I'm back! and this time not so tired that I can barely even write the damn thing. Well, okay, by the time it was done, I was pretty fucking tired. The -1 column was the last I had to do, and by the time I hit that I was fucking done. Anyway, this is a recap of Let's Make Big Moves, the TriState major. I covered all 64 of the Top Seeds, as well as the Top 64 placements.
Note: If you are one of the listed players and want to contribute a quote, please let me know.
Disclaimer 1: Not all runs are created equal. Some players needed to take on monsters to get their placement. Some less so. This is not meant to be an objective quality match-up of players.
Disclaimer 2: If a player had a bad tournament that doesn't make them a bad player. It is easier to perform below your standard then above. Thus, one tournament can make a career, but it can't break it. There are many reasons players lose.
As fans we have a responsibility to be good to players. They cry and sweat for us. The goal isn't to make players stress out about individual placements more, but to catch interesting story lines and data. Don't be a dick to players.
Disclaimer 3: It is easier for a low seed to overperform and for a high seed to underperform. Seeds are a stand-in for expectations. The bad part of high expectations is that beating them is hard. One should consider equal levels of over-performance to favor higher seed players in terms of level of impressiveness.
Disclaimer 4: An issue with seeding is just as good an explanation for some of these cases as bad play is. It is not always possible to tell the difference.
How to Read This: Number indicates placement relative to expected placement. The number reflects losers round expected to lose in vs actual loss. If a player was seeded between 13 and 16, that means they were expected to go out at 13th place. Thus, if they got a +1 it means they got 9th place. If they got a -1 then it means they got 17th.

+5 or More (Star Turn)

(TG) MVD. PGRU 17. 31st Seed. 5th Place. (+5) - The notion that MVD needs a star turn is absurd. He's been a top player since Brawl. Yet, there's a reason he was seeded 31st. At LMBM, he broke his streak without a Major Top 8 since Low Tier City by nikita'ing Wishes, Dark Wizzy, and...wait are you kidding...Tweek into the blastzone. If your goal is to make it forget the last six months happened, that's one way to do it.
(Nfinite) Toast. 66th Seed. 13th Place. (+5) - A Young Link main who has been on the radar as a potential top player. He made big moves (I will never apologize) towards that by nearly beating Tweek in winners before going on a run through losers including Fsharp, Wishes, VoiD (Sad SoCal Hours) and LingLing. I'm calling it now. I think Toast is Season 3 PGR.
Toast on his results: "It had been eating at me lately that I would place well but not get pgr wins, so someone told me to always play like me at all times and to never forget who I was when playing, so I held it close to heart this tournament and felt more confident than I had ever been, and thus played like me."

+2 to +4 (Strong Tournament)

(DA) Sinji. PGRU 25. 39th Seed. 9th Place. (+4) - To me a case of underseeding. Sinji has only got less than 25th at one Ultimate tournament so far, and that was Smash Con. He got 25th on the PGR and he was seeded to be out before Top 32? At you kidding? He got wins on LingLing, Gen, and (tragically) Riddles while losing to Dark Wizzy and Nairo. A clear mistake.
(R2G) Kameme. PGRU 19. 11th Seed. 3rd Place. (+4) - Finally, the EVO 2016 finalist makes Top 8 at a US S-tier. He came damn close (9th) at EVO, so this is great to see. He was lucky in that he avoided a seeded match against Tweek. But, this was no fluke. He beat Venia, Marss, and Maister while only dropping sets to two Top 10 players in Dabuz and Nairo.
(TR) Zomba. 84th Seed. 17th Place. (+4) - Gotta check my notes here. Zomba is...a child. Yes. He is a 14 year old from Staten Island. Mains ROB/Link/Roy, and this is his first major. Also his Twitter is distinctly run by a 14 year old and is thus awful. But, his Smash game is pretty fucking good. He knocked out Uncivil Ninja and Raito in losers. There was some luck in that he got Elegant’s empty pool. But, some of his wins were better than the pool leader he replaced. Oh god, this kid is going to be unstoppable in about a year.
Apollo. Unseeded. 33rd Place. (+4) - A Tristate smasher who mains Duck Hunt, but I saw VoDs of him playing like Peach and Icies and some other wacky shit. A key participant of the insanity of the bonkers pool C5, where he outzoned Black Twins to win a big upset and benefited from Rfang going down earlier leading to two unseeded players escaping pools.
AceAttorney. Unseeded. 33rd Place. (+4) - I had a hell of a time researching them. "Ace Attorney Smash Bros" does not take you to a player page. Apparently a NJ Zelda main. Clearly they're pretty good since they beat MattyG and JW.
(NRG) Nairo. PGRU 8. 4th Seed. 1st Place. (+3) - Guys, is Nairo number 2 in the world right now? He's had a near unbroken string of Top 4 finishes ever since Shine, consistently banished his demons, and now he's taken home the largest Ultimate tournament he's ever won. He beat WaDi and then narrowly lost to Dabuz in Winners. But that just seemed to activate "pitbull on cocaine" mode. He proceeded to crazy man through losers, taking out Sinji, Maister, MVD, Tea, Kameme, and finally getting vengeance on Dabuz in an overawing bracket reset grand finals. Fitting that his biggest win of Ultimate to date happened so close to home too.
(Liquid) Dabuz. PGRU 7. 5th Seed. 2nd Place. (+3) - Dabuz right after Nairo, huh? Fitting. Yet again, being a Dabuz fan means heartbreak. He came back from a fairly lackluster season to get a lot of great wins here. Wins like Raffi-X and Uncivil Ninja are just the ball to the real lip of it. Kameme, Nairo, and Tea. His 3-0 over Tea banished a former demon of his using new Rosa tech he invented. But, his run ended tragically as Nairo manage to reset Game 5 of Grand Finals on last hit. After that Dabuz deflated. You could see his elusive first major tournament win slip through his fingers. Dabuz in Ultimate is like watching a Greek Tragedy.
Tea. PGRU 15. 9th Seed. 4th Place. (+3) - Don't gotta lot to add. TeaPacMan Wakka'd through Marss, Samsora, and Light, while only losing to the top 2 finishers. We're all so used to Tea breaking ankles that it's almost not surprising anymore.
(T1) ANTi. 59th Seed. 17th Place. (+3) - ANTi was once one of the best smashers, as his Meta-Knight pick reminded us, but he really has not gone all in on Ultimate. It was a nice run, including small but meaningful wins on Big D and Epic_Gabriel. Not huge names, but hardly nothing either. Sadly, he ran into fucking Maister not once, but twice, and didn't take a game in either set. Brutal. I'm pretty sure that's against the Geneva Convention.
(DU) Bankai. 77th Seed. 25th Place. (+3) - NY ZSS and PKMN Trainer main. He got this +3 through a combination of NickC getting sick, the chaos of Pool C5 letting him dodge a ranked opponent in losers...and getting a small upset on his own friend Zan, the SoCal Toon Link Player. Zan’s tweet on the subject is a tragedy in three acts.
(lluZ) BONK!. 103rd Seed. 33rd Place. (+3) - a Meta-Knight from Philly. His upset over Ned was probably the most wild upset of pools that didn’t involve Pool C5.
(SH) TheRed. Unseeded. 49th Place. (+3) - Snake main who is apparently PR’d in Massachusetts. Got wins on Vivi and Diabeo. Also helped contribute to sending False packing from the tournament. So props for that?
(US|RIP LGBB) Mr. Mojo Risin’. Unseeded. 49th Place. (+3) - Okay okay so. This guy is seemingly Tristate, seems to use Donkey Kong a lot, and is distinctly a fan of the Doors. He’s on the list for upsetting the Sonic player UR2Slow and because Rivers decided to go to MagFest and DQd.
TonyZTank. Unseeded. 49th Place. (+3) - HE IS THE ONE RESPONSIBLE. Okay so, Pool C5 turned into a massive cluster fuck with both its leads, Rfang and BlackTwins getting upset. Tony here upset Roach, before losing immediately after...but then somehow managed to get out of pools in the slot that Rfang and Blacktwins weren’t fighting over, then beat...Daybreak and Raptor? Fucking chaos. Who is this guy? Sonic main from Nebraska? I asked RFang on twitter and Rfang said “Bro I don't fucking know either lmfaoo. All know is he might be the greatest sonic to ever do it”.
Cosmos. PGRU 11. 16th Seed. 9th Place. (+2) - That’s more like it! Cosmos fell off from his Season 1 Top 15 status hard in Season 2. Cosmos is relentlessly likeable so it was kind of hard to watch. 9th is still not where he used to be. Especially with Raffi-X and Larry Lurr as his biggest wins. Not bad, but it was his close set with Dark Wizzy, who is probably presently Top 20, that gave me hope. Is Season 3 the season Cosmos recovers from his anime girl induced bout of madness?
(3D) Gen. PGRU A51. 27th Seed. 13th Place. (+2) - One of Tristate’s best talents who never travels. I wonder who he’ll face!? Venia. Suarez. Sinji. Laid is slightly out of state, right? And he even faced one foreign player...and it’s Maister. Fuck. Oh well, at least he did well. Maybe that means he might travel more?
(djb) Laid. 46th Seed. 17th Place. (+2) - The Lucina from New England. The lord of the Side-Bet Discord. As near as I can tell, he didn’t get any upsets himself. Just benefited from Rivers ditching for Magfest and LeoN getting upset by Epic_Gabriel. But, he somehow made an 8:1 bet on Nairo making a reverse sweep on Maister, so he probably made more money than some of the people who actually placed.
Riddles. 34th Seed. 17th Place. (+2) - Someone on twitter asked over the weekend what players people just love watching. Besides NickC (obviously) the most common answer is Shut- ...Riddles. That only grows more true with each passing tournament. Not only did he dominate the crew battle, but he went on an epic run at LMBM. After losing in pools to a...gotta check my notes here...a chair from twitter, he went on a massive losers run, including Ned, Enzo, Z, and even Tweek himself, before losing to Sinji. Fucking beautiful. I just wish we got a proper stream of his match with Tweek. I wanted to watch that shit so bad I was hunting for phone vids on twitter.
Epic_Gabriel. 51st Seed. 25th Place. (+2) - ROB Main from Florida. This tournament was lousy with high placing ROBs, really. Skynet basically came online. He got a big ‘ol on-stream win over LeoN, which is where the entire +2 comes from. LeoN’s a for sure PGR win, so a round of applause is in order.
SKITTLES!. 69th Seed. 33rd Place. (+2) - The best player in Nebraska. I’ve definitly talked about him before but am way too rushed to figure out in which one. Got wins on Atomsk, Sharp, Comona, and Odyssey. Nothing big, but a healthy spread.
(Drexel) Yoda Cage. 122nd Seed. 49th Place. (+2) Philly based Boswer JR and DK main. Managed to get wins on Benny&TheJets and Mata-Door. However, this all might be bracket noise from Shuton falling sick. Someone should play Diddy Kong and call themselves “Baby Yoda Cage”.
(ATU) Mekos. 116th Seed. 49th Place. (+2) - One of the few relevant Lucas players. He got an upset on Venom and then benefitted from the chaos from bracket C5 by avoiding BlackTwins or RFang.
Sharp. 101st Seed. 49th Place. (+2) - Not FSharp the Canadian, Sharp is the #1 player in Rhode Island. He went all Shiek in bracket and upset both RFang and Dazai while taking NickC and Skittles to Game 3. Especially impressive because playing Shiek in bracket is like playing “Smash Bros: Dark Souls” where you do no damage and everything else two shots you. I see some potential here.
(NVR) SAUCE. 98th Seed. 49th Place. (+2) - Mario/Roy main. Got small upsets on Chrismus and PowPow, and benefited greatly from Lima oversleeping and getting DQ’d.

