In relation to Australia and its censorship, will online games be banned?
According to Stephen Conroy, all items which will have RC (refused classification) will be blocked with Australia's installation of the pirated version of China's Firewall. Does this mean online games (such as WoW, EvE, LoTR Online), which aren't classified in Australia, will be apart of the list? I know it's all speculation at this point, but it does raise the question; where does it all end? Having Stephen Conroy in control of this is like a muggle being in charge of the Ministry of Magic.
"I think I've lived long enough to see competitive Counter-Strike as we know it, kill itself." Summary of Richard Lewis' stream (Long)
I want to preface that the contents of this post is for informational purposes. I do not condone or approve of any harassments or witch-hunting or the attacking of anybody.
Richard Lewis recently did a stream talking about the terrible state of CS esports and I thought it was an important stream anyone who cares about the CS community should listen to. Vod Link here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/830415547 I realize it is 3 hours long so I took it upon myself to create a list of interesting points from the stream so you don't have to listen to the whole thing, although I still encourage you to do so if you can. I know this post is still long but probably easier to digest, especially in parts. Here is a link to my raw notes if you for some reason want to read through this which includes some omitted stuff. It's in chronological order of things said in the stream and has some time stamps. https://pastebin.com/6QWTLr8T
Intro
"The last month has convinced me, that we are going to be heading into a dark place for Counter-Strike esports in 2021."
"I think I've seen the scene essentially kill itself."
"For the past 5 to 6 years, we've basically been in a holding pattern of people coming into our game wanting to run it, wanting to run all of the esports and wanting to profiteer and its been sort of a concerted effort to drive them off and push them away."
"We're spread way too thin."
"If Riot don't get involved and stop the scumbags that have moved over to Valorant from getting their feet under the table, Valorant is going to have real problems."
RL thinks too much has happened all at once for us to do anything except watch it play out, like:
Recent CSPPA strike against BLAST
ESIC failures and them not being supported enough
Teams cheating i.e. coaches/bugs
Widespread match fixing
The Pandemic
"People who try to hold bubble events are so incompetent and fuck up and people get the 'rona and its their fault."
"People who say Flashpoint is a bubble is full of shit and is a lie and people are now suffering for that lie."
"To save money they let people go home and break the bubble for a week."
"Not just Flashpoint peoples decision, they have a partner that handles the production." (hinting FACEIT)
"People are trapped in hotels essentially under house arrest because of COVID restrictions and has fucked peoples lives up."
"It's all too much, all of this incompetence, all of this greed, maybe we ride it out."
RL says he has talked to the Riot devs (the ones working on Valorant) and says, "They are so cognizant of all the fuck ups and all the problems we have in Counter-Strike."
He continues to say that this is factored into their business plan and that we never had a competitor, but just so happens to have one coincide, when we are at our worst.
CSPPA - Counter-Strike Professional Players' Association
"Who does this union really fucking serve?"
RL believes that the CSPPA is a mockery.
He points out the hypocrisy that they wouldn't strike for the pros who were kicked out of ESL Pro League, or for Jamppi or dream3r.
He also says ESL paid CSPPA and are racketeering and many other TOs have to pay them to get their "seal of approval"
He says they would strong-arm TOs saying "well if you don't give us the money, these guys are so we'll just have to commit to playing their event."
Also points out that they will strike against a competitor they are not in agreement with (Flashpoint)
RL: "It's what it says about every other time you haven't done it and it's about every time you don't do it now moving forward." "The issues they've chosen to ignore this year alone are embarrassing."
Then he points out that there was no strike for Valve qualifiers even if we have no major but Jamppi and dream3r can't play in them.
"and Valve have said 'Oh yeah we know actually their stories are accurate, Jamppi didn't cheat, now in a legally binding document. Yep dream3r did have his account hacked in a LAN café', but they still can't play. Where is the fucking solidarity? Gone. Doesn't exist. It's not important [because] it doesn't affect you." "That's what the union does right now, it looks after all the tier 1 people."
He says the CSPPA doesn't represent all players all the time and has driven a divide where you have the haves and have-nots
"We have a tier of players that operate with impunity and do not help their tier 2 or tier 3 players out at all." "If you are not a tier 1 player you do not matter, they don't event ask your opinion."
He tells chrisJ to admit and own the fact that the reason he didn't speak up during the ESL Pro League debacle is because it didn't affect him
"They are looking after some players at the expense of other players. How the fuck is that a union?"
He says the BLAST situation is a reasonable dispute and supports the players but is not the right time for a strike and have not even identified the correct enemy
He thinks players are lashing out now due to previous incidents and are upset that BLAST are working with ESIC
He stated that CSPPA shouldn't beefing with ESIC and they should be working in harmony
He says what they need to do is talk with the teams/organizations that have sold that right to BLAST
RL: "Your employers, the people who pay you that massive exorbitant salaries, when you don't stream and you don't do interviews and you offer no value beyond your ability to click heads and you get 25k dollars a month." "Why don't you talk to them about it? Oh right. You're happy to take away BLAST's paper, but you don't want to risk your own."
"I am seeing such unbelievable cowardice from the players here with the battles you choose."
"Where was the strike action when in the qualifiers for the world championship, there were teams and players engaged in huge conflicts of interest?" "Where was the strike action when your image rights were taken and sold to every league you've ever been in every union type organization you've ever been associated with like, WESA, to your org every time you sign a contract, to the leagues you play in."
"Your image rights are essentially worthless now, there's about 10 fucking separate parties that have them, and how many of them are giving you anything for it? Not much pretty much your org by the way."
"That's a big issue. Your image is you, your image is your brand. What are you doing about that? Nothing."
He is also angry at SirScoots who is "popping off" at people on Twitter who all want the same thing, which is 'A unified Counter-Strike scene for everybody, that works for everybody, that has a sustained ecosystem that nourishes everybody.' "We don't have that now."
He also says their rankings are a joke
"Just so happened, oh look TACO, that very important prominent member of the board, we pushed his team artificially up when they weren't even in the fucking top 20, not by a long shot."
He also says the ineptitude of the CSPPA cost Flashpoint a monitor sponsor
"Is it really a player association or is it like a fucking agency at this point"
ESIC - Esports Integrity Commission
"They have been put in an impossible position."
RL says that Ian Smith, the founder of ESIC and who was done work in mainstream sports, is a good and honorable man who has dedicated his life to integrity and sports. He takes on both sides, ensuring match fixers are punished, but also doing appeals and ensuring those punishments were fair.
"ESIC is a tiny organization" and are in need of money, "They didn't run a grift like the CSPPA did."
"Saying 'you want our support and you want the players to turn up you better pay us.' They don't do that."
"Had startup seed money from MTG and since then they've been pecking shit with the hens."
Ian Smith made sure that the money given by MTG (Modern Times Group, parent company of ESL, ESEA, DreamHack) was nothing more than startup money and wouldn't be in debt to them
Ian Smith sat down with other TO's not part of MTG and wanted to partner with them. They declined and called ESIC "ESL spies and we will never align ourselves with you"
"They only were just able to afford, hiring a PR guy on a full time salary to deal with the press and send out those releases you've seen, this year."
"They have a tiny group of staff investigating these things and they have taken on the biggest problems in our scene: the cheating, the match fixing."
ESIC have had "unprecedented levels of cheating to deal with, because there's something wrong with our scene ever since we went online. There's something wrong with it, everyone's lost their fucking pride and self-respect and they got no passion for it anymore, so they think fuck it, what's in it for me?"
He calls out coaches who are talking about players rights when they would rob and steal from them.
Also says more coaches being banned are coming
He also points out flaws in community's reaction to the punishments to coaches bans: "Half of the cunts still have jobs and some of the cunts got new jobs. We didn't even shun the cheating coaches."
ESIC have "found I think another 2 or 3 exploits like that one and they are investigating them all right now, it's going on right now."
"I know that there are going to be more names getting banned, again."
"So they're doing that on a skeleton crew while, investigating 3 continents worth of match fixing in MDL and semi-pro level CS." "They're doing this with half a dozen people." "They don't have any money or any help. People barely even fucking cooperate with them, they are treated like pariahs. It's ridiculous."
"Why are the CSPPA popping off at ESIC on my Twitter timeline, when you should be working together." "because its all about what's in it in for me." "2020, the online era of CS: 'What is in it for me?' How can I cheat, how can I get my paper, how can I bleed this scene one last time before I fuck off and play shooty shooty bang bang Riot Games babys first fps."
RL says that in the CIS region, teams have gone to tournaments and have been eliminated multiple times by the same team. We found out they were cheating and those players who lost, have been cut from their roster, careers ended because of cheaters.
Stream Sniping
"They're all at it in the online era, they're all at it, they're all cheating, they're all using exploits, probably that see through smoke bug got used a bunch of times"
RL talks about how there is no integrity from dead (the player), always denying when caught doing something
On the topic of 'BLAST never said we couldn't stream snipe': "Lies, BLAST never said you could do that, they had to sort of retcon it." "because what happened after that they fucking started snitching and squealing"
"Suddenly you had like, 10 of the top 15 teams in the world, staring into the abyss of being banned for 6-12 months in line with ESIC recommendations."
He says that ESIC was put in a tough situation and couldn't enforce the bans because it would have resulted in killing CS. What resulted was, BLAST, ESIC, and teams came together and gave them a warning and told them, in RL's words "don't do this again or you're gonna get got."
He then says the top teams brushed this off and didn't give a fuck
The new MiBR team playing Flashpoint, that wasn't involved in the previous incidents are doing it again (stream sniping). He gave credit to Flashpoint for the quick resolution and punishment and respect for cogu's response to the situation.
"ESIC came out and said, once more, 'Guys, zero tolerance from now on.'" RL then got upset at community's reaction calling ESIC "pussies" for their non enforcement and said if we want competitive CS we cant ban the top 10 teams.
He points out how players have no integrity and will do anything for an edge as long as they won't get detected or banned or it's within a grey area.
"All of this shit was mad avoidable, even in the pandemic era."
He talks about why aren't we filming them. Why aren't there representatives for leagues and tournaments making sure players aren't cheating?
Match Fixing
"How many years have we let our scene be fucking pillaged by these greedy cunts?" "We just let it happen."
RL says that gambling and skins betting which existed in moderation was "accelerated and blown up by the Call of Duty greedy fucks."
"Never forget TmarTn was on the board of EnVyUs." "His website, CSGOLotto, they had a bunch of off-the-books sponsorships." "NBK promoted them. People forget."
"Those people who had access to the skins, go to the players" "Even people like s1mple, best player in the world, even he scammed knives and skins off fucking fans."
Owners of skin casino sites would approach pros and lend them skins to use in tournaments and possibly keep them after reaching a deal
Players would tip off inside info about matches and teams in exchange for skins. Info such as: roster changes, how they played in scrims
They would use this info to bet and subvert the odds on their sites. "That happened religiously, I can't even tell you how many times it happened."
"I had access to the biggest database of information, from an inside betting circle in NA, and it would take information and screenshots from other pro players, who were feeding them info in exchange for money or skins."
"Some of these players are still playing." "Incredibly, there are players still in the CSPPA today, complaining about the BLAST recordings, that were embroiled in this murky shit back then."
RL also says that there were tournaments where teams contrived with each other, who should throw, who should win.
"There's a handful of people that are trying to fucking clean it up, and you think you get something over the line and you see something like the CSPPA and it's run by corrupt fucking chuckle heads, and now you've got another corrupt body you have to fight on a fucking daily basis, it's demoralizing."
"It's too far gone. Our entire semi-professional scene is compromised."
"It's rife guys, I'm not going to lie any more. It's not just China, it's not just Russia, it's here, it's NA, it's Europe, it's Australia, so much more than you think, so much more than we can prove."
"I get sent chat logs all the time […] and they're morons, these players, short-sighted, amateur, morons and they're doing it on WhatsApp." People would get cut from the bets because they want to make more money, then they leak the logs. He says, from the chat logs, they spread "little" bets across every site they can (400 to 1k dollars) to prevent shifting odds
He says the scumbags who've fucked off to Valorant will do the same there if Riot doesn't do something and says Valorant "is an esports scene heading for a very early fall based on the sheer volume of scumbags that are already there."
"That's tier 2 CS in a nutshell these days. They know they're never going to play in a major, so what's the punishment?"
"All of these tier 2 fucks that are fixing games now they are like the fucking mafia compared to iBuyPower" "These guys are working with organized criminals to fix entire seasons worth of games. That's what's going on in your tier 2 CS."
"I'm literally being told that there are players fixing games at all levels of Chinese esports and motherfuckers with guns are turning up to team houses and stuff."
North America
"Everyone in NA has left we've lost a continents worth of support during this pandemic and Valve haven't said a fucking word."
RL says the Call of Duty "goblins" that destroyed CS for years are the same people who are now trying to leave CS. "The nerve to treat a game where the fans, and the community, and the TO's were nothing but good to you." "To just kick the players out now and go and leave and say 'It just doesn't make financial sense.' Oh you'll slither back when we have a major though for them stickers won't you."
There's a cascading effect in NA where people don't bother with CS anymore and people like Chaos suffer.
He says NA team owners are incompetent for always wanting it easy and always wanting a guarantee on their investment without skill or nuance.
RL says he would be able to market a team correctly and would have a good ROI and also points out how TSM wouldn't even be bothered to tweet that their team, which was one of the best in the world, was playing at the Major.
He also says not all NA owners are like that, compliments and respects Jason Lake who nearly lost everything to keep Complexity going.
He then calls out the incompetence in Infinite Esports when they acquired OpTic Gaming and bought an Indian CS team.
He says HECZ is not to blame here and that they couldn't tell forsaken was cheating when it was so obvious.
They measured his reaction time to the likes of dev1ce and s1mple
When an enemy showed up on his screen he won that duel something like 44% of the time
"was like the number 1 player in the world statistically"
He brought a laptop to their bootcamp and refused to use the high end PCs that hey provided
He respects Andy Miller (NRG CEO) and HECZ but says that the attitude of not being able to easily monetize their teams is "piss weak" and there needs to be a risk.
He says Chaos EC shouldn't be cutting their roster and should be competent enough to be able to figure out how to make money off their team.
He says there are still opportunities in NA and people are panicking and pulling out, and says Valorant will be the same if not worse.
He also says "bums" who couldn't even get out of groups in NA competitions, are making crazy money in Valorant and says it will continue to inflate.
He also said that he heard rumors that EG (Evil Geniuses) are done.
He also thinks that the rumors of a Valve franchised league from before was sparked up from "these lazy fabled weak NA fucking team owners basically trying to see if Valve would bite at the hook if it was dangled and they didn't"
Slasher says NA team owners are really in favor of franchised leagues because they want to make more money. "Most of the powerful team owners right now are on board with ditching this third party organization structure, or they are trying to play this power politics with all the TOs, and that is contributing to a lot of the problems there"
RL says that Riot has proved they can run a franchised league (LCS) and will be profitable in 2021 which is what a lot of team owners care about and says the competition will only serve to snatch people away from CS.
