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junker-town · 3 years

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Western Illinois, Year 40, 2046-2047

The final season of our sim dynasty with Western Illinois in College Hoops 2K8 is here.

Welcome back to our simulated dynasty with the Western Illinois Leathernecks in College Hoops 2K8. You can find a full explanation of this project + spoiler-free links to previous seasons here. Check out the introduction to this series from early April 2020 for full context. As a reminder, we simulate every game in this series and only control the recruiting and coaching strategies. Dynasty mode runs for 40 years.

Before we pick up with the Leathernecks at the start of Year 40, here’s a recap of everything that happened last season:

Western Illinois entered Year 39 trying to three-peat as national champions for the first time in program history. We lost two starters early to the NBA coming into the season, but still had enough talent to be ranked No. 10 overall in the preseason polls.

We ran through the regular season schedule, losing only one game to UCLA during the non-conference season and sweeping Summit League opponents once again. We entered the NCAA tournament at 29-1 on the year and earned a No. 4 seed to the big dance.

We beat Brown in round one, knocked off Georgia Tech in the round of 32, beat Indiana in the Sweet 16, and lost to Florida in the Elite Eight. We know enter the final season of my career tied with John Wooden with 10 national championships.

We added three players in our last ever recruiting class: five-star JUCO SF Jerald Obasohan, four-star SG Erwin Walls, and four-star PF Kenny Butler.

Here’s a first look at our roster for Year 40:

It feels like only yesterday that a fresh-faced, 25-year-old came to the small town of Macomb, Illinois with big dreams. Coach Rick was hired by Western Illinois to do the impossible: win a national championship with arguably the worst team in college basketball. After 39 seasons at the helm, our tiny program has accomplished that and so much more. Now it’s time to hang it up.

Our journey at Western Illinois is finally coming to an end. In literal terms, College Hoops 2K8 forces mandatory retirement upon coaches in dynasty mode after 40 seasons. All good stories need closure either way. As we start our final season, we have some big stakes attached to our swan song.

Western Illinois has won 10 national championships in the Ricky Charisma era. That ties us with UCLA legend John Wooden for the most in history. What started as a mission to win a single national championship has now left us with a different goal: to become the undisputed greatest program in the history of the sport.

While we failed in our bid to three-peat last season — falling to Florida in the Elite Eight — we did bring back all four breakout juniors for this season. We only lost starting center DJ Foster to graduation. Yeah, it’s been a while since we last published Year 39 (thanks for your patience), so let’s go over the roster:

PG Christano Ngounou, junior, 89 overall: Ngounou made major strides after being forced into the starting lineup last season, and now looks like a rock solid contributor going into our final year. An international recruit out of Cameroon, Ngounou is a fast 6’3 guard with lockdown defensive ability and a slightly above average three-point shot. We have bigger names on this squad who will be expected to carry the scoring load, but Ngounou is going to play a huge role because he’s way better than every other point guard on the roster. We need quality minutes from him in the tournament. Former five-star international recruit with B potential.

SG Bernie Doyle, redshirt senior, 92 overall: Doyle is an incredible talent who enters his senior year looking to fully blossom into a superstar. The 6’9 shooting guard uses his immense size on both ends of the floor. He’s elite at getting into the passing lanes and forcing steals (a team-high 1.8 per game as a junior) on the defensive end, and has a sweet three-point stroke offensively. Doyle is such a smooth scorer and dominant defender that it feels like he has the natural talent to develop into an all-great in his senior year. Let’s hope he’s up to the challenge. Former No. 36 overall recruit from Detroit with C potential. Projected lottery pick.

SF Floyd Keller, redshirt senior, 92 overall: Keller checks every box for a small forward. He has good size at 6’7. He has a three-point rating in the mid-80s. He’s the best dunker on the team. He’s an elite offensive rebounder for a wing with a rating in the low 90s, which helps equip him to play minutes at the four. After a tough shooting night in our Elite Eight loss last season — he went 1-for-7 from three — we’ll need Keller to be consistently great if we want one more run through the bracket. Former No. 101 overall recruit out of Dallas with C+ potential. Projected second round pick.

PF Oscar Fray, redshirt senior, 88 overall: Fray enters his third year as a starter with a fascinating combination of size and skill that could set him up for a breakout senior year. The 7-foot power forward is a great three-point shooter for his position with a rating just below 80. Defensively, he’s the top-rated shot blocker on the team, and also does a pretty good job on the glass. Former No. 118 overall recruit out of Lynn, MA with C potential. Projected second round pick.

C Brody Munoz, redshirt senior, 92 overall: Munoz finally gets the spotlight as a senior after backing up DJ Foster — a one-time NCAA tournament Most Outstanding Player — for his entire career up to this point. We’re expected big things, and not just because he’s tied for the highest rated player on the roster going into the regular season. What Munoz lacks in elite size at 6’11 he can make up for with strength, agility, and rebounding. We expect him to be really good at forcing turnovers, grabbing putbacks, and helping fortify the paint. Former No. 169 overall recruit (No. 6 center) out of Nashville with B potential. Projected lottery pick.

We have an incredibly deep bench for our final season. Center Logan Polk (85 overall) will be our sixth man, and should be able to form a three-man front court rotation with the two starters in the tournament. After that, we have a lot of options but not a lot of good options.

Here’s the rest of the bench: wing Jaycee Queen (80 overall), wing Jerald Obasohan (79 overall), guard Archie Howell (78 overall), wing/guard James Haranga (74 overall), guard Edwin Walls (74 overall), and power forward Kenny Butler (74 overall).

This is really it. Year 40. The last dance. What a ride it has been. We start the season at No. 4 in the polls.

How did the regular season go?

For our final regular season, we tried to schedule a good mix of local schools and historic big conference rivals with a couple in-season tournaments thrown in for good measure.

Here’s how the regular season went:

Win over Bradley

Win over Nebraska

Win over UTEP

Loss to Southern Illinois

Win over Florida

Loss to Northwestern

Win over New Mexico

Win over DePaul

That sets up a rivalry game against Illinois. We’ve played the Illini in almost every season, and we don’t want to end this dynasty without one more dub. The losses to Southern Illinois and Northwestern were a real bummer, and we need a palate cleanser. Let’s go!

Big win, 102-68. Look at Cristano Ngounou hanging 17 points and six assists on the Illini. Love seeing both starters in the front court — seniors Oscar Fray (13 points, 10 rebounds) and Brody Munoz (18 points, 11 rebounds) — each dropping a double-double, too. And how about our new five-star JUCO addition Obasohan chipping in 12 points off the bench? Really promising performance from the boys.

We get a big win over Kansas in our next game. That sets up another marquee game with a program we don’t like very much out of the state of North Carolina: Duke. We’ve battling with Duke on the court and on the recruiting trail for 40 freaking years. Can we end this rivalry with a dub?

Ugh, loss, 88-83. Nice games from Bernie Doyle (19 points, four assists) and Oscar Fray (14 points, 12 rebounds), but it isn’t enough. That’s our third loss of the season. Get bent, Duke.

We end the year with three more non-conference games.

Win over Illinois-Chicago

Win over American

Win over Arizona State

While we may have lost the final battle to Duke, I won the war over Coach K with a significantly better career by any measure (more on that in a minute). Now it’s time to jump into conference play in the Summit League.

Did we go undefeated in conference season?

Yes we did, another perfect 18-0 stretch.

Now we enter the conference tournament. Can we punch one more automatic bid to the NCAA tournament?

Win over UMKC

Win over Southern Utah

Win over UL-Calcutta

We’re going to the NCAA tournament for the last time, but that isn’t even the headliner after winning the Summit League. Im taking home the conference tournament championship, I won game No. 1,171 of my career. That currently puts me ahead of Coach K for the most wins all-time.

We have built a great legacy at Western Illinois. Before we enter the NCAA tournament, let’s take a look at our statistical leaders:

What a year for Munoz. Dude sat on the bench for four seasons before finally getting a starting spot, and all he did was lead our team in scoring at 17.2 points per game. Fray was awesome, too, averaging a hair under 15 points per game while chipping in nearly two blocks and six rebounds per game. It’s good to see Keller and Doyle both hit double-figures in scoring. I’m a bit surprised Cristano couldn’t even put up seven points a night after his big game against Illinois, but the assist and steals numbers are solid. We’re going to need him in March.

The Leathernecks are heading into the NCAA tournament at 32-3 on the year. I can’t wait to see what seed we get.

2047 NCAA tournament

Well, we couldn’t end this dynasty without getting swindled by the Selection Committee one more time. We’re a No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament. I thought we should have been a top-four seed without question.

We’ll open the tournament with a game against No. 11 seed Syracuse. Sheesh. Before we get to the game, let’s check in on our roster one more time:

I’m loving the way this group progressed through the year. We have two awesome wing scorers with an elite combination of size and shooting in Keller and Doyle. We have plenty of beef up front with Munoz, Fray, and Polk. Ngounou entered the program as a 77 overall and shot up to a 92 in three years without a redshirt. The bench also really improved during the season and should give us plenty of different lineup options in March.

This is going to be a tough run, starting with Syracuse. The Orange have knocked us out of the big dance before, and consistently put together really strong teams.

Our last dance starts now. As always, we’re simulating every game, I’m not controlling the ‘Necks.

Let’s go!

Win, 105-73! What an absolute beatdown. We’ve moving on to the round of 32.

Long-time followers of the series will know that our Leathernecks have always been known as a second half team. It happened in a big way in this game. Syracuse ended the first half strong to cut our lead to nine points, but we quickly turned it into a blowout out of the break.

I thought this was a tremendous all-around team effort. Six players hit double-figures in scoring with no one putting up more than Floyd Keller’s 15 points. Everyone who played recorded an assist. I loved this play from the first half when we set two screens for our five-star JUCO Obasohan that helped get him an easy layup.

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Our bench is a big question mark coming into this tournament, mostly because it’s filled with a lot of fresh faces who haven’t played big minutes in clutch spots before. I have to say, the performance of our reserves in our tournament opener was super encouraging. Obasohan in particular looks like a keeper after scoring 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting and knocking down a three. We always need wing depth, and he should be able to provide that on this run.

The clear highlight of Obasohan’s night: this sick two-handed dunk in transition for an and-one.

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We love to turn defense into offense, and Ngounou and Doyle’s ability to get into the passing lanes really helps us out there.

Speaking of Ngounou in transition: he had a beautiful finish on the break to put the game fully out of reach. That’s what you want out of your point guard.

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The win sets up a second round game against Colorado State

The Rams have been a solid program throughout this sim dynasty, regularly making NCAA tournament appearances. We have a decisive edge in talent heading into this game.

We are one win away from going to the Sweet 16 and extended our run in the big dance. One time, ‘Necks. Let’s go!

Win, 109-79! We’re going to the Sweet 16!

We didn’t need to be a second half team in this one. Our ‘Necks blew the doors off Colorado State from the opening tip-off. I thought we played a great game offensively thanks to our inside-out ball movement.

We had five scorers in double-figures in this one, but it was senior starters Bernie Doyle and Oscar Fray leading the charge. We know Doyle is capable of taking over a game at his best, and he was awesome in this one: 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 shooting from three. The real story was Fray, though.

Fray was probably the least appealing long-term prospect of our recruiting class when he entered the program alongside Doyle, Keller, and Munoz. That was mostly because of his 74 rating and C potential grade. While he’s always been rated a few points lower than his classmates, Fray’s skill set on the court is so important to us. He’s a massive 7-foot power forward who can protect the rim and shoot threes. What more do you want?

Fray went off in this game: 22 points, eight rebounds, two assists, two steals on 9-of-11 shooting. I love watching the big man shoot from deep. This was from NBA range.

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Here’s one more catch-and-shoot three for good measure.

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Fray might get slept on a little on this team, but he’s absolutely critical to our success if we want to win it all.

I also want to shout-out the bench for another solid performance. I liked what I saw out of Obasohan (11 points) and Howell (10 points). Since we already have two Obasohan clips in this post, why not make it three? Love him hitting this triple in the first half to help us open up the lead.

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We’re rollin’.

The win sets up a Sweet 16 game vs. Alabama

We’re now four wins away from ending this dynasty with a national championship. A Sweet 16 game against Bama is going to be an absolute battle.

In our simulated future, the Tide have become a basketball school. This program seems to make the tournament every year, and they’ve given us plenty of trouble in the past.

A trip to the Elite Eight is on the line. Let’s go!

Win, 112-69! We’re onto the Elite Eight!

Say it with me: SECOND. HALF. TEAM. After a tight first half left us with a six-point lead coming into the break, our ‘Necks absolutely torched the nets in the second half to come away with the blowout win. Seriously: we scored 66 points in the final 20 minutes. That was an offensive clinic at its best.

I had a good feeling about the second half when Cristano got this three hit the rim like 50 times before falling. Sometimes you need some good luck on your side.

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A couple possessions later, Floyd Keller came down a ripped another three. We finally had a double-digit lead, and we’d never look back.

It was great to see Keller (15 points) get going from deep. He hit all three of his attempts from beyond the arc.

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While we don’t have any clips of the front court from this game, they absolutely deserve credit for the win.

Fray turned in another incredible performance, this one somehow even better than his last. He ended the game with 25 points, 14 rebounds, four assists, three steals, and three blocks on 10-of015 shooting. He didn’t attempt a three (booooo) but he dominated the game on both ends. His front court mate Munoz was almost as good. The senior center finished with 20 points and 16 rebounds. We kept going inside — Munoz and Fray combined for 35 (!) field goal attempts — and they were making the Bama defense pay.

Not the best Bernie Buckets game (9 points on 3-of-10 shooting), but I clipped this shot from the first half, so I might as well embed it here.

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Elite Eight, here we come.

The win sets up an Elite Eight matchup against No. 1 seed Indiana

Our run in the NCAA tournament has been a breeze up to this point, but I fear things about to get a lot more difficult. Our plucky No. 6 seed is about to run into one of college basketball’s blue bloods: the top-seeded Indiana Hoosiers.

The Elite Eight has been something of a bugaboo for us. We lost in this round last year. We’ve lost in this round many times before. I don’t want it to happen again.

A Final Four trip is on the line. As always, we’re watching a simulated version of this game; I am not controlling the Leathernecks. Let’s go!

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Loss, 96-86. Oh my gosh. And just like that, our dream of ending this dynasty with a national title is over.

I am devastated. I really thought this team was good enough to send me out on top, but it wasn’t meant to be. The Hoosiers’ outside shooters did us in. Indiana’s guard-heavy lineup caught fire from deep (10-of-21 for 47.6 percent), and our perimeter attack couldn’t keep up. We only hit 6-of-22 (27.3 percent) attempts from three.

What happened to our second half team this time? We were only down two going into halftime, but we were outscored by eight over the final 20 minutes. Tough scene.