-1 to +1 (Normal Tournament)

(MVG) Dark Wizzy. PGRU 31. 10th Seed. 7th place. (+1) - Dark Wizzy has completed the transformation from “Good player who says Mario shit on twitter” to “Consistent Top 20 Player”. Nothing here was that shocking. Wins on Sinji, WDGTHTBP, Cosmos, Z, and John Numbers. Losses to Marss and MVD. But, the regularity is his Top 20 appearances is something you love to see. It is fairly brutal watching him try to play his way through the badness of the Mario-Zss matchup though.
(lluZ) Raffi-X. 21st Seed. 13th Place. (+1) - Raffi doesn’t really feel like a Top Player yet, at all. Yet, he consistently gets Top 16 or better at Super Majors. My first impulse was to just claim he lacks top player wins...but actually Goblin and Raito are pretty fucking good wins. Maybe, he just needs to be memorable? Has he considered a catchphrase? “I’m Raffi, and when I’m done with you, you’re going to be Taffy!” Yeah, not sure. He’s increasingly a contender for not only Number 2 ROB...but a challenger to WaDi for the top spot. Don’t let a single word of this come across as an insult to his skill.
(T1) LarryLurr. 32nd Seed. 17th Place. (+1) - SoCal! SoCal! SoCal! We actually got someone into Top 24! We didn’t even get anyone into Top 32 in our own Tournament at Kongo Saga. This was a legitimately great result for the long time pro, including wins on Dill, Lui$, and a SoCal Teamkill on Sparg0. Okay, fine, it was only kind of a team kill, but we’re still claiming him. We’re Desperate.
Uncivil Ninja. 37th Seed. 25th Place. (+1) - Sad to say, but you should probably treat this one as -1. He got a + bump from NickC getting some kind of illness, presumably a bad case of Spiking Fever for Dairing so many fools. But, before this could be translated into any kind of run, he got sent to losers and then upset by literal child Zomba.
(lluZ) Jakal. 33rd Seed. 25th Place. (+1) - Not a lot to say about the TriState Wolf main’s performance here. He got a literally one seed upset over Larry.
(Ho3K) Frozen. PGRU 46. 61st Seed. 33rd Place. (+1) - I am not sure how he ended up in 33rd. I think Elegant’s DQ might have been the factor. I am also skeptical because of his proximity to the esoteric cursed pool C5. I am pretty sure this is just bracket chaos though.
(16B) LingLing. 58th Seed. 33rd. (+1) - The Peach Queen (King) of the North East. On examination, he actually should have got -1 because Toast upset him, but Shuton falling sick and fusing with Riddles left the bracket slot open.
(3D) Juuuuul. 49th Seed. 33rd Place. (+1) - Probably the only relevant player (outside of Texas) who uses Robin. No, that time Nairo pulled her out doesn’t count. He got a strong upset over Mr E, but got one back from DM. A mixed bag overall?
(BCe BBM) Beast. 83rd Seed. 49th Place. (+1) - PKMN Trainer from Philly. Got knocked into losers relatively early by Pazda, but actually got strong wins on Kofi and Tamim before being taken out by Suarez.
(Sinai) DM. 80th Seed. 49th Place. (+1) - A New England Top Player and one of the few actual Pikachu players with actual relevance. He got an upset on Juuuul, but I’d honestly say his losses were more impressive. Lui$ and Cosmos. Ain’t no shame in a scorecard like that.
(Evil) Nelvin. 78th Seed. 49th Place. (+1) - Another NE crab person. This time a Diddy main. Seemingly no upsets in either direction. Just got a +1 downstream because Purity beat Juice and Nelvin beat him.
(Ho3K) Ralphie. 74th Seed. 49th Place. (+1) - A Tristate player who used Wolf last I checked. But, I think that means, like all wolf mains, he dropped her for Palu. That was a joke. I hope. I think what happened here was he dodged facing Riddles or MVD because some chair from twitter upset Riddles, so Ralphie wound up with a less menacing foe.
WaDi. PGRU 24. 13th Seed. 13th Place. (+0) - WaDi did fine. WaDi always does fine. There is probably no more player who more consistently gets Top 16 in Ultimate. The problem remains same as ever. Top 16 isn’t Top 8. Oh well. Someone oughta give a “Let’s Go WaDi!” for old times sake.
(TG) MuteAce. PGRU 27. 24th Seed. 17th Place. (+0) - Not totally sure what happened here. Mute got upset by Stocktaker in one of the loudest matchest of the weekend as measured by Yerrr-Per-Minute. But, he came back with a pretty decent losers run, including a win on Jakal, that was only put to an end by an explosive set with a freshly upset Light.
(APE) Goblin. PGRU 39. 20th Seed. 17th Place. (+0) - A +0 by result, but probably in the - column when it comes to dignity. Goblin actually did fine. He lost to WaDi in winners, but fought all the way to the edge of Top 16 before suffering a tiny upset from Raffi-X. That last stock ended in a pretty intense cross-stage 0 to death by Raffi-X that appeared to break him. Goblin then proceeded to go on a pretty fucking intense twitter rant (mostly about how much he hates ROB) that was a little extreme even as the art of post-loss twitter rants go.
Suarez. PGRU 49. 35th Seed. 33rd Place. (+0) - Nothing to report. The Tristate Yoshi won/loss to seed.
Smokk. 48th Seed. 33rd Place. (+0) - Kind of a sad case. The Quebecois, who used to main Gannon but now plays mostly Wolf, actually got a bit win. Lui$ money. Depending on if Suar ever puts out PGRU 2, that could be an actual PGR win. Too bad MuteAce got upset early, and was standing right in his way...with a desire for vengeance against wolf players.
(lluZ) Enzo. 47th Seed. 33rd Place. (+0) - Philly based Joker main. For someone only at his second major to date, he did really well. And by really well, I mean “Upset VoiD”. So yeah, good shit. Sadly, after a loss to Wishes, he wound up stuck in Riddles freight train path through Losers Top 128. Oh well, two Top 100 losses and a pretty good win. Ain’t no shame in that.
(Ho3K) John Numbers. 42nd Seed. 33rd Place. (+0) - No upsets either direction and good losses in the form of VoiD and Dark Wizzy. John frequents PGStats and I’ve only ever had positive interactions with him.
(GG) Stocktaker69. 41st Seed. 33rd Place. (+0) - The Tristate Wolf player. Got a big win over MuteAce in what I heard, both from viewers and from the background Tristate-ing of the streamed matches. But, quick losses to Tea and Lui$ put his run to an end right after. Still technically a good run. Got an upset without being upset. Shame it didn’t translate to placement.
(XTR) Sparg0. 40th Seed. 33rd Place. (+0) - More of the same here. The North Mexican/SoCal Cloud child prodigy (not that prodigy) actually got an upset on Mr E, but his run was stopped by Light and Larry Lurr. Neither an upset, and the latter a team kill. Tragic stuff.
(Ho3K) Dill. 64th Seed. 49th Place. (+0) - A New York ROB, widely seen at one of the city’s rising stars. Sadly, he didn’t get that energy infusion the other ROBs got. Went par with his seed. No surprises.
Klaatu. 63rd Seed. 49th Place. (+0) - NorCal Olimar main. Suffered a small upset from Toast, who spent the rest of the tournament taking names and kicking ass.
(2scoops) Zan. 60th Seed. 49th Place. (+0) - SoCal (SIGH) Toon Link main and former seeder. Mostly did okay, but got upset by his friend Bankai. Also, beat a player named Boys ll Mensch, which if an objectively funny name.
(NPT) BlazingPasta. 56th Seed. 49th Place. (+0) - Philadelphia Peach/Daisy. Seemingly lost early MuteAce, but somehow made it to his seed? Ugh. I’ve been writing this post for like 12 hours. Someone else can dumpster dive into bracket to figure out how that happened.
Maister. 6th Seed. 7th place. (-1) - The most likeable hateable man in Smash. I know I’m not supposed to bash characters here. G&W mains read this shit too. But, there is something so viscerally unenjoyable about watching Maister out frame-data people into oblivion. I’m not saying it isn’t smart or that there’s something wrong with him doing it. It is simply aesthetically repulsive. And make no mistake “oblivion” is where he sent people. Maister continued his string of Top 8s with wins on Gen, Anti (twice. Poor man), Toast (RIP), and a Samsora who looked like he was having his soul removed from his body. I’m pretty sure there is no player who has the potential to change the meta quite as much as Maister at present.
(Rogue) Light. PGRU 10. 8th Seed. 9th Place. (-1) - Light was unremarkable. Thankfully, Light is still a blast even when he’s just doing okay. He knocked out WaDi and MuteAce, lost another set in his absurd game of back and forth with Tea before ending in a New England classic. Marss vs Light. Perfectly respectable result.
Wishes. PGRU 21. 15th Seed. 17th Place. (-1) - This is supposedly Wishes last tournament. I’m willing to buy it, if only because his interest has seemed in free fall for months. As far as career endings go, this is a whimper, not a bang. The expected wins, but then an upset at the hands of MVD followed by a second from Toast. There was a point where Wishes was one of the most exciting names in Ultimate. Time is a bitch.
(DA) Venia. 22nd Seed. 25th Place. (-1) - Don’t let the number fool you. He did fine. The New York Greninja managed to get a win on fellow Greninja (frog battle for dominance) JW, and traded upsets. Suffered a small one from Gen. Got a pretty notable one on LeoN. Evens out north of good, methinks.
(CLG) VoiD. PGRU 9. 18th Seed. 25th Place. (-1) - Everything is Darkness.
Lui$. 17th Seed. 25th Place. (-1) - Just a mediocre result overall for the NorCal Fox player. Beat DM and Stocktaker, but Smokk and Larry both got wins on him. The losses look a lot worse then the wins. Also, holy cow that’s a lot of wolves. Lui$ bracket was more furry than Cats 2019.
(Cacaw) Big D. 30th Seed. 33rd Place. (-1) - The giant of British Columbia smash. I believe we got to see some of his icies gameplay in a set on stream vs Suarez, but he was largely a non-presence for the rest of bracket. He lost early to ANTi, which makes sense because ANTi for sure knows how to kill icies from his brawl days.
JW. 43rd Seed. 49th Place. (-1) - Greninja from Ontario. Not a lot to report here. He suffered a big loss to AceAttorney, the NJ Zelda. Not a lot else to add here. With the exception of Smokk and Riddles, this was largely a not-great tournament for Canada, and this only continued the trend.
Tamim. 62nd Seed. 65th Place. (-1) - "With the exception of Smokk and Riddles, this was largely a not-great tournament for Canada, and this only continued the trend.” Equally applies here too. The former Smash 4 Top 10 player continued his run of “eh” results that followed his return to the game. Lost to Marss, unsurprisingly, and Beast, more surprisingly.
Z. 55th Seed. 65th Place. (-1) - The Canadian Palutena, not the Pikachu from Nevada. Seemed to do mostly fine here. Just went out one round early as a consequence of Riddles’ train run through losers.
(djb) MattyG. 54th Seed. 65th Place. (-1) - Chrom from New England. Had a mostly normal run until he ran into AceAttorney, the Zelda main, who sent him out a round early.
Daybreak. 52nd Seed. 65th Place. (-1) - Wolf Main from Michigan. A frequent resident of this segment of the list. He actually got a win on Bankai, who ended up on in the + column. But, he went out early when he ran into TonyZTank, the Sonic main partialyl responsible for the shit show in pool C5.

