#every team plays 4 round robin games | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

zizygy · 2 years ago

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I posted 2,137 times in 2022

87 posts created (4%)

2,050 posts reblogged (96%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@butchzambo

@theunacceptablepylades

@nobody-n-particulur

@geeneelee

@book--wyrm

I tagged 686 of my posts in 2022

#goncharov - 38 posts

#unreality - 20 posts

#andor - 19 posts

#parahumans - 17 posts

#genshin impact - 16 posts

#toh - 16 posts

#gg - 14 posts

#stranger things - 11 posts

#ghost roads - 11 posts

#the owl house - 9 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#the additions are poorly explained in that they don't really get into how 'earth is hollow' and 'flat earth' etc are antisemitic/connected t

My Top Posts in 2022:

Two Truths and A Lie

Fandom: Young Justice, Dick Grayson/Wally West Written around 6 years ago for the prompt “surprise” Read it on AO3 “My turn,” Robin said, grinning as he held up three fingers. “I read four dictionaries in their entirety when I was nine,” he said dropping one finger, “I’ve talked to seven world leaders, including the president of the United States,” and another one down, “and I once stole a bone from the dinosaur skeleton in the Batcave.”

The team began conferring. By the rules of the game, Robin only told one lie, but which of those facts could possibly be true?

He crossed his arms and smirked, satisfied that he’d stumped his team. They seemed stuck on whether or not there was actually a dinosaur in the Batcave or if he’d been able to read four languages when he was that young.

Well, everyone except Wally, who was quiet and looked supremely unsurprised. When the rest of the team were ready, they began guessing.

Artemis said the dictionaries, Kaldur said world leaders and M’gann and Connor said the Batcave because they didn’t believe there was actually a dinosaur in there. Wally said the Batcave because “come on, you’re far to goody two shoes to steal from Batman”. Everyone laughed and Robin admitted that he was right.

“But there is an entire dinosaur there?” Connor asked.

“I’m not sure I’m even surprised at this point,” Artemis deadpanned.

Wally shrugged, unimpressed.

They continued playing the game for another couple of rounds, though no one got quite the same reaction as Robin had. Eventually it got late enough that everyone retired to their own rooms. Well, everyone except Dick and Wally because Dick was on call and Wally was planning on crashing on the couch. It looked like he already had, except he looked up when Robin vaulted over the couch and landed exactly in the spot between the back and the speedster’s legs.

“So” Dick said, stretching out to lay on top of his friend, “you knew there was a dinosaur in the Cave?”

Wally turned on the TV and began channel surfing. “I wasn’t surprised to find out about it.”

“Seriously?”

Now he looked at Dick. “Dude, you grew up in circus before becoming the ward of like the richest dude around, not to mention you fight crime every night and have to actually remember to make sound when you enter a room, nothing about your life can surprise me.”

Dick frowned for a moment, then he grinned. That sounded like a challenge.

Wally, it turns out, was a really hard person to impress. Superheroes had been part of his world for almost as long as they’d been part of Dick’s, so none of Dick’s stories about Catwoman or the Riddler or Poison Ivy ever really phased him. They were entertaining, sure, and he apparently like hearing about Dick’s crazier adventures with Batman, but he was never surprised. So superheroes were out.

Unfortunately, as his best friend (and the only person he’d ever told his secret identity to) Wally already knew pretty much everything about Dick’s life pre-Bruce Wayne.

Which meant that Wally was right, there really was nothing Dick could say that could surprise him.

But Dick was Robin and he had a mission. He wasn’t going to fail.

“You know, I’ve eaten Alligator before,” Dick commented after they finished a mission involving Killer Croc, sewers, and a desperate lack of noseplugs.

"At one of those benefit things?” Wally asked like it was the most normal topic in the world. Dick sighed.

Dick tapped Wally’s leg with Penguin’s cane to get his attention. “Oh hey,” he said, face lighting up when he saw Dick, “did you hear about that new Call of Duty game that just came out?”

He didn’t even glance at the cane.

“Did you take a dip in the lake?” Wally asked when Dick zeta’d into the base dripping wet.

“Harbor actually,” he replied as cheerily as he could as his teeth rattled. “Bats and I got gassed and I w-woke up on a b-boat.”

“Areyoualright?” Wally asked as he zipped to Dick’s side, wrapped his arms around his freezing friend, then began vibrating to create enough friction to warm him up.

“Rope wasn’t very tight,” he said, already beginning to feel better. “Easy peasy to get out and swim for shore.”

“All in a day’s work, huh Boy Wonder?”

Apparently.

Weeks had passed and Dick still hadn’t managed to surprise Wally. Maybe his friend was right- once you knew about Dick Grayson, there wasn’t really anything that could phase you.

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38 notes - Posted June 13, 2022

Please... You’re scaring me

Fandom: Young Justice, Dick Grayson/Wally West Written around 7 years ago for the dialogue prompt “Please... you’re scaring me” Read it on AO3 “Rob? What are you doing?” Wally said as he rubbed his physics textbook glazed eyes to see the young hero outside his bedroom window.

While Wally was never opposed to Dick crawling in through his window in the middle of the night (not like that, Dick is just a total night owl and sometimes takes Wally with him when he’s getting into trouble) he did have a test tomorrow and while it would probably be easy, he promised his parents he’d try to get some sleep tonight. Then again, Wally broke promises to his parents all the time.

He walked over to open the window and was startled to see that Dick was dressed entirely in black. While what he wore as a civilian changed drastically (his school uniform and suits when they were in Gotham, everything from tanks tops to skirts to sundresses and brightly colored scarves when they were anywhere else) he always wore the Robin suit at night.

‘You always have to be ready for an emergency,’ he’d say. 'Well you don’t KF, you’re pretty much always ready, but the rest of us y’know?’

Wally did know. Which was why he was so surprised to by the lack of the costume right now.

His surprise didn’t end there. As soon as the window was open, Dick entered the room. That was pretty normal. What wasn’t normal was the way he looked around like he’d never been in here before. And this wasn’t 'curious Dick Grayson exploring the interactive exhibits at the Central Science Museum’ looking around, this was ‘Robin assessing the threats and assets of a location’ looking around. It wasn’t the kind of examination that needed, or should be happening, in Wally’s bedroom.

When Wally took a step toward Dick, his friend’s gaze snapped toward him and regarded him coldly. “Uh, Rob?”

“Wallace West,” uh oh, that couldn’t possibly be good, “the Court of Owls has sentenced you to die.”

“Huh?”

Real smooth Wally. Definitely the proper way to respond to the situation.

Luckily, he didn’t have to really think about talking because instead of answering him, Dick just surged forward. Wally was a speedster, so he could have easily stepped out of the way, but whether it was curiosity or just plain old shock, something kept him rooted in place. Dick slammed into him and then pinned him against the wall, one arm braced against his throat. It didn’t escape Wally that his friend had to practically stand on his tiptoes to keep him pinned.

“Dude,” he said, feeling Dick’s arm press harder as he began talking, “if you think you’ve got me, you are so wrong.” And then he swept his leg in arc aimed at Dick’s ankles. Dick jumped over his foot, but that took the pressure off his throat, which was all Wally needed to use his speed to grab Dick’s arm and throw him to the side as Wally ran to the middle of his room.

Dick immediately spun to face him. He’d drawn two escrima sticks- something Wally had occasionally seen him practicing with in Mount Justice’s gym- and then clicked something that made small little knives shoot out the ends. Wally wasn’t positive but he was pretty sure that defeated the point of that particular weapon. Also Dick was grinning, and he was starting to get seriously freaked out. He caught himself stepping backward when he saw Dick advance.

He had to get out of this cramped little room if they were really going to fight. “Hey y’know, maybe we can just talk this out? Whatdya say, whoever is up there in that noggin? Wanna talk about it?”

“No one controls me,” Dick growled. He didn’t strike, but Wally could see his muscles tense. If he provoked him any more, he knew he would.

“Well, now I know you’re not my friend, because Batman absolutely controls Robin’s life.”

That was supposed to get a rise out of him. Instead Dick just cocked his head. He looked for all the world like he was trying to figure out what relevance that could possibly have to the situation at hand. That was very not good.

“If you hold still, this can be painless.”

Fuck.

“Sorry man, ’still’ isn’t really in my vocabulary.”

“I hoped to test my skills anyway.”

And then Dick lunged.

This time, Wally didn’t intend to stay still long enough for Dick to land a blow. He immediately jumped out of the way, running around and behind Dick. He landed a pretty solid kick to the back of Dick’s knee. Instead of getting caught off guard by his leg collapsing under him though, Dick just knelt on his good knee and spun, one escrima-knife arcing toward Wally’s legs. He jumped away and waited for Dick’s next move.

It was unnerving for Dick to be this quiet when they were fighting. Wally knew that it wasn’t really him up in there, but it was still unnerving.

“Those skills aren’t serving you too well right now, huh?”

Dick didn’t respond, just stood up and attacked Wally again. This time he was ready and jumped right as Dick came in close, using his back as a vault and landing on… a loose piece of paper. Wally just had time to swear before the traitorous psychics homework slid right out from under him, taking his leg with it.

Dick got up before he could and didn’t hesitate to jump onto his chest, one blade resting on Wally’s throat. He grinned. That was an expression Wally recognized. That was the ‘gotcha’ grin.

“Please Rob,” he said, and he could feel his voice tremble a little, god, his best friend was going to kill him, “…you’re scaring me.”

Dick pushed the blade harder against his throat and Wally felt a line of blood travel down his neck. The cut itself would heal in a negligible amount of time, but the threat remained.

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52 notes - Posted June 25, 2022

does the manton effect apply to an impossible burger?

54 notes - Posted September 12, 2022

anyway, excise judeo-christian from your vocabulary, it means less than nothing

67 notes - Posted June 27, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

andor is a show that is improved by being a prequel yes the specter of death haunts it

but so does triumph

82 notes - Posted November 24, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #this is so funny this is all from like the last month

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cyrzzxd · 4 months ago

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Double Dribble!

DOUBLE DRIBBLE BLOG

3X3 Basketball League 2024

The current 3X3 basketball format originated in the urban areas of the United States of America. It is a condensed for of the popular traditional full-court basketball. Its popularity propelled it into a professional sports with official rules and it is even sanctioned by the international basketball federation or FIBA.

How 3x3 basketball is different from traditional basketball?

As a condensed form of the full court basketball, the 3X3 shares a lot with the original format. The basics of ball handling and violation rules are the same. However, unlike the 5x5 game which is played on a full (28 meters x 15 meters) basketball court with two rings on both ends, the 3x3 game is played in a half court measuring 11 meters in length and 15 meters in width. It is also played with just one hoop at one end and the end line on another.

In 3x3 basketball, only one substitute is allowed on the bench. Also the ball in 3x3 is slightly smaller than the regulation ball in 5X5. Though both are 620 grams in weight, 3x3 ball is 72.39 centimeters in diameter compared to a size 7 ball of 5x5 with 73.93 centimeters in diameter. Th smaller ball allows better ball handling for the faster pace of a 3x3 game.

3x3 basketball in the Philippines!

The 3x3 basketball game popularity have reached our country. Since basketball is the most popular sports here, it is expected that this 3x3 format will also appeal basketball aficionado from appari to jolo! Both sanctioned and non-sanctioned are now being played from the dirt court of far flung towns to the modern arena of the metropolis.

And I am joining the craze!

Recently, I joined a 3x3 Basketball League sponsored by ARIZ Motor parts and UNCUT apparel.

The tournament follows the six (6) team round-robin format. The two (2) bottom teams in the team standing will be eliminated. In case of a tie, the quotient system will apply. The first two (2) teams with the most win will have a twice to beat advantage.

The semi-finals will follow a best of 3 games format.

Semi-finals Format Best of Three Games

1st in standing vs 4th in standing

2nd in standing vs 3rd in standing

And after the semi-final the finals will be played in a best of 3 games format between the top two teams emerging from the semifinals!

The six teams playing for the trophy are:

MAKAVELI (Team Green) MABALACAT CITY BALLERS (Team Blue) BLACK WARRIORS (Team Black) ONE VULCANAZING (Team Brown) TEAM BURGIS (Team Violet) NYAMAN MABIE (Team Red)

The games are scheduled every Sunday afternoon and played at the Green Meadows Subdivision Phase 1 basketball court.

I am part of the BLACK WARRIORS and I wear the number 5 Jersey in our team. So far I have made two points for our team!

The elimination games have already been played and our team made it to the semi-finals with a record of 4 wins and 1 loss. We lost only to TEAM BURGIS who topped the eliminations with a 5 wins, no loss record.

The top four teams remaining the semi-finals are 1st place TEAM BURGIS playing against 4th place MABALACAT CITY BALLERS and 2nd place BLACK WARRIORS playing against 3rd place ONE VULCANIZING.

Sadly, MAKAVELI and NYAMAN MABIE are already eliminated and will be watching on the sideline.

