This meta is the healthiest I've seen the game be.
The viable brawler pool is incredibly diverse and that should be clear to anyone playing power league or watching competitive.
All the strong picks like Bea, Otis, Janet and Penny are still there.
Yes, dedicated wall-breakers like Brock and Ruffs are weaker but they're still viable picks, even competitively.
On the flipside, how many brawlers have benefitted? All throwers, (almost) all tanks, all tank counters and all medium range brawlers are available in the draft.
Overall I think they're an excellent idea that has really freshened things up.
It's normal not to like a change at the beginning.

Note: This is based on Power League, and are in my personal opinions as a Mythic player.
OVERRATED:

1. Chester: No idea why players still pick him, he's not that good in any game modes, Even tho he can handle tanks and some mid range brawlers, there's a lot more options better than him like Gus and Janet.
   
2. Jessie: Yes, players still pick Jessie. She's even worse than Chester, her turret can be easily shredded if not placed correctly, and she suffers from the aggressive brawlers like stu, Sam, ash and Max. She has no way of protecting herself from those brawlers.
   
3. Bibi: Surge, El Primo, Stu and bea are just a few brawlers that would thrash Bibi, there's just way too many of her counters that are meta. Plus there are way better tanks that can do a better job, like buzz, Sam and ash.
   
4. Carl: Now I know Carl is pretty decent in the meta, but players just take Carl as their first or second pick. Even tho he's good, he still has his counters like Surge, Buzz and basically any brawlers that can knock him out of his super so it's best to take him as a last or even fifth pick.
   
5. Colt: Right now he's suffering because of indestructible walls, and plus his a High Skill brawler. Throwers would just bully him, and since his shots are very hard to hit, the aggressive brawlers would just bully him some more throughout the match. Plus if your opponent is more experienced and know how to dodge Colt's shots, it game over.
   

UNDERRATED:

1. Gus: He's really good in multiple game modes like Knockout, Bounty, Gem Grab and even Hot zone. He can handle tanks just as well as he can handle those long range brawlers. He can really carry the game sometimes if you play him right.
   
2. 8 Bit: He's a really good mid in Gem Grab (Hard Rock Mine) and Heist (Safe Zone and Kaboom Canyon), Really good DMG, very tank and has a star power to help with his slow movement speed, a gadget to get him out of trouble, overall a great mid lane brawler. Just watch for Bea.
   
3. Bonnie: I'm really surprised that barely anyone picks her, she's basically a terrorist on most heist maps, great assassin in Knockout, super tanky, and has a huge burst damage in her second form, long range in her first form to deal with the long range brawlers, she way too good to be this underrated. Just watch out for Bea and Collete, cuz they counter her.
   
4. Janet: Can you believe that throughout all my games in mythic, I haven't seen Janet? It amazes me cuz Janet is arguably the best controller brawler in the game, her super basically makes her untouchable, unstoppable and Unpredictable. She can use her super to go aggressive and push back the enemies or go to her teams base with all the gems, she can even assassinate players by landing on them and two taps them (If the enemy is low heath). Has a gadget that prevents enemies from healing, she good in Gem Grab, Hot Zone, and even bounty.
   
5. Otis: Has a super that can prevent a brawler from attacking, using it's super, nor Gadgets and there you have a tanks nightmare. He counters the meta tanks like Sam, ash, El Primo and buzz. Has a gadget that's great for taking out totems behind wall, has a star power that increases his ammo, and can handle those mid range brawlers pretty easily, he's great in Knockout, Gem Grab and Brawl Ball.
   

Some Honourable mentions for Underrated:
Lou, Fang (As Last or Fifth pick), Meg, Grey and Lola.
Some Honourable mentions for Overrated:
Mortis and Edgar.