-4 to -2 (Weak Tournament)

(PG) Marss. PGRU 3. 3rd Seed. 5th Place. (-2) - Remember that time at Frostbite when he single handedly took on like half of Japan? Well, this time Japan struck back. He lost in winners to Kameme in a close set, and then fell in an equally close set against Frostbite antagonist, Tea.
(lluZ) Juice. 38th Seed. 65th Place. (-2) - Got upset in winners by a player named Purity (Bayo or Palu). Sadly, the early bracket was full of upsets, so this led to an early run in with LeoN and a failure to even make top 64.
Venom. 53rd Seed. 97th Place. (-2) - Got upset by Dazai and Mekos. They’re both pretty well known, so no harm no foul.
(SSG) LeoN. PGRU 35. 14th Seed. 33rd Place. (-3) - There’s a schrodinger’s box quality to LeoN. He has the potential to play like a Top 15 player. But, sometimes he’ll just be a pretty good regional player. Beating Juice and Hazmatt but being upset by Venia and Epic Gabriel is more the latter then the former. It’s frustrating because LeoN is such a treat to watch that you can’t help but want him to Side B his way through bracket.
(Demise) Mr. E. PGRU 38. 25th Seed. 65th Place. (-3) - Mr E shouldn’t have gone absolutely MadMan during the crew battle. After beating Kameme in that, he walked into bracket and lost to the decidedly not Kameme level Juuul as well as fellow Crew Battle Peak-er Sparg0. Gotta save some of that jet fuel for bracket.
(TG) Raito. PGRU 20. 12th Seed. 33rd Place. (-4) - I have no idea what happened here. Raito went down way early against Raffi-X and Zomba. This isn’t that bad, I think? Raffi is for sure Season 2 PR so that’s respectable. Zomba is a big ‘ol question mark, but he also beat Uncivil Ninja, so he’s clearly not some fluke.
(OES) Rfang. 29th Seed. 97th Place. (-4) - I’ve mentioned the chaos of pool C5 elsewhere, but after getting upset by a Sonic from Nebraska, Rfang had to crawl out of pools over the body of fellow Pichu. When discussing his results on Twitter, a drunk RFang told me to “Let the Reddit people know I woke up 10 min before my pool and I couldn't even up throw thunder”. The run continued on just as bad a trajectory when he was knocked out by Sharp in his first match of day 2.
(Armada) Ned. 26th Seed. 97th Place. (-4) - A mix of an upset and bad luck. He lost to the Meta-Knight BONK in pools. He might have had a chance to made a strong losers run if he hadn’t run into the also upset Riddles, technically seeded bellow him but an absolute killer.
(Mazer) Cyro. 44nd Seed. 129th Place. (-4) - Would it be a results list without a SoCal name near the washout segment? He lost in pools to the DK player Cee and the MewTwo Zapharos.
UtopianRay. 57th Seed. 129th Place. (-4) - Not sure what happened here. He drowned in pools to jamajaro and Diabeo. The latter of whom, at least, is a fairly well known name.
(EMG) Blacktwins13. 36th Seed. 129th Place. (-4) - One of the first major upsets of the tournament. He faced the local Duck Hunt Apollo and seemed totally lost in the unique Trench-War type dynamic of the DH matchup. That bad result compounded when he ran into fellow Pichu RFang in losers for 129th. As Duck Hunt Dog might say...Ruff.

-5 or Lower (Wash Out)

(EU) Samsora. PGRU 4. 1st Seed. 9th Place. (-6) - He faced Tea in Winner’s Quarters and Maister right after in Top 8 qualifiers. Pac-Man and G&W, two famously bad matchups for Peach. MuteAce's exact killers from his Summit bracket, actually. We got to physically watch on stream as Samsora seemed to deteriorate in the face of such a seemingly hopeless situation. By the time the ordeal was over, he looked like all fight had left his body.
(TSM) Tweek. PGRU 2. 2nd Seed. 25th Place. (-8) - Tweek randomly washing out early is a fairly common occurrence nowadays. It’s not like MVD and Riddles aren’t two killers who can easily take sets from Top 10 players on the right day. But, despite this tournament being home turf, he just didn’t really seem to show up much at all.

Final Analysis

There is a lot to like about Let's Make Big Moves. Just as a series of games of Smash Ultimate, there was a lot of really thrilling a fun content here. Any tournament so heavily dominated by Nairo is bound to make a fun watch. Oh, there was some slowness because of a lot of zoners doing well, but I found most of it pretty interesting on a tactical level. On a raw storyline level it was sometimes downright Shakespearean.
Not too much to report on from a technical side. Some small complaints about delays, but nothing overwhelming. A few poor choices in terms of the slides during the dead air. But, we got enough streams and there were no horrifying delays, so not a big issue. I do wish that we'd get less over-focus on one side of bracket during Top 128. But, it wasn't like we didn't get any matches from the other side of bracket.
What, this tournament is getting crucified on, and I think rightfully, is the commentary. A lot of the critiques focus on how barren it was in terms of top level casters. The Rod the Dutch/Korean team for finals had no chemistry and was so boring I switched to Coney's re-stream. Though, in truth my biggest issue with the commentary was that time Censored made an anti-semitic joke on the mic. That shit ain't professional.
Next review I do will probably be for Genesis and/or EVO Japan. It comes during a rough time for work for me, so we'll see. The issue of two super majors running against each other is complex. Tell me in the comments how you want me to handle it? Should I just cover one? If so, which? Or should I take a little bit longer and do both?
Past write ups: Frostbite, Ultimate Numbus, Collision, Prime Saga, Pound, Get On My Level, Momocon 2019, Smash N' Splash 5, CEO 2019, Albion 2019, Low Tier City 7, Super Smash Con 2019, Shine 2019, Glitch 7, Kongo Saga.

