#also last round all the matches went up in bracket order but this round since theres few enough polls | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

jaskiersbow · 3 years ago

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Make You Happy

(again, housekeeping and moving things to the new blog. Ignore me!)

Explicit, Warnings: knotting, virgin Jaskier, sex slave Jaskier, a/b/o. Geraskier.

Anonymous asked: Virgin Sex Slave Jaskier to the Wolves. Maybe his first introduction to fucking a Witcher and their MASSIVE cocks after his purchase? Dubcon to oh fuck yes. So, learning about sex, breeding and lots of cum? A/B/O or knots (don't have to be combined) for flavour if you'd like. (age is up to you, but since you didn't mention it, 18+ is perfect.)

Anon, I have to apologize a little here. I went off script. I can definitely be talked into writing a follow up where Geralt shares his slave with the other wolves, but I felt like he needed to take what was his first. Have 2k of sassy Jaskier who has absolutely no idea what he’s getting himself into. I wrote this picturing him as 18, but didn’t state it so let your mind go wild.

---

The omega is quiet as they walk back to Geralt’s campsite. How the fuck does he get himself into these situations? Who wins a sex slave in a game of Gwent? He honestly hadn’t expected to win that game, but that obviously doesn’t matter now.

“Do you sleep outside all the time?” the omega asks quietly, breaking Geralt out of his thoughts.

“Not all the time, but towns aren’t often kind to me,” Geralt informs him, adding a rushed out “sorry” to the end of it.

“I like the stars” he says with a shrug, “Besides, whatever you want I want. That’s kind of how this works.”

“Sorry if I’ve never owned a sex slave before,” Geralt scoffs out, cringing when the boy looks a bit heartbroken at that. He hadn’t asked for this, to be tied to a witcher of all things. Geralt vows to be a bit nicer if he can help it.

“I just want to make you happy,” the omega mumbles, pouting a bit. Geralt realizes he never actually got his name, which is probably bad form, but to be fair he was shocked at having won a slave in a card game.

“I’m sure you will. This is just...a lot to take in. What should I call you?”

“My name is Jaskier, but the ones who trained me called me Pet if that pleases you more?” Jaskier replied. Geralt thought it over for a moment, decided this was odd enough without adding that element to it.

“So Jaskier, unless you’re an idiot, you’ve noticed I’m a witcher. Did they train you for that?” he asks, already knowing the answer.

“I was trained to be displayed at court, so no,” Jaskier says, frowning. “Do I displease you?”

“Not at all,” Geralt rushes out. “You...you look nice. I just want to know what you’re ready for. Alpha witchers can be a bit much. What did your last owner do with you?”

“My last owner lost me in a card game on my first night with him, so I’m still fresh from training.”

“Fresh as in...virginal?” Geralt asks, his voice cracking over the word. This is too much. No matter how sweet and eager the boy seems, there’s no way he’s ready to take a witcher cock. He’ll have to find a place for him, maybe set him free somewhere nearby.

“Only my ass. I’ve had lots of practice with my hands and my mouth,” Jaskier says with a saucy wink. “Sometimes they even let me get myself off afterwards if I was good enough with my mouth.” Geralt can picture it, the boy taking his tiny omega cock in his own hand and fucking his fist to orgasm. A shiver runs through him, and he has to push another wave a lust away and focus on setting things straight.

“No use in being modest, but witchers - especially alphas - are more well endowed than most. We might not be a good match,” he says tactfully.

“You don’t want me,” Jaskier sobs out, shooting Geralt a doe-eyed look.

“Look. I travel alone normally. I’m not good with people. I have wanted nothing more than to fuck that tight little ass since I saw you in that tavern, but I don’t think it’s possible. I’m not about to hurt you, and you can’t want this,” he waves a hand around at the campsite around them. No reasonable omega would want to live in the fucking woods and trail a witcher around. It’s ridiculous.

“Well that’s great, because I’ve thought of little else than you taking me since I saw you. Now let me show you something and maybe it will change your mind. Because I’m not about to lose two owners in one day,” Jaskier huffs out before stomping over to his bag. He roots around for a moment before pulling out a rectangular box. He kneels down in front of Geralt and presents it to him, grinning up at him.

“What this?” Geralt asks as he opens the lid. His eyes go wide as he takes in the contents; a set of wooden plugs of various sizes. The largest is as thick around as he is. “You’ve taken these?” he asks as his blood rushes south.

“All but the largest. I’ve not been properly fucked, but they wanted to make sure I was able to be. They’re also for if my owner wants to...keep me open for them. I’m made to serve, made to be ready. Now can we please get to the part where you stick your cock in me? I’ve been wet since we left town,” he whines and chews at his lower lip, drawing Geralt’s attention to it. And there’s no reason to say no, no reason to deny himself this pleasure, so he just nods and sets the box aside before moving to his bedroom.

“Strip. Let me see you,” Geralt orders, his voice lower than normal. Jaskier smirks at him and makes a show of undoing his doublet and sliding out of his trousers. He hadn’t lied, Geralt can see the slick on his thighs and it sends a wave of need through him. Geralt tugs his own clothing off and sinks to his knees. “Come here, darling,” he whispers.

Jaskier slinks over to him and drops to his knees, hands reaching out as if he’s afraid to touch. Geralt makes the decision for him, leaning forward and running his own hands down his arms, fingertips reveling in the impossibly soft skin. He smells so good like this, sweet and cloying like honey and clovers. Geralt bends down and nips at his skin, right below the black collar wrapped around his neck. There’s a hoop there, meant to carry his owner’s mark, and Geralt has to bite back a moan when he pictures a silver wolf pendant hanging there.

“Do I please you?” Jaskier asks breathily. Geralt meets his gaze and realizes the boy is unsure of himself. He has no idea how much Geralt is fighting the urge to just sink into him, fuck him and take what’s his. He shivers and runs his hands over Jaskier’s hips before cupping his little omega prick in his hand. Jaskier cries out and goes limp against him, whining, “no one’s ever…” against his chest.

“Fuck. No one’s ever touched you like this?” Geralt asks in shock. Jaskier nods, trembling as Geralt starts to pump his hand, slowly working over his little cock. He’s red and leaking, just a mess of pre-come, and Geralt just wants to worship him. For all his training, the omega is falling apart, just shuddering against Geralt as he fucks into his fist. He’s gorgeous like this, and Geralt can’t fault him his pleasure, just speeds up his hand and watches in awe as Jaskier comes.

“Geralt!” he shouts, nearly sobbing as he spills over Geralt’s hand. He’s shaking, clearly overwhelmed with it all, and Geralt just works him through it, milking every last bit of come that he can. Geralt ducks down and noses at his scent gland, drowning in his strong smell. He’s never smelt an omega this sweet before. It’s like he was made for him.

“Can I fuck you?” Geralt asks, and Jaskier just laughs at him.

“I’m yours to do what you please with, but if you’re asking if I’d like it, yes. I very much would,” Jaskier murmurs against the side of his neck. Geralt can’t wait any longer, just grabs Jaskier by the hips and sets him on his hands and knees. His thighs are glistening with slick and Geralt has to squeeze the base of his cock to keep his mind clear.

But then Jaskier leans forward so he’s resting on his shoulders and reaches back, grabbing his cheeks and parting them. He’s fucking <i>presenting</i> like a bitch in heat and it’s too much. His hole is pink and dripping slick, and Geralt growls and is lining up and sinking into him before he can think about it. Jaskier whimpers and it goes straight to his dick, throbbing as he slides deeper.

“Fuck, you’re so gods damned tight,” Geralt growls as he gives the omega a moment to get used to the feeling.

“I’m so full,” Jaskier shudders, struggling to get back up on his hands. He sighs and rocks back, sucking Geralt even deeper into his wet heat. “Didn’t know it would be like this,” he pants out.

“Didn’t know you’d be perfect. Like you’re made to take my cock,” Geralt says quickly. He pulls back and slams his hip home, loving the way the smaller man whimpers and clenches around him. He’s not going to last long, hasn’t fucked an omega this tight in years. Every thrust of his hips is sweet agony.

He knows in the back of his mind that he should be going easy on him because it’s his first time, but he just can’t help it. Jaskier is gushing slick now, the sounds of their joining echoing around them. His hips move on their own, finding a ruthless rhythm as he plows into Jaskier. The omega - his omega - is taking it so well, a chorus of breathy gasps and moans flowing from his mouth as Geralt fucks him.

“Please, oh please,” Jaskier whines. “Am I good? Can I come when you do? Am I good for you?” he’s babbling mindlessly, begging for a release that Geralt won’t deny him. He’s too sweet, too perfect, his hole too hot and tight around him. For a split second Geralt wishes he could breed him, see his belly round and full with pups, and the thought makes him move faster.

His knot is growing, catching on Jaskier’s abused rim with every slam of his hips. He leans down, bracketing Jaskier’s body with his own, rutting into him like a man possessed. There’s a fire burning in his gut and he starts to lose his rhythm, hips stuttering as he chases his release. He thrusts once, twice more before his knot takes hold and he falls over the edge, emptying his seed inside Jaskier’s sweet little body.

“Come for me,” he hisses.

Jaskier sobs out his name and the scent of his release fills the air. He gets even tighter, body gripping Geralt’s knot so fucking tight that his eyes roll back and he can’t do anything but grind into him, fucking him with his knot. It’s rough and sloppy and everything Geralt’s ever wanted. He scrapes his teeth over Jaskier’s scent gland, a promise of what’s to come, and shoots burst after burst of come into him.

They collapse to the bedroll and Geralt rolls them to their sides. Jaskier is shaking, whining deep in his chest as he reaches back and clings to Geralt. “I’ve got you,” Geralt says, voice hushed and rough. He runs a hand over Jaskier’s belly, pleased to find it bulging just a little. He wonders how many rounds it would take to make him ache with it.

“Nothing prepared me for this...I didn’t know it would be so good,” Jaskier whispers. Geralt reaches down and takes him in hand again, tugging him into another orgasm just to feel his hole tighten around him again. He bites Jaskier’s shoulder as another rush of seed flows into him. He’s never liked being locked to another, stuck with them for far too long, but he feels like this won’t be long enough. He wonders if the boy has another round in him tonight; how many times he can make them both come before morning light.

“I think we’ll like travelling together,” Geralt promises him. Jaskier just shudders and presses back against him in agreement.

#jb fic #jb knotting #jb a/b/o #jb sex slave #jb virgin

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cyb-by-lang · 6 years ago

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Shell Game (21/?)

Kei has some important conversations while the Sports Festival goes on in the background.

Kayama-sensei ordered everyone who’d made it through the cavalry battle qualifier to gather in the middle of the stadium, forming a fair-sized crowd of UA gym uniforms in front of her podium. Forty-two kids all gathered together, all looking up at the big digital screen. Behind them, the imported American cheerleaders were trying their best to get the crowd hyped for the next event. All around, the students who hadn’t made it past the obstacle race were helping event staff roll out game equipment for the “recreational” events.

“Come closer and draw lots to see who you’re up against,” Kayama-sensei said brightly, holding a box braced against one hip. “Then enjoy the pleasure of the recreational games before we start. The sixteen finalists have the option of participating in these activities or sitting out to prepare for battle.”

Kei already knew what she was going to do. She needed time to meditate, not perform like a trained seal.

She shifted her weight slightly, making sure Monoma was within eyesight. It might’ve been a bit judgmental, but being caught unawares by his Quirk just once was enough. Giving Isobu an actual excuse for direct violence would be one of the last mistakes of somebody’s life.

“I’ll start with the first place team,” Kayama-sensei went on.

One by one, the kids picked up their numbers.

The brackets shook out like this:

First up, Midoriya and Shōda. Both of them went sickly pale when they realized they made up the first match, and Kei couldn’t blame them. She leaned toward rooting for Midoriya on the whole, if only because a kid whose fighting style drew so heavily from the Black Knight probably needed to get a pro’s attention and train himself up differently. She’d wave a foam finger for Shōda anyway, though. If she had one.

The second match: Todoroki versus Sero. While Kei thought the tape-using kid seemed nice enough, Todoroki could punch nearly in Kei’s weight class with his ridiculous ice Quirk. If it wasn’t a one-shot fight, she’d be surprised. Few people could overmatch Kei’s Water ninjutsu so easily, at least since she’d properly practiced and learned to work together with Isobu.

The third fight would be between Kaminari and Ojiro, and Kei already knew who she was rooting for there. And it wasn’t the human stun-gun, despite the power output he’d showed earlier. Hopefully, Ojiro would manage to close the distance before getting lit up like a Tesla coil. Outlasting Kaminari seemed easy, as long as the first attack wasn’t a total knockout.

Fourth: Iida and Hatsume, whom Kei had finally identified as a member of the Support Course. She’d been under the impression that the pink-haired Hatsume could be another strange Quirk user from General Studies, because after seeing engine exhaust pipes growing out of Iida’s legs anything seemed possible. Apparently she was just a less successful Tony Stark, but with binocular zoom built into her eyes.

Kei’s half of the brackets started with the fifth match: Shinsō versus Ashido. She seemed friendly enough, so Shinsō’s Quirk ought to be effective. If not, well, he’d get some use out of what self-defense tricks Kei’d managed to instill. While hopefully not getting melted horribly, because some people’s appearances and their Quirks were hardly on speaking terms.

After that, Tokoyami was up against Yaoyorozu. Having seen neither of their actual fighting styles but plenty of their Quirks, Kei didn’t really know what to think. She couldn’t stop looking at Dark Shadow and seeing a shape Isobu might like to take someday.

Kei’s own match would be second to last, facing off against 1-A’s Kirishima in what’d have to be either the longest brawl ever or a very straightforward use of her “Quirk.” Worse, she wouldn’t be able to throw the match convincingly to the kid whose deal was turning his body into a rock. Her friends back home would absolutely give her shit for losing to Kirishima even on purpose.

The very last match of the first round? Uraraka versus Bakugō. Once again, Kei knew fuck-all about one of the Quirks in that fight and plenty about the other. While she suspected explosions would turn out to be pretty hard for Uraraka to fight, Uraraka deserved to win as far as Kei was concerned.

Midoriya made a noise like a mouse being stepped on, his eyes darting back and forth between his and Uraraka’s matchups.

“This’ll be fun,” Shinsō said, rubbing the back of his neck as he scanned the crowd for Ashido.

Kei nodded distractedly. Isobu’s temper thrummed in her chest like a second heartbeat, keeping her on edge. By the time the recreational games began, Kei was forced to bid Shinsō a brief goodbye to “prepare for the tournament.”

He accepted that excuse, and probably went off to practice zingers suited for Ashido.

Retreating to the prep room instead of sticking around to watch the “fun” felt a little like she was trying to become a hermit, but Kei did it anyway. Even if she didn’t need a few minutes to calm Isobu, she definitely wanted a chance to recover some of the massive amounts of chakra she’d expended inside of an hour. Throwing around that many Water Dragon Bullets, one Water Wall, two Hidden Mists, and one Great Waterfall on top of her other general enhancements was the kind of drain that would’ve been incredibly wasteful from the perspective from any ordinary shinobi. Especially because not one of those ninjutsu had killed anyone. The pride of many a dead Kiri-nin howled for blood.

Kei only really cared about the turtle monster doing the same in her head.

This prep room’s only occupant was Midoriya, with Shōda nowhere in sight. Maybe it was for the best—she’d known Midoriya a little longer, and the kid had a tendency to get caught up in his thoughts worse than a fish in a net. She could keep to herself here and be left alone.

Midoriya raised his head when she entered, waving weakly, before going back to his muttering once she acknowledged his presence with a nod. Probably going over what he knew of the other boy’s Quirk and trying to think around it. By the time Kei pulled up a chair and slumped over the far table with her head pillowed on her arms, he was mumbling about needing his fingers.

She left him to it. Midoriya didn’t need her help. Isobu did. Therefore, Kei set an alarm on her phone and closed her eyes to drop into her and Isobu’s shared mindscape.

The formerly-tranquil cliffside beach was a wreck of disturbed coral, rock, and uprooted palm trees strewn all across white sand, and the cause of it all sat in the middle of a brand new inlet with his forelegs folded to the sides. When Kei’s mental avatar floated down to his face, he turned it as far away as he could and closed his good eye.

“I am not sorry,” said Isobu, at once in her head and to her face. “I will never be sorry for defending us.”

“I wasn’t gonna ask you to be,” Kei told him, drifting closer until she sat on one of the spikes jutting forward from his head. His entire body shifted so he sat lower in the water before she could entirely settle, sending waves so high they nearly touched Kei’s toes. “You wanna help me clean this place up?”

“No demands to change my behavior?” Isobu asked, though he dragged himself farther onto the beach. His huge digits dug into the gray-white sand and started shifting debris.

“No demands, no,” Kei said, swinging down from his spikes one-handed. Her feet crunched onto the beach sand, strangely warm under her toes. It was all an illusion, but it was still comforting. “I remember what we agreed on, and I remember the thing with Inosuke. And Madara, and Kakashi, and with the butterflies, and like…I get it. Scolding you won’t change anything.”

“It will not.” Isobu shifted a bit, allowing Kei to stoop and pick up coral fragments from under the side of his shell. As she started gathering fish-shaped mental projections and hucking them back into the water underhand, he said, “Of all the ways we could be attacked…”

“I know,” Kei said, brushing her fingers against his shell. As he rumbled, she went on, “It’s awful. I don’t—if I didn’t know it was all just kids messing around during a school event, I’d…probably have reacted a lot like you.”

“How much experience do either of us have with such a situation?” Isobu wrenched a flattened palm tree out of the sand and hurled it out to sea. “Even the most childish of the ‘games’ you have recently lived through could end in dismemberment or death for all participants. And if it was the case, you could have died without knowing what killed you.”

Kei nodded, even as she flung another fish into the surf. “I know.”

“And?”

“And he’s a kid. Messing with powers because it’s what he does,” Kei told Isobu. She sighed and leaned back, staring up at the artificial sun far above their heads. “I am and was angry, and I get why I was angry even before I get to how you influence my mood, but that was dangerous. If me being unable to keep my head is going to mean you’re about to start killing people, we need to talk about this.”

Isobu’s rumble became less contented and more threatening, like an impending landslide. He clearly wasn’t in the mood for a heart-to-heart. Only one of them had a literal heart, but Kei would argue that Isobu’s emotions ran, if anything, more intensely in him than a lot of people.

“I know what Shinsō’s Quirk is like,” Kei said, “even if I don’t remember being under it. Next time, maybe instead of trying to pop into V2 cloak and losing our collective shit, you could try just like…” Kei paused, then held up an arm so Isobu could see. In here, Kei wore her jōnin uniform instead of either of the UA sets, and Isobu’s gold-on-red eye laser-focused on her. “Punch me in the face. Just grab my arm through our chakra coils and sock me right in the jaw.”

“…I could also just do that when I want to,” Isobu said, instead of acknowledging the practicality of Kei’s plan. For him, it must’ve been easier to just tease her.

“If it works to get us out of a genjutsu…” Kei trailed off. She hadn’t been truly caught by a genjutsu for a while now, and many of the stronger ones hardly allowed movement. Some couldn’t be broken by pain, either. Still, it was something approaching a plan. “Same principle.”

