#Rocket league ranks

[fogaminghub]

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[aioboosting]

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[poeticdabbler]

Not poetry or shit-posting but it's pride month so you have to give me notes. Downloaded Rocket League like a week ago to play with some friends who used to be really good but hadn't played in a while, tonight we played our 10 placement matches and somehow my ELO rank is above both of them?! I am NOT good at the game and definitely not comparable to them. I got placed Platinum 2 Division 4 for those familiar with the ranks, I am amongst gods and I am merely a worm

[txttletale]

Can you go into a bit more detail on like the purpose of an esports league for a game?

it's loss-leading marketing to draw the casual playerbase into being more serious players. online competitive games of the types that have esports scenes -- league of legends, DOTA, fortnite, csgo, rocket league, valorant, etc. -- have the same basic economic model as mobile games, where a small percentage of very invetested players account for the vast majority of revenue. the games are free so that the playerbase can be as large as possible -- this is the first stage of marketing. the second stage, which esports is a part of, is marketing to that casual playerbase to try and turn them into serious, dedicated players that produce revenue rather than costing it.

someone who plays a match of league of legends or two every week with their friends isn't going to buy a battle pass -- someone who grinds out several hours of ranked ladder every night is. esports generates a small self-contained entertainment ecosystem that gets people to spend their time outside the game thinking about the game -- this converts them into more serious players who are more likely to become the big-spenders and regular purchasers of in-game items that keep these game spectacularly profitable.

[takingchences]

𝐔𝐋𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐎𝐋𝐄𝐓 𝐩𝐭. 𝟐

A descendant of a legendary quirk longs to separate herself from her family name, but first she'll have to confront villains, ghosts from the past, and her growing attraction for Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight.

Pairing: Katsuki Bakugou x OP!fem!oc

Warnings: swearing

series masterlist + my masterlist

"What? A Quirk assessment test?" Most of the class exclaimed in unison.

"But orientation!" Uraraka whined. "We're gonna miss it!" Who cares? Sana sighed, just wanting to jump into the action already. She was dying to know the quirks of her new classmates and get a feel for her competition.

Their home room teacher obviously couldn't have cared less about missing something as trivial as orientation. "If you really wanna make the big leagues, you can't waste time on pointless ceremonies." Uraraka and others gasped at the haggard man's brutal honesty. Sana nodded her head solemnly in agreement. "Here at UA, we're not tethered to traditions. That means that I get to run my class however I see fit." A few uneasy looks were spotted in the crowd. The unidentified pro held up a small tablet. "You've been taking standardized tests most of your lives, but you never got to use your Quirks in physical exams before. The country's still trying to pretend we're all created equal by not letting those with the most power excel. It's not rational. One day, the Ministry of Education will learn."

Not if my father has anything to say about it, she argued.

Mr. Aizawa turned towards the angry ash blonde standing not two feet away from her. "Bakugou, you managed to get the most points on the entrance exam. What was your farthest distance throw with a softball when you were in Junior High?"

"Sixty‐seven meters, I think."

So Blondie's name is Bakugou.

"Right. Try doing it with your Quirk. Anything goes, just stay in the circle." Bakugou stepped inside the designated area. Sana watched his every breath and each shift of his muscular frame in anticipation. That confidence of his is killer. His quirk must be incredibly strong.

"Go on. You're wasting our time." An impatient Aizawa stood off to the side with his hands in his pockets.

Bakugou stretched his throwing arm in preparation. "Alright, man. You asked for it." He replied nonchalantly. Then, with a crazed look in his eyes, he suddenly wound his arm back and-

"DIE!" He screeched inhumanly as he released an explosion from his hand, sending the ball rocketing through the sky. Sana's eyes narrowed at the display of power. Just as she'd expected, Blondie had a strong and flashy quirk... but did he really have to be so loud all of the time?

"All of you need to know your maximum capabilities," Aizawa narrated as the class silently followed the trajectory of Bakugou's pitch. The ball eventually came to a stop, making the device in Aizawa's hand beep. "It's the most rational way of figuring out your potential as a pro hero." He flipped the device around to show them Bakugou's results.

705.2 meters. An impressive score, Sana could admit, but not an unbeatable one.

"Whoa, 705 meters, are you kidding me?" Kaminari was shocked by the results of the test, pun very much intended.

Bakugou returned to his original spot with a cocky smirk, flashing his teeth at Sana in hopes of provoking a fight. He obviously wasn't one to shy away from a challenge. Luckily, neither was she. Just you wait, pretty boy. I'll blow you straight out of the water.

After a few students made the mistake of commenting on how fun it looked, their teacher smiled sadistically before adding a punishment: whoever ranked last at the end of the eight tests would be expelled.

"You can't send one of us home! I mean, we just got here! Even if it wasn't the first day, that isn't fair!" Uraraka once again confronted their teacher.

"Oh, and you think natural disasters are?" Aizawa countered. "Or power‐hungry villains, hmm? Or catastrophic accidents that wipe out whole cities? No, the world is full of unfairness. It's a hero's job to try to combat that unfairness. If you wanna be a pro, you're gonna have to push yourself to the brink. For the next three years, UA will throw one terrible hardship after another at you. So, go beyond. Plus Ultra‐style." He bent his finger in a come here motion. "Show me it's no mistake that you're here."