Hi. Yeah, it's one of those posts. I normally don't do this kind of thing, but I cared a lot about Snap and hope it doesn't tank.
I've been playing since the Black Panther pass and I've spent hundreds of hours playing. I'm an old ass gamer, but nothing has quite hooked me like Snap in a very long time. But after last patch, I've decided I'm done.
This game has an identity crisis. It wants to be a laid back quick game to play on the pooper, but the only way to play it is through a highly competitive ladder. And as your CL and MMR improves, it only gets sweatier. I rank up with Shuri / Red-Skull, but I can't play the same damn dumb deck anymore. I try something new, and plummet in ranks. Back to good ol' Shuri cheese. It's so damn boring.
But I used to at least have cards to look forward to. Not anymore. After Pool 3, if you're not an absolute whale, the card acquisition grinds to a halt. I spent months grinding tokens for Galactus and Shuri, and I've spent about $150. I haven't seen a new card in weeks. I don't want to give them anymore money. It's absolutely demotivating. I thought games like this were supposed to hook whales, not scare them away.
Combine that with influencers posting click bait videos like THIS OFF META DECK BLASTED MY NUTS TO RANK 600 and it's filled with cards like Bast, Darkhawk, Stature, etc.
Their card rollout scheme is absolutely bizarre. They tie new cards in with Marvel films, but you can't play with those cards for MONTHS. Didn't you get hyped for Kang in the new Ant-Man movie? Start saving tokens! Buy token Tuesdays and maybe you'll get to try the card in 60 days when nobody remembers said movie.
There's no endgame. Even up through pool 3 the card aquisition feels okay. One card a week keeps you enticed. But after that? Forget it.
Tone deaf balance patches and card powers. Shuri has been running wild on ladder for months and they've done virtually nothing. Oh sorry we had to add this super cool tech that will help balance changes faster. Oh sorry it broke. Dang. Oh the changes we did were meagre to say the least. But we pwomise we'll do better next time. Hey you can still buy Shuri. GO BUY DAN HIPP BUNDLES YOU COW. Faaaaart.
There's arguments that weakening Shuri drastically would kill the card. But I don't know how it even got out of design phase. When I first saw its ability my mouth dropped. DOUBLE any power? Really? Oh well it's pool 5, I won't see it much. Fast forward a few months.
How does that not remotely sound dangerous? DOUBLING power? Or a card that deletes ALL abilities from a hand? Or a card that cheats mana by 2 points?? I've played card games where you can blank out text, and they usually target ONE card, and you can remove the removal, and even then they're still OP cards that everyone runs. These are seasoned CCG players. Nobody thinks this might be an issue?? Or a card that replicates your opponents play +4 power? Yikes. No wonder people are salty.
Even content creators are getting bored. They're reacting to other player's rants instead of being forced to play the game. You can tell.
Lots of people are burnt out.
So yeah. Was fun. Good luck to Second Dinner and I hope Snap has a great future. I had a blast and they have amazing gameplay here. But as things currently stand, I'm retreating.

Spent a long time creating a top 10 for this year's rookie class for single QB and figured I might as well post it here to get some thoughts. I have the 1.03, 1.04, 1.09, and 1.10 motivating me to get this as right as possible. Going to post a new one after NFL draft
These rankings are for a league with 1QB, PPR, start 10
2023 Dynasty Rookie Draft Rankings

1. Bijan Robinson

Not much needs to be said here. Easy 1.01

1. Jaxon Smith-Njigba

I have been day dreaming about JSN on my fantasy roster for a what feels like forever. At 6 foot and a half, 196 pounds Njigba is similar to that Justin Jefferson/Garrett Wilson build that has seen tremendous success early on in NFL careers. Happy to take him at 1.02

1. Jahmyr Gibbs

Can't go wrong taking Gibbs here or at 2. He has a good mix of high floor and high ceiling with a real argument to be taken over Smith-Njigba. Gibbs' weight is a concern at 196 pounds but I don't view it as a weakness. Christian McCaffrey weighed in at 202 pounds at the combine and has been realtively healthy for the position. I can't see the top 3 picks changing regardless of landing spot.

1. Zach Charbonnet

This is where the draft starts if you ask me. There are probably 3 different guys who could be taken with this pick. I chose to go with Charbonnet because of his 3-down back build standing at 6' 1" 220 pounds. I was also impressed with his 40 time of 4.53. Charbonnet got better each year he played and is one of the most NFL ready players in this draft. If he goes to a team without a #1 back he is an easy pick here.

1. Jordan Addison

Trying to rank Jordan Addison has taken more hours of my life than I am proud to admit. On one hand, his sophomore season at Pittsburgh was one of the best seasons in college football history earning him the Biletnikoff award over guys like Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave, Jameson Williams, and even the player ranked at #2. He has a great route tree, soft hands, and elite body control. I am not worried about the underwhelming season stats at USC as he was great before his injury mid-season. What does worry me is his size. Outside of Devonta Smith, there aren't a lot of guys at 6' 170 pounds in the NFL. Jerry Jeudy looks tiny on the field but even he's an inch taller and 23 pounds heavier than Addison. With that being said if his ceiling is Devonta Smith, 1.05 seems right.