Isobu made a noise like “hmph,” but scaled up tenfold. He abandoned his attempts to clear the beach, but the false debris was already starting to fade into dream-stuff. Before he disappeared into the waves, he told her, I will think about it.

Kei waved to his retreating tails, and all three of them waved back.

Then her phone alarm beeped.

Kei checked whether she’d drooled onto the table before she sat up. Once she’d determined everything was still more or less as she’d left it, minus one Midoriya through a still-swinging door, Kei got to her feet and decided to head for the stands. She checked her phone, of course—Obito had a knack for spamming the hell out of a groupchat that was difficult to tear her eyes from.

GreenThumb: now we have brackets

GreenThumb: i saw youre up against rock kid

GreenThumb: dont lose to him

GreenThumb: im sure youre thinking about it

GreenThumb: a whole afternoon of not doin anything

GreenThumb: but splodey kid is RIGHT THERE

GreenThumb: and purple kid versus pink kid too

GreenThumb: i dunno how thats gonna go but

GreenThumb: tell shinsō hed better not lose

GreenThumb: i spent too much time gettin used as a trainin dummy

GreenThumb: so

GreenThumb: COME ON AND WIN THIS ヾ（＾ヮ\\)ﾉ

Defib: Or throw the match and save yourself the further attention of a rabid media-focused world. You don’t need to be in the finals to accomplish your goals. Or on television.

Defib: Aren’t you supposed to be more subtle than this?

TMNT-TNT: Probably.

GreenThumb: excuse me

GreenThumb: but this is team awesomeness only

GreenThumb: no killjoys allowed

Defib: Better a killjoy than dead.

GreenThumb: +ﾟ*｡:ﾟ+凸(◕‿\\✿)+ﾟ*｡:ﾟ+

TMNT-TNT: Aren’t you two literally right next to each other? Within punching distance?

Obito didn’t send any more messages after that. Neither did Kakashi.

Kei tucked her phone away and headed up toward the stands.

The student sections of the audience were divided by class, though as far as she could tell there was no actual ban on visiting the other groups. 1-A had one smattering of benches, while 1-B was next to them, and so on. It was pretty similar to their arrangement within UA’s halls, only there weren’t any massive sliding doors. Walls between the sections were high, though, and few people were already in their seats. Kei stuck her head in two of the doorways just to make sure the Hero course students were where she expected them to be, then wandered to 1-C’s spot.

“Gekkō-san, hello!” said Homura, her hair and eyebrows blazing away with excitement.

“Um.”

Kei stood there, a little stunned, as Homura took both her hands in hers and said, “Congratulations on getting as far as you have. I mean, I know you were always a strong student, but right now you’re representing our whole class. You and Shinsō-kun!”

“Thank you?” Kei managed, still blinking in surprise. Dang it, now she felt bad for thinking of throwing her match in the tournament. She still would, but it’d be less funny.

And she hadn’t even been particularly nice to any of these kids.

“It’s nice to know I have your support,” Kei said, not entirely sincere because she wasn’t fully certain of Homura’s motives. Some of the other 1-C students weren’t looking her in the eye, and that was certainly not a new development. “Make sure you tell Shinsō-san the same, okay?”

“As soon as I see him, you can count on that!” Homura promised. She let go of Kei’s hands and peered behind her, as though expecting to see Shinsō following her. “Nobody’s seen him for a while, though. I asked Shingetsu-kun already.”

Shingetsu’s head spun around at the sound of his name, though his torso kept pointing in the direction of the pointy-eared kid he was lecturing. “Sorry, did someone say something?”

Homura’s fiery eyebrows dimmed somewhat. “Have you seen Shinsō-kun?”

“Not since the last time you asked.” And then Shingetsu was back to telling the other students why throwing popcorn was bad manners. Or something like that.

“I haven’t seen him either.” Kei scratched the base of her scar. “Mind if I go look?”

“The matches will be starting soon, though,” Homura said, though she wasn’t actually telling Kei not to do what she would.

“Be right back, then,” Kei said, and darted back into the building. It was as much to find Shinsō as to get away from her classmates. As she left, she heard Shingetsu tell Homura something along the lines of “you scared her off,” but didn’t stop to ask.

Weird they were choosing now to put aside their fear of her and make nice.

With the first match so close to starting, Kei wasn’t surprised to find the hallways nearly empty of spectators, students, and everyone else. Not for the first time, she took a second to curse the total lack of chakra available to sense in the general area, which would have made finding people a snap. She ended up effectively circling the stadium twice through the halls and stairways, finding only Midoriya and Shōda up and about (and still quite nervous, despite each getting a quick pat on the back from her), before deciding to search outside the building. She could afford to miss the first match.

The stadium was set at the end of a long cement pathway, but there was a forested park jammed up against the back of it. While trotting along in search of Shinsō, she passed Todoroki leaning against the building and remembered just in time what a terrible mood looked like, so she gave him a wide berth. Tokoyami was up in a tree, his animate shadow keeping an eye out and waving down at her as she passed. It took a little longer, until she was almost on the far side of the trees, before she spotted Shinsō sitting on a root with his back against the tree trunk.

“There you are,” Kei said, relieved. She came to a stop next to him.

“What’s with that look on your face?” Shinsō asked, sitting up. One purple eyebrow went up. “You look spooked.”

What went unspoken was probably along the lines of, “And I’ve seen you literally being held hostage before, so what the fuck?”

“Our classmates were trying to be nice.” Kei shook her head slowly. “To me. Not in general. But also in general.”

Shinsō stared at her.

“Or at least Homura-san was,” Kei added, somewhat defensively. “It was weird.”

Shinsō sighed. He rubbed the back of his neck and said, “Took them long enough.”

“…What?”

“To get over themselves,” Shinsō said, a bitter look crossing his face. As she sat down in the grass across from him, he rested his chin in his hand. “You’re standoffish, like a cat, so everyone’s been tiptoeing around you trying to figure out what to do. Only now you’re doing well without them and it’s giving them ideas.”

Kei thought this was all rather cynical, but, as a cynic, waited patiently for the next part of the explanation. It was only polite.

“When people weren’t wondering when I’d turn into a villain or avoiding me, they’d act like my Quirk was super special. Like they were my friends.” Shinsō rolled his eyes. “But the second they found out I wasn’t going to use it to manipulate anyone because they were ‘so nice to me’ and asked me to, they went right back to spreading rumors.”

“I’m not,” Kei said, once he’d finished.

“Not what?”

“Not using you to get ahead,” Kei told him. She leaned back, bracing her hands against the grass to keep her balance. While a muscle in Shinsō’s jaw jumped and he fought not to interrupt, she went on, “I fully admit to not being a super nice person. I don’t know how people like Midoriya-san do it, to be honest. But…as awkward as that was, I think Homura-san was trying.”

Not particularly effectively, but there was effort behind it.

“I don’t tend to give people much of a chance.” She found herself scratching the lower end of her scar and stopped once she noticed. “I ignored almost everyone at the beginning of the year. But Homura-san seemed like she meant well. It’s not her fault if the rest of the class isn’t gonna follow her lead.”

Shinsō didn’t immediately respond. Instead, he pried at a scrap of loose bark and peeled it off, a pensive look on his face.

“So, what’re you doing this far from the stadium?” Kei asked.

“Meditating. About the only thing I can do now.” Shinsō started tying the strip of bark into a knot. “It’s not really working. I’m still nervous.”

“I think that’s normal,” Kei told him. “But like you said, you’ve made the top sixteen. The parts that wiped out basically everyone else are over.”

“That’s one way of looking at it.” Shinsō sighed again, tossing the bark into the manicured lawn. “How’d you keep calm? During that match your brother talked about?”

Kei paused. Visions of losing her temper as badly as she’d ever done before Isobu, and then having to frantically apologize for ruining Gai’s apology, flashed through her mind. Not her finest moment. “Um, you probably don’t want to know.”

Kei knew the instant Shinsō’s brain caught up with his mouth. He paled a little further, likely recalling the scraps of information Hayate had let slip. “…You know, I think you’re right.” He got to his feet. “Might as well stop putting it off.”

“And maybe our classmates will surprise you,” Kei added, as they headed back to the stadium.

“Maybe.” It wasn’t a no, at least.

#Shell Game #Keisuke Gekko #shinsou hitoshi #Obito Uchiha #Kakashi Hatake #Isobu #kayama nemuri

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makeste · 6 years ago

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BnHA Chapter 032: Round 1 Brackets

Previously on BnHA: Shouto told Deku about his tragic past of being abused by his shitty parents. Unbeknownst to them, Kacchan was secretly listening in. Shouto basically figured out that All Might is Deku’s dad, but let it slide. Deku declared war on Shouto, but this being a shounen manga, it actually just means they’re friends for life now. Endeavor was cancelled. Mineta was cancelled, again. The final event of the festival was announced, and it’s a good old-fashioned tournament bracket, so I am loving life right now.

Today on BnHA: Ojiro and another dude drop out of the tournament due to having been mind-controlled by Shinsou in the previous round. The round one matchups are announced. Deku finds himself facing off with Shinsou right off the bat. Ojiro warns Deku not to do anything stupid and get himself mind-controlled. The match begins. Deku immediately does something stupid and gets himself mind-controlled.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 68 now, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

I should be in bed but here I am!! come to see who’s paired up against whom for round one of the tournament!

Ojiro, I think I’ve been misspelling your name as “Ojuro” on several occasions. good thing I don’t think I’ve posted any of those recaps yet lol

(ETA: I had indeed misspelled it, and I went back and changed them all, so basically I almost got away with it, and now here I am calling my own self out. smh)

look at Ojiro and his solid beefy tail

there’s not really much to this guy so far

I can’t believe he made it to the third event honestly

he has problems with sitting. sucks, my friend

on to the chapter!

...am I to understand that we were this close to having everyone fight each other with foam swords, then?

I can’t fucking believe all we got was a stupid tournament

THE MATCHES WILL BE DECIDED BY ~RANDOM LOTS~ ONCE AGAIN

all I know is that Shouto will make it to the finals and fight either Kacchan or Deku, probably Deku

disclaimer: I don’t actually know, I’m just running my mouth

do we really have to sit through some other random activity before the main event

OH!!! TWIST!!!

Ojiro is dropping out?? why

GASP

he says he doesn’t remember anything about the cavalry battle at all. fucking knew it. MIND CONTROL

so he feels like he didn’t earn his place

in reality his quirk is just too boring to make for an interesting one-on-one fight. he’s better suited to background action. no offense Ojiro, I’m just being 100% real here, son

the girls are trying to convince him to stick around, but he says it’s a matter of pride. eh, if it were me I’d stay in the game and try to get back at the mind control guy during the tournament, but eh. he seems kind of shaken up, honestly, so maybe this is better for him in the end.

aww. Ojiro. looks like you need a hug, buddy. why does everyone in this fucking arc need a hug

just to keep things even, this little roly poly from class B is withdrawing too

godspeed, little man

Midnight’s like, eh whatever

doesn’t this fuck up the brackets, though? now they have 7 and 7. does someone get a bye in round one then? I guess they can determine that with the random lots too. hopefully whoever gets the byes won’t suddenly get all noble like these two idiots

oh, we’re not going to do byes but we’re going to replace the two that didn’t make it

YEAH GIVE IT TO STEEL RYOHEI AND POISON IVY

WOOHOO. SORRY OJIRO BUT THIS IS MUCH BETTER

TIME TO SCAN THE BRACKETS TO FIND MY SONS

BAKUGOU’S FIGHTING OCHAKO??? NOOOOOOOOOO

fuck this means one of my favorites will be eliminated right off the bat

lmao Kiri and Tetsu got matched up right from the get go

damn, Momo has to go up against Tokoyami. that one’s gonna be good

no idea who Aoyama is fighting

(ETA: lmao it was Mina. for some reason I hadn’t processed her last name)

Iida’s going up against Mei. good luck Iida

Kami vs Shiozaki... I think that must be the Poison Ivy chick? interesting

Todoroki vs Sero... nice knowing you Sero

and lastly... DEKU VS MIND CONTROL MAN

oh my god. can we, uh. just skip ahead to that one. !!!!!

also, Deku and Todoroki out here fucking up my predictions right from the start. the two of you had to be in the same bracket half. just had to be

wonder who’ll end up winning it all and facing off against my girl Ochako :’D

lol I can dream

this guy has “future villain” written all over him tbh

(ETA: I should just stop assuming that new characters are going to be villains. I don’t think I’ve been right about a single one yet.)

I assume the only reason he didn’t make it into the hero course is because he couldn’t use his mind control against the robots. sure, he could have possessed his fellow examinees instead, but they probably would have retained any points that they “earned” under his control

I wonder if the bags under his eyes are just a character design thing or if they actually reflect something about his character/personality/quirk. like is he an insomniac or something

he must have to do something in order to control people, right? maybe don’t let him touch you at any point, Deku

Ojiro’s warning him not to talk to him. I wonder if it’s less mind control and more hypnosis, in which case maybe if Deku blocks his ears or something... idk

lmao Bakugou literally has no idea who he’s fighting

Ochako knows though, oh damn

I believe in you!! but be careful though orz

“are you Iida?” “indeed I am Iida.” take it easy on this middle aged bloke, okay Mei

oh good, we’re skipping all of this

hopefully even the anime will skip it, since BnHA doesn’t seem to believe in fillers and time-wasting!

LOOK AT IIDA CHUG THAT OJ

GET THAT VITAMIN C BOI

also Ojiro appears to be talking to Deku, and Deku looks like he’s mildly freaking out. is he freaking out because OH NO TOURNAMENT, or because Ojiro is telling him what Shinsou can do? given how well he’s managed with the first two events, I’m guessing it’s the latter, or else he wouldn’t be looking so disturbed

okay I actually do like this picture of the girls cheerleading though

just because Hagakure, Mina, and Ochako look really into it, and Momo and Jirou are just like, blargh. and Tsuyu is an enigma to me

TOURNAMENT TIME

Cementoss is building the ring for them all!

wow it looks really good

I wouldn’t quite say they’ve been through “hell”... actually it was a lot less hellish than I thought it would be

is Deku in the first round? I guess they go from left to right

ALL MIGHT CAME TO GIVE HIM A PEP TALK YAAAAAY

he’s giving Deku a thumbs up and says he’s finally getting the hang of One for All

Deku says he still has trouble controlling it and it makes him nervous, like one false step could still fuck him up

well good. narratively, I like this level of control. it keeps each move risky, but also doesn’t necessarily mean that he’ll end up incapacitated at the drop of a hat

wow. All Might says that right now Deku can only handle 5 percent of One for All’s true power

you know we’re getting into some real shounen shit when we start talking about power percentages

Deku says he’s just gotten lucky with everything so far, and All Might’s response may just be his most dadlike behavior yet

I love it. the awkward pat on the back (head? shoulder?). the affectionate nickname. and the genuine compliment, because you know All Might admires the shit out of Deku’s hard work ethic

and he’s telling him to smile, especially when he’s feeling nervous or scared. because you’re a big damn hero, Deku! you got this my man!

here we goooooo

not even Present Mic the mighty chatterbox can think of anything to say about Shinsou. bang-up observation about Izuku’s weird face, though

so now the question is, does Deku know about Shinsou’s quirk or not?

typical tournament rules: knock your opponent out of the ring, immobilize them, or make them cry uncle

yikes, they’ve got Recovery Girl on standby for this one. well at least they’re taking things seriously. but that means shit’s about to get lit the fuck up

“fight dirty if you must” how fucking heroic. I guess that’s the part where they test everyone’s willingness to get into the nitty-gritty huh

although they do say that going for the kill is frowned upon, and Cementoss will supposedly stop you (uh huh. just like All Might was going to “stop” Bakugou in chapters 9 and 10, I assume)

oh shit. this means Shinsou can win just by making Deku say that he quits... I think that’s what this is hinting at:

(ETA: I actually don’t know why he didn’t just have Deku say “I give up” rather than making him walk out of the ring. maybe he can’t control speech? but at any rate, on my reread I realized just how sneaky Shinsou is being here by trying to get Deku to answer him before the match has even started.)

Deku he called poor Ojiro a monkey. punch him in the face please

Deku’s making a face at that

and he’s charging in!!

-- uh oh

WHAT’S FUCKING HAPPENING DAMMIT

and Ojiro’s saying that he warned him

shit. Deku looks like he’s completely under his control already

aaaaaand the chapter ends

well shit

BONUS:

this girl looks exactly like Matsuoka Gou from Free!. it’s fucking uncanny

like I seriously want to get a picture and compare them side by side

you know what, never mind though, because while I was combing through google image search for a good pic, I kept getting distracted by pictures of Rin. why is he so pretty

what the hell was I doing again

oh yeah

anyways so Kendou here is apparently the class representative from class B. good for you girl. I wonder what her quirk is

there’s not much else to her aside from her being a motorcycle-loving coffee-drinking class rep who looks like Gou lol

but I hope we’ll get to see more of her

#bnha #boku no hero academia #makeste reads bnha #ojiro mashirao #midoriya izuku #all might #shinsou hitoshi #after rereading this chapter I have to say #iida and the oj may honestly be my favorite part of the whole thing #I don't know what it is about that panel but it just delights me

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ptitdrogo · 6 years ago

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In the mind of a “Top Tier” Protoss player

Hey guys, PtitDrogo here, after reading a really amazing post tournament write up by one of my favorite Magic player ( https://twitter.com/lsv/status/1105124626429079552 , seriously, if you’re even slighty into magic go read this) I felt like it would be kind of cool to write down how the past month went for me in term of strategy preparation for the last few tournaments I played, mainly focusing on wesg and WCS ro8.

You win some you lose some

To set the tone, before wesg I was of two minds about my play, I managed to qualify for the ro8 of WCS after beating Mana and Namshar, but I got seriously owned by Bly and Nerchio at IEM, not taking a single map and going home with 0 dollars.

It’s still honestly a little bit confusing to me, the same confidence in my ability to play a defensive style against mana completely failed against bly, and my faith in my timings that worked great against namshar just got dismantled by nerchio. I could go on longer about this but sometimes you just don’t play well, and I’ve learned that dwelling on it is the worst thing you can do.

All eyes on Spaghetti boy

Looking at the groups of WESG, a top 1 finish in my group would give me a good shot of having a “beatable” opponent in the bracket, and winning that match would mean winning 5k, so it was my objective coming into the event.

The man to beat being obviously reynor, who previously kind of walked on me in the last group stage of wcs, I had a couple of ideas in mind and also discovered some new cool stuff beforehand.

I now knew that he actually really liked hydralisk midgame, and I actually really liked it, what was once the bane of my existense is now a pretty manageable opening in my opinion since the hydralisk got quite a bit weaker, you really don’t have to play scared and can even pressure yourself.

I was practicing some kind of 3 base high eco Chargelot archon pressure and having so-so success with it, I kind of wasn’t sure if I wanted to go for it, but without a better idea that’s what I was gonna go for.

“Wow, he actually does open hydralisk every game”.

There’s a bit of a difference between telling yourself something and seeing it for yourself. After watching Probe vs Reynor It really hit my that reynor was playing hydralisks not only on big maps but on everymap, add to that a tendency to add some zerglings to deny the third, and 15 minutes before the start of my match I’m changing strategy without practicing it.