Sana's fists clenched at her sides, her nails digging into the soft flesh of her palms. Her eyes cut to the dual-haired boy standing in the back of the group. So close, yet so far away. I have to prove that I'm strong enough to make it on my own.

"Now then. We're just wasting time by talking. Let the games begin."

The first part of the apprehension test was the 50-meter dash. So far, the most impressive score had come from Iida, but what else would you expect from a guy with engines in his legs? Soon, it was Sana's turn to run. She was paired up against a blonde guy with a tail.

This is my time to shine. As she'd passed by Bakugou to stand at the starting point, she'd made sure to brush his shoulder with her's. Immediately, a warmth had flowed through her body from where they'd made contact. Sana crouched low to the ground and released a deep breath.

Thank you, Bakugou...

Her glowing eyes locked with the said male's just as the starting pistol was about to go off. Her lips curved into a devious grin, making his red eyes widen slightly.

...for being my stepping stone.

There was a burst of blinding light where the girl had once been standing, causing many of the observers to turn away and shield their eyes. Before the class had time to process what had just happened, the measuring device beeped.

"0.11 seconds!" The automated voice cheered.

Standing at the finish line was Sana, lightly panting as she bent to rest her hands on her knees. Running at the speed of light, her pastel hair cast her eyes in shadow, but did nothing to hide the proud smirk on her face. Try and top that.

"HUUUUUH?" The class exclaimed.

Mina, Kaminari, Kirishima, and a boy named Hanta Sero immediately circled the peach-haired girl once she rejoined the rest of the class. "What the heck was that?!" Mina grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "It was crazy cool, babes!"

"What a manly score!" Kirishima held out a fist, making Sana laugh as she bumped their knuckles together. Thankfully, his quirk wasn't activated, otherwise her hand would've crumbled like wet paper beneath his.

Kaminari slung an arm over her shoulder. "So that's your special move, huh? How about I show you mine tonight-"

"Oi, Flashlight!"

The lightning-haired teen was cut off by a gruff voice. The small group turned to face Bakugou, his red eyes seemingly trying to peer into her soul and learn all of her secrets. "It's Sana," she reminded him with a sigh. "Did you need something?"

"What's your quirk?"

"Does it matter?"

The ash blonde's lip curled in annoyance. "Ya think I didn't notice? You did something." He squeezed his shoulder with a frown. He quickly snapped out of his trance and thrust a finger in her face. "So tell me what the hell your quirk is!"

"I didn't do anything to you." Sana held her hands up defensively. "I just wanted to power up."

"Huh?" He yelled, just as visibly confused as the rest of her new friends.

(Present Mic announcing) "Sana Sakano, her Quirk: Light Manipulation! By absorbing heat and light into her body, she can create blasts of radiation. The more energy she takes in, the stronger her attacks are!"

"Obviously, the Sun is my main source of energy, but any kind of heat will do." Sana tried her best to explain the inner workings of her quirk. "Your quirk has to do with fire, so naturally, your body's core temperature is higher than normal." She placed a hand on Sero's and Kirishima's toned arms and felt a sliver of warmth soak into her palms. "It works with anyone, though I prefer people like you." She shrugged.

"Does your shitty quirk weaken the other person?" Bakugou pressed, his anger unwavering.

"No," Sana answered sourly. "So don't blame me when you lose."

The explosive blonde scoffed. "Whatever. I don't need other people to help me win." Her spirits fell as he turned and stalked away in his strange, grumpy-old-man way, hands shoved into his pockets. Her new friends noticed the sadness in her eyes and immediately tried to cheer her up.

"Hey, don't mind him." Sero reassured her.

"Yeah!" Mina jumped in. "We believe in you, so go out there and kick his ass!" Sana's eyes glimmered, her mouth slightly open in surprise as she stared at each of the four teens in front of her.

They're so... warm.

She didn't mean physically, but a different type of warmth altogether. They offered their attention and affection, two things that Sana had craved her entire life. She had always known coldness: a distant father who brushed her thoughts, feelings and existence aside, a broken, empty home where she spent most nights alone, eating her meals in deafening silence. A family that wasn't a family at all, but business partners. To them, Sana was nothing but an investment, her stock only rising as her power grew and developed. The second that changed, she'd be deemed worthless and discarded.

Just like her mother.

It was why she and Shoto had gotten along so well. They'd lived such similar lives, experienced a lot of the same pain. They could relate to each other in a way most people would never understand. And that was fine, because they knew that they would always have each other.

But somewhere along the way, she'd lost him too.

He'd left, grown cold like his right side, become unapproachable like her father. The home she'd once found in him had become just as dark and deserted as the one she would return to day after day, and once again, she found herself out in the cold. But here, with these people...

U.A really is the best.

The class was tested on their grip strength, followed by the standing long jump. Bakugou had cleared the sandbox by setting off explosions to keep him airborne, which gave Sana an idea for her turn.

