#the entire 2nd regression honestly!

[anna-croft]

so

[pttucker]

⸢It was the trickery of the world-line that caused Yoo Joonghyuk to become many.⸥ Yoo Joonghyuk who lived during the 0th turn became the 1st turn's Yoo Joonghyuk, then he became the 2nd turn's. And the 2nd turn went on to become the 3rd – and then, the 4th. Abnormal events of the past and future interfering with each other ran rampant and made everyone forget that crucial fact, but this was the undeniable truth. ⸢A regressor actually doesn't regress. What actually regresses isn't him, but everything else excluding him.⸥ The time for everyone else would rewind, but his own time would continue to march forward. Even though the world-lines had split up and some became the 1864th turn's Yoo Joonghyuk while someone else became the 'Secretive Plotter', but still… ⸢From the beginning, he was just 'one person' who kept walking on one continuous, unbroken path.⸥

Time travel / dimension travel shenanigans. Bound to make you squint and go "uh..." every single time. 😂

But I do love the idea that even if he weirdly ended up in different bodies (due to shenanigans) he has always only ever been one person. 999th isn't some entirely different being, he is Secretive Plotter and Secretive Plotter is "our" Joonghyuk that we've been following this whole time.

And honestly, at this point, I'm just going with everything the story throws at me, even if I can't wrap my head around it all. I'll worry about trying to piece things together better on a later re-read. 😅

[evanescentdawn]

Highlights of today’s writing:

—wips: elricest//smut, yjh//regression, izushie//misunderstanding, amesia!al, homunculi!al, hankim//cupcake, yhk//stupidity au, sanghee/2nd scenario, hmokdj//epilogue, samrowena//distant lights

— started a ed/al smut wips which is entirely discord fault. I saw the flood of fanart, and got inspired :p

— scrapped the initial idea I had for the yjh fic because that did not spark joy, I mean. it was a cool idea but I just wanted more. so!! 1863!yjh & 1863!hsy fic???

my brain process: kdj ends up in another turn, instead of 3th one. nah, kdj is an avatar of demon salvation, where 51 splits himself further because while watching yjh...he remembers the time where he was beside him, and is frustrated by how powerless he is. but his avatar doesn’t know it’s avatar and remembers people that don’t remember him — in this worldline, ysa doesn’t have a colleague named kdj. the avatar thinks he regressed or smth idk.

that idea is v cool but. i have seen so much joongdok stuff and that I wanted something else for this wip. so uh. I was like. what if instead of kdj, it’s someone else. torn between jhw and hsy, but then went with hsy. because. ohhh. 1863!hsy. and since I thought the beginning I wrote was a nice build up to that.

didn’t actually write it into the wip yet though —expect a lil thing — so I don’t know if that’ll change. I need to reread through the 1863 arc to like know what I am doing lol. I vaguely remember that arc. (Maybe I’ll actually do 1863!yjh/1863!lhs or 1863!yjh/kdj which I am hopelessly in love with. my fave version of dokhyuk tbh. or maybe even go for OT3. But if I do that, the ship stuff will probs be implied instead y’know...)

— because of the writer ask things, I made like bits of edits and stuff to the izushie misunderstanding wip, the homuncli!al one, amnesia!al & truth one. that was good because lol I don’t think I would’ve made those changes otherwise or noticed those stuff. makes me wanna properly go through them and do edits.

— +24 words on the hankim wip where they are being actual kids. so happyyy I at least WROTE something. because I really like this wip. but undecided on what it’s actually about so it’s just been. floating in my docs. the 24 may...seem like a short progression but it’s actually lot of me. since now I know how to move forward with it, and got more better idea of what’s the story about.

— +12 words on the height of stupidity au, yhk version. not much but it’s SOMETHING. I love this au soo much and want to actually get to the drama parts so badly but urgh it’s just this EXPOSITION that’s killing me. maybe I should re-write the whole thing in a new doc and see if that helps

— +352 to the sanghee fic. like wow, I am on FIRE with this one. its like 1k, which. I didn’t expect at all. I’ll deff go back and edit a lot (since I haven’t even edited anything yet) but I am just writing and getting like the whole vague-plot and idea all down before doing any of that.

— +62 words to Hmo/Kdj epilogue fic. I have honestly have no idea on what I am doing in this one. Just vague ideas. But I really like it, and still so happy about doing this ship because YES.

— holy heckk. I edited my samrowena wip???? I got rowena feels and remembered this existed. AND I THINK I MIGHT FINISH IT SOON?? I finallyyyy worked through the part that’s been doing me headaches and cleaned it up. 🎉 So, so happyyyy about that. Feels like a weight had been lifted lol.

[byebecca]

(KELSEY MERRITT, CIS-WOMAN) - Have you seen REBECCA STEVENS? BECCA is in her JUNIOR year. The POLITICAL SCIENCE MAJOR is 21 years old & is a GEMINI. People say SHE is AMBITIOUS, SOPHISTICATED, RECLUSE and MANIPULATIVE. Rumors say they’re a member of the CALLOWAY SOCIETY. I heard from the gossip blog that SHE’S COVERING UP HER FATHER’S AFFAIR FROM HER MOTHER AND THE REST OF THE WORLD. 

statistics

general

full name: rebecca diana stevens

nicknames: becca, bec, b, stevens

age: twenty-one

date of birth: may 25th, 1999

hometown: hartford, connecticut

sexuality: bisexual

current residence: preaker, vermont

languages spoken: english, filipino, italian

personality

zodiac: gemini sun, aquarius moon, virgo rising

alignment: neutral evil

mbti: istj-a

appearance

hair color: brown

eye color: dark-brown

height: 5'8"

biography

rebecca diana stevens wasn’t born out of love or sincerity, she was born to fulfill a a status quo. althea and joseph stevens had but one child before becca, one conceived out of wedlock and to a different woman. joseph stevens hailed from a political dynasty, his past ancestors holding powerful positions in government, and a son born from a college relationship with a woman of much lower status would only tarnish the political standing of the future governor of connecticut, mr. joseph stevens himself. so the family did what they knew best, and threw the entire possibility of a scandal under the rug, paying off joseph’s girlfriend to grant sole custody to him. it was only within a few short months that joseph’s mother set him up with the daughter of a fortune 500 ceo, althea santos. the two were attending yates university at the time, both in their senior year of school. the manufactured relationship quickly became a marriage within the next few years, althea claiming her stepson as one of her own, at least in front of the public eye. and within a years, rebecca diana stevens was brought into the world, her middle name inspired by the late princess diana, who althea had been fond of.