RL continues to say, "I am so sick and tired of what we have done to this scene, I am just exhausted with it." "I think we have legitimately fucked it, I really think we have. I think we're staring into almost like a CGS (Championship Gaming Series) wasteland in NA." "Counter-Strike esports is a fucking joke."
Talent
"TO's have treated CS talent like absolute human garbage for years now."
RL says that people like Sean Gares and ddk switching over to Valorant isn't for financial reasons because they are making less over there.
He points out that TO's can't even give talent a 3 month in advance calendar.
Because of the pandemic TO's won't hire certain people and some people are working more hours for the same money.
He says we as a community don't respect journalists enough which is why we don't have good journalists.
He also says DeKay is leaving the scene soon and that Thorin is close to leaving also
He says he had to talk a caster down from quitting and was struggling to find reasons.
He says that DreamHack told Vince they would hire him but not if he wants to stick with dusT and says that this is the norm in esports. "Constant leveraging of people against each other." and says this is why we don't have a talent union.
New gen casters are getting put into shit situations and the community's reaction to them is adding fuel to the fire
He says the reason Moses left was because of the terrible conditions
He says that Anders had to constantly leave his family and kid because someone fucked up or broke promises and had to constantly tell his kid to their face that "daddy can't be home this weekend."
He says that esports has always been a lie to sell you this dream, "Meanwhile there's about 2% of the cunts getting all the checks."
Valve
"Anything that Riot does, is better than Valve's inaction"
Slasher says that the larger aspect of esports as a whole compared to other entertainment mediums and Valve's lack of inattention are the bigger problems. He continues saying that the fact that Valve let their game be ran as an esport, they need to take on the responsibilities of it.
Both Slasher and RL wants Valve to take control but not on the level of Riot Games, there needs to be a balance.
In case it was ever a question: Gabe Newell has been to 0 CSGO Majors.
RL calls Valve out saying they could have done something during the gambling era.
He says Valve used to come to the majors, but doesn't think they do anymore.
RL had met with Valve at the Cluj-Napoca Major and had tried to appeal iBP's indefinite punishment and had also gave Brax's life story:
A recent family member passed away, they had lost a lot of income, they had to live in trailer, iBuyPower did not pay any salaries, and was pressured by family to make money who didn't support his career.
RL said that Valve told him, "How dare you try and make us feel guilty." "We shouldn't feel bad about enforcing the only thing that matters that we need to make players afraid of: cheating and match fixing"
RL also tried to share other info about match fixing and nothing came of it
RL points out that Source 2 or a new engine is not something you will want based on the experience of transitioning from CS 1.6 to CS:S. "Valve's track record with brand new engines being launched, not fucking great from what I remember."
Slasher says "If there is anything the community should do, is pressure Valve to hire a community manager."
They say that we need a commissioner, a community manager (not the person who runs the Twitter who posts memes all day), then we need to have a circuit
RL reiterates that Valve doesn't care about CS esports and says they need to change the culture at Valve to make them care about CS esports
Slasher says a systemic problem is making it so working on CSGO would be a bad decision for you as an employee for Valve
He also hasn't talked to Valve in ages and have sent over bugs and cheats and doesn't get emails back anymore
Slasher says we should be directing attention at the developer leads, pointing out Ido Magal, if he even is still the project lead
RL thinks that Ido and Brian are the only people that "vaguely even give a fuck about CS" and were the only people that RL recalled that actually read Reddit and paid attention from time to time
"It is really fucking precarious. Somebody has got to step the fuck up and start giving a shit"
Slasher suggests org owners, with CSPPA, with ESIC, with TOs have a concerted effort against Valve
"Riot Games are doing better things than Valve in the esports space" which is something RL didn't think he'd say.
"People who used to be talent, working with unions, arguing with other talent, when the unions fucked them over, can't understand their perspective, TOs fucking over broadcast talent, broadcast talent wanting to leave and go and work for orgs, orgs having no money, Valve might take coaches away because all the coaches are cheating, ESIC has about 4 people in a fucking call doing the investigations, everyone thinks they're spies for ESL, ESL are just the evil fucking overlords wanting to rule the scene and will just somehow, like cockroaches outliving a nuclear bomb, and Valve are in a fucking holiday in Hawaii thinking about the next Dota character because they don't give a fuck about us."
Closing Statements
"We've peaked. If we want to sustain and exist, now is the time to figure it out. No esports lasts as long as this, we've already done 8 years. We've already broke the records. We have got to figure out a way to coexist and drive the negative forces out and we need to do it as a collective and we're not doing that."
RL compared the Counter-Strike scene to the people on the Titanic who ran around with guns robbing people while the boat was sinking.
"We have given up on being a respectable esports scene." "We are now a conduit to make money for those who want to just milk it, just have one last ride, one last roll of the dice. It's done." "What a fucking mess. What have we done to our fucking scene?"
"There's just too much self-interest driving all of this." "I don't see a way we stop the dominoes." "When it's that bad, when there's that many dishonest people that ESIC have to come out and say that if we punish them all there's no one left. What does that tell you?"
"How many opportunities have we had to clean house? How many times have we said, 'this must never happen again', and another scandal." "The entire skins betting operations was the biggest criminal conspiracy in esports ever executed and no one has been punished for it." "The people who could be driving that don't want to."
"Right now people are fans of those organizations because the scene has value. It is worth being a fan of Astralis because they are excellent at Counter-Strike. It is worth being a fan of s1mple because he is the best player in Counter-Strike, maybe the exception of ZywOo. If the scene is devalued, if the scene loses its meaning, those things lose its meaning too, and people will leave, people will stop tuning into the games. I have seen it happen in multiple esports, this is not my first time at the rodeo. I am getting big Brood War vibes right now and I don't like it."
"The role you play in all of this as fans, as viewers, as listeners, as consumers of esports content, it's absolutely imperative that you know who the good guys are. It's absolutely imperative that you use your voice. It's absolutely imperative that when things are bad, you know who, at least, is trying to make them good, and you have to apply your criticism to the right targets."
He continues saying it's no good in continuing to attack ESIC and saying how they are bad, ESIC have it hard
He says CSPPA are on the right side of the argument on BLAST but have been on the wrong side of many arguments many times.
"If you are not willing to stand along side the weakest member of the union, with the least amount of influence, and the least amount of power, then it is not a union at all and you shouldn't pose as one." "You wanna serve a bunch of special interest do it, everyone else in esports fucking does, but do not pose as something you are not." "We love the players. I've been fighting for players rights for as long as I've been able to, but the CSPPA is not what we needed."
"They are not applying the pressure to the right people, they are not fighting the right battles, they are not helping their weaker members."
He says what orgs have done by keeping or hiring coaches is bad. "When you give up on holding an appreciable standard, you've lost the scene" "Competition matters, rules matter, punishments matter, achievements matter, excellence matters" "If you start stripping that away, you have nothing" "You guys need to take that knowledge and apply it sensibly."
"Valve has sold you all down the river, they sold everyone in the esports scene down the river, tournament organizers are selling their talent down the river. Don't hate on them for sounding tired after a 16 hour day. Don't hate on them because the hype for a matchup they've seen for the 20th time in the past 3 months, they can't be as excited or it sounds contrived. Support your guys, they're there for you, these are your people."
"This community has got to start acting like one for the first fucking time. Just put the petty shit away, let's try and fix this fucking scene while we still have one to save."
"You can't rely on Valve, you can't rely on ESL, you can't rely on the CSPPA, you can't rely on anyone." "Once again, it's gonna be the likes of us, the amateurs, the people who give a fuck, rolling up our sleeves and grafting." "I'm old and tired and I don't want to have to do it again. People need to pick up the torch and do it."
"Like Michal did, like Dudenhoeffer did. You see something wrong, fix it. You see somebody doing something wrong, call it out. If you think something could be better, let people know."
"Vote with your wallets if you're not happy with the direction Valve goes in. If when we do get to the Major, they serve up another subpar, same old bullshit stickers and signatures package again, do not buy it."
"You're a powerful block and if you use it correctly we can fucking avert this disaster."
"I'm not doing another year in this broken, bust-up fucking scene, where everyone is miserable, everyone is broke, everyone is tired, and everyone is trying to fucking rob everyone else, blind, while the fucking people who are meant to be protecting you, are just fucking enhancing it and lining their own pockets."
"I'm not doing it anymore and you shouldn't want to do it either."
"I stand by every fucking thing I said. I mean it, because this game fucking matters to me, this scene fucking matters to me. I put my life into this, my adult life, and to see it in this state is fucking sad."
GME: Bull case vs bear case, from both perspective
This is a post I wrote before earnings. 🌈 m's banned me for a DD that was short but actually made money for those who followed it. Have a read you all. Seeing that a significant interest has developed around the fabled GME short squeeze, I have written this post and I hope this writing provides an overview of the situation.
The case for a squeeze:
The entire argument for a short squeeze hinges on the possibility that either the management agrees with Ryan Cohen's plan and addresses it or he decides to pursue a hostile takeover. In this spirit, we urge you to quickly provide stockholders with a credible and publicly-available roadmap for cost containment, prioritizing profitable retail locations and geographic markets, and building the e-commerce ecosystem gamers deserve. (from the letter) This is Ryan Cohen's plan in its most raw form. Or to put it more simply, he wants GameStop to become the ultimate destination for gamers by leveraging its 55 million PowerUp members, its brand power; reducing lossmaking operations in Europe and Australia and to make investments in a Chewy like website for gaming. Has management been doing anything? Yes. A lot. It's hiring talents for building a successful online gaming store.Entered into a multi-year revenue-sharing agreement with Microsoft. It has also received a saving grace by the newest console cycle in which some people thought(like me) diskless gaming is going to be the leader. But the reality turned out to be quite the opposite. Add to that, the Nintendo Switch sold like wildfire in the US and is going strong, you have a winning combination for GameStop which would likely result in good quarters for the coming quarters. Management has also started a rebranding effort with some changes being made to its logo, items that are kept in-store and online etc. It seems like management is likely to address Cohen's concern and the lifeline it has received or will be receiving from the newest console could be its saving grace. If it can turn around or the management gives guidance that it CAN turn around its business model a short squeeze is imminent. Why would it be inevitable? Notice that short interest is almost 3 times higher than its float and more than outstanding shares, GME as a company is still relatively undervalued (assuming it doesn't go under). If the shorts realize that this company is not going to 0 as they have probably assumed, they will be forced to cover their shorts. The above-mentioned condition of short interest would guarantee that they have to cover. Also considering the average daily volume, this squeeze can last much longer(3-4 days may be) than the other historical squeezes like Volkswagen short squeeze when it became the most valuable company in the world for a short while. But given that the scenario surrounding GME is unprecedented, there is no telling how it could end up other than to say that it will be MASSIVE. Some shorts are already under water. Some of them are likely covering as noted by various Redditors and retail investors who are looking at the stock tick by tick. Also considering that short interest rose to a whopping 309.83% and is now down to 297.13% (as of this writing from Morningstar data), it's obvious that some of it were covered. The recent stock price appreciation could be a result of that plus the expectation of good quarterly earnings report. Retail mania: There is considerable retail interest in this stock. Considering that this stock is being heavily promoted in wallstreetbets and driven by that a lot of people are buying shares. According to a survey conducted there(not that reliable, but a good indicator of interest), that subreddit alone has enough ownership to get a board seat. Open Interest in call options is also huge considering that this is only a $1B market cap company. It's filled to the brim with OTM call options(from December 4 to April and further). And market makers and option sellers would have to hedge to serve this crowd, in turn increasing the stock price. This, in turn, could create a feedback loop where the shorts have to cover their positions, leading to a further increase in stock price, which would force market makers to purchase more shares which could increase stock price and on and on until it triggers a squeeze of epic proportion. Likely improving financial health:GME announced voluntary redemption of senior notes. Management has decided to redeem $125M of its senior notes. This is signalling that the company has managed to generate enough cash flow to cover its debt early. It could even help improve its credit rating which would help it attract institutional investors more and other perks that come with improved credit ratings. Declining debt is necessary as it would ultimately help deleverage the company and put it in a more sustainable footing which is ultimately what is needed for avoiding bankruptcy. Technical analysis: This is not my forte. I have bare-bones knowledge in TA and only use it for entry and exit purposes. But according to some retail investors in Reddit and tradingview GME has formed a cup and handle bullish pattern. Analyst Upgrades: Analysts are upgrading GME stock. Well, that's good, I guess.
The Case For Bankruptcy
The scenario in which a short squeeze doesn't occur is PROBABLY the scenario in which GME ultimately faces bankruptcy. As the thesis for short squeeze is laid out, the thesis for the short sellers is also crystal clear. After all, GME is STILL a large brick and mortar store that is trying to sell a product that could be very easily purchased using the power of the internet. The revenue of GameStop for the past few quarters is in steep decline. The company is overly leveraged and has many stores that are loss-making operations. Its online store has much lower visibility and investment and is lacking in many aspects(in my personal view). Its credit rating is not that good and Cohen himself somewhat criticised the management for trying to hang on to its old ways of doing things. Gaming and associated products are bound to thrive and grow at a CAGR of 9% and had grown even more in the past. Yet GameStop FAILS to capitalize on this trend and is continuously losing market share while destroying its financials. This is a clear sign that something is inherently broken within the company. While the management does seem to be trying to fix things, it could prove to be too little too late. To change its fortune it needs to turn around its business models like Best Buy or Walmart. Yet it seems pretty unfeasible judging by its financials. GameStop had adequate time to change with the times and become an early adopter but its backwards-looking culture and late entry made its journey full of competition. Short sellers believe that ultimately GameStop wouldn't be able to achieve a business turnaround and gain a critical mass of customers in its online space and management incompetency will ultimately lead to its bankruptcy. Thus its faith would be like the numerous mom and pop shops or the various retail giants that were. Even if GME share rises due to retail mania and market maker hedging; institutional investor ownership could decline, leaving retail investors as the ultimate bagholders. The shorts may bite their tongue and keep on paying interest as long as they believe no fundamental change in the business is going to happen. Which means they may not need to cover their position as long as the company becomes bankrupt, thus the fabled short squeeze may never materialize. After all, most shorts are probably institutional investors like Melvin Capital who can always maintain their margin requirements and like the retail investors they can also figure out what the retail investors are trying to do and thus avoid triggering any short squeeze. They may think, well, game sales are slowly becoming more and more digital, ultimately, platform holders wouldn’t give a shit if GME died and die they will. Because the most lucrative part of GME's business is buying and selling old games. So this will ultimately die. Plus, game related merchandize and other products(which are very lucrative and a huge market) would still remain under the clout of Amazon, Walmart etc, so GME will not be able to survive through that business model.
Conclusion
The next two or three quarters are pivotal for GME.