Smash bros is more than a fighting game

Also a video if you are interested https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab2Myj-FsTg&t=1s
Super Smash Bros is a Nintendo series that saw its first entry release (in North America) on April 26th 1999. In this game you play as your favorite Nintendo character, either Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Link, Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Samus, Kirby, Fox, Ness, or Captain Falcon. Well, your favorite out of this selection. Anyways you play as one of those characters and duke it out against fellow Nintendo Mascots. Which as all smash bros videos, this one included will tell you, put an end to the eternal childhood debate for who’s stronger. Except not really because tier lists are a thing. The premise of Smash bros is very original, especially at the time. In most fighting games, your character is very imobile and shuffles along the ground and you attack your opponent in very specific ways and places using a variety of attacks. It's similar to Zelda 2 just with options when “swinging your sword”. You use these moves in order to lower your opponent's lifebar and to prevent your own from being lowered. Once someone's health has reached zero they lose the round. You play again until someone has won 2 rounds out of three. Of course not every game is best two out of three, and even in the games that are i'm sure you can alter this in settings. This is also just a BASIC overview of what I believe to be most fighting games. There are bound to be differences and hidden complexities I didn’t mention. Now why did a person who has only played one classical fighting game when he was 6 describe the prevalent fighting sub genre? So I can describe what makes Smash Bros Unique, clearly. Frankly I’d be disappointed if you didn’t see it coming.
Unlike typical fighting games Super Smash bros doesn’t have a traditional health bar. Instead it has a percent system that goes up to a maximum of 999.99% (except for the first one which goes up to just 999%.). Once you reach that percent it won’t go higher. Since you have essentially infinite life how could you possibly lose? It’s simple! Super smash bros is won through knock back. Characters have moves that do more knock back than others. If one is hit by one of these abilities their percent increases and they fly back a little bit. (depending on the move.) Your percent serves as a multiplier for how far you get knocked. Your character's weight is also a modifier. The lower the weight the farther you will get knocked back. The goal is to knock the enemy off the map and not get knocked off yourself. Because of this, fighters have to be more mobile. Capable of a lot of quick horizontal and vertical movement. As the “Expert” Smash bros focuses more on spacing than the classical fighters of yor. Not to say those fighting games aren’t about spacing, they just seem to focus more on using the correct moves at the correct time. (Again not saying that smash doesn’t focus on this as well.)
From what I have heard the original smash bros is a fun game when played casually, but if you decided to play the game competitively, well I have bad news for you, the thing I described the game as earlier, fun, well thats not true anymore. A competitive community tends to sustain most fighting games. So Super smash brothers remained a relatively niche n64 game in this primitive first installment for 2 years. Until Melee.
When I say smash bros melee I am certain a lot of things come to mind. Since I wasn’t around I’ll just try and extrapolate. On December third 2001 Super Smash Bros Melee was released in America. Melee is also the most purchased game cube game with a total 7 million units sold compared to the MEAGER 5.55 million sales of its predecessor. What can we learn from this data? Well I can say a few adages, a good game sells its sequel, and uhh people were excited to play as the new characters? I think it's memorable. Basically Smash melee was the first smash game to go mainstream. In the original super smash brothers only the protagonists and most Iconic characters from main nintendo franchises were in the game. This does leave out a few odd balls since Ness, Falcon, and Jigglypuff were in the game. Maybe the 90’s was a very different time, the specific mascots were more popular in other countries, or Sakurai just wanted them in for some reason and my metric system is wrong.
Smash Melee introduces more characters including villains, some really obscure ones, and even more main characters! Despite the massive increase of characters people always want more, and there were more to give. Around school yards everywhere people began to “Reveal” to their friends that certain characters were actually playable in game. Like Sonic and Master Hand. (Technically master hand is playable but whatever that's beside the point.) Unlike most games Super Smash bros builds off of a pre existing catalogue of characters so every single video game character is a potential candidate for smash. Thus people can discuss potential characters way easier than something like Apex Legends, who reveals a random character no one has heard of until that moment and since smash bros became a known and celebrated thing because of this game, speculation began to grow into the familiar beast we know today. The thing is, despite the rumors about Sonic coming to Melee the only characters who are in smash are Nintendo characters
Brawl was revealed sometime in 2006. It began with familiar smash characters getting their new “High definition” renders. The trailer continued, with newcomer after newcomer being revealed. All of them, Nintendo characters. Until everything changed with Snakes reveal. Snake is the first third party character to be introduced into Smash bros and if anyone has ever heard of Metal gear solid (Probably not to be honest it's really niche.) They know that the game isn’t exactly E for everyone. Essentially Snake broke almost all the barriers when he got into smash. Along the road to Brawls reveal another third party character was revealed to be in smash. All 90’s kids rejoice, Sonic is in Smash. Sonic was essentially Mario’s rival, until… a few things happened. But that doesn’t matter Sonic and Snake are both third party video game characters. The floodgates are open, every major video game character is fair game, kinda. Sparking discussion and speculation for who could be next. If we add the internet into the equation then speculation took place not only in person but also across the world. Everyone could toss their Ridley fanfiction at each other and shoot down another's master chief speculation piece.
I have no idea how much Melee was advertised but from what I have heard Brawl was the first smash game to Really capitalize on the concept of smash by making it an event. This is shown by the smash dojo website which apparently revealed information about brawl every week leading up to its release and even continuing after. This website has a great line in an article where the writer sums up the story of Subspace emissary, Brawls story mode. The line is, “However, since Mr. Game & Watch does not have any concept of good and evil.” it continues a bit more but that's the good part. Regardless, Brawl truly built up a lot of hype for its release. It was released march 9th 2008 with online multiplayer! Unfortunately the online was bad, and it was a less than stellar fighting game. (It was a good party game though.) Some characters that were in melee weren’t in this newer smash bros title. Despite these mechanical shortcomings it really began to build the casually hardcore community, by this I mean people who were really invested In the significance of a character being recognized as important enough to make it in and speculating about other video game characters who could also be seen as legends. Although they are invested in this side of smash they tend not to play competitively even though they may play quite a bit on their own, basically they play a lot of smash but they play other games too. Despite brawl being an unpopular entry people were not declaring Smash bros dead, they were awaiting the next entry. One that would arrive six years later.
While smash bros brawl began to acknowledge and take advantage of what smash is Smash bros for the wii u and 3ds took what worked and expanded on it. Instead of the typical smash trailer formula of showcasing the character and briefly interrupting that showcase with a goofy moment, they began to put full blown cinematics as introductions to the new characters as well as the traditional new character formula. Sometimes you could tell immediately who the new character is other times you were on the edge of your seat wondering who is finally coming to smash. It was a great time! Masahiro soccer guy followed up the popular smash dojo with the almost forgotten, but recently revived pic of the day. From june 11th 2013 to december 5th 2014 Sakurai posted photos of the upcoming smash bros titles every weekday. Some of the photos were pretty cool showing new things coming into the new game… games? No one knows. However a decent chunk of them were pictures Sakurai just found neat, pictures that really didn’t share anything meaty about the game. The less interesting pictures tended to appear more frequently during the beginning of the pic of the day and began to get more interesting leading up to the multiple releases of the game. The pic of the day was released on both the official website for these games and miiverse, nintendo’s fallen social media like thing.
Smash for the wii u was released in North America on november 21st and introduced 2 new third party characters at the cost of removing one. Pac man and Mega man were added to smash at the quote on quote cost of Snake. Konami just didn't want him in smash anymore. This along with the removal of the ice climbers and most of the pokemon trainer crew added to the ever growing list of characters getting removed from smash. Which is interesting because one of those characters who was removed at the time stood among the most requested characters. Such a shame that MewTwo isn't in the game. At this period Nintendo was just getting into selling Dlc so when MewTwo was announced as a dlc fighter everyone was excited, even I who didn’t even know of mewtwo before this was excited. Of course this one event opened up the possibilities of more dlc fighters and they came, at first the only Dlc fighters you could buy were characters from previous games that didn’t end up making the cut, but finally a new character no one could have predicted (unless it was leaked.) was revealed, ryu. But let's back up a bit. In May a sharing mode was added to the game in this mode you could share mii fighters, snapshots, replays, and stages. You could make stages and share them online. No other fighting game allows you to create and share maps that you make, then again few fighting games are as map dependent as smash bros. So being able to share your own maps and download others is a huge addition to the game.
Back to ryu. Ryu comes from street fighter, a well known fighting game belonging to the classical fighting games genre I mentioned earlier. As a child I was surprised about his inclusion, smash and street fighter are competitors are they not? Both are well established and have their own public images to uphold. Smash bros has the reputation of being the home to sweaty nerds, the worst kind and is seen as a lesser fighting game by true Fighting purists. The sweaty nerds who play classical fighting games. These two communities are very different but for me ryu’s inclusion formed a bridge between the two. If someone who plays street fighter calls smash players stinky because they play smash, the smash player can come back with what is essentially no u. As a character ryu feels way more rigid when compared to other smash characters. Hopefully this gives a classical fighting game feel that people who play classical fighting games will be familiar with, while still operating under smash bros unique rules. So not only is ryu a surprising third party addition that adds to smash’s ever growing third party catalogue but it attempts to bridge a sub genre gap. Along with Ryu a few other characters came to smash. The biggest character who was introduced was Cloud Strife from final fantasy seven. Final Fantasy seven seems to be a pretty important game for the generation older than mine. Since Final Fantasy is a pretty big series this all compounds to be a pretty big reveal. So smash bros continued making Dlc, Corrin a fire emblem sword fighter character with a unique moveset, and Bayonetta, a none sword fighter character not from fire emblem. I refuse to comment any more on her and smash four.
Smash Ultimate was soft revealed at the end of a nintendo direct on march 8th 2018. In which the inklings surrounding area turns from white to black with a burning smash logo behind them. We get a close up of mario and links face before ending on the burning smash logo once more which then transitions into half of the new logo. A couple months passed before we got new information until in june 12 2018 it was revealed that everyone is here. Every single character that has ever been in smash is in this one. Including Dlc characters. Even Snake is back. However this isn't the only fanservice thing that this iteration of smash bros accomplishes. They introduced one character thought too big for smash and another that just didn’t appear but should have. Ridley and King K rool. Both of these characters were highly requested additions, more so ridley than king k. They also introduced more characters like Incineroar, the belmonts, and isabelle from animal crossing. Even piranha plant which led to the creation of a horrendous meme which I will not repeat in order to preserve integrity.
This all led up to the day before smash ultimates release. December fifth the same day The 2018 game awards were being held. Major events like this that announce games tend to have one last surprise. The game awards announced that Joker from persona 5 is coming to smash bros ultimate as DLC. This announcement altered speculation on future fighters. Previously people who thought minecraft steve was getting into smash were seen as a “probably not but who knows. Sakuraii sure is WaCKy!” but now Steve was a legitimate possibility. As the year continued more characters were revealed and released beginning with the plant itself on january 30th 2019, which was then followed up by joker on april 17th. Joker was released alongside version 3.0 which introduced stage builder into smash ultimate and the share feature. A bit of time passes in which no news of the next fighter was revealed. At E3 2019 during the nintendo block (June 11) the next two were revealed. The second character being Hero from the dragon quest franchise, Four of the Hero’s were playable in smash just alternate skins. The third character revealed near the end of the E3 Nintendo direct was Banjo and Kazooie. Hero is popular in Japan and Banjo is popular in North America. Hero was released on july 30th with banjo being released on sept 4th, the same day the fourth character was revealed. Terry Bogard from the fatal fury series. This character is mostly known in Latin America. Terry came out on November sixth. Leaving one last character to come out of the first fighter pass. The controversial Byleth.
Throughout the entire script I have gone through a history of smash without really addressing the scripts title. The higher ups at nintendo have also been saying this, however unlike most corporate phrases that are used I don't believe this one to be completely vapid and soules. In fact during the 2019 game awards mr doug bowser called smash bros more than a fighting game which I completely ignored at the time because I mistook it for meaningless drivel. But it wasn't, it isn’t. So, what makes Smash more than a fighting game?
The reason I was inspired to write this script is Sakurai’s comment on smash ultimate being more than a fighting game and the community reaction to Byleth. After an entire Dlc season of third party characters the release of a First party character, nay, a first party fire emblem character is naturally not preferable to put it lightly. But that's the point. People were not judging Byleth as a fighter. They were primarily judging them as a character and franchise as I have too. Throughout the video I have focused less on the mechanics or meta of the game but instead the inclusion of the characters and in some instances the impact they had. When Byleth was first revealed a lot of people were calling them out as just another fire emblem character. A sword character just like all the others. This may counter my point of people only focusing on the franchise but I don’t think it does, In Byleths and a lot of the newer fire emblem characters their introductory teaser asks in a roundabout way for the fans not to judge them as just sword characters. (Robin and byleth. so 2 out of 3.)
And Byleth doesn’t just use a sword, they use a bow, spear, and hammer as well. So I think when people saw fire emblem they put on their lucina, chrom, and Ike lensed sunglasses and filtered everything else out. I saw a lot of people who instead of judging the cool-ness or potential of the moveset judged byleth as said a thousand times by the fact that they are a fire emblem character. Now let me ask you a question, what other series would have this type of reception to a content reveal? By this I mean not even focusing on the content presented. In other games and communities the trailer would be analysed in an attempt at uncovering the mechanics behind the content before it releases. However with Byleths reveal people were not studying the content, they were uncovering the package the content was delivered in, people were wrapped up in smash’s gimmick of recognizable video game characters fighting each other. Fighting games in general focus on the competitive aspect of what games can be, with a very tight mechanical focus and steep learning curve. This generally fosters a community that constantly tries to better itself. Which is what makes it so strange when people aren’t focusing on the mechanics of the character but instead acknowledging the character and their significance. Even though the character wasn’t out at this time Sakurai did show a lot of Byleths Gameplay at the reveal which gives people a bit to speculate about.
Smash’s crossover is more prestigious than other games like rivals of ether with steam workshop or playstation all stars because Smash has established itself over the years and will most likely be really good. Smash has coalesced into a massive crossover event helped by the fact that a large chunk of smash players belong to that casually hardcore grouping. We play other games as well as smash. We are experienced gamers (yes I used the G word.) we have played all sorts of different games collectively giving actual impact to the character reveals. This is played off of masterfully by Nintendo who since brawl acknowledge the power of the largely untapped potential and history we all carry. This history is added onto smash bros, along with all the other adventures you have gone on with or as the characters in smash. Your first Nintendo game as a kid, and your current favorite game of all time. The series has evolved from playing as your favorite Nintendo character to playing as your favorite videogame character. This is why half of the Dlc was dedicated to including characters that are very popular in specific parts of the world. These characters all hold a place in our hearts, maybe not individually but collectively, all aroaund the world, they mean something to us. Even people I know who don’t play smash bros often care about who makes it in. They continue to follow the game despite not playing it, because it does and could include games and characters that they love. This past and current passion now fuels smash into what is becoming a celebration of gaming, or in other words something more than a fighting game.

CaFoosh #2: Taxi Driver (1976)

Community Spotlight #4 (November 8, 2019): u/AquaGleebis

My huge 2018 Recap + 12in12 list for 2019

Welcome to my 2018 "Game Awards" Post. This is going to be very detailed and extensive, so I hope you enjoy.
Table of Contents

1. End of Year Stats / Look Back On Last Years 12in12 List
2. Interesting Facts
3. Top 10 Best Games
4. Top 5 Worst Games
5. Yearly Awards
6. 2019 Wishlist
7. 12in12 List for 2019 + Other Goals

1. End of Year Stats / Look Back on Last Years Goals
Another year has passed, filled to the brim with great games to increase one's backlog. I personally had a solid gaming year and would like to use this opportunity to look back on what has happened and which were some of my favorite highlights. I actually did this for the last two years, so if you want to check those out, here you go.

2017
2016

Before I talk in detail about how my year was like, let's look at my 12in12 challenge results. The numbers in brackets are my results from last year.