in the public eye, the stevens were a loving, wholesome family, deplete of any controversy. it was what led joseph to his government title. but underneath it, the stevens mirrored any family with exorbitant wealth and a powerful status.

growing up, becca had often felt like a robot. she simply smiled and waved to the cameras whenever asked, which was perhaps the slightest bit of emotion anyone saw out of her from a young age. but beyond that, she felt completely, and utterly empty, even as a child. she didn’t have a naturally friendly or kind bone in her body, unless told to have one. she destroyed things, threw tantrums erratically, and refused to speak unless it was necessary. because once the cameras and watching eyes were gone, becca’s parents didn’t treat her like how they did in front of a camera. it wasn’t that she was abused, it was that her parents didn’t care about her. she could scream bloody murder in the middle of the night, and they’d only send a nanny to her in hopes of shutting her up. it was clearly possible that young becca had used anger as a tool to get the attention of her careless parents, but after a while, a part of her had realized that there was nothing that could be done to get there attention. and as more time past, the less she wanted any.

as becca grew into her teens, the easiest term used to describe her would’ve been ‘loner.’ she hated any attention, almost as much as she began to hate people. she’d continued to listen to her parents, smile for the cameras, wear something that wasn’t black when dinner party season began, but underneath it all, she despised her parents. she dreamt that she was a witch, able to cast a hex on them and for the world to see how awful they really were. the only emotion becca seemed to ever feel was anger, and even that faded away with the use of antidepressants.

to those who met her, she was cold, and blunt, and if there wasn’t a camera to her face or a public official to wow, she had absolutely no filter. in high school, more often than not, you’d find her in the library with a black hoodie on reading a book, not because she cared an awful lot at school (despite ironically excelling at it), but because she knew it was a place no one would bother her. she was rich, and beautiful, and had every chance of being the queen bee of her boarding school. but she didn’t care to, she didn’t care about anything. after graduating, she chose to go to yates, her parent’s alma mater, instead of yale university, in the town she’d grown up in.

she’d joined calloway, even if a part of her felt that she’d fit into any society at yates. and by fit in, she meant ignore everyone’s presence. but being in yates was different. at least in high school, everyone had already known to leave her alone. there wasn’t an opportunity for her to be liked, because she’d already spent years cultivating an awful reputation. somehow, somewhere along the way, becca found herself caring about a few select people, as awful and wrong as it felt at the time. she still hated the majority of her peers, but some had managed to crack her dead heart. and she definitely hated that.

despite never admitting it, becca had come to yates as a virgin. she hadn’t ever been in a relationship, or even a casual hookup before. she hadn’t done much in her freshman year, but just as her 2nd year started, the relationship that gave her everything, only to take it all away begun. he was easy on the eyes, and she remembered him saying all the right words. he hadn’t cared that she was a bit meaner than most, and that she mostly had the emotional capacity of a rock. he’d tried, and tried, and eventually, becca let him in. she let herself believe that someone was capable of caring about her. everything was perfect in the beginning. she smiled, and laughed, and acted like one of the lovesick people she’d silently judged at one point. she was truly, and hopelessly, in love. until he cheated on her, that is. and then it was as if everything came crashing down. maybe if she hadn’t caught him sitting a little too close to a girl, running from the door instead of asking questions, they’d still be together. she didn’t have proof, but at the same time, she didn’t need any for her heart to feel completely shattered.

after crying for an hour and a half in the parking lot of a taco bell, becca was reminded of what she went through as a child, regressing into an old mentality, that showing emotion was pointless, that she wasn’t capable of being loved. she ignored him, and everyone after that. people checked in on her, and she acted as if it never even happened, still caring about those few select people, but always keeping her guard up.

headcanons

comes off as mean, and standoffish. can’t stand majority of people but will fake it until she makes it just to get through the day. if she does care about you, she’s still kinda guarded and never lets people know what shes really thinking, but she does care (deep down)

always wears black, and for some odd reason, always has an ominous black book at her side that’s contents are unknown.

is a polysci major because it just makes sense though it isnt really what she wants to do with her life (tuition ain’t free), she’d love to be an author and write fiction novels

can be very odd and dark at times like you’d think shes a vampire

has major insomnia and will usually be found at 7/11 or roaming the streets at 2am

plays obnoxiously loud music in her wired earphones because she doesn’t care

wanted connections

okay obviously i really want becca’s ex connection. she’s only had one boyfriend and he’s the only man who could break her heart. i’d love to plot this out because maybe he wasn’t even cheating??? lets give men a few rights okay, but this is definitely my biggest one

a best friend!! someone who gets her, probably understands how she’s feeling without her saying anything. she’s not really like the girl gang kinda girl but whatever

her half-brother is one of my wcs on the main but yes <3 i’d love to see their dynamic and what he’d be like

honestly anything!! friends, enemies, acquaintances, hookups, fwb !!!

[gaycey-sketchit]

(Gary anon) I don't doubt that if the group didn't have Gary, the raid would have gone differently. But, that doesn't necessarily mean it would have gone 'better'. (If the other challengers not even making it to the cave is anything to go by. Heck, barring Moltres, the other raids just whittle down to just Ash and Goh rather quickly) Heh, I actually seen two recent videos talking about Gary's character concerning this episode on Youtube; not negatively. Just retrospect.

.