1. Zay Flowers

I think the amount of draft capital spent on Zay will be very telling. The main knock you can have on Zay is his height but he is within 2 pounds of measuring exactly the same as Antonio Brown did in 2010. Steve Smith has frequently been right when it comes to evaluating college receivers and his comp was Jaylen Waddle. I'm not saying he is Jaylen Waddle who is much fastequicker but there are parts of Zay's game that remind me of Waddle.

1. Quentin Johnston

Johnston has all the measurables you look for in an X wide receiver. Him choosing not to run the combine makes me a little bit worried because a good 40 time could have solidified himself as the first WR taken in the NFL draft. This is a boom or bust type of player with his ceiling and floor being the further apart of anyone in this draft for me.

1. Anthony Richardson

Admittedly for a 10 team 1 QB league, this is hard to justify. But, I see a lot of Justin Fields in him with a higher rushing upside and lower passing ability. Richardson could break fantasy football if he goes to a team that plays to his strengths like the ravens did for Lamar Jackson. There is a clear tier drop for me after Quentin Johnston and think AR15 goes well at the top of a new one.

1. Michael Mayer

Michael Mayer is going to an amazing TE in the NFL. With that being said, is he going to be amazing as a fantasy football TE too? Many have pointed out that he blocks too much to be a dynasty asset taken this high. While that is fair, he had similar offensive production to Dalton Kincaid the previous two seasons. Kincaid is known as being the TE in this class with the highest receiving upside. Tight ends are a position of need for many teams in dynasty making him worth the late first round pick.
​

1. Tank Bigsby

This is the start of a group of RBs that are really hard to predict how they translate to fantasy football points. I put Tank as the RB4 because there is a lot to like in his game. He is 6', 210 pounds and ran track in college which is why most people, including himself, were disappointed with his 4.56 40 yard dash. Tank was confident he was faster than that and proved it running a 4.45 at Auburn's pro day. Tank is a compact runner with a rare blend of balance, agility, and instincts making him worth the 1.10

I know I heard comments around me, like, ‘Hey, his arm is better in person than I thought,’ [from] coaches that had only seen tape. At 21 years old, if I walked into a restaurant, sat around with a bunch of 40, 50-year-old men, it’d be a little intimidating. When he talked about his preparation, when he talked about how he studies, how he sees the game, he’s at a different level. I try to let the meetings, the interviews, the film, and what I did today speak for itself. Patterson, 23, made 30-of-35 (85. 7 percent) field goals while making 36 of 37 extra points. Register now!This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. I think, overall, he managed to do well. “Saw a lot of good things out of him. The goal is maximum eyeballs and, in turn, maximum dollars. He’s already at that NFL level, which is great to see. “Nothing’s too big for him. You know, that’s really all I can control. ”The Panthers were off to Kentucky after Young’s workout to watch Wildcats quarterback Will Levis. “I’ll be grateful for whatever team does take a chance on me. “But for me, I try to focus on what I can show. Instead, he just sat there and asked us questions. . However, it could still face resistance from coaches present at the league meetings and the NFLPA, which has raised concerns about Thursday games in the past. NFL coaches, for one, are not fans of schedule changes, especially during the season. If it works, sources say I have narrowed my future car to three makes — Ferrari, McLaren, or Aston Martin. Telling he chose the Jets. “He was so well-spoken, so well thought-out. In fact, he may have offers at this point from none of them. Like, he can walk into any environment and be in total control. Very in control, very poised. - Alpha AI

Opinions and illustrations only. Not advice. Always conduct your own DD and make an informed investment decision that is right for you as an individual. 

As a guy OLD wasn't really working for me and was drastically fucking with my self esteem. So I took a break to fix my mental health and once I felt comfortable enough I started trying other options. I signed up for a coed softball league, went out with my friends more, made connections through these other options and eventually met the woman I'm laying next in bed right now who I married at the beginning of the year who makes me happier than I deserve sometimes.
I'd say for about 55 to 60% of men using dating apps shouldn't be using them. I can't speak for women on this because I'm not one, however my wife tried OLD for awhile and said most of her time was spent going through an insane amount of profiles who swiped right on her profile. Which for her led to no results as well.
Fellas, your mental health and self esteem suffering isn't worth it when it comes to OLD. I'd honestly rate myself a 3.5-4 out of 10, and the fact that there is an insane amount of men who are good looking and have great personalities that are still struggling with getting results on OLD should tell you how it is for guys that aren't the best looking.
If you truly want to be happy, get off of the dating apps, find an activity that puts you face to face with other people. Show people the things that make you a desirable partner that a picture and a bio can't show. Stop the "poor me" attitude because it's hard out here for everyone rn, remain positive. Learn a cool hobby, take care of yourself and have an attitude that could light up a room.
Don't ever hate who you are. You are lovable and for the love of god treat other men how you wanna be treated. We have to be better to each other fellas, I don't get the point in pointing out the flaws in other men just to make yourself feel better. You as well ladies, keep your head up and don't stop trying if a relationship is something you really want. I know it's not the walk in the online dating for you guys either. 🤙🏼