EDIT: Watching the vod of the Bo3, I actually was completely wrong, lol, I looked at the game at the only time he made some hydralisks, to secure a game already won by a roach nydus, and the other game was just a ling queen nydus, I guess I saw what I wanted to see !

“The Yoloswag build”

It’s honestly such a terrible build, it’s not a particulary strong push, and it relies on your opponent not going roachs and REALLY thinking you’re going for a macro while also being a little bit of a bad player for not using your prism.

This is just an 8 gate that wants to cancel its third base in the first place to being able to afford 8 gateways production in the first place, the idea is you poke with 2 archon, run away from the queen, cancel your third because of the nasty zerglings, and while you pretend to being completely owned you warp more archons and zealot in a corner and you go kill the guy, a classic really, and I knew it would be very effective againt lings into hydras, sometimes last minute change of plans do work, color me surprised.

“Oh no you canceled my third dang it”

“Nothing going on over here”

“The 420 Blazing it DT drop”

This one has kind of a funny backstory to it, I was practicing with a zerg for IEM, and he really wanted me to play DT drop because he thought his opponent would do it for sure.

“Alright, but I really think it’s shit” is what I said.

2 hours later and a LOT of wins later, I had to concede that it was pretty good, to quote my practice partner “your Dts being 7 seconds faster is actually a pretty big problem”.

Sometimes you’re very wrong about what is good. Here’s the thing tho, I didn’t have time to check a vod to do the build, so I went by memory, old memories of 2017 in fact, and the way I remembered it you would have to cut a lot of workers and do a lot of little adjustements to get a very fast DT drop going even if it meant sacrificing some economy.

Turn out not a lot of protosses were doing it. The end result was 4 Dts being warped at 4:23, and most games they would just kill the third hatch. So I was feeling pretty confident it would work.

In my game against reynor I warped my Dts at 4:21.

They killed the third hatch.

I was honestly so confused as to why or how I managed to have a better timing than in the game I was practicing against the ia, but hey I’m not complaining.

Later Reynor told me he didn’t know Dts could come this fast, and the 4:20 DT drop kind of became a meme among players for the rest of the tournament, I haven’t warped exactly 4 Dts at 4:20 yet, but hey maybe next wcs I’ll do it without meaning to !

So I ended up with a very pretty to look at 10-0 score, wasn’t easy of course, Iasonu and Probe were two players I was also scared of but I thought that playing standard was my best bet and indeed it was, also almost lost a game to PsiArc where I was very behind in economy but managed to attack right before his bunker finished, sometime lucky.

There is no way the Germans can cross the Maginot Line

My opponent for the ro16 was Lambo, not a bad draw but not the best, I was confident I could win tho, and the new variation I was trying out in practice were going great, I had a great plan for the best of 5 and a build for every single maps.

All of that preparation came crashing down with a pretty swift 3-0 LOL.

Game 1 was death by 12 pool, Cuz here’s the thing, to get a 4:20 DT drop, you can’t probe scout, little guy needs to work overtime ! I actually was mainly hoping he wouldn’t have the balls to 12 pool game 1 and I was going to scout after core anyway, whats the worse that could happen?

Game 2 was a very good game until it all came crashing down, I actually very like this double stalker opening poke, I was practicing against a zerg and made 2 stalkers by mistake on this map, and the overlord that usually always manage to run away died this time, and the very confusing double stalker oracle move out forced quite a lot of lings. So I decided to run with it in the tournament

When I was trying to explain it to the other protoss as a “great opening that looks very confusing to the zerg but doesn’t actually do anything” they were unconvinced; Haters; when it becomes the norm in 2020 don’t forget about me.

In the actual game the 2 stalkers squad worked great, I actually even killed an overlord at his base ahahah. I was in a VERY strong position in the midgame, and thought there was no way I could lose.

Well, nydus happened, no warpin available, no recall, an awkward attempt at a basetrade and a very long death animation trying to rebuild my templar tech to spend my gas bank later, It’s 2-0.

“Money in the bank pimping ain’t easy”

Game 3 was just a standart 2 base nydus that if I was a few second faster to recall my oracle or if I wasn’t supply blocked on 53/54 to then warp one more stalker I would have won, oh well, sometime it’s just not going your way.

“The correct play here is to go alt tab and go complain on Bnet forums”

It was obviously very annoying to lose one step short of making 5k, but there was a silver lining to losing to hard and so quickly to cheese.

All of my preparation could still be used for WCS.

An FFA would pretty much have been the same right ?

The big Round robin was here, and good god is it spooky. All of the players there are good and even if 6 players out 8 makes it it is very very scary.

My goal coming into the group was to barely make it, “maybe 2 wins is enough to squeeze in” is what I thought.

The first thing that is interesting to note is that I got pretty lucky in the order of my matchs, my 4 first matchs were all PvZ, then on day 2 I got the two PvP and the PvT.

That made practice fairly easy and nobody was able to prepare for me for day 2 as I didn’t have any of the same match-ups.

“You lose some…

Against Serral, I had a pretty good first game to be honest, even tho I didn’t do flashy damage with the DT drop I still kept the pressure with the archons and was in what I thought a pretty good situation with the army I wanted.

Here’s the thing tho, Serral is annoying, like VERY annoying with his mutalisks, so before moving out for a strong attack I overmade defensive structures by quite a bit (3 canons in natural mineral line lololol) because I felt like I could afford it. So when I pushed, as you might expect it, broodlords were already out, and even if it might not be a well known fact in the community yet, Lategame PvZ is pretty unwinnable, at least against serral, gg.

Game 2 was just an embarrassing game of me messing up my build order and losing my prism to 6 queens to then die to mutalisks and roachs. Not the most interesting of games and the kind of showing you really don’t wanna produce but it sadly happens too many times.

“Queens defend everything reeeeeee”

Against Reynor I’m actually blaming the first game loss directly onto serral. I actually very efficiently dealt with the mutalisks while teching to storm extremely fast (more on that later) and was in a very decent position. But I subconsciously felt like I needed to attack much faster than I actually had to because of the previous game (Check the Hive Drogo !! Scouting is allowed reeee) And just made the game extremely easy to play for reynor with a reckless attack.

The second game was just a meme, another case of 12 pool, but this time even tho I scout it very late I pull all of my probes and take a very efficient fight against the zerglings, and at this exact moment I am in a very good position.

The correct play was to make a stargate in the wall and just move out with the adept and leave the zealot home.

I didn’t finish the wall and moved out with 2 units, Reynor did a runby with some more lings and I had to go home.

I then proceed to not finish the wall and moved out with 3 units, Reynor did a runby with some more lings and I had to go home.

I then proceed to move out with 2 adepts leaving 2 at home, Reynor did a runby with some more lings and I had to recall home

I then proceed to try to finish the wall but Reynor did a runby with a LOT of zerglings and I had to gg back to the lobby.

This is the kind of game where you just feel very stupid, I like to call these games failing an IQ test, because thats what they truly are.

… You win some”

This is where I finally get the talk strategy, because there’s kind of of prerequisite to win games to be able to brag about how great of a strategical mastermind you are.

“The triple triple”

After all the hype about the 420 DT drop, the first thing I obviously was looking for was a build that would look like a DT drop, but was actually a complete blind counter to the usual DT drop response from most zergs.

Thus came to life the triple triple, 3 gate, 3 oracles, warp twice (not 3 times rip symmetry ) and then you just go for it. The gas timing is very similar, only one adept and stalker are produced by the gateway, you have a proxy pylon from your main that can directly warp low ground so that the overlord at the natural cant see it, and the one adept boy can walk around to deny lonely lings from getting vision. All of that for an explosive cocktail that will kill a zerg making roachs expecting Dts, not having enough spores or queens to handle the triple triple squad.

Also, I’ve come to realize in practice that it’s not even that bad of a build in the first place even if scouted really early for some reason.

“Sometimes it kills 10+ workers”

“Sometimes a lot more”

This amazing innovation of the PvZ metagame that I’m sure will be a staple in the metagame (it won’t) allowed me to take a map off Lambo and Elazer, for the other map I had to resort to the amazing build that comes next.

“This is totally an archon drop I swear you better make roachs”

I really don’t know how to call this, You just go for the normal archon drop build except you mine more mineral and make an early forge, then take a third slightly faster than an archon drop timing and just make 4 templars super early so they can bank energy so you can do a +2 push with 8 storms extremely fast. While you’re doing the build you run around with your first few units to deny vision so the zerg gets scared and think he might have missed the prism.

Oh, and you also make a LOT of probes, I’m talking non stop, enough probes to fully saturate the third when its done.

“But Drogo, wouldn’t it be strictly better to just go storm drop? Zerg would actually see a prism and be scared and you would also do economic damage even if they make roachs !!”

And to that I say, I like to keep it simple ok, maybe next year when I actually get good at the game.

Anyway, This build actually gives you a pretty powerful set-up in the midgame, I used it to kill the Hydra bane of Lambo and succesfully defend the nydus onslaught of Elazer (I didn’t strictly do this against elazer actually, I was pretty scared of a spooky all-in), which is usually not possible unless you were a greedy boy in the early game. So all of that gave me 2 points on the board.

“4 templars just chilling at home, Safe working conditions are too rare in the Starcraft universe”

When the Zerg is away the Toss will play.

For the second day I had 2 PvP, a PvT, and a lot of times on my end to prepare. So I did, I watched a ton of rail footage, and observed that he wasn’t afraid to play his ladder builds in tournament, so I was feeling fairly confident I could just win by having stronger build orders.

Little did I know this would be the hardest series of the tournament by far.

The first game felt like a walk in the park at first, you’re going 3 phoenix against fast expand forge first? There is no way in hell I am losing this. I played it a little bit safer than I could have but I was very confident in my ability to hold his 2 base push.

Turn out, I was wrong, very wrong, Rail just made a bigger army and kept warping in, and eventually our armies got to a size where his two untouched immortal he had over me actually packed quite the punch and our upgrades were equal. So even with a third nexus mining for a while, I’m losing the game.

The second game I was sure of what he was going to do, some adepts with an expand and robo follow up, so my plan was pretty much to play with a lot of gates units and go Stargate to have good control of the game, simple plan, but effective.

The issue is, I forgot to prevent him from pylon blocking my wall, then I didn’t realise he let his pylon finish, I built my Stargate in vision of his pylon …

So yea I canceled that real fast and improvised a blink opening, a build I haven’t practiced in a really really long time, without any possibility of scouting, turned out I didn’t need to, since verdi went for his robo opening into constant presure with adepts sentry immortals, with me sitting and pure useless stalkers, down 1-0 and 30 supply, disruptor knocking at my front door, I didn’t like my odds one bit.

Oh well, sometime lucky.

I’m sure the third game will be much smoother.

Oh no (not pictured here, 3 sentries also died)

This has to be a record for the most amounts of units lost to the 2 initial adepts in a professional game

There’s almost something peaceful about being so far behind, you can just try out wacky stuff and see if it works.

Which is somehow did, after two pretty successful adept and a basetrade clearly going in my favor, I brought back an impossible game and was very happy with myself.

If you’re wondering how on earth I managed to get surprised by 2 adepts, all I can say is that I was way too confident in my preparation, as I was so sure that he was going for his safe expand double probe scout strat, I didn’t have adepts on my mind until the last 3 seconds.

Overall I would say that my preparation for this serie was very bad, even tho I spent the most time on it, even if you can tell yourself beforehand to not mindgame yourself by thinking too hard, it can still very much happen.

So after that emotional roller coaster of a series, it was time to play a PvT against big Gabe, and I had quite the revolutionary strat prepared.

“The triple triple… Again...”

Sometime you watch one series that makes you fall in love with a strat, for me it was Zest vs Innovation where Zest defended a marine drop with 2 oracle and a phoenix, warped more adepts across the map and immediately killed Innovation, I thought to myself “I can do that” as it didn’t look too hard.

I hate Stargate openings in PvT, I truly hate them, I’m always in a good position with them but I always lose anyway, but on the other hand, I’ve loved shading adepts and oracle at random times since LOTV beta, so I thought it was worth to give it a shot, especially because I thought Gabe wouldn’t expect me to play stargate.

Worked just as planned, a refreshing turn of events after the last series.

The second game (what game on kairos ? never happened Protoss doesn’t lose PvT remember) is what I like to call “New Year Zero, the movie”. I really think this map is incredibly protoss favored, it’s really not on everymap that starting 2 forges because you’re supply blocked and can’t start your first colossus ends up being a the best decision you could have made.

After killing the Raven and a decent chunk of bio in the middle of the map, I thought I had a real timing there, I had 5 seconds of hesitation after seeing so many liberators, but after sending an hallucination and seeing that Heromarine was Still 1/1, I decided to A move into him anyway, it was either gonna be a genius, killer instinct like move, or another brick to the monument that is the ThrowGo Legacy, a win win really.

“Sir, this is Hallucinated phoenix speaking, Terran is 1:1 you’re clear to go”

“Roger that”

It went great and the twitch chat of that game had a very reasonable discussion about game design talking about how great it was that protoss could attack into this many liberators.

I don’t have much to say about the last Serie vs Showtime really, I was already qualified so all the presure was off and I felt great, and I don’t think I could talk at length about great of a strategical mastermind I am for faking going phoenix and actually going Dark templars !

He didn’t exactly do what I expected to him to do so this was pretty much freestyle that worked in my favor and not anything prepared.

“Artosis favorite unit showing us what peak starcraft is all about”

The second game was a cheese that I had seen before, Double proxy gate zealot with canon rush, I was fairly confident that it was overall pretty bad, and this game didn’t change my mind.

“The best unit against canons is actually the probe”

Amazing Gaming

So overall it’s a 5-2 Score !! This wasn’t what I expected at all and I was obviously thrilled, too bad I failed so many IQ tests otherwise the first place would have been easily in my grasp.

I have a lot of cool new strats with weird names prepared for LA, I hope I’ll win so I get to brag once again about how smart I am ! (not really).

Hope you guys enjoyed this blog, and I would like to dedicate this victory to this chinese Stuff bear, he kept his promise and without him I would never have survived those nyduses.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BvPWIAvhKSl/

For more Yee https://twitter.com/PtitDrogo

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thefinalcinderella · 7 years ago

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Tsurune Book 1 Chapter 1-Yata no Mori (Part 1)

It’s finally here!!! It took such a long time, but I finally finished it! This chapter, like all the chapters in this book, are very long so I will be splitting them up into two parts. Also my scanner won’t work for some reason so get ready for some insert pictures in very bad quality.

Now you may notice that some kyudo terms have the translation right next to them in brackets. That is because there are way too many terms right in this first chapter, and to prevent people from having to scroll up and down I decided to put them right there. I hope it won’t be too intrusive. I also put numbers next to the Eight Stages of Shooting whenever they come up, since you have to have a good picture of the pose to understand what’s going on (thinking of replacing the gif with the still frames.)

So, anyways, I hope you enjoy this. I should have the second part up soon.

Translation Notes

1. Owl in Japanese is “fukurou”, so it’s like naming an ostrich “Os”.

2. A gi is the white uniform martial artists wear, so a kyudogi is the kyudo version of it.

3. So this word was originally “穹天” (kyuuten) which seems to be a Chinese word rather than Japanese. It apparently means “the vault of heaven” and I’m 50% sure the author chose this word because the 穹 character because it has the 弓 radical in it

Full list of translations here

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When he looked up, Minato’s eyes reflected the hazy blue sky.

His graceful body, fitting for a fifteen-year-old, was wrapped in training clothes, and he advanced along the straight mountain path where snow still remained. When he passed under the tunnel of treetops, he could see the three-car train travelling slowly in the distance. The surrounding mountains were sprinkled with yellow-green, the mountain cherry blossoms spreading out here and there.

It was the mountain in springtime. The budding trees were dazzling.

The final point of his running route every morning was the neighborhood park. He washed his face with water from the water fountain in the corner, then lifted the hem of his T-shirt to wipe it. A long, white scar was briefly exposed on his uncovered left flank.

Because he didn’t wipe himself up properly, water dripped from his bangs. If it were the old him, he wouldn’t have done such a lazy thing. It was an act of sensing that he had forgotten his towel, and because the reason that he must leave was approaching.

A boy in casual clothes, seeming to be taking a walk in the neighborhood, stood next to Minato. His full-rimmed, plastic glasses frame was familiar, and one of the objects that symbolized him as intelligent and calm. One got the impression that he was more mature than Minato, and not just because he had already celebrated his sixteenth birthday.

A smile appeared on his face, like he was making fun of his companion.

“Morning, Minato. Even though it’s spring, it’s still cold in the mornings.”

“…Seiya, good morning.”

It wasn’t that Minato didn’t want to see Seiya. If anything, he was the only person he could call his best friend, and he had known him the longest. However, he did not want to meet him during training if possible.

Seiya, upon realizing that, spoke with an innocent look on his face. “It’s usually my dad’s job, but he was busy this morning, so I took his place.”

“Oh, are you walking Bear?”

If someone only listened to that exchange, they might have gotten frightened. “Bear” was the name of a dog. He was a Bernese mountain dog, a mountain dog that originally came from Switzerland. They were weak to heat, so this area, which had a high altitude and was relatively cool even in Japan, was perfect.

Even though there were those who would take the “Bernie” part of its name and name it “Bunny-chan” like a rabbit, there weren’t a lot of people who would name it “Bear”. Seiya’s naming sense may be in doubt, but a family who allowed him to give that name was also worthy of respect.

Minato also greeted Bear, and Bear waggled his tail. He had long fur with a black, white, and brown luster, and the round, light-brown tufts of fur above his eyes resembled eyebrows. When he was embraced, his transmitted body temperature felt good. Bear licked Minato’s face. He then brought his nose close to his left flank, gesturing for him to show it.

“Hey, Bear, you’re tickling him. That spot’s already fine.”

Having been chided, Bear immediately stopped, and sat next to Minato. Four years ago, he had been a mischievous puppy, but he grew up kind and smart. Just like his owner.

The two people and one dog went to the back of the park, entering the forest there. Bear was a dog who enjoyed being useful to people, and went to the front as though telling them to follow him. There was a wide paved road which could be reached by car, but this way was a shortcut, and on the way, there was a narrow path that one person could barely squeeze past. It was a path made by the denizens of the area coming and going—an animal trail, so to speak.

Seiya grabbed Minato’s arm, who seemed like he was about to faint from the tone of the morning that was so different from usual.

“Are you alright? If you collapse and miss the entrance ceremony in the morning, that’ll be a spectacular high school debut.”

“Shut up.”

“Well, at that time, I will offer to nurse you faithfully in our special hospital room.”

“And I’ll politely turn you down. I don’t know what you’re going to do.”

“I’m not going to do anything. Right, Bear?”

Bear made an answer that was unclear as to whether or not it was positive or negative.

Seiya’s house was an orthopedic clinic, and right behind Minato’s house. For Narumiya Minato and Takehaya Seiya, today was their entrance ceremony at the same high school. As this was a small town in the mountains, it wasn’t unusual for their high schools to be the same. But Minato hadn’t known this until just a few days ago. Unlike Minato, who chose the neighborhood public high school for financial reasons, Seiya could have chosen the best school in the prefecture or a challenging private school.

