#no 1v1 but pretty damn similar!

[allyriadayne]

RHAENICENT & JACEGON PARALLELS

It’s best, I think, if we go back to Dragonstone. You’ve only just arrived.

[mentalisttraceur-long]

I only post about video games here if it has value beyond the video gaming itself.

So having said that:

StarCraft 2, when played "competitively" (even just on the ranked ladder online, not necessarily professionally) is the single most intense mental exercise I know of.

Things like Rubik's cubes or chess or go, or advanced math problems, or holding in your head everything needed to design or understand a complex software architecture or design or algorithm, or a martial arts spar, or playing a musical instrument at peak ability, or simulating experiences and cognition, etc - all that pushes various different thinking limits too.

But StarCraft 2 1v1 ladder play, when you actually go at it as fast and effortfully as you can... Holy shit. It's anywhere from five to sixty minutes (depending on how well you and your opponent play) of non-stop brain firing on all cylinders.

There is always something more you could be doing, always more things you could be checking or keeping track of.

The game will consume and reward any improvement in multi-tasking or information processing or strategic judgment or world-modeling (of the game state) or mind interferometry (of the other player) or just raw speed and precision of movement that you can feed it.

Near as I can tell there is no ceiling. You can keep getting better forever, and you will still be able to get better at doing it, even if you do end up better than everyone else. Of course that is not unique - lots of games, and most deep real-life skills, have no ceiling.

It's the combination of simultaneous and urgent demands, the complexity and variety, and the lack of obvious ceiling, all together, that I find unique.

Now maybe there are other games like it and maybe other people get the same level of intense deep and broad mental challenge in other things.

For example, I predict that once developed far enough, and if approached with the same deliberate focused activated intensity, "humaning" can open up that rich unceasing explosion of challenge.

So there are probably other ways to get mentally exercised as intensely or more, perhaps even in the skills I mentioned earlier as not doing that for me. StarCraft 2 1v1 ranked ladder play just happens to be the most intense one I have had.

I do think I am onto something with the whole "if approached with deliberate focused activated intensity" comment though. I think part of why SC2 is so mentally intense for me is that I go into it feeling like it has to be.

But in the other hand, I think I am only able to feel that way because with SC2 I can see beyond my ability - I cannot do as well as I know can be done. Also SC2 only became this way for me when I saw by example just how fast it could be played.

Looking back, I have had moments of similar intensity when humaning. But only when things seemed like urgent theats or problems. But usually those were done as soon as impression management damage control was done, and only the most immediately relevant cognition flows of at most a mind or two had to be mentally handled.

Oh and when I got attacked by that dog five years or so ago - but again I won that too quickly, so the state lasted for literally at most five seconds. And there was so, so much less to that problem space. One human and one dog bodies' worth of anatomy simplified down to just the movement mechanics and vulnerabilities, the dog's mind, the one human observer in the room who literally did not even get around to moving in the time before it was over, background proceeding of peripheral perceptions for signs of people in the nearby rooms doing anything relevant.

That sounds like a lot, and maybe it is, but it is mostly interlinked in these smooth cognition flows that handle it all, while SC2 involves so much more that has to be individually and discretely mentally accounted for.

StarCraft 2 feels like it demands more of my mind than any of those situations, but most importantly - and this is the huge thing - it demands it for much longer periods of time, unrelentingly.

The hilarious thing is that a huge number of people play way better than me. I'm actually pretty damn sucky. So I suspect there is some way to just play it with way less mental effort and intensity and focus.

I have always been prone to exponential skill growth curves. I kinda suck at things, usually for years, until eventually I grind and stumble my way into finally getting a feel for the problem space and the skills and the cognition needed, and at some point it tips over and I start improving really rapidly. Then a few years later people assume I'm natural or talented or have always had a knack for it.

But anyway, I'm either still in what I suspect is the sublinear part of my SC2 skill growth curve, or just getting out of it. We'll see.

So there are probably ways to play, at least at my weak level, that do not provide that exercise, and we could probably find something else that does.

And also, I am not sure how much of the cognition I train up playing SC2 is actually transferable to other, more practical matters.

Anyway, I thought it was worth sharing that in the decade since it came out, I have basically found nothing else that exercises the mind the same way.

[monkey-network]

Good Stuff: Next Gen

WARNING: Lime juice can be a great replacement for salt, if you’re considering dieting. Mild spoilers ahead. Thank you, take care out there, and enjoy.

A Friendship From the Future

Netflix has been giving quite a lot of outside media that’s been pretty good, guess they’re making up for their crimes last year. Next Gen is a movie developed by the creator of Chinese rage comics, no joke, and directed by the art directors of a couple good movies and a few nobody cares about. But really, in this world of robots, does this movie make the future look bright, or does it feel outdated compared to the likes of Iron Giant, Short Circuit, Big Hero Six, and the sort this is basically inspired by? Well, like the rage comic this was based on, I was pretty entertained.

seriously, they kept a dead american meme afloat under our noses for this long, and got a movie for it

First, this movie honestly puts the pedal to the figurative medal. In the first 10 minutes, we get everything we need to know this movie: the setting, the main character Mai, her motive towards her robot hate, her neglectful mom, David Cross, the villain, the robot friend. It felt refreshing, colgate like, but... *sigh* in comes my critical mind. This movie ain’t bad, but man it feels *grits teeth* predictable. The futuristic setting looked uninspiring. The man-bun dude was such a “villain”, that his big reveal at the end was visually shocking but kinda laughable. It was clear that Mai’s mother was gonna start loving her daughter more near the end. The bullies were gonna fear her thanks to her giant robot but then she sees that becoming a bully is no better than being bullied (angerleads to suffering). And the robot was definitely gonna s͟͡a̶̡͘͡͠c͝͡r̨̨̀͢͜i͏f͟͢͜͡i̡͏́͞͝c̷̵̶͜͠e̴͞ ̴͟i̛͡҉̷̢t̷̕͞͠s̨͟͠ȩ̴l̶҉̢f̡̛͟ ̴̛f̶̸͡o̧͜͝҉r̨͏̵͟ ̡̡̀͞͝i҉̷͢ţ͟͡͏s̡͜ ̸̸͢͜͡ņ̴̕͞e҉̛̀͟w̡͜͝ ̨̡̛b̨́e̢̛̛͞s̵͟t̨́͢ ̴͢͢͞͡f̨͟͏͠r҉̢̨i͏͠҉̸e̸͘n̡̡͡d͠ ̴̀b̵̴͘u̸̕͞t̨̀͢͡ ͢҉͏̷t͟͞h̷͟͟è͘͟͜͡n͞͏ ̧̡̀͡g̛͘͘͜҉e̶̸t́͘͡͞ ͘͡r̵̨͠è̸͟҉̕ş̸́̕u͏r̛̀̕͟r̵̵̢̡ę́͟ç̶t̶́͝e͡d̴̡̧͡ ̴̡̡́b̧́͟y͏ ͡҉̷̛t̷̵҉́h̶̀͢͠e҉̶͜͠ ̨͟͠p̵̡͘̕͜o̴̡͞w̸e̡̨̕r̨̨̨͘ ̨͝ò͏̵f̨̀́͞ ̡̛̀́͘l͢͟͠ǫ̸̸̨v̕͞e̶̸̸͜͜. Not saying I didn’t enjoy myself, in fact it has some great things going for it, but it was hard not to figure out what would happen exactly how it could happen.

Though the first explosive action scene being a highspeed chase to return a girl’s backpack was certainly surprising

But really, this movie is cool. The animation is the right amount of cartoonish, beautiful, and blunt, with a few actually creepy scenes. The energy it has kept me invested, especially when one of your scenes has the main characters fighting a damn toothbrush. I would try to make comparisons to other kid and their robot movies, but I say this is somewhat unique in its main character and her robot friend (plus Big Hero 6 is whatever). Mei, with Charlene Yi providing a great voice, is a character that genuinely goes through a struggle in this movie. She doesn’t come off as an intolerable or brooding jerk, more of a character that’s rightfully letting out her frustrations and is trying to cope with her uncontained anger, like EQG’s Sunset Shimmer pre-redemption. I’ll say her arc is predictable, but seeing her get bullied to then use what she loathes the most as a vessel for payback, delinquent fun, and an eventual soul savior was honestly a delight to see. As for the robot, while I will say he would’ve worked a bit better if he didn’t talk as much, is surprisingly great in the fact that he kicks ass and looks good doing it; his design is simple yet effective (yet how was able to be activated by accident). He’s the rock to Mai’s eagle like aspirations, and the VA did make his moments have weight. Their dynamic is what few might call ‘standard’, but I say it’s still effective with what was given. Hell, the climax genuinely consists of the two having emotions and kicking robot ass up to a climatic 1v1 in space that was just *MWAH* quality anime kino. With the animation looking better than I expected, especially a couple scenes that were really beautiful, I thoroughly enjoyed them together and I wouldn’t mind watching this again.

These two are certainly the highlight of this film

Hate doing this, but I gotta give Next Gen (-300) points for being pretty predictable in its narrative, (-200) points for I could not care less about the villain, and (-300) points for the useless talking dog (sorry, not a fan of him). But I wanna give it (+1000) points for being a movie based on a webcomic dosed in meme culture, (+800) points for having some superb animation especially with its action scenes, a bonus (+300) points for the great action, and a solid (+777) points for the dynamic between Mai and her robot, they are what makes this film great out of everything. I say it’s a film worth watching if you’re in the mood for an easy kick ass adventure with a rebel girl and her killer machine friend. Sure it has elements from movies with similar premises, but this still stands out well and I appreciate that.

3.5 Out of 5, a nice film to start your weekend

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: Vol. 5 Rest and Resolutions + Alone Together

This is a re-posting from December 8th, 2017 in an effort to get all my recaps fully on tumblr. Thanks!

Hello, everyone! I apologize for the two week gap between reviews. Academia caught up with me in the worst way possible, but that is behind us now, hallelujah. There's a lot to cover in our last two episodes, so let's dive straight in.

First off, Ozpin is the Wizard theory confirmed.

We all knew it was coming, but it's still nice to finally have validation for that idea. Often times writers will deliberately askew what the viewers expect to happen in a failed attempt at originality (see Sherlock's season 3 premiere), but if you've planted the hints there's every reason to follow through with them. In true RWBY fashion though, this information leads to even more questions. I'm particularly interested in this balance between history and storytelling. That is, the version of Ozpin-as-Wizard that we hear about is explicitly a fairy tale and we all know that time has a tendency to twist events, especially when people begin to view them as just old wive's tales, rather than actual truth. All we really know is that Ozpin indeed gave much of his power to four girls, creating the original Maidens. However:

Did he really isolate himself like the story says? Honestly, if I'd been dealing with all Ozpin's shit I'd probably hide in the woods too.

How soon after receiving the curse did all this go down?

Depending on that timing, did Ozpin have reincarnations before he was the Wizard? Or is that his original form? A lot of fans still assume that he was also the King of Vale, though where that fits into the timeline is a little unclear.

Did Ozpin know at the time that his magic was finite? Or was this the event that clued him in?

Did he give the four women magic in a deliberate attempt to stop Salem? Or, like the story implies, was there a broader reason, the desire to give these women the power to continue spreading hope? That would certainly fit with the show's "honest soul" theme (and perhaps an indicator that characters like Ruby have something to teach Ozpin even as he teaches them, just as the original Maidens did).

Are the Maidens' powers connected to their original gifts? Winter is the Maiden of creation and encouraged Ozpin to meditate and reflect. Summer is destruction and, interestingly, told Ozpin to "step outside and embrace the world." Spring brought food and flowers to revitalize his garden and is the Maiden of knowledge, while Fall is choice and reminded Ozpin to be thankful for what he has. I can see some similarities among all that...

We might not ever get answers to questions like these. Unlike other fantasy series, RWBY is rather restricted by its medium--you can't spend page after page explaining nuanced world building as you would in a novel; we've only got about fifteen minutes max each episode and plenty of more important issues to tackle first. Still, it's something.

Besides that confirmation, "Rest and Resolutions" really lives up to its name. We have all the kids enjoying a happy meal together, with only Oscar noticeably absent. (I know, I know, he's housing Ozpin's soul and Ozpin needs to have Important Conversations with Qrow about the missing huntsmen, but let the kid hang out a bit with people closer to his age, yeah?) Much of this volume has been recap of one form or another, so as to make sure that each character is caught up on what everyone else has been doing and are aware of the information that others/the viewer already knows about. Ruby and co.'s conversation works similarly, only these callbacks are meant to induce a sense of nostalgia rather than act as firm plot foundation.

