and started travelling.

Once we’d met enough highly influential leaders in Sports, TV, marketing and financing, we were very sure about two things: even though it was a big project, LEET is definitely doable, and that it would be our job to do it. This wouldn’t be an easy thing, but why not get activated, have fun and give it a go.

The Sport

Getting the sport in place, our buddy Rob took the challenge and started to make our vision of LEET into reality by finding volunteers to help us to develop the game, create a rulebook, and develop the equipment. Rob, a.k.a. Coach Flanagan, took his team of 20 people and practiced over 1000 man-hours in just few months. Like the many others involved in the extensive training process, I really fell in love with the game and LEET was born. Our dream wasn’t a dream anymore.

LEET may be the final opportunity to become a sports star for people who were born in the 70’s or 80’s. We are working hard to make it among the best choices for people who were born in 90’s and on. We wanted to develop a game that was so colorful, exciting, and tactically unique that we would captivate people from all walks of life and involve them in something truly fresh. I think LEET is a great sport. It’s great fun. People love the idea and the game. You can see it in their eyes. You feel the joy of play, it makes you dream those childhood dreams again and in LEET they really can come true. That’s the greatest asset in LEET to begin with. LEET is becoming a reality and it is already changing lives for better and for good.