When her name was called, she felt her eyes light up as her quirk powered on. Leveling her palms with the ground, she pushed off with her feet and activated her quirk. Like a rocket, blasts of energy burst from her palms and sent her shooting through the air, easily clearing the sandbox. Her landing, on the other hand, could use some improvement. She rolled across the grass a few times before finally coming to a stop. Hearing the concern in her friends' voices, she flashed them a lazy smile and a thumbs up.

Idiot. Bakugou thought to himself as he watched the girl climb to her feet, dirt now smudged along her cheek and PE uniform.

A few pieces of pastel hair, which she'd tied back with a ribbon at the beginning of the assessment, had been freed during the tumble. They floated and danced around her face as she bounced up to the group of morons she called friends. Her smile hadn't wavered, not since he'd confronted her about her quirk. It was seriously starting to piss him off. How could she be so happy with the way things were going? The only standout score she'd managed to get so far was the 50-meter dash, and that was because she'd used him to do it!

One of the final tests was the ball toss, where Bakugou had set a high standard. I just have to beat 705.2 meters, Sana repeated like a mantra in her head.

She'd turned away, as it was Shoto's turn to throw. She hadn't been able to look at him for too long. The distance—both physical and metaphorical—between them too great and far too painful to acknowledge. So Sana ignored it, shoving every thought of him out of her mind. Of how much stronger he'd become over the last few months, how his hair was longer, how he seemed taller than the last time she'd seen him, his muscular frame more developed-

No, bad Sana. She scolded herself for letting her mind slip. She doubted Shoto had thought such things when he'd seen her this morning, learned that they'd been placed in the same class-

Dammit! I'm doing it again!

Thankfully, Shoto was now done, Uraraka having taken his place inside the white circle. She didn't even have to throw the ball. With her gravity quirk, one touch was all it took for her to reach infinity. Midoriya was up next, then Sana.

"If Midoriya doesn't shape up soon, he's the one going home." Iida put to words what they were all thinking, worry clear in his voice.

"Huh? Of course he is. He's a Quirkless loser." The explosive blonde glared at the greenette from across the field.

"Really?" Sana exclaimed in awe.

The rest of 1-A was surprised by her genuine excitement. Ever since U.A had amended the rule about quirkless students entering the Hero Course, she'd been anticipating the day that someone without a quirk would step up and prove themselves. It wasn't power that made a hero. Endeavor was living proof of that.

"He has a Quirk." Iida insisted, his brows furrowed in confusion. "Did you not hear about what he did in the entrance exam?"

Damn, she cursed. I forgot about that.

In the circle, Midoriya readied his arm, a look of pure concentration on his face. His arm seemed to glow for a moment before he released the ball. The baseball fell to the ground seconds later, barely 40 meters away.

"Wow. That was, uh..." Sana's eyes shifted between the boy and the ball. ... extremely underwhelming, she sweat dropped. What could he have possibly done during the entrance exam to impress so many people?!

Midoriya exchanged a few words with their teacher before coming to a realization. "Ah! Those goggles. I know you! You can look at someone and cancel out their powers. The Erasure Hero. Eraser Head!"

"Eraser?" Sero scratched his head. "Who's that?"

A frog-like girl came to the rescue. "I've heard of him. I think he works on the down‐low."

Teacher and pupil spoke a little longer, none of them being able to hear exactly what the two were saying. Once Midoriya returned to his spot to try again, the class whispered amongst themselves about what they possibly might've discussed.

"I wonder if our teacher gave him some advice."

"Probably told him to start packing." The satisfaction oozing from Bakugou was troubling to say the least. It was unlikely that he enjoyed much of anything due to his prickly personality, but did he really dislike the green-haired boy so badly that he was actually rooting for him to fail?

"SMASH!" Midoriya shouted as he released the ball a second time. The ball was launched into the air from the pressure, the speed and velocity of the ball on par with Bakugou's, though the explosive teen was too shocked by the fact that surprise—Midoriya is, in fact, not quirkless—to do anything other than gawk.

The end result? 705.3 meters.

Alright, Midoriya, Sana nodded her head in acknowledgment.

Bakugou, shaking himself out of whatever stupor he'd been in, immediately launched himself at the greenette, Aizawa being forced to restrain him with his fashionable scarf—sorry, capture weapon.

"How the hell am I supposed to follow that?" Sana muttered to herself.

"You're wasting my time now." Aizawa grumbled as the students crowded around the boy with the broken finger. "Whoever's next can step up."

That would be me, Sana sighed, stepping forward. Aizawa handed her the ball, which she reluctantly accepted. Taking her place inside the circle, Sana couldn't help but frown down at the white paint, grateful that the class—namely Bakugou—was unable see her unease. Her quirk didn't enhance any of her physical abilities besides her speed and that stunt had burned through most of her stored energy. Thankfully, it was a bright, sunny day out, so whatever reserves she'd lost had quickly been replenished. But throwing a ball (ideally) over 705.2 meters would be a difficult task.

I don't know what to do.

She couldn't help but picture a white-and-red-haired boy in her place. Shoto would've already thrown it. Only the weak hesitate, a voice berated. But it didn't sound like her own. The voice was deeper, more masculine, like her father's telling her nothing she does will ever be good enough. Or like Enji Todoroki's, always reminding her of his son's superiority.