Jaune recounts "loosing" the map on their travels. Jaune. You literally threw it away when you realized that an entire town had been besieged by grimm. Like, I get that losing their map isn't great, but at least the guy is really invested in the welfare of others?

(cough--comforting Pyrrha instead of watching the door--cough)

(It's actually a personality "flaw" that, as we've seen twice now, can cause some serious consequences.)

The kids take turn complimenting one another (aww) and Ruby says that Ren was "out of control" during the fight against the Nuckelavee. I've seen a few autistic!Ren headcanons over the years and this perhaps can be read as evidence to support that. Ren drastically misreads the tone and intention of Ruby's comment, apologizing quite sincerely for his behavior and personal investment in that fight. It's only when Ruby clarifies that she meant it as a compliment that Ren understands... and thanks her. There's a lot of acceptance and support in this moment.

Weiss alludes to summoning her boar during the party (Ruby: "You did not!") and when Nora doesn't believe her Weiss summons the boar right next to her, startling the hell out of poor Nora. This really shows how much Weiss has improved. There's no hesitation, no need to concentrate--she just summons it up with pure ease right in the middle of a conversation.

I was actually rather surprised by Nora's reaction. Yeah, the jump scare was played for humor, but that combined with her horror at Yang detaching her arm... Nora seems a little... skittish to me?  I might be reading too much into things (I almost certainly am), but between these two moments, the joke about her eating, watching her sneak food last episode... they all read as not so subtle indicators of stress to me. And who can blame the girl.

Other nostalgic moments include our Vol. 1-3 nicknames: Ice Queen and Vomit Boy. The group has a long-overdue acknowledgement of how much they've grown since they were at school, with Ruby in particular delivering the iconic line that she tried to "1v1 a Nevermore on our second day of school." And the Death Stalker, Ruby. God bless this trigger-happy child.

There's also talk of Yang's arm. It did my heart good to see Ruby ooo-ing over the mechanics and Yang looking damn proud of it for once. The arm wrestling contest between her and Nora was, of course, fantastic. Yang's not just embracing this new part of her but actively using it to her advantage... that's exactly where we all knew she'd end up. Can't hold this girl down for long.

Yang: "It's no replacement for the real thing, but I'll make good use of it."

There's a radical tone change once dinner is over and Ozpin rejoins the conversation. Yang is clearly distrustful of him after her talk with Raven (despite the fact that Yang has no reason to trust Raven...) and in true Ozpin style he tries to console her with wisdom and compliments: "Your mother must trust you a great deal" if she told you all that.

Yeah. Sorry, Oz. You know as well as the audience that Raven told those secrets to manipulate her, not because she trusts her. That little strategy fell flat.

Ozpin confirms most of what Raven said though, including that he turned her and Qrow into birds. What Raven of course failed to mention was that they both agreed to the transformation. Whether that agreement was a strong and enthusiastic "Yes!" or the kind of consent that Pyrrha gave--a very complicated scenario with no good choices on the table--is hard to say. My own assumption is that Raven was probably thrilled to be given such a useful power, especially when she intended to turn it against the very community who gave it to her. She only regrets it now that her life hasn't turned out quite as planned. She, like others, is looking to use Ozpin as her scapegoat. 

In fact, we're given no explanation for Raven or Yang's anger here. Raven I can conceptualize--she's the type to blame others for her problems--but Yang? What exactly is so horrific about being turned into a kick-ass bird? As Ozpin describes it, this magic allows Qrow and Raven to "see more" and to be "unburdened" in ways that the normal huntsmen or huntress is not. This ability allows them to spy on Salem rather inconspicuously and, as we've seen in the case of Qrow, is useful in terms of keeping track of other people--like your wayward niece who goes off to try and take on the forces of darkness alone. As far as we've been told there's no downside to this ability beyond the fact that Ozpin's magic is finite, but that hardly effects Qrow. He transforms when he chooses, it doesn't seem to cause him any pain, it grants him an ability outside of his bad luck semblance, he already lives in a world where half the population has animal traits... seriously, where's this anger coming from? Just the fact that magic is an unknown to Yang and therefore scary? It's really unclear and frankly worrying considering how much Yang is basing her accusations and demands around that anger. 

Because the irony is that Yang demands no more secrets from Ozpin. He insists he doesn't keep secrets from them, just plays certain pieces of information close to the chest, but Yang says 'tomato tomahto’ even though, as we’ve just established, that wasn’t Ozpin’s secret to tell. And it has no repercussions that impact the rest of the group. Certainly not the girl who just showed up. I mean, maybe there is still a downside? They’ll definitely be a real backlash if the kids discover there is some horrific consequence to Qrow and Raven's ability and Ozpin didn’t say anything... but again, that’s not fair to Ozpin. Isn’t anyone going to ask Qrow why he kept this from his family? Or ask Yang why she’s suddenly on the side of the mother who abandoned her and is a known killer? Putting all this on Ozpin is, again, pretty worrying. 

Perhaps the most moving moment of the episode though is when Ozpin tells the kids that they can still leave. (Except Oscar of course. This poor kid. He got dragged into this fast and is the only one who's truly stuck with it.) He emphasizes that abstaining from battle is not the same thing as retreat and reminds us that these are just kids and they can't be expected to shoulder it all. No one stands except for Yang... but she's not leaving, just making it clear that whatever Ruby decides to do she'll follow her lead. It re-emphasizes that Ruby isn't just a strategic leader like Jaune is. She's the moral compass of the group. Once Ruby decides to keep fighting--and we know she always will--the rest of her family follows. That’s... not always a good thing though. Everyone needs a reason for fighting this kind of war and I don’t think ‘because Ruby is fighting it too’ is powerful enough to carry them through whatever new hardships they’ll face. 

Because you can’t keep the peace for long. We're left with one hell of a cliff-hanger as Emerald, Mercury, Cinder, and Watts approach Raven's camp, the whole gang demanding an audience--or more likely a Maiden. Every fan who cried over the fact that Emerald isn't in the opening finally got to see their fave prepping for a fight and I for one am looking forward to a real battle this Volume. None of the measly stuff we've seen with Blake or in training. For the first time this will, presumably, be Maiden vs. Maiden and I expect something epic.

Luckily the episode airs soon!

Before that though we have the heart-wrenching episode "Alone Together," wherein three fourths of Team RWBY finally get some downtime together. Ruby is up very early due to difficulty sleeping (who can blame her) and she soon realizes that Weiss and Yang are in the same boat. Loved Yang's sisterly "Boop" with her hair (pick that up from Nora, did you?) and Weiss knows her friends well, dumping an unholy amount of sugar into Ruby's coffee to make sure she likes it. "Nice Weiss strikes again!"

I'm quite liking Nice Weiss this Volume. What a step up from Ice Queen.

There's a bit more recapping--Ruby is called out on her priorities. That fact that they're all together at Haven Academy; that's what she can't believe?--before the conversation quickly turns to when they'll see Blake again. We've watched Yang deal rather well with the loss of her arm this past Volume and she kept a comparatively cool head around her mother. This though... this is what's really been festering.

Yang says that Blake "made her choice" and expresses very little interest in seeing her again. Weiss and Ruby are, understandably, shocked. With shaking hands and a flash of red eyes, Yang finally reveals what's truly been holding her back. Not her arm, not Raven, not any anger at Ruby, but the fact that Blake ran from them. Again.  

It's an understandable flaw on Blake's part, and it's equally understandable that this would nevertheless frustrate and upset Yang. I love that it's Weiss who helps her see Blake's perspective in all this: that after finally opening up to them, everything she'd feared actually did come to pass. The family she'd found was torn apart. Beacon fell. Adam hurt Yang in the worst possible way. She brought down the metaphorical walls around her heart and the literal walls of Beacon crumbled. As far as Blake is concerned, getting close to others really did bring nothing but misery. It's not logical, but emotions rarely are. Of course she's going to try and get as far away from them as possible after that, as well as return to her parents. It was a move born equally from a desire to protect herself as well as others.

It says a great deal about Yang's maturity that she does understand Blake's perspective rather quickly (even if, interestingly, she can’t understand Ozpin’s. A difference in who she actually cares for). Notably this is done through Weiss' own experiences, her admission that they've all experienced their own versions of loneliness. Yang says she doesn't blame Blake for the decision any longer; she's just upset that Blake hasn't realized yet (as Yang herself has) that things are easier when you stick together. That she, Ruby, and Weiss could have supported Blake through this... and that they need her support too. Yang resolves to be there for Blake just as soon as she's ready. The girl has a wealth of love within her. And yes, a lot of that stems from adopting the role of caretaker early, looking after Ruby as a big sister, but the fact that Yang can separate her current desire to protect her friends from that difficult childhood is huge. She knows how trauma has shaped her and she's prepared to make the best of it.

Ruby finally does check up on them and lets out a heartfelt sigh. Everything's okay.

Now, I'll be real interested to see if Yang's shaking lessens after she's reconciled with Blake...

Meanwhile, there's Ilia. And you all know what I'm going to discuss here.

There's a lot to say about her meeting with Blake--the well-played betrayal; our look at how Blake might end up in Mistral; the introduction of a very cool spider faunus; Ilia's speech about how there's no right or wrong, no innocents, just doing "what's best for us" that reminded me strongly of Roman's own speech--but for now, especially given how long this review already is, I want to focus in on her sexuality.

(FYI what I have below was originally written as a separate post, so apologies for the repetition.)

In the past week I've seen numerous complaints about how the fandom is “whining” about finally getting what they want. I’m one of the “whiners,” and this, to be frank, is not what I asked for.

Let’s start with the acknowledgment that yes, no matter who Rooster Teeth chose as their first LBGTQIA character, some people were going to be disappointed. Either because the choice doesn’t fit their ship or because of the dichotomy we’re seeing now: the Good vs. Evil gay character divide. It’s a simple disagreement on the surface that nevertheless houses a lot of important questions and concerns: should you make your gay character one of the Good Guys in order provide positive representation, or should you make them one of the Bad Guys in order to provide diverse representation? Do you send the message that being gay is wonderful by associating it with the heroes, or something that’s natural by associating it with the villains--making a statement that anyone can be LGBTQIA, not just the ones you’re rooting for?

The answer to this dilemma is that you do both. You provide variety in order to likewise provide true, diverse representation. However, the reality is that we haven’t reached a point in most media where you get lots and lots of gay characters to provide lots and lots of diversity… so therefore I feel rather strongly that the first character should be a positive portrayal.

Why? Because we’re not living in a positive world. Because we’re still a part of societies where LGBTQIA people are ridiculed, discriminated, and murdered. Because the idea that it’s not just okay, but fantastic to be gay is FAR from universal.

Because we have a very long, awful history of villains associated with gay stereotypes. Because there’s literally a Psycho Lesbian trope with plenty of examples to choose from. Because we don’t live in a culture where you can casually throw out ‘gay’ + ‘bad guy’ and expect your audience to separate the two critically.

Which brings me back to Ilia.

For all these reasons I was truly disappointed to see that she was our first LBGTQIA character. Out of a wealth of women in this show who love each other in healthy and nuanced ways, they were all bypassed for a character who is currently one of the Bad Guys.

Is Ilia pure evil? Of course not. I’ve mentioned previously about how much we see her struggling with her choices, but she’s currently not on a good path either. More importantly, the way her sexuality is revealed does nothing but position it badly. Let’s break that scene down just a bit. The first LGBTQIA content we’re given is:

A woman who is working for an extremist group that in turn is working for the Big Bad

Ilia reveals her sexuality after having her henchmen abuse Blake, attacking her, forcing her onto her knees, and announcing that they’re currently attempting to murder her parents

Ilia says that she wanted Blake to look at her like she once looked at Adam, intentionally or not drawing parallels between her love and Blake’s abuse

She positions her sexuality as at least partly a justification for her actions. Illia is subtly blaming Blake: if you’d paid more attention to me, maybe none of this would have happened. It actively positions all this horror as at least partly a consequence of same sex attraction

Does all of this craft a rather complex, LGBTQIA character? Absolutely, but it’s also one that left a rather sour taste in my mouth. Overt, same-sex attraction is still so rare in our media and frankly I’m sick of it. I’m sick of vague comments, queer baiting, or promises of something “coming later.” I’m equally sick of burying our gays and having same-sex attraction presented as something that only those who are otherwise sick in their morals would experience. Is it so much to ask for something reaffirming in a series that keeps growing in popularity and influence?