The semi-finals games starts this Sunday, August 11! And BLACK WARRIOR is all set to win the best of three! And I am thrilled to be in the semi-finals! Go BLACK WARRIORS!!!

Watch out for my next blog for updates of the semi-finals!

Double Dribble!!!

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englishchinesetranslations · 9 months ago

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24 team FIFA World Cup

7 UEFA members, 3 CONMEBOL, 3 CONCACAF, 3 CAF, 3 AFC, 1 host & 4 FIFA Confederations Cup semi-finalists

FIFA Confederations Cup

32 teams- 5 CONMEBOL, 5 CONCACAF, 10 CAF, 10 AFC, 2 OFC

2 leagues of 16 teams- every team plays 6 games. Top 6 teams in each league will play a seventh game, where the top 2 teams in each league qualifies for the World Cup. The 2 league winners will compete in a Confederations Cup final to decide the overall champion.

New international break format

June, Sep and Nov will feature two week breaks

October & March will be replaced by a January three week international break

UEFA Grand Prix tournament (quadriennial event)

6 groups of 4 higher ranked teams play a round robin event

6 group winners and 2 runners-up qualify for the single leg quarter-finals. Highest ranked teams will be handed home advantage.

6 group winners may be handed a bye to Round 2 of FIFA World Cup qualifying if they fail to win their Round 1 group or be ranked as one of the four highest ranked Round 1 runners-up

2 runners-up will not be handed a bye to Round 2 of FIFA World Cup qualifying unless they win UEFA Grand Prix tournament

The single leg semi-finals and final of both UEFA Grand Prix and Super Prix will take place in the following June.

UEFA Super Prix tournament (UEFA Grand Prix format)

8 groups of 3 or 4 lower ranked teams play a round robin event

8 group winners qualify for single leg quarter finals. 4 semi-finalists may be handed a bye to Round 2 of FIFA World Cup qualifying if they fail to win their Round 1 group or be ranked as one of the four highest ranked Round 1 runners-up

The winners of UEFA Grand Prix and Super Prix are guaranteed a bye to Round 2 of FIFA World Cup qualifying

Promotion/relegation between Grand Prix and Super Prix

The 12 lowest ranked UEFA Grand Prix teams will play a 4th game (simulatenously whilst the quarter-finals of Grand Prix & Super Prix) commence. All 12 teams will have their results compiled in a league table, where the 5 lowest ranked teams will be relegated to UEFA Super Prix for the next edition in 4 years' time.

5 highest ranked semi-finalists from the two most recent editions of UEFA Super Prix will be promoted in their place.

FIFA World Cup UEFA qualifying Round 1

16 groups of 3 or 4 teams play home-and-away matches. 16 group winners and 4 highest ranked runners-up qualify for Round 2. 2, 3 or 4 highest ranked remaining group winners from UEFA Grand Prix and/or semi-finalists from UEFA Super Prix & their respective tournament winners will qualify for Round 2 if they haven't succeeded in winning their group nor being ranked as a highest ranked runner-up.

8 Semi-finalists from UEFA Grand Prix and UEFA Super Prix tournaments will be placed in groups of 3 teams. This will enable to play their knockout finals in June

FIFA World Cup UEFA qualifying Round 2

24 teams from Round 1 will be seeded into 6 pots. Every team will play 6 games, competing against one team from every pot (including their own pot). Including results from the teams they play against in Round 1 (excluding teams such as San Marino who finish 4th), an aggregate league table of all 24 teams' results from the 10 eligible games they play will decide the 7 teams who qualify for the FIFA World Cup.

UEFA Shootout (biennial event)

8 highest ranked teams who failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup will compete in home-and-away quarter-finals. The quarter-finals winners will head for the single leg semi-finals and a single-leg final. Extra time and penalties may be permitted.

For the UEFA Shootout preceding the next Euros tournament, the 8 highest ranked group winners in UEFA Euros qualifying will compete in home-and-away quarter-finals. Extra time and penalties will not be permitted.

UEFA Super Prix tournament (Post-FIFA World Cup qualifying format)

For the 30 teams who failed to qualify for Round 2 of FIFA World Cup qualifying, they will play in 8 groups of 3 or 4 teams. Home-and-away games will be played, with 8 winners heading for a single leg quarter-finals.

Finalissima UEFA qualifying

Finalissima will be played one year after FIFA World Cup

2 rounds of play-off home-and-away qualifying will commence for UEFA teams: Round 1 will foresee the 20 lowest ranked teams like Andorra compete for 10 slots in Round 2. 10 Round 1 winners will then compete against 34 highest ranked teams in Round 2 for 22 places at a 32 team Finalissima tournament, where they'll compete against 10 CONMEBOL sides.

All 22 Round 2 winners qualify automatically for Round 3 of UEFA European Championship qualifying

UEFA Super Prix tournament (UEFA Euros qualifying round 1 format)

32 teams, who failed to qualify for Finalissima, will compete in 8 groups of 4 teams in a round robin format. 8 group winners will then compete in a knockout tournament for UEFA Super Prix, which will become an annual event. Single-leg format will be used for quarter-finals, semis and final. UEFA Grand Prix will remain a quadriennial event. 8 UEFA Super Prix group winners will qualify for Round 3 of UEFA European Championship qualifying.

UEFA European Championship qualifying Round 2

24 teams (who failed to progress to the knockout round of UEFA Super Prix) will compete in 6 groups of 4 teams, playing 3 games in a round robin format. In addition to their 3 Super Prix/Round 1 group stage game results, all 6 games played by all 24 teams will be compiled into an aggregate league table. 10, 11 or 12 highest ranked nations qualify for Round 3 of UEFA Euros qualifying.

UEFA Euros qualifying Round 3

Up to 22 Finalissima finals participants, up to 8 Super Prix quarter-finalists & 10, 11 or 12 Euros qualifying round 2 teams (excluding Euro hosts) will compete in 10 teams of 4 teams in home-and-away legs. 10 group winners, 10 runners-up and 3 third placed sides will qualify for UEFA European Championship finals.

UEFA Super Prix (post-UEFA Euros qualifying format)

Up to 14 teams who failed to qualify for Round 3 of UEFA European Championships qualifying, will compete in 4 groups of 3 or 4 teams. Home-and-away games will be played. 4 group winners will compete against 4 highest ranked teams from Euros qualifying Round 3, who failed to qualify for UEFA European Championship, once both Round 3 of Euros qualifying and Super Prix group stage has finished. Single leg quarter-finals will commence once again.

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jrpneblog · 11 months ago

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Something has got to give

Four wins in twenty games, a huge disconnect with the vast majority of the fans, rumours of discontent from some of the playing staff and a club in limbo not knowing what to do as the transfer window whizzes by. It is fair to say all is not what it should be at Deepdale at this moment in time. Ryan Lowes failings have been well documented and you dont need me to go through them again but summing it all up it would appear that confidence in the manager has been lost or is very low at every level of Preston North End Football Club. Just where North End go from here is anyone's guess but the current strategy of the board - waiting and hoping - is hopelessly flawed. If the manager can turn this round and get the team winning again with everyone back on board it would be a bigger recovery than Lazarus because in my experience when you are this far down the line it is seldom, if ever, recoverable. Of course I really hope we win on Saturday and Lowe can gradually get everyone back with him but its long odds against and therefore something has got to give at Deepdale.

Last Saturday evening the manager had a free hit with the third round FA Cup tie away at Chelsea. North End were backed by a fantastic following of almost six thousand fans inside Stamford Bridge. To be fair to the lads they put in a magnificent shift for almost an hour but a little bit of naive defending added to the fact that we ran completely out of steam after the second goal meant that there was no fairy tale in the Cup this year or in fact any year of the last sixty years. North End`s record over my lifetime in the two cup competitions is truly awful. I have never seen us play a quarter final in either the FA Cup or the League Cup since I started watching the club in 1967 - anyway I digress. The game in SW6 eventually finished 0-4 to the home side which slightly flattered Chelsea, I thought. The fans were, once again, the heroes as they have been on many occasions but those I spoke to in London wanted a change by a ratio of about nine to one. These fans truly are Gentry - so much pride in the club but, alas, so little faith in the manager.

So we move on to this weekend when the visitors to Deepdale are Bristol City. The Robins had an excellent draw at West Ham in the Cup on Saturday and face them at Ashton Gate in the replay next Tuesday evening. Whether that will have any impact on the Bristol performance is anyone's guess but being just four points from the play off I suspect it wont. City's away record is identical to North End`s having won six and drawn two of the thirteen trips on the road so far. They have scored seventeen goals in those thirteen games but have only conceded fifteen as opposed to the twenty four North End have shipped on the road. This is no easy game the state we are in although the visitors only sit one point ahead of North End. If Ryan Lowe is going to go out with a bang then he must attack with two recognised forwards starting and Holmes and Millar on the flanks to provide for them. All talk aside this is a huge game for North End and for Ryan Lowe and you just think that unless we win this particular encounter then something will change at Deepdale.

And finally this week:- one of the all time greats of football has left us with the passing of Franz Beckenbauer. Der Kaiser was simply one of the best footballing centre backs I have ever seen and although he played in centre midfield in the West Germany team that lost to England in 1966 he gained revenge in the quarter final in 1970. He then went on to lift the trophy as Captain in 1974 in Germany and as manager in 1990 in Italy. He is certainly in my all time international eleven and football is poorer for his passing. RIP Franz.

MATCH PREDICTION -

BRISTOL CITY (H) League - Draw

JR`s HIGH FIVES

Doncaster to beat Newport County 6/5

A £5 Stake returns £11.00 on bet365

SEASONS STATS

Returns £86.00 Stake £115.00

Percentage profit+/-loss - 25.22%

Predictions 23 won 8 lost 15

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cricketasia · 1 year ago

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ICC World Cup Update: What's on the Horizon for Cricket's Grandest Stage

Cricket aficionados worldwide are eagerly awaiting updates on the ICC World Cup, one of the most prestigious events in the sport. As we enter a new year, anticipation is building for the next edition of this cricketing spectacle. Let's explore the latest developments and what's on the horizon for the ICC World Cup.

1. Upcoming Tournament: The next ICC Cricket World Cup is scheduled for 2023, and the excitement is palpable. Hosted by India, one of cricket's epicenters, the tournament promises to be a grand celebration of the sport.

2. New Format: The ICC has continually evolved the format of the World Cup to keep fans engaged and ensure competitive cricket. The 2023 World Cup will feature a round-robin format, where all ten participating teams will face each other in the group stage. This format ensures that every game counts and adds a layer of unpredictability to the tournament.

3. Host Nation: India, with its rich cricketing history and passionate fan base, is set to provide the perfect backdrop for the 2023 World Cup. The country's iconic stadiums, such as Eden Gardens in Kolkata and the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, will play host to some of the most thrilling matches.

4. Cricketing Stars: The World Cup has always been a stage for cricket's biggest stars to shine. Fans can expect to see the likes of Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson, Joe Root, and Steve Smith showcasing their skills on the grandest stage.

5. Innovations and Fan Engagement: The ICC is known for its innovations in broadcasting and fan engagement. Expect cutting-edge technology, immersive experiences, and interactive elements that will keep fans engaged and make the World Cup a truly global event.

6. Qualification: The ICC World Cup Super League, introduced in 2020, will play a crucial role in determining the participating teams. It adds context to bilateral ODI series and ensures that the top teams secure their spots in the tournament.

In conclusion, the ICC World Cup is a beacon for cricket lovers worldwide, and the 2023 edition promises to be nothing short of spectacular. With a revamped format, cricketing legends in action, and a host nation known for its cricketing passion, the anticipation is building. As ICC World Cup updates continue to roll in, fans can look forward to a cricketing extravaganza that will capture the hearts and minds of people around the world. Stay tuned for more exciting news and developments as the ICC World Cup 2023 approaches.

#ICC World Cup update

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chocolate-soldiers-badminton · 1 year ago

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Structure of Round Robin Tournament: Participants: Can be individual players or teams, depending on the sport or game. Matchups: Each participant plays against every other participant exactly once. In the case of an odd number of participants, a "bye" can be used, where one participant gets a rest during each round. Scoring: Typically, participants earn points based on the outcome of each match (e.g., 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). Sometimes, the scoring might also involve the number of goals/points scored, the difference in score, etc., depending on the sport or game. Winner Determination: At the end of the tournament, the participant with the most points is declared the winner. Tiebreakers may be used if participants have equal points. These can include head-to-head results, goal/point difference, goals/points scored, etc. Example: If there are 4 teams: A, B, C, and D, the matchups would be as follows: A vs B, C vs D A vs C, B vs D A vs D, B vs C

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livefootballscore · 1 year ago

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Analyzing The Tactics and Strategies of Austria's Football League: A Comprehensive Study

1. Overview of the Austria Football League Live Score

Austria may not be the first country that comes to mind when it comes to football, but the Austria Football League (AFL) has been around since 1979 and is still going strong. The AFL, also known as the Österreichische Football Bundesliga, is the top professional football league in Austria and is home to some of the country’s best players.