(Part 2) I think some get why he's acting like his with Goh, but it clears how much 4kids left its mark. (Really hope Johto gets fully subbed one of these days, it's the remaining missing puzzle concerning his development. I can catch some words, but I still need full context) His next appearances is crucial to having people get a 2nd look at him. (This was a much knock down for Goh. The OP makes me think he'll have a raid together with the leaders, or tag along some mission)

(Part 3) (with them and he needs to be in top shape here) I get wanting to hear "pathetic" come out of his mouth; but *that shouldn't come with his whole character regressing. (*Already have a few iffy on that when it comes to JN Gary) He's not going to be Champion, might as well give him some official title to highlight his status. Gym Leaders teach too and strives for trainers to get better. (Japanese side of the fandom keeps saying Gary feels older, regardless of age. xD) One of the most

(Part 4) disrespectful moments in the entire anime. xD I guess that's karma for happen with Kangaskhan. (Evolution speculation is back in the mix: We haven't seen Boltund in the anime yet and I remember seeing merch on it some months ago) Like Infernape, I don't see Greninja rejoining Ash's current roster, but I could see it returning to him permanently. (Unless other plans are set for him, Paul is either the last Ultra Class battle or the 1st round of Masters 8) I'm in the former

(Part 5) ;Masters 8 feels like it'll consist mainly of Champions, plus Raihan and Lance. If the tournament battle format is how I think it will go, Paul's better off ending Ultra. Since there's some signs of Iris gaining a spot, I'm not entirely sure about Alder. Hope he at least gets something. (I pretty much expect every return from here-on-out to be done in rapid succession compared to last year. There's a few companions left unmentioned)

Yeah. At any rate, from a writing perspective it served its purpose, and we got to see our spiky boy, so I figure it's whatever.

Yeah, a lot of people not even making it to Articuno goes to show that it would've been brutal one way or another. Gary's skill helped.

Ooh, analysis videos? Glad people are talking about that, even if I am probably too picky about whose opinions on Pokeani I listen to to ever seek out Pokeani Youtubers, unfortunately. (I literally am too autistic for it, and I can't really put why I'm like this into words beyond that. I’m just weird and protective about my special interest I guess xD)

I suppose so... honestly, from what I've gathered Gary's (Shigeru's, I should probably say, but you know what I mean either way) whole thing is a bit better and also way funnier in Japanese. The way he acts haughty and antagonistic and then calls himself boku just couldn't translate into English because we don't have Japanese's array of personal pronouns with different connotations, and that coupled with the dub playing up his antagonism/making him more abrasive in the first season... any subtlety is lost. Gary's still one of the best and funniest characters but. You know. (I would like to watch more of Pokeani subbed someday. I like the dubs--I love the 4Kids dub, and the TPCI dub is fine--but I think it’d be interesting.)

Anyway! Yeah! I wonder when his next appearance will be. Hopefully we don't have to wait too long... we withstood twelve years without a single appearance outside of brief silent cameos, but my threshold has been reached and I just vibrate in anticipation for his appearances now xD

Yeah, sometimes a character just needs a little personal growth knocked into them. It's fine.

Yeah.

I definitely wouldn’t mind seeing him achieve that! I think he’d be good at it, though I imagine much like Blue in the games, his restless soul would be a problem sometimes. It’d at least be good for him to have a home base. 

(Talk of Gary potentially taking over the Viridian Gym reminds me there’s a fic I’ve been meaning to read where he does that, and it’s explicitly an act of reclamation because it’s a fic about his Mewtwo Trauma--what I did read of it was very good, the trauma portrayal just felt a little too real and I was not in the headspace to handle it emotionally when I came across it. You might know the one--it’s Recovery Takes: by Essence_of_Silence on AO3. Big fan of their work and how it hits my feelings with the force of a freight train.)

I get that! Along with his more mature personality, it’s probably partly because his JN design is based off Blue’s HGSS look and Blue was in his mid-teens in those games.

Yeah, the disrespect! I laugh every time I think about it.

Oh? I hadn’t realized Boltund hadn’t made an appearance yet! Interesting!

That makes sense!

Yeah, him being the last Ultra Class battle sounds right.

Should be very interesting! Excited to see how things play out in Journeys’ (probably) final year, I know this leg of the anime has been a very divisive one but I’ve had fun :)

[koganphrancis]

More shit, just split.  

Welp, now we have the answer to “why the fuck are they doing two extra episodes?” I guess.

But this still doesn’t make much sense-Shameless isn’t the type of show you can’t wait to see continue anymore.  Now it’s all unconnected skits that were bouncing around like ping pong balls anyway.  Remember Kev’s season of breast cancer, redneck family, sexuality crisis?  Or Fiona’s frenetic storyline that went: manages a diner, buys the diner, no wait, now she’s also running a laundry mat, sells that, buys a building?  And the horror of Ian and Terror being two completely different couples every other episode last season?  One week they were off, next on, next off, next...you get the idea.  Even if they try to turn the midway episode into a cliff hanger...it just won’t matter.  They’ve lost the ability to script any kind of continuity whatsoever.  Every time you watch an episode now, it’s like watching a repertory company-the faces of the actors are the same, but the roles they’re playing change from week to week.

The ONE thing that might have been a benefit from this split season bullshit is if it gave them a break in writing to gauge how the first half of the season went and make adjustments for a change-but forget that.  Not only does the first half of S9 look like it’s just continuing all the shit we hated about S8 (more Gay Jesus!  More Ford!)  Clearly they didn’t listen to what we hated since the day they started airing S8, but it also sounds like they’re not taking a break in filming, just in airing the shitty episodes.  

The episodes will have extra time to rot and get even more stinky :/

Also, I would think this will push the airing of S9 on Netflix back a few extra months, but if Showtime thinks that will entice Netflix viewers to cave and subscribe to Showtime instead they’re sorely mistaken.  Anyone who can’t wait for the show to be streaming on Netflix can keep up with what’s going on on social media, or they can illegally watch it someplace.  

The only silver lining I’m finding here is since they’re not going to break for a couple months before shooting the 2nd half that means it still looks good that Cam will be off filming Gotham instead of toiling away on this pile of steaming poo.  

I read a post in the Shameless tag yesterday about S7 that I mostly didn’t agree with, but it did make a valid point now that we’re limping into S9 and maybe beyond if the assholes at the network can be believed.  The post was complaining about how Fiona doesn’t get to have her own life and was being constantly “bothered” by her siblings needing her-one of the specific examples they used was Ian “having an episode” as if that was something he was always doing on purpose just to bug her, but I digress.  The main argument against that in S7 was Fiona had signed on to be her siblings’ guardian long ago without them asking her to, and once she took that responsibility on, it’s hers till they’re adults.  