While feeling something muddled, Minato thought about the new life that would be beginning from now on.

The Kazemai High School’s entrance ceremony.

Cherry blossoms that weren’t supposed to bloom yet in this region greeted Minato and the others.

It wasn’t just the plants that were making merry early with the arrival of spring. What lied in wait after the new students finished the ceremony was recruitment for club activities. All of the groups were shouting, including the girls from the cheerleading squad holding colourful bonbons in red and orange, and the well-built boys holding a cheering banner that read, “Passing is love!”

Immediately, there were freshmen who were caught by the soccer club. The glints in their eyes were only things indiscriminately sharp upon their suntanned skins. Next to them, there was an idol-like boy who attracted gazes, frequently waving at the female manager.

Giving a sidelong glance at Seiya, who was looking around with interest, Minato quickly passed through the area. However, suddenly, a large boy placed his arms around their shoulders from behind, and two of them couldn’t move.

What an obnoxious recruitment. Minato gave the attacker an indignant look. Then, before his eyes, he gave a friendly smile. Minato felt something similar to deja-vu.

“Aren’t you Minato? And here’s Seiya! It’s been a while. I didn’t expect to meet you guys here again at high school. This is awesome!”

“Wait, you can’t actually be Ryouhei!? Haven’t you gotten too big? I didn’t recognize you for a moment,” Seiya said, then continued. “Minato hadn’t noticed, but I found your name on the class register.”

“I knew that you were being sworn in as the freshman representative. You’re still as smart as ever, that’s expected. That’s great. And Minato, you’ve gotten cooler and cooler since the last I saw you.”

“Stop talking like you’re an uncle flattering your nephews,” Minato said. Ryouhei had a truly strange expression on his face as he stretched.

“I am? But I was looking at you when I said it.”

Yamanouchi Ryouhei was their childhood friend who transferred schools when they were in fifth grade. His body grew bigger, but he was still a simpleminded child on the inside. When other people said words that were taken as sarcasm, Ryouhei said them with a smile. There were few people who could get seriously angry at a puppy that they had become attached to.

That nostalgic face caused Minato’s tense-looking face to break into a smile. They couldn’t stop recounting their childhood stories, like when they lost their shoes swimming in the river after school, or when they got scolded for sneaking into Seiya’s family’s hospital when it was closed and playing with the athletic tape. They were a gang who spent time together like brothers. There was a strange sense of solidarity.

Although there was lingering excitement between the three of them, a small man approaching them caused them to break off their conversation. He was an acquaintance of Ryouhei’s.

“What’s up, Tomi-sensei?”

“Tomi-sensei?” Minato asked.

“Yeah, he’s my homeroom teacher, Morioka Tomio-sensei.”

Tomi-sensei was an old man teacher. He stood on tiptoes to survey the three of them, moving his face closer with effort.

“I have received a certain incognito order. Expecting that all of you are close, I come to stand for the white-feathered arrows. An incognito order is a mission.”

“Mission!? What is it, what is it??”

While Minato was thinking about how suspicious that was, Ryouhei’s eyes shone with curiosity.

“Ah, actually, this school has a kyudo club, but it has hardly been active recently. It received the order to be rebuilt from the principal. Kyudo tends to be thought of as an individual sport, but when everyone’s breathing doesn’t match perfectly, it won’t go well.”

Minato’s heart beat faster at the word “kyudo”.

“And? And?” Ryouhei said, completely on board. “At the middle school I went to, I chose kyudo as my compulsory martial arts course. My kyudo teacher praised me, saying that I had ‘good muscles’. I thought I’d do it seriously when I went to high school. Plus, I might have been influenced by Minato and Seiya.”

“Are these two experienced in kyudo?”

“They are. Narumiya and Takehaya were in the kyudo club in middle school. Narumiya in particular wanted to do kyudo, and I heard that they took the entrance exams for a private middle school with a kyudo club. He’d been talking about the bow since forever.”

Tomi-sensei smiled broadly.

“There are few junior highs with a kyudo club, so people with kyudo experience are valuable. However, It would seem that I have found three all at once. These old eyes are not mistaken. This mission is nothing but a success. Well then, everyone, shall we head for the kyudojo (place where kyudo is performed)?”

Minato panicked. He was troubled by the conversation continuing on without him.

“Please wait. I don’t plan to join any club. My mother died, so I have to do most of the housework, and I also have to make dinner for my father…I’m sorry.”

The white mark on Minato’s left flank was the scar of the injury he had sustained when he was involved in a traffic accident with his mother, which happened one month after Seiya got Bear. However, four years had passed already. The innocent Bear, time, and the passions that they had devoted themselves into had healed the wounded Minato and others. The whitening scar was the proof of that.

Then, why do you keep running every morning…?

Minato felt like he had heard Seiya’s voice. However, Seiya hadn’t said anything.

“I’m so sorry to hear that. Well, if your situation changes, you can just come by and visit us anytime. How about Takehaya-kun and Yamanouchi-kun over here?”

“I’d certainly like to join the club.”

“Me too, me too!”

Seiya, who was supposed to be right next to him, looked to be far away.

Minato wasn’t going to do club activities. Seiya was joining the kyudo club.

Even though there shouldn’t be any problem, his perturbed heart felt unsatisfied. Seiya turned back to look straight at him.

“I’m going to go ahead to the kyudojo.”

“I’m not doing kyudo anymore.”

“I know you’re carrying around your treasure.”

Minato grabbed his bag in spite of himself. And when he realized he fell for Seiya’s bluff, Minato could only make the meager comeback of simply leaving that spot.

Refusing other invitations from his classmates and girls, Minato returned home alone.

Although he lived only with his father, he never felt very lonely or inconvenient because Seiya and his parents were kind. He told Tomi-sensei that he was busy with household chores, but his father often didn’t take dinner at home, so that was the perfect excuse. When he confirmed that the pouch with the dragonfly pattern was in his bag, he flew out beneath the darkening sky.

He loved riding his bicycle.

The wind was frosty, sweeping away the words that he was saddled with, cooling down that aching heat. After a while, he hit a long slope. While standing to pedal up the hill, a car coming from behind honked its horn. Although he quickly went to the side, the honking was completely unexpected.

After riding around aimlessly without deciding on a destination, when it was soon time to go back home, a small yellow bird flew out before his eyes. It was a grey wagtail that flew before him as he rode. Although both sides of the road were lined with forest, it glided along the surface of the endless paved road.

Before he knew it, Minato was in an unfamiliar place. The yellow bird disappeared, and in its place, an old sign board reading “Yata Shrine” caught his attention. He stopped his bike before the torii gate, and climbed the stone steps.

This forest was called Yata no Mori, where deciduous trees like pin oaks and Mongolian oaks thrived. Minato looked up, and as if trying to test him, the trees swayed, making a rustling sound. In the dim light, the new sprouts shone, looking like hands clasped together and dedicating prayers up to the sky. The red-violet buds of the mountain azaleas were stiff, and wearing light brown caps. From somewhere faraway, a crying sound could be heard.

After passing through the forest, he arrived at Yata Shrine. There was a cherry tree there, dying the ground beneath in pale pink. The shrine was snug in that old way, and there was no sign of people.

It looks like a place where ghosts would come out… When he thought that, he was startled from hearing a sound.

It’s tsurune, I heard a tsurune—.

From somewhere, he heard a high bang sound.

Like bamboo sprouts shooting up from the earth towards the sky overnight, the sound was carefree and crisp. He couldn’t believe that it was possible to create that metallic-sounding timbre with a bow. It is said that tsurune was the sound made when the bowstring hit the bow after firing an arrow; and the sound that occurred when the arrow left the loosened bowstring and tension returned to the original form of the string, was also considered tsurune.

It overlapped with his old memories. He wondered if it was the same archer that he saw with his mother when he was little, pulling back the bow.

The light was on in the building next to the front shrine.

There was a built-in mailbox at the entrance of the traditional Japanese house, where a signboard hung with the words “Yata no Mori Kyudojo” on it. It was considerably aged, and the wood was corroded and covered in moss. Suppressing his fast-beating heart, he went past the entryway, heading for the right side of the building.

He didn’t think that there would be someone drawing a bow in the forest in the evening. Maybe it really was a ghost. No, it didn’t matter if it was a ghost.

Please don’t disappear.

Don’t disappear until I get there.

While praying that silently in his mind, he passed through the trees, and went around to a corner where outdoor viewing was possible. When he peeked forward through the bamboo fence that acted as a partition, he saw the spacious shajo (building where the archers shoot from) illuminated by fluorescent lamps.

There was a lone young man there, clad in a white kyudogi (2) and hakama.

As expected, it was a different person from the archer he saw back then. The mysterious figure looked like he was in his twenties, and his shoulder-length hair was tied back.

The man nocked an arrow to his bow, then looked to check for any problems with the string or the arrow. He took the string with his right hand, and held the bow with his left. Facing the target, he lifted the bow and arrow with both hands. His stance—like a column of smoke loosely rising up to the sky on a windless day—was textbook perfect.

He pulled back half the length of the arrow and stopped briefly, then pulled it even further back from there. This was the daisan stage (midway point), of the hikiwake. In everyday language, this would be called “drawing back the bow,” but the Japanese yumi was a bow which was lifted up and pushed open equally on both sides.

The climax was called kai. The kai was the term for drawing a bow all the way back to the length that was most suitable for the archer. It was the moment when bow and archer became one, for a long time until the arrow was released. It was the very moment when bow and archer met. In Minato’s eyes, that man was as elegant as an actor performing in a program that was a marvel… As his skin got chills, the arrow was breathed in by the target.

It hit the target right in the center. And what’s more, that wasn’t the only shot. All five of the arrows he had shot before had pierced the target. After that, he finished collecting the arrows and shot six arrows again, all of them hitting the center.

Twelve hits.

If this was a competition, he had won. No, more than just winning, his shots were beautiful. The man placed his bow aside, got into seiza, and took off his yugake, the glove used in kyudo.

When he saw the man going towards the target to collect the arrows again, Minato heaved a big sigh. He rubbed his sweaty palm against his jacket. Wondering whether he should try to call out, he suddenly heard a “Gyaah!” sound above his head, and his body spontaneously shivered.

“…Was that an owl? Don’t get so scared.”

“What are you doing?”

It was a person’s voice.

The man from earlier was standing right in front of him when he had looked back at the strange phenomenon. He had clear eyes, a high nose bridge, a tall stature, and was blessed with a well-balanced body. But he approached me without making a sound, so who the heck is he?

The man wrapped the indigo-dyed hand towel he carried around his left arm, and held it up towards the trees. “Fuu,” he called out, and something with large, spread-out wings flew down, stopping on the man’s arm.

Its flapping created a wind.

Glancing sideways at Minato, who was standing stock-still, the man addressed the being with a heart-shaped face.

“Fuu, you were the one who was more surprised. Who knew there was a person over here.”

“…Excuse me. Um, could ‘Fuu’ be the name of that owl?”

“Yes, it’s a good name, isn’t it? (1) A long time ago, it was injured and I took care of it, and so I gave it that name back then. I had thought about it carefully. Oh, and I did have permission to look after it.”

Is it my imagination, or does that name seem like it was incredibly easy to come up with? It’s better than naming a dog “Bear” at least.

The owls of the true owl family were as big as the falcons used in falconry. Fuu play-bited at the man’s long fingers. When he caressed his mottled wings, it comfortably closed its large eyes.

“It’s really attached to you.”

“It’s more like it got used to me rather than getting attached. It thinks that when I call it, it’ll be able to get food. Today, I called it even though I don’t have any. Sorry, Fuu.”

“Food?”

“Pink mice. Mice that were skinned.”

“I see…”

“Do you want to try touching it? But you are forbidden from making loud sounds. Owls have good ears.”

Doing as he was told, Minato reached out fearfully. When he stroked the feathers on its head, Fuu suddenly shrunk its body, looking like it was withdrawing itself.

“It’s kind of fluffy.”

“Owls can fly noiselessly thanks to their soft feathers. But leaving that aside, you’re bleeding from the back of your left hand.”

“What?”

When he looked, sure enough, blood was welling up. Maybe a branch or something cut him.

“Come with me to get some medicine for that.”

“No, um, I…”

“No way, are you suspicious of me? I’m not going to charge you extra for the medicine, so don’t worry.”

The man narrowed his eyes and grinned.

He followed the man, who seemed like he ruled over the shajo, to there. The judge’s area was at the side of the shajo, with tatami flooring spreading as wide as twelve tatami mats, and the floor one level higher. It was equivalent to the kamiza (higher position) so the household shrine and the national flag were enshrined there. Passing through the judge’s area to the back-right corner, they arrived at the waiting room of the dojo.

The man placed Fuu on Minato’s left shoulder. It was lighter than he had expected, and along with a pleasant weight, Fuu gripped his shoulder tightly. Since its talons weren’t clipped, he’d probably get holes in his clothes. While he was focused on Fuu, the man opened the accessory drawer.

“So, where’s the medicine…ah.”

An unpleasant bang sound rang out, and the contents of the entire drawer flew out. This caused Fuu to tremble with a jump. The man had been trying to retrieve the medicine in the back of the drawer, and pulled it out.

“Oh no, I did it again.”

He said he did it again, so does that mean he pulls open that drawer and cause stuff to fly out a lot?

“Um, are you okay?”

“Yeah. This is because it’s sturdy, unlike the poorly built stuff made nowadays. Oh, there it is.”

The man found a worn-out tube from among the scattered items, and held it out to Minato. He doubted the efficacy of the ointment, which was considerably aged.

While rubbing on the medicine, the exhausted fluorescent lamp flickered. Minato and Fuu looked up at the ceiling, which the man noticed.

“Sorry, your eyes must be pretty irritated. I have a replacement tube but it’s quite a bother. Someone would change it eventually.”

“…I’ll do it.”

Returning Fuu from his shoulder to the man, he took the new fluorescent tube and got out the stepladder in the corner of the room. It was also an antique.

The man spoke in an easy-going way, “Thanks. I always neglect it until it goes out.”

“I think your entire house should have LED lighting installed, so you won’t have to replace it so much, sir”

“Indeed. You’re pretty smart.”

Even though he meant for it to sound sarcastic, it didn’t seem to have gone through at all.

The man went to the edge of the shajo, and shook his arm towards the outdoors. Fuu disappeared into the nighttime forest. After seeing it off, he took out something from his bag.

“Having a drink after work is the best. Here’s a thank-you gift. Go ahead and take it.”

“No thank you. The law states that the drinking age is twenty years old, and if I drink alcohol, my brain will shrink.”

“…You are amazing. I want to compliment you on how honest you are, but just come and take a better look.”

The man was holding a can of coffee with a picture of a snowy mountain on it.

When he finished drinking, he put the can aside and headed for the targets again. He repeated the entire process of shooting the arrows on hand and retrieving them, all over again.

Still holding his can, Minato watched his beautiful movements. He never paid heed to Minato’s watching, nor told him to go home. Before he knew it, the pain of his wound faded away.

He asked him a question when he saw him jotting something down in a notebook.

“How many targets did you hit?”

“I’m not keeping track of how many I hit or miss. Just the number of arrows.”

“How many did you shoot as of now?”

“Eighty.”

“Eighty times? Do you always shoot that much?”

“Yep. I’m shooting a hundred arrows every day, and aiming for a total of ten-thousand arrows. Today’s the seventy-ninth day.”

“What’s your goal?”

“Nothing in particular. Just a whim, so to speak.”

The man narrowed his eyes and smiled his crescent moon-smile again.

A tsurune that glowed against the deep blue heavens (3).

As he placed his feet on the pedals of his bike, the moon was shining above his head.

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#tsurune #tsurune translation

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acoff5mandy · 3 years ago

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FA Cup Fixtures | SuperSport

Fa cup match fixtures - Live FA Cup On TV Schedule /21 UK

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English FA Cup Schedule

For more information about how we hold your personal data, please see our privacy policy. Our editorial is always independent learn more The FA Cup marches on with just four teams to be left standing by the end of Sunday evening. Southampton and Manchester City booked their places in the semi-finals following wins over Bournemouth and Everton respectively.

Attention now fa cup match fixtures to a pair of all-Premier League clashes as Leicester host Manchester Fa cup match fixtures and Chelsea host Sheffield United for the final two places in the Wembley semi-finals. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be determined to land a trophy with United to mark progress this season, while Chelsea going strong on fixthres fronts as the final stretch of the season comes into view.

The FA Cup Scores & Fixtures

There are multiple ways to get BT Sport. Our Football newsletter: news, views and previews of this week's games on TV. This season there will be no replays in order to ease the burden of fixture congestion. That decision was confirmed by the Football Association in August fa cup match fixtures to the tournament kick-off.

Goal fixturfs you everything you need to know about the edition of the FA Cup. The FA Cup semi-final draw will be held on March 21, during the half-time interval of the quarter-final of Manchester United versus Leicester City. The FA Cup quarter-finals will take place over the weekend of March The draw for the quarter-finals was made on February Southampton defeated south-coast rivals Bournemouth to book their place in the last four, while Manchester Informative post overcame Everton at Goodison Park.

The draw fixturess the fifth round took place on Monday January 11 at the same time as the fourth-round draw. The draw for the fourth round took place on Monday January Click on any katch to see a full and complete ground guide. Entry into the FA Cup is available for any team down to level 10 mstch the league system in England.

Levels are taken up by the 92 clubs that play in the Premier League and the Football League. The language is complicated for this next bit, but levels are made up of the hundreds of non-league teams that feature in Steps of the National League System.

Teams must also fixxtures at a suitable ground and are sometimes asked to move to bigger more equipt grounds when playing more popular teams. Qualification for the FA Cup also falls fa cup match fixtures this bracket, with a mini-tournament taking place before the competition proper gets underway.

The cup is a knockout tournament from the word go, with lower league fa cup match fixtures added on a gradual basis round by round. After those teams have been randomly drawn to face each other, forty teams progress to the Second Round fa cup match fixtures no more teams join the competition.

No non-league side has managed to fa cup match fixtures the quarter-finals in the modern era, however. Forty teams play each other in the Second Round but only twenty emerge victorious.

They are then cpu in the Third Round fa cup match fixtures the twenty-four teams from the Championship and the twenty teams from the Premier League. This is when the competition gets serious and really starts to heat up. Of the fa cup match fixtures teams that went head-to-head in the Third Round, only 32 make it through to the Fourth Round.

Both Third and Fourth Rounds are typically played in January, so an already hectic fixture schedule thanks to Fa cup match fixtures can become unbearable for some teams. Sixteen teams progress to the Fifth Round. The Sixth Round is the quarter-final stage of the competition, in which the remaining eight teams go head-to-head to decide who will make the semi-finals. This is the last round in which games are played at the home ground of one of the teams playing.

The first name out of the hat when the draw is made hosts the match, with replays being played at the home of the away team.

Once the dust has settled at the end of the Sixth Round, four teams progress to the Semi-Final stage of the competition. Since the opening of the new version of Wembley Stadium, however, the Semi-Finals have been played at the home of the England international team. Those opposed to the use of Wembley suggest it takes the shine of reaching the final, having already played a game there.