With ten teams competing in the league each season, there is plenty of excitement and competition for both fans and players alike. In this article, we’ll provide an overview of the AFL and what makes it such an important part of the Austrian football scene. Read on to learn more about the history, format, and current state of the Austria Football League.

2. Formation and history of the league

Format and History of the Austria Football League

Format:

The AFL follows a round-robin format where each team plays against every other team twice – once at home and once away. At the end of the season, the team with the most points is crowned the league champion. The bottom team is relegated to the second tier, known as 2. Liga.

History:

The inaugural season of the AFL was in 1974, but it was not until 1979 that the league became fully professional. Rapid Vienna has been the most successful team in the league, winning 32 championships, followed by Austria Vienna with 24 titles. FC Red Bull Salzburg has been the dominant force in the league in recent years, winning 8 consecutive championships from 2014 to 2021.

The league has undergone several changes throughout its history, including a name change from the Austrian Bundesliga to the T-Mobile Bundesliga in 2003. In 2018, the league was given its current name: the Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga.

In addition to the league competition, there is also the Austrian Cup, giving smaller teams the opportunity to compete against the top teams in the country. The winner of the Austrian Cup qualifies for the UEFA Europa League, Europe’s second-tier club competition.

Overall, the Austria Football League may not have the same level of fame and recognition as some of the other European leagues, but it remains an important part of the country’s sports culture and continues to provide exciting football action for fans across the nation.

3. Current season updates

Current Season Updates in the Austria Football Live Match League

The current 2021-2022 AFL season kicked off on July 23rd, 2021, and is currently ongoing. The league has seen some exciting action and surprising results so far this season, with defending champions FC Red Bull Salzburg facing some tough competition from other teams.

After 16 games played, FC Red Bull Salzburg sits on top of the table with 39 points, followed closely by SK Rapid Wien with 35 points. LASK Linz and Wolfsberger AC are also in the mix for the top spots, with 32 and 30 points respectively.

One of the most notable events of the current season was the Salzburg vs. Rapid Wien match on November 20th, 2021, which saw the two top teams face off against each other. The match ended in a 2-2 draw, with Rapid Wien coming from behind to secure a point.

The current season has also seen some standout performances from individual players, such as Patson Daka from FC Red Bull Salzburg, who has scored 17 goals in 14 appearances, making him the current top scorer in the league.

As the season progresses, fans can look forward to more exciting matches and thrilling moments in the Austria Football League. Will FC Red Bull Salzburg maintain their dominance, or will another team rise to the occasion and claim the top spot? Only time will tell.

4. Top teams and players to look out for

The Austria Football League features some of the top teams and players in the country. Here are a few teams and players to keep an eye on during the current season:

1. FC Red Bull Salzburg - The defending champions are once again at the top of the table and are led by the impressive scoring form of Patson Daka. The Zambian striker has been in sensational form, scoring 17 goals in just 14 appearances.

2. SK Rapid Wien - Rapid Wien is currently in second place in the table and has been in impressive form this season. The team has had some notable wins, including a 4-1 victory over Wolfsberger AC.

3. LASK Linz - LASK Linz is another team that is in contention for a top spot in the league this season. The team has had some solid performances so far, including a 3-0 win over SV Ried.

4. Wolfsberger AC - While Wolfsberger AC is currently in fourth place in the table, the team has shown that they are capable of causing upsets. The team recently beat FC Red Bull Salzburg 2-1, proving that they are a force to be reckoned with.

5. Patson Daka - As mentioned earlier, Patson Daka has been in incredible form for FC Red Bull Salzburg this season. The young striker has been linked with some of Europe's top teams and will be looking to continue his impressive scoring record.

6. Ercan Kara - Ercan Kara has been a key player for SK Rapid Wien this season, scoring 11 goals in 16 appearances. The Austrian striker has been in impressive form and will be looking to help his team challenge for the top spot in the league.

As the season continues, fans can expect these teams and players to feature prominently and provide some exciting moments on the pitch.

5. Challenges faced by the league

While the Austria Football League may have some top teams and players, it still faces several challenges. Here are five challenges that the league needs to address:

1. Limited Financial Resources - Compared to other European leagues, the Austria Football League has limited financial resources. This means that teams often struggle to compete with the best teams in Europe and retain their best players.

2. Small Stadiums - Many of the stadiums in the Austria Football League are small, which limits the league's ability to host larger events and attract bigger crowds.

3. Lack of Diversity - The league has a lack of diversity, with only a few non-Austrian players competing in the league. This can limit the league's global appeal and hinder its ability to attract international audiences.

4. Fan Culture - While the league does have a dedicated fan base, there are still issues with fan culture that need to be addressed. Some fan groups have been linked to violence and racism, which can harm the league's reputation.

5. Broadcast and Media Coverage - Finally, there is a need for improved broadcast and media coverage to increase the league's visibility both within Austria and globally. More broadcasting and media coverage can help increase sponsorship deals, fan engagement, and overall revenue for the league.

While these challenges may seem overwhelming, the Austria Football League has the potential to overcome them and grow into a more competitive and diverse league. With continued investment and support, the league can establish itself as a prominent player in the European football scene.

6. Future outlook and developments in the league

6. Future Outlook and Developments in the League

Despite the challenges faced by the Austria Football League, there are several exciting developments and future outlooks for the league. Here are some potential areas of growth and improvement for the league:

1. Increased Investment - To address the issue of limited financial resources, increased investment from sponsors and investors could help the league compete with other European leagues. This could provide the resources needed to attract and retain top players, build larger stadiums, and improve overall competitiveness.

2. Talent Development - The league has strong youth programs and academies that could help develop and nurture local talent for the future. By investing in these programs, the league could produce more world-class players and improve the overall quality of the league.

3. Diversity and Inclusion - To attract a more diverse audience and players, the league could focus on promoting diversity and inclusion initiatives. This could involve actively recruiting more non-Austrian players, promoting fan diversity, and addressing any issues with fan culture.

4. Technological Advancements - Improving stadium facilities and incorporating advanced technology could help the league improve the fan experience and attract more viewers globally. This could include investing in better broadcast and media coverage, implementing digital ticketing systems, and improving stadium amenities.

5. International Partnerships - Forming partnerships with other European leagues and teams could help increase the league's visibility and fanbase. Collaborating with other leagues could provide opportunities for cross-promotion, joint events, and international competitions.

By addressing these areas of growth and improvement, the Austria Football League could overcome its challenges and reach new heights in the global football scene. Ultimately, it will take continued investment, innovation, and dedication to achieve these future developments and successes in the years to come.

7. Conclusion

In conclusion, the Austria Football League faces numerous challenges, including limited financial resources, a lack of world-class players, and a need for improved fan engagement. Despite these challenges, the league has exciting developments and future outlooks, including increased investment, talent development, diversity and inclusion, technological advancements, and international partnerships.

By focusing on these areas of growth and improvement, the Austria Football League could overcome its challenges and become a stronger, more competitive league in the global football scene. It will take continued investment, innovation, and dedication to achieve these future developments and successes. However, with the right strategies and partnerships in place, the Austria Football League has the potential to achieve great things in the years to come.

#Austria Football #live

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thetoxicgamer · 2 years ago

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Dignitas Rank Last in 12 Different Team-Wide Stats Heading Into 2023 LCS Spring Split Week 4

Dignitas has had a historically difficult start to the 2023 League of Legends season. The squad had an offseason that seemed to transform them into potential playoff contenders, but during the first three weeks of the season, they have yet to win an LCS game. Dignitas, though, is still the only major region League club without a victory after a full month has passed. And while critics can point fingers at any one player as much as they want, Dignitas’ rough start is the result of a team effort. Statistically speaking, Dignitas rank dead last in 12 different team-oriented statistics going into the fourth week of the LCS, according to League stats site Oracle’s Elixir. From their lack of kill production to their inability to control neutral objectives, here are the 12 stats in which Dignitas rank last in the LCS ahead of week four—as well as how they might be able to turn things around. Dignitas’ poor start, by the numbers Photo by Colin Young-Wolff via Riot GamesDignitas have not gotten off on the right foot this year. With poor statistical showings in essentially every facet of the game, the team has been outplayed in all six of their contests. Here’s every stat in which they sit firmly at the bottom of the LCS leaderboard through six games (one-third of the split). - Kills (27) - Team KD ratio (0.31) - Gold percent rating (-2.26 percent) - Difference in gold spent (-14.3 percent) - Gold difference at 15 (-3,251) - First tower rate (17 percent, tied) - First dragon rate (17 percent) - Dragon control rate (20 percent) - Baron control rate (Zero percent) - Lane control rate (48.7 percent) - Jungle control rate (41.3 percent) - Wards placed per minute (2.74) With 27 total kills on the year, Dignitas are averaging just 4.5 kills per game. For reference, FlyQuest, who have 98 kills through their first six games, are averaging 16.3 kills per game. That low kill total has given Dignitas a 0.31 KD rating across its roster. Still, Dignitas does not lead the league in deaths. That honor belongs to CLG, who have 97. Those low kill totals could be the result of Dignitas getting totally outclassed during the early game, especially when it comes to farming. The team ranks last in the percentage of total minions slain in lanes, as well as the percentage of total camps cleared in the jungle. The only player on Dignitas averaging a positive personal gold difference at 10 minutes this split is top laner Armut, who averages a lead of 41 gold at 10, according to Oracle’s Elixir. Dignitas are averaging a dragon control rate of 20 percent, meaning they’ve only taken one out of every five dragons that spawn. On the year, Dignitas have gotten five total dragons, with three of them coming in one game against Immortals. Dignitas are the only major region team in the world to not take a Baron, either. Six Barons have been killed in Dignitas’ six games, with one apiece going to each of their opponents. Can Dignitas turn around their misfortune? Dignitas have a bit of good news coming their way this week since the team will finally be able to play with its full starting roster starting today. Dignitas’ top-line support IgNar was prevented from playing with the team due to visa complications. Although the team’s substitute support, Biofrost, wasn’t necessarily a glaring issue in terms of the team’s lack of success, Dignitas should get a boost of some kind with their full intended five on the Rift. https://twitter.com/dignitas/status/1625608396501319681 Another piece of good news for Dignitas comes in the form of their scheduling. After today’s game against Cloud9, Dignitas will finish the first round robin of the LCS Spring Split with games against Golden Guardians and TSM—two teams who have errantly dropped games throughout the first half of the split. Dignitas will face off against C9 for their first game of week four at approximately 7pm CT today. Read the full article

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2023-records · 2 years ago

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Day 8 __ Sun Jan 8

Recording this late...

It's tourny day! Suprisingly woke up with no back pain after sleeping on this firm memory foam mattress on the floor LOL

I woke up first and then woke Megan and Olivia up so we would still have enough time to get ready, drive 25 min to Long Beach, and warm up before our first game at 9am. Olivia ended up taking days and our eta was 8:45am, leaving us only enough time to park, pay for parking, put on our gear and jump straight into playing... I wasn't trying to trip too much about this limited time. I just turned on all of our butt heaters and blasted the heater. Olivia was bussing 90mph HAHAH and then I could feel Megan's annoyance of our tardiness in the backseat. Once we got in the gym, our on-time teammates told us that they changed the schedule and we were off the first round! Thank the lord.

We were placed in the small gym isntead of the large Walter Pyramid gym, but we eventually made our way there during playoffs. We were all suprisde that the B division pool matches were not that difficult... We definately could have competed in BB/A but probably wouldn't have won frist place. There were 4 our of 7 of us on the team that would switch between outside, middle, and opposite. This meant everyone still gets playing time in every game. It took me some time to figure out my spacial awareness while playing but I finally got the hang of it by the end of pool play. We got into playoffs and kept winning. I ended up playing middle in the finals but I did a pretty good job at slowing down hits, serving the other team off the court, and being a cheerleader! HAHA Although I wasn't playing my prefered position, I felt like I was still doing my part in helping my team in the most necessary way. I'm just glad I got to play with such an amazing group of women who all want to have fun and still put in all our efforts. It was nice that we could all laugh at our own silly mistakes but still bounce back and focus on winning together. I definately didn't feel this way with Dynasty, the previous SF team I played for.

I only cramped a little bit in my left calf during pool play. Once I felt this, I immedately took another magnesium pill, liquid IV, and kept massaging and stretching. I made sure to eat carbohydrate rich snacks in between every match, regardless of if I was hungry or not. I knew that it would help with avoiding cramps. I fianlly figured out how to avoid cramps during my tournament days now. Cramping would always ruin my focus and competitive drive.