That series isn’t as bad as the score lines make it out to be. Games 2 and 3 were very good- especially game 2. This team will be amazing in the summer, and giving this team playoff experience together only gives me that hope. I think as the meta changes after MSI we are going to see a team ready to take risks and could even have a style like G2 where they aren’t afraid to be aggressive with the natures of Tenacity, Closer, and Busio. We all know that K’sante, Malph, Gragas, and Sion all do amazing damage while being tanky- and Tenacity has a great Fiora. Busio will be way more comfortable and the team is definitely going to have a leader in comms by the start of the next split. I think we’ll finish 3rd again in spring and make worlds. We’re still scaling!!

I'm the fuck up. Hold me. Please. I'm bi, but kinda all bi myself (and yes, I stole that joke from somewhere else). Anyhoo, here I am looking for some friends or just people to talk to.
A few things about me - I'm 24, and started my PhD in poli sci last year (yayy more schooling XD).
I love reading books (my favourite is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the galaxy) but I don't really get the time to read for pleasure these days. I also love watching movies (favourites being Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shawshank Redemption).
I also do a bit of casual gaming, but I won't call myself a gamer tbh. In competitive sports, I'm usually ranked around the iron/bronze leagues. In single player ones, I pretty much play only on story mode. Don't judge me.
My favorite band is Coldplay. Chris Martin's voice feels like the musical equivalent of warm hugs. Oh, and I also love food (who doesn't though lol).
Anyway, you can go over my profile. It's mostly random stuff and memes lol. If you wanna talk, then send me a PM or a chat. I have discord and other social media/chatting apps we can move onto eventually.
Hope you have a great day!
P.S. Special points if you're from in and around Cincinnati, since I just moved there for my PhD.

Very many, but fortunately not all POE players are rude and not very helpful. This game is only for players with the same twisted mentality. I've asked for help many times. But have rarely received any useful help. Mostly a lot of criticism. It's not my fault that the game is designed for a specific type of person. It's the players' fault that it's a good old boys club type of environment. If you don't trade you can't get any decent gear. If you aren't good at crafting you can't craft any good gear. And you definitely can't find any good gear. There is always some type of tradeoff with what you do find. So the only solution is to not play the game if you can't play it the way the traders or crafters play it. Unless you want to just start all over with a new character every time you just start dying. But that gets old really fast. I know for a fact that the only players that ever get any good at all are the ones who have made it through the jargon that the other players offer as so-called help. I'm not an idiot. But trying to communicate with some of you people makes me feel like one. This is me: https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/mechfishy. That's simple to do. I can't figure out how to trade. And I wouldn't know what to ask for that would be helpful even if I did. The POB is confusing as hell. I don't have a clue what I'm looking at. And there are many other aspects of the game that don't make any sense at all. When I first started playing back in 2014, when I was about 57 years old, it was because I was recovering from a broken femur. It was entertaining and fun, because it was a totally new experience for me. I had never played any other types of on-line games before. And it was basically one of the 2 games that I have ever been able to make it very far in. I don't remember what the other one was. It was also a free one. I really liked it too. But it was so full of bugs, that it was impossible to even play sometimes. I've created and killed off many POE characters since then. They all turn out to be crap. At one point I finally decided to ask for help with one of my characters. That help managed to get me just a little bit farther along. But not much. That is my Juggernaut. It was level 79 when I asked for help. Now it's at level 85 about 1 year later. So I decided to try to follow a build. That one is my Zombie Witch Necromancer. It's the best one so far. But it is far from being any good. The only reason that it's made it to level 88 is because I keep trying to make it better. But with very little success. The game would be very enjoyable if I didn't have to rely on the help of others. Or if the help that is given was more useful. Or, if I could make sense out of some of the other so-called help from people who have very poor communication skills. I do appreciate their help. But it's not helpful if I can't follow what they are trying to tell me. All of the guides I've checked out are absolutely horrendous. They might work for some people. But I highly doubt that they work for the majority who are looking for help. I don't expect to progress very fast. And I don't expect to be able to build a flawless character. But it would be nice to be able to make it through a tier 16 white map or two. If I could get that far with just one character, then maybe I could apply the same principles and gear to another character and get that far with that one. I've collected so much gear that I have to keep buying more stash tabs. Now I have 21 of them. But it's all just a lot of crap that I've been considering trading. But I can never get past thinking about trying to trade. Sorry to be a whiner. I'm just really getting tired of so many characters getting to level 75 or so and then suddenly start dying after almost never dying in the earlier part of the game. They do great and then they don't. When I first got to level 88 with my Necromancer I was able to relatively easily make it through a tier 8 white map. Not very good. But better than anything else I've done. But since this new league I'm lucky to be able to get through a tier 5 yellow map with a whole lot of trouble. That's really frustrating for me. I've made a couple of changes to it since the new league. But anything I do doesn't make any difference whatsoever. Don't know what else I can add in order to get the help that I obviously need very much. I've been telling a lot of people that I know play on-line games about POE with the hopes that they will figure out how to get farther than me. But most of them barely get past the beginning before they just give up. So, believe it or not, there are a lot of people out there that are actually worse at it than me. I think that's really funny. Because I'm not good at all. But for some reason that I can't figure out I do actually like the game. But there have been many times where I just want to quit. But I just keep coming back for more punishment and humility. I'm not trying to offend anybody. This is just my twisted perspective on my sort of harsh experience with the game. Thanks in advance for anybody who is up to a real challenge by trying to help me. If you are able to help me, then I would have to say that you are a master of the game and also a great teacher.