You're not weak, Sana grit her teeth, banishing all thoughts of her former friend. She spotted ash blonde spikes out of the corner of her eye, thought of the harsh words he'd spoken. You don't need others to help you.

"Any day now." That was her teacher's voice. Shit. How much time had she wasted already?

Sana took a deep breath in, felt the rush of her quirk flooding through her. Releasing her breath slowly, she began to run along the inner edges of the white circle, her figure a blur of peach and navy blue. Gripping the softball tightly, she drew her arm back before flinging it into the air. It may not be much now, but...

Her glowing eyes followed the ball's course intently. It whistled through the air before crashing into the soft earth. The device in her teacher's hand displayed her score: 607 meters.

I'm just getting started.

[zoruascanbetrainerstoo]

yeah you totally should!

Okok! Here's my ranking of every gym leader I've battled!

39th: Norman. He yanked my tail! And it reallyreally hurt!

38th: Giovanni. He's the leader of Team Rocket! Which is reallyreally bad!

37th: Avery. He was reallyreally mean to me on the Isle of Armor!

36th: Skyla. One of the cannons in her gym made me hit a wall and it reallyreally hurt!

35th: Cilan. He didn't show up with all the other Unova gym leaders to help stop Team Plasma!

34th: Grant. It was reallyreally hard to climb up his tower to reach him!

33rd: Brassius! He uses reallyreally weird words that make no sense!

32nd: Flannery. Her gym was reallyreally hot!

31st: Katy. I don't like olives! And that olive was reallyreally big!

30th: Clay. He was mean to Cheren!

29th: Surge. I don't know what a loutenant is but it sounds weird!

28th: Misty. I couldn't swim in the pool in her gym!

27th: Brock. He only had one gym trainer in his gym!

26th: Brycen. His gym was reallyreally cold!

25th: Viola. That spiderweb was reallyreally sticky and high up!

24th: Brawly. I don't think he knew I can see in the dark!

23rd: Roxanne. Her gym was boring!

22nd: Ramos. His gym was boring but not as much!

21st: Erika. She has friends!

20th: Kabu. His gym was where I became a Galar League competitor!

19th: Wattson. He told me about New Mauville!

18th and 17th: Tate and Liza. It was cool fighting two gym leaders at once!

16th: Wulfric. He wasn't at his gym for a while but I learned about Pokemon Village because of him!

15th: Nessa. I got soaked in her gym test but it was still fun!

14th: Elesa. I got to go reallyreally fast in her gym!

13th: Burgh. The honey in his gym was yummy!

12th: Clemont. He helps with electricity in Lumiose City!

11th: Winona. She seems reallyreally cool!

10th: Milo. It was reallyreally fun herding the Wooloos!

9th: Valerie. She wants to be a Pokemon!

8th: Sabrina. She can do psychic stuff!

7th: Juan. He taught Wallace, who is reallyreally cool!

6th: Blaine. He knows lots of reallyreally cool things!

5th: Koga. He's a ninja!

4th: Olympia. Her gym was reallyreally cool and spacey!

3rd: Korrina. She helped me after I tried mega evolution and it went reallyreally badly!

2nd: Drayden. He helped me learn about Reshiram and Unova's past!

1st: Lenora. She helped me get the Light Stone and stop Team Plasma!

[beflamed]

Hey everyone!

Thought I’d do a bit of an introductory post for myself, as my first post didn’t do that well, if at all.

Online, I go by Beflamed (which isn’t my real name ofc, would rather keep that a secret). I turned 21 recently (Nov. 8th), and I’m from, and still live in, South Florida. I’m currently a college student majoring in general education. My ultimate goal in that regard is to teach history at the high school level.

I currently have 5 pets, 3 dogs and 2 cats. I may post more about them in the future.

In the last year and a half or so, I’ve been really getting into hockey. I wasn’t into sports at all beforehand, and it took me longer than I’d like to admit to discover hockey because of it.

As I’m from South Florida, I am of course a Panthers fan (as well as a fan of other South Florida pro sports teams, but to a lesser extent). I’ve been to a handful of games, both regular season and preseason, and I’ve definitely been really enjoying it so far. Supporting a good team helps, but I’d be a Panthers fan no matter what.

I’m also a huge fan of theme parks. I’ve been to all of the Walt Disney World parks, both Universal Orlando parks (excluding Volcano Bay), and SeaWorld Orlando. Busch Gardens Tampa, as well as the California Disney and Universal parks, are all high on my bucket list, though I’d love to visit all theme parks in the U.S. someday.

I went to Howl O Scream Orlando in its inaugural year (2021), as well as Halloween Horror Nights in 2020 and 2023. I definitely want to attend those events again, they were super fun.

I do play video games of course, mainly Minecraft, Roblox, Rocket League, The Sims 4, and GTA V. I’ll admit, I’m not great at video games for the most part, but they’re still fun regardless.