Ching and Robin picked up Mama Lu's Dumpling House and brought it back to their house where the whole team came over to grub after a great team win. It was around 7:30pm and I knew that we would have to leave soon after eating and showering. We eneded up leaving Robin's aorund 10:30pm to charge the Tesla until 11pm. Oh boy was the ride home going to be a doozy. The car ride back to South San Jose to drop off Megan took 8 hours... The stops and also the rain slowed us down TENFOLD. On top of that, Olivia was drowsy the entire time and I couldn't get sound naps in since I was scared for my life that we would drive off the road. I tried to stay away to ask Olivia questions and make random conversation so that she could stay awake. At one point I couldn't take it anymore and fell asleep. I felt so bad for Olivia since she basically drank 2 Celcius energy drinks during this ride and they did nothing for her. We made it back to her place in Fremont by 7:45 am and I had to drive back up north to go home. I literally coudln't stay awake as soon as I got on the freeway and immediately felt nauseous. I had to call mikel to ask if I could nap on the couch in the living room. I wasn't expecting Mikel to wake up and I was so ready to sleep in my car parked in his neighborhood. Thankfully he picked up after the second call. I was struggling with exhaustion and hunger... I had basically been awake since 6:30am Sunday and it was 8am Monday. I had to muster up energy to eat the instant Pho before taking a nap. I cried because I was so exhausted and also missed Mikel so much. Although he was still getting over his covid symptoms, he was still able to take care of me :,( I felt so bad because his sore throat was really painful and I was probably acting so delirious. I slept from 9am till 2pm and woke up somewhat revived. I stayed over for the day and got to spend some time catching up with Mikel's parents too. As much fun as it is traveling, I always miss being by Mikel's side since he brings me such warmth and comfort. This weekend made me appreciate the people I currently have in my life even more. You could say it was a really "eye-opening" weekend.

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miraculous-trinity-leo · 4 years ago

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Whacky Gotham, Goofy New York, and Chaotic Paris.

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6) (Part 7)

Chapter 5: Then Let The Games Begin

•—–—–·†·–—–—•

Soooo, the Batfam is panicking, Gotham's confused as to why Iron Man is flying over Gotham like a madman, and Maria is with two of Gotham's Sirens (but only Ivy and Harley know this) having a wonderful time playing with Bud and Lou.

Let's start with the Sirens.

Harley is watching over Maria and Tikki as they sleep with Bud and Lou, Ivy walkes over to sit next to Harley, handing her a cup of tea.

"So, what's the diagnosis?" - Ivy

"She has some sort of trauma, has class issues... and handles more than she should, but still does everythin', on top of bein' a hero. She's been through some sh-t Pam." Yeah Harley may have found out Maria's a hero (if the tiny god and magic were anything to go by).

"Is she alone?" - Ivy

"No, thankfully, she has supportive parents, and friends that aren't little sh-ts. I think they're also heroes, she also has a lot, and I a mean A LOT of pent up emotions, she doesn't show anythin' negative, only positive things. She seems to shrink in on herself if she thinks she does somethin' wrong. Pam, we both know there's a limit to how much crap a person can take before they snap, and she's such a sweet kid. There has to be somethin' we can do to help her Ives." Ok she found out alot, but in Marias' defense, they have trustworthy souls, and they were the only other people (besides her friends) that she talked to about it, yes she had her Maman and Uncle to talk about hero stuff, but for the stuff her class does, she only ever vented (without being negative) to her friends.

"Her class is visiting the Botanical Gardens in three days, and it's a 2 part tour, so we can see just what's going on. If it's bad then we scare them a bit, if it's bad bad... they can handle a few slightly poisonous plants right?" - Ivy

"God I love the way ya think Ives, do ya think she can stay with us? I mean look at how cute she is with Bud and Lou... Oh my god, she's cuddlin' dem, and ya gave her a flower crown, how'd I miss that?! Where's the camera?"

Harley took a picture to remind her of this wonderful moment. As Ivy and Harley looked at the picture, they both promised to keep Maria safe, and maybe become sorta kinda-ish parents to her while she's in Gotham.

•—–·Now back to the Bat-Chaos Bat-Cave·–—•

Tim took over the chair and was now searching the possible locations with Jarvis, Damian was sitting on a different chair, trying to act cool, but he wouldn't stop looking over at Tim, to see his progress. Bruce was talking over the comms with Tony. Dick and Jason, weren't helping (they kept feeding each other worse and worse ideas of what could have happened to Maria). Then they heard Jarvis speak.

"I have found the most likely area Ms. Dupain-Cheng would be in. Her phone died about 56 blocks away from her hotel, if we don't count kidnapping, or murder, she would have thought about asking for directions, but may have decided not to considering the city she is in. So that leaves us with a possible 15-25 mile radius from her last known location. I think it best to divide into groups of two, have Oracle stay and update you if anything on security, and or traffic cameras happens. Bruce will be with Tony, Dick will go with Tim, and Jason will go with Damain to search within the area. Stephanie and Cassandra will search around a 5 mile radius near Wayne hotel." as Jarvis continued to explain the other details, the Batfam began to suit up, Batman met up with Iron Man, and they took the North area, Nightwing and Red Robin took the East area, while Red Hood and Robin searched the South. Steph and Cass were on foot in civilian clothes, searching the West area they were assigned.

They searched for the whole day, and came up with nothing. Until Oracle saw a video from a traffic cam around 9pm, 15 blocks away from where her phone died. She called it in and everyone went back to the cave. Once everyone was at the Bat-Computer, Oracle pressed play, the cameras didn't have sound, and it wasn't close enough to see if she was ok.

They watched as she went to an overgrown parking lot and sat down. She was looking down at the ground, and that's when they spotted two figures round the corner and spot her. They watched as the two figures approach Maria, and saw the startled reaction she had. They realized it was Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy that were talking to her, then they saw Maria collapse. They watched as Harley made sure she was ok, looking over to Ivy before looking back to Maria and picking her up. The last thing they saw, was Maria being carried away by two of Gothams' most dangerous rouges, but now they knew where to look next.

•—–· Back to Ivy and Harley ·–—•

Harley continued to take adorable pictures of the children.

"God, they're so f-ckin' cute!" - Harley for the 20th time

As Ivy continued to watch while caring for her plants, Catwoman walked in.

"Hey girls, got the stuff for movie night, so what are we- Holy mother of cats! He adopted another f-cking child didn't he! Where the hell does he keep finding them?! 7 was ment to be the god DAMN LIMIT!!!" - Catwoman

Maria jumped at the sudden shouting and may have accidentally summoned a yo-yo (one made useing creation magic and protection magic) before saying.

"Tikki where's the akuma?! How long was I out?! Forget it Tikki spot-" she then realized she wasn't in Paris, and seeing a new face, she also realized she just spilled her secret to another person within the same day... kinda

"Fffffffffffudge sunday that fell on the pavement!" - Maria shouted in baker profanities

"That's not how ya curse sweetheart. It should go more like-" Harley was cut off by a vine Ivy had summoned.

"Harley, cursing makes the plants sad, you know this." - Ivy said removing the vine

Harley just walked over to Maria and whipsered it in her ear.

"You're supposed to say it more like this, ' ..... .... ... .. ....... .. ... .....' ok?" - Harley ended with a big smile

"... I will never see this world in the same frickin' light ever again." - Maria

"ehh close enough." - Harley

"Can someone please tell me, WTH is going on here, on our special girls day off?!" - Catwoman

"She is a new member of the Sirens as of today, and as a member, she's unda our protection, so effective immediately." - Harley

"Cool." - Maria

"Harley." - Ivy

"Wut... first things first, if she is going to join, she needs to be very flexible, know how to fight, and be incredibly intelligent." - Catwoman

"She beat Ed's @ss with a gun pointed at her, and solved every riddle with ease, so I'm positive she'll be an amazin' addition to the team." - Harley

'God she sounds like a new mother now' "But we don't know how good her flexibility is." - Catwoman

"I know, hey Maria, ya wanna do some tricks with me, of course we need to stretch first, but do ya wanna give it a go?" - Harley

"Sure." - Maria

Ivy and Catwoman sat down on a couch a few feet away from where Maria and Harley stood in the empty part of the building. They started out with stretches, and to Catwoman's surprise (and Harley's delight) Maria copied Harleys streches perfectly.

"Ok, now that that's done, we'll start with some cartwheels, then move on to flips, then handsprings and so on." - Harley

Maria gave Harley a nod... and they were off... literally, Harley did a cartwheel into a handspring, and a few backflips, Maria executed it flawlessly. Harley did some more complicated gymnastics tricks, and Maria did it, Harley did triple backflips going into a cartwheel, into a summersault, and Maria did that perfectly as well. This went on until both Harley and Maria were slightly out of breath, both having massive smiles on their faces.

"Ives, please let her join, she's like a mini me." - Harley then hugged Maria and they somehow both tripled in cuteness as they both did puppy (or Puss In Boots style) eyes at Catwoman and Ivy.

"Sure Harley." - Ivy said walking over to give Harley a small kiss on the cheek.

"Okay... but she doesn't have a costume yet, and she still has to think of a name for herself." - Catwoman

"Is a mouse good, like a mouse themed costume, that or a Turtle themed one. What do you think Harley?" - Maria

"Mmmm, I like that with the mouse you can always toy with Cat, ya know, cat an' mouse stuff, turtle seems... weird even fawh Gotham, so personally I would pick mouse, just because of the cheesy jokes you could do." - Harley

"Very funny, ok then, give me a moment." Maria then reached out her hand, her eyes then started to glow an icy blue, and a small portal opened in front of her, she reached in and pulled out a small pendant necklace. After she put it on a small mouce appeared and greated itself, Marias' eyes going back to normal after closing the portal.

"Hello I'm Mullo, nice to meet you all."

"Omg omg omg, It's soooo f-ckin' CUTE!" - Harley

"Best to assume all of them are extremely cute Harls." - Ivy

"What the Hell did I miss in the week I was gone?!" - Catwoman

"Ehh, not much, oh but Iron Man did fly aroun' Gotham a few times earlier this mornin' like a madman." - Harley

"Oh sh-t." - Maria

"Maria are ya ok? That was ya first official proper curse in my presence." Harley said looking over to the girl.

"He's gonna kill me." - Maria

"Wait, what do you mean Marigold?" - Ivy

"... He's my Uncle, and I never got to text him I was ok, since my phone died before I met you." - Maria

"Hey, I'm sure he'll understand, now what are we watchin'?" - Harley

"I think we have more important matters other than movies at the moment!" - Catwoman

"Ok, Me Myself and Irene it is." - Harley

"No! You basically kidnapped Iron Mans' NIECE!!!" - Catwoman

"Technically, she fainted and us bein' the good Gothamites we are, decided to take her with us, to make sure she was a-okay." - Harley

"I'm ganna need more than just a six pack of soda to get me through this... Just put the movie on already." - Catwoman

Catwoman sat at the far left end of the couch, next to her sat Ivy, then Maria, and then Harley, Bud and Lou by their feet. All of them sharing one big blanket (Becuase if Iron Man did show up, or any of the birds, then Maria was in a protective burrito and they may not see her right away) and they started the movie.

•—–·–—•

"Oh god, the poor cow." - Maria

.........

"Hahahaha, he stuck a whole f-ckin' chicken head in that guys @ss" - Harley

"The poor chicken." - Maria

"Maria you don't want to see this part." - Ivy then lightly covered her eyes for the ehem, chicken extraction.

.........

"Anyone up for another movie?" - Harley

"That depends." - Ivy

"Any suggestions Cat?" - Harley looked across to the other end of the couch to see Catwoman already sleeping.

"She took her cat-nap already? Seriously?" - Harley

"... What about Pirates of The Caribbean?" - Maria

"I'm good with that." - Ivy

And they started the next movie, Maria was happy, it felt like when her maman and papa would sleep with her when she made a pillow fort. It was a loving atmosphere, it felt safe, and nothing could ruin it. Marias' eyes became heavy, and she leaned her head on Harleys' shoulder, falling asleep after a few minutes.

Ivy paused the move looking over to see both Harley and Maria sleeping, soon Ivy also fell asleep in the comfortable silence.

…………………………

Around an hour later Maria woke up in a panic, she had a nightmare, and kept looking around frantically for someone with tears running down her face.

"What's the matter hun?" - Harley said looking around to see if someone had gotten in. When she looked back at Maria she saw that she was crying.

"What happened?" Harley asked in a kind voice that was filled with motherly love.

"I, just *hic* had a bad dream that's *hic* all, I'm fine." - Maira said trying to wipe the tears away.

"You're ok, I promise nothin's goin' to happen to ya as long as Ivy and I are here, ok hun?" - Harley hugged Maria, and she could feel the girl let out a few more sobs, and quick breathes.

"Thanks Maman." Maria didn't even realize what she had said, it just felt natural for her to say it.

"You're welcome hun." 'Omg I'm gonna cry, she called me maman!' Harley rubbed small circles over Marias' back, and began humming until she fell asleep, she continued to hug Maria until she also fell asleep.