If "Management decides to address Cohen's concerns and manages to show their roadmap to success and improves its financials within the next two quarters = Short squeeze" Else If "Cohen declares hostile takeover or something close to that line= Short squeeze" Else If "Management addresses Cohen but fails to deliver within the next two quarters and has disappointing earnings=Unsure" #improbable cause next two quarters are expected to be good or at least the guidance which is more important Else If "Management doesn't fully address Cohen's concern, Cohen also doesn't make any move yet the business improves still= Likely short squeeze" Else If "Management fails to address Cohen's concern, Cohen disassociates himself, business fundamentals detoriorate= Retail bagholders" Else "I don't know really, imagine your own scenario, you are not bound to my conclusions. In fact my conclusions could be entirely off the mark. We are trying to predict the future here. Hope you come to your own conclusions. :)
Disclaimer
There are various nuances that I avoided writing(which are probably even more important to write) cause it might have taken too much of my time. Writing this post was a good exercise for me and I decided to ride on the GME train after doing so. Before you decide to do anything, you should do your research. This is not financial advice.
I had to stare at my dying mom through a window...
Due to Corona restrictions, the hospital would not let me into see her. She has 2 - 4 months to live. Until she moves to hospice, all I could do was stand on some gravel and cry softly later. This window was outside by the way (not like a hospital door window - not that that would be any better.) I am not alone: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/29/health/coronavirus-hospital-visit-ban.html The 1% are telling you to stay inside and stay safe, with their indoor pools, gyms, and endless amounts of money, while the essential workers deliver everything they need to them. Interestingly, small businesses or anyone with any type of success are not essential to the elite - only those who can work in slave-like conditions: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/08/12/grocery-workers-coronavirus/ The DMV is closed, so my husband could not get his new license (they canceled his appt?), but we easily were able to get some fast food at Burger King the other night. Is the DMV not essential? https://www.driversedhub.com/coronavirus-covid-19-dmv-closures/ I guess they are not really concerned about us traveling anyway as the lockdown restrictions increase. Take a look at Australia: https://fortune.com/2020/11/19/south-australia-adelaide-lockdown-exercise-dog-walking/ The lines at Wal-Mart are now hours long, but remember you can now start ordering everything online. Do not worry about those small businesses shutting down! Amazon has doubled its profits: https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/30/21348368/amazon-q2-2020-earnings-covid-19-coronavirus-jeff-bezos The teachers are advocating for closures of schools, all in the name of safety - not realizing their kids are mentally and socially suffering like never before, plus, eventually their jobs will be replaced by robots anyway... https://www.rollcall.com/2020/08/13/cdc-study-coronavirus-mental-health-anxiety-substance-abuse/ https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2020/01/08/teachers-the-robots-are-coming-but-thats.html Do not have any family gatherings. Do not even have proper funerals anymore. Do not travel or visit anyone. (Will I be able to have a proper funeral for my mom?) Stay inside and watch the Kardashians vacation on their private island: https://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/a34494964/kim-kardashian-breaks-covid-guidelines-tahiti-birthday-vacation/ I can probably keep going, but I think you are getting the point (and add on to the list). People are accepting all this with no question. Whatever this virus is, it is most likely to kill old men: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02483-2 We will be left with a world of people raised in isolation, without proper human interaction. Masks, for example, are making it difficult to decipher emotions, especially for children: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.566886/full People (younger generations) do not care because they want to be alone. They hate other people and the world. They hate babies, life, and creation itself. https://ifstudies.org/blog/the-rise-of-childless-america People do not really need people anymore...or family. They have endless distractions: porn, video games, social media, drugs, alcohol, etc. They never really have to give themselves a second to think, to question. They have been raised this way since birth now. This is the world people are wanting - in many ways, even, they are begging for it. The sick trick is that they do not have to even enforce much when people are begging for total restrictions, laws, and overall social control. I gave up on friendships (for the most part) many years ago. Why? People were unreliable, selfish, and seemed consumed with their lives. I do still have friends, but I let many people out of my life. I saw this strange dehumanizing many years ago and have been writing post after post after post warning people. Yet, I'm usually met with downvotes and shills. Many say this is a great world and things will be wonderful, especially on this forum. And that is true if you're ultimate goal is to be completely dehumanized. Because whether you see it or not - they are not just depopulating society, they are dehumanizing it: https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/cyborgs-will-replace-humans-remake-world-james-lovelock-says-ncna1041616 Their great reset, dark winter, new normal, and ultimate agenda is to make society as dehumanized as possible, and it is working.
Advice on how to tell strict parents about relationship?
Hi, there. I (F19) have been dating this guy from Australia (M21) for four months, he and I have been friends for almost three years prior to that. I've never mentioned my online friends to my strict russian parents before (I live in germany, though!), besides my first relationship, which was also a LDR. I've only briefly mentioned that I play games online with someone from Australia a few months ago... anyway, I was 18 when I told them about the first one and they reacted extremely badly, cause my ex was a muslim, but he lived in our neighbour country, which wasn't such a drastic distance like to Australia. They were incredibly racist and claimed you can't love someone you've never met. etc. etc. Basically after that I kept the relationship secret, till it fell apart. Now, I really want to tell them about this amazing guy. Especially since valentines day is approaching and he is getting flowers for me and apparently more things, that will make it pretty obvious that I'm not single. It would be finally a good opportunity where I am forced to tell them about him, or else I'll always be too scared to confess. My parents are rather toxic and pretty much control my life so I am quite scared how it'll go and am looking for advice on how I could hold my ground against them? They need to understand that I should decide about my life, and especially who I choose to date. My boyfriend and I hope to meet around christmas, where he'd fly out to me to properly meet my family before I'd ever fly out to him, but it's not 100% confirmed, cause of the travel ban Australia faces at the moment. Thanks, covid. Them getting him to know over video chat is not an option since my parents only speak russian and german. He is currently practicing basic german, but it would nowhere be enough anytime soon. I have no idea how to make him seem trustworthy and like a great guy for me and let them approve of the relationship. He has all the qualities my parents want in a boyfriend for me, besides that he isn't russian or german and lives extremely far away, besides that he'd be perfect in their eyes. Do you have any ideas? Obviously I'll continue the relationship if they like it or not, but approval would make things a lot easier. I'm curious how you guys did it with relationships that had a language barriere and possibly strict and disapproving parents by default? Sorry for the long post. I'm thankful for any response, have a nice day. UPDATE: Well, my idea was to tell them by showing his gifts which were flowers, this teddy and some chocolate and then to explain who got it for me. I was EXTREMELY terrified.. but they took the news goddamn amazingly? He and I still can’t believe that really happened. Like, wow. They are insanely supportive and happy for me! This is truly the best day of the entire year. Now Australia just has to lift the travel ban so we can finally meet, oh well. This was a huge success though. Extremely happy now 😊
I had to stare at my dying mom through a hospital window...
Due to Corona restrictions, the hospital would not let me into see her. She has 2 - 4 months to live. Until she moves to hospice, all I could do was stand on some gravel and cry softly later. This window was outside by the way (not like a hospital door window - not that that would be any better.) I am not alone: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/29/health/coronavirus-hospital-visit-ban.html The 1% are telling you to stay inside and stay safe, with their indoor pools, gyms, and endless amounts of money, while the essential workers deliver everything they need to them. Interestingly, small businesses or anyone with any type of success are not essential to the elite - only those who can work in slave-like conditions: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/08/12/grocery-workers-coronavirus/ The DMV is closed, so my husband could not get his new license (they canceled his appt?), but we easily were able to get some fast food at Burger King the other night. Is the DMV not essential? https://www.driversedhub.com/coronavirus-covid-19-dmv-closures/ I guess they are not really concerned about us traveling anyway as the lockdown restrictions increase. Take a look at Australia: https://fortune.com/2020/11/19/south-australia-adelaide-lockdown-exercise-dog-walking/ The lines at Wal-Mart are now hours long, but remember you can now start ordering everything online. Do not worry about those small businesses shutting down! Amazon has doubled its profits: https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/30/21348368/amazon-q2-2020-earnings-covid-19-coronavirus-jeff-bezos The teachers are advocating for closures of schools, all in the name of safety - not realizing their kids are mentally and socially suffering like never before, plus, eventually their jobs will be replaced by robots anyway... https://www.rollcall.com/2020/08/13/cdc-study-coronavirus-mental-health-anxiety-substance-abuse/ https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2020/01/08/teachers-the-robots-are-coming-but-thats.html Do not have any family gatherings. Do not even have proper funerals anymore. Do not travel or visit anyone. (Will I be able to have a proper funeral for my mom?) Stay inside and watch the Kardashians vacation on their private island: https://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/a34494964/kim-kardashian-breaks-covid-guidelines-tahiti-birthday-vacation/ I can probably keep going, but I think you are getting the point (and add on to the list). People are accepting all this with no question. Whatever this virus is, it is most likely to kill old men: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02483-2 We will be left with a world of people raised in isolation, without proper human interaction. Masks, for example, are making it difficult to decipher emotions, especially for children: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.566886/full People (younger generations) do not care because they want to be alone. They hate other people and the world. They hate babies, life, and creation itself. https://ifstudies.org/blog/the-rise-of-childless-america People do not really need people anymore...or family. They have endless distractions: porn, video games, social media, drugs, alcohol, etc. They never really have to give themselves a second to think, to question. They have been raised this way since birth now. This is the world people are wanting - in many ways, even, they are begging for it. The sick trick is that they do not have to even enforce much when people are begging for total restrictions, laws, and overall social control. I gave up on friendships (for the most part) many years ago. Why? People were unreliable, selfish, and seemed consumed with their lives. I do still have friends, but I let many people out of my life. I saw this strange dehumanizing many years ago and have been writing post after post after post warning people. Yet, I'm usually met with downvotes and shills. Many say this is a great world and things will be wonderful, especially on this forum. And that is true if you're ultimate goal is to be completely dehumanized. Because whether you see it or not - they are not just depopulating society, they are dehumanizing it: https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/cyborgs-will-replace-humans-remake-world-james-lovelock-says-ncna1041616 Their great reset, dark winter, new normal, and ultimate agenda is to make society as dehumanized as possible, and it is working.
[META] Welcome to r/r4r! Please read this before doing anything else!
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I have been a lurker for almost a year trying to understand what has happened to my normal extended family. I am sorry, just have to vent. I am past the anger, not even sad anymore, just numb to it all. I'm from South Australia, so far away from Washington but I cannot wait to see the end of this chapter and have adult back in charge of a powerful country again. I'm grateful to social media for banning the infuriating dumb post from the man himself and the millions that support and comment, (too late and not enough) Even so, just today I find out yet another family member has fallen into the rabbit hole. It's still growing. Two months ago this person was completely anti-qanon, laughed at the crazed satanic paedophile talk. But thanks to his mother. Gone. Just like that, another one bites the dust. I have been abused verbally and even physically (all good, not in danger and don’t like with any q’s) dismissed, ridiculed all from Qcumbers thinking they are enlightened, and I am the sheep. Just for expressing my views. I have spoken with compassion, empathy, anger and I hate to say it, even hatred. There is zero way I can accept false information as fact. No, the pandemic is not fake. No, they are not fudging the covid death numbers. No, Donald Trump didn’t win the election No, there was not voter fraud No, it was not Antifa that stormed the capital. And No, I don’t want to know about your crazy alien, body shifting crap unless it's in a fiction book with a good story. And worse, when you present facts, they say, “You believe your scientist, I will believe mine,”. (I just can’t with that one) This will not stop, they are in a real life online game and their game master can just be passed onto to literally anyone with a stroke of the enter key. An army for sale with the right AD campaign and just enough money to convince this mass hoards of zombie minds to literally believe and do anything. How is this even a reality? Everyone is entitled to their belief, obviously this is just mine. But they cannot create their own facts. I am truly heartbroken that an algorithm convinced millions of people around the world that an evil satanic cabal of elite kills and drinks children’s blood or whatever the next admin account decides to create. But worse, they say it with tears in their eyes and hopelessness in their voices. They truly believe. I remember when the scariest scifi concern was a AI Robot destroying us all to save the planet, now if we are unlucky enough to be called a radical left when you're not even political just value human rights what's to say they don’t start calling us evil and the enemy. Nope, scariest SciFi thought is when an AI algorithm gets out of control and indoctrinates a global mass of people into a doomsday cult which can very easily be one of your neighbours or even your mum. If only there was a way for these Qultist to disengage from the internet for ten days of darkness like they are expecting, they truly need it. If ever kids have a right to limit screen time for there grown ass parents. Its now! Be safe, Be Kind and Remember your loved one's have been manipulated and let all hope the criminals that did this to them go to real life not underground fake bunker jails. Thank you to all here, we are not alone!
I had to stare at my dying mom through a hospital window...
Due to Corona restrictions, the hospital would not let me into see her. She has 2 - 4 months to live. Until she moves to hospice, all I could do was stand on some gravel and cry softly later. This window was outside by the way (not like a hospital door window - not that that would be any better.) I am not alone: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/29/health/coronavirus-hospital-visit-ban.html The 1% are telling you to stay inside and stay safe, with their indoor pools, gyms, and endless amounts of money, while the essential workers deliver everything they need to them. Interestingly, small businesses or anyone with any type of success are not essential to the elite - only those who can work in slave-like conditions: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/08/12/grocery-workers-coronavirus/ The DMV is closed, so my husband could not get his new license (they canceled his appt?), but we easily were able to get some fast food at Burger King the other night. Is the DMV not essential? https://www.driversedhub.com/coronavirus-covid-19-dmv-closures/ I guess they are not really concerned about us traveling anyway as the lockdown restrictions increase. Take a look at Australia: https://fortune.com/2020/11/19/south-australia-adelaide-lockdown-exercise-dog-walking/ The lines at Wal-Mart are now hours long, but remember you can now start ordering everything online. Do not worry about those small businesses shutting down! Amazon has doubled its profits: https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/30/21348368/amazon-q2-2020-earnings-covid-19-coronavirus-jeff-bezos The teachers are advocating for closures of schools, all in the name of safety - not realizing their kids are mentally and socially suffering like never before, plus, eventually their jobs will be replaced by robots anyway... https://www.rollcall.com/2020/08/13/cdc-study-coronavirus-mental-health-anxiety-substance-abuse/ https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2020/01/08/teachers-the-robots-are-coming-but-thats.html Do not have any family gatherings. Do not even have proper funerals anymore. Do not travel or visit anyone. (Will I be able to have a proper funeral for my mom?) Stay inside and watch the Kardashians vacation on their private island: https://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/a34494964/kim-kardashian-breaks-covid-guidelines-tahiti-birthday-vacation/ I can probably keep going, but I think you are getting the point (and add on to the list). People are accepting all this with no question. Whatever this virus is, it is most likely to kill old men: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02483-2 We will be left with a world of people raised in isolation, without proper human interaction. Masks, for example, are making it difficult to decipher emotions, especially for children: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.566886/full People (younger generations) do not care because they want to be alone. They hate other people and the world. They hate babies, life, and creation itself. https://ifstudies.org/blog/the-rise-of-childless-america People do not really need people anymore...or family. They have endless distractions: porn, video games, social media, drugs, alcohol, etc. They never really have to give themselves a second to think, to question. They have been raised this way since birth now. This is the world people are wanting - in many ways, even, they are begging for it. The sick trick is that they do not have to even enforce much when people are begging for total restrictions, laws, and overall social control. I gave up on friendships (for the most part) many years ago. Why? People were unreliable, selfish, and seemed consumed with their lives. I do still have friends, but I let many people out of my life. I saw this strange dehumanizing many years ago and have been writing post after post after post warning people. Yet, I'm usually met with downvotes and shills. Many say this is a great world and things will be wonderful, especially on this forum. And that is true if you're ultimate goal is to be completely dehumanized. Because whether you see it or not - they are not just depopulating society, they are dehumanizing it: https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/cyborgs-will-replace-humans-remake-world-james-lovelock-says-ncna1041616 Their great reset, dark winter, new normal, and ultimate agenda is to make society as dehumanized as possible, and it is working.