There were some solid individual performances. Munoz went out strong with 23 points and 10 rebounds. Bernie Doyle dropped 21 points and hit this three-pointer to keep us in it early.

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Floyd Keller just didn’t give us enough on the wing. He shot 1-of-8 from three in the loss. He did give us a little juice in transition, at least.

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Cristano played all 40 minutes, and had eight points and nine assists. I really wish I got another year with him as a senior next season.

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Unfortunately there is no next season. After 40 years at Western Illinois, our sim dynasty is over. Here are some final numbers on the series:

Final record: 1,177-213

10 national championships (tied with John Wooden for the most in men’s college basketball history)

15 Final Four appearances

25 Sweet 16 appearances

Final NCAA tournament record: 113-27

38 Summit League regular season championships

35 Summit League tournament championships

38 seasons with 20+ wins

61 players drafted

The thing I’m most proud of? After we made the NCAA tournament for the first time in Year 3, we didn’t miss it again the rest of this dynasty.

Is Ricky Charisma the greatest men’s college basketball coach ever?

I think so. Here’s how we stack up to other top coaches in NCAA history in important categories.

Total wins

Ricky Charisma: 1,179

Mike Krzyzewski: 1,170

Jim Boeheim: 1,083

Roy Williams: 903

Bob Knight: 899

Dean Smith: 879

Jim Calhoun: 877

Adolph Rupp: 876

Bob Huggins: 828

Eddie Sutton: 806

Tournament wins

Ricky Charisma: 110

Mike Krzyzewski: 94

Roy Williams: 77

Dean Smith: 65

Jim Boeheim: 57

Tom Izzo: 52

Jim Calhoun: 49

John Wooden: 47

Final Four appearances

Ricky Charisma: 15

Mike Krzyzewski: 12

John Wooden: 12

Dean Smith: 11

Roy Williams: 9

Tom Izzo: 8

Rick Pitino: 7

Denny Crum, Adolph Rupp, John Calipari: 6

Consecutive tournament appearances

Western Illinois: 36

Kansas: 31

North Carolina: 27

Arizona: 25

Duke: 24

Michigan State: 23

Gonzaga: 22

Winning percentage

Ricky Charisma: 84.7

Mark Few: 83.44

Sam Burton: 83.33

Clair Bee: 82.444

Adolph Rupp: 82.1

John Wooden: 80.3

National championships

Ricky Charisma: 10

John Wooden: 10

Mike Krzyzewski: 5

Adolph Rupp: 4

Roy Williams: 3

Jim Calhoun: 3

Bobby Knight: 3

Who is the best player in Western Illinois history?

That’s the big question within the fanbase right now. Before we get to it, let’s look back at our greatest recruiting wins.

We landed five five-star recruits out of the domestic high school ranks during my time at Western Illinois. We also signed nine five-star JUCO recruits, and six five-star international recruits from places like New Zealand (shout-out Dave French), Montenegro (anti shout-out Vitor Andrisevic), France (what up, Kim Kone!), and Cameroon.

The highest-rated recruit in program history was Sammy Yan at No. 10 overall in 2032. He was pretty much a disappointment. The program’s all-time leading scorer was center Vinnie Harmon with 2,452 career points during his career. He was the No. 122 overall recruit and the No. 8 center (those that followed the series or played the game know that centers are always weirded underrated on the recruiting trail).

Here are some more numbers during tournament games only (aka, the games we streamed), from the amazing Leathernecks Database maintained by our fans:

The highest rated player in program history is a tie between small forward Nic Cummings and point guard Duncan Martinez, who are the only players to reach 97 overall. Cummings in particular is a great choice for the GOAT. He ended his career with three national titles, though only one as a starter. He’s top-10 for me, but not No. 1.

The people’s choice for the GOAT is Deke Van, the legendary center who helped carry us to our first national title in Year 8. Deke’s turn from from Year 7 goat to Year 8 GOAT is the most memorable we’ve ever had. We couldn’t have done any of this without you, Deke.

When Coach tell you youre guarding @deke_van https://t.co/RDhmDAPRA8 pic.twitter.com/fm2udgvMZT

— Ryan Thomas (@RTtheSID) May 10, 2020

As the series went on, other great players emerged who finished with gaudier stats and better resumes.

My personal favorite might be Bert Draughan, Mr. Basketball out of Chicago (No. 29 overall recruit), who went on to win a title with us in Year 13 and also starred for our Year 11 team that began the season 35-0 before losing to Michigan State in the Final Four. Harmon is another fine choice. Skip Clemmons helped us win three national titles in Year 23, Year 24, and Year 26. Albert Jagla, Clemmons’ former teammate, played a big role in our first back-to-back championship squad, and is arguably the greatest perimeter bucket-getter in program history.

All-time favorite moment? Impossible to say. The first one that comes to mind is Kim Kone’s go-ahead corner three in the 2024 tournament. Najeeb Goode’s steal vs. UCLA in the Final Four to help us win our second title in Year 13 also stands out. There was also the time superstar power forward Allen Cunningham took off his pants mid-game.

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Thank you to everyone who read, watched, and interacted

I started this series on April 11, 2020, a few weeks after the pandemic had shut down all ‘real’ sports. At the time, I was gearing up to cover the 2020 NCAA tournament. That never happened. I had college basketball on my mind, and I always wanted to write something on ‘College Hoops 2K8’, probably my favorite video game ever. This project is what came of it.

I had no idea if anyone was going to read this. I definitely did not think I’d finish out all 40 years like a complete lunatic. I didn’t think I’d write the equivalent of multiple books in terms of total word count.

Just before I dropped the first post in the series, I tweeted this:

Got a real dumb blog post coming

— Ricky O'Donnell (@SBN_Ricky) April 11, 2020

I wrote around 70 posts in the series, counting the inaugural Hall of Fame induction (read a big Deke Van retrospective at that link) and two posts of my Deke Van x Seattle Supersonics spin-off. I’m estimating I wrote 200,000 words in this series. That’s about the length of “The Fellowship of the Ring.”

I still can’t believe everything that came from this series. The Washington Post wrote a profile on it. I went on WGN TV and did a few radio spots promoting it. We sold a Deke Van t-shirt with Homefield Apparel. Our series inspired a new friend in Japan named Thanh Nguyen to write a pair of e-books adding greater depth to our story. Friend of the program Mike Rutherford did an amazing hype video for our first championship run. When I moved the series to Substack for a few months, more than 7,000 people signed up for email updates and still remain. Our first Twitch stream for the Year 8 Final Four drew more than 7,000 total viewers, and had 2,500 concurrent viewers on it at as we were closing out the win. On SB Nation, the series has been viewed more than 500K times.

What really made the project special was always the community around it. Some quick shout-outs:

The Leathernecks Database is an amazing companion to this series. You can lost in there. Thank you to the diehards to helped maintain it, and reader Evan for starting it.

Thanks to my guy who started the Leathernecks Nation instagram fan page and whoever is behind the wondrous fake Deke Van twitter account.

Thanks to everyone in the Discord who maintained ‘Necks discussion always and forever.

Thank the diehards that came out for every Twitch stream. I don’t want to name names because I’ll forget someone, but you know who you are. I love you all. I also want to thank the readers for keeping up with the recaps, and everyone who emailed me feedback throughout the series. I also want to thank my buddy Scott for introducing me to the game and running through multiple 40-year dynasties with me way before I ever considered blogging through it like this. This series would not exist without him.

What a ride it’s been. As I sim through to the end of the calendar, I’m greeted with this message.

Thank you, everyone. Go ‘Necks.

3 notes · View notes

sircnss · 4 years

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So, you want fill out a bracket

[insert captain america gif here]

attn.

@nctphx @acetrainermj @violagoth @chocolatspring @noonachronicles @uwunnie @little-writing-worm @aerislulu

HELLO AND WELCOME TO KPOP MARCH MADNESS: SEPTEMBER SONG ALBUM SHOWDOWN

I have made what I hope is a cohesive tutorial on how to fill out your brackets and whatnot. If you do have any further questions, please feel free to message me and I can always help out.

Everything will be under the cut to save your dash

But FIRST, why am I doing this again?

We lost all our concerts for the year (ty stray kids and eric nam for being the only in person concerts I got this year), I lost the opportunity to do poorly in the actual college basketball March Madness and we all need a tiny bit of fun in some form this year! All without having to actually leave and it is SUPER low stakes.

In fact, I do all of the work and you guys just campaign your little hearts out for your favorite album because the more votes (voting will take place on a google form, which will be covered later) the better and it makes the races more fun for me to watch.

The idea of a fandom March Madness started from a livejournal community waaaay back in the day and I never did well in that either lmao so the idea is 1,000% not mine originally.

tl;dr I participated in this back on LJ in the 2010s, it was fun and low stakes, I added the prize element in the middle of the March Edition.

WELCOME TO MY WORLD LET’S DO THIS

---

For purposes of this tutorial, I’ll be using a shortened version of the March Madness bracket.

Step one.

I will send you a link to the main bracket which is being done through Google Sheets, what I need you to do is to make a copy and title it [YOUR NAME]’s Bracket and then fill out the entire thing and then share it with me with editing access. I will most likely be making a copy for myself but I will only be editing yours to strike-through the loser of the round and bolding the winner so you don’t have to! Once you make the copy and shared it with me, all you have to really do from there is sit back, relax and vote/promote.

The first bracket, I believe it says Round of 64 on the bottom tab is the one we will be using!

Step two.

Below is what the contenders list looks like! In the case of song showdown, it’s done in groups and then ARTIST - ALBUM TITLE. This gets generated into the brackets!

Step three.

Click on the little check box for the choice you want, it will automatically move that choice to the next round.

Here it is again with the entire second round picked out, notice that nobody has been selected yet for the following rounds

Step four.

Repeat what you did in step three for the remainder of the rounds. Pick your favorite for each round and then repeat until it’s all filled out and you get a champion, your champion. The pick you know is that bitch and everyone else is wrong.

Step five.

Vote! How? You say? I will be obnoxious for approximately 3 days with reblogging a link to a google form where you can cast your votes.I’ll be tagging you in the initial post so you don’t get surprised when you see it the fifth time and your name suddenly has appeared. Share that post, bribe your friends, family, dogs. Campaign if you want! If you do campaign I will reblog it and come up with a tag to follow so you can see the cool campaigns. If I was graphically inclined I would do it for you but...I’m not. Anywho

The points!

If you look at this spreadsheet, you’ll see how many points each round is worth and how I let the spreadsheet do the math from there.

I believe that covers everything! Again, if there’s any questions, comments or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me.

My goal is to have the first round officially start on Tuesday, September 8th. So please expect a message this weekend with the link to the main bracket! Please remember make a copy, fill it out through the end and then share it with me again so I can make my own copy to keep track of the points and make the appropriate notations (bold and strike-through) with each round.

FAQ (these questions aren’t frequently asked but they could be)

1. March Madness made sense, why are we doing albums when it’s called September Song Showdown?

I was going to do this in April as a song showdown and now I realize it could have been April Album A-Something, but albums are easier to pick than songs and it’s September now. Maybe next September it’ll be a song Showdown.

2. You mentioned prizes???

Yes! I had a couple of friends who aren’t into kpop participate and I bribed them with a prize if they won and stuck to it when @chocolatspring won! Even though Gaby didn’t get her prize until like 2 weeks ago but it’s fine, I’ll be more on top of it this time just in time for the December holidays!

3. How do you know who goes in what spot?

Random.org/lists! I shuffle them 5-10 times and then go through and put them on the main spreadsheet, shown above in the actual tutorial.

4. How do you figure the points?

Spreadsheets, baby! Each round is worth a certain number of points, each album you pick that goes on to fight the next round will earn so many points, those points are then added up and triple checked before I put them on a separate spreadsheet. The spreadsheet does the math from there.

5. I won, so now what?

Congrats! You have the best intuition and convinced enough people to vote for your fave! On top of being announced as a winner on the final post, I’ll message you and you let me know what your choice of prize is (an album of your choice, a gift card or something else).

5.2 Wait, is this free?

20 bucks, venmo me. Kidding. The only person this will end up costing money for is me. Which is why when I say an album of your choice within reason, I mean I’m not going to say you're limited to a price range, but like...I can’t do a crazy expensive album.

6. What happens if I end up tanking just after the first round?

There’s no coming back after a bad round so welcome to...a second chance bracket! I don’t know how to do that yet, but you can continue to vote, promote, whatever your heart desires, but there will be a small thing I haven’t figured out yet for the person with the least amount of points.

7. Are you participating?

Yes! I don’t gain or lose anything from this so my points don’t really count. So if I do end up winning, the next highest amount is the actual winner.

8. Just to be clear, can people not filling out the brackets vote in the polls?

Yes! Share it on your twitter, reblog the post on your tumblrs! The more votes the merrier! Heck, I got my mom to play in March and showed her pictures and she chose based on that alone for her voting.

9. How long is each voting round going to remain open?

5 days. Rounds will be open Monday-Friday, I will make the initial post Monday and share it again throughout the day, a reminder on Wednesday and then finally on Friday with plenty of time before the form closes. Results will be shared Saturday afternoons and I will spend Sunday getting the new round ready.

#September song showdown #kpop March madness #dia makes a how to

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anthonycrowleymoved · 5 years

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HAIR SURVEY RESULTS TWO: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO

i know this was a long time coming. without further ado, i’m going to show you the final scores. then, if you so choose, you can go in and see my ~further analysis and information~ as well as other details and a comparison of lev’s earlier survey.

SO. here’s how it worked. i had a total of 561 people rank 16 of crowley’s hairstyles. i wanted people to rank the hairstyles to see if the results differed from when people were asked what their favorite overall style was. each person who gave a hairstyle a ranking of 1 contributed 16 points towards that style, 2 contributed 15 points, and so on. this means the lowest possible score a Look™ can get is 561, and the highest is 8976 (16 x 561)

OFFICIAL RANKINGS:

1. 2012 BUN - 7965

2. GOLGOTHA - 7108

3. PRESENT DAY - 7060

4. 2007 HAIR - 6988

5. MESOPOTAMIA - 6820

6. EDEN - 5547

7. 1941 (CHURCH SCENE) - 5406

8. 1967 - 4644

9. 2012 NANNY - 4146

10. BOOK!CROWLEY - 3650

11. 1970s - 3408

12. 33 AD (ROME) - 3040

13. 1601 (SHAKESPEARE) - 2770

14. 541 AD (KNIGHTS) - 2751

15. 1862 - 2708

16. 1793 (FRENCH REVOLUTION) - 2477

DISCUSSION OF OVERALL RESULTS

graphic representation of all of the results, in descending order. as you can see, bun was the runaway lead, with the next four highest scoring looks™ pretty close together. similarly, the shakespeare look, knight look, and sideburn look are all similarly hated.

fig. 2: scores sorted by in-universe order of appearance. i think it’s interesting to look at this and see that there seems to be....sort of a trend. in general people seem to like the very early looks and the very modern looks, with the lowest scoring looks all clumped together.