•—–· Back to the Chaos Bat-Cave ·–—•

"What do you mean she's with two of Gotham City's Sirens?!" - Tony

"Tony, calm down, I'll call Selina, she can talk to them and get this all sorted out." - Bruce

"Your fiancee is a Gotham Siren too?! Why didn't you tell me?!" - Tony

"Why isn't she picking up? And unlike some people, this family doesn't like outing our secret identities... on live TV." - Bruce

"Oh well excuse me for not keeping my secret identity a SECRET!" - Tony

"I'll try calling her one more time." - Bruce

"Bruce, it's 3am. Who in their right mind ever stays up this late.... aside from this family." - Tim with a giant coffee mug in hand.

"... I'll just call her one more time." Bruce then connected it to the Bat-Computer so everyone could hear.

•—–· Back to the Sirens ·–—•

Catwoman's phone is ringing like crazy, waking everyone up, including a tired, annoyed, and confused Selina.

"Wth does he want at 3 in the morning?!" - Selina

"Just answer it so we can keep sleepin'." - Harley still hugging Maria

"I'm putting it on speaker, so you lot can testify against his @ss in court, for disturbing the peace."

•—–· Over to Batsy ·–—•

"Selina I need to ask-"

"WHAT THE F-CKING HELL DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND ABOUT A GOOD NIGHTS REST!" - Selina

"Oooooh, she sounds pissed Bruce." - Jason

"I'm sorry to call you at this hour, but we need to find a girl that looks just like every single one of my other kids." - Bruce

"Bruce... I thought we agreed that 7 kids was. the. f-cking. limit." - Selina

•—–· Back to the Sirens ·–—•

Selina looked over to Maria before muting the speaker.

"Do you want them to know you're here Kitten?" - Selina

"... I'm tired, I haven't had coffee, I have no filter, so f-ck it, act like you never saw me today, and let them drown in chaos. " - Maria

"I think I like filter less Maria." - Harley

"Okay." Selina shrugged her shoulders and then un-muted her phone, putting it back on speaker mode.

"Where was she last seen?" - Selina

"She was last seen with Harley and Poison Ivy, I want you to see if she's still with them." - Bruce

Selina looked over to Maria and Harley, both of them shook their heads with mischievous grins.

"I've been with them all day, and I haven't once seen a girl that looks like your kids. Now can I go back to sleep, and forget this ever happened?" - Selina

"WHERE IS MY NIECE!!!" - Tony

"Oh, hey Tony, didn't know you were there, don't know who, or where your niece is, but good luck trying to find her. Oh and Bruce, I'm shutting my phone off so you don't keep calling till the butt crack of dawn. And congrats it's now 4am. you owe me a lunch date, uh-ba-bye." Selina then hung up her phone and turned it off.

"That went pretty well if you ask me, now I'm going back to sleep." - Selina

•—–· Back to Batsy ·–—•

The room was silent for a few minutes before Jason spoke up.

"Does that mean that Pixiepop ran away and is even more lost now?!" - Jason

"Oh god, what do we do, what if she got hurt?!" - Dick

"What if she got kidnapped?!" - Jason

"What if she's with a big time Gotham Villain?!" - Dick

"... What if she got more coffee?" - Tim

"Oh Hell No" - Jason/Dick

"... Lets all go to sleep, and when we wake up, we'll head over to their base and double check. She could've just said that because I called her at 3am." - Bruce

"But my niece is still out there!" - Tony

"You're going to sleep Tony." - Pepper then dragged Tony to his room.

•—–· Back to Maria ·–—•

Selina went to a different part of the building, where Maria assumed the bedrooms were. Ivy had gone to the greenhouse to be with the plants, and now it was just her and Harley left on the couch, and she couldn't sleep.

"... Harley?" - Maria

"Yeah hun?" - Harley

"I can't sleep." - Maria

"Well, watcha wanna do till ya get tired?" Harley asked sitting up a little straighter to get a better look at Maria.

Maria gave a sly smile, and looked Harley in the eyes "Want to go free-running on the rooftops?"

"... Alright, but lets get some coffee, and a snack in us first." - Harley gave her a side hug, before getting up to go make the coffee, and grab some snacks.

After they had their coffee, they climbed to the roof of the base. Harley was in her outfit, bat in hand and ready to do some bonding.

"So, how does ya outfit work?" - Harley

"Like so, ready Mullo?" - Maria

"Yes Maria" - Mullo

"Ok, Mullo, Get Squeaky!" A bright light flashes, and when Harley could see again, Maria was in a dark gray suit, wearing black knee high boots, with a strip of pink at the knee, and black elbow length gloves with the same pink strip at her elbow. Her mask was a slightly lighter gray on the top part, and pink on the bottom. Her hair was pulled into two buns with pink ribbons that faded to gray, and to black at the very tip. Her jump rope around her waist forming a tail going just below the back of her knees.

"Just when I think ya can't get any more adorable. So what should I call ya?" - Harley

"You can call me Multimouse." - Maria

Soon they were racing and doing tricks off different roofs, they were really enjoying themselves. From one of the roofs they heard a commotion in one of the alleys, when they looked down they saw a man holding a woman at gunpoint.

"Not good, seems like he's got issues, probably lost his lover, most likely has additions to drugs and alcohol, and seems to be a little tipsy." - Harley

"I've got a plan." - Multimouse

…………

Multimouse droped a little way behind the guy, grabbing his attention while Harley got the lady to safety.

"You know there's a help center two blocks from here that would be more than willing to help you." - Multimouse

The crook just raised his gun to her trying to keep it steady as he spoke.

"Give me all your money little girl, or else I'll hurt you."

"1. That's not how you hold a gun. 2. That is no way to treat any girl. and 3. Instead of money, I'll give you my jump rope." - Multimouse

"Why the hell would I want your jump rope, that thing looks worthless." the crook lowered his guard enough as Multimouse pretended to hand over her jump rope, only to use it in a quick motion to dismarm the man, as Harley promptly knocked him out with one swing.

"Lets neva have ya at gunpoint again, okay hun? I'm afraid my heart can't take it." - Harley said while tying the crook to a lamppost.

"Sorry, but it was the best idea I could come up with at the moment, besides, any guy with a gun would feel like they have the upper hand if they're facing a random little girl with a jump rope, rather than Gothams' Harley Quinn with a bat." - Multimouse

"Sadly I'm just too popular with the kiddos on the street." - Harley

…………

They continued to stop a few more muggers on the way back to the base, and when they got back they peaked around the corner to see the whole Batfam plus Iron Man talking with Ivy and Selina.

"How much you want to bet we can get back out before they see us?" - Whispering Multimouse

"... Lets try hidin' in the kitchen." - Whispering Harley

As they tried to sneak by (still in their costumes) Selina just walks over and draggs them to the group.

"Here, now let me sleep!" - Selina

"Dang it Selina we wanted tah see just how long we could hide out in the kitchen!" - Harley

Selina did a double take now realizing they both went out.

"... You didn't." - Selina

"We wanted tah go free-runnin'! So what?" - Harley

"She could've gotten hurt Harls." - Ivy

"My suits magic, I am invulnerable to bullets, normal magic, swords, knifes, anything staby staby, and I can withstand any temperature in it." Multimouse said with a slight pout.

"Hold up, is she a magical girl?" - Red Hood in the background

When Selina let go both Harley and Multimouse went behind Ivy for protection.

"We can still make a run for it." - Harley whispered to Multimouse

"... Ok, I'll meet you on the roof." - Whispering Multimouse

Harley gave a nod as she slowly inched her wasy closer to the door that lead to the roof, as she saw Iron Man approach Multimouse.

"Please get out of your suit, we need to talk about why you're here-" - Iron Man

"Multitute!" - Multimouse

Harley then saw Multimouse shrink into dozens of tiny little versions of herself as her clones spread out in all directions, one of which was heading right for her.

"Wth, you never told us she could use magic!" - Red Robin

Harley picked her up, and slipped through the door without anyone noticing.

"That was great, but how do ya get back tuh normal size?" - Harley

"Simple, I just merge back with my clones." As she said this, all her clones came back, and she merged with herself, becoming normal sized again.

"Where to?" - Multimouse

………… So now The Batfam is trying to find many long gone Mini-Multimouses, and Harley seems to have disappeared with her. Harley and Multimouse are now running over the roofs, heading for Wayne Manor.

"So why are we going to Wayne Manor?" - Multimouse

"Because, Batsy will neva think of lookin' for us at his own home, at least not fawh a little while." - Harley

When they arrived at the Manor, Multimouse de-transformed as Harley knocked on the door.

"Ms. Quinn, Ms. Maria, pleasure to see you here, please come in." - Alfred

"Are any of the bat-birds here?" - Harley

"Ms. Barbara, Ms. Stephanie, and Ms. Cassandra are the only ones here at the moment." - Alfred

"Do ya think you can keep us bein' here a secret from Batsy?" - Harley

"Harley? What are you doing here with Maria?" - Barbara

"It seems that Ms. Harley and Ms. Maria are now playing hide and seek with the rest of the family." - Alfred

"Did someone say hide and seek?" - Steph

"Yes, so could we maybe try and keep this a secret from everyone else, please?" - Maria

"Sure, it was starting to get boring around here. We can all hide in the living room no one ever use. Barbara you show them the way, I'll get the food/drinks and boardgames." - Steph

"Is this alright with you Alfred?" Maria

"It's all right Ms. Maria, you can hide out in the old living room." - Alfred

"Thanks Alfie, ya the best." - Harley

"Thank you Alfred." - Maria

"Ok then, follow me." - Barbara

…………

In the old living room, Harley, Maria, Barbara, Steph, and Cass began to formulate a plan.

"Ok, so the best way for them to never find you is to have your phone off, stay away from any and all cameras, and show your face to no one." - Steph

"So, do you have anything in mind that you might want to do?" - Barbara

"Can we put them on a wild goose chase?" - Maria

Cass nodded to Marias' suggestion approvingly.

"I can hack a few traffic cams to help with that." - Barbara

"We can also throw in some useless hints, to throw dem even further off our scent." - Harley

"Good idea Harley." - Barbara

"Thanks, but how long do ya think we should make it last?" - Harley

"As long as Maria wants it to." - Barbara

"Then let the games begin." - Maria.

•—–—–·†·–—–—•

Chapter 5 complete. Hope everyone is stayin' safe, Rockin' those Positive Vibes, and havin' an absolutely wonderful day. BUG-OUT 🐞💮🐞

〜(꒪꒳꒪)〜Tag List〜(꒪꒳꒪)〜

1st Place★: @animegirlweeb ☕ , 2nd Place★: @jumpingjoy82, 3rd Place★: @zalladane, 4th Place★: @jayjayspixiepop, 5th Place★: @arty-shadow-morningstar, 6th Place★: @smol-book-nerd, 7th Place★: @irontimetravelflower, 8th Place★: @fandom-trapped-03, 9th Place★: @meme991001, 10th Place★: @buginetye, 11th Place★: @blackroserelina, 12th Place★: @jessigurl-design, 13th Place★: @adrestar, 14th Place★: @moon5608, 15th Place★: @little-bluestar, 17th Place★: @myazael, 18th Place★: @our-preciousss, 19th Place★: @wolf2118, 20th Place★: @nyx-in-line, 21st Place★: @kking13, 22nd Place★: @lunerlover2024, 23rd Place★: @moonlightstar64, 24th Place★: @corporeal-terrestrial, 25th Place★: @kashlyn, 26th Place★: @tbehartoo, 27th Place★: @heart-charming, 28th Place★: @solangelo252, 29th Place★: @t1dwarrior-of-earth, 30th Place★: @lady-phoenix-of-tardis, @lupagrimm

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animalbks · 2 years ago

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Football Manager 23 Canadian Database

Compete in a complete restructuring of the Canadian soccer pyramid, complete with 11 levels of competitions, featuring a total of 528 teams from leagues across Canada. Fight for league cups, and a complete overhaul of the Canadian Championship, from an expanded Canadian Premier League of 16 teams, with full Promotion and Relegation. A completely reasonable future for Canadian Soccer, this file allows you to compete as any team in Canada as if Canada was England, allowing little Surrey United to fight a battle against Vancouver at BC place for the chance to represent Canada in CONCACAF.

Download here -> https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2886012558

Check out my discord if you would like https://discord.gg/6dBFcPzRNa

A Full List of Changes

Structure

There are 11 levels of Soccer in this database

The first 2 leagues feature 16 teams, and play for the Sinclair Cup

Level 3 features 32 teams across 2 leagues, and play for the Schmidt Cup.