Games purchased/acquired: 39 (129)
Total price paid: 229 € (235 €)
Avg. price paid per game: 5.87 € (1.82 €)
Games removed/abandoned: 64 (34)
Games beaten: 46 (85)
Total time spent on beaten games: 491 (unknown)
Current unfinished games total: 55

Original 12in12 List:

Amnesia: The Dark Descent - Abandoned
Assassin's Creed Origins - Abandoned
Batman Arkham Asylum - Beaten on May 23rd
Cuphead - Beaten on Jan 15th
Darksiders - Abandoned
Infamous: Second Son - Beaten on Jan 2nd
Prey - Removed
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne - Marked as beaten on Feb 3rd
South Park: The Fractured But Whole - Beaten on Feb 1st
Super Mario Odyssey - Beaten on Jan 1st
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Marked as beaten on Sep 8th
The Wolf Among Us - Beaten on May 9th

As you can see, it's been a busy year. Not as busy as last year though, when I'd beaten twice as many games as this year. I've managed to beat 8 games on my original 12in12 list. Well, SMT III: Nocturne and Breath of the Wild are the only games this year that I've marked as beaten without actually finishing them. I’ve spent so much time with those games, which warranted marking them as beat in my opinion.
2. Interesting Facts

The first game I've finished this year was Super Mario Odyssey right around midnight on New Year's Eve
Beaten Game #25 was Far Cry 3 on April 29th
I also reached the 200 game and 225 game total mark by beating Batman: The Telltale Series on Feb 3rd and Steins;Gate on Jul 24th
I've only played and finished 3 games that came out this year. The free The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, the awful single player campaign to Madden NFL 19, Longshot: Homecoming and the brilliant God of War. I'm currently also playing Red Dead Redemption 2 but didn't manage to beat it this year
The oldest game I've finished is Metal Gear Solid II: Sons of Liberty, with an initial release on Nov 13, 2001
I've beaten 34 games in the first half of the year and only 12 of those in the final 6 months. Among those 12 are 4 games that took 5 or less hours to beat
I've given out an average rating of 6.8/10. That's ok, right?
Talking of ratings, I've given out four 10/10 ratings this year. Check the Top 10 list to see which games I’m talking about
I didn't beat a single game on my Xbox One S this year, which I've bought near the end of 2017. In hindsight, I think there's no need to buy one, if you own a capable PC. Backwards compatibility is nice and the Game Pass is good value but I don't use those features, so I'll probably sell my Xbox soon
I have a total of 288 games (not including the abandoned games) in my backlog, 233 of those beaten
I've realized that visual novels aren't actually all that bad
Gaming franchises that I've developed an interest in: Steamworld Dig, Danganronpa, Ratchet & Clank, Batman Arkham, Tomb Raider, Deponia and Alien (well, only played Isolation but also watched the original movie for the first time)

3. Top 10 Best Games
And now it's time for my Top 10 games of the year. I've played some great games this year and some of them didn’t even end up making the list. Honorable mentions go out to Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, SMT: Nocturne, Dead Space, Ratchet & Clank (2016) and Tomb Raider (2013).
I’m also currently playing Red Dead Redemption II and Yakuza Kiwami. Those games would’ve made the list but I haven’t yet beaten them, so next year it is. Well, let’s get started with my Top 10 of the Year.

10.
Game: Orwell
Platform: PC
Rating: 8/10
Date Finished: March 17th
Playtime: 6 hours
Interesting Fact: If you didn’t know, George Orwell is a real person and is the author of a book called 1984, a book about a province ruled by a party called “The Police”, trying to minimize individualism as much as possible through tight government surveillance. I didn’t know that before my playthrough because I’m dumb apparently but it’s a book I’ll definitely be reading. Anyway, the game is based on that, if you haven’t figured it out by now.

Orwell manages to provoke one specific emotion in the player. Disgust. Disgust of one’s own actions. After a mysterious bombing that occurred in a public plaza, the Orwell program comes to life and it’s your job to find the culprit. To do that, you look for any info you can get, no matter how private. Phone calls, online chats, social media profiles, phone data, anything that helps you identify the subject.
Through these mediums, the game manages to build a realistic world. A world we might soon, or already, be living in. The major events are presented in a way that they managed to get under my skin. Whenever something bad happens, you hear a terrifying sound announcing the bad news. So of course, on the one hand you try to find the one who is responsible. On the other hand, you question these methods. And the mix of emotions provoked here make Orwell one of the more enjoyable games of the year to me.
I have a spare key for the game. So if you don't own it and are interested in trying it out, PM me and I can gift you the key.

9.
Game: Infamous: Second Son
Platform: Playstation 4
Rating: 8/10
Date Finished: Jan 2nd
Playtime: 15 hours
Interesting Fact: This is the only game this year that I've 100 %ed (not trophies but in game completion %).

This is probably the most typical "open world busy work" game that came out in the recent years but that's exactly why I enjoyed this. There are a bunch of side activities to do. You can do these activities a few times in each of the districts and it's basically always the same but I found the joy in the routine. The spraying "mini game" was so simple but fun and that's what I could say about the whole game probably. The story is simple but enjoyable. Delsin Rowe just is a fun character and I think the antagonist was pretty cool, too, because the game gave you enough reasons to hate the shit out of her. Not just because she's "evil" and you're just meant to fight her but because you were directly affected by her actions. She did some baaad things and due to that I enjoyed every scene where Delsin confronted her. Overall the game just has a great, fun tone and thanks to a fun main character in Delsin, I very much enjoyed this.

8.
Game: Batman: Arkham Asylum
Platform: PC
Rating: 8/10
Date Finished: May 23rd
Playtime: 8.5 hours
Interesting Fact: I started this game for the first time back in 2016. I don't understand why I waited so long to start the game up for a second time. Ever felt that way before?

This was great. Easily the best comic game I've played so far. Joker was portrayed so well in this game and delivered one of the best anti-hero performances in games ever in my opinion.
The game starts off with Batman carrying Joker to the Asylum. Joker manages to escape and within seconds, he has control over the whole Asylum. While trying to get to Joker, you have to travel through the entire Asylum, which looks extremely good by the way and fight characters such as Bane, Killer Croc, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and the Scarecrow, all of whom are greatly presented. The combat system should be known to everyone, it's the same as in the Shadow of MordoWar games. The upgrades aren't too great and also the game was very unforgiving in some areas but I loved it nevertheless.

7.
Game: South Park: The Fractured But Whole
Platform: PC
Rating: 8/10
Date Finished: Feb 1st
Playtime: 22 hours
Interesting Fact: This was the most anticipated game of the year for me, as the original is one of my top 5 favorite games of all time. Also, if you've never heard of it, check out "Nosulus Rift" on Youtube. Hilarious stuff.

Man was I hyped for this. Stick of Truth was not only the funniest game I ever played but also had great turnbased combat elements. It wasn't all that difficult but it was still very satisfying. Some of the special attacks of the characters were downright hilarious and definitely responsible for a few laughs.
Going into The Fractured But Whole, one of a few games in the past couple of years that I developed a lot of hype for, the expectations were high. They were met mostly, the combat was way better, thanks to time and space playing a factor now. A lot of scripted set pieces were added to the fights as well and made them even better. So from a combat perspective, I loved this. The humor was very hit and miss though, due to the fact that a lot of jokes were either reused from the first one or overused to death. Fart jokes are funny and all but if everyone treats you like you're the god of farts and reminds you of it every minute, it gets stale fast. The story wasn't as good as in the first one either, though I did like the characters and their special attacks for sure.

6.
Game: Deponia 2: Chaos on Deponia/ Deponia 3: Goodbye Deponia
Platform: PC
Rating: 8/10 - 8/10
Date Finished: Sep 1st / Oct 7th
Playtime: 26 hours total
Interesting Fact: It's not really a "fact" but rather a funny easter egg. In Deponia 3, when you try to throw money into a trash can, the game thanks you for purchasing microtransactions.

If you enjoy point and click adventures, definitely try this series out. Rufus has become one of my favorite characters in video games. Any time he interacts with someone, you know it'll end up with something stupid. That's not only due to Rufus but all the other funny and unique side characters the devs created. The story is nothing too special but the dialogue is funny at all times, which, if you haven't realized yet, is one of the best ways to make me enjoy a game. The puzzles are easy enough to be solved without a walkthrough but difficult enough to force the player to think a bit. Perfect balance, great game.

5.
Game: Steins;Gate
Platform: Playstation Vita
Rating: 9/10
Date Finished: Jul 24th
Playtime: 30 hours
Interesting Fact: In 2019, a Steins;Gate 8bit game and a Steins;Gate game with animated cutscenes called Steins;Gate Elite will be released. Also Steins;Gate: Linear Bounded Phenogram, which is a spinoff to Steins;Gate. So a good year to be a Steins;Gate fan.

I enjoyed Danganronpa and Doki Doki Literature Club but Steins;Gate is the first visual novel that I properly loved. It's beloved among VN fans and I can see why. Okabe Rintaro, the main character, is such a multi-faceted personality, that it was fascinating to see him evolve as a person throughout the 30 hours I've played this game. He starts off as a kind of annoying but funny character, having fun within his science lab with two friends, Mayuri and Daru. He accidentally develops a time machine though and what starts off as a fun discovery ends up in some of the most eventful weeks in Okabes life. The whole story felt fresh and unpredictable with enough twists throughout to always keep the pace up. If you enjoy visual novels, you have to try this out.

4.
Game: Bioshock
Platform: PC
Rating: 10/10
Date Finished: Mar 31st
Playtime: 11 hours
Interesting Fact: I've played Bioshock 2 all the way back in 2014. Great game.

I really have been missiing out on something, huh? All you've heard about this game is so true. This is such a great game. Rapture is maybe the most immersive and interesting world in gaming. Seriously, just listening to the splicers talking to themselves makes you realize how much detail there is. Incredibly atmospheric, incredibly fun and, of course, that one point in the story was so well done, I really didn't see that coming. Must play for everyone.

3.
Game: Cuphead
Platform: PC
Rating: 10/10
Date Finished: Jan 15th
Playtime: 15 hours
Interesting Fact: You might have heard it before but this game was created by THREE people. I think that is incredible, that three people can create a game this enjoyable. Makes you think about how many games of high quality we would have, if AAA devs wouldn’t mass produce games on a yearly basisLuckily there are exceptions to that. Rockstar, CPDR, Santa Monica Studios are among the publishers/development studios that prove that taking your time with a game can produce great results.

I felt like a kid while playing this. The art style and the soundtrack reminded me of all the cartoons I watched as a kid. The devs were clearly inspired by those very cartoons but the real art is in being able to make a game worth playing out of it. On that front, the devs did a hell of a job because the gameplay was just so much fun that I’m hoping that we will see Cuphead 2 sooner rather than later. I can’t think of one boss that I didn’t like. All of them were so well designed and always a fun challenge to go up against. The games’ difficulty level was perfect and the way the game is designed, whenever you die, you just restart immediately, which to me is the perfect way to do it. It just kept the tension high at all times and defeating a boss just felt so satisfying every time. I can’t recommend this enough.

2.
Game: Super Mario Odyssey
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Rating: 10/10
Date Finished: Jan 1st
Playtime: 14 hours
Interesting Fact: This was my first time playing a Super Mario game in more than 10 years. Last Super Mario game I’ve played was on the SNES.

I felt very nostalgic while playing this. Seeing the jump from the last Mario games I’ve played to Super Mario Odyssey really showed me how far games have come. The last Mario game I’ve played was Super Mario World as far as I can recall, so I was just enjoying myself here. The soundtrack was a joy to listen to and the level design was just fantastic. I didn’t really use my Switch often last year but I really should check this game out again.

1.
Game: God of War
Platform: Playstation 4
Rating: 10/10
Date Finished: Oct 27th
Playtime: 30 hours
Interesting Fact: God of War is the 3rd winner of my yearly GOTY “award”. Previous winners are South Park: The Stick of Truth in 2016 and The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt in 2017.

I could’ve put any of the 4 games with a 10/10 rating in here actually but God of War is just that little bit more special. All these games have great characters. Great gameplay. Great level design. Incredible attention to detail. God of War puts all that together, adds a great story and probably has some of the best character development in video games. The voice acting is perfect. The game is brutal, dramatic and epic. It’s such a big game and is almost bug free. Really impressive all around, filled with a ton of memorable story moments and boss fights.
4.Top 5 Worst Games
Not all is fun of course. For every God of War, there is a 1979 Revolution: Black Friday. For every Bioshock there is a Metal Gear Survive. So let’s take a look at some of the not so pleasant experiences I had this year. I’m also counting games that I didn’t finish. (If you're reading this: I've noted that I've an Orwell key to give out to you. I have a bunch of keys actually, so if you don't own some of these and really would like trying them out, PM me.)