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS

now, i’d like to discuss the individual breakdown of each look™, to determine how universally it was liked or disliked, or alternately the distribution of votes

eden

eden had an average score of 9.89. people seemed pretty middle of the road on this look, with the occasional person either loving it or hating it. it’s a lot more divisive than a lot of his hairstyles for sure. (me, i personally thought it verged a bit into ‘bad wig’ territory, and i did see a couple people thinking the same)

mesopotamia

i was kind of surprised by this one being as low as it was! obviously it was in that grouping of popular hairstyles, but i feel like the general consensus you read on here is that this is the fan favorite. apparently not so. the average score was 12.16, however, which, not bad. people in general did tend to like this look, obviously, with a few holdouts scattered about

golgotha

fun fact! this is my personal favorite because, the headscarf. my god. iconic. and apparently y’all agree! it eeked out second place with an average score of 12.67

rome

so this is the first. not great look. people don’t seem to be crazy about this one. it had an average score of 5.41

knight look

“oh maggie why is this even here we can’t see his hair” It’s My Survey And I Get To Choose The Looks. but anyway. no one liked this. seriously. this is the first one that didn’t get a single person to give it the top spot. average score was 4.903, which also isn’t great.

1601

look, i know you’re supposed to be unbiased or whatever, but this is a tumblr survey and none of this matters. i hate this look. i hate it so much i often forget it exists out of self preservation. even now as i type this i know if i scroll up i’ll see that terrible facial hair, and i saw it like a minute ago when i uploaded the picture, but i can’t for the life of me remember what it looks like because my brain has put up a protective barrier. you all seem to agree with me, as the average score of this is just 4.94. excellent taste all around

1793

LAST PLACE. i don’t completely. GET. the hatred of this one. i found it to be. very middle of the road. fine i suppose. but the people have spoken with an average score of just 4.42. so what do i know

1862

another one no one said was their favorite. i mean. fair. this one had an average of 4.83, and many people said this was his most heterosexual look, and i agree. bad.

1941

this one seemed to be a bit middle of the road for people, which is kind of understandable. it’s a great hat, but i get that people like the more dramatique™ looks better. had an average score of 9.64, so like. not bad

1967

now this one was ALLLLL over the place. people love it, people hate it, people are indifferent. average score was 8.28, which, again, shows how split this one was. i for one welcome john lennon and joyce byers’ demon lovechild.

1970s

i’m so mad. average score was 6.07. this is my second favorite hairstyle overall. yes, seriously. anyway you all are wrong and that’s all i have to say about that have a good night

1990s

people kept asking me why i included the illustration from the modern cover of the book, and the primary reason was because i thought it would be funny, which is why i do most things. i also was kind of wondering what people would do with it, and the answer is seemingly ‘question why it was there.’ i wish there was a way i could have included ‘your own personal headcanon for what he looked like while reading the book,’ but alas this is as close as i could get. average score was 6.51. the people who gave said this was their favorite are my heroes, and one person described him as looking like an insurance salesman, which like. thank you from the bottom of my heart

2007

yeah. okay. i nicknamed this one ‘cursed’ in my master list. i don’t get it. i’m so sorry. i am like, the singular holdout who just can’t stand this hair. but i am very much in the minority, everyone else seems to love it. average score was 12.46. good for you, 2007 crowley. i will never understand you

2012 (Nanny)

this is the last....not great look. again, a bit all over the place. average score was 7.39.

2012 (Bun)

i LOVE this hairstyle, but i was blown away by how high it was on lev’s poll and i’m blown away again with how high it is here. i just feel like we collectively never talk about how much we love the bun look, and then when we’re asked we go feral. this had an average score of 14.19. how. gender, indeed.

present

ahhh, the classic tennant hair. a solid look. no one really seems to dislike it, it’s just. not everyone’s top spot. there’s nothing offensive about it, clearly, but i don’t think it sets anyone off like some of the other top contenders. and i’m slightly surprised how little we talk about this hairstyle considering how popular it is (and i get it, he looks like every lesbian i’ve ever had a crush on who was painfully out of my league), but again, that might be because it’s Tennant Classic™. average score was 12.58.

LEV DYKEIEL’S RESULTS VERSUS MAGGIE ANTHONYCROWLEY’S RESULTS: A BRIEF ANALYSIS

the main reason i wanted to do this in the first place was to see if the results changed at all from lev’s survey when i asked people to rank their choices rather than just choose their favorite. the answer is actually like, kind of! not majorly, but a bit. the comparison as it stands without the entries that did not appear on both lists:

if you want to see the changes more easily, i’ve done some color coding here:

as you can see, there were definitely some shifts, but what i’d like to focus on is the change in rank of the golgotha hair, the two that came in last place, and the sixties and seventies looks. for the golgotha hair, i suspect that because it was so close to the mesopotamia hair, the vote may have been split a bit, whereas here you could have realistically given both a good score. lev also said that in their results, after the 2012 bun look, 2007, present, and mesopotamia were kind of always in a bit of a tie with each other, whereas this was the case with mine with the addition of the golgotha hair. taking that into consideration i think it’s interesting that that one ended up getting second place.

i also think it’s interesting that france wasn’t in last place on lev’s poll, because there’s such a huge difference in points between the sideburn look and the french revolution look according to my numbers. however, as i said before, no one actually picked sideburns as their favorite on this survey, but there were a couple of people who like, loved the revolution hair. i think that may have ended up giving lev and i slightly different results, as the revolution hair is like ‘you either really love it for some reason (rare) or despise it’ and the 1860s hair is like ‘you either hate it or you’re lukewarm about it’.

similarly, the shift in rank in both the sixties and seventies looks is also interesting, because they both moved kind of significantly. i think the 60s look changed because, as i said, it seemed to be a pretty divisive look. people don’t seem to be agreed on how much they like it, so there are people really Into It who voted it as their favorite on lev’s, but there are also people who HATE IT. i think something sort of similar happened with the 70s look in the opposite direction. i think not many people LOVE it, but a lot of people kind it not to be like, the worst one. as a result it went up a bit because, while few people consider it their favorite (can’t relate), a few people were like ‘okay it’s fun’ and ranked it semi-high, or at least there was more of a distribution than some of the more hated looks. also it’s almost 2 am i hope this analysis makes sense because words. the english language.

ANYWAY THOSE ARE MY RESULTS I KNOW I PROMISED TABLEAU GRAPHICS BUT I FORGOT I NO LONGER HAVE A LICENSE FOR THAT BECAUSE I GRADUATED AND ALSO IT LOOKS FINE WITH THE GOOGLE GRAPHICS AND I DON’T WANT TO MAKE MY LIFE HARDER COOL BYE!

#shut up maggie #text #CAN U SEE ??? WHY THIS TOOK SO LONG #good omens #go #long post #but there should be a read more

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airlock · 4 years

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anyways, that other post was kind of lame, so let’s do a twofer today!

let’s tally the 15 most wanted siblings in the FE universe, and criticize that wanting

#1: CAMILLA (1741 votes)

anime was a mistake.

#2: CLAUDE (1532 votes across all appearances)

"mom said it’s my turn on the xbox”, you roar triumphantly. nonplussed, claude hands you the controller. with a hearty sip of your mountain dew, you start playing master chief or forthnight or whatever it is you feel like playing on an xbox.

all of a sudden, you feel a violent stomach cramp. it is claude’s turn on the xbox

#3: IKE (1484 votes across all appearances)

oh yeah, because being related to ike has worked out so well for everyone who’s tried it so far,

just settle for the found family angle, why don’tcha

#4: ASHE (1087 votes across all appearances)

let’s face it, this is really less about being ashe’s sibling and more about adopting him again. ... and you know what? fair enough. give this poor fella his third shot at having a family

#5: ELISE (919 votes)

oh god oh fuck, watch what you’re doing with that sword

#6: SHARENA (869 votes)

I guess being Sharena’s sibling would be great specifically if you’re looking to break out of your shell. if you need someone close to you who can prod you forward and drag you along to any number of interesting functions, sure. but if you don’t particularly feel like being forced to wear the bunny costume, maybe reconsider this vote

#7: MERCEDES (811 votes across all appearances)

hope you enjoy being Emile v2.0, because the caveat to her being your Big Sister is that she will 100% put you in that position

#8: EDELGARD (804 votes across all appearances)

man, I can’t believe 804 people just volunteered to die in an unethical experiment

#9: CORRIN (688 votes across all genders)

there’s something funny about how, out of this game that is totally about choosing one or another set of siblings, the third most popular pick is the character who’s stuck making the choice to begin with. it’s like, maybe the real sibling is the one we found along the way

#10: EIRIKA (649 votes)

that’s a lead of nearly 130 votes on her brother, because clearly we understand which of the two would really be pleasant to have as a sibling

#11: NINO (627 votes)

yes! yesss!! adopt th

#12: SLEUF (592 votes)

oh hey, it’s been a while since the presumable fereddit prank vote actually broke top 15

I wouldn’t wish it on him, though, because if my brother told me something cryptic and said I would “understand it later”, I would strangle him

#13: BERNADETTA (588 votes)

living in the same house as her is no remedy for the door-to-face interaction,

altho I also accept this one as an adoptionvote

#14: LUCINA (574 votes, possibly with uncounted change)

unfortunately, this option is only viable if you can squash the bug yourself

#15: TIKI (531 votes across all appearances, including TMS#FE)

I guess the thing you’d definitely find out in this process is how to have a sibling of the exact same, across each point of your own aging process

the big upshot is that you potentially get to do this, though, so you know what? fantastic idea. adopt she

HONORABLE MENTIONS (highest vote in their continuity, without reaching top 15)

Alm (310 votes): picture the sibling who thinks they’re helping if they offer to beat up your schoolyard bullies. now imagine you can’t stop him, like at all

Plumeria (222 votes): in case you were wondering, that’d be this poll’s Unfunny Quota. considering how much less of a result it’s had compared to the other ones, seems clear to me that even the people who were unfunny enough to start making this joke still largely got tired of it at some point along the 5 entire polls

so there we have it! now, let’s get your thoughts onto my replies and reblogs! did you just pick someone adorable, even though that’s not remotely how siblinghood goes- ahem.

#anniversary poll critique series #my stupid text posts #Fire Emblem is tagged in this post #Fire Emblem Heroes is tagged in this post

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natures-cunning-ways · 6 years

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The Great Kiss Poll results are in...

Thank you to all 266 people who voted. I don’t think there are many surprises here, so let’s just get straight to the results. The winner, with 27.8% of the vote, was Bergamo. It is therefore crowned the most popular kiss. If you’re forgotten it, it looks like this:

It was very closely followed by the first kiss/the berm with 27.1% of the vote. Yes, you read correctly, there was less than 1% between them.

Most people gave a second and third choice. I had a play around with giving the different choices points and adding them up (e.g. 3 points for a first choice, 2 for second, 1 for third) but however you look at it, you end up with basically the same results.

The only slight difference in order is if you add up every vote- so first, second or third choice all get 1 vote. As you can see below, the first kiss gets very slightly more overall votes than Bergamo- therefore the highest number of people have the first kiss as one of their top 3 kisses compared to the others.

(The after midnight kiss is the least popular whichever way you look at it. I don’t like to judge but what’s wrong with you all? It’s not my absolute favourite but everything about that kiss is gorgeous. Call me by your name and I’ll call you by mine, Elio, Oliver, Elio, Oliver, Elio... let’s seal this deal with a kiss, Elio grabs Oliver, Oliver with his eyes closed, blissfully happy, Elio with his eyes open, rolling onto Oliver... Anyway. Back to the point. Got distracted there for a moment.)

And there were a lot of comments. They’re below the cut if anyone’s interested!

Comments- alphabetically, just because that’s how the spreadsheet organised them.

((cries internally))

Actually my fav is the one i havent seen yet!!!

All of them make me cry and but at the same time

All of these are legendary but I guess the hip rolling really did me in and I chose that (Midnight) as my fave. Peach is the second because it's SO intimate, they are the most naked here emotionally and literally. I chose garden to finish my top3 because it's just so tender and lovely. I mean that could be said about each of these but since u made me evilly choose.... And I've got no idea how much I've written here because I only see this one line so I'll stop here. Have a lovely weekend and can't wait to see what is the fandom consensus

Bergamo is still the hottest

Choosing was the hardest thing ever

Cruel to make us choose!!!!

Gahhh the amount of sheer love in these gifsets makes my heart lurch

I can watch a 2 hour movie with those 2 just kissing. You think Luca could give that to us? Seriously, though, thanks for doing this!

I could watch the Bergamo kiss until the day I die

I like the garden because Timmy/Elio is so thirsty for his boy.

I love all the kissing!

I love them. Love to see how they touch each other, how they kiss, how they want to eat each other. I adore them.

I love you for this poll but I hate you for making me choose!!

I surprised myself by not picking Bergamo which is supposed to be THE kiss...

I'm in love with this survey, keep it up!

Im pretty sure this is the most difficult poll ive ever taken

It's really hard to choose all of them so so good. Thanks for this research and stay peachy!

Just love em

My fave is the Garden that evening. Timmy leans in and is controlling the kisses - maybe 1st tongue??

Not nearly enough kisses

Now I live here! Do I have to send or can I watch some more? Fuck! Ok bye!

Out of all the polls I’ve taken in my life this one is the best by far.

Peach scene because a) raw emotion and tenderness b) skin

Such a hard decision

Thank you for this heaven!

That little foot rub scene and how close they seemed even then, rubbing his hands on elios legs so lovingly and the little foot kiss afterwards

The first kiss scene is going to be remembered in film history as one of the most iconic kissing scenes ever.

The garden is the best but couldn’t see jt

The kisses feel so different to me. I find myself watching different ones at different times depending on what mood I’m in. The peach scene kiss makes me tear up. Bergamo almost makes me gasp for breath. With midnight/after midnight their being together just feels so right, after waiting so long. For weeks the garden scene was my favorite for the way Elio falls in to Oliver. And you can’t beat the anticipation from the first kiss. I love them

the peach kiss isn't the prettiest, but it's the charmiest

They are all perfect

They're all amazing but I'll never get over that kitten lick. The Post Midnight, Garden and Bergamo kisses all ended too soon.

They're all ridiculously well-done. This is impossible. Kinda have to vote by emotional weight instead of the kiss itself because the chemistry is off the charts in all of them. First, Peach, Midnight, Garden, Bergamo, After

This film singlehandedly revives the Art of the Kiss. Thanks so much 4 the poll!!

THIS IS CRUELTY I LOVE THEM ALL

This was impossible. I may have already changed my mind.

This was really hard to choose!

Toughest poll yet.