Level 4 features 48 teams spread across 3 leagues, and play for the Fleming Cup. Top 8 teams of the Fleming cup play against Level 3 in the Leblanc Cup

Level 5 and Below feature 60 teams, spread across 3 leagues, divided into 2 groups of 10. The top Level 5 teams in the Canadian Championship feature in the Grosso Cup

And then Finally, USports, matching their real world structure, but in 3 leagues instead of 4, complete with a post season Memorial Cup style league, featuring both the League Winners, and the Cup winners, for a 6 team single round robin format

The best of these leagues play for the 3 League cups, to determine who gets a bye to the quarterfinals of the Canadian Championship, alongside the winner of the Sinclair cup

Each of the senior teams has a U23 team, and a U20 team, which feature in Regional Youth Leagues, which feature relaxed rules, and a 10 level structure alongside applicable Usports teams, creating a spliced pyramid

Usports gets U18 teams which play in an HSports (Highschool analogue) league

All leagues mandate a certain number of Canadians, a few U21 players, and a U18 player in your match squad

5 subs from 12 for all competitions, some exceptions may be 6 subs, or max of 3 stoppages

Each league comes with a number of awards, such as Canadian Team of the Year

Added Teams

Every team from the following leagues features in the database, up January 2022:

USports, Canadian Soccer League, Pacific Coast Soccer League, Vancouver Island Soccer League, Vancouver Metro Soccer League, Fraser Valley Soccer League, Alberta Major Soccer League, Saskatchewan Premier Soccer League, Manitoba Major Soccer League, League 1 Ontario Reserves, Ontario Soccer League, Ligue de Soccer Elite Quebec, Nova Scotia Soccer League, , New Brunswick Premier Senior Soccer League, and Newfoundland and Labrador Challenge Cup

Also featuring teams like Algonquin College, who have their stadium in the game, to operate as owner for that stadium

Expanding joint teams out, to represent the future where these teams can compete without merging. A joint team will have two parent teams, with the parent teams being whatever the original organizations are

Future Proofing by including future expansion teams like Saskatoon, Langley*, and Windsor [*See note Above]

And just for fun, a minimal amount of fantasy, like a Bundesliga expansion, and my College, BCIT, and Ayr United Sudbury, so Quill18 can have his fun

This brings the total number of Playable teams to 528

Staff

Most teams feature their real world head coach when one was able to be documented

And of course, some female staff from the various Womens league such as Bev Priestmen, who takes over the Canadian U23 national team, hoping to bring home another Gold Medal at the Olympics, or Karina LeBlanc who manages the Portland Timbers 2nd team, an analogue for the Portland Thorns, and Stephanie Labbe who manages Vancouver 2, for the same reason. Give me that NWSL license, Sports interactive

Features

Every team plays in a stadium, all 528

Some teams have their stadiums updated, or changed. Teams like FC Edmonton are future proofed to play into the larger, right next door, Commonwealth Stadium

Every stadium in the game has a team. Olympic stadium houses an amateur team. Can you get them to fill the stadium?

Every team has a proper Jersey, or if one could not be found, one assigned. You wont be encountering any default generic red and blue teams as you make your way up the pyramid

Some teams such as the Church based teams, or the ethnic Community based teams, have club visions to match their status. Churches are asked to develop through their own youth system. Academy teams are asked the same, but also to sign young players, USports teams are asked to recruit out of high school, and teams such as ICSF Columbus are asked to sign Italians. Some fun visions exist too. Can you guess what you might need to do as Goals City FC?

The 2020 Gold Medal Winning Canadian Women's National Team have been added as icons and legends to the applicable teams. Can the Whitecaps live up to expectations and move into Christine Sinclair stadium?

Be on the look out for some interesting challenges. The worst team in the game is Unathletico Vancouver. Can you lead them to Glory?

#Canada #Soccer #Canada Soccer #Football Manager #CanWNT

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englishchinesetranslations · 10 months ago

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New UEFA Champions League format

Only league champions permitted to compete (54 teams (Russia under consideration) plus last season's Champions League & Europa League winners eligible)

Foreign & homegrown player quotas to be used. Clubs found guilty of breaching rules will be disqualified and banned from competing for five years minimum in all UEFA competitions.

Two qualifying play-off rounds (home-and-away rules apply). Higher ranked teams receive bye to play-off Round 2

Round 1 (4 groups of 4 teams) A Round robin format will be used, so every team will play just 3 games instead of 6.

4 group winners and 4 runners-up qualify for knockout round.

Home-and-away rules will be reapplied for quarter-finals and semi-finals & away goals rules will NOT be permitted. The final will be a single leg at a neutral venue.

4 third placed teams head for Europa League Last 16.

New Europa League format

Every team who finished 2nd & 3rd in their domestic league, 15 domestic cup winners (from highest ranked leagues) & the reigning UEFA Europa Conference League, UEFA Unity Shield & UEFA Intertoto Cup winners are eligible to compete. Up to 126 teams (depending on Russia) may compete.

Two qualifying play-off rounds. Higher ranked teams receive a bye to Round 2.

Round 1 (8 groups of 4 teams) A Round robin format will be used, so only 3 group games instead of 6

8 group winners & 4 highest ranked runners-up will then compete against 4 third placed teams from UEFA Champions League in Europa League Last 16 over home-and-away legs. The quarter-finals & semi-finals will hand home advantage to the higher ranked team over a single leg. The final will be single leg matches at neutral venues.

New UEFA Europa Conference League format

47 teams who finished 4th & 5th in their respective leagues (from 32 highest ranked domestic leagues) will compete against England's League Cup champion in UEFA Europa Conference League Qualifying Round 1. 24 winners will then compete against 40 domestic cup winners (below top 15 domestic leagues) in Qualifying Round 2.

Group Round will have 32 UEFA Europa Conference League Qualifying Round 2 winners play 32 losers from UEFA Europa League play-off Round 2 and 16 UEFA Champions League play-off Round 2 losers. 20 groups of 4 teams will compete in a round robin format, where everyone plays 3 games.

20 group winners and 12 runners-up will play each other over home-and-away legs in the last 32.

Home advantage will be handed to higher ranked teams in the single leg last 16, quarter-finals & semi-finals. The final will be held at a neutral venue.

New UEFA Unity Shield competition

All 22-24 losers from UEFA Champions League Qualifying Round 1, 62 losers from UEFA Europa League Qualifying Round 1 & 24 losers from UEFA Europa Conference League Qualifying Round 1 compete in UEFA Unity Shield Play-off Round 2. Highest ranked teams may receive bye to Round 3. 64 teams will qualify for Play-off Round 3. 32 Play-off Round 3 winners will qualify for group stage.

32 losers from UEFA Europa Conference League Round 2 qualify immediately for UEFA Unity Shield Group Round.

Group Round will feature a group stage of 16 groups of 4 teams. Every team plays 3 games in a round robin format. 16 group winners & 8 runners-up will progress to the Last 32 over home-and-away legs. They compete against 8 lowest ranked runners-up from UEFA Europa Conference League Group Round.

Home advantage will be given to higher ranked teams in the single leg ties held for the last 16, quarter-finals & semi-finals. The final will be held at a neutral venue.

Revived UEFA Intertoto Cup competition

32 UEFA Unity Shield Play-off Round 3 losers will compete in UEFA Intertoto Cup Group stage in a round robin format. 8 groups of 4 teams.

The UEFA Intertoto Cup Last 16 will feature home-and-away matches with 8 UEFA Intertoto Cup group stage winners playing 4 fourth-placed teams from UEFA Champions League & 4 lowest ranked runners-up from UEFA Europa League.

The quarter-finals & semi-finals will be played over a single leg and hand home advantage to the higher ranked team. The final will be played at a neutral venue.

#Champions league

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nerdy-bits · 4 years ago

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The Unspoken Rules of Stealth Games

I love stealth games. They are my absolute jam. I’ve been an Assassin’s Creed acolyte from the beginning and Splinter Cell rests firmly atop my list of favorite franchises. The industry isn’t flooded by this genre, but there are a fair number of quality contenders. The Dishonored games are a tour de force, I love the critically mixed Deus Ex prequels deeply, I only play Far Cry with my knife and bow, Ghost Recon is a kind of comfort food, even in Uncharted 4 I avoided combat in favor of being a sneak. In fact, really the only thing I like more than stealth gameplay is cooperative stealth gameplay (though I am a sucker for tactics games). There is just something about clearing a room with a friend, no enemy wise to your presence. Splinter Cell has brilliant co-op. Far Cry is at its best when your crew chooses the silent approach, one friend getting dirty up close with a blade while a ranger picks off sentries, putting arrows between armor plates.

Most stealth games though, avoid multiplayer completely. I frequently lament that I can’t take out targets as agents 47 and 46. Most of these games, to me, feel like they would be better with a friend. Now a part of that is certainly because most things are better with friends but, secondarily, these games are difficult. Having a friend to help could both ease the game of chess you play in every encounter or allow creators to add differing levels of complexity.

I could talk about the possibilities for, maybe literally, days. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about. At least not today. If very few stealth franchises build out co-op experiences, a fraction of those games create adversarial multiplayer. Splinter Cell has tried it. Spies vs Mercs, a mode that pitches Splinter Cell agents against NPC-esque mercenaries, leverages darkness and verticality against mercs with flashlights. It’s, as I previously described, brilliant. By pitting factions against each other with different abilities to navigate the gamespace, adhering to the stealth game loop is the only thing that gives the spies an advantage.

Assassin’s Creed also dabbled in multiplayer. Both PvP and PvE. The latter, while promising, fell victim to the extremely buggy launch of Assassin’s Creed Unity. Network issues, net code issues, strange pop-in, the experience was fractured from the start. The former, PvP variant, was introduced with the release of AC Brotherhood. Across a handful of game modes, and choosing between an impressive lineup of characters, players hunted each other down across crowded maps utilizing a number of distractive, offensive, and defensive abilities.

The Brotherhood multiplayer was great in the first few weeks, but as time progressed players became savvy to the underlying systems and within months of release the idea of “Stealth” all but disappeared. The reasons, I believe, are perhaps why so many stealth games leave this feature off of the list: Balance and participation.

A few weeks ago Hood: Outlaws and Legends came out and a group of friends and I grabbed it up. At only thirty dollars it was kinda hard not to just grab it and give it a shot. Hood takes place in the Robin Hood universe (mythos?) and tasks players to cooperatively - stealthily - infiltrate an area, track down the Sheriff, pickpocket a vault key from him, and then abscond with the loot in said vault. It’s like Payday with a bow and arrow.

Pulling off these heists is actually pretty fun. The PvE (versus AI only) mode allows you to dig into the mechanics of the game while working out the kinks in your team communication. Before long we were complimenting well placed shots and perfect dual takedowns as we carved our way to our prize. The formula is solid, if a bit repetitious. The requirements don’t change at all between maps. The location of the vault chest will move around from heist to heist, but that is really it; and after a few rounds we had grown a bit too familiar with the process. The game also randomly chooses the maps in this mode, so we ended up playing two maps in three games, which was a bit of a bummer. Also your XP gain is dramatically limited in this AI centered mode, which pushed us quickly into the game’s core mode: heists against competing human players.

The formula doesn’t really change for this PvPvE mode, save the fact that at the same time you are hunting for the Sheriff, his key, and then the vault, another team is as well. Initially the prospect of this dynamic was interesting, but pretty quickly it devolved.

This was when I realized multiplayer stealth is critically dependent on its players participating in the right way. Now some games incentivize this participation or choose to restrict your abilities altogether. Think AC: Brotherhoods scoring system for kills which took points from you for being loud or conspicuous. Spies vs Mercs restricts teams abilities based on their faction. Mercs literally cannot hide in the dark. Spies will not win a gunfight.

Hood doesn’t really build any advantage or disadvantages into its gameplay loop. We started our first round of PvPvE and began to sneak around the map the same way we were in the PvE mode. Being seen by guards locks the area you are in down. They close all the gates and begin hunting for you. Against AI this was a paradigm shift. The whole group has to go into ghost mode or just shelter in place until the heightened awareness drips away with the invisible clock. In multiplayer you get notified if your opponents incur a lockdown. This is done presumably to give you a brief jolt of encouragement. Thoughts dart across your mind, “They are locked down, they got caught, we have a few minutes to creep ahead and really gain an advantage.

Only that wasn’t the case.

Ryan and I stopped playing the Brotherhood multiplayer a few months in. It was nearly impossible to play the game by its own rules. Shooting a target with your wrist mounted pistol was always the worst way to pull off a kill, but useful if your target just kept evading you. You received a meager serving of points and would move back into the crowd in an attempt to reestablish yourself as an agent of stealth. By the end of the first month people were sprinting across rooftops, shooting down into the crowd, and then running off to do it again. They had discovered that if you ran around on the rooftops it didn’t raise your profile and that picking off a target from a rooftop with a gun, the penalty wouldn’t be enforced unless you killed a second target. First kills in this method would rack around 1800 points, the second kill a measly 300 (the numbers may be way off here, its been years. It’s the proportion that’s important.

The second kill was the system working, discouraging loud tactics with point penalties. But if you went and hid, let the system time out, and then did it again, you could farm high point value kills in perhaps the least clandestine way possible. Brotherhood became a shooting gallery. It was absolutely untenable. Assassin’s Creed would get away from adversarial multiplayer after Black Flag. I barely returned for Revelations.