this is the ghost user "ghostuser" from the ssc forums, i made some posts in the last year before last year before i got banned https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/09/11/open-thread-136-25/https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/10/02/open-thread-137-75/https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/11/20/open-thread-141-25/ it seems like everything keeps getting worse and worse all the time, i was happy that trump lost the election at first and thought maybe a moderate like biden would help unify the divided country but now it seems like its just made the far right and far left even worse, i keep seeing trump supporters talking about how the election was rigged and theyre going to literally overthrow the government while the leftists keep talking about how we need a revolution and not another fake liberal reformist whos not much better than the conservatives to them... and i honestly dont give a fuck about biden or his boring centrist policies but the sheer level of hatred in american politics is deeply distressing to me to the point that its making me literally want to kill myself, one side is filled with nazi genocide deniers and psychopath revolutionaries who want to murder politicians and violent monsters like the proud boys who go around in the streets beating up minorities and anyone they think is liberal while the other side is filled with communist genocide deniers who defend china and the ussr and castro and want to send all their enemies to the gulag or have them killed in the street and think they can build a perfect world just by indiscriminately murdering all the rich people and conservatives and normies, so fuck them both, ive never seen this level of pure hatred on both sides in my life and i just want all of them to go away forever and stop existing and stop having ever existed to begin with... it fills me with absolute despair and seething hatred and a burning desire to see the whole of humanity wiped from the face of the earth forever and the worst part is that its completely inescapable because no matter where i go its impossible to avoid these people. i only have two close friends irl and ive barely seen them since the pandemic started, i havent seen my girlfriend in months and barely talk to her anymore, i dont work and i dont go to school anymore and i stopped even trying to work on my dissertation, i dont have any hobbies or interests anymore because everything has lost its appeal because how can i focus on anything so trivial when the country and the world are so fucked up and filled with such horrible people, i stopped reading books and watching tv and playing video games and going out, not i just spend all day every day going online and getting into political debates and arguments with far right and far left extremists on facebook and twitter and reddit and 4chan and discord and q-anon forums im a very conflict averse person and id be happy just staying around people who didnt talk about politics or just had boring normie suburbanite democrat or republican views but there are no normal people anymore, just two armies of murderous bloodthirsty fanatics seeking to slaughter everyone they disagree with... and then maybe some other people who are maybe not so bad but also irrelevant and will never have any impact on anything and are all too happy to stand by while whichever side theyre closest to commits genocide and mass murder... i tried to take your advice last time, i really did, i tried to filter out all the nazis and commies and radicals, but its no use because theyre too pervasive all over social media! even when i try to just be friends with other people my age, i always end up seeing the same bullshit radical leftist or alt right memes everywhere, the studies show that about half of millennials support socialism or communism now and most of the young people who arent socialists or communists or anarchists are involved with the far right movement instead, plus im a queer (bisexual) and its even worse in the queer community because the percentage of radicals is even higher there... sometimes ill see people ive been following on facebook or twitter or instagram for months who never talked about politics before suddenly post some leftbook or alt right meme and ill realize theyre one of the fanatics too and its gotten to the point where every time it happens it just makes me want to slit my wrists or jump out a tenth story window its just as bad in real life, i went to a performance event at an lgbtq bar back during the primary season and everyone started making fun of this one trans dude and heckling him and borderline misgendered him just because he was a centrist who enthusiastically supported biden instead of voting for bernie or the green candidate or the socialist party candidate or just rejecting the idea of voting altogether, and i really dont even like biden that much but i was just disgusted and horrified by how they treated him... back in the summer i got into a huge argument with one of my friends because she was defending the soviet flag and marxism leninism and i said it was offensive to defend a regime that was responsible for mass murder and genocide and we got into a huge screaming match over it and never talked again back in 2019 or 2020 or one of those whatever years there was a maoist protest in australia or maybe it was a maoist celebration, i forget the details but it doesnt really matter, the point is that the people protesting or celebrating were literally in favor of a brutal dictator who killed tens of millions of innocents and they wanted the same thing to happen again in the west, and the only group that opposed them was some horrible conservative nationalist group with one of those right wing think tank names like heritage center or something like that who literally laughed at immigrant refugees who drowned while trying to cross into australia... in the entire country, theres apparently no one who doesnt either support mass murder of landlords or support mass murder of immigrants or just doesnt fucking give a damn at all maybe most of these people are harmless for now but just because they havent done anything horrible yet doesnt mean they wont in the future, or that they wouldnt if given the chance, these are people who would enthusiastically go along with nazi or soviet or maoist atrocities and gladly kill for hitler or stalin or mao to slate their bloodthirst, and just because they havent had the opportunity to actually do it doesnt mean theyre any different psychologically or morally. i remember kant said that eternal hell wasnt an unjust punishment for finite crimes because sinners would commit infinite sins if given the chance, and as a secular agnostic humanist i thought that was just some flimsy attempt to defend indefensible christian dogma, but i kinda get it now. i dont believe in hell, but if i did, why should a nazi from 1945 be damned while a nazi from 2015 is spared when the only difference is that the modern nazi never had the opportunity to commit all the murders and purges he fantasized about? i just want it to end please i just want this all to end
Just to preface, this is mainly for me to vent/rant about my situation in relation to my parents with a slight therapeutic angle, so don't feel the obligation to reply, but I may ask questions you can answer if you want regardless. I could have posted this in /insaneparents etc. but I feel the replies I would get here may be more relevant. Sorry if some of this lacks any chronology, but my mind isn't at its cognitive peak right now and I just want to get my thoughts out. This is also super long, so I understand if you don't want to read it all. Okay so my mental health hasn't been super good for years now, anxious person/likely major depressive disorder with some mild autism (aspergers, diagnosed) thrown in for good measure, but my parents believing this doesn't help it either. My mother (49) is let's say more ardent believer out of my parents with my step father (51) mainly being a follower of my mother, this is applicable outside of conspiracies as well as my mother is a domineering person in my opinion and disagreeing with her can cause tension even though she claims to accept other's views/opinions, and my stepfather isn't the most assertive person (nothing wrong with that) but I feel she's taken advantage of that and have a unhealthy relationship dynamic, this is just my perception of her behavior I think she's partially due to how my biological father may have treated her when they were in a relationship long ago (they've been split since I was a child) but I've only heard bits and pieces so I cannot claim this to be true 100%, plus I suck at reading people well to some extent due to my autism. So basically, I feel my stepfather basically follows whatever my mother believes for the most part. My mother seems to have a knack in radicalizing others with this horseshit my grandmother (79) (mother's mother) has similar views, so it's possible she's radicalized her too, a sister of my mother (my aunt), possibly a neighbor to some extent also has similar views, she's also befriended someone she's met online (We'll call her J, about my mother's age) who's she's met several times in person now who's perhaps more radical than her. (even homo/transphobic, which scares me as I probably have some form of gender dysphoria, one of the possible causes of my mental health issues) so in short, my mother seems to be able to influence a lot of people in her social circles to align with her views. My brother has expressed some concern about my mother's views, but he seems mostly indifferent to it, but they don't have the best relationship outside of this situation though. Here's the more chronological part of my mother's radicalization: My mother is not the most educated (she left school 15 to care for her ailing father at the time) and shortly after he died when she was 16, she worked full time until age 25 until a little before I was born and didn't return to paid work till around 2007/8 after me and my brother could be somewhat independent. She's had some tertiary education specific to her current employment (caring for physically disabled people), as of now, she takes care of 1 person full time which grants her free time as once they've been cared for, they don't need much supervision. I feel this what gave her the time to view this content on YouTube. I'm not saying people of her age or education level (younger or older) lack the capacity of critical thinking but she was raised in a very different media environment (only TV/newspapers/radio back then) before the internet/social media existed which now allows these fringe topics to be discussed easier which could predispose some people her age with these views who didn't have to discern (to the same extent) the misinformation coming from all angles these days. I'm not saying major news outlets are always truthful/objective, but what I'm saying is there is a larger barrage of information from all these days as there were back before I was around and it's harder to objectively (media literacy) filter than it once was. I noticed some changes in her views in late 2016, when we cut the cord on our pay TV and I (now regret doing, don't know if it would've made a difference) set up a home theatre PC (similar to an external kind of the smart TV's more common nowadays) to replace it which could access YouTube/the internet (including bitchute which she occasionally uses in more recent times, only since the pandemic) She got into watching some financial advisors on YouTube and since bought some gold, silver (who would give a shit about that if the world went up in flames, wouldn't food/water be more valuable than some silly "rare" metal?, granted, she did "prep" a little at some point but has largely neglected it) paranoid about the world going cashless, paranoid about complete financial collapse (not extremely odd with all the money being printed since COVID, I'm worried about the economic consequences of that but I don't think the world will descend into complete anarchy soon) but she also had similar worries prior to COVID which now could be exacerbated. She's also always been the free spirit/alternative healing type as well which could have predisposed her to some of her pseudoscientific views she now has. When she leaves the house she always puts on "cleansing" music 432hz or something like that. She's a hardcore antivaxxer, believes COVID is fake/hoax/no more serious than the common cold/anti masker thinks vitamins can help boost your immune system against COVID, these clowns constantly contradict themselves. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic (march) she briefly took it seriously, but it was like a switch flipped in her head and suddenly thought what I just mentioned above, perhaps her mind is latching onto it as a coping mechanism during stressful times, an explanation so to speak. Ever since then her views have been far more radical than they were in the past. Promotes "Out of Shadows", "Vaxxed", has watched David Icke, Max Igan/Crowhouse etc. Anyone against her is suddenly a pedophile/supports pedophilia, seems hell bent on exposing pedophiles (I'm not denying the existence of pedophiles anywhere, but constantly accusing anyone you don't like of pedophilia doesn't actually help) She's also passionate about "saving the children" from child traffickers (again, another hook for radicalization imo) in the usual conspiratorial way people mention on this subreddit. I live in Australia, which for the most part has done better than most countries in handling the pandemic so far (case numbers at least) and over the course of 2020 she's attended with my stepfather many "freedom"/anti lockdown/mask rallies with J sometimes, she always tries to politicize the issue of masks (not directed at me), J at least has mentioned them to be "muzzles", complains they're hard to breathe in, insists on exceptions etc. I think my mother also has similar views, and vehemently refuses to wear them unless practically forced too and then reluctantly, she's so childish about it arguing our "freedoms" are in jeopardy and anyone else are "sheep" (ironic when flipped the other way around). My mother has removed COVID-19 social distancing stickers off seats on public transport, she has printed lots of posters bill gates being the devil, dollar vigilante, pizzagate is real etc, here's a link to the pics I saw printed in July 2020, took them when she wasn't looking. https://postimg.cc/gallery/qTCNMHf and some more recent one's I've seen printed off in late 2020, I believe they're intended to be suck on public areas (lightposts etc) Link to pics of some of the more recent ones: https://postimg.cc/gallery/xq8PHsM (I've removed the links from some, I know it probably won't do too much for determined people, I'm only posting these so you have some idea about my mother's views that are hard to convey in words. Mods, if you feel these pics violate the rules of spreading conspiracies, I'm more than happy to remove them, I only want to convey my mother's worldview in ways only pictures can.) She was definitely not keen on Biden being inaugurated, spreading conspiracies about hunter biden's laptop or something around mid 2020, earlier in 2020, she posted a lot of Q-adjacent stuff, adrenochrome, 5G, bill gates is evil (not saying the guy is a saint, Microsoft did some shady shit back in the 90's when he was at the helm, but the flack against him from conspiracy theorists today isn't justified) but gave up sometime in september as she thought she was "shadow banned", she has a MeWe account, an alt-tech social media platform and as I mentioned watches various content on bitchute. Finally, I don't think she's said the believes in Q specifically, but her views definitely align closely with things labelled/or analogous with Q, I feel the word QAnon has become the catch-all term for all of this, so I'll leave that there. Anyways, this isn't even 100% comprehensive but a decent summary, enough ranting about my mother's radicalization, this is the emotional part about how it affects me/my future and not solely about conspiracies but how it affects me & my relationship with them. For the most part, she's left me alone and hasn't tried hard to push her views on me, but it still affects me regardless, we both barely tolerate each other at the best of time. Partly my fault as I'm a lazy depressed nobody who doesn't contribute much to the household due to my depression partly exacerbated by this. I feel partially guilty for setting up a device capable of browsing YouTube coupled with spare time due the nature of her job and with the great YouTube algorithm /s possibly introducing this to her slowly. Knowing what I know today, I would have never done it, but would that have changed things or perhaps only delay the situation I find myself in? Especially if she bought a smart TV anyways at some point, or radicalized through a different avenue? I also feel guilty for specifically her anti vaxx views, it's not hard to deduce that it's possible she believes a vaccination caused my autism and she's latching onto that for an answer to my disability. Also one mental quirk I have is that I still view my mother as an authority figure, even at age 23 I always catch myself, even writing this post trying to justify my view in a way that would refute her own, almost arguing with what I think she would say in response to something I say here, this could be a developmental quirk of my autism perhaps despite disagreeing with her I still feel that childhood mentality, possibly exacerbated by her domineering personality, I always question what I'm thinking based on how she would view it which makes forming independent opinions hard sometimes. I still feel ensnared by my mothers opinions. I still feel like a kid/tween with adult cognition (I know some people feel like this, but I think it's different for me) I have this messed up brain that has ruined my life. I don't think I can realistically move out and get away from my mother anytime soon, If ever, I've got $10000 AUD against my name and that's it. I've been unemployed for nearly a year (not directly because of COVID, but has made jobs more scarce) partly due to my mental health issues messing with my cognitive abilities and my lack of goals (had no real goals prior to depression) My life has basically been me taking the path of least resistance doing what was expected of me, never really making any decisions for myself (I don't think I will ever make any major decisions for myself, possibly rooted in anxiety), going to school, getting the job I used to have served on a silver platter and finally being unemployed, just fulfilling the minimum obligations placed on me so people leave me alone. I really don't know how to function in this world nor will I likely be able to. Don't let my somewhat complex vocabulary deceive you into thinking I'm not severely disabled by my condition. Even though I'm labelled "high functioning". I've just been browsing the internet/reddit/watching YouTube/playing the occasional game on my PC for the past year, and I don't think it would've been super different had COVID not come along. I'm frozen by anxiety, partly why I haven't done much with myself for the past year, yet have no goals regardless. I could die today and not care, even if I did get employed somehow, what's the fucking point? Just to work most of my life away anyway if I were to live it to have a CHANCE at retirement, what is the fucking point. I don't care for anything, never have. Why am I obligated to remain alive to reach milestones I don't care about reaching just so I can give most of my life away in the form of labor to afford the privilege of continuing to exist? Even if I did somehow move out/get employed I would derive no joy from it. I just exist for the sake of existing whilst having constant existential crises. Humanity will not go extinct if I die, so why not let people die who want to die? And I just don't mean an impulsive decision but a fundamental problem that can NEVER be fixed that will always impact your quality of life, think someone with a chronic condition kept alive in pain, except mine isn't physical but neurological in nature which is less visible/less acknowledged. Anxiety is also just freezing me in place, exacerbated by my mother, that's one of my pet peeve's. Probably due the worry of the unknown. Also with my gender dysphoria, sure If I decide to transition, if I'm indeed trans and not deluded or confusing it with something else, or perhaps a symptom of my autism/obsessive thought, It won't be perfect, my body will always be male, I can transition to give it the external appearance (if I ever pass somehow), but I will never truly be a woman, I've accepted that, just a horrible imitation of one, I wish I were one for some fucked up reason, I can't explain why I feel that way, and I will always be extremely jealous, but it can never be, I will always have a male body, even with transition. I will always be disassociated from the body I have especially when it starts to age in a really masculine way. It's just some fucked up fantasy that will never be. Maybe I'm seeking validation, I really don't know anymore. Again possibly a permanent issue alongside my autism. Anyways if you somehow read all of this, congrats, I hope I didn't worry you too much at the end there, but I'm just letting out some of my emotions and how I feel about my life moving forward, If I decide to continue with it. Sorry if some of it is organized badly and I apologize for my excessive use of parenthesis, my brain is just a mess. If this doesn't get replies, I still feel good for letting my feelings out somewhere on the internet just to vent/therapeutic in typing my thoughts down.