Unpopular opinion: I think Armie chickens out of the Bergamo kiss by wrapping his arm round Timmy in the classic Hollywood fake kiss fashion way... so we can't see their mouths anymore.

you're doing the lord's work, thank you

#the great kiss poll #kisses #cmbyn #cmbyn fandom #science #statistics

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snkpolls · 6 years

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SnK Chapter 105 Poll Results

RATE THE CHAPTER

1,749 Responses

78.5% of the fandom reacted positively to “Assassin’s Bullet”, rating it a 4 or 5. While still high, this is down 20% from last month.

"Did you not understand the contents?" - Isayama, probably

I cried because of a work of fiction for the first time because of chapter 105. Isayama has achieved something not even Up or Infinity War could not. Great writing on Isayama's part & I am excited to see where he takes this story to next. Also, WERE GOING BACK TO PARADIS AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH

Holy fucking shit. I read the chapter before work and I lost my mind. I couldn't process anything and then Sasha was shot. I flipped! An amazing and incredible chapter.

My reaction to chapter 105 is basically just lying face-down on the floor.

EDITOR-KUN; YOU FAILED THIS FANDOM!!!!!

Depressing. Amazing. I'm dying.

ASIDE FROM SASHA’S DEATH, WHAT MOMENT WAS MOST EMOTIONAL FOR YOU?

1,722 Responses

Connie’s sweet OT3 embrace and admission that Jean and Sasha were special to him topped the list of emotional moments. “All of the above” and Eren’s mental breakdown at the news of Sasha’s death came in 2nd and 3rd.

At this point I numb myself and just ignore each chapter after I read it because it's getting too painful and I just wanna live my life you know

Attack on Suffering

Connie can not catch a fucking break.

Potato girl's death hit me hard, especially after that look on her face when Connie hugged Jean and herself. Poor Connie, the new master of suffering!

This chapter has had me so depressed. It's been days and I'm still not over Sasha, I still can't believe Potato Girl is gone forever. I'm worried for Eren, for what this loss of faith from the others will do to him, for the distance between him and Armin and Mikasa. Their strained dynamic is HEARTBREAKING.

WHICH MOMENT SURPRISED YOU MOST?

1,694 Responses

In a chapter filled with great moments, leaning the identity of Rope-kun was picked as most surprising with 30% of the vote. Confirmation that Zeke was working with Paradis came in a distant second.

I hate this. I have resisted SO HARD, for SO LONG. One hundred and five chapters later, I'm finally (FINALLY) invested in a Levi storyline. How dare you, Isayama? How dare you Jaime Lannister me this way?

I can't believe the paid actor bs was actually true lol. But I'm sure Zeke has his own objective and isn't actually on Paradis side even though they might benefit from his plans.

On chapter 105: arguably the best chapter so far in my opinion. It had so much going on. I was so excited to see the Zeke betrayal theory confirmed. Also even though Sasha is dead I feel really bad for Gabi. She's as much a victim in this as everyone.

ON A SCALE OF 1-5, HOW CHOKED UP WERE YOU OVER SASHA'S UNTIMELY DEATH?

1,743 Responses

We knew it was coming, we’ve been talking about it for years, still more than half the fandom was profoundly affected by Sasha’s death. At the other extreme, 22% expressed ambivalence.

SaShAaAaAaAaAaAaAaaaaaaaaaaa I will still be crying next month

I feel nothing about Sasha's death, mainly because she was saved by the editor before something I dislike happening. Another motive for my apathy related to her death is because of the massive nosense hate Gabi is receiving. People forget she's just kid, brainwashed and she doesn't know Paradis like we do or Reiner does.

Erwin was my favourite male character and Sasha was my favourite female character. Isayama Sensei, I don’t feel so good…

I can't really bring myself to care about Sasha's death. She's been dragged along for over 70 chapters now and it was time for her to die.

I have mixed feelings about Sasha's death. On the one hand I think had she died when she was supposed too, I would have felt more emotional about it. On the other hand, I'm glad there was another girl from the 104th still there during the RtS arc, and I liked her reactions there as well.

I'm still not over it and will probably be mourning Sash for the rest of my life.

I am still sad! I will be heartbroken if we see Sasha's family in the next chapter

WHOSE REACTION TO SASHA’S DEATH AFFECTED YOU MOST?

1,692 Responses

Isayama outdid himself with the various expressions of grief in this chapter. The fandom was divided three ways, but it was Connie’s quiet heartbreak that prevailed by a slim margin.

Now my two favourite SnK girls are dead. I knew that this could happen, but being killed because of Marcel or by Gabi... It was really twisted. Mikasa's cry broke me, because she was one of Sasha's best friends.

Eren's reaction to her death was very disturbing. At first I thought he was overcome with grief and crying, but upon further inspection he was laughing like a maniac.

we knew sasha was going to die for years now but that fuck! that really didn't have to happen!

Why did sasha have to die isayama :( She was a gorgeous woman with a great personality and just fjsfkskfkd FUCK OFF CONNIE DIDN’T DESERVE THIS KIND OF BIRTHDAY PRESENT

Isayama, why?

THE FANDOM IS DIVIDED ABOUT SEVERAL CHARACTERS. WHAT’S YOUR OPINION ON THEM?

Falco is best boy and Floch is worst. Isayama scored only marginally better than Zeke. Levi received 60 more marriage proposals than Eren. Yelena got the highest number of kisses.

We did some digging into the poll numbers to see which platform was most compassionate when it comes to Gabi. Discord and Instagram were the kindest, with 61% and 64% of respondents selecting “marry/adopt” or “kiss”. Tumblr was next with 54%. Reddit was the harshest. 2/3rds of all reddit respondents selected “kill” for Gabi.

OMG throw Floch out of the zeppelin the fucking shitbrain smartass.

WTF happened to Floch I thought initially he would be a voice of reason but evidently not…

Falco you cinnamon roll, too precious for this world, so pure and smol.

Gabi should feel the might of Ogweno's knee for all eternity.

Gabi is a precious bean! Don't talk to me or my daughter ever again!

Gabi can do us all a favor and swerve into oncoming traffic

Eren did nothing wrong

eren is irredeemable and now the villain.

Wanna kill and marry Eren at the same time.

I'm flying to japan to fist fight isayama

Definitely wanna marry Levi. Wanna hug all 104th squad (even sasha) and also the warriors and kids, they deserve it.

Isayama's story is practically screaming against wanting to kill traumatized kids, no matter their actions. *side eyes fandom discourse on Gabi, wonders if humanity is doomed*

Kiss Isayama, maybe If you gave him some Love, He would stop being so cruel.

IT’S NOW CLEAR THAT EREN ACTED WITHOUT THE PERMISSION OF THE SURVEY CORPS. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT THE SURVEY CORPS IS BEING TOO HARSH ON HIM?

1,716 Responses

Eren received quite the scolding when he arrived on the airship. Nearly half of the fandom agreed that he deserved the harsh treatment, while about 28% of the fandom thinks that the Survey Corps could have handled the situation a little better.

If only the blimp’s door would’ve been closed earlier. I’m hoping the SC does realize that they’re being too harsh on Eren in upcoming chapters.

Honestly I'm surprised they threw the blame. Not actually surprised surprised. But in the past it was always push forward and keep moving with no regrets. And it seems they have fallen back on that. I think even though Eren's actions aren't justified and I don't think he's an innocent bean, but he managed to take a lot from the enemy with his move, with a minimal loss.

Eren didn't do anything that the SC hasn't done to him many times. Using him as bait is always their go to plan.

Erwin didnt lose an arm for this.

I see a lot of people excusing Eren's actions because things mostly worked out in Paradis's favor. However, that doesn't mean that A) it was a good decision, B) the survey corps couldn't have come up with an even better plan that--among other things--may have lessened civilian and foreign diplomat deaths, had they been given the time and opportunity, or C) that Eren should be let off the hook for going AWOL and teaming up with the foreign operative responsible for their commander's death. I still like him as a character, but Eren did a fucked up thing that is sure to have international consequences, and he more than deserved that kick and the distrust of his allies.

WHAT BEST DESCRIBES YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT EREN’S ACTIONS?

1,677 Responses

We still don’t know the full story behind Eren’s actions, but regardless of his intentions, many people were hurt in the process. 46% of the fandom believes that Eren’s actions will result in a positive outcome, while over half the fandom is either undecided until they have more information, or cannot look past what he did at all.

Team Eren! The losses are nothing compared to the gains. The world had declared war anyway, and they'd already de facto been at war for a decade. Wiping out an entire fleet, capturing the Warhammer, and successfully extracting Zeke was more than worth it. Very said about Sasha though, of course. Can't wait to go back home to Paradis again. Falco and Gabi are going to have their minds blown.

I believe that if Eren and the SC worked together with their plans and made compromises for one another then the result could've been even better, since Eren would have an entire military intelligence to help and not a man [Zeke] that can't truly be trusted.

He acted independently without the approval of the Paradise Government to terrorise a festival full of civilians. His actions resemble a terrorist, arrested is being let off easily. Jean is right about the situation, Eren is the biggest reason Sasha is dead, he manipulated the Military Operation in which she died.

Eren told Reiner he now understands RBA's actions...but neverthless he's repeating them, even more cruelly perhaps. If he won't understand that the cycle of violence must be stopped in order to reach real freedom then I don't think he will ever get a happy end (beside the fact that he's going to die at 23 anyway)

I'm glad that we finally got confirmation that Eren was just his usual egoistic self that went on his own and everyone has to save his sorry ass. Again. Bless Hanji for calling him out and roasting him once again. Can't wait to see another jail time for Eren. (Though I have the feeling he will get around it or that it will be skipped.) Too bad Eren just doesn't give a flying fuck about being punished or losing the trust of his comrades as long as he got his will.

Give eren a break please. He deserves it.

Erwin is turning in his grave.

Erwin would have called Eren a hero.

JEAN BLAMES EREN FOR SASHA’S DEATH. DO YOU?

1,685 Responses

Jean didn’t hesitate to call Eren out for being the catalyst for Sasha’s death. 49% agree that Eren isn’t solely to blame and that many parties are responsible, while 11% agree with Jean completely.

Death happens in random ways, if it’s heroic or humble, no one should get blamed for it since it is gonna happen one day or another,

In the end we can all blame Ymir Fritz for this fucked up planet this story takes place on.

War means death and they are clearly in war. So many people already died and Sasha was one of the many victims of war. She was not murdered by Eren or his decisions in my opinion.

None is at fault or everyone is at fault. Early celebration, no spotter for the guy that had yet to board the zeppelin in enemy territory, Eren forcing their hand to act prematurely all being part of it. But none can be single-handedly blamed.

War is hell. People die. If Eren didn't invade, they'd get invaded, and someone would die.

I think he's very emotional at that moment and is blaming Eren but in reality there are a number of attributing factors.

bit of all of these, but mostly war is war. it's amazing beyond belief new-squad-levi all survived as long as they did, and thru everything that has happened thus far. I'd argue the casualties had Paradis not taken the initiative blow could have been that much more devastating

ZEKE FAKED HIS DEATH AND IS TRAVELING TO PARADIS. WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THIS?

1,683 Responses

With one big Zekeret out of the way, we asked the fandom whether they feel he is to be trusted or not. Nearly half the fandom agrees that Zeke’s only real alliance is with Eren, sharing a goal to free Eldia. A small 10% believe his intentions are genuine. The remainder of the fandom is still wary about his intentions altogether.

Do NOT drop your guard. I trust Zeke about as far as I can throw him, and since my 100-pounds-soaking-wet best friend can beat me in arm wrestling, it's safe to say that that's NOT very far.

He's too cold - I don't trust him in the slightest. He probably still wants to end this tragic history - but in a final-for-all-humanity kind of way. He must be stopped!

I don't think he's being 100% genuine. I think he has his personal goals and his own versions of a free Eldia. There will be so Sure, he's supporting Eren but, I still think that he has his personal agenda, so I don't know if he just wants to free Eldia just because.

Zeke is concerned with Zeke. I think he was once tasked with the Owl's legacy as well, but now wants to double-cross everyone.

Zeke wants to try sour cream really badly

I believe that Zeke is working more or less for his own goals which is a free Eldian continent. Any alignment with the SC is because heads like Hanji support that ideal. Zeke also has personal interest in his brother and I doubt that he would stay on the SC or even Eren's side all that long if they conflicted with that goal.

DO ZEKE AND EREN HAVE THE SAME GOAL NOW THAT THEY CAN ACTIVATE THE COORDINATE?

1,686 Responses

For now it seems that Zeke and Eren likely allied due to a shared interest to free their people. But 55% of the fandom believe it’s too early to make that judgement call.

I'm unsure the Yeager brothers have quite the same desired outcome in mind. I wonder if they have different ideas of what "saving Eldia" actually means; On Zeke's part it could be saving all of them period. On Eren's, it may just be Paradisians. And if a disconnect like that exists, I can only imagine what their vision is of how to accomplish it. I think Eren's heart is still trying to stay in the right place but his mind can't be trusted to make sound, beneficial decisions.

I believe Zeke has his own agenda and it worries me. There is also the chance of Eren coming in terms with sacrificing Historia when "royal" Zeke starts doing his own thing.

Zeke is working with eren for as long as it conveniences him, but as soon as it doesn’t go his way he won’t hesistate to turn on him

Not at all. Zeke is the least trustworthy character of the series, I wouldn't be surprised if he was actually manipulating Eren. I wouldn't trust Zeke as far as I could throw him.

I'm a bit worried about Zeke's influence on Eren and his true agenda...as much as I want to believe Zeke is a great big brother, I'm still a bit suspicious.

ARMIN AND EREN'S REUNION PARALLELS THEIR REUNION IN THE UPRISING ARC, ALTHOUGH THIS TIME NO SMILES WERE SHARED. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FROM THEIR RELATIONSHIP MOVING FORWARD?

1,685 Responses

Now that we’re starting to see the effects of EMA separation, it’s clear that Eren and Armin’s relationship is strained. Almost half of the fandom believe that they will work through it and remain friends, while many are apprehensive and think that things can go either way. Only a small amount believe that their friendship is still solid, and just a slightly larger amount believe their friendship is dead.

I expect them to become more distant while still caring about each other. Isayama stated that they would chose different paths anyway.

Eren has become shady, untrustworthy and even more reckless in a colder sense. Armin is less warm hearted, still quite emotional, and it probably hurts to see his best friend, Eren, become what he has. Mikasa has clearly grown. She doesn't care for Eren as much as she did before, and while she definitely still does care, she's less impulsive and shortsighted to what Eren has become. They've all grown. They've all grown as individuals. They've all grown apart. They say you become what you hate the most, which is only relevant in certain circumstances, but it's never been more represented than by Eren.

LEVI COMPARED EREN TO THE PEOPLE HE USED TO SEE WHEN HE LIVED IN THE UNDERGROUND. WHAT DO YOU THINK HE MEANT?