As we were creeping through the bushes in a castle courtyard, our band of merry thieves, we got the first notification that our opponents had triggered an alarm. A wave of relief hit the crew. We’ve got some time. Then the second notification came, then the third, then a fourth. Our relief was subsumed by a revelation: they are just ignoring the stealth altogether. What followed was a painfully reminiscent race to the objectives ignoring area guards altogether (If a gate got dropped each team had a character that could just lift the gate). Our opponents got the key first, found the vault first, and moved the prize first. Each time we got close we were either picked off by a camping Robin, thatching us through the reeds with pinpoint accuracy, or we got bodied by the two melee characters Tooke and John.

Dying, spawning, and running back to the objective is a drag in any game. In a game where you have to make a getaway, every second you have to run back to the last place you saw the objective is a second of distance they get to make. Combat felt clunky and secondary to a stealth system that had been completely abandoned. Knowing that your opponent trips an alarm is incredibly useful, but knowing when they got the key, that they had found the vault, and having a tracker for how far the chest was moving was a bit much. I kept thinking about how much cooler it would have been if we had found the Sheriff only to discover the key was already gone. Imagine coming across a vault that had been looted already, your team scrambling desperately to find out how far their opponents had gotten.

Still, none of this works players don’t abide by an invisible set of rules, therefore relying on those rules just ends up feeling like a mistake. A private lobby with eight people, all who agree to be stealthy is one thing, hoping that the community at large adopts that mindset is, ever more clearly, dependent on systems. The question is, in an industry that builds to player’s fantasies of power, how do you implement these systems and simultaneously empower players while also guiding their play-style along the path you desire?

How do you penalize running around like Rambo adequately? How do you incentivize stealth to make it the only way players want to engage?

@LubWub ~Caleb

#stealth #stealth games #far cry #assassin's creed #multiplayer #asymmetrical multiplayer #splinter cell #hood outlaws and legends #article #blog

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seiin-translations · 4 years ago

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2.43 S1 Chapter 3.4 - The Dog’s View and the Giraffe’s View

4. CHILD OF VOLLEYBALL

Previous || Index || Next

In the week before the ballgame tournament, practice for the tournament took priority over after school club activities. On Monday after school, it was the first day of team practice for Team F.

“I’m not the manager for the boys’ volleyball team. I’m just here to help out.”

“It’s totally fine! We have twenty-four people and only one manager currently. How many does boys’ volleyball have? Huh, eight? So little. One per twenty-four people and one per eight, don’t you think that’s a weird ratio? We’re going to need three managers, you know? That’s why, please be our manager.”

“Look…you haven’t listened what I said at all, have you. I don’t know how you think that logic is going to convince me.”

When he went to the gym, he immediately came across a scene of a row of four muscular boys were sitting on their heels and making supplications to one girl. The girl they were supplicating to was the second-year Suemori, who came as a helper from the girls’ volleyball team.

For today’s practice, it was arranged that the two teams would each use one half of the court. The teams were Oda’s Team F and Team B, which had the corps from the aforementioned rugby team. The rugby team was the third great power among the boys’ sports clubs in the school after the soccer and baseball teams, but because rugby wasn’t included in the events of the school’s ballgame tournament, they appeared to have discovered their raison d’etre in the ballgame tournament by dispatching members to each event and having them run wild. As if to tout their club, all four of them were wearing those characteristic horizontally-striped shirts, and the pattern made their upper bodies look even squarer and burlier. I’m pretty sure the temperature in the gym went up one or two degrees because of those four… Though it was already the season of high humidity, it really was sweltering in there.

“This isn’t the time for scouting. Scram.”

Oda raised his voice and cut in front of Suemori.

“Suemori is our important charge from girls’ volleyball. If anything happens to her while she’s with us, I’ll get throttled by them. If you wanna poach her, talk it over with the girls’ volleyball captain.”

“Aaah? What’s your problem?”

One person among the four talked back in a boorish voice. His height approached Aoki’s when he stood, and unlike Aoki, he had a width and thickness, so his weight was completely different. He felt a feeling of oppression like he was being crushed just from standing in front of him.

This man was a second-year from the rugby club, Okuma.

“This ain’t the place for a first-year runt to show up. Get outta here.”

The moment he said that, his temple started convulsing, but it would never end if he flared up at every single thing.

“I’m the captain for boys’ volleyball, Oda from 3-F. I’m in charge today.”

“Heh? A third-year? You serious?”

Okuma’s eyes widened, and he confirmed with Suemori over Oda’s head instead of with Oda himself. Standing in a position to protect Suemori, she was taller than him. Oda’s existence was no obstacle for Okuma.

When they were convinced that he was really an upperclassman, Okuma and the other three changed their attitude more or less, and they followed his orders without disturbing the progress. First, the two teams took the time for a joint orientation. There were three to five students from each grade per team. There would be no more than twenty-five people in two teams. Three times the usual number of eyes during regular club practice watched him and listened to him seriously. He was a little nervous and cleared his throat several times.

He didn’t see Haijima there. He wondered if the positions were assigned just for the sake of adjusting the numbers. If that was the case, then excepting Suemori who was a girl, Oda was the only one who had volleyball experience between these two teams.

In the volleyball division of the ballgame tournament, all six teams would be divided into two groups of three teams, and after a round-robin competition within the group, the first-place team in each group would play the deciding round. The group league had a total of six games, and adding the deciding round, that would make a total of seven games. The regular rule was to get twenty-five points first, but they eased that so that it was now a three-set match where the team that got fifteen points first won. Although, if they were to pull off seven games without a hitch, it was going to be a dizzying day for them on the management side.

“I’m sure we’ve all did it before in gym, so you’re alright with the basics, right? The rotations might feel complicated, but well, don’t take fouls down to the smallest detail, just three people in the front row and three in the back, and make sure to serve in the right order. Once you got it, you’ll be divided into teams to practice. I’m in Team F, and Suemori’s in B, so take a look. If there’s anything, call us immediately.”

“Hey, Captain!” Okuma raised his hand when he was about to tell them to split up.

“I’m not your captain, but…what?”

“It’s boring to practice separately. B and F should play a game. I think that’ll help us learn the flow of the game better.”

“A sudden game?”

Is he the type who loves playing games but hates practice? Oda didn’t like people who neglected basic practice. He frowned and said, “You can play games on the day of the tournament. Why do I have to teach your team our plays?”

“You don’t mind showing just a little, do you? Don’t tell me you’re gonna lose to a bunch of rookies like us? You can jump about two meters, right Captain? If you can’t do that much, then we’d be able to knock you down without jumping.”

I thought he’d become obedient, but he was thinking about things like that…I’m not going to be taken in by such a cheap provocation. I should just ignore it and move to practice as planned. He was thinking that, but he couldn’t help but feel a boiling feeling at the pit of his stomach. No, Aoki’s not here today, so I have to be the one to keep calm.

“Senpai, let’s do it. Why don’t we just do one set?”

Right when he was working hard to restrain himself, he was unexpectedly spurred on. He turned around in surprise and Suemori was standing firm with an expression that was even more indignant than Oda’s.

“Suemori-san, you sure are brave. I want you to be our manager more and more.”

Suemori gave a sharp glare at a grinning Okuma before whispering into Oda’s ear. “Oda-senpai, aren’t you angry? I can’t stand it. Making fun of volleyball…Let’s break his nose.”

“No, even if you say that…”

“If you don’t have confidence in yourself, then I’ll join.”

Suemori started taking off her jersey on the spot, so he immediately stopped her with “Wait. It’s better for me to play than you.”

His voice was a grade lower, becoming insecure. Suemori’s face immediately reddened and she looked down, saying “No…sorry.” I might have said it too harshly. But, more than being made fun of by an amateur like Okuma, my pride was hurt by the fact that I was even looked down on by someone from girls’ volleyball.

He did have confidence. He wasn’t about to be beaten by an amateur who was just huge. He honestly even agreed with the idea of knocking him down a peg. However, it would be a problem if a girl was put in and got injured. Although Okuma was an amateur at volleyball, he was an athlete who did ball sports, and there was an insurmountable wall between men and women in the power of the ball.

But, it was true that there wasn’t even anyone who could set by themselves. If there was just one more person with experience in Team F…

…We do.

The figure entered the corner of his field of vision as though it was timed. They were standing at the entrance to the gym with a suspicious face, perhaps feeling that there was something off—Haijima.

“Suemori…can you go get Kanno?”

“Huh?”

A dispirited Suemori raised her head and blinked.

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆

The reason he called Kanno was trivial, he just wanted him to be the referee. Suemori was in charge of displaying the points. It would only be one set where the first to get fifteen points won. If he considered this a sideshow, then this would be a good amount of time to devote to it.

He looked at Haijima, who was doing some light stretching in front of the net. Anyways, it was a piece of good luck that he was able to pull him up to the court before he could say anything…he might have to thank Okuma for that.

There were many people present in their gym jerseys, but Haijima’s equipment gave him a different vibe from the amateurs. He wore long underpants that reached his ankles beneath black shorts, short socks, and volleyball shoes that looked worn in. That Mizuno was the same model as Kuroba’s. And the taping that was tightly wrapped around the fingers of both his hands gave off an aura of something different.

When he thought that he had a different impression of his face than when he saw him in the school building, it was due to the presence of his glasses.

I see, so he switches to contacts when he’s playing.

When he was in his school uniform and wearing his glasses, he had the impression of a moody, literary-type of boy, but now suddenly he seemed like an athlete. There were also sports glasses, but sports glasses for volleyball inevitably took the shape of goggles due to the nature of the sport, and perhaps because it narrowed the field of vision and honestly didn’t look good, but Oda had never seen a high schooler use them.

Unfortunately, he hadn’t had much good will towards Haijima after the April incident. It wasn’t that he hated him, but he was completely in the category of people he didn’t like dealing with. It was creepy that he couldn’t read what he was thinking about at all, even now. A simply neutral expression with no enthusiasm or nervousness. I wonder what kind of play would actually be created by standing on the same court as this guy. Oda was the one who was made considerably more nervous.

However, on the other hand, he also felt excitement. ——He was looking forward to it.

“Then, the person doing the serve receive should try to return it to Haijima as much as possible. That’s our setter, Haijima.”

The other four people on the court are have some experience from gym class. He decided to try using them all first while alternating them.

“Haijima, are you fine with being the setter? Are you up for it? You haven’t done it for a while.”

Haijima, who was relaxing his shoulders, gave him a sideways glance and looked offended.

“What’s your highest jump reach height?”

He was suddenly asked a straight-to-the-point question. Without asking about the circumstances that led to this match, without saying a word of greeting like “Sorry I’m late” or “I’ll be in your care,” that was the first thing out of his mouth after he came here.

“For spikes, these days it’s 315.”

“You can jump for someone of your height.”

Haijima said and narrowed his eyes. It was a completely disparaging tone, but wait, was I praised just now? I feel like asking someone to interpret for me.

The height he could reach after doing a run-up and jumping was the highest point for a spike jump. In Oda’s case, his finger height (the height he could reach with his hand while standing) was 215 centimeters, so his spike jump was up to one meter. The two meters Okuma instigated with was of course an impossible figure—the height for a male high school volleyball player would be from around 70 to 90 centimeters. He thought that one meter was a figure to be considerably proud of.

From the start, Team B had three rugby team members in the three front row positions. He wasn’t sure if they were thinking up their own strategy where they were going to knock down the first of their attacks with a block and kill their momentum.

Kanno, who found himself in the role of chief referee, blew the whistle, and the game started with Team B’s serve. Since the server was an amateur, it was a simple underhand serve. However, because their receivers were also amateurs, it was difficult for them to cleanly return it to the setter, and the ball was greatly repelled.

Oda was about to jump out to cover for them, but…

…What!?

Haijima was already underneath the ball. So fast!? He didn’t just move fast. His reading of the ball’s course was fast as well. While in an overhand stance, his eyes swiftly scanned the entire court and he signalled Oda with his eyes for a moment. Oda, who had unintentionally stopped in his tracks, quickly rushed to the front of the net. A set was released from Haijima’s fingers with much faster timing that he expected. He was sure he didn’t make such a fast set when he saw him at the prefecturals. It was a confident set from a distance where normally a safe four set would be the only way to go.

So fast—no, rather than fast, what’s with that trajectory!?

He managed to reach up in the midair and hit it with his hand. He didn’t exactly hit the ball squarely, but the three blockers that marked Oda didn’t keep up with him at all.

The ball fell to Team B’s court over the head of the blocker who only jumped halfway. Oda himself felt like he was bewitched, and he landed with the pit of his stomach feeling somewhat weightless.

The view was wonderful. He could see the opposing court, which was usually always blocked by a wall, well. It wasn’t every day he got the chance to spike over the head of a tall blocker, so he had completely forgotten—was going over a block this exhilarating? He felt ticklish on the inside. He felt good…

With a backwards glance at the astonished opposing team, Oda ran up to Haijima.

“Oi, what’s with that set?”

Even so, it was a complaint that came out of his mouth first. He had just barely kept up, but it wouldn’t be strange if he had struck and missed.

“I can’t hit anything if you just set it without warning.”