The Semi-Finals are played in April and the games are decided on fa cup match fixtures day.

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guardian-of-the-thunder · 7 years ago

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Baby Girl: Chapter 1

Summary: When the only female of Team 7 slowly turns into a baby, what would the team do? [Taking place several years after the Fourth Shinobi War and before Kakashi was appointed as the new Hokage.]

Author: GuardianOfTheThunder

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16095212/chapters/37591655

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I hope I do, but I don't.

----------

"Sakura!" Tsunade called. Her eyes were intense as she sat behind her table and stared at her favorite student.

"Yes, Shishou." Sakura responded. She looked at the Godaime with curious eyes as her master placed an open scroll at the center of her table. Tsunade waved for her to move forward, allowing Sakura to peer over the table and see the scroll which held the writings of the Legendary Transformation Jutsu.

"Sakura, listen carefully ..." Tsunade started. "I would like you to review this scroll and develop a new technique…not only to extend my youth, but to make me appear younger…"

"But Lady Tsunade…you already look younger than your age." Sakura interrupted.

"Let me finish child!" The Hokage boomed—crease already forming on her forehead.

Sakura took a step back, surprised by her master's cranky attitude. She guessed it was due to the lack of sake in her system, then Tsunade sighed.

"Can't you see these wrinkles?!" The Godaime pointed to the corner of her eyes. "Even this damn Transformation Jutsu has no match for these…these god forsaken papers!"

Sakura scanned her eyes to the piles of papers and reports not only on top of her master's table, but also on the floor where mountains of documents were stacked with no particular order around her.

The Godaime continued her rants.

"…And Shizune won't even let me take a sip of sake!" Tsunade whined.

"I could feel my blood boiling! My blood shouldn't be boiling; it should be the sake that's boiling in my system!" The blonde woman slumped her head on the table and slowly raised her hand.

"Even my right hand looks a hundred years older because of the number of documents I have to sign. Ugh."

Sakura watched her master sluggishly detach her head on the table and sat straight.

"…That's why I need you to develop a new technique that would make these damn wrinkles disappear, and one that would make me…hmm…slimmer. I've been eating a lot lately." She said, when Sakura saw a sudden sparkle on her master's eyes and she felt dread slowly crept on her spine.

"Unless you want to take over for a bit, maybe for the first 500 reports?"

Even before Tsunade could coerce her on what she wanted, Sakura had already snatched the scroll and raced to the door.

"I'll take care of this, Shishou! I'll send you my report as soon as I've figured something out!" Sakura called over her shoulder as she made her escape.

Nobody wanted to take over the Hokage's paperwork. It was like dying in the field of battle without even getting a chance to fight! And Sakura knew her master. She was one hell of a slave-driver, and she refused to endure another round of paperwork torture from her.

Sakura shivered when another feeling of cold dread crept over her bare arms. She needed to develop a technique soon, or else, even she wouldn’t be able to escape her master's wrath.

**********

"What's taking them so long?!" Naruto asked. He was already at the training grounds with Sasuke, trying to be still and look patient as he waited for his teammates.

It was still quite early in the morning when he took his way to the training grounds. But when he arrived, Sasuke was already there, leaning his back on a nearby tree. Now, the sun was almost overhead and two of his teammates were still missing.

Naruto slumped on the tree trunk where Sasuke was leaning and crossed his arms over his chest. His raven-haired best friend still stood silent while Naruto reminisced the conversation they had with Kakashi the night before—hinting them about a mission which they have to accomplish.

He sighed.

"Oi, Teme," Naruto called. Sasuke only looked at him. "I understand that Kakashi's late. I mean, he always is. But Sakura…"

At that moment, their former sensei emerged with a poof atop a tree branch where both of them were leaning.

"Hey you guys! Good morning. Sorry I'm late. There was this family of turtles crossing on the street while I was on my way here. I really didn't want to cross over them but there was no other way, so—" Kakashi started, with the all too familiar crinkle in his visible eye.

"Stop making excuses, Sensei! You've been late ever since I was 12 years old!" Naruto exclaimed wildly while Sasuke only let out a sigh.

"Naruto, how many times do I have to remind that you don't have to call me sensei anymore." Kakashi said as he landed with a soft thud on the grass in front of his two former students.

He eyed them carefully, realizing that he was missing one person on his team. He cocked his head slightly to the side and wondered. It wasn't like Sakura to be late on a meeting. In fact, she was always as early as Sasuke in going to the venue.

"Where's Sakura?" he eventually asked.

"Well, she hasn't arrived yet." Naruto replied.

"Has anybody contacted her?" Kakashi asked. Both his former students shook their heads.

"Maybe she overslept?" Naruto said.

"It's not like Sakura to oversleep." Sasuke said, shifting his hands inside his pocket.

"How would you know, huh? Have you slept with her already?" Naruto teased, poking his best friend's arm.

"Shut up, loser." Sasuke said as he smacked the back of Naruto's head.

Kakashi only sighed at the scene. Several years had already passed—hell, the members of his team weren’t even teens anymore but they never did change. That was what he was thinking as he scratched the back of his neck.

"Hmm…maybe she got sick? Sakura looked distant last night during dinner." Naruto guessed again.

"Yeah, she was a bit quiet." Sasuke agreed.

Kakashi mused over the scene from last night. They were at Ichiraku's, and Naruto was as lively as always. He and Sasuke even had a chopsticks fight while Sakura ... yeah, she seemed a bit detached from the group.

"Or maybe…" Kakashi heard Naruto speak.

"She got abducted." The blonde only whispered the words but it made him and Sasuke stand alert.

The three of them looked at one another, and with a single nod, they all took the path to Sakura's apartment.

As the three ninjas rushed to their destination, Kakashi couldn't help but weigh what Naruto said.

'Sakura? Abducted? That would be impossible.' He thought.

It was a time of peace among all warring countries after all. He couldn't even think of anyone who would want to break the peace pact and kidnap the Godaime's apprentice. Kakashi pursed his lips behind his mask hoping that what Naruto said was wrong. Sasuke, on the other hand, was thinking of the same thing, but with more dread in his thoughts.

People might think that no one would dare break the peace pact, but a handful of people would dare cross him after all he had done. And how would they do that? By simply kidnapping his weakness, of course.

Sasuke felt his cheeks warm at the thought. Sakura—his weakness...one of the reasons why he chose to return to the village.

'No.' He thought to himself.

Sakura was not the same girl he met when they were 12. The Sakura now was someone who could create craters into the ground with one single punch.

'Abducting her wouldn't be that easy.' He finally thought as he focused his chakra on his feet and went after Kakashi, with Naruto trailing by his side.

When the three of them reached Sakura's balcony, a bit of dread crossed over them as they stared at the closed curtains of Sakura's glass door. It was already way past 11 in the morning—her curtains should be open.

"Maybe she's not here?" Naruto whispered, when they heard someone deliberately clearing her throat.

"Ahem-ahem."

All three of them exchanged looks as they turned to where the sound came from.

In the third balcony from Sakura's right, they saw a plump lady, with thick make up, probably in her 50s relaxing at a chair outside her balcony. She still had her night gown on which hiked up to the middle of her thighs. She spoke.

"You know, boys…if you really wanted a sneak peek, I could get a show on for you."

She dragged her long red nail on the hem of her dress covering her gigantic breasts and winked at them. The three shinobis shivered.

Kakashi immediately brought out his Icha Icha Paradise while Sasuke peered at Kakashi and pretended to be engrossed on the same book. He whispered.

"You know your book is upside down, right?" Sasuke asked his former teacher.

"I don't give a shit at the moment." He answered. It was Naruto who first spoke.

"Uhh, n-no thanks. We're just kind of resting. Gotta go!" And all three sped away.

Since the three of them indeed looked like peeping toms from the balcony, they decide to take the stairs up to Sakura's floor. They all fell silent as they settled in front of her doorstep.

"I could feel her." Sasuke whispered.

"But her chakra signature's weak" Kakashi added.

"I couldn't feel any other human inside, do you think they've concealed themselves?" Naruto asked his teammates. Both shook their heads.

"No. She's alone." Sasuke confirmed.

"So is it safe to knock?" Naruto asked again.

"Go ahead." It was Kakashi who encouraged him.

When Naruto knocked on Sakura's door, they heard a little bit of shuffling from the inside.

"Sakura, it's us!" Naruto announced. "We got a bit worried when you didn't show up at the training grounds. Could you open the door please?"

They waited a moment, but there was still no answer. Only then, they heard crashing from inside.

Kakashi and Sasuke instantly had kunais in their hands while Naruto was sent to panic mode.

"Sakura what's happening! Open the door or we're blasting through!"

That's when she answered.

"No! No! Wait just a second!"

The three of them lowered their guards as they heard soft footsteps approaching the door and some deadbolts and locks being slid from their brackets. They also heard the dragging of a chair and more shuffling.

"What's happening inside?" Sasuke silently asked as he was getting a little bit impatient.

"Uhm, Sakura, are you okay?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto? Is Sasuke and Kakashi with you?" asked the girl from behind the door.

Naruto suddenly became increasingly fidgety. Why was Sakura taking so long to open the door?

"Yeah, they are. Why?"

They heard mumbling and strings of expletives being said.

"Wow, she could publish a dictionary of curse words with all the things she just said." Kakashi commented.

Sasuke, on the other hand, narrowed his eyes. It was definitely Sakura's voice behind that door, but it sounded different. Maybe she really got sick. He wondered.

"Uhm Naruto? Could you...could you use chakra to open the door? I…I can't unbolt the final lock. It's...it's too high." Sakura said.

Kakashi mentally imagined Sakura's height. Yes, as the only female of the group, she was a bit petite. But judging from the height of the door frame, it shouldn't be that high, so what's wrong?

"Hey! What happened? Did you break your leg or something?" Naruto asked.

"No! Just…just open the damn door." The muffled voice said.

"Fine. Then we're going in!"

With swift hand signs, Naruto placed his hands on Sakura's door frame and blasted the door.

"What the fuck, Naruto?!" Sasuke exclaimed through the thick smoke that surrounded them.

Clearly, such act disturbed half of the neighborhood and people were starting to pour out from their rooms to evacuate.

"Wait! Wait! It's okay! It's a false alarm! This is just a simple drill!" Naruto announced to the people who eyed him warily.

"You're all safe! There's nothing to worry about! You may go back to your rooms! This is not an attack!"

Thank god, people knew him which made it easier for them to control the situation. When the smoke sort of died down, the people saw the blonde ninja whom they all knew too well and took his word for it. Almost immediately, the floor cleared. They even saw Kakashi ushering elderly people back to their rooms.

"You're such a dumb ass. So much for national emergency, Naruto." Sasuke exclaimed sarcastically.

That's when they heard a soft rumbling. Like a tiny growl...they weren't sure.

"Naruto!"

"Huh?" Naruto turned to the broken down door and slowly stepped in. The room was still engulfed with smoke and dust and he couldn't point to where Sakura was standing.

"Sakura, where are you? Are you okay?" he asked.

"I told you to simply open the door! I didn't ask you to blast through it! Look at what you did to my apartment! You're going to pay for this!"

And with one swift movement, someone kicked Naruto in the gut and sent him flying outside Sakura's room.

"What the—?" Sasuke whispered in shock, automatically assuming a defense position as he waited for the smoke to vanish.

When the smoke cleared, in front of him stood a girl with short pink hair, her tiny hands balled into fists, loose clothes almost leaving her shoulders, and such intense green eyes he ever saw. Sasuke gulped.

This girl is not more than 5 years old, he guessed as he watched her march outside of the room.

Naruto slowly stood to his knees, cradling his gut.

"Ow…Ow…Ow… Geez, Sakura. You didn't have to go that fa—"

SMACK!

Naruto eyed the little girl who just smacked him in the face.

"Hey! What was that for?! And who are you?" he eyed the girl warily and realized that she looked like a little version of Sakura.

The little girl, on the other hand, snobbed him, turned her face, and marched inside the room dragging her loose clothes to the ground.

Sasuke and Naruto followed the girl inside. The former still stood silent.

"Hey, I didn't know Sakura had a little sister?" Naruto said whispering to Sasuke.

"I guess having a wide forehead really runs in their family huh?" he sheepishly commented.

"Hey! I heard that!" the girl exclaimed, then a thick medical journal was sent flying their direction.

Sasuke just swiftly tilted his head to the side causing Naruto's face to catch the hardbound book.

"Ouch! Hey! Stop it will you!" Naruto shouted at the girl as he rubbed his face. "You! You're just as hot-tempered as Sakura! Where is she anyway?"

They watched the little girl's face turn into a frown as she started dashing towards Naruto. When suddenly, she fell flat on her face because she tripped on her own dress clothes.

Naruto guffawed at the scene, clutching at his stomach because of the intensity of his laughter.

"Serve's you right, kid!"

Sasuke, on the contrary, crouched in front of the little girl and helped her sit up. He was about to help her stand when she let out a piercing wail, deafening even Naruto who was the hyperactive blabbermouth of the group.

The girl's face was red, with tears streaming down her cheeks. Sasuke stood back and froze on his feet. He had simply no idea on what to do when kids start crying. That's when somebody lifted the girl off the ground.

It was Kakashi.

"There, there Sakura. It's okay." He cooed to the little girl, tucking her to his chest, and helping her calm down.

Kakashi rubbed his free hand on the small of her back as he supported the girl's weight with his other arm.

"What?!" Naruto and Sasuke exclaimed in unison as they watched the scene unfold.

Sasuke kind of thought about it the moment he saw the little girl, but for his thoughts to be confirmed like this, he couldn't utter a single word.

The five-year old girl who was clutched to Kakashi's chest was their 21-year old teammate, Sakura.

The two ninja's watched as Kakashi wiped the tears from her eyes.

"What's happening?" Naruto asked, dumbfounded.

----------

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16095212/chapters/37591655

#Sasusaku #Kakasaku #fanfiction #sasusakufanfic #kakasakufanfic #naruto fanfiction #naruto gaiden #sakura haruno #naruto uzumaki #sasuke uchiha #kakashi hatake #anime fanfiction

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thepoolscene · 5 years ago

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The Pool Scene - Darren Appleton - Euro-Tour

New Post on https://thepoolscene.com/?p=55315

Appleton comes back and leaves a mark in the tournament

The first day in Antalya of the Dynamic Billard Antalya Open 2019 started sunny as expected. Most players of the first round matches were on time for the beginning of their competition. In the first round, Nick Malai (GRE) and Marcel Price (GBR) had the toughest challenges. Both of them won their opening matches with 9:8 over their respective opponents which took a lot of energy out of them at such an early time of the day.

As the day continued, more remarkable matches could be witnessed. In the first winner’s round, Nick Malai took down Ruslan Chinakhov (RUS) surprisingly clear with 9:1 and sent him to the loser’s side of the bracket. Jan Rempe (NED), young player from the dutch contingency, managed to overpower Fedor Gorst (RUS) with 9:5 in the same round. Jani Siekkinen (FIN) wasted no time with Alex Montpellier (FRA) wiping the floor with him with 9:0. Siekkinen’s teammate Jani Uski (FIN) also won his match against Mateusz Sniegocki (POL) with 9:7. One of the two big clashes in the first winner’s round was the all British match between Mark Gray and Darren Appleton. Both players have earned their merits in the past and it was clear that the one with the better daily form would probably succeed over the other. Additionally, Appleton had been absent for a long time and just started his Euro-Tour play again last tournament in Klagenfurt, Austria, while Gray has been a regular on the tour for many years now. Today, the match went in favour of Appleton since Gray had no break at all. Appleton took him down 9:5 and Gray stated on his facebook page later: „Horrible game that lost 9-5 to Darren Appleton. Better player undoubtedly won. Break killed me but didn’t feel good so good luck to Daz… Granite back to the beach!!“ The other „big match“ in that round was the encounter between Pijus Labutis (LTU) and Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz (ESP). That match was controlled by the Spaniard and won with 9:6 by Sanchez-Ruiz.

The Dynamic Billard Antalya Open 2019 will continue tomorrow morning at 09:00 local time with matches from winner’s round 2.

Every day, up to two matches will be streamed LIVE over the EPBF Facebook page and on the EPBF YouTube channel. Check for updates and announcements.

The Dynamic Billard Antalya Open are played in the Limak Atlantis Resort in Belek, Turkey, on up to 20 tables which are all streamed LIVE throughout the whole event. In order to be able to follow all the action LIVE, premium membership can be obtained at www.kozoom.com. Once a premium membership is held, all events for the respective period of time can be viewed LIVE. Additionally, a huge video gallery is contained in the website.

The event is hosted by the European Governing Body for Pool, the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) and organized by International Billiard Promotion (IBP). For further information and reference please go to the federation website www.eurotouronline.com or visit us on Facebook for regular news clips or contact our press office [email protected].

#Darren Appleton

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softsnuper · 7 years ago

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[TRANS] 170528 Lee Youjin V Live Broadcast (PD101S2)

Lee Youjin, one of the eliminated trainees from Produce 101, held a live broadcast on Namoo Actors V App channel last night! He answered fan questions and talked about his time in Produce 101 so here are some highlights about what he said about the other trainees.

Fan Questions:

The trainees he was closest to were his roommates at the start of the program! He roomed with Yoon Jisung, Kim Sihyun, Lee Hoorim, Kim Hyunwoo from YG K+. He couldn’t give Jisung a call bc he was probably busy (the only one left on the show).

He talked about how he was the leader twice during (for Be Mine team 2 and Rhythm Ta). He thought being leader would be easy bc he only needed to guide and lead the other members but it was a lot more difficult than he thought.

For Be Mine, he couldn’t really help the other members with learning the dance so he felt sorry towards them. Maybe if he had chosen an easier song they wouldn’t have had such a hard time. “Truthfully i couldn’t be of any help to the others, but through our struggles we got closer and did well.“

He really likes Park Jaebum’s (Jay Park) style so that’s the reason why he chose some of the concepts that he did on PD101! He wanted to be sexy like him (t/n: I think he’s talking about his performance evaluation)

The staff played Pick Me in the background but since he was caught off guard, he was able to dance only part of it. He said the trainees practiced it so much he could do the dance in his sleep.

He promised to try and call Taewoo later! He’s in a group chat with Taewoo and Taemin so they talk a lot. They’re really fun and interesting.

A fan commented “add me to the chat too~” so he said “send us your ID (t/n: kakaotalk ID)” lol

A fan asked “Who is the most handsome in PD101″ and he said “Everyone is handsome!”

He showed off the headphones he got for completing the first stage of maboy.

Youjin’s Pick Corner!

The staff set up a bracket board to see who Youjin’s pick was among his fellow contestants on PD101. When he saw the board he said, “Wow, this is like picking for the World Cup.”