When it comes to hobbies, I’ll admit, I don’t do anything super interesting. I have a YouTube channel where I post theme park/Minecraft content. I also have a blog site called BlogBoby dedicated to MCParks (the main Minecraft server I play on. It’s also the main focus of my YouTube channel at the moment, and I have the Influencer rank on the server because of it). I’m also a moderator for Coaster Con, which is something I may go more into depth on another time.

I hope this post was a good way to get to know me. If there’s anything more you’d like to know, please ask! If you want to follow me elsewhere, my username is the same on all platforms (including YouTube). Thanks!

[aura-acolyte]

Actually, you know what, lets start discourse. Hoenn cities ranked:

Lilycove. Basically my home base, and my two favorite places (Sharkie's Magikarp Sanctuary and the Aqua-Magma Conservatory) are nearby.

Mossdeep: I have a lot of memories there, some good and some bad, but its all cancelled out because Tate and Liza are there and they are objectively the best gym leaders.

Sootopolis: City built in a crater. Real cool. Loses points for having Groudon and Kyogre trapped under it.

Pacifidlog: You built a whole town on the water! How cool is that!

Meteor Village: Gotta give a shoutout to Z's hometown. Great place to learn about Ancient Hoenn stuff.

LaRousse City: Home of the Battle Frontier. Kickass in general. Had to help out in a hurricane there once.

Lavaridge Town: Still think its insane to build a town next to a volcano but it does have Flannery.

Dewford Town: I know, I know, there's not a lot there but its where I met Steven for the first time. Technically also where I met Zinnia depending on what you count as "Meeting."

Fortree City: I'm gonna be honest, I'm pretty sure this city is every 8 year old's dream. Or it was when I was a kid, at least. Not sure how into treehouses modern kids are.

Slateport City: I love the sea and I love port cities. It reminds me of all the best parts of Goldenrod but without any of the shit parts (you know, like Team Rocket and my bio father). Plus, if you hang around the market enough you can hear all sorts of stories from trainers from all over the globe.

Verdanturf Town: There's not a lot interesting here but I gotta give a shoutout to my boy Wally's home.

Mauville: Mauville is problematic for obvious reasons but also its really fucking cool. Plus Wattson's there.

Littleroot Town: Finally getting around to my Hometow. Well, my Hoenn Hometown. Its nice and quaint and my Uncle and Mom live there so, you know, cool.

Petalburg: It's only this low on the list because I refuse to give Norman a break.

Oldale Town: Booooorrrrriiiinggg! I'm sure the people are nice but its such a boring town. I legit have more interesting memories from Route 103 than Oldale.

Ever Grande: Its a League City so there's not much going on there during the off season but its absolutely bustling during League Season. Sometimes I like to watch the League Matches on the big screens they have. Nobody's beaten Steven yet but a few have gotten close.

Falarbor Town: Hmm... a town created for the purpose of mining meteors to study which directly led to the death of Zinnia's sister. I wonder why I have a negative opinion of this place.

Rustboro: Capitalism ho!

Some of these are arbitrary, most of them aren't. Bye!

[yamchaisawesome]

What the fuck is Team Rocket’s position in the force? By Team Rocket here I specifically mean Meowth’s unit comprising of himself, Jessie, and James (yes he is their direct superior).

In their debut episode ‘Pokémon Emergency’ they seem to be elite mooks at the lowest. They’re actually very competent, taking over an entire Pokémon center in a major city by themselves, and Meowth is actually called Giovanni’s personal favourite. It’s even possible that their white outfits denote something like admin status in comparison to normal grunts.

After Pikachu takes them out the first time though, it’s all downhill. At first Giovanni assumes ash’s Pikachu is some kind of super Pokémon considering it defeated his top agents, and so sends team rocket on the mission to capture the darn rat. But then it just keeps happening. After a while he gets tired of it and decides to finally replace Meowth with a Persian as his personal lap Pokémon. By the end of the Indigo League Saga, even high ranking grunts like Butch and Cassidy seem to outrank them.

Odd thing is, they keep being sent on very high level missions. My favorite example of this is in the Unova Saga where they were literally sent there to set up a new branch of Team Rocket in the region. And for some bizarre reason up until recently they’ve still been chasing after Pikachu. Now what are our options here to explain this?

Option A: Team Rocket gets special treatment for background reasons.

There’s a bit of evidence for this one. Obviously we have Meowth who as far as Giovanni’s concerned is the only Pokémon that can talk and isn’t a literal god. Then we have James who is revealed pretty early on to be from a highly wealthy family, Giovanni probably knows this and even though James has no connection to the family’s wealth he’d probably figure out that they want James back to marry him off. Keeping James around as a bargaining chip when times get rough seems like a solid option. Meanwhile you have Jessie. Not gonna lie I’m kinda stumped with her. She doesn’t seem particularly skilled nor is her family rich in any capacity, girl literally had to eat snow for crying out loud. Maybe Meowth or James just liked her enough for Giovanni to put her on the team??

Option B: They serve as an example.

