#Win Your Brand

[kirkwall-age]

that's what this thing is?

the macguffin from DA2 is a macguffin in Veilguard???

first: insane implications for how much backwards compatible fuckery Solas and his evanuris inflicted upon previous games.

second: insane that the plot of da2 is now '''The Gang Stumbles on the Actual Lyrium Dagger that Created the Veil. You Won't Believe What Happened Next!''

[boyguk]

me watching eurovision 2024 go up in flames

[simplydnp]

one one hand they're kind of bad at a bunch of games. on the other... they're good at platformers and teamwork (it takes two :')) so they did just as good as i expected 🫡

see my counter argument here is bread and fred

exact same idea, executed in a different way (spinning vs bouldering, 2d vs 3d, cute vs hell). and dnp were terrible at it. to the point of like, actual frustration. some of it was played up but there were nerves hit during that video.

but yes, they did well with it takes two. so i didn't think they would catastrophically fail, but i've seen enough youtubers play this game and have varying rates of success to say that i expected them to struggle more.

now, this assumption was made before i saw that phil was using a controller, because, of his own admission, he is not good at wasd-ing. since that was no longer a huge negative for their prospects, the odds certainly changed in their favour. i believe i said this in the tags of my reblog about their success.

i'm glad you had faith in them, anon. i'm an optimist, but i'm also a realist, so given what i was presented, i made my prediction.

[clairedaring]

Up Poompat's reaction to Jaylerr's single "เสียงสอง (Love Tone)"

[latimeria-fell-from-heaven]

I need Sunday's ult to involve an accurate angel. I would be very disappointed if the hsr team doesn't.

In my copium, I can imagine his ult looking like this: https://imagedelivery.net/9sCnq8t6WEGNay0RAQNdvQ/UUID-cl9jdx2qt0520rdovkjt20p9l/public

-🍁

if this tweety bird mofo doesn't have an ult (or even boss fight!!) of a biblically accurate angel, i will scream so loud that it would put mel blanc TO SHAME ( ｡ •̀ ᴖ •́ ｡)

[batsplat]

jorge martin is just an off-brand motogp version of george russell. both incredible qualifiers, hard racers, have issues sometimes keeping their tyres together, have stayed in a satellite/backmarker team for three years begging the big manufacturer to accept them into the main fold and will randomly decide that they are actually done with race by beefing it into the gravel/walls on the last laps.

this is why ducati did not hire martin, he hasn’t done the power point presentation

strong last line but hm... do I agree with this...

I don't entirely disagree with the profile of racer, though jorge's a bit more in the flame bright and early mould (partly also just because of the different rhythms of those two racing series). he cut his teeth not just on being an exceptional qualifier but also a starter. even though this year, you do kinda have to say pecco's just?? uh?? he's never been a BAD starter but I swear he didn't used to be this good? some of his starts from the second or third row this year have been genuine works of art. this isn't relevant, just needed to mention it. that's part of why jorge does so well at sprints... he's really good at that abbreviated format, where it's just all out from the very start. mr russell was considered quite a poor starter in his williams days (though lbr that may have partly been car characteristics) - the qualifying's very strong and very consistent, but for a while the question was of capitalising off the line. he's got a few more drives that are about working his way through the field... like qatar last year. I just don't really associate jorge with that?

the bottling thing is debatable and we could get into that debate, but like, never mind that. we're leaving sports analysis now and getting back into vibes territory. the thing about jorge is that he has had a competitive bike from the word go. mr russell, whatever you think about how clutch he is or isn't, did not set a foot wrong in terms of making the mercedes case for himself. what happened with him was basically just... a series of unfortunate events that got him stuck in a spectacularly uncompetitive car for three years. got one shot in a good car in said three years (sakhir 2020) and delivered the perfect performance. but jorge!! jorge had 2022!! he blew it!! he did get unlucky with the gp22 vs the gp21 comparison early that season and how bastianini was able to take advantage of the early stage factory spec malaise, and he's far from the only gp22 who was struggling early on (cf one 'pecco bagnaia'). but still, some of his rides that year were. truly horrendous. and the way the whole thing played out left him with a massive chip on the shoulder.... that's the thing, right, I think what's so key about jorge is that sense of grievance, the fact that he was rejected for that factory seat and we're now several years on from that. and it's a really thin line between that being a good thing and a bad thing. like, anything that's a potential source of motivation fundamentally can be helpful, right? in 2007, casey showed up at ducati as not their first choice, kinda a stopgap, and also after yamaha had pulled the plug on a potential contract not once but twice. he has spoken again and again how yamaha and honda's behaviour towards him made him want to show them exactly what they were missing out on. he used that! it was good for him as a competitor that he had something to get worked up over! he's done it throughout his career! but on the flip side, if you're so busy feeling victimised that you're kind of already... primed for failure, then you've got a problem. like, if the takeaway is you're probably screwed anyway because you're being sabotaged by the factory, then even if that were true you're fucked before you start competing. you've already lost in your own head, you've made excuses before you've even started. it's a thin line! thinking the world is out to get you can either be a good way to get yourself to going, or it can be a loser mindset