The Xingezhuang Formation of Late Cretaceous China was home to species like the colossal hadrosaur Shantungosaurus, the ceratopsian Sinoceratops, and the tyrannosaur Zhuchengtyrannus. Now, I'm sure most people here know just how absolutely humongous Shantungosaurus was, and how it was really impossible for an adult Zhuchengtyrannus to take an adult down. The only reasonable explanation is that Zhuchengtyrannus would have gone for juveniles.
But I think that may be a bit of a problem, because while I do understand from a predator's point of view that going for a less-well-defended, less-experienced juvenile would be a lot easier than an adult, would there necessarily be juveniles for it to go after? Also, considering that juveniles are usually often protected by large adults, wouldn't it make hunting pretty much as difficult as going after adults, since in both scenarios a predator like Zhuchengtyrannus would have to run a gauntlet of angry, colossal adult Shantungosaurus? Thinking about all this, I'm not sure Zhuchengtyrannus even went after Shantungosaurus that often, juveniles or not. The size difference is too great.
Now, there have been some teeth labelled 'Tyrannosaurus zhuchengensis' that are as of now too poorly preserved to know whether it belongs to Zhuchengtyrannus or another unidentified Tyrannosaurid species. But it opens the door of possibility that there was most likely another Tyrannosaurid in the Wangshi Group other than Zhuchengtyrannus - and hypothetically, JUST HYPOTHETICALLY, it may have been large enough to actually be a more suitable natural predator of Shantungosaurus.
Personally, I think that Zhuchengtyrannus would have gone for Sinoceratops and other smaller hadrosaurs in the Wangshi Group like Tsintaosaurus simply because they were smaller and far easier to tackle and bring down. In its adult size, Shantungosaurus was pretty way out of Zhuchengtyrannus's league. But it needs to have a natural predator, otherwise it would suffer from overpopulation. With that in mind, would it at least make some sense that there was an as-of-yet undiscovered Tyrannosaurid species in the Wangshi Group, perhaps even larger than Zhuchengtyrannus and large enough to actually stand a better chance at hunting Shantungosaurus? Or was Zhuchengtyrannus suitable enough as a natural predator for this hadrosaur behemoth?
(Note: What I'm asking is whether this completely hypothetical scenario is plausible here, there's no fossil evidence at the moment to back this up. I'm also not suggesting that this other Tyrannosaurid was as large as Shantungosaurus or nearly as large, for all you hadrosaur fanboys out there; I'm suggesting it was large enough to stand a far better chance than Zhuchengtyrannus at bringing it down.)