First Round:

Lee Woojin vs. Kim Yongguk vs. Jung Sewoon (he said Woojin is cute but Sewoon really helped him with the hardships of being a leader. Even though they weren’t close, they talked and texted so he was really touched. That’s why he picked Sewoon)

Lee Insoo vs. Hong Eunki vs. Kang Daniel (he chose Daniel bc he was the leader for 열어줘 and taught them a lot. Youjin said everyone in the group was already good so he had to match them well)

Kim Donghyun vs. Im Youngmin vs. Joo Jinwoo (he depended on Youngmin a lot during Be Mine and is very thankful towards him)

Kang Dongho vs. Takada Kenta vs. Kim Taewoo (he picked Taewoo bc he’s funny, sings well, and is bright. He got really close to him during the show)

Lee Kiwon vs. Yoon Heeseok vs. Kim Seonglee (he picked Seonglee and said he had enough skills to compete in any program. During practice he would lift the mood and make the trainees happy but it wasn’t broadcasted)

Lee Gwanghyun vs. Park Sungwoo (he picked Sungwoo and pet the sticker with his face on it lolol. Although Sungwoo endured a lot, he was always by Youjin’s side. They were together for Be Mine and also for 열어줘 before being eliminated. Even though Youjin was having a hard time too, he felt sorry for not being able to help him)

Second Round:

Jung Sewoon vs. Kang Daniel

Im Youngmin vs. Kim Taewoo (he chose Taewoo bc they both fell down the ranks together(?) lol)

Kim Seonglee vs. Park Sungwoo (he chose Sungwoo bc he went through a lot of hardships)

Third Round:

Kang Daniel vs. Kim Taewoo

Park Sungwoo (automatic win)

FInal Round:

Kim Taewoo vs. Park Sungwoo (when he chose Taewoo, he put his sticker on the #1 spot and pat it several times; “It’s a pity that it’s not broadcasted but he’s really funny. We practiced a lot together.”)

Note: I’ll be subbing this segment and posting it on YouTube soon! I’ll link it here when it’s done and uploaded.

Update: here is the subbed segment!

More unrelated PD101 things are under the cut! Translation by @softsnuper (may not be 100% accurate)

Youjin felt a little shy and embarrassed bc he was filming V Live alone and there were a couple Namoo staff members watching him.

He has a lot of white clothing, even white shoes.

A fan asked about the meaning of his username nay_kid and he said it meant something like “live a sincere life.” Another way of saying “no” was “nay” and “kid” is to remind him of his dreams when he was a student.

He was drinking coffee throughout the broadcast. He loves americano.

When he reached 50k hearts, he got really shy from all the love.

A fan asked if he was okay and he said yes, he’s okay and will even get checked up at the hospital so do not worry!

He has 7 self-composed songs so far! He has a lot more songs he wants to make but he doesn’t have a room for it. He wants to upload 2 songs in one month on his soundcloud.

A fan asked “you know you’re handsome, right?” and he said no, he didn’t find himself handsome but he does like how he looks and personally thinks he’s cute!

A fan asked if he was thinking about releasing an album but he said that although he wants to, he wants to work on the quality of his music a bit more and in order to release an album, he needs the support of the public/community so he’ll just upload the album on soundcloud. That way, it’s free for everyone to listen to!

A fan commented “Remember to drink a lot of water!” and he replied with “I only drink a lot of coffee.”

A fan asked “Is pressing hearts important?” and he replied with “I don’t know but please press a lot!!”

He wasn’t good at aegyo before but now he’s a lot better.

A fan asks where he learned to be so talented (?) and he said “Maybe it’s in my blood.”

He has two sisters, one older who cooks well and one younger by 6 years. He’s a bit cold like his father but his mother and older sister like to take care of him. He never fights with his sisters. Since his younger sister is still young, he hopes she studies diligently and doesn’t drink alcohol. His and his older sister’s hair looks similar. He wants to care for his younger sister too but he doesn’t really know how.

Someone asked about his taste in music but he made a pass on the question bc his answer would be too long LOL

He’s holding an event where he’s giving away items that he uses often, these includes a tracksuit he wears (for girls it may be a bit big but it’ll be warm! size 100), sunglasses, and some signed selfie polaroids.

He showed the viewers the items one by one. The sunglasses were in a case with a zipper and when he opened it the zipper fell off LMAO he kept saying it wasn’t fake, the zipper just happened to fall off bc he pulled too hard and kept laughing lololol

He had the viewers guess who his favorite artist was and promised to gift them the tracksuit! He said even tho he’s worn it, he’ll keep it very clean.

His favorite artist is Giriboy! He said when others are stressed, they may drink but he listens to Giriboy’s music instead. He really admires all of his music, it inspires him. He can sing all of his songs; his favorite by him is called “All Day Long” but not many people know it.

The second prize was the sunglasses. There’s a play he always watches every year ever since the 12th grade, he wants to participate in one bc of it. (t/n: the fans were able to guess what is was but I couldn’t really catch the name of it, sorry)

Third prize was a signed polaroid selfie! When he took the selfie and waited for it to show up on film, he kept shaking it and when he realized he wasn’t supposed to shake it, he got embarrassed.

He wrote one of his songs after watching a specific movie (t/n: I couldn’t hear the title sorry) but the song is called “Why Don’t You Call Me”.

He had a lot of fun doing the V Live bc he knows how it feels to be a fan of another person and watch their broadcasts, now he can be the one doing the broadcast and it’s fun!

He wants to take on a high school student role in his acting career bc when he’s older he won’t be able to act as a student.

He eats alone and doesn’t have a favorite food but the foods he can’t eat is tomato sauce and mustard.

His least favorite season is summer bc he dislikes mosquitoes. He likes winter bc there’s snow and Christmas. It gives him a warm and cozy feeling.

When he was younger he really liked Harry Potter, his favorite part of the series was Chamber of Secrets! (This was another quiz question for the viewers, he gave away another signed selfie polaroid)

He wants to communicate with fans more but he can’t do V Live whenever he wants and he doesn’t have a fancafe :(

#produce 101 #produce 101 season 2 #lee youjin #kim taewoo #yoon jisung #kang daniel #park sungwoo #my translation #i don't want to tag everyone he mentioned so i'll stop here lol #he's one of my favorites i'll miss him :(

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theelbowdropla-blog · 6 years ago

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Preview of WWE’s Weekend in Phoenix

WWEekend in Phoenix

J. Tappin - 1/25

This weekend WWE descends upon Phoenix, Arizona for a number of events with all of its brands being represented. Saturday & Sunday mornings at Royal Rumble Axxess will provide the ‘Worlds Collide’ tournament, Saturday night (1/26) will be NXT Takeover: Phoenix, Sunday night (1/27) will be the Royal Rumble PPV, Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live will also be shot in Phoenix on Monday & Tuesday night respectively.

Kicking off the weekend will be the first ever Worlds Collide tournament. The tournament will be shot over two mornings but will air on tape delay on the WWE Network on 2/2. It features five wrestlers each from NXT, NXT UK and 205 Live; Adam Cole, Velveteen Dream, Dominik Dijakovic, Keith Lee, Shane Thorne, Mark Andrews, Tyler Bate, Travis Banks, Jordan Devlin, Zack Gibson, Cedric Alexander, Tony Nese, Drew Gulak, TJP & Humberto Carrillo. The tournament starts with a Battle Royal containing all 15 wrestlers, the brackets of the tournament are then determined by order of elimination in the Battle Royal - the winner gets a first-round bye. The winner of the tournament can challenge for a championship on any of the three brands being represented. This creates the possibility of some ‘fantasy’ inter-brand match-ups that can become a reality from this, like Keith Lee vs Tyler Bate, Jordan Devlin vs Cedric Alexander, Drew Gulak vs Travis Banks, the possibilities are endless.

NXT Takeover: Phoenix has put out another strong five-match card featuring four championship bouts. Taking place in the Talking Stick Resort Arena; Tomasso Ciampa defends the NXT title against Aleister Black, Shayna Baszler defends the NXT Women’s title against Bianca Belair, Ricochet defends the North American title against Johnny Gargano, Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong of the Undisputed Era defend the NXT Tag Team titles against Hanson & Rowe (c.k.a. the War Raiders) and Matt Riddle will have an actual match against Kassius Ohno.

Ciampa & Black will surely be a great main event. There’s no doubt that with the right amount of time that these two can have a classic - a potential contender for match of the weekend. Interference by Johnny Gargano is all but inevitable due to his involvement with the two - a nearly two-year rivalry with Ciampa and a feud with Black including a loss to him the last Takeover in Los Angeles. I see Ciampa winning, perhaps with the help of his former partner Gargano. It’s been well-documented that Triple H, has written the Gargano-Ciampa storyline very closely and detailed. Nobody knows what’s going to go down but if I’m booking, Gargano helps Ciampa creating a faux alliance, then screws him over at the right time and takes the NXT title from him in the process, which one would presume turns him babyface in the process one way or another.

(Image from WWE.com or something)

Baszler vs Belair will be interesting as the two don’t have a lot of experience under their belt, compared to other competitors on the card and in their division. Baszler has not yet had a particularly bad match on a Takeover show but all of her opponents up to this point have been quite proficient. It will certainly be a good test for the two and they both improve at a very impressive rate. They pair are certainly talented and the clash of the character dynamics will also do a percentage of the work in the match. Baszler probably wins this one, keeping a good heel title run going, I look forward to Shayna hopefully defending it in the future against Candice LeRae, Io Shirai, Dakota Kai and more of the stacked NXT roster.

Johnny Gargano vs Ricochet is a no-doubt sleeper and could be not only a match of the weekend candidate but one for match of the year. If you look at both of their Takeover records and the matches they’ve had its seemingly impossible that their match this weekend could be bad. Gargano & Ricochet are two of the best four on the NXT brand and this match will surely show you why. I see Ricochet retaining the North American title for a number two reasons, to establish a long reign with the newly minted title and to keep telling the story of Johnny not being able to win the big ones at Takeovers.

Strong & O’Reilly have had a track record of great tag matches since Roddy has stepped in for Bobby Fish (taking nothing away from Fish). Matches against Tyler Bate & Trent Seven, Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch and their participation in the WarGames’ match in 2018 are all bodies of work to admire. The War Raiders in their own right are a great team and Saturday night will be their first chance to stand out on their own as a tag team at a Takeover. The Raiders & the Era will knock it out of the park for sure. I can see this as being a hot opener for a stacked show with the Undisputed Era barely getting the win.

After a seven-second affair in L.A. in November, Matt Riddle finally gets the chance to properly show why he is one of the biggest gets for NXT of 2018. Ohno has become a sort of unofficial player-coach for NXT, a guy who can elevate less-experienced workers or just wrestlers that are new-to-NXT without devaluing himself. While this program with Riddle will be no exception for Ohno to put new talent over, both will be able to get their stuff in and have a great one in Phoenix.

(Image from FOX Sports Asia)

It happens nine times out of ten but I’m expecting to enjoy the Takeover card more than the Rumble as it is a much shorter, all-killer show compared to the main roster’s shows that are almost always well over four hour shows that are very rarely all-killer. The Rumble matches themself are always fun and interesting but two of those running for 50 minutes plus another five matches on the main card indicates a real long show. Not to forget about the two hour pre-show which has two matches on it as of this writing. Takeover being head & shoulders above the Rumble is just an expectation and I would enjoy being proven wrong because Takeovers are never bad shows.

The Royal Rumble show takes place in the Chase Field baseball stadium. It has the two Rumbles on the main card as well as five championship matches. Two more championship match take place on the pre-show. The prelim matches see Buddy Murphy defending the Cruiserweight title against Kalisto, Hideo Itami & Akira Tozawa and Rusev defending the United States tiel against Shinsuke Nakamura.

The main card has the men’s & women’s Rumble matches, Daniel Bryan defending the WWE title against AJ Styles, Brock Lesnar defending the Universal title against Finn Bálor, Ronda Rousey defending the Raw Women’s title against Sasha Banks, Asuka defending the SmackDown Women’s title against Becky Lynch and Cesaro & Sheamus defending the SmackDown Tag Team titles against the Miz & Shane McMahon.

The four-way for the Cruiserweight title will very likely be super-well worked but the heat all depends on how much of the audience has made it into the stadium to see the match. All four guys are remarkable in the ring and should have a killer match, it’s a shame that these matches are sort of hidden on the pre-shows and the 205 Live weekly program that not nearly enough people watch. I believe there’s a way that the Cruiserweight division could get more over if it was spread across SmackDown & Raw and the champion can have the ability to appear on both brands and compete, or even just keep the division on Raw, but that’s a subject for another article. I wouldn’t expect a title change on a prelim match but stranger things have happened.

The angle with Rusev & Shinsuke has been underwhelming at best. It was good to see Rusev get the U.S. title at the tail end of last year but apart from that the writing of the story itself has been lackluster. WWE missed the peak of Rusev’s popularity by over half a year, one would argue that he should have won the U.S. title when he was in the four-way at WrestleMania, when the 70,000+ were chanting ‘Rusev Day’ as the show went on the air, instead he was pinned in that match by Jinder Mahal. The declining year that Shinsuke has had really shows when you look at where he was at last year’s Royal Rumble show in Philadelphia - winning the Rumble match itself, to a year later challenging for the U.S. title on the pre-show. The next/best thing that could be done with Nakamura at this point would be to have a substantial babyface turn and potentially challenge Daniel Bryan for the WWE title at WrestleMania for a dream match.

The Miz & Shane McMahon story is presumably going to end with a match between the two at WrestleMania. Whether any headway towards that begins at the Rumble or in the following weeks remains to be seen, however, despite the failed attempt in 2013, there’s definitely more chance of Miz getting over as a babyface this time around. Whether this be due to how he comes across on his reality T.V. show with his wife, or his ability of late to procuring sympathy from the audience when he was getting rejected by Shane, despite the goofiness of the angle it’s interesting to see if they’ll make any major changes to Miz’s character, while Shane as of late has been on the fence between heel & babyface. One good thing about the match is that it’s something different to seeing Cesaro & Sheamus defend the titles against the Usos or the New Day.

After getting booked like shit for most of 2018, Asuka finally feels like a killer again. Unless the plan is for Women’s titles to be unified, she probably will win this match. There’s little to no chance that Banks is beating Rousey for the Raw Women’s title. Banks & Bayley seem to be the favorites to be the first Women’s Tag Team champions. For the direction for what will start at the Rumble into the WrestleMania show there are two possible options:

Asuka beats Becky (perhaps via shenanigans), Becky enters the Rumble and wins, Becky faces Ronda & Charlotte (later added to match) for the Raw Women’s title at WrestleMania. Asuka takes on another challenger at Mania

Becky beats Asuka, still enters the Rumble as SD Women’s Champion and wins the Rumble, Becky faces Ronda & Charlotte (later added) in a triple threat to unify the Women’s titles at WrestleMania.

It’s no doubt that with Ronda’s imminent departure from WWE after Mania that Charlotte should be in the match as well, so the Becky & Charlotte who will stay on for the long haul can both get mileage out of being the first women to main event WrestleMania. Charlotte Flair getting into the match can be easily done with a match at the Elimination Chamber or Fastlane show where she beats Becky in a bout stipulated so that she gets into the Becky vs Ronda match if she beats Becky one-on-one/non-title. The unification of the Women’s titles and the introduction of a single set of Women’s Tag Team titles could be done in preparation for a possible all-Women’s weekly T.V. show (which I would call Thursday Nitro, a piece about this coming soon).

(Image from those marks at whatculture)

Daniel Bryan has been doing the best heel work of his WWE career since his turn and title win on the 11/13 edition of SmackDown last year. He has played a character that really is a version of himself, spreading awareness of how the WWE Universe is killing the environment and consuming meat that’s flooded with chemicals. Basically he is playing up the vegan/activist of him for his character, and being a dick about it. Because Bryan playing an amplified version of himself, it makes the character look believable and the character looking believable makes it easier for fans to invest in the angle and take him seriously. Because everybody has known forever that Daniel Bryan is a vegan and cares very much about our planet. What Daniel Bryan says in his promos for the most part are facts and things he believes in. It is things like this that makes it hard to boo Daniel Bryan in this incarnation, he is pretty much WWE’s version of Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth, except he is a whole lot more obnoxious about it. AJ Styles is put in a tough position facing this sensational and engaging character, but lucky for him his talent alone is something to be in awe of and he can play a babyface just fine. If Bryan’s title program was with a less engaging talent the reaction scales would probably tip completely in Bryan’s favor.

(Image from ABC 15 Arizona)

Finn Bálor is not beating Brock Lesnar on Sunday, but he hopefully will push Lesnar to the edge and lose valiantly. Bálor will get thrown around by the much bigger Lesnar for the first two-thirds of the match but Finn will make a comeback that will get the people on their feet until he’s put away with an F-5 or two. Despite it’s ease, this formula for the match has proven its worth in Lesnar’s clashes with opponents like AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan. The logical course for Lesnar & the Universal title after beating Bálor is to defend and drop the title to Seth Rollins, who should win the Royal Rumble match.

Somewhat-continuing on from the section about the Women’s Championships, the winner of this match will either be Becky Lynch or Charlotte Flair. Lynch is more likely as she will need to be pushed to be taking the place of Ronda Rousey who is reportedly leaving WWE after WrestleMania and winning the Rumble can be a big part of this push. Whether she enters as a champion or not it will still be a good surprise as she has not been announced as a participant in the match. 23 of the competitors have been announced, which is basically the whole of the Raw & SmackDown’s women’s divisions. This leaves it certain that we will see surprise entrances from either NXT or Legends or both.

The men’s Rumble is perhaps the most interesting match on the show, the general consensus is that Rollins is going to take it but Vince McMahon can always change his mind at the last second. Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre or Braun Strowman seem like the only likely winners at this point. Only 20 official entrants have been announced so hopefully we see some surprise entrants from NXT and a legend or two getting in the match like we’ve seen in the past. The best possible result of the Rumble would be Seth Rollins winning from an early entry in the match. Rollins is even a good fit for the type that wins the Rumble from the #1 or #2 spot, as he has been displayed as a workhorse in the last year. Elements of the in-ring work of Shawn Michaels, Rey Mysterio & Chris Benoit can be seen in things Seth Rollins does today, all the more reason to book his Rumble win this way.

(Image from sportskeeda.com)

The ‘Road to WrestleMania’ begins at the Rumble on Sunday. A lot of angles going towards Metlife Stadium on 4/7 will start to take shape at the PPV and Raw & SmackDown on the nights following. There will be a handful of great matches this weekend. Johnny Gargano vs Ricochet, Brock Lesnar vs Finn Bálor, Asuka vs Becky Lynch and Tomasso Ciampa vs Aleister Black are all can’t-miss, as well as a couple of others.

Raw & SmackDown will also be pivotal as the fallout from the Rumble will spill into those shows. These will be shot in the Talking Stick Resort Arena.

Expect a review of Takeover & the Royal Rumble show to come in the middle of next week.

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toraonice · 8 years ago

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Yuri on Ice BD booklet translation (with Eiji Abiko & Junpei Tatenaka interview) - Volume 3

Had a busy weekend, but finally here is the full translation of the BD/DVD vol.3 booklet. The format is the same as usual. I wonder if Yuuri was ever able to enjoy a banquet (and remember it), lol.

EDIT: I changed the translation of the street food eaten by Guang-Hong in episode 6 after being notified that it’s actually the Chinese “jianbing”, which is a kind of crepe, and not “rice cracker” which is what “senbei” means in Japanese. Thank you very much @dragonaeve for the input!! In Japanese it’s written 煎餅, with the same exact kanji of "senbei” (rice cracker), and though in the anime it totally didn’t look like a senbei to me I failed to notice that it was a false friend... (And to think I even researched all the other Chinese food listed in the topics section to be sure..)