With a game that has been around for as long as Siege, we are aware that there are long-standing issues that we have yet to fully resolve. We are dedicated to maintaining and growing the game continually, as we have done for many years before. We appreciate the community’s support throughout the years, and we also thank you for your patience as the game continues to develop. In this Status Report we will be shedding some light on long-standing topics of player concerns that are very important to us, but also complex to discuss. Our regular Top Issues and Community Concerns blog posts lays out current issues with more finite and short-term fixes. The goal of this Status Report is to share behind-the-scenes insight as to why some of the long-standing issues are so persistent, and how we are approaching solutions to them in the long-run. While not all of these topics will be addressed in the near future, we do have several things already in the works that we want to share.
1. Sound Issues
Concerns: We are aware that various sound issues in the game have been problematic for players for some time. Sound in Siege is a very complex system which attempts to realistically simulate sound propagation in a 3D environment. In some cases, the complexity of the sound system can be confusing which leads to player misunderstandings—for example, when sound uses a specific route to reach the player, but the player is not aware of that route (like in the case of a Maverick hole). In other cases, this complexity can also mean it can be very difficult to diagnose sound bugs, such as the frequently mentioned inversed audio, or missing sounds. Challenges: Our sound system takes into account many parameters when serving sounds to players. This includes the player’s position, environment, game state, and more. New components that interact with our sound system get added every Season, and with new elements there are always new opportunities for bugs to be introduced. Another important factor to consider is that Siege’s destruction engine fosters a constantly changing, dynamic environment. Every round is unique since sound propagation dynamically changes based on the different states of destruction. This adds an extra layer of complexity to reproducing and fixing sound-related issues. The goal of sound propagation in Siege is to dynamically convey realistic sound direction and position to the players. This is done by dividing our maps into multiple spaces, which allow sound to propagate from one space to another through specific connection points (such as destructible walls, floors, doors and windows). Then depending on the current state of map destruction, the propagation system connects the sound to the listener by calculating the best path. It will check whether the connector points are covered by their corresponding wall, or if a hole was made which would let the sound pass. Once the algorithm determines the optimum pathway, we use this information to position and modulate the sound so players can recognize the sound’s origin and distance. Future: To get sound in Siege to a better place we have taken multiple actions internally to help us diagnose and fix sound issues. First, we have instrumented the sound system to help us catch errors more quickly. This aims to enable us to identify errors earlier in our development process, as well as debug difficult-to-reproduce problems. Secondly, we have reviewed the status of our sound and propagation systems. We've reached the conclusion that we need to rebuild large parts of it, starting with the way sounds are packaged and connected to the game. We are aiming to begin releasing the sound repackaging in Season 3. However, the full rebuild of the entire sound propagation and sound interactions systems is a major undertaking that will not be finalized in Year 5. In the meantime, new bugs that pop up are fixed when proper reproduction can be achieved by our QC teams. This is one of the main roadblocks behind the inverse audio and missing sounds bugs: they seem to occur randomly and cannot be recreated consistently in-house, which makes it very difficult to work on the steps towards a solution. However, we will continue to try reproducing sound bugs as part of our usual processes and fixing them whenever possible. We would also like to ask for the community’s help on this matter. If you find a consistent way of reproducing any sound issues you face, please let us know through R6 Fix, opt in for direct contact in your submission, and we can reach out for more info.
2. Connectivity
Connectivity is a varied topic that encompasses many different areas such as internet service providers, our backend services (such as matchmaking), our game servers, our game server provider, and even DDoS attacks.
2.1 Overall Connectivity
Challenges: Our live and online teams monitor our online services 24/7 to ensure that the game is always available to our players. They are always aware of any degradations that arise and work very hard to resolve them as quickly as possible. Despite their constant surveillance, degradations do still occur. While some degradations can occur due to changes on our end, other times degradations are outside of our control (i.e. third-party degradations). When a degradation occurs, we do our utmost to bring services back online with minimum impact to our players. For prolonged periods of downtime we have a compensation matrix in place. As an example, at the beginning of the stay-at-home measures in mid-March, the added load on our servers caused degradations in matchmaking and login problems. To answer the increased load and player activity, we scaled up our infrastructure by:
Doubling the number of servers allocated to processing matchmaking data (distributing the load across more servers to prevent backlogs).
Adding additional shards (each shard is a separate server instance) to increase the capacity of our databases (increasing database scalability and performance).
Doubling the capacity of the Rainbow Six Siege load balancer (increasing capacity to be able to distribute network traffic more reliably).
From start to end, the connectivity issues lasted less than a week while we implemented the above measures before returning to normal. During regular periods of activity, our data indicates that 97% of Ranked games start with 10 players, and more than 98.5% of matches end successfully without individual connection lost, high ping kicks, or game server crashes. The graph below illustrates the overall success rate of Rainbow Six matches since the beginning of the year (in green): Match End Success Rate However, a good example of connectivity issues that are not within our control can be seen in the blue section of the graph. The blue section above indicates matches where at least one player was kicked due to high ping. With the start of stay-at-home measures in March, the percentage of high ping kicks has more than doubled due to the additional load placed on the internet globally — a factor we are unable to control. Future: Our live and online teams are constantly exploring ways to improve the quality of service in Siege. They have been working endlessly behind the scenes since the launch of Siege and continue their efforts to this day. To improve connectivity performance and resiliency, we migrated our game servers to Linux last year, and this year, work is already underway to improve resiliency in case of third-party outages. To improve horizontal scaling capabilities, improve matchmaking times, and allow for more seamless maintenances, we are working on transitioning our entire backend to a microservices based architecture. As you can imagine, these changes take time. However, we will make our best efforts to make everything seamless and transparent to players, so look forward to more updates from us as these changes go live.
2.2 Latency Policy
Concern: When a player’s ping reaches a certain threshold for a sustained period of time, they are kicked from the game. The current kick threshold is considered too lenient by some in the community. Challenge: Our current ping thresholds are based on values observed during the 2015 Alpha tests. Connectivity kicks and warning standards for what we deem to be so laggy as to have a negative impact on the game is based on that data. Anything less than a ping of 110ms is considered acceptable and for any values over this, additional checks and verifications are applied to the player’s actions before triggering a kick to remove the player. Future: We need to maintain an overall quality of play performance for everyone in the game, while allowing some flexibility for potential fluctuations in the normal course of gameplay. Our teams are invested in reducing latency by adding game servers in additional regions—but this will require proper assessments on whether the population in that region would be able to sustain matchmaking while still putting players into matches within a reasonable amount of time. It will also depend on the capacity of our infrastructure providers. (Siege currently maintains servers in West EU, North EU, South Africa, HK, Singapore, Japan, Australia, US West, US East, US Central South and Brazil). As we add more regions and the average player latency is reduced, we may re-evaluate our data and revisit potential changes to ping thresholds.
3. Cheaters and Disruptive Behavior
Cheating in Siege is and will always be a topic of high priority for us. In our latest issue of Top Issues and Community Concerns we outlined the results of some of our short-term tactics to mitigate hackers, cheating, and lobby freezes. We will continue to communicate on anti-cheat measures under the condition that it will not compromise our efforts against cheaters and won’t negatively impact implemented solutions. We do also aim to have a longer-form dev blog on cheating in the near future. On the subject of toxicity, we take a firm stance against it. We seek to prioritize healthy interactions between players, promote a positive game environment, and uplift a supportive community. Presently, we try to mitigate toxic and disruptive behaviors in game with chat filtering, mute options, Reverse Friendly Fire, keeping all-chat off by default, and the upcoming Match Cancellation feature. The battle against toxicity must ultimately be a collaborative effort between the team and the Siege community, so we will continue to encourage positive behaviors we’d like to see more of.
3.1.DDoS/DoS
Concern: DDoS issues have arisen from time to time as cheaters find different methods to attack vulnerabilities in our systems. Challenges: We are highly committed to protecting our game from DDoS attacks. We have a dedicated team monitoring network anomalies and DDoS attacks on our servers. However, each case differs and often requires different partners (both internal and external) to investigate and remedy. For instance, a recent rise in reports of DDoS was actually tied to lobby freezing—a different method of disrupting the game. We worked to create a refined detection and tracking method for lobby freezers and then implemented an automatic kick for identified cheaters. To provide some context, below is a graph that represents the number of successful DDoS attacks on our systems. DDoS attacks over time In the months leading up to Ember Rise, the number of DDoS attacks rose incredibly quickly. We began implementing a number of measures to put a stop to the attacks, including working closely with external providers. Once our DDoS mitigation solution was activated, we saw the number of successful attacks drop to almost 0. The situation remained stable until recently, when a rise in DDoS reports in the beginning of March led to our discovery of some new DDoS techniques being used. Future: We will continue to monitor and investigate DDoS attacks on our servers. Our dedicated DDoS team is currently pursuing several avenues to mitigate new types of attacks we’ve discovered in collaboration with our external cloud provider. We will provide more regular updates on this in our Top Issues and Community Concerns blog posts, or in upcoming patch notes depending on when we have more to share.
3.2. Boosting
Concern: Boosters unfairly inflate the rank of other players via dishonest or illegal means. This is usually done by manipulating our matchmaking systems by smurfing and/or through cheats. Future: To handle accounts boosted by cheaters, we have a 2-step system that includes banning the cheaters, and then carrying out a MMR rollback. Banned cheaters will trigger MMR rollbacks, and we can identify with quite high confidence players who receive a significant MMR as having been boosted. These boosted players then receive an MMR reset and are required to redo their Season’s placement matches. Furthermore, to reduce boosting, we also implemented a limit on the maximum MMR gap allowed between party members. Another step to combat boosting is the upcoming unified MMR change. This allows our matchmaking system to properly identify players based on their worldwide MMR rather than their regional one should they change servers (therefore allowing them to play at their Seasonal MMR reset’s value for a short period). Unfair matchmaking caused by players who are misrepresenting their actual skill level is an issue we will continuously strive to improve on.
3.3. Smurfing
Concern: Smurfs create imbalances in matchmaking when they use new accounts to hide their actual skill level. Our matchmaking system does not use Clearance Level, K/D, or win rate to carry out matchmaking. It uses MMR. MMR is determined by your match’s outcome, while taking into account the enemy team’s MMR. By disguising their true skill level, smurfs impact the competitive balance of the match with very few ways for us to verify the incident. Challenges: Smurfing is a struggle the entire industry faces and in our community, it damages the playing experience. Our User Research team will continue to work to improve our understanding and analysis of this topic in the future, however a major difficulty lies in the limited tracking. Smurfs are difficult to identify, and we need a way to do so before making any changes to our system to combat these players. Currently, our team is using the available data to detect outliers that would indicate smurfing. In the meanwhile, we will continue to enforce measures such as 2-Step Verification to add barriers to multiple accounts creation.
3.4. Incomplete Teams
Challenge: Games that begin with an unequal number of players are extremely frustrating, and this kind of disadvantage goes against our goal of fair, balanced, and enjoyable games. While the Ranked playlist does allow players to rejoin the games they were in, we do realize that rejoining does not always occur. Future: In Year 5 Season 2, we have announced the introduction of a new Match Cancellation feature. This will not ship at Season launch but later on during the Season. To create the new Match Cancellation feature, we had to ensure that the system would not be exploitable and easily abused by players who wanted to bail on a game after loading in. Many situations and parameters had to be evaluated to set up criteria under which disadvantaged teams would be able to justify cancelling a match—such as momentary disconnects needing a chance to rejoin and how the voting system would work. Match Cancellation will give the disadvantage team the agency of cancelling the match when all our criteria for a potential cancellation is met. We are excited to share this with you in our next Season.
3.5. Vote To Kick Abuse
Concern: While Vote to Kick is no longer an option in Ranked Games, we often see Quick Match players reporting frustrations over the abuse of this function. The intention of this feature is to provide players with an option to remove a teammate should they exhibit problematic behavior; however, the original intent has sometimes been manipulated by some to create toxicity. Challenges: We are aware of how this function has been abused and we agree that a redesign of the Vote to Kick rules is in order. There are multiple ways this feature has been abused and we are currently assessing the data to understand the various scenarios and how we can block openings for abuse. We have identified a few starting points, such as preventing players under certain sanctions from voting, and we are currently going over the Vote to Kick designs with the goal of having an upgrade live by Season 4.
3.6. MMR Rollback Frustrations
Concern: We often hear feedback from players regarding MMR rollback frustrations when players who manage to win against cheaters still have their games rolled back. Challenges: When we first introduced MMR rollbacks, there were concerns of massive MMR drops to the unwilling/unknowing teammates of the cheater if games where cheaters lose are not cancelled. As an unwilling teammate, all the matches you’d won together are rolled back (thus losing MMR), but all the games lost together will not get cancelled either (and therefore, the lost MMR still remains). This is a non-issue if teammates are players who knowingly were in a squad with a cheater. However, in many cases where accounts are hacked by cheaters or teammates are just unknowingly playing with a cheater, this can be exceptionally hurtful to a legitimate but unsuspecting player. Future: With the recently introduced MMR Reset, this partially mitigates some of the potential massive MMR Rollback concerns outlined above. When there is a large enough MMR rollback, players affected will have their MMR reset and be required to re-do their placement matches. We will be exploring what other risks there might be in only rolling back games where cheaters win in the near future.