Will there be more LGBTQIA characters in RWBY? I assume so, I hope so, but for now all we have is Ilia. A character who, I’d also like to point out, we barely know. I’m sure she’s lots of fans’ fave, but I for one have little interest in this side character… and her position as a side character makes me nervous for her survival. Her sexuality only compounds that.

Rooster Teeth had a huge opportunity here. LGBTQIA viewers have waited five years to see someone like them in this series and it could have been a really magnificent reveal. It could have been Yang realizing her feelings as she worked through her anger at Blake. Or Weiss realizing hers for Yang as they get closer this Volume. Or Ruby for Weiss. Or Weiss for Blake. Hell, give us a throwaway line about Port and Oobleck being happy husbands, or let Ren be pan, or let Oz admit to same-sex attraction after having lived thousands of years…. I don’t care. I’ll take any ship wars that develop as a consequence. All I wanted was to see a character I know and love embracing their sexuality in a way that reaffirmed how proud I am of my own.

Instead it’s Ilia, admitting feelings for Blake while she plots to kill her parents. While she hurts her and betrays her. Sorry if I find that a little difficult to watch. Sorry if I need to “whine” about it just a bit.

So yes. Needless to say I'm disappointed. After that I couldn't really appreciate Ghira's transformation and concern for his wife, or Kali's badass, "Get out of my house!" As said, the whole scene with Ilia left a bad taste in my mouth. I know Rooster Teeth can do better.

Hopefully we do get better. Preferably soon. This is the perfect, filler kind of Volume to set up more characterization, including queer sexualities, and we've got four more episodes until the hiatus.

Tick, tock, RT.

Other Details of Note

Nora, what exactly happened with you and that punch?

I liked the gears on the wall clock. Which begs the question: where did this house come from? Is it a safe place that Ozpin had set up long before Beacon's fall?

They ate ALL that food. Everything they'd prepared while expecting who knows how many huntsmen/huntresses. Never underestimate the appetites of a group of teenagers.

James and Glynda get mentioned this volume! Everyone rejoice! Now if only we got to see them on screen...

Nora exclaiming about how Qrow and Raven are named after birds was pretty hilarious. It's not like we weren't already thinking it. Despite all the jokes on tumblr though, there's no way Ozpin chose those forms specifically because of the Branwens' names. If anything, this seems to act as evidence that a person's semblance/abilities draws on their personality, rather than the other way around.

There are a number of bird motifs throughout "Alone Together," including our opening shot of Ruby watching them fly overhead and a pair of carved ducks on display in the bedroom where Yang and Weiss chat. It's a nice nod to one of this Volume's major themes. (Or, if we buy into this headcanon that this place is a safe house purchased specifically for Qrow, then Ozpin needs to get called out on his on-the-nose decorating lol).

Yang staring at the team photo hurt in so many ways. Excellent touch there.

We have that acknowledged parallel between Weiss and Ruby, in which Yang (and the audience) expects it to be Ruby knocking on the door, trying to talk. The difference is that now, months later, Yang is actually in a position to open up to someone and that someone is Weiss, now just as much a sister to Yang as Ruby is.  

Confirmation that Weiss' mom is an alcoholic. We knew that was coming too...but still. Yikes.

Yang cries! Let all the children keep crying! It's good and natural!

There's a "nocturnal section" of Menagerie. Of course there is. God I can't believe I didn't think of that.

Ilia can completely blend in with the shadows. It's official now: all Volume 1-3's shadow people are just really, really shy chameleon faunuses. Spread the word.

That blow Blake took seemed to hit her pretty hard. Kind of like how Oscar staggered when he got hit without his aura... could Blake really trust Ilia enough to attend this meeting without proper protection? She might, which makes Ilia's betrayal all the worse. In the episode where Yang talks of letting Blake support and be supported by others, she was finally willing to do that with an old friend. Obviously having that backfire won't help Blake to open up any further.

GIF credit: http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/841077-rwby

[khiphop-discussions]

Do you think that the product placement and ads in smtm this year were more frequent and blatant? Or did I just not notice them as much before

The subway ones were kinda on the nose LOL but I feel like subway is on the nose in EVERY season. It seems like they have been supplying the sandwiches on every season so that they can eat. I remember in season 6(?) when KillahGramz rapped his order and I think it was Hongwon (not sure) who was like "Wow, you really want the brand deal" or something similar to that LOL. Then this season Team Graynoma was acting like the sandwiches were the best thing they ever tasted. Like dude...it's fucking subway LOL

But I don't think I can remember that many of other ones (besides Sprite but the Sprite was paired with the Subway so of course it was memorable).

I remember Kakao Pay from other seasons. But I ALSO think that was during a Subway scene as well lol

To me it was obvious they were advertising that hotel as well cause otherwise why randomly give the winner a stay in the hotel? Also, wasn't that the same hotel that we saw them eating at/talking on one of the episodes (can't remember but it may have been ep9 or 10?).

They are ALWAYS advertising for whatever company sponsors the car. This time it was mini cooper.

They also collabed with UFC this season as well. They made some hats. I feel like that was a SUPER random collab lol.

But SMTM did give out A BUNCH of prizes this season ($300K worth) compared to them usually giving out $100K of money and a car (probably worth less than $100K). Also, the judging panel DID look pretty damn expensive (Mino AND Gray, Yumdda who's business saavy so I feel like he asked for a lot lol, Code Kunst, Gaeko, and Zion.T probably get paid more because they are return judges same with Gray. Slom and Toil probably were the cheapest but honestly I still see them being pretty expensive). They also redesigned the HELL out of the set for round 2. All that AI/Virtual Reality/whatever the hell it was, means they had to hire more people to do that.

Oh, it also seems like maybe they may have been advertising that technology/company who makes it as well. Didn't they spend a weird amount of time having the judges talk about it as well as mention exactly what it was and who did it? That was probably an ad because they don't tell us what company makes literally anything else on the show (like the chains, fire pit, the other stage designs for the other rounds [diss battle, the jail cells for ep.5, the 1v1 battle stage for ep.3], etc. They kinda just go "oh this is cruel" for a few seconds and then move on) So maybe they got the set design for free for the advertisement if it really was an ad.

So yeah, it does seem like it was more of them. But it makes sense given how much money it seems like they spent.

[kaibacxrps]

@mundaneaxel​ has sent: 1, 6, 8, 10, and 11. c:

Mun Related Shipping Questions![Accepting]

1. OTP(s) for your muse?

// Oh boy here we go:

Kaiba:

Rivalshipping Mastershipping (TY for thAT AXEL) Cubeshipping (Diva/Kaiba, hEY @kaibacorpbros​) Trustshipping (due to HCs I can’t write/rp this ship, but damn I still enjoy this ship a lot <3 it’s so aesthetically pleasing) Moneyshipping

Set:

Headdresshipping Truthshipping Mizushipping Historychannelshipping (Rosenkreuz/Set, coughs @ Mew’s dIRECTION)

Atem:

Scandalshipping Prideshipping

6. Do you have an OT3 for your muse? Are you open to polyshipping?

// I don’t have any OT3 ships- at least not in a poly relationship way, I like the idea of a love-triangle with Set/Atem/Kaiba but hmm.

Yes, I’m open to them! But only one of my muses is open to it- that one being Set (In fact, I’ve mentioned how he practiced it in life). Atem and Kaiba have their own set of IC reasons, as to why they wouldn’t partake in such thing.

Now this is where I say, how I’m very selective about this. I’d prefer if it still were an 1v1 thing- but either me or my partner write multiple muses, because I feel like it’s so much easier to manage- etc.

8. Does your muse get jealous easily?

// Atem is the only one out of the three who has a problem with jealousy. I’ve discussed about this in his blog, but basically- it stems from his immaturity mixed in with a lack of confidence when it comes to his romantic partner. Things can get ugly very quickly, and grow out of proportion rather easily. It’s not something pretty.

Kaiba would never get himself into a relationship, so if he ever were to develop jealousy- it would be because of some other reason. And Set is in a similar vein as Kaiba, albeit he can get into a relationship- jealousy won’t come because of his partners.

10. A ship in your fandom you love (that does not include your muse)?

// Peachshipping & Wishshipping!! I love them both so mUCH my dude!!

11. A ship in your fandom that you dislike (that does not include your muse)?

// Any and all ships involving Ryou/Yami/TK Bakura TBH.

I don’t care about Bakura at all, my dude. Lemme jUST YEET THEM OUT OF HERE.

[shervonfakhimi]

The Under-the-Radar NBA Characters Who Can Shape the 2nd Half of the NBA Season

The 2nd half of the NBA calendar is about to begin (though it is technically the final 1/3 of the regular season). Teams are beginning a push one way or another, either for a playoff run or a Zion tankathon. There is still a lot to be figured out between now and June. With that being said, there are a few players that can determine how the rest of the season shapes out. I underwent a similar exercise at the beginning of the season, which looks... yikes. So let’s gasbag away and get to some of the players who can really impact the second half of the NBA season.

Chris Paul PG HOU: In case you’ve been living under a rock, James Harden is absolutely laying waste to this NBA regular season. Even though there have been games where it took garbage time, he’s found a way to score 30+ points in 31 consecutive games & piss off everyone associated with the NBA in the process. But there’s no damn way this is sustainable. His Usage Rate currently sits at 39.1%! Almost all of that has been due to the massive rash of injuries the Rockets have dealt with, from the likes of Clint Capela, Chris Paul and Eric Gordon, amongst others. But they all either are or will be back soon. Chris Paul came back January 27th. However, Harden’s usage rate in that span has *only* dipped to 38.5%. We’ve seen James Harden run out of gas in the playoffs, to the point where people tried to convince themselves the reason why was that he was point shaving in what could possibly be the greatest hot take ever uttered. This is where Chris Paul is both the solution and the problem. It is good to have another future hall of famer initiate more of the offense to allow Harden time to rest. The problem has come with Paul’s efficiency. His numbers have been down across the board this season compared to last season, where he was just as much as a 1v1 dynamo as his running beard teammate. Chris Paul boasted a 55.1 EFG% on Paul’s seemingly automatic pull-up jumpers last season, per NBA.com (Harden shot 55.3%). This season, that number has dipped to a paltry 47.6%, which is…. not great. He has struggled gaining separation from even bigs switched onto him, which was easy money for him last season. If Houston, already with glaring holes size wise and defensively (25th in defensive efficiency) really is going to challenge Golden State, they need the real CP3 to stand up and for CP3-6 weeks to never be heard from for the rest of the season. The Rockets season and status as NBA contenders depends on it.

Eric Bledsoe PG MIL: From Chris Paul to Chris Paul’s former backup. The Milwaukee Bucks have serged and transformed into a powerhouse, ranking inside the top 4 in both offensive and defensive efficiency. Obviously Giannis Antetokounmpo and the wealth of shooting around him along with the guidance of Mike Budenholzer (who constantly looks like he just stepped on a LEGO brick) has catapulted Milwaukee up to the top of the NBA standings, but Bledsoe has been a big part of it too. Not only has Bledsoe ranked 4th currently in ESPN’s Real Plus-Minus stat amongst point guards, he ranks 6th amongst point guards in Defensive Real Plus-Minus too. He’s shooting a career high 49.2% from the field and a career high 55.5 EFG%. It feels a little arbitrary and hot take-y, but it is another thing to see if it will sustain in the playoffs. With the massive amount of shooting surrounding Giannis, Bledsoe does not qualify, as he is currently shooting just 32.1% from 3. There hasn’t been much of a drop off whether Giannis has or hasn’t joined Bledsoe on the court this season. If that doesn’t change, it will be virtually impossible for Milwaukee to lose in the postseason. It’s up to Eric Bledsoe to maintain that pace and not turn to Drew Bledsoe.