Let’s just say, theoretically, the gods of FAFSA did not favor you, and your estimated contribution is a very big number. Let’s also, for the sake of the situation, assume that this theoretical kid’s (age 18) parents don’t like the idea of paying such a big number. Let’s also posit that this child was let into a prestigious, ivy-league university with a tuition that could kill a horse. Could this kid, theoretically, get married and then submit the FAFSA again the next year, and as a newlywed with very little money, have an extremely low expected contribution number on the fafsa? Responses greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Hey guys, I always found myself playing Madden and saying to myself, god damn this game is trash.
NOW, add that onto the fact that all PS4 leagues are erased, and here we are...
After going 24 for 31 and 5 interceptions, I promised myself I would never MUT, play-now or "competitive" leagues again.
But I kept playing. I kept playing dudes who call cover 3 with underneath shade and constant corner routes.
Or dudes who would constantly roll out of the pocket to hit that "perfect" corner route for a spam TD.
I was sick of it.
Luckily for you, I made my own league and set out to make a league with great sliders that make gameplay realistic! I started out with ten buddies, and now we are a full, thriving COMMUNITY.
Well, now we have 30 teams taken in our league this season, and we want to fill up!
If you want a league that plays sim, is designed for the average dude, and has a great community, OMD is for you. We also do cool things like power rankings and next-gen stats like EPA per play, rushing yards over expected, and a NFL Top 100 players every season.
This is a league for the long-haul. We advance every 48 or 72 hours, so we are built for sustainability and good, sim, fun like the games we watch on the weekends.
We also have a 100% play rate. Our league is for average guys, but this is OUR league. Over half of the guys in our league only play in one league (including me)!
You guys will really enjoy our great league if you want some more football in your life. I honestly love this league and we've had some incredible games.
We emphasize playing sim, and playing for fun. We also have our own website.
https://neonsportz.com/leagues/OMD23
Rules Here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LRtvQ8qCH3SeCLWqnjztSUdWh-m5GCT-/view?usp=sharing
Our league really is for the average guy who wants to play Madden 4 to 5 times a week and feel like he played a real game.
But please note, if you play Madden competitively, this is not the league for you. We're dudes who want a break from the constant heavy play.
Here is our league application, and the discord link is in the application. Filling out the form is a requirement to join our league. We usually have someone play a commish in a practice game, because our league is only as good as the guys we let in!!
https://forms.gle/Achonxe938eGymrR6
Thanks guys!
Send me a DM and/or comment below for more info!

A few weeks ago I made this post about how it appeared a great dynasty was about to begin. A few users such as Nobichobolobas were interested in seeing how this turned out. I don't think anyone could have predicted at the time just how great Alfonso Rose and this dynasty were going to turn out.
It all started when I made a trade with Detroit during the 5836 regular season. I decided to trade my superstar for a really good prospect and a first round pick, which I didn't think would amount to much. It ended up becoming the first overall pick in a draft that featured the greatest prospect I've ever seen!
In his rookie season Alfonso Rose was poised to become the best player in the league. The Aztecs would go on to win 12 titles in a row and 19 titles in 24 years with Alfonso Rose on the team. Not to mention the 5841 season where they went 82-0.
Alfonso Rose ended up retiring at 43 while still performing as one of the top players in the entire league. However, coming off a game 7 victory in the finals (and 3 game 7 victories in the finals in a row) including this absolutely ridiculous finals game 7 victory he must have decided it was time to call it a career.
Alfonso Rose is easily the best player I've ever seen after playing over 3800 seasons, and I'd be very surprised if someone seen a player better than this 7'7" absolute beast who could do everything (other than get a 10x5, which I honestly was expecting him to do at some point in his career).
Alfonso Rose career summary: https://imgur.com/a/zJ5jBm8
Alfonso Rose entire career page: https://imgur.com/u0DIeic

In my current games, I believe the only thing that matters is preparing for the final night. Previous nights are just for you to RNG your way to an ideal composition for the final boss fight. So you must always work toward it. With that in mind, here's what I generally do for to plan for the final nights.

1. 1 man on each wall, 2 man to kill boss.
2. Poison builds with Druid Staff = kill all waves with high mana efficiency.
3. Rifleman + multi hit mage to focus down boss.
4. Good design of bases for me means walls with gates, never more than 1 gate interlinked. I go out of the base, drop my spells, run back in. Turrets and traps are afterthought for me. I do believe the meta is to get the perk that gives XP for defense kills, and rush turrets. I haven't done that yet...

With these 4 ideas in mind, I've found great success. Rifleman was able to solo the Lakeberg boss in one rotation.

1. Poison peeps - level up Poison Damage, buy skills that give you Poison Damage, obviously only use heroes with Poison skill tree, propagate horizontally, you know the deal. AP always wins.
2. Melee peeps - required to shit on a ton of enemies late game.
3. Rifleman - obviously get Damage + Isolation + AP. Don't really need Movement. Damage potion. I also grab the perk that disabled secondary weapons. I think the extra damage + one more use of Assassinate is worth disabling the stats you get from a secondary weapon set. At least maybe until I can reliability get Rares
4. Mage with wand + multi hit. Pretty standard.