quickly circling back to georgie boy, my main feeling is that they kinda have a different type of malaise. one is an overthinker and the other is at times very much an under-thinker. grussy actually shares the overthinking trait with his fellow 63 more than anyone else... all three kinda have this fun meeting point of a lot of cockiness and a lot of insecurity - they just balance them in other ways. and russell reminds me more of pecco in that kind of... being constantly thrown up against a Big Legacy of someone you admire, being in the shadow of greats and having to make your own name... you're very much part of a succession plan that leaves you with massive shoes to fill... (though admittedly grussy has also gone through the unenviable experience of getting to work closely with his hero and eventually having most of said hero's fans absolutely despise him. can happen, I suppose.) jorge is a bit more baggage-free. he's very much the main character in his own story, not so much faffing about with the narrative implications of all this shit. more straightforward! if jorge wins, it's about him. if he loses, it's also about him. ducati has been his world for the past few years, to the point where he's gotten a bit parochial about the whole thing. early this season, he was talking like - sure, the championship lead is important, BUT this is also giving him power in contract negotiations!! which... yes, that's true, but also that should be way down the order of priorities my man. jorge martin might be the only person in this universe who... genuinely might be more obsessed with beating pecco than marc? like, beating the marc marquez would be great and all, 8x world champion bla bla, but pecco is his personal antagonist! he's known him for years! that's ducati's golden boy! he needs to beat pecco so badly! there's something really fun about a rivalry where it feels like at least one side's feelings towards the other... kinda go beyond a personal relationship, like at a certain point it becomes about what the other guy Represents. jorge isn't worried about legacy and the shoes he's got to fill and can he truly live up to all those expectations as much as he's worried about himself and also occasionally pecco bagnaia

anyway, I've been thinking about the bottling thing... what jorge said about it earlier's been rattling around in my head since I saw the quote

man, it must be really tough, right? like, you don't know why it's happening... it's not just cockiness - though there is an element of someone who's kinda used to bulldozing his way through problems with sheer obstinacy and stubborn self belief (another distinction with the 63's, who are more introspective and prone to self-flagellation following mistakes). but it's also just... you can't figure out why it's such a fundamental shortcoming of your game! today, from the way pecco and also luca (apparently) were talking about it, it seems like there was something noticeable about how jorge was gradually losing a bit in his control and precision as a result of how the tyres were going off, as a sort of precursor of the fatal error. which... well, it's at least a somewhat understandable mistake, because it comes from pressure? it's not just the tyres going off each time - the mugello sprint crash was lap four, jerez was lap ten. but an interesting thing about his big errors this year is that they have all come as a result of serious pressure - as a result of pecco directly behind him in the case of jerez and sachsenring and like... in anticipation of the massive points damage he knew he was probably going to take in mugello. it sounds obvious to say pressure is more likely to generate mistakes, but of course that's not always true of our title contenders! pecco only really wakes up when he's already dug a hole halfway to the centre of the earth - but when he faces actual pressure, his track record is mostly very strong. his biggest howlers this season, portimao + catalunya sprints, both came when he was leading comfortably. martin has also made these pressure-light mistakes in the past, most memorably indonesia last year but... well