Jimmy Butler SG/SF PHI: One time for General Soreness. The former T-Wolf has been fine this season in his new digs in Philadelphia, but some of Philly’s problems still persist. The Sixers rank 22nd in Clutch situations, despite Butler shooting 57% from the floor & over 60% in those situations. Butler’s usage rate in clutch situations currently sits at just 25% and 21.7% overall for the course of the season since joining the Sixers. The Sixers were still figuring this out before adding Tobias Harris at the deadline. Luckily for them and coach Brett Brown, they still have time to figure out how handle these late game situations and find what works best for them. Perhaps it is implementing more pick and roll with Jimmy Butler, which was the source of Butler’s well publicized film room scorn at the direction of Brett Brown. Maybe they play bully ball and attack the guard on the floor not running around with JJ Redick, which is a whole other type of difficult assignment. Regardless, it feels like Jimmy Butler will play a part of it. Philly brought him in to close out tough games, not just stand around and watch Al Horford torment Joel Embiid yet again. Trading for Tobias will help give him more room to operate, and does give Philly a safety net if Butler bolts in free agency, which doesn’t sound entirely implausible. How far the Sixers go, and how Butler is involved, will prominently determine how either situation fares.

Kyrie Irving PG BOS & Gordon Hayward SG BOS: The Celtics are so damn weird. Every stat you can find, and common bleeping sense, would tell you the Celtics are not better without Kyrie. Yet….. they are 9-2 without him and the youngins on their roster took off without him last season, coming 5 minutes within making the NBA Finals. Every intangible, like chemistry and fun, as Marcus Morris pleaded for, seems to be more profound when Kyrie isn’t there. Maybe that’s unfair to Kyrie, but I could see how young guys who want to evolve their games in their own right would salivate at the opportunity to do more rather than be glorified glue guys who may be shipped out for Anthony Davis. It’s up to Kyrie, ironically playing the best season of his career, to work his game around the rest of the team and pick and choose his spots, rather than be the 1 man wrecking crew he typically is. As for Gordon Hayward, he can be Boston’s de facto trade deadline acquisition. He has certainly had his moments of brilliance this season, but it has been inconsistent. However, he has shot 46.5% and 57.1% from the floor the last 2 months, including a stellar 52.4% mark from 3 in February. He’s been a little more decisive and fearless recently too as he still is recovering from that devastating leg injury. If he becomes 80-95% of what he was in Utah, then look out. The rest of the East made big, sexy moves, but the biggest impact ‘move’ could be Hayward stepping up.

LeBron James SF LAL: Ok, it feels stupid to call LeBron James ‘under the radar,’ but bear with me. This seems pretty simple. LeBron just needs to play hard. This Laker team can’t afford him take a lot of possessions off, which has been the case recently. He’s still the greatest player in the league. He literally can mess around and get a triple double like the great Laker fan O’Shea Jackson did on January 20, 1992. But not only does LeBron need to play hard, he has to rally his teammates. The Anthony Davis trade winds have found its way to wreck the Laker locker room, which you can argue was because of LeBron himself. It must feel weird the agent of your superstar teammate is trying to acquiesce his other superstar client’s demand to take your job to join your superstar teammate. That’s not to rip Rich Paul; it’s his job to do that, as with any other agent. Regardless, the trade didn’t happen, and LeBron has to work with what he’s got now. Perhaps you could argue missing the playoffs wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for the Lakers: why get swept by the Warriors when you can give yourself a better trade chip for Davis? But missing the playoffs and wasting a season of LeBron’s seemingly never-ending prime that has to end at some point would be a colossal failure. The young players need to play better too, but it is up to LeBron to lead them. He seems to thrive when things look the most bleak, just look at the 2016 Finals and last season’s playoff run. And hey, if the Lakers avoid the Warriors, you’re telling me there’s anybody else in the west that’s going to make LeBron shook? Just a hypothetical here, what if the Lakers manage to get to the 7th seed, beat the inexperienced Nuggets, beat the overly (Legit Top 3 MVP Candidate) Paul George-reliant Oklahoma City Thunder, then get the Warriors in the Western Conference. What if the repeating champs suffer an unfortunate Steph ankle injury (I am not wishing. No I’m not that cynical. But just bear with me here). Maybe Draymond’s wildin’ out again. I’m just saying…...

Draymond Green PF/C GS: Now this one is even more simple. Don’t kick anybody in the nuts. Don’t call your superstar pending free agent a bitch. (Also, maybe find your jumper again?) Do that, and you 3 peat. See? Simple.

[get-thee-to-a-shrubbery]

I generally have about a 65-70% chance of winning a 1v1 as lucio vs genji, but vs mercy my chances are about 30%, mostly because she probably won’t engage and will run away, as one should. 

Genji mains, on the other hand, are proud creatures, and will never back down against a mere Lucio. This, of course, tends to be their downfall; they underestimate me.

Still though, Genji is a powerful adversary, so if the enemy genji is actually, like, really good, I’m dead as fuck.

D.Va is a similar case, surprisingly; her headshot hitbox is so damn huge that i can hit it almost consistently. It’s just a matter of keeping my distance, being hard to keep a lock on, and switching between healing and speed as need be. This matchup usually ends before either of us wins, though, but I can get a D.Va out of mech pretty well, if not consistently.

McCree is a bit of a coin flip. If I can manage to stay in flashbang’s cooldown, i can wear him down pretty quickly. On the other hand, if he can get close enough to flashbang me, I’m USUALLY dead, or if he can actually aim.

[the-archlich]

OWL Week 1: Winners and Losers

If you don’t care about my bad esports opinions just keep scrolling.

This isn’t about wins and losses (anyone who cares can Google that) but about individuals and teams who had particularly good or bad weeks. None of this is statistics, just how I felt watching.

More winners than losers in this week.

WINNERS

Xzi: Paris Eternal rookie, he really turned up. Probably the best Sym OWL has seen; someone who’s actually good on that hero and can make use of her outside of one-off strats. His hitscan heroes were clean too. Showed a lot of potential.

FDGoD: Really the breakout player of the team. His debut was truly explosive. On the one hand he did a flawless job of guarding his team’s back, always swooping in to deal with flankers (especially a lot of poor Reapers), and he knew how to pour on the violence and chase down kills when appropriate. A lot of Lucio players can handle one or the other but he juggled both flawlessly. He’s already making an early case for himself as one of the best.

JJoNak: Given the staggering size of his reputation, JJoNak is expected to perform at superhuman levels at all times. This weekend, he lived up to it. In the past, one of NYXL’s greatest strengths was the way Anamo and JJoNak were able to fend for themselves (meaning that NYXL could put more pressure on the front and peel for the back less), and JJoNak was in top form, winning 1v1 fights in the back he had no business coming out of. He looked as nasty as he’s ever been.

Saebyeolbe: The last year was a rough one for SBB. He proved himself the best Tracer player in the world during OWL season 1 but his fate was in doubt after that hero fell out of use, and he didn’t find much stage time in Season 2, or when he was on the 2019 world cup team. He came back with a vengeance this time and really reminded people why NYXL was so dominant.

LhCloudy: There were low expectations around Cloudy coming into this season. He and the Eternal underperformed badly last year, so seeing him start (over OGE of all people) was a shock. And he proved to be a highly competent Rein far exceeding the expectations people had for him.

KSP: I’ve heard great things about KSP for a while now, since some Contenders EU games I watched in 2018. Like many other hitscan players last year was against him and he never really had a chance to show what he could do. This year he made his real debut and put in a top-tier performance. He proved he can compete against the best after all.

McGravy: Being Valiant’s OT, he’s always going to be measured against Space. And this time he measured up. Clutch ult negations, big bombs, and perfect timing, McGravy took a huge leap out of Space’s shadow. He can stand on his own, and he stands pretty damn tall right now.

Los Angeles Valiant: The Valiant as a whole deserve a spot here. Their roster probably had the lowest expectations of anyone aside from Boston and they more than overperformed. Aside from standout plays from KSP and McGravy, their total tactics were much better than anyone expected. The team focused on giving KSP space to work. They kept the Fuel at a distance to KSP could fire with virtual impunity. While Decay could match him shot for shot, he didn’t get the same support from Dallas and the superior team tactics won out. Unfortunately this didn’t hold up against Vancouver’s hyperaggression, and I don’t know how it’d do against similar teams. But it was still a great performance overall from people who had no expectations.

Decay: There were probably more expectations on Decay than on almost any other player. Gladiators payed a bundle for him (I think something like $300K) for the 2019 season and got just an average performance. Like many other hitscan specialists, this was mostly the result of a bad meta. But this meant that Decay had a lot to prove this year, and he did prove it. He was the only thing keeping Dallas in a lot of these teamfights. If Fuel learns how to enable him (as Valiant did with KSP or Justice with Corey last year) he’ll be an absolute monster. I want to live in that world.

Striker: I think everyone agreed going into this season that Shock looked like the biggest kids on the block, but I’m not sure anyone expected Striker to stand out as one of the reasons why. But an insane performance from him to close out the week reminded everyone why this team is so feared, and why he has a place on it.

LOSERS

JMAC: The most anemic individual performance I think we saw in opening week. JMAC was outplayed at every turn. His performance against NYXL was downright humiliating, especially given the number of huge bombs HOTBA was landing against Spitfire’s double shield composition. Your Rein can’t be letting that happen, but JMAC was clueless. It’s rare when one player is unquestionably the weakest link on a relatively weak roster, but he makes the call easy.

Munchkin: There was a time when Munchkin was considered one of the best at what he did. But he fell hard near the end of the 2018 season and seems to have kept falling. This was an opportunity for him to make his triumphant return like some other players (notably his NYXL counterpart SBB) but instead he turned in a weak performance that made you forget he was even there.

Birdring: Like Munchkin, Birdring is someone who’s been in long downward spiral for some time. This was an opportunity for him to make a fresh start and a comeback. It didn’t work out. While he put in a competent performance, it takes more than that to get back the reputation he once had. The way he was playing, I don’t think anyone would rank him among the top 5 anymore.

Dallas Fuel: Hosting the opening game in your home city and losing both of your matches is HARD. Especially when that first loss is to a team everyone counted out. But really this team is just cursed. 2018 they started out with what they thought was top talent from Apex, only to get absolutely dumpstered by everyone but the Mayhem and 0-40 Dragons. Season 2 had higher expectations thanks to superior coaching staff; but a strong start to the season ended in humiliation again. Starting off 2020 on such a low note is not a good look for a team that has historically struggled to reach the middle of the pack, even after a few moments of glory.

[flauntpage]

A Weekend of Winning – Observations from the Kings and Bucks Victories

The Sixers now own road wins over the 52-18 Milwaukee Bucks and 47-21 Golden State Warriors, which is pretty damn good.

Fantastic victory Sunday afternoon, and one they really needed. They didn’t need just any old win, since they’ve now ripped off four straight, but what they needed was a statement win, a solid W against a top-four Eastern Conference squad to build confidence and show the greater NBA community that maybe this team does have what it takes to get out of round two. This win was good for the mental health of Philly sports fans, writers, radio hosts, and their spouses. It will give us two days of a natural high until Boston comes to town Wednesday night with the Sixers returning home on the second night of a back-to-back.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Let’s talk about the pair of weekend wins, which I’ve wrapped into one Monday morning post, honestly because I was exhausted on Saturday morning and needed to recharge the batteries.

I re-watched the final eight minutes of the Bucks game this morning, and this is what jumped out to me:

I liked Brett Brown’s timeout around the eight minute mark, which paused and essentially reset the game when the Sixers failed to snag a couple of loose balls after bricking one three pointer off the side of the backboard and air balling another.

Joel did take too many three-pointers, and the one that stood out to me was when Giannis tried a three around the 7 minute mark and he followed suit with his own attempt on the other end. After that miss, on the very next possession, he went to the rack for a spin move, and-1, to extend the lead back to nine. He dialed it back when it mattered, and then went back to the arc for the clutch shot near the end of the game.

Incredibly difficult stuff was going down for Jimmy Butler. A step back 22-footer? Driving straight into Giannis? That’s elite, high-level execution.

I also liked Brett’s timeout at the 4:28 mark, when Pat Connaughton answered Butler three with a three of his own. That was another “let’s kill off momentum and manage the game” type of timeout.

Most of what the Sixers were running down the stretch was simple pick and roll and some half court iso. They didn’t go to their typical elbow or ’12’ sets, not that I saw. They did go to a horns set where Ben was blocked off before getting to the rim, resulting in a Jimmy Butler 12 footer that was missed. They ran it again, this time with the elbow curl, around the 1:15 mark.