While they’re technically still high ranking, Giovanni keeps them around to send a message more than anything. At this point Giovanni 100% knows they cannot beat that stupid ass mouse and yet still makes them do it on the weekly. Why? To effectively torture them. Almost every episode they are nearly killed and humiliated. Why? To show other grunts what happens when you fail him. There are holes in this theory though, like how Team Rocket are still occasionally sent on genuine high value missions sometimes.

Option C: They didn’t actually get demoted that far/ actually got promoted

Sure Meowth lost his favourite status (which is debatable anyway) but aside from that and the taunting from Butch and Cassidy there aren’t many other signs that their rank is any lower now. It’s very possible Giovanni recognises their impressive skill in mechanics and disguises and simply doesn’t hire them for Pokémon capturing jobs anymore, and now Meowth and Co are really just doing it for the sport while their real job is covert operations such as the one in Unova. All the movies? They’re reporting all those legendary sightings to Giovanni ASAP. This is the funniest one and my personal favourite explanation.

These are just my ideas but what are yours? Please tell me I need to knoww.

[themattress]

Pokémemories: Best Wishes

I had lost all interest in the Pokémon anime and never expected to get it back. But what a breath of fresh air Pokémon: Best Wishes proved to be! In a move that proved rage-inducing to the anime fandom but was just what a new audience of kids and lapsed viewers like me needed, Ash was honestly rebooted as a character rather than pretend he's still growing while keeping him 10 years old and starting out a new region with just Pikachu which ensures he'll ultimately lose at the League. Brock was finally gone and replaced with a new male Gym Leader companion Cilan, and the new female companion wasn't just another May copycat but Gym Leader and Champion-to-be Iris, and they both had entertaining personalities and a good trio dynamic with Ash. And speaking of trios, Team Rocket also got a reboot, cycling back to their initial more serious and threatening characterizations and this time running with it, serving as high-ranked agents on missions of actual importance to their organization aimed at conquering the Unova region, always keeping you guessing what sort of scheme they were working toward: secret criminal espionage, heist thriller, fantasy, sci-fi, even Eldritch horror! Add to this a revamped animation style, new beautiful music scores, a wide cast of rivals and recurring supporting characters, Unova being the most faithfully to the games depicted region to date, pacing that finally didn't take ages bogged down in formulaic filler ala Indigo League, and a relaxed atmosphere reflecting a childhood with learning lessons for growing up, and you had an anime series that I greatly enjoyed watching week-to-week and still love today.

So, was Best Wishes the best?

.....Eeeeeeeeeeh, not really. And there's a lot to unpack as to why that was.

But for now, here's the beautiful English dub opening song!

[rustyshake]

RustyShake's Keys to the Game Tonight

(Because I need to input my two cents)

The Predators are dead last in the league right now. Sitting at 9-17-6, they have amassed 24 points, the same as the Blackhawks. Except the Blackhawks have 2 more regulation wins than them and the other 2 are regulation losses.

This comes after a really decent off-season for the Predators which saw them picking up some massive names, such as Steven Stamkos (former Lightning captain, 2x Stanley Cup winner (2020,2021), 2x Rocket Richard winner) Jonathan Marchessault (who won a Cup with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2023 and also took home the Conn Smythe that year) and Brady Skjei, a solid defenseman who was previously with the Rangers and Hurricanes. So this record and how they've been playing doesn't really add up.

If the Penguins want to extend their win streak before heading into NJ on Saturday to meet the red hot Devils, they need to be solid on defense and continue that depth scoring we have seen the last few games.

In the Kings game, the Grzelcyk goal in the 3rd period, which pushed the Penguins into OT, was the difference maker obviously. But looking back on last year, it seemed a lot of the scoring pressure fell on the first line. That Raks-Sid-Guentz line was the one carrying the team. However looking now, there has been so much depth scoring the last 10 games. The fourth line has 7 goals, second has 8 and the first has 14. To think this time last year we were begging for more depth scoring and for Sully to put BJC in the press box (sorry BJC).

Some stats before I head off until puck drop

The Penguins in their last 10 are 7-2-1. Their powerplay is 22.3% and they are sitting at 13th in the league for that, another aspect that the team lacked last year was a competent power play. It is slowly but surely coming around. However, the one stat to really write home about is the penalty kill, which is 8th in the league with a 82.3% success rate.

HOWEVER.... the Nashville Predators penalty kill has been the shining beacon in the dark for them. They are currently the highest ranked PK in the league with an 87.8% success rate!! Their power play is 24th with a 17.6%.

Should be an interesting battle tonight.

[epicspheal]

What's something you'd like everyone to know about your AU, if they're not very familiar with it yet?

Hey there anon! Oh that's a great and very tough question tbh. There's a lot I'd love for someone who is not familiar with cactusverse to know. But if I had to distill it down to like three things

It's a gameverse AU: Are there some elements borrowed from the anime and manga, absolutely. But the characters and plot all stem from the main games. There is a little bit of mixing of the game plots, such as Hoenn being the Emerald plot but with the Delta Episode and Zinnia, the USUM events (Ultra Necrozma and Rainbow Rocket) being sequels to the SM events, and Naranja and Uva academy existing in Paldea at the same time (as well as both future and past paradoxes).