Heroes - Who to build what
Poison is especially good. Because the Poison Damage doesn't care about anything else, you can often use your trash heroes (damage debuff ones, lack of HP ones, general terrible traits ones) as Poison builders.
There's some guides out there who say you should switch heroes, I don't think you really need to. My poison trash heroes are generally the ones with the most kills at the end of the game.
Melee heroes require decent traits to survive (or they'll be hiding with a ranged weapon until late game). Mage heroes benefit from having nice traits too.

In this Episode, we are going to stop buffing Kanto pokemon for the nth time. We are going to re-invent useless abilities. Without further ado, let's jump in!

New ability: Terrorize

Basically, the overused 'What if special intimidate?' shenanigans. This came into an idea when I looked up for abilities to buff. Sure, Pressure and Unnerve is another great ability, but I came to a conclusion that almost nobody is interested in pp stall (unless you are using stall Eternatus) or berries (Sure, it can be a setback but does it matter most of the time?). So, most Pressure and Unnerve pokemon is included to gain the new ability.

Gen 1: Arbok line, Meowth-Galar, Persian line, Aerodactyl, Mewtwo Gen 2: Houndoom Gen 3: Masquerain, Wailord, Dusclops line, Absol, Deoxys Gen 4: Vespiquen, Spiritomb, Weavile Gen 5: Haxorus, Galvantula, Kyurem Gen 6: Pyroar Gen 8: Corviknight, Calyrex (just Regular one), Sneasler 

Again, I am not going to give Calyrex-Ice or Calyrex-Shadow Terrorize ability as As One. This pokemon is already terrorizing itself without the ability. They can rather have Unnerve or just resort to Chilling Neigh/Grim Neigh. Most of the mons are intentionally not strong, buffing the pokemon that need buffs. The good one in these pokemon include really Corviknight and Sneasler. Corv is going to be stronger than ever, but Sneasler is a frail attacker to be honest. That was also why Tyranitar was not introduced, for OBVIOUS reasons. He was said to have found a new place in UU, but I don't really think giving Terrorize to Tyranitar is a great idea.
Mewtwo and Kyurem, usually considered to be one of the worst Uber pokemon, can get a slight glow-up as their apparent special bulk is increased. Mewtwo can be a great supporting role for its diverse movepools. Even better when Psychic type gets buffed sometime.

Pick Up and Honey Gather

These two abilities are considered to be overworld abilities, and gathering honey is even worse as Honey almost serves nothing except Gen 4 where you could get tree pokemons. They can surely get some buffs in competitive scene. The ability works as follows.

• Pick up (Includes Ball Fetch): When any pokemon (except the user) on the field consumes an item, the user gains the used item if the user is not holding one. If any berry is consumed, this pokemon gets a Leftovers. Basically Recycle but with foe as an ability.
• Honey Gather: The user heals 1/16 of its max HP each time when turn ends. The amount of healing increases by another 1/16 max HP for each Grass/Bug/Fairy type pokemon on the field.

Keen Eye, Big Pecks and Run Away

Another not so useful abilities mostly for route 1 bird pokemon. The abilities are renewed as follows:

• Keen Eye: The user's damage increases by 50% if the user is not attacked since the last time the user used a move. e.g. if the user was damaged by the attack in the previous turn, Keen Eye will not be activated even if the user moves first in the next turn.
• Run Away: The user's speed is increased by 50% if the user is in a pinch (I am thinking of below 25% HP because below half is going to be busted.)
• Big Pecks: The user's Defense stat is raised by 2 stages if any stats of the user was lowered. (Basically Defiant/Competitive but in defense.)

Edit: I just pressed Cancel instead of Save, meaning that I have to RE-WRITE THE SCRIPT AGAIN? WHAT THE HECK- Too bad my 30 minutes of writing has been completely gone to waste. To summarize, Pick Up and Honey Gather can be a nice gimmick, but cannot get enough attention to be the meta as the holder is already not very competitive. Keen Eye, Run Away, and Big Pecks renewals effects a lot of pokemon including route 1 birds. Run Away + Belly Drum can be deadly on AAA, and Big Pecks Mandibuzz can be a great defensive option.

So im a 15-year-old female that aspires to race in f1. I do understand that most likely I will never be able to make it to professional league but I would still love to partake in a few non f1 races. So my question is how would you guys recommend for me to get into the sport? From what I read everywhere most kids start from the age of 8 but I unfortunately never had that chance. I would probably start by go-carting, right? Any recommendations and advice would be greatly appreciated as I do really love the sport.