1,686 Responses

Levi expressed a sad and disappointed look at Eren as he likened him to the people from the underground city. 53% of the fandom believe that this is due to the lack of passion in Eren’s expression, while a good 33% believe it has more to do with Eren’s underhanded behavior by defecting from the Survey Corps.

Eren reminded him of his younger self.

I think Eren may have reminded Levi of his childhood, (while Eren was sitting there). Eren has become filthy, shady, untrustworthy, rogue and looked lifeless- much like the people of the Underground.

Is Eren's comment "did you not understand the letter" a reference to Levi's lack of education during his upbringing?

when Levi first met Eren, he decided to look after him because he saw something in Eren, a fire, a desire for life. now that fire is nowhere to be seen, Eren is just doing what he has to do to survive, like the people in the underground. Levi used to be one of those people and it’s not a coincidence that Eren’s expression parallels that of young Levi. So we could say that Levi didn’t expect Eren, of all people, to become like that.

Eren is evolved from edgy teenager to protagonist od scandinavian crime stories. He only need alkoholism to fullfile the picture

I believe it was a response to Eren's impertinence in asking whether Levi did not understand the contents of the letter, Eren said it in a challenging way, or could be a commentary on Eren's miserable state, but I believe it to be the first, this was my first impression while reading the chapter

DO YOU BELIEVE THAT GABI WILL BE SWAYED ON HER VIEWS OF PARADIS?

1,654 Responses

Close to 70% think Gabi will soon learn the difference in offering someone less than half a potato. In Marley it makes you the worst of all the devils, but on Paradis, that makes you best girl.

I might be in the minority but I really like Gabi, I find her really interesting and she has the potential to act as a foil to Eren. She has the opportunity to see the other side of the conflict and change her ways and possibly help put a stop to the fighting.

I'm excited to start seeing what paradis has been up to and what falco and gabi will think of the walldians

She's been indoctrinated, mistreated, and trained to kill her whole life, which is an absolutely sickening thing to see happen to a child. I do hope that by going to Paradis she may finally start seeing things the way Falco does.

She has been raised in pro-marley family, she strongly believed that people from Paradis were evil, she saw death of her best friends and believed that her goal was lost because of attack. I believe that Gabi will change her mind about the whole situation soon.

Yeah, yeah, we all get that she has her own perspective, but she is crazy. She acts out of impulse and has a one track mind

I would like to see Floch shouting with Gabi. Or pushing her off the zeppelin.

gabi saved the manga, let her kill more

GABI CALLED FALCO INTERESTING THINGS DEPENDING ON WHICH TRANSLATION YOU READ. WHICH WOULD YOU WANT ON YOUR TOMBSTONE?

1,685 Responses

Over forty percent thought the Scottish ”You’ve been a great cunt” would summarize their life. An almost equal amount preferred being called either a great bastard or a great friend. Only 17.5% want people to think of them as a great guy once they’re gone.

Surprisingly enough nobody mentioned Falco being a great cunt in the comments. Gabi on the other hand...

HANGE HAS LOST ALL TRUST IN EREN. HAVE YOU?

1,693 Responses

While more than 72% still have confidence in Eren, more than a quarter of the fandom now views him as untrustworthy.

Whatever Eren does, I feel like he's justified because he only has what, a fucking year left and he's just trying to fix what he can. He knows that he is going to die and doesn't give a shit because he cares about the greater good, even if that means losing all his trust from.. well everyone.

"Hange has lost all trust in Eren. Have you?" I have. If 'Humanity's Greatest Hope' suddenly ran off and had some of our people killed for his own plan, then manipulated us so that we had to go along with said plan, (without trying to 'make a compromise'/'have a mature discussion about it'), I would lose all trust as well.

Everyone's deaths are on Eren's shoulders here. He went off like a loose cannon and acted on his own, putting everyone at risk. The Survey Corps losses are his responsibility and his alone.

Excited for the next coz we're most likely see Paradis after 4 years timeskip. I'm still bitch about Hange saying losing their trust in Eren. RIP Sasha Blaus

Eren betrayed their trust, but in return he got what he needed with very minimal casualties. And it's not like he didn't care.

TRAPDOOR-KUN WAS REVEALED TO BE ZEKE’S FOLLOWER YELENA. WE’RE ASKING THE REAL QUESTIONS HERE. IS SHE HOT OR NOT?

1,676 Responses

The “nays” prevailed by a razor thin margin. When we segmented this data by single platform we found Tumblr to be far more appreciative of Yelena’s appearance. 60% of Tumblr users selected “bae”. The opposite was true of Reddit where 62% selected “nay”.

bless this chapter for giving us lesbian Pieck and another ship with a great height difference and blonde/brunette visuals (eruri, yumukuri, kenuri, reibert... I see what you do there, Isayama).

I'd let Yelena lead me to a trap door.

Yelena X Levi

Yelena x Pieck

Yellena/Zeke fics when?

WILL EREN EVER GET HIS SHOE BACK?

1,638 Responses

72% hope the boi gets his shoes back in chapter 106. We have nothing more to say about this, but it’s a good place to drop some of the cracky comments we received.

Did they bring sour cream to the party on the airship?

its laurel not yanny

"THATS IT! NO LOBOV! IM MAKING MY OWN POLL!"

2/10 not enough snails

I've seen official art of Levi being a chef before, I'm wondering what kind of meal he's planning to turn Zeke into. A Beast-Titan Burger? A Zeke Zucchini? Or perhaps an Ackerman sandwich?!

WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF LEVI ALLYING WITH ZEKE?

1,668 Responses

While 17% of the fandom enjoyed Zeke and Levi’s exchange and appreciate their dynamic, 74% agree that Levi is getting no pleasure from this alliance and is cooperating strictly because humanity demands it.

it was really interesting seeing them interact, the tension was palpable and the conversation hilarious (though I know it was pretty serious).

Almost shipping Zevi but I want to keep my pov rational and logical so yeah, they hate each other but they'll work together for the mankind's benefits

As the supreme lord of ironic Zevi shipping, I am torn between that and the canon facts that Levi wants to gut him.

Clearly he is there for Levi's fine ass

I have no real opinion but I’m slightly disheartened by the first option for this answer. This might be one of the more disturbing ships.

He will keep his promise and kill Zeke in the end. Whenever that will be.

I love the hate-flirting but for real, Levi loved Erwin and has to get revenge for him

SNK is going to become the first mainstream goru-omorashi-amputee yaoi series

They hate each other but have to work with each other given the circumstances but really I'm super into enemies-to-lovers ships

Ohohoho, ahahahaha, ahahhahahahahahahahhahaha. All 3, really.

You guys are disgusting, I hope Zeke dies soon horribly

wtf dude?

DO YOU THINK YELENA IS AN ACKERMAN?

1,679 Responses

Almost 90% of the fandom believe Levi and Mikasa will remain the sole Ackermans of the story. 10% believe Zeke might have found an Ackerman ally of his own.

Hope Yelena is an Ackerman. That way we will have a person whose strength is comparable to Levi or Mikasa, but she is from the enemy party (is it really an enemy party or not. idk even.) It will be very interesting to see if Ackermans work for different sides.

Yelena will 100% be this series Brienne of Tarth, but unfortunately I don't think Zeke will get a redemption arc like Jamie Lannister did.

Chapter 104 Questions

THERE'S BEEN SOME COMPARISONS BETWEEN BERT AND ARMIN'S COLOSSAL TITAN FORMS. WHICH IS TRUE FOR YOU? CHECK ALL THAT APPLY.

The majority feels both Bertolt’s and Armin’s Collosal Titan are a good reflection of their respective owners. 37.8% think both titans are impressive as well. Bert’s (33%) iconic Colossal Titan is prefered over Armin’s (20.7%). When asked which CT is more powerful, four times as many people seem to think Bert’s was. And 21.5% can’t be bothered with this question at all.

DID JEAN HESITATE TO KILL FALCO?

1,646 Responses

Nearly 6 of 10 respondents think Jean hesitated to kill the cinnamon roll. 22.1% think he was ready to shoot a hole in the vanilla bean donut, while about 1 out of 5 people aren’t sure.

jean hesitated to kill falco but he still aimed perfectly at him and pulled the trigger if it wasn’t for pieck shifting the spear direction with her steam falco would have been killed. blown to pieces.

keep the kids away from him will you?

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE ARMORED TITAN'S NEW FORM?

1,709 Responses

Just when we thought Reiner couldn’t become any more beautiful, Isayama gives us the doki doki version of the armored titan. Unfortunately only 25.9% agree with us. A similar number of people just want Reiner to die. Maybe it’s because you wish to be his mercy angel, maybe because the unarmored titan now haunts your dreams and you’d like to be able to sleep again. That’s what 26.9% of you at least seem to hope for. Over a fifth of all respondents just wants Beardner back.

Reiner looks good with the beard but isayama doesn’t know how to draw facial hair properly most of the time so i hope it’s gone for good

Just let Reiner die man, he’s gone through so much just let him R E S T

It feels like Reiner half-assed his transformation and what we saw was the result.

RIP plot armor

WHO GOT THE WAR HAMMER TITAN'S POWER?

1,670 Responses

It seems obvious that Eren got the Warhammer titan, but 12.3% of you are still holding out hope that Porco drank the Tybur flavored protein smoothie.

WH’s death was unexpectedly brutal.

I don't see why it's believed that Eren didn't get the warhammer power. You could see the flash that we have seen before, along with the expression in which is the same of when he receives memories.

Why is there still discussion over who got the WHT? We got a very clear shot of Eren getting some sort of "flash" while inside his Titan. I'll watch the live-action movie if I'm wrong.

IS PIECK GOING TO SURVIVE?

1,662 Responses

The verdict is clear: 87.5% think Pieck will live. Let’s hope she’ll be able to meet Yelena again before shifteraids strikes ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).

I know we've seen Ymir survive much worse, but I think Pieck might die. Her pantzersquad is toast, Zeke is gone, I can't imagine Pieck as she is will be useful without either to support her. I think she's on death's door and they're going to try to pass her power onto Colt.

I do hope that Pieck's not gonna die yet. Isayama already killed a major character. And he once stated in an interview that he would kill jist one for now.

she's probably safe for now, but I don't see what else she'd be needed for story-wise now that she's revealed Zeke was a traitor

I'm mad Pieck is still alive.

WHO WILL BE THE MOST DEPRESSED GOING FORWARD?

1,684 Responses

“You get a clinical depression! And you get a clinical depression! EVERYBODY GETS A CLINICAL DEPRESSION!” More than half of you think Reiner will be the most depressed, while almost a ¼ of all respondents think Connie will be. Porco has about 13% of all votes.Most of you think Pieck will be okay (or more okay than anyone else on the list).

ALL OF THE ABOVE

gheez stop providing me more depressing options

Omg, you are cruel people, I can't choose one

The fans. We cannot watch, yet we cannot look away.

the state of all the Survey Corps members (except for Floch, fuck him) is, in my opinion, the worst. Reiner's is obviously horrible, too; but for some reason, the fact that he's so okay with giving up almost makes me less worried about him. Death, for me, has always been sadder when the person who passed had adamantly wanted to stay alive.

when Reiner wakes up and wants to die because of everything that happened, let me die with him

A couple years ago one Connie was half of Reiner in terms of height, and now he has half of Braun's agony, great character development for my boy

I think Sasha dying was something that needed to happen but can Connie catch a fucking break, Isayama, holy shit

Me T____T

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES?

1,665 Responses

Reddit reigns supreme, but compared to previous months, Tumblr is up 5% while Reddit is down the same amount. Discord participation is also up marginally.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE CHAPTER?

314 Responses

We received over 300 responses, and several of those weren’t even in English:

Должен же уже кто-то наказать Эрена?

Кто-то должен наказать тебя за ответ не на английском.

PAS SASHAAAAAA VOUS AVIEZ PAS LE DROIT DE LA TUERRRRRR :'''''''(

Où était éditeur-kun?

Jokes aside, enjoy more of the comments from this chapter:

Finally, the meat of the story

We got dem zekerets

I'm really worried about this new Eldian empire, that is not going to go well. So many questions to ask about what was happening on the Paradis side during the timeskip, I think it is time for some flashbacks in the next couple of chapters.

Fuck this whole depressing reality.

I just really want Zeke to die at this point. I don't care how he's working with Eren or the SC. It's his fault Erwin died, he ruins everything, he fucked over Reiner and Bert, and he's obviously going to fuck over the SC too.

I feel like everyone will (soon) have to come to terms with the fact that the Yeagerbros' plan was the right/only choice, as shown by them going silent after Eren and Zeke point out the benefit of this operation.

I refuse sasha's death

CHARACTERS ARE DYING AGAIN!!! I AM HAPPY WHILE SOBBING!!!!!!

I feel that everyone jumps to conclusions EVERY chapter, because you’d think we’d know by now that not everything is what it seems and Isayama enjoys messing with us.

I think this chapter was not criticized enough. It was basically a vomit of revelations strung together with some cliche plot

I wonder how Historia will react to Gabi and Falco upon learning of Sasha's death. I'm also curious to see how she will react seeing Eren again and meeting her relative from overseas. You know where these thoughts are going: I want to see older Historia next chapter!

Levi beating the shit out of eren is Big Mood

I'm really not upset with Jean; it's unfair of him to say that, but he's always used anger as a way of dealing with things; the fact that Eren has fucked up already makes it easy to redirect his anger.

Dina is alive and Zeke is visiting her for mother's day

It's good to see that the SC members still have their minds right (except Flocke, but he's a fucking meme), and I hope to see how Hanji acts. I've seen her too impotent in this chapter, unlike how she was in Kenny's arc.

Petition to let Levi enjoy his 40s onwards in goddamn peace.

I believe the end almost always justifies the means, but the thing is... it's important to plan, to avoid any unnecessary evils. Impulsive and reckless natures always annoy me because they often don't avoid those unnecessary evils, if anything they cause more.

Why do Hange and Levi suck at aging?

105 killed me and then killed me again. but then zevi being officially canon and jaegerbros interaction revived me and sudddenly everything is ok. anyways, kidding aside, it was really interesting to see the changes in the sc members' relationship and dynamics with eren, especially armin and levi 👀

105 is absolutely my least favorite chapter this arc. so rushed and boring.

for the god of love please let Levi die. Being forced to work with the man he swore to kill is just humiliating.

I can't wait for Levi to kill Zeke. Part of me worries Isayama is gonna rob him of that chance because fuck happy endings but maaaaaaaan I hope it's epic.

The grand ironic tragedy. An Eldian believing anti-Eldian propaganda kills another Eldian to avenge Eldian friends.

Where the hell is annie

It was great, hoping for an information dump next chapter, along with Annie returning soon and Reiner suffering even more (is that even possible?) after he's now pretty much lost everything he cared about.