But that’s just it-now all of them but Liam are pretty much adults.  If Carl’s looking to get into West Point to the point of getting a congress person’s recommendation, he’s a high school senior this season.  And no matter how much the show wants to hold Debbie at 16 and Carl at 15, that’s just not realistic where Debbie has a job that you legally have to be 18 to even be trained for.  Plus in the scenes in the previews, she’s towering over Fiona in height and has that deeper than ever raspy voice-she’s not 16 going on 17, and Fiona is looking downright matronly and haggard in the clips-her 20s are fading fast in the rearview mirror, they can’t keep acting like she’s this struggling barely out of her teens herself gal trying to make it in a cold world.  And if Carl and Debs are in their late teens, that puts Lip and Ian solidly into their mid-twenties and now I’ll finally get to my point.  The show makes no sense that they are all still SO dependent on one another, unless the message is that they are all truly so damaged for life and will only ever be able to survive by clinging onto each other. And who wants to watch a show with the message that none of these people are ever going to grow up, go out on their own, and have a life?  It makes it pointless to get invested with any character they get involved with, because we all know by the end of the day this group of now adults will wind up back in their childhood home with tears in their eyes wondering why they always have such shit luck in relationships and in life.  

Why do they think this can continue on for multiple seasons to come?  No one’s progressing-if anything they love to write these characters as regressing, they all get dumber every year and forget their entire past and the lessons they should’ve learned there.

In closing, I just want to say I hope Cameron really is leaving, giving us whatever form of Gallavich endgame this shit show can come up with (actually counting more on Noel to improvise it into something special) and then I can be completely free of the show no matter how many more seasons they decide to beat out of it.  

I honestly can’t remember whether or not Cam ever did a “thank you and farewell” tweet to the city like this after other Chicago weeks-does anyone else recall?  I’m THINKING he never did, but of course that’s what I want to believe.  I want this to be his swan song tweet to a place that’s now a part of his past until he maybe gets cast in a different production that films there ;)

[nabilfekir]

so from looking thru a lot of psg blogs from years back and going down memory lane 

and remembering the previous ucl campaigns that seem like they were ages ago now, its very clear that season 14/15 (and u could argue 15/16 when we made it to the quarters if u wanted to i guess) was genuinely the last time this team had a backbone, a set of balls and real passion. 

the proof is in That round of 16 2nd leg game against ch*lsea (click that to see the post which is what inspired this rant or just rewatch the highlights honestly like i did lmao) where we managed to get thru in extra time with 10 men from the 31st minute when it seemed like everything was working against us and we didn’t have our star in zlatan then. since then, this team has regressed in mentality despite the progression in talented players joining. there was passion and fight and emotion involved in that game....and it was away! there wasn’t an entire parc des princes hyped up to back them but they still managed it.

i hope it’s clear to nasser that emery HAS to go, but i honestly just hope we get a manager who can give us back this passion and fight we used to have, because then we can honestly do ameeeezing things. nasser n the board honestly killed our ucl campaign for this year from when they decided to keep emery on after la refmontada be despite the ref we played shocking that night and capitulated.

never mind that emery couldn’t even keep this team in check when penalty gate happened and couldnt make sure it didnt happen in the first place he has zero hold on this team and isn’t even that tactically skilled like i’ve never gone WOW at a sub he’s made that’s changed the game for us that i dont think was just down to the player himself. we need a manager to get the egos of the dressing room straight and inspire this team.

i dont even care about winning the champions league rn like can we just get to a mcfucking semi final and put up a good fight? like i’d be so happy and proud for us to just do that at the least and go out fighting.....like this year and last year we went out like little thotties....can we go out next year at least with fight? a team thats never gotten past the quarter finals isnt going to suddenly jump to the final to win it, we have to work thru the stages.

anyway paris est magique and ici c’est paris n all dat

[junker-town]

Fumble Dimension, episode 1: director’s commentary

Kofie Yeboah and Jon Bois recently debuted the premiere episode of Fumble Dimension, a show in which they simulated the death of the NBA over the course of several decades. They kept a diary. Here is that diary.

SB Nation Labs’ new series “Fumble Dimension” started with a new version of Jon Bois’ 2014 “Death of Basketball” article. During the six weeks it took to make the video, Jon and Kofie kept a diary of what the saw. Feel free to read along with the video, or enjoy it separately. Either way, here are the findings.

DAY 1

July 25th, 2019

-----

After months of discussion with my research partner Kofie Yeboah, we have elected to begin the NBA 2K experiment. In brief, we will attempt to create a portal to a cursed world.

Five years ago, I conducted an experiment. I created a 2K player who was as small, talentless, inept, and stupid as possible. Worse than any random person one would pull in from off the street.

And then I cloned this player until there was an entire NBA draft class full of him. And then I fed this draft class into the game’s franchise mode, year after year, decade after decade, until no real-life NBA players remained. The sport of basketball was destroyed.

I have long regretted my failure to keep proper statistics of this misadventure. Equipped with more time, endless spreadsheets, and the simulation expertise of Mr. Yeboah, the two of us intend to fully chronicle this horror.

I would like to believe I am a good person. But is this what good people do?

Jon, 5:59 p.m.

-----

DAY 2

July 26th, 2019

I am exploring the Create-a-Player mode. A wealth of options is at our disposal. Notably, the mode allows us to select a type of injury a player is most vulnerable to, and how many days it is likely to keep him out of action. For instance, if this is as it seems, a player might miss up to 480 days after sustaining a bloody nose or getting the wind knocked out of him.

Player attributes are all pulled down to 25, the lowest possible value. Tendencies -- as in, the player’s tendency toward a certain shot or behavior -- are another matter. In the experiment five years ago, I set every tendency at 0. I consulted with Kofie, who suggested we set them all at the maximum of 100, just to see what happens. Our reasoning is as follows: fuck it.

Jon, 2:04 p.m.

The Xbox keeps overheating while Kofie is attempting to create the draft class. It doesn’t want us to do this. Will take a shift of my own later.

Jon, 5:31 p.m.

DAY 3

July 29th, 2019

Two consoles and one weekend later, I have finally finished out the roster from hell that Jon started. I had to save early and often like this was a term paper that counted for 25% of my final grade. Whenever I tried to change too much data the Xbox One would shut down 2K and I’d have to start over from my last save point. This might be because this is an older version of the console, or this might be a game problem.