Sloppy turnover with Joel looking for JJ backdoor when the offense turned into a two-man set around the 2:30 mark. That was the only poor possession they had down the stretch.

The Embiid ball-fake and drawn foul was ridiculous and totally killed off Milwaukee momentum after a pair of Khris Middleton threes.

After Giannis dunked all over Simmons and called him a “fucking baby,” Simmons stuffed a putback dunk in his face. What an outrageous sequence that was. I’m really happy the refs kept the whistles silent and didn’t go for any technicals there. Let grown men play a grown man sport.

I originally had no clue what was going on with the pair of timeouts under two minutes, because the broadcast just sat on this camera shot of the Sixers’ bench for 10 seconds. I’m not sure the broadcast crew realized that Philly used a second timeout to advance the ball, which I guess was a smart move considering the fact that they couldn’t make it past half court on the most recent play. In that case, you forfeit that second timeout later to help yourself now.

Just a random asterisk type of note here, but Malcolm Brogdon is a good defender and his absence does make a difference out there.

I highly doubt that Milwaukee shoots 16-50 from three again. Nikola Mirotic probably isn’t chucking up another 0-6 night anytime soon.

More than anything, Joel Embiid just came to play. He looked energetic, dialed in, and up to the challenge. Similarly, he really stepped it up in a big way with two big blocks to close out the Sacramento game, which was closer than I thought it would be, considering the Kings were on the second night of a back-to-back, having played in Boston on Thursday night.

And Jimmy Butler looked as good as he has since coming to Philadelphia. When he wants to attack and is totally engaged on the offensive end, he’s as good a closer as the Sixers have had in more than a decade.

Defending Giannis

Very interesting to watch Giannis play, isn’t it? He’s so similar to Ben Simmons in how he attacks the basket but doesn’t shoot the ball all that well, though he’s probably a year or two ahead of Ben on the same exact bell curve of growth.

Giannis is a 25% three-pointer shooter this year and hits at 27.6% for his career. He hit 3-8 yesterday, which really is very good for him, but also honestly fine if I’m coaching the opposition. If he’s out on the perimeter he’s not lowering that shoulder, getting to the rim, and drawing fouls.

Still, modern day analytics types would LOVE this shot chart:

No midrange junk at all. Just high-efficiency, foul-drawing stuff around the rim complemented with three-point shooting. The guy is the MVP, so you gotta pick your poison, and I’m taking my chances with eight three-point attempts instead of putting a 74% free-throw shooter on the line with drive after drive after drive.

Embiid and Simmons were the most effective Giannis defenders Sunday, with Joel the only Sixer to keep him under 50% from the floor while guarding him.

Here’s how everybody fared vs. Antetokounmpo:

Giannis drew 6 of his 9 shooting fouls against Sixers not named Embiid, while the other three came in 45 matchups against Joel. You also see Giannis was 5-5 from the floor when not guarded by Ben or Joel.

He said this after the game, via ESPN:

“It’s easy,” Antetokounmpo said. “I would rather Ben guard me than Joel. It’s simple. If Joel’s been guarding me all night and he’s been making everything so tough on you, when someone switches on you — Jimmy [Butler] or Ben or [Mike] Scott or [Boban] Marjanovic — it’s way easier.”

The Greek Freak will be in town in a few weeks so we’ll get to see him up close and personal and build off what we learned Sunday.

Tweaking the rotation

On Friday night you saw Brett Brown change Ben Simmons’ substitution pattern, which resulted in a grouping of Butler, Boban, and Tobias Harris staying on the floor together while Joel and Ben’s minutes were linked. In previous games, we had seen Ben playing with the former group instead of Butler as Brown did some experimenting following the February trade deadline.

I like that aforementioned trio because Jimmy Butler is a pick and roll and isolation player, while Harris is similar and has known and played with Boban forever. Joel and Ben are familiar with each other’s skill sets and have played two seasons together now in Brett’s motion offense. On paper, it makes sense.

The only thing about linking Ben and Joel together was that the Sixers didn’t have anybody to defend Giannis when they were off the floor. Mike Scott did the best he could, but when the two teams play again soon, Brett might have to take another look at that, because Boban isn’t gonna be able to do it. On the flip side, it’s like a game of coaching chicken – does Budenholzer leave Giannis in the game to chase that favorable matchup? He can’t play the entire game, and at some point he’s gonna be squaring up with Embiid again on both ends of the floor.

You also have to consider that this can leave you with T.J. McConnell and JJ Redick pairings, which stresses your back court defensively. That’s another wrinkle to think about.

Still, mostly positive stuff here. Over at NBA.com, that Jimmy/Tobias/Boban trio has played 92 minutes together with a 12.5 net rating, which is fantastic, though some of that of course includes minutes played with Redick and Simmons while Embiid was injured. However, if you have nights down the stretch where you can get away with Embiid and Simmons sitting at the same time, this lineup has seemed to work pretty well in admittedly limited minutes over the last few games.

Boban

Boban’s strengths and weaknesses were both on display this weekend.

Weaknesses: lateral movement, defending in space

Strengths: height, underrated skill set

First, the strengths. I have this belief that Boban’s passing and vision is a little underrated, and that some of his game gets overlooked simply because we’re incredibly distracted by how tall he is and how he makes some plays look absolutely ridiculous.

I asked Brett Brown and Tobias Harris about this on Friday night, i.e., do we undervalue Boban’s wider skill set because of his humongous size?

Brett:

I remember about two weeks ago, I saw these guys play 1v1, it was Ben and Jimmy and 7’4″ Boban. He is skilled. He can pass out of the post, he’s got up-and-unders, he’s got right hand, left hand and he can make a free-throw. If that’s your point, that he’s so big that you miss the point that he’s good in other areas, I completely agree with you. He’s been a sensational pickup.

Tobias:

I think (it’s) because guys really haven’t seen him that much, this year, just in spurts, but he has more to his game. We were trying to get him to shoot a three (Friday night). There’s more parts to his game that he has, that he hasn’t brought out yet. At his size he’s very strong, too. He’s not an easy guy to just move around. I believe half the time he’s getting fouled more than what’s being called for him with his size, but I think he’ll get more calls with more reps.

It’s absurd some of the things that he makes look really childish just by virtue of how big he is:

It’s absurd how big Boban is pic.twitter.com/4po5efhm7S

— Shane Young (@YoungNBA) March 16, 2019

I just wonder how effective he’s going to be in the playoffs. You can’t play him against Giannis and Al Horford is too stretchy and slippery to chase around. After the first round, where you’ll draw Andre Drummond or Jarrett Allen, we’ll have to see if any further matchups make sense for him, because I think he’s a skilled guy beyond just being large. You have to pick your spots with Boban in your lineup, because he’s a unique guy with unique strengths and unique weaknesses.

Other notes:

Light boos for Nemanja Bjelica Friday night, who agreed to a deal with the Sixers in the summer before reneging and deciding to ultimate go to Sacramento.

Nice cheers for ex-Sixer Corey Brewer, who was wearing fantastic glasses tucked into his headband.

The in-game interview must be fired into the sun. Seriously. Brett Brown and Mike Budenholzer speak before the game AND after the game. They don’t need to speak to the sideline reporter after the first quarter or third quarter. Get rid of it forever.

T.J. had some moments in the Bucks game where he looked like a liability out there. The foul on Giannis to end the 1st quarter was such an atypical play for him.

JJ shot the ball well in both games. Looks like he’s snapped out of the funk he was in. The Sixers are so much better when he’s hitting, especially early, which helps them get into an offensive rhythm.

No turnover issues this weekend, just 10 against Sacramento and 13 against Milwaukee. That average (11.5) would make the Sixers #1 in the league.

I’ll leave you with the Giannis/Ben posters from earlier. I have to admit, when you do this for a living, there isn’t a lot that draws a reaction from you, but I audibly gasped twice while watching these two plays live, then did it again while watching on tape:

10 seconds later, Simmons tip slams on Giannis’ head and primal screams in his grill let’s go pic.twitter.com/fv9rhP4Bn9

— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) March 17, 2019

Happy Monday.

The post A Weekend of Winning – Observations from the Kings and Bucks Victories appeared first on Crossing Broad.

A Weekend of Winning – Observations from the Kings and Bucks Victories published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

[365footballorg-blog]

Armchair Analyst: Your complete guide to the Week 6 MLS slate

April 6, 201811:36AM EDT

Here we go into Week 6. We’re about three weeks from “You are what your record says you are” territory.

Let’s take a look at what’s about to unfold:

FRIDAY’S GAME

New England Revolution vs. Montreal Impact

7 pm ET | FULL PREVIEW | TV & streaming info

The Revs are, after four games, above the playoff line. So are the Impact after their four games. Neither is exactly running away with things – New England’s goal differential is +1 and Montreal are dead even – but both have been tougher outs than most expected entering the season. Add another data point to the “MLS is unpredictable” compendium.

There are strong similarities and big differences as to how these two teams play. For one, they foul a lot, with the Impact committed 15.5 fouls per game (most in the league) and the Revs 14.8 (second), so expect it to be a bloodbath. For two, neither wants the ball much, as the Revs are down near the bottom of the league in possession (42%) and the Impact aren’t much better (46%). My guess is neither Brad Friedel nor Remi Garde even works on “possession” in training, and that all the focus is on “transition.”

And largely because of that we get to the third similarity: when they generate chances they’re much more likely to come off of a short pass near the 18 than they are off of any kind of knockdown or cross. Each team will use the long-ball, but they do so in order to create a scenario in which they’ll win the second ball and then go direct.

The main difference comes from how they each use the dribble. Montreal lead the league with nearly 17 successful dribbles per game, while the Revs are dead last with 7 per game. This is a function of two things. First is that the Impact have Ignacio Piatti and the Revs don’t. Second is that Garde has his side play in a low- or mid-block and then break into space – very inviting for quality 1v1 players – while Friedel has his team pressed up in a higher block that’s based more around pass-and-move.

Honestly I’m not sure what to think of either of these teams yet. The Revs, as constructed, lack real playmaking and I’m not convinced that their backline is going to hold together over the course of an entire season (think Piatti’s going to miss those opportunities Alberth Elis squandered last week?). Montreal seem to have more promise, but even up a man against a bad Sounders team last weekend they weren’t convincing.

SATURDAY’S SLATE

Atlanta United vs. LAFC

5 pm ET | FULL PREVIEW | TV & streaming info

Did the Galaxy expose a couple of things about LAFC last weekend? Maybe. If so, the big one was that LAFC’s commitment to playing out of the back can leave them open to bad turnovers – as happened on the first Galaxy goal – and another big one was that if you deny their deep distributors, you can do a nice job of removing Carlos Vela and Diego Rossi from the game at least a little bit.

Gotta do that:

The challenge for Atlanta will be “how do we do that with a team missing so many crucial pieces?” They’ll be without two backline starters due to injury, and d-mid Jeff Larentowicz left last weekend’s game with what looked like a pretty bad ankle injury, and Leandro Gonzalez Pirez is suspended.

So the plan will be to press LAFC high and force those wonderful turnovers, right? Right. But the downside to that is once LAFC play through the press (which they will on occasion) they’ll be going against a mostly second-choice collection of players in deep midfield and on the backline.

One of my usual refrains is “You don’t win with 11 or even 18 in the MLS regular season; you have to win with 30.” Meaning that unless you have extraordinary luck you’re going to have to go well into your roster to find answers every now and again if you’re going to be a truly elite team in this league.

That’s where we are for Atlanta United this week. This game isn’t remotely a test of how high their ceiling is, but instead it’s a test of how high their floor can be. If they play well they’ll have confirmed their bona fides as an apex Supporters’ Shield contender.

Philadelphia Union vs. San Jose Earthquakes

7 pm ET | FULL PREVIEW | TV & streaming info

The Union’s young defense (youngest in league history, as per Elias) got a lesson last week in Colorado as Dom Badji battered them throughout the whole second half. I don’t think there was anything structurally wrong with how Philly played, to be honest. It was just a case of young players struggling on the road.

Philly’s structural issues look more like they’re coming in attack, where high-priced newcomers David Accam and Borek Dockal have both struggled. Neither have registered a goal nor an assist, and the Union have actually failed to score an even strength goal this season (they destroyed the Revs in Week 1 after going up two men).