5.
Game: Madden NFL 19: Longshot - Homecoming
Platform: Playstation 4
Playtime: 3 hours
Interesting Fact: I told this story before, but in the Ultimate Team section of this game, there is a level system. For reaching level 50, you unlock a Legendary pack .. for which you need to spend $20. That's some reward, EA.

Yeah, this was bad. I mean, the story mode in Madden NFL 18 was solid and could've been built on, so I actually hoped to have a few enjoyable hours out of this at least. For some reason, this failed completely. The pacing in this was all kind of messed up and there were stories that I just couldn't give two shits about. Colt Cruise was trying to get into the NFL last year and now he has to take care of his half sister that he didn't know existed until that point. He's also helping out his old high school team and a lot of uninteresting stuff happens in between. At some point, the game remembers that there is a Devin Wade, Quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys/Houston Texans and the story shifts to him. Then it all culminates in Devin and Colt raising money near the end, Antonio Brown getting traded to the Texans and a deaf student playing quarterback for the high school team. If you didn't get any of that, it's probably because you don't care about this game and/or American Football. And that's fine, the story mode isn't worth knowing about anyway.

4.
Game: Outlast 2
Platform: PC
Playtime: 6 hours
Interesting Fact: Outlast and Outlast: Whistleblower are actually two games that I did end up enjoying. Two of the better horror games I’ve played so far.

Outlast 2 wasn’t the fourth worst rated game of the year for me but it has to be one of the most boring experiences. Madden NFL 19’s story mode was rated lower but at least it was merciful enough to end the story after 3 hours. For those 3 hours, the game tried to switch things up gameplay wise. The story was shit, sure, but the core gameplay of the Madden games is solid at least. Outlast 2 was atmospheric enough to look interesting on screenshots and the enemy design was scary enough as well. The game had a lot of scary things to look at but playing it was such a chore. First off, you have no idea where to go most of the time. The plan was to lead the player to a specific point through auditory clues, which didn’t work a lot of the time because you had an enemy breathing down on your neck while trying to find your destination. The enemies would also spot you from the most impossible angles. One enemy was behind a corner of a building and on top of that, I was hiding in the bush. The first fact should make it impossible to spot me; the second should make it difficult from afar. Yet, I was spotted, the enemy ran towards me and I died. Pretty bad game design overall and as I said, a chore to play.

3.
Game: Destiny 2
Platform: Playstation 4
Playtime: 1 hour
Interesting Fact: Out of all the games I've started up this year, this is one of three games that I've quit before the one hour mark, along with Anachronox and Super House of Dead Ninjas.

Destiny 2 tries to be like a Marvel movie. Epic scenes, a lot of shooting, explosions and chaos, some sci-fi stuff happening, characters saying things that don't matter at all ... that's how my only hour with this game ended up looking like. It felt extremely cringy to play this because the game tries so hard to be good that it just ends up looking fake. Boring. Ungenuine. Uninspired. It might get better? I don't really care though, the game just didn't grab me.

2
Game: Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remastered
Platform: PC
Playtime: 8 hours
Interesting Fact: This game had the longest QTE filled scene I've ever seen. It honestly took me about 5 minutes to get through. Basically, every item in the main characters apartment flew at his face and I had to dodge all of them. So dumb.

A game that started off so promisingly ended up in a disaster. Lucas Kane kills an innocent man because he became possessed. Hiding from the police, he tries to uncover the truth. While he does, he periodically suffers from hallucination. He sees giant bug-like creatures in one of those, while working, and has to run away from them. This happens via, you guessed it, a ton of QTEs. So now Lucas contacts a medium and tries to really get ahead of this thing that is haunting him. By then, the game turns into a Matrix like sci-fi fest, with Lucas being able to dodge bullets like they're flying in slow motion. The story gets absolutely ridiculous, highlighted by just about every interaction between Carla and Lucas. Carla is a detective, trying to catch Lucas. Things happen and as their stories conclude, you think to yourself, is this game kidding me? Also, Tyler is just a terrible detective.

1
Game: The Darkness II
Platform: PC
Playtime: 5 hours
Interesting Fact: The Darkness II is the third "worst game of the year". Previous "winners/losers" are Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons in 2016 and 1979 Revolution: Black Friday in 2017.

The Darkness II is actually a pretty unspectacular #1 this year. I just couldn't enjoy any part of this game at all. The main character's motivations were just so uninteresting to me. The whole Darkness part about him (two monstreous tendrils coming out of his body) was ok but to me, it just was boring as hell. The combat ended up being so shallow, I just didn't enjoy it at all. There was a part where I had two bullets left and had to fight about 10 guys. Some of them were standing in the light; the darkness doesn't work there of course, so I had to try to get past everyone with two bullets and two semi-useful tendrils, which took about 20 minutes because of all the retries I had. At the end of it, Jenny was pissing me off as well. Jackie, the main character and Jenny are two characters that I couldn't sympathize with in the slightest. So pushing myself through a combat system which I found to be frustrating and boring, while going into this game thinking "meh, this looks like a game, where I can just relax and turn my brain off", ended up in one of the most dissatisfactory gaming experiences to me. I might be one of the few thinking this way, based on the games' reception but I truly disliked playing this. The worst part might be that I forced myself to finish this.
5. Yearly Awards
Two "winners" have been announced. God of War is my game of the year and The Darkness II is the worst game of the year. There are a few more awards, good and bad, to give out, so let's crack on.

NEW - Best Boss Fight - God of War: Kratos vs Baldur

There are so many bad boss fights. Unspectacular, unoriginal, too easy, too similar to any other boss fight in the game or worst of all, boring. I think, the few properly epic boss fights in games deserve some recognition.
Super Mario Odyssey's boss fights were fun. South Park's were funny and creative. Bioshock's had big story implications. Cuphead's were very difficult but unique.
Kratos fighting Baldur was all of these combined and more. The build up is what made this great. The story implications gave the many boss fights between the two (yep, not just one) a meaning. Baldur being who he is, the fights were unrealistically brutal but in a way, in this games world, all of it made sense. Thanks to the amount of brutality, the graphical effects, the chaos that ensued, Kratos fighting Baldur will remain memorable for years to come. The final fight was just perfect. I can't talk about the story part of it but the scripted set pieces where just added at the perfect times. While the fights were great in a "movie type" perspective thanks to those set pieces, the combat was still a big part of it, so you still felt like you were the one in control over what was happening. You didn't feel like you were in a cutscene pretending to be a boss fight.
The first time Baldur is introduced even is just perfectly done. You might've seen that, it happens right at the beginning of the game. I won't say anything but that was really surprising and a great starting point for what ended up being a great game. During their fights, you could just feel (and hear) the impact of every fist that connected on Kratos' or Baldur's face. Baldur getting thrown into huge rocks looked brutal. Atreus' part in those fights were also critical imo and added another element to the whole affair. Just so many angles to these fights, they're so well thought out and were a joy to experience.
RUNNER UP: Cuphead: Sally Stageplay

NEW - Best Character - Deponia: Rufus

If your game is bad but funny, I'll still have an enjoyable time. Humor is just something that is always a plus in a game to me. If your game is good AND funny, even better. The game doesn't have to based on humor, like the South Park games but if I would name you 5 of my favorite games, they would all have some element of it. The Witcher 3, God of War even, the Persona series.
Making a funny game is difficult enough but creating a funny character is veery much so. GlaDOS of the Portal series is funny and would've probably won it for me last year. Sans in Undertale is hilarious as well. If a character is meant to be funny, like a lot, there is a high chance that the character will annoy you to death at some point. Either the jokes are too cheesy or too forced or just way too frequent. When that's the case, you jokes don't end up being funny and you start to think that the game just doesn't have more to offer.
Rufus is the main character in the Deponia series. Almost every line he says is supposed to be funny, so he really should be a pain in the ass ... and he is. Anything he touches turns into something bad (the entire Deponia 2 intro scene is based on that). He has the worst of ideas all the time, he annoys everyone he talks to, he will rob you blind, make your life miserable, put everyone in danger and will always do the opposite of what you tell him to do. At some point, that's just what you expect from Rufus. He just gets more and more creative with his ridiculousness as time passes and really is genuinely funny. Thanks to a great supporting cast of over the top characters, Rufus doesn't feel out of place in a screwed up world of Deponia. He just is the worst of them all. His biggest enemy looks exactly like him as well and as you move on in the trilogy, you uncover the whole truth to who Rufus really is.
He acts like the super hero in a movie that is playing in his mind. He doesn't understand the concept of reality and doesn't know what the term "impossible" means. Yet, he manages to solve problems, even though he is the one who created them in the first place. To do that, he creates a ton of other problems but who cares about that, right? That's the whole concept of his character and the trilogy really gets the best out of him. I've yet to play Deponia Doomsday but that's a game I can't wait to play next year.
RUNNER UP: Steamworld Dig 2: Fen

NEW - Worst Character - The Darkness II: Jackie Estacado

Jackie was just a depressing, annoying and unimpressive character. After a game sequence, you'd have a short cutscene with him in a dark room sitting on a chair, talking and trying to convey his motivations. To be honest, by now I just remember that I hated what came out of his mouth but I didn't have any specific quote, so I googled some. "Jenny, you were the only good in my life." Oh shut up. That’s such a cliché and overused statement and it doesn’t sound believable coming out of his mouth. "Have you ever loved someone who was so beautiful and pure, you couldn't bear to show them your own darkness?" What? That is so bad. I just couldn't relate to anything this guy said and quotes like these just are so bad to me. Seriously, if I had to choose which video game character I could talk to in real life, Jackie Estacado would be veeeery far down the list. Just so unrelatable to me.
RUNNER UP: Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy: Tyler Miles

Best Coop Game - Cuphead [Previous Winner: Portal 2]

Cuphead didn't really have any competition this year but even if it did, it wouldn't have mattered. To be fair, my brother rage quit the game after a few hours but I gotta say, this game is perfect for coop and I'd gladly replay it in coop, if my brother does decide to try this again.
RUNNER UP: /

Most Disappointing Game - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild [Previous "Winner": Red Dead Redemption]

I've never played a LoZ game before, so when I read all the reviews, I thought that this was going to be a special ride. I soon realized that I'm not someone who this game was made for. I don't dislike sandbox games but I'm not very fond of them. I did enjoy Minecraft back in the day but these days, I lack the creativity needed to make your own fun of these games. Just Cause is another series that I just can't get into for example. The thing about Breath of the Wild is that it felt empty. A big open world with a lot of empty space. A lot of bokblin (or what they are called) camps just thrown in here and there, which really didn't get me excited or anything. I didn't feel all the nostalgic elements in this game, so I guess that's another reason why all these environments, the sounds, animations and characters/enemies didn't really do anything for me. The main story could've gone somewhere but I wasn't invested enough to care for it. The weapon breaking mechanic is also just terrible. Weapons would break after 10 hits and I'd be left with nothing at some point. Maybe I should've found a ton of good weapons at the 15 hour mark, where having no weapons left made me quit the game but I really can't be asked to fix the games issues by googling where the best weapons can be found. I'm not saying the game is bad generally, it just wasn't my thing at all.
RUNNER UP: Outlast 2

Most Played Game - Red Dead Redemption 2 [Previous Winner: The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt]