Luckily, now that the big building part is out of the way I don’t expect us to have anymore problems like this because our MyLeague will likely run on autosaving.

The draft class is here.

I wanted to test out the abilities of these players without compromising the NBA rosters so I decided to go to the classic teams.

For the sake of the article I’m not going to spoil how these characters play like so far, but boy oh boy you’re in for a treat.

Kofie 4:45 p.m.

DAY 4

July 30th, 2019

Before we start simulating I want to give some background on what exactly we’re doing here. We will be using the MyLeague mode and tracking as many seasons as it takes to completely jack up the league. Now NBA 2K tells us that we have to control one team, but they *didn’t say* that we had to be good at it. Sorry, Warriors.

We also will be automating everything we can except for the draft class, which we will import ourselves. Now apparently storylines can be added to the players in this draft class. I have no idea how that affects it so I’m going to say no.

Every season the sim will stop to ask us if we want to see the All-Star team captains. This will be obnoxious at first, but has the potential to be absolutely hilarious. A crazy thing that is in NBA 2K19 is “advanced stats,” which is something that seems mad unnecessary for this but I will welcome it with open arms.

We can also scout the shitty draft class that we put in the game. Now a weird thing I’m seeing is that the scouting report ALTERED the heights and weights of some of the players, so some players actually 5’2, which is BELOW the possible heights we made when we were making create a players. Is this because I put prospect scouting on Auto? There are so many settings in this one that I honestly can’t tell which one changes prospect height. One thing that didn’t change, however is that they all still suck.

At this point in time we are rejecting any rule changes that could potentially be made in the league.

So. During the Draft Combine we found out that damn near everybody had an eye injury and that is considered a serious draft concern. We are not making this up. This is real. In the combine the highest vertical leap was 26 inches. That’s it not ideal, but oddly enough it seems that everyone doesn’t completely suck at jump shots.

NBA 2K has also added Summer League, so we will get to see these players way earlier than expected.

After Season one we have one 40 Overall on the Warriors, He is currently reserve status, but don’t worry D.J. Gatling, Your time will come.

DAY 5

August 2nd, 2019

Season 2:

We are on season 2 of NBAY2K2 and our 40 overall for the Warriors, D.J. Gatling, has already played five games for a grand total of five minutes.

I just want to take the time to shout out Kurt Ryan, who made All-Rookie 1st Team without actually playing a game. We had some productive rookies this year, but they were from our draft class. They consisted of players that were already on two-way contracts. I think we’re going to see a decline of rookie production really soon. Congrats to Jacob Evans III for being named rookie of the year. Yes, that’s a real player, so shout out to him.

In addition to Vince Carter and Jamal Crawford, a lot of our 40 overall players are already retiring, which … fair. 29 teams voted to eliminate the shot clock, but we’re going to override this rule change … for now. Now usually after a season or two the players start to regress or progress. Our 40 overalls aren’t doing either. This is progression purgatory. No one improves, no one declines.

Season 3:

Despite the rookie class and summer league rosters running rampant with awful players, it seems like regular season players have been affected yet. When predicting when the first 40 overall would start/make a major impact, Jon said four years while Kofie went high with eight years. We’ll see who is right in the near future.

DAY 6

August 5th, 2019

Season 4: I’m not sure how long the takeover will take because we have a considerable number of 40 overalls retiring. I’m not sure how efficient the draft class infiltrations are. However, like Thanos, destruction is inevitable. After one month of simulating, the highest total number of minutes for a 40 overall is 2.

However, thanks to another Steph Curry injury, we finally have a 40 overall in the 12-man rotation. The little people are moving up in the league!

Season 5: Holy shit, LeBron James is a 95 overall at age 37.

The Rising Stars challenge seems to have disappeared. I didn’t sim through it and it was definitely in season 4. Maybe we have reached a point where there aren’t enough players to fill out a roster for it. Which means that we are getting closer and closer to the takeover.

Also LeBron retired. Damn. End of an era. He was so good that he got his jersey retired on three different teams! Take that, Kobe.

We are also extremely close to a summer league roster of all 40 overalls. Dammit Cody!

Season 6: After disappearing for one season, the Rising Stars challenge is BACK… wait never mind it disappeared again LOL. So what I’m guessing is happening is that there aren’t enough young international players to make a Rising Stars roster. Which is wild because we totally didn’t take the places hometowns into account at all when starting this. Maybe we can vote to bring the Rookie-Sophomore game back?

Season 7: After six seasons, it doesn’t look like we’re making any real progress right now. The main reason why is because all of these two-way players and G leaguers are coming up and getting in the way of everything.

Season 8: Now we’re getting into a nice simulation routine. Steph Curry is 37 years old and looking like the next star to retire. The 40 overalls are making a slow, but steady climb in the rosters. The team with the most 40 overalls on the roster is currently the Orlando Magic with four people.

It took eight seasons, but we finally have a summer league team with all 40 overall people. Let’s see how this goes.

Season 9: Devin Booker JUST turned 30. Damn.

DeAndre Ayton just won MVP for the Detroit Pistons. Ladies and gentlemen, we are officially in the simulation,

We’re also, one year away from a new CBA and a new TV deal and I don’t know what that means but it’s about to go DOWN.

Season 10:

So remember earlier when we had a player make the All-Rookie team without playing a game? Now we have a player on the All-Rookie 1st team that isn’t even technically on the team. Yes this guy has a contract with an overseas team and is ineligible to sign a contract for a year and STILL made 1st team all rookie. Wow.

Season 11:

Ladies and gentlemen, WE HAVE MINUTES!

DAY 7

August 6th, 2019

Season 11 continued:

So over the course of the season the 40s’ minutes would fluctuate due to injuries and stuff. Here’s an example of the Warriors roster when it’s full of injuries. This is crazy.

Side note: The Xbox One crashes are BACK, baby, making this simulation twice as complicated as it needs to be. Great. Help me.

DeAndre Ayton has won his third straight MVP award and I don’t know how to feel about this.

Season 12: It’s all going to shit. The Warriors team we’ve been keeping a close eye on has to start a 58 overall shooting guard because all of the 40 overall players are Centers. Curry, Harden and Cousins are gone and now the NBA is damn near unrecognizable. There are only three free agents in the 70s range. The rest are all 40 overalls, baby.