It’s not panic time yet, especially since the Quakes have been very good about allowing opposing attacking midfielders into very friendly spots. I.e., this:

Look at how easily and quickly SKC were able to get on the ball between the lines of San Jose’s midfield and defense. That’s been a recurring theme through 270 Quakes minutes this year, and if they don’t tighten it up then there’s a good bet one of Accam or Dockal – or both – get off the schneid this weekend.

FC Dallas vs. Colorado Rapids

8 pm ET | FULL PREVIEW | TV & streaming info

This will be FCD’s fourth straight home game to start the season. They’re unbeaten so far, but 1-0-2 is nothing to write home about, especially since the only W was against a Seattle team that’s still hibernating. I’m not going to call this a “must-win” game, but damn is it one they definitely don’t want to drop points from.

And they might! Colorado have been ugly (they lead the league in long-balls per game by a mile) but they’re opportunistic and well-drilled at the back:

17′ . Wilson switches men, follows Sapong to the corner, and Smith comes into the middle and covers. Simple defending, also smart and intuitive. #COLvPHIpic.twitter.com/Ujo00ffMK0

— Rapids Rabbi (@rapidsrabbi) April 4, 2018

Passing assignments off like that is essential if you’re going to play a 5-3-2, which they’ve done since Day 1.

Expect the Rapids to have to do a lot of that. And then long balls up to Badji in the other direction. Route 1 has been kind enough to them this year, and if Badji continues his hot finishing, they’ll continue to collect results.

Chicago Fire vs. Columbus Crew SC

8:30 pm ET | FULL PREVIEW | TV & streaming info

Will Bastian Schweinsteiger play as a sweeper? He did for an hour last weekend, and it was a sword that cut both ways:

Getting an extra man into central midfield at odd times is the point of the sweeper, and it worked well on offense. Having Schweinsteiger sit deep and contest in the box is, however, a recipe for giving up quality chances to opposing wingers and center forwards.

We know that Columbus know a thing or two about generating those exact types of chances. I’m not sure there’s a good choice here for Veljko Paunovic, and if it was me I think I’d toss Homegrown rookie CB Grant Lillard (finally healthy) right into the XI, because through three games nothing else has really worked.

Real Salt Lake vs. Vancouver Whitecaps

9:30 pm ET | FULL PREVIEW | TV & streaming info

Through four games the RSL defense has been unsustainably – damn near impossibly – bad. Their expected goals per game differential is -1.30, which is a number even those awful Chivas USA teams couldn’t touch back in the day. Save for the first 45 minutes of the year at FC Dallas, they’ve been getting run no matter who they’re facing.

Who’s to blame? Let’s narrow it down and say everyone. The frontline has been slow to put pressure on the ball, which means that they’re easy to play through. The central midfield hasn’t been in sync and have allowed simple off-the-ball movement to confound them, which means there are always passing and running lanes. And that’s forced the defense to scramble, which nobody’s been particularly good at.

Nick Rimando’s been fine. He’s had one excellent game this season, which just so happened to be RSL’s only win (1-0 over the Red Bulls, almost entirely due to a vintage Rimando performance).

This is a systemic thing with RSL, who are playing with no conviction or decisiveness on either side of the ball. Even if their overall game plan is bad, you can still elevate said plan to “well, I guess that’s OK enough” if you play with effort and cohesiveness. That’s not what RSL have done.

That is what Vancouver have done. They’re going to sit deep once again, have maaaaaybe 40% of the ball, and punch holes in the Claret-and-Cobalt defense on the counter. They did it at Houston last month in a 2-1 road win, and they did it at Columbus last week in a 2-1 road win. Those are two of the better teams in the league.

SUNDAY SLATE

Orlando City vs. Portland Timbers

4 pm ET | FULL PREVIEW | TV & streaming info

The big question I have heading into this one is “Will Orlando City stick with the 4-2-3-1 that served them so well in attack last weekend?” I think the switch to that formation could be the turning point in their season:

I’ll be shocked if it’s anything but that, to be honest.

On the other side of the pitch will be a Portland team that’ve primarily been a 4-3-2-1 the past few weeks – the old Christmas tree formation that is usually used to shore up defensive shortcomings. It’s done so at least a little bit as the Timbers have taken two road points from their last two games (though the bigger reason for recent improvement is probably the return to fitness of Diego Chara). 

If I were Portland I’d scroll up to that Schweinsteiger video above and take a look at how he undressed the Timbers on that first Chicago goal, picking the ball up deep and dribbling into the heart of the midfield. Yoshi Yotun is no Schweinsteiger, but he’s nonetheless very good and should be playing as a deep-lying midfielder in this one. If and when Sacha Kljestan is able to occupy Chara, watch for Yotun to burst forward into the space that creates and put Portland’s backline under pressure.

LA Galaxy vs. Sporting KC

9 pm ET | FULL PREVIEW | TV & streaming info

So obviously we all saw what Zlatan did last weekend, and that rightfully stole the headlines. But let’s focus on two big shifts Sigi Schmid made and give him his due.

After halftime he had Servando Carrasco (and then Carrasco’s replacement, Baggio Husidic) press higher upfield to disrupt LAFC’s distribution. this was a risk that paid off.

When he brought Ibrahimovic on, he didn’t stay with the 4-2-3-1. He switched to an old-fashioned 4-4-2 and dominated the wings by pushing the fullbacks (but especially Ashley Cole) forward.

These were good, smart adjustments and speak to a level of tactical flexibility that the Galaxy have even when playing without their three DPs. It’ll be incumbent upon Schmid to figure it out week-by-week, though so far, so good.

Same probably goes for Sporting KC, who are atop the West on both points and PPG despite a weirdly leaky defense and a weirdly potent attack. How well that attack functions this weekend is an open question given that Felipe Gutierrez left last weekend’s win with an undisclosed injury and his replacement, Yohan Croizet, has been… let’s call it “underwhelming.”

As for the defense, after a miserable first 280 minutes of the season, they’ve looked something like the SKC of old over the last 170. Get a result here, on the road, and it’s probably fair to assume they’re back.

One more thing to ponder…

Ever wonder how rolled turf is made?

Happy weekending, everybody.

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MLSsoccer.com News

Armchair Analyst: Your complete guide to the Week 6 MLS slate was originally published on 365 Football

[xanderblah-blog]

Absolver the huge flop

Absolver is a fighting, open world, and multiplayer game that focuses on a martial arts style of fighting that takes place in the fantasy world of Adal. The game has a challenging and unique fighting mechanics that are similar to the fighting game “For Honor” and has an amazing art style that gives the game a soft and relaxing feeling. While the aesthetics and mechanics are entertaining, the single player story is very short, making multiplayer the meat of game. In Absolver the player starts off as a prospect with one of the three fighting styles available. Forsakens that parry attacks, Windfalls that dodge attacks, and Khalts that absorb attacks. After character creation you’re thrown in to the gorgeous land of Adal. After completing the tutorial which takes about 15 minutes, you’re given the quest to kill a bunch of NPCs and mini bosses. After that the final boss unlocks and once you kill him, you beat the game. The campaign teaches the basic core understanding of how to fight in absolver. The fighting in PVE and PVP feels diverse and fresh any time you take on a new opponent. The more you fight the more moves you can learn for your combat deck which contains attack sequences for each of the four stances you take during a fight. Its a little confusing to explain so maybe looking at how my combat deck looks could be helpful. The picture below is my combat deck, the three columns on the left side are my attack sequences and each attack sequence starts in a different stance. The diamond at the bottom shows the my four different stances that I can take during a fight. The alternative attacks are heavy attacks that add more deception to my combat deck so that It isn’t easy to predict my next move. Learning the moves in my combat deck required fighting different NPCs around Adal. I thought it was pretty cool how they implemented the open world aspect of the game with the process of learning new moves because with each region of the map you explored they would have a different type of fighting style. The process kind of encourages you to explore the beautiful world of Adal in order to create a stronger combat deck because you’ll need the best deck you can make when jumping into multiplayer.

Like I mentioned before, multiplayer is what a person would spend most of their time playing. There are two different ways players can interact in absolver. You can meet players while in the world of Adal exploring or fighting NPCs or through combat trials which are organized 1v1s that are best out of three. The combat in this game is extremely difficult. Lets take For Honor for example, It has a similar combat style as Absolver but in For Honor in tells you what direction your opponent is going to attack you at so you can defend against that attack. However in Absolver there are no early warnings so you have to read your opponent’s movements in order predict where they’ll attack you. This can get extremely frustrating when you’re getting pummeled non-stop and you can’t read their attacks. In my time playing this game over the three weeks it has been released I’ve probably yelled at my monitor a good handful of times out of pure frustration and anger. Although if you get better at reading moves and start destroying people in multiplayer it feels really damn satisfying. The art…..Oh my god. JUST LOOK AT IT! The art just compliments this game so well and its just so unique compared to any other game that’s out there right now. It was actually the deciding factor on whether or not to buy the game.

I really enjoy Absolver because of the interesting and refreshing fighting mechanics. The environment and mood the game creates with the art makes it one of a kind. However the lack of story and content you can do by yourself really hurts the game. This game isn’t meant for casual gamers because the solo campaign only has an hour to two hours worth of gameplay in it and you have to be decent if you want to beat people and win on multiplayer which takes even more hours to achieve. Although if you’re someone who would likes skill based games and could grind for hours in an attempt at bettering yourself then I would recommend this game to you. With all things considered to the art style and how the game plays to the really short and cryptic story I give Absolver a 7/10.

[flauntpage]

Flying High Again – Ten Takeaways From Eagles 32, Texans 30

A lot of NFL teams can’t put one decent quarterback on the field, but the Eagles have two that are pretty damn good.

It’s why they won the Super Bowl in February and it’s why they’re still alive for a playoff berth heading into week 17 of this season. The pretty damn good backup was able to step in for the pretty damn good starter, and the Eagles have now won four of their last five games.

That’s my top takeaway. It’s the rare positive outlook from me, the anti-Negadelphia if you will. Is it posi-delphia? I don’t know. That doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but the only thing that matters is that the Eagles head into the season finale with a chance to sneak into the playoffs as a 9-7 wild card team. That seemed inconceivable as recently as 15 days ago.

Of course you would like for them to “control their own destiny,” but they don’t, and wins against the Rams and Texans might only serve to reignite the “what if?” flames that were originally sparked during bogus early season losses against the Vikings and Panthers and Bucs and Titans. Go figure that they’d struggle against some utterly average teams while knocking off a pair of 10-win clubs in consecutive weeks. That adds to the bitterness for sure, because they should have taken care of business back in October and November.

But they’ve still got a chance, and it’s possible to appreciate both Carson Wentz and Nick Foles at the same time without automatically going into some sort of “quarterback controversy” type of hot take on social media or sports radio. God forbid Eagle fans be grateful for what each player has contributed over the past two seasons, but if you want to argue with your friends or family or total strangers on Twitter, I won’t stop you.

1) Big **** Nick

471 yards is the most an Eagles quarterback has ever thrown for.

Ever!

The previous mark was set by Donovan McNabb back in 2004, when he slung it for 464 against Green Bay. Also, this was Nick’s fourth 400 yard passing game, which is also an Eagles record, and his 120.4 passer rating is the 9th-highest single-game mark of his career, the best number he’s logged since last year’s NFC Championship game.

Foles was also 8 yards short of passing Pat Mahomes for the highest single-game total this year, which happened in the 54-51 Chiefs/Rams barn burner a few weeks ago.

The fumble and the interception were the two blemishes on an otherwise stellar game. Nick finished 35-49 with four touchdowns and the pick, and again this week he hit on some deep balls that Carson simply wasn’t trying in weeks prior. Last week Nick was 3-5 in passes thrown 20 or more yards down the field, and this week he went 2-4 in that category, according to NFL Next Gen Stats:

(I counted that green dot on the far left as 20 yards. Looks like it’s maybe 19.8 yards? Close enough)

And what you can say about the final drive? He led an 11 play, 72 yard foray down the field to score the game-winning field goal. He only went 2-6 on the drive but connected on massive 19 and 20 yard completions, which, combined with a penalty and some effective running, got the Eagles close enough for Jake Elliott to do the rest.

I’m not sure what it is, but Nick just has that quality in him, that clutch factor when playing for this team. Consider the fact that he did all of that after getting absolutely obliterated by Jadeveon Clowney, and it makes it even more impressive.