Zeke's "free Eldia" line is shady af

Zevi is real, but not really. Protect Gabi at all costs. Flock is my boy. Zeke is trash but also god.

I hated it, and I hate this arc, and I hate all the side characters, and I don't care about any of it, and I can't freaking believe Isayama made Eren turn his back on all the morals Eren is BUILT on. I feel betrayed. So angry.

Boring chapter the only thing i enjoyed was gabi being an absolute badass. zeke and levi’s conversation was cringy af.

I just need the Warriors and Warrior Cadets to be okay and ALIVE throughout the series to the very end. I can't wait to learn more about Yelena and if Porco actually got the War Hammer, while it's unlikely, I've been wrong before.

The story feels completely different than it did when I first got into it. I’m wondering how Isayama plans to wrap things up after everything we’ve seen.

I just have so many feels for this chapter. After all the action in the previous ones, this one landed a punch straight in my gut. Thanks, Yams, I hate this.

I'm glad the battle is over. This turn of events offers new perspectives around. Between Falco and Gabi going to Paradis, Zeke probably having his own goal, Marley rebuilding after purging the unnecessary elements, there's plenty of material for a final arc.

Can we get the next one please? I can't take all these damn cliffhangers. I WANNA FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!

this was an excellent chapter. The tension felt from the scenes in it was so strong you could slice it. Connie's reaction is quite heartbreaking and frankly, I felt quite uncomfortable just seeing the looks Armin gave Eren and Mikasa. They've all changed quite a bit. Even when Jean blames Eren for Sasha's fate, I felt like it was more out of grief than ire.

Can't wait for Reiner to come back

I had genuinely hoped that over time, more people would sympathize with Gabi, especially since shes a kid and has worked her ass off to make a better life for her and her family. Turns out, people only seem to hate her more now. I'm not thrilled that she killed Sasha but in her perspective she's an enemy and part of the reason her friends and allies were killed. War has two sides, people! That's kinda the whole point of the marley arc…

The new chapters are my sole reason for living now

I've been seeing a lot of hatred for Gabi this month, but I honestly can't get mad at her. It's understandable for people to be angry (especially big Sasha fans), but I really feel bad for all the shit she's gone through and how completely brainwashed she is.

each chapter makes me love and appreciate the warriors even more

I`ve seen people saying this chapter is the worst because of how easily Levi and Zeke "became friends” and are provoking each other. To me, it's clear that Eren forced the survey corps to capture Zeke to fulfill his unknown agenda, and that Levi hasn't forgiven Zeke for what he did to Erwin + 200 other Survey Corps members. I also hope that Zeke is just continuing Eren Krueger's secret plan (giving the Attack Titan to Grisha so he can get the Founding Titan while Zeke stays on Marley as a double agent). That would be the most badass plan in all history.

DO U EVEN READ THESE

We read each and every comment!

Thank you for participating. The poll for chapter 106 will go up on June 10th!

#snk poll #snk polls #snk spoilers #poll results

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transfemswagbracket · 2 years

Note

is there gonna be a comeback for all the bad bitches who couldnt make it to the top? if so then my blog will be filled with mizuki propaganda (as someone before mentiones they sang villan) ^^

percentages are still shifting obviously so i can't say for sure who will get in, but for the record, the (tentative) strategy i'll be going with for picking the 16 characters to enter the new bracket is the top 4 from each poll, then the 4 with the highest percentage amounts from those who weren't selected

#transfemswagbracket #qna #i think that's pretty balanced at least #i dont know maybe i'll do one big poll of all of the nonselected characters at the end LOL #<- realizing i did not really answer the question? hope that suffices

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nummero123 · 3 years

Text

YouTube SEO: How to Optimize Videos for Search on YouTube

Inbound marketing was a novel concept just a decade ago.

Marketers discovered that they couldn't simply publish a large amount of material.

It had to be of excellent quality and optimized in ways that made it as discoverable as possible via search engines.

Previously, that content was primarily limited to the written word.

That is no longer the case.

A comprehensive content strategy nowadays comprises textual content such as blogs and e-books.

As well as media such as podcasts, visual assets, and videos.

That last aspect, video, is still growing in popularity. According to the 2018 State of Inbound study.

45 percent of marketers plan to invest more on YouTube this year.

More than any other marketing channel accessible to them.

But how exactly does YouTube SEO work?

What actions must you take to improve your YouTube channel for search?

We've listed some of the most important advice and tools below.

1. Rename your video file using a target keyword.

YouTube SEO Tips

You'll utilize an SEO tool to first pick keywords you'd like your video to focus on, just as you would when optimizing written material.

When you've identified a keyword, the first place you should put it is in your video file.

Before you even upload it to YouTube.

Why?

YouTube cannot "see" your video to determine its relevance to your target keyword.

And, as you'll see in the tips below,

there are only so many places you can safely enter this keyword on your video's watching page once it's uploaded.

However, YouTube can read the file name of your film as well as all of the coding that comes with it.

With that in mind, replace the "business ad 003FINAL.mov" file name with your chosen keyword (don't be embarrassed.

We've all been there during post-production).

If your keyword is "house painting tips,".

For example, the file name of your video should be "house-painting-tips"

Followed by the video file format you like (MOV, MP4, and WMV are some of the most common that are compatible with YouTube).

2. Insert your keyword naturally in the video title.

When we look for videos, one of the first things that catch our attention is the title.

Because the title is frequently what determines whether or not a visitor will click to watch your video.

It should not only be engaging but also clear and simple.

Although your keyword is important in your video title.

It also helps if the title is closely related to what the viewer is looking for.

According to Back-linko research, videos with an exact keyword match in the title have only a marginal advantage over those that don't.

As a result, while "adding your target keyword in your title may help you rank for that term,"

Report author Brian Dean writes,

"the association between keyword-rich video titles and rankings" isn't always significant.

Nonetheless, optimizing your title for this keyword is a good idea as long as it fits naturally within a title that tells people exactly what they're about to see.

3. Optimize your video description.

First and foremost:

The official character restriction for YouTube video descriptions is 1,000 characters, according to Google.

While it is acceptable to use all of that space, keep in mind that your audience came here to watch a video, not to read an essay.

If you prefer to create a longer description.

Keep in mind that YouTube only displays the top two or three lines of text.

Which amounts to approximately 100 characters.

Following that, visitors must click "see more" to see the complete description.

As a result, we recommend starting the description with the most important information, such as CTAs or important links.

In terms of video optimization, it doesn't harm to provide a transcript of the video.

Especially for people who have to watch it without sound.

However, Backlinko's research discovered no correlation between optimized descriptions for a specific keyword and rankings for that term.

4. Tag your video with popular keywords that relate to your topic.

The official Creator Academy on YouTube recommends utilizing tags to let people know what your video is about.

But you're not only informing your audience; you're also informing YouTube.

Dean explains that tags are used by the platform to "understand the content and context of your video."

As a result, YouTube can figure out how to correlate your video with similar videos, thus broadening the exposure of your material.

However, choose your tags cautiously.

Use an irrelevant tag if you believe it would increase your views.

Google may penalize you for doing so.

Similar to your description, begin with the most significant keywords.

Containing a healthy mix of common and long-tail keywords.

5. Categorize your video.

After you've uploaded a video, you can categorize it in "Advanced settings."

Choosing a category is another approach to categorize your video.

With similar content on YouTube so that it ends up in different playlists and reaches more people who identify with your target audience.

It may not be as simple as it appears. Indeed, YouTube's Creator Academy.

Recommends that marketers go through a thorough procedure to decide which category their video fits in.

According to the book, it's useful to "think about what works well for each category" you're considering by answering questions like:

Who are the most successful creators in the category? What are they well-known for, and what do they excel at?

Are there any similarities in the audiences of similar channels within a specific category?

Do the videos in a related category have characteristics such as production value, length, or format?

6. Upload a custom thumbnail image for your video's result link.

When visitors scroll through a list of video results, they will see your video thumbnail as the primary picture.

That thumbnail, along with the video's title, conveys a signal to the viewer about the video's content.

Thus it can influence the number of clicks and views your video obtains.

While you can always use one of YouTube's pre-generated thumbnails.

We strongly advise you to post a personalized thumbnail.

According to the Creator Academy, "90 percent of the highest performing videos on YouTube have personalized thumbnails,"

and they recommend using pictures that are 1280x720 pixels (indicating a 16:9 ratio) and saved as 2MB or smaller.jpg,.gif,.bmp, or.png files.

If you adhere to those guidelines.

You may assist to ensure that your thumbnail displays in the same excellent quality across multiple viewing platforms.

It's vital to know that to upload a custom thumbnail image, your YouTube account must confirm.

To do so, go to youtube.com/verify and follow the instructions there.

7. Use an SRT File to add subtitles & closed captions.

Subtitles and closed captions, like most of the other content we've addressed here.

Can help with YouTube search optimization by emphasizing essential keywords.

You must upload a valid text transcript or timed subtitles file to add subtitles or closed captions to your video.

You can also directly insert the text for a video such that it auto-syncs with the video for the former.

Subtitles added similarly; however, you can limit the amount of text displayed.

To access either, go to your video manager and select "Videos" from the "Video Manager" menu.

Locate the video to which you wish to add subtitles or closed captioning, and then click the drop-down arrow next to the edit button.

Then select "Subtitles/CC." You may then choose whether to add subtitles or closed captioning.

8. Add Cards and End Screens to increase your YouTube channel's viewership.

Cards

Have you ever seen a small white.

Circular icon with an I in the centre appear in the corner of a video, or a translucent bar of text inviting you to subscribe?

Cards are "preformatted notifications that appear on the desktop.

And mobile that you can set up to promote your brand and other videos on your channel,"

According to Creator Academy.

A single video can have up to five cards, and there are six different types:

Channel cards that link viewers to a different channel.

Donation cards to stimulate fundraising for charitable groups in the United States.

You can use fan funding to encourage your viewers to contribute to the creation of your video content.

Link cards, which connect readers to an external site, an authorized crowd-funding website, or an authorized item sale platform.

Poll cards, which ask viewers a question and allow them to vote on a response.

Video or playlist cards that lead to more similar YouTube content.\

End Screens

End screens provide comparable information as cards, but as you might expect.

They don't appear until a film has finished and are a bit more graphically detailed.

There are a variety of thorough instructions for adding end screens based on the sort of platform you want to design them for.

As well as the varied forms of content permitted by YouTube.

It's worth noting that YouTube is always testing end screens to improve the viewing experience,

so "your end screen, as specified by you, may not show" at times.

Take these considerations into mind when deciding whether to use cards or end screens.

These criteria may appear intricate and time-consuming.

But keep in mind that the number of time individuals spend watching YouTube on their television has more than doubled year over year.

There is an audience to discovered there, and optimizing for YouTube increases your chances of being discovered.

Now, the majority of the SEO strategies above rely on you successfully picking a keyword and advertising your video.

And not all of those suggestions can implemented solely through YouTube.

Consider using any of the tools listed below to optimize your video for search to get the most bang for your budget.

YouTube SEO Tools

Ahrefs Keywords Explorer

Ahrefs is a complete SEO software that allows you to track a website's position.

Estimate organic traffic from each phrase, and analyze keywords for which you might wish to develop new content.

Keywords Explorer is a famous Ahrefs function.

That allows you to check up multiple details about a keyword you're interested in.

And, as shown in the screenshot above, you may narrow down your term results by the search engine, including YouTube.

Ahrefs Keywords Explorer displays the monthly search volume for a term.

The number of clicks obtained by videos ranking for that phrase, related keywords, and more.

Canva

You may be familiar with Canva as a design template for producing various types of cards, images, logos, and more.

It just so happens that this well-known product includes a Thumbnail Creator designed just for YouTube videos.

As mentioned in the preceding guidelines,

thumbnail graphics are essential for marketing your content in YouTube search results and attracting visitors to click on your video.

Using Canva's Thumbnail Creator, you can generate the ideal preview image for your video in the 1280 x 720-pixel dimensions required by YouTube.

vidIQ Vision

This is a Chrome extension that you can get from Chrome's web store by clicking the link above.

It will help you examine how and why specific YouTube videos do so well.

This includes the tags a video has optimized for, its average view time, and even the rate at which that video is getting traffic.

The vidIQ tool then generates an SEO "score"

that you can use to develop content that matches (or outperforms) the results you now see on YouTube.

TubeBuddy

TubeBuddy is a video platform that manages the creation, development, and advertising of your YouTube material.

It has an automatic language translator (which helps you rank for non-English keywords).

A keyword explorer, tag suggestions, a rank tracker for your published videos, and other features.

Conclusion

A great YouTube channel begins with strong material, regardless of the SEO advice or tool you use.

When your viewers find you, make sure they have something high-quality and relevant to watch.

You can also contact Nummero, the best website development company in Bangalore.

#YouTube SEO #digital marketing agency

0 notes

junker-town · 3 years

Text

Western Illinois, Year 37, 2043-2044

Our Western Illinois dynasty has four seasons left in College Hoops 2K8. We need two titles to tie John Wooden’s record.

Welcome back to our simulated dynasty with the Western Illinois Leathernecks in College Hoops 2K8. You can find a full explanation of this project + spoiler-free links to previous seasons here. Check out the introduction to this series from early April for full context. As a reminder, we simulate every game in this series and only control the recruiting and coaching strategies. Dynasty mode runs for 40 years.

Before we pick up with the Leathernecks at the start of Year 37, here’s a recap of everything that happened last season:

Coming off a heartbreaking loss in the Final Four, Western Illinois started the new season with a young roster featuring zero seniors. We began the year at No. 23 in the preseason polls and had a solid run in the non-conference schedule before uncharacteristically dropping two games against Summit League opponents. We rebounded to win the conference tournament and punch our ticket to the big dance.

We earned a No. 7 seed to the NCAA tournament and beat Colorado State in the first round, and UNLV in the round of 32. We then lost in the Sweet 16 to NC State to end our season.

We had no open scholarships, so didn’t land any new recruits. We did lose center Filipe Hopes early to the NBA draft after the season.

Here’s a first look at our roster for Year 37:

Our goal is to tie or surpass John Wooden for the most national championships in college basketball history before the series ends after Year 40. With four seasons left, we have eight national titles to Wooden’s 10. We need to start stacking championships ASAP, and we start the new year with a team that’s good enough to win it all.

Everyone is back from last year’s team aside from center Filipe Hopes, who jumped to the NBA. With an intriguing four-man freshman class coming off their redshirts and set to join the rotation, we should have one of our deepest and most talented teams ever. We start the new year ranked No. 3 in the preseason polls.