I’m sure this specific team wouldn’t be ass if we actually let them make awesome free agency moves. We however, have sat back and watched the fireworks.

Also. I’m sorry.

Season 13:

The 40s are starting to show promise as rotation players. No one knows how this happened or why it happened, but the end is near. We’re getting phases of play with multiple 40 overalls on the court at the same time. Their impact and footprint is growing ever so slowly.

Season 14.

The Warriors now have a 40 overall as the 6th. Guys, this shit is about to go nuclear. We are at the point where 2K is making up undrafted players that are better than the 40 overall rookies. Because this:

Is not a real person.

I had to make sure that the draft class wasn’t contaminated or that there wasn’t an error, but no. 2K is making up undrafted players to compensate for the fact that we made them all centers. Which is another thing that we weren’t expecting this time around. Well played, 2K. Well played. Also our Warriors team is 7-75 on the season. You love to see it.

I think all of the contracts except for two players ran out because in the offseason it looks like this now.

Season 15: As confirmed. NBA 2K is making up undrafted players, but no worries because we now have our first 40 overall in the STARTING LINEUP. HELL YEAH.

There is a new season fill roster option which will automatically sign players to fill roster to the NBA minimum. Jon thinks that the players are SO bad that the NBA teams refuse to sign them, so NBA 2K makes up players. Let’s put this to the test.

At the end of the season, there was a prompt for me to fill out the rest of the roster with players. I have 12 spaces to fill. I choose not to do it and the game crashes multiple times because I can’t sign anyone. They wouldn’t take my offers. Help us.

DAY 9

August 8th, 2019

With Kofie out of town, I’m reviewing his video files. In particular, I am recording the PER of every player over the years who has played enough to qualify for the stat. This requires hours of manual data entry. It is almost unbearably tedious. But it is worth it.

Thus far, I have recorded five seasons’ worth of PER data. I have plotted all five seasons, arranged from best to worst player.

There is no meaningful difference to be observed so far. This is my prediction: once it changes, it will change very quickly and dramatically. This will not be gradual.

We’ll continue to see key retirements in the coming years. But if a player can hang on for long enough to stand as one of the only giants left in the league, his PER will skyrocket. Perhaps to the 40s or above.

Jon, 7:42 p.m.

DAY 10

August 12th

I’m back from being out of town and I want to try to solve the undrafted player effect. My hypothesis is that this is because we made the draft class all centers. I’m making a second draft class and spreading out the positions to see if that fixes our 2K problem, but for season 16 we’re going to keep it as is and not change the overalls of anyone 2K added for us.

Our Golden State Warriors went 0-82, which has to be because we don’t have a single real NBA player on our roster. This is incredible. The All-Star rosters are giving us players we’ve never seen before.

It’s also of note that after nothing but centers for 15+ years, not a single center was drafted in this year’s class.

Season 18:

It seems like changing the positions helped stop the 2k created player influx because now the Warriors only have 1 non 40 overall on the roster. The 60 overall was a 2K-made-up player, but we seem to be getting closer to the apocalypse.

The All-Star teams look wonky, as a character named Ivan Radja is the All Star Captain now. I’ve also decided to watch the three-point contest and dunk contest this year. A 37-year-old DeAndre Ayton won MVP again. I predict that him retiring will be the true last domino to fall. He’s only a 75 overall now, but he’s dominating the league.

Season 19: At last, we have a team with all 40 overalls so we tried a game against a team that didn’t start any of them, and holy shit we got waxed.

It looks like we’re going to have to wait out the players 2K made up in our stead for this to be a fair fight. This also marks the first season where the MVP isn’t an actual real player. The MVP of the league was a 66 overall. For context, that’s the same overall rating as Kyle Collinsworth in today’s game.

Season 20: This is where it gets interesting, because there are teams with a lot of 70 overall players and teams with only 40 overall players. Jokic and Giannis are on our coaching staff and they’re easily better than anyone on the roster.

Day 10

August 12th

I just noticed that DeAndre Bembry is rated 92 overall in Season 8, making him one of the best players in the NBA. The prior seven seasons he barely played at all, or at least not enough to register in the PER column.

Reader, I will be honest with you: I could not remember who DeAndre Bembry was, and until I saw that he had an actual photo, I’d assumed the game had made him up.

Jon, 11:50 a.m.

Day 11

August 13th.

Season 21:

We are just waiting for the eventual cascade of phasing out the not good players. As one of the teams with all 40 overall players, we are on a steady diet of not only losing games, but getting destroyed in each game.

Now, I also discovered something. It seems after the free agent period is simmed every year no free agent deals were made. All of the team rosters only had 2-3 players on it. It seems like 2K then takes the first 12 players available *by rating* and gives it all to one team and then the next best overall goes to the next team and this happens in alphabetical order, so by the time the Warriors have a chance there are only 40 overalls.

This also happens every year as the people 2K made up have 1 year contracts while the draft classes that we made get rookie deals. This means that our Warriors team will be terrible until the playing field is level… so like a decade?

Season 23-26: We’re making progress on the simulation. As more and more players are retiring the playing field is evening out and the Warriors look like they are winning more games.

Season 26: the Golden State Warriors made the playoffs, winning only 28 games. This caught me so much by surprise that I didn’t realize it until the playoffs were over. Meanwhile the dominant Philadelphia 76ers went 79-3. In fact, FOUR teams won 70 games in the EASTERN CONFERENCE ALONE

Season 28:

The Golden State Warriors are third in the Western Conference with a grand total of 38 wins. Jesus, the Western Conference is atrocious.

Season 29: Holy shit, the Warriors finished .500. We’re getting closer.

Day 12

August 14th.

Season 30: The Warriors won 45 games this year and LeBron James has retired from the league again, this time as an assistant coach!

Season 31: The Most Valuable Player is a guy named Daniel Mills, who averaged 5 points and 35 rebounds a game. A 6’9 34-year-old who went undrafted. This is a 2K-made-up player who is still dominating the league because he’s just tall. In fact, there’s a huge spike of rebounds per game across the board.

Is this what the 1960s were like?

Season 32:

The Philadelphia 76ers went 82-0. YUP, 82-0. They also went 82-0 the season before. Jesus.

Want to see their roster?

Yeah. That’s all it takes now. They also went 16-0 in the playoffs.