2) When pass/run ratio doesn’t matter

50 passes and 22 runs on the day, which wound up being lopsided because of the nature of the game and the necessity to throw in the fourth quarter.

Therefore, whenever anyone gives you that statistic of, “the Eagles win blah blah amount of games when they run the ball X amount of times,” you know it’s generally bullshit. Yesterday is the perfect example.

Even if you take away the final three series, when the Eagles were leading by two touchdowns, the split would have been this:

40 passes, 16 runs

That includes a QB sneak as well, and it gives you a 71% to 29% pass/run split. They basically built a two score, second half lead while throwing the ball 71% of the time, so tell me again about how Josh Adams needs to see more of the rock. He doesn’t. The whole point of finding a 60/40 split is that it just allows you to balance out the play book and throw different things at defenses while allowing your offensive line to get moving in the run blocking game, but otherwise there are just too many variables to make blanket statements about run/pass split.

Plus, Houston’s defensive strength is in the trenches anyway, and here’s a good exchange between Doug and Jimmy Kempski that sort of sums it up:

Q. You had a lead for most of the game, but the pass/run ratio was pretty lopsided. Was that because they were depleted at corner? (Jimmy Kempski)  DOUG PEDERSON: Did you see their rush defense today? 35 yards rushing the football. It was hard.

Q. I’m not criticizing. (Jimmy Kempski)  DOUG PEDERSON: Okay. I thought maybe we needed to run the ball more or something. [Laughter] That’s a tremendous defense now. That’s a great group. That front seven, eight guys with their safeties, they do a really good job. They create different angles for our offensive linemen. So some of the things that we’ve been able to do in the last couple weeks, they just kind of took us out of it. I knew we were going to have to run the ball late in the game, even when we were up by 13 there, 29-16, I felt like we could get a little momentum, run the ball, make them use time outs and maybe we could finish the game at that point, but we didn’t do it. It was just great defense.

For what it’s worth, last week Doug Pederson went with 51 shotgun looks for Nick versus 8 under center looks. This week he used shotgun 63 times and again only went under center 8 times, so nothing super different there. The Eagles are a shotgun squad and they run almost the entirety of the offense from those sets. That’s the base for their RPO game, and while they do fire off the occasional screen from under center, yesterday both screens came out of the shotgun.

3) Calling audibles

The 83-yard touchdown pass to Nelson Agholor was actually not supposed to happen. Foles audibled out of it:

I saw a unique coverage that they play. We had a play in our arsenal that wasn’t the one that was called, and I felt like I had time on the clock to check it and really take a shot with some speed with Nelly. We were able to execute it. Nelly made an amazing play to finish it off with a touchdown. It was really all of us being on the same page, recognizing the coverage, understanding how to run the route, and the line gave me time to throw it. It was awesome.

Pederson confirmed that the original play was a pass, and added this:

It was a coverage check that he saw, something Houston had been running earlier in the game. He saw it, got to a play that would attack that coverage and great protection and allowed him to get the ball down the field.

I’m probably going to need the all-22 film to get the best look, but for whatever reason, the Texans use a safety to kind of double down on the weak side of the field, where Alshon Jeffery is lined up. On replay, check out how the 60/40 safety kind of cheats up here in a nickel look:

Nick Foles finds Nelson Agholor for a HUGE touchdown!

(via @NFL)pic.twitter.com/UdVAYVcWSc

— Pro Football Focus (@PFF) December 23, 2018

That allows the Eagles to move the second safety with a post pattern and then you’ve got Agholor 1v1 with Tyrann Mathieu without any safety help over the top at all. Houston plays a lot of zone, and the linebackers just sort of hold here, so Nick obviously saw this look earlier in the game knew he could get “Nelly” down the field with inside leverage while using Zach Ertz to pull the second safety out of the way:

Maybe later this week I can go through the film and try to see where Houston showed that coverage earlier in the game. Nice read, nice audible, even better pass.

4) Scissors

There were a couple of key plays on the game-winning drive, but I think the best quote was from Zach Ertz, on the 20-yard third down grab that he made to keep the chains moving:

“It was just kind of a scissors corner route that we always have, post by number one, I had a corner, and Darren was in the flat. I had been taking a lot of inside releases against him, so I kind of sold the inside release and threw him inside and I think he kind of ran into the linebacker. Something happened where my feet got tangled up so I was kind of off balance and Nick just kind of laid the ball out there and allowed me to run under it. I was able to stay in bounds and make the play. I tried to get out of bounds in that situation.”

Yep. This is a really nice design, and I think they ran the same thing earlier, or something very similar, on their first 4th down conversion of the game:

This is actually more about sealing off the linebacker responsible for the runner coming out of the backfield. Ertz does a really nice job, as he says, selling the inside here, and while he successfully picks off the linebacker, both players actually fall down, leaving Sproles open, but also springing Ertz even further down the field.

Check it out:

  Huge play to put the Eagles in field goal range. Well designed, well executed.

5) Record setter

Sunday, Ertz set a new record for the most single-season receptions by a tight end.

The Eagles’ PR staff put together the notes in their post game email, so I will courtesy them and drop the information in here:

Zach Ertz now has 113 receptions in 2018, surpassing Jason Witten in 2012 (110) for the most receptions by a TE in NFL single-season history. Ertz, who led the Eagles with 12 receptions, posted his franchise-record 10th career game with 10+ receptions. He became just the third TE in NFL history to accomplish that feat, joining Tony Gonzalez (15, 1997-2013) and Witten (11, 2003-17).

Ertz moved past Brian Westbrook (426, 2002-09) into 3rd place on the Eagles’ all-time receptions list (currently 434), behind Harold Carmichael (589, 1971-83) and Pete Retzlaff (452, 1956-66).

Ertz, who tallied his 11th career game with 100+ receiving yards (5th of the season), moved into 9th place on the Eagles’ all-time list for receiving yards (currently 4,812).

Ertz recorded his 5th career multi-TD game and now has a career-high-tying 8 TDs this season (also 8 in 2017), which are tied for the 2nd-most by a TE in Eagles history, trailing only Pete Retzlaff in 1965 (10).

It took Ertz 89 games over six seasons to reach those numbers.

Assuming he continues on a similar trajectory, he’s slated to break Carmichael’s receptions record in three seasons. He actually might get there sooner. He would need 77.5 receptions next season and the following season to reach Carmichael’s 589, which is not inconceivable. Even in 2015 and 2016 he caught 75 and 78 passes, so the record will fall at some point.

6) NFL “officiating”

Jesus H. Christ, was it bad.

In no particular order:

The missed facemask call on Foles was outrageous.

The roughing the passer call on Brandon Graham was one level below outrageous.

The roughing the passer on Clowney was iffy. I honestly don’t think there’s anything wrong with that hit, but if you think his head is lowered there as he makes contact with Foles, then you could make a case that he’s breaking the rules. Honestly, if that was called against an Eagle and not a Texan, I think there would be a ton of complaints.

Alshon Jeffery threw an illegal screen on the second Ertz touchdown catch. He literally just ran straight forward into the defender and made no move to disguise the pick at all.

I think the helmet contact penalty on Tre Sullivan was a good call, same with the roughing on J.J. Watt, who hit Foles in the head while trying to bring him down. The unnecessary roughness on Cre’Von LeBlanc I though was somewhat of a borderline call, because he hit the ball carrier with his shoulder as that guy was going to ground. Those are weird plays, aren’t they? It’s hard to pull out of those at the last minute if the offensive player is dropping his head or trying to avoid contact.

7) Auxiliary battles

Some good, some bad:

won time of possession, 34 to 26 minutes

-2 turnover margin

9-16 on third down (56.2%)

4-4 on fourth down

allowed Houston to go 3-10 on third down (30%)

lost 9 yards on 1 sack

1-2 success rate in red zone

11 penalties for 105 yards

They against crushed a team in time of possession, but that -2 turnover margin was a killer, as were the penalty yards, which were almost double what they’ve been over the past three weeks.

Those third and fourth down numbers are the reason they won the game. Foles was just phenomenal playing “situational football” throughout, and the line’s ability to protect him yesterday outside of one sack and the fumble was a big deal.

8) Doug’s best call?

I thought he really nailed his fourth down play calls.

The wheel route to Sproles was perfect. The play action pass to Dallas Goedert, complete with pre-snap motion, would have gone for a touchdown had he not slipped. Ertz ran a brilliant route on his first touchdown catch.

I also thought the draw play on the final drive really caught Houston off guard after the Eagles threw the ball seven times in a row to chunk their way down the field. There was no better time to throw them for a loop with a delayed hand off type of design.

It was just really nice stuff all around from Doug yesterday, who looked like the 2017 version of himself with aggressive decision making and calls that made a lot of sense when factoring in down, distance, and the time remaining on the clock.

9) Doug’s worst call?

Going for two when you’re up 13-9? That’s really the only one that comes to mind.

I guess the idea there was to extend the lead to six instead of four, which would force Houston into two field goals to tie the game. Or, if they score a touchdown, that would also put a little more pressure on the kicker to hit an extra point to go up 16-15. I’m just not sure it was necessary at the time, and they could have used that point in the fourth quarter, when Houston scored to take – you guessed it – a one-point lead.

10) Can’t be bothered in the broadcast booth

I kind of like Ian Eagle, but Dan Fouts seems like another color guy who is just sort of there, another guy who treats the game like it’s just another day at the office, as if he’s working some sort of 9-5 job.

That manifested itself I think in the goofy exchange where they were talking about Big V and didn’t attempt to say his first name. They sort of laughed it off to the tune of, “I’m not even gonna try to pronounce his name.”

Yeah? Well isn’t that your job?

Imagine if a home builder said, “well that nail is way up there, I’m not even gonna try hammering it in.” Two years later, the house falls apart because dude was lazy and/or inattentive to detail.

Imagine if an electrician, like Tom Cudeyro, said, “yeah I guess I could connect these two wires, but I don’t feel like it.” And then the lights in your brand new house simply don’t work.

Or, imagine if a paralegal said, “yeah, well I’m just going to omit this line about beneficiaries because I’m trying to hit my lunch break at Chipotle.” Then, when you croak, your kids can’t get your money because this person didn’t feel like finishing the task at hand.

See how dumb it really is?

Plus, it’s really not that hard if you go over it a couple of times:

Halapoulivaati Vaitai.

Ha-la-pool-ee-va-tee.

He played in the Super Bowl last year, so it’s not like the dude is brand new. He didn’t just sign yesterday.

They also borked the name of Boston Scott in the first half, calling him “Austin” instead. Otherwise everything about the broadcast was suitable.

Happy holidays. Enjoy whatever you celebrate – Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or maybe a Festivus for the rest of us.

The post Flying High Again – Ten Takeaways From Eagles 32, Texans 30 appeared first on Crossing Broad.

Flying High Again – Ten Takeaways From Eagles 32, Texans 30 published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

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Flying High Again – Ten Takeaways From Eagles 32, Texans 30

A lot of NFL teams can’t put one decent quarterback on the field, but the Eagles have two that are pretty damn good.

It’s why they won the Super Bowl in February and it’s why they’re still alive for a playoff berth heading into week 17 of this season. The pretty damn good backup was able to step in for the pretty damn good starter, and the Eagles have now won four of their last five games.

That’s my top takeaway. It’s the rare positive outlook from me, the anti-Negadelphia if you will. Is it posi-delphia? I don’t know. That doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but the only thing that matters is that the Eagles head into the season finale with a chance to sneak into the playoffs as a 9-7 wild card team. That seemed inconceivable as recently as 15 days ago.

Of course you would like for them to “control their own destiny,” but they don’t, and wins against the Rams and Texans might only serve to reignite the “what if?” flames that were originally sparked during bogus early season losses against the Vikings and Panthers and Bucs and Titans. Go figure that they’d struggle against some utterly average teams while knocking off a pair of 10-win clubs in consecutive weeks. That adds to the bitterness for sure, because they should have taken care of business back in October and November.

But they’ve still got a chance, and it’s possible to appreciate both Carson Wentz and Nick Foles at the same time without automatically going into some sort of “quarterback controversy” type of hot take on social media or sports radio. God forbid Eagle fans be grateful for what each player has contributed over the past two seasons, but if you want to argue with your friends or family or total strangers on Twitter, I won’t stop you.