I should specify that all these awards are for single player only. On multiplayer, I easily spent hundreds of hours on FIFA with friends.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a game I haven’t beaten yet. I still put 50+ hours into it and because I didn’t play any long RPGs this year, this wins the award. Even though the competition wasn’t very stiff, I think this speaks for the amount of content in this game. I’m only halfway through the main story. I did so many side missions, found so many interesting areas to explore, had a lot of memorable random encounters, played Poker, read newspapers and I got a lot more to uncover. So much content but so far, nothing really seemed like filler to me.
RUNNER UP: Danganronpa 2, God of War, Steins;Gate (all about 30 hours)

Best Game Released in 2018 - God of War [Previous Winner: Doki Doki Literature Club]

This is the third award for God of War today. There isn’t really much to say here, my game of the year overall is also the best of all games that came out in 2018 (of all the ones I’ve played: 3 total). Even if I would’ve played every game that came out this past year, I think there is a very good chance that the end result would’ve been the same.
RUNNER UP: The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit

Best Soundtrack - Cuphead [Previous Winner: Hotline Miami 2]

So many of the games I’ve played had such good soundtracks, sound effects and sound design. I really liked some of the songs in Steamworld Dig 2. The sound effects in Alien Isolation are great, especially if you’ve watched the movies. All of these things are done excellently in Cuphead. The music and the sound effects just mash perfectly with the gameplay and art design. As with the art design, all the songs are in accordance with cartoons and it’s always a joy to listen to. Also, the clicking sound that you hear every time you click the attack button is oh so satisfying. Just a fantastic job done.
RUNNER UP: Steamworld Dig 2

Most Surprising Game - Steins;Gate [Previous Winner: Wolfenstein – New Order]

As someone who has disliked VNs very much before this year, Steins;Gate and the runner up for this award, Danganronpa, have changed my mind. I’ve said a lot about Steins;Gate already but if I learnt anything, it’s that I only like VNs with a specific story. I always love a good time travel story and Danganronpa’s premise is pretty unique as well. Steins;Gate in particular has a great cast and I can 100 % recommend it to you all.
RUNNER UP: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

NEW - Best Storytelling - God of War

This is an easy choice. God of War, to me, perfected storytelling in video games. It managed to do so without putting gameplay behind cut scenes and managed to combine both elements perfectly. The relationship between Kratos and Atreus is the main story arc here and while it can’t challenge the best movies out there, it did a hell of a job for a video game title. An epic tale that I won’t forget for some time.
RUNNER UP: Bioshock
6. 2019 Wishlist
This will probably not be of much interest to most of you. The following games are my most anticipated games to purchase next year. They don’t necessarily have to be released in 2019, it’s rather a list of games which I have my eyes on and will undoubtedly purchase next year. It’s just fun to look back on this at the end of next year and see what my goals were and compare them to the end results. So here goes.
#1 - Ef – The First Tale * Genre: Visual novel * Platform: PC * Release Date: 27.07.2012
This is a two-game series that was reviewed on here by OdaNova. His excellently written and thorough review of the games got me intrigued. Due to the games’ high price, I have been reluctant and while it was on sale, I had no disposable money to spend on this game. Thankfully that’s not going to be something that will limit me from now on, so I will definitely look out for another sale on this game. Hopefully it’s going to be as good of a read as advertised. :D If so, I’ll look out for the second part.
#2 - Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus * Genre: First-Person Shooter * Platform: PC/Playstation 4 * Release Date: 27.07.2017
The original was the winner of my “Most Surprising Game of The Year 2017” award. What really drew me to the game was the great story. I got burnt so often by single player FPS games, just because it’s always the same mission structure. Go to Area 1, get a bland objective, kill everyone and do the same thing over and over again. Wolfenstein was so much more than that and thanks to stealth elements added in, you can always switch things up between a stealthy and a run and gun approach. I’m hoping that Wolfenstein II is able to build on the narrative success of the original.
#3 - Yakuza 0 * Platform: Playstation 4 * Genre: Action-Adventure * Release Date: 24.01.2017
I’m currently playing Yakuza Kiwami and I can already tell that I’ll have a lot of fun with this franchise. Yakuza 0 is a must buy for next year.
#4 - Celeste * Genre: Platformer * Platform: Nintendo Switch * Release Date: 25.01.2018
I haven’t seen much of this game yet; all I know is that it was one of the best games of this past year and that it’s on the Switch. I haven’t used mine a lot lately, so Celeste will give me a reason to use it again. An indie game that ended up being a nominee for GOTY at the VGA should be good, right?
#5 - The Outer Worlds // Cyberpunk 2077 // The Last of Us: Part 2 * Genre: RPG // RPG // Survival Horror * Platform: PC // PC // Playstation 4 * Release Date: 2019?
These are the games that might come out in 2019. The Outer Worlds trailer specifically says 2019 but there are no specific dates for these games. I’m optimistic and if any of these do come out, they’ll most likely be day one purchases, especially Cyberpunk and The Last of Us. The Outer Worlds looks like it should be fantastic but I will wait on reviews for that one.

7. 12in12 List for 2019 + Other Goals

I was thinking about buying a PSVR to try out some new stuff but I decided against it at the end. Unfortunately there just aren’t enough games to really make this a worthy purchase. I’d love to try out Resident Evil 7, Beat Saber, Astrobot and a couple others but that’s not nearly enough and considering that the move controllers cost an extra price, I think I’ll wait a few more years for now. Enough rambling, here is my 12in12 list for 2019.

Batman Arkham City
Beyond Good & Evil
Bioshock Infinite
Deponia Doomsday
DmC: Devil May Cry
Orwell: Ignorance is Strength
Persona 5
Red Dead Redemption 2
Resident Evil 5
SOMA
The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine
Yakuza Kiwami

Yep, there it is. A lot of sequels to some of my favorite games, which I’m very excited about. I’m already a few palaces deep into Persona 5, so that’s what I’ll tackle after I beat Red Dead Redemption 2 and Yakuza Kiwami. I’ve got open world games, a JRPG, an RPG, action-adventures, a simulation game (Orwell), a point and click adventure, and survival horror games in a list of 12 games. A nice mix of genres.
Some other goals:

Beat 24 games total
Finish more games than I buy and stick to a game budget of 250€
If it’s at a reasonable price, buy a used Nintendo 3DS XL

Yep, that’s it. I hope you’ve enjoyed having a look through the more than 7000 words I’ve written here. I had a ton of fun writing it. It took me about two weeks to write this, so I’m glad to have posted it now. My 2019 will be very interesting and hopefully much better than 2018. In terms of gaming 2018 was great but I have a lot of personal goals for 2019 that I hope to achieve. My apprenticeship, which I’ve started back in 2016, will end in June. I’m planning to go to a university after I’m done, so a lot of busy work is ahead of me. I have a lot of great games to look forward to, so in terms of gaming I don’t think I’ll be disappointed.
If you have anything to add to my ramblings, I’d love to read your comments and engage in some discussions. Hope to read your yearly roundup posts as well in the coming weeks. (Y)
Happy holidays to you all and have a great 2019.

2016 /r/peloton end-of-the-year awards: Men's peloton results (part I)