Grand Theft Auto is no stranger to add-on content, but the latest in a long line of leaks suggests Rockstar might be taking a bit of a different approach for the long-awaited sequel — splitting up parts of the game to repackage as DLC.
The rumor comes from established Rockstar leaker Tez2, who says Grand Theft Auto 6 is currently targeting a release in holiday 2024 “which has been pushed back multiple times.” Tez2 adds the game may be pushed back again, into to 2025.
Furthermore, Tez2 claims Rockstar is considering breaking up the game’s content into post-launch DLC, to ensure the game can meet a release date. If GTA 6 launches in 2024, it will be a whopping 11 years since the last release in the franchise.
This wouldn’t be an unprecedented move from Rockstar, considering the approach the studio has taken with GTA Online, incrementally releasing massive updates and new story content. Notably, however, GTA 5 didn’t feature any additional story content, just updates to the Online portion of the game.
GTA Online GTA Online has managed to stay relevant for a decade with consistent updates, and it makes sense Rockstar would pivot to that same approach to single-player content.ROCKSTAR Taking this approach would let Rockstar more easily hit whatever internal timeline is established for GTA 6, and provide a road map of content to make post-launch more appealing to players. Interestingly, this isn’t the first time this kind of rumor has been brought up by Tez2, as last August the leaker reported GTA 6 would “expand over time,” adding on new cities after launch.
The easiest approach would be to create content that ties into both the single-player and multiplayer aspects of GTA 6, and creating new cities in-game could do just that. New locations could be fully playable in the online portion, while also adding on hand-crafted stories and missions. This would allow Rockstar to continue the overwhelming success of GTA Online, while story content could help attract new players or those that might not care to engage with multiplayer.
This tactic of splitting up elements of the game as DLC is something Nintendo has been using for years, to great success. Mario Strikers: Battle League, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Mario Kart 8, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Nintendo Switch Sports, have all seen scheduled add-ons for new content, even years after their initial release. At this point, it’s not clear how much of a live-service element there will be for GTA 6, but this Nintendo-like approach would allow Rockstar to retain players who are primarily interested in single-player experiences.
GTA 5 Although GTA 5 never received single-player DLC, Rockstar’s director of design said in a 2017 interview the studio would “love to do more single-player add-ons for games in the future.”ROCKSTAR Nintendo stands apart from other developers, though, in that typically these updates are free or bundled with a Switch Online subscription. It’s a smart move, as games like Mario Strikers, which would typically have a very short shelf life, suddenly provide players with more of a reason to stick with it for the long haul. It also allows Nintendo to continue to sell its older, first-party titles with minimal discounts.
There’s no video game property in existence bigger than Grand Theft Auto, and a report in 2020 estimated GTA Online made a staggering $600 million in 2019. Even in 2023, it continues to hold an enviable place in the sales charts month after month. The popularity of GTA Online has only continued to increase over the years, and that mainstream success is exactly what’s poised to make GTA 6 such a massive success.
Breaking up content into DLC lets Rockstar bring GTA 6 back into the conversation every six months, year, or whatever release timeline suits the studio and the community best. Seeing a big GTA 6 update in a State of Play or other presentation will likely bring thousands of players flocking back to the game, and considering GTA 5 and GTA Online are still alive and kicking a decade later, it’s easy to say Rockstar is hoping for lightning to strike twice with GTA 6.

So far this year we have had the following baseball-related guests on our podcast:
Ep 133 - Former Houston Astro shortstop Roger Metzger on rained in at the Astrodome, hitting his first MLB home run off Bob Gibson and more.
Ep 136 - Author Andy McCue ("Stumbling Around the Bases") on the 1969 Seattle Pilots.
Ep 138 - Sultanes de Monterrey Operations Manager Jesús Granados on game day in the Mexican Leagues.
Ep 142 - Author Jacob Pomrenke ("Scandal on the South Side") on the 1919 Chicago White Sox.
Ep 143 - Blogger Elizabeth Strom (DRaysBay.com) on the Tampa Bay Rays Stadium Saga.
Ep 144 - Author David Jerome ("Bill Virdon: A Life in Baseball") joined by Bill Virdon's widow, Shirley Virdon, on the great Pirate outfielder and Houston Astro manager Bill Virdon.
Hooks & Runs, a podcast about baseball, music & culture, on Apple, Spotify or almost wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you!