“That one just now was lower than 315. As expected, I’m rusty from not playing for a while. My perception is dull.”

Haijima said, tilting his head to the side as though he wasn’t satisfied. He was going to make me hit it at three-one-five because I said that was the highest point I could jump? Is he a demon?

“It’s the same with the height, but it’s more a problem of timing. There’s no way I can hit the ball at that tempo if I don’t have anything to match.”

The basic set was called an open set, and the attacker must time the ball as it rose high and fell in a parabolic path and hit it. A spike that is hit at the slowest timing was called a third tempo.

Even so, Haijima’s set was a set that made the attacker hit the ball at the peak of the parabola. As a result, the trajectory towards the hitting point was short, in other words, “fast.” From the point of view of an attacker, it looked like it was flying “directly” at them. The attacker was pulling off the transcendental thing of smashing in the top of the set at the moment they swung at the highest point, but there were many demands on the attacker’s part as well. What kind of nerve did this guy have to set something like that to someone he’s matching with for the first time?

Haijima looked away from Oda, who was snapping at him, and looked as though he had lost interest in something.

“Kuroba can hit it.”

I see, I couldn’t see that high-speed setting at the middle school prefecturals because Kuroba wasn’t there?—His competitiveness was slowly rearing its head. Do you expect me to keep quiet when I’m told that me, a third-year, can’t hit what a first-year can? I know he can evade high blocks at that speed. If he could make that hitting position and speed into a thing…

“…It’s fine. Don’t change what you’re doing. I’ll match you with all I got next time.”

Haijima blinked, and then let out a short breath and squinted his eyes. …He laughed? Maybe?

“Senpai, it’s your team’s serve. You’ll be taking a delay penalty.”

Kanno called out to him in a mild voice. The rotation turned once, and then it was Haijima’s serve.

“You don’t need to match me. I’ll be the one matching you. You seem like you still have a lot more in you, so could you please give a little more? You can go up to about 320, right?”

Calmly leaving that extremely brazen and shameless statement, Haijima turned on his heel and walked to the service zone.

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆

His initial goal of breaking Okuma’s competitive spirit was blown out of his mind. He wanted to get Haijima to acknowledge him. That was all he could think about starting from midway through the match. He was so absorbed in it that he even forgot that this was practice for the ballgame tournament and was very ashamed to find out later that Kanno and Suemori were supporting the first-timers from off the court. It was a bad habit of his to lose sight of his surroundings when he got passionate. He had his hands full with what was before his eyes.

“Haijima, next time you get a chance, send it to the center.”

In the final stage of the set, the back row demanded a back row attack from Haijima. He was thinking of that high-speed center back Kuroba tried to show on his first day joining the club. If Kuroba could do it, then he wanted to do it himself as well.

“Oi, ref! Ain’t that what they call a delay? They’re just whispering to each other over there. That’s a foul, a foul!”

Okuma raised his voice from the other side of the net. He seemed to be pretty irritated with getting fouls many times when blocking. It was Haijima who incorporated the ingenious technique of playing right at the edge of the net to tempt his opponent into reaching over the net or touching it. He truly was a frightening first-year.

The B-team’s court got the serve, and Okuma jumped to spike it with a beast-like roar. However, Haijima moved in front of it with nimble steps and blocked it. Oi oi…Oda grumbled in his mind. Is he fully ready to end the game with block points? I just said that I wanted to do a back-row attack. Read the room.

Okuma was taller, but Haijima stopped the course with the precise way he moved his arms. It was a form he wanted to use as a model for first-years who were bad at blocking.

Oh…I’m looking at someone who has received the favor of volleyball up close right now… He was given every sense from the god of volleyball…

Thump. A different sound from the sound of a ball being hit was heard. From Oda’s position, it was a blind spot, so he couldn’t immediately grasp what had happened.

Rather than landing on the floor, Haijima dropped. Kanno immediately blew the foul whistle.

“Haijima!”

He rushed over to him in fright. Haijima was pressing his hand near his right eye, squatting and gritting his teeth. Was it his eye? His forehead? Kanno and Suemori also ran over, and the court was in disorder for a short while.

“Hey, what the hell were you doing? This isn’t rugby!”

He barked across the net, blood rushing to his head. Okuma made excuses with a slightly frightened look on his face.

“It, it wasn’t on purpose, captain. I only hit him by accident.”

“Don’t lie to me. If anything happens to our members, I’ll make you…”

“Senpai. I think he’s probably telling the truth. It wasn’t intentional. Please calm down. I was watching.”

He was clenching his fists and half-rising to his feet, but Kanno held down his shoulders. Admonished calmly by his kouhai, he reluctantly got back down while clenching his teeth.

“I’m fine…My contact just slipped.”

Haijima slowly got up. His voice was somewhat hoarse, but his articulation was clear. Oda was relieved that it didn’t seem serious.

“I’m removing myself from the game. Ow…”

After Haijima staggered out of the gym while pressing his hand against his right eye, the atmosphere immediately became like the closing of a performance. The decision was that Team B committed a foul, and Team F won 15-10, but they didn’t really care about winning or losing anymore.

The turmoil from the trouble caused everyone to lose concentration, so they decided to call off the rest of practice today. Oda’s concentration was more scattered than anyone else’s. He was in a position where he had to have more composure, but the role of captain was something that he was unequal to from the start. I don’t have the qualities to lead a team, I’m just selfish, I just…wanted to be a hitter. I just like getting to a place as high as possible above people and making them surrender.

The pleasure of being in a duo with Haijima still lingered. It was a feeling like a slight numbness that spread from the core of his body to his right fingertips.

I want him—A small but concentrated amount of fuel was thrown down onto his feelings of tiredness after losing in the prefectural tournament.

Practice was cut early and they dispersed, with Okuma and the rest of the rugby corps also leaving. When he was looking at the court thinking that it suddenly cooled down when those guys were gone, he saw Haijima standing before the net, staring fixedly up at it for some reason.

“Are you feeling okay? If you still feel like something’s off, go get it checked out. If you don’t know the hospitals around here, I’ll go with you.”

“I’m pretty familiar with it.”

“You don’t see rough play like that in volleyball a lot, do you?”

“No, I mean outside.”

“…?” Oh, he means outside the court? Hey, you need complete your sentences over here to have the conversation connect well.

In his case, no matter how you think about, the way he speaks is causing trouble. It’s no wonder Aoki went off at me about inviting him—he got him to lay a hand, I mean, foot on him.

“This is 2.43, eh.”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah it is, how did you notice? I told them to put it up at 2.4 since we’re not doing club practice today… I guess we’d been playing at 2.43 all day.”

At the ballgame tournament, the boys would be playing with the net at 2.40 meters. The same height as the official matches within the prefecture. When it came to tournaments that were above prefecture-level like regional and national tournaments, they were treated the same as general boy’s volleyball at 2.43 meters.

“Do you usually practice at 2.43?”

“Yeah, it’ll be at this height for Spring Inter-High, anyways.”

Haijima gave him a sideways glance, looking slightly shocked.

Following Inter-High in the summer and Nationals in the fall, the tournament that filled in the last piece of the three major national volleyball competitions was “Spring Inter-High Volleyball”. This tournament, which was held in a particularly spectacular manner among the three major competitions, was a grand stage that could be compared to Koshien for high schoolers who played volleyball (as for Oda, he didn’t want to use this metaphor. Even if you didn’t use baseball as a reference, Spring Inter-High was still Spring Inter-High). It used to be held in March but has now been moved to January, so third-years could participate as well, making it the last tournament that all three school years to face together.

Even at Spring Inter-High, the net was 2.40 meters at the prefectural qualifiers, but 2.43 meters at the main national competition in Tokyo.

“Is it funny? A tiny team like us talking about Spring Inter-High. That might be so, but I don’t think I said anything embarrassing.”

Even if people would think he was conceited, Oda was serious. If Haijima joined their current members, it wouldn’t be a pipe dream in the least. It was a realistic goal.

Haijima’s eyes returned to the net again.

“…I think that kind of thing is okay.”

He muttered. He stretched one hand and touched the top tape of the net. 2.43 meters was, if one were to give an easy-to-understand example, about the height of the ceiling in a house. For the 163 centimeters Oda, it wasn’t a place he could reach just by stretching himself. He envied his ease with which he could put his fingers on it and, it might sound strange, to fix his eyes upon it.

“Is this…the height for Spring Inter-High?”

Oh, he smiled… His face was purely radiant, a complete change from the previous arrogance and impudence, and he was shocked to see that he could make an expression like that. It was by no means a frank and open smile. Like a strong light covered by a thin curtain and gently diffusing through it…it overlapped with Kuroba’s face when he looked up at the same thing with sparkling eyes on the first day of practice in April, even though the vectors were completely different.

His feeling that Haijima would be hard to deal with had, before he knew it, faded through the match.

“Hey, you know, I had a great time playing with you today. You had a little fun too, didn’t you?”

“Oda-san has good reflexes.”

Unused to hearing himself be called “Oda-san,” he felt itchy. What’s more, he was using standard Japanese, so it was like he was being addressed from the TV. But, it’s nice, being called that by him.

“What you don’t have in height, you make up for with being athletic. You have power too. Stretching your body in midair, I like that.”

Even though he lambasted him two months ago, he easily reversed that and acknowledged him. Is he arrogant or honest…what a weird guy.

Just as I thought, rather than trying to do something with words, it might be better to invite him to the court first. What the hell, I feel kinda happy when I’m acknowledged by him… Pride filled his chest. He was able to believe that he hadn’t been continuing to do something meaningless.

“Will you join us, Haijima? It’ll be boring if you wanna do it by yourself. You chose volleyball for the ballgame tournament too, right?” There was no doubt that he continued to practice even though he wasn’t a part of the club. There was no way a guy who had a gap period since last summer could move like that.

He expected him to nod, but Haijima dropped his gaze to the court at his feet with a sullen look on his face. His childish action of poking at the ground with the toe of his shoe made Oda feel impatient and irritated. There was also envy. Why the hell is a guy who, unlike me, can just go on with volleyball without thinking about anything, hesitating here?

“I’m sure you’ll change your mind, Oda-san. I’m not very well liked. As long as I’m a setter…”

——“Why are you clinging to that position?”

It suddenly occurred to Oda that those words that were spat at him before might not have been contempt towards him.

Is it possible that it’s something Haijima himself has been thinking about…? Even the personification of volleyball sense who seems like he was chosen by the god of volleyball thinks that way?

“Hmm? Why are you guys hiding?”

Suemori’s voice echoed in the quiet gym.

Suemori and Kanno, who had spread out a piece of construction paper in a corner of the gym and working hard on creating a records chart, looked up and turned their heads to the doorway. The two heads that were peeking in from the shadow of the iron door shook with a start.

“Did you guys come to help clean up? If that’s the case, hurry up.”

Suemori briskly stood up, and Kanno followed quietly. Though the two timidly showed themselves, they stopped at the door like they had trouble getting in. It was Kuroba and Nagato. The air Haijima wore around him instantly stiffened. Were they all from the same middle school volleyball team?

“Senpai, is it true that Haijima is joining the club?”

It was Nagato who asked that. His face was unwelcoming without even having to say it aloud. He pulled on Kuroba’s elbow as if to tell him to say something as well, but he looked away with an ambiguous look on his face.

“I’d like to have him join. I’m in the middle of persuading him, though. If there’s something bothering you, speak up.”

Oda didn’t really hide his ill humor, and he raised his voice to highlight his captain’s dignity. One of Oda’s biggest aggravations was the behaviour of trying to get rid of people in a roundabout way.

“I’m not joining, so don’t worry.”

However, Haijima himself interjected from the side. His tone, which had begun to soften, had returned to being curt again. “I don’t think I’m obligated to join in the cleanup,” he rudely excused himself and turned towards the metal door without bowing. It was towards the other metal door, clearly avoiding Kuroba and Nagato. Oda wanted to tear off his head, as just when he thought he closed the distance a little, he was back to square one.

“I understand Nagato’s point of view. What about you, Kuroba?”

“Huh?”

Kuroba jumped and took on a posture of caution.

“I…I…”

He awkwardly peeking sideways at Haijima, and then cast his eyes down, looking a little bit like he was about to cry. Even though he was so big, he sometimes made expressions like those of an elementary school student, much less a middle school student. Haijima, who had stopped for a moment, started walking again. It was at a quicker pace than before.

After that gangly body disappeared behind the metal doors, Nagato opened his mouth as though he couldn��t bear to wait for that.

“Oda-senpai doesn’t know anything. If Haijima joins, then Yuni really won’t participate in any official games. In a way, we lost that other time because of Haijima…”

“Ryo, stop it. I told you that has nothing to do with it.”

With his face bright red, Kuroba stopped Nagato. However, his voice was weak and it didn’t sound like he was seriously denying it.

Making his voice stern, Oda asked them a question.

“What do you mean?”

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#2.43: Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu #2.43 book 1 #2.43 translation #2.43: seiin high school boys volleyball club #2.43

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