The booklet has 3 parts: 1) Character introduction for Minami-kun, Georgi and Leo. 2) “Topics”, in other words random curiosities. It includes an explanation of how Japanese qualification matches work. 3) Interview with the figure skating animators Eiji Abiko and Junpei Tatenaka. Some of the things they say might be a little difficult to understand if you don’t know a lot about how animation works, but if you google “inbetween animations” you will find more detailed information. The parts in round brackets are exactly like they are in the original text, it’s not something I added.

Translations of the audio commentary and choreography parts coming in the next few days… (As usual I still haven’t even been able to put the BD in the player despite having it since the 23rd, sigh)

***If you wish to share this translation please do it by reblogging or posting a link to it***  ***Re-translating into other languages is ok but please mention that this post is the source***

The future protagonist of Japan’s figure skating world!

Kenjirou Minami voiced by Ayumu Murase

Profile Date of birth: August 18th, 17 years old Height: 155 cm Blood type: O From Hakata, Fukuoka prefecture

Introduction Last season, all eyes were on him when in the Japan National Championships, in which he participated from the junior section, he became the center of attention and obtained the bronze medal at the young age of 16. This season, which marks his senior debut, he first succeeded in a quadruple jump at the Chu-Shikoku-Kyushu Regional Tournament. Despite his small build, he brightens the hearts of the audience with his energetic skating and exhuberant dancing. The success rate of his quadruple jump and triple axel is still low, but he is the most promising young athlete that might become the future Japanese ace. He admires Yuuri Katsuki, who is from Kyushu like him, and for this reason he chose “Lohengrin” as his short program in the current season. His parents are doctors and his older brother is also a medical student. The late-blooming veteran becomes a witch.

Georgi Popovich voiced by Wataru Hatano

Profile Date of birth: December 26th, 27 years old Height: 178 cm Blood type: private Russian

He is a veteran who can perform high jumps worthy of one of Yakov’s students, but always tended to be overshadowed by fellow student Nikiforov. In this season where Nikiforov is absent he chose 2 programs based on the theme of “heartbreak” to fight to become Russia’s top athlete. With his peculiar artistic sense, in the short program he plays an evil witch that puts a curse on the princess, and in the free the prince that will save her. As also stated by Yakov, he practices hard and strictly follows his coach’s advices. He always entertains fans with his feminine costumes and in Japan is popularly called “pigeon”. Because music was always with me.

Leo de la Iglesia voiced by Shunichi Toki

Profile Date of birth: August 2nd, 19 years old Height: 167 cm Blood type: O American

Introduction A skater that knows how to show his charm and always performs programs brimming with originality, choreographed by himself. He doesn’t jump quadruples, but his Program Components are highly praised because of his performances that give importance to the music. This season he tried his hand at hip-hop in the short program and won the American tournament of the Grand Prix series, held in his country. He is riding on the wave. In his everyday life he is a cheerful American of Mexican origin and is very sociable. He has many friends among fellow figure skaters and his fans are always looking forward to the private shots he uploads on the SNS. He respects Nikiforov, who also choreographs his own programs. YURI!!!’s TOPIC

TOPIC 1: Greed to SNS** (Thirst for the SNS) There are many skaters who share information with fans all over the world via the internet. Now that SNS are popular, skaters will upload a variety of contents, from their practice footage to their daily meals and private pictures of their holidays, some even being as open as to post romantic shots with their lovers. Fans can’t take their eyes off the social networks. In this regard, one of the hottest accounts is Thailand’s Phichit Chulanont’s. From pictures of his fainted teacher to candid shots of other skaters, he uploads any “juicy moment” he witnesses, in a way being the terror of the ones close to him. However, fans absolutely don’t want him to change his habits. [**translator’s note: “Greed to SNS” is what is actually written in English in the booklet, the part in round brackets is a more exact translation of what the Japanese says. All titles of the topics are in both Japanese & English and I’m usually leaving the original English as it is unless it’s weird.]

*Yuuri’s “Hanarezu ni Soba ni Ite” was also spread to the world *The results of matches and other news are always at hand *Maybe Anya’s gaze was already turned to someone else here…? (Phichit’s collection) *Regular updates about his state *He will never miss the chance to get a good shot *Sometimes it’s important to have the courage to upload!

TOPIC 2: Personal Best Score In figure skating, which is a technical sport, an athlete’s highest score up to the present is called “personal best” and the highest score of the season “season best”. Not only his ranking, but whether he managed to surpass his personal best is very important for a skater’s motivation. The season best is also important, because some big tournaments like the World Championships have a required minimum score to participate. ISU (International Skating Union) openly displays all skaters’ personal bests, but only the results obtained in competitions officially recognized by ISU are a target, therefore even if a skater achieves good results in the Japan National Championships or the Chu-Shikoku-Kyushu Regional Tournament, unfortunately they will not be recognized.

*The score display for regional tournaments is simple *The electric scoreboard of the GP’s China tournament (showing the PB mark too) *The TV live broadcast shows the PB mark too

TOPIC 3: National Competitions For Japanese skaters to be able to represent the nation in the World Championships or the Olympics, they need to first win the regional block tournaments and then rank high in the Japan National Championships in December. There are 6 block tournaments, including the “Chu-Shikoku-Kyushu Regional Tournament” in which Yuuri participated, and if you rank high in these you qualify for the Eastern Japan or Western Japan Championships. And if you rank high in those you can proceed to the National Championships (the ones who ranked among the highest the previous year and the ones who have to attend overseas tournaments close to the date of the national competition will be exempted from the qualifiers). By the way, regarding the Grand Prix Series, participants are chosen based on the results obtained in international tournaments the previous year and other elements.

*4 senior athletes are participating in the Chu-Shikoku-Kyushu Regional Tournament *The skating order is chosen by drawing lots the day before *Official practice takes place 2 times, in the morning of the day of the SP and FS *It’s not rare for tournaments to be held in rinks without viewer stands *The skating order and raking are printed on paper *The award ceremony is often done outside of the rink and not on the ice

TOPIC 4: Chinese Gourmet This year’s China tournament of the Grand Prix was held in Beijing. While other athletes are preparing for the match, Victor and Yuuri went to enjoy the traditional Chinese “hotpot”. Various kinds of food, like mutton, are dipped in a pot that has two compartments, one with mild hot water soup and the other with spicy Mala soup. “Duck blood” is also a classic dish that goes with hotpot. The Chinese representant Guang-Hong Ji, who isn’t a fan of hotpot, likes the jianbing (crepes) sold at food stalls. Before the matches Yuuri was paying attention to what he ate not to compromise his physical condition, but at the banquet he had to look after a drunken Victor and it doesn’t seem that he could really have a taste of the Chinese delicacies.

*Winter is the season of Chinese mitten crab. The same as the skating season! *”Drunken shrimp” consists of live shrimps soaked in alcohol *”Duck blood” has a high nutritional value *People dip their favorite ingredients in the hotpot *Rice crackers are affordable snacks that can be purchased from food stalls Figure skating animation Eiji Abiko & Junpei Tatenaka interview

Tatenaka-san’s Victor is so elegant. (Abiko) Abiko-san’s spins are amazing! (Tatenaka)

Abiko: I also took part in the production of director Yamamoto’s previous work “ENDLESS NIGHT”, but I’ve always liked drawing looking at real life pictures, therefore when I was offered this job I thought that I had the necessary technical skills to do it. In the previous work there were some points I believed could have been done a different way, and I felt that in this new project we could try it out. Tatenaka: Before starting the job, I was suggested to try figure skating myself since the work was going to be about it, so I went to a skating class. Though it was just 4 days. The last time I skated was in elementary school, but (when I actually tried this time) I realized that I was going to draw something I knew nothing about. I could understand on which part of the blade you shift your weight when skating forward or backward, and that was really helpful later on. (When I watched the real life footage) after knowing that, I noticed that skaters really land on those points after a jump. They can land on the exact point even after spinning around at that speed! When I see videos where you can see them stress the landing to adjust the position so that they don’t miss the point I have goosebumps.

-Ideas to make performances look beautiful.-

T: What I realized when we started working is that scenes were very long, in the beginning. A: The director wanted to recreate a figure skating program and was determined to show the full sequence without shortening it. This means that all movements need to be connected, which takes a lot of work. T: Especially in the first part of the show, there were many sequences over 10 seconds long. You draw and draw and it never ends (LOL). A: To make skating performances look beautiful, I guess it was important to add a fair amount of inbetween animations (pictures added between key animations to supplement them). We gradually understood that using many key animations during slow movements wouldn’t make them look better unless they are very accurate. T: I had the idea to show the poses on screen for a longer time. (I was among the ones who went to Miyamoto-sensei’s choreography sessions, and) even poses that were really impressive when I saw them live only lasted an instant in the recorded footage, and it shifted to the next pose right away. If we recreated that in the anime, poses that were supposed to look impressive wouldn’t last, therefore I decided to use 2 extra key animations for some parts, so that the beautiful silhouette would stay in the viewers’ eyes. I like to draw “impressions”, and I always work thinking about what I want to show and communicate to the viewers. With figure skating I felt this all the more important. A: There are many things I found amazing about the scenes created by Tatenaka-san. Like Victor’s elegance in episode 1, isn’t that wonderful? When I watched it I was like “jeez, I need to get better too”, and he also has lots of ideas. Like JJ’s spin. I was determined to absolutely learn something from all that. T: Thank you. I like how Abiko-san draws all the characters properly. Yuuri always has an expression that fits his personality and the situation. And the spins are amazing! I couldn’t draw them satisfactorily and had to redraw them many times… I admit I was envious of Abiko-san’s soft touch that makes movements connect so smoothly. A: My favorite character is Otabek. I like how he is tough and cool. T: I like Giacometti. And JJ and Minami-kun. I think they are the ones I could figure out the best when drawing them. A: When the anime actually aired we had a huge response. Fans would write to me on Twitter, and every time I uploaded a picture I would get a lot of reactions. T: It was the first time that I had such a response, I was really surprised. I’m a fan of the baseball team Carp, and when I went to drink with my friends everyone knew “Yuri on Ice”. One person told me “a girl in my company watches it, she was praising it a lot”. It never happened to me so far!

-The biggest miracle is that all this staff could come together.-

A: Tatenaka-san also took part in the production of “ENDLESS NIGHT”, but this is the first time that we worked in the same space. I was really glad that he was there working in the same position as me. I can grumble about work (LOL), and he can understand me. T: It’s really like that. Watching Abiko-san I realized that Yuuri must be difficult to animate because he changes a lot, and when I was working on long sequences he would leave me alone. And he would talk to me when I finished. Things like that. A: I didn’t really do all that on purpose (LOL). But you really feel relieved (when there is someone else in your same position). There were also many other people around 40 years old, like the chief animation director Shishido-san, so we had things in common to talk about. T: It’s really a miracle that all this staff could come together. I think it was a difficult job for everyone, from the colors to the backgrounds to all the rest, not just us. But they were all people who would do whatever they could. Everyone would always find something to do. A: It would have been a problem if even one of them were missing. In difficult workplaces it happens that some people will get sick or leave, but this time it didn’t happen. T: The production staff, who probably had the hardest time, was outstanding and did their best. They were all young, but when they brought you things to fix saying “I want to make this better” you couldn’t refuse. A: Everyone got along well and even when they complained it was always jokingly. It was a really nice group.

#YOI #Yuri on ice #interview #translation #comment #Booklet #BD #Junpei Tatenaka #Eiji Abiko #minami kenjiro #georgi popovich #leo de la iglesia

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theuniversitychallengereview · 8 years ago

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Episode 32 - Balliol, Ox vs Birmingham

Having been beaten by Wolfson and Edinburgh respectively in the opening match of their campaigns to reach the semi finals, Balliol and Birmingham face off with everything on the line in this elimination match. Paxman says the losers this week will ride ‘off into the sunset’, rather than the ‘minibus of despair’, which Bristol took a few weeks ago. His hard line attitude to what he has sees as an apocalyptic quarter final stage is clearly softening as it begins to draw to a close.

Balliol captain Goldman, evidently smarting from his defeat at the hands of media darling Monkman in their previous appearance, decides to introduce himself with a notably increased volume to previous rounds, perhaps in imitation of his conqueror. If you can’t beat them, make damn well sure you shout like them, as the saying goes. And he’s brought with him a t shirt emblazoned with a tiger, so you know he means business, and that he would be well prepared should he need torso camouflage in a jungle.

In between recordings, Goldman’s teammate Potts and Birmingham captain went out together to buy new outfits for this match. This was fortunate for the both of them, since the one shirt that they both liked was buy one get one free. This meant that there were two copies of the same shirt on this episode, but no women...

Edinburgh and Emmanuel both have one female member, but should Wolfson, and the winner’s of tonight’s match both progress, then we would arrive at the semi finals with only two out of the sixteen contestants being women. Because I’m writing this two days late, it is International Women’s Day, the theme of which is ‘Be Bold for Change’. This isn’t the first match of the series to be contested by eight dudes, and it may not be the last. Mathematically, logically, intelligently, fairly (the adverbs could go on...), this doesn’t make sense, so going forward, let us all Be Bold For Change, in University Challenge as in life.

A problem I always have when writing these is transitioning from the introductory remarks to the actual description of the show, especially this week given that it’ll also require a tonal shift, from the serious to the ridiculous. What I’m doing here is hoping that by openly acknowledging this, I can subvert the fact that I can’t find a suitable segue. Regardless of whether or not you can break the fourth wall like that if there aren’t any walls to begin with, I’m going to crack on to the episode now, with nary a clever linking sentence in sight.

Anyway...

Goldman opens his account for the evening with the first starter, and looks deathly serious for a moment, before realising that most people would smile in that situation and attempts to contort his facial muscles into the necessary positions.

Their bonuses involve Game of Thrones, and I wonder, as I always do, why the questions on contemporary pop culture are generally far easier, relatively, than those on their classical equivalent.

For example: ‘Who was the second cousin of a minor character in this unpublished and never before seen Jane Austen poem, who appears on only one page and in one sentence?’ as opposed to ‘What is the place where every single major event in the entire Game of Thrones Universe happens called?’

I know they have to go obscure for the well known names in literature, otherwise all the Uni Challenge types would snaffle them quicker than you can say Shakespeare (or in the exact same length of time, if the answer happened to be Shakespeare), but would it really hurt them to throw in a more difficult Song of Ice and Fire question in order to validate the countless hours I spent reading George RR Martin’s descriptions of feasts.

Birmingham’s Rouse takes the next Ten, and the Brummies gamely battle away for a while, keeping within one question set up until beyond the first picture round thanks to Balliol’s resident Australian, Pope, dramatically failing to answer a single question on Australian deserts, to Paxman’s open disgust.

But this doesn’t really matter in the scheme of things, as just like in their first match against Imperial, Balliol start slowly before bulldozing their opponents, like a snowball made of human brains, running down a hill also made of human brains (because that’s the only way the snowball analogy works)

Goldman in particular, plays a blinder, coming in with ten starters, a series high, some of which are ridiculously quick as his confidence sky-rockets in a second half romp from the Oxfordians. Greenlees takes a medicine question late on, to bump his side over the fifty point mark in consolation, but like Arsenal on Tuesday night, they have been knocked out over two legs (albeit against two different teams, and in a further round of their respective tournament), in nearly (though not really anywhere near) as humiliating a fashion (and yes, I realise that when you reach more words in brackets than there are in the actual comparison you’re making, the sheer degree of explanation necessary probably means it isn’t a very watertight comparison)

Final Score: Balliol, Ox 265 - 65 Birmingham

An excellent display from Balliol, to secure another shot at making the Semis. Commiserations to Birmingham, who can be proud of what they achieved nonetheless. Based on previous years I’d imagine the final two elimination matches would be Wolfson//Warwick and Corpus Christi//Balliol, but don’t go quoting me on that.

#university challenge #balliol #oxford #university of birmingh #bbc #jeremy paxman

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pod7 · 7 years ago

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Mae Young Classic Round One

This is going to be the longest of these posts. Just short thoughts on each match and each competitor, going in order of left column then right column of the full bracket! The matches for the first three rounds were taped back in July, but I did not read any spoilers for them so if I am 100% wrong on my predictions please don’t tell me! I want to experience it all as it airs. I will be doing this for the rest of the matches and the live special on September 14th as well. Should be interesting to see how right I get the predictions!

Of course, spoilers are below.

ROUND ONE

Jazzy Gabert vs Abbey Laith I knew of both of these women as Alpha Female and Kimber Lee on the independent circuit, so this match was kind of bittersweet, since I wanted both of them to do really well in the tournament. I was pulling a BIT more for Jazzy because I think she would stand out more than Abbey will, but if rumors turn true I don’t think there’s much to worry about (Abbey is already signed to WWE, so I imagine Jazzy will be signed soon as well, since she got a pretty strong reaction.) Abbey’s theme is really bad btw and doesn’t fit her at all, it sounds like 100% bad guy theme. Their match together was one of the best of the first round, with a really hot opening series of moves to wake the crowd up. I see Abbey getting past Rachel Evers before ultimately losing to Mercedes Martinez.

Rachel Evers vs Marti Belle This was the worst match of the first round. Both ladies were off. Marti is still pretty green all around, so having her up against someone who is good but just not experienced enough to carry a match like Evers, it was a recipe for disaster from the get-go, not counting the rumors that they changed the result just before the match started. Rachel Evers/Ellering has shown up in NXT a couple times, but I think it was right of WWE to let her go out and get some more indie experience. Rachel squeaks into round 2, but will not be getting past Abbey Laith I don’t think.

Princesa Sugehit vs Kay Lee Ray This outcome I think was more about telling an intriguing story through the tournament rather than putting effort into Sugehit. She is also the only representative from Mexico, so I think that adds to it. She has 22 years on her bump card, so I don’t think they will be keeping her around for a full time spot. Kay Lee Ray on the other hand has a pretty high upside. When Triple H talked about whether or not this tournament will lead to a women’s only show on the already packed weekly schedule, he said that if it were up to him, then yes, but it’s not so he’s not sure, BUT that he would be adamant about featuring many of the women in the tournament going forward, even in the stalled UK wrestling project, which leads me to believe that even if Ray isn’t brought it as a full time superstar, she will probably on the UK shortlist in the future, so don’t feel to bad for her losing here. Sugehit put in a great match in round one, but I am sticking to my guns on her next opponent Mercedes Martinez advancing to round three.

Xia Li vs Mercedes Martinez The outcome of this was pretty clear, but some matches in tournaments are expected to be that way. Li has the look and the charisma, so only time and effort is all that is needed to get her the skill it takes to make it in WWE. In a year or two she will be in NXT, and it will be interesting to see if she settles better into the role of a good guy or bad guy. Mercedes looked great, and what little offense Li got in she sold like a pro, as expected. You could see the aura of “I WANT THIS” around Mercedes, and she is probably number two on my picks-to-win list. Could be a spoiler for the tournament favorite, which if that were the case then they would meet in the final (more on that later.) I would have Mercedes penciled in for the “western” finalist, but she will have to fight either Mia Yim or Shayna Baszler for that spot, and if it’s Shayna I honestly can’t predict who they would have win that match.