1) Big **** Nick

471 yards is the most an Eagles quarterback has ever thrown for.

Ever!

The previous mark was set by Donovan McNabb back in 2004, when he slung it for 464 against Green Bay. Also, this was Nick’s fourth 400 yard passing game, which is also an Eagles record, and his 120.4 passer rating is the 9th-highest single-game mark of his career, the best number he’s logged since last year’s NFC Championship game.

Foles was also 8 yards short of passing Pat Mahomes for the highest single-game total this year, which happened in the 54-51 Chiefs/Rams barn burner a few weeks ago.

The fumble and the interception were the two blemishes on an otherwise stellar game. Nick finished 35-49 with four touchdowns and the pick, and again this week he hit on some deep balls that Carson simply wasn’t trying in weeks prior. Last week Nick was 3-5 in passes thrown 20 or more yards down the field, and this week he went 2-4 in that category, according to NFL Next Gen Stats:

(I counted that green dot on the far left as 20 yards. Looks like it’s maybe 19.8 yards? Close enough)

And what you can say about the final drive? He led an 11 play, 72 yard foray down the field to score the game-winning field goal. He only went 2-6 on the drive but connected on massive 19 and 20 yard completions, which, combined with a penalty and some effective running, got the Eagles close enough for Jake Elliott to do the rest.

I’m not sure what it is, but Nick just has that quality in him, that clutch factor when playing for this team. Consider the fact that he did all of that after getting absolutely obliterated by Jadeveon Clowney, and it makes it even more impressive.

2) When pass/run ratio doesn’t matter

50 passes and 22 runs on the day, which wound up being lopsided because of the nature of the game and the necessity to throw in the fourth quarter.

Therefore, whenever anyone gives you that statistic of, “the Eagles win blah blah amount of games when they run the ball X amount of times,” you know it’s generally bullshit. Yesterday is the perfect example.

Even if you take away the final three series, when the Eagles were leading by two touchdowns, the split would have been this:

40 passes, 16 runs

That includes a QB sneak as well, and it gives you a 71% to 29% pass/run split. They basically built a two score, second half lead while throwing the ball 71% of the time, so tell me again about how Josh Adams needs to see more of the rock. He doesn’t. The whole point of finding a 60/40 split is that it just allows you to balance out the play book and throw different things at defenses while allowing your offensive line to get moving in the run blocking game, but otherwise there are just too many variables to make blanket statements about run/pass split.

Plus, Houston’s defensive strength is in the trenches anyway, and here’s a good exchange between Doug and Jimmy Kempski that sort of sums it up:

Q. You had a lead for most of the game, but the pass/run ratio was pretty lopsided. Was that because they were depleted at corner? (Jimmy Kempski)  DOUG PEDERSON: Did you see their rush defense today? 35 yards rushing the football. It was hard.

Q. I’m not criticizing. (Jimmy Kempski)  DOUG PEDERSON: Okay. I thought maybe we needed to run the ball more or something. [Laughter] That’s a tremendous defense now. That’s a great group. That front seven, eight guys with their safeties, they do a really good job. They create different angles for our offensive linemen. So some of the things that we’ve been able to do in the last couple weeks, they just kind of took us out of it. I knew we were going to have to run the ball late in the game, even when we were up by 13 there, 29-16, I felt like we could get a little momentum, run the ball, make them use time outs and maybe we could finish the game at that point, but we didn’t do it. It was just great defense.

For what it’s worth, last week Doug Pederson went with 51 shotgun looks for Nick versus 8 under center looks. This week he used shotgun 63 times and again only went under center 8 times, so nothing super different there. The Eagles are a shotgun squad and they run almost the entirety of the offense from those sets. That’s the base for their RPO game, and while they do fire off the occasional screen from under center, yesterday both screens came out of the shotgun.

3) Calling audibles

The 83-yard touchdown pass to Nelson Agholor was actually not supposed to happen. Foles audibled out of it:

I saw a unique coverage that they play. We had a play in our arsenal that wasn’t the one that was called, and I felt like I had time on the clock to check it and really take a shot with some speed with Nelly. We were able to execute it. Nelly made an amazing play to finish it off with a touchdown. It was really all of us being on the same page, recognizing the coverage, understanding how to run the route, and the line gave me time to throw it. It was awesome.

Pederson confirmed that the original play was a pass, and added this:

It was a coverage check that he saw, something Houston had been running earlier in the game. He saw it, got to a play that would attack that coverage and great protection and allowed him to get the ball down the field.

I’m probably going to need the all-22 film to get the best look, but for whatever reason, the Texans use a safety to kind of double down on the weak side of the field, where Alshon Jeffery is lined up. On replay, check out how the 60/40 safety kind of cheats up here in a nickel look:

Nick Foles finds Nelson Agholor for a HUGE touchdown!

(via @NFL)pic.twitter.com/UdVAYVcWSc

— Pro Football Focus (@PFF) December 23, 2018

That allows the Eagles to move the second safety with a post pattern and then you’ve got Agholor 1v1 with Tyrann Mathieu without any safety help over the top at all. Houston plays a lot of zone, and the linebackers just sort of hold here, so Nick obviously saw this look earlier in the game knew he could get “Nelly” down the field with inside leverage while using Zach Ertz to pull the second safety out of the way:

Maybe later this week I can go through the film and try to see where Houston showed that coverage earlier in the game. Nice read, nice audible, even better pass.

4) Scissors

There were a couple of key plays on the game-winning drive, but I think the best quote was from Zach Ertz, on the 20-yard third down grab that he made to keep the chains moving:

“It was just kind of a scissors corner route that we always have, post by number one, I had a corner, and Darren was in the flat. I had been taking a lot of inside releases against him, so I kind of sold the inside release and threw him inside and I think he kind of ran into the linebacker. Something happened where my feet got tangled up so I was kind of off balance and Nick just kind of laid the ball out there and allowed me to run under it. I was able to stay in bounds and make the play. I tried to get out of bounds in that situation.”

Yep. This is a really nice design, and I think they ran the same thing earlier, or something very similar, on their first 4th down conversion of the game:

This is actually more about sealing off the linebacker responsible for the runner coming out of the backfield. Ertz does a really nice job, as he says, selling the inside here, and while he successfully picks off the linebacker, both players actually fall down, leaving Sproles open, but also springing Ertz even further down the field.

Check it out:

  Huge play to put the Eagles in field goal range. Well designed, well executed.

5) Record setter

Sunday, Ertz set a new record for the most single-season receptions by a tight end.

The Eagles’ PR staff put together the notes in their post game email, so I will courtesy them and drop the information in here:

Zach Ertz now has 113 receptions in 2018, surpassing Jason Witten in 2012 (110) for the most receptions by a TE in NFL single-season history. Ertz, who led the Eagles with 12 receptions, posted his franchise-record 10th career game with 10+ receptions. He became just the third TE in NFL history to accomplish that feat, joining Tony Gonzalez (15, 1997-2013) and Witten (11, 2003-17).

Ertz moved past Brian Westbrook (426, 2002-09) into 3rd place on the Eagles’ all-time receptions list (currently 434), behind Harold Carmichael (589, 1971-83) and Pete Retzlaff (452, 1956-66).

Ertz, who tallied his 11th career game with 100+ receiving yards (5th of the season), moved into 9th place on the Eagles’ all-time list for receiving yards (currently 4,812).

Ertz recorded his 5th career multi-TD game and now has a career-high-tying 8 TDs this season (also 8 in 2017), which are tied for the 2nd-most by a TE in Eagles history, trailing only Pete Retzlaff in 1965 (10).

It took Ertz 89 games over six seasons to reach those numbers.

Assuming he continues on a similar trajectory, he’s slated to break Carmichael’s receptions record in three seasons. He actually might get there sooner. He would need 77.5 receptions next season and the following season to reach Carmichael’s 589, which is not inconceivable. Even in 2015 and 2016 he caught 75 and 78 passes, so the record will fall at some point.

6) NFL “officiating”

Jesus H. Christ, was it bad.

In no particular order:

The missed facemask call on Foles was outrageous.

The roughing the passer call on Brandon Graham was one level below outrageous.

The roughing the passer on Clowney was iffy. I honestly don’t think there’s anything wrong with that hit, but if you think his head is lowered there as he makes contact with Foles, then you could make a case that he’s breaking the rules. Honestly, if that was called against an Eagle and not a Texan, I think there would be a ton of complaints.

Alshon Jeffery threw an illegal screen on the second Ertz touchdown catch. He literally just ran straight forward into the defender and made no move to disguise the pick at all.

I think the helmet contact penalty on Tre Sullivan was a good call, same with the roughing on J.J. Watt, who hit Foles in the head while trying to bring him down. The unnecessary roughness on Cre’Von LeBlanc I though was somewhat of a borderline call, because he hit the ball carrier with his shoulder as that guy was going to ground. Those are weird plays, aren’t they? It’s hard to pull out of those at the last minute if the offensive player is dropping his head or trying to avoid contact.

7) Auxiliary battles

Some good, some bad:

won time of possession, 34 to 26 minutes

-2 turnover margin

9-16 on third down (56.2%)

4-4 on fourth down

allowed Houston to go 3-10 on third down (30%)

lost 9 yards on 1 sack

1-2 success rate in red zone

11 penalties for 105 yards

They against crushed a team in time of possession, but that -2 turnover margin was a killer, as were the penalty yards, which were almost double what they’ve been over the past three weeks.

Those third and fourth down numbers are the reason they won the game. Foles was just phenomenal playing “situational football” throughout, and the line’s ability to protect him yesterday outside of one sack and the fumble was a big deal.

8) Doug’s best call?

I thought he really nailed his fourth down play calls.

The wheel route to Sproles was perfect. The play action pass to Dallas Goedert, complete with pre-snap motion, would have gone for a touchdown had he not slipped. Ertz ran a brilliant route on his first touchdown catch.

I also thought the draw play on the final drive really caught Houston off guard after the Eagles threw the ball seven times in a row to chunk their way down the field. There was no better time to throw them for a loop with a delayed hand off type of design.

It was just really nice stuff all around from Doug yesterday, who looked like the 2017 version of himself with aggressive decision making and calls that made a lot of sense when factoring in down, distance, and the time remaining on the clock.

9) Doug’s worst call?

Going for two when you’re up 13-9? That’s really the only one that comes to mind.

I guess the idea there was to extend the lead to six instead of four, which would force Houston into two field goals to tie the game. Or, if they score a touchdown, that would also put a little more pressure on the kicker to hit an extra point to go up 16-15. I’m just not sure it was necessary at the time, and they could have used that point in the fourth quarter, when Houston scored to take – you guessed it – a one-point lead.

10) Can’t be bothered in the broadcast booth

I kind of like Ian Eagle, but Dan Fouts seems like another color guy who is just sort of there, another guy who treats the game like it’s just another day at the office, as if he’s working some sort of 9-5 job.

That manifested itself I think in the goofy exchange where they were talking about Big V and didn’t attempt to say his first name. They sort of laughed it off to the tune of, “I’m not even gonna try to pronounce his name.”

Yeah? Well isn’t that your job?

Imagine if a home builder said, “well that nail is way up there, I’m not even gonna try hammering it in.” Two years later, the house falls apart because dude was lazy and/or inattentive to detail.

Imagine if an electrician, like Tom Cudeyro, said, “yeah I guess I could connect these two wires, but I don’t feel like it.” And then the lights in your brand new house simply don’t work.

Or, imagine if a paralegal said, “yeah, well I’m just going to omit this line about beneficiaries because I’m trying to hit my lunch break at Chipotle.” Then, when you croak, your kids can’t get your money because this person didn’t feel like finishing the task at hand.

See how dumb it really is?

Plus, it’s really not that hard if you go over it a couple of times:

Halapoulivaati Vaitai.

Ha-la-pool-ee-va-tee.

He played in the Super Bowl last year, so it’s not like the dude is brand new. He didn’t just sign yesterday.

They also borked the name of Boston Scott in the first half, calling him “Austin” instead. Otherwise everything about the broadcast was suitable.

Happy holidays. Enjoy whatever you celebrate – Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or maybe a Festivus for the rest of us.

The post Flying High Again – Ten Takeaways From Eagles 32, Texans 30 appeared first on Crossing Broad.

Flying High Again – Ten Takeaways From Eagles 32, Texans 30 published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/