3.7. Streamer Mode
Concern: We want to provide streamers with a layer of anonymity to maintain their gaming experience against major frustrations such as stream sniping. Challenges: We are exploring a few options and need to find a solution where we would still be able to internally identify players while Streamer Mode is on—while providing public-facing anonymity. Future: We have an early iteration of a potential solution which we discussed with a select few streamers. While the initial reception was positive, we need to make sure the feature is as bulletproof as possible security-wise to ensure there are no workarounds to affect anonymity while still allowing us to trace our players and player data when a different identity is used. We are continuing to iterate on the design and validating to see if we can break down this feature into more intermediate deliverables. We are committed to providing tools where content creators can communicate with their community and express their passion safely. At the same time, we will continue to take feedback to ensure that our system is robust and aligned with our players’ expectations.
4. Accessibility
Challenges: Player accessibility is important to us and the continued growth of Siege. Our vision for greater accessibility involves a full-fledged colorblind solution as a system that allows players the option to re-color claymores, laser sights, camera lights, etc.—while also taking into account which team you’re on for proper feedback. Our earlier initiatives for implementing colorblind solutions did not live up to our expectations when tested with colorblind players. We learned that filters alone were not sufficient answers to most of the issues, and in some cases, it even created additional problems. We needed to implement a proper solution offering full-spectrum color selection. Customization at this level entails separating multiple elements for dynamic re-coloring—a significant task we have decided to split into smaller parts. We are revisiting colorblindness in the near future. We will begin by focusing on improving the shooting experience first through taking a look at reticle colors and what can be done there. We hope to have something to share soon. This is the first step in putting in place a flexible and comprehensive system. Many of our accessibility team’s resources are currently focused on adding what’s outlined in the Communications and Video Accessibility Act to the game. This will come with other accessibility improvements not specifically targeting colorblindness.
5. Smoke Propagation Issues
Concern: Smoke propagation as it currently stands is unreliable and confusing. The core of the problem is that small interior environments do not work well with our current smoke propagation system to allow for realistic gas positioning. As a result, we often see smoke clipping issues which, in the case of Smoke’s gadget also causes damage. Challenge: We have previously explored solutions for smoke propagation by expanding on Capitão’s reworked smoke system. However, that system was not built to handle large layers of very dense gas like that of smoke grenades or Smoke’s gadget. Using Capitão’s smoke system on these kinds of smokes would cause massive drops in performance, negatively affecting gameplay and player experience. Future: We have tried a few smaller fixes and workarounds on the system, but the results were unsatisfactory. We have concluded that we will need to overhaul the smoke propagation system, which will involve sizable work on the graphics and engine side to ensure good visual quality while maintaining a solid framerate. This is currently on hold until we have the time and resources to address it. We will communicate further when we have more to share.
6. Drone Issues
Concern: Various drone-related bugs will pop up from time to time. These are varied, but frustrating as droning and gathering intel is a big part of the game. Challenge: As the game grows, the drone system has become overly complex with many different moving parts. Sometimes, when making new changes to drones, we may unintentionally affect other parts of the system. Future: We will continue to investigate drone bugs as they arise and will work to fix them as soon as possible. We are also migrating the drone system to our new gadget v2 system, which is designed to simplify, streamline, and decouple systems. Migration of some gadgets to this system been done transparently in the past year, and we will continue to improve all our gadgets in this way to help them be more resilient to exploits, and iterate faster. Automatic tests have also been added to identify regressions as soon as they occur. In some cases, bugs are caused by complex interactions with the drone system—or the game at large. Those complex cases should be addressed once our migration to the gadget v2 framework is complete.
Next up
If you’ve made it to this paragraph, you’ve made your way through a very long list of long-term goals and promises. But we have good news for the near future too. We have got some community requests that -are- coming soon such as the alpha of the match replay system, map pick-and-ban, and various reworks. Plus, we’ve got even more things on the horizon that we are excited to share such as the reputation system, ping 2.0, and more. We look forward to continuing to build on the game with all of you! For regular updates on Rainbow Six Siege, continue to look out for our patch notes, dev blogs, designer’s notes, Top Issues and Community Concerns articles, and Seasonal reveal panels. We aim to improve communications on a few key topics such as cheating, connectivity, and matchmaking—we will be releasing dev blogs touching on those in the near future.
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The dumb homebuilder is back! Just in time for Christmas and govt’s quickly dealing with non-compliance...surprise! A new strain to combat dissent over the new vaccine. We all knew it was useless! This is the beginning of perpetual rolling lockdowns. We aren’t ever getting out of this!
Well, I hate that so many of have been right about the trajectories our governments are taking with this mess. I will start by saying like I did in my last post - I believe COVID-19 is as real as the common cold or influenza, but I don’t subscribe to any of the means our governments are using to “combat” this “pandemic.” We made it folks! We finally made it! The vaccine is here! Can I travel? No. Will I finally be able to stop wearing a mask? No, you can still spread the virus. What if I get sick? Can my family sue Phizer or Moderna? No, pshhh, can you sue God himself, idiot? So this protects ME from getting ill, right? Wellllll, that’s the idea. Come now. Roll. Up. Your. Sleeve. So far, it seems to me that I can do a better job as a contractor selling a renovation to the owner of a brand new custom home. They don’t need a renovation in a brand new home, just like the public doesn’t need a vaccine for a coronavirus that doesn’t kill 99.97% of carriers/recipients. Yet somehow, governments are successfully selling this vaccine to (surprisingly) many of their citizens. Having been keeping loose tabs on what the Mainstream Media (MSM) is reporting about public vaccine reaction/perception. I see some polling figures (at least in Canada) that a little over half of the population is “happy to get the vaccine,” while the other half of the population is “sceptical, but will get the vaccine,” or “sceptical, and will NOT get the vaccine.” Current reporting from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) suggests that “anyone who wants the vaccine, will receive it.” Given the huge list of caveats in actually RECEIVING the vaccine, and the piss poor job governments have done rolling out their sales pitches for rushed vaccines that don’t do anything anyways, it stands to reason that lockdowns MUST continue, and that people’s current wavering compliance with COVID-19 is nowhere near as close to the LOCKSTEP our governments require of us. Enter COVID-21. It’s really fun to watch how easily the wool is being pulled over everyone’s eyes. Watching the first days of vaccinations on television, it’s clear to me that too much of the public is questioning the narrative for the vaccine to work in whatever way the government wants it to. I feel G20 nations are quickly waking up to the fact that they don’t want to and cannot force inoculate their citizens, simply because this would spark a revolution more quickly than governments are ready for right now. This flies against the narrative and timeline we are living through currently. I suggest that forcing vaccinations on western nations’ citizens (as much as this would be ideal for the government) is not going to work. The principles in our laws and doctrines collectively dictates individuals’ rights and freedoms. While governments and media in most nations have successfully stripped away most people’s businesses, daily routines, and their connection to family, friends and religions, I feel the choice between “vaccinations or jail time” will be a hard line that will wake up many of those that have crossed over to the herd that is LOCKSTEP. Our governments have taken many lessons from a docu/drama titled Temple Grandin. By forcing the herd to slaughter, you stress the animal and taint the meat. The idea that even cattle ranches and their accompanying slaughterhouses are designed with the individual cow’s stress in mind illustrates to me that soft curves and squeeze chutes are needed to bring us all in line before our eventual slaughter and demise. Back in the day, cattle were whipped and corralled into their transports or slaughterhouses. Modern cattle production leads the herd gently through a series of soft, curved pathways and squeeze chutes where they walk willingly themselves. These pathways are designed to become narrower and narrower until the cow is in a position it cannot turn around to escape - it must move forward in LOCKSTEP with the rest of the herd. But the soft, curved pathways it follows, and seeing the rest of his friends and family in tow, calms and reassures the beast into submission. Forcing our human populations into a corner is a hard line and a hard corner that we won’t be able to overcome. The government needs another mode to keep us all locked at home. We must all comply. But how? At the time of writing, I am observing reports of a “new coronavirus strain” in the UK. More and more governments are currently imposing measures restricting travel to and from the UK every few hours. This seems to be the “soft curving path” governments will use to get those currently on the fence with this mess in LOCKSTEP with the rest of the herd. I mention the term LOCKSTEP many times above. I am referring to a Rockefeller Foundation Articlewritten in 2010 discussing exactly the lockdowns, mask wearing and erosion of public rights and freedoms we see today. * I link to a Rockefeller Foundation blog post in which they suspiciously “debunk” conspiracy theories relating to the very article I am discussing. What does all of this madness lead to? As I see things:
the herd openly complied with every lockdown and measure imposed on us and shame those who don’t or dare not comply. This is already beginning to result in violence
churches, family gatherings, public gatherings, pubs, restaurants, all deemed non-essential and to be minimized or avoided at all costs. All of this to curb any form of congregating, discussion, discourse, all banned.
pro BLM protests are okay. “Racism leads to systemic healthcare disparities” Church is cancelled, but large gatherings of people are allowed to protest? Surely both lead to further spread in the virus? Of course they do. The difference is that religion, family and friends inspire community and healthy discussions. Protests have largely inspired conflict, burning of neighbourhoods and have inspired further division in society. The literal burning of small businesses broadcast all over MSM to perhaps lessen the blow to the public of the “financial burning” and erosion of those businesses that managed to survive the first wave and the public rioting.
vaccine proven “95% effective” all while lockdowns, increased mask wearing mandates, and restrictions in personal gatherings have INCREASED the positive case numbers? At least in Canada, a “case” is listed in both official Government of Canada statistics and unofficial Google COVID-19 statistics as “confirmed OR PROBABLE” ?!?! What does “probable” even mean in the cases where people show same symptoms as common cold or influenza?
influenza - another respiratory virus - cases are down significantly around the world, yet coronavirus cases are spiking during lockdowns and increased restrictions against individuals’ rights and freedoms?
24 hour news cycle continues to repeat doom and gloom every day.
public division encouraged - violence against those who don’t comply with the MSM narrative seemingly encouraged
not enough people questioning rather “grey” legality of lockdowns and business closures in name of public health?
police in some jurisdictions beginning to uphold unlawful lockdown orders. Knocking on doors like the Gestapo, checking on numbers at family gatherings. Imposing fines to those who may already be crippled financially.
long lines and huge occupancies allowed at big box retailers while small occupancies allowed at the few mom and pop retailers that are actually allowed to open. Seems rather contradictory when the public message is to avoid large gatherings - especially between large groups of strangers...
World Economic Forum (WEF) discussions with Klaus Schwab (crazy German guy running this shitshow) include lines like “the Great Reset” and how in the new world - after COVID-19, you will “own nothing, and you’ll be happy.”
there seems to be a pretty quick path the world is already on that leads to widespread unequivocal adoption of a new Universal Basic Income. I see this happening inside the next 6-9 months. Trajectory as follows - stricter lockdown measures continue to whittle away at middle class self-employed households. The few remaining corporations that have been blessed by the governments to remain open will need to somehow begin to pick up the slack. After all, we can’t have everyone sitting at home while the world’s billionaires have collectively added hundreds of billions of NET dollars to their coffers since the “pandemic” began. So we have a conundrum. Governments everywhere are bankrupting themselves to add emergency spending to cover off increased medical and social expenditures. They will need a means to pay for this. The only remaining potential tax incomes the government will be those of huge corporations that were allowed to keep their businesses open. Those that were forced to close were subject to waves of changing the goalposts - indoor - outdoor - outdoor with restrictions...all of these changes cost money to implement. All of these measures for naught. They spent money on measures to keep everyone “safe” and were then told even that wasn’t enough - close your doors. Businesses that can operate (tech, other office) can operate from home. Many of these businesses will begin to see little need for commercial real estate in their portfolio. Leases will expire. Fewer will be renewed. Why pay for an office and its maintenance when no one is filling seats at desks? With far more supply for commercial real estate than demand, we will see building owners lower their lease rates in order to stimulate occupancies. Some people will be paying mortgages on properties that sit vacant. Property owners will foreclose on vacant buildings. No one leasing = no income. Banks will need to make their money elsewhere - the low interest we are seeing on personal property cannot last forever. The banks will need to swallow these commercial losses somewhere to avoid losing stockholder confidence in the banks themselves. Variable rate home mortgages will begin to skyrocket. Many people will be forced to foreclose themselves. No one will open a retail business with ever changing uncertainty in today’s markets. Travel/tourism has been dead since March 2020. This will only continue. Large airline companies and manufacturers will begin to fold. Their staff have been largely on leave since the “pandemic” began - all either living on savings, or social assistance. These major corporations will either go bankrupt or receive stimulus from governments around the world. Lose - lose. Either tens or hundreds of thousands of people lose their jobs in the airline/tourism/travel sectors, or the government pays for it all with OUR tax dollars - putting further strain on economies and GDP everywhere. Automotive sector will see diminishing sales. No one needs to drive as much - no office to work at. No family to visit. Vehicles won’t wear out as quickly. There is nothing new about the automotive sector of our economies receiving MASSIVE global bailouts. It has happened before and is sure to happen again due to decreased demand. Construction has been doing well until now, but I don’t see that lasting forever in the New World. As commercial real estate demand falls, and fewer people have the money to purchase a new home, used will have to do. Those on social assistance will need to continue renting as they will not qualify for any loans for their own property. Governments will see quick, and growing demand for social housing projects everywhere. Another expense to the government. How will we pay for all of this? I’m talking top down in a lot of my points above. But each of these sectors has millions of employees around the world, many of whom are going to be out of work if they aren’t already. The Amazon’s, Google’s and Facebooks of the world seem to be the few businesses that are blessed to operate under the current regime. Governments will be exposed to increased stimulus and spending requirements with exponentially less money coming in by the day. In a global effort to avoid bankrupting every sovereign state, more and more public/private partnerships will emerge. Corporations will benefit as they will be some of the few remaining businesses allowed to operate. Their sales volumes and revenues will only increase. Their tax dollars will go directly to stimulus aid and social assistance programs, and our politicians will become even more beholden to the corporations than we see today. Sounding a lot like China, doesn’t it? Authoritarian leadership that blesses corporations with state sponsored partnerships, all while imposing restrictions on citizens’ individual freedoms, suppressing individuals’ right to the “pursuit of happiness,” restricting individuals’ ability to provide for themselves and their families, all while offering us lies, false hopes and broken promises every time we see the goal posts move. I see us headed somewhere rather dark - a place where you can get the “freedoms the government tells us you can have,” all for the simple price of inoculation! Since all these auto manufacturers will face the choice of bankruptcy or merging with the government, many will merge in an effort to “save jobs.” Our friend Klaus Schwab (WEF) sees a highly advanced technological future. This is obvious, but I see the intersectionality of these topics as a means to force the government’s will on its people. Sure - you can get free access to an electric, self driving, state owned car, any time you want. It will come to pick you up, track you wherever you go, all for the price of inoculation.