Let’s meet the starting lineup:

PG Arvydas Hardy, 93 overall, redshirt senior: Hardy entered the program as our second-highest recruit ever (No. 12 overall), but hasn’t been able to fully live up to the hype yet despite some flashes of brilliance. Hardy is a huge lead guard at 6’4, 238 pounds, and he checks just about every box with his skill set. He’s blessed with a team-best 90 rating in three-point shooting, and he has A grades in passing and ball handling. Hardy’s only major weakness is that he’s often a little too passive offensively. We need to him to tap into his takeover scoring ability if we want to have a deep tournament run. Projected top pick out of Mesa, AZ with C- potential.

SG Augustine Bruthelieus, 92 overall, redshirt junior: Bruuuu is a tough 6’5 guard who can man either backcourt spot. While he’s not exactly a knockdown three-point shooter (75 rating), Bru plays a physical brand of basketball by getting into the paint on offense and forcing turnovers on defense. He has A- ratings in passing and handling for a shooting guard, as well as B+ ratings in both offensive and defensive awareness. Just a solid all-around player even if he doesn’t have outlier size or a signature skill. Former No. 42 overall recruit out of San Diego with C+ potential. Projected lottery pick.

SF Reece Mascoll, 93 overall, redshirt senior: A monstrous 6’9, 260 pound wing, Mascoll can play bully ball at the rim or stretch the defense with a high 70s rating in three-point shooting. We love that he has the versatility to play either forward spot, and can project as a primary scoring option at his best. After a big sophomore year coming off the bench, Mascoll’s tournament run as a junior wasn’t as dominant as we hoped. He decided to return for his senior year despite being a projected first round pick, and now should co-headline the team with Hardy. Former No. 40 overall recruit out of Riverside, CA with C potential. Projected top pick.

PF Al Reece, 89 overall, redshirt senior: Reece has tremendous size at 7’1, 277 pounds for a natural power forward. He has the best shot blocking rating on the team (90 rating) and can slide easily to the five. Reece checks a lot of boxes for a ‘Necks big man, but there’s one thing that holds him back: he’s almost too aggressive offensively. He shouldn’t be taking more shots than Hardy, but that has happened often in stream games. We need him to be a role player rather than think he’s our star. Former No. 138 overall recruit from Glendale, AZ with C- potential.

C D.J. Foster, 82 overall, redshirt sophomore: Foster is our lowest-rated starter in years, but we have no problem with that because he’s already proven to be a solid performer in tournament games. His best attribute is his size: at 7’2, 274 pounds, he’s able to protect the paint and rebound just by standing there. He also has more offensive game than you would expect, showing off a solid mid-range jumper last year. Former No. 173 overall recruit (No. 6 center) out of Chicago with C potential.

For as stacked as our starting lineup is, our depth might be the best asset of this team. We have the potential to go seven deep off the pine with no scholarships last season and four freshmen joining the rotation coming off their redshirts.

Redshirt junior Jerald Elliott (91 overall) is a 6’6 shooting guard with a ridiculous 99 rating in speed who also has A- ratings as a passer and ball handler. Elliott is our second highest rated shooter, but his slow release — similar to that of former guard Brandon “The Musket” Price — limits him some as a shooter. If Elliott is our ‘sixth starter,’ we have a group of freshmen and sophomores behind him who give us quality depth at every position.

Redshirt sophomore Ketshner Evertsen (83 rating) is a 6’8 shooting guard who we’ve moved to small forward. He projects as an elite shooter and proved he can be instant offense when he gets hot on our tournament run last season. Cam Kateley, a 6’6 redshirt sophomore point guard, and Bernie Doyle, a 6’9 redshirt freshman shooting guard, both provide size and floor spacing potential in the backcourt. We also have redshirt freshmen Floyd Keller (6’7 wing), Oscar Frye (7-foot power forward), and Brody Munoz (6’11 center) who could see time in the rotation in March.

Recruiting

We have four open scholarships this season. Since these players will only have three years with us before the series ends, we’re thinking about targeting some JUCO guys throughout the process. After scanning the available options, we decide to offer the following players:

SG Everson Fitch out of Peoria, IL: No. 14 overall player and No. 9 at his position

SF Kory O’Donnell out of Kansas City: No. 57 overall player and 6 at his position

PG Archie Howell out of El Paso: Five-star JUCO freshman

C Daon Whithers out of Cleveland: Five-star JUCO freshman

Fitch would go down as our third highest-rated recruit ever. O’Donnell is already massive at 6’9, 250 pounds for a high school small forward. Howell and Whithers are both five-star JUCOs, with Whithers profiling as a stud and Howell looking more gettable. We’ll see how it goes.

Reminder: WE’RE NO. 3 IN THE POLLS. Let’s do this.

How did the regular season go?

After a breezy season-opening win against Creighton, we faced No. 14 Oklahoma State in our next game and lost, 85-73. There will be no pressure to go undefeated this year. A few weeks later we lost to UConn and NC State, both talented but unranked teams, that dropped us out of the polls entirely.

We rebounded with wins over Kentucky, DePaul, and Lehigh to close out the non-con slate at 8-4. Not how we wanted to start the year.

Did we go undefeated in Summit League play?

No! We lost to Fort Wayne in our very first conference game of the season. An absolute shocker.

Oh my gosh, it happened again. This time to Southern Utah:

Two conference losses in each of the last two seasons, sheesh. This team was preseason No. 3!!! Are we even going to make the tournament at this point?

We won out for the rest of our regular season games and then entered the conference tournament. I am legit terrified we’re going to lay another egg and miss the dance entirely. After winning the first two games, we have a rematch with Southern Utah in the title game. They are rated as an 82 overall, which is about the highest you’ll ever see a team rated in this conference. We streamed the game here.

We won, and headed to the NCAA tournament. Man, this team doesn’t feel as good as I hoped.

Who did recruiting go?

Not well! We landed no one at the early signing deadline, and saw three of our targets commit elsewhere. The only original target we’re looking strong with is Howell, the 6’2 JUCO point guard, but he’ll still need a little more convincing in the offseason.

We’ve pivoted to big man Logan Polk, the No. 185 overall player and No. 11 center, in the front court. We also have offers out to five-star JUCO power forward Erik Stepp and four-star shooting guard Cornell Berry, who is rated No. 33 overall. Polk looks like the most likely to sign out of those three, while Berry is a swing for the fences. I figure we might be due for a little bit of good luck at some point here.

2044 NCAA tournament

We’re a No. 8 seed in the NCAA tournament, drawing MAC champion No. 9 seed Akron in the first round.

We’re rated as a 100 overall heading into the tournament at 27-6 on the year. The Zips are only rated as an 85 overall.

Before we get to the tournament run, let’s check in on the roster:

I know it hasn’t been the most dominant regular season, but damn, this roster is undeniably loaded. In terms of both top-end talent and depth, I’d put this squad up as one of my best ever. The reality is it won’t be remembered that way unless we run all the way to the national championship.

Hardy and Mascoll were big-time recruits with great tools who have had flashes of greatness, but have never put it together consistently. This is their chance as seniors. Reece and Foster, at 7’1 and 7’2 respectively, give us a major size advantage on any opponent. Bru and Elliott are versatile guards who feel like they could go either way in March. I’m really excited about our bench, with a few big wings who can shoot (sophomore Ketshner Evertsen and freshmen Bernie Doyle and Floyd Keller), some more size (freshman center Brody Munoz) and plenty of lineup versatility.

This team is awesome, but so far they have the underachievers tag. Let’s see if we can shake it. As always, we’re watching a simulated game between the computer. I’m not controlling the Leathernecks.

Let’s go!

twitch

***

Win, 105-70. We’re rolling into the second round.

That was a straight up blow out — we were able to hit ‘sim to end’ with 13 minutes left in the game as we held at 30 point lead. This one was never in doubt.

A few takeaways: Hardy was awesome, popping off for 23 points on 7-of-8 shooting. What a great start to his final tournament run with us. It was an ideal game for Mascoll, too, hitting a couple threes and dishing out six assists. Bruthelieus was great scoring the ball, and Elliott looked solid as our backup point guard.

We only hit two three-pointers in the first half and were still up 21. That seems like a good sign.

The win sets up a game with No. 1 seed Richmond in the round of 32

There’s nothing worse than getting a No. 8 or No. 9 seed in the NCAA tournament, because it means we have to face the top seed in the round of 32. For us, that means a matchup with Richmond. I have to say, I’m shocked to see the Spiders are this good.

Richmond enters the game rated as a 98 overall. We’re a 100 overall.

It’s possible this will be our toughest game on the road to the Final Four. I guess we might as well take it on early. It’s not like we’re playing for Sweet 16 appearances over here. We need titles.

Massive game. The nerves are real. Let’s go!

twitch

***

Win, 111-99! We’re into the Sweet 16!

This was another ‘sim to end’ game with five minutes left, but in reality it was a lot closer than the final score would indicate. The first half was a dog fight, with Richmond using a zone defense to coax our perimeter players into taking threes. We attempted 27 threes in the first half (making 10), and 45 threes on the night (making 17). That has to be a record. Seeing as we were making them at a 37 percent clip, I was happy to let our guys keep shooting.

Bru was the biggest star, with 17 of his 22 coming in the first half. He finished 6-of-13 from three despite only being rated as a 75 in three-point shooting. That was huge, especially on a night when Arvy Hardy didn’t have it (1-of-7 shooting).

Mascoll (18 points on 6-of-12 shooting) was awesome again, and our sophomore center Foster (11 points, 11 rebounds) looked every bit of 7’2 out there. Major shout-out to Jerald Elliott as well, who helped blow this game open in the second half when we put him at point guard went with a full court press. He finished with 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting, and added a couple steals and a bunch of assists. It is an immense luxury to have a versatile guard rated in the 90s like him coming off our bench.

The win sets up a game with No. 4 seed Rhode Island in the Sweet 16

Rhode Island is rated as an 85 overall. They don’t have any super highly rated players, but it looks like they’ll have a formidable team for a stream game with a big small forward who can shoot and a couple veteran guards.

I’m starting to gain confidence in this team. We already knocked out the No. 1 seed, and I think we’ve found something with lineups that have Elliott at point guard. Let’s keep this run going. Let’s go!

twitch

***

Win, 94-71! We’re rolling into the Elite Eight!

Three games, three ‘sim to end’ blowouts. I had a good feeling about this one when Reece Mascoll ripped a three off the opening tip:

twitch_clip

Those good vibes wouldn’t last long: nine minutes into the game, Rhode Island was up double-figures. We took a timeout, put Elliott in at point guard, turned up the full court pressure, and before you know it we were going into the halftime break ahead by 13 points.

Elliott is really becoming a stud. He’s a great shooter (86 rating from three), but his slow release handicaps him on the wing. That’s why we’ve mostly been playing him at the one, where his size (6’6) and uber-elite speed (99 rating) is a terror. He’s really solid as a passer and decision-maker, and that’s been enough to give us a boost when he put him in for Reece as our first sub.

Look at the speed!

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Hardy was also really good this game with 16 points, four assists, and a couple threes. We’ve been waiting five years for Hardy to carry us, but it seems like he’s just not aggressive enough to be a superstar. Instead, he’s really solid within a team concept, hitting open threes, dropping dimes, and never forcing his own offense.

Mascoll is starting to play like a star. He finished with 16 points, five rebounds, five assists, and five steals, just an incredible performance. Also: Floyd Keller got his first real minutes and scored nine points during a key stretch. Hell yeah. We are looking good.

The win sets up a game with No. 2 seed Louisville in the Elite Eight

We have our work cut out for us if we’re going to reach the Final Four. Louisville is one of the best teams we’ve ever faced in this simulation. Yes, they’re a 100 overall, and their roster is even stronger than ours. They have five players rated in the 90s, two players rated as 89s, another rated as an 88. We showed off Louisville’s roster at the start of the video below.

I’ve never felt more pressure as a coach. We need national title No. 9 if we want to match or surpass Wooden, and I doubt we’ll have a team as good as this one again before the series ends. We need a title, and Louisville is an enormous test in the Elite Eight.

One time, ‘Necks. Let’s go!

twitch

***

Win, 113-95. We’re going to the Final Four!

We had some technical difficulties in this one, and by the time I resolved them we were well on our way to a fourth straight ‘sim to end’ game in this tournament. It is absolutely unbelievable that we were able to blow out that Louisville team. Just a great performance by our guys.

Foster was wildly good. The 7’2 sophomore center popped off for 22 points and 12 rebounds. He can score with either hand around the basket, has a decent face-up jumper, and is just so, so big. Louisville had no answer for him:

twitch_clip

Our depth also shined again in a big way. On a night when Mascoll (10 points) wasn’t taking over, we were lucky to have 6’8 sophomore wing Ketshner Evertsen, 6’9 freshman two guard Bernie Doyle, and of course our boy Elliott get hot and help carry us.

Elliott just rules at point guard, going off for 16 points and seven assists on 6-of-7 shooting. I swear the guy never misses, and rarely makes a bad decision. Doyle (nine points) got going attacking the basket, and I really think he can be a future star. Then there’s Shner, who broke out as a freshman in the tournament last year and remains a great weapon for us off the bench:

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Shner finished with 18 points on 4-of-5 shooting from three. I’m telling you, the wing depth is really what makes this team stand out.

There was also a kick ass Mascoll tip-dunk during our technical difficulties that was so good I had to pause the game and figure out the stream so we could make a clip of it as a replay.

We’re feeing it right now. On to the Final Four!

The win sets up a game with No. 1 seed BYU in the Final Four

BYU has had a really solid program throughout this simulation, and this looks like one of their better teams. The Cougars enter the game rated as a 97 overall, and they play a bit better than that because they have a ton of size in the front court.

We are one win away from the chance to play for title No. 9. Let’s go!

twitch

***

Win, 94-88! We’ll be playing for the national championship!

There was no ‘sim to end’ in this one; instead, it came down to the final minutes. I really thought this was headed for a blowout, but a wild end to the first half set the table for the final 20 minutes. After Ketshner Evertsen hit a three with seconds remaining before halftime, BYU came down and drained a halfcourt shot at the buzzer:

twitch_clip

We were comfortably in control for most of the second half before BYU started to make its run. Up 14 with under five minutes left, BYU started making everything and suddenly we couldn’t buy a bucket. The Cougars made it a two-point game with under a minute left, but some clutch free throw shooting from Hardy iced the win. This was unquestionably the most difficult game we have had on our tournament run, and it has me thinking that a national title game win won’t come easy.

Jerald Elliot, the 6’6 junior shooting guard, was awesome again, finishing with 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting and almost exclusively playing the point for us. Our dude might be making a run at MOP if we can win it all.

twitch_clip

Evertsen — aka Shner — was also killer again, going 6-of-8 from the field and 3-of-5 from three to finish with 15 points. It is so nice to have a 6’8 natural shooting guard on the bench we can go to for a jolt of offense. The starters also played well enough, with Hardy and Mascoll each scoring 13 points and Bru putting up 12 points.

The win sets up a game with No. 2 seed UCLA in the national championship game

We beat UCLA for our second ever championship, and we’re going to have to do so again if we want title No. 9. The Bruins have a loaded roster with four players rated in the 90s.