With that being said, the total dominance of one team means that the 2K fill-ins are getting phased out. We’re so close. Hang in there, NBA. 5 of those 76ers players retired after this season. This might be the final straw for the good players of the league. Stay tuned.

Season 33:

Only three non-40-overalls remain in the entire league. Of course, they’re all on the 76ers. Sam Hinkie was a genius. Let’s see how a game between our Warriors and the 76ers plays out.

Meet Johnathan Bucker.

He’s the only 6’10 player left in the league, and he’s getting all the rebounds. He’s only 50 overall. After all of this, he didn’t even make the All-Star team because he suffered a right ankle sprain. Of course.

Well, there’s only one thing left we can do: try out the three point contest. Oh dear God.

The dunk contest isn’t better. It’s just a bunch of players glitching out and only getting 30s. Because they don’t even look like they’re dunking. Adam Silver needs to change that shit.

As expected, Johnathan Buckner wins the MVP as a 48 overall, averaging 43.8 rebounds a game because he’s tall as shit. He’s also 37.

Season 34: We have finished the job. The infiltration is complete.

Season 36: This is the year I’m going to start installing 0-tendency guys into the game to see just how shitty this can get.

Season... I don’t even know anymore. The year is 2055: It seems that the 0-tendency guys infiltrated our roster in no time at all.

All is... won? No that can’t be the saying.

Season I have no idea: This is the All-Star game. The funniest part about this is the NBA 2K broadcasting crew pretending that nothing is different.

All is lost.

Season 40:

The Warriors win the NBA Finals again, but at what cost?

All is lost.

All is lost.

[donnyjabronie]

And Now, Some Junk about the NBA Playoffs

To the unaware, I’m a massive NBA fan. No, I really don’t know why. Something about the sport just totally engrosses me and my attention. So I thought I’d do a pointless write-up on how I feel this first round of the playoffs will play out, and give a bit of reasoning why. 

Western Conference Predictions

1. Houston Rockets (65-17) vs 8. Minnesota Timberwolves

Prediction: 4-1 Rockets

I think this series could prove to be more interesting than most expect, it being a 1 seed vs 8 seed and all. The Timberwolves are in the playoffs for the first time in over 10 years, they’re healthy, and they’re out to prove themselves Jimmy Butler is an absolute star coming in fresh after recovering from injury, Wiggins needs to prove he’s not just a chucker and a bust, and KAT is one of the best bigs in the game. On the flip side, James Harden is out to prove himself as rightful MVP and avoid the label of playoff choker some have attributed to him. Chris Paul also has never sniffed a deep playoffs run despite being known as one of the best point guards in the league. I can see most of these games ending closer than one would guess, but Houston swept the Timberwolves in the regular season for a reason. I can’t see Minnesota winning more than one game. Regardless, the Wolves should be happy just making the playoffs after a long drought, and look forward to hopefully a new era of greatness for the franchise. 

2. Golden State Warriors (58-24) vs 7. San Antonio Spurs (47-35)

Prediction: 4-2 Warriors

This match-up might be the one that upsets me the most, as a Cavs fan. The Warriors are missing Curry, they’re at the weakest they’ve ever been and the perfect target for a first round upset, but with the Spurs also missing Kawhi and not being the strongest matchup against the deep shooting of the Warriors, I really can’t see them pulling it off. Having said that, LaMarcus Aldridge has had his best season since joining the Spurs, and the Spurs have beaten every single team in the western conference playoffs in just this past month to get here. This series could go one of two ways: the Warriors, lacking Curry, struggle against the Spurs to get it going and the series comes down to the wire, with neither team having a clear advantage. The alternate path: the Spurs put up a strong fight but the playoff Warriors arrive, the one that has god-like Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant, and the Spurs don’t win more than two in the series. Either way it’ll be tough for both sides, and I can’t wait to see it go down.

In case you think I’m silly for saying this will be such a tough matchup: Let me just remind you that just last season the Warriors were the 1 seed and the Spurs 2. And when they met in the playoffs, the Spurs were winning by 20+ points until Kawhi Leonard went down with injury. Obviously a Spurs team without Kawhi is weaker, but just how much weaker now that they’ve had an entire season to adjust is up for debate. 

3. Portland Trail Blazers (49-33) vs 6. New Orleans Pelicans (48-34)

Prediction: 4-2 Trail Blazers

Boy I wish DeMarcus Cousins wasn’t injured. But he is. Anthony Davis can only do so much heavy-lifting, especially in the playoffs. The only reason I didn’t go with 4-1 Portland is because Anthony Davis is an absolute anomaly, and if his teammates can step up to the plate they can beat any team in the league. I just can’t see anybody other than maybe Jrue Holiday consistently stepping up. Portland has been trapped in mediocre-playoffs-team hell for far too long, and Damian Lillard has looked more incredible this season than he has in a while. Nurkic has been a key piece in the post for them and a great pick-up that had an impact even last year, but unfortunately only played one game in the playoffs. With their core so held together with how much of an injury-riddled season this has been, I think this is Portland’s year to make an impact.

Ultimately in my eyes, this series comes down to which star has a better cast to support them. Anthony Davis and Damian Lillard are going to get theirs, and nobody is going to stop either of them. It’s going to be up to the rest of their line-ups to come through and make sure those performances don’t go to waste, and ultimately I think Portland has the better line-up to give the Pelicans a hard time and win the series. (Please God find a way for Boogie to return to the Pelicans and still be just as good as he was at the start of the season.) 

4. Oklahoma City Thunder (48-34) vs 5. Utah Jazz (48-34)

Prediction: 4-1 Thunder

This series is the one I’m most ready to be wrong on out of all of these. The Thunder have an objectively better roster, with reigning MVP Russell Westbrook, aided by the likes of Paul George and Carmelo Anthony. There are a few wrenches thrown in OKC’s perfect storm however; Corey Brewer, a fringe bench player turned defensive anchor for OKC who took over in Robersons’ absence, has a knee sprain and could possibly miss a few games at the start of the playoffs, Carmelo Anthony has regressed much harder than anybody expected this season, and as with every season we don’t know if we’ll get to see Bestbrook or Worstbrook, not to mention how Russ’s tendencies could affect his teammates’ ability to contribute. The Jazz also have DPOY candidate Gobert, a strong shooter in Joe Ingles, and the ROTY candidate Donovan Mitchell. Ultimately, if both teams were playing to absolute full potential, I would say the Thunder would dominate the series totally. 