I go off on a few tangents above, but the difficulty in what we are facing is that all of this is intrinsically connected. We cannot, like the unelected health officials we must obey en masse, look at one issue and ignore the others. All of these measures, as far as this dumb homebuilder can reason, are designed in such a way as to break every global financial system in their totality. Those that are blessed by the state and allowed to survive will be paying for us all soon enough. This IS state owned and interrupted capitalism. This IS on its way to full global social-authoritarian technocracy. We have already been surveilled* since the dawn of the internet. We are now being told to shelter in place for “everyone’s safety.” We cannot commune with our friends, family, loved ones or strangers to “prevent community transmission.” Where I feel this is all to curb any form of open dialogue, discussion or ability for people to form agreement with one another dissenting the government. Our Facebook’s, Twitter’s and YouTubes are openly censoring that which the state tells them. The MSM is propagating crazy Statistics about a virus that doesn’t kill you unless you have preexisting co-morbidities or are already past the average life expectancy. I find it odd, they’ve openly continued this same censorship now on other more political topics such as, perhaps, the son of the US President Elect... Open censorship to get “their president” elected seems awfully like the “Russian collusion” everyone has been yammering on about for 4 years. Either way, no matter what side you are on politically, it is pretty apparent that there is always a game being played. It is being played on YOU, on ME, on the WHOLE WORLD right now. We are being lied to about the “pandemic.” That which isn’t a lie, is censored by the media. We are all headed toward global economic meltdown. Most major sectors have been heavily affected by this mess. Those that haven’t seen the hit yet, soon will. The government did a bad sales job on the vaccine. They need to scare the herd into conformity with “COVID 2.0” - the “new UK strain” A friendly reminder, Kary Mullis, inventor of PCR testing and Nobel laureate would not agree with how his test is being used today. Interesting coincidence - this eccentric genius died summer 2019 - a few months before he would have had a loud discussion with Fauci over - wait for it - bad sales pitches. Mullis tears Fauci Apart I have to really start breaking this out into a thought web with strings on a wall and post it notes like a crazy person. I feel sound in my judgement every day. I will not take any new MRNA vaccine. I can NOT believe what the MSM is telling us. I see with my own eyes that every link in every economic chain is strained, and it only takes one link to break to cause a growing ripple effect. We are seeing the beginning of this. Sit down, buckle up. At least a seat belt might save your life in an accident. We don’t know what the fabric of this vaccine seatbelt they are trying to sell is made of. TLDR - you are locked down. Sit down, shut up, be open to some new ideas, and read. If we can’t explore new ideas together, than YOU are part of the problem! The herd is being led to slaughter. Every aspect of this global mess is connected through our personal connections and economies. It is intentionally too complex for any ONE person to solve. I do not know if the snowball has yet rolled too far down the mountain, or if there is still time to stop it? The bigger the snowball, the bigger the collateral damage, and the bigger the impending avalanche, but the momentum we are on is only increasing in pace and mass. It’s getting harder to solve by the day if we can’t physically get together to discuss. (Remember - they are watching us all commune online - and arrests in some countries such as Australia over government dissent on Facebook have already become reality). The tap is being opened up more every day. The slow drip that we have been experiencing from our elected officials is going to become a quick torrent pretty soon, ready to swallow us all. The path* we are on is dangerous. Time to discuss. Love you all. Let’s get back to a real normal together!
A big thanks to the 2055 of you who took a moment to complete the recent golf 2020 census. This is a tremendous response and should provide a reasonable sample size among active users of this sub. Caveat: while my IRL work has a lot to do with digital media and numbers, I am no data scientist or Excel whiz, so I'm sure this isn't quite as good as it could be, but it's all I have time to do with now! So without further ado, here are the results (and I have made the data available here if anyone wants to take a peek or slice and dice it for themselves). You can view natively in your browser, or simply click the 'download' button in the top right. I might edit this later with some more findings, but that's enough for now! I'll be really interested to know what you think. What results surprise you? What results were you sure of? Please post and discuss your feedback! 1. How old are you? The average age of golf is 30.01 years. It's also the most common age selected in the census with 144 of you identifying as exactly 30 years old, 135 of you identifying as 31 and 134 identifying as 28 years. The oldest respondent is 72 (and has a handicap of 5). The youngest respondent was 13, which is the minimum age to have a reddit account, which is why I cut it off there. The two 13-year-olds identify as being off 12 and 6 handicaps. Just 108 of the sample size are teenagers, representing a mere of 5.26% of respondents. 2. What is your gender? A whopping 98.2% of us identify as male and just 1.1% female. I knew this sub was heavily skewed to men, but that's a LOT more than I expected. 3. What is your relationship status? 41.9% of this sub is married, 29.7% are in a relationship and 27.5% are single. The average handicap of married golfers is 17.0, single 17.5 while golfers in a relationship are 18.4, suggesting this latter category is prioriting other matters in life :) 0.8% of married golfers and 1.1% of both single and golfers in relationship are better than scratch players 4. Where do you live? 79.7% of you live in the United States Canada is second with 8.1% and the UK third with 4.4%. The top 10 is:
Country
Count
USA
1637
Canada
166
UK
90
Australia
27
Sweden
26
Ireland
23
New Zealand
11
Norway
10
Germany
8
Netherlands/Denmark/Finland
7
There are single representatives from Antigua, the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Georgia, Greece, Grenada, Iceland, Italy, Mexico, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Romania and Thailand. 5. In which US state do you live? Here is where the Americans among us live:
State
Count
California
171
Texas
108
New York
88
Illinois
69
Pennsylvania
63
Massachusetts/Ohio
62
Georgia
69
Florida/Michigan
58
Virginia
56
Minnesota
54
The states with the fewest golfers are Delaware and Montana (2 each) while Vermont and Wyoming each have 4 representatives on golf according to this census. 6. What is your current handicap? (rounded to the nearest whole number) According to this census, the average handicap or golf is slightly lower than 17.5 (slightly lower as there are 20 players who identify as better than scratch, but were counted as 0 for the purposes of this average). 7. Recently,my handicap has been... 1262 (61.35%) of you have been reducing your handicaps lately - well done! 8.81% of you need to stop the recent rise in your handicap 29.84% of you are remaining relatively unchanged/consistent 8. My status as a golfer is... The vast majority of us (96.15%) are amateur players/weekend hackers while there are at least 8 current professionals among us, 3 former pros and 68 aspiring pros 9. What would you say is your preferred brand of club? I appreciate this question didn't suit everyone, as putters are different to irons as wedges are different to drivers - you might like a brand in one club, but loathe it in another. Without wanting to make this survey too in-depth, I think the below table is a decent snapshot of golf's preferred club brands (and really sorry I forgot about the PXG crew!)
Brand
# that express it as 'favorite'
TaylorMade
532
Callaway
380
Mizuno
303
Titleist
270
Ping
218
Cobra
126
Cleveland
46
Wilson
46
Nike
39
Srixon
32
Ben Hogan
20
Adams
13
Miura
9
Dunlop
6
Bridgestone
4
MacGregor
4
Bettinardi
2
Honma
2
Vulcan
2
Obviously a lot to unpack here and there a LOT of variables. Of particular interest is the love for a now defunct golf brand (Nike) ahead of leading brands such as Srixon and Miura. Also, there is a noticeable drop-off from Ping to Cobra and an even greater one from Cobra to Cleveland. When you isolate the data to those with a 0 or better handicap, the results look like this: TaylorMade (9) Titleist (7) Callaway (3) Mizuno (3) Ping (3) Cleveland (2) Miura (1) Nike (1) 10. Do you prefer to mix or match? 19.57% prefer to match your sets while 80.43% don't mind what's in the bag, as long as it works for you. 11. What brand of ball do you primarily play?
Brand
Number who play it
Titleist
462
Whatever I find in my bag or the woods
290
Callaway
249
TaylorMade
211
Srixon
194
Bridgestone
170
Kirkland
121
Vice
119
Snell
79
Wilson
39
Nike
21
Top Flite
19
Oncore
16
Maxfli
13
Inesis
8
Volvik
8
Mizuno
7
Pinnacle
6
Noodle
3
Seed
2
Sugar
2
Slazenger
2
OtheVarious
12
12. Do you think the ball you play has a significant impact on your game? 37.59% of you think it's VERY important 19.40% of you don't think it matters at all 43.01% don't mind, as long as it's a ball by a 'leading' manufacturer 17/20 of BETTER than scratch golfers said that ball choice is critical. The only surprising thing about this is that it wasn't 20/20! The average handicap of players who suggest ball choice is very important is 14.16 (down 3+ whole points from the overall golf average) and if you include the BETTER than scratch handicappers as zero, that falls to 13.85. 13. What is your position on iron covers? 57 of you (2.77%) use iron covers 821 of you (39.97%) of you think these 57 people should be openly mocked 1176 (57.26%) of you think these 57 people should do whatever they like :) 14. Do you drink alcohol while golfing? 17.96% of you don't see any difference between a golf course and an open bar 29.60% of you drink and play some of the time 24.74% of you drink occasionally 27.70% of you never drink while golfing Of the 29 zero or better handicappers among us, 11 never drink on the course and 5 drink most of the time! 15. What is your preferred tee time? 40.55% of you enjoy gettingup at the crack of dawn for an early morning tee time 27.46% of you like a morning slot, but without the early wake-up 14.41% of you would rather play in the afternoon 13.00% of you enjoy finishing the day with twilight golf Just 4.58% of you prefer to tee off at lunchtime 16. What is your preferred way of getting around the course? 45.13% of you prefer driving 32.18% of you are card carrying members of the push cart mafia 22.69% of you mental bastards prefer to walk and carry 17. Are you a member of a club? 71.23% of golf are nomads 23.81% of us are full year members of a club 4.96% of us are members of a club for part of the year 18. Have you ever had a hole-in-one? 10.18% of you have an ace to your name 89.82% of us are still searching for that elusive milestone! 19. Who do you prefer golfing with? 76.53% of us would rather golf with our friends 12.03% most enjoy playing with family 10.37% prefer the solitude of a solo round 1.07% of you most enjoy the company of strangers 20. Hot or cold? 67.53% of you would prefer to play in roasting hot conditions 32.47% would rather play in the freezing cold 21. What is your biggest pet peeve on the course? Here's how you responded to the pre-defined answers:
Peeve
# of you who most hate this
Slow play
1051
Lack of course care
214
People who hit up on you
204
'Put me down for bogey' guy
147
People who litter
145
Bluetooth speakers
111
Unsolicited advice
93
And here are some of the best 'write in' answers!
All of the above in equal parts (this was a popular response!)
The 6-foot gimme guy
Drunk golfers (refer to question 14)
Finding out the greens have been cored
The 10 practice swings before a duff guy
Snobbery
Rule sticklers
This is technically littering, but cigarette butts and sunflower seeds
Starters who don't properly manage their time sheets
Angry players who swear, throw clubs etc.
22. What do you consider to be the best part of your game? 34.95% of you are best with an iron in your hands 31.44% of you are magicians around the green with a wedge 16.84% of you feel most at home on the greens 16.77% of you love to step on to the tee with the big dog 23. What do you consider to be the worst part of your game? 45.62% of you aren't confident with driver in hand 20.25% of you least like putting 18.55% don't strike irons well compared to the rest of your game 15.58% of you are most uncomfortable with a wedge 24. Assuming you had not achieved either, would you rather... 68.01% of you would rather play a whole round to par or better 31.99% of you would prefer to write a "1" on your score card 25. Which shot produces the most pleasure for you? An utterly PURE mid/long iron right out of the sweet spot (40.12%) Ripping a booming drive down the middle of the fairway (30.62%) Reading the break and hitting the ideal weight on a putt (11.74%) A pin-point chip/pitch to tap-in range (9.54%) Crushing a wood off the deck (4.67%) Splashing out of the sand to a few inches from the cup (2.58%) A perfectly judged bump & run (0.73%) So that's all of the questions with pre-defined answers, which was much easier for me to dissect than the qualitative answers to come! With upward of 2000 responses, I can't depict every answer, so have done my best to group them and provide some outlying humour and interesting responses. 26. Who are you picking to drain a 20-foot breaking putt to save your life? By far the most popular response was "Tiger" or a variation of it (including "2000 Sunday Tiger" or "Young Tiger" or simply just an emoji and there are so many variations of TW, Eldrick, El Tigre etc. that I am not going to tally them up - just trust me on this, he is far and away the top choice!) A lot of you would back yourself for the putt. Some because you legitimately think you will make it, others because they will feel more motivated than anyone on earth while others wouldn't consider burdening another person with that responsibility! So here's the list I've generated with everyone who had 5 or more mentions.
Tiger Woods (714) - not including the aforementioned variations of his name, so I suspect that more than half of you will have chosen TW in some way, shape or form
Myself (139)
Jordan Spieth (121)
Jack Nicklaus (83)
Phil Mickelson (82)
Dustin Johnson (76)
Rickie Fowler (62)
Justin Thomas (58)
Jason Day (49)
Kevin Kisner (31)
Bryson DeChambeau (26)
Colin Morikawa (20)
Brad Faxon (18)
Kevin Na (17) - and two said "just so he can walk it in"
Steve Stricker (16)
Rory McIlroy (15)
My dad (13)
Dennis McCarthy (12)
Anyone but myself (11)
Happy Gilmore (11)...uh oh, Happy learned how to putt!
Jesus (11)
Ben Crenshaw (10)
Brandt Snedeker (9)
Webb Simpson (9)
Matt Kuchar (8)
Ian Poulter (8)
Brooks Koepka (6)
Arnold Palmer (6)
Tommy Fleetwood (6)
Jim Furyk (6)
Jon Rahm (5) - would have been a lot more after last weekend!
Patrick Reed (5)
A special shout out to....
The 6 people who would choose my mom (clearly good putting is not hereditary)
The 3 people who said "The Club Pro Guy"
The 2 people who said Michael Phelps
The 2 who said Batman
The 1 cool cat who said Carole Baskin
The 1 who nominated Rick Shiels because he "prefers some risk"
And the wise guy who said "a robot designed for putting" (see: 2000 Tiger)
27. If you could change one rule in golf, what would it be? Another one where I made it pretty difficult to analyse and display the results! But here are a few of the top answers (in what I interpret as order of popularity), and please feel free to access the results yourself if you want to sort through them all.
Lost ball to become a drop at nearest point of relief for a one-shot penalty instead of reloading for three
All hazards/OOB to be red stakes for consistency
Be permitted to ground your club in a bunker
Relax dress codes (including allowing tour players to wear shorts)
"Gallery Balls" whereby amateurs receive a free drop for a 'lost' ball that is definitely in play
All players should receive relief from fairway divots
Any drop/penalty should just be one stroke (a LOT of you think all OB should be treated as a lateral hazard)
A certain number of mulligans per round (most said one, but some of you want up to 3 per nine!)