We enter at 32-6, they enter at 31-6. They’re a 99 overall, we’re a 100 overall.

Given that we’ve stated our goal is to tie or surpass John Wooden’s record 10 championships before the series ends after Year 40, there’s a case to be made that this is the biggest game in program history. This would give us title No. 9 with three seasons left. We aren’t catching Wooden if we lose.

Please, ‘Necks. One time. Let’s go!

twitch

***

Win, 101-81! WESTERN ILLINOIS IS NATIONAL CHAMPIONS FOR THE NINTH TIME IN PROGRAM HISTORY!

This game was tight for the first 33 minutes or so, but our SECOND HALF TEAM came through when it counted. In fitting fashion, it was a true team effort with five players scoring in a double-figures and bench player being named MOP.

Jerald Elliott finished his amazing tournament by putting up 16 points, seven assists, five steals, and three blocks in the natty on 7-of-8 shooting from the field. He was deservedly named MOP. Elliott came into this season with a nice rating but major question marks about what role he would play. It turns out he was the point guard we needed all along, and that let the rest of the team fall into place.

twitch_clip

It was also great to see Hardy have such a good title game performance. He finished with 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting to go along with three assists and just one turnover. It was a quintessential Arvy Hardy effort: he picked his spots and was efficient with every shot attempt. I’m going to say he lived up to the hype as our second highest rated recruit ever.

We needed this one:

twitch_clip

And then there was Bru. We once recruited Bruthelieus and Elliott together as shooting guards in the same class, and that couldn’t have worked out any better. Bru finished with a game-high 23 points on 7-of-13 shooting and might have pulled a full DiVincenzo by playing his way into the NBA draft.

This three off a pin-down screen was the dagger.

twitch_clip

Reece Mascoll also went out as a champion in his last game. While he never became a monster scorer like Jitim Dupree, Skip Clemmons, and Nic Cummings before him, he was one of the best players on this team the last three years and an invaluable contributor to this championship. His ability to play either the three or the fourth was an incredible dimension for us that we won’t have next year.

He also had a big dunk, if you’re into big dunks.

twitch_clip

One last shout-out to Hardy for using his final game in a ‘Necks uniform to .... take our first ever charge!?! I honestly can’t remember this happening before.

twitch_clip

From the moment we brought in the Hardy-Mascoll-Reece-Hopes group that was named the fifth best recruiting class in the country, we always thought their senior year would be our moment. While all of those guys were great, I think I’ll instead remember this team for having so much versatility and such great depth.

Pretty much everyone played two different positions for us on our run. We had size, we had shooting, we had size that could shoot. If this wasn’t our best team ever, I really do think it’s damn close.

Let’s see that hometown newspaper. Print lives in 2044!

It feels so good to win national championship No. 9. We’re one behind John Wooden with three seasons to go. All we wanted was a legit chance to match or surpass him, and now we have it.

So: let’s see who’s coming back next year.

Offseason

Western Illinois is your national champion. Feels great to say.

Hardy, Mascoll, and Reece all get drafted. We did lose one other player to the NBA: Augustine Bruthelieus. The man went out on top, having the best game of his career in the national title. Mad respect.

My record stands at 1,075-205.

I get offered jobs by NC State, Arizona, Indiana, and Arkansas, but turn them all down.

We lose an assistant and hire someone new with B- ratings across the board.

Recruiting

So just a reminder: recruiting isn’t going too well. We have four open scholarships and no one who is ready to accept.

The player we’re closest with is five-star JUCO point guard Archie Howel. After the second week of the spring signing period, he becomes our first recruit:

Howel is a 6’2 guard out of El Paso who we identified as gettable early in the process. He won’t redshirt and will be a senior in Year 40 because he’s entering school as a sophomore. The only position we didn’t recruit for two years ago was point guard (remember, we had no open scholarships last year), so filling this position was crucial. We’ve had a couple good JUCO point guards over the years in Damon Hendriks and Diondre Haynes, so hopefully he can be the next one.

We also badly need a center and have been chasing Logan Polk since we lost our initial target. A week later, he becomes our second commit:

Polk is rated as the No. 11 center in his class, and the No. 185 overall player. His AAU numbers are incredible: 17.1 points, 12.6 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks per game. He’s ranked a tad bit lower than the guys we usually get at his position, but he should be a solid three-year big for us before the series ends.

We have two more open scholarships, but our two targets — four-star shooting guard Cornell Berry and five-star JUCO Erek Stepp — both sign elsewhere. We need a big guard and wing, but we also just have to take what we can get. We decide to offer the top international player, 6’2 point guard Christano Ngoundu out of Cameroon, because he projects as the top player available. On the last week, he signs with us.

Our last scholarship is offered to 6’8 small forward Ivan Adler out of Bellflower, CA. He’s only rated No. 192 overall, but his AAU stats were awesome — 13.3 points per game on 44 percent three-point shooting — and we love his size. We were his only offer going into the final week, but unfortunately he did not commit. We’re going to have to roll over that scholarship to next year.

Now it’s time to set next year’s schedule:

@ Richmond, Maui Invitational, Vanderbilt, @ Providence, @ Duke, Northwestern, @ Penn State, Saint Louis

Year 38

Here’s a first look at our roster for Year 38:

Two thoughts:

This team has a chance to be very good

The lineups we play in the regular season will not be the same ones I’m playing in tournament games as we try to win national championship No. 10

None of the freshmen are redshirting. Here’s what they came in:

Christano Ngoundu, 77 overall, B potential: I was hesitant to offer Ngoundu because oftentimes international recruits take five years to get good, but I’m so glad I did because he’s easily our best get. The 6’2 guard should get backup point guard minutes from the jump.

Logan Polk, 76 overall, C potential: Probably about as good as we could have reasonably hoped for given that he was only ranked No. 11 at the position. He’ll likely earn spot minutes as our second big man off the bench.

Archie Howel, 71 overall, C- potential: This one hurts, but he does he have a 75 rating in three-point shooting, so maybe he can be a depth piece and a weapon in tournament time if nothing else.

We’ll have three scholarships to recruit for this year.

We’re going to be streaming Year 38 on Sunday, May 2 at 8 p.m. ET on my Twitch channel. We’ll be recruiting and simming through our regular season, and then going into the tournament. If we have a long tournament run and can’t complete the season in one night, we’ll finish out the tournament run on Wednesday, May 5 at 8 p.m. ET on my Twitch.

Watch Western Illinois in Year 38

What: Western Illinois Year 38 season

When: Sunday, May 2 at 8 p.m. ET. If necessary: continued on Wednesday, May 5 at 8 p.m. ET

Where: My Twitch stream

For email updates on this series, subscribe here.

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airlock · 4 years

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alright folks, I’m back for more of those results from the anniversary poll; once again, I’ll be counting them as properly as I can because IS sure as hell can’t, and in the process, I will also judge whether the fans have spoken good choices

this time, we’ll be counting and criticizing the top 15 dancing duos! (disclaimer: I don’t dance. I still will attempt to comment on everyone else’s dancing)

#1: BERKUT & RINEA (9313 votes)

tumblr won’t let me simply put two images next to each other in a text post, and I can’t be fucked to put them together in such a way that doesn’t make them un-transparent, so I’ll be putting them together with a simple color background; it’s a spot uglier and I will probably fail to spot some wonky pixels, but c’est la vie

anyways, I don’t like it, but like Byleth before, this is a natural afk pick; they’re some of a very small subset of characters in the series that we actually see dancing with each other, in a proper cutscene. a cutscene that, in fact, basically exists to tell us that they look good dancing, so one’s not wrong to vote for them here, I suppose. there are, in fact, a lot of people in this world who are fantastic performers and also would throw their spouses in a fire if they figured it’d make them feel good about themselves again

#2: OLIVIA & INIGO (2474 votes, including Laslow)

this is actually sweet, though, mother-son dancing duo and all. one thing I do have to mention, though, is that you’d have to hope that our hypothetical dance-off was announced plenty of time in advance, there’s so much that could bring a performance between them crashing and burning if they don’t hash it all out for themselves first

#3: EDELGARD & DIMTIRI (1871 votes across all appearances, possibly with uncounted change)

they sure do look fantastic, dancing with other people with their backs completely to each other,

might as well stuff this strangely popular nothing-of-a-choice with a little additional note: these paired votes are going to be especially harrowing on the split vote front, because any combination of two characters who both have split votes means they can be combined with each other in 4 different ways. like, most people probably won’t combine, say, someone’s PoR self with someone else’s RD self, but properly unsplitting votes in this is going to be a lot more of a challenge. and that’s to say nothing of byleth; there is a whopping 16 different ways to combine Byleth and any one Three Houses character

ETA: I. completely forgot about the thing where edelgard tried to teach dimitri to dance when they were young. okay, that kind of tracks. but also like, whomst the fuck got the idea that whatever they were doing there was building up to elegance

#4: ELIWOOD & NINIAN (1495 votes)

I’m getting the lingering feeling that this fandom is a lot better at pointing out good dancers than good teachers-

this one’s another amazing pick; sure, not one you have to think a lot about, since they’re oft-shipped and one of them is an actual dancer -- but the beauty of it is that even the ostensible weak link still has much offer, between his flawless elegance and a love of dancing that we at the very least knows is in his lineage

let’s just hope eliwood would still prefer to keep the “special dances” private though-

#5: BYLETH & CLAUDE (1163 votes across all appearances, possibly with uncounted change)

speaking of the ballroom cutscene again, man, Claude sure has left an impression on us all back there-

still, we don’t actually see the dance, and it’s probably better that we don’t -- I wouldn’t bet that Byleth is any more expressive with their moves than they are with their face. there’s really not very much of a reason to vote for this other than wanting to insert yourself into a situation where one dances with Claude. and I mean, mood, but let’s focus, please-

#6: OLIVIA & AZURA (996 votes)

this is just a copout, though. this is like if I asked you about the best food in your town and you just told me that technically Gordon Ramsey was born there. ooo, hot take alert, two unrelated professional performers can probably put on a decent performance together!

at least their theme colors together make the trans flag, so I’ll give all 996 of you that much-

#7: ALM & CELICA (990 votes)

was there like an actual thing where they dance, or were people picking this just because they’re good-looking and married? because like, in the absence of evidence, I cannot and will not assume that Alm is a remotely passable dancer.

in fact, here’s the drill: for this section, I can’t actually blame people if they’re just hornyvoting -- being hot is kind of a point-plus for this -- but I can and will blame them if they’re voting for their ships with no regard as to whether they’d look good dancing. so, accusations of hornyvoting shall make way -- to accusations of shipvoting! I believe that’s also going to happen on the other paired category, even if that one is a lot less about the chemistry (presumably)

#8: NILS & NINIAN (884 votes)

this kind of a copout again, but it’s also a family dance again, BUT most importantly one of these two is not actually a dancer. like, sure, he plays the flute, but this isn’t a flute-and-dance duo poll, it’s a dance poll! although I mean, it does mean he must have a good notion of rhythm, and from the sprites we can definitely tell he’s got a spring in his step when he plays, and Ninian can teach him too, so... maybe? oh well, it’d be cute to see them try

#9: SIGURD & DEIRDRE (790 votes)

eh, I’m gonna call shipvoting on this one too. like, sure, they’re both hot and they’re in love with each other, but even if you leave aside the likelihood that Deirdre was raised too shelthered to have danced like ever, any dancing they’d know of would be totally incompatible, considering their entirely distinct backgrounds.

I suppose I will lend credence to the idea that Sigurd’s at least experienced as far as dancers go; it’s not like he was studying back at that academy,

#10: BYLETH & EDELGARD (735 votes across all appearances, possibly with uncounted change)

since most of the votes on this are for post-timeskip edelgard, this appears to be unrelated to the ballroom scene, for once

that said, I can’t think of anything to this other than regular shipvoting -- and not even shipvoting of much quality, because besides the above-mentioned on whether byleth can dance, I have a nagging feeling that the kind of dancing Edelgard would genuinely be interested in would be strictly for fun, without any sort of elegance or other things that an outside participant would enjoy watching

#11: TSUBASA & CAEDA & KIRIA & THARJA (687 votes)

don’t let the fact that I found a transparent tsubasa but not a transparent kiria distract you from the absolute trainwreck that resulted from the naming scheme used in FEH for TMS#FE characters crashing into the notation I’m using for the duos here- ahem, well, please be distracted from both of those things, anyway

assuming this is just between the two mirage users and we’re not talking about the most awkward foursome in history, well... I once again have not played TMS#FE, so uh, they sure are both pop idols and I think people ship them, I guess?

#12: MARTH & CAEDA (596 votes across all appearances)

I mean... there’s a lot that can be said about their individual qualities and their dynamics, but I have absolutely no idea how any of it would translate into a ballroom. and if we’re any inclined to believe that skill with words and skill with bodily expression tend to be opposite skillsets, then theyyyy are both screwed.

#13: PENT & LOUISE (508 votes)

I get it, I do. they both look sparkly beautiful and haute and classy and like everything around them is prettier for them being there. but let me categorically tell you that neither of these two dance.

neither of these two dance because one, Pent is an absolute potato, and two, Pent specifically chose Louise because she didn’t try to impress him with a dance.

#14: SAUL & DOROTHY (495 votes)

regardless of any merits they may or may not have, this is 100% just to get them into heroes, isn’t it. alright, I can respect that

but as for whether they can dance... sure, maybe? Dorothy is full of hidden talents, and Saul has probably tried to dance enough times to guide her along at least

#15: CORRIN & AZURA (476 votes across all genders)

alas, there’s no way this can work out, because we all know corrin has two left feet.

thank you, thank you! I’ll be here every night!

HONORABLE MENTIONS (highest vote in their continuity, without reaching top 15)

Ike & Soren (344 votes across all appearances): disappointingly, of the stark few Tellius pairs that got on this list, the best-ranked of them is 100% blatant shipvoting. I mean, sure, Ike’s got moves, but Soren?? at least vote Ike & Ranulf you cowards

Eirika & Ephraim (323 votes): first, we’d have to extensively train Ephraim on how to not make this experience entirely embarassing for Eirika, but that can be said of most anything they could do together in public-

Triandra & Plumeria (280 votes): yep, still unfunny. and now all of you 280 assholes are stretching it

Ferdinand & Lorenz (95 votes, possibly with uncounted change): I’m just mentioning them because I’m one of these 95 people. and so should more of you have been! don’t you know elegance when it’s right in front of you? huh? huhhh????

and that’s it, you’ve endured me attempting to talk about dancing for several minutes when I have no knowledge or experience on the subject! I eagerly await your input in my replies and reblogs, especially from those of you who do dance.

#anniversary poll critique series #my stupid text posts #Fire Emblem is tagged in this post #Fire Emblem Heroes is tagged in this post

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