Like last year, the men's awards' discussion will be split up between two posts. The reasoning behind this decision is simple: many more votes mean more chances of discussion (and slower counting). These are the first fourteen category, with the remaining twelve discussed in the next post. As usual I will post the full results and the table with all the disallowed votes, but I will do all at once in the next post!
Media awards
[25] Best cycling-related website: some of us hate Team Sky, some of us hate Astana. Some of us enjoy the classics, some of us like the Grand Tours best. But what do we different fans all have in common? Of course, it's the place where we discuss cycling- that is, this subreddit. Being a welcoming, well-moderated haven in the perilous seas of internet sporting communities, /peloton was picked by many users as the best cycling-related website. Besides that, there wasn't a clear-cut winner between the others, as many different kind of sites received votes. In the end, INRNG narrowly held off ProCyclingStats for second place, although the two combined didn't receive as many votes as our sub alone. Most of the big news outlets received a few votes each, with CyclingNews in fourth overall just one point above CyclingTips.
[26] Best cycling-related Twitter account: this was a fairly broad category and it definitely showed: there were more than fifty different picks, only two of them getting more than four votes. Many different kinds of account received a nomination: professional journalists, athletes, teams, bloggers... showing that the amount and variety of cycling-related information of the web is quite something and that- rejoice!- in these days you can hear a story from so many different points of view. The winner with 19 picks was @CyclingHubTV, who often posts here under the cyclinghub handle. You might know him as “the guy who streams and uploads the races” but Jasper does much more: he posts original content, previews races, interviews pros and tries his hand at commentating too! Honorable second place goes to one of the funniest accounts out there, @ukcyclingexpert- a parody account which tweets hilariously unaccurate facts pretending to be a connoisseur of the sport. The rider who got the most votes (4) was Fortuneo's Vegard Breen, whose account is a brilliant gem (although relatively unknown) full of funny stories from the heart of the peloton.
Non-competitive awards
[21] Best presence on social media: first and foremost I have to note that a lot of votes had to be disallowed because they went to teams, while this was an award for riders. Of course, when I say “teams” I mean mostly Orica Bike-Exchange, as the Australian team keeps doing its perfect PR job thanks to the Backstage Pass videos and a generally friendly and open attitude towards the fans. Amongst the valid votes, there have been many entries, going from the very top names of the peloton (Thomas, Cancellara, Chaves) to riders in lesser teams/divisions but who have done a great job of conveying life in the peloton from an insider's point of view (Breen, Craven). Only three riders got more than four votes... and there's a pattern: in third place we have Taylor Phinney, probably the poster boy for American cycling; in second place we have Chris Froome, three-times Tour champion; the winner is Peter Sagan, back-to-back World Champion and the peloton's current superstar. Being amongst the most famous athletes in the sport, it's only natural that they're popular and followed on the web. In Sagan's case in particular, he probably won this award not only because of his contributions (from his accounts) but also because he's always stolen the scene with his antics in interviews and videos from other news sources!
[22] Best personality: this category and the previous one were likely to overlap and indeed, for the exact same reasons mentioned above, Peter Sagan brings home this award as well. The World Champion, known for his sheer honesty and cheekiness (which led to questionable podium antics, but also memorable quotes and interviews) won with an overwhelming majority, although second placed Esteban Chaves also got a fair share of votes. This is quite interesting as he has a completely different personality: always positive, smiling and caring. Much closer to Peter Sagan in terms of sass is third-placed Christopher Juul-Jensen... A teammate of Chaves who joined Orica in 2016, he turned the Backstage Passes around with his funny behaviour and remarks. His nickname, “the Joker”, is fairly appropriate. Once again, it's worth noting how BSP helped many fans in getting to know pro riders: Orica has several other riders in the rankings, showing how their efforts to create a fanbase have really paid off.
[23] Most handsome rider: as it happened in the women's poll, the same rider brought home both the best personality and the most handsome rider award: not sure if this means that it's true that looks and personality go together or just that our sub is really obsessed with the one and only Peter Sagan. It's interesting to note that the podium is the same as last year's, with the reigning world champion followed by former teammates Marcel Kittel and Tom Dumoulin, in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. Actually, Kittel's gap to Sagan was narrower than last year's, so we might see a trend change next year? The beautiful smile of Esteban Chaves, fifth last year, traded places with the timeless class of Fabian Cancellara, who was in fourth place. Like I noticed last year, it's not an ethnically diverse ranking as most riders are white/caucasian... but after all, this reflects the composition of the peloton, where riders of different ethnicities are still a minority.
[24] Best scenery: a very interesting category as we can see the clash between some iconic cycling landmarks and the new frontiers of the sport. Like the previous category, we ended up with the same podium as last year... with the Tour de France narrowly edging out the Giro d'Italia. That's not really a surprise: to many fans the Tour is the highlight of the season, and thus there's no better landscape to roll along the peloton than the French countryside, the Alpine valleys, the Pyrenean slopes... although it has to be said that the margin was much wider last year. In third place we have the Strade Bianche, the best-placed one day race thanks to the Tuscan countryside which, for many, represents the idea of Italy with its vineyards and villas. As noted before, many unconventional events received praise as well: the Arctic Race of Norway, the American tours of Utah and California, the Doha World Championships and most importantly the amazing Rio circuit for the Olympics, which earned the fifth place overall behind the Vuelta a Espana.
National awards
[20] Best nation: I thought this award would be a lot closer than it actually was: instead we have a majestic win from Colombia which gathered almost four time as many votes as the second placed nation, the United Kingdom. There hasn't been a clear-cut winner this year: the three grand tours were won by an Italian, an Englishman and a Colombian; the monuments went to a Frenchman, a Slovakian, an Australian, a Dutchie and a Colombian... with a Belgian Olympic champion and Germans killing it in the sprints. But if we go deeper, we can see that the Colombians have improved on all fronts: podiums in all grand tours, first non-European Lombardia winner, consistent good showings in the mountains from guys like Atapuma and Pantano... even great results in the sprints thanks to Gaviria! Last year's winner, Spain, didn't even make the podium this year and sits in fourth place.
Event awards
[15] Best stage race: Like last year, this award came down to a battle between the three Grand Tours, which were steps above every other event; and like last year, the Tour was way behind the other two, despite being considered the most important of the three. Sure enough, Team Sky's domination is not for everyone and a few exciting stages were not enough for a fairly dull GC battle. It seems, instead, that the recipe for success is a mix of a tight GC battle until the end... and a Dutch GC contender getting very close only to lose it all in the last few days: after Vuelta won last year, this year's best race was the Giro d'Italia. As you know, the corsa rosa had an extremely exciting edition, with Kruijswijk putting together a surprisingly strong bid stopped by an unlucky crash on the Col d'Agnel descent, favouring an incredible comeback by Nibali who, at that point, looked pretty much out of contention. Besides Grand Tours, the best placed race was the Eneco Tour, while the best non-WT race was the Tour de Yorkshire (see category 17 too).
[16] Best one-day race: one year ago, this category ended in a tie between Gent-Wevelgem and Paris-Roubaix. This was an odd result, as the former had been a memorable race in extremely rough weather while P-R had been nothing particularly special compared to previous editions. So if even a subpar edition of the Hell of the north can win this category, I'm sure you have understood how this year went... the French monument got more than 63% of all votes (including blank and invalid ones): it was an amazing nailbiter full of twists and turns which ended with a very likeable winner. In second place comes Peter Sagan's dominant showing at the Ronde van Vlaanderen, while the Olympics Road Race rounded up the podium with the wet descent drama and Van Avermaet's win. Out of the monuments, it's noticeable how MSR didn't even get a single vote; the Worlds- which were in second place last year- also got only a few picks, showing further proof of how the Doha parcours didn't have the same success with fans compared to the previous editions.
[17] Best non-WT stage race: there are four races way ahead of the others, and it's a fairly surprising bunch as it's not made up of events with a big history. However, the four races have something in common... as they're all from the UK and the USA, two countries where the interest in cycling has been steadily growing and where many pelotonians are based. After the Tour of Britain in fourth place we find the Tour of Utah on the lowest podium spot: an exciting race in a stunning setting which comes right after the Tour and is instrumental in coping with the sense of withdrawal following the Grande Boucle. In second place there's the Tour de Yorkshire, an event built as the legacy of the 2014 TdF Grand Depart to be held on the same roads which will host the 2019 World Championships. First place goes to the Amgen Tour of California, currently the biggest American event and an entertaining race which has developed a good following despite being held at the same time as the Giro! It's not a coincidence that all these races have good coverage and are easily accessible from fans around the world. ~~Both California and Yorkshire~~ The Tour of California will be part of the World Tour starting next season!
[18] Best non-WT one-day race: votes were fairly spread out except for two events, which you can easily guess from the Best one-day race category. However, while in that case the Olympics got more votes than Strade Bianche, in this category the opposite happened, with the iconic white roads classic coming out on top, retaining the title from last year. The third place was quite a surprise but it's absolutely well deserved: it went to Le Samyn, a Flemish-like race held in early march in Wallonie. This year's edition had extremely rough weather and the race turned out to be fairly epic, with most of the peloton DNF and Terpstra soloing to win scoring one of EQS' most brilliant wins of a relatively underwhelming classics season.
[19] Best stage in a stage race: like last year, an overwhelming majority of picks came from the three Grand Tours. The votes were spread quite differently in this category: between the two most voted and the mass of the least voted there was a “mid-table level” with several stages which received a good number of picks, such as the Mont Ventoux drama in the Tour, Chaves' long-range attack on the second-to-last Vuelta stage and Nibali's clinching of the Maglia Rosa on the penultimate Giro day. Way above everything else, however, were two stages: in second place, we have Stage 15 of the Vuelta, when Contador and Quintana managed to rip the race apart with a long range attack which put Froome in a tight spot, playing a key role in the Movistar captain's eventual win; just with one vote more the winner is Stage 19 of the Giro, when Kruijswijk crashed on the Col d'Agnel's descent and allowed Nibali and Chaves to bring home an incredible comeback. Like last year, most picks came from mountain stages: the highest placed non-mountainous stage is the Tour's Stage 11- i.e. the one with Sagan and Froome's crosswinds attack.
Team awards
[13] Best team: absolutely no competition here: Orica-BikeExchange received almost as many votes as all the other teams put together. The Australian team (known as Orica-GreenEDGE until the Tour) had a completely fantastic season, with two monuments win, competitive results in all three grand tours (including podiums at both the Vuelta and the Giro) with plenty of stage win here and there. Surely there might be a bit of fanboyism involved thanks to the BSP videos, coupled maybe with some anti-Sky sentiment in some... but considering their budget- compared to that of the bigger teams- they've had a stellar year indeed. Last year's winner Team Sky follows in second place, with Etixx rounding up the podium despite a classics campaign below expectations: the Belgian team made up for that with great performances in Grand Tours, and having some of their members (Brambilla, Jungels, Vakoc) really step up their game. Curiously, last year's third place Astana only got one vote despite winning the Giro- shows how high the expectations for the Kazakh team are!
[14] Best non-WT team: last year there was absolutely no question: then-MTN (the team now known as Dimension Data), bound to leap to the World Tour, won this category with a massive margin. This time the situation has been fairly more balanced- while Bora is going to the first division as well, and has built a huge roster to back their ambitions, this season's results weren't exactly dominating, and they ended up in third place. In second place we have Wanty-Groupe Gobert, a Belgian team which has picked up many results and placements in Mitteleuropean races- most importantly a stunning and unexpected triumph at the Amstel Gold Race. In first place, however, we have a more estabilished team... although with a new name: it's Direct Energie, formerly known as Team Europcar. The French team had a good season and while they might not have been as dominating as MTN was last season, they livened up every race they took part in and won many sprints thanks to their young star Bryan Coquard. Neo-pros Calmejane and Morice showed good stuff as well!

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Joker (2019) Quotes (76) Arthur Fleck: [written in notebook] The worst part of having a mental illness is people expect you to behave as if you don't. Arthur Fleck: I used to think that my life was a tragedy, but now I realize, it's a fucking comedy. Mαy these Joker 2019 Quotes On Success inspire you to tαke αction so thαt you mαy live your dreαms. αlong with quotes, people αre loving Joker’s style α lot too, thαt is the reαson why they love Joker Imαges αnd Joker Wαllpαpers too much. αnd Becαuse of thαt αll these Joker 2019 Quotes, Joker Images , αnd Joker Wαllpαper ... What do you think of Joker quotes? Let us know what you think in the comments below as we’d love to know. Trailer: 23 Comments. Amar Hamid on December 22, 2019 at 2:21 pm . Joker. Wow. The richest story in the DC Universe comics & animation films; is that of the Joker & Batman. This particular film has managed to pre-excite the audience for ... 39 Joker Quotes: Joker Quotes From Joker (2019) Movie / Arthur Fleck aka Joaquin Phoenix 1.) I used to think that my life was a tragedy, but now I realize, it’s a comedy. 2.) The worst part of having a mental illness is people expect you to behave as if you don’t. 3.) For my whole life, I didn’t know if I even really existed. Joker Joker 2019 Arthur Fleck Joaquin Phoenix DC film my gifs joker gifs film gifs Joker 2019 quotes memorable quotes why can't I GIF an entire film?! Posted 1 year ago, 29th November & 947 notes. deadlyduckling added this GIF to a post . the-awesome-danielradcliffe reblogged this from daily-joker. Below is our collection of compelling, memorable and fascinating Joker quotes, collected from a variety of sources over the years. Don’t forget to also read our compilation of quotes from Eeyore as well as these interesting Darth Vader quotes from the Star Wars villain. Joker Quotes on Humanity That Really Make You Think. 1. "It’s okay, Gary. You can go. I’m not going to hurt you.” Gary runs to the door and… “Hey, Arthur….. can you get the lock?” This scene is actually creepy but sweet at the same time, “You’re the only one that’s ever been nice to me.” said Arthur wh... By Cheena Khanna On Oct 14, 2019. 2,951. Share. Todd Philips’s directorial masterpiece ‘Joker’ has finally hit the theatres. The movie starring the incredible actor Joaquin Phoenix has left critics and fans impressed. The Noir Film has left a lasting impression on the minds of all and takes us down the deep inner recesses of our minds ... In this post I am taking a look at the best quotes from the 2019 Joker movie. The film was filled to the brim with memorable lines, including some very stark dialogue that explores the character motivation of Arthur Fleck – the man who becomes Joker. Updated January 06, 2020: With Joaquin Phoenix's Golden Globe win, Oscar buzz for Joker continues to grow. Check out a few more unforgettable quotes from one of 2019's biggest films. After all the anticipation, all the controversy and all the discussion, Joker is finally in theaters and people are showing up in huge numbers to see the most talked-about film of the year.

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50 Greatest Movie Quotes of All Time - YouTube

If we asked you for the most iconic, most quotable movie lines of all time, you’d probably come up with at least a dozen on the spot, right? We certainly cou... Some villains want to bring about the destruction or subjugation of the world, others… but what does the Joker want? Join http://www.WatchMojo.com as we coun... All Pennywise quotes from the ICONIC new horror classic ''IT'' Bill Skarsgard gave us an unforgettable performance as pennywise the clown. Here are all of th... What do you get when you cross a mentally ill loner with a society that abandons him and treats him like trash? This is my version of 100 greatest movie quotes of all time. Some have appeared on official lists while others are completely my opinion. if you don't like i... This video is sponsored by Dollar Shave Club! Go to https://www.dollarshaveclub.com/thewhy and get a one month membership of ANY razor for $1. Free shippin... HASTA LA VISTA BABY: https://amzn.to/3m37t0yYIPEE KI YAY: https://amzn.to/33a6MK9I'LL BE BACK: https://amzn.to/3m1ozfb* Check out Part 2: AFTER THE KILL here... Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. The Best Lines from the Marvel Cinematic UniverseSUBSCRIBE NOW to CBR! Click here: http://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-CBRRelated CBR article: https://www.cbr.com/vid...

Best quotes from Joker (2019) I'll Get Drive-Thru

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