Actual enforcement of penalties for slow play and/or a shot clock
Be permitted to lift, clean and place on all fairways
Free relief for things like ree roots, fences etc.
Drop height... some of you want it lower (ankle) and some of you want it back to the waist!
Change number of clubs permitted in bag (interestingly, half of those who suggested this want fewer and the other half want more - there doesn't seem to be a universal consensus)
That inconsequential and accidental touches of the ball or sand should not result in a penalty
Allow rangefinders/slope in competitive play
Preferred lies within one club-length no nearer the hole on all grass and bunker sand
Flagsticks should remain in the cup 100% of the time
Overturn the ban on anchoring
Slightly bigger cups
Stymies should be permitted
While sorting through these responses, it became apparent just how difficult it is to please all golfers. On one line, someone says "Collared shirts compulsory" and on the next, someone says "Collared shirts optional!" And finally, this one tickled me... "If you are not on the green and can run to your ball and play another shot within 5 seconds, the first one shouldn't count!" 28. What is your hottest/most controversial golf take? Another one that's impossible to really depict succinctly, so here are some interesting responses, copied and pasted exactly as you wrote them!
(most) old people ruin the game (gatekeeping & arrogance towards younger generation)
"Annoying fans" are necessary to grow the sport
18 holes per game is too many
70% of people should be playing from the red tees. Move forward
Alcohol should be banned on the course
Alignment lines on balls should be banned
All private clubs should have a public day
Amateur golfers on YouTube do more for attracting new people to the sport than pros on TV
Augusta as a course/club is overhyped. If it wasn't for the exclusivity and the masters itself, it would be considered an average course
Bad golfers should be relegated to non-ideal tee times
Blades make you a better golfer because you can feel where your misses are on the face
Breaking 80 isn’t impressive if it’s not from the tips
Brooks is more annoying than Bryson
Bryson and brooks are likable, talented guys
Bryson and Patrick reed are good for the game (several dozen more Bryson takes!)
Carts should only be used by people with mobility issues
Corn Ferry far superior to European tour
Dress codes are stupid
European Tour is more difficult than the PGA Tour
Everyone cheats, somehow or some way
Fairway shots are most times harder than shots out of the rough on low quality courses
Fedex Cup should be match play
Fitting is the biggest scam going. It is a sales tool and nothing more.
Getting married ruins the promising careers of young pga pros (see Jordan, tiger, rory, rickie, DJ)
Gimmes are acceptable and should be reasonable encouraged in social (non-competitive) play
Gimmes suck and hurt your game
Glove should not be removed during putting
Golf courses are a waste of resources and land
Golf decorum means something and isn't designed to be purely elitist
golf fans are the worst fans of any sport
Golf isn’t fun to watch just to play
Handicapping is a participation trophy for bad players
Hazards should not be raked, they are hazards
Hitting Fairway Woods off the deck is far easier than off the tee
Hole in one's aren't that special
I don't like Phil Mickelson
I don't really mind slow play
I don't think you should mark your ball on the putting green for the other golfers. Putt around other balls.
I love golf but hate golfers
I'd be on tour if I was given 1 year to train, a new fitted set of clubs, and had no obligations to anything outside of golf (this respondent is a scratch player)
I'd like to see a tournament with separate tees: womens/champions/PGA, all competing for the same $/trophy
I'd rather hit a great drive and double bogey than dink my iron a few times and par
If Bryson was black people would focus on the fact that he is changing the game and advancing it rather than focusing on his minor blunders he has had and blowing them out of proportion.
If you can’t shoot under 100, you have no business being on a regulation/championship 18 hole golf course
Instead of rolling back the ball, ban the use of tees
Iron covers aren’t terrible
Irons should be labeled with loft not numbers
Leaving the pin in to putt is better than taking it out
Men can learn way more from watching the LPGA than the PGA Tour
Mulligans are stupid and you cheat yourself out of an actual score
Music being played from the cart should not be distracting during a random weekend tee time. We aren’t on tour.
No discount should be given if the greens are aerated
No one should take more than one practice swing. Just get up and hit the ball.
Nobody wants to see pros play ridiculously tough courses where the winner is -1.
Older men at golf courses prove millennial aren't the entitled generation, its the 50 to 60 old dude who is
Pace of play is less of an issue than people make it out to be in the amateur game
PGA tour broadcast juices yardages for casual fans
Players on the tour aren’t too long, it’s cool to see what they can do with the same equipment as us
Playing forward by a set of tees doesn't make you less of a man
Playing more rounds will help you improve scores faster than range sessions. Rounds are what get scored, not repeated hits off turf.
Practice swings don't work and are generally pointless
Prime tiger wouldn’t go on that run he had today against this new talent
Pro Golfers should be able to play through noise and heckling
Pro V1s are overrated and mainly used by people for placebo
Pros are playing for millions of dollars they are allowed to be entitled and whine
Pros should carry their own bags
Putters over $100 are a waste of money
Rowdy fans are alright
Ryder Cup is better than any major
Scottys are not overpriced
Scrambles are a horrible way to play golf
Shafts don't matter for most golfers
Solo golfers do not have the right of way as long as the group ahead is meeting course pace of play
Stepping on someone's putting line makes no difference
Take the driver out of the bag. You’ll shoot better.
Tee boxes based on handicap not age/gender
The British Open is more prestigious than the Masters
The top 20 LPGA players could make bank on the men's tour if they could tee off from 100 yards ahead
The US Open is a better tournament than the Masters
There are like 5 people on the subreddit qualified to give swing advice
Tiger doesn't care to win again
Unless you are a 10 handicap or better, the ball you play does not matter
US Open should only be played at public golf courses
Waiting for the group in front of you is not hard or annoying
Womens golf is more entertaining to watch
Yelling fore does nothing. You’re on a course be aware of your surroundings.
You should have to have a license to play golf. Nothing crazy just take an online class that would go over basic rules and etiquette.
29. What is the best golf course you have ever played? Have aggregated the most popular answers to the best of my ability, capped at 6+ responses.
Pebble Beach (17)
Chambers Bay (16)
Half-Moon Bay (15)
Torrey Pines (13)
Whistling Straits (12)
TPC Scottsdale (11)
Bethpage Black (10)
Arcadia Bluffs (9)
Wolf Creek (9)
Tobacco Road (8)
Sypglass (8)
Pinehurst #2 (7)
Pasatiempo (6)
TPC Sawgrass (6)
30. What is your bucket list course that you are yet to play? Again, a lot of variations here which made it tough for me to sort the data, but have done my best to sample a Top 10. I was very surprised to see Augusta behind St Andrews and so far behind Pebble but I suppose people subconsciously don't vote for courses they have no legitimate way of ever playing. I'd be interested to see these results if I re-phrased the question to "You have a free, no questions asked tee time anywhere in the world, name your club..."
Pebble Beach (433)
St Andrews (200)
Augusta (193)
Bandon Dunes (119)
Pinehurst #2 (61)
TPC Sawgrass (49)
Bethpage Black (35)
Torrey Pines (22)
Whistling Straits (22)
Wolf Creek (21)
31. What is the ONE thing golf administrators ought to do to encourage more people (particularly young people) to play the sport? This was a genuinely encouraging list of 2000+ results to read though. We often read about the 'doom & gloom' aspects of the future of our sport, but there is a vibrant and dedicated golf community out there thinking of ways to perpetuate interest in the sport and keep the flame lit for the next generation. Again, here's a sampling of what I would consider to be the most popular responses.
Make the game less cost prohibitive (this is a big one - everything from clubs to green fees to beers)
Open 'masterclasses' or free clinics from pros at ranges and local clubs (another big one)
Shorter courses (9 or 12 hole)
Heavily discounted beers for 18+ players
More facilities like Top Golf
A greater focus on 9-hole game, tee times, handicap structure etc.
All clubs should have a dedicated youth program
Allow interest free payment plans for things like memberships, clubs etc.
Alter rules to make it less elite/proper ie. mulligans, preferred lies etc.
Allow kids (U15) to play free (and rent clubs free), or at heavily reduced rates
Alternate course routing that allows you to come off whenever you like, not necessarily play 18
Kids play free with a paying adult (ensuring pace of play is maintained)
Relax the dress code and 'traditional' golf culture ie. be far less elitist
Twilight 9-hole beer leagues, aimed at young professionals looking for something to do after work
Carving out tee time blocks for 'beginners' so they don't feel pressured
Similarly, these blocks might be "free for all" in terms of attire, etiquette etc. so if a 14-year-old shows up in a hoodie, carrying 18 clubs and wants to have two mulligans from every tee, it's completely fine!
Introduce golf to public schools through gym/PE classes
More tech in carts and ability to connect bluetooth (with limited volume)
Change the nomenclature of "women's" tees to "beginner" or "forward" tees
Close the course one day a month for beginners, with teaching pros on the course and range
Pace of play is important, but if newbies feel intimidated they will never come back
Encourage mini games within a round for kids ie. straightest shot, nearest to pin etc.
Engage with local community/government to identify talented (possibly minority) athletes who would otherwise have no access to golf and get clubs in their hand
Decrease the emphasis on score - make it FUN and about the process, not the end result
More social events BEYOND golf in local clubs to build the golfing community rapport
Improve the professional tour TV and online products
32. What is the best tip, or piece of advice you have ever received that's improved your game? This one is just too crazy to aggregate, so please view all responses (in column AG) here :) But I will list EVERY bit of advice provided by our scratch or better players.
Only hit shots you know you can hit
Just keep playing
Don't think, just do
If you chunk chips, focus on using you left (right handed) hand more than your right
Focus on the next shot
Get a lesson
You're not good enough to get mad
Slow tempo always creates a better shot
Tempo tempo tempo! 90% of my bad swings are rushing at the top and hands getting ahead of my body
Hammer the nail
You don't control the outcome, focus on the process
Bowed left wrist
Being mad is ok, being negative is not
Ask quetions of people who are better than you
Focus on the shot you have now, not the one you just hit
Swing on a plane
Eliminate the double cross
Play your game
Before all else, hit the center of the face
Aim small, miss small
Care less
Slow Down
Learn how to properly manage the course
The only shot that matters is the next
Rotation is the wrong word, you're not supposed to rotate
Relax your grip
Accelerate THROUGH the ball - let the ball simply get in the way of your club head’s swing path
33. If you had the attention of EVERY SINGLE PLAYER in the world for 10 whole seconds, what would you say? Again, too much for me to break down, so you can see all responses here in column AH, but here are some of my favorites and some of the more popular ones!
Fix your ball mark
Hurry the fuck up
One practice swing is enough
Leave the flag in
Pick up your fucking trash
Have more fun on the course - it's a game after all
Enjoy this game while we can - it's truly a privilege
Accommodate the new as when you are gone, they are all that are left to carry the game
Grip it and rip it
Focus on contact before power
Sam Snead's win record is B.S.
Thank you for making me feel like I'm not the only person obsessed with this game
If you love golf, take new people golfing
Be considerate to players of all skill levels and work to grow the game not alienate newcomers
Keep your tempo up through the chip shot
Yelling "FORE" could save someone's life (including tour players)
FORE RIGHT
Your ego doesn't exist, let it go
Don't be a dick, treat the game/courses right, and if you're going to suck, suck at a faster pace
There's always someone worse than you
You don't practice enough to get that mad
You aren’t as good as you think and that's okay
Go get fitted, it will pay for itself many times over in the long run
Be ready to hit your shot before it's your turn
You hit the ball 15 yards shorter than you think you do
At your best as a pro, you’ll never be half as good as Tiger's peak
Mashed potatoes
It's our job to grow the game.
Baba booey
Jim Nantz, please come do the color commentary for one my rounds
Take some damn lessons and stop buying $500 drivers
Stop giving yourself gimmies, put the ball in the hole
Smell the roses, enjoy the views
Golf is hard
All of you sandbaggers are going to hell
Hurry the fuck up, and stop spending a minute perfectly adjusting the line on that 15 footer for bogey
It's our job to grow the game
ONE FUCKING PRACTICE SWING
Thanks again for your input! I might edit this later with some more findings, but that's enough for now!
In Australia, it was illegal to provide interactive gambling activities like online casinos to the Australian people as per the Interactive Gambling Act 2001. This Act made it illegal to provide a prohibited interactive gambling service, provide an unlicensed regulated interactive gambling service and provide an Australia-based interactive gambling service to players in designated countries. Up to date, there are a number of licensed land-based casino venues on the territory of Australia. Online gaming and gambling operations are also legalized. In addition, some kinds of gaming machines like video poker (pokies) and slots machines are also available for players in bars, clubs and pubs. The Interactive Gambling Act of 2001 makes it an offence for some companies to market their online gambling services within Australia, however this law has often been circumvented by operators of poker sites and there are in fact large numbers of Australian poker players who freely access and play all manner of different poker games online.. With this in mind we would strongly advise anyone The Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016 was passed. This prohibited online casino gaming, even if the casino is Australian. Players won’t receive penalties when gambling at unlicensed casino sites. One of the first questions asked by punters is: Is online poker legal in Australia? For now, poker was also recently deemed illegal in Australia. PHNOM PENH -- Cambodia may walk back its decision to shut down its online gaming industry, risking the ire of closest regional ally China.Online gamin Countries That Have Banned Online Gambling and Then Regulated. The online real money gaming industry in Slovakia is set to get a much-needed boost come early 2019. Some countries like Australia allow quality online casinos to offer gaming for their residents but the legalities are still being debated at the government level. Thus, online roulette and any other form of online casino play is technically banned in Australia. The technicality is that there is nothing in the IGA Amendment Bill that suggest any penalty for Australian residents who continue to gamble at online casinos. It's illegal to provide some interactive gambling activities, such as 'online casinos', to someone in Australia. Examples include roulette, poker, craps, online 'pokies' and blackjack. Any game of chance, including games of mixed chance and skill played over the internet, is prohibited under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (IGA) if it's provided to someone who is physically in Australia. Online casino gaming is prohibited in Australia under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (Cth) (Interactive Gambling Act). However, a person may still apply for an ‘internet gaming licence’ in the Northern Territory and offer their gaming products outside of Australia in certain circumstances. (See detailed response below table.) Poker. ACMA. We bring you a detailed guide to Australian online gambling. Learn whether online casino gambling is legal in Australia, as well as whether taxes apply.
Online Poker in Australia - Join the Fight - YouTube
The Banned version. A quick guide for comparison with other copies. GTA III - Content Banned in Australia: https://youtu.be/fZS3rFcNPKA This video has no Audio. A family discovered that scammers used Fortnite to trick their 13-year-old into revealing personal email and credit card information. Hero is now banned in South Australia tournaments... As I mentioned in my previous video on this topic, Hero was going to be controversial. Click here to su... Online Poker has been banned in Australia since 2017 and has completely failed. Help repeal the ban by signing a petition at online-poker-Australia.com Top 10 Video Games BANNED IN COUNTRIES! (Fortnite Battle Royale & More)Subscribe to never miss a Top 5 here:https://goo.gl/eWUCx5Follow us on Twitter to be i...