The real big canon change in Cactusverse is the Aura Power: I really love the concept of Aura and much of the changes to the canon involve me giving aura powers to a lot more people. In cactusverse about the same amount of people in the world who are left-handed (12%) may have some level of aura power. That being said Aura Guardians are still very rare in Cactusverse. It takes a lot of time and energy to become a fully realized aura guardian (someone who can utilize aura powers to their fullest extent) and most people in the modern day do not have the time or mental capacity to try. So expect a lot of your favorite canon characters to potentially be able to sense aura or have a strong aura.

There's (currently) four new characters to Cactusverse: Aka my OCs and trainersona if you've seen me yapping about cactusverse on Twitter/Bluesky/Discord Please note that ALL character reference sheets have been done by RGreyWind on Twitter

First off is HRH Jack, the Duke of Stow-On-Side. As a member of the royal family of Galar he was sent of to Paldea to train at a young age where he became a champion rank trainer. He then returned to Galar to complete his aura guardian training. Jack has always had a deep ambition to restore the absolute monarchy of Galar and become king of the region. Despite being born with a silver spoon in his mouth he had an extremely strong work ethic unheard of amongst aristocrats. This allowed him to eventually become champion of Galar once Peony left the position due to Rose becoming chairman. Jack's specialty with his aura powers is shadowification. Due to his obsession with being king of Galar and feeling that the title of champion was his ticket to re-establishing the monarchy, he shadowified his own team in order to maintain power. He also tried to kill Opal and Leon and threatened to kill Sonia, Hop and Gordie.

Jack has a crass brazen attitude that proved popular with the Galar population prior to his defeat and revelation of his murder attempts.

This is Māhealani Kapule (Marsha to the colonizers), the first ever champion of the Alola Region. Born in Koni-Koni City as a military brat, she eventually moved to Kanto due to her father's military requirements. Despite showing a strong potential as a trainer from a young age, she refused to take part of the Indigo League gym challenge as she wished to complete her birthright as an Alolan by doing the Island Challenge. To pass the time in Kanto she picked up both cheerleading and martial arts.

Just before her 17th birthday her dad was honorably discharged from the military and the family made plans to move back to Alola. Māhealani was able to finally do her island challenge uninterrupted- oh wait no, just kidding she got dragged into the Aether family plot much to her complete chagrin. Still her father's words of "Never leave a soldier behind" rung through her head as she unwittingly became a big sis to Lillie, Gladion and Hau

Māhealani can come off a bit abrasive to some but she has a kind heart and cares deeply for the people and Pokemon of Alola. Her time as champion however has left her with a deep seated fear of ultra beasts and ultra space. She enjoys Mantine Surfing, Malasadas and taking photos with her Rotom Dex.

Now we have Calla Okoro! This baby genius has a love of Poison Types thanks to being accidentally poisoned by a Budew in her mum's backyard when she was young. Rather than gain a fear of the type she decided to learn more about them. Realizing the negative impact perception many poison types had, Calla resolved to make it her life's mission to improve the reputation of poison types. At the young age of 8 she went to college and got Biochemistry degree.

However realizing that her home region of Galar was obsessed with battling and finding out that poison types were considered to be weak she then resolved to prove everyone wrong by entering the gym challenge with her best buddy Hop. It was an uphill battle for her as she contended with back to back losses against Kabu and Bea but over time she gained her footing not only helping to save Galar from the Darkest Day but being the first person to defeat Leon in an official match. She continues to make it her goal to educate the world about poison types with her battle prowess and gymnastic skills!

Calla is exceedingly intelligent but a little one track minded when it comes to poison types and improving their reputation. She's very extroverted and enjoys trying all of the sweets around Galar and the world

Last but not least we have Dr. Cami Oak (for the record she is my self-insert trainersona). Born to a working class family in Nacrene City, Unova, Cami's had to work hard to obtain her dreams that were often out of reach for people of her social class. Like many young kids she went out on a journey to collect gym badges. While she managed to collect three badges she ultimately failed her gym challenge due to a severe asthma exacerbation on the desert of Route 4 and her own fear of bug types keeping her from progressing in Burgh's gym.

She would eventually turn her attention to higher education going to university in STEM ultimately gaining a chance to study abroad in Kalos under Professor Sycamore where she would meet Blue Oak who was also studying abroad. The two would become fast friends and helped to motivate each other during a time of uncertainty with Cami encouraging Blue to graduate from being a gym leader, and Blue encouraging Cami to go back and try to finish her gym challenge. Taking his advice Cami would return to Unova and not only gain all 8 badges, but become the champion of the Unova league. However her reign was cut short due to her falling into a severe depression after the untimely death of her older sister forcing her to resign as she felt she couldn't handle being the champion in the region in her current mental state. This action would lead to Alder taking the mantle and unfortunately allowing Team Plasma to make their moves

While the pain of loss never fully leaves, Cami was slowly able to heal and would be accepted into medical school in Alola. There she would reunite with Blue who was recently appointed as a co-head of the Battle Tree. Their friendship would soon blossom into love and the two would marry have and later have twins: Ayanna and Aiden Oak.