The biggest reason why I say Jazz only win one game is because of one new factor: Paul George. Over the past 2 years, Paul George averaged over 25 points, albeit at much different FG%. Playoff Paul George is a force to be reckoned with, and that was when he was the leader and star of his own team. Put into the backseat with Westbrook to feed him, and recently breaking out of the shooting slump he’s been trapped in, I’m eager to see how George performs. 

So that does it for the Western Conference. The West has been such a bloodbath that I honestly believe you won’t want to miss any of these match-ups. Every one of these series promises to be entertaining in one form or another, and if ever there was a year for surprising upsets to happen, this is the year, and in my personal opinion not even the Rockets are exempt from this (although if it does happen I doubt it’ll be the Wolves to do it. Sorry Timberbros.) 

Eastern Conference Predictions 

1. Toronto Raptors (59-23) vs 8. Washington Wizards (43-39). 

Prediction: 4-3 Raptors 

This is not the first seed match-up I expected to see. The Wizards have, along with missing quite a lot of time from John Wall, experienced a disappointing season to say the least. However, John Wall is healthy now for the playoffs, and of course it would be just the Raps’ luck to, in their franchise’s best season ever, lose in the first round to the 8th seed. I think the Wizards with John Wall back will put up a stronger fight than anybody’s expecting, but if DeMarr DeRozan and Lowry can avoid slumping as they’ve done in previous seasons, they should absolutely be able to take this series. If the Trash Bros make a return, however, there’s no telling how this Raptors team will do. I don’t think they will. I think this is going to be the Raptors’ best opportunity to make a deep playoff push, the best opportunity they’ll ever have (lets ignore the LeBron freight train coming for the 2nd round.) 

The Wizards have had a rough season, but I think the potential is there for them to surprise some people with how well they play and wear down the Raptors, but even at full force I can’t see them possibly taking down DeRozan and the bench mob. When a team’s 2nd biggest threat is their entire bench, you know that you’ve got a well put-together roster. 

2. Boston Celtics (55-27) vs 7. Bucks (44-38)

Prediction: 4-2 Celtics

The Boston Celtics are missing their two best players coming into the playoffs, but they’ve got a well-rounded roster and one of the best coaches in the league to help them along. The Bucks are almost the reverse of that: They have one of the best young talents in the league in Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jabari Parker’s return has been very promising. The rest of their line-up is very mediocre and underperforming, and their coaching has been notoriously terrible these past couple years. I’m not saying that this series will be proof that superior coaching > raw talent (Boston has a much more well-rounded roster) but that is certainly something to consider going into this. 

I’d love to see Giannis’ rise through the playoffs happen now, but I can’t see it happening with the team he’s on now. I’m not saying I want Giannis to leave, but the Bucks’ FO needs to shake things up and make some changes. This is another case of “one man can’t carry a franchise” and I hope the Bucks are taught a harsh lesson and come back next season with a better team and coaching staff as a result. 

3. Philadelphia 76ers (52-30) vs 6. Miami Heat (44-38)

Prediction: 4-3 Heat

Call me a hater. Call me an idiot. Tell me I don’t Trust The Process (tm). I think Miami will be the team to pull off an upset. Every match-up between Philly and Miami has ended with a point difference of less than 10, Miami has the superior coaching in Eric Spoelstra, Dwyane Wade has been surprisingly clutch, Hassan Whiteside, while not quite as good as he was last season, is still a force in the post, and Dragic has been an underrated solid starting guard for Miami. The 76ers have had an incredible season after how atrocious they were just one year ago, they have the monsterous Joel Embiid, ROTY candidate Ben Simmons, and veteran help of JJ Reddick coming in clutch. This series is going to be a bloodbath, but one that ultimately I can see the underdog coming out on top of. 

Something you may notice is that I place a lot of weight on benches and how they perform, and this matchup is no different. The 76ers bench has some decent players such as TJ McConnell, but the Heat have a bench that can often score more than the starting 5. Olynyk has had a surprisingly impressive season and more than a few high scoring performances, Adebayo is severely underrated, and all-together I think that the Heat not only match up well against the 76ers, they match up well enough to take the series. 

4. Cleveland Cavaliers (50-32) vs 5. Indiana Pacers (48-34)

Prediction: 4-0 Cavaliers 

Playoff LeBron taught the Pacers an important lesson in never celebrating early last year, overcoming 99% odds of losing in one of the most dominating performances I’ve ever witnessed. Now, the lineup surrounding LeBron is younger, and ready to prove themselves. Kevin Love is actually healthy. Larry Nance Jr. has proven to be a solid replacement for the fertile corpse of Tristan Thompson. All the pieces seem to have come into place for the yearly LeBron finals push despite losing Kyrie Irving and a disappointing season from Isaiah Thomas. 

The Pacers have had the most shocking season out of every team in the league, going from what was expected to be a tanking bottom-of-the-barrel wash of a team into the Oladipo-led middle-of-the-pack team that they are. Lance Stephenson is already prepping to blow. This series is where two merry band of misfits meet, only one of these teams has the remains of a finals-caliber team including a king who’s proved time and time again that he can will even the worst of teams into the finals. While I don’t expect Indiana to pull off anything crazy, I think they’ll give the Cavs a good series and play their hearts out. 

And so, my overly long first round NBA playoff predictions draws to a close. Time will show how accurate these predictions prove to be. With my luck I’ll be wrong on every single series, but that’ll just make it even more entertaining. As a Cavs fan but always willing to cheer on the underdog, I’m actually really upset we play the Pacers in the first round. They’re my 2nd favorite team in the East this season and I don’t want to see them go down too harshly to the Cavs. I think I’m most upset by the Clippers missing the playoffs, despite being gutted over the course of their season they held it together and nearly did the unthinkable. 

This playoffs promises to be one of the most entertaining in years, not just the finals but even from the first round. The East is as close as it could possibly be, and the West has a weakened Cavaliers met with plenty of talented teams such as Raptors and 76ers to give LeBron a run for his money. 

I hope you’re looking forward to this Saturday as much as I am.