Nicole Savoy vs Reina Gonzalez Whichever went over this match with these two ladies needs a stern talking to. Savoy’s whole video was about her being the “Queen of Suplexes” but she didn’t do a single suplex in this whole match, despite winning. They were trying to play up Gonzalez as this big powerhouse type character, even though she only had maybe two inches of height on Savoy. Gonzalez was pretty stiff in the ring, and I don’t mean she was leaning in on her strikes, she was just very slow and robotic. This wasn’t horrible by any means, not even close to as bad as Belle/Evers, but since there hasn’t been anything else that bad in round one, this match has the unfortunate distinction of being the second worst match of the round. Savoy has a tall order in Candice LeRae in the second round; she will probably get her suplexes in this time around, but I see Candice moving on to the quarter-finals.

Renee Michelle vs Candice LeRae This was another “winner not in doubt” match. I felt bad for Michelle; you could see she was pretty nervous. She has a unique look to her, so I think if she can get another year or so under her belt in the indies she can come back with a lot more confidence. Candice of course is a damn near indie legend at this point. It’s a shame they even had to bother talking about how she is married to current NXT superstar Jonny Gargano, because she has a hell of a career on her own, having some incredible matches and feuds in Pro Wrestling Guerilla. She looked good here, and she’s got one of the best line-up of opponents going forward, with potential matchups being Mia Yim or Shayna Baszler, and if she gets past them, then she’ll probably have Mercedes Martinez (or a long shot surprise winner in Abbey Laith), and if she can squeak by her, she gets Kairi goddamn Hojo in the finals.

Sarah Logan vs Mia Yim This was another match where I wanted to root for both competitors. It’s a shame that there were so many matches like that in this tournament compared to the Cruiserweight Classic. Sarah Logan is a hardcore wrestle-nerd that left to train in Japan four days after she graduated high school. If you have followed indie wrestling in the past you might know her as Crazy Mary Dobson, and has made sporadic appearances in NXT for the last year. Mia Yim is an indie standout as well, even becoming a TNA Knockouts Champion while she was in Impact Wrestling. While I never would have expected her to win this tournament, I don’t think it’d be out of this world to see her on the main roster by this time next year. She knows how to work a match for TV, and has a unique personality and story that the commentators can push. She would work really well in a team or as an underling of Asuka, I think. They had a pretty good match, a bit short though. I could see her making it to the semi-finals IF, and only if, they want an upset in round 2, which would mean taking Shayna Baszler out of the tournament (seriously whoever chose the brackets for this were high on something). Honestly, I’d give her about a 15% chance of getting past Shayna, but I don’t think she will be getting any farther than round three.

ZEDA vs Shayna Baszler I don’t think anyone had any doubts as to who would win this. WWE is trying to court Ronda Rousey (though not as hard after she lost her UFC title and her unfortunate last showing), so what better way than to give her a friend to be around and train with? The Queen of Spades is no slouch though; like Matt Riddle and Kurt Angle before her, she has picked up the game very quickly, which is something she and her opponent, Zeda, have in common. Shayna has more experience, but Zeda was still much more impressive than I expected, and has great potential if she sticks with it. There seemed to be a common thread between several of the women who lost in round one; they had pretty long and elaborate intros, Zeda taking almost three minutes to end her schtick. Match went as expected, with Shayna being pretty dominant. If it wasn’t for Mercedes, I would call Shayna the favorite of the western bracket. Still, I think Shayna gets to the live finale, about 70% sure.

Ayesha Raymond vs Toni Storm This seemed like it would be a sure thing until I saw the video for Raymond... I was immediately impressed with her look and confidence, and my point about the UK project lingered in my mind as well. Unfortunately, she just didn’t really have much going for her in the match. Toni Storm’s charisma completely overshadowed Raymond’s attempts at offense, so I kind of feel sorry for her. A couple years down the road though I bet she would be great in WWE. Toni Storm is the total Aussie package. She’s gorgeous, she’s got charisma, and she is probably top 3 in this tournament as far as skill goes (in my opinion.) WWE would be insane not to bring her in for a year of NXT and then get her going on the main roster. How far Storm goes depends on what kind of story WWE wants to tell with Serena Deeb; they have been saying that she came out of “retirement” for this tournament, but more or less she is basically doing the Brian Kendrick “one last shot” story from the cruiserweight tournament. Kendrick fell short to Kota Ibushi, but he was brought in anyway and won the cruiserweight championship less than six months after the show. I don’t see Serena Deeb going to the finals, so I think she probably loses to Toni Storm, who then goes on to lose to Kairi Sane in the eastern semifinals.

Taynara Conti vs Lacey Evans This was one of the better matches of round one, which is surprising considering they probably had the lowest combined experience out of all of the other matches. Evans is a former marine sniper and is USA all the way type character, but she makes it work. She’s got a great look (the vintage war pinup outfit is a plus) and the fortitude to become something really special in WWE. They have called her the “NXT representative” even though there are several women in the tournament who have been in NXT before, so I think they have great things planned for her in the future. Conti is the first Brazilian woman to wrestle in WWE, and you could tell she was very proud of that and took this very seriously as an opportunity. She has a black belt in Judo and blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, so she knows how to make strikes and throws look legit because she can do them legit, which helped her a lot in this match and hopefully in the eyes of TPTB in WWE. If Evans wasn’t going up against Toni Storm in round two, I think she would make it to round three. However I imagine they want a Toni/Kairi eastern final, since Toni is very familiar with Kairi and Japanese wrestling in general.

Santana Garrett vs Piper Niven Probably top five of the first round matches, but it was a little bit disappointing. Garrett has a lot of hype behind her, they call her the “Wonder Woman of WWE”, but she didn’t really seem to be into this match at all. It honestly felt like Piper had to play down to her level, or there was some kind of communication error. It felt “off”, anyway. Piper is great (I’m going to call her Piper because I know her as Viper from her shows in Japan), and I will be rooting for her against Serena Deeb, as much as WWE likes to push redemption stories. Piper has many things going for her; she has natural charisma, which dials up to 11 in the ring. She can do moves that men comparatively at her size would struggle to do (except for maybe Umaga or Bam Bam Bigelow RIP), and didn’t look gassed at all by the end of this match, unlike Garrett who seemed to lose steam halfway through. Although the rumors say that TPTB in WWE weren’t happy that she was included because of her size, I think it’s actually an advantage now that she’s been seen, because she stands out, she looks like no one else in WWE. Even Nia Jax, who isn’t fat at all but would be called “big”, doesn’t stand out much when she isn’t around other women, but when you see Piper, you know it’s her, much like Amazing Kong/Kharma. I would be THRILLED if we got a Piper Niven/Toni Storm matchup, it all depends on what WWE wants to do with Deeb.

Vanessa Borne vs Serena Deeb Serena Deeb is a completely different person from her last stint in WWE, for the better. Her story is the typical redemption story, to “prove she can get to the top one more time”, even though she wasn’t around long enough the first time to win any major victories of her own, let alone a title of any sorts. At the time, she was in an under-rated group called the Straight Edge Society, with CM Punk leading it as a quasi-Manson type leader. Off camera though, Deeb was doing what everyone else in the locker room did (besides Punk), going to the bar. There was a specific night where she got WAY too loaded, and WWE released her. Whether she had a drinking problem or they just thought she should “live the gimmick” more has never really come to light; even in her intro video she just says “I was using alcohol irresponsibly” without actually saying she was an alcoholic. Suffice to say, it hit her pretty hard, but she kept working on the indies, eventually getting her breast implants removed and growing her hair back out. I have said a lot about Deeb so far, and that’s because... there’s not much to say about Borne other than she feels too much like Layla El. She didn’t really do much to stand out, and it was pretty obvious Deeb would win, so I’ve pretty much forgotten their entire match by this point. How far in the tournament Deeb continues is anybody’s guess (if you didn’t read the spoilers.) She could be the dark horse of this tournament. Not a tournament winner but there is an argument for Serena Deeb; Semi-Finalist.

Rhea Ripley vs Miranda Salinas This was the surprise match of the first round for me. I wasn’t familiar with either woman, which makes sense after finding out Salinas was a replacement for Nixon Newell, a Welsh rookie with major upside despite having such a young career. Her injury was Ripley’s gain however, as I would imagine Newell would have won. Salinas is billed as being five feet tall, which is pretty rare even amongst the women of WWE (although saying that, Alexa Bliss, the RAW Women’s Champion, is the same height), but she certainly has the seven footer attitude. Her persona felt pretty forced, but her career is just getting started, she’ll have plenty of time to work on it. Rhea Ripley, on the other hand, has just one year of experience more than Salinas, yet looked like a pro. She has the three things you need to make it in WWE; the look, charisma, and skill. It would not shock me at all to see her in the main roster by this time next year, even if it’s part of a tag team or something. Another Aussie, she is certainly someone to keep an eye on moving forward. It’s a tough call to say whether she makes it past Dakota Kai before losing to Kairi Sane.

Dakota Kai vs Kavita Devi I had a (big) dog in this fight in Dakota Kai. My good friends in newLegacyinc have become friends with her through Twitter and have streamed with her on Twitch a couple times, so we were all rooting for her big time when she got the call to be in the MYC. I feel like she might be pushing herself too hard in the persona department, and it came across too much like Bayley at some points, so I hope she tries to be more like herself. This was Kavita Devi’s first viewable match, and if you watched it without the commentators or her intro video, you would probably say “wow, was she trained by The Great Khali or something?” She actually was, and she moved exactly like him for every move except obviously for the rope walk arm-wringer. It kind of felt like they came up with a match, and the agents backstage told them it was too short, so they just ended up doing everything, but twice. “Hard KD” barely took any offense from Dakota Kai, but ended up losing to Kai’s devastating corner kick and a top rope double stomp, which I suppose could be seen as putting that combo over pretty big. Before Rhea Ripley’s match I was ecstatic that I would be getting to see Evie (Kai) vs Hojo (Kairi Sane) in a WWE ring (they’ve wrestled each other before in Stardom), but now I’m having second thoughts. Ripley probably has WWE brass foaming at the month, whereas Kai is a bit on the tiny side, and might be too much like Bayley (it was a huge mistake in my book to call herself “the girl next door”). I hope it will be a good match, and I think Kairi vs the winner will be a great match either way.

Sage Beckett vs Bianca Belair This was on the lower end of the matches for round one. I didn’t really buy what either of them were selling. Beckett is basically Nia Jax with charisma (but also unfortunately Jax’s ring presence), while Blair just kind of feels like a heel version of pre-glow Naomi. At least Belair has the unique feature of using her long hair braid as a whip, but at the end of the day, that’s not really something that painful unless you are choking someone with it (which she probably could), but I doubt she will be doing that in WWE any time soon, though in this special tournament it would probably be allowed (they showed in Kay Lee Ray’s intro video her doing a Canadian Destroyer... it was nuts.) Anyway, Belair won’t be making it past Kairi Sane, so this match ended up being just kind of a real shame, because...

Kairi Sane vs Tessa Blanchard THIS MATCH SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN A FIRST ROUND MATCH, WWE! What were they thinking?? There were worse options (Kairi vs Shayna or Mercedes, for example) but wow. Tessa is over in NXT, so it bewilders me that they didn’t at least save this for round two (maybe Kairi/Beckett and Tessa/Belair in round one instead?) Anyway, this was the best match of round one, and I’m not just saying that because I am a big Kairi fan. The energy of the audience, the chemistry between them (they have wrestled each other multiple times and are friends IRL), and their skill sets matched very well. It just felt like such a waste to have this so early. I suppose it could be seen as an honor for Tessa, since they trusted her to make Kairi look like a million bucks in her debut WWE match. Kairi is once-in-a-generation type; the kind of wrestler that would have had at the worst a decent match with everyone in this tournament. It also tends to be agreed upon these days that she has the best flying elbow drop in wrestling history, I mean, just look at the stank she puts on it:

RIDICULOUS, right? It just looks more effective because of the way she kicks her legs out. Kairi is the odds on favorite to win, which is a bit scary because Kota Ibushi was said to be the odds on favorite and he didn’t even get to the finals of the Cruiserweight Classic (sadly.) If she loses to anyone, it will be Mercedes Martinez or Shayna Baszler. I think it will come down to whether the rumors are correct that the finals will be for the vacant NXT Women’s Championship. If it is, then I think Kairi loses in an upset. If it’s not, Kairi wins it for sure. She’s going to be a huge babyface for WWE going forward, so having her chase the belt from intimidating opponents like Mercedes or Shayna makes more wrestling sense.

Thanks for reading all the way through if you did! See you next Tuesday with thoughts on round two!

#Mae Young Classic #WWE #WWE Mae Young Classic #Kairi Sane #Serena Deeb #Shayna Baszler

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monstersmonthly · 6 years ago

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A New Titan Cup Champion Highlights Hot Wheels Weekend

This year it seems many of the major tours have gone from having a “first quarter” schedule to almost actually having a “first third” of the year being part of one tour. That means more shows, and more opportunities for both victory and also breakage.

Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live is entering into their fourth month of action, and began the month of April at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston Salem, North Carolina, on a unique two-show weekend where both shows were early afternoon matinees for the North Carolina faithful. All the usual cast of drivers and trucks, along with the tour’s trusted hosts, were ready to welcome in the crowd for the first performance of the weekend, and each driver had their trucks prepared for the best of action.

Right off the get-go was the wheelie competition, which over the last few shows has been won by a multitude of drivers, but this afternoon was taken by the guy carrying the torch for the title sponsor.

Christian Norman stood the Hot Wheels Racing 1 Raptor on the wheelie bar with both hits, and the entire crowd was eating it up. They felt that ride was the best one of the show to that point, and the victory gave Norman the first lead on the night.

Between the events, a few teams decided to water things down, or at least the tires. The reason, the donut contest was up next, and the floor seemed to be a bit tacky compared to previous shows. So some decided in order to get the smoke to roll, they had to water the tires down to actually break traction and let the rubber spin. That seemed to work, but in the end the effort was for not.

The streak again continues on for Steven Snellen as he is getting closer to the 20-win mark in the donut competition, taking yet another one on the season.

Freestyle motocross entertained the fans long enough for the engines to cool down, because it was time to get the launchers ready to score a win in the long jump contest. Every truck lined up ready to soar, but just like a week ago, Derick Anson was on point with the hit, and his flight, because like a week ago, he soared to another win in the category. Three competitions and three different victors were the story heading towards intermission.

Teams were thrashing a bit to ensure each truck was prepared for the second half of the show, and that allowed Megasaurus to have a bit of a late lunch on a midsize car.

As the bracket went round by round, the cream rose to the top because a pair of previous winners made it to the finals, because Norman and Anson were set to throw down to determine the first major winner on the night. The light went green, and call it an advantage to have a slightly nose-down look, but Norman powered across the cars in the left lane enough to get the truck to the finish line first, claiming his second win of the night, and putting him in prime position for a title.

The floor was then cleared of every pylon and starting point, because it was time to get the freestyle finale going, and every truck was heading out fast, hard, and intense.

Each truck was pushing the envelope, but from the middle of the field, it was Norman’s teammate that made the most noise. Darron Schnell had his Bigfoot machine in prime condition, especially with his wife, Rebecca, turning the wrenches in between competition. It gave him the chance to put on a spectacular run, enough to take home the freestyle title. That win also allowed his teammate to secure his first Titan Cup since February, meaning the Bigfoot organization had a full sweep of the big events in show one.

The Titan Cup came home to Pacific, Missouri, and Norman shared in the victory with every fan that came through the autograph line.

SATURDAY RESULTS:

Wheelie Competition: Christian Norman, Hot Wheels Racing 1

Donut Contest: Steven Snellen, V8 Bomber

Long Jump: Derick Anson, Demo Derby

Racing Finals: Christian Norman, Hot Wheels Racing 1, def. Derick Anson, Demo Derby

Freestyle: Darron Schnell, Bigfoot

Titan Cup Champion: Christian Norman, Hot Wheels Racing 1

The unique setup for shows allowed a lot of time to prepare the machines for a second performance, and also to test a few new setups to make a better show.

By the time the Sunday Crash Zone opened to fans, each truck was looking excellent in both body lines and chassis setup, so it was clear the final show of the weekend was going to be huge for everyone in attendance. What it ultimately became was a first for a young driver that’s keeping on a family tradition.

Right off the get-go in the wheelie competition, the driver that made the biggest impression had yet to win a show. That was the Bone Shaker hot rod, piloted by Cody Holman, the son of Tiger Shark driver, Bobby. Each hit on the stacks stood the unique machine on the wheelie bar, and the crowd felt the young gun was the best on the afternoon, claiming his first wheelie win in almost one month.

The donut contest was more of the same, both in watering the tires and the finish, as Snellen spun another set of cyclones to keep his streak intact, although he came awfully close to the car stacks and that would have ended his run prematurely.

When the long jump portion of the afternoon approached, Holman again seemed to find the right gear, and the right moment. Holman soared the Bone Shaker far enough to let the front wheels land beyond every other truck, giving him a second win on the night, and already in position to stun the North Carolina crowd.

Still riding high from that win, even after intermission, Holman wanted more, and looked to get as far in racing as he could to make it even more challenging for his competitors. But, he would fall out in the semi-finals, which led to a match-up in the finals between Schnell and Anson.

It was reaction time that was the difference, as Anson fell behind and Schnell took advantage, taking home the racing win on the night and setting up a potential showdown in freestyle, as the Titan Cup was still undecided.

Even that competition was a stunner because it was Snellen who made the V8 Bomber shine. Combined with the usual donuts, he was able to also soar across the van stack and also use every inch of the floor to let the crowd see exactly what the retro Chevrolet could do in a full run. That freestyle was enough to get him the victory in freestyle, but it only tied Holman in the amount of wins on the night. So, a tie-breaker was needed to determine who the Cup was going to.

Because of his ability to go farther in racing, the entire crowd roared when it was Holman that was awarded the trophy, as it was his first of the season, one week after his father earned his first Titan Cup. It took nearly the entire season, but officially every driver on the tour can say they won a Titan Cup, and got to hold that trophy high as they waved to the fans who spent their day seeing toys become reality.

SUNDAY RESULTS:

Wheelie Competition: Cody Holman, Bone Shaker

Donut Contest: Steven Snellen, V8 Bomber

Long Jump: Cody Holman, Bone Shaker

Racing Finals: Darron Schnell, Bigfoot, def. Derick Anson, Demo Derby

Freestyle: Steven Snellen, V8 Bomber

Titan Cup Champion: Cody Holman, Bone Shaker

The final show during the inaugural winter-spring tour for the Hot Wheels Live tour happens next weekend. Charlottesville, Virginia, is the site of the final two shows of the inaugural season, at the John Paul Jones Arena. A Saturday night, and a Sunday afternoon, show will highlight the activities, with each having a Crash Zone to let fans get right next to the real-life trucks that match what they find on the shelves at Target, Walmart, and other retailers.

Visit the Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live site to get your info for the show, and get those tickets, to experience the finale of the first winter tour for this series.

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