Cami is quite reserved, anxious and a loner. However to the people she calls friends she can be quite cheeky and the loyal friend who picks you up from the airport and stays with you in the hospital. A huge foodie, published poet and track athlete, Cami owns a blog where she answers people's questions about how to best take care of their health as a trainer.

[datarep]

Rank distribution over the Free to Play seasons in Rocket League.

by armchair_mechanic/reddit

[crystalelemental]

"books-are-my-life-stuff: Well, Switch Lite doesn't have a detachable controller, so I have to angle and adjust how I hold my Switch and positions the throwing motion while holding the Switch in a particular way to throw the ball and capture the Pokemon. It's bad. I don't like it."

Oh. Oh wow, that's actually really bad. There's not another option to dock the console, then. You'd have to play it handheld mode. How miserable.

"I do heard that Green in Let's Go has the playful personality much like her Pokespe counterpart. So, definitely not Leaf. From the pictures I've seen she seems interesting, but I don't wanna spend hours trying to catch Legendaries anymore, it's so tiring. I did battle Blue before stopped playing but that's it."

*doesn't know the manga* I suppose she does, but none of this strikes me as "decisively not Leaf." Leaf doesn't have much personality to begin with, and nothing Green really does strikes me as super distinct. As far as my games-centric ass is concerned, they're both just "the girl from Kanto."

"The fact that I can barely remember about the game's lore changes and I don't screenshot it that much means it's just that forgettable to me. I probably will try that Butterfree sweep sometime in Galar, better than having to deal with Let's Go."

It's just not particularly interesting. Like...let me see if I can pick up the adjustments Let's Go actually made:

Pewter Crunchies are a thing. No significance otherwise.

Gyms now have conditions to meet before entering, and all but Koga are stupid easy.

Anime Team Rocket is here, guys! Meowth doesn't talk or battle! What is the point of these three?

Archer's here, guys! Remember him? No you don't, put your hand down.

Basically every single instance of "explore around to find the item needed to progress" is turned into a really long story bit that just hands you the item so don't worry you can't miss it there's no reason to talk to anyone in the region now.

Lorelei shows up that one time.

Cubone does like...a thing, I guess? It is neat that Chase adds the orphaned Cubone to his team, but the rest of the segment feels wildly hand-holdy for little actual benefit.

*gasp* Giovanni was the one who specifically made the custom order for the Master Ball, you guys! What a shocking revelation that changes exactly nothing because the head of the company didn't know and refuses to cooperate once he does! Almost like all this did was add extraneous dialogue for no reason!

Blaine does a TV quiz show because scientists are bored living on the island, and TV is definitely the best way to bring engagement rather than any kind of actual activities in the community.

Oak does poetry now! You know, like in the anime!

There's mega evolution now. Don't worry about it.

Champion was just a general rank for anyone who beat the E4, but now it's a specific position for some reason, and Oak specifically has to help officiate it despite his known disconnection from battling and the League per Agatha. Why is he here?

Look guys, it's Green! Isn't she so completely different from this featureless slate of a protagonist from Gen 3? (No)

Look guys, Blue took over Viridian, just like the GSC! Isn't that fun? (Sure, but GSC did it first, you're copying their homework)

It basically adds nothing but extra dialogue. Nothing of significance changes, and most of its prominent additions are just lore nodes to Johto, the superior generation. Completely vacuous game.

[raccoonfallsharder]

heyyy chip anon again ( except this time chip anon is eating chicken nuggets so ….. chicken nugget anon ??? )

okay anyways *crosses legs very professionally*

opinions on miguel o’hara ???? he is my #2 babygirl rn ( nobody tops rocket ) and i need to know my fav author’s pov on him

sorry if this is like - annoying - i’m gonna be 100% straight up i literally have nothing better to do rn , so , why not ask your opinions on miguel o’hara ?

you’ll always be chip nonnie to me baby (unless you’re requesting a name change, which i would of course honor) ♡ and thank you for the compliment you are so fuckin sweet

*crosses legs significantly less professionally because we’re talking about miguel o’hara*

where to begin

miguel o’hara is hot and there is a lot of super-steamy fanfiction about him from so many amazing writers. like, ur girl dae is consuming a LOT of it. love a fictional dude with a ridiculously stupid 8:1 shoulder-to-waist ratio (the size kink is real). and that VOICE.

and yet. miggy is absolutely someone who should be my (fictional) type, at least based on my history. but somehow… he’s very low on my list in general

i’m not sure why (though i have a list of possibilities, i haven’t exactly thought critically about this before). i suspect it has something to do with the way we deal with trauma. i can feel a lot more empathy for someone who turns their unhealthy coping mechanisms inward versus someone who turns them outward. my boy miggy trying to bend the multiverse to his will & manipulate/control a league of spiders just doesn’t get my emotional motor running

(actually the more i think about this the more i’m like “is miggy a cult leader???”)

it may also have to do with the fact that all my big sister energy (and there is a LOT, surprising no-one) is fully-activated in defense of miles morales. miguel o’hara hurt the baby

THAT SAID i am open to being convinced. what makes him rank an IMPRESSIVE #2 slot on the babygirl list???? is there any fanfiction you recommend that might sway me??