one of the most fascinating bits of sports are like... limits and ceilings and how your build-up as an athlete kinda determines what's possible for you. like, sports is sort of where you experiment with notions of fate and inevitability and all that, where you question whether it's possible for anyone to ever really change. is it once a choker, always a choker? if you know that you have this problem, this flaw that is always just there in the background, waiting to be actualised - what can you do? does it give you more or less hope that there's not a clear root cause? how debilitating that must be for confidence too, always knowing that you could cause everything you've worked for to crash down in a moment.... this is where. y'know, the thing with pecco, right, is that he's now gotten to a weird place where psychologically he has to be wary of the mistakes he himself makes - but he knows that he can also bounce back from them. he has that muscle memory, because he's done it before. he chucked it down the road in india and he won the title! jorge did it in thailand and he didn't! and the problem is that it becomes a self-reinforcing cycle of sorts, because even though the margin between the two of them at the end of last year ended up being relatively slim... one of them still won and one of them still lost. which actually means that even though pecco and jorge both have made serious mistakes this year (though pecco's track record is cleaner - in portimao the points punishment didn't quite fit the crime and in the jerez/le mans sprints he was kinda just unlucky), only one of them knows they can do this shit and win the title anyway

and now jorge has an entire summer break to go away and think about that. can be a good thing, get some distance, and it's easy to slip into a run of bad form that you can't escape if there's no interruption. can be an awful thing because you're sitting with your mistakes for weeks on end with no chance to rectify them. I'm naturally a pessimist on the 'can any athlete ever really change' question because life has very much worn me down on this topic over the last few years (aka some sports results made me really sad). but I always want to be optimistic! I want to believe athletes can fix their fatal flaws! I want to believe they can get better at managing their tyres and not folding under pressure. and pressure works weirdly... sometimes it's not really a test of 'mental strength' as much as it is of what kind of in-built margin an athlete has (btw this is my best guess for what goes wrong with martin). sometimes it's beneficial in sharpening the mind and erasing the possibility of you just... not being sufficiently concentrated (which is my best guess for what happens with pecco when he's not being pressured). can you truly get better at dealing with that? or at a certain point, have you already accumulated so much mental scar tissue that you're always going to get in your own way? who knows! maybe we're all doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past forever and ever. who knows

anyway. in response to this ask. I do think it's more a case of 63's aligned in being too stuck in their own head, too concerned with legacy, and walking a very thin line between arrogance and insecurity. all three of them, though, have a bad case of 'coming through the ranks in an era of greats they'll always be disparagingly compared to'. what's new can never be as good as what came before, right? and they're constantly struggling to manage or maybe even overcome basic flaws that seem to be embedded in their make up as competitors... maybe they'll make it, just a little. maybe they never will. but it sure is fun to watch them try!

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

watching fandaniel go is wild because he is just [vestibular stims] [vestibular stims] [vestibular stims] [vestibular stims] and yeah man that's a mood

[ahappydnp]

it sucks for latam and asian phannies but also as an eastern european im also pissed off. it would so easy to fit italy/spain/france/portugal in there but oh well

this is obviously a small fraction of the greater conversation at hand, but i do wonder if one of their sponsor partners (like babble or nord vpn, who's brands revolve around being international) would agree to sponsor at the very least a series of meet ups countries they're not able to get the tour (similar to when blackberry sponsored phil to do his european meetup adventure)

like i assume dnp have enough of a strong relationship with their partners to at least ask if something like that would be on the table?

i really really do hope latam and asia get some version of the tour (and after that for sure more accessible european dates) and am still holding out they're working on something soon after their 'new regions' comment. they do still 100% owe communication regardless

[newsbrand]

Sha'Carri Richardson has finally been qualified to compete in the Paris Olympics after finishing 1st Place in the 100-meter race recently

[stick-by-me]

Metallic super chicks!

[demoness-one]

i LOVE racing brand new cars and winning. Its almost. sexual

[ecto-stone]

seeing that Beta Jazz dream is to become a surgeon intead of Therapist. Yeah, honesty that fit way more. since doctor still got training to reconize mental illness in patient. Also the Phantom gang are missing someone at the healing role. Like listen listen. Imagine in never reveal to parent AU. Jazz instead of becoming a ghost hunter too to help. She become a doctor instead to help treat Danny battle wound.

making the team fully rounded.

[natjennie]

weed gummy update: I was DEFINITELY high and it was a little bit very scary! but also like weird and chill? like swimming through jelly to do things. when I woke up I couldn't really tell if I was still high, but I'm normal now for sure. I am also very tired but that might not be related my sleep is fucked anyway

[mossywizard]

I would like to thank hatsune miku for getting me to where I am today

[sergeifyodorov]

canucks are on your non-contenders list, aren't they. it's ok. we're having fun and dreaming of the cup being paraded down a rainy granville street, but deep down we know. we know.

They surely are but it's ok i love em <3

[heaven-dope]

this is a gifted kid-free blog/j